Bathed Silver in Mercury

XI. Elerie

Jenny excused herself, saying she had to make a phone call. With that she too disappeared, leaving Elerie alone.

She sighed. Maybe Nick was right, and she was just crazy. He hadn't said it, but the look he'd given her was enough. No, no why was she thinking that, and why did she care at all what he thought?

It was kind of funny, in a way, they'd met at a pub not unlike this one, but in London. She didn't know what made her think of this suddenly, but she did. That had been ten years ago - they'd met, gotten married three years later, were married for four years, and now divorced for three. A lot had happened in those ten years.

The pub had actually been surprisingly quiet for a Saturday night, especially considering the downpour outside. She had been in the middle of working towards her Ph.D., and her cousin had somehow managed to convince her to take a break from her studies and join her and her fiancé at a local pub.

An hour later she'd had enough, but now felt responsible for her now drunken friends, so she went up to the bar and took a seat on one of the stools.

"One special please," she told the bartender. Then she buried her face in her hands and exhaled a heavy sigh.

"Long day?"

She looked up at the sudden voice to find that whoever it was had definitely been speaking to her. A man sat a couple of stools down from her, drink in hand. He was American.

She nodded over to the booth she had been sitting at. "See the couple over there snogging in the corner? That's my cousin and her fiancé."

"Ah." He nodded and took a sip of his drink. "Third-wheel?"

"I guess so. It was supposed to be a double date - her idea, not mine - but he never showed. I could be back home studying myths and magic in Medieval Europe and instead I'm stuck here waiting for some asshole and keeping an eye on my drunken friends."

"Sounds great."

"You have no idea." The bartender placed her drink down before her. "Thank you."

"Cheers." The man held up his drink. She touched her glass to his. There was a pause as both took a drink.

"How about you?" she asked. "What brings you here to this English pub on a blustery night?"

"I'm in the U.S. military, and I have a few days here before being shipped out the rest of the way. This is my first night. Know any good stuff to do?"

"Well there's always the classics, like Tower of London, The Globe Theatre, Buckingham Palace. But I also know a whole list of castles and supposedly haunted and/or magical places, if that's of any interest."

"Huh, interesting. So you're into that stuff, huh?"

"Yeah it's always been an interest of mine. I'm actually studying it - well, sort of, on top of being an archaeologist."

"Oh, so you're Doctor..."

She chuckled. "You flatter me Sir. Not Doctor yet, not until I get my Ph.D., which I'm actually working on right now. What, you don't believe in that sort of thing?"

"Well..." He gave a little shrug.

"Oh come on, where's your sense of adventure?" The first of many times she would say that to him, unbeknownst to them at the time.

She had then launched into explaining her love for all that stuff. It was when she'd been talking for almost ten solid minutes that she realized she was blabbing. She cut herself off and smiled sheepishly. "Sorry, don't get me started. I could talk about this for hours."

"No, no, please continue," he said. "I like your enthusiasm."

They ended up talking for hours. She learned that his name was Nick Morton and that he was hoping to soon be promoted to Sergeant. They even ended up splitting a dessert. By the end of the night, she was glad that what's-his-name hadn't shown up for the double-date.

And the best part? He had actually listened to every word she said, really listened.

"Will I ever see you again?" She had to ask.

He smiled and nodded. "Yeah."

Six months later she was finally Doctor Taylor, and was giving a talk in Glasgow at the university about old Celtic myths and magic. She had been surprised to say the least when after the talk one of the audience members waited around until she was about to leave to come talk to her.

He'd had a bouquet of flowers with him. "Congratulations, Doctor Taylor." He was on leave back in the UK and had heard about a talk being given by a certain Doctor Taylor. She had been very touched to say the least and they'd gone out in celebration afterwards, of her becoming Doctor, and he becoming Sergeant. The start of something special.

Funny how something like that could end so quickly, there one moment, gone the next. Love was funny that way.

(I feel like that's a good note to end on :) thanks so much for reading, hope you enjoyed! And don't worry, we'll get to see Ahmanet herself very soon!)