Kian rolled off just enough to let Nathan drink most of the water. He took the bottle when Nathan was done with it and drained it then threw it behind him to land somewhere on the floor. “Watch out for that later,” he warned before settling both arms across Nathan’s chiseled chest and dropping his chin on them. “Okay, we have a thing happening here. The year currently is 1999. We are actually a few days from New Year’s Eve. That’s like over five thousand years away from when you’re from. The thing is you think this is all a dream. And it could be, I don’t know, but if it is, then you are my dream come true. You are everything I have ever looked for in a guy. So whichever one of us is dreaming, I don’t know because this feels all too real to me. I get up and work in the Shoebox all day and bake and serve customers and stuff.
“Why would I dream crap like that instead of just dreaming about you and all the fantastic sex we could be having? And you, did you know anything about 1999, my time? Our clothes or food or anything?” Nathan shook his head slowly in answer, and Kian nodded. “See, yeah, that’s what I thought. You said that Mother Nature sort of flipped you guys on in 2100, but she made you all in pairs, a Watchman and a Balance. Well, maybe she can play with time, too, when she needs to,” Kian finished thoughtfully, again snuggling down into Nathan’s chest.
Kian’s words, however, had started Nathan remembering. He suddenly remembered the dream with the feminine voices. He told Kian what he could remember of it. “And then I found the door that lead me to you,” he finished before a huge yawn cracked his jaws wide open. Kian giggled but soon followed suit.
“Okay, well, assuming you won’t be here when I wake up, I want you to do some history fact checking when you wake up. My full name is Kian Young. The address here is 12 Little Collins Street in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and the year is 1999. If you can remember all that, look me up. Maybe that way you’ll at least find some answers. And you can tell me what you find next time we meet.”
Nathan nodded and pulled them close so he could kiss Kian again. Lips locked together, they fell asleep.
* * * *
Nathan was fully awake. He’d gone from fast asleep to startlingly awake in a moment. He held himself still. Something was different. He didn’t feel in danger. He knew Kian was no longer in his arms. He knew there were others in the room. He catalogued their heartbeats, scents, and even movements. They were all familiar to him. He heard faint beeps from above his head, too. It felt like his bed and room, just crowded with way too many bodies.
“You can open your eyes, Watchman. I can tell you are awake.”
That was the doctor’s voice. Nathan blinked his eyes open. Dr. Chloe Scott sat on a chair beside his bed. “Doc, does your husband know you’re in my room?” he asked her cockily.
“She wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t,” her husband responded from the foot of the bed.
“Any particular reason I have such great looking company? Last I heard I’m pretty sure you two didn’t believe in sharing. Always thought that was a bit stingy really,” Nathan said as he sat himself up in bed.
Dr. Chloe chuckled and leaned over to remove some sticky pads and cable monitors from his head. She left his fingers in their monitor clips, however.
Her husband huffed from where he stood. “I was quite happy to be shared. It’s Chloe who’s stingy. As a professional geek, I learned early on that you never refuse sex from someone as pretty as you. But my wife and Balance was always beautiful and never learned that lesson or how to share either. I only got pretty after she got her hands on me.”
“And gave you some style, darling. Now stop taunting the pretty Watchman and tell him what’s going on,” she snarked at her husband.
“Yes, dear,” he finished then sat down on the bed and pulled up his tablet and started to scroll through it. “Dear, can you remove the remaining sensors from Nathan? We’ve taken all the readings we need for now.”
His wife got up smoothly, and Nathan felt her hands move over him. Data patches were efficiently unstuck from his chest and clips from his fingers, and then the quietly beeping machine behind him was switched off, too. Nathan kept his attention on the doctor sitting at the foot of his bed. He finally heard Dr. Noah sigh, and then he began.
“Okay, so, after you left the commissary last night, I got to thinking. I came to see you about an hour later and knocked, but you didn’t answer. So I knocked some more, and when you still didn’t answer, I got worried and used my medical override to let myself in. You were sound asleep and obviously dreaming deeply. I tried to shake you awake, but you didn’t respond. That’s when I got seriously worried, got my Balance here, and brought the equipment to see what was going on. When we got you hooked up and got some readings, we were basically amazed. Initially I thought you were only dreaming, but the data readings we got from the brain patches indicate that you weren’t dreaming. The readings were what we expect of someone that is fully awake. In fact, they are almost identical to your daily readings from your daily health checks.” He glanced to his wife. “Honey, can you take a finger prick test? I want to see Nathan’s enzyme and hormone levels.”
Nathan felt his hand taken and a prick on his little finger.
“Hold this swab on your finger and press for a few seconds,” Dr. Chloe told him when she was done, and he followed instructions.
“Doc, you know I’m really confused here. I didn’t make a fuss about you all being here, but that doesn’t mean I’m not freaked out at waking up to you both in here. Then you say I was asleep but not really asleep? Is there something wrong with me? Is my Un-Balanced state killing me?” Nathan asked slowly. He felt fine, great even, but something had the docs worried.
Chloe held the blood reader out to her husband. He took it and entered the reading into his data pad. A few seconds later, he held the pad up for Nathan to see for himself. “I know this won’t make sense to you, but I want you to look at the highlighted part of both graphs.”
Nathan saw there were two graphs on the screen, side by side. Four of the five squiggly lines were black and varied slightly. The fifth line was red and was identical on both graphs. He looked questioningly back at his doctor.
“One of these graphs is your blood results. Most results differ slightly from one Watchman to another. All Balanced Watchmen have the same result on one test, however. The hormone, enzyme number is identical. One graph is mine, and the other is yours. These results say you have found your Balance. We got these results yesterday, as well. That’s why I came to talk to you and you freaked out and brushed me off. These results on this graph I’m showing you are from the prick test we just did. The other graph is mine. Your enzyme, hormone levels are the same as mine, and I’ve been Balanced for years. The results we got from your sleeping tests and this prick test are something we’ve never seen before. I need you to tell us what has happened to you the past couple of days. Two days ago your results said you were Un-Balanced and in decline. You knew it, and so did we. Yesterday your results came back as Balanced and gaining strength. What changed in between for you? Did you meet anyone? Have you been intimate with someone? I need you to be honest with me.”
Nathan sucked in a huge breath, unwound his legs, and pulled his knees up to his chest. He released his breath in an explosive sigh as he laid his chin on his knees. He wrapped his arms around them and collected his thoughts. When he was ready, he started. He started with his dream of the women’s voices, and over an hour later, he finished by relating his conversation with Kian just before he woke up.
Throughout it all, Dr. Chloe had been taking notes on her tablet. When Nathan finished, she pulled out some earphones from her pocket, plugged them into her data pad, swiped at something, and then kept typing. Nathan quirked an eyebrow at Dr. Noah.
“Chloe has been recording what you’ve been saying and most of what’s going on here for our records. She’s just making sure her notes are as comprehensive as possible. What’s happening to you has never been recorded before. You’re the first one t
o report these kinds of dreams and showing up as Balanced without having physically met someone, not to mention your sleep results. Now, though, we have a basis for where to look for answers. Besides numb and confused, how do you feel, Nathan?”
Nathan shook himself out and threw his covers off. He reached to his head footboard and grabbed his robe. Getting up, he slung it on and started to pace the room. “Physically I feel great, full of energy. Mentally I’m confused as all hell. Emotionally, I want Kian here. It feels like a part of me is missing, just out of my reach, and that’s unsettling as all fuck. Kian told me to look him up. Test if this is real or just a dream. That’s what I want to do, Doc. I need to research. Find Kian. Maybe see if any of this is real or if this is all fucked up and I’m going nuts.”
Nathan sat back on his bed and just watched his visitors, waiting. Finally the other two looked at each other, and then suddenly Dr. Chloe swiped her data pad screen a couple of times then handed it over to Nathan.
The screen was open to a search window. “Search. Use my pad. Send everything you find to hard copy print. It will print in our office, and we can help you find some answers.”
With that, she got up and with a quick nod left the room. Her Watchman slowly stood and, after a supportive squeeze to Nathan’s shoulder, followed her.
Chapter Six
Nathan didn’t have a clue as to how long he’d stayed there on his bed flicking through history on Chloe’s data pad. As she’d suggested he had sent everything he had found off for a hard copy print. When the machine had run out of battery, he had opened the side compartment that held its charging cable, plugged it in, and just kept going. At one point a knock on his door revealed a tray loaded with sandwiches and coffee and he had eaten them in a haze of history, screens, and facts. Nathan had found out everything he could about Kian. He had smiled at reading his birth announcement:
Mr. and Mrs. Jordan Young are proud to announce the birth of their baby boy, Kian Andrew Young, born August 5, 1975, at 9:15 p.m. at the Royal Women’s Hospital. The baby was a healthy weight and mum and bub are doing fine.
Thank you.
Nathan had stopped short at reading Kian’s parents’ death notices. Kian had been just barely out of his teens when he had found himself alone. Nathan’s heart broke for the young man Kian had been.
Then he’d found Kian’s death notice, and a howl of anguish tore itself out of his throat.
His fingers had sent everything off for printing as he had found it. Everything from notices to recipes for the pies he had seen at the cafe to pictures and schematics for Kian’s coffee machine. But his brain had shut down once he found the article relating to Kian’s death.
Nathan started and flailed around, groaning in pain and almost falling off the bed. Strong arms kept him on the bed when he would have gone over, and others stuck sticky patches on him and hooked him up to monitoring machines. He blinked several times, and his two doctors came into focus.
Noah released his shoulders and stepped back, allowing Chloe to quickly use a hypo-spray on his neck that made Nathan feel better almost immediately. “You’ve been here for at least eight hours. We know you ate your lunch, but your dinner is still outside. It looks like you haven’t moved in hours, and you stopped sending stuff to our printer four hours ago. We got worried and came to check on you.”
Nathan shook himself physically before clearing his throat. Chloe handed him a glass of water that he drank completely before forcing his mouth to speak. “He’s dead, stabbed to death, he was only twenty-four,” he got out before having to fight for his breath again.
“Nathan, buddy, it was always going to be the result of your search, one way or another. Kian was either a fantastic dream or someone from the past. You found everything you could about his past, his life, livelihood, friendships, and even his death. Now we have to find a way to use it all and trust in Mother Nature, The Fates, and Lady Luck to help us. We’ll help you. Let’s go through what you’ve found.” Nathan slumped back onto his pillows as Noah finished speaking.
He felt his feet being prodded and moved them obediently as Chloe sat down and started laying the pieces of Kian’s life around them. “He’s a hottie, Nathan. If you ever decide to share, let us know.” She winked at Nathan. It made him laugh a little and get elbowed by her husband.
“There’s hope for her yet. It only took a hottie from the past to do it,” Noah whispered loudly to Nathan, pulling another small laugh out of him.
Nathan looked at Chloe. She had a sheet of paper in her hand and was reading it carefully. Nathan focused on it for a second then looked away, pain tearing through his chest. The heart rate monitor started beating erratically and increasing rapidly. Chloe calmly reached over and smacked him sharply on his forehead.
“Get a grip, Watchman,” she told him just as calmly, never taking her eyes off the page in her hand.
Nathan nodded sheepishly and looked over at Noah, who was still beside him. Noah shrugged his shoulders. “Yep. Welcome to the club. I get a few of those a day from her. Usually not in public though, thank Gods. People think that the Watchman is in charge of the relationship. They’re wrong. The Balance always has us wrapped around their finger, twenty-four-seven. The Balance knows it, the Watchman knows it.”
That little announcement earned them a glare from the very pretty and petite doctor. Nathan had to chuckle. He mock-punched her husband on the hip. “See that, you got me in trouble,” he stage-whispered back, getting a humph from Chloe for his attitude.
She ignored them for a few more seconds before speaking. “If you two are finished? Good,” she continued without giving either man a chance to speak. “Okay, we know Kian was real at a point in history, so while you are dreaming about him, you’re not dreaming him up per se. The man was real. We have the paper trail to prove it. We also know that Watchmen are notoriously bad at lying or making shit like this up. Most of you have the creative imagination of a bean.” She waited to see acknowledging nods from both Watchmen in the room.
“Next, we know approximately when he died. Man up, Nathan. We need all of this if we are to find a way to help you.” She quickly squeezed Nathan’s foot under the covers in support. “You’re not alone in this. Noah and I are here for you and are going to put the full resources of the Watchman Tower behind finding a solution we can all live with. The only solution that currently comes to mind is to find a way to bring Kian forward in time.
“Obviously we can’t play with the timeline too much because, well, that’s always going to be a bad idea, but we can pull Kian here at the time of his death. Admittedly that would turn it into a missing person case, but I’m sure we can all live with that. We can even let the current authorities know about it after the fact and lock it down under The Watch Decree. That thing can hide so many of our secrets everyone’s scared to open it up and look in.” She stopped and looked at the two men in the room.
An exasperated huff blew out of her lips. Nathan watched spellbound as she rolled the sheet of paper in her hand into a tight cylinder and tapped first her husband on the forehead and then him with it.
“Get with the program gentlemen, we don’t know how much time we have to get this done. We have to pull Kian out of there basically after he is attacked but before he dies. We have to find a way to send you both back so Noah can get some readings off Kian for any emergency treatments he may need. Not to mention we don’t completely know when Nathan is going to go back. He could go back when he goes to sleep tonight or not. He could go back to the day after he was last there or a week from then. There’s little we can control and a whole lot we can speculate about and a hell of a whole lot more we are going to have to trust to those Ladies from your dreams.”
Nathan nodded mutely for a second, letting it all sink in. The relief when it did sink in had him slumping onto his pillows.
“You actually believe me. You don’t think I’m a loony bin candidate. You think we can do this? Find a way to bring him here?”
“
Watchman, the way I see it, we have a few choices open to us. One, bring him here, you Bond etcetera as acknowledged Balance and Watchman and live out long and happy lives as productive members of our society with the support of the Watchmen Tower and all it entails. Option two, we find a way to send you back to live with him in the past. There you would have to learn to appear normal, never showing your true strengths, and definitely hiding any and all weaknesses. Neither of you would have any real support, and you would have to adjust to living in a war-riddled and polluted world that the Watchman part of you would hate and be driven to change. Only you would be alone in that admirable endeavor. Our third option is to forget about it all and watch you die a slow and painful death because we were too lazy to do all that we could to stop it.
“I don’t like options two or three, so we’re going to go with option one. Start at the beginning and tell us everything again. I want to make sure we didn’t miss anything the first time around,” she finished, spearing Nathan with a frank look that said she was waiting.
So Nathan opened the bottle of water on his bedside table and swallowed half of it. He started his tale again from the very beginning. This time he told them about the tour he’d given the school kids and even the friends that had eased him to sleep because of the pain he’d had before he met Kian. The two doctors sat and listened to him speak for what seemed like hours, giving him water or food as he needed either. He paid no attention to where it all came from, just accepted it and kept talking.
It was well past midnight when Nathan found himself alone again. He had talked himself out and was exhausted. His docs had hooked him back into their trusty machines and monitors. He had showered and changed before they had done it, so now he lay back in his bed, under the covers, and willed himself to relax and sleep. He was wound up like a clock and felt one more twist would shatter him. Kian was real, after a fashion. Nathan was travelling back to the past in his dreams. The dreams weren’t dreams. His Balance was somewhere stuck in time and apparently he had two very smart people that believed him and were going to figure out a way to make sure he and Kian could stay together.
The Watchman of Alcatraz (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) Page 5
