by Krista Lakes
One of his hands moved down to my belly and I began undulating my hips into him. I felt the vibration of his groan of pleasure on my back as my body pushed and pulled. We touched at every possible inch of skin, our bodies merging and entwining as one. He was going shallower now, but every time my ass touched his hips, it sent another wave of pleasure through my body.
I focused on the feeling of his hands on my body. They were strong and rough, with callouses from working in dangerous areas. I loved those hands. They grabbed and squeezed with every motion I made, and I could feel him getting more and more excited. My fingers wandered down to my own clit. With stimulation on both my inside and my outside, I knew I would make it to orgasm quickly. I just hoped that I would make it in time.
I was rising to climax and I could feel him begin to take on a rhythmic pace. His hot breath came faster in my ear, and I knew he was getting close. I could feel him begin to swell, feel his pace changing. He hugged me even tighter, and when he gasped in my ear, it pushed me over the edge. I followed him into ecstasy, the two of riding the waves of pleasure in tandem. It was the most magnificent feeling I ever had.
As we came together, I knew that I had been a fool to ever let this go. Twenty years ago, Tony had brought me to another level of happiness, and I had never been the same after that. Now, he was returning me to the same level of happiness, and like a drug, I wouldn't be able to live without it.
As he slowed and then stopped, I found my own orgasm winding down. My lungs ached for oxygen I swear I no longer needed. Tony was better than air. He collapsed behind me, pulling the condom off as he softened and quickly tying it in a knot. I watched him throw it toward the wastebasket and miss.
"Hey! You could play for the Orlando Magic!" I said, a grin on my face.
"Who?" he asked, still breathing hard.
Oh yeah, they're not around yet, I thought. I struggled to think of a basketball team that had been around back then. "Nevermind, just make sure that makes it into the trash. I can't go messing up my aunt's place like this!"
He smiled, then gave me a little kiss. I closed my eyes as he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in tight. I only had a few hours left, but I could afford a couple more minutes to just revel in his touch...
Chapter 10
June 9, 1990
For the second time
"You can't go," I said, trying to remain calm. I was sitting on the bed while Tony packed his bag.
He sighed, standing up from stuffing his duffel bag. "We've had this discussion already, Ladybug. I have to go."
I bit the inside of my cheek. I was starting to get frustrated. "But what if you didn't? We could go anywhere. We could be together."
Tony let his bag lean against the wall. He faced me, his eyes dark and serious. "I don't want to have this conversation again. I have to go back. Besides, I'll see you when I get back."
"But you aren't coming back!" I clapped my hands over my mouth. I hadn't intended on revealing that I was from the future. I had thought about it for a good chunk of the morning and couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation that wouldn't make me sound insane. I was trying desperately to figure out how to convince him to just come with me, to run away with me, but it wasn't working.
"What do you mean, I’m not coming back? How do you know that?" Tony's brows came together, and somehow his dark eyes grew darker. The only thing I was succeeding at was making him angry.
"I just know, okay?" I stammered. "Please, don't go."
Tony took a step toward me. "Do you know what not going back would do?"
I shook my head slightly. I knew we would need to leave the United States to escape his military duty, but that didn't seem like such a big deal when the other option was his death.
"In addition to deserting my friends, I would be considered AWOL. Once I've been AWOL long enough, they'll call me a deserter. A traitor. If I'm in the States, they'll put me in jail. Best case scenario, I'd be dishonorably discharged." He turned back to his bag, frustration filling his voice. "Do you know how hard it is to get a job with a dishonorable discharge? I don't exactly have a lot of skills. The military is my life, like it or not. And you're asking me to put my entire future in jeopardy because you have a bad feeling?"
"It's more than just a bad feeling..."
"This isn't like asking me to quit my job. This is asking me to abandon the only people who care about me. Dean and Matt are my brothers. I won't leave them to go off without me," he stated flatly. He stared at his mostly-packed bag. "Believe me, I want to stay with you as much as you do, but I'm not going to say this again, Kimberly. I'm leaving."
I choked back tears. I was desperate to find a way to make him stay. If I told him I was from the future, he would just think I was crazy. I wracked my brain to come up with some event that would convince that I knew what would happen, but it had been twenty years since this moment. Even without my memory fading, the weather had been exactly as forecasted, there were no strange delays, no one said or did anything strange, and there was nothing memorable in the news. For once in my life, I wished that there had been a horrible earthquake or tsunami that I could predict, but there wasn't.
In all the times I had dreamed of coming back to this day, I had never considered how hard it would be. How do you convince someone that you're from the future without sounding completely crazy?
"I had this dream... and-" I tried, saying the only thing I could think of. Tony raised his hand as though he were stopping my words in the air.
"Kimberly, stop," he said. He looked at me with sad eyes. I recognized the look. He thought I was crazy. "I'm going, and that's final. If you want to keep on with this, then don't bother coming with me to the airport."
His shoulders slumped as he turned to pick up his bag. He lifted it onto his back like it was weightless, stepping out of the room and walking to the car. I was speechless. I just sat there as I heard him stomp through the house.
I had failed. More than failed. He thought I was psycho now.
I heard the front door slam. Tears ran down my face. How could I have messed this up so badly? I had failed. I had failed and ruined what had been a beautiful last day. He was leaving, and any more attempts were going to just make him angrier with me.
Failure hung heavy on my shoulders. I wished I could just walk into the ocean and drown. I had been given the gift of a chance, and I had blown it. Tony was going to die, and I was going to have to experience the loss again. It would be even worse this time because I would know it was coming. I wiped my eyes, trying to figure out how to ask Matt and Dean to watch out for him and not sound even more crazy.
"Oh, Fountain," I whimpered, trying to keep my sobs in check despite my heart wanting to explode. "How do I fix this?"
I covered my face with my hands, unable to stop the sobs from escaping. Tears leaked between my fingers, as I buried myself in the pillow. I had failed.
Chapter 11
Unknown Time
I don't know how long I cried, but at some point I became aware that things had changed. I sat up and wiped my cheeks. The condo was gone. Mist was all around me. Behind me I could hear the soft whispers of the fountain as it flowed.
"It didn't work," I sobbed, turning to look up at Diana. A soft sadness crossed her face as she knelt beside me.
"I must apologize. I had a feeling that date was not the day to go back to, but you were so sure of yourself." She wiped her soft hand across my cheek, catching my tears.
I looked up at her, expecting more. When she didn't say anything, I began to fall even deeper into despair. "So that's it?"
Her look was maternal, as if teaching me a harsh lesson. "That is it. You did not save him. He still died on the same day. Though your fight caused him to write you less before he left, the memory of the days and nights you spent together convinced him that you were the girl of his dreams. He intended to marry you, and he died loving you no less than in your original timeline."
I felt the strength sap from
my body. "Is that supposed to comfort me? He's still dead."
Diana nodded. "Yes, he is still dead."
I waited for a moment, and as the swirling mists enveloped the fountain, I started to cry again.
"Can you send me back again?" I asked, just as Diana began to fade from my sight as well.
"My child, not many people get a second chance, and fewer still get a third."
"But can you?" I asked, hope filling my voice.
Diana snapped back into my vision. For the first time, she looked less confident. "I can never send you back to the time that you just visited. However..."
"You can send me back again," I finished her sentence. She paused. There was clearly something keeping her from sending me back. "I have to go back again."
She smiled, but there was clearly pain behind her words. "Words did not persuade Tony last time. What makes you think that he will listen to you at another time?"
"If you can do it, I have to go. I have to try."
Another pause. "I can send you back, just one more time." Elation filled me, but she quickly added, "There are some... complications, though."
I smiled through my tears. "I don't care. Please send me back."
She still looked stern. "Before you go, you must listen to what I have to say. Once I send you back, I can no longer rescue you. The future will be set in stone. In addition, the task has become harder now. I will send you back to the date that you are most likely to succeed."
"The date I'm most likely to succeed?" I frowned. "I thought the last day we were together was the best day."
Diana gave me a gentle smile. "No. On the day he left you, the threads of time were tightly woven. The fabric was already set. On the date that I send you to now, there is a possibility for a new design."
A glimmer of hope began to flicker, raising my spirits and stopping my tears. I had another chance. A better chance.
"Unfortunately, that also means that there is a greater risk to you." Diana peered at me with her magic green eyes. I could feel the weight of her words. "If the pattern can be changed, then you can be taken out of it as well. You could change all other timelines as well. Do you still wish to continue?"
"Yes," I answered without hesitation. "I would do anything for him."
"Then good luck to you, child," Diana whispered. I closed my eyes as she kissed my forehead, and I felt the mists of time swirl around me once again.
Chapter 12
August 1, 1990
For the second time
I woke up in a room that I hadn't been in for over twenty years; my first apartment in Los Angeles. My eyes shot open, and I sat up quickly, making myself dizzy with the movement. The room was exactly as I remembered it, but without the veneer of memory. The room was barely bigger than a broom closet. I laughed a little to myself, thinking how it was even smaller than I had remembered it. In fact, I remembered it as far more glamorous.
The mattress was on the floor with unpacked boxes scattered throughout the small space. Water stains on the walls that hadn't bothered me in my twenties disgusted me now. The paint was peeling off the ceiling, and I could hear the hum of traffic through the wall. Now that I had lived in a nice apartment, the glamor of simply being in LA was gone for me. I missed my future apartment already.
I could hear the TV through the thin door, the voices of the news punctuated by my roommate's one sided conversation and laughter as she talked on the phone. Letters from Tony sat open on the box I was using as a nightstand. The ink was still dark and the paper white. I had read them so many times since this moment that I was used to them being yellow and aged. These were fresh and new.
I stood up slowly, expecting my hips and knees to protest from rising from the floor. But my twenty-two-year-old body made the motion easily. I ended up almost falling over because I was overcompensating and expecting pain. The ease of it all made me laugh.
Youth really is wasted on the young, I thought to myself with a giggle. I glanced at the mirror leaning against the wall and ran my hand through my blonde hair. It was tangled from the night of sleep, but I still looked good. I stretched my hands overhead, enjoying the way my body moved and responded.
I opened the door to the main room where my roommate had the TV on full blast and was still chatting on the phone. I nearly laughed again as I realized she was talking on a corded landline. I had forgotten that cell phones weren't around yet, let alone the thin little smart phones I was used to. I was rather glad to know that particular technology was on its way.
The newscaster on the TV had on a terrible '90's style dress coat with big shoulders and a haircut that made his head look two sizes too small for the coat. I shook my head a little at the fashion sense of the time. I remembered thinking it was fantastic back then, but with a modern perspective, we all looked neon and overdone.
I took another look at the TV screen, noticing the box in the corner said it was seven in the morning on August 1st. I started to laugh uncontrollably as I realized I knew what I was going to do. I knew why the fountain had sent me here, and I really should have asked to come here the first time. I knew the future on this date. I knew things that no one else could because I had been here already.
"What are you laughing at?" my roommate asked, holding her hand over the phone receiver. I managed to keep a straight face at her ridiculous puffy mullet hairstyle and neon pink wind-breaker outfit. I grinned at her, feeling almost giddy. I really could convince him this time. I was going to save my Tony.
"I'm going to need a ride to the airport," I told her. She looked at me like I was crazy, but I didn't care. I was going to see Tony.
***
"Here's Fort Sam Houston, miss," the taxi cab driver said, slowing to a stop in front of an impressive looking gate. I could see a guard in the booth checking I.D.s. I took a shaky breath. Now that I was actually here, actually about to go see Tony and tell him I was from the future, I was nervous.
I had hopped on the first flight I could find. It was actually rather nice traveling by plane pre-9/11. I was able to bring a bottle of water and I didn't have to take off my shoes in security. Some things really were better in this simpler time, I had thought to myself.
I handed the driver his fare and opened the car door. The sweltering heat of Texas in August hit me like a fist in the face. I grabbed my backpack filled with all the clothes I could stuff in it. I had everything with me that I would need to disappear. I just hoped that, after tomorrow, I would need it.
The cab drove off in a cloud of dust and smoke as I walked up to the gate and presented my drivers license to the gate guard. He looked at it and wrote my name down on the visitor's log.
"What are you going to be doing here on base, miss?" the guard asked, handing me back my ID.
"I'm here to see a soldier. Sergeant Anthony Frontera." I put the card back in my pocket. "Do you know where I might find him?"
"What unit is he a part of?"
"The 101st Airborne Division." I smiled my best flirtatious smile and was rewarded with a smile from the guard.
"There's a lot of guys from the one-oh-one here, miss, but I think I've seen this guy. Jet black hair, really buff?"
"That's the one," I confirmed.
He laughed. "Lucky guy, that one. They're in building 2B." He leaned out of his booth and pointed. "Go left at the sign, and you can't miss it. If you hurry, you just might catch them getting back from lunch."
"Thank you so much," I replied and resettled the bag on my shoulders. I could feel his eyes on my backside as I walked away, but I didn't care. It had been a long time since someone that young had checked out my behind, but I had no time to show off. I was on base and on my way to save Tony.
The building was right where the guard had said it would be. I stood in front of the sand-colored building and bit my lip. Soldiers in uniform hurried between the buildings trying to stay out of the heat. Now that I was actually here, I was nervous. My palms were dripping with sweat and it wasn't just from the heat. My
stomach was threatening to be sick with all the butterflies dancing around inside of me. I swallowed hard, forcing my stomach to behave. This was my last chance.
"Kimberly?" A voice called out from my side. I turned to see Tony making his way up the sidewalk. He looked so handsome in his uniform. Dean and Matt were with him.
"Hi," I said, giving them a timid wave hello. I was shaking with nerves now. "Can I talk to you?"
"Yeah, sure," Tony said with a grin. His eyes were bright with excitement at seeing me. I took it as a good sign. I must not have screwed up the timeline too badly if he was still happy to see me. "Can we do it inside? I'm dying out here."
I nodded. Tony put his hand on my back to guide me inside the door. His fingertips seemed to send electricity down my spine, and I shivered with delight. Dean held open the door for us all to walk inside. The air conditioning hit me like a gift from God. I wiped my hands on my shorts, trying to rub away my nervousness. If I didn't do this right, I could lose him.
"I'll see you guys upstairs," Tony told Dean and Matt. They nodded and gave me a wave as they went up the stairs to wherever they were going. I watched them leave us in the empty entrance. I was glad there weren't other people around. This was going to be weird enough without an audience.
I turned back to face Tony and was happily surprised when he kissed me. I relaxed into his kiss, letting my body respond to his touch. He felt so good, so strong, and so wonderful. I could taste the salty sweat from being outside, and I loved it. He tasted real. Alive.
He pulled back, keeping his hands on my neck and shoulders. I loved being this close to him. When he smiled, I felt my heart melt into a puddle.
