By Slider Sarah

In their one of their favourite suites at the Chandler hotel, at least on most worlds, Mike and Connor sat slouched in the armchairs in front of the television. Connor held the remote idly in one hand, flicking channels, yet not pausing long enough at most to see if there was indeed anything interesting. He was just passing the time.

Behind them, Laurie was running around like a madwoman, trying to find all her things. Nearly three weeks here and they’d begun to feel like it was sort of a second home. "Hey, have either of you guys seen my sunglasses?"

"They’re on the floor by the cabinet in the bedroom," Connor offered, still not removing his eyes from the somewhat hypnotic channel-surfing.

Laurie marched into the bedroom and came ou brandishing them. "If you knew they were on the floor, I suppose it was too much trouble to pick them up? They’re all bent out of shape now!" There was no immediate answer. "Well??"

This time Connor unglued his eyes and actually paid attention. "Sorry… I meant to… and then I forgot. Chuck ‘em here." Laurie obliged and Connor began to try and reshape them. After a few minutes of intense staring from Laurie, he threw them back. "Try them now."

"Hmph. Thanks, I suppose," she replied, before resuming her mad rush around the suite. Finally Laurie seemed to have everything and she joined them in the lounge area.

Mike jumped up with unprecendented energy. "Come on Connor, get your ass in gear."

"What? Aren’t we waiting for Stephen to come back?

"Weren’t you listening? We’re meeting him near the statue in the park about half an hour before we leave."

Connor shook his head. "Er no, apparently not."

"Is he okay?" Laurie asked, slighty concerned. "He keeps going off on his own and when we do see him, he just looks kinda… I dunno… depressed."

Both of the guys stared at her for a moment, then looked at each other. "Didn’t you tell her?" Mike demanded of Connor.

"What do you mean, ‘Didn’t I tell her?’" Connor retorted with a hint of anger underlying his tone. "You said you would do it as I couldn’t be trusted to remember!"

Now Mike was looking indignant. "No," he said very slowly, and quite loudly, "I said I wasn’t sure I could trust you to remember to tell, but I was going to anyway!"

"No, you said…"

At this point Laurie violently interrupted. "Will one of you just tell me!" she thundered, making the two guys just stop dead and stare at her open mouthed.

They looked at each other again. "Oh, you go ahead," Connor offered with fake generosity.

"Er, okay." Mike began to talk, but did not look directly at Laurie, as if he was a little embarrassed. "He’s always like this around this time of year. It’s coming up to his wife and kids’ birthdays and it gets him down. Very down."

It was Laurie’s turn to stare in disbelief. "Is that all? Why was that so hard to tell me?"

Connor shrugged. "I dunno. It just was. But it hasn’t been helping that your double on the last world kept coming on to him."

Laurie said nothing to that, but Mike took the opportunity to hurry everyone along anyway. "Why do we have to go now anyway? The Slide isn’t for three hours yet!" the lone female complained. "Couldn’t I have had more of a lie-in?"

"You’ve had a lie-in every day this week, since you’ve been working afternoons!" Laurie raised a hand to object, but Mike cut her off. "Okay, except for Wednesday. But you know we can’t slide here because the cleaner could come at any time. It’s just on of those things."

The three of them gathered their bags and began to head off for a final bit of site-seeing and perhaps one more look at the curiosity that was pink replica of the Titanic. As she closed the door behind her, Laurie mumbled, "Well, you’d need another lie-in as well if you’d been working as a waitress in a dingy restaurant instead of a car park attendant."

* * *

The gateway from another dimension spat the four Sliders visciously out of it and onto the soft earth in the middle of a beautiful garden.

"Looks a little deserted, don’t you think?" Connor shook the dirt from his clothes and looked around. "Oh, maybe not."

A little boy, about five years old, peered at them from behind a perfectly pruned tree and then ran away calling for his mother. The mother appeared a few seconds later and snarled, "What sort of an example is that to set! If adults can’t behave how am I supposed to teach my child to? You should be ashamed of yourselves!" at them before stalking away, child in hand. "Come along Tommy, let’s find somewhere quieter."

Three of the interdimensional travellers double up with mirth once the woman had left, but Stephen didn’t even seem to notice that she’d even been there. Laurie shot a worried glance at him, but Mike just shook his head at her. Even then, Stephen seemed oblivious to everything that was going on around him.

"Well, at least we know there’s life here, civilised or otherwise!" said Connor brightly. "It must be some kind of gardens."

Mike agreed with him. "Yeah, and if that’s the type of clientele they get here, we might want to try and find our way out of here."

The four of them cleaned themselves using the fountain in the centre and then followed the signs depicting ‘exit.’ For once the signs actually made sense and despite Laurie’s efforts, they avoided the maze that was one of the main attractions of the gardens. Soon they found a more normal state of affairs, as leaving the trees behindthem they discovered a city, albeit one without such tall buildings as some they’d seen.

The gardens actually emerged onto what appeared to be quite a busy street. Just outside the gate, a man with a makeshift jewellry stall was selling his wares. "Oh, please can we look! Please!" she begged, but without waiting for an answer she’d already made her way towards it, grabbing Connor by the arm and dragging him with her, thus compelling the others to follow.

"Come people, buy your mandatory bands here! All colours, cheap prices! Come buy them now, don’t be caught out! Lost or broken, don’t miss this opportunity to buy a replacement, or even just a spare! You won’t get proces lower anywhere else!"

Raised eyebrows were shared between the four, this time even including Stephen, who had started paying attention after the word, ‘mandatory.’ Laurie glanced at Mike for confirmation that she should go ahead. "Uh... I’ll take a blue one."

"Yeah, same here, blue." added Mike. "How about you Connor, didn’t you say you lost yours?"

For a second Connor ws fazed. "Oh, er, yeah it did. I’ll take a…" his eyes wandered around the colours on the stall, "a red."

The stall holder smiled at him. "Got someone special, young man?" he asked as he held out a red band.

Connor almost snatched the band from the man. "Never you mind!"

"Okay, okay!" he protested. "I was just curious!" He turned towards Stephen. "How about you? You need one too?"

Nodding somberly, Stephen said simply, "Black please."

"Can’t you think of something more interesting than black?" Connor made a half-hearted attempt to tease his friend, expecting at least a tiny reaction from him.

But the stall holder butted in before Stephen even had the chance. "Hey, if he wants black, he can have black! Leave the man in peace!"

Leaving Mike to pay the man for all four, Connor left before the stallholder had another go at him. The other caught up with him pretty quickly. "What was with with that man?"

Laurie shrugged as well as she could whilst wearing a very heaving backpack. "He did seem a little odd. So what now?"

"Find somewhere to stay," replied Mike. "We’re here for nearly five days and considering we stayed at the Chandler last time, and it’s not long enough to work, I think we should find somewhere a bit cheaper."

"Maybe see if there’s a Motel 12?" offered Connor. "They’re always pretty cheap, and not too bad either."

Shifting his own backpack around, Mike asked, "Do you know where it is?"

"Of course."

"Then let’s go!"

* * *

After several wrong turns and quite a lot of confusion, Connor had finally found the Motel 12. It wasn’t one the Sliders had used before, even before the addition of Laurie to the team. Every time someone asked Connor how he knew about the place, he very carefully evaded the question. It seemed he didn’t plan on divulging that information.

The suite they’d managed to get was considerable smaller than the ones they were used to, but it was also considerably cheaper, and it still had everything they needed. Including a television, which after the four of them had decided on sleeping arrangements was where they had gathered.

"Er… if you don’t need me, I think I’m gonna go out for a while." It was the first time Stephen had volunteered any information for a while.

Connor stood up as if to follow him. "Want some company? I’m getting a bit bored of the TV to be honest."

There was a difficult pause. "Not really. Sorry."

Sitting back down again, Connor let him leave. Once Stephen had left the room, he said, "I think you may be right to be worried, Laurie. I swear he’s getting worse."

"Nah, it’s just been a while since he got this bad. A year in fact," Mike replied. "It’ll pass eventually."

"Yeah, well let’s hope we don’t need him while he’s in this mood." Connor got up again, walked around the room a few times, then sat back down for the second time.

Mike turned away from the television screen. "Are you sure you’re okay?"

"Yes… no… I’m just bored," conceeded Connor eventually. "And I don’t think we should have let him go off alone. We still don’t know why these are mandatory." He indicated the red band around his right wrist. "Are you sure they’re nothing about them anywhere?"

He got a newspaper thrown at him by Laurie. "Check it yourself. I already went through it twice. And you know yourself there was nothing on the TV that we found."

Connor threw back at her. "I think I’ll take your word for it. Fancy coming out for a look around with me?" His eyes were pleading; evidently he was very bored.

She screwed up her face in indecision. "Would you mind if I said no? After landing in all that dirt all I want to do right now is have a nice, long, hot bath." At the thought of the bath she relaxed visibly and Connor knew he couldn’t make her forgo that one luxury. She’d never forgive him.

"It’s okay, don’t worry about it. How about you Mike? Fancy a stroll? After all, you guys had all the fun a couple of Slides back… I need some excitement to, y’know!"

Laurie snorted at the mention of the world where her double was America’s dictator. That wasn’t the kind of fun they enjoyed, and in fact, most of the time it had been either deathly dull or deathly annoying.

"Nah, don’t think so, mate," Mike drawled without really paying him proper attention. "I think I’ll just stick around here for a while, see if I can find anything on the TV about the bands. You go, it’ll be fine."

It didn’t seem like there was any arguing with anyone. Connor really began to lament the fact that he hadn’t just gone with Stephen anyway. Sure, he might not be great company in this mood, but bad company was better than no company. But he wasn’t going to hang around in the suite all day.

He watched as Laurie turned the taps on and began to gather everything she needed for her bath. Considering she only had one rucksack to take from world to world, she certainly managed to get a lot of luxuries in there. Eventually she closed the door and the sound of running water stopped. Seeing that Mike really was going to mooch around the suite watching television for a while, Connor gathered a few things and went off. Perhaps he’d find something at least marginally interesting out there.

* * *

Out and about this world didn’t seem very different from his own. Connor could see different coloured bands on every single person, and no one seemed to be that bothered about his. But that didn’t help him to find out what their meaning actually was. It wasn’t something you could just go up and ask about. Evidently everyone already knew what they were for.

Basically, the place seemed like a general industrialised world, with most of the same amenities that could have been found on his own world before the invasion. Yet while this was normally at least marginally comforting, the aspect of the bands was still weighing heavily on Connor’s mind.

A jeweller’s revealed more designer bands, rather than the basic ones that he and the others had purchased, but still no signs to tell him what they were for. Perhaps they were some kind of tracer? There was nothing to suggest otherwise, but nothing to support it either, and that might mean they were wearing conterfeit ones, if only for visual reasons.

"Where HAVE YOU BEEN! You haven’t called me in DAYS!"

Connor whirled round to find himself faced by a very loud brunette, who also seemed to be abour five months pregnant. "I… er… do I know you?"

She slapped him harshly across the cheek. "You know damn well who I am, and don’t think you can weasel out of a public scene this time! You are going to help me bring up YOUR child, and I don’t care what other ‘problems’ you have in your life right now! You’re not getting away with it."

Rubbing his cheek, Connor tried to cut off her diatribe but without much success. "Look, you’ve got it all wrong."

"Oh have I indeed? I suppose you’ll be telling me you’ve been at work the past few days? Well, that won’t cut in anymore!"

"But…"

"I suppose you’ll be too busy to see me now because you have to work? No, don’t answer, it’s always the same crap. But this time, I’m going to walk you to work and make sure you go! And there’s no getting out of it anymore! You’ll go to work and you’ll STAY there! I know all about you kicking off early to spend time with your little fancy women!"

By now, there was quite a crowd forming around the pair of them, staring at the domestic that appeared to be going on in front of them. Some of the spectators even started cheering as the pregnant brunette delivered her penetrating verbal blows.

Suddenly she grabbed Connor by the arm and started to pull him along the pavment. "Oh no, no getting out of it this time, mister. and you’d BETTER hope that you have been at work!"

As Connor wasn’t expecting such force, he nearly went flying, but managed to steady himself just in time. Her grip on his arm was ridiculously strong and he didn’t want to hurt a woman, let along a pregnant one. There didn’t seem to be any other option than to follow her. Perhaps when he go to ‘work’ she’d leave him alone. It was obvious she though he was his double, which begged the question, what had his double got himself into?

* * *

Back in the gardens where they had entered into this world, Stephen sat on a bench next to a stream. Alone. The sound of the water running over the stones and pebbles was relaxing, but not reassuring. Nothing was reassuring. The presence of the others served simply to exacerbate the things he was feeling.

Guilt, regret, the feeling that if only he had been there it wouldn’t have happened, these feelings dominated every part of him and wouldn’t go away. If he’d only arrived a few minutes earlier, he could have done something. Anything. They would still be here. Alive.

Silent tears dripped down his cheeks. The boys would have been nearly nine now. It would be their birthday on Saturday, and Diana’s three days later. Only two worlds ago he’d seen her again. She’d been even more beautiful that ever, but he’d been forced to wipe that wonderful smile off her face just so he could Slide again. So he could avenge their deaths. Without her help he would never even had a chance. But she could never understand the pain that stabbed at his heart when he saw her, Hell, even every time he thought about her and the boys! Most of the time he could keep his mind on other things. But not now. Not after seeing her again, not when it would have been their birthdays. It just wasn’t possible.

But Stephen had had no vengeance yet. Not really. And their deaths still lay heavily on his conscience.

His eyes wandered across the path and settled on a pair of boys playing with the water of the stream. Nearby their parents watched. Perhaps this was what his family wouuld have been like. Perhaps somewhere out there that was what his family was like, though that didn’t help to deaden his personal pain. He had still watched them all die, yet he had somehow survived.

Eventually, he stood up and left. He just couldn’t watch anymore. It was just too damn hard.

* * *

Connor was dragged through the streets amid more stares. Thankfully, though, the pregnant brunette, who’s name Connor still didn’t know, had stopped shrieking at him, which at least gave him the chance to recover his sense of feeling.

He was fairly sure that this didn’t have anything to do with his lack of knowledge about the bands, but still he couldn’t rule it out. What did his double actually do anyway?

As he began to move into streets he recognised from a long time ago in his mind, Connor’s dread grew. He had a horrible feeling that he knew exactly what his doube did for a living, and that was going to make things very difficult indeed.

The brunette stopped outside a big building, confirming Connor’s fears. "Right. You will be here the moment your shift finishes and I will make sure you go home!You’ll find it’s not as easy to brush me off as you think!"

Connor smiled weakly, hoping it didn’t show that he didn’t mean it in the slightest.

She wasted no time in forcing him through the double electric doors of the emergency department of the hospital. There, Connor was confronted with sights he hadn’t looked at properly in years. Yeah, he’d been in hospitals since, but always as a patient or with a patient. He remembered this place. It was different, but not so so different he couldn’t recognise it on sight. The hard plastic chairs that held those waiting for treatment, the vending machines that never gave you what you asked for, and the rush of people moving from one place to another in an effort to treat people in good time.

In many ways he hadn’t missed it at all. But last time he’d been here properly he had been a med-student, one who wasn’t even sure what field he wanted to go into. All of his rotations had taken place within these walls. His double had also followed a similar path, it seemed.

"Here." She shoved him hard in the back. "Go on, get started."

But she didn’t leave. Tentatively, Connor took a few steps towards the reception desk, hoping that somewhere along the way he could come up with something. She certainly wasn’t going to leave him alone until he did.

It turned out he didn’t have to. "Dr. Matthews! How good of you to grace us with your presence… and on time for once I see!" came a booming voice from the left of him.

Turning swiftly, Connor found himself faced by a very tall man in a white coat, carrying a clipboard. And from the sound of it, this was the attending. Quickly, he glaced at the badge pinned to the man’s chest. Dr. Anthony Brooks. Not someone Connor knew from his time here on his world. "Uh… yeah, I had company." He gestured towards the pregnant brunette.

Dr. Brooks nodded knowingly. "Nice to see you again, Gabrielle. But don’t worry now, I’ll take care of him for now."

Gabrielle stood there with her arms crossed in defiance for a few moments, before giving up and leaving. It didn’t seem she trusted Dr. Brooks any more than she did Connor.

As soon as the electric door closed behind her, Connor let out an audible sigh of relief.

A hand clapped him on the shoulder. "We weren’t expecting you in today, Connor, I thought you’d taken a few days to cope with the stress… y’know, before the hearing and all."

"Well, I didn’t really get a choice."

Again, Dr. Brooks seemed to understand. "Is she still hasseling you?"

"Er… yeah, you could say that."

He shook his head disapprovingly. "Well, it is mostly your own fault," he said, almost condescendingly. "I’ve warned you time and time again about your little… away games."

That seemed to explain things a little. Or at least explain why she was so angry. If his double didn’t seem able to commit to her, especially while she was pregnant, that was going to get her back up. But it was nothing Connor couldn’t have worked out himself, given the time. It was the mention of a hearing that intrigued Connor. And his presence was not going to help matters in that department. "If I’m not supposed to be on, well, I guess I can head back again."

"Oh no, I don’t think so. Gabrielle hates me enough as it is; I’m not going to go out of my way to piss her off. Beside, we could do with you today anyway. One of our interns is off with some bug. Food poisoning apparently, but between you and me, I think he just had a rather heavy night partying. But you can give us a hand anyway. It’ll keep her off your back."

Connor was thrown. "Er… right. Just basic stuff?"

Another hand clapped him on the shoulder and there was a loud guffaw. "Look at you, always tying to find the easy route. Yeah, just the basic stuff, unless we really need you for something. Wouldn’t want to throw you back in at the deep end, not after what happened last time!"

"Thanks," Connor replied, fervently hoping that they wouldn’t need him for anything that he wouldn’t have to do anything too difficult. He may have been a precocious med-student, with knowledge rivalling that of many interns, but there was no way he could pull off being a resident of the level he was supposed to be at. No way. The only training he’d had since the invasion was field training, so perhaps some of that may help, but still. Perhaps he’d just get stuck with stitches anyway. Hopefully. "I’ll just go get my stuff."

Heading off to the staff room, Connor took several more deep breaths. How was this happening? Was it really happening? He pinched himself just to make sure, but all that resulted in was several red marks appearing on his arm. Could he do this? He took another deep breath and leant on the back of the chair. He had to do this. There was no way he could leave now. There were too many people watching him, and then he’d be for it.

Luckily, all the lockers had names on them, so he had no trouble picking out his own. It even turned out that the code was the same one he used everywhere… 4-9-2-1.

Reluctantly Connor put on his double’s white coat and made his way back out to the floor. "Here goes nothing," he muttered to himself as he stepped out.

Dr. Brooks was waiting for him when he got out there. "Ah, Dr. Matthews. Here’s one for you. Nice and simple one for you to start with. Dog bite to the hand."

Taking the chart from his superior, Connor shuffled towards the curtain area. "Great," he said sarcastically. "Just want I always wanted." As he did so, everything came flooding back to him, including how much he generally hated going to work.

* * *

As Stephen walked around the city street, it began to rain. Not heavily, but enough to annoy. And he didn’t even have a coat, let alone an umbrella, although Stephen never carried an umbrella anyway. He looked up into the sky. It didn’t seem like this was just going to be a quick shower. Typical. It symbolised his mood really, but that didn’t mean he wanted to get wet.

Quickly, he darted into a little café just off the street. It looked expensive, but Stephen was pretty sure he could stretch to a simple cup of coffee.

It was strange. Walking towards the counter, he noticed several sympathetic nods in his direction. Too many for them to just be noticing his expression. Were these people psychic or something? No, they couldn’t be, otherwise someone would have said something about Sliding. Even the girl behind the counter seemed eager to help him, and with everyone else she seemed to be completely braindead.

Stephen took the one of the last few tables, as the café was now beginning to fill up, probably for the same reasons they Stephen himself had ducked inside. A glance outside showed him that it was indeed raining even harder and there were noticable less people out in it. He’d certainly picked the right time to come inside.

"Do you mind if I join you?"

He looked up to see a very bedragged woman standing in front of him, coffee in hand, shaking a little with the cole. "Well, I…er…"

"It’s okay," she added and held up her arm. "I’m in a similar boat to you." On her very pale arm dangled a black band.

Stephen didn’t really know what to say to that. "Well, I guess so."

She had in fact waited until he had answered. "Thank you so much. I’m Marie by the way." Although she was trying to be friendly, Stephen could sense a note of sadness. Slight, but it was still there.

"Stephen." He offered his hand briefly, but quickly withdrew it, his eyes returning to his coffee.

However Marie seemed to want to talk. "Look, I’m sorry if I’m intruding, but you look like you could do with a chat." Stephen looked up, but didn’t say anything. "I’ll start if you like. God knows I need to talk about this enough." She took a very deep breath. "I lost my little sister recently, in… er… not very nice circumstances. Actually it was horrific." She stopped again.

"You don’t have to do this," offered Stephen. "It’s hard, believe me, I know."

"Who did you lose?"

Shaking his head, the scientist said quietly, "I don’t really want to talk about it."

"I know it’s not considered good etiquette to try to push someone in times like this, but you really look like you need to talk about it. To paraphrase you, believe me, I know." Marie stood firm. "It’s obviously bothering you that much and I can tell you’re bereaved… badly if I may venture a guess," she added as an after thought.

Now Stephen was confused. "How do you know I’m bereaved."

"Duh! The band. Now, would you like to tell me about it?"

He shrugged. "I don’t suppose you’ll leave me alone if I don’t?"

"Not a chance," she smiled at him.

There really was no choice. She was as pushy as Laurie was sometimes, when she was being annoying. If he wanted to drink hise expensive coffee, Stephen decided he really was going to have to spill, however painful it might be. And anyway, who knows? She might be right and maybe it would help. Hell, it could get much worse. "I… er… lost my wife and both my children," he said, not looking her in the eye. "They… they were murderd." Well, that was completely true, but he should certainly not mention Kromaggs killed them.

Immediately she reached out and grabbed his hand, carefully avoiding the coffee which proceeded to spill a little over the edge. "I’m so sorry…I don’t kow what to say really. It must be even worse to loose children."

"And… and I watched them die," he continued. "The… man… who did it shot me in the shoulder and left me for dead, but I couldn’t help them. I watched them die in front of me."

Marie bit her lip in an attempt to resist the urge to just go round the table and hug her new friend. "I’m sorry, if you don’t want to talk about it, just stop, honest. I won’t push any further." In truth she was already feeling guilty for forcing him.

"No, it’s okay. You’re probably right. I should talk about it. I never have properly, and it been… well, it’s been a few years now. Normally I can cope, but it would be their birthday on Saturday, and Diana’s on Tuesday. It just makes me think of the kind of presents I would have bought them. The sports they would have done, just things I lost… they lost." Now he’d started he no longer wanted to stop. "They were four when it happened," sensibly, he didn’t take heed of her horrified gasp. "I used to take them to swimming lessons. Diana used to take them to school, she was a teacher and it fir with her schedule, and I always used to say to myself that when they got older I could spend more time with them, show them some of my work, take them places and things. I never ever thought I wouldn’t get the chance. They were just such happy children. They didn’t deserve that."

She squeezed his hand gently. "I know what you mean. My sister was eighteen. I asked her to get some milk from the shop so I could make mash, and she never came back. Some maniac killed her. She had so much to offer. She was gonna be a nurse… she could have saved lives, but that bastard took it away from her. From all of us."

The hand was dropped and the pair of them just sat in silence for a moment, taking comfort in the fact that someone understood what they were going through. Finally Stephen ventured a question of his own. "Did they catch him?"

"Huh?"

"Did they catch the maniac? Did he get what he deserved?"

She straightened herself up. "Oh, yeah. He was a serial killer, but my sister was his last victim. He’s now on death row."

"Think youself lucky."

"Yours was never caught?"

Stephen shook his head. "No. But when I find him he’ll wish he had been." He pounded his fist into his hand.

Suddenly Marie stood up. "I’m sorry, I have to get to the bank now it’s stopped raining, but here." She thrust a flyer in front of him. "I’m going to this group tonight, one for the bereaved. I’ve never been before, but I’ve heard it really can help. Do you think you might like to come along?"

Running his eyes across the print, Stephen decided quickly it couldn’t hurt. "Why not. I don’t have any other plans."

"Great," Marie replied. "I don’t really want to go on my own. Meet you outside at 7?"

He nodded. "I should be able to find the place." Marie made a move to leave, but Stephen caught her arm. "Just one more thing quickly. You said the band showed you I was bereaved?"

"Well, yeah."

"Could you just humour me and tell me the other colours?"

Shrugging, she said, "I suppose. Black is bereaved. Blue means you’re single and looking for a bit of fun, amber that you’re single but only really looking for a relationship. Red means you’re in a committed relationship. White means you’re just not looking for anything at all. There are others as well, and variations, but those are the most common. Do you want me to go through the rest?" She seemed completely confused.

"No, that’s fine, thanks."

Once she was gone, Stephen pondered her words a little. If the bands related to your relationship status, then he really had to warn the others. Connor was okay, he had a red band, but Laurie and Mike both had blue and that could get them into trouble.

He swigged the remainder of the coffee down quickly, then made his own way out of the café. It had stoopped raining, but that might not last long. Hopefully Mike and Laurie would still be at the hotel.

As he ran, trying to make sure he didn’t get any wetter, Stephen suddenly realised that it had helped. There was still that burning pain in his heart, and he welled up every time he thought of their faces, but something had definitely helped him this afternoon. Marie had made him feel better, it was as simple as that. No one else had ever managed that since the invasion.

* * *

Connor leaned back against the wall of the store cupboard and let out a vey deep breath, purposely hitting his head on the wall. Could he really do this much longer? He’d been pulled up twice already for shoddy work, something the other residents had put down to ‘stress about the case’ even though Connor still didn’t know what the case was. Probably some form of malpractice, but the more that went wrong, the more trouble his double would get into.

He banged his head a few more times before deciding that he should get back to work. Now, where were the spare cotton pads? They had to be here somewhere, with the rest of the dressing equipment, but no one had thought to label anything. As usual. And it seemed to have suffered one of its random reorganisations, since Connor was sure it had been totally different earlier.

"I hope you haven’t been ignoring me, now that wouldn’t be right," said a sultry voice from behind him, and he felt a pinch on his behind.

Turning around, again, Connor found himself faced with a blonde nurse, most likely a colleague. "I… would I do that?"

She draped her arms around his neck and pulled him close to her. "Well, I heard Gabrielle earlier. I thought she might have broken you." The nurse placed a light kiss upon Connor’s lips. "Then I remembered that this was you we’re talking about. You’re not a true red-bander… but that’s whats so attractive."

"Right." He tried to push her away a little, but in spite of himself, he was quite intrigued. He didn’t even protest too much when she kissed him properly."

Pausing, she stepped away. "Are you alright? You’re never this cautious!"

Connor had to think quickly. "Brooks is keeping a close eye on me. And Gabrielle’s in one of those moods, she might turn up at any moment."

This seemed to satisfy the woman, and she relaxed. "Well, I’ll catch you later then." She winked at him and ran her hand down his cheek before grabbing a package and strutting out of the cupboard.

Mentally, Connor made a note to treat any woman as one of his double’s potential conquests unless there was evidence to the contrary. His double was far worse than he had ever been! But then again, would he have turned out like this if it wasn’t for drastic events?

One more smash of his head on the wall later, and he spotted the pads he was looking for. Someone had hidden them behind something else. Probably someone who didn’t have to find them.

He sighed and made his way back to work. Only a few more hours to go. All his breaks were already used up though, which meant he had to work those hours solid. Under a watchful eye. Fingers crossed he could just make it through without making anymore glaringly obvious mistakes. If he played his cards right, he wouldn’t have to come back tomorrow. Well, if he could escape the seeming hoardes of women. Then it wouldn’t matter anymore that he didn’t know what he was supposed to.

* * *

The door to the suite was locked when Stephen got there. Damn. That really didn’t bode well for them actually being ‘home.’ But it was worth a try anyway. The key clicked in the lock and Stephen pushed the heavy door open.

"Hello? Mike? Laurie? Anyone home?"

There was no one sat in front of the television, or in fact anywhere in the lounge area. Checking the bathroom revealed nothing but a wet floor and a few renegade bubbles in the tub. It was pretty obvious that Stephen was the only one here.

Where they’d gone Stephen didn’t know, but that wasn’t the issue. He did a quick sweep for a note, but there was nothing. He’ stopped by the bar downstairs on the way up, just in case, but they weren’t in there either. Well, he thought to himself, I did leave a while ago. They could be anywhere.

But Stephen didn’t really want to hang around here waiting for them. In fact he didn’t want to hang around here anyway. And if he was out and about, then theoretically he’d have more chance of finding them. He had to warn them about the bands, or they could get into trouble.

Eventually, he located a scrap of paper and a pen, and scribbled down a note, which he left by the telephone.

That done, Stephen decided to head back to the park. Although it wan’t a park on their world, it held a special significance in his eyes. Along one bank of the stream, he and Jonathan had buried their loved ones. A few others had as well, in the days that immediately followed the invasion. All there was on Earth 117 to signify their deaths, though, were carefully placed stones with initials carefully carved into them. Grass had grown over them, but flowers were always left.

This park wasn’t of their graves, Stephen knew that, but it was comforting to just sit by the parallel of where they lay. Perhaps any flowers he left on the exact spots would last more than five minutes, but even to Stephen, it was the thought that counted. And that was where he wanted to be, if he could be home.

* * *

"Uuurrrrgggghhhh." Laurie waltzed though the door and flopped onto the sofa, her bags sitting wherever they landed after a short flight. "Thank God that’s over with!" She didn’t move for a while, not even to press the button on the remote control, which happened to be next to her.

She sat like that for ten minutes, just resting and attempting to regain some of her relaxed feeling she had acquired from the bath.

"You home, Laurie?"

"Yeah, just by the sofa!" she replied, still not moving.

It was Mike. "Have you been SHOPPING???" he asked, incredulous.

Laurie shrugged. "Yeah, I have. What’s the problem?"

"We can’t afford for you to go shopping. You kow we’re on a limited budget here." Mike started pacing the room, as he was apt to do when he got annoyed. "You know how it is."

This time, Laurie moved. "Yeah, I know, I’m not a child, she returned angrly. "But clothes wear out and I need some new ones! And they were all bargins… look!" She started rooting around among the plastic bags and pulled out a pair of black trousers. "These were only ten dollars! And I bought a few tops as well… they were all about $5. Fantastic shop, if you ask me. Hard work though."

"Hmmm," Mike didn’t seem convinced but he did stop glaring at her.

Neither of them noticed that while Laurie had been moving bags around, looking for her new purchases, a piece of paper had slipped off the telephone table and fallen onto the floor.

"I wonder if it’s too early for me to start getting ready," Laurie mused. "I wasn’t planning on going out until nine or so." She started sifting through the bags again.

"You’re going out tonight?"

"Thought I might as well. Is there any reason why I shouldn’t?" she retorted, beginning to get a little riled again.

"No, no reason. Just though I might join you, if you don’t mind of course."

"Whatever, I guess."

"You going anywhere in particular?"

Laurie reached into her rucksack and pulled out a leaflet. "Thought I might check out this place, Varsity. It looks pretty good. And cheap too. They let older people in as well, apparently."

"Oh do they, indeed," he said menacingly. "I’m so glad."

But she seemed completely oblivious. "Yeah, so they might let you in." She looked him up and down. "You’ll definitely have to change though."

* * *

Stephen stood outside the meeting place, shifting his weight awkwardly from one foot to the other. Marie wasn’t late, not yet, but he really didn’t want to go in there on his own. If she didn’t turn up, he wouldn’t go in at all.

However, that wasn’t going to be a problem, for she turned up, before the appointed time, a little out of breath, but not significantly.

"Sorry," she apologised quickly. "My mother was on the phone and when she gets going she really doesn’t stop talking."

"It’s okay," Stephen replied, "You’re not late."

Marie glanced at her watch. "Really? Now that is impressive. I only left five minutes ago." She paused. "Do you wanna go in? We’re a little early for the meeting, but they have coffee and biscuits."

Smiling at the thought of coffee, for the day was still wet and cold, Stephen agreed and the pair of them headed inside. What struck Stephen straight away was the darkness of it all. The lights were on, but they seemed kind of muted, as if someone had decided that the bereaved didn’t want it to be light or that misery sounded best in the dark.

There was also quite a few people already there, all wearing a black bands, although one person had a black and red striped one. Stephen knew that some of them, probably even most, wouldn’y have ,lost loved ones through violence, but as he met their eyes, it sort of warmed him. Or maybe that was just the coffee.

About quarter of an hour later, the meeting itself began, much like any other help group. Everyone sat in a circle on the rather horrible plastic chairs, and those who wished to talk did so, asking the chair first or waiting their turn.

Stephen himself did not talk. Listening was enough. It wasn’t the descriptions of how each friend or relative had died that was helping, it was the open discussion of feelings after the event. After the brief funerals, he and Jonathan had never talked about it. Not had anyone since then. It was this kind of unwritten rule in the Resistace: You don’t talk about your loss. Everyone had lost, it was true, but the way things were there, there was no time for emotion. Emotion could compromise the entire thing, and it was tentative at best anyway. But Stephen had wanted to share and not been able to.

Towards the end, Marie herself stood up and explained how for so long she had considerd it her fault, since she had sent her sister to the shop in the first place. "And then I realised that I couldn’t knowAnd even if I’d been there, I probably couldn’t have stopped the bastard."

She was looking pointedly at Stephen now, although she spoke to the whole group. "Guilt stops us from truly loving the memory of them, to strive for the better. We didn’t kill them: the ones who should be feeling guilt are the killers."

There was a small applause from the group, even though most of them did quite relate. Stephen complied, but kpet his head down.

* * *

Gabrielle was waiting for him outside the Emergency Department, Connor realised. Not that he’d doubted her, she was obviously slightly deranged anyway. And didn’t seem to have a job. "We’re going straight back to your place," she announced as he exited the building.

Throughout the shift, Connor had started coming up with a story for just that eventuality. "Yeah, I seem to have lost my keys, so I guess I’ll have to just check into a hotel for the night. I lost them at work, so they’ll probably turn up tomorrow in lost property." If he was going to a hotel, it was going to be the motel 12. He needed to at least make contact with the guy, if not use them to hide.

"Oh no you don’t, I’m not falling for that one again. I know exactly where you meet your oh-so-secret lovers, Connor. I have a spare key. Two in fact, and you’re not spending the night with one of your floosies again." She dangled the keys in front of his face. "And I’m staying with you. Maybe then you’ll realise that this is your baby too."

Connor made a face when her back was turned. Shit. She wasn’t just slightly deranged, she was insane! What had his double seen in her? Well, he didn’t really need an answer to that question; she was stunningly beautiful, just with a few screws loose. "Whatever you say," he said, resigned to the fact that again he had no choice. Telephone. His double had to have one of them in the flat.

She dragged him not particularly far to what Connor assumed was his apartment. It was in one of the slightly more expensive apartment blocks, yet still being fairly moderate, although Connor had never been able to afford something like this when he was a med student.

Inside, however, was a tip. A true bachelor pad. Clothes cluttered up all kinds of furniture, and he assumed it was a coffee table under all those beer bottles. He could completely understand why his double seemed to prefer hotels for the secret trysts, although Connor couldn’t help but smile at the place. This was exactly how his own apartment would look, if he had one. The small cornered off area of one of the dorms at Resistance HQ didn’t count.

"I’m cooking us Thai tonight," she said, opening the contents of a few shopping bags in the kitchen. "You can tidy this place up."

Surveying his surroundings, Connor was pretty sure it would still be a hole by the time dinner was ready, but compliance was easier than protesting.

Picking up a pile of what seemed to be dirty clothes, he made his way to the bedroom, which looked in a marginally better state than the rest of the apartment.

In the bedroom, however, he did find a phone. And even more miraculously, a telephone book, even if it was being used to discreetly prop up a table with a broken leg. Carefully extracting it so that nothing fell off and crashed to the floor, Connor dialled the number for the Motel 12.

Eventually he got through to the room. "Hello?"

"Laurie? Is that you?" Dumb question, he knew. If it wasn’t Laurie, then he almost certainly had the wrong room.

"Connor?"

"Look, I have a real problem. Several problems in fact."

"Where have you been?"

There was no time to explain everything, Connor knew that. "Let’s just say I’ve been taken for my double. He’s a full-fledged doctor and I’m being made to work as they think he’s me." That should be enough explanation on that part.

"Can’t you just do a runner?"

"I would! But he seems to have some psycho pregnant girlfriend who won’t leave me alone!"

"Again, can’t you just do a runner?"

He shook his head, even though Laurie couldn’t see him. "I’ve tried. It’s really not that easy. I think she’s actually insane! And angry because my double keeps doint the dirty on her!"

"Well, you did want things to be more interesting this time round. Maybe you should be careful what you wish for."

This wasn’t getting him very far. "Laurie! It’s not funny! I really need your help! Maybe if you…"

Connor realised that Laurie was no longer on the other end. Turning around, he noticed that Gabrielle had her finger on the disconnect button. Fuck.

In one swift movement she had pulled the handset out of his hand, and the plug out of the wall. "I thought you might try to contact your little bit on the side," she drawled. "I knew I couldn’t trust you."

"Oh, Laurie isn’t my girlfriend," Connor protested automatically.

Gabrielle practically launched herself at his face, but stopped short of actually contacting with it. "Don’t lie to me! I know you have a girlfriend called Laurie! The other one you got pregnant! She’s a whore and doesn’t deserve you!"

This time Connor kept his mouth shut. And it seemed to work. Believing him now submissive she left, taking the phone with her. But Connor was still pretty sure he wasn’t trusted as he swore he could hear the sounds of the phone being smashed with something heavy coming from the kitchen.

He sat on the bed and held his head in his hands. How had he got here? Working a job he couldn’t deal with and under the control of a madwoman. If only he’d run at the outset. Now he was far too scared of Gabrielle. He had a feeling that if he even went near the door she’d throw the toaster at him, and he wasn’t prepared to hurt her in return, even if she did have rather too many screws loose.

When the opportunity came, he’d take it with open arms. Which meant he had to pay a great deal of attention for once, not something Connor was overly good at. For the meantime it was damage limitation.

Idly he wandered back to the lounge, where he could at least keep an eye on her. He collected a pile of paperwork that was scattered all over the living area and opened a drawer to put them in. It was empty. So were all the other drawers.

On the pretext of taking more things back out to the bedroom, Connor scouted the rest of the place properly. To his horror, all the drawers in here were empty too, with the exception of one. And all that contained was a variety of different coloured bands. Along with a note describing the bands that should be worn for each of his women. Surely these couldn’t be all current? There were seven names on the list, including, as Gabrielle had pointed out, that of Laurie. She was also a red band. Of course, who said it was his Laurie’s double anyway. There were other women called Laurie afterall.

Next to each name was also a note why that band had to be worn. Finally, Connor worked out what it all meant. They were relationship indicators! Red was unavailable… imagine what would have happened if Gabrielle had found him wearing another colour. Well, he probably would have been able to run then, which would have been preferable. But now he needed to be careful.

Opening the wardrobe, Connor found there was nothing in there either. His double was gone! Apparently without the intention of coming back either. If he couldn’t cope with this life, how was Connor supposed to? Even if it was only for five days… four now. That was four days to get away.

"You’re working tomorrow afternoon again," she called, slightly more brightly. "And dinner won’t be long now."

Connor simply busied himself with tidying, eagerly anticipating work tomorrow already, despite his intense hate for it. There were more opportunities to escape there.

* * *

Laurie shivered in the cold. She was queuing to get in the bar, but she was near the front now. Mike was just behind her, but they didn’t talk much. He was in a mood with her over the shopping and what she was wearing. According to him, she looked like a tart, even though she was wearing trousers, albeit her new low-slung hipsters. And for not handing Connor over to him, despite the fact it had turned out there wasn’t been time anyway. At least they knew he was alive now.

She felt a little guilty for leaving him there, but there wasn’t a lot she could do. It didn’t sound like he’d be phoning again tonight, and the number wasn’t listed so they couldn’t find out where he was.

The queue moved forward a little futher. Laurie was only two people from the front now, and they seemed more intent on eating each others faces. The baseline was reverberating through Laurie’s body already and her excitement grew.

"In you go then, miss." The bouncer held back the barrier and let several people go through, among them Laurie and Mike, although he only actually spoke to the young Slider.

Bouncing through the door, Laurie was greeted by an array of flashing lights. Never had she actualy been to a place like this before. On her home world she’d been to young, and a good proportion of the times she could have gone on parallel worlds, the legal drinking age was 21. Here, however, it was only 18. There had been Party World and a few other times where she’d been able to drink, but never in a place like this. And she was planning on enjoying every minute of it.

Drinks were first on the agenda. Scanning behind the bar, Laurie selected a fruity alcopop, the best way to stat off an evening like this. Or so she’d heard. "Cheers!" she yelled to the bartender in appreciation, but it was too loud for him to hear, although he did smile at her.

Mike had managed to get a chair by the bar and sat there on his own, not looking as though he was enjoying himself at all. Watching Laurie down her drink, he glowered at her. Did she know how she was making herself look?

The pair didn’t talk to each other for a some time. Mike had tried, several times, but he kept being usurped by much younger men, eager to buy her drinks in exchange for a smile and maybe a dance.

The dancerfloor was the place where Laurie had spent most of her time, boogieing with whoever was there, predominantly the same young men as were buying her drinks. Mike wasn’t going to go out there himself, but he did manage to catch her on the way back from a toilet trip.

"What DO you think you’re doing?" he yelled into her ear, having caught her arm.

She pulled herself out of his grip. "What does it look like? I’m having fun."

"You look like a hussy."

"So? What does it matter to you anyway?"

He stared at her, then made a move for her arm again. "Come on, we’re leaving."

But Laurie wasn’t budging, no matter how hard he tugged. "No, I’m staying."

Behind her, one of the young men came up and put his arm around her. "This old man giving you any trouble, sweetheart?"

"It’s okay. He’s just… my uncle. He’s going to leave me alone now."

She turned and left, leaving Mike just standing there. Part of it was the drink, Laurie knew that. But even so, he had no right to dictate to her. She wasn’t a child, damnit!

Mike mooched back to the bar. His seat had been taken by someone else, he wasn’t going to get that back anytime soon. Ordering another beer by the bar, Mike found a small spot to lean on and survey the place.

After a little while, a woman approached him. "Hi," she said directly. "Do you want to buy me a drink?"

"I’m sorry, I’m not really interested in chatting someone up right now."

She sidled closer to him. "I suppose I can always buy my own drink if you’re skint."

He shook his head. "It’s not that, I’m just not interested. It’s nothing to do with you, I’m just not in that place right now."

"Excuse me??"

Mike tried to move away a little, but found his way blocked. "Honestly, it’s not you."

"Well obviously it is!"

Now he was really confused. "How do you work that one out?"

She grabbed his arm, the one with the band and waved it in front of his face. "This says you’re interested! You’re bound by what band you wear, remember?"

A couple of other people at the bar had turned around to join in. "What’s up, Myleene, he giving you hassle?"

"He’s wearing the wrong band," Myleene hissed cattily. "Will you sort him out?"

The man at the bar punched Mike hard in the face. Clutching his cheek, where the fist had impacted, Mike looked up at him from the floor.

"Get youself outta here and get the right fucking band! Just be lucky it was us that found out not the authorities. If you bugger off now, we won’t tell."

Mike didn’t need telling twice. He glanced at Laurie. She wasn’t going to appreciate him telling her anything. But then, it could get her into trouble. Taking care to make sure those at the bar weren’t watching, he hopped across to Laurie on the dance floor. "Laurie! These blue bands mean you’re up for… well, I don’t know what really. But it means you’re ‘interested’. If we go now, they won’t make a scene."

"Well, I’m having fun and I can look after myself. Who says I’m not interested anyway? Can’t you leave me alone."

He’d tried. What else? could he do? She wasn’t going to go back to the hotel now. He just had to hope she could look after herself. "Phone me when you leave." It wasn’t a request, it was a command, and he was pretty sure she knew that, even if she was more concerned with dancing to ‘It’s Raining Men.’

* * *

The silence was deafening as Mike sat alone in the lounge area. The television was on, but muted, the only sounds that of the traffic passing by outside the window, and occassional movement from the corridor.

He’d been sitting like this for an hour, slowly fuming and gradually coming to a boil. Mike had been alone all day. Connor was still missing from yesterday. Laurie had never returned from the night out, probably voluntarily. And Stephen, well, he’d been asleep when Mike had got in, and up and out with the birds.

This just wasn’t on. Or at least it shouldn’t be. No one had any clue where anyone else was, and that was dangerous. It had got teams into serious trouble before and therefore was not acceptable, excepting very unusual circumstances. This slide did not count as one of those times. There was no need for it at all.

It became more serious when someone might be in trouble, and for all Mike knew, any one of them could be. Connor and Laurie seemed to be especially at risk. What with the madwoman and drunken men and all. They could not go on being irresponsible. Then there was the bands problem. Mike still had only managed to warn Laurie about them, and he wasn’t even sure she would remember in the morning.

Finally, Mike could hear the rattling of someone struggling with the key in the lock to the suite. That would probably be Laurie then. It was about time she came ‘home.’ Automatically he lept to his feet, reading to challenge and ream her out.

"And where the Hell have you been?" he bellowed, almost as soon and the handle turned. "Oh, it’s you." Mike sat down again, disgruntled.

Stephen ignored the outburst and headed into his room for a moment. When he returned, he said very quietly, "I’m not stopping long. I’m going to talk to a few people."

Mike raised his eyebrows. "Anything I should know about?"

Faltering a little, Stephen replied, "No… it’s just… personal matters."

It wasn’t difficult to work out what that meant. Mike just decided to let it alone.

"Any word from Connor yet?" asked Stephen idly as he went through a mental checklist of things he needed. "He can’t still be away?"

For some unknown reson, this began to annoy Mike. "Well he is. We’ve had one phone call, and he seees to have found himself a woman who even he can realise is insane."

Stephen responded rather to flippantly for Mike’s liking. "Little more than the usual then? He hasn’t done that for a while!"

"No, not the fucking usual, Stephen, he can’t get away from her!"

Stepping back and the unexpected loudness of it, Stephen paused to think. "Okay, do we know where he is?"

"No," said Mike shortly.

"What about the phone number?"

"Ex-directory."

"Any other clues?"

"He’s a doctor."

"Do we know where?"

Mike shrugged. "He just said he’s a doctor."

Stephen sighed. "Then what are we to do? Go round every hospital and clinic, not forgetting any private practices, in the entire city and ask if they’ve ever heard of Connor Matthews? Do you how many there are? And then what happens if he’s not AT work? They won’t give out personal information to strangers!"

This didn’t seem to phase Mike in the slightest. "You can always try."

"I suppose I can check out a few after I’ve done my own things," conceeded Stephen reluctantly. "But I’m sure he can handle himself. He usually manages. What will you be doing?"

Only a growl escaped Mike’s lips. "Waiting for Laurie."

Deciding that maybe it was best to leave it there, Stephen made a move for the door. Thanks to the little chat, he was already running a little late. "See you later!"

"I need to tell you about the bands."

Confused, Stephen turned back and stared at Mike. "But I was the one who told you about the bands. I already know."

"No you did not! I found out for myself the hard way! I don’t know what black means, but blue seems to indicate you’re interested in some fun. They determine the relationship status."

"But I know that already!" Stephen protested. "I left a note by the phone! And for the record, black means bereaved."

Now it was Mike’s turn to be confused. "What note?"

"The one I left for you guys to see! I thought it might be useful."

The anger that had been simmering earlier began to rise to the surface again. "Well it sure as Hell would have been actually left a note!"

Stephen barged his way past Mike. "Let me have a look." Sure enough, it wasn’t on the table, but it didn’t take long to spot it on the floor, upside-down. "Here. It’s got the whole list on there."

"Hmph."

"I have to go now," ventured Stephen bravely. "I’ll catch up with you later."

When he had gone, Mike started to pace the room. The next person to walk in was really going to get an earful.

* * *

"Ow! Stop sticking that thing in me!"

Sighing, Connor carried on, ignoring the kid’s whiney cries. "I’m nearly done now. It’ll just be a second…. there!" He finished up quickly and announced to the parents, "He should be fine now. I’ll send a nurse in in a moment to explain about further care."

They nodded in thanks, but Connor wasn’t really interested. As soon as he was outside the consulation room he leaned back and banged his head on the door several times. Could this really go on any longer? That had been a close one. And even then, he was sure Dr. Brooks had only given him that patient because he’d pretty much screwed up at least two incidents today, and that didn’t bode well for him.

The first he had simply missed something that should have been evident, even to him. The lowliest med student should have spotted it. Connor had just got out of the habit of looking. His attention had wondered and bang…. mistake number one.

The second one. Well, he wasn’t even going to think about that one. It was a complete disaster and if Connor had been a woman he would probably have cried. Worse still, his colleagues hadn’t even bothered to chide him for it, let alone punish him! It couldn’t be long now. If he didn’t get away soon, he’d end up killing someone. He’d been too damn lucky so far.

And then there had been the GSW that had come in. That had gone… interestingly. Not badley, unlike most of the day. But surely the other doctors and nurses knew something was up after that. Having spent the day getting things wrong and generally seeming slapdash about everything he did, Connor had suddenly and inexplicable (to them) pulled off a pretty good save when no one had thought the boy would live.

Connor couldn’t just stand there and let the kid die! But now everyone was looking at him very weirdly. It was rather disconcerting.

A clap of a hand on his shoulder brought Connor out of his self pity. "Hey nice save earlier, mate." It was one of the sugeons from upstairs. "Not sure even I coulda pulled that one off! And here we were thinking the malpractice suit was getting to you. At least, worse than usual."

Smiling fakely and hoping it did show, Connor bleakly accepted the compliments. It had been a good save, even considering the stuff he’d learnt in his own war zone. However, one fantastic save couldn’t make up for the mess he was making here. Well, maybe it might a little. But what about his double’s actions? The malpractice suit sounded bad, and had resulted in the paralysis of a young woman. Everyone expected him to be fired over the whole thing, they were just waiting for it to go through.

To put it quite simply, Connor’s alter ego was inspired. While they had seemed surprised at his intervention in the GSW case, but not amazed. However, he was also incredibly lazy, as nor did they seem to be surprised at having to correct his mistakes and run around after him, even if they did so with a heavy heart. It was no wonder he’d run away what with this and Gabrielle and probably some other stuff too.

"Excuse me? I’m looking for a Dr. Connor Matthews. Do you know him?"

Now that was a voice he knew. And knew very well at that. "Stephen!" he yelled across the reception room, pushing his way through the people.

The receptionist pointed and then turned back to her paperwork. Why go looking if he’d already turned up.

"Connor! Where have you been? We’ve been worried about you!" Okay, so Stephen wasn’t sure about Laurie, and he himself had not been particularly concerned this time, but it sounded good.

Connor grabbed at him and shoved him through the door of the staff room. Thankfully it was empty. "I need your help Stephen. I have to get out of here."

"Now?"

"Yes now! If I stay much longer, Gabrielle will come back and watch me like a hawk. Or Brooks, who’s almost as bad!" Connor recited hurriedly. "Now, now, now!"

As if to tempt fate, one of the nurses entered at that point. Smiling almost flirtatiously at Connor and politely at Stephen and proceeded to gather her things. "See you tomorrow, sexy," she called back to him.

He stayed silent the whole time they had company, but as soon as the door closed behind the nurse, he couldn’t help exploding. "See? See what I have to put up with? On top of everything else! I’m way out of my depth here, Stephen, and if you don’t help me out of here I will seriously drown."

"I dunno, she seemed quite nice to me," mused Stephen. "It can’t all be bad." But he knew Connor was absolutely serious. "You have a plan?"

"Er… sorta."

Five minutes later, Connor had everything with him he needed. Not that that was actually very much. Slowly, he walked away from the staffroom, pacing his steps carefully so as not to get as far as the reception. In front of him, he could see Brooks lift his head to keep him in view. Standing just behind the reception, pretending to be looking at paperwork.

Taking a deep breath, Connor edged closer. If it went as planned he wouldn’t have to speak to him, even for a moment. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Stephen make a move.The scientist would start putting in a complaint to Dr. Brooks, diverting his attention. Stephen had already paid a tramp to make a kind of SOS for a fictional person outside.

When the time came, Connor did what he had to do. He ran.

* * *

"I don’t care what you thought you were doing last night, you’re not going out again!" bellowed Mike across the room, making the vase on the table shake with the vibrations.

Laurie stood perfectly, still, hands on her hips, and looking a little worse for wear after the previous evening’s excursions. After staying out all night she had not returned to the hotel until early evening, fearing Mike’s response. And from the look of it, she had been right. She spluttered out in disbelief, "You’re grounding me? You can’t do that!"

"I can and I will. I will not have you behaving like that!"

Her hands came off her hims and started gesturing madly. "Behaving like what? Like I’m having FUN?"

"No, well, actually, yes." Mike started pacing around angrily. "We’re not here to have fun!"

"You don’t think I know that?" she shrieked back at him. "It’s not like there’s much we can do here! The only half-interesting thing is these stupid bands!" Glancing at his arm, Laurie could see that the blue band was still there.

Mike made a quick move to cover it up with his sleeve. "That’s not the point and you know it!"

"Well what is the point? Go on! Enlighten me!"

He sighed. "It’s not exactly the first time you’ve behaved appallingly, is it."

Laurie was taken aback by that. "Excuse me? I got drunk that ONCE and you’re holding it against me? And what about Connor? He was just as drunk as I was that night! Does he get grounded too?"

"He didn’t make himself look like a cheap hooker last night."

"How do you know? It’s not like we’ve seen him since yesterday anyway! AND I DID NOT LOOK LIKE A HOOKER!"

Shrugging non-committedly, Mike raised his voice another notch. "You need some limits, you silly little girl. Can’t you see what you’re doing to yourself?"

"I’m not doing anything to myself! You have no authority over me! I’m a grown woman and I can do what I want!" she protested visciously.

"You’re not grown, you might as well still be still 15! Right now you’re acting like a spoiled child!" Not that Mike actually had any experience of spoiled children. "And in case you’ve forgotton, I’m your team leader and I DO have authority!"

"You can’t dictate what I can and can’t do. Not without good reason," Laurie offered defiantly. Her arms went back to being crossed, believing she had won this battle.

"Who says so?" Now Mike’s arms were crossed, with a smile of satisfaction adorning his face.

To that, Laurie had no answer. But she didn’t really need one, for at that exact moment the door flew open and Connor made his triumphant return, dragging poor Stephen, who obviously would rather be somewhere else entirely, in his wake."I’m home! Wonderful home!" he announced brightly, before stopping dead at the site of the verbal duel that seemed to be on pause in front of him. "What’s going on here then?"

Both combatants turned slowly and purposely towards the newcomer to address him. Spurred on by that one last jab, Laurie was first out of the blocks. "Mike is trying to ground me."

"What?" Connor surprised even himself with the shock in his voice. "Why?"

"Because I stayed out last night and actually enjoyed myself!" Laurie might have been addressing Connor, but she spat the words at Mike, so ferociously that even he took an inadvertant step backwards.

Having been on the receiving end of some of Mike’s diatribes about taking things seriously, Connor instantly sided with Laurie. "Oh come on Mike, you never grounded me or Andy and we used to do it all the time.

"Thank you," replied Laurie pleasantly. Mike just shuffled uncomfortably.

"But you can’t go out of this room."

"WHAT!?!?!" This time it was Mike’s turn to look smug as Laurie fumed once again.

Quickly, Connor backtracked a little. "Oh you wouldn’t be grounded. It’s more for your own safety really. Look, I’m not sure on this, but that madwoman that practically kidnapped me might be after you as well, and it might be dangerous for you to be out and about."

Laurie’s eyes narrowed. "Why would she be upset with me?"

"Er… can I explain that later? It’s a little complicated." Connor squirmed with embarassment. Now hw knew how Laurie felt when her double had gone after Stephen.

"Hmph." She wasn’t happy with it, but Laurie accepted it for now. "So what are you saying? I have to stay in the hotel for the next four day?"

Connor shook his head. "No, not the hotel, this room."

"Are you completely nuts? I’l lgo insane!"

He shrugged. "Well, if you do, then so will I. It won’t be safe for me either… I have absolutely no intention of being stuck with Gabrielle or at the hospital again. It’s very scary."

"You’re serious, aren’t you?"

Connor nodded slowly.

"Great," she said as she flopped down in front of the television. "Bring on Sunday is all I can say. Connor agreed. Stephen and Mike said nothing. It made no difference to them whatsoever. But both made resolutions to spend as little time as possible with two bored prisoners who would most likely make their lives hell until the next world.

Alternate Earth 117
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