"Gregory-" She opened her eyes slowly as stretched her way out of her nap. The sharp pain in her side was the baby, beating up her diaphragm. Olivia blinked as the hum of the engine cut through. She was on a plane. With Gregory.
His hand found hers over her belly, sharing the sensation with her. "Must be hard to sleep through." He teased gently. "I remember, when you were pregnant with Sean- how you used to wake me up when it was bad. So I could talk some sense into him."
"You remember that?" She yawned slightly and propped her head up on her arm. "I thought-"
"I remember Sean." Gregory explained as he smiled gently. "I remember how afraid you were to tell me you were pregnant again. How afraid I was that something would happen. I remember taking you to see him for the first time." His face was dangerously close. "How you cried."
"I couldn't believe he was all right. There was so much blood when he was born. So much pain-"
"Shhh-" Gregory softened the memory as his hand rubbed her belly. "It's all right. I remember that. You don't have to tell me. It's all right. I remember Sean and law school, playing cards until three am with Roger and Del and nearly loosing my first car." He liked hearing her laugh.
"It's just Caitlin-" He sighed and let her take his hand. "To be honest, you and Caitlin that I have trouble with. As if someone tried to erase every mention of her from my mind and did a messy job of it."
"What did that neurologist say?" Olivia asked as she sat up slowly. Gregory rested his head on her knee, keeping his position on the floor. "The specialist they sent you to? Did he have any news?"
"In other words, is my head completely scrambled? Who's Gregory Richards and where has he gone?" He laughed softly and slid his head over to rest against her belly.
He was counting on her for comfort. For safety, for a reason to go on living. Olivia buried her hands in his hair and held him close. As if he could share his parent's concern, the baby kicked harder, drawing a sharp gasp of surprise from his mother.
"Did you feel that? He's going to be a fighter."
Gregory sat back for a moment, holding his jaw as if the baby had kicked him on purpose. "He's already is. Our little baby's hung on through a lot."
"He's going to make it." Olivia lifted his chin and stared him down. "We've come so far already, it's nearly Christmas. If there's anything worth remembering darling-" She wrinkled her noise playfully and nodded. "It's Christmas."
"I love Christmas." He jumped up to check the flight controls, kissing her forehead as he headed up to the pilot's chair. "At least-" He settled in jauntily, keeping his feet over the edge of the chair as he called back to her. "I like to think I do."
Olivia followed him slowly up, surprising herself with her unwillingness to be away from him. She kept her hand over the spot on the side of her ribcage, as if that could somehow stop the painful exercise her youngest child seemed intent on continuing.
Gregory gave her his hand and swung his feet around. "Here- you wanted to push buttons before. Want to fly the plane?"
"You're not serious?" Her head went back as she laughed.
Nodding earnestly, he pulled her forward as he crept behind the chair and made way. "This isn't an official lesson or anything, but it is a good thing to know how to do. Besides, you're going to have to teach him someday-"
He moved her hand from her belly to the throttle. "I probably won't have the patience."
"You did wonderfully when you taught Caitlin how to drive." Copying his movements, she put back on the headset and looked over the mess of gently glowing readouts.
Gregory sat down and secretively did up his seat-belt. Reaching over with a smirk, he clicked off the autopilot and took the secondary throttle. "I'll take your word for it."
The readouts stayed green for a few moments and then one, heading, started to turn yellow, then orange. The plane titled to the left. Gregory looked at his wife and waited for her to figure it out.
"Darling-"
"You can do it." He insisted as the plane banked further off course. "Just turn it back. Like driving a car, except the ditch is a little further away."
"I only put the car in the ditch once." Olivia pointed out as she over adjusted and sent the plane skittering to the right instead. "And it was icy."
The notion teased his memory. The fog parted a little and provided him with the momentary sensation of being soaking wet, freezing and completely and utterly amused. "On the way to Ithaca for that week. You wanted to drive because I 'always drove' and the weather was so nice when we left the airport."
"Sean and Caitlin were asleep in the back seat." Olivia reminded him as she straightened out the nose and the plane ceased feeling like it was teetering on the edge of the sky.
"Like this?" She interrupted her story to check.
"Perfect." Sitting back in his chair, Gregory folded his arms over his chest and grinned wickedly. "I don't remember them being there."
"They slept through the whole thing darling-" Olivia giggled in old amusement. "The fight we had in the middle of the road."
"The way I shoved you into the hood when we started to make up." Icy rainwater was a terrible aphrodiasiac, but kissing her and wanting to kill her didn't have to be mutually exclusive. He could have both.
"I had to have the car towed." That memory sprang up more strongly then the rest. Annoyance, frustration, that resentment that boiled inside of him no matter what he did.
"-In the morning, because I wouldn't let you walk to town alone." Olivia teased the plane a little too quickly away from list to the right and Gregory took the steering on his side and helped her flatten it out.
"You slept in my arms." He wasn't even watching the controls anymore. The plane didn't matter. He could fly with nothing when she looked at him like that.
"I was cold." Olivia winced as her unborn baby strained against her muscles. "We put our coats over the children."
"You belonged there." He clicked the autopilot back on and took her hands away from the throttle. "You still belong there."
Her throat was tight. "Do I?"
Gregory's hand crept all the way up to her chin. "God yes. I don't know where I've been, especially since I got a little lost along the way-"
Trying to look away, Olivia found his gaze too insistent. He had been nearly lost forever. Caitlin had tried to kill him. His life hung over the abyss and she'd almost gone with him. She wanted to turn away, to get away from the truth in his eyes. His hand was too strong.
"Hey-" His thumb caught the tear on her eyelashes. "All I know, is that the rest of my journey is by your side. Where ever fate leads us we're going together." All she could do was shake her head.
"Okay?"
The smile was difficult to begin. It had been so long since she'd wanted to smile. It was almost as if she'd forgotten how. What else had she'd forgotten? Kissing? Laughing?
Gregory cupped her cheek. His fingers found the back of her head, cradling her neck. He was so close that he felt the motion of her lips before he even heard her reply.
"Okay."
The control panel chimed suddenly, driving them apart in surprise. Groaning in disappointment, Gregory slipped out of his chair and waited behind the pilot's for her to move.
"What is that?" Olivia wondered softly as he dropped neatly into the pilot's seat.
"England." He pointed at the touch screen on the lower left. "See that yellow triangle? That's East Chesterfield's private airstrip. We could be down in half an hour, Sean's going to be along to pick us up."
"Sean?"
Gregory stole a look away from his instruments. Her voice was off slightly. "You sound surprised."
"He was so angry when he left." Olivia buckled her seat belt and her hands fell softly into her lap. "He wouldn't talk to me."
"He doesn't blame us." Gregory put up his hand to quiet her as he radioed the tower. "ECM this is Bombardier-one-one-seven-five-R requesting a landing vector, over."
Turning to her just slightly, Gregory mouthed 'Trust me.' Before giving his attention fully over to landing the plane.
Slipping the headset over her ears, Olivia caught the end of the tower explaining the slippery patches on the runway. Reaching over to his elbow, she snuck her hand in the crook of his arm.