Disclaimer: 'The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' movie is copyright of 20th Century Fox. No infringement is intended.
PICKING UP THE PIECES
By Etcetera Kit
Chapter Four: Change of Plans
Sawyer walked out of the dining room after lunch, leaving before everyone else. He needed to calm down and rationalize some things before he felt like facing any of them again. His emotions were spinning out of control and they were taking his temper and mood with them. This had to stop or he would go insane. How much use would he be to the American Secret Service if he was declared insane?
Someone suddenly grabbed his arm, forcing him to stop in his tracks. He had been so distracted he didn't even notice the footsteps behind him.
"What was that all about?"
Tom found himself face to face with Jekyll.
"What was what all about?" he countered, not ready to tell Jekyll any of the things that had been running through his mind.
"Your behavior at lunch!"
"Jekyll, I'd rather not talk about this right now to you."
Jekyll rolled his eyes, his grip on Tom's upper arm tightening. He hauled Sawyer to the nearest empty room and shut the door. Sawyer had to admit, that for a man who seemed so weak and mild, he certainly had a temper when it struck him. Maybe that was a sign that Hyde was finally integrating himself back into Jekyll. He let go of Tom. Sawyer crossed his arms and stared at him. Brown eyes met intense blue eyes.
"Is this about Quartermain?" Jekyll asked softly.
Sawyer sighed and sank down into an armchair. This room was one of the many lounges scattered throughout the ship. Jekyll sat down across from him.
"I don't know how to explain it," Tom started. "I mean Quartermain's death threw me off guard- I never thought he'd die. And then I thought Mina was finally returning my affections and then I didn't have any time to return it because we had to repair the ship and then I see you and her at lunch and-"
"Wait a minute!" Jekyll interrupted. "This is all about Mina?"
Sawyer nodded, sagging against the chair.
"If you care that much about her, then why don't you tell her?"
He snapped to attention. "I thought you loved her too?"
Henry smiled and shook his head. "I do. But the true Wilhelmina Harker is not the woman we see all the time."
"How so?"
"Being changed to a vampire, even if the transformation is not complete like it is in the case of Mina, changes a person's spirit and personality." Jekyll paused. "It makes that person more voyeuristic, more of a-" He stopped, grasping for a word.
"Scarlet woman?" Sawyer supplied.
Jekyll started and then laughed. "Where did you hear that?"
"That's what my mother calls them," Tom muttered, turning red.
"Yes, I suppose you're right. But the only way for that tendency to go away is for the person to go back to being human."
"How can you change someone who's a vampire back to a human?"
"You would have to kill the vampire that made your vampire that way."
"So we would have to go to Transylvania and kill Dracula for Mina to become human again?"
"In theory, yes."
Sawyer slumped in his chair. "Incredible," he said weakly. "How do you know all of this?"
"Folk legends. Nemo had a great variety in the library."
Tom nodded weakly. "Amazing."
Jekyll leaned forward. "Look, Tom. Mina is a grown woman and it is her choice whether or not she wants to go back to Transylvania and kill Dracula. It is also her choice about who she bestows her affections on."
"But-"
"Tom, if she chooses you, I will still love her and I will be secure with the fact that she ended up with a man I know and trust."
Jekyll got up and left the room, shutting the door behind him. Sawyer stayed where he was- slumped in an armchair. He had expected Jekyll to have a great variety of reactions to what he just told him, but he was not expecting the one he got.
The world was about to end. Everyone was at dinner on time and wearing their best clothes. Nemo looked amazedly at his fellow League members. Who were these people and what had they done with the real Skinner, Sawyer and Mina? Jekyll was dressed nicely, but he always was whether or not the others were. And an amiable conversation filled the air as everyone sipped their wine and waited for the cook to bring out the first course. It would almost feel like a group of old friends taking a ship tour together, if strange things didn't happen (which they almost invariably did around this bunch.)
Well, now was the best time to ask the others if they would mind their course changing to Africa so he could track down a suspicion he had. He lightly tapped on his water glass with his fork to get their attention. Everyone politely became quiet and focused their attention on Nemo. He nearly fainted. What had gotten into these people this evening?
"I propose we have a change of course once we reach Egypt."
Everyone looked at him with a puzzled expression except for Jekyll who already knew that he was going to propose it. But it was Skinner who spoke first.
"We're going to Egypt?"
"Do you pay attention to nothing?" Mina asked him irritably, looking very annoyed with the fact that she had ended up sitting next to him.
Sawyer snorted into his water glass.
Jekyll just shook his head. "Captain Nemo did give us an idea of where we were going and said that our next stop would be Egypt."
"Well, excuse me!" Skinner retorted.
This conversation was turning into a conversation they would normally have. Nemo cleared his throat rather loudly, ending anymore argument over Skinner's attention span.
"Where would we go after Egypt?" Sawyer asked, stating the obvious question that Nemo had been hoping someone would ask.
"Kenya."
"Weren't we just in Kenya?" Skinner asked.
"Skinner, shut-up!" Mina snapped.
"Why Kenya?" Sawyer asked loudly.
"I would like to do some research on a phenomenon Jekyll and I saw last night and my records show that a witch doctor in one of the pirate villages might know something."
"What did you see?" Mina asked, fixing her attention on Jekyll. The flicker of jealousy that crossed Sawyer's face did not go unnoticed by Nemo.
"I suppose the best way to describe it would be a shooting star that tried to attack us," Jekyll said carefully.
"What?" Skinner exclaimed, nearly dropping his wine glass.
"That is what it was," Nemo agreed. "We would go to Egypt as planned and spend the time there that we wanted. But then we would go back the way we came."
"I'm not so sure I want to go back to there," Sawyer said with an obvious shakiness to his voice.
"We will decide when the time comes for us to leave Egypt. We should be there tomorrow morning."
Everyone nodded and fell silent. And Nemo could think of many reservations they may have with going back to the interior of the Dark Continent.
Mina sighed as she sank into one of the armchairs in her room later that night. It was getting late and she was feeling the craving for blood become stronger. She would be able to have blood tomorrow morning… tomorrow morning… it seemed like such a long way away. And now Nemo wanted them to go back to Africa… and Sawyer seemed to have renewed his interest in her. What she wouldn't give to be in her small flat in London, making tea, away from all the men vying for her attention.
She almost wished wasn't a vampire, even the weak part-vampire that she was. But the only way to undo what was done to her was to travel back to Transylvania and kill the Count- run a stake through his heart, cut off his head and fill the mouth with garlic. And what good would she be to the League if she was no longer a vampire? She was a chemist, which was the original reason everyone thought she was a member of the League. She did not understand why she was so besotted with Dorian when he was a stuck-up narcissist.
"Come on, Jekyll! We'll need Hyde!"
"No! Hyde will never use me again!"
"Then what good are you?"
Dorian, Dorian, forever seeing people only as a useful skill or trait, never as a person or someone to be loved and respected. Jekyll had been nothing more than a powerful beast for defeating the enemy. Sawyer was nothing more than a good shot with a gun and the driver of the automobile. Quartermain was much the same as Sawyer. Nemo provided the comfortable ship and Skinner had stealth. And her? She was what he used for his own pleasure. They were not people with feelings and thoughts, they were objects to be used.
But now dear Dorian was dead and it did not really matter what he thought of everyone- not that it had mattered in the first place. The five of them remaining had been brought together under strange circumstances and they shared an equally as strange friendship and bond that was not going to be broken anytime soon. But they all had demons to face. Perhaps they should just cut the trip short and go home to work out their problems. And yet, the four other people in the world who understood demons the best were right on this ship with her.
Oh well. Egypt tomorrow and fresh blood… when they first began their journey, she would prowl the corridors and growl at people when she was craving blood. Within a few days, Nemo had asked her to please stop because the crew was frightened she would try to feed on them. If she fed on the butler and the cook, that would save Skinner a lot of problems.
Someone knocked on the door- loudly. That immediately ruled out the two people she would expect and brought in Skinner or Sawyer. But she could not imagine what Skinner would want at this hour of the night, so it had to be Sawyer. She quickly buttoned her dressing gown and checked the ties at the neck of her nightgown. The men on this ship had a distinct talent for catching her in her pajamas.
Mina opened the door. It was Sawyer. Did no one ever sleep on this ship?
He smiled nervously. "Hey," he said softly.
"Hello, Agent Sawyer," she replied, carefully keeping a formal and neutral tone of voice.
"Can I come in?" he asked.
"Why?"
"I'd just like to talk to you for a minute."
Mina sighed. Suddenly, Sawyer had become harder to get rid of as well. And the theory on people sleeping was going out the window. They must all roam the ship at night when they were supposedly sleeping.
She nodded and stepped aside to allow Sawyer in the room. Surprisingly, she had never seen anyone else's room- they all seemed to come to hers. Her chemistry equipment was cleaned and neatly placed on a table.
"Why don't you sit down?" Mina offered, gesturing towards the armchairs. Sawyer shook his head.
"It's not necessary. This will only take a minute."
As he stepped closer to her, her only thought was, 'Don't do this, Tom!' But he did it anyways. His hands rested lightly on her shoulders as he fit his lips to hers. She could feel the fire and passion in that kiss… the desire. As he deepened the kiss, exploring the velvety softness of her mouth, she remembered Jonathan and the way he kissed her like that. Only the passion wasn't so hot that it would soon burn out. She was barely aware of Sawyer as he gently ended the kiss, his hands still on her shoulders.
A tear slipped down her cheek. Sawyer suddenly backed away.
"Oh my God," he said more to himself than her. He looked up, brown puppy dog eyes hurt from what he assumed to be rejection. "I am so sorry."
She shook her head. "No, Tom. It isn't like that."
"No. I understand. You're in love with Jekyll."
"Tom, sit down!" she said, using the tone of voice she used with her best friend Lucy when the girl was being frivolous and silly. Surprisingly, he obeyed. She perched on one of the armchairs opposite his. She pushed a stray strand of hair behind her ear. "How do I say this? I know Henry cares for me, but I don't want a relationship with either of you right now."
"But what you said, before Mongolia-"
"Was said in the heat of the moment." Sawyer looked even more hurt than before. "Tom, you don't want to be with someone like me. I would always be a danger to you, never knowing if I would fed on you. And the only way to change that is to travel to a mid-European country and kill the most powerful vampire ever."
"Yeah, Jekyll said as much," Tom muttered.
A soft smile graced her face. "I see you two are conspiring."
"No. He told me to back off and quit acting like a kid. You'd decide when you were ready to."
Mina gave a rueful laugh. "He didn't say that."
"That was the essence of it."
"And how do you two know about Dracula?"
"Nemo has a collection of folk legends in the library."
She smiled. "Tom, I already do care for both of you, but what neither of you seem to understand is how dangerous it would be to love me."
"Gray did."
"And look what happened to him."
"He was a jerk."
"Yes, and my husband died trying to kill Dracula for me so that I would not have to live life as any part of a vampire. My best friend died because of Dracula. A man who cared about her died. The two people I cared about most in the world are dead because of it." She paused. "I don't want either of you to die." Her voice trailed off to a whisper.
Tom nodded and stood up. "Well, I had better go make sure Skinner didn't booby trap my room tonight."
"I'm sure the butler would appreciate that."
The door opened and closed. Mina and Sawyer turned. Nemo came in the room carrying an armful of lanterns and then lights on the ship went out.
"Nemo, what's going on?" Sawyer hissed.
"An intruder. We cannot be sure of anything. The crew is gathered in their mess hall. We still need to find Jekyll and Skinner." A lantern came on, illuminating the room.
Mina looked at Sawyer. "I'll get Henry, his room is close by."
"I'll find Skinner- our rooms are next door."
Nemo nodded and handed each of them lanterns. "Meet me in my office. Avoid making noise and only use the lanterns when you have to." With that, they split up in three different directions.
To Be Continued...
