Meant to Be (28 page)

“She’s getting better; she finally regained
consciousness last night, but only for a few minutes. You can go up
and see them later when you feel better.”

I started to get out of the bed, but Sam laid
a restraining hand on my shoulder.

“You have to rest,” she told me.

I ignored her and pushed myself off of the
bed. I gripped the rail when a moment of dizziness hit me. Closing
my eyes, I fought to regain my equilibrium. The dizziness left and
I turned to Sam with determination.

“I need to see him; will you take me to him?”
I asked with steel in my voice.

Sam looked at me in surprise. She was used to
seeing me struggling with my weaknesses, but those days were over.
I was no longer weak, and I would no longer be the victim of my
emotions.

Sam grabbed my hand and guided me out of the
room. We walked past several rooms and stopped in front of the bay
of elevators. Sam pushed the up button and the elevator doors
opened. She helped me into the elevator and pushed the button for
the fourth floor... Sam turned and looked at me. I knew that she
had many questions, but I could not answer any of them until I saw
Mark.

I had to see with my own eyes that he was
okay. Only then would I be able to function again, but until I knew
for sure, my body was simply moving on auto pilot.

The elevator doors opened on Mark’s floor and
we stepped out. Sam led me past a waiting room that had a sign
proclaiming it as,
Surgery Waiting Room
. I did not give a
single thought to the three other people in the waiting room nor
did I acknowledge them as they watched Sam and I walk down the
hall.

Sam stopped in front of the nurse’s station
and told the nurse behind the counter that I was her brother’s
fiancée and wanted to see him.

I gave her and odd look.

The nurse filled out a pass and handed it to
me. I put it on with trembling fingers.

I walked toward his room leaving Sam behind.
I paused outside his room with one hand on the doorknob and for the
first time since he had been shot, I felt the first stirrings of
hope.

I twisted the knob and walked into his room
and approached his bed with quiet feet, but stopped when he turned
to look at me.

I felt hot tears burn down my cheeks as he
gave me a small smile. I muffled a half sob as I rushed to his
side.

I reached for his hand and was surprised by
his strong grip as he held onto my hand.

“I was so scared you were going to die,” I
said in a broken voice.

“I know. I could hear you. I wanted to answer
you, but nothing would work,” Mark said in a scratchy voice. “What
happened?”

I filled him in on everything that had
happened, sugar coating nothing. I told him how I thought he was
dead and had wished for death myself. I told him about the gun
fight and Bruno saving us. Finally, he knew everything.

He held my hand through it all and his eyes
clouded over when I told him about wishing for death. He cringed
when he realized how close I had come to being shot and his eyes
turned deadly when he heard that his dad tried to shoot me.

“I’m going to stop him,” Mark swore in a
voice I had never heard him use.

I did not shy away from the suggestion since
I had similar thoughts when he had shot Mark. He tried to destroy
us and we would not rest until he was stopped.

With all my words spent, I laid my head on
his heart while he stroked my hair. I felt all the emptiness in me
disappear and soon I began to feel the familiar warmth from his
touch spread through my body.

I turned my head and pressed a light kiss to
his jaw and heard his murmur of approval. I was just about to trail
more kisses along his neck when the door opened.

Two police officers entered the room. One
looked to be in his sixties with more gray than brown hair on his
head. He had the typical beer belly you expected to see on a cop
from the cliché of being doughnut eaters. The second officer was
the exact opposite. He was well over six feet tall and was as thin
as an anorexic model. He looked only a few years older than me and
had the kindest eyes I had ever seen. I felt instantly at ease in
his presence.

I sat up straighter as they approached the
bed.

“We don’t mean to intrude, but we have a few
questions about the shooting,” the older officer asked.

“Okay,” I said, answering for both of us.

“Where did it happen?” He asked as he pulled
a notebook out of his pocket.

I plunged into the story that I concocted.
That we were walking on the beach when two masked men jumped us and
how they grew angry when they discovered I had no purse. They
knocked me down and when Mark tried to protect me they shot
him.

“They ran away after they shot Mark. I think
they thought he was dead,” I said in a shaky voice.

“You were very lucky,” the younger officer
told us as they got up to leave the room.

“One more question?” The older officer said
just before they reached the door. “Where did you get the van?”

I felt a moment of panic; I had not thought
that far ahead. Suddenly the answer flashed through my head as Mark
sent his thoughts to me.

“It was on the road when I helped Mark up off
the beach. I know I stole it, but the keys were in the ignition and
I felt I had no choice. You can tell the owner I’m sorry,” I added
knowing they would never find the owner. I knew for a fact that all
our captors had vanished.

The cops seemed satisfied and left the room
after promising to try to catch the men who shot Mark.

I looked at Mark who returned my grim smile.
We knew that the true perpetrators would not be caught; we would
have to find them ourselves.

Another knock sounded on the door.

The person at the door knocked again slightly
louder.

“Come in,” I called.

Sam stepped into the room followed by Shawn
and another couple.

I knew who they were instantly. Lynn and
Robert had found us.

Sam took over with introductions.

“Krista, Mark, this is Lynn and Robert,” Sam
said pointing to the couple next to Shawn.

Lynn was taller than me, probably about
5’10.” She had dark brown eyes and brown hair that was cropped off
in a cute haircut that I would have loved to try, but lacked the
guts. She was dressed in jeans that had tears throughout them. They
looked like the jeans girls spent hundreds of dollars on, but I
could tell the tears were genuine, they were just worn. She wore a
black shirt advertising a band I had never heard of. She was quiet
and pretty and even though she had more piercings in her ears than
most girls I knew, she didn’t seem over the top Goth, but more like
a person saying,
This is my style if you don’t like it too
bad
.

Her significant other though was a complete
contradiction to her style. His light blonde hair was parted and
combed nicely to the side. He had the prettiest shade of green-blue
eyes I had ever seen on a guy. He wore chinos that looked like they
had been pressed with a half of can of starch. He had a casual polo
shirt on, but even that showed signs of being ironed using the
other half of the can of starch. He looked like one of the models
on the cover of GQ, the only thing missing was a sweater slung over
his shoulder.

They seemed as different as day and night,
but there was no denying their affection for each other. They were
as in sync with each other as a couple that had been married for
twenty years.

“So fill us in on what we missed?” Shawn said
coming over to give me a one arm hug.

I looked at Mark and he gave a small nod.
There would be no story telling for them. They all deserved to hear
the truth and to know about the evil waiting for us.

I did most of the talking since Mark had such
limited contact with anyone at the lab. I filled them in on
everything, about our parent’s death, our separation and about the
other two that Russo had stashed away. I held nothing back, laying
it all out there in the open and watched as the others looked at me
in horror as I told them about Mark’s dad. I gave Bruno his moment
in the spotlight and told them how he saved Mark and me. Finally, I
told them about Mark being shot and about my heart breaking when I
thought he was dead.

“This was not grief. We can’t live without
each other, which I already knew since Mr. Russo had filled me in
on that part. I felt everything in me die when I thought he was
dead,” I told them.

It took me over an hour to catch them up to
speed. None of them interrupted, they all listened to me with rapt
attention. I explained how Sam was right when she suggested that we
might share a twin link we just needed to learn to open our minds
to it.

“Mark and I were able to do it after he broke
down a wall that separated us in our current dreams and figured out
how to send thoughts back and forth,” I said looking at the others.
Sam and Shawn looked shocked, but Lynn and Robert just exchanged a
look.

“You can already do it?” I asked them.

“Yeah, we figured it out a few days after we
found each other when things got sticky on the road,” Lynn said
answering for both of them.

“Wow, that’s wild,” Sam chirped in. “Do you
think we can do it with the rest of us too?”

“I think so because Russo had no problem
reading my thoughts,” I said bitterly.

My last comment broke the silence and soon
all of them were peppering me with questions. I answered their
questions as best I could. The bigger questions were harder to
answer. I didn’t know who our arch angel was supposed to be, and I
didn’t know where the last couple was being held.

The guys quickly got into a discussion about
our parent’s and our origins while us girls soon lost interest and
drifted to the corner of Mark’s room. Sam and Lynn caught me up on
what I missed while I was held captive.

Lynn was as easy going as Sam with the
exception of having a bit of a hard edge about her. I chalked that
up to the fact that she had been adopted by people that always
wanted to hospitalize her for her abnormalities.

I learned that she and Robert had found each
other six months ago while she was on a class trip to Washington.
He recognized her instantly, but she thought he was some kook. When
he tried to explain that he knew who she was, she quickly ditched
him, but that night he stepped out of the shadows in her dreams.
When she walked down to the lobby of her hotel the next morning, he
was waiting for her. They spent the rest of the trip together. Once
she got home though, they rapidly discovered that they couldn’t be
separated. They tried to explain it to her parent’s, but they
thought she was crazy and that she needed to be hospitalized.

“We discovered that both of us had the urge
to visit here, so we hit the road. We both had already graduated
high school, the Washington trip was a special bonus for those of
us in the state of New Mexico that graduated early,” She added.

My ears perked up at Lynn’s last statement.
“You were both found in the same state?” I asked.

“No, Robert’s dad was transferred there for
work. He was found in Texas.”

“What do his parent’s think about you guys
taking off like that,” I asked.

“They were fine with it. We stayed with them
for a few weeks before we headed this way. They’re left over from
the hippie days. You know, free love, follow your dreams, which by
the way, they completely believed us about the dreams. Of course, I
think in their younger days they smoked a lot of pot, so I’m not
sure if them believing us was an endorsement or not,” she added
with a smile.

I returned her smile. Lynn was an easy person
to talk to. She had enough of an edge to keep things
interesting.

I looked over at Mark and could see he was
struggling to stay awake. I shooed the others out of the room and
promised to call if anything happened with Mark during the
night.

Sam paused to give me a hug at the door.

“Hey, why did the nurse think you were Mark’s
sister?” I asked.

Sam looked sheepish. “Well are all
practically related anyways. Shawn thinks Robert is my brother,”
she added looking hopeful.

“It’s a possibility, both of you share
similar features,” I said giving her a reassuring hug.

“I am so happy you guys are okay. Shawn and I
were so worried; we thought we had lost you both. It really tore
Shawn up to think he lost his sister just as he was getting to know
you. I felt the same. I was afraid I had lost my best friend,” she
said tearfully.

I felt bad. I had been so wrapped up in Mark
and my drama, I hadn’t thought about those we would leave behind. I
felt a twinge of guilt for being ready to embrace death when I
thought Mark was dead. My poor mom would have been devastated, but
I also knew that if the situation arose again, I would still feel
the same.

I waited until Mark drifted asleep before I
left his room and headed down to check on my mom.

My mom was sleeping when I entered the room.
I tiptoed in and sat quietly beside her bed. I reached over and
linked my fingers lightly through hers. Her eyelids fluttered
open.

“Hi mom,” I said choking back tears.

“Hey, honey,” she answered in a weak voice.
“Are you okay?” She asked, obviously worried about my history in
this area.

“I’m fine, just worried about you.”

“Don’t worry about me; I’m going to be fine,”
she said in a near whisper, dropping off again.

I spent several hours with her as she drifted
in and out of sleep. When the nurse came in to give her pain meds,
she suggested I take a break, that my mom would most likely sleep
through the night. I thanked her and headed back to Mark’s
room.

I knew it was probably against hospital
policy to stay overnight. The announcement ending visiting hours
had sounded a few minutes ago, but I didn’t let that deter me. I
walked purposefully past the nurse’s station and gave a sigh of
relief when I saw that the station was empty.