The Return of A Dimension Traveler| Book 2

The Reunion

Samantha sat beside Jacob as the nurse came in to clean his wounds and check his pulse. As much as Samantha hated hospitals, she couldn't bring herself to leave Jacob unattended. Evie was away with the inspector as they were still trying to cover up Jack's tracks and Samantha felt that she should stay with Jacob in case he woke up finally. Since that night, he had barely done much past groan and toss his head around on his pillow. The doctor assures them that he would live and recently told Samantha how his left eye might not heal enough for Jacob to see with it. The comical thought of Jacob with an eye patch was bitter to Samantha as she wished for no reminder of what Jack had done to him.

"Have you eaten?" Evie asked softly from the doorway, "or slept even?"

Samantha sighed, "A little, not a lot." She then stretched out and stood up from her seat. "How're things going out there?"

Evie gave her a tired shrug, "They've buried Jack in an unmarked grave and we've managed to burn all of Jack's letters."

"That's good then, the Brotherhood is safe." Samantha smiled before turning her attention back to Jacob. In doing so, she failed to notice the rather shocked and weak smile Evie gave her. "The doctor says he might not be able to see with his left eye."

"Not surprised," Evie said as she headed to the other side of the bed. "He'll adjust though."

Samantha only nodded as she reached forward and gently stroked his face. Even as a forty-one-year-old man, Jacob was still devilishly handsome though she felt that some of his good looks faded under the circumstances. He looked far frailer than he should and that one eye still tormented her. Wasn't the world cruel enough to her Jacob? Did he have to suffer through this?

"You need to rest," Evie spoke so suddenly that Samantha jumped in her seat. "I asked that a room be set aside for you so that you may still be nearby."

Samantha didn't protest as Evie gently took her away from the wounded man and neither did she bother with small talk on their way to the room. Instead, Samantha retreated to her thoughts and lamented the pain she must have caused the twins twenty years ago. She thought back to Jacob's letter, although a small twinge of betrayal snaked through her she didn't blame Jacob for what had happened. In a way, it proved just how much he cared for her for him to become uncharacteristically reckless and she knew that he would have never been with that other woman had she not died. Then She wondered if Jacob heard her when she whispered to him, does he think he's dead? He doesn't know that she's back and alive, would he loose the will to live so that he could be with her?

Suddenly filled with panic, Samantha tried to free herself from Evie's grip only for the older woman to embrace her. "Worry not, I'm sure he'll come to very soon."

Tears already were forming and she still struggled against Evie's grip. "But-!"

Evie shook her head and smiled, "Knowing my twin, he will wake up thinking you're here. He's hopeful like that."

A small whimper escaped Samantha, her head was down and her hair created a curtain around her face. "The last he knew, I was dead. Murdered by the Grandmaster Crawford Starrick twenty years ago." She looked up at Evie and to the older woman's surprise, the young woman looked so devastated. "Why would he think the impossible?"

A tender smile slowly spread across Evie's lips as she tightened her embrace. Samantha finally remembered their past, she somehow regained the memories she had lost. With a soft tone, Evie whispered into Samantha's hair. "You and your friends managed to do the impossible by crossing into our world, who's to say you couldn't come back from the dead?"

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Zenin and Jackie showed up at Samantha's house in confusion and concern. They had been trying for hours to get a hold of her and she wasn't responding to them. Her mom was away in another state visiting Samantha's older brothers so usually the brunette was always bugging them to come visit or at least easy to contact. Now that they weren't hearing from her, the two girls grew afraid that something happened to her.