Kate Freelander walked through the halls of the London Sanctuary, wary at the silence surrounding her, hearing nothing but the clack of her boots as she quickly made her way to the office of this Sanctuary's head, Declan Macrae.
She wasn't picking up any overt signs of danger, but the silence was overwhelming her senses, and she sighed with relief as she caught sight of the office door now in front of her. She knocked three times, quietly, before hearing a soft "Come in" from the other side. Opening the door, she found herself facing none other than the head Sanctuarian himself.
"Kate, I wasn't expecting to see you today. What brings you to my part of the world?" Declan stood and greeted her with a perfunctory smile that spoke of the piles and piles of paperwork and emails that required his attention before he could go home for the night. A quick glance at his watch made him aware that it was already well past time to leave, and heightened his curiosity at Kate's presence. He had only met the former mercenary a few times, and though he hadn't disliked her, neither had he really given her any thought once he was back home in London.
"Magnus sent me over with some artifact that she found the other day in her office. She said you would know what to do with it." Kate shrugged as she removed the small parcel from her jacket's inner pocket and held it out to him as she neared his desk. She didn't know what was in the parcel, and wasn't really interested to find out, though she did wonder why Magnus hadn't sent it through a messenger service or in the post instead of sending Kate all the way to London with it.
Declan frowned as he took the package from Kate's hand, wondering the same thing she was, even if neither of them knew it. "Ah, thanks. She normally doesn't send you guys as her personal delivery service, so it must be fairly important. Let's open it, shall we? Why don't you have a seat?" He waved his other hand toward the chair facing his desk, as he sat back into his own chair, and placed the small paper-wrapped package on the desk in front of him.
Kate sat in the proffered seat, leaning back and sighing, "Long trip over here; don't mind if I do." She really wanted to just leave and find a nice hotel room with a nice bed for the night, but thought she'd amuse him and watch as he unwrapped what she assumed was an unimportant item.
She couldn't have been more wrong.
As his hands pulled apart the tape binding the paper wrapping together, a small static charge leapt out of the paper, mildly shocking him. He pulled his hands back, rubbing them together, a quizzical look crossing his face. He looked over at Kate, noticing that she was trying to hide a laugh at his misfortune, and inwardly grinned a little as well. He could see how it would be funny to see it happen to someone else, though it really had hurt. He reached for the package and finished pulling the paper away, uncovering a nearly-flattened tube made of metal with strange indentations along its surface. His confusion must have shown on his face, because Kate asked, "So you don't know what it is?"
He looked back at her, noticing the smile had gone from her face, and answered truthfully, "No, actually. I don't know why Helen would assume that I would know what this is or what it does, but I haven't a clue."
As he set it down on his desk, another spark shot from the tube and reached for the ceiling. Upon reaching the electric light fixture there, a shockwave boomed from the device, rendering both Declan and Kate unconscious, before becoming inert once again.
The silence that had made Kate so nervous earlier was now deafening in its totality. As they began to stir, their small movements were the only noises to be heard. "Kate? Are you there? Are you okay?" Declan's voice rang across the room, sounding as though he had yelled when he had actually barely used his voice at all.
"Yeah, I'm here and I think I'm okay. How about you?" Again, the silence was so complete that it seemed like she was yelling when at barely above a whisper.
The silence wasn't the only thing surrounding them as they sat up and took inventory of themselves. It was also pitch black, not a scrap of light emanating from anywhere in the room. There was a large window on one side of the office, which should have been letting in a good deal of moonlight, but neither of them could see a thing; not even their hands in front of their faces.
"Yes, I think I'm fine, but I may have gone blind. Can you see anything?" Her near-whispered assertion that she could not made the panic rise up in the back of his throat. His hands rose to his face, feeling to be sure that his eyes were intact, and just when he thought he would truly never see again, his ears perked to the sound of a flint being stricken, and a small glow reached his vision as Kate's hand rose up, holding a metal Zippo lighter like a life-line. "Oh, God. I am so glad you had that. I was about to really start panicking."
Kate laughed lightly at his admission, and the music of her laugh sounded like a full symphony in the silence. He had never heard anything so beautiful as that laugh. And then she spoke, "Well I got the lighter; you have any candles or lamps?" The sound of her voice was like water to a parched throat, husky and wonderful, and it seemed like it was the best thing he had heard all night, or even all year, with the deepening silence pressing in around them. He shook his head as he came back to his senses, realizing she was asking about candles for light.
"Ah, yes I think I have some here." He used the meager light of her lighter to dig around in the bottom-most drawer of his desk, coming out with several fat white candles that he had leftover from the office's previous tenant. He'd never had the heart to throw them out, for which he was infinitely grateful now. Declan set them out on his desktop and after having her light them, the lighter closed with a quiet click, the candles' comforting glow surrounding their faces and casting shadows into the darkened room.
After a moment to compose themselves, they each went around the office, testing to see if anything worked, and it appeared that all the electricity had been sucked from the office. He went to check his watch, to see how long they had been out, and found that even it had stopped. The doors wouldn't open, even with their combined weight trying to force them open.
Finally giving up and deciding to wait until morning to see if anyone realized they were missing, they both sat down on the floor with their backs up against the front of Declan's desk, gathering the candles around them so as to be bathed in as much light as possible. Still, the dead silence was oppressive, and they began to talk. Once they started, neither of them found it easy to stop talking, and conversation was easy. They both laughed at silly stories from their childhoods, and were suitably quiet when the subjects turned to the morose.
They talked for a while about how Declan had felt when he became head of the London Sanctuary. He admitted that it had been his goal for a long time, but didn't think the dream would ever be realized with the advances Watson had made in his automated suit. When he found out that the suit had failed and his friend and mentor was dead, he was horrified. He'd had no idea that this trip they were all taking would be so dangerous, and had nearly fallen into a depression at the news. That was when Magnus had told him that he would be taking over for Watson, and the news had sent him reeling.
He admitted that he would give anything to have his friend back, but was so grateful for the time he'd had to lead such a prestigious part of the Sanctuary Network. Especially, he thought, if it ended up leading to a development with Kate. His heart skipped a beat, and he suggested they move on to happier topics of conversation.
"Cuthbert? Really?" Her laugh still amazed him, even after several hours of conversation. Declan found himself growing quite attached to Kate as they laughed together, discussing their middle names. "Where in the world did your parents come up with Cuthbert? Declan Cuthbert Macrae. What a name!" Saying his full name caused her to fall into another fit of giggles, which he secretly thought was adorable.
"My mum was a big fan of William Faulkner... William Cuthbert Faulkner. From whence I come." He laughed with her at his silly middle name, then posed the question to her. "And what did your parents see fit to saddle you with, Miss Freelander?" He playfully poked his elbow into her side and she started a new fit of giggles, clutching her hand to the spot he had prodded.
After a moment to compose herself, but still lightly laughing, she replied, "Anne. Plain and simple. Katherine Anne Freelander."
He thought to himself that she was anything but plain or simple, and told her, "I think it's a beautiful name," thinking that she was also quite a beautiful woman. He couldn't understand how he had never noticed her before. The dark and the silence was still overwhelming, but he wouldn't have given this night up for anything in the world. He felt like he was truly getting to know Kate, and that was worth more than he was willing to admit, even to himself.
He looked back over at Kate, who was sitting with her knees raised in front of her, her arms loosely tying her legs together, and her head hanging, nearly touching her knees with her nose with a shy smile on her face at his compliment. In that moment, she was the most breathtakingly beautiful woman he had ever seen, and he stopped breathing just for that second as the breath caught itself in his throat. His eyes were riveted to her profile in the gentle candle light, and as she tilted her head back up toward him, he tore his gaze away from her, lest he be caught.
As his head swung about, he saw something glint from the corner where he had stored the possessions of James Watson, his predecessor and mentor. The glint struck a chord in his memory, and he jumped up excitedly, running to the corner to snag the old wooden and brass box. He brought it back to their sanctuary of candles, and set it down just outside the circle, but between their spots. Kate's face was a mask of curiosity, wondering what the box was and what it contained.
"You're going to like this, Kate. If it even decides to work... but it's so old that I doubt the power surge would have had an effect on it, since it doesn't strictly work on electricity." He flipped the top of the box open, revealing an old record player with the hand crank on the side. He wound the brass crank a few times and was relieved to see the table start to turn. A quick press of a depressed switch on the front of the case close to the bottom, revealed a hidden drawer with a few records within.
Her curiosity turned to excitement when she realized this would mean real music, but then her mood went south as she recognized that a record player this old would have belonged to Watson, meaning his music taste would undoubtedly lean toward the classical and boring music for which she didn't care much. "Anything good in there?" She could hope for the best, even as she expected the worst.
He laughed lightly at the question. "James had quite an eclectic taste in music, so I daresay there's something worth listening to in here." He held up a few of the flat paper cases that held the records, revealing one with a picture of a man playing piano in a wild costume. The name glittering from the bottom proudly proclaimed Liberace and she winced. "Not your cup of tea then, eh?" He sifted through a few more of the records. "Looks like mostly music from the fifties and sixties, as well as a good bit of 'ye olde classics', but it looks like there are a couple you might like." He held up an Elvis Presley and a Beatles album, and she pointed to the Elvis.
"I'll take him."
Declan laughed at the blunt request and gallantly acquiesced, putting the Elvis Presley album on the player, lining up the needle with the edge of the vinyl disc, and cranking the player up several more times, giving it the power it needed to play the music recorded so long ago.
They both laughed as Elvis' voice began to play through the player's speakers, singing "Rock-A-Hula Baby." The quirky song quickly got them to their feet, with Kate pretending to hula (badly) and Declan attempting Elvis' hip-swing. The song ended with them laughing hysterically at each others bad dancing. He reached down and flipped the record over to the B-side, cranking the player back up and starting the next song.
The wistful chords of "I Can't Help Falling In Love" began to fill the room, and the laughter and grins faded from their faces as they reached for each others hands in silent acknowledgment and acceptance that they were about to dance together to this haunting love song. Their hands melded together as their bodies met, eyes closing as her head sank to his shoulder and his cheek pressed to her forehead. They swayed gently to the lilting music, and its magic began to seep into their very bones.
The song was only a couple minutes long, but those minutes seemed to stretch to forever as their bodies moved in perfect unison. As the song came to a close, Kate picked her head up and looked at him, realizing that all things aside, the night had been nearly perfect, and it was because she had been with Declan.
"Take my hand. Take my whole life, too. For I can't help falling in love with you."
As the last words faded to melody, their eyes met and each saw something in the other that they'd never known was there before this night. As if pulled by an invisible force, their heads leaned to the side and nodded toward each other and their lips met as their eyes closed. The kiss was gentle and everything one could expect from such a first kiss, neither putting too much pressure on the other, neither taking more than they could give.
As the silence descended once again, their heads lifted and their eyes opened and outside the window, the first rays of dawn could be seen descending from the sun. They leaned their heads together, foreheads meeting and eyes never straying from each other in a tender glance that said everything and nothing at the same time.
Even in the silence, neither heard the tubular device clicking from his desk as it released the locks on the doors and electrical devices. Halfway around the world, a similar device unlocked on the desk of Helen Magnus, and she smiled, knowing that her work for the night was done.
"Well done, you two."
She stood and walked from the study toward her bedroom, where a certain someone lay waiting for her, as always. She only hoped that Kate and Declan would be as happy as she always had been with her own lover. Well … maybe not always, but always when it truly mattered. As she opened the bedroom door and walked in to see his head laying on her pillow, the firelight glinting dully off its surface, she whispered to his sleeping body, "I told you to count on it and you did. Thank you." Then she climbed into bed, curled up with the love of her long life, and succumbed to sleep herself.
A/N: Written for the sanctuary_bingo community on LJ. Prompts were: Revelations (episode), Declan Macrae, Elvis, Kate Freelander, William Faulkner, with a focus on Declan.
Hope you all enjoyed it. :) ~CM