Angus woke in a strange bed and not knowing where the feck he was. When his situation finally came back to him, he got up to heed the call of nature. Erin’s bedroom door was wide open, but there was no woman inside stomping around.

With no clocks to track the time, he wasn’t sure how long he’d slept or what had transpired between night and morning. Anyone could have come inside and done anything to either of them. As hard as he’d slept, he would never have known.

Not able to avoid the unlined face of the stranger in the mirror any longer, he stared into at least familiar eyes as he scrubbed a hand through his now unruly beard. He thought about what Erin had told him the night before, but his mind kept kicking out all that stuff.

All he could see was his past staring at him once more. In his youth, he’d sometimes grow a beard overnight. Mary had always insisted he shave so he rarely let his facial hair get this long. But he didn’t see anything in the bathroom to take care of trimming it up.

He settled for splashing his face with cold water before heading back to the bedroom for some clothes. On the way he found a note propped on the table. It was from Erin telling him where the food was located in the kitchen. She also said to tell the guard at the door to take him to her when he was ready. She might still be spitting mad, but he was relieved Erin at least didn’t intend to leave him facing this strangeness alone.

Putting back on the clothes he donned after his shower the day before, he headed to the kitchen, waylaid by a knock on the door. At least the buggers were polite, he thought, heading to answer it.

Only it wasn’t a guard. It was Nate. The doctor who called himself a healer.

“Good morning, Mr. MacNamara.”

“Good morn to ya… ah… Dr. Nate,” Angus said. The man just smiled at him like his stumbling over his name was to be expected.

“May I come in?” Nate asked.

Angus didn’t think there really was much choice, but rather than test the nosy doctor by saying no, he swung the door wide. Yet another new alien was standing guard outside it. This one was nearer his size with pointed ears and cold eyes. The new alien nodded at him just as politely as the giants had. He could see why Erin was so nice to the giants. She probably wanted them to keep coming back. This new one looked like something from a freaking nightmare.

He closed the door quickly and saw Nate’s head moving between the two definitely used separate bedrooms. He and Erin were busted already and the day hadn’t even started.

“I was restless and didn’t want to disturb Erin’s sleep last night,” Angus said, telling his first lie of the day. He wondered how many more he’d have to offer up and how much Erin would gloat to know about them.

Nate nodded and seemed to accept the explanation as reasonable. Maybe Erin might be pleased a bit… not that he fecking cared… not really.

“I thought I’d come help you get better acclimated,” Nate said.

Angus reached behind him and scratched his arse, grinning when the man politely looked off. He headed to the kitchen with a grin on his face. “That’s nice of ya, Nate. Are ya used to having to work with people who’ve been brought here against their will?”

Nate rocked on his heels and then crossed his arms at the question. Angus grinned again. Then surprising him, the doctor uncrossed his arms and walked into the kitchen with him.

Reaching into the refrigerator, Nate pulled out a small tray and popped it into a nearby machine. It made some sort of humming sound and then a bell rang. Nate removed the now wonderful smelling food and set it on the counter.

“Do you drink a stimulant in the morning?” Nate asked.

“I confess I have a cuppa or two to start the day,” Angus replied, studying the man’s tight jaw and wondering what it was costing him to be so polite.

“Cuppa,” Nate repeated. “That wasn’t in my studies of your lexicon.”

Angus grinned again. “Guess my Irish is showing. I’m talking about fecking tea,” he said, watching in fascination as Nate brightened right up.

Nate smiled. “Not exactly sure what fecking tea is, but we’ve got something to help you wake up.”

The man reached into a cupboard and pulled out a cup. He pulled a packet from a basket on the counter and emptied the powder from the packet into it. After adding water into the cup, it too went into the machine.

When the bell rang this time, Nate retrieved the cup and the meal and motioned to follow him back out of the tiny space. He set the food on the table and took the chair opposite it.

Angus nodded as he sat down to eat. “Thank ya for the assist with my morning meal. Erin’s note didn’t contain any directions.”

Nate nodded. “Sure. Helping you is part of my job. And to answer your previous query, moving people isn’t something done lightly or often. You’re only the third person I’ve helped adjust after a multiverse jump.”

“Counting Erin?” Angus asked, curious to see if he’d admit it. Nate nodded again, but looked strangely guilty before he spoke.

“Yes. That’s counting your Erin… and the Erin the Guardians retrieved before yours,” Nate said.

That got Angus’s full attention. If there were two of Erin here, just how many copies of him were running around? “Feck me and the horse I rode in on. Ya are telling me there are two of Erin O’Shea here?”

This time Nate laughed at his question. “No. The last Erin I helped died just before you came which is why the agents decided to collect both of you from Universe 6. That previous Erin had missed knowing your counterpart in her universe. She was a matchmaker, but without the same inspiration as any of her alternates. We’ve noticed that sometimes life paths veer instead of crossing. That Erin’s experiences in her universe didn’t allow her to be like the Erin you know. Agent Black and his team had gone to retrieve just you… but the other Erin’s death sort of changed our plans at the last moment.”

Angus grunted as he ate. “I didn’t get half of what ya said, but we’ll let that go for now. Was the other Erin as annoying as my O’Shea?”

Nate shook his head. “No. She was heartbroken for reasons we couldn’t figure out. We were going to use her and the Universe 10 version of you—since neither had been with their counterpart in their universe. That other Erin seemed to be a good choice when the Guardians found her, but sometimes they don’t get things quite right. Agent Black told you the Universe 10 version killed himself before we could pick him up. Observing through the portal does not mean we get the full story of the person we’re targeting. Nor can we be precise enough when it comes to judging any human’s true intentions.”

“Ya seem to want me to believe ya are telling a very nice story with all you’re saying, but I also heard what ya are not saying, Nate. What gives any of ya the right to go collect people from their homes just so ya can make them do what ya want? Where I come from, that makes ya a villain, not a fecking hero.”

“Fair enough,” Nate said quietly. “And some of the Guardians might agree with you that we crossed the line in taking you both from the same universe. That skirts the edge of erasing you both from your universe’s history and we just don’t know what might happen if everyone in your universe forgot you both ever existed. By leaving one or the other, memories of the two of you would be more likely to go on.”

Angus leaned one elbow on the table to help him glare better. “Erin tried to explain yer arrogance last evening, but all this talk of universes is crazy outside of my experiences with yer fecking Agent Black and his scoundrels.”

“Agent Black is not a scoundrel. He works for the Guardians. That particular council within our universe is balanced as carefully as we work to balance all the others we know exist. We are Universe 1. This is a proven scientific and metaphorical fact that every alien race has confirmed for us. They were the ones who told us if Universe 1 gets wiped away, all multi-verses based on us get wiped away as well. There are 11 or 12 universes, Mr. MacNamara. We’re still undecided on the exact number. Universe 1 is the only universe with the alien problem… so far. We keep it constrained to this universe so no others have to deal with them in their primitive states of development.”

Angus finished his tasteless meal and lifted his cup to sip. It wasn’t tea, but it wasn’t totally bad either. He felt his senses zing to life the moment the liquid hit his stomach. He was happy it at least worked like tea. “So how do Erin and I fit into yer plotting and scheming?”

“Director John will have to explain the bigger picture. He can tell you the parts I can’t,” Nate said softly. “What I can do for you is show you around… maybe help you trim up your facial hair. Most men in Universe 1 have their facial hair follicles lasered when they hit puberty. Shaving becomes unnecessary by the time a man hits twenty or so years of age.”

“Hey now… I like my fecking beard. Leave it alone,” Angus declared. His statement made Nate laugh pretty hard. “You find my preferences funny?”

Still laughing, Nate shook his head. “No… the original Angus liked his beard too. He’d refused his father’s urgings to have it removed. It was just one of the many ways he was unique here.”

“Yer stories of him make me feel like I’m a shadow of a stranger.”

Nate smiled. “Oh, I’m fully aware of who you really are and where you lived before this. Universe 6 is quite legendary with all its wars and diseases and infighting among its people. Unfortunately, you also have the reputation for being the most passionate and compassionate of Earth’s multi-verses. Everyone knew you and Erin would shake us out of our complacency when you arrived.”

“Ya do realize that Erin and I weren’t sitting around on our arses waiting to be collected, as you call it. We were raising our families, drinking with our friends, and having a normal life. Yer agents are the ones who took that from us. We didn’t volunteer to be yer saviors. We didn’t ask to be kidnapped and brought to a strange land to help people willing to believe lies about who we are.”

“Even outside your disrupted death wish, you were still dying, Mr. MacNamara… albeit slowly and painfully. Now you’re not dying. And Erin… well, now I realize your Erin was completely alone in Universe 6 and not much appreciated. The Guardians believe you two will always become a couple if your paths cross properly, but you never really did that in Universe 6, did you? You never fell in love with her even though she was right there with you the whole time you lived.”

Angus studied the man. Nate was so sure of his conclusions. Right or not, he was now seeing the wisdom of what Erin worried about. Until they sorted out why they were here, it was best people thought they were inseparable. The last thing they needed was each of them to have to navigate this fecking place alone.

“Yer Guardians didn’t get it completely right, Nate. I shared Erin O’Shea’s bed and made her mine in the way a man does when he desires a woman. I don’t know if that counts as much here in Universe 1, but it counts a fecking lot where we come from, even when that couple later disagrees about nearly everything under the sun. Whether or not we might have ever been a real match was taken out of our hands when ya collected us as ya call it.”

Angus put down his tea. He was not going to consider his revelation about sleeping with Erin to be his second lie of the day, because it was technically the truth. The fact that Erin now hated him for it was a totally different matter… and a private one.

Nate made a face. “That was not the impression you gave me yesterday, nor the one I got from her. You indicated you had no committed relationship to her.”

“Committed no, but we do have an interesting one. Neither us would deny there’s a chemistry between us. And as for yesterday’s rant about her, I was scared and anxious and hungry as hell. Maybe ya took me out of the glass box before the bell dinged that I was done cooking.”

Angus gave the man points for laughing at his crude joke. Feck it all. Under some circumstances, he’d probably have liked the damn doctor.

“I assure you, Mr. MacNamara, you were quite done cooking as you call it. I’ve never had a patient regenerate himself quite as well as you did. You have very little disorientation your second day out of the rejuvenation cylinder. Most take a couple months to recover from its effects.”

“I come from good stock. My parents were both peasant farmers. But speaking of my results… ya should probably know that ya lost major points with Erin for not cooking her too,” Angus declared, internally cursing himself for letting that slip out. Hopefully it would be enough to throw conniving Nate off his personal questions about whether or not they were a couple.

“Erin wants to be younger?” Nate asked in surprise. “Why? She’s in optimal health and looks great for a woman her age.”

Angus shook a finger. “Women past thirty don’t react well to the words ‘women yer age’, don’t ya know?”

Nate ran a hand through his hair. “I guess I’m just used to seeing age differently. Youth lasts until you’re over one hundred. I’m a hundred and twenty-four. Erin’s going to look good well beyond her three hundredth year of life here once her body starts processing our food completely. It optimizes and stabilizes both hormones and cell replication.”

“So she’s cooking too, just on simmer,” Angus concluded.

Nate huffed. “If you want to stretch that analogy to within an inch of its life… yes. Part of the problem we had with the other Erin is that she wouldn’t eat regularly or in sufficient quantities. I was coming to medicate her when I found her dead body. Investigations showed it was from natural causes so there was nothing I could have done to prevent it. I believe her organs shut down because of her extreme depression. Your Universe 6 Erin started working with the draftees the moment we explained what was needed. She has held steady, even when she was worried about you. She seems determined to adapt and be as happy as possible. Everyone is quite pleased with her.”

Angus looked off. He was trying to imagine the Erin O’Shea he knew being too depressed to eat. He’d seen her genuinely upset twice. Once was the night they’d slept together. The other was yesterday when she confessed about losing her babe. The rest of the time she was a survivor.

And now Nate had validated her strategy to fit in had taken the pressure off both of them. Feck the woman for being right. Now he owed her another apology.

“Mr. MacNamara? Are you in pain?” Nate asked.

Angus chuckled. “No, I’m fine. Just thinking hard.”

“I know this is a lot to take in. Forgive me if I overwhelmed you with my conversation.”

Shaking his head, Angus rubbed his beard. Getting it trimmed might make him feel a bit better. “I think I would like yer help getting this hair on my face under control. Did ya ever find out what happened to my kilt?”

Nate grinned. “Yes, actually I did. It was put on the dead U10 alternate who was inserted in your place. Your children cleaned it and then buried him in it. From what I read, it was quite the funeral. Nearly the whole town showed up for it.”

Hearing the outcome of his children burying a man they believed to be their father bothered him. But then, Angus had assumed he’d be beyond caring when his death happened for real. He wouldn’t be showing his concerns to Nate though. He didn’t trust the man.

“Well, feck. I hate losing that plaid. It was my favorite one,” Angus declared, causing Nate to laugh again. “I’m glad ya find my loss of clothing so amusing.”

Nate shrugged. “Getting you a replacement kilt will not be a problem. Most of our clothing is made of renewable bamboo and clean cotton. Your wool kilt fabric is rare these days, but we can still get it legally from animals. I’ll have one made in our natural fibers and one from wool. You can choose and then we’ll have a variety made for your everyday wear if it will make you feel more at home.”

“That’s all well and good about the wool, but will it be the plaid of my clan?” Angus asked.

“It will be an exact replica,” Nate promised. “It will take a few weeks to order it, but we’ll get it done. Our original Angus liked them too, but he was shorter in stature and somewhat smaller in girth. Retrieving one of his would be a waste of time. I was his healer too, and I’m completely sure his clothes wouldn’t fit you. He claimed the same clan, though clans died out several millennia ago in Universe 1. Most thought our Angus was terribly eccentric for his historical leanings.”

Angus grinned, thinking of the one who came before him. Eccentric was a kind word and one few would use for his own failings. “That has to be an insult to one of us. Are ya telling me I have a big arse compared to my skinny predecessor?” He saw Nate bow his head, but knew the man kept on smiling. “It’s alright if it was meant to be one. Ya wouldn’t be the first who said such a thing. My Mary used to tell me that nearly every day we were together.”

“Mr. MacNamara, I would never intentionally insult you or our original Angus. I have a feeling you are quite different from your predecessor in a variety of ways. I plan to include a list in the next report I send to the Guardians.”

“See that ya do,” Angus joked, rising to return his empty food containers to the kitchen. “But before ya leave me alone with the mean-eyed guard standing outside my door, show me again how to make a cup of tea in the food cooking box. I fancy another. Just call me Angus, Nate. I reckon we aren’t meant to be strangers to each other.”

Angus felt the man behind him as Nate followed him into the kitchen. Erin was right about them being treated like celebrities. But he wasn’t impressed.

Caged birds always got fed by their owners. No one was going to surprise him when they came to swap out the poop paper from the bottom of their cage either.

His questions about where they’d landed were a lot more serious than guards, servants, and kind-hearted, polite doctors who lusted for one of them.