In Out of the Rain

[Lovely]

June 21, 2006
(At the start of the reset)
Montgomery Inn - Main Desk/Foyer

The man was tall, highly athletic in appearance; he approached the desk with a prideful and confident step, decked in leather top to tail including a sharp trench that slicked the rain neatly to the floor.

Sara was on her meal break so Annia was tending the desk. Reading the paper quietly she looked up as the man entered, almost immediately getting an odd vibe from him. Annia set the paper aside and greeted him with a warm smile,"Good evening."

"Evening, miss. I'd like a room if I may," his voice was smooth and strong like his appearance, a hint of a brogue to his speech.. something from the isles. "The pass is too dark to see in the rain this time of night. One, please."

Annia nodded, sliding the ledger his way. "Just for a night then or will we have the pleasure of you for longer?" She smiled at him handing him the pen.

"I don't rightly know, miss. I am between here and there as it were.. "there" being a place I don't wish to remain and "here" being just the next step further away from't. I might be persuaded to stay, given a new purpose, perhaps," he grinned, warmly, sadly, looking as if he'd been pushed out of the only life he'd ever known like a bird from out the nest.

Annia felt something... she couldn't describe. She reached across the desk and lay a cool hand over his. "Maybe some rest and TLC will help you find your way."

"Fine words, miss, but I'm traveling alone. Would y'have a spa of sorts? These weary bones wouldn't mind a long soothing soak," he dreamed aloud, pondering the girl behind the counter, wondering if she'd had a hard day herself, "If the miss is off shift any time soon, and the facilities allow, perhaps she'd join me?"

"Well the nice thing about an inn like this is its warmth. I am not talking the cozy fire either." She smiled, her eyes catching flecks in the light. "You are in luck...we do have a spa...and I am merely covering a break...I would be happy to show you about."

"Maybe I am lucky. I believe I'd not mind the pleasure of your company. You seem to have a kind spirit about y'miss... but, appearances might deceive, might they not?," he grinned softly. "Galen... Galen O'Reilly, miss.. for your roster.. and for your acquaintance if I may," he said offering a hand to take hers.

Her hand slipped into his and her smile graced her lips again, brightening her features. "Annia Montgomery ..It's a pleasure...Galen" Her eyes darkened and sparkled, seeming to shift and play with the light. "Now lets see you are properly checked in." She handed him a key, giving him a nice suite. She wrote his name in the legder and settled the paperwork. Her eyes flicking over him now and again.

[Lovely]

His hand held hers softly at the fingertips..so much information exchanged in a moment's time - a look, an expression, the knowing. The suspicion... a longing... a longing for what exactly? A wink and a nod of one to the other as their souls met, just as their hands did between them, in but a brief shadow, as if passing shoulder to shoulder, then looking back in wonder. He smiled an odd smile, feeling as if he knew her as an old friend from long ago. "Miss Montgomery," he nodded, his eyes holding the wealth of that information, a gleam shimmering softly in his eyes.

"Annia, please call me Annia." Her smile hinted at things and was at the same time innocent and warm. She was a mix of things light and dark. Sweet and seductive, passive and wild all in one convenient package. Her entire self was infused with this vibe.

"A pleasure... Annia," he smiled, adding a touch of additional chaos to the mix as he leaned to kiss her hand before letting it go, his lips soft as a whisper and warm as the summer rain against her cool skin, more levels of information seeping into her being.

She smiled, coyly eyeing him like he was prey and she a predator. When he lifted his lips from her hand, she was all sweetness and light.

"Have we met, lass? I feel I know y'from somewhere.. may sound strange, but.. have y'been to the Isles?"

Annia shrugged. "Long before your time.." She laughed and waved her hands. "I do know what you mean...your face reminds me of someone I once knew."

"Before m'time.. lass you're younger than m'self, I'd gather by your face," he said, acting yet still wondering how skin deep her act was and how old she really was. He could sense the animal in her, but could not yet identify it. "Maybe your mother, or perhaps a photo of someone like yourself, of course.. silly of me. I do apologize."

She shrugged. "Looks can be decieving...I bet I'm older than you..." She giggled coming around the desk with the room key in her hand. "Allow me to show you up?"

"I'd be honored, miss," he said, offering her an elbow as carted his bags behind him. He bet that she could very well be right, but not by much. His own secret hiding in the youth of his own that was visible to the outside world.

"It's my pleasure...not often we get such charming and worldy people through here." She played the Inn keeper well, but with this one she was letting a bit more of her true self peek out. Guiding him up the stairs, she smiled knowingly at him....if he wasn't the spitting image.

"Charming, perhaps, but not terribly worldly, lass.. spent most of m'life in one place, but visited Lady Eire a great deal over the last couple of de... er.. years."

"Everyone is worldy if you're not from around here.." She giggled. "Lovely...though the last couple decades were not 'her' best." The eyes of youth peered at him and behind them and old soul lurked, hinting that it was there.

"Miss Montgomery.. Annia.. please.. would you join me for a glass of wine once I've deposited my things?"

A slight nod of her head, much like a regal lady would, she smiled, that almost smirk. "Of course. I'd be delighted." She gestured ahead, having given him a nice suite.

He took the key from her gentle hand and opened the door, entering into a delightful rest area, a suite complete with sitting area and mountain view overlooking a piece of a lake he hadn't noticed before, "Splendid, lass, but.. pity I'm traveling alone. Wouldn't this room best suit a couple.. a family perhaps.. not a single, foolish old man?" He turned to her, a gleam in his eye that might seem familiar from some time past.

[Lovely]

She smiled pulling the half of curtain back, that had fallen. "I'm glad you like it. I think the room will do you well. You need some comforts...you have not taken in sometime." That knowing half smile was on her lips as she walked about adjusting things here and there. Making it just so...each movement would give the room and added touch of comfort.

"Tell me, miss.. how long ago it was that you.. or your family..last visited Ireland..." She would smile at him and not say, he was certain of it.

The lights of the room, though not bright, would catch the auburn fire in her hair and cast a flattering glow on her pale skin. She smirked, falling into a perfect accent. "It was long before your time...I had family there once..."

"A brother.. and a sister.. a mother who died young, perhaps.. a father far from home.. came to America to find his wealth.. perhaps?" He looked at her and spun his pointed gaze away, "Apologies, miss.. but you remind me so of someone I knew.. the tale is much like any.. the Irish woe is common, I'm afraid. I hope y'll forgive and still share the wine with this sullen lad."

Annia paused, no stilled her movement and looked at him. After a long moment she smiled softly. "My mother..." She whispered. "So long ago..and yet I still feel that ache." Her voice was soft, but the accent still came through.

"And perhaps," he whispered, his back nearly to her as he stepped to the window. "There may.. or may not.. have been a lad.. born a Brady who disappeared?"

Her hand went to her throat, a natural reaction of a proper lady. And she had been bred and trained as such...once a long time ago. "My father was not Irish...he looked down..." She did not finish, back in those days, without a father's approval...

"Then you're not mistaken, miss.. I knew the lad.. quite well in fact," he said turning, a soft gleam, a tear hiding in the corner of his eye behind it.

She shook her head, if he was her kind -she would sense it and though she picked up something from this man, he was not her kind. "Nay...you couldn't have known him..." There was a tear in her eye, for love lost and time and places and things long past.

"Mayhaps not, miss.. mayhaps not. Perhaps it is only a wish that I have, upon seeing your kind and gentle features, that a memory or a dream has come forward and I merely spin tales... a task better accomplished over drink, I'd say. Please forgive me my trespasses and let's away, shall we? I'm quite parched."

Her eyes passed over him several times, then a small nod of her head. Her smile returned though not the same, now it hung a sad slight smile. "Yes...lets get that drink. I think I be needing to wash away the bitter taste of a past that can not be altered."

"The past, miss, is merely a record, the bricks in which the path is laid down.. focus more on the bricks in your hod, where you wish the next to be placed, hm?"

Annia nodded but at the same time shrugged. "Sometimes in the wintery depths of life, the past is the only place we find comfort....when we look at ourselves and realize we are not what we thought we would become." She sighed. "That is when we are comforted by what we once were."

He'd nearly stepped through the door, but came back, closing it behind him, leaning against it. He sighed and slowly lifted his eyes to her, humming a soft song, an old melody, a haunting reel of sorts, "May I, miss?" He held one hand forward, the other up at an angle, one half a pairing for the dance.

[Lovely]

Her hand remained at her throat briefly and then she stepped to him, completeing the pairing for the dance. She knew the tune, she could remember the dress she wore, the way her hair had been swept up, the new shoes that slightly pinched her feet. She gave a small curtsy and her eyes met his. "Of course M'lord. I'd be honoured."

He grinned softly, "Only a lad, miss.. a commoner.. one that a lovely lady's father would chase away.. but in the right place at the right time." He hummed the tune and stepped forward and then back, forward and spun, his hand, back to back with hers, the other lightly touching at the palm, nothing embracing... a switch of direction, the pacing slow and even, everything proper, but the thoughts of a youth about the young lady he was paired with.

She moved, not losing a step. She had not done this in years...but moved as if she had just done so yesterday. The memories flooded her, her heart breaking once again. "There was nothing common about the lad I once knew. He was finer than any lord I'd meet." Her voice was soft emotion filled as she fought the tears and the ache.

His grin dimmed a bit, catching her pain in her whisper. He spun her gently as the reel would have them do and landed her softly, curled within his arm, looking into her face closely, from eye to eye, peering gently into a once-forgotten place, rediscovered, "Miss Montgomery.. may I?" He didn't wait for the response as his lips met hers without blessing and authorization.. like they had many decades before.

Annia felt his lips, just like the memory that played. Her eyes closed, lips returning his kiss. A soft noise blended into the kiss. There was no scowling father to pull them apart this time, and the kiss lingered. Suddenly she pushed him away, her eyes wide and almost afraid. "What tricks are these? What games do you play, sir?"

"None.. I'm a cursed man.. you know in your heart there are no tricks, miss.. I am now who I was then, still traveling, searching..."

Her eyes narrowed, though they shone with the belief in him she was not ready to admit. She shook her head. "Nay, it can not be...it's impossible." How strange it must be to hear those words coming from her mouth.

"Annia.. take m'hand.. feel my hairt.. m'mind.. y'know it t'be true, lass. I'd not been looking here t'find y'but I did.. t'is fate smilin', lass, but y'look t'other way. I cannae bring back that time, it's lost t'us both, but.. the next brick, lass.. is yours to set down if you wish to bend the path my way again."

A tear slipped from her eye, leaving a light red trail down her cheek. "I longed for so many years, just to glimpse your face once more..." She looked at him with love filled eyes, but also immense sadness. "How can I ask you to stay. You say your heart beats...mine does not." Her voice was a sorrow filled whisper.

"I know, lass.. but there's a darker secret still.. one that I could not share then, that I can now. I knew't as I touched your hand this e've.. you've been turned, but I need not be, lass. Charmed, cursed, however you call it, I'm touched, lass... the musings of beings with powers beyond mortal men... with luck or against it, I'm here on their whim.. bound to this earth as you see me here now, nearly ageless, but not heartless, full of ache and sorrow. Nearly I say... as I do pass day to day to the great hereafter, but at a slow trek... Annia... I could be by your side... nearly forever."

The tears slipped down her cheeks as she gazed at him, listening to his words. Even with what she was it was hard to believe he was here, now after all this time had passed. She tentatively reached a hand to him, stepping to him. Very light fingers traced his face. "If I am dreaming, never let me wake...and if I am awake, never let me sleep." She whispered, her hand slid down to rest upon his chest, where she could indeed feel his heart beat. "My father would not approve." Her lips curved into a sad smile.

[Lovely]

"Tell me, does your inn offer room service?" He grinned softly, bending down into a feathery kiss that deepened as he leaned further, scooping his arm under her knee, lifting her in his arms to carry to the small balcony, grabbing a pillow from the bed on the way. "Under the sky and stars, love.. do you remember?"

"Aye I remember....remind me anyway." Her face still held the tracks of her tears, a trail of red on her cheeks. She felt the light breeze as the came onto the balcony, Annia smiled at him, her arms resting around his neck.

He rested her down, the pillow cradling her head against the railing. "I'd prefer t'be on the heath or the moor, lass, but the view from here is mightily.. enchanting. T'was a day, after a spring rain, a picnic, a gathering of families for a cousin's wedding I believe... and you and a youth.. who would appear to be m'self.. whisked away to a grove of cypress trees to enjoy one another's company while your father was occupied heavily by drink and conversation."

She wiped her face with her sleeve, clearing away the tears. Annia smiled, fondly remembering. "Ah yes, father was getting quite drunk if I remember.... go on... tell me more." The eyes that looked to him now were the same, playful ones that looked upon him all those years ago.

*********************************

The time seemed to pass too quickly yet every moment was bliss as the 'remembered' their love from so long ago. The dawn had yet to come, these were the hours just before the day would break. Annia and Galen were curled on the balcony with a blanket in the moonlight now that the rain had cleared. There was fog drifting in now and though Galen was still quite warm and comforting, Annia pulled the blanket around them a little to keep the chill away.

Galen laughed and shifted the blanket away to keep her warm himself.

Annia gently lapped a drop of dew from his shoulder, watching the mist and fog swirl around the edges of the balcony.

"Never dreamed a morning'd ever be so beautiful again, luv. Three hundred years and ne'er a sparkle so bright as your smile."

She giggled softly, sounding much like the more innocent young girl he'd known so long ago. "Three hundred years and.. you've gotten even more charming.." Her whisper teased him, though her eyes were less playful and filled with a longing and sadness to have been without him for all that time.

"Not charming... starved," he protested, his warm smile keeping the tendrils of fog away. Galen pulled her closely and lay looking at the stars that flirted with being seen beyond the mist. His attention was pulled back to her expression and his fingertip pulled to her cheek, resting there softly. "Please don't, luv. Too long, too far and far too many years lost. Just share this with me with a smile," he whispered nearly as sad, feeling that pain as well.

Her eyes cast to the speckled and hiding sky and she made a silent wish, more plea to those heavens to allow her this joy and to let it be lasting. Her cheek brushed his shoulder as she nuzzled closer, snuggling to his warmth and etching the moment into her mind should the fates be cruel and make this fleeting, the smell of his damp skin, the feel of his finger on her other cheek.. every breath he took, each beat of his heart that she could hear beneath her. "I always have a smile for you.." Her lips turned up gently and her eyes sparkled lightly as she showed him how very happy she was to have him near her.

[Lovely]

"I very nearly believe y'lass. Just don't let me wake up to find y'gone," he sighed, reaching for the upturned corner of her lip with a whisper-soft kiss.

She turned to catch his soft kiss with a tender one of her own, reaching her fingers now to his cheek to hold him with her. "If you're wanting me to stay.. you'll have to lock the doors and draw the curtains.."

"Long as I'm on the same side," he smiled. "Always liked your idea of staying, close and guarded. Let me take you in where it's more soft and warm first?"

"You can take me.. anywhere." Her lips brushed over his jaw and sifted along his neck, a cool breath forced lightly over his skin to encourage the chills.

"The quicker the better, or we'll be out here all day," he chuckled, letting her caress and the chill float over him. He shifted to help her up into the blanket to cover her only until slipping back into the room. It had seemed a large room at first, but with the possibilities ignited with their reunion, he wondered if there was yet space enough to hold them. "A fire to warm you, I believe, though it will pale against you, Annia. Let me get that started then we can lock the whole world away."

"You've already started a fire to warm me.." She murmured, leaning back to caress his shoulder and chest with her lips and tongue, not paying attention to the blanket he attempted to cover her with.

"Only started? Hmm, I may have lost my touch, y'think? I'll have to practice that art to perfection, won't I?"

"Started.. yes.. hoping it will keep burning for days.." Gentle and light fingers drifted over his arms, it was clear she had no intention of being far from him for some time.

He shook his head and helped her move back into the room to fall to the yet-untouched cushions and pillows they'd left behind. "Another three hundred years and another beyond that, luv. Not letting you go again, curse or no."

**********Afternoon*************

"Oh Annia darling...

"Mmmm yes... someone called?"

"Only if you're hungry for room service this morning... afternoon, actually," he said, glancing at the glow of dim light around the edges of her heavy curtains. Galen carried a tray of things better suited to keep his own strengths, but also a darkly-shaded bottle of wine.

She stretched and shifted, coming to peek out from under the covers at him with his tray. Her smile was sleepy-sweet, much like he might remember of the girl he'd rolled with many years before. "Only if you're room service.." She murmured softly, letting her eyes drift over him, still only half believing he was not just a dream. It wouldn't be the first time she'd dreamed of him, but it would be the most real.

"Ah you are in there. I was thinking I'd have to drink this myself. Never really cared for red, much. Thought it might lift your spirits a little. Care for a nip?"

"Right where you left me apparently. Seems someone wore me out and lulled me to a gentle slumber.. " She snuggled herself down and tucked the covers around her torso. "Thank you.. I'd rather not." Even if it was just tainted wine, she didn't wish to have him see that much of that part of what she'd become.

"I'll have to have a talk with him, then. He let you wake up without me," he grinned, setting the tray down beside the fire and sliding himself to the foot of the bed to grab her covers and pull them further away from her. "Hiding... is not going to save you from me."

[Lovely]

She giggled as he tugged her covers away, reaching to snatch them back if she could. "I don't remember saying I wanted to be saved.. from you." The last was said more quietly and most sincerely, she may have sometimes wished not to be what she was, but one moment more with him made it all worth it.

He slapped at her fingers on one hand and reached to grab her with the other to pull her to him or himself down to her. "Consider y'self not saved, then. Never in a hundred years or a hundred more."

She gave a soft cry of delight as he captured her and pulled her up to him. Her eyes lit up and full of sparkles that caught the tiny bit of light in the room. "Never want to be.. if I am damned.. then I am happily so to be here with you."

"Then we'll be damned together... what a lovely thought that is... finally after all this time," he sighed, admiring the beauty of the shine in her eyes. "You're here, with me and no other."

She wrapped tightly around him, whispering a kiss over his lips, as gentle as it was urgent. "I never thought this could be.. that you would ever be in my arms again. If we're damned so be it.. as long as I am with you."

"We both are that," he sighed, not ever having liked what had been cast on him until rediscovering her here. "A hundred years and a hundred more, again and again damned and damned again, but here, it can never be long enough. And if we keep this up, we'll miss out on the more important things, like this." He winked, the mossy green flashing playfully as he tumbled back with her to bury her in a shower of kisses and close cuddling.

They tumbled and she shifted to wrap around him again, comfortably. Her fingers sifting into his soft brown hair to curl and keep his kisses close. "Love, I don't think forever is long enough for this." She whispered honestly, a moment with him was more than she hoped she'd have in hundreds of years, but it made her want another and another.

"Then we better get started before we run out of time," he insisted in whispers against the hollow of her neck. It was good he'd brought things in to keep him going as he had no intentions of stopping any time soon.

Her eyes closed to savor the feel of his whisper on her neck and she curled more tightly around him. "I didn't know we'd finished.. thought we'd only continue."

He chuckled and did as she said, continuing, tracing his kisses down her chest to every inch the covers had revealed once he'd pulled them away. "That will only take me until the weekend, luv. What else should we do?"

She chuckled very quietly, stroking her fingers through his hair and sighing under his kisses. "That's when we'll be finished and can start over again."

"Annia, however do you suppose we were fated for this? So long ago, no cares or worries except a drunkard father who would hear no reason... to come to this here and now?"

[Lovely]

"I had other worries.. like being discovered in the hay with you." She smiled a little, shifting against the pillows and bringing her fingers to his cheek. "For three centuries I have felt cursed, damned.. empty half the time and the other half filled with pain and an ache no one could take away. Then you walked through my door.. halfway around the world from where we began on a rainy evening.. now I feel blessed despite all I had to suffer to be here now. I don't know what fate had in mind.. I know my path was chosen by a cruel and obsessed creature, I did not chose to be what I am now."

"I didn't choose it, nor this for myself," he shook his head and rolled back, holding her fingers to his face a moment before curling his hand around hers. "Three centuries? Has it been so long, yet so soon? I stopped counting days, years, only knowing that I needed to continue walking... part of the curse I own... or maybe it owns me.... to walk the earth a thousand years until everyone I once knew and all who followed would perish and forget that I ever took a step. Whether that curse is broken... I don't know."

"I can not say that it is or it isn't.. only in some way I hope it is and yet I hope it is not. I do not wish to lose you so soon after I've found you again." She whispered, pulling his fingers to her lips for a soft kiss. "What did you do.. or who did you anger to encure such a wrath that would curse you so?"

His grin built out of the desire for her kiss but shrank a little when asked for the reasons he'd come to be here now. He shook his head and the mossy warmth cooled behind a layer of soft mist. "I never thought this would happen either, that we'd ever be together again. Far be it for me to try and drown my sorrow over that in any way other than any man would, thinking anyone else would ever take your place. I tried and failed. I didn't want anyone to take your place, but I came across a girl who saw to it that no one ever could. When I told her 'no', though bedded, never wedded, she revealed her craft in full force and cursed me. Can't say it wasn't deserved. I wasn't the man you knew, Annia. I'd become.. lost, dark. I didn't even recognize myself in a reflection."

She smiled gently, reaching to stroke his cheek again in understanding. "Tis nothing to be ashamed of love.. we were apart a very long time and neither of us had hope enough that we'd ever meet again. I thought you dead long ago." Her eyes seemed to darken as her fingers curled into his. "I can't say I have always been the girl you remember either.. lost and dark as well.. dragged to places so dark I could hardly bear it and diving into others to escape the agony within me."

His eyes closed under the weight of regret and memory. "What have I done," he murmured, wondering if his own curse would pull her into the darkness he'd been walking through all these years. "What haven't I done. Help me wash that time away and return to where we left off?"

"I wish I could." She whispered softly, leaning to kiss him just as softly. "I don't know if it's possible. I would if I could.. all I can do is be here with you now.. and all the moments after if you're willing to have me like this."