Fic: The Dreamkeeper (Part IV)
Mar. 14th, 2015 04:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
boxxsaltzTitle: The Dreamkeeper
Author: Boxxsaltz
Rating: PG-13
Pairing(s): Jessica Jung/TIffany Hwang
Summary: Before there was anything there was a dream
AN: Beta credit to Doucette/Douismain
Part IV
Her reflection stared back at her from the backside of a spoon. Jessica wondered if this pale faced creature with rosy cheeks same color as thin lips framed in light brown hair was anything like the person she became in her dream.
She couldn't seem to get it out of her mind. Her studies had been right. Dreams were addictive - they were obsessive. All through the night, Jessica tossed and turned, pinching her eyes shut, willing the scenes to come back to her. All she managed to conjure were wisps and fragments, all faded and distorted like photographs taken on expired film.
However, though she could not seem to piece together the vibrant picture, Jessica could still feel it radiating on her skin.
“Did you hear me?”
“Huh?” Her neck snapped up.
Krystal hovered by the table holding a pitcher of orange juice and a glass.
“Do you want juice or water?”
“I don’t care.”
Krystal cocked an eyebrow. Whatever question she was about to ask never reached her lips as she poured juice into the glass and sat it down next to Jessica’s plate of breakfast. Across from her, Krystal pulled out a chair and picked up a utensil, eating slowly.
Jessica mirrored her out of habit, but her mind was still far off. She was still stuck on the warmth of Tiffany wrapped around her, the silky way sunrays touched her skin, the flutter in her chest at unabashed smiles.
“How have you been sleeping?”
“Hmm?” The question processed slowly in her head. Jessica took a sip. “Rough. I’ve been putting in a lot more hours lately.”
“Keep it up and you’re going to have bags like dad.”
Jessica rolled her eyes. It wasn’t until then she remembered why Krystal had come over in the first place.
“What did you find out?”
"She runs a farm out in the country.” Setting down her fork, Krystal reached into her back pocket for a small journal. Cracking it open to the middle, she thumbed through a few pages. “She left everything to do with Dreamology when she left the Dream Bank. Now she owns three prized chickens."
"Is that it?"
"Phone number. Address." Krystal handed her a folded piece of paper ripped from her journal. "She likes her privacy. I only found out this much because of the chickens."
"Seriously?" Jessica looked over the address. This Taeyeon lived far off, somewhere remote strictly for farming..
“The town has a community newsletter. She was printed in one for winning a prize on them." Krystal shrugged. "The article was a couple years old so I can’t guarantee it's right but it'll point you in the right direction."
"I’ll try calling her first.” Jessica sat it down.
“What’s her name?”
“Who?”
“The one you’re doing this for.”
Jessica dropped her eyes. "Tiffany."
And she was beautiful. Inside and out.
Jessica could finally understand why Tiffany was regarded as special. She understood why she was such a treasured piece, why people paid thousands just to get their hands on her dreams. They were unlike anything Jessica had seen, leaving lasting impressions embedded deep.
"Jessica?"
“I saw mom.”
Krystal stilled. “You saw....?”
“I was given one of Tiffany’s dreams last night.”
“She dreamt of mom?”
Jessica shook her head though the more she thought about it the stranger it all had seemed. She knew it was her own inner desires that had conjured up her mother and the forced suppression of her feelings that had brought about TIffany. Yet, even so, there was a familiarity between the three of them. She felt it. As if she was recalling a past event rather than constructing something new.
“It was so real, Krys. She called my name.”
“Sooyeon?”
Jessica nodded. A sadness crept into her chest when she remembered how it felt to be in arms reach of her again. She had been so close - could feel the electricity passing through the space between them.
“But it wasn't real,” said Krystal. Her neck craned up. Across from her Krystal was drawn, jaw set, and lips tight. “Just because you dreamt about her doesn’t mean she’s back.”
“You sound like dad.”
“He only told us those things to protect us.” She sighed, eyes dropping. “I never understood why he let you go into that field in the first place.”
“Does it make sense to you?” Jessica quizzed. “Why was dad always so opposed to Dreams?”
“Because they make you see things that aren’t there - that aren’t real. He didn’t want us to lose sight of the things that mattered,” Krystal bit back. “I see my other classmate who have had them. They spend more time in their heads than they do on what’s right in front of them.”
Jessica’s fist clenched in her lap. “I didn’t understand it either until last night.”
“And look what it did.”
Jessica felt a tear slide down her cheek. Quickly, she wiped it away but it did nothing to erase the grief that had welled up inside of her. She could feel the weight. She could feel the lingering effects and the way her rational mind battled against things she had wrestled years to heal.
“It wasn’t like I had control over what I would see.”
“Mom’s dead, Jessica.” Krystal pressed. “You saw what it did to dad.”
She did. Saw all her pictures get packed into boxes and stored away. Watched as her clothes were carted off, never to be seen again. Witnessed each trace of her get sucked out as if she never existed.
“Don’t bring her back now.”
Jessica reached across the table, placing her hand on top of Krystal’s. “I miss her, too.”
Krystal’s lashes fluttered, willing tears not to fall. But the more she tried the harder it became to hold them back.
The legs of Jessica’s chair scratched the tile as she pushed it away. Wrapping arms around her sister, Jessica pulled her against her stomach, holding her close as she finally broke to cry.
“That’s why I do this, Soojung.” Jessica spoke into her hair. “Because one of us has to keep her alive.”
Krystal’s shoulders shook and Jessica tightened her hold.
For the first time she finally understood what their dad had been trying to protect them from.
Erasing their mother was meant to help them move on. And he knew the smallest of memories - the tiniest of dreams - would bring them the pain that void darkness would safeguard them from.
-/-/-/-
Jessica made sure Tiffany was asleep before she slipped out of her room and out of the SCS.
Digging in her pocket, she found the folded paper with Kim Taeyeon's information. Jessica dialed the number, eyes glancing up and down the hall as the line rang.
"Hello?"
Jessica sucked in a breath, tongue swiping across her lips before responding. "Hi, is there a Kim Taeyeon there?"
The line was silent for a moment.
"Who's calling?"
"My name is Jessica Jung. I'm a Caretaker at Seoul Southern Dream Bank and I was wondering if-"
"There's no one here by that name."
"I'm sorry?"
"Please, don't call here again."
The line went dead.
Jessica peeled the phone away from her ear, eyes reviewing the numbers on her screen and the paper again. She had dialed it right.
"Jessica."
Spinning around, she tucked her phone away, bowing to Seohyun who approached her.
"Are you busy?" Her eyes narrowed. “I'd like to have a word with you."
She found herself sitting across from Seohyun in her office. Her eyes followed Seohyun's hand that dragged a key off the desktop and dropped it into a drawer.
"How are you feeling?"
"I'm okay." She sat back.
"You left so quickly I wasn't sure."
"It was all so...new."
Seohyun gave a knowing chuckle. "Would you like to try again?"
She didn't think she could handle seeing her mother again. She didn't think she could contain herself if Tiffany appeared again. She didn't think she would be able to stop herself from wanting to go back under again and again.
Something about what Krystal said was right. Jessica too had witnessed people who lived in their head more than the present. And Jessica needed to be here - rooted. For Tiffany she needed to have a complete grasp on what was real.
"Maybe in a few weeks."
"Very well." Seohyun folded her hands on top of her desk. "In other matters, you're aware Tiffany's rest week is coming up in a few days."
Jessica nodded. Every few months, Dreamkeepers were given a few days to a few weeks off from extractions. It was to keep their minds fresh and to keep them from burning out. Because of Sooyoung's health, she had been exempt for a week every month. In Tiffany's case, she was given a week off every three months.
"Did you have anywhere in mind you'd like to take her?"
"Take her?"
Seohyun grinned. "I've never allowed it before but I trust you with Tiffany. I know you'll take proper care of her if decided you wanted to take her out of the facility."
Jessica blinked. Tiffany never left the facility. The farthest she had been able to go was the courtyards.
"From her charts," Seohyun flipped through a couple stapled papers, "she's been producing stronger and lengthier dreams under your care. Perhaps if she's exposed to something off site it might help even more."
Jessica held back her sigh. Again it was all about the business. All about what they could gain from Tiffany in the long run.
"I'd be more than happy to take her outside."
"I knew you would. But first, there are guidelines."
Tiffany had to be returned to the Dream Bank no later than six in the evening. She could not take Tiffany to her home or anyone related to her. She has to be particular about the places they went. Over stimulation could send Tiffany into a panic attack - she wasn't used to large crowds. She wasn't used to the normalcy that most people had learned and experienced.
She had to keep it simple. Keep the locations small. Keep Tiffany from turning into a spectacle.
"We'll assign you a driver so you won't have to worry about that," Seohyun finished up. "Make sure to document everything you do. What you eat, what you see, everything."
"Yes, Doctor."
"You may go now." Seohyun sat back. "Tell her. She'll be happy to know she's finally getting a chance away from us and with you...I'm sure she'll be more than excited."
Standing up, Jessica gave a bow.
"Oh, and Nurse Jung?"
"Yes?"
"Don't ruin this opportunity. For your and Tiffany's sake."
Jessica pushed on a smile. "You have my word."
-/-/-/-
It was three in the morning and Jessica felt as exhausted as Tiffany looked.
She worked with Woobin to take Tiffany off the Extraction chair and placed her onto a stretcher. This was the routine of the fourth extraction, the one Jessica could feel in her bones when she slept and the one that she’d clench her fist so tightly it hurt as she watched it happen.
The hallways were barren as Jessica wheeled Tiffany out of the sixth floor elevator and went for the shower rooms.
Starting the water, she ran it hot filling up the basin to the brim before she lifted Tiffany into it. Her head cradled back against the side, chest making waves in the water as she breathed.
Jessica sat by, waiting. Minute after minute ticked by as she waited. Color slowly came back to Tiffany’s ghostly skin and protruding indigo veins settled back into place.
The twitch of a finger was the first sign followed by long lashes fluttering for eyes to only open to slits.
“Jessica?” Tiffany’s voice was raw, scratchy, worn.
“I’m here,” Jessica whispered back. A smile graced Tiffany’s lips and she closed her eyes again.
It would be some time before she could move.
Squeezing out a rag, Jessica smoothed it over Tiffany’s skin.
"Can we go to the park?" Asked Tiffany. She had been suggesting places all day after Jessica told her they could leave. "I've always wanted to swing. It's been so long."
Mention of the swing made Jessica think of her dream. Of Tiffany cloaked in white, swinging high and carefree.
"And a museum? Dad used to take me when I was younger all the time." Glassy eyes opened, staring out into space as she continued in a tired, hushed tone. "The paintings were pretty but I liked the statues. He would laugh at me when I tried to do the poses."
Jessica smiled sadly. "We'll see."
"I can't wait to spend time outside with you, Jessi.”
Jessica's hand stilled.
"Will we have lots of fun?"
"More fun than you've ever had."
Tiffany smiled, head leaned back against the basin. Dipping the cloth into the water, Jessica squeezed it out before pressing it to her cheeks.
Taking in a slow breath, Tiffany began to hum. Her voice filled up the cavernous corridor, echoing off stalls and tiles, and settling into the air along with steam.
It was at the height of the tune when Jessica froze.
She knew that melody.
She had heard it recently and in no other place than the dream. It had come from her mother, voice floating along the wind.
And then Jessica remembered. Remembered why the song made her think of sadness and days past never to gain again.
Tiffany’s eyes split open, glossy and tired. “Jessi?”
“Where did you learn that?”
“Same way I learned piano.” Tiffany closed her eyes again, hint of a smile on her lips.
“The piano teacher…” Jessica licked her lips, giving herself a moment to steady her voice. “She wasn’t another Caretaker was she?”
“Nuh uh,” she hummed. “She was like me.”
Jessica's brow furrowed.
No.
That couldn't be.
-/-/-/-
“Excuse me?”
The janitor stopped his work, straightening out his back to face her.
“Could you let me into the Senior Caretaker’s office? I left a few files on her desk she wanted me to go through.”
Keys jingled as he turned them in the lock letting her in.
“Thank you.” Jessica bowed. “I won’t be long.”
She slipped in, cracking the door behind her. Flicking on the desk lamp, Jessica worked fast, yanking one drawer after another. She rummaged through as carefully as she could, lifting papers, and trash, and stationary until she found it. The key.
Jamming it into the filing cabinet, she pulled the first one open. Her fingers danced along the tops of documents, eyes quickly reading through the names printed on protruding tabs.
Slamming the first drawer shut, she opened the next and then the next.
“Miss?”
“Just a minute!”
Pulling out a bunch, Jessica laid the folders along the floor. She sifted, tossing the useless ones aside when-
“Nurse?”
The lights flicked on.
Jessica froze, eyes blinking against the harsh light. The janitor looked her over before noting the mess on the floor.
“I need to lock this room.”
“Right. Sorry, I was a little clumsy and-” She stopped.
Brow furrowing, she reached for one of the folders. It was thick, dogeared, and water damaged. She could hardly read the faded name on the tab but it was unmistakable:
Jung Jeongsuk.
-/-/-/-
The sound of Krystal cleaning dishes carried through the house.
Jessica walked through the old hallways she had grown up in, following the crackle of the radio in her father's study turned to a baseball game. Though family dinners had become scarce, they were still the same as they had been when they were younger.
Except this time Jessica hadn’t been allowed the chance to settle into the moment, laughing at witty jokes and old stories dripped from her father's lips. All of her memories the way she had grown to believe had been peeled apart and destroyed with a single folder.
The fibers felt gritty beneath her fingers as she carried it down the hall. Peeking around the corner she found her dad retired behind his desk, paper work spread out before him while a glass of brewed tea sweated beads onto a glass coaster.
Jessica wrapped her knuckles softly against the doorframe. Tired eyes looked up, creasing with a soft smile.
"Is everything alright?"
Jessica paced inside, placing the file folder onto the space in front of him. She watched him as he glanced down, eyebrows knitting together when he realized the name printed on the tab.
The look on his face was enough for Jessica to know that it was her - it was her mother. What little bit of disbelief vanished away when her father met her eyes.
"Jessica-"
“What really happened to her?”
His mouth bobbed a few times before it shut. His lips pursed and Jessica waited.
“You have the informa-”
“From you, dad,” Jessica cut him off, voice trembling just barely. The things she had read in those pages had torn her apart enough already. She needed to know the complete truth. “I want to hear it from you.”
“What’s going on?” Krystal walked into the room. Instinctively, she followed their gazes to the folder. “What is that?”
“I found it at work,” Jessica replied, strained. “It’s about mom.”
“Please, Sooyeon-”
“Krystal deserves to know, too.”
Jessica’s fist clenched, eyes locking on her dad, daring him to try and brush it away. She dared him to try and bury the pieces missing about their mother away like he had tried to do with her existence.
“Know what?” Krystal stepped in closer. “Dad?”
His voice was tired, tainted with age and years worn down to the bone. “Your mother was a Dreamkeeper, Krystal.”
“What? No she...” Her neck snapped to Jessica. “What’s he saying?”
“Tell her,” Jessica demanded. “All of it.”
He sighed, eyes casting down to the folder.
“They found out about her years before you two were born. It was during the time Dream Banks were becoming less and less of a theory and more a reality.”
She had agreed to the procedures for the money. Lingering tuition costs, a marriage, the preparations for a family had pushed her mother into signing a contract that made her more of a subject than human. To perfect the extraction technology and prove to the skeptics it was a real thing, they needed experiments.
The beginnings were clumsy. A few died, a few sought out legal assistance to get them out of the contracts, while others went missing never to be seen again. There were a few like Jeongsuk. The ones in charge noticed her dreams were different, but working with more theories than facts, they caused the first dent in her mental health.
“She had never suffered from insomnia until then. She’d get nightmares,” his hands clenched in front of his knees. “Sometimes I’d find her just standing beneath the shower in the middle of the night mumbling to herself.”
“Why didn’t you ask her to stop?”
“I did,” he stressed, “but your mother got into her head that she was helping. She didn’t realize her own life was at risk. They made her believe she was special.”
Jessica stilled. She remembered the way Tiffany had paled at the word when Jessica had called her that. Perhaps it was from her mother that Tiffany, and maybe even Sooyoung, realized what happened to those who were special.
Their mother had turned from a person to a subject to a dollar sign.
“When she was pregnant with you,” his eyes looked up to Jessica. “I told them to stop. I was afraid you would be affected. Afterwards, she started to go back.”
“For us.” Krystal chimed in and Jessica remembered.
Their parents always worked hard for them to go to school, to live better lives, to ensure they went into the studies they most desired.
“They realized how weak her mental state had become so they compensated by paying us more to keep us quiet about what they had done.”
Even if her father had wanted to speak out, the Dream Banks had become powers of their own that a single man’s case would’ve easily been squashed. Even with their mothers death, the documentation of contracts and agreements stated plainly that Jung Jeongsuk had willingly given herself over for the bettering of science.
“Forgive me.”
Jessica remained still, eyes locked down on the folder Krystal had opened. Feet bangged against hardwood as Krystal left leaving only the ring of the front door slamming behind.
“Forgive me, Sooyeon.” The plead in his voice was enough to turn the knife in Jessica’s stomach again. “We never wanted you to know.”
“I know.”
Silently, Jessica picked up the folder.
“Sooyeon, wait. Sooyeon!”
Grabbing her bag, Jessica made for the door.
-/-/-/-
Light flooded into Tiffany's room as she opened the door. Curled up in bed, Tiffany sat up, rubbing at her eyes that squinted against the brightness.
“Jessica?”
She moved with a heaviness in her steps, plunging them back into darkness only penetrated by a nightlight as the door swung shut behind her.
Without a word, she sat on the edge of the bed. The clock on the wall ticked minutes after three in the morning. She hadn't been able to sleep. Her mind had been reeling on her mother, on the lies she had lived for years, of closure from her death now shattered creating wounds from scars that had once been healed.
"Jessi?" Tiffany drew closer.
“Do you remember when we first met?”
Tiffany nodded sleepily beside her. “In the hallway.”
“You asked if you knew me.” Jessica turned to face her. Tiffany looked just as stunning disheveled with sleep as she had in her dream. “Do you?”
“Of course." She smiled but it didn't reach her eyes. Tiffany could sense something was wrong. "You’re Jessica. You’re my Caretaker.”
“No, Tiffany.” Jessica scooted closer, squaring her body so they faced each other directly. “Do you know me.”
Eyes narrowed and forehead creased. “What're you asking me?"
“Your piano teacher?” Jessica bit into her lip. “She was my mom.”
“She’s your…” Tiffany looked Jessica straight in the eye, shock filling her expression little by little until, “Sooyeon? You're Sooyeon?"
Jessica nodded.
She saw the information process through Tiffany slowly. She saw the same feelings that had rolled through her when the pieces had finally been linked reel across Tiffany's face.
"You didn't know." Tiffany's voice was sad.
Jessica shook her head. She still had so many questions - so many holes and chunks and bits missing. Everything Jessica had believed about her past, about the field she had stepped into, about the girl before her had all been turned upside down.
"How could they do that to her?" Jessica croaked.
Arms curved around her. Jessica fell into her embrace, face buried into the crook of Tiffany's neck. She cried silently against her, tears seeping into the fabric of Tiffany's nightgown. The softness of a hand rubbed along her back and Jessica wondered if her mother had ever done the same for Tiffany. She wondered how close they had been. She wondered if their bond stretched past picnics and pianos and shared melodies.
"I'm sorry, Jessi." Tiffany held her face in her hands, thumbs brushing tears from her cheeks. "She loved you very much."
Jessica shut her eyes as Tiffany pulled her forward so their foreheads met. Tiffany's breath was hot on her lips. Just as hot as the fingers that hooked around her neck, tips teasing at her skin.
"I never knew you, but I could always feel you," Tiffany went on. Jessica's lids fluttered open to see those dark eyes right in front of hers. "Her dreams....you were always there even if I couldn't see you - your sister, too." A hand pressed against Jessica's chest just above her heart. "You're more beautiful than I had ever imagined."
Jessica placed her hand over Tiffany's, holding it there. There was such a comfort in her touch and an ease in her presence.
"I think..." Tiffany licked her lips, mouth bobbing for a moment until she found the right words to say. "I think I've always loved you."
Jessica's breath hitched. She pulled back enough to see Tiffany's face completely. Her gaze was steady. Jessica had never seen her look so focused - so sure.
"Now I found you."
That was all it took.
Cool met warm as Jessica leaned forward. She shivered as the chill of Tiffany's lips washed through her, filling her chest with tingles as sharp as icicles. Tiffany kissed her back timidly, mouth learning how to give and receive this newness. Jessica went slow, letting Tiffany learn the curve of her lips and the taste of her mouth.
The kiss was sweet. It was innocent. It was full of such affection it made Jessica's heart swell up into her throat. It made Jessica think to herself that it was this very mouth - this very woman - she wanted to be able to kiss for the rest of her life.
Breaking apart, Jessica looked up into Tiffany's eyes. She remembered her dream. She remembered how clear and open and full of life those eyes had been. It made her chest squeeze and her eyes pinch shut as she leaned back in to kiss Tiffany deeply once again.
And all Jessica could think as she held Tiffany's face in her hands was that this reality was better than quite possibly any dream.
-/-/-/-
Tiffany held her hand, fingers laced between her own, as they waited for Woobin to set up the equipment. She could see the excitement in TIffany’s eyes. This would be the last procedure for a week.
“I want to eat ice cream.” Tiffany peered up at her with large, hopeful eyes.
Jessica nodded. “After lunch.”
Tiffany beamed. Jessica couldn't help but echo it. So maybe they’d be slaves to this system, but Jessica could give Tiffany a taste of freedom, a taste of what they possibly could be, in the few days she was allotted away with her.
"Relax, Tiffany." Woobin returned, holding the needles in hand.
Jessica squeezed Tiffany's hand and her eyes shut. Once needles were placed and slumber set in, Tiffany's grip went limp. Jessica let go then, resting it on top of her stomach.
"She's looking better these days," said Woobin.
Her eyes casted down, surveying Tiffany's face. If she thought back to the beginning when she first laid eyes on the girl with messy black hair and drooping eyes she could see it plainly.
There was bits of color back in Tiffany's cheeks. The tired circle around her eyes had lost most of their definition and her lips were void of that permanent frown.
Jessica got stuck there, eyes tracing the curve of pouty, pink lips. She shivered where she stood, mind reeling back to the feeling of them pressed against hers. She could still taste Tiffany's cool breath on her tongue, the press of freezing fingers against her cheeks, the brush of a sigh blowing past her mouth.
"That's strange."
Jessica blinked from her reverie.
Woobin scribbled onto a clipboard as he served one of the monitors. Little needles danced along paper, jerking up and down with the occasional jump that bypassed all the others.
His brow creased. "Do you see this?"
Jessica stepped over to him to get a better look. More and more jumps were inked onto the sheet.
"These spikes." Woobin wrote down numbers and readings. "I haven't seen her have activity like this in years."
“Is it bad?”
“Quite the opposite.” Woobin’s eyes gleamed with excitement. “Her dreams could be getting stronger.”
Jessica glanced over to where Tiffany lay. Her eyes moved rapidly behind closed lids, lips slightly parted. She wondered what she could be dreaming.
“Can you keep an eye on her? I have to tell the Doctor." Giving the machines one last look over, Woobin hurried out of the room.
Jessica moved back over to TIffany. Pressing fingers against her forehead, she smoothed them over her skin, down to her pale cheek.
“Jessica?” Tiffany whimpered.
Tiffany’s eyes pinched tighter and her hands balled up on the armrests. She wondered what was going through Tiffany’s mind. She wondered the types of dreams she had about her. She wondered if they were as beautiful and carefree as the one Jessica had.
“Jess-”
“I’m right here,” Jessica whispered into the air. She grabbed Tiffany’s hand. “I’m not going anywhere.”
"Jessi..." Tiffany moaned.
Jessica stilled.
Heat ran through her at the thickness of Tiffany’s voice echoing through the room.
-/-/-/-
The shower was running hot, steam filling up the room. Jessica paced along the tiled floor, thoughts reeling on the extraction.
She couldn't get Tiffany's voice out of her mind. She couldn't push the way she begged, moaned and breathed her name thick and husky out of her head.
Jessica's skin burned.
Letting out a breath, she stopped her pacing to run a hand through her hair. They were getting too deep.
A shadow in the corner of her eye caught Jessica's attention. She looked up to find Tiffany standing draped in a towel.
Dark eyes were on her in sharp focus. Jessica felt her heart race. Tiffany's face was scrubbed raw and fresh. Beads of water dripped from her solid black hair, rolling along those pretty pale cheeks and over static pink lips full and pouty.
Jessica's palms pricked. Tiffany was beautiful and all Jessica wanted to do was to lap it off her skin.
"You should get dressed. We need to head-"
Tiffany moved quickly, colliding into Jessica all lips, teeth and tongue.
The kiss was strong, rocking Jessica backwards. She stumbled a bit before catching herself on the opposite wall.
Mind finally catching up, Jessica pushed her back. She felt Tiffany's towel drop off to fall onto their feet.
"Wh-what're you doing?"
"I wanted to kiss you."
"Tiffany, wait." Jessica stopped her before she could dive back in. There was a determined need in her eyes. "What's gotten into you?"
"I'm sorry." She panted in front of her. "I don't know...I've never felt like this before."
"Like what?"
"In the extraction I was dreaming. I was dreaming of you and me and we were..."
"We were?"
Tiffany shook her head, damp black hair swinging around her face. Her cheeks reddened. She didn't need to say anything. Jessica knew. It was the same thing that burned in the base of Jessica's stomach much the same as it flowed in Tiffany's needy gaze.
"We...I've never felt like this for anyone." Her lashes fluttered as their eyes met. "Only you. It only happens when I think about you, when you're close, when you're away...."
Tiffany stared at her with that molten intensity again. It made her shiver. It made her pulse.
"I feel it too."
"You do?"
"All the time." Jessica smoothed a hand over her wet hair. "I want you, too."
With the tilt of her chin, Jessica pressed their lips back together.
She kissed Tiffany slow, allowing lips to shape and form to one another. She kept it simple, taking Tiffany’s bottom lip into her mouth. Sucking, she felt Tiffany grip onto her wrists and she continued, dragging her tongue along the lip in her mouth before releasing.
"Open your mouth."
Tiffany complied, lips parting just enough. Jessica slid her tongue past them and Tiffany slowly caught on, opening enough for Jessica to glide easily in. She sighed into Jessica's mouth, tongue mirroring the same patterns Jessica made. The hands gripping her wrists pulled up to rest Jessica's palms against naked hips.
Jessica grew bolder, hands smoothing up and down Tiffany's sides as she finished up bruising Tiffany lips with hers. Mouth skating down, she kissed along Tiffany's jaw to her neck while her hands sliced up her back.
Tiffany whimpered and Jessica felt goosebumps raise up beneath her fingertips.
"That feels..."
"Do you like it?" Jessica asked into her neck, kissing the sensitive skin there.
"Yes."
Attaching her lips, she sucked lightly and Tiffany fell against her, pressing Jessica hard against the wall.
Closing her eyes, Jessica found herself lost in the taste of Tiffany's skin, in feeling her warmth beneath her fingers, in hearing the tiny whimpers and mewls and gasps as Jessica introduced teeth into the equation.
She kissed across Tiffany's collarbones and up the other side of her neck that craned back giving Jessica complete access.
"Kiss me, Tiffany." She sighed and Tiffany's head bowed down with lips ready.
When she kissed her, Tiffany reacted immediately. She kissed back with learned eagerness, hands squeezing tight onto Jessica's hips.
Taking Tiffany's tongue, Jessica sucked, causing her to release a throaty moan into the air. The hands on her waist pulled and Jessica found her hips rolling into Tiffany.
"Jessi..."
"Hm?"
Jessica's hands soared down, fingers hooked behind Tiffany's thighs. She pulled her in and Tiffany responded with the roll of her own body.
"I want you to..."
"You want me to what?"
Jessica pulled back just enough to to see Tiffany's face. She was flushed, forehead damp and lips swollen.
There was a fire in her eyes that swirled with curiosity and confusion. Glancing down Jessica saw their chests pressed tightly together, one bare while the other clothed.
And then it hit her.
Where they were, what they were, who they were.
Jessica snapped her eyes back up. She could read the unspoken words of what Tiffany wanted plainly off her face. Jessica would be lying if she didn't want it too. Her entire body ached for more, more, more.
But not yet. And not like this.
"Jessi?"
"Tiffany, we shouldn't-"
The vibration of her phone made her push Tiffany away. Her eyes dipped on their own accord, taking in the plain of steam damp skin in front of her. Of all the times she had seen Tiffany bare and naked in front of her, none had been like this. None had made her breathless, made her skin burn.
And she knew it was the same for Tiffany.
The line of doctor and patient had been breached. Long ago it had been breached, but it was in that moment Jessica realized just how deeply they had both gotten.
Her phone vibrated again.
"Get dressed," she said before pulling away and making an escape into the hall.
She sucked in the clear air, steadying her breathing before bringing the phone to her ear.
“Hello?”
“Who are you?”
Jessica pulled the phone away from her ear. There was no name but she recognized the number. She had stared at it for days waiting for a chance to try again.
“My name is Jessica Jung.” The line was quiet. Jessica glanced back over her shoulder before lowering her voice. “My mother was Jung Jeongsuk.”
There was a small, quick intake of breath.
“Meet me tonight. That’s your only chance.”
Click.
Part V
-
Author: Boxxsaltz
Rating: PG-13
Pairing(s): Jessica Jung/TIffany Hwang
Summary: Before there was anything there was a dream
AN: Beta credit to Doucette/Douismain
Part IV
Her reflection stared back at her from the backside of a spoon. Jessica wondered if this pale faced creature with rosy cheeks same color as thin lips framed in light brown hair was anything like the person she became in her dream.
She couldn't seem to get it out of her mind. Her studies had been right. Dreams were addictive - they were obsessive. All through the night, Jessica tossed and turned, pinching her eyes shut, willing the scenes to come back to her. All she managed to conjure were wisps and fragments, all faded and distorted like photographs taken on expired film.
However, though she could not seem to piece together the vibrant picture, Jessica could still feel it radiating on her skin.
“Did you hear me?”
“Huh?” Her neck snapped up.
Krystal hovered by the table holding a pitcher of orange juice and a glass.
“Do you want juice or water?”
“I don’t care.”
Krystal cocked an eyebrow. Whatever question she was about to ask never reached her lips as she poured juice into the glass and sat it down next to Jessica’s plate of breakfast. Across from her, Krystal pulled out a chair and picked up a utensil, eating slowly.
Jessica mirrored her out of habit, but her mind was still far off. She was still stuck on the warmth of Tiffany wrapped around her, the silky way sunrays touched her skin, the flutter in her chest at unabashed smiles.
“How have you been sleeping?”
“Hmm?” The question processed slowly in her head. Jessica took a sip. “Rough. I’ve been putting in a lot more hours lately.”
“Keep it up and you’re going to have bags like dad.”
Jessica rolled her eyes. It wasn’t until then she remembered why Krystal had come over in the first place.
“What did you find out?”
"She runs a farm out in the country.” Setting down her fork, Krystal reached into her back pocket for a small journal. Cracking it open to the middle, she thumbed through a few pages. “She left everything to do with Dreamology when she left the Dream Bank. Now she owns three prized chickens."
"Is that it?"
"Phone number. Address." Krystal handed her a folded piece of paper ripped from her journal. "She likes her privacy. I only found out this much because of the chickens."
"Seriously?" Jessica looked over the address. This Taeyeon lived far off, somewhere remote strictly for farming..
“The town has a community newsletter. She was printed in one for winning a prize on them." Krystal shrugged. "The article was a couple years old so I can’t guarantee it's right but it'll point you in the right direction."
"I’ll try calling her first.” Jessica sat it down.
“What’s her name?”
“Who?”
“The one you’re doing this for.”
Jessica dropped her eyes. "Tiffany."
And she was beautiful. Inside and out.
Jessica could finally understand why Tiffany was regarded as special. She understood why she was such a treasured piece, why people paid thousands just to get their hands on her dreams. They were unlike anything Jessica had seen, leaving lasting impressions embedded deep.
"Jessica?"
“I saw mom.”
Krystal stilled. “You saw....?”
“I was given one of Tiffany’s dreams last night.”
“She dreamt of mom?”
Jessica shook her head though the more she thought about it the stranger it all had seemed. She knew it was her own inner desires that had conjured up her mother and the forced suppression of her feelings that had brought about TIffany. Yet, even so, there was a familiarity between the three of them. She felt it. As if she was recalling a past event rather than constructing something new.
“It was so real, Krys. She called my name.”
“Sooyeon?”
Jessica nodded. A sadness crept into her chest when she remembered how it felt to be in arms reach of her again. She had been so close - could feel the electricity passing through the space between them.
“But it wasn't real,” said Krystal. Her neck craned up. Across from her Krystal was drawn, jaw set, and lips tight. “Just because you dreamt about her doesn’t mean she’s back.”
“You sound like dad.”
“He only told us those things to protect us.” She sighed, eyes dropping. “I never understood why he let you go into that field in the first place.”
“Does it make sense to you?” Jessica quizzed. “Why was dad always so opposed to Dreams?”
“Because they make you see things that aren’t there - that aren’t real. He didn’t want us to lose sight of the things that mattered,” Krystal bit back. “I see my other classmate who have had them. They spend more time in their heads than they do on what’s right in front of them.”
Jessica’s fist clenched in her lap. “I didn’t understand it either until last night.”
“And look what it did.”
Jessica felt a tear slide down her cheek. Quickly, she wiped it away but it did nothing to erase the grief that had welled up inside of her. She could feel the weight. She could feel the lingering effects and the way her rational mind battled against things she had wrestled years to heal.
“It wasn’t like I had control over what I would see.”
“Mom’s dead, Jessica.” Krystal pressed. “You saw what it did to dad.”
She did. Saw all her pictures get packed into boxes and stored away. Watched as her clothes were carted off, never to be seen again. Witnessed each trace of her get sucked out as if she never existed.
“Don’t bring her back now.”
Jessica reached across the table, placing her hand on top of Krystal’s. “I miss her, too.”
Krystal’s lashes fluttered, willing tears not to fall. But the more she tried the harder it became to hold them back.
The legs of Jessica’s chair scratched the tile as she pushed it away. Wrapping arms around her sister, Jessica pulled her against her stomach, holding her close as she finally broke to cry.
“That’s why I do this, Soojung.” Jessica spoke into her hair. “Because one of us has to keep her alive.”
Krystal’s shoulders shook and Jessica tightened her hold.
For the first time she finally understood what their dad had been trying to protect them from.
Erasing their mother was meant to help them move on. And he knew the smallest of memories - the tiniest of dreams - would bring them the pain that void darkness would safeguard them from.
-/-/-/-
Jessica made sure Tiffany was asleep before she slipped out of her room and out of the SCS.
Digging in her pocket, she found the folded paper with Kim Taeyeon's information. Jessica dialed the number, eyes glancing up and down the hall as the line rang.
"Hello?"
Jessica sucked in a breath, tongue swiping across her lips before responding. "Hi, is there a Kim Taeyeon there?"
The line was silent for a moment.
"Who's calling?"
"My name is Jessica Jung. I'm a Caretaker at Seoul Southern Dream Bank and I was wondering if-"
"There's no one here by that name."
"I'm sorry?"
"Please, don't call here again."
The line went dead.
Jessica peeled the phone away from her ear, eyes reviewing the numbers on her screen and the paper again. She had dialed it right.
"Jessica."
Spinning around, she tucked her phone away, bowing to Seohyun who approached her.
"Are you busy?" Her eyes narrowed. “I'd like to have a word with you."
She found herself sitting across from Seohyun in her office. Her eyes followed Seohyun's hand that dragged a key off the desktop and dropped it into a drawer.
"How are you feeling?"
"I'm okay." She sat back.
"You left so quickly I wasn't sure."
"It was all so...new."
Seohyun gave a knowing chuckle. "Would you like to try again?"
She didn't think she could handle seeing her mother again. She didn't think she could contain herself if Tiffany appeared again. She didn't think she would be able to stop herself from wanting to go back under again and again.
Something about what Krystal said was right. Jessica too had witnessed people who lived in their head more than the present. And Jessica needed to be here - rooted. For Tiffany she needed to have a complete grasp on what was real.
"Maybe in a few weeks."
"Very well." Seohyun folded her hands on top of her desk. "In other matters, you're aware Tiffany's rest week is coming up in a few days."
Jessica nodded. Every few months, Dreamkeepers were given a few days to a few weeks off from extractions. It was to keep their minds fresh and to keep them from burning out. Because of Sooyoung's health, she had been exempt for a week every month. In Tiffany's case, she was given a week off every three months.
"Did you have anywhere in mind you'd like to take her?"
"Take her?"
Seohyun grinned. "I've never allowed it before but I trust you with Tiffany. I know you'll take proper care of her if decided you wanted to take her out of the facility."
Jessica blinked. Tiffany never left the facility. The farthest she had been able to go was the courtyards.
"From her charts," Seohyun flipped through a couple stapled papers, "she's been producing stronger and lengthier dreams under your care. Perhaps if she's exposed to something off site it might help even more."
Jessica held back her sigh. Again it was all about the business. All about what they could gain from Tiffany in the long run.
"I'd be more than happy to take her outside."
"I knew you would. But first, there are guidelines."
Tiffany had to be returned to the Dream Bank no later than six in the evening. She could not take Tiffany to her home or anyone related to her. She has to be particular about the places they went. Over stimulation could send Tiffany into a panic attack - she wasn't used to large crowds. She wasn't used to the normalcy that most people had learned and experienced.
She had to keep it simple. Keep the locations small. Keep Tiffany from turning into a spectacle.
"We'll assign you a driver so you won't have to worry about that," Seohyun finished up. "Make sure to document everything you do. What you eat, what you see, everything."
"Yes, Doctor."
"You may go now." Seohyun sat back. "Tell her. She'll be happy to know she's finally getting a chance away from us and with you...I'm sure she'll be more than excited."
Standing up, Jessica gave a bow.
"Oh, and Nurse Jung?"
"Yes?"
"Don't ruin this opportunity. For your and Tiffany's sake."
Jessica pushed on a smile. "You have my word."
-/-/-/-
It was three in the morning and Jessica felt as exhausted as Tiffany looked.
She worked with Woobin to take Tiffany off the Extraction chair and placed her onto a stretcher. This was the routine of the fourth extraction, the one Jessica could feel in her bones when she slept and the one that she’d clench her fist so tightly it hurt as she watched it happen.
The hallways were barren as Jessica wheeled Tiffany out of the sixth floor elevator and went for the shower rooms.
Starting the water, she ran it hot filling up the basin to the brim before she lifted Tiffany into it. Her head cradled back against the side, chest making waves in the water as she breathed.
Jessica sat by, waiting. Minute after minute ticked by as she waited. Color slowly came back to Tiffany’s ghostly skin and protruding indigo veins settled back into place.
The twitch of a finger was the first sign followed by long lashes fluttering for eyes to only open to slits.
“Jessica?” Tiffany’s voice was raw, scratchy, worn.
“I’m here,” Jessica whispered back. A smile graced Tiffany’s lips and she closed her eyes again.
It would be some time before she could move.
Squeezing out a rag, Jessica smoothed it over Tiffany’s skin.
"Can we go to the park?" Asked Tiffany. She had been suggesting places all day after Jessica told her they could leave. "I've always wanted to swing. It's been so long."
Mention of the swing made Jessica think of her dream. Of Tiffany cloaked in white, swinging high and carefree.
"And a museum? Dad used to take me when I was younger all the time." Glassy eyes opened, staring out into space as she continued in a tired, hushed tone. "The paintings were pretty but I liked the statues. He would laugh at me when I tried to do the poses."
Jessica smiled sadly. "We'll see."
"I can't wait to spend time outside with you, Jessi.”
Jessica's hand stilled.
"Will we have lots of fun?"
"More fun than you've ever had."
Tiffany smiled, head leaned back against the basin. Dipping the cloth into the water, Jessica squeezed it out before pressing it to her cheeks.
Taking in a slow breath, Tiffany began to hum. Her voice filled up the cavernous corridor, echoing off stalls and tiles, and settling into the air along with steam.
It was at the height of the tune when Jessica froze.
She knew that melody.
She had heard it recently and in no other place than the dream. It had come from her mother, voice floating along the wind.
And then Jessica remembered. Remembered why the song made her think of sadness and days past never to gain again.
Tiffany’s eyes split open, glossy and tired. “Jessi?”
“Where did you learn that?”
“Same way I learned piano.” Tiffany closed her eyes again, hint of a smile on her lips.
“The piano teacher…” Jessica licked her lips, giving herself a moment to steady her voice. “She wasn’t another Caretaker was she?”
“Nuh uh,” she hummed. “She was like me.”
Jessica's brow furrowed.
No.
That couldn't be.
-/-/-/-
“Excuse me?”
The janitor stopped his work, straightening out his back to face her.
“Could you let me into the Senior Caretaker’s office? I left a few files on her desk she wanted me to go through.”
Keys jingled as he turned them in the lock letting her in.
“Thank you.” Jessica bowed. “I won’t be long.”
She slipped in, cracking the door behind her. Flicking on the desk lamp, Jessica worked fast, yanking one drawer after another. She rummaged through as carefully as she could, lifting papers, and trash, and stationary until she found it. The key.
Jamming it into the filing cabinet, she pulled the first one open. Her fingers danced along the tops of documents, eyes quickly reading through the names printed on protruding tabs.
Slamming the first drawer shut, she opened the next and then the next.
“Miss?”
“Just a minute!”
Pulling out a bunch, Jessica laid the folders along the floor. She sifted, tossing the useless ones aside when-
“Nurse?”
The lights flicked on.
Jessica froze, eyes blinking against the harsh light. The janitor looked her over before noting the mess on the floor.
“I need to lock this room.”
“Right. Sorry, I was a little clumsy and-” She stopped.
Brow furrowing, she reached for one of the folders. It was thick, dogeared, and water damaged. She could hardly read the faded name on the tab but it was unmistakable:
Jung Jeongsuk.
-/-/-/-
The sound of Krystal cleaning dishes carried through the house.
Jessica walked through the old hallways she had grown up in, following the crackle of the radio in her father's study turned to a baseball game. Though family dinners had become scarce, they were still the same as they had been when they were younger.
Except this time Jessica hadn’t been allowed the chance to settle into the moment, laughing at witty jokes and old stories dripped from her father's lips. All of her memories the way she had grown to believe had been peeled apart and destroyed with a single folder.
The fibers felt gritty beneath her fingers as she carried it down the hall. Peeking around the corner she found her dad retired behind his desk, paper work spread out before him while a glass of brewed tea sweated beads onto a glass coaster.
Jessica wrapped her knuckles softly against the doorframe. Tired eyes looked up, creasing with a soft smile.
"Is everything alright?"
Jessica paced inside, placing the file folder onto the space in front of him. She watched him as he glanced down, eyebrows knitting together when he realized the name printed on the tab.
The look on his face was enough for Jessica to know that it was her - it was her mother. What little bit of disbelief vanished away when her father met her eyes.
"Jessica-"
“What really happened to her?”
His mouth bobbed a few times before it shut. His lips pursed and Jessica waited.
“You have the informa-”
“From you, dad,” Jessica cut him off, voice trembling just barely. The things she had read in those pages had torn her apart enough already. She needed to know the complete truth. “I want to hear it from you.”
“What’s going on?” Krystal walked into the room. Instinctively, she followed their gazes to the folder. “What is that?”
“I found it at work,” Jessica replied, strained. “It’s about mom.”
“Please, Sooyeon-”
“Krystal deserves to know, too.”
Jessica’s fist clenched, eyes locking on her dad, daring him to try and brush it away. She dared him to try and bury the pieces missing about their mother away like he had tried to do with her existence.
“Know what?” Krystal stepped in closer. “Dad?”
His voice was tired, tainted with age and years worn down to the bone. “Your mother was a Dreamkeeper, Krystal.”
“What? No she...” Her neck snapped to Jessica. “What’s he saying?”
“Tell her,” Jessica demanded. “All of it.”
He sighed, eyes casting down to the folder.
“They found out about her years before you two were born. It was during the time Dream Banks were becoming less and less of a theory and more a reality.”
She had agreed to the procedures for the money. Lingering tuition costs, a marriage, the preparations for a family had pushed her mother into signing a contract that made her more of a subject than human. To perfect the extraction technology and prove to the skeptics it was a real thing, they needed experiments.
The beginnings were clumsy. A few died, a few sought out legal assistance to get them out of the contracts, while others went missing never to be seen again. There were a few like Jeongsuk. The ones in charge noticed her dreams were different, but working with more theories than facts, they caused the first dent in her mental health.
“She had never suffered from insomnia until then. She’d get nightmares,” his hands clenched in front of his knees. “Sometimes I’d find her just standing beneath the shower in the middle of the night mumbling to herself.”
“Why didn’t you ask her to stop?”
“I did,” he stressed, “but your mother got into her head that she was helping. She didn’t realize her own life was at risk. They made her believe she was special.”
Jessica stilled. She remembered the way Tiffany had paled at the word when Jessica had called her that. Perhaps it was from her mother that Tiffany, and maybe even Sooyoung, realized what happened to those who were special.
Their mother had turned from a person to a subject to a dollar sign.
“When she was pregnant with you,” his eyes looked up to Jessica. “I told them to stop. I was afraid you would be affected. Afterwards, she started to go back.”
“For us.” Krystal chimed in and Jessica remembered.
Their parents always worked hard for them to go to school, to live better lives, to ensure they went into the studies they most desired.
“They realized how weak her mental state had become so they compensated by paying us more to keep us quiet about what they had done.”
Even if her father had wanted to speak out, the Dream Banks had become powers of their own that a single man’s case would’ve easily been squashed. Even with their mothers death, the documentation of contracts and agreements stated plainly that Jung Jeongsuk had willingly given herself over for the bettering of science.
“Forgive me.”
Jessica remained still, eyes locked down on the folder Krystal had opened. Feet bangged against hardwood as Krystal left leaving only the ring of the front door slamming behind.
“Forgive me, Sooyeon.” The plead in his voice was enough to turn the knife in Jessica’s stomach again. “We never wanted you to know.”
“I know.”
Silently, Jessica picked up the folder.
“Sooyeon, wait. Sooyeon!”
Grabbing her bag, Jessica made for the door.
-/-/-/-
Light flooded into Tiffany's room as she opened the door. Curled up in bed, Tiffany sat up, rubbing at her eyes that squinted against the brightness.
“Jessica?”
She moved with a heaviness in her steps, plunging them back into darkness only penetrated by a nightlight as the door swung shut behind her.
Without a word, she sat on the edge of the bed. The clock on the wall ticked minutes after three in the morning. She hadn't been able to sleep. Her mind had been reeling on her mother, on the lies she had lived for years, of closure from her death now shattered creating wounds from scars that had once been healed.
"Jessi?" Tiffany drew closer.
“Do you remember when we first met?”
Tiffany nodded sleepily beside her. “In the hallway.”
“You asked if you knew me.” Jessica turned to face her. Tiffany looked just as stunning disheveled with sleep as she had in her dream. “Do you?”
“Of course." She smiled but it didn't reach her eyes. Tiffany could sense something was wrong. "You’re Jessica. You’re my Caretaker.”
“No, Tiffany.” Jessica scooted closer, squaring her body so they faced each other directly. “Do you know me.”
Eyes narrowed and forehead creased. “What're you asking me?"
“Your piano teacher?” Jessica bit into her lip. “She was my mom.”
“She’s your…” Tiffany looked Jessica straight in the eye, shock filling her expression little by little until, “Sooyeon? You're Sooyeon?"
Jessica nodded.
She saw the information process through Tiffany slowly. She saw the same feelings that had rolled through her when the pieces had finally been linked reel across Tiffany's face.
"You didn't know." Tiffany's voice was sad.
Jessica shook her head. She still had so many questions - so many holes and chunks and bits missing. Everything Jessica had believed about her past, about the field she had stepped into, about the girl before her had all been turned upside down.
"How could they do that to her?" Jessica croaked.
Arms curved around her. Jessica fell into her embrace, face buried into the crook of Tiffany's neck. She cried silently against her, tears seeping into the fabric of Tiffany's nightgown. The softness of a hand rubbed along her back and Jessica wondered if her mother had ever done the same for Tiffany. She wondered how close they had been. She wondered if their bond stretched past picnics and pianos and shared melodies.
"I'm sorry, Jessi." Tiffany held her face in her hands, thumbs brushing tears from her cheeks. "She loved you very much."
Jessica shut her eyes as Tiffany pulled her forward so their foreheads met. Tiffany's breath was hot on her lips. Just as hot as the fingers that hooked around her neck, tips teasing at her skin.
"I never knew you, but I could always feel you," Tiffany went on. Jessica's lids fluttered open to see those dark eyes right in front of hers. "Her dreams....you were always there even if I couldn't see you - your sister, too." A hand pressed against Jessica's chest just above her heart. "You're more beautiful than I had ever imagined."
Jessica placed her hand over Tiffany's, holding it there. There was such a comfort in her touch and an ease in her presence.
"I think..." Tiffany licked her lips, mouth bobbing for a moment until she found the right words to say. "I think I've always loved you."
Jessica's breath hitched. She pulled back enough to see Tiffany's face completely. Her gaze was steady. Jessica had never seen her look so focused - so sure.
"Now I found you."
That was all it took.
Cool met warm as Jessica leaned forward. She shivered as the chill of Tiffany's lips washed through her, filling her chest with tingles as sharp as icicles. Tiffany kissed her back timidly, mouth learning how to give and receive this newness. Jessica went slow, letting Tiffany learn the curve of her lips and the taste of her mouth.
The kiss was sweet. It was innocent. It was full of such affection it made Jessica's heart swell up into her throat. It made Jessica think to herself that it was this very mouth - this very woman - she wanted to be able to kiss for the rest of her life.
Breaking apart, Jessica looked up into Tiffany's eyes. She remembered her dream. She remembered how clear and open and full of life those eyes had been. It made her chest squeeze and her eyes pinch shut as she leaned back in to kiss Tiffany deeply once again.
And all Jessica could think as she held Tiffany's face in her hands was that this reality was better than quite possibly any dream.
-/-/-/-
Tiffany held her hand, fingers laced between her own, as they waited for Woobin to set up the equipment. She could see the excitement in TIffany’s eyes. This would be the last procedure for a week.
“I want to eat ice cream.” Tiffany peered up at her with large, hopeful eyes.
Jessica nodded. “After lunch.”
Tiffany beamed. Jessica couldn't help but echo it. So maybe they’d be slaves to this system, but Jessica could give Tiffany a taste of freedom, a taste of what they possibly could be, in the few days she was allotted away with her.
"Relax, Tiffany." Woobin returned, holding the needles in hand.
Jessica squeezed Tiffany's hand and her eyes shut. Once needles were placed and slumber set in, Tiffany's grip went limp. Jessica let go then, resting it on top of her stomach.
"She's looking better these days," said Woobin.
Her eyes casted down, surveying Tiffany's face. If she thought back to the beginning when she first laid eyes on the girl with messy black hair and drooping eyes she could see it plainly.
There was bits of color back in Tiffany's cheeks. The tired circle around her eyes had lost most of their definition and her lips were void of that permanent frown.
Jessica got stuck there, eyes tracing the curve of pouty, pink lips. She shivered where she stood, mind reeling back to the feeling of them pressed against hers. She could still taste Tiffany's cool breath on her tongue, the press of freezing fingers against her cheeks, the brush of a sigh blowing past her mouth.
"That's strange."
Jessica blinked from her reverie.
Woobin scribbled onto a clipboard as he served one of the monitors. Little needles danced along paper, jerking up and down with the occasional jump that bypassed all the others.
His brow creased. "Do you see this?"
Jessica stepped over to him to get a better look. More and more jumps were inked onto the sheet.
"These spikes." Woobin wrote down numbers and readings. "I haven't seen her have activity like this in years."
“Is it bad?”
“Quite the opposite.” Woobin’s eyes gleamed with excitement. “Her dreams could be getting stronger.”
Jessica glanced over to where Tiffany lay. Her eyes moved rapidly behind closed lids, lips slightly parted. She wondered what she could be dreaming.
“Can you keep an eye on her? I have to tell the Doctor." Giving the machines one last look over, Woobin hurried out of the room.
Jessica moved back over to TIffany. Pressing fingers against her forehead, she smoothed them over her skin, down to her pale cheek.
“Jessica?” Tiffany whimpered.
Tiffany’s eyes pinched tighter and her hands balled up on the armrests. She wondered what was going through Tiffany’s mind. She wondered the types of dreams she had about her. She wondered if they were as beautiful and carefree as the one Jessica had.
“Jess-”
“I’m right here,” Jessica whispered into the air. She grabbed Tiffany’s hand. “I’m not going anywhere.”
"Jessi..." Tiffany moaned.
Jessica stilled.
Heat ran through her at the thickness of Tiffany’s voice echoing through the room.
-/-/-/-
The shower was running hot, steam filling up the room. Jessica paced along the tiled floor, thoughts reeling on the extraction.
She couldn't get Tiffany's voice out of her mind. She couldn't push the way she begged, moaned and breathed her name thick and husky out of her head.
Jessica's skin burned.
Letting out a breath, she stopped her pacing to run a hand through her hair. They were getting too deep.
A shadow in the corner of her eye caught Jessica's attention. She looked up to find Tiffany standing draped in a towel.
Dark eyes were on her in sharp focus. Jessica felt her heart race. Tiffany's face was scrubbed raw and fresh. Beads of water dripped from her solid black hair, rolling along those pretty pale cheeks and over static pink lips full and pouty.
Jessica's palms pricked. Tiffany was beautiful and all Jessica wanted to do was to lap it off her skin.
"You should get dressed. We need to head-"
Tiffany moved quickly, colliding into Jessica all lips, teeth and tongue.
The kiss was strong, rocking Jessica backwards. She stumbled a bit before catching herself on the opposite wall.
Mind finally catching up, Jessica pushed her back. She felt Tiffany's towel drop off to fall onto their feet.
"Wh-what're you doing?"
"I wanted to kiss you."
"Tiffany, wait." Jessica stopped her before she could dive back in. There was a determined need in her eyes. "What's gotten into you?"
"I'm sorry." She panted in front of her. "I don't know...I've never felt like this before."
"Like what?"
"In the extraction I was dreaming. I was dreaming of you and me and we were..."
"We were?"
Tiffany shook her head, damp black hair swinging around her face. Her cheeks reddened. She didn't need to say anything. Jessica knew. It was the same thing that burned in the base of Jessica's stomach much the same as it flowed in Tiffany's needy gaze.
"We...I've never felt like this for anyone." Her lashes fluttered as their eyes met. "Only you. It only happens when I think about you, when you're close, when you're away...."
Tiffany stared at her with that molten intensity again. It made her shiver. It made her pulse.
"I feel it too."
"You do?"
"All the time." Jessica smoothed a hand over her wet hair. "I want you, too."
With the tilt of her chin, Jessica pressed their lips back together.
She kissed Tiffany slow, allowing lips to shape and form to one another. She kept it simple, taking Tiffany’s bottom lip into her mouth. Sucking, she felt Tiffany grip onto her wrists and she continued, dragging her tongue along the lip in her mouth before releasing.
"Open your mouth."
Tiffany complied, lips parting just enough. Jessica slid her tongue past them and Tiffany slowly caught on, opening enough for Jessica to glide easily in. She sighed into Jessica's mouth, tongue mirroring the same patterns Jessica made. The hands gripping her wrists pulled up to rest Jessica's palms against naked hips.
Jessica grew bolder, hands smoothing up and down Tiffany's sides as she finished up bruising Tiffany lips with hers. Mouth skating down, she kissed along Tiffany's jaw to her neck while her hands sliced up her back.
Tiffany whimpered and Jessica felt goosebumps raise up beneath her fingertips.
"That feels..."
"Do you like it?" Jessica asked into her neck, kissing the sensitive skin there.
"Yes."
Attaching her lips, she sucked lightly and Tiffany fell against her, pressing Jessica hard against the wall.
Closing her eyes, Jessica found herself lost in the taste of Tiffany's skin, in feeling her warmth beneath her fingers, in hearing the tiny whimpers and mewls and gasps as Jessica introduced teeth into the equation.
She kissed across Tiffany's collarbones and up the other side of her neck that craned back giving Jessica complete access.
"Kiss me, Tiffany." She sighed and Tiffany's head bowed down with lips ready.
When she kissed her, Tiffany reacted immediately. She kissed back with learned eagerness, hands squeezing tight onto Jessica's hips.
Taking Tiffany's tongue, Jessica sucked, causing her to release a throaty moan into the air. The hands on her waist pulled and Jessica found her hips rolling into Tiffany.
"Jessi..."
"Hm?"
Jessica's hands soared down, fingers hooked behind Tiffany's thighs. She pulled her in and Tiffany responded with the roll of her own body.
"I want you to..."
"You want me to what?"
Jessica pulled back just enough to to see Tiffany's face. She was flushed, forehead damp and lips swollen.
There was a fire in her eyes that swirled with curiosity and confusion. Glancing down Jessica saw their chests pressed tightly together, one bare while the other clothed.
And then it hit her.
Where they were, what they were, who they were.
Jessica snapped her eyes back up. She could read the unspoken words of what Tiffany wanted plainly off her face. Jessica would be lying if she didn't want it too. Her entire body ached for more, more, more.
But not yet. And not like this.
"Jessi?"
"Tiffany, we shouldn't-"
The vibration of her phone made her push Tiffany away. Her eyes dipped on their own accord, taking in the plain of steam damp skin in front of her. Of all the times she had seen Tiffany bare and naked in front of her, none had been like this. None had made her breathless, made her skin burn.
And she knew it was the same for Tiffany.
The line of doctor and patient had been breached. Long ago it had been breached, but it was in that moment Jessica realized just how deeply they had both gotten.
Her phone vibrated again.
"Get dressed," she said before pulling away and making an escape into the hall.
She sucked in the clear air, steadying her breathing before bringing the phone to her ear.
“Hello?”
“Who are you?”
Jessica pulled the phone away from her ear. There was no name but she recognized the number. She had stared at it for days waiting for a chance to try again.
“My name is Jessica Jung.” The line was quiet. Jessica glanced back over her shoulder before lowering her voice. “My mother was Jung Jeongsuk.”
There was a small, quick intake of breath.
“Meet me tonight. That’s your only chance.”
Click.
Part V
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Date: 2016-01-19 11:05 pm (UTC)