Strangers in the Darkness

"We need to get out of here." Matthew finally moaned into Lauren's ear, still buried inside her.

"What makes you say that now?" Lauren asked, her voice a bit shaky, hoping he didn't just feel the need to get away from her.

"Because the next time I have mad passionate sex with you, I want to be able to see your face." He said, hugging her gently. Lauren laughed a bit, relieved.

"I can't believe..." She started, breathlessly.

"I know... I wouldn't have thought myself the type for sex under extreme circumstances. Not that I wouldn't have slept with you otherwise, you've got an incredible body."

"As do you, I'll admit. And I think even higher of it now that I've had a chance to explore it." Lauren said, taking in a deep breath, and realizing that the pain of breathlessness didn't go away. Her lungs weren't getting enough oxygen. The room had been depleted.

"Oh shit... Matthew..." She whispered, fear gripping at her heart. She felt herself start to hyperventilate.

"The air... Christ." Matthew hissed. "Lauren, breathe!"

"I am breathing!" She howled back, indignantly. Matthew climbed off her and took her shoulders in his hands, shaking her hard.

" We are not dying in this fucking bar, Lauren. Calm down and breathe deeply." He ordered. His hands left her then, and he got himself mostly dressed in the darkness, while she tried to swallow her fear down, back where it belonged. She took a rare moment of false calm to straighten her clothes back over her body, and she reached out for Matthew. He squeezed her hand.

"What... what do we do?" She whimpered, still trying to get her breathing under control.

"Search the walls. See if there's a way out, or see if we can at least punch another hole in the wall for air." He said, leaving her to start running his hands over the walls. She started back toward the bar where she'd first been thrown, and found their salvation in moments.

"Matthew... here..." She wheezed. His breathing sounded just as bad, as he half stumbled, half crawled. "Hollow..." She gasped.

"Good job." He rasped back, started to pound at it weakly with his fists. Lauren reached over and approximated where the port bottle was, grabbing until she got it, and then she slammed it against the floor, making a jagged weapon with the upper half of the bottle.

"Move!" She ordered, starting to claw at the wood with the glass. She could hear it splintering some, as she drove her weight into it, listening with a detached interest as she heard herself sobbing wildly.

"Lauren... give... I have more strength..." Matthew said, carefully prying the bottle from her hands and picking up where she left off. Lauren wheezed, and felt the darkness creeping into her mind.

"Matthew..." Lauren gasped. "Hurry... please..."

"Stay with me..." He gasped back, before shouldering the glass into the wood, and splintering it open. The rush of only moderately fresher air brought both of them to a coughing fit. Lauren grabbed onto Matthew, and held on tightly.

"Lauren... it's all right..." He said, breathing in the new air deeply. "We'll be okay..."

Lauren gasped for air a bit longer, and then opened her eyes, still unable to see... the whole thing made her hyperventilate once again.

"Lauren... no... breathe deeply. You're going to pass out..." Matthew moaned, fear evident in his voice.

"Matthew..." Lauren gasped, the darkness took over, and Lauren passed out in his arms.

She woke up to bright lights, and groaned.

"Oh God, I'm dead..." She whispered to no one in particular.

"No, but I bet you wish you were." Matthew's familiar voice said back, he sounded relieved, and she felt his fingers brush over her face, as he placed his hand over her eyes.

"Where are we? What happened?"

"The hospital. Apparently your concussion was worse then we thought it was. The staff wants to keep you overnight. They say you did quite a number on your own head. After you passed out, someone found the hole we broke into for air. About an hour later we were free and you were no closer to waking up. The doctors say that isn't surprising given how badly you were banged up, and how little oxygen there was to breathe there for a while. They figure your brain went into shut down to try and heal and sort everything out." He explained warmly. "It's good to see you're all right."

"How long have we been free?" She asked, stretching her fingers, and wiggling her toes, happy to note that all worked as well as they had before the day began.

"Few hours. I'm not sure." He admitted. "The doc says I have to leave soon, and let you rest. Are you going to be all right in here by yourself?"

Lauren took his wrist and pulled his hand away from her eyes, opening them, and forcing them to adjust to the light, as she focused on him. He was dirty, bloody, and disheveled, his jacket still around her shoulders, and his shirt still torn open. He gave her a sympathetic look.

"I can't help it, Babe." He said, understanding in his voice. "They're going to let you out tomorrow... I'll come get you and take you home, if you want. They say that most of the buildings are still standing. It was just this one, and a few smaller buildings under similar states of structural un-integity. No housing buildings fell..."

"Just tell them to leave the light on..." Lauren said, resigned. "I've had enough of the dark..."

"Sure thing, Babe." Matthew said, kissing her lightly on the lips, and walking from the room, casting a last longing glance at her before going out into the hallway. Lauren sighed and kept her eyes open, staring at the florescent light fixture above her head, marveling in the light.

A week passed, and Lauren felt a little better about things. Her apartment was, in fact, all right. Her cat was a little spooked, but none the more worse for wear. All she'd had to do was replace most of her dishes, and a few picture frames. A small price to pay, considering she was lucky to be alive.

Matthew hadn't called her yet, but then, she really had been hoping against hope that he would come to see her. Instead, Lauren resigned herself, and fell into her routine, redoing the one or two actual drawings she'd had in her portfolio, lucky for her, she'd photocopied the rest of the pictures.

The author of the romance book that Lauren had been assigned to do the cover for before the earthquake had also made it out of the building alive. She'd called Lauren a few days later to check up on her, and offer her the cover again, since they both still needed the money, and couldn't very well hold off a month because of the tragedy. The offices, because of the loss of the building, had arranged to get all their books published through other publishers, and this had meant that they were free to find their own covers, and finalize whatever work needed to be done. Lauren was meeting with the author in a week to discuss which cover they were going to use.

All in all, her career had taken a decisive turn for the better.

Lauren was working on finishing some of the sketches for the cover, when someone knocked on her door. She paused just long enough to do one last touch up on one of the lines on the drawing before coming to the door. She opened it, and glanced up to meet a pair of deep green eyes.

Matthew was standing there, holding a bottle of port wine.

"Sorry it took me so long to get back here to see you, Lauren." He said, with a light smile, one that she would have been able to identify by only hearing his voice. She grinned back.

"Won't you come in?" She asked, stepping back from the door, and admitting him into the studio apartment.

"Don't mind if I do..." He said, grinning back. "I was thinking about a few things Lauren, the first of which being that I want to take you out for some dinner, your choice. Anywhere you want to go... Secondly, I want to bring you back here, throw you on your bed, and make love to you like we did in the debris. Third... well, after talking with some of the people in the business I know, I think we have a place for your work in a brand new publishing agency. What do you say?"

"I think all of it sounds wonderful. When do I start?"

"Well... tonight..." He said, setting the bottle down on her table, and walking up to her, wrapping his arms around her. "Maybe we'll skip the dinner though, in favor of my second plan for now. It's early, and I'm not yet hungry, though, I think I might have fun working up an appetite with you."

That said, he pulled her into a long deep kiss, while she swung the door shut behind them.