Always and Forever

by L. A. Fiore

  "I've seen it and it looks an awful lot like you," Shane offered as he held Quinn's stare. And then he added, "Gabriel is never without it."

  "How did he get it?" Quinn asked.

  "I don't know but he's had it for as long as I've known him and we were kids together."

  "If you saw it, do you think Katherine did as well?" Charles asked.

  "Niall, absolutely, his sister I don't know because Gabriel tended to avoid her."

  "Why?"

  "Like I said, she was completely obsessed with Gabriel so if she did see that miniature and then saw you, one can only guess how she would have reacted. She wasn't right in the head, crazy doesn't even begin to describe her. But she was smart too, really freakin' smart."

  Every one turned to Derek and Constance. "Was she the one who told you where that pendant was located?" Tessa asked.

  "Yes, but you aren't suggesting she planned..." Derek didn't get to finish before Cole interrupted him.

  "Yeah, that's exactly what we think."

  Quinn pulled out the chair and fell into it as her heart ached. "So everything, Morgan's death, mine, all the twisting of history was because this woman wants Gabriel?"

  Cole met her gaze. "Looks like it."

  Quinn remembered her conversation with Katherine back in Archer's time and now her creepy words made sense. Let me make this very clear to you. He's mine. I always get want I want and I want him. I've gone through so much to get here that I'm not going to let you stand in my way.

  "Based on her behavior in Archer's time, she's capable of anything," Quinn whispered. "We have to stop her."

  Gabriel spent the days after he left Quinn and the others digging up anything and everything he could find on Niall's sister, Katherine, and learned about some truly terrible things she had done since he'd last seen her. She made no attempt to cover her tracks so once she was caught, she'd be locked away forever.

  He remembered her as a young girl with those eyes so pale a blue they almost looked colorless but it was the coldness in them and the complete lack of conscience that had always disturbed him. He knew she idolized him, in her way, but he was always so very careful to stay away from her because, in truth, she scared him. He remembered the one day she caught him looking at the miniature he always carried with him. It was hate he saw looking back at him and the depth of that hate was disturbing in one so young.

  It wasn't until "the incident" that he knew she was more than cold and calculating but insane. She had grown tired of living on the streets, grown tired of following Niall's direction though he did all he could to keep her safe and happy. He wondered if she ever knew that he had seen her, in that alley, that he knew she had cut that girl's throat, a girl later identified as the sister of a rival gang leader with whom Niall had been able to negotiate a tentative truce. What Gabriel hadn't seen, not until it was held to his throat, was the knife Katherine had used was his own.

  The knowledge that Niall's sister had set him up, had tried to orchestrate his death, stayed with him. Not long after that he moved to Gloucestershire. He didn't think of Katherine again but when he heard the description of the woman named Katherine, he knew somehow she had figured a way to go back and really fuck up his world.

  She had to be stopped but she was crazy and smart and she hated him and Quinn with a passion. He thought to let her kill him but he wasn't so sure she would stop at that and would more than likely come after Quinn once he was dead. No, they needed to work together and find a way to stop her. They had to fix the past because the thought of going back to the future, a future that didn't include Quinn, how the hell would he survive it?

  Quinn and Nick sat by the fire discussing Katherine. Sure, they might be able to lure her here but once she got here, then what? Quinn's attention to their discussion was broken when a warmth sizzled down her spine just as she heard the sound of heavy footsteps coming from the hall. It wasn't a conscious decision that had her rising and starting for the door.

  "Quinn?" Nick stood.

  Minutes later Gabriel appeared in the doorway but he was looking only at Quinn. In two strides he had her wrapped tightly in his arms.

  "I'm sorry," he said.

  She pressed her face into his chest and held him a moment before she lifted her face to his. "You have the miniature of Morgan."

  Surprise crossed over his expression before he replied, "Yes." He ran his finger along her jaw before he added, "That was why when I saw you for the first time in the flesh I knew that you were mine."

  "Always," Quinn whispered but Gabriel was prevented from answering when Nick offered, "Welcome back, Gabriel."

  Gabriel lifted his head and looked at his friend just before Nick added, "So you came back to help us stop Katherine, yes?"

  Quinn was grinning at him as she teased, "I've said it before and I'll say in again: You really have the worse taste in women."

  His focus never left her face as his finger traced her jaw. "There has only ever been one woman and she's the finest woman I've ever known."

  Her heart gave one long, slow pull before she replied, "Sweet talker."

  He reached for her hand before he looked to the others in the room.

  "So what did I miss?"

  For the next hour Gabriel sat and listened as they brought him up to speed with what they had learned. After, he looked to Tessa.

  "Your work, the Codex and necklace have been destroyed?"

  "Yes."

  There was compassion in his expression as he went on, "I'm sorry you had to do that but it really is for the best."

  Tessa blew out a breath before she replied, "I know. Humans are not ready for the responsibility of time travel, I get that. Especially after this lovely web we find ourselves in."

  Cole reached for his glass and turned his attention to Gabriel as he asked, "Tell us about Katherine."

  Gabriel stood and started to pace. "I knew her as a kid but even then there was something about her that was off. I avoided her, I know that sounds silly since she was several years younger than me, but I never got a good vibe around her. She tried to have her brother and me killed, setup the attack, killed a girl and tried to frame it on me."

  Quinn sharp inhale caused Gabriel to turn to her. There was love looking back at her but there was another emotion too and one she could only describe as fear. "She's very dangerous but she's also crazy, literally. In a few days she'll come after me, she did before."

  Quinn's voice was very soft in response, "The attempted murder from the newspaper clipping."

  "Yes, it wasn't her but someone she hired. If we can get her to come after me personally, once she's arrested she'll be locked up for life -- I've found enough on her to guarantee that -- which means she won't be walking the streets in the future so she will never get an opportunity to come after Quinn."

  "We're actually on the same page. We've just been discussing how to lure her here. And we think the promise of the Scarcliff treasure is as good as anything," Shane suggested.

  "I agree, I think the Scarcliff treasure is a good lure since there's a connection to me, and she's obsessed with me, but it can't be a formal party since she's a lot like a kid in many ways so the venue has to be one that would appeal to her."

  "Like a fair," Quinn offered which pulled a tender smile from Gabriel before he added, "Yes, on the grounds of Whispering Winds if you are okay with that, Nick."

  Nick stood, "A fair it is."

  "With a dunking tank?" Quinn asked as a flood of memories made her heart ache.

  "Of course," Nick replied.

  "On one condition," Gabriel looked at Quinn as a wicked grin curved his lips. "This time, you're going for a swim."

  Later that night Quinn and Gabriel lay in bed. Quinn's head was resting on Gabriel's shoulder as his fingers moved lazily up and down her spine. She was feeling so relaxed she almost didn't have the energy to speak but there was something she wanted to know.

  "How did you get the miniature?"

  "It's an odd story."


  She lifted her head to rest on her upturned hand. "I'm listening."

  "I was young, maybe six, and already I was pinching purses. I was scoping out my target when I felt the prickle of warning that someone was watching me. When I turned in their direction, I was oddly intrigued by my watcher because she was really old, clearly over a century. In my short life, I had never seen anyone that old before but it was the way she was watching me so intently that really piqued my interest. I had the sense that she was reading my thoughts before I even had them. When she started towards me, I was tempted to run but something kept me from doing so. I'll never forget the look in her eyes when she stopped right in front of me and then she reached for my hand and pressed something into it. As she wrapped her hands around mine she looked determined but it was her words that struck me because they were so strange. She said, 'Something wonderful awaits you but you need to go through the bad first.' It was eerie and her eyes, a color not blue but not green, seemed ancient but so very wise. After those rather cryptic words, she turned and walked away. I looked down at what she had given me and it was the miniature."

  "And you kept it?"

  "It became my talisman. When things got really bad, I just had to look at her..." his eyes found Quinn's, "at you. And I knew that everything would be okay, that there was something good waiting for me." A naughty grin tugged at the corners of his mouth before he added, "I think she may have underestimated just how good."

  Quinn's smile took his breath away and for just a minute they did nothing more than stare at one another.

  "That woman was Maude. She was the same woman who sent me back to Archer's time, the one who sent you to me."

  "Who is she?"

  "I don't know but we owe her so much."

  He rolled over pinning Quinn under him and just before his mouth covered hers he whispered, "Understatement."

  Quinn looked out at the fair which they had been able to assemble in just over three days. It was amazing and mainly because the town had really come through, arriving at Whispering Winds in mass ready to do whatever needed to be done. It looked so much like the fair in Archer's time that Quinn felt herself getting a bit nostalgic. She thought of him, just as he asked, and it wasn't a conscious thought because he was just as much apart of her as her soul.

  She smiled at the thought but her smile faded quickly as she thought about the conversation with Niall that Gabriel told her about. Katherine had taken the bait and was coming. It bothered Quinn that Katherine would have shared that with her brother, a brother she really didn't even like apparently, but she was coming and hopefully by the end of the day it would all be over.

  But that made her sad too because she knew when it was over that Gabriel would be leaving, going back to the future. She realized it wouldn't be long before she met the Gabriel of this time so it wasn't as if she was going to have to wait a lifetime to meet him again. Of course, the Gabriel of now wasn't going to know all of their history, or would he? Time travel was just too damn confusing.

  The dunking tank was setup, and Quinn was slotted as the first to sit in the hot seat. She was actually looking forward to it. When Gabriel came up behind her and slipped his arms around her waist, she leaned back against him.

  "Nervous?" he whispered in her ear.

  "About taking a swim? Never." Her feigned outrage had him chuckling.

  "I like seeing you wet, though preferably with less clothes."

  She turned and grinned up at him. "Are you suggesting I wear nothing?"

  "Not unless you want me to kill every man here. However..." he pulled her to him wrapping his arms around her waist, "later when we're alone, that could be very interesting."

  Quinn had to shake her head to get the blood flowing into her brain again. "Now I'm going to have that visual in my head."

  He lowered his voice to a whisper, "Well, while you're thinking on that, think on this too: I intend to lick you dry, Quinn. Every single drop."

  And then he was walking away, whistling a merry tune as he went. Before he was too far from her, he looked back from over his shoulder and winked then got lost in the crowd. Quinn watched until he disappeared as both love and fear waged inside her.

  Everyone had their places, someone was covering every major event, so when Katherine arrived they would know. Quinn wasn't sure how much time passed before a shiver of warning worked its way down her spine as an all too familiar voice came from behind her.

  "Quinn, how nice to see you again." Quinn's heart literally stopped for a second before she turned and looked into shockingly pale blue eyes. She didn't notice the knife until it was pointed at her. "Let's go find Gabriel, shall we?"

  Katherine didn't wait for an answer before she started forcing Quinn along. "You know, you should have listened to me. He's mine and he always will be. You may think you've won him but you haven't." They made their way through the crowds, the others catching sight of them and following after, until they reached Gabriel at the horse races. Quinn saw the rage in Gabriel eyes but when he spoke his voice didn't betray what he was feeling.

  "Katherine, let her go. It's me you want."

  Quinn felt the knife dig into the flesh of her back and Gabriel involuntarily took a step forward but Katherine stopped him with a shake of her head.

  "Unless you want to watch your love bleed out before you, stay back." Katherine studied him a moment before she asked, "Why couldn't you have loved me? What does she have that I don't?"

  Gabriel's voice was full of conviction when he replied, "My heart and my soul."

  "I should kill her, right here in front of you, and make you suffer as you've made me suffer. I loved you. I would have made you very happy. I would have done anything for you, I even killed for you but you never gave me the time of day and then she walked into your life. Her!" Katherine's eyes were wild and she looked rabid as spittle dripped from her snarling lips. "I hate her almost as much as I hate you."

  "Take me then and leave her alone," he begged.

  "Killing her is me showing her a kindness, unlike you who will be forced to live a life without her."

  A terrible premonition flashed through Quinn's mind and the sense of someone walking over her grave had the hair on her arms standing on end. Charles arrived then with the police and soon Katherine found herself surrounded. It was then that Quinn felt most afraid because desperate people did desperate things, especially since there was no way out for Katherine.

  Everything went deadly still as the seconds seemed to tick away like hours and then Katherine all but purred, "This isn't over, Gabriel. Don't delude yourself into believing that it is."

  Madness burned brightly in her eyes as a twisted smile curved her lips. She held Gabriel's stare for a moment before she dropped the knife, lifted her hands in the air and surrendered. Quinn felt relief, absolutely, but something wasn't right. Why would Katherine come here just to give up so easily? It bothered her and, she knew from the look on Gabriel's face, that it bothered him too. Then Katherine was being taken away and the idea that it was over, that she was going to be put behind bars where she belonged, had Quinn forgetting her apprehension and she ran to Gabriel. He held his arms opened wide for her and pulled her close.

  "It's over now," he whispered and though she heard a bit of doubt in his voice, she settled more closely against him.

  The fair continued on and, once Katherine was escorted away, everyone got into the spirit of the day: enjoying the activities, the food, and, yes, Quinn went for a swim at the hand of the man she loved. She looked like a drowned rat but she couldn't have been happier.

  Later, everyone retired to the great hall for drinks. The discussion centered around Katherine and they were all proud of themselves for the ease in which they had captured her. She was going away and would no longer be able to hurt anyone again.

  The Scarcliff treasure was still in its box since it hadn't been revealed to the townspeople, not after the drama of the arrest. Quinn was happy about that because the treasur
e was her private link to Archer and, she couldn't deny, she liked keeping that link private.

  It needed to be locked up, safe and sound in the vault though, and she asked Nick to take care of it.

  Quinn leaned over to press her lips to Gabriel's. His hand snaked out to wrap around the back of her neck as he pulled her to him. When he finally released her, he did so rather reluctantly.

  "I'll be right back," Quinn whispered.

  "I'll be waiting."

  Quinn headed to Nick's solar where he was standing near the vault. "It's unlocked so when you're done just push the door closed."

  Without another word he left, pulling the door closed softly behind him. Quinn opened the box and looked once again at the treasures.

  "It's over, Archer," she cried. Tears filled her eyes as she thought about Archer and the life he was forced to live because of someone manipulating history, someone who was born almost three hundred years after he was. It wasn't fair that his life was so altered because of Katherine.

  Quinn thought she was just imagining it when she felt the air chill around her, thought she was daydreaming when she looked up to see the familiar figure standing near the fireplace, but when he took a step closer and she saw his beloved face, her heart leapt.

  "Archer?"

  His words sent a chill of fear through her. "Quinn, my love, be careful, she's here."

  The words were like déjà vu and then she remembered the note she had found, the one that was tucked with the wooden horse, the one that was smudged. He hadn't been warning her of a he but a she.

  "Archer!"

  "It isn't over," he whispered but before she could ask what wasn't over the door to the solar opened and in walked Mrs. Payne and she was carrying a gun.

  It was complete confusion that Quinn felt at first. What was Mrs. Payne doing here and why the hell did she have a gun? But as soon as she came a bit closer and Quinn saw the pale eyes, she felt her heart constrict in her chest and understanding settled over her like a lead blanket. Mrs. Payne was morphing into Katherine right before her eyes!