It was inevitable.
Chapter Twelve: The Link
Gary was so caught up in the kiss that he didn't notice that anything had happened until he felt a sudden rush of emotion, as if his love for her had doubled in strength. Then, he felt as if he could hear everything, and it sounded as if his heartbeat was echoing. A dull ache was forming in his right ankle.
Gary…
He broke the kiss and blinked, recognizing Lisa's voice in his head, but it sounded stronger and closer than it had when she'd been calling him at the Institute.
Lisa, herself, looked surprised, but, somehow, he could sense it wasn't for the same reason he was.
"Gary, why didn't you tell me?" she asked.
"T-tell you what?" he replied, stuttering involuntarily.
"What you were feeling."
What he was feeling? He'd told her, hadn't he? He'd said that he was falling in love with her.
"That's not what I mean," she said.
Okay, maybe he was feeling a little weaker, but he didn't see any reason to mention it. There was none, really…was there?
He asked a question before Lisa could go off, because he somehow could feel she was going to explode in a burst of emotion at any moment. "Lisa," he said, "what's going on? Why…is everything amplified?"
The link, her thoughts said.
"What's 'the link'?"
She mentally hemmed and hawed for a few seconds before sighing. "The link is what happens when I share the True Love's Kiss with someone who has the same feelings for me as I do for them. We become linked…the echo you're hearing is my hearts-beat."
"Howzat?" he asked. "Hearts-beat?"
She nodded, then took his hand and placed it on her neck where he could feel her pulse.
No…pulses…
"What the…"
"A double-pulse. I have two hearts. You can feel it, can't you?"
Gary could. Inside his chest, he felt as if another heart were beating beside his own, strong and steady. It was the other that felt as if it were beating irregularly, much like his own.
"Gary…" Lisa began, but broke off, wincing and shaking her head.
He felt dizzy, so he flattened himself out on the bed as best he could and shut his eyes, groaning. He then felt the ear thermometer as Lisa took his temperature again.
"It went up. Here, you better drink this."
He accepted the vial of medication, as he was used to taking it now, and drunk it down. For some reason, the stuff wasn't working as fast as it had been, and, while the dizziness diminished to the point where he could open his eyes without the room doing cartwheels, he felt steadily weaker, so he just lay in bed, half on his side and half on his back.
Lisa knelt beside him, stroking his hair. "I'm sorry, Gary," she said softly. "There's nothing I can do for you until Medicus gets back."
" 's all right," he whispered, his words slightly slurred with weakness, trying to stay awake.
She sighed. "Try and rest, Gary."
His vision was already dimming fast, so he let the darkness envelop him completely.
End chapter twelve.