A Second Chance

Cover of A Second Chance

**A Second Chance** is the third novel in the Chronicles of St Mary's. It tells the story of Max and her colleagues as they make some truly remarkable jumps, none of which go as planned, of course. But in St Mary's hallowed halls there is one person that always has a plan...

**This page is chock-full of spoilers for the Chronicles of St Mary's. Proceed with caution.**

## Blurb

*'I could have been a bomb-disposal expert, or a volunteer for the Mars mission, or a firefighter, something safe and sensible. But, no, I had to be an historian'*

**History happens all around you. And, occasionally, to you.**

It began well. S successful assignment to 17th-century Cambridge to meet Isaac Newton, and another to witness the historic events at the Gates of Grief. So far so good.

But then came the long-awaited jump to the Trojan War that changed everything. And for Max, nothing will ever be the same again.

With the bloody battle of Agincourt playing out around her, Max risks everything on one last desperate gamble to save a life and learns the true meaning of a second chance.

## Plot

Since the entire history department has dyed itself blue with a semi permanent dye in preparation for one of Professor Rapson's experiments in her absence, Max is pressed into taking the 79 year old, retiring Professor Penrose on a jump to Cambridge, 1668. The professor desperately wants to sneak a peek at Sir Isaac Newton, but since Peterson is currently blue, he can't accompany him. Max does as she's told, for once, but the duo quickly gets in trouble when a bunch of students at Cambridge University mistakenly assume they stole Newton's mirror, which is the exact opposite of what happened. They race through the streets, pursued by a mob of angry students, a mob of angry Cambridge residents, and an angry Newton.

Max and Penrose make their way back to the pod and jump, well, nowhere. They open the door to jumpstart the pod and get back to St Mary's, and possibly cause the rebirth of the universe. The duo makes it back, and after a conversation with Leon about their future together, Max decides to leave St Mary's after the Troy assignment.

Max, Peterson, Schiller, Van Owen, Leon, Guthrie, Markham, and [DID I FORGET ANYONE?] jump back in time to a few months before the beginning of the Trojan War. They discover that Helen never went to Troy, disproving the myth of her involvement in the war. They spend a few months documenting, filming, and living amongst the citizens of the city before jumping back to St Mary's. There they find Professor Rapson high on hallucinogenic honey of his own making. Guthrie and Dr Foster both eat the honey, exclaiming 'Elspeth, I looked for you,' and 'I love you, Peterson' respectively.

The team jumps back to troy, this time aiming for the final few weeks. Life is bad for everyone there; the Greeks are silently retreating, while the Trojans are starving inside their city walls. Once the Greeks have fully retreated overseas, Max discovers that the Trojan horse is, in fact, some dozen sick horses left behind by the Greeks. The Trojans bring the horses inside the city, slaughter them, prepare them, and eat them, causing the entire city to contract the disease the horses had. The next day, a massive earthquake hits the city, breaking down its walls and bringing the Greeks back as they're looking to stay out of harm's way in the nearest harbour. The Greeks see what has happened and can't believe their luck; within a day, they bring the mighty Troy to its knees.

Max is caught up in the chaos and ends up as a captive at the temple of Athena by Ajax and his thugs, while the Greek hero brutally rapes Kassandra. She and the other women are brought to the beach in order to be taken back to Greece as slaves, but Guthrie manages to infiltrate their ranks and save Max. The two make it back to the pod, where everyone else but Leon has assembled for take-off. A little later, Leon comes running, a young boy by the name of Helios clinging to him, and pleads Max to take him with them. Max refuses, pulls a gun on the boy, and tells Leon he has twenty minutes to get Helios somewhere safe outside the pod. He returns within the given time, but Max notices a two-day stubble. She notes that she and Leon do not speak directly to each other again, ever.

Soon afterwards, Max makes a jump to witness the murder of Agamemnon and Kassandra by Agamemnon's jealous wife. Upon her return to St Mary's she makes two beautiful paintings on the matter, which are subsequently stored in St Mary's archive by Dr Dowson. Dr Bairstow has a new assignment for Max and Peterson, namely to make a jump to the Gates of Grief and see firsthand humanity's only successful migration out of Africa. They intervene, helping some of the early humans across the strait, and spend the night in their company. The next morning they realize that they're not as important as they might think, because the tribe has departed the beach without waking them.

Some time later Max is working in her office when she gets a call from Leon, asking her if she hasn't forgotten about lunch. This worries her, and she makes her way over to Hawking Hangar where apparently the entire staff of St Mary's has assembled. Max pushes her way through the crowd only to find Leon lying dead in a pod, evidently having passed away from a heart attack after a small explosion in the pod's circuits. Dr Bairstow arranges a meeting with Max, who refuses to grieve for the loss of her colleague and lover, to tell her he intends for Peterson to start shadowing him as Associate Director while Max would take on the job of Deputy Director. Sensing Max's discomfort, he also tells her about Leon's early time at St Mary's. He was an angry, depressed, grieving young man for quite some time after his mother and sons died, but got a bit better after going on a secret assignment. This assignment was written up decades before, with implicit instructions to give it to one Leon Farrell and no one else.

Max organizes a day out for the whole unit to 19th Century Gloucester after [Professor Rapson/Dr Dowson] mentions an interest in cheese rolling. In an effort to have a more peaceful day than her cheese chasing colleagues, Max seats herself and [NAME] somewhere on the side of the hill. The first race goes exactly as planned, but during the second one the cheese rolls right into Max's face, rendering her unconscious. She wakes up in Sick Bay to a laughing nurse Hunter and an extremely displeased Dr Foster.

After she's discharged from the Medical Section, Max is kidnapped by Clive Ronan and taken back to the Cretaceous Period. Ronan intends to kill her, but Max is able to trick him into getting out of the now broken pod and getting exactly what he deserves. As multiple Deinonychus are chomping on bits of Ronan, one of them takes an interest in Max, but quickly loses it again when she starts attacking it with an empty fire extinguisher. Once nothing of Ronan remains, she hears a knock on the pod door and finds a much younger Leon has come to rescue her.

The two have to stay in the Cretaceous and wait out a violent rainstorm, which leads to an interesting conversation. Leon, in between telling a now finally grieving Max about his past, mentions his next assignment: to bring something to a schoolgirl. He doesn't see the point, but Max realizes that she's the schoolgirl and that he is the one that left the history book in her closet all those years ago. The two have a vicious fight that ends in a night of passion before Leon takes her back to St Mary's. He asks her to come with him and live the rest of their lives somewhere peaceful and in each other's arms, but Max tearfully refuses. Their story is done, the circle has finally closed.

Max goes to the pub in Rushford and realizes that the owner, Joe, is actually Helios. She confronts him, and he asks her to please keep his secret to herself, which she does. Her next and supposed 'last' jump is to the Battle of Agincourt, where Henry V defeats the much larger French army and showcases his brilliance in battle. She takes Peterson with her, and the two witness the battle in all its glory until they decide to check out what happened to the French hostages. Peterson is stabbed in the arm and while he and Max try to get back to the pod, the two of them are ambushed by French soldiers who escaped the fray. Max hits Peterson over the head with a rock, hides him in a bush, and runs away into the woods, French soldiers on her heels. She's stabbed through the heart and falls to the forest floor, about to die, when instead of smacking against leaves and branches, she falls on a soft carpet.

Mrs Partridge tells Max to get up, and explains that she's closed her fatal wound and brought her to a different timeline where she's the one who died instead of Leon. Max pleads with Mrs Partridge for one last goodbye with Peterson, and she reluctantly complies; Max visits Peterson in Sick Bay, the two say their goodbyes and then kiss before she finds herself back in her new timeline. She makes her way through the little flat, which looks like it houses two people, to the bathroom where she discovers only one toothbrush. Mrs Partridge explains that Leon couldn't let Max go, and has created the life they'd planned on having after Troy anyway. She says Max is here to do a job but doesn't elaborate as to what that would be.

After Mrs Partridge departs, Max makes her way down to Leon's workshop. He's set it up exactly as they'd talked about, with two distinct work spaces: one for him, where he currently sits tinkering on something or other and talking as if Max is still there, and one for Max, with an easel and painting equipment. He turns around, takes one look at Max, and calls her Izzie Barclay, upon which Max goes berserk and attacks him with a blue plastic dustpan. Leon initially doesn't want to believe Max is real, but eventually warms up to the idea.

All seems to go well until Leon receives a call from Dr Bairstow, telling him that 'they're coming'.

## Dramatis Thingummy

* Dr Edward Bairstow - Director of St Mary's.
* Mrs Partridge - His PA and Kleio, Muse of History.

### History Department

* Maxwell - Chief Operations Officer.
* Tim Peterson - Chief Training Officer.
* Kalinda Black - Liaison Officer at Thirsk University.
* Mary Schiller - Senior Historian.
* Greta Van Owen - Senior Historian
* Mr Clerk - Historian.

### Technical Section

* Leon Farrell - Chief Technical Officer
* Mr Dieter - Technician

### Medical Section

* Dr Helen Foster - Does not play well with others.
* Nurse Diane Hunter - The object of Markham's affections.
* Turk - Alledgedly a horse.

### Security Section

* Major Ian Guthrie - Head of Security.
* Mr Markham - Security guard.
* Mr Randall - Security guard.
* Mr Evans - Security guard

### Research & Development

* Professor Andrew Rapson - Head of R & D. Should not be allowed to play with matches.
* Doctor Octavius Dowson - Librarian, Archivist, and match hider.

### Others

* Mrs Theresa Mack - Kitchen Supremo.
* Mrs Mavis Enderby - Head of Wardrobe.
* Mrs Shaw - Peterson's assistant and bringer of chocolate biscuits.
* Miss Rosie Lee - A nightmare.

### Historical Figures

* Isaac Newton - Mirror-stealing troublemaker.
* Irate Cambridge citizens - Self-explanatory, really.
* Gloucester citizens - Possessed of a death wish St Mary's can only admire.
* 9lb Double Gloucester - An instrument, if not of death, then certainly of major concussion.
* King Priam - King of Troy.
* Queen Hecuba - His wife.
* Kassandra - They should have listened to her.
* Hector - Hero of Troy.
* Andromache - His wife.
* Astynax - Their son.
* Paris - Not as guilty as everyone thinks.
* Achilles - Blond psychopath.
* Ajax of Locris - Not a good man in a temple.
* Helios - More trouble than everyone else put together - even in a world which contains historians.
* Henry V
* Assorted Armies - English, French, Greek, Trojan...
* Our ancestors - All of them. All 250 of them.

### From The Past

* Chief Farrell - It gets complicated. Don't sweat it.
* Professor Eddington Penrose - Retired physicist. A good man in a fight.

### Villains

* Ronan - Trouble from the future.
* Assorted raptors
* A monolith - With a mind of its own.