by Christy Shorey and you

ARCHIVE: NOV. 15 edited for spelling and grammar

2371 words

Margot wasn't feeling well. She had been pushing herself too hard at work, trying to impress them with her receptionist skills, and still find time to search through records and the latest reports and research to see if she could find anything useful. She made copies of the most interesting and promising bits when she dared, and examined them at home, after Dresden left. When he was there, she aided in his search of a rapidly growing number of books, mostly labeled as fiction or literature, even some of the more current fantasy titles, when they looked promising.

She was grateful to have found such an eager helper in Dresden, and she hardly had to use any external means to persuade him to help her. He seemed genuinely interested in the topic, and she had noticed, in her.   But his constant presence at the house had given her little time to rest, even to revert to the less draining form of the golden retriever. She finally had to give in, and go back to her full dragon form to rest while he was still there. Luckily Kyle had once again taken care of her, and seen Dresden safely out. She was pleasantly surprised that he had remembered to lock the door.

Her dreams that night were of some of her more disturbing memories, and she woke early, and restless. *Kyle* she thought, and was graced with a sleepy looking, rumpled haired youth at her bedroom door.

He gave a yawn. "Need to go for a walk?"

*Yes,* Margot thought at him. *And I should still try to go to work today. Sorry for waking you."

Kyle shrugged, and trudged back to his room to get dressed. While he was gone she put her energy into changing into the dog form. It would be an easier step later to go to her current human guise from the intermediate step.

Once Kyle was ready and had her harness in place, they headed out into the pre-dawn neighborhood. Most of the houses were still, it's occupants still tucked in. There were a few long-distance commuters leaving their homes, and a random assortment of pets wandering around the neighborhood. Most of them steered clear of Kyle and Margot, but there was one cat, a black and white who looked like he was wearing a tuxedo, and a chunk taken out of his ear. The collar on his neck belied his tough tomcat appearance, and proclaimed him as "Shakespeare", which made Margot snort.

The tough looking cat glared up at her for the sound, which issued as a small bark, and hissed at her. Margot quickly turned her head. Apparently the rugged look of a stray cat wasn't enough to earn respect - the honorable "Shakespeare" had breath that could only have been achieved by scavenging trash cans - or by consuming well meaning but unfortunate selection of canned food. Margot took a few steps away from the cat which made it his again.

"What's wrong, little kitty," Kyle said, leaning down to pet the cat. Shakespeare sniffed his hand, and then rubbed against it. Kyle got closer, and the cat meowed at him. Kyle recoiled "Whoa, death breath," he said, vigorously rubbing his nose.

*Let's cut this walk short* Margot suggested, and Kyle didn't protest. As they walked away from the cat, it hissed one last time for good measure, then disappeared into the hedges, feeling its territory had been finally secured.

Back at the apartment, Margot told Kyle to go back to bed. *Dresden should be over at ten, be sure to let him in, and see to whatever he needs.*

Kyle nodded, and trudged back to his room, rubbing his nose. Margot headed back to her room to change. Not only was work frustrating, but while Dresden had been a dedicated worker, his searches had likewise not found anything of use.

And all her dreams from the night previous had been of her rival; the one who had cursed her. She knew from experience over time and space that that meant trouble.

****

The chair Logan sat in was still warm from Lacey's last customer. Lacey sat next to him on her stool, and he could tell that if she weren't holding his hand, she would be crossing her arms. She looked a bit dismayed when he had shown up at the shop, but it then he had been the one who had to request to take an early lunch because she had overslept.

He looked her over, as he had many days in the past weeks, trying to determine if she was the threat his memories were warning him about. The green streaks in her hair were darker than when he had first met her; she had disappeared one afternoon to the salon to get that done, leaving him to deal with a particularly violent memory. He had only woken from it when she had returned, and he was dismayed to see the damage he had done to his room while he was lost in the memory.

Her eyes were focused on something on the wall behind him, and her lips were pursed. He knew his living with her had thrown off her pattern, and it seemed to frustrate her when he would question her revelations. Every time he did, she gave a huff, and then revealed the real truth. It seemed that lying was second nature to her, and he wanted to know why, but was afraid the reason she hadn't revealed more about herself was that she was the one who had banished him to all the lives he had lived.

But looking at her now, she looked more tired than menacing. He knew he was a difficult roommate, his college roommate had lasted only three weeks before requesting a transfer. He went through four roommates before the RA, tired of dealing with the complaints, had asked if he would like a single room that had just opened up.

"What?" Lacey asked, dragging him back to the present.

"Hum?"

"You were staring at me with this stupid smirk on your face. I figured you were plotting something or had suddenly realized you loved me, or something."

Logan tipped his head to one side, trying to work out how she had come to the second conclusion. "Which would you prefer?"

"Neither," she said, with a sigh, and let go of his hand. She moved to stand behind him, resting a hand on his shoulder. "And stop smirking."

"I'm sorry, I hadn't realized I was." Logan was amused by her anger, which was one of the traits that had made so many roommates frustrated with him. He did his best to suppress it, to put his mind back to the track it had been on before. After a few moments, he gave a sigh. "I suppose I ought to tell you that I have decided that I am reasonably certain that you are not the cause of my reliving life over and over."

Lacey snorted at that, but didn't say anything more.

"What?" Logan said, turning a bit to try to see her.

She rolled her eyes at him. "A, you're only just realizing that? and b, the way you said it had more turns than a mountain road, you almost lost me between the beginning and the end of the sentence."

"Whatever. I just wanted to tell you that I trust you, well, more than I trust anyone else."

"Good to know," she said, and turned so she was facing away from him.

He gave another sigh. If she was going to behave like this, he thought, it might be better to tell her later about the dreams. He had been pondering it for the past several days, and had decided it was time to let her in on why he didn't ever remember the dreams they supposedly shared.

"I'm sorry," Lacey said suddenly. "I'm, well, it's been not the best day. I always get cranky when I oversleep."

"And?"

Lacey smacked him with the palm of her free hand. "I hate when you do that," she said, and he could hear the pout in her voice. "The dreams with you in them are still happening, and I feel like there is something more that I'm supposed to do to help you, but I can't figure out what."

"Well, maybe there is something you can do," Logan said, his hand drifting up towards the necklace he always wore. It was warm against his skin, something that had made him uncomfortable the first time he had woken from a memory to discover it. This was it, he had decided he trusted her, and he would explain about his collecting dreams.

A light above the door flashed seconds before the alarm kicked in, crying danger to the building's occupants. Logan jumped up at the sound of the fire alarm, but was tugged back down by Lacey, who didn't let go of his shoulder.

"What," she shouted to be heard over the alarm. "What can I do to help?"

Logan looked from the fire alarm, back to Lacey's determined face. "Shouldn't we leave?"

"We will, once you tell me what I can do to help." The sprinkler system kicked in.

"Can I give you the short version?" Logan tried to stand up again, and managed to get untangled from the chair, but not free from Lacey's grasp.

"Sure, but you can't back out on the rest later."

"Fine, fine," The whining of the alarm was starting to get to Logan. It felt as if his teeth might rattle free. And if they stayed too much longer in the sprinkler, the silk shirt he was wearing would be ruined. He reached up and pulled the necklace over his head. He held it out to her. "Wear this, and then during the day, touch as many people as you can."

Lacey looked from the necklace to him and back. Several rounds of the alarm passed before she said, "Okay." She took the necklace and looked surprised. "It's so warm," she said, and put it on as Logan pulled her from the room.

"That's because it's a small electronic device of some sort," he said, looking up and down the hall, trying to decide if they should go out the front or back.

Lacey pushed past him, and started towards the back door. Logan rushed to keep up with her.

"What does it do?" she said.

"It collects dreams."

Lacey stopped suddenly at this, and Logan walked into her. "I'll explain later, I promise, but the place is on fire, we're soaked, and I don't want to end up a crispy critter."

Lacey nodded, and led them out of the building.

****

Dresden arrived at Margot's house early. Sally had woken up and was apparently having speaking lessons in the next room as Raul tried to teach her manners. But squawking renditions of "Please get outta my way" and "Feed me now, please" were not something to sleep by. Dresden had hoped to see Margot before she left for work, to let her know about his returning to the school, and to give her an overview of what he had found the night before, but when he knocked there was no answer.

He sat in his car up the street from her place, and found the morning in the neighborhood so calm and quiet that he drifted in and out of sleep. When he woke once he saw a blond kid walking a golden retriever. His eyes were bleary from sleep, but something about the dog seemed off. It seemed that the dog was leading the boy more than vice versa. Dresden blinked and the boy resolved himself into Kyle.

Lost in a yawn, Dresden settled in to sleep a little more. He wasn't expected for a few hours at Margot's place, and he had probably just arrived before she was awake. He set his watch alarm to wake him in time to catch her leaving, and set his mind to ask if Kyle had gotten a dog, or if he was walking a neighbor's as a favor.

***

Dresden awoke several hours later, and discovered that the battery on his watch had died while he was dozing. He gave a sigh and ran his hand through his hair. He yawned and stretched, and headed up to the place Margot and Kyle shared.

Kyle opened the door, after the first knock, but he looked about as tired as Dresden felt. "Did you get a dog, Kyle?"

Kyle shook his head with a yawn. "Nope," he said. "You're books are all on the top of the stack like you asked. And Margot says there is a problem in her bathroom, the cabinet got busted."

"Okay, thanks. I'll work on the cabinet later, you can go back to bed if you want."

Kyle nodded, and left Dresden to the books. Dresden found the most promising passage from the night before; a story about curses set upon five brothers, one of them was changed into a girl in order to learn to respect the fairer sex, and set out on a mission to reverse his condition. Dresden pulled out his notebook, and started to take down the important passages.

Dresden didn't mind the searching, and really enjoyed reading the stories in the books Margot had acquired, some of them rare or very old. However, he was beginning to think that Margot had just given him the task to keep him busy during the days he was there. Every time he took her his findings, she would look over it, as though considering it, then shake her head, saying that wasn't exactly what she was looking for. But she wouldn't express what exactly it was she WAS looking for, leading him to believe it was nothing more than an elaborate goose chase that gave her an excuse to "hire" him.

He hoped that wasn't the case, because if so, then when his suspension was over, she would suddenly no longer require his services. And he did really like her, and didn't want to loose his excuse to come over every day.