The last thing Jacob Frye remembered, he and Evie had just barely (with a little help from Greenie) managed to defeat Crawford Starrick, put the Shroud of Eden back where it belonged, and get out with their lives. The last time he’d seen his sister before that, however, had featured the ugliest argument they’d ever had. They’d all but agreed to never speak to one another again. Jacob had regretted it within an hour or so, but the Fryes were creatures of stubborn pride from the first to the last. He wasn’t about to apologize unless Evie was, and of course Evie wasn’t going to apologize unless he was, so that left them stuck.
But after that fight with Starrick, Jacob was feeling a little less prideful and a little more grateful that he and Evie were both still alive. He’d also been reminded rather pointedly how well he and Evie worked together when they actually worked together. And since according to these Atlantis types he was here because Evie wanted him here, it seemed there was no time like the present to pretend they hadn’t said a bunch of rotten things to each other.
Evie was right outside when Jacob got out of Intake, and he strode up to her with a broad grin and outstretched arms.
“Behold, your wish is granted!”
Evie had immediately left her home, almost foregoing a proper coat despite the weather, as soon as she had been called into Intake about Jacob being here. She had thought to race all the way there, but there was a blizzard, and with little progress made along the way she had caved and called for a car service. They were busy, however, and it had taken a little while to get there all things taken into account. She had also ran out of the car and to Intake.
When Jacob found her, clad in modern clothing, she was huffing and puffing and impossibly red in the face. The plan had been to pause before entering in order to compose herself, but that was no longer possible. As such, Evie turned to Jacob with a broad smile, blowing loose strands of hair out of her face. “Gracious as always, dear brother!”
Putting one freezing hand over either of his shoulders she looked at him fondly for a second before pulling him into a hug. Normally she wouldn’t have, but normally she wouldn’t have been without him for months.
Normally Jacob wouldn’t have gone for a hug, either - they hadn’t exactly been raised to embrace emotions and give affection. He’d just almost lost his sister for good, though, and if there was ever time for a hug, this was it.
When he pulled back to look at her, he was still smiling. “So, decided to soften your stance on never working together ever again?”
“We had already agreed upon that, had we not? Unless… What is the last thing you remember?” If their times didn’t align at least a little this was going to be a headache. She would have liked to celebrate their victory properly here where everything was possible. “Because before I landed here, we’d agreed on continuing to work together and listen to each other, we got knighted by Queen Victoria…? No?”
“We get knighted?” Jacob grinned. “About bloody time our contributions to the realm were recognized. That’s brilliant!” In his enthusiasm for being Sir Jacob Frye, he completely forgot that Evie had asked him when he’d come from. Jacob had a tendency to get carried away with an idea like a dog chasing a squirrel.
Evie arched a brow at what was a perfectly Jacob-like reaction to have, though he would never have it in front of Her Majesty. “Yes, members of the Order of the Sacred Garter. Her Majesty said she may call on us, offered me cake (it’s a long story) and departed.”
As she spoke, Evie motioned for her twin to follow her, while using her device with her other hand to call for transportation. She thought Jacob might like some breakfast, some good, supple, modern breakfast. “Then you provoked me into a race and we ran off, leaving Henry in the dust. And that is all I remember before I did a three-point-landing and picked up a shiny coin which transported me here. I was hoping you might tell me who won, but alas.”
“Probably me,” Jacob said, which was just as typical a Jacob reaction. He followed as Evie directed, simultaneously looking around at the incredible city that surrounded him. “But the last thing I remember, we’d just finished having a proper go with Starrick, soundly defeating him with a perfect mix of panache and brutality. We hadn’t had time to catch our breath, much less talk...and then I was here.”
Oh, no. This meant that the entire conversation they had had after handling Starrick hadn’t happened for Jacob. Evie frowned, not even paying attention to the presumptuous comment about their race. “That… Is not ideal. See we had a conversation while we regained our breaths and put the Shroud safely back where it belonged.”
She waved at the car whose numbers on the plate matched the one who had responded to her call. It stopped short of where they were standing, and Evie opened the door. “Come on in, just like a carriage but… lower to the ground.”
There was a distinct lack of horses on this carriage, Jacob couldn’t help but notice. He wasn’t sure what to make of that, but he’d never been one to walk away from an exciting new experience. He got in the car and moved over to let Evie in after him.
“So, we agreed to keep working together and to listen to each other? Good, I was hoping we’d get that sorted out. I’ve never been good at staying cross with you; it would be rather embarrassing if you managed to hold a grudge when I couldn’t.” Closing the door, Evie asked the driver to take them to Snoozle and settled in to observe Jacob for reactions to the fully motorized vehicle they found themselves in. He was, of course, a product of the same fairly open minded education as she was and so Evie was not expecting him to drop onto the floor and scream sorcery but it was still something to get used to.
“We did. We found each other in the middle, to put it elegantly. We realized there were merits to each other’s approaches and that we’re better together. Which we are.” Evie smiled. “I’d prefer not to hold a grudge against the only family member I have left.”
They were almost there now despite the car’s slow drive due to snow. “So what do you make of this fully motorized car? Let me tell you, this has us take quite a few jumps forward in eras of history and, thus, progress.”
“So I see!” Jacob was a bit wide-eyed at it all, to be honest. Except for their recent stint in London, he’d spent his whole life in the sleepy mid-nineteenth century town of Crawley, and even London couldn’t have prepared him from Atlantis. He wasn’t worried about sorcery, but he was a touch agog. “Can you imagine Aleck here? He’d get started asking people how does this and why does that and fall into a laboratory somewhere, and we’d never see him again.”
Evie chuckled lightly at the image Jacob had conjured up in her mind. She waved the tablet in her hand. “Aleck was the precursor for a lot of these communication devices, he would be so proud! But you’re right, he would fall into the Engineering Department and never get back up.”
They were coming up on Snoozle, and the driver stopped only a few steps from the door. Evie thanked the man, having paid through her device as well, and opened the door to her side.
“Come, Jacob. Breakfast awaits.” It didn’t really await but that didn’t matter. Evie pushed the door to the establishment, waiting for her brother before letting it close, and then chose a table illuminated by the brightness of a window to sit at. She pushed the menu towards Jacob with a smile. “All right. Welcome to the future. Better food, and more of it than you can eat.”
“We’ll see about that. I just finished fighting Starrick; I could eat an entire pig’s worth of breakfast at the moment.”
He didn’t doubt the deliciousness of the food, though. The place smelled incredible, and to a 19th century man of the lower classes, it was remarkably free of vermin. He’d eaten in some pubs in London where he’d been concerned he might have to fight a rat for his bangers and mash, and that the rat could well be big enough to put up a good challenge.
“So how long is it you’ve been here? You seem very settled in.”
“I wouldn’t say that’s possible, but its weight in several different delicious dishes - absolutely.” Evie revealed, watching as Jacob perused the menu though she already knew what she would get. When the waitress came over to take their order Evie asked for waffles with strawberry sauce and an orange juice, then asked her to return for her brother’s order. And her second order, most likely; excitement really did build an appetite. “Around five months, give or take a few days. There is a man here who says he remembers you from another world much like this one, but given that people who are gone and come back tend not to remember being here at all I wouldn’t expect you to, either.”
Jacob tilted his head curiously at that. He certainly didn’t remember any trips to other worlds. If he did, he’d probably be a lot less overwhelmed by this one.
“I’ll add that to the list of impossibly strange things people have said to me today,” he said, and snapped his menu shut, having made a decision: the largest pile of eggs, sausage, hashbrowns, and pancakes they would offer in a single setting. He didn’t know what a hashbrown was yet, but he was game for finding out. He liked a corned beef hash, so probably this would be good, too. “Five months. But for me, I saw you five minutes ago. I think in the interest of not having a headache, I’m going to simply ignore all the many, many things about this that make no sense at all.”
“I’m sure it is a long list.” Evie replied. She wasn’t joking, either, she remembered what her first few weeks here had been like. She barely batted an eye at his honestly excessive order of food, completely understanding of what such a turn of events might do for one’s appetite. Anxiety also begged to be fed sometimes.
Evie thought his openness to trying new foods bode well for everything else Jacob had yet to experience, and his reaction to both the news that someone else knew him and that time had gone by differently for them both wasn’t as negative as it could have been. Evie smiled. “Time, they say, moves differently between our homeworlds and this one. Not to mention that when we come here we leave behind a sort of copy to carry on as usual. I know it is hard to understand, I don’t know it all myself yet but it becomes easier to live with over time.”
Jacob looked at her with an expression somewhere between befuddled and exasperated. He wasn't sure if it was the fact that he hadn't slept all night because he'd been busy fighting Starrick and saving the Queen, or the fact that he hadn't eaten, or the sheer complexity of what Evie was saying, but regardless of the cause, he was not putting all those words together in a way that made sense.
“Honestly, Evie, you might as well be speaking Greek right now. Try telling me all that again after some breakfast and sleep, would you?”
Sighing, Evie took a sip of her orange juice and shrugged. It all seemed fair to her, but he ihad asked, and she had wanted him to understand rather than be confused. Perhaps explaining had done worse, but she wasn’t to know it would. At this moment the waitress brought back two plates, one moderately full and another that barely contained everything. Evie snickered at the sight and thanked the woman. Cutting into her waffles, Evie motioned to the plate with her chin. “I’ll tell you again when and if you ask. For now, enjoy your breakfast. Don’t die.”