Chapter 2: A Week And A Half Later

Summary: James Lester "needs" the help of Richard, Camille and their team and Richard "needs" his slice of live history.

Chapter Text

Richard and Camille's new (and wonderfully air-conditioned) home is never tidy, much to Richard's despair and Camille a little less. They´ve been able to solve the case for two days. An involuntary homicide, but no less regrettable for them, because the victim was an accidental and involuntary witness to a drug exchange and money laundering.

Richard was especially focused. Of course the rest of the Station team was extremely involved. All kinds of victims always mourn, even more innocent ones. Fortunately the killers have already been transferred to Guadeloupe. They only regretted his death "slightly" and that made Camille very unnerved.

That night they all decided to help the victim's children to continue their studies by preparing a fund for them. Fidel, with the help of Dwayne, managed to get more than just compensation from the insurance company to keep the family going. The drinks were left for the next day.

Richard is sitting in his favorite chair trying to concentrate on reading the book at hand: the history of the popularly called dinosaurs. He hasn't been able to get them out of his head, although he's no longer crazy enough to (literally) stick his head into another anomaly. Camille is playing with the children, she loves them. She´s teaching them to lose their fear of the sea (or that is her excuse, obviously children don´t know fear) and to swim, always under her strict supervision. Richard fully trusts her in that regard.

Richard just finished the page when Camille walks over and hurriedly comments:

"Richard, Julian is almost out of the muffs. And little Richard is already perking up. He only did it when he saw that Julian was getting ahead of him. He´ s like you! Now I am going to prepare a bath for them so that they can relax a little and remove the sand. "Then she sits on the lap of the D.I. and comments "Richard is looking more and more like you. He´s so adorable and grumpy! Well, they´re both adorable." She comments bringing her cheek to his.

"Cause Julian is like you. Yes, I agree that he´s adorable. Although I adore both critters! He jokes kissing her on the cheek. "Let me bathe them, they will think I have an aversion to water"

Camille laughs, gets up, takes his hand in the direction of the bathroom and clarifies:

"It seems perfect. Today I prepare dinner then. Remember that today is the attack of the pirates. I've already taken out the boats "

Richard looks at her and says:

"Perfect. Before I quickly change clothes. It seems to me that I am also going to take that bath, even if it is as collateral damage. I have the other two suits in the laundry room and this one has to last me. I'm not at all late"
And quickly go up the stairs.

In the ARC, meanwhile...

Emily is finally making progress with Jemima. That is the name that they have been able to glimpse from the label on the girl's clothes. Emily still remembers the scene in Lester's office, a week and a half ago, when Matt's team returned from their "routine" expedition...

"Matt, I'm going to have to forbid you to bring souvenirs from your missions. First it was Emily, now this girl" he says, although with a softer tone than usual due to the presence of the girl, who looks at him with huge sleepy eyes.

"I'll take care of everything, sir. We couldn't leave her there alone." Abby and Connor look at them a little concerned. Abby tries to entertain the girl so that she doesn´t notice the tension in the environment. "I recognize that, although we all know how many children and their parents lived in the nineteenth century at that time, it didn´t prepare me to see what I saw. We do everything possible so that the creatures return to their original environments, or not to cause the deaths of civilians, or simply to hide their existence so as not to alter history, but although we technically fixed the whole Dracoraptor thing, I understood that I couldn´t leave this little over two year old girl wandering around that neighborhood alone. The situation of the rest of the children and civilians isn´t much better" finished Matt.

James Lester watches the girl, who looks at him without blinking. He understands Matt, but his position has made him make so many decisions that he didn't like them at all! Although she has children, as Abby pointed out, and once the girl is in the ARC, he assumes that they will have to find her a refuge, even a home ... But first they have to try to find out something about that girl's family. They will have to pull the newspaper library, the official archives of the time, whatever. It´s not going to be an easy job. He turns around and answers Matt:

"Okay. At this point in the situation we can't bring her back to certain death. She's still a civilian, after all." Connnor and Abby grin widely. "It seems to me that Emily is the ideal person to take care of her. She will understand her perfectly, they are from the same period. Do I understand that she has already been warned?" ask Matt.

"Yes, sir. She's looking forward to taking care of the girl. We´ve prepared a place for her in our house. But she knows that with her pregnancy, we must assume that we will have to fix her situation quickly."

"Obviously. I see myself setting up a nursery ..." James Lester mutters to himself. "Okay," he continues to speak directly to the small group. "You can go. The sooner you get to sort this whole mess, the sooner we'll be back to normal. I'll call someone who will gladly help Emily to find out the origins and likely family of the little girl".

Emily returns to the present. This is everything Matt told him when he got back from their meeting. They expect a baby in about four months. It came as a surprise to them, but he or she is no less loved for it. She´s playing with the girl. She´s still waiting for the arrival of that special collaborator, ...

Jemima plays with her, somehow she intuits that she understands her, that she knows how everything works in the place where she lives, where she lived, unconsciously corrects herself.

At the Station, almost at the same moment, Dwayne Myers is chatting.

"Boy, what a woman, although the correct thing would be to say what women! I have the sister in reserve" says Dwayne Myers with a wink. "There are things that aren´t compatible with married life, what you are missing!"

Fidel looks at him and thinks that he was already missing all that when he was single and he also thinks that he was certainly never interested in it and certainly much less interested now. He was born for the life he leads now and considers himself a happy man.

"Sometimes I wonder what they see in you, Dwayne. Although you know that I consider you my best friend and someone I trust. I suppose they must see that and that works for them. Anyway! You are all adults and that's what matters. Are you going to see her again?" he asks

"I guess so. But you know I don't think about it much. Besides, you know ..." he interrupts when Camille and Richard appear in the small office talking about one of the old Station cases that Richard goes over when he can. .

"Good morning, Dwayne. Good morning, Fidel. Preparing for the day, I suppose," Richard jokes.

Camille looks at him half smiling and also wishes them good morning.

Before even sitting down at the table and checking that the new air conditioning works like silk, Fidel gets up and delivers a private and important message to Richard.

"As soon as I opened the email, the first thing that appeared was this message, Chief" he clarifies. "It seems important"

Richard watches him as he takes care of the message and prepares to read it, to the attentive curiosity of Dwayne and Camille. He assumes that it´s a message from the Commissioner related to some new regulation that has been pulled from his sleeve. "This man is really bored too!" Thinks Richard.

He opens it and reads: "I'd appreciate it if you could get in touch as quickly as possible. It's something important, but not serious. L"

Richard Poole stares at the message, looks at Camille, and picks up the cell phone. The one who is now dying of curiosity to know what it is about is him. It doesn´t seem like an official or police work related matter. He is beginning to listen to his "gut".

Camille also gets up under the watchful eye of Dwayne and Fidel, who barely pretend to be preparing some reports and questioning her with their eyes.

"I have a call to make that may be important. I'll come right away." Richard clarifies as he goes to the varanda, regrettably abandoning the wonderful sensation of the air inside the Station. He sighs and leaves.

He walks away from the office and, for a second, stares at the market activity. Before he was quite annoyed by all the life that was boiling in that place, now he likes the rumour of the conversations of street vendors with customers. And he had to see to it, along with his team, that this remained the case.

Find the phone and call. He hears a call, two, three ... he almost thinks that he won´t be able to talk to him at that moment. He´s wrong. James Lester's voice answers:

"Lester"

"It's me, Richard. What's going on? Is everything okay over there?" question.

James replies:

"As always. Whatever that means in a place like the ARC, of course. Don't worry, we don't have to fix a mess or anything like that. I'm afraid it's something more humane. How about digging into the past of a person?" question.

Richard thinks for a second and replies:

"Is that why so much urgency? You have the police there, James. That's routine," he answers slightly disappointed.

"Not in a place like this, Richard. Matt's team brought me a girl of about two or three. I think you know what the social situation was like in 19th century England. I correct: in this case, in Wales 19th century. The truth is that all those people (and many children among them) were in a difficult situation, but this girl was wandering alone and disoriented. They didn´t have the heart to leave her there alone abandoned. In short, I need you and Emily, and the lovely Detective Sergeant Camille," Richard snorts. "of course" Lester ignores. "You can do a little research on the girl's likely family to find her a home in her own time."

Richard is a bit impressed. That is more complicated than it may seem at first glance.

"Richard, I know that what I ask of you is not easy. For the time you need, you don´t have to worry. I can go to very high levels that would force the Commissioner to let you go for a few days. And you know that here time can be very relative ... "

Will they have to go deep into 19th century Wales? Okay, there would be no dangerous beasts to fight, but it was risky. Although, on the other hand, he loves history! And he would be a more than an advantageous spectator, he would be a direct witness!

"Are you hinting that perhaps we should travel back to the time of the girl, James?"

"It depends. First we will search the archives we have here. It´s very vast information. The problem is that Jemima, that is her name, is not a relevant historical person, therefore, I am afraid that we won´t find much of her. It all depends, "ends Lester.

Richard thinks about it for a moment and answers:

"Okay. Before I decide anything, I have to discuss it with Camille, and with Fidel and Dwayne. In the latter case, I suppose the Commissioner will send them some kind of interim support. Regarding the children, I'm afraid Catherine is going to finish until the noses of her own grandchildren. Fidel and his wife Juliette will help her. Both Camille and I would like to go with them to the UK sometime. I'll call you with whatever."

And hang up promptly. It isn´t serious, but it can make life quite difficult for them.

Notes: A nice note that refers to pirates ... although in a domestic way.