This is just my idea of what was going through Gary's mind during the episode Blind Faith.  Hope you like it.  Don't forget that ever important "feedback".  

Standard disclaimer applies.

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Another Rooftop
by Shana

Gary blindly stumbled around the burning building, literally.  He tried to avoid the places where the heat felt strongest, but those places were getting scarce.  He felt an intense fear unlike any he'd ever known. The assault on his other senses was staggering.  The acrid smoke stung his nostrils and seared his lungs.  At least Nate had gotten out.  Maybe help would arrive in time.

Another explosion knocked Gary to his knees.  He ripped the bandages off his eyes, hoping for a miraculous restoration of his vision, but there was only darkness.  Suddenly he heard a voice from his left.  It was Cameron, one of the kids from the freight tunnel the night before.

Cameron took Gary's arm and helped him to his feet.  Gary took comfort in the touch of another human.  "How big is the fire?" he asked.  He wasn't sure he really wanted to know.

They began to climb the stairs.  "Why are we going up?"  He already sensed the answer, but he asked anyway, just needing to hear something beyond the crackling flames and his own fear.  They reached the fire escape and Gary gulped in the fresh air, coughing and sputtering as he did.

Finally, they were on the roof.  The distant sound of sirens sent a chill that had nothing to do with the weather straight into Gary's soul.  In an instant, he was back on another rooftop, searching for a way of escape for he and Jeremiah.  Oh God no, he thought.  I can't do this!  The memories paralyzed him.  Cameron dragged him further across the roof, but Gary paid no attention.

A fresh wave of grief washed over him.  Why didn't I wait for help?  I'm sorry Jeremiah, I'm so sorry! he thought.  He wouldn't let Cameron experience that same guilt.  He'd never wish that on anyone.  "What about the fire engine?" he asked, hoping for another way out.

"There's no time", Cameron responded. "We gotta go now!"

Cameron's words echoed Gary's thoughts from that fateful day when he'd placed the ladder across the distance between the two buildings.  The image of Jeremiah slipping from his grasp haunted him.  He wanted to tell Cameron about his experience, to warn him, but the words were stuck in his throat.  All he could get out was, "listen to me, ya-you go by yourself, ya-you gotta understand . . . . ."  Cameron cut him off.

"No, no, no, I'm not leaving you here man.  We're going together, all right?"

His words were so like what Gary would've said in his place, that suddenly Gary knew that Jeremiah, wherever he was, didn't blame him. For the first time since that day, he felt free.  His newfound freedom propelled him as he took that running start and that leap of blind faith.

Back on the ground, Vadim led him over to Marissa.  As he held her tight, his vision returned.  He pulled back.  "Marissa?"

"Yeah?" she responded.

"I can see!"   He pulled her close again.  "I can see."  And somehow she knew that he was talking about more than just the return of his sight.

Email the author:  shana93@optonline.net
 

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