She was probably late teens?Early twenties?
Ness and Alice sat at the table, but Ty sat half turned in the passenger seat, hoping to remove the impression of them confronting her.It had, of course, been a whispered suggestion from Alice.
“So, you’ve had some time to think,” Alice said.“Probably not enough time.It’s a lot to process.”
“It is weird,” Ness said, “that this feels harder than…” She stopped, making a gesture with her hands that could have meant anything.
Maybe they meant something to Alice, because she nodded and said, “You couldn’t choose then, you had to adjust to survive.This is different.Now you have a sort of choice.”
“Sort of?”Ness frowned.
“Well, we’re not sure we can get you back there,” Alice admitted.“We’re not sure we can get you to where you came from.But that is more likely than sending you back to that camp.”Alice leaned forward and lightly clasped Ness’s hands.“They might not remember you.”
Her lashes swept down but she didn’t pull her hands away from Alice’s.“I didn’t think about that.”Her lashes lifted.“Why do I remember?”
“Well, I’m not exactly sure.It’s possible you remember because you’re still out of sync with your own time.”
“Then I might forget all of this if I went home?”She was quiet for almost a minute.“What if I don’t want to forget?”
“I understand,” Alice said.“I didn’t want to forget either.”
“You…”
“I had my own adventure,” Alice said.Her glance flicked toward Ty and then back to Ness.“I had a moment very like this one, where I thought—well, I didn’t want to forget either.”
“You didn’t?”Ness looked hopeful now.
“I remembered.But I can’t promise you will.It just depends on how and when, or if you get home.”
Alice waited for several minutes, then said even more gently, “That time wasn’t a great one for someone like you.”
“No,” Ness agreed.“It was a shock.In my time, being what I am was a benefit.I didn’t know anything but wanting to pass the test so I could go to a dance.”Her eyes met Alice’s again.“But I’ve learned so much.I’m not that girl anymore.”
Alice gently smoothed a lock of hair back from Ness’s face.“What about the people you lost from your time?”
“My parents.”Ness looked away.“Things weren’t great with them.”
“You were a teenager.It kind of goes with the age,” Alice pointed out.“They probably need closure.You just vanished from their lives.It leaves a hole that you can’t fill.”
Ty heard a hint of pain in Alice’s voice.That’s right.Her mother had disappeared.
Ness looked at Alice, dawning awareness in her dark eyes.“I need to go with you and try, don’t I?”
“I think so,” Alice said, “but it’s your decision.It has to be your decision because it won’t be easy no matter what you choose.”
Con thought it was bad to see the still figure inside the chamber.It was infinitely worse when she—he was pretty sure it was a she—opened her eyes.
There must have been some residual power or a failsafe, because the door opened.
The woman was older, sleek and oddly expressionless for someone who’d been whiling away the time in a time travel chamber.
She wore a black business suit and her hair was white and as orderly as her clothes.Her heels were the “walk all over you” kind.
“Who are you?”she asked, as if it were perfectly normal for her to step out of the chamber and check her hair and clothes.As if anything would dare to be out of order around her.
It wasn’t a bad tactic to ask first.It put them on the defensive before they could do it to her.
“You’re Stella,” Rita said.
