Chapter Ten

It all had to be a bad dream. That was the only plausible explanation for the events of the past twenty four hours. One long, drawn out, hyper-realistic bad dream. No, more like a nightmare. Any moment now, now that she had come to this realization, Aislinn would awake to the sound of the phone ringing and her sister berating her for sleeping in so late.

The phone was ringing. See? She told herself, there's Maggie now, ringing and spreading good will to me... but there was something not quite right with that thought, and Aislinn still couldn't pinpoint it. Slowly her mind started to acknowledge sounds other than the ringing phone, she really should answer that...

Then somebody else did. Someone decidedly male. Someone who was decidedly not supposed to be in humble home. Consciousness pushed itself quickly to the surface of her thoughts and her eyes opened. She blinked, blearily, trying to register something familiar, but the problem was, nothing was familiar. Not the sights, not the smells, not the feelings of her bed in her home. Growing more alarmed as she grew more aware, Aislinn pushed herself upright from her sleeping position, surprised to find herself in a room that was not alone.

I've been fucking KIDNAPPED!

But that wasn't right either.

The covers lay piled in her lap as she sat there, staring around the dimly lit room. Definitely not her kind of interior decorating. The ceiling and walls were cracked and water-stained, the paint chipped and peeling in some places. Turning her head, she saw her duffel unceremoniously crowning a pile of clothes in one corner. She closed her eyes again, trying to piece together what the hell was going on. She heard footsteps and voices coming, and panic flooded through her. She clutched the covers up to her chest, heart pounding, as she debated what to do as the doorknob turned.

Fuck!

And finally, something familiar; or more precisely, someone familiar. Connor's face peered through the open door, and he smiled a bit as he saw Aislinn sitting up in bed.

'Afternoon. I was beginning to wonder if you'd ever wake up.'

Aislinn managed a quavery smile and relaxed a little. She wanted to say something but the only thing that came out was a quiet 'Ummmm...'

Connor came fully into the room and closed the door behind him. Aislinn saw that he held a cup of steaming tea and he proffered it to her like an embarrassed child. 'Tea?'

'Thank you.' she managed this time and gratefully took the cup of brew from him. Connor gingerly came to sit on the mattress and faced her as she took a sip. It was strong, and she smirked a little, thinking about how much Maggie would hate it.

And then it hit her.

'Oh, God!' She managed to just barely keep the tea cup from spilling into her lap as Connor watched her go from relaxed to completely tensed again. Carefully, he moved closer to her on the mattress and carefully took the tea from her hands, setting it on the floor next to the bed. Tears began to well in Aislinn's eyes as the realization of what she wrongly took as a bad dream was really what had taken place. Everything flooded back in vivid detail, and she felt the pain that she'd forgotten in her hand. 'I killed Ryan, didn't I?' she whispered to Connor, looking down at her hands, then back up at him.

'Aye.' he confirmed.

'And he was going to kill you. You came to my apartment last night. You... You had been shot, and Ryan came this morning and broke in, and... oh, God, oh, God, oh, God, ohgodohgodohgod...' She choked out a sob and buried her face in her hands. Connor gently pulled her to him, holding her and stroking her hair.

'Aislinn, shhhh... Aislinn, you did right this morning, you did nothing wrong. Nothing. If you hadn't shot Ryan he'd've killed me, and then he'd've killed you...' he paused, taking a deep breath, realizing something that completely horrified him. 'Or worse.' Connor finished. 'You did what you had to do.' He held her tighter, reliving the events just as she was. He was oblivious as footsteps pounded down the hallway outside.

Connor's head jerked up as the door burst open, being greeted with a loud 'Connor, wha' the fuck?!' Aislinn's head also snapped up and around to see who the intruder was. 'Awww, its your girlfriend!' crowed the intruder. 'Da! Come quick! Connor's got his girlfriend here!'

'Murph, shut the fuck up!' Connor yelled, grabbing around on the mattress for something to throw, but it was a moot point as Murphy ducked back out, leaving the door open, his voice bouncing down the hall as he again announced that Connor had his 'girlfriend' here. 'My brother.' he explained helplessly. Aislinn laughed through her tears. 'I remember him from church. He laughed at me.' The relative solitude didn't last long as Murph bounded back into the room, and with a showman's flair, presented his father to the pair.

'Connor...' Da MacManus began, but trailed off into silence as his eyes met with Aislinn's. Silence blanketed the room as Aislinn stared at Da, her mouth agape for several moments before she closed it, then opened it again. Connor felt her squeeze his hand, hard, and he in turn stared at her as well. When she finally spoke the only word that came out was 'You.'

And in much surprise to everyone, including himself, the eldest MacManus answered with a quiet 'Aye.' Another silence settled on them until Murphy broke it, pointing at Aislinn and staring at his father. 'You know her?'

'Aye, I do. We met a long time ago.' A fatherly smile crossed his worn face. 'You've grown up.' He told her. Aislinn straightened a bit and managed a smile in return. 'I have, and you've stayed the same.'

'Not quite, dear.'

Connor recovered his voice now and shook his head. 'Someone mind explanin' what is going on here?'

Aislinn sighed, and met Connor's gaze. 'Its a long story...'

.-.-.-.