Second Chances

Brian sat on the living-room sofa, looking out the window.

He heard the soft murmur of voices fade, heard the bedroom door open and close, heard Jennifer pause as she came into the room.

“It’s going to be a beautiful and sunny day,” he said, without even turning to face her.

“Brian, I don’t want to be responsible for your death.”

Brian looked up to find her studying his face. Her eyes were impossibly sad.

He knew what Jennifer was going to say next, and sure enough, as he looked back toward the window, she said it.

“I’m going to do it.” Her words seemed to hang in the stillness.

Brian fixed his gaze firmly out the window as he nodded. “That’s good,” he said. “That’s what Jenn wants.” He straightened his back and forced himself to look at Jennifer. “It’s what I want too.”

She just gazed at him. She looked so tired, so unhappy, he wanted to reach for her, to comfort her. He wanted her to comfort him.

“She loves you, you know,” Jennifer finally said, sitting beside him on the sofa. “She has for years.”

Brian shook his head. “She’s only known me for less than a week. The Brian she’s known for years was in an unhappy marriage.”

“Leighanne.” Jennifer gave him one of Jenn’s half smiles.

“Do you know who she is?”

“No---but I advise you not to marry her.”

“All right,” Brian said. “I won’t.”

“Good.” She smiled again. “Poor Leighanne. Little does she realize her entire destiny has just been altered.”

“Think of the alimony payments you just saved me.”

Brian laughed, and the smile Jennifer gave him was one of her own---full and warm and filled with pleasure.

But it faded too quickly as they sat for a moment in silence.

“Would you mind…” she started, then stopped.

Brian didn’t say a word. He just waited.

“Would you mind very much if I admitted that I’m….scared?”

He shook his head. “No. I would be….honored…that you shared that with me.”

“I keep wondering if this is really the right thing to do. It feels so wrong to give up all those years of research and…I can’t keep from thinking what if there’s something I’ve missed. What if there’s some way….? Jenn and I could develop the Wells Project on our own.”

“With what funding?” Brian asked quietly. “According to Jenn, even NASA had to go to outside sources to get the money necessary to build the Enterprise.”

“Maybe….private investors.” Jennifer was reaching for answers now. “I have some connections…..”

“And if you used those connections, James Dixon and Merlin would be able to track you down. And then we’d be right back here, right where we started.”

Jennifer sat for a moment in silence. “It’s just….It’s hard for me to quit.”

“It’s not quitting. It’s foreseeing a dead end and choosing a different path.”

“I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do. How I’m supposed to….”

“Just decide,” he said. “Picture yourself taking another route to the future.”

“All right,” she said, straightening her shoulders, steeling herself. “I’ll submit my resignation to NASA first thing tomorrow morning. I’ll go back to school, finish up my medical degree. Do you think that’s really all it’s going to take? A simple decision? Because I’ve done it. I’ve decided.”

It took all of Brian’s willpower not to glance over his shoulder at the hallway that led to the bedrooms. Was Jenn already gone? Would it happen just like that?

But then there was a bang as the bedroom door was pushed open.

Jenn came into the hallway, hopping out to meet them. The movement jarred her injured leg and made lines of pain stand out around her mouth.

“It’s happened.” She looked from Brian to Jennifer. “I can feel it. I feel….different. So why the hell am I still here?” she said, then collapsed onto the floor in a crumpled heap.

next chapter