- "I think my leg won't get any better than this soon..." I tried putting some weight on it, but it couldn't really carry me.
- "Are you okay to drive?" She had been sitting beside me and keeping watch over me.
- "I'd better be... how else would we get back home?"
- "I could drive, drop you off with your bike and come back and get mine later. This isn't the city. I could even leave the keys in the ignition and someone would probably drive it home for me rather than steal it." She made a fair point. There was more than enough room on the bike for both of us, but I decided to mess with her for some reason.
- "Nope, we're doomed... We better set up camp for the night and make a fire or something."
- "Okay." she shrugged and got up and disappeared into the forest. She was gone for a couple of minutes, and then she returned with firewood.
- "I was only joking you know." She made a face at me. I could tell she wasn't annoyed for real, but she did her best to try an look it.
- "I know... Sarcasm isn't lost on me. I just figured it would be funny to return and actually start a fire, but I realized that I have nothing to light it with... So here I am with a pile of sarcastic firewood." I smiled.
- "That would have been funny, but this is actually even funnier."
- "Where are the ironic matches when you need them?"
- "Yeah... It would have been nice with a fire though. It's getting cold."
- "You could try putting your clothes on."
- "I actually forgot that I wasn't wearing clothes. Which is weird because I was so self concious" I realized after I opened my mouth that it was a bad idea, but I couldn't stop myself "when you were getting dressed."
- "I kind of noticed that. I did not expect you to hurt yourself though."
- "It was that obvious?"
- "Well... It's the sum of things that tipped me off. You've been acting a little strange, and you did kiss me... At first I kind of guessed it was a ploy to get me to surface... But I'm starting to think that wasn't the case..." She at least smiled at me, but it felt kind of heart breaking. She wasn't angry, but was she not feeling the same thing I was feeling? All the confusion in me sure had me smiling all the time, but she looked me in the eyes and smiled... And I could not even meet her eyes properly when thinking about what was going on inside of me.

- "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked after we had looked at the pile of wood that wasn't burning.
- "About what?" She shrugged.
- "The kiss?"
- "Not sure there is a lot to talk about... It was weird, wasn't it? I made things weird..."
- "Not weirder than me providing air for the both of us to stay under water I bet..."
- "Perhaps not... but we're friends, aren't we?" I really had to fight the urge to ask more about how she did it, so I tried to stick to my subject instead of going with hers. "I mean... It was stupid to kiss you right?"
- "Don't say that... I didn't think it was stupid. I thought you were stupid for making me lose for a while... But not the kiss... If I hadn't been so busy with my thoughts I would probably have enjoyed it." Her face became red as she was talking, and she started staring at her feet. And there it was... those feelings. She didn't dare to look at me, and I didn't dare to look at her.
- "I just... I'm older than you... Before yesterday I still remembered you as a kid."
- "Don't worry about that... I can tell you that I'm not a kid any more... I get that we are still different, but that's not the issue... at least not for me. You jumpstarted something when you showed up yesterday, and I get the feeling something similar happened to you. It's just that I knew your secret when you left, but I still have mine... And it feels like your secret isn't a secret at all anymore, but mine is... I'm working on telling you but I'm not there yet."
She was talking about me being bisexual. She knew, because she helped me realize it all those years ago. I was never attracted to her back then, that is not how she helped me come to terms. She was a good listener, and observant. She probably figured it out before I did... but I had a feeling the talk we were having right now was not a regular coming out of the closet.
- "It's something about your strenght and your ability to hold your breath..." She looked at me. "It's not a question. I promised not to ask... I just wanted to let you know that I see things too... and I'm still thinking about kissing you."
- "Even though I'm a freak?"
- "I thought you were trying to drown me in the lake for a while there... But I turned around and felt very safe. Safe enough to kiss you..."
- "There is a lot of talk about you kissing me right now..."
- "Sorry, I'll stop... There's just a lot of feelings right now... and the pain doesn't help really."
- "Why don't you sit down and get dressed then? Quit trying to walk if it hurts."
- "I was actually on my way to the clothes."
- "Well... You sit down and I'll dress you then." She said and stomped over to my biker gear and swooped it up. Out fell a lighter. I had no memory of what it did in my suit, but there it was, and Jamie lost it. She fell over laughing as she was trying to pick it up. I had no idea what was so funny until she showed me the lighter.

- "I'm sorry I spaced out over there." she said when we finally arrived home. "Emotional overload or something"
- "I get it. We were both silent all the way here." Not that we would have heard that much between the drafts and the helmets, but we hadn't even tried to communicate. I got dressed as soon as we both stopped laughing at the lighter and got on the bike. She got on in front of me and we just drove straight home.
- "Do you ever think about that time when I carried you home?" she asked suddenly as I was dismounting.
- "Yeah... I would probably be dead if you hadn't found me, so I can't forget... Thank you... I probably said that before, but it's worth repeating, isn't it?"
- "You basically thanked me every time we met until you left, so you've got that covered. Do you remember when I found you?"
- "No. I was so out of it... Was I even concious?"
- "Barely." She got off the bike and rolled it into the garage. "You saw me and smiled, but you were all limp and weak. Then you fell asleep or something."
- "Yeah... no food or water for two days. And paralyzed from the waist down." She removed her helmet and tossed her hair around. It reminded me of her old self with her blonde her just a mess.
- "Actually, I found you by a spring so you've must have had access to water at least... Anyway... Don't you think it's strange that you were a two day hike away, and we got home on the same day I found you?" I had never thought about that.
- "I'm not sure I follow." was all I could say.
- "Well... see... I spent two days looking for you. I knew where you were riding, because you talked about what trails you were going to take so I looked there. And that's why I knew something was wrong. You told me that you would be back that day, but you weren't so I set out to meet you. And then I walked for two days, I found you and suddenly we were home. No one ever did the math. Everyone was just impressed that I managed to get you home, but no one ever questioned the time it took." I was stunned.
- "I have to admit... I never ever thought about it that way." There was a long silence.
- "I just remembered it, since I carried you on my back then, and just now, on the way here, you had your arms around me again. I was so lucky that no one ever questioned what happend. They just chalked it up to the fabled superhuman strenght you get in dangerous situations. No one ever noticed the super speed..."

- "Can we go there? Where I fell? I hardly remember where it was, but I have a feeling you do." I said when the silence between us was unbearable.
- "Right now? It's getting kind of late." It was getting darker, and soon the daylight would be gone.
- "No... I don't doubt you, and I hope you don't mind, but I would like to hike there. Because you presented an interesting puzzle, and I would really like to get a clear picture of all the pieces."
- "I have work... and your leg..."
- "Mom could probably manage without you a couple of days if I ask nicely, and if worst comes to worst, you can carry me. It'll be like old times." I said jokeingly. She looked at me for a while with a way more serious look than I anticipated.
- "Sure... We'll go the day after tomorrow. That should leave time for some preparations."