by Jill Cooper
I had what was important.
Donovan held me close, one hand on my lower back and in the other, he held my hand that shined with our understated wedding rings. The smile plastered on my face can’t be broken and I would never forget this day. On a normal day, we struggle to get by but today, I feel like a true princess.
I’m under his spell. Hand in hand we tackle our business, our life, and things will be okay.
We stand to the side with champagne in hand as Dad take the microphone. He uses two nervous hands to do it, Mom by his side—inseparable. She claps for him and her eyes twinkle like mine do when I look at Donovan. Suddenly, everything is right with the world.
My parents, my family. Everything as it should be.
We dance, eat cake, and the night starts to come to a close. Donovan dances with Molly, lifting her up best he can, then groaning with a pretend back ache that puts a wince onto his face. I laugh, standing off to the side. I’m no longer wearing my veil and my hair is lose around my shoulders.
Cassidy slides up beside me with an empty glass in her hand. She tilts it upside down to show me she’s drank it all and sets it down on the table behind us.
“I’ve had four. Or five. I guess I’ve lost count,” she says and throws her arms around me. She smells like rose champagne and I squeeze her back. “For this day, thank you.”
“You’re drunk.”
“Completely and I don’t even feel bad about it. It’s your wedding but you’ve given me a gift. To be here with you, our family even if they can’t know…” Cassidy watches the dance floor where Dad does the chicken and Mom covers her face, watching him through the slits of each finger.
Cassidy’s great-grandmother, even if she can never know.
“You belong with us,” I whisper to her. “I hope one day you realize that.”
“Maybe I’m starting to,” she smiles and fun dances in her eyes.
I could see that my partner from the TTPA wanted to speak to me so I kiss Cassidy’s cheek and greet Delilah. A bold woman with bright red hair, she wears a gold jacket with a matching skirt. Her smile broaches her apple dumpling cheeks. “Happy, I hope?”
“How could I be anything but?”
“You deserve it. I hope Donovan treats you like the princess that you are. When you get back from your honeymoon, I want to hear all about it.”
My eyes crinkle into a slight scowl. “Delilah, we’re not going on a honeymoon, remember? We can’t afford to get away with Don’s business still so new. Maybe we can afford it next year.” Going away would be fun, but having to make excuses for Donovan made my stomach sour.
He was doing the best he could to grow the business and keep us a float. I don’t need reminders on how far we had fallen from the pinnacle of success. Hawaii, Bali—it could all wait while we started our lives.
“I’m sorry, dear,” Delilah slaps her hand to her cheek. “Where is my head! I could have sworn…I’m too young for dementia, aren’t I?” She laughs it off and I join her, but my chuckles run hallow and flat. It’s not like her to forget something, her mind is like a steel trap, but with all the new TTPA regulations going through, we both were overworked.
Maybe that’s all it was. Maybe.
Still, I can’t help but consider if something is messing with the timeline. I gaze over at Cassidy to see if she suspects anything weird is going on. I’m relieved to see she’s in the midst of a congo line and it’s headed my way.
“Excuse me, Delilah.” I barely get the words out before I’m grabbed by the waist and put to the front of the congo line. Laughing as a drink is handed to me, we make our way around the table and chairs through the quaint ballroom. Molly isn’t in the line, only Mike, and I look for Molly so she can join our chain.
I can’t conga without my favorite maiden of honor.
My eyes fall on her over by the refreshments table, she’s holding a glass of punch and a man in a suit is bent over, whispering something in her ear, his hands around her shoulders. The way he grips them makes me nervous and I step away, pushing off a pair of hands that tries to get me to fall back into line.
Time around Molly starts to vibrate out in waves and pixelate into a haze. She’s nervous. Scared. “Molly!” I hurry toward her and the man starts away, his hands held in front of him. I don’t see his face as Molly lets out a scream.
The pixelated dust rushes out like a charging wave and it knocks me back, not allowing me to get any closer to whoever it was that had done this to Molly. The music in the room freezes and no one else moves but me. I gather my strength and charge toward Molly again, but I’m cut off as a wall of frozen time is between us.
I don’t understand it. I should be able to get through anything she can throw up.
“Molly!” I gather up the fabric of my dress and look for a way to get to her. Her eyes widen as she stares at me. The punch still in her hand begins to dripple up, drop by drop, as if gravity around her as decreased.
“Lara!” She chokes as if she has no air left to breath and falls toward to the ground.
“No!” My scream punches through the time wall and shatters the time dust back. I slip between the cracks and fall on my knees beside her as her hand goes limp onto the tile. Her eyes roll up into her head as she slips unconscious and time springs back to life, the dancing, the music.
I cradle her head. Someone calls for an ambulance and dozens of footsteps rush toward where we are. I’m aware of Donovan by my side first. Cassidy crashes on the other side of Molly and checks her for a pulse. In a former life she was a police detective in the future and that skillset seems to be innate to her personality. “I was frozen. I saw what you were doing, but I couldn’t move. Her pulse is weak, but she has one.”
Relief washes over me. “Did everyone else see?”
“Molly!” It’s Mike’s scream and there’s a primal fear to it.
Cassidy stops short of answering as Mom and Jax crowd in beside Molly, all but pushing her out of the way. My niece’s eyes fill with pain and I mouth that I’m sorry to her. Mom strokes Molly’s hair back. “Molly? Baby, can you hear me?”
“We’re here with you,” Jax says more calmly and takes Molly’s hand. “Whatever it is, we’re going to get you through this.”
“Not again,” Mom whispers. “I can’t take anything happening to her again.”
“She’ll be okay, Mom.” My voice is low and I’m not sure Mom can even hear me as she shakes her head. Behind her, Molly’s twin Mike stands with his hands in his pockets, with far away, worried eyes.
He stares at Molly and I try to get his attention, but it’s like he can’t even hear me.
I need to talk to him, make sure he’s okay, but I don’t get a chance as EMTs arrive with a stretcher. I stay with Molly and don’t let her hand go as they load her on and take her vitals.
“Blood pressure is high.”
“Pulse is erratic.”
“Did she have anything to eat or drink today?” The EMT looks to me for answers and his brown eyes peer right through me. Something about them is urgent as they are compassionate.
I shrug and then I remember. “She was eating some finger sandwiches earlier. She had fruit punch. She’s not…allergic to anything that I know of, but I’m allergic to honey if that matters.” I cringe at how awkward I sound. “I guess that wouldn’t matter, but maybe she’s developing an allergy too?”
None of it is true and it isn’t an allergy, but I desperately wish it is.
Running a hand through my hair, I chastise myself for sounding so stupid. So out of control, but Molly…she’s special. I can’t lose her. I need her. Parts of her complete my soul in ways I’ve never been able to explain from the moment I first met her all those years ago when I first changed time to save my mother’s life.
“What’s this?’ The second EMT swipes Molly’s hair away from her neck and there’s an abrasion, two puncture marks on her neck.
That man…red hot fury fills my vision. What had that man done to her? More
importantly, who the hell was he?
“Someone did this to her?” Mom asks no one in particular. “Who hurt our baby?” She cries and Jax wraps his arms around her middle, draws her in. Their grief joins them together and their sorrow is the only time they really are able to connect any more.
The EMTs prepare to move Molly and I step back, walk with purpose over to Cassidy. “Someone did this. Someone wants to hurt her. Or me.”
“I’ll head to the bridge,” the space between the timelines that exists outside of normal time, “we’ll comb through the timelines, see if we can figure out what’s happening, who is doing it, and why,” Cassidy says.
“Hurry. I know pushing you aside isn’t fair…”
Her lips press together and the Montgomery fire lights her eyes up. “Nothing about what’s happening is fair. If I can help, that’s all I ask.” Cassidy hurries away, toward the bar and rounds the corner, sneaking between couples that star and watch. She can’t open the gateway to the bridge with people watching and needs somewhere private.
The EMTs usher Molly out of the room. Mom and Jax aren’t far behind. Donovan slips his arm around me. Finally, he’s able to talk and I’m so grateful that at least his presence has been with me. “I’m so sorry, Lar. She’ll be okay.”
We don’t know that, but he’s trying. He has to say something. “I’m just glad I have you and that we’re married. This doesn’t change that. Somehow, we’ll get through this.”
I know we will.
He squeezes me tighter and then I look to Mike. With his hands still in his pockets and his head tucked down low, he’s a lost little boy despite the fact he’s a teenager. I put my hands on his shoulders. “We’ll get you to the hospital so you can be there when she wakes up. She’s going to need you.”
“She’s going to need all of us,” Mike says sadly and his words, his tone, haunt me. If he knows something, now isn’t the time to pressure him. We all need to be together on this.
For Molly.
Chapter Four: Lara James
Mom and Jax are in with Molly and the doctor’s in a private room at the ER while the rest of us loiter in the waiting room. Donovan and sit on the sofa along the wall and we hold hands while he talks baseball and other sports to Mike, keeping his mind off whatever might be going on with Molly. My mind goes off in all directions and inside I’m a cluster of nerves.
Boundless energy and the will to time travel is strong, but first I have to know what’s happening to Molly and if she’s going to be okay. It’s no longer a question about if I’ll travel through time. Now it’s only a matter of when.
The thing about time is it’s always there, waiting. Whether I time travel now or when I know more, it’s all the same. It’s all just a matter of time.
It’s better to go in with more information and not less.
My dad leans against the wall, his bow tie loose around his neck, nursing a cup of coffee. He’s staring out the window at nothing and I excuse myself from Donovan to go talk to him. I lean on the wall beside him and cross my arms, peering up at him.
“Just think of all that cake Molly is going to help you eat when she wakes up, huh?” Dad tosses his empty cup into the nearby waste paper basket, making a slam dunk.
“Nothing better than a heaping spoonful of frosting.” I pause to take a breath and shift gears. “This is hard on you too, Dad. You probably wish you were in there with Mom.”
Dad shrugs and I can tell it’s true. “Much as I’m fond of Molly and Mike, they aren’t my kids. Jax and your mom, they have to do this together. No matter what I think of—.” His eyes fall on Mike and he shuts his mouth with a frown. “Relationship status, it’s complicated, right?”
I grin. “Look at you, getting all up with the social media.”
“Been out of jail long enough now to get jiggy with all the latest and greatest. Maybe I’ll start making my own grumpy Monday cat memes.”
I scowl. “Oh dad, please never use the word jiggy in a sentence like that again.”
He laughs and then I do too, happy to have a bit of the ice broken. “What happened back there? We were doing the conga and then I saw you separate from the pack and then—well I’m not sure what I saw.”
I lift my head away from the wall, wondering what it was he did see.
“You knew something was wrong and knew something was going to happen, that much is clear.”
“Just an instinct. A feeling. Someone was with Molly and I didn’t like the look of it.”
Dad’s eyes crease with surprise. “You think someone did this to her? Who was he?”
I wish I knew. “That’s the question of the hour. I couldn’t see his face and what happened after…it wasn’t like anything Molly’s ever done before.”
Dad nods. “I saw but I couldn’t move. Everything was stuck. Worst thing I’ve ever felt watching you fighting to get to Molly and unable to. And I thought prison made me powerless.” Bitterly, he laughs, but laughter is the last thing I see in his eyes.
Cassidy had been frozen too. What if all of the guests had been frozen, or even more throughout the building—the city block—if word got out that time can be manipulated by more than going forward and backward, a panic could erupt. Maybe even one that goes beyond the city limits of Boston.
I need to get ahead of this and talk to the TTPA, but at that moment Jax sticks his head out of Molly’s doorway. His face is bright, relieved, and he gestures for me. “Molly’s asking for you, Lara.”
She’s awake and alert, well that’s a good sign. I squeeze Dad’s arm and then hurry over to Jax and he leads me into Molly’s hospital room. It’s not the first hospital bed I’ve seen her in, but she still looks small beside all the equipment and wires. Frail.
Mom’s bent over, stroking her head and whispering against her ear. I go to the other side and put my hand in Molly’s. She gazes at me and bites her lip. Her eyes say things words can’t and I’m overcome with a feeling of protectiveness.
“We’ll be outside,” Jax says and leads Mom by her waist.
“No, I want to stay. Jax….” She takes his hand but twists her head to look back at us. She’s desperate to be with her baby girl and I understand, even as I desperately need her to go.
“Give them some time. Okay?”
Mom gazes at me with a warning in her eyes. She’s not angry with me but she’s protective of Molly and I can’t say I blame her.”
When they’re gone, I sit on the edge of Molly’s bed. “First, how are you feeling?”
“Jumbled.” Molly’s answer sounds confused and her eyes flit around the room, as if she’s not sure where she is. “Things are coming in waves faster than ever.”
She might have been talking about multiple timelines and its infinite choices. “Talk me through it.”
“You’re in the ballroom,” Molly draws a shaky breath and her chest expands, “you’re wearing your dress and a man is coming for you. I step in…There’s a gun. It goes off. No, Lara!” Suddenly she’s upright and hyperventilating. I ease her back down slowly.
The choices she saw used to upset her a few years ago, but we worked through it so she only saw it as an option. A fantasy. They stopped bothering her but now it was like Molly had forgotten what we worked so hard to teach her. “Easy…easy. It didn’t happen, whatever you saw, it’s not happening here. There wasn’t a gun. You were the one in danger. Not me, okay?”
She answers me as if she didn’t hear what I said. Her brain processes information too quickly and it comes spilling out of her mouth. “He’s coming for me. His hands are on my shoulders and I’m terrified. I can’t look away. Something pierces my neck.” Molly touches the injury on her neck as she says it and winces. “I can’t move. Time is going funny. It’s backward and forward, I can’t think. I collapse. Donovan, he’s dead and Cassidy’s at fault.” Molly rushes to swallow and takes multiple shallow breaths, one right after another.
I stand up and lay my hands on her arm. “You need to take a break. You’re
pushing yourself too hard. Breathe, Molly. Breathe.”
The machines beep, Molly’s heart rate is spiking. One-twenty-three beats a minute and it shows no sign of backing down. Her eyes are wide and her forehead dampens with sweat. “Mike’s in danger. No one notices him, I don’t notice him, but he’s in trouble. Big trouble. He’s back. He’s here. Now!”
“Who?” I ask as doctors rush in, they push me aside to get to Molly and start shouting medical jargon at one another.
Molly’s body stiffens into a board and her head tilts back. Her fingers claw at the air and she shouts, “Rex!”
The monitors flatline. Her heart stops in cardiac arrest and when the doctors apply the paddles to her body, her body shakes.
I head out into the hallway. My backs against the wall again, both figuratively and literally. Mom’s face is wet with tears as her and Jax watch from the doorway. When she glances at me, she wears that look on her face. I’ve seen it before.
Blame. Grief. None of this would be happening if it wasn’t for me and the things I had done to change time. Molly was born because what I did.
And now she might die.
****
When Donovan hears about Molly he comes and stands with me. I lean against him and stare off at nothing in particular, able to feel the ticking of time in my mind louder than usual. It goes forward and as the doctor comes from Molly’s room, I slow it down. No one else feels it but me, but it gives me the time I need to study his eye, see the slight crinkle around his eyes. The corner of his lips upturns slightly as he greets my mother with an outstretched hand.
Molly will be all right. Thank goodness.
I blink my eyes slowly and time speeds up to the place it needs to be. Donovan rubs my shoulders and kisses the top of my head. “Not the wedding day we hoped for but I’m glad to be your husband, Lar. Finally and forever.”
“Forever,” I smile up at him and I catch what the doctor says to Mom.
“She’s stable, if we can keep her from getting too excited, we can monitor the condition and get her erratic heartbeat under control.”
