Dane

Dane's heart stopped. "What is it, babe?" he asked quietly, taking her hand and internally bracing. What had he forgotten? What had he missed? Where was the danger?

​​

"Dane, I'm so sorry. I wanted to tell you, but—"

"What happened? Is something wrong?" His swallowed hard and put a hand to her shoulder.

"No, I mean… I have to tell you that I'm not pregnant." Dane went very still. "I was lying to Chris. Banking on the fact that he doesn't know how to read a pregnancy test. The two lines were to show that the test was taken properly, that's all. It was negative. I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to disappoint you. I just…" she trailed off miserably.

Dane's face fell right along with his stomach, but he pulled her into his chest, then kept tugging her, right up into his lap, until she was curled up on him and his arms were all the way around her, bracketing her between him and the table. "I still love you," he whispered into her ear, then kissed her neck. "I'm still here. I still want this, Lila."

*****

LILA

He was so incredible. Why was he comforting her now? She should be comforting him. She took his face in her hands and kissed him. "I'm so sorry. I was disappointed too."

"Well, then, that settles it."

"What?"

"Now we get to have a whole helluva lot of fun trying again," he said, waggling his eyebrows. She could see that some of the light had gone from his eyes, but not everything. There was still a lightness there she'd never seen in him before and she couldn't help smiling. "What happened to you?"

"Absolution," he said without hesitation. "Once everything is sorted out, I'll tell you all about it."

She was confused, but he was smiling so broadly, she decided not to press, and instead dropped her head against his shoulder and clung to his neck, and let him feel in her kiss how much she loved him, absolution, or no.

*****

Saying goodbye to Bert had been hard, especially for Dane. The two men had hugged and held each other tightly for so long, Lila's eyes had welled up. But once they walked onto the massive RV that John had arranged, Lila had to laugh.

There was a set of clothes laid out for each of them with a note.

GOOD MORNING DAVID AND LAYLA

THE TIME HAS COME TO ABANDON YOUR TASTE.

ENJOY.

JOHN.

Dane had a Hawaiian shirt with jean shorts and a baseball cap. And Lila would be wearing mom jeans and a shapeless t-shirt.

She felt horrible in the clothes, but when she turned around, despairing, and saw Dane, looking like someone who'd just walked out of a Florida assisted living facility, she burst out laughing.

He tipped his cap. "Ma'am," he said, with a grin.

It took hours before she would splutter and laugh every time she caught sight of him. And for his part, Dane didn't stop smiling for the rest of the drive.

*****

Two days later, exhausted, but quietly happy, after driving all night and most of the day, they made it to the gated entrance of a town named Green Banks, Virginia.

The night before they'd read through their packets and Lila had done some research while they drove.

"The Green Bank Observatory is the site of the largest, fully-steerable radio telescope in the world. With a dish that is larger than a football field, this telescope can capture minuscule signals from space and help map out the objects in the universe. Subsequently, the West Virginia Radio Astronomy Zoning Act allows them to prohibit the use of any electrical equipment within a ten-mile radius that causes interference to radio astronomical observations," she read from google.

"What does that mean?" Dane asked.

Lila squinted at her phone screen. "It means things like cell phones, cordless phones, Wi-Fi, microwaves, and wireless speakers are prohibited."

They looked at each other. "They don't allow cellphones?" Dane asked.

"Or Wi-fi," Lila breathed, then kept reading. "They don't allow anything that broadcasts a signal or… Dane, everything is wired—and restricted. They don't even have wireless security systems."

"John is a fucking genius."

"Even their internet is restricted some, but… it's just all hardwired and monitored. They arrest people for using cellphones in this town!"

"Please tell me our house isn't going to have internet," he had said breathlessly.

They were still waiting to find out.

When they reached the security gates into the town, Dane presented the ID badge and letter of employment that had been in his packet to the gate guards. A few minutes later they were waved through. "Welcome to town, Mr. and Mrs. McDane!" the young guard said with a smile. "I hope you can get used to it!"

"We're looking forward to it," Dane said, waving at the men as he drove off, following the GPS through town, then out into the more remote areas in the hills beyond. They passed more than one telescope, massive and grey, in fields and near the school. And they could see the observatory on the hill beyond where they drove.

But it wasn't until the GPS notified Dane to turn right and he had to press a set of numbers into a small pad at the side of a dirt driveway to open the tall, dark gates of the home, that Lila appreciated what John had found for them.

"I wondered why he didn't take us out of the country," she breathed as they drove up the tree-lined driveway, surrounded completely by forest, with the flicker between the trees off to their right that promised a lake.

"It's what they'd expect," Dane said. "It will probably take them longer to figure out where we are this way." But his voice was distracted and his eyes widened when they turned a corner in the rutted drive and the trees opened up, revealing a tall, high-framed cabin style home with a porch on two sides, massive windows, and a red barn across a small clearing behind it.

"Oh, Dane," Lila whispered.

"I know," he breathed. "Me too."