Well sorry for like the 2 month delay in chapters, guys! Totally thought I would have time during my Christmas break but I guess not. I am determined to see this through to the finish though. Reminders that this story takes place in a world where the Christmas Special never happened and apologies in advance for any Americanness that I may get intertwined ;)
Cora walked quietly into the living room and peered in to see Pat leaning over the table, his face one of intense concentration. Cora glanced up at the clock. It was just after ten.
"Surely you are going to bed soon?" Cora asked.
Pat jumped and dropped the object in his hands, his hand flying to his chest. "Geez what are you…you scared me!"
"Sorry," Cora grinned sheepishly before walking into the room. "What are you working on?"
He held up a small dial and indicated to his desk in front of him. A large white circle lay there, taking up almost the entire desk. Cora squinted down and noticed small lettering. 1345, 1346, 1347…
"It's the dial for the time machine." Pat placed the dial in the circle in the front and clicked it into place. "Damn," he said. He removed it and started shaving it thinner.
"You really think that you are going to make it work?" She asked, her face one of doubt and excitement at the same time.
"Well it will take a lot more work, but I think that I can," Pat spoke confidently. He put the dial down and swiveled to face her. "You still want to be my test subject?"
"Absolutely," Cora nodded vigorously.
He eyed her again. "Why?"
"Time travel has always fascinated me," Cora shrugged nonchalantly before picking the dial up and moving it around in her fingers. "You think that you would be able to have it ready in the next couple of days?"
"No way," Pat shook his head. "There are way more tests that have to be run…"
"What if you ran them all tomorrow?"
"Tomorrow?! That is absurd! I don't have the manpower, or the proper calculations…"
"Get them, then" she stated casually before placing the dial down on the desk.
"I don't think you understand, Cora," Pat stood up his face one of amused disbelief. "The tests that we do can take months! We have to wait for data, we need to ensure that animals can first…"
"I have confidence in you." Cora grinned and leaned down, placing a kiss on his cheek. "You're a smart boy."
Pat blushed crimson and turned away from her, sitting back down and mumbling about something.
Cora smiled to herself and headed back to the kitchen, running almost headfirst into Bobby.
"PAT!" He yelled as he was pulling on his leather jacket. Cora winced slightly. "Have you seen the old family album? You know the one where we sat on Santa's lap?"
"I don't know!" Pat waved his hand at his brother impatiently. "Why?"
"Dad is going through all the old family photo albums again and muttering to himself."
Pat put the dial down and sighed. "This is news because?"
"Look dude. All I wanna know is if you've seen it."
"Nope. I've got more important stuff to worry about."
Bobby rolled his eyes, turned to leave, and then stopped. "Oh. Cora. Dad told me I should go do another sweep of the town to look for your husband. Robert? You said his name was?"
"Yes. Yes of course! Thank you so much!"
"Hey you know, the guy shares my name. Gotta help a fellow man out."
Cora frowned. "What?"
"Bobby's my nickname! It's short for Robert, of course." He gave her a boyish grin. "I'll be back soon."
DA
"Mrs. Hughes, I…." Robert suddenly grabbed her and pulled her to him, giving her a huge bear hug. He let go and held her at arms length. Her body stiff and shocked at her employer's surge of affection, she could only look at him with big eyes.
"Thank God. Thank God." He smiled. "You found me. I've been…I've been searching for someone, ANYONE, for…well it feels like it's been days."
"I've only been here for….not long," she responded meekly.
"Well come on then! Let's go home!" He turned around and started heading back towards the house.
"Lord Grantham!" She called out. He stopped and turned back to face her. Walking slowly to catch up with him, she shook her head sadly. "There is no way home."
"What do you mean there is no way home? How did you get here?" He asked, his face now one of confusion.
She shrugged. "The last thing I remember is sitting against a tree with Mr. Carson…"
"Carson?!"
"We went into the time portal after you," Mrs. Hughes responded. "To find you and Lady Grantham and bring you back. Except….something went wrong. We ended up here. In Limbo."
Robert shook his head briefly. "But I don't…what is Limbo?"
"I'm not exactly sure. But the Doctor…he is the one helping us…said there is no way back."
Robert's face fell and he suddenly looked as if he would collapse in a heap on the floor. "No…no. No! There must be a way back! We can't be…"
Mrs. Hughes bit her lip and looked down at her hands. "I'm terribly sorry Your Lordship," her voice cracked slightly as she spoke.
"Cora is all alone," he whispered. He looked up at her, his face now one of grief. "She's all alone!"
Mrs. Hughes took a deep breath. "The Doctor also said…he also said that…when you are in Limbo that….we are forgotten…we no longer exist. I'm terribly sorry that I…"
"So she doesn't know that I exist. She thinks that I'm….I'm not even a memory to her." His voice had gone flat.
"Yes," she replied softly. She took another big shaky breath. Mr. Carson. He wouldn't remember her either.
Robert stood there for a second. "Well I'm not going to stand here and do nothing. I am going to find a way out of here if it's the last thing that I do."
"But Lord Grantham surely…."
"Are you with me, Mrs. Hughes?" He looked over at her, his face a mixture of desperation and determination. He reached his hand out.
She looked at him with disbelief. Was it really worth it? To go on an expedition with her employer? But then again, these were not normal circumstances were they?
Elsie took a deep breath and let it out slowly before taking Robert's hand.
DA
Carson picked his head up and looked around. He thought he'd heard a noise. Something like a loud engine. But just as quick as that, the sound was gone again. He looked down at Mrs. Hughes' body. It was as if she could be sleeping. But he knew better.
He sniffed and carefully lay her body back against the tree. "HEY! YOU!" He said into the microphone, standing up carefully.
"What is it nowwww?" the Doctor's voice came back annoyed. "I think I may have made a breakthrough!"
"Well unless it's a breakthrough that will bring Mrs. Hughes back I don't care. We need to save her!"
"Mr. Carson, I have already told you before that…."
"I don't bloody care what you told me before! She's all alone and she could be scared! And Lord Grantham is probably trapped down in Limbo as well!"
"We can't do anything about that until we bring you and Lady Grantham home!"
"Why not?!"
"THIS portal is closing. And if you BOTH get trapped there then all FOUR of you will be permanently STUCK!" He shouted, exasperated. "Now I don't care what you…." He was interrupted by a loud burst of static again. "Just…..I….do!"
"Wha…what?" Carson said again into the microphone. "You're…there is so much static! What is going on?"
"Hello, hello?" The Doctor said.
"DOCTOR!" Carson bellowed.
"Holy…." The static disappeared again and his voice came through. "There is no need to shout!"
"Why is there all this static?" Carson asked again. He stopped and turned towards the road again when he heard the loud engine sound. What on EARTH…?
"We may be breaking up," the Doctor replied. "I am talking to you from the past remember? And the technology I've given you for use is from the future and YOU are in the future…"
"So I'm running out of time?"
"Basically," The Doctor sighed.
Carson ran a hand through his hair and glanced down. He gasped. Mrs. Hughes' body was gone.
"Oh my GOD!" He yelled. He turned around in a circle quickly.
"What?! What is it?"
"She's gone!" Carson looked around the other side of the tree and glanced down again towards the road.
"What do you mean she's gone?""
"I mean her body disappeared!" He took a shaky breath and attempted to calm his racing heart.
"The portal may have taken it from us."
"You mean to tell me that an inanimate object STOLE a BODY!?" He shouted into the microphone. This disturbed some birds in a tree nearby that made a loud noise and fluttered away.
"Will you keep your voice down?" The Doctor spat from the other side. "Do you want to get caught?"
"This is…this is too much for me." Carson put his hands up in the air, as if the man could actually see him.
At that moment, the engine noise came back and he groaned in frustration. It was so LOUD.
"I..I can't hear myself think," Carson put his hands to his ears.
"GO. Go find Lady Grantham, NOW. You are wasting precious time. I don't want to hear from you again unless you've gotten in trouble or found her."
"But…" Carson stopped. He squared his shoulders and took a deep breath. "I'm not going to give up," he muttered to himself. "I'm NOT." He glanced back down where Mrs. Hughes had lay only minutes before. "I will find you."
He set off towards the road.
DA
"Do you think that we will find anything in the house?" Elsie asked as they started up the gravel path.
"I just don't know anymore," Lord Grantham shook his head. "I searched all through the town…there were people but they….I don't understand where they are all from!"
"I think they are the lost souls the Doctor was telling us about…." Mrs. Hughes trailed off.
"Lost souls?" Robert halted and looked at her, his face one of fear.
"The people trapped here, like us. But I don't know why we can't speak with them."
"This is all just so surreal," Robert spoke up. His voice sounded strange to Elsie, as though he was attempting to fight back his emotions. She didn't blame him.
"Your Lordship and Ladyship fell through what is called a "time portal" directly next to your bed," Mrs. Hughes stated. Robert pulled open the doors of the house and she walked in as he closed the door behind them. "We were supposed to get you back there and go back through."
"Did you find her? Cora?"
Mrs. Hughes shook her head. "Maybe Mr. Carson did. There is still hope." She smiled at him reassuringly.
Robert took a deep breath and then let it out in response. He glanced around him. The house was totally deserted. The clock on the wall was frozen, not moving, not making a sound. The emptiness was rather eerie.
"Should we go and check the bedroom?" Robert asked her. Mrs. Hughes blushed slightly and looked down at her hands. "Your Lordship. I'm not sure that would be quite appropriate…"
"Mrs. Hughes in this situation I believe propriety is the least of our worries," he raised his eyebrows, looking a little too much like Carson for Elsie's taste.
She grimaced nervously and nodded, lifting her dress slightly as she followed him up the main staircase. Robert opened the door and waltzed right in, as Mrs. Hughes stopped nervously in the doorway looking around.
"Do you see anything?" She asked.
He pointed down to the floor right beside Cora's side of the bed. "Right here? This is where it was?"
She nodded and he put his hands on his hips, a look of disappointment on his face. "Well there is nothing here." He reached his leg forward carefully and touched it with his foot. Nothing. "Perhaps it is somewhere else in the house?" He looked back up at her and she shrugged.
"We need to keep searching," Robert reiterated. "I just don't know…"
"The Doctor was in contact with Mr. Carson. When we came through the portal. If we can get back to him, he can get us out." Mrs. Hughes glanced around the room again.
"Well in the meantime, where else can we look?!" His face now one of frustration he walked over to the wardrobe and threw it open, glancing inside.
"We might as well check the whole house," Elsie announced. She stood up straighter.
"Oh but Mrs. Hughes that would take forever," Robert gave her a shocked look.
"Well we have forever, don't we?" Just then, Mrs. Hughes felt something brush past her. She leaped forward and yelped, swiveling around. A young man stood there, in what appeared to be attire from the 18th century.
"Hello?" Elsie asked him. He looked at her, his expression one of shock. "You…you can see me!"
"Yes, yes of course!" She excitedly turned around, nearly face-planting into Robert's chest.
"My good man!" Robert extended his hand and the man shook it grinning from ear to ear. "Human contact, it is quite hard to believe!"
"We are looking for a portal of some sort, a way of getting home do you by any chance know where it is?" Robert asked.
The man shook his head as his face fell. "I've…I've completely lost track of any sense of time."
"There is no way to tell time here," Mrs. Hughes looked at him sympathetically, exchanging a look with Lord Grantham.
"Please will you…if you find a way back. Take me with you?" He reached a hand out to touch Mrs. Hughes but it fell through her again.
She frowned. "What are you…?"
But he was gone.
"Where did he go?!" Robert turned to her, his face stricken. "Will we see him again?"
Mrs. Hughes shook her head. "I don't…I don't know."
DA
Cora walked slowly up the steps towards the bedroom. She felt even more exhausted tonight if that was possible. She ran a hand over her face and sighed, opening the door and setting a glass of water beside the bed. She felt as if she could sleep for a hundred years.
Suddenly she heard talking and she walked back towards the opening of the door. It was coming from the room next to hers. She put her ear to the wall and listened. It was Matt's voice carrying through.
Chuckling to herself, she peeked into the room next to hers. The door was cracked and Matt was sitting cross-legged on the floor, family photo albums spread around him in a large circle.
Cora knocked briefly and pushed the door open. "Hi!"
Matt looked up at her briefly before leaning back over the albums.
"Bobby told me you were going through all the old family photo albums."
"Yup," he responded. He squinted really closely at a photo, glanced up at Cora, shook his head and put it back before turning the page.
"Is there something in particular that you are looking for?" Cora asked. She walked over and sat down across from him.
"No. Just re-visiting memories," he responded.
"You seem rather determined." Cora tried again.
Matt looked back up at her. "Do you need something?"
Cora bit her lip. "I…oh nothing." She sighed slightly as she stood up. Truth is, Matt reminded her a bit of Robert and she wanted his companionship. "I'm going to try to get some sleep."
She was almost out the door when Matt's voice stopped her.
"You have…have many daughters did you say you had?"
"Thr…two," Cora fixed herself quickly and smiled briefly. "Good night." She shut the door behind her and felt a lump rising to her throat. She put a hand to her mouth and stifled a sob. She took a shaky breath and walked back into the guest bedroom. She sat heavily on the bed.
"God," she whispered, looking above her. "If you're there…please. Please help me find Robert. Help me find my family." She buried her face in her hands and started to cry.
Suddenly she heard a loud sound from the room next to her, almost like a chair crashing over. She gasped and jumped up from the bed, moving towards the opposite wall. She wiped at her eyes.
"A HA!" Matt yelled. "I KNEW IT! I FUCKING KNEW IT!"
Cora frowned. Veronica and Pat came tearing up the steps, stopping in front of Cora's bedroom. Ignoring her tear-stained face, they stared at the door next to hers. Then all of a sudden, it was thrown open. Matt was waving a photo around in his hands, looking somewhat insane. His eyes ablaze he shook it in front of Veronica. "Did I not tell you?"
Confused she looked at her husband and then over at Cora. "Matt have you completely lost your mind?"
He waltzed past his wife and waved the photo in front of Cora's face. "Explain THIS!" He thrust it at her and took a step back, his chest heaving.
The photo was yellow, crumbling slightly at the edges with age. Cora stared down at the photo. She shrieked and dropped it on the floor, her hands covering her mouth in shock. "Where did you…where did you get that?"
"So I was right." His chest still heaving, Matt pointed to the ground. "I..I was right. You….that is you."
Cora continued to gape at him.
Veronica leaned over and picked the picture up. Gasping she nearly dropped it too until Pat grabbed ahold of it.
"That…that's you," Pat replied, pointing at Cora. "That's you in the picture!"
"Who are they?" Veronica asked, her face still one of astonishment.
"My great grandmother and my great grandfather," Matt replied, his voice now hollow almost in shock. Taking the picture, he turned it around and read from the back. "Lord Robert and Lady Cora, 1918."
All three of them swiveled back around to face Cora.
Cora gulped, opened her mouth, and then closed it. She took a deep breath. "I guess I have a lot of explaining to do."