Tru spent the rest of the afternoon with Stacey and tried to force some enthusiasm into her responses as Stacey speculated on the date with Pete they had just arranged for that evening. Tru knew that in reality Pete had not cheated on her by setting up a date with Stacey on this second version of the day, but unfortunately it still felt like he had.
Now Tru was helping Stacey pick out the perfect "date" outfit in her cabin, ready for dinner. Laughing and joking together they were having a great time but even knowing that Stacey's evening was going to be remarkably different to the previous day was not enough for her to shake the feeling of disappointment she had at her own lack of a date. Luckily for Tru, Stacey didn't seem to pick up on the negative vibes she was sure she was giving off. Consequently Tru found that Stacey's enthusiasm was at least mildly contagious and when Stacey suggested that they try to get Pete to bring a friend so they could double date, Tru felt her spirits lift.
A knock sounded on the cabin door and Tru stood up to answer it as Stacey tried to decide between the various items of jewellery she had brought with her.
"Can I help you?" Tru asked the young man at the door.
"Sorry, I thought this was Stacey's room," the man flushed in embarrassment and Tru shook her head and called Stacey from where she was sitting, just out of sight of the doorway.
"Wayne is that you?" Stacey asked as she put her head round the door. "Come in and tell me what you think?" She twirled around in the centre of the room, her arms outstretched to ensure that he got the full effect of her outfit.
"Dressed to kill," he smiled back and Tru felt a shiver down her spine. The outfit was not the same as she had worn on the previous day and she hoped that it would not be a case of dressing to be killed.
"Perfect," Stacey said. "So what's everyone else doing this evening?"
"We're all having dinner together, I came to find you since you'd disappeared after all that business with Kevin this morning."
"He's an idiot," Stacey snapped. "I don't know why he was invited with us, it's not like he's a part of our group or anything, he just sort of appeared and no one will admit to asking him along."
"He's just lonely," Wayne sighed. "No one has the heart to tell him to get lost, even if we weren't on a ship and have no real chance of getting shot of him anyway. Can't you just try to make the best of it?"
"You know what he's like," argued Stacey as she fumbled with the clasp of her chain in her annoyance at the uninvited member of their party. "He was dating my sister and tried it on with me, then lied about it and caused a load of trouble between us before Mel finally took a hint and dumped him."
"It's in the past," Wayne pointed out. "Can't you just try and forget about it and enjoy the vacation?"
"I agree with Wayne," Tru said, having got the general gist of the conversation and strongly suspecting that Kevin was the one who Stacey had been fighting with on the first day. "No sense in letting him ruin your entire vacation."
"You're probably right," Stacey sighed. "I guess we can call a truce for the week."
"Great," Wayne said with an enthusiastic clap of his hands and a grateful glance to Tru. "I don't believe we've been introduced," he said, rather belatedly as Tru helped Stacey with her necklace.
"Tru Davies," Tru said reaching around Stacey after securing the chain and shaking Wayne's hand.
"Well I'd better get going or Pete will think I stood him up," Stacey said as she sailed out the door with a wave. "I'd set the two of you up Tru if Wayne here weren't happily married already."
"Okay, that was awkward," Tru said to Wayne with an embarrassed smile.
"With Stacey you tend to get used to it. She does have a tendency to open her mouth without letting her brain check in first."
"You've known her long?" Tru asked.
"All our lives," Wayne replied. "And I wouldn't have her any other way. I just hope that her forthright attitude doesn't get her into trouble some day."
"You think it could?"
"I know it could. She really doesn't want to be getting on the wrong side of Kevin. He's not the type to sit back and ignore her comments."
"You think he's dangerous?"
"I don't know, but I wouldn't want to risk Stacey finding out the hard way. Her sister never has told us why she dumped the scumbag and that more than anything worries me."
Tru stood up, her brow puckered with a frown of concern. "I should get going," she said as she headed towards the door. "My family are probably waiting for me to get to dinner too."
"Okay, nice meeting you Tru," Wayne stood up and opened the door for her. "Enjoy your vacation."
"You too," replied Tru as she left the room with a glance at her watch that told her she wasn't going to have time to change for dinner this evening.
Meredith, Harrison and their father were already seated in the restaurant when Tru arrived.
"Tru, where've you been?" Harrison asked with a wide grin. "You disappeared on us all and missed a great afternoon."
"I did?"
"Yeah, dad's been teaching me all these great tips for poker…" his voice trailed off at Tru's reprimanding frown.
"Harrison, did you listen to anything I said this morning?" Tru asked with a frustrated sigh.
"Yeah, I listened, but like dad said when I told him I shouldn't really be gambling, we're on vacation and it won't hurt anyone."
Damn, Tru thought as she looked across the table at her father. She had forgotten about his encouragement of Harrison the previous day and instead of badgering her brother into not gambling, what she should have been doing is stopping her father from trying to get him to the poker table at all.
"Now I know what you're thinking Tru," Richard started, holding his hands up in a placatory gesture. "But this is a vacation and I want everyone to be enjoying themselves, including Harrison. I don't want him worrying about any little problem he has whilst he's on vacation and if he wants to have a few games of poker then he has every right to."
"It'll be okay Tru," Harrison assured her. "It was only a few games and I didn't lose any money."
"You know that's not the point, you're both being plain irresponsible about this," Tru said. She was annoyed with herself for not keeping a closer eye on her brother, with her father for leading him astray, with Jack for his interference, and most of all annoyed with Harrison for having so little faith in himself after all his hard work over the last few months.
Picking up the menu with more force than was strictly necessary Tru buried her face in it to keep from saying something she would regret and ruining the cruise for the entire family.
"So how are you getting on with your new friend?" Harrison asked. Tru looked up to see his meaningfully raised brow as he tried to ask her if she had successful diverted trouble for the victim, without actually asking it aloud.
"She's on a date just across the room there," Tru said. "With one of the lifeguards."
"Looks like she's have a good time," Harrison commented as he looked towards the corner of the room Tru had gestured towards. Tru agreed with his estimation and felt another stab of jealousy as she watched Pete and Stacey laughing together at some joke as they waited for their orders to arrive.
"I think we should find someone for Tru whilst we're here," Harrison suggested with a wicked grin.
"And Meredith," Richard joked back as Tru and Meredith exchanged a look of horror at the thought of the two men at the table interfering in their lives. Tru was hard pressed to imagine which was worse, the pair of them bonding over a poker game or the pair of them bonding as they decided just what sort of men she and Meredith needed.
"Okay, maybe not," Harrison laughed as Tru kicked him under the table.
The mood had lightened considerably by the time that their orders arrived and Tru resolved to keep an eye on Harrison for the rest of the cruise but not to mention the gambling issue again. She had successfully managed to let it interfere with their vacation both of the first day and this one; there was no sense in letting it ruin the rest too.
They were just starting on their desserts when Harrison, who had the best vantage point to see Stacey and her date, nudged Tru and nodded in that general direction. "Looks like trouble," he said with a frown.
Tru followed his gaze across the room and agreed instantly. Pete was on his feet and trying to placate a man who Tru was sure was Kevin. He was the same height and build as the man she had seen above the pool the previous day and it seemed that Stacey's date had not averted the trouble, but had only brought it forward in time. Looking around the room Tru was relieved to note that Jack was nowhere in sight, at least that was one less thing to worry about.
"I'm going to see if I can help," Tru said, ignoring her father's advice to leave them alone and mind her own business, as she walked across the room to see what she could do.
"Is there a problem Stacey?" Tru asked with a bright smile.
"Just an unwanted guest," Stacey replied with a death glare at the furious, red-faced, Kevin who stood over the table and refused to budge from the spot, despite Pete's best efforts to get him to leave.
"I'll get someone to call security," Pete said, waving over one of the waitresses who had been eyeing the goings on with a little trepidation. She nodded at his words and scurried off to do his bidding but Kevin didn't seem bothered by the thought of impending trouble from the security staff.
A few minutes later two burly looking security officers arrived in the restaurant and lead the still angry looking, though not arguing, Kevin away from the room.
"He won't bother you for the rest of the trip," Pete said. "After the threats he was making just now they'll be keeping a very close eye on him."
"You sure you're okay?" Tru asked Stacey who she could see was shaking slightly.
"I'm fine," she replied. "You go back and enjoy your dinner. Really, I'm fine."
"If you're sure?" Tru asked before returning to her family at Stacey's firm nod confirming she was okay.
Back at the table Tru breathed a sigh of relief that the trouble all seemed to have been averted. It worried her that it was one of the easiest rewinds she had had in a long time, if she didn't count the problems of trying to keep her family happy too, and she wondered why Jack hadn't done more to keep the day from ending the same way. It seemed a little odd that he had done little more than interfere with her family and, as far as she knew, done nothing to keep Stacey from dying.
With a stab of unease she realised that because of the problems with her family she had really done very little to ensure that Stacey lived either and the unease blossomed in her chest as she considered how easily things could have played out very differently.
Taking a drink she decided not to ponder on the issue until she returned home and had a chance to speak with Davis about it. She was sure that he would have some idea about what Jack's game was.
"So what's your excuse this time?" Richard asked with a bored look of contempt at Jack who merely shrugged in response.
"I decided to utilise my time more productively," he finally replied when it was clear that Richard was not only expecting, but demanding an answer to his question.
"You time should be spent ensuring that the balance is kept and that fate is appeased, nothing more, nothing less."
"Tru wasn't doing anything to alter things," Jack pointed out.
"Except she did," Richard countered, slamming his fist down on the table in Jack's cabin.
"Not intentionally," replied Jack, stepping back slightly and out of Richard's way. He had heard rumours about Richard's temper and he certainly didn't want to be on the receiving end of it.
"Intentionally or not, you should have been doing all you could to ensure that the woman died. Instead you were doing what? Socialising?"
"I was putting a few cats amongst the pigeons you call your kids," Jack said with a smile.
"Well in future I suggest you leave the family problems to me and concentrate on your own job. Is that clear?"
"Oh as crystal," Jack nodded, unable to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.
"It better be," Richard hissed as he left the cabin, slamming the door shut behind him.
"So how was the vacation?" Davis asked as Tru arrived for her first day back at work. "A whole week without rewinding. Must be a record."
"Don't write it in the books yet," Tru grimaced. "Death will insist on following me about, literally and figuratively it seems."
"You don't mean you had a rewind day on your cruise?"
"Oh yeah, and Jack was along for the trip too, just to make it that little bit extra special."
"Did you save the victim?"
"Yeah, she's fine," Tru nodded. "Though it was more by luck than judgement. It was a mess, a complete and total utter shambles."
"We knew that Jack would be stepping up his game," Davis pointed out, consolingly. "The important thing is that you didn't let him get the best of you."
"It wasn't Jack," Tru admitted with a frown. "It was me. I wasn't concentrating and I spent too much time trying to keep Meredith and Harrison out of trouble when I should have been helping her. It was only good luck that she survived and that's what worries me."
"There was trouble with your family? I know it must have been a tough call to make, to try and balance things between helping them and saving the victim."
"That's not the point," Tru said as she sank into one of the chairs. "I let the problems with them stop me from doing what I was meant to. Their problems were nothing compared to the loss of someone's life but I was so busy sorting them out I…."
Tru sank her head into her hands, shocked by how close she had come to failing to answer her calling, but also relieved that fate had intervened to make up for her own shortcomings.
"I think you'll just have to look on this as an experience to learn from in the future. And at least you kept your family out of trouble."
"Actually I didn't," Tru admitted, looking up to where Davis stood over her with a cup of coffee in his outstretched hand. "Harrison still ended up gambling at the poker table, bonding with dad, and Meredith was just her usual self and we ended up arguing nearly every day about the silliest little things."
"But things are good now?"
"Meredith's gone back to work the same as normal but Harrison is still in a bit of a mood about the whole poker business."
"Ah."
"Do you think I'm some sort of a control freak?"
"No," Davis replied instantly. "Is that what he said?"
"It was the gist of it. Jack put the idea into his head that I alter days to suit myself and control him in the process."
"You just have to remember that when it comes to your brother you do everything with his best interests at heart, and I'm sure that no matter what he's said deep down he knows that too."
"Probably," Tru replied sipping on the coffee.
"Just put the whole vacation behind you and concentrate on getting things back to normal."
"You mean as normal as they can be when you relive days?" Tru joked weakly.
"Yeah, that's what I mean," Davis replied before hustling Tru back to work.
The End
(of this story but the backstory will continue in Divide and Conquer)
