SquidgeWorld Archive

Wild Thyme
by katirene (XMP)

'The encouraging rate of growth in selected samples of oak and ash can be directly attributed to the resumption of certain ancient nature-based celebrations in the area. It has, however, become increasingly difficult to access some sections of the new growth forest because of the almost impassible thickets of thorn bushes. Reportedly, the trees in these parts are even more impressive than ..." Ari Adler snorted scornfully and stopped the screen crawl.

"Nature-based celebrations? Reportedly?" she repeated out loud. "What are they doing? Walking the boundaries? Calling down the moon? Holding fertility rites?" She snortd again. "Probably trying to do the last." Shaking her head with disgust, she looked up to the top of the report, re-reading the title. "A Reforestation Project Using All Natural Methods, based in Brittany, France, North Sea Confederacy." by E.H. Bates.

She'd had some free reading time, now that the qualifying exams were done, and she'd been feeling a little homesick, so she'd searched for articles on France. This one had caught her eye, both because it was a cause that Uncle Paul felt strongly about, and because Senior Chief Petty Officer Miguel Ortiz was the last person on record as having checked it out.

But this was ridiculous. Hearsay, conjecture and pure speculation mixed with fantasies of magic. Why would the so sensible cpo check it out? Ari shook her head wonderingly, then, with sudden suspicion, fast-forwarded to the end of the article, where acknowledgements were listed. Sarah Toenin was the third name down.

Twisting her lips in a sour grimace. Ari closed the file and returned it to the library. That figured. Miguel didn't know that she knew about his, well, liason was too strong a word. His flirtation with the beautiful, popular folk singer when the SeaQuest was transporting her to a USO show on Solitaire Island in the Mediterranean. And Ari had no intention of telling him, either.

After all, it was for the best that he was showing an interest in other women. As Trey Barlow was so quick to point out, Ari wasn't really enough of a woman to keep a man like Miguel satisfied. Not that the other woman actually came out and said anything, but it was clear that she pitied the senior chief his infatuation.

And that was all that it was, Ari told herself firmly. An infatuation. Just like what she felt for him. Give it a few more months and it would all blow over, no problems. And if it didn't, she shrugged at the unlikelihood of that, well, at least then they'd probably have different postings and she wouldn't be tortured by the sight of him ith
another woman.

With a sigh, Ari stood up away from the desk. She lightly caressed the small leaping dolphin statuette Miguel had given her a few weeks back. Sleepily, she smiled, remembering his reaction to her yuletide gifts. A new sound system for his music, and a St. Christopher medal.

Giving the ceramic figure one last caress on its melon, she sighed again and turned toward the bunk. She was all ready for bed, but she'd selected this article for its "Z-rating". From the title, she had thought it would easily have calmed her mind so that she could settle down to sleep. Ever since the mission at Bonchance, it had become harder and harder to quiet her thoughts, ideas seemed to intrude from nowhere. But this report was a compleat bust. Granted the author was as tedious as his title suggested, but his science so nonexistant as to be a distraction. As she started to move away from the desk, she continued the thought, if she'd wanted a fantasy, she would have picked one up. A few feet from the desk, she realized what she had thought, and an idea occured to her.

Quickly glancing over toward the window in the door, she swiftly moved to her shelved books and, reaching behind the others, removed a small, garishly coloured paperback book. Turning out all the lights except the one over the head of her bed, she curled up under the covers and began to read with guilty relish.

The description of the heroine's dress mad Ari sigh with luxurious envy. An Art Noveau affair of heavy cream-coloured flowing silk with intricate lace insets replacing the fabric at the top of the bodice. Ari wondered in passing if she could get something similar made up for herself, and what Miguel's reaction would be to it. Not cream, though. He preferred her in blue. For a moment, she considered the idea dreamily, then returned to the story, a small smile on her face.

The high school prom had a spring celebration theme. The conflict between the heroine and the spring queen was spell-binding, but it was the duel afterwards that grabbed Ari's attention. Trying to visualize it exactly, she closed her eyes. At that moment, a sharp rap sounded on the door, her only warning before Trey Barlow, her friend, co-worker, next door neighbor and fellow ensign opened it and barged in without any more ceremony.

"Gods, Ari! It's dark in here. You aren't reading in this light are you? Are you asleep?"

Sitting straight up, Ari answered, sitting quickly up and shoving the book under her pillow. "No. No, not yet? What's up?"

"You are," the tall brunette answered smartly. "Get dressed. We've got us a mission to run, and you were volunteered."

"Oh, come off it, Trey," Ari protested, throwing back the covers and swinging her feet over the edge of the bunk, but not rising. "You're supposed to play jokes on the first of the month, not the last." For one moment, she felt a sense of disorientation. Why had she said that? But the moment passed as her rambunctious friend grabbed one hand and pulled Ari to her feet.

"No joke, Ari. It's the real thing. You, me, Tim and loverboy all going ashore to help out with some worried parents." Allowing herself to be womanhandled up and toward the closet of uniforms, Ari had to make a token protest.

"But I'm off duty! This is my sleep cycle. Captain Bridger wouldn't send me out now!" Trey snickered unsympathetically. pulling one of the blue overalls off its hanger and shoving it into the small ensign's arms.

"It's your own fault, kid," she crowed, stepping away as Ari began to pull her sleep shirt off her head. "I think that in his mind you are now in the same category as Ford, Brody and himself. An officer who should be ready to go at any time. You know, if you'd fall down and stub your toe occasionally, you might be counted with the rest of us poor mortals."

Ari looked over her shoulder, wrinkling her nose in a hideous grimace and blowing a raspberry. Then she saw what Trey was doing.

"HEY! Give me that! That's mine!" Dropping her clothes, Ari darted over and tried to grab the book out of Trey's laughing grasp, while the taller woman held it up, out of reach.

"Well, well, well. What have we here? And what is it that the intellectual Ensign Adler reads late at night under her blankets? A bodice ripper?" She opened the book at random. "Noooo. I don't believe this!" Trey read a passage aloud. 'Several impossibly blond girls, decked out in spike-heeled, black-vinyl thigh boots and imitation Nazi officer's caps, and not much else, were "interrogating" a "prisoner". Maybe not so impossibly blond, Fay thought, taking a second look as one of the girls achieved an amazingly athletic pose. I don't think you can dye that.'*

Chossing her moment carefully, Ari snatched the book out of her tormentor's hands. She knew that she was red in the face, she could feel the heat continuing to rise. A combination of embarassment, frustration and irritation.

"It isn't all like that, Barlow," she replied repressively, putting it into a drawer and returning to her dressing.

"I should hope not!" Trey replied, eyebrows raised with surprised wonder and glee. "But something like that could really ruin your reputation, you know." Ari snorted at her with disgust.

"Which one?" she queried bitterly. "The little innocent who doesn't know anything or the ice princess?" Trey had the grace to look away. She always forgot how things got around in the enclosed society of the SeaQuest.

"Anyway," she temporized, "We're expected down at docking bay 3. Right away if not sooner."

Ari blew away the negative emotions, stretching her neck up and leaning her head back. "Ok," she replied, tacitly agreeing to let the subject drop. "Who's commanding? Not Tim?"

"And why 'not Tim', I ask you?" Trey bristled, ready to defend her man against all comers. Ari chuckled. Sauce for the goose.

"Because he doesn't have the rank for this kind of thing, Trey. Settle down. I'm not insulting YOUR loverboy." She frowned thoughtfully. "That reminds me. You two had better be a bit more careful. I heard someone talking about some strange noises coming through the door of his cabin last week, after you got back from Ceendee. I told them that Tim was checking out some tapes for a friend."

Giving the small woman a dirty look, Trey asked, "And how can you be sure that *I* had anything to do with it?" Ari just laughed, gesturing the other woman toward the door. After a moment, she shrugged. "Ok," Trey capitulated. "I'll take it under advisement. But what about you and Ortiz?" she countered. "Anything new there?"

Ari turned to check that the door to her quarters was shut, feeling an additional rise of heat in her cheeks. "No," she replied off-handed. "Ever since I got back from Caicos, we haven't had a chance to talk. Why? Have you heard something?" Trey had a close and intimate friendship with Tony Piccolo, one that Ari sometimes thought was closer than the one they shared, and that meant that she got a lot of gossip that no one would tell Ari, for some reason. But that wasn't how she had heard about Toenin.

Trey thought for a few moments as they walked down the corridors, then shook her head. "Not really. Miguel's been listening to a lot of music with headphones on, and he lost big at last weekend's poker game. That's a big chunk out of this paycheck," she added with a snicker. Ari frowned.

"You know, I'm beginning to think that you may be right, Trey. Perhaps I should learn to play poker, just to find out how it is that Piccolo keeps winning so consistantly." Trey sniggered.

"Tony would love that. He found out that ..."

"HOW?" Ari spun around in front, stopping her friend short. "How did he find that out?" Trey gave her a wary look, stepping around widely, as if worried for her sanity.

"Lucas checked your savings balance and found that you bank most of your paycheck every month," Trey replied carefully. Sighing with relief, Ari relaxed and fell into step beside her again.

"Oh, that," she said dismissively. Before the older ensign could ask the next obvious questions, Ari chirped brightly, "Here we are." And then she popped into the launch, nodding to Tim and Lonnie, and slipping into the co-pilot's seat beside Miguel, beginning the pre-launch drill. Trey entered more slowly, very confused and curious.

"Trey didn't tell me you'd be with us, Lonnie," Ari was saying as she recorded the various dials and settings. "Or who'd be leading us."

"I am," a deep voice answered as Commander Jonathan Ford entered the shuttle and slapped the hatch closed. "So let's get out of here."

"I thought that Jim was coming on this mission, sir," Lonnie protested. The boat's XO grinned suddenly.

"He was, but I flipped him for it." Moving toward the front, he leaned between the two seats. "How soon can we get her out?" he asked. "I want to be gone before he gets his feet back under him." Ari had a sudden visual of the darkly handsome commander literally throwing the tactical officer over his shoulder and she put her hand up, trying in vain to suppress the giggles. He smiled at her, then looked enquiringly at the chief.

"We're cleared to leave now, sir," Miguel responded, shooting a warm glance past the officer toward his co-pilot. "Flooding the bay ... Now."

With a swift nod, Ford turned back toward the others. "Everyone know what we're supposed to be doing?" he half-stated.

"No. Trey pulled me out of bed, sir, but she didn't tell me anything. What's going on?" Ari was beginning to feel a distinct sense of grievance. She hated not knowing what was going on. Miguel, responding to the note in her voice, reached over and placed his hand over hers, squeezing it gently.

"Ortiz!" Ford warned him quietly. "Both hands if you don't mind." Miguel looked back with a questioning frown, shrugged his massive shoulders and took the other hand off the wheel, replying with an easy-going air, "If you say so, sir."

Ari watched, open-eyed with amazement as the handsome Cuban reached across the open space, leaning toward her. Before he succeeded in his aim, whatever it was and to her intense disappointment, Ford snapped out, "That's NOT what I meant, Chief!" With another shrug, reversing his course, he replied good-naturedly, "Then you should have specified." Ari found herself giggling again, and he rewarded her with an intimate glance, suggesting much with the raise of one eyebrow.

"SeaQuest has been requested to help find some missing kids," Ford continued, once he was sure that Miguel was behaving himself.

"Why?" the small ensign asked, turning halfway around to look at the commander directly. "That's a land based problem. Why us?" He shrugged.

"We're the closest UEO force, and things aren't that simple. The parents think that the kids have wandered into this forest that someone is growing nearby. And some parts of it are inaccessible. Since we are trained in recon work under adverse conditions, it was thought that we might be able to follow them in and winkle them out again." Ari frowned, reminded by something.

"Not the Viliane Reforestation Project in Brittany?" she asked dubiously. That was too much of a coincidence. Looking a little surprised, the commander nodded. "But that was only planted, what?" she gave Miguel a look, requesting back-up, "ten, fifteen years ago?" He nodded encouragingly. "These aren't trees, yet," she continued. "they're saplings. No one could get lost in them!" Commander Ford shrugged.

"We'll see," was his cryptic comment. The rest of the ride was confined to a discussion of the search area and procedures that the team would employ.

The launch drove up the river, rising up at a dock near the village where the youngsters were disappearing. Apparently, the kids involved were all between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five, with a few older and a few younger joining them. A committee was waiting to drive the SeaQuest crew to the forest, explaining as they went.

"It was good of your captain to agree to help us like this," the Mayor told them. "Most of the people here refuse to go into the forest at all." Ari blinked, but before she could question this, Trey beat her to it, leaning forward to ask, "Why? What's wrong with the place." The mayor shrugged unhappily.

"It's just too odd," she explained. "The trees have grown so rapidly that there's no explanation for it. And lately, those who live nearby have been reporting strange lights flitting inside at night, and even stranger noises. They think it's just better to stay away."

As they approached the forest on foot, having driven as close as was physically possible, Ari's eyes widened with amazement. These were no young trees, struggling for existance, but massive forest giants, standing arrogantly in their majesty. No wonder the inhabitants were uneasy. And the writer of that article apparently hadn't overstated his case, after all. A sudden thought occured to her, and she hurried up to the Mayor, walking beside Commander Ford.

"Are the owners of this property here tonight?" she asked worriedly. Ford glanced at her curiously, wondering why she would feel that important, but the Mayor just nodded her head thoughtfully.

"Some of them are. A few visit every six weeks or so. And, of course, Hilough Bates lives on site." Ari nodded and fell back again. She wasn't going to ask exactly who was present tonight, but she couldn't repress an anxious look toward the sensor chief.

Taking her glance as an invitation, Miguel quickened his step, checking to be sure that Ford wasn't looking before putting his arm around her waist. "Are you ok, cara mia?" he asked low voiced, pronouncing the endearment in the caressing way that threatened to turn her insides to hot liquid. Ari licked her lips nervously and nodded.

"I just feel very ... odd, about all of this," she replied. "I don't like it." The handsome latino pulled her close, whispering in her ear.

"I'll protect you, carissima," he said, his breath warm on her cheek. "Just stay close to me." Slipping her own arm around his waist in return, Ari leaned onto him.

"Done," she smiled at him, suddenly feeling much better for no real reason. "And I'll protect you!" she added impishly. Miguel grinned and, leaning down, stole a quick kiss from her lips. Then, he released his hold and stepped away, before their position came to "official" notice. Ari sighed, frustrated by the need for such caution. She envied Tim and Trey their relative freedom to pursue a relationship.

The trail led to a thicket, almost a hedge, composed primarily of wicked looking thorn bushes. The Mayor and his council, looking nervous, took leave of the crewmembers there, hurrying back toward their vehicle. Ford ordered Miguel and Ari to head off in one direction, checking for openings, with Tim and Trey taking the other side. He and Lonnie, as more experienced in terms of woodcraft, began to check the remaining tracks, trying to figure out how the kids had gotten past the barrier.

Almost as soon as they were out of sight of the others, Ari spotted a path through. As Miguel raised his personal link to report, but Ari raised one hand, stopping him.

"Wait a minute, Miguel," she suggested. "It may be a false alarum, not go all the way through. Let's check it out, first."

"All right," he replied equably. "You first." She grinned at him and nodded, treading through the opening, which was so narrow, the broad shouldered chief had to turn sideways to fit. To her surprise, it did extend all the way through.

"Ok," she decided stepping out on the other side. "Let's tell the others." While Miguel began playing his flash over the ground, Ari activated her PAL. "Comnmander Ford, we've found a way through. There's a clear path about 100, 150 yards from your position. Ortiz and I are on the other side of the barricade and are looking for signs of the missing kids." There was no answer.

After waiting a few minutes, she tried again with similar results. Trying to ping his frequency, she realized that the link was inactive. "Miguel," she called out, sighing heavily. "I seem to have picked up a dead PAL. Would you call the others?" She watched as the link lit up his face, barely listening to his words in her enjoyment of his appearance. So, it took her a few seconds to realize that he was getting similar results.

"Well," she decided. "I guess that means we'll have to go back." But when they approached the place they had thought the opening was, it wasn't there. Not even searching back and forth, revealed the path to them. Finally, Miguel shrugged, stopping Ari as she started to try pushing her way through by brute force.

"Look, Ari," he pointed out reasonably. "We're here to look for the missing kids. Since this seems to be the way they went, then I'd suggest that we just continue looking for them." Ari considered his words briefly, then nodded, somewhat reluctantly. Allowing the strong, muscular and fit non-comm to take the lead, she followed, pausing from time to time to mark their trail.

Bates had been correct, she thought, looking at the massive boles of the surrounding trees with a sense of uneasy wonder. The trees in this part of the woods were measurably larger and taller than the ones on the outskirts. She shivered, fighting the urge to hurry up and take Miguel's hand for comfort. She was a sailor, after all, a soldier, not a weak-minded civilian.

"Ari," he called out softly, stopping and looking back with care in his eyes, as if he knew of her irrational unease. "There's enough room for both of us to walk abreast, and two sets of eyes can see more than one." With a small sigh of gratitude, Ari joined him, slipping her small cold hand into his larger warm inviting one.

But as they worked their way toward the centre of the wooded area, the path narrowed, forcing them closer and closer together. Ari giggled nervously, looking around at the darkness surrounding them. "Do you suppose that Tim and Trey made it through?" she asked, wanting to hear something besides the sounds of the wildlife, slowly returning to the area as the trees grew.

"I don't know," her would be lover replied. "Why?"

"Just a silly notion," she confessed, feeling a little foolish, but finding herself starting to enjoy the walk through the dark trees. "But you know, if elves and fairies and such like existed, I imagine this would be the perfect place to find them. Can't you just imagine a Robin Goodfellow out on a night like this, armed with the flower. love in idleness?" Miguel gave her a sour look.

"Been there, done that," he commented cryptically, dropping her hand and pulling her closer with an arm around her waist. "Sorry, Ari, but I don't think that would be at all funny. As far as I'm concerned, the only Puck around is your uncle, and I'm not willing to try that again." Sobered by his words and not quite sure to what he was referring, but feeling the reproof, Ari fell silent. But she couldn't shake the sense of unreality that hovered over the night.

After a few moments, though, he sighed apologetically and hugged her tightly. "Ok. So, then you are thinking that you and I are Hermia and Lysander? And Tim and Trey are Demetrius and Helena." Ari shook her head, amazed anew how he seemed to follow her thoughts where others demanded more careful explanation.

"No, you're right. It was a stupid idea." Miguel berated his errant tongue. He should have known that mentioning Paul deLegardi would upset her. He wished that she would finally accept his death and move past it, but she refused to even talk about the man. "Besides," she added, "They don't really fit the roles."

"Not now," he agreed, "But they did back in November, didn't they? That would leave Lonnie and the Commander as Titania and Bottom, wouldn't it?" He began to laugh, his funny bone tickled at the thought of such an unlikely pairing. In spite of herself, Ari joined him, her light, infectious voice ringing out over his lower baritone.

"Miguel? Ari? Is that you?" Tim's voice called them from the stygian night. At the sound, they began to laugh even harder.

"Yeah!" Miguel finally managed to call out, turning in that direction and waving his torch. "Over here." The light from their flashes came closer as they flitted between the trees.

"Any idea where we are?" Trey asked wearily, her face and arms scratched. She and Tim both showed some signs of their passage through the wall of thorns. Trey examined the other two curiously, unmarked by the barrier and wondering how they had managed the trick. Ari cried out in sympathy at the sight of the marks and pulled a small first aid kit off her belt.

"Definately not the forest of Arden," Miguel answered facietiously. Ari giggled.

"As you like it," she replied indistinctly. "Nor yet do I think we're in Kansas anymore," she continued as she began to dab away the blood and spread antibiotic cream on the other woman's cuts, relieved to see that they weren't as bad as they'd first appeared by flash light. Tim tapped the back of her head.

"Ok, you clowns," he reproved them with mock seriousness. "Quit joking or I'll get you and your little dolphin, too. Do you know where we are? Trey and I found a small hole under the hedge and crawled through, following some of the tracks, but we lost sight of them once we got to the this side." Ari, finished with Trey's wounds, approached Tim to clean his scratches.

"We're close to the centre of the forest," she replied absently, more concerned with Miguel's closeness and intent observation of her than the question. For some reason, he persisted in thinking that she and Tim were still interested in one another romantically. As if she would do anything to tread on Trey's skirt hem. But it did give Ari a small warm feeling to know that he considered her important enough to feel some sense of jealousy over.

"We are?" Miguel queried, puzzled, finally looking away from the two and glancing around. "How do you know?" Ari stopped and looked at him, her own face screwed up with concentration, trying to analyze the conviction.

"I'm not sure," she answered uncertainly, "but if we continue the way we're going, I think that we will be there."

"Be where? Ari, if you know anything about what's happening, then you'd better spill the beans," Trey sounded peeved and out of humour, not surprisingly, especially since Ari still had her hands on Trey's man. Shrugging, Ari shook her head, standing up again and stepping away.

"I only know what you all know," she protested. "That some kids are missing, their parents think that they are in the forest and the people responsible are in the centre of the circle."

"Whoa. Just back up there, ensign," Tim ordered, pulling rank. "What is that last one?" Ari frowned, putting the medkit back in order.

"Look, we'll find out in a very short time if we continue. So let's just go," she suggested reasonably. But as they prepared to follow this advice, she held Miguel back and pulled him down, giving him a quick but thorough kiss.

Pleased, but bewildered, he asked, "What was that for?" Ari, finding it rather hard to breathe, smiled sweetly.

"Insurance," she answered obscurely and turned to follow the other two officers, leaving the sole enlisted man to follow behind. Knowing this, she added a little extra swing to her step.

They saw the lights before clearing the last barrier of trees, a circle of illegal burning torches and more modern flashes and lamps providing light on the scene. A huge, towering pole was set up in the middle of the clearing, long, brightly coloured ribbands dangling down from the flower and greenery crowned knob on top. A little before it were two bonfires burned merrily. The four paused on the edge of the circle of light to stare in wonder.

All of the missing children, young adults really, were there. Laughing and dancing, grabbing hands and running between the fires, a veritable party. Some of the more daring among them were actually jumping over one or the other of the piles of burning wood. The girls were crowned with flower wreaths, the ribband ties dangling and tangling with their hair hanging far down in the back, the boys had more coloured ribbands tied around their arms. A platform was raised up on one side, a tall chair and a smaller one beside it. All in all, it looked like a scene from a former age and Ari nodded, recognizing the feast.

Before she could voice her suspicions to the others, however, a piping tenor voice spake from behind and hands pushed them forward. "Here's more for the revelries," he called out. "Come to the feast, lads and lasses, join us in our dance." And the capering little man darted out before them, bowing down and bobbing up. "We must insist. All who come must pay the piper, join the dance and redeem the fee." He took the hands of Ari and Trey and pulled them forward. Sharing a wondering glance, the men followed.

When they reached the blazing fires before the rampart erection in the forest clearing, though, the queer man dropped Trey's hand to grab onto Miguel's, joining it with Ari's and pushing them through the path between the hot flames, doing the same to the other two behind them.

A trumpet sounded and the girls and boys excited stopped what they were doing and hurried toward the Maypole, each one taking a ribband and facing their partner. The queer small man chivied the foursome toward the lead lines and indicated that they should each take one in hand. Laughing, amused and feeling extremely curious, they each did as bidden.

Once all was in readiness, a small procession erupted from the darkness of the surrounding wood, a giggle of girls in white dresses, girdled with green, carrying baskets of flowers, then a boister of boys, in lincoln green. Finally, on a palfrey and stallion, the queen of May and her escort. Ari snuck a look at Miguel at the sight of the Queen, a dark and stately woman, beautiful and very familiar to anyone who listened to folk music. She had to see his face as he recognized the woman.

But Miguel wasn't even watching the procession. Ari had the uncomfortable conviction that the surprisingly well-educated chief had recognized the festival and was making his own plans of worship. And when he smiled at Ari, a slow, seductive smile, his white teeth flashing, she felt a thrill of terrified pleasure, knowing that she was right. He leaned forward to kiss her as she began to blush.

The Queen of May mounted to the throne, her consort beside her, and her court all around. Then, the music began to play and the dancers wove in and out, over and under, around and around, weaving the ribbands over the pole, their leashes growing smaller and smaller, the circuit tighter and tighter, until all was done.

Ari ended up with Miguel at her side. With a look around for Tim and Trey, he took her hand and led her away from the lights, out into the darkness under the trees. Already the sky was beginning to lighten as false dawn approached.

Finding a soft hillock, Miguel sat and pulled Ari down on top of him. Kissing her softly at first, then as their need grew, more and more insistantly, he rolled over. Ari felt his passion grow and and her own rising to meet him. She fumbled with the fastenings of his shirt, her eagerness making her fumble in haste. More deliberate and sure, he was making greater progress removing her own clothes. As his mouth trailed down her bare neck...

A sharp rap sounded on the door, her only warning before Trey Barlow, her friend, co-worker, next door neighbor and fellow ensign opened it and barged in without any more ceremony.

"God, Ari! It's dark in here. You aren't reading in this light are you? Are you asleep?"

Sitting straight up, Ari blinked with surprise and looked around blearily. "Yes," she answered uncompromisingly, sneaking the book under the pillow as she did so. "Go away, Trey." With a sigh, she reached up, turned off the lamp and slipped back down, closing her eyes. If she was lucky, she'd find him waiting for her at the same point.


XMP@empire.net
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Comet/9976/toc.html