The shuttle glides towards the intentionally abandoned highway in front of the ranch, its nose high up and traveling fast, too fast. Izzy can feel as its landing gear folds down just in time as the shuttle touches down on the highway. It bounces back up 3 feet into the air.
Like a brick, it slams back down on the front wheel, shredding it and sending a spray of rubber as the brake is applied too hard. Inside the crew cabin they can hear a horrible noise as the rim starts to grind on the pavement. Izzy is squeezing the armrests and watching Jacob, already green, hold back his vomit. The plane’s parachute finally deploys; it glides to a rest several hundred yards past the front of the ranch motel.
Jack Harrington lets out a deep sigh as he shuts the spaceplane down. He unhooks his harness and stands up. He steps out of the cockpit and pats Marlon and Travers’s heads. “Not bad for being rusty. Now let’s go find us a kid.”
The bodyguard duo let go of the armrests; the foam compressed, showing their handprints. It slowly expands back to normal.
“Great landing, boss.” Marlon says, shaking his hands to get feeling back. “I never doubted you in the slightest.”
Trever glares at Marlon. “Kiss ass,” he quips as Jack Harrington walks to the airlock.
“It wasn’t on the itinerary, but it sounds like a good punishment and reward for later,” Jack Harrington says with a laugh as he looks down at Trevor.
Trever had slid out of his seat and wrapped his arms around Jack’s leg for comfort. “Ok, let’s go; it’s time to get to work,” Jack says, shaking his leg. The covering guard takes a little coaxing to get to let go, but eventually he does.
Trever slowly gets up and unlocks the hatch and presses the button to extend the ramp, the hydraulics quietly hissing as the ramp is lowered.
Jack Harrington turns and looks at Jacob and Izzy. He notices they are sitting motionless. “Well, get off the plane. You’re weirding me out,” he says in his gruff voice, but then pauses, and much more gently, he says, “And Izzy, thank you for your help, and about the pilot, he won’t be a problem anymore; I got rid of him.”
“Uh, yeah,” Izzy says, her soul still rattled.
Jack Harrington moves close to her and touches her shoulder delicately, like touching a flower. Izzy feels Jack’s words inside her: “I will file a report, and you will never see him again. What he did was unthinkable; it was my job to protect you….” The words stop abruptly as he stops touching her. He turns and steps away.
Izzy watches as Jack leaves with tears in her eyes. She wipes them away and takes her first step back on earth, the ground feeling strange and hard under her feet. The weight of gravity pulling on every part of her body, she cringes. “I am not old,” she shouts at the sky, making everyone turn to look at her. Including the 5 beings riding in the red convertible pulling into the parking lot.
Jacob touches Izzy’s arm. “Are you ok, Izzy?” He asks, fighting to find his balance. The weight of earth’s gravity felt so heavy and wrong to him now. Even blinking feels like effort.
Jack Harrington aims over his shoulder and hits a key fob with a small tag dangling on it that says space shuttle 2.
Izzy is silent, trying to find the words to say when she hears the hydraulics of the shuttle door closing behind her. She and Jacob look back. It clicks as it locks shut. When they turn back around, Jack Harrington and his posse have entered the ranch.
Izzy and Jacob are alone in the parking lot with the lesser gods. Eros walks over to Izzy and Jacob. “Tell me, beautiful maiden and soft, delicate bouquet of masculinity, do you know where I can find a magical door?”
Izzy flinches and pulls back. Her recent trauma is a lot for her to handle, and now this thing with delicate white wings and a very pretty face with piercing blue eyes and a large handgun on his hip wants to talk to her. She panics. ‘He doesn’t want to hurt me; he is just a guest. Deep breaths. He doesn’t want to hurt me.’
Eros can read her body language and frowns. “Seems now is a bad time; forgive me.” He turns and walks away. “Himeros, we have been here 2 minutes, and already I am sure I can do some good in this place.”
Himeros laughs and thinks lustily about the bar. “Brother, let’s go get mimosas. I desperately need to consume fruit juice.” He holds the door to the ranch open.
Pothos adds, “I long to be far away from the uptight descendants of Haefestus.”
“We can hear you, you morally bankrupt descendants of a vixen,” Palikos says, slamming the car door, earning himself a glare from his sister.
Eros smiles. “Well said, brothers, let’s get away from the prudes,” he says as he walks into the reception of the ranch, ignoring Palikos.
Jacob watches the exchange but shepherds Izzy back to the motel room. “Something is brewing.”
They walk into their motel room. Izzy tosses her suitcase on the bed and lies down next to it. “I am sorry, Jacob,” she says, looking at the ceiling. She hugs herself and runs back through her time in space. “For everything.”
Jacob loses his fake normal expression and frowns. “What the hell happened? How did you talk in my mind in the shuttle? How?”
Izzy hugs the suitcase tight to her stomach. “I. He. We. He was. Is he a telepath, I think? So is Jack Harrington, I think? He forced me to love him.”
“Oh,” Jacob says quietly, sitting down next to her, peeling the luggage from her fingers, and wrapping her around himself instead. “I don’t understand.”
Izzy touches Jacob’s hand and feels the flood of Jacob’s emotions and feelings again. This time they feel like a big knot screaming at the top of his lungs. She scrunches her eyes up. “Shh, quiet, you’re too loud,” she says as she lets go of his hand. She brings them to her temples and rubs, trying to make the pain stop.
“What? I wasn’t talking.” Jacob says, looking confused.
After a few minutes, Izzy shakes her head, the pain fading away. She brings her head to Jacob’s head, and they touch. Izzy tries her hardest to think of a happy memory to push back the flood of emotions radiating from Jacob.
Izzy and Jacob are sitting together on a beat-up couch.
It’s tattered and worn; Jacob found it on the side of the road.
Izzy is eating Chinese and looks over at Jacob; so is he.
They are laughing about some silly joke.
She drops her chopsticks onto the floor.
Jacob bends over to get them.
So does Izzy.
Their lips touch.
Izzy feels Jacob’s hands on her face.
He whispers something to her, but she can’t hear it.
She leans closer, and he whispers into her ear the magic words.
“I love you, Izzy.”
“I love you too, Jacob.”
She pulls her head away, tears in her eyes. “Did you see the memory?”
Jacob rubs his temples. “I did, I think. Us eating Chinese? The first time we said we love each other. I had forgotten how bad that couch was. What did you just do? How did you? How can you?” Jacob asks. He has more questions now than ever.
“That monster did the same thing to me…” Izzy whispers.
Jacob holds Izzy tightly. “I am here. I love you. You are safe,” he says quietly.
Izzy feels tears flow down her face but manages to stop herself from just crying. She feels Jacob’s hands pulling at her clothing, moving her t-shirt up; he presses his skin against hers. But there isn’t any telepathy; the warmth of his skin is soothing and calming her. They lay cuddled tightly together.
“I am sorry,” she whispers quietly and puts her head in the crook of his neck. They lay wrapped around each other for a long time.
Eventually Izzy ends up holding Jacob’s head to her breasts. The intimacy is soft and warm. A real love, unlike the lie that even now is an empty pit inside her soul.
Jacob’s warm lips touch her nipple; he suckles on it gently. She sighs and turns on the television; she pretends to watch a show, but it’s just background noise. Her mind is cycling through the events on the space station. A thought occurs to her: “You know, I never learned his damn last name,” she says, pulling his head tight to her breast in frustration.
Jacob struggles in her arms, trying to breathe.
Izzy notices his struggle and relaxes her grip on his head, her heart racing.
Jacob nuzzles tightly to her, gently touching her body, his hands wandering, looking for spots that make her heart slow.
Izzy hears a distant voice in her mind: ‘I love you, Izzy.’
“I love you too, Jacob,” she whispers as her heart slows.
They fall asleep in each other’s arms.
