I hope y'all are liking this. I've seen a lot of you add it to your alerts, so thanks to all of you.

And watergoddesskasey and Toph the Blind Warrior, thanks for the reviews. Glad you like it.

Here you go.

"John?" He smiled at me and opened his arms for a hug. "John! You're back!" I hugged him tight.

"Hey, Laura. How've you been?" I stepped back.

"Very good, actually. What about you?"

"Antarctica is cold. Very cold."

"I imagine it is."

"So, what have you been doing?"

"This and that. I'm doing paperwork now instead of going out in the field."

"I bet Manning likes that. Was it his idea?"

"No. It was mine."

"Why?"

"Remember what happened to me?"

"Yeah."

"That's one of the reasons."

"What're the others?" I know why Abe turned away; John doesn't know about us.

"Personal."

"That's all you'll tell me?" I nodded. "Well, I'm glad you're better. Really glad. Thank you for taking care of her, Abe."

"No problem," Abe replied. I looked back to see that Abe still had his back to us, sighed mentally, and turned my eyes back to John. He had a startled look on his face.

"What?" I asked.

"Laura, are you…looking at me?"

"Yeah, why?" Then it hit me. "Oh." He didn't know. "Abe gave me that experimental stuff and now I can see!"

"But Manning said—"

"I know what Manning said," Abe cut in. "And he knows and is not going to do anything about it."

"How'd you manage that?"

"I talked to him," I replied.

"And he listened?" I nodded. "So that's why you're doing paperwork."

"Not exactly…but it was part of the compromise."

"Anything exciting happen while I was gone?"

'Should I tell him?' I projected to Abe.

'I don't know. What do you think he would say'? Abe answered.

'I don't know, either.' Aloud, I said, "Depends on what you consider exciting."

"Anything out of the ordinary." I stared at him. "You know what I mean." Hearing that, I turned and sat on the couch, patting the seat beside me for John to sit. He did.

"John, I have something to tell you."

"I have something to say as well. Two things, actually."

"Then go ahead."

"No, you go."

"Fine." I took a deep breath.

"Oh my God! You're pregnant!" Abe and I exchanged astonished glances, and Abe walked closer.

"Can you tell already?"

"I was only kidding." He appeared confused. "Are you really—"

"Yes."

"But Laura, that's—"

"Yes, I know it's out of wedlock, but I don't know of anywhere we can get married."

"We? But I didn't—"

"No." I motioned Abe over and he sat on the other side of me. "I don't know where we can get married." I held Abe's hand and smiled to reassure John, but he was as dumbfounded as ever. "You asked if anything exciting happened. I can see, and Abe and I are together." He kept looking from one of us to the other. There was a look in his eyes, almost hurt, but I couldn't quite tell. "So, what was it you wanted to tell me?" I asked, trying to change the subject.

"What?"

"You said you had something to tell me."

"Oh, yeah. The reason I came back was because your aunt and uncle want you to return home."

"What? Didn't you tell them that I don't want to leave?"

"I didn't know if you did or didn't."

"Well, I don't."

"They were pretty adamant."

"Man, this sucks." Abe put his bandaged hand over our clasped hands in a comforting gesture; John looked away. My sigh seemed to echo in the now quiet library. "So, what else did you need to tell me?"

"Nothing else." His answer was too quick.

"But you said you had two things to tell me."

"Sorry. Only one." He stood. "Gotta go. There are some other things I need to do."

"Wait." Abe and I stood. "What's going on?"

"Nothing." Abe put a hand on my shoulder.

'Laura…he's in love with you. He's only realized it recently. That's why he's avoiding you,' Abe thought, causing me to put a hand over my mouth in shock.

"Oh, John! I'm sorry!"

"Sorry for what?"

"If I had known, I wouldn't have said anything about us."

"What are you talking about?"

"Abe and I…we have this link. I don't know why, but we can talk to each other in our heads. So—"

"So you know."

"John, I never knew you felt that way."

"I didn't either, until I had to leave." Abe was uncomfortable.

"John, I—" My head felt like it was about to explode, causing me to collapse. Abe caught me before I hit the floor, and gently lowered me the rest of the way. I blacked out, but I vaguely remember being carried out.

TBC

Ooo..... An unforseen development.

Well...maybe not, but I like to think so.

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