Hello from sunny and warm - but *not* humid
- Denver, Colorado! Here is the next part; it's a bit longer. Thank you all for your FDK - it's helping keep my muse motivated. I'm losing some of my buffer, though, so I may be back to posting once a week for a few weeks. Hard to say for sure; this week, I'll be doing more hiking in the mountains than writing.
From part 14:
“Oh, Lois,” he said softly, and drew her into his arms. She went unresistingly, and rested her head against him, and cried. She cried for what she was losing – and what she’d already lost. She cried for sad and lonely little-girl-Lois, and poor, beloved, tired Mama, who had died and gone away. She cried for the love she barely remembered, and all the times she’d had to struggle over some looming obstacle all alone. And finally, she cried for what she’d found. If he was her brother, she’d finally – finally - found a family. But at way, way, *way* too high a cost. -----
The Girl Next Door, part 15:
A very long time later, the two of them were still sitting quietly together - but carefully not touching – on her couch. Lois had finally managed to slow the torrent of tears that had been building up steadily behind the dam she’d put in place when she’d climbed into the big black car with the Doctors Lane that long-ago day.
Any trace of self-consciousness she might have felt at losing such complete control over her emotions was instantly stilled when she pulled away from him, looking up almost apprehensively into his face, and realized that he, too, had tears tracing down his cheeks. He’d brushed one hand, cupped, down the side of her face, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, and gently cradled her cheek for a brief moment, then smiled fleetingly before wiping his face with no sign of embarrassment.
“How about if I make us some tea?” he had asked quietly. “My mom has always said that while it might not solve any problems, it gives comfort. I think we could both use a little comfort right now.”
When she’d shyly nodded, he’d risen to his feet, again taking her hand and bringing her with him. He’d matter-of-factly asked if she wanted to take the opportunity to wash her face, adding that he would do the same at her kitchen sink if she didn’t mind. His calm treatment of the situation had further allayed her lingering uneasiness at so completely breaking down, and she had agreed with his suggestion.
She’d brought Mama’s box into the living room with her when she’d returned, joining him as he placed two mugs of milky tea on her coffee table. She’d started telling him about Mama, and had found herself telling him how Mama had found her, and about Sam and Ellen. And about Princess Elizabeth, and fighting dragons.
And she’d showed him the chains, asking, “What do you think they mean?” as he fingered them gently.
“I don’t know,” he’d answered. “I guess maybe they could be sort of like those friendship necklaces - you know, two chains and two halves of a heart, or a circle, one of which says ‘best’ and the other, ‘friend’… Or maybe… the first and last initials of a name? Both of these symbols look sort of like letters. Maybe the ‘S’ is a… surname…” He’d trailed off as they’d both remembered that they apparently shared the ‘S’.
After a moment, she’d offered him Mama’s letter. He had read it through, slowly, but hadn’t said anything right away. Instead, he’d begun to read it a second time, still slowly, while she’d sat as patiently as she could beside him, waiting for his reaction.
Instead of commenting on the letter as she’d expected, he’d surprised her by asking if he could read the story of Princess Elizabeth - not doubting for a moment that she still had it. She’d gone back into her bedroom, taken it from its place in the bedside table drawer, and brought it to him, then sat watching his face as he read the gently-used little book to its end.
Now he looked up at her and said soberly, “I wish I could have met her, Lois. It’s obvious that she was an intelligent and courageous young woman, and she had such a tremendous influence in helping make you who you are. She taught you to fight the dragons, didn’t she?”
“Yes.” She whispered it, fighting tears again.
“You never really lost her completely, you know,” he continued. “Because she’s always been in your heart. And… she passed her loving heart on to you, Lois. Her strength and courage – and love – live on in you. I know she would be proud of what you’ve accomplished.”
“I… Clark, I’m not… Thank you, but I’m not what you think. I don’t think I know how to love. I’m… I’m Mad Dog Lane, you know.”
He smiled at her, his beautiful smile that still made her want to grab hold of something to make sure she didn’t start floating. “I know what I see, Lois. You wear Mad Dog Lane like armor, and you fight dragons. But underneath all that? I see a beautiful and courageous young woman who has fought dragons in the form of corruption and dishonesty, greed and evil, so well that she is at the top of her profession. And I see – although you keep it well-hidden – how much you care. You may not think you have a soft heart; you may not think you know how to love, or that you’re worthy of love. But you do, and you are.”
Except for the part about being at the top of her profession, he was describing Mama. She had to swallow hard around the lump in her throat. He saw all that in her? She had to… she wasn’t going to cry again. She’d done enough of that. It was time to be strong. Time to finish this investigation, expose Luthor, and then…
Then fight with everything she had at her disposal to keep this incredible man in her life. If she had to accept him as a brother, she’d – she’d find a way. Letting him go wasn’t an option. But until she had proof, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that they were related, she wasn’t going to give up hope.
She straightened up and looked directly into his eyes. In a voice firm with resolve, she told him, “Clark, this – you and me - is just another kind of fight… A different kind – a different kind of dragon. Or… not a dragon, maybe, but… we just have to fight this. To find out for sure, somehow…”
He sighed. “But how do we fight something so intangible?” He took her hands in his again, squeezing them gently, and then released her. “Lois, I want to know for sure – for obvious reasons - as much, maybe more, than you do. But… I’m scared, too. Right now, I can wonder; I can dream; I can hope. But if it – what we suspect - is confirmed, my hopes are forever gone.”
She knew. It was why she was so determined to disprove it.
Neither of them said anything else for a while. Finally, Lois leaned forward and set her empty mug on the table. “Clark, I *need* to know for sure. If we *are* related… I - *we* - have to find a way to… resist this attraction. If you *are* my brother – if we know for sure, do you think this – thing - between you and me will just go away?
“I don’t know. I don’t think I could just… turn it off, Lois. Maybe… Maybe I’d have to move on again.”
Sheer panic coursed through her. “No! No – Clark, I can’t lose you <can’t lose you, too>.” If he *was* her brother… that was better than not having him at all, wasn’t it?
“Lois, I’d still… come and see you, you know… Or you could come and see me. But if we *are*… you know… Well, I think it would be easier if I… didn’t get to see you all the time. That would be… just too hard.”
“There *must* be a way to find a way to find out! There has to be something, somewhere,” she cried. “And I don’t know how, yet, but… Maybe… If only we could do genetic testing…”
“Yeah…” He ran a hand through his hair again. “Of course, even if they *could* get a needle in – who knows how similar or different our DNA would look from everyone else’s?”
“But would they really know what they were seeing, Clark?” She was beginning to feel excited. “Nobody knows about us… if there were some differences between our blood and everyone else’s, I think it would be subtle. Wouldn’t it? I don’t know much about genetic testing, but they’d only compare us with each other, right? Not with… the entire human DNA thing, right? And after all, we *look* like everyone else. And we don’t really know for sure that we’re from… outer space. Maybe we were both… I don’t know, some kind of experiment…”
He was shaking his head even as she trailed off. “Lois. I think we can pretty much guarantee the ‘outer space’ part. The ships aren’t the only proof of that. But more importantly – you’re forgetting the invulnerability thing. How would they get a sample of blood in the first place?”
She’d been so excited that she’d forgotten that huge little detail. “Oh. Yeah.”
After another small silence, she ventured, “What if… Do you think – since we have the same powers, would we be able to… hurt each other? Not *hurt* hurt, but…”
He was on his feet in an instant. “No!”
It was loud and emphatic, and she was startled. It must have shown on her face, because he drew in a deep breath, and as she also rose to her feet, he said in a much quieter voice, “No, Lois. Absolutely not. Not even for this. Don’t ask me to… to *hurt* you. At all. I just… can’t.” The last was said in a whisper, and as if he couldn’t help himself, he pulled her into his arms, one hand curving up over the back of her head as he pressed her to him. “Please don’t ask me to do that,” he whispered into her hair. “Because we both know you’re not talking about a little pinprick.”
“I’m sorry, Clark.” She wanted to stay where she was, listening – without any special effort – to his heart beating just under her ear. But after a moment, she pulled away slightly. He let her go, but when she looked up into his face, he still looked troubled.
“I *am* sorry, Clark,” she repeated. “I… I’m just grasping at straws, I guess. I wasn’t thinking… It wouldn’t be just a pinprick, would it? And you’re right – I couldn’t… hurt you in any way, either.”
His expression softened. “I know. And I understand. I just wish there was an easy way to figure this out.” He picked up the empty mugs from her coffee table and turned toward the kitchen. She followed as he went to the sink and washed them with a minimum of fuss.
“Where do these go?” he asked. “They were already out on the counter when I made the tea.”
“Yeah, I figured we’d have coffee or something,” she replied. He’d found the tea easily enough, but since Ellen had bought – and stocked for her - a set of jars labeled ‘coffee’, ‘tea’, ‘sugar’, and ‘flour’ when Lois had moved in, it wasn’t exactly a difficult task. “The upper cabinet closest to the sink.”
He opened the door, paused for a moment, and then reached in and pulled out a silvery metal spiral. “Uh, Lois… is this supposed to be in there, too?” he asked her with a crooked grin.
It was the spoon she’d been twisting absently around her fingers while she waited for him to arrive. She could feel herself blushing, which was a definite first. “No. And I’m not discussing it, either,” she said with a touch of Mad Dog in her voice.
He chuckled, then laughed outright as she continued, “Just put the mugs away, Kent.” Complying, he shut the cabinet door and turned to her, still laughing. And then stilled suddenly, looking at her intently as she laughed back at him.
Her smiled faded. “What?”
“You.” He said it simply. “You are beautiful, Lois.”
They stared at each other, across what felt like a rapidly narrowing space. Lois could hear both of their hearts, racing, and she held her breath in anticipation of… He moved closer, reaching out to again gently cup her cheek, his long fingers tucking under her hair.
“Lois…” It was a whisper.
He was so close they were almost, but not quite, touching. His gaze moved to her mouth, and became intent as she self-consciously moistened her lips. His eyes darkened at her action, and she shivered with anticipation at the look in his eyes.
Six inches. Six tiny little inches was all that separated her mouth from his. All she had to do was rise onto her tiptoes, and she could know what it was like. To learn what all the fuss was about kissing. To kiss him. Clark. Her… brother?
She backed away quickly, even as he seemed to remember at the same moment. He turned away from her, running one hand through his hair, breathing hard. She closed her eyes and drew deep, steady breaths until she felt like she was in control again, then opened them to see that he’d moved around to the other side of the kitchen’s island.
“Um, maybe I should go…” he started, and she rushed into speech. She wasn’t ready for him to go yet.
“No! No, Clark. Could you… Please, can you stay – just a little longer? We can go sit down again. We should be able to… We could talk some more and maybe figure something out…” Grasping at any excuse to make him stay, she remembered what he’d said earlier. “You said the ships aren’t the only proof that we’re from… Well, not from earth.”
“Yeah.” He hesitated. “I don’t know if I can just… sit with you and talk, Lois.” Seeing the dismay she didn’t bother to hide, he added gently, “But… Yeah, we can try it again. C’mon. Maybe we can brainstorm a little more? And I’ll tell you what else supports the whole ‘outer space’ thing.”
---
They sat down again, taking care to leave space between them. After an awkward moment of silence, Clark said, “From the letter and your box of… things, it sounds like your mother kept everything that was in your ship. I wonder, though, if yours had a globe?
“A globe?”
“It was in my ship; we think it was part of the navigation system.”
Curiously, she asked, “You said earlier that you do still have your ship? Where is it?
“Dad hid it at the farm.”
“So what does it look like? What was in it besides the globe thing?” she asked.
“Well, I’ve seen it a few times, you know,” he said. Slowly, he continued, “There are symbols – maybe letters – on the outside. The ship is very small… Mom says they estimated I was about eighteen months to two years old when they found me. I was wearing a one piece suit, like a sleeper, and there was a blanket tucked around me.”
“Like mine?”
“No – yours is sort of… loosely woven. Mine - Mom showed it to me when she made the suit; that’s where the ‘S’ came from, the blanket. It’s more of a *blanket* sort of blanket, you know? Thicker, solid. Like a typical blanket on your bed.”
“It’s blue, though? And yours had the ‘S’ emblem on it?
“Yes, but – Superman’s blue,” Clark answered. “Bright, primary blue the same color as the suit. And yes, the actual emblem Mom sewed to the chest of the suit was originally on the blanket - you can see where it was fastened on.”
“So what is the globe, do you think?” she asked curiously. “You said maybe the navigational system?”
“Yeah,’ he said. “I think… a guidance system, maybe. Mom and Dad put it away with the other stuff. I saw it once when I was about ten years old – I was asking questions about these powers I was developing, so Dad and Mom told me the story of how they’d found me. Dad took me out to the barn and showed me the ship, and then Mom showed me the stuff – the blanket and globe and things – that they’d stored in a box inside the house. I didn’t see any of that stuff again until I asked Mom to make me the suit. She brought the box out to show me the ‘S’ emblem, and we started talking about the whole thing again. Mom gave me the globe, and I was holding it - you know, looking at it – when it started to glow…”
“It did? All by itself?”
“Yeah. I mean, I didn’t turn it on or anything. It showed earth, then a red planet. And the word ‘Krypton’ came into my mind.”
“Like… telepathy or something?” she asked.
“More like… like, when you remember part of the lyrics to a song, you know? And then try to remember the tune? You knew it once, and something – seeing all the lyrics, or hearing them – reminds you of it, and then you can recall it.”
“Krypton. You think that’s your – our… home planet?”
He sighed. “Yes. The thing is, that’s all the globe did. It showed earth, then this red planet; I remembered Krypton, and the display went back and forth between earth and Krypton a few times, then shut off.”
“Where is the globe? Can I see it?” Lois asked. It had probably been packed away again at his parents’ farm, but maybe they could go see it some time.
“It’s at my place – I brought it back with me from Smallville. I can go get it - or we can go over to my apartment, if you prefer.”
“Where do you live?” Lois asked.
It’s not too far from here, actually,” he said. “About four blocks away – on Clinton. It’s a loft apartment, on the roof; it’s in a semi-industrial area, so I don’t have to worry… you know, about a lot of neighbors as I’m coming and going. I moved in right after I got the job at the Planet. The place was in poor shape, but the landlord agreed that I could fix it up a bit.”
“That’s one of the drawbacks here,” Lois commented. “I’ve never felt comfortable flying except at night. I’m afraid someone will see me. Your apartment – is it like a penthouse?”
Clark laughed. “No - not a penthouse by any stretch of the imagination. But it is on top of the building like a penthouse would be. I’m not sure what it was before it was an apartment, but the building is a converted warehouse. So maybe it was – I don’t know, maintenance or something. Anyway, I like it. It has a balcony, and there are no other residential buildings immediately on either side…”
“So… no curious neighbors, huh?” Lois said.
“Right,” he replied with a grin “The buildings on either side are businesses, and they each share a common wall with my building. Both neighboring buildings are a story shorter than mine, if you count my place - so there are no windows facing my apartment.”
“I’d like to see it,” she said. “And the globe, of course.”
“Anytime,” he said warmly. Then more soberly, “It probably won’t tell us much, though. I mean – I guess if it’s a navigation system, it might have the coordinates for the planet – Krypton. But anyway, you should at least see that. I don’t suppose it’ll remind you of anything though, huh? You would have been so much younger when you arrived…”
She nodded. “Around three months old or so, I think - based on when Mama decided my birthday must be. You said you were around eighteen months to two years old? When your parents found you?”
“Yes. And if you were around three months old – we probably arrived around the same time. So – probably – we left this planet, Krypton, at about the same time, too.”
“And maybe…” she sat up straight. “Clark, you said you haven’t seen the ship since you were about ten years old? Maybe we should – I don’t know, look it over again, too. Maybe there’s some information still inside it.”
“I doubt it,” he replied. “I think Mom and Dad removed everything that might give us any kind of clue to my origins. But sure, we can go look – when I was ten, I was more interested in the fact that it was a spaceship than anything else.”
“Could we go out there and take a quick look – maybe tomorrow night? Would you need to call your mom and dad and let them know you’re – we’re – coming?”
“I do usually call them if I know ahead of time that I’m going to stop by,” Clark answered. “But not always. I’m going out there tomorrow night for dinner – Mom and Dad want to hear all about my debut as Superman. Why don’t you come with me?”
Meet his parents? Somehow, she’d thought they’d just stop by, check out the ship, and then leave. But – actually have dinner with his mom and dad? She wouldn’t know how to act. Or what to say. And what if they hated her on sight? “Oh…” She hesitated, then continued, “Well… but won’t they be expecting just you? For dinner, I mean? I… I’m not very good at meeting people, Clark. And what if they don’t… Well, I’m not very easy to like...”
He turned and faced her fully. Bringing his hands up, he gently cradled her face so that she was forced to look directly into his eyes. His palms were warm against her cheeks and his fingers tunneled under her hair against her neck, causing a long delicious shiver to run through her. “Lois.” He leaned forward, and for a breathless moment she thought he was going to kiss her. Instead, holding her gaze with his, he said softly but emphatically, “You are infinitely likeable. I know you don’t think so, but all you have to do is look at how the people you *do* allow past your barriers treat you. Perry treats you like a daughter; Jimmy will drop whatever he’s doing if you need help. Please come with me tomorrow. My parents know how I feel about you, and they really do want to meet you.”
His eyes were beautiful, dark and liquid, like coffee and cinnamon and the finest chocolate, shot through with golden flecks. She would do anything he wanted, follow him anywhere, when he looked at her like that. “Okay.” It was a whisper, but he would hear it.
He did. “Tomorrow night, okay?” he asked softly. His thumbs stroked lightly along her cheekbones and then he was letting her go. “We can fly, if you like? It should be dark enough. If not,” he flashed a quick grin at her, lightening the mood considerably, “Superman could always carry you. He does that sometimes, you know.”
She laughed a little, as he had intended, and he rose to his feet and pulled her to hers. “It’s not very late; would you like to see the globe? I can bring it here, or we could go to over to my place. I suspect we won’t have much free time tomorrow, what with Superman’s appearance and everything, and then going out to Smallville tomorrow night.”
“Yes – I’d like to see the globe tonight, if that’s okay,” she told him. “We can go to your place – I’d like to see it, too.”
Sweeping his arm toward her window, he asked with a smile, “Fly with me?”
Within seconds they were airborne.
It was the strangest, most exciting and exhilarating feeling, flying with Clark. Flying *with* him, beside him – although there was something to be said in favor of flying held in his arms – with nothing but the night air around them. She’d always loved flying, but now it would never be the same again. No – forever more, it would be better - beyond good. Even if she didn’t ever fly with him again, the memory of sharing it with him would last forever.
-----
Clark’s apartment door opened onto a landing, from which a short stair led down into the main room. She looked around at the gleaming wood floors, the brick archways through which she could see there was a bedroom. The kitchen ran along one wall; it had an island like hers did. His apartment had a vastly different look and feel to it – hers was much more modern and almost… utilitarian – but she liked his place. It had a homey feeling to it that she hadn’t felt for a long time – not since those early years with Mama in their cramped little apartment.
“Wow.”
“Feel free to look around,” he said with a smile, moving down the steps.
She followed. “You said… it was in poor repair? It sure doesn’t look like it…”
He laughed. “Yeah, it was. The floor was trashed; the cupboards had no doors, and the handrail there at the stairs was broken off at the floor. I fixed it up –“ He paused to flash a teasing grin at her. “…I can do it pretty quick, you know. I had to replace the sink; I went ahead and replaced the refrigerator and stove while I was at it. About the only thing in good condition – grimy, but sound – was the brickwork and those windows in the bedroom.” He gestured toward the archway.
She looked past him, through the archway; there were windows extending from a window seat to the ceiling in his bedroom, and she could see the balcony he’d mentioned. She didn’t enter the room – somehow, it felt… too intimate.
She gestured toward a black cast-iron spiral staircase near the archway. “What’s up there?”
“It’s a small loft; I use it for storage right now.”
She moved away from the archway, back into the main room. “Oh. Well, it all looks really nice, Clark. I don’t think I could… I mean, I’m fast, too, but… I don’t know how to… replace sinks or fix floors, or…”
He followed her, and gestured to the couch. “Have a seat. Well, I grew up on a farm. There were always lots of opportunities to do carpentry, plumbing, mechanical work - stuff like that. I also traveled a lot - all over the world, after college – and in a lot of places, if I didn’t fix whatever it was that needed fixing, I had to do without.”
She sat down on the couch, which was about a thousand times more comfortable than hers. “You said something before about moving on…” she trailed off as they both remembered the circumstances in which he’d said it. After an awkward moment, she rushed on. “So, you traveled a lot? You said – all over the world?”
He sat down too, carefully leaving several feet of space between them. Leaning back into the corner of the couch, he rested one arm along the back and said, “Yeah, you know – it’s easy to move around –“ He made the hand motion that she took to mean flying.
He looked so comfortable. She mimicked his position, settling into her own corner of the couch and stretching her legs out, feet on the coffee table. *This* was the kind of couch she’d *intended* to buy. Of course, then maybe she’d never have discovered her ability to fly… “But… how did you handle… I mean… if you left Kansas at night, wouldn’t it be daylight in some of the places you went?” How did he fly in the daylight before he had his Superman suit? Hadn’t he worried about being seen?
He looked puzzled. “Well, yeah… Why?”
She was amazed that he didn’t get what she was asking. “What if you were seen?” she elaborated.
“Oh.” He shrugged, and she marveled at how unconcerned he appeared about the whole thing. “I was always real careful; in the more developed countries, I just picked uncrowded places and scanned from above the clouds for potential witnesses before I landed.”
“But what about… your passport? I mean, I guess you carried one, but what about – I don’t know, don’t they stamp your passport in most places if you enter or leave a country?”
“Yes, although in many countries, once you’re there, you don’t have to keep showing your passport. I could walk around in France, or Italy, or wherever, just like anyone else. I guess it could have been a problem if I was crossing borders in a more conventional manner – you know, by car or rail… But I’d usually just take off, you know, and fly to my next destination.”
It had never occurred to her to leave the USA. “…And here I thought I was doing some cutting edge exploring when I finally went across the country,” she said ruefully.
He smiled at her. “Lois – I had an advantage. I had two parents who knew all about my abilities, and encouraged me and helped me explore them. From what you’ve told me, you had only yourself. Without a mentor or really, any guidance, it’s far more impressive what you’ve done so far with your life.”
She didn’t know what to say. ‘Thank you’ somehow seemed inadequate. She just wasn’t completely sure how to handle his praise. She had been complimented on her abilities as a journalist for so long that she was used to it, but she was not used to compliments on a personal level at all.
“So… Where is it - the globe?”
His mouth quirked in a lopsided grin, but he allowed her to change the subject without comment. “Right where you’d expect a globe to be – on the bookshelf,” he said with a laugh.
She looked at him in astonishment. “On the…?”
His grin widened. “Yep. See?” he gestured with his head toward the shelves set into the brick behind them.
She looked. A small, featureless, burnished silver globe - like something from a modern art gallery – sat on a small metal globe stand among the books and display objects. She began to laugh. “Clark –“
He laughed with her. “Hey – if I store it in plain sight, everyone sees what they expect to see: a silver, modern art globe on a stand. Mom found the stand at a flea market in Smallville; that’s what gave me the idea.”
She stood and went nearer, aware that he was rising to follow her.
“May I?”
In answer, he reached out and picked up the globe, then turned and placed it in her hands.
It wasn’t as heavy as she’d expected, and it felt – almost warm. She held it cupped in her hands, turning it slightly as she inspected it, and then almost dropped it when it suddenly began to glow.
Clark, slightly behind and to her right, reached out and placed one hand under hers, adding his support. His other hand settled on her shoulder; neither of them noticed. “Earth,” he said softly as the blue and green planet appeared, almost as if it was floating in the depths of the globe. “…And… Krypton,” he continued, as the blue and green faded, to be replaced by a glowing red planet. Lighter bands, almost orange, swirled across its face. After a moment, the red planet faded into the familiar blue and green of earth.
As the blue and green faded into red again, he asked softly, “Do you… hear it? Or I guess I should say… think it? Krypton?”
As the red planet faded and the globe once more became a smooth and featureless orb, she said equally softly, “No. There’s… nothing.”
She looked up at him. “I didn’t feel it, Clark. Maybe I *was* too young when we… left there.” She handed the globe back to him, trying to stifle her disappointment. Turning back toward the couch, she asked over her shoulder, “Have you tried to open it?”
“I don’t think it opens,” he said. Still holding the globe, he returned to the couch. As they both resumed their seats, he continued, “I did try, actually, but I don’t want to… damage it, or crush it.”
He shook it gently. They both heard a soft sort of hum, but nothing else.
Lois slumped back into her corner. “Rats.” She hadn’t realized until now how much she’d pinned her hopes on learning something from the globe.
“Yeah.” Clark looked like he felt the same way. He turned the globe idly, holding it in both hands, then set it on the back of the couch between them when he stretched his arm out along the top again.
For several minutes, both of them sat quietly - not brooding, exactly, but each immersed in their own thoughts.
---
To be continued
