Whispers

Well, she laughs, just not freely and unfettered anymore. Her entire emotional self became far more reserved after she lost the Christian. Technically, her father left her mother (for quite good reasons), but unfortunately, her mother got custody and had been the neglectful parent in the first place.

I feel bad for him too, and I haven't really sat down and dealt with the fact that his wipe was so complete specifically because of Storm's instruction to medical. Eventually, I'll have to dig through that mess I suppose. Maybe.

They would have been smitten and head over heels, provided they met. Snippet from Lovemark:

Dreamer sat down at table five on the last day of winter while you waited impatiently trying to appear patient at the counter while I leaned over the table to wipe it for her.

"This isn't real," she said suddenly.

I didn’t pause what I was doing. I kept wiping down the table, tucking the rag away, and flipping open my pad to take down her order. “You dreamed it?” I asked as I scribbled. I knew everybody’s usual, even operatives that had not belonged to my team, that had not waited for the rebellion to escape. Dreamer's was latte with extra cream on the side.

Dreamer started to shake her head, then nodded. “I’m dreaming it.”

My stomach clenched. This wasn’t real. You weren’t real. Nothing I was living was the one world, the one timeline that was real. I put away my pencil and looked at quiet, unassuming Dreamer with her soft ash blonde hair floating around her shoulders, her soft grey eyes apologizing to me. The girl who dreamed reality.

I took a breath, then asked softly, "Couldn't you make this world the real one?"

"No, I couldn't," she said as softly. "You'll have him either way."

There were others then affected by the particular change this timeline contained. "Who won't?" I asked, selfish enough to compare.

Dreamer replied simply, "Quite a few." She hesitated, then went on slowly, "I looked because I wanted to know if Justus was right, when he said there had to be some good out of what happened to him."

My heart felt cold for a moment. I bit out harshly, "What happens to him?"

But she smiled that enigmatic smile at me and I thought of you and what had she done to you, but she answered, "Nothing. Here."

That was the point. She had looked in here because somewhere in the world that was real, you had been hurt and here you hadn't. I looked back at you and you seemed to catch my discomfort. Concern flitted into your eyes.

Dreamer's hand brushed mine. "Don't worry. I'll keep dreaming," she whispered.

You were mine either way, she said, but you didn't seem like mine at all.

I guess I should've said excerpt!

Truthfully, no. He would not be able to reconcile the two sides of himself without a LOT of work and probably years and therapy. Justus named it right when he said "Forgetfulness is its own absolution." He never reached out to tell Red Wolf about who had been, even after they both realized Justus could, more as a mercy than anything else.

I like your ideas. It's more an alternate science. In this world, this is how things work. And I know I want to read more, which is why I bounced this back.