InsaneJournal

WHO: Tessa & Zach
WHAT: Going Home
WHEN: Post-kryptonite
WHERE: Hospital
WARNINGS: None


Zach woke and in the next moment, his monitor, oxygen machine, and the lights nearby all shorted out. A moment later, in the dark, he swore. “Oh man.. that sucked!” He groaned as he sat up pulling the oxygen tube out the electrodes off, and then dropping them to one side as he choked a little. “Tessa? Nurse? Hello?” He felt incredible, now. Even as he felt like something was missing.

Tessa jerked awake at the sound of her name. “Zach? You shouldn’t--” But he’d already pulled off the medical paraphernalia. She sat up, tried to stretch the kinks out of her neck from sleeping slumped in the chair, and pulled him into her arms for a quick hug. The nurses would be in soon enough when they realized his monitors were no longer monitoring. “You shouldn’t freak the nurses out like that.”

He hugged her tight, then sighed. “Sorry, but they hurt, or at least the one down my throat did.” He shuddered. He remembered only nightmare patches of the last few days. “As soon as I can get checked up, I wanna go home.” He kissed her nose, then smiled softly. “I need to thank my beautiful nurse.”

"I know," she said, " but they were a necessary evil." She smiled back at him. "Just you wait. They should be here to make sure you're not dead in about three, two..."

And there came the invasion. Several minutes of explaining, apologies, physicals checks, hmms and haws, then an actual doctor coming in to perform checks, and he was irritable by the time it reached the crazy point and… he suddenly realized the feeling of power he was used to, and used to holding off, was gone. Now he felt a certain energy about him that he recognized as the thunder and lightning powers, but… nothing else. He was stunned long enough to cooperate, and that made them happy. A few moments more and he was suddenly free. He sighed as the doctor and nurses left, busy as heck this morning, and he slumped back,. then turned his head to her. “Something’s different.”

"I know," she said, glancing at the door as if to make sure there were no more impending interruptions. "The question is...how much different?"

“A lot of the power is gone… the overwhelming sense of immensity. And yet…” His eyes flickered and he nodded. “I can sense your and my fates and no one else’s. And we are both still immortal.” He raised a hand and lightning crackled over it. “And I possess the thunderbolt still, but little else, I think.”

He grinned at her. “Save the memories.”

An then he flowed to a perfect copy of her, forgetting his sheet was at his waist, glanced down, colored, then grinned at her before changing back.

“And that…”

she smiled, her eyes taking in the image of herself, and then of Zach. She might have wept to learn that he was mortal again, though she would not have loved him any less. She leaned in and kissed him soundly on the mouth. "My Zach. I cannot wait to have you home again."

He groaned and kissed her back.”Then let’s get out of here.” He slipped out of bed carefully, for legs not used to standing for a few days. ”We can fill out the paperwork and then go home” he was eager too, very eager. It had been too long.

A short time dressing, and then filling out paperwork, and they were headed outside. “Did you have a chance to bring your car, or not?” He had been so out of it, he did not know if she had gone home at all.

“Yeah. I had one of my brothers pick me up, so I could shower, and bring the car back. We’re good to go.” She pointed toward the visitor lot. “It’s just down there.”

“Good.” He grinned and walked with her and then slid into the car. He wasn’t sure what was going to happen next, but he knew that he was happy with Tessa. “Lets go close out my old place and finish moving my stuff in.” He was done with waiting. Time moved forward, and it was time for him to do the same.

“Right now?” Tessa asked, raising her brows at him. She seemed to recall him saying something to that effect before she’d brought him to the hospital, though, so apparently it wasn’t just the fever talking. “Okay.”

“Right now. It’s time to put the past behind me. You’re my future and in one month, you’ll be my wife. There’s nowhere I’d rather be.”

Zach nodded. It was time.

Tessa nodded, and steered the car toward Zach’s place. Zach’s old place. “I love you so much.”

“And I love you too, Tessa, My dearly beloved fiance...”

~fin~