Tru stood at the railing of the ship watching Harrison waving to the crowd below.
"Something wrong?" Harrison asked as Tru searched for Jack in the crowd. The feeling she had had the previous day, the feeling of someone watching her, was noticeably absent. She now knew for certain that Jack had been observing her the previous day but this time he was keeping his distance.
"I'm looking for Jack," Tru replied at Harrison's questioning look.
"Sis, you've got to forget about him and relax."
"Bit difficult to do that when he's here," Tru muttered as she walked towards their cabins.
"You're just being paranoid," Harrison said, putting his arm around her shoulders. "You need to relax, have a little fun, maybe a little shipboard romance."
"Jack is here," Tru repeated. "It's one of those days and he is somewhere around here."
"Oh," Harrison replied, momentarily lost for words. "Maybe he won't get on board this time since you know he's here?"
"Oh he'll be somewhere around," Tru said. "The day's rewound so he'll want to be sure to keep fate satisfied by ensuring things play out the same way."
"Well I guess we better make sure everything's sorted out quickly so that you can enjoy the rest of the vacation. We can always throw Jack overboard."
"You suggested that yesterday," Tru said with a smile.
"Did you let me?" Harrison grinned back. "Oh, please tell me you let me."
"Sorry," Tru shook her head. "Though maybe I should have."
"Why? What did he do?"
"I don't know," Tru answered. "The two of you had a fight and you wouldn't tell me what it was about."
"I wouldn't? Why not?"
"I don't know," Tru replied. "You wouldn't tell me and stormed off with a black eye, a split lip and a lot of attitude."
"Oh," Harrison said. "I guess I should apologise right?"
"Don't worry about it," Tru said, giving him a quick hug before opening the door to her cabin. "It's a new day and this one is going to be different."
"How so?" Harrison asked.
"Well for starters we've beaten Meredith to the room so I'm getting that bed," Tru grinned as she pointed to the bed her sister had taken the previous day.
"What else?" Harrison questioned, sitting down on the couch and flicking through the brochure that Meredith had looked at the previous day.
"I think we should make sure we don't leave Meredith alone this time," Tru said with a thoughtful look.
"You know she gets bored hanging with us," Harrison pointed out. "I bet she slipped off on her own within a couple of hours."
"Right after we'd eaten," Tru confirmed. "She hooked up with Jack who tried to convince her that I'd come on to him."
"Did you?" Harrison asked aghast.
"No!"
"Because I know I suggested a shipboard romance, but not with him," Harrison continued as though Tru hadn't already answered his question.
"It was just Jack's way of causing trouble," Tru said with a shake of her head. "I took Meredith outside to try and explain to her to stay away from him. She wouldn't listen and we went back inside to find you two and been thrown out for fighting and then you wouldn't tell me what it was about."
"Maybe I was defending your virtue?" Harrison suggested. "I've seen the way he looks at you when you're not watching him."
"What?"
"There might be nothing going on between you two but I think he'd like there to be."
"Well that's his hard luck," Tru snapped. "We've other problems as well."
"Like what?" asked Richard from the doorway.
Tru turned to see their father with Meredith just behind him.
"Nothing dad," Harrison said with a grin. "Just a problem of trying to decide what to do first, right Tru?"
"Yeah," Tru agreed looking gratefully at her brother for his quick thinking.
"Well there's lots to do here," Richard said with a smile. "There a pool, bars, dances, games, a casino."
Tru turned her sharp glare at Harrison whose attention had been caught by the word casino.
"I know you like the odd game of poker Harrison," Richard said. "I thought we might go there later this afternoon."
"No thanks dad," interrupted Tru. "We've already got plans for the afternoon, don't we Harry?"
"Er, yeah," Harrison agreed. "Maybe later," he added, seeing his father's disappointment.
"Well how about we all get unpacked and get something to eat," Richard suggested.
"Good idea," Meredith agreed walking into the cabin. Harrison stood up and following after his father left the cabin for his own.
Tru started unpacking.
"So what are the plans for the afternoon?" Meredith asked as she opened her own suitcase.
"Um," Tru faltered, not having thought that far ahead when she had lied to keep Harrison from the poker table.
"Well?" Meredith asked. "You said you had plans, or weren't you planning on including me in them?"
"Of course we were," Tru hurriedly tried to reassure her. "I just said that to keep Harrison from the poker table."
"Controlling him again," Meredith muttered. "Can't you let either of us live our own lives?"
"That's not fair," Tru replied. "You know I'm only looking out for him."
"Does he see it that way?" Meredith asked, raising an arched brow.
Tru remained quiet, knowing that Harrison had not been too pleased with her interference the previous day.
"I thought not," Meredith gloated.
"So what would you like us all to do this afternoon?" Tru asked in an effort to change the subject.
Meredith shrugged and continued to unpack.
This wasn't going to be easy, Tru thought. If she wasn't careful they were all going to come to blows again and she couldn't be there every minute of the day.
"Why didn't you call me?" Richard asked Jack with a glare. "You think you needn't bother telling me when it's a rewind day?"
"I was in a rush to make it to the ship," Jack replied. "I figured it was more important to be here on time than not at all because of phoning you."
"So what happened yesterday?" Richard asked in a business-like tone.
"The victim was strangled and thrown into the pool. Tru knows the exact time, she was there and witnessed the attack but was too late to do anything."
"And is Harrison coming round?"
"Well he spent most of the afternoon at the poker table with you, if that's what you mean?" Jack replied. "I think you said he won a few hands too."
"Good." Richard nodded. "I didn't think it'd be that easy to persuade him, but apparently he's weaker than I thought."
"Tru found out and stepped in," Jack added. "Caused a bit of a scene you said."
"Did Harrison listen to her?"
"No, he went back to the game with you," Jack confirmed with a smile.
"Excellent," Richard stood up to leave. "I'll just have to make sure that today is as successful as yesterday was. I suggest you do your job and ensure that it remains that way in all things."
Jack nodded as Richard left. He finished his unpacking before heading out to track down Meredith Davies again.
Tru shook her head at Harrison's suggestion that they go to the pool. She knew instinctively that he would spot the lifeguard looking her way again, and just like the previous day he would leave her and head straight into trouble.
When Meredith suggested checking out the gym and recreational facilities on board Tru jumped at the chance. Harrison looked bored at the thought but was soon talked into the idea. It was a good thing, Tru thought to herself because she had no intention of letting him out of her sight this time.
Half an hour later Tru and Meredith had changed clothes and working out in the gym. Tru turned the speed on her treadmill up a notch, it had been a while since she had had a good long run, at least if you didn't count her racing across the city on rewind days. She was thankful that today she had the advantage in that the victim was close by.
She wondered again where Jack was and hoped that he kept away from the victim. The last thing she needed was for him to interfere just enough for the attack on the victim to take place somewhere other than near the pool.
If it weren't for trying to keep her siblings from each tearing each other's throats out she would leave and track him down right now. Unfortunately the sniping between Harrison and Meredith was still going strong. She gritted her teeth as Meredith made a comment about Harrison mentally cheating on his girlfriend by checking out the women in the gym. She better not leave them alone just yet, she decided, turning the speed up another notch and taking out her frustration in the punishing pace she was setting herself.
"You're looking hot today Tru," Jack said by way of greeting.
Tru missed her step at the sound of his voice and had to slow down the machine as she struggled to get her pace back. "Think of the devil and in he walks," she muttered to herself.
"Aren't you going to introduce us?" Meredith asked. Smiling, she turned off her own machine and reached out to shake Jack's hand.
"Jack Harper," Jack said as he took her hand. "Tru does tend to forget her manners when I'm around."
"And other times too," Meredith replied with an airy laugh as she shook his hand.
"Looks like we have something in common already," Jack said with a charming smile. Tru continued to glare at him as she ran, gradually slowing her speed until she came to a halt.
"What do you want Jack?" Tru asked, pulling him to one side and out of earshot of Meredith. Harrison stood up from where he had been sitting watching the exchange and moved across to hear what they were saying.
"Now really Tru," Jack tutted. "Didn't we go through all this yesterday?"
"Yes but for some reason you seem to have forgotten that conversation. Forgotten it so well I wonder if maybe only I rewound today."
"Ah Tru," Jack laughed. "You wish."
"You want to get to the point and leave me to enjoy my vacation?" Tru asked with a bite of impatience in her voice.
"Really Tru, where are your manners today?"
"I didn't have time to pack them," Tru retorted. "What do you want?"
"Oh nothing much," Jack said. "I just thought I would stop by and say hi to you all again. Meredith and I had such a nice time yesterday. Such a shame she doesn't remember."
"Stay away from my sister," Tru warned.
"I'll stay away from her, but can you keep her away from me? No telling where she might wander to without you keeping an eye on her. Like Harrison here, wandering to the poker tables."
"I haven't been near the tables," Harrison said defensively.
"I meant yesterday," Jack said. "Or didn't Tru tell you that she dragged you away from the poker table yesterday?"
"Is that right Tru?" Harrison asked, hesitant to believe Jack but curious nevertheless.
"You didn't tell him?" Jack asked with mock disappointment. "You didn't tell your own brother about what he did yesterday? Now that's hardly fair of you to only tell him what you want him to know. That's really rather arrogant of you."
"Was I gambling yesterday?" Harrison asked, glaring at Tru. Tru could tell from his face that he already knew the answer to the question but she nodded anyway.
"I could understand if he'd been losing," Jack commented. "But Harrison, you were on a winning streak yesterday." He put his arm around him to pat him on the back as if by way of congratulations.
"I was going to tell you," Tru said. "I just didn't get a chance. And the winning isn't the point. You shouldn't be gambling at all."
"Isn't that for him to decide?" Jack asked, playing the part of an impartial mediator to perfection. It was a pity his performance was lost on Tru who knew that he always had an ulterior motive.
"I hate to say it, but Jack's right about that," Harrison said shaking his head at Tru. "You can't just alter everyone's lives the way you think they should be."
"It wasn't like that," Tru interrupted.
"It doesn't matter what it was like," Harrison replied. "Saving my life is one thing but controlling it is another."
"You wouldn't mind so much if it wasn't for the fact you were winning," Tru pointed out.
"She has a point," Jack said.
"You stay out of this," Harrison snapped.
"I'm on your side," Jack said in a hurt tone.
"Just go away," ordered Tru in a tired voice.
"Okay," Jack agreed with a shrug. "I'll just go find Meredith and get to know her a bit better."
"Meredith?" Tru stopped talking and looked around the room.
She groaned as she realised what Jack meant. Whilst she had stood there arguing with him and Harrison, Meredith had left the room and was nowhere in sight.
Jack walked off with a parting smirk, leaving Tru and Harrison to continue their argument. His work was done for the moment.
