(9)
Harry flew them into Athens the next day. Clive went with Anna to buy clothes and toiletries for herself and Robert. They had a couple of hotel rooms for the night. The warm air and the bright white light and blue sea filled Anna with a quiet joy, but she recognized that Robert was apprehensive and keyed up.
The four of them ate on the terrace of the hotel. Warm breezes and a rising moon made the experience seem like it was out of a dream. Anna spent time regarding Harry and Clive. These two men had done so much for her. She felt tears rise and her throat tighten with emotion.
Suddenly she felt Robert take her hand. When she turned to look at him he smiled.
"It's what friends do, isn't it?" He asked.
She felt a wave of joy rise out of her core. There was so much in that statement. For one, he seemed happy, but more importantly she suddenly felt entirely connected to him in that moment. He had known what she was thinking, what she was feeling. It was a closeness she had never felt with another person, but with Robert it was often there. It was a connection, a communication, and awareness that made her relationship with him so different than her relationship with anyone else. Even Robin.
As she looked at him she felt his love for her, and she tilted her head back and laughed and everything good seemed possible.
The next morning they continued on to the Island of Naxos. A car met them at the airport. The four of them stood on the tarmac to say their farewells.
Clive put an arm around Robert's shoulders and they stepped off to speak in low tones and parted with a hug. Anna stood enveloped in Harry's embrace, his huge arms holding her tight.
"I'll miss you so much Harry. I'll see you again right?"
"I'm just a phone call away Anna. Always."
She grinned up at him.
"Take good care of him," he said to her quietly. "He deserves some happiness and all he needs is you."
"We're going to do what it takes Harry."
Robert approached and extended his hand.
"Harry."
"Robert. Anytime, Anywhere," said Harry with a bright smile. "Good luck man."
"Thanks," Said Robert.
Anna gave Clive a hug and kiss, picked up their single piece of luggage, and reached for Robert's hand. With a quick look back at the two men standing by the plane they approached the car. The waiting driver took the bag from Anna and opened the rear door for them. He put the bag in the trunk, got into the driver's seat and pulled away.
Harry looked at Clive.
"Bern for you then?"
"That would be great Harry."
"Okay, we'll refuel in Athens and you'll be home for dinner."
"Sounds good," Clive said as they turned and climbed the stairs into the plane.
At the harbor the driver carried their bag and led them down the wharf to a large waiting launch. The driver exchanged greetings with the crewman on the boat, passed the bag on board, and left.
The crewman stepped onto the wharf to greet them.
"Going to I Foliá," he said, more a statement than a question.
"Yes," answered Robert.
"You were sent codes?"
Robert and Anna produced their phones and pulled up the. Emails they had received containing the square QR codes.
The crewman smiled and scanned them, looking at the result and nodding.
"And thumbprints please," he said.
Robert looked at Anna, who shrugged and presented her right thumb and placed it on the scanner. After she got a nod and a smile, Robert repeated the procedure.
"Welcome," the man said and ushered them on board. "We are two crew on board, the captain and myself. There are beverages and food in the cabin. Help yourself. You are welcome inside or on the deck, but not in the pilot cabin. There is a head, a toilet, with instructions in English, French, German, Hebrew, and Greek. The trip will take about two hours. We have good weather."
With that he he moved quickly to loose the lines and stow them, and the boat moved away from the dock.
They walked through the cabin. Robert took a quick look in the cooler of food, grabbed two cold bottles of beer and an opener, and followed Anna onto the front deck. He sat on a cushioned bench with his back to the cabin and watched as she walked to the rail at the bow and leaned over to look at the water. The sea seemed impossibly blue, the surrounding hills tan, with streaks of green trees and small white buildings.
His eyes wandered back to Anna. She turned her head and smiled at him and he felt a wave of emotion well up from below his sternum. And Hope. He felt hopeful, cautiously hopeful, that things would get better and they would find a path forward.
She turned from the rail and came to him, taking his right hand and wrapping in gently around herself as she sat next to him. She shifted a little to get as close to him as she could and placed her right hand on his chest. She knew this was an important opportunity and that they had to give it everything they had. She knew it would be very hard work for him, and that he would never be able to leave it all behind, but every step mattered, and every chance was worth the work.
She felt tears rising and fought them. This was a moment for optimism. She raised her eyes to his, and then reached up to kiss him. The engine noise and the breeze made talking a challenge, but it didn't matter. Everything that needed to be said in that moment could be said in a glance.
Anna opened the beers, they clinked bottles, and drank.
x
They were met on the dock at I Folia by a single man.
"Hello. You are Robert and Anna. I am Dr. Ed Gates. It is a pleasure to meet you." He shook both their hands and smiled.
"I will be your primary contact while you are here. I can answer questions about the facilities, the services, the menu, the tides, the plumbing, but I am also your assigned physician and will be in charge of coordinating your care. My job is to help you to identify your objectives and make a plan for you to reach them."
Faced with no input from either Robert or Anna he picked up their bag, turned up the path, and continued talking.
"Right now we have four residents. Two have partners with them. Robert, you will be the fifth. We are generally limited to no more than six. We have a very wide variety of resources available to you, and you can choose to take advantage of as many or as few as you wish. The only thing that is required is that you meet with me for at least one hour per day.
You have some physical rehab of your shoulder that will need to be addressed as well. I can remove your stitches and staples this afternoon, and then we have a physical therapist and a personal trainer to help you reestablish range of motion and strength."
"So here we are."
They stood in front of a small whitewashed bungalow in the shade of two olive trees. The sea was twenty yards away down a path to the sand. Gates held the door for them as they went inside.
It was beautiful, light, and airy with modern furniture, lush linens and no clutter. There was a sitting area, a small kitchenette, two bedrooms and a bath. Large sliding glass doors were open to the patio and the sea beyond. Lightweight white curtains billowed in the gentle breeze off the water.
"Today the kitchen will just bring you something soon and then a supper around eight. Tomorrow you can speak to them about your preferences and your preferred timing for meals."
"You are free to wander and explore. We do ask that you respect the privacy of the others staying here, but other than that you are free to go everywhere. Many of the residents are hyper vigilant, and feel more relaxed if they have visited the kitchens, laundry, maintenance buildings etc. No one will be surprised or bothered if either of you feel the need to do the same."
"If there is anything you feel you have forgotten, or something you'd like - clothing, toiletries, books, electronics, please let one of the staff know and we can deal with it. Communication off the island is secure. If you need to make a phone call or send email we have sat phones with random relay programs and wifi routers that will randomize dozens of relay points for each message. Let us know what you need."
"It's 1:30 now. I'll come back around 5:00 to take a look at your surgical site. Food should come soon. Again, Welcome."
He smiled, turned and left.
Robert sighed.
Anna looked at him. "Well here we go."
Robert stepped forward and put his arm around her.
"Here we go." He said, and pulled her close.
x
Ed Gates returned at five.
He found Robert and Anna on the patio. Anna was barefoot and wore a thin dress that reached her knees, her hair swept up off her neck in a loose knot. Robert was still wearing the clothes he had traveled in. He sat quietly in a chair.
"Let's take a look at your surgical site Robert," Dr. Gates said in an easy tone.
Robert stood and Anna helped him shed his suit coat and then the brace. The doctor watched as she unbuttoned Robert's shirt and slid it down off his shoulders. He was surprised at the level of intimacy in their movements
He had read the medical file on Robert before he had arrived so he knew what to expect, but it always moved him to see the damage and physical trauma that one person could accumulate. Robert turned to him with the surgical dressing still in place.
Dr Gates had Robert sit in one of the kitchen chairs and removed the dressing carefully. With scissors and forceps he removed the stitches, and then continued with the surgical staple remover. The procedure took about ten minutes in total, and the three of them were silent throughout.
"Robert, the incisions look good. I'd like you to use this regular sling for a while. You can start with PT tomorrow. Keep the incision site out of the sun for at least a week now, and I would avoid sleeping on your left side, but it will probably be uncomfortable enough to stop you anyways."
"Any other questions for me?"
Anna and Robert looked at it other, but neither spoke.
"Okay, Robert I would like to meet you tomorrow morning at 9:00. I will stop by for you. We'll just go for a walk and then I'll introduce you to the physical therapist and you can decide what time of day will work best for you. Have a nice evening. Just ring the bell by the door if there is anything you need."
With that he smiled and let himself out.
They sat and stared at each other.
"Well", said Anna moving up to him, "at least now I can touch more of you."
She ran her hands across his bare chest and leaned in to kiss the fresh scars at his shoulder. He looked down at her as he raised his right hand and rubbed across his left shoulder.
"I guess having a lot of work to do with rehabbing is probably best for me. It should keep me out of my head for at least part of every day."
"Hmm..," said Anna, "I am just thinking about how good it will feel to be held in both of your arms again."
"Then I better get to work."
(10)
Three weeks later Anna coming out of the bathroom after showering before dinner. She saw Robert walking up from the beach. He was wearing just a pair of faded blue trunks, his "uniform" these days, barefoot with one of his three short sleeved shirts in his hand. She smiled watching him. He had gained some weight and was no longer gaunt and haunted looking. He was browned from the sun, his scars still pale or pink against his tan. His daily training sessions were building muscle mass and definition. He also looked relaxed and his movement was more fluid. He looked good, very good, to her and she walked out in just her towel to greet him on the patio.
The grin he gave her warmed her to the core. There were more smiles lately, and more laughter. She snaked her arms up around his neck and he placed his right hand on her jaw and his left on her ass, and kissed her. And then he kissed her again. She could taste the salt of the sea on his lips and and water dripped onto her face from his hair. He had, thankfully, lost the beard the day after they had arrived, but his hair was getting longer and she liked the way it curled behind his ears, and where it brushed the collars of his shirts.
"A good day?" she asked him.
"Every day is good when I get to come back to you," he said into her ear. He lowered his hand from her jaw to where she had tucked the end of her towel between her breasts. He kissed her on the collarbone and tugged the end of the towel free, letting it drop to the tiles, leaving her naked.
She reached for his right hand and turned toward the sliding door to lead him inside.
Beside their bed he stopped and turned her towards him. He ran his fingers down the center of her chest and then across the white skin of her left breast.
"I never knew how much I liked tan lines," he said in a whisper, smiling. "God you are beautiful. Every day more so than the one before. I love you."
She covered his hand with her own.
"Show me Robert," she said.
And he did.
x
It surprised Anna how much she got from the time she spent at I Foliá. It started with a general one on one session with Dr. Gates to talk about Robert and what she could do to help. Insightful as he was though, The doctor recognized that Anna was also carrying psychic wounds of her own from Faison, and from the aftermath of the boat explosion. Another of the doctors approached her and they started meeting regularly to talk about things that were on Anna'a mind.
The physical training and yoga were also great. She felt fit and healthy again. The first time in a long time, letting go of some of her anxiety and guilt.
"Are you okay with staying here for a while Anna?," Robert had asked in the early weeks.
"Yes Robert. I think this is where we need to be."
He searched her face for the truth and she smiled at him.
"Truly Robert. I think this is the right place for us right now.
x
It wasn't always easy.
Dr. Bruce Cotton was the staff member who dealt most directly with the residents dealing with the fallout from brainwashing, mind control, hypnotic suggestions, re-education, psychological torture, as well as PTSD, Psychotic breaks, amnesia, fugue states, and brain damage.
He and Robert were working together to unearth and deal with the hypnotic controls and conditioning that Faison had used on Robert. Robert's records showed that Faison had spent hours with him just after he regained consciousness after the boat explosion, and that he had revisited him every day afterwards for nearly a week until Robert was moved to another facility.
It was after he learned this, that Robert realized that Faison had created false beliefs and directives in his mind that had shaped his life every day since: that he was a threat to Anna, that he would kill her, that she was afraid of him or would be horrified by what he had become, and that he was unworthy of her love. There was also the prohibition against hurting Faison and the directive to obey him and the physical agony that would result from trying to defy him.
Robert had come to suspect, over the past few months, that Faison had tampered with his mind, but watching the videotapes of himself under hypnosis with Dr. Cotton, cataloguing Faison's poison, made him physically ill. Anna came with him for his second attempt to watch the video. She held his hand tightly as they recognized together this cascade of damage to their lives and family Faison had caused. Anna cried as Robert balled his fists and ground his teeth.
Afterwards Robert and Dr. Cotton began the challenging work of rooting out and erasing the destructive directives that had ingrained themselves so deeply in Robert's mind over the years.
This was exhausting work, and Anna would sometimes find Robert had fallen asleep before dinner and didn't wake until morning. Other times he had violent nightmares, thrashing about in their bed, calling out, waking in a sweat, shaking, his heart pounding, his breath coming in gasps. There were quieter times as well, when she would wake in the night to an empty bed, Robert gone for miles on the empty beach, or swimming for hours in the dark sea.
The first time she worried, panicked to be honest, and headed out to find him. That was when she realized that the staff of I Foliá was really watching out for him. As she emerged onto the beach at two in the morning, looking frantically up and down the beach, one of the groundsmen stepped up to her and spoke quietly.
"He is running. All is well. We will watch him. No harm will come to him."
Anna had looked at him, and his small gentle smile, astonished, and walked back up to their bungalow. She had no idea if Robert knew that he was being watched, but the staff of I Foliá never felt the need to intervene with him, so perhaps not.
There were other times when he just seemed to slip into a dark and quiet place, and she couldn't get two words out of him. He tried to cut himself off from her, her love, his own feelings, everything he was so sure was doomed to fail. But Anna was there. Anna was there and sometimes she would just climb into bed beside him and hold him, and demand nothing, and eventually the wall would fall, and he would turn to her and hold onto her like a lifeline.
Through it all, Robert and Ed Gates would take long walks on the beach, have long sessions in the office, or share beers on the patio, and talk. At first Dr. Gates had done most of the talking, but as the weeks past, Robert said more, and the two men became close. Robert was able to discus things he had never spoken of and details he had never revealed even to his WSB controls. And it helped. It helped to deal with a professional who was an ally and someone who passed no judgement.
But through it all Robert worried that, though Faison was well and truly dead, that some part of him lurked in a dark corner of mind, waiting to awaken and destroy everything all over again.
They stayed nearly eleven weeks.
x
A/N This is it for Terror. I have tried to include all the important information that will come up again later. I Foliá means The Nest in Greek. I am sorry about the quality of this bit, it was very frustrating not being able to remember all the details in the original (which was three times longer). Fram is next, when Robert and Anna get to have some joy. Fram means Forward in Norwegian. Fram is better, kind of nice really.
Don't know if anyone cares, but my username and the title of the first segment are both artifacts of my mistakes when initially publishing. Part 1 was meant to be Erebus (the dark region on the path to Hell), Part 2 Terror, Part 3 Fram, and Part 4 Endurance. All four are the names of ships used in Arctic exploration in the late 19th to early 20th century. Now you know what books were on my nightstand in 2007.
