A/N: As you've probably gathered, I am in love with the song 'Pieces' by the band RED. They are just amazing and if you want to listen to some superb music, I suggest getting hold of their first album 'End of Silence'. I think the lyrics fit the characters very well and so that is why I've used it as a backdrop kind of thing in their relationship.

I do not own the lyrics of 'Pieces'. I have merely used them for the entertainment factor of this fan fiction.

This chapter does become a little choppy as it's supposed to be over the period of about three days and I need to get the main events in, so it's meant to be written like this. Enjoy!

Chapter Eighteen

[New York, 2009]

The first night being back in her own bed, Rachel cried herself to sleep, clinging to the old dusty hat in her arms. She held the hat to her chest and lay in a foetal position, her legs curled upwards. The run in with Laura had been swift and Rachel had announced she was leaving as soon as she could organise her tenancy at another apartment. That would probably mean dropping out of college and acquiring full time work. How she was going to manage was something she had no idea of. It wouldn't have surprised her if she'd been exited from her college course due to a near three week absence.

Rachel woke in the middle of the night, startled by frightening images, although as she opened her eyes they were forgotten. The moon was high up in the sky, illuminating the ground below and sending rays of light through the window. A full throb was in her temples, the remnants of the pain she'd felt upon falling asleep. Rachel grabbed her iPod which she'd taken from a box earlier which was full of her belongings, and then she ventured into the kitchen.

Everything was so familiar, yet so different. She flicked on the light and watched the room become lit up; the light burned her eyes for a moment, and she batted her lids, trying to get used to it. Then she turned on her iPod, switching the dial so the song 'Pieces' by RED played softly. Memories swirled in her head, taking her back to that night she spent in the holding cell in the middle of some town in Arizona State. It made her remember singing it and the feeling of Charlie's hand through the bars.

I'm here again
A thousand miles away from you
A broken mess, just scattered pieces of who I am
I tried so hard
Thought I could do this on my own
I've lost so much along the way

She didn't quite know why she was torturing herself like this and listening to the very song which made her think of him. Truth was that she didn't want to stop thinking of him; Charlie Prince would always remain in her mind forever and she couldn't face the thought of ever forgetting any aspect of him.

Then I see your face
I know I'm finally yours
I find everything I thought I lost before
You call my name
I come to you in pieces
So you can make me whole

I've come undone
But you make sense of who I am
Like puzzle pieces in your hand

Rachel rubbed her brow, trying to stop the impending tears as the piano and violin played away in her ears, causing yet more heart wrenching thoughts to filter through.

"You alright, Rach?" a voice came, blurred and distorted behind Rachel's music. Quickly she pulled the white buds from her ears and looked up surprised, seeing her friend dressed in her dressing gown. Laura's dyed blonde hair was a mess and her eyes were bagged up, showing signs of another late night from partying.

"Not particularly," Rachel replied in a matter of fact tone. "I'm just wondering if things really do happen for a reason as some say." Her green eyes trailed across the table and her fingers touched the wood, drawing invisible lines down its length.

Laura sat down opposite her friend at the table and lowered her head, trying to get down to eye level with Rachel. "What happened to you out there, Rach? You should be glad you found a way back...but you look as though you regret it."

"I do," Rachel whispered, her lips trembling as she tried so hard to push the tears away again. "I met a man….and…" she began, trying to think on her words carefully. Laura remained patient, listening intently, deeply sorry for everything she'd put Rachel through. "We…love each other…and he made me come back here. It was back in the eighteen hundreds, basically living in a Western. I can't get my head round it still…"

"Who was he?"

Rachel smiled weakly, her eyes still glued to the table and her mind forming a picture of him. "His name was Charlie. He found me when I got there and took me with him."

"Sounds like a gentleman."

Rachel laughed. "Not at first; he was the furthest thing from a gentleman. He tied me up the first day…"

"Sounds kinky, Rach. You sure you want to tell me the rest?"

"Come on," Rachel giggled. "I'm serious. I thought he was going to rape me, murder me…something. But never once did he hurt me. To say a lot of the people around then knew him as ruthless and cruel that was the side of him I never saw…well, to me anyway. I suppose being an outlaw does that."

"You mean he was like a cowboy?" Laura asked, shocked, yet amused at the thought. Her brown eyes were wide and her expression showed much interest.

"I suppose you could say that, yeah. That hat you used to send me back, it was his. That's how I found him, or he found me, whichever way around it was."

xxx

Laura let Rachel lie in the next morning, wondering when she was going to wake. She rested her arms on the kitchen counter with a steaming mug of coffee in her hand, letting the conversation from the early hours drift through her mind. She couldn't comprehend that a spell had actually worked; things like that only happened in TV shows and movies, but now they apparently happened in real life. Suddenly Rachel appeared in the doorway, her long hair tangled and her nightgown untidily slung on around her shoulders.

"Want any breakfast?" Laura asked kindly, approaching the fridge.

"I'll be fine for now; I'm not sure if I could stomach anything," Rachel replied, grimacing at the very thought of food. "My stomach feels as though it's doing summersaults."

A while later after being cornered into eating at least one round of toast, Rachel was found in the shower, standing with her back to the curtain, huddled in the corner. She let the raining water warm her and clean away all the dirt which had accumulated. Her hands rested against her stomach as she closed her eyes tightly, imagining so vividly Charlie standing there with her. Breath caught in her throat as she let her mind drift back to the last night she spent with Charlie, the night she and he had made love, knowing that it was for nothing. All of their love and feelings had been for nothing, only bringing about heartache and destruction in its wake.

Once out the shower, Rachel wrapped a large white towel around her body, draping it over her chest and tying it at her side. The stifling heat reminded her of the first day when she met Charlie and rode in front of him, scared and hungry. "Are you alright in there?" Laura's strangely concerned voice came suddenly.

Rachel glanced at the door as if Laura might be standing there. "Yeah, I'm fine," she called back, lying. Truth be told, she wasn't fine. She was far from it. Only one person could make her fine, make her happy and bring that lost smile back to her young face. But he was gone now. Surely if she went back he'd let her stay, or would he? Charlie was so unpredictable, which was a personality trait Rachel so dearly loved about him. The man was on fire. It was a fire Rachel so desperately yearned for, something she needed as much as she needed to draw breath.

xxx

Laura and Rachel sat opposite one another in a small diner just a five or ten minute walk from their shared apartment that afternoon. Rachel absently picked at her slice of pizza, pushing it around her plate and occasionally taking a mouthful of her Coke. "Do you wanna talk about him?" Laura asked, glancing across the table, her brown eyes actually showing, for once, a trace of concern.

Rachel felt strange being back in her normal clothes which consisted of a pair of jeans and a black hooded sweater bearing the name of some unknown band. "Not much to tell really," Rachel replied awkwardly, shifting across the squeaky red leather seat.

"Oh, come on. He must be some kind of fantastic hunk," Laura said playfully. "Tell me." She curled her lips around her straw and drew up a mouthful of 7up.

"You wouldn't think so," Rachel replied sadly, drawing back a little from the table and sighing as she crossed her arms. She rubbed her forehead hard as if trying to push away the happy and not so happy memories she had in her mind about Charlie. "I didn't think so much at first, but he grew on me, I suppose."

"One thing I want to know though, if you think so much of the guy, then why did you come back here and how?" Laura asked, enjoying another juicy mouthful of pizza.

"He made me. He didn't want me to get hurt, so he made me come back. He found the spell but I'm wondering if something like this works though, how come more and more people don't use it?"

"There's only one thing for it," Laura said quickly, grabbing her cell phone from her purse. "I ask Stacey who did it and ask where she got the spell from."

xxx

The Goth girl who had sent Rachel through time and space stood with the room mates that very afternoon, holding the book in her hands, flicking through the pages. "Hang on, there's something here in fine print at the bottom," she called out, her podgy finger shooting to the bottom of the yellow and aged page.

"Only destiny can intervene in time and space, and if destiny accepts you, time will move parallel. The tracks of time will be forged. Destines move side by side. What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Stacey looked up from the book, her blue eyes stained with confusion.

Rachel stood gobsmacked, her mouth literally open, although no breath passed.

"It means...I was meant to meet Charlie," she whispered. "It all happened for a reason," she said again, letting breath catch in her throat as she clutched her abdomen and fell to a chair. "I need to go back, Laura."

Laura got to her feet and stood beside Rachel, touching her shoulder consolingly. "Look, whoever the guy was, he's right. You're safe here. Back then it's a wonder many people survived very long. Rach, you're safer here."

Stacey remained silent, her eyes averted from the argument which began to brew. "I have to go back!" Rachel half screamed. "It said in the book about destiny. I'm meant to be with him. It makes sense. Don't make me live here without him." Knowing that she was getting nowhere, Rachel stormed away down the hallway, slamming her bedroom door as she went.

Laura closed her eyes, pressing her hands into her face. "What do I do? Whoever this Charlie guy is, he's right, she doesn't belong there. It's too dangerous."

"What happened to her?" Stacey asked in bewilderment, placing her book down on the table carefully.

"She was in the Wild West or something in eighteen something, I dunno. She met this guy, a cowboy and now she's head over heels for him. How is all this possible though? Shit! She just turned up in the kitchen last night dressed in a shirt, pants and boots....typical cowboy stuff."

"This is way too deep," Stacey said quietly.

xxx

Two days later, Rachel and Laura were found walking down the main high street only a bus ride from their apartment. Laura had done her hardest to persuade Rachel to remain in their time period, arguing with her each day since her return. Finally, Rachel had given in, knowing that she and Charlie were right: she was safer in this time and place. But nothing could erase the deep seated pain she felt in her chest, so heavy and so grieving.

Rachel held her head low, listening to Laura babble away about a guy she'd met at university. "He is so gorgeous, Rach. The guy literally makes your legs buckle."

No man could have ever made Rachel's legs buckle like how Charlie Prince did. Part of her very being felt as if he had been ripped away, leaving raw pain and grief behind. "Nice," Rachel mumbled, glancing up at the grey clouds which were threatening rain.

"I'm sorry," Laura apologised, touching Rachel's arm consolingly. "You've got to learn to move on from this, Rach. I'm sure he wouldn't want you hanging around like this, all upset and worried about him."

"I don't want to move on," Rachel replied quietly, yet her voice was tinged with a slight trace of irritation. "I don't want to move on and meet someone else. I had two boyfriends before him and neither of them made me feel like this."

Suddenly a rumble of thunder banged through the warm air and immediately afterwards, pounding rain began to fall. "Quick, get in here," Laura called out, dashing down the sidewalk towards a small store tucked away at the end of the row of buildings.

The two friends dashed into the small store, sighing in relief as they finally hit a warm and dry atmosphere. "Disgraceful weather isn't it?" a voice came from further on down the store. The voice, like Rachel's, was accompanied by an English accent.

The store was extremely full and packed of shelving. On each shelf were books on mystical subjects surrounded by packs of Tarot cards, crystal balls, healing crystals, packs of runes and other spiritual mediums. The smell of incense wafted up Rachel's nose suddenly, making her cough a little, but she stifled it, not wanting to appear rude.

A grey haired lady appeared from out of nowhere, coming out from a small back room. She was dressed very smartly in a hippy-like skirt which was accompanied by a black, long sleeved top. She smiled at the girls, her blue eyes gleaming from behind her silver-rimmed spectacles. "Let's take a look at you," she said, approaching the girls and looking at their faces. Immediately, she found herself drawn to Rachel. Her dark eyebrows furrowed as she looked into Rachel's saddened green eyes. "There's something about you, love. Your heart is aching for someone, someone you know that you shouldn't feel about the way you do. Charlie, is it?"

"Oh my God," Rachel said in amazement. Then she fell into stunned silence. "How do you know that?"

The lady smiled. "I can see it in your face. It's obvious. You're in love and you miss this man. Anyone with eyes can see it, love."

"But how did you know his name?" Rachel asked, her eyes widening. She'd heard of psychics, but this was just beyond belief; to actually stand before one and hear them utter his name.

"I can just see it in you. He was destined to be your prince." With that the lady winked playfully, as if emphasising her words.

Rachel swallowed hard at the word 'prince'. How could she know this? All those times Rachel had teased Charlie about his name. "W…what else can you tell me?" Rachel asked.

The lady smiled. "I have a lot to tell you, Rachel, but it'd be unfair for me to do it for free, as much as I'd like to." Rachel was in so much awe and amazement that she completely ignored the fact that the lady knew her name. Her mind was too occupied with Charlie.

Ten minutes later and Rachel joined the lady in her backroom, along with Laura who had remained quiet the entire time. The lady held a deck of Tarot cards in her hands and began to slowly place them down upon the silk-lined table in a spread.

"Right," the lady said, taking a sip from her glass of water and leaning across the table to look upon the cards. "I don't need to tell you that you moved from another country. Anyone can tell that in your accent," she laughed. "You love writing, and that's what brought you here. You want to be a writer. I can tell you, love, you have the talent. That's apparent, but it's not your true destiny. Somehow, and I can't see why, but you were born into this life when it should have been with the man you love."

Her eyes brightened as she chuckled to herself. "You made an impression on him, that's for sure, love. It's not telling me much about him, but what I can see is that he loves you, more so than he lets on. He'd literally walk to the ends of the Earth for you."

Rachel couldn't help but break down into tears. Laura placed her arms around Rachel and glared at the woman who had genuine concern in her eyes. "I'm sorry, love. I'll stop if you want," the lady said quietly, her hand reaching across to comfort Rachel.

"No, I'm fine, but thank you," Rachel replied, speaking through her tears.

Rachel sat through the rest of her reading, listening intently to what the lady had to say which was mainly about her past back in England. "Your future lies in your hands, Rachel. If you decide to go back to him wait for the sign. Don't rush right now; wait for the sign to make itself known to you. Then you'll know." Upon those last words, the lady began placing her cards back into a pile.

"Thank you," Rachel said weakly as she got up from the table, worried she'd topple over as a whole sea of emotions filled her heart.

"I'm so sorry about all this, love. I do hope things work out for you."