Whitechapel Vengeances

Epilogue

2069
~~~

Sitting in my office wasn't normally what I liked about being a Chronicler. I was usually one of the first time travelers to spring to the Terminal room and go off on a time traveling escapade, but every now and then I had paperwork to fill out, and now was one of those times.

My desk was a mess because I was a mess of a person, but I always knew where everything was, and there were some distinguishable features that I liked to look at from time to time.

There was the old-fashioned framed photograph of an old daguerreotype of a man and woman with their four children as they stood in front of a house clearly in the countryside.

A note in the edge of the photo had the delicate cursive writing: Moved to our new house in Yorkshire, June 17, 1898. Love, Jean and Katherine Lafaille and family.

It had been hard leaving Jean behind in a completely different century, and even harder to behave like he was dead. When I told The Board of Quality Control I had burst into tears because I thought I'd never see him again, but The Board had thought I'd been grieving.

My father (and Dale) hadn't been as convinced and I'd later told him how Jean had started a life with Kitty back in the Victorian era and they lamented the loss of a great friend, but wished him the best of luck in his new life, a life I was still involved with even though we were over a century apart.

I'd still get letters in the mail that had been preserved with the instructions not to be opened until certain holidays in my present, that had been mailed from the 1800s.

Over the years I'd received the news of Jean and Kitty's marriage as well as the births of their children (Margot, Pierre, Cecilia, and Charles whom they lovingly called Charlie).

So in a way Jean was gone, but never truly out of mind, and I thought it very much his style.

There was a newspaper clipping of a story, not a national headline, but an important one to me from a few decades before my time: 108-Year-Old London Woman Proudly Sees Margaret Thatcher Become PM After Decades of Claiming She'd See First Female Prime Minister.

Lulu had kept her promise and had lived to see Margaret Thatcher enter 10 Downing Street with her seven children, fourteen grandchildren, and twenty-eight great-grandchildren. I was so proud when I'd found the story that I thought my heart would burst.

Looking to the wall I saw the picture of my other great accomplishment. When I'd been awarded the medal of Temporal Vigilance in having correctly uncovered one of time's most mind-boggling mysteries. Who was Jack the Ripper? Had been my obsession since I'd gotten my license at the age of twenty-one, and now I had answered.

At twenty-six I'd seen more in my time then most would ever see.

I'd seen Florence Nightingale at work during the Crimean War. I'd seen Queen Victoria ascend the throne at the youthful age of eighteen. I'd witnessed the First Opium War, and watched with a broken heart as the Irish famine took so many lives and although I helped as many as I could there still so many lost.

The Victorian Era was merely sixty-nine years. Less then most people's life times and yet so much had happened and my greatest accomplishment was identifying a murderous serial killer.

Because of the small ripple in catching the killer sooner then the original timeline meant that the victims of Jack the Ripper were known as the Canonical Three rather then the Canonical Five, and subsequent murders were dissuaded by a rumored group of prostitutes who called themselves the Whitechapel Avengers.

It really made me think in terms of what else I wanted to accomplish, what more did I want from life? For the first time in a long time I didn't know the answer.

A knock on my door sounded and I looked up to see the young woman at my door.

She had light brown skin that striking against pale green eyes and she looked at me with a shy smile as she stepped through my office door hesitantly.

"Um, Ms. Lore?" The girl asked hesitantly.

"Yes, that's me," I leaned back in my chair and looked at the young woman before standing up and looking her over to note how much taller I was then her.

She stuck out her hand to me and gave me an eager smile.

"Hi, I'm Serena Belmont, your new partner. I'm so looking forward to learning so much from you." Serena's smile was infectious and I managed to smile as I shook her hand.

"How old are you, Belmont?" I asked.

"Just turned twenty-four, Miss," Serena smiled nervously. "I've wanted to be a Chronicler since I was little, and I would've taken the test sooner, but I had to help out at home—I come from this really tight-knit Southern family you see—My big brother got married and it was a whole thing, but I'm here now and I don't plan on disappointing. I absolutely love the Victorian Era and know all there is to know about your investigation on the murderer formerly known as Jack the Ripper who has henceforth been identified as Verity Channing."

"I don't think you will, Belmont, glad to have you along," I smiled and went back to my desk looking over my tablet and smiling when I saw what I had scheduled. "So, are you ready for your first mission, rookie?"

Serena's eyes got big with excitement and I remembered when my father first took me on a mission.

"Am I ever!? Where are we going?" Serena was practically leaping over the moon.

"Well I wonder if you can tell me what significant event happened on February 10, 1840?" I watched as Serena thought long and hard before giving me the factual answer.

"Well that would be the day Queen Victoria married Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg," I watched as Serena's eyes suddenly flashed. "Wait? Are we going to the wedding?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact we are," I declared with a beaming smile.

Serena let out a whoop of joy and I remembered a time when I'd been as optimistic to time travel as she looked right now.

"Let's go down to Clem to get our costumes and we'll be on our way."

Serena practically raced ahead of me as I followed thinking of my own personal new era with a new partner, and apprentice for a whole new experience of adventures with her fresh eyes.

A/N (10/5/19): I FINISHED!!! I don't feel like a failure anymore, and I have actual accomplishment in my soul. Things are nice on the other side of freedom and I can't wait for what happens next with Charlie and her new partner Serena—who for any of you avid readers of mine she has a familiar last name.

So it might've taken me nine months to finish an other wise simple story, but that just goes to show that we should never underestimate what we assume to be simple.