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“I’m impressed,” Chris said.
“Well,” Laura said, picking up her cup and taking a sip. “At least, I only got a few bruises.”
Chris shook his head in exasperation, making her laugh. “So, did you figure out what that whole danger thing was about?”
He said it casually, but Laura sensed he was nervous. He wanted her reassurance. She smiled into her coffee cup, hoping that would put him at ease. “Not yet. But I haven’t seen anything darker, either.”
“That’s good,” Chris nodded. “Right?”
“It’s certainly not bad,” Laura said. “We just have to be patient and wait for a vision to come up.”
“About that,” Chris said thoughtfully. “I was wondering if you’d let me run some tests. I have a buddy at the hospital who said he’d let me use the MRI machine without it being logged. What do you think?”
Laura stared back at him for a minute. In her head, all she could hear was Nate’s warning before she had told Chris the truth about her ability. He’d been afraid for her back then. He’d suggested that she didn’t know Chris well enough to know how he would react. He’d said that Chris would want to experiment on her. To test her. To see her as a medical phenomenon that he could present for clout, ruining her life in the process.
“Why?” she asked, blurting the word out almost in panic.
“Well, I know you don’t know how to control the visions well, and it bothers you,” Chris said. “I was thinking, if I can see how your brain is firing – maybe even get it to track what happens during a vision – you might be able to understand it more. Maybe figure out what the link is so that you can trigger them on your own.”
“You want to help me have visions easier?” Laura asked.
“Okay, I admit, my motives aren’t entirely altruistic,” Chris said with a slight blush. “I, ah. I would feel a lot better if you were able to check on Lacey and Amy from time to time. Deliberately, you know. Check that there wasn’t anything bad in their future.”
“Oh,” Laura said, considering it. “I guess that would be nice to have.”
“And you could save more lives, of course,” Chris added hastily. “It’s not just about what I would gain personally. I know how important your job is to you. If you can master your abilities more, you’ll be able to help people more. Right? If you could get visions to appear whenever you wanted, you’d be able to catch killers more easily.”
“That’s true,” Laura said. She nodded slowly, considering it. “I think it might be a good idea.”
“Alright, then,” Chris said with a grin. He reached out, entwining their fingers together over the top of the kitchen counter. “And, um. There was something else as well.”
“Yeah?” Laura asked, taking another gulp of her coffee.
“It’s nice when you get to come back from a case and come over here, right?” he asked. “You know – coffee in the kitchen, waiting for the girls to finish school. All of that.”
“Yes, I do enjoy it,” Laura said, wondering where this was going.
“Well, it’s a shame that you can’t do it while I’m working,” he said, looking deep into his own coffee cup. “Come over here, I mean.”
“I just wait for you,” Laura said.
“Right,” Chris said, still seeming as if he was trying to convince his coffee of something. “Right, but, I mean – what if you didn’t need to wait?”
“Because I had a key?” Laura asked, thinking she might have discovered what he was offering.
“No,” Chris said, then made a face. “Well, yes. What I mean is – what if you lived here?”
Laura blinked at him. “You want me to move in?”
Chris groaned. “It’s too soon, isn’t it? I knew it was too soon. I just – I got overexcited. I want to be with you all the time, and I know you’re not ready for that, I just…”
“Chris,” Laura interrupted, making him look up at her when she took his hand. “Chris, I’d love to move in with you.”
And that would have been an incredibly happy moment, if it wasn’t for the headache snapping at her temple and dragging her towards –
Everything was gray and swirling, like she was completely entrenched in the gray fog she’d seen from Chris and Nate. This time, though, it was like she was trying to see a vision through it.
Darkness was swirling at the edge of her vision, like it used to when she was too close to Zach. Like something was messing with her abilities. But this…
