Ripley hobbled behind Mallory as they searched high and low for the elusive Billy Malloy and his "special place" that even Mallory didn't have a clue.

Checking the time, Ripley informed Mallory that she didn't have enough time left to help find him. She had to go back to the shop and get things ready for the next day.

"Please, just a little more," Mallory clasped her hands together. She begged Ripley and Ripley shook her head. She ended up changing her mind when Mallory offered to pay for dinner to make up the time spent. "But I pick," Ripley raised a finger as she added a clause to the deal. Mallory accepted it and they went on their way all around New London.

"Is it possible this special place isn't anywhere in New or Old London?" Ripley brought up the suggestion that Billy's special place wasn't in the city and that Mallory would've had to look elsewhere for him. She also brought up the suggestion he'd gone back to the tram, but Mallory said they parked it behind an abandoned industrial warehouse near the Thames, not a place to call special.

"Well, if this isn't the London you're thinking about, then I have no clue where his special place is," Ripley shrugged after hobbling around some while looking for this special place that Billy talked about.

They ended up taking a break at a restaurant where Ripley ordered the spiciest item on the menu while Mallory ordered a salad and a large meat pie.

"Okay, let's try this again, did he ever talk about a particular place, anywhere that he liked?" Ripley crossed her arms as she sat across from Mallory. Mallory thought about it and mentioned that her husband always wanted to propose to her at the same place his father proposed to his mother. However, by the time he finally proposed to her, he could never find it, and became confused.

It confused Ripley that he had such vast knowledge of other worlds and realities, that he's looking for a specific place in a specific world. He probably would've made do with wherever he stopped at, if he felt like he couldn't do any better or find the place.

"Well, I doubt this special place is a store, government building, or anything like that, there has to be a place your husband likes," Ripley stabbed her dinner with the fork before lifting it off the plate and eating it.

Mallory pondered for most of their meals. On her mind she thought back to when she first started seeing Billy. He'd always bring up stories about his travels and how he nearly escaped in the nick of time.

He spoke highly of his parents, but kept them vague and mysterious, he claimed it added allure to his character, and Mallory didn't think much about it.

Though he never mentioned them intimately, it showed he loved his parents and wanted to follow their footsteps. Proposing Mallory in his parents' "special spot" is one of them.

"What happened to them?" Ripley asked.

Mallory frowned and said that Billy never told her, never even showed her pictures of them, if anything, it sounded like to her that they're dead.

Ripley frowned. She contemplated what Mallory told her and shook her head.

They finished their dinner, Ripley paid, and they went on their search once more. Scouring high and low, taking breaks here and there on the account of Ripley's knee, they asked people if they'd seen Billy, but nobody did.

Despite their efforts, they never found him, and Mallory grew more worried about him. Ripley, despite her disdain for Mallory, comforted her, and told her that her husband's fine and just gotten lost in his excitement.

They continued searching for the missing Billy.

Ripley had the idea of searching through the parks. The late night crowds started coming out in droves and it's making it harder for them to search when they're dealing with drunk people.

Going through the first few small parks, they didn't find anything. However, there's a party going on in the one park and as far as Mallory knew, Billy didn't know anyone getting married.

They continued looking for this man, it's dark now, and they just arrived into the next park. Dark, aside from the torch lamps lighting up the white paths, they looked around for any sign that Billy went through the park.

"Hey, what's that?" Ripley turned her head when she noticed a glint coming from one of the trees. Mallory followed her eyes and hurried over to it, she pulled the branches away as she disappeared into the underside of the tree branches.

She squealed and Ripley hurried over to her and stopped when Mallory held the same box Helga described. Mallory held it up to Ripley and Ripley stared at it.

Opening the box, Mallory found the necklace that Billy bought for her alongside a note.

Mallory read and her eyes melted with sickly love as she held the letter close to her chest.

"That man," Mallory smiled.

Ripley gestured, "Well, what the hell did he write?"

Mallory told her, "It's a poem!"

Ripley stared at her. She looked around the park and asked, "Well, where is Mr. Dreamy?"

Mallory looked down to the note and said that he waited for her at the park, but gotten hungry, and knew that she'd eventually find the box. So, he went to find something to eat, but by the time he'd gotten back to the park, it'd be late and he'd work off his meal.

Knowing that Mallory would find her way back to the tram by herself, he decided to leave for the tram.

"How thoughtful, didn't think to wait for you," Ripley pointed this out to Mallory but Mallory told her that it was the thought that counted.

"So, he wanted to be romantic, but his stomach got in the way of it," Ripley crossed her arms. "I should've stayed at the shop."

Mallory pointed out she couldn't have found the park without Ripley's help. Ripley told her, "Look, I helped you, he's fine, you have your present, and it's dark out. I think I'll see you two off."

Before Ripley went back to her shop and go straight to bed, she was going with Mallory back to the tram. Making sure that Mallory and Billy return to whence they came, Ripley ensured they didn't come back again or pull any hijinks.

Mallory led her to a cab and took them shy of the warehouse, Ripley paid the fare and followed Mallory as she cradled the box, heading into an opening of the metal fence.

Ripley hobbled and noticed lights coming from behind the warehouse. As she neared the lights, Mallory hurried ahead of her and she struggled to keep up.

Turning a corner, Ripley cupped her hand over her eyes as she saw a disconnected tram sitting in the centre of the abandoned yard behind the warehouse. It had red paint, gold trims, and the number '66' on both sides of the tram.

The headlights bright and lit up the yard and portions of the walls, Ripley narrowed her eyes as she heard the tram door opening and Mallory entering. She couldn't hear the conversation, but she saw Mallory exiting the tram and hurrying towards her, holding a bag.

"Thank you so much," Mallory thanked her. Ripley bluntly reminded her, "You didn't give me much of a choice."

Ripley received the bag and noticed it gave a bit of heft and asked Mallory what's in it. Mallory told her that it's payment for helping her out. Concerned, Ripley asked if it's stolen goods, but Mallory told her it's not.

She struggled as Mallory hugged her and told her, "See you around, sweetie."

Turning around, Mallory headed back to the tram and went up the metal steps, the door closing behind her.

With the bag, Ripley tried to see into the large window of the tram, but the bright lights made it impossible. She saw two shadows moving around and she felt the air around her shifting and become colder.

She heard metal rubbing against each other and saw the tram disappearing before her eyes, but she didn't see it dematerialize as the wind from it made her eyes close briefly.

Looking around, it was just Ripley in the yard, the tram gone. Sighing, Ripley went out the way she came in, and called for another cab to take her back to her shop. It was quarter to 10 and she hadn't checked her mobile. With the bag next to her, she held her mobile and saw messages and pictures, apparently Karen met her favorite bassist and Arthur got an autograph from the singer. Matt got sick and his and Diana's trip cancelled, which Ripley told him to stay home if he felt sick the next day.

Resting in the seat, Ripley looked down to the bag and sighed, she shoved her phone back in her pocket and stick her hand in the burgundy sack. Immediately, she felt the British pounds slipping through her fingers and she shook her head.

It took almost two hours before the cab stopped in front of her shop and she ended up paying the cabby the fare with her own money before grabbing the bag and heading out of the cab and into her shop.

Ripley spent most of the night counting the money that Mallory paid her for her services, almost enough to cover two days worth of sales on top of the fare Ripley paid on Mallory's behalf among the money for the food.

"You're something, Malloy," Ripley rubbed her eyes as she shoved the bag somewhere safe in the closet and heard something falling out.

Lowering her hand, she looked down and noticed she'd accidentally knocked over a box and it spilled its contents. She carefully picked everything up and stopped when she picked up a drab coloured firearm. The brushed metal turned dark grey, the handle a dirty purple, and when she checked the cartridge, only three bullets were missing, the rest sitting inside unused.

Ripley stared at it for a while before her mobile going off broke her concentration and she ended up shoving it in the box and shoved it back into the closet where it remained in the darkness as it always been.

She hadn't drunk anything and went to take the sleeping aid, she forced the two blue pills down her throat and chased them down with water.

Waiting half an hour for it to take, Ripley readied for bed and laid out on her bed, staring up as she always done.

Slowly her eyes closed and she drifted off to sleep. When she woke up, it was nearly ten and she pushed herself up from the bed. Checking her messages, Matt couldn't come in today, still sick, and Ripley implored him to stay home until he's healthy and to take care of himself first, Ripley can hold down the shop on her own.

Remembering the money in the closet, she took some from it and shoved it into her wallet, replenishing it for the day. She looked at the box with the firearm and held a look on her face. "Never again," she muttered under her breath before she closed the closet door and readied for the day.

During the day customers came and went, things moved from the shelf and she obtained stuff here and there. She wrote out the paperwork for the larger items sold and the larger items she bought, by the time she stopped it was nearly noon.

Ripley grabbed the menus out and sorted through them, deciding what to order. On her mind, a nagging thought lingered, hush, but there. She blinked several times and tried to focus, however she stopped because of the nagging thought.

She ended up closing the shop for lunch and instead of just going out and getting something to eat then come back, she did something else.

Ripley ate at a restaurant, sitting in a booth, she made small talk with the waitress, and when she left the restaurant, she decided to take a walk around New London instead of going straight back to the shop.

It was odd, even for Ripley, but Mallory made her realize something. As much as she hated the woman, she couldn't deny Mallory had everything figured out, so to speak, she wasn't fettered by fear. She wasn't deterred when they didn't find her husband, she kept searching for him.

Realizing this, Ripley shook her head as she muttered, "I hate that woman."

The End