by S Breaker
Blakely laughed out loud. “This is amazing!” he exclaimed. “Are you seeing this, Dr. Carter?” he called out over the noise. “This is the culmination of your life’s work!”
Eleanor’s eyebrows furrowed. She glanced over and met Laney’s still horrified gaze. “I’m really sorry, Laney,” she said solemnly.
And before Laney could say anything in reply, Eleanor launched herself off the receptacle circle with a loud grunt, onto General Blakely, who sprawled back on the floor in surprise. “What the—?”
Laney’s jaw dropped. She still couldn’t move. But Eleanor must have known that the gravity well would be weakened when it tried to hold two people in the receptacle.
Noah reacted quickly, whirling around and incapacitating all the guards holding him, as well as taking on the several armed guards surrounding them.
Meanwhile, Eleanor had gotten up and was trying to reconfigure something on the control panels, shooing the other lab techs away, most of whom still recognized her authority.
“No!” Blakely scrambled up and ran to grab Eleanor, lifting her up even as she tried to kick away.
“Eleanor!” Laney could only scream as she watched, still pinned to the gravity well—or wait… She shifted one foot an inch to the side, before looking up at the control panel that Eleanor had been on. Eleanor had released her!
Blakely was trying to lead Eleanor back to the receptacle when Laney launched herself off it, to pile onto Blakely’s back, kicking and hitting and pulling his hair, trying to get him to let Eleanor go. Blakely savagely fought the two of them off. And for several moments, it wasn’t clear who had the upper hand.
But then the quantum jump platform lights subtly changed to violet.
Noah’s eyes lit up as he looked up after putting down the last armed guard. The kickback!
Blakely grunted out loud as he grasped one Laney’s arm roughly and she pushed against him, making him topple straight back toward the event horizon of the swirling black vortex.
Noah reacted like lightning. “Laney, no—!” he cried out, diving across the room and tackling one Laney down off the platform and onto the floor, just as Blakely and the other Laney got pulled into the sudden wave of energy that kicked back from the quantum jump platform.
For a microsecond, Blakely and Laney’s images remained on the platform, as though frozen, but Blakely’s scream of terror quite clearly rang through the air, “NOOOO!” changing frequency as the sound slowed down, before the machine’s humming got louder, the black hole swirling faster and faster, and the quantum jump platform’s violet lights beginning to pulse—immediately before the entire machine blew out with another loud hissing sound and several bright sparks of light.
And all the power in the entire lab facility, across the thirty kilometers between France and Switzerland, went out in a blink, accompanied by all the lab staff’s moans Oohhh in unison.
Laney squeezed her eyes shut. Her body was sore from the fall, but aside from that, she was fine. She was alive. And she hadn’t been thrown into the kickback, possibly lost forever. She was still breathing heavily and when she opened her eyes, she automatically met Noah’s gaze.
He was partway collapsed on top of her, breathless himself, as he gazed back down at her in the dark, but he didn’t say anything.
Her eyes were threatening to water all over again. “Is it over?” she asked quietly, her voice still shaking.
He took a deep breath, glancing sideways at the jump platform that was darkened and silent, as though nothing had even happened on it. “Yes,” he replied.
Recoil
Laney blinked a few times to recover before she pushed against Noah to attempt to sit up.
She was still shaking from head to toe. She hugged her knees toward her chest tightly in an attempt to soothe herself and even out her breathing. It’s over. It’s over. It’s finally over.
Noah rolled a few feet away from her, drawing up his knees as he sat on the floor. He stared up at the empty jump platform. It was possible he was trying to get adjusted to the loss.
It took a considerable few minutes for Laney to calm down. And when she looked up at him in the faint light, she followed his gaze. “What just happened?” she asked, still slightly breathless. “Where did they go?”
He shook his head slowly. “They had no anchor. There’s no telling where they went, that’s even assuming they survived the event horizon in the first place.”
Laney stared at the platform, looking shocked. “Y-you mean…they could be dead?” Her voice cracked again.
“Everything’s going to be fine, Laney,” Noah assured her.
Laney shot him a look. “You know it’s me,” she realized, then her eyes widened. “Oh my god, did you save me by mistake? Oh my god, Eleanor—your Laney is gone!”
“Laney!” he spoke firmly, putting his hand up to calm her down. “I knew it was you.”
“What? How?” she asked in confusion. “How could you possibly—?”
Noah paused, hesitating. “What I said before, at Macon’s,” he began. “I lied. I actually can tell you two apart. I don’t know why, or how, but…I can. I…knew it was you.” He shrugged, holding her gaze for a long moment, before averting his gaze.
Laney narrowed her eyes. “So you did choose.”
Noah didn’t reply. He kept his gaze across the room.
“You…saved me. Why?” she wanted to know, in absolute incredulity.
He looked into the distance. “I’m…really sorry I didn’t tell you the truth when we first met. I’ll admit in the beginning, I would have done anything, sacrificed anything, to get Eleanor back. But I didn’t know you then. I knew the consequences. I was too self-involved, too desperate—to care. I guess I was just focused on the mission, too.”
Laney bit her lip, looking over at the darkened jump platform again. “I guess you did all that because you love her,” she stated. “Maybe…I would have done the same thing in your place.”
Noah scoffed as he met her gaze briefly before dropping it again, looking remorseful. “I don’t know about that. You’re…a good person. Certainly a better one than me—or Eleanor.”
Laney wrinkled her nose. “It’s looking like that, isn’t it?” she said, almost jokingly, after a moment.
And Noah met her gaze again, a ghost of a smile on his face.
She broke a smile back, as though a weight had been lifted off her chest by Noah cheering up. It didn’t matter, it seemed, after knowing everything that Noah had done, endangering her life altogether, risking the collapse of her world, and his, for whatever reason, she knew in his heart, he was still good. He was strong and brave, yet kind and gentle at the same time. He was super smart. And somehow, he was also super hot.
Laney blinked, to snap out of her train of thought. He was also not hers, she told herself, watching as Noah gazed forlornly up at the jump platform again to where Eleanor had disappeared.
She frowned, realizing that perhaps Noah was only then regretting which Laney he had saved. She fidgeted uncomfortably at what it meant for Noah to have saved her instead.
He had lost his fiancée. He had lost the one he loved. He was alone.
“I’m so sorry you lost her,” Laney said quietly.
For a moment Noah was silent, then he looked over at her again. “Eleanor’s a tough nut. She’ll be fine. She’s a genius, remember? She’ll find her way back to me. I know it.”
Laney managed a small smile again, nodding. “Of course.”
She looked around the quiet, ominous Section 12 lab. It didn’t feel quite as menacing to her anymore as it had a few minutes ago, even as some of the guards lying on the floor were coming out of their enforced nap.
It felt like the spirit of ambition and greed and terror that Blakely embodied had bled through everything, and with him gone, the place automatically, simply went back to becoming a place for which it was originally intended—a place for science.
“Well.” Noah groaned as he stood up. “Now that we�
�ve saved the multiverse, I better call the cavalry so they can tell the invasion force outside to stand down. I bet they’re all standing around wondering why all the power is out. Also, there’re about a dozen court-martials and indictments that need to be processed,” he relayed as he walked up to her, sounding already weary. “So many things are going to need to be done. I can’t even begin to think what we need to do first,” he mused, holding out his hand to help her up.
Laney straightened up and met his gaze again, but when she realized how close she was standing to him, she began to step back, except Noah instinctively tugged on her hand back toward him. She blinked up at him, surprised.
He looked surprised himself. “Laney, I…” he started after a moment, gazing down at her, searching her eyes intently.
She met his gaze. This time, her heart began to pound again, but not from fear.
She still couldn’t explain it. Even after having met Eleanor, and knowing that she and Noah were in love and absolutely deserved each other, Laney still couldn’t help but be drawn to him, couldn’t help but feel as though she belonged with him.
But she knew she didn’t. She didn’t even belong here. This wasn’t even her world. And she had to go home. She had to go home before anything else happened out of her control. She had to go home where for certain, she would be safe. From everything.
Noah swallowed hard, still looking hesitant.
Laney decided to give him a break. She shrugged, chuckling lightly. “I guess you need to send me back home, huh?” she said with a weak smile. “First things first.”
Noah blinked before nodding slightly, understanding, as he pulled away. “I guess you’re right.”
Laney took a deep breath, nodding herself.
“Besides,” Noah added, his tone changing. “Who knows what other trouble you might end up in? I mean since, obviously, you can’t keep out of it for even one day without me.” This time, his remark came with a hint of a smirk on his lips.
And Laney shot him a suffering look. Even through her mirth.
Thursday, 19 March 2020 3:20 p.m.
“That Berry is an absolute tech wizard,” Laney mused out loud, as she looked around the path.
She was back at school, on the paved walkway between the nurse’s office and the main building. Back on the day and time when she had first encountered the second Jake Donovan.
“He said there was something about this specific point in spacetime,” Noah relayed. “And with all the equipment at the lab back at his disposal, it didn’t take him long to configure the new anchor.”
Laney warily eyed the new little gadget that Noah was holding. “Is this really the best idea?” she wanted to know.
“This is the only way to put everything right,” Noah replied. “You were never supposed to get mixed up in all this.”
“And I won’t remember anything?” Laney asked. “Or…anyone?”
Noah’s gaze was averted. “Yes,” he replied. “It will be like none of this ever happened. Just like Eleanor said. You go back to your normal life.” After a pause, he added, “With…our thanks.”
Laney nodded curtly, trying to read his ambiguous expression, but he wouldn’t meet her gaze.
She had said her goodbyes to Berry and P.T. at the lab before Berry engaged the quantum jump. She had only spent the better part of twenty-four hours in the other world, even though she felt like it had already been a lifetime. But she had wanted to make the good-byes not an entirely depressing thing. Since, on the contrary, they had actually triumphed! They actually had all saved the multiverse.
In any case, Laney figured that Berry was probably right. She probably was better off not remembering any of it. Although, she knew she was going to miss all of them, even Noah, who didn’t appear to care one way or another that she was leaving them—forever.
She sighed a little. “Alright,” she said. “Well, um, thank you. For not leaving me to die,” she quipped lightly.
“It’s my job.” He shrugged nonchalantly.
She nodded again. “What are you going to do now? Are you going to look for Eleanor?”
“I’ll probably pick up where she left off with her research, along with Berry and the team,” he relayed. “We still need to unpick the hierarchy that supported Blakely’s plan to make sure it doesn’t happen again, make sure nobody can use the quantum jump technology for solely military purposes.”
“Right, right.” She kept nodding. It all sounded very important. “I’m probably going to go back to school, finish my paper, get some long-overdue therapy,” she kidded, trailing off. Everything she said sounded stupid at the moment. Or maybe it was the knock-on effect of having been around absolute geniuses for the last couple of days. She smirked slightly. “Maybe I’ll actually read up on some quantum physics, see what that’s all about.”
But Noah met her gaze. “Make sure you take care of yourself.”
She pursed her lips, giving him one last nod in acknowledgment. “You too.” If she didn’t know any better, she would have thought that he was concerned about her ability to take care of herself, that was, without him. But she did know better. “Well, here’s to going back to normal. And hopefully never seeing you again,” she joked. “Except, maybe when you need my help again to save the world—worlds,” she amended humorously.
But no jokes were penetrating through Noah’s stoic demeanor just then.
Laney blew out a breath slightly and figured there was no point in trying. He didn’t even seem willing to shake her hand. “Alrighty then. Goodbye. Noah…” And as she spoke, she realized she was probably saying his name for the last time.
Noah simply administered the shot with the gadget and then stepped back. “Goodbye.”
Laney winced from the quick zap, but only briefly as she remained otherwise still, looking far down the walkway. Then the expression on her face blanked as though she was in a trance, and after a moment her eyes cleared up.
She stopped short in the middle of the footpath, blinking as though trying to regain her bearings. “Oh man,” she moaned softly to herself, as for some reason all her muscles ached. “I totally need a nap.” She started to walk back toward the dorms, glancing up at the clock on the wall briefly, almost running into someone walking past—someone wearing a heavy flight jacket.
“Sorry,” he said brusquely, brushing past her.
Laney kept walking carelessly, picking up her pace as her mind began to fill with thoughts.
She needed to find Darla to get her stuff back and to tell her that the nurse had said that Laney was totally fine. She needed to talk to Mrs. Bankes about her Sociology paper. She needed to sort out where to stay tonight since her room had been ransacked the previous night.
Laney sighed out loud in exasperation as she walked on. Sometimes, it was just totally exhausting to be her.
***
“I see someone’s overdoing being the interim Chief,” Noah remarked as he came back to find Berry amidst a hectic and bustling GNR lobby, calling out instructions to several people at once.
Berry paused, looked up, and grinned at him.
Since he was recently appointed the interim Chief of GNR, Berry had been directing all the staff to make repairs, write reports, and log inventory, basically cleaning up all the mess that the previous ad hoc administration had left, so he could clear the decks and restore the world-class laboratory to its former glory, so to speak.
“Let’s just say, I’ve got significantly big boots to fill,” Berry quipped before his expression turned serious. And he prompted, “So…how did it go?”
Noah shot him a brief look. “Fine.”
Berry regarded his expression with a raised eyebrow. “And she doesn’t remember anything?”
“It worked like you said.”
Berry nodded once. “Good.”
Noah cracked his neck, his expression unsettled.
Berry stopped short and gave him an expectant look. “What?”
Noah met his gaze again and replied
, “She saved my life.”
“When?” he asked, with an almost knowing dread.
“In the beginning,” he relayed. “Back on her world, before we made the jump. One of The Alliance’s guys shot at me.”
“And he shot her instead?” Berry’s eyes widened. “That is so not good,” he said, with a gravelly low tone of voice.
Noah gave him a pointed ‘duh’ look.
“And you’ve known about this all along,” Berry said, looking stunned. “Dude,” he started with concern. “If she got shot by an energy weapon, then that means—”
“I know what it means,” Noah cut him off, irritably.
Berry blew out a breath as if struggling with the enormity of what he had found out. “Alright then,” he said, shaking his head.
***
FIND YOURSELF
Selfless · Book 2
Normal
***
“Laney…”
“Laney, I knew it was you.”
“Laney, wake up.”
“Wake up, sleepyhead.”
Laney rolled over in her bed, groaning. “Five more minutes, Mom.”
She heard her boyfriend, Kevin, chuckle under his breath.
Laney opened one eye to peek up at him but otherwise didn’t move from under her covers. “Kevin, what are you doing here? Where’s Stephanie?” She gave her dorm room a quick glance over.
Laney’s room at her New England boarding school fit two single beds and two desks, but it looked even smaller at the moment. There was barely any space to walk on the floor, with the questionably-clean clothing, disarrayed stacks of books, and crumpled up pieces of paper, most of them Post-it notes, all strewn about. A stuffed rabbit that looked like it had seen better days was tucked underneath the bed across the way—her roommate, Stephanie’s. The bed was empty, but still unmade, with its bed sheets having been dragged down almost to the floor.