Thanks to everyone who's stuck with this story through some pretty inexcusable breaks. I do appreciate it. Writing it was more fun than I expected, and I hope the ending makes at least a little sense to some people, because it all worked in my head at one point.

super thanks to my editor, and to grainweevil for the transcripts (even though I didn't use any in this chapter. ;)

xx

---

Neither of them said much in the morning. Rupert made her tea and buttered her toast, but she couldn't eat.

"I have to help him."

Rupert inhaled sharply, pacing the kitchen. "How, Alex? What do you want me to do?" He tried not to shout. "Shoot you and hope you go back to him? I can't do that, Alex. Don't ask me."

"No, I wouldn't. But there must be some way to warn him. Tell him to be careful." It sounded ridiculous when she said it aloud.

"Alex." He shook his head. "Even if you could what would you say? How do you tell someone like that to be careful? Do you really think that would change anything? If he could be careful you might not even be here."

"Oh, you don't know that! You and Mina have both said you don't think his shooting me had anything to do with me coming out of the coma. Neither of you know anything about what happened, in actuality. You're both just guessing."

"Yes, you're right, we're guessing. Using the best information we have to try to find out what happened. But honestly Alex. You're here, and alive. And I don't want anything to happen to you again." He paused and his voice dropped. "I couldn't live with myself if it did."

Alex sat, shaking her head. She didn't really have any idea what to do. She didn't want to go back, but if she could help him she wanted to. She needed to. "Rupert it's important to me."

He sat, laced his fingers through hers. "I know. I just don't know what we can do about it."

Alex took her hand away and hugged herself. "Start with what we do know. You know what he's thinking, how he feels."

He shrugged. "Some of it. Not everything."

"OK. What about when he's being shot. Does he know it?"

"Yes." Rupert nodded.

"Well what does he think? Is he thinking anything at that moment?"

"Yeah, he is." He didn't want to tell her.

She leaned on the table. "Well? What is it?"

"Relief." Rupert closed his eyes. "He's feeling an overwhelming sense of relief."

"Relief??" Alex fought back tears. "Why would he feel relieved? He is one of the strongest men I have ever known. He would never give up. Not on himself. Not like that."

"He didn't give up on himself, Alex." Rupert said quietly. "He thought you hated him. He thought he killed you. He just...gave up." He shrugged helplessly.

"No, no, no. I won't accept it. There has to be a way, before it's too late. There has to be a way to let him know he's got it wrong, to let him know...." She grabbed his hands, pleading. To let him know I do love him.

Before Rupert could respond the telephone rang. He answered and hung up quickly.

"That was Mina. She's got our expert at the Stacks. Maybe she can help."

–

Rupert's eyes scanned the room as he and Alex entered.

"The gang's all here, eh?" He tried to sound playful. He felt anything but. "Where's Ruby?"

Luke sulked. "She couldn't make it."

"Would anyone like a drink? Some coffee? Rupert is quite an expert with that machine." Mina offered. "And Ruby is with her boyfriend, Rupert."

"Oh. Great - good for her." He slapped Luke on the back. "About time she gave up waiting for you to come to your senses."

Luke sneered but was silent as Rupert pulled out a chair for Alex, but stood behind her, one hand on her shoulder. He needed the connection.

"Rupert, this is Roman Wicker." Mina gestured to a small, energetic man, at least in his sixties, who was emptying a number of files from a tattered briefcase. "Roman worked with your parents when they were living in Manchester."

Alex started, looked up at Rupert, questioning. He'd never mentioned he'd lived in Manchester. Rupert avoided her stare

"Mr. Wicker, it's a pleasure." He shook Wicker's hand as the little man sat down.

"Oh, the pleasure's all mine, Mr. Galvin. Your father was a very talented fighter. I was surprised to find out you followed in his footsteps, though. Your mother was very much against it, if I remember."

"Yes, well. Best laid plans and all." Rupert put his hands in his pockets, jiggling his keys. He needed answers – Alex needed answers, but the whole thing was starting to make him nervous. He should have just buried it all. "Mina seems to think you might have some information that might be of help to us. That you might know something about the Kronon and how they operate. What they actually do."

"Yes, yes. Oh yes. I've been studying it for years." He took off his glasses and wiped them on his jacket. "It's commonly thought that contact with a Kronon causes a person to go backward in time. At least, the few people we've actually been able to identify as having had this experience report it as such. However over the last ten years, in my conversations with the people I have been able to find, and measuring of the various levels of electron activity around the person, that the previously lesser accepted theory – that it's not time travel so much as time shifting, is really closer to the truth."

"You mean like shifting dimensions?" Alex asked. Mina had suggested it was a possibility.

He turned his attention to Alex. "Simply put, yes."

"But why the time travel then?"

"Can I ask? Are you the victim Mina mentioned? Alex Drake?" Alex nodded. "Ah. I don't believe that you are traveling in time, you see. Rather it's time that's moving at varying speeds. There may be a hundred different time lines – strings, if you will, all traveling at different speeds. They may have similar events or be completely independent."

Alex cast a hopeful glance at Rupert. "So things that happen in one 'time' don't always or necessarily happen in another or any of them?"

"Precisely." He frowned. "Well, as precise as you can be, under the circumstances."

"Which is not at all," said Rupert. He stopped pacing and sat next to Alex.

"Hey what's this?" Luke held up a newspaper clipping he'd pulled from one of Wicker's files. "You were in an accident, Galvin?"

Alex stirred. "What?"

"Yes. When I was an infant. It was a bus accident." He wasted a glance at Mina. "But I only recently found out about it."

Luke reached across the table and handed Alex the yellowed slice of newsprint. "Well here's a story about it from the paper."

Alex took the clipping, silent while she glanced through the article. "Rupert." Her hand was shaking as she handed it to him. The paper was from the Manchester Evening News. The year was 1962.

"What am I looking at?" Rupert leaned toward her to look.

"The bus driver. It's Arthur Layton."

"Who's Arthur Layton?" His mother was in the photo, along with what he had to assume was him as an infant. There was an emergency technician and someone the caption identified as the bus driver.

His eyes widened. It was the Kronon from the docks, the one who shot Alex. And the man from his dream. The one who was going to shoot him – shoot Gene.

Rupert swallowed hard.

"Rupert was in a coma for thirty six hours," Mina said quietly.

Alex stared at him, mouthing "And you never mentioned it?"

He shook his head. "I just found out."

"What?" Wicker practically jumped out of his chair. "This is extraordinary." He reached across the table to look at the clipping. "But it's very possible."

Rupert was silent. He had been contemplating the possible implications for several weeks. Ever since Mina had first told him about the accident and the coma he'd never known he'd been in. It was too much of a coincidence that he and this Gene Hunt were identical. And in love with the same woman.

Wicker looked at Alex. "You're certain its the same man? I mean absolutely?"

"Yes. Of course. There's an Arthur Layton in the other time, place, whatever it is. He was a drug dealer. Um, we arrested him but he was released. I don't know what he's doing now, where he is." She looked up at Rupert. Rupert spoke to Wicker. "But he's dead – the monster anyway, Luke killed him. He doesn't exist here. Not anymore."

Wicker was getting excited again. "Really? You killed the Kronon who did this to Ms. Drake?"

Luke answered. "Yeah. Blew him to purple ribbons."

"But he still exists in the other dimension?"

"Yes." Alex tapped the table. "As far as I know."

"And you're sure he's human?" Alex nodded.

"Extraordinary." Wicker sat down. "Truly extraordinary."

"What's so extraordinary?" Rupert was getting impatient.

"What if each Kronon has a connection to a specific location – his own quantum signature, if you will, tied to an actual human in that alternate string? The humans he comes into contact with will all wind up traveling on the same string of time. This Layton version tapped you both, at different times, so you both wind up on the same string."

"I don't know if I'm up to speed," Rupert asked. Things still weren't making sense to him. "What happens to you once you wake up from your coma? Wouldn't someone notice if people started disappearing?"

Wicker stopped writing and looked up.

"Well, the nearest we have been able to work out is that what the Kronon does is create a quantum duplicate – not send you back in time, and it's the amount of energy necessary to create your duplicate that puts you in the coma – conveniently coinciding with whatever accident occurs naturally. Your physical being never actually leaves your original time line. The Kronon feeds off that energy, sending your duplicate into it's quantum dimension. Eventually the original victim is rescued, or wakes up, or dies, here, in the dimension of origin. Quite honestly, we never really knew what happened to the duplicate." He stared at Rupert. "I mean, it's just a theory…but if each Kronon sends their victims along a particular string..." He stopped, his jaw still moving. "I can't even begin to imagine the implications."

"But I'm here, and Alex is here. How can we exist in both time lines?"

"Why wouldn't you? It doesn't logically follow that you would have to disappear from the second time string once the original you woke up. You aren't connected in any way once the duplicate is created." He tapped his chin. "Not as far as anyone can tell, anyway."

"Is it possible to return?" Everyone looked at Alex.

Wicker looked thoughtful. "Huh. I'm really not sure you ever leave." He shook his head.

"The Alex that is there – will she always remember?" She wanted him to tell her she would forget. The thought that a copy of her would always wonder, would always try to get back to Molly. She couldn't think about it.

Wicker shrugged. "I have no idea."

Alex felt shaky. "Rupert…"

"Yeah." He wasn't sure he could think about this.

"I'm really still there? And you…." Somehow he'd become Gene Hunt. It made her head ache.

"None of this makes any sense to me," Luke interrupted.

Mina huffed impatiently. "There's another Rupert in an alternate time line, pretending to be a Met DCI, running around like some out of control sheriff from an American western, according to Alex. And there's another Alex with him. Only he doesn't know he's Rupert, but Alex knows she's Alex. Could you at least try to keep up?"

"Yeah, alright." He rolled his eyes. "If you say so." He went back to reading the files.

"Assume I believe this," Rupert interrupted. "Why am I connected to him, all of a sudden? It has never happened before."

"There does seem to be a connection for as long as the coma lasts – people thinking they've time traveled, but the connection seems to break with the original victim reawakens in their proper time string. The fact that you're connected to your duplicate now is a bit extraordinary." He made a few notes.

"I believe it's the vampires, Rupert," Mina answered. "When they fed off of you they caused the heightened receptors. They want you to feel the pain and the pleasure equally as they do. It must have increased your awareness of him, of another dimension. It will fade. It's already been a few weeks – I can't see it lasting much longer."

Then they didn't have much time, Alex thought. "But Rupert is dreaming things that haven't happened yet. To Gene, I mean." She needed to help him. "At least not that I saw."

Mina shrugged. "Visions certainly could be a part of it."

"Visions…"

"Yes. But the future is always in flux, Alex. If it's a future event it doesn't have to happen the way it's seen. Or even at all." Mina tried to sound comforting.

"You mean if it hasn't happened yet in that time-line, then it doesn't have to?"

Mina nodded. "Yes."

"Then there's time to change his future." She looked up at Rupert. Their future.

He looked at her then, her eyes pleading with him for something only they would ever understand. Or believe. He'd heard enough.

"Mr. Wicker. Thank you for coming down here. It's been very enlightening." And a bit terrifying. "Alex?" She nodded.

"Oh, no. Thank you all. Ms. Harker, Mr. Galvin. Ms. Drake. The entire afternoons has been a revelation." He stood, gathering his papers and files. "The information you've provided has been quite...extraordinary." He shook Rupert's hand. "And of course it's been a pleasure to finally meet you. All grown up, I mean. If I can ever be of any help in anything."

Rupert nodded. "If I have any more questions." He turned to Alex.

"Rupert?" He took her hand, they said goodbye, and together they walked out of the huge library.

"Now what?"

Alex squeezed his hand. "I need to call Molly. See if I need to come home. If not I'd like to go back to your place and think about all of this."

"OK."

–

Rupert sat on the bed as Alex undressed. He could see her out of the corner of his eye, but he couldn't watch. She threw her trousers on the floor, pulled her jumper over her head.

"I need to tell him, Rupert. If it will help him at all to know, I need to do it."

He stared at the floor. "I'm not him." He felt her sit on the bed next to him.

"I know. He's you."

He turned to look at her finally, and her gaze never wavered.

"Are you sure this is what you want, Alex?" He wasn't sure it was what he wanted. What had happened before had been intense. Frightening, even. If it had been up to him they could wait until the visions were gone before they had sex again. Hell, he'd wait an extra month. But he knew it wasn't up to him. And he couldn't say no.

"I am."

Rupert took a deep breath and nodded, standing so he could undress. She watched him unbutton his shirt, unzip his jeans. Drop his boxers on the floor. He didn't even know if he could, what to do.

But Alex did. She slid her hand into his and pulled him toward the bed. Tenderly her hand cupped his cheek.

"Rupert look at me." He did and she kissed him, pulling him into her embrace as she guided him to the bed. Her hands moved patiently, and his body couldn't resist her. She whispered his name and he was hot, hard. She loved him, she said. She thanked him. She promised him...

...she slid over his aching cock and threw her head back as she rode him. Not again, he thought, not again. He couldn't take much more of this.

His hands gripped her hips as they captured him over and over. Oh god! It was so real, and impossible, she was dying, he shouldn't do this, shouldn't dream about her like this. He'd killed her. But he couldn't stop.

He tried to sit up, to pull her closer. One arm moved around her back, over her shoulder, her mouth brushed his and he groaned. She kissed him again, harder, biting his lip, her hands in his hair. Oh shit! He never wanted it to end.

"More" he managed. "More Alex."

She gripped his shoulders and he thrust harder, he needed to come, his whole body ached for her.

And then she said it. The words he could never make her say, even in his dreams...

"I love you..."

"I love you so much, Rupert, oh god!"

Her hands dug into his shoulders as she came, as he came with her, gasping, groaning, blind as she collapsed on top of him and they clung to each other, afraid to let go.

–

A world away Gene Hunt woke from a restless sleep. His sheets were soaked through with sweat. He was wet. And unpleasantly sticky.

"This can't bloody go on." be mumbled to himself as he sat up and swung his legs over the bed. The floor was cold. "Give me a fucking heart attack." Probably for the best. He'd planned to drink himself to death waiting for her to die, anyway.

He was wondering how long it would take when the telephone shattered the silence in the flat.

"What?"

"Where've you been Guv? I've been trying to call you all morning." It was Ray.

"What d'you mean, where've I been? I've been here." He closed his eyes for a moment. "Must've been asleep."

"Well she's awake."

What? "Who's awake?"

"Guv? Drake. Inspector Drake's awake."

He couldn't say anything. It wasn't possible.

"Guv? Did you hear me?"

"Yes. Yeah. I heard you."

"Well she's askin' for you so you'd better get down here."

"Me?" He'd been there every day since he'd shot her. Expecting to never see her again.

"Yes. You. Do I need to come pick you up?"

"No, no Ray. I'm on my way."

For a moment all he could do was sit on the bed, wondering which part of his life was a dream and which was real. It had been so hard to tell lately. With a deep sigh he hung up the phone. He should get cleaned up first.

–

"So, what d'you think? Full English?" He'd put the kettle on and was digging in the cabinets.

"Rupert, it's nine o'clock at night."

"You said you were hungry." He looked at her. "And we just got up. Look at you, you're wearing pajamas." He winked.

Alex laughed in surrender. "Fine. Full English it is. But you'd better have black pudding."

"Ew, no." He opened the fridge. "Have sausage though. Good thing someone went shopping, eh?"

"When did you go shopping?"

"I didn't say it was me." He set a cup of tea in front of her.

She watched as he set to work, cracking eggs and slicing tomatoes. He looked edible himself, wearing pajama bottoms and a plain t-shirt.

Her life had changed so much since she'd met him. She barely knew what to think anymore, but she did know she didn't want to let him go. Not again. He'd seen more than his share of life and could handle things most people couldn't imagine. She hadn't really realized it before, maybe even hadn't wanted it before. But she wanted it now.

"You know, you're a bit older than I thought you were."

He shot her a sideways glance. "I'm remarkably well preserved."

"Yes, you are that."

He cleared his throat as he went back to his frying pans. "Is that a problem?"

Alex took a moment to answer. Might as well make him nervous. "Not for me."

"Good." He made matching mountains of food on two plates and carried them to the table. "Dig in."

He watched her eat, nibbling a little off his plate. She was hungrier than she'd thought and had nearly cleaned her plate before she realized.

"Rupert, I don't know how you make a fry up taste this good, but if you keep cooking for me like this you'll spoil me for other men."

He flashed a mischievous smile. "Well, that is the plan."

--

the end.