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Rowan woke up flat on her face and it seemed all too familiar. Only this time she wasn't in the middle of a street in 1920, she was on a glossy wooden floor back in the future. Or rather her present. She looked around in uncertainty as to where she was and as she did she spotted Tommy also struggling to stand up.
"Oh no... oh God no. Not this. Anything but this." She muttered, knowing what had happened. "Rowan? Are you alright?" He rushed to his feet with dizziness causing him to tumble. They heard voices that weren't familiar at all. "We need to get out of this house Tommy." "Why?"
"Because it's not your house anymore."
She grabbed his hand and snuck out of the house running through the garden and heading to her own house. Tommy looked at her confused, and then he caught on. "You've got be fuckin' kiddin' me?" She shook her head and dragged him through the fields before she met with her back garden, overrun with police cars.
"Oh for God sake." She said before telling Tommy to remain here. She ran toward the police to see them in her house searching. "I'm here! I'm here!" She fainted into an officers arms and immediately proceeded with her plan. The officers pulled her aside and began to question her, she explained from the beginning. They had decided to let the museum incident slide but they wanted to know where she disappeared. "I woke up in the fields, I must have passed out from where I hit my head in the museum... which I'm sorry about. Someone must have taken me there-..." Rowan was cut off by a familiar voice, a refreshing voice.
"Rowan!" "It's okay, let him through." Malachi ran through and pulled Rowan up from her sitting position into a hug. "We'll talk about this another time Miss Lochwood. Get some sleep." She nodded to the police man while her and Malachi continued their embrace. He smiled down at her and stroked her face that had specs of dirt on it. "What are you wearing?" He asked, moving Tommy's coat to see the dress she had been wearing for the club. "I have a lot to explain, but first I'd like you to meet someone. One moment." Malachi noticed the way she talked and how much her stammer had improved. He watched her wander off into the tree line and begin walking back with a man by her side. He was dressed like someone from the 1920s with a peaked cap firmly on his head.
Tommy looked up from under the cap and saw the man he had learnt to be Malachi. He was tall and muscular with a intrigued look on his face, he knew this was gonna be a difficult one to explain. "Malachi, lets go inside and we can..." Rowan paused as she noticed the men eyeing each other up "discuss this." "Who is this guy?" Malachi asked and Tommy chuckled. "And here I thought you studied me?"
"Excuse me? Who the fu-..." "Oi... be nice. Come on, let's talk about this inside." Rowan led Malachi into the house whilst Tommy admired the architecture, though of course not showing his pleasure in entering such a sterling house. He looked around at the grandness of it all and couldn't quite believe that Rowan had lived here alone and managed to upkeep such a commendable standard. He was impressed, which was a rarity.
Rowan directed them both into the lounge where she directed Malachi to sit while she made Tommy stand. "Malachi, before you tell me this is ridiculous. Just here me out... I-... I lied to that police man, and the reason is..." as Rowan began to tell the story of her breaking into the museum, Malachi sat still and listened. He didn't interrupt nor attempt to be ignorant but was attentive to exactly what she had to say. Tommy stood by and watched her plead with him to believe her while Malachi looked at Tommy in consternation but held a certain amount of stupefaction when it came to Rowan's story.
"And that's how we ended up here. Now we've got to find that broach again and send Tommy back to his time." All was quiet as she came to an end and Tommy stood by watching the awkward encounter between them. The man stood, looked to Tommy and punched him square in the face. Rowan screamed and stood in front of the brick house of the man she called best friend. Tommy stumbled back but had barely any after effects, it was like he had been flicked on the nose.
"Malachi-..." "What the Hell have you been putting in her head?! She's been through fucking Hell and you think you have the right to manipulate and drug her to get what you want. Even the fancy dress costume was a must." Rowan grabbed his face and pulled him down to her level before slapping him.
She looked back at Tommy and walked over, caressing the side of his face that had been hit. A bruise would form but she knew it was hardly anything to Tommy. "How dare you! I come in here, pour my heart out and tell you what hell I've been through then you punch my friend in the face, who saved my skin. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have come back I would've been laying the street dead and in a time I didn't belong in. I have never ever condoned violence and you know that it hurts me, yet you do it in front of me."
"Rowan, he's manipulating you. I just want to help but you don't understand. This guy, whoever the hell he is, isn't Tommy Shelby. He's long gone Rowan, whoever he is has drugged you and made you think something you're not thinking." She shook her head. "Tommy Shelby had two stab wounds and two gun shot wounds yes?" Malachi looked at her with a shake of his head before Rowan turned to Tommy. "Tommy take your shirt off please, we need to prove this."
Tommy rolled his eyes before removing his jacket, waistcoat then shirt. The wounds were evident. I walked up to them and touched them with my nails to prove they were no prosthetics. By this time Malachi was dumbfounded. "Okay... so what if I believe you? It's not possible. Rowan how?" "I don't know... I don't know. I just-..." Rowan looked up, tears in her eyes from the stress of her past week.
"I can't Malachi, I just can't do this."
Rowan picked up the bottom of her dress and ran to her room, falling on her soft springy mattress that felt like home. Meanwhile, Tommy was dressing himself cautiously, preparing for any other approaches for hostility from Rowan's difficult friend. "She got anymore friends like you I should be worried about?" He said and Malachi sat with his hands laced together, his mouth pressed against them in a thinking state. "She hasn't got any friends apart from me... she hasn't had anyone for a long time. Not since her parents."
"Ah yes, well, my parents are gone too and I don't want anything to do with them." He rolled his eyes and looked up at Tommy. "Your parents; your time is different. Rowan was 18 but had the innocence and stupidity of an 8 year old. She has no street smart qualities, almost got bloody kidnapped before. What I'm trying to say is...
She been through a lot and she doesn't need things like this to be happening."
