Epilogue
New Year's Eve 2010
Robin sat at the kitchen table, staring into a glass of something he'd never usually have considered drinking, Not in a million years. But as his life turned to dust around him drink had taken on a new meaning. His eyes glanced up at the clock. Just a few hours left now. A few hours left of the year that stole Simon away from him, that took his career from him, that looked in danger of taking his freedom away too. The thought of going to prison terrified him beyond words. An openly gay ex-police inspector in the cells? He wouldn't last two minutes.
But the thought that scared him more than that was living without Simon. Trying to survive without him in his life.
The moment he faded out of Gene's world he felt a rush of joy; the excitement of heading home, more certain than he ever had been that Simon would be joining him as soon as he could. He could still picture the doctors avoiding his gaze when he asked to see him or how he was doing. He could still see the strained look on their faces as they finally sat down to tell him the truth.
He let out his breath loudly and lifted the bottles and packets of pills he had amassed in the last couple of weeks. He would have taken them by now. He'd planned to be dead before the year had entered its last four hours. But someone had urged him to live, and knowing who that came from made him think twice.
The strangest part of his experience in Gene's world had been meeting Alex. After all Simon that had told him about her, how she'd helped him in that place the first time around, then after all they had been through with Keats, to finally meet her - a non-comatose Alex - had been very surreal. It was as though he was meeting a stranger he knew so well.
He'd spent countless hours by her bed since waking up. She was the last link he had to Simon. The last link he had to the one man he didn't think he could live without. Despite all of Evan's legal help, Simon's family showing him as much love as they would for Simon and the support of his colleagues the one person who could have got him through this was gone.
Alex's impassioned plea, her one-word demand had called a halt to his intentions. He'd made a deal in his mind as he watched the crash team trying to revive her that, if she survived, he wouldn't carry out his plan. He'd spent too many days swapping places with Molly by her bed not to yearn for her safe return to the real world. After the crash team had brought her back he'd wandered in a daze for a good two or three hours before returning home and opening the bottle. He'd gone over and over in his head what to do. Trying to make the best decision for himself, for everyone.
At half past nine on New Year's Eve 2010 he made the decision to live.
He grasped the pots of pills and took them to the bathroom where he opened each one and emptied their contents into the toilet. He watched all manor or white, red, blue, yellow tablets and capsules swirling around. Even pink ones! It was like a deadly rainbow. With a nod and a whisper of goodbye to his intentions he flushed the toilet and watched his escape plan spinning down the drain.
Just as he was throwing the empty packets and pots in the rubbish bin there was a sharp knock at the door. It made him freeze and sent a jolt to his heart. Who would be knocking on the door with two and a half hours left of the year? And why knock? He had a perfectly good doorbell.
Suspiciously he crept to the front door and opened it just a crack. Outside he found a woman with long, dark hair, damp from the drizzle. She was clutching a bag and seemed very nervous as her eyes darted around a little and she busied herself chewing on her lip.
"Can… can I help you?" Robin asked.
The woman looked as though her mind had gone blank. She took a moment to regain her composure, then began,
"Robin? Robin Thomas?"
Robin hesitated. The last time someone started a sentence that way it ended with "I am arresting you for manslaughter by reckless driving."
"Why?" he asked, "who wants to know?"
The woman pushed her hair out of her face and gave a nervous half-smile.
"You don't know me," she said quietly, "but I knew Simon." She paused as she watched Robin swallow and take a little step backward.
"You worked with him?" he asked.
The woman hesitated.
"Sort of." She paused. "I worked under Gene Hunt." She saw Robin reeling from her words, almost literally falling backwards. "Can I come in?"
The woman's words almost stole Robin's ability to speak. He stared at her for a moment, then gave a silent nod and stepped back to allow her to pass. The hairs on the back of his neck began to stand on end as his pulse went through the roof. Suddenly the end of the year had taken a turn he wasn't expecting.
~xXx~
Kim sat at the stranger's kitchen table. She'd heard so much about Robin that she felt like she knew him already. In reality, they'd passed each other in the office once and spent maybe two hours at opposite ends of the karaoke bar. That was as much time as they'd spent in each other's company.
"I don't think we were ever introduced," she said quietly as Robin shakily filled his glass to the brim, "I only saw you come into the office after arresting Nailer and briefly watched you being persuaded to buy Hunt a round of drinks." She paused. "And I looked very different back then."
Robin sat down and held his glass with trembling hands. He could hardly raise it to his lips to take a sip.
"Who are you?" he whispered.
"My name's Kim," she said quietly, "well… technically it's not now. I changed it when I came back so I couldn't be traced. But it was when I knew your partner."
Robin stared at her. This couldn't be real. It had to be some kind of a dream.
"W-why are you here?" he whispered.
Kim looked down. She took a deep breath, then looked at the bottle on the table.
"Do you mind if I have one of those?" she asked.
Robin felt awfully rude suddenly.
"God, I'm so sorry," he got to his feet and raided the cupboard for a clean glass, "I didn't mean to… I mean, I just forgot…"
"It's OK," Kim gave a little smile. Robin was very much as Simon had described him all those years ago. She watched him pouring out the liquid in front of her. "Thank you." She lifted the glass and took a sip, closing her eyes as she did so. She'd been building up to this moment for a long time. For seven years she'd wondered what she would say or how it would go. She took a deep breath. "Simon as very kind to me," she said, "looked after me. It was a bit like having a big brother."
Robin thought that was a strange thing to say since Kim was clearly now a few years older than Simon had been when he died.
"Go on," he prompted.
"We were kind of flat mates for a bit," she continued, "he helped me sort some stuff out. Worked out a way to stop Keats following me when I got home."
"Keats," Robin spat out the name as though it poisoned his mouth and drank a lot of brandy to take the taste away.
"There was something he asked me to do in return," she continued, her hands starting to shake a little, "he asked me to pass on a message to you. It's really important."
Robin bit his lip.
"Funny," he said quietly, "seems to be a day of messages."
"He wrote out what he wanted me to tell you," she continued, "I tried to memorise it the best I could, then when I eventually got home I wrote it down, as accurately as I could remember." she reached into her bag and pulled out a plastic wallet that contained her transcript of the letter she'd memorised. As she handed it to Robin a strange kind of electricity surrounded he moment; the passing of a message between dimensions, the giving of words through time.
Robin could feel his blood rushing to his face as he took the letter. He wasn't sure if he wanted to read it or not. It could contain anything, good or bad. It brought him a strange sensation, an indescribable feeling. He looked back at Kim.
"What does it say?" he whispered.
"You can read it when I've gone," she told him, "I haven't looked back at it for years. I wanted to forget enough for it to be private between the two of you." She took a mouthful of brandy and swallowed hard. Her nerves were growing. "But the main thing he needs you to know is that you have to live."
Robin looked down.
"Someone already told me that today," he whispered.
Kim nodded.
"DCI Drake."
"Alex."
Kim cleared her throat.
"Simon needs you to know how important it is that you never, ever take your own life," Kim said urgently, "Keats has his own station now. He gets first pick of all suicides. You very nearly ended up as his trump card over Simon."
Sheer horror filled every bone in Robin's body. He felt a horrible sense of nausea swell in his chest.
"I… I never even thought," he whispered, "I just wanted this pain to end."
"It's not the way," said Kim, "you'll be acquitted, You're found innocent and reinstated. You go back to work and carry on as normal."
Robin swallowed.
"How can you know that?" he whispered.
"It was in Simon's file," Kim told him.
Robin chewed nervously on his lip.
"That's… that's why Alex…"
Kim nodded slowly.
"She stopped you from making the biggest of all mistakes," she said, "and Simon asked me to make sure you understood the full implications of what would happen if you ever tried to take your own life."
Robin put his head in his hands. This was a hell of a lot to take in.
"How is he?" he asked quietly, "or how was he when you left?"
"Missing you," Kim said quietly, her voice a little strained, "would have done anything to be back here with you."
Robin nodded slowly.
"I'd give anything for him to be back here too," he whispered.
Kim nodded slowly.
"He told me so much about you," she said, "about all you'd been through together. Surviving his accident, his first time with Hunt and CID, and what Keats tried to do."
Robin could feel anger building up inside of him.
"He tried to destroy us," he said.
"I know."
"Sometimes I still don't know how we survived after Simon came home,"
Kim looked into her glass.
"I wasn't so lucky," she said quietly, "My relationship couldn't have been as strong as yours."
Robin looked downhearted.
"I'm sorry," he whispered.
Kim gave a sad shrug and tried to pull her expression back to a neutral standpoint.
"Going through that is a lot to put on someone," she said quietly, "Simon was lucky he had you. And if we hadn't split up I'd never have met my wife so it's all good," she said pragmatically.
Robin wasn't quite sure what to say. He looked into his glass again and drank some more brandy. He coughed a little, still not used to the harshness of the alcohol.
"What… year… did you come from?" he asked.
"I was in two thousand and three when I was stabbed," Kim said quietly, "I went back to early ninety five."
"Shit."
Kim gave a smile.
"You even sound like Simon," she said quietly.
That made Robin smile too.
"I like hearing that," he said quietly. He played with the ring on his finger. This was the closest he'd felt to Simon since he woke up.
Kim reached into her bag again.
"He told me to make this for you as well," she said, pulling a CD from within.
"What's this?"
"Music," Kim said quietly, "he made me memorise the track list. Said he'd pay for a tattoo in exchange for all the bother." she frowned and studied her arm. "Of course, waking up in the real world without the tattoo made that deal a little less equal…" she laughed gently.
"What's on the disc?" Robin asked quietly.
"Play it and see," she said, "Again, it's been a while."
Robin nodded slowly.
"OK," he said, "Thank you. And," he bit his lip, "and thank you for doing this. For Simon. For both of us."
Kim smiled, but it was a smile tinged with sadness. As glad as she was to be home she had never quite managed to get over her time in the nineties or stop missing the friends she had made. To sit beside Simon at Malcolm's funeral and not be able to tell him she missed him or to warn him what he was about to go through killed her inside.
"He said that he doesn't want you to spend your whole life mourning for him," she whispered, her voice breaking slightly, "he knows you love him. He knows you'll never forget him. But he wants you to be happy and to meet someone else who will make you happy."
Robin shook his head slowly.
"I don't think that's possible," he said quietly.
"He says he will always love you," Kim's eyes began to mist up as she began to deliver the end of Simon's message, "he will never forget anything about you. And he says you need to have lots of complex psychological issues over the next thirty years so you'll have plenty of time in Gene's world to work through them all when you finally die."
That brought a smile from Robin.
"That's Simon," he whispered.
Kim drank the rest of her brandy ad sat down her glass. She looked at him with a mix of sadness, fondness and hope.
"I think I should leave you alone to read your letter," she said quietly, "that's what I came to bring you after all."
"You don't have to go yet," Robin told he.
"I think I'd better," Kim said quietly, "I've got to get home to see in the new year with my family. But I'm glad we have finally had the chance to meet." She gave a genuine smile. "I've waited a long time for today."
"Will I ever see you again?" Robin asked.
Kim took a deep breath.
"I don't know," she said, "I hadn't thought beyond today."
"Well maybe we'll run into each other at work?" Robin suggested. He was confused when Kim gave a gentle laugh.
"Not unless you bring your police dogs for a tattoo," she said quietly.
"You're not in the force any longer?"
Kim shook her head.
"A wise man by the name of Simon Shoebury advised me that life as a detective who'd been in a coma was not an easy one with a certain DCI Jim Keats in charge of mental health."
Robin exhaled loudly. He could understand what she meant now.
"I see," he nodded.
He watched Kim get to her feet and give him a warm smile. She waited for Robin to stand up too, then held out her hand.
"Take care, Robin," she said with a gentle smile, "it was good to meet you at last."
Robin felt the room swaying a little from all the alcohol, coupled with the shock. He steadied himself on the table with one hand while he shook Kim's with the other.
"Thank you," he whispered, "for everything."
Kim gave him a smile and allowed herself to be escorted from the room, through the hall to the front door Just a few minutes ago she'd made her entrance there and changed Robin's life.
"Happy new year," she said quietly.
She leaned forward and gave him a gentle hug, although he was too shocked to reciprocate. He watched with a dazed half-smile on his face as the stranger walked away and left him alone once again, a letter and a CD sitting on his kitchen table along with a bottle of drink that, he started to realise, he probably wouldn't be needing again.
~xXx~
Tuesday 21st November 1995
"How good is your memory?"
Kim frowned. She wasn't sure what kind of favour she could do Simon where a good memory was the main item of importance. Not unless he really, REALLY liked to play I Took A Trip.
"It's… OK," she said, "Nothing to write home about."
Simon pulled a face.
"That's kind of what I wanted to do," he said.
"What do you mean?" Kim frowned.
Simon gave a deep sigh. He wasn't sure how to explain this.
"Kim, Gene said Alex woke up in two thousand and ten, just for a few seconds," he began, "she told Robin to live. I don't know whether her message has worked… maybe it'll be years before I find out… but there's one other way I can get a message to him."
"How?" asked Kim
Simon took a deep breath.
"Through the one person I know gets home," he said, "the one person I know will make it."
Kim began to understand.
"You mean me?" she asked quietly.
Simon nodded slowly.
"Would you do it?" he asked.
Kim hesitated.
"It won't put me in danger with Keats will it?" she whispered.
"No, no, not at all," Simon promised, "this is new year's eve in two thousand and ten… I mean, where Robin is right now… Keats died months ago. There's no risk. Just a message."
Kim bit her lip, then nodded slowly.
"I can't promise how much of my memory will come home with me," she warned, "but I'll try. I'll try to remember."
Simon nodded.
"You'll remember," he promised.
Kim nodded again.
"I'll do it," she whispered, "I'll give him your message."
Simon closed his eyes and felt his heart flutter like a barrel of butterflies.
"Thank you," he breathed. It was more than he should ever have asked, but it was the one thing that he could think of, the only way to get a message back to Robin. he just hoped this would bring the security that Robin needed and the closure that Simon yearned for.
~xXx~
11:55 New Year's Eve 2010
Robin had spent the last couple of hours tidying, cleaning and drinking the last of the alcohol that was already in his glass. He put the bottle away in the cupboard, a strange feeling inside of him that he just wouldn't be needing it again.
It was strange, he thought, but he felt as though Simon was almost there with him in the room. It was as close as he was ever going to get to being with him again, to spending a night by his side.
He was glad no one was around to see him or they would surely have laughed as he discarded the scruffy, dirty clothes he'd been wearing for days and took out a smart, clean shirt and trousers, dressed up as though leaving for a date and took to the bedroom with candles and the final sips of brandy.
At one minute to midnight, Robin slipped the CD from its case and put it into his CD player. He pressed 'play' then retreated to the bed in which he hadn't slept for weeks. He couldn't face it without Simon by his side.
The music began to play. Absolute Beginners. He closed his eyes and gave a gentle laugh. It was their song. He should have known the CD couldn't start any other way.
He held the plastic wallet in his hands and gave a deep sigh. This was it. A message from beyond the grave, in a way. But Robin knew what lay beyond the grave now. It wasn't a mass of harps, wings and clouds. It was home away from home.
He carefully took the pages out of their wallet and unfolded them. They almost burned his fingers with anticipation and promise. He closed his eyes and savoured the moment, the last chance that he had to hear from Simon until the day that a knife or a gun or a rogue fish bone would take his life from him and bring them together again.
As he heard fireworks exploding in the sky outside he opened his eyes and looked at 12:00 glowing in red figures on the bedside clock. It was time. New year with his fiancé. He looked down at the letter and tried to focus on the words before his tears made them illegible,
"Dear Robin,
This letter is current as of November 21st 1995. I don't know when Kim will go home so I can't keep changing it as time goes on in case she can't remember it!
I never got to say goodbye. That was the hardest part. I really thought I was alive. I thought I was going to wake up at any time and be back by your side. The day after you disappeared, just after our last time, I found out I didn't make it. When I realised I would never see you again, it was like dying all over again.
I found out I have a job to do here. I have to help other people. I can't explain it right now but one day you'll understand. I've become like them. Alex, Gene - now me. I don't know how long I will be here. I don't know how long I am going to be needed. But I will be here whenever it's your time.
Please stay strong. I know what Alex did today. Listen to her. You cannot think about taking your life for any reason or Keats will get you. It's the one thing he is holding over me here. He's disappeared now but he'll be back. I am determined that he won't get his hands on you. I'll protect you with my life and soul.
Please promise me something, Robin. Live your life. I know that it seems hard right now but everything will work out alright. You will be cleared of all charges and you will be reinstated at work. But you must live the rest of your life too. Don't wait for me, don't deny yourself the chance to be happy, the chance to love someone and share your life with them. I understand. I want you to be happy. That's the only way that I can be happy too.
I don't know what will happen here in the time between now and when we meet again. I don't know how you will find me. I could be the same person you left behind when you went home. I could be ten stone heavier with a ponytail and heavy facial hair. I can't account for anything that will happen in the next ten, twenty, however many years until we meet again. But if you still want me, I will still love you.
Live your life for both of us. You'll always be with me.
With love forever,
Si xxx
Below it was an addendum from Kim;
"P.S," it said, "the original had more swearing in it but I couldn't remember where all the 'shit's went so I left them out. K x"
The final words blurred as a teardrop fell on them and spread the ink. He quickly moved the letter before any more could fall and ruin the text. His face contorted into a mixture of joy and sadness. His situation was unique in the world. Although his partner had died he knew he was still out there somewhere, living on. One day they would be together again. Not in a 'we'll be together again when we all meet in heaven' kind of a way but in a far more down to earth, waking in the past and living your life all over again kind of a way.
As he began to read the letter for the second time the track came to an end and the next began. It was another Bowie song; Strangers When we Meet. The lyrics washed over him as the enormity of what he'd experienced that day started to sink in and he began to feel so very tired. With one hand on the letter and the other clasped over his chest to feel the beating of his heart he laid down and slipped into a deep sleep; the first he'd had in many weeks.
No tears. No nightmares. Just blissful, peaceful sleep.
And that's where he stayed until eleven in the morning. The last few weeks had taken so much strength and energy from him. Now, Simon's message started to give him back just a little of that which he'd lost. So deep was his sleep that he slept right through the telephone ringing and it was up to the machine to record the message; and one he would never forget when at last he awoke from his slumber and played it back.
"Robin, it's Evan White here… Molly thought you'd like to know that Alex… she woke in the early hours of the morning. She's very weak and unable to speak or to move right now but she's back with us and that's the main thing. We both owe you and, of course, Simon a great deal of thanks for the many hours you have spent with her over the last few months. I am sure when she is stronger she would be happy to see you. That's all we were calling to say right now. There's no news on the case I'm afraid but we'll talk about that on Monday. Goodbye, Robin. Happy new year."
Robin slept on unawares. It had been a day of miracles. Life was full of the unexpected - and Robin knew that now more than ever.
~xXx~
Simon sat in his office, radio quietly playing beside him to drown out Vickery's whimpering. It had been a few hours since he and Gene had paid a visit to the recently awoken Alex. She had been drifting in and out of sleep and hadn't been able to move or speak yet. It would be another day or so before she'd be able to communicate properly. While Gene stayed at the hospital to be kept up to date on any signs of improvement Simon decided to head back to the office, partly because he didn't want to intrude on a private moment between them and partly because an anxious Gene after two hours of sleep and suffering from rabid indigestion wasn't a fun Gene to be around.
He pushed a case file out of the way and pulled a set of papers from his desk drawer. He'd called into the solicitor's on the way back to work to have them drawn up. He took out his pen to sign them, then found to his horror he needed a witness.
"Shit," he sighed.
He didn't want to ask Vickery. He'd have to go back to the hospital and get Gene to sign it. Talk about frustrating.
He stared at the document before him.
"I have given up the use of my name: Simon Shoebury and have adopted for all purposes the name: Simon Shoebury-Thomas. Signed as a deed on 22nd November 1995."
He put his pen down and ran his fingers through his hair, leaning back a little in his seat. The radio started to wander off the station so he gave it a little thump, then fiddled with the aerial. The volume seemed to rise suddenly, bringing an angry shout from Vickery. Simon gave a half hearted apology and tried to adjust it but the DJ was loud and insistent.
"…next one goes out there to Simon! Simon, you're hard at work today and this one's for you. This is from Robin."
Simon froze. A heat travelled through his veins starting in his fingers, running through his hands and arms and all the way through his body, finally rising to his face where it settled as a flush in his cheeks. He stopped stone-still and listened in silence.
"…He says thank you for the letter, and he'll see you when he can. This one's for the two of you. Have a great day now!"
Simon though he had to have misheard. He couldn't make any sense of how that happened. He was dead now, there were no messages coming to him as he lay in a hospital bed. So how was this possible?
Eventually he decided to stop questioning the why and concentrate on appreciating that it was happening at all. Sometimes, he supposed, miracles happened. He closed his eyes and listened as the opening bars of a familiar Bowie song.
"…All my friends
Now seem so thin and frail
Slinky secrets
Hotter than the sun
No peachy prayers
No trendy rechauffe
I'm with you
So I can't go on…"
He leaned back and let the music wash over him. He tried not to let tears well in his eyes but they wee hard to stop. They weren't the same bitter, angry, sad tears he'd been crying since his life had been turned around. They were tears of relief, of joy, knowing that Robin was safe now and that his message had made it home.
"…All my violence
Raining tears upon the sheet
I'm bewildered
For we're strangers when we meet…"
Simon stared out of the window. There would be a lot of strangers passing through the doors before he'd see Robin again. Until then he had his ring, one photograph and the memory of the impossible message to see him through.
"…Blank screen TV
Preening ourselves in the snow
Forget my name
But I'm over you
Blended sunrise
And it's a dying world
Humming Rheingold
We scavenge up our clothes…"
He could almost feel the moment the car struck the tree, recall the sensation of flipping over and over in the air until he awoke in a strange yet familiar world. The moment he realised where he was he would have done anything to escape it. While he would still do anything to get back to Robin, Gene's world didn't seem to bad any more.
"…All my violence
Raining tears upon the sheet
I'm resentful
For we're strangers when we meet…"
He took a deep breath. He remembered adding this to his track list for Kim to memorise. It would reach him. The message would reach him! That made a wealth of emotion swell inside of him. He couldn't really ask for more than that.
"..Cold tired fingers
Tapping out your memories
Halfway sadness
Dazzled by the new
Your embrace
Was all that I feared
That whirling room
We trade by vendu…"
Simon got to his feet, ignoring the strange looks from Vickery. He didn't care. He danced alone, right there and then.
"…Steely resolve
Is falling from me
My poor soul
All bruised passivity
All your regrets
Ride rough-shod over me
I'm so glad
That we're strangers when we meet
I'm so thankful
That we're strangers when we meet
I'm in clover
For we're strangers when we meet
Heel head over
And we're strangers when we meet…"
Simon's heart didn't stop racing for hours. That one moment, that one miracle had given him the boost he needed. He knew he would be alright. He would miss Robin and would yearn to be with him until the fates stepped in and reunited them. But he knew that he would be aright. He'd found what he was supposed to do in life - well, in death. He had a place in this world.
Humming the tune to himself, he picked up the envelope containing his deed poll and walked from the office like he was walking on air. I was time to find Gene, get those papers witnessed and make sure that he would never ever forget the importance of Robin in his life; until one day the man to walk through the door of his office was far from a stranger. That day would come, of that he was certain.
Until then he was going to be just fine.
~*~xXx~*~
To Be Continued!
~*~xXx~*~
And so, the trilogy accidentally becomes a quadrilogy! The story arc that began with Out of the Window and carried on through Absolute Beginners is complete, but yes, apparently I can't leave this thread alone so there's going to be another story following to address the double Alex issue! Uh… but don't expect it to be updated quite as maniacally as this one! *Dies*
I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who has favourited and put this story on alert, and especially to everyone who has reviewed it. You have really helped to inspire me to keep going. Thank you SO much for sharing this journey with me. It has been a long ride. I know I'm behind on replying to reviews, I'm so sorry - I'm going to be thanking everyone who has commented on this fic next week (I'm away for the weekend - hopefully my fingers will recuperate a little!)
Thank you in particular to one very dear friend I made during the writing of this fic - you have really given me inspiration and helped me so much. You know who you are :)
This fic has been a total labour of love. It has barely been off my mind. It has spanned a couple of difficult months IRL for me and gave me a focus. I kind of ended up living, eating and breathing this fic for the last 2 and a half months. I can't explain it… I got into a kind of mindset I haven't experienced in years with writing. My muse came back to life. Yeah, so it then held me hostage and tried to kill me but am I ever grateful to have it back!
Ironically, as I come to complete the story, a verse from Strangers When We Meet sums up what the last few weeks have been like:
"Cold tired fingers
Tapping out your memories
Halfway sadness
Dazzled by the new
Your embrace
Was all that I feared
That whirling room
We trade by vendu"
So yeah, I apparently picked the right title!
Now it's time to let my fingers rest, finally. Thank you for all of your encouragement and for enjoying this story. I'll be starting the sequel soon and I hope you'll follow the next instalment!
M x x