2004
Date: January 3
"Jenny, why don't you date anymore?"
Jenny looked up from her slice of cake to stare at her little sister with surprise. "What makes you think I don't date?"
"Because you haven't gone out with anyone since you and Shayne broke up," Mara said, and her matter-of-fact attitude made Jenny drop her fork.
She avoided her little sister's eyes as she picked the utensil back up. "How do you even remember Shayne?" she asked. "You were only three when he left."
Mara rolled her eyes at her older sister, as if the answer to her question was obvious. "I'm a Time Lady, Jenny. Not a human child."
Jenny snorted. "Well, excuse me then." She didn't bother to correct her little sister by pointing out the fact that she was also part Quo.
Mara giggled, and ate another bite of her cake before she returned to their earlier subject. "So why don't you?"
"Why don't I what?" Jenny asked in an attempt to stall her.
"Date?"
Jenny bit her lip. "I don't know. Just never met the right bloke, I suppose."
Mara cocked her head to the side. "So…if you met the right bloke, does that mean you'd date him?"
Jenny laughed and shook her head at her sister's persistence. "I guess I would." She held up a finger. "That does not mean I want to be set up with any of your friend's dads, you got that?"
Her sister only grinned. "Yeah, I got it."
"Or teachers. Or relatives to your teachers. Or any school staff."
"Okay! I won't set you up with anyone."
"Promise me, Mara Belle."
Mara rolled her eyes. "I promise."
Date: February 14
"I thought you said we had a case!"
Jack smiled at her as he grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the speed dating event. "Oh relax! We do have a case. Someone's been using an alien spore to poison people who eat at this restaurant. If we stick around long enough, we'll catch the culprit."
"That doesn't mean we have to go speed dating!" Jenny's voice raised two octaves as Jack handed her one of the service's surveys.
He rolled his eyes at her. "Oh loosen up! It's like you're a human from this century! Just because you talk to these nice people doesn't mean you ever have to actually date them for real. Why not just have a little fun while we're here?" He winked as he handed her a pen.
She snatched the pen from him and let out an angry snort before she turned to her survey. "Fine, we'll play it your way."
Jack grinned at her. "Excellent!"
She grumbled to herself under her breath as she walked over to a nearby table and sat down with her survey.
She'd just about finished when she heard someone walk up to the table. "Jack, I'm playing your game. I'm being thorough, I can't also be—" She looked up, and her breath caught in her throat.
"Hello, Jenny," Shayne said.
She swallowed hard. "I thought you moved."
"I did," he said. "And now I'm back."
She bit her lip, and glanced over at where people were already lining up in preparation for the speed dating event. "What are you doing here?"
He held up another copy of the survey she was filling out. "Same as you, I suppose."
Her hearts fell to the floor at the sight of the piece of paper in his hands. "Oh, I see."
"I am curious, though." He sat down across from her and glanced around to make sure nobody was within earshot. "What do alien women look for in a potential date?"
Jenny's eyebrows shot up. "Well, I don't know, Shayne," she said in a bitingly sarcastic tone. "I've never asked my neighbor's wife about why she took an interest in her husband."
"I just meant-"
She snorted. "I know what you meant. I'm just not interested in making conversation with you."
Shayne's eyes fell to the floor. "I suppose I deserve that."
Jenny sat back in her chair and crossed her arms. "Did you want something from me? Or did you just want to play twenty-awkward-questions with your ex? I thought you couldn't handle talking to an alien."
"It wasn't the talking I couldn't handle." He brought his eyes back up to hers, and she was surprised when she saw real remorse there. "I should never have left you, Jenny."
She blinked, and her arms loosened. "Excuse me?"
He bit down on his lip. "Jenny, I…" He let out a long breath, and it was like his whole body deflated as the air left his lungs. "I'm sorry about the way I reacted. Granted, it's not every day that you learn that the woman you're in love with is an alien hiding on Earth from a race of monsters, but still. I shouldn't have walked out on you and Mara."
Jenny stared at him with wide eyes. "You…you were in love with me?" True to Tyler form, the two of them had never said the words to each other when they were together. She wondered if that was her family's curse—bad timing.
She saw Shayne swallow before he nodded. "I am."
She blinked, and opened her mouth to answer. But before she could there was a loud crash in the kitchen.
"I could use a little help in here!" she heard Jack shout.
She jumped to her feet. "I have to go to work," she said quickly. There was another crash.
"But wait!" Shayne grabbed onto her arm. "Meet me for coffee tomorrow at one in our old spot."
"Shayne—"
He shook his head. "If you're there, I'll know that you love me too, and we can talk about what happens next. And if you aren't…I'll never contact you again."
She swallowed, and was surprised to find her throat had gone dry. "Shayne…"
There was another crash. "Jenny!"
"Run for your life," she told Shayne, and then turned to rush to Jack's side.
Date: February 15
"It's ten-thirty," Tosh said as Jenny continued to tap on her keyboard. "If you don't leave now you won't make it in time."
She sucked in her cheeks. "I'm not sure that I want to make it in time."
"Make it to what on time?" Owen called up from his lab where he was processing the alien spore sample they had collected.
"She has a date," Tosh said with a giggle.
Owen's head popped up. "A date? With who?"
Tosh grinned at him. "Shayne, her ex."
Owen raised one eyebrow. "Hold on, hold on. Is this the same Shayne that dropped you and your little sister after he found out you two were aliens?"
Jenny nodded. "The very same."
"Well, I say you shouldn't go."
Tosh smacked him in the arm. "Owen!"
"What?" he demanded. "The guy clearly wants something. Why else would he suddenly change his mind after staying away for six years."
Tosh clicked her tongue. "Oh, don't be a cynic about this. He may have just thought she wouldn't want to see him."
Owen rolled his eyes. "Right. Okay, I'm going to go get some pizza. Anyone else want anything?"
"It's not even eleven in the morning," Jenny said.
He shrugged. "It's lunchtime somewhere." He snapped his fingers as he left the hub. "Tell Jack if he wants any he'll have to pay me back the money he owes me!"
Jack came out of his office then. "Yeah, yeah, your money is coming to you!"
Jenny smiled and chuckled at the two before she turned to Jack. "So what's your take? Do I go?"
"Yes!" Tosh exclaimed.
She raised an eyebrow at her friend when he didn't immediately respond. "Jack?"
He let out a slow breath. "All I know is that if you don't you'll spend the rest of the time wondering what could have been." He gave her shoulder a squeeze. "Go. And if you change your mind halfway there just turn around and come back."
Jenny gave him the smallest of smiles. "Okay."
And that's how she found herself here, across the street from their favorite coffee shop. She'd almost turned around half a dozen times already, but against all her better instincts, here she stood.
She could see him through the café's front window. He was seated in their favorite booth next to it. She smiled when she saw him accept a mug and a large chocolate covered biscuit from the waitress. His standard order—a black coffee with just a dash of milk and a chocolate covered biscuit on the side.
It was all so familiar.
She could see herself going in there. She would step through the door, catch his eyes, and that would be it. They would talk about old times; he would no doubt entertain her with stories of his travels. He'd always wanted to travel the world. That was one of the things she liked most about him—his wanderlust. It so reminded her of herself. There was so much running to do.
She knew that if she went in there, she wasn't going to come out alone. If she went through that open door it would be as if nothing had changed. As though they'd never been apart.
But that wasn't true. Everything had changed—she had changed. She wasn't the same wide-eyed girl she had been when she'd first fallen to Earth. And if there was one thing she knew more than anything it was that she couldn't go back. She couldn't be the girl she was—the girl Shayne had…had fallen in love with. And who was he to tell her that he loved her after breaking her hearts and maintaining silence for the past six years? Who was he to reject her based on the most fundamental parts of her, and then turn around and expect forgiveness? More than forgiveness - a whole relationship?
Jenny snorted. She had been right. Her family was cursed with bad timing. Ironic really, considering their lineage. She could only hope Mara would escape it.
Mara.
It wasn't only her that Shayne had rejected the first time he'd left. It was her little sister, too. Jenny could feel her little sister's mind hum against her own when she thought her name. She was attending to her Maths studies as Jenny had instructed before she left for work that morning. Mara had whined about being told to study on a Sunday, and then about Jenny working the weekend, but Jenny had remained firm.
Jenny pulled in a sharp breath when Shayne glanced out of the café window towards where she stood across the street. He couldn't see her. She was protected by the tinted windows of the market she was hiding in. But if felt as though he could see her. As though his eyes had pierced right through the glass and nailed her to the floor.
For a moment she hesitated. Maybe it could work. He claimed to have changed. He'd been the one to call for this meeting. Didn't that prove his point? And besides, her dad took on companions, why couldn't she? Her parents made things work even when her mum was still human. Why couldn't she do the same with Shayne? Now that he knew her secret, maybe they could...
It was then that she saw a young woman around her age approach Shayne. She was pretty; Jenny's superior eyesight could see that from here. She felt her hearts squeeze when the girl held out a napkin with what must be a phone number out to Shayne.
She let out a slow breath when Shayne turned her down, and shook herself. She was being delusional. She and Mara weren't going to be stuck here forever, and if she did somehow find it within her to forgive him, then what would she and Shayne do when they left? And even if he did come travel the stars with her, what would happen if he got hurt? Or, maybe even worse, if he lived long enough to grow old and wither away while she didn't? She could just regenerate. He would die.
What was it that her dad had once said to her mum?
"I don't age. I regenerate. But humans decay. You wither and you die. Imagine watching that happen to someone who you—"
She knew how that sentence would have ended. And she could imagine it. It was happening in front of her eyes. Time would always march on for Shayne, but not for her. At least, not like it would for him.
"Miss?"
She turned to find one of the market's attendees staring at her. "Yes?"
"I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to either buy something or leave," the attendee said nervously.
Jenny swallowed, and then gave the him a tight smile. "I was just leaving."