Chapter 30
Ben sat on Janis’s computer chair and fired up her liquid cooled PC. It was quite the marvel for a home computer in 2003, he noted. Janis was clearly serious about her little side business.
“Huh, Red Hat Linux,” Ben mused as he noted the operating system that was booting.
“Do you know how to use Linux?” asked Addison, as she materialised beside him. “Because I sure don’t.”
Ben smiled up at her. “Damn it’s good to see the grown-up you,” he said, conspicuously checking her out. “Have you got Janis’s password at least? It’s been a while since I used this old OS, but I should be able to work a few things out.”
“Yeah.” She tapped at the handlink, and it displayed an alphanumeric character sequence. He entered the password, and the OS completed booting.
“Now, I can look around and see what I can do here, but it would be helpful if Janis can come back and help me out as soon as possible, because she surely knows the security measures better than me. I don’t want to inadvertently expose her.”
“It’s okay, I don’t plan to be long,” Addison said, letting the handlink drop to her side. “I just needed a private talk with you about… us. And your being—” she raised her fingers, doing scare quotes, “—‘stuck’ leaping.”
About us? Uh-oh. Ben let go of the mouse, and spun the chair around to her, face turning serious. “What is it, Addison?”
Addison’s cheeks were rosy, like Ben knew she often would get after a couple of drinks. Well, Ben wasn’t going to criticise her for that, considering the day she’d had. Her eyes seemed clear enough, at any rate—if pained.
“I had a chat with Mom,” she said, her hands fidgeting.
“You did? I just met her, she seems like a nice lady.”
Addison’s face clouded over, her voice weakening as she spoke. “She’s… pretty great. Just like the Mom I… never had before. She told me she was proud of me.” She brought a hand to her mouth, blinking back tears. “I guess I owe you thanks…”
Ben reached out a hand to her, but it passed through her hologram. He let his arm drop, sighing. “I’m… I’m glad, Addison. You don’t look so happy about it though?”
“It’s great, really,” Addison said, attempting to regain her composure—badly. “I just wish I remembered why she’s like this now.”
“I’m gonna say it’s a lot to do with Sam,” Ben said. “I’ve seen it. Now that she’s got a father in her life, things already seem to be looking up for her—and teenage Addison, too.”
Addison nodded. “She said he made all the difference—Sam’s got a gift of bringing people together, just like you.” She sniffled. “And she told me you’re a lot like him in other ways.”
“You mean other than quantum physics and photographic memory?” Ben chuckled. “You could say we’re pretty alike, yeah.”
“It’s the saviour complex,” Addison said. “I’ve seen it over and over. From the very first leap when you risked your life to keep that guy out of prison, when you didn’t have to.”
“Or when I sent myself hurtling untethered through space, when a slight miscalculation of angle when I jumped would have left me adrift until my oxygen ran out?” Ben contributed. Jeez, that really could have gone badly, he realised now.
“Exactly. And even the reason you leapt in the first place. You just… get it into your head that you’re going to save everybody, and nothing can stop you; certainly not me. Now, I happen to think that’s an amazing quality to have, but… something else Mom told me made me realise that there’s a reason you haven’t come back to me.”
Ben furrowed his brow. “What? Something to do with the retrieval algorithm?”
“No, Ben. It’s because you don’t want to come home.”
Ben was about to protest, but then he thought about the older Sam’s last words to him, telling him he had to want to return to his time, and to think about all the people he loved. And the fact that his heart wasn’t entirely in it. But Sam had been in the right frame of mind, and so instead of going to 2023, they went to 20 years earlier, to the old Accelerator.
He opened his mouth to respond, but Addison cut him off with a raised finger.
“You don’t have to explain yourself,” she said. “Because I understand now, Ben. You’re afraid that if you come home, that will be the end of leaping. Of saving people. Am I right?”
Ben found himself speechless. He’d never articulated that before, but she was dead right.
“…Ohhh…” was all he could say.
“I thought so,” Addison said, quite pleased with herself for knowing something about Ben that he didn’t. “And that’s what we need to discuss. Okay?”
“O-okay,” Ben said dumbly.
Addison sat herself on the floor, crossing her legs. “Look, I know I was supposed to be the leaper, and ideally I’d still like to be.” She leaned forward. “But you’ve proven you can do it, and do it well.” She gave him a soft smile. “I spoke to Magic, and he agreed that if you come home, having two alternating leapers would offer both of us the chance to do it, and then give us time to recover after each mission.”
“Alternating…” Ben said breathlessly, as he pictured the arrangement. “So, I’d be your hologram, and you’d be mine?”
“And at the end of each leap, we’d be able to spend the night in physical contact for once. Together.”
“As husband and wife?”
“You got it.”
Ben lowered himself from the chair, matching Addison’s position on the floor. “Addison, I’d be honoured to share leap duty with you.”
Addison rewarded him with a brilliant smile. “That’s all I needed to hear, Ben. So I guess you’d better come back to me.”
Ben nodded, feeling like a weight had been lifted—and he hadn’t even realised he’d been carrying one.
“I promise,” he said, though he wasn’t quite sure how he would manage it. All he knew was that… yes. He was ready now.
He leaned forward, moving to his knees, and placing a ghostly kiss on the tip of Addison’s nose. “I love you, Addison.”
As Addison opened her mouth to reciprocate the words, the bedroom door received a sharp knock.
Ben exchanged a troubled look with Addison, and climbed reluctantly to his feet. He opened the door, to find Addison Junior standing there, looking a little less composed than the last time he’d seen her. Her face glistened with a layer of perspiration and her hair was a touch messed up.
“Oh, hey…” he said. “What’s going on? Is the guest room too hot or something? You look a little flushed.”
“Uh… no, it’s alright,” she said, moving past Ben into the room and planting herself on the bed. “I just wanted to see what you were up to. With the hacking.”
The holographic Addison looked her younger self up and down, at a loss. “Ben, I have no idea what I would have come in here for. I’ve never been the least bit interested in hacking.”
Perturbed, Ben sat on the computer chair, and gestured to the computer. “Well, I haven’t gotten started just yet,” he explained.
“Can I watch?”
Ben frowned. “I’d kind of rather you didn’t…”
“Oh, come on… pleeeease?” Teenage Addison clasped her hands, giving Ben a doe-eyed stare.
The older Addison looked completely perplexed by this. “What the hell is she doing?”
Ben turned to the pleading teen in his chair. “Addison… what’s this about?”
Addison sighed. “Okay, okay, you got me. I… I wanted to spend more time with you because… I think you’re cute.”
“What?!” Ben and the older Addison both exclaimed simultaneously.
“What, you’re allowed to like girls and I’m not?” the younger Addison said, pouting.
“Uh, well… it’s not that, it’s just…” Ben didn’t know how to explain to Addison that she wasn’t supposed to like girls. At least she’d never given him any indication that she did. Helpless, he looked to the holographic Addison, whose jaw was hanging loose.
“I’ve never had any attraction to a girl in my whole life!” she proclaimed. “This can’t be me, Ben!”
Without further warning, the younger Addison grabbed Ben and proceeded to kiss him.
“What the f—?” Addison cried out in utter disbelief.
At the same moment Ben realised that her lips were pressed against his and began to grapple with the strangeness of it, he felt two strong hands grab his wrists, pulling them to his lower back as if he was under arrest.
“That was… quite the distraction,” came the voice of Sam from behind. “Bold choice, but it worked.”
Addison pulled away from Ben, standing up from the bed and moving behind Sam. “Drama club,” she said simply.
The older Addison clawed at her hair. “What is going on here?!”
“Sam…?” Ben said tentatively, “uh, what is this?” He did not struggle against Sam’s firm hand; Janis wasn’t exactly built for fighting, and certainly not against a trained martial artist.
“Who are you really?” Sam demanded. “And don’t try to bluff your way out of it. I know you’ve got a hologram here. I can just… tell.”
Although Ben couldn’t see Sam, he could see the older Addison looking uncomfortably over his shoulder.
“He’s looking right at me,” she said out of the corner of her mouth.
“Jeez, I wish I knew how you did that,” Ben confessed. “But Sam, I’m not one of them.” He twisted his head, barely meeting Sam’s eye. “It’s me. Ben. Remember? I had a heart attack, and—”
“Come on, the other leaper saw all that,” Sam said. “You’re gonna have to do better than that.”
“My hologram…” he said, nodding to his Observer.
Addison responded by shaking her head. “Not in front of her…” she said, pointing to her younger self.
“Sorry…” he said to her, and turned his head back towards Sam. “It’s Addison, okay? The older you had leapt into her. The other leapers never knew that, did they? Now could you please let me go? I have a hate group to hack and I’m running out of time!”
The younger Addison’s head popped up by Sam’s, eyes bulging.
“Excuse me… what?”