Melia-Irrevocable Journey (Sequel to Irrevocable Quest)

004:

004: Melia

There was something in the air, and Melia couldn't quite put her finger on it. It wasn't salt, like the salt spray in Catalina, and that was what she'd been used to for the last eight weeks, or thereabouts. She missed Catalina, she wanted to go back there. Jared was wrong, she had nothing but happy memories there. Her memories here were not all that happy. They were interrupted with fear and doubt and uncertainty. She stared out at the beautiful yellowish green foliaged landscape, the trails leading down to the river wash. It seemed barren to her right now. Barren, like the Alaskan ocean had seemed when they were there.

A week. Her eyes blurred for a moment as a gust of wind picked up. A week ago, they'd been down on the beach together, sleeping in the sand with their baby under an umbrella.

That was a good memory. Why couldn't she go back to that time? A week was all she'd need. Just go back.

She felt arms encircle her back and neck from behind and stiffened till she realized it was her sister. Strange she didn't feel annoyed as she had when so many people were hugging her earlier. Right now, Megan's touch was fine.

"Hey, sista." Megan whispered in a sing song voice that reminded Melia of a song they'd just recorded recently, called Hey Sista. She started singing it, and Megan joined in matching her harmony to Melia's perfectly. She sang all the chorus and then started in on a verse that she'd never sung before, just making up the words. Megan followed her so easily. They swayed a little, Megan's cheek near hers, as they sang.

Melia was relieved. Megan knew better than to start asking her how she was and stuff like that. Wasn't it obvious? She was grieving. She was in shock. She was in pain. There was no word that could describe it at all. It was like having the air sucked out of her on a continual basis. Each thought was centered on HIM. Each time she wanted to go and tell him something she couldn't. How did one stop feeling the need for him? She didn't know. And she didn't want to talk about it. Megan sensed this and left her alone to work it out. No questions.

They stayed there, looking out at the land. Another cooler breeze came up and tore through the baby's blanket and Melia pulled her closer, but knew she'd have to take her in, she was getting fussy and probably needed to eat. She turned and Megan's arms dropped off her back, their eyes met.

It was the first time she'd actually seen anybody in three days. Melia realized in shock that she couldn't look into anyone's eyes, she hated the compassion, the sadness. She needed to be strong, and she couldn't if all she saw was pity. But right now, she stared into Megan's eyes. Analytically, she supposed they were just like her own eyes, but having looked into Megan's eyes far more than she'd looked into her own, she wondered if hers were as pretty.

"You have pretty eyes." She said as they dropped to look at the path back to the house.

"Thanks." Megan said. "You do too."

"You're not just saying that?"

"Why would I?"

"I don't know. To make me feel better?"

"Are you kidding? If that's all it takes..."

There was nothing else to say. So they made their way back to the house that had belonged to Jared Patrick, and where he had lived before he met her. Inside the house people had cleared out and were heading over to Lily and Merlin's, at least the family was. Her own parents were still standing in the doorway talking about what they were going to do now, and the kids, many of them were out by the bus that they'd come in. Yes, she thought vaguely, the bus. They had to have a bus to haul all of them. And all of them had come.