Author's Note : Thanks again for your comments!

Flashes of creamy light came to me like a ship's torch as it sails across the midnight ocean. Flashes of intense pain all over my body. I tried to speak out but the darkness had caught my tongue and no words came out. Once I felt someone squeeze my hand. Warm, sweet pressure that kept me going. Then I saw her eyes, large, green circles that laughed in my sorrow. I tried to speak through the pain and tell her how much I had tried, how I would do anything to stop her anger but I was too weak and she was too strong. She just carried on laughing. And even though I knew she was just a spectre of my delirium, she frightened me as much as she had ever done.

"Mary..." Someone called my name and squeezed my hand once again. The creamy light became brighter and I struggled for breath as the darkness faded away. Pain clutched at me with long fingernails and all I could think of was her laughing green eyes and the terror as she came up behind me and pushed me down the stairs.

"Just leave me alone!" I cried and I was sure it was blood trickling down my cheeks. "Please... Leave me alone."

"I'm not going to hurt you." The voice came again this time desperate and shaking. My arms reached out and clutched something soft, arms, blue arms. Just like that the mist cleared and I was lying in a hospital room, the thin mattress beneath me, the baggy nightgown on my body. Once again I struggled for breath and it was suddenly like the whole world wasn't real. I was drifting between the hospital and somewhere else, somewhere deep in my mind that I had tried so desperately to push away yet still it clutched hold of me. I tried so hard to breathe and I couldn't control myself from screaming. All the time there was that blue blur beside me.

"It's alright, Mary, it's alright. I'm here."

Then another blur, a white one came near, there was a prick in my arm and the darkness surrounded me once again. This time it was a comforting darkness with no demons lurking in the shadows.

When I awoke again I heard birds twittering outside the clinic and soft breathing somewhere near. My legs felt numb and my chest squeezed painfully every time I tried to breathe. I blinked a few times and then gathered enough courage to look around. There were two human silhouettes in the open doorway of the hospital who were talking quietly. I recognised Elli, whose face held a tired and careworn expression and there were tears resting on the ledges of her eyelids. It was the doctor she was talking to and he also looked grave, his dark head bowed as he muttered something to Elli and gently took her hand.

I thought they were the only people in the room and was about to call out to them, when my eyes caught something blue in the corner of the room where a little waiting room had been set up, with shiny black sofas. Jack was sitting on one of them, his arms tightly folded and his chin resting on his chest. He was tapping his feet, which was a nervous habit of his and his eyes were half closed and looked slightly misty as if he could drop off at any second but something was keeping him awake. I wondered whether I should keep the comforting silence or speak out. There was something in my stomach, a shaky nervous thing that made me want to vomit, or scream or do something. I couldn't stay alone any longer.

"J... Jack." My throat strained as I spoke and my voice came out surprisingly hoarse. It was so quiet that he didn't even hear me, neither did the doctor or Elli. "Jack!" I said urgently feeling a huge surge of panic. He jumped and his eyes flew to me and then brightened with a mixture of relief and fear.

"You're awake!" He ran to my side and Elli and the doctor heard him and came running over too. Jack was holding on to my arms and Elli kissed my cheek, the tears now chasing each other down her cheeks and flying off her chin. "Are you okay, how are you feeling?" Jack asked, words tumbling out of his mouth in disorder.

"You were in a awful state when Karen found you, Mary, we were all so worried. Then you woke up was so scared... We must thank the goddess that you're well again!" She hugged the doctor and then Jack and then she put her hand to her chest and positively sobbed.

"K... Karen?" I looked around at them all. "Karen found me?"

"Don't you remember?" Doctor looked at me concernedly, quickly collecting his clip board and a pen. "Do you remember falling down the stairs, Mary? Karen found you at the bottom of the stairs in the inn. Gray said you went to see him and..."

"Yes, yes, I r... remember." I squeezed in my chest, trying to get a hold of my breath. Jack leaned closer to me, his face turned a little red.

"What's the matter with her? Why can't she breathe? Why is she breathing like that?" His eyes darted about in panic and his hand turned clammy on my arm as I leant forward, holding on to my chest. I was sure I was going to die, the whole world was swaying around and around and my ears buzzed so that the people's voices came at me like a badly tuned in radio. I could faintly hear Elli going all high pitched and cold on my chest as the doctor felt my heartbeat with his stethoscope.

"I... I'm going to die aren't I?" I managed to say, in between gulps of breath.

The doctor shook his head and then turned to Jack. "It's alright, she's having a panic attack. She's probably just a little shook up about what's happened. Mary..." His black bead eyes looked deeply into mine. "Just try and relax for me. Take big deep breaths. Elli, have we got any paper bags?" I had never seen Elli run upstairs so fast. "Jack, why don't you try and calm her down a little, I'll go and see if I can help Elli find a bag for her to breathe into. It sometimes helps with situations like this."

The doctor disappeared and Jack looked across at me with big nervous eyes and my breathing got a little worse when I remembered the argument we had and the things I had said about not wanting to see him anymore. I wished I could tell him I didn't mean it but I was too worked up to think about talking. I was too worked up to even cry. "I'm scared..." I rasped, "I'm really scared."

"There's no need to be." He said slowly and he let go of my arm and took my hands instead, sitting down on the bed near me, he pulled me close to him so that our foreheads were touching. "Nobody's going to hurt you, I'm here now and I won't let them, okay? I'll... I'll wave my sickle at them or something."

My breathing slowed down and I had to smile. Jack's relaxed his shoulders, that had been hunched up to his neck before, when he heard me calm down a little and continued to talk in a slow voice, squeezing my hand. "The doctor said that you've got a few broken bones but no serious injuries so ya should be allowed out soon. Your Mum's been looking after Charlie. He's been missing you like hell, but he's alright. So there's nothing to worry about." When he saw that my face was still a little tight, he spoke again. "I think she's been talking his ear off, telling him all the village gossip because your Dad's gone in some new book and he keeps rolling his eyes at her, so she just talks louder and yesterday when I went to take Charlie back for the night, you'll never believe what she did. She gave me a cake to taste, said it was for the cooking festival. The cooking festival! When does that happen, spring? That's nearly a year away! A god damn year!" I had to giggle and my breathing went slowly back to normal and my stomach relaxed.

"I'm sorry I was acting so silly, Jack. I just felt so scared."

He frowned at me. "The only thing that's silly..." He said, in his playful voice. "...is that you think you're being silly. It was a really bad fall. Anyone woulda been frightened when they woke up and found out."

I swallowed and stiffened my body. The word "fall" resounding again and again in my head. I remembered the afternoon in the inn. I remembered the darkness of the landing when I had run out to chase after Jack and try and save our relationship. But it wasn't too dark to see those eyes. Those glittering, triumphant green eyes. She knew she had won. If she had pushed me she would get rid of me forever. Just like that day, all those years ago, when my parents and I were supposed to be on holiday but it had been no relaxing break by the sea. There had been some parts that were pleasant, like meeting the little boy with eyes like the romantic heroes in the fairy stories I loved and singing on top of Mother's hill with him. It would have been the perfect fairy story too, if Karen hadn't been around that is. Jack was looking at me gravely he had seen something in my eyes and obviously caught on that something wasn't right. He didn't ask me to tell him but his eyes did it for him. If it had been the Mary of two years ago who had been pushed down the stairs, maybe I would have said that everything was alright and pretended that I had tripped down the stairs and it had been nothing more than a simple accident. But everything I had gone through had taught me a valuable lesson. These sorts of lies, because they were lies, not just something I used to cover up myself, never did anyone any favours. They only led to pain and more pain and yet more pain. If you didn't let someone get inside you, really open you up instead of just letting them touch the surface, then you stayed locked in your cage forever. It isn't a comfortable cage, where you feel protected and safe from the evils of the world. It's a dark, dangerous place where all sorts of nightmares lurk and you can rely on only yourself for safety. And you scream to be let out, you bang and hammer at the bars but unless you speak out you'll be in there forever.

"I didn't fall." I whisper, gripping the blankets of my bed. "I didn't fall down the stairs."

"Wh... What?" Jack's voice was almost a whisper too but it was raw and sounded like sandpaper.

"I was pushed. Karen pushed me. She came up behind me and she smiled and then she pushed me down the stairs. Just like she did when I was seven years old and she pushed me off the pier into the sea." Jack didn't say anything but his mouth was open and he searched my eyes for more, so I told him.

"She never really liked me. We came on holiday here, to Mineral Village, when I was seven because Dad wanted to explore the mountains and Mother was excited about the beach. I saw Karen around the place and when we went into her shop to get supplies for our holiday, I tried to make friends with her but she just laughed at me. She wouldn't stop laughing. It was like I was so dim for thinking someone like her could be friends with someone like me. And whenever we saw each other that summer and she was with her friend, Popuri, she would make a point of saying something horrid very quietly so that Mum and Dad didn't hear. I always felt like just bursting into tears. I know that I'm not as pretty as everyone else in the village but it really hurt to be told it, just the same.

"I always tried to be with my parents but there was a few times when I was alone and that was when she really got to me." I hesitated with the next bit, fearful I was going to start crying as I had never told anyone before. I hadn't even wrote it down in a diary, it hurt so much. "Once she pushed my face in the mud and said that's where I belonged because I was nothing but ugly dirt. The worst thing was when she would just look at my face and laugh. I know it doesn't sound like much but all the time when she did that, I just felt like nothing. Worse than dirt. Just nothing, a big joke to everyone." I paused to catch my breath and stop myself from crying. Jack still didn't say anything but he stroked my shoulder and his nose was all wrinkled like a crumpled piece of paper.

"Then on the last day of the holiday, I was sitting on the pier, just watching the waves and thinking, when she appeared. She was as beautiful as always. Don't look like that, Jack, you know she is beautiful. Well, she was just the same when she was little with that golden hair and those eyes. Everyone said she was going to be a proper little ballerina, her parents were saving up for her to go to a school in the city to train in a proper dancing school. I remember them talking about that with Mother. And Mother fussed over Karen like she was a little angel. Then on the way back to the inn, she would start criticising me. She wanted to know why I couldn't be more like Karen, why I couldn't take dancing lessons and curtsey like a princess. She had always wanted a daughter like that. Anyway, Karen approached me that day on the beach and I was so scared, I just wanted to run away but she caught hold of my arm before I could escape. She asked me if I could swim in a sweet voice like the one she used in front of my Mother. I couldn't answer until she shook me hard until I said no, I couldn't swim. That's when she pushed me. I thought I was going to die. I kept splashing and splashing but I was going under and I couldn't breathe... I couldn't breathe. Luckily there was a lifeguard on patrol then in the village and he got me out. But when I got home I always had nightmares about it.

"Then, years later, Dad said he wanted to study mountain plants and he was going to take us to live in Mineral Village and buy the little library and adjoining house. He told me the library was for me to run, to make me smile, but he didn't know that even after all the years that had passed, he was giving me a heart attack. A thousand of them, one after another. When we moved here I hoped I could hide in the library and avoid seeing her as much as possible. Then there was the music festival and you..." I looked up at him and he was watching me hard, his fingers gently massarging my hands. "It was like all my dreams were coming true and I didn't want to stop and slow it down. I didn't want anything to spoil it. I knew she had a thing for you and I knew she was going to do everything in her power to stop us being together but I didn't say anything. I just wanted us to carry on the way we were. I just kept on falling more and more in love with you. Maybe if I had spoken to her as soon as we got back in the village or told you, I don't know... But I knew, Jack, I knew that something was going to happen. I just got too caught up in our love, I thought you wouldn't ever leave me and I forgot that you were human and you had weaknesses, just like we all do." I stopped and breathed a huge sigh of relief, feeling strange but refreshed now that it was all out there in the open.

Jack pulled me into his arms and held me there fast while I sobbed on to his shoulder. "Don't ever think you're nothing." He told me, in a tight voice. "And you're not dirt either. You're the most beautiful, beautiful girl in the world and I love you and Charlie loves you and she's never going to hurt you like that again, you hear me? I'll make damn sure she doesn't even get to breathe on you again." He guided me away from his shoulders and held me facing him, his hands strong on the tops of my arms, making me swirl with excitement and deep feeling. "I can't believe I went anywhere near that... that..." He screwed his face up in disgust.

"Please can we not talk about this anymore? I'm tired and I just want to sit here with you and let everything else fade away."

Jack nodded, understanding, and pushed a few strands of hair back behind my ears and I touched his warm cheek. It really was like the whole world could wait, all that mattered was the here and now, me and him and now that I had told him, I felt like I had broken out of my cage and I was flying in the warm summer sky and all I had to do was look at him to see everything that was possible, everything I had been missing out on in my darker days and I thought of the times we had talked before. The times when he had told me about his wild, opinionated mother and how his Dad had loved her but he hadn't been able to tie her down and after she left his Dad had thrown himself into work and drink. He was an old fashioned man and he reckoned Jack was just like his Mother, except he was going to do everything in his power to make sure Jack followed orders and didn't give in to the wild streak that his Mother had supposedly passed down to him. Jack went through so much, so much pain, so much hate, so much darkness. But we could be together now, I felt it in his touch. Something had changed, something was starting and this time I was going to let him in the same way he had let me in. All we needed was time.

"We found them..." Elli yelled as she flew down the stairs. When she got to the bottom she stopped and stared in pure shock, scrunching the paper bag up in her startled hands as she took in the sight of Jack sitting on my bed and the two of us holding on to each other very tightly. "B... But it looks like you don't need the bag at all anymore, Mary!" She flushed and giggled. The doctor came up behind her, a small smile on his lips.

Jack, as if suddenly remembering something, let go of me and jumped down from the bed, his eyes went from me to Elli. "I'm going to go and fetch Harris." He said, "I'll be back in a minute."

"Harris?" I panicked. "But why? Oh Jack I don't want to tell him anything. I... I can't. I..."

"Yes you can, Mary, and you will. You're not letting her get away with this, I won't let you."

I tried to protest but he was having none of it and swiftly left the building, ignoring my cries. Elli came over, her eyebrows knotted together questioningly. I knew I had to tell her what happened so I did so as quickly as I could manage. She already knew a tiny part of it, but not all, and as I told my story her face got redder and redder but she didn't cry. When I had finished she took me into her arms and held me so tightly that I nearly suffocated. Of course I didn't mind in the slightest.

"You've been so brave, Mary, but you won't struggle with this on your own any longer. I'm always here for you, as is the doctor and Jack. He loves you so much, Mary." She sighed contentedly and seeing my surprise at her sudden change of heart she hastily continued. "He's so devoted to you. He sat here all day and most of the night while you were unconscious, he hired the sprites to look after the farm and he hasn't left your side. It was really heartbreaking to watch the pain on his face. I know I had doubts in the past about his feelings for you but I was wrong, Mary, he really does love you."

"But... But..." I squeezed her hands. "I was so mean to him. I told him I didn't want to see him anymore and I..."

"I know. He told me everything but he knows how upset you were." She patted my hand. "Don't worry yourself about it."

I couldn't stop myself from worrying but it quickly ran from my mind when Jack returned, with Charlie on his hip and Harris beside him with a notepad in his hands. For a moment, one moment, I hesitated. I thought about telling him I had made the whole thing up or it had been a mistake but then I looked at Charlie, gurgling happily with his father, his little hands reaching out for his Mum and then I looked at Jack, his eyes round and trusting. I knew I had to go through with it, for the sake of the happiness of my family. Charlie, who needed our love, guidance and example and Jack, who even when we were separated would always be part of my family, would always be part of me. So I nodded slightly at Harris and told myself that all the questions he asked me, I would answer as well as I could, no matter how difficult they were.

"I know this was hard for you but thank you for your co-operation, Mary." Harris said after our interview, flapping his notebook shut and looking at his watch.

"Sorry, I hope you don't mind me asking, but what will happen now? What are you going to do about Karen?"

"Well, I'll take her back to myself and my father's house, where we'll have a formal interview, to get her side of the story."

I swallowed hard. I could just see Karen wriggling her way out of it, making up some elaborate story about how I had been jealous of her relationship with Jack and smiling sweetly so that they would never doubt her. Harris tipped his hat politely as he went towards the door. "Don't worry, Miss Mary, I assure you that we'll get the truth about this matter. I wish you a speedy recovery."

"Thank you, Harris!"

Jack came across the room and placed Charlie on my lap. I smothered him in kisses and played with his curls, so happy to see my baby son again, especially after such a nerve-wracking experience, he was a great comfort. Jack stood there, rather awkwardly, again tapping his foot on the floor. Once I had finished my fussing of Charlie, I looked up at him.

"Well done for telling him everything. I know how hard it was but you did it. See, you are strong inside."

"No." I shook my head and shyly looked up at him. "There's two people who make me strong and they're you and Charlie and I would be nothing without you both."

He took hold of my hand. "Mary..."

"No, don't say anything. First let me say something. I'm really sorry about what I said in the square. I didn't mean it. I do want you in my life, I was just so frightened and I jumped on the first opportunity to run away." I sighed. "I'll understand if you think that too much has happened now for us to be together but when I was coming out of the inn that day, I was coming to see you. Gray made me understand how stupid I had been and I wanted to make up with you, to somehow try again... if that's what you want."

He gripped my hand tighter. "Of course it's what I want. But you've gotta be sure this time 'cos...."

"I won't runaway this time. We'll take things slowly and I'll try and be more open."

He leant down and kissed my forehead and my skin fizzed with the impact. "I'm never going to let you go again." He said slowly, with conviction and I trusted him wholly, completely and even if sometime in the future he did let me go, which I was sure he wouldn't, I wouldn't let this moment be tainted because in that moment our feelings were true and time and circumstance could not mangle them. Nothing could leave the slightest imprint on what we had then.