So first off,congratulations to Eleantris, who completely predicted something like this happening about two chapters ago.

Chapter 8: Iggy

April, 1989

Mark woke next to Sarah and smiled, kissing her awake. It had been a year and a half and he still felt like he was on his honeymoon.

"I was sleeping," Sarah murmured sleepily. "Piss off."

Mark smirked, kissing her again. "Iggy wants to go for his walk."

Iggy, who was laying on the bottom of the bed, barked.

"Iggy can wait," Sarah replied, pulling the covers over her head. Mark smirked, looking at the dog.

"I think she needs some help, Iggy."

Iggy started to wag his tail and cocked his head. Mark pointed at the lump that was Sarah and nodded. Iggy barked again, standing up again and walking on top of the lump, sniffing eagerly.

"What the...Arthur I swear if you keep using Iggy as an alarm clock I'm going to hurt you."

"You've said that every day since before we were married."

"And one of these days, I will go through with it."

Mark merely smirked, lowering the covers down enough so Iggy could reach Sarah's face. Iggy started to lick her cheek repeatedly, and Sarah finally sat up, looking grumpy. She wiped her cheek.

"I'm up, are you both happy?"

Iggy barked and jumped from the bed, returning with his lead.

"Let me get dressed first," she said testily. Sarah was always irritated in the morning until she had had her morning run. She got out of bed, putting her clothes on. Mark followed suit, putting on his running gear. Iggy followed the both of them around excitedly, wagging his tail and barking.

"Give us a minute," Mark said. Iggy sat and stared at them mournfully until they finally were both ready to go. Sarah attached Iggy's lead and they started out the door. They started onto their normal route, which was getting longer every day. It was much longer than it had been in 1984, when they started running together. Eventually, Sarah was planning for them to participate in the London Marathon. They were able to get about thirty kilometres at a time on their long runs, it was only a matter of time before they were ready.

They were about halfway through the run and just starting on the way back when Iggy spotted the squirrel.

He started tugging at his lead. Sarah tried to hang on, but Iggy was too strong, and the lead snapped. "Iggy, no!" she yelled, but Iggy didn't hear her, chasing the squirrel down the pavement. Mark started off at a sprint, trying to get close enough to the dog's collar to grab him.

Instead of going up the tree like most squirrels did, this squirrel went into the street and Iggy barrelled after it. Mark followed Iggy without thinking, yelling out to the dog. Iggy stopped and yelped as a car slid into him.

Mark heard the screeching of tyres and then suddenly, he was flying through the air, landing on the top of the car and rolling down over the boot. His head smashed against the ground, but he stayed conscious, feeling the pain radiate through his body. He could hear Sarah screaming from the pavement, but then it all fell silent as he succumbed to the pain and his vision went black.

Voices surrounded him, but he could make nothing out. He heard Sarah's voice but her words were garbled together. Finally, two emerged from the cacophony.

"Arthur...no."

He heard sirens wailing their way closer to him and felt someone holding his hand and stroking his hair.

Suddenly his vision came back, and he saw Sarah's face, streaked with blood and tears.

Is that my blood? he wondered, surprised that he was able to wonder.

People were surrounding him. He heard Sarah say his name and looked toward her. The sirens were silent now, and he saw the bright vest of one of the ambulance crew.

"Arthur," he heard one of them say. "Can you hear me?"

The world fell silent again and it all faded to black.

He was only aware of how comfortable he felt. The pain that had rushed through his body was gone, replaced by the feeling of numbness. It was quiet around him, but in a soothing way.

He took a deep breath in and opened his eyes. Iggy was sitting next to him, looking at him mournfully. He licked Mark's face once.

"What are you doing here Iggy?"

The dog merely perked up his ears and started walking away from Mark. Frowning, Mark stood, following him. He wasn't in any place he recognised. The floors were gleaming mahogany and the walls painted a bright bluish grey colour. There were windows at the end of the hall and he could see a sea in the distance. He was led out into a hall and downstairs to the front desk of what he assumed must be some sort of hotel. The man at the desk smiled at him.

"Mark Evans, so glad that you're here."

Mark frowned, looking at the desk, seeing a guest sign in book. "Should I sign in?" he asked, thinking this was the weirdest dream he had ever had.

The man gave his gleaming smile again, his white teeth contrasting sharply with his black hair. "Not yet. We've got someone who wants to talk to you. If you'll follow me."

The man emerged from behind the desk and Mark followed him. Iggy had disappeared by this point and Mark wondered idly where he had gone. The man walked through several rooms, finally getting to the back, where a man sat in a room. The room was made of windows on two sides, with a glass door in the middle of one of the walls. It looked directly out on the sea. He focused his attention on the man. The man was wearing a late forties or early fifties style suit. His brown hair was slicked back and the lines of age hadn't really started to fully appear on his face. He had light grey eyes and a sombre smile.

"Mark."

Mark frowned at the man. "Should I know you?"

The man smiled sadly. "I doubt you could know me. For you, I'm just barely a shadow of a memory, if that. But to me, you were my whole life."

"Who are you?"

"Mark...I'm your father."

Mark backed away slightly, surprised. "What?"

"I'm your father. Stephen Evans."

"But you're...you're..."

His father nodded. "Yes."

"Does that mean...?"

"No. I just wanted to see you, Mark. You were my son. I never got to see you grow up. And you turned out to be a good man. A Spook, no less. I'm impressed."

"You would have been impressed? That's better than..."

"I know. I don't know what your mother was thinking when she married that man. But I do know that she thought he was a good role model for you."

"He put down everything I ever did. I was never good enough for him."

"But look at you now. You're better than most people."

Mark looked down. "Is this why you wanted to see me?"

"No, actually. I still love your mother, Mark. Even after what she did. And it hurts her that she never fixed things between you before you 'died,' he said, using hand quotes. "I want you to go find her and tell her you're alive."

"Dad! You know what she did!"

"She regretted it."

"Regretting it doesn't change the fact of what she did."

"She didn't realise what she was doing, Mark. Don't hold her responsible for the error in her judgment. Go tell her that you're alive."

"But my cover..."

"She'll keep it, Mark. Can you promise me that one day you'll do it?"

Mark considered this thoughtfully before nodding.

"Good. I'd hate to see you let me down."

His father smiled softly at him. "Do you know what the last words I said to you were?"

Mark shook his head. "You be good for your Mummy, Marky. And you nodded your little blond...you were blond back then...head at me and said 'Okay Daddy. I will.'" His father smiled. "I'm going to lead you out of here, Mark. It's not your time to sign in. Maybe in the future, hopefully a long way yet. You say hello to your Mother, and don't let Sarah down. And stop getting hit by cars. That's twice this decade."

Mark smiled and his father stood, leading him out to the front where Iggy sat by the door mournfully.

"Say goodbye to Iggy, Mark."

Mark looked at his father. "He's not coming with me?"

Stephen shook his head. "He's been signed in."

Mark knelt down with tears in his eyes. Iggy licked his face mournfully.

"Bye Iggy," he said, his voice cracking. "You really were the maddest dog I've ever met. Thank you. If you hadn't have jumped on me, I wouldn't have met Sarah, and God only knows where I'd be then. I'll see you when it's my turn to come back."

He stood, staring at his father.

"Son, I never got to give you my blessing. You've got it, you know. Live a happy, long life."

"Thanks...Dad."

His father hugged him, and Mark stiffened, surprised before he let himself be pulled into the hug.

"You be good."

"I will, Dad, I promise."

Mark walked out of the house towards the path, hearing Iggy howl behind him. Slowly though, Iggy's howls faded and the fog drifted over the path.

"...waking up...doctor..."

"...tests...let him...don't want...madness..."

The voices were fading in an out and sounded as though they were from a distance. However, he could tell immediately who they belonged to. Ben and Sarah were by his side. He started to struggle against his eyes, finally relaxing and letting them open slowly by themselves. The bright lights assaulted them, but after a few moments of blinking, everything came into focus.

"They were worried about you," Sarah said, her voice tearful and accusatory. "They didn't know if you'd make it back."

"Mum, calm down," Ben said. "You'll get him all flustered and he's just woken up. Arthur, mate. Nice to see you've finally joined us again."

"How long was I out?" he said, his voice raspy and quiet.

"A little over a day," Sarah said quietly. "You hit your head pretty hard."

Now that she mentioned it, his head was slowly starting to throb. However, try as he might, he couldn't remember what had happened.

"What happened to me?" he asked, not trying to move yet, afraid of the pain he might experience.

"You chased Iggy into the street."

"Iggy," Mark breathed. "Shit. He didn't..."

Sarah shook her head sorrowfully. "He didn't make it, Mark."

Mark closed his eyes. "My fault," he murmured. "If I hadn't have yelled his name..."

A hand softly joined his. "No," Sarah murmured. "Not your fault. Neither of us could have prevented it. Iggy was too strong when he saw squirrels."

"If I'd have trained him better."

"Arthur, shut up. You aren't to blame for this. No one is." Mark looked at her despairingly but she fixed him with a stare he wasn't used to seeing. Finally he conceded, just as a nurse bustled into the room.

"Oh, you're awake," the nurse said, surprised before turning on Sarah. "Why didn't you let us know that he was waking up?"

Sarah stared at the nurse with distaste. "Because I didn't want to," she stated simply, crossing her arms.

"Well, you should have let us know. The doctor will want to do tests."

"Yep," Sarah replied. The nurse glared at her but Sarah held her ground. Finally the nurse turned to Mark.

"I need to get your vitals. Are you in any pain?"

"No," Mark replied as the nurse wrapped a sphygmomanometer around his arm and started to take his blood pressure. She nodded, continuing through a full assessment before she left to find the doctor.

"Do you want to tell me what's going on before they do?" Mark asked, smirking.

Ben smiled, and Sarah gave a small grin. "You've got a few broken ribs, a decent concussion, and they were worried about bleeding on the brain since you hit your head so hard. You were semiconscious on the way to hospital, but you'd passed out by the time you got here. You've been unconscious since. Ben noticed you trying to open your eyes about an hour ago."

Mark's eyes flicked to the clock. It was 9.06.

"And what's going on between you and that nurse?" Mark asked.

"She's an evil cow," Sarah said as the nurse walked back into the room, doctor in tow. Ben immediately doubled over in laughter.

"Mr...Newton," the doctor said, looking at Mark's chart to learn his name. "We were quite worried about you."

I'm sure you were, Mark thought inwardly. If you actually knew what was wrong with me.

"You've got a few broken ribs and we'll want to keep you a few days for observation of your concussion, but you should be good to go by Tuesday. Is that alright?"

No, it wasn't. He wanted out of hospital now. But one exasperated glance at Sarah later and he found himself nodding. The doctor smiled and walked out, and Mark glared at Sarah.

"I want out of here," he said.

"I don't care. I want to make sure there's nothing wrong with you."

"Mum, there's always been something wrong with him," Ben said. "He started going out with you because Iggy ran into him."

The room suddenly tensed as Iggy's name was brought into the conversation.

"When I get out," Mark said firmly after a long silence, "we'll have a funeral for Iggy. Hang the laurel wreath on his favourite tree."

Sarah smiled sorrowfully. "I love that idea."

Mark smiled back at her, aware of how tired he felt.

"I really am sorry," he murmured, holding her hand.

Sarah ran her free hand through his hair. "It's okay Arthur. As long as you're alive, we'll all be okay."

I'm hiding under a duvet until you all promise not to hurt me.

*is currently hiding*