Out of the Loop

Tru woke up back on the plane.

"Are you all right Miss?" the stewardess asked as she passed by with the refreshments.

"I need to use the phone," Tru explained as she jumped up out of her seat. "It's an emergency."

"Certainly Miss," the stewardess replied, whilst pointing Tru in the direction of the phone.

Tru didn't need directions to find her way. She had only needed help during the first rewind. The layout of the plane was now as familiar to her as the layout of the morgue or her apartment.

Making her way down the aisle she reached the phone quickly and dialled Davis's number.

"Davis, it's Tru," she said as she rushed into yet another explanation about the day and the fake emergency Jack had concocted. "I need you to look up ancient texts, Egyptian and stuff like that."

"What am I looking for?" Davis asked over the crackling line.

"Translations for a vase that Harrison is going to get to you later this morning."

"Do you need me to call him and let him know what's happening?"

"No, I'll do it," Tru answered. "I'll call you as soon as we land."

Tru looked at the phone after hanging it up. She had not told Davis everything about the previous rewind and had made sure not to mention who the latest victim was, only that the vase connected all of them. Since he had discovered her secret she had rarely kept anything from him that was so important about the day. But she didn't want Harrison knowing and the best way to ensure that was to tell absolutely no one.

The calling was her burden and the knowledge of what had happened during previous days was a part of that. There was no reason for Harrison to be told about what had happened and no reason for him to be hurt again.

She wondered briefly if she should have got Davis to phone Harrison and fill him in on what he needed to do but discarded the idea. She had to do it herself. She had to tell him to tell Cassie the truth, and she had to hear that he was all right. She knew that he would not remember anything about the previous day, but still she knew she would not be able to relax until she heard his usual cheerful voice. Or in this case, his grumpy, early morning voice, as he was about to get yet another early morning wake up call that he would certainly complain about.

Realising that she was stalling and the call would not get any easier the longer she left it, Tru picked up the receiver and dialled Harrison's number.

"This'd better be a life and death emergency," Harrison's sleepy voice came through the line.

"Harrison. I need a favour. It's a rewind day and I need you and Davis to help."

"It's just after four in the morning," Harrison complained. "What sort of favour requires such an early start?"

"Sorry, I'm in the air at the moment and can't risk phoning later in case I don't get through. We coming to some heavy weather soon."

"You started your rewind day on the plane?" Harrison asked. "How did that happen?"

"I don't have time to explain," Tru rushed. The line was starting to worsen as the weather outside did likewise. "I need you to go to an antiques auction and buy a vase for me. Then take it to Davis at the morgue."

"Your emergency is to go do your shopping?" Harrison asked with a laugh. "That doesn't sound like you."

"It's an antique vase," Tru explained. "It looks like it might be Egyptian and it's really ugly. Davis is going to try and get the markings translated. Take Cassie with you, tell her to look for something for Mr Winters and she should find it. She bought it for him yesterday."

"I take it Mr Winters is the victim?" Harrison asked.

"One of them," Tru replied. "It's a multiple rewind day and the vase is the only connection between the victims." It was the truth she silently reasoned, just not the whole truth. She hurried on to give him the details he needed before he could ask anything about the other victims.

"Anything else?" Harrison asked after he had assured her he had the details of the auction written down.

"You need to tell Cassie the truth," Tru said, crossing her fingers as she spoke. "If you don't you'll lose her."

"You mean tell her about you?" Harrison asked doubtfully.

"Yes," Tru replied, biting her lip nervously. She hoped that she was doing the right thing, advising him to tell someone her secret. Again she regretted not getting to know Cassie better in the last few months. She hoped that she was not connected to the press or anyone else who would make her life difficult. She trusted Harrison with her life but when it came to women he hadn't the best of track records. She hoped that this time he had finally got things right.

"You do realise she'll think I'm nuts?" Harrison pointed out. "Things are going good for us at the moment. You think I want to screw it up by telling her my sister relives days?"

"If you don't tell her it's going to break you up. You can't keep helping me out in secret and have an honest relationship. I know that better than anyone."

"You'd trust her with your secret?" Harrison asked.

"I don't really know her," Tru admitted. "But I'm trusting you."

"Okay," Harrison replied as the line started to break up completely. "I'll rope her into helping and I'll think about telling her about you."

"Good enough," Tru answered as the line finally cut out.

Turning around she looked back towards her seat. The in-flight movie was already underway. She had slept through the start each and every time. The woman in the seat next to her looked fine but Tru was getting the hang of things and ducked into the stewardess's cubicle and acquired some tissues. The movie was a romantic weepy and the woman next to her would be crying buckets in, she looked at her watch, about fifteen minutes.

Settling back into her seat she mulled over the previous day's events. Usually when she was in a rewind day it involved non-stop researching and running around about from start to finish. It was disconcerting to find herself continually stuck on a plane, unable to help and leaving the rescue in the hands of Davis and Harrison.

She hoped that this time Harrison managed to sort things out with Cassie. It was not so long ago that he had been dating her friend Lindsay and Tru knew, although Lindsay didn't, that their relationship would have fallen apart long before it finally did, had it not been for Tru's assistance in helping Harrison to do the right thing. When he messed things up on a day that subsequently rewound, Tru had been as active in helping him sort out his relationship problems as she had been in saving that day's victim.

The problem this time around was that Tru didn't know Cassie like she did Lindsay. If Harrison bought Cassie the wrong present, Tru wasn't likely to know about it and would have no idea what to advise him to buy instead when he got his second chance.

Tru idly wondered if one of the reasons she now wanted to get to know Cassie better might be so that she could once again help out Harrison when he messed things up and the relationship started to fall apart. If she had known Cassie better then she would know whether she would believe Harrison when he told her the secret, and more importantly whether she could be trusted with it.

She took a moment to wonder why she had not worried about Cassie knowing her secret before. Up until yesterday she had thought she knew. She had been quick to tell Harrison to tell her the truth both yesterday and today. It seemed so clear until she had time to sit down and worry about the consequences of other people knowing about her ability.

Tru had never told Lindsay about her calling and she wondered why she had never confided in her closest friend during the last year. She recalled again that she had never confided in her about Mark either.

Maybe it was something to do with her, and her ability to open up to people?

She frowned in concentration. The flight seemed longer each time she had to sit through it and she didn't like where her thoughts were headed this time. The woman beside her started to quietly sob as she watched the movie. Tru passed her a tissue, which she accepted with a weak smile.

"I love this movie," the woman whispered as she dabbed her eyes.

Tru smiled back, happy for any distraction from her thoughts. But the distraction was short-lived and she was soon wrapped up in her thoughts and wondering how Davis and Harrison were getting on with their respective tasks.

They were in the thick of the stormy weather when Tru began to have serious second thoughts about Harrison telling Cassie the truth. But there was no possibility of another phone call to tell him she had changed her mind. It was too late to take the words back and all she could do was hope things worked out for the best. And if they didn't that the day rewound again.

Harrison looked at the clock after hanging up the phone. He wondered whether to try to go back to sleep again but he was now wide awake and he knew that there would be little chance of him managing to get any more sleep now.

He wondered what had happened the previous day to cause Tru to tell him to tell Cassie her secret. It wasn't like her to want anyone to know about it. She hadn't even told Lindsay about her ability. He knew it was nothing to do with Tru liking Cassie, he knew that they barely knew each other. He wondered again what had happened the previous day and came to the conclusion that somehow Tru's secret had caused a fight between him and Cassie. It was the only explanation he could think of. If Cassie had been helping him the previous day, and he had been helping Tru, it stood to reason that Cassie might figure out something odd was going on.

But tell her the truth?

Harrison still recalled the last time he and Tru had considered telling Cassie the truth. They hadn't even got to the reliving days part when she had thrown the two of them out of her apartment.

She had been open-minded about Tru's "premonition" later that night, Harrison recalled. But that didn't mean she would believe the rest of the story. It wasn't like he had believed it at first and he was her brother.

No, he decided. If Cassie figured out the truth like Davis had it would be one thing. But he didn't want to risk telling her and having her dump him when they had only just got together. He had never thought of himself as a coward before and didn't like to think of himself as one now. But if Tru's secret had caused a problem between them yesterday, then all he had to do was make sure that today he kept her happier, without spilling Tru's secret.

He wondered if he could perhaps leave her out of things altogether today. But she was the only one who would know Mr Winters and his taste in ugly vases. It was no use. He couldn't leave her out of things, and he couldn't bring her into the loop without risking losing her.

A few hours later he still hadn't made up his mind entirely. The idea of telling her had at first seemed like one doomed to complete failure. But as the light of the new day had crept up over the horizon he had wondered what it would be like if he told her and she believed him. If he told her the truth about Tru and she accepted it he would have someone else to talk to about the whole crazy situation. Better yet, he knew instinctively that he would find talking to her would be a lot more interesting that talking to Davis who did have a tendency to drone on rather incessantly about the whole business, taking a lot of the fun out of things.

Harrison was still contemplating whether to tell her or not as he stood outside of Cassie's apartment and knocked on the door.