Staring up at the white ceiling, feeling the cold engulfing her arms, her legs, her chest, she couldn't move. She struggled against the iron for only a moment, realizing suddenly that she was not in control of this body. This was someone else. This dream, or reality, belonged to someone else. She was used to dreaming other people's dreams already, her parents and their dreams flooded her mind on a regular basis. She was learning how to block them but she was decidedly lazy at it.

But this felt wrong. It wasn't her mother, those were usually accompanied with a warm, pleasant feeling of security and love. It wasn't her father, the dreams he sent were always laced with anger or fear. This was a dream from someone she had never seen, never touched, never talked to. This was HIM. She had been dreaming with him about once a month since she was seven. She could feel his feelings, see what he saw, and they were usually unpleasant. Her mother had said she had made him up, a fourteen year old's fairy tale. But she knew with all her heart he was real.

"Help me," She felt herself murmur in his voice.

-I don't know how,- she thought. –I don't know where you are…-

"Please," she heard him say. "Please, help me."

-I will when you tell me where you are,- she cried desperately, silently. –I can't help you if I can't find you!-

She felt him lift a hand and watched as he picked up a scalpel from the table beside him. Using the cold metal, he sliced through the skin on his arm as easy as a hot knife through butter. "Help me," he said again.

Mary felt herself scream as she sat bolt upright in bed, an eerie wet feeling trickling down her arm. Within moments her mother was at her side, her father in the doorway. "Mary?" her mother asked worriedly. "Honey, what happened?"

She slowly lifted the arm he had cut. An identical thin, deep slice was in her own arm, blood running to her shoulder as she struggled to breath. Her alien eyes flickered to a bright green as she looked from the cut to her mother, then to her father who had taken several steps forward. "Mimi, we should get her to the infirmary," her father said, his eyes matching Mary's.

"Hush, Kevin," her mother responded. "Mary, did you do this?"

Mary shook her head, finally taking a breath.

"Don't lie to me," she said warningly. She pushed her daughter's rainbow hair, inherited from her mother, out of her marble-white face.

"It… it was him," she murmured through a shuddered sob. "Mom, you have to believe me, he needs my help!"

"Oh, Mary…" Mimi shook her head in exasperation. "Not this again. He's not real, baby. If he was, we would feel him, too. It's okay, Mary. He doesn't exist."

Mary wiped a tear away with the back of her hand. "He is, and he needs me."

Kevin put a hand on Mimi's shoulder. "Maybe he is, Mary," He said softly. "But how are you going to help him? You don't know where he is or even what his name is." Mimi glared at his encouragement of this topic, but he ignored her. "Just try not to think about it, okay?"

She nodded. She didn't feel like arguing with her father at the moment; she never won.

"Is that deep, or are you okay cleaning it up yourself?" Mimi asked, touching the cut. "I can heal it if you want me to." Mary nodded, and a Mimi generated a few rose quartz stones to heal the wound. Mary turned away from her mother's kiss and her father's hug and sighed as they left and closed the door. She could talk to TJ about it tomorrow.

…………………………..

"So he cut your arm," TJ said, leaning over his lunch and taking a bite. No matter what the crisis was, no matter how much Mary needed him to pay attention, Timothy Justin Wagner was ALWAYS eating. "From… where, exactly?"

"I still don't know, he never tells me where he is," she said, shaking her hair from her face and sighing. "But somehow he didn't feel so far away as he usually did last night."

"Like how you said it feels like you two are worlds apart." He nodded, talking with his moth full. "So he was closer?"

"Yeah, but not very close, just not as far as before."

"I have no idea what that means, but that's okay," TJ took another bite. "I never understand what you're talking about, anyway. Want some?"

"No thanks," Mary said, grimacing at TJ's idea of food. "I think I feel sick enough, thank you."

"Hi!" came a chipper voice from the doorway.

"Oh, no," TJ and Mary groaned at the same time. TJ's little brother Colby came running into the room, jumping into a chair and giggling. "Mom says you have to clean your room, TJ."

"She's not my mom," he grumbled, getting up anyway.

"Well, MY mom wants you to clean your room right nowwww," Colby said.

"She can't tell me what to do," TJ groaned as he left the room. "See you, Mary."

"Bye," Mary waved, realizing who she was left with. "Um, Colby, I have homework to do, bye!"

"Play with me," the seven year old tugged insistently on her sleeve. "Please, Mary, no one else will."

"I wonder why," she sighed. "Okay. But you tell your dad he owes me."

………………………..

"You… OWE… me," Mary growled at Kurt Wagner as he flipped a hotdog on the stove. "BIG time."

"Really, what did TJ do now?" Kurt turned the hotdog over again. "Think this is finished?"

"TJ is at least tolerable," she said. "It's Colby. He never gets tired, I swear! It's like he has the energizer bunny built into his head!"

"Well, it must be Kitty's fault," he said. "If TJ is tolerable and Colby is a nuisance."

"Not saying that TJ isn't a nuisance," grumbled Mary. "Yeah, that's done."

He picked up the hotdog and threw it onto the plate next to him, immediately putting his fingers in his mouth. "Ow," he said. Then he spat out some of his fur. "NOW I see what Kitty's TALKING about!"

Mary giggled and patted his head. "Poor sweetie."

…………………………..

She found herself curled in a small cell, sitting in the corner trying to keep warm. The thin blanket around her shoulders barely kept her warm. She realized that she was again with him. This was the second night in a row, something that had never happened before. She felt his fear, his loneliness, his desperation for rescue. She silently wept for him.

"You're back," he said.

-You have to tell me your name,- she whispered to him. –You have to tell me where you are.-

"Roran Yu," he said softly. "My name is Roran Yu. Please, help me."

She tried to place a name like that, remembering it from somewhere, something her father told her once. –Where are you?-

"I don't know," he said. "Shh, someone's coming."

She heard the footsteps and saw through his eyes as he glanced up from under his hair. It was a tall man wearing an army uniform, a US army uniform. "Alright, alien," he said. "You want to talk today?"

She felt him shake his head.

"I guess you aren't hungry, then," He said, putting away his keys. "The doctors will be around to continue testing later, freak. See you then."

-Roran,- Mary asked. –Are you in Area 51?-

"I have heard that before," he said, watching the soldier leave. "I need to get out of here."

-I'm coming to get you,- she said.

……………………..

TJ woke up, startled by the sudden noise in the window. He sat up and rubbed his eyes as another rock smacked against the glass. Getting up, he opened the window and looked out. "Mary," he hissed. "You had better have a good reason for this!"

"We're going to rescue Roran," she called up. "Come on!"

"Who?" he growled, but he pulled on a pair of jeans and sneakers, making his way out the window and down the tree. "I was having a good dream," he moaned as Mary threw a bag over his shoulder. "Wait—where are we going?"

"Nevada," she said. "We're going to Nevada. If mom won't listen, I have to do SOMETHING."

"Oh boy," TJ said. "I'm coming, I'm coming."

So what do you guys think? This is sort of a present for Ally and will only make sense to those that play or read XxXFairyQueenXxX's roleplaying game. But review please!