Show Me The Way To Go Home
Show me the way to go home,
I'm tired and I want to go to bed.
Oh I had a little drink about an hour ago
and its gone straight to my head.
Wherever I may roam
Over land or sea or foam
You will always hear me singing this song
Show me the way to go home
Chapter 1 - All A Dream
The explorers were trying to regroup. They had been out happily enjoying a beautiful day and having a picnic by the Summerlee River when they had been attacked by slavers or villagers..it happened to fast to get a good look at their attackers.
Roxton was panicked. He had gotten seperated from the rest of them and was now searching frantically for his wife and son...and the others of course.
"Marguerite! Anyone!" he yelled, not caring at this point if he attracted any unwanted attention.
"Roxton, over here!" He heard Ned call and raced in that direction only to find him helping Veronica up and nusing a nasty cut on her arm.
"Have you seen Will or Marguerite?" He asked, a feeling of dred filling the pit of his stomach. He just knew something was wrong.
"Wasn't she with you?" Veronica asked.
"Over here!" Came Challenger's voice from a few hundred feet off and they faintly heard Will's cries and Roxton was off like a rocket, Ned and Veronica on his heels.
Suddenly Roxton stopped, all the color draining from his face when he saw Challenger kneeling by Marguerite who was laying face down....unmoving....
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Groaning Marguerite opened her eyes...only to see a polished wood celine over her. Slowly sitting up she looked around. She was in a comfortable but not completely luxiours room...her room at Brightingham's Convent for Young Ladies. Looking around she frowned...a tiny part of her was telling her seomthing wasnt right but she couldn't place what it was...and suddenly remember. It was her birthday. She was finially 18 and was finially going back to London to rejoin civilization after having been exiled to this land of nuns and drab clothing for the last 15 years. Getting up she quickly washed her face, pulled her hair back and dressed in the boring, drab school uniform of grey and headed down to breakfast....
Chapter 2: Ooh La La
Challenger and Roxton quickly constructed a streacher for Marguerite who had yet to regain consiousness while Ned took care of Will and fixed Veronica's gash.
"...Why isn't she awake?" Roxton asked softly, gently stroking a stray curl from Marguerite's face before gently lifting her into the streacher. The heiress now had a wide bandage around her head which was already starting to be soaked through with blood.
"Head injuries are tricky at best...I'm sure she'll come around soon." Challenger tried to reassure him. The two men picked up both ends of the streacher and they headed back...
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"What do you mean its all gone?!?!" Marguerite pratically yelled. She was sitting at her lawyers office. The man had just informed her that her trust fund, which had been used to pay for her tuition and give her a small allowance monthy was fairly dried up...meaning she was destitute.
"I'm sorry Miss Krex." the laywer said, trying to sound sympathetic..and failing miserabley.
She angrily stood and walked out, not looking back. She had about 300 pounds in her bag, that would get her a room for a while..but then what?! She held back angry tears. Not once did having to support herself ever cross her mind...and what would the other girls think of her if they saw her now...they'd laugh, that's what they'd do. They'd laugh and make fun, just like they always had. Not that she cared...
It didnt matter. It was 1909. She was a strong, capable, smart woman, she could take care of herself....And her train of thought was interupted when she saw a flier for a shipping company.....Rooms on a scooner on its way to France...well..she'd always wanted to see Paris...
Chapter 3: Mistaken Identity
Roxton gently tucked Marguerite into their bed after Challenger changed her bandages.
"Alright listen to me my girl...You have to wake up now. If you dont...well there's no real point in trying to go home. Will needs you....Marguerite, I need you..."
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For the first time in Marguerite's life, she was happy. Truely happy. After arriving in Paris a month before she almost immedately found work as a singer in a little night club. It was a decent living...she slept all day, sang all night and she wasn't going hungry. The only cloud on the horizon was that Pairs had been over taken by the Germans..but so far they hadn't bothered people like her, honest people just trying to get by. If she just laid low, she'd make it through this damn war alive.
She was thinking this as the doors to the club burst open and in ran at least a dozen German soldiers followed by a man in a Lieutenant's uniform. He yelled something in German she couldn't here and suddenly she was grabbed by 2 of the soldiers, her arms wrenched painfully behind her back as she was dragged out.
She tried to ask what was going on. She got slapped. Finially they got to what looked like a make shift prison and she was thrown into a "cell" which was really a closet. She felt like she was in there for hours, almost panicking before the door was jerked open and she was dragged into a room with a single chair and a table.
Finially the lieutenant came in, "Miss Krex I presume?" He said in bad english.
"What do you want?" she said in flawless German. It was bad enough these pigs attacked her country, should couldnt bare to hear them try to speak her language.
He slapped her again, knocking her flat onto the ground. "I ask the questions here. Who is your contact?"
"Contact for what..?" she asked in true bewilderment.
The man's face darkened with rage and he grabbed her by the hair, hauling her up and slamming her against the wall, "Do not play these games with me. Who is your contact?"
The "questioning" went on for hours, the abuse getting more physical and more violent as the night went on and all she could do is deny everything..apparently they thought she was some sort of spy for England. Finially the lietenant, she never did learn his name, left her to straighten her cloths but stopped by the door, "You'll be taken to Berlin. Things would have gone so much better for you if you had simply co-operated. At least if you had, you'd be dead right now."
Marguerite didnt turn, she barely even heard him as she pulled her bloody and torn blouse into place over her. She didn't feel 2 sets of rough hands pull her up and put her in shackles and drag her out to the train station to be put on the first prisoner train to the mother land...
Chapter 4: Another Death
And off to Berlin Marguerite went. 18, no family, no friends, arrested by a ruthless tyrancy and on her way to be tortured and executed for something she didnt do. But finially a little luck shined. The train derailed.
Marguerite was thrown about getting a nasty gash on her head but when the dust cleared, the man in her car that was gaurding her was dead. She took his keys and quickly unlocked herself and sliped out of the car and started running in foot deep snow, the wind blowing.
Around dawn she fell to her knees, sobbing openly. She was so tired, she couldn't feel her feet or her hands and the snow was blowing so hard, she couldnt see a foot in front of her. She fell face first into the snow and prepared herself to die.
But death did not come. When she woke next, she was in a plain but comfortable room, a man in a dark robe sitting next to her.
"Your awake at last....lay still, you have a nasty bump on your head." he said, smiling so gently at her she naturally felt at ease despite recent events. "My name is Father Darius. I found you outside this morning half frozen and brought you inside."
"Where am I?" she asked, her voice barely above a wisper due to damage done by the extreme cold.
He smiled again. "Outside of Luxembourge. What were you doing wandering out in the snow all night...wouldn't have anything to do with that train wreck 12 miles down the road...would it?"
Marguerite tried to adopt an innocent, bewildered expression and Father Darius' eyes crinkled with amusement, "Don't worry my dear...you're quite safe here. Now why dont I bring you some hot tea and we'll chat about what happened hmm?" and the good priest did exactally that and soon, Marguerite found herself telling him the entire tale about growing up in the convent all alone, going to Paris, being arrested, everything and soon she found herself yawning. Darius just smiled and tucked her in, taking the bowl and left her to sleep.
She awoke around midnight to the sounds of a car pulling up and Father Darius hurried in wearing his dressing gown. "Hurry my dear....they've come!" Quickly he pulled back a floor carpet only to reveal a trap door and opened it. "Down you go, quickly!"
Groggily Marguerite stepd down the ladder only to almost scream when a pair of hands encircled her waist to help her down. A hand clamped over her mouth as the trap door fell and the rug was replaced and a voice wispered in her ear, "Don't make a sound ma'am." The voice was very clearly American and didn't sound hostile so she tried to relax.
Up above she could hear soldiers bursting in without knocking and moved to the priest asking him where she was. He of course denied ever seeing a girl...and they shot him instantly and left without making a further search.
Marguerite was numb. She could see the body from between the cracks in the floor boards right above her, blood dripping down to the dirt floor. She didnt feel a strong arm around her, the only thing keeping her standing.
It seemed like an eternity before the man standing behind her moved and he actually picked her up, carrying her upstairs and setting her on the bed before turning to the body. "...Damn shame...he was a good man...." and took a blanket, covering the kind priests face.
"W.who are you?!" Maguerite asked, her voice shaking.
He turned to look at her, "AlexWest, at your service."
Chapter 5: Heading South
Alex took care of the body and headed back into the house glancing at the beautiful young girl...woman. He wasn't sure which. She seemed so young...but the bruses on her her beautiful face made her seem older..haunted. "We need to get going. They'll be back soon." he said softly, digging in the closet and pulling out a pair of the priests old boots, pants, and shirt. "Put these on."
Marguerite obeyed numbly, stairing at the blood on the floor. She had only known the man for a day but in her entire, lonely existance, no one had ever treated her with such compassion. She looked up as Alex came back in. "You ready to go miss...?" Marguerite simply nodded and he took her arm, leading her to an old truck and helping her in before getting in and heading down the road. "Can you speak German?" she nodded. "French?" Again, another nod. "Italian?"
"Yes...I can speak German, French, Itialian, Spanish, Greek, Latin and Swahili on a really good day." She said snapping a little.
Alex smirked, "Was afraid you had gone mute on me...You got a name?"
"Yes."
"Going to tell me what it is?"
"Maybe."
Alex just grinned. A large part of him was relieved. A woman with those brusises...he had a good idea of what happened but didn't know why....not that that mattered..but most woman would be a hysterical mess at this point. She obviously was made of sterner stuff. She was English..but not everyone can be American.
"So where are we going?" she asked, looking at him as the truck bounced down the coutnry road.
"I have a place I need to be. Father Darius was a friend who was helping me get there."
"A place....and I suppose you have to be there at 'the time'...?"
Alex just grinned. Oh yes, he was going to like being around this one. "South. We're headed south. And we only have a couple days."
"'We'? What 'we'? When did we become a 'we'?"
"When you heard my name sweetheart." Extends a hand, "Formally, im Lietenant Alex West, Justice Department."
"You're a spy.."
Chapter 6: Goodbye Love
They drove..and drove..and drove. Marguerite slept most of the time and twords the end of the journey, she spent it curled up by Alex, his arm around her. She didn't tell him about what happened in Paris, but they talked about just about everything else under the sun. She found out he was from Los Angels, California and that he joined the Marines when he was 18. He hated peas and absolutely despised the cold. Finially about 5 days after they started their journey he stopped by some docks with a tiny boat waiting. Holding her hand he led her to it and helped her on board.
She was sure they'd die. The tiny boat was thrown about on the waves like a toy in a hurricane..but suddenly they had reached dry land and were ushered twords a cave where what looked like a mining operation was taking place. Heading deep into the cave he lead her through what looked like a wall but was really a trap door..and suddenly they were in a room with real wood floors and electronic equiptment everywhere, people milling about.
"...Where are we...?"
"Lipiri. It's an.."
"Island off the coast of Italy," she finished for him. "And what do you do here...?"
"There's a situtation. The German's have a whole fleet of submerines..we're here looking for a way to detect them."
And so Marguerite spent the next 2 years living on Lipiri, with Alex, working with him twords their goal of helping the war effort. Personal feelings grew and by the time the war ended, they were very much in love, planning on getting married when they could get safely back to the states. Marguerite had plans to take up acting in Hollywood and Alex was going to get assigned to a desk in the War Office's department in L.A.
They had a few close calls. Once they had even been bombed by a stray American plane who thought they were the enimy but mostly, they lived a safe, peaceful life. Marguerite spent her days at the mines, fascinated with the science of it. By the time the two years was up, she knew more about geology than the geologists.
And finially the war was over. The treatey in Geneva was signed and Marguerite was getting ready to head to her new home.
"Hey doll..." Alex said wrapping his arms around her waist kissing her kneck.
"Hey yourself...are you packed? Our plane leaves in an hour."
"...We need to talk...I've been given an assignment. In the field." he said softly
"What? No! You promised me Alex..." Marguerite said.
"Sweetheart, I cant tell my CO 'no'".
"Well let me!" She said, angrily stamping her foot.
He smiled and stroked her hair. "It's only another couple years...and then we'll have everything we want..."
"...No."
"...What do you mean 'no'...?" Alex said softly, a pit of dread growing in his stomach.
"I'm not going to L.A. without you Alex. You made me a promise...are you going to keep it or not?"
"....Mags....I cant...."
"...well...I cant go to LA then..."
Slowly Alex let go of her and turned her around to look at him, "You dont mean that. I know you dont."
"Alex...I love you....but I've been waiting for 21 years for my life to start....I cant wait another 2 or 3." she said softly.
He gently took her hand in his and kissed it, "I'll be back for you someday."
She looked sad. Something just told her that she would never be Alex West's wife. "I wont hold my breath..."
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Back at the tree house Roxton was looking as bad as his wife, who lay waisting away in their bed. It had been 2 days...or was it 3 now? He lost track. He didn't leave her side, not for a second. Challenger said that there was still a chance she could wake up...if she didnt starve to death first. Gently he took her tiny, delecate hand in his once more as he laid down beside her, taking her in his arms as if that could make her return to him.
Chapter 8: Comming Home Full Circle
The next 5 years were filled with terror and excitement. Charles persued her as she knew he would but she managed to stay one step ahead of them. To Russia only to get caught in the revolution rocking the country and after an extended, albiet forced stay, on to China and Japan where she caught a boat headed further East to California.
There she peeked in on Alex...He indeed had settled down and they had a beautiful little girl named Zoe. It only made her harden her heart further to see another woman having what should have been hers...what she was so sure she'd never be able to have. Never again would she let a man get that close to her.
She acted for a little bit, mostly on stage. She was personally proud of a wonderful rendition of "Taming of the Shrew" where she played the part of "Kate". But the night of the last curtian call, she glimsed Charles in the theater...and ran once more. Down to San Fransisco, Austin Texas, New Orleans, Boston, New York and finially, stowed away on the Concord to get back to London, the home she left 10 years earlier.
It was raining...not that she was suprisde, it was after all England. She didnt have an umbrella and dashed into the first building that was open at that hour...something about a Zooalogical society. Standing in the foyer, she heard a man speaking...something about an expidition to South America. For the last few month's Charles had been getting closer and closer. She needed a way to get far far away...maybe she had just enough...
"I'll fund your expiditon..." she said, stepping out of the shadows in the back, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.
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Finially, 4 days after the attack, Marguerite stirred. Weakly she opened her eyes, only to see John's face about 2 inches from hers and she could hear Will cooing the next room over and instantly tears were in her eyes. So many regrets.......Gently she nudged John awake who looked at her as if he expected her to jump out at him.
"John...we need to talk......there's some things....I think its time you knew..."