Disclaimers:

We don't own any characters although it would be nice to borrow them sometime.

This is not really a science fiction, so the effects of any future technological advances are minimized - for all we know, Katie could have cloned Jessie.

Rating: A couple of love scenes, but nothing really smutty

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CHAPTER 9: The Amtrak Acela Train

MASS. GENERAL HOSPITAL

Same Day

"Jessie, did you bribe the gift shop downstairs to send you all these flowers?" Dr. Garrett, the Chief of Pediatrics, asked as he came into Jessie's room.

"Oh, hi, Ted," Jessie looked up. She must have fallen asleep on her desk.

"Someone got lucky last week, didn't we?" Dr. Garrett grinned as he proceeded to sit in front of Jessie who was still trying to pick some petals off her hospital coat. "All I can say is, you go girl!"

"Ted, you just broke at least a dozen HR policies with that statement, but I will not lodge any official complaint," Jessie smiled as she surveyed her flower-filled office.

"The nurses are all talking about it! They were caught unprepared for the realization that you have some kind of life, let alone anything resembling a sex life," Dr. Garrett continued, obviously fishing for information.

"Ted, go away. Don't you have to attend some meeting or something?" Jessie said as she looked straight ahead at Dr. Garrett, her former professor and now mentor.

"As a matter of fact, I do, but I just wanted to pass by to give you my blessing, and I hope to meet the lucky man someday," Dr. Garrett said as he stood up to leave.

"You will, but please don't zero in on anyone you might think is worthy of my love," Jessie smiled, remembering that Dr. Garrett had fixed up her with several eligible doctors in the past.

"Oh, I can't wait," Dr. Garrett winked as he walked out her office.

Jessie sat in her flower nursery – er, her office – a smile visibly etched on her face. The week they had was simply indescribable she never thought she was capable of giving and receiving so much love at this point in her life. She wondered, simply wondered at how Katie could just erase with her touch all the pain that she had carried with her over the last 20 years. And every time they made love - and they did several times during the day and throughout the night, in several places in and around the cabin - she felt like they were finding each other again for the first time. Like explorers who were searching for the Holy Grail, never knowing when or where the search would end, only knowing that the journey itself was as Holy as the elusive prize. And every time her lips met Katie's, it seemed like all the mysteries of the universe were explained by one simple kiss. Simply put, it was like coming home.

But she was a doctor, she was in the business of saving lives, and inasmuch as she wanted to stay in their little Eden forever, the Sin of Cain beckoned them to their respective East, to right the wrong and heal the sick and do whatever it was they were meant to do with their lives.

And Jessie wondered, for herein lies the paradox: she was meant to love Katie, she knew it since she was 14 years old, but she was also meant to be a doctor, she also knew it since she was a little girl, and she felt that the could never be whole without either aspect of her life peacefully coexisting. But how could they when their respective lives were still 200 miles away and their respective vocations required different passions?

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KATIE'S APARTMENT - 2 Weeks Later

Sutton Place, NY

Saturday Morning

Jessie opened her eyes and heard the distant sound of subway trains roaring underground; Katie was still asleep next to her, her face burrowed in Jessie's neck. Jessie kissed Katie's forehead and began to trace invisible lines along the side of the economist's bare skin.

Katie arched her back, visibly enjoying whatever it was that Jessie was doing, as she started to kiss Jessie's neck and returned the favor by caressing Jessie's chest. She was quite awake by now, the embers of the previous evening once again burning in her lips. Jessie turned her around on her back and climbed on top of her, kissing her lips and neck and face and nose and ears with the hunger of a newborn baby grasping for its mother.

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"Whew," Katie exclaimed as she pulled the covers up after they somehow got flung all over. "Now I can die in peace."

"You too?" Jessie asked, still nibbling Katie's ears.

"Uh-hum," Katie whispered, dozing back to sleep.

It was a lazy Saturday morning, and Jessie had taken the train down to NY to spend Memorial Day weekend with Katie. They had not seen each other since that week in Vermont, and although they managed to talk frequently and Katie somehow managed to send a bouquet of roses to the hospital everyday despite Jessie's dire admonition, it was not the same. They still went home to their respective apartments and their respective beds and held each other's respective pillows until they woke up and wished for each other's presence.

Unlike high school students, they were not exactly keen on including the telephone as a requirement of their daily existence. When they could talk for hours before, never knowing when to stop so they could talk again for hours after school the following day, they did not have the same luxury of time anymore. Now, telephones were mostly for conducting business after they leave the confines of their work, keeping in touch with family members, and making sure distant friends were still alive.

The phone rung and Katie lazily grasped for the phone – it was almost nine o'clock, but who on earth could be calling her on a Saturday morning when all she wanted to do was sleep after working for over 60 hours that week?

"Hello," Katie answered.

"Oh, hi, okay, she's right here," as she gently woke Jessie up still asleep on her arms.

"For me?" Jessie half-consciously said as she tried to wipe her eyes before she took the phone.

"Hello," Jessie groggily answered before she broke into a really wide smile.

"Hi, Ryan! How's my handsome godson," Jessie now suddenly awake, leaning against the headboard while Katie stood up to go to the bathroom, Jessie following her with her eyes.

Katie glanced at Jessie talking to her nephew before she washed her face and put on her authentic Japanese silk kimono, a gift from the Emperor of Japan, after she presented a paper at the Far East Economic Convention in Tsukuba 2 years ago. She had waited anxiously for the weekend to arrive and took a cab early to 34th Street Penn Station to meet Jessie who was on the 9:00 Amtrak Acella train from Boston. It was a good thing those bullet trains were still running; the US was still so far behind Europe when it came to harnessing the power and sheer beauty of the railroad, thought Katie.

Jessie did not get in until almost 10 last night and they took a cab East to her 2-bedroom apartment near the United Nations complex. It was considered a grave sin if you lived in New York City and you elected to stay home on a Friday night, but Jessie was tired from the 3-hour train ride and a 12-hour shift before that.

So Katie ordered some light vegetarian Indian dish and bread – that's another good thing about New York – you could order anything at any time and they would still deliver it to your doorman – and they ate a late supper at the corner nook of her apartment overlooking Brooklyn.

Jessie took a shower immediately after supper, of course after brushing her teeth, and Katie playfully joined her. While Jessie seemed aghast at this blatant and aggressive invasion into her privacy, she did not really mind after a while. They never got to put their animal-print pajamas on because Katie pulled Jessie onto her bed right after they dried each other, resolved to blatantly and aggressively invade Jessie's privacy some more.

"We're meeting Ryan, Emily and Grace at the Museum of Natural History this afternoon," Jessie said as she walked towards the bathroom, wrapped only in sheets. Katie already had her shorts and T-shirt on.

"Okay," Katie said as she smiled and gave Jessie a quick kiss.

"Uhm," Jessie hesitated. "What?" Katie asked.

"Would you mind not hogging the bathroom?" Jessie finally said.

"Of course," Katie laughed as she gave way to Jessie. "I'll get breakfast."

"Don't you ever use your stove? Or your coffee maker?" Jessie said visibly annoyed that Katie had to order everything, or so it seemed.

"Nope," Katie answered back as she put on her running shoes and headed towards the door. "Why would I and when it would cost me less to buy a cup of coffee than to actually brew a pot?"

"Go away," Jessie said as she closed the bathroom door to shut Katie out.

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NY PENN STATION

Monday afternoon

Jessie and Katie were standing right underneath the sign that announced which train was coming and which one was leaving and what track you should go to. Jessie was standing right in front of Katie, who was holding her close. They were both looking at the rolling signs, once in a while turning around to give each other a quick kiss.

"I wish you could stay," Katie whispered to Jessie.

"I wish you could stay too, with me," Jessie answered back.

And then they were silent at this obvious standstill, when neither party was right and neither one was wrong and they could only hold their fort until one decided to wave the white flag. Which of course did not happen.

"So, you're turn next time?" Jessie asked without turning to face Katie, "Coming up to Boston, I mean."

"Yup," Katie answered before remembering, "I have to go to Lebanon next week."

"You do?" Jessie was visibly surprised.

"I thought I told you," Katie answered.

"Well, you did not," Jessie answered hurt that Katie had missed this important piece of information.

"It's only for 3 day, Jess," Katie reassured her.

But Jessie did not answer. They stood there and continued to watch the letters moving and changing, until 2 red dots simultaneously flashed before two train names.

"Well, that's mine," Jessie said, picking up her bag.

"Which one, though? They are both going up the North East corridor," Katie said as she realized that while both trains were going to Boston, they had different track numbers before them.

"Oh, I take the express train, the other one makes all the ice cream stops," Jessie said as she turned around to walk towards the escalator. Katie still had not let go of her hand and was following her to her train.

"All aboard!!!" the car conductor called out.

"I better go," Jessie said as she turned to climb the train.

Oblivious to the crowd around them, Katie pulled her back towards her and kissed her passionately, the way that Al Gore kissed Tipper 22 years ago during the Democratic Convention.

"I love you," Katie said as Jessie ran towards the steps.

"I love you too," Jessie called out just before the conductor rang the bell once more and then the train started pulling out of the station. Katie made her way out of the crowd into 33rd street. She decided to walk home, it was not really a long walk. She put her hands in her pocket and headed East. She could still smell Jessie's scent and taste Jessie's lipgloss and feel Jessie's kisses. She wore this stupid grin all the way home, unaware of the crowd coming and going before her. She stopped right by the East river park and sat for a while, watching the river turn orange as the sun set over the Brooklyn skyline.

Katie was just flopping down the couch with some Chinese takeout in her hand. It was almost 9 o'clock and Jessie would be home soon. What the heck, she thought, she did not want to wait until then, so she dialed Jessie's cell phone. But there was no answer. She probably turned it off to get some sleep, Katie thought.

She flipped the remote and changed the channel to NY1, the original local 24/7 news channel. She did not make out at first the "breaking news" streaming across the screen with smoldering images of something.

"We are live from New London, Connecticut where an Amtrak train from New York just collided with a cargo truck carrying dangerous chemicals…" she heard the announcer said, "and at this moment we have no confirmed number of fatalities. The New London fire department is still trying to put out the fire…"

These words rushed through her mind: Jessie… Amtrak Train… collided… dangerous chemicals…

And then it hit her and she screamed, " JESSIE!!!"

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