A Familiar Prison

Chapter 20

AJ and Gwen are sitting at the dining room table playing a board game. The lights flickered then went off.

"Okay, that's weird. I'll check the circuit breaker." AJ stood up and using his phone's flashlight, started heading to the breaker box in the garage.

"Wait! I'll come with you." Gwen said, knowing she didn't want to be alone.

"Alright." They head to the breaker box. "Hmm. Nothing is off. Let's just cut them all and bring them all back up and see if that works." AJ flicked all the switches off and back on for the breaker box, and they headed back to the dining room. The lights were still off.

"Maybe we should check the lines outside?" Gwen questioned, looking at him with concern.

"Let's go." They headed out the back to check the lines to the house. "What? They're severed!" AJ headed back inside and went to call Kevin. His phone was dead.

Gwen checked hers. Dead. "You know, something seems odd about this. I just charged my phone. It shouldn't be dead." Gwen thought it was familiar, but couldn't put her finger on it. "It's like dejavú..." She turned around and AJ was gone. "Babe? Where'd you go?" Gwen looked around. "Now I know this has happened before. AJ has disappeared and the phones are dead... AJ bleeding... AJ knocked out... this has to be another dream. Okay. The lights will come back on, and AJ will come back to me." The lights flickered and came back on. "AJ?"

AJ came around the corner, with a smile on his face. "Lights are back! What'd you do?"

"Nothing. Let's just sit down and play the game."

They sat back at the table and she thought to herself "Now you need to wake up."

Gwen sat up and looked around the room. She was in bed with AJ, who was still sleeping. She smiled to herself and got out of bed and wrote down the dream.

AJ stirred and looked over to Gwen's side of the bed. "Gwen?"

"Over here. I'm just finishing up. I'll be right there." Gwen finished writing and went to lay next to her husband.

"Everything okay?" AJ asked, snuggling her closer.

"Yeah. Another dream, but I was able to figure it out quicker this time and wake up easier."

He kissed her forehead. "I'm glad it's working for you."

"I can't wait to talk to Piper about all this. I'm so glad this is working for me!"

"Me too." He kissed her. "Now, it is breakfast time, did you want to go get some breakfast?"

"Sure. Maybe if Kevin and Katie aren't up yet, we can make something for them?"

"Sounds good." They got out of bed and went to the kitchen. Katie and Kevin were still asleep, so they made bacon, scrambled eggs, and waffles.

Katie came in right when breakfast was done. Kevin followed a few minutes later. They all sat and ate a nice breakfast.

AJ had some work to do, so he got on his laptop. Gwen read for a while, decided to get on her laptop to check her email, then played a few games until lunch time. After they all had lunch, Gwen and AJ went for a walk to get out of the house for a bit.

"Thanks for coming with me." Gwen smiled at her love.

He took her hand. "Of course! Besides, I could tell you were kind of getting stir crazy in there. I know how hard this has been on you."

"Baby, it's been hard on both of us. We both have been thrown out of our normal element, and I admire how you're handling it."

"Gwen," AJ stopped and took both her hands so they were facing each other, "you have been the one handling it best. You're conquering one hurdle after another, and I'm so proud of you." He embraced her. "You don't know how much I am stunned by you." She blushes. "You can and have done anything you've set your mind to. You make me aspire to be a better man because of what I have seen you do. I love you so much." He kissed her.

"I love you. You are definitely short-changing yourself though. You have helped me so much through this whole ordeal. You don't know how much I appreciate you and all you do for me." She leaned her forehead on his. "Thank you for being you." They hug again and then continue walking.

"Oh, the insurance money was deposited, so we can go car shopping. I've been looking around, and when we get back, I'll show you the ones I've seen that I think would be good for us. If you see any, let me know too. We can look into whatever car you want."

"Okay, we can take a look around and see what we like." They rounded the corner and headed back to Kevin and Katie's.