alternativewriting | In between the Worlds and Time

After a mound of paperwork, Weyland Falkner, Regulator for the Bureau of Temporal Regulations, returned to work after his unexpected vacation to the islands of Medeitas. The return to schedule and routine comforted him. Daly was happy to see him and they returned to their partnership and made the betting pools on if they were partners or partners happy. That being said, he did miss Kristen a lot. More than he thought he would. He thought once he returned to his routines, the ache and loneliness would fade. Daly did help with it, but it wasn't quite the same.

One of the duties of a regulator was processing displaced people - like those who got stuck in Nexus points like Medeitas - before they were returned to their home time. That involved standing in a circular white room, as sterile looking as a hospital surgery room, if not more. In the dead center was a raised platform. The lighting in it made it nearly impossible to cast a shadow. The only color came from Weyland in his suit and tie, holding a black clipboard and a black pen and a console with three glowing red buttons on it. He didn't mind the duty, except that he didn't really have anyone to talk to and he couldn't have coffee in the room. It would ruin the mechanics, apparently. However, since returning a few weeks back, he definitely felt more emphatic towards the poor souls who got returned and tried to be a bit more personal when talking to them.

As he stood there, checking the paperwork on his clipboard, the buttons started to flash rapidly.

From red.

To orange.

To green.

The white circular platform began to glow three times and then flashed brightly before the light condensing into a figure.

Automatically, Weyland began his spiel, "Hello, and welcome to the Bureau of Temporal Regulations. I am Regulator Weyland Falkner and I'll be helping you with the ..." His voice trailed off as he actually saw who stood on the platform.

"Kristen?!" His voice cracked a bit as he spoke.

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"A sight for sore eyes." and battered hearts but that part was unsaid. The voice coming from a pale young woman in a black pencil skirt and green twin set, one of the very outfits Weyland loved on her. "Can't go back to Gotham, guess someone decided to cut me another break?" since she had shared those very fears with only a small handful of people. Weyland being among them. But in a leap of faith and a way to prove its her she sings a small portion of "Cell Block Tango" since the song was an inside joke.

"Actually, you're processed here first before returning to your own timeline. Any ... changes made to you in that don't belong to your world are taken away, you're healed of any diseases or wounds you may have gotten and your memory of both places is erased," he babbled a bit, falling back on protocol and order, waving his clipboard.

"Um."

He took a deep breath. "I.. It's really good to see you."

Stupid.

"Really great... I mean... wonderful and..."

"What matters is we're together." Kristen got off the ground and simply eased her hand into Weyland's like nothing had changed. "And its true, I discovered things only get worse. I can't go home. There's no real reason to go back." since she discovered a few things even she can't bring herself to even consider. Like being killed.

"Err..." The warm hand in his fritzed Weyland's brain and he struggled to pull it back together. Paperwork. They had to do paperwork... and... and... well... and...

"Um. Well... I did mention to my superiors that you would make a good regulator and they said that they'd be willing to do some preliminary examination when you showed up. So... um...?" He squeezed her hand tightly, trying to hold onto the clipboard with his other hand.

Too many thoughts flitted through his head. Because... technically speaking... they'd have to send her back if she didn't pass the tests. And she would have her memory wiped and she'd forget about him, but he wouldn't.

Also, what would Daly say? His partner was temperamental enough as it was.

Weyland had reminded Kristen many times she would easily pass any exams to join the BTR full time and never have to return home. "Its a chance I'll take, to never go home and to reclaim true happiness." she whispered. Because like several they had met she would be much safer, better off and honestly happier if she never goes back to Gotham.

Weyland's ears are turning a bit red at her words. She seems to have gotten a bit more poetic since he last saw her. Or maybe she's just happy to see him? At least she's more verbal than he is.

Licking his lips briefly, he said, "Okay. So... um, let me call in a replacement to watch the room and I'll take you to employment processing..."

He doesn't know her fate, but he would like it if she didn't go back to Gotham for personal reasons.

What would Daly say!?

Urgh.

Kristen simply nods, her grace alive and well even after everything she's seen and faced. "To new beginnings." she whispers.

"To new beginnings." Wry and hopeful smile.

The paperwork and tests to become apart of the BTR are perhaps the nastiest and most detailed forms that Kristen has been faced with. They look at and ask questions about everything. From her favorite foods, where she went to school and had she any dental work done to what she would do in situations where she was faced with letting someone live and do horrible things if it meant in fifty years a great peace would happen... and other moral quandaries like that.

On and on and on... into all sorts of nitty gritty.... and then some more.

It's like Med school and the Bar and midterms and finals all in one at the same time. The empty blank white walls in the cubicle like rooms where the forms and tests are filled out.

When he can, Weyland is around. At one point a man with the same red hair that Rory and Ceilidh have shows up and introduces himself as Daly McCallum, Weyland's partner and descendant of one of Rory's other nieces. He's brisk and brief but polite.

Weyland is apologetic with a smile, but still, there.

In between the Worlds and Time

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