* * *

Sarah drew in a sharp breath, eyes locked on the dead body lying in the alley. Her feet felt stuck to the grimy pavement. Add one point into the ‘not a dream’ column.

If a dream, this thing was aiming for an outstanding prize in realism.

A trembling hand clenched the gun handle tighter. The other wiped the sweat from her temple.

“Phoenix.” Hearing Pegasus’ voice snapped her out of it.

She whirled to look at him.

Still there. Still alive.

He had one hand keeping his prisoner steady, but now his free hand was outstretched to her.

When she didn’t react, he pointed at the gun.

Movement unleashed, she caught up to him, handing the gun over without protest. She trailed behind him the rest of the way, no longer willing to take her eyes off him.

They were met by Mermaid near the front of the building, who took the prisoner. “What’s going on?”

Pegasus waved her off, returning to Sarah. When he came close, Sarah reached out and grabbed his forearm, squeezing tightly. He tensed underneath her touch, but didn’t pull away. She felt her eyes tearing up again.

He said something to her, but she couldn’t quite hear. She waited for him to repeat himself, but he gestured towards the vans instead.

Sarah started walking. That was a simple enough direction to follow.

All the while, Pegasus was talking on the com, likely to Cypher and Griffon, warding off questions about her by the amount of sharp ‘I don’t know’s he had to dish out before they’d even taken ten steps.

Coming from behind, Griffon intercepted them halfway to one of the vans.

Pegasus directed her to keep going, tossing their leader another irritated-sounding “I don’t know yet.”

Under Griffon’s scrutiny, Sarah didn’t dare move.

Yeah, +1 for not a dream again for that look right there.

Pegasus walked on, taking hold of Sarah’s arm and pulling her in tow when she was unwilling to brush past Griffon. Sarah went along with it for lack of options.

Pegasus opened the back of the van, ordered someone out, pulled her inside, and closed the door behind them. When Sarah sat down, he took a seat facing her, pulling his mask off in one swift motion. His hair stuck out at odd angles, but Sarah didn’t have it in her to laugh. He reflexively ran his fingers through the mess, but it didn’t help.

Frowning, he took in her disarray from the top of her disheveled hair to the bottom of her bare feet—which he seemed to find particularly confusing.

An icy blue gaze pierced her. “Prove to me you’re you.”

Startled by the demand—and it was a demand—she could have laughed. Of course that’s what he’d think with her showing up where she wasn’t supposed to be.

“How far back?” She racked her brain for what a window of opportunity to switch her out for an impostor would have been.

He scoffed, reacting to something he’d heard over the com. “You haven’t been out of our sight until today.”

Sarah nodded to herself, only mildly surprised. By his reaction, he’d suspected as much.

“So anything will do?”

He nodded, staring at her expectantly. His hand lay next to his gun, but under the circumstances, she didn’t take offense. In fact, she was surprised he wasn’t already keeping her under aim.

“You said you didn’t mind waking up to a nice surprise,” she said, cursing herself for the choice the next instant.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

She caught the briefest of smiles and a hint of relief, right before he rolled his eyes at something over the com.

“It does.” A deep breath escaped him with a muttered, “I need a minute.”

He turned off his com.

Sarah was fine with keeping quiet, her mind was still trying to process the entire thing. Or she hoped it was. She couldn’t pick out one single coherent thought in the entire mess. It all felt like static.

Was now when she’d wake up and find it was nothing more than a do-over dream? Her eyes started watering again. Every passing second that she got to see him made her more terrified that this was the dream.

“You saved my life.” He leaned forward. “Not that I’m not grateful, but what in hell are you doing here?”

Should she lie or tell the truth?

It was hard to think of an explanation that didn’t sound insane.

But if this were a dream, did it matter?

Honestly, if this was the dream, she’d rather hug him. If this was real, she wanted to hug him even more. But dream or not, he didn’t look like he’d let her. His hand still had to come away from the gun.

“How did you know where we were?”

“I didn’t, not really. At least, I hoped I didn’t. Or I guess I hoped I did.”

“Are you trying to sound like me on purpose? I need a better explanation for what you’re doing here.” He waved a hand to encompass her appearance, stopping with a pointed look at her feet. “And like that.”

“I was here last time.” She sucked in a breath. “I don’t wanna wake up.”

She wiped at her eyes, the despair coming back full force.

This had to be a dream. The bad things were real, and right now there was nothing worse than Pegasus being dead.

“You’re not dreaming.” For the first time, he sounded concerned.

Sarah laughed despite herself. If a dream told you you weren’t dreaming, would you believe it?

“I promise you’re not dreaming.” He reached out and squeezed her hands. “You’re here, in this horribly smelly van, with a very confused, but very real, me.”

The van really was smelly. Another point for real. What was the score now?

She wanted to pull a hand away so she could wipe the fresh tears, but he wouldn’t let go.

“Start at the beginning.” He asked it of her so calmly that she couldn’t help try.

“You were dead.” It was so odd saying it aloud, but there it was. That’s why she was there. That’s why she thought this might be a dream. Why she was still so terrified it might be.

He gave her hands a squeeze. “Maybe start a little more at the beginning than that.”

Sarah pleaded with her eyes, but it was useless. She didn’t want to say it, but she probably couldn’t sound any crazier if she tried. “I had a nightmare…”

The word nightmare had no visible effect on him. Maybe he hadn’t realized where this was going yet.

Sarah wet her lips. Her mouth felt dry. “In this nightmare, we’d been called to a department store where suspected New Nation terrorists had taken hostages. I was on a building top with a view of the hostages. A plane went by at some point and Mermaid was questioning how many terrorists there were. I heard you say you had a runner.”

Pegasus’ expression changed immediately. Sarah couldn’t look away, trapped by the intensity in his gaze.

Sarah almost jumped from her seat when someone banged on the door.

Pegasus remained undisturbed.

The banging came again, louder this time, as if someone were trying to break down the side of the van.

“I need a minute!” Pegasus shouted. “Or maybe an hour,” he added beneath his breath, gesturing she continue.

More tears rolled down her cheek, but she didn’t want to pull her hands from his now, didn’t want to let go of him. “I heard you say you’d gotten the runner, and then there was a shot. Three shots total. Cypher said you were down. I couldn’t see you, but then when I went over and looked…”

The horrible agony from that moment reverberated through her as if a fresh gaping wound where her heart should be.

“You were dead.” She drew his hands towards her, his warmth the closest thing to proof that it had all been imagined.

Pegasus remained a statue, she couldn’t tell what he was thinking. “When was this nightmare?”

“Last night… or this morning.” Except she hadn’t been asleep.

“And that’s why you came here?”

She nodded. “I know it sounds crazy.”

“Did someone tell you where we were?”

“No.” Not exactly. “Michael did say department store, and I asked if it was the one near the airport.”

“Then how did you know exactly where to find us?”

“I remembered from the nightmare. And I knew where you were because I remembered the alley. I looked for the building I recognized and tried to find the right alley.”

Silence.

“When I got here, it was just like my dream.”

“Except I didn’t die.”

The image came unbidden, seeing him lying there in her mind’s eye, a perfect replay of the memory she’d been trying to escape. The despair was still there, an echo of before. Pegasus sitting right there, holding her hands, went a long way to dull the feeling.

Sarah brought his hands to her forehead, closing her eyes. “I want this to be real.”

“This is real.”

Some rational part of her brain disagreed. There’s no way she could have known about this mission in such detail before it happened.

Pegasus pulled their hands back, freeing one of his hands only to offer it back to her. “Take my pulse, I’m alive.”

She pressed her fingers to his wrist and waited, hoping it would ease her worries.

Her own pulse was distracting, pounding away until she could almost hear it. “I can’t feel anything.”

“We’re both dead then.” He smiled, unrepentant.

Removing his bulletproof vest, he placed her hand on his chest, over his heart. She couldn’t feel anything for a second, but there it was, strong and constant. Her breathing started slowing unconsciously to match his, but doubt crept in.

Wasn’t her mind more than capable of imagining a beating heart?

Pegasus pressed her hand harder against his chest. “Even if you don’t think you can believe me, take it as real and it will be real.”

It was so ridiculous, she laughed. But it was what she wanted to do.

“I’m not dreaming.” Taking that to be true, she allowed everything else to fall into place.

If this was real, then he was alive because of what she’d seen. However impossible, that would be the only explanation. The alternative would be living in a world where he was gone forever.

She didn’t want that world.