John and Marlena (Finally) Get a Q!

Chapter 110 - High Time

Marlena stood on the balcony and breathed in the balmy summer air. She had hoped that it might help clear her mind to stand out here where the air was clean and fresh. Where she felt free.

After Sami had left, the atmosphere in the living room had become stuffy and positively oppressive, and even opening the doors to the balcony hadn't particularly helped. She was feeling claustrophobic and hormonal, and she just needed some clear air.

She had even thought about going out for a walk, but her doctor's appointment was sooner rather than later and John had said he might be able to get away. But in the meantime, she was here, alone with her thoughts. Thoughts she had to make some sense of before everything went to all hell.

An old rambling rose threaded its way along the top of the railing, blowsy pink blooms fragrant with attar in the afternoon sun. She fingered the blush petals, feeling their silkiness beneath her skin where the pink faded into a pale lemon yellow. With a sigh, she twisted the rose head off its stalk and sat down on a patio chair cupping it in her hand. Her thoughts were like those petals, scattered and confused. She just had to find a way to piece them into a rose.

John..... Gene..... where on earth did she even start? She thought again of how Gene had looked at her when he had pulled away earlier today. When she had simply touched him, skin against skin. And the memory came to her, unbidden and unwanted.

She was unaware of Eugene's dilemma until she felt him pulling away from her grip. He was gentle, but the move was sudden, and Marlena looked up at him in surprise.

"Gene?" she asked quickly, worried that she had done something to upset him. But as she looked at him, she was unable to read the expression in his eyes and it made her uneasy.

"I'm sorry Marlena," he was acutely uncomfortable as he tried to disentangle her arms from around his neck.

"Oh Gene," she whispered sadly, her eyes following a lone, soft white cloud as it skirted the edge of the sky in her view. He hadn't been able to bear her touch that night because of what it represented to him. What he could never have.

With a slight metallic clink from the charms on her bracelet, she pulled two petals from the rose, and they drifted gently to the ground.

"Don't you understand?" He shook his head. "I can't be here with you like this, Marlena. It's driving me crazy."

"No, I *don't* understand." She was practically shouting at him. "WHY?" she demanded again, not seeing what should have been obvious.

"Because of the way I *feel* about you! I can't be near you Marlena because I *want* you so much I'm afraid to even *touch* you!"

The rose fell to the floor as though in slow motion, bouncing against the hard concrete, petals bruising and breaking against the cool cement.

*******

Q sat by the water's edge, watching as the ripples lapped over the coarse sand. It wasn't supposed to be this hard. It was never meant to be this hard dammit. He was supposed to come here, get John and Marlena back together, and then leave. That was it, end of story. What the hell kind of cruel cosmic joke was it that he had to fall in love with Marlena all over again?

He couldn't keep doing this. He couldn't keep tearing apart every time he saw her. He couldn't keep running, couldn't keep hiding. Couldn't keep dying.

He could still taste her. Sweet, like vanilla cream. Like roses. Like heaven.

G*d, he wanted to touch her, to run his hands over her silken, creamy skin. To feel the hot moistness of her mouth against him. To hear her whisper that she loved him.