Then he swallowed the lump in his throat and walked into the room, moving so he could stand beside her bed. Ocean may have been her best friend, and River may have been her protector, but she and August shared a special bond of their own, as well.
They were both sort of the babies of their family – he'd been the littlest Reins for six whole years before she'd come along, so they'd both gotten to experience all the spoiling that came with the position of youngest child. They would laugh together about all the crazy stuff they could get away with as “the babies”, while River and Ocean were always held to “older child” standards.
Now she can't laugh at all.
He heard light footsteps walking across the room behind him, but he didn't bother turning around.
“Did you know,” he started in a quiet voice. “I was the first to hold her?”
“Really?” Zoey Blanke appeared next to him.
“Yeah. They took her out and cleaned her up. My dad had fainted – Mom needed an emergency cesarean – and River and Ocean had been fighting with each other. I was only six, but really tall for my age. Big. The nurse thought I was older. She made me sit in a chair and told me to hold out my arms, then she laid Adele in them. She looked at me. I know that's not normal for babies, but I swear, the moment she was in my arms, Adele's eyes popped open and she looked straight at me. No crying. No fussing. Just staring. I remember thinking I was in love.”
August ended with a laugh, but didn't find it at all funny. He would give anything to see those eyes open again. Just to look at him, one more time. Adele had always made him feel like there was more to him than just a good slap shot. She'd never cared much about his hockey career – she'd only ever cared about him.
“That's very sweet,” Zoey sighed, then she cleared her throat. “Usually no one is here around this time, are you leaving soon?”
He barked out a laugh.
“Hi to you, too, Zoey.”
“You're interrupting girl time.”
“I'm sorry ... what?”
Zoey had a way of always catching him off guard. She probably did that to everybody. He glanced around the room, double checking she was actually talking to him.
“Every Thursday, I do her nails and catch her up on gossip. This is my time with Adele,” she clarified.
August stepped away when she started taking items out of her massive purse and laying them on the bed. She obviously wanted him to leave, so he decided to pull up a chair and sit down near her, instead. Then he watched as she pulled Adele's left hand close and began scrubbing off the hot pink polish that was already there. Next, Zoey pulled out a bottle of neon green and began waving it around, shaking it up.
“You do this every Thursday?” he asked while she clipped and cleaned and used what looked like evil torture devices to push back Adele's cuticles.
“Yup. Pink last week. Green this week. I'm thinking white next week.”
“Seems like a lot of work,” he mumbled, watching as she began brushing the paint over Adele's thumbnail.
“Not really. Now shhh, I've got some catching up to do with my best friend.”
Zoey got right down over Adele's hand, all her focus on her work. When she got into a rhythm with the brush, she began talking. She filled her friend in on what was going on at her job and the different things that were happening with their friends. A TV show they were both obsessed with was discussed at length, but the episode endings were never given away. “Spoilers,” she'd whispered to him with a wink.
“You know, I gotta say, I'm kinda shocked. I've never seen you be so ... nice,” August finally said. Zoey laughed as she collected her gear and switched to the other side of the bed.
“I'm usually not. Adele brings it out of me. I told her once I think that's why we were destined to be friends. We balance each other. I give her some bite, and she smooths my edges. Me and this chick, we're a solid team,” she told him as she got to work on Adele's other hand.
“Destined, huh. You believe in that stuff? Destiny? Fate?” he was curious.
“Sure. I think destiny brought me and her together, brought you to hockey, brought Ocean to the land-of-no-sense-of-humor,” she replied. He snorted and laughed.
“Okay, but if you believe that, then you believe Adele was meant to be in this coma.”
Zoey was silent for a long time after that, concentrating on her brush strokes. Then, when she was finished with the fingernails, she moved to the end of the bed and started working on Adele's toenails.
“Honestly, August?” she started speaking again. “I do. I think wherever Adele is, she's meant to be there. She's probably doing great things that we can't even fathom. That's why she has to do them in her dreams. And when she's done, she'll come back to us.”
“She's taking her sweet fucking time,” he grumbled, watching his sister's face.
“Well, anything that needs doing, needs doing right. I have faith. Give her time, she'll come back when she's ready.”
August wasn't so sure about that; he wasn't quite as optimistic as the rest of his family. In his profession, he'd seen career ending concussions. Been privy to a lot of conversations about head injuries. He wasn't a doctor, not by any means, but he felt like he had a greater understanding of Adele's situation than the rest of his family.
I'm not ready for her to go. I didn't get to say goodbye.
He almost thought he was going to cry – something he did not want to do in front of a person like Zoey Blanke. But then he felt something. Skin brushing against skin. He blinked his eyes rapidly and looked down, then quickly laughed. She'd reached over and painted his pinky nail bright green. When he looked at her, she was painting the same nail on her own hand. After she was done, she held it up and wiggled it at him.
“There. Solidarity. When you're missing her, just look at your finger, and know that at least a small part of you is with her,” she suggested.
“I think that's stretching it, Zoey.”
“Shut the fuck up and absorb this heartfelt moment, Reins. I don't pass them out often.”
August laughed some more, then hooked his finger around hers in a “pinky promise” gesture, squeezing it. She smiled and squeezed him back.
You hear that, Adele? Now a part of me is with you – so sayeth Madame Zoey, and she's never wrong. So don't go too far away, because you have a lot you need to come back to.
9
Adele blinked, and found herself standing on a beach. A huge grin spread across her face. She loved the beach.
I could get used to this.
She started running across the sand. There was so much of it, it seemed like there was a mile between her and the water. She picked up her speed and began yanking at her sweater, finally working it over her head and dropping it behind her.
“C'mon!” she shouted over her shoulder while she pulled her hair up into a ponytail.
When she finally reached wet sand, she slowed down, hopping up and down on one foot while scrunching up the leg of her jeans as high as it would go. Then she switched and pulled up the other pant leg before splashing into the water.
It was warm. Easily eighty degrees, maybe more. It felt amazing. She put her hands on top of her head and sighed, staring out over the water. The sun was huge, and she could actually a hear a hissing, popping sound where it met the ocean at the horizon.
“What do you want me to do with this!?”
Adele glanced behind her. Jones was standing at the very edge of the water, holding her sweater in his hand. She rolled her eyes and turned to face him completely.
“Just leave it! The water feels amazing, get in here!” she ordered.
“Leave it? But it's your clothing! You can't just leave it laying around,” he pointed out.
“I think we both know I can do anything I want. Now come have fun with me, or I'll blink again and probably wind up somewhere else,” she warned him. He groaned and her sweater dropped to the ground.
“No. It's a bitch coming after you.”
“Really? Isn't that like your main job? You're not very good at it.”
“Oi! I don't think I care for this 'sassy' you.”
“Is there a complaint form I could see? Maybe a supervisor I could call?”
“Alright, that's it.”
Adele laughed and started wading farther into the sea, not caring when her pants got wet. Jones strode after her, not impeded by the waves at all. She dashed off to the left, but he had much longer legs than her. It only took him a moment to catch up. She shrieked when she felt his arms go around her waist. She clawed at his wrists, but he yanked her up off her feet, then started to fall, taking her down with him.
Just as they hit the water, she took a deep breath and squeezed her eyes shut tight to protect them.
And when she opened them again, she was laying in the poppy field.
Time had lost all meaning. There was no real night or day, it varied depending on where she was; Old Town – what she'd named the odd, cobblestoned town beyond her front door – was perpetually in night. The poppies, always sunny.
Sometimes it felt like Adele had always been in this magical place. When she was laughing with Jones in the bar, or dancing with him at the castle, or running along the shoreline with him. This place, it was her beginning and her end. Her alpha and her omega. Just her and him, since the beginning of time, for all time. It was all she knew, all she could think about – she was on permanent sensory overload, her brain didn't have room for anything else.
But there were other times when Adele would get scared. She'd be in her room, or standing on the castle parapet, or laying on the ocean, and she'd suddenly realize she had no clue how she'd gotten there. She couldn't remember the last time she'd slept. She ate if food was in front of her, but she was never hungry. Never thirsty. She was having fun, but other than that ... there was nothing.
And the worst part of all – Jones wasn't always around.