TIME & TIED: AWARENESS

ARC 1.3 - Of Her Impact

PART 13b: DOUBLETAKES 2

"I don't know why it didn’t work,” Frank admitted, taking the device back from Carrie and giving it a look. "It was one of my two 1955 pennies we used to get here, maybe the machine has some trouble with... no, because the penny I used the other day worked all right..."

"Hold on, other day? How many time trips have you taken without telling me??" Carrie interjected in annoyance.

Frank sighed and put the time machine down. "I made a few trips earlier this week in order to gather more data. You couldn't have come, you were constantly busy after school."

"I was not," Carrie countered. She frowned. “Well, not really. Okay, I did have cheerleading and track practices. Also, that dinner with Bill. But you DO know there’s this thing called a 'social life’, yeah?”

"At any rate," Frank continued, apparently deciding to ignore the question, "I managed to stay in town for each test. Which is part of the reason I called you over on Saturday. To see if the spatial relocation issue was only a factor if there were two travellers."

“Yes, yes. And we took a trip two days back, to Thursday, established we were in the ravine out back of my house, then tried the much larger leap here to 1955," Carrie said.

She folded her arms and leaned back against the tree trunk behind her. “Weird how we're still in town. Or in what will BE the town anyway. If we orient according to the Clayton building, I saw some parallels between what's here and what will end up being here. Admittedly there’s a lot more undeveloped forest. It’s currently more like a village than a town."

"Yes," Frank agreed slowly. He frowned. "Now if only I could figure out why we didn’t stay here for the trip two years ago..." His voice trailed off as he got lost in thought.

"Frank? The broken machine?" Carrie prompted.

"Oh, right," Frank realized. He frowned. "Well, offhand I can't think of a reason for it not to have worked. I'll need to take a look inside."

Carrie rolled her eyes. "You know, at the risk of sounding trite, you have had that device in your possession for almost a week now. I thought you’d have been further along. I didn't authorize a trip to '55 only to be stuck here for all eternity. That is... be stuck in '55 until '56... you know what I mean."

"Authorize?" Frank countered. "What authorize? I thought this was a partnership. And I told you there would be some risk involved in this trip!”

"Well... I thought maybe you knew more than you were letting on," Carrie admitted. "I mean, you have done two years of research, right? For all I know, you’re stalling. Maybe you're hoping that the longer you play dumb, the better the chances are of me changing my mind about saving my mama!"

Frank let out a breath. "Yes, yes, that's exactly it," he said. “Except, oh wait, this device has circuits and chips I've never seen before. It's a quantum leap forward in technology! Even with two years to think about it, a week hasn't been enough to identify much beyond what I did that very first time I saw it. Empirical experiments are the only way for me to learn more. Or they would be if you didn't consistently turn them into a disaster.”

Frank swept his hand out in a final gesture, knocking it hard against a limb of the tree. "Ow!" He bit back a curse, cradling his palm.

"Hey, don't blame me,” Carrie retorted. "I'm just... trying to keep you motivated?" She paused. She really wasn't helping much, was she. Her emotions were continuing to get the best of her. "Uh, your hand okay?" Carrie ventured, moving towards Frank. He pulled away, simultaneously shrugging off the backpack he'd had with him since their arrival.

"I'm fine," Frank mumbled, flexing his fingers. "At least we have provisions this time, including tools and a flashlight. If you hold it, I'll see if I can find the problem."

***

Several minutes passed by in silence as Frank poked around inside the time machine. "Well, the air certainly seems a lot more natural and clean in comparison with our year," Carrie piped up tentatively. “Except in the hotel. I suppose they haven’t banned smoking yet.”

"Uh huh," Frank responded, not looking up from his work.

There was another extended silence. Carrie couldn’t take it. "I wonder," she began again. "My double here... or, well, the person who took that Ms. Peabody's jewellery... do you think they could have been an ancestor of mine?"

"I don't know. Did your ancestors live in this area in '55?"

Carrie furrowed her brow. "My parents hadn't even been born yet," she reflected. "Maybe my grandparents... though none of them have ever told stories about being a thief."

Frank shrugged. "Can't think it's the sort of thing one tells grandkids, really. Hold the light steady?"

"Mmmmm." A thought struck her. She didn’t like it. “Do you think whoever it was might be in even more trouble now, given how I ran away?” Carrie asked. “I can’t help reacting instinctively... you don't think I've changed history, do you? Wait, strike that, of course not, you think the past and the future are already mapped out. However, if changing the past IS possible, I might have changed something, right?"

"Anything's possible I guess," Frank said, eyes still on the device. "Not much we can do about that now."

"Unless we change things back," Carrie pointed out.

"Potentially making the situation worse," Frank objected. "Carrie, we don't know anything about what's going on in this time period."

“I know that,” Carrie agreed, trying to suppress her irritation. “But what if that Ms. Peabody punishes someone else for my actions?"

“You should have thought of that earlier.” Frank moved to close the time machine back up. "Anyway, that's that."

"Oh, figure out the problem?" Carrie turned off the flashlight.

Frank nodded. "It looks like the machine is, for lack of a better word, recharging. Everything is operational, some parts simply aren't receiving power. I can only conclude that they will once the assembly cools down, meaning business as usual if we wait it out a few hours. I took the opportunity to reset the thing for the present."

"Meaning we're stuck here in the past?!"

"Yes, but not for long," Frank assured. "If I had to guess, I'd say the problem was the distance of the jump - we have traveled back something like half a century, after all. For all we know, the machine acted like this when we jumped that time to the airport too. We’ve never tried activating it again so soon after arrival."

"I see," Carrie remarked dryly. She clicked the flashlight back on. "Well then, looks like I have some time to relocate my hairband."

Frank blinked. "I beg your pardon?"

"Well, what do you suggest, that we spend two hours sitting here staring at the damn device? I'd rather be doing something productive. Anyway, I liked that hairband."

"Carrie, have you forgotten that there are people out there looking for us?”

"I'll be careful,” Carrie asserted. "And really, where's the harm in checking? It’s okay to take the flashlight, yeah?” And without really waiting for an answer, she turned to leave.

***

Frank opened his mouth to protest, but then closed it and let Carrie go. She might as well leave, versus staying here for a new argument. Honestly, the girl could be so... so... stubborn and self-absorbed! He wasn’t sure why he’d thought that would change after her first time travel experience. In fact, her personality was one of the main reasons Frank hadn't yet said anything to her about that phone call he'd received last week. The one warning him about Julie.

Granted, Frank knew little about Julie aside from the fact that she was a "rich socialite" at school who was also Carrie's friend. Yet he did think that the latter could indicate a bit of a blind spot for Carrie. Maybe she’d simply want to tell Julie about the device, despite the need for secrecy. No, better to keep the Julie concerns to himself for the moment.

Indeed, it was only in the last few days that he'd realized how much Julie might be a legitimate cause for concern. The phone tip had been rather fortuitous, though the number had been untraceable.

Frank sat down at the base of the tree, staring up into the sky. What WAS the deal with that phone call?

Did it signify that some higher powers were observing them? Did that in turn mean that Frank and Carrie's safety was being looked after? Not something Frank really wanted to count on. He grimaced. Which was, ironically, a good reason for bringing Carrie along when time traveling.

The three or four trips Frank had taken on his own earlier in the week had been poorly executed. Particularly the one when he'd ended up back at the school, right before classes changed. He was not as adept as Carrie at making quick adjustments to new situations.

Carrie, on the other hand... that story she had given about Uncle McFly in the hotel... well, Frank doubted he'd have been able to fake his way through half that conversation with Carrie's finesse, movie references notwithstanding. But then again, he might not have had to do it if they hadn't fingered her as a thief, right?

"Can't travel with her, can't travel without her," Frank concluded with a sigh.

***

Carrie shone the light into the underbrush, looking for any sign of blue while simultaneously listening for anything around her that was out of the ordinary. Her mind, though, was on other things entirely. Namely the situation they'd been dropped into.

Had she had a brush with a long-lost relative of sorts? Frank's unproven theories aside, had she affected history? Carrie couldn't think of anything in her present that felt out of place... but then, based on prior experience, she'd be remembering any changes as the original history already. It was very tempting to sneak back into town and satisfy her curiosity about the situation, but even Carrie had to admit the potential danger was too great.

She sighed. This whole time travel business was really starting to affect her life. How might her future actions in the past end up affecting the timeline? Particularly where her mother was concerned?

Such thoughts had driven her to distraction more than once in the past week. Often necessitating an apology to whomever she’d been talking to. Which had caught some of her classmates off guard, as if they'd expected to share the blame for her own inattentiveness.

She didn’t always lash out, did she?

Her brow furrowed. There was also that date she’d had with Bill the previous night. The guy had turned out to be a lot duller than she would have anticipated. And he’d had difficulty keeping his eyes on her face. Which, on the one hand, whatever, so long as she got a free meal, but on the other... Carrie was starting to wonder how well she really knew the people around her.

A hint of blue caught the blonde's eye and she pushed those unsettling thoughts out of her head. That must it, her favourite hairband. She approached the item in question and stooped down to retrieve it. Which was when something hit her from behind, sending her sprawling onto the ground.

Dazed but not out, Carrie rolled over in order to see who or what had just attacked her. The shock of seeing a mirror image of herself, standing there wielding a tree branch, was enough to allow the assailant to get in another swing. The world exploded in a field of stars before fading to black.