Anthony DeCosmo - Fusion

“Oh, well, I guess-“

“And your daughter’s middle name is Nina.”

Lori stuck her lip out and threw her eyes to the sky contemplating her next move. She could nearly see her husband shaking his head and telling her to ‘keep your nose out of it!”

As usual, she ignored him.

“Oh, screw it. Yeah, we were friends. Good friends. After you lost your memories, well, after that the whole war thing was really picking up and you were moved away from the estate and out to fight battles and all that. We didn’t see each other much after that.”

“Thank you for being straight with me.”

“You deserve it.”

Nina gazed at the activity across the estate grounds: Dogs walking patrol routes, a courier with a box under his arm bounding through the front door, and a Humvee with a mounted machine gun creeping along the sloped driveway.

She asked, “What was it like around here, back in those days?”

Lori considered for a moment and then said, “Well, there were less people, of course, but still a lot always going on. There’s always been a feeling of excitement around here. Well, except for those few months last year when this place was empty because Evan moved everything down to DC Anyway, since the beginning the mansion and the lake have always felt like the center of it all. Lots of energy but without the bull. You were a big part of that in the early days.” Her eyes wavered as she admitted, “But back then that energy felt, well, optimistic. Nowadays it feels-it feels desperate.”

Lori saw Nina hesitate, perhaps summoning courage, before asking, “How is-how is The Emperor doing these days?”

Lori felt another powerful blast of deja vu and quickly traced it to the conversations she had had with Nina during those first few months at the estate, a time when Lori had correctly guessed that Nina Forest was falling in love with Trevor Stone, even if she did not know it..

“Trevor? I’ll admit it he is a little different nowadays. I think he’s more…” and Lori chose her word carefully, “ lonely. That’s because of how things are going out on the front. And how things went, well, after he got back last summer.”

Those things, Lori knew, included rooting out the conspirators, public hangings, and a brutal purge of the political system. As far as she knew, a dozen bodies still hung from the rotunda in the now-closed Capital building in DC For a while, things had been brutal. She saw first-hand the dark side of Trevor Stone.

Lori focused again and added, “You did a job bringing him back.”

“Oh, well, I-look-I just did what I had to do. I suppose.”

Lori wondered exactly how Nina had brought Trevor back. His mind had been a mess of nightmares and grief. In one of his few confessional moments since his return, Trevor had hinted to Lori about a supernatural bond formed between himself and Nina, one that had taken much of the weight of guilt and sorrow from his spirit and given it to Nina, a willing gesture on her part to lift a measure of his burden.

That, Lori thought, is what people in love do for one another.

Whatever she had done, it relieved Trevor enough to pull him from the madness, although his anger and determination returned more powerful than ever.

She wondered, as she watched Nina fidget nervously, how much Nina knew. Or how much did she feel?

Lori said, “You should go say hello to him.”

Nina did not reply, but her eyes wandered in a sure sign of increasing nerves. At that moment Lori realized she would need to try some of her old tricks again.

“Hey, look, this conference tomorrow is important. I’ve got to make some decisions on equipment transfers and personnel. I’d like your input on all that.”

“Me? I’m not really good at that sort of thing. I’m just a soldier.”

“That’s the type of input I need. Someone who has been on the front lines. Besides, you were in on all the big meetings back in the old days. I’d like you to be there.”

Nina’s eyes widened and she gasped, “Me? In a meeting with the counsel? Listen, I don’t think I’m the right-“

“Nonsense,” Lori interrupted. “As the Chief Administrator I am requesting your presence. Tell Shep I suggested it and I’ll bet he’ll think it’s a good idea. Besides, there isn’t much of a council left. It’s sort of Trevor’s extended group of friends and advisers. You’re a part of that group, I think.”

“I–I don’t know what to say. Or, what to say at the meeting.”

“Just be there. At some point, I just know Trevor will want to talk to you.”

Trevor sat with Ashley in the soft glow of the living room fireplace. While one couch remained, much of the room had been transformed into makeshift workspace including a pair of desks against one wall, cabinets, and a long table under the front windows.

Still, with the lights down and the workers long-since departed, the room took on a cozy feel, especially with those desks, cabinets, and tables relegated to shadows.

The tears were the final stage, preceded by pleading and defiance. In the end, Trevor Stone saw that she realized he planned to take away the only thing in this miserable world that belonged to her. The only person Ashley loved who loved her back.

The time for argument passed, so did the time for protests; she lacked the energy to continue fighting.

Outside, the last rays of sunset faded like a dying fire. A vehicle motor revved as it traveled the driveway. The sound of scattered voices-handlers commanding K9s and sentries conversing-seeped through the front windows as muffled background noise.

“I’m sorry,” he said for what might have been the fiftieth time that evening, but this time the apology encompassed a greater wrong. “I’m sorry things turned out this way.”

“Me-me too,” she sobbed. “What happened? How come the old world seems like a faded dream? I don’t even know if it’s real any more. Was it real? Any of it?”

For the first time in a long while he slipped an arm around Ashley’s shoulder and pulled her close.

“It was real. But I know what you mean about it seeming a dream. Sometimes I have trouble remembering what my folks looked like. That bothers me.”

“Do you remember-you remember making the plans for the wedding? I thought it was important.”

He chuckled and told her, “I remember. And it was important. Back then. I guess our definition of ‘important’ has changed a bit.”

“I kept moving those seating charts around. It must’ve drove you nuts.”

“No, no,” he did not sound convincing. “I was right there with you.”

“Oh, you liar.” She actually flashed a brief smile.

“Say, you remember that time we went on a picnic up to Francis Slocum State Park?”

Ashley nodded. “How could I forget? That was Memorial Day.”

“Perfect day, it seemed. Then that storm rolled in and we didn’t even notice. Next thing you know-”

She picked up, “We were too busy staring into each other’s eyes,” she used the right mix of melodrama in her tone, “to notice that everyone else at the park went running for their cars. By time we did the rain was coming down in sheets. Oh, geez, that was horrible!”

“Nah, it was fun. Something to remember, right?”

“Well you know me, I had to have everything perfect. Best plans, you know?”

“I know.”

“I changed,” she admitted. “I’ve gotten used to the idea that things don’t go as planned.”

He sighed and, after a silence of several seconds, spoke to Ashley in a whisper, “I’m sorry, Ashley. I’m sorry we didn’t get that wedding. I’m sorry we didn’t get that house and the picket fence your dad would’ve built for half-price.”

She snickered at that and cuddled a little closer.