Eternity
Pairing: Speed/OFC
Rating: PG, angst
Word Count: 916
Spoilers: Lost Son
Notes: For Beth’s first line drabble challenge. Based on Speed’s CBS bio, and the character created in my fic “The View from a Glass House”
“Aww,
come on, Speed! The water’s warm, there’s not a cloud in sight – get in here!”
Speed
blinked, looking around him, trying to figure out where the hell he was. It
took only a second to realise that it was a beach, moreover a beach
in
In
fact, the last time he’d walked on it, that same voice had shouted out those
same words to him, and it was that realisation that stopped him in his tracks, made
him turn slowly towards the water.
He
was afraid that he was going to see her there, was more afraid that he
wouldn’t, and when he saw her waving at him, tears came to his eyes. It was
Jessie, just the way he remembered her, auburn curls soaking wet, sticking to
her face and shoulders in ringlets that would be horrendously unflattering on
anyone else, but on her just looked adorable. Her blue eyes danced with life
and with mirth, and she waved to him again, shouting out something about him
being a scaredy-cat, and how he really should join her.
How
many times, Speed wondered, over the last ten years had he had this dream? He’d
long since lost count, and he knew just how it would end; with him waking up alone
in his apartment, tears in his eyes, feeling as if he’d just lost her all over
again.
So he
made no move to join her, stood, as he always did, and watched her, and that
was when something different happened.
She
tilted her head, frowning quizzically at him, and began to make her way out of
the pounding surf, heading right for him. Walking, no, running towards him, no
wheelchair necessary, as if the last two years of her life had never happened.
She
didn’t usually frown at him, but everything else was the same, and Speed stood
his ground, knowing what was going to happen. She was going to stand in front
of him, and she would be so real that he could smell her perfume, would be able
to feel the warmth of her smile. And he would reach out to touch her, pull her
to him, but the second he tried to touch her, or the second she tried to touch
him, he would wake up.
That
was what always happened, so when she was standing in front of him, with tears
in her eyes, he didn’t want to speak, didn’t want to waste a moment of seeing
her. He just wanted to stay there, looking at her, forever.
“You
can, you know.”
It
was Jessie’s voice, and he blinked, because she’d never said that to him
before.
“Can
what?” he asked, and she smiled.
“Touch
me.”
He
frowned, not understanding, and as if to prove it, she reached out a hand, made
to lay it on his cheek. He went to pull back, because he knew what would
happen, but Jessie just smiled, shook her head. “It’s ok,” she told him, and
her hand reached out, touched him on the cheek.
And
he didn’t wake up.
Instead,
he felt her palm against his skin, warm and real, a touch he’d had in real
life, but never like this, never once they’d laid their feelings for one another
out on the line. A sob started life in his chest and he was powerless to stop
it escaping his lips, and he thought Jessie was going to tease him over that.
Instead,
she just smiled.
And
just like that, he remembered.
A jewellery store, movement out of the
corner of his eye.
A gun
jamming, his ears ringing to the sound of a shot.
A
pain in his chest, Horatio leaning over him.
The
bright sunlight and the beach.
Jessie.
Jessie
standing before him, with tears rolling down her cheeks, nodding her head
slowly as everything fell into place.
“You’re
real,” he said, as if to make sure, and she nodded. “And I’m-”
She
nodded again, laying her hand over his chest, the exact spot where he’d felt
the pain. “You’re here,” is all she said, and he nodded, looking out over the
ocean, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.
When
he looked down again, it was into a pair of green eyes that held everything
he’d ever wanted, and he cupped her face in his hands, sweeping the pads of his
thumbs across her cheeks. “I’ve missed you,” he told her brokenly. “Every day…
so much.”
A sob
escaped her lips, tears still rolling down her cheeks. “But you’re here now,”
she told him. “With me. And I love you.”
They
were words he’d waited a lifetime to hear again, words he’d waited a lifetime
to say again, and he said them now. “I love you too,” he said, before lowering
his head, bringing his lips to hers for what was the sweetest kiss he’d ever
experienced.
She
was the one who pulled away first, smiling up at him with that smile that
always sent him a little weak in the knees, slipping her hand into his. “Come
on Speed,” she said. “There’s so much I want to tell you…”
Entwining
his fingers with hers, he raised them to his lips for a quick kiss before
letting the love of his life lead him into the setting sun.
For
the first time in ten years, he didn’t look back.