TIME & TIED: ESCALATION

ARC 2.3 - To the Past

PART 38a: COMING TOGETHER 1

Laurie finished shading in her drawing, then leaned back to get a better overall look. The kitten stared up at her from the page with small, sad eyes. "Oh, who am I kidding?" Laurie whimpered. She pushed aside her sketch pad and leaned over her desk, cradling her head in her arms. "Drawing isn't going to cheer me up. I... I should get back to my math."

The redhead reached out and flipped open her textbook, pulling it over and staring down at it blankly. Golly, this unit was hard to figure out! It was bad enough trying to understand math under normal circumstances... now, what with Carrie in the hospital, and Clarke withdrawing, no doubt due to Julie's disappearance...

"I can't concentrate,” Laurie wailed aloud. She pushed the textbook away and picked up her pencil again. However, after less than a minute of doodling, Laurie had tossed it aside once more.

"I'll see what Corry's up to," she decided. Heading out of her room, she went down the hall, making a point of knocking on her brother's door.

"Who's there?" Corry called out.

Laurie turned the knob and peered around the corner. "Who d'you think?" she answered.

"I said 'who's there' not 'come in'," Corry observed dryly, turning away from his own desk. He reached out and hit pause on his music player, cutting off the sound of classical music.

"Close enough,” Laurie said. “I did knock.”

Corry rolled his eyes. "Guess that’s what confused me. Okay little sis, what's up?"

She didn't even think to call him out on the 'little sis' remark. "I guess I was wondering what you were up to.”

“Finishing my chemistry write-up," Corry noted. "It's due soon, and I've been putting it off."

"Oh." Laurie edged a little further into the room, glancing over at the music player then back at her brother. "So... that was Beethoven, right? One of his symphonies?"

Corry nodded. "Glad to see I'm finally having a positive cultural effect on you."

"But you only listen to his symphonies in order to calm down when you're upset about something," Laurie pointed out. "So... so does that mean you're troubled about recent events?"

Her brother looked away. "Troubled? No, I wouldn't say troubled. It's been an interesting few weeks, that's all."

Laurie leaned back up against the door frame. "Oh."

He looked back. "Laurie, are you feeling troubled?"

She shifted her weight back and forth. "Maybe."

"About Julie or about Carrie?" Corry prompted. Laurie didn't reply, merely shifted back and forth again. Corry sighed. "Look sis, there's no point in getting all worked up over those two," he continued. "After all, whatever's happened with them, there's nothing we can do about it."

"Yeah... I know," Laurie admitted. “Still it's... well, it's upsetting, don't you think?"

"If you ask me, it's nonsensical," Corry countered, annoyance creeping into his tone. "Julie disappearing without a trace? Carrie going stir crazy in the hospital? I don't get it. Makes no sense. So, better to put it all behind us and move on."

"But... but how can you just DO that??"

"Simple, look towards the future. Not back at the past. For instance, have you started your math homework yet?"

"Kinda," Laurie admitted sullenly. "It's too hard though."

"Tell you what then," Corry continued. "Give me a half hour to finish up my stuff here, and then I'll help you out with it. Okay?"

"O-Okay. I guess."

Corry smiled reassuringly. "Cheer up, Laurie. Whatever's happened, I'm sure it will work itself out in time. Until then, we have to move on with the rest of our lives. I'm sure Clarke would want you to do that, right?"

Laurie pursed her lips, then nodded again. “Yeah. Okay," she repeated. "I'll see you in half an hour then?"

Corry nodded, and Laurie slipped back out of his room, closing the door behind her. She still couldn't bring herself to smile though. What was she going to do for the next half hour anyway? Maybe she should call Chartreuse. Yes, that was a good idea, Chartreuse always helped her feel better.

Laurie headed back to her room. However, before she reached it, she heard the doorbell ring. Straining to hear who the visitor was, Laurie heard a familiar voice speaking to her mother.

***

"Chartreuse, I was just going to call you,” Laurie said, bouncing down the stairs towards her. "Maybe this is one of those psychic ESP phenomena you've talked about?”

Chartreuse smiled at her red haired friend. "There must be some good alpha waves going on," she agreed. "Though I'm kinda here on a mission too. Mind if we, like, have a quick talk about something? In your room?"

As they walked upstairs, Chartreuse debated possible ways to broach the subject of what had happened to Julie. The direct method was probably best. Right? Except Laurie still looked a little distraught. Could she handle direct?

"So, what's up?" Laurie asked, moving to sit cross-legged on her bed.

"Well, it's, you know, something very secret," Chartreuse began tentatively, as she closed Laurie’s bedroom door. She forced herself not to pace back and forth. "Along the same lines as your dream to become a professional animator."

Laurie's eyes widened. "But... you're the only person I've ever told that to. Not even Corry knows about it.”

"And he can't know about this either. Not right away," Chartreuse asserted. "So promise you'll, like, keep this quiet forever n' ever, or, um, at least until circumstances change?"

Laurie nodded wordlessly.

Chartreuse took in a deep breath. Yeah, best to simply say it. "Okay then. So, Frank, Carrie and Luci had a time machine. But Julie took it to, like, escape into the past. So now we need your help to get Julie back. You follow that?”

Laurie stared. Her nose crinkled. "Waaaait... TIME machine?? And... me? Why me?”

"It's got to do with some, you know, tricky spacials stuff. It hinges on the fact that you were born in Miami during the right year," Chartreuse explained. She was having trouble figuring out if Laurie was more confused or excited.

Laurie’s frown deepened. "But... okay, well, I was obviously only in Miami from May 21st onwards, because birthday, so how does that connect and where did this time machine come from, did Frank and Luci invent it and how did you find out about it, for that matter how long have you known and does this have anything to do with why Carrie's in the hospital now because oooooooh, golly, hold on, she wasn't shot because of this machine WAS she, I mean there aren't international spies running around trying to get it back from you are there, is your life in danger or is Julie's, or was Julie in on it and is that why she was usually able to best my brother - it could explain some things - though it raises a lot of other questions too and golly I'm not really sure where to begin anymore but give me a second to keep processing this--"

"Laurie, hold on,” Chartreuse cut in quickly as Laurie paused for a lungful of air. At least the nonstop talking was a really good sign. "All your questions will be answered. For right now, what I have to know is... are you willing to help us out? Because it could be dangerous."

Laurie’s lips pursed. "Seems like if I don't help, nothing will get better for Carrie or Julie. Right?"

Chartreuse nodded reluctantly. "Probably. But regarding time travel, there's a lot of stuff we're still not sure of. So don't, like, base your decision only on them... you're hardly close friends."

"Chartreuse, how long have you known me?" Laurie said indignantly. "If I can help make people feel better, I want to do it. Doesn't matter if they'll thank me or not, what goes around comes around, and I know there's loads of times when I've needed people to help me out too.”

"Right... I should have, you know, figured on you saying that," Chartreuse admitted. She should have found a way to phrase things better.

"So when do we leave?" Laurie asked, uncrossing her legs.

"Whoa, hold on,” her friend protested. "We don't even, like, have the machine back yet. In fact there's a lot of stuff still being organized, and... well, we’ll have to talk to your brother first."

Laurie folded her arms. “Chartreuse, you JUST said that this was a secret that he can’t know about!”

"Welllll... it’s more we don't want him finding out at a time which isn't of our choosing," Chartreuse corrected. "Otherwise he might react badly, given how Carrie and Julie are involved too.”

Laurie shook her head. “That makes NO sense. If you have a time machine, how can it NOT happen at a time of your choosing?" she protested.

“Okay, it's not as simple as that," Chartreuse sighed. “Again, we don’t have the machine now, plus I also said this was, you know, tricky and dangerous.”

“But you've travelled through time, haven’t you? And you look okay!”

Chartreuse blinked in surprise. "No," she corrected. "I haven't done any time traveling yet.”

"Oh.” Laurie thought on that for a moment. "Why not? I thought you’d jump at the chance.”

Chartreuse took a moment to try and phrase things right this time. "The opportunity never really, I don’t know, presented itself."

"So when the two of us go, it will be your first time too?"

Chartreuse realized she still hadn’t properly explained the situation.