It was the end of my Friday afternoon shift. I was running after a guy who just tried to rob an ATM, and who happened to do so in front of the hot dog stand where I was buying my dinner. I knew I didn't need to call in for reinforcements, for the fellow wasn't even armed. I was running much faster than him, so I also knew that I was going to catch him.

All of a sudden, though, something happened. The fabric of space somehow changed for a split second, causing me to lose my footing. I was about to land hard on the sidewalk, when a pair of strong arms caught me and stopped my fall.

I was so stunned I reacted much slower than usual. When I looked up to know who my savior was, I found myself looking into a pair of well know grey eyes. What I most certainly didn't recognize was the smile flashing below those eyes.

Steel? Smiling broadly? What was going on? And where did he come from? And, above, all, why? Just to prevent me to fall? Nothing made sense.

Before I could voice my questions, he made something even more out of character: he hugged me tight, whispering in my ear: "It's so good to see you, Connie."

Connie? He called me Connie! What was the matter with him?

I untangled myself from his hug, looked at him disbelievingly, and asked: "What's wrong with you, Steel? Are you OK?"

A female voice from behind me answered in his place: "I think he's very OK, detective. Actually, I think he couldn't be better."

Sapphire. I turned to greet her, and I was surprised to see Mercury, too. They were all smiling at me, clearly delighted to see me. That was very flattering, but definitely unusual.

Suspiciously, I asked: "All right, guys, what the hell is going on?"

Mercury answered: "Can you spare an hour, detective? We have a rather long story to tell."


I was sitting in my armchair, at home, where we all gathered after I gave up pursuing my little ATM robber and decided to listen to their story. I was gaping at Mercury, who had just finished telling me what happened in 1983.

"What? I committed suicide?" My voice sounded high-pitched to my own ears.

He said: "Yes. Right in front of them." And he looked at his two fellow operators.

Sapphire had closed her eyes, probably reviving the horror of such scene, while Steel had lowered his gaze, unable to look at me. Dear God, I could only image how they must have felt. They were sent to save me, and they were forced to watch me die. By my own hands.

But I still had an important question to ask. "Then why am I still alive?"

It was Mercury who answered me once again. Neither Sapphire nor Steel had uttered a word since he began his narration. "You are still alive because you removed the only thing that was out of time in 1983: yourself. Constance Stunt, the original one, was nine years old; she grew up into a fine police woman who today happened to chase a thief and escape a trap set up by time against her."

I was confused, to say the least: "You mean I escaped that trap by killing myself?"

"Yes. The moment you did that, time could not destroy your younger self anymore, and was forced to give you up."

Steel talked for the first time in about an hour: "You see, detective, no one can change the past, and consequently the future. Not even time itself. But it's very stubborn and it keeps trying. It just didn't expect a nut with such a hard shell to crack."

It was still very difficult to grasp. "I still can't believe I killed myself. Why did I do that? I most certainly didn't know that was the only solution to the time rift."

Steel answered again. "You probably figured that out somehow. You have learnt a lot since you began working with us. But I suspect you did it for an entirely different reason: you didn't want to shoot one of us."

Yes, that made sense. I knew I couldn't stand the thought of killing one of my friends. So the fact that I was still alive was just a side effect of that decision. Not very reassuring.

I was speechless for a few minutes, and the others didn't feel like interrupting my thoughts, letting me digest the whole story.

I decided to fix a cup of tea to calm my thoughts, which were making my head reel. When I finally sat down again with a reassuring steaming cup in my hands, I asked: "Could time try again?"

They knew what I was asking: was I safe anymore? Couldn't time set up a similar trap again and again? How could I live with peace of mind, knowing that virtually anytime I could find myself hurled back in the past?

I expected Steel to answer my question, and he didn't disappoint me.

"We cannot guarantee anything, but if there's one thing we have learnt about time, it's that it is very imaginative; it would never try the same trick twice. And believe me, we have fought it for a very long time, so I think I can reassure you from that standpoint."

The other two operators nodded convincingly, and I did feel reassured. I trusted their judgment and their experience.

Mercury added: "Look at the bright side, detective: now you know what you must do the next time you find yourself unwillingly sent to the past!"

His eyes were gleaming, so I knew that he was actually kidding, but for some reason that thought did contribute to reassure me. Of course, that would mean committing suicide again, but at least now time knew that I was willing to cross that line to escape its assaults.

I still shivered involuntarily, though, thinking that in some alternate timeline my other self had the guts to shoot herself in the head.

Mercury stood and came to say goodbye. He hugged me and said: "You have been very brave, detective. You would make a fine time agent. Take care of yourself." Then he briefly kissed my cheek, and disappeared.

Sapphire also prepared to leave, by standing and saying: "Goodbye, detective. I look forward to working with you again. Thank you for sparing our lives."

Then she also disappeared, leaving me and Steel alone, knowing that we needed a longer time to say our goodbyes.

He said: "She's right, you know?"

"About what?"

"About the fact that we owe you our lives."

I shrugged. "Just one of you, actually. Not both."

Then he surprised me with a very unexpected question: "Who would you have chosen?"

I said: "I hope you're asking it rhetorically."

He leaned against the door frame, hands behind his back, ankles crossed. "You know what Bryce said when he was forcing you to make a decision? He said that it was easy enough: would you save the cold, ruthless and heartless Steel, or the warm, nice and sympathetic Sapphire?"

I stared at him for a good minute, speechless. Then I crossed the short distance between us and, standing right in front of him, I looked at him in the eye, and said: "It is true that you are cold, ruthless and heartless."

He averted his gaze, but I forced him to look at me again by cupping his cheek with one hand. "But that only stands for those who don't know you. That is your mask. Granted, you wear it very tight, but people like Sapphire and me, and probably also some of your fellow operators, know that it hides something much deeper. I have seen you without that mask, Steel, and I liked what I saw; you may not want to hear what I'm about to say, but sometimes you can be more human than us human beings. Which might be a problem from where I stand."

He asked, softly: "Why?"

I inched closer. "Because that part of you attracts me very much."

He put his hand over my own. It was surprisingly warm. "Last time I looked, you were running from me."

I briefly entertained the thought of giving him a cunning answer, such as: "I'm not running now", but what stopped me then still stood today. Sapphire. I still hadn't grasped their relationship fully, but one thing was certain: they loved each other. The fact that they weren't expressing that feeling in a human way didn't mean that the feeling wasn't there.

What I didn't understand, though, was what attracted Steel to me. I was just a human being, after all, and I knew he didn't think very highly of my species. But I didn't feel like asking him; I was too scared he would tell me something like he wanted to know what an exotic affair with an unrefined, rough earthling would feel like.

But he probably sensed my thoughts through our hands, which were still touching, and he said: "Exotic? Do you really think I would just give in to such a frivolous desire?"

Not bad for someone who claimed not to have empathic abilities.

At this point I couldn't hide my question anymore; it was probably just beaming inside my mind like a huge flashing sign. "Then why me?"

"Because you noticed that mask in the first place, and because you wanted to know what lies behind. Because with you I can remove it and still feel safe."

"You can do that with Sapphire, too."

"Yes, but what Sapphire and I share goes beyond anything you could conceive as a human being. We are elements, we live in a different plane of existence. I couldn't explain that to you in human terms."

Now I was even more confused. "Then why do you want to kiss me right now?" I may not be an empath, but I'm a woman, and sometimes that helps more than empathy or telepathy.

My blunt question tugged a smile at the corners of his lips. "I always want to kiss you."

"Very flattering, but you haven't answered my question." I was playing cool, but my heart skipped a beat at his comment.

"We have been given human shape to work among humans. These shapes cannot change our characters, but they are molding our needs. Some of us relish eating food, others enjoy human company."

I snorted. "Oh, come on; you don't like to stay among humans. That's pretty obvious."

"Not among most humans. A few of them I find very attractive. Like you."

I didn't say anything, trying to decide if I was glad to be included in his very exclusive list or if I was sorry to hear that I wasn't the only one in it. I couldn't resist asking him: "How long is that list?"

He got closer. "Short. Very, very short."

I gulped. He was too close for comfort, too close for self-control. His grey eyes turned a beautiful deep shade of blue, and his lips were so tempting.

'Don't look at his lips!' I warned myself, but it was too late. No need to be a telepath to know that now I wanted to kiss him.

So I really didn't stand a chance when he closed the very short distance between our two mouths and grazed my lips with his, at last. I closed my eyes and moaned, thinking that I had missed those lips so badly. He put his arms around me, and I realized that I had also missed his scent. His light kisses slowly became more demanding, and I gladly surrendered and gave him full access.

Didn't I tell you before that he can be a very passionate man? Well, I can endorse that.

The kiss we shared was meant to fill the long months we spent apart, trying to suppress a feeling that neither of us wanted to express aloud.

But we both knew that that feeling was not meant to be expressed, so we slowly, reluctantly broke that breathtaking kiss. I couldn't take my eyes off him, trying to absorb every feature of his handsome face, not knowing when I would see him again.

He hesitantly broke our embrace, and my body instantly missed his presence.

He slowly caressed my cheek, and said, with a very grave expression: "I should go now. Please, don't ever do that again."

I didn't understand what he was referring to. "Do what?"

He closed his eyes. "Kill yourself in front of me. You broke my heart."

"I couldn't take your life. Or Sapphire's. So I cannot promise you that I won't do that again."

"Find some other way. You're so resourceful."

I managed a small smile. "Don't worry. Committing suicide again isn't in my list of top priorities."

He just nodded, accepting that light-hearted remark as a promise.

He looked at me longingly, then disappeared, leaving a void much bigger than his slight frame.

Well, welcome back to 2013, detective Stunt.