by T. J. Quinn
“Because things have to change.” He opened his mouth to interrupt her, but she didn’t allow him this time. “Let me finish. If I had gone through with my plan, I would be established here on Arcadia, you would have full access to Luciana, but we would be living separate lives.” She took a deep breath before she continued. “When we met again, well, I guess we got carried away by the heat of the moment.”
“Is that what it was for you?” he asked, his face harder than a stone mask. She had no idea what he was feeling.
“Whatever it was, it’s quite obvious it’s over.” Those were the hardest words she had ever uttered in her life. It wasn’t over for her, and it would never be, but her feelings didn’t matter, especially when they weren’t shared by him. “So, I believe it’s time we go back to my original plan. Perhaps you could help me find a place for Luciana and me, and that way we can move on with our lives.”
There was a tense silence in the room while they looked at each other, both lost in their own thoughts. Sabrina was struggling to keep her self-control and not let him know just how much she was hurting.
“If that’s what you want, I won’t stand in your way, of course, but there’s no need for you and Luciana to leave. I’ll leave,”
She jumped out of her chair, suddenly anxious to leave the room, feeling the huge knot in her throat threatening to choke her as the tears welled in her eyes. “No. I would never allow you to do that, this is your home, not mine. All I need is a small place for the children and me, we’ll figure out the rest later,” she uttered, taking a deep breath, trying to hold back the pain crushing her heart. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m feeling a bit tired. Good night.”
She left the room before he could say anything else and closed the door on her way out as gently as possible before she ran up to her room, tears finally rolling down her cheeks.
She went straight to the bathroom, and after getting rid of her clothes, she entered the shower stall and covered the sound of her tears with the shower.
She had been right. It was all over. She rested her forehead on the wall and cried even harder, the pain rushing through her body so strong she was sure it would kill her.
He didn’t even try to convince her to stay. His acceptance of her decision had only confirmed she had been right. He no longer wanted her in his life.
“Why are you crying? I thought this was what you wanted,” he asked in a soft tone from behind her.
Startled, she turned around and found him with her in the big shower stall, still wearing his clothes and not minding he was getting all wet.
She wiped the tears from her face, replacing them with the warm water that was falling on her. “What are you doing here?” she asked, in a tremulous tone, not able to hide the sob in her voice.
“I decided I had to do something, perhaps convince you to give me another chance or even allow me to share this house with you. I won't impose my presence on you if that’s what bothers you. I just want to be with you and the children,” he said, almost stuttering in a way so unlike him.
Sabrina was so astonished, she wasn’t able to utter a single word.
“You see, I almost lost you a few days ago. I don’t think I’ll ever forget how terrified I was with the possibility of not having you in my life,” he continued, rubbing his face as if going through the pain he was describing. “The first time I was forced to leave you was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. I wanted to keep you with me forever, but I knew I couldn’t. Besides, I was sure you were more than happy to see me gone.”
She let out a small cry of protest, still unable to speak.
“When I finally escaped, I forced myself not to go looking for you. I had nothing to offer to you, and you most probably had forgotten me already. We came here and built this new home for all of us, but you never left my mind or my heart,” he added, his eyes locked on hers.
He was stripping his heart and soul right there, in front of her, and she was still having trouble believing she wasn’t hallucinating.
“I knew I was no longer living. I was just surviving, because I was missing the most vital part of my life – you. I went back to Earth to find you. I had to see you again and ask you if you would give me another chance, but then I met Luciana, and all I could think of was that you had moved on, you had found someone else, that proved I had been right all those years, you had forgotten me.”
“No,” she protested.
“When I found out she was my daughter, I was in heaven. You had given me something I had never dreamed of having and more importantly, you had given me another chance with you,” he continued, his voice thick with all his passion. “Things between us restarted so fast as if we had never been apart and I was sure that meant you cared for me a bit.”
She took a step towards him, but he stepped back. “Please, let me finish,” he asked abruptly. “I burst into your life, dragged you all the way here, exposed you to a life-threatening situation, and on top of that, I got you pregnant again, without even asking you if wanted to go through that once more,” he made a small pause, taking a couple of deep breaths. “I messed up, I know that, but I couldn’t let you get out of my life without telling you how much I love and that you mean the whole universe to me.”
Sabrina let out a small sob, her heart thundering in her chest, sure she would die if this was just a dream.
“I understand if you don’t want anything to do with me again, I really do, I’m just asking you to allow me to be around, to be there for you, if you ever need me.”
She took a deep breath, trying to understand all he had just said. “Then… why? Why did you stop touching me? Why did you stop making love to me?” she finally found her voice to utter the protests that had been eating her alive for the past weeks.
“After all, I’ve put you through, I’m sure you hate me. I have no right to touch you again, not to mention, make love to you,”
“You didn’t put me through anything,” she grumbled, closing the distance between them and poking his chest with her accusing finger. “Except when you decided to ignore me in bed. I thought,” she took a deep breath, “I thought you didn’t want me any longer, that you only kept me here because of Luciana and the new baby, whom by the way, is another small miracle in my life.”
“You told me you wanted to leave,” he said, with a frown.
“Of course, I wanted to leave. I felt I was a hindrance in your life, and I couldn’t stand to feel you so far from me, Lucas, I love you. I fell in love with you when I first met you, and that’s the only reason I stayed there with you, and I would have stayed my whole life if you had asked me to,” she explained. “You have no idea how worried I was about you and how much I missed you.”
He didn’t let go on. Cradling her face, he claimed her soft lips in a passionate kiss, showing her how alive his passion and desire for her were. After all those days apart from each other, their hunger was voracious, and when they finally unleashed it, it became unstoppable.
Kiss after kiss, caress after caress, they traveled the path to paradise a few times, right there, against the bathroom wall, before their bodies caved in with sheer exhaustion. Jarcor carried her to bed and kissed her a few more times.
“Is this a dream? If it is, please, don’t wake me up. I wouldn’t survive the pain,” she muttered against his lips.
“If it’s a dream, then we’re both dreaming, but a dream would never feel this wonderful,” he whispered in her ear. “I love you, Sabrina, more than I thought possible to love someone else, more than life itself,” he assured her, combining the words with sweet kisses. “Don’t ever leave me, I no longer know how to live without you.”
“Trust me, you’re stuck with me for the rest of your life,” she assured him, wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him as if nothing else mattered.
Epilogue
Tyl was born in the middle of the night, so fast, he didn’t give time for his mother to get to the hospital. Jarcor delivered him
in the middle of the living room, assisted by an excited Luciana and a stoic John.
The baby had been perfectly alright and incredibly, he seemed to recognize Luciana immediately. Though that didn’t surprise the older sister.
“We have been talking ever since we worked together to save mamma,” she explained as if it was the most natural thing in the universe.
There was a lot they still had to learn about their own children, but for now, they were just happy to have them and raise them as well as they could, providing them with the tools they needed to survive out there.
“Thank you, for doing this for me,” Sabrina said to Lucas before she was taken to the hospital for a thorough check-up.
“I’m the one thanking you, for being in my life and granting me all the happiness there is in the whole universe,” he assured her, kissing her forehead. “But, please, next time, I’ll take you to the hospital a week earlier, my old heart almost collapsed over this,” he grumbled, but she was sure he had relished the experience of bringing his own son to life.
“Promise,” she assured him, pulling him closer and kissing him.
Life was better than any of her wildest dreams. Though Arcadia was only starting to rise, they had managed to build a place where everybody was accepted for who they were and not what others expect from them, where they all lived in harmony.
She was sure the war on Earth would be over soon and then, most cyborgs would be able to move to this small paradise they had built.
There wasn’t much more they could ask life.
The end
