"I can't believe you're really here," Will said for what felt like the hundredth time as Pan climbed out of his arms and onto Lyra's shoulders.

"I can't believe you're here. I've travelled so far and when I got to Oxford I had no idea where to start looking for you. I never expected to be lucky enough that you'd just show up here."

"I wasn't even planning on coming here today. I should be at uni really but… well, Kirjava had this dream…" He trailed off and turned his head to look at Kirjava who, like Pan, had settled on her own human's shoulders, prompting her to explain.

"I dreamed of you, Lyra," Kirjava said softly, "It was the middle of the night and I was in a field, or maybe a meadow. Will wasn't there but you were. You reached out to me and stroked my head and then… we both woke up."

"Since Kirjava told me, I haven't been about to stop thinking about it. I knew I wouldn't be able to concentrate on lectures so I came here instead, to feel near to you. But when I got here there was a girl sitting on our bench crying," he chuckled.

"I don't believe it. I had that dream too!" Lyra told them excitedly. "Weeks ago, though. I saw Kirjava in a moonlit field. I stroked her, and when I woke up, I knew I needed to go to the desert. It's like the universe wanted me to find you."

"Universes plural," Will beamed at her. Tears were still slowly rolling down his cheeks into the upturned corners of his grin.

He placed his hands on Lyra's cheeks, brushing away the tears that were still trickling from her own eyes with his thumbs. He held his hands there and they just looked at each other, mesmerised, as though they dare not look away in case the other disappeared right in front of them.

After a few moments, Will let go of her face and took her hands instead. He lifted one to his face as if to kiss it, but before it reached his lips he stopped suddenly, his expression turning serious.

"What have you done?" He asked, concerned.

"What do you mean?"

"What have you done to your hand, Lyra?"

"I- nothing. It's fine." She pulled her hand away but he gently grabbed it back. He turned it over in his own, inspecting it. Lyra winced in pain, giving herself away.

"Lyra, it's broken," he said.

"It's nothing, it's fine," she insisted.

"Lyra, I'm studying to be a doctor. I'm only in my second year but I know a broken hand when I see one. Your face too, Lyra-" He gently brushed one of the faded cuts on her lip. "What happened to you?"

"It was an accident." She wouldn't meet his eyes.

"Lyra," he said firmly.

"Fine, I was attacked back in my world. Mugged." She didn't want to tell him the truth.

"That's horrible," Will said. "I'm taking you to the hospital."

"I don't want to go to the hospital, Will. I just got here. I just want to be with you, talk to you."

"We can talk on the way there. And while we're waiting. I'll take you to one of the university hospitals, I know where it will be more quiet at this time of day. It's not too far, just half an hour's walk. Please, Lyra, you need to have that seen too."

Whether because of the care and concern with which he looked at her, or the fact that, at this moment, she felt she would do anything he asked of her, she relented. Will reached out his hand to take her uninjured one and they slowly began to walk to the entrance to the gardens. From the corner of her eye, she could see him casting concerned glances at her every few seconds. She had known from his face that he didn't buy the story about her being mugged. It seemed that even if her 'imagination', her ability to tell stories and to lie, was coming back, she still couldn't lie to Will. She didn't think she would ever be able to.

She wanted to distract him, and more importantly she had a burning desire to know everything that had happened between when they had last seen each other and now. Walking silently as he grew more worried about her was a waste of precious time that could be far better spent.

"Tell me everything," she said, suddenly.

"What?" He asked.

"Everything. I need to know every single thing that has happened in your life since I last saw you."

"Fair enough, I'll try," he laughed. "Where should I start?"

"You still live in Oxford then?" She prompted him.

"Yes, not too far from here," he told her. "I considered moving but I ended up going to uni in the area. It's just a bus ride away from mum, you see. And… well, it's just a short walk away from here." He gestured around them at the gardens.

She found herself blushing "You come here often, then?" she asked.

Will laughed slightly, assuming Lyra didn't realise she had inadvertently used a popular pickup line in his world. "Yes. I know we only said Midsummers day but…" he trailed off, slightly embarrassed.

"I come all the time," she said quickly, not wanting him to be embarrassed, wanting him to know she felt just the same. He beamed at her and squeezed her hand even tighter.

They walked towards the hospital, Kirjava showing Pan some of the secret ways she would walk, on high up walls or under garden hedges, just far enough away that people walking past her human wouldn't see her, but always with him in her sight. Will explained to Lyra that they did this a lot.

"It's lucky she turned out to be a cat, really. A beautiful one, sure, people do comment on that, but still cats aren't an unusual animal to have around. She can walk outside without arousing any suspicion. Sometimes she stays home when I go out, but usually she comes out with me and cuts through gardens and alleys and the like. I can't always see her, but I can always feel her close by."

Lyra ached a little, wishing she and Pan could've maintained a relationship like Will's and Kirjava's.

"The main problem I have is that when people do see her, they want to touch her, because she's such an unusual looking cat. I just have to tell them she's shy," he laughed.

Lyra felt a sharp pang in her chest at the idea of someone else touching Kirjava. She knew it didn't mean anything to them in this world; they would think they were stroking a pet cat, but still, the idea of someone else's mortal hands on Will's daemon knocked her slightly sick.

"Luckily my housemates are used to it now - They never try and touch her."

"Housemates?" Lyra questioned.

"Yeah. I live in student accommodation. Even though I wasn't moving far away, I wanted the full 'uni experience' I guess. Mum is still in our old house and she has a carer who visits most days. Mary was great helping me get things like that set up. In fact, she visits my mum a fair bit herself. They've become quite good friends. I go home once a week or so, and as I say, I'm close enough to hurry back if she ever calls me, but that happens less and less these days. She's so much better than she was."

"That's amazing about your mother, Will. And Mary! How is she?"

"Great. She'll be thrilled to see you," Will smiled. He told her all about Mary's academic work, about the particular bar the two of them meet up in on the second Friday of every month, about how 'I wonder what Lyra is doing at this very moment' was a question the two of them always found time to speculate over. He told her about his degree, his mother, the books he had been reading. She drank it all in like it was medicine, as though each new fact she learned about Will's life healed her soul a fraction more.

o-o-o

"Come on then, Lyra," Will sighed after they had arrived at the hospital and taken a seat in the waiting area. He raised his eyebrows at her as though she should know exactly what he meant, but she just looked at him, confused, so he clarified. "Are you going to tell me? How you got here?"

"Later, when we're alone," she said.

"Well, how long can you stay? Can you get back? What if-"

"Please, Will. Later," she didn't want to ruin their time explaining how she and Pan had been separated, how she had been sexually assaulted, and how she had no plan for returning to her own world. Not yet.

"Fine, but you have to tell me something. Please. I've talked and talked but Lyra, I want to know about your life as badly as you want to know about mine."

She smiled and told him about St. Sophia's and how she was relearning to read the alethiometer, and everything else she could think of. They had an endless amount of topics and seemed the only pair in the waiting room who weren't bored half to death.

Eventually, a nurse called Lyra into another room, and to Lyra's disappointment, wouldn't let Will come in with her. "I need to talk to you alone first dear," the nurse said.

She realised that with her injury and her face, the nurse might think it had something to do with Will. She felt sick at the thought. She knew the nurse was just doing her job, but she hated that anyone could think of Will that way, that Will would hurt her. She couldn't stand it… and it seemed that that was just what she'd been waiting for. Suddenly, now faced with the need to defend Will, her ability to lie was back and without fault.

As the nurse examined her, Lyra rattled off a story of how she got into a fight outside a pub. "This girl, Verity, she's been nasty as long as I've known her. Since primary school. Anyway, the other night, I ran into her after a few drinks and she started on me, right, saying I'd been eyeing up her boyfriend, which I obviously hadn't been because he's almost as annoying as Verity herself, and anyway, it escalated and sure I got hurt but you should see her! I hurt my hand like this from the punch I gave her. It was worth it. Anyway, I was so hungover the next day I just couldn't face the idea of going to hospital, and the next day I had an exam I really had to revise for, so I just kept taking painkillers and dealt with it. I only came today because my friend out there, sweet boy that he is, insisted I did. I just want to put his mind at ease really."

By the time she'd finished her story, the nurse half regretted asking her how she'd acquired her injuries to begin with, but when it came time for Lyra to go for her x-ray, Will was allowed to go with her.

o-o-o

By the time they left the hospital, it was early evening. Lyra's hand was now in a cast and she'd been given some painkillers and a prescription for more. Feeling better than she had in weeks, she had to admit that, in the end, she was glad Will had made her go.

"You'll have to tell me what really happened to you eventually, you know." Will said, examining her cast, as though checking it met his expectations.

"I know," was all she said in response.

Whenever her injury came up she wouldn't meet his eyes and she changed from the Lyra he remembered. He wasn't used to her being so quiet and it worried him greatly. "Lyra, if it's that bad, you might need to talk to someone professional."

"I've already seen a doctor."

"I mean like a counsellor. A therapist. You could tell them what happened if you don't want to tell me. I know people through my course who we could set something up with. Depending on how long you're going to be here of course."

She didn't look convinced so he continued. "Best not if there was anything magical involved though - if you told them about talking bears here there's a high chance they'd lock you up," he chuckled, trying to lighten the mood slightly.

"No, there was no magic," she shook her head. "It was the opposite of magic. It was just… men."

Will's fist clenched. The loaded way she had said the word 'men' felt like a punch in the gut.

"Lyra… You don't mean that someone…"

She didn't say anything in response. He wanted to know, he needed to know. He was seething. But he knew he shouldn't push her, and he shouldn't let her see how angry he was. How much he wanted to kill whoever had hurt her. If what he thought was true, the last thing she needed to be around was an angry man, so he pushed it down and took a deep breath.

"You must be hungry. Let's get some food, then we can go to my house." He smiled at her, using every ounce of willpower he had to hide the rage he was feeling.

Lyra nodded. She hadn't even realised just how hungry she was. She was glad he had let

the topic of how she got her injuries go for the time being. "You said you live in 'student accommodation'? Do you mean you're in a shared dormitory at your college?" Lyra asked, trying to change the subject as they walked along.

"Not quite," Will chuckled. "Me and three other people from my course rent a house together. Jack, Amy and Hasan. They're really nice. I didn't have many friends at school because I was too busy looking after mum, and I just sort of kept to myself. And for so long after I last saw you, I didn't care about making friends, Kirjava and I just wanted to be alone. But eventually, I got lonely. Luckily, when I got to uni things were different than they were at school. Mum has been so much better, we have Mary to help and… well I just found people that I liked. So I tried to open up a bit more. I tried to be more like you. Everyone you meet loves you. Before you, people didn't even see me. I didn't want them to." He stopped talking as they approached a chip shop. "Fancy chippy?" He asked her.

"Always," Lyra laughed. She remembered fondly the occasions as a child that she and Roger would get a cone of chips to share and eat them sat by the river. It was a nice reminder that her world and Will's weren't all that different.

AN - Next chapter they will finally be alone and able to discuss... well everything. And we may finally get what we've all been waiting for, if you get my meaning. Also, thank you so much for the reviews. I know we're a small fandom on here so they honestly mean the absolute world!