Have to share this absolutely beautiful art from @mouselandyardie because my heart is so full right now 🥹🥰💖

Rissa is over the moon with them as well! ☺️

@mouselandyardie

Abberline was exhausted. So much had changed in such a short amount of time he barely knew how to cope, his mind reeling with the uncertainty and fear he felt. Dunn was right that he wanted to run, and he still hated that he'd been called out on it, especially in front of Marissa...

He turned to see her staring out over the Seine, her expression unreadable. What was she feeling? Did she understand-- could she understand? He felt a heavy darkness weighing down on him as his mind replayed his outburst at Dunn again and again, and he let out a heavy sigh as he leaned his head back against the stone, letting his eyes close as tears once again threatened to form. Despite the cold, the heaviness weighing down upon him combined with his exhaustion won, and he fell into an uneasy sleep...

A noise startled him awake, and he opened his eyes slowly, looking around and blinking in confusion upon realizing his surroundings had changed... He found himself sitting outside on a park bench on a chilly winter morning. Where was he? What time was it? He felt his anxiety rising as he noted the sunny sky and unfamiliar surroundings of the park. Where was everyone-- where was Marissa?

He quickly stood as he heard voices approaching, turning to see a young couple walking up the path towards him, and he waved to get their attention as they approached. "Pardon me, could you tell me--" His words cut off as the couple suddenly walked right through him, giving no indication they'd seen or heard him. What the hell?! Abberline was startled, his anxiety growing. What is this? What's happening?

The couple stopped a few steps behind him, as the young male mouse suddenly stopped down to tie the laces of his boots that had come undone. Abberline turned and got a better look at the couple, taken aback by a sense of familiarity, as if he had seen them somewhere before... The mousette had pretty auburn hair and fair, light brown fur, and the other mouse had light brown hair with a hint of gold showing through, the sunlight catching it from under his hat, and slightly darker fur. Their clothes looked outdated, but nicely kept up.

A bit of movement caught his eye from over the mousette's shoulder-- a baby, he realized, no more than a year old at most. It was a girl, he also realized, and while the parents had taken no notice of him this tiny babe seemed to stare right at him with big blue eyes as she cooed and smiled back at him. At that moment he felt his stomach drop, realizing exactly where he'd seen this couple before, but it couldn't possibly be... They were the couple from the framed photograph Marissa kept on her nightstand, though they were older there, the last photograph she had of her family all together before her parents passed, which meant...

He shook his head in disbelief. How could this be? Her parents were dead... Had he traveled back in time somehow? Was this a dream? Another trick of Dagon? He stumbled back for a moment until the babe caught his eye again. She had turned back to her mother as they continued on their way, but glanced back at him for a moment, and he felt something in him soften... Was that really them? Was that really her?

He wondered if he should follow them but before he could decide a gust of wind came up and he had to shield his eyes from the snow that blew into his face, and when he lowered his arms and reopened his eyes the scene had changed...

Looking around it was suddenly autumn, bright colorful leaves lazily falling from the trees, and not far from him he heard the sounds of children playing among the leaves. Several children seemed to have dropped their schoolbooks off to the side to take a few minutes to run around and jump in the leaves, and one in particular stood out to him, a young girl with gold hair... He knew it was her without a doubt, and watched as she laughed and played with the other children, not a care in the world, until the sound of a nearby school bell called the children away to class. As they bounded away he couldn't help but smile a bit at the pieces of leaves still caught in her hair. With another gust of wind and blowing leaves the scene changed again...

Now he was at a train station just as a train pulled in. Looking around and seeing a mouse reading the newspaper nearby he realized he was in Chicago, and he also noticed the date... The sound of passengers disembarking the train pulled his attention back to it, and in one window he saw her again, a teenager, the same age as in that photograph she kept. She had her nose stuck in a book, clearly eager to finish a chapter as she pulled her things together to disembark herself, completely oblivious to what awaited her on the platform...

As she stepped down onto the platform two officers approached her with solemn expressions, and he watched with a lump forming in his throat as her carefree expression shifted to concern before she paled, nearly dropping the bag she carried with her, before the officers led her away.

Abberline found himself following them as they led her to the morgue, stopping just outside as his heart fell at the confirmation: this was that day... Before he knew it the sun had shifted in the sky as if hours had passed, and he saw her walk out alone. She looked ill, lost even as she numbly made her way to a nearby bench to sit down. He cautiously approached, but it was clear that this time she couldn't see him, and he could only sit down next to her on the bench wishing he could somehow offer her comfort. His hand still slipped to hers as if to hold it, but it slipped right through as though he weren't even there. That day altered the course of her life forever, and was one of the most painful days of her life. He could already see a change in her, the sorrow and pain that filled her, and that would keep a firm grip on her for years. It was the foundation of what was yet to come...

Abberline closed his eyes with a sigh, only to open them and find himself in a new location once more. Now he was outside of a school house, he could see a group of boys fighting in the schoolyard. The instigator of the fight he recognized from his trip to the States that summer: that brute, Timmy... The other boy seemed somewhat familiar, but it wasn't until he saw her again, running up to the fight and yelling at the two that he realized it must be her brother, Jake. From the background he caught a glimpse of a young pair of teenagers, a boy and a girl he recognized: Emily and Andrew. Emily was quite upset as Andrew held her close, and Marissa ran right into the brawl. She tried to pull Jake back but he tossed her back onto the ground before turning back to throw a punch at Timmy. She got up again to intervene, but this time put herself between the two boys, receiving a blow to the gut from Timmy that was meant for Jake in the process. As she crumpled over Jake froze, moving to catch her but she pushed him off and yelled at him to go home. Timmy didn't seem the slightest bit bothered by the blow he delivered her, in fact, he seemed quite pleased with himself, making Abberline's blood boil. He watched as she quickly turned on Timmy and gave him a verbal tongue lashing, only for him to insult and belittle her getting his friends to join in in the process. They all left then, leaving her standing there wincing in pain from the blow, and she turned to Em to tell her to go home as well, but Em had her own idea, backed of course by Andrew.

A brief argument ensued, showing the strain of their relationship at that point, and ended as Em called her sister the cold nickname others had already given her... As Em and Andrew walked away Marissa tried to keep a stoic expression, though it faltered the moment she thought no one could see her. Already a wall had started to form, cold and steely at times to protect her from the hurt that seemed determined to find her from all directions, as if she were immune to it all, but for a moment he could see the her true feelings surface, making his heart ache.

She stood there alone for a moment, and he longed to reach out and put his hand on her shoulder and tell her it would all be okay, but he knew he couldn't. She sighed before visibly putting the wall back up and heading towards home, Abberline watching as she walked into the shadows of the trees before the scene changed again.

The next location surprised him, not so much due to the place but rather the amount of time that seemed to have passed... He was now standing outside a theater, and a passing mouse with another newspaper revealed to him that this was Boston. He followed a group of mice who clearly worked at the theater back in through the stage door, and heard the actors and stagehands alike gossiping about some "dreadful" events that had occurred the previous day, and wondering what else could go wrong...

Abberline remembered Marissa telling him of the case that led Basil and her to meet, and he felt a certain twinge at the thought of seeing some of it. It wasn't long before he caught sight of the detective, clearly undercover with his true identity having yet to be revealed to those at the theater, but glaringly obvious to him. He followed Basil as he casually walked about the theater, suspecting that he'd lead him to Marissa again, and sure enough he found her. Somewhat to his surprise, she didn't look all that pleased to see Basil, irritated even by his presence, and Abberline noticed a hardness to her that he rarely saw unless she was particularly angry; the emotional wall she'd started building before was now a fortress, and Basil seemed to have trouble finding his way in as he tried to apologize to her over something that had happened the previous day. It took some careful prodding on Basil's part, but finally he found exactly the right words to somewhat soften the hardened exterior.

A conversation followed where Basil realized he could use her help, both with the case and to make amends to her, and he revealed the truth of his identity to her, catching her by surprise, but managing to kindle the trust that would come to form between them.

With a bang the scene switched again, still in the theater but later in the case, and Abberline's heart raced as he realized the bang was a gunshot. One of the theater managers was on the ground with a gunshot to the shoulder, trying to stop the bleeding. The shooter stood onstage, a rather unassuming looking mouse, one so average in appearance that he could easily go unnoticed in a crowd, a fact that he'd used to his advantage. Basil stepped forward to confront the mouse, also explaining the motive to the shocked onlookers as the mouse pointed the gun at him.

From behind the shooter Abberline could see Marissa creeping forward in an attempt to take him by surprise and disarm him, but the mouse saw her... "Not another step, Miss Nicholls, I don't wanna have to hurt you too-- you were one of the few I actually respected, who I thought might understand-- but I will if necessary." The mouse said, pointing the gun at her before quickly pointing it back at Basil as he tried to step closer.

Marissa looked shaken by this, and tried to reason with him, get him talking long enough for Basil to work out a plan, before the mouse snapped and all hell suddenly broke loose... It was over so quickly, and the mouse was disarmed and subdued, but not before firing another shot that might have hit Marissa had Basil not thrown himself towards her, knocking her out of harm's way... The irony of that was not lost on Abberline as he recalled her doing the same to him-- it would seem that in both scenarios they had literally fallen for each other...

It suddenly appeared to be a few days later, and Basil was preparing to leave when Marissa appeared to say goodbye to him. She asked him what he planned on doing next, to which he responded rather ambiguously, before asking her the same. "I don't know really... I suppose I could stay, but I think I've felt for a while now that this isn't where I'm meant to be..." She replied.

Basil looked back at her rather curiously before responding. "Fair enough, you may very well be right, though I have to wonder what it is precisely that you're looking for..." He raised an eyebrow, but there was a hint of a smirk on his face at her bewildered expression. "I see a great deal of potential in you, Miss Nicholls; you're bright, talented, and a hard worker, and I've seen you continually strive to grow, but something is holding you back... You don't give yourself enough credit and I believe you are more than capable of doing anything you set your mind to, but from what I know of you you don't stay in one place long enough to let yourself have it and you tend to keep others at an arm's length, as if you don't want any ties to hold you down, so that you can easily pick up and leave at any time. You're running, perhaps away from something or perhaps towards, or dare I say both. It's possible you're not even sure what it is that you seek..."

Abberline saw Marissa's expression falter at that, the start of her finally allowing her protective walls to slowly come down, as Basil quite clearly saw right through her, and the way Basil had called her out on running reminded him of Dunn doing the same to him... Basil simply smiled though and took her hand in his with a gentle pat. "Perhaps time will tell; I often find clarity comes at the most unexpected moments. However, should your search ever bring you to London I do hope you will consider a stop at Baker Street, and should you ever find yourself in need of my services you are most welcome to call on me any time." Basil bowed with a slight flourish before finally bidding her farewell as the scene went dark...

Moments later Abberline jolted awake as burst of cold wind hit him and he heard the sounds of crows. Looking around he realized he was back in the bell tower of Notre Dame, that all of that must have been no more than a dream, and yet...

He glanced down to find Marissa curled up at his side, leaning into him as she rested, her hand in his with their fingers entwined. The crystal was visible on her chest, and as it caught his eye it seemed to twinkle, almost as if winking at him... He blinked at it in surprise, wondering if the crystal had been responsible for all that...