From: Coast2C@aol.com Date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 21:19:57 -0400 Message-ID: <960430211804_387213398@emout19.mail.aol.com> Subject: Convergence: Part 10 of 25 Convergence by Dana Anderson Part 10 of 25 (Author's Notes and Disclaimer found in Part 1) * * * * Al sat on the balcony for half an hour. He wracked his brain trying to find some way he could apologize sufficiently for the injury he had done Jenna. Nothing he could do or say seemed adequate to the task. Finally, he gave it up. He decided the only thing to do was to confront her again and see what happened. Maybe he could get a clue from her as to what would repair the break in the rapport they had barely begun to establish when he had so abruptly put his foot in it. When he asked Ziggy to locate Jenna for him, Al was somewhat surprised to be informed that she was in her quarters. *Probably packing,* he thought. Al stepped out of his quarters and walked down the hall to the door of her quarters. He paused briefly to gather his courage and knocked on the door. Jenna opened the door and regarded him silently for a moment. When she had come here it had been with the intention of leaving the Project. As she had regained some measure of calm she realized she had no idea where to go from here. Now, as she confronted the one person here who could hurt her, the only one she had opened herself up to at all, she realized she still yearned to be near him. She wanted him to touch her, to hold her. She wanted to feel his arms around her. The mere sight of him generated a painful void in her that, considering the situation, would never be filled. Still, she couldn't bring herself to ask him to go away. She turned and walked back into the living room, leaving the door open. Al entered and shut the door. Jenna was standing with her back to him, arms crossed in front of her, and it took him a moment to realize what was different about her. She was dressed in a white cotton shirt with a stand up collar and a pair of blue jeans. It was the first time he had seen her in civilian clothes. It did not appear that she was going to move or say anything in the near future. Al gathered his courage again and reminded himself that he had no one to blame but himself for the current crisis and it was up to him to put it right. He walked over to her, placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her around so she was facing him. Al saw that the anger and betrayal were gone from her eyes, but the despair remained. Once again, he acted without thinking. He put his arms around her and hugged her to himself. Jenna responded by relaxing into his embrace and putting her arms around his waist. Al closed his eyes in relief and abandoned himself to the sensation of her body against his. When she rested her head against him he could feel her breath against the side of his neck. He turned his head slightly to the side and lightly kissed her forehead. Jenna raised her face to look at him and he bent his head forward to kiss her fully on the lips. She disengaged her arms from around his waist, slid her hands up the front of his shirt and around the back of his neck. Then she relaxed, if possible, even more fully into his body. The kiss went on for what seemed forever and Al, for all his vast experience, thought he had never been so fully and deeply aroused by a single kiss, no matter how passionate. Granted, he had not been with Tina in many months, but he had certainly not been inactive sexually. As a matter of fact, the Christmas party two days earlier had given him the opportunity to reacquaint himself with a couple of partners he hadn't been with in months. But nothing he had done lately, or in the past that came immediately to mind, compared with what he was experiencing now. Jenna's body seemed designed to fit perfectly with his and her passion matched his exactly. They began unbuttoning the other's shirt and shed them in unison as they turned and walked toward the bedroom. When she reached the bed, Jenna turned and entered his embrace again. * * * * (Note: Incredibly detailed erotic scene removed by the author. If you want your kids to get their sex education from the 'net they'll have to read someone else's stuff.) * * * * He slid his hands between her body and the mattress as she caressed his back with the palms of her hands and then let them rest there. Al raised his head sufficiently to see her face. The look of absolute bliss he saw in her eyes touched a place in his heart he had long denied existed. A knot of tension in his chest that he had also long since taught himself to ignore, most of the time anyway, disappeared with a sensation of release nearly equivalent to his previous sexual climax. He kissed her tenderly as he removed himself from her body. Al collapsed into the mattress beside her and reveled in the complete relaxation of his entire body, as well as his mind. Then he heard Jenna whisper "Well, did you come by to apologize or not?" Al chuckled and reached for her and they fell asleep in each other's arms. * * * * When Al awoke the next morning he lay motionless and stared at the ceiling for a long time and tried to remember if he had ever felt this much at peace with himself. No, he decided. Al turned his head slightly, careful not to disturb the woman whose head was resting on his left shoulder. Jenna was still asleep. The length of her body was nestled against his side. Her left arm rested across his bare chest and her hand was cupped over his right shoulder. He didn't want her to wake up alone, especially after the quiet joy he had experienced when he had awoken to find her sleeping peacefully in his arms, but the urgent call of nature could no longer be denied. Al shifted her as carefully as possible and managed to get out of the bed without disturbing her slumber. He hurried himself to the limit that proper hygiene would allow and returned to the bedroom to find that Jenna had rolled over onto her left side, but was still asleep. Al crawled back into the bed. He slid his left arm between her body and the mattress, reached over her with his right arm and pulled himself forward to embrace her spoon-fashion. The top of her head came up to just below his nose and he drifted back to sleep with the fresh, clean fragrance of her hair in his nostrils. When he woke again, his first sensation was the feel of one of her soft round breasts in his right hand. Jenna's right arm lay directly over his and the palm of her hand rested on the back of his. She shifted her body against him and Al's skin tingled all over. Jenna lifted his hand off her breast, moved it up to her face and kissed the center of his palm with gentle but persistent pressure. Al shifted his position against her. Jenna wiggled forward so she could roll over to face him. "Good morning" she said. "Merry Christmas" Al replied. "Santa must have gotten his lists mixed up" Jenna answered with a grin. "I don't remember being especially good this year." "If you're admitting you got a present you didn't deserve I get the first shower" he claimed. "Why waste water?" she asked. They wasted plenty of water, as well as soap. They were extremely clean, if not completely dry, when they got back to the bedroom. Al collapsed on his back on the bed, nearly winded from the energetic shower routine they had just completed. Jenna climbed into bed next to him. "How about that dance I owe you?" she suggested. "What, now?" Al asked, propping himself up on his elbows. "Yes, right now" Jenna responded. She put one hand on his chest and pushed him back into a prone position on the mattress. This time, the initiative was hers. * * * * (Note: Once again, X-rated scene removed by author. Sorry, you'll have to use your imagination.) * * * * Jenna relaxed in utter exhaustion on top of him. Al put his arms around her. They drifted off to sleep once more in a gentle embrace. * * * * They changed locations to Al's quarters shortly after they awakened again at midday. Both of them were ravenous and Jenna did not have any food in her kitchen. The rest of Christmas Day passed quietly with Al and Jenna enjoying an uninterrupted and relaxed intimacy. They talked and laughed and held each other gently. Later that evening Al found himself, to his utter astonishment, telling her all about Beth. Jenna sat quietly beside him on the couch. Al had his arms around her and she rested her head against his chest while he divulged to her the most painful event of his life. He told her about meeting and falling in love with Beth. He told her about their marriage and how deeply he had loved her. He told her about how he had returned from Vietnam, after six years in a POW camp, to discover that the love of his life had had the Navy declare him dead. Beth had remarried and disappeared completely. Then Al told Jenna about Sam's leap back into Al's past. He admitted his obsession with attempting to direct Sam's efforts during the leap to convincing Beth to wait for his safe return from Vietnam. When he had finished describing his final, painful, one-sided encounter with the woman whose love he never expected to replace he fell silent. Jenna remained in the same position for a few quiet moments, feeling the rise and fall of his chest beneath her head and listening to the beat of his heart. Then she stirred and looked at him until he met her gaze. Even through the moisture in his eyes, Al could see that Jenna's eyes held no hint of recrimination, blame, betrayal or jealousy. All he could see there was a shared sorrow for the pain that life could bring and the promise that this woman was unlike Beth, except for the depth of emotion that only the two of them had managed to touch in his heart. They looked into each others eyes for a long time without speaking. Finally, Jenna reached out to him and took his hand. She led him into the bedroom. They undressed and climbed into bed. Jenna took him in her arms and Al cried silently in her embrace until he felt the final remnant of that over twenty five year old pain release its grip on his soul and vanish into the night. Neither of them ever mentioned the subject of Beth again. Al knew and Jenna sensed that there was no need. The understanding she had reached and the release he had experienced that Christmas night created a bond between them that required no words. * * * * After a long, gentle and satisfying session of intimacy that had begun early on Saturday morning, Jenna was completely relaxed and lying, half drowsing, on her back on the bed. Al was lying on his side next to her with his head propped on one hand. He was looking over her body lovingly while he mentally reviewed the pleasure it had just provided him. Jenna's left arm was flung somewhat to the side and Al's gaze settled on the gash on her left palm that a shard of broken glass had made a day and a half earlier. He picked up her hand and looked closely at the wound to see if it required more attention than it had been given. "It doesn't hurt" Jenna said. He looked at her face and saw that her eyes were now open and she was looking back at him with a peaceful expression. "Things like that don't usually bother me" she added. Al released the hand he had been holding and picked up her right hand instead. "How about things like this?" he asked. Jenna clenched her right hand into a fist and tried to pull away from his grasp. Al gently, but firmly, resisted her effort. She relaxed marginally and ceased trying to pull away from him, but did not release the tension of her fist. Al could see a two inch scar along the back of her right hand. He knew there was a matching one on her palm. It was identical in length and aspect, but was slightly puckered. "What happened?" he asked quietly. Jenna's eyes were now completely devoid of emotion. After a few moments she spoke. "My mother pinned my hand to a cutting board with a carving knife when I was three years old" she answered in an uninflected voice. Al's eyes closed briefly in pain. The pain was caused by a combination of the cold, emotionless voice emanating from a woman he now knew to be extraordinarily warm and passionate and a mental picture of her as a small, defenseless girl brutally affixed to a wooden board with a knife through her hand. He opened his eyes again and regarded the scar on the back of her hand. He kissed it gently and then began to massage her fist with both hands. It took several minutes, but the pressure of Jenna's grip finally eased. Al continued to stroke her fist with both hands until her fingers relaxed to the point where the next stroke of his hands caused her fist to open. Al massaged the scar with one thumb, then raised her hand to his face and kissed her palm softly. He looked back into her eyes and saw the pain there. "I'm sorry" he said. Jenna was relieved that she did not see pity in his eyes, pity had always made her furious. What she saw there was a simple and genuine regret that such a thing would happen. Al sat up and reached out to touch a scattering of discolored marks on her skin that began at the base of her neck, continued across the top of her left shoulder and ended with a larger splotch on the upper part of her left arm. "What about this?" he inquired. "A pan full of hot bacon grease" Jenna replied with only a little hesitation. "She aimed it at my face, but I was six and a lot faster by then." She didn't say who or why. He knew who and there was no sufficient explanation for why. He caressed the entire area with one warm, smooth hand, then kissed each mark tenderly. Al gently traced one finger along a scar that began a couple of inches above her navel and extended downward in a vertical line. "And this?" "The carving knife again" Jenna answered, then with a trace more emotion "I think she really meant to kill me that time. I was five." Al caressed and kissed the reminder of another injury. Then he reclined on his side again, slid one hand under her right shoulder and carefully rolled her over onto her left side. He touched a large blotch of discolored skin on the back of her right shoulder. "What about this?" "An iron" Jenna choked, and was unable to go on. Al folded his arms around her and held her close against his body while she sobbed breathlessly for a long, long time. Later, while Jenna slept, Al rose and put on a robe. He went into the kitchen and poured himself a dose of scotch and retreated silently to the balcony. Al stood and looked out into the desert while he smoked and drank. He let the anger he had suppressed earlier, in concern for the effect it would have had on Jenna in her vulnerable state, rise and consume him. Al extinguished his cigar and glared at the empty glass in his hand. He focused all his hate and anger on the glass, then flung it with all his might far out into the desert. He heard it shatter, with great satisfaction, against a rock. * * * * End Part 10 of 25