Work Text:
Always the disbeliever, I absolutely refused to take advantage of the soulmate clock when I was in my teens as most do. I wanted the joy of discovery, the surprise of finding that perfect person for me on my own terms. Regardless of the stats, I sincerely doubted a machine could find a match. I had a unique job, one that did not bode well for any type of relationships. And what if the clock said my soulmate was years, even decades away? It was always a possibility. Did I really want to know that I could be an old man before I met The One? Therefore, I did not get one. However, I had promised my happily married brother that if I had not found this magical one by my thirty-fifth birthday, I would consent to a countdown clock. One spectacularly failed relationship which nearly killed me, literally, and my thirty-fifth birthday later, I was held to honor my word. Thus, I got a soulmate countdown clock and I waited.
Because most people have already found their soulmates by my age, I was reluctant to have the countdown obviously displayed like a wrist watch as most did. It would be a give-a-way and cause unnecessary gossip. Thus, I had the mechanism hidden in the back of my pocket watch with no one the wiser and waited.
In the interim to my own shock, I somehow fell in love with someone else. Someone that was married. I decided, they could not be my soulmate. And having been burned once before by choosing on my own, I was not going to make that near tragic mistake again. I pined from afar, even after their divorce when my watch had not changed its time. For they deserve better than to be wooed by me when I am slated to be with someone else. I chose to wait for my soulmate.
And I waited.
And waited.
Only relieving the pressure in controlled circumstances when I had to, all told it was seventeen years, three months, six days and far too many hours, minutes and seconds.
Per the usage rules, depending on the time frame, a user comes in the day before or morning of the event horizon to have the device checked one last time. It was a sensitive machine that was not portable. I could not have them come to me. I had to deal with…people…and go to one of the offices. I chose a place across town away from my offices. Regardless, it seemed a third of London were soon meeting their own to be significant others and were at the same office. The place was so packed it was practically draw by straws to parcel folks out to other locales to handle the overload. Because I had ducked out on my PA to do this, I now needed to contact her, having no choice but to stay. I wish I could say I was annoyed when I receive a text from her informing me that my entire schedule for the rest of the day and tomorrow was cleared, just in case. I sigh not in the least surprised. Anthea is my aide de camp for a reason; naturally, she deduced it on her own. I shake my head amused and thank her, then settle into working remotely on what I can while keeping the ever so nosy and far too chatty goldfish of the town and sundry I’m surrounded by out of my business. I was among the last seen for the morning appointments. yet I have to admit, after waiting all this time; the excitement gripped me as I finally heard my name called.
Still, I wondered how could someone else be The One, when my heart wanted another?
“You’d be surprised.” Tobias, the overly friendly neighborhood technician answers as he runs through the necessary final checks and gives the required spiel. I grind my teeth to not snarl at him as he reminds me of all the things which I have heard countless times from other clock users over the years and already know. In a nutshell, the clocks can only predict when you will meet, not how long you’ll live happily ever after. And while love can essentially be found at any time in one’s life, after a certain age, meaning around forty, the clocks are less reliable. I understood that to mean that at the ripe old age of fifty-two this was pretty much my last shot with the soulmate clock for my old arse. I try not to roll my eyes as Tobias states all of this in a much more diplomatic and professional manner, of course.
From another room, we hear the sound of a young girl’s excited squeal.
“Oh, I know that sound!” Tobias, grins. “That’s a new one whose clock has just turned on. It must mean her soulmate count down is really short. She’ll be meeting him or her soon, the lucky gal! Hey look, you too!”
Tobias points to my pocket watch as if I did not already know that.
0y, 0m, d, 0h, 18m, 42s. Dear Lord! I did not know!
“That’s less than twenty minutes!” I yell totally caught off guard. What should have been a 30 minutes process had cost me nearly half of the morning.
“Well, I know it ain’t me, sir! Get the hell out of here and go meet them! GO! Remember it gets quiet then suddenly gets loud just before the nexus moment, and then the watch starts counting forward!” He literally pulls me out the chair and opens the door, shooing me out of the room.
I hurry through the now nearly empty waiting area. I glance at my watch, 0y, 0m, d, 0h, 14m, 31s and beeline for the main door to the street.
With a couple of minutes to spare, I straighten myself out as much as possible. I straighten my tie and spot him across the street. Tall, salt and peppered curling hair, to match his equally salted stubble and our eyes connect. I feel a pull. I feel it from the depths of my being as my breath catches. I can tell it is the same for him as he gasps. He glances at his watch and I glance at mine...
0y, 0m, d, 0h, 10m, 51 s.
He grins at me knowingly, as the street light changes and he steps from the curb.
I am looking at his face, loving his smile, watching the confident strut of his stride all the while chastising myself for being all-aflutter when a cacophony of sound draws my attention. A soul wrenching combination of screaming, tires screeching, glass breaking and metal crunching together. My soul lurches as if pulling me back when I realize my newly found mate is no longer striding towards me, but is now several feet away a tangle of blood and bones. I don’t even think about it – I run to him.
I crouch to grasp his hand and feel a strong touch on my shoulder when all sound mutes. At my touch, he turns his head to look at me and he tries to smile, to speak, but he cannot. I happen to be holding the hand with his watch. I don’t bother to look at mine as his winds down 5… 4… 3... … ...
I don’t need to verify the obvious as his watch goes black.
A woman near me screams just as the man’s hand goes limp in mine.
“Mycroft?” a familiar voice calls my name. I am stunned to realize it is Detective Inspector Gregory Lestrade. It is he who touched my shoulder. “What are you doing here?”
Some part of me registers the irony that the man I have secretly wanted to be mine for these past several years is the one who touches me now. And the one I waited for, he who should have been mine, is now dead on the pavement.
“Do you know him?” Greg releases his sympathetic touch on my shoulder.
I realize I do not and shake my head using my other hand to close the lids on eyes that no longer see as I stand.
The quiet is gone and Gregory’s voice is exceedingly loud. Before I can answer I realize it is not just his voice, suddenly everything has become loud. I know I am not alone in the sensation as Gregory himself cringes in the onslaught of sound.
Gregory’s eyes widen as he holds up his hand to show his watch. Though disguised like my own watch, I immediately realize what it is. I had not known he had one as well. It never came up in our conversations. I had no reason to believe his timepiece was anything more than a standard watch as I am sure he thought similar of my pocket watch.
It is my eyes that then widen as he pulls out my pocket watch and places the pocket watch on his wrist beside his own watch. We each press the appropriate buttons on our respective timepieces to bring up their screens. There is no denying the watches are in sync down to the milliseconds.
0y, 0m, d, 0h, 0m, 15s.
There is that pull again, even stronger. I know he feels it and together we watch in delighted shock as our respective watches simultaneously count down to zero, flash grey and then go forward in time.
The pull is unrelenting. We are in each other’s arm
“Oh, thank god! I have loved you for years Mycroft, and I was praying it was you when I saw you.” He whispers as he glances at the distraught woman guiltily.
“As I have secretly loved you, for many years now.” I whisper in turn.
We become cognizant of exactly where we are. Two soulmates who have found each other literally in the midst of tragedy, with a sobbing woman who has just found and then lost her own soulmate.
No other words are needed at the moment. We know we will meet with each other later for we have found each other at last.
It is then I remember during Tobias’ spiel I was reminded that while a soulmate is ninety-five percent of the time someone new, it has on occasion happened between people who had known each other for years. Gregory and I will not have to go through the awkward period of getting to know each other. From here in he and I will know each other even more.
I place my hand in his and all sound rights itself to normal except for the near quiet susurrus of our hearts beating in sync. We know that sound will be with us for the rest of our lives.