“I thought I’d lost you,” said Melody.
“I thought I’d lost me,” said Happy. “But apparently the many changes I’ve made to my basic body chemistry made me. . unacceptable. Bloody thing spat me out! Hah! These Other-dimensional entities think they’re so smart; if it had had any sense, it would have kept me and spat out the grenade!”
“Welcome back,” said JC. “I really wasn’t looking forward to finding something good to say about you at your eulogy.”
Melody stopped crying, sniffing back the last few tears. She pushed herself away from Happy and looked at him directly. “Are you saying it puked you out?”
“Well, yes,” said Happy. “Nothing like the supernatural, to make clear your true place in the scheme of things.”
* * *
It took a while before they all stopped laughing. Finally, they got to their feet again, all of them leaning on each other for support. Kim beamed on them all fondly while they got their breath back and looked around. JC stretched slowly, flexed his aching hands, then looked firmly back down the corridor in a let’s-get-back-to-business sort of way.
“One last job, then hopefully we can get the hell out of here,” said JC.
“I’ve always admired your optimism,” said Happy.
“I’m going to try to release the ghost girl Lydia,” said JC. “I can’t help feeling that she’s at the back of everything that’s happening here. Okay; I want all of you to go back down to the main bar. Too many of us at once would only upset her. Happy, find Brook and bring him back up here, to Lydia’s room. He probably won’t want to come, so feel free to be very firm.”
“I’ve still got my gun,” said Melody. “He’ll do what he’s told.”
Kim planted herself in front of JC and fixed him with her best wide-eyed stare.
“Let me come, JC. I could help. Really I could!”
“Sorry, sweetie,” said JC. “But I’m pretty sure you’d scare her. She doesn’t know she’s a ghost.”
Kim nodded, reluctantly, and followed Happy and Melody down the stairs.
* * *
JC strolled down the left-hand corridor, all the way to the last door on the left. Lydia’s room, for so many years. He knocked politely, opened the door, and went in. The young suicide was still sitting in her chair, still reading the magazine she was always reading. She looked around, and smiled easily at JC.
“Oh, hello! It’s Mr. Chance, isn’t it? Any sign of Adrian?”
“Not yet,” said JC. “But I’m sure he’ll be along soon.”
“It’s all right,” said Lydia. “I’ll wait for him as long as it takes.”
JC heard footsteps outside in the corridor even though Lydia clearly didn’t. He stepped back through the door, and there was Happy, leading a visibly reluctant Brook down the landing. JC waited for them to join him, gestured for Brook to go in the room with him, then stopped Happy with a look.
“You stay here,” JC said quietly to Happy. “And don’t get distracted or go wandering off. I’m going to need you. Adrian, let’s go in.”
“I can’t,” Brook said miserably. “I just can’t.”
“You have to,” said JC.
“You don’t understand! I can’t bear to do anything. . that might mean losing all I have left of her,” said Brook.
“She’s only here because of you,” said JC. “You’re holding on to her.”
“Please. Don’t say that.”
“If you love her, let her go,” said JC.
He took Brook firmly by the arm and took him into the end room. Lydia looked round again, her face lighting up as she expected to see her Adrian. Only to recoil a little at the sight of the old man with JC. It was clear she didn’t recognise Brook. Didn’t know him at all.
“Don’t be frightened, Lydia,” said JC.
“I’ve seen that man before,” said Lydia. “Is he a ghost? Why does he keep looking in at me?”
“I can’t stand this,” said Brook.
He tried to leave, but JC held on to him.
“Let me go!” said Brook.
“Happy!” said JC. “Get in here!”
The telepath slouched through the open doorway and smiled at Lydia. She nodded back, uncertainly.
“This is a friend of mine, Lydia,” said JC. “Don’t worry; he always looks like that. Happy, it’s time to do the linking thing again. This time, I need you to forge a mental connection between Lydia and Adrian. Mind to mind, heart to heart, soul to soul, so that they can See each other clearly and know who they are.”
“You don’t want much, do you?” growled Happy. “I’m still recovering from suddenly not being dead after all. I swear, there aren’t enough pills in the world to make working with you worth it.”
He frowned hard, concentrating; and Lydia’s and Brook’s heads snapped round. They looked into each other’s eyes. . and knew each other. After all the years apart, they were finally together again. JC could see it in their faces-a simple, wondering look of recognition. Two lost loves, separated by all the world and Time, brought together again at last. Lydia rose out of her chair and went to Adrian, and they looked at each other.
“I didn’t know you!” said Lydia. “You got old, Adrian. .”
“You didn’t,” said Brook.
“How long have I been here?” said Lydia. “How long have I been waiting for you, Adrian?”
“Too long,” said Brook. “Do you remember. .”
“What I did?” said Lydia. “Yes. I do now. Such a stupid, selfish thing to do. ‘This will show them; this will make them all sorry,’ I thought. All those years we could have enjoyed, together. .”
“You can have all the Time there is, now,” said JC. “No more waiting. It’s time for you to leave this room, Lydia.”
“I won’t go anywhere without you, Adrian,” said Lydia. “I won’t be separated from you any longer.”
“Of course not,” said Brook. “You’re going, and I’m going with you.”
“I can’t ask that of you!” said Lydia.
“There’s nothing left to hold me here,” said Brook. “No family, no friends; all I ever really had were my memories of you. If I can’t be here with you. . then I don’t want to be here.” He looked at JC. “I mean it.”
“Yes,” said JC. “I think you do.”
He nodded to Happy, who nodded slowly.
“The things we do, for love,” said Happy.
He reached out, through the link he’d made between a dead girl and a living man, and gave them both a little of his Sight. Brook and Lydia turned their heads, to stare in a direction beyond the sight of the living. And it was over. The Past disappeared and the original room reasserted itself. It looked much the same: old-fashioned, but with dust everywhere. Lydia was gone, and Brook lay dead on the floor. JC knelt beside the body and checked for a pulse. Not because he had any doubts but because that was what you did. He got to his feet and nodded to Happy.
“Good work. This isn’t quite the ending I had in mind, but I suppose it will have to do. It’s over. And that’s all that matters, really.”
“It doesn’t feel over,” said Happy. He rubbed wearily at his eyes. “Dear Lord, I am so tired. . This has taken a lot out of me, you know.”
“Yes,” said JC. “I know. It’s taken a lot out of all of us.”
* * *
They left the room, and JC closed the door firmly behind them. They walked back down the landing, past perfectly ordinary doors, all of them closed, and went down the stairs to the main bar.
“How does the upper floor feel to you now, Happy?” said JC.
“Empty,” said Happy.
“That’s all?”
“Afraid so.”
“Damn,” said JC. “I was hoping for more than that. Oh. What happened to the people we rescued from the Timeslipped rooms?”
“Brook sent them back to town,” said Happy. “The road was flooded by the storm, so he sent them back over the fields. Slogging through thick mud and pouring rain and heavy winds. . They’ll be soaked to the skin by the time they reach Bishop’s Fording. But that could be a good thing. Keep them distracted enough that they won’t start asking awkward questions till later. And hopefully by then, we’ll be out of here.” He looked at JC. “Not often we get to save people’s lives. It’s a good feeling.”