Slowly he took another sip of the fiery liquid and rested his head on his arm.

"Ahh....sire?"

"No...I don't plan to go to bed just yet Rosencrants. And don't come to my room tomorrow at the crack of dawn."

"Sire."

Derek threw back another gulp of brandy and groaned. He wanted to forget, everything, the past and the future. Everything!

Derek suddenly jerked his head upwards.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

The tall shadow moved forward and settled down in front of Derek.

"Alcohol…really doesn't help clear your mind mate."

Derek moaned and rested his head on the table.

"Just tell me what you're doing here Jacob."

His friend placed a small black carved stone on the table. "Debts to be repaid my brother."

************

Wayde watched through the glass window as Quinn slept in the high security hospital bed. He'd suffered a minor concussion, he had broken ribs and one held of a bruised body.

"Miss Wells?"

Wayde turned her head. "Yes?"

"There's a phone call for you."

Wayde nodded her head. She followed the nurse to the desk and picked up the phone.

"Hello?"

"Hello Wayde. How are you?"

"Who is this?"

"I'm…a friend."

"I don't think so."

"We're met before...at the Coriander ball. But I guess you couldn't see me too well, I was half hidden in the shadows."

"You!"

"That's right sweetie. And expect another visit soon."

The line went dead.

Wayde hung the phone back up. "Oh my god."

"Something wrong Miss Wells?"

Wayde turned her head. "No. No, nothing wrong."

The nurse smiled and turned back to the computer.

************

Derek groaned as someone pulled back the curtains of his room.

"Rosencrants! I told you not to wake me up!"

A pillow landed right on Derek's head. "It ain't Rosencrants mate!"

Derek opened one eye. "What are you still doing here?"

Jacob laughed. "Forget our conversation already?"

Derek rolled over and pushed his head under the covers.

"Go back to England Jacob…I don't need your help."

"Alright…I'll just let you figure out who's attempted to kill Wayde."

A few seconds passed.

"ARGGH!!" Derek pushed himself up into a sitting position. "Fine! I'm up!"

*************

Wayde wobbled through the dinning room doorway and stopped short.

"Wayde. Good morning." Derek smiled.

Wayde reached out and sat down in one of the chairs furthest from Derek and the other man.

Derek motioned with his hand.

"Wayde, this is my close friend Jacob Matheson."

The blond haired man smiled and nodded his head. "Hello Miss Wells."

Wayde took a sip of her coffee.

Derek continued, "Jacob is going to be your special bodyguard Wayde. He's the best there is."

Wayde took a piece of bread.

Derek sighed. "Fine, you don't have to answer, just listen. I'm going to be going out of town for two days, there is no way I can avoid it. I have two choices, I can bring you with me or you can stay here under lock and key with Jacob. It's your choice."

Wayde motioned for some more juice.

Derek gave Jacob a look of impatience. "Very well...I'll decide for you. I'd like it if you were to come with me to New York, that's where I have to meet with the United Nations."

"There's nothing to worry about Miss Wells, we'll find the person who tried to hurt you." Jacob spoke calmly, thinking her silence was based on fear.

Wayde laughed, "You don't even know!"

Derek shook his head, "What-?"

Wayde turned her head. "She called me! That woman who tried to kill me! She phoned me at the hospital, she knew exactly where I was and who I was visiting and even what I was wearing!"

Derek stood up. "I don't want you ever going out again!"

Jacob reached out a hand on Derek's arm. "Derek, be realistic."

Wayde stood up. "I'm tired and I don't care what you do anymore Derek. I don't care about anything anymore."

Wayde walked from the room with quiet dignity.

Derek slowly sat down.

"Derek," Jacob began. "She's very hurt right now, and ordering her about as if she were a child is not the way to help her. You just make her more angry now." Derek shook his head. "I can't help it Jacob. If I lose her..." Jacob nodded his head. "Don't worry...we'll figure this mystery out."
***********

Wayde opened her eyes as someone opened one of the plastic plane windows.

Derek's friend Jacob sat across from her, smiling.

"Good morning Miss Wayde." he said.

They'd been traveling on the overnight flight on Oracle Air 1 to New York. But she didn't care about the flight.

Wayde turned her head and looked back out the window.

"I don't see what's too good about it."

Jacob nodded his head. "Wayde, let me try and help you understand what has happened to you. Derek...he is...well...obsessed with you. The very thought that something could tear the two of you apart literly is scaring him to death. Derek...I've known him for some years now, and let me tell you, the way he feels about you. Will never change. No matter how much you want it to. His heart was strong enough to wait for you after nearly two hundred years. Doesn't that mean anything to you at all?"

Wayde shook her head. "I've tried to understand him. Don't you think I have? But it's so hard...part of me...I just don't trust him."

Jacob nodded his head. "Derek told me about what happened to you in the past life. You think you can't trust him to protect you. You'd rather protect yourself."

"Yes!"

"You can't." Derek said from behind her.

Wayde frowned and shook her head. "Forget it Derek. I've had enough with this endless argument."

"It's only an argument beause you make it one."

Wayde sighed and leaned her head back against the plane seat. "When will we be arriving in NY?"

"Less then an hour." Derek said.

"There's not going to be any procession is there?" Wayde bit out.

Derek cringed. "I'm sorry Wayde, but I am a public figure...and so are you. I've brought a nice blue suit for you to wear at the platform party."

Wayde bit her lip in frustration.

************

An hour later Derek held his hand out to Wayde who cooly ignored it and walked down the airplan path on her own.

Derek had to fake a brilliant smile to all the reporters and public, but everyone knew that something was wrong in paradise.

He could sense it, everyone saw Wayde slipping away from him because he hadn't found the assassin yet.

Damn it all to hell! How was he supposed to protect her, when she didn't want to be protected.

At the party landing platform, a number of foriegn degnetaris and united nations representatives waited for introdutions to the Prime Oracle and the future Lady Oracle.

Wayde did manage to smile with true warmth to those who greeted her and she laughed with the small children who handed her some beautiful daphidels.

Children, Derek though, that was something he'd never though of before. He and Wayde would have children together. For the first time in the past few weeks, Derek gave his first true smile.

*********

Wayde threw her shoes against the wall with a small groan. "Arghh!! Those shoes were killing me. Exactly what size do you think my feet are?! Two?!"

Derek handed his jacket to one of the servents with a smile. "You'll have to take that up with Sarah. She's the one who's been supplying you with all your new wardrobe. I guess she thought your feet were small...what size are they?"

"Seven." Wayde said and gave an unusual giggle. "Except that this one," she pointed to her right foot, "is 7. And this one," she pointed to her left foot, is 7 and a half."

Derek raised his eye brow in mock horror.

Wayde giggled. "I have a big and little foot!"

Suddenly she flopped down on the carpet. "I think I had a little too much champagnge at that party."

Derek smiled. "Yes I think you did. But you wouldn't listen to my warnings and now tomorow you are going to have a big headache."

Wayde giglled and put a hand to her head swaing a little.

"I think I'm drunk."

Derek rolled up his shirt sleeves and crouched down next to Wayde on the floor. "I think you are."

Wayde looked up into his eyes, just inches away. "Do you know something?"

"I know a lot of things."

"No I mean...why...me?"

Derek was confused by her words. "I don't understand."

Wayde blew out a long breath and stood up on wobbly legs. "Why did you have to call me up? I mean..yuz...musthave...had tons of other girlfriends over the centures...if you really did live in a bunch of different lifetimes. What'cha choose me for?"

Derek smiled as Wayde wobbled a big on her feet, nearly topeling into the near by chair.

"I didn't choose you Wayde. I wanted you, and no one, not in the past or the future was going to keep me from you."

"Hmm...that's nice." Wayde said.

She then moved over to the couch and sat down flopping onto her side. "I don't think I can move."

Derek came over and knelt and kissed her forhead. Wayde opened her eyes back up.

"What was that for?" she asked.

"Because you haven't yelled at me since we've gotten back to the hotle...I know it's because you're slightly inhebriated, but it's nice to just talk to you for once."

"Oh."

Derek smiled. "It's also because I love you."

"Hmm...that's nice too."

Derek sucked in a breath. What had she said?

Derek smothed back her short brown hair from her sleeping face. She looked so peacful in sleep...almost like...death.

Derek felt his heart drop to his stomach as he reached out and check her pulse in her neck. It was there...she wasn't dead.

Derek groaned and pulled her sleeping body into his arms. If this was the only time he could hold her without her yelling then he'd better enjoy it.

**********

Copyright 2000, Charmeye.