By Arrietty
The sound of the klaxons reverberated around the base.
“Incoming wormhole, sir,” announced Sergeant Harriman to General Hammond.
“Is it SG-1?”
“Yes, sir. It is SG-1.”
General Hammond let out a small sigh of relief. He really had wondered this time if he had lost SG-1 for good. It was so good to see them on the screen, after they had sent the MALP through.
“Open the iris.”
“Yes, sir.”
As the iris ground open, everyone found themselves holding their breath. A medical team had already been called to the gate room. SG-1 had been gone far too long for anyone not to be hurt.
But amazingly all of SG-1 plus Jacob came through the Stargate still walking. Jacob was obviously hurt as he was clutching his arm. But what seemed to confuse the medical staff the most was that both Colonel O'Neill’s and Major Carter’s clothes were covered in blood, but they seemed to be okay. In fact, Colonel O’Neill kept silently batting away the hands of Dr. Fraiser as she was making a preliminary examination.
“Good to have you home SG-1 and, Jacob good to see you too,” said General Hammond. “Please, off to the infirmary. By the looks of you, de-briefing will have to be in three hours.”
Carter stepped forward and stood in front of the General. “Actually, sir. It isn’t as bad as it looks. Dad is the only one who is hurt and Selmac has everything under control.”
“Whose blood is this then?” Hammond waved his hand generally in between O’Neill and Carter.
O’Neill gave a grimace. “It’s ours, sir, but you know, Goold’s (pronouncing the name incorrectly) have these Sarcophagi things, that sort of take care of fatal injuries.”
“Still, go and get checked out, colonel.”
“Yes, sir.”
General Hammond couldn’t quite decide whether he wanted to know or not what had happened to his team. Pushing it to the back of his mind, he walked off towards his office. He would just have to wait and see.
“Look, Janet, I’m okay. I just want a shower and get out of these clothes.”
“Sam, I know you say you are all right, but there is a lot of blood on here and you don’t hear Colonel O’Neill complaining, do you?”
Just as Janet finished speaking, there was a raised voice coming from one of the nurses.
“Colonel, I have to check your injuries.”
“But I haven’t got any injuries!” shouted back the colonel.
Immediately, Janet stormed out through the curtain surrounding Sam’s bed. Sam decided that she wanted to see this. Janet was not happy and watching Janet at work trying to subdue a miscreant patient was always entertaining, especially when it was the colonel.
The scene that awaited Sam was Colonel O’Neill standing by an examination table. He still had his black T-shirt on and Sam could see healthy skin showing through the blood soaked slits in his T-shirt. At this stage, Janet was getting pretty mad with him and Sam could see that Colonel O’Neill was just about at the end of his tether.
“LOOK!” Colonel O’Neill shouted. He grabbed the bottom of his T-shirt and pulled it up to show them his stomach.
“See. No blood. No cuts. No holes. I’m fine – I want a shower.”
With that he stormed off towards the door pushing past Janet on his way. As O’Neill stalked past Sam, she held her hand out to stop him. She knew he was being unreasonable, but she understood what he was going through and she wanted him to know that. As her hand came in contact with his arm, the whole room went black. This overwhelming feeling of anger and exasperation washed over her. Very quickly the blackness faded and she could see the room again. Sam looked down at her hand on the Colonel’s arm. Blue light, just like the zat’nik’atel was running up and down both of their arms. It was the same blue light that had flowed over them in the sarcophagus. A tingling sensation was running all through her body. Once again, emotions washed over her that weren’t her own. Sam quickly looked up at Colonel O'Neill. The expression on his face was full of shock, which was mirrored by hers. Sam could see into his mind. Both the colonel and the major quickly pulled their arms away from each other, but just as they did, a blue fire bolt shot out from them and struck a piece of machinery setting it alight. There was a fizzing sound. Then a large bang and the piece of hospital equipment exploded, showering patients and staff with bits of debris.
Klaxons started off in the building, followed by a fire alarm. Apart from these noises no one said a word. Everyone was shocked into silence. SF’s stormed into the infirmary with their rifles ready to repel any attacking force.
Sam looked nervously at Jack. He was still looking at her with a shocked expression on his face. He then quickly looked away and his face was closed of all expression. Any fires that had sprung up were quickly put out. No one seemed to be hurt.
“Colonel! What is going on here?” General Hammond had walked into the room to see what was happening.
“I’m not sure, sir,” he answered.
Dr. Fraiser came up to Colonel O’Neill and Major Carter and said, “You two, back to your cubicles and keep away from each other. You are a bit expensive to have around here.”
Neither Jack nor Sam said a word as they moved quickly back to their cubicles and waited for their examination.
Two and a half hours later in the de-briefing room, all of SG-1 were sitting around the table waiting for General Hammond. Colonel O’Neill and Major Carter were conspicuously sitting as far away from each other as possible.
“Well people,” announced General Hammond as he came into the briefing room and sat down at the head of the table. “Do we have any explanations of what happened in the infirmary?” He frowned, looked up at the other end of the table and demanded, “Colonel O’Neill what are you doing down there? Get up here in your usual seat please.”
O’Neill raised his eyebrows in surprise and then grimaced at the others and muttered under his breath, “Well you can’t blame me, you heard him.” He sat down beside Major Carter in his usual seat. He was very careful to not get too close to Major Carter in the process.
Irritated by the Colonel’s obvious bad behaviour, the General asked again, “Well, what happened?” He looked pointedly at Colonel O’Neill.
Just as O’Neill opened his mouth to say he didn’t know, Dr. Fraiser walked into the briefing room holding two large folders, one a lot thicker than the other.
“I think I can help with this a little, General Hammond,” answered Dr. Fraiser.
Dr. Fraiser then proceeded to give her medical report.
“Jacob has gone back with the Tok’ra, his arm has healed now. Both Teal’c and Jonas have a few minor cuts and bruises. Now Colonel O’Neill and Major Carter are fine. There is nothing wrong with them, well visible anyway.”
“What do you mean by visible?” Carter asked.
Dr. Fraiser moved over to a backlit screen, which had been moved into the briefing room earlier. She placed two medical scans onto the screen and switched on the light to the screen.
“These are scans of Colonel O’Neill’s and Major Carter’s brain. The one on the left is the colonel’s. Both of these were taken at the last full medical two months ago. You can see on both of these scans this black mass…here,” pointing with her finger at the screen. “This is the part of the brain that humans do not use. No one is sure why that is, though there are theories that we won’t go into now.”
Dr. Fraiser took down Major Carter’s scan and then put another up in its place. “Now this is a scan that I took one hour ago of Colonel O’Neill’s brain, do you see here?” Dr. Fraiser pointed to a white uneven shape in the middle of the black mass. The white shape was quite large as it was a quarter of an inch in diameter. By now all of SG-1 and General Hammond had risen out of their seats and had moved towards the screen to take a closer look. Dr. Fraiser then took out another transparency and removed the two-month-old scan and placed another up. “This is the scan I took today of Major Carter’s brain. See you have the same white shape as Colonel O’Neill and in the same place as his.”
“Hey, it’s happening again,” yelled Jonas.
Dr. Fraiser immediately switched off the screen and moved back away from it.
Inadvertently while looking at the screen, Colonel O’Neill’s hand had brushed against Major Carter’s hand, setting off the blue light, but this time there was a sound of crackling. Everyone else had jumped back away from them as blue streaks of light were running up and down all over the colonel and the major. Immediately, they both pulled away from each other with the same shocked looks on their faces.
Dr. Fraiser quickly started asking questions. “Does it hurt? What does it feel like? What has caused this?”
Carter looked across at Colonel O’Neill and hesitated. She then started to answer the questions the best she could. By the look on Colonel O’Neill’s face, she knew she wasn’t going to get any help from that quarter.
“No, it doesn’t hurt. I get a tingling sensation all through me and to what caused this I’m not sure. The weapon that was used to kill us fired a blue light, maybe it is the residue from that.”
“Now that did hurt,” put in Colonel O’Neill. “Can we go now? I’d like to get some sleep.”
General Hammond had noticed that Colonel O’Neill was behaving a little strangely, uncooperative and surly. The uncooperative bit he was used to, but the surliness had him puzzled. He had to put it down to the fact that he would be suffering from the effects of being tortured and killed. “No, Colonel, I still need to hear your reports,” Hammond replied firmly, but kindly.
Colonel O’Neill sat back down in his seat with a sigh, put his elbows on the table and put his head in his hands. He mumbled from this position, “Carter you can start.”
An hour later as they were moving through the door to go their separate ways, Dr. Fraiser cornered both Major Carter and Colonel O’Neill. “Now, as General Hammond said you can’t leave the base, I’d like to see you both, first thing tomorrow morning. But please, keep away from my equipment.”
Sam looked questioningly at Jack. He totally ignored her and walked off towards the sleeping quarters. With everything they had gone through, she couldn’t understand his behaviour at all. He was ignoring her.
Sam slowly followed behind O’Neill, until she came to her quarters. She was very tired and was having trouble in keeping her eyes open. At first, after she had lain down, she thought she would have trouble sleeping, because of what had happened to her was still rushing through her mind. Soon her thoughts turned to Colonel O'Neill. Neither of them had mentioned what had happened to them when they had touched and the blue light had travelled through them. Sam wondered if O’Neill could sense what she was feeling, like she could sense what he was feeling at the time. With those thoughts spinning around in her head, she fell into a deep troubled sleep.
The sky was clear blue. There was a slight warm breeze that made the skirt of her pale blue dress billow out and swirl around her bare legs. Sam wasn’t sure where she was, but it seemed so familiar. She was climbing up a small rocky pathway. Her brown open sandals were making slight footprints in the dry dusty ground. At one place she had to reach out with her hands because she knew that if she didn’t, she could lose her balance. Sam felt good. She was warm and the sun felt good on her skin. She soon reached the top of the small hill. Over the rise she saw a meadow full of flowers, all the colours of the rainbow. Once again she felt as though this was all familiar. Had she been here before? She wasn’t sure. The flowers were swaying in the breeze and the fragrance wafted up to where she was standing. Sam started to climb down amongst the flowers. They were beautiful and the fragrance grew stronger as she disturbed the stems while she walked through them. There were so many, she wasn’t sure where to look first. Sam wasn’t sure why she looked up, but when she did a feeling of hope and security flowed through her. Approaching her from a distance was a man. He was wearing faded blue jeans and a pale blue denim shirt, but he was too far away for her to see his face. He was purposefully striding through the flowers towards her. Sam began to have a feeling of anticipation soon this man would reach her. She had no idea who he was, though something about him looked familiar.
There was a loud thudding noise on her door. It sounded like someone was kicking it. Sam woke up with a start, immediately forgetting her dream. She groggily climbed out of bed and opened her door. Standing there with a big grin on his face was Jonas. He had a tray in his hands and on it was breakfast.
“Good morning, Sam! Thought you would like breakfast in bed this morning, or should I say afternoon? You’ve slept twenty hours straight. Janet would like to see you in the infirmary, as soon as possible. Teal’c has gone to get the colonel. He’s braver than me.” With that last comment, Jonas put down Sam’s breakfast tray with a smirk.
“See you later, Sam,” Jonas said with a smile as he turned around and left her room.
Through all of this one sided conversation, Sam was still trying to come to grips with the fact that she had slept for so long and also that she was trying hard to wake up. What had happened to her the previous few days washed over her. She began to feel dizzy and weak. Soon she realised it most probably wasn’t just the fact of the memories, but that she was very hungry and thirsty.
Sitting carefully on the edge of the bed, Sam pulled the tray closer and began to eat. On the tray was a flower in a vase. She was thinking that was very thoughtful and kind of Jonas, but something bugged her about the flower though. Then she remembered her dream, not all of it, just all the flowers in the meadow. She could vividly remember the fragrance of the flowers as she had bent down to pick them. She could also remember that something was going to happen; she didn’t know what, but something good. Slowly the dream began to elude her. She shook her head to clear it and carried on eating her breakfast, dream forgotten.
Jack had been startled awake by Teal’c, as he bent over him shaking him by the shoulder.
“O’Neill, you need to awaken and take sustenance. Dr. Fraiser wishes to see you in the infirmary soon.”
O’Neill sat up quickly and promptly regretted it. He was still a bit fuzzy in the head and the room was spinning a bit. Soon the room seemed to settle down and Teal’c passed a tray to O’Neill. “Here, you need to eat, O’Neill.” On the tray was a cooked breakfast, plus toast, coffee and fruit juice.
“Hey, no flower in a vase, Teal’c?” O’Neill joked, wondering to himself. ‘Why on earth did I ask that?’
Teal’c, relieved by O’Neill’s obvious good humour, replied, “Jonas prepared these trays. I will ask him when I see him, why there was no flower.”
O’Neill started to reply to Teal’c, but stopped when he realised that Teal’c had misunderstood him on purpose. So he just gave Teal’c a lopsided grin and started to tuck into his meal. It had been a long time since he had eaten. The previous day he had been too tired to even think about eating anything.
An hour later, Major Carter and Colonel O’Neill were being checked over by Dr. Fraiser. She had already given both of them brain scans to see if there were any changes and as far as she could see, there had been no change since yesterday.
“Well, you both seem well. A bit dehydrated and you need feeding up, but apart from that you seem fine. I would like you both to come into this room to see if the blue light has worn off or not. We have cleared the room of equipment.”
Both Carter and O’Neill began to extremely uncomfortable. Sam began to feel an uncontrollable fear take her over. She wasn’t sure where it had come from or why it was there. She tried to convince herself that it was only Colonel O’Neill, they were friends and she could cope with this. She nervously took a quick look at O’Neill, his face had closed off and she could see he wasn’t going to cooperate with Janet at all over this. Sam turned to her CO and spoke very quietly to him.
“Sir, the effects may have worn off. We will never know unless we try this and we can’t go home or off world until this is sorted,” she reasoned.
O’Neill turned to her. His eyes had lost the soft brown colour they had turned dark brown to an almost black colour. Sam took an involuntary step back. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted to know what was going on in his mind at the moment.
“Colonel O’Neill?” questioned Dr. Fraiser. “Can you please come this way?”
Without saying a word, O’Neill strode into the room, with Sam following behind. General Hammond had arrived. Dr. Fraiser had requested that he was present during this experiment, just in case anything went wrong. Everyone else had left the infirmary. General Hammond and Dr. Fraiser stood at the observation window and waited.
Colonel O’Neill stopped in the centre of the room and then spun around to face Major Carter. He held out his right hand towards her, the steely look was still in his eyes. With growing fear and trepidation Carter stretched out her left hand. As their hands touched the feeling of anger and despair washed over her again. She could barely cope with the emotions. She was frightened. All the memories of what she had gone through travelled through her body. With a cry, she broke off the contact with O’Neill and backed away from him in fear.
Since Teal’c had woken him up this morning, Colonel O’Neill had been trying to control his anger. He couldn’t rid himself of the pain and memories of the torture he and Sam had received. Every time he closed his eyes, he could see Sam’s broken body hanging from the ceiling and he couldn’t stop the memory of her screams as she died. Part of him blamed Sam for this, if she had done as she was told, she wouldn’t have suffered so. So not knowing where or whom to direct his anger, sadly he directed it at the one person he shouldn’t have, Sam. And now she knew. The look of pure terror on her face as she looked at him, while she was backing away, gave him a shock. Jack knew he had to do something or he would never be able to repair the damage that he had done. Without a thought to their audience, he reached across and grabbed Sam around the shoulders and pulled her close. He could feel her fear turn into confusion, as he tried his hardest to ask her for her forgiveness through his thoughts. He felt her relax as she reached around him and hugged him tight. A feeling of security washed over him and something else that disturbed him a little. They both became aware of the tingling sensation flowing through them and the blue light that flowed around them. Slowly the blue light began to dissipate as they began to calm down. The severe crackling that had been evident before had stopped. It appeared the more anger and fear that they felt, the worse the visual effect manifested itself. Slowly O’Neill moved back away from Carter. By now there were only a few quiet blue flickering lines moving up and down their bodies. They let go of each other’s hands. Suddenly they both remembered that they had an audience. Sam quickly scrubbed the tears from her face, before she turned around to face Dr. Fraiser and General Hammond.
General Hammond looked straight at Colonel O’Neill, gave him a quiet nod and left the infirmary. Sam came out of the room first and waited for Janet to speak.
“Well it looks like it’s still there, but with not such devastating effects. I still want you two to keep away from my medical equipment though.” Dr. Fraiser turned away too and walked into her office to write up her findings.
O’Neill wryly thought about the comment of Dr. Fraiser’s, ‘not having such devastating effect’, little did she know, just how close he had come to doing irreparable harm to his friendship with Sam.
“Come on Carter, let’s go and get some lunch. I’m starving and you must be hungry too.”
Several days later, SG-1 were in the commissary eating a meal together. Fortunately, there hadn’t been any instances of exploding machinery or blue light flying around the SGC. Both O’Neill and Carter had been very careful to keep away from each other. They were sitting at opposite corners of the small dining table. They couldn’t get any further away from each other, unless they sat at separate tables. All it needed was an accidental brush of hands or arms and a firework show would start. After what had happened with the medical equipment, they weren’t sure whether other people were going to be safe around them. Dr. Fraiser was no closer in finding a cure for them. There had been no change according to their brain scans.
O’Neill was beginning to get fidgety as he wanted to get on with his job. Both Carter and O’Neill were restricted to base and even Carter was loath to go anywhere near her lab, just in case. What if she started flashing blue light all over the place on her own? Not that it had happened yet. She just had to be extra careful. Though she was beginning to think that maybe she would be okay as long as Colonel O’Neill kept away from her lab. Leaning forward towards O'Neill, she quietly informed him of her decision.
“Sir. After lunch I’ll be going to my lab.”
“So.”
“Well, sir, you won’t go anywhere near there will you? I mean there is a lot of expensive equipment and experiments in there, things I’ve been working on for months.”
O’Neill gave her one of his crooked grins, raised an eyebrow and said, “At least you’ve got something to keep you busy…and you know what I do when I get bored.”
“No, sir. You are not coming anywhere near my lab while I’m there. We can’t risk it.”
O’Neill leaned back on his chair balancing it on two legs, smirked at Teal’c and then grinned back at Carter.
Major Carter stood up with a resigned look on her face. He had been winding her up and it had worked. Annoyed, she started to walk around the table to put her plate and tray back up onto the counter. As she passed O’Neill, his chair had gone back too far and he started to fall back onto the floor. Without thinking Carter grabbed O’Neill on his shoulder with one hand, while precariously balancing her tray with the other. Carter was so annoyed with O’Neill and his silly antics that she was tempted to just let him drop onto the ground. She heard the crackling before she even saw the blue light. The annoyance she felt inside seemed to grow with the blue light. Without warning a blue fire bolt shot out from them both and struck an unsuspecting airman as he wandered into the commissary. O’Neill crashed to the ground as Carter let go of him along with her tray. As Sam let him fall, she rushed over to the airman, ordering a nearby lieutenant to call a medic. As she reached the airman, two SF’s drew their weapons and aimed them at her, ordering her to stop. Realising that they meant what they said, she stopped in mid stride and stood quietly and watched as medics reached the fallen airman. One of the SF’s shifted position and aimed his weapon to Carter’s right.
“Whoa! I’m not going anywhere,” said Colonel O’Neill not far behind Carter.
Janet rushed into the commissary, took in the scene before her and worked out immediately what had happened. She turned to the SF’s and said, “You can stand down. They are all right.”
Reluctantly the SF’s lowered their weapons as Janet tended to the downed airman, who by this time was groggily sitting up.
“Wow,” he said. “That is one mighty Zat gun. Haven’t had a hit that powerful before.”
Dr. Fraiser started to ask him questions. “What did it feel like? Are you in any pain? Where does it hurt?”
The airman peeled off his answers in quick succession. “Like a souped up zat. Yes and all over.”
“You’ll do, but I want you to report to the infirmary to check you out, just to make sure.” Helping him up, she led him out of the commissary. She turned to Carter and O’Neill before she went through the doorway. “And I want you two there as well, although preferably…one at a time.”
Carter turned to O’Neill. “I think you should go first, sir. You look like you’ve banged the back of your head.”
“Ya think!” Gingerly touching the back of his head with his fingers, O’Neill walked off behind Dr. Fraiser and the poor airman.
Carter with an audible sigh followed slowly after him. Once out in the corridor, she turned in the opposite direction of the infirmary towards her lab. She was getting really tired of this and worried too because now, someone had been hurt. She realised that the fact that she was annoyed with O’Neill had sparked the fire bolt to leap from them. If they stayed calm and didn’t get worked up about anything everything seemed to be okay.
When Carter arrived at her lab, Siler was rummaging through her notes on her desk. “What are you looking for, Siler?”
“Oh, Major, are you well enough to help?” Carter nodded quickly. “Well the Stargate’s iris has jammed open. We can’t get it shut.”
Immediately, Carter started running off to the gate room. Siler wasn’t far behind. It didn’t take Carter long to work out the problem. Fortunately, it was fixable. Unfortunately it would take several hours in the gate room to fix the problem. Carter had informed General Hammond of the situation and several SF’s were on permanent guard in the gate room, as Carter and her team furiously worked on the iris.
Four hours later, Carter was just finishing off adjusting the last few electronic components. She was tired and she still hadn’t caught up with sleep and rest from when she was a prisoner of Tolgarth. General Hammond and Colonel O’Neill were watching from the observation booth.
“Not long now, sirs,” Carter called out to Hammond and O’Neill.
Just as she finished speaking, the Stargate started to rotate.
“Unauthorised incoming wormhole, sir,” announced the sergeant from the consol.
O’Neill immediately leant forward into the microphone and spoke to Carter. “Carter get out of there now.”
“I’m nearly done. I can get the iris closed.”
Just as the Stargate had finished its dialling sequence, several Jaffa burst through the event horizon, blasting at everyone in their path. Unnoticed, Carter started to activate the iris manually. She was successful. The comforting grinding sound of the iris closed behind one of the Jaffa coming through. He spun around to hear the sickening thud of matter splattering up against the iris. The Jaffa realised that this was now a suicide mission and there would be no going back. All of his fellow warriors were lying dead on the ramp leading up to the Stargate. He turned back towards the Tau’ri warriors. He noticed the blond woman at the bottom of the ramp with some machinery. Realising correctly that it was she who had brought his downfall, he aimed his staff weapon at her and fired. The blast hit her square on her back between her shoulder blades. With a cry she crumpled to the ground. That was the last sight he saw as several bullets hit his body as all the SF’s fired at him just a few seconds too late.
As soon as the Stargate had started to rotate, O’Neill knew that Carter would be in danger. He tried to get her out of there, but she insisted on staying. When the Jaffa shot at Carter, with a cry of “Sam,” he raced down into the gate room. His heart was pounding when he reached Carter. He checked her wound and then turned her over. She was still breathing, but only in small gasps. Her eyes were glazed over, he wasn’t even sure if she knew he was there. O’Neill could hear the crackling sound and he could see the blue light running up and down Carter and himself. He cried out in anguish as he felt her life essence slipping away. Then everything went black as he sank down beside her into unconsciousness at the bottom of the ramp.
General Hammond was watching from the observation booth. Blue fire bolts had started to erupt from Colonel O’Neill and Major Carter, striking one of the SF’s. General Hammond ordered all personnel out of the gate room. By this time Colonel O’Neill had collapsed beside Major Carter. General Hammond could barely see them for the bright blue light that spread out from their bodies. He was not sure what was going to happen next, but he wasn’t going to take any chances. He ordered the blast doors closed to the gate room. Dr. Fraiser had come up into the observation room and was closely watching the monitors. Slowly each monitor went dead as the cameras in the gate room were extinguished. All they could do was listen to the sound of the rumbling and charge of electricity that was being released in the gate room. The noise was deafening. Both Hammond and Fraiser held barely any hope for Colonel O'Neill. Dr. Fraiser had already ascertained that Major Carter was dead. There was no way she could have survived that blast from the staff weapon.
Suddenly, it went quiet. General Hammond ordered the blast doors open and Dr. Fraiser and her team raced down to the gate room. The gate room looked untouched. There weren’t any scorch marks, except from the staff weapon blasts released by the attacking Jaffa. Colonel O’Neill and Major Carter lay beside each other at the base of the ramp, not moving. It took a few seconds for General Hammond to realise that there was no sign of the dead Jaffa. ‘Where have they gone?’ he wondered.
Dr. Fraiser reached down to feel Colonel O’Neill’s pulse. With relief she felt a good, strong, steady beat. Sadly she turned to Sam, her friend. She felt for her pulse too and much to her surprise she could feel a strong, steady pulse. She quickly turned Sam over to check her wound. Apart from a great gaping hole in her uniform, her skin was unmarked and there was no sign of a wound. Dr. Fraiser also noticed that Colonel O’Neill was still gripping Sam’s arm, but there was no evidence of the blue light or residue of it. Quickly ordering these two to be taken to the infirmary, she announced to General Hammond.
“They are alive, unconscious, but alive.” It was a puzzle that she was going to have to work out.
The sky was clear blue. There was a slight warm breeze that made the skirt of her pale blue dress billow out and swirl around her legs. Sam wasn’t sure where she was, but she was climbing up a small rocky pathway. Her brown open sandals were making slight footprints in the dry dusty ground. She stopped to get her breath. She was sure she had been here before, but she couldn’t quite remember when. She bent down with her hands on the ground, as she didn’t want to lose her balance. Sam felt good. She was warm and the sun felt good on her skin. The gentle breeze was blowing through her short hair. She began to hurry, because she knew just beyond the small rise was something special.
As she reached the top of the rise she looked down to a meadow. It was full of swaying flowers of all colours and with a spring in her step she ran down to the meadow, laughing all the way. The fragrance of the flowers was intoxicating. She knelt down and buried her face into the flowers and breathed their scent in. From where she was kneeling she looked up. Coming towards her was a man. He was wearing faded dark blue jeans and a denim shirt and he walked straight and tall. As he walked purposefully towards her, she could see his hair was silver grey. She couldn’t quite see his face though. So she stood up and started to walk slowly towards him. The way he walked made him look familiar, but she couldn’t quite place him. Then she saw his eyes, soft, kind, brown eyes. She knew who this was. He was her soul mate. As they drew closer together, she reached out her hand to his. As her hand slid into the dry warm palm of his, she knew now whom she had been waiting for.