Full Circle

Posted on Wed Jul 24th, 2019 @ 4:00pm by Lieutenant Jéanne-Thérèse Marsol & Commander Logan Vance
Edited on on Sat Aug 3rd, 2019 @ 3:57am

Mission: Preludes
Location: Caen, France, Earth
Timeline: 1944

-----------------------------
1944 - Full Circle
-----------------------------

Dejected, Jéanne-Thérèse continued working her way West. As a part of the Croix-rouge française, she went where she was needed the most, right now that was everywhere after D-Day. She made it all the way to Amiens before the French Résistance had found her liberating her from the abandoned trench hole she had tried to end it in. She started volunteering for as close as she could to the front line to hope that she would be one innocent life killed. She had made Caen via the front lines along the beach heads from D-Day. Here she had been doing what she could for the civilians and soldiers on the allied side of the war after the Germans had blown the bridge the previous month.

Her helmet rested on the debris in the blown building they were in. There was so many bombings on Caen that it had been a prime opportunity for her to catch one. She was tired and done with the nomadic way of life.

"Thinking about it...I think we are overdue for another raid," one of the guys had stated. Thankfully of the buildings on this street, this one was the best one for them to occupy; it was small and tucked between two larger buildings, sheltering it mostly from the larger artillery attacks.

"Probably," she replied passively, wishing it could be so. They were a motley crew: two British soldiers, her, and one civilians that refused to evacuate but they had survived the last two days there.

"As soon as the armoured division makes it here, we will push forwards. Hearing them in the distance, shouldn't be too long," the one guy said.

"Sure," she replied absentmindedly as she ate a bit of a ration. She face scrunched a bit from the taste of it. The last few years hadn't been kind on her. If it wasn't standing in line for food, being solicited by Germans, it was usually scraps. Here she thought the rations from the future were rough… she looked up and thought she saw a shadow move beyond the rubble but realized she was probably seeing things again.

Logan was not a pilot and he was certainly no astrophysicist, so when he attempted to use the shuttle to go forward in time four years, it didn't go exactly as he intended. When he arrived in 1944, it was clear he had overshot his intended date of arrival by more than a month. It was now late July, not June of 1944. He was frantic he had screwed something up but when he had looked at the picture again, it remained, writing and all. He had the computer analyze. It had been taken in Caen, not Paris as he originally thought. Since then, he'd been using the photo to look for where it had been taken.

Logan caught sight of her when she looked his direction. He waved but she either didn't see it or ignored it. He looked to make sure the way was clear before he started a jog towards her, calling her name as he went.

"Look, some idiot in the road," one of the guys said pointing towards the road in front of the rubble. Even though they weren't directly next to the water, they were still close enough for the Germans could take a shot.

She looked up at what they were talking about. "Mon dieu…" her arm dropped by her side as she saw him coming across the street: the apparition from all those years ago looked identical to what he did when he left. She fumbled standing, in shock and disbelief. She didn't know if she wanted to run away from him or run to him. Tears were forming in her eyes as got closer to her as she stood dumbfounded frozen in the entryway to the bombed building.

He was confused by her lack of acknowledgment and slowed as he approached. It had been four years, a lot could have changed, he supposed. Surely she wouldn't have forgotten him. "Jéanne," he said as he neared her. "It's me, Logan. Logan Vance."

The two Brits looked between each other and shrugged. Both had their weapons trained on him.

Her feet were not wanting to acknowledge the commands she was issuing. Finally, as he walked across the threshold of the rubble of their building, she closed the gap, tears freed themselves from her eyes. She embraced him in a hug fighting the inevitable breakdown.

He embraced her back, "Sorry I'm a little late but I promised I'd be back for you."

Her eyes closed as she sunk into his arms, fully realizing that her nightmare was finally over. A tank came down the street, and the Brits cheered behind them. She leaned forward and kissed him before pulling away. As the tank passed behind them, he caressed her cheek. She heard the camera go off. She turned towards the one Brit, “Barbarent, I told you no photos…”

"Wait!" Logan warned her before she did anything to the camera or the film. He got between her and the man who had taken the picture. He took out his copy of the picture and looked up to see the building match exactly what he saw in the photo, fulfilling the prophecy it had predicted.

He flipped it over to the writing on the back with Barbarent standing over his shoulder, "Funny, that looks like my handwriting."

"Are you saying you wrote this?" Logan asked with an astonished look on his face.

"No, of course not," Barbarent shook his head. "I've not met you before today, chap." Logan turned the photo back over to show him and Jéanne the image and how it matched the one Barbarent had just taken.

She looked at the writing and then the photo. If her jaw could hit the floor, it would have. “But how?” she asked quietly.

Logan looked up at her. "It's what I was trying to tell you before. This is how I knew you would be here and why I misinterpreted the dates. I couldn't say anything before because I didn't want to pollute anything."

"I'm sorry I didn't listen." Before she could say anything else, the building shook, Logan went to cover Barbarent and the concussive blast took down the front of the building, which threw Jéanne-Thérèse into Logan as he went for Barbarent. Chunks of debris bit her back and the back of her head as her helmet laid on the floor beyond them.

Not wanting to tempt fate and having no idea what it had in store for them if they stayed, Logan decided he and Marsol needed to get the hell out of Dodge. There was just one more piece of business to attend to. Getting the photo through the 440 plus years and into his hands again. That's when it clicked. The name 'Barbarent' was the same name Hatfield had mentioned. The ancestor to the Admiral that had assigned the mission in the first place.

He grabbed the man by the wrist and gave him the version of the photo he'd been carrying. It was now scuffed, wrinkled and defaced but it's earlier version would exist soon enough. "You need to hold onto this!" he put it into Barbarent's hands. "The war and the future depends on it. Do you understand me?!" The man nodded.

Without hesitation, he wrapped up Jéanne-Thérèse in his arms and beamed them back up to the runabout.

-----------------------------
Ensign Jéanne-Thérèse Marsol
Nurse, USS Coleman

Agent Logan Vance
Intelligence Officer