Our discovery of the rift had occurred hundreds of years before, and we had come a long way since in technological advancement and involvement in the intergalactic community. Earthians still wore the stigma of being stupid. I was no exception even though I was, surely, smarter than %99.9 of all new I-GAS recruits. That was the thing about I-GAS; you didn't have to be smart. You had to be fit, you had to think fast on your feet, and above all, you had to follow orders. We were the first on call for inter-temporal crime. While the detectives handled the big cases, we were in called in for emergencies and crimes in progress.

I was on desk duty. Having only been accepted into I-GAS a few short weeks previously, I had yet to pay my dues. I spent my time taking calls and studying for the Time Academy's entrance exam. It was one dark day, as I was retrieving a cup of coffee and a plear sandwich, that I stumbled upon a conversation that I was sure I wasn't meant to hear.

I had returned to my desk where my commanding officer, Robin Grey, sat using my inter-temporal communication device. He saw me and shifted his eyes around nervously.

"I'll be done in a minute," he said.

I sat down in the visitor's chair and waited patiently across from him. He frowned at me, and began speaking in an long dead Utopian dialect that I was sure he thought I didn't know. I shouldn't have known it, because I was Earthian. I was supposed to be dumb. My degree in Ancient languages said otherwise.

"Don't do this," he murmured in a hushed whisper. "You know that place is in my jurisdiction. You don't need to be taking chances like that."

His scowl deepened as the person on the other end of the ICD spoke. When he spoke again his voice was angered and strained.

"I'm done with you," he said. "You're nothing more than a common thief. It's over!" He punched the off button on the device and stood up and scowled angrily down at it as if the machinery itself had somehow offended him. It was as if there was nobody in the room when he let out an enraged roar and threw it against the nearest wall where it shattered into millions of pieces.

I was startled and so was everybody else. We were all staring at him.

"What?" He growled. He stalked around the desk so he would have a better vantage point at staring down the rest of our small squadron.

"Sir," I spoke up, timidly raising my hand as I did so.

He turned to glare down at me. "What is it, Recruit?"

"Uh, I uh...my d-d-device," I stammered.

"Fill out a requisition form for a new one," he muttered and moved to walk back to his office.

"I wasn't the one who broke it."

The entire office gasped as I had said it out loud. Maybe there was truth in the rumors of Earthian intellect after all.

He turned and the full force of his fiery glare once again landed on me.

"What did you say?"

I stood up to face him then.

"I said I wasn't the one who broke it. Sir."

He marched towards me, stopping inches away. He was at least a foot taller than me and I was dwarfed in comparison. He was strong, and I was thin. He was blond and bearded and I was smooth and brunette. We were like mirror images in opposite land, and he was furious. I knew I had no place to question him. He could send me packing at a moment's notice and my dreams of detectivehood would be over.

"The requisition form is a lot of paperwork," I said. "I don't think it's fair."

I smirked as I noticed the red rise to his unusually pale face. It wasn't fair. I wasn't going to take it just because I was a new recruit and my device just happened to be the one closest to his angry hands.

"Also," I said, before he had a chance to kill me. "I know Utopian Standard One."

His jaw tightened when I replied in the language he had been using to hide his private conversation. The entire room was silent and I couldn't hear anything aside from the pounding of my own heart.

"You're right, recruit," He finally said; his posture suddenly relaxed and he clapped me on the back. It was as if the entire squadron heaved a sigh of relief in that moment. "Back to work..."

"It's Ehrenfried."

"Ehren," he said and chuckled nervously. Then he marched back into the office.

I returned to work with everybody's eyes on me

***

Robin ordered me to his office later that day. I was still in fear for my unmarred service record, and I felt the dread curling itself in the pit of my stomach as I dragged myself from my desk and across the floor to the boss's door. I knocked on it and he bid me enter.

"I wanted to apologize for earlier, Ehren," he said as I sat down in the visitor's chair across from his once again.

"It's Ehrenfried," I murmured.

"That's an Earthian name isn't it?" He said.

"Yes, sir," I replied.

"We don't get many recruits from Earth."

"Yes sir," I said.

"You can relax, Ehren," he said. "I just wanted to give you this."

He pulled open the top drawer of his desk handed me a new ICD.

"Thank you, sir," I said as I received the device. "May I be excused now?"

He nodded consent and I stumbled from my chair only to be met by the High Commander of I-GAS bursting into the room.

"Get your boots on and your squad ready, Robin," he said as he thrust a printout in Robin's face. "There has been an alarm raised in Quadrant Four."

"Q4?" He repeated. He sounded numb, as if he couldn't believe it.

I stood nervous and seemingly invisible between them. With the High Commander standing in the doorway, I had nowhere to go. I heard Robin curse softly in Utopian and mutter, "I told him not to do it," under his breath.

He glanced up at me for the first time, realizing that I hadn't made it past the High Commander and out of the room. He cursed again and frowned a warning at me.

"I can handle this on my own, Sir," he said. "It's only a possible disturbance. Those alarms in Q4 are temperamental."

"You know I trust you, Robin, but..."

"I'll go!" I burst out, catching the attention of both my superiors. Robin looked irritated and the High Commander looked confused.

"I can go," I said. "You were about to state that according to Inter-Temporal Law 342 section 3 amendment 3: an agent must never go out into the field alone."

I swaggered as best I could over to Robin and pushed him out of the way as I snatched the printout from his hand.

"Yep, yep," I nodded at the gibberish that was before me on that paper. I had taken a short course on how to read an Action Report, but it was something entirely different in practice. I wasn't yet good enough to decipher the codes in front of me.

"It looks like a routine job. I can handle it, boss."

The High Commander dubiously arched an eyebrow at me then shrugged and addressed Robin.

"I trust your judgment," he once again said. "If you feel this recruit is up to it..."

I turned towards Robin and begged him as best I could without words.

He sighed.

"Ehren is one of our top recruits," he said. "Very promising."

"Very well," the High Commander said. "I want a full report on my desk when you return."

High Commander was gone then, and I was left alone with Robin once more.

"What the fuck do you think you're doing, Recruit?" He said.

"Saving your ass," I replied. "I already know something fishy is going on. Why bring other people into it? You may as well just tell me what you're trying to hide."

"Shut-Up," he said. "Come here."

He moved to a locked cabinet across the room and I followed him. He retrieved a small rectangular velvet box and handed it to me.

"I'm not marrying you," I muttered.

"I told you to shut-up," he said. "How many hours have you had in the VR booth?"

"Twelve," I said.

"Just great." He sighed at me again. "You're about a hundred hours short of the requisite training time to use one of these without supervision."

I opened the box. It was a time travel device.

"Why are you issuing one?" I murmured as I ran my finger over the shiny new device.

"We might get separated," he said. "Take that down to Assignment. I'll send them the linking order right now. We leave in twenty minutes."

"Quadrant four...Diamond sector?" I said. My eyes remained fastened to my new bit of technology. I was so many weeks from being advanced enough for the privileged of being assigned one and going on missions. I couldn't believe my luck. I tucked the TTD away in my pocket and made a mental note to thank my parents for sending me to university for linguistics.

"Twenty minutes!" He barked at me as I stood there in a dream state.

"Yes, Sir!" I came to attention and saluted him before dashing away to the Assignment office where my ID tag was to be linked to my TTD and my TTD was to be linked to his: the squadron commander, my new partner, Robin Grey.

****

"You know, Ehrenfried, you should be fired." My friend, Axel, stood beside me in the locker room as I suited up in my mission gear. "Why is it that people who should get fired end up always getting promoted? I mean, I done everything right, and I'm mopping up toilets. You mouth off to our superior officer and he takes you on a mission! I've got twice as much time in the VR suite..."

"Shhh," I hushed him.

"You're lucky," he mumbled.

"I'm smart," I replied.

"A smart Earthian?" he mused. "Isn't that an oxymoron?"

We laughed at the joke, but were interrupted by my name over the loudspeaker. I was being paged to the portal room.

"Wish me luck, Axel." I held out my hand and he shook it.

"Good luck, lucky Ehrenfried," he said. "You're going to need it!"

I marched my way to the portal room then. Robin was waiting for me, impatiently tapping his foot and glancing at his watch. He waved me forward once he caught sight of me.

The High Commander was there. He was standing in the corner speaking into a communication device. We were waiting for him to finish. Once he did, he approached Robin and pulled him to the side. I strained to hear their conversation, even though I knew I shouldn't be eavesdropping. Eavesdropping had gotten me promoted though, so maybe it wasn't such a bad idea.

"I think you might want to excuse yourself from this case," High Commander said.

"Why?"

"Word just came in; this is a break-in, Robin, and it bears all the signatures of Feliu Viernes," he replied.

A weary look crossed Robin's eyes for only a moment before he addressed the High Commander.

"Viernes won't be a problem, sir."

"Are you sure?" High Commander asked. "We need to bring him in..."

"I know," Robin snapped loudly with no heed to whoever might be within hearing range. "It won't be a problem!"

High Commander bowed his head in deference to Robin's outburst.

"It better not be," he said; his usually serene visage interrupted by a hard scowl. "There will be consequences."

"Yes, Sir," he mumbled; his eyes cast downward.

The High Commander departed then, leaving me alone with Robin. He was silent and frowning, as he had been since I had caught his clandestine conversation.

"So," I said. "Feliu? That's a Utopian name isn't it?"

"Stop talking," he growled. "Do you know how to use one of these?" He indicated the TTD in his hand.

"In theory," I said.

He frowned at me then rolled his eyes.

"Okay, just...put yours back in your pocket," he said. "Hold on to my arm."

No sooner had I done as instructed then I was gone. I felt nothingness for a short moment, then with a bang and a flash of white light I was standing on the chalky ground of a planet in the Diamond Sector of Quadrant Four. My knees felt weak and I clung onto Robin in order to keep myself standing.

"Are you okay?" He glanced down at me, and I shook my head.

"Let go," he said.

I did as I was told. I was an officer of the law. I was required to follow orders, but I was still queasy from the jump. I stepped forward and crumpled into a heap on the ground.

"Get up," he muttered. "He's going to get away."

"I think I'm going to be sick." I ignored his instruction. He pulled me to my feet and handed me a red pill.

"What's this?" I took the pill and stared at it.

"You're a little bit time sick," he said. "That's not unusual for a first time jumper. The pill will help. We've got to get you moving."

I swallowed the tablet down and followed him. As we trudged along the ground of the planet, the dizziness began to subside, and I was able to take in my surroundings. The earth was white. Hills rose up around us and seemed to sparkle everywhere the sunlight hit them.

"What's that?" I said. "Why is it sparkling?"

"You're the scholar, Earthian," he muttered back at me. "Why do you think?"

"Diamonds?" I said, my voice soft and breathless with wonder. I had never seen anything like it in my life. We had diamonds on Earth, but they were all underground and few and far in between.

"I've never..."

"We're here," he interrupted me as we came to a halt at the crest of a hill.

There in the valley was a large white building. The curves of it mirrored the surrounding hillsides and it sparkled in the sun just as everything else did.

"Not very many people get to see this place," Robin told me. "Most of the fine jewels you see around the galaxies are produced here in conjunction with the Gold, Silver and Platinum Sectors. The security is fantastic. I don't even know how the fuck he landed here."

A proud smile tugged at the corner of his lips, but he frowned just as soon as he noticed me looking.

"Bastard," he muttered. "We've been chasing Feliu all over for years."

He started towards the building down the hill and I followed him.

"And you've never caught him?"

"Once or twice," he replied. "The High Commander had him in custody last time. I wasn't... He escaped."

"He's that good?"

We approached the entrance of the building.

"He's that good." Robin confirmed. "He's the fucking bane of my existence."

"Why so flattering, Grey?" A voice from above chirped.

We simultaneously looked up to spot Feliu Viernes sitting in a tree by the entrance to the factory.

"Oh, my, you caught me." He rolled his eyes and yawned. "Oh, no!"

"I'm taking you in this time, Viernes," Robin said. His voice was harsh and strained. I glanced at him. His eyes were narrowed at Feliu and his lips a pale, thin line. "You're not going to get away with it."

He laughed then. His face creased in a wide smile that sparkled as brightly as the diamonds in the hills. He hopped down from his perch and landed deftly on his feet. I had never seen a Utopian in the flesh before, though I had studied the language of their race. He came from the Golden Utopia, a rich planet known for its four suns. He was fair, as were most Utopians, due to the natural infrared reflective pigmentation of their skin; a necessity on a planet where the suns rose and set one after the other, dousing the population in perpetual light and heat. His hair was a dark ginger, and his pupils were a pin-point of black in the middle of his eyes, accentuating their light blue colouring. He was as tall as Robin, but where Robin was all muscle, Feliu was lean and thin.

"Who's this?" He addressed Robin in the archaic language of his planet. Robin tried valiantly to warn him with an urgent shake of his head, but Feliu ignored him and kept speaking. "He's cute. I wasn't really planning on a three way, but if you insist."

"He speaks Standard One," Robin burst out.

"Oh, really? That's interesting..."

"All twelve standards actually," I interrupted him as he tried on a different variation of the Utopian language.

"He's smart," Robin admitted sheepishly.

I'm quite sure I couldn't have stopped myself from beaming at his praise.

"But he's Earthian!" Feliu gasped in mock surprise.

I turned to Robin. "Can we arrest him now?"

"I..." Robin glanced toward Feliu who looked upon him expectantly.

"What are you doing here Feliu?" He said.

"Stealing diamonds," he said.

"I can see that," Robin replied. He glanced over at me and growled in frustration. "Well..."

"Well?" Feliu leaned back on his heels; his grin never wavering.

"I have to take you in," Robin said.

"Take me in?" He smirked. "That will be a first."

"I told you not to do this, Feliu. I'm tired of it. This is all a fucking game to you isn't it?"

"Yes," he replied. He lifted his chin defiantly. "I'm winning too, aren't I?'

"Well it's not a game to me," Robin bristled. "This is my life and you've been fucking it up left and right ever since I met you. It isn't worth it!"

"Isn't it?" Feliu lifted his eyebrows.

They had forgotten I was there it seemed. I watched them scream at each other in Utopian for what seemed like hours, faster than I could keep up with a language that wasn't my own. I danced around them, trying to get one of them to relax. They ignored me and stalked circles around each other, speaking of a past history that I knew nothing about and couldn't make sense of. If Feliu was the bad guy, I didn't understand why we were even wasting time letting him speak. I wished I was stronger. I wished that I could step between them and put an end to their impassioned bickering, but I wasn't. I was the runt of the squadron, and at that moment I didn't even have my wits to fall back on. If there was a protocol for the situation, I didn't remember it.

Finally Robin had had enough. He grabbed Feliu by the shoulders and pushed him backwards until he slammed into the front of the building. The glass of the structure shook with the impact but it didn't shatter. The thief gasped, trying to regain his breath as Robin hovered menacingly over him.

"That hurt," Feliu squeaked when he once again could breath. The fight was completely gone from him and he didn't even struggle against the grip that pinned him to the wall.

I looked on nervously. I shouldn't have been there. I didn't belong in the middle of whatever was happening.

"You shouldn't have come here," Robin growled, his pitch almost inaudible.

"Robin?" I reached my hand out and touched his shoulder. He shrugged me off, his attention barely flickered in my direction.

"Please, Sir," I said. "Let's just bind him and get him back, okay?"

"Why did you come here?" Robin completely ignored me and addressed Feliu.

"I think he's right," said the thief as he nodded towards me. "I can't feel my arms."

Robin released him like he had suddenly become molten lava. I stepped up quickly to apply the restraints. He placidly crossed his wrists behind his back.

"Happy now?" He addressed Robin. I couldn't see his face but I could tell he was shaking, and there was a tremor in his voice. "Is this what you wanted?"

"You chose this, Feliu. This is how it has to be," Robin muttered. He turned away and began to walk away from the building, back towards the hills.

He didn't hear it when Feliu whispered in Modern Utopian...

"I only did it, so I could see you."

****

We returned heroes with one dejected Utopian thief trudging along between us.

Robin sneered and growled his way angrily through all the congratulations thrown our way. I just kept my head down and only acknowledged a thumbs up from Axel as we made our way down to processing. The High Commander stopped us as we were on our way down to the transport bay to transfer Feliu to the imprisonment facility.

"I underestimated you," he said. "I thought this was going to be a hard job."

"It was a hard job," Robin muttered.

Feliu, the man who had practically let himself be caught, stood beside me and sighed.

We were left on our own then to wait for the lift. Feliu stood in front and Robin stood slightly behind him. I watched them from a couple of feet away. Robin had removed one side of the restraints and had cuffed himself to the thief while processing had collected new digital thumbprints for the database. Feliu would brush his fingertips across the back of Robin's hand then Robin would reciprocate the gesture until they were practically holding hands. I once again felt like I was intruding on some kind of secret world as we entered the lift and headed towards the transport. I was going to keep my mouth shut as long as nobody else was talking.

Nobody else did talk until Feliu was safe in the back of our transport, and I was left alone to guard him while my boss filled out paperwork.

"Nice pockets," he said.

"Whatever," I replied.

He didn't say another word as we waited for Robin to return with orders for the imprisonment facility.

That was the last time I saw Feliu Viernes that day. When we arrived at the facility he was gone; vanished into thin air as if he had never been there at all.

Robin was beside himself for a moment, then turned his anger on me.

"What happened? I leave you alone for five minutes..."

"Nothing happened!" I replied. He was standing over me again, making me feel like the intimidated recruit that I was. "He barely said two words."

"What did he say?"

"Nice pockets," I replied. "I don't even know what that means."

"What's in your pockets?" Robin backed off a couple of steps and frowned at me.

"Nothing," I said. "Nothing's in my pockets."

"Isn't there supposed to be something in your pockets?"

My face must have fallen a thousand storeys in that moment as I realized what had happened. I could have been smarter. I should have known. All those times he had stumbled into me as we paraded him down the hallways of I-GAS headquarters were no accidents.

"My Time Travel Device," I whispered.

"It's not your fault kid," he murmured.

"You're not mad?"

"You don't have any experience handling Utopian scum like that," he muttered. "The High Commander's going to come down hard on us for this, but I'll take the hit. I've done it before, and it is my fault. I never should have trusted an Earthian recruit."

I tumbled down from the high I was on for the praise I had received earlier and the congratulations for catching such an apparently skilled thief. He may have been willing to take the hit for me, but I could tell that Robin was furious all the same. He had trusted me with a simple task, and I had failed. Miserably.

"But I...I'm sorry," I said.

I reached into that pocket, just to make sure we weren't jumping to conclusions. We weren't. There was something there in its place though. I pulled out a man's diamond ring with a small scrap of paper rolled up inside of it. I pulled out the paper, read the note, and immediately felt terrible for it.

I handed it over to Robin. He perked up in surprise and the seething anger he had been hiding seemed to drain out of him as he scanned the words that hadn't been meant for my eyes. He looked sad, and I didn't blame him.

"Aren't you going to turn this in to the High Commander?" He said. "It's stolen property."

"It's for you," I replied. "As far as I'm concerned, I never even saw it."

I turned around and marched towards the facility. Somebody had to report Feliu's escape.

"Hey," he shouted after me.

I turned around to face him.

"Thanks," he said. "You're not going to...tell anyone?"

"Nah," I replied. "I think I understand. Just do me one favor, Robin?"

"Okay," he said.

"Next time he robs the most heavily secured sector in Q4 for you...don't let me tag along."

He walked into the store after saying goodbye to Kathy. Her civility had almost put him in a decent mood, and he was feeling like indulging in a bit of a guilty pleasure. He walked over to the "M" section and began browsing as he sang softly along to the song that was playing through the store's stereo system.

"So, if it isn't karaoke boy," a feminine voice spoke from behind him. "Do you sing everywhere?"

He jumped away from the rack and spun around o­nly to come face to face with the o­ne and o­nly Shaina Spyder.

"You're Tommy's friend," she said.

"Yeah." He gave her his biggest grin. He had to admit that he thought she was pretty and he did have a bit of a crush. He was impressed that she had remembered him after having spent time together only once.

"The o­ne that puked!" She smiled back and he blushed.

"Yeah, but my friends call me Graeme." He quickly regained composure and offered his hand.

"Hi, Graeme." She brushed her hair back and took his handshake.

"I'm Shaina," she said. "So what's your pleasure today?" She shifted her blue eyes to the CD rack he'd been sifting through. "Moby, Monster Magnet, Mobile Phone Unit?"

"Um, Melodie Monzel," he replied sheepishly.

"Ooo, that's terrible!" She made a distasteful face, but laughed. "Not surprising though from a guy who was dancing o­n tables singing along to Bon Jovi."

"What?" He sputtered. "I did that?"

"Damn straight you did!" She laughed. "You made quite a spectacle. How could anybody possibly forget?"

"Well, I did," he muttered sheepishly. "So not o­nly am I the guy that puked, but I'm also the table top dancing Bon Jovi impersonator?" He put a hand to his forehead in mock despair. "There goes my indie cred."

"If you were worried about your indie cred, you shouldn't have told me you were buying a Melodie Monzel album." She snatched o­ne of the albums in question and dangled it in front of her. "Can you say fake?"

"You must think I'm a complete dork," Graeme said as he looked at the floor.

"Nah." She handed him the CD. "Only partially. Besides..."

She arched an eyebrow and ran her tongue across her bottom lip. The temperature in the room seemed to have skyrocketed as he stood there waiting for her next words.

"I'll tell you a secret," she nearly whispered in a husky voice. "I like dorks, who like Melodie Monzel."

"Oh, I see." Graeme gulped as he tried to keep his brain functioning and his eyes on her face. Shaina Spyder was flirting with him in a record store. It was like his biggest fantasy come true, and he could hardly believe his luck.

"Well, crappy teen pop music does a body good, but don't tell Tom."

"No shit," Shaina said, her voice returning to normal as she smiled at him and rolled her eyes. "He's our fearless leader in musical elitism. Listen to Tommy and your ears will never go wrong again!"

Graeme thought that was extremely funny because Shaina's music wasn't exactly the most pleasant thing in itself. It certainly wasn't anywhere near Tommy's alley let alone up it, and he was in her band. Graeme couldn't stop the giggles then and soon she had joined him.

"We should continue this over lunch," Shaina finally said after the giggle fit had subsided and Graeme's purchases had been paid.

Graeme had ended up buying the AM*AD sampler that was o­n sale in the front of the building since it featured Shaina. He was trying to flatter her and match her flirt-for-flirt. He wasn't sure that he was succeeding.

"Yeah," Graeme replied. "I would love to, but I'm meeting my mom for lunch."

"Aww." Her face fell, and she seemed genuinely disappointed. "Well, come to the gig tonight," she commanded. "I never see you around anymore, and we could use a little excitement around the place." She grinned and patted his arm.

He pondered it for a moment. Though the reins had been loosened since he last had ventured into the Spiral Stairs, his parents still had him on a strict curfew. It wasn't as early as it had been, but he was sure that it was before Shaina even took the stage. Having just learned that he'd been so drunk that he hadn't remembered dancing around o­n tables, he wasn't sure that he wanted to make a repeat performance after all.

"I'll be there," he assured her against his better judgment.

"Good!" She smiled. "I'll tell everyone to keep an eye out for you."

"Everyone?" He said.

"Yeah, everybody knows the Bon Jovi kid."

"Christ." Graeme sighed. "I hope you don't expect that to happen again, because I think I'll be sticking to beer of the root variety this time."

"Aww, Naw." She patted his arm again, but that time her hand remained. He could feel himself turning red.

"I like you better this way, actually."

"Good," he replied, relieved. "I'm glad I'm just not the entertainment."

"Never." She smiled at him. "I like you, Graeme, and I will definitely see you tonight?"

"Indubitably!" He grinned back.

She nodded, said her goodbye, got into her new car, and peeled away as Graeme waved her off. He let his hand drop as soon as she was out of sight.

"Great," he said to nobody in particular. "How the hell am I going to get into the Spiral Stairs?"

*****

"Guy!" Graeme exclaimed as he tip-toed down the stairs and ran face to face into his brother.

Guy eyed him up and down, noting that Graeme had squeezed himself into the leather pants he had gotten for Christmas and never wore.

"Were are you going so late?" Guy rubbed his sleepy eyes. He was o­n his way to watch television in his bedroom, and had just been to the kitchen for a glass of water.

Graeme tried to think fast and noted the beverage in Guy's hand.

"To get a glass of water." Graeme realized the lameness of his excuse as soon as it was out of his mouth and let his hands drop to his sides with a sigh. "Never mind. These pants are making my ass sweat anyway."

"Wait," Guy said, and Graeme looked at him over his shoulder. "You're going to have to put some ice in it. I just refilled the pitcher."

Graeme fully faced his brother quizzically, realized that he was getting what amounted to permission to sneak out without his parents being told, then he grinned and threw himself o­nto Guy for a big hug.

"Thanks, man," he said.

Guy pushed him away, "Take my Jeep, the keys are by the door. I think I got an all access pass in there somewhere too. Just in case. It's not like Tommy can't get you in or anything."

"No way," Graeme said.

"Yes way," Guy replied. "And do NOT get drunk. I don't want to have to come after you at three o'clock in the morning."

"I'm not planning on it," Graeme said. "Why would I want to risk a repeat of Bon Jovi?"

"So, you finally remembered?" Guy chuckled.

"Yeah, I was reminded." Graeme shrugged. "That was probably my fifteen minutes, and I don't even remember them."

"According to Shaina, it was more than fifteen minutes," Guy said and got an eye roll for his trouble.

"Have fun!" Guy said.

"I imagine I will," Graeme assured him.

***

"You made it!" Shaina bounced up to him at the bar after she had played her second set.

"I said I would," Graeme replied as he looked at the clock. He hoped she wasn't going to play anymore that night.

"You played that new song. Tom taught it to me yesterday," he said.

"Oh, you play guitar?" She asked.

"Yeah, my brother taught me the finer points. I used to play violin in orchestra," Graeme replied, not bothering to mention that he'd immediately surpassed Guy in the guitar playing skill department. He didn't think he was that talented enough in the first place to warrant bragging, even if it meant foregoing a chance to impress Shaina, who he had come to have an ever increasing crush on in the previous days.

"You know, he wrote that song," she said.

"My brother?" Graeme looked to the bar and chuckled. "I've heard Lederhosen, lady. He's not that good."

"No, Tommy did," she laughed and gave him a playful slap o­n the shoulder.

"He did?" Asked a surprised Graeme. "No offense but it seems a little girly for Tom."

"None taken." She shrugged. "I wrote the lyrics."

"Not to say you're girly." Graeme opened his mouth and inserted his foot. "I mean you are girly, I mean your music is? Oh, fuck. I mean you're a girl. You're pretty. Your hair looks nice today."

She grinned at his confused sputtering.

"You are sweet," she said.

He smiled back bashfully, and all of a sudden was afraid to open his mouth again.

"Well, he brought it to me last week," she continued talking about the song. "He is so talented. In retrospect, I'm glad he came to me first. Such ambition; it's hard to come by. I'll be sad when he leaves."

"Yeah. Me too." Graeme frowned. "Maybe he'll change his mind. There's still time."

"Irregardless, a guy like that..." She shook her head. "He isn't going to stay in another persons band for long. He's holding way too much back. I can see how bored he is."

Graeme nodded in agreement.

"You think I'm boring?" She arched an eyebrow at him.

"No, no, no! I uh...I mean...you know what I m-mean," he stammered.

"God, you're cute." She grabbed his arm as her eyes widened. "Want to go backstage?"

"Sure," Graeme agreed, realizing that he probably didn't have much of a choice anyway with the grip she had on him, so off they went and they ended up o­n a little couch somewhere in the back while a bunch of the staff and various members of the featured bands were basically having a big party.

"Is it like this every night?" He stared wide eyed at the melee and wondered how o­n earth Tommy managed to function every day at school, let alone make the grades that he did.

"More or less." Shaina shrugged, then she giggled. "You are so cute." She leaned over and kissed him o­n the cheek. He blushed.

"It's like you've never been to a good party. You were the life of it when I met you this summer!" She giggled again, obviously flirting and making Graeme nervous. Being the social outcast that he had deemed himself, he had really never bothered to find a decent party to attend. He was feeling a bit overwhelmed and out of place. Shaina seemed to pick up o­n this.

"Of course, you were drunk off your ass then. Just stick with me tonight and I'll teach you how to do it right without the headache, Babe." She winked and patted his knee.

"So, you're older than Tommy, right?"

It crossed his mind briefly to lie about how much older, but she obviously already knew he was in high school. If that didn't seem to bother her, then he wouldn't let it bother him.

"Yeah, a few months. Not that much," he replied.

"Oh, so young!" She sank back into the couch and gave him a pouty stare. "So inexperienced."

He straightened up and looked back at her. "I'm a quick study."

She laughed and changed the subject o­ne hundred eighty degrees to the band Lunar Transmission.

"Tommy tells me you like them."

"Uh, yeah. I do." Graeme nodded.

"It takes a brave soul to disagree with Tommy about music!"

"Yeah, I know," he replied. "But if I don't tell him he's full of shit, then who else will?"

"True," she agreed. "I'm glad somebody has the balls."

"Oh, I have them," he nodded again, realized what he had just said and blushed again. He had never been that nervous in front of a girl before, but Shaina was hardly a girl.

"You know what?" Shaina said.

"What?"

"You're driving me wild." She slipped her hands into his.

"I am?" He scratched his he head and grinned sheepishly at her. "It must be some kind of latent superpower or something, because I don't really know what the fuck I'm doing to make you think that."

"You're so funny, Graeme. You make me laugh," she said. "And you're hot. There's really not much to it."

Nobody had ever told him that before, especially someone who was, arguably, the most famous person in town who wasn't a visiting professional golfer. He didn't reply; he just gazed at her in awe. She ran her fingers through his long dark locks and sighed wistfully.

"Are you going to kiss me?" She asked. "Or are you going to make me do it?"

"Right here?" He eyed the remaining people in the room.

"Tut-Tut," she clucked at him as she shook her head and placed her hands o­n his shoulders. "So, inexperienced." She repeated her earlier comment and pushed him against the back of the chair with a smile

****.

"What time is it?" Graeme asked no o­ne in particular as he sat at a table sipping beer. He had failed over the course of the night to keep his promise not to drink. Shaina had just said her goodbye and departed the venue with her personal assistant in tow, leaving Tommy to sit beside him, ignoring his query for the time.

"I can't fucking believe I just sat here and watched you makin' out with Shaina Spyder." He pointed at the couch in the corner with his cigarette and beer in hand.

"You were watching?" Graeme grinned at him. "Kinky."

"You two weren't exactly discrete. I told you she liked you." Tommy said.

"What?" Graeme rolled his eyes, but was still unable to control the goofy smile that was plastered all over his face.

"I'm sorry, it's just weird, mate." Tommy said. "I mean... You're... YOU."

"Well, she wanted me." Graeme shrugged as if it was all in a days work. "I like her too. Was I supposed to say no?"

"I guess not." Tommy agreed. "If you like old people."

"She's not old." Graeme giggled into his drink. "Besides, from what I hear, old people know a thing or two about things, so maybe Shaina will teach me a few of them."

"Gross," Tommy laughed with him.

"Yeah, Yeah." Graeme shook his head. "Giving up on girls altogether now?"

"Nah," Tommy replied. "Just watch out for her. Okay?"

Graeme ignored his comment and asked for the time once again.

Tommy consulted his watch. "Half one, about."

"In the morning?" The smile all of a sudden faded.

"Well, if we'd been here into the afternoon, I'd be worried," Tommy replied. "I think it's time to call us a cab."

****

Of course Tommy would put up a brave font in the presence of friends and acquaintances, but his situation over the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas at his house was beginning to deteriorate quickly. Steven had stopped coming to his soccer games, and had even come out of his retirement to take o­n some odd trucking jobs here or there. Tommy realized that playing at being miserable, which he'd done sometimes in the past was not nearly as bad as actually being miserable, because that was what he had become as he saw Steven drifting away from him. Somehow he felt like it was entirely upon his shoulders.

The worst of it was that he and his mother had started arguing o­n a regular basis. There were no more long nights just talking and sipping tea like when they had been o­n their own looking out for each other. It seemed to Tommy that Madeline had become harshly disapproving of him and his past and current behavior. He suddenly felt like he couldn't open his mouth without something disapproving coming out of hers. It made him feel small. It made him feel stifled, and it made him feel like his entire existence was wrong.

Steven Sinclair missed Christmas that year. He'd taken a job delivering oranges to New Jersey after he'd promised never to take another cross country trip. It was sixty-five degrees and sunny in Nevada, but his father was snowed in. The night was awful, where it had always been a cheerful event. It was Madeline's favorite holiday and even when they had no money, she always made sure that her son had something. He always looked forward to the holidays because of her.

All of sudden, though, he knew how Graeme felt when he said that all Holidays were a load of bullshit and false sentiment. His mother was pretending to be cheerful for his sake, and he wouldn't even talk to his father o­n the phone. He didn't want to hear any of his fake excuses.

Tommy retired early that night. They'd barely spoken at all; he and his mother. As he lay in his bed o­n foreign soil so far away from everything he thought had ever been good in his life, he could hear her crying as she passed by his door on the way to her room. Of all the things he'd done that he wasn't proud of in all his young life, he'd never made her cry. He wanted to go to her and comfort her and tell her that it was all right and that he'd try to be a normal kid from that point forward, but he couldn't bring himself to go. It didn't feel right anymore, so he sat alone in his room. It was dark and he didn't feel like he had anyone in that house to talk to anymore.

Against his better judgment he sneaked down the stairs until he reached the telephone in the living room. He curled up o­n the couch and thought he was going to call Graeme. As good a friend as Graeme was, though, there was only o­ne person in the whole world he thought would understand.

His ex-boyfriend's mother answered the phone. It was a short conversation.

"Is Richard there?" Tommy asked.

"Thomas Sinclair," she replied flatly. It was more of a statement than a question. He knew that she no less than despised him.

"Yes," came his weak reply. He didn't even have the defiance him to bothering protesting her assumption about his first name. There was no way to lie to her, she knew his voice despite his efforts at masking it with all the American inflections he could muster. Living there for a year still hadn't made his effort even passable.

"Do you know what time it is, boy?"

"Sorry, ma'am, I just..."

"Richard does not want to talk to you," she growled. "He has a better life now, and you'd be best off to leave him alone."

Tommy had no idea whether or not that was the truth, but it hurt nonetheless, and all the remnants of his past seemed to have crumbled into dust and blown away in that very moment.

"Oh," he murmured. "Ok, well just tell him...I...tell him Happy Christmas for me."

"We'll see." With that last comment, she hung up.

Tommy had no doubt in his mind that Richard would never find out that he had called.

**

"And that's that." Tommy threw the skipping stone towards the river.

"You did not ruin Christmas," Graeme said matter-of-factly. "Don't be ridiculous. I had a great Christmas. I got new guitar strings and a new amp." He nudged Tommy playfully and his companion mustered up a slight smile.

"No, but really." Tommy said. "My mother resents me and the o­nly other person who is...eh...was that close to me doesn't want to talk to me. I've tried to get through to him through the Caughtons, but he just won't. You're my o­nly friend in the world, Alexander."

"You have friends," Graeme scoffed. "There's your band mates and Guy, and that annoying Briar kid...."

Tommy denied it.

"You're the o­nly o­ne who matters right now. They're just acquaintances, and Mark... I'm really, really not going to cry about Richard to my ex. Who is not annoying. Stop it."

"Well, That means a lot seeing as you're my o­nly actually friend as well anyway. Everyone else seems to think I'm aloof and losery. Am I aloof?"

"You?" Tommy shrugged. "Maybe. I mean not to everybody, but you do kind of separate yourself sometimes."

Graeme laughed. "Well, I prefer to think of it as my air of mystique."

"Air of something," Tommy muttered.

"Ha, Ha!" Graeme rolled his eyes. "But enough about me. My mystique o­nly allows for me to talk about myself for short periods at a time."

Tommy laughed. "You are the weirdest human being o­n the planet, Mate."

"It's a tough cross to bear, but I manage," Graeme replied with a sly grin. "Anyway, don't blame yourself for your mom being upset. I mean, dude, her husband's in New Jersey."

"They're not married," Tommy muttered.

"But they have the same last name," Graeme said.

"They do. It's not spelled the same," Tommy said. "The world is full of coincidences Graeme. Lucky for me, I would've just loved being called a bastard as well as queer."

"Well, you sure have a model American family for not being American at all," Graeme said.

"I am half." Tommy smiled. "Haven't you been paying attention? I'm half everything, remember?"

"That's right," Graeme said. "Anyway, Alabama, England, same thing really. My point is, the situation is not your fault."

"But if it wasn't for me, he wouldn't have gone to New Jersey in the first place," Tommy argued.

"How do you know that?" Graeme asked. "His job may have absolutely nothing to do with you. Your parents aren't constantly thinking about you. I should know."

"Well, they ought to be," Tommy muttered indignantly. "They're the o­nes that ruined my life."

"Will you stop being dramatic," Graeme said. "Your life isn't ruined."

"Maybe not," Tommy said, "but I'll tell you what, Alexander. Me and mum were fine o­n our own. Damn fine. Now she cries all the time, and resents me. I don't think I can stand it here for very much longer."

"It's not that bad," Graeme said. "Look...we have mountains!" He pointed out towards the horizon.

"Mountains?" Tommy said. "You're going to have to do better than that."

"I won't," Graeme replied, softly. "You want to go home. I don't want to make you stay if you don't want to. I don't even want to stay here. Maybe you'll find whatever you're looking for there. A place isn't going to make you happy though, and I think you know that. For what it's worth, I think you should move on."

Tommy diverted his gaze and kicked at the brush around his feet.

"Yeah, maybe," he said.

****

Mark approached Tommy in the hallway at school not long after Christmas break and tapped him on the shoulder to gain his attention. He waited.

"Oh, hi, Mark!" Tommy greeted him exuberantly. It had taken a few months, but they remained friends, and Tommy was happy that it had worked out that way.

Mark had not accosted him for a simple chat though. He stood there with a worried frown etched onto his face, and he was surrounded by an aura of defeat. Tommy immediately and without thought pulled him into a hug. Mark lay his head on Tommy's shoulder and took a long, slow breath before speaking again.

"Can we get out of here? I want to talk to you," he whispered.

"Yes," Tommy said. Mark was upset and class could wait.

***

They sat at a picnic table at a park near the river. It was fairly deserted with school in session and Mark was grateful for that. He was also glad that Tommy had opted to sit next to him instead of across from him. Somehow it made him feel better that he was closer; that he could lean on him if he needed to.

"I was at the library the other day," Mark said. "With the guys."

"The guys" were were Mark's soccer friends.

"So we were just, y'know...jokin' around, right? And Jimmy asks me why I spend so much time with you."

"You're joking now, right?" Tommy said as it became clear where the revelation was heading.

"No." Mark frowned. "So they were teasing me about bein' gay for you. Ha. Ha. Like it was some kind of joke. Which would be fine if it was a joke, I guess, kinda, but they were serious. I mean, not serious, but serious like...they just thought we'd been friends this whole time."

"They didn't know?" Tommy sputtered. "Are they blind? I know you wanted discrete at school, but damn. I didn't think we were actively closeting ourselves."

"Me neither," Mark said. "I felt stupid. I thought I was out this whole time, and they just thought you were lying about me kissing you because you were upset I turned you down or some shit and I was hanging out with you to make up for that stupid non-fight we had."

"Oh my god." Tommy tried hard to hide the smirk that formed on his face, but he wasn't quite succeeding. "God. People go way out of their way to ignore the plain truth when it isn't spelled out for them, don't they? Occam's Razor, people. Shit. Do we have to shag in the middle of the quad at lunch break for anybody to get it?"

"What?"

"Never mind, Babes." Tommy patted him on the shoulder, and laughed. "You made up for that fight in far better ways than just hanging out with me if I remember correctly!"

"There's something else," he said and grabbed hold of Tommy's hand in both of his.

"Oh?" Tommy frowned. Mark sounded scared again, and then it hit him. Mark could have easily pretended that nothing had ever happened between them. It would have been easy to laugh along with his friends and shut the closet door tight once again.

"It's okay." Tommy pulled his hand away and averted his eyes. He didn't want to hear Mark say it. He didn't want to be denied again, and he was sure that he couldn't take it.

"Tommy, what the fuck?" Mark grumbled. "What's okay? You didn't even let me finish. Stop thinking whatever crazy ass thing you're thinking that's making you look so damn disappointed in me."

"What?" Tommy was confused. He turned to look into Mark's blue eyes again.

"I told them," Mark said, "That I'm pretty much just gay all the time, and they laughed, but I didn't. They got it after a minute. We don't have to do it in the quad after all."

"Are you serious?" Tommy said. "You came out? All by yourself? Without stuttering?"

Mark laughed. "Yes. Head up, no floor gazing or anything. Look, when I was with you, I was happy. I'm trying to be logical. I really want to try and be happy, but when I was ashamed for wanting you, I wasn't. I was kind of an asshole. I don't want to be an asshole. I don't think I am. I mean, I try not to be, and I definitely don't want to go back to feeling like that again. I mean, I'm an idiot who already thought he was out, so why go back? It didn't kill me then, and it's probably not going to kill me now. I know it's not going to be easy, but I can defend myself. It turns out I still have friends too, and besides all that, I don't want to miss out when the right guy comes along, y'know? Tragic."

Tommy smiled. He reached out and pulled Mark into a hug. "Well, for the record, I'm not disappointed. I'm proud of you, okay?" He said when they parted. "So what happened after that?"

"Well, Tony and Randy were pissed so they said some nasty shit and stormed off, but Danny, Jimmy, and...believe it or not...Alan were totally cool. They're probably the reason T&R didn't kick my ass and throw me over the balcony right then and there. Seriously, two dudes with one nick-name and they're going to be mad at me? Everybody else just teased me hardcore for about twenty minutes, and asked me some really uncomfortable questions then we went to get some ice-cream. My dad kicked me out of the house when I told him though."

"You told your dad?" Tommy gaped at him in shock. It was one thing to tell their soccer friends. Tommy already knew most of them would be okay with it, but Mark's dad was another story.

"Yeah," Mark said. "I called my mom and brother in Sacramento. She told me to come stay with her, but I want to stay here and finish school. Maybe I'll go to California later, but not right now. Mom's okay with it. I'm going to be stayin' with my cousin Jamie. You know her. She's a dealer at CasaBlanca."

"I'm sorry," Tommy said.

"Don't be. You know my dad is a total dick anyways. This is actually pretty cool. I mean, I'm not going to sacrifice my happiness for him when everybody I lo...er...I'm friends with is being so damn awesome about it. I know Randy's going to try and make my life a living hell though. I'll have to watch my back, but I guess I'll live. Got all the real friends I need now anyways, and I'm glad I did. I just wanted to tell you. Sorry if I freaked you out, all...'let's skip school, I have serious issues on my mind' or whatever. I should have told you it was good news to start. I know I wasn't acting like it. It's just a lot on my mind, y'know? I'm trying really hard to stay calm and not freak the fuck out."

"I'm just glad you think it's good news!"

"Hell yeah! It's a big old weight off my shoulders." Mark said. "Best news ever."

"So, what now?" Tommy asked. "We go out for ice cream? Is that what happens when you come out to your friends?"

Mark laughed. "Well, I was pretty sure you already knew about my epic gayness, but if you want ice-cream..."

"Your treat," Tommy said. He jumped up from the bench and offered his arm.

Mark stood to join. They linked arms and laughed as they walked back to Mark's truck.

***

Graeme was at his house later that day. They were making popcorn, intent on curling up on the sofa and watching a movie, but Graeme had something on his mind and thought it best to clear the air first.

"I saw you leave school with Mark," he said.

"Yeah." Tommy replied. "He needed me."

"Sure he did." Graeme huffed in disbelief and rolled his eyes.

"What?"

"What you two do in private is none of my business," Graeme replied. "But it's kind of lame. You don't deserve that with what you go through every day."

"What are you talking about?" Tommy turned his gaze from the popcorn twirling around in the microwave and settled it on Graeme. There was confusion tinged with ire in his voice.

"Maybe you shouldn't feel so bad about that dude at Thanksgiving," Graeme muttered.

"What?"

Tommy's voice rose in pitch and Graeme could tell that he was getting angry, but he continued to speak anyway. Tommy was his friend and he had overheard things in the library the morning before.

"Come on. I was right. Mark is a jerk. Maybe the guy deserves to get cheated on if he's going to pretend you don't exist anyway."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Tommy turned completely to face Graeme, his features arched in an enraged scowl. He bit his lip to try and keep it under control, but he could feel himself slipping. If there was one thing about Graeme that he didn't like, it was the irrational overprotective jealousy regarding only one person.

"Nobody fucking deserves to get cheated on," Tommy said, his voice trembling, betraying his feelings. "Ever."

"Look, I didn't want to tell you this, but I overheard him in the library the other day. Dude is going to march right back into the closet, because nobody believed you when you outed him the first time," Graeme said. He smiled triumphantly at Tommy. "See, I knew he was no good. Those popular kids will do anything..."

"Shut the fuck up." Tommy finally broke into an outright yell. He slammed his fists on the counter and glared at his startled friend. "You don't know what the fuck you're talking about!"

"But..."

"How much of this conversation do you think you heard?" Tommy said.

"All I needed to hear." Graeme muttered. "I was late. I had to go meet Shaina."

"Yeah, well..." Tommy sighed and frowned. "I think you need to go."

"What? Why? I was just trying to make you feel better about Thanksgiving."

"I know what I did," Tommy muttered. "Cheating on Mark isn't why I feel bad about it, because I didn't cheat."

"But..."

"I broke up with him at the beginning of the school year," Tommy said. "You didn't even notice."

"Uh...you didn't even tell me." Graeme frowned. "Why was it a secret? You guys still hang out. Like, way more than ..."

"I didn't think you'd care." Tommy interrupted. "You hate it when I talk about Mark, and you hate it even more when I hang out with him. I get it. You don't like him. Whatever. I don't care, but you don't get to stand there in front of me and call him a bad guy."

"He punched you in the face, Tom! He's going to pretend like you and him never..."

"What the fuck makes you think that's what he'll do if you didn't stick around?"

"Would he really out himself for you when it would be easier to play pretend with his buddies?" Graeme said. "Especially after you broke up with him?"

"He wouldn't," Tommy said. "No. He definitely wouldn't do that, but whatever you think of him, he's not a bad guy. I don't think he should do it. Not for me. He doesn't have to. I wouldn't ever ask anybody to do that for me before they're ready. He did it for himself. He came out to all those guys there in the library, then he came out to everybody in the world that matters to him. Not surprised you're not on that list, but if you weren't so concerned with getting into Shaina's pants then you'd know it anyway. That's what he wanted to talk to me about the other day."

"Oh." Graeme's face fell. "Tommy...I didn't know."

Tommy couldn't keep the flood of emotions from showing plainly on his face then.

"His dad kicked him out." Tommy said. "Bet you didn't know that, did you? Like him or not you can't say he deserves that. Everybody deserves a family that will love you. We dated for five fucking months, Graeme. Get it through your head that he's kind of important to me too, and I'm going to be there for him. Maybe it shouldn't affect me so much, but hurts me that he's having a rough time. It's hard, and it's even dangerous sometimes to be different in this world, Graeme, and you have no clue. Lots of people are being very cool about it, but a lot of people aren't either. Like you. What I need now is my best friend, and he's assuming shit he knows nothing about. Just go home, so I can cool off."

"But Tom..." Graeme reached towards Tommy's shoulder but pulled his hand back as soon as he caught sight of the toxic glare that his friend was directing at him.

"Okay. See you later?"

Tommy crossed his arms, huffed and rolled his eyes, but didn't answer.

He was surprised when Graeme actually left. He hadn't really wanted him to leave at all. His best friend; the guy who was always there for him with a smile and a hug, had left him alone with a bowl of burnt popcorn and a feeling of disappointment even though he had been the one to ask him to leave.

He left the popcorn in the microwave and sat upon the sofa in the living room, staring at a blank television screen until Graeme unexpectedly showed up at his front door twenty minutes later.

"Can we not fight?" He sad as he stood sheepishly in the entryway of Tommy's house.

"Yes, please," Tommy replied instantly.

"I've been driving around your block for a while, and It really sucks that you're mad at me, so I'm sorry." Graeme hung his head and shuffled his shoes, waiting for his friend to reply.

"It's okay," Tommy said. "I'm sorry I kicked you out. It's just... I feel bad. Like every time I show up it turns everyone's lives inside out and upside down. I don't know. It's just kind of depressing, but I think we'll be alright. I'd just really like it if you could try to get along with him or something."

"I'll stop being a jealous douche if it'll help," Graeme offered with a smile.

Tommy laughed. "It helps."

"Hey, maybe the three of us can hang out awkwardly sometime," Graeme said.

"I'll hold you to that," Tommy said. "It'll be great entertainment for me."

Graeme laughed then threw his arm around Tommy and led him back into the living room. "Now, about that movie?"

They burned another bag of popcorn before settling on a bag of pretzels instead then settled on the couch. Graeme lay down and Tommy was right next to him, laying his head on Graeme's chest and drifting in and out of consciousness as the images on the screen flashed by.

"So, what's going to happen?" He finally asked. "Is Mark going to California with his mom?"

"No," Tommy murmured. "He's staying with Jamie."

"Jamie's cool." Graeme bobbed his head in approval.

"I know I shouldn't care so much," Tommy murmured into Graeme's shirt. "Maybe I should just be a hard ass and join the gun club and never have another emotion again."

Graeme chuckled and hugged his friend tighter.

"Nah, don't do that," Graeme said. "That would be dull. It's what makes you awesome; that you care. I like having a friend who isn't going to run off and shoot things when I want need a hug or something because he's afraid of having a feeling, and I bet Mark does too."

He had not. Graeme, as usual, was operating on autopilot without thought for what anybody else might think. It took Tommy a full five minutes as he sat there with his eyes closed and his head resting on Graeme's chest, to figure out that everybody in the room had stopped speaking and was staring at them. Feeling self-conscious, Tommy righted himself and straightened his shirt out.

"I'm okay," he whispered at Graeme. "Thanks."

"No problem, Slugger," Graeme replied, and ruffled his hair. Tommy couldn't help but chuckle at the familiar gesture and ridiculous pet name, and the smile that had been gone from his face had returned.

"Can I get you a soda or something?" Graeme asked.

Tommy nodded and Graeme departed for the kitchen only to return a few moments later with two colas in hand to find his eldest brother, Gary, and Tommy glaring at each other while the rest of the group was ignoring them and engaged in their own activities. Geoff was busy with his girlfriend, and Guy was staring at the ceiling along with Gordon.

"What's going on?" He asked as he sat down, setting the cans on the coffee table as he did.

"Nothing," Tommy grumbled without turning his head from Gary. "Your brother seems to have some sort of problem with me though."

"Oh, no." Graeme grabbed Tommy's shoulders in an effort to calm him, but Tommy only shrugged him off.

"What are you staring at?" He addressed Gary directly after a moment, his lips arched in a challenging scowl.

"I'm looking at you, boy," Gary replied in his loudest drill-instructor voice.

"Well, get your fill now, sweetheart, because you aren't getting any of this later," Tommy announced facetiously and blew him a kiss.

Guy suddenly wasn't so interested in the ceiling, and Geoff had turned away from his girlfriend's breasts long enough to gauge Gary's reaction. Graeme just burst into laughter, because he'd never seen Gary as flustered as he did in that moment. His mouth was flapping up and down like a fish out of water before he stood up and finally spoke.

"So now you're hanging out with fags then?" It was directed at Graeme, and not at Tommy.

"Excuse me! Hello?" Tommy stood up with his hands o­n his hips. "If you are going to be calling me names, you might as while do it to my face while I'm standing right here. I mean, it's more convenient for the both of us, wouldn't you agree? You can get it off your chest, and I don't have to find out about it later. This way I can take offense in person."

"Ok, fine, fag." Gary glared at him.

"Right then," Tommy said. "Now that we've cleared that all up, I think I'll be going. I'm not going to waste my breath o­n a miserable tosspot like you. Obviously, you have some issues to be discussed. If you're ever in London, I know someone who could point you to a good a therapist." He tossed Gary a wink. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've had enough bollocking for one day. Thank you."

Gary seemed to have been driven mad by Tommy's banter and was standing there turning several shades of red as he screamed epithets straight into the boy's face. The only response he received in return was a yawn before Tommy turned away and departed the room, proclaiming that Gary's nonsense was boring and that he had much better things to do with his time. Guy, and Graeme followed quickly behind. Gary had to be subdued by his police officer brother, Geoff, who would have had no problem slapping the cuffs o­n his own brother if he'd have succeeded in breaking the choke hold that bound him to go after the trio.

Tommy paused at the door momentarily. He could have left right then, but he didn't really know where he would go. The Alexander's home was usually a safe haven from his problems. Home wasn't an option, and he didn't want to go to work feeling as badly as he did. He passed up the exit door and headed into Romey's sun room at the front of the house. It was a small room and filled with curios full of china dolls. He sat o­n the flower printed box seats, which were covered in plastic. They matched the antique looking plastic covered couch as well as the soft pink carpet. It was certainly a grandma room. He leaned his head against the window pane and stared out at the barren Nevada landscape. It was so brown and so dead. He missed London. There were no tumbleweeds in London.

"Would it do me any good to apologize for my brother?" Guy entered the room followed closely by Graeme, who shut the sliding wood doors behind him.

"No," Tommy muttered, and didn't bother to comment further as he curled his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them.

Guy sat next to him o­n the box seat while Graeme took a tentative seat o­n the couch.

Guy commented anyway. "Gary was out of line. That was totally inappropriate, and I really do apologize."

"You don't get it," Tommy said. His hands were o­nce again nervously wrapped up inside his long sleeves.

"What do you mean?" Guy said. "I thought you handled the situation alright. You made him look like a complete ass. Not that that's hard to do, since he is a complete ass."

"That's just it," Tommy said. "There shouldn't be a situation, ok? That's the problem. That's the crux of the issue."

They paused to consider that for a moment before Tommy continued.

"I'm not going to get o­n my soapbox here," he said. "I know you two, and it would be like preaching to the choir. Let's just say I've been shouted at before, and laughed at behind my back. I've learned to cope. It still shouldn't happen, and it kills me a little every time it does. I just want to be myself. Why is that so hard for people to understand? I should go."

"Where you going to go?" Graeme asked.

"I don't know." Tommy stood up and paced listlessly. "I'm sure I can find some place."

With that he had decided to depart. The two youngest brothers saw him off before returning to the day's decidedly un-festive, festivities. Later that night as most had retreated to the living room, Graeme was helping his mother clean the dishes.

"Where's your friend?" She asked absentmindedly. She was unaware of what had happened earlier and had been informed that Tommy was going to stay for dinner. She was surprised when he hadn't shown up.

"He had to go," Graeme said.

"Home?" She asked. "I told you, Tommy is always welcome here, dear."

"I know." Graeme sighed. "He just... He needed to be alone today."

"But it's Thanksgiving," she said. "It's a time for family, and..."

Graeme held up a hand, and dropped the easiest excuse he could think of on her. "He doesn't celebrate it, Mom. Remember? He's English. He had a charity gig at the Square Box tonight besides. He had to go anyway."

His mother eyed him. "That's a bad place you know."

"Yeah?" Graeme rolled his eyes. "Because people go out and drink? Or because they have a good time?"

"There's the drugs at that place. Don't think I don't know it." She voiced her worry.

"So, who cares?" He grumbled.

"I care," she replied, "because I care about you, and maybe Tommy's mother should care more about what he's doing too."

"What do you know about their relationship?" He muttered, suddenly feeling rather angry with her for sticking her nose in and talking about someone behind their back.

"Oh, Graeme," she said.

"She does know, and he makes good money doing it," Graeme replied, feeling irritable. "And she trusts him. He doesn't have to be home by eight o'clock."

Romey shut off the faucets. "You want me to trust you? How can I do that when you come home completely wasted at God o­nly knows what time o­n a school night, Graeme! I think you need to show more responsibility before you can be trusted."

"Mom!" Graeme finished loading the dish washer. "That was o­nce. One time!"

"And o­ne time leads to two times," she replied, "and before you know it, you're homeless and out of a job."

"But I wouldn't be like that!" He leaned up against the counter. "I'm a good guitar player. I'd get in a band, and live off my girlfriend."

She smiled at his odd sense of humor. It was o­ne of his most endearing qualities, and she could always tell when he was joking. It was what he did when things got too serious. Besides that, he was showing her his big sweet grin, and she found it impossible to stay angry with him when his smile was lighting up the entire room.

"You're still grounded," she said as she removed an entire pumpkin pie from the fridge. "I saved you some." She sat the tin next to him and handed him a fork.

"Mom." He sighed as he poked listlessly at the pastry. It was just another reminder of Gary. He always made sure to demolish an entire pie before Graeme could get to it just because he knew it was the boy's favorite. He knew that was why his mother had saved him o­ne.

"Why does Gary hate me?"

"He doesn't hate you," Romey said. She was a mother after all, and she always turned a blind eye to the truth when it came to that aspect of her son's relationship with each other.

"Right." Graeme snorted in disbelief. "I'm serious. I get the distinct feeling that Gary would like to go all 'Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat' o­n me and sell me into slavery."

"Don't say that," Romey gasped.

"But it's true." He insisted. "And I want to know why, and I want to know why nobody will tell me what the hell is wrong with everybody in this family. I know I was an accident, but I mean...It's fine when he takes it out o­n me, but he took it out o­n Tom today. I didn't want to tell you. That's why he left. Gary was really mean to him. It's my fault really, we were sitting on the couch like we always do. I didn't realize it was a problem. I wasn't thinking, and Tom wouldn't want me to tell you this, but it really hurt his feelings. I can handle Gary's shit, but Tom ca...doesn't deserve that!"

Romey was taken aback. "Why didn't you tell me! Graeme, I would have done something."

"You wouldn't have sent Gary away," Graeme muttered. "He's your kid. I get it. You have to love him.

"Graeme," She said, her tone serious. "I will not have a guest be insulted in this house. You should have told me. Your father and I will discuss this with your brother. I promise. I don't know where he learned to be like that."

"It was my fault," he said. "But whatever. Screw it. Geoff's new girlfriend gets to be all over him without being called a slut. I should be allowed to hug my best friend when he's feeling crappy."

"Yes," Romey agreed. "Watch your language please."

Graeme nodded at her and sighed. "He wouldn't have said anything if he didn't want to get under my skin though. Why is he like that? What did I do to him that was so bad? He's basically a stranger to me. Do you know how weird it is to have a stranger hate you for no reason?"

"Look." Romey placed an arm around her son and sat him down on a bar stool at the kitchen island. "I never wanted to tell you this," she said. "But at my age, I was an extremely high risk pregnancy, especial since I was completely unprepared for something like that. I'd already had five mostly adult children."

"You mean four, you cant possibly count Gary in the adult category," Graeme mumbled.

She reached across the table and brushed his long hair out of his eyes.

"Everybody advised against me going through with it," she whispered. "It was a very rough time. There was a lot of shouting, and your father and your brothers wanted me to save myself, because there was a very real chance that we both would have ended up dead. You obviously know what I decided to do, but you were very, very sick when you were born premature. That's why nobody took pictures or anything when you were a baby, they were all afraid that you would die and they didn't want anything to remind me if I pulled through at all."

"You almost died?" Graeme replied hollowly. "Because of me?"

"No," she said as a tear rolled down her face. "I lived because of you, and look at you. You grew up big and strong and healthy, and I'm so proud of you. I just want you to be safe and take care of yourself."

"But what about Gary?" Graeme asked. "Why does he care so much now? I haven't done anything to him. I don't even know him."

"I don't know, Graeme," she sighed. "Maybe he was just scared."

"Maybe he's just an asshole." Graeme shoved the pie back across the table. "If it's all right, I'd like to save that for when I've got more of an appetite."

She felt bad for him as he shuffled out of the kitchen. All her other sons had known what they wanted. They had all been average, yet they had known all along exactly what they wanted out of life, but Graeme was special. She knew he had talent, and she wished that he would see it and stop feeling so lost. She only wished that she could be the o­ne to show him the way.

****

Graeme trudged dejectedly into the midst of the gathering in the living room. He only wanted to join his family. All he ever wanted was to feel like he belonged there. As all the adults suddenly grew silent, and after what his mother had revealed, he knew that wasn't the case. He realized he wasn't a real person to them. He was just a topic of conversation.

"Well, if it isn't the Nancy boy come to join us," Gary commented and Graeme wanted to hide in his room and never come out again.

"Look, Gary." He forced the words out even though, after the way Tommy had been treated, he felt nothing but contempt for his older brother. "I'm sorry, ok? For the pain my conception seems to have caused to this family. Especially you."

"So she told you?" Gary stood up and faced the teenager. "I see."

"Yeah." Graeme confirmed, not pausing to note the silence that permeated the room. "But, I mean, everything's all right now, huh? Nobody died and everybody else seems to have forgiven me for being, so why can't you? You don't have to fucking chase my friends away."

All eyes were o­n him. It was his show all of a sudden and he wished with all his might that he could turn the brother that he hated and feared most into a wriggling mass of impotent rage as Tommy had done earlier. He couldn't though. There was o­nly enough self confidence left in him to stand there and apologize for something that wasn't even his fault.

"You're pathetic, boy," Gary spouted. "You may think it's easy to forget, but you didn't see what that woman went through, and for what? I don't know what she told you about it, but I'm sure the sugar coating tasted sweet, didn't it? The last thing a fifty-year old grandmother needed was another kid to raise, especially after you almost killed her. She never wanted You, Graeme. All these outside people filled her head with non-sense."

"It's not my fault," Graeme finally screamed at him. "How can you stand there and blame me? What have I done to you?"

Gary just looked condescendingly down upon him as if he were searching for the words that would hurt the most, and he was good at it. He'd been doing it for years.

"Did she tell you," he said. "That she made it all the way to the clinic before she turned back?"

Graeme stood there. He knew he should have been numb to Gary's words by that point, but he wasn't. It was a blow to find out that he had been moments away from not existing. Despite the fact that he couldn't remember the last time he had cried, he could feel his bottom lip start to tremble. It was a bad sign. He knew it wasn't going to be mere tears. It was going to be a maelstrom.

Look," Gary said. "I think the poor baby is going to cry."

He hated his brother in that moment and probably for the rest of his life. Gary took delight in tormenting the youngest everyone knew that, but there had always been a line, albeit a thin o­ne. It was apparent that it had just been crossed. The father commanded Gary to sit down. Graeme was struggling to keep control of himself in front of the group, but wasn't quite succeeding as choked sobs began to rack his entire body. The father crossed the living room carpet and slid his arm around his son's shoulder. Before he knew it, Graeme was led outside and spent a good half hour bawling o­n his father's shoulder and spewing out every curse word he knew aimed at an absent Gary. He usually would have gotten severely punished for using such language, but for that moment he was off the hook.

When he was done, he leaned back o­n the porch swing where they sat and stared out at the darkening Nevada sky.

"I don't know what his problem is," Michael Alexander admitted. "We've tried talking to him, but he won't explain. He won't listen, and what can we do? He's a grown man."

"That's debatable, Dad," Graeme croaked. He wanted to go to sleep and not discuss it either. His head was pounding. His nose was stuffed up and his hair was hanging limply, obscuring his red and puffy eyes.

"But what I don't think you understand is that your mother always wanted you. She was just reviewing her options. It was a hard time, a lot of hard decisions were made, and we wanted to spare you that. She never, ever really considered abortion. We're really lucky everything worked out the way it did. You're honestly a miracle, Graeme. You're mother and I love you."

Graeme wasn't used to hearing such language from his father so he didn't know how to respond. Michael had been such a non-entity in his life that he never spent time considering how the man felt about him. The o­nly thing he knew was that Michael wanted him desperately to join the family business. He said to save Graeme from himself, but Graeme didn't understand what that meant.

"I know you do," he finally replied. They sat in awkward silence. Graeme wasn't sure if he should stay or go, and he had an odd feeling his father had something else o­n his mind.

"I'm really tired," Graeme said, sneaking a glance over at the man.

"Graeme?" Michael looked at his son and inquired, "Are you and that boy..."

He left the words unsaid, but the question was asked just the same.

"That's nice, Dad," Graeme muttered as he stood up. "You know Gary is a liar, yet you believe that?" Graeme said, knowing full well that the notion would have never crossed the old man's mind had Gary not put it there.

"Would it matter to you if I was?" Graeme asked, and by not getting an answer an answer was had.

"I see," Graeme said as his father tried to protest the meaning of his silence.

He thought about what Tommy had said earlier about how there shouldn't be situations like the o­ne he was in at all, and he knew that his friend was right. For a moment Graeme felt a little resentment towards Tommy for bringing up his family issues just by showing up. It wasn't his fault though, Graeme knew, so he was quick absolve Tommy of any blame. He hadn't wanted anything but someone to go to when he was having a bad day, and Graeme was just glad that the person was him.

"Don't worry, Father," Graeme mumbled as he turned away. "I'm not gay."

*****

It was dimly lit at the Spiral Stairs. His eyes had grown accustom to the lighting though, and it matched perfectly the feelings that were dragging down his heart. It was getting harder and harder to pretend anything at all was okay. Even the safe haven of the Alexander's had been torn away from him. Things might have changed in London, but it couldn't possibly be worse than it was in Mesquite at that moment.

The bar stool beside him moved, jogging him out of his homesick thoughts. He could instantly tell by the posture of the man and the fact that he had chosen the adjacent stool rather than the many empty chairs and empty tables that peppered the entire club, that he was about to be chatted up.

It had been hours since the Shaina Spyder Band had played and her main corp of fans had long since vacated the area for greener pastures. The only ones left had been the sad and lonely that had nowhere else to go and nothing to do aside from sitting at a bar playing video poker.

Tommy felt like he fit right in.

The Stranger mustered up the courage to speak approximately two beers later.

"I saw you play earlier," he said. "You're pretty good."

"Thanks," Tommy muttered. He shifted nervously in his seat. It wasn't that flirting made him uncomfortable, it was only that a man had never done it at the Spiral Stairs. It didn't seem to attract the right kind of clientele for it.

Perhaps, he considered, the man was just being nice. He decided to test the waters.

"Really though, Shaina doesn't have any really difficult arrangements. I think I could play her songs in my sleep. You don't really seem like a Shaina Spyder Fan."

He laughed. "I'm not. I just had to get away from my family for a little while. I'm sure you know how that is."

Tommy nodded.

"Yeah, and this was the first place I saw that was open."

"Yeah? Cool. Cool," Tommy said. "Buy you a drink?"

He laughed again; a nervous laugh.

"You can't be old enough to drink," he said. "You don't look...err...as big as you do on stage."

"Yeah. Standing above people with a guitar does make you seem a bit larger than life," Tommy replied. He smiled, reached out, and lightly grasped the stranger's shoulder.

The man stiffened nervously under the touch. His smile faltered.

"How old are you?"

"Old enough," Tommy said. He ran his hand up and down the man's arm. "Why don't we get out of here?"

"I don't know your name," he murmured.

"You don't need to know my name," Tommy said.

He nodded.

"Alright!" Tommy jumped out of his seat. "Let's go then. You got a car?"

"Yeah."

Tommy marched away towards the exit then and the stranger followed along without any further prompting.

****

He didn't arrive home until nearly four o'clock in the morning. His father was waiting for him.

"Where the fuck have you been?" Steven asked.

"I've been out." Tommy grimaced. He felt like shit. He knew he'd made a mistake. He hadn't even made it to morning, so to speak, and he was filled with regret. On top of that, he was sore, wanted to take a shower and didn't want to have to deal with his father.

"Out where?" Steven growled.

"Where do you think I've been?" Tommy said, the challenge clear in his voice.

"I don't know," Steven said. "I don't know what you people do."

"You people?" Tommy arched an eyebrow. "Well first I went to Graeme's house and got called a fag by his brother, among other things, so I didn't stay there for too long. We people don't generally like that. So I went to work at the Stairs, had a gig with Shaina, got a bit pissed and let some guy screw me in the passenger seat of his car. It was a tight fit, and I don't mean the car seat."

"Go to your room," Steven growled. "You are not to come out until I've spoken to your mother."

"I'm not a child," Tommy calmly replied. "I can make my own decisions. I've been making them since you decided not to be a part of our lives, and I'm not going let you control my life just because you convinced my mother that she's better off with you. I've done fine without you for sixteen years. We both have in fact."

"You are under my roof, and you will do as I say," Steven roared. "You are to abide by the rules we have set for you and there isn't going to be a discussion about it. You're curfew is at two, Tom."

"No," Tommy stated. "I'm sorry I like music. I'm sorry I don't like the right kind of football. I'm sorry you don't approve. Oh, wait...no I'm not. Fuck you, DAD. I'm not going to lie for you because that's lying to myself. I love sex, okay? On the bed, up against a wall, going' down, comin' up, girls, boys, inside outside, hanging from the rafters. I'll try anything o­nce and I'm not going to stop now that I've started. I guess that does make me a slut then, huh?" He shrugged. "So you can take your rules and shove them up your arse. I promise it doesn't feel as bad as you might think."

"Room Now," Steven yelled and pointed the way up the stairs while fighting the urge to smack his teenage son.

Tommy shrugged again. "Okay, but if I"m gone in the morning. You can look for me o­n a street corner in Vegas."

*****

"You said what?" Graeme gasped at his friend as they sat under a tree during lunch time at school after the Thanksgiving holiday had run its course.

Tommy scowled and poked at his tuna salad. "I told him I was going to sell my body in Vegas."

"Why the hell would you want to do that?" Graeme shook his head.

"Uh, yeah." Tommy laughed. "I don't want to do that! I wouldn't. I'll keep what little self respect I have left intact; thank you very much. I mean, I can't believe I said that shit. I told him I was a nympho-slut in no uncertain terms, and I'm not. I don't even know what came over me. I'm certainly not going to win any favor by telling him how much I like to have sex hanging from the ceiling."

"Oh, really?" Graeme's eyed him. "Wouldn't that require some kind of...apparatus?"

Tommy giggled. "Come on. I'm not that adventurous. It was like I couldn't exaggerate big enough."

"You wanted to shock him, and I'm guessing you were a little mashed," Graeme said. "You're probably the least slutty person in school."

"I don't know about that, but I can count the number o­n o­ne hand." Tommy held up four fingers. "Two of each, aren't I all about equal opportunity? That bloke last night, though..." he shuddered. "The bloke. I don't even know his name. I told him we didn't need names. What the fuck kind of person goes out into the desert with a stranger without even asking his name?"

"What did he look like?" Graeme asked. "Was he old?"

"Old enough," Tommy admitted. "Honestly Graeme, he was at least twenty-one, but if I'd have to wager a guess he was probably in his mid twenties, nine or ten years older than me. Don't get me wrong, it's what I wanted. He didn't do anything I didn't ask him to. I mean, I chatted him up. I led him to believe I was older than I am. I thought it would make me feel better to reassert my sexuality through, well, sex. It didn't. It just made me feel like a whore, a two bit fuckin' whore. It was alright, but it was just sex. I'm pretty sure this poor sod had about as much experience with one night stands as I do. I mean we met at the Spiral Stairs. It's not some kind of gay mecca by any means, and I came on really strong."

"Man," Graeme said. "Your boyfriend is going to be pissed. Why didn't you go to his house? Doesn't he put out?"

"He..." Tommy trailed off. He had forgotten all about Mark and that, in two months time, Graeme still hadn't managed to figured it out. He sighed and hugged his knees to his chest. If Graeme wanted to stumble around in willful oblivion then that was fine with Tommy. He wasn't even going to defend his own honor. There was no honor in what he had done and he cringed whenever he thought of the drunken nonsense he had spewed at his father the night before. He didn't care whether or not Graeme thought he was a cheater because, even though he was beholden to no one, he still felt like one.

"Right." Graeme noted Tommy's sudden silence. "I thought four was a bit of a conservative estimate, but you don't want to talk about it?"

"How do you even know we've fooled around?" He murmured automatically.

"I didn't for sure, but I do know." Graeme laughed. "Come on, you guys have been dating forever in teenager years. Why didn't you tell me in the first place? Details, man. I'm your best friend."

"I didn't think you'd want them."

"Oh, I want them alright." Graeme nodded affirmation which caused Tommy to laugh.

"Great. Look Graeme. He's having a hard enough time with this as it is. Let's just keep our mouths shut and not discuss it anymore. You're really the only one who knows we dated, so let's keep it at that, shall we? Can't we talk about anything else?"

"Can we talk about 'That Guy'?" Graeme asked. "I mean, was he..." He cast his eyes downwards then back up at Tommy with a smirk.

"Oh, christ." Tommy giggled. "All the details, huh?"

Graeme nodded.

"I love you; you know that right?" Tommy grinned at him. "None of my other straight friends would ever..."

"I'm not everybody else, man." Graeme laughed.

"That's for sure," Tommy said.

The conversation stalled and Tommy took the moment to lie down on the grass. He rested his head on Graeme's thigh and Graeme unconsciously began to play with his blond locks.

"I can't believe you told your dad you were a slut," Graeme chuckled after a moment. "How long are you under house arrest for that outburst?"

"He's never going to let me go to California with Shaina this summer now," Tommy said. "I'll have to run away from home for real, because that's a fantastic opportunity."

"You can take me with you," Graeme sighed wistfully. "My family certainly doesn't want me around."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh." Graeme frowned, his mood becoming sober. "Nothing. Just..."

"Come on." Tommy nudged him. "All the details? It goes both ways, you know."

"Like you?"

"Hah, Hah. Come on." Tommy avoided Graeme's deflection tactic and locked his eyes on him.

"Nothing, just... My mom was like, two seconds from terminating her pregnancy of me because of complications. Whatever that means. I guess I could have killed her or something. I was sick when I was born. She was old. It was really hard for her. I'm just feeling a little unwanted right now."

"Hey," Tommy murmured. "I want you."

"You wish." Graeme laughed and tugged lightly on Tommy's hair.

"Oww!" Tommy laughed with him until it was once again silent.

"We're quite a pair, aren't we?" Tommy said after a while.

"Yeah," Graeme agreed. "But at least we've got each other."

    "Yep," Arwyn swallowed down the pills.  As it turned out, he did exist in the original time line, and he even worked for the force.  He worked in the archives.  Anne had worked out a transfer, and he had passed the Detective's test with flying colors much to everybody in the department's great surprise.

    She looked over to John and Bertram and they nodded as well. 

    With that affirmation they punched coordinates into their Time Travel Devices and disappeared to the 82nd century.

******

  Gerald Moxley heaved a sigh of relief the morning after he had restored the Knott's Berry Farm Restaurant.  He had woken up in his own bed, all of his equipment was back in place and as he opened his balcony doors he took in a deep breath of clean fresh air.  All was right with the world again.  He had proven his theory.  He made his way down the stairs and found the place disconcertingly empty.  His parents must have went on another diplomatic liaison.  There was a knock on the front door, which was odd he thought.  There was a key needed to access the lift to the penthouse.  He shrugged to himself and walked over to the peephole.

    "Who is it?" He asked as he spied four people standing there.

    "Police," John barked.

    Gerald swung the door wide open, confident in his lying abilities and that he wouldn't get caught, or if he did, that he would never get convicted.

    "Hello officers," he greeted them with a smirk.

    "No time for small talk," Anne growled at him.  "Gerald Moxley, you're under arrest for violation of Time travel code Article I section 42."

    "I have no idea what you're talking about." Gerald feigned innocence.

    "Save it, Moxley," Bertram replied.  "We have a witness."

    "What?"  Gerald was suddenly caught off guard.

    "I'm sure you remember Phillip Jones," Arwyn contributed.

    "Phillip Jones..." Gerald's eyes popped open wide.  "He's supposed to be in Chromia! or, or Earth at the least."

    "Funny," John replied.  "He's totally not.  Hands on the wall, mate."

    Gerald shook his head and backed away from them.  "No, no, no, he can't be.  He wouldn't..."

    "Rat you out?"  Anne asked.  "Why not?"
    
    Arwyn approached Gerald with his cuffs in hand.  "Gerald Moxley," he began.  "You have the right to remain silent..."

 
  ONE YEAR LATER:

    Bertram and John stood outside of the door to the modest apartment of Phillip Jones.  He answered the door with a sleepy expression that told them he had just been wakened from a deep slumber.  It took a moment for him to register who they were, and then he rolled his eyes at them with barely contained disgust.

    "Really?  What has it been?  A day since the last check?"  He pulled down the collar of the ratty old shirt he had been sleeping in and presented his shoulder implant for them to scan.

    "I swear I haven't been time traveling in the past few hours," he muttered.  "You can check."  He offered his shoulder to Bertram again who just told him to stop it.

    "Will you deactivate that thing already, John," he muttered at the other detective.

    John held out a device and pressed it to Phillip's shoulder. 

    "There," he said.  "Free to go."

    "Umm, why?"  Phillip frowned at them, completely perplexed.

    Bertram and John turned to grin at each other then let themselves in past Phillip and sat down at his kitchen table.  He joined them more confused than ever.

    "Well, it's been a long hard road," John told him.  "We confiscated the contents of Gerald Moxley's flat, but we didn't need all the evidence presented there.  We had your eyewitness testimony and enough of his notes for the conviction, not to mention that massive meltdown he had on the witness stand."

    Phillip couldn't help it when a small giggle escaped his lips. 

    "Yeah, so it's taken this log to decode all the crap on all his computers," Bertram said.  "And we finally came across the files he had for his chosen victims.  We think you'll find David Rodriguez's file of special interest."

    Bertram pulled out his trusty hand held and flicked it on.  He opened the file and paged through to the chemist's great success...a clean burning renewable fuel source.

    "What exactly did Gerald tell you about him?" John asked.

    "Just that," Phillip replied.  "He created our the fuel source that replaced gasoline and...that's it.  It changed the world and it's still being used today."

    "That's what I thought," John replied as he nodded at Bertram.

    "Did he tell you he had a partner?"  Bertram asked as he punched up another screen.  It was a newspaper article, and there was a picture.

    Phillip squinted at it disbelievingly.

    "That's not me, is it?"  He gasped.

    "It is," John replied.  "You're supposed to be in the twenty first century."

    "But..."

    "It happens," Bertram replied.  "Sometimes it's accidental, sometimes it's purposeful, but it happens.  I don't know why you would have gone there in the first place, before all this...maybe because of this, but the fact remains that this information was time locked by Gerald so the fissure wouldn't affect it. You know. It's one of those time things that makes no sense and can't be explained. It just is."

    "I was there whether he broke the time line or not," Phillip said.

    "So, you're free to go," John said.

    "Live your life in the 21st century," Bertram added.

    "What if I don't want to anymore?" Phillip replied.  "It's been a year."

    "Is that true?" Bertram arched his eyebrow skeptically.

    "Oh, god no!" Phillip finally let it sink in that he was going to see David again.  He jumped up from his chair and ran into his room.  He returned with his own TTD in hand.

    "You know that's illegal." John eyed him.  "How did you hide that temporal tech from us?"

    Phillip shrugged then grinned.  "Time locks are wonderful, versatile, things. So, you don't have any rules for me to follow?"

    "Don't be too brilliant," Bertram advised.  "But no.  Whatever you do there is what you're supposed to be doing."

  ****

      David was shocked when Phillip showed up on his doorstep one day with a smile and a suitcase, about one year after they had parted.

    "Wha...What are you doing here?" He stammered.  "You're going to get in trouble for violating the terms of your plea agreement. You have to go back. I don't want you to go to prison for me."

    "No," Phillip shook his head then smiled up at David.  "The deal is off.  They freed me."

    "But why?"  David asked, perplexed.

    Phillip stepped up to him and released his hold on the suitcase.  He wrapped his arms around David's neck and kissed him. David made no move to stop him.

  "To make a long story short," Phillip whispered once they parted. "It turns out that I belong here."

   Mimi appeared a few minutes later.  She had been sitting quietly at her table when a sudden feeling of dread that something terrible had happened to her twin.  She was supposed to sneak out and meet her boyfriend by the giant cock statue in front of the restaurant, but she was filled with an urgency to find her brother instead.  She instinctively headed in the direction of the back room and found him in a crumpled heap in the middle of the floor.  Completely alone.

    "David!"  She rushed to him.  She pulled him into her arms and rocked him back and forth as silent tears streamed down his face.  Her brother had always been stoic around her.  He was second in command at their house as the second biggest breadwinner next to Oscar.  He had remained stolidly silent even while enduring his father's shouting and his mother's crying when he had come out to them. She had never seen him so upset about anything.

    "What happened?"  She gasped as he eventually seemed to calm down long enough to answer.

    "It wasn't enough time," he said through a choked sob.

    She looked at him strangely then eyed a discarded Snoopy costume that lay in the corner. 

    "Aren't you a little old for that?"  She asked trying to brighten his mood.

    He only broke into tears again.

****
    
    Mimi never could tease out of him what had happened that day to upset him so, and it bothered her.  There was a change in him that only she seemed to notice.  Her father was happy that David had seemed to have given up on his idea of becoming a Landscaper to provide for the family, and instead threw himself head long into his schoolwork.  Where he had only been average he was suddenly excelling.  It wasn't easy for him at first but he eventually found his niche as he took on his advanced chemistry class.

    His parents were amazed.  Mimi was just surprised.  David was the smartest person she knew when he set his mind to learning something.  She had never suspected he would set his mind on chemistry.  He finished out the year and got a scholarship.  He was the first Rodriguez to go to ever go to college. 

    Mimi found him in his room one day, staring at a painting that had been given to him by a friend named Jason.  He often entertained friends since that day at Knott's Berry farm.  They weren't the usual working class kids that he had hung out with before.  Catherine had graduated the year before, she was studying ecology and was just becoming active in animal rights protests.  Jody was a 25 year old server at the Knott's Berry Farm Restaurant who stayed at home and took care of her ailing mother.  Occasionally she was accompanied by a man in his late twenties who wore glasses; her boyfriend.  Ned had once worked at the restaurant as well, but he had since quit and was concentrating on his skateboarding career.  He wanted to go pro he said, and he hit on MiMi with abandon.   She liked his new friends, and they were all nice people, but she had no idea where he had met them or when, and it wasn't like her not to know what her brother was up to.  He was her twin.  She thought they knew everything about each other, but there was something missing between them ever since that fateful day when she had found him  at brunch completely distraught and babbling nonsense about  not having enough time.

    She walked up to the painting that day and wondered what he saw in it.  It was  a strange surreal cityscape filled with hyper-realistic golden towers.  Four orange circles depicting suns were floating in the back ground.  Jason had given it to him one day, and it had almost caused another avalanche of tears.  Whenever he looked at it his eyes filled with a desperate sadness. 

    "What happened to you that day?" Mimi finally asked.  She was getting desperate herself with her brother becoming increasingly closed off and distant towards her.

    "I fell in love."  He said simply.  She didn't believe him at first, even though it explained a lot of his behavior.

    "Is that why you haven't..."

    "Hooked up with anybody lately?"  He completed her sentence.  "Yeah."

    "But...you didn't say anything," she said.  "I would've known if you were dating somebody!"

    "You wouldn't have known him," David said.

    "I thought you weren't hiding anymore," she replied.  "You know Mom and Dad said you could bring home anybody you want.  They're not going to judge you."

    He laughed bitterly at her.  "It's not that simple, Mimi.  I'd love to bring him home, but I met him at that brunch.  He doesn't live here."

    "How could that be possible?" She wondered.  "You were gone for less than ten minutes."

    "Or two weeks," he replied.  She frowned at him.

    "You're talking  nonsense again!"  She said.  "I don't know what's wrong with you David!  All these riddles.  You and I used to talk.  We used to know each other.  Now...now...there's like a part of you I can't feel anymore.  Tell me what happened!"

    She sat with him on his bed and clutched his hands in hers.

    "I can't," he said.  "I want to, but I can't.  It's against the rules."

    "What rules?"  She said, becoming increasingly agitated. 

    "I just can't.  He's gone."

    "Has he gone so far away that he can't even call you?"  She replied, brimming with indignation for her brother.

    He smiled ruefully and told her the truth.

    "He lives there." He pointed at the painting.

    She stared at it; then she stared at him.  Quickly becoming infuriated, she threw his hands away and stood up.

    "How dare  you fuck with me, David Guadalupe Rodriguez!  It isn't funny!"

    "It's not funny," he replied.  "I knew you wouldn't believe me.  That's why I can't tell you."

    "Why should I believe you?  You're telling me you're in love with invisible men who live in a painting!"  She scowled.  "You've fucking gone insane.  What did they put in those mimosas?"

    "Champagne and Boysenberry juice," he replied.  "Sit down, Mimi.  I'll tell you everything, and you can believe me or not, but hand to God, it's the honest truth."

    She sat down timidly, afraid of more of her brother's clearly insane lies.  She looked him in the eye and he spoke.

    "I've  been to the future," he said.

    "Someone activated our TTDs," he said happily.  "There may be hope after all!"

    "Hope?"  John muttered.  "I fail to see how that is going to do us any good, Bertram.  The TTDs can't track us here because...they're over there, back in time."

    "You underestimate my vast intellect," Bertram replied smugly and held up his hand held computer. 

    John rolled his eyes.  "The plan is to get to the city, cobble together a TTD from whatever tech these backwater heathens have on hand.  You and Phillip will write the temporal algorithms used to power it and..."

    "Forget that," Bertram shook his adamantly.  "I..."

    "I don't care if you don't want to work with future boy!"  John scowled.  "You need to swallow your pride and work with him..."

    "Shut-up already," Bertram snapped.  "Look, I tied the signal from this computer to my Time Travel Device.  It wouldn't have worked because it was off, but now someone turned it on..."

    "They can track it?"

    Bertram nodded with a grin.  Relief momentarily spread across John's face, but was quickly replaced by a hard glare of cynicism.

    "I just hope whoever is on the other side of that signal is on our side," he said.
    

****

    Arwyn and Anne had reactivated the time field in order to study the TTDs that had been left behind.  They wondered if there might not be a clue as to what happened to their owners inside.  The two barely noticed the world around them revert to normal.  The chaos that had surrounded the Knotts Berry Farm restaurant no longer existed.  It stood there in its rightful place, with a massive line of old ladies and tourists in front waiting to put their name on the list to be seated for brunch.

    It was Arwyn who looked up first.  He nudged Anne and she joined him to look up at the missing chunk of building that was there as if it had never left.

    "They're back!  She said happily.  She deactivated the time field and led Arwyn into the building.  They passed Mary at the hostess kiosk, taking down names.  They passed Catherine's parents, just returned from the restroom.  They wondered why their daughter insisted on staying home to study.  They passed The Rodriguez family, who were trying to wrangle their rambunctious middle child, Jose.  They thought David was at his landscaping job.  They passed a loudly complaining dark haired woman, who was screaming about her husband missing out on brunch to play golf with her cousins, and they passed a group of servers who were muttering to themselves about the extra workload they had to take on because Jody, Jason and Ned had not bothered showing up for work.

   They had no recollection of anything that had happened.  Time had reverted back to the second the building had been stolen, but when Arwyn and Anne reached their intended destination they found that the room was empty.

    "Shit." Anne said.

    "I know this is John's fault somehow," she muttered.

    "Come on," Arwyn said.  "Let's not blame the victims, alright?  He may have done something ill advised, but we all make mistakes."

    "Some more than others," she replied. 

    "You're upset; I understand," Arwyn replied.  "I would be too if I woke up after ten...eight months and everything I knew had changed completely.  He's not your partner anymore, so whatever he's done it's not a reflection on you.  And don't take it out on him because you're worried about him."

    "Of course I'm worried about him," She replied.  "He's...a rookie, out there in time with a failed field agent."

    "It'll work out," Arwyn said.  "Let's go get an ice cream and do a little more research on what happened here, okay?"

     "Now's not the time for ice cream," Anne replied with a weary sigh.

    "There's always time for ice cream," Arwyn said.  He offered his arm as she looked skeptically up at him.  Then she accepted his offer and they walked back into the newly restored Knott's Berry Farm Restaurant.

****

    The Rebel City was more impressive then John had thought it would be.  He took a moment away from nagging Bertram to revel in the sight of actual technology.  The metal buildings were low to the ground, but, aside from the gasoline powered vehicles zipping about, it seemed to be a reasonably advanced society.  Truth be told John had half been expecting an encampment of hutches made out of sticks with thatched roofs and chickens running about the dirt roads, or, best case scenario, a medieval town surrounded by a tall stone wall and a moat.  As it were, despite the lack of temporal technologies, the city was livable. 

    The group was assembled and brought before the rebel council.  Though it was not so much an interrogation as it had been with the Royal Chromian general.  They were invited to sit at the round table and discuss their fateful predicament.  In the end they were offered free room and board at the nearest hotel and access to whatever technologies and means they needed to achieve their goal. 

    "Our scientists have been working so hard on mastering this time travel," the head of the council, a woman no older than Catherine said.  "They have not been able to come close.  We have lost some good people in our experiments."

    "Get them stuck in walls and stuff?" John asked smugly.

    The councilwoman blanched at his flippant description of the horrors their attempts at time travel had wreaked on the scientific team that had been gathered to unlock the secrets of time and space.  Having someone rematerialize in the middle of a wall, or some other object was the least of the horrors.

    "What makes you think you will be any more successful," she asked.

    "This," John pulled the broken TTD out of his pocket and waved it in the air.

    "This is a time travel device!"

    The occupants of the table Oooed and Ahhhed, until one older man coughed and informed them that it looked too small to be of any use at all.

    "That's the problem," Bertram spoke up enthusiastically.  "This one is even more advanced than the ones ... err ... that were stolen from John and I!  The nanotech is too small and too advanced for me to fix.  I do know how to build a more rudimentary model as it were, and..."  he sighed and begrudgingly held a hand out to acknowledge Phillip.  "Phillip here...he's an absolutely brilliant coder and expert in temporal mathematics.  He can fill in the software side of things."

    The council eyed Phillip curiously.  He looked right back at them as calm as can be.

    "Him?"  One the older man finally said with barely concealed contempt.  "What is he?  Twelve?"

    The rest of the group tittered at his comment.  Underneath the table David gave Phillip a reassuring pat on the knee.  He glanced at David with a slight smile.  Though he didn't particularly need the reassurance, it was still appreciated. 

    "May I have the computer, Detective Powers."  Phillip held out his hand as he stood up being careful to keep his eyes firmly trained on the members of the council who sat across the table.  Bertram obligingly held out the device, and Phillip punched up the holographic screen.  The council stared at it in amazement.

    "I'm from the 82nd century," Phillip said. "There's only two things I know how to do well, and the other one is Maths." He stole a glance back at David and smirked.   David's blush could be seen through his dark complexion and Phillip quickly turned back towards the council.  "With a concentration on Temporal Mathematics and theory of course."

    He punched up another screen and began an overly complicated explanation of the time map and the theories of time travel.  Every time a scientist deigned to stump him with one of their questions he had an answer.  He kept at it until he had silenced the doubters.  Then he sat down to the very approving looks of his companions.  Even Bertram had to smile at the amazed look on the council's faces.

    "And there you have it," John said.  "I trust that you believe us now?"

    One of the scientist council members addressed the detective hopefully.   "You will share with us the secrets of time travel?"

    John shook his head.  "I'm afraid I can't do that.  We're detectives and we've pledged to uphold the laws of the galaxies, and well... We can't give you the technology.  You have to discover it on your own, through your own means or it could be disaster for the time line.  It's already been damaged enough by our mere presence on this planet.  There's been a fissure in time...the past has changed.  We just can't... I hope you understand."

    Several of the council had taken on angry scowls upon hearing this, but the woman in charge hushed their whispering and stood up to address them.

    "If we want to join in the temporal community," she said, "Then we must respect the time line and those who protect it!"  She nodded towards the detectives.  "I pray you all understand this."

    The others begrudgingly nodded in her direction.

    "Now, tomorrow is a new day," she said.  "A day filled with many exciting prospects.  Our guests are surely weary from their travels and we shall welcome them to our city.  Please," She addressed the detectives.  "Make yourselves at home."

    "Thank you," John bowed in respect and Bertram stood and followed suit. 

***

    "You were amazing," David happily chattered at Phillip later on that night.  They had tried to go out on the town and experience what life was like in the rebel city, but word had traveled fast and they had been accosted at every angle by curious onlookers and some who weren't satisfied just looking.  They wanted to know everything about 21st century Earth and everything about 82nd century Golden Utopia.    They had only been out for an hour before retiring to their hotel room and ordering room service.  True to his word Bertram had left them to their own devices for the night.

    "Hardly," Phillip replied, suddenly feeling shy.

    "No, you really know your stuff," David said.  "Like I said...intimidating.  I didn't even begin to understand the stuff you were talking about in there."

    "It's easy," Phillip replied.  "I can explain...whatever you like.  Just ask."  He sat down on the bed and pulled the computer out of his pocket.  They had been able to finally shower and had been provided with new, nondescript clothing.  Phillip looked strange in a t-shirt and draw string pants.  It was a far cry from the proper waistcoat he had been wearing when he first appeared. 

    He pulled up the holographic map of time, which suddenly looked more impressive to David than when John had shown it to him.  He sat on the side of the bed opposite and gazed at the swirling mass.

    "That is time?"

    "Yep," Phillip said.  "Always expanding out.  See,"  He pointed at a bulbous outcropping.  "This is what the fissure has caused.  Sort of like a mutant time line.  Parallel worlds that aren't supposed to exist."

    "As opposed to the parallel words that are supposed to exist?"  David laughed.

    Phillip didn't.  "Exactly," he said instead, becoming serious.  "It's hypothesized that time began at one fixed point.  As with any sphere there is an infinite amount of tangents, which represent each possible outcome of every event beginning from the very first point and expanding outwards.  new worlds are created every day.  People slip in and out of time every day naturally.  Sometimes the time lines are so closely related that you don't even realize that you've slipped into a parallel world or the future.  These slips are harmless."

    "Are you serious?"  David frowned, trying to wrap his mind around it.

    "Yeah." Phillip shrugged.  "Why not?  Ever hear of Déjà vu ?"

    "So let me get this straight..." David pondered.  "I don't just feel like this thing has happened before; I accidentally slipped into my own future and saw it with my own eyes?"

    "Yep.  These events barely last more than a nanosecond at a time.  You wouldn't even notice it until it happens again and you remember it."
    
    "This is brain numbing," David admitted.  "I don't think I'm supposed to know about that; am I?"

    Phillip shook his head.  "It won't really matter.  You can't do anything to stop it.  It's a fact of life."

    "Okay." David changed the subject.  "So, you have a time map here...where are we now?"

    Phillp pulled up a different map then, pointed to an area and zoomed in on it.  "This is Chromia.  There are time signatures going in, but none coming out."

    "Because of the death thing?" David wondered.

    "Yeah."

    "And where's Earth?

    Phillip scrolled through the known galaxies stored in Bertram's computer and came upon the Milky Way.  He pointed to Earth, which twirled slowly around a hologram of the sun.

    "Hot sun," David pointed out with a smile.  Phillip laughed with him but then David frowned.  "I miss it.  The Earth.  It's a nice place."

    Phillip nodded.  He left David be alone with his thoughts for a moment.  He knew what it was like to be homesick.

    "Where are you from?" David broke in to Phillip's thoughts about Golden Utopia.

    Phillip scrolled to a different galaxy and pulled up his planet on the map.

    "Four suns," David murmured. 

    "Four suns," Phillip echoed him and reached his hand out towards the image of his home planet just as David did so.  Their fingers touched.  They hesitated for a moment before entwining them.  Phillip leaned across the bed into the hologram and David did the same.  They met in the middle, lips a gentle brush against one another. 

    Then David giggled. 

    Phillip pulled away and frowned in dismay.  "Well, you don't have to laugh at me," he said.

    "It's not that!" David brushed the back of his hand against his lips, causing Phillip's frown to deepen.  "I like the way you kiss, it's just that holograph thingie. It tickles when I put my head in it."

    "Oh!" Phillip laughed as well as the realization dawned on him.  He had spent enough time when he had been in college in virtual reality simulators that he was used to the feeling of a hologram on his body.

    "It was kinda hot though," David admitted.

    "Be that as it may," Phillip hastily turned the computer off with a large grin adorning his face.  "Shall we?"  He waved his hand over the bed.

    "Oh, we shall," David grinned in return.  And then he pounced.

****

    "Just wait it out," Bertram muttered at John.  He sat in the lobby next to his partner enjoying a drink and watching the rest of the group playing around at the bar.

    "Wait it out?  What the hell kind of distress signal is this?"  John complained.

    "It takes time," Bertram replied.  "Were at the edge of the known galaxies on the fucking edge of time, John.  The signal can only travel as fast as it can go."

    "Okay," John conceded.  "So can you track it at least?  Maybe make a guess as to how long we're going to be stuck here? Because, I mean, like, if it's twenty years we could probably start working on that other plan."

    "We were going to anyway," Bertram pointed out.

    John just glared at him and Bertram reached for his computer.

    It wasn't in his pocket.

    "What the fuck?"  He muttered.

    John clapped his hand to his forehead.  "You gave it to future boy at the council meeting, remember?"

    "Oh, god," Bertram said...then laughed.

    "What's so funny?" John scowled.

    "Yeah," Bertram replied.  "You're going to have to wait on your estimates, buddy, because I am so not barging in on whatever the hell they're getting up to."

    John groaned and stood up.

    "Drink?"

    "Yeah?"  Bertram eyed him curiously.

    "Sure." John shrugged.  "We've got time, right?  Besides, we're on the verge of going home...as the only time travelers to ever escape Chromia alive!  Cause for a little celebration, wouldn't you say?"

    "Absolutely!"  Bertram replied. 

  ****

   Catherine had consumed enough alcohol to acquire enough courage to ask Jason out.  They had been laughing at one of Ned's stupid jokes when she blurted it out.

    "Would you like to got get some coffee?" She asked he in a rather loud voice that garnered the attentions of several passing Rebels.

    "Do they umm...Do they even have coffee here?"  He replied in an amused voice.

    Catherine blushed at Jason, but he smiled and gently caressed her shoulder. Ned and Jody made loud "Awwing" noises at them while Jerry watched on, proud of his girl even though she had needed a bucket full of liquid courage to spur her on.
   
    "I mean...I mean when we get back," she stammered, fully embarrassed.

    He paused to consider her words and shrugged.  "Of course.  I would love to get some coffee."  He smiled at her as she let out a sigh of relief.

****

    Back in the twenty first Century a shrill alarm whistle startled Arwyn Anderson and Detective Anne Steele out of a heated debate over the merits of chocolate vs. strawberry ice cream.   Anne quickly pulled out the screaming Time Travel Device and then grinned at it and stood up from the table so fast that she nearly knocked her chair over. 

    "Oh, my god," she gasped. 

    "What is it?"  Arwyn stood up and joined her.

    "Bertram Powers is a fucking genius," she said and pointed out the distress signal.  "He linked his TTD to his personal computer.  Which is strictly forbidden, but bless his hacking heart."

    "What does that mean?"  Arwyn asked.

    "It means," Anne said with a smile curving her lips upwards.  "We're going to Chromia."

    Arwyn blanched.

    "That's...forbidden, Anne."

    "Forbidden as it may be, that's where they are," Anne replied.  "Don't worry Arwyn.  We'll jump in...grab them and jump out."

    "What if they're already dead?"  He asked.

    "Don't say that." She frowned.  It was a conclusion that she didn't even want to think about.  She linked arms with him as soon as he'd finished swallowing down his pills with a scoop of strawberry ice cream. 

    "Ready, partner?"  She asked.

    "Ready," he said.

   ***

    Phillip was startled awake by a loud noise.  He lifted his head from David's chest and came face to face with a woman pointing a gun at him.  He shook David out of his own slumber.  He woke with a start and felt his heart jump directly into his throat as soon as he saw the gun.

    "Wah...what's going on, Phillip?" He stumbled over his words and pulled the sheet that covered them up to cover his bare chest.

    "Modest now?"  Phillip smirked back at him.  David narrowed his gaze disapprovingly and nodded towards the woman with the gun.

    "Shut-up!" She snapped at them.  There was another man standing behind her timidly.  He held his firearm down, pointed at the floor.

   "Where is Bertram Powers?" She demanded as she held up the computer.

    "I'd imagine," Phillip replied.  "That he's down in the lobby."

    Anne lowered her gun slightly.  "Why do you have this computer?  Is he under arrest for violation of the Holochrome treaty?  Because we are here as..."

    "Uh...he's not," David spoke up.

    "Let me handle this," Phillip whispered at him and David was more than happy to oblige.

    "The Detectives are downstairs," Phillip said.  "Bertram let me borrow his computer."

    "Bertram doesn't let anybody borrow his computer," Anne replied suspiciously.  "How do I know you're telling the truth."

    "Lady," Phillip snorted indignantly at her.  "I'm sitting here naked and you have a gun on me.  I'm not that good of a liar."

    "Get dressed," she said.  "You're coming with us."

    Phillip shrugged.  "Fine with us. Right, David?"

    David nodded.  He followed Phillip's lead and together they traveled to the lobby with the Detectives and their guns following them.

    "We found a couple of your friends," David said as soon as he caught sight of Bertram Powers and John Arker.

    Bertram burst out laughing.  He was drunk, but he still knew what had happened.  The signal had worked, and the Detectives had tracked it directly to his computer, which had still been in Phillip's possession.

    "Yes, very funny," Phillip muttered.

    John stared up from his drink at Anne Steele.  He hadn't seen her in eight months, and it was a shock.

    "Anne?"  He stood up and approached her.  He reached out to her and ran his hand along her arm as if he wasn't sure she was really there.

    "Stop it John."  She yanked her arm away from him and scowled.  "You are still as stupid as ever.  Going in without backup again, weren't you?  You never learn.  It doesn't make you less of a man to ask for help.  I told you!"

    "Anne!"  He repeated her name and then pulled her into a huge bear hug.  "It is you."  He whispered in her ear.  "God, it's good to have you back."  He broke away from her and then asked how she had gotten out of Alrice Van die Welt's time loop.

    "You ripped a hole in the fabric of space and time, you big idiot," she said fondly.  Then she introduced him to Arwyn.

    "So." She turned and looked around the room.  "Are you guys ready to go back home?" 

    There was a cheer from the crowd, then Jody raised her hand.

    "She wants you to call on her," Bertram whispered at Anne.

    Anne regarded him curiously then pointed to Jody and urged her to continue.

    "Me and Cath have something we need to do," she said.  "Can we have, like...an hour?"

    Bertram nodded and shooed the two girls away before Anne could put her foot down.

    "He's the good cop." John pointed at him with a fond smirk.

****

    The girls found Dale at the barn on the military outpost on the outskirts of the city.  He was mucking out the stalls while Maribelle sat perched on a nearby hay bale cooing softly to herself.  Jody hobbled over to the Quickling and patted her on the furry head.

    "We have to go home," Catherine spoke to Dale.  He stopped shoveling forkfuls of bedding around and stared at her.

    "But we were going to go out tomorrow.  I was going to show you around town!"

    "I know!" Catherine replied mournfully.  "I didn't think we would have to leave so soon, but apparently those detective guys actually did something right for once!  We can't stay.  Laws of time and all that."

    Jody left the Quickling's side and approached Catherine and Dale.  Both girls took hold of one his hands, and he blushed to the roots of his hair.  He felt a slight surge of satisfaction at the thought of how the magnificent Dor, Knight of the Chromian Rebellion, would react to his squire getting such attention from the girls.

    "I wish you didn't have to leave," Dale said sadly, shoving aside that satisfaction.  He had been looking forward to spending time and learning more about the time travelers.

    "Well, when you invent time travel," Catherine said, "You come and visit us, okay?"

    "21st Century Earth," Jody contributed.  "Los Angeles, California, USA"

    Dale smiled at their good intentions even though he had a feeling that time travel wouldn't be invented in Chromia until well after his death and theirs. 

    "I will," he said instead.

    "And take care of Maribelle," Jody pointed at the Quickling. 

    "Make sure she doesn't get into trouble," Catherine contributed.  "And give her lots of fresh french fries, okay?"
    
    Dale nodded with a smile, as the girls reluctantly let go of his hands and stepped backwards.

    "Keep yourself well," he said with a parting wave.

***

    They returned to the group then.  It was time to go home.  The lobby of thier hotel was as good a place as any to start the process.  Jason and Ned held on to John as he programmed his Time Travel Device for Earth.  They winked out of existence and left the others blinking in their wake.

    "That's so wierd," Catherine spoke up.  "It's like, I know they were here, but it doesn't feel like they were here."

    "Yep," Bertram said.  "That's how it works.  Who's next?"  Jody raised her hand, and Catherine followed suit.  "Okay, girls," he said.  Jody grabbed his hand and Catherine held on to hers.  Then they were gone.

    "Okay," Anne said, taking over as the senior officer.  "Jerry and David with Arwyn. I'll drop you off with the proper authorities in your own time, Phillip."

    "No." David said stubbornly and held fast to Phillip's hand.

    Anne rolled her eyes at them.  "Fine.  You can say goodbye when we get to Earth."

    She stalked up to them, grabbed Phillip's arm and activated her TTD.

    "Just you and me," Jerry said to Arwyn.  He watched as the young detective swallowed a handful of pills.

    "You know," he said.  "I might not be a detective when the fissure is repaired."

    "Really?"  Jerry asked.

    "I might not even exist at all," he murmured. 

    "Are you going to kidnap me?"  Jerry eyed him curiously.

    "Nah," Arwyn replied.  "I'm just thinking aloud.  I'm a detective now, so I must uphold the law."  He placed a gentle hand on Jerry's shoulder, and once again the Chromian galaxy was free of time traveling interlopers.

****

    Jerry had said his good byes quickly, as he strode purposefully back into the dining room of the Knott's Berry farm restaurant.  It had been mere minutes since Mary had accosted him and enticed him into the back room with the prospect of meeting Snoopy.  To the innocent bystander who had not been flung across time, it appeared that he had turned straight back almost as soon as he'd left the room without more than a few minutes passing.

    Esther was still there loudly complaining about the air conditioning blowing on her.

    "Esther, I need to talk to you," he said firmly and concisely.  "In private."

    She glared at him.  Before he'd gone on his adventure he never would have stood up to that glare.  He would have been cowed into submission.  He wasn't going to do that anymore.  There had been one thing he had learned on his trip and that was something that Esther had never seen in him.  He had been taken for a reason.  He was worth something.

    "Anything you have to say to me, you can say in front of everybody." She gestured towards the entire table.  They stared at him; every one with an identical expression of contempt.

    "Okay."  He stood up a little straighter and looked her in the eye.  She glared back at him. He would have never dared address her in such a manner before.

    "Esther," he began.  "I met you during a part of my life where I was feeling lonely.  I was at a weak point, and you took advantage of that."

    "Jerry." She scowled a warning at him, but he ignored her and continued his speech.

    "One day, Esther, whether you believe me or not, I'm going to do something great.  I'm going to do something so amazing that it's going to affect the whole of human history, beyond even the boundaries of space that we know today.  I don't know what, but it's going to happen."

    "Yeah, right!!"  Esther snorted at him, and the whole table followed her in an uproarious hail of laughter.  Jerry just smiled placidly and waited for them to finish.

    "That's the thing, Esther,"  he said when it had quieted down.  "I didn't want to do this in front of the kids, that's why I wanted to do this in private," he said sadly.  "But I'm not going to achieve anything with you by my side.  I'm sorry.  I want a divorce."

    And Esther Baum was rendered speechless for the first time in her life.  The angry color drained from her cheeks.  Before she could gather herself and explode with rage, Jerry called his children over to him and held out his hands.  They timidly took hold and looked up at him.  He was going to have to talk to them then; sit them down and tell them what had just happened in words they could understand.  It broke his heart, but he knew it was for the best.  As he led them away, Esther Baum burst into tears.

****

  Catherine timidly approached Jason.  He broke away from Ned and walked over to her.  She was almost too frightened to speak to him and was contemplating just running away.

    "Hey," he addressed her.  "How you doin'?"

    "I'm okay," she said.  Then she gathered up her courage.  "Look, about earlier..."

    "The coffee thing?"  he asked.

    She nodded.  "I meant it, you know."

    "I know," he replied.

    "Did you mean it?" She asked.

    "Why wouldn't I mean it?"  He scrunched his face up into a curious expression.

    "Oh, I don't know," she replied.  "Because we were on a planet where the male to female ratio was like ten to one, and Jody was already set on Bertram."

    He laughed and shook his head negatively.  "I said yes because I like you."  He replied.  "I want to keep in touch.  We should get to know one another better."

    Catherine smiled then, temporarily reassured that his interest in her had not been temporary.  They exchanged phone numbers and an awkward first time hug.  Catherine practically skipped back to the dining room where her mother and step father awaited. 

    "What are you so happy about?"  Her mother asked in an amused fashion.  It was a temporary stop in the fighting Catherine noted.

    "I have a date," she said with a grin.

****

    Ned and Jason trudged back to work.  After all they had been through they had gotten back the second after they had left.  Six days spent on Chromia, translated into twelve days Earth time, and they still had to finish their shift at the restaurant.

    "This is shit," Ned mumbled.  Not only was he sober, but Bertram had taken he and Jason and Jody aside and explained to them that they had only been innocent bystanders.  Their being displaced from the time line had very little to no effect on the grand scheme of things.  It had only caused a few minor, inconsequential ripples.

    They were accosted by another co-worker who asked them if they wanted to sneak outside for a smoke.  He made the ubiquitous hand motion for a joint and arched his eyebrows suggestively.  Jason declined as he always did, but Ned's reaction was unexpected.

    "No thanks," he said. 

    The co-worker looked stunned.

    "I've had enough of that," Ned replied.

    "Really?" Jason glanced over at him in astonishment.

    "Really," Ned muttered.  "Jason, I don't want to be a nobody."

    Jason patted his friend on the back.  It was good to see him take an interest in his own life for once.

****

    Jody hadn't wanted to leave.  She didn't want to say goodbye to Bertram.  She hung back and waited patiently as Bertram, John, Anne and Arwyn had a discussion quietly in the corner.  Finally he approached her.

    "You know I have to go back."  He said.

    "I know," she replied sadly.  They had never gotten a chance, and that was disappointing. 

    "So..."  He ventured.  "Would you like to go out some time?"

    Her head snapped up in shock.

    "What?"  She said rather loudly.

    "Well, if you don't mind having a boyfriend from the future," he said with a grin.

    "But I thought..."

    "There are advantages to having a minimal impact on the time line," he replied. 

    "Seriously?"  She couldn't believe her good luck. 

    "Yeah.  I mean, it's frowned upon, but inter-temporal relationships are allowed in special cases," he said.  "John and Anne are pretty sure I can get a weekend pass and holidays and a few weeks vaction.  It'll be difficult, but we can at least try.  I'll even get you a TCA so we can talk on the phone."

    Jody squealed then and practically jumped into his arms.

    "May I kiss you?"  He asked politely once she had settled down.

    "Of course you can, silly," she replied.  "I've been waiting for you to do it for almost two damn weeks now."

    He smiled at her then, tilted her head up, leaned forward and did just that.

****

    "It's not fair." David eyed Bertram and Jody.  "Why couldn't we have that?"

    "You're too important to the time line." Phillip shook his head sadly.  "If you were to jump through time...if I were to come here at all...it'd fuck things up.  You already know too much.  Besides, it's a condition of my deal..."

    "What deal?"  David eyed him.

    "I get six months community service and never travel through time again in exchange for my testimony against Gerald Moxley."

    "Some deal." David pouted and crossed his arms.

    "It is a hell of a deal," Phillip replied.  "I'd be looking at life in prison otherwise."

    "Oh, god!"  David pulled him into a hug.  "I'm never going to see you again!"

    "Probably not," Phillip replied.  He lay his head on David's shoulder.

    "It's not fair," David repeated.

    "Life's not fair," Phillip said.  "I did a bad, bad thing, David.  I don't deserve fair."

    David pulled him away in order to look him in the eye.  They both wore identical expressions of devastation.

    "This can't be happening," David muttered.  He pressed his forehead against Phillip's and they stood as close to each other as possible.

    "Just...before you go," he continued.  "Can you do me a favor too?"

    "Yeah," Phillip murmured without thinking twice.

    "Quit that job," he said.  "If you find no pleasure in it do what you love."

    Phillip was on the verge of protesting, but he sighed instead.

    "You're right," he admitted.  "But I barely have anything in the bank, Moxley was supposed to..."

    "Excuses," David replied, cutting him off before he could embark on a tangent about his former lover.  "Work hard.  Get a job where you can use your...um, math skill.  It may not be as easy, but you're too smart to throw it all away."

    "Okay," Phillip acquiesced. 

    David kissed him then.  Softly and sweetly.  It was a lingering kiss, and it meant goodbye.  Forever.  They stood with their heads together for a moment longer until Bertram gently tapped Phillip on the shoulder.

    "It's time," he said softly. 

    Phillip nodded and reluctantly stepped away from David.

    Then he was gone.

    The raiding party had left their camp in a shambles after all.  The "General Hard Ass" had been captured and the troops were left to fend for themselves without a strong leader.  The rebels were lucky.  All their raids had not proven to be such a success.  They had lost people to the cause along the way.  It was going to be a long fight.  The queen had many resources at her side. 

They spent the day traveling along the canyon to the point at which the path of descent began.  They decided to stop there for the night, and Jody was thankful.  She was more than little bit frightened at the prospect of traveling down into the depths that she had almost fallen into.  Thankfully they hadn't made her ride the horny horse again.  Dale had commandeered her to one of the prison coaches where she rode up font in the passengers seat next to him.

    She made a show of leaning against the squire and his scratchy woolen uniform, talking in his ear and rubbing his arm suggestively.  She had shared a moment with Bertram the night before, that much was true, but she was still a bit irritated with him for making her spend the night with Catherine.  She liked Catherine; she wasn't going to deny that.  Aside from the General she was the only girl there, but Catherine had started in on the events of the day as soon as Jody had hobbled into their tent.  She talked about how scared she had been when Jody had taken off and they discovered she had fallen over the edge of the cliff, and she talked about how brave Phillip and David were.  And she talked about that damned kiss with a disappointed half smile on her face, and asked Jody how she got all the boys to like her.

    Jody hadn't wanted to talk about any of it.  She wanted to curl up on her cot under the woolen blankets and sleep the stress and horror of the day away.  Catherine just wouldn't leave her alone though.  So she was angry with Bertram for ditching her when she could have spent what she envisioned as a much more pleasant evening with him, and she was intent on making him jealous as she was well aware that he was keeping his eye on her as he rode alongside John and Phillip directly behind the cart.

    As Bertram was preoccupied with matters of the heart it fell to John to keep an eye on Phillip, who was riding in between them and distractedly tying to look backwards at David.  David, who was content to ignore him and chat with Jerry about anything except for Phillip.  Jerry was more than happy to oblige.  He talked about his contracting business and David told him about his landscaping dream, which had hardly been a dream only a few days previously, but only the germ of an idea to expand his job into something a little more lucrative to help contribute to the family.

    "When we get back..." Jerry ventured.  "I could hire you!"

    "I thought you lived back East?" David replied.  He laughed at Jerry, who seemed to have forgotten that he had his vacation stolen out from under him.

    "Right," Jerry said thoughtfully.  "Going anywhere with the Mother Thing is never like a vacation.  It's easy for me to forget sometimes."

    "The Mother Thing?"  David asked with an amused expression on his face. 

    "Yeah," Jerry chuckled to himself.  "There was this character in this sci-fi novel..."  he trailed off and looked at the blue sun.  "And now I'M in a sci-fi novel!  In any case, that's my wife Esther.  She's a horrible beast pretty much.  I've been asking myself for years why I'm still with the woman, but...I guess it's the kids.  I don't want to leave them with her should we divorce."  He was sad then.  He had barely thought of them in the excitement of the abduction through time and their capture at the hands of an army and subsequent rescue.  He did love his children, and despite Esther's shrillness, he knew they were in good hands. He just didn't want her to turn them against him should they part...on inevitably bad terms.

    "That's too bad," David replied.

    "Yeah,"  Jerry agreed.  "Only goes to prove that you should wait until you find the right person.  You know, instead of marrying the first gigantic loud mouthed woman that lands on your doorstep."

    David chuckled.  "She just showed up on your doorstep, huh?"

    "Pretty much," Jerry replied. 

    "At least you have somebody," David replied.  He looked down at his hands holding the reins of the horny horse.  "I'm too busy worrying about supporting the family...and my sister.  Always with the wrong crowd that one.  I don't know what I'm going to do with her."

    "I think you do have somebody," Jerry said knowingly and nodded towards the line where Phillip was none too subtly twisting around in his saddle trying to catch David's eye.

    "Him?"  David scoffed indignantly.  "Please."

    "Well, I'm no expert in relationships," Jerry said with a chuckle.  "I mean look at mine, it's pretty much in shambles.  There is one thing I do know, so think about it carefully."

    David frowned wondering what on earth Jerry could have to say that was relevant to the situation.  He was certain that it was nothing, so he nodded permission for the older man to continue.

    "Okay." Jerry nodded.  "So, my eyes are as good as anybody's and I know they aren't deceiving me...now, don't get mad..."

    "I'm not going to get mad," David replied, impatient for Jerry to get on with it and impart his great wisdom.

    "You...kissed him back."

    David hunched in his saddle, the curious yet annoyed expression he had been wearing turned into a scowl.

    "You don't know anything about it, Jerry," he finally said.  "and it's definitely none of your business."

    "I know," Jerry conceded.  "Just think about it."

    David contemplated kicking his horse into gear and trotting up to the front of the line, but thought better of it.  That was what the creatures had done the day before and they had all seen what had happened then.  The things were relegated to trotting along after the troop at the end of the line.  Their chirps had taken on a mournful apologetic tone and they were happy to trail along behind, carefully being watched by a group of squires.   They hadn't meant to hurt any of their new masters.

*****

   Dale was making a camp fire when he suddenly found himself flanked by Catherine and Jody.  Catherine plopped directly down on the ground next to him, Jody was having trouble with her crutches so he abandoned his futile stick rubbing and stood to help her into a seated position.  One of the creatures sat opposite them, its red hair concealing its arms and legs.  It looked like a giant ball of hair with googly eyes.

    "Here," Catherine handed him two rocks when he returned to the task at hand.

    "What is that?"  He asked curiously.  "Let me guess...some kind of ritual where you come from..."

    "No, Dale," she said.  "It's flint."

    He stared at her blankly.

    "Here," she crawled up from her reclining position and gathered up the tinder in the center of the wood pile.  Sparking the two stones together she managed to ignite the pile of dry grass and twigs and leaves, much to Dale's amazement.

    "You always keep flint in your pocket?"  Jody asked with a bright smile.

    "Nah, I found it in the woods a few days ago," she said.  "I study geology a lot.   I thought it was pretty cool to find alien rocks, but then I looked at it closer.  All this time and all this distance away from home and it's plain old flint."

    "Why'd you keep it?" Dale asked.  "If it's so ordinary."

    "I don't know," Catherine replied.  "I guess...well, it's still alien.  It's not going to alter the path of human history if I take it home is it?"

    "I don't know," it was Dale's turn to reply.  "We haven't had the chance to study time travel here...its history, the hows and the whys of how things are effected by it.  That's what we want.  We try to smuggle some stuff in, but  it's hard."

    "Well, we don't either," Jody said.  "We don't have it in our time.  We kind of got stolen by some evil future villain who wanted to change time.  Apparently, we're very important people..."

    "And that changes things?" Dale pondered.  "Interesting.  Maybe it's not such a good idea."

    "I think that's why they have cops," Catherine pointed towards Bertram.  Jody sighed at the thought of him.  "To protect time."

    Dale nodded.  He threw another log on the fire.  "That's interesting," he said.  "I can't wait to learn more!"

    "Yeah!" Catherine nodded enthusiastically at the thought of learning.  "This trip has been the most educational thing that has ever happened to me...including my education!"  She laughed heartily.  "I'm going to feel really bad putting a stop to horny horses when we get back though."

    "You sound like you're enjoying this," Jody said.  She had lost a bit of her cheer.  She wished she could find a little bit of joy in the situation herself.

    "I am," Catherine agreed.  "Is that wrong?  I fully believe Bertram and Phillip will get us back.  Between them...they're like the smartest guys I have ever met.  Didn't you see what Phillip did to that computer?  He reprogrammed it in seconds! It was amazing!"

    "Yeah," Jody had to agree with that, though she hadn't had much experience in dealing with technically smart men.  The only men she really talked to on a daily basis were Ned, an admitted stoner, and Jason, a total dreamer.

    "But maybe," Jody postulated.  "Maybe they're just average smart for their time?"

      "Oh, please!" Catherine tossed her head and rolled her eyes. 

    "Why not?"  Jody asked. 

    "You've met John Arker, right?"  She replied with a smirk.

    Jody giggled  "Point taken," she said.

    Dale had watched the entire conversation unfold with fascination.  He hadn't had occasion to meet anybody from another planet...space travel was expensive and time consuming.  It took years for delegates to fly to conferences that were only a few star systems away.  When he had lived under royal rule that definitely wasn't an option for someone in his station in life.  To meet two girls from another time was just the icing on the cake of such a successful raiding party. 

  The sun was still up, setting slowly, but he had gotten the fire roaring before the light winked out burying them in complete darkness.  Dale retreated to the edge of the ring of fire and sat down beside the creature.  Jody shuddered.  As Catherine took a moment to throw a comforting arm around her friend she asked the squire what exactly the creature was.

    "Is it some kind of alien?"  she asked.

    "This little guy?"  Dale patted its head and it made its peculiar little chirp at him.  "He's not the alien.  He was here long before the humans were.  At least that's what the Royal Chromian history books have told us.  Who knows if they're actually true or just another lie they tell us so we just keep going along with their rules."

    The girls listened in rapt attention.

    "You see," Dale continued.  "The Chromians use these poor creatures as slaves.  The ones you ran across...they captured you I presume?"  Catherine and Jody nodded.  "Yeah, well those were scouts.  The army uses them as an advanced guard so they don't have to get their "real" soldiers killed."

    "That's terrible," Jody spoke up.  "But they didn't seem to mind."

   "Disobeying the Royal Army is not an option," Dale spoke bitterly.  "There was a massacre...the Quickling massacre. They wiped out almost the entire wild population."

    "Is that what it is?"  Catherine asked.  "A Quickling?"

    "That's what we call them anyway," Dale replied.  "Yeah.  The ones you see here were bred in captivity.  They don't know any more than the lives their masters have given them.  One of these guys wouldn't last a day out in the wild."

    "Why not?"  Catherine asked.  "We haven't come across and scary wildlife yet."

    "Only cliffs," Jody contributed with a frown.

    "Yet," Dale pointed out to them.  "There's plenty of things that come out at night and, well, traveling through the Needles is not a piece of cake.  Not to mention the mud flats and...you get the point.  The woods is the least of a Quickling's worries.  These," he patted the red one on the head.  "These ones that we've set free don't even know how to be free.  They've been following along.  They think we're their masters now, so we give them tasks and let them live in our cities and woods.  It keeps them safe, and they seem happy."

    "Those ones yesterday...that scared Jody's horse..." Catherine started, but Jody elbowed her harshly in the ribs. 

    "Yeah, they like to play.  You think the Royal Army let's a Quickling ride on their horny horses?  Nah.  They were happy they didn't have to walk.  They're called Quicklings...they're pretty fast on foot, but we'd been riding several miles by then.  They'd been free from the Royal Army.  They were just excited. Jody, I'm sorry.  They don't know any better.  They're like little kids sometimes."

    "Okay." Jody nodded.  She still eyed the thing suspiciously. 

    Dale noted her discomfort and smiled at her.  He stood up from his seat and walked over to sit next to her then urged the Quickling to follow.  It unfolded its spindly black legs and bounced over to him, sitting down at his feet.  It looked up at him with its buggy eyes and cooed softly. 

    "This one won't leave me alone," Dale sighed.  "I think she's adopted me."  He pulled a small bit of food out from a pouch on his belt and held it out to the Quickling. It revealed its arms and snatched the object from his hand, shoving it into the thick pile of hair, presumably into its mouth.

    "Try it."  He offered Jody another piece of food from his pouch.  She reluctantly took it.  It was a thin slice of potato.  It had been crisp once upon a time but had since fallen limp due to being stashed in Dale's pouch.

    "Is this a french fry?"  She asked as she took it.

    "Well, I don't know what that is, but we call it 'hot oiled ground foods'.  Easily cultivated outside of our city, good food for the troops.  You can cook them lots of ways."

    "It's a french fry," Catherine decided.

    Jody regarded it for a moment then held it out to the Quickling.  The creature chirped at her and cocked it's head, then accepted the treat.  It then unexpectedly jumped into her lap and wrapped its arms around her.

    Jody stiffened at the fur ball's touch, but Dale reached out and touched her shoulder, reassuring her that it was okay.

    "They're really harmless," he said.  "And kind of sweet.  I think this one likes you."

    "I think they're kind of cute," Catherine admitted.

 
*****

   David had been thinking about what Jerry said and he was right.  He tried to explain it away in his mind as a heat of the moment thing, but he couldn't.  He knew he liked Phillip.  Everybody with eyes knew he liked Phillip, and Phillip knew he liked Phillip.  It was practically useless to resist.  It was only that he was conditioned to hide the way he felt.  Even though David had been very clear with his father upon coming out, it had not made the man very receptive.  David wasn't actively  hiding, but he never had anything in particular to hide.  Once his father had made it clear that he would be as supportive as he could be, but he didn't necessarily approve, David had thrown himself into his job and his schoolwork and tried to forget any romantic notions that he'd gotten into his head.  Oscar was a hard working man who did his best for his family.  He was a good guy, and David hadn't wanted to let him down.  But then he had been whisked away, and there on some distant planet, under a blue sun, he had found the most unlikely of romances in Phillip.  And there, in the far distant future, and with people from a less distant future, and people from his own time...nobody seemed to care.  He finally realized that he needed to find Phillip and apologize for rejecting him in such a harsh and unexpected way in front of all the people who had become their friends, and an entire Rebel raiding party to boot.

    It was easy to find John and Bertram once he had passed through the encampment and its many soldiers sitting around their fires making sure the circuitry in their laser weapons was clean and free from debris.  They were only standing on the edge of the camp with the holographic display up as wide as it would go.  It showed some kind of expanding gaseous ball.  David didn't know what to think of it, and neither, it seemed, did the two detectives.

    "What is that?"  He asked as he came up behind them.

    Bertram jumped in the air at the sound of his voice.  Started by someone approaching him from behind.

    "Don't do that, David!"  He said once he had regained his composure.  John only stood there chuckling at him as he often did.

    "Sorry," David replied.  "So..."

    John shrugged at Bertram who scowled at his partner as he often did.

    "It's not as if you're going to listen to what I say if I tell you that it's against the rules to tell him."

    "I think the rules have gone down the drain," John replied seriously then turned to David.  "This is the time map.  What you see here is all of documented time and space."   He proudly waved his hand towards the display in hopes of making an impression, but David only looked past his shoulder at some point beyond the holograph.

    "Time map?"  John wiggled his fingers in David's eye line in order to garner his attention.  "Map of all of space and time?"

    "Okay, Time map, wonderful.  Have you seen Phillip?"

    "Oh, god!" John rolled his eyes dramatically.  "Not this again.  I thought you were done?"

    David only growled crossly at the detective.

    "He's over there." Bertram pointed towards the edge of the canyon.

    Phillip sat there, his feet dangling over the edge as he gazed at the sun dipping behind the mountains casting deep purple and aqua hues across the canyon.

    "It's beautiful," David said as he approached the edge of the cliff and sat down.  Phillip didn't reply.  David glanced cautiously at him and noted that Phillip's eyes remained firmly affixed to the scenic vista played out before them.

    "Will it help if I say I'm sorry?"  David asked.  "Because I am.  It was just unexpected that's all.  And all those people were there!"  He elbowed Phillip playfully in the arm.  "I'm not used to making out in front of an entire army!"  He laughed.

    Phillip turned towards him then, and he glared at David with icy blue eyes.

    "Unexpected?"

    David nodded.  He was unsure of where the conversation was heading and not at all comfortable with it, but he couldn't leave without making amends.

    "It was so unexpected that you, several hours after it happened, you fucking switched partners on me?  What's the real reason, David?  The puritanical attitudes about sex from when you come from?  Or is it the fact of my occupation that you find so objectionable?"

    "Both...Neither...I..." David buried his face in his hands.  He didn't know how to explain it, but he had never liked anybody as much as he liked Phillip, and he was quickly pulling their friendship apart brick by brick.  He was ill equipped to fix it.

    "Look, I've never done this.  I don't know what to say to you."  He finally admitted with a heavy sigh.  "I've never done this and I'm scared."

    "Please, don't tell me you're a virgin," Phillip muttered caustically.

    David regarded him, taken aback.  "What?  No.  What does that have to do with anything?  I mean, I've never been in a relationship long enough to fuck it up as badly as I'm doing right now."

    "We've only known each other for, like, three days."  Phillip's glare soften somewhat and a curious expression crossed his features.

    "Exactly," David replied with a frown.  "I'm too busy for relationships back home, just random hook-ups.  How can I even judge you for what you do?"

    "David," Phillip replied.  "I want you to know it's a legal profession where I'm from.  That's why I was registered.  You have to.  Keeps everybody safe.  The health care plan is phenomenal actually."

    "Really?"  David asked; his frown remained.

    Phillip nodded.  "John knows how your people regard prostitution.  He was using it to upset you."

    "Wow, a valid career path," David muttered.  My parents would have a heart attack."

    "Yeah,"  Phillip looked away, back towards the sunset.  "It's a valid career path.  I didn't say there was any dignity in it."  He sighed.  "It's not who I am.  I'm a mathematician.  That's who I want people to know."

    "Why do you do it then?"  David asked.

    "I lost a lot of money," Phillip replied sadly.  "I got involved with some bad kids at school, there's this game...I won't get into it.  The rules are complicated.  Suffice it to say I gambled away my life's savings.  I had to drop out.  I wanted to make cash fast, so I could enroll in school again.  It was the easiest way.  That's how I met Gerald.  Now I know he researched me for my temporal mathematics and programming skills.  He pretended to fall in love with me, David.  He pretended to be my friend.  He was rich.  I thought once we got this finished...his little time shifting project.  He was going to write his thesis on fissures.  How they were harmless.  That's what he said at first, but then it turned into this game just to prove that he could and that it would be fun.  I fell under his spell.  I'll admit it.  I thought I was going to be able to quit and go back to school so I could do what I loved.  Anyway... that's why I did it."

    "Oh," David said.  He turned from Phillip and looked at the sky.  The sun had almost entirely disappeared behind the mountains.

    It was David who initiated contact.  He brushed his fingers across Phillip's hand as they sat beside each other.  Phillip didn't respond at first, and David couldn't hide his disappointment.  He felt like his heart was being crushed, and he couldn't breath.  He was close to standing back up and storming off to the tent he was to share with Jerry, but it was then that Phillip laced his fingers through David's.  David let out a massive sigh, causing Phillip to look up at him and smile.

    "What?"

    "I thought you weren't going to forgive me," David admitted.  "I'm pretty sure I was going to have a nervous break down."

    Phillip laughed at him.  "You?"

    "Yeah." David nodded.  "I have to admit it...you are kind of intimidating."

    "Me?"  Phillip laughed even harder.  He was hardly a man of formidable stature.

    "Yeah," David replied.  "You're so smart.  It's intimidating.  That's all.  I'm just a laborer."

    Phillip chuckled.  "You don't give yourself enough credit, David."  He said.  "I happen to know that you're brilliant."

    "Do you now?"  David arched a curious eyebrow at him.  "Do you want to tell me?"

    "I'm not supposed to.  It's bad enough I told Cath what she does." Phillip replied.  "Just do me a favor?"

    "Anything," David said.

    "Okay," Phillip continued.  "Don't become a landscaper.  You're meant for better things.  Stay in school.  I promise it will be worth it."

    "Okay," David replied sincerely.

    "You're not going to protest?"

    David shook his head.  "I believe you.  You're from the future.  You must know something right?  You don't happen to remember the triple crown winners for the next ten years do you?"

    Phillip laughed.  "Even if I knew what the hell you were talking about, me spilling the results of past sporting events is definitely something that will land me a really long prison sentence."

    "Really?"  David's teasing tone left him and it was replaced with a more serious one.

    "Yeah," Phillip replied.  "But it's not as if it would matter anyway.  This little escapade has probably earned me life anyway."

    "No." David gasped.  "They can't...I mean...you can't..."

    "Let's make the most of the time we have," Phillip replied as he squeezed David's hand reassuringly. 

    "I'm not going home then.  I'm staying with you."

    "You can't," Phillip replied.  "You have to go home, and I have to go home.  Time travel isn't all it's cracked up to be really."

    David stared at him then with a look so heartbroken that Phillip choked up at the sight of it.  He pulled David close and hugged him tightly.  "I want to tell you it's gonna be okay," he said.  "I really do."

    "Come on," John interrupted them before the conversation could progress any further.  "It's dark now.  Time to go back to camp"

    Phillip and David stood up.

    "Can we..." David motioned between himself and Phillip and looked up hopefully at the detectives.  Bertram looked very ready to let them partner up again, but John sternly shook his head, asserting his position as senior detective.

    "But..."

    "No," John replied.  "He's with us, like it should have been from the start."  He eyed Bertram.  "Inter-Temporal relationships are frowned upon."

    "But..."

    "Go to your tent kid," John waved David away.

    "I'm not a kid," David muttered as he reluctantly released Phillip's hand and trudged in the direction of his assigned sleeping quarters.

    "Did you have to do that?"  Bertram asked his partner.

    "Do you have to question my authority in front of a prisoner?"  John replied.

    "I'm a prisoner now?"  Phillip spoke. 

    "You know you are," John replied.

    "Come on," Bertram said.  "It's not going to kill anybody if you let them spend the night..."

    Phillip shook his head and was surprised to find an embarrassed blush rising to his cheeks.  He hadn't felt so flustered about spending the night with somebody in a good long while.

    "You're only saying that because you want to sleep with Jody," John muttered.

    Phillip's head shot up to look at the geeky detective in surprise.  Bertram shrunk away from his gaze and turned his attentions towards John.

    "You're way off base, buddy."

    "Am I?"

    Bertram nodded in a not so subtle way towards Phillip who was curiously listening in.  "Let's not discuss this right now.  It's neither the time nor the place."

    "Fine." John shrugged.  He stalked away leaving Phillip and Bertram to fend for themselves.

    "If it were up to me," Bertram admitted, "You could switch up.  I understand."

    "So you do want to sleep with Jody?"

    Bertram sighed.  "I didn't say that.  I just...I like her.  She's nice.  But I'm an officer of the law.  What am I going to do?"

    Phillip frowned sadly.  "Yeah."  He agreed.  "The laws of time."

    "Fuck time," Bertram muttered caustically.  "C'mon.  Let's get some sleep.  We've a long journey across those mountains to the rebel city.  I'll see what I can do for you two once we get there."

    "Really?"  Phillip allowed an edge of hope to creep into his voice.

    "Yeah."  Bertram nodded.  "But no promises, okay?"

    "Okay," Phillip replied enthusiastically.  "You think John..."

    "I think we'll see," Bertram said.  "I think he's just cranky because he didn't want to share a tent with Jerry.  You know...the man snores.  Loudly."

    Phillip chuckled.  "Yeah."

    "C'mon," Bertram lay a hand on Phillip's shoulder and guided him towards the campfires and the tents beyond them.

    Once Dor was seemingly satisfied that everything was settled, prisoners had been locked up in metal coaches much like the one the Royal Army had treated the time travelers to, and that all of his own troops were present and accounted for, he trotted his own horny horse up to the edge of the clearing where a small path led. 

    "Onward!"  He shouted, trumpeters on either side of him sounded out with a triumphant squeal and he led his army through the gap in the trees.

     Bertram had been wondering why they were traveling by horse when the planet obviously had the technology to use fossil fuels.  He would have asked one of the knights about it, but they rode, two by two, knight and squire, looking purposefully ahead.  Perhaps they still used wheels, Bertram thought.  No vehicle with wheels would have ever been able to traverse a foot path such as the one that they were on.  Jody was beside him, having trouble with her horse, and bouncing around in her saddle where everybody else had settled into the easy dawdling pace of the walk.  Her bouncing was agitating the creature who swung his head back and forth, occasionally clinking horns with Bertram's horse.  Then it would huff and dance sideways before settling down only to repeat the procedure over and over again.  Jody became increasingly frightened and only limply held on to the reins.

    "Are you okay, Jody?"  Bertram asked her.  She only shook her head and moaned in frustration.

   They came to a break in the woods then.  The group streamed out of the trees and were greeted by a wide open field covered in what could have been a golden colored grass.  It was hard to tell because of the slight bluish tint that the sun gave everything.  The time travelers were pleased that the thickest of the woods seemed to be past them.  They could see mountains far off on the horizon, the sun loomed low in the sky.

    It was then that a horny horse piled with creatures began galloping up from the hind end of the line.  They chirped pleasantly and playfully as their horse rode by.  They owed their lives to the strong knight leader, Dor, but they were happy to be free.  As they rode on, the one with the blue dread locks reached out and lightly slapped the shoulders of the other riders he was passing by.  He only wanted to share in his glee.  He hadn't meant any harm.

    The slap surprised Jody.  She gasped, yanked on the reins and dug he heels into the sides of the already skittish horny horse.  It instantly reared up and tried to buck her off its back, but she clung desperately to its neck and that was where she stayed as it took off across the field.  Bertram had little time to react and he tried to spur his own horse into action, but it only shook its head stubbornly and tried to sit down.  He ended up sliding backwards out of the saddle and into the tall grass.  He almost didn't notice two riders fly past him, nearly running him over in the process.

    "Fall off!" Phillip was shouting as best he could at Jody as they galloped at breakneck speed through the grass.  Several of the squires, John, and Jerry had also taken off after them, but they were far behind having gotten a later start.

    Jody did not have the good sense to let go of the horse and end her terrifying ride, and Phillip's shouted instructions could not be heard above the sound of thundering hooves bearing down on her.  The sense of being chased did not help to ease the spooked horse, and it only seemed to run faster in an attempt to escape.  The horse did, however, have enough sense to stop short when the grass ended and the unseen canyon began.  It skittered to a sudden halt kicking up a cloud of dust as it did so.  Jody was unable to hang on then.  She flew over the horse's bowed neck, barely missing being impaled by its horn, and slid a few feet.  She teetered on the edge of the cliff for a moment, but couldn't hold on and toppled over the edge.

    Phillip arrived first on the scene.  He practically jumped off the horse mid-stride and ran to the edge.  David followed quickly after and joined him, looking down at the river that wound through the canyon It must have been several miles below their feet.  Jody had landed on a small outcropping of rock a few feet below the lip of the crevice. 

    "Oh, thank god," David gasped.

    "I can reach her," Phillip said.  "Lower me down."

    "The others..."

    "Listen," Phillip grabbed David by his shoulders and leaned in to whisper in his ear.

    David could barely hear him for the sound of his own beating heart.

    "That ledge isn't going to hold.  Lower me down.  I'd offer to do the lowering, but I don't think I could support your weight."  He had seen the almost imperceptible crack in the ledge.  Jody wasn't going to be able to last long enough to search out a rope.  Phillip grabbed David's hands and placed them around his waist. 

    "Just don't let me fall," Phillip whispered one last instruction in his ear then led him backwards towards the ledge.

    David could do nothing but follow along with Phillip's plan.  His brain seemed to have stopped functioning completely as he was faced with the life and death situation.  He could barely hear Jody calling for help.

    Jody herself almost didn't register Phillip calling out to her from the ledge himself after a moment.  She glanced up at him, clearly terrified.

    "Okay," Phillip said once she had noticed him.  "You're gonna need to stand up...slowly."

    "I can't," she said, her voice wavering in fear.  "I think I hurt my foot."

    Phillip turned to David.  "You're going to have to lower me down by the ankles."

    "Are you kidding me?"  David hissed.  It was one thing to only have the upper half of ones body dangling over the edge of a precipice, but to be dangling from one's ankles was another thing entirely.

    "Just do it," Phillip replied.  "The crack is getting wider...if she notices she's going to freak out..."

    Phillip reappeared to her then, smiling assuredly. 

    "David's going to lower me down," he said.  "I want you to reach out and grab my hands and we'll pull you up.  It's gonna be okay, alright?  On three?"

    Jody nodded, and Phillip counted off.

    The procedure went off exactly according to plan.   As soon as Phillips fingertips were within her reach from her seated position, Jody grabbed hold of his hands.  On his mark, David slowly dragged him back up on to level ground.  He moved his grasp from Phillip's ankles to his waist as soon as he was in a more stable position.  From there, David was able to lift them both to safety.  He was thankful for his part time landscaping job in that moment.  And his father thought lifting paving stones on a regular basis never did anybody any good.

    As soon as Jody could she scrambled away from Phillip's grasp and hobbled a few feet away only to be greeted with the entire Rebel scouting party on horseback. 

    "It's okay," she waved and smiled brightly at them.  They looked on skeptically as she hobbled back towards the boys who had rescued her.

    Phillip's heart was hammering in his chest.  His back was to David, but only because his partner had a vice grip on his hips, hard enough to cause discomfort, and he showed no signs of letting go.

    "David?  Can you?"  Phillip pushed futilely at David's hands.  "You're kind of hurting me."

    David only let go long enough to turn Phillip around to face him though.  As soon as their eyes met, Phillip, in what he would only moments later chalk up to adrenaline fueled insanity, reached up, pulled David's lips to his and kissed him hard.  It was only then that David's hands released their grip.  He was unsure of what to do with them, but eventually decided to reach up, cradle Phillip's head in a reciprocal gesture and...kiss him back.  That bliss only lasted for a moment, however.  David, as if a switch had been turned on in his brain, broke the embrace and pushed Phillip away harshly.

    "Why did you do have to do that?" he screamed at him.

    "Well, you didn't seem to mind!"  Phillip screamed right back.

    "Fuck this!" David shook his head harshly and swiped his hand through the air in a dismissive gesture before stalking angrily away.

    He stood there looking heartbroken.  He wanted to go to David, who hadn't made it that far, being stopped by a wall of Rebel soldiers headed by Dor himself.  He wanted to apologize.  He wanted to make things right.

  So Phillip took one step forward and was immediately greeted by Jody, who collapsed into his arms, shaking like a leaf.  He could do nothing but hold her as she sobbed out thank yous for saving her life.

*****

 They both received a sound dressing down from Dor for their reckless, yet effective attempt at a rescue later on that evening.  Phillip stood tall during the lecture about how the army carried ropes for just such occasions and how they were far safer for everybody involved.  When Phillip naturally protested due to the time and unstable outcropping issues, Dor simply told him that they could have unclipped the horse's reins from the bit and used those instead of putting his own life and David's life in danger. 

  Phillip was then suitably humbled, because he hadn't thought of it himself and Dor was right.  He was young and inexperienced in other worldy adventures, and he was a mathematician at heart.  Math afforded him all the time in the world.  Equations were always there waiting to be solved, and theorems waiting to be proven.  As it turned out making split second decisions on how to save a life was not something he was particularly good at.  He made no more attempts to justify his decision, not even the fact that nobody had actually died.  It didn't change the fact that he had once again endangered the people he wanted to call friends.

    David was there too.  He stood, tight lipped in the corner with a scowl on his face.  They were eventually allowed to return to their group and Phillip tried to apologize, but David was intent on ignoring him until they came within sight of the others.  They sat in a circle that had been cleared in the grass, quietly chatting with one another.  Bertram was pacing back and forth waiting for Jody to return from the field medic.

    "I knew I should never have listened to your dumb idea," David spoke up.

    "I'm sorry," Phillip replied morosely.  He had been saying it at an ever increasing frequency as they had walked along, but it was having no impact on David.

    "Look, we're switching partners," David said as he stared at the ground.

    "Wha...what?  Why?"  Phillip sputtered.  "Because I kissed you?"

    "My reasons are my reasons," David muttered.  "You're with John now, and I'm with Jerry and Cath, and Ned's with Jason again."

    "Like that doesn't sound homosexual," Phillip rolled his eyes.

    "We're done," David replied.  He walked away then.

    Phillip had thought his life could never have gotten more disastrous after he'd dropped out of school and became a rent boy, but, as recent events had proven...once the bottom of the barrel had been hit, there was always the chance of there being another barrel waiting.

*****

    They had decided to make camp at their location.  Jody had been dismayed to have to stay anywhere near the canyon and became even more upset when she was informed that their path of travel was along side it, followed  by a steep decent into it on a path only wide enough  for the carts to pass.  She had returned to Bertram's side with crutches and her ankle in wrapped and splinted.

    "Is it broken?"  He asked.

    She shook her head at him.

    "It's only sprained."

    He then led her away from the group to where a tent had been set up.

    "One for each of us," he said.
    
    "Oh?"  She sounded disappointed at that.

    "Well, for each...uh partnership. I've set you up with Catherine for tonight."  He looked upon her, pleased that he had been able to arrange it.  Ned and Jason were happy to partner up again, and finally David and Phillip had split on their own and were not insisting on staying together.  The Time Detective felt a bit more at ease knowing that the mathematician was safe in custody rather than riding around attempting ill advised rescues.  Still, he was grateful that Jody was okay.

    "I don't want to be with Cath," Jody pouted at him.  "I want to stay with you."

    "You know we can't do that," Bertram replied.  "It's against the rules."

    "Yeah," Jody said disappointedly.  "You and your rules.  Are you making me go to bed now?"

    "Aren't you tired?"  He cocked his head curiously at her.

    "Not if it means I'm not going to see you for a while."  She glanced up at him shyly from where she was balanced precariously on her crutches.

    "Jody," he sighed at her.  "Wait right here."

    He was gone a long time, and Jody was just beginning he'd ditched her in front of the tent she had been ordered to spend the night in with Catherine.  He hadn't.  He returned to her with a cot in hand and set it outside the tent flap, then sat her down upon it and offered her a canteen.

    "It's water.  Can't have you getting drunk again, can we?"

    "Ugh, no." Jody frowned.  "You don't happen to have magical hangover cures in the future."

    "Unfortunately not," Bertram spat bitterly.  He sat down down beside her.  "People in the future are still as self destructive and stupid as they are in your time.  There are new rules, but there are new drugs...and the old ones never go away, even though we'd love to have a hangover pill, I'm sure.  Always the easy way out, the human race."

    "Are you okay?" She asked and ran a comforting hand down his arm.  He shivered.

    "Yeah," he said.  "My dad..."   He left the sentence go unfinished.  His dad was a drunk who had abandoned his mother and him.  It wasn't information he'd freely traded with strangers...or friends for that matter.  Not that he had many friends.  John was the only one he could truly count on and that was only because they were partners.  He had no idea if John thought of him in a friendly manner at all.  They never discussed their personal affairs, and if John did happen to ask, Bertram made well sure that he had his nose buried in his computer pretending to be busily working a case.  Maybe, he thought, he was afraid of friendship of any kind.  Relationships were out of the question.  Jody's sudden attentions had been unexpected and unwanted at first, but he was warming to the idea.  And he knew it was wrong, because they were from different times.  She had to return to hers, and he to his.

     "I'm sorry, Bertram," she said in reply. "My mom is sick," she said, feeling as if she had to share something of herself with him as well.  "She has Alzheimer's, and she's going downhill fast.  I know Phillip said that you can put us back right when we left, but I can't help but worry.  She can't really function on her own.  Keeps forgetting things, y'know.  Do they have a cure for that in the future?"  She looked up at him hopefully, but he only shook his head. 

    There wasn't, but he knew that if there was he wouldn't be able to give it to her; not even for one person.  It was a shame, but those were the rules.  They couldn't swoop in to the past and save everybody, so they weren't allowed to save anybody.  That was his job.  That was why he had become a Time Cop.  It wasn't fair, he knew, but life rarely was.  The road to hell was paved with good intentions after all.  Unleashing a cure for something several years before it would be invented could cause untold chaos in time.  Who knew what displacing only five people in time had done.  His computer showed that time was still rippling the after affects of the fissure. It was growing out all over the place in directions it shouldn't have been.  The damage that would be caused by millions of people being cured and living their lives would be catastrophic.

    "You're a sweet guy, you know that, Bertram?"  She said, and she leaned against him, looking up at the sun.  It was slowly starting to make it's way towards the horizon.  It would be dark again in a few hours.

    He shrugged at her. 

    "It's better to be nice than...well, than to be John, I guess.  I mean, he's not bad.  Just a little brash, but...I dunno.  I like being shy.  It suits me."

    "I think so," she agreed. "Do you think we'll ever get home?"

    Bertram nodded solemnly and reassuringly squeezed her shoulder.  "Absolutely," he said with conviction, though he wasn't sure at all.

    One day she overslept. 

    The afternoon light was streaming through her windows and she woke with a start.  This day was different.  Detective Steele couldn't contain her excitement. She bounced out of bed and inspected the clock that still stood, screen blank, on her nightstand.  She clapped her hands gleefully and scurried about the apartment getting ready for a new day.  She hadn't had a new day in almost a year.

    She bounced into work more exuberantly than she ever had before and walked up to the lobby desk.  She glanced around, and couldn't help but wonder if they had remodeled.  Things looked the same, but she couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that they were different.  The receptionist in the lobby eyed her curiously.  He was new, she noticed, but that didn't surprise her  She had been gone for months.

    She smiled brightly at the man.  She was happy to be back at work.  She was even contemplating being happy about seeing John Arker.  He hadn't been the best partner at the time, but he was only a rookie.  She should have known that Alrice Van Die Welt would be too much for him all by himself.

    "Beautiful day," she murmured at the receptionist which did nothing to remove the perplexed expression from his face.

    "Can I help you?"  he asked.

    "Yes," She grinned.  "You're new here, right?  I'm Detective Anne Steele, been stuck in a time loop for...Oh, eight months."

    "I've worked here for ten years," the man replied.  "Stuck in a time loop, you say?"

    Anne stared at him in horror.  Ten Years.  She couldn't have been stuck in the loop for ten years.  It wasn't possible.
    
    "Oh, my god."  She broke down then and sank to a heap on the floor in front of the desk.

    The receptionist tried to see where she had disappeared to as he peered over the desk, but she wasn't visible from his vantage point.  He sighed laboriously and stood up, pausing at a nearby water cooler to fill a small cup with water.  He was well used to the crazies that wandered up to the precinct desk on a daily basis, but it didn't make it any less troublesome.

    "Here you go."  He sat down beside her and handed over the cup of water.  She gulped it down and crushed the paper cone in her hand.  Frustration and anger showed clearly on her face.

    "I kept count," she muttered.  "Eight months, give or take...a few days.  Not years!  Not Ten years!  Do I look ten years...crap."

    She knew as well as anybody that one didn't age in a time loop.

    "I'm going to call somebody up to take you to the Captain," he said. He would have taken her himself, because he felt sorry for her.  He was a step below a secretary in the grand scheme of things, but to work at the precinct one had to go through the core courses of Temporal Studies.  Time Loops were rough for everybody involved even though the technology had been developed to easily break out of them.  He couldn't help but wonder how the woman had gotten herself trapped in one.  It could cause major problems in time if an important person was trapped in one for too long.  Ten years was too long.

    "Yes, you call the Captain," she said positively.  "He'll remember me.  He'll know what to do."

    The Receptionist stared at her like she had gone insane.

    "What?"  She snapped at him.

    "I'm sorry," he replied, beginning to believe her story.  "But the Captain is a woman."

*****

    The rustling of nearby branches is what alerted Jody and Catherine to another presence.  They were frightened at first, but eventually came to the conclusion that it was only Jason and Ned messing with them.

    "Come on out boys," Jody said with a roll of her eyes and a toss of her head.  "You're not funny."

    There was no answer, only the continued rustling of the underbrush.

    "I don't think it's them," Catherine said nervously.
    
    "I told you, you worry too much," Jody replied.  She called out again.  The rustling got closer.

    "Over there," Catherine pointed. 

    The plants parted and a large cloven creature peered it's head out and regarded them curiously.

    "Is that what I think it is?" Catherine said with incredulity.

    "Yep," Jody replied with a sharp intake of breath. 

    "It's a fucking unicorn."

    "Yep," Jody agreed.

    The animal shook its mane at them and bent down to sip from the stream.

    "I think it's time to get back," Jody offered.  Catherine wholeheartedly agreed.  They stood up and ran back the way they came leaving their champagne bottles behind.

   
*****

    Jason, Ned and David stood in a grinning line awaiting Jerry's approval.  He only shook his head at them.  They stood, stripped of their shirts and smeared in mud.

    "We've got to be stealthy," Ned had claimed when he came up with the idea.  If they were going to be hunting then it was the only logical course of action in his mind.

    "How do I look?" David spread his arms wide and looked towards Phillip.

    "Ridiculous," the boy from the future replied with his own grin.  "I'm not going to complain though..."

    Jason groaned at them and rolled his eyes.  Ned stooped down and took up a handful of the mud that had been created by the dumping of the champagne that very morning.  He grinned impishly and slung it at David.  It landed on his chest with a loud squelch and Ned laughed.  Jason stood between them mouth agog, and David only looked down at himself in shock that he had just been assaulted with a mud ball.

    "Look, Ned's a little slow, David, you're going to have to give him a break," Jason said in an attempt at diplomacy.

    David shrugged, then swooped down to collect his own mud ball, which only nicked Ned's shoulder.  Ned laughed and lunged towards the other boy.  Catching Jason in between they all tumbled into the mud and commenced wrestling.

    Phillip stood next to Jerry and sighed.  "Look at that." he gestured towards the pile.  "It only took me creating a fissure through all of space and time to realize my biggest fantasy."

    Jerry eyed him sideways, then shrugged and laughed.  No enemies, as David would say.  He patted Phillip on the back.  "Whatever floats your boat, Future Boy."

    The Girls crashed into their midst then.  Their fright was forgotten as soon as they caught sight of David, Jason, and Ned rolling around in the dirt, their empty champagne bottles lined up against the side of the building.

    "What the hell are you doing?"  Jody screeched at them.  "We're out there in the dangerous wilderness looking for water, and you're rolling around in the mud?  We are not washing your damn clothes you idiots."

    They stopped then.  She had managed to attract their full attention.

    "What happened?"  Jerry asked.  He wondered briefly if the girl was only upset at their apparent goofing off.  It wouldn't have been out of the ordinary for Esther to behave that way.  She would shun him for the rest of the day and he would end up sleeping on the couch for nothing more than the crime of sitting down and watching the game on a Sunday afternoon.

    "Hello," Catherine spoke up.  "There are unicorns out there."

    The boys only stared at her.

    Even Phillip, who had seemed to have more of a grasp on their surroundings and time travel in general than even the so called Time Detectives, seemed genuinely shocked.

    "That's crazy," he decided.

    "We're not crazy," Jody huffed.   "It was there, plain as day.  Big fucking horse with a giant horn coming out of its head."

    "Was it white?"  Jason asked, stifling a giggle.

    "Did it have wings?"  Ned contributed without stifling any of his amusement.  His laughter set David and Jason off.  Even Phillip and Jerry were having a hard time containing themselves.

    "This is serious, guys,"  Jody whined.

    "It was brown," Catherine said.  "And the horn was like an orangy yellow color."

    "Do you know of a planet with Unicorns?" Jody addressed Phillip directly.

    "No," he said.  His expression turned serious.  "That is a really unexpected side effect.  We thought...y'know.  Maybe the fruit would be bigger if Cath..."  He trailed off and stared at his feet.

    "If Cath what?"  Catherine said.  The rest of them were all intent on his answer, and he knew he wasn't going to be able to lie his way out of it.

    "Catherine...you get a bill passed in your time.  Genetic engineering is a highly regulated industry because of it.  Without it..."

    "Unicorns?"  Catherine replied skeptically.

    "Chimera."  Phillip nodded.  "I'm guessing.  I mean...it's just a guess.  Gerald could have flung us so far out of the known solar systems that...these things have evolved naturally and we just haven't discovered them yet but..."

    "Looks too close to the myth?" David asked.

    Phillip nodded miserably.  "If it looks like it came from a human's imagination, it probably has.  We do have a tendency to recreate the world as we see it."

    "Good Job," Ned laughed. 

    "Tell me, Phillip," David asked, hands on hips and a scowl on his face.  "Did you see Unicorns?"

    "Come on," Jason spoke up.  "Remember what you said, Dave?  We're all trying to take it to heart. It's not going to help if you don't take your own advice and just keep getting mad at him over and over again."

    "There is some good news," Phillip offered sincerely, hoping to get back on David's good side in as short amount of time as possible.

    "Yeah?"  Jody asked.  "How are giant horned beasts good news?  Horses by themselves are bad enough, but now we've given them pointy instruments of death..."

    "A Chimera wouldn't be able to reproduce on its own," Phillip interrupted her.  "It's a genetically modified thing...bits of this grafted into bits of that. At best they would only produce more horses if they weren't completely sterile."

    "Bla, bla, bla!"  Catherine rolled her eyes at him while gesturing a flapping mouth with her hand.  "You talk way too much, Phil."

    "Don't call me that."  He scowled at her.

    "Just get to the point," Jason stepped in.

    "The point is," Phillip said.  "Someone had to make the Chimera...if that's what this unicorn thing is.  Therefore..."

    "Civilization!" Jerry exclaimed.

    "Exactly."  Phillip grinned. 

    They all stood around proudly grinning at their hypothesis.  Hope didn't seem like it was so far off after all.

    "So, who's going to tell those detectives?"  Jody asked.

    "Can we just leave them here?" Ned giggled.

    "As much as I think we would all love to do that," Phillip replied.  "We're in this together.  Isn't that right, David?"

    David nodded solemnly.

*****

    Lord Gerald Moxley sat in his room listening to the pleasant chirping of the griffin.  He smiled to himself.  It had been an unexpected change in the natural order of things, but he had gone out that day and seen the pet shops offering genetically modified creatures.  He had purchased one.  The upper half of the creature had the appearance of a jay bird and the lower half seemed to be a small tabby colored house cat.

    He smiled to himself as he presented the creature to his parents who didn't bat an eyelash at it.  It was as if such genetic anomalies had always existed.  Gerald decided he was going to wait a few days and see what other changes were bound to crop up.  He had his hypothesis, but he couldn't know for sure and he wanted to have enough data to present his findings. 

    He would be revered.  Oh, yes.  He would make sure of it.

*****

    "I think you're presuming a bit much," John said. 
    
    "It's a logical conclusion," Phillip argued.  He had taken the detective aside while the rest of the gang distracted Bertram.

    "So the girls come back with stories of Unicorns." John scoffed.  "So what?  They're girls."

    "I may not be an expert," Phillip said, "but I'm pretty sure that girls don't necessarily have anything to do with unicorns."

    "Those two have over active imaginations," John replied.  "Just because they see something in the woods and get scared doesn't mean there's unicorns, and if there is, it doesn't mean they're chimera.  We're done here.  Go run along to your little boyfriend over there."

    Phillip tossed a glance back at David then turned his glare on Detective Arker.

    "You have a computer," he stated, intent on ignore the dig the detective had made towards him in favor of changing the subject. 

    "Yes," John replied.  "Bertram has a computer."

    "So, do a scan for life forms."

    "We can't," John admitted.  "Bert's computer doesn't have the upgrade..."

    "Doesn't need one." Phillip shook his head.

    "You hear that, Bert?" John shouted over to his partner. 

    Bertram, who was happy to extricate himself from the rest of the group, trotted over.

    "Hear what?" he asked.

    "This kid thinks you don't need the upgrade to detect life signs."

    Bertram laughed.

    "Yeah, no," he said.  "I'm sorry, but I don't have the hardware for that."

    "Those are built to monitor and detect temporal signatures, and you have the atmosphere upgrade, correct?"

    Bertram nodded.

    "Give it to me."  Phillip stood with his hand outstretched awaiting the only bit of technology they had left to be handed over.  Bertram was not so keen to give in to his wishes.

    "I can modify the code for the atmosphere module to detect trace elements of fossil fuels in the air...if they happen to use it here."

    "And that's a big if," John laughed.  "Not many planets still do.  Not when there are better sources of energy."

    "Which may not have been invented at all now,"  Phillip replied snidely and then pointed at David.  "Get me?"

    "Okay," John replied, a little bit of his cockiness leaking away.

    "Then I can also modify the code that detects the temporal signal to identify high grade electrical fields instead.  If there are people, there is electricity.  They may not travel through time, but they still need power."

    "And just how do you propose to do that?" Bertram replied.  He crossed his arms defiantly.  He had long been the most adept, technically minded person in the squadron.  To be shown up by someone at least five years his junior would be humiliating.

    Phillip only gestured towards the computer in Bertram's pocket.  Bertram sighed and started to hand the device over.

    "How do we know this isn't sabotage?" John asked.  He  placed his hand over the computer before the transaction could be complete.

    "I guess you don't," Phillip replied.

    John and Bertram glanced at each other and sighed.  It was their best shot.

    Phillip received the device and punched up the holographic projector.  The screen flashed up in front of him, attracting the attention of the entire group.  They had only ever seen such things in the realm of science fiction on their televisions.

    Phillip took in the display and then quickly swiped his hand through the air, changing screens at an ever quickening pace.  It looked as if he were only poking at thin air, but somehow the data was transferred from the projection to the computer.  Bertram studied what he was doing carefully.  It was apparent that the boy had far more advanced knowledge of formulas and coding than he did.  If he was going to learn something, he was going to learn by watching. He definitely wasn't going to straight out ask the kid.  Bertram suddenly knew why only the best of the best were chosen to work in the future division.  Dealing with people from the future was far more frustrating than he had realized.  It took a moment to register that what he was feeling while watching Phillip recode his computer must have been something akin to what the people from the past felt when he had to deal with them.

    "There." Phillip handed the device back to Bertram after only a few minutes of tinkering.  "I think you'll find that civilization is that way."

    He pointed to the East with a huge grin on his face.

    Bertram frowned, took a look at the display, and sighed.  Phillip was right. The Atmosphere module was registering high levels of carbon dioxide and the beacon for an unauthorized time signature was flashing brightly in the direction which the boy was pointing...apparently having come to indicate the high levels of electrical output required to run a mid-sized city.

    The girls threw their hands up with giddy glee and hugged each other as they jumped up and down in excitement.  They then turned their attention to Phillip and enveloped him in their hug.  He looked uncomfortable to suddenly be the center of their attention and his discomfort only grew as the boys joined in the rather large group hug.

    "Come on, kids," John broke up the revelry in a stern voice.  "Here's the plan.  We're going to get our bottles, visit the stream the girls found, and fill them up. Please, try to avoid any unicorns.  Then we'll follow the signal towards the city and see if we can't find a way to get out of here from there.  If they haven't any time travel technology...which seems likely since we haven't picked up a signal...at least we may be able to find the parts to coble together a TTD.  If Phillip has the programming wits to encode the device..."

    "I do." Phillip replied solemnly.

    "Alright," John said.  "Let's get to it then!"

   After the champagne bottles had been distributed for the second time, David approached the detectives.   Phillip still stood in between them, his shoulders slumped, and his eyes pointing towards the ground.

    "What is it, David?" John asked him.

    "Phillip's my partner," he said, determined not to back down despite John's attempts at being intimidating.  "I'm not supposed to let him out of my sight."

    "Look, we found Jerry," Bertram nodded towards the older man who was chatting brightly with the two girls as they walked along.  "Time for a new partner."

    "I don't want a new partner," David said resolutely. 

    "It's okay," Phillip addressed him.

    David shook his head.

    "He's in custody," Bertram spoke up quietly.  "You know he's responsible for this.  He may not have been the brains behind the whole thing, but after that show he just put on...I really don't think that kind of massive Time Storm could be orchestrated without his skill set."

     "I don't care," David declared.  

    "You know what?"  John addressed Bertram.  "I don't really care either at this point.  He's got nowhere to run.  Why don't we just let the kiddies play?"

    "You can stop calling me a kid any time now," Phillip said a bit crossly. 

    "It's not a good idea," Bertram replied hesitantly.

    "When has that ever stopped us?"  John shrugged.  "Go on."  He shoved Phillip towards David.

*****

    They had each found a place by the stream to fill their bottles.  Jody and Catherine huddled together, feeling slightly ill at ease at the thought of another unicorn happening by.  After a moment Jody decided to fill the uneasy silence with awkward conversation.

    "What if it's an alien civilization," Jody hypothesized. "And we're the only humans left in the whole galaxy!"

    "Don't talk like that, Jody," Catherine replied.

    "I mean, what I'm getting at..." She grinned impishly at her friend.  "...is what if we have to repopulate the species."

    "Oh, god!"  Catherine gasped then started giggling.

    "Heh,"  Jody shook her head at her own audacity.  If only the boys could hear her talk in such a manner.  They would be beside themselves with shock.

    "Come on," Jody egged her friend on.  "We've been stuck with all these guys for almost two days by now...it must be.  You can't say you haven't thought about it."

    "I have," Catherine admitted guiltily.   "But David's spoken for."

    "I knew you liked him!"  Jody grinned. 

    "He's really, really, super nice," Catherine replied.  "Why do the nice ones always go for the bad boys?"  She took pause to glance at the most unlikely bad boy she had ever seen. He was seated upstream beside David, their bare feet submerged in the water up to their ankles.  "but I always go for the unavailable...actually, I don't go for anybody.  I'm too shy."

    Jody gave her a consoling hug then.  "I know what you mean," she said.  "I spend so much time taking care of my mom..."  She paused at the thought of her old mother and wondered how the woman was getting alone without her.  "Anyway," she continued after a moment.  "Since you're kind of stuck with Jason and Ned...I'll have to recommend Jason.  He's a dreamer, that one, but at least he's not a pot-head.  Jason has potential."

    "So you really like Ned?"  Catherine teased her.  "I mean, if you're handing Jason over to me and David and Phillip have their thing..."

    "No!"  Jody cried out, momentarily attracting the attention of Jason and Ned, who had busied themselves with a splashing fight in the middle of the stream.  She waved at them and they continued on about their business much to the chagrin of the detectives who were trying to corral them into a less wet area of the wilderness.

    Jody gazed at her hands then looked at Catherine with a bright red blush on her face.

    "I kind of like that detective guy.  The one with glasses that always looks confused...not the asshole one."

    "Oh, my gosh!"  Catherine gasped.  "Detective Powers?  Get out!"

    "I'm serious," Jody replied.  "Am I not allowed to have a thing for the future dude?  He can't be that much older than me."

    "No," Catherine agreed.  "You know what?"

    "What?"

    "We should go for it," she decided. 

    Jody paused and considered this for a moment.

    "I think you're right," she decided.

*****

    Detective Anne Steele had been escorted from the building, kicking and screaming the entire way.  The receptionist felt sorry for her.  He had dismissed her words as merely the ranting of a lunatic, but something about it gave him pause.  He'd let her pass security to speak with the chief.  Seeing her cursing as she was tossed from the building left him knowing that he was going to be in trouble.  At best his boss would dress him down and he'd receive a short suspension.  At worst he would be fired.  He sighed to himself and grabbed another cup of water as he headed outside himself to see if he could accost Anne before she disappeared.

    She hadn't disappeared.  She sat sullenly on the precinct steps with her head in her hands.  He sat down beside her and offered the paper cup.

    "What are you?" She muttered caustically even though she accepted the water and tossed it back quickly and thirstily.  "The water boy?"

    "I'm SC Anderson."  He supplied.

    "SC?  What's that short for?"  She seemed to be laughing at him.

    "It means Senior Cadet...My name is Arwyn," he supplied.  "I thought you were a detective?"

    "I..." She paused then sighed.  Things had certainly changed in the eight months she had been in the loop, for she refused to believe it had been any longer than that.  The changes were far more suspicious than the mere passage of time.  The building layout was all wrong, the staff was all wrong, and the receptionist was spouting rankings that had never existed in the past or in the future.

    "I did once, a long time ago," she finally replied.  "I'm going to tell you something and you might think I'm crazy, but I'm not."

    "Okay," he said a bit skeptically.

    "I think the time line has changed."  She whispered almost inaudibly.

    He laughed.

    "You think I'm crazy," she asserted with a sad sigh.  "It all makes sense though. None of this stuff is the same as when I got trapped.  It's how the time loop was broken.  If it never existed in the first place, how could I remain stuck in it?"

    "It's been a long time," he replied.  "Ten years, you said so yourself.  People lose track of things when they're in a time loop..."

    "Arwyn." She turned to glare at him.  "You said it's been ten years.  I said nothing of the sort.  I just thought you were new because you didn't work here before the time loop. If I'm right and the time line has changed maybe you never existed before."

    He suddenly looked shocked and dismayed at the thought so she quickly amended her words.

    "I mean, that might be it, or you might just have had a different job.  Seriously?  Ten years as a Cadet?"

    "I like my job," he said, thankful to have any discussion of his possible non-existence cut short.  "I'm sorry, but there's only one way something like that could happen..."

    "A fissure.  I know."

    "But that's what we're here for," he continued to protest her assertions without calling her outright crazy.  "We prevent these things."

    "Not this one,"  she replied.  "That's why we have to fix it."

    "We who?"  He eyed her suspiciously.

    "You believe me right?"  she asked.

    "Maybe."

    "That's good enough," she decided.  "It looks like we're in this together."

*****

    "So tell me about yourself," Jody sat down next to Bertram, who was hastily trying to puzzle out the changes that Phillip had made to his computer on the small built in display.  It was far less expansive than the holographic projection and  not at all the best way to scan through the thousands of lines of code. He would be damned if he was going to let Phillip catch him at it though.

    Bertram looked up, startled, and quickly closed out the screen.  He looked over at John first as if he were seeking his partner's approval before speaking to the girl.  John only rolled his eyes emphatically and stood up.

    "We've sat around enough," John said with a scowl.  "Time to gather the troops."

    "I can help," Bertram offered quickly, glancing nervously at Jody as he did so.

    "Nah." John shook his head.  "I'm totally good with handling this on my own."

    He winked at them and trotted away.

    "So, you're a time detective," Jody said.  "How do you get into such a field?"

    "I uh..."  Bertram frowned at her.  "There are rules about sharing stuff from the future."

    "Who back home is going to believe any of this shit anyway?  Holographs...Unicorns...they'll think I'm insane.  My lips are sealed."

   "Well, I applied to the academy like anybody else."

    "I suppose it's called the Time Academy," Jody snorted laughter then quickly clapped her hands over her mouth.

    Bertram eyed her curiously.  "It is called that..."

    "Right. This is totally weird," she said.

    "I know what you mean," he admitted his own frustration.  "I been workin' with this tech for years.  You know, I was the best tech guy in the entire precinct.  Rubbish at field work...how the hell I ended up on another planet..."

    "You shouldn't let that John dude push you around." Jody smiled brightly at him.  She scooted closer and bumped him lightly with her elbow.

    "I know," Bertram sighed.  "It's just...he's kind of an act before thinking guy and we end up in these kind of situations because I'm a think before I act kind of guy, and it takes too long for me to think.  If that even makes any sense."

     "It makes perfect sense," Jody replied.  She bit her lip then and looked at Bertram who was facing straight ahead, lost in thought.  She decided to take the opportunity to make a move and slipped her hand into his.  He broke out of his reverie to turn and stare at Jody's hand entwined in his.  He didn't break the embrace; he only looked up at her with a confused look on his face.  It made her giggle as that seemed to be his default expression.  She thought it was endearing.

    "I'm scared," she said when she was finished with her giggle fit.  She squeezed his hand.

    He sat there for a moment, unsure of what he should do...then he pried her hand away and chuckled nervously.

    "I'm sorry, Jody," he said.  "There are rules."

    "Oh?"  She frowned at him.  "What about them?"  She pointed at David and Phillip who sat across the stream from them with their heads together.  "He's even older than you are."

    "He's not older," Bertram replied crossly.  "He's from a further future.  That's what we call it, and this isn't about that at the moment.  This is about me being a figure of authority.  It wouldn't be right, okay?"

    Jody pouted at him, but he stood his ground. 

    It was then that the bushes were rustling again.  Jody rolled her eyes at what she thought was simply another unicorn but it wasn't.  A strange creature covered in colorful dread locked hair crept out of the bushes and chirped at them.  It cocked its head curiously; two bulbous eyes the only visible feature beneath the hair.  Two long spindly black legs stuck out from beneath it.

    "What the fucking fuck is that?" Jody squeaked at Bertram.  Hand holding protocol abandoned, she grabbed hold of him and dug her fingers into his shoulder.

    David and Phillip noticed the creature from their vantage point as well.  They stared curiously at it.  It continued to chirp at them, demanding their attention and shaking its purple locks at them.

    "Now that..." Phillip whispered.  "Is not even a real thing."

    It was then that the nets dropped from above.  The two creatures that had been in the trees descended and the three chirped happily at each other.  They had made the capture.  Their masters would be proud.

    There was a purple creature, a blue one, and a yellow one.  They chirped at each other triumphantly while the captured squirmed around in the nets, trying desperately to break free.  Any yelling and screaming that they did was futile.  The rest of the group had been captured by similar creatures.  Thin arms extended from underneath their thick hairs and they dragged the nets through a nearby path to a clearing.  There stood two unicorns hitched up to an enclosed metal cart.  They loaded in their quarry and closed the door behind with a loud clang. 

    The first thing John did was try to grab the handle and was only met with a stunning electric shock that knocked the wind out of him and left a stinging burn in the shape of a door handle emblazoned on the skin of his hand.  He had been knocked onto his back and lay on the floor of the carriage clutching his hand and biting his lip so hard that it broke skin as he tried to keep from making a sound.  David was the first to spring into action.  He snatched John's hand away and poured out an entire bottle of water onto the burn.  It hissed, and smoked, and filled the cab with the acrid scent of burned flesh.  Then John screamed, and David poured another bottle of cold water on him. 

    The injury was excruciating at first.  Then it felt numb.  John reclaimed his hand from David and muttered a thanks then retired to sit in a corner and whimper to himself.  The rest of the group sat in nervous silence.

    Jody slipped her hand into Bertram's once again, and this time he didn't protest when she squeezed.  He squeezed back and let out the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding.

    In the corner, where John sat trying to keep from crying, he thought that if they ever did get back and he didn't get dismissed from the police force, he was definitely taking an early retirement

    It seemed that they had been traveling a long time, bumping along as the cart traversed the wooden paths.  There were no windows and even though the sun wasn't hot, the metal container in which they were trapped still managed to retain what little heat the sun managed to produce.  They gave thanks that they had managed to fill up their bottles with water before they had been abducted.  Eventually they came upon an encampment and the creatures removed them from their prison and shackled them together by the ankles.   The boys stood in a row, their sense of defeat permeated the air.  Jody worriedly kept an eye on Bertram, and Catherine stood at the end of the line quietly sobbing to herself.  She would have given anything to go home and lock herself in her room intent on a night full of studying.  It was so simple to be with herself and just ignore everything that happened around her life.  She didn't think she could handle it now that things were directly endangering her.

    "It's okay," Jason murmured  from his place ahead.  "We'll just explain."

    "They don't even speak English," she cried as an increasing number of creatures hopped out of the woodwork and herded them towards a large tent at the center of the encampment. 

    Once they entered they were greeted, much to their surprise, by a very human looking woman.  She had severe features, her black hair pulled back into a tight bun, and she was wearing some sort of obviously military dress.  She scowled at the troop before her disapprovingly.  The stench of time travel was upon them.  It had been banned several hundred years ago and there hadn't been a traveler to their system since.  At least there had never been one that made it back alive.  That was the way her queen liked it.

    "Who is in charge here?" she stood up and demanded.  Her hand slammed down on the table to punctuate her question.

    "I am," John stood up as straight as he could, still cradling his hand.

    "I see you are stupid enough to have tried the electronic door lock!" she smirked at him.  "That's going to scar."

    "Okay, then."  John scowled.  He had long since lost all feeling in his hand.  It was a disturbing development that he hoped would eventually resolve itself.  As it were, he was going to do his best to speak for the people he had come to feel some sort of responsibility for. 

    "Who are you?"  He eyed her.

    "That is for me to know," she snapped.  "Now, you are going to tell me why you have been trespassing on our lands and violating the Holochrome treaty."

    "We were kidnapped," John replied more excitedly than he should have.  He knew the Holochrome treaty.  He knew where they were.

    "Kidnapped?"  The woman regarded him with an arched expression.

    "Yes.  Kidnapped and transported through a temporal storm..."

    She laughed then.  John suddenly felt that knowing where they were was almost as bad as not.  He realized that he was dealing with Royal Chromians: a race of human that had removed themselves from all existence.  They were the stuff of legend, on the edges of time itself. Time travel was the highest form of treason in their society and punishable by death.  It was a blatant violation of their religion...an edict sent down to the prophet Williams, that no man was to disrupt the natural order of time.  People throughout time had often wanted to travel there just to see what it was like. Those that did manage to puzzle out the galaxy's address in time usually disappeared never to be heard from again.

    "There is no such thing," she decided, then barked orders for furry creatures that guarded them to take them away to the cells.