Date: ??/??/2001
From: SouthernSlider

Colin stood and went to Remmy’s side.  Laying a hand on his shoulder, he spoke.

“Remmy?”

“It’s true, Colin.  She is our Wade.”

“I am not doubting you, Remmy, but I do have one question.”  Remmy looked into his eyes, almost holding his breath, waiting to hear. “Why did she not come back here with you?  I would think she could not get here soon enough to be reunited with her sister . . . and my brother.”

Remmy closed his eyes and released his breath.  It was a valid question, a question he had no clear-cut answer for.  Why wouldn’t she come back here with him? Why did she scream that he could never tell Quinn she was here?   He turned toward the window.

“I’m afraid that’s the million-dollar question, Farm-boy.  She became very upset when I suggested it.”  The scene replayed quickly in Remmy’s mind.  “She ran into the bedroom and closed the door.  She yelled that we could never tell Quinn the truth.  I couldn’t get her to explain.  I couldn’t even get her to come out from behind the locked door.  I finally told her we both had some thinking to do, and I would leave her alone to do it.  I’m going back there at first light.   We have to talk again.”

“Do you think it would be all right if I went with you.  Maybe she would not be too upset knowing that you told me who she is.  Surely she understands this is something you can not keep to yourself.  Maybe, together, we could get her to see to reason, see how much it would mean to Kelly and Quinn to reunite with her.”

“I don’t know,”  Remmy said.  “What if she turns on me for telling even you?”

“I understand your concern.  This is something we must think through, but we have to try.  There must be something behind this attitude of hers.”

“Or someone,”  Remmy growled.  “Those Kromagg bastards!  What if they have control of her mind?  What if all this is a trap to capture us?    I never thought of that before.  I know they want Quinn.  This could be her way of trying to help us.” He pounded his fist against the window pane.  Colin flinched, amazed it didn’t shatter into a million pieces.  “What the hell do we do now?”

Colin bowed his head and sighed.  He repeated Remmy’s question in his mind.

***

Quinn paced around on the sidewalk across the street.  He had been trying to walk off his thoughts of Wade all day, when he spotted Remmy and Wade coming down the street, arm in arm.  Something had roiled up inside of him.  Was it anger . . . jealousy . . . suspicion?  What?  Why was Remmy with that girl?   Did he have delusions that she was the real thing?  Was he just playing out a fantasy?  Quinn couldn’t stop all the questions that kept rolling over and over in his thoughts.

He stood outside across the street and watched a light go on upstairs above one of the stores minutes after Wade and Remmy entered the building.  He watched and waited for what seemed like hours.  What was going on?

She came to the window and peered out.  Quinn backed into the shadows of the streetlight to keep from being seen.  Then there was Remmy.  He put his arms around her. She turned, and moments later, she was in his embrace.  My God!  What is he doing?

Quinn went through a number of different emotions all at once.  Jealousy, anger, lust, fear, confusion.  What in the world was going on up there?  He clenched his fists and opened them again.  Should he go up there and demand an explanation?

Suddenly, another window shone with light.  The bedroom?  Quinn stood frozen, unable to move, even unable to think.  Every nerve in him was paralyzed.

He had no idea how long he had been standing there staring up at the window in a daze, when he saw Remmy exit the building where he and Wade had entered earlier. He bore a hole through the man, trying to gauge his disposition.  Was he happy, mad, hurt, disillusioned?  What?  He returned his gaze to the window.

What should he do now?  “Remmy, have I misinterpreted your feelings for Wade all these years?  Do you love her as much as I do?”  he whispered.  “Do I confront Wade . . . or you?”

He closed his eyes and released a long, laboring sigh.  Pulling the collar of his jacket over his neck, he jammed his hands in his pockets.  He turned and headed for the park.  He wasn’t ready to see either one of them.  This was going to be a long night for him.

As he wondered through the maze of sidewalks, first one way and then another, Quinn’s thoughts became jumbled.  The more he thought, the more confused he became. How was he going to handle the scenes he had just witnessed?  Walking for hours solved nothing.

Quinn left the park, not even realizing he was headed straight for Wade’s apartment.  When he exited the park, and found himself standing across the street from her apartment, as he had been earlier, he was surprised.  But the next thing he saw elevated that surprise to pure shock.

“It can’t be?”  he whispered.  “I’ve seen him before.  What’s he doing here, and why is he going to see Wade?  Who the devil is she?”

The light he had seen, and thought was the bedroom of Wade’s apartment, was off now, but came to life in seconds, after he entered the building.  “Don’t let him in Wade. Don’t let him in!”

He saw her come to stand in front of the window, and then there he was beside her.  His hands went to her arms -- but it wasn’t a forceful grasp.  He could tell she wasn’t afraid.

Quinn grabbed the side of his head.  It throbbed with intense pain.  He had to find out what was going on.  As he crossed the street, realizing this Wade was probably not in any danger, and not wanting the guy to see him, he headed for the hotel.  Remmy would tell him what he needed to know.  “He’d better!”  Quinn growled.

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