Tru Calling: Fatal Combination Historian's Note: This story takes place during the first season of Tru Calling in between the episodes D.O.A. and Two Weddings and a Funeral. At this point, Tru knows Jack is her opposite and Luc isn't dead yet.
Chapter One
The buzzing sound of the alarm brought Tru Davies to a frantic start as she sat up in bed on a sunny Saturday morning.
No need to be all edgy. She scolded herself. It's not a rewind day. Or at least let's hope it doesn't turn into one.
Tru got up quickly out of bed and rushed to get dressed. It was Lindsay's birthday and she was meeting Harrison, Randall and the Birthday Girl herself at their favorite breakfast place in less than 30 minutes.
Can't be late. Can't be late. She thought frantically to herself. If I'm late, Lindsay might get upset and I'm starting to run out of believable and reasonable excuses. They'll all start suspecting something—as if they haven't already.
Tru threw on her favorite top and her favorite pair of designer jeans that she had received from Lindsay on her birthday. She put on her boots and pulled her jewelry drawer open. She selected a silver bead necklace she had received from her mother on her twelfth birthday shortly before her mother's demise.
But that was not the only gift she had received from her mother. On the anniversary of her mother's death, she discovered she had a very unusual gift indeed. She could save people's lives. That was just one component of her very special gift. She could also relive days. It all began when she graduated from college and took a job at the city morgue. The corpses would be brought into the morgue. Usually during their inspection, while trying to figure out their basic info: name, approximate age, time of death, cause of death etc. the eyes of the corpse would suddenly open and turn towards true uttering two important and sometimes fatal words: Help me. Images of the present day would flash in the quickest flashback imaginable and Tru would shoot up out of bed finding herself in the same day 24 hours earlier and begin her rescue mission.
Fortunately, Tru wasn't completely alone in her mission. Davis, her boss at the city morgue, knew of Tru's unique gift as he was the one who had found out that her mother had the same gift. He was always there to lend Tru a helping hand although she would have to fill him in on the previous days' events as he didn't remember them. Her younger brother, Harrison, also knew of her gift. Tru always seemed to look out for Harrison. He was a compulsive gambler and he loved wasting his money—or rather Tru's—on horseracing bets. Tru also had an older sister named Meredith. She was a recovering drug addict who had a severe addition to cocaine and other harmful drugs. Tru often caught her red-handed sneaking drugs here and there wherever she could. Since she had her own personal dilemmas, Tru never revealed her secret to her sister. Her best friend Lindsay also had no idea of Tru's special gift. Lindsay dated Harrison a few times but he never seemed to pull through for her, always coming up with the crappiest excuses why he couldn't afford to pay for a nice dinner or get her a nice gift. Lindsay, fed up with Harrison's silly antics, met Randall, a man she had dated while she had traveled a semester abroad. Although they have only been together for one week, Randall proposed to her and after much careful deliberation—actually only one day—Lindsay accepted his proposal. This irked Harrison a little bit but seeing how well Randall treated Lindsay, he told Lindsay she should accept.
Tru rushed out of her apartment and ran to meet her brother and her friends, determined not to be late.
She arrived just in the nick of time as she spotted the Birthday Girl herself surrounded by none other than her soon-to-be-husband. Leave it to Harry to be late. But what else is new with him? Tru rushed over to her friends.
"Hey guys. Happy Birthday Linds," Tru smiled and gave her best friend a quick hug.
"Hey Tru," Lindsay said happily, hugging her back. She then turned to face everyone. "Thank you guys all so much. You have no idea how much all of this means to me." Lindsay was extremely grateful at this thoughtful birthday gesture.
Suddenly, the door to the breakfast restaurant swung open with great force as a weary looking Harrison plowed through the door. Some of the other customers turned around, facing Harrison's direction as to see the cause of all of the commotion. Tru, Lindsay, Randall and looked too. Tru's face flushed mildly red with embarrassment as she rolled her eyes. Leave it to Harry to cause commotion. I wonder what his excuse will be this time. Harrison caught sight of his older sister and ex. girlfriend—if you could even call it that—and rushed over to join them.
"Hey! Sorry I'm late there was, uh, a lot of traffic." All eyes turned towards Harrison. There had been no traffic at all. As a matter of fact, the streets weren't as busy as usual considering that it was a Saturday.
Tru exchanged quick looks with Lindsay. On the contrary, that was his 'My alarm clock didn't go off' excuse. Tru had to admit she loved her brother, she just didn't love his excuses and she knew he was capable of making better and smarter decisions.
Shrugging off his lame excuse, Harrison eyed Lindsay. "Happy Birthday." They hugged. "Thanks Harrison."
"I was gonna get you a gift but I, uh,--,"His voice trailed off. There was no need for him to say anything anymore.
Tru met Lindsay's eyes.
Horseracing bets, again?
Yup. Tru confirmed Lindsay's suspicions.
"It's all right Harrison," Lindsay said, as they settled down for a nice breakfast.
They chatted about Tru's work—however boring it can be—and Lindsay and Randall's upcoming wedding plans over a delicious breakfast of pancakes, sausage and decaf coffee.
The only thing worse than talking about my ex. girlfriend's wedding is actually being at my ex. girlfriend's wedding. Harrison thought grudgingly to himself. It's not like he was actually going to be at the wedding, right? What are the chances?
"Hey Tru. Have you heard from Meredith lately?" Lindsay asked. "Nope," Tru replied.
Meredith was at a recovery center for drug addicts. Or at least she's supposed to be. I sure hope she is. For her own sake, at the very least. Her friend's question perturbed her. But she had to let it go. It was Lindsay's special day and she didn't want to ruin it for her.
Then Lindsay asked Tru if she would read a special passage from the Bible on Lindsay and Randall's special day and Tru obliged. "I would love to Linds. It would my pleasure."
"Thank you Tru," Randall said. "It's Lindsay's favorite Bible verse and she thought that you would be perfect to read it. This means so much to the both of us."
Tru knew that Lindsay found Randall's Irish accent appealing and with his warm personality they seemed perfect for each other. Tru looked over next to her at Harrison and could tell he was uncomfortable with the whole situation.
Poor Harry. Seeing his ex. get married right before his eyes must be pretty upsetting. I'm happy for them but I only wish it was that easy for me to stay in a relationship. Tru sighed. If only it were that easy.......
Chapter Two
Well no duh. There's only about a million corpses about twenty feet away. Tru shuddered at the thought. Thank God they all don't ask for my help. Her gift had its perks. She got to give people a second chance to live. It was a wonderful thing but sometimes it got a bit tedious and she often felt drained by the end of a rewind day. Sometimes I wonder why I even took this job.
Because you were meant to. Davis's voice echoed loud and clear in her head.
"Hey stranger," a familiar voice from behind Tru called. Tru turned to greet the familiar voice finding Luc, who quickly caught up to her.
"Hey yourself," Tru replied. "So what's up?"
"Oh, you know, same old, same old," Luc said. "Don't I know it." Tru agreed.
Luc was Tru's ex-boyfriend. They had dated for awhile, but Tru always seemed to be on the go, coming up with crazy excuses why she had to leave so abruptly. This didn't work for Luc and they both decided a breakup was for the best. This deeply hurt Tru, who felt as if her heart had an indelible scar emblazoned on it which would never heal. She desperately wanted to get back together with him, but she was constantly plagued by the inevitable feeling that it would never happen. Ever.
"Hey Tru. I have a photography show coming up. Would you like to come?"
The question shook Tru from her brief reverie. "Sure. I'll see what I can do."
"Great. Well, I'll see you later Tru."
"See ya."
Tru entered Davis's office and found him busy doing some paperwork. As usual. Davis looked up from his work momentarily to greet her. "Oh, hey Tru." "Hey Davis. Hear anything from my Evil Twin lately?"
Tru was referring to her most hated nemesis, Jack Harper. He seemed like a pretty okay and together person at first, but careful don't let first impressions fool you. Turns out, he has the same gift as Tru, he could also relive days. Sounds great, right? Tru finally felt like she had someone to talk to and felt he could really understand her. This was true—however only to a certain extent. While they both have the ability to relive days, both of them have different goals as how to utilize their unique gift. Tru has the ability to save lives, Jack, on the other hand, takes his every opportunity to thwart Tru's progress as to ensure the imminent death of the victim.
"Fortunately no, but that still means that you can't let your guard down. We don't know what he's been up to since the incident with the Good Doctor and the lives of other innocent victims are still at stake no matter how you look at it."
Just then the doors of the Standards Room flung open and a tall man came running in with yet another body. "Incoming! Coming through! Watch out!"
Tru and Davis ran out to meet the medic. "This one's pretty gruesome," the medic warned. "It was found over by Crestline Avenue." The medic left, leaving Tru and Davis alone with the body.
"Grab some gloves and let's get started Tru," Davis instructed. As Tru went to grab a pair of gloves from a nearby drawer, Davis unzipped the body bag. "Blond haired woman. She looks about late twenties, maybe early thirties. There are some gunshot wounds in the chest area and--...."
"Oh my God!" Tru had turned around, fully gloved and ready to go when she gasped in horror-stricken disbelief at the sight before her.
"Tru, what's wrong?! Are you okay?" Davis was genuinely concerned. Tru ran over to the lifeless form lying on the hard sterile table. "NO! NO! Please.... no...please.... sweetie.... Oh God!"
Tru backed away feeling faint from the sight presented before her. She sank into a chair. Tears streamed down her rosy cheeks and her breath came out in labored gasps and choked sobs.
"Tru. Take some deep breaths before you faint. And please tell me what's going on." "She—she's my—sister...." Tru's voice trailed off in a torrent of sobs.
"Oh God. Tru, I'm so sorry. I should give you some time alone."
"No Davis. I have to call Dad and Harry. They should know right away." Tru got up, still struggling to breathe as she tried to follow Davis out of the room.
"Wait."
"What?" Tru asked. "I didn't say anything," Davis replied. "But don't worry about your Dad and Harrison. I'm concerned about you."
"Tru." Tru turned around as Meredith's eyes opened and uttered those fateful words.
"Please save me Tru."