Title: Lady in Red
Author: Jenn
email: got2fly2u@hotmail.com
Rating: PG-15
cat: Isabel/Alex
Summary: Isabel finds comfort in her dreams...

Lady in Red
Is dancing with me
Cheek to cheek
There's nobody here
It's just you and me
~~~~~~~~

Sometimes I imagine I've died too. Sometimes, just sometimes, I imagine he's come back to life. But my dying seems the only way, the only way to bring us back together. The only way to start something that should have begun a long time ago. He told me to move on, but every time I dream, I am with him.

It's like a big dance in the sky, a mix of the end of Titanic and Prom. I glide in, my feet barely touching the ground. Clouds cover the ground and reflect my dress, creating a swirling mist of color around me.

"Red. I always loved you in red," I heard him whisper in my ear. His voice was filled with passion.

"I know," I said turning to face him. I could hear happiness in my voice, something I never heard when I wasn't dreaming. But with him I was fine, or I could pretend that I was, for a little while.

"I've been waiting for you," he said, leading me to the dance floor. I simply nodded and wrapped my arms around his neck. I breathed in, my nostril's filling with the scent that was him. It was all just as I had last been with him, really been with him.

My lips found his. Impatiently I kissed him, trying to remember exactly how it felt. I was afraid. Afraid that his death meant the end of him, meant the end of his memory. But I was more afraid that his death meant the end of me. It wasn't a selfish feeling, in fact it was the most selfless act I had ever committed. Never had I cared enough about anyone to let them change me in anyway. But I had cared about him enough to let him change my life.

The clouds began to move, turning in circles around us. Through them I could see the dance floor melting away, the colors dripping and mixing into the finest silks and satins. The bedroom was perfect, the walls deep blood red, the sheet pure white.

He led me to the bed and laid me down, my red dress now nothing but a slip. We didn't talk, made no sound at all. Only eyes and hands spoke to each other. Words were too much for dreams, they took too much time.

And in my dream I got to do what I never would in reality. I used to think it would be weird, that anything remotely physical with Alex would turn any girl off forever. 'He isn't my type,' I used to reason with myself every time I felt sparks between us. But my heart knew more about types than my mind. My mind may have known what I wanted, but my heart knew what I needed.

Each kiss was like a separate dream, each touch brought a new life. His smile was a reward in itself and I just wished I could spend the rest of eternity watching him smile. People didn't smile because of me, they cringed and skittered to the corner. But he had been bold enough to love me, brave enough to smile.

And this time I let him rule, he made all the moves, he came out on top. I was a princess in my old world, I was a princess on earth, I slept to get away from my duties as ruler. This was a dream, my dream, and all I wanted to do was give up my crown. And he was the man I wanted to hand it to, he was the only person who deserved such fine jewels.

His skin was white as the sheets, his eyes a deep brown, the usual green darkened by desire. I could see my own eyes reflected in his, and my body was startlingly dark in comparison to his. It was as if he were translucent, as if I could see right through him.

I closed my eyes and tried to hold onto the dream. I could feel warm rays of light on my body, my skin sticky from their heat, and the heat of his body against mine. But I could feel him disappearing, slipping back into heaven as I landed full force in the hell they called earth.

And as reality's fists pounded his memory from me I could hear him whispering. "I'm waiting," he said, tears clouding my eyes. "Good night, my lady, my lady in red."

"Alex," I cried, his voice a song on my lips, a prayer only I could say.

And I hold onto that promise. Each night as I slip into the dance, as my eyes search for his, I remember his words. And I know I will remember them into eternity, I was born to him in red, and I will die for him, in red. I am his, his lady in red.