Shattered Illusions [complete]

[Tycho Auriville]

"Anywhere," Tycho answered, pausing in the foyer and picking up a handbag. He held it up. "This yours?"

Anna nodded and he slung it on his own arm. It wasn't really his style but black went with everything and his Madras button-down, in shades of faded summer yellow and beach glass grey, worked in a casual chic sort of way.

Dimly he was aware that he'd just trodded through the house in his boots but it didn't seem as important or impolite as it normally would have. He waited while Anna locked the front door and then took up her hand again like a willing child's, walked beside her down the street to where he'd managed to snag a parking spot along the curb.

The passenger door creaked in slow reluctance as he opened it. "Watch the seats - vinyl might be hot."

[Anna Fernandez]

Her mind was an overflowing mess of thoughts and self doubt, and she carefully got into the hot cab of his truck. The seats were hot, but she easily cooled them down with her gift to something better suited for sitting on in thin capris.

He handed her the purse and closed the passenger door and walked around the front of the truck to the driver's side, climbing in easily. Anna pulled the seatbelt around her, carefully tucking the lap belt under her burgeoning belly, and stared out the window as he started the vehicle. A part of her brain was telling her to talk, to say something, but somehow she knew if she said anything she would just melt into a puddle of tears, so she just sat there numbly, hands in her lap.

[Tycho Auriville]

He made easy work of the silence, slipping under it's yoke willingly and turning it into an ally rather than an ominous blanket of conviction. The air conditioning unit in the truck was two years past working order, spitting only dusty smelling warm breeze, but the windows functioned perfectly and he rolled them down halfway with the automatic controls on the driver's door. Momentum ushered in a tumbling wave of sun-sweet air and Tycho twisted an arm up behind him, awkwardly coaxing the back slat glass open to encourage the rest of the trapped heat to take a bow and exit.

The residential background of Los Santos gave way to more commercial ground as they pulled onto the main thoroughfare, fast food restaurants and laundromats lumped together next to sewing outlets and copy stores.

"I got Springsteen or Taylor," Tycho finally said, taking the overpass that would lead to the highway exit that climbed up into the rugged hills of Runyon Canyon Park.

He passed Anna a battered travel CD case, the zipper broken and chipped of it's black paint. "Might be some Petty, too. It's work stuff but it's meant for getting lost in. Does the trick most times."

[Anna Fernandez]

She took the CD case obediently, and flipped through it as he drove, finally choosing a Springsteen album at random and slipping it into the CD player of the truck. Music filled the cab, and Anna closed the case, trying to figure out the zipper before giving up and returning it to its place behind the front seats.

She leaned against the seat, one hand unconsciously on her stomach as summer brown hills began to surround them, scrubby brush and yucca trees prevalent on the landscape. She closed her eyes, letting the breeze wash over her.

[Tycho Auriville]

It wasn't obtrusive, the high soulful wail of Soozie Tyrell's violin bleeding into the passing world like a trailing marker as the truck climbed higher and higher into thin arching pine trees and broad-citied views. Rather, it touched just the edges of their company, colouring so deftly that it seemed a part of the moment just as surely as the faded Auto Trader flapping on the dashboard and the smell of clean oil and sawdust and piña colada air freshener mingling in the cab.

Tycho drove past the official entrance to the park and rumbled around a lazy mountain curb, guiding the truck a few more miles up the road to a strangled section of wood, more open space than crowded forest in defiance of the rest of the state land. Slowing to a crawl he nosed the Tacoma onto soft, pine-needle carpeted earth and then they were off-road and edging through the bouncing terrain until ahead the trees gave way completely as did the ground, cutting a jagged cliff edge that afforded a dazzling view of the park and, distantly, the long arm of the southern half of the city.

In the waning stillness the engine ticked, cooling in park as Ty twisted the keys and pulled them out to rest on the bench seat. He leaned forward, hands looped on top of the steering wheel, and took a long breath through his nose. Without the bloom of urbanization to send off potent vapours, there was a sweetness to the air.

"So," Tycho squinted into the bright light, peering through his tousled hair. "That wasn't your boyfriend, then."

[Anna Fernandez]

The view was breathtaking, despite the bumpy ride to get there, and it took a moment for Anna to register what Tycho had just said. She undid her seatbelt, stretching a little in her seat before leaning against the door to look at him better.

"Uh, no. Hardly." She scrubbed her hand over her face, trying to think how best to describe what Apollos was to her, but it was only making her think of their argument and that was the last thing she wanted to do. "Not my boyfriend."

[Tycho Auriville]

Okay. That was good, she hadn't freaked out. It was always hit or miss diving right into things but when it hit, it was usually right on target. Of course the misses were spectacular scenes in the opposite vein.

Tycho waited to see if she'd elaborate. When nothing came, he encouraged, "But a friend, yeah?"

[Anna Fernandez]

She closed her eyes. "Yes. Someone I trusted."

Anna sighed. "I trust too easily, perhaps." She cracked her eyes open and looked sideways at Tycho. "Jake will not let me forget this, either. He never liked Apollos. I... I should have listened to him." She laughed, bitterly. "He is a psychic, after all."

[Tycho Auriville]

"That mean he knows everything?" Ty arched a brow in pointed wonderment. "Maybe he can tell me whether or not to put down a Benjamin on the Lakers."

[Anna Fernandez]

Anna shook her head. "Point taken." She idly rubbed her stomach, staring out the windshield at the view.

She sighed again. "I do not know what I am doing."

[Tycho Auriville]

Ty shrugged on a soft smile. "Right now you're admiring the view, getting some air."

Without the benefit of movement the heat was starting to add up, even with the alpine thinness. Tycho popped open his door and pushed it with a booted foot, leaning back in his seat. He dropped his head back to rest against the seat and then it turned to one side, his green eyes capturing Anna.

"Do you think it is?" he asked. "Do you think the baby is a mistake?"

[Anna Fernandez]

Anna sighed again, the heat prickling against her skin and dampening her hair to her forehead. "No. I know this was an accident... but how can I view the baby as a mistake? Like... something to regret or try to erase."

She shook her head. "I never considered not going through with this pregnancy."

[Tycho Auriville]

He let her talk, nodding faintly. There wasn't anything that he could say to make things easier, to make her feel better. That was the answer to most of the problems in life, though: listening. Just letting the all of it wash over you and paying enough attention to understand the gist of it.

Tycho's arm snaked across the back of the seat and he tugged gently on Anna's hair.

"Upset people say stupid shit, Anna," he said. "More than drunks, even. It's a syndrome."

[Anna Fernandez]

"Oh, really?" She felt him tweak her hair and turned to look at him, a soft smile on her face. "I don't suppose you have had experience with this syndrome before..?"

The breeze was failing them despite the open door, and she took a deep breath, concentrating and cooling the air around them to a more comfortable temperature.

[Tycho Auriville]

A frosty lick tickled it's way across his cheek and Tycho's nose twitched, that shadowy urge to sneeze sneaking up on him before losing courage and bailing. He canted his head to one side.

"If I didn't get upset from time to time, I wouldn't be normal," Tycho agreed and then he laughed and rubbed at the back of his neck. "Although I'm more partial to saying stupid shit for the latter reason."

Something akin to bashfulness wrapped it's way around his body and he looked out the windshield, the sun glaring brightly even through the gentle tint of the glass.

"My point is," he continued quietly, "Nobody but you can define what this is. Talking loudly don't change that."

[Anna Fernandez]

"I suppose you are right," she allowed, brushing her hair back from her face. "It is hard not to allow loud words to have an affect, however-"

Anna broke off abruptly, her eyes widening. "Wait -!" A smile crept over her face at a flutter in her stomach, suddenly realizing what it was she was feeling. Without thinking she grabbed at Tycho's hand, pressing it to her belly. "The baby's moving..!"

[Tycho Auriville]

"What's -"

Before he could manage much of anything (and he wasn't sure what it had been, a protest or a word of concern?) Anna seized his hand and Ty found himself tilting to one side, skin against the cotton of her shirt in such a broadly intimate press that he instinctively readied himself for a slap. It didn't come, of course, because she'd been the one to initiate it but the readiness was there.

He cleared his throat, ready to break the silence, when something silver smooth whispered across his palm, a ghost against the calloused skin.

"Haaa-aa!" Tycho's hand jerked and he looked up at Anna with wide eyes. "Is it... is that supposed to happen?"

[Anna Fernandez]

She grinned, still holding his hand against the strange hardness of her stomach. "Sí," she said softly, and the baby moved again, so small still, but unmistakable. "I have felt her before, but she is only just now getting big enough for others..."

The baby brushed against her, a tiny foot or hand thumping right where Tycho's hand was, and she laughed at the expression on his face. Anna released his hand, no longer holding him captive, but the baby continued to flutter under her skin, and a strange sense of peace came over her. Yes, this was certainly worth any sacrifice.

[Tycho Auriville]

Jesus. It was the strangest thing he'd ever felt and Tycho had done a four-month stint working septic tanks in Georgia: his hands had touched things no horror movie could prepare you for.

"Does it... hurt?" Ty asked, glancing up for permission before he spread his palm over Anna's stomach again, that strange fluttering sensation making his heart skip with adrenaline and wonder.

[Anna Fernandez]

"No, not at all." Anna looked down at his hand, his touch warm through her t-shirt. "It is a strange feeling, however."

She reached down and gently guided him to the other side of her belly. "She is being very acrobatic in there!" Anna smiled, her hair falling in her eyes as she looked at her stomach, unaware of just how close they were together as he reached across her.