The next twenty days saw a few arguments, extensive amounts of fast food and a lot of down time. I amused myself by helping out a middle aged woman next door with arthritis in exchange for chocolate chip cookies once and a while. Brenda was her name, and she was probably the best neighbor we could have asked for. She was always quiet and knew we stayed up long hours and slept in late, she didn't get mad if we yelled too loud at each other, or when I nearly set the building on fire with a long forgotten pot of spaghettios.
Brenda made her money as a psychic, she said she didn't believe in it really, but if she could make twenty bucks then she could tell them something positive to look foreword to, she wouldn't feel bad. Her house was decorated with all sorts of crystals and tapestries and always smelled like incense, she had an obligatory black cat named Jasper and drank dark red wine while I did things her hands couldn't anymore like picking up around the house and folding laundry.
"So your headed back to Ohio?" She Brenda asked as I did her dishes one morning, and I nodded. Our conversations were never serious,
"Yeah, I figure if my parents were around, we'd have more luck and less arguing," I told her, my hands covered in soap, "how'd you know that?"
"Your husband told me," she hummed, taking a sip of her tea. To my knowledge my husband had never spoke to her, but maybe he was getting friendlier. I hoped so. Her cat jumped up next to me, begging for a can of cat food with shinning green eyes, and sighing I set down my sponge to get him some.
"In that drawer there under the silver wear there a black box, I want you to have it, as a present, except I don't want you to open it under your home, alright? It's a surprise and it won't be any fun if you open it before then, alright?" Brenda's tone was happy, maybe excitable and serious, and after feeding the cat I fished the box out of the drawer.
"Thank you, but you didn't have to," I smiled, examining it in my palm. It couldn't be larger than an inch tall or wide.
"I wanted to," she returned, smiling back.
I waited for my period for every one of those twenty days but it never came. I thought I shouldn't think too much about it. All sorts of things like sickness and getting worked up could prevent it from coming, and I knew worrying about it would only keep it away. I kept that all to myself though.
A few days later with our possessions packed up and our apartment contents given to Brenda, we took to the interstate home with a less exciting tone. Getting here had been fun, but now it was different. We did take a detour through Roswell, like Dei had wanted but found it little more than a tourist trap. I couldn't, however, go without matching shirts.
Four days later we arrived in Ohio, though we did not call my parents to tell them we were back. It wasn't a fun homecoming. We didn't smilie as we got off the familiar highway exit, or laugh as we rolled past my street. I was driving that day, and took us directly to the lake. The snow was still melting, but it was an unusually warm spring so the ice was off the top of the water. After parking the car, we hiked though the slush and mud back I to the woods to where'd I'd been swimming that day with my friends.
I hadn't been here since my accident, since the day I meet Dei. I'd almost died here, and I was more than a little afraid. Looking out over the water I realized I hadn't even so much as been swimming since then, at least not someplace I couldn't touch the ground. Looking out over the murky, cold water I couldn't help but feel stupid and hopeless.
"It's frigid," I groaned, "we're gonna get hypothermia."
"No we aren't. It doesn't snow where this lake is on the other side," my husband tried to reassure.
"This is idiotic, what the hell are we doing? Let's go home, do it when it's warmer," I tried to reason with him, and as I tried to walk away he caught my arm.
"No, we're doing this now," his tone was firm and hard. I swallowed hard.
"I'll hold your hand, let's go, come on. Jump in and swim down," he instructed pulling me, but I dug in my heals.
"Come on, what the hell are you doing?" He asked angrily, tugging on my arm a bit harder, "I'm not leaving you here."
"I don't want you to, just rethink this," I tried again to reason but he was beyond listening. He was much stronger than me, still. It wasn't hard for him to haul us into the water.
It was cold, and I hit with a painful gasp. Bubbles ran to the surface. The water was frigid, it was more than frigid, it was glacial. Every nerve in my body stood on end, seizing up in the sharpness of the water.
I felt a tug and realized all that time had passed in less than a second. I moved my arms, though they felt like they weighed a ton, I kicked my legs the hardest I could and I was headed down. My eyes were closed, so I could only feel the pressure building with my face and growing head ache. The harder I fought the water, the more my lungs squeezed. I told myself I had to try a little harder, just go a little longer, we were almost there, but each second that ticked by I found I could stand it no more.
This was impossible. We couldn't do this, we were insane to try. Dei still had a hold on my arm when I decided to stop. My lungs were screaming, my head throbbing and chills over took me, I couldn't do it.
I turned around suddenly, feeling Deidara's body jerk too. He tried in vein to pull me with him, but I slipped out of my jacket and turned around. I had to leave if I wanted to live. I kicked as hard as I could, letting loose more bubbles, this time I hoped of carbon dioxide. The pressure faded away quickly, growing less and less until my head broke the surface.
I gasped and coughed, paddling quickly to shallower water. As I spun around, I searched for my blond headed husband, finding tell tale bubbles before he too resurfaced.
"What the fuck!" He screeched before going into a coughing fit. I sighed, and held out my hand, pulling him with me as I went to shore.
"Why'd you stop? Why?" He tried again to shout at me, but I wasn't having it.
"Don't even! You almost killed us just now!" My lungs were still heaving, so it was a bit hard to raise my voice.
"Go get in the friggen' car," I scoffed, coughing a bit myself. At least I hadn't gotten water in my lungs. I headed back myself, hearing his foot steps on the ground a few seconds behind me. I threw myself down in the drivers seat, wet cloths and all, and cranked on the heat. I swore the ends of my hair were freezing. My husband slid in next to me in the passenger seat.
"I didn't almost kill us," he muttered, trying to wring out his long hair.
"Shut up," I growled, rubbing my arms to keep the chill off them, "this was stupid, I told you it was stupid, you knew it was! But no! We almost drowned just now, or were you not there for that part?"
He sighed, and then I sighed.
I wasn't sure why I ever thought this was gonna be a good idea.
"I wanna tell you something," I looking down at my numbing feet as I spoke. He didn't respond,"I've been waiting for my period for a few days and... more like two weeks. I chalked it up to bring worried about everything and stressed out, but I don't think that's it anymore. I think I really did get pregnant on our wedding night." There. I said it and It was out.
"Shit," he swore. I couldn't look at him.
"I'm scared," I whispered. I faced the possibility of this tiny thing growing inside of me. I couldn't be sure, my first pregnancy test could have been wrong.
"I'm sorry, god damn, I'm sorry," I couldn't read his tone, though regretful sounded pretty fitting. I don't think either of us knew what to say after that, so we just sat.
It was warm in the car now, heat cranked out like the summer sun, and though my cloths had begun to dry I still felt cold. Colder than I had even in the lake.
Slowly, on an impulse I reached around behind me and grabbed the black box that Brenda had given me.
"What's that?" My husband asked, watching me all the while.
"Brenda gave it to me, after you told her we were leaving," I responded, thumbing the smooth cardboard.
"I never told her we were leaving," he muttered, and I look at him very seriously for a moment before deciding to forget it. I decided I didn't even want to know and flipped open the lid.
A crystal greeted me, it was white that faded to a deep amethyst color, and taking it out of the box I discovered it had what looked like smoke trapped inside of it. The crystal had grown perfectly straight and was probably some sort of quartz.
"Is there a note?" Deidara asked and I handed him the box, too infatuated with the crystal to pay him any attention. There was no note.
"Why'd she give us this?" He asked, "it's junk."
"It's not junk," I defended, "she said not to open it until I got home, but I guess we aren't really going home."
I thumbed the crystal over and over in my hands, my eyes locked on it in some kind of trance almost.
"May, " Deidara placed his hand over the crystal, forcing me to look over at him. He didn't say anything for a minute, I could almost see him mulling over what he wanted to say.
"I'm sorry and... I love you," he uttered, barely audible. He looked like he genuinely felt bad too. I sighed.
"I love you too," I said, reaching over to hold his hand.
Something crossed my vision then, distracting me from my husband. The car wasn't running but it was on, and something was smoking. Before I even had time to react, the entire cab was full with a thick black cloud. Nothing felt hot, but I found myself choking on the smoke and feeling very light headed. Coughing I reached for the car door, it was clear there was some sort of fire, but it wasn't there. I felt my husbands grip on my hand tighten before it fell limp. I tried to lean over, to see if he was alright, but I was only able to slump over him as I too passed out.