Laura ran to Rebecca. Rebecca pushed her aside. Laura stepped in front of Rebecca and forced her back. Rebecca was too weak to resist. Things were happening too quickly. There was no way that they could stop the black agents taking Imraan and Connor away. They were long gone. Laura saw a man finish off the last agent. Who was he? He looked a lot like Connor, except just a lot older. Xarissa was on the ground, knocked out.
"We need to get them to the nurse!" Laura commanded the man. She didn't know who he was, but she needed his help. "Could you pick Xarissa up?" she questioned.
The man did as she asked him to do. Laura felt Rebecca slump in her arms.
"No, no, no. You are not blacking out on me Rebecca. Rebecca. Rebecca!"
****************
Rebecca felt dizzy. And sleepy. Really sleepy. She heard Laura shouting her name, but she didn't care. She just wanted to sleep.
Rebecca was in a car. They were driving really fast. She saw Connor to her left and Imraan on her right. Imraan was asleep, but Connor was wide awake. He looked at her, surprised to see her.
"What are you doing here? I thought that you weren't captured. I only saw Imraan with me..." Connor's face wrinkled in thought.
"I think that we're both asleep, at least, I am. And you're in my dream... so this is just a dream! This is just a dream! This is just a dream! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" Rebecca began shouting at herself. Surprisingly, the agents in black didn't hear her.
"Rebecca, stop. I think that it's both of us dreaming, because I remember fainting from shock. It's me Rebecca, really."
Rebecca calmed down and began to listen to Connor.
"I think that we're going to--"
Rebecca woke suddenly. What had just happened?
"Connor! And Imraan! What, I was in the car, and Connor was talking to me, and--" she blurted out, but then stopped when she saw Laura and the HE's faces. Rebecca was in the nurse's office; her wound was bandaged up.
"You were dreaming. Nothing more. Don't worry about it." Laura said.
"What about you?" Rebecca asked them both.
"I'm not concerned for my son right now. He'll be alright. You suffered from some serious wounds." The HE said.
"Wait, who are you again?" Laura asked. Laura had probably been too concerned about Rebecca that she didn't care about who the HE was.
"Ummmmmmm....." Rebecca and the HE said simultaneously.
Rebecca was fine with letting the HE explain who he was to Laura. She was confused and a little freaked by her dream. She thought that you weren’t supposed to think about being in a dream when you were actually dreaming. Rebecca rubbed her head. Maybe she had just made it up in her mind. The room was quiet other than Laura’s and the HE’s quiet conversation outside the door, and Rebecca began to go back to sleep.
****************
“I knew you were somehow related to that kid,” Laura said.
“We do look a lot alike,” Bryan commented.
Laura’s eyebrows knitted together. “What happened to you?”
“Excuse me?”
Laura looked him in the eyes. “I was told that you and the Administrator used to be the best of friends until something happened and your friendship fell apart. You have been practically battling with the HIA for years. Now, I think you must have been a pretty good guy by the way you fought out there and how you seemed to care for Rebecca, and I have a hard time matching the description I was given at the HIA with the man standing before me.”
Bryan looked sad and kind of disconcerted. “That was me. I was confused, shaken, and angry when I found out what happened. It drove me crazy, blinding me from the truth. That’s over now. I’ve changed.”
Laura gave him a half smile. “I’m glad. We’re all glad.”
****************
Bryan was confused by this agent’s sentiment and understanding, but he was glad Conner had found such great friends. Conner. He couldn’t stop thinking about his only son.
Conner reminded him of Katlynn, and it was hard for him to have that constant reminder with him all the time. That’s why he had taken him to his brother, Gryn, and Halyja, Gryn’s wife. Gryn had always been a good brother to Bryan, and he hadn’t been able to have any children, so it was perfect timing for Bryan to ask them to take care of Conner as if he was their child.
It was never that Bryan didn’t love Conner; he always had. It’s just that there was a spark of Katlynn in the boy that Bryan couldn’t stand to see through his rage and confusion. Now he regretted that decision, and he missed his son. Now he didn’t know if he would be able to tell Conner the truth.
Even if Conner was able to understand, Bryan wondered if he would be able to forgive himself.
****************
It was hard to discern dream from reality now. She couldn’t tell how much of it was a dream and what wasn’t. The stitches were gone. Rebecca stood and walked out of the hospital room, barefoot. Students passed her by, but she didn’t pay them much heed. She walked out through the front desk into the street. That’s when she saw a car, just like the one Conner had been taken in. She ran towards it. Just then a man jumped out of the bushes and grabbed her. He wrapped his hand around her mouth and she tried to free herself. It didn’t work, and she was losing air.
Then she woke up to find herself outside the empty school, with Laura holding her arms back. She sank to the concrete, gasping for air. Laura looked at her oddly, then grabbed her hand and tried to pull her up. Rebecca looked frantically down the street, but the car was nowhere to be seen. She began to sob. She didn’t care. She couldn’t tell if this was real or if this was a dream.
****************
"I think that Rebecca has to be kept in restraints until she recovers." Laura reported to the nurse. Rebecca was in the other room, wide awake, and probably able to hear every word that Laura was saying. Laura knew, however, that sleepwalking that far away from the school would be dangerous. Rebecca had to be restrained while recovering from her wounds.
"Yes, that probably would be best." The nurse agreed.
The HE of the GCA had gone back to the GCA headquarters.
****************