"No." Greg ran his hand lightly up and down her arm. "We're alive. Safe. 1 don't have to worry about them coming after me to try to silence me and you don't have to fear retribution for trying to keep me safe."
They fell silent, each lost in their own thoughts, then Lissianna said, "Greg?"
"Yes?"
"Last night, after I left you in Debbie's room to think about whether you really wanted to turn or not?"
"Yes?" he prompted when she paused.
"What did you decide then?"
"I hadn't decided. I was still thinking," he admitted honestly, then added, "but 1 was leaning toward a yes."
"Really?" Lissianna asked, and something about her tone told him it was important to her.
"Really." Greg allowed silence to close in again, then recalled his dream and said, "I was dreaming just before I woke up."
"Were you?" she asked. "What about?"
"You."
"Me?" He could hear the smile in her voice. "Sounds like a nightmare."
Greg gave a snort at her words and tickled her for punishment.
"Okay, okay," she cried, grabbing at his hands to try to stop him. "What did you dream about?"
Greg allowed her to catch his hand and stop his tickles, but waited until she was settled back against him once more before telling her, "We were playing chase through the forest of time."
"The forest of time," Lissianna murmured.
"Yes. It just looked like a forest to me, but in my head I knew it was the forest of time."
"Oh." She snuggled against him with a sigh.
"And I caught you and we roiled in a pile of leaves and you, of course, had to throw fistfuls of them at me."
"Oh well, of course I did." Lissianna chuckled.
He smiled and pressed a kiss to the top of her head, then hesitated.
"What happened next?" she asked.
Greg stared at the back of her head, then finally said, "I told you I love you."
Lissianna went still in his arms. He swore she even stopped breathing, the silence was so thick, then he added, "And you said, you loved me, too."
He wasn't imagining it, Greg decided. She was definitely holding her breath, he realized with amusement.
"And then you said, you'd given me your future with your blood, and that we were connected because we'd drunk of each other. That you'd know when I was in trouble and when I needed you you'd be there."
Greg frowned as he finished, wishing he could remember the exact words. He thought he'd recalled the gist of it, but somehow it had sounded more official when she'd said it in his dreams, almost like an oath... or a vow.
Aware that she was very silent, he rubbed his hand up her arm, and asked, "Would you know if 1 was in trouble?"
Lissianna cleared her throat, then said, "They say there is some sort of communication between the nanos."
"That makes sense," he allowed. "They work together, one would presume they'd need to communicate somewhat."