by Jill Cooper
I glare at him and then her. “You’re both mad! You said Lara was first. You said--.”
Patricia points to the safe on the wall. “Letters and post cards. It’s not changing the past if it’s just a note. If I’m not interacting with any one. Just enough here or there to develop the tech in the right way. To get the right people out of my way. And John, you’re in my way. Have been for a while. It’s time for you to stop interfering.”
She steps up to me. “Where ever we go, whatever we do, you’re always there. Your love for Miranda pulling her away. So now, it’s time for you to stop. I need her. She doesn’t need you.” Patricia steps over toward a dashboard and begins spinning dials.
“What are you doing? What is she doing?” I stare down at Jax as I put Lara’s body back down on the table.
“She thinks she’s found a way to destroy you. To rip you from the time continuum completely.”
“She’s crazy.”
Jax snorts. “As a fox. I’m sorry, John. I should have come clean years ago. Before this all happened.”
“Well, maybe you can make up for it in the next time line.”
Jax laughs. “Maybe.”
I leave him and head over to Patricia. “Whatever you think you’re doing--.”
“Saving our future. A better future where the police can arrest people before crimes are committed. A future where we people don’t have to go hungry or cold. We can correct wars before they happen. Take out leaders. Remove memories that turn people into serial killers. Think of the possibilities, John. Just think of them.”
“You’re talking about messing with the universe. Free will.”
Patricia shrugs. “If the shoe fits…The system is almost ready. I’m going to obliterate you from the time line so you can’t come back and convince Miranda to run off with you. Before all my plans can work.”
“Like hell you are.” I hiss and grab her by the throat and throw her up against the wall. “If I’m going to die, it’s going to be now. Do you understand me you crazy, bitch?”
“Get your hands off my mother!”
I throw a look over my shoulder and get punched square in the face by a kid.
“Donovan!” Patricia screams, “look out!”
I lunge for him and yank him back. The building is tearing apart. The metal support beams are bending and twisting, causing a metal groan to echo around us. I don’t have to stop Patricia for long. I just have to keep her busy long enough so we don’t all die.
But then I see him. Rick. Bent down my Lara, crying.
“Rick!” I hiss. “The gun!”
He doesn’t react fast enough and Donovan pummels me in the face. I fall backwards on the ground and kick him in the stomach as he bends over me. He groans, falls over and I roll up to my knees and drag him back. It only took a few seconds, but Patricia is back at the control panel.
Everywhere around us is static charged with electricity. I can smell its fumes and feel its fury. It’s building in pressure and intensity. I lunge for Patricia and pull her away from the control panel. I push her against the wall.
“Rick! Get to the control panel. Stop this thing. Turn it off!”
Rick scampers over and he’s checking out the system as I struggle with Patricia. I squeeze her neck and know soon she’ll meet her maker. We all will, but I can’t let her be successful in wiping me out. Even if such a thing is possible. I think she’s as looney as Bugs Bunny and the Woody Woodpecker combined, but there’s no way to know for sure.
I need to make sure.
Donovan screams and lunges onto my back. I try to shrug him off, but I can’t.
Patricia goes slack and when I remove my hand from her, she falls to the ground.
“I can’t!” Rick screams and he is clinging onto the control panel for dear life as the building sways—coming apart at the seams. “The controls are on full tilt. It’s super charged and won’t turn off!”
I try to shrug Donovan off, but when he won’t release I slam my back into the wall. “Then unplug the damn thing!” I scream and slam my back again.
Donovan falls to the ground, groaning, but he’ll be okay. Or as okay as he’s going to get in the next few minutes before we all die.
I’m successful. Or at least I think I am. I glance down at my baby girl. At Lara.
“I’ll guess I’ll see you next time, hon.” I might not remember this, I might not remember how close I was to losing it all, but the thought of being with Lara and Miranda—together, warms me in ways I can’t imagine even as I struggle with my impending death.
Rick yanks the cord from the electric socket just in time. The machine’s low hum goes silent as the building rushes toward the ground. The ceiling collapses on us and I’m crushed. Breath is impossible and every part of my body feels broken.
The pain is so intense that I’m too afraid to even think, but then a warm trembling sensation over comes me—then rising panic as I need to take another breath to stay alive. A breath that won’t come.
Overhead the ceiling crackles in a shoot hue of gold and blue. A giant whole filed with a white glowing light. I figure maybe it’s death. Maybe it’s heaven. Could I see Miranda one final time in this time line before we all reset and start our lives over?
I don’t know but a bolt of lightning comes down and strikes me. My teeth chatter and then everything goes dark.
Epilogue: 2013, say what?
I groan.
My head hurts so bad I can barely think. I can’t believe I’m still alive. I must be under a ton of rubble and metal so how can I still be breathing? Now what future do I have to look forward to? Slowly being crushed and starving to death? No thanks. I wish I had my gun beside me and I would gladly end it all.
“Are you ever going to get off that floor?”
My eyes startle open and I’m surprised to see puke green tile. The walls are covered in posters and there are lockers lining the walls. I know this place, this giant vibrant hall. It’s high school, but how—
“John, are you all right?” Her laughing voice stills me and when I pop up to my feet I can’t believe I’m staring into her face.
Miranda Crane. My wife. Or well, Miranda Dawson back then. Her soft brown curls are just as I remember. Her eyes sparkle with laughter and her jeans, she always wore them a size too big. I can’t believe it’s her and when I reach out—I can really touch her. I really can.
I stroke her face with my hand and Miranda closes her eyes and smiles. “Sometimes I don’t know if you’re a charmer or just a big kidder, John Crane!”
“Both.” I say and I’m surprised by the sound of my own voice. From the reflection I pick up in the locker, I look like a kid. I am a kid and based on the folder I’m carrying, it’s graduation day.
Graduation day.
I get to do it all over. Fix our mistakes. Take Miranda away from Rewind, all of it. If I can just push her in the right direction, then Patricia James will never be in our future. We can have something good and that means no Jax Montgomery.
No affair.
No death.
“You said you wanted to talk to me about something?” Miranda asks and slings her arms around my waist.
I kiss her. Lord, I kiss her because it seems the right thing to do. It’s the only thing I want to do. Then I remember this day. I proposed. Offered to follow her anywhere. I’d get a job, sacrifice my own ambitions so she could become the scientist she wanted to be.
And that’s how it all started. The janitor jobs. Having Lara and staying home to take care of her while Miranda pursed her career. Not that I minded, God knows I didn’t because I love her and Lara, but I know better now. My own happiness matters independent from Miranda’s.
We need to find a way to support each other both.
I swing my arm around her shoulder. “I know you want to be a scientist.” We walk toward the exit of the school together and I watch her curls bounce up and down together. “I want to be a vet, always have. Maybe we could find a way to do it toge
ther. Get married along the way, what do you say?”
Miranda squeals. “Did you just ask me to marry you, John Crane?”
I grin. “I guess I did.”
She takes my hands and bites her lip. “Then I guess I’m going to say yes. A million times yes!”
We kiss on the old front steps of the school and my chest wells with happiness. Pride. “I wish I had a ring.”
“Later.” Miranda’s hands settle on my hips and she leans against me. “We’re going to have the best summer ever.”
The best summer. I still have those memories. The carnivals, the trips to the beach. It’s something we can get to do all again and this time we’re going to do it right.
“We’re going to have fun. But I have a lot to do.” I stroke her hair back. “I’ll get a job. Put money away for school and an apartment. For the two us.”
Her eyes sparkle. “Do you really think we can do it?”
My answer is resolute. “Absolutely.”
Her nose crinkles “Then I’ll get a job too.”
“You don’t have to do that.” I kiss her cheek. It’s soft and smells just like I remember.
“I will. Why should you have to do all the work? Maybe we can get a job together.” She swings her arms over my neck and pulls me in for a sweet kiss.
Grinning from ear to ear, Miranda is the vision of perky excitement. “Wouldn’t that be fun? We could spend all summer working together at Dairy Queen or something! Oh, John!” She squeals and hugs me tighter.
And I just hold her. In that moment none of it matters. All that matters is that I have her.
Plugged
Chapter One
“Fifteen minutes.”
I turn toward the guard and nod. Biting my lip, I let out a long breath and stand up. Only seventeen, I’m in a pinstripe blazer and matching skirt. My curls are pinned back respectfully.
It’s not an outfit I’m comfortable in, it’s like wearing someone else’s clothes. But I’ve been living someone else’s life for over a year, ever since I went back in time and messed up the future. The present.
And this is my penance.
Donovan stands beside me and takes my hand. Our fingers coil around each other and we lean in for a light, sweet kiss. I never thought I’d love him the way I do. In my past, I was with a boy I knew all my life, but when I’m with Don, I’m light. My heart soars. I’m confident.
“Nervous?” He nuzzles his nose against my cheek and I close my eyes.
“Not anymore.” I smile and kiss his cheek.
We linger into silence, but it’s comfortable. I relax against his chest and his arms draw around me in a protective cocoon. Nothing can hurt me when I’m so deep inside myself and with him. That’s the problem. I am in so deep I can’t acknowledge the truth, even as it stares me in the face.
When the door to the court room opens, I jump. The guard waves us in. Donovan makes his way to the seating area and I keep my head high. I take my place behind the witness stand and raise my hand as instructed. The other one rests against the hardbound cover of a bible, soft but cracked beneath my fingers.
It feels so real that you wouldn’t even question it.
Unless you knew the truth.
“…tell the whole truth and nothing but?”
“I do.” Smoothing my skirt, I sit down. My eyes fall to the defense table where senator Patricia James sits. Donovan’s mother and the one who nearly killed me, Mom, our entire family all in the name of illegal time travel research. I did everything I did to stop her and now she’s going to pay the price.
If I can just ignore that the clock on the back wall is spinning backwards.
My eyes close and I take a shaky breath.
“Can you recount how you knew Joyce Meyers?”
My fingers twist together; exactly how my insides feel. My eyes sweep over the court room and I see my family—my brother and sister; Jax, my step-father; Mom with her famous curls that mirror mine exactly. Behind them sits Dad, the man who lost ten years of his life in prison thanks to Patricia James.
I wet my lips and bend forward to speak. “She wrote an article exposing the illegal research that Rewind was doing. I was her source.”
A hush falls over the crowd. The prosecutor smiles and approaches me. He leans against the wooden divider that separates us. “And were you there to give her evidence on the day in question?”
“Yes, sir.” I lick my lips again. I just can’t get a handle on my emotions. My eyes flutter from the senator’s face to the clock and back to the prosecutor. “I hid in the closet. I saw Senator Patricia James and some men enter the apartment. They killed Joyce Meyers in front of me. When they searched the apartment… I snuck out.”
“Why don’t you tell us what happened last May, Lara?”
I took a deep breath. “I escaped from the hospital and went to my friend for help. Rick. I thought he was helping me, but he was paid off by the senator’s men to help apprehend me. I was captured along with my family, to stop me from spilling the truth.”
“For the record, Ms. Montgomery, is this the same Rick Miller that pled no contest to kidnapping charges?”
“Yes.” My breath shakes and I struggle to maintain eye contact, but it’s important. I want the jury to see I’m telling the truth. I want to show them I’m strong.
“What happened when you were in captivity?”
I glance at the jury and their studious faces. “They performed experiments on me. They wanted to create the perfect time traveler.”
“For?” the prosecutor says.
“Objection,” the defense attorney interrupts. “Leading.”
The prosecutor rephrases. “Do you know why they were performing experiments on you?”
I nod. “They told me. They want to control the future and create the perfect assassin. Someone who can slip in and out of time without any government body able to regulate it.”
The questions drone on and when they are done with me, I am exhausted, but glad it’s done. That my part in the story is over.
I step down from the stand and smile at my family, ignoring the penetrating glare from the defense’s table. I ignore the eyes that follow me. I only take Donovan’s hand and we step outside of the court room.
Taking a deep breath I lean against the wall, but a small, satisfied smile dances across my face. Donovan caresses my arms and kisses my forehead. “You did it. I’m so proud of you.”
“So am I. I just want to put everything behind us. You know? All of us.”
“We’ll get there,” he says softly and caresses my chin. Such a small movement and it makes my heart skip a beat. “How about I take you out of here now for some ice cream?”
“Yum.” I grin and take his hand. We start down the hall toward the elevator. Donovan pushes the down button and we wait. He plays with my hair and I rest my head against his shoulder.
The elevator dings.
We wait for the doors to swoosh open. A darkened figure wearing a ski mask is inside. His arm is held out straight and trains a gun on me.
“Lara!” Donovan screams and pushes me out of the way as the gun goes off.
I drop to the ground, my shoulder taking the bulk of the shock. With a grimace I sit up and the dark figure races down the hall away from us.
“Donovan!” I screech. My eyes fall to his crumpled body on the tile beside the elevator. His skin has already gone pasty and there is blood on his button shirt. I press my hand to his stomach and he cringes.
This isn’t how it’s supposed to go. This isn’t supposed to happen.
“Just a … flesh wound.” Donovan whispers with a grin, but his eyes are lidded and what color is left in his face fades fast.
My teeth grit. “You hold on. I’ll get an ambulance on the phone. You’re going to be fine, you hear me? Just hold on?”
People swarm into the hall, charging to see what’s going on. My hands tremble as I search for my phone, but I can’t find it. Then I remember I left it on my bedroom dre
sser that morning.
Damn it. Of all the days to forget my phone.
My jaw tenses. My skin burns with rage. “Rex!” I scream. The pounding in my head, the one I’ve spent so much time wishing would go away, returns.
And then the fantasy of my life, the fleeting happiness, disappears. It disintegrates around me one pixel at a time until there is nothing there but me.
In the darkness it all fades.
I blink my eyes and real life breathes and sways in front of me.
I’m in a cage.
****
The walls of my cage are made of plexi-glass and I am in the center of a large room.
I tear the electrodes from my head and slide my legs over the side of the bed. I’m wearing white sneakers and matching hospital scrubs like I’m a patient but what I am is even worse. When I stand, my legs wobble and I grab the edge of the bed to stabilize myself.
Somewhere a door opens and I hear footsteps approach. There’s a small clack as a heel meets the floor. Not enough to be a woman. I sneer as I grab the only chair in the room and fling it at the plexi-glass. It won’t break, but I’m so angry I can’t contain myself.
Rex has the face of my step-father, Jax. But his hair is black instead of blond and there’s a nasty scar down the side of his face. He glances at the chair and up at my face. His smirk makes me want to tear at his flesh and I would if the glass didn’t separate us.
“You told me I could keep Donovan. I need him. Give him back to me.” My hands clench into fists even though there’s nothing I can do. I’m a rat in a cage, a highly functional, time traveling rat, but when in the cage, I’m completely at their mercy.
“And you, my darling Lara, require some additional motivation. I could promise you a room with a comfortable bed, some music, but I know that wouldn’t be enough for you. But Donovan…” Rex smiles and I quiver from a sudden rush of cold.
I cross my arms. “Bring him back. Turn it into a flesh wound.”
Rex raises his eyebrows. “Sorry, I can’t do that, darling. That’s up to you.”