Chapter 26: Wedding Arrival

Two weeks had passed and it was time to leave for Jesse and Lexa's wedding. All of us had been staying in our own apartments that we shared with each other, only Adam lived alone not far from mine and Jeremy's. Shalimar was recovering well with Brennan's help; she did have a nasty looking scar and looked pretty bad for a few days after leaving the hospital. Jesse and Lexa even asked Shalimar if she wanted them to put it off for another week, but Shalimar insisted she'd be alright by the time of the wedding. Also I still hadn't told anyone about meeting Lisa, but I had almost mentioned something to Adam to see if he knew anything, of course I chickened out at the last moment.

I was packing, needing enough clothes to last me a week was a start. Our hotel was going to be on the beach so I had to pack a swimsuit and flip flops. I was going to ask Jeremy if he wanted help packing but he surprised me by saying he already had.

"When?" his bag was sitting there by the door.

"When you were in the shower…"

I thought back, "you packed in five minutes?"

Jeremy shrugged, "believe me…I've got packing down to a science."

I laughed, forgetting that Jeremy had done a lot of traveling through-out his life. "Man…I guess you should have packed my stuff. Too late now though, just got one more thing and I'm ready to get out of here." I went and grabbed my cell phone and charger, keeping the phone but packing the charger. It was difficult leaving Lucy because she didn't understand why we were leaving her but I promised I'd make it up to her when we got back. "Vacation time!" putting on my sunglasses we headed out the door on time. Our flight was going to be long and the only other one on our flight was Adam; Lexa and Jesse headed out a day before us to make sure arrangements were good. Brennan was with Shalimar, they were leaving that night since Shal had a doctor appointment in the morning.

On the flight Adam sat on Jeremy's right while I sat by the window on his left. It was going to be a tight schedule on the first night with the reception dinner. The second night was the bachelorette party Shal and I put together for Lexa and the next day would be last minute alterations on our dresses. Then the boys would party that night; the wedding would be the next day on a Saturday. I tried sleeping a bit on the plane since there wasn't much to do anyways and it beat feeling nervous about tight spaces. Jeremy seemed deep into his psychology magazine that he picked up at the airport and with headphones in Adam looked to be meditating. In half an hour I fell asleep with my head on Jeremy's arm.

Dream

Looking around I was in the morgue, following a man in a white jacket. He lead to the two tables that were covered with blue sheets. "Take as much time as you need," he said before leaving and closing the door behind him. Cautiously I approached the longer body, uncovering him slowly I looked at him, such a familiar face. "Daddy?" As I reached out to touch his face a hand rested on my shoulder, "I thought you said…" When I turned around it was my mother with blood dripping from her nose, "Your father and I never loved you anyway…" Her hand grabbed my neck and started choking me, it felt so real.

Something was pressed against my face, "Come on breathe Val…breathe."

I managed to get one eye open and woke realizing it was a dream. My hand moved the oxygen mask away, and I sat up realizing I was in the center isle of the plane cabin. Everyone was staring at me but I looked at Jeremy and Adam, "I was being choked."

Adam put the mask back over my face, "you stopped breathing in your sleep."

I felt so embarrassed to have such a violent nightmare be made so public, "Oh…okay." Finally they let me get back in my seat but Jer and I fought when he said I couldn't sleep anymore on the plane. There were still two hours left in the flight but the movie they had for us to watch made those two hours seem short.

After we landed everything seemed rushed. Quickly we got our bags and took a cab to the hotel, calling Lexa on the way so she could meet us in the lobby. When I caught a view of that crystal blue water I knew right where I wanted to go. Once in our room Jeremy and I began unpacking, "Can we go check out the beach for a while before the dinner?"

He shook his head, "maybe tomorrow Val."

I frowned after believing that he would have agreed. "Oh, okay.." When I finished I sat down on the bed and watched Jeremy drink some coffee he had got before we went to the room. "Ever thought about us getting married?" I could feel the tension that grew suddenly between us. "So…you think just because Jesse and Lexa get married, you think we should?"

My eyes blinked in disbelief, "Uhm, no that's not what I said…was just a thought." Jeremy looked down at me, "I don't think now is the best time for something like that…with things being so uncertain right now."

I bit my bottom lip, 'was he really saying this to me?' I thought, 'wow…' He literally left me speechless and it hurt 'cause it sounded like he didn't love me at all. I tried to make excuses for him, like that maybe he was upset still about what happened on the plane.

The reception dinner was painful for me. I felt like I couldn't talk to Jeremy, and Shalimar looked a little tired from the flight, also I had never seen Adam look so rough in my life. I must admit I was a little spaced out. My thoughts were split between Jeremy's earlier words and the dream, where were these images coming from? Memories that I didn't remember? Or was I making them up based on that report I read? Inside a felt a panic coming, what if the first dream was real? Lisa couldn't possibly be right, I would have been arrested and be in jail by now for murder. That man…the one they said did it, I remember seeing him. A homeless looking guy wearing dirty rags and probably smelled like garbage. His eyes looked at me so empty of life and helpless in handcuffs; I had met him to assure the police that he was not known to the family as a friend or relative. They said he was sneaking around the neighborhood with hands covered in blood crying out "redrum", you know that line from the Stephen King novel.

I felt bad about not being more alive at the dinner, but Jesse and Lexa seemed absorbed in each other's smiles that they didn't seem to notice. When it was over we left together but didn't say a word between each other, I only hoped that tomorrow would be a more relaxed day.