Chapter Text
When Vic was born her Soulmate clock on the inside of her wrist only read 15 years. Everyone around her assumed it was just a kid at school that she would meet, even she was excited as she went through school, hoping that whoever he was, she would really like him.
So, when the school had a fire one Friday, just as her Soulmate clock ticked down by minutes. Her heart sped up but she was also so confused, no one had transferred into the school recently and teenagers being teenagers went around everyone checking their clocks against each others, just to see so she knew it was no one at school.
It was chaos outside, there were several fire engines and aid cars with the firefighters milling around putting the fire out and helping anyone who had gotten stuck in the school, all the kids from the school dotted about between the fields and the fire engines.
Vic herself was coughing slightly, having been stuck in the gym hall with a few others. They were lined up next to one of the aid cars, with two firefighters treating her classmates, working with a practised ease as if they did this all the time. She couldn’t help but see how tall they both were, the dark skinned man being the taller of the two but the other guy had a nicer smile she thought. Glancing at her wrist, she saw she had seconds left until she found out who she was destined to be with. Who could it be? She bit her lip slightly as she watched it tick down.
“Alright, next up over here!” She heard a shout and looked up to the male firefighter who had just pointed the kid he was treating to the side, her clock forgotten in that moment. She took note of those deep blue eyes, framed by dirty blonde hair and her typical teenage hormones ran rampant, even if she had to tell herself he was so old.
Stepping up to him, she stifled a cough, trying to appear fine. “I’m okay, you should probably treat someone else.” She said to him, looking at the line again to the other kids who couldn’t keep their coughs at bay.
“Gonna have to check you over I'm afraid, you could have smoke inhalation and that isn’t cool.” He said to her as he motioned for her to sit on the back of the aid car. She did as he asked, trying not to cringe at how he was trying to sound cool. Typical old guy trying to hit it with the kids, she thought with a slight grin. “My names Ripley okay, this won’t take long.” She could tell he was trying to put her at ease by telling her his name, it probably helped all the other kids.
“Sure, okay, whatever.” She muttered a little before he flashed her a wonky smile and put an oxygen mask over her mouth as he held her wrist, clearly counting her heartbeat. She watched him from the corner of her eyes, even when he put a stethoscope to her chest and asked her to breath in deeply and exhale slowly. She had to admit, the oxygen was helping a little, even if she felt a little breathless over having a grown man see her wearing a stupid Spice Girls t shirt. She knew she should have thrown it out ages ago.
Seeming satisfied, she looked at Ripley fully as he pulled back and smiled brightly at her again, the corners of his eyes crinkling. “Well, everything seems fine. Heart rate is good and I don’t hear anything in your lungs. Is that helping any?” He asked her, pointing to the mask.
“Yeah, a bit, I definitely don’t feel like I need to hack up a lung at least.” Vic made sure to joke, his chuckle made her flush ever so slightly.
“Good, you keep that on and head over there okay. We’ll want to keep an eye on you guys for a bit so just go chill with your friends for now and someone will be over in a bit to check on you.” She nodded at his instruction and went over to her friends, still wearing the very uncool oxygen mask like he told her too.
It wasn’t until later when she was all tucked up in her bed, her grandmother having made one hell of a fuss of her when she’d gotten home smelling like smoke that she realised her clock had counted down to zero. She’d missed it. She had met him and had missed it! How does someone just miss meeting their soulmate?! That night, she cried herself to sleep, not remembering her dreams of blue eyes and wavy blonde hair.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Vic was laying on his chest, their legs tangled under the duvet as she counted his heartbeat. One hand idly playing with the hair on his chest. They’d been doing this a while now, she and Lucas. After her shift if he was off, she would come home to find him cooking her dinner or breakfast depending on what time she finished shift. She loved it, even if she’d never seen herself as the type of person to enjoy domestic. She felt one of his hands catch her wrist, thumb rubbing over her timed out clock. As a reflex, her hand darted out of his grasp and she kept it hidden. They hadn’t really spoken about this stuff before and she certainly didn’t want to start after a sex session.
“No. Lucas. I can’t okay? You might not believe in the whole soulmate thing but I do!” She sat up and moved away from him slightly, Vic had told him before it was a sore subject for her, because she did believe in soulmates. “I missed my chance at true happiness and you? Threw yours away, clearly shows with two marriages under your belt.” She scoffed as she hopped out of bed and quickly got dressed, she couldn’t do this. Guilt was already starting to eat her up inside over that. She was mad but damn, even she knew that was a low blow.
“Okay,” she heard him mutter as she threw her discarded shirt on, too afraid to turn to look at him. Too afraid to see any hurt that she had put there. “Yeah I've been married twice. Sure the soulmate thing isn’t the biggest to me. You want to know why?” It was a rhetorical question, she knew it. But she wanted to know anyway. She nodded, sitting down on the bed again but still facing away from him, showing him she knew she’d been a bitch but she was still mad he’d brought this up.
“My parents weren’t soulmates. My mum’s soulmate had died not long after they met and my dad’s had ticked off a long time before they’d even met. Yet they were happy, they loved the bones off of each other enough to have me and Jennifer.” Vic could hear how hoarse his voice was, the pain still in there even if they’d died a long time ago now. “I didn’t think much of my clock. I got married when I was happy, but clearly it wasn’t right. The day my clock was to run out I was giddy. Couldn’t wait to see what would happen.” She heard him snort slightly, at himself or what she didn’t know.
“Luke…” She sighed, she didn’t need to know, not really. The world was too crazy over this damn soulmate shit and she was just mad she was denied in such an awful way. What kind of universe gave someone a soulmate but no way to know who it was after the time ticked out?
“There was a lot of calls that day, a lot to do. Barely had a chance to keep checking it. But there was a fire at this school, wasn’t too bad but kids needed to be checked out.” He sighed, she could feel him moving off the bed and picking up his clothes to dress, a part of her panicked thinking he was going to leave. “In the middle of all of that, treating kids and checking them out. My timer ran out. It had timed out after I'd checked over a kid wearing the stupidest Spice Girls top and I didn’t even feel that stupid spark they say you feel when you meet them. I had to have looked at hundreds of people that day.”
Vic’s eyes went wide at that moment, her breathing stopping for a second as she thought back to the day her clock timed out. She’d been wearing a Spice Girls shirt. Turning her head, she watched as he bent over, tying his uniform boots, back stretching the back of his button down real nice and dirty blonde hair the same, just flecked with grey now. “Fuck me.” She breathed out, it was impossible right? Surely not.
“What?” He turned to look at her and yeah, those eyes… how could she not have seen it before. Old, trying to be cool firefighter. Here he was, after all those years.
A laugh escaped her like a bark, followed by another until she was biting her lip to stop it. At least until a look of hurt crossed over his face and she had to settle herself. “Lucas, I was Spice Girl top. My clock ran out when my school went on fire. I’d been stuck in the gym with my friends before we had to get seen by the firefighters. My clock ran out when I was getting seen by a very old, very uncool blonde, blue eyed firefighter.” She said, waggling her eyebrows to make him see the dots.
His eyes blew wide as he gaped at her slightly. She watched as he clearly thought back, his expression changing. “Makes sense… I mean it might not be related, we might not be each others soulmates, but that is a funny coincidence.” He huffed out.
Vic just smiled and crawled across the bed so she could take his face in her hands. “Lucas Ripley,” she said, kissing him gently for a few seconds. She pressed her forehead against his when they broke apart and grinned. “Give me this okay. Cause even though you were old as fuck back then, I still thought you were hot stuff.”
They both laughed at that, even if his face was tinged slightly red. “Only if you still have that Spice Girls top.” He joked, but she grinned mischievously at him, biting her bottom lip seductively.
“Oh, I definitely do. Want me to put it on?”