Biting Temptation

21: Reborn

Pam was falling asleep beside Nate and so was Jackie. Michael was the only one sat there with his back to me. His tie was still hanging loosely from his neck and his jacket hung over the side of one of the chairs. 

I watched him for a few minutes rubbing his hands over his thick brunette hair, watched him rub his eyes over and over before lying his head back. It was obvious he couldn't get comfortable.

I sighed heavily before walking back into the living room. I took the seat beside him and hesitantly placed my hand over his. Without a word he squeezed it.

"You know," He finally spoke into the silent room. "She will be okay."

"You can't promise anything." I replied.

"She has Celia, a woman that has actually given birth to a dhampir, Ana the most powerful witch we know and Claire a healer. Amy is probably the safest in the entire country." His smile was weak but I appreciated the attempt to make me smile.

I shuffled closer to him and leaned my head against his shoulder. "I understand why you kept it from me." He didn't reply so I carried on. "I would have failed all of my exams, Mike. Not even a pass. Well, he said I would have passed one but... what good would one passed exam do? I wouldn't even graduate."

"That isn't the future anymore though is it?"

"But what is?"

"We don't know. Which is how it's supposed to be. We aren't made to know how the future will play out. If we did we'd have it in our minds until it happens. Do everything to make sure it happens or the opposite. It can mess with someone's head. Micah and Katherine," He gestured toward them. "They're young. But they're learning how to deal with it. I knew little Kate when she started having her first visions. When she realised her deja vu's weren't just something she thought she 'saw before in a daydream or a dream.' I watched Ana prepare her. It was horrible having to watch a twelve year old know what was going to happen. But she took it in stride. She would do little things." 

Michael suddenly smiled nostalgically. "Like I'd catch her moving the remote to an empty couch and placing a bag of chips on the side table long before her father would sit in it. I once caught her moving her kitchen table slightly to the left, moving the chair and replacing all Gatorade with red wine so during the night when Sam went for his spontaneous drink he bumped into the table, tripped over the chair and ended up choking on wine. So mischievous."

I watched the way Michael told his story, as his eyes sparkled at the memory of a childlike Kate and her antics. Sam had visited with his mother earlier to see how things were going. He and Ana had talked in the kitchen briefly to see what was happening, touched her wrist to see everything she had seen and left no more than ten minutes later. 

Mike's head landed on top of mine with a small sigh. "Want to tell me anything about Amy?"

I moved my head from beneath his and smiled softly at him. Sometimes I had the feeling to withdraw from reality especially more now than ever. But then I had Michael. I had my friends. I glanced at Nate sitting awake staring at the muted TV and caught his wayward eye. He sent me a reassuring smile. 

"Okay. She has and will always be the shy, science geek to me."

I told him stories about how we all met back in high school. How Amy and I knew each other in the fifth grade before meeting Chelsea in the seventh. I told small stories about parties, classes, detentions, even produced a small chuckle when I'd told him about the homecoming picnic when Chelsea and I stole half a bottle of wine from the teachers table and finished it by the trees a fair way away from the picnic grounds. Of course, it wasn't long before they realised three seventeen year olds' were a bit too happy and realised we were the ones that stole the wine. Should have been suspended but ended up with only two weeks worth of detentions.