"Clarify?!" With a balled fist I contain the flow of insults that threaten to escape my mouth. "I'll clarify, then; like I told your baboon-friend here, I checked the memory of my wife's taxishuttle and it says she's arrived here at twenty-one-hundred-seventeen hours, that's only minutes ago. I'm not leaving without her and if you don't step aside I will hail the emergencyservices." I'm done being told off by this moronic duo. The pale skeleton is a sorry excuse for a man, and whatever voodoo-business he has going on inside is of less then zero importance to me. What could she want here?
"Holly?!" I yell passed them. I hadn't noticed her dissapearance until the great hall had been almost empty. I'm worried sick, angry and in no mood to explain to them my wifes sudden disappearance.
"Just let me through!" I push passed them and take a decisive steps into the house. I'm surprised it's not some junky dump like I had envisioned based on the appearance of the skeleton at the door. It's in fact an upscale house. It doesn't add up.
Feeling the urgency of finding Holly increase I yell "Well, *where* is she?!"
I look back at them and notice them exchange a meaningful look. The Klingon closes the door and I can feel the skeletons glare pierce right through me. "This loving man wishes to see his troubled wife." My anger was making way for distrust and his reassuring words didn't have the intended effect. "I think we should oblige him, don't you?"
I shouldn't have barged in like this.
The Klingon steps forward and grabs me by the neck. My bodymass is nothing compared to his and even in my enraged state I wouldn't have had the strength to resist his coercive force.
I almost tripp over my own feet but manage to stumble after him. He pushes me through a dooropening on my righthand side. The room I'm in is in a state of utter chaos.
I still try to appear enraged but my voice waivers "Let go of me, nutcase." Pulling my shirt straight I give him an abusive look to compensate for my restricted vocabulary of insults. As I squeeze the pain out of my neck I notice a dainty woman in the centre of the room. She's covered in dirt and fits the cluttered room in her overall dishevelled state.
No...-that couldn't be. "Kath-.."
"Kath?!" I blurt out incredulous. I shift on my feet and cover my mouth in disbelief. The unexpected nature of the visit causes a shortage in my brain. "How did-how can you..." I take a step in her direction. She looks exactly the same and yet so immensely different from what I remember. "Kathryn" It's not a question this time. Her name is a statement. One I hadn't made in a long time. The name sounded both unreal and familiar but felt so good to pronounce, like stepping under a warm shower after having been in the rain.
Menacing looking men are circling her, they're shouting, but...her eyes are looking right at me. She's right here. She's holding an ash-covered hand in an upward position, in a way that no one else can mimick; her petite posture and her vulnerability paradoxed by her strong presence.
"You can't even begin to imagine, Kathtryn..you have no idea..." I close the distance between us and hold her face in my hands. The universe had taken its insane way with her and has brought her back to this very place. Brought her back to me. I feel the need to gasp for air.
The skeleton is waving at her stained face now "Like I said, she did that to herself." He keeps talking and talking, because how could he possibly understand? She had been gone. Dead and mourned. And now I'm holding her again. Finally.
I let my fingers caress her cheeckbone and touch her lips with my thumb, needing to check my memory of her with the reality that is in front of me. She is exactly what I remember her to be, yet so much more real. So much more her.
"It's you." I conclude with a whisper.
"It's me." She says.
"Your hair is different." I let a strand slide through my fingers. "I waited so much longer than most people did. Oh, I just..." I cup her face again and feel like I need to repeat her name as often as possible "Goodness, Kathryn, you're really here" I sob. My vision becomes cloudy and I realise that my eyes are filling with tears.
"Mark, listen to me." her demeanor changes. She's about to take control and border my emotional outburst.
I can't help but smile through my tears. I had forgotten how it made me feel when she was about to do her thing -take the lead with natural authority, hoover above a complex situation like a helicopter, be obsessively passionate about some algorithm...extort my admiration.
I gladly give in.
"It is me Mark, you found what you came here for." What is she telling me? I panic; the guilt that comes with realising she thinks I came looking for herrenews the trampled guilt for moving on after Voyager's departure, for finding another love, for living my life and not writing her of undying love once communication with her ship had been restored.
She had deserved it all but had gotten none.
"Do you understand me, Mark?" She says. "I know I shouldn't have left without you, but I couldn't tell you were I was because these men are holding me against my will."
She doesn't think I came for her, she knows full well I hadn't come for her.
If only I had. If only I could tell her I had come to comfort her, that I had never abandonned our vows and had remained loyal.
The situation is clear to me though; I am to play along and we are both in serious danger.
I only now notice the handcuff. "Oh, no-" I let my hand slide from her cheek to her shoulder, from her shoulder to her arm and down her arm to her maimed wrist. I cover the red skin with my hand that is huge in comparison. In my mind I make a solemn pledge this time, I will be here.
"What did they do, Kath?" I whisper.
