TIME & TIED: ESCALATION

ARC 2.4 - From the Future

PART 44a: TURNING POINT 1

"Great. No LaMilles listed in the phone book," Frank stated, throwing the volume aside. “Why did phone books ever exist, if important people weren’t listed in them?”

"The LaMilles were fairly wealthy even at this point in the past,” Clarke observed. “They could have asked to be unlisted - or maybe they only came here because it’s their winter home? Or some property they were hoping to flip?"

“The point being, we have no idea where Julie could be," Frank moaned, pressing a hand to his forehead. "What's worse, now we're not only fighting to keep Julie's suicide plans from succeeding, we're probably also fighting the time streams, as they try to kill her off again.”

Clarke stared. “Frank... you’ve implied that Julie died in that car accident. Before we came back.”

Frank winced, then nodded. “Yeah. I’ve been thinking I need to revise my initial time travel theories,” he admitted. “Because while that news article you found would scan the same whether we were here or not, if Shady was acting to change his past - our present - it follows that our presence here could have changed Julie’s past - now our present.”

“You mean her future,” Clarke noted. “Relatively speaking.”

Frank grimaced. “I guess. But it means our REAL present could be in trouble too.”

“Julie’s at the hospital.”

Frank turned at Corry’s interjection. “What?”

The redhead turned towards the other two teens. “It's time for us to go on the offensive.”

Clarke sighed. “Corry, now is not the time to--"

“You’re wrong,” he asserted. “It’s now or never. Think about it. Julie has been reduced to a defensive game here, and if we let her fortify that position, we’re sunk."

“But why the hospital?" Frank asked.

Corry lifted up three fingers, then curled one up. "First, when that girl has a goal in mind, she needs to know all of the related variables. The layout of the hospital, the staff on duty, et cetera. Even if she accomplished all of that before our arrival, she might want to observe our actions there.”

He curled up his second finger. "Second, I believe that our presence is going to make Julie act sooner, rather than later. She'll bribe a doctor somehow, or switch around crucial medications, and then lead us on a merry chase as far away from the scene as possible. That chase likely starts at the hospital."

"And third?" Clarke wondered.

"Third," Corry said, curling his last finger before letting his hand fall open, "where else is she going to go? Like me, she has no allies here, no provisions, and for that matter, the hospital is where her double seemed to be headed. Though that was almost a half hour ago, so I suggest we get a move on."

“And do what? Grab her when we see her? That didn’t work,” Frank protested. “We obviously need a better plan.”

“Maybe not,” Corry asserted. “In particular, because I’m now going to tell you what Julie did in front of me that day in January. I’ll warn you now, if you believe what I’m about to say, you won’t ever look at her the same way again.” He eyed Clarke. “But between her hating us forever, and her being dead? I think we want the former. Don’t you?”

***

"False labour indeed," the woman grumbled. "It felt real enough. What do these small town doctors know anyway?"

"Now, now," soothed her husband. “I made sure he was qualified, and you wanted the smaller town, to surround the event with a certain anonymity. Give it another couple of days; we can induce if we have to."

“Peachy," she groused back, sitting herself down. “Well, I’m not budging from this spot for at least a half an hour. I need to recover my wits. Plus I may go into real labour sometime in the next few minutes.”

"Whatever you think is best," the man consented, taking a seat next to his wife.

Mere metres away, around the nearest corner, a girl with wide, staring eyes was breathing heavily. Because those were her parents. Out there, in the hospital waiting area.

Julie could scarcely believe her luck - this must be why they hadn't been at the house. She could end it all, right here, right now. This late in the evening, there were very few hospital employees around. She still had the gun, tucked away in a jacket pocket. She could easily get off one shot before anyone could stop her.

Except.

Those were her parents.

It wasn't her mother's fault that her daughter had turned out to be a huge disappointment. And the very thought of raising a gun to the woman who had given birth to her was making Julie sick to her stomach. Worse, what if it was for nothing? What if the doctors here were able to save the unborn child? To save Julie’s life? Did they have that ability in a hospital this size?

She became very aware of her heartbeat.

Julie swallowed. No. She had to act now. She had to risk it, before her future classmates could stop her. After all, no one would be expecting this, right? And she could shoot, and shoot, and shoot... until she ceased to even be here. The doctors, they would try to save her mother first, right?

Julie reached into the pocket of her borrowed clothing, trying to ignore her case of the shakes. Her fingers touched the gun. The safety clicked off. She began to walk around the corner. Somehow, it felt like she was moving through water. Like everything around her was happening in slow motion.

Like time itself was holding its breath.

There were running footsteps.

She began to draw the gun out.

A hand seized her wrist.

"We have to talk," came the unmistakable voice of Corry Veniti.

Julie tried to twist out of his grip, to yank the gun out and point it at him instead, but his grip tightened, preventing the movement. She wanted to scream.

"No," he said firmly. “Give me ten minutes, Julie. Then, if you still want to kill me - I’ll probably deserve it."

She refused to look at him. Her eyes darted about the waiting area as she searched wildly for some escape. Screaming still felt like an option, yet calling attention to herself was the last thing she wanted to do. At least she didn't see any sign of Phil or Frank. Only her parents. And even now, she saw they were ignoring her.

"I pick where we talk,” Julie choked out.

Corry nodded, but maintained his grip. The two of them proceeded down the nearest hall. Julie passed up the first obvious choice for a room, choosing the next empty one. They entered, Corry leaving the door partly open.

"I'm going to release your arm now," the redhead told her. "Bear in mind that if you shoot me before the ten minutes are up, it's bound to affect your plans, and may even be something I accounted for in mine."

Julie nodded slowly. He released her, and she immediately moved a few steps away. Hand on the gun. Waiting. Staring. At least half a minute ticked by. “Okay,” Corry began at last. "Now... what goddamn fool stunt do you think you're trying to pull?!”

Julie flinched. Any doubts she’d harboured as to whether this was truly the Corry she knew were now gone.

“I mean, I know you've had some complex plots in the past, but my God, killing yourself THIS way?” he snapped. “It’s the most twisted thing I've ever heard of.”

“Why does it matter to YOU how I kill myself?” she retorted.

“How could it NOT matter, Julie?” Corry asserted. “This isn’t what I wanted when I led my campaign against you. I wanted you brought down a peg, not taken off the ladder completely! Consider, if you do this, and we remember you? We feel guilty. And if we don’t remember... I lose all the experience I gained from having you as my adversary.”

He clenched his jaw. “Because as much as I hate to admit it, you pushed me to new heights, Julie. You broadened my universe. In no small way when you tried to kill yourself two years ago on the gym balcony. I didn’t think anyone could go that far! And since I wouldn’t let you act on it then - I'll be damned before I let you do it now!”

The memory came to her, unbidden.

>

She pulled herself away from the image. That had been a gamble. This was all too real. “So here we are again,” she whispered. “The two of us, locked in a stalemate. Me with the weapon.”

“And me - with backup.”

Corry stepped to the side as Frank entered the room. Julie immediately yanked out her gun, pointing it at the brown haired boy. “How did you find us?!” she shrieked.

Frank swallowed, his eyes on the gun barrel. “H-Hid, and followed Corry. Look, Julie, n-no one has to die here.”

"Frank's right," Corry chimed in, Julie readjusting her target to the one who was speaking. “More to the point,” he added, “no one has died yet. Don’t cross that line, Julie.”

Julie shook her head. "No, no... I shot Carrie!"

>

“Carrie’s alive,” Frank asserted.

“I also shot you.”

“You missed me.”

“And then I killed that homeless woman.”

Frank hesitated.

"That was an accident," Corry yielded. “No way did you intend for that to happen."

"Julie, we can still fix things," Frank insisted. “It’s not as bad as you think it is.”

>

"No, no, NO," Julie said, pressing the palm of her free hand against her temples. "I have to die, I know I have to die..."

"Why do you have to die?"

Julie spun to point her gun over at Phil, the latest arrival. Then she shifted it back to Corry, then Frank, then again to Phil. The three of them were too far apart. But she could get at least one of them.

"Why do you have to die, Jewels?" Phil repeated softly.

“B-Because I do," Julie said hoarsely.

>

"They hurt you, didn't they."

>

"I don't know what you're talking about," Julie said, not only pushing that memory aside, but grinding it beneath her heel and burying it. She had to focus on the present. Past. Whatever.

Frank spoke again. “Julie, don’t you see? We’re on your side here. And it’s not only the three of us." He pulled an envelope out of his pocket, extending it towards her with a shaky hand.

“Nuh uh. You open it,” she asserted, waggling her gun.

He did so. Nothing exploded out of it. Instead, Frank removed a sheet of paper, and extended that instead. “From Luci,” he said.

Julie eyed him. She cautiously reached out to take the page, keeping her gun trained his way so that the others couldn’t make a move to disarm her without unpleasant consequences. She unfolded the paper, and risked a quick glance down.