Title: Time Come Round at Last
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: All Sanctuary stuff not owned by me, please don't sue or retcon me. Oh yeah, Flo (Florence) is mine, pinch her without asking and you'll regret it, grrr. (I jest ^_^, but really, it would hurt my feelings if she would be used and I got no intellectual credit for creating her, so please ask if you want to use her).

"You were saying at the hostel that your foster mother picked your name, and that your foster father didn't want you to stay with them, why? "Dr. Magnus asked her guest.

"I guess, I reminded him of a trek he took in an uninhabited mountain valley year ago.. Either that or he never liked taking home anything from his journeys. You see, he was Cabal, so he distrusted everything to do with the abnormal world, and he as a scientist believed that I was just there to be tested on as far as he was concerned" Florence told her.

"But, your foster mother stopped him from destroying you" Magnus queried.

"Yes, and took me in. Although I was permitted to take his surname, hence the Smith" she told her adding "Not that I would want to take his name, he was a cruel man"

"It must have been hard for you, living with him" Magnus asked.

"Yes, it was. But Mum would always make things better for me; they were really polar opposites of each other, she passed away a couple of years ago after I moved out" Florence told her.

"I'm sorry to hear, I would have quite liked to have met her" Magnus said.

"She would have liked you, she grew to hate what her husband was doing, and she had found out after I had left after that she had tracked me down and asked me to come home. It was the last time I saw her. I only found out that she had died when I read the paper one day. I was too late for the funeral" Florence told her.

"Why were you reading the obituaries anyway" Magnus asked.

"To see whether he died, only then I would have been safe. It was too dangerous for me to go back while he was alive, he would have captured me. He spent his whole life studying abnormals in the Protean and Neanderthal genus. He was trying to find a way to control them, he never believed that the Lazarus virus would work fully, he pressed all his hope on his life's work" she told her.

"So you ran away from home" Magnus surmised.

"No, I left for college. I just never told him where I got in. He always thought that I wouldn't amount to anything, that the only thing I would be good for would be science experiment, he was planning it since I first went to live with them, but I left before he could do anything about it.. Mum found out about what he was up to after I left. I actually got into Philosophy, she was quite proud. She tutored me at home for an hour each evening after school" Florence told her.

"And when did you first show signs of change" Magnus asked her.

"Around five years after I graduated" Florence told her adding "But I knew what to expect, I read up on what I was just in case I did turn, I always thought myself that I wouldn't because of each year that went by, but I was wrong"

"You mentioned that you like to 'rage it out', how do you manage that without being spotted" Magnus asked.

"When I was looking about for a place to base the hostel in the city, I chose that time to also find a suitable place out of town away from every thing" she told her adding. "If you don't mind Dr. Magnus, I'd quite like to get going, I have work to do"

Florence walked out of Dr. Magnus's office after saying goodbye to her. She met Big Guy in the hallway.

"Hi again" she said smiling at him. The Bigfoot nodded acknowledging her. "How is your friend?" she asked.

"Ok, could be better" he replied.

"Well, tell him I was asking for him" she told him. He nodded.

Not far away from where they were talking, Henry had been listening in on the woman and Big Guy. He didn't mean to, it just, sort of happened. He tried to ignore it, but he was slipping a little since his visit to the hostel.

He was not comfortable with what he became; he had always thought that what he was would just pass him by. However, he still changed. That doctor that had tested him knew about what he was, and knew how to bring it, as the doctor said himself "out into the open". And to his own knowledge, there was none of his own kind around, they were always sure to keep themselves hidden away from any human contact. He understood why they chose to do this. The more he went down the path of his life as an abnormal, the more he understood what Big Guy told him about the other side of him about how it was a blessing and a curse, there just weren't many like him that could understand what was happening to him.

A little later, Magnus knocked on Henry's room door. "Henry, can I come in?" she asked. "Yeah Doc" was the reply.

"I hear you had an eventful visit to the hostel" she told him.

"Yeah, well it happens" he replied adding "How can she be here, I thought my kind were hard to find now"

"Yes, well, it would seem that she encountered the same fate as you have had" she informed him.

"She was found, like I was?" Henry asked.

"It would seem so, she was found and raised right here in the outskirts of the city" she told him adding "She's coming back to the Sanctuary tomorrow, she feels really bad over what happened in the hostel and Bigfoot informs me that.."

"She was asking for me, I know Doc, I was listening, I didn't mean to, it's just, all my senses are in overdrive since it happened" he told her.

"I would like if you were with me when she comes to visit tomorrow." She asked him.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Doc" he informed her.

"Well if you change your mind, she'll be here in the morning, and I won't force you" she told him before leaving.

The next day, Florence knocked on the door of Dr Magnus' office; Big Guy answered the front door of the Sanctuary and let her in.

When she opened the door of the office, her nose caught his scent before she saw him, although she did not let it show that she did. "Hello again Dr. Magnus" she said

"Hello Florence" she replied adding "You have met Henry Foss before"

"Yeah, unfortunately under more stressful conditions, and I am sorry about that" she told him.

He nodded. "It's ok" he replied.

"It's not really, I usually have more control, and I'm a bit embarrassed by my outburst" she told him.

"Well, the reason why I asked you back today is a little obvious, I have never really seen anyone else like Henry before now, and I'm afraid that as a scientist, my curiosity got the better of me" she told him.

They didn't like hearing this, and they tensed up a bit, both so much so that they seemed to be in sync with each other.

Both had some bad memories of being tested on, perhaps they both remembered it in a flash of memory. She realized her mistake on saying this.

"What I mean to by that is, you both are the only two of your kind to have integrate into your surroundings, sure I know about Henry, but I'm curious to know whether or not there are similar environs to his which have contributed to how you turned out to be the person you are today" she assured them.

"The person who always lost those around her who took care of her and was abandoned by the one person who she thought accepted her was her friend" Florence said sadly.

Then Henry did something that surprised Magnus, he reached over and caught hold of her hand. "You're not alone now, we'll help you" he said as he reassured her.

Magnus observed how suddenly Henry became protective of her in trying to let her see that there was someone there for her.

Perhaps, she mused, being the only one of his kind was something he had never thought of before because he pushed it out of his mind. But ever since he had first changed maybe this was something that he had thought more and more of, and only in the silence of the night, after his work was finished he would face the loneliness he felt.

Perhaps when he was faced with one of his own kind finally he found a connection with his life before she found him. The remnant of instinct unforgotten subconsciously left inside from when he was living wild on the moors, instinct which was now telling him that the woman beside him needed to be protected. She couldn't be sure, maybe it was all just Henry, she knew him nearly all his young life, but every now and then he still surprised her.

And as much as she tried to hide it, she couldn't but help feel intrigued over this new wolf and her effect on Henry.