Learning Experiences by Allison McDonnell

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Autumn had just begun when Bess and John were able to move their belongings into their new house. Of course, it was far from a completed project, but the structure was sound enough to protect them from the elements. The front door opened to a main living room which included a stone fireplace and a couch, the only piece of furniture that Danziger had made so far. To the left of it would be the kitchen as soon as he could get around to building the cabinets and Gerry-rigging a stove. There was a small back door which, if Bess had her way, would hopefully one day open to a greenhouse. An enclosed space about the size of a large walk-in closet housed their bathroom. It contained an open crate that served as their bathtub complete with a spout that connected to a water tank located on the outside wall of the residence. John also installed a crude piping system that would enable the water from the tub and the neighboring sink to drain to a section of field where they were planning to plant crops the following spring.

They stripped the glass from the Transrover's windshield to use as the windows in each of their bedrooms which were located at opposite ends of the home. Although their own rooms were small, there was more than enough space for their cots, a nightstand and anything else they wanted to use to house their personal items. They didn't feel the need to install doors to the bedrooms or the bathroom and instead hung linens on thick rods to ensure their privacy. It wasn't overly spacious and there was still a lot of work to be done, but it was home to Bess and John and they were grateful to live there.

With winter fast approaching, they moved the vehicles and all of their nonessential equipment into the largest of the two caverns. Because of the home's high ceiling, Danziger planned on building a loft to store food and other necessary provisions. But for now, piles of crates lined the walls of the main room of the house. Bess put herself in charge of the food supply again. It wasn't a difficult task to complete due to her expert knowledge of canning and her familiarity with the fruits, nuts and berries of the valley. Not to mention that, unlike the prior season, she only had to stock enough for two people. In her spare time, she concentrated on making curtains, readying the soil outside their front door for planting a garden in the spring and anything else she could think of to turn their house into a home.

Of course, creating a household meant building furniture and that's where John came in. No sooner had he finished nailing down the final roof shingle when Bess gave him a list of over a dozen things that she wanted him to make.

"...a shelving unit near the front door, cabinets next to the back door, a table to set in front of the couch, we could use another chair in the living room," she chirped as she followed behind him.

"Anything else?" came the sarcastic reply.

A smile graced her lips. She knew that a busy Danziger was a happy Danziger or, at the very least, a less grumpy Danziger. "Well, since you asked..."

Both of them had made great strides in confronting their sometimes overpowering grief. John was taking better care of himself and, by the time they'd moved into the cabin, he'd gained back all of the weight he'd lost the prior year. Better yet, Bess no longer had to rely on her card playing abilities to force the mechanic into conversation. They spent hours talking and sharing stories about themselves and their lives before Eden Project.

Admittedly, some days were better than others. They suffered through the birthdays of their loved ones along with the anniversaries of events such as Bess' marriage, their crash landing onto the planet and the dates of each Edenite's death. Those sad times were often partially spent at the graveyard which John had enclosed with a small fence, complete with the sign 'Eden Cemetery'. Bess lined the entrance with blooming plants and frequently laid flowers at each grave to signify that none of them had been forgotten in their hearts and minds.

Sometimes, one person had to literally drag the other out of bed to face the day. Surprisingly, Bess was just as guilty of this as Danziger. In the daytime, she was usually able to focus on the bright side of her situation, a skill she had mastered many years before. However, her true feelings were unmasked at night while she slept and her dreams were often filled with visions of death and fear of the unknown. Some mornings, she would wake up so emotionally drained that she could barely swing her legs out of her cot.

Today was one such morning.

The widow slid open the curtain that separated her quarters from the rest of the house and shuffled into the living room. She hoped that John was already up and had made coffee. She needed something strong to help shake herself out of the horrible nightmares she'd endured. Last night's were particularly frightening and involved the Terrians performing hideous experiments on her dead body along with the cadavers of the other Edenites. Needless to say, she did not awaken in a very agreeable mood.

As she approached the fireplace, she was surprised to find that, not only was there no coffee pot on their makeshift stove, Danziger hadn't even bothered to start a fire. It was only then that she noticed how cold the cottage was and she rubbed her forearms with her hands to ward off the chill. She reached out to grab a few logs from the small woodpile they kept next to the hearth, but found an empty space instead.

That's strange, she thought. John's usually pretty good about making sure that we have enough wood for the fire. She peered toward his bedroom which still had the curtain drawn. She wasn't sure what time it was, but it felt pretty late in the morning and he should be awake by now.

"Hey, John, you want some coffee?" she asked as she fumbled around in search of the coffee pot.

"John, you up yet?"

Danziger still didn't respond to her calls so she decided to go physically shake him awake. Sure he'd be a little cranky, but that was a small price to pay for a warm fire and a caffeinated drink.

"John, I hope you're dressed because I'm coming in."

As Bess grabbed the curtain to move it out of her way, a cloud of dust filled the air. After coughing the grime out of her lungs, she said in a slightly perturbed tone, "Time to get up, John. For one thing, you need to take this curtain outside and clean it. It's filthy."

She went directly to his window to draw the drapes and allow the sunlight in. She immediately noticed that the window fabric was also coated with dust and terribly faded. She felt a draft blow across the room and realized that the glass of the window had cracked from top to bottom.

"My God, Danziger, what the hell happened in here?"

She swung around to confront him and was horrorstricken to find an empty cot buried under layer after layer of thick cobwebs.

"What's going on? John, where are you?"

She hurried back into the living room, each step leaving light footprints in the dirt-covered floor. She rushed past broken dishes, overturned lanterns, untouched crates of clothing and other supplies, all of which were almost completely camouflaged by years of accumulated dust.

"JOHN!" she screamed frantically.

She swung open the front door and ran as fast as she could into the open field. Only a few hundred yards away, she halted at a rotted out fence housing fourteen stone markers that were mostly obscured by overgrown brush. A faded sign with the words 'Eden Cemetery' was leaned up against a cluster of dead bushes. Bess' world started to spin as she came to the horrifying conclusion that everyone was gone. She was the only one left.

Bess catapulted herself upright in her bed, shaking and panting as she tried to regain her equilibrium.

"It was just a dream. It was only a dream," she sputtered repeatedly to herself.

She closed her eyes and tried to slow her breathing down without success. Bess knew that her heart wouldn't be pacified until she'd made sure that John was still there with her and she wasn't left behind to face life alone. She fumbled for her robe in the darkness and swiftly threw it over her nightgown. Her hands were still quivering as she slid the curtain open and made her way into the living room.

She felt a wave of relief wash over her when she viewed Danziger seated on the couch, deep in concentration as he fiddled with the circuitry of a small space heater he was attempting to build. She silently observed the mechanic as he accidentally allowed two wires to briefly touch and was given a healthy jolt of electricity. Bess found herself blushing a bit as he responded with a litany of vividly expressive words that he reserved for special occasions such as this. The man has a gift, she thought. Even back on Earth, she'd never heard some of the colorful profanity that now spilled so easily from his lips. But to look on the bright side, it was proof to her that she was wide awake and definitely not alone.

John had been completely oblivious to Bess' presence and jumped slightly when he realized that she was standing right next to him.

"Sorry, Bess, am I making too much noise?" Danziger said a bit sheepishly, hoping that she hadn't heard his expletive-filled tirade. Before the widow could answer, he noticed the haunted look in her eyes and that she was perspiring despite a chill in the air.
"You okay? Did you have another nightmare?"

Bess nodded as she took a seat on the opposite end of the couch.

"You wanna talk about it?" he posed as he set the space heater on the ground.

She shook her head uncomfortably. "It's stupid."

"Let me be the judge of that."

Bess crossed her arms and rocked forward as her stomach twisted into knots. "I-I can't really talk about it yet. Maybe later, okay?"

"Sure," Danziger agreed.

He went to the blazing fire and poured two mugs of coffee, handing one to her as he retook his seat.

"Why are you up so late?" she queried after taking a sip of the steaming brew.

"Same reason as you."

"Really?" Bess straightened up, her interest piqued. "What was your nightmare about?"

John shrugged. "The usual stuff. I have the same couple of dreams over and over again. Tonight's was the one where you and everyone else are sinking. I can't get to any of you in time and one by one you disappear into the ground." He looked down and absently tapped at the half-constructed heater with his foot. "Usually wake up in a cold sweat from that one."

Bess shuddered as she remembered what Magus and Walman had told her regarding the details of Devon's death. She'd heard about the mechanic's frantic attempt to save Devon and his rage when the earth claimed her life. It had taken five people and a sedative to physically restrain Danziger and prevent him from attacking the Terrian and meeting the same terrible fate. She couldn't imagine how helpless John must have felt as he watched the second woman he loved die right in front of him. She counted herself lucky that she didn't have to live with the memory of Morgan screaming in terror as he was pulled into the ground and buried alive.

She also realized that Danziger's nightmare shared a common theme with her own. In both dreams, they had been left alone and, for the first time, she understood that John was just as afraid of abandonment as she was. Although she was sorry that he struggled with her identical fear of solitude, it also comforted her in a strange way. It made her feel less alone.

The Earth-res decided that a change in subject would be for the best. Plus, there was something else that had been unsettling to her. "Have you been keeping up with your gear journals?"

"Uh-uh. Haven't done one since before True died."

Bess turned her gaze to the fire. "I just started again a few weeks before we finished the house. I wanted to try to fill in everything that's happened to us since the Terrians took us prisoner. That way, there'll be a record after we're gone."

She let out an uneasy sigh before continuing. "Maybe someday another group will locate our campsite. I know that there won't be any bodies for them to find. But this way, they'll know our story. They'll know that we were here." And we can warn them to get the hell away from this planet, she added in her mind.

"That's a good idea," Danziger nodded and swallowed his last gulp of coffee.

"The problem is that, earlier tonight, I listened to what I'd recorded so far. I can't believe how bitter I sounded."

He scratched at the stubble of his beard and said quietly, "You have every right to be bitter."

She turned toward him as she noted in a distressed tone, "But it's more than that. I hardly recognized my voice."

"Well, that doesn't surprise me all that much. You're a different person than you were fifteen months ago. We both are."

Bess fidgeted nervously with the knot on her robe as she contemplated the best way to phrase her next question.

"John, do you think we're, um," her voice shook a bit, "do you think that maybe we've gone crazy?"

She looked at him with eyes filled with anxiety. Although he didn't wish to further upset her, John felt that it was necessary to tell her the truth.

"I don't think that anyone can live through what we have and not end up a little nuts." Before she could react negatively, he attempted to lighten the weight of his words. He leaned in toward her with raised eyebrows and a mild smirk. "But if it makes you feel any better, I've always thought that you were a few bricks shy of a load."

She let out a snort and smacked his shoulder as John grinned back at her. He was glad to see her crack a smile, particularly since he'd just relayed that both of them were very likely mentally unsound. In truth, he couldn't really ascertain his own state of mind much less Bess'. He could see that she was having a rough time and hated to see her look so frightened. He also knew that his emotional status wasn't much better.

But these last few months, he'd gained a lot of headway in dealing with his guilt and grief. Of course, he owed this all to Bess. Her refusal to give up on him was the only reason that he was still alive. In turn, he solemnly promised to himself that he wouldn't give up on her either. He would keep his best friend safe, no matter what the cost.

Noticing that the flames were dwindling, Bess rose to her feet and carefully placed another log into the fire. When she rejoined him on the couch, Danziger couldn't help but notice that she was looking at him a bit peculiarly. She had something else that she wanted to say to him, but she wasn't sure what his reaction would be.

"What?" he asked hesitantly. "Come on, out with it, Martin."

She took a deep breath and expressed, "Please don't take this the wrong way, but I hope that we die at the same time."

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing," he responded in earnest as he took her hand to comfort her. "But until that day comes, you and I have got to stick together, all right? We're a team." He gave her fingers a squeeze of encouragement as he leaned in toward her. "Okay?"

"Okay," she nodded, slightly surprised. She had expected him to dismiss her admission as nothing more than a byproduct of her desolation. It hadn't occurred to her that he might feel the same way.

Danziger let go of her hand and Bess stood to return to her quarters. However, after staring in the direction of her darkened bedroom, she reconsidered her options.

"Would you mind if I stayed out here with you for awhile?"

John agreed, scooting to the far corner of the couch as Bess wedged a small cushion against the outside of his leg. She laid her head down and curled into a ball facing toward the fireplace. Her eyes remained wide open and Danziger could tell by her rigid posture that she was frightened to fall asleep.

"We'll get through this, Bess," he comforted, gently smoothing back the hair from her face as he had so often with True when she used to have nightmares.

Between the warmth of the fire and John's soothing touch, Bess' eyes gradually began to flicker. She draped her arm over Danziger's knee as final corroboration that she wasn't in this alone and drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

__________

Bess and John made it through their third winter on G889 without any of the hindrances that had plagued the members of Eden Advance in prior years. Although the biting cold and several feet of snow kept them from venturing outdoors for about two months, it was unquestionably the mildest winter yet. They also had the luxuries of a permanent roof over their head and a roaring fire to keep them warm and cook over. There was an abundance of food, clothing and other supplies as well. They continued to watch over each other like hawks to ensure that they both stayed healthy and got the support that each of them needed to survive the long days and longer nights.

When they weren't working on projects such as building furniture or constructing the various components of their kitchen, they would find other things to keep them occupied. Bess often experimented with new recipes and Danziger became the official food taster (or guinea pig as he liked to call it). He was amazed at Bess' aptitude for taking a few fruits and vegetables and creating a delicious feast.

Nevertheless, she did suffer the occasional miss. One meal was so awful that John suggested that she save a jar of it, both for posterity and just in case they ever needed a substance that could remove paint from the vehicles. He teased her mercilessly about it and she contemplated teaching him a lesson by refusing to cook. However, she thought better of it when she remembered that Danziger's own cooking could easily be classified as a biohazard.

They spent their nights by the fire playing cards and telling stories or stale jokes. They never argued although both enjoyed tossing the occasional barb at each other (all in good-natured fun, of course). They could talk about anything with one another and often asked outlandish questions that could keep them in discussions for hours on end.

One such evening, Bess inquired, "What if you and I were miraculously transported back to the Stations right now. What would you do? Where would you go?"

"Okay, you're saying that it would be twenty-five years after we left. No additional twenty-two years of cold-sleep to get back," John clarified.

"Mmm-mmm. We just materialized back on the docks of New Mars Station."

"And we wouldn't have to worry about the Council interfering in our lives."

"Nope. You'd be just another face in the crowd."

The mechanic thought about it for a moment as he leaned back on the couch. "I dunno. I guess I'd go back to the Quadrant."

She looked at him as if he'd grown a second head. "But why? Your debt would be paid off. You could live your life as a Citizen and live in the upper sectors."

Oh yeah, he could already see the mortified faces of the residents watching him move into their community. There goes the neighborhood. "Nah. I don't think I'd really fit in there. Whether I'm debt-free or not, I'd still be a Drone to them. Hell, I'd still be a Drone to me. I'd probably just get a job and try to quietly live out my life in the Quad. It's where I belong."

Bess didn't seem to like his answer and frowned, so he posed, "What about you?"

She didn't hesitate in her reply. "I'd go back to Earth."

"You're kidding?" Danziger said in astonishment. She immediately looked hurt and he back-peddled, "I mean, there's nothing wrong with living there, but you wouldn't have to. I assume that you have a pretty healthy credit account waiting for you if you went back to the Stations. You could start your life over again."

"I don't want to start my life over again. I'd rather pick up where I left off when I left my family behind," she responded. "Of course, there would be some changes."

"Naturally."

"My father is probably dead, but I bet my brothers are alive. I could still have a relationship with them and get to know their wives and children." She smiled as she imagined what they might look like. "Two of my three brothers are about your age now."

"That old, huh?" John muttered sarcastically.

She gave him a saintly look before continuing, "And think of all the good that my credit account could do on Earth. I could start schools, purchase medical equipment, build greenhouses so Earthers could know what real fruits and vegetables taste like." She enthusiastically proclaimed, "And you could come, too!"

Danziger's eyes widened as she asked, "You don't have any family left Stationside, do you?"

"No, they're all dead."

"Then come with me. You could teach Residents how to update and maintain their equipment. You've always been able to build just about anything that you set your mind to. There's no limit to what a man with your skills could achieve."

She gazed at the ceiling as her excitement shifted to wistfulness. "It would be a hard life for us, but think of the positive effect that we could have. All the people that we could help by showing them what we've learned from our time on this planet."

She looked to Danziger for his reaction and he could only stare at her in complete shock. It amazed him that, despite all she'd lived through, Bess' thoughts still focused on helping others. He was also more than a little amused that she was trying so hard to convince him to partake in something that was a virtual impossibility. He couldn't help but be flattered, though.

Bess finally realized the absurdity of what she was saying and burst out laughing. What a ludicrous conversation, she reflected to herself.

John joined in with his own chuckles. "Tell you what. If we ever get outta here and back to the Stations, I'll accept your offer. That is, if you still want me to go at that point."

"You got yourself a deal," Bess answered and shook his outstretched hand to close the verbal transaction.

Danziger folded his arms as he propped his feet up on their new coffee table. "Okay, my turn to ask a question. Let's suppose the Diggers hadn't changed their minds and Eden Advance made it to New Pacifica in time for the colony ship. Would you have stayed behind or left on the Jamestown?"

Bess' smile disappeared as she considered the prospect. "To tell you the truth, I'm not sure. There was a time that I would have said that I was staying without a second thought. But toward the end, I was starting to have doubts about whether or not I'd be happy living in New Pacifica."

John's own smile faded away. "Why?"

"Morgan opened my eyes to what life might have been like here after the Jamestown arrived. Those colonists weren't like you or me. They were a bunch of pampered socialites used to sleeping on heated mattresses and being carted around in station-taxis. None of them had done a day of hard work in their whole life," she revealed with disdain.

"Well, they would've had a pretty rude awakening when they got here."

"Yeah. They would've been upset at the crude housing, the mud when it rains, the list goes on and on. And did you really think that they were going to be thankful to us for working our butts off to give them a safe haven for their families? Not a chance. They would've been angry that we hadn't provided them with the pristine accommodations that they were used to back on the Stations. And who do you think they would've taken out their frustrations on? They would have blamed us, pure and simple."

Danziger was caught off-guard by her negative tone. "But what if the Terrians had healed their children?" he asked.

"I think that they would have been grateful, at least for awhile. But I also think that most of the accolades would have fallen on Devon. After all, she brought them here. Maybe Julia would have been accepted because she grew up in the same class structure. But people like us would have been shoved aside and treated like the hired help." As she spoke, Bess could hear the words 'NOCD, Not Our Class, Dear' resonating in her head.

"You're right, that could've happened," Danziger grudgingly admitted. "But, as the wife of Eden Project's government liaison, you shouldn't lump yourself in with the group of hired hands. Morgan would've been given a key position in whatever bureaucracy Adair had decided to set up for the colony. Hopefully, you would have been treated with the respect that goes with that appointment."

Bess snorted loudly. "Oh, please! Being the wife of a government appointee doesn't cancel out the fact that I'm from Earth. Do you have any idea how badly I was treated back on the Stations?"

"I know that it wasn't easy for you."

"It was like being thrown into the lion's den! My curly hair. My southern accent. Morgan didn't mind so much because he loved me, but the others-" She stopped and shook her head resentfully. "And when we crashed, Devon treated me like a complete idiot for weeks."

She imitated the former leader using a singsong tone, "'I don't mean to tell you your business, Bess.' 'We're not going to wait for the two of you again, Bess.' 'Maybe you should start treating Morgan like an adult, Bess.'"

Bess threw up her hands in exasperation. "The woman didn't even think that I knew how to use a damn gear-set. And after the Terrians healed her, she was worse. You should have heard the terrible things she said to me the first day we arrived in this valley."

She cocked her head to the side and challenged, "And don't try to tell me that she wasn't just as bad to you. The first month we were on the planet, half of the time she called you by the wrong name."

Now, it was John's turn to let out a loud snort. "Well, 'Danzinger' was close enough that at least I knew who she was talking about," he replied with a shrug.

She looked away as the animosity in her voice was replaced by discouragement. "Every time I tried to make a suggestion, Devon would shoo me away like I was keeping her from something more important. I even started speaking without my accent hoping that everyone would start taking me more seriously."

John suddenly felt guilty. Really guilty. Bess had clearly had her feelings hurt by the members of Eden Advance, himself included.
He exhaled before telling her honestly, "It's true that some of us didn't take you seriously at first, Bess. I can't speak for the others. I'm sure that a few of them had prejudices or just dismissed you as another pretty face. I don't want to sound cruel, but I think a lot of them treated you differently because they didn't like Morgan. But that changed, right? I mean, Morgan was never very popular, but he did get easier to live with in some ways as time went on. And I think that everyone knew that you were a good person who they could depend on."

He didn't wish to disparage her husband's memory by harping on his less than stellar qualities, but John felt that it was necessary to speak frankly. "As for myself, I'll admit that I was a bit put off by you at first because I wasn't sure of your role in the taking of the escape pod. I watched you at the campfire that first night you and Morgan were with us goin' on and on about wind shear. Later, I heard that you confessed that Morgan stole the pod and you didn't figure it out until after the fact. I had no grudge against you after that. I also appreciated that you were able to forgive True after that disastrous Koba incident. You always looked out for her and that's why I didn't hesitate to ask you to take care of her when 'Lonz and I were planning to travel ahead of the group. I knew that I could trust you with the most important thing in my life."

She gave him a smile of gratitude until he added, "That accent thing always did bother me a little though."

Bess rolled her eyes. It was nothing unusual to be chided about her drawl. "I know. Everyone hated it."

"That's not what I meant. It was really strange to me when you started talking differently. That accent is part of your heritage. You had absolutely nothing to be ashamed of." John broke into a grin as he pointed out, "And, by the way, you still have it."

"No, I don't," she disputed in an incredulous voice.

"Oh, yes you do. It comes out when you're tired or when you're trying to talk me into something that I don't want to do." The mechanic cleared his throat and mimicked, "'Jaaaaaahhhhhnnnn'. My name isn't supposed to have two syllables." She responded by hitting him in the head with a cushion.

Once they stopped chuckling, he sincerely offered, "You should be yourself, Bess. You're from Earth. You have an accent. You have curly hair. Be proud of who you are and what you've accomplished."

"Thank you. That means a lot to me." She studied him a moment before probing, "You know, you never answered your own question. Would you have gone back to the Stations after the colony ship arrived?"

John averted his gaze to the fireplace. "I honestly don't know. At one point, I wanted to stay behind and try to make a life with Devon. For the first time in years, I was actually thinking about getting married and starting a family. Maybe give True and Uly a couple of brothers or sisters to pick on so they'd stop fighting with each other." His expression became somber. "But that was wishful thinking on my part."

Bess decided not to mention her conversation with Devon in which she'd revealed that she didn't care for Danziger. She didn't want him to suffer any more than he already had. Instead, she concentrated on an admission from another source.

"In the cavern, Yale said that Devon had been in love with you."

"Bess, she was pretty clear about how she felt about me and, believe me, it wasn't love. It's just like you said. I was the hired help," he said with a twinge of hurt in his voice.

The widow optimistically speculated, "But things could have changed for the better. By the time we'd reached New Pacifica, she may have come around and realized how happy you two could have been together."

"I guess we'll never know," he responded with a sad smile.
Although he appreciated Bess' efforts to raise his spirits, Danziger knew it didn't do any good to reflect on what might have been with Devon. She and the others were gone and the best way to honor their memories was to keep moving forward instead of looking behind. And that's just what he was going to do.

__________

"Ouch! Hey, Dr. DeSade, do ya' think you could go a little easier on me?" John complained through gritted teeth.

The mechanic was miserable as he sat on a kitchen stool with Bess standing directly in front of him. He didn't mean to snap at her, but dammit it hurt!

"Would you sit still and stop being such a baby? I'm trying to operate," Bess scolded as she carefully eased the needle through the skin of Danziger's forehead to close the open wound. For some reason, the distressed look on John's face struck her as funny and she began to giggle.

"Christ, woman," his words of annoyance were betrayed by the hint of a smile. "Seems to me that you're getting way too much pleasure out of seeing me in pain."

She halted her stitching and gave him a wry glance. "John, if this was for my enjoyment, I'd be sewing your mouth shut." He raised his hand and she immediately smacked it back down. "Stop fidgeting or you're going to end up looking like Frankenstein's monster."

"Just try to remember that I'm a person and not a pincushion."

"I'll keep that in mind," she responded over the roaring noise of the thunderstorm raging outside.

Bess deftly looped the thread at the corner of the nearly two inch gash located just below his hairline. "Alrighty, I'm just tying it off like so... and cut... and we... are... done."

She grabbed a mirror to show John her expert handiwork. "See? Good as new."

Danziger had to admit that she'd done an impressive job of patching him up after his accident on the roof. He briefly considered telling her this, but decided that it would be more satisfying to harass her instead.

"I assume you sterilized that needle."

In mock anger, Bess challenged, "Hey, don't tell the surgeon how to do her job. Do I tell you how to build furniture?"

"As a matter of fact, you do," he snickered as he went to his bedroom to change out of his wet and bloodstained clothing.

"Come back out here when you're done. I want do put some cream on the wound so it doesn't get infected."

"Nah, just bandage me up. I don't need any of that witch-doctor stuff," he called back.

"Marigold leaves and sap from the aloe plant are hardly the potions of a witch-doctor, John. I'll have you know that herbal medicine is a proven science that was used for centuries on Earth," she lectured to him through his drawn curtain. "What I'm using will not only help you heal faster, it should also keep the scarring down to a minimum."

"Fine. Whatever," John muttered under his breath as he rejoined her in the living room.

Bess propped open the door to the adjoining greenhouse (or the 'pharmacy' as it had come to be known after she gave up on trying to figure out Julia's medical equipment) and went inside. The enclosure housed her prized herb garden and also served as her workshop to create her ointments, food seasonings and whatever else she fancied. There was a long table filled with cutting tools, empty buckets and containers in a multitude of sizes. Next to it was a shelving unit stocked with filled jars, all carefully labeled and organized by its name and various uses. She couldn't help but smile as she slid aside a jar marked 'Vehicle Paint Remover' as she searched for the desired remedy.

"I honestly don't know what you were thinking going up there in the middle of a downpour like that," she mildly admonished as she began to clear a space on the counter.

John leaned up against the frame of the door and replied, "I was thinking that the solar panel was loose enough to blow away if I didn't do something quick."

Bess set aside a carton of homemade soap which was still in the curing stage of production and dug both hands into her hips. "Well, a solar panel doesn't do you much good if you fall off the roof and break your neck."

"I didn't fall off the roof and I didn't break my neck, all right? I slipped on the wet shingles and cut myself on the corner of the panel. Jeez, it's only a scratch," he piped back as he made his way to the awaiting chair next to Bess' workstation. He had to lower his head so as not to collide with a number of dried flower bunches which dangled upside down from the ceiling.

"A scratch that required eight stitches," she murmured under her breath as she gathered a roll of first-aid tape and a bandage from a nearby drawer. She wasn't angry with him, but hearing the thud of his body as it struck the roof and seeing the blood streaming from his head had given her quite a scare.

Danziger continued with a smirk, "Besides, I couldn't risk losing that panel and having to suffer through every day listening to you complaining that there's no hot water for the bathtub."

The Earth-res was about to remind him that she wasn't the only one who appreciated the luxury of warm bath water when a brilliant light almost immediately accompanied by crashing thunder filled their ears. Both of them jumped in surprise and Danziger was especially glad that the deafening ruckus hadn't occurred while Bess was in the middle of sewing him up.

"Wow, that was close," she whispered in amazement.

John nodded silently and pulled back his bangs to enable her to apply the ointment on and around the edges of his injury. Bess glanced down to see his expression and gauge if she was causing him additional pain, but he was transfixed by the droplets of summer rain running down the edges of the greenhouse's clear plastic canvas.

When the sky briefly brightened and let out another reverberating rumble, she reminisced with a smile, "My father used to tell me that thunder was the sound the angels made when they were moving furniture around in Heaven."

Danziger didn't respond or veer his gaze and that told her all she needed to know.

"You don't believe in it, do you?" she inquired.

"What? Thunder being angels with loud redecorating habits?"

"Heaven."

He took a deep breath. "I respect your right to believe in it," he answered softly. "But no, since you asked. I think that when your number comes up, that's it."

"But how can you say that after all that we've seen here on this planet?" she challenged while taping a strip of gauze over the wound.

He met her gaze and offered, "Bess, I'll admit that we've seen some pretty strange things since we've been here, but there hasn't been anything to suggest to me that there's any type of an afterlife when we die. I know you're Catholic and it's probably been drilled into you since you were a little girl that our souls go to some Utopian society and live out eternity- "

"-as angels," Bess finished the sentence

"Yeah, as angels. I'm sorry, but I have a hard time believing it," he shrugged. "Maybe it's just how I was raised."

As Bess finished her task, Danziger used his fingers to comb some of his hair forward to partially cover the dressing. She rested her elbows on the worktable and looked skyward.

"That's too bad, John, because I do believe in Heaven. I think there's a perfect place where all of our friends and family have gone to where they no longer feel sadness or pain. All of their wishes and desires are filled as rewards for being a good person and for the sacrifices they made when they were alive," she said in sincerity. "I can't begin to tell you what a great comfort it is for me to know that Morgan's soul lives on and is up there somewhere among the stars. And I know he's happy."

John briefly reflected on the possibilities if such a place really existed. Maybe True finally got to meet and spend some quality time with her mother. Maybe she got her cat, too.

"You think all the members of Eden Advance are floating around up there as angels, huh?" he said a bit too casually for Bess' taste.

"In a manner of speaking, yes I do," she replied hesitantly, unsure if he was about to tease her about her religious beliefs.

John raised his eyebrow and chortled, "So, do you think Devon has tried to overthrow Heaven yet? I mean, I can't imagine her sitting back and letting somebody else run the show. The woman was certainly ballsy enough to take on God." Hell, she often acted like she was God, he added to himself.

"I think even the Almighty has His limits of what He'll put up with," Bess said laughingly.

"Maybe that's the real reason for the thunder," John ventured with a twinkle in his eye. "Adair's staging a coup."

As if on cue, another explosion of booming thunder filled the air causing them both to break into full blown grins.

"You might be right," she agreed.

Bess leaned forward onto the table and rested her chin on her palms. As she listened to the rhythmic sounds of the raindrops striking the canvas, she began to think about how far she and John had come. They had been on the planet for almost four years now; two and a half of which, it had been just the two of them completely isolated from the rest of the world. For all they knew, the colony ship had come and gone. The Terrians had taken precautions to ensure that there were no Grendlers, Kobas or creatures of any kind for them to interact with. In fact, they hadn't seen a Terrian in years.

It became easier and easier to forget that she and Danziger were the final two specimens of their experiment to test humanity's viability with the planet. The fate of the human race could very well be in their hands. Yet, here they were, laughing and joking. Maybe John was right when he'd once confirmed her fears that they'd both gone a bit crazy. Or perhaps they'd accepted their fate and tried to make the best of a near impossible situation.

'Always look life in the eye' her father had always said and that's exactly what Bess was trying to do. It was clear to her that John had adopted a similar philosophy, too. Each day got a little better until somehow, when they weren't looking, life had become almost normal. That is, if you call 'normal' being held prisoner and studied by unseen captors after they systematically eliminated most of your friends and family. But despite this, she and Danziger had not only survived their ordeal, they had adapted. Bess lived in a nice house. She'd learned to plant crops and had become an expert regarding the plant life of the valley which served as their jail. And she had a closer friendship with John than she'd ever had with anyone, even back on Earth.

As the rains drew to a close and the sun's rays edged between the darkened clouds, Bess found herself smiling. Although this would not have been the life that her father would have chosen for her, she was certain that he would have been proud nonetheless.

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