Dairine dreamed.

It was the moon again, of course, and Roshaun sat at her feet, his head resting against her hip. Dairine savored the warmth and solidity of him for a moment before she spoke.

"I went to Timeheart to look for you."

"Oh?" There it was—that casual, maddening superiority that she had somehow managed to miss so much. It was just as irritating now as it had always been, and she could have cried with relief at the familiarity of it.

"Did you know there's a worldgate there from your suite on Wellakh to my back yard?" she asked instead, stung a little by the coolness of his tone. There was a long moment of silence before he answered.

"No," he said eventually. "But I am not surprised." She pulled away, trying to see his expression, but his face told her no more than his voice. Dairine huffed and plopped down in the moondust beside him.

"Where are you, anyway? I've been looking for you everywhere."

"I don't know." His response was quiet, but the worry in his voice was plain.. "I am not sure that I am anywhere physical. I think we are only both here because my desire to speak with you was so strong." His voice lowered a little bit as he reached the end of the sentence, and Dairine politely did her best to ignore his embarrassment at the admission. Instead she studied their surroundings carefully, finally turning her gaze to the blue-green planet, partially veiled in white, that hung in the darkness of space before them

"Yeah. This place definitely isn't real. The regolith isn't quite right, and Australia is upside down. It's just some kind of shared dream, and you're failing miserably on the Terran geography portion." Dairine tried to keep her tone flip, but it came out sounding miserably forced. She frowned at the powdery grit that surrounded them. "Still, there must be something here that can help me find you. There's just got to be a clue somewhere." She moved to get up and begin searching, but Roshaun reached out and grasped her hand, preventing her from rising.

"Later. There is no shortage of time. Sit with me a while, and tell me of how things go." Dairine hesitated and bit her lip, looking out over the vast lunar desert, but Roshaun's look was so uncharacteristically pleading that she gave in. She let him draw her closer, lacing his fingers with her own. She leaned her head against his shoulder. This is… nice, she thought. I'll just close my eyes for a second…

She woke with a thump as she hit the floor. She got rather unsteadily to her feet, still half-asleep, turned to get back into bed… and stopped. There, sprawled across her bed, was Roshaun. She pinched herself. Nothing changed. She pinched harder—so hard she was sure she'd have a bruise on that arm by the end of the day. He was still there.

"NITA!"

The next few minutes were utter chaos. Her father thundered down the hall first, and sagged against the door frame in shock as he took in the scene before him. Nita slipped in just behind him, rubbing blearily at her eyes.

"Dairi, it's not even light yet. What's going on that you couldn't wait a couple of—" Nita stopped dead as she finally registered the lanky young man sprawled over Dairine's bed. There was a long moment of silence. It was Mr. Callahan who finally broke it.

"I guess I'd better go make some coffee." He looked from his two daughters to the still form on the bed and back again. "A lot of coffee. I get the feeling we're going to have plenty of company, and I know Tom's not normally awake this early in the morning." He left his two daughters staring at each other.

"Dairi, is he…," Nita trailed off, unsure of how to ask if Roshaun was even breathing without upsetting her sister more.

"He's alive," Dairine replied quietly, hearing what her sister didn't want to say. "But he won't wake up, Neets, and I can't hear him." She blushed at the look her sister gave her at that, but pushed on. "It's not like he's asleep, or refusing contact. It feels more like there's nobody there to accept it."

Nita thought for a moment. "Ok. I'm gonna call Kit, and we'll go see if Tom and Carl can help. Will you be ok keeping an eye on Roshaun until we get back?" She caught Dairine's nod of agreement as she went back to her room to get dressed. Kit?, she asked silently. All she heard was the low murmur of sleep. Not surprising, she thought to herself, glancing at the clock. It wasn't even 5 am. KIT!, she yelled, suppressing a feeling of guilt at waking him up so early.

Wha… Nita? The response from Kit was barely coherent, but by the time she had managed to find her shoes, Kit was awake and taking in the details so far rather blearily. Okay, he said, I'll be over in a couple of minutes and we can go wake up Tom and Carl. I hope your dad is making a whole bunch of coffee. Nit laughed a little to herself at that, and went downstairs to find out.

She glanced into Dairine's bedroom on the way down. Dairine had managed to get Roshaun straightened out and laid a light blanket over him. She had her desk chair pulled up next to the bed, and she sat watching the slow rise and fall of his chest, just barely touching his hand with one of her own. Nita looked away and hurried down the stairs.