And the Tower in the Rain by patricia51
(At the end of "And the City of Light" Stone collapses with Mabel Collins as they shut down the device before it explodes. To their surprise she survives. But without her connection to the circuit her days are numbered. Jacob wants to make those days match her dreams. Stone/OC.)
"I'm stabilized. I'm a grounding wire. The energy would discharge through me."
Jacob Stone felt dubious as the electricity visibly swept across the chain link fence in front of them. The fence? It was covering the entire complex. It looked like sudden death. But if Mabel was wiling to try than he wasn't going to let her go alone.
"If I hold on to you is that going to ground me too?"
Fortunately it did. So here they were staggering up the stairs towards the emergency shut off switch. It seemed like they were in some kind of cloud shot through with bolts of lightning. It wasn't stopping them but every now and then one of them made them both shiver in pain.
"Are you okay?" he asked her, seeing that she was becoming weaker with each step.
She rallied, if only momentarily. "Yeah. Yeah. Are you?"
He nodded, supporting her with one arm wrapped around her waist. Even with that she fell as they reached the top of the stairs and started along a catwalk.
"I can't... I don't think I can walk," she gasped.
"All right." Stone set his teeth in determination and picked her up in his arms. Carrying her with her head against his chest he started forward again. He saw she had picked up a piece of copper wire and was dragging it along the fence beside them.
"This wire will help bleed off even more of the power."
He hoped so because it was beginning to feel like he was struggling to walk through waist high water. It was taking all of his effort to move forward. And he grew more and more worried about Mabel. Her breathing was becoming shallow and she was slumped in his arms with her eyes closed. He groped for something to say to take both their minds off their current situation. Then it came to him.
"What's the name of that waiter?"
"What?"
"The one in the little cafe off Pont Neuf. When we were in Paris."
Mabel opened her eyes. Stone could get lost in those beautiful eyes. She smiled. Interrupted by gasps and groans and struggles for air they shared things they both dreamed of as though they were memories they shared.
"You're thinking of Budapest," she corrected him after another comment he made about Paris as they forged ahead.
"No," he demurred. "Budapest is where you lost your luggage. Paris was..." He grunted heavily as a particularly strong bolt passed through them.
"You mean; Paris was the rain."
"Uh-huh."
"Remember the view from the Eiffel Tower?" she asked.
He nodded. Both of them were seeing the City of Lights more clearly than the destination that was looming up in front of them.
"It was raining. But the lights made everything glow."
"Everything glow," Stone finished her sentence with her. "Yeah."
Then they had reached their objective. Mabel reached for the switch.
"Adieu, monsieur," Mabel managed to say before she grasped it and pulled it down.
Stone staggered backwards as the power shut off and the electric currents around them vanished. He all but fell against a pillar behind him and welcomed its support, allowing him the slide down it rather than fall. He still held Mabel in his arms and cradled her as they came to rest on the concrete. Somehow he held the tears back as he looked on her peaceful face.
"Au revoir," he whispered to her. A near smile crossed his face as he added "Ma'am".
Moved by an impulse he had no desire to resist he bent his head and lightly kissed her goodbye. Her lips were soft and still warm. A shock having nothing to do with electricity ran through his body as he suddenly realized that she was kissing him back. His eyes opened wide as he saw her eyes open as well and her smiling face looking back up at him.
"So how was your second kiss with a hundred and thirty year old woman," she teased him.
She was still alive! Stone's heart leaped. He smiled.
"Not as good as the third one is going to be I bet."
Indeed the third kiss was excellent as well as quite long. And the fourth and fifth and the sixth proved to be even better. That was how Eve and Ezekiel found them.
"Well," the irrepressible thief commented, "it looks like you two came through this in fine fashion."
"I guess so," Stone replied as he stood and helped Mabel to her feet and took her hand. She staggered for a moment and he quickly supported her again.
"Just a little stiff," she smiled at him.
The foursome rejoined Cassie and Jenkins and inspected the equipment. It didn't take long to reach a conclusion.
"It's ruined," Jenkins stated flatly. "The only thing still working are the gas lamps."
"The capacitor is fried," Cassandra added glumly. "It would have to be rebuilt completely before it could charge again. Even for the hundred years it needs."
They all adjourned to the Annex, including Mabel.
"So they're trapped again."
"There's not enough power for them to even communicate."
Mabel's face reflected her sadness as she repeated her previous words.
"So they're trapped again."
"Yes."
Stone hardly heard the discussion between Jenkins and Eve concerning something called the Appointment Book and a hundred years. Mabel was slumped back in her chair. She barely seemed to be able to keep herself sitting upright. Then she couldn't as she fell back with a moan. He cried out and rushed to her.
Jenkins pushed him aside and examined her. He clucked his tongue and shook his head. Gently brushing the hair from the back of her neck he examined the electrode implanted there. He stood and shook his head again.
"What's wrong with her Jenkins?" Stone asked urgently.
"I think I already know," Mabel's weak voice came to them.
"What?"
"The circuit is broken," Jenkins said.
"Yes," Mabel nodded. "Not only was that keeping me anchored in reality but it was also what was keeping me alive so long past my normal lifespan. And now that it's no longer in operation..."
"Yes," agreed Jenkins.
"No!" protested Stone.
Mabel squeezed his hand. "It is what it is Jake. I was surprised I didn't die back there when the field collapsed." She touched his face with her other hand. "I'm glad I didn't. But no one lives forever."
"No," Stone agreed softly. "They don't." He looked at Jenkins. "How long does she have?"
"There is no telling. But her weakness indicates that it isn't going to be very long. Days maybe. Maybe less."
"Alright then." Jake stood and looked at his friends. "I'll be gone for a little while. You all stay safe."
"Where are you going?" asked Baird.
"To make the most of what time we have together." Jake scooped Mabel up in his arms once more. He headed for the door.
"Where ARE we going?" Mabel asked as he spun the globe while carefully holding on to her. It stopped and the door opened.
"Paris." Pausing only to grab a handy umbrella near the doorway he stepped through and was gone as the door closed behind them.
Several days passed. The group stayed busy but nothing in the clippings book called them away while they waited. On the evening of the fifth day the door opened and Stone came through it. The others immediately dropped what they were doing and gathered around him. Finally Eve gingerly broke the silence.
"Is she...?"
"She's gone. I took her home this morning." As though he was very weary he walked slowly to a chair and collapsed in it. "It was very peaceful. She was ready."
"I'm so sorry Jake," Cassandra offered. She looked around as the others nodded. "We all are."
"Thanks Cassie. But it's okay. I wish we would have had more time but what we had I'll remember forever." He smiled. "The waiter's name was Alphonse."
"The waiter?"
"At the little cafe at Pont Neuf. He even made us up a basket dinner and loaned us a blanket. We used it at the Eiffel Tower. And it was raining and the glow of the city lights made everything shine. It was so beautiful. As beautiful as she was."
Stone talked softly for over an hour, detailing their travels; where they had been and what they had seen. The group knew that he was fixing those scenes in his mind; that he saw them instead of the room they were in now. They gathered tightly around him and listened and could almost see he and Mabel as Jake was doing. And he was sad but happier than he had been in a long time.
(The End)
(Yes I thought of having Mabel and Stone live happily ever after but it just didn't seem to be in the cards. What would she have done, sat around the Annex or stayed in her home town while the Librarians went off again and again? But I DID want to give her and Jake that time together in Paris she wanted so much.)