Disclaimer: I don't own Total Recall, i just wrote this for my own enjoyment.

Rekall Reality

Doug stepped through the scanner silently. Naturally, the gun holstered under his arm set off the alarm, bringing security officers – human ones – rushing in from all sides. Rolling his eyes, Doug retrieved his ID from his pocket and handed it to the officer in charge. She glanced at it, then up at Doug skeptically.

"You're Douglas Hauser?" she said, arching a brow.

"Is there a problem with that?" Doug asked. God, even four years down the road, his name frightened him. But, Douglas Quaid had never existed, and Carl Hauser was no more. Going by either one now somehow seemed… wrong.

The security officer – a kid, really – handed the ID back to him, looking slightly sheepish. "Sorry," she said. "But with the Independence Day address coming up, everybody's kinda on edge."

"That's actually what I'm here about," Doug said. He glanced around at the security officers. They seemed to have determined Doug was no threat, as they'd all moved back to their stations. Big mistake, he'd have to have a talk with the head of security about that. "Where's your boss?"

He was led to an office just off the main corridor where a lean man in a United Colonies security uniform sat behind a desk, staring at a computer screen. He glanced up when Doug entered.

"Ah, Mr. Hauser," he said, a cheery smile across his face. "I was told to expect you. I trust everything you've seen thus far is to your satisfaction?"

Doug unholstered his sidearm and slammed it down on the desk, eliciting a jump from the security officer. "I walked through the scanner with this," he said. "I was stopped, of course, then was allowed to go on my merry way without so much as background check."

The man's jaw clenched just a bit. Doug suspected he was getting wound up for a defensive move.

"I don't care," Doug continued before the man could utter a syllable, "if I am the Head of Presidential Security. I don't care if I am the Hero of the Fall, or any of that other crap. The President – of the United Colonies of Australia – is coming to this facility in two days. And you let a man with a gun just stroll right in."

He took a deep breath and eased down into the chair behind him. "From this point on, every person coming into the facility is going to be checked and double-checked. Every bag, every purse, every wallet needs to be gone through. Four separate people carrying four harmless chemicals could be smuggling in a bomb. Absolutely no chances are going to be taken. Do you understand?"

"Bit paranoid, don't you think?" the officer said.

"Paranoia is the only reason I'm alive," Doug answered. "Now, about your security personnel…"

Doug staggered into his apartment late that evening, tossing his keys down on the table. It was almost midnight, and he was dead tired.

"Hauser?" a voice – Melina's – called from the kitchen. Four years of knowing one another; two of marriage, and she still called him by his surname. He guessed it was because the name Doug was fake – given to him by the UFB.

"Yeah, it's me," he groaned as he headed down the short hall to the bathroom. "Just gonna take a shower an' hit the sack." He poked his head in the kitchen as he walked past. "You're welcome to join me if you want."

By the time she answered, he'd already vacated the room. "Be there in a few," she called out. "Just gotta finish this paperwork."

It was more than a few minutes before Melina joined him. She padded barefoot into the bedroom, crawled under the covers, and snuggled close to his warm body. Arms wrapped around his torso, she gazed up at his face in silence. Doug just lay there, one hand behind his head, the other stoking her hair gently.

"What are you thinking?" he asked at last, looking down at her for the first time.

"That this must be a dream," she said absently.

He pushed himself up on his elbows at once and fixed her with a piercing stare. "What do you mean?"

"Hauser," she whispered against his bare chest. "Please, don't."

"What do you mean?" Unintentionally, he was using what Melina called his Hauser-voice. He suspected his expression was the Agent-face as well, because Melina looked away. She didn't like his Agent-face directed at her.

She looked back up at him, her expression just as distant as his own. "I just meant that it's hard to believe what's happened. The destruction of the Fall. Independence. Your job. My job. Us. Everything."

Doug sat up and rolled out of bed. He crossed to the window and stared out at the night sky. Overhead, the moon shone down on them through a layer of clouds. The atmosphere in Melbourne was nearly clear; and Doug had heard that some nights you could see the stars above Freemont. He'd never seen them himself, but William Porter had claimed he had seen Orion's belt only last week.

So much had changed in four years.

Melina was right.

It was like a dream.

""I'm sorry," Melina said softly, hovering just behind him. Slowly, cautiously, she wrapped her arms around his wait. Doug closed his eyes in shame, remembering the reason for her caution. He'd dreamed of Lori four nights ago. She'd been touching him, caressing him. Then she'd tried to kill him. In the morning, when his wife – his real wife – had woken him with a cuddle and a peck on the back of the neck, Doug had reacted. Violently.

Reality and fiction were so blurred together in his mind, Doug had no idea where one began and the other ended.

Hell, he didn't even know which was which.

When Doug didn't react violently to her touch, Melina pulled herself close, pressing the full length of her body against his back. He felt every curve, every nuance, every breath, every pulse.

"This is real," he whispered. He turned in her arms, pulling her even closer. "This has to be."

As he leaned down to kiss her, an image of Lori, pacing a hospital waiting room, crying, praying for him, imposed itself on his mind. Forcibly, he buried the image. She had tried to kill him. This was reality. This was where he wanted to be. With Melina.

"This is real," he whispered again before their lips met.

Mouth and arms intertwined, she pulled him gently back to the bed, and he lowered her down tenderly. His intention had been to stop kissing her only long enough to pull her tank top up over her head, but she stopped him before he could continue.

"This is real," she assured him softly, before proceeding to show him just how real it was.

Afterwards, they lay in bed, wrapped in one another's arms and staring out the window.

"I have something to tell, you," Melina said slowly.

"Hmm?" Doug was too busy tracing her shoulder with his lips to give her a proper response.

Melina twisted so he was facing him. Deliberately, she met his gaze stare for stare.

"I love you, Doug Hauser."

In that moment, Douglas Hauser decided that whether this was Rekall or reality, he was never leaving this woman's side again.

The End

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