Liz opened her eyes and stared blankly in the dark for a few moments. Blinking slowly, her eyes began to focus in on the shapes developing in the dimness above her head. She forced her mind to work quickly in capturing the remnants of her dream before the details slipped away with consciousness.

With a frustrated sigh, she rolled over and let her arm fall over her lover's sleeping form. Pulling herself in closer, she breathed in the fresh scent of her hair. She knew it would be hours probably before she could fall back asleep, and the time between now and then would be filled with the creeping dread and emptiness she'd been feeling for several nights now.

It had been months since she'd thought of the tall brunette with the sapphire eyes. She didn't know why she was thinking of her now. The feeling that enveloped her upon waking told her that the woman probably walked the halls of her dream a moment before, but she couldn't grasp the memory enough to know for sure.

Now she let her mind fall back to that nervous day, scribbling down Jade Mercury's digits with a shaking hand. She had felt something that day, the start of something about to happen. It was the tingling sensation on the back of your neck when you hear thunder rolling in the distance just the moment before you see the flash of lightning.

The flash never came though. She never saw Jade Mercury again. Actually no one had seen or heard from her. Liz knew because she spent the next several weeks grilling anyone and everyone in the company who'd heard anything about her resignation and swift disappearance.

Liz wasn't sure if it was the mystery itself that presented such a thought consuming challenge for her, or the connection she'd felt in the brief moments of being in the woman's company.

Regardless, tonight she decided to try and force her thoughts to more settling subjects. She had to be awake in three hours to do her last hectic day before her sabbatical began, and wanted desperately to fall back asleep before then.