Disclaimer: I don't own Spooks or The New Avengers, nor any of the characters. I'm merely using them for my own enjoyment (wait, that sounded dirty). Anyway..no copyright infringement intended.
Author's note: I've never written a full-length piece for either series before, so I can only hope I'm doing the characters justice. Spooks characters are as they are at the beginning of 8.1 + Ruth.
1
She could hear a voice in the distant. At first she couldn't really make out what was being said, but slowly the voice became more clear. A man's voice, one she didn't recognise. She felt cold and uncomfortable, but it took her a while to figure out why. She was lying on the cold pavement of a busy street. She could hear people walking past her, even though she hadn't opened her eyes yet. That's the moment when she finally managed to comprehend what the man was saying.
"Are you alright Miss?"
She opened her eyes and noticed that the voice she'd just heard belonged to a policeman who had kneeled next to her in concern.
"Yes, I think so." She answered, sounding slightly confused. And she really was confused. She had no recollection of what had happened before, and how she came to lie here in the first place.
"I eh..I probably just fainted," she said by means of explanation. "But I'm alright now so I'd better be on my way. Thank you for your concern officer."
The policeman offered her his hand and helped her stand up. "You sure you're going to be alright?" he asked her. "Don't need me to drop you off anywhere or call anyone?"
"No, I think I'll manage. But thank you again." She smiled sweetly at him.
As the policeman handed over her handbag a badge fell out on the pavement. He picked it up and stared at it in surprise before giving it back to her. "Seems like you've arrived at your destination already. Have a good day." He said before he quickly made his way down the road without waiting for her reply.
She was left in a state of utter confusion as to why the kind policeman had made such a hasty retreat. The cause of his reaction clearly had something to do with the badge he had handed to her. Deciding the best way to find out was to actually look at it, so she held it to her face to get a better look at it. And what she saw made her gasp in surprise and utter disbelieve.
She had never seen that badge before in her life, but for some reason it had her picture on it together with her name; Purdey. Not that this was anything out of the ordinary, because she owned a badge with her picture and name on it for access to the Ministry. Though this one was very different; it was white, plastic, and much more high-tech than she'd ever seen before in her life. But this wasn't what had amazed her. Because it wasn't a Ministry pass. It said: MI-5, section D.
I must be going mad, Purdey thought to herself. Surely if she had joined MI-5 she would've remembered. All of a sudden she became more aware of her surroundings. She looked up and found herself standing outside Thames House, a.k.a. MI-5 headquarters. The people who walked past her in a hurried pace seemed oddly dressed, and the cars in the street looked strange too. Very different than what she was used to. All of a sudden Purdey felt very alienated, as though she wasn't living on the same planet anymore.
Conducting from the fact that she was holding an MI-5 employees pass, and was standing outside Thames House, she decided that the only way to find out what was going on was to go inside and see what happens. She walked up the steps to the front entrance and gasped in surprise as she saw her own reflection in the glass doors.
Her hair was still blonde and cut in a bob of some sorts, but it was different. Her hair was slightly longer and extremely straight. She was wearing dark blue very tight jeans, a white blouse and a black jacket, matched with black high-heeled boots. All very unlike her own wardrobe, or anything that was in fashion in the autumn of 1977. A feel of dread crept over her as she walked through the main entrance of Thames House, feeling very uncomfortable in her own skin, or her clothes for that matter, with absolutely no idea of what she was doing there. She flashed her badge at one of the security guards and thought she'd be done with it. Instead, she was made to walk through a detection port and someone put her handbag though some sort of strange machine. After all her personal belongings were given back to her, she was standing in the middle of an entrance hall, with absolutely no idea of where she had to go.
She looked around and noticed a dark haired woman who had come in right behind her. She tried to balance her handbag and a stack of files as she made her way through the entrance hall, tripping over her long coat and dropping a few files in the process. Purdey rushed over to her to help pick up all the papers that were now scattered over the floor.
"Thank you," the woman said as she smiled friendly at Purdey. "God I've always been clumsy, but it seems to be getting worse each day."
They both stood up again and Purdey noticed the other woman was a good few inches shorter than her. "Could you perhaps tell me where I should go? I've never been here before and I seem to be a bit lost. I'm looking for section D," she said as she showed the brunette her badge.
The woman's eyes lit up. "Section D? That's where I'm headed, follow me."
The woman introduced herself as Ruth Evershed, Intelligence Analyst of section D. They got into the lift and went to the 4th floor, where Ruth led her through a maze of corridors, through another door until they finally stood in front of what seemed to be the oddest entrance Purdey had ever seen in her life, which Ruth referred to as 'the Pods'. They were a kind of glass cubicles you had to step into, which then rotated around you until you could step out again at the other end. It seemed like something fresh out of a science fiction movie.
"You just hold your card here," Ruth showed her, "and then you can step right in."
She did as she was told, and as soon as she stepped inside the cubicle closed behind her and made a kind of swishing noise, before opening up at the other end, allowing her to step out again.
Purdey looked around in awe of the scene that unfolded before her eyes. Across the room, or 'Grid' as Ruth had called it, she noticed several desks. Some had files stacked upon them, and they all had a strange looking white screen standing on them. There were people quickly walking across the room while others were huddled over one of those screens, all too busy to notice her standing there and gawping. She snapped out of it as she heard Ruth talking to her.
"So shall I bring you over there then?"
"Sorry, what?" Purdey asked, now looking more confused than ever. She quickly recomposed herself as Ruth looked at her strangely. "I mean, I missed what you were saying."
"Since this is your first day here, shall I show you to Harry Pearce's office?" She repeated. "He's our section head."
"Yes please," Purdey nodded.
They took a right and went around a corner at the left and found themselves in front of a solid oak door. Ruth gave it a discreet knock.
A man's voice could be heard from the other side. "Enter."
The door opened and both women stepped into the office. It was a nice spacious room, with glass windows on one side looking out onto the grid. The wall on the opposite side was bright red, with a few shelves against it, and a desk placed in front of it. The man behind the desk, presumably Harry, got up and walked over to the two women.
"There's someone here to see you, Harry." Ruth said.
"Ah yes, our new junior case officer," he replied. "Thank you for showing her in Ruth.
The brunette exited the office again, leaving him and Purdey alone. She took in the man before her. He was about her length, slightly balding, and Purdey guessed around mid-50s. He smiled at her and stuck out his hand, which she politely shook.
"So you must be Purdey. I've heard a lot about you. Excelled in training I believe."
Purdey had no idea what was going on, but decided that for now she'd just have to play along. Hopefully there would be plenty of time later to find out what was going on and what exactly she was doing here. She wondered where Steed and Gambit were. In her absent mindedness she had missed the rest of what Harry had said to her, and he was now looking at her oddly, probably expecting her to give a reply. She quickly composed herself.
"I'm so sorry about that. I was miles away just now, probably due to my nerves."
"No problem, I understand completely. We will talk more later, but for now you can join us in the meeting room for the morning briefing."
She was led out of the office by Harry, towards double doors that slid open outwards, revealing a room with an oval table and several chairs around it in the middle. The others, presumably her colleagues, were already sat at the table.
Harry addressed the people at the table. "Everyone, this is Purdey. She'll be joining us as a new junior case officer."
He pointed at each of them around the table, mentioning their names as he did so. "This is Ros, Malcolm, Lucas, Jo, and of course you've already met Ruth. The formalities can wait until later. For now, let's start the morning briefing shall we?"
Purdey just had to sit in during the briefing and listen, but she hadn't been prepared for the things she was about to see and hear. Ruth had a tiny thing sitting on the table in front of her that she referred to as a 'laptop', which turned out to be a portable computer. This all seemed unbelievable in Purdey's eyes, as the only computers she'd ever encountered had taken up about half a room. The technical details Malcolm spoke about could just as well have been in Japanese, because she couldn't make out a single word of what he was saying. Purdey sunk back into her chair. She felt as though she was having a bad dream. None of this could be real, or could it? Her eyes wandered over the desktop of Ruth's laptop, and all of a sudden something caught her eye. The date; October 20, 2009.
She couldn't help but gasp for air as she read it. This just had to be a bad dream, there was no other way. How else could she explain that she'd just travelled 32 years forward in time!
No wonder she'd been completely baffled with all the technology she seemed to be surrounded with. The same went for the clothes she and the others had been wearing, as were the cars she'd seen in the street outside. Fascinating as it may be, she was stuck with one big problem: how on earth was she going to get back to her own time?
TBC
Please review. I'd love to hear what you think of my little experiment!