In the sequel to ‘The Lost Tomorrow’, it has been four months since Deputy Chief Inspector, John Luther’s meeting with his nemesis, Eli Pope in Hyde Park.  And John has not been able to forget what Eli told him: that he drugged Olivia to forget him, much in the same manner Eli drugged Luther’s late wife, Zoe, when he was involved with her.



    But John is no fool. He is finding it hard to believe that Eli would go to such lengths to make his only daughter forget one man.  There has to be more.  And there is.  Much more for John Luther to learn about just how much he lost when he ended his affair with Olivia Pope, almost nine years ago...



                                                      ****



    John had been told that DSU Schenk wanted to see him, and he made sure he had his notes with him. There was some nutter running loose(when wasn’t there), stabbing people on the tubes in the arse, with some kind of needle.  More than a few people were turning up with a deadly strain of small pox.  John had a lead on a loner that was fired from a medical lab for a video he put up on Youtube.  An erotic one where he had sex with a dead body in a lab! He was sure that their subway stabber and this perv, were one in the same.



    But when he entered Schenk’s office, he found his boss was not alone.  His former boss, Rose Teller, was sitting in a chair, next to Schenk’s desk. John stared at her, uncomprehending.


   
    “Come in, John and close the door.” Schenk said casually.  John frowned at his tone but closed the door.  It was hard to look at Rose.  Besides once being a boss and good friend to Zoe and himself,  she had lost her job here because of the way he had handled a case. 



    “How are you?” John asked, sitting down himself.



    “I’m with MI5 now.” she said in a no nonsense tone.  “And I can honestly tell you I had hoped never to see this place again.”



    Deputy Superintendent Schenk decided that these two could air their past grievances on their own time.  And what Teller had to say sounded important.  It also sounded complicated and hard to prove.  He began talking.



    “Inspector,  Agent Teller thinks you can help with something.  I’ll let her explain it.” Schenk said calmly.  Rose looked directly at John and bit back her anger at having to deal with him at all.  How in the bloody hell could he have any relation to an MI5 case?



    But he apparently did.



    “Inspector, we have reason to believe that your late cousin, Marshal Stacker Pentecost, sent sensitive information to Olivia Pope. MI5 has sent people to look for it but she is in a unique situation.  Not only is she a public figure but she has ties to S.H.I.E.L.D.  So our usual methods of trying to retrieve this information won’t work.”



    “You mean breaking into her apartment? Or some such rubbish?”  John asked in a bored tone.  Schenk frowned at Teller.



    “You told me that Pentecost had left behind sensitive information.  I assumed you meant that the Inspector had it, since they were related.  Now you’re saying that Olivia Pope has the information?”


   
    “Yes.” Rose said simply.



    “John doesn’t  have time to try and get to know some American woman, who the last I checked, was seeing the ex president of the states. What are you asking him to do?”



    Rose raised a brow at Schenk.



    “You don’t know, do you?”


   
    “No,”  John answered,  “and it’s not something I advertise. It was a long time ago.”



    “What was?” Schenk asked.



    John cleared his throat.



    “Olivia Pope and I were involved.”



    “In what way?” Schenk asked, looking confused.  Rose refrained from smiling.



    “Romantically.” John bit out.


   
    “What the bloody hell are you talking about? When was this? After Zoe?”  Schenk asked, puzzled that he would not know that his deputy inspector was involved with a woman as well known as Olivia Pope.



    “No.  It happened when Zoe and I are were going through a rough patch.” John admitted.  Schenk dragged his eyes off of John and looked at Rose.



    “So you’re asking for John to start something up with her again?” he asked her.


   
    “Yes.   I understand she’ll be at your cousin’s funeral?” Rose asked John.


   
    “I suppose. We’re not in touch.”  John replied, not wanting to get into the very real fact that Olivia Pope had no memories of knowing him or being involved with him.  But apparently, that bloody bastard, Eli Pope, had allowed Olivia to keep some memories of Stacker! Damn him!



    “Then you’ll see her there.” Rose said simply, as if that was all there was to it. 



    “No.” he replied.



    “What do you mean ‘no’?”



    “I mean that I’m not going to my cousin’s funeral.  We did not get on and Olivia was a part of why that was. I sent a card to my aunt and uncle.” John said and stood up from his chair.  “Now if you will excuse me...”



    Rose stood up as well!



    “I don’t think you heard me!” she snapped. “Or maybe you misunderstood:  I want you to go to your cousin’s funeral, rekindle things with Olivia Pope in order to find the information he sent to her before he died!  Otherwise, we’ll have to take harsher steps.  And if you value her life, you’ll do things my way.”



    Rose then turned from John and looked at DSU Schenk.



    “Thank you for your time.  I hope we can work together in the future.”



    Schenk said nothing to her and Rose cleared her throat and walked out of the office.  Once she cleared the doorway, John walked up behind her and slammed the office door!



    “Alright, alright.  Let’s keep calm about this.  How bad was your break up? You really can’t do as Teller is asking?” Schenk asked.  “You could go places if this goes well.  Maybe Teller would put in a good word for you with her organization.”



    “I have no desire to leave the Serious Crimes Unit.” John sighed.  “And yes, the break up was extremely bad.  In a nutshell, her father made sure that we could never be together.”



    “Her father?”


   
    “An American bloke named Eli Pope.  Well connected in the most sinister ways possible.  I couldn’t lay a bloody glove on him.  And I tried. I tried because Zoe was seeing him and I was scared to death for her.”



    “Zoe was seeing Olivia Pope’s father? Is that how you came to meet her? Olivia Pope?”



    “Yes.”  John said, rubbing his hands down his face.  “It is a long and convoluted story, Guv.”



    “I think I can guess some of it.  She was also involved with your cousin?”



    “Yes, Stacker. Stacker, who was the hero of the family and made my family’s position pale compared to his. I won’t get into the ugly details except that I could not live with knowing Olivia had been involved with him.”  John admitted.



    “Alright, well then I will turn this ‘assignment’ down on your behalf.  I can see the whole thing haunts you still.”



    “Thanks, guv.  It’s more like the past in this case, really needs to stay in the past.  I’m scared for Olivia though.” John admitted.



    “Maybe you could ask her if Stacker sent her anything? Give her some warning?” Schenk asked.  John rubbed the back of his neck.



    “Guv,  not only was Stacker a problem, but Eli Pope as well.  I found out a few months ago, that Eli drugged Olivia to forget she ever knew me.”



    Schenk was appalled! Was such a thing possible?



    “What do you mean he ‘drugged’ her?”



    “There was one point, where Zoe had an accident at Pope’s estate here in the country.   It put her in a coma and when she awoke, she remembered nothing of what happened.  It just seemed like her memory loss was connected to the accident. But later, she remembered everything.  Pope admitted to drugging her with something called RDX 30.  Some amnesia drug that is very hard to get on the black market.”



    Schenk was quiet for a moment before speaking again.



    “You said she eventually remembered.  How long did she have amnesia?”



    “I’d say a couple of months.  Olivia, to my knowledge, has had no memory of me for nine years.”



    “So Pope improved upon the drug by the time he used it on his own daughter.” Schenk said, still looking confused.   John noted this.



    “I know it’s a hell of a story, Guv.  But I swear it’s the truth.  Pope even gave me a bottle.  A drug that reversed the effects.”



    “Do you still have it?”



    “Yes.”



    “Bring it in.  John, you should have told Rose all of this.” he chided.



    “I’m not doing it.”  John said firmly.  “Guv, I’ve worked like bloody hell to put Zoe’s murder and my own professional short comings behind me.  I can’t go back to that time.”



    Schenk stared at John Luther and realized he had never seen him like this.  So conflicted on a personal level, over a woman.  He had known John casually, when he was married to Zoe, but he worked for another unit back then. And it was clear to Schenk that when things did not work out with John and Zoe,  it was because Luther was all work.  He had nothing left for anyone else.



    But apparently he found something with Olivia Pope.



    “Let me ask you something: don’t you think that to drug one’s daughter,  just to forget one man, is a bit extreme?”  Schenk asked.



    “You’ve never met Eli Pope.”  John said, his voice taking on an edge.  “It started out being about Zoe.  We were separated at the time. I could find nothing out about Pope that made any sense. It was then that I began to find out that he had deep pockets and knew every way possible how to stay out of jail.  And Zoe was taken with him.”



    “How did Olivia Pope fit in?” Schenk asked.



    “She hated her father as much as I did.  She came up with the idea that we ‘pretend’ to be lovers, to make Zoe jealous and to piss off Eli.  But it turned into something more.  Something I knew would never work.”



    “If you two were over, then why would Eli Pope drug his daughter?  It had to be about more than you.”



    John folded his arms.



    “I don’t know.  And to be honest, I don’t know if I can get back in to trying to figure out what Pope is hiding.”



    “You could with MI5 behind you.  I suspect they already know things you don’t, John.  If I were you, I’d reconsider their offer.”  Schenk said,  just as another Inspector came in to tell John they had a tip on their subway stabber case.  John nodded at Schenk, before leaving the office and immersing himself in the here and now of his work.  Olivia Pope would just have to wait.



                                                       ****



    S.H.I.E.L.D.



    Olivia Pope breezed by Nick Fury’s secretary, not especially caring that she was not supposed to go inside at that moment in time.  She threw open the door and found him talking to someone she did not know, and the person excused themselves and left quickly, closing the door behind them.



    “Now Liv...”



    “Shut up!” Olivia snapped.  She didn’t know what the hell she had been thinking, when she was offered the chance to represent S.H.I.E.L.D and it’s various shit storms!  It had meant living off of just one client for the rest of her life if she chose to, which in some ways would make her life easier.



    She had not expected to become involved with Nick Fury.  And it had been a mistake. Just like involving herself with former president Thomas Fitzgerald Grant, then working for his ex wife, who was now president....she just couldn’t stay away from problem people--on a personal level.



    Fitz was now with Abby, and while she still saw Abby occasionally, Fitz and herself were not at a point where they could even pretend they could be friends.  There was just too much pain between them. 



    So she had jumped at the chance to take Pope & Associates in a new direction and meet new people.   And one of those ‘new people’, was the head of S.H.I.E.L.D. --Nick Fury.



    And then things started happening.   Olivia didn’t know how long she had been seeing Nick, when she realized that he had once been involved with an old, family friend named Michelle Landau. Her life had turned out rather badly and Olivia was a little thrown to hear she had been found murdered in London--in her father’s townhouse!



    Her father, Eli Pope, had had some half assed explanation for this, but Olivia suspected he had been seeing her and something  got out of hand, despite the fact that some rogue cop ended up taking the blame for it.



    There were other things.  Many other things that made no sense. But she quickly learned that S.H.I.E.L.D wasn’t supposed to make sense.  At least not to anyone that had no direct knowledge of who they were and what they did.  And then Olivia began to wonder just how and why this organization wanted to keep her on retainer? There were plenty of crisis firms that were better equipped to deal with what they faced.  Much bigger than Pope & Associates.



    But none of that had anything to do with why she was in Nick’s office today.  And he knew that.  For today, was the SECOND time he had faked his death to ‘throw off enemies’! It was the second time she had not been clued in on what was going on AND it was the second damned time she had had to answer press questions about it! No more! She was going back to politics.



    “I just came by to say goodbye. I don’t even want to hear about why this was necessary--again!”



    “Listen to me, Baby Girl.  You knew what this was when you signed on.  You know what we do here. I wouldn’t have done it again if...”



    “Whatever.  And I know you thought you were ‘protecting me’.  I don’t need protecting.  Not from some man that pretends to be dead every six months just to throw off  Austin Power like enemies.”



    Nick’s mouth dropped open!



    “That’s what you think the threats to this world are?  Like out of some movie?”



    Olivia’s answer to that was to remove the shrug she was wearing and reveal a black halter dress that showed off plenty of side boob--on purpose-to stress Nick out.



    “No.  I don’t actually think that.  But I also don’t want to become a joke. The first time you did this, I actually mourned you. This last time, I only HALF mourned you, since I wasn’t sure you were actually dead.  But I told the press I was sure.”



    Nick closed the distance between them and placed his large hands on her shoulders.



    “Sit down, Baby Girl, so we can talk this through.”



    “Don’t call me that and it’s over.  You can get yourself another Fixer.  And so can S.H.I.E.L.D..”  Olivia said coolly and turned to walk to the door.  She opened the door and turned back to face him.



    “By the way, I’ll be out of town at Stacker Pentecost's funeral. HE’S really dead.”



    There was something about the way she had said that, that gave Nick pause.  Clearly, despite her tortured history with the late Pentecost,  she had had feelings for him.  Feelings he knew she had buried.  The fact that she was going to his funeral at all meant something, but Nick was not sure what.



    He had been walking a fine line getting involved with Olivia Pope, considering the alliance he had made with her father.  And Eli, he suspected, was aware of his relationship with his only daughter.  Much like he had been aware of his previous relationship with the late Michelle Landau, another woman Eli had been involved with. 



    What concerned Nick, was not Eli’s feelings about the matter.  No.  His concern was that Eli would allow emotion to overrule common sense and do something to throw everything they had worked to achieve, off balance. Everything that Stacker had died for.   And it was imperative that Olivia never know how central she was to much of what had been done.  It was imperative that she never remember many things, one of them being just how involved she was with Stacker Pentecost and his various relatives.



    Olivia could see that Nick went someplace else when she said that about Stacker, and she didn’t know if that was from guilt, or some kind of hidden knowledge about Stacker Pentecost's death.  The whole thing made little to no sense to her.  Stacker had been testing a nuclear weapon and it went off.  Who the hell ‘tests’ a nuclear weapon?  It was over some part of the Pacific, but that also made little to no sense to Olivia.  There didn’t seem to be any fallout from the explosion.  Little loss of life, human or sea.   It made her think that he had died some other way, but because of his high government connections, the truth could not be told.



    And of course, her father wouldn’t tell her zip, except to bemoan the fact that she and Stacker never could make a go of things, and that he would’ve made a great son-in-law.



    Olivia was about to say something else to Nick, when the whole building began to shake! Olivia looked around wildly and hung on to each section of the door frame tightly! Wasn’t that what one was supposed to do if they found themselves trapped in an earthquake?  Stand in a door frame?



    Nick almost lost his balance trying to get to Olivia, but managed to do so, squeezing in the door frame as well.  He didn’t think this was an earthquake.



    It was some kind of attack on S.H.I.E.L.D.. Or maybe it was Dr. Banner, who was in the building...



    Nick put an arm around Olivia,  with one of his hands firmly holding her underneath the side of her breast.  As the building began to shake, his hand moved upward, cupping  her violently, jogging, side boob. The result of this contact was an almost painfully, stinging erection, that in all likelihood, would not cease on it’s own. Not without relief.



    The quaking stopped and cries and shouting could be heard.  Nick’s arm went around Olivia’s middle and he pulled her into the office and closed the door.   Yes, he needed to check on how and why this happened, but he also needed to know that Olivia was alright.



    Olivia, for her part, now began to  understand WHY Nick faked his death so often!


   
    “Oh my God! How often does this happen? That was an earthquake, right?”



    “Probably not.  Just sit here while I check on things.” 



    But Olivia could see he was hurt.  There was a cut below his good eye. 



    “Okay but first let me put something on that.  Do you have a first aid kid in here? Please tell me that you do.”


       
    Nick’s phone was ringing off the hook, but he ignored it and walked over to a cabinet.  He pulled out a first aid kit and then then returned to Olivia’s side. She was now sitting on the couch and he decided to put himself in her hands.



    “Baby...Olivia, you need to know that what I did had nothing to do with how I feel about you.”



    Olivia did not respond.  She found what she needed for his cut and began to administer antiseptic.  Nick ignored the stinging pain. That was nothing compared to the fact that he could see that while Olivia cared about his well being,  she really couldn’t understand what he had done--for a second  time.



    “Are you going to say anything?” Nick asked.



    Olivia finished administering first aid and set the box aside.



    “Goodbye, Nick.  I can’t deal with this. And I’m not talking about S.H.I.E.L.D.. I’m talking about whatever you’re hiding from me.   Look me in the eye and tell me you’re not hiding something?”



    Nick looked away briefly and she knew her suspicions were on point.  Whatever it was, she decided she didn’t want to know about it. 



    “Goodbye, Nick.”  Olivia said for the third time, and began to stand up.  But the quaking started up again, even more thunderous than before and Olivia fell against Nick and into his arms, as they sat there through the second set of ferocious tremors within minutes of another. Olivia at one point, looked at Nick and his mouth suddenly found hers, his lips pulsing against her own in an unyielding, confident kiss.



    Olivia responded to his fervor and despite her words to him, she found herself helping him unzip his pants, then bunching her dress around her hips before impaling herself briskly upon his column of flesh!


    Neither of them moved as the room and whatever unnatural or man made phenomenon that was going on, did their work for them.  Olivia shrieked as the tremors  caused her to furiously pump up and down upon his brawny length.  Nick bellowed as he exploded inside of her twice and forced himself not to rip her bunched up dress off of her and continue their lovemaking on the floor.




    The quake ended almost as quickly as it had begun, and Olivia slowly disengaged herself from him,  wondering what the hell had gotten into her? How could she have made love to Nick Fury during this quake or whatever it had been?



    “Olivia, I have to find out what happened here...you understand...I want to see you before you leave for that funeral.” Nick said softly.



    Olivia looked around for her matching shrug and put it on.  She then picked up her purse.



    “No.  Goodbye Nick.  I think you should get another crisis management firm for S.H.I.E.L.D..”  she said firmly, before walking to  his door and opening it. The building was  a wreck, but there had been no structural damage. People looked shaken but not hurt. 



    Olivia decided that even if that was something other than an earthquake, she didn’t want to know about it!



                                                          ****


    Later on that night, Olivia sat and stared at her open suitcase.  She hadn’t finished packing and was feeling out of sorts about the upcoming trip.



    She was also feeling out of sorts about going to bed this evening.



    There was another reason she was breaking up with Nick, if they had ever really been together.



    It had to do with a dream.  One that she had begun having about six months ago. One in which she stood at the grave of Stacker’s grave,  six months before he actually died with another man that resembled him slightly.



    Olivia got up from her seated position and walked over to her suitcase.  Stacker had sent her some strange package.  Probably before he died.   And she had not had the will to open it. She didn’t know why that was, but she just couldn’t face seeing  anything that had belonged to him, at this moment in time.



    She placed the package in the suitcase underneath a shirt. Maybe she would look at it in London.  Olivia then sighed and headed off to bed, thinking that she would have the same dream as before, that had netted her zero answers.



    But the dream this evening would be more disturbing in nature.  Erotic, that is.



                                                            ****



    Olivia stared at Stacker Pentecost's grave marker, as the man that always appeared in her dreams,  knelt behind her, grasped her hips with both hands and drove his engorged lust into her without the slightest bit of hesitation.



    Olivia felt his hands delve into the soft flesh of her hips, as his erect heat slowly pumped within her and she felt herself dizzying with excitement.   She kept her hands planted firmly on the dirt in front of the grave, her eyes on Stacker’s marker.  Even if she had been capable of stopping this man from making love to her,  Olivia found herself powerless to separate what was going on in her head, with what her body was doing.  She could not help but answer this man’s rhythm and his powerfully,  thrusting loins.



    It was just as she thought her mind was clearing and that she could end what was happening,  that Olivia gasped, as hands, that belonged to Stacker Pentecost,  forcefully punched their way out of the ground and reached up to cup her gently swaying breasts within his dirt streaked hands!



    Olivia should have screamed.  But all she could muster was a groan of pleasure. If Stacker was coming from deep within the earth, who was behind her? Who was this man that appeared nightly in her dreams and was now making love to her?



    Stacker’s hands were now crushing Olivia’s breasts between his palms. He found her nipples and pinched and pulled them, while the vibrating root planted deeply within her, began to buck feverishly! The man’s seed sac slammed against her buttocks over and over again until Olivia screamed from passion and mind numbing pleasure.



    But it wasn’t over.



    Something made her look across the graveyard. A man that reminded her of Stacker...or someone else...was striding across the cemetery towards them. His was naked, his eyes were bright yellow and his manhood was monstrous and swinging with a purpose of it’s own, as it neared them.  Who was he? What was he going to do...



    Olivia suddenly woke up, gasping for breath! She rubbed her neck and got out of bed, padding over to the bathroom. She ran cold water over her face and stared at her reflection. If she was unsure before, she was not positive that the answer to these dreams, would be revealed at Stacker’s funeral  tomorrow.



    But instead, Olivia walked out of her bedroom and over to her still half packed suitcase.  She picked up the envelope that Stacker had sent to her and opened it.