Disclaimer: I own nothing, but ABC and BBC do…so yah…
Author's note: So this is supposed to take place during 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road' about right after Mark found that ring in the queen chess piece, but right before they find out what it is. And first two bits of dialog in the conference room are straight from the show.
The strange man appeared 4 hours ago. He was English, or so he sounded. He had been wondering around the building and was taken in to be questioned. He had just flashed some sort of badge and was about to get away when Mark Benford spotted the guy and stopped him. They both were in the interview room now. The man was sitting in the chair, feet up and staring out the window. As for Mark, he had just walked into the room, having just finished explaining to the guys that stopped him why he took in a man, apparently from MI5, in for questioning. The man looked up and took his feet off the desk as Mark strolled in, taking a seat across from him and placing the folder in his hand on the tabletop.
"Who are you?" queried Mark in his normal growl.
"John Smith," simply stated the man, his spiky brown hair bobbing with his head.
"Yah, that's what you told my colleagues. You also told them that you were from MI5, but we checked. There are no John Smiths in MI5 currently," replied Mark opening the folder, revealing a list of the MI5 agents on record, which he passed to 'John Smith' to prove his point.
"Really?" began the man, sounding surprised and looking over the list. "I would've thought that there was at least one John Smith in MI5…John Smith is a pretty common name you know..."
"So, I'm guessing that you're not John Smith," concluded Mark.
"Yep. You got me," said the man leaning back, not looking at least bit worried.
Mark thought so. John Smith was a common name, but strangely enough he's only met one. Plus, there's also the fact that John Smith is a clear red flag for a fake name. But there was something about how the man reacted to the fact that Mark figured out who he was, that bothered the FBI agent. The man seemed too casual about the whole thing, no fright or menace. That could only mean one thing: that he was definitely hiding something.
"Then who are you really?"continued Mark.
"I shouldn't say…I'm not actually supposed to be here. But you know curiosity, gets the best of yah sometimes," cheerily said the man with a goofy smile plastered on his face.
Mark stared at the man, trying to figure out whether or not he was telling the truth. There were two types of people that won't tell you their names. They either don't know their names, or they're hiding something, something so important that they don't want their name to be on the record of that something. What was this guy hiding? Mark had a feeling that it was something pretty dang significant to the Mosaic Investigation, otherwise he wouldn't have stopped him. After staring at the man for a few seconds, Mark deduced that this was going to get nowhere if he didn't ask another question that didn't have to do with this guy's unknown name.
"Fine…Where do you come from?" quizzed Mark.
"London, England," answered the man.
"What part of London?"
"Well…about that…Does it really matter? I'm here now…Why is my past so important?"
The man was dodging Mark's questions with the skill of a politician. There was obviously something that the man wasn't sharing, and Mark was determined to find out.
"Fine, then let's go to the future. What was your flash forward?" continued Mark.
"Pardon?" replied the man like he didn't hear the FBI agent.
"Tell me what you saw during the black-out," repeated Mark.
"I'm sorry?" responded the man sitting up, his eyebrows furrowing.
Mark sighed. Dodging questions was one thing, but pretending to not know about the black-out was another. Either this man had something seriously wrong with him, or he was hiding even more than Mark first suspected.
"Don't play dumb with me. Every person in the world blacked-out on October 6th, 2009 and saw their future. So tell me what you saw," commanded Mark.
"Oh…that's was why…and the damaged buildings…Oh!" spoke the man, getting up from his chair and beginning to pace the room, hands running through his hair all the while. "I'm so stupid! Why didn't I see it…no sense it before…Oh!"
As the man continued his rambling and pacing, Mark looked at him questioningly. This man was acting as if he didn't know about the black-out until he told him right now. Millions of people died, no one was unaffected and yet this strange man seemed like he's never heard about it. What was going on here? Who is he really? After a few more seconds of the man pacing the floor and Mark staring at him like he was alien or something, the man stopped and looked the FBI agent.
"Oh…uh…Sorry, just…recovering from…amnesia. It's taking awhile for me to get me memories back," stated the man taking a seat once again. "So, as you were saying?"
Mark had a feeling that the guy was lying through his teeth, but went along with it. "So...Do you remember your flash forward?" he questioned, trying to find out more of the man's 'amnesia.'
"Sorry, no. Like I said amnesia. Bothersome ain't it?" replied the man with his goofy smile.
"Yes…So, you don't remember anything?" pressed on Mark, thinking that maybe his could jog this guy's memory.
"Nope."
Mark sighed again. This was getting really annoying. He was not getting anything out of this bizarre guy. His suspicion about him being this crazy and dangerous person was fading, but his skepticism about his answers was still very high. This man was important, after all why would his picture be on the board in his flash forward?
Time passed, and after a handful of more questions, Mark still got no real answers out of the guy. Sighing once more, he announced that he was going to get some coffee. When he returned he found the man gazing through a gap in the blinds and into the office full of busy FBI agents. What the…? But before he could think anything else the man spoke up.
"Tell you're guy over there he's doing it wrong," he said pointing to the newbie, Agent Rood.
"What do you mean?" questioned Mark quickly glancing back at Rood.
"He's entering intricate codes to protect…what is that? A website? Yah…a website. Is a very complex job. It seems that that guy over there is not doing it correctly. My guess is that he's new, and being busy with other things, a coworker dumped this on him. He probably bragged that he was good with computers to try to impress that pretty red head over there. And now that's biting him the butt, because he barely has a clue what he's doing. But that's just my guess. Oh and the guy behind him is playing a game because he keep pressing two keys, probably to move his character or whatever he's doing."
"And you guessed all that from where you were sitting?" asked Mark doubtfully.
"Yep. I have very keen eyesight."
Mark smirked in disbelief. He was getting a good idea that this guy, whatever his name was, was very strange indeed, but there was no way that he could tell all of this from his seat. He must've gotten up and out of the room…but Mark would've seen him. He had kept the room in his eyesight the whole time he was getting coffee, there was no way that the man could've escaped from the room without his notice. Then how…?
Mark looked back at Agent Rood. He was scratching his head and squinting his eyes at the computer screen, which now displayed complicated codes for the security of the Mosaic website. He did look confused and way over his head. Okay, maybe the man might've gotten that first part about Rood right, but what about the bragging to impress the red-head Agent Rita Tyler? Mark wouldn't lie. He did overhear Rood telling everyone that he used to know Bill Gates and that he could work anything out on a computer. And he did sometimes see Rood eye Rita's figure at times. Now Mark was more observant than most, but he couldn't have done what the man just did. So, how did he do it?
"So, judging from you face, I'm right," suddenly commented the man.
"Uh…," stuttered Mark, completely bewildered by the man's accomplishment and wanting even more to learn some information about this guy. "Wh-What did you say you're job was, before?"
"A mix of everything. I mostly travel," calmly replied the man.
"And what does that 'mix' include?" Mark pressed on, sitting down again.
"Well…everything from medicine to physics to history to inventing. Really a hog-pog of everything, really…," began the man and then all of a sudden leaning forward. "Why?"
"Just wondering…" said Mark, mind wondering over to his flash forward. There was no doubt that the man in front of him was the man in the picture that was on his board. No one could forget that strange outfit and messy hair. After all that was the reason why Mark had spotted him in the first place and was even able to stop him before he got away. But the question has always been why he was on Mark's board in the first place? So far the only thing the man had accomplished was being mysterious and just plain strange, there was nothing so far that made him important to the Mosaic Investigation. He just had to keep pressing and maybe he'll get something out of him.
"So…this flash forward stuff…was it a global momentarily shift in conscience, making people see, quote, the 'future' and black-out in the process? How is that possible with human technology? Humans aren't supposed to have that kind of technology yet…'course I don't know everything about this universe…I could be wrong…but still I've got a feeling that this wasn't something ordinary," babbled the man, sounding more like he was talking to himself then to the Mark.
"That's what we're trying to figure out here," responded the FBI agent.
Suddenly Agent Janis Hawk peered in.
"Mark, Lloyd Simcoe and Simon Campos are here. They, along with the others, are waiting for you in the conference room," informed Janis, and without another word she vanished from the doorway and headed towards the conference room.
Mark turned his head away from the door, and looked back towards the man. What was he going to do with him? He had to go meet up with Lloyd and Simon. He had to get their opinion on the ring that he found in the queen chess piece, only they could have a clue what it was. But he couldn't just leave the strange man alone.
"What are you waiting for? Sounds like that's important. Don't was your time with little old me," said the man, leaning back in his chair and putting his feet up again. "Now I'm not making any promises, but I won't wonder off."
Mark stared at the guy with is penetrating glare. He had to get to the conference room, they were waiting for him. He could just get someone to stand guard outside the room and make sure this man didn't walk away. Yeah, that was what he was going to do.
"All right. I'm going to go to the conference room. Now you stay here," stated Mark, getting up and heading towards the door.
The man nodded like a little kid with his quirky smile plastered on his face. Mark eyed him one last time, and then walked out of the room. He sent Agent Rood to make sure this man didn't wonder off, and headed towards to the conference room, picking up the ring along the way.
"Gentlemen," began Agent Benford walking with purpose into the room and setting the ring down on the conference table. "It's been pet scanned, CT scanned, and subjected to neutron admission analysis…"
He continued to inform his boss, colleagues, and the physicists about the mysterious ring. Mark couldn't say that his mind wasn't partially thinking about the bizarre man and the reasons why he had his picture on his board, but he had to focus on the thing at hand. Because it now was turning out that this ring was more important to the investigation than that man surely was. The conversation moved forward, and ended up with Simon explaining that the ring was a Quantum Entanglement Device (QED for short) and what it did.
"You're saying that this little thing," began Stanford Wedeck holding up the bag with the ring in it. "Kept those guys from blacking-out?"
Simon nodded, but before Mark could say what was on his mind about the whole situation, someone else spoke.
"Ooo, you're a smart one you are."
It turned out to be the guy that was supposed to be in the interview room. He was leaning again the door frame, hands in his pockets and looking like he had just commented on a conversation about the weather. Mark immediately stood up, anger rushing into him. He was going to kill Rood for letting the guy walk out of the room.
"What are you doing here?" Mark demanded.
"Who is he?" questioned Simon, stepping forward from his place at the TV screen at the front of the room.
"And where's his visitor's pass?" asked Stanford, also standing up.
"'ello," simply said the man, waving and smiling.
"I thought I told you to say in the room," growled Mark.
"You know curiosity, gets the best of yah sometimes," replied the man, repeating his answer from before.
"Mark, who is he?" demanded Stanford.
"He won't tell me his name. All I know is that his picture is on my board in my flash forward," responded Mark with a sigh.
"So that's why you're keeping me here. I knew it had to be something…" commented the man strolling into the room, grinning ear to ear.
That guy's smile was really getting to Mark. It was like he took nothing seriously, like it was all a game. To him it might be, but to Mark and the others around him it was not. Millions of people died in the black-out and there was a real chance of it happening again, this was not a game.
"So I'm guessing I was right about the black-out, judging by what…sorry what is your name?" said the man turning towards Simon.
"Uh…Simon, Simon Campos," replied the physicist, looking at the man suspiciously.
"Right, what Simon said. A momentary shift in conscience and all that jazz," began the man pacing behind the backs of the others. "What I don't get is why someone would want to do this. Why do they want the world to see their future? Knowing the future is boring if you ask me. A bunch of spoilers. Takes all the fun and surprise out of everything. Get's people all worried about what will happen when they should be worried about what is happening. What's the point in that?" he finished, finally ending up sitting down in the seat behind Lloyd.
Mark watched the man's movements carefully, ears taking in his words. Why do they want the world to see their future? That was the question that kept Mark up at night. At work they all seemed too worried about figuring out who they are and how they did this, that the question as to why they did this got left on the sidelines. It wasn't until very late at night when Mark couldn't sleep, did the question as to why pop into his mind. It tormented him, making the synapses in his brain work so much that it would often take a sleeping pill or hours of mindless TV to slow them down enough so he could sleep. And now that strange man had just spoken that question out loud.
"May I ask why he was on your board in your flash forward?" suddenly asked Janis.
"That was what I was trying to figure out before Simon and Lloyd came," replied Mark, eyes not leaving the man.
"How did he even get in without a visitor's pass?" queried Stanford.
"I don't know. He claimed to be a MI5 agent, but I looked. There was no one under the fake name he gave me. And when I asked him about it, he just side-stepped my questions. All of them," answered Mark.
"See, that's because I'm not supposed to be here…In fact…I should probably go," responded the man, getting up.
"Oh, no. I don't think so. You may have gotten past Rood, but you're not getting past me. You've got something to do with all of this, you're not going anywhere," menacingly replied Mark, still standing.
The man slowly lowered himself back into the chair, hands up in mock defeat. "Fine, fine. Whatever you say Agent Mark Benford. But I'd like you to know that I still shouldn't be here. I don't belong here. I'm not from here."
What was he talking about? thought Mark. Was he talking about how he shouldn't be in the building? In the state? Or even the country? Was he a criminal that wasn't supposed to leave England? Was he really that dangerous? Questions swirled around Mark's head like fog, but before he had a chance to voice any of them, someone else spoke up.
"I could've told you that…Have I met you before?" asked Simon.
"Uh…I don't know…" replied the man.
"He claims he has 'amnesia.' He doesn't even remember his flash forward," clarified Mark.
"That's a new one…," commented Janis, rolling her eyes.
"This flash forward stuff is really interesting, you know. All this timey-whimey stuff. I would love to find out more about it, possibly help you…but like I said. I'm not supposed to be here. I shouldn't really do anything of that sort…but that's never stopped me before," babbled the man. "And it looks like you've got enough minds around here. This Simon fella, sounds like one. A really brilliant one at that."
"Who are you?" questioned Simon, a mixture of amazement and bewilderment on his face.
"I told you he won't tell me his name," repeated Mark.
He was really getting tired of this guy. He was mysterious, yes, but he was also very annoying. If the man hadn't appeared on the board in Mark's flash forward, he would've sent him packing long ago. But he did, and that made him important somehow. Somehow…
"So what are we going to do with Mr. No-name, that had by some way or another entered this building without a visitor's pass, and for reasons yet unknown ended up in Mark's flash forward?" asked Stanford.
"I was planning to question him until I found out those answers, but I've been at it for an hour before Simon and Lloyd showed up, and I haven't gotten anything useful out of him," answered Mark.
"So the only reason why you're keeping me here is because you saw my picture in your flash forward?" queried the man.
"Didn't he already say that?" retorted Janis, looking at the man questioningly.
"So, this is all about you're flash forward," began the man ignoring Janis. "Interesting…Time doesn't run in a straight line, you know. In a non-subjective, non-linier viewpoint, it loops and curves and crosses. It's more like a ball of...timey-whimey…stuff. In a nut shell, time is not how you normally think it is."
"And you know this how?" questioned Mark.
The man simply grinned his quirky and knowing smile. "I just do. Plus, I don't know if I can tell the truth and I don't think you'd believe me if I did."
"Try me," stated Mark, leaning over the table towards the man. He was on the edge of finding some real answers. He was anxious, but he just had to push a little more, and he would get them.
"You know, just the simple fact that you saw the future, changes the future," replied the man, changing the subject.
Mark sighed and turned away. This guy was really getting on his nerves. He wouldn't say anything! Mark just couldn't take it anymore. He couldn't look at his child-like smile anymore. So he turned towards the TV screen on the wall that now displayed the semantics that the tech guys had gotten of the ring, or QED device as Simon and Lloyd called it, so he wouldn't have to look at the guy any longer.
"How do you know?" questioned Simon.
"Well, how do you know that the future you saw was how it will happen after the black-out? How do you not know that what you saw was what will happen because of the black-out? How do you know if the future you saw was because you didn't see that future? I'm guessing, people are trying to change their future or trying to make it happen, that wouldn't have happened without the black-out, and without the black-out, that future would've happened. But now that you've seen the future, everything changes…or…maybe, possibly that it doesn't matter if you saw the future or not, because it's going to happen anyway, but depends on the flash forward and whether or not that event is significant to the future and possibly the past…but then again things can always change…expect for maybe a few things…it's all a bit complicated…but don't take my word for it. Things could be different in this universe," answered the man, talking very fast and like he wasn't human or part of this universe for that matter.
Mark sighed once again. When did he ever think this guy was dangerous or for that matter important? It was safe to say that he seriously doubted that he had even seen the guy's picture in his flash forward. It seemed like there was no way that this guy was even remotely important. What he had just said sounded like a combination of the questions that everyone was asking themselves and the mindless ramblings of a nut-job. Why did he even take him in for questioning? All he had gotten was senseless jibber, and no real answers. What was he doing even talking to the guy? Yes, he had the same clothes as the guy in the picture on his board, but now it didn't seem like he was that guy.
"You know what? I don't know why I didn't kick you out the moment I found you weren't an MI5 agent," said Mark rounding on the man. "And you know what else? I'm gonna grant you your wish. I'll that someone sees you out right now."
"But I think-"
"Mark? What about your flash forward?" asked Stanford, cutting off whatever Simon was going to say.
"I don't think it was him in that picture in my flash forward. It must've been someone else," replied Mark.
His boss nodded in acknowledgement. And with that Mark walked towards the doorway. He then called Rood back over and ordered him to escort the man out of the building. "And make sure he doesn't walk away from you this time. You got me?"
Rood nodded sheepishly. Mark then grabbed the man out of his chair, warned him what he would do if he ever saw him again in this building, and pushed him to go with Rood. Mark watched him go with a sense of accomplishment. He may have wasted an hour or so on this man that gave him nothing, but he was not going to waste anymore time; there were way more important things that he had to worry about.
"Now, where were we?" asked Mark, strolling back into the conference room.
A few days later, Mark's mind had managed to never stray to thoughts of that bizarre man with the quirky smile. It was filled with thoughts about Simon and how he escaped with the QED, and how April 29 was rapidly approaching, to name a couple. It wasn't until he walked past Agent Rood's cubical and noticed something on his computer screen, that that man even crossed his mind.
"What's that?" questioned Mark, coming up from behind.
It was the picture that he saw on his board in his flash forward. A picture of the strange man, from his spiky hair to his suit and converse.
"Where did you get that?" asked Mark, coming closer.
It couldn't be the picture, he thought. It just couldn't be. That man wasn't helpful in the least. In fact he seemed plain crazy. Mark was beginning to think that the picture he thought of was of another man, but here it was in front of him. A picture of that odd man from before.
"I took it on my phone of that man you told me to escort out a few days ago. I liked his style, and I wanted to remember it. I was thinking of doing something like that, without the converse of course. What do you think?" replied Rood.
"I think…," began Mark after a few seconds of staring at it. "I think you should print me a copy."
Rood did. And now Mark was standing in front of his board, the picture in his hand. He was debating if he should pin it up. He did see it in his flash forward. But the man didn't mean anything, his brain agued. Still he put it up anyway. He felt like he had to, even though this man had contributed nothing to the Mosaic Investigation. He had just appeared one day and wasted Mark's time. There was nothing important about him at all. But he had seen his picture in his flash forward. He couldn't shake that thought off. That was the reason why he had stopped the guy in the first place, important or not. He had seen it, and so therefore some part of him felt like he had to make it happen, whether he liked it or not.
He remembered then what the man had said…Time doesn't run in a straight line, you know. Maybe that was what was going on here. Maybe it was because he put the picture on now, that he saw it in his flash forward, and that's why he put the picture on it in the first place, all coming together in one big circle. What he did now, affected what he saw, and what he saw, affect what he did. It was weird and Mark barely understood it, but he pinned that picture of the bizarre man up anyway, feeling a sense of accomplishment as he did so.
Author's note: Wow, that's a whole lot of nothing. Okay, a whole lot of interesting nothing. But you have to agree with me. I don't have much of a plot right? Well it's kind of hard to make some plot if you think about it. I didn't want to have much change in the timeline of the show (this show is not something you can easily wedge something in without affecting the overall plot)…and having the Doctor around for any longer than this would have. So, sorry for those out there that want more, that possibly want…I don't know…aliens to kidnap Mark Benford or something. But I ain't the one that's going to do it. I wanted everything to make sense and fit perfectly into the timeline already set up by the show. If you want more, write a fan fiction yourself. I would like to read it.