Chapter Ten
Natalie continued to stand against the wall as the young blonde guy smiled at her, she couldnt understand what had happened.. One minute they were in that damn vault and then John was freaking out, a gasp left her throat as realization hit her, he had leap with her..She stared at the guy once more and her eyes got wide, was she in a different time..
"i...i have to go" she said quickly as she looked at the guy, she had to find John, he was out there, he had to be..
"Not so fast lassie" the guy shook his head at her.."dinna move"
"Listen theres been a misunderstanding ok,...i um...i shouldnt be here" she began to ramble with panic in her voice, she had to get the hell out of there..
He looked at her perplexed as he cocked his head to the side, she swallowed hard, he didnt get it, she would have to say it in a way he could understand, she sighed.."what year is it" she swallowed hard..
"ye jest?" the man shook his head and laughed some.."tis 1515" he laughed some more..
Natalie gasped as she stood there, she felt like she may just hurl right then and there and she quickly sat on the bed, she had to, she couldnt believe this, she didnt want to believe this.."where are we?" she barely got the words out even though she was pretty sure by the accents of the men and women it was either scotland or ireland..
The man put one hand on his hip.."Tis his lordships castle, castle loch" he said matter of factly...
"Ireland?" she said even though she knew her answer now..
"aye... ye sick lassie?" he said with confusion..
Natalie just shook her head as she sat there, she really was in ireland and it was the 1500's, she had to breath heavy as she sat there.."water, I ...i need water" she said with heavy gasps..
Before he could answer her the door swung open hard and she jumped as her head shot up and then with absolute shock she gasped as the name flew off of her tongue.."John?"
The man standing before her with an outraged look on his face looked just like John, well almost, he had the same face though it was slightly unshaved, his hair was longer and he wore a button down tunic, kilt and boots but his eyes, god his eyes were so different, harsher and more barbaric looking and his muscles were still bulging like back in AC...
"Ye call me by my english name, who are ye" his voice rumbled loudly and she swallowed hard..This was not making any sense..
"John its me, its natalie" she said as she stood now and within seconds he was grabbing his sword as she jumped back in shock..
"dinna call me that, me name is Hawk and I be King here!" he yelled towards her as she gasped again..
"what?" she couldnt help herself as she stared at him...
"she be rambling your lordship, tis a wee bit mad" the young guy said as Natalie blinked in shock..
Hawk looked over her from head to toe but he kept his sword raised.."what are these garbs ye wear" he said with annoyance as she swallowed hard, this really was happening, she couldnt believe this.."ye speak when I ask" he stepped closer to her but he was weary.."ye a witch?"
"No"she shook her head repeatedly now. This guy looked like John, like even down to his mannerisms but it couldnt be him, it just couldnt..John wasnt a king, hell he didnt even live in the 1500's! Even as she thought this Bo's words came to her mind, if she really was in the 1500's then maybe just maybe this was John, just from a different time. He was suppose to be from the 1500's, her eyes got wide as she gasped..
"what tis ye name" he watched her as he stood there, his sword still in his hand but he lowered it some now..
"Natalie" she said just above a whisper..He lowered his sword now..
"what were ye doing on ma land" he kept his defensive stance even though he put the sword even lower.."who brought ye here" he demanded and she swallowed hard..
Natalie didnt even know what to say as she stared at him, this really was John, well 1500's barbaric John, she felt dizzy all over again..He looked over at the young guy who just shrugged his shoulders.."tis mad she is" the guy said as he shook his head..
"Im not mad!" natalie finally blurted out, she was on the verge of hysterics and he blinked in shock at her as the blonde guy stared at her in shock as well..
"ye dare to yell at me!" Hawk yelled and she swallowed hard, he stormed over to her and she scrambled to get onto her feet, he looked pissed and frankly she was scared to death.."ye dinna talk to me that way" his voice was low but dangerous as he stared at her hard..
"im...im sorry" she said quietly..
Before he could say anything that same girl from earlier stepped into the room but stopped as John spun his head around to look at her.."Im sorry to intrude yer lordship" she bowed her head as John looked back at natalie and then the girl, he turned and faced the girl.."Ma father would verra much like a word with ye" she said as she kept her head bowed but there was no denying the flush in her face as natalie looked at her..
He sighed heavily as he shook his head and he stormed over to the door..He looked at the young man standing there.."dinna let her leave" he snapped and then he was leaving the room as the girl looked up at natalie..
"M'Lady" the girl nodded her head and then she quickly walked out of the room as Natalie looked back at the blonde haired guy, he had a quirky look on his face..
"tis best not to make his lordship angry" he cocked his head to the side and natalie just nodded, she was starting to understand that much even though all of this seemed completely unreal..
Meanwhile in the present time
John tore through his place like a mad man, he was throwing chairs at the walls, his heart was racing dangerously fast, he couldnt believe he had let this happen, he had killed her..
Nigel watched in horror as John single handedly destroyed his own home, he had never seen him this way, not even with Cait, back then he had just sucked all of his emotions inside but this, well this was frightening.. John wanted to punish someone but he had no one to blame but himself, after he shredded the last bit of furniture he had, he slid down the wall and covered his face with his hands, she was dead and it was all his fault!
Natalie sat staring at the wood floor as she tried to process this, if midevil John was here then where the hell was the John she knew and how the hell did she end up here of all places? Was the future John running around somewhere in this time? She hated that she had never got a chance to see that damn file, she had absolutely nothing to go on here, all she knew as that he was apparently the king here and well he had a bit of an anger issue..
"ye wed lass?" the young guy broke her concentration as she finally looked over at him, for a moment she had even forgot he was there, maybe she could get him to help her, I mean middle ages or not, men were men, right?
"No, are you?" she asked as she tried to size him up some..
"Me? Wed?" he laughed briskly.."No lass, not married"
"Is the king married?" she couldnt help but ask..
His eyes widdened some and he smiled.."in five days time he will be" his words caught her by surprise, she couldnt help the shock and somewhat jealously in her tone..
"what? With who?" she said in shock..
"with Lady Cait of course, ma sister" he smiled and her eyes got wide, was that the young blonde, John was going to marry her? But he wasnt even married in her time, none of this made sense..
"Your sister, the blonde girl" she asked even though she knew the answer..
"aye" he nodded his head.."maybe if ye be verra nice to the king he will let ye come"
Natalie sighed, what the hell was this? Was she going to have to watch John get married. She couldnt believe it, even though she knew she shouldnt have any claim on him, she couldnt help but remember the night they shared..
"Ye sad?" the guy asked a bit confused..
"confused" she said honestly.."what is your name"
"Ian McCloud at yer service" he smirked as he bowed dramatically at her and she couldnt help the smirk on her face, he reminded her an awful lot of her brother Rex..Thinking of Rex now she wondered if anyone even knew she was missing..
Meanwhile back in AC
John sat in his destroyed study as he nursed a bottle of jack, he wanted to be numb, completely and utterly numb..
"Sir you have a guest" Nigel said as John looked up, for a moment he wondered if it was natalie and he stood quickly but only to be disappointed when he saw Bo walk in..
"go away" he said angrily as he looked at Bo..
Bo had other ideas though.."John we need to talk"
"Like hell we do, get the hell out of here" John yelled at him..
"she isnt dead damn it!" Bo yelled at him as John blinked a bit in shock..
"what? What do you mean, she's gone" John said quickly as he swigged back some of the jack..
Bo sighed and ran his hand through his thinning hair.."but that doesnt mean she is dead, you told me yourself that you leapt" he began...
"and yet there is no record of her here, its like she never exsisted" John snapped angrily..
Bo walked up to him.."maybe not in this time" he said almost cryptically..
"what?" John said in confusion..
"Im trying to tell you that I think she is very much alive just not in this time" Bo said again as John just looked at him, completely confused..Bo continued.."this isnt the first time something like this has happened"
"what the hell do you mean Bo" John was getting annoyed now.."stop talking in damn riddles and spit it out"
"we had an agent before, she was one of my best" Bo began to pace some as John just watched him.."she was working on a case much like Natalie was, one of the masters brought her back with him, the same thing happened, all record of her here was gone"
"Listen your not making any sense and im not in the mood for speculation" John dismissed him with his hand, he just wanted to be left alone with his misery..
"damn it John are you listening to me, I think natalie is very much alive, you admitted you havent leap in quite some time but I think that for some reason when you did she got brought somewhere else"
"so your telling me that you think I accidentally dropped her off in another time" John shook his head sarcastically..
"what I think is that she had a bigger plan" Bo walked up to him now.."we both know that natalie isnt like the others, there was always something about her, something unigue, I saw it right away nearly ten years ago" Bo took a deep breath.."i think this may have been her destiny all along"
John couldnt help the roll of his eyes.."destiny? Oh so now your going to go on about fate and all that crap" John spun from him.."leave me out of it" he snapped even though his mind was racing, was she indeed alive somewhere else..He couldnt help but wonder..
"there is a way to find out" Bo said quickly as John turned and looked at him now.."when history becomes changed there is always some sort of record or log about it, I think that if we look hard enough we may just find her after all" he said seriously..
"Ive never heard of such a thing" John said with a shake of his head..
"Like I said if I hadnt seen it with my own two eyes then I may not believe it either but I think its worth a shot, if she is out there we can still find her" Bo said softly now..
Natalie looked out the small square window, Ian had been summoned out of the room but not before the door had been locked, she was being held here and she knew that she had to get the hell out, she couldnt live in this time, she wasnt built for it.. And John, my god he was so different, she still couldnt barely fathom the idea, she honestly felt like alice in the rabbit hole, she was just waiting for the other shoe to drop..
Outside the window she looked over at a large green pasture, she was very high up, too high to attempt pushing herself out of the small window even though she had thought about it, the drop alone would kill her. She was in a tower in some sort of ancient castle where John was king, she had to shake her head cause it all still seemed so unreal..
The sound of the door opening made her jump as she put her back against the wall, she didnt know what to expect..But the next thing she saw was John, or rather hawk walking in, he stopped as he looked at her, his eyes lingering on her legs as she swallowed hard..
"i dinna like to be crossed lass" he said as he walked in the room some and she just blinked at him, I mean honestly if she just ignored the fact that he was dressed like a midevil warrior then it really did look like John.."ye english, whose ye family" he said as he watched her..
Natalie knew that she needed to play along with this, she didnt know much about this time but she did know that people were killed for less then what she had already stated to him, she took a deep breath.."My family, the Balsams" she swallowed hard.."Is from the city of...york" she finally spit out as his eyes opened some..
"York?" he seemed confused..
"its very far away" she said quickly and he seemed to think about what she said..
"what brought ye here to ma land" he said with his head cocked..
Natalie tried to think back to her years in highschool, she had never paid much attention to her renassance class but she had seen a lot of movies and she hoped they would help her now.."I...I ran away" she finally said nervously..
"ye, ran are ye an outlaw?" she could see his temper flaring and she knew she had to stop that..
"No...just a peasent girl looking to start over" she swallowed hard as he looked at her, running a hand through his hair as he seemed to ingest this..
"ye cant afford garbs?" he said as he looked her up and down but there was no denying the heat in his eyes, she shifted uncomfortably..."ye canna stay here long" he said quickly as he spun from her and headed back to the door.."ye family will be contacted and ye will go back" he said as he got to the door..
She didnt want him to lock her back in that room, she called out .."wait" he stopped now and faced her..."you are the king here and...I.." she began to ramble.."Im hungry and cold" she said as she stood there and he looked at her now..
"Ye canna be running around ma land looking like that" he shook his head.."Cait will get ye some garbs and some food" he quickly turned back for the door..
"Your getting married" she said quickly as almost a question as he stopped again and slowly turned to look at her, his stare made her antsy..
"ye look at me like ye ken me, I dinna ken ye" he said with a shake of his head, he looked confused, she wondered if she would be able to get through to him..
"Your the king, everyone knows you" she swallowed hard..
"ye get a day, maybe two if ye stay out of my way" he snapped and then he was leaving but much to her surprise he left the door open and she sunk to the floor, how the hell was she going to deal with this? I mean he didnt seem to want to kill her, but he didnt seem to like her either and he was getting married.. She sighed heavily, she wanted more than anything to be back home, back in her apartment and away from all of this craziness, she refused to cry, it wouldnt get her anywhere. She would have to suck it up, she was stuck here for now and something told her she had to play by his rules, surely she didnt want to lose her head..
Maybe she could let this work for her, I mean she had wanted to see that file on him to learn about his past but she was in his past, maybe this wasnt so bad after all, maybe she could see why he turned out the way he had, maybe just maybe she could get the answers that she seeked..