TIME & TIED: AWARENESS

ARC 1.4 - Of Herself

PART 19a: DANCE DANCE REDUX 1

Luci peered into the black box sitting on Frank's lab table. She smiled - being done a little ahead of schedule meant a chance to chat with Frank this evening. They’d been so focussed on their work, both Saturday and today, that there hadn't been much opportunity for idle conversation.

Then again, Luci still felt awkward whenever talk shifted to personal lives - partly because of how Frank tended to talk about Carrie. Luci wasn't quite sure what to say about that.

Why did Frank think that Carrie was anything more than the shallow persona she displayed at school? Even as Luci pondered this, the basement door opened and she heard someone coming downstairs. She looked up, reading the expression on Frank’s face.

"She's coming over then?" Luci guessed.

Frank nodded, running a hand back through his hair. "Carrie's on her way," he affirmed.

***

Several blocks away, Carrie threw on her jacket as she headed for her front door. "I'm going out, Dad," she called out in passing.

"Carrie, wait," her father requested.

The blonde poked her head back around the entrance to the living room. "Yes?" she said with thinly veiled annoyance.

Hank Waterson folded up his newspaper and set it to the side of his chair. "We still haven't talked about the matter of Friday's dance.”

Carrie sighed. "It's like I told you yesterday, there's nothing to discuss. In fact, by the end of the weekend, you'll have forgotten all about it." She smiled at her inside joke.

"Carrie, when your school calls to tell me that my daughter may have been involved in a case of cheating, this is not something I will casually dismiss!”

'Why not, you do that to everything else about me,' Carrie thought to herself. Aloud, she responded, "Dad, please. It was almost two years ago, and they have no proof it actually happened. The whole thing's been blown out of proportion. You know how school does that with me.”

Her father hesitated. "Still, I'd hate to see something like this escalate, and damage your permanent record. I got the impression that your school contacted me to ensure that such a thing won't happen."

"It won't," Carrie asserted. "Don't worry, Dad, I know cheating is bad. Also, drugs are bad and sex is bad. I'll be a good girl, okay?"

"Carrie! Be serious with me.”

"I am being serious!” Also snarky, her head voice added. Tone it down with him, for once? “Look, I'm sixteen, I can take care of myself without a lecture from you. Okay?" Carrie attempted another smile. "Now can I PLEASE go to Frank's house? He's expecting me. It’s math stuff." Time travel involved math, right?

Her father appeared to wrestle with this internally. "Be back by ten o'clock," he concluded.

"Ten? Since when do I have an actual curfew??"

"Since there are consequences to your actions. I’m only allowing the trip at all because it’s related to your schoolwork."

"But... oh, fine," Carrie sighed, deciding to hurry for the front door rather than stay and argue.

Honestly, why did her dad even try? It was obvious he didn't care much for her, as highlighted by the fact that it took a problem like this for him to pay attention to her. Or was it more like, for her to pay attention to him? ‘Shut up, voice inside my head,’ Carrie grumbled.

***

After the front door slammed, Hank slumped back down in his chair. He turned to look at the picture sitting on the table beside him. "She's so much her mother's daughter," he murmured. "I don't know how to handle her, Elaine... not since she found out you wouldn’t be coming back. What would you have done if you were here? Would you have let her go? If only you could guide me somehow..."

The picture didn't answer. He hadn't expected it to. A few minutes later, Hank retrieved his newspaper back from the floor with a sigh.

***

Frank closed up the time machine. The new circuits looked fine. Great. Now came the tricky bit. He turned to Luci. “Okay. So. Uh, if you want to head out before Carrie gets here, that's understandable. Seeing as the two of you... haven't been getting along."

A huge understatement. He could still recall Carrie's reaction from last Monday, when he had called her over - then revealed that Luci was going to be helping out with the time machine.

"Luci?!" Carrie had yelped at him. "Luci is going to be messing with the time machine? Frank, we'd agreed NOT to tell anyone about it! If this device was too much for you, you could have said so, rather than call in little miss 'I-know-so-much-that-I-skipped-grades’. I mean, what's she going to do for us, integrate a high-tech lollipop dispenser into the thing?”

All that - with Luci in the room. Fortunately, Luci had taken it in stride, retorting, “I’d promise not to show you up, Carrie, but that would entail me doing even LESS than nothing."

A comment which hadn’t endeared Luci to the blonde. It had taken Frank’s explanation, of Luci discovering the machine’s existence herself in August, along with a reminder of Carrie’s “one week deadline”, to get Carrie to capitulate.

"No, I'm going to stay," Luci now asserted. "The trip you're both planning, it's back to Friday, right?"

“Yeah,” Frank admitted, pulling himself back to the present. "After all, Carrie’s taken issue with what happened at the dance. So it’s a good a date as any to test out our new circuits.”

Luci shook her head. “Is it really? Or is that what she says? Because you don’t need to go to Friday - heck, even if Carrie somehow prevents that recording from being played, it doesn’t change what she did to Laurie in the first place!”

“I know that,” Frank assured her. “But there’s more to Carrie than how she acts.” After all, she had... well, helped that girl Beth in 1955? Frank ran his hand back through his hair. He was starting to wonder if his defence of Carrie was becoming more a defence of his own choice to work on time travel for the last two years.

Luci sighed. “What exactly did Carrie say to you when she came by yesterday?"

“Nothing mean. Not really. She was upset about the dance, that’s all. And about how we couldn’t use the machine yet, because we were in the process of making adjustments."

“So she showed up ONLY for the time machine,” Luci pointed out. “Can’t you see how that girl’s all take and no give? I mean, really.”

“But there’s also her unique perspective on time," Frank protested. “She sees things differently. Plus, something bad happened in her past.” Luci looked at him expectantly. “It’s not my place to go into detail.” Detail that had been filtered through his younger self. Were his memories even accurate?

“Uh huh.” Luci put her hands on her hips. “Fine. Then I’m not only staying now, I’m going back in time with you both.”

Frank stared. "What?” Yet again, Luci was surprising him.

“Even setting aside how Carrie’s been manipulating you, based on past experience? I suspect neither of you have much of a plan as far as a trip to the dance goes. You could end up getting yourselves into even worse trouble. I figure someone has to be around to talk sense.”

Frank shook his head. “The dance is a familiar environment. And since I still believe that we can’t change the past, we can't get into any more trouble than we're in already."

Luci crossed her arms. “Sorry, but I’m not sold on your unchangeable theory about time. And even if I were, there could still be repercussions as yet unseen. So - I’m going! If you’re worrying about how to pitch it to Carrie, I’ve spent at least 24 hours fiddling with this machine over the past week. Am I saying you two owe me this trip? No... but if something goes wrong with the new circuits, it might be good if I'm there too, right?"

“That's... a fair point,” Frank conceded. He let out a long breath. "All right. We’ll see what Carrie says."

***

"No! Absolutely not.”

"Carrie, let me finish. Luci knows more about the new--"

"So IF something comes up, we’ll give her a phone call Friday night," Carrie interrupted. "For that matter, I can do the same with you, Frank. Neither of you need bother coming. I can take this trip myself.”

From her position, sitting on the lab table, Luci fought down the urge to comment. After all, it would be better for all of them if she let Frank assert himself here. Right?

“Carrie, be reasonable. You haven’t been able to set the machine by yourself yet. And you can’t paradox your way through this, I don’t remember seeing you on Friday.”

“You mean you don’t remember seeing me YET. But fine - you’re testing stuff, so you can still come. ONLY you.”

Frank merely sighed. And Luci could no longer hold her tongue. “Carrie," she broke in. "Do you even have the faintest idea of what you'll be doing to try and reverse things on Friday?"

"How odd. Frank, did you just hear a noise?"

"I'm right aren't I?" Luci pressed. "You probably don't even know the recording was all a plot by Julie.”

"What?" both Carrie and Frank chorused, turning to face her.

Luci looked back and forth between them. "Surely that can't come as a complete surprise to BOTH of you?" Even without the extra tip-offs through Chartreuse, Julie's involvement had seemed fairly obvious.

“It’s likely,” Frank admitted. "But I also heard some people talking as they left. They seemed to think Corry had set it up, as an attempt to regain sympathy after his unfriendly remarks about Julie's teddy bear."

"I actually challenged Julie about it that same night," Carrie added. "She said she left after Corry's statement to the effect of her not trying anything, figuring it would be prudent to leave. She didn't know he was going to play that recording of me, and she apologized for not coming to my rescue. Said she'd make it up to me somehow this week."

Luci boggled. “Carrie - are you actually that stupid?"

"Now you listen here, little girl..."

“Carrie, stop,” Frank said, stepping between the two of them. “Please? Let’s all be civil about this? Please?” His uncertain gaze went from Carrie back to Luci. When neither of them spoke, he ventured, “Now, Luci, why do you say it wasn't Corry?"

"Because of how it involved his sister," Luci answered easily. "Corry doesn’t always show it overtly, but he's very protective of her. Remember that whole mismatched date thing he set up last year? He'd never hurt Laurie the way that recording did. And once you eliminate him, it's down to Julie. With the possible exception of one other person."

"Ha! So it could be this other phantom person and not Julie?" Carrie challenged.

"Yes,” Luci yielded. “But that other person is you, Carrie."