Persistence of Vision

  Chapter 36: Far from Vegas

  The good-byes were not drawn out. Joan hugged Maggie, assuring her they’d see her soon. Nat hugged her as well, but she wasn’t as close to him as she was to the other two, and it was slightly awkward. Doc smiled at her and held her hands in his for several minutes, making her feel needed. Even Lila turned out to give her a quick hug and wish her well.

  No one else came, but Doc said no one else knew. Her leaving was temporary and was the business of the team, so no announcements had been made. If asked, the team would tell people that she was on a mission and would return soon.

  Maggie took a moment to wander into Medical. She wanted to say good-bye to Clay, though she knew the notion was silly. He had left long before she had. She stood in the doorway, peeking in. She’d spent a good deal of time with Clay compared to some of the others, and she felt close to him. She’d come to feel his goodness and gentleness. The fact that his child would never know him filled her with loneliness. Clay’s wife sat beside his bed, one hand holding his, the other resting on her swollen belly.

  Maggie couldn’t bring herself to go in. She trudged back to her room.

  She did her best to push away the pain of leaving, telling herself it was only temporary. She wasn’t sure she really believed it.

  Karl and Marcus were accompanying her, so she didn’t say good-bye to them. They left the compound the same way Marcus brought her in when they’d first arrived. It seemed like such a long time ago now.

  The door closed behind them, and they walked out into the field Maggie had crossed running from the Arachnimen two months before.

  “It tends to make you dizzy,” Karl said, “so it may be best to hold onto each other.”

  Maggie nodded, remembering hitting the ground before. Marcus walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist. She knew she ought to stay firm on her feet, but she rested her weight against him, knowing it would be her last opportunity to feel close to him for a while.

  With Karl beside them, the world lurched. The shapes and colors of the landscape around them made blurry, elongated strides, and everything seemed hazy, as though seen through the heat mirages of Vegas.

  Vertigo followed, and Maggie had the sense that she was falling. Then, with what was probably an imagined thud, it all stopped. Marcus steadied her, and she shook her head to rid it of the cobwebs.

  “You all right, Maggie?”

  Outside of Interchron in the future, Marcus’s soft question would have carried clearly. The landscape was so vacant, the world so unpopulated, that the silence was easily penetrated. Here, even from a distance, the lights and sounds of civilization could be heard. He was whispering in her ear so she could hear him, but the sound of his voice in her time seemed marred somehow.

  “I’m fine.” Her voice sounded small.

  She looked at Karl, who was completely unaffected by the vertigo, and he grinned at her. She smiled back. Mischievous as it was, she realized she’d miss his endearing smile.

  “Come on.” He motioned down the mountain with his head. “Let’s get you home.”

  Maggie took in the surroundings more fully. The sunset had come and gone, and the sky was still light blue but darkening rapidly. It would be dark before they reached her house.

  Maggie and Marcus fled her neighborhood before, running for their lives. As they made their way back, Maggie realized how far they must have come in a short time. It seemed much longer walking back, and everything moved around in the dark, so nothing looked familiar to her. She wasn’t worried though. She was with the two men she trusted most in the world, and she knew they’d get her home. She just didn’t want them to.

  She rehearsed the story she was to tell when she returned. With Traveling being inexact, there was no way to tell exactly how long she’d been gone. It could range anywhere from a few hours to a few days, Karl said. At first she thought she could claim total ignorance. No one had explained what had happened in Vegas, so perhaps she could chalk it up to another unexplained, memory-affecting event in her life.

  Then she’d remembered the dead man Marcus had left in her parlor. Perhaps ignorance wouldn’t be enough.

  She was to say that two men had broken into her home but were fighting each other. Hopefully everyone would believe it was some kind of gang warfare she’d gotten caught up in. She would say others of the same gang had taken her captive, drugged her, and held her for…however long she’d been gone. Then they decided to release her—simply dropped her off a few blocks from home without any explanation. Memory loss as to more details would be a convenient side effect of the drugs she’d been given.

  Doc helped her work out what to say and gave her some ambiguous symptoms to report so that the exact drug she was given couldn’t be nailed down. The truth peppered with vague embellishments was the best path to believability, he said.

  When they entered her neighborhood after two hours of trudging on foot through the all-too-familiar city, Maggie knew the body had been discovered. From several streets away, she could see the flashing lights of police cruisers. A large number of people were gathered out in front of her house.

  Maggie halted them when they were under the canopy of a fully flowered Dagwood tree. It was totally dark now, but the moon was out, and it might be enough for nosy neighbors to witness the fact that she’d traveled here with two men, which was not part of her cover story.

  “I think we’d better say good-bye here. I don’t want you two to be seen.”

  “All right,” Karl said, turning to her. “Take care of yourself, Maggs. We’ll be back for you before you know it.”

  Maggie smiled at him, though she wasn’t sure if he could see it or not. “Thanks for everything, Karl. I’ll miss you.”

  “Stating the obvious, but thank you.” Karl grinned, winking at her.

  Maggie grinned back. Then she looked over at Marcus.

  Karl cleared his throat. “I, uh, saw an interesting stump a ways back. I think I’ll go sit on it for a while.” He turned and jogged in the opposite direction.

  When his thudding footfalls had faded, Marcus reached out. He twined his fingers through the belt loops of Maggie’s jeans and pulled her close to him.

  They stared at each other for a moment.

  “Marcus,” Maggie began, but found herself at a loss for words. “I…I’m sorry. I feel like I have so much to say, but now I don’t know where to start.”

  He stepped closer to her, which didn’t help.

  “I want you to understand something. I’m sorry I don’t remember our time together from before. I want to remember, but—”

  Marcus put a hand up, shaking his head. “Maggie—”

  “No, please, let me say this. I want to remember, not just out of curiosity or because I feel badly about how unfair it all is.” She paused then took a deep breath. “After Vegas, I felt empty, like something was missing. I thought it was just the trauma of having unaccounted-for time, but it wouldn’t go away. Jonah moved on. I couldn’t. I realize now what really happened.

  “You became a huge part of me, of my soul, and then you were gone, ripped out of my head and my life…” She shut her eyes. She wasn’t making much sense, but Marcus said nothing.

  “Some part of me was gone, and I couldn’t explain it. I was lonely, and I missed you, even if I didn’t know it. I’ve been searching for you for a year. I want to reclaim those memories, because—” She could feel her emotions welling up. She wished she wouldn’t cry—it was really annoying—but she’d begun, and she wasn’t going to stop until all her words were out. “Because I’ll finally find that piece of me that’s been missing for so long.”

  He closed the small gap between them and put his hands on either side of her face. Resting his forehead against hers, his fingers gently kneaded her scalp.

  “I heard what you said to Colin on the island, and maybe it was only for his benefit that you said it, but I want you to know that the impression you made on me was not worthless or negligibl
e or something to be swept under the rug.”

  “Perhaps”—he ran his finger down her cheek to wipe away a tear—“it’s a gift you have, an ability to see that which is no longer there. That’s why you saw flashes of kidnapped memories.”

  “Or maybe some things are so vital that they imprint themselves on your very soul. All the flashes had something to do with you, Marcus. They couldn’t take away my memories of you, even…when they did. You had such a pull on me…”

  A term Karl had used came to her mind just then. “You were my persistence of vision.”

  He kissed her deeply on the mouth, pushing her backward until they were completely engulfed under the protective shadow of the Dagwood tree.

  The kiss ended, leaving Maggie breathless. Marcus put his hands on the sides of her face and rested his forehead on hers once again, as though that would cement them together even after they parted.

  Butterflies flared in Maggie’s stomach, but she reached up to wrap her arms around his neck. He pressed his face into her shoulder, his breath hot against her skin.

  “Come back soon,” she whispered.

  “I promise.”

  She could feel his reluctance to let go and walk away. She shared it.

  “Marcus, will you do something for me?”

  “Of course.”

  She hesitated, knowing he wouldn’t like her request. “Will you try and mend things with David?”

  His hands dropped to her shoulders, his gaze going to the ground, and she could feel the barrier his reluctance put up between them.

  “I know you don’t want to, but I think it’s important that you do. I’m not saying you should be best friends, but at least get to where you can be civil. I think it will help you both to talk about the past and be…brothers again.”

  She heard him swallow before answering. “That’s complicated, Maggie. You don’t know what it did to me—what it did to our father. When he left—”

  “I know it was wrong, Marcus. I’m not asking you to condone what he did or put aside the pain it caused you. I’m asking you to…let yourself feel the other things you feel for him.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You feel compassion for him. I can see it when you look at him. He’s still your little brother, and you want to protect him. You’re fighting that urge out of anger. The anger’s understandable, but let yourself feel the way you ought to about him. It may be the only way you can finally heal.”

  He raised his gaze to her again. “I can’t promise anything, Maggie. We may be doing different tasks while you’re gone, but when I’m with him, I’ll try. For you.”

  She reached up on her toes and brushed her lips against his. “Thank you.”

  “I have something for you.” He dug into the pocket of his pants and pulled out something that sparkled in the moonlight. It looked circular, but she couldn’t be sure in the dim light.

  “What is it?”

  “A bracelet. It’s something I gave you before, last time. When we had to send you back, I took it. I figured without your memories it wouldn’t mean anything to you. Now that you know who I am again, I’d like you to have it back.”

  It was too dark to try and clasp it onto her wrist, but she took it and slid it carefully into the pocket of her jeans, glad to have a memento of him. Silence descended, and she felt her emotions flare again.

  He wrapped his arms around her again, crushing her so tightly against his chest that her ribs hurt, but she didn’t pull away.

  “Be careful,” she whispered into his shoulder.

  “Shouldn’t I be telling you that?”

  “Me? Are you kidding? With my abilities I could be attacked by a rape gang and totally kick their butts.” She paused, thinking. “Is it wrong that I kind of want to be?”

  He laughed softly, kissed her on the forehead, and backed away. She felt his recession, and it hurt.

  “I’ll watch you until you get around the corner.”

  “Okay.” She wanted to say more—felt like she should—but didn’t know what or how, so she turned and walked toward the bright lights that shone from the place that used to be her home.