Hope for the Future
It was hard going, getting all the missing persons posters up, all of them showing the most recent picture of Rose she could find. People usually avoided her nowadays, afraid she'd gone mad or would go mad in a matter of days.
At first it had been simple. Other people had helped put them up, as she hadn't been in any position at all to do it herself. Then she had blamed Mickey for it and gone off at him in a very public ad crowded space, saying he murdered her daughter.
Ever since, people had been more interested in leading their own lives and had forgotten about her and her missing child.
She had begun to give up hope when it happened. A man, dressed in the strangest outfit she'd seen (and she'd seen a lot of strange outfits in her time) had walked up to her in the middle of the street, rubbed the back of his head, before smiling and waving.
"Hello! I've seen these posters around a bit. She your daughter? The one that's gone missing?"
Scowling at this man, she nodded. "Yes. And I'd be a bloody lot better company without strange men walking up to me in the middle of the street smiling and saying that. Is it you? Are you the one that kidnapped her?"
He blinked, before backing up. "Umm, no. Not me. Exactly. It's sort of hard to explain and you wouldn't believe me but...you'll see her again, Jackie. Just...keep your faith. You'll see. She'll turn up. Probably saying that she was over at a friend's house..."
This man was a nutter. Absolutely mad. There was no other explanation for what he was saying. "You're talking nonsense, you know that?"
He rubbed the back of his head again and made a weird look on his face. "I do that sometimes. Sorry. I'm not exactly supposed to be here at all, and talking to you is kind of...dangerous. But I landed at the wrong time, and saw these missing signs and, well, couldn't really help myself."
"Help yourself to what? My daughter?"
"No. Well, not yet, but not now. You'll see. In the future. We haven't exactly officially met yet. Well, we have but not...I'm rambling and making no sense, I know. Sorry."
Folding her arms and glaring at the strange man, he backed up further away, unconsciously rubbing one of his cheeks, as if she'd smacked him like he deserved. Picking on worried and grieving women in the middle of the street. "Well, what did you want then?"
His hand, once again went to the back of the head and she realised that it was basically an unconscious thing he did. It never occurred to her that he was just as wary of her as she was of him until he had backed off further. "To say hello. To say that she'll be back, given time. To say...I miss you."
Blinking, Jackie couldn't believe what she was hearing. He had been right about that part earlier. "Miss me? I've never met you before!"
"You have. Once. And you'll get to know me more in your future. You won't recognise me though, I've changed quite a bit since then. Still, basically, if you don't mind, I'm going to give you a hug."
He didn't even wait for her to give an answer before she was wrapped up in a hug, his arms squeezing her to him in a rather familiar way. Like as if he had done this before and knew what she didn't like. It was the first hug she had received since everyone had decided to leave her alone in this agony of unknowing.
She didn't mean to start crying, especially on a stranger who should be sectioned instead of walking around on the streets, but there was something so...comforting about him, and she had no idea what it was.
He kept her in the hug even after she had calmed down, and truth to tell, right then it felt good to have someone care, even if he didn't know who she was really. And then he talked to her again.
"I'm sorry. For you having to go through this. But you'll see. She'll be back, and everything will work out in the oddest possible way, but it'll work. For a while. And you want to know something, Jackie. You'll be happy. Really happy again. But you have to believe in it. Believe in yourself, believe in Rose and most of all, believe in a madman you met on the street, telling you things that make no sense. Believe, Jackie. It'll happen."
She sighed and let go of him, though he refused right then to fully unhand her, keeping his hands on her shoulders, but it wasn't a very threatening hold. He was trying to be gentle with her. How much more ridiculous could this man get? "How do you know all of this?"
And with that, he grinned at her, a wide, knowing smile, and winked. "Because, Jackie Tyler. I can see into the future. You'll see in a few months' time. Everything will make sense, and your life will truly begin again."
With that said, he let go of her shoulders, gave her a wave and ran off in the direction he had come.
Somehow she found that what he said had given her hope. She couldn't say she did believe him, because belief in anything these days was very slim for her, but hope for the future...he had definitely given her that.
For possibly the first time since her daughter had gone missing, Jackie felt like maybe, just maybe, she may get Rose back.
And she was about to rip off the signs and give up too.
He had chosen the perfect time to give her even the small amount of hope he had.