Chapter Ten

"Spencer?" Ivy spoke again. When she had first called Reid's name, her voice was tentative and worried. Now the worry was more pronounced and the Australian woman spoke more firmly as Reid's silence continued. "I'm coming in." Reid closed his eyes as the door opened. He heard Ivy's quiet steps across the wooden floor and felt her slim body make an indent in the sheets when she sat across from him. He tried to close his eyes and banish the dream of Maeve from his mind – the sad and angry Maeve that he hadn't known – but the memory remained.

"Spencer?" Reid open his eyes and saw Ivy looking at him, her expression concerned. "I heard you sobbing from your room, and I thought I would come in and check on you." Her eyes did not waver when the young genius' swollen eyes met her own. "I'm sorry," she whispered.

"For what?" Reid whispered. His voice was hoarse and barely audible. He wasn't aware of Ivy reaching for his hand. He only felt numbness when Ivy spoke the words that he was afraid to speak himself.

"You dreamt of Maeve." Reid's breath hitched at the sound of his girlfriend's name. The young genius tried to look away, but Ivy's knowing stare did not leave him. "She was angry at you. She said that you had forgotten her, and that you were falling in love with another." Reid swallowed and felt his chest tighten. "I…only know this because I had the same dream two nights ago." Ivy's voice was calm and soothing, as if she was speaking about another person and not herself. "Oliver was angry with me…for forgetting him." Tears were streaking down her face. "He wanted me to mourn him forever and forget you." Reid felt Ivy's hand squeeze his. "My heart was shaken so badly after that dream, even though the Oliver I knew would never say that." Ivy bit her lip and closed her dark blue eyes for a second. "My Oliver would have wanted me to be happy and move on from his death." With her other hand, Ivy wiped away her tears as Reid's tears kept flowing. She held his hand gently. "It's okay to cry, Spencer."

At that moment the self-control the brown haired man had shattered into little tiny pieces. He hung his head, aware that his tears were soaking the sheets. He clutched his pianist-like hands into the sheets, making them white. Vaguely Reid heard Ivy calling his name. Or was it Maeve? Reid kept hearing both voices in his head, kept on hearing the gunshot that took his first love's life, and sobbed. His skinny body stared rocking back and forth, but the tears kept on coming. Reid was startled for a moment when he felt Ivy's warm arms encircle his body, but he calmed down slightly as moments passed. He felt Ivy's hands run through his hair. That was something his mother had done sometimes.

"I'm not weak," he muttered into Ivy's neck. "I'm not weak."

"Of course you're not," Ivy said. Ivy continued to stroke his hair. Her sweet breath entered his ear as she whispered into it. "You were never weak, Spencer. You're just healing…just like me." Reid continued to feel her sweet breath against him as they quieted. Suddenly the terrible memory of Maeve faded. Reid continued to calm and his heartbeat steadied as Ivy continued to embrace him.

"Long ago, there was a young girl named Li-Juan Wei. She had survived the horrifying eight years of war, and was free of Japanese captivity. She counted on being reunited with her family and starting a new life." Reid didn't make a sound as Ivy spoke. Emotion was bubbling in her voice. "However, only her father survived the war. Her mother, older brother, and little sister died in the prison camps. Her father wouldn't acknowledge her. She was died in his eyes; her honor had been broken." Ivy took a deep breath and continued. "The young girl wandered around the county side for a few days before she was found, nearly dead, by an old woman. Li-Juan wakes to find herself being taken care of by a tattered young man. She thanks him for what he has done, and tells him that she will do whatever he asks her to do in repayment for saving her life. But Li-Juan finds out too late that the young man who saved her is named Yoshiro Takashiro. Ever since she came from the Japanese camps, broken and scarred, she has hated the Japanese for what they did to her and her people. But her vow has been made, and Li-Juan has to follow Yoshiro to help people whoever need his help. That is what he asked her to do."

Ivy fell silent after that. Reid noticed that her blue eyes blinked every few seconds, and she was holding him tightly. Her face was white as snow, and her lips had broken veins from her teeth biting into them. "What happened next?" Reid whispered.

"Against her will, Li-Juan slowly falls in love with the former Japanese soldier. He tells her many of his secrets over the year they are together travelling the country side, including telling her that he tried to live back home but couldn't. His passed actions in the war haunted him, and so he decided to face his nightmares and arrived in China. Redemption was the only way the hole in his broken heart could heal. Yoshiro and Li-Juan start to become closer, and one night Yoshiro confesses that he loves Li-Juan too. Under the stars in the summer wind, they make love. Later the two hear of rumors of the Nationalist Army becoming defeated by Mao Tsu-tung, and decide that it is time for Yoshiro to return to Japan. Li-Juan wants to go with him, and after a heated argument, he agrees." Ivy swallowed and Reid felt her tears trickle down his face. He looked at Ivy to see her face marred with emotional pain. "But only days later, Yoshiro is killed by a mob of survivors from the camps. It has been a year since the war ended, and they took out their anger and hatred at the only person who reminded them of their agony. He dies in Li-Juan's arms, and Li-Juan goes on a ship set for Japan alone." Ivy sighed from deep in her chest, and she embraced him again. Her tears soaked through his curly hair. "In the epilogue, Li-Juan is shown walking with her young son ten years after the war. The son wonders asks what the war was about, and Li-Juan tells the boy of the war and of how she met his father."

"That was Oliver's book, wasn't it?" Reid asked. He spoke quietly. "The one that got him killed?" Ivy nodded. Suddenly she started to stroke his hair again and smiled at him, tears running down her cheeks.

"It was such a good book," Ivy muttered. "It won so many awards. But that book was the last one Oliver would ever write, because a month after it was published, he was killed by one of his fans. I was the one who suggested the ending." Ivy shook her head. "I was the one who suggested that Yoshiro should die. He liked the idea…and that got him killed." Ivy shook, and her arms fell from Reid. She looked at him, and Reid saw the same haunted expression he had when he met her for the first time. "I tell myself that it wasn't my fault that Oliver died...but I still hear his death rattle in my head." Reid took Ivy's hand in his, and gently squeezed it. Ivy seemed to calm slightly. "I know this is how you feel about Maeve…and I sometimes wonder if we'll be able to purely love each other without thinking about the person who captured our heart first."

Silently Reid and Ivy lied on the bed; Ivy's head rested against Reid's chest, and he ran his slim fingers through her lovely hair. "It has been said that time heals all wounds. I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone." Reid felt Ivy become still against him. "They will never be gone, Ivy. Oliver…and Maeve will always be in our minds. They will always be with us. All I know…is that our loves would be happy to know we found happiness again." He tasted his tears. "I love you, Ivy." The words came easily out of his mouth so smoothly. The words he wanted to say to Maeve so much were uttered softly, as if he feared that spirits would take Ivy too if he uttered the words to loudly. He felt Ivy's sweet breath against his cheek and felt her nuzzle against his neck.

"I love you too, Spencer."

The words made both of them smile, and embraced in their own happiness, the two fell into an exhausted and dreamless sleep.