AN: A thousand thanks to everyone that took the time to leave me a review. To show my thanks, I present you chapter 3. Drop me a line and tell me what you think this time and there will surely be more to come as quickly as possible (:
III.
Sarah wished more anything her heart hadn't seized in her chest before breaking into a rapid tattoo at Cassie's announcement. Here she was in another man's arms, yet the reaction had been instinctual and instantaneous . The unreasonable hope would be there forever whether she liked it or not. What would she would possibly do if it was him...
It's not him.
It's not him.
It's not him.
Sighing, she released her grip on Kyle's shirt. "You order, and I'll go see what this about, but tonight you're alllll mine."
"Promise?"
"I'm a woman of my word."
Giving him a playful if not slightly forced little wink, Sarah turned and took a deep breath to ground herself. She lifted her head high and made her way out of the kitchen. She was just being silly. It was probably some desperate groom in search of cheap labor or something.
It's not him.
It's not him.
It's not him.
"How can I help..."
It wasn't John, but it was close enough.
"Sarah," Sam nodded at her in greeting. "Can I uh..come in?"
Cassie glared at him, looking too Sarah to gauge her reaction. The gasping fish stranded on land look was enough of an answer for the other girl. "Dude I think you need to leave."
"No!" Sarah nearly shouted, rushing towards the boy she hadn't seen in so many years. "Please, come in! We were just about to order dinner actually. You should stay! Anything you want. It's on me."
Sam smiled awkwardly and nodded again, shuffling past a still glaring Cassie.
"Um," Sarah scrambled for words. Looking around frantically for a way start, she took the safest route possible. "This is my roommate Cassie, and her boyfriend Luke."
"Is everything alright?"
Sarah froze at Kyle's question. Sam looked at her almost expectantly. "Yeah hun, everything is fine. Sam, this is Kyle...my boyfriend."
Sam's smile didn't reach his eyes. "It's nice to meet you all."
"So how about dinner?"
"Listen Sarah, that sounds great and all but this is a little more important than takeout. It's about John."
The sharpness in his voice took her by surprise. Taking a good look at Sam, it was suddenly clear he was hardly the nerdy little boy that had driven off into the unknown five years ago. He was taller and broader now, but most noticeably his eyes were icy and hard instead of bright and inquisitive like they had used to be.
"Oh."
She was going to have a heart attack. Her skin vibrated violently as it tightened around her bones. Suddenly it was suffocating her. Of course this was about John. A selfish part of her wanted Sam to just disappear. That part of her didn't want to know, not now that she was finally forming some semblance of a life again. But she would never turn him away. If John needed her it wasn't even a question of what she would do.
And if he was dead, she could finally put him to rest.
"Yeah, oh," Sam laughed bitterly. "Sorry to interrupt your little dinner party and all, but this is important."
"Of course," Sarah whispered numbly in return. "Let's, um..."
Looking around, she finally realized all eyes were on them. The looks she received ranged from the worry on Kyle's face, to curiosity on Luke's, to the suspicion on Cassie's. "We can talk in the bedroom."
Kyle and Cassie both looked they wanted to protest. Sarah shot her boyfriend a pleading look to understand, and glared briefly in warning at her best friend. The girl would probably be holding a glass to the door the second it closed behind them.
"Great."
The hallway to her bedroom was short, but Sarah felt like she was walking down an endless row of prison cells to her execution. Sam moved stiffly but efficiently beside her. He wasted no time throwing open the door when she stopped hesitantly beside and nearly shoved her in.
"How...how have you been?" she asked, ignoring his gruff treatment.
How is John?
"I've been just peachy Sarah," he bit out sarcastically. "I see you're doing pretty well for yourself too."
"Sam..."
"Look, I know it's been a long time and it's none of my business. It's not important right now either way. John needs you Sarah."
Her breath hitching in her chest, she managed to squeak out, "Oh."
"You're full of poetical magic tonight aren't you?"
"Excuse me if this all comes as a little bit of a shock."
"I'm sorry," Sam sighed after they glared at each other for a long, uncomfortable second. "John really needs your help."
"Anything," she whispered, staring down at her shaking hands. "Just name it and I'll do it."
"Your boyfriend probably isn't going to like it."
Looking up at him in surprise, Sarah snapped. "He'll get over it. I said anything Sam. I mean it."
His eyes softened at her tone. She knew she must have looked half crazed standing there with wide misty eyes and shaking knees. "He...he isn't well Sarah."
"But he's alive."
"I suppose you could say that."
"What the hell does mean? Where is he? Why didn't he come himself? What..."
"We did it, you know," Sam told her suddenly. His voice was emotionless to the point that it startled Sarah. "John and Six found the rest of them. It took years, but we did it. Years worth of fighting off wave after fucking wave of Mogadorians. Not...not everyone made it."
He stopped to take a deep breath for composure before continuing gravely. "Number Eight fell in South Africa during a particularly nasty run in. Number Seven didn't make it through the grand finale in Australia...It's been a long, bloody ride Sarah."
"Did you find your father?" Sarah asked him softly.
Sam's eyes turned cold again. "He wasn't as lucky as I am."
"I'm so sorry..."
Nodding sharply in acknowledgment, he shrugged. "There are more important things to worry about right now."
"John..."
"He's alive, but if you want the truth it probably would have been better if he wasn't. He's not right Sarah. They did something to him. They tortured him, fucked with his head until they drove him insane. He's just...not right."
At first the words coming out of Sam's mouth just didn't process in her brain. She heard them, knew the meaning of them, but together they didn't make any sense. Her entire body had gone completely numb in disbelief.
"Sarah? Are you okay?"
Eyelids fluttering shut, a violent sob broke out of Sarah's throat. She had no idea where it came from but once they had started there was no stopping the tears. Suddenly she was filled with such self hatred that it nearly brought her to her knees. Here she had been all of this time tucked safely away in her little corner of Ohio cursing him for leaving her. All the while he had watched the last of his kind die and endured torture so great it had made him lose his mind. Gasping for breath through the tears, she collapsed back against her bed and let it all pour out.
The bed dipped next to her as Sam carefully sat down. He placed an unsure, but comforting hand on shoulder. "He usually doesn't say much when he's conscious, but he screams for you at night. We think..."
"Oh god!" Sarah cut him off with a sob that shook her entire body. The dam had broken and now all of her regrets were spilling from her mouth in an incoherent flood."How could I?" How fucking could I Sam? Here I am telling myself I need to move on. He's not coming back. He forgot all about you. But really? Ohmygod."
"Sarah listen to me."
"I saw them that night. I had nightmares for so long about those monsters, but really they were nothing but dreams. I don't...I can't imagine...What did they do to him?"
"Sarah! You need to listen to me!"
It took a hard shake to finally snap her out of her hysterical state. Sam stared at her gravely as she sniffled and wiped her nose on the back of her hand. "I can't promise it will work, but the rest of us think that maybe you can bring him back. Everything else we've tried has failed. All he knows anymore is you, and you're his last hope."
"Where is he is?"
Looking away, Sam admitted slowly. "Not far. He's..."
Sam never got a chance to finish. Suddenly a terrible crash that nearly shook the entire apartment tore through the tiny space. They both jumped to their feet and flew from the bedroom at the sound. Sarah was so startled she nearly missed Sam's resigned sigh. At that moment she knew without a doubt.
The first thing she saw as she rounded the corner into her living room was Number Six all dressed in leather exactly like the last time she had seen her. With her hands firmly planted on her hips, she rolled her eyes when she saw Sarah. "I tried to stop him. So sorry about your door, love."
Sarah barely heard her. She barely took in the fact that the door to their apartment had been ripped from its hinges and now laid across their shattered coffee table. She didn't hear Cassie screaming obscenities or Kyle demanding to know what was going on and who these were.
Everything else cease to exist the moment her eyes landed on John Smith.
For a second Sarah was unsure if he could see her. He stared directly back but his eyes were wild and unfocused. His shoulders shook slightly, his fists clenched tightly at his sides. His chest heaved with breaths so deep she wasn't sure that they weren't what was making his body shake.
"John."
Then there was a moment of clarity that flashed through his eyes. It was so brief Sarah might have imagined it all together. Either way, for just a second he was the beautiful boy she had known so long ago. His hair was slightly longer now. The locks where tangled and wild like the rest of him. He had been aged by both time and hardship. There were dark circles under his eyes, and his mouth was twisted into a scowl. She wanted nothing more than to brush his unkempt hair back from his face and smooth away his grimace with her fingertips.
Instead she stood frozen.
"This is a truly touching moment and all," Six's voice broke through the fog. "But maybe we should consider doing a spot of damage control? Johnny boy here did just rip a door off its hinges with his bare hands and throw it across the room. I'm sure no one noticed."
"Damage control?" Cassie shrieked at the deadly woman. "Fuck that! I'm calling the police right now to have them cart is happy ass all the way to the mental ward!"
"Mmm, how quaint. It barks. Sarah, do me a favor and shut your bitch up before I have to smack her on the nose with the newspaper."
"Excuse me?"
"Cassie, shut up. Just shut the hell up."
Cassie balked at Sarah's words. "You should watch yourself too! What the fuck is going on Sarah?"
Sarah nearly broke into hysterical laughter at the question. Where did she even begin to answer that?
"Come along then. I think the two lovebirds need a moment to catch up. Why don't we find a cozy little place and I'll tell you all about it," Six surprisingly came to her rescue as she smiled at her friends with fake saccharine sweetness. "Be a dear and get that door for me Sam?"
Kyle looked between her and a stock still John with a furrowed brow. Sarah was reluctant to let him go with Six, not knowing what she was going to say about her past relationship, but she didn't have much of a choice at the moment.
"You trust me don't you?"
"Of course I do, but Sarah..."
"Please. Just go and listen to them? It's one hell of a story."
"So he's the reason then, huh?"
"The reason for what?"
"That I can't have all of you."
"Now isn't the time to do this Kyle."
"Right," he laughed bitterly as he ran a hand through his hair sheepishly. "You do what you have to do. Don't let me stop you."
"That's not fair."
"Yeah, well neither of leading me on all this time."
"I didn't lead you on! I didn't...god, I don't know how to even begin to explain any of this. Please just go with her for now?"
Kyle moved to take a step closer to her. John was in between them before either could blink, forcing her behind him and barring his teeth at the perceived threat. Even Cassie's bitching was silenced at the move.
"What the fuck are you?"
"I've got plenty of more magic tricks to show you kiddies," Six promised with a smirk. "But this show is over. Move a long."
Sarah watched as they all reluctantly filed down the hallway after Six and Sam. Kyle looked back other his shoulder and gave her a look that had nearly ripped her heart from her chest. The last thing in the world she had ever wanted was to hurt him, but it seemed it couldn't be avoided. There was nothing she wouldn't have done if it meant helping the man in front of her.
"Hey, it's okay," she whispered soothingly. Lifting a delicate hand, Sarah hesitated. Though he stood so close in front of her they might as well have been pressed together, an inch or two still separated their bodies. She was unsure of how he would react to her touch. "Can you hear me?"
When she received no response, Sarah decided to throw caution to the wind. She gently placed her hand on his stiff shoulder and tried again. "John?"
The contact seemed to spark something in him. His next movement was so quick that Sarah couldn't hold in the gasp that rose in her throat. John whipped around to stare down at her, his hands rising to gently grasp her arms.
"Sarah."
