Two

One of the first things that Robert noticed was the everlasting ticking of a grandfather clock. If he really concentrated he could almost visualise the pendulum swinging from side to side in its oaken prison, ticking away the minutes of his unconsciousness.
"I think it's about time you woke up, Mr Lutece." The voice seemed to echo around his head. A strong male voice. The tone was deep, if not, deeper than his own. He subconsciously felt a soft hand brush against his shoulder, before the grip tightened in to a full blown shake. "Mr Lutece. Your full attention would be greatly appreciated."

Robert opened his eyes the way one might when awaking from a long needed sleep, but with the grottiness of exhaustion still clinging to them. But nevertheless, his eyes were indeed open. The first thing that Robert noticed about the two skinny figures before him was the oddness of their clothes. Namely, the fact that the young lady seemed to be clad in trousers—tight trousers at that. That wasn't exactly something Robert was used to seeing, so he found himself averting his eyes almost instantly. Apart from their odd clothes, they looked perfectly normal. The male of the two was a head taller than his female companion, his face set in a grim line of dulled anticipation. His hair was a dull yet ash like auburn, which had had neatly combed back. The same couldn't be said for the girl who, (causing even more confusion on Robert's part) had bright purple hair that hung on her shoulders like a skinned coat. "Where am I?" Robert finally asked as he pushed himself up on the bed he had been settled upon. The girl's eyebrows disappeared under her thick fringe. "I knew he was going to say that." She grinned smugly, turning her head towards her companion.
"Do shut up, Eve." The boy muttered in a tone that seemed to convey to Robert that Eve was normally in moods such as this one. Even with these words snapped at her, Eve still had a knowing smirk on her face. The boy looked back at him then, squeezing his eyes slightly in thought. "How are you feeling Mr Lutece?"
"Where's Rosalind?"
"That wasn't exactly the answer I was looking for, Sir." He admitted with a quick tilt of his head as he linked his fingers together in his lap. After subconsciously reaching a hand up to his nose to check for blood, Robert looked back at the two youths before him. "Who are you?"
"Who we are does not concern you." Eve spoke again, the smile was gone from her face. Robert was having trouble remembering if it was even there at all. "We simply want to know how you feel. Nothing more. Do try not to complicate things."

Robert blinked a few times before he moved his hand to rest on his forehead, not moving from where he was sitting on the edge of the bed. It was like someone had taken his brain, mashed it in to a blender and tubed it back in to his head once more. Parts and snippets of memories were coming in to focus and fading just as quickly. Something happened. Something happened. What was it? Columbia. The labs. The Lamb. Comstock—"Fink." His head snapped up and a moment later his body followed. He stood at the side of the bed with his pale hands clenched in to fists at his side. Eve and the young man seemed to watch it all with un-phased expressions on their faces. "Fink. Where is he? I'm going to—"
"Easy there, Mr Lutece." Eve had stood too now, and Robert noticed that she was in a loose fitting navy blue woollen jumper that hung below her knees. The sleeves hung over her hands a little too much. Something she had overcome by pushing her thumbs through the gaps of the knit work. Perhaps she can't afford suitable attire.She placed her hand on his shoulder, guiding him back down on to the bed with a gentle smile on her face. "There's no need to jump to conclusions."
"He…He threatened Rosalind. He threatenedher." Robert spat the words like they were sour fruit. Eve had taken to holding his hand in her lap between both of hers, patting the top of his hand lightly as she nodded in understanding. "I know Sir. We both know." She glanced at her companion and the two seemed to have a silent conversation with a combination of looks and head gestures. When she finally looked back at Robert, she held a hand up to tuck some locks of her oddly coloured hair behind her ear. "Mr Lutece. My name is Eve and this is my brother. Edward. We're the ones that found you Mr Lutece. We're here to help you."
"Am I…I died." Robert's brow was knitted together as he looked up at the girl before him with a utterly lost look on his face. "Rosalind died…I could hear her screaming. She was screaming…"

For the first time in a long time, Edward spoke. "Mr Lutece," He brushed himself down after he had stood from the battered armchair he had been occupying. "We can't explain everything to you. But if you'd kindly come with me we can show you someone who can. Eve-what are you doing?"
"Trying to look for the cat." Eve replied simply from where she was on her hands and knees, peering under the bedside table. Edward had an exasperated look on his face. "…Eve. He's not down there."
"I thought I saw him though." Came the muffled reply.
"Do you remember that conversation we had about priorities, Evie?" The scowl Arthur got in reply was enough to make a small twitch of a smile cross Robert's lips for a second. "Don't call me Evie."
"Don't dawdle then. Come on."

Robert didn't argue. Without another word said, Edward turned on his heel and lead the three of them down a cobbled and narrow hallway, the heels of Eve's boots clacked out their journey, bouncing off the walls and ringing in Roberts ears. Neither the proud boy nor the slouching girl breathed a word to Robert as they twisted through corridor after corridor. This place must be larger than I first anticipated.Finally, after a few minutes of lingering silence, Edward slowed to a stop near an old oak door. Edward shifted his jacket before he leant forward and pressed his ear to the wood, rapping his knuckles against the surface thrice. "Sir?"
"Yes-Yes, what is it?" A voice grumbled from the other side.
"Mr Lutece to see you, Sir. As you asked."
"Ah!" The sound of a chair scraping against a marble floor followed his reply and soon enough the door was open. A well-dressed man stood before them all, in a full dinner suit complete with a gold pocket watch, which he tucked back in to his waistcoat pocket after checking.
"A tad late this time round ,Edward. A tad late."
"Apologies, Sir." Edward reprimanded in the least sorry voice Robert had ever heard. At her brother's dirty look, Eve childishly stuck her tongue out. The man ran a hand over his face, almost as if it would iron out the thickly settled wrinkles that were creasing his face. "Thank you Edward. That will be all."

After a polite nod to Robert, Edward turned on his heels and headed back the way he came. Eve was all set to follow suit, but froze mid step at the old man's words.
"Your brother has completed his task, Evelyn. I think it should be seen to that you complete yours."
Eve looked even more frazzled at this name than she had been when she had been donned 'Evie' by her brother. She turned to look at the elderly man slowly and shot him one of her best scowls. "I was going out tonight." She complained. "Father was finally letting me go out!"
"You are going outside, are you not?"
"That's not what I meant by—" The rest was a finalising huff as she muttered a 'fine' under her breath and flounced off. Dumbed with confusion, Robert slowly looked to the man in the doorway, who offered him a kind smile. "Do come in Mr Lutece." He announced as he turned and made his way back to his tattered armchair. "Have a seat, good sir."
"I'd just like to know where my companion is. Something very dreadful happened to us and I would—"
"Jumping ahead doesn't fair too well in this line of work, Mr Lutece." The man silenced him with a wave of his hand, before he looked back at the fire that was crackling away in the stone fireplace. "My name is Charter. Of course, I am lying when I say that but it is what I shall and will be referred to as for the unforeseeable future, apparently."
Robert blinked, staring at Charter for some time before he opened his mouth, voicing his confusion finally. "Good god man. You're speaking in tongues." He declared, leaning back in his chair. Charter blinked before he let out a hearty chuckle. "Terribly sorry old boy. You'll have to get used to speaking in tongues around here. Can't have them knowing what we're on about. They'd know too much if they did."
Confused as to who 'they' were, Robert was slowly coming to the end of his tether. "Can you just tell me what happened to me? I just want to find Rosalind and go home."

"Well," Charter hit the base of his smoking pipe against the fireplace to dislodge any old tobacco before he set to work with loading it with some fresh. "To put it simply, Mr Lutece. You're dead." Nothing about Charter's face held the grimness of the sentence. He was simply smiling away. "Of course, that's only one way of saying it. One could also refer to it as being neither here nor there. But dead in a physical sense." Charter continued before he struck a match and lit his pipe, taking a good few puffs to get it going, before he settled back in his armchair and regarded Robert through his spectacles. Robert's mouth was open slightly. "Are you insane?"
"None of us are insane, Mr Lutece. The world simply holds too much sanity to understand us." Charter explained in a matter of fact way as he blew out smoke from the corner of his mouth. Robert slowly lowered his gaze to his hands. Expecting them to be transparent as if he was in some cheap ghost story. "I don't—"
"Look dead? Good grief man, of course you don't. You're pure physics! Look at you!"
"You're not really making this any clearer to me, Mr Charter." Robert sighed, running his hands through his hair. Charter leant forward in his chair, the end of his pipe clacking against his teeth as he manoeuvred it from the left side of his mouth to his right. "You were murdered, Mr Lutece. Miss Lutece included. Pushed back in to your marvellous contraption if the records are correct—"
"Records?"
"Ah. Yes. 1981. As of yesterday." Charter explained with a wave of his hand before he continued. "You may have 'died' physically but instead you were scattered across time and space. You can appear wherever and whenever you choose."
"You're insane."
"A whole race of you seems to think differently, Mr Lutece. Miss Lutece and yourself are the first of many like you. Master Edward and Miss Evelyn included. Though," He shifted inquisitively in his seat, like a University Professor in his lectures. "Those two are a little different. They're the first to still be alive and well yet still obtaining your talents."
Robert's head was spinning now. He hadn't even bothered to take his head from his hands. "You're insane."
"How else would you find yourself in 1981 instead of 1910, Sir? Your bodies reacted badly and you plummeted through time and space."
It thoroughly annoyed him, but Robert could see where he was coming from. "A moment ago, you said something about Rosalind and I being the first of a race…?"
"Ah yes!" Charter slapped his thighs and heaved himself up out of his chair. He wandered over to the fireplace and rested an elbow against the shelf placement. "Before there was Science, Mr Lutece, there was History. Am I correct?"
"Of course."
"Alexis de Tocqueville once said 'History is a gallery of pictures in which there are few originals and many copies.' The same applies to our line of work, Mr Lutece. Time is like an ever flowing river. It does not freeze over and it does not slow. However, in one place it may be flowing steadily, in another? Stone dry. Are you following?"
No. "I think so…" Robert swallowed thickly, leaning back in his chair in growing defeat. Charter blew out some smoke from the corner of his mouth once again. "Your…companion and yourself. You are from different realities, correct?"
"How did you—"
"Not of importance. Am I correct? Of course, I know I'm correct but I'm just checking you're not falling behind. Come along then, boy! Answer!"
"Yes! Rosalind brought me through to her own reality."

Charter was silent for a moment, making the slow journey back to his arm chair. There was a sudden yowl that the man completely ignored. A black cat scattered out from underneath the object he was about to set his behind down on. Perhaps this was the cat Eve had been searching for before. "What makes you think, Mr Lutece…" He broke off in to a small huff as he finally plopped himself down on aching bones. "That there are only two realities? The one reside in here and the one you hail from?"

**

Rosalind had been walking for hours. She had no idea where she was going, or where she had come from in the first place. A quick glance over the side of a fence had told her that she definitely wasn't anywhere in Columbia. Solid ground all around. In any other circumstance she would have been enthralled at the new technology. Namely the automobiles. (She had learnt her lesson about sticking to the sidewalks by now.) But these were not circumstances that allowed marvelling. Robert was somewhere out there and she was certain of that fact.

When she thought about it, this had been the longest she had been away from him. As soon as he came through to her side of the realities he instantly haemorrhaged—ruining her nightgown, which she did not approve of despite the matters. That had meant great care and attention had to be administered to her 'brother' from then on during his settling in period. Ever since then the two had practically been inseparable. Shoulder to shoulder whenever they were in public.

A flash of white behind her eyes caused her to lean back against the wall heavily. Rosalind. His voice echoed between her ears causing a small whimper to escape her pursed lips as she pulled a hand over her eyes. Doubled over in discomfort. Rosalind there's something I've been meaning to tell you.Why was she thinking back on that day? Of all things why was her brain going back there? I know it seems like well…taboo really but—
"Oh Robert for the sake of the Prophet spit it out." She found herself whispering her words under her breath despite herself.
I am trying to, Rosalind. It's just…hard to put in to words when it comes to you. I've been thoroughly confused about myself this past year and…well…the fact of the matter is I think I'm in love with you. And I find myself not caring of the consequences.
The pain shot through her like a warm knife to butter. Causing her to fall to her knees instantly. Something hot and sickly was lingering in the back of her throat, and she instantly set it upon herself to dispel it. The fact that it was blood that spattered the tiled pavements didn't help her sudden wash of anxiety. The null and empty feeling in the pit of her body knocked her sick.

White fear suddenly alerted her senses. Slowly, she pressed a hand to her abdomen, tears prickling her vision. No. No no no…Oh god.A broken sob escaped her lips and racked her small form. "Please not now." She sobbed again. "Please don't make me lose you…p-please…please…Robert! Robert where are you! The baby! The baby…" The rest of her sentence drifted off in to incoherent wailing of pain and torment, sounds of woe that bounced off the walls and rang in her ears, mocking her.
For a moment, when the arms wrapped around her, a small spark of hope ignited in her chest. Maybe he had heard her. He had heard her and come running.
"Easy there, Miss Lutece." The girl's voice was unbelievably calm, and when Rosalind turned her head she was met with a kind face. Her eye makeup was thick and black but her eyes were full of empathy. A light wind was shifting her dyed hair.
"My baby…"
For a moment, a flash of sorrow flickered in the girls' eyes before she schooled herself and helped Rosalind to her feet slowly, though she insisted that the scientist kept her arm over her shoulder for support.
"Is fine, Miss Lutece. Everything is fine. Your body is just settling in." Eve fished in her clutch for a moment before she pulled out a neatly folded tissue. Which she dabbed at Rosalind's eyes and nose with. "My name is Eve, Miss Lutece." She explained in a soft tone as she slowly walked her out of the alley and back on to the deserted main street. A yellow taxi cab was waiting on the corner. "…I'm taking you somewhere safe, Miss."
"Robert—"
"Patience, Miss Lutece. Don't stress yourself again. Mr Lutece will be there. I can assure you that."