What Might Have Been
Time: It takes place after episode 203 "Eulogy"
"Mummy!" Five-year-old Ashley cried as she stretched out her arms for the comfort that only a mother could provide.
"Ashley!" Helen cried, trying to reach her daughter. The chasm which separated them from one another was deepening.
"Mummy, please!" Ashley cried again. "I'm scared!"
"I'm coming, Ashley!" Helen cried as the wind whipped her hair into her face which distorted her view for a moment.
"You brought our daughter on this dangerous safari?" John demanded from beside her. "Have you lost your mind?"
She tried to move the hair from her face. "John...She wandered out of the sanctuary..." She tried to defend. "It was not my fault!"
"A likely story, Helen." He said with a face that had hardened in coldness. "You always did try to hide your flaws so as to protect that facade of perfection which has always been your personal sanctuary."
"Mummy!" Ashley cried again.
"John, I have to save her!" She cried, desperately.
"Well, you can't!" He snapped as he flashed out of sight and over to their daughter. He caught her up into his arms before disappearing with her.
"ASHLEY!" Helen cried to the heavens as she felt the bone-chilling cold of the torrential rain which began.
"ASHLEY!" She cried as she sat up in her Victorian-style four-poster bed, drenched in a cold sweat.
She heard the faint chiming of the Grandfather clock just outside her room, and realized it was four o'clock in the morning. She sighed as she got out of bed. Perhaps she should just get a start on her day. She still had so much to do. And though she knew it bewildered Will, she really didn't need much sleep to keep her strength up.
