When Kayla woke the next morning she knew exactly where she was, no disorientation this time. She stared up at the ceiling and smelled the mustiness of this apartment, which looked sparse from what she remembered and didn’t feel as lived in as other times they’d been here. She felt her husband beside her, and the feel of him was so familiar and calming. She looked to him, and he was sleeping deeply. However fit this body had been, the mind within it was exhausted.
Kayla needed to be physical with him. Last night was healing, but she needed more. His body around her, inside her … calming the anger she felt rising within her. But after the mental anguish of lingering in Stefano’s prison, she knew that what he needed most right now was to sleep. So, she simply took his hand in hers, held it between them on the bed, and let him.
Kayla dozed on and off for another two hours before rousing. She looked over at Steve’s clock, and it was after 9:00 AM. They’d been asleep 12 hours. She was as exhausted as he was. She was sure she was expected somewhere, probably the Emergency Center, but she just couldn’t bring herself to care. Against her own “act like you’re supposed to act” rule, she just didn’t care. The anger was eating away at that resolve. She was angry that she found herself back in Shane’s bedroom when she unwillingly jumped into that body. That that she’d jumped there without her express written permission. That she’d had no choice in the matter and simply had to go where the jumps took her. That sex with Shane or anyone was no longer a choice she got to make. She was Steve’s wife. She belonged to him. But this random, uncontrollable jumping through time didn’t care who she would or would not give herself to. It jumped her to Shane while her husband crumbled in Stefano Dimera’s prison. And for that matter, who was taking care of her baby? Did time just stop when they jumped away from the spring of 2009? What about all the times they jumped away from Stephanie? Where were her babies and what was happening to these bodies they were inhabiting when they were gone? The ire rose in her cheeks. She wanted answers.
Just then Steve woke with a start. His blonde hair was messy and flatter on his left side where he’d slept on it all night.
“Kayla?” He looked around quickly and found her beside him. “Are we us?”
She brushed the hair out of his eyes. “Yes.” She couldn’t help but smile at how it fell messily over his patch. “We’re still here.”
“Oh, baby.” He gathered her up in his arms and relaxed against the pillow as he held her against his side.
God, he smelled good, Kayla thought as she closed her eyes and inhaled him.
They stayed that way for a little while before Steve spoke. “I thought you were gone. I really did.” Kayla wrapped her arm more tightly around him and kissed his bare chest where her head was resting. “And the whole time, it was just part of the conditioning. I fell for it. Again.”
Kayla heard the disgust in his voice and wanted so badly to console him. “Steve,” she whispered as he stroked her naked back.
“I didn’t remember any of it. Not a goddamn thing. The torture … I had no idea. I remember electric shock treatment, but I don’t remember this stuff they had going with the words setting that sh*t off at all. It was seriously high tech,” he sneered.
A shiver ran through Kayla at the memory of the one bout of sensory torture she had the pleasure to be treated to. “What was that? It was awful, I almost threw up from the smell alone.”
“Thrash metal, strobe lights, some kind of corpse smell, and the worst part … you screaming. When they showed me the pictures, I realized … thought I did … that those were from when they killed you. When I thought they killed you.
“I’m so sorry … I’m so sorry.”
“The pain was so bad, Kayla, I wanted to die. I thought I understood … on that jump before. But it doesn’t compare to going through it. I don’t know what’s gonna happen to us if we die in these bodies, baby. I was a damned wreck.”
“Shh,” she tried to soothe him.
“When I saw you walk in that door, God, Kayla. I thought you were a ghost. I couldn’t believe it.
“How many times did you have to go through that? The noise and the lights?”
“I lost count. Thirty? Fifty? It took me a couple days, but I finally figured out that it was voice-activated and that a whole bunch of words set it off.”
Kayla thought back to what he’d warned them in his cell. “Our names?” her voice broke. “Oh, Steve.”
“First time it happened was when I said Sweetness out loud. I didn’t know what the hell was happening. Couldn’t say Stephanie or baby or Salem. Even my own name. They were conditioning me as Nick Stockton. I could whisper them, though, and the sensor wouldn’t get me. I just whispered your names all night, baby. I couldn’t forget you this time. But when they showed me the photos … said they’d kill Stephanie next.” Steve’s eye teared up at the memory of them threatening his baby girl’s life. “I gave up, Sweetness. I was ready to give up. I saw the doctor out there, and I was gonna do whatever he said. They’d already killed you, I couldn’t let them kill our baby.”
“Kayla blinked hard and swallowed down her tears. “You’re the bravest man I know, Steve Johnson. I love you. More than life I love you, Steve.
Steve’s heart skipped a beat. “You came for me, Sweetness. I don’t know how you did it. I don’t know how, Kayla.”
“I knew it was going to reset, that you’d eventually jump. But I couldn’t let you stay there. Nothing was going to keep me from getting you out of there. When that doctor wouldn’t open the door I went insane. I shot him. I actually tried to kill him. Lucky for him I’m a bad shot.”
Steve remembered stepping over him to get out of the cell. “That was you?”
Kayla nodded. “Got him in the leg.”
Steve sank down into the bed and wrapped his arms around her. “Thank you for finding me, Kayla,” he whispered. Then his lips found hers in loving reverie. His tongue swept into her mouth, and she welcomed it with her own. The love and gratitude and awe in her that he was feeling was communicated in that kiss.
Steve released her mouth and smiled at her. “I was going crazy in that cell not being able to get to you, baby. How the hell did you find me?”
Shane. I have to tell him. Kayla suddenly sat her naked body up in the bed. Steve absently reached up and stroked her breast.
Tell him. “Steve, when I arrived, I – I arrived in – in Shane’s house. In his—“
“I don’t need to know the details.” He knew from the look on her face that he did not want to know what she was about to tell him. “How did you convince them I was alive?”
“Believe it or not, the ISA already knew.”
“What?”
Kayla felt him stiffen, and she held up her hand. “Shane didn’t, but Chief Tarrington did.”
“I don’t believe this,” he said incredulously.
“Honestly, I’m still confused, things don’t really add up to the reality we know, but they knew Stefano was dealing in human trafficking and that he bought someone from Lawrence, then they figured out in November that it was you.”
Steve gaped. “What is it now, February, you said?”
“Not anymore, now it’s 1986”
Steve’s head was swimming. “They knew for four months? They just took their sweet time getting their heads out of their asses.”
“There was a mole.” Steve gave her a doubtful look. “Apparently. It still doesn’t make sense to me, either, but … but we can talk about that later. First I need to tell you about how I arrived.” He started to protest, but she insisted. “You wanted honesty, Steve. When you found out about Shane you were most angry that I hadn’t told you.” Steve looked away and sighed. “You have to let me get this off my chest. Please.”
Steve knew she was right. He got up out of the bed and stood with his back to her. “Do you know when we are? I can’t place it.”
Kayla looked around and felt her breasts and hair. “I’m not sure, either. Early.” Steve looked back at her and smiled a leering grin as he watched her basically feel herself up. “I feel pretty young.” She looked up from her innocently-intended statement to see her husband hardening before her and smiled wide.
“Yeah, you do, baby.” He regretted that remark the minute it escaped his lips. “I didn’t mean you’re old now, Sweetness. I’m an idiot.”
Kayla shook her head. “It’s ok. Come on, let’s be honest, I’m 20 years older than this now.”
“Not to me. To me you’re perfect.”
“You know what? I know you believe that. And that’s why I love you.”
“You love me for a lot more reasons than that.”
“Right again,” she chuckled. “It’s ok to like my body this way, Steve.”
“Sweetness, I love your body any way I can get it, no better than home in 2009.”
“I think we’ve had this conversation before,” she glanced at the bathroom. “Right in there …”
“But last night? You were tight, baby. You were so tight last night.”
Desire pooled in Kayla’s belly. “Stop trying to distract me, you’re avoiding.”
“I wanna feel that again. I want you to feel me inside you.” Steve got back in the bed and kissed his wife hotly. After a short time Kayla gently pushed him away. “Not before we talk about where I jumped.” Steve bent his head to her right breast and gently wrapped his tongue around it. “That’s not fair.”
“Sure it is.”
“You’re making this so hard.”
“I’m already hard.”
“Steve!”
Finally he released her nipple from his mouth with a bit of a nip, to which she held up a naughty finger.
Steve worked the muscle in his jaw and gave up. “Kinda familiar here, isn’t it, baby? We always seem to come here or wake up here after a tough jump. Guess that’s why it’s home base. When I’m livin’ in it.” He was right. It wasn’t the first time they found themselves laying here in this bed, reflecting. “You wanna talk, I’m gonna let you talk. But first, I’m gonna go upstairs and get us a newspaper. I really need to know when we are. I have a feeling this is right after I moved in here, I’m not sure who’s gonna show up at that door, and I know damn well that you aren’t supposed to be here.”
“Especially naked,” she joked.
“Well, I like naked, but explaining it is gonna be more than either of us wanna deal with.” He adjusted his patch and let his shoulders slump as he softly admitted, “The truth is, Sweetness, I’m not up for any challenges right now. I talk a good game, but I’m not feeling so bold.”
Kayla placed a kiss in his palm. “I know. Don’t be so brave for me right now. Let’s help each other through this. It’s been an awful time.”
Steve nodded a sad smile and put on the same clothes he had on last night. The concept of Steve leaving the apartment right now scared her. She needed him there with her. It wasn’t the threat of jumping or separation, it was the sheer need to have him in her arms after that truly horrible separation, and her need to verbally rid herself of the last jump. But she agreed that they really did need to know when they were.
“Ok,” she said, assuming he was heading up to Shenanigans. It didn’t exist anymore in 2009; she really missed it. “Bring some breakfast, I’m starving.” Then she looked at him with a worry that was ever present on these jumps. “Don’t leave me,” she whispered.
Steve kissed the top of her head. “Never, baby.” Then he lifted her lips to his and kissed her deeply. Her kisses felt the same as they always did. So good.
Kayla showered while he was gone and was standing in a towel when he returned not 15 minutes later. Watching him come down those stairs in that body in those clothes … he looked good enough to eat.
Steve loved seeing the desire on her face and smiled at her curly wet hair, a sight that always stirred him. Then he looked over toward the dresser. “No clothes here, Sweetness.”
“What else is new?” she replied with a small laugh.
“Story of our lives, these days, huh, baby?”
Kayla nodded dropped the towel. “Is it ok if I borrow a t-shirt?”
Steve ran his fingers through that sexy, wet hair of hers with a hint of disappointment in his eye. “You’re my wife. Just take what you need.”
“You’re right. Sorry. So what’s the date?” she asked as she rifled through his drawers, to very little avail.
“September 4, 1986.”
“Wow.”
“Yeah, it’s just about what I figured.”
“Ok, so what does that mean?” she asked, biting her lower lip trying to remember who was where.
“Bo and Hope are at Vic’s, but they’re having problems, you’re at the loft, Adrienne and Mama aren’t here yet, Jack’s definitely not here yet, Britta’s still alive, and you and me aren’t together. You’re probably due at the Emergency Center today.”
“I’m not being me today, Steve. I just can’t do it.”
“Ok, I’m not gonna argue with you, Sweetness.”
“You’re not?”
“Naw, baby, not this time. Much as I’d love to see Dr. Brad and all.” His mocking tone over the words “Dr. Brad” made Kayla feel much better about things. He could joke. It was a good sign that he was coping with his ordeal. His blatant sexuality was a good sign, too. “Givin’ him grief was a highlight of that jump, baby.”
She grinned as she remembered her own highlights with his tongue doing amazing things to her in the exam room. Guess these jumps haven’t been all bad. She stopped short at that stray thought and didn’t like one bit that she thought it. Anger roiled back up inside her.
Steve saw it and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Baby, let’s get out of here. We can’t really explain ourselves easily here, and I’m tired of staring at the four walls of this dump.”
“It’s not a dump. I loved it here,” she chided. He rolled her eyes at her and motioned for her to get dressed.
“Didn’t you have any sweat pants?”
“Sweat pants are stupid, baby. You know I hate them.”
“So, where do you want to go?”
“I know exactly where I wanna go. I had a friend back in this time. He’s gonna do me a favor.”
“Who?”
“Did I not get us married on that yacht all by myself, baby? Trust me.”
Kayla smiled. “Always.”
They separated for the ten minutes it took for Steve to take his own shower and let her have some moments to herself. Kayla actually knew where his clothes were better than he did and finally came up with a white t-shirt and a pair of Steve’s jeans that were more than roomy in the waist but didn’t quite button over her round, female hips. The t-shirt came down plenty far enough to cover the open zipper. She was sitting on the bed with his pillow over her lap when he emerged.
Steve cringed when he saw what he had to work with in the dresser. “Thank God you married me, Sweetness, or I would have been wearing this sh*t for the rest of my life.” Kayla smiled and let out another genuine laugh. Steve put on a black button down with the sleeves cut off and the very tight jeans that he’d worn last night. Kayla went to him and immediately sought the warmth of his body as she snuggled up against him. She fisted his shirt in her hand and dug her head into his chest. As she often did, she inhaled his Steve scent, and sighed. He loved when she did that.
Steve was happy to have her so close. He needed her. And he felt how much she needed him. He’d put her off telling him what she wanted to tell him about the jump to Shane’s, so he now relented. “I know it’s eating at you, Sweetness. I know you wanna tell me. Let me get us where we’re going, then you can tell me what you want.” Then he kissed her lightly, went to the phone, and made arrangements.
“I can’t believe you know the phone number,” she laughed.
Steve fixed a look on her. “Like yesterday for me, Sweetness, I keep tellin’ you.”
An hour later they’d eaten a small breakfast with the few dollars Steve had in his wallet, then Kayla was thrilled to find herself on a far pier in the marina. Steve helped her onto a small skiff powered by an outboard motor that his friend of so many years ago had lent him. When she saw where they were headed she smiled.
“Perfect, Steve! Oh, it’s perfect!”
The lighthouse was empty when they got there, and the whole place was just as she remembered it, even if it was a tad dusty.
“Do you think our little kitty is here?”
“I think her mama might be, but she was a kitten three years from now.”
“Oh right.”
The first thing Kayla did was jump into the big, fluffy bed and lay prostrate across it with her legs hanging off. “This is wonderful,” she sighed. “No one to put on an act for, nowhere to go …”
“Oh, we got places to go, baby. We’re just choosin’ not to go there.”
“I don’t have the energy,” she said.
“If we’re here tomorrow we’re gonna pay for it. I’m sure your brothers are already getting that APB on me ready, the hood last seen kissing their sister at Blondie’s.”
“You want to go back?” she asked leaning up onto her elbows.
Steve shook his head and looked down. “I can’t do it, baby. I …” He dragged a palm down his face. “I don’t have it in me.” He sounded … ashamed.
Kayla sat up and reached for his hand to pull him down to sit with her. “You’ve been through something terrible, Steve. Twice! Even if you don’t remember the first time, you’ve been through it. We both have.”
“I gave up back there. I was ready to forget you, Kayla.”
“To save Stephanie’s life! I get it now. You loved us so much – Steve, you loved us so much that you made the biggest sacrifice a man can make. You gave up your family. You gave us up to save our lives. Back then and now.”
“I’m sorry, baby,” he said as the rage started to take over. “I tried to get out, I tried so hard. I didn’t even leave myself one damned clue!”
“Shh,” she soothed as she curled her fingers into his cheeks remembering a beard that wasn’t there yet. “I know you did everything you could.”
Steve laughed coldly. “I said my name was Nick Stockton.” He stood up and balled his fists. I let that sick bastard of a doctor manipulate me into saying my name was Nick f*cking Stockton!” he yelled.
“Stop beating yourself up. Stop. You are my hero.”
“Yeah, I’m a real hero, baby. Had to be rescued by the people that killed me!”
Kayla’s face darkened. Steve saw it happen and forced himself to calm down. He looked at her intently, and it was understood by both of them that the conversation was now on a new topic.
“I’m not gonna like it, am I?”
“No.”
“Just tell me, then.”
She sat cross-legged on the bed and patted the spot in front of her for him to sit facing her, which he did. Kayla took a deep breath and proceeded to continue not saying anything.
“Kayla, I lost track of the days in my cell, but I know I was there at least five days. Maybe a week. That means you had to have been – with Shane at least that long, maybe longer. I jumped directly into my cell. Now just tell me. Where did you jump to?” His poker face was hard to read.
“You were making love to me when we jumped,” she said softly. “In the loft.
“That’s right.”
“You probably shouldn’t have been that active so quickly after your coma.”
“And?”
“You were holding on to me so tight when you left your body. I couldn’t believe it happened again, it’s the second time we jumped in the middle of sex.”
“Mm-hmm.” Steve knew what she was going to say before she said it. “You jumped before me. Where did you go?”
Kayla flushed red. Interestingly, her eyes weren’t filled with guilt or sadness; they were filled with anger. She ran her hand through her air-dried, curly hair and said it out loud.
“I jumped to Shane’s house. His room. He … we …”
God, how Steve wanted to run.
“We were having sex.”
Steve knew it long before this conversation started, but hearing her say it out loud forced a cold chill to rush through him, taking the breath from his throat. “F*ck,” he whispered.
“For just a split second I thought it was you, because I’d just left with you inside of me – but I realized it wasn’t right away, and I was horrified.” Now the words tumbled out, full of spit and vinegar. “And I’m so mad. I’m mad that we’re jumping, I want to know why, and no one has the right to jump me somewhere I don’t want to go, like another man’s bed!”
His face was a mask; unreadable.
“I kicked him off of me the second I realized. I couldn’t stand to look at myself. My body showed what we’d been doing, and I could still feel him inside me.”
“Jesus – stop.”
“I can’t stop! I can’t just make it stop! I have to go where it all sends me! Where it sends either of us! When does it end? Will I have to live being raped again?” A vision of Jack on top of her came unbidden, which she angrily shook away. “Will I have to be deaf again? Will I have to jump into LA in the ‘90’s or 2002 or something and not have a clue where you are? ‘Cause you won’t have any idea this time, either! Will you jump into your relationship with Ava?” she spat. It was the second time Kayla had said her name in anger, clearly not as over her as Steve would have hoped. “Will you be working for Stefano? Maybe you’ll jump to the boat explosion and have to feel that pain all over again. I’m tired of going where it sends us! I want to go home, Steve! I miss my baby!” Steve thought the tears would flow, but her anger was too strong, showed them who’s boss. “I miss our family that I spent 16 years not having! I – WANT – TO – GO – HOME!”
Steve squeezed her hand and dropped his head into his other. The mention of Ava made him anxious. What would he do if he found himself in her bed again? He knew how Kayla must have felt about jumping to Shane’s. He brought her hand to his lips and kissed the top of it.
“You thought I was gonna be mad like last time, didn’t you?” Steve said softly. “You were ready for a fight just now, because you thought I’d be mad at you.” His voice was low and unthreatening, but the look in his eye was piercing.
She closed her eyes to the sound of his voice, and when she opened them they shone with cerulean brilliance, lighting up the seldom-used quarters within the lighthouse. “I wasn’t sure what you’d do, but I was sure you wouldn’t be celebrating.”
“I’m not celebrating, that’s for damned f*cking sure.” Kayla deflated slightly from his obvious anger in spite of his words. Steve saw it and tried to control his temper. “But, I’m not mad. Not at you. I’m not, baby.”
“I didn’t want to be there, Steve.”
“I know, baby, I know.”
“I wanted to be with you. Like we were before we jumped. Like I want to be now. With your mouth on me. With you hard inside of me.”
Her words hardened him, and Steve needed to sink his stiffened flesh deep inside of her. “You can’t control where you jump to.”
“I’m so sorry.” For the first time in this conversation, her anger was replaced with remorse. “I wouldn’t have jumped there if I hadn’t been with him in the first place.”
Steve grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her gently but firmly. “None of that! We’ve been through that six ways ‘til Sunday. I’m done with that conversation. I never want to have that conversation again. There is no sorry. This was different. You hearin’ me, Sweetness?”
“Yes,” she said as she smiled slightly and nodded. “Yes.” He really had forgiven her. She knew he had, but seeing it in his eye meant so much to her. Now it was time to forgive herself. And so with the last string of jumps over and in the past – again – she finally did as he had and let it go. Her anger at what they were going through was still there, but the guilt was gone.
Steve realized he was gripping her shoulders too hard and released them. Then he kissed each shoulder at her clavicle. “I love you, baby. I’ll do anything for you.” Then his voice softened and his eye stung with emotion. “I’d die for you, Kayla.”
Now Kayla’s eyes misted, and she couldn’t hold them back. “You did,” she cried. “You did die for us. You protected us. You gave up your whole life to make sure me and Stephanie lived.”
Steve reached out and clutched her body to his. He felt her anger and fear and love as strongly as she did, and feeling her there, inhaling her clean, soapy smell, and feeling her hair against his face … selfish, jealous relief washed through him. He kissed her hard, passionately, forcing her lips open to accept his tongue thrusting inside of her hot mouth. Then he lifted his t-shirt off her body and unclasped her bra. He marveled at her pert breasts and bent his head to lick the tip of his tongue over her nipple.
Kayla whimpered at the feel of his tongue and the hard fullness of his body. She was breathing hard between the effort of her tirade and the quickening of her arousal.
Steve brought her legs to encircle his waist, then arched her back so he could have better access to her naked chest. He sucked her breast into his mouth, and laved it with his tongue. “I love you” he panted before moving to do the same to the other one.
“I love you more.” Then she moaned when he grazed his teeth over her areola.
“Oh, I doubt that.”
Steve moved his mouth to her neck and ran wet kisses down to the hollow of her neck and licked it teasingly. She shivered and felt her arousal between her legs. Seeing the hungry look in her husband’s eye sent Kayla’s sexuality through the roof, and she reacted by pushing her hips suggestively into him. She took his mouth for another kiss, and devoured him, sucking his tongue into her mouth, allowing it to plunder her with promise.
Steve stood quickly and removed his shirt and jeans, then he shifted her weight, forcing her to lay back against the bed. When he pulled his jeans off of his wife he found her to be naked beneath. “Oh, baby, you’re killin’ me.”
Kayla smiled like a devil. She palmed his hardened flesh and felt it engorge even more at the excitement that she wasn’t wearing anything under his jeans. Her eyes met his as she pumped her fist over him hard. When she licked her lips he went insane. “Like that, huh?” she asked suggestively.
He responded by crawling on top of her, kissing her again, then turning around to place a knee on either side of her head as she lay on the bed. Then he leaned down and licked her slick passage. “Mm, baby, I like it. You taste so sweet.” Kayla whimpered and arched her back, encouraging more from him. “Oh, baby, you want more of that?”
“Yes, more. Your tongue feels so good.” But before Steve could dip his tongue inside her, he rolled them over so that she was on top of him. She giggled and saw Steve’s penis jump in anticipation for what he knew she was going to do to him. Kayla teasingly licked the fluid from her husband’s leaking tip, then she took his steel erection into her mouth and wrapped her tongue around him. A deep and throaty moan escaped his lips, and it made her sex ache for him.
“So good, Kayla. That’s so damn good.” Then he pulled her thighs toward him, drew her lips onto his, and sucked.
Kayla mewled and sighed and whimpered his name over and over as Steve alternately plunged his tongue into her hot core and flicked it back and forth over her tight button of nerves. The sensations were exquisite. Every time Steve swept his tongue into her she sucked his cock harder, ran her tongue over his tip, and not so gently pressed against the sensitive gland at its base.
“Suck me, baby!” he grunted with unabashed licentiousness. “I love your lips on me.”
She did as she was told and cried out in building ecstasy when he replaced his tongue with his finger, flicking across her clitoris. Steve had to see her come. He had to see her orgasm pool between her legs and take it within him. The thought of it quickened his own climax, which he didn’t fight to stave off.
Kayla hummed around Steve’s penis, wanting all of it. She could feel he was close and was lost in the drunken sex surrounding them. But when Steve moved his tongue into her center to drink her in, she desperately tried to position herself so that his tongue would make more contact with her swollen bud.
His face buried in Kayla’s vagina, Steve smiled. “You want me to lick something, baby?”
“My clit … uhh … lick my clit, Steve.
Steve was going to give her what she wanted, but before he did, he teased her, licking around the spot she most wanted, then blowing softly.
“Bad husband!” she moaned, lightly slapping his thigh. “Such a tease.”
Then he very gently kissed her clitoris with his soft lips.
“My beautiful wife,” he said with his velvet voice.
“Mmm,” she replied as she rubbed her soft hands over the thigh she’d just punished. “Good husband.”
Then Steve firmly ran his plush tongue over the swelled sex that had been begging for its return, and she moaned in a high, strident voice. “Really good husband! Oh, Steve, I need to come! Uh … uh … make me come!”
Steve’s penis was resting between his wife’s breasts, and he couldn’t help it as he ground himself against her sternum. As she writhed on top of him and continued to revel in the feel of his tongue flicking across the fire at her center, Kayla squeezed her breasts around Steve’s penis. So provocative a sight in his mind’s eye, he knew he was about to explode. Kayla felt it, too and lifted up to take him back into her mouth. The suddenly hot sensation of her mouth engulfing him was too much, and the rush from his groin made him grunt carnally as he started to pulse his cum into her mouth.
Steve gave a hard suck to her clit and she bucked hard against his face. She hummed her euphoric pleasure around his pulsing cock, and they both lost themselves in the bliss of their orgasms.
Kayla swallowed the essence of her husband and wiped her mouth before placing tiny kisses all along his inner thigh. Then she turned around and laid prone on top of Steve as she nestled her head into his neck. She should have been shivering, but his warmth heated her from the inside out.
“That was amazing,” Kayla cooed.
“You were on fire, baby. I tasted how on fire you were.”
“You like me that way.”
“I can’t get enough of you that way, baby. I can’t get enough of you any way.”
Steve loved the feel of her body on top of his, covering him, warming him. She was the most beautiful thing in the world to him, and he didn’t care if she was 25 or 45 or 52, nothing would ever turn his head or stir his cock or awaken his soul like this woman. He stroked her back and smiled at the sighs she was emitting as a result.
Kayla’s recovery was now dulling in her belly, the aftershocks long passed. She turned her lips to the dagger across Steve’s chest and kissed it wetly, allowing her tongue to dart out and taste it. Steve let her and moved both of his hands to the side of her chest so he could graze her breasts.
Silently, Steve gently rolled them over and felt new wetness around her slick folds as they licked at his thigh. He looked deeply into her eyes and ran the back of his hand down her heavenly face.
“You really are an angel, Sweetness.” He gently rubbed at her exposed right breast, molding it to his palm as the other one was pinned beneath him. He kissed her sweetly, unable to contain the love inside of him. She tasted herself on his tongue and threaded her fingers into his long hair, feeling the straps of his patch within her grasp. “You knew we’d jump, but you came for me, anyway. I’m not the hero, Kayla. You are.”
Then he gently sank himself into her. She was so wet that he slid in easily, but she was just as tight now as she was last night. She felt amazing.
Their eyes never broke contact as he very gently pumped into her. Kayla gasped at how full she felt with him inside her. It was secure and safe, and she wanted nothing more than for him to stay connected to her.
Soon Steve started thrusting, and Kayla felt her orgasm cresting. Steve ran his thumb over her nipple just as his penis slid firmly over her newly swollen clitoris. She shuddered beneath him once, and that was all it took for Steve to do the same.
“You feel so good, Kayla. Don’t stop, baby … come! Don’t make me come without you.”
“Steve! Yes! Yes! Right there! Uhhhh” She finally released and jerked like a rag doll beneath him, and he allowed himself to let loose, pulsing his seed into her. He penetrated her to the very hilt their bodies would allow as he spilled everything in him into her, pouring every bit of his love from his body into hers.
Neither of them felt the chill in the air. Steve gently rested himself over half of her body and stroked her face as she let her arm drop to the bed, completely spent.
“God, I love you,” Kayla said softly. “I can’t ever lose you again. I won’t survive if I lose you again.”
Steve wanted to promise that she wouldn’t, but they both knew that nothing was certain for them. This curse of a journey they were being forced to take made sure of that.
“I won’t, either. Now I know first hand that I won’t.”
They snuggled together for quite some time on the bed, finally getting beneath the comforter, enjoying the feel of their naked bodies together. Eventually they dozed, continuing to allow themselves the mental and emotional healing that sleeping in each other’s arms gave them.
========================
Rolf was excited beyond words. He knew he was a genius, but this was unbelievable, even for him. His test succeeded with flying colors not one time, but two! His vomit flew, too, a fascinating little side effect. The danger of arranging the couple’s timeline with specificity was eliminated when the trip had only one destination for only a short burst. The variable that was time would never be nullified into something finite, but when he didn’t have so much complexity to the multiple destinations, then time could be harnessed with so much more control and predictability.
Setting himself on the first leap was nerve-wracking. After all, this was his own life he was now playing with, not the couple enjoying their youth again. If he messed it up, he’d be stuck in an arc that he’d have to live all over again. No thank you. It was a real shot in the dark to pick the right date, like trying to point to a particular city on a globe. The relativity was too great, and he had to settle for a small timeframe instead of a finite date. He was prepared to run into Stefano, the conditioning team, soldiers … he was even prepared to jump himself into the ocean. What he was not prepared for was the disorientation and nausea he felt upon arrival. If this were real, he would have cowered a lot more when Stefano berated him for throwing up on his custom made Bruno Magli shoes. But this was an arc that he knew was being forged temporarily and would never be revisited. So, he didn’t care, as long as Stefano didn’t kill him before he got pulled back to the hollow body waiting for him back in the lab. He had the wherewithal to look up the moment he was done puking and see the angry face of Steve Johnson – a Steve Johnson that did not belong in this time and that he had to get out – staring him in the face from the cell he remembered well. The success was written all over his face and didn’t really leave him from that moment through all the harping by Stefano as he pushed him out the door. About six minutes later, Rolf was back in his body.
The second trip was even more successful. He jumped back to a time prior to that and was able to stay long enough to make the very surreal call to the ISA. Careful to avoid Stefano’s operatives, he was able to hack into the personal computer of Chief Tarrington, himself. 1992 technology was so gauche and ignorant. It was like reaching into a dollhouse and placing a tiny little dresser into just the right spot. He left nothing out, told them exactly where the compound was, how to get there, where the vulnerabilities were, and how to get to Steve Johnson’s handler and holding cell. He even included a photo of his handler before it was technically possible to do such a thing, as far as 1992 knew. Then when he was pulled back into his body an hour later, exactly on time, he knew he had the key. There’s no way he didn’t have the key. He knew he could apply these formulas to the Johnsons’ journey and fix their jumps so that they no longer went to unshared time.
He quickly went to the main computer and hard coded the formula into the stream. And none too soon, too. Every time they jumped to unshared time, it threw their numbers farther off course, making their jumps not just unpredictable, but unstable. The first time they jumped for only a span of minutes, he thought it was a fluke. But then he realized just how unpredictable time was as a variable. But it wasn’t until their jump to Cleveland that he realized something was seriously amiss. Whatever they did there threw them into jumping out of sync, and it only snowballed from there. The butterfly effect was in full bloom, and soon they began jumping to altogether unshared time. They were absolutely not supposed to be in unshared time. If he didn’t fix it now, he might never get them back.
The new formula was now coded, and the ordinary Windows interface popped up a message box asking if he was sure he wanted to save. Damn straight, he did. He aimed his cursor at the “ok” prompt and clicked it, then waited for their next jump.
============
Steve was startled out of his doze when something warm and furry jumped up into the bed and landed right on top of his stomach. “Sh*t” he yelled with the involuntary jump.
“What’s wrong?!” Kayla sat bolt upright, the comforter pooling down below her breasts and her hair forming a wild halo around her face.
Steve chuckled. “I think we have a visitor,” he said as he scooped up the kitten and felt the little bundle immediately begin to purr. “Well, you must be the mama, then, aren’t ya?”
Kayla giggled and purred her own approval as she scratched the kitty behind the ears. “Well, aren’t you just sweet!” she sang out. Kayla took the cat from him and turned him around to look under its tail. “Not so much the mama, actually. But maybe the papa.”
“Oh, well, then you need a boy name this time.”
“You want to name him?”
“Yeah, I wanna name him. We named the last one. Took her home with us, too. Never got to see her grow up, either.”
“I took her with us to LA. She was sweet. Lived a really long time. She was 14 when we finally had to put her down.”
Steve did some math. “2003?”
“Yeah, just about. Stephanie was so broken up about it. I was, too. She was one of the only things I had from our life together.”
“Oh, baby.”
Kayla kissed this boy kitty’s soft little head and said, “Ok, you name him. I named the last one, you should get to name one, too.”
“Yeah?”
“Definitely.”
It didn’t take him long to find a name. “Clyde.”
Kayla let out a guffaw. “Clyde? Really?”
Steve mocked offense. “You harshing on our cat’s name?”
“Come on. Clyde? What the hell kind of name is Clyde?”
“It’s a strong name, baby! It’s a trustworthy, loyal, manly cat name. The kind of cat that sits with you when you’re sick and catches mice and drops them at your feet to tell you how much he loves you. Clyde is a cat that you can depend on to make you happy.”
He was being funny when he started describing what makes a Clyde, but by the time he was done, he wasn’t being cute anymore. He’d somehow become very enamored of this cat and felt that name. And Kayla did, too. What a beautiful man her husband was.
“Clyde it is, then,” she said with a little reverence in her voice. “It fits him beautifully. I think he was born with that name and somehow must have let you know that’s what it was.”
Steve looked into her beautiful eyes and kissed her lips. “I think you’re right. Just like you silently told me yours the moment I looked at you, Sweetness.” He kissed her again, and the cat mewled just as Steve’s stomach growled. “I didn’t plan too well, no food out here.”
“Should we go back?”
Steve got very somber suddenly and shook his head. “No. We’re not gonna be here that much longer.”
Kayla sat up straight. “Are you jumping?!”
“No, I just know it. In my gut, I know that we don’t have much longer here.”
She looked at him sideways. “You can’t know that.”
“I don’t. Really, baby, I don’t. But I just have a hunch that is so strong that I’m trusting it. So, the three of us will just have to be hungry for a little while ‘til the jump takes us.”
Clyde settled between the warmth of their two legs next to each other and began licking its downy black and white fur between its front paws. They each pet him, and he let them, as if he’d been theirs from the day he was born. Which probably wasn’t more than a few months ago.
“Steve?” Kayla said softly.
“Yeah, baby.”
“Next time we jump to this time, I want to come here and get Clyde. Bring him home. Wherever our home is.”
Steve caressed Kayla’s curly hair and nodded. “Ok.”
“Every time, ok?”
“Yeah, baby, we will. If we can find him, if he’s born yet, we’ll go get him.”
“He’ll know us. I know he will.”
“I do, too.” Steve gave his wife a sad smile and felt a mixture of melancholy and elation. He was so happy to be done with the nightmare of the last two weeks, but he was also sad to not be able to just go home.
Now Steve really did feel a pull in his gut that confirmed what he knew would be the case. They were not long for this time. Kayla saw his features change as his head snapped up from when he was watching Clyde. Kayla closed her eyes in understanding and marveled at her perceptive, heroic husband and how much she loved him.
“It’s gotta be a good one this time, baby.”
“If you’re with me it will be,” Kayla said resignedly.
Steve palmed Kayla’s breast and kissed her passionately. She didn’t want to let go of his lips and tried to imprint his taste and his smell within herself.
“See you there, Sweetness.”
“I’ll be right behind you.”
I’ll be waiting. Love you.”
“I love you, too.” Steve gave her another peck and pulled back to look her in the eyes as he spun away from the room. Just as Steve’s eyes went blank before her the tug found its way to her diaphragm, too. She moved in to kiss his frozen lips again, trying to see if he’d respond. He didn’t. His body was warm, and she felt his heart beating in his chest. But he was empty. “I love you,” she whispered and ruffled his hair. The room had just started to spin when she picked up Clyde, who clearly knew that something was up, and nuzzled him. “Go find something to eat, Clyde,” she whispered to him. “We’ll come back. Mommies always come back.” Then she was gone.
Steve sucked in air like he’d never sucked it in before. He was laying down on a narrow bed, the softness for which gave way to the hard plank beneath him. “Sh*t” he uttered, fearing he’d jumped right back into his cell. He sat up quickly and hit his head on the sheet of steel situated not too far above him. “F*ck!” he yelled even louder as he felt his head crack against it.
“What’s your problem?” a voice yelled out from above. “Some people have a shift at 0-six-hundred, man!”
Steve froze with realization. Very quick realization. He couldn’t believe it. That was Bo’s voice. The briny smell of the air around him, the impossible to miss movement of the room – Steve suddenly began shifting in what he quickly deduced was his bunk, clawing at the walls, looking for some hint that he was mistaken. When his fingers found a photo of a blonde woman with straight hair pulled over to the side as she gazed at him like the f*cking Mona Lisa, he gasped. “Oh, Jesus Christ.”
Bo’s head popped down from the bunk above, gravity pulling the hair down from his upside down head. “What?!”
“B … Bo?”
“No, President Carter. Hold on, I’ve gotta call the peanut farm. Oh, wait, can’t do that, they’re all sleeping! What’s wrong with you, have a bad dream, sleepyhead? Need a snuggle?”
Steve let out a nervous laugh and couldn’t believe he was here. “We’re in the Merchant Marines, aren’t we?”
“You smokin’ too much weed, man?”
“Where are we?”
“You are smokin’ too much weed. Or got a bad bag. Told you that hooker was bad news, man.”
Steve cringed. “Where are we, Bo?!”
“Germany, man, Jeez! Go back to bed, shithead, hopefully you’ll wake up normal in the morning.”
Bo removed his head from view, and Steve scrubbed a hand down his face. Two eyes. Jesus, I have two eyes that really see. He looked at the picture of Britta on the wall and rolled his eyes. Both of them. I’m in the middle of Germany. And Kayla’s … he did the math in his head, knowing that this had to be before the KGB operation, meaning Bo was still 17. … God, Kayla’s 18 years old. Then he whispered to himself. “She doesn’t even know I’m alive.” Maybe it was the familiar lull of the ship’s movement, or maybe it was the subconscious elation at having 20/20 vision again, but suddenly a thrill coursed through Steve that made him smile. “She doesn’t know I’m alive,” he whispered again as he laid back on his bunk with his hands behind his head. “Yet.”
=================
Rolf could not believe what he was seeing in the slipstream. “That … that can’t be. Sheisse, sheisse! That’s not possible!” He ran to the printouts, but the computer was throwing numbers that only confirmed what he saw on the graphical interface. Not only had the great and powerful Oz not fixed a damn thing, but he’d thrown their jumps even further into chaos. The “fix,” such s it was, had not just thrown them back into unshared time, but now it had thrown them into the opposite direction and made it worse.