In And Out Of Time 2/10

Title: In and Out of Time (2/?)
Author: wonderbread9
Rating: PG-13 - R
Characters: The Cast of Kyle XY, OCs here and there
Pairings: Kyle/Amanda, Kyle/Jessi
Warnings: It's going to get a bit strange...AU-ish, takes place directly after Life Support©, and will include some elements of what I’ve seen of pictures on ABCfamilymedia dot net. So, there is a spoiler-ish warning for those who have yet to check those out.
Disclaimer: I don’t KXY because if I did it’d have a season 4.

Author's Note: Took a page from Roswell’s book and decided to take a crack at the time travelling theme. To my fellow Kessi-lovers, don’t hate me too much. There’s a lot of Jessi!angst at the beginning, but it gets better, I SWEAR!!! 3

Summary: What happened in the next few minutes could be, Jessi reasoned later, entirely blamed on Nicole for never teaching her that old adage: ‘be careful what you wish for.’

8o8o8

The air was cool on her face, the stars were silent in their places and Jessi was glad that she had found the loneliest, most secluded spot above the city of Seattle. She was so high up she was able to look out over the concrete jungle and watch the human beings that scurried to and fro, in their cars or walking along the streets in the dead of night, hurrying to get home before the midnight hour set in and the crazies like her came out to play. Her rear end felt cold against her concrete perch, but she ignored the discomfort. What did it matter anyway? Even now, she was sure, Kyle and Amanda were probably wrapped in each other’s sickeningly sweet arms and she was, once again, alone with no one here to wrap her in their arms or to tell her that everything would be okay.

Nothing in her life had ever been right or good or an event to celebrate, so why had she thought—even for a second—that this would be? That Kyle would turn to her on Amanda’s stoop, look at her with his deep blue eyes and tell her that she was a fool for leading him here, that she was a fool for thinking that he wanted Amanda and that she was a fool for ever believing that he would never want her at all. How could she allow herself such hopeful thoughts? She was born into chaos, born into violence and that, it seemed, was all she was ever going to be good for.

She shifted slightly, breathing deep, and stretching her senses out, stretching herself, pushing herself to feel the shift and change in the air around her, to detect the minute rumbling of the earth below her, to feel everything around her because this was as much a part of anything as she was ever going to be. She leaned back, looking up at the billions and billions of stars that she honed her vision to see. The stars watched her back and she wished desperately for someone, anyone, out there stronger and more powerful than she to exist, to listen to her and hear her silent pleas: just make my life make sense…just make everything make sense. Please. Please. Please. Please. Just…please?

What happened in the next few minutes could be, Jessi reasoned later, entirely blamed on Nicole for never teaching her that old adage: ‘be careful what you wish for.’

Her skin, already strained by her mind to feel the movement of the air around her, detected the noticeable drop in temperature almost immediately and that, she registered quite suddenly, was very strange. Jessi’s eyes dropped from their pensive gazing at the cold pinpricks of star light above and zeroed in on the dark world around her. Her delicate features creased into a puzzled frown. She remembered studying Seattle’s geography in one of her many science classes, and in her mind’s eye she could still recall in minute detail the passage concerning the city’s Mediterranean-like weather. She knew that at this time of year the air was supposed to have an average temperature of sixty-five degrees. So why then had it suddenly dropped about fifteen degrees in a matter of seconds?

There was no breeze, nothing to stir the world around her, and nothing to account for the sudden drop in temperature. Jessi stood, heart suddenly thundering in her chest like a herd of wild horses, and at the edges of her senses, right down to the very core of her being, instinct was screaming, ‘something’s coming…’

Her muscles tensed and adrenaline surged through her, preparing her for…for whatever it was that was causing warning bells to ring in a frenzy in her mind. She swallowed and turned this way and that, but there was nothing and no one and the earth beneath her suddenly began to rumble, a quiet quake at first and then the trees around her were shivering in their places before the leaves started to shake and the once absent breeze swirled around her, picking up in speed, furious like a cyclone. She cried out in alarm, very really fear pumping through her as surely as her adrenaline, and she fell to the ground on all fours with a muffled, terrified ‘oomph’ like someone much larger and stronger than her had pushed her down.

The air crackled.

The hairs along her arms and hands stood on end and gooseflesh broke out along her skin.

Sparks of electricity danced before her eyes like perverted fairy lights, and no matter how hard she tried Jessi could not stand, could not push against the invisible force that held her, trapped against the earth. All she could do was tremble, apprehension curling through her, making her feel every bit like the scared teenager that she hated to be. Was this Latnok? Were they punishing her for her threat against Cassidy? She hadn’t wanted Latnok to hurt Kyle, or the Tragers, and in her mind—even now—that was all that mattered: Kyle. Keeping Kyle safe.

What the hell was going on? Her advanced brain could not process this, could not handle this confusing contradiction of nature around her, and she did the only thing that came to her that was as natural as breathing. In that moment, her mind captured and held onto the thought of Kyle: his dark, black hair, his pale, pale skin and the gentle smiles that he flashed on anyone that came under his favor. In her mind, she saw him, hand poised to knock on a door, saw the door come open and saw the girl with blonde hair and blue eyes answer, but before they could make a move, before he could reach out and grab the girl’s hand, Jessi screamed, put all of her fear and terror into one desperate thought: KYLE!!!!!

After all, he had connected to her mind when he and Nicole and Josh were in trouble. It had to work both ways. He had to hear her, had to know that she was in trouble. He was the only one who could get to her fast enough. He was the only one, the only one, who could save her.

Kyle, please. Please, hear me, she begged in her mind, and shut her eyes as the electrical charge in the air began to build and build—her own body was responding to it, her blood was rushing faster, her heart was pumping like she’d run a marathon race. Her muscles trembled, her body quaked and the world around her began to scream, a keening wail that filled the air, the dissonance filling her ears. Lightning crackled from the earth, but there were no storm clouds above, no opposite charge from the atmosphere. Jessi shut her eyes against the burning white lights as they flashed and jumped across her vision. The keening wail grew louder and louder still; she felt like her eardrums were going to burst.

Her heart was racing. Her muscles, her sinew, her very cells were on fire. She could feel the air sizzling around her with so much activity, so much energy. She could feel the temperature in air rising, burning her skin. She couldn’t breathe.

She wanted to scream.

She wanted to cry.

She wanted to be home.

The world around her screamed one last time, and then everything—the trees, the earth and the strange white lightning—fell silent. Everything stopped, stilled as if nothing had been amiss in the world only a few short seconds ago. Jessi pried her eyes open and looked around cautiously. The earth was no longer quaking. The trees stood as silent in their places as they had always done. A gentle breeze stirred her hair.

Nothing.

Nothing at all.

Was it Latnok? Or was it the foolish imaginations of one very depressed girl? Jessi was able to pull herself up from the ground and stood on shaky legs, swallowed deeply and looked around once more. There was no lightning crackling in the air around her, and the breeze that caressed her was cool.

What just—? What just happened? Somewhere in the back of her mind, where logic still reigned, she knew that what just happened could not have been real. There was nothing to explain it, nothing to account for the weirdness that had just taken place. And yet, she knew she wasn’t crazy, knew that what she had just heard and felt was as tangible as the clothes that covered her back. So, what then? What perversion of Mother Nature had just taken place?

It was then that Jessi heard a noise above her head, a strange sound that disrupted her confused and still very frightened thoughts.

She looked up.

Her eyes widened.

She screamed.

8o8o8

He wanted to tell Amanda everything.

He wanted to lay out everything that he was and everything that had ever happened and everything that he had ever done before her wide blue eyes and let her see him, see what he was and why he had done the things he had done. But, as he sat beside her on her house’s front step, he could not bring himself to begin. There was just so much, so many feelings welling up inside of him, so many conflicting emotions that were clambering to the forefront of his mind to be heard: fear, terror, hope. He didn’t know where to start, he didn’t know how to open his mouth and just tell her the truth.

She had a right to know, didn’t she? She had been dragged into his crazy and hectic existence, and had never once asked or questioned him about why he did the strange things that he did, why he didn’t have a past and, most importantly, why he didn’t have a belly button. He shouldn’t have kept his secrets from her since the beginning, when all of this crazy mess had started. He should’ve let her know the danger that she was in. He should’ve prepared her for—

“Kyle,” came Amanda’s puzzled voice, breaking into his frenetic thoughts. He started, glancing at her with fear shining brightly in his blue eyes. “What’s going on? You told me you were going to tell me the truth. About everything.”

He nodded, not answering her. Instead he looked away again, breathing deep. Anxiety twisted in his gut. His mind was filled with an endless parade of what ifs: what if she rejected him? What if she forgave him? What if…what if…what if… He didn’t want to lose her, but he didn’t want her to look at him any differently than she had before. He wanted to see love shining in her blue eyes and showering him with all the devotion he felt for her.

“Kyle,” she started, her voice tinged with annoyance.

“Amanda,” he cut in, sucking in a deep breath of air. It should have fortified him. After all, oxygen was the stuffs of life. So, why, why did he feel like all of the oxygen had, quite suddenly, been sucked out of the world around him? And why, why did he have this sudden headache threatening to overtake him? It had started at the base of his skull and had moved, steadily, in the last few minutes, up his cranium and was teetering on becoming a full blown migraine that would bowl him over any second. He squinted, breathed and rubbed his suddenly sweaty hands against the fabric of his jeans.

“I just…” he stopped, started again. “This is just…It’s hard for me to…I want to tell you everything.”

He met her gaze then, trying to smile, but knew, somehow, that it must’ve looked like a grimace cutting across his pale features. The look she shot him was a worried one and when he reached out to touch her, to pull her hand into his and caress her soft, pink skin, she pulled back, retreated and wrapped her arms around herself instead.

“Maybe I should just go,” Amanda said quietly, beginning to stand. Panic took over any logical process that would’ve usually governed Kyle’s thoughts and he reached out, groping blindly, and cried, “No!”

Amanda jumped away from him, her eyes wide with concern and fear. “Kyle? Kyle, what’s wrong with you?”

“Amanda, I—”

It was then that he felt it, the headache that had been threatening to undue him for the last few minutes, abruptly tore through his mind with the force of a freight train and Kyle stumbled on the front step in his blind reach for Amanda, stumbled and collapsed. He vaguely heard Amanda’s cry of alarm, but it was soon drowned out underneath the onslaught of pain that ripped through his body, his nerve endings screaming with agony. Something was thrusting itself, like a battering ram, up through the panicked flurry of his thoughts, clawing its way up and up and up, until it broke into his conscious mind and all he could see, all he could hear, was the terrified scream: KYLE!!! And Jessi’s face floating up from his subconscious, her brown eyes wide and her mouth parted in a look of absolute horror.

“JESSI!” Kyle was violently thrown back into the cool Seattle night air, as if he had been plunged under water and held there for a very long time and was only now being allowed to breathe. He sucked in large gulps of air as his eyes watered and he looked around himself in confusion. A very terrified Amanda crouched beside him, holding his hand, and if it had been any other time, Kyle might’ve savored the feel of her hand in his. But he wasn’t, he couldn't. He was filled instead with a growing sense of panic and fear.

“Something’s happened,” he gasped, still at a loss for air. “Jessi…Something’s wrong. I-I have to—”

Amanda blinked at him, tearing her hand from his, suddenly very, very angry.

“Of course,” Amanda growled. “Of course…It’s always Jessi, isn’t it?”

He tried to protest, but his protests fell on deaf ears. She shook her head at him, silencing him with a glare. Her lips pressed into a very, very thin line.

“If you leave me now to go to her,” she hissed, venom lacing every word, “don’t you dare come back, Kyle. Don’t you dare come back here. I won’t want to see you or talk to you ever again.”

“But Amanda…” He winced as pressure built in his skull once more, threatening to undue him once again. He gasped; feeling like the very air was being knocked out of his lungs. The whimper of a helpless voice filled him, Kyle, please. Please, hear me.

“Amanda, just…” He opened eyes he had not realized he‘d closed, only to see Amanda retreating from his kneeling, trembling figure, tears shining in her eyes.

“I can’t do this,” she whispered, swallowing thickly. “I can’t do this anymore, Kyle.”

He could hear the way her heart beat quickened and slowed, quickened and slowed, could almost detect the way her blood rushed to and fro throughout her veins. He knew almost intimately the inner workings of her body, the way everything fit together to form the whole, the being, the energy and the light that he had come to know as Amanda Bloom, but in all of his understanding of her physical being, he could—could not for the life of him—understand a way to reach her, a way to show her that everything that he had ever been, ever was or ever would be had not come into existence until he had come to know her. He could not help her see or understand that ever thing that he had ever done had been because of her, for her and to keep her safe. And now she was pulling away from him, withdrawing that light that he had come to love so much, the emotions that he had desperately hoped for and longed for for so long; she was pulling away, retreating into the safety and comfort of her normal and orderly world, where a college scholarship awaited her and the thousand thousand possibilities of an uncomplicated life lay before her.

He wanted so desperately to shut his mind off from the pain that was reverberating through his limps, cut off the agony that seared his very cells, tore through his very organs, and join her in that normal, simple existence. But he couldn’t, and through blurry eyes filled with pain, he watched Amanda leave him, watched her open her front door and look back one last time, before shutting it, and him, out of her life forever.

And all he could do was stagger to his feet, and turn to the direction that he knew, without a doubt, the plea of help had come from. And all he could do was summon up every ounce of strength that existed in his body to propel himself forward, to run, run to the last person on the planet that would never leave him, who would never abandon him.

He had to get to Jessi.

He had to find her.

He had to save her.