by Bella Street
“God. Do you know what this means?”
“Yes, I know!”
Seffy saw a muscle jumping in his jaw. His grim expression was a far cry from his usual satisfied smirk.
Fiona burst into the room. “Where is he?”
Trent pointed toward the kitchen. Her dark, slanted eyes sought his and they shared a silent communication before she turned and went to Fenn.
Seffy stared at Trent, realizing he was way more in the loop than any of the Apocalypse Babes. She sank against the couch cushions, her mind reeling with all the ramifications. Fenn is a heroin addict. Trent knows about it. Fiona knows Trent knows about it. Maybe Fiona and Trent have a thing going.
God, I want to go home.
A medic burst into the room with a gurney and whooshed past toward the kitchen. A few minutes later the medic and doctor hurried back through the living room, accompanying Fenn who lay strapped on the gurney. As they left, Fiona came out, wringing her hands, her pointed face a picture of misery. After dismissing the remaining guards, she turned to Trent. Her gaze slid to Seffy. She firmed her mouth as if making up her mind about something.
“What did you tell the doctor?” Trent asked, breaking the awkward silence.
Fiona began pacing in front of the long sectional couch. “I had to tell him. What choice did I have?”
“You didn't. And you did the right thing.”
She stopped and stared up at him. “How can I be sure he won't talk?”
Seffy watched Fiona's struggle with a certain detachment. Maybe because Fenn's girlfriend was such a manipulator, she couldn't put her faith in people to do the right thing.
“Bottom line, Fenn needed help,” Trent said. “We'll deal with the rest later.”
We'll deal. Hmmm.
Fiona looked at Seffy, her eyes hard. “I trust you know how to keep your mouth shut. We've gone to considerable effort and expense for you—”
“Fiona, since you're about to make a request of Seffy, perhaps you could be a bit more diplomatic.”
Seffy's eyes widened as she looked back and forth between the two of them. “What kind of request? What the hell is going on around here?”
The diminutive woman more than made up for her small size with a dominant personality. She planted her hands on her hips. “What's going on around here is trying to figure out how to get you back where you came from.”
Seffy felt a headache coming on. She'd heard it all before. “Just me, or all of us?”
“Just you for now.”
“Why me?”
Fiona glanced at Trent. “Your friend here says you worked at a medical clinic.”
Seffy glared at Trent the Blabbermouth. “So what? You didn't seem to appreciate my receptionist skills earlier.”
“It's not your receptionist skills I'm after. It's you access to medical information.”
“What kind of information?”
“Tell me about the clinic where you worked.”
Seffy wondered when anything was going to make sense in this place. “It was an oncology clinic. They treated cancers of the blood, like leukemia and lymphoma.”
Fiona pressed her hands against her mouth and sank onto the couch. Tears gathered in her eyes, shocking Seffy more than anything she'd seen in the last few minutes.
Trent turned to her. “Fenn has leukemia. He started using morphine, then heroin to deal with the pain when it spread to his bones, and now he's hooked. If we can deal with the leukemia, we can deal with the addiction.”
Seffy thought back to all the times Fenn seemed to struggle to keep control of the compound, and the way he usually kept himself separated behind glass windows. Not to mention his chronic appearance of fatigue. “I don't understand how he ended up on heroin. Why don't you have the proper pain management options?”
“Why don't keep your mouth shut about things you know nothing about,” Fiona snapped.
“Okaaay,” Trent said in a conciliatory voice, “let's get back to the matter at hand for now.”
Seffy shot him an annoyed look. “I still don't see how this applies to me.”
“Fenn needs a bone marrow transplant,” Fiona said, brushing away her tears and straightening her spine. “We don't have the necessary technology in 1980. That's why we went on a fishing expedition in the future.”
Seffy took a deep breath. “So, you want me to bring back a doctor?”
“It doesn't work like that,” Trent said.
“Okay, Mr. Time-Travel Professional, how does it work?”
“One theory says for every person who goes to the future, one can come back. A fluke happened when a bunch of us showed up in the desert.”
“A fluke doesn't sound like a reassuring scientific term.”
Fiona clicked her tongue. “They're still working on what that's all about. Until then, unless you stayed in 2006, no one could come back in your place.”
“Why can't I stay? I'll happily take my boss hostage and ship him off to you.”
Trent looked at Fiona. “Is that enough of a connection?”
She thought for a moment then shook her head.
“What? Why not?” Seffy said, hating being kept in the dark.
“We want you to go and bring stuff back with you,” Fiona said. “We have our own doctors. We just need the information and medicine.”
“What, like how-to-manuals for bone marrow transplants?”
She nodded.
“I don't even know if that kind of thing exists!”
“We'll have a list of things we hope you can get. And maybe you can ask around to get anything else we would need.”
“Why not just send Fenn back?”
Fiona rolled her eyes. “He can't. He's too sick.”
“I'm just saying it makes the most sense.”
“No.”
“Then why don't you do it?”
“I need to take care of Fenn!”
Seffy considered the woman. She wasn't surprised they wanted some else to do their dirty work. “So you're expecting me to steal from my employer and somehow bring back equipment, medications, technology...”
“Yes.”
She thought about her realistic chances of ever leaving the compound. “You do know how unlikely it is that this will work, right?”
Fiona's eyes were wide with unshed tears. “Fenn is dying. All I know is that you have to try!”
Chapter Three
“So how long have you and Fiona been seeing each other?” Seffy sent Trent a sidelong glance as they headed back to their rooms. “Should I be jealous?”
He rolled his eyes. “Please. I found out about Fenn's addiction by accident. Fiona knew I knew and took steps to shut me up.”
Seffy frowned, noticing a thin sheen of perspiration on his forehead and upper lip. “What, she tried to blackmail you? And let me guess, you passed the buck to me?”
Trent stopped. “Do you want to let Fenn die?”
She sighed. “Of course not, but don't you think that's like a ton of pressure?”
“I have a feeling you've dealt with plenty of pressure before.”
Seffy smacked his arm. “Why do you make everything sound sordid?”
Trent looked down at her, his eyes lit with something she couldn't identify. “So would you be jealous of me and Fiona?”
“I was being sarcastic.”
“Ah, but sarcasm usually comes from a pinch.”
“So says the Sarcastic King of the Universe.”
He snorted and resumed walking.
Seffy caught up to him and grabbed his arm. She lowered her voice. “You know all this is ridiculous. This time travel experiment won't work.”
“Says who?”
“Says anyone with a brain, and more specifically Gareth.”
“Your ex-boyfriend—he is your ex, right?”
Seffy sent him a droll look.
“Well, your ex is wrong.”
It was Seffy's turn to snort. “And you're right? A director's assistant is suddenly a
science expert? Oh wait, maybe you meant you were a director's personal assistant.”
Trent's features hardened. “It will work. It already has once.”
“Even if it does, I'm not under compulsion to be a part of your insane plot. I don't owe anyone any loyalty around here. All of my injuries were because of this place, not in spite of it.”
“You have friends here and you're not impartial to Fenn. You'll do what's required.”
Seffy clenched her fists. “Here's a better idea, send Fenn to the future to get medical help, because, you know, I don't feel like risking my life for this place again.”
Trent took her arm and hustled her toward her door. “There are things at work here that you don't understand. Why don't you just keep your mouth closed and do what you're told?”
She shook her arm free, fury making her cheeks hot. “As we've already established, I don't owe anyone anything, and you and Fiona and probably Fenn are just a bunch of lying manipulators that I could never trust.”
Trent braced his arm against the door jamb. “You're going back to the future, like it or not, Sef.”
“Will it work if I'm unconscious? Because that's the only way you'll get me to do it.”
“Don't tempt me.”
Seffy lifted her chin. Leave it to Trent to take her one hope of escape and turn it into a battle of wills. “Why don't you go? Apparently you and the two F's are tight.”
His expression became shuttered. “It has to be you.”
“Why?” She curled her lip. “Because I'm the hub?”
“That's right.”
“And you're going to explain all this to me when?”
“Probably never.”
Seffy ground her molars. The last time she stood like this with Trent, he'd told her loved her. Now he stared down at her with a decidedly unlover-like look in his eyes. Resisting the urge to kick him in the leg, she twisted her door knob and slipped under his arm. Shutting the door on his stubborn face gave her the first feeling of pleasure she'd experienced in some time.
***
Seffy finally found Gareth in the computer room. After sulking in her own room for a couple of hours, she decided it was time to get some answers. Either that or The Hub was going to throw a major hissy fit. Gareth sat hunched over a monitor, surrounded by a group of nerds who watched his onscreen exploits with quiet absorption.
While deciding whether to cough for attention or just wait until another time, Eugene appeared at her side. “Can I help you, Miss Carter?” His gaze behind his thick glasses seemed nervous and his face turned red.
“It's just Seffy. And I was here to talk to Gareth.” She waved in his direction. “But if he's busy, I can come back later.”
Gareth looked up from the computer, slow realization lighting his face. “Hey, Sef. Uh, just give me a minute.”
The other nerds stared at her before averting their eyes and slinking away. Seffy furrowed her brows. They obviously knew more than she did. Or they were just really uncomfortable around women. On second thought, it was probably both.
Gareth approached. Her heart did a little flip at his dark good looks, followed by a new wave of depression that so much had changed between them.
“What's up?” he said trying to sound casual and failing.
“I just wanted to ask you some things...about time travel.”
“Let's go for a walk, then.”
She followed him out the door of the computer room. Eugene stared after her, blotting his brow with his lab coat sleeve. What a weirdo.
Once they were in the hall, Gareth turned back to her. “Do you mind going outside?”
“Like all the way? As in the exterior of the compound?”
“Yes,” he huffed.
Someone was grumpy. “I guess I could use some fresh air.” If it was air. Did anyone really know? With a pink sky and neon sun—apparently due to the apocto-blast—one had to wonder these things.
They ended up out by the gardens. Seffy watched the compound residents filling up baskets with fall produce. Most of the plants were bare and some residents were mulching the beds for the winter.
Winter. Could they really have been here for a whole season? No, that couldn't be right. “When did we get here, Gareth?”
“Late July.”
Okay, so she had remembered right. Seffy shivered as a chilly breeze whipped around the buildings. “Why is it so cold then? I mean, shouldn't it be an Indian summer or something?”
“It get colder faster in the higher elevations. But even still, it is unseasonably cold. Looks like the residents know it and are preparing.”
“That sucks.”
“It's just weather cycles. If it's cold early this year, it will probably be warmer next year.”
Seffy noted the strain around his eyes. “Well, since you're in a sciencey mode, do you want to explain some things to me?”
“Like?”
With the white set to his lips and flat expression, he seemed uptight and not really wanting to chat. Seffy missed the Gareth who fussed over her and seemed enamored of her. She glanced at his hand where it was in his pocket. That hand was made for holding things. He should be holding her hand right now, not keeping his tucked away and out of reach. A tear leaked out of the corner of her eye. Stupid wind.
“Sef?”
His voice jostled her brain. She cleared her throat. “Oh, well, I mean like why I'm the so-called hub of this time travel scheme.”
“Who so-called it that?”
She frowned. “Didn't you?”
His expression closed up even more. “No.”
Oops. “Maybe it was Trent.”
His face reddened, whether from anger or the cold she couldn't tell. “One of these days I'm going to stop threatening and just kill that guy.”
Seffy shrugged. “And I'll help. Regardless, if I'm the hub, then I should know it, right? Why are there secrets happening all around me?”
“They're not secrets exactly.”
“Aha! So you acknowledge you're keeping things from me.”
“Yes, for your own protection.”
What the hell? “You know, the whole protection excuse is getting a little thin. Who decides when I'm mature enough to handle all these big scary things?”
He made a face at her. “I just think some things aren't necessary right now.”
“Like everything being connected to me like a bicycle wheel...or something.”
A muscle jumped in his jaw. “Okay, Seffy, you are at the middle of this. All things come back to you. Are you happy?”
“Why are you acting like this? I'm just asking questions because the answers concern me.”
“And that's why I don't want to talk about it. These things could cause you great harm.”
She gritted her teeth, thinking of the wounds on her body that had yet to heal. “They already have, Gareth.”
He returned her stare, his dark eyes suddenly cold. “Not only do I not want anything bad to happen to you, but if it does, we're all affected negatively.”
“Because I'm the hub thingie.”
“Yes.”
“Why me? I'm just a girl from California who, through no choice of her own, got mixed up in a twisty wormhole. What makes me so special?”
“I don't think 'special' is the right word.”
“Then what? Doomed? God, Gareth, I have a right to know what's going on! And if you don't tell me, I'll find someone who will.”
His thunderous expression made shivers run down the back of her neck. “Then do it.”
Before she could respond, he walked past her and headed back to the compound. Seffy watched him go, feeling as though she'd been slapped. Mortification kept her rooted to the spot. Her nose began to run. She wiped at her cheeks with freezing fingers.
After a few minutes of useless introspection, Seffy slowly plodded back to the compound, her mind following suit. Maybe she should just accept that everyone knew what was best and be a good little girl.
On
ce she was back in her room, she sat on the edge of her bed, rubbing her arms in an effort to get warm. Where could she get some straight answers? Not Trent or Fiona. They had answers, but they were also heavily weighted to their own dark agendas. She needed a disinterested third party. Olga, her sometime nurse, said she wasn't in the loop. Addison and Lani either didn't know anything or didn't care. Malone might know something, but that guy was always looking out for Number One, except when he repaid favors with some serious weapons training.
The computer geeks knew something. Seffy narrowed her eyes. Once Eugene had helped her escape detection from the bad guys. Maybe he had some sympathy for her—or thought she was pretty. He'd definitely reacted to her presence earlier. And he obviously knew something about time travel stuff.
Maybe everything.
She made a plan. But first things first, a very hot shower to warm up her very cold bones.
***
“And here I didn't think you returned my affection.”
Seffy spun around at the sound of Trent's voice and saw him heading up the hall in her direction. She pulled her door shut behind her and lifted her chin. Intending to ignore him, she walked past him on her errand—the would-be seduction of one knowledgeable science nerd who wasn't Gareth.
Not one to take a hint, Trent grabbed her arm. “Where are you going looking like that?”
Seffy smacked his hand away and adjusted her blouse. Of course she would run into him when she looked like this—extra makeup, hair piled on top of her head, silky blouse, tight skirt and heels she'd found in compound stuff Addison and Lani had collected over the past few weeks. Nerdy types liked the Sexy Teacher look, right? Something more overt might scare him back to his calculus manual. “None of your business.”
Trent smiled knowingly. “Were you coming to my place? I told you to use the hidden passage between our rooms. That way we can keep our trysts secret.”
“No, Trent, I wasn't coming to see you. Now, leave me alone.” She resumed her steps, biting her lip when she heard him follow. Damn. Why him, why now? I need to get my head in the game if I'm going to get any answers from Eugene. Leave it to Trent to try and spoil my plan.
“Wish I had a swing like that in my back yard.”
Seffy whirled around, her face hot. “Really? That kind of thing works for you?”