Chapter 11

"This is a new device I made for Circuit," Trip announced to Alex the day after. The device was nothing but a bunch of thin cables with chips at their ends that came out of Circuit's claws.

"What does it do?" Alex asked, taking the bunch of cables in his hand.

"It's an interface that will allow your mental print to take shape and move to another mind," Trip explained. Alex's eyes shone with excitement.

"So, this thing will help me get inside Jen's mind with you?" he asked.

Trip nodded. "I think you can influence Jen better than anyone else."

"I don't know," Alex said sadly. He remembered Jen's word when she had called him.

"I want to be with you," he had told her.

"It's too late for those lies; they don't make a difference now," she had said sadly.

Too late for those lies. She hadn't believed him back then, just like she hadn't believed him when he had said he was sorry, in the cafeteria, that time that seemed a lifetime ago.

Alex explained this to Trip, Lucas and Katie. They all seemed thoughtful. "You can prove her wrong," Trip said. "You can convince her that you love her, you can make her believe you need her."

"I do need her, and I do love her," Alex commented. He sighed. "I think I took the wrong path in the beginning of all this, I followed the wrong advice."

He had. A man, who called himself his friend and shall forevermore remain nameless and out of his memory, had convinced him that the best way to react to Jen's decision was putting her down, giving her the cold shoulder and pretending he didn't love her anymore. Stupidly enough he had followed that advice, and now he was facing the Jen who had resulted from it. He explained this as well.

"Look, Alex, we all make mistakes," Katie said. "Jen loves you, and I'm sure she will believe anything you tell her."

"She's right," Lucas added. "Try, you won't lose anything."

Alex nodded to that, encouraged. "Let's get this thing working," he told Trip.

Trip and Circuit began setting up the device. They connected cables back and forth, and soon they had Jen's entire forehead covered with the tips of some cables that went into Circuit. Out of Circuit came another set of cables whose tips where being attached to Alex's forehead by Katie.

"Ok," Circuit announced with his rascal baby voice, "I have the software all ready."

"Thanks Circuit," Trip said. Circuit blinked slowly, to show he liked the credit given.

"Are you sure this is going to work?" Alex asked.

"Yes," Trip said. He looked at Alex, licking his lips nervously. "Look, Alex, it's important that you know - inside there, Jen can do anything. And I mean ANYTHING, she can jump off buildings, fly, grow walls in front of us if she wants to. There are no rules or laws in there," he warned, then looking at him significantly, added, "for anyone." Alex smirked and nodded - no rules for anyone meant they could do whatever they wanted as well. "But we'll have some limitations. We can change ourselves, morph, heal, fly, just anything about ourselves. But we can't modify our environment, that's only under Jen's control," Trip finished.

Alex nodded his understanding; he already had his plan formed. "I'm ready," he said, looking at Jen, who looked so peaceful asleep, he wondered if waking her up was worth it. Then he shook the thought. He could make her as happy as she wanted to be, when she woke up, it would be worth it.

"Circuit," Trip said.

"Alex, you'll feel dizzy for a little while," the robot announced.

*******

Alex felt dizzy, all right.

It was more like the dreamer's vertigo, a really nasty sensation. He opened his eyes and found himself inside of a pretty living room. It was simple; the furniture didn't look expensive, and the ornaments were mostly pictures. Pictures of Jen and Alex, on their wedding day, on their honeymoon, or just smiling at the camera covered almost every surface. Alex found a picture of them both with his mother. He snickered.

Alex's mother had stopped talking to him when he had introduced Jennifer as his girlfriend.

She had learned about Jennifer's origins (Her family were long-time traditional farmers) and had decided she wasn't good enough for him, without even getting to know her. His mother had refused to talk to Jen since ever, and the first (and only) time Jen had visited the mansion she had asked her if she felt more comfortable drinking milk, instead of wine. When, innocently enough, Jen had said 'no, thanks, I like the wine', his mother had thrown her glass of red wine on Jen's new dress (a dress that, by the way, she had saved for a long time to buy and was really excited about) saying something along the lines of 'do you like the wine on your dress, farm girl?'

Jen had gotten up from the table, saying she didn't have to take that and walked out of the mansion; Alex had stayed long enough to tell his mother that Jen was the woman he planned to marry and she had answered that he hadn't picked just any farm-girl; he had picked a proud one. Alex had growled at her and had gone after Jen. He had found her almost at the gates, had begged her to get in the car and had noticed she had been crying. 'All I wanted was for her to like me,' she had said with a small, broken voice. He had taken her home and stayed with her almost all night, with the promise of talking to his mother. He never told Jen that, when he had called her in the morning, his mother had asked him if he had broken up with her yet.

Since that morning, five years ago, Alex hadn't spoken more than a few words to his mother again.

They walked around the living room for a while. "What do we do now?" Alex asked.

"Just wait."

"Shouldn't we try to find her?"

"She'll find us," Trip said. As if listening to his words, Jen appeared in the kitchen door. Her belly was enlarged, she was pregnant. Trip cleared his throat and Alex just choked on his words.

"What are--" she began, and then she saw Alex. Her face was suddenly filled with fear and pain. "H-h-how did he get in here?" she asked Trip, pointing at Alex.

"Trip made me a device," Alex said.

She looked at Trip, who suddenly found a picture interesting. She gave him the same annoyed look she had given him when Wes had approached her, after he told him about Alex. "What are you doing here?" she asked Alex.

"Is this our house?" he asked.

She lowered her gaze, her face showing an expression as if he had slapped her. He was making fun of her dreams. "It's not our house, it's my house--"

"We got divorced?"

There it was, more joking. "NO!" she said forcefully. "I meant it's not 'ours'" she clarified, pointing at herself and him, both. "It's my house, mine and Alex's. My Alex."

"Isn't he supposed to be me?"

"No, you are outside, living your life."

"That's right, I'm living my life, and you are dreaming your life away," he told her.

She looked away in the way she did when she realized half-way through a fight that she was wrong but refused to admit it. "What do you care?"

"I care, because I want you awake, living your life."

"No," she said angrily. "You want me awake helping you with that case of the missing children, if I didn't have my powers you wouldn't want me awake!"

"If you didn't have your powers, you wouldn't be asleep in the first place. It'd be a paradox," he answered smartly.

"Go away," she said.

"Jen, listen," he started. She looked away from him, annoyed. "I know you don't believe me, but I- I still love you," he said.

She looked at him, her eyes filled with hurt. "How dare you to come in here and tell me that you love me after you ignored me and mistreated me for months?!"

"I know I did, and I really didn't want to do it, I just followed the wrong advice."

"Bite me."

"Jen, he's not lying," Trip said softly.

"You, shut up!" Jen ordered him. "You've done enough with bringing him in here." Trip was happy to do as he was told.

"Where am I?" Alex asked.

"Inside of my mind."

"I meant 'your' me."

"He's in the kitchen, making me some pancakes."

"Is that what you are craving?"

"Why are you making fun of my dreams?! At least let me be happy here."

"I'm not making fun of your dreams. I'm just wondering what is it I'm giving you here that I can't give you out there," he said.

"Your love, first of all."

"I love you! I keep telling you but you don't believe me!"

"Why should I believe you?" she asked looking away from him.

Alex was now mad. He went back to his original plan and focused with all his might in changing himself. Trip walked away slowly, he didn't want to be around when she saw him.

"Would you believe me if I looked like this?" He asked. She looked up, he was blonde and he was wearing Wes's outfit.

"Change back," she pleaded.

"Why? You don't want to see him? Do you trust me now? Do you believe I love you now? " "NO!" she yelled. "I DON'T want to see him, I DON'T trust you and I DON'T believe you!!" she yelled. Alex was so stunned he lost focus and changed back. "You abandoned me, when I need you the most you abandoned me,"

"You were the one who broke up with me," he said quietly.

"You died on me, Alex; you died and left me all alone,"

"But I came back, and I still love you, but you moved away from me, away from me and towards him,"

"You treated me like a stranger when I need you the most!" she complained. "I needed you to hold me, to kiss me, to tell me that you were truly there, that you were the same Alex I loved. But you didn't Alex! You DIDN'T!!"

"I'm sorry!" he said sarcastically. "I just thought you needed space to spend some time with Wes! I saw that break up coming, with the way you looked at him, when you asked me to give him the place I had earned with hard work!"

"You could have talked to me!"

"And so could you! Back then and before doing this!"

They both shut up, tears running down both of their cheeks. "I'm so tired of crying," she said, drying her tears off.

He walked to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Jen, please, believe me, trust me, I love you, I can make you happy, as happy as you are in here."

"You can't," she said. He let go of her, sighing in impotence. "Here there's no Time Force risking our lives and keeping us apart. Here it's just you and me."

"There's nothing I can do about that out there, Jennifer," he said.

"There's something I can do about it in here, Alex," she said sadly. "Please leave."

"Just one more question," he said. She looked at him. "Is the baby mine?" he asked.

"No, he's my Alex's," she answered. "It's a girl, you always wanted a boy," she explained.

"What's her name?"

"She doesn't have one yet," she answered, caressing her abdomen. He smiled at her sadly.

"Please, come back to me."

"Let me think about it."

"Do you, at least, believe that I love you?"

"You came all the way in here, didn't you?" she asked smiling slightly. He smiled, feeling encouraged by her expression.

"For how long will you stay?"

"Until the baby's born."

"When will that be?"

"I don't know."

He nodded. The false Alex had walked out of the kitchen and was now standing next to Jen. "What's with the beard?" the real Alex asked him. He had a goatee.

"The wife likes it," he answered. The real Alex nodded.

"You know, Jen, I came here to tell you that you are really alone, lying on a bed, dreaming your life away," he started. "But now I see your world, the place you are living in and I noticed you are not alone, we are all, somehow, in here with you. Now I just want to tell you that we can make the world out there be almost as nice as this one, if we stay together."

"Will we stay together if I go back?"

"Will you go back?"

"Are you still seeing Brynn?"

"I plan to leave her," he said.

"Don't," she instructed.

He looked at her puzzled. "Why not? I thought you wanted to be with me."

"I do," she said, holding the hand of her Alex. "But it'll be dangerous, if not fatal, for her if you break up with her."

"Why?"

"You'll find out when you have to."

"Will you wake up?"

"Not for now." Alex lowered his gaze, defeated.

"Jen." Trip called for her attention.

"Yes?"

"I have one question; If the OD was an accident, then why did you take the pills in the first place? I thought psychics could control when and for how long they sleep."

"We can, but we can't control the depth of our sleep, and mine is very light, I can hear the noises, and feel it when people shake me; that causes me a loss of control in here. I took the pills to fall into a deeper sleep, to disconnect from my body completely."

"But you couldn't, when Alex forced you to throw up, you did it in here too."

"Not really, it was mere coincidence, that was my morning sickness," she lied.

"Not true," Alex said.

"Why not?" she asked.

"You live in a perfect world and you kept the morning sickness?"

She smiled. "Busted," her Alex whispered in her ear.

"I felt it," she admitted. "When somebody lifted me and rocked me, caressing my hair and kissing my forehead, and then the throwing up, the cold water, the detoxification. Who was it, by the way, the one holding me?" she asked.

"It was me," Alex said.

To be continued.