Page 102 of Elanie & the Empath
“I’m not sure what it means, but there’s something that shows up in every single one of these dreams,” I said, tearing my gaze from the precocious little grint when myeyes started to sting. “It doesn’t matter if the dream is over in a blink or if it seems to last all night. It’s always there.”
I could tell that he’d stopped breathing. It had happened 2.3 billion nanoseconds after he’d stopped blinking.
“Do you know what that thing is, Dr. Semson?”
He shook his head, and another tear fell.
Leaning forward while my chest grew tight, while his beautiful silver-blue eyes swam through my misting vision, I whispered, “Sailboats.”
The pad of paper dropped from his hands, floating through the air until it joined his pen on the floor.
His chin wobbled, his eyes filling with tears as he whispered, “Don’t let this be a dream too. Please. I can’t take it.”
Climbing down from his table, I reached for him, placing a hand over his thundering heart. “It’s not a dream.”
“Is it you, Elanie? Is it really you?”
“Funny story,” I said while he covered my hand with his and held on so tightly I had to modify my pain threshold. Because I would never ask him to let go. Never again. “On Thura, when you and Maximus were talking, before Gol barged in, Mal told me what was going to happen. I remember being?—”
“You…” He swayed on his feet. “You remember?”
Giving into every temptation, I let myself smile at him. And when I did, the floodgates burst open, words and tears and all the ways I’d missed him pouring out of me.
“Everything,” I said with a crack in my voice. “I didn’t at first, when we got back, when I woke up. But even though I couldn’t remember Thura or the cave or you, I still missed you. Every time I saw you, I missed you. Like I knew deep down that some vital part of me had been found on that planet, with you. And then, back here, I lost it. It was gone. Iknow you tried to talk to me. I know it must have been so hard for you when I ran away.” My ribs felt bruised, regret lodging itself firmly inside my chest. “But I was so scared, Sem. I was scared because I felt all these things for you, and none of them made sense. I’d see you, and know, right here”—I took his other hand and placed it over my heart—“that you were the most important person I’d never really known.”
His chin sank to his chest, and if his hair had still been long, it would have fallen into his eyes.
“I didn’t want Mal to use his EMP,” I said. “I tried to argue with him. I tried to find another way. It was only after he told me he could back up our memories that I agreed to it. Because I didn’t want to lose you. I couldn’t imagine living without you. I couldn’t see any point to my existence if you weren’t in it. Which I know is a very non-bionic thing to say, but?—”
He huffed a laugh, then choked out, “You tried to tell me.” His gaze darted over my face, lips, eyes, nose. Like he thought I might vanish if he wasn’t paying close enough attention. “Before the EMP blew, you tried to tell me something.”
“That’s the thing about having your memories wiped.” I brought my hands to his shoulders, sliding them up to cradle his neck. My knees buckled at the familiar warmth of his skin. “You forget things. Important things. Like last-minute backups. But gen-1s were designed to store their own memory after using their EMPs. Primitive flash drives stored deep in their ears of all places. Which was something even Maximus didn’t know. Mal went to Maximus this morning to check his auditory processors because his left ear wouldn’t stop ringing, and Maximus found the drive. He restored us both.”
Sem said nothing, but his chest rose and fell, hard and fast.
“Are you okay?”
His throat bobbed sharply. “No.”
“I’m sorry, Sem. I’m so sorry. But I didn’t know what else to do. Please don’t be upset with me. Please?—”
“Oh, Elanie. Sweetheart, no,” he said, shaking his head like he was finally waking up. Finally letting himself believe that this was real. “I could never be upset with you. I just… Saints help me, I’ve missed you so much.” He cupped my face with a soft ferocity. “And you have nothing to be sorry for. I’m the one who needs to apologize. I promised you I wouldn’t give up hope. I promised you I’d find you again, and I didn’t. I tried, but I wasn’t strong enough.”
“That isn’t your fault. I’d almost forgotten who I was before I met you, how closed off I’d been. I lived with a wall around me, and you’d already broken through it once. It was probably hard to imagine having to break through it again.”
“But I was going to try. That’s where I was headed when I opened the door. I was going to find you and try again, no matter how long it took. No matter how many hallways I had to wait for you in, or how many Macey Valentine songs I had to sing at karaoke, or how many wellness presentations I had to convince Chan to let me interrupt morning meetings with just so I could see you. I was going to do it. Because I haven’t been living without you. I haven’t been able to breathe. I love you, Elanie. I love you so much.”
Throwing my arms around his neck, I kissed him, holding him as close as I could without hurting him while he kissed me back. And even though it had been thirty-three days, 797 hours, and 2.869 x1015nanoseconds since I’d felt his lips on mine, with his hand pressed into the small of myback, his other hand cradling my neck, and the taste of our tears mingling on my tongue, the kiss felt eternal.
When we finally pulled apart, our eyes wet and our breaths heavy, I asked, “Can I see Grover?”
Sem laughed now. Really laughed. And the sound spread over my skin like tiny electric sparks, making me warm, letting me feel alive again. “He’s going to lose his mind once he sees that you’re back. I think he’s missed you almost as much as I have.”
Sliding my hand into his, I promised, “I’ll never leave either of you again.”
Pulling me close, he said, “Please don’t.” Then he kissed me so deeply and so thoroughly I had no choice but to record it in my VC and add it to theSemfile that had been restored along with all my other memories. Memories of how I fell in love in the most unlikely of places with the most unlikely of people in the most perfectly unforgettable way.
SIX MONTHS LATER
