Disclaimer: I only own the character Rachel White. All other characters are the property of some other lucky person.
AN: Sorry this took so long. Midterms and sicknesses take up much time, and in all honesty, I forgot that I never finished this. I did my best to fit the writing of the ending into my schedule and it looks like this can be finished by Thanksgiving. Anyway, sorry for the delay, and I hope you enjoy the next installment of this ongoing drama.
They walked up a flight of stairs to the fourth floor. Once there, Rachel walked down to room 407. She knocked and then pushed open the door.
"Open door policy. Isn't it great?" Rachel asked. Seeing that Willy did not understand, she let it go.
Inside the room was a man sitting at the one desk. Willy looked around at the drab room, and once again, asked himself why anyone would want to live here. Rachel walked over to the young man and started talking to him.
"Hey Jack. How's it going?" Rachel asked the man.
Willy noticed that Rachel sounded different. When she had visited the factory, she had an almost British accent. Now her tone was harsh and American. She was also dressed different. He remembered her wearing jeans and a t-shirt before, but now she wore it differently. She reminded him of all the other girls he had just seen on the campus.
"Things are great, Rachel. Course, I'm out of ink, so I had to use Andrea's printer. But hey, what are girlfriends for? So, who's the guy?" Jack asked, as he picked up the papers that he just printed out.
"This is Bill. He's a good friend of mine." Rachel said, turning to smile at Willy.
"Well, it's nice to meet you, Bill." Jack said, standing, and reaching to shake his hand. When Willy backed away with a look of disgust, Jack looked at Rachel for an answer.
"Germophobic. Doesn't like to be touched, hence the gloves." Rachel explained, pointing to Willy's purple gloves.
"Oh, hey, whatever. Anyway, you two want to go to dinner later with me and Andrea?" Jack asked.
"Sure. If we're up to it." Rachel said.
Jack then said good bye and left Willy and Rachel in the room alone. Rachel took off her backpack and set it on the desk. Then, turning to Willy, she smiled.
"Why did you call me Bill?" Willy asked.
"Because Willy is sort of an unusual name for a grown man. Anyway, Bill's just another nickname for William, just like Willy." Rachel explained.
"I know, but my name's not William."
"It's not?" Rachel asked.
"No, my real name is Willy. It's not short for anything."
"'Kay." Rachel said, a little confused. She then looked up into Willy's violet eyes and said, "I missed you."
"I missed you too. That's why I had to come get you." Willy said, stepping towards her.
"Willy, this isn't going to work..." Rachel started, but was cut off when Willy kissed her.
Rachel took a step back and fell onto the bed. Willy gently pushed her down, and then, breaking away from their kiss, he looked down at her.
"You're so beautiful." Willy said, as she smiled back at him.
Rachel put her arms around his neck to pull him down, closer to her.
"I love you, Willy." Rachel whispered in his ear.
Her voice made him shudder. Willy did not realize how much he actually missed her. Rachel unbuttoned his vest and shirt, sliding them off. Willy in turn slid her shirt up and over her head. He kissed her neck and slowly made his way down to her navel.
Rachel gently touched his face and brought it towards her. She kissed him again, but this time, he could feel her tongue slid into his mouth. It shocked him, but he liked it. Rachel wrapped her one leg around him, and Willy caressed her thigh.
There was no thought in what they did. Passion took over as they laid in each other's arms. Willy never wanted to let her go.
Unfortunately, a loud noise woke them from their trance. Lights were flashing, and Willy could hear noise outside the room.
"What is it?" Willy asked.
"Damn it! Fire alarm." Rachel said, rolling out of the bed.
She grabbed her shirt and pulled it on. Willy also found he shirt and followed her out the door. He ran his fingers through his hair as he looked back at the bed. Inside, Willy did not understand what had come over him. But as he looked to Rachel, he knew that she had felt it too.
Outside, Rachel led Willy away from the building and towards a brick wall. When they reached the wall, Rachel jumped up onto it and sat, facing the dorms.
"That's a horrible sound." Willy said, joining her on the wall.
"Yeah, it is. Someone probably just burnt some popcorn though. There's nothing to worry about." Rachel reassured.
"Rachel?"
"Yeah, Willy?" Rachel said, turning to him.
"I was just thinking, well, it came to mind earlier...that...you're different." Willy tried to explain.
"What do you mean?" Rachel asked with a laugh.
"You look different, and act different, and even sound different."
"Sound different?"
"Yes, when you visited my factory, you talked like the Buckets." Willy said.
Rachel understood what he now meant. She took it for granted that she changed so much, but she did not know quite how to explain it to Willy. She folded her legs under her and sat facing him. Rachel knew that she had to explain this to Willy carefully.
"Willy, I'm not British, I'm American. You know that." Rachel started.
"Yes, I know that. But there is so much more that changed."
"I know. I do this all the time. It's how I move from place to place. If you look around, you'll see that I look like every other girl here. Sometimes it's better not to be noticed. All you have to do is change what you wear, the dialect you use, and some of your actions, and you can go anywhere and be considered to be one of them."
"Why would you want to be one of them?"
"Because being an outsider is very hard. You should know that. And anyway, in a month or two, everyone that I met here will have forgotten I existed. Sometimes that is better." Rachel said, unable to look at him any longer.
"If you went back to the factory with me, you'd never be an outsider again."
"It's not that easy." Rachel said sharply, giving him a reproachful look.
This look stopped Willy from saying anything more. He was shocked, but he could see that Rachel regretted having said what she did.
"I'm sorry. Sometimes it's even hard for me to understand." Rachel apologized.
"I started it. But I love you still. Even if you talk like a regular American, and you look like a college girl, I still love you." Willy said, putting his arm around her.
"You're getting better about touching people, aren't you?"
"Not really, just people I care about." Willy said, inhaling her scent.
"There has to be a reason for you fear." Rachel said, pulling away.
"I don't know of one, off hand. But I might figure it out eventually." Willy answered.
"I can see that you have more questions on your mind." Rachel said, letting Willy put his arm back around her.
"How old are you?" Willy asked.
"What? That's not a very nice question to ask a lady." Rachel said, caught off guard.
"I'm sorry...I didn't..." Willy stuttered.
"I'm joking. I'm gonna be 29 in April."
"You don't look like it." Willy said.
"That's really nice of you to say, but I feel ancient. All this moving really does make you tired."
"Then come back with me." Willy pleaded again.
"I wish it was that simple. Willy, please understand. My journey is not yet over. They say that the first step is the start of any journey, but I have not yet come to my last step. There has to be a reason behind my need to move, just like there's a reason behind why you're afraid to touch. Maybe all I need is to find that reason. There is so much that I don't know about my past that would help me with this." Rachel said.
"Then I will help you find what you need to. And after we find that together, we will go back to my factory. And we'll be happy." Willy stated.
"Willy..." Rachel started, but was cut off.
"No, don't say anything. I made up my mind. Let's call this the first steps of our journey together. I can not let you do this by yourself. I love you too much to see you struggle alone." Willy said, and then leaned forward, kissing Rachel's forehead.
"Willy..." Rachel started again, as her voice trembled with approaching tears, but was once again cut off. This time by the voice of a girl.
"Hey, Rachel! There you are." Said a college girl, walking towards them.
"Oh, hi, Andrea." Rachel said as she successfully held back her tears.
"Jack told me about your friend coming to dinner with us." Andrea said as she looked at Willy with a sense of wonder.
"Yeah, this is Will. He's a very good friend of mine." Rachel said, turning to smile at Willy.
"Is he into punk or something? Or like Emo?" Andrea asked.
"Yes, I am." Willy said, shocking Rachel.
"Hey, whatever. So why don't we start over to J&H for dinner?" Andrea asked. Rachel agreed and followed her with Willy.
"Rachel." Willy whispered behind Andrea's back.
"What is it?" Asked Rachel, copying his tone.
"What is punk and Emo?" Willy asked. Rachel looked him in the eye before bursting out in laughter.
"Nevermind, Willy." Rachel said, throwing her arms around him. This was one of the reasons why she loved him so.
AN: Thanks for reading. I'm estimating three or four more posts, and this will be done. I hope you have enjoyed the story so far, and please, don't forget to review. Thanks for sticking with me for so long!