AN: I hadn't posted this part. Whoops. Here it is. If people are keen I'll try to write some more.
Rebecca paused. A tidal wade of agony threatened to overwhelm her. She wondered how long it had been since she'd let it drag a screaming fit of tears out of her. Would it never end? Did it even matter? She wasn't even sure what mattered anymore. Could she bear to prolong this meeting with this man? Would it threaten the fragile little bubble of calm she managed to sustain for most of the time?
She straightened her shoulders and turned back towards him. It was what her husband would want her to do.
"You have companions on your journey." She nodded towards Remmy, Colin and Maggie.
"Yes." Quinn replied carefully. "This is Rembrandt Brown, Maggie Beckett and uh… Colin Mallory."
"Mallory?" She raised an eyebrow. "A relation?"
"He's my brother."
"Really." She didn't seem particularly shocked. "None of the doubles my husband ever met had any brothers. Interesting."
"It's a long story." Colin moved forward and shook her hand.
"They always are." She replied calmly. Her eyes grew distant. "My Quinn is alone."
Nobody knew what to say.
"Of course, maybe he picked up some companions along the way." Rebecca continued. "Or maybe he's dead."
The only thing that ruffled her calm was the fact that she found herself on the ground unexpectedly. Her knees must have given away. Quinn and Colin were beside her. She grinned, slightly manically, the smile not even coming close to hitting her eyes. She couldn't even bring herself to feel embarrassed. After all, what mattered anymore?
"Can we help you get home?" Quinn asked gently.
"Are you lost?" She asked suddenly, a ghost of an idea forming in her imagination.
Quinn blinked, slightly thrown. "What?"
"Like my Quinn. Or are you just on a return trip type of slide?"
"We're lost." Quinn admitted as he helped her to her feet.
"And our timer is fried." Colin blurted out without thinking.
"Well then, you'd better come back to my place." She told them. "My Quinn's equipment and notes are all still in the basement."
They looked at her.
She raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms. She gazed at Quinn. "What? You'd rather take your chances finding what you need at Radio Shack?"
"No, it's just that…" He ran his hand through his hair. "It's a lot of us to ask of you."
She shrugged. "Been through worse." A haunted look flitted across her face but was chased with a brief glimpse of humour. "Besides, Quinn would have offered the same if he'd been here. Couldn't help getting involved in other people's business."
Quinn had the grace to blush.
There wasn't room for all of them in one cab so Colin volunteered to go shopping for some groceries and meet them later. Rebecca gave him her address and Quinn started because it was his own home address.
"We bought the house from your mum – I mean, his mum – when she decided to move to Florida." Rebecca told Quinn. "Lucky I liked the house because I can't even begin to imagine how tetchy he would have gotten having to relocate his lab. Seriously not worth the drama."
Everyone chuckled and Quinn felt like he was being teased. He liked the feeling. He also liked the idea of marrying someone like Rebecca and buying the house he grew up in, living there with her. Maybe having kids some day. Did they have kids? He didn't feel like he could ask.
Taking advantage of her lighter mood once they hit the road, Maggie asked. "So where did you meet your Quinn?"
"He was teaching at the university…"
"Teaching?" Quinn interrupted. At the time he'd slid, he'd still been a student.
"He'd finished high school and college by the time he was 18 or so." She considered him. "Oh… you lost your father, didn't you?" She said suddenly with sympathy.
"What? How did you know that?" He asked.
"My Quinn was fascinated with how his other selves turned out. What it was that shaped who they became. Those who didn't have their dad around during their younger years tended not to do as well academically."
Quinn wondered whether he should feel offended. Remmy was laughing.
Rebecca took pity on him. "I just meant by this that you probably didn't take your intellect seriously until much later. Michael Mallory also had a very high IQ and took a lot of interest in his son's education – they celebrated the abilities of their intellects together. Without him, the other Quinns tended to feel alone in their genius and almost rebel against being 'different'. Sometimes, instead of benefiting from the experience of someone older and wiser they'd tend to look down on them – because they felt no-one could understand them – that no-one appreciated how smart they were."
Quinn considered this. It all hit far too close to home. He remembered times when he'd slacked off in class because it was all too easy for him. How he'd developed a bit of a smart-ass attitude around Professor Arturo in particular. Desperate to pull that sometimes arrogant man down a peg or two because he was desperate for attention.
As she could read his mind, Rebecca spoke up again. "Did you ever stand up to a Professor Max Arturo? I mean really show him what you were capable of?"
He gazed at her. "Not directly. He only started taking me seriously after one of my doubles told him off – that's when he came to my house and I showed him Sliding… and he ended up coming along… and…he… eventually he died. He was a good man… a great friend." Why was he spilling his guts to her?
She just nodded. "He passed away here too – brain tumor. It was about two years after Quinn didn't return from a slide. Max always regretted not going with him." She shook herself. "Anyway, my Quinn made an impression on him very early in his college career, eventually became his teaching aide and then when he graduated he started a full-time teaching position alongside Max. They were very close. Max was the best man at our wedding actually."
She grew quiet for a moment and then suddenly remembered Maggie's question.
"Yes… so very early on in his teaching career, some of his students took him for supper and a drink at the Chandler Hotel – to celebrate some win they'd had in a science competition or something. I had my usual gig on there and I was onstage singing and looked into the crowd and there he was. He looked at me, I looked at him and we both just knew."
