2 comments/ 17602 views/ 3 favorites 7. The Patriots Ch. 16-18 By: inspirixis1 CHAPTER SIXTEEN All of this hoopla about whether or not he could beat Lucas was really getting to him. It seemed that every time he turned around some reporter or other was asking him if her thought he could do it. Micah could feel the tension building in his muscles and that horrible sick feeling he got when he was stressed had returned to his gut. He needed to do something differently. He needed to remind himself that he didn't care if Lucas beat him. He took his bike down to the velodrome and rode during the free practice time. He rode around the velodrome, and around and around. Tomorrow was going to suck. If Lucas beat him it would suck, if he beat Lucas it would still suck. There was no way to avoid it. After an hour he figured that he had probably better get off the bike, but he still didn't feel any better. He went back to his and Oliver's room and took out Matthew's manuscript to read again. There was something about it that just didn't sit right with him. It was probably just jealousy. Matthew hadn't even finished his Ph.D. and already he had a research paper accepted at Science, one of the most prestigious scientific journals there was. Still, it didn't feel right. He could follow the logic and he agreed with the arguments Matthew made but he couldn't help the nagging feeling that something was wrong. He got out a pencil and notebook and started from first principles. He might as well. He had nothing better to do and if nothing else it would keep his mind off racing Lucas for a few hours. When he finished his heart felt heavy. He was sure he was right and Matthew was wrong, he could even see the exact place where he'd made the mistake, which had lead to completely inaccurate results. He couldn't possibly bring it up with Matthew now. Matthew had his first final tomorrow and would be swimming for at least another five days after that. The last thing he'd want was a distraction like this, but Micah couldn't just let it go. The paper had already been accepted, if it went into press Matthew would have to make a retraction, which would be embarrassing not only for him but for his advisor and the people who reviewed the paper. He called his dad who was on his way out to dinner at a restaurant. "I'll meet you there," he told him. He stuffed food in his mouth as he walked to the train station and then crammed onto a train to get to the restaurant his family was going to for dinner. It took all of half a second to spot them. Even without Zach, Beth and Calvin and he and his bothers they were still a huge, loud group. He tore his eyes away from Ellia and found his dad sitting right beside her. "Hey," he said as he approached. "Hey. What's up?" The entire table quieted down and looked to him. "Oh, I just want to talk math." Grace rolled her eyes at him and people went back to their individual conversations. Micah pulled up a chair and squeezed into the table between his dad and Ellia. "You want to talk math nows?" "Uh-huh. Do you know when Matthew's paper goes to press?" "No. He resubmitted the week before we came out here and Science has a pretty tight turn around. It'll probably come out in the next issue, why?" "It's wrong. He needs to retract it." "What?" "Yeah. I did the math. He's wrong." He pulled his notepad out of his bag, flipped to the first page of his calculations and plopped it down in front of his dad. "This is what you do in your free time?" Ellia asked, nodding to the pages of equations. "No. I just read Matthew's paper and it didn't feel right to me so I did the work myself and got a different answer." His dad was reading through the derivations in front of him. "Micah I think you're getting worked up about nothing. I checked his work myself." "Keep reading." He flipped the page and Micah could tell that he'd stopped on the line that Matthew had made the mistake on. "Why is this different? Where did this exponent come from?" "Go back to the first page." He flipped back and Micah pointed to one of the equations he'd started with. You have to integrate this, which gives you an exponent and cancels one of the terms." His dad flipped back to the page he'd stopped on and sighed. "Shit." He looked crestfallen. "It's okay dad, everyone makes mistakes. It's not Matthew's fault." "I know. I'm the one who checked it for him." "What about his advisor?" "Yeah. Justin checked it too. So did three reviewers for Science... so five professors of Physics checked this and you were the only one who caught it." He shook his head. "See Micah, this is the reason why..." He cut him off. "Don't say it dad. I don't want to get into a fight with you right now." He just knew his dad was about to launch into another lecture about how he should go to grad school. His dad shook his head. "I was going to say this is the reason why I told him to get you to read it." "Oh. Okay, sorry. So can you deal with it?" "No. Matthew is the only one who can retract it." "Somehow I don't think he's going to feel like dealing with it right now." His dad shrugged. "He'll have to." "No. Think about it dad, this is the biggest week of his life for swimming. He'll be crushed if he realizes his paper's not going to fly and it'll put a dampener on the whole event for him. Can't you make some phone calls and pull some strings or something? Just get them to delay publishing it until the next issue to give him time to deal with it when he gets back." He sighed. "I can see what I can do." He flipped through the last two pages of equations. "Huh." He shook his head. "This is something... it's beautiful Micah... really elegant." "Thanks." "And you're probably right about Matthew. Don't mention it to him until after his last race." That was one thing you had to like about his dad. Even if he was a pain in the ass some of the time, he had no problem admitting it when he was wrong. "Okay. So long as you promise to take care of it." His dad nodded. "What about you? Why are you doing derivations on the night before your final?" "I don't know. I'm just trying to keep my mind off it. I thought a bit of mindless math might help me to relax, but then I found the problem and it stressed me out more." "You look tense," Ellia said. "I feel tense." "Do you need a massage?" He had already had several massages over the past couple of days but none of them seemed to have much of an effect. "No, it's okay. You're on vacation, you don't need to give me a massage." "I don't mind." Ellia got her dinner put in a to-go box and Micah followed her back to her room at the apartment. He felt weird taking his clothes off in her room so he left his sweatpants on. "It's really just my shoulders," he told her as he flopped face down on her bed. "Oh wow," she said as she worked her hands across his neck and shoulders. "This isn't like you. What's the matter?" He sighed. "It is like me. I don't want to race Lucas. I never should have gone to the qualifying trials." "So pull out," she said matter-of-factly. "Are you crazy? I can't pull out. There would be nothing worse than pulling out." He felt her weight move on the bed and the warmth of her straddling his hips. She worked her thumbs into the muscles on either side of his spine in slow circular movements and he felt himself start to relax. "Okay, you're not going to pull out," she said. "So what is the worst thing that could possibly happen if you show up?" "I don't know... I could loose." "Mm... and how would that change things?" "It would be embarrassing." She started laughing. Why was that funny? "Micah you are racing the seven fastest men in the world and you don't even train for swimming. Trust me, just having you there should be an embarrassment to the other guys." He hadn't thought of it that way. "What is it with you and Lucas anyway?" "He's my brother. I know he's not literally, but in my heart he is my brother. We grew up together. We've always done everything together. I don't want to beat him but I also don't want him to beat me... I don't know why I even entered the 200 free in the first place." Ellia lifted herself off him. "Turn over and sit up." He did as he was told. She sat on the bed with her back against the headboard and her legs stretched out on either side of him. "Okay, lay back." He hesitated. "Like, on you?" "Yeah, it's the best way to get the neck muscles if you don't have a table." He leaned back into her slowly and she folded her right arm around his face so that his head was turned to the side and supported in the crook of her arm. Her body was warm and soft beneath him. He wasn't prepared for how intimate it felt. "Hey, relax," she said as she squeezed his left shoulder. "I'm not too heavy?" "No, just relax." He let go and sank back into her. God it felt amazing. The way she was holding him was so incredibly comfortable and her fingers and thumb were rubbing away all of the stress and worry. "What if I beat him?" He asked. "How should I act if I beat him?" "Is it really about Lucas?" "What do you mean?" "You act like this is a big show-down between the two of you, but does it need to be that way? Is it really that important to keep track of who is faster?" "No. It just stresses me out for some reason." He didn't know why racing Lucas was so stressful. He guessed there was just something inside him that couldn't stand being beaten. Ellia moved his head over into the crook of her left arm and began massaging the right side of his neck. "Can you pretend he's someone else? You don't seem to have a problem racing anyone else." "I've tried that. As soon as I see him it falls apart." "So don't look at him." "What? I can't not look at him, how rude would that be?" Lucas liked to joke around before races. He liked to talk. "Just tell him before hand that you're not going to look at him. He'll understand." He might understand. Micah had never talked to Lucas about how he felt about them racing, although he suspected that he knew. He sat up and fished his phone out of his pocket, scrolled to Lucas' number and pressed send. He picked up on the third ring. "Hey." "Hey." "What's up?" Lucas asked. "I'm stressed out." "Yeah I know." "I hate racing you Luka." He sighed. "Me too but there's not much that can be done about it at this late stage." "Can we not talk tomorrow?" Micah asked. "I know it might feel weird but I think it might be easier for me." "Um... yeah, if that's the way you want to do it." "I'm going to pretend you're someone else. I'm not going to talk to you and I'm not even going to look at you okay?" It wasn't going to be easy. Lucas had qualified first and Micah had qualified third which meant that Lucas would be in the lane directly to his right. "Only if I can be that big German dude Klopfenstein, I don't want you going around pretending that I'm some wimpy little wiener." Micah laughed. He felt a weight lifting off his shoulders. "Okay, Klopfenstein it is." Lucas chuckled. "Good... I guess I'll see you after the race then." "Yeah, good luck." "Thanks, you too." He hung up and leaned back into Ellia. He felt so much better. The stress drained away. His muscles relaxed and gave away under her fingers. "Mm... better," she murmured. She worked her way down his neck and across his shoulder and then started down his arm. It felt like heaven. She felt like heaven. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He wasn't asleep for long enough to forget where he was. When he woke her arms were wrapped around him and she could feel her sharp uneven breaths. "What's wrong?" He turned his head towards her and saw tears on her cheeks. She shook her head. He sat up and turned to face her. "Hey, you can tell me. What's the matter?" She touched his cheeks with her fingers. "I love you Micah." It was the most confusing moment of his life. The woman of his dreams was finally saying the words he had wanted to hear for so long, but she was crying at the same time, as if loving him was deeply painful. "I love you too. Why are you crying?" "Because it's no use. Love isn't enough." "What else do you need? Tell me what you need and I'll give it to you." "I need to have my own life. I can't just follow you around." "I know. I don't want that either. I want to decide where to go together." "But you said you wouldn't move to Australia." "Mm... maybe I was being too hasty. That was before I knew you loved me. That changes things. We can talk about moving to Australia if that's what you want." She pulled him towards her and met him half way with her soft warm lips on his. "Micah," she breathed. "My Micah." His name murmured in her soft airy voice was almost more than he could take. He pulled her body under him, pressing himself down on her as he kissed her properly on her mouth, her cheeks, her jaw. She was kissing him back. Her tongue probed his mouth and tangled with his. Her hands were all over him, stroking his skin and causing the desire swirling in his gut to take over his brain. All he wanted was Ellia, his sweet, beautiful Ellia. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN After that first kiss Micah didn't even think about Lucas or the race again. It wasn't because not talking to him before the race was so comforting. It was because there was no room for those thoughts in his head when it was filled with Ellia. When he woke in her bed with her naked body in his arms there were no other thoughts than those of her. When he made love to her the second time, as quietly as he could manage, her face dissolved into bliss and she made the sexiest little sounds he'd ever heard and the very last thing on his mind was some stupid swimming race. Afterwards he scooped her into his arms and kissed her tenderly and held her close. She told him that she had to get up to go jogging with his mom and he wasn't sure he approved. "You're jogging with my mom? What do you talk about?" "All sorts of stuff. Why? What do you have to hide?" She playfully jabbed him in the ribs. "Nothing. Just embarrassing stuff that you don't need to know about." "Like what? Tell me the most embarrassing thing you've ever done." "Elle..." he complained. "Come on. Tell me the worst thing you ever did so that anything else she could tell me would seem lame in comparison." "Urgh... okay. When we were teenagers, Lucas and I shared a fundamental misunderstanding of the menstrual cycle that all began with an incident that my dad was partly a witness to. The result was that we thought that women laid eggs." "No?" Her eyes were alight with amusement. "Yeah, like the type in the grocery store. We were convinced that the whole chickens laying eggs thing was just a cover up. So, needless to say, neither of us ate eggs." Ellia was smiling and chuckling softly. "So anyway, we were fourteen or fifteen or something and it was mothers day so we had a big brunch. Lucas' family and our grandparents were there and Matthew invited his girlfriend and her family too, so there were heaps of people. "The main dish was quiche, which I knew had eggs in it so I refused to touch it, but of course Lucas has never stepped foot in a kitchen in his life so he didn't know. He was sitting half way down the table from me shoveling quiche into his mouth and I was trying to catch his attention. Unfortunately I had also caught half of the table's attention by the time that I managed to let him know that he was eating eggs. "So Lucas drops his fork, spits quiche all over the table and starts gagging with his hands around his neck saying, 'Oh my god, I can't believe I just ate that.' So now the entire table was looking at him. "Lucas' mom Maya started to make a fuss because she thought he was choking and needed the Heimlich maneuver, but of course Lucas was already twice the size of her so she just looked like a lunatic trying to get him to stand up and wrapping her arms around him to try and expel some imaginary throat obstruction. Seeing all of this, Tyler starts to panic and is ranting on about doing an emergency tracheotomy, yelling at my mom that he needs a drinking straw and the sharpest knife in the house and to sterilize them with vodka. As if my mom would have a bottle of vodka lying around. "In the mean time Lucas is trying to get his mom off him and explain that he doesn't need a tracheotomy, but his parents are too worked up and wont listen to him. Tyler was trying to get him to lie down on the floor to assume the correct position for the operation. "Finally my dad stands up and bellows over the top of everyone to sit down. He pointed out that there was nothing wrong with Lucas and then he turns to me and asks what the problem is. I told him that I was just trying to warn him that he was eating eggs. "'Why shouldn't he eat eggs?' He asked. "I told him, 'Because we don't eat eggs.' "'They're disgusting,' Lucas added. 'Totally disgusting.' "Something must have clicked in dad's head because he turns back to me, puts his hands on his hips and says, 'Micah, is this about the menstrual cycle again?'" Ellia was laughing properly now, she was gasping for breath and there were tears in her eyes. "The whole table was looking at me, including Matthew's girlfriend and her sister and I was embarrassed beyond belief. I didn't know what to say so I just jumped up and ran to my room and refused to come out until everyone had left. That night dad gave me a book that explained the menstrual cycle. To this day I still feel embarrassed when I think about it." "Oh, poor Micah," Ellia said as she snuggled in closer to him. "That's a pretty good one. I don't think I can top that." "No. Well, growing up with Lucas there was never a dull moment, that's for sure." They got up and showered and then met his mom, who was stretching in the lobby. Her eyebrows rose when she saw Micah. "Morning," she said curiously. Micah narrowed his eyes at her and joked, "I've got my eye on you, woman. Don't tell her anything that might ruin my chances." She smiled and put her hands up defensively. "I wouldn't dream of it." He turned to Ellia and kissed her forehead as he squeezed her body to him briefly. "Have a good run, and don't believe a word she says. I'll see you after the race." He went to the pool and swam slowly and effortlessly. He felt awesome. All day he felt awesome. All he thought about was Ellia and how he could make her happy. It wasn't until he was behind the blocks that he forced her out of his head and focused on the pool in front of him. He kept his eyes facing forward and pictured Klopfenstein standing to his right. It made him laugh. Klopfenstein wasn't even a swimmer. He had been a contestant in the world's strongest man contest a few years ago. He was huge, almost to the point where you might wonder if he was a giant, and he had dominated the truck pull and plane pull events. He heard Lucas chuckling beside him and stole a glance at him. Lucas was looking at him sideways and laughing. Micah stuck his hand out and Lucas slapped it. This was going to be alright. On the blocks he saw Lucas moving around in his peripheral vision. It was weird and unsettling, once he was on the blocks Lucas was usually totally calm and still. He ignored him and focused on his own lane. He got a great start. In fact, he knew he was leading when he surfaced. It's just one of those things he could feel. No matter how small the margin he could always feel it when he was winning. Lucas wasn't beside him. He must have gotten a horrible start. He was nowhere to be seen at the first turn. 7. The Patriots Ch. 16-18 Where was he? It felt wrong. He breathed to his left. Nothing. Where the hell was he? Without even thinking he lifted his head out of the water and looked down Lucas' lane. He was lying on his back a few meters away, his arms flailing. What the fuck? He ducked under the lane rope. He knew he'd be disqualified but he didn't care, there was something seriously wrong with Lucas. He hooked his elbow under Lucas' armpit and kicked furiously, dragging him towards the end of the lane. He could feel him coughing and wheezing and gasping for air as he towed him. Micah's heart was racing. What was wrong with him? Why couldn't he breathe? There were already officials at the end who pulled Lucas out by the arms. Micah got out after him and tore his cap and goggles off. It was oddly silent. All he could hear was the straggled gasps and gurgles that Lucas was making. His neck muscles were flexing as his head bucked, as if he could get air in that way. He knelt over him and held his head back to try and open his airways, like they show you in CPR class. He heard an official talking into the radio, asking for the medics. "Come on Luka, breathe." He heard his voice break from the stress. Lucas coughed a horrible gagged noise and struggled beneath him. "Please Luka, just breathe." Micah was yelling in desperation. He had no idea how to make Lucas breathe. "Micah!" He heard from behind him. He turned his head. Nicholas was sprinting towards him down the side of the pool, a security guard in pursuit. A second guard was running towards him and Nicholas didn't even try to dodge him. The guard's arms came up to tackle him and Nicholas jumped towards him, planted his hands the guard's shoulders and launched himself over him into a somersault, as if he were a gymnast and the guard a very tall vault. He landed on his feet and continued to run. He was getting close when two more guards ambushed him from the side, tackling him to the ground. "Micah!" He yelled as he threw something towards him. A tumbling thin yellow tube arched through the air, bounced on the rubber poolside mat and came to a stop beside his foot. It had the letters G W-G written on the side in black marker. It was Grace's Epipen. Of course... Lucas was in anaphylactic shock. Micah knew how to use it, his parents had made him practice a hundred times when he was a kid incase he ever needed to use one on Grace. He took it out of the tube, pulled off the safety release and jabbed the needle end into Lucas' thigh, holding it steady to the count of ten, ten of the longest seconds of his life. It wasn't working yet. Lucas was still making those horrible gurgling sounds. He took the needle out and shoved it back in its tube and started massaging the place on his thigh that he'd given the injection. "Come on Luka, you can do it, breathe," he begged. It was an agonizing few seconds before it started working. Finally Lucas' chest started rising in time with his gasps. "Micah..." Lucas' voice was raspy. His hands came to his face, grabbing at his goggles. "Don't talk Luka, just breathe." Micah lifted Lucas' head and helped him to pull his cap and goggles off. He laid his head back gently, holding it so that it was tilted upwards to keep his airway open. Lucas' chest rose and fell. The air entered and left him. Micah's world crumbled around him. He squeezed his eyes shut as he felt the relief flooding through his veins. Lucas was going to be alright. Nicholas had saved his life. He felt Lucas' hand on his neck and he let himself sag forward towards him, resting his forehead on his chest. Lucas' chest rose and fell, and rose and fell, again and again. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Every time Ellia closed her eyes she experienced a snippet of a nightmare of the race. It wasn't the part when it looked like Lucas was going to die that scared her; it was the way his brother Nicholas had reacted. It was Sam who'd figured out what the problem was. Lucas had seemed okay for the first 25 meters, it just looked like he'd gotten a really bad start, but then he stared to slow dramatically until he was really just flailing around in place. His parents were frozen in horror. Maya had her hand over her mouth and her eyes were bulging. "Grace, Epipen," Sam had ordered. Grace fumbled around in her purse and produced a yellow tube that Nicholas had snatched off her. He kissed her on her forehead and deposited Jasmine in Ellia's lap on his way to the aisle. He hadn't looked directly at her, but Ellia had seen his eyes. They were black, pure black and vacant. Driven. He had run down the stairs of the aisle three at a time, jumped with one foot onto the railing and pushed off into thin air. "Daddy!" One of the children had screamed in horror as her father plummeted. He had disappeared from their view and she was sure he had just killed himself. It was at least a five meter drop to the cement pool deck. Of course at that point she didn't know that he was some sort of urban ninja, so she was confused when he emerged apparently unharmed and sprinted the forty or so meters down to the other end of the pool before he was finally tackled to the ground by two security guards. Ellia watched Micah administer the Epipen but she was distracted by Grace who was clutching Adie to her chest and whispering, "Please don't shoot," over and over again. She followed Grace's eyes to where Nicholas was laying face down on the pool deck, palms flat on the ground on either side of his head with two security guards towering over him, their guns pointed at his back. They stood like that for what seemed like a long time. It looked like they were hesitant to touch him. Finally Micah got up from Lucas and walked over to the security guards. There was some conversation and they reluctantly withdrew their weapons and stepped back. Micah helped Nicholas to his feet and they disappeared out the back entrance with Lucas, who was on a stretcher by that point. The whole episode had taken less than a few minutes but each second was etched in her brain in horrifying detail. Especially Nicholas' eyes, that vacant look, as if he had already accepted that his life might be over. It sent a chill down her spine every time she thought of it. There was confusion over what to do next. Matthew was still yet to race his 200 m individual medley final and nobody knew if they should try and go to the hospital after Lucas, or to stay for Matthew's race. All of the children were crying. Madeline was hysterical, thrashing her fists against Tyler's chest and screaming for her brother. In the end Tyler and Maya decided to go to the hospital and Grace and Adrian wanted to go with them. "What should I do?" Ellia asked Emma. "You should go too. Grace needs help with the children." "What about Matthew?" Oliver asked. "He's probably freaking out." "Why don't you go down to the marshalling area and see if you can talk to him. Tell him... tell him Nicholas called us and said that Lucas is okay," Sam said. They all collected their belongings and made for the exit. She carried Jasmine, who wrapped her little arms around Ellia's neck and tucked her head under her chin as she sobbed quietly. Ellia looked back before they left the stands and saw Sam and Emma huddled together where the big rowdy family had been before. He had his arm around her and was rubbing up and down her arm and she let her head rest on his shoulder. It took them a while to figure out which hospital they needed to go to and to get over there, but when they finally walked into Lucas' hospital room he was sitting up in the bed, smiling and talking with Micah and Nicholas. Apparently an insect had bitten him while he was on the starting blocks and he'd gone into anaphylactic shock. Apart from having to stay in hospital overnight to be monitored, he was fine. She went back to the swimming venue with Micah and Grace and they watched Matthew's final with Emma, Sam and Oliver and cheered when he was awarded his medal and stood for their national anthem. After they'd seen Matthew, Micah came back to the apartment with her, Grace and his parents. She was surprised by how openly affectionate he was towards her, and how his family just seemed to accept it without asking any questions. Nobody said a word when Micah kissed her on the temple, or held her hand on the train. Adie and Jasmine were already at the apartment when they arrived. They'd gotten all sorts of goodies at the hospital and were dressed up in surgical scrubs ten sizes too big. They had a plastic toy medical kit that had a stethoscope, syringe, blood pressure cuff, one of those hammers that you use to test reflexes and some surgical looking toy knives. Adrian was stretched out on the couch with his shirt off and they were poking at him with the toys. "Okay, it's time to switch," Adie said. They shuffled around and handed each other the different toys and then Jasmine went to Adrian's head and said, "What seems to be the problem today?" "Oh my arm! I have a pain in my arm!" Adrian cried dramatically. "I see. Nurse, hand me the hammer." Adie handed her the hammer and Jasmine went about beating Adrian up and down his arm with it. "Ow!" Adrian yelped. "Hmm..." Jasmine said, "Mr. Adrian, I'm afraid we're going to have to operate." "Why? What's the matter with me?" "You have a garbage can in your arm." "A garbage can? How could that have gotten there?" "You probably ate it." "Yes," Adie concurred. "That is usually how they get there." "Is it common?" Adrian asked. "Yes. We see it all the time." "Nurse, hand me the knife," Jasmine ordered. "Wait! Aren't you going to give me a needle to make me go to sleep?" "Oh, okay. The nurse can do that." Adie gave Adrian the needle in his stomach and Adrian made a great show of being asleep, snoring loudly while the girls pretended to cut his arm open and remove the garbage can." When they had finished the surgery and Adrian was allowed to wake up he got off the couch and said he was all better and didn't need to see the doctor anymore. "Did you see the news coverage yet?" He asked them. "You're going to love this Micah." The press was going wild over what had happened at the Aquatics Center. Micah had been dubbed a hero. Apparently, he was the Olympic spirit personified. "What about Nicholas?" Micah complained. "How come he isn't the Olympic spirit personified? He's the one who risked his life." "Yeah, but he didn't give up a chance at a gold medal. And besides, he's not as black as you. You and Lucas look better together," Adrian explained. "What's that supposed to mean?" "You know... diversity and multiculturalism and all that stuff." Micah scoffed. "We grew up four blocks away from each other in the same suburb. How are we an example of multiculturalism?" Adrian shrugged. "If they just conveniently leave out that piece of information the viewers draw their own conclusions." Micah shook his head in annoyance and left the room to take a shower. Even if Micah was annoyed about it, there was no denying the power in the footage that the film crew had caught. They had been at the perfect angle to capture the moment when Lucas started breathing again and Micah's reaction to it. Relief was written all over his face, relief and something else, something deep and meaningful, something that didn't have a word to describe it. She guessed it was something like love. Micah loved Lucas. You could see it in his face. Not a sexual love, it was a bond deeper than that. They were brothers. The image of Micah bent over Lucas' chest became a sort of visual catch phrase. It was all over the media, the commentators kept on coming back to it again and again. People just couldn't get enough of it. It was a powerful image in a lot of ways. Lucas' pale white hand curled around the deep brown skin of Micah's neck was a gesture that was both thankful and comforting at the same time, and was exactly what the world thirsted for. Everyone wanted a friendship like theirs, one that was beyond the material, beyond the lines drawn in the sand. Micah was annoyed by the whole kafuffle. He refused interviews and avoided anyone who approached him with a camera. He had a few days off before he had to race the medley relay with his brothers and he came to the stands with her to watch the finals of the others' races. It seemed like two or three times a day that they watched one of them take a medal, and more often than not they were on the top step of the podium. Micah stayed over with her every other night, one of the many compromises they'd reached together. He would have slept over every night, except that actually sleeping when they were in the same bed was something of an issue. He usually went down to the pool to swim in the mornings, so it wasn't until that Sunday that they got the opportunity to sleep in together. When they finally got up and showered and ventured out into the apartment everybody, including Adie and Jasmine, were up. "Hey, Uncle Micah's here! He was in Ellia's room!" Adie pointed at them as she made her declaration. Jasmine was sitting at the table with a coloring book and her eyes went wide with excitement. "Is there anybody else in there? Is Uncle Oliver in there too?" She slid off her seat and ran to Ellia's room to check for other family members. "No, it's just me," Micah assured them. Adie narrowed her eyes at them. "Did you sleep here?" She asked Micah. "Yes." "Like a slumber party?" "Ah... yes." "Oh... what do you do at a slumber party?" "You watch movies and eat popcorn past your bedtime," Grace answered for him. "Can I go to a slumber party?" "You can have a slumber party with Madeline when we get home, if Grandma Maya says it's okay." "Can I slumber party too?" Jasmine asked. "Yes, but only if you're both very good." They danced around the apartment singing 'slumber party, slumber party, slumber party' to the alphabet song tune. "No pool this morning Micah?" Grace asked as she spooned some mashed green stuff into Alexander's waiting mouth. "Nope, I've got to take Ellia on a date." "At seven o'clock on a Sunday morning?" "Yep." They caught the train and then walked several blocks and all the time he refused to tell her where they were going. It wasn't until they rounded a corner and she saw the bustling street filled with carts overflowing with every flower imaginable that she remembered his promise. "I told you I'd buy you flowers," he said. They wandered up and down the market and she picked out the ones she liked and by the end Micah was carrying an armload full of brightly colored blooms. Afterwards he took her to a little café and they drank cappuccinos at a table that wasn't really big enough for the enormous bunch of flowers he rested on it. "So when is your interview?" He asked. She told him about the interview she had scheduled for the next week and the position they were considering her for in Canberra. He asked about Canberra and she thought it was probably best to be honest about it. "I've only been there once, and it was nice but kind of quiet. Some people our age think it's boring." "Is there a velodrome there?" "Not an indoor one." "Does the company you're interviewing with have offices anywhere else?" "Yes and no. The AIS is a federal government program so they're centered in the capital, but all of the states have their own sports institutes too, which are pretty well coordinated. A lot of the athletes here for the games are sponsored under their state's sports program rather than the federal one. Bryce, my little brother, is sponsored by the Queensland Academy of Sport." He smiled and shook his head. "That's so crazy. Your government takes care of its athletes." "Of course. They're national heroes. Everyone likes to see an average Joe do amazing things. It's good for national pride. Did you know that Australia had the second highest number of medals per capita of any country at the last Olympics?" "Who came first?" "Bahamas." "Huh... Okay, so you have an interview for Canberra but really you could work anywhere in the country and still feel like you're doing what you want to do?" "Well, pretty much any capital city. Trust me, neither of us want to move out Woop-Woop." "Woop-Woop?" "In the middle of nowhere. Geographically speaking a lot of Australia is out Woop-Woop." He gave her a sly smile and said, "I don't know. I kind of like Woop-Woop with you." He leaned towards her and squeezed her thigh under the table. She laughed. "I like Woop-Woop with you too." "In fact," he said quietly. "I was thinking that maybe you might want to go home and Woop-Woop with me right now." "Mm... that's something I could be interested in." She was being coy. Nothing could be more appealing to her than the idea of Woop-Woop with Micah at any time of the day.