whatever happened to all the heroes?

[poshmouthytart]

Characters: Alex Drake and Sam Tyler
Rating: PG
Time Period: Modern
Location: Outside the castle
Relative Date: Sometime after the death thread
Status: FINISHED

Comments

[sammytyler]

Sam had spent most of the day trying to find something to do. The message he'd sent to Annie before hadn't gotten the response he had hoped, so sending another one sounded like a bad idea to him. He'd have to go look around on his own. And at the very least, getting some fresh air was something he needed to do.

Sam was reaching for the door handle to the castle when it swung open. He stepped aside quickly. "'Scuse me..." he mumbled, more from habit than genuine feelings. He barely looked toward the silhouette standing in the doorway. He could tell from the hair it wasn't anybody that he recognized.

[poshmouthytart]

Alex backed up as the door swung open, cursing her heels. She sighed and straightened herself, and looked up at the man who had spoken.

"I'm sor--" she cut herself off, and took a step into the doorway. She peered at the man in front of her.

"Sam?" she croaked.

[sammytyler]

Sam's brow furrowed deeply when he caught better sight of the woman. She looked familiar, and slowly the realization of who she was washed over him.

"Alex Drake?" He wiped a hand over his face, in shock. "You've got to be kidding me!"

Sam shook his head in surprise before stepping forward with a broad grin. "I can't believe it..."

[poshmouthytart]

Alex took a step forward, examining Sam. She had been looking for him only hours before, hoping to find him, and now here he was standing before her... And she wasn't even sure what to say.

She reached out and placed a hand hesitantly on his arm, as if making sure he was real. Well, as real as he could be, in this place.

"Gene told me you were here, but..." she shook her head, half-whispering to herself. "I must be mad, bringing you here like this. Why now?"

[sammytyler]

He made a motion to hug her, but stopped when she said Gene's name. Sam's head shook again. "Gene?" he asked, almost accusingly. He quickly softened his tone. "What are you doing here?"

Sam looked her over, obviously confused by her wardrobe. Although, his own 70s attire wasn't exactly saying much for his own mental state.

[poshmouthytart]

Alex's eye widened, when she realised she could tell him.

Even if he really was just a construct, even if he wasn't real or in her head, he still remembered her, he still knew who she was and he would understand. He would believe her.

Alex felt a bit woozy, suddenly, and took a step back, half-slouching against the doorway and she rested her head in her hands. "Oh, Sam, I am so sorry. I should have believed you. I just thought you were mad." She sighed. "I don't know, maybe we're both mad."

[sammytyler]

Sam's face showed concern. He understood Alex's apology, and assumed she was referring to being stuck in this place (with Gene Hunt of all people) as the part that was making them mad.

He stepped forward, and gave her a gentle but confused smile. "It's alright, Alex. We're not crazy, you know...this place is real," he wanted to go on, but he couldn't really help himself from asking his next question. "Why are you dressed like that?"

[poshmouthytart]

Alex dropped her hands and gawped at him. Of course, he didn't know what she really meant. She wanted, she needed him to be her ally, to believe her. He couldn't become another distraction, another part of her mind trying to convince her this was all real.

"No, you don't understand." She took a step closer to him, searching his eyes. He was so real, so exactly as she remembered him. So real, like everything here. "I was shot, Sam. In 2008 I was a shot and... I woke up in 1981. I came here, to this castle, from 1981." She realised how different she must look from what Sam remembered, her hair a curly mess and her blue eye shadow probably smudged and her clothes stained with dirt. She felt exhausted and terrible. "Somewhere, back home, I'm in a coma somewhere, and this, all of this! It's all just in my head."

[sammytyler]

He was silent for a moment. "That's...not possible," Sam said quietly and very unconvincingly. He could feel his heart beating faster, and his knees wanted to buckle. "No, it's not possible. If it were true, then that would mean I didn't exist, that I was just a part of your coma. This is real, Alex. Look around you! Even I can tell the difference!"

Immediately, Sam started to doubt himself again. He knew he was real, he was sure of that. But how real was everyone else and everything here? Everything that had happened to him, even waking up and going back to his normal life...it could have all been part of the illusion.

[poshmouthytart]

"But that's the thing isn't it, Sam? It always felt real." She put her hands out, resting them gently on his shoulders. "But it can't be. I remember, I remember being shot and when I woke up I met Gene, and Ray, and Chris."

She felt like she convincing him, almost arguing with him. She wasn't even sure she knew who he was. He could have been part of her imagination. Or he could be here and be the only person in this whole bloody world who was real besides her.

Alex shook her head. "I don't think I know what's real and what's not anymore."

[sammytyler]

Sam reached up to hold his hands on Alex's forearms, keeping her hands in place and trying to comfort her. He searched her eyes, while his own looked sad and uncertain.

"If you can feel it, it's real," Sam answered her quietly. "I can feel this. I think you can, too." He needed this to be real. As insane as this place was, his sense of sanity was riding on it.

[poshmouthytart]

Alex's grip tightened on Sam's shoulders. He felt solid beneath her. She could smell him. She could hear him breathe.

"It can't be!" she hissed. "I have to get home, Sam. I have a daughter, she needs me. I can't stay here."

[sammytyler]

Sam forced himself to smile, trying to calm Alex down. "I know that, Alex. It's going to be okay. You just have to hold it together. Just like you did before...I-- something like this happened to me before, Alex. And I went home. I just didn't want to be there..." he trailed off toward the end of his statement. He let his hands relax on her arms, before slowly sliding them off her. "I'm real, Alex. Everything around you is real, and you've got to focus on that. So that maybe we can find a way to get out of here..."

[poshmouthytart]

Alex stared at Sam, lost somewhere between questioning and suspicion. "How do I even know you're real, Sam? You could be just part of my mind, another construct, distracting me from what's important."

She didn't really believe it, of course. She wasn't sure what she believed anymore. Because all of this, and Gene, and now Sam... She didn't want them to be just part of her mind. She knew that much.

"I almost died, in the real world. I could feel it. What if I'm dying again? What is this, all of this, is my brain... just stopping?"

Her breath was quickening, and she gulped for air.

[sammytyler]

Sam watched Alex's face for a moment, before slowly pulling her hands off of him. He held onto her wrists.

"Alex, listen to me. No one else here can tell you this...but I've been through all that. And this is different! No one's talking to me...no radios, no teles."

He pulled one of wrists closer, and pressed her hand against his chest. His heart was beating hard. "I'm a real person, Alex. And so are you."

[poshmouthytart]

Alex breathed in, her palm pressed against Sam's chest. She moved her fingers, brushing her fingertips across the fabric of his shirt.

She could feel his heart, thumping a familiar rhythm against his chest. She closed her eyes, concentrating on that, on the feel of the cloth of his shirt against her palm, and the sounds and smells of the castle around her.

Opening her eyes, she sighed at him and forced a distressed smile. "It is different here." Of course, in her case, it had been visual hallucinations and not voices. And of all them, she wanted to see Molly again. "I felt like I was close, so close to getting home again. And now it feels that much further away."