Coffee and Cockpits (33 page)

“Nina?”

I twisted to look at him, hissing in a breath at the restriction of the stupid neck brace. I wanted to tear it off. The more I moved, the more lubrication settled into my joints. It was better to suffer discomfort rather than waste away on a bed.

His eyes swirled with emotion, warring with hope and despair. I knew my own would be identical. Did we share the same thoughts? The same love and connection? Is that why we fell so fast and furiously for each other? Reality wasn’t barring us. Our souls were the only things alive and communicating. Could that even
happen
?

“Was it real?” I whispered, my heart trying to escape through my feet.

Liam sucked in a breath. “God, I hope so.”

Our gazes connected. I couldn’t look away. It was now or never. “If I said to you, waterfall… you would say?”

“That it was the best afternoon of my life as I kissed you for the first time.”

My heart stopped, and I couldn’t do anything but stare.
Oh my God.

Liam shuffled higher against his pillows, confidence and barely-muted excitement starting to glow. “If I said to you kamikaze, what would you say?”

I closed my eyes, remembering every moment of that night. The orgasm gift he gave me and then replacing the fear of the crash with the starlit escapade. “I’d say it was the best night of my life, and the moment when I fell in love with you.”

He tensed, hands fisting on the sheets. “It’s true. Is all of it real? How is this possible?”

The large door swung inward just as I tried to come up with a rational response. A dark-skinned doctor arrived. A stethoscope dangled around her neck, and her hair was coiled in an intricate design.

“Liam Mikin, I’d like to talk to you. I need to go through your injuries and your rehabilitation. The nurses have checked your vitals and you’re defying all odds, considering you’ve been in a coma for twenty-two days.”

Liam shot me a look.

My heart bounced. Somehow we found each other, even when lying inert in the same room recuperating.

His jaw tensed. “I have a few questions of my own.”

The doctor nodded for two men to come in with wheelchairs. “I’m sure you do, as must Nina Poppins. That’s why I want to talk to you sooner, rather than later. It’s a rather unusual circumstance.”

An orderly parked the chair by my bed and ripped back the sheets to help me into it. Liam suffered the same treatment, moving gingerly with a little help to plonk into the chair. We were a right pair.

Once I was settled, the orderly pushed me toward the door. Liam and my wheels collided and I laughed, ignoring the shoots of pain and discomfort. I was alive. Liam loved me. Whatever else happened, I could handle it knowing Liam was mine.

The chair rolled forward, but Liam lashed out. “Stop.”’

I knew what he wanted. It was what I’d been wanting since the moment I opened my eyes. With awkward stiff movements, we leaned into each other and hugged. His arm banded around me, making me safe, while his warmth through the thin nightgown seeped into me. He whispered against my ear. “I love you. This may be the only time I’ve hugged you in this form, but I’ve touched every part of you in my subconscious.”

My chest swelled with surreal happiness. “I love you, too.”

When we pulled apart, the doctor clutched the clipboard against her chest. “I didn’t want to believe it, but against all science, I think it’s true. Come.” She held open the door so the orderly could push us through. “I think it’s time we talked. I have lots to ask.”

I had a feeling whatever happened between Liam and I was not normal. Every meter we rolled down a yellow painted corridor, I tried to understand it myself, but no logical explanation came. Liam and I lived in a world, created by us. Anderson and Samantha shared our world before they died. Joslyn shared our world, which made sense if she was unconscious after the crash with her injuries. What didn’t make any sense, and made my brain hurt trying to figure it out, was what was Nikolai doing there? I didn’t know him. He was a guy I danced with. If the confession about Charlotte was true, that was Liam’s doing. Was he so churned up with guilt he needed his own subconscious to grant him absolution? 

We turned into a room with a bunch of electronic equipment and a tunnel that I thought was a cat scan or MRI.

We were pushed to the centre, in front of a desk with light boxes glowing with brain scans.

The doctor appeared behind us and sat, her clipboard sounding loud against the desk in the hushed world of technology and medical apparatus.

An itch drove me nuts under my brace and anxious fingers found the Velcro and ripped it off.

Liam curled his lip. “Are you sure you should do that?”

The doctor raised an eyebrow. “How does your neck feel? We were concerned your spine was broken. Luckily, it was just heavily bruised.”

I tested, gingerly. Rolling my neck and looking left and right. The pain was bearable, nothing worse than what I dealt with in coma-Samoa. “It’s fine. I’d prefer to leave it off, if that’s okay?”

The doctor smiled. “Sure. I know how uncomfortable those things are.” She sighed. “It’s rather unconventional to get you out of bed so soon after waking, but it’s best to encourage blood flow and ensure you are grounded firmly in this reality. I say that as a few times we tried to bring you back, but were unsuccessful. You fought,” she smiled, “both of you.”

Liam reached out and took my hand. My skin sparked with awareness and I drank him in. He was skinnier than he’d been in Sydney, and the tan I was used to seeing was replaced with a soft cream.

“I think I remember. I had a dream. It was stark and white and I hated it. I awoke to heat and island sun, then went for a morning swim.” He raised my hand to kiss the back of it, directly on top of the IV puncture wound. “That was the morning you brought me breakfast, and I knew I’d never be able to let you go.”

My body melted. He’d been perfect in my dream, and now perfect in reality.

The doctor shifted, a sad, soft smile on her face.

Concern whittled along my spine, turning my sappy happiness into tension. There was something she hadn’t told us.

Liam frowned, picking up whatever vibe I gave off.

Running a hand over her face, the doctor said, “I suppose we’ll begin. The sooner I ask my questions and catalogue your experiences, the sooner I can let you rest.” She picked up a folder and pulled out a sheet of paper. “My name is Alea Ali’tasi. I was the doctor on call when your flight crashed at 1650 hours.” Her face fell, remembering what we couldn’t. “Ambulances started arriving not long after, and the hospital was overrun with burn victims, broken limbs, and casualties. You were brought in separately. Nina, you were brought in with Samantha. We didn’t think you’d make it. We suspected you had a broken neck and internal bleeding.”

Liam and I shared another look, full of horror. No wonder my mind decided to pack up and go on holiday. 

Doctor Ali’tasi carried on, “Liam, you were brought in a few hours later once the flight deck could be reached. According to the fire brigade, the entire front half of the plane was engulfed with flames. You sustained a few injuries being dragged through the cockpit window.”

Liam bit his lip, eyes far away, probably trying to remember. I hoped he couldn’t, it sounded horrific. 

“The next day, the hospital calmed enough for us to assign rooms and decide who needed intensive care. We were short staffed and overrun with patients, so we placed all the Kiwi Air crew into one room.” Her throat contracted as she swallowed.

My back straightened; she was getting to the good stuff.

“I was updating our records on your conditions and noticed something…” Gazing at us, she continued, “You were next to each other, with John Anderson and Samantha Wiggins against the opposite wall. Joslyn Duncan refused a bed once she recovered from her brief unconsciousness, and was content in the La-Z-Boy provided for relatives.” She laughed softly, her professional edge slipping a little. “You have one tenacious sister, Liam.”

A fond smile brightened his face. “Don’t I know it.”

Looking less like a doctor and more like an awed spectator, Alea said, “The strange thing was, when I took note of your heart rate and brain activity monitors they were the same.”

“The same?” My fingers latched tighter around Liam’s.

She nodded. “Almost identical.” Shoving the two folders at us, she added, “Here, take a look at this before I explain. You can see proof.”

I looked at the printed graph paper. Lots of straight lines and squibbles stared back. I knew I held recorded data, but it didn’t really mean much when I couldn’t speak medical jargon.

I looked over at Liam’s. It was the same. Right down to the small crest in one loop and jagged dip in another.

The doctor leaned over and followed a squibbly line with her fingertip. “See how the output is identical?”

Liam began to shake, the paper rattled in his hands. “So not only was it all real in our minds, but it was real in our physical bodies, too?”

I knew I was looking at something amazing, but my mind was sluggish.

Alea smiled with such wonderment, I almost fell off my chair. “In my nineteen years of practicing medicine, I’ve never come across this before.” Her eyes flashed with interest. “You shared brain synapses. Your minds
linked.
I don’t know how and would need to do years of study to understand it, but you’re a medical miracle.” Looking down at the charts, she added, “These are your brain frequencies. You hold Liam’s, Nina, and Liam holds yours.”

Liam shook even harder, his head whipping to look at both. His eyes darted to the timeline on the bottom, but it was in code. If we were out of it for twenty-two days, how did it seem like only three in coma-world?

“So everything we experienced. You can see that on these charts? How do you read it?”

Alea shook her head. “Sorry, forgive me.” Her voice rose in excitement, pointing at the paper in my hands. “See here… this section represents a lot of stimuli. I’m guessing you were doing something adrenaline inducing or out of your comfort zone. We see patterns like this in REM sleep when the person is dreaming of something exciting. Do you recall anything like that?”

Liam locked eyes with me. I shrugged. There were a few instances where my heart rate excelled, but the only thing adrenaline inducing was the flying in the crop-duster.

Liam answered for both of us. “I think I know what we were doing.”

Alea beamed. “Do you know what he’s referencing, without being told, Nina?”

I nodded, whispering under my breath, “Kamikaze.”

Confusion raised her eyebrow, but she just pointed to another section of waves. They were mellow, soft, with sharp spikes in rapid succession.

“This tells me that you felt great emotion.” Her tone softened. “I’m guessing you had sex, or were intimate in some way.”

My cheeks reddened, quickly scanning the page for more tell-tale loops and swirls of my sex life.

Liam chuckled. “It tells you that?”

Alea smiled. “Do you mind if I ask you a personal question? Did you two have a physical relationship before the crash?”

Liam looked at me, allowing me to answer. “No. We only flew together a day before the crash. I’m good friends with Joslyn, but I didn’t really know Liam…” Now I knew how he smelled, tasted, reacted. All of it garnered from our minds. It was so odd to think I’d shared everything with him and yet we’d only touched chastely in real life.

Alea tapped a finger against her lip. “That is strange you bonded so strongly subconsciously then. I’ve been researching this phenomenon, and the only thing I came across was a reference to a couple who’d been married for fifty-three years. Their brain patterns adapted into cohabitation, showing the more humans are around their mate, the more in tune they are.”

Liam cleared his throat. “I may have had something to do with that. I grew to know Nina from afar. I think my emotions were strong enough to connect with her, no matter what state of awareness we were.”

My heart sprouted wings.

Alea grinned, looking greedily at us. I swore she saw us as guinea pigs and ground breaking information. Her eyes fell to the print out again. “Do you remember pain? Did your physical condition seep through, or did you believe you were unscathed from the crash?”

Liam’s hand rose to fiddle with his bandage around his head. “There were moments that I suffered terrible headaches. Can you see that on there?”

Alea’s smile froze and the creepy sensation that she wasn’t telling us the complete truth doused me. With a reluctant finger, she pointed to a series of jagged spikes that were the only thing not identical on my scan. I had a few twinges evident from my whiplash, but not as bad as Liam’s records.

The kookiness of what we lived through made me jittery. All of this was indeed a miracle, but something lurked beneath the façade that everything was okay. Unable to stand it any longer, I demanded, “What aren’t you telling us?”

I couldn’t speak for Liam, but I knew something was off. Call it my sixth sense or whatever. Why didn’t I remember anything about the crash? When did I drift into la-la land? The moment we crashed, or later, in hospital?

I was shell-shocked, I supposed. I couldn’t focus on the deaths of the passengers. I wasn’t able to think about Sam and Anderson no longer being alive. I wasn’t ready to deal with all of that.

Before she could answer, Liam asked, “Why did Nina and I wake up at the same time?”

She gave us a heavy smile. Oh no, whatever I was worried about was linked to that question. I wanted Liam to take it back. I didn’t want to know after all.

Alea began, “For the first twenty-four hours, Samantha Wiggins and John Anderson shared the same frequency as you. But it was fainter, less vivid. I saw it fading, and eventually they died.” Her black eyes connected with us. I curled closer toward Liam, hating our wheel chairs keeping us apart. 

Liam mumbled, deep in thought, “They were there in our world, but then they left.”

I frowned. “In our dream we were only gone a few days. But Joslyn said we’d been out for twenty-two. It doesn’t work.”