I. A LEAP OF LOVE.
Kate Mc.Kay was about to cross the girder of the Brooklyn bridge. She looked down, shocked; noticing how big New York really was. She could clearly see all the buildings, all the lights…the cars passing by, one after another. An incredible sight was met by her eyes.
Time was running out for Kate. She had to jump off the bridge, and quickly. Doing what she was about to do was beyond ordinary. This kind of leap wasn't common, because this…was a leap of love. She was in love, in love with a man called Leopold Alexis Elijah Thomas Walker Gareth Mountbatten.
Leopold was unlike anyone else she had met before, and it was no surprise at all. He was a duke, from the 19th century. The duke of Albany, England.
Leopold came into her life and everything changed. Before him she had complete control of her life…of her feelings. But, meeting Leopold and spending time with him had changed her. She realized that she couldn't go through life the way she used to: always building walls around her heart to protect herself from being hurt. Leopold had taught her that, and he had been the only man able to bring those walls down.
Now, she was finding herself at this point, knowing that she would go to the moon and back a thousand times for this man, if that meant being by his side. It was an incredible feeling, to see how one person could make everything right, everything worthwhile. That person, for her, was Leopold. Meeting him was the most wonderful thing she had ever experienced, and even though he had been with her just a few days, she had learned more about love from Leopold than she had learned from any other man she had been with.
Kate's mind began to drift and she started remembering the relationship she and Leopold shared when he was in the 21st century's New York. She remembered Stuart ( her ex boyfriend) bringing Leopold into their lives. She remembered meeting this "man out of time" (or Sergeant Pepper as she called him the first time she met him, much to her own amusement). She remembered how Charlie (her brother) thought Leopold was an actor and how Stuart came up with the story about bringing someone from the 19th century's New York to the 21st century's New York, which was not possible for her at the beginning.
In all her memories, she also remembered her first kiss with Leopold and how romantic it was for her. She remembered their disagreements and how badly she wanted to tell him how sorry she was. She remembered Stuart and Charlie bringing her, to this point, to the point of making the most important decision of her life: giving it all up, for love.
When she looked back at all of this, she realized that she was more in love with this man that she could have ever imagine to be. She was in love with Leopold because of his power; and no, not the power that goes along with being an English duke, but the power of Leopold's self, the power he had to make a tender moment just a little bit more tender, the power he had to make someone's smile just a little bit wider, the power he had to make her heart beat and flutter just a little bit faster, the power he had to make her feel that she was a little bit more important that she thought herself to be.
And suddenly, like a streaming train down a track, fear came to her: "What if he doesn't really love me?", "What if he doesn't want me there?", "What if..?" and all the questions became short to endless in quantity. But like any storm, like any grief, like winter, all doubts can only last too much, and this time was Stuart's turn to help make things clearer. "Do you love him?" he asked Kate, Kate nodded.. "That's all you need to know. Now go" said Stuart.
In just an instant, all questions had been reduced to none. It was all very clear to her, and it all came down to this: She loved him, and it didn't matter if he didn't really feel the same way, it didn't matter if he didn't want her there, all that mattered at the time is that she was going to try, that she was going to find out how he felt, that she was going to apologize to him. All that mattered is that he knew what she felt: Love
What else could she think of? She was a hopeless romantic. No matter how impervious, adamant, and strong people thought she was, she was still a person, she was still human. She remembered how JJ (her boss) said to her once that she didn't get caught up in emotion, how she didn't cling to illusion. "Well", she thought ,"so much for not clinging to illusion and not getting caught up in emotion, because right now illusion and emotion it's all I'm holding on to". With that thought, she jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge.