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From: "Michele Bumbarger" <mbumbarger@hotmail.com> Subject: (arfic-l) ADMIN: American Tragedy Date: 11 Sep 2001 16:41:16 -0400 I would like to take time out right now to acknowledge the tragedy that has befallen the US at this time. I would like to extend sympathies and prayers to those who have lost family members, and support to those still waiting to hear some word. I pray that those of you in and around the NYC and DC area are safe and well. Please also, allow me to point out there there is a critical blood shortage out there, and to urge everyone who can to please make a donation. Particularly if you are in or near NYC or DC, this is when your help and aid is needed desperately. While this list has in the past only been used as a forum for fiction, please feel free to use this list as a place to communicate with others. Use this as a sounding board for your fears and a place to find a sympathetic shoulder. Everyone,please take a moment to remember, to grieve, and to pray. ********************************************** Michele B. Archivist, Author & Webmistress Alternate Realities Fan Fiction Archive http://www.alternate-realities.net ********************************************** _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp - To unsubscribe to arfic-l, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe arfic-l" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: Slayervick@aol.com Subject: Re: (arfic-l) ADMIN: American Tragedy Date: 11 Sep 2001 19:17:42 EDT --part1_69.1ad717c0.28cff596_boundary Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hey everybody. Sounding board, thank god. I sure as hell needed somewhere to talk. First of all, however, I would like to say thank you to Michele for helping me out his morning; I was in the bubble they call High School when the attack began, and she supplied me with details as to what was going on while i was disconnected to the radio or television. About what Michele said in terms of donating blood, if you are in or around the areas of need, then go to your local hospitals, call them, and see if they not only need donors, but volunteers. there are so many who are stepping up to donate their blood to the cause, but not enough are volunteering to help process these poeple. go to your hospital: take down histories, give out apple juice: anything. Take a stand, don't take all of this lying down. If your school is cancelled or work called off- if you are free at any time-, go to a place of worship if you ascribe to such things and give support to those who need it. Go to your hospitals, like i will be doing tomorrow. find a way to help! And most of all, folks, a point that i can't emphasise enough at this critical juncture in united states history, do not place blame on anyone or ignite hatred in our country. what we need now is peace, between our neighbours and ourselves. be supportive, not instigative. I love you all, and extend my deepest condolences to all affected in this tragedy. if anybody wants to talk about it, please email me privately. Peace and Prayers, Victoria RED CROSS #: 1-800-HELP-NOW 1-800-GIVE-LIFE --part1_69.1ad717c0.28cff596_boundary Content-Type: text/html; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit <HTML>Hey everybody. Sounding board, thank god. I sure as hell needed somewhere to talk. First of all, however, I would like to say thank you to Michele for helping me out his morning; I was in the bubble they call High School when the attack began, and she supplied me with details as to what was going on while i was disconnected to the radio or television. About what Michele said in terms of donating blood, if you are in or around the areas of need, then go to your local hospitals, call them, and see if they not only need donors, but volunteers. there are so many who are stepping up to donate their blood to the cause, but not enough are volunteering to help process these poeple. go to your hospital: take down histories, give out apple juice: anything. Take a stand, don't take all of this lying down. If your school is cancelled or work called off- if you are free at any time-, go to a place of worship if you ascribe to such things and give support to those who need it. Go to your hospitals, like i will be doing tomorrow. find a way to help! And most of all, folks, a point that i can't emphasise enough at this critical juncture in united states history, do not place blame on anyone or ignite hatred in our country. what we need now is peace, between our neighbours and ourselves. be supportive, not instigative. I love you all, and extend my deepest condolences to all affected in this tragedy. if anybody wants to talk about it, please email me privately. Peace and Prayers, Victoria RED CROSS #: 1-800-HELP-NOW 1-800-GIVE-LIFE</HTML> --part1_69.1ad717c0.28cff596_boundary-- - To unsubscribe to arfic-l, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe arfic-l" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Michele Bumbarger" <mbumbarger@hotmail.com> Subject: (arfic-l) OT: Fandom's New Menace Date: 20 Sep 2001 09:36:44 -0400 I've saw this on another mailing list and thought I would post it . . . Fandom's new menace: áMunchausen by Internet You never really know the people that you meet online. áAt least not at first. If you're lucky, you get to meet your cyberfriends in real life. Talk to each other on the phone. áReally get to know the person behind the computer screen. áBut sometimes, even the best of us get taken in by people. á Some people enjoy being the center of attention and play on people's emotions to get it. áThe emails start out simple enough...hi, hello, how are you. áThen things start to go bad. áAnd it's all behind the scenes. Just a select few are chosen to know the most intimate details. áThe rest of the list is treated to the general details, but not before the person has thoroughly made themselves a place on the list. áAnd then all hell breaks loose. áThis happens, that happens, sometimes the personality even dies and a relative or other person comes online and accepts all the comfort for the victim. áThe ultimate hurt/comfort story. It's a relatively new phenomenon on the net, but Munchausen's is by no means a new disease. áIt has affect people of every race and colour world wide. áMunchausen's is a need to be the center of attention, garnering emotional support from those who most often give it freely. In the real world, these people pepper our Emergency Rooms with real and imagined disorders. áThey hurt themselves to gain the attention they so crave. á The internet, on the other hand, offers a fresh avenue of emotional support. áThere is no need to physically hurt themselves, only click the mouse, find a convenient disease, and take on its characteristics. áOr perhaps take advantage of a natural disaster, such as the massive floods in Venezuela or the earthquakes in Turkey and Mexico. These people are con artists of the worst kind. áLists are torn apart, friendships ended, all because of the selfish actions of this one person. But it is the victims who are hurt the most by this terrible disease. The people who hold the hands of the perpetrator. áGive them emotional support. áListen endlessly as the perpetrator spins longer, deeper and more involved scenarios. áIt's akin to emotional rape. á These are the people who are the victims. áTheir trust is shattered and it may take months for them to feel normal again. áDon't be fooled, learn the signs. áTrust is all we have to share with fellow listsibs. á Some articles of interest: á http://www.shpm.com/articles/chronic/faking.html http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0126/russo.php This condition has already been identified in the Wild Wild West & Phantom Menace fandom and is currently affecting the Stargate fandom. á Also, Dr. Feldman, who identified this condition, has his website here: http://www.munchausen.com/ _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp - To unsubscribe to arfic-l, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe arfic-l" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Anne Olsen" <anneo@paradise.net.nz> Subject: (arfic-l) All That Glitter by Anne Olsen Disclaimers in Part 0 Feeback to <A=20 href=3D"mailto:anneo@paradise.net.nzPart">anneo@paradise.net.nz</A> **** Part Nine "So let me get this straight," Bill sighed to himself as he = continued.=20 Sometimes it would be really nice for that feeling that things couldn't = get any=20 worse to be true. One thing you could certainly count on with Adam and = Megabyte=20 was that those two seemed to really have the tendency of getting = themselves in=20 trouble down to an art form. Mind you, the other Tomorrow People seemed = to be=20 not much better at times. "According this these flashes you received, Masters has Megabyte, = Adam and=20 this Max Evans. To top things off, he also seems to laid his hands on = some sort=20 of technology which nullifies their special powers. That's in a = nutshell,=20 right?" Ami nodded, but said nothing. "Ami, why am I getting the impression you're leaving a few facts out = here?=20 Look I know what Masters is capable of. Whatever you're going to tell = me, I've=20 probably already suspected as much. Come on, spill." "Okay." As Ami began to speak, Bill felt his heart sink. He'd = suspected the=20 worst but to actually hear it described… "Masters was holding a = gun on Megabyte.=20 Adam was sending a flash to show us what was happening when he was = fitted with=20 some kind of headband. I could see him screaming in pain, General. = Megabyte=20 showed me. They were scared, both of them. I've never felt fear like = that from=20 either of them before." "Do you know what the headband was, Ami?" "No, but it must be the thing stopping them using their powers. Where = I=20 should be getting some sort of sense of them, there's nothing. I'm also=20 wondering if they've been drugged because I felt a needle prick in my = arm just=20 before I got the first flash from Adam. Megabyte's flash was a lot = weaker too.=20 Whatever's happened, his powers weren't working properly even before the = headband thing took effect." Bill sat in silence for a while, trying to dispel the guilt he was = feeling.=20 If Masters hurt either one of them, he'd never forgive himself. He = remembered=20 all too well the report that had landed on his desk at WorldEx a couple = of days=20 ago. The report had stated that Masters had been spotted in the vicinity = of=20 Roswell, New Mexico and that he seemed to be setting up for some sort of = experiment. At least that was the way the report seemed to read, = according to=20 Bill's own reasoning. Why else would a scientist such as Graeme = Brooke-Smythe=20 have been seen talking to the man? Shortly after the meeting, both = Brooke-Smythe=20 and Masters disappeared, and a lot of rather expensive cutting-edge = technology=20 seemed have gone with them. Bill had been torn between letting Adam know then what his suspicions = were,=20 and trying to find some more information before worrying the young man=20 unnecessarily. One thing he had been sure of, whatever this experiment = was it=20 would probably involve the Tomorrow People in some shape or form. He'd = decided,=20 obviously none too wisely if hindsight was anything to go on, to look = into the=20 matter further first. Bill laughed to himself bitterly as he all too = well=20 remembered the words he'd reassured himself with at the time. What = possible harm=20 could a couple of days make? After all what were the chances that = Megabyte and=20 Jade would head for Roswell? None at all, absolutely none. "General Damon?" Ami sounded concerned. She must be wondering what = the hell=20 was going through his mind. Not that he blamed her of course. Bill pulled himself together. No point in crying over spilt milk was = there?=20 What was done was done. What they needed to concentrate on now was = finding=20 Masters and rescuing the kids, before he did anything else to them. "Right," he said. "I'll go back inside and talk to Caroline and = Millie. I=20 don't think I'll tell them all the details for now, I'm having enough = problems=20 getting that mental picture out of my head as it is. Ami, can you go = reassure=20 Penny Weston that Jade is okay, and then come back for me? I think it's = time I=20 paid a visit to Roswell, don't you?" Ami nodded as she initiated the teleport. Hopefully she knew him well = enough=20 by now to know he was going to come to Roswell whether she agreed or = not. Bill=20 smiled in spite of himself as he watched her vanish. At least Masters = wouldn't=20 know about her and Jade. Maybe that would give them the edge they needed = to save=20 the others. Sometimes at times like these, he felt as though he had = parental=20 responsibilities towards all the Tomorrow People, not just Megabyte. Bill pulled up the collar of his coat, suddenly feeling the cold. As = he stood=20 up from the seat he and Ami had been sharing, the American heard a noise = behind=20 him. That's all they needed at this point in time, someone seeing Ami = teleport.=20 After all, what else could possibly go wrong today? "Who's there?" he called out sharply. "Show yourself". Bill reached = into his=20 pocket, making sure his gun was still there. Hopefully he wouldn't have = to use=20 it. He'd had enough problems trying to explain things to the police = already for=20 one day. Geoff Anderson, Millie's boyfriend, came out slowly from behind the = tree=20 overshadowing the bench where they had been sitting. He looked a bit = shell=20 shocked, and Bill wondered how much of the conversation he'd = overheard. "Geoff! I thought you were inside with Millie. Come on, let's go back = inside,=20 it's cold out here." Bill put his hand on the boy's shoulder, ready to = lead him=20 back inside the hospital. To his surprise the boy pulled away, an angry look on his face. "When = where=20 you going to tell me what's exactly going on? If some nutter has = Megabyte and=20 Adam I think I have a right to know. After all they are my friends too, = you=20 know. I want to help. Or were you going to just treat me like a little = kid and=20 pretend everything was okay?" "Look, Geoff." Bill tried his best to control his anger at the boy's=20 outburst. After all, he had enough problems at the moment without having = to deal=20 with this on top of everything else. "You don't have a clue about what's = going=20 on here. You'd be getting in way over your head." "No I don't have a clue what's going on. All I know is that I saw Ami = disappear into thin air and heard things I'm still not sure I believe. = But that=20 doesn't mean I can't help. Does it?" Geoff looked up at Bill with such an earnest expression in his eyes, = that the=20 older man couldn't help but believe every word the boy had said. After = all, it=20 did look as though Geoff had heard enough to realise that Megabyte and = his=20 friends had abilities that couldn't exactly be described as normal. = Maybe he=20 could help by keeping an eye on Millie. After all it was definitely = beginning to=20 seem as though her accident hadn't been an accident. In fact Bill was = beginning=20 to suspect very strongly that Masters had been behind the attempted hit = and run.=20 He'd known the day he'd debunked the teleporter project and portrayed = Masters=20 for who and what he really was in his reports, that the man wouldn't be = content=20 until he had achieve some form of revenge against his former boss. That = after=20 all, was the kind of person Masters was. Bill had known that Megabyte and the rest of the Tomorrow People = would be at=20 risk as well as himself, but had never thought of harm coming to Millie. = After=20 all what had the child ever done to warrant any action being taken = against her?=20 But then, the Tomorrow People themselves had done nothing to Masters = when they=20 had first met, and look at what his plans had been towards them. Plans = that had=20 been thought of while the man had been under Bill's own command. He = remembered=20 only too well his words to Megabyte as though it was yesterday "I bet = you never=20 thought your father would end up being the chief bad guy." At least he'd = realised what he was involved in was wrong, and had turned his efforts = into=20 helping the Tomorrow People to survive. Mind you, would it have been so = easy to=20 make that decision if his son hadn't turned out to be a teleporter? It = was a=20 fact he tried not to think about. Bill realised that Geoff was still standing there waiting for some = kind of=20 response on his part. "Okay, Geoff, okay. I'll explain everything but = first=20 let's go see how Millie's doing, eh?" As they made their way back to his wife and daughter, Bill wondered = how much=20 information would satisfy the boy's need to know. The less he knew the = better=20 and safer for everyone concerned, Geoff himself included. ************* Colonel Masters looked up from his phone call with an expression of = barely=20 disguised annoyance. "Hold on a minute, Trent. Brooke-Smythe seems to = have run=20 into some sort of extremely important problem." He gestured to the = scientist=20 with his left hand. "At least I'm presuming it's an extremely important = problem.=20 I left explicit instructions not to be disturbed." Brooke-Smythe stood in front of the desk, looking extremely nervous. = In his=20 hands, he had the vials of blood samples he had taken, and a long = computer print=20 out. "It's the blood samples," he began hesitantly, not sure how his = employer=20 was going to take the news. "I'm not sure how, but the molecular = structure of=20 the contents of the test tubes has been changed." "Changed? What do you mean exactly by changed?" "Well, let's just say if that's blood well I'm a …" = Brooke-Smythe's voice=20 tailed off. No it wasn't a good idea to finish that sentence. He held = the test=20 tube out to Masters and indicated that the man should taste the = contents,=20 ignoring the look his companion was giving him. Masters snatched the tube from him and sniffed the contents. He = poured a=20 minute amount onto his finger and tasted. "Tabasco Sauce!" he exclaimed. = His=20 mind went back to the events in the laboratory as he remembered seeing = Max Evans=20 waving his hand over the test tubes, just before he had been subdued by=20 security. Had the boy been able to somehow change the blood samples into = what he=20 had in front of him now? "Well, it looks as though you'd better go and get some more samples, = doesn't=20 it? Oh, and Brooke-Smythe?" "Yes, sir?" "Try and keep a better eye on them this time, will you?" "Yes, sir." Brooke-Smythe opened his mouth and closed it again. = Sensible=20 move. Why where all scientists such idiots? Masters had hoped he'd left = that=20 behind with Galt. Obviously not. As he watched the scientist leave the room, Masters resumed his = conversation=20 with Trent. "Sorry about that, Simon. An interesting development has = occurred.=20 Apparently these so called Tomorrow People are even more dangerous than = we first=20 suspected. They are obviously capable of changing molecular structure as = well as=20 the new force field ability I told you about earlier. Taking into = account those=20 other abilities I discovered when I first met them, it certainly seems = that we=20 have made the right decision about eliminating the threat. Yes, this new = species=20 make an extremely dangerous adversary…" Masters put down the receiver after his conversation and thought = about the=20 last few years. He still had a clear mental picture in his mind of the = last time=20 he had met with General Damon. His son had held a gun on him, ready to = pull the=20 trigger. It was lucky for him that the boy had been young, and obviously = very=20 scared. All that rubbish about being peace loving. The peace movement of = the=20 sixties came to mind. Masters snorted. A majority of the young people = involved=20 in that fiasco had preached peace as the only answer and look what had = happened=20 when they had realised that those ideals were not getting the results = they=20 desired. Anyone was capable of violence and killing given the right = incentive.=20 How long would it be before these Tomorrow People changed their mind and = instilled their own brand of terror upon the human race? Teleporters. = Imagine=20 the potential use for them as assassins? He shook his head. No one would = be=20 safe. It was lucky for the future of mankind that he, Masters, was still = alive.=20 Someone had to protect the gene pool of the human race, keep it pure, = untainted.=20 That mission had been his life's work, ever since the Tomorrow People = had first=20 slipped through his grasp. Once that idiot Brook-Smythe had redone the blood tests, he would be = able to=20 see exactly how far these Tomorrow People had already violated their = humanity=20 because of their so-called powers. Yes, he would soon know if he could = reverse=20 the process and restore their lost humanity to them or whether they were = so far=20 from human that the only option left would be the total destruction of = them and=20 their kind. He remembered his conversation with Simon Trent. He had deliberately = not=20 mentioned to the man his plan to see if he could eradicate whatever gene = caused=20 these Tomorrow People to exist in the first place. Simon's methods were = rather=20 more…violent and permanent than his own. Still if he managed to = save the human=20 race from the scourge that was the Tomorrow People, maybe the same = technology=20 could be used to save the earth from those cursed with immortality as = well.=20 Simon would appreciate that application of the results of his work, he = was sure.=20 After all weren't they working together to reap mutual benefits from = each=20 other's mission, to help solve each other's problems? Charles Masters, saviour of the human race. Somehow Masters never = envisioned=20 that it would him whom mankind would turn to in their great hour of = need. It was=20 a shame that most of the human race would never know just how much he = was doing=20 for them. A great shame indeed. ********** </DIV></BODY></HTML> ------=_NextPart_000_0074_01C14A5C.C0C70680-- - To unsubscribe to arfic-l, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe arfic-l" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Michele Bumbarger" <mbumbarger@hotmail.com> Subject: (arfic-l) Hearing the Click (Part 0/1) Date: 30 Sep 2001 18:26:50 -0400 Title: Hearing the Click Author: Michele Mason Bumbarger Rating: R, language Fandom: New Series Tomorrow People/Stargate SG-1 crossover Archive: Alternate Realities, TPFIC, and Elysia if you want it. All others please tell me and where and please ask. Spoilers: None really for either series, sort of spoilery for future stories. See Author's Notes & Introduction. Summary: The musings of Dr. Daniel Jackson. Author's Notes & Introduction: I was going to start out my notes and introduction by commenting that this was one of those stories that I wrote in a late night writing binge that demanded my attention, but realized that mostly all of my stories are like that. So, we'll just go ahead and add this one to the list. This story takes place in the future, but can be used as a brief introduction to the stories I am currently working on as part of a trilogy of New Series Tomorrow People/Stargate SG-1 stories. It doesn't give anything away regarding those stories, and only vaguely hints at what has transpired in the past (when those stories take place). That said, I'll shut up before confusing anyone further. Disclaimer: They aren't mine. I wish they were. The characters of Jack OÆNeill, Daniel Jackson, and Sha're do not belong to me. Neither does the concept of the Stargate, SGC or anything else that related to the series Stargate SG1. They belong to Stargate(II) Productions, Showtime/Viacom, MGM/UA, Double Secret Productions, and Gekko Products. The character of Ami Jackson also does not belong to me. She is the property of Roger Damon Price, Thames/Tetra and ITV Television. I would like to thank Kristin and Anne for beta-reading this and encouraging me to post this. Please send comments and feedback to angstqueen@hotmail.com. ********************************************** Michele B. Archivist, Author & Webmistress Alternate Realities Fan Fiction Archive http://www.alternate-realities.net ********************************************** _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp - To unsubscribe to arfic-l, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe arfic-l" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. Do not use quotes in your message. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- From: "Michele Bumbarger" <mbumbarger@hotmail.com> Subject: (arfic-l) Hearing the Click (Part 1/1) Date: 30 Sep 2001 18:28:22 -0400 Hearing the Click By Michele Mason Bumbarger Disclaimer & Notes in Part 0 *** During my undergraduate study, I had a friend whom we, meaning those of us in my very small circle of friends, affectionately dubbed 'Miss Lonely Hearts.' Ironically enough, this wasn't because of her lack of dates or relationships, but rather because of her abundance of them. Lana was the dating queen. Not a weekend went past where she didn't have a date, and there was rarely more than a month between one boyfriend and the next. Lana wasn't a slut and she wasn't easy; I don't think she ever slept with a quarter of the men that she fell in love with, and she fell in love with just about every single one of them. It was the same story time and time again. Lana met a guy, fell head over heels in love with him, and then inevitably discovered that people, especially men under the age of twenty-five, were notoriously fickle and, heaven forbid, terribly human. Lana wailed, she ranted, she cried, sometimes on my shoulder, sometimes not, and then like clockwork moved on to the next contender who might just give her the title of "Mrs." that she sought so dearly. One night, when we all gathered around a corner table in our favorite bar, an unknown and long forgotten number of beer pitchers between us, someone dared to ask Lana why she kept doing it. What was she looking for? "You wouldn't understand," Lana said, her cheek resting against the sticky-beer table top. "Well try to explain." Lana lifted up to her elbows, and frowned at us and I remember thinking that we were now going to be subjected to the 'men just don't understand' speech that usually accompanied Lana on a downhill crash from a beer binge. Instead, she surprised us all when she announced, "I'm looking for the click." "The click?" "Yes, the click. You know, that moment when it all comes together and it just fits. It feels right. And you hear the click." It wasn't until years later that I would understand exactly what Lana was talking about. Years later, after I sacrificed my reputation for a theory that no one believed in and somehow found myself standing on the desert of sands of Abydos, my theories finally proven true and I no longer cared one bit about it. I heard the click when I held Sha're in my arms, that was the moment when it all came together and just felt right. Of course Lana's theory never accounted for the fact that it could fall apart just as easily. Somehow though, I survived it falling apart. It wasn't easy. Hell, it was one of the hardest things that I ever had to do. There were times when I just wanted to give up, just throw in the towel and say "fuck it." My new friends, my new family as it were, wouldn't have let that happen anyway. So, I moved forward, I went on and I never really gave much more thought to hearing Lana's click. See, the other part of Lana's explanation also explained that, "Some people never ever ever hear the click and that's so sad for them. But the lucky ones, they hear it. And everything changes." I wonder what Lana would have called the odds of hearing it twice. I wasn't seeking it out. It isn't something that someone seeks out; I think that's why Lana never heard it back in the day. She was so busy looking for it that she probably passed it by a couple of hundred times. I didn't look for it on Abydos; and I certainly never looked for it in an Englishwoman nearly half my age, whom on top of being everything that the people who knew me a decade past would have never imagined me with, is also privileged enough to be the first of a new species. You don't look for the click. It just happens. She just happened. I know, that sounds even stupider than Lana's click, but there is really no other way to explain it. One moment we were wandering around the ancient ruins of PL7-099, commenting on the similarities of this civilization to the ruins on P1D-771 and the next moment . . . Click. It wasn't anything Ami did or said, or maybe it was everything that she did and said and everything that she was. But I turned to her, ready to share my wisdom and ideas about this particular find and all I could see, all I could hear, all I could feel was the click. Kneeling in the dirt, hat askew on her head, she grinned up at me, flashing that million watt smile and for a very long moment I couldn't even have remembered my name if someone had asked it of me. The funny thing of it was, at that time I didn't know if she heard it or not. "Daniel?" she asked. "Yes, Ami?" "You were saying something about filming this?" "Yes, we should get it all on film." "You have the camera." Not the most romantic of beginnings, I'll admit to that. Me, standing there like the sun had finally succeeded in drying out my brain and Ami giving me that half-teasing, half-patronizing smile that said, "Let's humor Daniel while he zones out a bit." I didn't say anything. I didn't do anything. We went back to work, and that was that. My entire world had just clicked into place and as far as I knew the woman I was in love with was blissfully unaware that I had finally woken up and smelled the coffee. It would still be a while before I did anything about it. Just because I acknowledged it didn't necessarily mean that I was prepared to act on it. I made a million excuses, and I think that I was about the only one in civilization who bought into the word of them, but it was a defense mechanism. It was one that I kept falling back on until the day I realized that if I fell back on it one time too many, I was going to lose the one person that managed to make me feel whole again. Click. It's funny, but I still feel it. Or maybe that's the way it's supposed to be. Every time I look at her, every time I'm with her, I can still feel the click. I can still hear the click. It's a comforting feeling, one that let's me know I really am all right with this. I'm all right with Ami and she's all right with me. Like right now, we're on PB9-07J and we're supposed to be translating the last of these engraved floor stones, but instead we're sitting here watching the sunset across the distant plains. She's leaning against me, her back against my chest, her head against my sternum where it fits just perfectly beneath my chin. She fits into my arms like she has always belonged there, and even though I know that we should be taking advantage of this opportunity to study another lost culture without Jack barking at us to hurry up, I also know that moments like these are so few and far between that they should be treasured. Ami wiggles against me, her words lightly teasing, "Did I ever tell you that you think too much?" I grin, aware that she isn't as oblivious to my thoughts as I thought she was, and press a kiss to the crown of her head. "Yes, on many occasions. You shouldn't be peeking." "You shouldn't be broadcasting," Ami tosses right back at me, but I hear the smile in her voice, feel it in the way she squeezes my hands where they rest around her waist. "So, do you hear it?" I nuzzle into her hair, inhaling the scent of her, sunshine and rain, earth and dust, and beneath it all something fruity and sweet. "Hear what?" She's teasing me now, acting as though she isn't aware of my every thought as she has been probably since the moment we sat down and I pulled her into my arms. I play along. "The click." Ami tilts her head back, twin chocolate orbs nearly drowning me in their intensity. "I heard it a long time ago, Danny." Reaching up, she pulls me down for a kiss, and I realize that there probably isn't any better answer than that. Click. Lana found it too, eventually. I actually looked her up a while back. She and her life partner, Sandra, were looking to adopt a baby daughter. Like I said, she probably passed it up a couple of hundred times. You don't look for the click. But when you find it, you know. *** End *** ********************************************** Michele B. Archivist, Author & Webmistress Alternate Realities Fan Fiction Archive http://www.alternate-realities.net ********************************************** _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp - To unsubscribe to arfic-l, send an email to "majordomo@xmission.com" with "unsubscribe arfic-l" in the body of the message. For information on digests or retrieving files and old messages send "help" to the same address. 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