Viennese Waltz: An Unexpected Meeting

"That's about right," Pete said with a tight, ironic little snort, just shy of a sob. "Ten years." He reached out then and gathered Jackie in his arms, burying his face in her hair. "Oh, Jacks, Jacks..." he whispered.

Rose decided she didn't really want or need to witness this reunion. She leaned over and grabbed one of the dead SS men's arms, jerked him closer to the other, then grabbed one of his as well. Then she punched the coordinates of the nearby wharf into the time jumper – she'd known of old precisely how many steps it took to reach it, her hiding place from her Mum's incessant fussing while Dad was locked up in prison – added six hours to reach it some time well past midnight, and undertook to dump the bodies.

I'm getting good at this, she smirked as she and the two corpses came out of the transport flash within a few feet of the dock's edge. She looked around carefully to make sure the wharf was deserted, but saw not a single soul, not even a stray cat. She took the time to remove the men's outer uniforms, then rolled them both into the drink, wishing she could have weighted them down, but not caring enough to take the time.

She scooped up the uniforms and turned around, intending to stuff them into a nearby dumpster, and froze. She hadn't been alone after all.

Perched in the open top of that dumpster was a young boy, staring at her through the gloom, his mouth agape. Steeling herself, she walked towards him, calling for him to stop when he jerked as if to run.

"Come down here, lad. I'm no threat to you."

His eyes were showing the whites, but he did as ordered, dropping lightly as a cat onto the pavement and walking warily into the streetlight, stopping well out of her reach. And it was her turn to gape.

His eyes, now that she could see them, were a brilliant sea green.

She glanced quickly down at his hand. Sure enough, there was the edge of a large birthmark showing.

Rose gave him a quick once-over. He looked to be about ten – definitely pre-adolescent, at any rate, and scrawny as a street rat.

The silence was drawing out too long. "What were you doing there?" she asked him.

"Looking for food, ma'am," he replied, a hair short of insolent.

"Been sleeping rough long?" He shrugged.

The solution to several interlocking puzzles suddenly burst into her mind, and she smiled. "Look," she told him earnestly. "Despite what it looks like, I'm not with the SS. I'm with the Resistance."

His young, unschooled face showed his skepticism. "Would an SS member be disposing of SS bodies?" she asked him, shaking out one of the uniform jackets to show him the insignia.

A little less sure now, he peered up at her again, still not speaking. He'd learned the value of silence, at least.

"You know," she mused, "the Resistance could use a likely, resourceful lad like you. Here's what I want you to do. Go to this address tomorrow morning," and she gave him the place she had learned later was her Dad's group's alternate meeting place, "and give them the password Bad Wolf."

"The fairy tale?" he broke in, derisive.

"Yup. The fairy tale." Her secret mirth had nothing to do with the Resistance. "Can you think of a more innocent phrase to sneak past the Nazis?" He shrugged, still unwilling to give her anything. "Give them that password, and then tell them this message. Listen, now, this is very important. Tell them that Red Wolf and Chickadee have been captured. Chickadee has been taken to an army barracks for the usual treatment, location unknown. Red Wolf has been taken to the county jail at Stanford, where he'll be held for several days. Can you remember all that?"

To her complete lack of surprise, he repeated the message word for word, and she nodded.

"Don't give them any description of me; they won't know who I am. I'm in a different cell," she explained, and apparently the very intelligent boy knew what that meant. "Just give them this name: Gemini. They won't know it yet, but they will."

"Gemini," he repeated. The effect of the detailed messages had convinced the boy of her veracity, and he was beginning to get into the spirit of things.

"Good," she grinned to herself, having just set up her own Resistance Informant credentials and laid the groundwork for her Dad's rescue by the Resistance, and the coming rumor of her Mum's death. "Off you go, then."

He stared straight at her a moment longer, seeming to see right through to her soul, then the young Paul Corvantes of Reich World turned without a word and slipped silently into the shadows, and was gone.

Rose watched him go, then raised the time jumper again, added ten minutes to source of the last jump, and flashed back to the flat.

^..^

Apparently ten minutes had been long enough for Pete to give his wife the gist of what had happened. Jackie turned to Rose as she reappeared, gave her a searching look, and then silently held out her arms to her wayward daughter.

Rose fell into them, clutching her in desperation, suddenly sobbing her heart out. "I'm sorry, Mum. I'm so, so sorry," she said, brokenly, over and over.

Jackie held her tightly, rocking back and forth, tears pouring anew over her own cheeks, while Pete put his arms around both his women and held them close.

Finally, Rose's sobs began to ease. She pulled back slightly, but Jackie leaned over and kissed her forehead. "I forgive you, darling," she said simply. That threatened to start the tears again, but Rose held them back with fisted knuckles pressed hard against her mouth, like she'd done as a child.

Then Jackie added, the exasperated Mum note in her voice matching the stern look on her face, "I told you that Stones was bad news!"

That broke them all up, relieved laughter swallowing up the shed tears before they drowned in them.

Finally Pete said, "We'd better get out of here before their buddies come looking."

Rose nodded agreement.

"Wait!" Jackie cried. "I'm not leaving without our pictures!" She scrambled for the nightstand, pulling out a thick photograph album and returning to the other two with it cradled in her arms. Then she gave Pete a sharp look. "Unless you already have it?"

"No," he grinned mistily. "It was missing when I came back to look for it. Now I know why."

They shared a look of such love that it brought prickling tears again to Rose's eyes. "OK," she said to cover it. "Grab my arm and hold on tight."

Both her parents reached for her arm, and Pete wrapped his other arm around his wife and snugged her tightly up against his side, the Never Letting Go Again look on his face obvious.

Rose let her supernova smile loose. "Ready?" she asked.

"Ready!' came the twin replies.

The American Rose called up and locked in the coordinates for their house in Virginia, the night she and Pete had left it on their greatest mission, and took her reunited family home.

.

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A/N: sadly, there's going to be a bit of a hiatus before I begin the next adventure, for two reasons. First, school has begun again (you may have noticed this last week's gap), loading me down with work. Second, I still haven't figured out yet precisely what I'm going to do with Jared and AlphaRose. I know Who, When, and Where, but not What. Hopefully I'll figure it out soon and be back with updates before you know it.