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“Lisbeth, Tel will understand, and she won’t put you away somewhere. You’ve put your trust in me the last several years. Just continue to trust me, okay?” He sighed as he pulled a chair over and sat in front of her. “What we’re going to tell you is classified. No one can know what I’m about to say, but I want you to know you can trust us.” Marc sighed and pulled his chair from behind the desk, sitting beside Dave.
“Let’s start at the very beginning, okay?” He spoke to her in soothing tones, like she was a frightened child as he fastened her flight suit again. “This is Marc. I know you understand he owns KenSpec, since he is in fact, your boss. When we flew over the anomaly, I came back to be checked by the medical staff, same as you and the rest of the crew. During my examination, I mentioned someone named Sadie. I didn’t even remember doing that. But suddenly, I saw a woman as clearly as I see you. I ended up having a seizure in front of Dr. Lackney. It was mild, but still, it was concerning.
“Suddenly I was having these memories of a woman named Sadie. I became almost obsessed to find her because I knew, without a doubt, that she was my wife. I just happened to run into her at a restaurant, but she was there with another man. That really pissed me off because I knew she was mine.”
Lisbeth reached out to Dave, compassion in her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”
Marc cleared his throat and smiled. “Actually, she was with me. Sadie is my wife. He’d never met her.” Dave was concerned when her already pale face went ashen. Her hand was still on his, so he grabbed her wrist with his other hand and got her attention.
“Look at me, Lisbeth.” He showed her his ring and tattoo. “Yes, Sadie belongs to Marc. But, Lisbeth, she’s my wife too. Do you remember when no one knew aliens existed or that they lived on this planet with us? But our eyes were opened to the reality that other races do, in reality inhabit this vast universe. Be open-minded.” She blinked but didn’t get hysterical, so he continued. “It’s not too much of a stretch to realize there is more than one timeline.” She stayed quiet as she digested the information. Marc stood up and walked to a whiteboard and grabbed two colored pens.
He drew two long rectangles, side by side but touching. One in blue, and one in red. “Think of it this way. We inhabit this world here.” He drew a squiggly line in the blue tube. “And this is another timeline that has humans, some of which are our counterparts: another me, another Dave, another you. Each timeline is fully contained so what happens in one doesn’t affect the other. But each decision that is made in its timeline changes the possible futures and outcomes in that timeline.” Lisbeth started to hear buzzing in her ears—this was making so much sense.
“Now in Dave’s case, in the red world, his other self met and married Sadie. In this world,” Marc pointed to the blue tube, “where we live, Sadie met and married me instead. When he and your crew flew over the anomaly, that was a time rip between these worlds.” He took his finger and wiped away the lines that separated the rectangles. “Your counterparts were also flying but on the other side of this hole between the timelines. Somehow their memories crossed the time rip. So now the Dave you know here in this timeline started remembering the other Dave’s relationship with his wife. Are you with me so far?”
Lisbeth nodded as stood up and started to pace. “So, your memories of your wife were actually the life of the Dave who was on the other side of the time rip. Do you think that happened to me? I was supposed to go to Germany in 2014, but at the last minute, I couldn’t go. But the me in the other timeline did go to Germany and met Stieg, and they fell in love.” Both men gave a nod. “Then why am I hurting so badly? I don’t know him, but I ache for him.”
“The other you on Earth Two obviously was on the other side of the time rip. She had to have crossed memories with you. Her memories became your memories. Her love for that man became yours. In this world, our timeline, he’s not in your life, so you hurt for him.” Dave’s voice conveyed his sympathy.
“But how did I get this tattoo on my body?” She looked between the men hoping they could answer her questions, help stop the dreams, stop the pain of loss. “I’m so confused. I understand how we could exchange memories, but the physical things like the tattoos and Captain Amsted’s ring? I don’t understand that.”
Marc pulled Dave to stand beside him. He pointed to Dave’s wedding ring and tattoo. “Somehow, and it’s only my theory, when he met my wife Sadie, he somehow made the other Dave’s memories concrete in this timeline. Sadie started to remember her life with Dave from the other timeline. Their wedding rings and his tattoo began to form. This is all so new that we don’t know the reason why.”
“How do you live with it, Captain? How do you live with knowing she’s married to someone else when you love her? Do you still love her? I mean you must—you’re still wearing your wedding ring. How can you be friends?” The men shared a look before Marc nodded.
“We worked it out. Marc knows Sadie loves me as much as she loves him. And we both love her enough to want her to be happy. I’d never make her choose between us. We’d never make her choose between us. She’s the most important thing to us, do you understand? She has the same memories of us as I do. She also has her memories of Marc. We all live together, and we’re very happy as a family. No one can know, Lisbeth. Your knowledge of our situation could end my career in the military.”
“Oh god.” Lisbeth sat down. The men looked concerned, but she looked up
and smiled. “If I can talk to him, he might remember me? He might have the tattoo the other Stieg got when I got mine. Or when the other me got hers. Shit. Whatever. For the first time in weeks, I feel hope.”
Marc spoke just as an older woman walked into his office with a large black bag being pulled on a cart. “I can’t tell you with certainty that would be the case, but there is a chance. Dave didn’t get his tattoo and ring without Sadie’s ring showing up at the same time. So, the chances that this Stieg fellow now has an unexplained tattoo is statistically high. Which means he’s probably having memories about you too.”
Tears filled her eyes. “If he is, that means he’s hurting and as confused as I am.”
“That’s the pessimist’s way of looking at it. What it means, my dear is that if he has those memories, he also wants to find you as much as you want to find him.” Dr. Telly Anne Lackney’s voice sounded through the room. “If what I heard entering the room is correct, you have a physical marker of the other you from the other timeline without meeting or talking to this young man which is not what happened with Dave and Sadie. He found her within days. Perhaps as time passes the memories would become more concrete anyway, even without a physical meeting between the parties. This is most fascinating.”
She continued to pull items from the bag and place them on the table. “But you, my dear, are extremely fortunate. You work for a company that has resources, and I want to study this phenomenon further. As such, KenSpec can use your description of him, cities you remember, and names you know to track him down for you.”
Lisbeth licked her dry lips and took a deep breath. “Actually, it’s not that he’d be hard to find at all. It’s getting close to him that would be the problem. And if he doesn’t have the same dreams, or memories, I seem to have developed or a tattoo, he wouldn’t believe me anyway.” She downed the remaining water in the cup before blowing out a breath. “The man is Stieg Warner.”
“What?” Dave sat down in his chair with a thud. “The award-winning German actor and director. That’s who you are in love with and who we need to find?”
“Well,” Tel smiled as she hooked up laptops from her bag, “honey when you pick them, you sure do it right. I’m old, and I think he’s hotter than hell.” Tel winked and smiled as she continued to pull out her equipment. Dave wanted to laugh at Tel’s candor but didn’t.
*****
Stieg rolled to his back when he felt small hands running over his chest. God, he loved her. He was never so happy as the day she walked into that café in Leipzig. He’d give anything to keep her now that he’d had her in his life. The last week had been heaven for him. He found the woman he’d love forever. Small kisses rained over his neck. He jerked and heard her laugh when she found the ticklish part of his stomach with her hand. Her tongue traced the line her hand had just taken.
“You know how to start the day off right, Lisbeth.” Her moan had him opening his eyes. Her teeth nipped his side, and he jerked again and laughed. He wrapped his fingers in her hair, pushing her toward his raging erection. “You’re fucking good at this.” He moaned as her lips closed over the head of his cock. She moaned in response sending vibrations straight to his balls, drawing them tight to his body.
“I can’t help it, Stieg—you taste much better than cinnamon rolls.” She sucked him in deep, using her tongue to put pressure on the sensitive underside of his erection.
“You can’t do that much longer.” Her mouth leaving his cock made a slight popping sound when he pulled her gently up his body. While his brain wanted to slide inside her pussy, his cock wanted her to continue until he came in her mouth.
“Are you still okay with us not using condoms?” Her question made his cock jump. They’d had that talk last night before falling asleep. She was taking birth control shots, and neither had ever had sex without condoms. He moaned, knowing he would feel her pussy wrapped around him instead of latex.
“Oh, hell yeah. I’ve been dying to feel you without anything between us. Climb on. I may be German, but I want you to ride me like a cowboy.”
