Chapter 8

"This is the best option?" Kyli asked, unable to hide the disappointment on her face.

Dr. Green nodded his head, his expression somewhat sympathetic. "I'm sorry, Kyli," he answered. "I know you're tired of changing medications, but I no longer feel comfortable raising your dosage any higher."

"I'm not abusing it," she insisted, and he nodded.

"It's nothing like that," he replied. "If anything, given how infrequently you've been going in for refills, I'd be more concerned about your lack of use." Kyli shifted uncomfortably, but he continued talking. "The truth is, the medication we currently have you on is not intended for long-term use, and when I originally prescribed it, it was with the hope that a decision could be made as to another surgery that would help you... but after our most recent x-rays and going over your progress with physical therapy..." His voice trailed off and she frowned.

"We're giving up on surgery then," she muttered, lowering her eyes.

"I would not say we've completely given up," he spoke up a little too quickly. "I have a few colleagues that, with your permission of course, I'd like to refer your information to. They may have some ideas I have not considered yet."

Kyli nodded slowly, though she did not look back up. "And... what happens if they can't find anything? What's presumably going to happen if surgery's no longer an option?"

He frowned but did not avoid the question. "Well... first we would start working you on to some stronger medications... possibly some nerve blockers as there's evidence your sciatic nerve is causing you quite a bit of pain on top of everything else. Ultimately, you'd be looking at a lifetime of pain medications... and most likely a decline in mobility."

She blinked several times, trying to process that. "Decline of... and what would that mean? Exactly?"

He pursed his lips. "A few years down the road... you may be looking at a wheelchair." Kyli's eyes closed and she lowered her head. "The timeline, of course..." he continued, "...would depend on several factors, your pain tolerance being one of stronger the medication, the harder it may be for you to feel like you're... well, not foggy. And as I seem to recall, you are rather adamant about avoiding that."

"So I either have my mind in a fog, or I'm in a wheelchair because it hurts too much to walk?" she asked, her voice wavering.

He was silent for several moments, then reached a cautious hand forward, resting it on her shoulder. "Kyli," he said in an encouraging tone. "Living with the amount of pain you do on a daily basis is not easy. I know what I'm telling you right now isn't good news, but you've already demonstrated in the year since your accident that you're as strong as you are stubborn." He offered her a faint smile. "So do me one favor. Hold on to that strength just long enough for me to find out if there's some way my other colleagues can help you."

She closed her eyes and nodded her head slowly. "Okay," she sighed, opening her eyes once more and looking up at him. "I... I'm assuming there's some sort of form I have to sign for that?" He turned to his desk, pulling out the appropriate paperwork and handed it to her to sign. Once she was finished he wrote her up a new prescription and handed it to her.

She braced herself on her cane as she walked out, hoping Olivia was on time to pick her up. Her sister had been very insistent on carpooling with her, claiming that there were errands she needed to run in that part of town. As far as Kyli knew, there was nothing of interest anywhere near her doctor's office, so what those errands were, she was unsure. She had been too preoccupied to question it, her mind too busy worrying over possibly receiving the exact news Dr. Green had given her.

Though surgery had always been slim chance, Kyli had held out hope that something would surface. Something that would heal her enough so that she would no longer need her pain medication anymore and would be open to travel as much as she used to. With her pain increasing, her will to hold off was not as strong as it once was, and the more she had to cut back on drifting in and out of worlds, the more it began to wear on her. If she had to lose it all just because of the pain...

She quickly wiped both her eyes. Not here. If she needed to, she could cry when she got home, but she would not do it here.

Pushing the door to the front entrance open, she took two steps, already looking for Olivia's car, then stopped, her shoulders dropping as her eyes fell on Legolas, standing with his hands in his pockets with an expectant look.

"Of course..." she sighed.

"You should really give Mom a call. She keeps asking about you."

Kyli shrugged as she finished filling out the deposit slip, and checked over her writing. "Isn't she still Facebook stalking me?" she asked, her tone giving no hint that she really cared.

Olivia smirked and shook her head, "Yeah, like you ever update it. I swear you only post like once every couple of weeks."

"Well, when I stop posting, that can be the time to worry," Kyli replied, setting the pen down and moving aside so her sister could use the counter.

Olivia cocked an eyebrow at her cold response, and moved to the counter, pulling out a slip to fill out. "If I didn't keep dragging you out on your days off, I don't think I'd ever see you either."

Kyli frowned at her sister's words and turned her head to look around. The line to the teller wasn't so bad for a Friday, and she doubted they would have to wait more than a few minutes.

"You need to get out more often. You spend too much of your free time shut away in your apartment," Olivia continued, and Kyli couldn't help her amused smile as she shook her head.

"Yeah… that's it…" she replied under her breath. Turning around she watched the front door and noticed two men walking in together, both of them carrying backpacks. Working in retail for too long, her immediate instinct was to keep an eye on them, but when she remembered where she was, she lowered her eyes and looked back to her sister.

"Damn…" Olivia muttered, reaching for her phone. "I always forget my account number…" As she swiped through the different screens, Kyli raised her eyebrows.

"You keep that information on your phone? Liv, that's a terrible idea!"

"Oh hush," she replied. "It's not like I don't have a pass code on my phone…"

"Yeah, because those always…" her sarcastic tone trailed off as she turned her head towards the door again. One of the men had stayed behind and was now watching intently as his friend began to make his way towards the front, sliding the backpack from his shoulder as he walked.

Her heart began to pound and she looked back at the door, watching as the one who had lingered began to pull out what looked like some sort of bike lock and turned towards the door.

"Liv…" she called in a low tone, pretending to casually look around instead of searching for another exit. Olivia barely acknowledged Kyli's voice and continued to write while Kyli's eyes darted around the bank. There were no other doors. They were trapped. Unless…

Changing gears, she took another casual look again, this time looking for all the security cameras.

Turning her head, she watched until the man at the doors turned his back on them to begin to place the lock while the sound of a gun cocking in the front caused Olivia to look up from the counter, her brow furrowing. "Is he…?"

Before she could finish her sentence, Kyli grabbed on to her sister's arm and hissed, "Be quiet!" before pulling her to the one spot that looked like it could be a blind spot from the security cameras. Olivia said nothing, but never took her eyes of the shot gun, feeling Kyli come to a stop and tug her until they were crouching down.

"Everybody listen up!" shouted the man in the front.

Kyli looked between the two of them, making sure neither of the men had seen her or her sister, and at that point, everyone else in the bank had their eyes focused on the shotgun the first man waved around.

"Oh my god!" Olivia gasped, beginning to tremble, and Kyli gripped down on her, closing her eyes and trying to focus.

This had better work… she thought to herself. She didn't care where she landed, she just needed to make sure she brought her sister with her. She had taken items with her before when she traveled, but this would be the first time she'd attempted bringing a person.

As the gunman began to bark out instructions, she felt the tug in the back of her brain, and she focused on the both of them, determined to carry Olivia with her for the ride. Being able to travel on her own almost always felt like stepping through a doorway, but this time, it felt like she was trying to squeeze herself through a tight crevice. Her mind felt like it was being pulled and stretched, trying to drag along a heavy anchor… and then the anchor budged. The world around her began to shift, but Olivia remained within her grasp.

"Did Olivia put you up to this?" Kyli asked, watching the buildings zip past them as he drove her to her apartment.

"Actually, it was my idea," he answered, keeping his eyes on the road. "I wanted to speak with you."

Kyli raised an eyebrow. "And if I say no?"

Legolas gave a faint shrug, his tone completely passive and showing no sign of discouragement or annoyance. Only honesty. "Then I will let you off at your apartment and leave." He glanced at her sidelong. "I won't force you to talk to me, Kyli."

She sat silently for the rest of the drive, not answering him one way or the other until he pulled up to her apartment complex. Seeming to assume her answer was no, he brought the car alongside the sidewalk and put it in neutral so she could get out, but Kyli turned her eyes back to him.

"Park, and we'll talk," she said softly. Legolas nodded, shifting the car back into gear, and he pulled around to one of the closest spots. As they made their way up the stairs, Kyli popped two of her pain meds, knowing she would not have the tolerance to handle her pain and whatever it was Legolas wanted to talk about, though she had a pretty good idea. It had been three weeks since the day she had paid Thranduil back for helping Olivia. She had made no attempt to reach out to him since, and though neither Legolas or Olivia said a word to her on the matter, she knew they were impatiently waiting for her to attempt another interaction.

In truth, she was holding off until they bothered her about it again.

Kyli held the door to her apartment open to Legolas, he thanked her as he stepped inside and as she closed and locked it, she asked, "I'm about to make some tea. Want some?" She gestured to the kitchen table, welcoming him to sit as she walked past.

Legolas nodded politely and took a seat while Kyli got the water boiling. "So, what did you want to talk to me about?" she asked, glancing over her shoulder at him while she worked.

He paused for a moment, allowing time for her to stop filling the kettle with water, and once the sink was shut off, he answered, "I wanted to ask what exactly happened between you and my father."

Kyli moved to the base of the automatic kettle and set it back up, pressing the button before turning to lean against the counter while she waited for it to boil.

"Nothing, really. I just gave him the check and-"

"No," Legolas interrupted. "I meant before that. Back when you were dating. I was wondering what exactly happened?"

Kyli's eyes lowered and she crossed her arms over her chest. "It's very complicated." She avoided his gaze as she stood perfectly still. "What did he tell you?"

Legolas shrugged and shook his head. "Almost those words exactly. That it was very complicated." He frowned. "Though I was somehow under the impression that you ended the relationship. Not him."

She sighed, adjusting her stance a bit to remove some of the weight from her bad hip. "I suppose that would all depend on perspective..." Finally, she looked at him, studying his gaze for a moment. "Why do you want to know?"

Legolas seemed to study her before answering. "I'd like to know what sort of bad blood lies between you and my father. I want a better understanding of what exactly Olivia and I are asking you to do." His expression softened slightly. "I'd rather hear your side of it than make assumptions."

Kyli regarded his words with care, sensing that, despite the fact that her ex was his father, he genuinely wanted to hear her side of the story. With an open heart. She took in a deep breath and tried to find the best way to explain their situation.

"I made promises to your father that... in the end I couldn't keep," she answered, circling the table and pulling out a chair to sit down. "There were things in my life that I promised I would give up... things he wanted me to give up for him and, at the time, I wanted to as well." Her frown deepened. "But the more I tried, the more I found I couldn't do it." She lowered her eyes. "Eventually he got tired of waiting."

She knew the answer was vague and was not surprised when his brow furrowed with confusion. "What sort of things?"

She sighed again, tracing the lines on one of her palms absentmindedly with her fingertips. "Let's just say it was, what he would consider, a bad habit." The kettle began to boil and she slowly rose from her seat, moving to the cupboard, pulling out two mugs and three different kinds of tea. She fixed herself some chai with honey and lemon and he joined her at the counter, selecting what he wanted and preparing his own mug. Once they were seated at the table again, she took a deep drink from her mug, the temperature just perfect and warming her throat on the way down. Chai always calmed her and even the bad news of the day seemed to be fading from her mind.

Once Legolas was settled back in his seat, he turned his eyes to her again. "So... what you're saying is my father ultimately gave up on you?"

She had said those words herself so many times, but somehow hearing it back for the first time did not sit right with her. Perhaps it was her calmed state of mind that allowed her to think clearly, perhaps it was the fact that her medication was already doing its work and alleviating most of her pain, removing some of the grim feelings that had stagnated there. Whatever it was, she couldn't bring herself to fully agree with the statement, even though she said nothing to indicate it.

She took another sip from her mug, finding herself needing to keep her emotions in check. It may have been an old wound, but it took very little to make it raw again. "I can't imagine he's had anything nice to say about me since," she muttered.

But Legolas shook his head. "He never speaks of it," he answered. "Never speaks of you or what went wrong. Aside from this past month, I don't think I've heard him mention you once at all. Not since the day of your accident at least."

Kyli stiffened. "What do you mean 'since my accident?'"

Not noticing the change in her demeanor, he paused, lowering his mug instead of taking another sip as he'd originally intended. "The day of the accident, he was there at the hospital. Did they not tell you?"

Kyli shook her head. Her accident had happened after the breakup. "I didn't know he even knew anything happened. I mean he never asked about my cane but I figured it was either because he was trying to avoid having a conversation with me." She shook her head again, silently wondering how much he really knew about it. "If he had been there, I never saw him."

Legolas shook his head. "I didn't realize... I don't know why they didn't tell you."

There came a shout of, "What the?!" from Olivia, and the both of them fell over backwards, landing into a layer of snow. Olivia immediately sat upright, looking at her changed surroundings with wide, confused eyes, while Kyli remained where she was, momentarily too dizzy to stand.

"What just happened?!" Olivia shouted, scrambling to her feet. "Are you seeing this? Is this real?!" Kyli managed to finally raise her head, and slowly sat up to take a look around. They were in the middle of a forest at night, and large flakes of snow were lightly falling around them. She had no idea where they were, but for the moment, it looked like they were at least alone. Still, they couldn't be too careful.

"Lower your voice," Kyli spoke up, waiting for the ability to stand up to return. "I don't know where we are."

"What's happening?!" Olivia shouted, turning back to her. "Where are we? How did we-"

A howl in the distance cut her question short, and Kyli turned her head in the direction of the sound, stumbling to her feet as she signaled her sister to be quiet.

"What is that?" Olivia asked, taking several steps back, and Kyli grabbed hold of her.

"I really don't feel like finding out," she answered, and despite her weakened state, she closed her eyes and focused again.

When they came out the other side again, this time, it was in her apartment, and the moment they crossed over, Kyli lost her grip and fell. "What?!" Olivia cried, completely disoriented, but when she saw her sister fall, she knelt down in a panic. "Kyli!"

Kyli looked up at her lazily and reached a hand up to her. "Help me up," she groaned. Her sister reached down, slinging her arm over her shoulder, and supported her to her feet, walking her to the couch so she could sit down.

"What's happening?!"

Before Kyli answered her, she looked up at the TV and reached behind herself for the remote. "What are you doing?!" Olivia shouted as the TV clicked on, but Kyli ignored her as she flipped to the first local station she could find. A breaking news report of the bank robbery in progress was already on the screen, police already surrounding the building, and photographs of the two suspects displayed for viewers to see. She waited a few minutes, making sure there was no mention of two women disappearing into thin air, and she breathed out a sigh of relief, turning off the set.

She could still feel Olivia's eyes on her, waiting impatiently for an explanation, and with a sigh, she pointed to the kitchen behind them. "I'll tell you everything," she murmured. "…but first I need a beer."

At length, Kyli told her everything. How it began, the moment she discovered it was really happening, how she had been hiding it all this time...

The two sat in silence for what felt like hours, Kyli working on her second beer while her sister sipped on something a little stronger.

"I… don't understand how you kept this hidden for this long," Olivia finally spoke up. "How has no one else seen it?"

Kyli took another deep drink and shrugged as she swallowed. "Dumb luck," she answered. "And a lot of lying to explain away anything weird."

Olivia mulled her answer over, thinking back on their childhood and trying to remember any signs.

"So… that time when you were sixteen and Mom and Dad caught you sneaking in really early and you said you'd spent the night at Jason's house?"

Kyli smirked at the memory. That was not her immediate lie, or at least not the one she had planned to use. They had outright accused her the moment she walked in the door, and knowing it would keep them too angry to question the details, she bit the bullet and went with it. "Fell asleep at home, woke up on some old man's lawn... in a medieval world," she answered.

"But you were grounded for like a month!" Olivia cried, laughing a little as she said it. "Mom and Dad were pissed! And they made you two break up!"

Kyli chuckled, though a part of her still shuddered at the memory of how loudly they'd shouted. "I was already going to end it."

"But what that did to Mom and Dad… I mean… was it really worth it?"

Kyli's smile faded. "Do you think for a second they would have believed the truth, Liv? They either would have thought I was crazy or lying."

"But you could have tried to tell them," Olivia pressed. "You could have told me. You could have shown me!"

"I didn't even know until today that I can take people with me. That's never happened before. Objects, yes. But not people." She shook her head slowly with a frown. "And I barely knew what I was doing with myself back then. With my luck, I wouldn't have figured out how to get us back. We could have ended up permanently lost somewhere. And then what would that have done to Mom and Dad?"

Olivia's opened her mouth but when she was unable to find a way to argue with that logic, she sat back, her eyes lowering.

"You have any idea how much this… whatever this is, has sucked?" Kyli asked her. "Especially back then. I was always one bad attitude away from falling into some random forest or someone's lawn… I even turned up in the middle of an orc attack once!" Olivia made a face, but Kyli nodded. "Oh, yes. Those exist in some worlds. And they're about as friendly as you'd expect."

Olivia looked dumbfounded and her eyes wandered off, staring at nothing in particular as she muttered, "I'm glad we didn't stick around to find out what that howling was…"

Kyli nodded in agreement and sat back in her seat, taking another sip of beer. "It's less like that now. I have better control. I don't always disappear on accident anymore. In fact that happens a lot less than it used to. I mean it still sometimes happens… And sometimes I get stuck."

Olivia's brow furrowed. "Stuck? What do you mean stuck?"

Kyli's frown deepened. She had never shared this much information to anyone who truly knew her before and she already knew it was about to go bad. "I mean that sometimes I can't get back home right away. Sometimes I have to wait a few minutes, maybe even an hour…" Worry had already begun to enter Olivia's features, but Kyli continued. "But the really scary thing is that time doesn't pass the same in every world. I could be gone for a minute here, but an hour will have gone by there… or the other way around."

"Like Narnia?"

Kyli smirked. "…if that helps you. It hasn't happened often, but it's one of the scariest parts."

"So… you mean you could disappear somewhere some day without meaning to… and to us, you could be gone for years?" There was a look of horror in her sister's eyes as she asked and Kyli shifted uncomfortably. She had spent too many sleepless nights panicked over that very idea.

"I've never come across a world with that big of a time difference-"

"But it could happen…" Olivia stressed.

"I… I don't know." A lump formed in her throat as she found herself unwilling to say 'yes,' despite knowing it might be a very real possibility.

"Or you could get trapped in a world and unable to come back?"

"That's never-"

"But it could happen?!"

"Liv!" Her voice broke and she slammed her beer down on the coffee table. She bent forward and holding her head in her hands, tears flooding her eyes as she struggled to pull herself out of those fears. She had spent years building up a barrier to keep herself from reflecting on them. It was the only way she could cope. Going through her life there, knowing that either situation could one day happen to her, made it almost impossible to get out of bed. The idea of disappearing without a trace, no one knowing where she was or how to find her, scared her.

Breathing slowly, she brushed the tears from her cheeks as she spoke, willing herself to pull it together. Despite still recovering from traveling with a person, she knew she was still vulnerable and now would be the worst possible time to disappear. Whether she would be able to return immediately or not, her sister would be terrified if it happened.

"All I can do right now is… do whatever I can to control it. That's it. No one else knows about this, except for you… and the people I've met in other worlds. It needs to stay a secret."

Olivia's frown deepened, but she still nodded, taking another drink before doing so. She needed it.

"Are you all right?"

Kyli blinked from thought for a moment, then shook her head, clearing her throat before taking another sip of tea. "Yeah," she answered at length. "I uh... I just didn't have any good news at the doctor's today."

Though he was still curious, Legolas seemed to accept that for now he would not be getting much more information on the matter from her, and he allowed for the subject to change. "Your limp has been getting more pronounced," he noted. "Is it the pain? Or is there still damage?"

She took another sip. "It's a bit of both. They suspect nerve damage, which they already warned me might happen. And the bones healed awkwardly in some spots but... if you saw the x-ray... the surgeon had such a mess to work with right from the start." She reached a hand down, rubbing at the afflicted area. "I was mostly pins and screws in there for a while. At least it felt that way."

"So they intend to do more surgery?" he assessed, but she shook her head.

"My doctor thinks we may have run out of options," she replied, shaking head head. "The word 'wheelchair' was brought up..." She hid her emotions behind another sip.

"You should get a second opinion."

"He's already referring my case to a few other specialists... but I'm not getting my hopes up." She could see he was ready to offer her more advice but, finding herself not wanting to dwell on it any more at that moment, she changed the subject back in the direction of what brought him there. "I still want to help you and my sister... but right now I'm not sure what's the best way to do it. I haven't been able to come up with an excuse to bump into your father."

He seemed a bit thrown from having to switch gears so suddenly, but he caught up quickly. "Neither of us exactly expect you to waltz right up to him and offer to be his friend," he replied in understanding.

"That's not going to happen," Kyli agreed. "But if you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them."

He lowered his gaze to her table, his fingers tracing patterns over the wood. "Olivia and I... we plan to come out to everyone by the end of the month. That's in two weeks."

"That's quick."

"If we intend to wed as early as we originally planned, it needs to happen that quickly," he replied.

Kyli shook her head. "Don't you think you're rushing this? I know Olivia has a limited window of time in which she'll still be able to squeeze into her dress size, but even that's a lame excuse to hurry."

"My father-"

"You know... I think you're just using him as an excuse," she interrupted, ignoring the look it brought to his face. "I think you're panicking and your father's just a convenient excuse to hide it." Legolas' brow furrowed, but Kyli kept talking before he could argue otherwise. "You knocked up my sister, you feel guilty that you put her in that position, and you think that this is the right thing. That this will make things better. You use your father to justify it but you don't really want to admit that you're just panicking because you feel guilty."

Legolas lowered his eyes, seemingly lost in thought for a while before answering her. "If I were panicking... would you blame me?"

"No... but I also wouldn't sit by and let you push Olivia into something I don't think she's fully decided she wants yet." Kyli sighed, analyzing him silently for a moment. "Talk to my sister again," she replied. "Really talk to her and find out what she wants. What she really wants."

"Are you truly worried over what she wants?" he asked. "Or what you want?"

"She's my sister," Kyli spoke firmly. "Our relationship may be flawed, but I still look out for her. And even I'd help her with this if it was what she really wanted. Regardless of what I might think about it." She gave him a meaningful look. "Do this for me... and I'll find an excuse to talk to your father again by the end of the week."

Legolas met her gaze once more, considering her compromise silently, and nodded. "Deal."

"Olivia, you can't tell anyone about this." Kyli approached her sister, a pleading look in her eyes, though she stood firm. "Promise me you won't tell. No matter what happens."

"Kyli…"

"Promise me!" she demanded.

Olivia sighed, but nodded. "All right," she answered in a low voice. "But you have to promise me you'll stop lying! From now on, I want to know what's going on with you. No more leaving me in the dark. No more secrets. I can't just leave here today and be afraid of what's going to happen to you. You have to promise me you're going to be honest."

Kyli frowned, but she knew it was a fair trade. And deep down, she was relieved to have someone from home that she could confide in. She had so many stories to tell…

"Deal," she answered.