Tenuous Link

Terry S. Bowers

September 20, 2000

Desperate as she was to learn something - anything - about Barnabas in parallel time, Julia had, perhaps illogically, decided that if one of the rooms in the East Wing could be a portal into parallel time, then one of the other rooms must also make the other band of time accessible. She spent an endless succession of days searching for that other room, that other portal, and found nothing. The other rooms were filled with long forgotten treasures of the past, with unwanted clothing and furniture, with dreams and memories sequestered in the minds of those no longer living, and despite Elizabeth's claim it was cleaned once a year, the East Wing was filled with endless layers of dust and cobwebs. Almost anything imaginable could be found in the East Wing, except another way into parallel time.

Julia stood in the doorway outside Angelique's room, watching as people she recognized but who were strangers to her in parallel time lived their daily lives. She had seen the parallel time counterparts for Quentin, David, Maggie, Elizabeth, Roger, Angelique, Chris, Amy, even a parallel time Trask and Julia Hoffman. She had not seen Carolyn since the night Barnabas arrived and bit her. She had not seen Barnabas since the night he was trapped in parallel time. Julia was desperate for just some mention of his name, but it never came. She knew he wasn't dead, knew he hadn't been destroyed. She could still feel the distant, tenuous link with his mind that was forged when Barnabas had nearly taken her blood. He'd pulled away, seconds before he bit her, and as he did, his fangs scraped her skin, causing him to come in contact with a minuscule amount of her blood. It was enough.

Julia reached up and absently touched the spot on her neck where Barnabas' fangs had scraped her. The wounds were healed, only a faint trace of new, pink skin to indicate where they had been, but she could still feel the effects that brief contact with her blood had caused; she could still feel her link to Barnabas and sometimes it was the only thing that assured her he was still alive.

Julia watched distractedly as a succession of people traipsed through Angelique's room, intent on their personal errands. Barnabas was still alive. Julia knew that as certainly as she breathed, but where? Why hadn't she seen him? Why did no one talk about him, mention him, speculate about the 'cousin from England'?

Closing her eyes, Julia focused the part of her mind that was so tenuously connected to Barnabas, and tried to let him know she was worried about him, had tried to join him but couldn't. There was so much more she wanted to tell Barnabas, needed to share and discuss with him, but didn't know if he could hear or understand her. Julia finally settled for sending him a simple message: Barnabas, come home.

When Julia opened her eyes, nothing about the parallel time room had changed. She bit her lower lip and swallowed hard. Slowly Julia turned away from the room and headed back toward the main wing of Collinwood. She had not given up home - she never would. Somehow she and Barnabas would be together in the same band of time. Julia promised herself she would return to this same spot every evening, just after dusk, when she knew Barnabas would be conscious, and send him the same message until somehow it worked. She would continue to let Barnabas know she needed him in this band of time, with her, and she would not stop sending him that message until she saw him and heard him and had found a way to bring him back to the band of time in which he truly belonged, until he came home.

Closing the door to the East Wing behind her, Julia exhaled deeply, closed her eyes, and reached out to Barnabas through their tenuous link.

"Barnabas, come home."