A/N: So remember Cassie's best friend from the future, Ryan? Well he's back. Enjoy

XXX

Anger was an emotion Ryan Reyes had become intimately familiar with in the last year. If he was being honest, the anger had simmered just beneath the surface for a very long time, since his best friend had swerved his car into a tree three years ago. He was angry with his family, with Cassie and Alex's betrayals, with his ex, a girl he thought he loved until he found out she'd been sleeping with someone else while he was on tour. He was angry with the band, who had become a mess since they lost their singer, and most of all he was angry with himself for becoming a shell of the person he was supposed to be.

He took a long drag on the cigarette that hung out of his mouth, thinking how much Cassie would hate it if she'd known he'd picked up smoking again. He'd quit around the time they started work on their last album. Around when her depression had started. And it had to have been depression, there was no other explanation. She had finished their last tour together and broken down. She wrote constantly, sad songs that spoke of heartbreak she hadn't experienced, she'd stopped eating, losing weight rapidly, not sleeping, and when she did screaming and talking to Alex in the midst of her fitful dreams. It was funny that he'd become exactly the same.

She had been better when they worked on their last album together, making more of an effort and trying to be happy. Then she'd gone to that stupid psychic, and everything had gone to shit. She never knew he'd followed her, watched her walk in from his car parked across the street, watched her walk out, pale and shaking.

He had gone in after he watched her car pull away and found an empty shop, no trace of the psychic that the sign advertised. A week later he read a story in the paper about a customer entering to find the owner of the shop dead in front of her crystal ball. He'd kept the story from Cassie, but she seemed better off. Like she finally understood the reasons behind her depression. She had steadily improved, but one day, a few weeks before they'd planned to start another tour, he woke to her mother barging into his room in the house he'd grown up in screaming for her last living child. She hadn't been there.

The police had been called and the search had begun. Her favorite acoustic guitar was gone, as was her cell phone, her car and its keys and a few other items from her room, including a photo of the entire family prior to Alex's death. The police found her car in the parking lot of the cemetery where her brother was buried, but no further sign of her. There wasn't much the police could do, especially since she was an adult and there was no evidence of foul play. But after a few days and no sign of her, they issued an APB, kept an eye out for her on security cameras at bus and train stations and even the airports. Her cell phone records were pulled, revealing nothing out of the ordinary. Apparently it was unlikely her disappearance had anything to do with her minor fame, but it was a theory Ryan had chased for a long time, having met some of the crazies who declared themselves in love with her and read some of the comments posted about her on Reddit and those other, less savory sights. He had done as much work for the police as he After two months of searching, they had nothing and her case was moved to the back burner. It was as if she had vanished into thin air.

Everyone had started to move on. Even her parents, focusing on their careers, adopting a puppy, and looking into adopting kids. His family had similarly moved on. They all still missed her, but her absence was no longer the single focus of their lives. It was fairest that he let them. But Ryan was unable to move on. He had to know what happened to her, why she had gone or who had taken her and if she would ever come back.

The band had rallied together and put out another album. Ben sang, with his pretty boy looks and talented vocal cords they did well. Not as well as they had with Cassie's writing talent and contagious energy, but it was something. They'd backed out of the tour right after her disappearance. It was the only option. But their music since they'd decided to move on had suffered. Cassie had been their real talent, their source of energy. Their music had experienced a brief spike in sales just after her disappearance, the sensationalists interested in the sudden and mysterious disappearance of the singer. But it hadn't lasted. The same way the band hadn't. Not really. They were still together, and had put out the album, with plans to tour on it, opening for another band. But none of their hearts were in it. Especially not Ryan.

He had become increasingly irritable and moody since the new album came out. Tour started soon, but he wasn't exactly on speaking terms with Ben or Jon or even Tom, who was almost impossible to anger. Though none of them could blame him for his black moods. They had all felt Cassie's disappearance as well. It was something that haunted all of them. It didn't mean that they would accept Ryan's irritability. They were avoiding him before tour started when they would be stuck on a small bus together for a month and a half.

Ryan was fine with it. He didn't want to be around them either. He wanted to drink and smoke and brood over the loss of his best friend. And occasionally hit things. Or more than occasionally.

Taking another drag from his cigarette he flicked the thing into the Hudson, glaring after it as the small ember glowed in an arc until it hit the water. He knew Cassie would hate it that he'd picked up the habit again, close to half a pack a day at this point, but she deserved it. She was the one who'd left after all.

It was the only conclusion he'd been able to come to. The one the police had agreed on as well. That she left, taking pieces of everyone's hearts with her. It was selfish and unfair of her and he wanted to punish her in any way he could, even if she would never know.

Unbidden, one of the songs she wrote for the last album popped into his head and he began to hum it as he wandered through riverside park. He was far from home, but he wasn't nearly ready to return and see the sympathetic faces of his parents. It had become his ritual to wander the streets of the city at night, letting the incessant lights and speed of New York lull him into complacency over Cassie and her leaving them.

He found himself climbing over the railing that separated the sidewalk from the rocky shoal that led down to the filthy river, balancing on rocks in his worn boots and staring up at the black sky. He was sure there were stars somewhere out there, obscured by the pollution hovering in the air around the city and the lights that never went out. Absently, he wondered if Cassie could see the stars where she was. His attention focused on the sky, he failed to notice the way the rocks were falling away from the ground beneath his feet until it was too late and he tumbled into blackness.

Suddenly he was falling through trees in the mid afternoon sunshine. Branches snapped beneath him, fall leaves crunching as they did until he slammed into something hard that let out a cry of pain and annoyance before his tumbled to the ground, more or less on top of whatever, well whoever he had hit.

Ryan's eyes fluttered open, his view only adding to his confusion. All he could see was trees and red-gold hair. There weren't this many trees in Riverside Park. And it had been night a few seconds ago, now he could see late afternoon sun struggling through dense clouds. The hair in front of his face moved and the face of a very angry woman swam into his vision.

"What in gods name is wrong with you?" she shouted, and he very suddenly found a knife to his neck, "Who are you and who sent you?" she demanded.

He found himself speechless, staring at the actually very pretty woman with wide blue eyes and a delicate nose. She was glaring at him, the anger in her eyes belied by fear. Terror actually.

Finding his voice was difficult, "I-I'm sorry, I think I fell, I don't know you, no one sent me," he babbled, trying to figure out how stumbling over the Hudson at night landed him in the middle of the woods during the day with a woman with an accent standing over him with a knife. Maybe he'd hit his head when he fell, not that he remembers falling, but that might be because he hit his head. Maybe he'd been unconscious and someone had moved him.

"Who are you?" the woman repeated, looking only marginally less furious.

"My name is Ryan Reyes," he told her, "I'm a musician, I'm not here to hurt you, I don't even know where I am," his eyes flitted around, catching sight of a young child, maybe five or six years old, staring at him with the same blue eyes the woman in front of him had.

"You're in the Breindin Forest, it's on the Eastern edge of Moria, bordering on Camelot," the woman told him, releasing her pressure on his neck with her knife.

Seeing as Ryan recognized only one of those names, and it wasn't a real place, he stared at her in disbelief, sure he must have misheard her, "I'm sorry, did you say Camelot?" he asked, skepticism coloring his tone.

"Yes," her eyes narrowed again, suspicion in them.

Ryan looked around, taking in his surroundings and the woman and little girl. The woods were vast, empty, no sign of people or buildings, or even civilization. The woman was wearing a dress made of coarse spun wool and strangely crafted boots like something out of a renaissance fair. The small girl with the curly blonde hair and the big blue eyes who was staring at him in blatant curiosity, was dressed the same. He was clearly not in New York anymore, probably not even the US, judging by the accents. So as best he saw it, he had two options. One was be honest and hope he wasn't too far from home. The other was to just go with it and be as vague as possible. The woman was staring at him, clearly expecting an answer.

"Ah, just that I am headed to Camelot, I'm glad it's close by." His answer seemed to satisfy the woman, who removed her knife from his throat.

"We as well," she informed him, standing up and dusting herself off, dead, dry leaves falling from her dress.

"Want some company?" Ryan asked, unsure why.

Ignoring his question, the woman fixed him with a glare, "How did you fall on me anyway?" she asked.

Scrambling for an answer, he glanced up at the tops of the trees, yards and yards above him, "I, uh, was in a tree," he told her, earning himself a confused look, "Trying to figure out which was I was going, if I could see anything, you know…?" he trailed off.

His only answer was the small child's giggle, which she quickly hid behind a hand, she looked up at him, her eyes shy and her small mouth pulled into a smile behind her fingers. He grinned back.

"Yes," the woman answered, gathering up the bag she must have dropped when he'd slammed into her. She gave pause as she looked over his clothes, so different from hers, but nodded as he stared up at her.

"Yes, what?" Ryan asked, still lying on the ground in the exact position he had fallen in when he'd dropped, apparently, out of the sky.

"Yes, you may accompany us. We could use the protection of having a man with us and we are both going to Camelot. So yes, we would like some company," the woman gave him a wry smile and offered him a hand to help him up.

He took it and let her help him to his feet. "What're your names?" he asked, dusting off his jacket. It had been cold in New York and the worn leather jacket he took everywhere had kept him only a little warm, but would be fine in the mid fall that it apparently was in Camelot or wherever he was.

"I'm Leanne," the little girl dropped into a tiny adorable curtsey. She reminded him of Ximena, his youngest sister who was probably a year or so older than this child, but just as sweet.

The woman pursed her lips at the child's outburst, but grudgingly game her name, "Danielle," she looked him over again, staring at his clothes which were very different from hers, "We should be continuing, it will be sunset soon and I want to find an inn for the night," she took Leanne's hand and began walking, in what he assumed was the right direction. He hurried after her. He needed someone who knew where they were going and she was his best option.

Leanne began and kept up a steady stream of chatter that was actually rather informative as to where exactly, and, as he was starting to realize, when exactly he was. She told him she was six years old and that she was learning how to be a librarian in the castle library, though usually women weren't allowed, but she hoped the king and queen would one day make an exception for her, though she supposed now that they were running away to Camelot, she would have to ask the king there. Her sister winced when the child mentioned running away, which Ryan filed away in his head somewhere to analyze later. Leanne continued, mentioning that the king of Camelot apparently did not have a wife, that his had died many years ago and that it was terribly sad.

He did his best to keep up with her, asking her questions and nodding and prompting her at all the right moments. After what was maybe an hour of walking she began to complain that her feet hurt and without stopping, her sister, as he had discovered Danielle was – though according to Leanne, they had different mummies- reached down and picked her up, settling the still babbling child on her hip and continuing her walk.

She was tired, he could tell, and carrying her sister was beginning to slow them down. They were still in the middle of dense woods on something that could be described as a path through the trees, but there was no civilization in sight.

"Leanne?" he asked, during one of the lulls in the child's monologue, "Would you like a piggyback ride?" he asked, "If that's okay with your sister?" his eyes slid to the red-head, who eyed him suspiciously for a moment before nodding to her sister's squeal of delight.

Ryan allowed the child to climb onto his back and the continued walking, Danielle clearly relieved at the weight lifted from her, though she would probably never say. The child was slight and weighed almost nothing compared to the heavy music equipment that he hauled on and off stage and on and off a tour bus far more frequently than he liked.

They walked further, finally coming to a fork in the path that led them out of the woods to a town. If the medieval looking grouping of buildings could be called a town. If Ryan had any remaining doubts about being in another time, the sight of the tavern situated right in the middle of the only road that seemed to go through the town, one that was essentially a dirt path, eliminated them. He was back in time. Apparently in King Arthur's Camelot. Great.

"We should pretend to be a family," Danielle said to him before they entered, "It will be easier to get a room," she added at his confused glance.

He nodded, trying to take in and process the world around him. What Doctor Hayes wouldn't do to be in his shoes at that moment. Cassie's father, and a history professor would have freaked out being in medieval England. That was if Ryan was indeed in medieval England, or anywhere at all. He was still trying to stand by his hit-in-the-head theory and that it was entirely possible he was dreaming or experiencing a concussion induced hallucination.

Either way, standing in the middle of a dirt road with a six year old on his back wasn't going to get him anywhere, so he slid the child down to the ground and took her hand to lead her through the tavern.

Danielle did all the talking, explaining that she and her husband and daughter needed a place to sleep for the night to the ugly man behind the bar whose wild hair was long and greasy and grey and whose teeth were mostly rotted away.

He was glad she spoke to the man. He would have had no idea what to say. She paid him with a set of silver bracelets. Not exactly fives and tens, but he thought it best to keep his opinion of her money to himself. Leanne was dozing against his shoulder as the greasy man limped up a narrow set of stairs along the back wall to an even narrower hallway with doors lining the walls. He used the heavy key in his hand to unlock one of them and swung open the door to reveal a small room that housed an even smaller bed, a single chair, and a small basin filled with questionable looking water. Ryan followed Danielle in, nodding to the man as he shut the door behind him.

The bed looked horribly uncomfortable. Less comfortable, in fact, than tour bus bunks. But he watched as Danielle fell back on it with a sigh. Clearly it was good enough for her.

"I'll let you and Leanne take the bed," he found himself saying, figuring it was only fair. The right thing to do, though it was practically a foreign concept to him. He lowered the half sleeping child to the bed alongside her sister who gave him a tired smile.

There was a tiny fireplace in the wall next to the chair and he lowered himself into the chair, kicking off his boots and shrugging out of his jacket. It would be uncomfortable to sleep sitting in the hard wooden chair, but he'd slept in stranger positions. The fire was the only light in the room, and he almost missed Danielle as she slid off the bed and came to sit on the floor next to him.

"I think if we are to be traveling together, we have to be honest with each other," she murmured, her small voice barely audible. He waited, letting her speak. It was obvious he was hiding something, as obvious as it was that he didn't belong in the world that he had found himself in. But he sensed his companion had something she was keeping secret as well. His suspicions were confirmed when she began to speak again, "We're running away, Leanne and I, from Moria," she admitted, "I was a servant in the castle, to the king's sister. I was distracted and knocked into the prince. He's a very volatile man, and very angry and very violent. He threatened me and threw me around," she grit her teeth and Ryan felt the familiar anger bubbling in his chest at what had happened to her. She continued, whispering so as not to wake her sister, "Ethan, my best friend came to protect me. But he was just a servant as well, and the prince killed him," her voice broke, "So I ran. I stole some jewelry, grabbed Leanne and we ran. We hope to go to Camelot to start over. I'm a good servant. I can get a job somewhere, at the palace or with a noble family..." she trailed off, staring into the fire.

Silence washed over them. The guilt and fear and sadness she felt was clear in her eyes as he watched the flames of the fire reflected in them. So he decided to take a chance on her and be honest. At least it would take her mind off her own pain. "I'm from the future," he announced in a very matter of fact whisper.

Danielle's head snapped up, her eyes widening as they looked at him, suspicion in her expression.

"I live in a city called New York, in the 21st century where I play drums in a band that tours all over the country, playing music for people every night. We have lights that don't need fire, and drive cars that don't need a horse to pull them," he explained, watching her blue eyes get wider with each word.

"So if you're from the future, which I don't think is true, then how did you get here?" she asked. He was impressed at her calm assessment of the potentially crazy man she had just agreed to share a room with.

"I don't know, I was walking along the Hudson river, and went over the gate to try to climb down, or I don't know, do something, and I fell. It was night where I was and it was day when I crashed into you," he told her.

"So you're not really going to Camelot?" she asked. She picked up quick.

He considered for a moment. Camelot was at least a familiar name, and if he remembered the legends correctly, the King was advised by a wizard Merlin, a man who might be able to get him home. It sounded like the best option he had. Better than trying to make his way through whatever place she was running from. "Well I am now. I'm hoping someone there can help me get home," he smiled at her.

The redhead considered him for a moment, eyes narrowed and head cocked to the side in a look that reminded him so much of Cassie that his ribs hurt. Finally she spoke, "Fine. You should come with us. We can go to the king together to ask for help, it's easier to secure one audience than two," her smile was small and tentative, but she was smiling nonetheless.

"Thank you" was his only answer, her response, a nod, and they sat in silence staring at the fire, taming their individual demons well into the night.

The next morning Ryan was sore and tired, but Leanne and Danielle seemed better rested than they had the day before. They shared their food with him and were on their way, heading east towards Camelot. He got the feeling they were avoiding the main roads, but didn't question. He knew they were more or less on the run, something that was probably easier without the FBI's most wanted list and the ability to flash mug shots across billboards on the highway.

It was another few hours of walking before Danielle stopped him at the top of a hill and pointed at a tiny, gray-white blob on a high hill in the distance. "That's Camelot, well the castle at least," she informed him. If he squinted, it was a vaguely castle shaped blob.

"How long till we get there?" he asked.

"Another three days, probably," she said and began walking again. Ryan almost groaned, he missed the days of cars. But it was his only option to get back home at the moment, so he followed her down the hill, headed for Camelot.

Little did he know he was headed for a lot more than just a castle.

XXX

A/N: This story is really coming along, and I'm pretty excited about how its going. I have ideas lined up for two more in this series, and I'm really excited about them. I would love a review to know how people are liking the story, or what I can improve on. Thanks guys!