Can't Love You {Sequel to "Not Sherlock Holmes"}

Chapter Four

Veronica's POV

This morning, the fog creates a very eerie effect across the water. I feel as if any moment now, a sea creature is going to come out of nowhere and destroy the boat. That's what would happen in a movie, anway.

Still, I don't want to be inside, cramped, with all those other hot bodies. Inside, where everyone is breathing up all the air and stinking up the joint.

After all, it's not like any of us have bathed.

I didn't even go in for breakfast. It smelled disgusting, and I decided I really wasn't that hungry. Martin and Ian were, though, so they promised to join me up here soon.

I can barely see Benedict's boat, riding alongside of us, in this dim light and this heavy fog. Where are you, sun? Why have you left us?

A small, childish part of me vaguely wonders if it will ever come back.

I mean, after all that has happened, I wouldn't put it past the world... This big, old world, that's falling apart from under us. Maybe that's the next catastrophic event that it has planned.

"We have had earthquakes and floods. Let's just blow the sun up, next."

I can just see it. And then we would all surely perish. We couldn't survive without the sun.

I know that these are the thoughts of a raving lunatic. Or maybe not? Maybe these are the same thoughts everyone else is having. Maybe I'm perfectly normal.

What is taking the boys so long? It shouldn't take too much time to scarf down a bowl of oatmeal. I remember just yesterday, when I was standing at the bottom of Ian's stairs, and he was taking too long to get ready. I smile to myself.

"Thinking about me, are you?" I hear from beside me, and I see Ian's smiling face.

"Yes, actually. I was thinking about how you must really be a girl underneath." Ian raises his eyebrows.

"And what led you to this conclusion?" I don't say anything; I simply reply with a wink.

"This is an absolutely terrible morning, isn't it?" Martin says, standing on the other side of Ian, leaning over the rail.

"Yeah, you sure you don't want to stay inside?" Ian asks, but I shake my head.

"I'm afraid I'll pass out from a lack of clean oxygen."

"She has a point."

"I am a woman, you should take my opinions as fact," I joke, and both boys laugh.

I call them boys, but really, they're men. Martin always was, but I believe him to be a child at heart. His jovial laughter and his kind heart make him seem boyish at times, even though he looks like a man.

Ian, though, I've only just noticed that he's not a boy anymore. He's had to grow up and lead, and I smile. Manhood suits Ian. He even looks like a man, now, with his stubble of unshaved beard and dirt and grime on his face, which somehow creates the affect that he's more manly.

"On our way up here, I heard one of the officers mention that the other boat was going to stop somewhere up here to check for more survivors. I suppose there's a tower up ahead that we're missing?" Martin shrugs.

"I don't know I feel so comfortable with them going off course. I sort of prefer being able to see them..." I comment softly. Martin nods.

"So I'm not the only one who doesn't fully trust these soldiers, huh?"

"I don't like the idea, either, Nica. But I'm sure they'll be fine."

"Yes, you're probably right..."