Chapter 7
Murder in Whitechapel
Liz was the first one awake the next morning. She couldn't remember snuggling up to Dan the night before, but she did remember how he had pulled her close while she had been lost in staring at him. She had to be honest and admit to herself that she wasn't exactly expecting him to take on a human form like her. She didn't think he could. He looked so much like Danny that her heart had nearly broken and beat out of her chest all at the same time because she knew that if he had survived the year to come, Dan is what Danny would have grown to look like. Muscles and all.
It had taken a while to calm her hot face down after waking up, but once she had, Liz had gently pulled herself free of the possessive hold Dan had on her. As she stood there, smoothing down her dress and fixing her hair, Liz observed the two before her. Dan was gripping Clockwork's hair in the same possessive nature he had been gripping onto her. Shaking her head, she would kneel down beside Dan and kiss his cheek. "I won't be long." She muttered before rising to her feet and leaving to gather some water and food.
A while after Liz had left, Clockwork began to stir a little. He felt a hand in his hair, and craned his neck to see who had him. He found a sleeping Dan and blinked in surprise. What was the other ghost doing holding on to him? He went intangible and moved away from Dan so he could better check his own wounds. They were all healed. Clockwork always had a quick healing rate, but didn't see it much since he didn't regularly have to fight. Seemed that they had been cleaned, that or someone had poured a bottle of liquor on him. He figured Liz had taken care of him and Dan and was now out looking for clothes for him and her. It seemed Dan had taken on a human look and already had clothing from this era.
Liz would return after some time with a bucket of water, borrowed linen, and some stolen bread and fruit. Seeing Clockwork up and about, she smiled relieved. "Hey. How are you feeling?" She would ask. Ripping some of the inen up to use a wash cloth. "Dan said you may have to travel with us while invisible since we're not sure you can really look...well, human." She said, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly while handing him the wet cloth. "Here. Figured you could wash up." Liz would motion to the healed wounds and the dried ecto blood.
"Oh. Thank you, Liz. I owe you for last night as well. You did a good job of cleaning the wounds. They healed fine." he spoke as he walked over undoing the gear broach to take off his cloak. He sat down next to her to undo all the watches around his boots so that he could pull the boots off, then got back up and started to undress, not seeming to know the etiquette for men and women undressing in the same room.
Dan had been watching quietly and with his eyes half closed figuring the other two would think he was still asleep when he saw what Clockwork was doing he jumped up. "No wait! Not in front of the girl are you fucking nuts!? Put your clothes back on!"
Clockwork looked at Dan blinking. "What are you going on about?"
"You can't do that shit in mixed company!" Dan didn't notice that his face had turned red. Clockwork did, but figured it was from anger. He sighed and picked up the items that Liz had brought and went into another room. Dan stood grumbling about timekeepers and their inability to pay attention to important things such as not undressing in front of women and other "common sense" things.
"Oh...It wasn't-BLEEDIN' HELL!" Liz turned a bright red and quickly covered her eyes as she turned away. Laughing a little as she heard Dan scolding him. "Clockwork, a man does not undress in front of a lady unless she is his wife or a whore." She said gently. Knowing it probably wasn't any better but at least she was explaining why Dan had been set off. On the bright side, at least now she knew she had to be from another dimension or time, seeing as how the Clockwork she knew wouldn't have done such a thing in front of his pupil.
"Fucker was probably born in a time when they all fuckin ran around naked." Dan grumbled as he started to pace. He needed to get out of this place quickly. He wasn't liking how he felt and he was going to need to blow something up. Or punch someone. Or strangle Clockwork. The last one sounded particularly nice.
"Wasn't born." Clockwork called back.
"Explains a lot." Dan called back to the older ghost. He then looked at Liz. "Sorry about that. Heh. Can't take the old fart no where."
Liz spread her fingers to peek through them at Dan with a small smile. "Eh-hehe. I-It's fine..First time leaving the tower and all….Understandable." She cleared her throat and turned her head away. "U-Uh...I'll uh...Just go wait outside." Lowering her head while keeping her eyes blocked, she turned and quickly hurried out of the building while Clockwork washed up.
Dan blinked in confusion. Why had she left the building when Clockwork had gone to another room? He shrugged and stood there waiting for them both to return. Gods he wished he was back home. After a while of pacing back and forth, Clockwork finally returned, cleaned up and fully dressed in the new clothes. He'd even taken on a human look with pale skin, short platinum blond hair and eyes the color of dry blood.
"Alright….better?" he asked. A slight blushed had crept over his face. The clothes he had managed to snag were old but probably quickly grabbed from the next building over. Dan hoped while invisible and intangible.
Dan looked him over and nodded. The clothes suited Clockwork and gave him a slight distinguished look. "Yeah….looks fine. Let's tell Liz she can come back in." He said turning to walk outside.
"Uh…...Daniel, Liz was about to say something earlier. Was she going to say that you were the one who tended my wounds?" Clockwork asked as he reached to grab hold of Dan's arm.
Dan shrugged and pulled his arm away. "Don't need a bunch of dead timekeepers around. I want to get back home after all." Dan muttered as he continued outside.
Liz would turn as the door opened. Arms previously folded over her chest would drop to her sides as she blushed and stared at Clockwork. Her mouth opened and closed a few times before she just shook her head and blinked a bit. "U-Uh...You look...Amazing." She laughed, stunned. Clearing her throat, she folded her hands in front of her and quickly went back in to retrieve her parasol. Coming back out to them, she would open it and look between them. "We need a cover story...And by that I mean we have to play 'house'. Society will expect me to be married to one of you and the other might possibly be a relative of the other." Liz said. She would let them decide who wanted to play what role.
"Daniel looks more your age." Clockwork said, though he didn't look a whole lot older.
"Guess you could be an older brother." Dan muttered. He then grinned. He could not pass up this chance to mess with Liz. He looked at her as he moved closer and put an arm around her to dip her back. "Guess that makes me your husband. Do I get to kiss the bride?"
Liz blushed and placed a hand on his chest. She honestly didn't know what to say and she was so tempted to actually kiss him. Her poor heart was racing and she was sure he could hear it. "I-Uh...If you want?" She stuttered, blushing even more as she stared back at him.
Dan smirked and gave her an almost soul searing kiss that was very deep and very passionate. He pulled away and pulled her back to a standing position. Even Clockwork was blushing from that encounter.
Her eyes would go wide from the sudden kiss as her cheeks burned brightly. The hand on his chest, slid up to be around his neck as she gripped at his hair and kissed him back just as deeply and passionate. When he pulled away, she gasped and quickly let him go as her chest heaved much as it could with it's restriction. Running her tongue over her lips, savoring the taste, she would take his arm and look down at her feet. Her mind completely blank as she recovered from such an amazing kiss.
Clockwork, whose face had turned an interesting shade of purple, cleared his throat and stepped past the two. "We should get going. We know we're in the Victorian Era. We can find other useful information." he murmured as he continued on out of the ally they had ended up in.
"Victorian London, named so because of Queen Victoria. Which means we are roughly somewhere between…" She would turn her head to look around them. Examining the fashion of the people they passed to the fabrics and homes. "Late 1840's-1850's maybe. Her reign doesn't end till 1901."
"Yes which means that we know the when. Let's find the where." Clockwork said. He would come across a street sign. "Old Montague Street going North East." he said. A little ahead he heard a muffled squeal like someone had tried to scream and got a hand over their mouth. Someone was being dragged into an alleyway. He started to call for his two friends, but didn't want to waste time and headed down the alley to save the woman. It was dark outside, having slept quite a while that night and day had gotten them all a little jet lagged and time disoriented, so he almost didn't see the figures at the other end of the alley. He picked up a board and headed on down to the sounds of a struggle. Then some screams did fill the air as the victim was stabbed over and over.
Clockwork ran down the alley and swung the board to knock the man away from his victim. The man grunted and turned to slash at this new obstacle. Clockwork jumped back to avoid a nasty cut and swung the board again to knock the knife out of the man's hand. The weapon hit the wall with a clattering noise as it fell to the cobble stoned ground. Weaponless, then man jumped at Clockwork and the two men went down. The attacker sent a few well placed punches to Clockwork's face before the ghost planted a knee into the man's chest and flipped him off of him. This was a bad idea as Clockwork hadn't seen the man grab the board he had dropped when he had been tackled. Clockwork got into a kneeling position just as the board come down across the back of his head knocking him to the ground. As he laid there disoriented from a pretty hard hit, he could hear the footsteps of the attacker running away, leaving out the opposite end of the ally and on down Hanbury Street.
After having heard the screams, Liz and Dan would have gone towards the commotion just as the assailant was fleeing. Clockwork would hear a set of footsteps hurrying towards him. "Clockwork!" Liz would rush over to his side and drop down beside him. "Oh my goodness! What happened?!" She would asked concerned as Dan went over to inspect the other woman.
He was trying to contain the rage he felt at someone having wounded Clockwork. If anyone was going to knock the old fart around, it was going to be him. After he checked the woman and seen she was dead, he looked at the street the attacker had fled down and wondered just how long it'd take him to fly down that way and get the guy. Knock him around some. Grinning he took off quickly, going invisible to hide his speed. Sadly no matter how fast and how far he went, he didn't see the attacker. It didn't help that he hadn't gotten a good look at the guy. Dan even flew up to get a look of the city from above, but found nothing. This all pissed him off more than he wanted to admit. He quickly made his way back to Liz and Clockwork. While he had been gone, Clockwork had sat up groggily and explained what had happened to Liz. The two waited for Dan to return. When the other ghost made it back and became visible again, he looked very angry. He walked over to them and looked between them. "Nothing. Fucker got away." he growled.
Liz frowned and got up to squeeze his shoulder. "We'll find him, Daniel. Right now, we need to help Clockwork." She said gently, stepping back so Dan could help Clockwork. While the time ghost wasn't very heavy, it just would not have looked right for a woman to come out of an alley carrying an injured man. To many questions would have been asked while other woman scoffed and said such horrible things. Better to stick to the status quo and let Dan do it while she played the worried 'sister' chasing after her 'husband' who carried her injured 'brother.' God she missed psychic paper already.
Dan helped Clockwork up and had him put his arm around his shoulders. As the three come out of the alley, Clockwork started to murmured, "Jack the Ripper. That was Jack the Ripper. But….that was…..he was too early. That wasn't when it was suppose to happen. Something's changed."
"Stop babbling. Geeze." Dan grumbled as he made sure no one was paying them any attention. He didn't want to get framed for the woman in the alley's death and as soon as he could manage, he'd make them all invisible and head to another street.
"Ah. I changed it. He knew I was following. He wouldn't have killed her until he got further up Hanbury Street. That was Annie Chapman. It's his third victim." Clockwork murmured.
"You took a very hard hit to the back of the head would you shut the fuck up?" Dan hissed between his teeth.
"Green…."
"What?"
"I'm bleeding green ecto. That's unusual for people who are living. They may notice."
"Shit…."
While the two of them whispered back and forth to each other, Liz was actually mentally freaking out. It was easy to say she disliked Jack the Ripper and what she would do if she ever came face to face with someone who was long since dead. But now that she was actually there, in his time era...Liz felt frozen. If there was ever a time to admit that she was really, properly scared it was right then and there. Jack the Ripper was real, he was alive, and she was female being seen with two men. Women could gossip and interpretations could be made. If there was one thing she was a hundred percent sure of at this moment...she didn't want to be on these streets alone. Day or night. No. She would be damned if she was made a victim because she didn't want to use her powers and be exposed a witch or some nonsense. When she heard Clockwork mention the woman's name, she looked up at him. "Annie Chapman...She was his second victim. She was suppose to be found in the backyard of number 29 at 6am." She murmured. "I know when we are." Liz cleared her throat. "Gentlemen...It's September the 8th, 1888. The next two murders, Elizabeth Stride and Catherine Eddowes occur on September 30th." And that wasn't exactly the worse part. Being a timekeeper, Liz knew it was dangerous to meddle with time. There would be nothing they could do to stop this, as the littlest things could change an event. Because of Clockwork's involvement with his attempt to save Annie, her body would now be found brutally stabbed in an alley way instead of someone's backyard.
"Got hit harder than I thought." Clockwork murmured. He could have sworn it was the third, but now that he thought about it, it was indeed Jack's second victim. Maybe he was getting too old for this. It seemed Liz was better up on this right now and he started contemplating retiring. "They say the memories the first to go." he murmured.
"Ok...TIME PEOPLE, SHUT UP!" Dan exclaimed exasperated. "You two are babbling about things that haven't happened and one of you is bleeding green. Let's get the fuck out of here before we draw attention."
Clockwork fell silent. He felt foolish for having forgotten something important. Maybe it was the hit to the head. His ears were still ringing and it felt like a jackhammer at the base of his skull. He looked at Liz and nodded to her. "Good work…." he murmured. Dan rolled his eyes and started for an inn close by. He had stolen some money off the dead body, and a few other passerbiers before they had gone to help Clockwork. Once to the inn, he paid for a room. One for him and his "wife" and another for his injured "brother in law." They got to their respective rooms and Dan tossed the key to theirs over to Liz before taking Clockwork into his room. He deposited the time keeper onto a bed and went to go get some rags to clean the gash to the back of his head.
Liz caught the key and nodded as she unlocked the door to the room she and Dan were to share. Going inside, she locked it behind her and just stood there for a few moments. In an attempt to forget what she had just seen and learnt, she touched her lips and blushed before shaking her head with a scoff. Placing the key down the front of her dress, Liz moved about the room to close all the blinds in the room before she went and sat down on the bed to wait for Dan.
Dan knocked on the door when he finally come back over. He had cleaned Clockwork's wound and got the other ghost into bed to rest for the night or what was left of it. It had taken him a few minute to get the green out of the back of Clockwork's shirt collar, but the shirt was now hanging on the doorknob to dry. "C'mon, Liz. I'm tired." he muttered as he waited at the door.
Liz got up and went to the door. Unlocking it, she opened it for him and closed it behind him. "How is he?" She would ask, locking the door as she turned to the bed. Now that she was thinking on it, she actually had no idea what she would wear to bed. Guess I just sleep in the white button shirt and underwear… She would think, blushing a bit as she began to let her down.
"He'll be alright. Disoriented. Probably has a concussion, but being a ghost I don't see how that'll keep him from waking up in the morning." he said with a smirk. He then shook his head. "He knows better than fucking with time. He's THE fucking Spirit of Time. I don't know what he was thinking." he muttered as he took off his jacket, then began to unbutton his shirt.
"We all make mistakes." She muttered. Looking away as he began to take off his shirt. Standing up, she moved behind the changing screen and began to undress. Hanging her dress over the curtain, she unbuttoned her shirt but left it on as she reached behind her and unlaced her corset with much struggle. Once the corset was off, she coughed and took a deep welcoming breath. She held the key tightly in her hand as she removed her stockings and corset. Hanging them up with her dress and leaving the shoes standing next to the changing screen. The last thing she took off was the underskirt. Liz hung it up with the rest of her clothes as she came out from behind the curtain while buttoning her shirt back up. "Sometimes...we can't help but to act on human nature. He heard a scream cut short and just acted. He wanted to save her. Anyone would have done it in our place."
"Should have let what was going to happen happen. We're not here to save anyone. We're here because of an accident and we have to find a way home." Dan said flatly. He then gestured to the bed. "You can have the bed. I'll take the floor." he said as he pulled his shoes off. He'd sleep in his pants. He didn't really care if they got wrinkled or not.
"Shut up and just get in bed. We're both grown ups and capable of being mature. Besides, husband, you try anything funny and I'll blast you." She said. Murmuring the last part while calling him by the social title in a teasing manner. Lifting her pillow, she placed the key underneath it and pulled down the sheet and blanket as she got under it.
He blinked a little as his face turned red. "I uh…...That's not really…...I mean if you…." he stammered over his words, then finally shut his mouth with an audible click before walking over and getting into the bed. "You try and spoon me or anything and you'll be the one sleeping on the floor." he teased back.
"As I recall, it was you who pulled me close to you the night before." Liz said, smirking. If he wanted to tease her, she'd tease him back easily. Keeping her back to him and pulled the bedding up over her chest as she brought her knees up towards her chest. Making herself comfortable, Liz closed her eyes and was ready to sleep.
Dan chuckled and lay with his back to her. He hated having to be in separate rooms from Clockwork. He wanted them all there in the same room so he could keep an eye on them. He stopped his breathing so he could hear everything around him. He could hear Liz, and he could hear doors opening and closing every now and then, but he didn't hear anything from Clockwork's room. While his companions would sleep well that night, he was awake waiting for the danger to come for them at any second.
