The song I use here is "I Thought About You," which was first recorded in 1939, although it's been redone many times since. The version I listened to was Benny Goodman with Mildred Bailey on vocals (although that one skips the first verse and the words are slightly different). It's on YouTube-just in case you want some background music. :)
...
The Queen Anne, 1939
As the Nazis drag Mulder from the room, he struggles to keep Scully—not-Scully?—in sight. And in doing so, he catches sight of the tall, blue-eyed guy in the tux, the one from the captain's quarters, holding out his hand to a blond woman.
Time traveler? Well, not from 1939, anyway.
"Hey!" he yells. "Hey, you! Black jacket! If you're from the future, you know these guys have to go down! Help me!"
His intended target doesn't even hear him. He's too busy steadily watching the Sara Lance doppelganger in front of him.
Her eyes have widened in surprise, before they narrow and regain that particularly chilly expression. He can almost see her calculating the odds he'll call unwanted attention to her if she refuses. (Nonexistent, but she can't know that.)
Finally, she gives him a tiny smile, accepting his hand (calluses on her sword hand, just the same) and allowing him to lead her to the dance floor.
"You wanna dance, Leonard?"
"It's the things I didn't do…"
The band slows it down just the merest bit as "Jeepers Creepers" comes to an end, and the next voice he hears causes him to start in surprise and glance over his shoulder. And, yes…yes, it is a perfect '30s-garbed version of Kendra Saunders who's standing there on the stage, singing the opening notes of a song:
"Seems that I read, or somebody said
"That out of sight is out of mind
"Maybe that's so but I tried to go
"And leave you behind, what did I find?"
His arm is around this version of Sara, and if she's not the woman he knows, not quite, he can pretend she is. It's hard not to smirk, to fall into the old habit of banter and back-and-forth, and she hasn't even spoken a word.
Somehow, they each know how the other moves.
She's smirking a little, herself, and when she speaks, he leans a little closer to hear her words.
"I don't even know your name," he hears. "But you're getting awfully familiar…"
His hand on her hip, her hand curving around his neck…
"So are you," he informs her, and sees her blink in surprise to realize that yes, yes, she is. "But…that's not even why I'm here."
Is that a flicker of disappointment? She makes a little mock moue and turns her head aside. Continuing to keep Raymond and company in sight, he knows.
"I took a trip on the train and I thought about you
"I passed a shadowy lane and I thought about you
"Two or three cars parked under the stars
"A winding stream"
"Well. Then," she tells him, "why are you here?"
He leans even closer. "Sara," he breathes into her ear, feeling the muscles of her back tense immediately beneath his hand, "whoever you're targeting, don't do it."
"Moon shining down on some little town
"And with each beam, same old dream
"At every stop that we made, oh, I thought about you
"But when I pulled down the shade, then I really felt blue"
Her eyes are fastened back on his, now, and it's unmistakable how much danger he's in.
But she just laughs, a light little chuckle, fake smile on her lips. "Silly," she says teasingly. "Now, whatever are you talking about?"
"You know what I'm talking about," he whispers. "Sara, I know you don't know me here. But I'm a...friend. Trust me. Don't do it. You're better. You're more."
And then he feels it, the tiniest, more imperceptible shift in the ship's movement. Something's happening.
Before she can pull away... or knife him... Leonard releases her, except for one hand, which he can't help raising to his lips. And she lets him.
It doesn't count as a stolen kiss, he thinks. But it's something.
"I'll be back," he tells her, dropping her cool fingers and taking a step back, two. "Please. Listen to me."
And then he turns and vanishes into the crowd.
She stares after him.
"I peeked through the crack and looked at the track
"The one going back to you, and what did I do?
"I'll leave it to you, oh what did I do?
"I thought about you"
FBI headquarters, Washington, D.C., Nov. 16, 1998
"What are you guys doing here?"
"Mulder's in trouble."
"Big trouble."
"What do you mean?"
"Let's take a walk."
"OK...where are we going?"
"The walls have ears."
"I have ears. Will you tell me what's going on?"
"Mulder's disappeared."
Back to the Queen Anne, Sept. 3, 1939
Leonard stoops to pick up a fallen officer's hat from the ballroom floor as he leaves the ballroom. Not perfect camouflage, certainly not paired with a tux, but enough that a casual glance might flicker over him.
He's a few decks down, trying to figure out the way to the boiler rooms, when an approaching ruckus has him ducking behind some equipment—and shaking his head when he hears the indignant voice pitched to carry over the noise.
"I got two words for you, buddy—Pearl Harbor!"
Are you kidding me? He winces at the thought of the potential timeline damage... then winces again at the fact that he did so.
After thinking a moment, he ducks his head and falls into step behind the mixed group of sailors and one Fox Mulder as Nazi soldiers herd them along.
"After Poland, Hitler's on his way to Denmark, Holland and France with a few stops in between," Mulder continues blithely. "The French all but roll over on us, the Italians seize their opportunity and the Japanese come through the back door. It's a long, bloody story. It fortunately has a happy ending."
"We win?"
"Yeah, you come out on the side of history with no small amount of help from us. Not much to apologize for over the next 50 years except for maybe the Spice Girls."
Leonard snorts at that, but they're at a new door now, and all of them are motioned through, even the extra, who pulls his hat down and moves to the edges of the room as soon as he can.
"Schnauze halten, verdammt noch mal! Raus mir euch! Vorwaerts, worauf wartet ihr? Mach schon! Los!"
The door is locked behind them, but they're in an engine room, a fact that makes him smile in satisfaction. Because near the engine room, there will be the boiler rooms. In the boiler rooms, there will be fire.
And when there's fire, he'll almost always find...
"...Thor's Hammer. You know what that is, mate?"
The term, however, stops him in his tracks.
Because abruptly now he knows, oh, he knows, what's been up with the Raymond and Stein doppelgangers. And who Sara is targeting.
...don't do it...
The sailors and some of the crewmen are getting into it now, and he starts edging away again, toward the boilers, as more of the crewmen emerge to see what the chaos is about.
"Thor's Hammer isn't a weapon!" Mulder's voice rises behind him. "It's a man, a man who will help build a weapon—a bomb that'll win the war for whoever has it! … I saw him! In the ballroom."
Leonard is jogging now, dodging crewmen through the boiler rooms, scanning the light and the shadows. And suddenly, there, shoveling coal and illuminated in the light of a boiler, is the man he's been looking for. Or, at least a man who looks just the same.
"Mick!"
The big man turns to look at him, and Leonard can't keep the grin off his face, even if this isn't really Mick, isn't really the man he's known for 30 years. This is backup, this is the closest thing he has to a brother…
"The 'ell are yeh?"
Irish accent, here, a strong one to go with the "Rory" inherited from Irish immigrant ancestors. Or maybe not ancestors, at this point. He stops, drags in a breath, puts both hands out in a gesture of supplication.
"Look, I know you don't recognize me here and now," he tells Mick's doppelganger. "But I know I can count on you. This ship can't go to Germany."
A cry rises up behind them, and Leonard frowns, then clarifies, "Or Jamaica."
An incredulous frown, and then a snort of amusement. Mick turns to pitch another shovelful of coal into the boiler.
"Listen to me!" Leonard grabs the other man's battered sleeve, dancing back to avoid the swing of a fist. "If this ship goes to Germany, the Nazis—I know you hate Nazis—will get their hands on...on a weapon. One that will win the war for them. And I know you know about the war coming, because you always pay way more attention than anyone thinks."
That earns him a pause and a considering look. Mick shakes his head, then leans on his shovel.
"Look," he tells Leonard, "don't know who the 'ell yeh think I am, or why yer talkin' to me 'bout this, but I'm nah hero."
"Look, I get that. I…" He throws an annoyed glance backward as the crowd around Mulder gets even more rambunctious. "I just know you won't want to let the Nazis win. Am I right?
A gleam in Mick's eyes. "Keep talkin'."
"Like that lunatic's telling them." Leonard jerks his head toward Mulder. "Turn the ship around and head back the way you came."
"They got words for doin' things like that, man. Like 'mutiny.' "
"Since when do you give a shit for rules?" He's about to retort further, but there are new voices rising, and they're not speaking English. He moves behind Mick, who glances at him and shakes his head but doesn't comment.
"Du! Der Amerikaner!" one of the Nazis calls. "Du kommst mit uns, rauf hier. Ja, mit kommen."'
They grab Mulder and start hauling him off, and even Leonard will give him some credit: he doesn't go easily.
"Turn the ship around," the Fed calls out, struggling, "or Hitler rises, Germany wins and your children will never know what freedom is!"
Once they're out the door, Leonard draws another breath and moves out into the open again.
"Melodramatic," he tells Mick, "but true. I have to go. I hope…" He hesitates. "I hope we meet again. I'm trusting you."
And then he takes off, ignoring Mick calling after him, heading for the opposite end of the ship, for the ballroom and Sara and Raymond and Jax and Stein...
Thor's Hammer.
There's no music in the ballroom now. Just a frightened silence. The passengers stare at the Nazis, who are holding Mulder near the front of the room. "Achtung!" one calls and, indeed, everyone's attention is on the scene.
Everyone but one. Now, two.
Leonard skirts around to the back, searching, searching. And there they are. Stein and Jax are in the back, in the shadows, Raymond continuing to stand in front of them, between them and the Nazis, an obdurate look on his face. But the danger he doesn't see is the one that's closest, just a few feet away, lovely and blond and deadly.
"Aufstehen. Mach schnell! Get up! Er sagte..."
"Wir haben einen mann an bord, einen wissenschaftler der weiss wie man eine bombe macht die den krieg gewinnin wird. Frag ihn, wer dieser mann ist."
Sara's whole attention is focused on that little group near her, not the Nazis; she's not even pretending anymore, but Raymond is too distracted to see it.
Leonard does. He sees the tiny pistol she's holding and where it's pointed, and he moves to her side, breathes into her ear, courting danger and knowing it.
"Sara," he tells her, again. "Sara, don't do it."
A muscle jumps in her jaw, but she ignores him.
Toward the front of the room, one of the Nazis translates for his superior. "There's a scientist on board who can make a bomb. Who is this man?"
"I don't know," Mulder tells him.
There's the distinct sound of a gun being cocked and much of the crowd gasps.
Sara doesn't even twitch. And she doesn't look at him. She moves a tiny bit, lining up her shot a little better. Leonard spares a glance. Raymond and Stein and Jax...they're still oblivious.
"Who contracted you to do this?" he asks her quietly. "Or is the League doing it on its own?"
Now she twitches. "How do you know..." A shake of her head. "No matter. I will do what I have to. And then I will take care of you."
Toward the front of the room: "Sag ihm, wir werden einen passagier umbringen fuer jede falsche antwort."
"You will answer the question or we will begin killing passengers," the translator says. "Which one is the scientist?"
"I don't know," Mulder says again.
"Schiess ihn."
A gun goes off. One of the passengers falls. Many of the rest are crying, horrified. Raymond looks shaken. Stein is talking to him, now, quickly. Jax is trying to see what's going on.
Sara, Leonard thinks, has her shot. But still, she doesn't take it.
"The Germans cannot get him," she says, as if to herself.
"Frag ihn, wie viele personen er sterben lasst," says the Nazi leader. "How many lives are you willing to sacrifice?" says his translator.
"None," Mulder tells him. But seconds later, there's another shot, more gasps and cries of terror.
The redhead, the same one Mulder had been bothering before, gets involved now. From what Leonard can tell, she gets right in the Nazi translator's face. "Stop! This man has no answers," she tells him fiercely. "You're killing innocent people to learn that he knows nothing!"
At a few words from the Nazi commander, the translator aims his gun right at her head. She glares at him. Leonard winces. The woman has nerve.
Mulder apparently can't take it, though. "I'll answer the question," he says, and then points down the first man the Nazis killed. "That man is the scientist."
An indrawn breath from Sara. Leonard leans toward her again.
"But he's not," he tells her fiercely. "I don't know if he's a distraction or a substitute or even if he thinks he's the one they're after, but he's not." He nods toward Stein. "He's the real Thor's Hammer, isn't he? And you think you have to kill him."
She looks at him now, and her eyes are distraught. "I have to," she tells him. "I have to save the future."