Authors Note: Written by TamLin and proofread by Iresol.
"So you get that she doesn't even ask us where we're from or how we got here or anything?" It was late in the afternoon and Hoot was making fishing hooks out of sharpened pieces of wood. Something he hadn't done since childhood. Jeff had climbed to the top of one of the rocky outcroppings and was - well, snooping. It was what Jeff did and he was damn good at it.
"Probably just as well" Jeff's voice answered mildly as his boots made soft sounds on the rocks. "What the hell would we tell her?"
Hoot shrugged.
He was sitting on the bank of a stream and he'd rolled his pants up and taken off his socks and boots to stick his feet in the cool water. It felt lazy and he wasn't sure he was comfortable with it but he was at a bit of a loss at to what kind of mission plan he should be coming up with instead. 'Gee, man. I'm trapped in the past. Does this count as leave time?' He and Jeff had already talked about how they might have gotten here and, to men like them, why and the only answer either one of them could come up with at this point was 'fucked if I know!'. Which, granted, wasn't much of an answer but, surprisingly, wasn't the first time they'd used it either. Still, if their job required anything it was puzzle solving skills and patience was a part of that. Something would turn up eventually. It always did.
In the meantime, it was still taking some getting used to to wrap their heads around the fact they really weren't going to wake up out of this in a bar in Madrid anytime soon.
Hoot had already tried the whole pinching himself thing.
It really wasn't possible they really were where they thought they were. But until they figured out where they really were, they had to go with what was in front of them. Luckily, in their line of work, rolling with the punches was ingrained.
"I don't know. I'd ask if someone weird dropped into my camp" Hoot stated after a minute. He wasn't a talker by nature but he and Jeff had a comfortable back and forth. Sometimes it was just nice to hear another person's voice.
Jeff chuckled and squatted down on the outcropping nearby so he could look over at Hoot.
"No you wouldn't" he answered with a grin. "You'd sneak up behind them, take 'em down, flexi-cuff 'em, and than interrogate them."
Hoot laughed.
Jeff shook his head.
"This is the past, Hoot. Or at least it seems that way. Weird shit happens all the time they can't explain. Maybe not this weird but seriously, if they blame an earthquake on a god being pissed and check out new caves because they might be housing a giant with one eye, two guys showing up talking weird probably just falls under the same ' why the hell not?' category."
"I'm not doin' this 'god' crap" Hoot clarified. Less out of the blue than you'd expect. Jeff shrugged.
"It's what they believe."
"I know" Hoot frowned, squinting up at the sky for a moment. "But I don't and I'm not doin' animal sacrifices or spillin' my drink or any of that shit." Even if his grandma wouldn't have killed him for it - and she would - as a born and raised Christian he couldn't even pretend. When they talked about idol worship in church on Sunday, he didn't think the preachers put much thought into this type of situation happening anymore.
"I didn't see a temple" Jeff commented. Hopping down to settle on his heels next to his friend. He'd been raised Methodist himself but Hoot was Southern. And that included his view on religion and where it belonged in someone's life. Hoot thought about it a bit and than shrugged.
"Refugee camp" he agreed. "They really don't have a lot."
"They're not lacking in armour and weapons" Jeff pointed out and Hoot nodded. Priorities. They both understood that.
"We stay here much longer we're going to have to learn how to use those oversized knives of theirs" Hoot stated after a little while and Jeff made an agreeing noise.
"That's going to feel stupid" he admitted and Hoot chuckled.
"When we get back we'll show Giz a thing or two about his SCA gear."
Jeff laughed and settled down, starting to take off his own boots.
"Your job to keep watch, sunshine. I think I'm going to catch a nap up here where that Padmay can't find me to drive a stake through my heart."
Hoot dried off his feet with his socks and than pulled them back on along with his boots. Jeff stretched out on his back and rested his arms behind his head as he shut his eyes.
"I'll watch" Hoot told him as he climbed to his feet. "But if that scowler shows up, you're on your own, bud."
"Promises, promises" Jeff mocked with a smile without opening his eyes.
Hoot slipped easily upward on the rocks and found himself a good position. He'd already taken off his shirt and the heat from the day felt good against his skin as he settled in, pulling his sunglasses down automatically over his eyes. Whatever had popped them here had let him keep his sunglasses but not his gun. And he still wasn't sure if that was something he'd disagree with when it came to priority. He shifted backward and stretched out his legs again. Able to see a good distance from his position and all the approaches to the little spot of rocks and grass he and Jeff were crashing at. They'd needed some down time. Even though everyone seemed friendly - or at least stopped short of physically trying to kill them, didn't mean they were safe and neither one of them had slept much or well last night. He linked his hands loosely across his stomach and let his mind drift while his eyes kept watch.
He had no idea how the hell they'd gotten here. More important to him though was 'why'. Sometimes shit happened for no reason. But this kind of shit...?
Not that he had a lot of experience but it was hard to imagine something happening randomly on a level that actually changed the forces of the universe. If there was a 'why' to all this - than they could figure it out, do whatever they needed to do and hopefully that would let them go home. 'Home' of course being the Delta base because neither he or Jeff had family back in their time. At least not 'family' in the sense you married into it. They both had 'family' they'd been born into. More than Hoot liked to deal with for extended amounts of time for that matter.
Looking at the pieces he'd been offered, he went over the facts he knew so far. Again. One, they'd both been tossed in some dark mythological section of history. Him and another Delta operative. And - possibly - just them. They'd already talked about doing recon and leaving sign in case someone else had caught the time swirl from their unit and been tossed here too. Though - it seemed less likely. He and Jeff sat alone when they got serious about getting drunk. Two, it looked like they were on the Trojan side of this... 'afterwar' because he'd ended up with them to start with and killing the other team right off the bat the way they had probably wouldn't make them all too welcome in the Greek camp either. Three - he looked like their dead war leader.
He really wasn't sure how he felt about that. He wasn't even sure he really thought he looked like this dead 'Hector'. He felt more that dead Hector probably had looked a little something like him. Sure, historically on the time line, 'Hector' had first dibs but - well, since he wasn't here to defend himself, Hoot claimed 'origonal' spot and left the dead man as the 'copy'. He did know he was getting enough side glances from everyone in the refugee camp to make him uncomfortable. But was the similarity in looks part of the 'why' of why they were here or was it just a freak chance thing? Especially since Jeff didn't look like anyone missing so it wasn't as if Hoot had needed a blank space to fill before he could be pulled back in time. Did these people need someone that looked like their dead warlord?
And... there was a part neither he nor Jeff had mentioned but he knew they were both thinking about it as a factor too.
There was a sad-eyed widow with hair like cinnamon that had been the first person Hoot had laid eyes on. The woman that he looked like the dead husband of...
Andromache. Her name was Andromache, though Hoot, with Delta mindset, had already nicknamed her 'Andy' in his head. He'd had her say her name over and over again earlier today at breakfast. Just to tease her. Just to see that almost flicker of laughter in her bottomlessly dark eyes. Her son's real name turned out to be Sacramandar but everyone called him Astyanax which apparently meant 'defender of the city' or 'lord of the city'. Some name that meant 'protector'. As nicknames went it was only barely shorter and just as tongue twisting to pronounce as the origonal name. Andromache and Astyanax.
He liked being around them. Hoot was a pretty straight-forward man despite his line of work and he made it a point to never lie to himself or his friends. He liked watching Andromache's pale, thin face. Especially when she forgot herself and it became animated and that warm glow moved under her skin and revealed those almost invisible golden freckles that barely scattered the bridge of her slim nose. And he liked the kid. Astyanax didn't talk - at least not that Hoot had heard. But with wide black eyes and a face just as expressive as his mother's there was very little the boy couldn't 'say' without using words. And - well, hell. Hoot had always been a pushover for kids.
His eyes narrowed as he watched someone slowly picking their way up toward his position. At this distance he wasn't sure who it was. A woman. And not Andromache. Shorter but even if she hadn't been Andromache moved differently than any woman he'd ever watched before. The hair was dark so it wasn't the blond girl but it wasn't black so that let out the wannabe Delta slayer. He finally recognized the girl that had tipped them off as to the 'where' in time they were when as she raised her heart shaped face now to look around. Wondering where two operatives could have disappeared to in a place that was all stone.
Hoot gave her a moment or two more to look. When Delta didn't want to be found, you didn't. And than he tossed a pebble at Sanderson and slipped silently down the other side of the boulder to come around and meet her at the top of the path she was working her way up.
"oh!" She looked surprised when she raised her face from watching the loose rocks under her sandals and saw him suddenly there. She had large eyes too and they went wide and darker but she didn't look like her first thought had been to bolt and Hoot gave her an easy smile to reassure her. She shook her head.
"You don't look like him when you're blocking the sun" she stated, taking his offered hand in her much smaller one so she could reach level ground where he was. "Hector, I mean. He was broader in the shoulders and chest than you. With the sun behind you you look nothing like him."
"Thanks?" Hoot hazarded and she smiled. A quick, shy smile.
"He was my cousin. My girlhood hero. I was jealous when he married Andromache" she confessed but it was said the way you talked about childhood crushes and dreaming of being Cinderella and Hoot didn't get the impression she held it against the taller woman. She glanced warily around.
"Where is Sandson?"
Hoot fought down the smile at the mangling of his friend's name and shrugged. By now, awake and aware, who knew where Jeff had gotten to. But more to the point, he wasn't going to tell even if he knew. Right now the only person he trusted completely was his fellow Delta. Which meant that was who he counted on to watch his back.
"Around" Hoot had a habit of reverting to single word answers. She looked a bit worried by that but nodded and looked back up at him. She reminded him of a little girl. Not completely, but that was his overall response to her round eyes and her cherubic face and her tiny stature. She shifted her little girl's hand from his palm to his wrist after she'd come even with him and he'd released it.
"You don't have his chest either" she commented and he looked down at her in surprise. He was so used to being around only men on base that he'd forgotten about his absent shirt. Deeply southern it felt a bit impolite to be around a woman that way but leaving to go get the shirt seemed even more awkward and out of the way.
"Oh?" he offered when she didn't say anything else and she smiled that shy smile again. Letting go of his wrist to touch a place on his chest near where the shoulder met the chest.
"Hector had a spear scar here" she indicated it with a sliding brush of her fingers. "And his chest was wider."
"I have a hard enough time fitting into tight spots as is" Hoot drawled, watching her closely. She caught something in his tone and her round face looked up at him, eyes suddenly wide again.
"I'm sorry" she swallowed unconsciously, taking a small step back. "I just - we're all trying to understand why you're here. You look so much like him sometimes. And sometimes you don't at all. No one in the village is sure what to do or how to react really. And Andromache's just treating you like a visiting traveler."
He understood. Everyone was taking their cue from their leader. The willowly mother of their 'king in waiting'. The widow of their warlord. He'd seen enough strong women run an operation behind or in place of their husbands in every part of the world not to recognize it here.
"I am just visitin'" he answered calmly and her eyes found his again. Young and vulnerable.
"Why?"
One edge of his lips quirked.
"Isn't that the million dollar question?" he asked and moved over to sit down on one of the boulders that rested against the steeper mountain walls here. She joined him, sitting on one nearby but still a 'safe' distance away he noticed. He shook his head.
"I don't really know" he answered honestly. He and Jeff had already decided to skip the 'sent from the gods' crap if it came up. "I'm from nowhere anywhere near here. But I woke up in your field and I don't seem to be disappearing when the next day rolls around so no one's dreaming."
She paused. As if wrestling with something. Pale hands linked and unlinked in her lap and than she looked up at him.
"Do you think you're here to defeat the Greeks? Restore Troy?"
And there was such longing and hope and fear and uncertainty in her voice it was heart breaking. It softened his answer.
"I wouldn't know the first thing about how to do that."
Well, maybe the first thing. But he seriously doubted even he and Jeff could change the tide without any of their weapons. And - they'd already talked about it. Just because they were here they were both still awfully leery about trying to change history.
"oh" her face fell. Looking back down at her twisting hands she nodded. "The gods decided Troy should fall. I don't suppose I should expect it to rise again."
Hoot's eyes narrowed but he didn't make the comment. From what he'd seen of the world, any god didn't have much to do with the rise or fall of a people. It had more to do with the people. Though - you could make an argument for otherwise when you looked at some of the things that had happened in Israel...
"Do you think you're here for her? For Andromache?"
The question, so far from where his mind had been, surprised him and he looked mildly over at her, dark eyes calm. She blushed and lowered her face anyway.
"Why would you think that?" he asked. Even though he thought it was pretty obvious considering the way he looked. Or rather the way 'Hector' had looked.
"She's very beautiful" the younger girl answered, surprising him. "She doesn't think so but everyone knows she is. She's tall and stately and sometimes she makes me think of Athena. Calm and tall and wise. None of our men would dare approach her. Not Hector's widow. But you can see how much they respect her and how much her swallowed sorrow breaks their hearts. We always thought she would end up like Queen Dido of Carthage. But than you came."
Hoot watched the way her fingers linked and unlinked.
"From where I'm from to here is a long stretch just for romance" he commented, eyebrows shifting upward a hair. "And I'm not the only one that's here. Sanderson's here too. Maybe we're here because of him."
She looked surprised by the suggestion and looked around for the missing Delta automatically.
"Its possible" she admitted after a moment's thought.
"Just because I look familiar doesn't mean I'm the one everything has to revolve around" Hoot continued calmly. "Maybe I'm just a coincidence."
She didn't look convinced but than her eyes widened again.
"Or a distraction" she supplied as the thought struck her. Hoot hadn't thought of that angle but he nodded after a minute.
"Might be" he admitted.
"Andromache thinks you aren't dangerous" the little girl stated after a minute. Looking at him. Hoot chuckled.
"I'm the most dangerous man you've ever met. But I'm not here to hurt you. I'm sure of that."
"You're such a bull shitter" Jeff commented as Hoot watched the figure of the young girl disappear down the path.
Hoot chuckled.
"Flattery."
"You might be a distraction" Jeff rolled his eyes.
"Hell, who's to say this mess isn't all about you?" Hoot asked with a crooked smile, turning to look at his friend as Jeff dropped down from the overhead rocks to join him. "After all, you actually know what's going on history-wise."
Jeff shot him a look.
"We could argue that you're the one that looks like their dead leader. But I'm going to go with the more proven answer that - hell, you're always the one out of the two of us that everything happens to."
"Not all the time" Hoot started to protest and than shook his head. "Well, maybe. But that doesn't mean this is following the pattern."
Jeff just chuckled and slapped the dark haired man on the shoulder.
"I'm just here 'cause you always need me to haul your ass out of the fire."