i was burned out from exhaustion buried in the hail
poisoned in the bushes and blown out on the trail
hunted like a crocodile ravaged in the corn
"come in," she said
"i'll give you shelter from the storm"
Bob Dylan, "Shelter From the Storm"

Rae made good on her promise (threat?) and had Kai walk mostly under her own power to the living room for dinner. Nick helped her into a recliner and made sure she was comfortable, and Tom brought out the food with a bow. He grinned at her like it was all a big game, and she couldn't help but grin back.

They settled in to eat the chicken noodle casserole Rae had made, but Kai couldn't eat nearly as much as she wanted to. Her stomach churned with pain-inspired nausea, and she passed her plate to Tom once she was through.

"Sorry, Rae," she said. "That was delicious, really, but food doesn't feel like my friend right now."

"Probably should've started you with something a little lighter. The mom side of me took over, at least temporarily."

Nick grinned down at his empty plate. "Mom side can take over any time. That was amazing."

Rae gave him a puzzled smile. "It was just a casserole. Nothing fancy."

He shrugged. "Doesn't have to be fancy to be good."

"He likes food," Kai said. "As a baker, it's a character trait I appreciate."

Tom jumped up to clear their plates, then sat on the floor to play with one of his race tracks. Kai closed her eyes and leaned back against the chair's cushy headrest. She might have dozed off, but she heard the rustle of Nick's notepad, the rip of a sheet being torn off, and then Rae.

"I told Tom it was a dream because that was easier at the time, but no. I just heard her voice out of the clear blue sky. She told me to get on home, because I was needed here. After weeks of urging me to Nebraska, it seemed…contradictory. I almost ignored it, because maybe it was him, but…"

"I didn't feel like him," Kai said when Rae trailed off.

"No, it didn't," she said.

"Something similar happened to me, like I said before." She told her about that last morning in Abilene: the dream, Remy coming home sick, and the voice in the kitchen. "I didn't recognize it as Mother Abagail's at the time, but later, once I met her, I knew."

"I'm glad we're not hearing him when we're awake," Rae said with a shudder.

Nick and Kai exchanged a look, but neither of them mentioned the incident with the cellar. "You've met him, then?" Nick said. "In the corn?"

Rae nodded. "He made me an offer, but I said no."

"Same with us," Kai said. "When Nick was so sick." She hesitated. Her face scrunched. "It…was tempting. Especially when I woke up and Nick was still unconscious. I wondered if I'd made the right choice."

"It was designed to be tempting," Rae said. "Otherwise what would be the point?"

"It's interesting, this group," Nick said. When Rae and Kai gave him matching questioning looks, he continued. "I just mean—look at us. A non-white, bisexual deaf-mute. A non-white, bisexual woman. A developmentally disabled man. A non-white woman. We're like Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition meets the end of the world."

"Marginalized people who might, in theory, be more susceptible to that type of temptation," Rae said. "Is that what you mean?"

Nick shrugged. "Yeah, actually. He offered me a chance to turn the tables on the guys who jumped me. Everyone who ever gave me shit throughout my life. Beat me up for being brown or deaf or…any other goddamn reason they found. I think anyone who's been in that position has dreamt about flipping the script, being the tormentor and not the one being tormented. Having the power for once."

"I think that's his mistake, though," Kai said. "I think when you've been genuinely victimized, you understand that…there's no real satisfaction to be gained from hurting someone like that. The failure of evil is to assume that everyone wants to be what it is. That everyone wants to be small and nasty and petty, and to hurt people to make themselves bigger."

"Like Julie," Nick said.

"It's a sort of vicious pleasure, I guess, bein' like her," Rae said. "I just wonder how long it lasts."

"Not long, I'm thinking, or she wouldn't have escalated to shooting," Kai said with a sardonic twist to her mouth.

"She couldn't handle being told no," Nick said. "First by me, then Kai, then when we sent her packing."

"No about what?" Rae said.

Nick looked briefly embarrassed. "She hit on us. First me, then Kai. We both declined."

"Ha. That's kinda what I figured. That girl never did have any shame."

"Strange that out of all the people in the world, two people from the same small town survived the flu," Kai said.

"And on opposite sides," said Nick.

"You two didn't know each other before?" Rae said.

"That would've been something. No, we met in Arkansas." Kai paused. "We dreamt about each other, and then—Mother Abagail told me how to find him."

Rae smiled and her whole face crinkled with it. "Mother Abagail the matchmaker."

"Mother Abagail told me to wait in May for Nick and Kai. She didn't say Nick and Kai but she said nice people, so I waited, and then there they were," Tom said.

They hadn't thought he was paying attention, and his sudden contribution startled them.

"None of us found each other accidentally," Nick said. "We were—herded."

"Do you think we're livestock, Nick?" Rae said.

"I don't know," he said with a frown. He pushed himself up from his chair and wandered toward the window. His shoulders were tense, his pace restless. "It's what it feels like. It's not that I regret—any of it." He spared a smile for Kai. "I just wish—I felt more in control. Less like I was someone else's chess piece being moved here or there."

"Have you ever read the Bible?" Rae said.

Kai translated reluctantly, because she knew how he would react—and she was right.

Nick shook his head and thrust his hands out in a gesture of frustration. "Is that it, then? Because some invisible old man in the sky wants the world to end, it ends? Because he wants us alive and together, we are? And we have no choice? Like Job or Moses or—his own fucking son?!"

"I don't have answers for you," Rae said. "I lost a lot of my faith when cancer took my husband. Now I've lost my children, too, but people like Julie Lawry are still alive to spew their poison into the world. It doesn't make sense."

Much of his ire drained away and he scrubbed a hand through his hair. "I'm sorry, Rae. I'm not angry with you, and it's not your job to answer these questions. It just"—he glanced at Kai—"it all becomes different when you have something to lose."

Kai smiled at him, her eyes soft and bright. "Maybe that's why we're being herded together. So that we do have something to lose. Because this flu took from all of us, and it would be easy to just give up. What does it matter, there's no one left I love…."

Her fingers spread in a shrug. "Humans are social animals. We crave touch and bonds and interaction with others. So here we are, finding new people to care about. New people to make the fight worth it. It's shitty we had to go through that to get to here, and I don't like feeling like a chess piece any more than you do, but this, apparently, is the world now. And so far Mother Abagail hasn't steered us wrong."

Nick acknowledged that with a tilt of his head. "Maybe all of this will make more sense when we finally meet her face to face," he said.

"I think it will," Rae said. "At least somewhat." She glanced at Kai, who shifted her weight in the chair and grimaced at the pain. "Let's give Kai a day or two, then we'll see what her pain level's like. Trying to sleep in a tent with an injury like that isn't something I'd wish on my worst enemy."

"I'm tough," Kai said. "I hate to slow us down."

"We're not going anywhere for at least another twenty-four hours," Rae said, sternly. "I'd prefer forty-eight, but we'll see. Consider that nurse's orders."

"Yes, ma'am," she said.

"Good girl. Now I think maybe Nick should help you back to bed and you should take a couple of those pain pills. There's no reason to sit here hurting, and you need your rest. Stay here with me, Tommy," she said when he jumped to his feet to help. "Do you know how to play Old Maid?"

Nick and Kai shared a grin as he helped her out of the chair. She tried to walk more or less on her own, but halfway there she gave up and leaned against him.

He helped her to the bathroom and turned his back while she peed (not that she really cared), then stood nearby while she brushed her teeth. He stepped in behind her to hold her around the waist, and when she bent to spit into the sink she gave him a smirk in the mirror.

"I see you, Mr. Andros," she said.

He schooled his face into a look of perfect innocence. "I don't know what you mean, Ms. d'Arnaud."

"And I suppose that's just a toothbrush in your pocket?"

"Ouch. A bit bigger than a toothbrush, thank you!"

She lifted a brow.

He let out a silent huff. "I've just never seen you in a dress before and it's giving me ideas, that's all. But I know—no strenuous activity."

"Get me to bed and get a couple pain pills into me and maybe we can discuss some light making out."

"Deal." He helped her change, then got her settled in the bed with her leg propped up. She swallowed two pain pills and her antibiotic, and he settled in next to her with his book, one hand resting lightly on her good leg.

She turned her head to watch him as he read: the halo of dark curls; the line of concentration between his brows; the strong line of his nose with the slight crook near the top. He felt the weight of her gaze and glanced over at her with a question on his brow. She shook her head. Touched his cheek with gentle fingers.

"If you weren't okay you would tell me, right?" she said.

He slid his bookmark between the pages and set the book aside. "You mean about earlier?"

"Yes. I knew you were frustrated, but I didn't know it was so bad."

"I am frustrated, but…" He scrubbed his face with both hands, and when he looked at her again his good eye was bright. "She could've killed you, Kai. Or blown your fucking leg off, which might have done the same thing. I need you to understand—it's not that I don't care about people. Of course I do. I cared about the Sheriff and Mrs. Baker. I cared about Doc Soames. But—it's different with you. You're different. And I just don't understand why the fuck Mother Abagail's god would choose us for this only to have one of us die so stupidly."

"I know," she said. "I felt the same way when you were sick. But, Nick—we're not dead. Either of us. You got better and I'm going to be fine."

"I know," he said. "I do know that." He lifted his hands. "I don't even know what to say. Don't get shot again, Kai! As if you meant for it to happen. As if any of us could've predicted she'd shoot at us."

"Rae maybe could've predicted it."

His mouth quirked. "Yeah, maybe so."

She let out a long sigh and rested her head on his shoulder. "I love you, Nicky. The good news is we aren't alone anymore. We have other people looking out for us, too."

He rested his cheek on her head. "And the bad news?"

"We have that many more people to look out for."

There was a long silence while he thought that over. Finally he said, "It's worth it. I know you're worth it, and I think they are too." He turned his head to kiss her hair. "But, Kai—at the end of the day it's you."

"What do you mean?"

He shrugged the shoulder not occupied with her head. "If I had to choose. For some reason. I'd choose you."

She frowned. "Don't say that. I don't—want to think about something like that."

"Neither do I, but I just thought I should warn you."

"If it's ever between you or me, choose yourself," she said.

He twisted to get a look at her face, and when he saw that she was serious, he gave an incredulous shake of his head. "Kai—that's not—"

"I mean it, Nick. You're the one who lives. Promise me."

His brows drew together. "I can't make that promise."

"Nick—"

"Could you?"

She made a face. Lifted her hands to sign something, then dropped them again. Finally, "No," she said. "I couldn't."

"Okay then." He cupped her face in his hand. "Don't be unfair, Kai. It's not like you."

She let out a shaky breath. "I just don't want to imagine this world without you in it."

"Then don't," he said with an easy smile. "Because I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere." He nudged her. "I've told you before you're stuck with me."

"Good," she said. The drugs were kicking in and she was starting to feel spinny. She booped his nose. "You're cute."

"You are too. Now why don't you lie down and try to sleep. I should go see how Tom and Rae are doing with Old Maid."

She nodded and scooted down in the bed. He fixed the pillows under her leg and gave her a soft, easy kiss.

"I love you," he said.

"You better."

"I do."

Her mouth curved in a sweet, drunken smile, and her heavy eyelids gave up the fight. He lingered a bit longer, until he was sure she slept, then he turned off the light and slipped out. They'd have to wake her up later to change her bandage, but for now, at least, her rest was peaceful.

She was only half-awake for the bandage change, and as soon as Rae left and Nick crawled into bed beside her she was asleep again. This time she slipped almost immediately into a dream. A clearing in the cornfield, and she knew she wasn't alone.

"Just come out," she said. "I'm too tired for stupid games."

Flagg stepped from between the stalks with a sheepish grin and raised his hands in a gesture of surrender. "You're right, Eden, you're right. We should be beyond games, you and I."

She sighed and pinched her nose between her finger and thumb. "What do you want? I already said no once."

"So you did. And I respect that. But I thought perhaps I could interest you in a new deal. A different one. And I thought I would remind you of the stakes."

Her head tilted. "You think I've forgotten?"

"Not exactly." He snapped his fingers and the corn was gone. They stood on a darkened stage under a single spotlight. "I think you don't entirely appreciate how high they are. It isn't fair to ask someone to make a deal without all the relevant information."

"Fairness." Her mouth moved in a skeptical smile. "That's a big concern of yours, I'm sure."

"Oh dear Eden, I'm always fair." He snapped his fingers again and her clothing changed to a black and red sequin-covered gown. It was cut nearly to her navel in the front and the skirt had a front slit almost to her crotch. Feathers flounced around the hem, and the sleeves hung long past her fingertips. She raised a hand to her head and found her hair done in some weird spiky corona around her head.

"What. The fuck."

"You don't like it?" He sighed. "Fine." Another snap and the ridiculous getup changed into a gown of blue organza. The top half was a tight corset covered in tulle, and the skirt flowed to her ankles. Her hair had reverted to a simple chignon. There was still a side slit to her hip, but at least she didn't look like Bob Mackie's worst nightmare. This was a dress she might actually wear in real life, but she'd probably pair it with her black Doc Martens eight-eyes, not these nightmarish heels.

"Great. I'm dressed. Now what?"

He smiled, and his teeth were blinding white in the bright spotlight. "I'm so glad you asked, my dear."

Behind them a series of lights flashed on, each one illuminating a single figure standing awkwardly with their legs spread and arms above their heads, like human x's. She recognized Rae, but the woman next to her was a stranger: older, with long brown hair liberally streaked with gray. Next to her was a Black guy probably Kai's age. He looked vaguely familiar, but not enough to place him. After that was a white guy, late thirties or so, with startlingly blue eyes and incredible cheekbones. She had to pause and look again, because it was almost unbelievable how handsome he was.

Her eyes moved on and then stopped again, because the next figure was Nick. He wasn't wearing his eyepatch, and his shirt was torn. "What—?" She surged forward, but Flagg lifted a hand and she froze. "What is this?" she said. "What's happening?"

"I'm giving you a glimpse, Eden." He gestured toward the line of people and his mouth moved in a concerned moue. "This is the future, my dear. This is where your old Black witch is leading you." He flicked his fingers and the shackles binding their wrists went tight. And pulled.

"You're—you're racking them?!" she cried.

"Sort of. More tearing them limb from limb, but po-tay-to, po-tah-to."

"Stop! Just stop it! You've made your point! None of this is real anyway. It's just an illusion. Another of your bullshit lies."

"My dear Eden, I may do a great many things, but lying isn't one of them. This is the path you're on. Keep walking it and you'll end up right here." He smiled and held up a hand to stop the torture. "Now you might be wondering why you aren't up there with the rest of them. It's just that I do hate to see you suffer. I'd much rather you simply join me as you're meant to do, but—I can tell you've made up your mind. I am capable of being generous, Eden."

"Generous?" She stifled a laugh that she was afraid would come out jagged and manic. "How, exactly, are you being generous?"

"Oh I haven't gotten to it yet. But my offer! It's very simple, and almost too good to be true. Are you ready?"

She glared at him.

"First, understand that my original offer is always on the table. You're welcome at any time to abandon the old witch and join me as a queen, with or without the deaf mute. That bit is up to you." He lifted a hand to forestall whatever she might have said. "But for one night only I'm prepared to offer something entirely different."

He smiled and leaned closer, so that she could smell his odd, burning scent. "Your freedom."

It wasn't at all what she'd been expecting. "I'm sorry?" she said.

He spread his hands. "Walk away, Eden. Again, with or without the deaf mute. Walk away from the old woman. Leave the corn. Turn around and go—wherever. Back to Louisiana. To a Caribbean island. Sail away to Hawaii. I don't care where you go, as long as it's not Nebraska. Do that, and we're through. I won't bother you ever again. No more dreams. No more little encounters like down in that cellar. You might never see another coyote as long as you live."

Her mouth fell open in astonishment before she shut it again and her lips twisted. "And how long would that be? A week? Two?"

"Oh ye of little faith! When I say I'd leave you alone, I mean it. No harm would come to you by my hand, or the hands—or paws—of one of my agents. You have my word."

She wrapped her arms around herself and cast a long look at the line of figures. She studied each face until her eyes landed on Nick's. He looked back at her like she was a stranger, his expression impassive and his good eye blank. She shuddered.

"They can't see you, dear," Flagg said from behind her. "But if you stay on the path you're on, when this comes to pass they'll be able to. You, standing next to me while I have them ripped apart."

"Why—would I be—here?" she said through lips gone numb. "Instead of there?"

He gave an easy shrug. "Because it suits me. Because even here, at the end, my hand will be extended to you."

She turned quickly to see him reach for her, his palm open and the black stone nestled in it like a poisoned berry. Her eyes flicked up to meet his, and she saw a flash of red interrupt the brilliant blue. "I will always say no," she said.

"Maybe not. Maybe when you're faced with watching them die in agony you'll realize how much easier it is just to give in."

She sighed and kicked off the tall, uncomfortable shoes. "Are we done here? You've made your offer and you have your answer. I'd like to wake up now."

He grinned at her, his eyes twinkling once again. "Of course you would! But don't make a decision in haste. I'll give you the day to think on it. Tonight, same time, I'll be back. We can talk some more."

"Don't bother," she said. "You have my answer, and it's not going to change." She turned on her heel and walked away, but after only a few steps a crippling pain lanced through her thigh. She let out a strangled gasp and stumbled. Flagg was there to catch her, and for a moment the agony was so great she clung to him—but when she realized what was happening, she pushed away and stood straight.

"Generous, Eden," he murmured, low and intimate. "Remember that. I'd hate for you to have to see me turn cruel."

She glared up at him again. "My name. Is. Kai!" she snarled through gritted teeth. She pressed both hands to the center of his chest and shoved as hard as she could. He stumbled backwards, eyes wide with surprise, and by the time he regained his footing she was gone.

Kai lashed out in her sleep, shoved at the air above her and kicked so that covers and pillows flew. Nick's eyes snapped open and after a befuddled moment he reached for her, but she pushed him away so violently he almost rolled off the bed. He turned on the lamp and her pain-stricken eyes met his, but he wasn't sure she recognized him.

But this time when he held out his arms she fell into them, and he cradled her against his chest and stroked her hair. Kissed the top of her head and all over her face. "It's okay," he signed with one hand. "It's okay, you're safe now. He can't hurt you here. You're safe."

She shuddered and he could feel her tears on his skin. What the fuck?! They both had nightmares, but he'd never seen her so terrified from one. What had Flagg done to her?

When she finally stopped trembling he pulled away and cupped her face in his hands for a moment. "What happened?" he said. "What did he do?"

She shook her head. "It was—lies. Just lies. None of it was real."

"Tell me anyway. It's the best way to get it out."

"I—it—it wasn't like the others. Not at all." She started slowly, stumbling at first over the signs like her fingers were too stiff to form them, but as she went on the words flowed more easily, faster and more urgently, and when she got to the end, where she shoved Flagg away and made herself wake up, she slumped against the headboard and buried her face in her hands.

He sat absorbing everything she said with a look of quiet intensity on his face. Finally he tapped her arm so she would look at him. "How's your leg?"

"It hurts. I think I might have reopened some of the wounds with all my thrashing and kicking."

He nodded. "Strenuous activity."

She studied him. "Is that your only reaction?"

"It's the only thing I'm worried about," he said.

"Nick…he was going to tear you apart. You and Rae and three other people I'm guessing we're going to meet before all this's over. He was going to make me watch. He said it's our future!"

He retrieved a handkerchief from the nightstand and passed it to her. She wiped her eyes and blew her nose and he brushed her hair back from her damp face.

"Maybe it is."

"How are you so calm, Nicholas?!"

He smiled a little. "He told you he can't lie, right?"

She nodded and swiped the handkerchief across her nose.

"Okay, but…that doesn't mean he was showing you the whole truth, either." At her look he waved a hand. "Let's assume for argument's sake that that is our future. Us on some stage strapped to some torture device thingies, and you being forced to watch. How do you know that two minutes later the cavalry wouldn't come sweeping in to save us all? Or that the whole setup isn't the last, desperate gambit of a defeated man? He showed you that one moment, but he didn't show you anything around it. He didn't even show you where you were!"

"Like a magician's trick," she said, slowly. "He only lets you see what he wants you to see."

"Exactly. Or maybe it's just one of a million possible futures. Maybe there's three hundred different ones where we get old and fat and live happily ever after."

She managed a shaky smile. "Is there a version where we have a cat?"

"Yep. Some where we have a dog, because if people survived, surely a few dogs did, too." He wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close. "Or we can just start all over re-domesticating wolves. It worked the first time."

She rested her head on his chest and listened for a moment to the steady beat of his heart. Then, "Where are we living in this future?"

"I don't know. Depends. Nowhere too cold, I think, because that just seems impractical."

"California?" she said. "Long growing season. Earthquakes and wildfires are a problem, but after living through a world-ending plague I'm not as scared of that sorta thing."

"That might be an idea." He ran his knuckles down her arm. "On the other side, there's the Appalachians. Relatively mild weather. No earthquakes."

"Oh I like that idea." She wiggled as his fingertips trailed along her side. "Can we get some goats?"

"Sure, if we can find any. And as long as our half-domesticated wolf doesn't eat them." His fingers stole up under the edge of her tank top to stroke her skin.

"We could bring Tom with us. I'd bet he'd love to take care of some goats."

He shifted so that he could look at her face. "Are we talking about the future, or now?"

Her brow furrowed. "Nick…"

"If you want to go, we'll go. I told you I'm with you no matter what. We can head out right now for North Carolina or Virginia."

She looked away, and he waited while she struggled with it. Finally she shook her head. "No. We're staying. We're going to Nebraska and following—whatever path Mother Abagail has set for us."

She cut her eyes up to meet his. "We might be chess pieces, but we have the choice. We can take ourselves off the board or switch sides or—I don't know. Move like a bishop while looking like a knight. He showed me that. I'm pretty sure that wasn't his goal, but, well. Evil destroys itself. And by showing me I have a choice—that we all have a choice—he's made me even more confident that following Mother Abagail is the right call."

His mouth quirked ruefully. "Maybe I'll have to borrow some of your faith."

"It's not about faith, babe. It's about…have you seen From Dusk Till Dawn?"

"It's about strippers who are really vampires?"

She swatted him. "Silly. I'm talking about that part where George Clooney says to Harvey Keitel, If there's a Hell, and those sons of bitches are from it, then there's gotta be a Heaven, Jacob. There's gotta be. I'm probably misquoting a little, but…look, Flagg is bad news. Whether he's the devil or some abstract idea given human form, we know he's nothing we want to be a part of."

"So that leaves Mother Abagail."

"Yes, but it's not just that. What did you think the first time you met her?"

"I thought…" His face scrunched. "She felt…like home. Safe and warm and good."

"I thought the same."

He threw his arm out in a wild, frustrated shrug. "I don't think either of us is debating Mother Abagail's rightness versus Flagg's wrongness. That isn't the question, or the struggle I'm having. I want to know why, if Mother Abagail and her god are so good and so powerful, He can't just deal with this himself?! Why are we being dragged into it? Why do we have to have these nightmares? Why do you have to see people you care about tortured? Why was he stalking us down in that cellar? If we're His chosen ones, then why isn't He protecting us?"

"Because we can always choose," she said.

"So if one day a coyote starts chasing me, if I turn around and declare myself for Flagg it'll stop and I'll be safe?" He made a face. "That doesn't exactly say much about Mother Abagail's god!"

"Is that what you want, then?" she said. "To choose him? Because then we'd be safe?"

"Of course not! I know we wouldn't. We might not get eaten by a coyote, but there are a lot worse ways to go. I guess." He let out an exhausted breath and his shoulders slumped. "I just hate—him terrorizing you. When you woke me up like that I thought—my heart stopped. There's part of me that says yeah, fuck it, let's just go! And if I thought it really actually meant we could have some peace, I might say it anyway."

"But…?" she prompted.

"But I know it's just more of his bullshit. And—even if somehow it weren't—" He broke off with a grimace. "Sadly, that's just not the type of people we are."

"Woe are we," she said. "I'm sorry I scared you. And nearly shoved you off the bed."

"It's okay," he said. "You caught me by surprise, that's all. Pretty sure I could take you in a fair fight."

"Oh could you now?!" she said with a surprised laugh.

"I don't know. Maybe not." His lips curved in a mischievous grin. "But I'd sure have fun trying. How about a wrestling match once your leg's feeling better?"

"Any excuse to get your hands on me, Andros."

"Didn't know I needed an excuse," he said and skimmed his palm down her leg. He frowned. "I should take a look at your thigh, though. You were really flailing."

"It'll keep till in the morning."

"Rae will think we've been misbehaving. She might banish me to the couch."

She pressed a kiss to his cheek. "I'll vouch for you, love. Don't worry."

"My hero," he said with a grin that was there and then gone, like a spark, before his expression turned pensive again. "I know saying no to him is right, no matter what he's offering. I know it's—the only choice. Not because it is the only choice, but because it's the only choice worth making."

"What would Tom say if we told him we were choosing differently?"

"Fuck." He scrubbed a hand through his hair, twisted and tugged. "I can't stand the idea of hurting him like that."

"Me neither. However we might feel about it, he does have faith, and, honestly? What you said the other night about him being good is true, and I think, maybe…" She let the thought hand in the air and bit her lip.

"What?" he said. "You think what?"

She sighed. "I think maybe Tom is…sort of an anchor. For us. When we're doubting or just…fucking tired."

"You're my anchor," he said.

Her fingers fluttered to the necklace he'd given her and she felt herself blush. "What happens when I'm the one drifting?"

He smiled, slow and sweet. "Then I pull you back. But…you're not wrong. About Tom. He saved us from that tornado, and he was the one to notice Julie with her gun."

"And bringing the chickens was a really good idea."

He poked her in the side. "Told you."

"Yes, you did. Now come here and kiss me and let's go back to sleep. I'm tired, my leg hurts, and it's way past my bedtime."

"Sleepy pretty girl," he said and leaned in for a kiss. "If you're feeling tense, I'm sure I could figure out a way to help you relieve some tension."

"Please don't tease me, Nicky," she said. "Apparently horrific nightmares have the unintended side effect of making me want to jump your bones to prove that we're both still alive and kicking."

"You certainly were kicking," he said with a smirk. He pressed his lips to her neck and skimmed down to the curve of her shoulder. "Go to sleep, beautiful. That leg's had enough stress tonight."

"So's my brain," she said. She scooted down in the bed and turned on her side to face him. He arranged pillows between her legs to keep her thigh propped, then settled down next to her. The fell asleep with their fingers tangled together and their breath mingling, and neither of them dreamt the rest of the night.

I've gone with the 2020 casting for the most part, as you can see in the dream sequence - except for Glen, who I've gender swapped. Imagine her as Lilly Tomlin in Grace and Frankie.