A/N: To everyone who is waiting for an update to Replay – I'm sorry. I'm not keeping it back to spite anyone, but I just don't have it in me for the moment. I lost the connection with the story for now even if I'm sure I will return to it sooner or later. I don't want to just put something down, if a chapter doesn't come to me I won't force it. As I love the writing there will be other stories for now. This one will be a few chapters. The story is about what the title says, will say no more. Always appreciate if you let me know what you think, so I don't feel like I'm publishing into a black hole.

X

Once upon a long time after The Jump

Chapter 1

If someone had observed him striding down the corridor, they could have guessed his mood only by listening to the sound of his footfalls on the tiled floor; quick, hard - annoyed or even angry. He had been summoned to his superior's office without delay, so had had to interrupt the task he had been very focused on and get his arse over there, wondering what the arrogant bastard wanted with him this time.

He knocked on the heavy wooden door and a smug voice asked him to enter.

The grey-haired woman sitting by a large desk, cluttered with books and piles of journals and papers, did not even look up to acknowledge him at first, instead let him stand there waiting like a school boy before the headmaster for a minute or two. That was the usual routine, showing who was in power. Even if it was not a surprise as he knew her ways too well after nearly four years under her leadership, he impatiently rocked back and forth on his feet, not to let his frustration come out in any other way which he might regret. Finally she looked up on him with piercing blue eyes. Her sharp face makeup free as always, she made no secret of that she thought that only silly people wasted time on such vanities.

"James. Good.", she greeted him, but with the displeased face of someone looking at something the cat had dragged in.

"Ma'am."

She took him in and noticed the new glasses, circle shaped with a black frame, quite similar to Harry Potter's. A look that used to be nerdy but recently had become trendy again.

"Glasses, I see. That becomes you."

Before he could thank her for the surprising compliment, she added;

"Finally you look like you might be intelligent enough to actually fit in here, at this honourable faculty, rather than in a swimwear commercial."

He felt his cheeks heat. It was not the first time, she taunted him over his good looks which was unfair as he hardly could do anything about them. She made no secret of that she did not think that he belonged here in the hallways of the Department of Psychiatry at Oxford University. Part of why he was blushing was because when he first had put on the new glasses, the thought had indeed crossed his mind that they might make her treat him with an ounce more respect. Obviously, that would not happen. Seeing since he had not managed to prove himself to her after four years of hard work, he could hardly expect a pair of glasses to make any difference.

"Are they just for show or do you actually need them?"

"They're reading glasses."

"Then you don't really need them now. Since you're not reading."

"No."

She smirked, and he thought for the umpteenth time that he hated Professor Watson and could not wait for the day when he was done with his PhD studies and was out of here. If he continued with a post doc, it would definitely be elsewhere.

"I'm sure I didn't distract you from something important."

It was not a question, because she did not care. The way she said it, it sounded like she thought none of his work important.

"I was trying to wrap up the paper I'm submitting to the Lancet. My final publication before defending the thesis"

"Well, good luck with getting that accepted." Again the arrogant smirk. A professor was supposed to support his or her PhD students, but he could only dream of ever getting any help from her.

"Anyway, I need your help, James. You're so good at making people feel welcome..."

Oh no, he knew that the very rare times she flattered him it was because she wanted something from him.

"...therefore I will do you the honour of welcoming a new guest researcher who will transfer from the Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics for a while. I made a deal with her supervisor months ago. Now I can't even remember what I got out of the deal and I realise I can't spare the time."

Neither could he, he had enough on his plate with his own research, finalising his publication, the thesis and on top of that the mandatory teaching. He did not need a tail in the shape of a guest PhD student in addition to that, when his goal was to complete and get away.

"Ma'am, I..."

"No, need to thank me James, I realise you consider it an honour that I put such faith in you."

He knew there was no point arguing. He could not afford to fall out with the professor with only months to go. He may not like her, but she was powerful in this surprisingly small world. His only hope of ever getting back at her would be to be successful in his research and prove her wrong and the hope of that was one of the reasons he fought so hard.

"I will have Miss Dawes sent to your office tomorrow. That was all."

With that she dismissed him, returning to her papers. He left, cursing silently over the extra work and fleetingly thinking of another Dawes he had known and lost a long time ago.

He had tons of work to do and he managed to forget the whole thing during the afternoon and the following morning, until someone knocked on the frame of his office door, which he unlike the professor liked to keep open when he was in. He did not look up first, only hummed an absentminded response whilst tugging at the dark curls at the back of his head.

"Yes?"

"Are you Mr. James?"

At the sound of the unfamiliar female voice, he raised his head and locked eyes with hers. Time seemed to stand still when he lost himself in those extraordinary light green eyes, he stayed silent long enough for the situation to turn slightly awkward, before he snapped out of the spell and cleared his throat.

"That would be me. And you are?"

"Ms. Dawes. I will be a guest researcher here and I've been told you are to be my tutor."

"Your tutor?! I don't know about that. I've been asked to welcome you Ms. Dawes, show you around, that's all, but I won't officially be your tutor. That's the job of Professor Watson."

"It was she who said it would be you."

He felt his pulse increase. Damn woman! If Watson could even be called a woman, she was rather an emotionless machine.

"Okay, well see about that", he said grimly but realised he would not get out of at least giving her the first introduction. "Let me show you around anyway."

Sighing, he got to his feet and she had to angle her head to keep looking at his face as he unfolded his long legs to standing position and suddenly towered over her. She looked shy, even a bit intimidated and he realised that so far he was doing a shit job making her feel welcome. It was hardly her fault that Professor Watson had dumped her in his lap. Figuratively speaking he quickly told himself, as the idea of her in his lap was somewhat disturbing. He walked around the desk and held out his hand to her.

"Welcome the Department of Psychiatry."

"Thanks."

She smiled but he abruptly turned around, started walking.

As they took the tour around the department, she cautiously told him that she was to stay there for three months. She had been looking forward to joining the famous Professor Watson's research team, as both she and her usual supervising professor thought it would give her new valuable perspectives to her research. He did not have the heart to tell her that Watson was a prize arse who was unlikely to offer either help or inspiration. She would discover soon enough that she would have to look elsewhere for that. Not to him though, if he could avoid it.

He glanced at her sideways as they walked. It was difficult to say how old she was. Maybe his age, maybe a few years older. Her bone structure was delicate, she had a golden skin tone and long, smooth black hair. Combined with those unusual green eyes, she was very pretty. No, beautiful in an exotic way was a more accurate description. He cut the thought off right there. He had as a rule never to mix work and dating. If he had not had the good sense anyway, past cockups in that area, which had impacted his life heavily, would have been enough to deter him from it. Many other undergraduates, teachers and professors played that game, but he thought it would make life unnecessarily complex. There was plenty of girls around both at the university as a whole and outside of it, so there was no need to get emotionally involved with those he worked close to. Truth was he had more trouble fighting cheeky proposals off than finding an attractive date as most women found his looks appealing, sporting features complying to the golden ratio measures, brown eyes and dark wavy hair combined with an athletic frame. He did not hesitate to enjoy their company and had dated a variety of girls over his years here, but never gotten deeply attached to anyone. Now that suited him well, as it meant he only had himself to consider when he was finished here and could chose to move somewhere else, maybe even abroad.

He brought her by all the offices and labs, introducing her to everyone working at the department and they were all more welcoming than he had been, but on the other hand they were not forced to be her tour guide. At the end of the tour, they stopped by Watson's office and he popped in his head after knocking. She looked at him like he was trying her patience with his face.

"I'm just showing Ms. Dawes around and I wondered which room we shall place her in?"

"Oh, didn't I say? As we are a bit short of space, I figured we could place an extra desk in yours. As you anyway will be tutoring her."

"I- What?"

"As we agreed yesterday, James. Have you already forgotten or are you just dafter than I thought?"

He heard Professor Watson chuckle as he fuming closed the door.

"Okay, let's go find you a desk then, shall we? It seems we will share room for the duration of your stay here", he said to the girl through gritted teeth. She tried to keep up with his long strides and noticed his tense shoulders and stern face.

"I'm sorry. I don't mean to be an inconvenience."

He stopped and turned to her.

"It's not your fault. It's just that I'm currently finalising my last publication and thesis as I'm scheduled to defend it in a few months and I have absolutely no time tutoring someone new and I would have loved to have my office to myself during this period. This is fucking bad timing."

He knew it was unfair to put his frustration on her, but he could not help himself. This was such an important time in his life and he did not have time or energy to put on anything outside the things he absolutely needed to get done. So typical of Watson to set this up, he nearly wondered if she did it to spite him and ruin his work. Yet, he felt he ought to offer some kind of apology.

"As we're going to share room, you might as well call me by my name. I'm Samuel, you can call me Sam."

""I'm Betsy. That's what my friends call me."

She smiled, and he bit his tongue not to impolitely say he was in fact not her friend and what would he then call her and tried to ignore that his stomach flipped in a disconcerting way at the sight of that smile. Betsy seemed a too common name for a girl with such smile and eyes.