Kayla was freezing even under the coat, and the jostling as Steve carried her to the car did nothing for her dizziness. Her body was screaming to just pass out like she did years ago, but the gravity of this jump was impossible for her to ignore. As she felt Steve hold her securely in his arms, Kayla was horrified at this turn of events. She fought the haze of poison to assess her symptoms, the most serious one being the increase in her own heart rate.
“Steve,” she whimpered.
“Shh, we’re almost to the car.”
“Tachy. I’m tachy. Need phys … physos—“
“Sweetness,” he huffed as he looked down into the enormous pools of black her dilated eyes had become, “it’s ok, baby, I remember what to get.”
She let her head loll against him, the effort to hold it straight too much. The very small part of Kayla’s consciousness that was lucid enough to become clinical was fascinated. She could feel just how sick she was, observing her dry mouth, fever, and heart rate as if she were standing outside of herself. If she were a patient of hers, Kayla would have been hospitalized and rated her condition as serious. But what struck her more was that Steve managed to bring her back from this. Kayla knew she was in serious trouble, and through sheer, desperate devotion, he saved her all those years ago. It’s not like she didn’t know this already, of course, she did, but not because she actually remembered any of it. She had a stray image here and there, but no real memories of when he’d taken her from the Deveraux house or the days after. Her first memory was waking up in Gabrielle’s house and Steve telling her what happened. So, this was Steve’s second time through these events, but it was brand new for Kayla. And she was awestruck by what Steve did to save her – what he was doing again this very minute to save her. He managed to reverse the poisoning, nurse her back to health, hide her from the Deverauxs, and fight the internal war with himself over what to do about this for his brother all at the same time. She clutched on to Steve with what little strength she had, she loved him so much.
Steve opened the passenger door of the bluesmobile and stuffed her inside. Her vision was so blurry, and when she squinted against the light as Steve opened the driver’s side door to get in, it reinforced her knowledge that the poisoning was quite advanced.
“You ok, baby?” Steve asked, “You doin’ alright?” the concern in his voice so evident to Kayla as he palmed the hair off her forehead. She nodded despite feeling the opposite, but Steve knew better. “Ok, it’s ok, Marcus is gonna get you fixed up,” he said as he caressed her face and placed reassuring kisses on her hot cheeks.
Kayla turned her glassy eyes on Steve and used all the strength she had to cup her husband’s face in her hand. She felt a fresh tear fall from his eye and felt a stab of pain for him. She knew he hated seeing her like this, and she hated that he was going to have to do all the work this time. My poor husband can’t get a break. She stroked the tear away with the pad of her thumb, her best effort to comfort him through this horrific jump they’d landed in and gave him a smile. “Gonna … be’okay.” It was the last thing she was able to muster before she felt herself start to slip back into unconsciousness. “Love you,” she mouthed.
Steve watched as her eyes started to lose focus completely. Her hand fell away from his face to the seat, and he let out a stifled cry. He pulled her down so that her head lay on his right thigh, turned on the ignition, and flew down the road as he began stroking her hair.
It only took 20 minutes to get to ISA agent, Gabrielle Pascal’s, rental on the edge of Salem. He didn’t think, he just drove. But as he recounted the events to figure out what he needed to do next, he realized that had a serious problem. He could and did pick the lock since he didn’t have the benefit of Gabrielle’s house key this time, and he knew he could convince her to let him stay there. The problem was that if he was going to get the antidote for her, he was going to have to leave her alone in the house. In all these jumps, they’d taken very good care not to separate from each other. This time it was going to be impossible not to. Not if he wanted Kayla to live.
When they entered the house, Steve took Kayla right to the back bedroom and laid her down. Seeing the dark cherry four-poster evoked strong memories in him. Bitter for the anguish of not knowing if she’d live while he begged God to save her; sweet for their reunion, making love beneath the canopy, and knowing that she remained his.
He pushed away what he knew would have to happen, that he was going to have to leave her, while he got her settled. He started a fire and turned to see her lying there exactly as she had the first time. He knew that he had precious little time to get her that antidote but he just couldn’t find it in himself to actually leave. What if she woke up and he wasn’t there, what would she think? Would this body make her delirious like she was last time? What if she needed him? What’s more, he was scared, himself. He was scared to be out on his own in this foreign timeline without her. He needed her, and he didn’t want to leave without her.
She’s gonna die, dude, you have to go now. Go!
Steve crawled into the bed with Kayla, boots and all, and brought her in close to him. She hadn’t woken up since she’d passed out in the car with “I love you” on her lips. He tried to wake her so he could tell her he would be right back with her medicine. But she wouldn’t rouse.
“Kayla,” Steve said tenderly. “Sweetness? Baby, can you hear me? Wake up for me, baby, can you do that? Can you wake up for me, please? Just for a minute.” When she didn’t so much as turn her head, he shifted to face her and got firmer. “Kayla,” he demanded, holding her head in his hands. “Kayla, now you wake up, do you hear me? You wake up for me right now, dammit.” Nothing. “Kayla!” This strategy worked no better, but he was out of time. He pulled the covers up high over her chest and set his chin down over her breastbone. “Baby, listen to me. I have to go now. I know we’ve never been apart on these jumps, but I have to get you that medicine, ok? So, you rest now. You sleep.” He sat up and pulled her up to hold her against him and ran his fingers through her hair. “You stay with me baby,” he whispered, afraid to say it too loud. “Don’t you dare leave me. I know what to do, Sweetness, but you have to stay here. Don’t you leap. And don’t you die!”
He fought the lump in his throat and took a deep breath. “Ok. Sleep, Sweetness, and I’ll be back with your physostistuff, the physostigmine. Yeah,” he said kissing the top of her head then laying her back down. “Yeah.” He took her hand and laced her fingers into his own. “I’ll bet you think I didn’t remember that, huh, baby? No, I remember, though. I know what to get. Don’t worry, Kayla, I’m gonna take good care of you.” Then he kissed her once more and forced himself to disengage from her.
He turned in the doorway, looked to the fire, then back to his wife once more before he told her he loved her and not to go anywhere. Then he closed the bedroom door behind him and headed back to the car. Without Kayla.
When Gabrielle Pascale heard Steve Johnson’s voice on the other end of the telephone, she wasn’t sure it was really him. He didn’t sound like his cocky self, it was more of a tentative, unsure quality to his voice that she didn’t recognize.
“Yeah, Gabrielle. This is Johnson,” he said into the hospital payphone.
“Yes?” she’d said with an even tone.”
“Steve Johnson,” he repeated.
“Yes, I know you’re name,” she said a little puzzled, “what can I do for you?”
“Right,” Steve replied adjusting his patch. “Look, I know this is really asking a lot, but I need a favor from you, it’s urgent.”
“So, this is not about Shane’s mission in Greece?”
“His what? No, no it’s not about that. Look, I need to borrow your place. That house you rented. It’s really important. Can I, uh … could you do that?”
Gabrielle was stunned. “My place? You’re kidding right?”
“No, I’m not foolin’ around about this, I really need it, and I need it now,” he said trying mightily not to fly off the handle and scare her away entirely.
“You want a room,” she spat into the phone, “go see Howard Johnson!”
“Listen, Gabrielle!” he desperately tried not to shout into the phone as his eyes darted to and fro hoping not to run into any whose last name was Deveraux, “I don’t ask for much! Now, I’ve done a lot for you and the ISA, and I’m not asking, here, I’m begging you. A life is on the line, here, and I’m begging you to trust me!”
Gabrielle was taken aback by the sound of Steve Johnson on the other end of the phone. She’d never heard him this way. It was hard not to believe him. “Why should i trust you?” she asked with a softer and genuinely curious tone.
He did not have time for this! “Because,” he implored her, “I’ve never complained. I’ve never asked for shit, Gabrielle. The ISA hasn’t done shit for me, but I’ve practically given my life for them. You don’t even have to give me the key, I can get in and out on my own. Just let me stay there as long as I need.”
“How long do you need?” she asked.
Steve wasn’t sure what to say. How long were they going to be there? A fresh pang of worry hit him that a jump would happen while he was off finding medication. Hang on, Sweetness, please hang on. He figured he’d better just play it safe and plan for the long haul “Two or three weeks, maybe.”
“What?!”
“Well, you wanna give me an ISA safehouse instead?”
“Steve, you know I can’t just hand over the keys to an ISA safehouse!”
“Look, I don’t have time for this!” he boomed into the phone.
That was the Steve Johnson Gabrielle knew. Only he sounded really – desperate. “This is really important to you, isn’t it?” she asked softly.
“Yes,” he said simply.
After a brief pause, she said, “Do you want me to bring you the key?”
Steve let out the breath he’d been holding. “Thank you,” he said appreciatively. “You’re saving a life.”
“Whose?” Steve was silent. “You’re not going to tell me, are you?”
“No.”
Gabrielle rolled her eyes and sighed. “Where are you?”
“You bringing me the key?”
“Unless you’re going to continue to break into my house.”
“I’m not breakin—“
“Oh please, just shut up. Where?”
“University.”
“I’ll be right there.” Then she hung up before he could thank her.
Steve sure didn’t need Gabrielle’s key to get in and out, but he didn’t want her walking in on them and suddenly having to explain things to her. He knew she was going to let him stay there, so just getting his presence out there was safest. Calling her also gave him a few more moments to think through the best way to get the antidote.
Steve leaned back against the bank of payphones and was oddly struck by how out of place they seemed to his 2009 mind. What I’d do for my cell right about now, he thought.
Steve knew that time was short and he had to get the meds. Marcus was the obvious choice, Steve knew he was here. But it was going to raise a lot of questions that he just didn’t have time to answer right now. After all, this Marcus hadn’t seen Steve in years. From the patch to the drug-seeking, not to mention how to explain showing up out of the blue knowing that Marcus was there in the first place, it was going to take too long to get what he needed if he went to Marcus today. “Sorry, dude,” he muttered, “Kayla doesn’t have time for ‘This Is Your Life.’” No, the only options he felt he had were to either sneak in and steal them himself, which was a real gamble … or he could go to the source who originally helped him in the first place. Alice Horton.