Yes, another chapter already! Should warn you that there is potentially ooky smut. So don't blame me.
Would love to know if people are still reading, so if you're not inclined to review a quick note that just says "I'm reading" would be appreciated. Thanks!!
Thanks to the editor. As always.
Ownership neither intended nor implied.
--
"Mina I need you to see her. Go talk to her." It had been three weeks. He needed to know what happened. If she would just talk to him.
"Rupert what makes you think she'll see me either?" She shut the book she'd been running her fingers over. "She probably just wants to move on with her life. And stop pacing. It's driving me batty."
He stopped, staring at the back of Mina's head while trying to form an argument that might work. "Forget me then. We need to know what happened to her. Think of how helpful it would be – knowing what happens to someone who's been attacked by a Kronon. It could help us. And she will tell you if you ask." He paused, considering for a moment. "I think she will."
Mina shook her head. "If I call her will you accept whatever she says? Even if she won't see me?"
Rupert shrugged. "I don't know."
–
A few days later Mina's car pulled up in front of Alex Drake's home. Alex had agreed to meet with her, for the sake of information, but was still too exhausted to leave her house.
"Would you like some tea?" Alex offered, once they were sat in her kitchen.
"Tea would be lovely, thank you." Mina listened to Alex move around the room. "Thank you for meeting with me. I know you don't want to see Rupert any more – he told me what happened, but it will be helpful for us to know what did happen to you. After all, it's not often someone is attacked by a Kronon and understands what's happening to them."
Alex sat across the table. "Well, I'm not exactly certain you could say I understood it." She laughed sadly. "It was very confusing."
"Why don't you start at the beginning then." Mina said softly.
"OK."
"How long were you there? How long was the experience?"
"It was about 16 months, I think. Yes."
"And what happened?"
Alex described waking up confused, not knowing where she was, and the shock of coming face to face with what she thought were characters from Sam Tyler's imagination. She described the differences, and the similarities between their two worlds. She was careful, however, not to go into much detail yet about Gene Hunt. Alex couldn't stop the tears when she described meeting her parents, discovering how they died, her mother's betrayal with Evan. Her father, what he did.
As she confessed all to Mina it became easier to face, to think about. She'd been avoiding the thoughts as much as possible since she woke. Unlike Sam Tyler she didn't want to return. She wanted to stay here, with her daughter and her life. She wanted to have a life. The tears stopped.
"How is it possible, Mina, for me to have experienced the same people that Sam did, but in another time?" She sipped her tea. "Euch. It's gone cold. Would you like some more?" She stood and walked to the kettle.
"Yes, thank you. But I don't know the answer to your question Alex. There are a million theories about time travel and any of them could be partially right or wholly wrong. It's one of the reasons I was so eager to hear about your experience."
"Sam and I were both sent back to significant moments in our lives. I spent a lot of time wondering if that was the purpose – if there was a purpose. To change or to learn something. But if where and when you end up is just chance, how can it be?"
"You know Alex, there are many significant moments in a person's lifetime. You were faced with one of them but it's entirely likely, and probable, that you simply found the significance of the moment you were in. If it had been some other time when you arrived you may have seen the importance in an entirely different way."
Alex thought for a moment. "I suppose that's true."
"There is also a theory amongst those of us that study the phenomena as well as the monsters that cause it that you weren't sent back in time at all. That you were simply phased into an alternate time line."
"I don't understand."
"Well, take String Theory, for example. Simplified, there are hundreds or thousands of existing times – or strings, all occurring at the same time. We are only experiencing one of them. There is nothing to suggest that they are all moving at the same speed. You may simply have been phased into another time. Then phased out again."
"But that wouldn't explain why I went to 1981 and Sam went to 1973. Or why we met the same people along the way?"
Mina shrugged. "No. But it is only a theory. No one knows for certain what happened to you, Alex. Have you tried to identify if any of the people you met in 1981 are alive in this time? Or in this time line?"
Alex shook her head. "No, I haven't."
"What about events? Have you confirmed that anything you discovered was actually the truth?"
"No." The truth was she didn't want to think about any of it. About Evan, about her mother. She hadn't wanted to think about Gene, but after talking with Mina, she needed to tell her. Ask her how this man who had been such an enormous and mysterious part of her life in the past could be the exact double of Rupert Galvin. "There is something else though."
Mina turned her head towards Alex. "What?"
"Gene Hunt. He was Rupert."
Mina looked confused. "I don't understand."
"He was Rupert. If Rupert had been born in Manchester and grown up to be a police officer. He was his identical twin."
Mina's face changed from confused to concerned. "Interesting. Identical?"
"In every way. Yes." She paused. "Well, his hair was longer."
"Is that why you can't see Rupert?" Mina asked quietly.
Alex closed here eyes tightly, nodding before remembering. "Yes."
"Do you want to tell me what happened?"
Alex shook her head. "Does it matter? I'm not there. I'm never going back. I'll never know what happened to him. What happened to us."
Mina frowned slightly. "It doesn't matter to me Alex. And it might not be important in terms of finding out what happened. But it will matter to Rupert."
Alex sniffed. Talking about Gene had brought on more silent tears, and now they wouldn't stop. "I'm sorry. It's just – I don't know what happened. It was so confusing. I grew very close to this man, but I never knew or understood how he felt. Not about me, anyway. But he was so similar to Rupert that it became easy, and I trusted him so completely. And then he hurt me. Very badly. In the end Mina, when I woke up – he had shot me. I'm still not sure what happened, or if that caused me to return here, to my time, my daughter."
"Hmm. I don't think his shooting you will have brought you back to this time. It's very likely it was the simple removal of the bullet that took care of that."
"I really don't know what to think, Mina. But I can't see him. I can't separate them yet."
Mina nodded. "I suppose I can understand that. He'll be very disappointed. He cares for you very much Alex."
"I know." She did know. She even believed it now in a way she couldn't understand before. But she just couldn't. She wasn't ready. "But I can't."
Mina sighed. "OK. Do you mind if I tell Rupert? He's rather desperate, actually. At least to know you're alright. That you'll be alright."
Alex got the impression that Mina sounded a bit annoyed at the prospect of telling Rupert anything. "Yes. You can tell him whatever you think he should know."
Mina stood and Alex took her arm to walk her to the door. "Thank you Alex. This has been helpful. If we can work out anything that might help you can I call you? Or if I have any more questions?"
"Of course." Alex gestured to Mina's driver to come and get her. " And Mina?"
"Yes?"
"Please tell him I'm sorry."
–
"There is no way he's going to convince your mother that this is a good idea, Luke."
Luke and Ruby sat in the stacks, waiting for Galvin to return. He was trying to talk Luke's mother into letting Luke take a year of school abroad. He wouldn't really be in school, of course, Galvin was planning to intensify Luke's training. He felt it was going too slowly.
Ruby was completely opposed to the idea.
"You're all she's got. She won't let anyone take you away." Ruby giggled, shoving Luke's shoulder.
Luke shrugged, non-committal as usual. "It's not like spending a year chasing demons with that miserable sod is my idea of a good time. I'd rather be in school, I think."
"Oh, I kind of feel bad for the guy. Had his heart broken in two. It'd make you a miserable sod to be around too, I think." Ruby did feel bad for Galvin. Mina hadn't approved, but he really seemed to be into that Alex woman. Too bad it hadn't worked out.
"I haven't got a heart Ruby, don't you remember?" Luke teased.
Ruby rolled her eyes. "I'd forgotten."
They were still going at it when the big door to the stacks rolled open and Galvin skipped down the steps.
"Great news Luke! She said yes. It's all set. But only for six months, so we'll have to settle for that. I've got a school in Italy that will work with us – they're used to this sort of thing, and it's centrally located to we can go off on whatever training sessions I deem necessary with no questions asked. Terrific, eh?" Grinning, he clapped Luke on the shoulder and went straight to the coffee maker.
Luke groaned, but Ruby was stunned.
"What? She said yes?" Her jaw fell open and she looked back and forth between Galvin and Luke – willing one of them to say something. Neither of them did. She looked at Luke. "So you're leaving?"
"If he says so, then I guess I am."
"Without me?" She turned back to Galvin. "When?"
It was already near the end of August. Classes would start up at most schools in September. They wouldn't have much time before he'd have to leave.
Galvin wandered back into the stacks, calling out over his shoulder. "Two weeks."
"TWO WEEKS?!?"
–
Hours later Rupert was in the stacks with Mina, searching for a new bottle of scotch.
"I still don't understand why you are doing this."
"Luke isn't ready" was his muffled reply.
"It hasn't been that long. What does he need to be ready for?"
"Mina," Rupert sat across from her, twisting the top off his bottle and pouring a generous glass. "Luke is under attack, and he's too distracted here in London to take it seriously or effectively learn how to protect himself." He swallowed several gulps of the smooth liquid before finishing. "He needs more intensive training. I won't always be around to help him." He drained his glass and poured another.
"Don't be ridiculous Rupert, where else would you be? Protecting Luke has been your mission since the day he was born. At the expense of everything else, in fact." She didn't say 'including your wife,' but it hung in the air.
"That's the problem." He slammed his drink. "I want my life."
Mina made a clucking noise, raising her eyebrows in a question. "This is your life."
He shook his head uselessly. "Not any longer." Rupert took a deep breath. She had to know eventually. "I've accepted an offer, of sorts. With the British Government. They're still working on the funding but I'll be consulting with the Home Secretary on their new Half-Life Anti-Terrorist Unit. Seems the government has finally taken notice of what we've been fighting out entire lives."
"Half-Life Anti-Terrorist Unit?" Mina screwed up her face in disbelief.
"Yep." He grinned to himself. "I'll be mostly working on tactics and planning and supervising whatever agency we ultimately hire to train recruits."
"And you expect to get funding for this? You're going to tell the general public that the British government is using their money to fight demons?" She laughed sharply. "Good luck."
"Nah. I'm sure it'll be some secret funding. I'm not worried. It's pretty much a done deal."
Mina sat quietly for a while, seemingly considering what he'd just told her. He was wrong.
"She won't see you again, you know."
"You don't know that." He frowned. "And even if it's true. I'm ready to stop running away. I'd like to have the next forty or fifty years of my life. It's not too late."
"There will always be something trying to kill you, you know. It will never be safe."
"There's been something trying to kill you for the past hundred years. You've managed."
"Alone, Rupert. I've managed alone."
Rupert swirled his drink, caught in the reflection of the amber liquid as he lifted it to his lips. "It's worth a try, though. Isn't it?" It had to be.
–
Two weeks later Rupert was jogging up the steps of a club he was much to old to be in. But it was Luke's going away party and he felt he should at least stop by for a few minutes. Pushing through the door he could feel the thumping bass before he could hear the music. A very few minutes.
Once inside though it wasn't as bad as he'd feared, and he managed to spend a not unpleasant hour propped up against the bar, buying drinks for Luke and Ruby and their group of friends. After a while he noticed Luke had tucked himself into a corner with a pretty blonde, and Ruby had disappeared completely. He thought it would be safe to leave.
Rounding the corner toward his car he was surprised to find Ruby sitting alone on the back stairs of the club. She hadn't seen him.
"Why aren't you inside?"
"What?" She looked up at him and he saw why. Her eyes were red and inky mascara was running down her cheeks. Oh crap.
Rolling his eyes slightly he sat down next to her on the step, slipping an arm around her shoulders.
"He's just a stupid boy Ruby. We're all the same." He gave her a squeeze that he hoped felt comforting. "Pretty face, flash of eyelash and our brains drop two and a half feet."
"So why not me?" She sniffed, wiping her face on her sleeve as she looked away. "I'm not pretty enough?"
He shook his head. "Of course you are." He turned to look at her upturned face. Even red-rimmed her eyes were huge. He swallowed. "If I were twenty five years younger I'd make sure you never thought about Luke, that's for sure." He tried to laugh, lighten it up. He stared at her mouth instead. s***. Maybe she was too drunk to notice.
She sniffed and turned away, running the handkerchief between her fingers. "Twenty five years?"
He shrugged. "Give or take."
"But not now?" He furrowed his brow and as she went on. "Great. That's really really helpful. I can't even get a desperate old man in his forties. Why would anyone my own age be interested in me?"
"Old?" He took mock offense. Glossing right over 'desperate'. "I'm not old. Just older than you."
She shrugged, looking at him and away again. "Doesn't matter anyway."
"Ruby, you haven't been waiting for Luke your whole life, have you?" She was really lost on that stupid kid.
She didn't look at him. "Not like anyone else has ever been interested, either."
With his free hand he tilted her chin toward him. She looked so vulnerable at that moment. Too vulnerable. "And as long as you are waiting for Luke there never will be anyone else. Because you won't be able to see them." Rupert found himself warm suddenly, his eyes trailing back to Ruby's very full lips. "Take the next six months Ruby. Forget Luke. Meet someone else. It'll be good for you." His eyes moved back up to hers and he realized she was staring at him. Before he knew what was happening he'd leaned forward and met her mouth with his, his hand trailing from her chin to cradle the back of her head. After a few moments her soft whimpers brought him back to reality, and he quickly broke it off.
He swallowed twice before letting her go. "Come on." His voice was hoarse. "Mina's limo is around the corner. Her driver can take you home and be back to pick up Luke later." He stood up, holding his hand out to help her to her feet.
When they reached the car Rupert opened the door. Nodding for Ruby to get in. She stopped when she was standing close enough to touch him.
"You're not coming?" Her eyes were pleading. He felt sick.
"I don't think it's a good idea Ruby." Holding her gaze wasn't the only thing that was hard.
He didn't know where it was coming from. After Mina had explained Alex's reluctance to see him, and why, he'd accepted it, secure in the knowledge that one day she'd see him again. He knew she would have to for everything that happened to her to make sense. And he knew she would want it to make sense. He could wait. After that he'd gone back to his regular diet of random nameless women and the last few weeks had been overall very satisfying in that department. He should not want this girl.
But he did. And she wanted him.
"OK." She looked at her feet. So did he. At her knee high, low heeled brown boots. Her too short skirt. Luke was an ass. She looked back up at him. "If you're sure?"
Fuck.
–
After giving the driver instructions to drive around London for an hour Rupert pushed the button that closed the partition between the front seat and the rest of the limo. Moving to the roomy back seat he pressed his long body against her much smaller one, grinding his full erection against her as he kissed her, his tongue sliding eagerly into her mouth. He needed her to be sure.
Slowly he slid one hand over her bare thigh, fingers moving lightly over her flesh as they worked their way towards her schoolgirl knickers. Rupert stopped when he felt cotton beneath his fingertips, closing his eyes tightly. This was such a bad idea. Ruby spread her legs wider and he pushed the thought from his mind.
Still kissing her he tugged at the elastic, and she hurriedly moved to wriggle out of them, discarding them quickly onto the floor of the limo. She gasped as he teased her clit and her eyes flew open as he slowly slid one finger into her, thrusting gently as her eyes fluttered closed and her head fell back against the seat. Watching her face he carefully added a second finger, thrusting faster as her hips swung naturally against his hand, his thumb flicking gently at the tiny bundle of nerves between her legs until she shuddered against his body.
After letting her lie still for a moment, Rupert lifted her until they were sitting together on the seat.
"You OK?" He asked, voice barely above a whisper.
She nodded, smiling. "But you've still got your trousers on."
"Yeah, well" he cocked his head to the side. "I wasn't sure how far you'd want to go." He looked back at her and she nodded.
Wrapping one arm around her he pulled her onto his lap, straddling him so each of her thighs hung over his.
"Me on top?" She looked at him questioningly. "But I've never..."
He stopped her with a kiss, his hand on her cheek. "It'll be fine." He murmured against her mouth. "Promise." Sliding his hands down across her shoulders he quickly unfastened her top, exploring her lace clad breasts with gentle ease. "Belt" he mumbled. "Undo my belt." Ruby did as was told, then carefully slid down the zip of his bulging trousers. He felt her tremble a little. "We can stop whenever you want." He whispered. "Just tell me."
She shook her head.
As he moved his hands to his waistband and slid his pants down to his knees he opened his eyes, catching sight of Ruby perched above him. He suddenly felt like an old man about to fuck a teenager. "Ruby I..."
But wide her eyes had dropped to his now fully exposed erection. He watched her swallow hard a few times. "This is going to hurt, isn't it."
"Maybe we shouldn't..." He suggested. She shook her head. "Really, it's OK..."
"Condom" was all she said.
He should stop it. He knew he should stop it. It might not be wrong, but it was a bad idea. A really bad idea. "Jacket pocket." His turn to swallow as he watched her reach into his breast pocket and retrieve the necessary item. He watched her tear it open carefully, her hands reaching gingerly for his thick cock. When she stroked his full length he groaned, his head flying back against the leather seat, breath coming in spurts as she slipped on the condom.
With his eyes closed he felt her lean forward, trying to move over him. He moved one hand to her face, kissing her as the other guided her over him, just his tip piercing her entry. She winced, and he groaned as he moved further inside her, just another inch. Christ, thought, this could be the fastest fuck ever. Rupert held his breath, placing both hands on her waist as he readied to push deeper inside her. Her eyes were shut tight, he could tell she was trying not to cry. "Still OK?" he whispered. She nodded silently.
As he steadied her, whispering quietly, the limo hit a heavy bump in the road and they both bounced in the vehicle, Ruby screamed as she lost her balance and slid fully onto him, taking him to the hilt as he pushed into her with a desperate groan.
"Oh my god!" He didn't know how he didn't come in that instant, but he didn't. He looked at Ruby, her eyes watery from the shock. He didn't want to stop now. The best he could hope for was that she wouldn't hate him in the morning.
He watched her for a moment as they settled, then as he moved inside her, his hands guiding her over him, slow thrusts, the ache in his balls so severe he was sure he'd burst any second. Somehow he managed to hold on, listening to her frightened whimpers change to light moans. But he wouldn't last. "Ruby" he gasped eyes blurred at her "have to..." He saw her nod and gripped her hips hard, thrusting quickly just a few more times before he exploded, grunting, his face twisted in agony. He knew she hadn't come, and was suddenly relieved he took care of that already. Maybe he hadn't been a total jackass.
Rupert scooped her into his arms as she fell onto his chest, relieved that she still felt that comfortable. Neither of them said anything as he kissed her forehead, his hands smoothing over her back.
After walking Ruby up to her flat Rupert had the driver take him back to his car, still parked by the nightclub. Giving instructions to have the limo cleaned immediately he strolled to his car and got behind the wheel. He cursed as he started the engine.
"Fucking asshole, Galvin."
–
Mina picked him up at eight am the next morning. Luke and Ruby were already in the back seat, with Luke's bags in the trunk. Rupert deposited his and joined them in the limo, hesitating only slightly as he got in.
"Morning everyone."
"Morning Galvin," Ruby greeted him, smiling without embarrassment.
He quickly went over their plans, their flight to Italy and where they were likely to be over the next few months. He expected them to be back in six months, but that would depend on what they discovered. There were a number of places in both Romania and Turkey that Rupert expected would take a considerable amount of their time.
At the airport they said their goodbyes. Ruby kissed Rupert lightly on the cheek, whispering into his ear, "I'm not sorry."
He smiled at her, relieved. "Goodbye Ruby."