Elizabeth was exhausted. John and Rodney had been hovering over her with Carson coming by every few moments to check up on her. After all, her body had been invaded and she needed her rest. But she didn't want to sleep so soon. She didn't want to close her eyes and dream of Dr. Fletcher or O'Neill.
Elizabeth sat at a table on a balcony, listening to the ocean and clutching her father's pocket watch. Not that it was really her father's but an heirloom inherited by generations of Weir men. Elizabeth being the first woman to possess it. She had her father's nose and his temperament. He'd insisted that it went to her instead of a male cousin.
The inheritance had been something she'd bragged about and something that almost caused her younger cousin Randy to punch her. But Weirs had always preferred talk over violence.
She knew that soon she'd have to make a trip to Dr. Heightmeyer's office to talk about emotional stress. Elizabeth wondered if the woman had ever hypnotized anyone with a pocket watch. Once, Elizabeth had tried with Randy. She was 14, and Randy had started going on about buried treasure and being a pirate in his last life. Elizabeth had laughed so hard that she'd knocked her fruit punch over and onto her white pants. She preferred wearing dark colors.
Elizabeth sat and listened to the ocean until long after it grew dark and the city lit up. It was the break of the waves against the city that she'd missed most, besides her friends and her sanity, when she'd been under the Replicators' influence. The noise signaled her peace of mind that she was indeed home.
Elizabeth leaned back in her chair and listened, hypnotized by water's beat.