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 Nine: Dark Before Dawn

Mina looked out at the sea, the port they would come into later barely visible on the horizon, and shuddered. She had never dreamed she would be facing the wild county that was Transylvania once more and had never dreamed she would undertake the ominous task that Jonathan and Quincey had died for, the reason Lucy had died… The cool breeze made her shiver. Fall was coming early. It seemed like such a short time ago they had been sweating buckets in Kenya. And it was only two weeks ago… so much had happened and so much was going to happen.

They were staying in the port overnight. Nemo had contacts here, as he seemed to all over the world, and would arrange for hotels and carriages while they were in Transylvania. Of course, Mina had seen what Nemo called a 'modest' hotel and it was certainly nothing that she or Henry could afford. And they did not want to take charity from the captain who had done so much for them already. She found it almost incredible that Nemo was on the wanted lists in more countries than she could count and the first country to catch him would be the country to keep him. What the countries did not know was how much the man had changed. The jails that prided themselves on rehabilitation were after a man who had rehabilitated himself without their help.

And they would have to leave the ship tomorrow morning. Then the real adventure would begin. She shivered again. Nemo and the rest of the League would take off for England- amazingly enough, in the Nautilus, it was possible to get to England and back in two weeks. If she and Henry were alive, Nemo would pick them up. And she could not imagine what Nemo needed to do that was located in England where people were still looking for him and Skinner and Hyde.

"You seen Quartermain?"

She turned to face Sawyer, who was just coming out on the deck. She shook her head slowly. "I haven't seen him since last night."

Tom winced as he came out fully onto the deck, no doubt the sunlight was causing his hangover to become worse. He stopped for a moment and pinched the bridge of his nose. Mina shook her head.

"Don't do that. It won't help a headache from a hangover."

He glowered at her. Mina almost laughed. The three of them had been so comical last night, completely drunk, when they thought no one was watching. Somehow, she never would have imagined Henry, Tom and Skinner forming anything resembling friendship and here they were, getting drunk together.

"What possessed the three of you to get drunk last night?" she asked.

Sawyer shrugged. "Seemed like the thing to do since Jekyll is probably going to die."

"What happened to your famous optimism?"

"Hasn't been too much to be optimistic about lately, Mrs. Harker."

"What about Allan? He is back from the dead so to speak."

"Yeah," Sawyer trailed off, throwing a piece of biscuit into the sea. "If I didn't feel like I was thirteen again every time he looked at me."

This time Mina actually did laugh. Sawyer narrowed his eyes at her.
"What's so funny?"

"You. You're not in the least way terrified to make your advances on me. But the moment the man you love and respect comes back from the dead, you suddenly are no longer the suave charmer you pretend to be."

Tom glared at her. "Yeah, but you did reciprocated Jekyll's advances."

"Are you going to be bitter about that forever?"

He sighed and threw another piece of the biscuit in his pocket in the ocean. "No." He paused. "It's just I never imagined Jekyll was your type."

"There are many things about Henry you don't know."

"Oh, I'm sure." Tom chucked the rest of the biscuit away. "There are probably many things about both of you I don't know."

"You're right."

Tom turned so he was facing her, brown eyes still slightly bloodshot. "Do you actually think the two of you stand a chance against Dracula?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. I honestly don't know."

He pulled a Colt revolver out of one of his gun holsters and handed it to her.

"What's this?"

"Silver bullets," he replied.

"Tom, silver bullets work on werewolves, not vampires."

He shrugged. "Maybe. But it'll sure slow the bastard down."

She smiled and shook her head. "I guess now is not a good time to tell you I don't know how to use a gun?"

He returned the smile. "There's all day today. I need to teach Jekyll too."


Nemo smiled as he stood just inside the door leading to the deck of the ship. Sawyer currently had Jekyll out on the deck, practicing with the Winchester. The American had taught Mrs. Harker the revolver that morning. And the doctor was proving fairly adept at using a gun, in spite of the fact that he had never even so much as touched one in his life. He was hitting about half of the practice targets.

Sawyer looked just like a younger version of Quartermain. He had his hands on Jekyll's shoulders, guiding him for a better shot. Nemo wondered what good guns were going to be against a powerful vampire, but it seemed to give Sawyer some peace of mind that they had protection other than the unpredictable Hyde and Mina's fangs. The soft litany of words that Sawyer kept repeating to Jekyll came clearly to Nemo.

"Just take your time with it. You have all the time in the world…"

He sounded like Quartermain as well. Jekyll had his jacket and tie off- in fact, he hadn't even bothered with the collar that morning, showing up to breakfast in a collarless shirt and vest. It probably had something to do with the party they had last night. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows.

Jekyll shot and hit the target. The jubilation on the doctor's face was evident. It was obvious that Jekyll had probably thought he wouldn't be any good at using guns. Add that to the fact that both of them were probably still slightly in the effects of the hangover. It was probably a good thing that they would not come into port until that evening since they still had the open ocean to shoot into.

And their paths were dividing. Tomorrow they would no longer be together, the group that they had grown so accustomed to being in. Nemo sighed and pushed the door open all the way, setting out onto the deck and the bright sunshine. Sawyer turned his head slightly to see who had come out on the deck.

"Hey, Nemo," he replied, quickly turning back to watching what Jekyll was doing. Still facing the ocean, he asked, "Can we get another Winchester? Henry's better at using it than the revolver."

Nemo smiled again. "I'll see what I can do. There should be a place near the port that can accommodate that."

"Terrific," Sawyer replied absently. Jekyll shot again and hit the target again. The younger man patted his back, absently. "Remember how to load it?" he asked. Jekyll nodded and began to reload the gun.

"Dinner will be served early tonight," Nemo said.

"Great. I'm starving. Haven't had anything all day," Sawyer stated, one hand rubbing his stomach which gave a rather loud rumble.

"Join the club," Jekyll muttered.

"You seen Skinner or Quartermain?" Sawyer asked suddenly as if it had just come into his mind.

"Mr. Skinner is still in his room," Nemo replied. "But I do not know where Mr. Quartermain is."

Jekyll and Sawyer exchanged a dark look. And Nemo was fairly certain that there was something they knew that they had not yet chosen to share with anyone else.


Henry walked down the hallways of the Nautilus to his room. Dinner had been pushed forward to six o'clock rather than the customary time at seven o'clock. He needed to change clothes so he looked halfway presentable at dinner, especially since this was the last meal the six of them would have together for who knows how long a time. He would be the first to admit that he had not been particularly concerned with what he looked like this morning, he was concerned with the killer headache that plagued him all morning. And he didn't even remember too terribly much about last night.

He opened the door to his room and decided against lighting a lamp since the setting sun was still providing enough light to see by.

"Henry?"

He nearly jumped a foot in the air and then turned to the direction of the voice. As his eyes focused in the dim light, he saw it was Mina and his racing heart slowed down. His face relaxed into a smile as he shut the door.

"What are you doing here?" he asked softly, moving closer to her. She rose from where she had been seated on his bed, the only truly inviting place to sit in the whole room, armchairs included.

"I came to see you," she whispered, meeting him halfway between the doorway and the bed.

"That is obvious," he replied dryly.

"Don't be smart. You'll start to sound like Skinner."

"What's wrong?" he countered.

Her expression softened. Her hands lightly rested on his chest. "Why do you love me?"

"We've already talked about this and-"

"No." She rested a finger on his lips. "We've haven't."

Henry drew in a deep breath, the only thing coming to his head was the first bit of a Shakespeare sonnet. How do I love thee? Shall I compare thee to a summer's day for thou art more lovely and more temperate. But he was not even sure that was the way it went. He had not read anything like that in a long time, not since Hyde killed Emmaline… Emmaline… A melody came to his head, one he used to play for Emmaline before she died, the one he wrote especially for her when he still allowed himself to play the piano. Emmaline had said she could feel all the love he had for her in that simple piece of music.

"Is there a piano on the ship?" he asked.

Mina looked confused. "A piano? What does that have to do with anything?"

"Just trust me. Is there a piano?"

She thought for a moment. "There's one in the lounge by the dining room."

He looked at his pocket watch. It was five-fifteen. Well, he wouldn't have time to change for dinner now, but there was a first time for everything. Nemo would probably understand if the reason for his poor attire was explained later. And this was far more important than looking nice for dinner.


Mina quickly led Henry to the lounge with the piano, wondering why it was so important all of a sudden for him to find a piano. Could he actually play? She didn't know, he never said anything about having any musical talent. She motioned to the corner of the room where there was a baby grand piano. Henry smiled.

"Trust Nemo to have something this impractical on his ship." He walked over to it and lifted the lid, propping it up. He then sat at the bench and played a few chords. "Either it was harmed when those bombs went off or Nemo had it retuned."

Mina sighed. "Henry, what are you doing?"

"You'll see." He cracked his knuckles a few times and then played scales- extraordinarily quickly, his fingers flying up and down the keys. Mina stared. She had no clue he could do anything like that. The whirling sounds moving up and down in pitch swept her up and carried her along with their magic. She felt a strong sense of sadness as the last note of the scale died out into a heavy silence.

"I didn't know you knew how to play," she whispered.

He smiled again. "I used to. But it has been a long time since I played."

Henry thought for a moment and then began to play 'Fur Elise' by Beethoven. His fingers moved flawlessly up and down the keys, his eyes closed and body swaying with the music. Mina was amazed- he knew the whole thing by heart and she wasn't sure she believed his statement about not having played in a long time. He was making no mistakes. The music swirled around her, creating images and colors before her eyes in a way that music had never done before. Sure, Jonathan and her would go to concerts or the symphony, but none of them were anywhere near as good as Henry Jekyll and he was a doctor.

She was hardly aware that he had stopped. His intense cobalt eyes were staring at her as she slowly came back to reality, standing next to a piano in the lounge on a ship. "Do you know anything else?" she asked softly.

He nodded. "Yes. This is why I needed the piano."

He began to play again, but it was nothing she recognized. It almost sounded like a conversation between two people, the high tinkling notes asking a question only to be answered by the deeper notes. The conversation went on and on, until it created a swirling sensation in the pit of her stomach. The melody was expressing love, she didn't know why or how, but it was and she could feel it from the roots of her hair to the tips of her toes. It was a love song, singing of the intense love of one person for another. The notes whirled her around until she felt breathless from what they expressed. And once more, she was hardly aware that he had stopped playing and that the song was over, it had felt like it would go on eternally, singing the love song.

"What was that?" she asked quietly.

"I wrote it," he said simply. "I never titled it."

"You wrote it." She felt weak. He knew of such love to write a song of this magnitude and intensity. "Who for?"

"Emmaline."

"Emmaline?"

"Yes. She was my fiancée." His voice had gotten softer and sadder. "Hyde turned on her like he did upon my dear friend, Dr. Lanyon. He strangled her to death the day before we were to be married."

"You took the formula?"

"I didn't. Hyde got out anyways." His eyes glistened with unshed tears. "Hyde tried to exterminate everyone close to me. He couldn't stand to see me happy. That is why I fled the country and left everything I knew and loved behind."

"And now?"

He looked up to her. "And now that piece is for you."

"Oh, Henry."

She slipped onto the piano bench next to him, her arms around his middle. He hugged her close and she reveled in the heat from his body. So, they had both lost the person closest to them at the hands of their demon. Hyde had killed Henry's future wife and Dracula had killed her husband. And now they were together, hoping and praying that Hyde and Dracula would not kill the other. She buried her face in his chest and wept.

To Be Continued...