More Time

Participants:

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Scene Title More Time
Synopsis Even when trying to keep their distance, Kaylee and Luther can't escape a glimpse of what could have been.
Date October 26, 2018

Sumter Home


“And the dragon said, ‘ Good and brave knight, we shall not fight this day.’”

It was a scene that use to play out more; but, with her workload and the craziness that was happening out in the world, Kaylee Sumter struggled to find these moments. So when she can find them, she cherishes them. Right now, with the visions(?) she’s been experiencing, the telepath has been feeling a need to remind herself of what she has here. To counter the emotions that were being thrown at her and worming their way into her heart. Or were they always there, but unnoticed?

Either way, the kids never complained, but Kaylee knew they missed having her around all the time. So with her taking so much time off away from Raytech and… the awkwardness of being around Luther, the kids had been taking advantage of it. Carl, especially.

“‘For I am not the enemy you seek. I am but a simple and humble dragon.’”

Carl shifted to look up at his mother with a big smile. He loved when she deepened her voice for the dragon parts. The pair of them were curled up on the twin bed that was Carl’s. There were no dragon bed sets so he settled for dinosaurs, since they were the closest thing; but everywhere else there were dragons.

“‘But dragon,’ shouted the knight on his horse of white, ‘all of your kind are made from evil and put on this earth to reign terror on this world.’”

“Not true!” Shouts Carl at the book, even if he’s heard the story many many times before. The cover was lovingly worn, because it was his favorite. It was a ritual that found mother and son propped up on pillows reading about the ‘Good Dragon’. Carl’s head resting in the curve of her arm, with his tucked under his cheek. The shout is rewarded with a bright smile from his mom in return, turning to the next page.

“‘Not true!’ shouted the dragon….”

It was a song she always remembered her Granny singing to her when she was little, but somehow the words were lost to her. Still she remembers the tune, which she hums softly while rocking her daughter. One arm holds onto the nearly one year old child, while the other brushes at fine wisps of dark blonde curls. Those normally wide and curious eyes are closed, but Kaylee Bellamy knows that they same shade as Luther’s.

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She loved that fact.

The baby in her arms shifts and gives soft protest; but seems content with a hand resting on the bottle she’s suckling on. It had taken time to get the baby to this point, trying hard not to use telepathic tricks to achieve it. Maybe more, it was because Kaylee couldn’t help but wish she had more time like this. Moving to brush a finger across the back of those tiny digits, she can’t help but feel an intense love for her daughter and at the same time intense guilt for the amount of time they do spend apart.

There might be even some jealousy that Luther gets more time with the tiny tot. “No matter how tomorrow goes,” Kaylee whispers softly to the baby, “I just got to remember, you are one of the things that make it all worth it.You and your daddy, both.”

“Mommy?”

With a sudden blink, Kaylee comes back to herself and looks down at the boy nestled against her side… her son, Carl. There is a momentary touch of confusion, at seeing him rather then the baby girl. Quickly, awareness creeps back in and her attention turns back to the room. Plain and simple compared to the lavish room she had just been in. “Hmm?” she asks with only that sound.

“You went quiet all of a sudden,” Carl says looking really confused, sitting up and sitting cross-legged. “And just stared at the book,” he adds looking at the item that now lays flat in her lap, from fingers gone lax. “You were humming, too” which seems to amuse the boy, greatly; since he was too old for such things.

While her son found it funny, it left Kaylee’s stomach in knots knowing that it was happening again. A glance is sent to the nearly useless cellphone on the nightstand, but she doesn’t grab for it.


Meanwhile… at Raytech


A knock on the door to the main security room makes Luther look up from his paperwork and stops his fingers from pinching the bridge of his nose as he fills in forms. A part of him still thinks pen and paper is somehow more secure than a digital keypad and screen, but if he were honest about it, the man probably needed some glasses. Or more rest.

“Everything good down here, Chief?” Bob’s form fills in the frame of the doorway, and some concern fills in his face. “The rest of the teams went home already. River Styx night.” The show title gets a faint twitch of a smile from the second. RayTech’s security teams were all pretty avid watchers of the program.

Luther rubs a finger along the spot between his eyes briefly and then slides it to his temple. Still, there’s a faint smile in return for the man in the doorway, an indulgent expression. “Yeah, sure. Thanks Bob. Go home and watch. I’ll close up here,” the security chief says with a wave of his hand to indicate ‘here’ as the room. Or the building as a whole. The campus. “Say hi to Janan and the kids for me.”

Bob nods, a soft ‘will do’ and ‘good night’ accompanying his turn and exit.

True to his word, Luther finishes the work of the day and slides the next week’s schedules into a folder before putting the file atop a bunch of other files and shutting the cabinet. He heads out for the main doors, casting alert glances around to the dark spots of the halls he walks. Some day when the resources they had would be more economical, he’d have more lights installed.

In the meantime, there was a different sort of light that projected a glow into the lobby. The aurora in the night sky overhead brightens those darker corners with their colorful hues. Luther pauses in the threshold, leaning against the doorway and peering up at the phenomenon in quiet wonder.

It was a song he’d come to recognize and love, perhaps because Kaylee was the one he’d hear humming it. Perhaps, because he could feel the love in its tune. Luther didn’t speculate too much on the how or the why, only knew he would never tire of hearing it. In that moment, leaning against the doorway to the baby’s room - not a room meant for a child but re-decorated with softer colors and a kid-friendly furnishings - he finds himself watching mother and child in quiet wonder at both.

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“How did I get so lucky?” Luther asks in a volume just over a whisper, once the lullaby fades into the soft, rhythmic breathing of the sleeping girl. He pushes off of the frame, slipping his way closer and reaching a hand to lightly rest on Kaylee’s shoulder. Looking down to her face, he can’t help but smile as he leans down to give her a soft kiss on her cheek.

Kaylee doesn’t look up until the hand touches her shoulder, and clearly sensing the incoming kiss, then turns her cheek to it with a gentle smile. “I ask myself the same thing, everyday,” Kaylee whispers softly, head resting against the back of the chair briefly as she looks up at him. The telepath looks tired, a constant state since taking office. Still there is love and affection for the man in that tired smile, fingers moving to brush against his hand on her shoulder.

The moment stretches, but then Kaylee is looking down again and gently pulling the bottle from the mouth of the now deeply sleeping child. The same bottle is then offered up to Luther to free up her hands so that she can attempt to move their daughter to her crib.

It is quite the feat to get to her feet without jostling the baby too much, but one that has been perfected over the last several months. Though it won’t be too long before Josephine was too big to move and carry like this. No doubt his wife would mourn that day, though he’ll get to do a bit longer. A bit. There is no sound as she lays the baby down in the crib, no doubt holding her breath hoping she doesn’t wake.

As she finally straightens, Luther feels her mind brush against his mind, «It feels like some big elaborate dream. One I hope I never wake up from.»

There’s a temptation to leave himself leaning over the chair back and his lips on her cheek. But he understands, straightens, and takes the bottle from Kaylee, smiling as he watches the transfer. The bottle in his hand slips into a pocket of his suit jacket, likely to be found later and passed to housekeeping.

Once the baby’s down, Luther steps closer and reaches for her waist, arms moving to wrap around. “I know,” he answers her aloud but his voice stays at its low pitched timbre and volume. “One that I hope never ends.” He shifts his gaze to the sleeping baby, the sight of her comparably small form lying peacefully there drawing a warmed smile. “Beautiful like her mother,” he has to comment, a little lighter toned, affectionately.

The shining lights of the aurora dance in Luther’s blurred vision, and he lifts a hand to his brow. A knuckle presses at the corner of his eye, drawing the sheen of wet away. The man shudders as the rest of him seems to come awake again, or back to the reality that he knows. Not the one he had just seen. Felt.

His hand reaches down to the pocket of his jacket, feeling a small object there. He pulls out the item, looking at the screen of his cellphone. For a moment, relief that it isn’t a baby’s bottle. The next moment, discomfort that it isn’t one.

Luther shoves the cellphone back into his pocket and pushes off the door frame, stepping quickly down the path towards the campus housing. Towards relief in the bottle of a different kind.


Elsewhere… at the Sumter Home


She almost doesn’t remember getting to the door and shutting it, Carl confused by the sudden end to the bedtime story, reluctantly tucked in. There was a click of the door and Kaylee had suddenly been back there again with a baby in her arms. Now she was back again, fists resting against the closed door, and her forehead pressed against the cool surface between them. Blue eyes are closed tight as if she could keep out the after images of that beautiful little baby girl.

Kaylee could almost swear she could still feel the weight of Luther’s arms around her still, the way her body reacted to the sensation of his hands sliding around her waist. Her body shudders against the memory of his rumbling voice against her ear.… though thankfully, it all starts to fade quickly enough.

Finally, Kaylee lets out a shaky breath and pushes away from her son’s door. Hands brush at the tears that form in her own eyes. Whatever was causing this was cruel. How much more of this did they have to endure?, she asks herself as she turns to the bedroom she shares with her actual husband, Joseph.

At the doorway, the telepath feels herself hesitate. Kaylee can hear him in there already drifting off; unaware of what had just happened. Each time she ended up immersed in the life of another ‘her’ it felt a little like cheating, especially, when the feelings and emotions seem to cling to her long after. Guilt wrenches as her stomach, twisting it with sharp discomfort. So, she turns away from her room and husband, heading downstairs for the kitchen. She is pretty sure there is a few pudding cups stashed away somewhere.


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