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Time winds from different points.
The last time Arthur saw her, Mal was fine. Rosy, even. It was a week after
Philippa's birthday, and she and Dom were planning something. Something huge that they weren't going to let Arthur in on.
From what Miles said, it was something experimental. If they weren't telling Arthur it meant that it was experimental and
dangerous, which was exactly the kind of thing he needed to know about. Because Dom had no sense of danger, and Mal would
do anything to keep Dom happy, and Dom liked to keep her interest, and Mal was always interested in cutting edge and dangerous
[her 21st birthday present was a sky-dive]. They needed someone to keep them safe.
That was where it started to unwind.
Seeing
her now, it was odd. She was healthy enough; she'd gone to see a doctor on Miles's suggestion, just a bit disorientated, like
she was just waking up, but constantly. She wouldn't tell him what had happened, told him that it was alright, that this would
pass soon, and then she'd been fine. Dom wasn't saying anything either. Arthur had pieced together a little about what had
happened, they'd got a little lost in dreams, but nothing major, according to Dom. Mal just smiled, weakly, when asked.
There
was nothing, no-one, to stop it unwinding.
The next time Arthur saw her, Mal looked frazzled. Not physically, Mal was
never anything less than perfectly turned out, Arthur even took her suit shopping with him sometimes because she was the only
other person whose taste he trusted. It was something deeper, like some of the guys he knew that were back from the war.
Arthur
didn't know how to help her, because there was something wrong, and she wouldn't talk about it. If Mal didn't want to do something
she didn't do it. He tried asking, and he tried pleading. He tried tricking her into it. Arthur even tried to cajole her into
it by saying he'd show her the work he'd done on her favourite layout, all Escher waterfalls, and birds and adventure. She
turned him down flat. She didn't use the dream machines since whatever happened. She said she was scared of forgetting what
was real. Arthur didn't push her after that.
Someone had to wind it back up.
When he saw her next, she was dead.
Closed casket funeral. Closed off Dom. Police closing in. He should have tried harder, stopped them at the start or, more
realistically, helped them at the start, because when Mal decided to something, it happened. Since he couldn't do that, he's
going to help Dom with whatever he's planning to do. He can't keep Mal safe anymore.
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