A/N: Wow! It was only after a few hours that the first reviews came in. Thank you so much! I am so happy that you are all supporting me and this story. I can only hope that I make your expectations come true.

John took a moment to take in those words. Again, flashes from the past overflowed his mind. Images of his long lost love floated by. He had left her all those years ago in the knowledge that she would be better off, that she would be loved by her Indian husband and their two children. Now, one of those children was standing before him, breathing the same air. As John was leaving Virginia, Pocahontas had told him the biggest secret of her life. The few times that they had been making love had been sufficient enough for her to become pregnant with his child. They had a daughter together. Priya… It had been seventeen years since he had last seen her. She had only been a toddler of three years old back then. Now, she was a fully blossomed young woman. She looked exactly like her mother, although he could tell that she had mixed blood. A rush of joy came over him as he fully came to the realization that his daughter, his baby girl, stood before him. It was her, she was real. He couldn't say how this was even possible, he couldn't think straight. All those years she had been in his every thought, with everything he did. He had left her and the only woman he had ever loved that very day, yet the scent of the forest and the beach had never left his mind. He still felt the goodbye kiss that he had received from Pocahontas. From that kiss onwards, he would never love again.

He scratched his throat.

"Please come in."

He closed his eyes and inhaled her scent as she strode past him. She was followed by a young man who had not yet revealed himself. As he slipped inside, John caught a quick glance of him. He was Indian as well. This did not surprise John. He couldn't have imagined that Priya would have made the journey by herself. Not that she wouldn't have the spirit to do that, but still. The more he thought about her travelling all this way and managing to find him, the more it fascinated him. And she had come her on behalf of her mother? What could her message be? Why had Pocahontas not come this way herself? A sudden fear crept over him. Priya had sounded so indifferent, almost cold. Was it because English was only her second language? Surely she would have been taught the English language since more and more British ships went across the sea. Pocahontas had learned the language by listening to her heart, surely she would have passed the knowledge on to her children. Then another thought entered his mind. This young man… Was he Tej?

Priya looked around the house. She narrowed her eyes. So this was the place that he had spent the past seventeen years. She felt his eyes upon her back. She hoped that he would notice the resemblance with her mother. He must have noticed. People in the village always told her that she looked so much like her. They had the same feisty spirit. She was nothing like him. She resented the British people that came to invade her home town. They surely hadn't seized the construction of Jamestown. Her late grandfather had even started to trade and built relationships with those whites.

"Priya… I have no words… I don't know what to say."

She spun around.

"Then do not say anything."

John shook his head in confusion. The harsh voice coming from so sweet a face seemed out of the place, as if the voice wasn't really hers. She looked as if she was about to fall apart like a fragile doll. Not knowing exactly what to do, he turned to the man.

"Would you like anything to drink?" He asked Priya and glanced over at her. "Or your… friend?"

Priya understood that he was curious about her Indian companion.

"This is Kamchook. A friend. And we could do with a little water. Please."

John nodded and disappeared. Still puzzled by her sudden appearance his thought slipped away, causing him to spill the water. He quickly recovered and returned to the room, where he walked in onto the two of them talking. He had never been able to learn the language, even though Pocahontas had tried so often to teach him. He handed them the drinks, they emptied their glasses in an instant. There were a million questions that John would like to ask, and a million more things he wanted to say. Instead, he began with the one question that she had thrown him in his face.

"You've come to me on behalf of Pocahontas?"

He could not have known that this single question was about to change his life for good. He thought that those million questions and answers could be answered any time. He had her now and he would make sure. How could he have known that what he was about to hear, would trigger a race against time? That his carefree spirit would have to face that sometimes time would not be on his side? That the ticking of a clock could be the ticking of a heart, fading?

"Yes," Priya said crudely. Kamchook stirred, she shushed him.

"She is very ill."

John's eyes widened.

"We think that some sort of epidemic disease has broken out. The same disease has killed her husband and… my little brother."

She looked down as her voice broke. John felt the blood leave his face. He saw the little Tej lie peacefully in his crib, he saw how Pocahontas picked him up lovingly, how he smiled at her. And now he was gone. As for Tai, John felt bad for him, but of course he had never thought much of the man. It had been for Pocahontas that John had left, for her happiness, not for that of her husband.

"He was only sixteen…" she sobbed. Kamchook stepped forward and rubbed her back. She forcefully straightened her back and brushed him away. She looked at John angrily.

"Our healer can't do anything. We have even tried the doctor in Jamestown, but no one knew what to do. The only thing they could tell us was that looked like tuberculosis and that we should keep some distance or it would infect us too. They said that our only hope, that her only chance of survival lay in the hands of a new medicine which can be found only here, in England. That is why I have come. She asked for you. She said you would help."

"Of course I will!" he burst out. He couldn't believe that it was happening. Through Priya, Pocahontas had felt so close, and now suddenly so far away. My beloved. What hardships must we face this time? How unfair, how cruel.

"I know that you are an influential person. I trust that you will be able to get us to that doctor and help us get the medicines and the people we need."

"I will do what ever I can. I will not let her suffer, I will not give up on her."

"Good. We have been in England for a while now, actually. We have gathered information and we have discovered the whereabouts of the one man who can help us. We must travel to London."