Posted for reichenbachman

[qsilver-md.livejournal.com]

James remembers very little of what's happened. Only flashes, snippets of sound and motion. He only remembers the Falls, and the fall.

And yet, here he is. Somewhere unfamiliar, broken and battered. But alive. Alive and aware.

His right arm and leg are both bound, and there's a tightness across his chest that speaks to more bandages. His head is pounding as well. It only gets worse when he lifts his head to look around this strange room, but he ignores the pain. Right now, he's helpless, and if he survived, that damn fool Holmes could have as well.

Which means getting control of the situation is the first priority.

If there were only someone to explain things to him.

Comments

[qsilver-md.livejournal.com]

The infirmary door opens and Kevin comes in, head bent over the most recent sheaf of test results. He looks up automatically as he enters the room, though, and stops when he sees the new patient.

"Hello."

[reichenbachman.livejournal.com]

James looks up at the sound, blinking against the painful light.

"Good day, sir."

[qsilver-md.livejournal.com]

"I'm Kevin Fawkes", he says politely. "Are you new to the bar?"

[reichenbachman.livejournal.com]

"Bar?" he asks, confused. "This... isn't a hospital?"

His British accent is formal and polite, despite the pain evidenced on his face.

[qsilver-md.livejournal.com]

"This is the infirmary of Milliways Bar. Which is also a hotel, I guess... there are rooms, at least."

[reichenbachman.livejournal.com]

"Milli-ways? I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with that establishment. Is it near Reichenbach?"

[qsilver-md.livejournal.com]

"It's not near anywhere you came in from, I'm afraid." He pauses. "This... could be a long explanation. Is there anything you need before I start?"

[reichenbachman.livejournal.com]

James licks his lips.

"A glass of water would be lovely, if you don't mind, sir."

[qsilver-md.livejournal.com]

"Of course."

He turns away for a moment to get one.

[reichenbachman.livejournal.com]

"You're an American, aren't you?" he asks casually of Kevin.

[qsilver-md.livejournal.com]

"I am. From California."

He holds out the glass of water.

[reichenbachman.livejournal.com]

James accepts it and takes a long sip.

"California? How odd. So many questions that presents. But, please. Tell me of this place first."

[qsilver-md.livejournal.com]

"Were you told anything about it when you came in here?"

He's not sure what condition the man was in at the time.

[reichenbachman.livejournal.com]

"If I was, I surely have no memory of it. I remember indistinct voices, but nothing more. It seemed as though a woman were tending to me as a doctor. Surely I was delirious at the time."

[qsilver-md.livejournal.com]

"Probably", Kevin agrees diplomatically. Well, it's true. "Okay... did you come through any kind of door, just before you arrived here?"

[reichenbachman.livejournal.com]

"I... I thought I saw... something. A door in the mist... floating in mid-air. And then..."

He sighs.

"I'm sorry. It's gone."

[qsilver-md.livejournal.com]

"Well, anything's possible here... the place isn't like an ordinary bar, you see. A long way from that."

[reichenbachman.livejournal.com]

"Dear boy, I have often found it to be the case that the extraordinary is nothing more than the mundane in a silly hat. So, please, if you don't mind, where precisely are we?"

[qsilver-md.livejournal.com]

"The bar at the end of the universe", Kevin answers after a moment's hesitation.

[reichenbachman.livejournal.com]

Moriarty scoffs. "Do you seek to amuse me with wordplay? It's hardly the proper venue. I admit that I had rather expected my 'universe', as you put it, to end as a result of that fall, but this is certainly not what I had expected in an afterlife. By my reckoning, I should be in no pain at all. Or else in excruciatingly more of it."

[qsilver-md.livejournal.com]

"It's not the afterlife", Kevin says mildly. "Not for everybody. As many people find their way here alive as dead."

[reichenbachman.livejournal.com]

He takes another drink from the water.

"Then I am afraid I am unclear as to your meaning. The universe is infinite. It has neither beginning nor end. Such was the design of the Creator."

[qsilver-md.livejournal.com]

"Everything ends", Kevin says quietly. "And when you're well enough to leave this room... you'll see."

[reichenbachman.livejournal.com]

"Very well," he replies dismissively. "Let us suppose for the moment that I accept this explanation. That I am at either the directional or temporal end of the universe itself. That the plans of the Creator are finally at at end, and that He has tired of humanity sufficiently to destroy his great Creation. How, then, did I come to be here? And why should anyone bother to tend to my wounds while we stand on the brink of nonexistence?"

[qsilver-md.livejournal.com]

"I can't answer the first question - nobody knows how it happens, or why. Not for sure. For the second... because you're alive, as far as I know, and that means you need care."

Even if he's not alive, he's alive the way Kevin himself is.

[reichenbachman.livejournal.com]

His head falls back onto the pillow. He had almost convinced himself he had a chance.

"How long, then? Before the end?"

[qsilver-md.livejournal.com]

"That's the other inexplicable part. It never seems to actually come to a real end. But I assure you, it's not just a name."

[reichenbachman.livejournal.com]

"So, an end that is not an end, a hospital that is a bar that is a hotel, and a man from California who dresses too well to be a prospector, and not well enough to be a railroad tycoon, but still in fabric with an unfamiliar weave. Is anything here as it appears to be?"

[forthsdaughter.livejournal.com]

Nefret Forth, who some would call the Archetypical Intelligent Heiress, was simply reading some charts and checking up on things.

Until she caught fragments of conversation, and the vocabulary intrigued her.

"No," she pipes up, in an accent best defined as British with a slight lingering Arab, "it's not, not really."

[qsilver-md.livejournal.com]

"...that would be another thing", Kevin says a little ruefully, with a grateful glance at Nefret. "This place's relationship with time is... unusual."

[reichenbachman.livejournal.com]

"Yes, I can see how it might be," James replies, craning his neck to see the owner of that accent.

"Good day to you, madam," he says pleasantly.

[forthsdaughter.livejournal.com]

"Hello," Nefret says sociably, not pointing out that she is, in fact, a doctor - as for once the hostility is unneccessary. Most people here tend to assume she is.

"It is problematic at best, the time issue. Makes my work more difficult, as I cannot go back to 1918 with technology as we've got here, and I've become spoiled by it," she muses.

[reichenbachman.livejournal.com]

"Then I am afraid you have the advantage of me, madam, as it was the year 1891 not one day ago from my perspective."

Meanwhile, his mind buzzes with possibilities. If this truly was all that these people said, there could be definite potential.

[qsilver-md.livejournal.com]

"And I'm from 1997", Kevin supplies. "So you see what I mean."

[forthsdaughter.livejournal.com]

Nefret's only response for a good minute is a low whistle.

The 1890s are fog in her head, well enough, and all she remembers about them was that they happened.

"You probably have a headache, if you'd like something for it."

[reichenbachman.livejournal.com]

"Madam, there is very little on me that is not in some level of pain. But, if you do have an analgesic of some sort, it would be most appreciated."

[forthsdaughter.livejournal.com]

"I would be the world's worst doctor if I didn't," Nefret points out sweetly, pushing a fallen lock of hair back into her tight braid and grappling for the medical bag she's got somewhere under a chair or bench.

She comes up with a syringe.

"This is eschscholtzia. Arm, please? Palm up."

[qsilver-md.livejournal.com]

Kevin steps back to allow her space to work, just observing quietly.

[reichenbachman.livejournal.com]

"A female doctor. My, how times must change in the next 25 years."

He does extend his left arm as she asks, though.

[forthsdaughter.livejournal.com]

"Trust me, they don't. I happen to be the last of Willie Forth's heirs and inherited a trust larger than the British Museum -- paying triple tuition was the only way to get them to accept me," Nefret rambles, trying to serve as a distraction as she deftly inserts the syringe and taps out 5 ccs, removes it and ties off the wound in a few quick, carefully-planned motions.

[reichenbachman.livejournal.com]

It doesn't take long for the medicine to do its work, and the pounding in his head lessens appreciably.

"My thanks, madam. Or, I suppose I should say, Doctor. Such determination. With such an inheritance, you could have done almost anything. And most would have been far easier. Why medicine?"

[forthsdaughter.livejournal.com]

"Natural inclination. I was always the one who wanted to set up the bones, and every time some mystery or another came up, the injured parties came to me."

"My family are archaeologists," she adds as an afterthought. "And you may call me Nefret, everyone does."

[reichenbachman.livejournal.com]

"How fascinating! Archaeology is a subject that I wish I could devote time to. Alas, there are not enough hours in the day. But if I am to call you Nefret, then you must call me James. Professor James Moriarty, at your service."

[qsilver-md.livejournal.com]

Kevin hasn't read a fiction book in a long time. But he's not quite so ignorant of the arts to not recognise that name.

Apart from a moment's blinking, though, he doesn't show it.