Thread: Let the show begin Date: December 18, All day Characters: Jaime and Rachel Location: From Ohio to Tennessee, and back again Summary: Jaime gives Rachel a birthday she won't soon forget
He was ready. As ready as he would ever be, which wasn't to say he wasn't prepared. No. He was ready.
It was Rachel's birthday and he had everything he planned ready to be set in motion. He'd spent countless hours debating with himself, and asking just about anyone who knew Rachel what she might want. And while all of their suggestions were very good ones, including the suggestion to just ask her what she wanted (something he would definitely do next time around), he hadn't followed any of them. This was their first important celebration as a couple and it had to be perfect. More than that, it had to come from the heart. His heart.
So he wrecked his brain for the answer, spending many nights awake while she slept curled into his side, her head on his chest. Finally, it came to him. He wouldn't just give Rachel a gift for her birthday, he would give her the day itself, so to speak. The only problem was that the only opportune place for all the things he wanted to show or do for her wasn't in Lima, or even Ohio. He'd have to take her all the way to Tennessee, and since a road trip was absolutely out of the question, he had to work on expanding the range of his powers.
And work he did. After an impromptu trip to said state for a weekend, all of his free time was dedicated to creating portals that went from his house to as far as his job, and continuously expanding the range. His training even ran over into his time with his family, friends, and regrettably Rachel, causing him to go to her later in the night and leaving much earlier in the morning than he really wanted to. Opening portals also left him more and more exhausted the further the distances, but he kept at it, knowing the end results would be worth it.
By the time her birthday arrived, Jaime was able to create a portal to take him all the way to one of his main destinations, even though he had to rest and wasn't able to open another portal right afterwards. In an attempt to hide this fact from her, he'd set up a scavenger hunt for Rachel to follow, while he went to the Gibson USA guitar factory in Nashville. It was their first stop of day as a part of his gift to her. Once he was rested and certain that she was getting to the last leg of her scavenger hunt, which led to the deserted auditorium, he opened a spatial disk. These were a lot easier to handle than a full portal and he was able to look in on the auditorium undetected. It was a little surreal looking down on the auditorium from high above the stage, even though he was nearly four hundred miles away.
He smiled when he saw her enter the auditorium and walk onto the stage where he'd set up a lone stool. On top of the stool was a single lavender rose with his final clue attached to it. But the clue wasn't really a clue at all, so much as imploring her to follow him 'down the rabbit hole'. The moment she affirmed that she would, showing her trust in him, he opened a large portal that would lead her straight to him in seconds.