Wish Upon A Star 26- Broken Hearts
Danni hadn't remembered bringing a pillow from the boat, but her head was definitely laying on something softer than the floor.
She opened her eyes slowly, taking in her surroundings. She was staring up at Mega's smiling face. Her head was lying in his lap.
She gasped sitting up quickly. She looked around the room. Kyra was missing, but no one else was awake. She sighed in relief. The last thing she needed were people to start making speculations, especially now that she was walking on ice with Dragon.
"Good morning sleepy head."
"Why didn't you wake me, or shove me to the floor or something!"
"It would've been rude. You've been taking care of me, the least I can do is be your pillow," he smirked.
"Did you sleep? You must've been so uncomfortable. I'm so sorry."
"Don't fuss over me. I slept just fine," he lied. He had only slept for an hour at the most; long before she had absent mindedly laid her head in his lap.
Danni examined him with her eyes in disbelief, but he appeared to be fine, "Where's Kyra?"
"I think she wanted to be alone. She slipped out of here about five minutes ago."
She stood up, "Will you be okay for a few?"
"Go," he shooed her, "I'm not dying, just slightly immobile."
She hesitated then slipped out the tiny place quietly. She spotted Kyra sitting in the sand at the water's edge.
"Good morning," Danni approached Kyra cautiously. The woman was talking animatedly into her headset and didn't know if she should be treading lightly. Kyra was known for her anger. Things could get ugly quickly when the leader was steaming.
"Good morning sleeping beauty," Kyra replied with a smirk as she turned around to see her doctor.
Danni frowned, "I'm glad no one else saw."
"No one as in Dragon you mean?"
"Especially Dragon. What's his deal anyway?"
"Wow, are you really that blind?"
"Your brother cannot possibly be in love with someone he's never been with," Danni sat down beside the other woman.
Kyra shrugged, "I'm not sure how it's possible, but he's quite smitten with you. Even after all the girls he's still hoping you'll give him a chance," she paused, "and I think you should, unless you and Josh are serious."
"Josh and I?"
"You are delusional! Everyone can see that Dragon admires you, and I've seen the way Josh looks at you."
"Josh thinks of me as his protector," Danni rolled her eyes, "I'm his only friend."
"And that's Dragon's issue. He sees him as a threat."
"Well there's no threat."
"Prove it."
Danni bit her bottom lip in thought. When a few moments had passed she spoke softly. It was barely audible to her own ears, "I just don't think I can date again."
"What's stopping you?"
"The last guy I dated left my heart bleeding in my hands. He couldn't let go of the one before me. He left me to die at the hands of the Chosen for her."
"So you ran way and swore to never love again?"
"Yea well it was much harder than it sounds. Besides you already know my history. It was better I get away, and now I fear you're dragging me back there."
"So you heard me then?" Kyra looked ashamed. She had been playing with radio frequencies on her headset when Danni approached. She had reached a nearby Techno camp and had been referring to the city when Danni said good morning.
"I cannot go back there Kyra."
"Don't worry. The City is still much too hazardous for anyone. It could be years before it's safe for living."
"Then this guy?" Danni questioned.
"I do not know where he is, but I'll find him!"
Just when Danni was going to ask who this guy was everyone filed out of the shelter. Patsy was pushing Josh in his chair. Danni was going to race to relieve her, but Kyra stopped her, "Please give Dragon a chance to calm down from last night."
"You made Josh my responsibility."
"Well now I'm making your love life my responsibility. It seems to me you can't let go of the one before now. Learn from his mistake, let go and let love."
"But…"
Kyra shook her head to silence her, "And once you do, you'll have to choose between the two. Will it be Dragon or Josh?"
"Whatever," Danni mumbled. She walked slowly beside Kyra as they caught up with the crowd and headed back to the boat.
The truth was her emotions were so dulled by pain from losing Bray that she wasn't sure what she was feeling for either man. She forgot what it felt like to fall in love. And worse she couldn't distinguish what she was feeling for either Dragon or Josh.
~0~
"He's still in love with her!" Ruby sighed sitting across from Amber at a table in the café. They were sipping on water, but Ruby longed for the liquors of her saloon in Liberty. She needed something to calm her nerves like her father's aged wine.
They were unlikely friends, given the fact that Ruby stole Jay from Amber, but they had bonded here. They were one another's confidant and support system. Today they were discussing one another's love life.
"Do you see Ebony as a threat?" Amber questioned in a bored tone. The last thing on her mind was Ruby's dilemma with Jay, but if she was going to spill her own problems she first had to listen to Ruby's. It was only fair.
"No. She doesn't look twice at him and it seems she and Slade are re-igniting the flame they had before Thunder came."
"Then you have nothing to worry about do you? On the other hand I'm a single mother competing for Bray's heart with a woman that isn't here. I'm beginning to wonder if he made her up."
"What makes you think that?"
"Nothing, it's silly really," Amber blushed thinking of what Trader had said. Maybe she was just finding excuses to keep Bray on her mind. Which was completely logical in her mind. In the time they had evacuated the mall she had her heart broken by both Jay and Bray, and yet someone else was willing to put it back together again and she was scared.
Trader was an ideal mate despite his past and taste in women, but he listened to Amber. He made her laugh and he was great with her son. When she had begun to feel things for him she found herself denying it by telling herself it was better for someone who had broken her heart to put it back together again.
When Ruby was about to respond, May came storming into the café. Her face was full of fury. "It wasn't enough for you to steal Bray from Ebony or Jay from Ebony, oh and Trudy too? Now you have to go and steal Trader from me?!" She pointed a finger in Amber's face.
"What are you going on about?" Amber asked.
"Trader refused me! He told me he was in love with someone else. Everyone knows that someone else is you!"
Hearing this something began to click in Amber's head. She stood up abruptly. It all made since now. If someone had broken your heart in the first place, how could they fix it?
"What are you doing? Where are you going?" May shouted at her .
Amber smiled in her face, "Sorry May, lightening doesn't strike the same place twice."
May stared in disbelief at Ruby, "What the hell does that mean."
Ruby stood patting her shoulder with a smirk, "It means you need to find a new playmate."
Without another word Amber walked away, shoulders held high. She had to find Trader. She wanted him to be the first to hear it. That she loved him too.
~0~
Danni was in distress. It had been a couple of days since her chat with Kyra. And while she valued her friend's advice she couldn't stop thinking about the past.
She let her mind drift backwards to her days at the Mall with Him. Bray had accepted Danni even if she was never officially accepted by everyone else. Like her he had been determined to turn a world upside down into something better. And she had loved him with every fiber of her being.
As a gust of wind blew across her face, she recalled him running his hand through her dark tresses as he pulled her to him with his free hand. She could feel his warm breath on her face and could see the curvature of his lips, soft and ready to meld with hers.
A warm tear rolled down her cooled face as the memory faded.
"You'll catch a cold," someone draped a blanket around her shoulders.
"I thought I was the doctor," she smiled at Josh. He had become better at walking and loved surprising her.
"I was worried," he shrugged, "You've been up here for awhile. Are you…is that a tear?"
Danni quickly wiped it away, "Effects of the cold and wind in my face. Look at you! You made it on deck by yourself."
He was well aware she was changing the subject, but if he couldn't talk about what was really on his mind he couldn't expect her to. Some things were just private.
"Yeah, it wasn't easy though! I don't know if it was the way the stairs were built, or if I need oil in my knee joints."
"The nerves around your knee are beginning to wake up. With regular practice that aching will go away. You know Josh, I'm really surprised. I've read books where coma patients after waking up needed canes or crutches months before they're as far as you've come."
"I consider myself lucky then. Having such a devoted doctor helps too."
"Maybe your legs weren't really affected by whatever put you in a coma."
Josh's mind searched for memory. He remembered a man's face. No, two men's faces in a place he didn't recognize. He didn't know where, but he knew he was in great distress. Something was happening to him. He was tired and weak, but he couldn't stop. He had to end it.
"Maybe," he shrugged, "If I ask you a question, will you promise to answer it honestly?"
"I promise."
"Do you overlook my past because I'm your patient?"
Danni looked him in the eyes, "I knew a girl once. Her father created a nasty virus that wiped out the entire adult population. Guilty by association she feared she would be treated with disrespect for her past. "
"And what did that girl think of others who did horrible things like her father?"
"That girl is me and she knows that it's wrong to judge others based on their past. It's wrong to judge others at all."
Josh went quiet. He leaned over the railing next to her, his wrists crisscrossed where they met the cold metal. He stared blankly at the water disturbed by the boat cutting through it.
After minutes of standing there side by side quietly, Danni reached out and touched his shoulder gingerly, "You're not just my patient you know?"
He looked at her curiously, "What?"
"I like to think of you and me as friends."
"Friends?"
"Yes, but right now I'm going to be your doctor and order you below deck. We're going to catch colds up here."
Josh only smiled stumbling to the door to open it for her. He watched her descend the steps with grace trying not to let his eyes linger too long on her behind. Then he clumsily made his way down to the cabins, beaming. For the first time in his life, as far as he could remember, he had a friend.