Sam & Penny Short-Stories *English*

BACK TO THE PAST - The Journey starts

Hey you. Here's a new story that's been going around in my head for a while. I've continued watching the series Outlander in the last few days and got the urge to work on this story again. I confess that I'm a huge fan of Diana Gabaldon and I had a hard time with the series because I imagined the characters in the books to be different, but it's not that bad, although not nearly as good as the Books. Ultimately, its theme of traveling in time thanks to a stone circle and the fact that there was actually a stone circle in season 5 (I discovered it during an FMS marathon), plus some information in season 13, served as an idea for this story. Now that you know the background to this story, I hope you enjoy reading it.

"What are you reading?" Sam asked Penny as he plopped down on the couch next to her. They had the late shift today and would soon be finishing work, so he had done one last walk around so that everything would be ready for their colleagues tomorrow morning. Penny was leaning on the armrest with her back and her legs bent and he followed suit on the other side and looked at her as she gave him a quick smile and lifted the book up enough so that he could read the title.

"Outlander?" He looked at the cover for a moment, which showed a view out of an old castle window on a beautiful hilly landscape. "What's this about?" he then asked her as he returned his attention to her face. She was completely transfixed by the book and he loved just looking at her, but more than that he loved talking to her and learning about what was so captivating her.

"It initially takes place in the 1940s. She was a nurse who worked in a military hospital during the war and her husband was a soldier. After the war they honeymooned in Scotland and she traveled through a stone circle into the past where she has difficulty gaining a foothold, not least because she is an emancipated Englishwoman in an 18th century Scotland hostile to the English."

"Traveling into the past? Through a stone circle?" Sam objected skeptically, wondering for a moment at the imagination that some authors displayed.

"Why not? There are many stories and books about how stone circles are gateways to another world or time. In the past, they served as spiritual places of power where the gods were worshiped. Especially on the old Celtic holidays, it is said that these boundaries should be very thin and can be exceeded, such as summer and winter solstices, Beltane or Samhain"

"We also have a stone circle at the top of Pontypandy Mountain but I've never heard of anyone disappearing there."

"Were there any missing people in the city?" Sam shrugged.

"Norman's father disappeared without a trace as soon as the boy was born, but that must certainly have another cause. I'm guessing the one that starts with D and ends with ilys or Norman's screaming was as unbearable back then as it is today ."

"Sam!" Penny replied sternly and nudged his knee with her foot, but he saw a smile on her face that she was more or less trying to hide behind the book.

"Tonight is the Spring equinox. Let's go up and take a look right after shift."

"I don't know, Sam. These mystical powers shouldn't be played with and I feel extremely comfortable in our time," she replied with a smile, but he could tell she was getting a little nervous.

"Don't you dare?" he teased her with a grin and she looked up at him, annoyed but smiling. "So you really believe this nonsense?" he then objected, amused.

"Be careful what you say. There is probably more between heaven and earth that we still don't understand or know than you can imagine."

"Which is just an excuse for you to be scared." He hoped so much that she would agree. It was a full moon and a nighttime walk alone with her under the stars, far from the city and all the nosy troublemakers, might give him the opportunity for a particularly romantic moment in which he finally found the courage to confess his feelings to her.

"I'm a firefighter, rescue diver and do extreme climbing in my free time. What should I be afraid of?"

"Then prove it."

"Is this going to be a competition or something? Can I make a wish if I prove to you that I'm not afraid?" she teased him and he shrugged his shoulders.

"If it helps you conquer your fear?! Of course you can," he agreed willingly. No money in the world would pay for a nighttime walk with her.

"Okay. There are eight more books in this series. You owe them to me."

"Eight more?" he wondered out loud and looked at the book in her hands again. If they were all that fat, he probably wouldn't be able to lure Penny out from behind the books for the next few months. But it was definitely worth it."Okay. Deal." He looked at his watch and stood up to take her hand. "Then come on. It's 10 p.m. It's the end of the day and we have a long way to go."

Penny looked up at him with a smile before putting the bookmark in her book and setting it aside to let him help her up.

"Let's go with Mercury. If we don't make a time jump, we'll be back by morning. In case we don't come back, I'll write Ellie a message so she knows where to pick up Mercury," she said as she slipped on her shoes and pulled out her cell phone.

Sam watched her for a second, smiling, before he went down into the hall and opened Mercury's gate. He pushed it out and closed the gate again, just as Penny stepped out the side door and locked it behind her. She had his jacket with her and threw it to him. Even though the days were warm, the nights were quite cool.

Without a word, Penny let Sam take the wheel and climbed up behind him. They had never used Mercury together, unless they had taken one of the children with them. Sitting behind Sam now, being so close to him, made her heart beat faster. For a moment she wished she could wrap her arms around him, but instead she reached behind her and held onto the top case bracket. It would definitely make Sam uncomfortable if they got too close.

Half an hour later they reached the foot of the hill where the stone circle was. She had often been here herself, but never on a day like this, which was sacred to the ancient Celts. She was surprised for a moment that Sam didn't drive right up to the stone circle when he stopped and turned off the engine. But he quickly dismounted and held out his hand to help her down as he explained his actions: "I thought we'd walk a little. It's a beautiful night and we don't want to scare the fairies and mystical powers. "

"Don't be so disrespectful to the old beliefs, Sam! People used to believe that the gods or fairies would punish them for it."

"We have Norman Price in town. What punishment could be worse than the mischief he gets up to," he replied with a grin as they climbed up the trail and Penny laughed quietly.

The path was more impassable in the dark than expected and many a time Penny supported Sam when he stumbled or Sam gave her a hand to catch her when she stumbled until they finally reached the stone circle. They both stood there for a moment and even Sam had to admit that he felt uneasy for a moment. At night this place was rather eerie, especially as light clouds of mist still floated over the ground between the stones.

He took a deep breath and entered the stone circle before turning to Penny, who was still standing at the edge.

"So? What is it? Do you want to fill your bookshelf or not?" he teased with a grin and received an annoyed look before Penny visibly took a breath and followed him. "So, what's in your book? What do we have to pay attention to so we can escape the time jump?"

"Don't make fun of this, Sam," she grumbled, a little offended, and gently but firmly hit him with the back of her hand in his stomach in a warning gesture before she walked towards the stone in the middle. She felt Sam following her. "In the book it said that she heard a humming that got louder and louder and she traveled in time when she touched the menhir in the middle," she explained to him now and hesitated a moment with her raised hand before she placed it on the stone. Nothing happened. There was no humming sound. Everything stayed as it was. She looked back at Sam. "I guess we're lucky and the fairies don't have any plans for us."

"Like I said, it's all nonsense!" he replied with a smile as he leaned next to her on the menhir, which she was still touching.

At that moment events came to a head. The mist shot up like a geyser and enveloped them so that they could barely see each other. A screeching noise hurt in their ears. Wind came up and tugged at them, making them feel like they were in the eye of a tornado. Sam just managed to grab Penny's arm so as not to lose sight of her when everything around them went black.

To be continued...