ACROSS TIME

Elle chuckled a little and kissed his cheek softly. When she noticed that before he sat up he was trying to find her she took one of his hands and playfully placed it on her chest, "Is this what you're looking for? Because I'm right here baby," She told him.

~~~

Fay walked back to her and Irving's room very slowly, she was hoping that he still was a sleep, she sighed, feeling ashamed of herself for breaking down like that infront of him.

She opened the door, "Good morning," She told him in an extremely happy voice, as she pulled out clothes for her to wear, her back was towards him and that was the way she planned on keeping it, she was afraid to look at him right now.

The warmth was slowly waking Dominic's brain up, as the sleep mist was calming down from his senses. The concept of waking up in the morning was refreshing and exciting for him, even more so since he got to spend it with Elle.

"Good morning, beautiful." he said softly.

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Irving could tell that Fay was going out of her way to avoid eye contact. He sighed quietly to himself again, and sat up further in bed, keeping the sheets just above his waist.

"So, uh...sleep well?" he said, trying to make small talk.

His hand made Elle shiver a little, "Good morning sexy," She told him, kissing his lips again while moving to sit in his lap, she broke the kiss, smiling, "Oh, I forgot, now that I can drag you out into the sunlight we should go shoping, I need more ammo, and Fay and Irving can't keep taking our clothes, and... I want to go shoping," She told him in one breath.

~~~~

Fay dropped her towel and began putting her clothes on, "I slept fine... How about you?" She asked moving to the mirror and brushing her hair out. She bit her lip a little, her eyes were beginning to water.

Dominic nodded. He wasn't exactly the shopping type, but he wanted as much experience of what "normal" people do on a daily basis as possible. Regardless if he liked it or not, he knew it was something Elle liked and that was enough for him.

"This mall..." he said. "I assume the food there is good?"

He realised this made him sound like somewhat of a glutton, but "normal" food was such a rush to try, when one dines on blood for so many years.

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"That's good..." Irving said quietly. A few tense moments passed by, before he spoke again. "So, umm...you wanna grab some lunch today? I had one of these 'hot dogs' a few days ago and they're pretty damn good. You can get this yellow substance on it...custard, I think. Kinda tangy, but not bad. I could buy you one..."

Elle laughed a little, "Not really," She told him, "And don't get into a rush to eat," She told him, "I don't want you getting fat," She told him poking his stomach a little. She kissed his cheek and rested her head on his shoulder, "You should put some pants on baby," She told him.

~~~

Fay sighed, "I don't know, I really don't feel good," She told him, pulling her hair back into an extremly sloppy bun. She sat down on the bed right next to Irving, "Irving, when you came back into my life, it was the happiest day of my life, you saved me... again..." She told him, "You saved the kids too, you gave your life for me," She sighed.

"Great... Now I'm rambling," She told him. She looked down at her hands, "Every day I wake up with a smile on my face," She told him, "Every time I'm in your arms I feel the same fire in my heart as I did the first time you ever held me..." She told him.

"You are the only man I could ever be with, I mean, I tried to make it work with Johnathan, but..." She told him, "You see where that went," She told him, that conversation, the one about her break up with Johnathan, usually ended there. She never really revieled why the two split up.

"You bring up a good point..." Dominic said, climbing out of bed. "I need to show a little bit of restraint when dealing with this new food."

He smiled and once a pair of black slacks had been zipped up, he kissed his wife's cheek.

"I love the fact I can spend more time with you."

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"I feel the same way about you, Fay..." Irving said. "You're my heart and my soul and once I lost you and the kids, I realized how bad I had screwed up. I never want to do anything like that again. I promise, till the day you grow old and die, I'm going to be right by your side."

He was also curious why her and Johnathan broke up, but figured it would be best not to bring up those bad memories.

Elle still sat on their bed, "So, um, I was thinking, since my family's kind of formal, and the fact that they weren't there for our wedding, I was thinking that you and I should have a more... formal wedding, since, ours was kind of everything I never wanted mine to be, well, besides you, you were everything I ever wanted," She told him while walking into their closet and changed into something presentable.

~~~

Fay sighed, "Yeah," She whispered resting her head on Irving's shoulder, "I miss the kids..." She told him, holding on to him tightly.

"A more formal wedding? Sounds interesting..." he said quietly, rummaging through his own dresser for something to wear. "I rather like the idea. It would be fun to do things a more tradition way."

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"I miss the kids too..." Irving said, kissing his wife's forehead and rubbing the small of her back. "But...that's the beauty of time travel, ya know? We can go right before we left, so to them, it would be as though we never left."

Elle groaned, "Just the thought of planning a wedding and spending all that money is almost enough to make me not want to do it," She told him, exiting the closet in cut off jean shorts and a white t-shirt. She walked up to a mirror, "I wonder what my family's going to think of you," She said putting on a pair of earings.

~~~

Fay looked up at Irving and sighed, "But, what if we can't get back anyway?" She asked, "What if something goes wrong?" She asked.

Dominic and clad himself in a loose fitting black polo, and clean black jeans with white sneakers. Even as a demon, he was still very fond of the color black.

"I would hope they would be a bit more tolerate of me now that I am a demon." he said thoughtfully. "My transformation should make things a bit easier for us."

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"We can't think like that." Irving said, standing up in his boxers, stumbling over to the dresser. "If that happens, then we cross that bridge when we get to it, but...but right now, we have to stay positive. If we go looking for defeat before we've even started, well, there's no sense of starting in the first place then,"

Elle laughed, "Not a chance, I'm the youngest of, well, a lot of kids, though only half of us are still alive, what ever my older siblings, mainly my sisters, did I had to out do them to get attention so I brought home some pretty bad guys, and lets just say that the phrase, "Once bitten twice scared comes to mind,"" She told him.

"Some of them were pretty bad, drugs, alcohol, a couple of hitters, and kickers... and punchers," She told him as she brushed out her hair, "That can actually just discribe one guy," She whispered, absent mindely running the comb through her hair.

~~~

Fay looked away from Irving, "I'm sorry," She whispered, looking down at her hands, "I just can't get those thoughts from my mind, and you don't seem to understand, Irving..." She told him in a sorrow filled voice.

Dominic didn't even know who she was talking about, but already he felt the urge to cause severe bodily harm to this person. It was bad enough all the hell she had to go through with Thorn, but now this?

"What was his name?" he asked.

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"I DO understand, hun...." Irving said, wrapping his arm around his wife. "But I'm trying to help you stay strong, so one of us can at least stand on our own two feet. Everything you're feeling is absolutely right and understandable, but I'm doing what I can to help the both of us through. Without faith, we have nothing."

"He's a demon named Blake, he and I crossed paths a few days ago..." She told him, "I won't tell you anything else," She whispered before walking to the door, "I'll be waiting in the living room, could you see if Fay and Irving are up, or if they want to go?" She asked leaving before she got an answer.

Elle sat down on the couch and closed her eyes, she needed to escape, to find a place where she could just fall and pick herself up when she was ready, not when someone pulled her up on shaky legs just so she could fall a few moments later.

~~~

"No, Irving, you don't understand!" Fay started, pushing away from Irving, "You didn't carry for them for nine months, then go through painful labor which almost killed you! You didn't raise them on your own, barely making enough money to feed them, going weeks at a time with barely any food to keep you alive, if you had any at all, just so they could now have to worry about going hungry," She told him, tears streaming down her cheeks, "They're appart of my heart and my soul. Having them is one of the only damn things I've done that I'm not ashamed of doing in my life. With out them here with me I feel empty and confused, like I'm wondering around aimlessly and people are pushing me in directions they think I should go," She cried.

"...Blake?" Dominic said rather quietly as Fay left. He wanted to ask more, but knew it was difficult to pry any information from her. He sighed again and sat down on the edge of the bed. Why did life have to be so difficult? Again, just when he felt things had hit their groove, his life came tumbling down around him.

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"What, you don't think I don't care about the kids?!" Irving shot back. "I love them, Fay. I want to make sure I'm there for them, so I never leave them again. But crying about it isn't going to help us, now is it? We have to stay strong, for them, for us. I want to pick you up when you fall. We can get through this, we just HAVE to STAY. STRONG."

Fay sighed, her fists were balled up and her nails were digging into the flesh in the palm of her hand, "I never said that!" She nearly shouted. Fay was normally a calm, level headed person, but she was quick to anger sometimes, and when she was angry she didn't cool down too easily, she stood up, "I was saying how you basically tell me it's wrong to feel dred about the future, and that I'm worng for feeling empty without our children!" She told him in a loud voice, "I'm trying to stay fucking strong but I can't Irving! I'M not strong enough! I never was and I never will be! I'm not some brave warior I once thought I was!" She took a deep breath and paused for a second. The silence was painful.

"When the day ends I'm just a mom who thinks she's lost her kids," She told him before looking away, her eyes were squeezed shut. She and Irving never faught like this, well, not since the first time they left the Castle. She had found herself in arguments like this with other men, mainly Johnathan, by looking away from Irving and closing her eyes she was basically preparing for him to hit her, it was something imprinted into her mind. It was a new trait that basically branded her as a broken woman.

"I never said you were wrong..." Irving said quietly, sensing his wife's fear and anger. "But no matter how many tears you shed, it's not going to make the situation any easier. I'm not asking you to be a warrior...I'm asking you to be Fay. At the end of the day, you're still the same woman I fell in love with and I never want to change that."

He paused, fighting back his own tears that wanted to choke up through his throat.

"...but what I am asking you to do is just hang in there. You don't have to be a warrior to be strong. Strength doesn't mean you don't get scared...strength means you get up and do it anyway, even though you are scared. I'm asking you to be strong, Fay. I love you and I wouldn't ask you to be strong unless I thought you could."

Fay looked down at the ground, "I don't want to talk about this anymore," She told him, "You don't even seem like you're trying to understand how I'm feeling," She whispered.

"I'm trying to stay strong, I really am... I just don't have it in me, no matter how hard I try..."

"Look...." Irving said, trying to keep his temper in check. "I'll say this and then we'll drop it...you keep telling me you're not strong? I beg to differ. Look how you survived when I wasn't around...all those lonely nights and strange men and women. It may not have been easy, but you stayed strong. I DO feel the same way you do, but I'm being strong because I have hope. If we don't have hope, then we have nothing."

"I didn't stay strong..." She whispered, "I-I..." She then looked away once more, recomposing herself, "You wouldn't understand unless you experienced it yourself. You married a weak woman, face it," She spat back bitterly before storming out of the room.

When she got to the end of the hall she saw Elle sitting by the window with her eyes closed. She politely cleared her throat, which made Elle jump.

"Oh, sorry Fay... Do you need anything?" She asked, trying to make it seem as if she didn't just hear Fay in Irving shouting back and forth at each other.

"I don't need anything, maybe just some company," She told Elle, sitting down next to her.

Irving sighed and slapped his forehead, dragging his hand down his face. It was a mixture of anger, irritation and pity that was running through his system right now. He was upset, yes, but more surprised over Fay's complete breakdown of character. This wasn't like her, to say the least. He could hear the girls outside his room talking and hoped that maybe they could draw strength from each other.

One thing that was a major flaw of this time, was besides Dominic, Irving had no "guy friends" to hang out with. Grudgingly, he calmly walked past the two girls to Irving, who was busy styling his hair to perfection.

"Hey listen, bud...I was just wondering...how about we go do some guy stuff, huh? Ya know...chase some skirts, drink some booze, raise some ruckus...whadda say?"

Dominic just looked on very confused.

"I'm going to the mall with Elle." he said. "If you want to come, that's fine, but I'm afraid I won't be 'raising any ruckus''.

Fay balled up her fist, "Irving Stone, you even think about looking at another woman in a way I dissaprove you'll be dead before you can say divorce," She snapped before she thought about what she said. This caused her to blush, "Sorry," She whispered.

Elle laughed a little, "Way to take charge Fay, though you're married, not bossing around a slave," She told Fay standing up, "Come on, we should probably get going, the people that use their brains are usually at the mall in the morning." She finished.

Irving opened his mouth to say he was just joking, but the knowing look Dominic gave him made the thief think he should shut his mouth. He felt sick at his stomach, like he could throw up at any moment. This was going to be rough.

"So...this mall..." he said quietly. "...do they have, what are they called....hot dogs there?"

Elle shrugged, "I would guess so... Though, I don't eat things like that, or anything that comes from an animal..." She said as everyone left the appartment. She noticed the look on Irving's face and that he was falling behind from the group.

She let herself fall behind as well and placed her hand on his shoulder, "I have an idea of what's going on between you and Fay, when we get to the mall I want you to come with me, I'll help you clear your head and help fix things between the two of you," She whispered, smiling at him in the way a younger sister would her older brother.

Irving sighed and nodded a bit, happy someone would help.

"Thanks..." he said quietly. "I just don't understand what got into her, it's like she completely imploded on herself..." he said pausing for a second. He sighed again, and caught a quick glance at Fay, before looking back down at his feet.

"Don't let her get to you..." Elle told him, "She's afraid, it's probably something new to her," She placed a hand on his shoulder, "Hold your head up and take charge of the situation, don't tell her to be strong, show her that you can be, for her," She told him.

Fay was walking quickly. She was gazing down at her feet with her arms crossed over her chest, she was mumbling to herself and seemed to be lost in her own world.

Elle walked a little ahead of Irving and draped her arms over Dominic's shoulders before kissing his cheek, "I think I should get one of those little treats for you and I..." She started as she walked in perfect step with him, "You know... The kind of treat used behind closed doors with just you and I, that gets... Oh about five minutes of use before you grow too impaitent..." She whispered in his ear. Her voice trailed off, she didn't really know how to state what she wanted to say without it being completely obvious.