Chapter 11

As Lindsay eventually managed to find her way back and head up to her room in the Inn, she was depressed and distraught from the conversation she just heard.

It had seemed that at one point her plan was working and Dusty was accepting her again and they would be back to where they started, but suddenly without warning Dusty was no longer coming around to her view point and he stopped being willing to give her a real second chance.

During that time he also seemed friendly and receptive to her flirtation but that also suddenly with no warning changed as well. She was confused because she thought she was making headway with him.

Now suddenly find finds out that he's married to Suzan?!? When? How? He wasn't married when she last saw him just minutes before! She knew he wasn't married when they started giving that foul smelling stuff to people to save their lives.

Not to mention that while they didn't belong here, before he wouldn't think of leaving no matter how hard she tried, now he won't ever leave.

Damn her! Damn Suzan for taking Dusty away from her!

She always knew the reason she was having I hard was because of Suzan, but she had to admit she was gorgeous and had an incredible natural body. She just hoped that her past with him would weigh in more than Suzan's looks would.

Lindsey always knew that while she herself had a nice figure that often caught the men's eyes, she also realized that she couldn't touch the one Suzan had, which would even cause wrecks in the street if she were to dress as most of the women from their world did.

So she could see why Dusty was so taken by her.

But "DAMMIT" she had him first. He was hers! Why couldn't he see that she needed to be with him and he needed her? He was the one she needed and should be with.

As she lay face down on the bed she started to softly cry.

Suddenly she heard a soft "whomp" sound and she looked around and saw a figure that was now standing in a corner, near the door, of the barely lit room with her.

Subconsciously looking over at the door she realized that it was still bolted from this side. She had no idea of how the person got into her locked room.

No, in looking back at the figure she realized that it was magic that brought the person here. She was still wrapping her mind around that, even though Dusty and that Lori woman were always demonstrated some form of it.

She took a deep breath to scream and before she could she softly heard "Please don't scream Lindsey, I mean you no harm."

The voice sounded familiar. Too familiar, and the shock from the realization of who the owner that voice belonged to shocked her enough that she found she was now holding her breath hoping she was right in who it was.

As the figure pulled back his hood she realized she was looking at the face of Dusty!

While he didn't look any different than he did earlier that night, he seemed physically more tired than he did before. It was something in his overall appearance that gave her that impression.

Why was he here? She was at a loss to why he was now in her room after so long resisting all the various times she tried to get him there. Didn't she just hear he was in a room with Suzan?!

"Lindsey, you're still as beautiful as I remember, and it's been such a long time," said Dusty with a tired smile.

"What are you talking about, I just saw you a little bit ago," said Lindsey confused.

"For you it's been a few minutes ago, for the man that is standing before you it's been just over 66 seasons, uhm years, since I've seen you last. It's taken me just this long to finally get this spell right so that I could travel back in time. This is my first successful trip back," smiled Dusty.

"What, are you talking about?" asked Lindsey

Taking a seat on the bed close to her Dusty turned and looked Lindsey in the eyes.

"Lindsey I need to send you home. This world, while it is different isn't safe for you. You don't know how to live here and there is no way to protect you from my coming problems and those who are up to no good here.

"I've learned things, seen things, which tell me that you staying here is a bad idea. There are some who I've made enemies of who would kill you just to cause me pain," said Dusty.

"Dusty, I can't give up on you or on us. The universe gave me a chance to find you, to be with you again, I need to take that chance no matter how it may pan out. If you have a way to send me back we should go together if it's that dangerous here," said Lindsey as she reached out and stroked the side of Dusty's face.

"I forgot what that felt like when you did that," smiled Dusty as he closed his eyes and for a few minutes allowed her to stroke his face.

"You know you could come back with me. We can pickup where we left off and start our lives over somewhere else," smiled Lindsey as she softly spoke to Dusty.

She finally had him responding to her the way she wanted, she wasn't going to give up without a fight once she finally gained some ground with him.

Slowly opening his eyes he looked at her face and said "Lindsey it's because of this that I have to send you back. I can't go. I actually have the knowledge and the ability to help people here. A lot of people, who would have no one else, if I didn't at least try.

"Right now I'm known as a Battlemage, and as someone to turn to when you need help. I have power and knowledge that is needed in this world. Both from what I've learned in our world and from what I've learned here. If I leave, people will be right back where they started. They will be trapped in the same problem, but they won't understand why it is so.

"Then there the problem with Magic and how it works here in this world. Everyone really doesn't understand it the way they think they do. They try something and if it doesn't work they try something else.

That is the problem with the gate that brought you here. They have no idea of how they opened it, and they've been using it for a while to find someone like me. Every time it opened they used it to look around in our world to see what was there, and because of that they always took a chance on someone else falling through it into the world here.

"They are like kids who've been given dynamite and they are playing around to see what happens when they use it on something different. If I leave now they could easily bring something really bad into this world and ravage it before they realize it," said Dusty.

"But you finally are accepting me again. You're finally letting me touch you once more. I can feel that you love me again," said Lindsey softly as she looked into his eyes.

"Lindsey I never stopped loving you, but you hurt me too badly to stay with you all those years ago. In time I might have gotten over it, I would have had to had a few different relationships in the mean time to dull the pain and even still I wouldn't have learned the reason why to forgive you until I was near the end of my life. In my case I've already had at least one life time to understand this.

"Right now my past self that you are with is still too hurt and mixed up to understand why he can't sort out his feelings for you, and with the women around him. But since my wife Suzan died a few years back it was that act of losing her that made me understand why I should offer more second chances to the people that I loved than I used to give. It's certainly why I still had my love for you after all that happened between us.

"But all of this is why right now I still can't go back because I have to stay and help. I willingly took on this job of helping others, and now that I've been living here for almost 70 years, and experiencing their pain with them. They have no one else to help but me," said Dusty softly.

"Dusty I didn't want to say anything but you keep saying that you've been around for a long time, but you look almost the same as you did when I last saw you earlier tonight," said Lindsey looking at his face.

"Lindsey, I know you realize that I can do things that don't make sense right now. You have been exposed to magic and my use of it. But I'm one of the most powerful users of it in this world.

"Yet still there are forces that are stronger than I am with it, but my knowledge of science also gives me an edge that they don't know about. One person in particular I've been dealing with seems to be emulating things from our world, but somehow doesn't really grasp the concepts behind it. But he is so powerful that taking him on, head on, isn't a good idea either.

"From your standpoint I look the same as I did tonight, but this meeting from my standpoint took place about 66 years go in your room after you left this world. One of the benefits of me being such a powerful mage is that my power causes me to age slower than normal. I'm actually 92 by our world's standards but I age so slowly that I still look like I'm in my thirties.

"Even if you stayed here I would still greatly out live you and you would have a very rough life compared to what you have been living up to this point at home. The real problem for that is one of the other groups I was talking about would probably get to you eventually and use you against me, and I can't have that happen.

"If they didn't kill you they would most certainly torture you for everything you know about me. I need to know you are safe and I can't know that if you're here. I need to put you back where you belong and where it's outside of their reach.

"I often wondered over the seasons, I mean years, why I didn't just go back and tell myself how to open the gate and use it for time travel. But I figured out why I didn't. If I had, then one of the people who would most benefit from that knowledge would have been able to unleash more control on this world, even more than he has so far.

"So thankfully having learned more, fought more, and experienced more, I know what to look out for and how to safely do this. Well as safe as I can while I'm being watched by him that is," said Dusty sadly.

"But you still love me right?" asked Lindsey hopefully. She didn't miss that earlier in the conversation when he said it.

"Yes I do. You were my first real love, the love of my life, and that's why everything hit me so hard when you did it to me. But I will always have that love some place in my heart for you no matter where you are," smiled Dusty

With tears in her eyes, Lindsey said "Well if you're sending me home by myself can you at least let me have one last night with you to remember you by."

She reached for Dusty but he stopped her.

"I'd rather do this for you if you would let me. You still have a lot to offer someone and you can't do that if you are continuing to believe everyday that you're broken somehow," said Dusty.

Leaning over he slowly pushed her over onto her back and then sat back up.

Putting his hand over her stomach Lindsey watched as Dusty closed his eyes and his right hand started to softly glow white for a few moments.

While Dusty's hand was glowing, Lindsey at first felt a light burning sensation, then she started to feel a soothing one flow around her stomach and pelvic area.

Once finished Dusty sat back and smiled at Lindsey.

"What did you do?" asked Lindsey as she looked at him.

"I corrected the damage done to your body by the STD. The disease damaged your reproductive organs, but I was able to fix them for you.

"One of the problems with White magic here is that while it's used for healing they can only visualize how things need to look to fix them, not how they are supposed to look if they were healthy to repair them. If you can get past that limitation you can use it to do true healing regardless of what damaged was done or how long ago it might have been," smiled Dusty.

Before Dusty could stop her, or expand on what he was saying, she lunged for him.

Dusty was shocked, but now had to contend with a crying Lindsey sobbing into his chest as she held him tight. He put his arms around her to make her feel safe for a bit.

As she started to wind down Lindsey looked at Dusty, "Dusty I can't thank you enough. I really did always want children, but I never thought I'd have the chance to have any of my own because of my own selfish actions. This is the best selfless gift that you could have ever given me," sobbed Lindsey.

Dusty sat and stroked her hair until she calmed down.

Lindsey could start to see what he meant about his willingness to help others, even those he might not even know personally.

"Dusty, I know you have given me something that I really didn't deserve, but please let me have one last one. Please make love to me before I lose you forever," said Lindsey softly.

She started to realize that Dusty wouldn't go back with her, but if he was able to fix her internally when modern medicine couldn't and come back into the past to speak with her and protect her, then she believed that he just might be able to return her to her time.

As Lindsey knew this was their last time together she wanted something to hold on to even if it was just a memory.

"Lindsey, that might not be such a good idea. One of the side effects is that you're ovulating right now and extremely fertile. I knew that when I fixed your problem, because I needed to fix everything, but I..." started Dusty, but he was stopped as Lindsey took that moment to silence him with a probing kiss.

"Dusty, if I can't have you then God as my witness I would like at the very least to have your child to be with me if that is possible," said Lindsey softly as she leaned back to look him in the eyes.

"Lindsey, that could cause you problems. It will be harder for a single mother to find someone and start a life with them. Then there is the fact that I can't let you do this alone," said Dusty.

"Somehow I think I'll get by. You know even after I give birth my looks won't be totally gone, even if I did mange to carry your child you know. So if those no longer work for me, well then I'm sure I can't find someone who would want the both of us on a purely intellectual level," smiled Lindsey.