before Helen knew it, she was surrounded by women — five of them, including Maeve, though the newcomers were all much younger. They introduced themselves to her one by one — Anna, a short woman with a tough exterior but a brilliant smile, Nancy, a younger blonde who squeezed her hands tightly, Elena, who looked at her closely as they were introduced, her long red hair pulled into a severe braid, and finally Kay, who seemed most excited to meet her. A little confused, Helen peered up at Maeve.
“Why are they all dressed like historical re-enactors?”
A murmur of laughter went up from the women. “That’s exactly what I asked when I first got here.” Anna chuckled. “Welcome to the family, Helen.”
“We’re all like you,” Nancy said softly, reaching out to squeeze her hand. “We got stranded in time, too — brought through by the Sidhe.”
“They do what they do for a reason,” Elena told her firmly. “You’ll understand it eventually. We all figured it out.”
Helen was reeling. “Okay, I — say I believe you,” she said cautiously, giving them all a suspicious look. “How — how on Earth did I get — “ But a storm of coughing took hold of her before she could finish the question.
Maeve frowned, shooting all the women a worried look as she moved a little closer to Helen’s bedside. Placing a cool hand on her back, she instructed her to breathe in — Helen did, but the coughing took her again, making her head pound and her body feel dangerously weak and dizzy.
“Pneumonia,” she managed to choke out once the coughing had subsided a little. “I think this is pneumonia. My brother had it once —"
“That’s not good,” Kay said softly, giving Maeve a worried look. “We don’t have antibiotics or anything to treat a serious chest infection like that—”
“We’ll just have to bring in a specialist,” Maeve said firmly. “I’ll go now. You four stay with Helen. I’m sure she has more than a few questions to ask.”
A specialist, Helen thought dazedly as Maeve made her goodbyes and left. What kind of a specialist would they be able to call in? It was medieval Scotland, wasn’t it? Somehow, the fever and delirium were preventing her from rejecting that idea as too ridiculous. Half the thoughts she was fighting off were completely absurd as it was… it was almost as though she was too busy fighting her own delirious mind to question the ludicrous notion that she’d traveled through time and space to sixteenth-century Scotland. Why not? she thought dizzily. She’d play along for now, at least… if she really had time-traveled, she’d find concrete proof sooner or later. The dresses were a nice touch — the women were all wearing such elaborate gowns. She was a little hypnotized by Elena’s in particular, which was made of a strange blue patterned fabric that she felt a strange urge to touch…
“Helen? Are you okay?”
“Not exactly,” she managed, her head spinning.
Kay pressed her hand to her forehead and frowned. “You’ve got a pretty serious fever.”
“I bet,” she said distractedly. “With the dreams I’ve been having...”
“I had some pretty crazy dreams when I got here,” Elena said, smiling. “Where’d you say you were from again?”
“West Virginia.” She tilted her head, something occurring to her for the first time. “You four don’t have accents.”
“We’re all from America too,” Kay said with a smile. “No idea why it’s only twenty-first century American women so far who’ve been brought back, but I’m sure the Sidhe have their reasons…”
“What did you do?” Elena asked, looking curious. “In the future, I mean.” There was something ominous about the past tense there, but Helen took a deep breath.
“I was — I started my career as an analyst for the FBI. But recently I’ve been freelancing as a private investigator.”
The women were all grinning at Elena, who looked delighted. “A woman after my own heart! I was a cop in Baltimore,” she explained brightly.
“I was a vet,” Kay said. “Well, still am. Plenty of work for me down here. And Anna was a soldier, and Nancy was —”
“- the youngest scuba instructor in North Carolina.” Nancy sighed. “Not so much work for me here without my equipment.”
“Okay,” Helen said dizzily. It felt like trying to follow the plot of a bad movie — she was interested, but in a detached kind of way, as though it really had nothing to do with her. “That’s an interesting range of skills. Are we being collected for