Chapter 3

Oh shit, Cutter thought to himself as he scrambled out of his bed sheets with difficulty.

"Wait a minute!" he shouted, catching up with her in his hall way. "I've explained about Claudia Brown to you before; it's your fault whether you chose to believe it or not!"

She spun round, her face contorted in fury.

"If by that you're referring to when we first met and you babbled something insane about me being some one else, then that hardly counts!"

"How on earth can you be jealous when you're the one who's only just split up from your fiancé?!" Cutter snapped . . . unwisely.

"Oh my God Cutter; don't even go there!" she shrieked, flinging her arms in the air in obvious frustration. "It's not like I was the one screaming my ex's name in bed was it?"

"I was asleep! It's not like I could help it!"

"That's even worse!" she gapped, before turning back around and making to open his front door. However, in a split second he had crossed the hall and caught her wrist before she did.

"Let go," she ordered; if looks could kill, Cutter knew he would motionless on the floor at that particular moment.

"Not until you listen to me for once," he retorted, pulling her hand away from the latch.

She scowled, and avoided his gaze for a second, before throwing her briefcase on the floor and leaning back against the wall.

"Five minutes," she stated, surveying him with the same cold look.

Under her glare, it suddenly dawned on Cutter that he was naked, except for his boxer shorts, and felt extremely exposed; both physically and emotionally. All of a sudden, Cutter's mind went as blank as a canvas . . . how on earth could he explain this when he didn't even understand his feelings himself?

"I . . . er . . ." he stammered, running his hand through his hair.

Jenny raised an eyebrow ruefully at him, and crossed her arms, obviously waiting for him to pull a spectacular excuse out of the bag.

"Look," he began, deciding in a split second that he was going to be completely honest with her. "Whatever you think, Claudia Brown existed. She was you, but just a different you. She looked identical to you, sounded identical to you and she acted . . . well . . . not identical to you, but there are mannerisms . . ."

"And you expect me to believe this?" she asked in disbelief.

"Well if you think I'm a liar, why are you even here?" he snapped again, his temper flaring up slightly in his nerves.

"I don't think you're a liar," she replied, her arms still folded so tight that it looked like she would never uncross them. "I think you're . . . confused."

"I'm not confused," Cutter sighed loudly, smacking himself in the head with his hands in aspiration. "And I'm not mad either!"

"Nick - "

"Helen!" he said wildly, as a thought popped into his head.

"What?" Jenny gasped, looking scandalized. "Have you completely lost your mind? I'm Jenny."

"No - Helen!" he continued, determined she understood. "She knew about you and Claudia as well remember? At Leeks warehouse?"

"Of course I remember! But you don't expect me to take the word of a borderline-psychopath that has spent the last nine years hopping between time zones do you?!"

"No," Cutter agreed, seeing her point. "But surely the fact that we both know about it means something?"

They both fell silent for a moment, looking at each other.

"Okay," Jenny said slowly, finally breaking the tension. "Hypothetically speaking; say I believe you. Say I did used to be this other woman that you loved, and who disappeared to be replaced by me?"

"Yeah?" Cutter prompted.

"Well . . . how would I know if you like her or me? Or the version of her in me? Or whether, in fact, it's just the same thing?"

"Well how do I know you're just not interested in me because Claudia was?" Cutter pointed out. "Maybe your only drawn to me because of some echo across time?"

"Is that possible?"

Cutter shrugged.

"Maybe. I don't know, I haven't had that much experience in these matters . . ." he trailed off.

He watched as Jenny sighed, and lent more heavily against the wall. Another silence ensued; both apparently unable to think of anything else to say.

"Look," Cutter began, trying again to explain his feelings, not only to Jenny, but to himself. "I'm just going to say the thing I'm probably not meant to say. So what?"

"So what?" she repeated, sounding bemused.

"Why should it matter if I've fallen for you because I was interested in Claudia? I don't doubt that if I would have met you first, you would have worked your womanly wiles on me and we'd be in this exact position any way."

At this, he saw the corners of Jenny's lips twitch upwards slightly in a suppressed smile.

"What matters is that I am in love with you. You as you are now and as you were then. I'm in love with your existence as a whole. And I've tried to suppress it; I've tried to not think of you that way . . . but I can't."

He made eye contact with her, and observed that her forehead was creased in a look of confusion.

"Jenny?" he prompted.

"I'm still trying to work out if what you said was incredibly sweet or incredibly insulting," she said in a half-laughing voice.

"Ah," Cutter nodded in an understanding manner, a slight smile on his face - her persona seemed to be softening slightly. "I would lean more to 'sweet', but that's just me . . ."

"It's just . . ." she began slowly, running her fingers through her hair. "It's just that . . . well, it's a lot to take in - "

"I know."

"I want to believe you," she whispered to him, her eyes pricking with tears for the first time; that was one thing he admired about this woman - she very rarely cried, which was a good thing, as crying women made him uncomfortable; he never quite knew what to say.

"Then believe me," he sighed, feeling safe enough to approach her slightly.

"It's just hard," she continued, as she allowed him to rest his hands on her arms. "I'm not interested in being second best."

"You're not," he assured her, pulling her into his chest.

For a while she was stiff, but he continued to hold her, and after a moment she relaxed into the embrace and clutched him back.

********

A lot of fluff, I know! But one thing that bothered me in the show was that if Nick and Jenny had got together, how would the whole 'I'm in love with Claudia not you' thing would be handled? So I needed to write this for my own piece of mind lol.

Let me know what you think :D