Chapter 24: Chapter 24

By the time Seth returned and got the truck fixed, with minimal help from the other guys, it was getting dark, and he was clearly worn out. After he’d nearly veered off of the road twice due to his exhaustion, Rain and Mist were able to convince him to pull over at the next town and find a hotel. Since he refused to let anyone else drive and clearly couldn’t do that himself at the moment, Seth had reluctantly agreed.

This hotel wasn’t as fancy as the one they’d stayed in at Louis City, but it was clean and off the beaten path. Every time they stopped for any reason, they were all frightened that the Mothers might catch up to them. Rumor had it that all of them had returned to Michaelanburg to fight off the attack from the south, but Rain wasn’t sure. She didn’t think the Mothers would give up on finding them quite that easily. By Seth’s calculations, they should be crossing into the Nation of Quebec the next day, but that didn’t mean that their problems had ended. If anything, they’d just begun.

Whether or not he planned to go with them across the border, she wasn’t sure. As she hauled her backpack down the hall to their room, she tried to envision an easy transition from where they were now, somewhere in yet another no-man’s-land, and the highly organized, militarized, closely governed nation to the north.

“All right,” Seth said, a keycard in his hand. “They only had one room, but it has two bedrooms and a large living room with a couch that turns into a bed.” He unlocked the door and pushed it open as if everything he’d just said wasn’t a problem.

Rain’s eyebrows arched as she looked at Mist, but her friend was concentrating on Walt, clearly excited to be sharing a bedroom with him. If Rain could talk the other woman into sleeping in the same bed as her, that would make life a lot easier for her, but of course, Mist wasn’t thinking about that.

They all stepped inside and had a look around. They were in the living room area, and Seth was right, it was large. Off to one end of the room was a door that she assumed led to one bedroom; the other door was directly in front of them.

“We’ll take this one!” Mist said, grabbing hold of Walt’s arm and dragging him to the door closest to them.

Rain stared after her, her mouth agape and her eyes large as well.

Seth was shaking his head, words not necessary. They all knew that the pair wouldn’t want to discuss eating something, watching television, catching up on the news, anything. They’d just want to get into bed as quickly as possible.

Moving toward the couch, Seth removed the pillows and slid a coffee table out of way. “You guys can have the other room,” he said, setting about transforming the couch into a bed.”

“Are you… sure?” Adam asked, looking from Seth to Rain and then back again. He stepped over to help Seth pull the couch out.

“Yeah, of course,” he said, as if it was a given that that was what they’d all want. Rain knew that she and Adam had been very careful about showing signs of affection in front of Seth, so she didn’t see how he would’ve picked up on their true feelings for one another.

Not knowing what to do, Rain just stood there, watching them set up the bed. She knew Seth was exhausted and just wanted to get some rest, even though he probably would’ve wanted to take a shower if he’d had the energy for it. Once the bed was set up, he dropped onto it and let out a loud sigh.

Seeing as though he clearly didn’t want to further discuss the arrangement, Rain swallowed hard and said, “Well, uh, goodnight then, Seth.”

“Night,” he said, his tone conveying there was certainly something bothering him but he didn’t want to talk about it.

She looked at Adam, and he shrugged, so Rain stepped around the misplaced coffee table and headed for the other door. On the way, she spotted a bathroom with a toilet and a shower, so if Seth decided he wanted to take a shower after all, he’d be able to without disturbing any of them.

The bedroom was a good size, and the bed was large. Rain took her backpack off and set it on the floor next to the bed. Adam stepped into the room but didn’t close the door all the way behind him. When she looked at him, he was standing there, knob in hand, a question mark on his face. He wanted to know if she thought he should close it or leave it open so that Seth wouldn’t make any assumptions. “Close it,” she said, trying not to make it seem like she was saying anything more than that the door should be closed. It just seemed to make sense that the door would be closed. One more barrier to any Mothers that might show up…. One more barrier to snorers or people wandering to that bathroom across the hall in the middle of the night.

But they had their own bathroom, so she had to assume that Mist and Walt did, too. Sitting on the edge of the bed, she took her boots off and sighed, stretching her back. Adam dropped his backpack on the floor and then headed toward the restroom. He didn’t hesitate to close that door.

Rain bit back a laugh. He seemed nervous, which was funny because they’d slept next to each other so many times. Just because they’d admitted they loved each other earlier in the day, that didn't change anything--did it?

Regardless of the size of the rooms or the space between them, sounds from the bedroom next door filtered through the wall, and there was no way she could deny any more that things had also changed between herself and Adam.

He came out of the bathroom a few minutes later, his hair damp. She hadn’t heard the shower, so she had to assume he’d been splashing water on his face. When she went to the bathroom, she took her bag with her so that she could brush her teeth and change clothes, putting on a pair of shorts and a T-shirt.

It seemed stupid to be nervous about sleeping with Adam. First of all, there was no reason to assume anything was going to happen between them that night, and secondly it wasn’t as if they’d never had intercourse before. Of course, it was under completely different circumstances, and she was certain, if they were to do it again--that night or any other night--it would be much different than it was back at IW, but still… that was nothing to be so nervous about, was it?

She’d spent a lot of time in the bathroom and assumed Adam was probably wondering if she was all right by the time she came out. He had his toothbrush sitting next to him on the bed and was reading a magazine that had been on the nightstand. “See this guy?” he said as she approached.

Rain looked at the cover of the magazine, which showed a man in a nice suit with a tie, sort of like the outfits the guys at the dance had been wearing. “Yeah….”

“He’s a lawyer,” Adam said. “He fights to defend people who have been wrongly accused of a crime.”

“Okay….” Rain sat down next to him, not sure what he was getting at.

Adam set the magazine aside. “Can you believe that? A man representing people in court--even representing women! He graduated from college and then went on to law school, Rain. He’s educated, and he’s really successful, too. They say he’s one of the top lawyers in all of the Nation of Quebec.”

Understanding what he was getting at, Rain smiled at him. “That’s quite an accomplishment.”

“I know.” Adam ran his hands through his hair and took a deep breath. “It’s just all so much to accept, isn’t it? That it’s possible for men to do whatever they want? To be whatever they want. I can hardly comprehend it.”

She put her hand on his arm. “I know. It is hard to understand. But… that’s where we’re headed.” She didn’t need to remind him that they probably wouldn’t be staying there, not for long anyway. But after they had finished their business in Michaelanburg, they could go back, and then, things would be different.

Adam got up and took his toothbrush, headed toward the bathroom. “I think I want to go to college someday,” he said, more to himself than to her.

“That’s a great idea,” she said, pulling the blanket and sheet down off of the corner of the bed. He disappeared into the bathroom, and she climbed in, no longer worried about what might happen when he came back but concentrating more on what was to happen in the distant future, after they returned to Michaelanburg and defeated the Mothers, once and for all.

When he came back into the room, Rain realized she’d dozed off for a few moments. Adam had turned the lights off and was climbing into bed on the other side, and she hadn’t even heard him come out of the bathroom.

“Sorry,” he said quietly. “Didn’t mean to wake you.”

“No, it’s fine,” she assured him. “I was only half asleep.” Was that true? She really didn’t know how long she’d been asleep or how deeply, only that she’d lost a few minutes of time.

Next to them, Mist and Walt were being so loud, it seemed like it would be impossible for anyone to sleep. But then, Rain was used to that by now. Adam chuckled slightly but didn’t say anything about them. “It’s nice to be in a bed,” he said.

“I bet it is.” While she had spent the night before in the truck, she’d been in the hotel room not long before that.

“It’s still weird to be in a bed where I can look out and not have to worry about breathing in chemicals,” he said, turning on his side to see her. Enough light filtered through the part in the curtains that she could see him. It was a big bed, and there was plenty of space between them, which she wasn’t particularly excited about.

“How are your bruises?” she asked quietly, hoping not to bring up something he didn’t want to talk about but also genuinely concerned. When she’d seen the large bruises on his backside from day after day of shots designed to make sure he was able to perform as an inseminator in the Insemination Ward, she’d been appalled at how painful they looked.

“Better,” he said, giving her a reassuring smile. “Before too much longer, they’ll fade away completely.”

It was too bad the memories of what he’d gone through wouldn’t fade away so quickly.

Adam reached over and ran his hand across her cheek, brushing her hair back over her shoulder. The feel of his touch was comforting. She caught his wrist in her palm and both of them scooted closer to one another.

She had no idea when he might be ready to replace the memories of the forced interactions they’d had in Michaelanburg with something real, something they both chose, but when Adam’s lips found hers, she thought maybe it would be sooner than she’d imagined. He kissed her even more intensely than he had while they were waiting on the truck repairs, his hand cupping the side of her face. Rain closed the distance between them, gently placing her hands on his chest. Thoughts of that book cover came to mind, the one that Mist had found in the cellar. She remembered being confused about how a woman could want a man to touch her the way that man was touching that woman. No confusion clouded her mind when Adam rested his forehead against hers and in a gruff whisper said, “I want to touch you, Rain.”

She wanted him to touch her. Wherever, however he wanted to touch her, that’s how she wanted to be touched. Rather than tell him in words, Rain pressed her lips to his, and Adam understood that she wanted to be touched, that she was ready to move past the facade the Motherhood had built around what the physical act of love was meant to be and explore what bodies were meant to do together.

As Adam’s hands danced across her flesh, his body moving with hers, enveloping hers, his mouth on her mouth, each touch, each caress bringing her to life in ways Rain had never imagined possible, she closed her eyes and let him become her world, washing away all of the nightmares from before she’d understood her place in the world. No shadow of a doubt filled her mind, as the two of them came together, that she was meant to be with Adam, that he was everything she’d been missing from herself in the lies that the Mothers had been telling all of them since they were taken from glastic incubators at nine months past conception.

They moved together as one, barely a whisper between them, knowing and understanding one another’s needs and desires. As the lies and misconceptions faded away, Rain finally understood why it was sometimes called making love. She’d never felt closer to another person in her entire life than she felt to Adam. Opening her eyes a sliver, she saw that he felt the same way as he moved on top of her, Rain’s legs wrapped tightly around his hips.

When they’d both finished, and she found herself nestled against his chest, there was no sense of duty performed or a task checked off of a list as there had been from her scheduled trips to IW. There was only the satisfaction of knowing they’d found solace in each other’s arms and met each other’s needs.

Adam was still breathing heavily, his heart pounding beneath her ear as Rain wrapped her arm around his chest. He ran his fingers through her hair and kissed the top of her head.

She kissed his muscle that had been beneath her cheek, the barrier between herself and his heart. “Are you all right?” she whispered.

“I’m… perfect,” he replied quietly. “That was… definitely not what I’m used to.”

She bit back a laugh. “Me neither,” she agreed. Having his hands on her, giving him the freedom to move and help set the rhythm, even allowing him to be on top where he could have more control, had made a huge difference for her. Just knowing he was free to do as he pleased--which included stopping at any time--was enough to bring a smile to her face.

“I love you, Rain,” he said in a groggy voice.

“I love you, too, Adam.” His arms were still around her, and they would fall asleep together without anyone dictating what they could or could not do. For a few moments, the world truly was perfect.