Project HEARD
presents
a GD Fanfic

Borrowed Dreams

 The door to Britanny and Stripe's room slid open, and in tiptoed a lone
person, shutting the door behind them. This person was neither Britanny nor
Stripe, which is why they were sneaking about, as they crept silently around
the room, checking the adjoining bathroom, the closet, and even under the bed,
to make sure they were alone.
 Satisfied she was the only person in the room, Brianna went to the chair in
front of the desk and gingerly sat down. She looked at the piles and piles of
stuff all around her--Cheetah didn't keep a clean house, even after marrying
Stripe--and, undaunted, started scanning for something.
 <Aha.> Brianna reached out to the pile of wedding gifts and pulled a certain
gift loose. It was a thick, large photo album, white with ornate designs
stenciled in gold on its cover, and Brianna carried it gently as if it were a
treasured artifact. She handled it with the utmost of care, as if a tighter
grip would destroy it.
 Setting it down on the desk before her, she carefully and slowly opened the
cover to the first page. Her eyes widened, her mouth formed a grin, and she
whispered "Yes!" as she found photographs inside.
 The first page was taken up entirely by one eight-by-ten shot of Britanny and
Stripe at the altar, post-ceremony, turned to face the gathered friends and
family. Brianna smiled warmly at the happiness she saw in their faces, and then
she reached out and touched Brit's image with a finger.

 A sparkling effect obscured her vision for a moment, and as it cleared, she
looked out on all the people that had gathered together for her benefit. She
was arm-in-arm with Stripe, who, an instant later, leaned over and whispered,
"You are truly lovely today, Britanny."
 She grinned a devilish grin and whispered back, "Just wait until we get away
from everyone else, Muffin.."
 The two of them stood there for a moment longer, faces beaming out at their
comrades and relatives, and finally, they took a step forward to leave the
altar together as man and wife.
 "Hey, sis!" she heard, recognizing Brianna's voice. "Look up!"
 She did, with a smile, and saw Brianna holding her digital camera up and..

			      * F L A S H ! *

 Brianna blinked once or twice and looked around at her surroundings. She'd
returned to Britanny and Stripe's bedroom--or rather, she'd never left it.
However, for the moment that she was touching the image, she was Britanny, or
at least had been living Brit's memories. They faded now, but then, they had
been as vivid as if they were Brianna's own.
 Bri' lifted her hand from its position, hovering over the photo, and turned
the page, holding it by its edge. The photo itself was the one she'd taken at
the wedding, and there was nothing out of the ordinary about that. The album,
however, was magically endowed by their father, allowing one to briefly relive
a memory simply by touching the image.
 Of course, it wasn't meant to be used as Brianna was using it, but that was
beside the point, to her.. she'd figured it would work that way, and was
ecstatic to learn she was right.
 Caught up in the moment, she flipped through some more pages, finding other
pictures to try out. The sparkling came and went again, and there she stood,
substituting a heartily-belted-out "OH YEAH!" for her previously-rehearsed "I
do"; after the flash, she flipped through another couple of pages and enjoyed
her first dance with her husband; and so on and so forth.
 Brianna was fully immersed in the thrill of the magic book, and completely
lost track of the time. It wouldn't've mattered, anyway; once she saw the
photograph of Brit and Stripe on a beach together on their honeymoon, smiling
for the camera, her hand practically involuntarily reached out and slapped
itself onto the picture.
 As she relaxed beside Stripe, content to lie there after an earlier period of
more intense, more 'intimate' activity, she drank in the beauty of the place
where they were honeymooning, and the satisfaction that she and Stripe had
finally made it to this day. Distantly, she was also aware of faraway
footsteps, then a door opening..

 Britanny watched as Brianna shot to her feet, startled, knocking the desk
chair over. "OH!" Brianna blurted out. "Sorry, I didn't know you were home!"
 "We just got back," Brit said confusedly, stepping inside the room, with
Stripe following. "We were out buying stuff with some of our gift-money." She
leveled her gaze, expression unreadable, at Brianna. "What're you doing in
here?"
 "Oh, um......." Brianna suddenly started looking around the room, as if
searching for something. "I thought you had a spare can-opener in here--the one
in the kitchen's busted again."
 "Is it?" Britanny said skeptically. Stripe stepped up beside her and she
squeezed his arm by reflex. "Actually, no, we don't have a spare; sorry."
 "Oh, that's okay, then," Brianna said with a nervous laugh and smile. "I'll
just cut the lid off or something. Anyway.. talk to you later. Bye, Stripe!"
 "See ya," he said with a wave after Brianna hurried off. He looked back at
Britanny. "I don't suppose you'd have a clue what THAT was all about, hm?"
 Britanny stepped over to the desk and frowned, eyes falling on the open photo
album front-and-center. "Not a can-opener, that's for sure."

 Brianna had taken to running when she was troubled, and this was no exception;
she ran like it meant her life. She went until she was exhausted, then pushed
herself some more; and when she'd rested enough to get some energy back, did it
all over again.
 <Stupid, stupid, STUPID!> she railed at herself, all the time she ran. <What a
stupid thing to do! How could you let yourself do that?>
 In her mind, she berated herself over and over for it. It'd been a foolish act
of voyeurism, of course, and she knew it. The temptation had been far too
great, though; she knew from the moment that Dad had told them about the
album's unique properties that she'd one day try it out and see how it worked.
 And work it certainly did; while she was in contact with the photo, she lived
Britanny's life fully and completely, although only in memory. The memories
were real enough, though, she told herself; that was proven when she'd reached
out to grab hold of Stripe on the beach and pull him close..
 <Stop that!> she scolded herself. <He's gone now and you're going to have to
live with it! AND with yourself. No more silly ventures into Britanny's past
for you. It's an invasion of her privacy!>
 Bri' continued to argue with herself, for all good it would do, right up to
the point where she realized it was getting dark. She reluctantly altered her
course and headed for home.

 She found Gina sitting with Ryan, on the living room couch, watching TV. "Oh,
hi, sis!" Gina said brightly.
 Ryan looked up from the TV. "Hey, Bri'," he nodded hello.
 "Where you been?" Gina wanted to know.
 "Hi, guys," she acknowledged them with a smile. "Oh, just 'out'.. some
running, mostly, and a couple of rounds at LazerMaze." She looked at the TV for
a moment, then added, "Is Brit or Stripe home?"
 "No," Gina shook her head. "They went to dinner and said they were gonna take
in a late movie too."
 "Oh," Brianna said. "Well, if you need me, I'll be.. roaming around
downstairs, 'K?"
 "Okay," Gina smiled.
 "Have fun," Ryan said with a wave, which Bri' returned as she headed for the
lift.

 The first stop, after she made sure that Ryan and Gina hadn't followed her
downstairs, and Genn and/or Seance weren't out and about, was of course,
Britanny and Stripe's room.
 To her dismay, however, the photo album was gone. She looked everywhere, even
on the shelf in the closet, where Brit kept all her old photos, but those were
missing too.
 <Great,> Bri' moped to herself as she left the room. <I've been found out. I
wonder what she'll SAY to me when she gets back?>
 She walked dejectedly towards her own room, steeling herself to face the music
from one or both of them when they returned home. That train of thought was
hastily put on a siding, though, however, as she arrived at her door and did a
cursory glance at the access/security panel beside it.
 It indicated that someone had been in her room--or had at least, opened the
door--an hour and forty-one minutes earlier, a time that coincided with her
still being out on her run.
 Cautiously, she keyed the door open and leapt inside--
 --to find no-one there, and nothing out of place, except the stuff that had
been deposited on her bed.
 She stared at the bed, atop which rested about 20 shoeboxes full of old
photographs, the photo album, and a note in Brit's handwriting, with a catlike
smiley-face ending it off.

   Here you go, sis
      have fun with it
   Bring it back to our room
      when you're done, please
                  Love, Us

 Brianna grinned and shook her head. She sat down on the bed and put the album
on her lap, opening it up.

				    end