"Nightmares"
by Kirsten Tapp

Disclaimer:

Dark Angel doesn't belong to the author, but to James Cameron, etc. The characters of Devon, Julia, Rebecka, Kera, Alicia, Holly, Mya, Belinda, Jondy's twins, Emma and Celeste however do belong to the author. No copyright infringement intended.

Summary:

Jondy's rare moments of sleep are haunted by nightmares. When Max senses her sister's fear, she must find a way to help Jondy confront the emotions she has kept hidden for over a year.

Timeframe:

Occurs after "Proof Of Purchase".

Rating:

PG 13


She lay fast asleep, something that was unusual for her. Her long hair lay in waves across the brightly colored pillowcase. She stirred slightly as she felt his breath gently caress her neck. A smile lit up her pale face when his lips followed the trail his breath had left. Never opening her eyes she rolled onto her side to get closer to him. His kisses grew more and more hungry the closer he got to her lips. As his mouth feasted on hers, frantic hands tore at the already flimsy nightdress in a desperate attempt to get closer to her skin.

A shot rang out and she glanced nervously around her. She was no longer in her bedroom, but fully dressed in the forest. A man lay at her feet with his face turned towards the ground. Even though she couldn't see his face, she knew who he was. "No!" Her scream echoed around the forest.

She knelt down beside the body on the ground, but as her knee touched the earth the body had disappeared and was replaced with a grave and a headstone. Her fingertips brushed the name on the tombstone as if lightly caressing the face of the man it belonged to. "Don't leave me." Her voice was a frightened whisper in the dark night.

A hand reached out to touch her shoulder. She turned to find herself face to face with Ames White. "I'll never let you go." He snarled at her. At that point she woke up.

Max jerked awake. "Jondy." Her abrupt movement also woke Logan. As she reached over her startled partner to get the phone, Max mentally kicked herself for not visiting her sister sooner.

"I'm fine. It was just a nightmare." Jondy didn't even have to check who her caller was. "Did I wake you?" Max and Jondy had always been able to pick up when something was wrong with the other.

"Yeah, but I wasn't sleeping that soundly." Max snuggled back against Logan's chest. "I woke Logan by accident as well. So what was this dream about?"

Jondy walked past each room, her cordless phone in her hand, checking on her children as she spoke to her sister. "It's not important. How's Tinga doing?" She had been as surprised as Max to find out that Tinga was still alive.

"She doesn't remember much after Brin taking her back to Manticore. At least that's where she thought they were heading. Then she woke up in the psychiatric hospital." Max shuddered at the thought of what Renfro had done to Tinga. "Maybe it's for the best that she doesn't remember."

Jondy stopped outside the room that had been Devon's. "There's nothing to say her memory won't come back at some point." She opened the door to the room and sat in the doorway. She hadn't set foot in this room since Devon had died. "Did Zane take her back home to Charlie and Case?"

"Yeah." Max smiled as she recalled Case's excited voice thanking her for keeping her promise to get his Mom back. "It was a bit of a shock for Charlie, especially since we had told him Tinga was dead. They phoned here last night. Case was telling me everything they had done since Tinga came back. I think they're gonna be alright."

"That's great." Jondy's mind wandered back to the hospital the day Devon had died. He had asked her not to run from him and she had let herself believe there would be a happily ever after for them. Life was cruel that way. It gave you what you longed for and then snatched it away from you. "Tell them to keep their heads down. White will stop at nothing to destroy us all."

"They know that." Max frowned. It wasn't like Jondy to be so negative. "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Jondy wasn't really listening to Max now. "I'll call you tomorrow. Say hi to Logan for me." She hung up the phone before Max could ask any more questions.

"Jondy says hi," Max muttered to Logan. She turned her head to find him watching her. "What?"

Logan could tell something about Jondy's side of the conversation had worried Max. "It's just as well we planned to go to San Francisco tomorrow." He glanced at the clock. "I mean today." He had managed to get an extra sector pass for Rebecka, who was getting quite excited about meeting her other daughter. "Are you sure this is a good time for Rebecka to meet Jondy?"

Max shrugged her shoulders. "It's too late to cancel now." She wasn't sure if Rebecka would see them asking her to delay meeting Jondy as some sort of rejection or not. "I explained to her about Devon so I'm sort of hoping that she'll understand if Jondy isn't her usual bubbly self."

Logan thought back to the camping trip that Devon had been fatally wounded on. "You know, I always got the distinct impression that Jondy and Devon were more than just really good friends. They knew each other too well."

Max knew what Logan meant. "Maybe I can get Jondy to talk to me about Devon when we get to San Francisco. She's bottling something up inside of her. That can't be good, even for an X5."

Julia had heard Jondy moving around the house. Years of knowing the young woman had attuned her hearing to the X5's almost silent steps. She wasn't surprised to find Jondy sitting in the doorway of Devon's room. "You've never been in there since my son died, have you?"

Jondy shook her head. "I don't want to disturb anything. I know he's gone but it feels as though if I move anything or touch anything, then I'll destroy the memory of him as well." She looked down at her hands and shrugged. "It's stupid, I know."

Julia sat down beside Jondy and took hold of one of her hands. "It's not stupid, I understand. You have to let go one day. It doesn't have to be today." Julia had, had a rare relationship with her son where they talked about just about everything. She chuckled as she recalled one conversation. "Devon told me just after the two of you adopted the girls, that you were convinced you turned him gay."

A tiny smile crept onto Jondy's face. "I remember that." She rolled her eyes. "We both got drunk, ended up sleeping together and when we both sobered up in the morning, Devon told me he was gay. I was sure it was all my fault. It took Devon a month to reassure me that he was gay before we slept together and that he still loved me, he just wasn't in love with me." Jondy chuckled. "Manticore would have been so disappointed in me. So insecure, afraid of my own shadow."

Julia remembered the little girl Jondy had been. When Devon had brought the frightened little girl home with him, it hadn't been hard to believe that she had runaway from an abusive home. Julia had, had to swear to her son that his new friend would be safe with them. "I'd never seen anyone hold Devon's attention like you did. When he brought you home, he insisted on looking after you. For the first couple of days, he wouldn't even let me near you."

Jondy nodded. "I had no idea what it felt like to be taken care of by somebody who expected nothing in return." She frowned at Julia. "When did you figure out Devon was gay?"

Julia laughed. "It was hard not to notice that Devon was more interested in your boyfriends than he was in any girls." She smirked at Jondy. "The two of you certainly put on a convincing act of being a couple every time I came to visit."

Jondy looked wistful. "It wasn't hard. It felt as though we had been together forever. I always thought if we were ever separated, it would be because Manticore caught up with me and took me back."

Julia stood to go back to her room. "He'd want you to go on living." She stroked Jondy's hair. "Devon wouldn't want you to spend your life mourning him." She went to try and get some more sleep, leaving Jondy to her thoughts.

"Everything alright?" Logan asked Max as she got back into the car.

Max nodded. "Joshua wanted to go with us. I promised him he could come next time. He seemed to cheer up when I told him Original Cindy would come by every day."

Logan pulled the car out onto the street and started driving towards San Francisco. They had started out early so that they would make it to Jondy's by lunchtime. "You know we'll have to find a way for Joshua to get out more. It must be pretty boring for him stuck in that house all day."

Rebecka listened to Max and Logan talk to each other. She couldn't believe they had only known each other for a couple of years. They seemed so comfortable with each other. Eager for some more information about her other daughter, Rebecka broke the comfortable silence that had fallen in the car. "So do Jondy's twins look like her or Devon."

"Devon." Logan answered. "But there seems to be an overwhelming amount of Jondy's DNA in them. That may change though." He was wondering if they all saw the twins as different to other children because they knew about Jondy's altered DNA.

"I don't know." Max glanced over at Logan. "I think Ben has a lot of Jondy's features but he does have Devon's green eyes."

Rebecka giggled. "I guess I'll just have to wait and see for myself." Her only concern about meeting Jondy was that her daughter might prefer Devon's mother to her. After all, Julia Saunders had been a mother to Jondy in just about every sense.

Logan caught the look on Rebecka's face in his rear vision mirror. "Don't worry. Jondy may not be as forth coming as Max was when you first met. She has a big heart though. You have nothing to be nervous about."

Julia watched her grand daughters from the doorway of the living room. They were all huddled together in a whispered conversation. "What are you up to?" She saw twelve guilty looking young faces look up at her.

Holly shot a quick look at the others before she spoke. "We were wondering if Mom would take us to visit Daddy today." She knew Jondy had avoided letting them go near Devon's grave for their own safety, but it had been a year.

Alicia gathered up her courage as well. "If Mom doesn't want to go, we understand. Perhaps you could take us instead."

Julia looked down at the hopeful little faces watching her. "Why don't you ask your mother once she's finished changing the twins. If she feels uncomfortable taking you, then I'm sure Kera or I can go with you."

Kera and Jondy walked in at that moment carrying the twins. Jondy cast a glance at all of the children. "So where are we going today?" It had become a routine for Jondy to take the girls out somewhere on Saturday morning.

Celeste was the one that decided to ask. "We want to visit Daddy."

Jondy was a little surprised at the request. "If that's where you want to go. Better go and get your jackets. We can't stay for long though, Kera reminded me Aunty Max and Uncle Logan are visiting today."

There was a mad rush of children as they went to grab their jackets before Jondy could change her mind. Kera watched her friend as they strapped the twins into a baby buddy. "Are you alright with this? Julia and I can take them if you want."

Jondy smiled at her friends concern. "No, it's fine. I can't avoid this visit forever." She pushed the baby buggy towards the door, calling the girls as she went.

The closer they got to San Francisco, the more nervous Rebecka became. She was amazed to find that Max hadn't been joking when she said Jondy lived in a hotel. "Jondy really owns this place?" She glanced at Max. "How could she afford it?"

Max giggled. "You wouldn't believe the tips she gets at the bar. She and Devon have always had to keep a low profile, so they didn't really splash out on expensive dinners and outings. When they adopted the girls, they both had quite a bit of money saved."

Logan turned off the car and got out to unpack their luggage. "I can't see Max or Jondy ever having trouble making ends meet." They hadn't filled Rebecka in on the X5s extra curricular activities as yet.

Julia met them all at the door. "You're earlier than we expected. Jessica took the children to visit Devon." She still used Jondy's alias. She saw the look on Max's face. "The children wanted to go."

Max had grown concerned about her sister, even more so since their phone call in the early hours of that morning. "How is my sister really?" She followed Julia up the stairs.

"You know your sister better than I do." Julia smiled over her shoulder at Max. "She keeps her emotions locked up tight. Devon was the only one I ever saw with the key."

Logan dropped the bags in the appropriate rooms. "How long do you think Jessica and the children will be? I think Rebecka's been getting sort of nervous about meeting Jess."

Julia shook hands with Rebecka. "I'm sure they won't be long. Why don't we go and see if Kera has made some coffee? It will give you a bit of time to get used to the house."

Max squeezed her mother's hand. "If you get lost just whistle. Jondy or I will hear you."

The twelve girls stood around Devon's grave looking at each other, a flower in each of their hands. Mya shrugged her shoulders. "What do we do now?"

Jondy chuckled at the bewildered look on all of their faces. "I thought you had this all worked out." She crouched down at the end of the grave beside the baby buggy. "Hey Devon." She placed a flower on the grave. "The girls wanted to come and visit." She saw the girls watching her as if she were insane. "They're growing so fast, aren't they. It's a good thing you left me the twins to keep me occupied." She laughed recalling her discussion with Julia in the early hours of the morning. "I can't believe you told your mother that I thought that I had turned you gay."

Belinda seemed to catch onto what her mother was doing. "Hi Daddy. I got a 98 on my English paper and my friend Kyra has invited me to her birthday party." She placed her flower on the grave and moved over to where Jondy was crouching so her sisters could have their turn.

One by one each of the girls followed Jondy's lead and soon the grave was completely covered with brightly colored flowers. Emma looked at the other graves. "Look. Nobody else has as many flowers as Daddy. That means he's loved more than anybody else, right, Mom?"

Jondy hugged her daughter. "That's right. Your Dad knew how much he was loved, he loved all of you more than anything." She looked at her watch. "Come on. Aunty Max will come looking for us if we don't get back soon."

Each of the girls waved goodbye to the grave and followed their mother back to their home.

Max heard the front door open and close and the sound of multiple footsteps. "They're home." She sat on the sofa cushioned against Logan's chest.

Rebecka observed from an armchair, twelve young perfectly behaved girls walk into the room and hug Julia and Kera. All of a sudden they seemed to focus on Max and Logan as the illusion of perfection was shattered by high-pitched joyful squeals as the girls launched themselves at Max and Logan for hugs. Rebecka felt a twinge of envy as she wondered if the children would ever react that way to her.

Finally untangling themselves from the excited children, Max and Logan peered over at the doorway. Logan nudged Max. "She knows she freaks me out when she does that."

Max giggled, understanding what Logan meant. "That's probably why she does it."

Rebecka turned slightly to see what they meant. She gasped in amazement when she saw the stunning redhead leaning against the doorframe the same way she had seen Max do. Beside her in a baby buggy were two beautiful babies.

Jondy walked into the room. "Girls. Come here a minute." She waited for her daughters to gather around her. "You remember how Daddy explained that we didn't know who my mother was, so Grandma was a Mom to both of us." Twelve young heads nodded. "Well, Uncle Logan helped Aunty Max find our real Mom." She nodded towards Rebecka, instinct had told Jondy who she was. "There she is over there."

A repeat performance of the greeting given to Max and Logan was bestowed upon Rebecka. Jondy shook her head in amusement and went to hug Max and Logan. Once the girls had settled down, Jondy got their attention again. "Everyone in the dinning room. Kera's got lunch ready." She had been able to smell the food as soon as she walked in the front door. She smiled hello at her mother but made no move to hug her, she wasn't ready for that yet.

Rebecka spent the rest of the day getting to know her grandchildren, Julia and Kera. Jondy had been called into work so she hadn't spent a lot of time with Rebecka. She was hurt that her second daughter kept her distance. Max had warned her that might be the case.

When Jondy got home that night she did her usual check on the children. Unfortunately her feline hearing enabled her to hear what was going on in Max and Logan's room. She grinned and shook her head. "Logan's never getting any sleep tonight," she muttered under her breath. In her own room Jondy paced back and forth. She was too wound up to sleep and she didn't really need sleep anyway.

Finally she decided to go for a walk. Jondy had instinctively walked to Devon's grave. Sitting on the moist grass she ran her hand across the name on the headstone. "God I miss you, Devon." She lovingly arranged the flowers they had left earlier. "You told me we'd work through this. You begged me not to run and then you left me with fourteen children and your mother." She smiled bitterly to herself. "Although I think I got the better end of this deal." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I love you. Why did you leave me?"

Max walked up behind her sister. "Thought you might be here." She tossed a look at the headstone. "Hey Devon. I see you've still got my sister's full attention." She sat down beside Jondy. "I thought I'd let Logan catch up on some sleep. I guess I picked a bad time to bring Rebecka to visit." She had been so excited to find her mother that until now she hadn't realized that Jondy needed this time to mourn Devon.

Jondy reached out and squeezed Max's hand. "It's alright. I just need some time." She stood and brushed her jeans off. "We'd better get back. I know Logan has trouble sleeping when you're not there."

Max looked at Jondy in surprise. "How do you know that?" Logan had mentioned to her that he couldn't sleep without her close by, but she had thought he was joking.

Jondy rolled her eyes as they started walking home. "The last time I stayed with you two and you disappeared in the middle of the night to make some extra cash, I found him staring out the window. He told me the nights you stay at your own place, he can't sleep."

Max wondered how long Logan had been losing sleep. "So what else did you discuss in these brotherly, sisterly chats?"

Jondy chuckled. "That man of yours only talks about you. If I weren't your sister it would drive me crazy." She smiled sadly. "It's wonderful to be loved that much, isn't it."

"Yeah." Max beamed at her sister. "I could get used to it, once I get over needing my own space. Logan tries hard not to be too suffocating."

They walked the rest of the way in silence. When they entered the living room they found Logan staring out the window. Jondy nudged Max. "Told you. I think Logan might be addicted to you."

Logan blushed slightly. "There are worse things to be addicted to." He wrapped his arms around Max's waist. "I don't seem to need as much sleep as I used to." He glanced over at Jondy. "Everything alright?"

Jondy nodded. "I'm getting there." She left Max and Logan alone and walked towards Devon's room.

Max watched Jondy leave. She felt a twinge of guilt. There she was with a loving boyfriend who couldn't keep his hands off of her and yet her sister could only watch Max and wish she had the same thing. "Do you think it bothers Jondy when we come here?" She leaned back against Logan and looked up at his face.

It took Logan a moment to understand what Max meant. "No, I think she just wants to see you happy." He bent his head to kiss her. "You are happy, aren't you? I mean apart from being concerned about Jondy." He was worried for a moment that Max would say no.

Max grinned teasingly. "Let's see. You spoil me rotten. You let me set the pace in this relationship. You let me have the space I need despite the fact that apparently you can't sleep without me. I'd be pretty stupid if I wasn't happy, wouldn't I?"

Logan kissed her neck. "I've never known you to be stupid." He chuckled at Max's gasp of surprise, when he swung her into his arms and carried her to their room.

Rebecka wandered restlessly around the house. She had been shut up in her room at the psychiatric hospital for so long that she enjoyed the freedom of moving around the hotel that had been turned into a home. She abruptly stopped when she saw Jondy sitting in the doorway of a room.

"Did you lose your way?" Jondy stayed staring into Devon's room. She knew her mother was watching her. It was one of the advantages of having feline DNA.

"No." Rebecka edged slowly forward to see what was in the room. "It's just a nice change to be able to walk freely around instead of being locked in a room. I expect you and Max remember how that feels."

Jondy managed a brief smile. "As clear as if it were yesterday." She gestured into Devon's room. "This was Devon's room. I wouldn't let Julia pack anything away, so she just comes in every so often and dusts."

Rebecka sat down by Jondy. "Perhaps you don't have to pack everything away." She didn't want to intrude on her daughter's life. After all, up until a couple of weeks ago she had thought that Jondy had died when she was born. "I'm sure there are certain things Julia wants to keep. Maybe the girls would like to keep something of Devon's each. You could always keep something so the twins know who their father was."

Jondy looked around the room. "I guess keeping the room like this doesn't really do Devon's memory any justice." She turned to Rebecka. "Thanks for the idea. I'll let Julia and the girls know in the morning."

Rebecka smiled at Jondy. "You're welcome." She stood and turned to head back to her room. A question sprang into her head. Looking over her shoulder she dared to ask. "Why does Julia call you Jessica?"

Jondy giggled. "It's the name I used when we escaped from Manticore and split up. It's the only name Julia ever knew to call me. I guess it's a bit late to change now, a bit like my accent."

Rebecka nodded. "Old habits are hard to break." She said good night and returned to her room. She was one step closer to her daughter and for now that was enough.

The next afternoon Max sat with Jondy in a room set up as a lab. "So what do ya think?" Max pointed to the x-rays in front of them. "Any chance you can get that thing out of my head?" The implant showed up loud and clear on the x-rays.

Jondy shook her head. "Not at the moment. I wouldn't rule out the possibility all together. It is making your seizures worse though." She was sitting beside Max on the examination table swinging her legs back and forth. "Have you ever tried meditation?"

Max shook her head. "No. After the scare I gave Logan the other day though, I'm willing to try just about anything." She took a deep breath. "Do you think I'll ever stop having these seizures?"

Jondy put her arm around Max's shoulders. "I'm working on it." She grinned mischievously at her sister. "Do these seizures ever come on when you and Logan are having sex?"

Max blushed bright red. "Not as yet. If that's your idea of a cure, I can't see Logan refusing to help me out."

Jondy giggled. "You should see the look on your face." She tried to be a little more serious. "It's just a theory, but Devon noticed my seizures were always at their worse when I got upset about something or someone. If I focused my energy on a good memory or someone who didn't stress me out, it seemed to help. It's a bit like focusing on a mission when we were at Manticore."

Max thought about what her sister was saying. It made sense. Her mind was certainly relaxed when Logan made love to her. "I'll let Logan know we may have a temporary cure." She hopped off the table and went to look for Logan.

Jondy walked over to where Max's x-ray were hanging and jabbed the picture of the implant. "Don't get to comfortable in my sister's head, cause I'm going to find a way to get you out," she muttered to herself.

Later that night Logan, Max, and Jondy sat on the sofa cuddling the twins. Julia and the girls had gone through Devon's room and packed up everything that they hadn't wanted to keep. Julia had put aside a couple of items Devon had kept from his childhood, so that Jondy could give them to the twins. A few of the treasured items had been left on the coffee table when Rebecka had offered to tuck the girls in.

Logan watched baby Tinga wrap her tiny hand around his finger. The baby girl beamed up at him from her seat on Max's lap. "She's got your smile, Jondy." The more he looked the more he could see the twins were a perfect combination of both Devon and Jondy.

Max took her gaze off of the baby for a moment to look at her sister. "Didn't you want to keep anything of Devon's?" Her sister had decided she didn't want to touch anything in Devon's room, so Max, Logan, and Rebecka had taken Jondy and the twins out so that Rebecka could see the sights of San Francisco.

"I already have the best part of Devon." The twins were a part of Devon that she was also a part of. They were also a dream come true. Back at Manticore Jondy had only been able to dream of a life outside of the guarded fences. She had been told children weren't a possibility. "I guess we showed Manticore that we don't live by their rules."

Max knew what her sister meant. There wasn't a day that went by when she wondered if she had just dreamt Logan up. "We sure did."

Julia walked into the room with a book in her hand and Rebecka right behind her. "Jessica, I found this while we were packing up Devon's room. I thought you might want to keep it." She handed Jondy the book and then said good night to everyone and went to bed.

Rebecka sat beside Max who was sitting on Logan's lap on the sofa. She noticed the puzzled look on Jondy's face. "Is something wrong?"

Jondy handed her son over to her mother. "No. I just never thought Devon would have kept this." She looked up to see three confused faces. "Just after Devon found me and took me home to his mother, Julia decided I should go to school. Devon was pretty much a child genius so he was ahead of where he should have been at school. Anyway, he had this English teacher that decided he kept too much bottled up and that Devon should start writing in a journal." She shook her head and smiled. "Devon felt he had better things to do, but agreed on the condition nobody could read it. The teacher agreed that was fine but he would need proof of some kind that Devon was actually writing in the journal."

Max chuckled. "Devon provided you as an eye witness. With your genetically altered DNA, you would have been the only person able to keep up with him in class."

Jondy nodded. "Most of the time he just wrote one sentence so that he could honestly say he had written in the journal." She flicked through the pages catching the dates written on each page. For most of their childhood, Devon had only written one or two lines. As a grown up, he had written numerous pages but only on selected days. "There are entries in here from a year ago and a few years before that."

Logan, himself wrote poetry when he needed an escape. It helped him put things in prospective. "It probably helped him sort things out in his head. That would have been around the time the South Africans started looking for you. Then you had to disappear when some of you were compromised. I guess Devon didn't want to burden you talking about it, seeing as you had your own problems."

Max wondered if Logan did the same thing with his poetry. She looked up at him. "Have you written any poems lately?'

Logan smiled down at her. "Yeah. One or two. I'd show them to you, but the last time I showed you one of my poems, it went missing."

Rebecka watched Logan teasing Max. "You never found out what happened to it?" She could tell by the blush on Max's face exactly what had happened to the poem.

Logan rested his chin on top of Max's head as he pulled her closer. "I think I know where I can find it." He stifled a yawn. "I think us mere mortals ought to try and get some sleep, if we're going to get an early start tomorrow.

"I'll be in, in a minute." Max waited for Logan and Rebecka to leave the room with the twins before questioning Jondy. "How recent are the journal entries?"

Jondy flicked to a particular page and handed the journal to Max. "He wrote that when Zack had us hiding out in Canada. I only had time to say a quick good bye before I had to run. We both knew it could happen one day that Manticore might catch up with me. I never realized it would affect Devon so deeply."

Max read the pages of neat writing aloud. "'The day I've dreaded ever since I met Jondy had finally come. The government has found out her position and she had to leave for the safety of both of us. She was in Seattle. If I hadn't seen the 'Eyes Only' broadcast and sent her the text message, she would have come home to find Manticore waiting on our doorstep for her. It's just as well we said goodbye over the phone. Face to face, I would have begged to go with her. She's only been gone a couple of hours but I miss her as though she has been gone for years. It feels as though I lost a part of myself and although there is no physical attraction, the person I love the most in the world has been taken from me. She's right, Jondy once told me life had a habit of giving you your most wanted dreams, only to cruelly snatch them away. Still, she never did follow life's rules and despite the odds against her, I believe Jondy will fight the nightmares to keep the dream.'"

Max looked over at her sister. "Wow. You were the love of his life and you didn't even have to sleep with him."

Jondy smiled at her sister. "Yeah, at least I know now how Devon felt about me. Now if only we could get rid of Ames White, all of my nightmares would be gone."

Max glanced at her sister wistfully. "With the backup we've got, that day may come sooner than we think." She handed the journal back to Jondy and headed for her room. "Sweet Dreams, Sis."

Jondy smiled at Max over her shoulder. "Yeah. Sweet Dreams, Maxie." She turned the page and finished reading Devon's journal.

The End