Revolution #9

There's Got to Be a Morning After

"Uoduohy sunaley, uoduohy aga yv."

Donna opened her eyes slowly. Adam was holding her and smoothing her hair, pushing it away from her face. He seemed to be awake for a while. With a faint smile, she answered, "Wado. 'Beautiful morning, beautiful woman.' I didn't know you spoke Tsalagi."

"A little. And Lakhota, too," he laughed. "I hate subtitles, and I wanted to see Dances with Wolves."

"Do you ever sleep?"

"On occasion, and this was one of them," he answered and stretched. "Insomnia has been a friend these last few years, but tonight I broke a record. Four straight hours. Thanks to you, noble lady."

She nodded slightly and rested her head on his chest, biting her lips and blinking away tears. He lifted her chin so he could look into her eyes. "Was it that bad? Uhm?"

"No," she answered with a chuckle. "I think I feel so guilty because it was that good." She paused. "I'm... I'm very confused. I don't know what to feel, I don't know what to think." She stammered, looking for words. Donna reclined against the head of the bed and pulled her legs up, her chin on her knees.

Adam turned on his side and held her hand. "Donna, if there's one thing I know well, it is guilt. It has been with me every minute of my life since, as Brennan calls it, my fall from grace." He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it lightly. "Done is done, there is no going back. And even if there was, I wouldn't want to." He sat, crossing his legs in a lotus position beneath the sheets. "Look at me." He cupped her face in his hand. "You are a remarkable woman, one I admire and respect. One I could easily..." He didn't finish, didn't have to. "How do you want to play it? I'll abide by your decision."

Donna looked away and bit her lips. She drew a deep breath. It was all so confusing, so mixed up in her head. She felt divided, torn in two. Where to turn? What to do? Usually, Donna Gryphon made decisions fast and held on to them. With the powers she yielded, she had to be very well grounded or she risked a disastrous power trip. The experiments that boosted her abilities, aiming to create a multi-psionic that encompassed all the mind powers spectrum, had made sure she had a conscience, it had also boosted up her own innate sense of ethics and fairness. It had given her an enormous sense of justice and an even bigger capacity to feel guilty, only equaled by Adam's own addiction to the feeling. Where that was concerned, they were a pair all right. Right now, she felt ripped apart. She had betrayed the man she loved. Donna looked back at Adam. "I don't know." She paused, not knowing what to say next. "I wish I knew, but I'm so... mixed up... I..." She rested her head on her knees, her hands on her neck.

Adam understood her completely. Guilt was his constant companion, the shadow that darkened his days. The consequences of one's acts had a way of returning to haunt and hurt, specially when acting before thought, when giving in to instinct and emotions. But emotions also had a way to explode out of control. Keeping them in a tight leash every minute of every day was overwhelming. And when such a special woman crossed his path, such an unique, remarkable, utterly lovable woman crossed his path... Damn... He drew her to his arms and she came willingly, even meekly, accepting his embrace and holding him tight in return. "Your mixed feelings prove one thing, noble woman." She lifted her eyes to look at him. "You're human. Not a psionic, not a new mutant, you're very much human."

She smiled a little. "That makes two of us, then."

"Not quite." He held her head and kissed her. "I don't feel torn apart, I'm not confused." He kissed her again. "I'm very whole and my feelings are very focused right now, on you. There is a decision to be made, though, and it only saddens me that it is not mine to make, but yours. Were it mine, and it would have been made already." He held her tighter. "But it can wait, there is still time." He felt her tears on his chest.

"I don't know what to think, Adam," she sobbed softly. "I only know one thing. A qya du li hi ya sv no yi a do hi. I want this night to last forever."

"If this is the one thing you know, that you want this night to last forever, it gives me hope," he smiled at her and lightly kissed her moist eyes. "I can make this night last forever for you." He reached for the bed stand and pressed a button. Heavy black curtains closed automatically, blocking the view from the mountain and all natural light. "Today, the sun is yours to command, noble woman."

Donna caressed his cheek and smiled back. "Why, I'd never have taken you for a romantic. Then I guess the rumors are false, after all."

He grinned. "The rumors that I am actually an android, not a man?" He laughed louder. "The rumors I've started myself and carefully nurtured over the years? You tell me, are they true or false?"

"I don't know yet," she answered. "I have to study you to find out." And she pushed him down, making him lie flat on his back. There would come a time for decisions, there would come a time for choices, but not now. Now, only the two of them mattered, only the desire that consumed them had any meaning in their hearts and minds. Now, they were the only two people left in the world, all others had suddenly vanished. And if he was Adam, she was Eve, and the Garden of Eden was theirs once more.

&&&

Hours later, when they were back to their senses, Adam held Donna by the shoulders and made her face the holographic wall that sealed his room. He embraced her from behind as he did the night before, again burying his face in the crook of her neck, drinking in the lavender scent of her dark, silky hair. He covered her breasts with his hands and felt her heartbeat quickening and her breath become faster, as she gasped at his touch. "I'm a man of many secrets, none of them kind." He caressed her belly and her thighs. "And I'm a very private man, GryphonLady." He pulled her chin, turning her head, so he could kiss her long and deeply. After they parted, he looked her straight in the eyes. "Nobody knows of this room. Not even Shalimar. You are the first person I've admitted here." He turned her back to the wall. "While you were asleep, I did something for you, and for you alone, Donna." He covered her breasts with his hands again, her nipples hard under his fingers. "Say your name, my impossible dream."

She sighed, leaning against his body. The wall shimmered and disappeared in front of their eyes when she whispered, "Dulcinea..."

&&&

Hours later:

Donna was picking at a salad that she had made for herself in the kitchen. Every muscle in her body ached from last night. Last nigh, wow, she couldn't believe what she had done.

Donna picked up her plate and carried it over to the trash can. She just couldn't finish it all and had a feeling that she wouldn't be eating much today. When she was worried she tended not to eat. Now, she was feeling torn apart.

A beep went off on her Com-Link and Donna nearly dropped the plate on the floor. Placing it in the dishwasher she said "Answer!" while looking up at the ceiling.

"Donna?" It was Blair. A pang of guilt washed over her like a tsunami, a tidal wave.

Trying to be as calm and cheery as possible she said, "Blair, sweetie what's up?"

"Hey baby, how's it goin'?"

"Not much. What's up there?", she replied.

"Well we got a situation here and can't get back to Sanctuary. Simon needs all of us."

"Sure, honey. I will make sure that he is there as soon as possible. One of the guys could probably fly him back to Cascade in the Helix. You can pick him up at my place. You have a key. What's going on?"

"Can't talk about it right now. But as soon as everything is okay I will contact you and tell you the whole story."

"I'm looking forward to it."

"I'll try not too. I love you, babe." Blair said with a chuckle.

"I love you to, honey."

The connection ceased.

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