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Date Posted: 03:24:47 03/25/03 Tue
Author: dqfan
Subject: Re: A Journey Home - ch.6
In reply to: dqfan 's message, "Re: A Journey Home - ch.4 & 5" on 18:53:07 03/24/03 Mon

CHAPTER SIX


"Peter…Peter…" The voice gently nudged him awake.

"Soph?" Peter reached out his hand but the other half of his blanket was cold.

"Peter, it's Charity…wake up…"

Peter sprung to his feet immediately. "What…what happened…where's Sophie?"

Confused and disoriented, Peter rubbed his eyes, trying to remember everything that had occurred. The last time he'd looked at his watch, it had been almost 4am. He'd been reading a very interesting letter when he felt himself drifting off to sleep - with Sophie securely in his arms.

"Charity, where's Sophie?" Peter demanded.

"Peter, calm down. I just got here a few minutes ago and found you sound asleep on the floor - with the Virginia City Collection strewn about you, I might add…" Charity would have expressed her disapproval more strenuously but she could see that Peter was clearly upset.

"I've got to find her," he mumbled.

Charity surveyed the living room, eyeing the leftover plates, coffee cups and blankets with a combination of amusement and dismay. The two had plainly made themselves at home. But the letters…she only hoped they were all accounted for. Searching about the room, Charity's gaze fell on a sheet of paper folded neatly on the pedestal between the two chairs. It was marked "Peter."

"Perhaps this might explain…" Charity smiled indulgently, placing the precious note in his hand.

Peter seized it hopefully and began to read…

"Dear Peter,

I've gone back to the hotel. I need some time alone to think. I need to resolve my feelings. Please, Peter, please give me this time. Love, Sophie."

"Feel better?" Charity asked softly.

"Not really…She's gone back to the hotel to think…" Peter repeated Sophie's words.

"Think, huh…you two have a fight?" Charity offered a guess.

"No…not really…don't think so…" Peter knew Sophie was upset but he wasn't sure exactly what effect it might have on their relationship.

"Men!" Charity snickered. "Well, if she says she needs time then you surely ought to give it to her.

"Peter…?" Charity wanted to be sure she'd made her point.

"Sure…whatever she needs." Peter was a million miles away. Absent-mindedly he began straightening the living room.

"I'll do that," Charity insisted generously. "You go on. Get some rest."

Peter looked down at the letters Sully had written to Michaela. Impulsively, he asked, "do you mind if I keep these for a while, Charity?"

"I suppose not," she allowed, against her better judgement. "Just Sully's?" she inquired curiously.

"Sophie was reading Michaela's," Peter shrugged.

"Well, then, I'll just keep them for her." Charity smiled and placed her hand lovingly on Peter's shoulder. "It'll be all right, Peter," she soothed. "Try not to worry."

Unconvinced, Peter nodded and bundled Sully's letters into his backpack before heading sadly out the door.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The lobby of the Broadmoor hotel was overflowing with Christmas cheer. The decorations were lush, accosting the senses with their abundance of rich colors and twinkling lights. Strolling carolers were singing Joy to the World but Peter felt anything but joyful as he walked stridently past the festivities. He paused only briefly before the extravagantly decorated tree, just long enough to decide that it would look far better with a few simple strands of popcorn and cranberries.

As the elevator door opened, Peter exited and headed dejectedly down the hallway. Knowing Sophie had wanted to take their new relationship slowly, he had reserved them adjoining suites at the Broadmoor, hoping that perhaps by the end of the trip, the single door that separated them would no longer be necessary. Given their current situation, that prospect seemed highly unlikely.

Hesitantly, he paused, pressing his ear lightly against her door. Was she all right? Peter shook his head, forcing himself not to knock. She said she needed time alone to think. He had to respect that.

Glumly, he returned to his room, throwing his backpack carelessly on the bed, unaware that its front zipper was slightly open. Sully's letters fell with a thud to the floor.

"Great…all I need is to lose those and Charity will kill me," he chided himself harshly as he rescued the priceless documents and placed them safely on the mattress.

Unable to sit still, Peter headed toward the shower. But, suddenly, something caused his eyes to turn sharply back toward the bed. The letters. What was it he'd been reading when he fell asleep last night? Peter had only the vaguest recollection that it was something important. Something he needed to remember.

Forgetting the shower for a moment, Peter sat down on the bed and began to unwrap the bundle, sifting through its contents, certain that whatever he needed to find would be there - somewhere.

Halfway through the pile, he found it. Fairly easy to spot, it was, strangely enough, the only one without a postmark. The letter was definitely in Sully's handwriting, but it was dated a month after he'd returned from Virginia City, November 1870.

"Dear Michaela," it began.

"Guess I got so used to writing you that I can't stop, especially since we're apart again - me back home and you up climbin' Pike's Peak on your ladies expedition. Maybe I'll just leave this under your pillow…Still can't help wishing it'd been you and me, alone together, up there under the stars, but I guess it was a good thing I stayed behind. Preston tried to force the council into letting him build a hotel smack in the center of town. Outsmarted him by getting Jake to declare the area a historical landmark and Preston backed down."

Peter found it hard to believe that his present situation with Randolph could be so eerily similar. But, it was too late to declare the time capsule site an historical landmark. Randolph already owned the land.

Maybe there was something else…Peter continued reading…

"Preston's too smart to fall for this again. Next time, it'll have to be a deal he can't refuse."

"A deal he can't refuse…a deal he can't refuse…" Peter's eyes grew wide as he grabbed the plans for Randolph's new hotel, stuffing them in his backpack. "It'll have to be a deal he can't refuse…"

For a split second, the thought that a solution to the WALPOC dilemma could possibly be within reach distracted Peter from his thoughts of Sophie; but, his escape was fleeting, as the closing lines of Sully's letter hit much too close to home.

"I miss you, Michaela. Even when I know you're close by, I miss you.
Come home soon. Love, Sully"

Peter stood before the connecting door to Sophie's bedroom and placed his palm softly upon the wood. "Even when I know you're close by, I miss you," he repeated, his heart aching. It would be so easy to walk in, just check on her for a minute… Sighing heavily, Peter resisted his impulses and headed toward the shower.

^^^^^^^^^^^^

Sophie sat cross-legged on the bed, feeling dwarfed by its king-size design. Keeping her company were dozens of used Kleenex, a large box of chocolates and the home shopping network with the sound turned down. In the twelve hours since she left the homestead, she'd cried her eyes out, become a chocaholic, and purchased a new eight-piece, stainless steel fondue set with a lifetime guarantee. She'd done everything but face Peter. What was she waiting for? She could hear him moving around in the next room. He was so close - her rock, her touchstone. And like always, he was doing as she asked, leaving her alone to sort things out.

Why did he even put up with her? When she'd wanted passion, they'd gone "zero to sixty with no on ramp." When she wanted to take it slow, he'd "introduced" himself on a folding chair outside her trailer. And when she broke his heart by saying "no for now" to his marriage proposal, he waited patiently for her to make the next move. Now she was pulling away from him again. What was wrong with her?

She'd told him everything - about her childhood, her inability to have children. He'd taken it all without question…taken her without question. And how did she re-pay him? Leaving him in the middle of the night without a word.

"Coward! You're a coward, Sophie Becker!" she scoffed at her reflection in the mirror. "You can jump off every mountain from here to Nairobi and you'll still be nothing but a coward!"

Sophie slammed the television off with her fist. "Okay," she continued arguing with herself, "you were afraid you'd leave him and you did. All you ever do is leave him! Is that what you want?"

"No," she realized softly, staring at the unflattering visage of a woman with puffy eyes and disheveled hair dressed in faded gray sweats.

With a deep breath and a clear mind, Sophie resolved to the woman in the mirror, "Then don't you think it's about time you did something about it?"

^^^^^^^^^^

Sophie had never showered and changed so fast in her entire life. The tight-fitting black dress she'd brought "just in case" would finally be getting some use. Combing her hair up in a casual sweep, she searched frantically for her high heels. A little blush, lipstick, and two tubes of under-eye concealer later, and she was ready.

Sophie's heart was pounding and she was seriously close to hyperventilating. Parachuting off a cliff was nothing compared to the commitment she was ready to make with Peter tonight. Thinking back on their tempestuous early days together, she smiled. It seemed like a lifetime ago. They were both such different people now. Would they still feel that same electricity?

Admiring her improved appearance, she giggled to herself, "Only one way to find out…"

Deciding to surprise him, Sophie quietly unlocked the connecting door and inched it open ever so slowly. Peter had his back to the door. His hair was wet and he had a towel wrapped casually about his waist. Sophie stole a moment to admire him longingly, her eyes raking his muscular physique. Her rapture was quickly interrupted, however, when she realized Peter was on the phone.

"Please, Chlo…please come…I promise it'll be a great Christmas," she heard him beg enthusiastically.

Disbelief clouded Sophie's bright eyes and her hand instinctively covered her mouth, fighting a growing wave of nausea. Quietly, she shut the door, leaving before Peter ever knew she was there.

"Only one way to find out…" she whispered tearfully, believing she had her answer.

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