Chapter Nine
Her blue eyes followed her once best friend as she paced the room, radiating nervousness like a heater would heat. Alison suppressed her smile at the unease Livvie was feeling. She knew she shouldn't be enjoying someone else's plight, but she couldn't help it -- Livvie had done so many evil things it was hard not to root for her destruction. Especially when Alison had set her mind to bringing the woman down herself.
"So, Lucy," Alison began conversationally, after the silence that followed Lucy's question to Livvie. "Jack told me some great news, I suppose that's why I'm here."
Narrowed eyes zeroed in on the blonde woman. "I was wondering why you were here. I'm beginning to think you and Jack are stalking my husband and myself."
Alison snickered briefly as she regarded Livvie from her position on the couch. "Jack and I stalking you should be like the least of your worries." Rising from her seat, Alison moved to stand next to Lucy on the other side of the room. When the two were in intimate proximity of each other, Alison murmured in a low voice, "Jack told me about the private investigator."
As if Lucy had forgotten what she had done, her face light up with surprise and then she gasped. Alison laughed softly and felt the urge to wrap her arms around the woman before her. "I just wanted to come here and thank you for doing this for me -- well, for Rafe anyway."
She tipped her head off to the side as she smiled happily, yet with a tinge of sadness. "I did it for the both of you, as well as Doc. Nothing or no one should stand in the way of love. I honestly care about Livvie and I know she's heading for trouble and I'm not sure how to help her. I think once she's exposed then perhaps the healing process can begin with her and she could start over. You know, find someone who can love her like she needs."
Alison gazed toward Livvie, her face clear of any emotion. "I hope she finds someone too and then get the help she deserves. Either option in no particular order." That had Alison looking back at Lucy. "We all need to pay for the trouble we've caused and the pain we've inflicted, and it's high time Livvie get what is coming to her."
Lucy crossed her arms beneath her chest and sighed as she regarded her stepdaughter. "I just hope this doesn't hurt Doc so much. He's put so much faith into Livvie…"
Lifting a hand towards Lucy, Alison then laid it upon her arm as she grinned. "Kevin will survive, he has you to help him through it all."
"Just as Rafe will have you."
Her eyes traveled towards the ceiling as murmured, "I only pray that Kevin helps Rafe with his memory. Just think this could all be over soon. The pain, the hurt, the lies and deception."
Lucy covered Alison's hand with her own and then squeezed it softly. "I hope so, Alison. I really hope this ends today."
Livvie watched the two women speaking for the longest time, wondering what the hell they were muttering to each other so quietly. They had to be plotting against her, why else would they keep looking at her every once in a while and keep talking? This had to stop, she had to put an end to them trying to ruin her happiness with Rafe.
"Don't you think you should leave, Ali?" Livvie asked and then began to approach Alison and Lucy. When both women turned to look at her curiously, she shrugged her shoulders. "I mean after all this is a family matter and last time I checked you weren't family."
That had Lucy's back stiffening and her shoulders squaring off. "And last I looked this was my house and Alison was a guest in it."
Alison looked between Livvie and Lucy and sighed softly. "No, she's right, Lucy. This does involve family and I'm not apart of this -- family. I've had my say in all of this and I'm sure you'll let me know what happens."
Lucy frowned momentarily, her eyes pleading with Alison to stay and then turned angry when she looked toward Livvie. "If you feel you must go, Alison. But don't worry I will fill you in on what happened. Though I'm sure if this turns out like I think, Rafe will tell you himself."
"Thanks Lucy," Alison said as she squeezed Lucy's hand and then began to back her way toward the door.
Upstairs…
Rafe pushed himself up into a sitting position and took in his surroundings for a moment, letting things just sink in. Not that there was much that had to be processed, because he didn't remember a damn thing. His blue eyes fell into Kevin's direction, who was still making notes upon his tablet.
"Well, Dr. Collins?" Rafe questioned when the silence continued to stretch out between them. "Did I say anything? Because I certainly don't feel like I remember anymore now than when I woke up in the woods."
Kevin continued to look upon the notes he had taken and lifted his hand to his head to scratch the back of his neck. "From what I could decipher from all that was said, you weren't able to recall anything." Kevin glanced up then in time to see the slightly fallen look upon Rafe's face. "I'm sorry, Rafe. We could always try this again if you like-"
Rafe shook his head and sighed heavily. "Thanks, but no thanks Dr. Collins. It was a long shot anyway to learn anything. I -- I guess I'm just going to have to just learn to live my life without any past memories. Besides I have new memories to make with my child, right?"
He nodded slowly and looked down at the paper before him. "Right. Just focus upon that and things should be fine." Kevin then watched as Rafe slid off the bed and moved to the door of the room. He suddenly turned back toward Kevin as if he had something to say, but snapped his mouth shut and went out the door.
Kevin briefly wondered what Rafe was going to say but decided against. But the intrigue of that lasted only a few moments before the tablet in his lap claimed his eyes once again. There was definitely going to be some studying of the information he had gained from the session before he released it to anyone, most of all to Rafe.
Once outside of Kevin's bedroom, Rafe paused to lean back against the door. He had hoped the hypnosis would help him rediscover some of his memory. He wouldn't have cared how little the memory was, just as long as it was something from the past he didn't recall.
With a soft sigh, Rafe then pushed away from the door and made his way down the hall. As he came upon the stairs he heard several voices and it was one in particular had him pausing to listen closely.
"No, she's right, Lucy. This does involve family and I'm not apart of this -- family. I've had my say in all of this and I'm sure you'll let me know what happens."
"If you feel you must go, Alison…"
Alison!
Rafe's heart sprung into his throat and began to pound wildly as he found himself taking the stairs two at a time to get down them. But when he reached the floor level all he found were Livvie and Lucy both staring at him with different emotions in their eyes. His own eyes shot from his cousin, to his wife, and then to the door of the Lighthouse.
"Don't keep us in suspense," Lucy breathed out as she moved toward Rafe, who was still standing at the bottom of the stairs. "What did you remember?"
Livvie shoved down her nervousness and pasted on what she hoped was a pleasant grin. "Yes, honey, tell us what you remember."
Instead of answering them, Rafe lifted his left hand and pointed his forefinger at the door. "Didn't -- didn't I just hear someone else in here with you?"
A single eyebrow inched upward as Lucy grinned. "Yes, you did, Cuz. Alison was here."
That had Rafe's blue eyes snapping toward his cousin. "Was?"
"She left because someone made it clear that she wasn't wanted here … well, by that person anyway."
Livvie's dark eyes flared with anger as she snapped, "Oh, Lucy, I was perfectly friendly with Alison. I just suggested that perhaps she should leave our family matters to us." Putting aside any further thought that dealt with Alison, Livvie then made her way over to Rafe's side and curled her arms about his waist. "You never did answer the question."
His brow pinched together as he looked down at his wife. "Question? What question?" He didn't want to be answering questions. What he wanted was to find Alison, even though he knew he shouldn't want anything to do with her. He knew that he should keep his distance, that her not being here was for the best, but he couldn't help the way he felt.
"Did you remember anything," Livvie reminded him in an insistent tone.
Rafe gazed towards the doors that let led out on to the terrace and longed to be on the other side of them getting some fresh air. "Nothing," he answered in an absent voice. "I -- I remembered nothing. Excuse me." Rafe then disengaged his wife's hold upon him and made his way outside through the terrace doors.
Once there, he walked over to the railing and laid his hands upon it while he gazed out upon the impending fall of night. At the east end of the sky the body of endless blue began its descent into a deeper shade as darkness began to stretch its arms across it, like it were finally awaking from it's slumber. While into the west splatters of orange, reds, and pinks hovered as close as it could to the sun it sank into the horizon as if it feared the full moon glowing to life.
Rafe lost himself in the beauty before him, his problems seeming so tiny in comparison the large production God had put on for the whole world to see. "Thank you," he said suddenly looking up towards the middle of the sky. "Thank you for allowing me to see this and granting me the opportunity to hopefully see many more like it. Sometimes we get so wrapped up in our own lives, our problems, and ourselves that we just forget what a gift it is to just be here."
His hands slipped off the railing and then disappeared into the front pockets of his jeans. "I get the feeling that at one time I had taken this all for granted." Rafe's eyebrows drew together as he thought about everything and nothing at all. "But now I realize how precious it is to stand here breathing the air, feeling the warmth of the day against my skin, knowing what it's like to be loved and to love."
He paused suddenly and swallowed as he looked toward his feet as he gave the railing a soft kick. "I don't mean to seem ungrateful--" Rafe's eyes shot towards the sky again as he quickly added "--because I'm not. I would just like recall my memories. I want to know what I've been doing these past ten years. I mean maybe it's your plan that I not know so I will accept the gifts that I have -- a wife and a baby on the way -- and be grateful for them."
Rafe's hands came out of his pants and attached to the railing once again as he murmured, "I just want to know why I can't seem to let this go. This being the need to reclaim my memories. This being the never-ending need to be around Alison. More the latter than the former. I just wish you'd give me a sign of what I'm supposed to do. Should I move on with my life, without my memories, and be with my wife and child? Or quit ignoring this pull to Alison, which goes against every thing I believe in like honor and duty."
His heavy sigh filled the air as he asked, "What do I do?"
"Rafe?"
The soft call of his name had him whirling around quickly, his eyes slightly widening and his mouth gaping open as he saw the vision before him. "Alison," he breathed out softly.
~*~