What Dreams May Come Ch. 09 - Final

The screen showed Ellison sleeping in a large bed, Rose's body by his side, the weird tendrils that suspended her from the ceiling still connected to her. Then, a tendril that wasn't connected to Rose's body stretched out over Ellison's body, the tip caressing his lips, curving over his chin and then moving down his chest. Ellison made a faint noise of pleasure in his sleep, but didn't awaken. The tendril, seemed to wait until it was certain he was still asleep, and then continued its leisurely exploration. It moved down his lean body to his hips, brushing gently until it slipped under the sheet and began doing something between his legs that led to Ellison developing an impressive erection under the sheet.

"Mantha, display my EEG readings for this period across the bottom of the sister screen," Ellison ordered, causing a set of squiggly lines to appear on a second monitor that rolled up from the floor. "As you see, I am in REM sleep as this is happening--"

"That doesn't mean it's Rose doing this," Leela argued, "this could be some weird porn project you worked up in your garage--"

"Oh no, that's the tub," Rose's voice offered. "Mantha, display my EEG readings for this period at the top of the screen."

Leela walked closer to the screen with the EEG readings and reached out to Rose's squiggly lines. "This... this isn't possible. This is almost--"

"Almost like the EEG of someone that isn't bored to death in a hospital bed? Yeah. So, you can see why I wanted to get back here. This is possible, Doctor," Rose's voice said.

"I'd have to study this... monitor your conditions... this is so far beyond anything we've even considered..." Leela said, sitting down and beginning to take down notes for herself. She lit up like I'd only seen her when she watched me fight to develop neural connections that no one thought I'd be able to make again.

It was probably good that Leela was oblivious to the freak show that was playing on the screen, now, because Rose had gagged Simon to keep him from commanding Mantha to release him and at the moment her body was happily bouncing on his cock while he struggled with the restraints she had tied him up with. Dean cocked his head and walked closer, scrutinizing the activity. Ellison joined him, his head similarly cocked. "Yes, that actually became rather uncomfortable after a while... I have never seen the appeal of woman astride, myself..." Ellison murmured.

"No, no. Astride is good. That's just a misalignment problem--" Dean interjected, tapping at the screen and bringing up the background software functions.

"I have always thought Rose was more of a perverse instantiation case, myself..." Ellison commented, showing Dean a few more screens of software AI stuff.

"Oh my god! Tell me she's not pregnant, Ellison! You can go to jail--" Leela yelled, when she finally looked up from her notes and saw the moment when Ellison thrust his hips up into Rose's body, groaning in euphoric ejaculation.

"While I would love the chance watch the prosecutor try to prove the case of how I could possibly be a rapist of a vulnerable adult whilst bound and gagged, as I have had a vasectomy, Rose's body will not be conceiving a child of my loins," Ellison replied.

"Ellison... look, I could help you. This is amazing. I could study all of this for the rest of my life... but how..." Leela threw her hands up in the air and walked over to Rose's body, trying to see any sign of awareness in her vacant eyes. "How can I know this is real... not some impossible feat of technology that you created out of desperation and grief?"

"I can see you, Doc," Rose's voice said, her hand reached up to touch Leela's cheek. "When I have my body's eyes open, I can see you. This is what I want. If I can keep my body healthy enough, I can be with Simon... and with your help he can be with me again, too. It's amazing on this side, Doc. Please... please help us to be together again."

Ellison closed his eyes and sighed, "Proof... I had hoped to avoid this," he murmured, then he looked up at me. "Doctor, I will provide you the proof you seek. Would you please go outside the habitat and quietly tell Mr. Howard something about yourself that no one could possibly know?"

Leela scrutinized him for a bit, but I could tell she was dying to see whatever "proof" he would come up with, so I wasn't surprised when she pulled me outside and whispered something in my ear that nearly made me shoot in my pants. Holy fuck, I needed to marry this woman quick. Then she pulled me back inside and looked at Ellison challengingly.

"Have a seat, Mr. Howard," Ellison said, gesturing to the sofa.

"Uh... why?" I asked, sitting down.

Ellison ignored my question, looking up at the ceiling, "Mantha, arrange for Mr. Howard to visit with Rose," he said, and then the last thing I remembered before blacking out were bright lights suddenly flashing throughout the habitat like it was some kind of disco...

When I woke up, I was laying on the sofa and Leela was sitting on the floor next to my head, stroking my hair. Ellison was tapping on a screen doing something computery, and Dean and Rose's body were in the kitchen making what looked like more brownies. "What happened?" I asked.

Leela blushed and looked around, "Ellison claimed that when you had a seizure in my office, your consciousness could interact with them. Apparently, they watched our meetings a lot. Well, to prove it, Ellison flashed strobe lights and for you it triggered a mild seizure. He could have warned us, at least," she said, resentfully. "Then, after a minute or two, Rose announced to everyone in the room that I told you I wanted to... um... she repeated what I told you. Do you... do you remember anything?" she asked, looking like she wanted to give me several tests.

"I remember seeing your panties..." I said, grinning. "I remember Rose saying that you weren't having an arranged marriage. I also remember you telling me you wanted to--" I said, only to be stopped by Leela's warm soft lips kissing me. When she pulled away, I sighed. "I also remember promising to get your dad season tickets to a Bay Area MLS team before I could marry you... but aside from buying Kezar Stadium and putting in some plans to help the homelessness problem with it, I don't see what I can do. Might have a bunch of little bastards running around..." I said, still stupidly grinning at her as I played with a few of the curls near her face.

"I shouldn't have done that. Lied to you. I never thought you'd move away. I just wanted you to keep pushing... I knew that you wouldn't be happy with something that came to you too easily. I wanted you to be proud of yourself," Leela said, leaning her cheek into my hand. "Don't worry about Baba. I'll handle--"

"Oh no. I'm getting him that team," I said, pushing myself to my feet. "I'll get him that team if I have to kiss the ass of every single--" whatever I was in the middle of saying left my head when tendrils from the ceiling came down and painfully rubbed my sternum, and then pressed weird nerve areas in my arm and rib cage. "AAAAAGH! F4453213303 DA61F20BD67 FC233AA33262 E9873D79C6 D87DC0FB6 A5778633389!!" I screamed.

"Well. Finally, he decides to remember something useful..." Ellison said dryly, not bothering to turn away from the screen.

"What the hell was that?" I asked, rubbing the places where the tendrils had abused me.

"That, Cowboy, is our little thank you for bringing us back together," Rose's voice said over the speakers. "When you figure out what it is, you'll be able to buy a few Kezar Stadiums..."

*** *** ***

Well, that was a few months ago. Now, Leela's moved from Denver into her parents' place and is spending her days doing research at Cerebrotech, as well as working with Dean on developing a new suit for Rose. Something about using a low-level electric current to flex her muscles, and using some other kind of thing to figure out balance so she doesn't have to be suspended from the ceiling by tendrils. They're also working on a suit for Ellison, so that his body doesn't atrophy when he goes under to be with Rose... which is most of the time. Dean lives in a habitat nearby to watch over them and bring in any deliveries that arrive... you know, just in case.

Me? I'm still getting wake-up calls from Arunkumar Vaidya. The guy just lives to give me shit, I swear. Still, I think he's been warming up to me. Especially after I got a Bitcoin account... and realized the password structure they required looked familiar. Very familiar. When I had been sitting at my desk whispering "holy shit..." for about 5 minutes, my watch beeped and showed me the login ID for another account. I entered the login, and then used the set of numbers and letters I'd screamed randomly that day in the habitat. When I saw the amount that came up, I stopped breathing. Not permanently, or anything, but it was touch-and-go for a while there.

Rose was right... I could buy about six Kezar Stadiums, not that I would waste it like that. I had plans with the city that would need a couple Kezars-worth of improvements to the area, along with buying up some empty buildings from remote investors and making them useable for housing and community services. I wanted Kezar Stadium to be at the center of a community that was filling with life, and not just scraping by. The rest of the money went into a foundation that would make sure Kezar Stadium and the rest of the plans would be able to keep going long after the world forgot about how important they were to the people who needed them.

It was on game night at the Vaidya's house, that I brought my Waterworks game and slid an envelope containing season tickets to the MLS San Francisco Dreamers across the table to my best friend and future father-in-law. I didn't say a thing. Just slid it over to him. He had to know it was coming. The launch of the team was all over the news. So, he just barely opens it, idly poking through the first run tickets with his fingers, looking down at them over the bridge of his nose and the glasses perched at the tip. Nobody said anything. Leela had taken my hand under the table, and her mom Asawari paused as she was scooping some warm gulab jamun onto a plate for me, a drip of syrup poised and waiting to fall from the spoon. Literally everything in the room was waiting on what that hardass had to say about my unlikely feat of love. Finally, Arunkumar puts the envelope aside and picks up his cards and begins humming.

"Well?" Leela asked, unable to take the tension. Of course, that was what he wanted someone to do. He played all of them like that. Total drama queen, he was.

"You are a ridiculous man, Cole Howard. You come out of a coma, name a team after your unconscious state, and only give your father-in-law season tickets in general seating... it is almost insulting," he said, looking at his cards and carefully shielding them from view, as if the room were filled with agents sent to spy on his hand in Waterworks.

"Baba! You know there are no box seats there anymore. Cole made it all general seating and you have front row seats right at midfield, just the way you like!" Leela said, slapping her hand down on the table. "What Cole did was amazing! It was impossible! How can you just sit there like that and criticize?" she raged.

Arunkumar merely looked up from his cards and took her hand in his, examined her bare ring finger, and clucked disapprovingly, shaking his head. "Cole Howard does not even honor my daughter with his own marriage customs. Beyonce... she has a song about this, yes? How much could he like it if he did not put a ring on it?" he asked, wobbling his head. Leela made a noise like she was howling through clenched teeth and threw herself back into her chair.

I just smiled and put my hand over hers, holding it gently as I restrained my laughter. The guy never stopped. I had to respect that. Of course, I also officially named one of the bathrooms after him, too, but I'd just let him figure that out after Leela and I were married.

What Dreams May Come: 09 (final)