by Ashlyn Ross
also have to look at all the death that Alex causes. I know it’s not what you want to hear.” She reached out and touched his forearm to try to reassure him. “That’s why we have to look at all the time lines because one thing may seem like a great thing and you would never know what you prevented or helped cause.”
Turning back to the file on Alex, he reopened it. “Can’t we help Alex so he can’t or won’t become like this?”
“No, there really is nothing that we can do. From everything David tried he would have looked into that too. This is the worst kind of situation, because you're dealing with kids. All Keepers have a very hard time with this, but as you can see, we have to fix it.” She watched Scott carefully.
Scott went over all pages again and couldn’t find anything that would help save any of the kids. David had gone over scenario and the outcomes as well. In everything that he looked at, he felt horrible. There were only two people who didn’t die upon impact. One was Alex and the other was the big brother of the inventor. He couldn’t see any way around it.
Emily placed her hand on Scott’s, pulling him back to the present.
“I know it looks bleak, but we can do this. Can you tell me how you stopped the bus’ accident?” She again picked up her pen to take more notes.
“I figured out a way to go back to the night before and put out signs that said Ice Road Closed. The article was in the same paper about the accident. There had been a huge party that ran late into the night. I was at the party. I got into my car and put the signs up.”
“Alright, so we're going to have to do the same. Only we will have to wait till you get back, and we take the signs down.”
“Fine, the story about the party is still in the paper which will make it easy.” He got up and walked to the front desk. “Excuse me, Mrs. Sterling. Can I have the past two weeks of the Town?”
“Sure thing, Scott.” She gave him a quick smile as she went into the back office, coming back with a small stack of papers. “Here you are. Anything else I can help you with?”
Scott smiled at her. “No, thank you very much. I’ll bring these back when I’m done.”
“Oh don’t you worry about that, Scott, we have lots of them back there. You can even keep those if you want.” She waved him off, picking up her book again.
“That is very nice of you. Thanks.” He walked back to Emily who was gathering her things plus the two folders.
“We should do this at your house so that no one sees us popping in and out,” Emily said to the unasked question.
“What about David? He popped in and out,” Scott pointed out.
“Yes, but there are only three people in this library, Mrs. Sterling, you and myself. Mrs. Sterling was too engrossed in her book to notice David who wasn’t here very long. Besides it would look bad if she came to check on us and found just papers about criminal files that haven’t happened yet, or the details of her own death,” she said as she placed her bag over her shoulder.
“I see your point. My car is right out front.” He pointed towards the door.
“That should work out well. Why don’t you lead the way, and I’ll follow you out?”
“Sure.” He walked to the front, holding the papers under his arm. He gave a quick wave to Mrs. Sterling, whom had looked up just long enough to see that they were leaving. They then went out the door and to his car. He got in and quickly cleared off the passenger seat so that Emily had a place to sit down. She slid in and didn’t even seem to notice the mess inside the car.
“So is it far? Your house?” she asked, trying to keep things light.
“No, not really.” He was suddenly very nervous as he started to drive home.
“Is there anyone that would be around to see us?” She watched him.
“Oh, no, I live alone now. My parents live nearby, but I wanted my own space.” Keeping his eyes on the road, he tightened his hands on the steering wheel.
Emily turned to look out the window. “Well at least you still have family around. All of mine have been dead for quite some time.”
Scott glanced at her, but she was still staring out the window, watching the world go by. She had a wistful look on her face, almost as if she was in a far off memory.
As he looked back on the road, he said, “is it alright to ask how old you are?”
“Yeah, it’s fine, but it is always good to ask as some Keepers are very secretive about how old they are. I’m not one of them, I was born in the year 1452. There're Keepers who are older than me, but I try to stay young. I actually go through the whole process of growing up every time I fake my own death, that way I sound more like the time that I am living in. Very few Keepers do that.” She turned back to him with a smile.
“Doesn’t that get a bit tiresome? I would hate to keep going through puberty.” He glanced over at her again.
“Tell me about it. People trying to be nice and giving me the talk of my body changing. At least now they aren’t trying to marry me off as soon as I become a woman. That was a very unpleasant experience.” She shuddered.
“So they really did that…” he stated absently as he pulled into his own driveway. “Well we're here.”
Emily looked up at the light blue house, it looked like every other house on the block, nice manicured lawn, a small front porch. She opened her door and got out. “Nice. I have to say, I wouldn’t have thought that this is where you lived. It’s very suburban. You're just missing the wife and kids. Maybe a dog, too,” she teased.
“Yeah, well life can happen to a person,” he said roughly as he slammed his car door and stomped towards his front door.
“Hey, I didn’t mean anything by it.” She was practically running to catch up to him.
Scott paused, letting out a breath slowly then turned to her. “No, it’s fine. I had planned on having the wife and kids. Even had the girl all picked out. The house was one she had always liked or at least I thought she had. Well, she didn’t want to stay here. Got out even before I could propose to her. I had no idea and apparently she didn’t want any extra baggage. I found out two days after I had closed on the house that she was gone.” He opened the door, and they walked in. Scott set down the newspapers on the coffee table in the living room.
Emily placed her bag on a chair next to the coffee table. “Okay that really sucks. Why did you keep the house?”
He shrugged. “I really like it, and since she never even got to put anything here, it was always mine. So it never was something that bothered me with memories of her.”
“Well, that works out for you.” She sat on a chair next to her things.
Scott sat across from her. He went through the pile of papers, finding the one that he needed and picked up. Turning to the article that they needed to travel back in time — same one he had used before — his hands shook a little. He really didn’t want the kids to die or their families to suffer from the loss.
Seeing how much Scott was struggling, Emily reached out to him touching his arm. “Scott, listen this isn’t an easy thing to do. I know. But trust me we have to do this. You don’t want Alex to grow up and become that man you read about. That is why we have very close connections with our Watchers when we start to jump more. No one wants to change things for the worst. We all want to make things better for others. It’s just human nature.”
Scott didn't pull away from the touch, but he couldn't help but hope that things didn't have to change again.
“Emily, this is just a lot to take. First, I learn that I’m not the only one who is able to do these things. Then, I am told that something I did has to be reversed otherwise a young boy I know will become a horrible person and another person won’t invent a revolutionary technology.” He shook his head and sat back in the chair pulling away from Emily. “It’s just a lot to take in. You know.”
“Sure, but know that we will be doing this together,” she said as reached over into her bag and pulled out the files from before, placing them on the table next to the papers.
“I’m not sure that’s going to make me feel any better about what we are about to do. But thanks for trying.” He gave her a sorry excuse of a smile.
She smirked back at him. “Hey, I’m here to help you.”
“Even though you were only coming to do a spot check on me?” he teased.
“Yeah, well, like you said, life can happen to a person.” Emily gave him smile which Scott returned, this time with a much better one.
He then cleared his thought and passed her the paper. “Alright, here is the article on the party. How do we make sure that we don’t run into either of my selves?”
“Do you remember where you put your finger the first time you did this?”
Scott thought for a second. “Actually yes, it was in the head line.”
“This is perfect. We can go in a few lines down. That way we won’t be running into the you that is going back to save the kids. As for the you who is at the party, what where you doing there?”
Scott turned real red and looked a bit sheepish. “Drinking, that was the day I had learned what I was capable of. Let’s just say I was a little freaked out about the whole thing.”
“Oh Scott, I’m so sorry. I wish your Watcher had understood what being connected to you was, then you wouldn’t have been alone. A Keepers first jump is a very important thing. It can make some of us out right sick. That’s why we try to be with Keepers when they do their first jumps. Kind of walk them through it. But it’s not a perfect system