Chapter Thirteen – "Leaps of Faith"
Previously: Doctor Who appeared in Zendall's latest dream, offering to help them find each other and Spike. To restore them to the reality they were snatched away from by some villain or other, the Doctor has invited them aboard his time machine, the Tardis. Or, more accurately, a dream version of his time machine, the Tardis. The Doctor has told Zendall his theory that they had been programmed not to remember each other.
--
A cold chill ran down Zendall's spines.
"In my opinion, the breach didn't necessarily happen in Las Vegas. Kendall, Las Vegas stands out in your mind because people have told you that you met Zach there, and you can't understand why you don't have that memory. But the reason is obvious. You've been expunged from each other's minds. The Kendall whose life you took over, did in fact meet Zach there. Since you were programmed to have no memories of Zach whatsoever, you couldn't remember that. But not remembering what everybody else around you remembered made you begin to question whether the dreams you were having were only dreams. So we know that whoever did this to you two is far from infallible. Which, in a situation like this, is always good to know."
"So in the realities we were sent into, we took over our characters' lives," Zach tried to understand. "They existed before we ever got there?"
The Doctor smiled. "And they will exist long after you two leave for your own reality. Of course, they may have a few gaps in their memory, depending upon how long you two led their lives."
A gigantic weight rolled off of Kendall's heart.
"So Ryan won't be alone when I leave him for Zach!" she concluded. "And Zach when you escape with me back into our reality, Dixie will have a version of you in her life to keep torturing!"
The Doctor, although perfectly enchanted with Kendall, got back to business.
"What's the last thing you two remember of your shared existence? Whatever it was, the breach must have happened then and there. Or shortly after then and there."
"We were buying a house," Kendall recalled. "But Zach didn't want it."
Zach nodded. "I remember that. But I don't remember why I didn't want it."
There was something else Kendall wanted the Doctor's view on. Desperately.
"In the world Zach and I shared, I've recently remembered that another man and I had a baby. But in Zach's recollection, he's Spike's father. Could that have anything to do with what happened to us?"
"Possibly," the Doctor said. "Is there any other anomaly in either of your memories?"
"I keep saying the same phrase again and again, day after day," Zach fully realized for the first time. "I have everything --"
"I've ever dreamed of," Kendall finished. "I say that all the time."
"Conditioning device," the Doctor told them. "Somebody implanted that thought in both of your minds as a memory block to keep you from suspecting the truth. Unless, of course, either of you in fact does have everything you ever dreamed of."
"Only when we're dreaming," Kendall answered.
"Only when we're dreaming," Zach affirmed. "About each other."
"And when did the dreams begin?" asked the Doctor.
"Weeks ago," Kendall replied. "I think it was weeks ago. At first, I couldn't remember the dreams when I woke up. At least not completely. But night after night, dream after dream, I began recalling more of it the next morning."
"And then we began remembering the reality we once shared," Zach continued.
The Doctor nodded in understanding. "The conditioning has been wearing off. That's why you began dreaming of each other in the first place. Although that you actually meet each other in dreams astounds me! Tell me, how did you come to suspect you were having identical dreams and that you each existed outside of those dreams?"
Kendall was sure of when that had happened. "One night after I woke up, Zach was outside of my window. He had followed me out of his dream."
"I wasn't there long," Zach confirmed. "But I was there."
The Doctor was fascinated. "Apparently, you two have such an indestructible bond, you can spontaneously bridge dimensions of time and space in order to be together. I personally have never encountered such a thing, and believe you me there's precious little I haven't encountered in my nine hundred years. You two have a remarkable connection!"
Kendall giggled and Zach grinned.
"Hey Handsome, what do you know? We're unique!"
"Right then, we're all set," the Doctor said, leading the way to the Tardis' control module, which in the dream greatly resembled a huge purple and orange remote control. "All I need to do is set the Tardis' coordinates to match your time signatures which I've recorded here on my sonic screwdriver, and whoosh you're back home to the point directly before you were snatched away, which according to you would be when you were looking at the house Zach didn't want. Child's play."
Kendall had some difficulty with that concept. "But we're not actually in your time machine. We're in a dream of your time machine. How can we be wooshed to our real reality?"
"Now who's having trouble believing?" Zach asked archly.
"It's a legitimate point," the Doctor said in all fairness. "But Kendall, if this weren't a dream, how could you take over the lives of your counterparts? You're going back into your pasts, just before the breach, where both of you already exist."
Zendall exchanged glances.
"How can we do that?" she asked. "How can that happen?"
The Doctor was too busy setting controls to answer immediately.
"Doctor," Zach repeated, "How can we enter a world we're already living in?"
The Doctor stopped fiddling with the dials and looked up, a blissful expression on is face. "You'll simply wake up, dear hearts. You'll simply wake up!"
At which point, the Doctor pressed "SELECT", and a wave of sound that can only be described as a WHOOSH rocked the Tardis, throwing them all off balance.
"Doctor, are you positive that Zach and I will wake up together?" Kendall asked for the both of them, as they hung onto each other for dear life while the Tardis shook, rattled and rolled. "In the same world? In our Pine Valley? With our Spike?"
The Doctor, hugging his control panel and, still checking his gauges and monitors, nodded absently. "Absolutely certain. In all likelihood, you'll be in the same reality."
Kendall blinked. "In all likelihood?" she repeated hollowly.
"What happened to absolutely certain?" Zach demanded.
The Doctor had a question of his own.
"What happened to Leaps of Faith?"
Zendall hung onto each other as the Tardis continued to pitch. "Wherever we wind up, we can still have our dreams," Kendall said solemnly to her soul mate, who quickly nodded in agreement and held her even tighter.
"Not so sure about that," the Doctor said, comparing the readings on his sonic screwdriver with the time coordinates he had set. "If you two don't wake up in the same reality, you may forget you ever knew each other."
"WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL US THAT BEFORE YOU –?"
--
Kendall woke up in her own bed, in her own bedroom, in her own condo. Nobody was lying next to her, but that side of the bed definitely looked slept in.
"Who's been sleeping in my bed?" she asked herself idly.
Somebody was showering, the sound of the water must have been what woke her, she thought dully. Then she remembered. Then she panicked. "Doctor, please! Please don't have gotten this wrong!" What reality had she landed in? Who was in her bathroom? Zach? Ryan?
"Sweetheart, are you up yet?" came a booming male voice from the bathroom.
"More or less," Kendall answered, forcing her mouth to move. Who the hell's voice was that? It sounded familiar, but -- She heard footsteps padding her way and hardly had time to pray it was Zach before somebody ran in from the bathroom, threw off a bath towel and jumped into her bed.
"Morning, sleepyhead," JR greeted her happily. "Hungry?"
--
Uh-oh. Looks like Kendall didn't awaken in the same reality she was snatched away from. What reality is Zach in? Can they still at least dream of one another? Please come back again for the next thrilling installment when more questions will be asked than answered! You know. Like always!