by Julie Drew
“Is she dead?” Keisha yelled behind him.
Finn threw open the heavy metal door and knelt on the floor beside Tesla, and he tentatively touched her shoulder. “Tesla?”
She opened her eyes and looked at him, and the smile that broke across her face was like another laser flash.
“Hey,” she said. “I guess I’m back.”
“I guess you are.”
She sat up, a little slower than she would have if she’d had two good arms, but for all that she looked just fine, and Finn could feel himself start to relax, finally.
“T, what the hell—are you okay?” Keisha asked, skidding to a stop right beside Finn.
“Yeah, I’m good—what are you doing here?”
“I’m in the inner circle with you geeks now,” Keisha said proudly.
Tesla turned to Finn, her surprise apparent. “Lydia agreed to this?”
“Hardly. I don’t think she even knows. Keisha made Bizzy think she already knew, and bullied her into bringing her down here.”
“Nice,” Tesla said, holding her hand up, palm facing them. “Up top.”
Keisha, finally getting the recognition she felt she deserved, high-fived her best friend. “You should’ve told me, though,” she admonished Tesla.
“I really didn’t know until yesterday. Literally. When I told you I thought I’d hallucinated all that stuff in the hospital, that’s what I really thought it was. Hey—is Max okay?” Tesla asked, turning back to Finn.
“Max is fine, everyone is.” He paused a moment, but he couldn’t resist, he wanted the story. “So it worked. You went back? Same place?”
“Yup,” she said, and the triumph in her voice was unmistakable. “Piece of cake. Wound up in the coffin, in the lab, same time of night there as it was here when I left.”
“So time runs parallel here and there.”
“Far as I could tell,” she said. “From what Sam said, the same amount of time had passed there as had passed here since last fall when I stumbled into the Bat Cave with my concussion.”
“You talked to the janitor kid about time travel?” Finn asked, incredulous.
Tesla responded hastily. “I didn’t tell him. He works there—he knew it was a time machine before I ever showed up. But yeah, he was there in the lab. He’d waited for months, I guess, hoping someone would come back in the time machine.”
Finn nodded. “I guess I can’t blame him for that. It is pretty incredible. Still, Lydia won’t be happy that you had that conversation.”
Tesla merely shrugged. In light of her successful return from the past—not to mention the fact that Lydia wasn’t here—she didn’t feel overly concerned. She turned to Keisha. “Hey, maybe it’ll take the pressure off you and Biz. Cat’s out of the bag all over the place.”
“But Tesla, I still don’t get why you did this,” said Keisha.
Tesla sobered immediately and explained quickly about her father. “Is there any news of my dad, Finn? Any word from Jane?”
“Lydia is on it, of course, but she hasn’t updated us directly since you left last night. If she’s heard from Jane I’m not aware of it.”
“But Jane knows I took the jump, right?”
Finn hesitated. He didn’t want to tell Tesla that he sensed Lydia didn’t quite trust Jane; the woman was practically her aunt. “You’ll have to ask Lydia,” he finally said in a tone that did not invite questions. “We should probably head to the house. Everyone will want to know you’re back, and hear the whole story—you were gone a full day, you must have a lot to tell us. And your bag looks pretty full—did the mouse…?”
“Schrödinger,” Tesla corrected. “And yes.” Tesla reached into her bag and pulled out the tiny traveler, who blinked enormous black eyes at Finn.
“He made it,” Finn breathed. “Do you know what this means?”
“It means we need some Purel, stat,” said Keisha, backing away from Tesla.
“It doesn’t mean anything until we can repeat it,” Tesla answered Finn, too well schooled in the scientific method to let excitement lead her to a hasty conclusion.
Finn took the mouse and put it in a little wire cage that sat in a dark corner of the larger cave outside the time-machine room before they left the cave for the stairwell that led up and out into the world again.
“I brought some stuff back, but it’s unclear to me how valuable it is. Bizzy will be able to help figure it out, I think,” said Tesla as she climbed. “And I thought, you know, besides the technical aspects, you’re probably the one to help me dig into the past. Seems kind of journalistic.”
“It is that,” said Finn easily. “Plus, of course, that’s what my paycheck is for, as Lydia will happily remind me.”
They climbed the stairs in single file, Finn leading the way. Tesla, walking just behind him—her torso was twenty-six inches from his—vividly recalled the way he’d kissed her, right outside the door they were headed for. They’d stood in the light rain, a perfectly damp, warm summer night, and though she’d made the first move, his response had been—well, responsive. She flushed, suffused from head to toe with a warmth that was unmistakable. She glanced at his back, noted the way his T-shirt stretched taut across his shoulders, and her eyes traveled down his body, over his narrow hips, the fitted jeans, muscled thighs…
She wanted to kiss him again. And more.
“Tesla, geez!” Keisha complained when she ran smack into Tesla, who had unconsciously stopped on the stair, staring at Finn’s ass.
“Sorry,” Tesla mumbled, trying not to laugh as she started climbing again.
A few minutes later they rounded another bend in the seemingly endless metal staircase, which echoed loudly with every step they took until they reached the exterior door that led to the quad. Happy to have climbed out of the bowels of the Bat Cave, and anxious to breathe the fresh night air, they picked up their pace until they were at the door. Finn opened it to reveal the darkness just beyond where the light spilled out from the stairwell.
Tesla walked outside with Keisha, Finn right behind them, but before he could grab the door as it shut and cut off the only source of light in the darkness, they caught a glimpse of the man who emerged from the shadows only a few feet away and moved purposefully toward them. The door clicked shut behind them, their escape cut off, and they turned to face whoever it was that waited for them.
“Tesla,” the man called softly, as Finn pulled the girls back and stepped in front of them protectively.
“What do you want?” Finn asked.
The man ignored Finn. “Tesla, don’t be afraid. You know me.”
Tesla peered around Finn’s shoulder and stared at the shadowy figure in front of them. Her scalp pricked eerily at the sound of his voice. She knew that voice, though she couldn’t place it.
“I’m sorry to startle you,” said the man. “I’ve got a flashlight, I’m going to shine it on my face.”
He brought the flashlight up and turned the beam on his features. They stood like that for an interminable minute, as Finn, Keisha, and Tesla looked at him, and he stood patiently while they did. He wasn’t quite as tall as Finn, but he was harder, with a bigger, more muscular build. His thick, black hair was cut short, an almost military style, and he looked at Tesla intently with dark, liquid eyes—
“Sam?” Tesla suddenly said, her voice hesitant with disbelief.
“Yeah,” he replied, his voice still soft, as if she were a skittish colt he did not want to startle. “It’s me.”
“Oh my god,” she whispered, and then she was out from behind Finn before he could stop her and had flung herself into the arms of the dark haired man.
Sam’s arms went around her and held her tightly, her feet several inches above the rain-wet grass. He’d dropped the flashlight to catch her and it landed just in front of him, tipped up at an angle on a small hillock of grass to illuminate the tableau of Tesla’s arms around the handsome stranger’s neck, a self-assured man, older than Finn but, without a doubt, young enou
gh.
“That’s hot,” said Keisha with warm approval.
Tesla moved, pulled away from him just slightly, and Sam released her immediately to set her gently down on the ground.
“I can’t believe it,” Tesla laughed breathlessly. “I just left you, I just saw you like, twenty minutes ago! But you were—”
“Yeah, I know, it takes a while to get used to the idea.” He bent down to retrieve the flashlight and turned it off, which plunged them all back into darkness. “But it was eight years and twenty minutes ago for me.”
“Eight years,” she whispered. “But…”
And then Finn spoke. “Of course,” he said. “You’ve had to wait all this time.” Finn’s and Sam’s eyes met and, despite the gloom, they saw each other quite clearly.
“Oh, sorry,” Tesla said. “Sam, this is Finn and Keisha.”
Sam stuck his hand out and Finn grasped it with his own. “Good to meet you guys.”
“Likewise,” said Finn easily.
“Yeah, very, very good to meet you,” said Keisha, expertly elbowing her cousin aside to shake Sam’s hand as well.
“We should get to the house,” said Finn. “Lydia will want to talk to you, too, if you’d like to come with us.”
“Yeah, I would,” said Sam. “Thanks.”
They began the trek across campus, toward the library, as they made their way to Lydia’s old Victorian house.
“So, you work in Dr. Abbott’s lab?” Finn said, the first to break the awkward silence.
“Well, I did,” said Sam. “But I haven’t worked for him for six years.”
Tesla still struggled to grasp what had happened, how much time had passed. “So you must be—what?” she asked Sam. “Twenty-four?”
“Almost,” he said, and she could hear the grin on his face.
“Right,” she said with a laugh. “Twenty-three and three-quarters.”
“Exactly,” he chuckled, as Finn walked silently beside them.
“And what do you do now?” asked Tesla.
“I’m in my second year of med school,” he said. “Cardio—that’s the plan, anyway.”
“Specializing in arrhythmias?” Finn asked evenly.
Tesla glanced quickly at Finn’s profile but in the dark she saw only polite, casual interest on his face.
“Not exactly,” Sam said. “My father had a heart attack and died when I was eighteen, and since then I’ve planned to be a heart surgeon.”
“That’s rough,” said Finn evenly, genuine sympathy in his voice.
“It was,” Sam agreed. “Thanks.”
Keisha took over at that point, grilling Sam about med school, while Finn and Tesla walked in silence until they arrived at Lydia’s, where Finn walked up the front steps, opened the door, and stood aside to let the others precede him.
Tesla sat on the sofa next to Keisha and finished off the peanut butter and jelly sandwich Max had brought her almost immediately.
“Thanks,” she said to her brother after she’d washed it down with the last of the milk in her glass.
“Sure.” Max smiled at her from his place on the floor, where he sat with his legs crossed, obviously at home in Lydia’s house. “I figured you’d be hungry.”
“Yeah, I didn’t realize how much,” she said.
“Those eggs didn’t tide you over?” asked Sam, but Tesla only smiled in return, uncomfortable with this strange collision of worlds, with this Sam who was all grown up, incredibly handsome, even well-dressed. His white button down, with the cuffs open and turned up twice, revealed strong arms, and the open top button created a perfect setting for the column of his tanned neck, his chiseled features, those smoldering black eyes.
“Shall we get down to business?” asked Lydia, and though there was no overt criticism in her words or tone, Tesla sensed that she found this sandwich break—not to mention the pervy once-over Tesla had just given Sam—a waste of valuable time.
“Of course.” She colored slightly and glanced around the room, still shocked to see Keisha, to know that she was fully informed—at least in a general way—about this whole time travel thing and the fact that her dad had been kidnapped. It was a great relief to have her there. Apparently Bizzy had told Lydia that she’d inadvertently told Keisha, and though Lydia was still grumbling about the lax security she was forced to accept with teenagers on the payroll, she seemed to have resigned herself to the growing number of them in her midst.
Beckett and Lydia each occupied a chair, with Bizzy perched on the arm of Lydia’s while Joley and Finn stood in front of the fireplace, like some sort of united-guy front. Sam sat on the sofa, next to Tesla.
“Tesla, why don’t you begin from the moment you made the jump twenty-four hours ago,” Lydia ordered as she peered at Tesla from over the tops of her half-glasses, her yarn and knitting needles forgotten in her lap.
Tesla tried her best to remember every detail as she spoke, though she deliberately left out the freedom and excitement she’d felt on the motorcycle, her uninjured arm wrapped tightly around Sam’s waist. Irritated, somehow, that she seemed to want to avoid Finn’s eyes as she mentioned the motorcycle, she looked deliberately at him, defiantly.
Finn’s only response was to look amused.
“I trust you wore a helmet,” Joley said.
“Gonna sue someone, counselor?” Keisha teased.
“Of course she did,” said Sam from beside Tesla. “I put mine on her before she even got on the bike.”
Keisha made a small sound of approval that everyone heard, a sound that she somehow managed to pack with sexual innuendo, and Tesla closed her eyes. Thanks, Keish.
“Go on, please,” Lydia said.
“Well, then we went to his house—it was like six a.m. by then—got some food—”
“Did anyone see you?” Beckett asked, and Tesla looked at her quickly, amazed that the girl could immediately zero in on the worst possible question to ask.
“No,” said Tesla. “There was no one else there.”
Beckett smiled a very little smile.
“As soon as the library was open we headed back to campus,” Tesla continued. Reluctant to confess she’d lied to Sam, she looked at her cast and picked at a loose edge of plaster with her other hand. “And I went to the physics department instead.”
Tesla turned to Sam. “Sorry, but I lied to you. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust you, but I thought if I told you too much about the future it might, I don’t know, cause problems.”
Sam smiled and covered her hand, briefly, with his own. “Of course.”
“So I went to the physics department and just walked in, went to my dad’s office to see what I could find.”
“How did you get in?” Joley asked.
“She brought a key, I’ll bet,” said Keisha. “You brought your dad’s spare key with you, didn’t you?”
Tesla smiled at her. They’d once taken that key and gone to her father’s office on a Sunday afternoon, to do who knows what. They’d been twelve at the time, and when her dad caught them and called Keisha’s mom, they’d both been grounded.
“Yeah, I did,” she said. “I had planned to give it to Finn for his jump, but somehow I forgot, and didn’t even remember it was in my bag until after I made the jump in his place.
“Nice,” said Beckett. The approval was grudging, but it was there, and Tesla glanced at her in surprise. “What?” the blonde girl said defensively. “Don’t get excited, it’s not really a compliment. It turned out well, but only because you screwed it up and forgot to give Finn the key.”
“True enough,” Tesla admitted with a shrug.
“Did you find anything?” Lydia prodded.
“I did,” said Tesla as she opened the messenger bag that sat on the sofa beside her. She reached inside and brought out several manila folders and extended them toward Bizzy, who walked over and took the folders out of Tesla’s hand. “These appear to be early work my parents did on the time machine, as well as some evidence that Seba
stian Nilsen actually did steal data from my parents’ lab and use it to write the article that got him in trouble.”
“You know Sebastian Nilsen?” Sam asked.
“Do you?” Lydia countered.
“Not well,” he said slowly, “and certainly not in a good way. I met him once, and saw him one other time, a few years later.”
“Can you be more specific?” Beckett asked.
“Yes, of course,” Sam said quickly. “When I worked the night shift in the Abbott’s lab—I think I was sixteen—a man approached me outside the building one night after I’d clocked out. I asked him what he wanted. He told me I was clearly a ‘go-getter,’ that kind of B.S., and he could help me out. I asked him what he meant, how he knew me, but all he would say was that he was interested in the work that went on in that lab, and that if I would give him access at night, just so he could look around, he would pay me. A lot.”
“And did you do it?” Bizzy asked.
“No, I didn’t,” said Sam, gently but firmly. “I told him I was not interested, and I got on the bike and left.”
“How did you know that was Sebastian Nilsen?” Joley asked.
“I didn’t at the time,” Sam said. “But a few months later I saw him again when I was on campus—I had run into Dr. Abbott on my way back to his office, and he stopped suddenly. A man stood by the side entrance with a young woman, a student I guess, and they were obviously in a heated argument. The man looked angry, and so did the young woman. I said something like, ‘I can’t believe he’s back!’ and your father grabbed my arm and took me—none too gently—into the nearest classroom and demanded that I explain. I felt guilty because I hadn’t told him earlier, I’d thought somehow it might reflect badly on me, but I told him then. The man we saw with that woman was the same guy who had tried to bribe me to let him into the lab a few months earlier.”
“What did my dad say?” Max asked from the floor.
“He said, ‘That’s Sebastian Nilsen, and he is a very dangerous man.’”
Lydia nodded. “I’m not surprised.”
A faint sound, a movement of air from the front door, and everyone in the room turned to see Jane Doane standing in the doorway, her small black bag at her feet.
