The Trouble with Time, Part 15 - Guardian

Kevin ushers her through the door, and closes it quickly behind him. He's seemed nervous the whole way, glancing around like he thought someone was following them. She wondered if she should be worried, but she decided not to be. Maybe Kevin is a naturally nervous person. She doesn't know. And even if something is wrong, there's nothing she can do about it, since she doesn't remember anything from before she came out of the Garden an hour earlier. So she decided to do what both the notes she had written for herself and Kevin tell her: Kevin is your friend. Trust him with your life.

And then, suddenly, her arms are full of a person. The person hugs her tight, and then, before she manages to respond, pulls back to look at her. This was... Sam? Kevin told her about a Sam. They take a good long look at her, then turn to Kevin.

"This is the stupidest thing you've ever done," they tell him.

Kevin seems to snap out of the thoughts he was lost in.

"Yes, you've told me that. Multiple times. Thank you," he says. "But it's done now. You can stop telling me."

"I will never stop telling you," they say. He grins.

"What if I do something even more stupid?" he asks innocently.

"For the sake of all of us, I hope you never will," they say seriously. "I think that would be bad for not only the people close to you, but also the human race in general."

Kevin's grin fades.

"I'm so happy you're alright," they tell her, ignoring him for the moment. "Actually, well, we can't yet tell if you're fine. We need to get your memories back into you. I know you've had a long day, but the longer they're in the box, the more likely something is to go wrong with them."

Right, her memories. They are keeping them safe for her. From the Garden. Because it was very important for her to go into the Garden. That's what her notes say. She guesses she's about to find out.

"Kevin!" Sam says, and startling him out of his thoughts again. She notices. "What's wrong?"

But he shakes it off with a quick "later".

The two of them lead her to down a hall, into a room, and sit her down. Sam moves her memories from a box back into her head. And suddenly she remembers everything again. Wait. no. Not everything. There's a big gap in her memories. And then it all makes sense. Why they had to take her memories. Why she had to go into the Garden. Sam is right, it has been a long day (it's still the same day, right?), and it's been a very, very confusing day. But now that she remembers everything again, she knows she would choose the same thing, even knowing what she knows now.

She takes a moment to feel around her head. Figure out how she's feeling. If she feels like herself again. She comes to the conclusion that yes, she does feel like herself. She feels okay. Dead tired, but okay. The other two are looking at her expectantly.

"I'm fine," she tells them. "I think. I mean, I don't notice anything wrong."

Sam does a rapid but thorough examination and also deems her fit for duty. They send her home to get some sleep. She goes, after hugely thanking Sam for keeping her memories safe.

~x~

She wakes up. It's still dark, but that doesn't mean much this time of the year. It might be in the middle of the night, or it might be later than she usually wakes up. She could check the time, but instead she doesn't move. She doesn't feel like sleeping anymore, so she simply lays in her bed, in the dark, running through yesterday's events. What little she remembers of them. The time between Sam taking her memories and coming out of the Garden is practically gone from her mind.

And then, suddenly, she realizes what Kevin's behavior on the way back meant. She didn't know what to think about it when she didn't have her memories and didn't know Kevin, but now she knows.

Something went wrong. Or at least Kevin thinks something went wrong.

She pushes off her covers and rolls out of bed. Less than an hour later, the bell on the door of Kevin's shop makes a familiar ring. He looks up from whatever he is doing and smiles.

"Good morning!" he greets her. "How are you feeling today?"

But she ignores his question and simply marches up to him.

"What went wrong?" she asks. Kevin looks at her, confused. "On the way back, you were nervous and paranoid, and looking around like someone was following us. And then you kept being distracted by something after we got through the door. So what went wrong?"

For a moment he looks like he's not going to answer, but she stares him down with a stern look. He sighs.

"I think while you were in the Garden, you may have picked up a Guardian."
____________________________________________________

Soooo. I hope this isn't too late. I also hope that soon we'll get back to the morning schedule, because it's better. I have two more travel days at the end of next week. Maybe we would have the time in the next week to get a bit ahead, so I won't be writing my parts late again then.

The topic for tomorrow is Fountain.

~matleena