Chapter Text
"Oh agh. For fuck sake!" Murtagh exclaimed.
"What've you done now?" Jamie asked him with a smirk. They sat on the hilltop near Lallybroch looking out at the early morning.
"We've got to go to Castle Leoch in three days. I forgot to tell ye." Murtagh cursed under his breath and Jamie rolled his eyes.
"Ah well. You ken I haven't seen the old place in a while. How's Column d'yu reckon?" Jamie asked.
"Probably as moody as usual." Murtagh grumbled.
"I'd be worried if he wasn't. Well c'mon, let's get ready." Jamie stood up and started walking down the hill. Murtagh groaned but stood up slowly and followed after Jamie.
On the morning of the third day, Murtagh, Fergus, Claire and Jamie were all on horseback. They went along slowly and didn't really pay attention to much around them until they heard a shout in the trees next to them and a thud.
"What in God's name was that?" Murtagh exclaimed with a hand on his sword pelt.
"Let's go find out." Claire said jumping off her horse. Jamie quickly jumped off too and Murtagh followed. Fergus stayed with the horses.
"I think it came from over there." Jamie said quietly.
They walked over to a little ditch that led into a small dip in the hill. Looking down into the ditch, they saw a girl, no not a girl. More of a woman, she looked in her twenties and was in leggings and a hoodie. The three had never seen such clothes. Even Claire was confused.
"Do you reckon she's came through?" Murtagh asked searching his beard.
"Probably. But people didn't wear that where I'm from. Maybe she's from further in the future?" Claire suggested.
"Well we can't just leave her there." Murtagh said walking down to her. "She must have fallen down and hit her head." Crouching down Murtagh wiped his finger over the small bloody patch on her head.
"Let's get her onto higher ground." Jamie told him. Murtagh picked her up and she fell loosely against him. Her mouth open, breathing.
"Milady! Milord! She's waking up!" Fergus yelled. The group had made a make shift camp in wait for her to wake.
Claire ran over to her girl as her eyelids moved and she wriggled a little on the blanket. Claire sat next to her. When the girl opened her eyes, she stared up at Claire: confused and scared.
"It's okay. You're safe now. What were you running from that made you fall?" Claire smiled sadly down at her.
"There. Was a man, he was behind me and chasing me and then I fell and I now I've woken up. Who are you?" She said too quickly. Claire held her hand.
"My name is Claire Fraser. Can you tell me your name?"
"Y/n, S/n. Where am I?" Claire looked back at Jamie and Murtagh before looking back to her.
"Well. Why don't you sit up first." Claire helped her sit up and she looked around. Upon seeing Fergus, Jamie and Murtagh, she looked at Claire then back to them and her eyes widened. "Where the fuck am I?" She breathed.
"You, are in Scotland." Murtagh said with a slight smile.
"No shit Sherlock. But why are you all dressed like that." She glared at Murtagh and he rolled his eyes.
"Because it's 1744. You wee mouthy-" Jamie stopped Murtagh from completing his sentence.
"The point is. We can keep you safe. If you don't trust us, trust my wife. She was in the same situation as you." Jamie took a swig of ale.
"What do you mean, the same situation?" Y/n asked.
"He means. I came through the stones too. I wasn't born in the 1700's either. I was a nurse in WWII and-"
"So you expect me to believe this b.s. That I time travelled! Who in god's name are you people!" She yelled standing up.
"We're just passing through to make it to Castle Leoch. I'm Jamie, this is my wife Claire, We won't harm you. But we will help you." Jamie said calmly: standing up.
"And why should I believe that? How do I know you didn't kidnap this woman and that boy?" She gestured to Claire and Fergus.
"Hey! I'm a man now! And they didn't kidnap me. They looked after me." Fergus retorted, muttering something offensive in French.
"Femme bouche Monsieur." Y/n yelled back at him.
"You relise you just told me to shut my lady right?" Fergus told her with an eyebrow raised.
"Well... I didn't take French! So just shut your mouth. I'm not coming with you crazy people." She looked behind her as she walked further away with Jamie slowly walking with her.
"C'mon. Just come with us and you'll be safe."
"I don't believe you." She said before fleeing.
She ran down into the forest and quickly fled through the trees. Enjoying the feeling of the wind against her face. She could see the sun through the trees and wanted to reach a hill in the distance. But it didn't last long, she was rugby tackled to the floor by Murtagh who laughed as she struggled.
"Ye'ra wee girl who doesn't know the land, you'll die without me." He chuckled. Y/n realised she couldn't fight him and she stopped struggling, but not before kicking him in the bollocks with her heel. Murtagh grunted and paused for a second before taking a stronger grip on her arm and pulling her after him.
"Did I hurt ye?" She asked. Adding the ye just to patronise him.
"Not in the slightest." He muttered, not looking at Y/n.
"And I'm not a little girl. I'm twenty-two actually!" She announced and Murtagh chuckled.
Later that day, the group were all riding toward Castle Leoch. Y/n shared with Murtagh and sat in front of him. She wasn't happy in the slightest and crossed her arms to show it. She didn't want to go with these crazy people and play dress up in a castle because, that was clearly what this was. These mad people said they were taking her to a castle where she would be cared for.
"What year are you from?" Claire asked Y/n.
"2016. I was born in 1994, I'm twenty- two." They all looked at her in amazement.
"How funny. I was born in 1918. I suppose it doesn't matter what century you're from. So how is the world in 2016. No more World Wars I hope." Claire joked. But inside she was praying for Y/n to say there were no more wars.
"Well no. But there have been plenty of wears since then. The Vietnam War, The Iraq War, The Afghanistan War, and now it's the world struggle against terrorism." Y/n told her bluntly.
"So 2016 isn't that different to the 1940's is it." Claire stated quietly.
"Not really. But everything else is good. Less and less people are in poverty and less are getting diseases and less children are dying. There's more technology and everything's easy to find. Homophobia and racism is on an unfortunate rise though so is anti-semitism I suppose. But the rest of it is great." Y/n tried to convince the group.
"How's Scotland?" Murtagh asked from behind her.
"Well, my hairy friend. I'm supposing that as you're telling me it's 1744 and all that, that you're a Jacobite?" She looked round at Murtagh and he nodded slightly. "Well, Scotland is still part of Great Britain. Nothing much has changed in that respect. The funny thing is, the Westminster government actually gave the Scottish people a choice to leave Britain and become its own country. Guess what they voted."
"To leave obviously. The Scottish people hate the English rule." Murtagh said proudly.
"Surprisingly, you're wrong. Scotland voted to stay. Even in modern day they couldn't leave the Westminster ruling. It's funny really. That people make all this fuss about being their own and not having Westminster dictate things when they just vote to have it." Y/n leant forward onto the horse and sighed. She was tired. Her backside pressed back into Murtagh and his eyes opened a little wider.
"I'm just glad I won't see that day." Jamie muttered.
Reaching into her hoodie pocket, Y/n brought out her phone. As the screen lit up, Murtagh cursed.
"What in Gods name is that?" Jamie asked.
"A cellular portable phone. Or an IPhone." Y/n looked down at the screen. "Damn. No signal." She muttered.
"That can't kill us. Can it?" Murtagh said anxiously.
"No you idiot. I can communicate with people and search for information and play games and listen to music-"
"Only sorcery could conjure this." Murtagh breathed.
"Maybe Steve Jobs is a sorcerer. If he is, I'll give you a call." Y/n joked. But no one got it.
Jamie and Claire were the only ones talking, and even that was in hushed tones. Y/n unwillingly lay on Murtagh in her sleep, and Fergus stayed wide awake. Murtagh looked down at the sleeping girl. Her strange clothes looked more comfortable than even good old Scottish woollen garments. But she seemed different to even Claire. Claire had always been a rare woman in everyone's view. But this girl seemed like she was scared under all that aggressive facade.
Murtagh wasn't a foolish man, and he could see when someone didn't want to be somewhere. This girl clearly didn't want to accompany them anywhere, but he couldn't just leave her behind. He now felt a certain responsibility for her, and that couldn't be dishonoured. Even if she was another Sassenach.
She was quite pretty, even though she had this strange black stuff around her eyes. Her hair was a very dark brown, nearly as dark as the night, and her skin was a light olive colour. When Murtagh brushed his finger briefly against her cheek as he reached for the rein, her skin was soft and smooth.
They approached Castle Leoch in the dead of night, but they could still hear loud happy voices from inside the banquet room. The fires around the entrance guided them into the courtyard.
"Hey, lassie. We're here." Murtagh whispered near to her ear. She slowly sat up and rubbed her eyes. Looking around Y/n could see an actual castle around her. Her mouth opened wide and she jumped off the horse.
"What the..." She trailed off and wrapped he arms around herself, it was so much colder at night with the wind whipping around her face. Murtagh jumped down off the horse and stayed close behind Y/n. Directing her into the entrance to the corridor that led to the main hall, Murtagh kept a hand on her back.
"Where are we going?" Y/n whispered.
"Probably the banquet hall. I need to ask Jamie. Wait here." Murtagh told her, taking his hand from her back he walked back down the dark corridor. Y/n stood against the wall and looked around at every single sound. She was scared about what could come around the corner next and why this all seemed so real. Whenever there were footsteps near to the corridor, she kept deadly silent and didn't want to be found.
Right now, Murtagh and maybe the other three were the people she knew. She slightly trusted Murtagh over the other three but didn't know why. But it wasn't till after around twenty minutes that the woman named Claire came down the corridor.
"Cmon then Y/n, let's get you some food." Claire told her pulling her by the arm. Y/n was too scared not to listen to her.
The went further It to the castle and down some stairs onto the ground level, into the kitchen. Claire sat her down on a chair and looked around for some food. Seeing some meat and cheese, Claire cut some up and put it onto a plate with a small bannock. Passing it to Y/n she started eating apprehensively.
"It's not poison. I promise." Claire said eating some cheese.
When she had finished eating, Claire sat down in front of her.
"So. Tell me about how you got here. Or what happened before you came through the stones." Claire smiled at her encouragingly.
"I came to Scotland to come to T in The Park. Which is a music festival that happens annually. When the festival finished, me and my friends wanted to travel up north and see the castle ruins and eventually go to The Isle of Skye for some photography. But we detoured to Inverness because someone wanted to see the standing stones." She paused and put her hair up into a ponytail, her long hair still coming down to her stomach. "Then a few of us went to the standing stones. Only three out of the eight. I took the longest to walk to the stones because I was getting some stuff out of the car, but as I walked nearer the stones I could hear a slight buzzing noise. It increased as I got closer and was intensely loud as I stood inside the circle. I asked my friends if they could hear the sound but they said no, so I just thought it was insects or something. But then I leant against one of the stones and- I woke up here and you found me." At that moment, Murtagh walked in.
"What are you two talking about?" He said sitting down and taking a swig of ale.
"How I came to be here." Y/n said putting her feet up on the table and leaning her elbows on her legs.
"If Mrs Fitz comes in here, I ken she'll throttle you." Murtagh added and Claire smirked.
"I'll leave you two too it. I need some sleep. I'll go find Jamie. Murtagh will show you your room and I'll wake you up tomorrow. We need to get you into some clothes that won't have people asking questions. Night." Claire squeezed Y/n's shoulder before walking out of the room and closing the door.
"So what were you before you came through the stones?" Murtagh asked.
"A woman and a human." She laughed and Murtagh shook his head.
"You're lucky I don't mind for insolence or jokes. What was your job I mean, what did you do?"
"I was a professional sportswoman actually. I played cricket for the Warwickshire women's team and I was on my way to the England team.
Me, my friends and some of my team mates had taken a holiday around Europe going to music festivals and T in the Park in Scotland was one of the first ones." Y/n looked forward, and not at Murtagh.
"Why is it called T in the Park. Do you have tea in a park or what?" Murtagh asked genuinely confused. Y/n laughed a little and covered her mouth with her hand to hide the giggles. "What?"
"Oh my lord. No, the T stands for Tennents which is a beer company or brewing company. It's the festivals main sponsor." Y/n smiled and there was silence for a few seconds.
"I should probably take you up to your room, we've been travelling all night." Murtagh stood up and held out his hand. Y/n took her feet off the table and brushed the flecks of mud off, taking Murtagh's hand she stood up and smiled at him.
"Thank you for being so hospitable." Y/n added as Murtagh let go of her hand and steered her in front of him.
"It's alright, I was hardly going to leave you to the mercy of other highlanders that might not be so kind or the red coats." Murtagh said in a gruff voice.
"The red coats are the English, right?" Y/n asked.
"Yes, and let them all be damned to hell, or worse." She looked back at Murtagh with a slight frown. "I mean the soldiers. You and Claire are the first decent Sassenach's I've met. The rest of them are stuck up pricks."
"To right. I love Scotland, I wanted to come to University here but it didn't work out." Y/n turned her head back around and carried on walking where Murtagh lightly pushed her.
"I'm glad to hear it. But I'm guessing Scotland is no where near the same in your time?" Murtagh asked.
"Well yes. Not that much of the Highland is gone because people are so protective of it. But a lot more space is taken up by houses and things that generate power for us. But the Highland is still beautiful." They walked up a flight of stairs onto a quiet corridor. The shouting in the hall slowly getting further away.
"I'm glad, this beautiful land shouldn't be lost. Anyway. Your room is just here. I ken you'll have a good deal of sleep tonight." Murtagh smiled as Y/n turned around to face him.
"Thank you for walking me to my room." Y/n opened the door and stood in the doorway.
"It's the least I could do. I'll see you tomorrow morning lass." Murtagh told her with a soft smile and a nod.
"See you tomorrow Murtagh." Y/n closed the door slowly and walked over to the bed. Taking off her hoodie with 'LA' on it in green cotton. She took off her shirt and her trousers. Folding them up, she lay them on a table and took off her 'Vans' and her socks. Pulling back the slightly scratchy covers age got into bed and tried to ignore how uncomfortable the under wire of her bra was. As her head hit the pillow she exhaled slowly. Falling asleep was a blessing because it meant that all of this might be a dream.
But in her heart Y/n knew that this had to be real. It was all so well set out. In a dream there are sometimes things that get messed up because it's your brain, but this seemed so normal it couldn't be a dream. Could it?