CHAPTER ONE
She felt sick and weak and nauseous but stumbled forward as if pulled by a magnet to the group of people standing by a seaplane floating in the still water. No, not the people, just the man – the man shaking as a dark cloud of tiny black shadows shot from his eyes. Him. She needed to reach him. Needed to…
No one noticed her until her hand latched onto his left wrist and they both collapsed to the ground to their knees. Now she shook as the black cloud eruption slowed, ended, and then the black in his eyes faded away.
"What...? What are you..?"
She ignored his question, focusing on the dark flame now flowing from him into her. It burned through her veins like fire but didn't consume. She could feel it trying to get a hold of her on a cellular level but she instinctively knew how to barricade herself against it. Focusing through the pain she forced the fire through her body, concentrating it in her left hand and then condensing it even more.
Her right hand was locked on his wrist so tightly that her fingers and knuckles were white and the other she held, palm down, and a black globe slowly oozed into being from her palm and dropped to the ground.
"What the hell!" The other man, tall and lean like the man she was now linked to started forward.
"No, wait!" The blond woman grabbed his arm, stopping his advance. "Look! She's pulling aether from him!"
"He's stopped exploding." The brunette noted more clinically and added with a certain detached practicality. "Someone should get a container for the aether."
She heard but barely registered the words; her world narrowed to the black fire she could feel pouring through her veins to concentrate in her left hand before pulling free with an exquisite pain. This is what she had to do. Nothing else existed but this purpose. Black balls dropped regularly from her hand to be collected by the two women and placed in a box hastily emptied out from the back of a yellow jeep.
"I think it's time for you to stop." The man turned her drooping head to face him an endless time later. "Let go now."
She swayed, trying to make sense of the words. Her nerves felt like they were on fire and her head buzzing and fuzzy at the same time. Her grip on his wrist loosened and her hand dropped limply into her lap. He caught her as she sagged, pulling her to him and cradling her to his chest.
"Now what?" It was the blond woman again.
"I –" The man shook his head as if a fly buzzed around it. He took a shaky breath as his own total exhaustion finally registered on him. "I don't know but I hope it involves a bed."
In spite of his sudden weakness he refused to allow his grip on the strange woman to relax. He told himself it was just that she had miraculously managed to pull troubles from him without killing him.
"Rest." She whispered wearily, raising a trembling hand to pat his cheek. "Must rest. But stay close." She wasn't sure how much of what she tried to say actually came out because darkness overtook her.
In that same moment Audrey's phone began ringing in the coat further down the road to the seaplane dock and Nathan's phone began ringing in his pocket.
"Dwight needs us." They said in unison finding it all too easy to envision the chaos that the multitude of troubles Duke had unleashed on Haven were causing.
"But what do we do with them?" She asked again.
"The hospital." Charlotte suggested. "They both need to be examined."
Duke tapped the strange woman gently on the cheek. She moved her head and began to breathe more deeply.
"Hey, wake up sleepyhead." He urged her softly. "Time to get moving."
"Just leave me here." She groaned, refusing to open her eyes.
Duke was surprised into a chuckle.
"Just a few steps, I promise. Then you can sleep on me the whole way to the hospital."
"This is the thanks I get?" She grumbled, opening dark green eyes. Duke's smile froze as he got caught up in her gaze. She seemed fascinated by him as well.
"Um, shall we go?" Nathan interrupted pointedly.
With Nathan's help she and Duke managed to stand. Once standing she made it to Nathan's bronco but she needed Duke's steadying hand the entire way. He watched her carefully. It wasn't easy to tell under her golden complexion but she was pale, with dark circles under her eyes and lips cracked with dehydration.
Duke climbed into the Bronco's backseat first, sliding over to sit behind the driver's seat. He steadied her when she climbed in and helped her fasten her seatbelt. Then she leaned her head on his shoulder with a sigh and closed her eyes again. He shifted until he got an arm behind her and held her to his side as the others climbed in and Nathan started the Bronco.
The drive to the hospital was exciting, to say the least, as troubles seemed to erupt all around them but Nathan used all of the skill he'd developed growing up in Haven to make very good speed into town, avoiding most of the chaos spawned by Duke's release of troubles. Duke's grip on the strange woman tightened with every sign of the outbreak of troubles that appeared along the way. An outbreak he felt horribly guilty about no matter how much he wanted to tell himself it was Mara's fault. He'd let her manipulate him and he wasn't sure if he'd ever get past that reality.
Dwight met them at the hospital and pointedly ignored Charlotte to focus on the stranger.
"Who is that?" He demanded quietly of the other man as Duke hovered over the orderlies transferring her to a gurney. "Where is Audrey? Why is Mara just standing next to you?"
"Mara's gone – forever, Dwight. This is Audrey." Nathan told him. "And I have no idea who this woman is but she – well it certainly looked like she pulled troubles out of Duke."
"And he lives…" Dwight considered the implications of that. "Think she can do it for others?"
"I don't know but it's certainly worth a try."
"Take them to the quarantine ward." Dwight told the officers converging on Duke and the stranger. "Keep a guard on them – neither of them leave."
"I should stay with them." The brunette declared with a fair amount of courage given the cold shoulder Dwight was giving her.
"Why?" He demanded suspiciously.
"Because she did pull troubles out of Duke and if I can figure out how I might be able to help us." She answered steadily.
"And…?" He questioned suspiciously.
"Because she's one of us." She looked at Audrey and then back to Dwight.
Dwight's eyes narrowed in thought before he nodded.
"Allow Doctor Cross access to them – but they don't go anywhere." He amended his orders slightly.
Duke waved away a wheelchair and stumbled alongside the stretcher his mystery woman had ended up on, barely registering his surroundings but clinging to her hand. The medical personnel wheeling her into the hospital looked irritated at this breach of protocol but said nothing when Doctor Cross merely escorted them without a word.
The mystery woman was whisked to the very secure quarantine unit – possibly the most advanced in the country since Haven had a class of people to quarantine rarely seen elsewhere. Once there standard procedure took over except for the fact that Duke, slumped into a visitor's chair in the corner of the rather spacious room, was allowed to remain. After the stranger had been cut out of her clothing, carefully examined, and hooked up to a saline drip the room emptied. Even Charlotte left when Duke firmly refused the examination she wanted to give him. Duke moved his chair beside the stranger's bed and examined her as carefully as the fog of exhaustion numbing his mind would allow.
Like Charlotte she had fine features and dark hair, but her hair was a straight fall to her waist. She was pale but her complexion was darker than either Audrey or Charlotte. She didn't move or show signs of regaining consciousness and his head slowly drooped onto the bed beside her body as the events of the past few days caught up with him.
She awakened slowly, gradually registering the sound of voices echoing beyond a wall, the smell of disinfectant and the realization that she was attached to an IV dripping a saline solution into her veins. An arm was draped across her middle attached to the sleeping body of the man she had originally been attracted to. His head was on the bed beside her but the rest of him perched in a chair next to her hospital bed. Even unconscious his face bore the stamp of pain and anger.
The door to the room opened, drawing her attention to the glass windows that made up the walls.
No privacy here. She thought sourly and then wondered why she cared.
"How are you feeling?"
It was the brunette woman. The woman in the bed looked at her curiously, feeling a familiarity but not actually recognizing her. Charlotte frowned at the lack of response.
"Do you know where you are?" She tried next.
"Hospital." The voice she answered with cracked with disuse, as if she'd been silent for quite a long time. The man sleeping on the bed opened his eyes, instantly alert. "Or research facility." She added, the words falling from her mouth before she realized she'd even thought them.
"What is your name?" The woman asked with a particular intensity.
She thought about it and nothing surfaced - nothing at all.
"Hey, calm down…" Duke gently parted her hands that she had clenched together so tightly that blood oozed from the IV in the back of her hand. "It's okay." His voice was soothing and his touch gave her a point of stability to cling to.
"I don't know." She told him instead of Charlotte. "Who am I?"
"Hush, hush…" He stroked long, dark hair back from her face – unfamiliar long, dark hair. "I don't know who you are but I'm here and I'm not going anywhere, I promise."
The hand without an IV clung to the hand that wasn't stroking her hair as she fought back tears of terror.
"Okay," Charlotte said briskly, but she heard the undercurrent of disappointment in the woman's voice, "let's start with what you remember."
"I woke up in a room. It had tools and things. I was on the floor. I opened the door and saw you and two blond women who looked like each other. You held the women and there was a burst of white light – it meant something… something really important but I don't know what."
She stopped, frowning as she tried to pull the significance from her mind, but gave up and continued her narrative a moment later.
"One of the blond women vanished in that white light, I think. And then the men showed up and you all talked. And then he –" She looked at Duke, "He needed me. I had to help him. That's all I know."
"Okay, that's a great start." The brunette smiled. "I'm Doctor Charlotte Cross, you can call me Charlotte. This is Duke. You're in Haven, in the hospital, and we're going to help you. You are exhausted and dehydrated and malnourished at the moment but all of that is easily remedied. I'm just going to order you a meal. I'll be back so relax and try not to worry."
Charlotte exited the room as abruptly as she had entered, leaving the two alone. The woman in the bed felt her attention drawn to the man by her bed like metal to a magnet. He had a strong face with a high forehead, brown eyes and a forceful chin fuzzed with a beard.
"Hello." He smiled but there was too much strain in it to convey pleasure.
Her thumb touched his lower lip gently. "I don't like it when you smile to hide pain." She told him seriously.
His eyes darkened with intensity and he leaned towards her slowly, almost as if he wasn't aware of it. Their lips met, sending a jolt of energy through her that made her think of the white light that had torn through her earlier. He drew back, drawing in a shaky breath.
"Sorry." He told her. "I don't know what came over me."
"Duke." She said, experimentally. Her head tilted as she considered him, a finger reaching out to touch the tanned skin of his cheek this time. For some reason she was drawn to be in physical contact with him. "It's a good name for you."
"Thank you?" He blinked in bemusement. He couldn't remember anyone ever evaluating the suitability of his name before.
"Um," He coughed slightly, trying to ease the tension that still pulled at them. "What should we call you?"
"I don't know."
"Jane?"
She shook her head.
"Eve?"
Her face must have shown her revulsion.
He snapped his fingers with an idea, "Mia!" He declared with enthusiasm. She smiled an acceptance. It was a good name.
"Okay, Mia," he smiled at her, this time a genuine smile that made her breath catch. She reached out again, tracing his lips with a feather light touch that wiped the smile from his face.
"Don't do that." He told her quietly, his eyes darkening with desire and something else. Her hand dropped onto the bed and she struggled to contain a sense of loss at his rejection.
"No." He brushed his fingers through the hair at her temples again. "Not rejection – I'm afraid if you keep touching me I'll…"
He leaned towards her again and again their lips met. She sighed into his mouth with contentment.
"This isn't wise." He pulled back.
"Why not?"
His eyes opened wide with shock at her response.
"Because you don't know me." He answered, his eyes narrowing and filling with self-disgust. Her fingers touched his lips again.
"I know you are trying to protect me." She answered with a sense of wonder. "And I know I feel safe with you."
He pulled back from her, coming to his feet to pace the length of the small room.
"You shouldn't." He told her roughly after a long silence. "I hurt people."
He looked like he would continue but the door opened and a terrified young woman brought in a tray of food which she placed on the bedside table. Then she collected a second tray from someone at the door, placed that on the table, and told the floor in a shaking voice that Doctor Cross wanted them both to eat before all but running from the room.
"Why is she afraid?" Mia asked curiously.
"Probably because of me." Duke answered bleakly. An explosion sounded in the distance and his expression closed in entirely.
Mia clamped down hard on the instinctive sympathy she felt, knowing it would only drive him further away.
"We should eat. We need the fuel." She said instead in tones of simple practicality.
He returned to the chair by her bed but only picked at his food.
"If you don't eat I won't either. If I don't eat I can't draw the poison from you." She finally told him, knowing he was still exhausted and drained. It didn't occur to her to wonder how she could know how he was feeling.
"Poison?"
"The black fire. I feel it in you and I want to remove it." She ate a bite of dry chicken and considered what she was feeling. "I need to remove it." She amended. "So eat."
Startled, he took a bite of meatloaf, grimaced but swallowed it.
"I don't suppose you'd like to trade?" He asked hopefully. Mia laughed at the little-boy look on his face.
"Okay." She swapped the plates, finding the meatloaf more palatable than the chicken anyway. "Now tell me what I need to know."
"Like what?" He asked warily. The chicken was obviously not to his taste either but he continued to eat it in quick, neat bites.
"What is the black fire? What is wrong here? Why shouldn't I feel safe with you?"
"I'm not sure what the "black fire" is." He answered slowly, "But I think it might be troubles. And troubles are "what is wrong" here. And I already told you I hurt people."
"People hurt people – it's a fact of life." She observed. "Why do you think your "hurt" is worse?" Her tone was matter of fact, almost dry, which made it easier for him to answer.
"I keep trying to help but it always turns out worse. I've killed people. I caused…" He looked out the window where sounds of chaos were finally slowing down, "…that."
"I can see that it would be very hard to try and help and find that makes the problem worse but is that worse than not trying?" She wondered, almost to herself. "And if you caused this –" she gestured to the world outside the window, "you didn't do it purposefully. If you had desired this outcome you would be happy."
Duke frowned as he considered her words. He was pretty sure there was a flaw in the logic that led her to imply innocence – or at least suggest he bore no guilt for the disaster.
"And whether I should feel safe with you or not," Mia told him, her voice firming. "I do. I trust my instincts."
"Regardless, people I care about die – so we need to stay apart." Duke pushed away from the remains of his food and began to pace again. He didn't pause to wonder how he could so quickly lump Mia into the category of people he cared about.
Absently he rubbed his left wrist which was ringed with dark blue bruises.
"Did I do that?"
He glanced down, noticing the marks for the first time.
"Huh, I guess so. You've got quite a grip."
He smiled grimly, his dark gaze studying her face and she moved uneasily, restlessly, wanting his touch again.
"Can you take out the rest?" He asked at last, his voice harsh with barely suppressed emotion.
Her hand grabbed his wrist again without conscious volition on her part and the black fire roared through her again before he wrenched his wrist away. She swayed and gagged at the rank flavor in her mouth.
"Not yet. You're too weak yet."
"I think I'll rest now." She agreed, closing her eyes. "Don't go."
Her hand reached out for him and after a moment she smiled with satisfaction as he took it, folding both of his hands around it.
"Don't go." She whispered again before slipping back to sleep.
Still tired, Duke pillowed his head on his arms and, still holding her hand, dozed.
When they woke again Mia felt much better. She sat up and swung her legs off of the side of the hospital bed. Duke was by her side in an instant.
"What are you doing?" He demanded, one hand coming to rest on her shoulder to keep her from standing up.
"I'm going to pee." She told him firmly. "I'd prefer to use the bathroom for that."
"Are you sure you should be standing?"
As touched as she was by his concern, two bags of saline solution were making themselves felt. She stood, instead of answering, and then grabbed at him as the sudden change of position caused the blood to rush from her head. A moment later she was steady again and she pushed away his supporting arm.
"I'm okay." She assured him, grabbing the IV stand and making her way to the door in the room that didn't lead to the hallway. "Push the call button for the nurse, would you? I want this IV out. I don't need it anymore."
Duke stood for a moment, torn between the need to make sure she was safe and the desire to get Charlotte back in the room to evaluate Mia's condition. Charlotte walked in before he'd done more than reach for the call button.
"So, she's up? Did she remember anything? Her name?"
"No." Duke answered shortly. "We chose Mia for now."
"Mia?" Charlotte smiled at the name. "Hmm… whose idea was that?"
Duke found himself blushing and wondered why.
"I see…" Charlotte's smile was speculative and Duke was wondering just what she thought she saw as Mia reappeared from the bathroom.
"I remember you." Mia said, watching Charlotte through the mirror as she washed her hands as thoroughly as possible without disturbing the IV in the back of her hand. "You were by the water and you were here when I woke up."
"Yes. Do you remember anything else?"
"You're Doctor Cross." Mia responded.
"Call me Charlotte."
"Okay, Charlotte. Call me Mia."
"Duke told me, Mia. It's an interesting choice."
Mia's head cocked at the unspoken meaning in Charlotte's words. She frowned slightly at Charlotte and then considered Duke, who fidgeted with increasing discomfort under her scrutiny.
"It's appropriate." Mia finally said, her gaze softening. She smiled at Duke. "I am his."
The breath huffed out of Duke in shock at her words and he shook his head in confusion. Mia looked back at Charlotte.
"No. I don't remember yet." She told Charlotte. "But I'm sure I will remember. You feel familiar. I think I like you. But I don't remember anything really – just feelings and impressions."
"Well you need to try and get it back, Mia." Charlotte responded bleakly. "The situation here is pretty grim. What you did this morning is – new. I need to know how you came to be able to do it at all."
"What the hell is going on?" Duke demanded with frustration.
"Mia is from my world, Duke." Charlotte told him. She was unsurprised that Duke hadn't heard her tell the others that before. He'd been completely focused on Mia at the time. "She's one of us."
"Well then tell her what she needs to know!"
"She needs to remember on her own and most of what she needs to remember I have no knowledge of." Charlotte answered gently.
"Shouldn't we get a second hospital bed here?" Mia changed the subject. "I mean, if Duke is going to stay with me?"
Duke looked disturbed by that notion.
"I doubt either of you will be here much longer." Charlotte observed. "I want you to eat again – whatever you did, Mia, required a lot of personal energy from the both of you. We need you to regain your strength as quickly as possible."
"If you want her to eat it would help if the food was palatable." Duke offered sourly.
"Hospital food lives up to its reputation?" Charlotte questioned. "I'll see what I can work out."
Dwight arrived as Charlotte was completing her second physical examination of Mia, followed shortly by Nathan and Audrey. Charlotte gave in to Mia's demand that she remove the IV. Then Mia sat on the edge of the bed, Duke standing beside her, and the others all found chairs or leaned against the window that revealed activity in the hallway.
"All right – what's going on?" Dwight asked as soon as everyone was settled. Nathan had pulled out a small notepad to take notes on.
"I feel a lot stronger now." Mia offered.
"Mia still has no memory prior to the events by the seaplane." Charlotte explained to the others. "However she has shown signs that her memory is not gone, merely suppressed. I am confident that she will regain them sooner rather than later."
"That's not very helpful." Dwight frowned. "What about her trouble? Pulling troubles from people without killing them?"
"I'm pulling aether from them, actually." Mia offered helpfully. "It's a very volatile substance that really shouldn't be placed in a living host."
Everyone but Charlotte looked surprised at that revelation.
"How do you do it without killing the person?" Charlotte asked with keen interest.
"I don't know. I will the aether to leave Duke's blood and absorb it into my own and then I will it to exit my body through the pores as inert aether balls. I don't know if I do anything else. It doesn't feel like I do."
"How are you feeling, Duke?" Dwight asked next, less with concern for the man than with a desire for information about how the process affected the troubled person."
"Before this I felt like my skin was on too tight." Duke answered obliquely. "Now I feel like a pressure has been relieved – but I was really tired when we got here. I don't know if that was the trouble explosion I had or what Mia did or both together."
This time Dwight noticed the use of her name and looked at Charlotte interrogatively. "Mia?" He asked, the single syllable an accusation of dishonesty.
"She and Duke chose it for her today." Charlotte answered gently. Mia sensed that Charlotte was hurt by Dwight's suspicion but that she also seemed to feel she deserved it.
"You seem to know more about Mia than anyone." Dwight pressed. "Do you know who she is?"
"Yes." Charlotte answered. "I think I do."
"What do you mean, you think you do?"
"Mia didn't look like she does now when I knew her." Charlotte answered Dwight. "But she feels like the woman I knew."
"Feels?" Audrey and Nathan asked that question in unison.
"One of the differences between our people and yours is that our people have more of what you consider "psychic powers". Charlotte explained cautiously. "Audrey can help troubled people because she can not only sense what emotion is driving their trouble, but also because when she talks to them she can – " Charlotte paused, searching for the right word, "She can push them to listen to her words, to accept them."
"That actually makes a lot of sense." Duke reflected out loud.
"Mia was very gifted psychically. She could alter memories, lock them away, or delete them entirely. She also had a very strong empathic ability much like Audrey has."
"You don't believe Mia still possesses these abilities?" Duke questioned.
"I don't know. It's very clear that she is still strongly empathic – she was drawn to Duke, in part, because she felt his need. But I haven't seen my friend for centuries. I'm not positive this is her, although she mostly feels like her." Charlotte sighed with frustration at the difficulty in explaining herself to the others.
"Why haven't you seen her for centuries?"
"She disappeared when Mara was young – shortly after…" Charlotte broke off. "I always wondered if she came to this world."
Mia was listening intently, hoping for a breach in the wall around her memory and growing more and more convinced that she was getting closer to a breakthrough.
Dwight expelled a frustrated sigh.
"Just once it would be nice for something to be easy." He complained.
"Well, there are a few things we can try right now. Like, we know she can pull troubles out of Duke. Let's see if she can do it with someone else." Nathan suggested.
"But we have to be careful." Audrey noted. "We aren't immune to these new troubles." She indicated Charlotte and herself to define "we".
Audrey, Nathan and Dwight had learned the hard way that Audrey's immunity didn't extend to the new troubles Duke had released during the day of chaos they had endured while Mia and Duke recovered in the hospital. Fortunately, they had already suspected Audrey's lack of immunity before the crisis, so they had been careful.
"So start with someone with an original trouble." Mia suggested practically. "But I'd like some clothing, and a shower first, if that's possible?"
"But you look so fetching in your hospital gown." Duke murmured into her ear earning a pointed glare from Mia that almost brought a smile out of him.
"I know exactly who to bring in of the old troubles." Nathan declared. Audrey and I will get him."
"I'll get someone with the new troubles." Dwight offered.
"I'll get you some clothes and another meal."
"A decent meal, please." Duke urged. "Feel free to order something from the Gull. Do you like tiger shrimp, Mia?"
"I don't think so." Mia answered thoughtfully. "I don't think I like seafood at all. Does Haven have a good Thai place?"
"Thai? In a small fishing village in Maine?" Duke scoffed.
Charlotte grinned at Mia, shook her head, and left the room. Mia stood up resolutely, ignoring Duke's hastily aborted move to support her.
"I'm going to brush my teeth and shower." She announced. "I feel grimy."
"You could smell better." Duke teased gently. Mia smacked him lightly on the arm.
"Why was Charlotte grinning at you, do you think?" Duke wondered idly moving to look out the window while Mia scrubbed her teeth.
"I suspect her friend didn't like seafood so she's more convinced that I am that friend." Mia theorized around the toothbrush. "She feels familiar to me – I think she's right about my identity. I wish she'd just tell me." She rinsed her mouth and the toothbrush and then put some more toothpaste on it and started brushing again.
Duke kept his eyes firmly on the scenery outside in a rare display of chivalry as Mia stripped off her gown and walked into the bathroom utterly unselfconscious about her nudity. When the door closed behind her Duke pulled his cell from his pocket and made some calls.
When Mia emerged from the bathroom looking considerably more relaxed Duke had a meal waiting for her. His pleased expression triggered a memory, or vision, in Mia of a similar expression on a young boy with similar dark hair and brown eyes. She smiled at him with all the nostalgia that image brought to her.
"My, someone's been busy." She observed, allowing Duke to seat her in a chair by the window and roll the laden tray table before her. "How did you get all this together so quickly?"
"I know people." He said evasively.
"I see." Mia let that rest, sensing that Duke needed the air of mystery he cultivated for some indefinable reason.
Duke presented her with a freshly made tomato soup first, served with a roll still hot from the oven. Her second course was a grilled, herbed chicken breast with steamed zucchini – a dish which Mia greeted with a groan of pleasure. Finally he cleared the dishes to the small counter and set a slice of blueberry pie topped with fresh whipped cream. Mia hadn't finished any of the dishes, lacking the stomach capacity, but she managed a few bites of the pie as well.
"If you keep feeding me like this I'm going to end up looking like an ancient fertility goddess." She told him as she pushed away the food.
"Oh, I imagine you'll burn it all off removing troubles from people if I know Dwight and Nathan." Duke assured her, picking up her leftover pie and asking her, with nothing more than a hopeful expression, if he could finish it. Mia nodded indulgently and Duke rolled his eyes in delight at the first bite.
"Rosemary really does make the best baked goods in Haven." He muttered.
"She should, I gave her grandmother half of those recipes." Mia told him with a chuckle.
"What?" Duke paused in mid-chew.
Mia froze, her eyes widening as that small memory shattered the damn blocking her mind and centuries of memories flooded her.
"Oh!" She breathed, one hand coming up to press against her lips. Duke watched her in fascination, pie forgotten, as emotions flickered across her face while she absorbed and sorted and categorized the cascade of information. "Oh my…"
"What?" He prompted when the flickering expressions ceased and she seemed frozen in thought.
"Well, that put's a wrinkle on things – damn her!" Mia muttered to herself not even hearing Duke.
"Mia, talk to me." He said, putting the pie plate down with the other leftovers and coming back to take her hands and kneel before her. "What's going on?"
Both of them ignored the sound of the door opening and people entering the room. Charlotte was clearly in with the group because she shushed everyone and managed to get them to obey.
Mia suddenly closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She opened her eyes, gave Duke's hands a squeeze and gave him a pained smile.
"Well, I remember now." She told him. "But I believe Charlotte has brought me something to wear and I think most in this room would appreciate it if I were wearing a little more than a towel."
Mia went to Charlotte, took the cloth bag her friend offered her and gave her friend a reassuring smile.
"Yes, I'm back." She repeated before she disappeared into the bathroom.
She emerged shortly dressed in a calf length green wool skirt with a beige long-sleeved knit shirt and a green vest that matched her skirt and came down to mid thigh on her. Brown half boots and ivory knee high socks completed her ensemble. She was pulling a brush through her long hair.
"Thank you." She told Charlotte. "These are perfect."
"I'm glad I remembered." Charlotte replied. "It's been a while."
"Okay, what the hell is going on now?" Dwight demanded.
Audrey and Nathan were leaning against the window to the room, just watching and several people stood in the hallway.
"Chief Hendricks." Mia said, looking at Dwight. "I remember."
"Okay. What do you remember?" Dwight asked hopefully.
"Everything." Mia told him. He sighed with frustration wondering why he had ever thought he'd like to be chief of police in Haven. Mia smiled briefly at his expression.
"Let's conduct your experiments first. Then we can discuss my memories."
Dwight nodded and gestured to Nathan to bring in the first subject. He called Bobby Mueller, now a senior in High School, into the room. His face was drawn and dark circles under his eyes made his lack of sleep clear. His foster mother, Hannah Driscoll recoiled when she saw Duke.
"What?! No!" She tried to push Bobby behind her.
"Hannah, no." Nathan assured her. "Duke's just observing. Mia here is the one who is going to try and help Bobby – and it has nothing to do with anyone dying."
Hannah relaxed some but continued to watch Duke suspiciously. Mia glanced at him with concern, feeling the hurt Hannah's reaction sparked.
"I'm used to it." Duke assured her, moving off to lean in the corner and watch with a slight frown.
Mia reached for Bobby's hand and Duke moved.
"Wait." He said calmly, moving slowly so as not to spook Hannah any further. "Try it here." He told Mia, moving her hand to rest on Bobby's neck.
He caught Mia's gaze and elaborated. "You said it was in my blood – the veins are larger here."
He backed off again and Mia composed herself with a deep breath and then began to pull at the sparks of darkness scattered through Bobby. There wasn't as much but it was both more spread out and more ingrained. Mia was shaking when she finally expelled the aether ball from her other hand. Duke was at her side where he had been hovering and caught her as her knees gave way.
"Old, established, hard to pull out." She whispered, closing her eyes wearily. "I'll be okay."
She opened her eyes briefly and looked at Bobby. "You're okay." She assured him. "No more trouble – you can sleep now."
Bobby and Hannah hugged with joy and Hannah quickly escorted him from the hospital room.
"Well that wasn't promising." Nathan mentioned to Audrey as Dwight headed for the door.
"It worked." Audrey pointed out. "That's promising."
"Yes," Nathan agreed, "But look how exhausted she is."
"I'm okay." Mia countered, straightening up to stand under her own power again.
"You need to rest before you try that again." Duke frowned.
"I'm not going to be silly, Duke." She tried to reassure him. "Yes, it was hard but I've got enough energy for one more experiment."
"So what is the plan now, Dwight?" Duke asked warily.
"Kevin Callister has a controllable trouble." Dwight explained. "He "loses" things. If he doesn't like something he touches it vanishes – for good as far as I can tell. He doesn't have any reason to dislike Mia so she should be able to safely touch him and draw his trouble out if it's possible for her to affect these new troubles. Especially since one of the things he "lost" was his wife and newborn daughter when the new troubles hit today."
Duke frowned fiercely. Mia put a gentle hand on his face and turned it towards her.
"You aren't my protector, Duke Crocker." She told him firmly. "It's not your job to keep me safe. I make my own choices and I will try to help Mr. Callister."
Duke's frown intensified, his lips tightening with frustration. The door opened and Jason entered with a young man.
"Here he is, Chief." Jason told Dwight. "Sunni is on her way."
"What's going on?" Kevin Callister asked warily.
"I promised I'd do everything in my power to get your wife and baby back, remember? Well this lady might be able to do that. All she needs to do is touch your neck." Dwight answered soothingly. "You want to try?"
"Yes!" Tears stood in the man's eyes as he made his way to Mia. "Do it. Do whatever you have to do."
"Okay, Kevin." Mia smiled gently. "Just relax."
She put her hand on his neck and reached – the black was fresher, more of a sullen ember than a spark, but easier to pull than before. It hadn't had generations to embed itself into his genetic makeup. The extraction process was far easier this time.
A black aether ball dropped from her hand and she moved back from Kevin.
"The trouble is gone." She told them.
"Where are Carolyn and Suzy?" He wanted to know.
"I hope they returned to where they vanished."
Mr. Callister hurried off with an officer.
"That one was easier." She assured Duke. "It wasn't as much a part of him as the other."
"The older troubles are generations old." Charlotte mused. "They've been passed on from parent to child for hundreds of years. They must be more integrated into their hosts."
"Yes, that's what it feels like." Mia agreed.
"Okay, one last test." Dwight rubbed his hands together in a nervous gesture.
"What?" Duke was looking wary again and Mia fought the impulse to stomp on his foot. Somehow she was going to have to nip his protectiveness in the bud. But then she realized that it was only recently that he had lost the woman he loved and that he still blamed himself for bringing her to Haven in the first place.
"Some of the worst troubles are touch based. But Mia seems to need to touch people to pull the troubles out of them."
"Which would be bad with a touch trouble." Duke pointed out.
"But she can touch you and you're immune to these troubles. What if she can use you as a conduit?" Dwight asked pointedly.
Mia considered the suggestion.
"It might very well work, Duke." She decided. "It's not going to hurt anything to try."
Duke looked less than pleased but couldn't really find a reason to disagree.
"Are you up for another session?" He finally asked her. "Bobby's trouble seemed to exhaust you."
"I'm good, Duke." She smiled at him. "Stop mother-henning me."
"Sunni's here." The guard at the door announced before ushering in the young woman.
Sunni was covered in a fireproof blanket – the kind firefighters took with them when battling wildfires.
"So, obviously a heat related trouble."
"Virtually everything that touches her skin either bursts into flame or crumbles to ash instantly." Dwight explained grimly. "Sunni, Duke's going to put his hand on your neck – you won't hurt him –"
"Too bad." She said spitefully.
"But if this works," Dwight continued firmly, "your trouble will be gone, okay?"
"Do it." She agreed instantly. Her grip on the blanket loosened and she lifted her chin to provide access to her throat.
Duke took a calming breath and placed his hand on her throat – Mia considered him for a minute before standing behind him and reaching around him to place her hand on the side of his throat over an artery. Then she took a deep breath of her own and concentrated. Duke jerked as what Mia described as "black fire" penetrated his hand and moved through his arm to his heart to the vein under Mia's hand. He locked his knees against the pain and modulated his breathing, drawing on his yoga techniques to remain calm and receptive. He could feel Mia trembling against him.
Finally Sunni gasped and stumbled back, falling. Dwight grabbed at her instinctively but blanket dropped from around her as she fell. Dwight tensed in anticipation of flames that didn't come. Sunni looked at him with horror that changed to amazement as nothing happened. Then she burst into tears of relief.
Charlotte pulled a hospital gown out of a cupboard and draped it around Sunni as her clothes had burned off her when her trouble manifested and she'd been naked under the fire-proof blanket.
"Come on; let's get you out of here." She murmured soothingly as she led the still weeping woman out of the room.
"So that works." Dwight sighed with satisfaction.
"Barely." Nathan opined with a pointed look at Duke and Mia clinging to each other in exhaustion. "If only we had a way to cure everyone at once…"
Charlotte returned and carefully gathered the aether balls into a specimen jar.
"Okay, you've put this off long enough – talk to us." Dwight demanded firmly, ignoring Mia's clear exhaustion. Duke bristled but Mia stifled whatever he planned to say with a gentle squeeze of the hand he had around her waist.
"I did promise." She murmured to Duke.
"Okay, here it is. Croatoan is my brother." She stated baldly.
Nathan had his gun trained on her in a heartbeat.
"No, you can't hold me hostage – he hates me as much as he hates anyone. I helped Charlotte turn him in to our people for his ethical violations." She told Nathan. "And no," she looked at Duke grimly. "I am not working with him. I've been trying to figure out how to stop him ever since he was banished. I know my brother, you see – or I did – he's never been one to let go of a grudge."
"Okay, everyone stand down." Dwight pushed down Nathan's gun, giving Nathan a "Are you crazy? Do you want to shoot me?" glare.
"Start at the beginning." He ordered Mia. Mia smiled wryly.
"The beginning is almost six hundred years ago, when Charlotte and my brother were just starting to explore the Void." She began with a touch of humor.
"Is this relevant to today?" Dwight wanted to know.
"Oh yes." Mia assured him. "Charlotte and my brother were young, by our standards, and very ambitious. My brother was sure that the aether in the Void was going to allow him to make amazing breakthroughs in biology and genetics and possibly even to jump start evolution entirely. Our people had known about aether for centuries but after a couple of early tragedies aether research was forbidden and the Void was avoided except for exploring parties seeking thinnies. Your world had been discovered shortly before their foray into aether research. I've always suspected that was the trigger that sent my brother into the Void – jealousy that someone else got recognition while he was still struggling. "
Charlotte nodded, sorrow, guilt and unhappy memories etched on her face.
"They didn't realize it but they were damaged by their aether exposure. During their research you were conceived, Audrey. I've often suspected you were conceived in the Void itself."
Charlotte nodded again, tears shining in her eyes.
"The damage in them was minimal and our medical technology kept them healthy but in you, Audrey, it was lethal. You developed a virulent cancer as a child that should have killed you, but your father realized that it might be aether poisoning and he managed to use aether to heal you. He actually melded it to you on a genetic level, although he could never repeat the feat with another being from either of our worlds."
"Charlotte was unaware of his research with live subjects. She had left your father at that point. Your illness and their suspicion that it was caused by their research in the Void drove them apart. When your mother discovered what he had done –"
"He told me, Dove." Charlotte said to Audrey. "He told me of the people he killed in his experiments to save you."
"— she informed the authorities and your father was banished to the Void. You were still a child, just beginning to recover from your illness. What the others didn't know was that your father was suffering a psychological breakdown from the aether exposure. I knew but he'd been banished at that point so what could I do? I watched over Mara and kept an ear out for any unusual occurrences that might be my brother's actions."
"Which you found." Duke guessed.
"My brother figured out how to open a thinnie to our world – he started visiting Mara. He knew I was watching, though, and he caught me before I could warn Charlotte. He dragged me to the Void. He was going to experiment on me – he started to experiment on me – but I got away while he was off collecting aether or visiting you, Audrey, or something. I didn't dare return to our world so I followed him to this one. I saw him destroy the Roanoke Colony."
"But he didn't see you?" Audrey asked.
"No. I was very sick at that time. He did something to me before I got away, I think, but I never knew what. I just ran from the horror of the destruction of the colony and I kept going until I passed out. When I came to I was in the camp of an Ojibwa tribe and I looked like I do now. I was ill for a very long time and when I finally recovered – well, when I recovered I had become attached to one of the men who had found and rescued me. We had a small family and I was very happy until the day I had to leave because my everlasting youth had become noticeable."
"What did you do then?" Nathan asked. Everyone was enthralled by her story.
"I began travelling. I had collected quite a store of native remedies and was able to make my way all the way up here by trading my herbs and knowledge along the way. When I got here to Tuwiuwok the Mi'kmaq were just beginning to form the core of Haven. They were gathering in the troubled. I spent many happy years here where my "youth trouble" was accepted, even though it meant I had to be quite reclusive to avoid both my brother and Mara's notice when they began to meddle. I helped the Teague family to settle in here and form the guard and start learning how to deal with the troubles."
"But something happened." Duke guessed.
"Oh yes." Mia agreed. "My brother caught wind of an eternally youthful woman and I had to vanish. I spent the next two centuries travelling this continent, although I checked on Haven often. I knew when Mara was put in the barn – a plan I could have told you was doomed to failure, Charlotte, but our paths never crossed. I eventually returned to Haven and I studied the troubles even as I avoided people. I began to hope my brother thought me dead."
"You're Widow Jensen!" Dwight and Nathan said simultaneously.
"Guilty." Mia admitted. "And I was her mother and grandmother and great grandmother too. Fortunately I had learned about makeup and was able to appear horribly disfigured to explain my many selves' reclusive tendencies."
"So how did you end up at the seaplane docks with no memory?" Dwight wanted to know.
"Mara." Mia said simply. "When she was on her thinnie scavenger hunt she found me. She thought I had closed the thinnies at first but even when she knew I hadn't she kept me captive. She took blood from me and left. I was fortunate that she left me a supply of food and access to water because she vanished after the first few days. I still ran out of food long before she returned. When she finally came back it was to inject me with someone's blood."
"Mine?" Duke wondered.
"I believe so. It was infused with aether and the shock – well I think it nearly killed me."
"What purpose could that serve?" Audrey wondered.
"I think she was testing to see if Duke had mutated to be able to give people from our world troubles. That was her plan – her father's plan really, but she adopted it."
"And I am able to affect you." Duke observed grimly.
"I am now troubled but it's a useful trouble." Mia agreed. "What I don't think Mara expected, though, was that I too am something new because I can affect Duke. He isn't immune to me."
"So, where does that leave us?" Dwight asked practically, focused on the primary issue of survival.
"My brother is here now." Mia told them. Charlotte gasped in dismay, her eyes wide and her hands over her mouth as she shook her head from side to side in denial. "He has no physical form so he is attached to one of your people. We need to figure out how to deal with the troubles and aether on your world once and for all – it's the only hope we have of defeating him."
"What does he want with us? Did he make that shroud that has us all trapped?" Audrey asked, not to confuse the issue but because these were important aspects to the overall problem.
"He wants power from you." Mia told her and Charlotte nodded her agreement. "Troubles are power in the right hands. And he wants Duke to collect troubles and give them at his direction. He wants Audrey to create and give troubles as well."
"What about you and Charlotte?" Dwight asked, concern edging out the pain of Charlotte's deceptions.
"Oh, he wants us dead." Mia told him with a wry twist to her lips. Once again Charlotte nodded and it was clear she was frightened.
"The years I've spent on this planet haven't been wasted. I've been studying the troubled. Charlotte and I should return to my home and perhaps together we can devise a solution to the troubles."
"The barn." Charlotte offered. "I created it to pull the troubles from every person on this world if Mara ever demonstrated she could not be redeemed."
"What?!" That came from every earthling in the room.
"If one of Mara's overlay personalities killed the person they loved the most then the barn would have drawn all the aether on this planet back to the Void forever." Charlotte explained.
"And the people?" Mia asked shrewdly. As far as she knew she was the only being that had ever removed aether from a living host without killing it.
"… would have all died." Charlotte admitted with more than a little shame.
"Aren't we glad I refused to kill you, Nathan?" Audrey asked her partner pointedly. Nathan shrugged but nodded too.
"But if I study you, Mia," Charlotte said, breaking the brief silence that fell, "perhaps I could adjust the programming of the barn to draw the aether safely from the living host."
"There's a problem with this plan." Duke pointed out dryly. "The barn was destroyed."
"It can be rebuilt." Charlotte told them. "We need an aether core and it would be considerably easier if we could recover the control crystal, but it can be rebuilt."
"So, break this down into its components." Dwight said, thinking aloud. "Charlotte and Mia research the programming issues. Someone has to find an aether core. And someone has to find the control crystal."
"The aether core must be created and ideally it would be created by Audrey." Charlotte clarified. "Mara created these troubles and they are connected to her on their most fundamental level. And Audrey's ability to love catalyzes the aether – it becomes amazingly powerful. I honestly believe her love is greater than Mara's ever could have been because she is not tainted by the damage the aether did Mara as a child – she's healed from that."
"So what does Audrey need to create an aether core?" Dwight wanted to know.
"Aether." Charlotte and Mia answered together.
"And we're back at square one because the thinnies are sealed and the aether is in the Void." Dwight sighed with frustration.
"We could find William's stash." Nathan suggested.
The room perked up at that suggestion.
"Mia and Charlotte, research. Dwight and Duke, you two work together to keep the troubles under control. Audrey and I will find William's stash." Nathan recommended.
"When you do," Charlotte told them, "don't do anything with it – come get me. Audrey will need to be guided through her first interactions with aether."
"Fine." Nathan agreed.
Dwight left the room at that point to give instructions to the Guard. Audrey and Nathan left to set up their office at the station to organize their aether search. Charlotte excused herself and went after Dwight. Mia smiled, having sensed the tension between the two.
"I'm guessing she won't be back any time soon." Duke said looking from the two speaking earnestly in the hall to Mia's smile.
"Not if Charlotte has her way." Mia agreed. "I'm so happy for her."
"I'm kind of glad about that." Duke said. "Because I wanted to talk to you alone."
"Yes, I wanted to talk to you too. Is there a reason why we cannot go to my home?"
"None that I can see." Duke told her. "Let's just tell Dwight."
However Dwight had objections, the main one being that right now the majority of Haven wanted nothing more than Duke's head on a platter.
"You stick with me, Duke." Dwight ordered him. "At least until people realize you didn't do this on purpose. Stan can take you and Charlotte to your place." He finished to Mia. Mia shrugged and bowed to necessity.
"Be safe, Duke." She told him earnestly. "They might not realize it but we need you to defeat my brother."
"No one needs me." Duke replied, sinking into guilt and despair. "All I do is hurt people."
Mia touched him and there was a spark of connection between them similar to what Audrey and Nathan experienced.
"I need you." She countered gently. "And Haven needs you. Don't give in to despair."