Once upon a Dream by Nora

[Reviews - 0]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer

- Text Size +

Early the next morning Devon decided that the time had come to meet with Eden Advance. They had all seen little of each other since the arrival of the newcomers, and had had some time to think about what they wanted to do with their futures. Devon glanced around her. John, the Martin's, Baines, Magus, Matazl, Denner, the Solace's, Cameron, Walman, Yale, Uly and True. They were all sitting around the outside of her tent, munching quietly on their oatmeal. Automatically they had sat in a circle with Devon at the head; the matriarch of their large brood. Now her stomach flopped slightly at the question she was about to bring up.

"I asked you all here this morning so we could talk." She paused as all fifteen pairs of eyes turned her way and were caught in her gaze, "Ever since we first crashed here, it has been assumed that some of us would be leaving when the Colony ship showed up. Many of us, including myself, have ignored this possibility for as long as possible, but the time has come to make the choice. The colony shuttle leaves for the Earth Stations in three days." Devon took a breath, trying to decide if there was a way to say this easily. There wasn't.

"Well, I guess all I can ask is... who's staying here on G889?" Her voice dropped a notch, "And who's leaving?" Silence fell among the group. True spoke up eagerly,

"We're staying," Devon smiled at her. "So are we," Julia added, holding tightly to Alonzo's hand, "Us too," Devon was shocked to see Morgan Martin saying this proudly. Bess leaned over and kissed him.

"Dev," Cameron spoke up, his arm still in a sling around his neck, "we've all talked about this before, and we're all staying. This place kinda grew on us." Smiles broke out around the group and Devon felt that a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. They were all staying. She beamed, speaking only a few words for fear of breaking into heartfelt tears of joy,

"I'm so grateful to all of you for everything these past few years. Especially for putting up with me." The group laughed and then finished their breakfasts as they smiled and joked around like old times. The smiles didn't fade all morning.

Julia wasn't sure whose idea the afternoon walk had been, but a group of them decided it would be fun, and a little after lunch headed off in two of the group's dunerails towards the scenery, sanctity and peace of the woods. Ashley had pleaded to go with Julia, so now mother and daughter walked hand in hand down a grassy path that sloped through the surrounding hills.

They had driven the vehicles as far as the base of the hills, and then chosen their route from there. Julia listened as Bess and Cynthia Denner sang an old folk-song from earth a few feet ahead of them, and Mazatl and Baines talked 'mechanics' behind them. Vasquez was bringing up the rear, armed with all the medical equipment he could carry, frequently falling behind as he stopped to run tests on the flora and fauna.

Ashley skipped beside Julia with a handful of bright flowers, one for every colour of the rainbow. She was humming an unfamiliar song, her mind lost in childhood fantasies. Alonzo and Julia had told her earlier that day that she would soon have a little brother or sister, and although a little skeptical, she seemed to be accepting the idea.

Julia was off in her own dreamworld when she felt a sharp pain shoot through her side.

"Ow!" she exclaimed, reflexively releasing Ashley's hand to hold her stomach protectively. Bess looked over at her in concern.

"You alright?"
Julia wasn't sure what to tell her. This didn't feel like the morning sickness she'd been having recently, but somewhere in the back of her mind she knew she had felt this before,

"I'm okay, I think," she said, not quite sure if she even believed herself, "We've been walking quite awhile, I think I just have a stomach cramp or someth..." Suddenly she doubled over, falling to the ground, and let out a blood-chilling scream from the intensity of the pain. It felt as if someone was ripping a knife through her abdomen. In an instant she knew where she had felt this pain before,

"No," she cried, tears beginning to stream down her face, both from pain and grief, "please, God, not again!"

Bess was at her side instantly, Vasquez directly behind her. He pulled out a diaglove that he promptly ran over her stomach area. His face paled as he saw the results,

"Baines!" he yelled out without looking up, "Get the 'rail quickly, we have to get her back to camp!" He continued running tests over Julia who was writhing in agony. Bess didn't have to ask what was wrong, but held Julia's head in her lap, crooning comfortingly to her as best she could to try and ease her pain. Julia let out another scream that made Bess's skin crawl. Then the blood started to soak through her pants.

"Please, no, not again, no..." she sobbed hysterically. Vasquez glanced over at Bess in confusion about Julia's ramblings as he desperately waited for Baines to return. Bess looked at the doctor, knowing perfectly well what was happening to Julia; it could only be one thing.

"Julia lost a child before she had Ashley... she's miscarrying again, isn't she?" Vasquez nodded as he felt tears well up in his eyes. Losing one child to miscarriage would be bad enough, but two... Baines rolled up in the dunerail.

"Quick, get her in..." Vasquez supervised as he, Bess, Denner, and Mazatl carefully lifted Julia into the back of the vehicle. Squeezing himself in to the back area with her, he elevated her feet - the only thing he could do to slow down the miscarriage until they reached camp - and hollered for Baines to get moving.

Bess watched as they drove away and Denner and Mazatl started to jog back to the other 'rail. She heard a small whimpering behind her and turned around to see two huge blue eyes tinged with a teary red staring up at her. In all the confusion, Ashley had been forgotten.

"Oh, baby," Bess crooned, lifting the little girl up into a comforting hug. Ashley hiccuped and let out a small wail,

"Maaamaaa..." her voice drifted off in the light afternoon breeze that had suddenly chilled. Bess adjusted the weight in her arms and turned for the remaining vehicle, following the others as fast as her legs could carry her.

The rail came flying into the camp at a breakneck speed, catching everyone's attention, and came to a sliding stop outside the med tent. Baines and Vasquez, looking pale and tense, jumped out of the vehicle. John, Devon and Alonzo had been discussing future plans for growing crops, and now moved towards the tent out of curiosity and worry. Baines shot Danziger a look of... warning? John wasn't sure. Then he heard it. A low- pitched, ragged moan that made his breath catch in his throat.

He watched as Vasquez and Baines bent and started to lift Julia from the 'rail, and it didn't take a genius to figure out what was wrong with her. She was clutching her lower stomach with both arms, face drawn up in agony, and as an eerie silence encompassed the camp he could hear her soft cries:

"No...please...no..."
He saw out of the corner of his eye something in Alonzo snap. Jumping back into reality, John caught Alonzo and pinned his arms behind his head in a Full-Nelson hold before he could move. Alonzo squirmed,

"John" he cried as tears started to form in his eyes, "please, let me go... I have to help her... John!" he anguished, desperately trying to get to his wife.

"'Lonz," Danziger hissed, trying to catch his attention, "listen to me. Julia's scared as it is... help her... try to stay calm, alright?"

Alonzo shook him off roughly and sprinted across the camp into the med tent where Julia had just been carried. A scream that shattered his very heart greeted him as he entered. The sight before him was one out of his worst nightmares.

Julia was covered in sweat, her clothing soaked through, her eyes squinted shut and Vasquez was frantically running tests and giving her injections. Alonzo stood like a koba in front of a Transrover, frozen in place from shock. Trying to shake off the feeling, he forced one foot in front of the other and crouched beside the head of the cot that Julia lay on. He took one sweaty palm that was wrapped so tightly around her abdomen into his. The force of her grip both startled and scared him.

"Jul," he said softly, trying to cover the waver in his voice, "I'm here. I won't leave you, I promise." He lightly kissed her forehead, "I love you." His voice cracked on the last word, and she opened her eyes. That was when Alonzo's tears started flowing. Her eyes were so full of pain; a pain the like of which he had never seen before. A pain that touched all the way to her soul.

Vasquez set a hand on Alonzo's shoulder, coaxing him momentarily away from Julia to the other side of the tent. His eyes were glassy and red as he started to speak.

"Alonzo... Julia's miscarrying the baby... I'm sorry, but at this stage there's nothing I can do."

Only one quick sobbing gasp escaped Alonzo before he nodded, looked away, and returned to the side of his wife.

Bess stood outside the tent, sadly relaying the news to the sobered crowd around her, tears streaming down her cheeks.

"She's miscarrying... Vasquez says there's nothing he can do, just hope that Julia can live through the blood loss." Danziger choked on his breath, while Denner, Yale and Cameron each started to weep silently. Julia was like a sister and a daughter to all of them. They all remembered the pain that she and Alonzo had endured during the first miscarriage. It had taken them both weeks to recover, although Julia had been the first to point out that she would never be entirely alright again. The thought of them having to suffer through that pain again... On the other hand, the newer colonists seemed more concerned that one of their doctors, preciously few in numbers, may be temporarily incapacitated. The fact that this woman was a mother, a wife, a confidante and a friend seemed to escape them as they moved away from the medtent to return to the day's activities.

Bess adjusted little Ashley's weight in her arms. Her eyes were huge and red with tears, her body shaking almost uncontrollably through her sobs. She didn't understand exactly what was going on, but had picked up the fact that she would no longer have a little brother or sister, and that Mama was sick, and Daddy was upset.

Lowering her slowly to the ground, Bess knelt, eyes closed, and started to recite the only thing she thought might bring her peace and hope;

"Our Father who art in heaven..."
Ashley tugged on Bess's shirt, curiousity taking the place of her tears as she snuffled them back,

"Bess? Who talk to?" Bess pulled the girl, who she considered a niece, into her lap,

"God." She smiled a little and played with Ashley's hair as she spoke, "He created the universe and everything in it. I'm praying to Him to ask Him to make your mommy better."

"Me do too?" Ashley asked softly. Bess's heart melted at the girl's apparent desperation and sadness. She nodded and Ashley knelt beside her, closing her eyes,

"Father," Bess began softly, "Please protect Julia and her unborn child from harm... give both her and Alonzo the strength they need to get through this... and keep us all in Your care..." she silently crossed herself, "Amen."

In the medtent, Alonzo sat gently at Julia's side. She was fairly unresponsive; Vasquez had pumped enough painblockers into her system to almost completely numb the pain... for now. He watched her lying there and his mind flew back three years and a half years, to the day when he and Julia had fought...

It was the time Mary had returned briefly, and Alonzo had thought it would be fun to show her how to dance. Julia saw them slow-dancing in a field as an unknowing Mary tried to kiss Alonzo. Knowing that the two had once had feelings for each other she took the scene the wrong way, and took off in the 'Rover.

When they finally found her that evening, she was crushed up against the vehicle's windshield, blood seeping through her pants. It was only then Alonzo had realized she had been pregnant... and he had always blamed himself for losing the life of their unborn child. If he hadn't been dancing with Mary... If he hadn't let her rush off... If he had just sat her down and explained the situation to her... If only he could erase that day...

But it was not until now that he fully realized the immense pain she must have gone through by herself in the middle of a sandy wasteland, with no one to comfort her. Now he felt even more guilty than he had before. He didn't want to imagine her alone in the Transrover, scared and incapacitated by pain, knowing she was losing her child, but also knowing she could do nothing to prevent it.

He brought her limp hand to his lips and gently kissed her. She stirred slightly and opened her eyes a crack.

"'Lonz?" she whispered, her voice barely audible, "I'm going to die... " It wasn't a question. Alonzo's eyes opened wide and he bent down close to her face,

"No, no Jul, I swear to you, you are not going to die... You're going to be fine, you hear me? Be strong, okay? Hold on!" Vasquez put a hand lightly on Alonzo's shoulder. Alonzo turned slightly to see the man staring down at him, tears falling openly from his cheeks. He shook his head. She wasn't going to make it, there was already so much blood loss, and he couldn't stop the bleeding.

"I love you... Tell... Ashley... I love... her..." "No...!" Alonzo gasped, watching as Julia's face paled and her hand started to droop limply. "Please, you have to help her!"

"Alonzo," Vasquez began through his tears, "there's nothing I can do..."

"I'll do anything... please help her, I know you have the ability to do something..." Vasquez then realized that Alonzo wasn't talking to him. Or a higher power. He was talking to the planet and its inhabitants.

Then the ground started to shake a little under Vasquez' feet. As he swiflty moved back several metres, four Terrians suddenly sprang into the med-tent, two on either side of the slowly dying Julia. Alonzo's sobs quieted slightly, and he repeated his plea to them, his voice breaking into tears several times. They trilled deeply back at him and stepped closer to Julia. Alonzo held her hand desperately for a second longer and tenderly kissed his wife's forehead before moving back a few steps, and Vasquez watched in shock as the Terrians effortlessly lifted Julia from the cot and together pulled her with them beneath the earth.

Alonzo sat on his daughter's small cot, holding her close in his arms as she wept. It was the third night that she had woken up crying from nightmares, the third night after her mother had di... been taken into the earth by the Terrians. Alonzo refused to think that Julia was dead, and would not allow the other crew members to speak of her in past tense. Especially around his daughter. The obnoxious man from the meeting the previous week now had a black eye to show for when he had made that mistake the day before and sent Ashley into hysterics. The thought of having to live the rest of his life without Julia... Alonzo started to choke up again, but held back his tears. He had to keep hope, not just for himself, but for Ashley's sake.

Everyone had been trying to offer words of support, but the only person who had honestly helped was Danziger. He had sat with Alonzo while he cried like a baby in the hours after Julia was taken and found colonists new and old to temporarily perform his chores around camp. He was one of the few, joined by Bess and Devon, who had experienced enough loss to know that Alonzo needed time alone now, and that all they could do was extend a lifeline and wait for him to accept it.

Alonzo looked down and noticed that Ashley had fallen into a fitful slumber. He carefully untangled her from his arms and tucked her back into bed. She mumbled as he moved her:

"Song..." Julia always sang to Ashley while putting her to sleep. Alonzo opened his mouth to sing, but nothing came out. He racked his brain, but he couldn't remember the words of the song that his wife sang. Tears started streaming down his cheeks in greater numbers than ever before in his life. How could he not know the words? He had listened to Julia sing the song every day since their daughter was born... Alonzo quickly retreated from the tent before he could wake Ashley.

Once outside he walked behind their tent, and headed towards the beach. He and Julia had planned the position of their tent so that at night they could walk on the soft sand of the beach of the Sea of Antius while still being able to hear Ashley's cries if she woke up. Now, walking by himself, he kept thinking that Julia was beside him, that they were holding their shoes in their hands, laughing and joking and talking about their dreams. Alonzo kept wanting to hear her voice, her laugh, her cry, smell her hair, see her smile. He felt like a part of his soul had been somehow ripped clear out of his body, and now this small remaining part of him ached from the loss.

Reaching around his neck he pulled off a thin silver chain. Julia had given it to him when they were married two years earlier. She had wanted to give him a traditional ring, but hadn't had one or been able to find one large enough to fit his fingers. Instead she had given him the chain, which her grandfather had given her for her first birthday, shortly before his death, and attached to it a tiny silver plaque-like charm. On the front she had inscribed 'A&J' and on the other side 'trust love'. The latter was the phrase that Alonzo had always drilled into her, especially in the beginning of their relationship when Julia was so sure that her chromotilting wouldn't allow her to love. Julia had given it to him so he would always know that she felt the same way.

The chain had hung around his neck since their marriage, and served as a constant reminder to him of what was important in life. The necklace had seen him and Julia through fights, happiness, love and despair. Now it was covered in Alonzo's tears as he held it to his forehead and wished with all his heart for his best friend to come back to him.

Suddenly a hand was on his shoulder and he turned to see Bess standing behind him, her long curls flying around her face. She was wearing baggy sweat pants and an old, sloppy sweatshirt - dressed for bed.

"I'm sorry if I woke you," Alonzo's worn voice croaked out. Bess smiled a little and shook her head, taking a seat next to Alonzo on the soft sand,

"I wasn't in bed. I walked past your tent a few minutes ago and Ashley was crying." Alonzo let out a sad, grief-filled sigh and moved to stand up,

"No, it's okay," Bess grabbed his arm and pulled him back to the ground, "I went into your tent and sat with her for awhile until she fell asleep again."

The tears that had stopped falling upon Bess's arrival threatened to overflow as Alonzo thought of his daughter crying in their tent with no one answering. Putting his head in his hands, he realized he must have been so caught up in his own grief that he couldn't hear her calls.

"I'm sorry Ashley," he whispered, as if she could hear his plea. "It's okay," Bess answered in the place of the little girl, "she's going to be fine, and so are you."

"How?" he asked simply, "She's gone..." his voice started to crack, "and I'm scared she'll never come back to me," for the thousandth time in the past few days Alonzo broke into tears, but this time was different. He had finally admitted to himself that Julia might not ever come back, and that scared the hell out of him. Bess gently held him as he sobbed, each tear streaming down his cheeks like a dream that he was slowly losing, a hope that was fading away. Bess left about twenty minutes later, but it wasn't until much later that the last of Alonzo's dreams fell from his eyes into the golden sand.

Devon leaned over in the rich, moist dirt, painstakingly pulling yellow-brown weeds out from a crop of native Poiuta flowers. The roots of the plants were surprisingly delicious when mixed with other regional foods and Devon actually liked digging through them, roughly yanking out the pests that tried to mar their growth. It might've just been her subconcious need for violence, but sitting in the sun pulling the weeds was always a bright spot in her day, and gave her an oppurtunity to think. Today all she could think about was Julia.

It was eight days ago that she had been taken into the earth by the Terrians, and although the Terrians had returned three days ago and started to cure the Syndrome children, no one had heard even a mention of the lost doctor.

She paused at her tugging and gazed past the mess area where Bess laboured over lunch, to where Alonzo was sitting with Ashley, trying unsuccesfully to repair a tent that had collapsed the night before. He looked awful, with huge bags under his eyes from lack of sleep. He hadn't been able to focus on even the simplest of chores in the last week. Although Devon, having lost many of her loved ones in the past, empathized with the pain he was feeling, she dearly hoped he would come out of this haze soon. They all were beginning to accept Julia's death and most had finally started to mourn. Yale was hoping to have a memorial service for her, but he knew, as did Devon, that until Alonzo accepted the death, any rememberance ceremony would be pointless.

Sitting in the dirt she thought about what a loss the young doctor's death was. Julia had completely turned her life around on this new planet. From the little that the younger woman had told her about her past, the people here were the first and only ones to love her. She had never mentioned details, but it seemed to Devon that her parents had been both physically and emotionally abusive to her. Julia had overcome everything that both her family and the Council could throw at her, and was raising a beautiful, loving daughter with a wonderful, caring husband, only to be killed as a result of a miscarriage. A miscarriage that Vasquez had determined with the information collected on his diaglove was caused not because of a genetic abnormality in the baby, but rather due to Julia's chromotilting. As with most chromotilts, her body thought the growing child was an invader and tried to defend itself against him or her. The irony was overwhelming. Reilly had told Julia that she would die running from the Council, and in its own way, the Council had killed her. But they hadn't just killed her, they had killed a part of every single member of Eden Advance.

*What was that?!* Devon abruptly looked over her left shoulder towards the hilly forest. She could have sworn there was something there. Shrugging she went back to her weed-pulling. Then it happened again, like something was tickling the edge of her brain. She thought she saw movement out of her peripheral vision. Looking over again, she saw nothing. Devon tried to shake off the feeling, but allowed herself one more fleeting glance at the hill, just to make sure it really was her imagination.

Her scream of fright died in her throat. She saw a brownish coloured mass rounding the top of the hill, staying low to the earth. It was too small to be a Grendler - it didn't look like anything Devon had ever seen before. Then it straightened up slightly and she found two intense blue eyes locked onto hers,

"Julia?!" she whispered under her breath, "JULIA!" she repeated in a jubilant cry. She turned back to the mess hall and saw Alonzo staring at the hill in paralyzed wonder, "Alonzo," she shouted, "she's back!"

Alonzo's immobility lasted less than a split second, as he tore off towards his lost wife at a dead sprint. His heart was pounding through his chest as he raced up the hill and saw Julia, covered from head to toe in mud and dirt, sitting in a heap, mumbling to herself. "'Lonzo?" he heard her ask quietly, and he felt his eyes fill with tears. Alonzo threw himself at Julia, wrapping his arms around her and hoping he would never have to let go. He felt her arms weakly curl around his back. It didn't matter what happened now, he thought, they were together again, and everything else would work out... as long as they were together.

Julia sat on the medtable, still in Alonzo's protecting arms, wrapped in a warm blanket with Ashley cradled in her lap. Alonzo hadn't wanted to let go of her since they had found her an hour earlier, and it had almost taken physical force on Danziger's part to get him to leave the medtent for a few minutes so Vasquez could do a quick exam and Devon and Bess could help Julia clean off. For every second that he sat outside the tent he kept thinking that the Terrians had come and taken her away again, and this time she wouldn't come back. After what seemed like an eternity Vasquez allowed him and Ashley back into the tent where they now sat with the piece of themselves that they had been missing.

Alonzo absentmindedly stroked Julia's hair as he thought about how much he loved her and he felt tears swell into his eyes. She chose that moment to look up at him,

"'Lonz?" she realized immediately what he had gone through while she had been... she didn't even know where she had been. She could see the pain of her absence in his eyes, and knew that the last while had taken its toll on him. Julia looked into his deep brown eyes and smiled,

"I'm here now. And I love you." The words that Alonzo had thought he would never hear again brought a smile to his face as he took her chin in his hands and kissed her for the first time in eight days.

"Hrmph..." Alonzo could've punched Vasquez right then and there. He certainly did look pleased with himself for breaking up their reunion. "I have your test results Dr. Hel... Solace." Julia smiled at his correction. "Almost all of your tests came out normal, with a bit of exhaustion and strain, understandably. But one test had a, um... interesting result." Vasquez felt tears coming to his eyes as he tried to give them the news, while Julia and Alonzo exchanged looks of worry, bracing themselves for the worst.

"Julia, I don't know how, but... you're pregnant." Two jaws dropped in unison. Alonzo let out a hoot of glee and bear-hugged Julia before she knew what hit her. It took a few seconds, but as what Vasquez sank into her, she began to understand why the Terrians had taken her. To save a life. Her baby's life. Tears started streaming down her cheeks, leaving small streaks behind them.

"Oh, wait! There's more!" Julia and Alonzo again found themselves looking at Vasquez with anxious faces. He smiled reassuringly, "You're having twins!" This time Julia let out a triumphant yell and the series of hugs, tears of joy and cries of disbelief started all over again.

Vasquez moved away from the small family with a smile of content on his face. This planet had changed them both. He ducked through the tent flap and gazed up at the early evening sky, bright blue with a tinge of orange where the sun was starting to sink into the trees. It was a beauty the likes of which he had seen just moments ago when the young couple looked into each others eyes. It was the beauty of love. Richard Vasquez would begin again here, he decided. He looked towards the east. In the distance two ivory moons began to appear against the darkening sky, smiling their approval down upon him.

-The End-

You must login (register) to review.