Gaia Dreams (Gaiaverse Book 1) (68 page)

"Want some orange juice?" he asked, turning to
reach for a thermos sitting on the nightstand beside the bed. As he poured some
in a glass for her, Lisanne sat up in bed and propped a pillow behind her back,
tucking the sheets primly around her naked body.

Sipping the cool fruit juice, she asked
suspiciously, "How did that get here? Have you been up already?"

"Yep, woke up an hour ago, made juice, fed
Merlin and Waldo, then came back here to watch you sleep," Andy explained.

"Watch me sleep?" squeaked Lisanne.

Andy laughed. "Yes. You are so different asleep
than when you are awake. So quiet and calm, and even the tiny bit of snoring
was pretty cute." He ducked as she threw a pillow at him.

"I don't snore!"

"Yeah, baby, you do," he countered, "but it's
really not bad. I think I can live with it."

"You think you can--oh, you! So you think, after
yesterday, you can just move in here?" she inquired. "You just assume I want
you living here with me? Just like that?"

Andy gave her a look of love, frustration, and
amusement. "Lisanne, sweetheart, I already live in this house with you. Whether
I move into this suite with you--we can discuss it. But I love you, and I think
I heard you say you loved me, somewhere in between all the moaning."

Involuntarily, a grin twitched at Lisanne's
lips. Something she corrected as soon as it started. "I may have said...well,
after all, in the heat of the moment things are said...." She stopped talking
and looked into his very blue eyes. Kind eyes, waiting eyes. Eyes that made her
feel she was finally home. She sensed Merlin somewhere else in the house,
sensed his resignation at the continuation of Waldo being in his life, sensed
his grudging approval of what she was deciding.

"Yes," she admitted finally, "I do love you."
And then let out a breath it felt like she had been holding for a very long
time.

He smiled slowly at her. "All I want, for the
rest of my life, is to be near you. To touch you, to laugh with you, to argue
with you, to make love with you. If you need some space still, need to have
your place in the house away from me, I can live with it, even if I don't like
the idea. But this isn't some end of the world desperation thing for me. In the
middle of all this chaos and tragedy, we found each other. And I'm going to
stay by your side for as long as you let me."

Lisanne listened to him speak and felt safe. And
maybe even happy? A shadow glinted across her face.

"What? What is it?" Andy asked, bewildered by
her changing expressions.

"How can I feel so happy? Just yesterday--so
many people died, Andy! Millions died. And I'm sitting here this morning
feeling so incredibly happy--I feel like it's wrong somehow, that I can feel
this happy in the midst of so much heartache and loss."

He reached for her and folded her into his arms.
Her head rested against his chest and his hand slowly caressed her hair. "Oh,
Lisanne, I don't know. Because I am filled with--joy, today. And you are right,
so many are gone. But we have been given a chance here, a chance to live, when
others never got that chance. Isn't it our responsibility, to them and to us,
to live our lives to the very fullest? To love where we can, to help, to not
just survive this, but maybe make something better out of the ruin?"

He felt Lisanne nod her head. She whispered, "Yes,
we owe it to them. We'll live the best we can."

Then she tilted her head up and kissed him
slowly, deeply. It was a kiss that felt like it could go on forever, a kiss
full of promise and desire and surety. Just when his hands moved over her body,
she pulled away and said in a light and daring voice, "This suite has a
fantastic bathroom with an amazingly large shower." She slid to the edge of the
bed, dragging the sheet with her, and then laughing, she turned and headed for
the bathroom.

Andy stared at the spot she'd just been in for a
full five seconds while the image of Lisanne in the shower, her body glistening
in soap and water overwhelmed his thoughts. "Oh my," he said as he scrambled up
and followed her. Live life to the fullest. As Lisanne would say,
abso-fucking-lutely.

Near Cape Fair, on the road

Alan Beakman helped Phoebe over another log in
the road. He had stayed at her side throughout the long day of trekking through
forests, destroyed housing developments, and twisting roads on the way to Cape
Fair. Phoebe seemed okay as long as the cat Cleo stayed nearby, which was good,
Alan thought, since they had run out of valium. He hadn't approved of the use
of tranquilizers for the emotionally disturbed woman anyway. He felt she was
just overwhelmed by everything they had seen, which wasn't surprising since
they were all overwhelmed and tired and frustrated. Perhaps that accounted for
the incessant bickering the rest of the group seemed prone to on this final leg
of their journey.

"All I'm saying, for the hundredth time," Zack
said, "is that Cape Fair is the place I've had in my dreams for weeks now. Just
because you had dreams of another place doesn't mean it was better, Margaret."
He paused and continued before she could respond. "Besides, we've been over
this and over this--we flew beyond that part of Massachusetts you dreamed about,
so it made more sense to continue on to the safe zone we were closest to, which
happens to be Cape Fair."

"You know, for someone who only recently started
getting the dreams, you sure have become an expert in their interpretation,"
Margaret retorted.

"Stop! Will you two just shut up?" Mayor Dubois
commanded, huffing a bit as the road wound up a small hill. "We've had this out
already, decision made, it's done. We're going to Cape Fair and that's all
there is to it."

Alan chuckled quietly. Dusty had come through
with flying colors in his opinion. After the hurricane devastated Houston, he'd
wondered how his boss would manage. And as usual, she had turned into the
leader of their group--cajoling, ordering, demanding when necessary to keep them
all focused in one direction. He mused that wherever they ended up, Dusty
Dubois would be an asset. As for the rest of them--whatever Phoebe's problems
were, once she could get settled somewhere, he'd bet she would be a help. The
woman had a phenomenal memory and he recognized a fellow detail-oriented person
when he saw one. In the beginning, she'd been almost invisible to him, so quiet
except for those occasional emotional outbursts. Now he was getting used to her
being there near him. She was restful compared to the others, saying so little.
He'd developed an appreciation for quiet on this trip.

Maria and Zack were clearly in love and seemed
like a good team. He had no idea what a news reporter and videographer would
find to do in this safe zone they were going to, but he'd bet the two would
make a niche for themselves. They were too competent not to.

But Margaret...Alan really wondered about Margaret.
He knew Dusty had been at odds with her from day one. At first he'd thought
Zack and Maria were clearly in Margaret's corner, but over time, they had all
pulled away from Margaret to some extent. She was so sure, so certain, that her
interpretation of dreams and events was the only right interpretation. Alan
knew his own dreams were not nearly as complex as Zack's and Margaret's, but
from his experience of the phenomenon, the dreams could be very confusing. And
Margaret, well, Margaret seemed to approach them lately with the attitude of a
zealot. Cape Fair's reaction to Margaret would be interesting to watch.

The Stables at the Farm

"Oh, now, isn't she a beauty?" Jimmy said,
rubbing his hand down the flank of Janine's current mount, Feathers. "And you
say you can talk to all of them?"

Janine nodded shyly. She couldn't believe she
was talking to a real cowboy--she hadn't realized they still existed! "Yes, it's
different with different ones, but Alexandra says she thinks I'm connected to the
'herd mind' or something like that."

Jimmy took off his cowboy hat and ran a hand
through his wavy brown hair. "Well, I'd say that will help us out a lot. I've
always felt like Mandy here knew what I was saying. Since all this, whatever it
is that happened, that horse has been reading my mind, I think! And lately I
can hear her more and more every day. I think that'll help when it comes to
rounding up the cows you folks were talking about at breakfast this morning."

Janine bobbed her head in agreement again. The
big breakfast of biscuits and sausage and eggs at the large table in Gracie's
kitchen had been one filled with talk of cows, something Janine knew nothing
about. But she had relaxed once it became clear nobody wanted her to stop what
she was doing. Sam had been right, those days ago, when she'd said Janine would
be in charge of the horses. It was taking time, but Janine was starting to feel
more confident in that role. Of course, the horses' thoughts helped with that
process. Rather contentedly, Janine imagined fresh milk from the, was it
Holsteins? Yes, Feathers told her, although how the horse knew that, Janine had
no idea. Would fresh milk taste different than the milk they used to buy in
stores?

Her thoughts were abruptly reined in by the
noise of a car engine approaching the stables. No, more than one car, she
decided and cantered over to the gravel area they were using to park cars. More
people wanting to learn to ride? No, she realized as she opened her mind. Sam
had sent them, or John had sent them because of Sam's dream...something about an
attack on the power plant?...and before they even finished shutting their car
doors, Janine was getting a list of horses who could be used to patrol the area
around the dam.

"Hey, Janine," Nathan called out. "We need some
horses--"

"Right, I know," Janine interrupted. "Follow me,
they are heading back to the barn now."

Nathan stood there and watched her riding off, a
beautiful melding of horse and young woman, seemingly at one. He shook his
head, wondering if he'd ever get used to how fast this new communication
happened. It definitely did speed things up. "Come on, guys," he said. "Looks
like the horses are ready and waiting."

The Samuels' House

John pushed his chair away from the desk and
stood up and stretched. Almost four hours of interviewing new arrivals, making
decisions, and soothing fears had taken its toll and he felt the need for a
break. Even as he thought that, Samantha wandered into his study, carefully
holding a bowl of something.

"Here, Daddy, Mom made some of those veggie
thingies you like," his daughter told him as she set the bowl of raw vegetables
and dill dip on the desk.

"Ahh," he said, grabbing a carrot stick and
munching. "I guess she decided I don't need any more cookies?"

Samantha grinned up at him. "Mommy says we have
to save the sugar. But...." She reached in her shirt pocket and pulled out two
cookies, giggling. "Here, I got the last two snickerdoodles. One for you and
one for me."

He laughed and bowed courteously to her. "Thank
you, my dear," he said, then sat back down in his leather chair and motioned
her into the comfy upholstered chair next to his desk.

"Okay, let's have it, Sam," he said.

She looked startled.

"I'm getting better at reading the look on your
face, kiddo," her father explained. "And I recognize that look right now that
says you have something to tell me, something you aren't sure I'll like. That's
why you are bribing me with cookies."

Sam laughed and looked at him thoughtfully.
Daddy was changing, she decided. He seemed to know more, know stuff kinda like
she did. Ever since the rock and trees.

She set her cookie on the desk and said, "Okay.
You know 'bout the dream last night. At the power place? And how I didn't know
who it was who attacks it?"

He nodded.

"Well, maybe I kinda know now," she said slowly.
"I dunno who the name is, but I know it's somebody who is coming today, coming
here, soon."

"What?" John said, sitting upright with a look
of consternation on his face. "We need to get Black out to the main road right
away then! I'll call and--"

Sam shook her head violently. "No, no, no,
Daddy. You can't stop them from coming here. We need them to come here."

John just stared at her. "Uh, Sam, honey, that
doesn't make much sense to me."

She sighed and kicked her feet back and forth. "It's
a group of people who are coming here. Somebody named Mayor is leader. And
these people, some of them are important. Like they would help us here a lot.
Some of them are dreamers and some of them are animal talkers, or they will
become animal talkers. But one of them is the one who will attack the power
station somehow. And I don't know why."

He watched his little girl's look of frustration
and sighed. Just great, he thought. Knowingly let someone into their little
enclave here that they knew would cause damage to them? And could they actually
judge a person based on actions that hadn't even been committed yet? Could he
turn away a whole group of people knowing only one of them was the problem? Or
rather, a possible problem? And if he did, what would Sam's reaction to that
be?

He inquired hesitantly, "So you're saying you
feel okay about letting them all in, even though you are pretty sure one of
them is bad news?"

She looked at him seriously, head tilted to one
side, and responded, "I think we have to, Daddy. It wouldn't be fair to say no
to all of them. That would be like...like...that prejudice thing you told me 'bout
one time." She paused and looked down. "I'm really sorry, Daddy," she said
quietly. "I shoulda been able to tell who it was, who the bad guy was, but I
can't see it."

John leaned over and patted her on the shoulder.
"Samantha, don't you even think that. You've been a huge help with the
information you do know about this. Don't worry. Black and Rachel have
organized a group to patrol out there. Your Uncle Nathan is helping too. So it's
not going to be a problem, kiddo. Whatever it is this person tries to do, we
will stop him."