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Fic: Dating the Cleverest Boy in the World. Chapter 23.
Next part. And don't worry, the next few chapters should follow pretty quickly, I've got drafts and everything.
Fic index here if anyone wants to catch up, or just follow the tags. Also on AO3 and The Teaspoon.
Summary: Allison had always thought that university would be an adventure. But she'd not imagined that she'd end up dating Harold Saxon's son.
Setting: Autumn 2028
Characters (this chapter): Alex, Allison.
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 3800 words approx.
Feedback: Makes my world go round...
Chapter 23
“You said house! You said basic!”
Alex looked at her, stumped.
“But it is a house. And it is basic! All the furniture comes from IKEA for starters...”
“I’m sorry Alex, but something that massive isn’t a house.”
They were hovering over a very large circular structure, with a Gaudi-esque tiled roof that gently sloped upwards towards the centre. There were two circular ‘holes’ taken out of the building and Alex explained that the larger one was basically a courtyard, and the smaller one further along was a garden.
When they landed, Allison realised that the ‘courtyard’ was even larger than she had thought - there was easily room for dozens of spaceships. It was covered in grass, but would apparently at some point be cobbled - and although she could see the sense in it, she was still so thrilled by the idea of red grass that she’d hate to see any of it disappear.
A whole planet, a whole proper alien planet with two suns and a golden sky... She felt like a small child who had one morning woken up in Wonderland. (And this was just the start - he had a space ship, could show her all the stars in the sky.)
How could it possible be real, how could it happen to her? She was so normal and ordinary that it felt surreal. It was like discovering that Harry Potter had been a documentary...
Then she was distracted from the red grass and the peculiar texture of the walls by the intricately carved stone circle above the large double doors.
“That’s very pretty,” she said, pointing to the strange pattern of intersecting circles and lines, and he smiled.
“It’s not a decoration, it’s my motto. It says ‘Seek and ye shall find’. ‘Cause of my name- Oh. I’ve not told you yet, have I?”
“Your name? But I know your name,” she said, feeling that one of them was being stupid, she just wasn’t sure which one.
“Yes you know my given name. But not my chosen one.”
She tried her best not to sigh.
“Are you ever going to stop speaking in riddles? Plain English, please.”
“Well...” he waved a frustrated hand. “To begin at the beginning: The writing is Gallifreyan - we don’t use letters and numbers but circles... it’s a bit complicated, but very elegant.”
“Oh. Hang on... I remember those circles. From...”
“Yes,” he grinned, “way back when I first distracted you, quite by accident. A very serendipitous accident, looking back. Anyway, the name I chose - when I was eight, it’s a long story - is ‘the Seeker’. Hence the motto. It’s... a more descriptive sort of name, and mine. It’s what I want to do - seek out the truth of everything, discover everything... ”
She nodded softly. It was crazy, but wonderful. And she remembered the way he had jumped from trade to trade, learning everything he could - yes, it made sense. (Everything made sense, even discovering that he had another name. The jigsaw she was assembling was gaining pieces at a ridiculous rate, and they all fitted beautifully. Her Golden Boy...)
Walking over to the tall doors he pushed them open and she followed, realising that they were in a large circular hallway with white walls; twin staircases - one from either side of the hall, and meeting in the middle - leading up to a gallery a level up. The walls had several doors, although the biggest was below the platform where the stairs met.
“Is everything circular?” she asked, and he nodded.
“More or less. But come - let me take you to the centre.”
Going through the main doors they went down a corridor - which was straight, although with a curved ceiling - obviously headed for the centre of the building.
“OK then, why is this corridor straight?” she asked, and he chuckled.
“Shortcut.”
The centre turned out to be very... central. In the middle of the room there was a wide column, at least six feet wide, that disappeared off into the ceiling, and around it - and along all the walls - there were complex-looking control panels and simple, hyper-neat work tops, some with books or tools arranged in familiar piles. There were also several screens, a few of which lazily displayed slowly swirling circular symbols. Some sort of coding she presumed.
“This is the heart of everything,” Alex announced, looking immensely pleased with himself. “Everything on the planet is controlled and measured here. The actual labs are elsewhere - scattered all over where they’re best situated - but this is where I keep tabs.”
She walked around, getting a feel for the place and trying to figure out how it might all work, then eventually tilted her head.
“What’s in there?” she asked, pointing to the central column, and a smile broke out on his face.
“Stairs. There’s going to be a tower one day - very tall, so I can see far. But it’s one of the things I haven’t got round to yet...”
What he would have said next was lost as a small flying thing appeared out of nowhere and seemed to collide with him.
As she recalled him saying that there were no animals on the entire planet Allison was utterly thrown as he reached up, nuzzling the creature with a finger, and she realised that it was a small pterodactyl. Which was sitting on his shoulder, gently pecking at his head, as if this was a normal thing.
“Allie - allow me to introduce Princess Leia. I’ve had her since I was... five, I think. So she’s getting on a bit, but still healthy I’m happy to say.”
He had a pet pteranodon. She blinked.
“Does it talk?”
At this he was obviously as surprised as she.
“Why would she talk?”
“Sorry, for a second there I thought I was getting stuck in a Disney movie.”
He chuckled.
“Fair enough. Although I think I could do without the cute talking sidekick animal - that’s more the Doctor’s style... He had a robot dog once.”
“Aaaand we’re back in Disney territory. Can we move away from that? Cause I need to be very blunt and ask if you’ve got a loo anywhere?”
“Bluntness always welcome,” he replied, and then led her through far too many circular corridors before arriving at their destination - yet another door, indistinguishable from all the others.
He half-pushed the door open, then stopped and studied her.
“Do you want me to explain the three seashells, or do you reckon you can work them out yourself?”
She stared at him for a moment, and then he burst out laughing.
“I’m just kidding! It’s a perfectly ordinary toilet. But the look on your face...”
She glared, and walked through the door. Stupid sci-fi jokes.
Thankfully he stopped being an idiot after that and provided some nice lunch - although her watch told her it was much later than the sunshine outside would have her believe.
She also noticed that his kitchen was very simple - no crazy futuristic gadgets, just ordinary appliances much like the ones in their flat. She guessed that this was what he’d meant when he described the place as ‘basic’.
When they’d finished eating (and he’d done the washing up - was the OCD tidiness an alien thing she wondered, or just a him thing?), she asked to see the rest of the ‘house’ and he happily agreed, although he warned her that there wasn’t a lot to see yet.
Still, as they meandered their way through the maze-like interior, she appreciated that this was obviously where he kept all his ‘stuff’, although it was very scattered. Like the beautiful library which took up a preposterous amount of space, considering that most of the shelves were empty.
“Give it a few centuries,” he said, then seemed to catch himself, and eventually led her further on when he realised that she wasn’t going to press the issue. (They had yet to discuss the ‘practically immortal’ question in any kind of detail, and she was loath to begin. Surely it could wait until tomorrow. And she was sure that they’d work something out - everything else here was like a fairy tale, it seemed logical that they could have happy ending. Somehow. The future was golden and beautiful and they would find a solution.)
A little later they came to his ‘sitting room’, and she had to laugh as it was completely bare except for a single sofa in front of the fire place, which was looking rather lost in the large room.
“Well, it’s not easy finding furniture for circular rooms,” he shot back, and she nodded, still chuckling. She was beginning to get her head around the place, and thought to herself that he was like an iceberg. She’d only seen 10 percent previously, but if she was honest she’d always suspected that there might far more hiding below the surface. And it all joined up.
Finally they ended up in the garden, which - much like everything else - was pretty empty, although the centre caught her eyes immediately. It was a tiny tree with green leaves, and they stood out against the red in a way that made her do a genuine double take. Alex put his arm around her:
“That’s the plum tree your mother gave me for Christmas nearly three years ago. In case you ever wondered where it went...”
She shook her head.
“Oh my god. That’s... crazy.”
“In a good way I hope?”
“Of course. Go stand next to it, I want to get a picture!”
He obligingly went and stood next to the sapling, and she added yet another impossible image to her gallery.
Once she was done, he moved forwards, smiling in a way she knew far too well - although what he said was of course something slightly out of the ordinary as he gently cupped her face.
“Allie, I was thinking... Can I try something? I can give you just a tiny taste, and if you don’t like it, that’s fine. But I want you to know that it’s... an option.”
Unsure what he was getting at, but quite ready to add to her growing collection of marvels, she nodded.
Leaning in he let their lips meet in a gentle kiss, and then-
~a flicker of pleasure; a barely there sensation, like a tiny melody dancing along her mind~
He moved away and she opened her eyes, looking at him, her breath caught, speechless, as he explained:
“That was a snippet of Jamie’s song... I’ve been wanting to share it for so very long...”
“You were in my head,” she replied, still unsure how to react. It had been pleasurable, of course, but-
“I’m highly telepathic,” he replied, smiling somewhat guiltily as he let his hands fall. “That’s how the whole trouble with Jamie started, really...”
“Wait,” she said, holding up a hand. There was something - something just out of reach, something she couldn’t put her finger on, something golden right on the edge of her mind... Like something seen out of the corner of her eye. If only she could work out what it was...
“It’s like I’ve had this sense of déjà vu all day, but I can’t-”
“Here, let me,” he said, gently touching her temples, adding: “Don’t worry, I won’t look anywhere. I’ll be like... someone closing their eyes and reaching under the water to retrieve something lost.”
“O... K,” she said, not sure what he meant, and - before she could ask - remembered, even as she heard him whisper ‘Of course’, voice strangely distant.
(For a fraction of a second the present ceased to exist, and instead the future shone at her in a thousand fragments... )
The solemnity of Graduation - Josh and Jamie’s wedding - shuttles launching - a shared meal - the moon, stark and brilliant - his hand on her face - dull meetings - the endlessness of space, stars spread out beneath her feet - a night of passion - her family celebrating Boxing Day - twin suns against a flaming sky - playful work in a technical lab - Adelaide on Mars, face proudly radiant - an alien spacecraft - a world in celebration - Alex, older but his eyes lit up, golden and blazing, as if containing all the stars of the sky, watching her as if she was the most precious thing in the whole universe...
She almost staggered as he took his hands away, and stared at him, shocked and gasping for breath.
It had been his spaceship; the twin suns the ones in his sky... The stars beneath her feet, the stark beauty of the moon - she remembered it, she recognised it.
Shaking her head as if trying to clear her mind, (except the memory was there, clear as day), she tried to speak, to give voice to the impossibility he had caused.
“How - how was all that in my head already? The things I’ve seen today, how can I remember them? Alex, please tell me, I don’t understand!”
He tilted his head, looking bashful and rather apologetic.
“Sorry, that was me. It was... when the rocket launched at NASA? And afterwards we...”
“Oh yes. Yes I remembered that already.”
Nothing could make her forget a climax out of this world, although she now realised that this golden moment had been at the heart of it. How had she forgotten? And how had it appeared in the first place?
“But - but how? What do you mean it was you?”
“It was...” he was clearly trying to find the right words, “it was like my dream? My vision, my hope for our future. And that moment was so... close, it must have imprinted on you? Subconsciously?”
“You were in my mind when we-?” she asked slowly, pure dread spreading. He shook his head vehemently.
“No. No. Never. It’s more like... how the flash from a camera will stay on your retina for a long time? Allie... Allie listen, I know what you are thinking, but I promise you, I would never, ever do that.”
But he could... (He wouldn’t protest so fiercely if it wasn’t an issue.)
He began explaining in more detail about how it all worked, but Allison wasn’t listening. Her beautiful golden vision - her certainty that everything would all turn out OK which had been such a part of her for the past year - it had been him. And it didn’t seem to worry him in the ways it did her...
As she tried to gather her thoughts, attempting to work out what this meant for her (or them, rather), the words ‘song’ and ‘telepathy’ happened to connect to another memory (her mind seemed jumbled - whatever he had done ‘reaching down’ was causing odd waves)... And it was as if she suddenly couldn’t breathe at all.
“Jerusalem,” she whispered, and he stopped talking, tilting his head.
“Allie?”
(Deep breath. Just ask. It’ll be fine, he’ll laugh it off and tell you you’re being paranoid... You’re just freaking out because he is highly telepathic and can apparently walk into your head as easily as taking your hand. Which is something worth freaking out over, oh God, where to start? But just because he can put things in your head without even realising it, it doesn’t follow that-
Does it?)
Lifting her eyes, she eventually spoke:
“What’s the Archangel Network?”
And for the first time he hesitated. He’d talked incessantly all day, on and on and on about anything and everything, explaining in detail until she told him to stop, and now... he hesitated.
“It’s a satellite system,” he finally said, and she shook her head.
“But what does it do? What was it you found? Something of your father’s....”
He seemed to go pale in the golden sunlight, but still he answered, his voice clear and precise. Plain English, just like she wanted.
“Mind control. Very subtle. It’s how Dad won the election. It’s nowhere near what it was, but there are... pockets still.”
She took it on board (it all made sense, everything slotting together so perfectly that she couldn’t stop a shiver) - and then asked one more question, although she knew the answer even before he replied:
”That night - with all the people, when you were on the lion - did you use it? Did you make them sing?”
Slowly, reluctantly - he nodded.
“Yes.”
She could recall in perfect detail the way hundreds of people had been singing with his voice... Singing to her...
The eventual realisation of what it all meant (how had she been so blind?) hit her with such force that she took a sharp breath, as if in pain...
It was real.
It wasn’t a strange complex, or weird issues from his father or his upbringing, not a stupid idea that he played around with... it was real.
Every worry, every unspoken fear that she’d pushed out of her mind - they all converged on her now, nearly paralysing her as memory after memory came back to her. Because he wasn’t ‘just a boy’. He was so much more...
Abruptly (irrevocably) untold memories were cast in a new light, illuminated by new understanding and insight.
Babushka, reading his fortune (‘Your destiny is to rule. There is no mistake. Much power, much much power, it will light the sky - shining. All the worlds will know your name.’) and his terrified, panicked reaction that she had found so strange at the time (‘I'm my own worst nightmare... I could do terrible things in the name of good...’) - his fear wasn’t irrational. He could rule the world - all he had to do was reach out his hand and take it.
After all - what couldn’t he do?
She could still see him on bended knee in front of her that night, the crowds singing... (‘Do you want to rule world with me?’ he’d asked. ‘I waited for you. Although I made them sing in anticipation... Jerusalem is a great, great song. I will build Jerusalem in England’s green and pleasant land, but I need you by my side!’)
All the stars at her feet... Because they were his to give?
And earlier than that - their first argument, over that stupid paparazzi photographer (and he’d never apologised for that, never backed down, she’d just been swept away by the circus...) - how he thought he had the right to do whatever he wanted, how the rules didn’t apply to him. She could still see him, coldly commanding as he stared into the photographer’s overawed eyes (‘I meant what I said. Go home, do what’s right, and pray!).
“Allie?” he said, reaching out and abruptly bringing her back to the present, clearly worried at her prolonged silence, and without even thinking she moved out of his reach.
“Don’t touch me!”
He froze, eyes wide and hurt as if she’d struck him, but it barely registered.
She was on a planet created from scratch in a few years, untold light years from home, with an alien who could do anything...
(Pray. He had asked the man to pray. Yet had he been wrong? Last Christmas he had rewritten time to save the life of a little boy. The Time Lord deciding to change a fate on whim - bringing the dead back to life; because he was hurting himself. Yet it didn’t make him more human... quite the opposite.)
When she finally looked at him it was like she’d never seen him before.
“Can you take me home now please?” she asked carefully, not hearing much over the oddly loud beating of her heart, and he nodded silently, face like a mask.
But she wasn’t really seeing him anymore, nor the red grass of the garden or the golden sky. All day she had been busy gathering jigsaw pieces, delighting in all the marvels, all the new insights, never stopping to look at the picture that was being created. She was doing so now - and trembled.
***
He left her - vanishing in a flash like something out of Star Trek - in their flat, surrounded by boxes. It was evening and dark outside, and she stared at the empty spot where he had been.
In a single day he had turned everything she knew upside down, shown her wonders she’d not dreamed of; only to have it all break apart in her hands, the dream turning to a nightmare - except one she couldn’t wake from.
The walls still seemed to echo with her angry words - things said that could never be unsaid. And worst of all he’d been so quiet; not defending himself, not fighting back, not arguing, not even apologising. He’d just been standing there, absorbing it all silently, eyes dark and resigned and lost.
Folding her arms around herself she shivered, wondering when she would begin to feel something other than dread and anger. How could it all have come to this? Three years, and all she had was a stranger wearing a familiar face and haunting memories.
Half turning, she saw the giant purple teddy bear on the sofa - the one he’d won for her the day of the May Fair. The day it had begun falling apart...
(His hands around the photographer’s throat, his coldly furious dressing down, his anger at being interrupted... ‘You made me lose my concentration! Now I might have to do it again!’ What exactly had he been doing?)
Then there was a tentative knock on the door, and she froze.
After a moment the door slowly opened, to her great relief revealing Matt who looked around, puzzled. Especially when he realised that she was just standing there, not moving.
“Allie? Alex sent me a text asking me to come round...”
His voice trailed off as he took in the look on her face, and she shook her head.
“That’s not his name,” she said, needing to somehow distance the boy she had dated for the past three years from the alien she had today discovered.
Understanding and concern slowly asserted themselves on Matt’s face.
“He told you then. I... take it that it didn’t go well?”
She bit her lip, trying to stop it from unaccountably wobbling.
“It really, really didn’t.”
And, as if admitting it out loud, the emotions she’d been holding at bay abruptly flooded through her - loss and pain and heartbreak and sheer shock caught up with her in earnest, and she burst into tears.
Chapter 24. Interlude featuring the End of the World.
Fic index here if anyone wants to catch up, or just follow the tags. Also on AO3 and The Teaspoon.
Summary: Allison had always thought that university would be an adventure. But she'd not imagined that she'd end up dating Harold Saxon's son.
Setting: Autumn 2028
Characters (this chapter): Alex, Allison.
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 3800 words approx.
Feedback: Makes my world go round...
Chapter 23
“You said house! You said basic!”
Alex looked at her, stumped.
“But it is a house. And it is basic! All the furniture comes from IKEA for starters...”
“I’m sorry Alex, but something that massive isn’t a house.”
They were hovering over a very large circular structure, with a Gaudi-esque tiled roof that gently sloped upwards towards the centre. There were two circular ‘holes’ taken out of the building and Alex explained that the larger one was basically a courtyard, and the smaller one further along was a garden.
When they landed, Allison realised that the ‘courtyard’ was even larger than she had thought - there was easily room for dozens of spaceships. It was covered in grass, but would apparently at some point be cobbled - and although she could see the sense in it, she was still so thrilled by the idea of red grass that she’d hate to see any of it disappear.
A whole planet, a whole proper alien planet with two suns and a golden sky... She felt like a small child who had one morning woken up in Wonderland. (And this was just the start - he had a space ship, could show her all the stars in the sky.)
How could it possible be real, how could it happen to her? She was so normal and ordinary that it felt surreal. It was like discovering that Harry Potter had been a documentary...
Then she was distracted from the red grass and the peculiar texture of the walls by the intricately carved stone circle above the large double doors.
“That’s very pretty,” she said, pointing to the strange pattern of intersecting circles and lines, and he smiled.
“It’s not a decoration, it’s my motto. It says ‘Seek and ye shall find’. ‘Cause of my name- Oh. I’ve not told you yet, have I?”
“Your name? But I know your name,” she said, feeling that one of them was being stupid, she just wasn’t sure which one.
“Yes you know my given name. But not my chosen one.”
She tried her best not to sigh.
“Are you ever going to stop speaking in riddles? Plain English, please.”
“Well...” he waved a frustrated hand. “To begin at the beginning: The writing is Gallifreyan - we don’t use letters and numbers but circles... it’s a bit complicated, but very elegant.”
“Oh. Hang on... I remember those circles. From...”
“Yes,” he grinned, “way back when I first distracted you, quite by accident. A very serendipitous accident, looking back. Anyway, the name I chose - when I was eight, it’s a long story - is ‘the Seeker’. Hence the motto. It’s... a more descriptive sort of name, and mine. It’s what I want to do - seek out the truth of everything, discover everything... ”
She nodded softly. It was crazy, but wonderful. And she remembered the way he had jumped from trade to trade, learning everything he could - yes, it made sense. (Everything made sense, even discovering that he had another name. The jigsaw she was assembling was gaining pieces at a ridiculous rate, and they all fitted beautifully. Her Golden Boy...)
Walking over to the tall doors he pushed them open and she followed, realising that they were in a large circular hallway with white walls; twin staircases - one from either side of the hall, and meeting in the middle - leading up to a gallery a level up. The walls had several doors, although the biggest was below the platform where the stairs met.
“Is everything circular?” she asked, and he nodded.
“More or less. But come - let me take you to the centre.”
Going through the main doors they went down a corridor - which was straight, although with a curved ceiling - obviously headed for the centre of the building.
“OK then, why is this corridor straight?” she asked, and he chuckled.
“Shortcut.”
The centre turned out to be very... central. In the middle of the room there was a wide column, at least six feet wide, that disappeared off into the ceiling, and around it - and along all the walls - there were complex-looking control panels and simple, hyper-neat work tops, some with books or tools arranged in familiar piles. There were also several screens, a few of which lazily displayed slowly swirling circular symbols. Some sort of coding she presumed.
“This is the heart of everything,” Alex announced, looking immensely pleased with himself. “Everything on the planet is controlled and measured here. The actual labs are elsewhere - scattered all over where they’re best situated - but this is where I keep tabs.”
She walked around, getting a feel for the place and trying to figure out how it might all work, then eventually tilted her head.
“What’s in there?” she asked, pointing to the central column, and a smile broke out on his face.
“Stairs. There’s going to be a tower one day - very tall, so I can see far. But it’s one of the things I haven’t got round to yet...”
What he would have said next was lost as a small flying thing appeared out of nowhere and seemed to collide with him.
As she recalled him saying that there were no animals on the entire planet Allison was utterly thrown as he reached up, nuzzling the creature with a finger, and she realised that it was a small pterodactyl. Which was sitting on his shoulder, gently pecking at his head, as if this was a normal thing.
“Allie - allow me to introduce Princess Leia. I’ve had her since I was... five, I think. So she’s getting on a bit, but still healthy I’m happy to say.”
He had a pet pteranodon. She blinked.
“Does it talk?”
At this he was obviously as surprised as she.
“Why would she talk?”
“Sorry, for a second there I thought I was getting stuck in a Disney movie.”
He chuckled.
“Fair enough. Although I think I could do without the cute talking sidekick animal - that’s more the Doctor’s style... He had a robot dog once.”
“Aaaand we’re back in Disney territory. Can we move away from that? Cause I need to be very blunt and ask if you’ve got a loo anywhere?”
“Bluntness always welcome,” he replied, and then led her through far too many circular corridors before arriving at their destination - yet another door, indistinguishable from all the others.
He half-pushed the door open, then stopped and studied her.
“Do you want me to explain the three seashells, or do you reckon you can work them out yourself?”
She stared at him for a moment, and then he burst out laughing.
“I’m just kidding! It’s a perfectly ordinary toilet. But the look on your face...”
She glared, and walked through the door. Stupid sci-fi jokes.
Thankfully he stopped being an idiot after that and provided some nice lunch - although her watch told her it was much later than the sunshine outside would have her believe.
She also noticed that his kitchen was very simple - no crazy futuristic gadgets, just ordinary appliances much like the ones in their flat. She guessed that this was what he’d meant when he described the place as ‘basic’.
When they’d finished eating (and he’d done the washing up - was the OCD tidiness an alien thing she wondered, or just a him thing?), she asked to see the rest of the ‘house’ and he happily agreed, although he warned her that there wasn’t a lot to see yet.
Still, as they meandered their way through the maze-like interior, she appreciated that this was obviously where he kept all his ‘stuff’, although it was very scattered. Like the beautiful library which took up a preposterous amount of space, considering that most of the shelves were empty.
“Give it a few centuries,” he said, then seemed to catch himself, and eventually led her further on when he realised that she wasn’t going to press the issue. (They had yet to discuss the ‘practically immortal’ question in any kind of detail, and she was loath to begin. Surely it could wait until tomorrow. And she was sure that they’d work something out - everything else here was like a fairy tale, it seemed logical that they could have happy ending. Somehow. The future was golden and beautiful and they would find a solution.)
A little later they came to his ‘sitting room’, and she had to laugh as it was completely bare except for a single sofa in front of the fire place, which was looking rather lost in the large room.
“Well, it’s not easy finding furniture for circular rooms,” he shot back, and she nodded, still chuckling. She was beginning to get her head around the place, and thought to herself that he was like an iceberg. She’d only seen 10 percent previously, but if she was honest she’d always suspected that there might far more hiding below the surface. And it all joined up.
Finally they ended up in the garden, which - much like everything else - was pretty empty, although the centre caught her eyes immediately. It was a tiny tree with green leaves, and they stood out against the red in a way that made her do a genuine double take. Alex put his arm around her:
“That’s the plum tree your mother gave me for Christmas nearly three years ago. In case you ever wondered where it went...”
She shook her head.
“Oh my god. That’s... crazy.”
“In a good way I hope?”
“Of course. Go stand next to it, I want to get a picture!”
He obligingly went and stood next to the sapling, and she added yet another impossible image to her gallery.
Once she was done, he moved forwards, smiling in a way she knew far too well - although what he said was of course something slightly out of the ordinary as he gently cupped her face.
“Allie, I was thinking... Can I try something? I can give you just a tiny taste, and if you don’t like it, that’s fine. But I want you to know that it’s... an option.”
Unsure what he was getting at, but quite ready to add to her growing collection of marvels, she nodded.
Leaning in he let their lips meet in a gentle kiss, and then-
~a flicker of pleasure; a barely there sensation, like a tiny melody dancing along her mind~
He moved away and she opened her eyes, looking at him, her breath caught, speechless, as he explained:
“That was a snippet of Jamie’s song... I’ve been wanting to share it for so very long...”
“You were in my head,” she replied, still unsure how to react. It had been pleasurable, of course, but-
“I’m highly telepathic,” he replied, smiling somewhat guiltily as he let his hands fall. “That’s how the whole trouble with Jamie started, really...”
“Wait,” she said, holding up a hand. There was something - something just out of reach, something she couldn’t put her finger on, something golden right on the edge of her mind... Like something seen out of the corner of her eye. If only she could work out what it was...
“It’s like I’ve had this sense of déjà vu all day, but I can’t-”
“Here, let me,” he said, gently touching her temples, adding: “Don’t worry, I won’t look anywhere. I’ll be like... someone closing their eyes and reaching under the water to retrieve something lost.”
“O... K,” she said, not sure what he meant, and - before she could ask - remembered, even as she heard him whisper ‘Of course’, voice strangely distant.
(For a fraction of a second the present ceased to exist, and instead the future shone at her in a thousand fragments... )
The solemnity of Graduation - Josh and Jamie’s wedding - shuttles launching - a shared meal - the moon, stark and brilliant - his hand on her face - dull meetings - the endlessness of space, stars spread out beneath her feet - a night of passion - her family celebrating Boxing Day - twin suns against a flaming sky - playful work in a technical lab - Adelaide on Mars, face proudly radiant - an alien spacecraft - a world in celebration - Alex, older but his eyes lit up, golden and blazing, as if containing all the stars of the sky, watching her as if she was the most precious thing in the whole universe...
She almost staggered as he took his hands away, and stared at him, shocked and gasping for breath.
It had been his spaceship; the twin suns the ones in his sky... The stars beneath her feet, the stark beauty of the moon - she remembered it, she recognised it.
Shaking her head as if trying to clear her mind, (except the memory was there, clear as day), she tried to speak, to give voice to the impossibility he had caused.
“How - how was all that in my head already? The things I’ve seen today, how can I remember them? Alex, please tell me, I don’t understand!”
He tilted his head, looking bashful and rather apologetic.
“Sorry, that was me. It was... when the rocket launched at NASA? And afterwards we...”
“Oh yes. Yes I remembered that already.”
Nothing could make her forget a climax out of this world, although she now realised that this golden moment had been at the heart of it. How had she forgotten? And how had it appeared in the first place?
“But - but how? What do you mean it was you?”
“It was...” he was clearly trying to find the right words, “it was like my dream? My vision, my hope for our future. And that moment was so... close, it must have imprinted on you? Subconsciously?”
“You were in my mind when we-?” she asked slowly, pure dread spreading. He shook his head vehemently.
“No. No. Never. It’s more like... how the flash from a camera will stay on your retina for a long time? Allie... Allie listen, I know what you are thinking, but I promise you, I would never, ever do that.”
But he could... (He wouldn’t protest so fiercely if it wasn’t an issue.)
He began explaining in more detail about how it all worked, but Allison wasn’t listening. Her beautiful golden vision - her certainty that everything would all turn out OK which had been such a part of her for the past year - it had been him. And it didn’t seem to worry him in the ways it did her...
As she tried to gather her thoughts, attempting to work out what this meant for her (or them, rather), the words ‘song’ and ‘telepathy’ happened to connect to another memory (her mind seemed jumbled - whatever he had done ‘reaching down’ was causing odd waves)... And it was as if she suddenly couldn’t breathe at all.
“Jerusalem,” she whispered, and he stopped talking, tilting his head.
“Allie?”
(Deep breath. Just ask. It’ll be fine, he’ll laugh it off and tell you you’re being paranoid... You’re just freaking out because he is highly telepathic and can apparently walk into your head as easily as taking your hand. Which is something worth freaking out over, oh God, where to start? But just because he can put things in your head without even realising it, it doesn’t follow that-
Does it?)
Lifting her eyes, she eventually spoke:
“What’s the Archangel Network?”
And for the first time he hesitated. He’d talked incessantly all day, on and on and on about anything and everything, explaining in detail until she told him to stop, and now... he hesitated.
“It’s a satellite system,” he finally said, and she shook her head.
“But what does it do? What was it you found? Something of your father’s....”
He seemed to go pale in the golden sunlight, but still he answered, his voice clear and precise. Plain English, just like she wanted.
“Mind control. Very subtle. It’s how Dad won the election. It’s nowhere near what it was, but there are... pockets still.”
She took it on board (it all made sense, everything slotting together so perfectly that she couldn’t stop a shiver) - and then asked one more question, although she knew the answer even before he replied:
”That night - with all the people, when you were on the lion - did you use it? Did you make them sing?”
Slowly, reluctantly - he nodded.
“Yes.”
She could recall in perfect detail the way hundreds of people had been singing with his voice... Singing to her...
Yeah you and me we can light up the sky
If you stay by my side, we can rule the world.
The eventual realisation of what it all meant (how had she been so blind?) hit her with such force that she took a sharp breath, as if in pain...
It was real.
It wasn’t a strange complex, or weird issues from his father or his upbringing, not a stupid idea that he played around with... it was real.
Every worry, every unspoken fear that she’d pushed out of her mind - they all converged on her now, nearly paralysing her as memory after memory came back to her. Because he wasn’t ‘just a boy’. He was so much more...
Abruptly (irrevocably) untold memories were cast in a new light, illuminated by new understanding and insight.
Babushka, reading his fortune (‘Your destiny is to rule. There is no mistake. Much power, much much power, it will light the sky - shining. All the worlds will know your name.’) and his terrified, panicked reaction that she had found so strange at the time (‘I'm my own worst nightmare... I could do terrible things in the name of good...’) - his fear wasn’t irrational. He could rule the world - all he had to do was reach out his hand and take it.
After all - what couldn’t he do?
She could still see him on bended knee in front of her that night, the crowds singing... (‘Do you want to rule world with me?’ he’d asked. ‘I waited for you. Although I made them sing in anticipation... Jerusalem is a great, great song. I will build Jerusalem in England’s green and pleasant land, but I need you by my side!’)
All the stars at her feet... Because they were his to give?
And earlier than that - their first argument, over that stupid paparazzi photographer (and he’d never apologised for that, never backed down, she’d just been swept away by the circus...) - how he thought he had the right to do whatever he wanted, how the rules didn’t apply to him. She could still see him, coldly commanding as he stared into the photographer’s overawed eyes (‘I meant what I said. Go home, do what’s right, and pray!).
“Allie?” he said, reaching out and abruptly bringing her back to the present, clearly worried at her prolonged silence, and without even thinking she moved out of his reach.
“Don’t touch me!”
He froze, eyes wide and hurt as if she’d struck him, but it barely registered.
She was on a planet created from scratch in a few years, untold light years from home, with an alien who could do anything...
(Pray. He had asked the man to pray. Yet had he been wrong? Last Christmas he had rewritten time to save the life of a little boy. The Time Lord deciding to change a fate on whim - bringing the dead back to life; because he was hurting himself. Yet it didn’t make him more human... quite the opposite.)
When she finally looked at him it was like she’d never seen him before.
“Can you take me home now please?” she asked carefully, not hearing much over the oddly loud beating of her heart, and he nodded silently, face like a mask.
But she wasn’t really seeing him anymore, nor the red grass of the garden or the golden sky. All day she had been busy gathering jigsaw pieces, delighting in all the marvels, all the new insights, never stopping to look at the picture that was being created. She was doing so now - and trembled.
He left her - vanishing in a flash like something out of Star Trek - in their flat, surrounded by boxes. It was evening and dark outside, and she stared at the empty spot where he had been.
In a single day he had turned everything she knew upside down, shown her wonders she’d not dreamed of; only to have it all break apart in her hands, the dream turning to a nightmare - except one she couldn’t wake from.
The walls still seemed to echo with her angry words - things said that could never be unsaid. And worst of all he’d been so quiet; not defending himself, not fighting back, not arguing, not even apologising. He’d just been standing there, absorbing it all silently, eyes dark and resigned and lost.
Folding her arms around herself she shivered, wondering when she would begin to feel something other than dread and anger. How could it all have come to this? Three years, and all she had was a stranger wearing a familiar face and haunting memories.
Half turning, she saw the giant purple teddy bear on the sofa - the one he’d won for her the day of the May Fair. The day it had begun falling apart...
(His hands around the photographer’s throat, his coldly furious dressing down, his anger at being interrupted... ‘You made me lose my concentration! Now I might have to do it again!’ What exactly had he been doing?)
Then there was a tentative knock on the door, and she froze.
After a moment the door slowly opened, to her great relief revealing Matt who looked around, puzzled. Especially when he realised that she was just standing there, not moving.
“Allie? Alex sent me a text asking me to come round...”
His voice trailed off as he took in the look on her face, and she shook her head.
“That’s not his name,” she said, needing to somehow distance the boy she had dated for the past three years from the alien she had today discovered.
Understanding and concern slowly asserted themselves on Matt’s face.
“He told you then. I... take it that it didn’t go well?”
She bit her lip, trying to stop it from unaccountably wobbling.
“It really, really didn’t.”
And, as if admitting it out loud, the emotions she’d been holding at bay abruptly flooded through her - loss and pain and heartbreak and sheer shock caught up with her in earnest, and she burst into tears.
Chapter 24. Interlude featuring the End of the World.
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Yeah it's seven in the morning here and I can't type. That's all I have as a reply. Now I know why you assured us the next part was nearly finished.
*goes off to wibble some more*
PS: I loved it as always.
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*hugs*
Yeah it's seven in the morning here and I can't type. That's all I have as a reply.
Oh I know what it's like to type at 7 am... Am surprised that you even manged this much. <3
Now I know why you assured us the next part was nearly finished.
You're the first comment, and I have been wondering how people would respond... I've been building up to this for so long, but I couldn't really mention it before people had read it. However, yes - more coming soon.
*goes off to wibble some more*
Is it bad that I suddenly know how Joss & Rusty feel? Breaking things is immensely satisfying. Horrible, yes, but... (Seriously - they were much too happy. Couldn't last. ETA: The music for the previous chapter was 'Perfect Day', of which the final lines are the ominous 'You're going to reap just what you sow' - finding the perfect song for each chapter is a whole adventure in itself.)
PS: I loved it as always.
♥ ♥ ♥
Oh and this is one reason I was so keen to make a new banner - it fits far better with the tone of it, as I'm sure you can now appreciate.
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*cries for her*
Another gorgeous chapter that makes me ache and wish and...
Thank you.
*HUGS*
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You know, I'd not thought of it like that. Mind you, she's a lot like Alex - she wants to be in control/in charge, and (thanks to her father and all the feminist issues she imbibed from birth), has a very well-developed need for equality. Plus, she's opinionated and has a strong sense of right and wrong. (Or, you can just say she's very bossy. *g*) The fact of his cleverness and his differing morals has been an issue before, but she's been able to work around it. She can't now.
Another gorgeous chapter that makes me ache and wish and...
♥ You know, I thought to myself, that everyone else might hate it, but Mandy loves angst so I'll have ONE person who likes it... ;)
*many hugs back*
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Whereas Alex has almost the opposite problems.
Then again, I could be completely missing the point with these characters. *Headdesk*
I don't see how anyone could hate this. Just...there is no way!
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but it struck me how she retreats when things get weird. She'll handwave a lot, but her need for being grounded, in control stunts her as much as it strengthens her. They are so very alike.
Oh totally. Two control freaks in their different ways. Which is why that whole issue with that photographer was so important - it was a very fundamental difference in how they viewed the world, and neither of them would back down. OK, maybe 'control freak' is not the right word... Stubborn. They're both ridiculously stubborn. And one reason she reacts so badly is that she realises that when it comes to the Seeker she only has control in as much as he relinquishes it - which is why the mind control is what freaks her out so much. (And if you re-read the sex scene from NASA you'll see that it's all kinds of shades of grey. Not that he forces her in any way, but he can lean on people. Without even realising it...)
But I think those similarities are often what brings her to a halt like this. She hides herself behind how she thinks it should be, even as she grasps at the wonders of the universe. She is so very adult in so many ways. She needs more play, lol!!
She is young. And young people tend to be far more inflexible than older people... She is idealistic and ambitious and also a product of her upbringing and culture. Despite very much forging her own path, her father's teachings especially have a far deeper effect than she realises - the whole feminist issue also comes into play as the Seeker falls in with all sorts of male stereotypes (not his fault, although he's aware of it).
Whereas Alex has almost the opposite problems.
Alex is very, very, very young. And damaged. He's very mature in some areas, and far too sensible for his own good, but he's decades away from being an adult. But I'll be examining all this in the next chapters, so don't worry! (Basically, this whole fic deals with how he grows up and becomes who he is.)
I don't see how anyone could hate this. Just...there is no way!
Awwwwwww. ♥ You say the loveliest things. But generally people get cross when writers break teh pretty. (And again - your comment made my day!)
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I am in a strange way glad that the feeling of doom I was getting of this fic wasn't entirely me projecting my opinion of mind control (i.e. Very, Very Bad) onto it.
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Guess how I feel... (Mind you, that's a pretty perfect reaction!)
I am in a strange way glad that the feeling of doom I was getting of this fic wasn't entirely me projecting my opinion of mind control (i.e. Very, Very Bad) onto it.
Oh definitely not your your projection! I mean - it's a wonderful concept, and fascinating and all the rest, but would you want to be with someone who could just walk into your head and rearrange things without you being able to do anything to stop it? Or even know if it had already happened? Not to mention, he *is* the Master(I am the Master and you will obey me)'s son... She doesn't quite understand what that means at this point (or to what an extent he is his father's son), but she's able to make an educated guess. (Incidentally if you go back and read the scene at the end of Chapter 18 you should be able to tell how ambiguous it is. I wrote it so on purpose. Beautiful - but ambiguous.) /ramble
ETA: Oh and in Chapter 10, in the confrontation with the paparazzi photographer, he's definitely using some kind of mind control/hypnosis until Allison interrupts and he decides to go for a different 'solution'. (Which is, of course, to him much more lenient - the guy gets a choice, rather than having his will subjugated...)