TIME & TIED: DESTRUCTION

ARC 3.1 - With Chartreuse

PART 48a: TALKING TO HERSELF 1

As soon as Carrie Waterson saw herself standing at the entrance to the restaurant, all thoughts of her trip to the washroom vanished.

She now wanted to run over and smack herself in the face. Or run, and run, and keep on running. Instead, she stood there, heart racing. Fight, flight, or freeze... and Carrie’s hands clenched into fists, as she realized that she had picked the stupidest of those three stress options.

Here she was, a high school teenager, being hunted by people from the future. Yielding them the initiative? Not a good idea. On the bright side, the other Carrie over there - no, Elizabeth, Carrie quickly corrected herself, I’m the right one, I’m in my proper time, I get to be Carrie, she gets our middle name - she looked to be about the same age. But was that a trick?

Even as Carrie stared, Elizabeth beckoned her over. Present day Carrie took a step, then another - and by the time she reached the front door, she was almost charging through after her blonde double.

“Hey.”

That was all Elizabeth had time to say, before Carrie had pulled back her fist and punched herself in the gut.

“I’m not going to be you,” she asserted, as Elizabeth doubled over. She brought her hands up to slam down on Elizabeth’s back, but Elizabeth rammed forwards into her before Carrie could complete the manoeuvre, knocking them both down onto the pavement in front of the restaurant.

Carrie now wished she hadn’t worn a dress to her party, but she hadn’t exactly expected to be fighting anyone today. Least of all herself. Elizabeth, by contrast, was in a more practical T-shirt and jeans.

She was also now on top, so Carrie tried to grab her and roll, to flip them both over. Except Elizabeth threw her weight back onto Carrie’s legs, pinning her down instead. Which did allow Carrie to sit up - and she still had her arms free. She tried to clap both hands together on either side of Elizabeth’s head.

Elizabeth also raised her arms, managing to block one palm, so Carrie only had the satisfaction of smacking her other self, an act which slightly dislodged her adversary’s hairband. And now Elizabeth was holding onto the arm that she had blocked, and so Carrie was left pounding her lone fist into Elizabeth’s shoulder.

“I’m not going to be you,” she repeated, a tear stinging at her eye.

“That might be for the best,” Elizabeth wheezed, as she caught her breath. “I’m getting a little beat up.”

“Don’t you even joke about it!”

Elizabeth finally managed to catch hold of Carrie’s other arm. “I know. I shouldn’t. I’m sorry.”

“My birthday,” Carrie said, feeling the fight go out of her as all her limbs were restrained. “You had to come back to ruin my BIRTHDAY?”

“Not ruin. I hope not ruin. I only wanted to point something out.”

“You couldn’t have left a NOTE?”

“No,” Elizabeth said, having the decency to look apologetic. “I couldn’t. We would ignore a note. Or second guess it. I had to tell myself - you - this thing in person.”

Carrie blinked her tear away. “Fine. What?”

“You mind if we discuss this somewhere other than laid out on the ground in front of a public restaurant? All it takes is one guy with a camera phone, and next thing we know, our picture is up on some selfcest website.”

Carrie flinched. “Self WHAT?”

Elizabeth released her arms, and when no attack was immediately forthcoming, pushed herself back off Carrie’s legs too. “I’d say be careful about the time travel research you’ll do this coming summer,” she sighed. “But sometimes I’m way too curious for my own good.”

***

The air on this particular evening in late March was cool and crisp, more so than usual. Though most of the snow had already melted, there was still a pile of it off in the corner of the parking lot, where it had been shoved by snowplows throughout the winter.

The two Carries walked in that direction, moving far enough so as to be in the shadows. They didn’t need to go too far, as the only light in the area came from the street lamps and the restaurant windows.

Carrie rubbed her arms with her palms. Not only was she in a dress, she didn’t have her jacket. She also still needed to use the washroom. “So?”

“So,” Elizabeth repeated back. “Low key affair this year, no big party at Julie’s - instead, who’s in there, celebrating your seventeenth birthday with you?”

Carrie looked back towards the building. “Frank and Luci. Julie and Clarke. And Chartreuse.”

“And Chartreuse.”

Carrie turned to her double. “Is this meant to be an echo fest?”

“Chartreuse is the only friend in there who doesn’t know about the time machine,” Elizabeth pointed out. “Your memory wipe at the hospital was effective on her, because she’d never time travelled before.”

“Yeah? So?” Carrie countered. “Are you telling me I should be swapping Chartreuse out for Corry, who does know? Because even though he helped me out with what happened last semester, and continues to stand up for Julie, he’s still a jerk.”

“No. I’m telling you maybe you should talk to Chartreuse.”

Carrie rubbed her arms again. “I can’t bring her back into this,” she murmured. “Not her, not anyone. You know that.”

“All I know is that Chartreuse, Laurie, Tim and Lee had their memories altered,” Elizabeth countered. “But that they were once a part of this. And you - we - shouldn’t feel guilty about what we did to them. We weren’t exactly in our right mind at the time.”

“It’s not only guilt,” Carrie countered. “If you’re really me, you MUST know that.”

Elizabeth slumped a little. “I guess I do. But are Chartreuse and the others really better off this way? Thinking that all those meetings were merely for helping Frank with a science project, researching the LaMilles, or taking down the man with funny mental powers who wanted to kill me and bomb the hospital?”

“Am I even having this conversation? Elizabeth, if - no WHEN more people come back from the future, everyone who knows about my hidden powers is going to be in danger. I can’t help that for Frank and the rest, but those four you named? They’re free and clear. Geez, why do I even have to explain this to you?”

Elizabeth pursed her lips. “Okay, yeah. But Chartreuse is different.”

“Because she wanted to come to my little party, after finding out about it from Luci? We’re not that close.”

“Maybe you should be.”

“Seriously? You still haven’t told me WHY.”

“Think, past me! Chartreuse has powers too.”

Carrie found she was forced to think about that. Her toes curled inside her shoes, and she blew on her hands to warm them up. “What, you think Chartreuse already suspects?”

“I think you should to talk to her.”

“Again, why? Her powers aren’t like my powers. Chartreuse gets impressions from people, and sees the future. I destroy solar systems.”

“We don’t destroy--"

“I destroy solar systems,” Carrie interrupted, louder. “We know this.”

“Fine, if we’re not trained properly, yeah we do,” Elizabeth retorted, raising her voice to match. “All the more reason to get our head out of the sand in the coming year, and start doing something about it.”

“And do WHAT about it?”

“Talk to Chartreuse!”

“Why, because you did and it’s worked out OH so well for you?”

“Or maybe because I didn’t, and I regret it, since talking to her might have set me on a much better path.”

The two girls were nearly nose to nose at this point, glaring at each other, postures rigid and fists clenched. Neither version of Carrie was willing to give ground. Meaning it was perhaps fortunate that their argument was interrupted by a scream from behind the restaurant.

Both Carries turned their heads. “Oh hell,” Elizabeth said, wincing. “I forgot about this part.”

“Part? What part??” Carrie demanded.

“Someone just tried to run off with my time machine.”

***

“You left our time machine out in the open?” Carrie accused her.

Elizabeth shook her head, cursing her own stupidity. “No. I shoved it behind some cardboard boxes out back of the restaurant. Dealing with you while having that damn black box shoved under my arm felt stupid.”

“Yeah, this has really demonstrated your intelligence.”

“Oh, shut up.” Elizabeth hated that her past self had a point, when she was supposed to be the (marginally) older, more mature one. It’s not like the time machine would have screamed ‘time machine’ at anyone either, it looked more like a portable slot machine.

She met Carrie’s expectant gaze with silence. Carrie put her hands on her hips. “So, are you going to STOP this theft?”

“I already have.” The scream had reminded Elizabeth of how the next few minutes would play out. Sure enough, she’d barely finished speaking when her other self came around the corner of the building. One time machine under each arm.

Carrie didn’t look too pleased by this development.