"Yes?"

"Let me in. Why you got the door locked?"

Relief washing across his face for a brief moment, Barnabas unlocked the door and opened it slowly, just wide enough to allow Magda into the room. She met his gaze, waiting until the door was closed again.

"All right, I am here. What you want?"

He held up his hand and met her gaze, stopping all further comment.

"I will explain fully at a later time, Magda. Right now, I need your help."

"You always need my help... What you want me to do?"

"I have a friend who will be staying here. She'll need supplies - food, clothing. And she'll need your silence. We cannot have her presence here known, nor her association with me made common knowledge."

"Why?"

"She is here to help me, Magda; here to cure me, but she cannot do that if her presence here is known. If her friendship with me is known by any but those very few whom I trust."

"Cure you? How she gonna do that?"

"She knows a way. It almost worked once before, it will work now... it must."

"Almost ain't doing it."

"This time it will work."

"And what you gonna do to her if it don't?"

Barnabas met Magda's curious gaze with a quick, startled one of his own. He shook his head.

"I will not harm her, Magda, she's too much an important part of my life for any harm to come to her, but I do want her protected. Petofi has already tried to harm her. I am certain he will try again."

"Petofi!"

Magda crossed herself as her voice rose slightly with fear, then she nodded, her curiosity aroused.

"Where is your friend now, Barnabas?"

"In the other room, resting. Her name is Julia Hoffman."

"... She is from that other time.. from nineteen sixty nine, ain't she?"

"Yes, she is. She came back using the I-Ching just as I did, to help me."

"By making it so you ain't a vampire no more."

"Yes, now go, bring what she will need. I will tell her you shall meet her here later, and make certain you are not followed."

Again Magda nodded, then Barnabas let her out and re-locked the door. All ready too many people knew of Julia's presence in 1897, but he needed Magda's help and did know he could trust her. Petofi was their common enemy.

Closing the medical bag she'd gotten at the same time as the supplies she would need, Julia turned and crossed to the doors leading to the outer room of the Rectory. She stopped, listening hard. She thought she'd heard footsteps out there and slowly turned the brass knob, cracking the door far enough so she could peak out.

There was someone out there! Quentin perhaps? No... the footstep was too light for a man... It was a woman -- in long, colorful skirts, a green velvet vest, long black hair... it was the friend Barnabas had told her of, the one who was to meet her there, who was to help her. Slowly Julia opened the door and stepped through, gaze settled on the gypsy woman.

Turning at the sound of a footstep behind her, Magda's gaze rested on a woman with short red hair, and she nodded.

"You are the friend Barnabas has, the one from nineteen sixty nine."

"He told you?"

"Nah, he don't have to tell me nothing. I know... How you gonna help him? Cure him? You don't look like no gypsy, and you ain't no witch, that much I know."

"No, I'm not. I'm a doctor."

"A doctor! Now ain't that something? You got some new, fancy medicine from the future to cure him?"

"Something like that."

Julia was studying Magda carefully and the dark haired woman chuckled, shaking her head.

"No, I ain't his slave."

"Then why do you help him?"

"I got nothing better to do... Why do you help him?"

Julia stood silently for a long moment, eyes distant, trying to answer that question for herself. Then she glanced away and closed her eyes briefly.

"... Because I have to."

This time Magda studied Julia for a long moment, beginning to understand. She could see it in the other woman's eyes, in her face when she thought of Barnabas.

"Or maybe because you want to... This future you come from, nineteen sixty nine. Barnabas, he's a vampire there too?"

"No..."

"Then you ain't his slave neither."

"No, I'm not his slave, I'm just ... his friend."

The sadness in Julia's voice confirmed for Magda what she'd been nearly certain of before. This woman was in love with Barnabas Collins, but he was not with her.

"Then we got something in common. Being friends to a vampire ain't easy."

Julia smiled quickly and nodded, meeting the other woman's gaze.

"No, it isn't... Barnabas never told me your name."

"Magda. Magda Rackozy."

"I'm Julia Hoffman."

"I know -- he told me.... I brought you some food, Julia Hoffman, and clothes. Barnabas said you'd need them."

Magda indicated two brown paper wrapped parcels on a nearby table and Julia glanced at them, nodding.

"Thank you, Magda."

Magda waved it aside as if it were nothing, hands returning to rest on her hips as she studied Julia Hoffman.

"You ain't gonna be hurt by no Count Petofi no more neither. I got this for you. It will keep his powers away from you."

Magda handed Julia a charm and indicated she should wear it around her neck, under her clothing. Julia complied, glancing at Magda again.

"What kind of powers?"

"Better you don't know."

Magda crossed herself for added protection and Julia glanced down, agreeing. The little she had seen of Petofi had been more than enough. Magda was right, she didn't want to know more.

"What... what you planning to do, Julia Hoffman?"

"Cure Barnabas so he can walk in the daylight again, so he's human again."

"And then what? You gonna stay here and help him fight Petofi?"

".. I don't know."

"When I come back tomorrow, I bring more food and I bring my cards too. I read them for you, heh?"

"Your cards?"

"I tell your fortune with them - my tarot cards. Or maybe you like my crystal ball better? I bring that too."

"I... don't know if that would be wise, Magda. Can you tell the fortune of someone ... who comes from the future?"

"I ain't never tried. We find out tomorrow, heh?"

Julia could see Magda believed she could do it, and slowly smiled, nodding her head once.

"All right, Magda, we'll try... Thank you for all you're doing."

"You already said that."

"I mean it. I hope Barnabas didn't force you into this. He can be rather ... unyielding when he has his mind set on something."

"Ain't that the truth! But I don't do nothing I don't want to... Barnabas, he helped me, so I help him."

Julia nodded as she watched the other woman. Their gazes met and Magda made her decision. This other woman from the future needed something to hold on to.

"I got to tell you something, Julia Hoffman, and I don't need no crystal ball or no cards to see it. Barnabas -- he's worried about you. Worried Petofi will try to hurt you again, but ... he's worried about other things too."

Julia nodded.

"I know. Even though he won't admit it, he's concerned about how effective my treatments will be."

"No, that ain't it. He's worried deep - about you. Maybe he ain't human no more, but he still feels human things in his heart which don't beat. That's where he's worried about you. Trust Magda. I know these things."

Slowly Julia glanced down at her hands, trying to hide the doubt she held.

"I'd like to believe you, Magda, but..."

"Ah, but... maybe Barnabas don't know it yet, but it's there. When you make him human again, maybe he'll find it."

Julia met Magda's gaze then smiled gently, indulgently.

"... Maybe."

She held little hope of Barnabas ever feeling for her what she felt for him, but perhaps Magda did know something beyond the obvious.

"I got to go. You tell me tomorrow what you need and I bring it."

"I will, Magda. Thank you."

She nodded once as she pushed her dark hair away from her face, met Julia Hoffman's eyes again, and was gone. Pausing outside the door to the old Rectory, Magda glanced skyward, her expression sad. Seeing how Julia Hoffman felt for Barnabas, and knowing Barnabas did not return those feelings for her only reminded Magda of how lucky she had been to have Sandor, and how much she missed him.

"Ah, Sandor ... I got to do something for her... I fix her a love charm. Maybe she don't use it, but I give it to her anyway."

Nodding once, her decision made, Magda moved away from the Rectory, staying to the shadows and the cover of the forest. She would begin gathering the ingredients she would need on her way back to the Old House.

* * * * *

Magda enter the Rectory quietly, slowly, uncertain of what she would find there. The love charm was finished but... maybe she was too late with it.

Julia turned quickly at the sound of a light footstep behind her, relieved to see it was Magda. She took a deep breath and released it slowly.

"Oh,... Magda."

"I startle you, heh?"

"Yes, I wasn't expecting you. I thought perhaps Petofi had come back."

"He was here?"

Magda crossed herself for protection as she asked the question and Julia nodded reluctantly, obviously still shaken by his visit.

"Yes. He tried to poison me."

"And you are still here. See. My charm worked for you, protected you."

Not having the strength to try and explain what had really happened, that her astral self was safe from all things which might damage her physical form, Julia simply smiled and nodded.

"Yes, it did."

"I... I heard about Barnabas... heard that crazy Charity Trask..."

Magda was hesitant to say it bluntly, knowing how Julia felt about Barnabas and not wanting to hurt her further.

"I know.... Count Petofi took great delight in telling me of Barnabas' death. Magda, do you... do you know where he was hiding?"

"He didn't tell you?"

"No. He didn't want me to know, just in case..."

Magda nodded her understanding and moved to stand closer to Julia.

"You... you want to go there? To see him?"

Slowly Julia nodded, then shook her head.

"Yes... No,... no, I don't."

Magda studied Julia closely, realizing the woman was hiding something... something to do with Barnabas.

"I can tell by your eyes... it ain't true about Barnabas."

Julia glanced up quickly, surprised, perhaps a bit nervous.

"What makes you say that?"

"You. I see how you feel about Barnabas... and you don't act like you just lost him forever."

Julia simply met Magda's gaze, not bothering to confirm or deny her suspicions. How could she? Quentin suspected it too, but she couldn't let on, couldn't let anyone who was not directly involved know, no matter how much Barnabas said they could be trusted.

"It don't matter, you don't got to say nothing. I can wait to find out. Here, I got something for you."

Magda handed Julia a small pouch made of velvet and met her curious gaze.

"A love charm -- in case he ain't really dead."

"Magda, I can't..."

"You keep it. I got no use for it. My Sandor is dead and I can't do nothing to bring him back. And it won't work for nobody but you, I made it that way. Take it. Make an old, crazy gypsy woman happy."

"You are neither old nor crazy, Magda... All right, thank you."

Julia slipped the charm into the pocket of her dress.

"Someday, you make it work for you."

Julia only smiled sadly and glanced down, her fingers wrapping around the pouch inside her pocket. For some reason she did want to keep it, in spite of her non-belief in such things. And yet... Magda had known - about her feelings for Barnabas, about him. Perhaps she knew other things as well.

"... I will, Magda. Someday I will make it work for me."

'For us', Julia added silently. Someday it would work for her and Barnabas, even if she had to wait .... years.

Magda nodded silently to herself as she saw the determined look come into Julia Hoffman's eyes. It was crazy - to play matchmaker for a woman from the future and a supposedly dead vampire - but it also made sense, and she was determined to help whatever forces had brought Barnabas and Julia together along just a little bit. Other wise she would never have met this woman from the future and never have been able to understand her so well. The charm would work. Magda was certain.

* * * * *

Tired and physically exhausted, her mind numb from all her astral self had been through and experienced, Julia Hoffman entered her room at the Old House and closed the door. She had been pulled back to the present - to 1969 before her task in 1897 was complete, and she would simply have to trust Barnabas' treatments had been far enough along so Angelique could complete them without her help. At least Julia was certain Barnabas had survived into this time, as those currently living at Collinwood were concerned by his lengthy absence. She would have to wait until he was returned to 1969 to learn what had happened; if he had been successful in all his plans.

Sighing heavily, Julia began to undress, placing the 1897 dress she had been wearing when she returned on a chair and changing into her nightgown and robe. As she stood before the mirror brushing her hair, Julia glanced to her side at the dress, beginning to wonder if...

She put the brush down and moved to where the dress was on the chair. Picking it up, Julia reached into the skirt pocket, a gentle smile coming to her face. She removed the velvet pouch containing the love charm Magda had made for her. Julia ran the fingers of her other hand across the plush material of the bag, then turned back to the dresser. She opened the top drawer and placed the pouch in the back corner.

* * * * *

* * * * *

Terry S. Bowers

June 9, 1994

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