See chapter one for disclaimer.
Somehow the end of this chapter got hacked off the first time around. Cyber mice, perhaps?
Note: Jacob and Selmak are still alive in my universe. They survived through the sheer force of their awesomeness. And because I'm still very much in denial.
My Andromeda
Chapter Two
by Mabyn
"I want to see the sky," she whispered to him, her fingers clenching and releasing the blanket covering her knees. "I need to see the sky."
Resisting the urge to hold her or take her hand proved more difficult with each second they spent in the infirmary. "Soon," he told her, watching her eyes jet from person to person and back again. He wasn't sure she heard him or if she was even paying attention. He glanced over his shoulder at Doctor Lam who was currently engaged in a deep, lengthy conversation with a medical technician. He prayed the result of their talk would be a remedy for Sam's condition.
"I know him," she mumbled, her eyes on Daniel.
"Yes," he said. "You do."
"He's my brother." The words were almost a breath. Then her eyes widened and a string of sounds he didn't recognized coursed softly from her lips. She buried her face in her knees and rocked steadily back and forth, back and forth, her words beginning to come faster, their volume increasing.
"Sam," he said sharply and, without thinking, grabbed her arm.
She screamed at the contact and leapt from the bed, wrenching her arm away from him. Several nurses surrounded her and the foreign words became more rapid, like water pouring from her tongue. One of them advanced towards her, his palms out, his voice soothing.
But she could not hear him.
Sam hurdled the next bed and spun to overturn it, the metal frame crashing to the ground, sending the mattress and pillows flying. Words still steadily streaming from her mouth, she grabbed one of the legs of the bed frame and drug it towards her until it touched the wall. Immediately ducking down behind her makeshift barrier, she clasped her knees to her chest and began rocking again. Soon tears spilled down her cheeks and her breaths came in ragged gasps, but through it all the words kept coming, ripped from her throat like a deluge she was powerless to stop.
Doctor Lam readied a sedative and moved towards her patient, but Daniel grabbed her arm. "Wait," he told her, his eyes narrowed as he struggled to keep up with Sam's words.
Crouching by the edge of Sam's barrier, Jack looked up at Daniel. "You understand any of this?"
Daniel motioned for his silence and grabbed a pen and paper from a nearby table. He began transcribing what he could and asked Teal'c to retrieve his tape recorder from his office.
"Daniel?" Jack intoned when he noticed Sam's distress mounting. Tears coursed down her cheeks and her frail body visibly trembled before him.
"Wait," Daniel told him, his pen still flying across the page.
A shuddering keen ripped from Sam's throat then and before anyone could stop her, she dug her fingernails into her scalp and drew them heavily down her face.
"Sam!" Jack cried and launched himself at her, but not before she had attacked her scalp again. Steeling himself against her screaming and bucking, he grabbed her wrists in one hand and wrapped his free arm around her waist. Doctor Lam was beside him in an instant, sedative in hand.
Slowly, as the sedative began to take effect, she stopped struggling against him, though Jack could tell she was fighting to remain conscious. "It's all right," he whispered soothingly to her. "You'll just be asleep for a little while."
"Don't want to sleep," she choked out. "I want to--see the stars."
"Tell me Earth's constellations," he murmured, running his thumb across the back of her hand. "What are they?"
"Perseus," she whispered, her body immediately relaxing in his arms. "Pegasus, Andromeda, Sagittarius, Aquarius, Cassiopeia, Cygnus, Gemini, Draco." She continued until she had named every star pattern in Earth's sky before succumbing to the sedative and falling asleep in his arms.
"I think I know why she's unstable," Dr. Lam said. "She's currently using one hundred twenty percent of her brain capacity."
Jack's eyes widened immediately. "Excuse me? A hundred twenty percent?"
"How's that possible?" Daniel asked.
Dr. Lam shook her head. "No idea, but that's what her CAT, PET and MEG scans are telling us."
"MEG scans?" Jack asked.
"New type of brain scan," Dr. Lam told him. "Provides the most accurate resolution of the timing of nerve cell activity. We had to cut the test short because the machine couldn't handle her results."
"So," General Landry drawled. "What you're telling us is..."
"Is that she is just barely coping with extraordinary activity in her brain. Far as I can tell, her unstable periods are like a release valve. They relieve some of the pressure and allow her her more coherent moments."
"I wouldn't necessarily call them coherent," Jack muttered.
"Relatively coherent," Dr. Lam conceded. "Also, her neurotransmitters were a mess. Norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine--the levels were all over the place. I've put her on medication to try and rectify the imbalances. Hopefully that'll clear her head a little more and give her more...relative coherency."
"Straight up coherency would be nice," Jack told her. "But, you know, whatever you can manage."
Dr. Lam smirked at Jack and then looked to Landry. "I'm hesitant to do anymore for her, sir. Fact is, I don't really know what's going on. I've called in a few specialists, but I doubt they'll be able to tell us any more than we already know."
"Did you compare her results to Jack's when he had the repository of the Anc--" Daniel began.
"Downloaded into his brain," Dr. Lam finished, sighing. "Yeah, I did. While the two situations are comparable, they're not identical."
Daniel frowned. "How so?"
"As a whole, Colonel Carter's brain is way more active and different sections of her brain are being stimulated." Lam shook her head. "That's all I could tell, but it's enough to doubt the likelihood of the same remedy having the same effect on her."
"Still, General," Daniel said. "I think it's imperative we contact the Asgard immediately. They'll probably be able to shed some more light on this situation."
Landry nodded. "Do it."
"Hey," Jack called as Daniel headed for the steps to the control room. "You figure out any of that stuff she was saying?"
Daniel shook his head. "Not a whole lot. Some of the syllables are familiar, but their construction is unlike anything I've come across. Hopefully the Asgard will be able to help us out there, too."
"Little buggers better come through this time," Jack muttered. Then, looking to Lam, he asked, "She still out?"
Lam nodded. "Sedated, yes. We restrained her as an added precaution. She did quite a bit of damage before, and I don't want to risk further incidents."
Jack sighed, the picture of Sam's face dripping with blood spilled by her own hands surfacing in his mind. "Yeah," he conceded. "Good call." He pushed himself heavily out of the chair, propelling himself towards the door. "I'll be in the infirmary," he called over his shoulder. "Let me know as soon as our little gray friends call back."
"Will do, Jack," Landry told him.
"Thanks," he mumbled, far too low for anyone to hear.
She was still sleeping when he arrived and for that he was thankful. Even on a good day he couldn't understand half of what came out of her mouth. Now, thanks to the Ori, he couldn't understand her at all.
That wasn't true. He could understand her body language, her tone, the movement of her eyes. And that she remembered they loved each other comforted him, though he wasn't certain she fully understood the import of the sentiment.
She groaned and shifted in her sleep, her arms straining against the wrist cuffs.
The wedding was a month away.
She began to fight against her restraints, her mind still subverted by the sedative.
The ring was in his pocket.
Her eyes flickered open, her pupils dilated and her expression hazy.
The sapphire was perfect.
"Jack," she mumbled, tugging vainly at cuffs around her wrists.
"I'm right here," he said, careful to keep his excitement in check. She remembered his name.
"I can't move," she told him, her eyes wide and panicked. "Why can't I move?"
"You're all right," he murmured, gently cupping her cheek against his palm. He brushed her bangs out of her eyes, carefully avoiding the bandages that streaked her face, and smiled down at her. "You're in the infirmary at the SGC."
"No!" she cried, tears welling in her eyes as she continued to struggle. "Let me go," she pleaded, "Please, let me go..." She moaned, the sound erupting from deep inside her belly, as tears dripped from her eyes.
"Whoa, Sam," Jack soothed, his hands coming to both sides of her head as he forced her to look at him. A pang shot through him when he saw the full face of her terror. "You're in restraints because the doctor doesn't want you to hurt yourself again."
"I won't," she told him, her eyes wide. "I won't, I promise. Just get them off of me...please. Don't let anyone hurt me again."
He frowned and smoothed her hair. "I won't let anyone hurt you," he murmured. "But if I take the restraints off, you have to promise to stay here."
She nodded vehemently, a chocked sob escaping her throat.
Moving quickly, he unlatched the four restraints holding her down and was pleasantly surprised when she reached for him.
He smiled softly and eased himself onto the bed beside her. She immediately wrapped her arms around him as he settled in and pulled her legs closely to her chest. Resting his chin on the top of her head, he ran his fingers along her back to soothe the tremors coursing through her body.
"I know more than I should," she whispered to him. "More than anyone should. I don't know what they did to me."
"We've contacted the Asgard," he told her, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Hopefully they'll know more about what's going on. Do you remember anything about what happened?"
She stopped then. Stopped trembling, speaking and even breathing. He quietly spoke her name after a moment, and was relieved when she drew a deep, shuddering breath.
"No," she told him. "Nothing that happened. I remember other things, though. Things I shouldn't remember." She paused and breathed deeply. "Things I've never done or seen, places I've never been, machines I've never made--but I know all of them. And I can't stop--" Her voice broke then and Jack pulled her tightly against him.
"My father's on Peridius," she whispered into his chest. "A planet on the edge of our galaxy."
Jack frowned. "How do you know that?"
"He's scouting it as a new base for the remaining Tok'ra. There's only sixty-eight of them left. They've been trying new technologies to synthetically increase their numbers, but they haven't met with any success. It will take them three months to relocate."
"It's been over six months since we last heard from the Tok'ra," he muttered, but she paid no attention.
"He won't be able to come for months," she whispered. "He misses me."
Pressing another kiss to her forehead, Jack unconsciously pulled Sam closer. She started at the increased pressure and then her eyes began to search his face. "I've been gone for ten days. You were in D.C. When Daniel contacted you. You abandoned your obligations in order to find me. They're questioning your dedication; several chiefs are conspiring against you. They want you out of the Air Force."
She looked away, her eyes raking across the infirmary. "Captain Caise's mother is in the hospital. She has ovarian cancer." She paused, her breath hitching in her throat. "She's going to die in the morning."
Jack's eyes narrowed. "Caise's mother?"
Sam shook her head. "Captain Caise."
"How?"
"Car accident."
Captain Caise glanced up and caught his eye. She issued him a friendly smile before returning to her duties. "We should tell her," he whispered.
"You believe me?"
He stopped. Not believing her had never occurred to him. "I trust you."
Her eyes glazed over, her body tensing in his arms. "But you don't believe me. You think I'm making it up. Why would I make it up?"
"Whoa," Jack soothed. "Calm down. I never said I don't believe you."
"You shouldn't," she muttered. "I don't believe me. It can't happen; it's impossible. The future isn't foreseeable, not decided until the very moment, there's too many variables, too much to take into consideration, atoms, molecules, forces no one can fathom compelling us into action and it's--"
He kissed her and she stilled. When he pulled back, he smiled. "Didn't see that comin', didja?"
She shook her head, her lips quirking in the semblance of a smile.
Absently, he stroked her cheek, dried tear stains tripping up his thumb. "How do you know these things you've told me?"
"I know more than I've told you," she said, her eyes distant, her mouth moving despite her pleading for it not to. "Much more. I can see everything and I shouldn't be able to."
Jack nodded. "All right, but how do you know?"
"I see them."
He frowned. "Like...like a movie?"
"Like stars."
"Movie stars."
She shook her head. "Constellations. Galaxies."
"Oh."
Sam's eyes fell and she began scratching lightly at her forearm. "You don't understand."
"I don't understand half of what you say most of the time," he said, clasping both her hands in his and eying the red marks on her arm from her nails. "But that doesn't mean I don't believe you." She nodded, her eyes averted. Softly, he said, "Landry needs to know."
"No!" she whispered fiercely, her pupils dilating, her body tensing. "He won't believe me. He'll think I'm crazy. They'll come for me."
"Who'll come for you?"
Tears lined her eyes as she muttered, "They'll hook me up to machines, tubes and wires and they won't let me be myself, they'll want to find out what happened to me, if they can duplicate it, you can't tell anyone. They'll--"
"Hey," he murmured, pulling her close. "Hey, now." He ran his hands over her back, his nose buried in her hair as her face was buried in the crook of his neck. He rocked her gently back and forth before asking, "Remember that night in Minnesota last summer? It was hot as hell, neither of us could sleep, we lost five pints of blood to mosquitoes?"
She nodded slowly against his shoulder. "We got ice cream."
He grinned. She would remember that. "And a gallon of bug spray. We stayed up all night together. On a blanket in the bed of my truck, looking at the stars."
"Perseus is your favorite," she whispered. "He protects us."
"That's right." He paused and kissed her head. "Do you remember what else I said?"
Her body shuddered as she drew in a deep breath; her fingers twined into her hair and pressed against her scalp. "You—you would give me your piece of the universe," she whispered at last. "If you could."
He hugged her closer a moment before pulling back to find her eyes. She wouldn't look at him. "Yeah," he murmured, crooking his finger under her chin. He read the fear written across her face and then slowly pulled a velvet box from his pocket. Opening it, he said, "I did the best I could."
She gasped when she saw the ring—a brilliant sapphire surrounded by nine small jet stones and diamonds. Plucking it from the case, he showed her the band. She smiled, tears welling in her eyes.
"Perseus," she murmured, gently brushing her finger across the gems meticulously placed on the side of the band. Gingerly, she lifted the ring from his fingers and turned it over. She gasped. "Andromeda," she whispered, tears finally dripping from her eyes as saw the constellation's mimic.
He smiled at her awe and, after a moment, took the ring from her and then took her left hand in his. "I love you," he told her as he slipped the ring onto her fourth finger. "And if you ever start to doubt that, you look at this," he said, brushing his thumb across the sapphire. "You not only have my universe, you are my universe. So long as I can stop it, I'm not letting anyone or anything hurt you—ever. You got that?"
Sam nodded, tears still trailing down her cheeks, and leaned in to kiss him. "I love you," she said, her eyes flickering to the ring on her finger. "It's beautiful."
"You're beautiful," he told her and smiled when she blushed. He sobered then. "I won't let them take you anywhere, all right?" She sniffed and nodded. He kissed her forehead quickly before easing himself off of the bed. "I'm gonna go have a talk with Landry and then we'll--"
He stopped as his feet hit the ground and bent his knees gently. "Whoa," he muttered, bending deeper into the stretch. There was no pain, no stiffness, and for the first time in a very long time, his knees didn't crack. He looked up at Sam. She eyed him warily. "What...?"
"Don't tell him that part," she whispered. "Not yet."
He shook his head, a small smile dancing on his lips. "I won't." Jack bent his knees again. "God, I feel thirty again." He winked at her when she laughed softly, relieved, and then turned back towards the door.
"Jack," she called, her voice quivering slightly. He looked at her over his shoulder, his eyebrows frowning at her sudden hesitance.
Her eyes scanned the walls, her nails dug into her arm. She drew a shuddering breath before pegging him with hard, tearful stare. "The Ori will be here in five days."
"She what?"
"Told me the Ori are coming in five days, probably to grace us with galactic devastation." Jack pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. "We should begin sending selected personnel to the alpha site stat."
"Yeah, go back to the part where Sam's a fortune teller," Daniel said, his brows furrowed. "'Cause I'm pretty sure she knows the impossibility of seeing the future."
Jack nodded, a sigh escaping his lips. "She said that, yeah. Doesn't mean she isn't right."
"About which part?" Daniel asked. "I don't think--"
"Should we not heed Colonel Carter's warning?" Teal'c interjected. "Even if she is in error--"
"Yeah, I can count the times that's happened on one hand," Mitchell muttered, earning him a slight smile from Jack.
Teal'c nodded. "Indeed, but even if she is, would it not behoove us to take such protective measures?"
"I agree," Daniel said. "I'm just not sure Sam's, you know...all there. She's been through a lot the past week and a half. I know I'd be disoriented to say the least."
After a moment's hesitation, Jack said softly, "She said some other stuff, too."
General Landry eyebrows shot up. "Like?"
Jack raked his fingers through his hair. "She knows where her father is. What the Tok'ra are up to. They're scouting for a new base on the edge of the galaxy in case anyone's wondering."
"We haven't heard from the Tok'ra--" Landry began.
"I know!" The words shot from Jack's mouth before he could stop them. He looked at Landry in apology as he rose from his chair and began pacing. "I know it could be a long shot, but I think it's vital we trust her on this."
"I don't not trust her, Jack," Landry said, leaning forward in his chair. "But how do I explain a sudden need to evacuate key personnel to the alpha site without certain parties getting way too interested in Colonel Carter's condition?"
Jack stopped and turned towards the general, surprised. He hadn't been expecting that explanation for his hesitance. The knowledge was heartening.
"I kept my report vague just for that reason," Mitchell muttered. "She doesn't need that kind of attention, not right now."
Jack nodded. "She's worried about that," he told them. "But she's willing to take the risk."
"We won't let them take her," Daniel said, his eyes stonily set. "There's gotta be something we can do."
"Perhaps we can convince them her participation in our counterstrike is of the utmost importance," Teal'c said. "After we have succeeded in foiling the Ori's attempts, we may proceed from there."
"I like the optimism, Teal'c," Mitchell sighed, scrubbing his hands across his face. "But we don't have any weapons able to take down one measly Prior let alone a whole armada of his supervisors."
Teal'c's eyebrow inched upwards. "Perhaps Colonel Carter knows of a weapon that may be of use to us."
Jack shook his head. "She would've said something."
They all stopped short when Walter appeared in the stairwell. "Excuse me, sir," he said to Landry. "There's a call for you from Doctor Lam."
"Thanks, Seargent," Landry said, rising from his chair. "I'll take it in my office." As he walked towards his office doorway, he called over his shoulder, "Keep talkin'. Fill me in when I get back."
They were silent a moment after Landry had gone, though Jack was certain he could hear the clatter of the other men's thoughts rumble through the room. He picked at a speck of lint on his shirt; his eyes flickered towards Landry's office, the man deep in conversation, his eyebrows furrowed.
"Any word from the Asgard?" Mitchell asked, twirling in his chair to face Daniel.
"Nope," Daniel sighed. "Though it has only been twelve hours, if that. Generally takes them days to get back to us."
"If they ever do," Jack mumbled, his head snapping up as General Landry scuttled into the room, his mood decidedly lighter than it had been.
"Gentlemen, we're about to have a visitor with some very good news," he told them once again retaking his seat.
Jack's eyes widened. "She doesn't," he said, a small smile on his lips. "Why didn't she say anything?"
"I needed to make sure you'd believe me," Sam murmured from the stairwell, Captain Caise at her elbow. Sam's lips fluttered, and she grasped the captain's hand in hers as hushed sounds poured from her tongue.
"Breathe, Colonel," Captain Caise soothed, her hand running in circles around the woman's back. "Focus, like we talked about."
Sam's eyes snapped up, locking onto Jack's with startling speed. He was crossing the room towards her before he thought to move, his hands soon cupping either side of her neck as her eyes devoured his. He listened as faint words—a variation of Ancient, he now knew—tumbled from her, the syllables disappearing soon after they reached his ears.
"It's all right, honey," he whispered to her, fighting the urge to hold her as tears formed in her eyes. "Stay with me."
She nodded as several tears spilled down her cheeks. He could see the war behind her eyes, a faint glimmer of his Sam still locked within—gated, hiding. After several long moments, she gasped and Jack saw something just behind her irises click into place. She sighed and her body relaxed.
"Amata si," she muttered, her hands brushing his cheeks.
He smiled. "That I got. I love you, too." She smiled back at him—a small smile, a hint of what her smiles used to be, but a smile nonetheless. "So," he drawled, escorting her to the briefing table. "You know of any big, honkin' space guns we can use to take out some really, really evil bad guys?"
She nodded and gratefully sank into the chair he offered her. Daniel felt a pang shoot through him as he observed his friend's demeanor. Though her hair was neatly brushed and tied at her neck, it had lost its luster. Her eyes lacked their usual gleam and seemed constantly searching. Her shoulders bowed towards her chest; her hands were flighty birds attached at the wrist. And her forehead and cheeks were still bandaged. From what Lam said, the damage had been surprisingly severe considering how the wounds were inflicted. He swallowed with difficulty and sat up to the briefing table when Sam drew a sharp, shallow breath.
"Orat astra procaesum," she said, her palms pressing against her eyes. "Postulatam nus ut quaetae ex vicisa."
"Whoa," Daniel said, uncapping his pen and readying it over the paper. "Say that again."
"Orat astra procaesum," she repeated softly, her lips quivering. Jack gripped her knee under the table; her hand immediately found his and squeezed his fingers together.
"Astra, stars," Daniel said, scribbling on his pad. "Got one." He consulted his notes and frowned. "Orat?"
Letters and images flashed through Sam's mind. A child being born, covered in blood and uterine fluid, wailing. A casket being lowered into the ground. White petals falling from the sky like rain. Her eyes staring back at her from behind a black veil.
"Ora," she said at last, her shoulders shaking. "Ora astra procul."
Daniel straightened. "At the edge of the stars," he said immediately.
She nodded. "Postulatam nus ut quaetae ex vicisa."
"You're gonna have to help me out again, Sam," Daniel told her, his voice soft. "I know it's hard, but try. I have no other frame of reference."
A woman was being raped and tortured while her children cowered in a nearby corner, their father's body, bloodied and lifeless, before them.
"Postule..." she whispered, her hands clutching her head. "Postule."
"Need or require."
A low keen pealed from her throat. Somewhere in the galaxy a star was being born. In its birth, five other worlds died. She heard them screaming.
"Quaero," she managed faintly. "Quaero ex temporis."
"To seek out of or beyond time," Daniel muttered, gently grasping her shoulder. "We need or request to seek beyond time."
A low sob escaped her as she nodded. "Etiam." Jack gripped her fingers reassuringly under the table. "Etiam..."
"So the weapon or device we need is..." Daniel trailed off and looked down at the paper in front of him. "...beyond time."
"Great," Mitchell mumbled. "For a minute there I thought this was going to be difficult."
"Does this place have a gate address, Colonel Carter?" Teal'c asked softly, leaning forward slightly in his seat.
Sam nodded. "Urbaliena per Temporasa."
"Urbaliena...per...Temporasa..." Daniel muttered, jotting the words down on his tablet. He stopped suddenly and frowned. "Urbaliena per Temporasa. That's nine, if I'm counting correctly." He looked to Sam. "Am I? There are only eight chevrons on the gate."
Again, she nodded. "Ultre temporis."
"How's that possible?" he asked, his brow furrowed, his eyes bewildered. "We can't even dial the eighth chevron without overloading the circuits."
"Ego validus," she whispered, looking down at her hands.
"Non-Ancient speaking people in the room, Jackson," Mitchell said, tapping the arm of Daniel's chair.
"Right, uh, there's nine sounds or syllables in 'Urbaliena per Temporasa' and there's only eight chevrons--"
Jack nodded. "Yeah, got that part."
"So," Daniel continued, "we have no conventional way of dialing this world." He paused and eyed Sam concernedly. "However, Sam says she'll be able to establish a connection."
"How is that possible, Colonel Carter?" Teal'c asked, turning towards her.
She shook her head to clear it and raked her fingernails through her hair, pulling several strands out of the knot at her neck. Drawing her legs to her chest, she whispered, "Mens imperium."
Jack's gaze shot to Daniel who was observing Sam through slitted lids. "The mind controls," he said.
Jack frowned. "What's that mean?"
"I have no idea."
Jack tried not to pace, but he couldn't help it. He watched Sam as her fingers blurred over the keyboard of the control room's main computer, saw the sweat beading at her temple. She wasn't warm, he knew. Her temperature had been at least five degrees below normal since her return. The perspiration silently testified to her heightened awareness, her stress level.
Every time they touched, he felt caged, as if some monster was scratching at the threshold of his skull, demanding access and fuming at his denial. The monster was an echo, he thought, an echo of Sam's visions, her galaxies and constellations, the worlds now witnessed inside her mind. He could hardly tolerate the echoes; he was amazed she could bear the full force of their presence.
But there was a lot about her that amazed him.
The incessant clacking of keys stopped then as Sam activated the dialing sequence. He followed her down to the embarkation room where the rest of SG-1, SG-4 and Captain Caise were waiting for them.
But she didn't stop when she reached the teams.
The fifth chevron locked.
She stepped onto the ramp and Jack's eyes widened. "Sam?" he called. "What are you doing?"
The sixth chevron locked.
She reached the middle of the ramp and planted her feet, her arms dangling by her sides.
"Sam!" Jack cried again, his mounting panic apparent in his voice. "Get the hell back here!"
The seventh chevron locked.
He heard Daniel, Teal'c and Mitchell calling out to her, as well, and General Landry said something over the speakers he could not decipher. Dropping his P-90, he lunged towards her--
--only to be stopped.
He could not move. He saw her eyes—there were galaxies in her eyes.
The eighth chevron locked.
The gate surged towards the ninth glyph and Sam stared straight ahead, unseeing, yet seeing seeing everything. A blue glow suffused her hands and slowly licked up her arms as the gate engaged.
I love you, he heard her say.
She was engulfed by the vortex.
Her name wrenched from his throat.
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