Events on the Horizon: A Stargate Sequel

Chapter 12

Eleanor

"Tell me if I'm being annoying," I chuckled as I stared out the window of his car while we drove from Cheyenne Mountain to our apartment.

"You're never annoying," he paused, "well except when you do that thing."

"What thing?" I snapped my head back to him and he laughed in return, a full robust sound that pulled a smile from me and coaxed my hand to fall on his lap. "Stop it," I swat at the air with my free hand, "you're terrible."

"But honestly, your retelling about the routes you took on bicycle or the things you saw and endured before the jump back, even life before that, anything going on in your head." He parked the car along the street and faced me. "I want to hear it all."

I looked up at the apartment building, anticipation budding in my stomach. "Did I tell you that I would come here, and try to find pieces of you?" I was surprised at how calm my voice finally sounded. It was a bizarre thing to tell someone. That once I used to go out and scavenge for supplies but also look for trinkets of him around his apartment I could keep in my pocket to keep for myself. "I found a journal once, by mistake, and it read like it was past tense. I mean that sounds silly, it read like when you wrote it, I was past tense."

He reached over and squeezed my knee. "I have that journal, I know exactly which one. The ink smudged and..."

"Yes!" I gasped, "yes, the ink was still wet on my fingers somehow."

"Sam is looking into a quantum tether we created between us, but there were times that I would hear you talking to yourself, and I would try to answer back. Sometimes you'd answer me, sometimes you wouldn't." His eyes searched my face and I felt his mood shift slightly. My hand took his in response and he gave me a melancholy half smile. "I would hear your crying some nights, and knowing there was nothing I could do, it was agonizing. I cannot begin to imagine how you felt on your end."

"I thought I was going crazy, constantly." I softened and looked back at the building. "Let's get inside and see how bachelor life was treating you while I was away."

Each footstep closer into the apartment made my pulse flutter and when I finally saw him put the key in and turn I had to close my eyes and remind myself I was here, in reality I was home. When my eyes opened he was watching me, his nose crinkled and mouth upturned. He nodded at the direction of the door and moved to the side waiting for me to walk in first. It was like walking back to a time capsule of the night I came home with him alone for the first time. Looking around everything was exactly the same. Books in piles on the desk offset in the corner of the living room, rugs layered over the wooden floorboards, the smell of it was even the same. Everything except the windows, perfectly preserved.

"You changed the curtains?" I walked over feeling the off white gauzy material and I heard him set what few belongings I had by the front door and close it gently behind him.

"I did, they are similar to the ones you had pointed out in our hotel in Seattle." He walked up next to me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders. "I believe you said that they would lighten the room, and I agree. The sunset in the evening now fills the entire space in this orange glow. You're going to love it."

"I don't remember," I whispered, dropping the fabric and resting the back of my head against his chest. "But it is a nice choice, so I don't doubt I said it." He kissed the top of my head as we stood there for a moment, and I reveled in the silence. There was no gate whirring, no one knocking on the door, just the calmness of us.

That night was the first real night I had been able to sleep without terrors. Wrapped in the comfort of Egyptian cotton sheets and Daniel by my side I woke the next morning with his alarm and an internalized metamorphosis. I had decided I would venture out today and see where my feet would take me. Daniel gave me a quick kiss goodbye as he ran out the door for work. I took my cup of coffee out onto the balcony and saw a small farmers market setting up around the corner. The weather was gorgeous, and I had loved the farmers market last year, well this year now. That's when it dawned on me, an entire month has passed since I came through the gate and Daniel's birthday had been overlooked. Last year we had gone to Chicago, we had made an entire event of it he and I. Birthdays were so important to me, especially after my parents divorce. My mother made a point to make the day exclusively about us. Celebrating the importance of our birth, our life, and how special we truly were to her. I looked over at the house phone back at the house and knew I couldn't call her, even just to hear her voice again. It would've been a torture to easy for me to just give into. Daniel, he never had the same excitement over birthdays. To him it was just kind of another day, because for him there was no nostalgia behind it. I looked back down at the farmers market and an idea sparked. He wanted to make new traditions, well I was going to start with his birthday.