Her forehead against his she could feel the peace, could feel the sense of almost complete stillness in the world around her. Unlike him she didn’t feel the universe move around her normally. S=She felt it at night, on her own, when the world was silent and she could concentrate on it. It was then, faintly, just faintly in the background she could sense the movement and the motion of it all. With her forehead against his still, she curled the lock of hair around her finger, softly taking in and memorising how it felt in between her fingers she took a deep breath and smiled. Still holding her pose, a hand on his cheek she couldn’t bare to move away from him. She didn’t want to leave that warmth behind yet. He challenged her without realising it, dared her to do the different thing, to be herself and be honest with herself. She could feel the heat from his breath as she stood so close to him that their bodies touched and she felt so safe.

Aoife could swear she could feel his heartbeat though her tshirt and his shirt. The calm, slow rhythm that her own seemed to pick up on, her own heartbeat echoed the overwhelming sense of calm he brought with her. His eyes were the most captivating thing about him physically, she could have lost herself in them, drowned and been quite happy about it. They were perfect, so perfect that she could have sworn that they were made to be matching pieces of a set, like a puzzle. Another gentle kiss she held his hand slightly tighter this time. This was perfect, mind you everything looked perfect from far away. She knew they would never be together forever, honestly she didn’t think that they would together long even though she never wanted to leave him. So when he asked the girlfriend question she smiled and nodded. “I guess it does.” She answered.

It had happened so quickly, who would have thought that they would have ended up being girlfriend and boyfriend. Her heart skipped a beat and she prayed he didn’t feel it, it would give it away all too much. Taking a deep breath she reached up, let her other hand fall on his other cheek and just looked at him for a few moments. Really looked at him and let herself fall deep in to that calm feeling before pulling herself back out. There was a hint of fear running though her, now that they were together in a way she knew he would be a target. Taking a deep breath she had to…she had to let him know what he was getting in to. “Ren…” She started, she didn’t like using his full name it sounded too formal, not intimate enough. “Look….I need to tell you something…” She was trying to be gently, she could be blunt sometimes, cruelly blunt. “I need you to trust me on this, please just trust me.” She cared for him too much already he deserved to know, even though it was meant to be need to know, she classed this as a need to know.

“Stay away from the UK in the twenty first century. Stay away from Whitechapel. You hear about them you leave. You have got to stay away from them. They will kill anything and everything that isn’t from earth.” There was fear in her voice as she looked at him, studying him. “When people find out, that you have been near me, they will be looking for you. If you get in to trouble, go to I.O.” She advised, she meant it, but yet there was so much to explain, so much he was better off knowing. “The stability of this planet rests on them not getting in to I.O, not the moon, the organisation. Whitechapel was set up to combat alien ‘threats’ to the UK, they kill everything Ren, they get ahold of it and they chase it and keep chasing and they kill and they never give up.” She took a deep breath, she could feel her hands trembling now. “I told you, I’ll be your best kept secret and your biggest mistake. They wouldn’t think twice about killing you, there still looking for me…I can’t go to my own time its too dangerous. Promise me, for your own safety Ren, please, please stay away from them.”

Aoife wasn’t like most people, she had distrusted the people who were in authority since she was young. It started with seeing the corruption that lay under her countries justice system. How her father had become so caught up in trying to fight it and bring punishment to the people who deserved it. She had heard it, seen it and she knew it would be something she was fighting for the rest of her life. Now it was something so much bigger, now it was Whitechapel she was fighting. They were bigger, so much bigger than most people knew or could even think about. She sighed and shook her head slightly. He didn’t understand and she knew it, people didn’t understand they never would. When she warned people that they were dangerous they laughed it off, especially Time Lords. Of course they thought they were a law in to themselves, that nothing was going to get them, some kind of immortal beings that could escape death. But not if Whitechapel had their way.

He said he would trust her on it, she hoped, prayed that he was going to do that. It was the way he looked at her, he was right. She was scared that they were going to take him away from her, they had taken her family away …why would they stop at that. When his hands came to rest on her own trembling ones she closed her eyes and let out a sigh. No he didn’t understand how dangerous they were and what they could do. She didn’t mind him asking questions it just dug up things from her past that she wasn’t too sure about. Aoife understood that he didn’t know what had happened, wasn’t his fault he asked the hard questions. In fact someone had to ask them, part of her liked him even more just because of it, she liked him asking that hard questions, it was a good thing, a very good thing.

“Whitechapel…search, they search for alien technology, biosignatures etc and they latch on to it, track it down, and eliminate it.” Aoife warned him, she took a deep breath and leaned against him slightly. “Whitechapel was set up, there was some drama turned out that Jack the Ripper was an alien and they overacted. My father…was the head forensic investigator for the West of Scotland…he stumbled upon Whitechapel by mistake. He found some alien DNA at a crime scene, found out what they were doing and set up I.O.” Taking a deep breath she couldn’t help but shiver slightly. It was hard to talk about, she felt the guilt run though her, felt the pain and the fear all over again. “I.O. protects, they hide so called alien threats from Whitechapel…of course they didn’t take too kindly to that. They executed my dad, one day at work, clean and quick one bullet.”

Stopped she bit her lip, completely aware that her eyes had glassed over. She felt a tear slip down her cheek, shaking her head she hugged him and held him close, she held him close. “Just, be careful…don’t underestimate them…really don’t they will shoot you in the back the moment you turn away.”

The way he held her was the most she could ask for, her heart hurt, it beat faster now against her chest wanting out, wanting to escape from her. It was painful to recall it all, but he had to know. She had to protect him and sometimes protecting people meant putting yourself in harms way be it emotional or fictional. They were going to take everything form her, they had already started. Taken her father, in turn taken her mother, taken her life away from her. Aoife wasn’t going to let them take her with him, she wasn’t going to let them take Ren away. She could still feel his hearts beating against her chest, the emotion leaked out of him, she could feel the unease from him and something else she didn’t recognise. She didn’t know what it was, maybe it was worry, maybe it was something else all together but at least knowing he was taking it on board meant something. He agreed, he didn’t promise but he said he would be careful and she believed he meant it.

A few moments silence as she rested in his arms for a moment, she relaxed, let the calmness wash over her, let the storm stop again. It was peaceful with him even if she did let it all out there was peace in it all. Aoife knew that she would recover from it all, there was an inner strength that came from a mixture of stupid determination and the sheer will to succeed. Ren only added that, there was such a long to go she knew that, and she didn’t know where she was going. She just followed the road now, went with the flow, not it just so happened that road was in the sunshine so to speak. Her life used to be regimented with classes, rent, bills, essays, work…now she was free of it all. She wasn’t watching people walk past anymore, she was walking along with them and there was so much she didn’t understand about how the universe worked but none of that mattered anymore and part of her really didn’t care. She had everything she needed already, she had a family, kinda strange one but it was a family none the less and she was so very very happy to be a part of it and she was in love.

She kissed him again, taking herself by surprise, a quick peck on the lips before she smiled slightly. “You know Ren is Japanese for Lotus flower.” She told him, almost slightly proud at the fact she knew a little bit more for her own good. “Represents purity and grace, this big beautiful white flower growing out of dark murky waters.” Aoife thought the name was quite applicable for him, out of the dark he had come, like a little beacon of light but she wouldn’t tell him that. The flower was a huge symbol for new beginnings, for new starts as well as the struggle for life itself. “Kinda weird how some people match the meaning behind their neams.”