Echo of Dreams 3/4
by Meredith Bronwen Mallory
mallorys-girl@cinci.rr.com

    "Hey, Mallory," Maggie said as she slipped into the seat next Quinn. In
typical Maggie fashion, she sat there in her tight tank top and jeans,
leaning against the bar, head resting on her hand. Seeing her there, Quinn
instantly compared her to Wade. Maggie and Wade were polar opposites. While
Maggie sat there, lips a glistening and overly overt red, her eyes dark with
eye shadow and her cheeks an unreal pink, Quinn could picture Wade, her
beautiful brown eyes, and sweet smile, natural and carefree.
"Hey... you still here?" Maggie asked him, her perfume overwhelmed him, so
sickly sweet that one could tell it was fake
"Yeah," he shrugged and took a sip of his beer, "I'm just thinking about
Wade, that's all."
"Don't worry, Quinn," Maggie put a gentle hand of his arm, "We'll find her,
and then we'll find a nice world for her to live on." He looked at her
blankly.
"What?" he asked, "Who said anything about leaving Wade anywhere?"
"Oh. My. Gosh," Maggie looked at him with her 'I can't believe you were that
stupid' look and laughed, "You didn't actually think we could take Wade
sliding with us? Quinn, she was never cut out for it." He looked at her,
disgusted.
"We're taking her with us, Maggie, I don't care what you say!"
"Geeze, Quinn, I was only trying to help..." Maggie protested, but it was
useless. Quinn quickly paid Diggs and left. Her eyes narrowed as she watched
him go.

    Maggie Beckett was not blind, she knew what was going on. Quinn was
still in love with Wade, and though for a time he might have been in lust
with her, he was more concerned with Wade now. She, herself, was not
necessarily in love with Quinn, but she enjoyed controlling him, like she
enjoyed control anything else she could get her hands on. She squared her
jaw and thought, taking an absent sip from Quinn's abandoned beer.
"Hey baby, looking for a good time?" a thick voice asked from behind. She
turned around to look at the man who dared say a thing like that to her. He
was tall, with his black hair brushed back. He wore an expensive business
suit and a gold ring. Her previously insulted expression changed slowly into
a seductive smile.
"Actually," she said, looking him straight in the eyes as she licked her
lips, "I was."
"Well, I think I might have what you're looking for..." he looked down at
his hand, as she followed his gaze. There, in his hand, were three hundred
dollar bills. Maggie let one hand move to his thigh, only a few inches from
his.... Meanwhile, her other hand reached to take the money and slip into
her back pocket.
"So where to, big boy?"

---

    "Q-ball, you seen Maggie?" Remmy poked his head in Quinn's room. Quinn
sighed and opened his eyes ever so slightly.
"I saw her down at the bar about half an hour ago," he told his friend. He
then closed his eyes and rolled over on the bed.
"Okay," the door clicked shut, leaving Quinn to find his sanctuary....

***

    "Wade?" he asked. She wasn't facing him, she was turned towards the
stove, leaning against it, almost as if she were drawing her energy through
it. The morning was silent, the sunlight seemed somehow more stark and
impersonal as it poured through the window. Was it just him, or was it
colder in here?
"I remembered," she said, and he could tell she'd been crying, "I finally
remembered."
"Remembered what?" he asked. He started to move towards her, but found he
was rooted to the spot.
"When Aleaha first started communicating with me after I fell into the coma,
she told me that not all my memories where back yet... I could only remember
up to the time when the Professor... But I remembered the rest today," her
voice became very bitter, if it had been a knife, it would have sliced Quinn
to bits, " I remember now," she turned so he could see her face, "I remember
you kissed Maggie... you wanted to stay with her all along... didn't you?
You never intended to go home, you just wanted her!"
"Wade..." he began. God, what was there to say? Except that he was so
incredibly sorry for letting his hormones run away with him?

"Forget it," she said, her brown eyes hard and cold like coal, "I was
fooling myself anyway. I was just another one of your one-world affairs?
Wasn't I?" he couldn't say anything, he was stunned so by her bitterness,
"Damn you! Answer me!" Wade threw the plate she'd been holding to the floor
and it smashed to the ground, flying to a million pieces. Outside the
window, the sunlight had disappeared, replaced by angry red lightening
against a black and threatening sky. He hadn't realized how much control
she'd had over this. He wanted to back away, but he was frozen in place,
unable to go towards her, unable to move back, "Do you have ANYTHING to say
for yourself?" she asked. Such was her rage that she could no longer hide
the wounds the Kromaggs had inflicted on her. They were worse then he'd
thought, standing out against her skin, red, black and blue and painfully
obvious. He managed to free himself and move towards her.
"Wade, I'm sorry," he was about to go on, to tell her he'd never been in
love with Maggie, that it had all been some dumb mistake... but she just
glared at him with her blazing eyes. He reached out and touched her arm.
"Don't touch me! Don't even come NEAR me!" Wade jerked her arm away angrily.
He persisted, trying to show her what he couldn't express in words, "You
BASTARD! GET OUT!!!" Her anger pushed him away, back to reality, away from
the wonderful place they'd once had.
"WADE!! Please!" he called out to her, but she would have none of it. When
he was gone, she sank to her knees and wept.

***

     "WADE!!" he cried out, bolting up in bed, and in doing so, causing
himself further pain to his still damaged ribs.
"Quinn, it's okay," Colin said from the other bed.
"No, no, it's not," Quinn nearly sobbed, "Damn Maggie!"
"What?" Remmy asked.
"Nothing," Quinn said, trying to calm himself, "A nightmare, one big, huge,
nightmare."
"Alright, if you're sure you're okay," Remmy said. Colin looked at Quinn
oddly, in the near darkness, but said nothing.

    Quinn laid back and tried to find a way to return to that *place*, but
to no avail. He knew Wade was blocking him, and more over, he probably
wasn't strong enough to get there himself. A 9th Sensitive, she'd said. He'd
never suspected her of such power before, but now he wondered how he could
have under estimated it. Sure, it was wrapped up in a small, delicate body,
but Wade had always had an uncanny ability to understand and anticipate him.
No wonder she'd been so with drawn after Maggie had joined, she'd felt shut
off, and maybe in some way, Quinn had done it on purpose.
["Wade... please, I'm sorry. Can we talk?"] he thought at her as loudly as
he could. No answer, only silence and the sound of faint static echoing in
his ears. He tried not to cry.