Final chapter! (Of this installment anyway.)

Sawyer Fan - You liked the part where Tom got dressed? Well, I might do the reverse of that in another fic - would you like that too? LOL. Thanks for all your reviews.

Doped Out Bunny - Thank you very much! The Tom and Mina moments were very important to me, especially since they lead up to the major scene in this part.

Title: "Rubicon 1 - Aftermath" Chapter 6

By Ten Mara

Rating: PG-13

CATEGORY: Story, Drama/Angst

DISCLAIMER: The literary characters referred to are copyright their respective authors, and "LXG: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" is copyright 20th Century Fox, based on the comic books by Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill. The characters and movie universe are used without permission. No copyright infringement is intended, no profit will be gained. Characters not recognized are mine, and a few real-life historical people and events are used or mentioned.

xXx

After dawn the next morning, Nemo was on the bridge studying schematics for a new invention when Mina entered. Neither was surprised to see the other up so early – they both got by on a lot less sleep than the others. After exchanging greetings, she asked, "Were you able to talk with Agent Sawyer?"

"Yes. I think my words reached him. I just hope they have a positive effect."

"Did he talk to you?" Normally Mina would not be so intrusive, but this was to do with the wellbeing of a League member and friend. And she felt that her lack of intrusion since Mongolia had not helped the situation any either.

"No. He said he was not ready." Nemo sighed, then said, "He may need some more time, or to absorb what I told him, but I think perhaps he would feel more comfortable talking with someone else." He gave her a significant look.

"I plan on doing so." He needs to let it out.

Despite her now pre-naturally lengthened life, Mina's need for isolation and privacy had kept her in London after her change, not daring to travel much.

She had not met all that many Americans over the years, though her heart saddened as she remembered brave Quincey Morris, who was fatally wounded before he and her husband Jonathan managed to kill Dracula on her behalf. In a lot of ways Tom reminded her of Quincey.

Her dear friend Lucy had written of the Texan: 'He looks so young and fresh that it seems almost impossible that he has been to so many places and has had such adventures.' He also kept great faith in Winchesters.

Other similarities were their manners, how they were so earnest, brave, 'a bubbling well of good spirits' as John Seward had noted in regard to Quincey. 'If America can go on breeding men like that, she will be a power in the world indeed.'

She has, John, Mina thought. She has.

She did know on the whole that Americans were more outgoing than Englishmen. The amount of time they spent smiling and laughing was even a little disconcerting at first, then refreshing. Tom was the most beaming of the lot, so fearless and happy about living.

Or rather, he had been. She knew he could not be expected to bounce back and be his cheerful self so quickly after suffering such losses, but his self-flagellation could not be allowed to go on.

Mina came out of her inner musings and noticed the schematics that were spread out on Nemo's desk. The Captain followed her interested gaze and smiled. "We two scientists must have discussions ourselves at some stage soon," he commented.

"I look forward to that." She was sure it would be a fascinating exchange of ideas. Then Mina took her leave to get ready to help Tom.

Whether he wanted it or not.

xXx

Sawyer walked down the hallway and paused for a moment in front of Quatermain's room. As far as he knew, only Nemo had been inside since the hunter's death. The Captain had gotten Matilda out for him and put the Webley revolver in there.

Allan's English solicitor had instructed them that the hunter had no surviving relatives and his executor was a doctor in Nairobi. The solicitor gave Nemo documents and letters to take to various people, including this doctor, and Allan's friends Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good, who had set off the whole epic adventure to King Solomon's mines and now lived in Africa. The League would get the paperwork to the men quicker than the post would.

Now the American studied the door of Quatermain's room, considering going inside. Then Mina came around the corner.

"There you are, Agent Sawyer. I'm ready to give you a haircut now. Is this a good time?"

"Oh, okay. Thanks."

She had everything laid out in her room and a chair selected. Tom sat in it and she pinned a sheet around him. As she combed his hair in preparation, she said, "Now, do you still only want your hair out of your eyes, or more?"

"Perhaps a trim around the ends as well, if you're willing, but I like the length as it is."

Mina quickly set to work. He closed his eyes to both avoid the bits of falling hair and to try to ignore Mina's close proximity to him. Her perfume filled his nose. Perhaps I should have gone to Nemo's barber or one in town. It was too late now.

Is she humming? He tried to pick the tune, somewhat grateful for the distraction.

Quickly and efficiently Mina was finished and he was freed. That wasn't so bad.

Tom looked at the end result in a hanging mirror. "Thank you very much, Mrs Harker. That's a great job." A stirring of apprehension had made him subconsciously revert to the formality, and the spy was about to find out why.

He went to take his leave, not wanting to outstay his welcome, but Mina moved towards to the armchairs near the fireplace and asked him to join her.

Uh oh. Why do I feel like I've walked into a trap?

But his brain deserted him, refusing to come up with a polite and logical excuse to escape. He perched on the edge of the proffered armchair and waited. He did not have to wait long.

Mina regarded him from her chair. She was looking sad. "Tom, I have been thinking back on everything that has happened since you joined us. How you kept our spirits up. Yet we have neglected to do the same for you when you needed it."

Oh damn. This is just like in the Bible. Cut Sampson's hair off and weaken him, then pounce. "There has been no neglect, I assure you."

"I know you've hardly been smiling or even talking all that much lately. It's all been very much on the surface - superficial subjects and conversation. Deflection."

So much for thinking I was putting on a good act. "Our guests have kept us all so busy there hasn't been much time for chatting," he hedged. "I'm sorry if what talking I did bored you."

"Tom," she said warningly. "You've helped me a great deal. I want to help you. I know you haven't wanted to burden me. You're not."

He felt an irrational but very real fear pounding away in his heart then. Mina was on the hunt and he was the prey, but it wasn't his blood she wanted. It was his emotions and she was not going to stop until she had sucked them out of him or at least onto the surface, which is the last place he wanted them at the moment, no matter what Quatermain had said to him about the price of keeping his tongue and character locked away.

Perhaps if I 'bleed' just a little. Give up something small, then hopefully she'll be satisfied and quit, he thought desperately.

"I'm sick of saying dumb things. This way is easier."

Mina blushed then. "I still do foolish things," she admitted to him. "And I don't consider it a dumb thing you stopping to ask me if I was all right."

At Sawyer's blank look, she said, "In Nemo's stateroom, after Gray revealed he was the traitor and stole the Nautiloid. That is one example. Another is when you apologized if your intentions had offended me, which is about the first time in recorded history that a young man has done such a thing without first being prompted! I appreciate your sensitivity. It is altogether too rare in a man, not to mention someone of your age."

I don't appreciate it. It's threatening to tear me apart. Tom looked down at his hands and was alarmed to see they were starting to shake.

In his silence, Mina continued, "When Quatermain and I commended you for your positive attitude, most other men would have gotten a conceited or smug grin, but you did not. You looked happy, but bashful in a way."

It was good to hear her praise, but Tom could sense it was leading up to something that he wanted to avoid. The temptation to get up and pace was so strong, and to shove his shaking hands in his pockets, but Mina's next words chased those urges away momentarily.

"As for me, after Mongolia I tried to convince myself that the loss of Dorian was not a loss at all. I did not want to admit to myself that I had loved him, that I had been foolish enough to involve myself with him again. And that killing him affected me so much. So in regard to our grief, you stopped talking and I tried to stop feeling. I have realised I was wrong." Her eyes were looking at him very intently.

"I've talked," Tom found himself blurting out. "I've talked to Nemo."

"Nemo talked to you. He didn't get much back."

"What - so now you're all discussing and monitoring me, what you think I should be doing? Just because you consider I'm the kid, the most 'unextraordinary' one in the League?" Tom snapped at her, feeling humiliated. Now he did spring up, staring down at her. "I don't want or need special treatment! I'm not a child!"

Mina remained seated. "We know you aren't. You are our team member and friend. We're worried about you, and you need to let this out."

"I have been."

"By yourself?" she guessed, and knew from the look on his face that she was right. "That may be a release, but you're just going over and over the same thing without someone to tell you that it is all right or comfort you. Tom, what happened was hard on all of us, but it was hardest on you -"

"Harder on Allan and Skinner," Tom retorted.

She pressed on. "You had a bond with Allan that none of us did. One of your gifts is your great capacity for emotions, but on the downside, it means you can also feel magnified guilt and pain. I am not going to let you go on in this way. You don't have to keep suffering in silence like this. I want you to talk to me."

"Mina, please don't make me." He realised his voice had shaken and that his hands were balled into fists at his sides.

She noticed these things too and was trying to work out how to get through Tom's defences, knowing that unless she did, it would be a matter of seconds before he headed for the door. All right, then: approach from a different angle. Please let this work.

Her suddenly brisk and authorative tone threw him momentarily off guard. "Tom, I want you to tell me what happened in the fortress, from the time that we all split up, and as fully as you can manage. Don't leave anything out. I'm here to listen, not to judge."

"Is this an order?" he asked.

"I don't want it to be, but it can. You have given your superiors in America a report, but I do not know in full what happened. We can surmise the events with some accuracy, but that is not the same."

There was a long pause as he stared at her.

"Please," Mina said. "You can sit or stand or pace or whatever. Give me your report, Agent Sawyer. In full."

His defences were worn thin. He sat down and found himself telling her. For a start he tried to keep 'report-like' in his discourse, but it proved impossible. As she well knows. But even after realising her strategy, he could not stop once started, his thoughts and feelings being revealed, laid bare.

Her empathic blue eyes never left his face, and though his own eyes broke off plenty of times, they always found their way back. She did not interrupt with any observations or questions, though there were times that he could see she was on the verge of doing so, but fighting it.

His voice ran on and on, sometimes a monotone, sometimes packed to the brim with every emotion under the sun. Somehow the tears were holding off. He was worried that when they came, that would be it.

Occasionally he backtracked a little, about moments between himself and Quatermain on the ship, but then finally he was telling Mina the final words of the great hunter.

"'May this new century be yours, son, as the old one was mine . . . .'" Tom swallowed. "And then - he was gone."

The American stopped talking then, almost hoarse. Some tears were making their way down his cheeks. He stared off into space, trying not to let any more fall. The main mass was gathering behind his eyes like in a thunderstorm.

He heard Mina get out of her chair and move toward him, and he tensed. Immediately she halted. Then her voice reached him gently, "Tom, you saved Allan's life in M's fortress, when the guard ambushed you both in that parlour. You knocked out the guard and then saved Quatermain from M's stiletto."

I thought you said you weren't here to judge.

"I saved his life - gave him about an extra half hour before really causing his death!" Tom snapped, swiping a hand angrily across his eyes.

She moved closer to him, cautiously. "His final words - he was trying to show that he did not blame you. He wanted you to live and use the potential that he saw in you. It was not your fault that you were captured." The American shook his head, but she pressed on. "Tom, he called you 'son', and I'm sure he meant it literally. At the start of our mission, he was very reticent, but you brought him out of his isolation despite himself. By being you, by your optimism and joy for living. In Africa, yes, he was alive, but not really living, from all that I've heard. Just existing. Like with me. It took a mortal, you, to remind me what a gift life is and not to hide away from it."

Tom's eyes darted to her for a moment, then away again. A sob escaped. Mina dared to come even closer, finally right up next to him. She reached for him and finally his superhuman struggle against his emotions was lost.

They ended up kneeling on the floor, with Tom crying, clinging to her.

Thank God, Mina thought, even as her heart ached for the pain he was going through. She rocked him as he sobbed, stroking his back and head, and she kept up a stream of soothing words and noises. "Shhhh, it's all right, let it out, that's it". At one point the contradiction between 'shhh' and 'let it out' flitted into her mind for a brief absurd moment, before she refocused entirely on Tom.

After a long time he had cried himself out, for the moment anyway. Mina knew he had not fallen asleep. They just sat there, holding.

Mina eventually dared to break the silence, knowing that some things still had not been addressed. Or healed. One good crying jag, despite being what he needed, was not going to miraculously make everything immediately better. "We know that you're thinking of leaving. We don't want you to. There is no need for you to go."

She felt him stiffen, then he mumbled into her shoulder, "I'm easily replaced."

"Tom, you are more than just our resident optimist or gunslinger. One of the things that you are is a natural leader. But at the moment you're too upset to see it that way."

He pulled away from her then, and regarded her as a burst of anger went through him. Sitting in front of her, he snapped, "Good at leading people into danger! Good at leading them out of their shell for what? So they can die or be injured!"

"Tom, it is not your fault and I'm going to keep saying it because you are an intelligent man and it will sink in eventually. Besides, the city of Venice is still standing because of you. The world is no longer on the brink of world war thanks to you." The anger slowly lessened on his features until he just watched her. She smiled at him, then said, "Let me give back to you some of the optimism you gave me. After all, a wise man once told me that M did trick us, but he also brought us together. That is very true. All of us."

She watched an answering smile dawn on his face, below his exhausted eyes, and felt her own heart lift.

xXx

Next day:

Nemo, Mina, Jekyll and Tom were all gathered around Skinner's bed in the infirmary, at the Captain's request. Skinner's burns were still visible in some places, but nothing compared to when he had been rescued from the burning scroll room. He was quite chipper and busy teasing Mina, who was actually relaxed enough for once to tease him right back, much to his delight. Or perhaps she was indulging him after his near-death heroics.

Their quick wits were providing a fun clash. Nemo had not interrupted or steered the conversation towards why he summoned them all together, so Tom was listening to the half-vampire and thief while waiting, very much entertained.

The thought struck him how much their banter would have amused Allan, especially after their prickly attitude towards each other in the beginning.

Things change.

He knew in his heart that Quatermain had come to think of him like a son. It had been in the adventurer's eyes during his final moments, as well as his words. There was also pride directed at Tom for getting Moriarty and a relief that the hunter had been able to save the American, unlike with his son, Harry.

It was going to be hard to bury the hunter, but it had to be done. Life had to go on. He would honour Allan's memory like he did Huck's.

And suddenly a strange feeling came over Tom. A certainty that something was going to happen in Africa. Something important.

Have I become a fortune teller now? he mocked himself. I might have a special power to contribute to the team after all. However, the feeling and certainty remained. He stopped trying to analyse it, instead accepting it, whatever it brought.

"Agent Sawyer?"

Tom jolted out of his internal musings. Nemo, Mina, Jekyll and Skinner were all looking at him, and he realised with embarrassment that he had been aware they were talking, but missed what it was about. "I'm sorry. What did you say?"

Nemo was watching him closely. "I said that the Nautilus is ready to leave for Africa."

"Then let's go." There was a smile on Tom's face now, partly wistful but mostly optimistic, and the others responded to it, heartened at the proof that their friend had clearly turned a corner.

There was a new century waiting. And he intended to make it his: for Allan and for himself and the League.

THE END.

Notes: Thanks for reading - please let me know what you think!

"Rubicon 2 - Africa" follows Tom in his next life-changing decision. After Quatermain's funeral, the League plan on doing some traveling in Africa for a few weeks with one of the hunter's old friends. But Tom feels compelled to accompany the local doctor on his rounds of outlying settlements instead, only to find himself in the middle of an outbreak of a deadly illness. Can he believe in himself and his leadership abilities enough to save everyone?

Rubicon 2 is in the planning stage at the moment - I have done a summary but need to do more research for it. It would be great to have some people knowledgeable in aspects of that time period or in general (specifically Kenya/Africa, medicine, customs/etiquette) to be able to ask specific questions of. Please see my author profile for details if you are interested. Thank you.