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It took a few time loops before Jack realized that his worst nightmare had come true. He was stuck in Groundhog Day, reliving the same awful day over and over. By the tenth iteration he had figured out it was all caused by an accident that, for once, did not involve Fargo. Instead it was a scientist on the brink of being fired, who Jack thought was one of the janitors, who had decided to go all out to prove some time related theory while he still had the chance.
This was why Jack kept telling Stark, Allison and even Eva Thorne that it would be better to escort them from the labs before telling them they were fired, but nobody ever listened to him. He was just Sheriff 111 in their eyes, but he was always expected to clean up the mess and this time it was a mess that could signify the destruction of the entire universe. Jack had come to terms with the fact that he could die in the line of duty at any time but this would affect everyone he loved and cared about. This would affect Zoe.
Weinbrenner tried his best to set things right but he knew the risks were high. In case he didn't make it he taught Jack the formula by making him sing it like a children's rhyme, but if that was the only way Jack was going to remember all those weird mathematical symbols and the order they came in then he'd just have to accept looking like a fool once more. He was right, of course. He did look like an idiot singing the equation to Stark to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star right up until Stark stopped smirking and started listening, eyes widening almost comically as he finally recognized what Jack was singing. It was the final proof he needed to convince Stark that, YES, they really were stuck in the time loop of doom.
The only problem was Jack had noticed how any new accidents bled forward into the next iteration. A few scratches had not been much of an issue at first but the damage to his body seemed to be accumulative. He got caught on the edge of an explosion in the most recent iteration when the time containment chamber exploded. Although the aches and pain were less than what his body had actually suffered in that explosion, Jack swore he had at least one broken rib and his innards had shifted.
"Let's not do that again," he stated to no one in particular. Okay, so he was talking to himself but it was still good advice.
The next iteration fared even worse. There was no explosion but instead an almost magical sparkle of golden lights as Nathan froze with a cheeky smile on his face in the containment chamber and then dissolved before Jack's eyes into a shower of fairy sparkles - after calling him JACK for the very first time without a look of distaste. The moment he 'died' Jack had felt the loss deep inside him, like a part of his soul had been ripped out of him. It was a pain that reverberated through his entire body leaving him shocked and confused until, suddenly, everything was sort of back in place as he was hit by a spray of water from his shower.
Jack sank to the floor, unheeding of the water cascading over him as the next time loop began. His head was spinning and his body now had a soul deep, dull ache to go with all the other accumulated injuries... and Jack had an Epiphany.
"I thought it was Allison."
All this time he thought his guide was Allison because he had felt the change inside within weeks of arriving in this nuthouse of a town. This was why he had tried to get closer to her and why he could not accept her re-marrying Stark. Sentinels and their guides had a connection that went deeper than love. He had felt the connection to his guide settle him whenever his senses sharpened too far, though he had never been the kind of Sentinel who got lost within his senses. That's what had made him such a good US Marshal, being able to head out into the field alone to track down a fugitive without losing himself in a sight, sound or other sense.
Jack had simply assumed it was Allison because he had been attracted to her from the start. So, unless some disaster had struck and killed Allison at the exact moment Nathan Stark 'died' then his assumption had been oh so wrong, and that little thrill that hit him whenever he thought of Stark was not indigestion after all.
He scrubbed his face with his hands. Some Sentinel he was! But sitting here on his naked ass with his naked back pressed against the cool bathroom tiles while being half-drowned by his shower was not going to confirm what he now believed was the truth, that Nathan Stark was his guide. Though there had to be a far better way of proving it because he never wanted to feel that gutting emptiness ever again. He dried off and dressed quickly, ignoring the aches and pains, intending to head straight to Global Dynamics.
He spoke his plan out loud.
"This iteration I need to get a head start by going straight to Stark, sing out this damn equation and drag Henry into this mess too in the hope that one of those geniuses..." Yes, he knew the plural was genii but that sounded like they would pop out of a magic lamp, "...would be able to fix the containment chamber so no one, especially Stark, becomes a sacrificial lamb to the God of Time."
"Jack. My senses have registered a time displacement fluctuation. Would you like me to assist?"
Jack automatically looked up at the ceiling even though he knew S.A.R.A.H. was all around him.
"You know about this?"
"If my calculations are correct then you have been temporally displaced twelve times. Your current injuries are not life threatening but further displacements will have a detrimental affect on your physical wellbeing."
"So more time loops is bad?"
"I believe I said that. There is also an slight aberration in your sentinel connection to your guide, Nathan Stark."
"Wait! You know Stark is my guide?"
"Yes."
"How long have you known...? No." Jack shook his head, holding out a hand pleadingly. "I really don't wanna know."
Was the headache another bleed through from the time loops or were all these revelations starting to become a little too much for his brain to handle? Fortunately he didn't state that out loud in case even his house started to mock him. As it was he was already kicking himself for forgetting he had access to an incredibly intelligent A.I. who probably wouldn't mock him for singing the equation. At least this time when he approached Stark it would be with the equations sent directly to Stark's hand computer thingy by S.A.R.A.H. rather than him having to embarrass himself... in public... again.
Of course S.A.R.A.H. did more than that. She contacted Stark, Henry and several more Temporal Physicists who were experts in their field. By the time the clock had turned close to 6pm, a group were huddled in the Time Maintenance laboratory and this time the locking mechanism did not fail. The photon was brought back into alignment with time... and the universe was saved.
Other than poor Weinbrenner, no one else had died. Also, it turned out that the only reason Jack had been caught in the time loops was not only because of the strange blue light that had engulfed him during the initial experiment but because he had a connection to the true time line through his sentinel link to his guide.
"You have a guide?" Allison asked, still looking resplendent in her wedding dress.
"Yeah, about that." Jack looked at Stark.
"So you finally figured it out." Stark looked aggrieved.
"You... knew you were my guide?"
It was unheard of for a Sentinel and Guide not to be together once they had connected. Yet Stark, and maybe he should be calling him Nathan, had intended to re-marry Allison today, except Nathan now looked as confused as everyone else.
"Isn't Allison your guide?"
Admittedly, up until that iteration where Nathan sacrificed himself for the universe and tore part of Jack's soul away, temporarily, Jack had believed Allison was his guide. It was why he couldn't understand why she was always pushing him away, wanting to remain just friends.
"No," he stated warily, not really wanting to admit he was just as big an idiot as Nathan.
Henry stepped in. "I think you three need to talk."
Allison stepped back, looking bitterly disappointed. "No. I knew you were a Sentinel, Jack, and Nathan a Guide but you two never seemed to... connect. So I thought..." She trailed off because it was obvious what she thought, that they were not each other's Sentinel and Guide.
Henry wrapped an arm around Allison and led her away, ushering everyone else to follow, to give Jack and Nathan some privacy.
"So when did you figure it out?" Nathan asked.
"When you died in the previous time loop and I felt as if half my soul was torn out of me."
"I died?"
"The lock failed so you reset time manually... and turned into fairy sparkles."
"Fairy sparkles." He repeated the words with a straight face but Jack could tell Nathan was trying not to laugh.
Bristling defensively, "I have a daughter. Zoe liked to call them fairly sparkles." He sobered. "So... Where do we go from here?"
"Dinner and many, many cocktails?"
Jack knew that one was going to come back and bite him some day and Nathan seemed to have perfected finding just the right moment to remind him. However, perhaps in this case it wasn't such a bad idea. Nathan had started to thaw towards him over these past few months, proving they could be friends if they wanted, though Jack realized he wanted far more than just friendship. He had let the mask slip completely when the lock failed; a sad smile and eyes full of regret as he called Jack by his given name for the first time.
There was an entire buffet laid out for after Nathan and Allison's wedding ceremony but it seemed a little crass to remind Nathan about that.
"Café Diem. I deserve one of Vincent's burgers."
Nathan reached out and placed a hand on Jack's shoulder. "My treat... after you've been to the infirmary."
Jack groaned but had to admit his body was aching in more than a few places. He let Nathan lead him away from the time maintenance laboratory towards a joint future.
"By the way, you do know S.A.R.A.H. sent me your rendition of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star."
"What! Why?" He seethed, "I'm going to pull her... circuit board!"
END