- Text Size +

Brian knew he was glaring at Megan, how could he not?  She had just pulled him back onto the train after he attempted to jump off.  If Izzy couldn’t jump back on the train, the logical thing, in Brian’s mind, was to jump off so they could travel together.  There was no way Brian would be able to do what was needed when he reached California.  Megan was shifting around uncomfortably on her bunk; she kept her eyes averted from him.

“You would have been hurt,” Megan finally broke the silence between them.

“Izzy and I need to stick together,” Brian retorted.   

“Brian, trust me, you would not have made that jump.   You already have an injury in your arm that needs stitches; you didn’t need to break your ankle or worse.”  Megan was rubbing the nail of her forefinger as she sat across from him.  “She’ll find us.”  She meekly added.

Brian shook his head and sat back on his bed.  The remaining suits had gotten off the train shortly after Izzy.  They had been left alone as Izzy was pursued.  Brian watched her fight the other woman from the window, most of the men departing in their dark vehicles.  It was almost as if they assumed the other woman would take Izzy down.   Brian tried to think of what he could do in order to find Izzy again but he was at a loss.  Maybe the train would make it to California without further incidents and he could wait for her, but where could he wait that she could find him? 

“Brian, what is going on with you and Izzy?” Megan blurted out the question quickly. 

Brian waved his hand as if to wave the question away.  He really didn’t want to talk about his relationship, what it was, what it is and what it should be with her friend. 

Megan simply sat staring at him, waiting for him to speak.  He felt like her eyes were drilling a hole into his skull as he continued to avoid looking at her.  Finally, after several more minutes of staring at the blur going by outside, he turned his attention back to Megan.  She was still watching him.  He shuddered slightly but decided it would be better if he just talked to her, maybe then she would stop staring.

“This whole situation has me confused.  I have no idea what to do or what to make of the situation.  I can tell you that this is something I will have to think and pray about.  I cannot abandon the woman I have a child with even though I know there is betrayal.  We can fix that.”

Megan opened her mouth to speak and then closed it again.  She waited to see if Brian was going to continue talking and when it was apparent that he wasn’t she started to talk.   “Izzy filled me in on some of what is going on between you two.  I know about the picture you found.   If you had a relationship with Izzy, and it’s kind of looking that way, how do you think she views your insistence to be with this other woman?  Put yourself in her shoes.   You can already imagine the past being ripped from you and finding yourself confused and feeling alone.  Then you find out there is someone who shares your confusion someone you feel drawn to.  Now, you are her and you know there was something between you. You find proof you were a couple and married but she refuses to acknowledge promises you made to each other because someone else was forced into her life and kept her tethered to false memories. “

Brian held up his hand. He didn’t want to hear anymore of Megan had to say.  She thankfully got his point and stopped talking.  She shrugged and mumbled “just saying” before opening her bag and searching around for something. 

Brian stared at Megan as she looked around her bag.  He felt uneasy about the way she was looking.  Was she looking for a needle? He pulled his feet back on the bed; if she lunged at him he could kick his feet out at her and push her away perhaps that would give him enough time to get out of the sleeping car and off the train.  Is that why she pulled him back on so that she could inject him?   He chastised himself for thinking thoughts like this about Izzy’s friend.  Izzy trusted her so why was he having his doubts.   He jumped slightly when she brought her hand out of the bag. 

She must have sensed his unease.  “Sorry,” she muttered and showed him the tube of Chap Stick she held in her hand.  She undid the top and applied it to her lips, tossing it back in the bag when she was done.    

"Sorry, I don’t mean to be jumpy,” Brian tried to apologize. 

Megan shook her head.  “No need to apologize. If I had people I thought I knew turning on me and trying to inject me with needles, I’d probably be jumpy too.” She smiled. 

The two sat in silence except for the sound of Megan reaching into her bag again.  Brian watched her but did not prepare himself to flee this time.  She pulled out a water bottle and started to open the cap.  He must have been eyeing the water bottle because she stopped and made sure the lid was tight before tossing it over to him.   She reached into her bag and produced another bottle quickly opening and chugging the clear liquid. 

Brian followed suit and drank until his bottle was empty.  He grimaced slightly as he noted the strange after taste to the water.  “Where did you get those?” He asked somewhat wary.

“From the hotel before we left.” Megan smacked her lips and looked down at her half full bottle. She closed it and put it back in her bag.  

Brian nodded.  Maybe whatever everyone had been injecting him with was messing with his taste buds.  He shrugged and tossed his bottle to the side of this bunk.   “So Megan,” He wasn’t sure what to talk with her about.  He didn’t want to talk about Izzy anymore, at least he didn’t want to talk about the past with her that he still couldn’t completely remember or what was going to happen after this was over, if it was ever over.   Maybe Megan could give Brian more insight to the other woman though.  He only knew her from the brief dreams and the few experiences they had shared recently. 

“How did you meet Izzy?”  Brian asked.  

Megan hesitated for a minute before she started talking.  “I'm sorry, I still can't believe I'm here with you." She smiled embarassed and then continued. "We met in a college English class.  The funny thing was that she followed me all the way to the class from our dorm.   Then, the strangest thing, we had been paired up to work on a project together and so we started to talk to get to know each other.  She talked about where she’d grown up and her family and it turns out that we knew each other when we were in kindergarten.  We’d been friends.  I talked to my mom and she gave me a picture of the two of us in our green outfits getting ready to dance an Irish jig at some recital.”  Megan laughed and pushed a strand of her hair back. 

“Small world,” She smiled and looked like she was off in thought thinking about her friend.

“Sounds nice,” Brian was a little envious.  Izzy had a friend; the people he thought had been his friends he couldn’t be sure about anymore.   Brian’s eyes were starting to feel heavy as he looked at Megan expecting her to continue the story.  He noticed that she was rubbing her eyes too.   

 

Something inside of him told him to get up to start moving. That he and Megan needed to get out of that car and off the train but his feet wouldn’t obey him.  He concentrated on moving his feet, his eyes glared at his feet willing them to move but they would not obey.   His eyes found Megan’s and he could tell she was as afraid as he felt.  Darkness started to drift in around him and it wasn’t long before his eyelids succumbed to the same force his legs were under and they dropped him into completely darkness.  

Chapter End Notes:

Sorry it is so short.  I know it seems like filler but it's not filler ;)   Thanks for sticking with me.