THANK YOU, SKETTY24, HUGHLOVERX and NIANNA for the reviews D!!! I love you guys :D! and SKETTY, it's great to know that you're still enjoying the ride (my gawd, I didn't know this fanfic would get THIS long --- seriously O.O lol). Heheh...don't worry, guys...Stryker's flashback scene will soon come to an end ;)!

Chapter 71: Dreams come and dreams go

Yuriko quickly walked towards William, and then she stopped just an arm's reach away from him. A soft smile curled up her lips as she looked into his eyes. And then without saying a word, she suddenly threw her arms around his neck.

"I'm so happy for you." She said softly, still holding him close to her.

William's eyes opened wide with what Yuriko just did. He didn't expect her to do something like that. Perhaps she was just so happy for him. Then he smiled to himself and wrapped his arms around her and gently patted her on the back.

"Thank you." He whispered back.

Yuriko pulled away from him, and then she smiled as she looked at his face. She could really see the happiness emanating for his blue eyes. He looked like the happiest man in the world, and perhaps, at this moment in time, he really was. She also couldn't believe that he was now a father. When she first met him, he was so young, unruly, careless and wily, that she never thought she'd see the day when he would become a father, or even a husband. But now, here he was, so excited to see the son that he had created from his love with his wife...so excited to carry the boy in his arms.

"Hey, maybe Logan and I will drop by the hospital later." She said with a smile.

His face lit up and he gently laughed. "That would be --- fantastic." He said passionately. "I know Karen would love to see the two of you." He said as he glanced at Logan. "She considers you her close friends too, you know. And right now, I bet she'd love to see all the friends that she can." He said with a soft chuckle.

Then he raised his eyebrows and shrugged. "Anyway, I have to go now. Can't have little Jason waiting for his daddy now, can I?" He couldn't stop himself from smiling. Then he looked over at Logan and gave him a little wave. "See ya', James!" He shouted.

Logan grinned and nodded at him. "Don't forget about our mission tomorrow." He replied. He, too, was happy for William. If he were any ordinary friend, he would have stood up and gave William a hug of congratulations for the newborn child. But he was no ordinary friend. He was Logan...he was Wolverine, and he usually kept his emotions to himself. After all, he had his own way of expressing his feelings, though most of those expressions usually occurred in the middle of the battlefield...whenever he saved a life, or shielded his teammates from any kind of hazards.

"Don't worry, I won't!" William exclaimed as he walked out the door. And then he closed the door behind him, leaving Yuriko, Logan and Hudson in the briefing room.

And as William stepped out, everyone suddenly froze in place, except for the older Stryker who was still standing in the corner of the briefing room. Why did they suddenly stop moving? Then he walked around and observed each and every one of his frozen companions. This was definitely bizarre. He stepped in front of Logan and looked at him. Logan didn't even move an inch, nor did a sound escape from his frozen lips. Logan was just sitting there, with his head turned towards the door, as when William exited the room. Hudson and Yuriko also remained unmoving in their places.

Stryker furrowed his eyebrows as he looked around him. After a few seconds of standing there, staring at the three visual statues, he finally realized why this part of his memory froze. Because this specific point in time was not a part of his memory. His younger self had already left the room. So whatever happened in the briefing room after the young William left was something that wasn't included in his trove of forgotten past. After all, how could he remember something, if he didn't even experience it?

So how was he going to get out of this memory now? Why didn't he advance further into the future, like he had done before? What was going on? Was something happening in his mind that he didn't know about? Then he looked at the door, and saw it slightly open. He furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at it suspiciously. He knew William closed the door shut when he stepped out of the room, so why was it open? And through the opening in the door, he could see nothing but white space, as if the door led to nothing but an empty, white room. Where was it really going to lead him to?

Then he breathed in and walked towards the door. It looked like the only way out of this frozen memory, so he might as well go through it. After all, whatever it would lead him to would bring him no harm, because none of this was real. None of this could hurt him. None of what he might see could kill him. This was nothing but a movie...and as an audience, he now had the option to go to the 'next' chapter.

He soon found himself standing in front of the slightly-opened door. Then he breathed in, and braced himself as he quickly opened it and stepped through it.

He stepped through the door, and a bright flash of light glared against his eyes, which caused him to shield his face. He was blind for a few seconds, and after a while, his eyesight slowly started to return. And as he moved his hand away from his face, his eyes suddenly opened wide with surprise and confusion when he found himself standing in the place where he least expected to appear.

He was back in the bookstore. And he was standing right where stood when he first entered this series of visions. He was standing by the door.

And somehow, he knew that this wasn't a part of his future, because everything in the bookstore looked as similar as to when he first saw it. It was as if he was back to where he started. Nathan was behind the counter, reading the same newspaper, and he was wearing the same clothes as to when he first saw him. Was he really back to the beginning? If so, then why? What was he doing here?

Before Stryker could move an inch, something happened that he was expecting to happen. The door behind him opened, and his younger counterpart greeted Nathan and walked through him like he did in his very first vision. And as expected, the young William walked to the counter and started to talk with the older man.

Stryker furrowed his eyebrows as he looked at what was happening before him. Confusion could easily be seen on his face. "What the heck is going on?" He whispered to himself. He had already seen this vision before. Shouldn't he be somewhere in the future? He should be moving forward in his memories...not backward.

Then he suddenly found himself standing by the counter, behind William and Karen. His memory made another jump, but he had already seen this vision too. Why was he seeing the past? Why was he back to where it all began? And in a split second, he was now standing in the sidewalk, and William was running towards him, like when the young man was chasing after Karen. After another second, he now found himself standing in a café, and William and Karen were dining in one of the tables.

He finally realized what was happening. His memory was having a retelling, a recounting, of all the events that happened between him and Karen. Then he suddenly found himself appearing from one place to another. His memory was showing him all the past that he had with her, just like he wanted to. He found himself appearing in the park, in Karen's apartment, on a building's rooftop, by the beach, in the street, in a mall, in a store, in a restaurant, by a swimming pool, in their bedroom, in the bathroom, on a balcony, in a movie theater, and he saw his younger self and Karen 'together', with each other, in each and every one of those places.

He wished that he could stay in one event, long enough to see it, and fully relish it, but his memory kept on taking him from one place to another. And he just remained standing there, unmoving like a dumbfounded statue, as he observed his surroundings change like a fast-flipping slideshow. Every now and then, an event would last long enough for him to hear a line or two from their lips. In one brief event, where they were both in the bed together, wrapped in each other's arms, he was able to stay for a few seconds, long enough to hear Karen say that she fell in love with him from the moment she first lay eyes on him. Oh how he wish he could have stayed in that event longer.

If he could just reach out and grasp them and keep him with him for as long as he could. But alas, his mind never let him. But at least everything that he was seeing was beautiful and good and perfect. He now realized how truly happy they were together, how perfect and wonderful they were together. He felt like he was in a rollercoaster ride. These fast-changing series of memories felt like a rollercoaster ride to him. Because when you are in a rollercoaster ride, everything in the world feels so exciting and so perfect and so breathtaking. And just like a rollercoaster ride, he wanted to cherish every brief, sweet moment...because once that rollercoaster ride stops, so will the memories...so will the excitement and joy and perfections of his life...

That's why he didn't want it to stop. He'd rather stay here, in his mind, where Karen was. He'd rather stay here and watch these events for all eternity. He'd rather be with Karen forever, even if it meant that he had to stay trapped in his own mind.

Then the visions suddenly stopped.........

And he was now standing in front of a house. He swallowed in fear, as he looked at the house in front of him. He knew what house it was...It was their house. It was the house that he bought when he and Karen got married. This was the house where they lived in. He noticed that it was also night time. It was evident due to the dark sky above him and the dim stars that littered the night sky. So why did all his memories stop here? Of all places, why did he appear here, at night, in front of his house?

And why wasn't Karen here with him? Was she inside?