Tobias and Rachel

Days After

THE JOURNAL OF HOPE, AND A LOVE THAT LASTS FOREVER

Concept By Amy Lambert
Written By: AniBlaire

PART ONE

It was here. Summer had come and gone, and now it was time to make the decision. College or job. I could've easily gotten a high paying gymnastics instruction job, but that wasn't what my parents had in mind.
Off to Stanford, that's where they were sending me, but of course they had to have my consent.<
I asked the rest of the Animorphs. Go!
My other friends. Go!
The only person who didn't say anything was Tobias. We had been going out for about a year, since my eighteenth birthday, and we had grown pretty close. It was hard to let go. But in the end I decided to go to
school, I always knew that was what I would choose. But it was hard, very hard.
All of my family and friends were at the airport to send me off, except Tobias. I realized he couldn't exactly drive like all the rest, and it would be cutting it close for him to come here with anyone, especially with the hour-long drive, but deep down I felt that he should be there. I hugged and shook hands with everyone there, and I boarded the plane, still hoping to see Tobias, but he never came.
After the flight, I was sad and tired, sad leaving my friends and family, and physically and emotionally tired from the flight itself.
I got in a cab and told the driver the address of my new apartment. I had only been there once before, soon after I decided on coming to Stanford, and when I walked in, it felt like a never-lived-in prison cell. But it would have to do. At least it already had decent furniture.
I decided to unpack my things, and the first thing I opened was the largest trunk, full of my very nice, clothes.
I unhooked the hinges and opened it up just to have one of the most frightening things in my life happen to me. A moderately large hawk flew out of my trunk.
"Ahhh!" I screamed.
< Ahhhhh! > Tobias screamed when he saw me.
"Tobias, what are you doing here?" I said letting him land on my arm after we had both calmed down.
< Rachel, I, well, god damnit, Rachel, I couldn't stand to be apart from you for this long. I can't imagine not seeing you until the semester is over. I need to be with you. >
I thought for a minute, "Well, I can't deny you what you truly want," I smiled sweetly, "You can stay here."
< Great, Rachel, do you have any idea how beautiful you are? >Tobias asked with his usual charm.
"No, but you can tell me," I said flashing the smile that he says drives him crazy.
We talked for about 2 hours, and then it was definitely time to sleep.
"Tobias, where will you sleep? There's only one bed," I asked worried. There wasn't any forest near for him to spend the night, not that I would let him.
< In the bed of course. Come on Rachel, I'm a hawk. > Tobias said reminding her of the unfortunate.
"Of course, stupid me," Rachel said smiling again. "Just let me go change and we'll both go to sleep."

I fell into a deep sleep, and didn't wake up until I felt the gentle poking of a human finger hours later.
I sat up and yawned. "Hello Tobias, sleep well?" I asked noticing him watching me in my nightgown that definitely wasn't conservative.
"Yes Rachel, I did. How about you?" He asked bringing his gaze from my chest to my face.
"Very good, nice and restful. How long have you been in morph?" I asked him.
"Oh, about ten minutes. You are very beautiful while you sleep. You know that, right?" He charmed.
"Oh, save it for after I've taken a shower, I am not a morning person," I said heading towards the shower.

When I was dressed and ready I came into the small kitchen where Tobias was drinking a glass of orange juice.
"Hey Rachel, you know, it's amazing how good this tastes after not having taste buds for five years. It tastes as good as you look," He gestured for me to come and sit on the chair next to him.
"Well thankyou sir. What do I owe for such flattery?" I asked sitting next to him and taking his hand in mine.
"Oh, a kiss would be nice," he said pulling me close for a slow and passionate kiss.
"Ooh, I wish I could stay and do this all day, but I have to go to my orientation," I said getting up and heading towards the door, "Bye."
"Bye," Tobias said and I shut the door.

I had been out all day, and it seemed like I had done barely anything at all. I walked into the apartment expecting to see Tobias in a bird morph watching TV or something. But what I saw was Tobias in human form watching TV.
"Tobias, what is going on?" I asked hoping that something bad hadn't happened.
"Rachel," Tobias said standing up and walking near me, "I love you so much, I, I want to be with you forever. I have been in this form since you left thismorning, I am a nothlit human."
"Tobias, but why, you, you-" I started to say shocked, but Tobias cut me off.
"Because of this," he said and pulled me as close as possible to his well-built body. He hadn't been in human morph for much over the years, but he kept in shape. He had a nice tan, too. He kissed me hard and
passionaltely. Our tongues intermingled, and that short moment seemed to last for centuries. I kissed him back harder, more frenzied.
"I love you," I said frantically kissing him like I would never see him again.
"I love you too," he said as he began to rub my back.
I removed his shirt, and he removed mine. We somehow made it to our bedroom, dropping our clothes like in those movies where there is a trail of clothes leading to the bedroom. We made amazing, passionate love
that night, you could say it was a turning point, a new begining of this chapter in our lives, and it wasn't the last time.

Part Two

"Oh my god!" I screamed as I sat up in bed. Tobias was startled into waking up and he looked at us. We were both stark-naked, and staring at eachother like the world was coming to an end.
"Oh my god!" Tobias yelled soon after. "Oh my god, Oh my god!"
I couldn't believe what we had done last night, three times. I grabbed the blanket and pulled it around me.
"I can't, uh, Rachel, uh. Damn!" Tobias said as frustrated as I felt.
"I'm taking a shower," I said, just to trying to get away.
I covered myself up with the blankets and ran towards the bathroom.

When I came out Tobias wasn't in the apartment. In a way it made me feel better, but in another I felt sick. What had we done? I'm only 19. I thought that over and over, we're not married. God Dammit! I can't believe we had sex. And not just once, but three times! At first I felt like I had done something idiotic, then I felt like a slut, but what I didn't realize, is that was what we both wanted. I had to admit I loved it, it was great sex, but it just didn't feel right. I had just lost my virginity last night, and I couldn't believe how fast it happened. And I had fantasized about it allot, how it would be to sleep with a guy, but I didn't think it would happen like this. I had thought it would be on our wedding night. Full of passion and lust and love. Well, it definitely had passion and lust, and we did love eachother, what was so wrong with that.
But that is what I thought later. Right then I felt terrible. But I had to go to the first day of my new school.
I felt guilty, tired, and in self inflicted turmoil the whole of the day, especially when my Biology teacher gave a lecture about safe-sex. Tobias hadn't even used a condom. There was no chance of STD's because morphing gets diseases out of your system, but I still felt worried. What if I was became pregnant?
When I got home Tobias was there, he looked exhausted, probably as mentally as physically.
"Uh, hi. Rachel, I want to apologize. What I-" Tobias started but I cut him off.
"Not what you did, but what we, did. It wasn't just you. We both had sex with eachother, not just one of us."
"Yes, but. Oh, Rachel, I love you so much!" Tobias said ashamed in himself.
"I love you too Tobias. I wouldn't have done those, things, to you if I didn't love you," I said sitting down next to him. I took his hand. "Tobias, we love eachother. I am beginning to think that it wasn't so bad what we did. But, I think we'd better take a little rest for a while. No more sex, at least for now. I always thought that I'd be married for my first time," I said, really realizing the situation. We were both consenting adults, I was 19, he was 20, we definitely weren't that young.
"I agree, I'll just sleep on the couch for a while. No more romantic misunderstandings," he said totally feeling that it was the right decision.
"But," I said smiling mischievously, "I think it would be fine if we made out for a while," I immediately grabbed his head so it was inches from mine.
"Ok," he whispered erotically.
We kissed for at least an hour, wanting to take it further, but resisting the hormones.

It was five months later, I was doing fine in college, and Tobias and I kept our promise to eachother, we made out royally, but didn't go all the way again. It was getting frustrating, I wanted to have him so bad, but a voice inside of me commanded against it.
It had been the same every day, I get home, find Tobias exhausted on the couch. I was begining to wonder what was so tiring that he did everyday, but I knew Tobias, he wasn't sleeping around.
Then it was the last day of the semester, my friends and I were throwing a party for half a year of college. Kind of stupid, but it was fun.
"Hey Chris," I said hugging my friend when Tobias and I walked in the room. "Great party."
Chris didn't answer for a second. I had never introduced Tobias to any of my friends. They had tried to set me up, but I had hinted about a mystery man that was staying in my apartment, at first they had assumed we
were sleeping together, and then they just thought I was making him up because I was shy and not ready to go on blind dates. But she was amazed at Tobias, and I couldn't be surprised, he was definitely handsome. "Yeah," she stuttered after about 20 seconds, "It's been great so far."

I smiled. My friends would be surprise tonight. "Tobias, this is Chris Tucker. She's in my biology class. Chris, this is Tobias."
I could tell Chris would like to grab him and kiss him, but she settled for a handshake. "Hello, I've heard so much about you Tobias. But unfourtunately I didn't think such a man like you existed. Handsome, and Rachel says you two aren't sleeping together, amazing."
Tobias blushed, and I elboed Chris lightly. "Sorry," she said, "Just amazed."
More people started walking in and Chris dragged herself away to meet them.
"Sorry," I apoligized, "But it seems most of my friends thought I was making you up.
"It's okay," Tobias said, the red starting to leave his face, "I guess it's my fault for not comming to any of your get-togethers. I should have been out with you. Now I'll comply with the social policy."
I smiled, well, let's go see Jenny.

*Tobias* Well, after 45 minutes of talking to Rachel's dumbfounded girl-friends, I was getting tired. It was one thing to be gawked at, but to have comments made about my butt, chest, and once my penis, well, that is too much to handle.
"Rachel, could we find somewhere a little more quiet. This is bugging me," I said mentally exhausted from trying to keep my temper down.
"Ok," Rachel said knowing what I meant. "Let's try the dining room."
We walked into the dark room, "Oooh, oooh, Jason, don't stop!"
"Okay, let's take a walk out back," she said and I nodded, shutting the door.
Luckily, one of Rachel's friends lived in a very nice mansion. We were really lucky to get it for a party. Huge, very nice place. But most impressive was the Backyard. It had a huge pool with a garden the size of the astrodome. It was a typical, Beverly Hills, backyard.
After about a minute of walking in silence, I spoke up, "Rachel, I love you, you know that, right?" I asked sincerely.
"Of course. Tobias I know that I love you too," She said giving me a, love you always, look.
"Then," I started, stopping her and getting on one knee. "Rachel, will you marry me?" I pulled out a small black box, opening it for her.
"Oh my god! Tobias! Yes! Yes I will become your wife!" I sat up and picked her tall and slender body up into the air.
"You will! Great! Rachel, I love you more than anything!" I yelled astounded that she accepted.

*Rachel*

After a few minutes of him spinning me around with joy, we both got tired and dizzy.
I realized something I had not thought of before, "Tobias, this ring is the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. But, how could you pay for it? It looks like it costs several thousand dollars, the stone is soo huge!"
"Well, I knew I had to get you something, so everyday I've been giving skydiving lessons during the day. It's been rough, but it was worth it for you," he said to my utter amazement.
"Seriously?" I asked not believing, I didn't know that he could skydive.
"Yeah, I was a bird for five years, it's not that different from flying. You have to manuever the same way," he said sincerely. There was no doubt about it. "It was hard work, but it payed Ok. I know it was worth it."
"Tobias, you never cease to amaze me. I love you!"

It was the end of the school year. No scholastic activities to worry about, a perfect time for a wedding.
I invited everyone. My mom nearly fainted when I told her, but my dad said he was expecting it sooner or later, "With a daughter like you, I knew I'd easily have a son in law" were his words. I invited all of the Animorphs, and they were much more than animorphs now. Jake, a leautenant in the Air Force, Cassie, a vetrinarian for the Gardens, Marco, A computer programer amazingly enough, and Ax. The Andalites never made it to earth
long enough to pick him up. The last counterstrike from the Andalites had nocked out several Kandrona generators. Thousands of yeerks had died from that, and the Andalites had also gotten a new allie. The Endioans. An equally advanced race that had been attacked by the yeerks. The war wasn't going well for the yeerks. But unfourtunately, they still had earth.
Though the yeerks were not thought of during this day. At least, that's how I wanted it.

*Tobias* I was nervous. Every time I looked out at the church, I saw more people coming into the huge area. Our wedding was definitely not small. Everyone was comming. Rachels parents, their friends, friends of their friends. Then there was our friends, friends that we had known for years, friends we just met. But it was a full house. I even saw my mom's old friend from college, Sandy, she had gotten the invitation, and was comming
even though I hadn't seen her for years.
"Jake, where's my tie?" I asked frantically. I was running around paranoid.
"Right here. Calm down Tobias," Jake, my best man, told me handing me my tie. "You'll be fine. Don't worry," He still had his calming leader voice, it was reassuring.
"Ok, I'll calm down now, but it's hard. I'm getting married today, look at how many people are here. What if, what if-" I stuttered very nervous.
"Tobias, no offense, but shut up! I am your best man and won't let anything go wrong." He said looking like he wanted to slap me. This was going to be interesting. *Rachel* I was a nervous wreck. I was sure Tobias was fine, not worrying about it at all, but me, I was paranoid. I was running around my room like a mental patient. Making sure all was ok, yelling at people that were trying to help. It was frustrating.
"Rachel, calm down," Cassie, my maid of honor, said calmly, but even her controlled helping voice could not help me. I had to get this over with, soon, or I was going to break something.
"It's time," Chris said coming into the room.
I heard the wedding song, Da da da dum, da da da dum, and so on. Then I walked in, my father joined me to walk me down the Aisle. I had my brides made including Cassie, Chris, and Mellisa Chapman. Tobias was
waiting at the alter, it was soo beautiful I wanted to cry. But I didn't cry, I was too happy.
I reached the alter, I looked over at Tobias, he looked as happy as I was. We said our vows, and finally, "Do you Tobias take Rachel to be your wife?"
"Yes, I do."
"Do you, Rachell, take Tobias to be your husband?"
"I do."
"With the power invested in me, I pronounce you husband and wife. You may now-" The priest said, but was cut off by a huge explosion. There was mad panick and a whole wall of the church blew apart.
"Get down!" Tobias yelled and pulled me out of the way of flying shrapenal.
"God, this cannot be happening now! Not on my wedding day!" I screamedmadly, what was going on. Someone just blew the side off of a church! A church! Who would be that evil? One word flashed through my mind, Yeerks!
But Jake had another idea, "It's him! Marco, Cassie, it's Dandre'!" I had no idea what he was talking about.</p>
"What's a Dandre'?" I asked crawling toward Jake, Cassie, Marco, with Tobias following behind me.
"He's a Bio-engineered Cyborg Na. He is a bounty hunter for the yeerks. He has been following our morphing signatures for months, but we keep destroying him and his ship. But everytime we destroy him, he rebuilds himself! It takes him about a month, but he always does!" Jake yelled over the noise of shattering glass.
Then a gas cloud filled the room, people were collapsing around us!
"M300! Everybody, start morphing birds!" Jake screamed out orders. But there was a problem.
"What about Tobias, he can't morph!" I yelled in a frenzy, I wasn't going to leave Tobias, no, I wasn't going to leave my husband here while I was morphing in saftey.
"Hell! Now what are we going to do?" Marco said distressed. He wasn't used to being this vulnerable.
"I'll go grizzly. I can protect him," I said hysterically. I didn't care much about my safety, as long as he was okay.
"No, that won't work. You'll get shot by his dracon disruptor rifle, trust me, that's more pain than anyone can handle, and it keeps your nerves working so you can't pass out. I know, I've been shot before," Cassie said
painfully. Not a good memory. *Tobias* This wasn't good, my wedding had just been ruined, a guy I'd never met wanted my head for the yeerks, and they'd probably kill me because I no longer had the morphing power. But that wasn't the worst part, my wife
wanted to sacrafice her life to save me. I don't think so.
"I'll run," I said, "create a diversion," I could tell Jakes disapproval.
"No, Tobias, I'm not letting either of you to get killed on your wedding day."
"I'll morph tiger, run and attack him, and Marco, try to smash him with one of the pews. If we can get one of the weapons. We'll blow him up," Jake said decisively. *Rachel* I would tell you all about our fight with the bounty hunter, but this is not a log of fighting, this is my log of our love, I'll just say we destroyed him. Marco pinned him down with three pews, and I personally shot him. I was pissed at him, he destroyed my wedding. But, unfourtunatley, he was saved in his ships core, if we could only find it.
But until then he survives.
When everyone woke up, the cops came and said there was a gang-fight. Controllers. But, everyone was pretty shaken up, so there wasn't a reception. We forced the priest say the final thing, and finally, Tobias pulled up the veil, and we kissed. Oh, yes we kissed. It was the happiest moment of my entire life, even though the building around me was in shambles.

For our honeymoon we went on a carribian cruise. It was wonderful.

"Tobias, this room is huge!" I said as we entered the honeymoon sweet. It's amazing, there really is a loveboat. And we were in it.
"Only the best, for the best," Tobias said with his to-die-for smile.
"Tobias, honey," I said picking up the do not disturb sign.
He grinned, "Let's see," he opened the little refrigerator. He pulled out a thing of whipped cream. And on the counter were fresh strawberries.
I smiled too.

"Ahhhh," I sighed rolling of Tobias. We sat for about an hour before we said anything, it was pure happiness.
"You know, that bathtub in there is huge," I suggested. We were both rested, and it sounded very appealing.
He smiled, it drove me crazy, his smile, it made me realize how bad I needed him, and how much I loved him. I knew what he meant, "I'll go fill it up, bubbles too."

Part Three

Our sex life was still full, we were happy, and I was earning my degree in biology. Happy days. But not as happy as that one day.
"Out of the way!" I yelled at Tobias as I ran into the bathroom. I puked my guts out. But it was the fourth day in a row that it had happened, and we figured it wasn't stomache flu. We were going to try the home-pregnancy test first.
Tobias and I rarely used a condom, it happened much too fast. Not much time to slip one on, but it was okay. I felt fine about bringing a child into the world. We'd been married nearly a year, and we had a perfectly stable relationship. And best of all, the yeerks had been driven away. It was a happy time. Unfourtunately, no human but us knew of us. And all of the previous controllers memories had been wiped. Now it was allot safer to have offspring, knowing they wouldn't one day be slaves.
"Positive," I read happily. More than happily, hysterically, I was jumping up and down, and Tobias, he was trying to calm me down, barely hiding his own excitement, we were going to be parents! How grand!

Eight months later it didn't feel so grand. I was bloated, eating waaay too much, and my clothes didn't fit me anymore. Let alone the mood swings, I nearly knocked Tobias' head off. Forget about sex. I don't know how some couples possibly can get in the mood for love-making when they feel like that. Barely able to stand, backs aching.
Tobias was very supportive, even when I made him sleep on the couch because I thought I was too fat to be seen. I'd heard of husbands that moved out because they couldn't stand their wives during her stressful times. But not Tobias, he was the loving father to be that anyone would love to be around. Submissive, he had to be, I was screaming at him most of the time. But he always helped. Never yelled, got angry, just acted supportive.
When the time came, he was there, he had a professional photographer come, paid a fortune I'm sure, but he got every moment, sometimes I like it, sometimes I can't believe he got me on tape screaming and crushing
his had with every contraction.

After my third baby, I was starting to think it was about time to slow down. Tobias and I had three beautiful, wonderful children. My oldest was Ryan, she was now four, then Blaire, he was three, and Amy, she was the
baby. I had my masters, went to medical school for a couple of years, and was a surgeon a couple days a week. My father, the big ABC correspondent in New York, paid for Tobias and I to go to college, so we were able to save up and buy a nice house. Tobias became an aerospace engineer, designing rockets for NASA, we made good money, we could definitely support more kids, but three was enough. Tobias agreed to a vasectomy, and sex has been great since then, no worrying anymore.
Unlike most couples, Tobias and I never had any problems really. We always loved eachother. Sure, we got in fights, like when he wanted Ryan to take flying lessons when she was eight. But we never had big ones.

Now the Ryan is 12, it's amazing how fast it's gone by. She is in Junior High now, and it's funny how she reminds me of me when I was 12. Tall, graceful, blonde as me. But she does have her father in her too. Stubborn like me, but rational and not too quick to decide like I was. She is beautiful, and I hope one day some guy like Tobias will be lucky enough to get her.
Me and Tobias are doing great. We're flying to Hawaii soon and it'll be like a second honeymoon.

Ryan I found this yesterday, written down on a notepad of my moms things. She will never finish it...

Sorry, I have to finish this, I can't start crying again, mom wouldn't have wanted it that way.
I am 14 now. When I was 12 the tragity happened. On the flight back from Hawaii...

Okay, I have to finish this, on the flight home from Hawaii the... the plane... stop crying Ryan! I have to do this. The plane exploded. They don't know why, but the plane exploded a mile from the shore. There were
no survivors....

Now you now why she will never finish this log. A log of my parents love. I'm sure they were holding hands, la......
Laughing. Yeah, that's what they were doing, laughing at fate, laughing with love. Because I know they loved eachother. I always knew.

The End

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