Allo, chikadees. You're still reading, eh? Glad to see it. OK… so have we figured out who the prisoner is? Yes? No? FINE, don't answer! Ell-oh-ell. Let us see where this chapter takes us, shall we?
Gaia smiled. "Sam!" Then she frowned. "Sam… they got you, too?"
"Yeah… but maybe it won't be so bad now that you're here." He smiled nervously, looking almost hopeful. It was kind of adorable.
"Of course, we could just escape," she suggested.
"You say that like it's simple."
"Well…" Gaia said apologetically. She walked over to the barred wall and looked out to make sure no one was around. There was a vast amount of space between the bars… just enough that someone the size of Gaia could, with some effort, squeeze through. She tried it and succeeded in under half a minute.
Sam's jaw dropped. "You could've done that any time?"
"Probably…"
"Then why didn't you before?" he asked incredulously.
Gaia smiled slightly and shrugged. "No reason to, I guess…"
"That's awesome… I don't think I could slip through, though. I'm sorry."
"It's OK," Gaia assured him, having picked the easy lock on the door ten seconds since. "Well, as for who's done this, I think we can safely rule out Loki… or any member of my family, for that matter. This was an amateur. I've seen crack dens with tighter security."
"Wow! Thanks, Gaia! You have no idea how glad I am you were here."
Gaia smiled shyly. "Likewise."
Sam ran out of the cell and hugged her. Then he recoiled, embarrassed. "Sorry…"
"No problem," she reassured him, meaning it.
"Now how do we get past the guards?"
"Shouldn't be too hard. The amateur forgot to confiscate my .45."
"You carry a gun?" He sounded shocked.
"Well, I have to, now."
"Oh… So do you have any idea why we're here?"
"None whatsoever."
"How'd they get you, if you had a gun?"
Gaia looked down. She hadn't actually said these words yet, as she hadn't actually spoken to anyone since she'd gotten in. "Ed betrayed me."
"No!"
She laughed mirthlessly. "Yes."
"I'm sorry, Gaia. I always knew he was bad news." At Gaia's raised eyebrow, he added: "Well, for me, anyway."
Gaia considered laughing, but it wasn't that funny. So she was silent. At any moment she half-expected him to say "so you're single now, eh?" He didn't. They got all the way out without passing a single guard. This was getting ridiculous. Could the entire point possibly have been Ed's betrayal? To show her she couldn't trust anyone? Well, it wouldn't work, then. "Sam," Gaia said suddenly, once they were outside. "Can I trust you?"
"Of course. For what?"
"Nothing… I just… need someone to trust."
"Gaia, you can trust me to the end of the earth." This was surprisingly reassuring, actually. Out of nowhere, he gave her a hug. She didn't pull away immediately because it was… comforting… Maybe whoever wrote the ridiculous book that was her life had decided to have some pity on her. Maybe she could get over Ed eventually? Well, that could be a long-term goal. A very, very long-term goal. "Gaia," Sam suddenly cut into her thoughts. "You know… when I tried to start a new life without you… That didn't work."
"Yeah… I'm sorry about the whole getting-kidnapped-again thing…"
"No, I mean, not like that… Well, yeah, that kind of sucked too, but I mean… I can't… forget about you. I haven't stopped thinking about you since… well, since we met, really."
"I—I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For ruining your life."
"You didn't—well, I mean… no hard feelings about that. But what I mean is… I mean, I didn't think I'd see you again, but now I have I know…"
Gaia tried to be patient. "Yes?"
"That I still love you, Gaia."
There was an awkward silence, and Gaia noticed for the first time that they'd been walking down the road. "Where are we going?"
"I don't know, we're bound to hit a city sometime… or hitchhike… or something…" he hoped… with no real optimism.
"Right… I hope…"
"Yeah…" They were clearly skirting the subject of the L-word. Gaia considered this. Did she love him? She certainly had once loved him… yes, they'd broken up, and she'd realized how madly in love she was with Ed, but look how that had turned out. She still had feelings for Sam. That was undeniable. And she'd known somewhere that he still had feelings for her. Being just-friends hadn't worked out… Maybe… Maybe she still had a shot at happiness… Sam had already been through about the worst anyone could go through because of her… and he still loved her. Was she ready to trust anyone yet? It couldn't have been more than a day since the one man she'd always trusted had almost killed her. The sun was just climbing in the sky; it couldn't yet have been noon. Could she really trust someone again? But the better question was… Could she not? Could she possibly survive her impossible life without taking a risk and trusting someone? And after this huge treachery, didn't she need support even sooner? But how did she know she could trust Sam?
She weighed out the pros and cons. Pro: She needed to trust someone. Con: He might betray her. Pro: Who was more trustworthy than someone who had already suffered through as much as Sam had? Con: What if it had made him hate her? Pro: She could easily believe he loved her. Con: She'd really believed Ed had loved her, too. Pro: Who else was there?
Maybe Sam was worth the risk… "Sam?"
"Uh-huh?"
"I think maybe… I think I… I might…" She closed her eyes for a second. Here she went, risking everything again. And now she was scared. She was scared to death. But he probably had been too, of course. And he had more to lose. He wasn't constantly in danger without her. But he'd managed. So she could too…
"Gaia? Are you OK?"
"Yeah… I just…" She forced herself. "I love you too." When she could manage to look at his face, he looked so purely, almost innocently happy. And he was looking at her like… like he was really… in love. No one said anything. He seemed to be comfortable in the silence, but she wasn't. Luckily, a distraction presented itself. "Hey, I see a city up there!" It wasn't actually on the road; it was in the near distance on the side of the road.
"I—great! I've still got my phone, I think; we just have to ask where we are!" The first person they found, they asked where they were. It turned out that the street they'd been walking on was Crest Drive. What had appeared to be the middle of nowhere had actually just been a loop-de-loop on a road that was actually quite close to Maplewood. Sam called a friend from his new, Gaia-less life she knew nothing about (except, apparently, that it was a failure) and they waited. Sam was still looking at her. And she found that it was… well, less and less unpleasant. He kept moving closer and closer to her. Was she really going to—yes, apparently she was. And had. This was a long way from curled-up in a cell with a gun pointed to her as Ed— Ed. She really hadn't been away from Ed for long, and now this? But then, she hadn't waited long after Sam to get together with Ed… And anyway, he hadn't really loved her. She'd thought he had, but it seemed he hadn't. It was so… nice, kissing Sam… to feel that someone, someone still loved her. It was nice.
Alright, chiclets, I wasn't planning to end the chapter there… but that's where it ended, and I think 4 pages is enough for you to chew on. Jeez, it was hard to get them to do what I wanted them to. I had to make Gaia soliloquize for, like, ever. Seriously, with the dialogue, the thing is 1,236 words! And without, it's still 850 words. Err… I have too much time on my hands. Sorry. OK, so I'm finishing this up and the date is 12/27/05, but I shan't post it until I get a satisfactory number of reviews. But I shan't make you wait like I do for my mediator readers, because that story is my baby. So I have a certain amount of time OR a certain number of reviews… whichever comes first. So review, pretty, pretty please. I promise a reply to EVERY signed review. And if you leave a pen name or e-mail in an anon review, I'll reply to that as well. And if you're reading this when chapters 3 or greater are up, it doesn't hurt to review this one as well… I love that review flood of people who have gotten behind but then suddenly send in like 1 review on each chapter… it's happy.
