Chapter 53
“Addison…” Ben murmured, groggily planting his hand in the sand so he wouldn’t slip back into a horizontal position. “Is it over?”
Addison, who was sitting cross-legged opposite him, smiled. “Yeah, Ben. You survived.”
She’d been beside him the whole ordeal, telling him to keep fighting, showing him opportunities to get a breath in. She was really something.
Ben ran a hand through his dripping hair, as he caught sight of his assailants being escorted away in cuffs. “Thanks,” was all he said to the woman he loved.
“You alright?” Sam crouched beside him, holding two warm fingers to his cold neck to check his pulse. “I was afraid I might not have made it in time.”
“I’m glad you did,” Ben said, coughing a few times. His lungs ached. “I think I’ll be okay.”
“Here,” Sam said, taking off his jacket and wrapping it around Ben’s shoulders. “You’re freezing cold.”
“That was amazing, Gramps,” the teenage Addison said as she approached them, grinning ear to ear. “We kicked so much ass! And you really showed off those skills you were telling me about.”
That was Addison, wasn’t it? She loved to get in the middle of the action. Ben was glad to have given her that opportunity for once.
“I think I get the empathy thing now,” she continued. “I was happy just to break that lady’s jaw, but you really went above and beyond.”
Sam nodded. “I don’t know if she deserved it, but I just wanted to try and help her understand how warped she’d become. I think I maybe got through to her a little.”
Ben became aware of Tom standing to the side, listening to the conversation. He looked up at Sam’s brother. “Thank you too, Tom. She’d have knocked me out cold if you hadn’t arrived when you did.”
Tom gave an awkward nod. “You’re welcome…” He scratched the back of his neck. “Is this kind of thing what happens on all of these time travel missions?”
Ben exchanged a look with Sam, and they both peered sheepishly up at Tom. “More or less.”
Tom appeared spooked, and he walked away from the group, lost in thought.
A police officer approached, looking down at the group with concern. “This young lady need an ambulance?”
“It’s alright,” Sam said. “I’m a doctor. She needs a warm bed and a night’s sleep, but she’ll be okay.”
The officer put a hand on his hip, nodding. “Well, I am gonna need statements from each of you…” He mulled over his request. “But I reckon we could wait until morning. Let me just jot down your details now.”
* * *
Al sighed with relief as the traffic finally began to move at a normal pace. But the relief might have been short-lived; he hadn’t heard anything from anybody about what was happening.
And then there was the information Ziggy had given. Sam was thinking of leaping again. Oh boy. They’d have to have a little chat about that.
“Do you think Janis is safe?” Al asked Sammy Jo nervously, though he knew she was just as in the dark as he was. “They would have told us if she wasn’t, right?”
“That depends on how much work the holograms had to do,” Sammy Jo said, frowning. “Maybe they didn’t have the chance to get back to us. But I sure hope so.”
“My ears are burning!” said a sing-song voice from the back seat.
“Janis!” Al cried, immediately pulling the car over to the side of the road and turning to face his daughter. “Boy, are you a sight for sore eyes.”
“Thanks —I think,” she said with a chuckle, tapping at her handlink. “You’ll be pleased to know the day is saved, thanks to the combined might of the Beckett family…” Janis hesitated, looking awkwardly up at Sammy Jo. “Well, you helped too, in a less direct way.”
“Never mind that,” Sammy Jo said, “are they all okay? Is Addie safe?”
“Everyone’s just fine,” Janis reassured her. “In fact, Ben will leap any minute, and we’ve got a new retrieval in place to bring him home for real this time.”
“That’s great,” Al said. “He’ll finally be able to marry Addi—” He cut himself off as he received a wide-eyed look from Sammy-Jo. “Ah… Ad-adorable—his adorable girlfriend.”
Sammy Jo glared at him, clearly not being taken in by his crude cover-up.
“Listen, one more thing,” Janis said. “Sam sent me here with a message for you guys. He says when the new Project is set up, you’re supposed to hire someone named…” she squinted at the readout on the handlink. “Uh, Jenn Chu?” That’s with two ‘n’s.”
Al and Sammy Jo looked at one another.
“Jenn… Chu?”
“Okay…” Sammy Jo said. “I suppose I’ll remember that along with everything else.”
“Alrighty,” Janis said with a sad smile. “I guess… I guess this is goodbye, Dad.”
“I guess so,” Al replied. This would be Janis’s last conversation with him—ever!—he realised. “Sweetheart, I love you and I’m proud of you.”
“I love you too, Dad.” she wiped a tear from her eye. “Anything you want me to tell Mom for you?”
Al looked, leering, into the distance. “Tell her I said she’s got one helluva—”
“Dad…”
“—daughter.”
Janis tilted her head, giving him the kind of high browed disapproving look he was oh-so used to receiving, before letting it melt back into yearning sadness.
“Bye, Dad. When the teen me comes back, make sure you cut her a little slack. And consider this a pre-emptive apology for all future teen dumbassery.”
“Don’t sweat it, Janis. I love ya and don’t ever forget it.”
With glistening eyes, Janis dematerialised from the car.
“So…” Sammy Jo said, folding her arms, “I guess nobody was planning on telling me Ben’s engaged to Addison?”
“Uh…” Al’s eyes shifted back to the road. “Surprise!”
* * *
Addison was wide awake and buzzing in the back of Sam’s car, in stark contrast to Ben, who was shivering and half asleep. But she sensed a stiffening of his muscles, and he looked up towards Sam in the front seat.
“Sam…” he said, yawning and rubbing his eyes. “I think I’m about to go.”
“Really?” Addison said, giving him puppy-dog eyes. “Do you have to?”
Ben chuckled. “’Fraid so. But you get to meet Janis now.”
“Thank you for everything, Ben,” Sam said sincerely. “I never thought I’d see my family all together like this, you know?”
“I think we’re even after tonight. So thank you too.” He turned to Addison, taking her hand. “And you’re gonna make an amazing leaper in the future. Try not to spoil me too early when we meet, alright?”
“I won’t,” Addison vowed. “You’ll just be… my professional colleague, I promise.”
Ben grinned. “I hope it’s more than that.”
Addison raised an eyebrow. “Wait, really…?”
But Ben looked away, blinking, then squinted at Sam in confusion, sitting bolt upright.
“Uncle Sam? Oh God, I’m not tripping again, am I?”
Sam looked into the rear view mirror. “Not this time, Janis. Welcome back—you, uh, missed a thing or two.”
Realising what had happened, Addison let go of Janis’s hand. “Uh, hi Janis,” she said awkwardly. “Nice to… meet you. I’m Addison.”
Janis studied her face a moment and licked her lips. “Do I know you?”
“Well, we kinda met earlier today, I… think. You were angry ’cause you got banned from prom, and—”
“Oh my God, prom! Is that happening now?” She looked down at the torn black sequined dress underneath the men’s suit jacket wrapped around her shoulders. “What the hell…”
“Guess we’d better give her the whole story,” Sam said. “Do you want to, or will I?”
“Eh, I’ll do it,” Addison said with a grin. “So, here’s the thing…”
* * *
Kat slumped on the bench. Prom was over, and Janis was nowhere to be found. And worse, her Dad wasn’t here, and even that guy Sam who’d promised he’d drive her home wasn’t here either! So it was either call a taxi with money she didn’t have, or call up her Dad to pick her up, who had probably been drinking.
Terrific.
What a crappy night. She couldn’t help but think it was her own fault for jumping to conclusions. Janis could be dead in a ditch for all she knew. And of course she was stone cold sober now, to make things just that much crummier.
Kat buried her head in her hands, sobbing. Worst prom ever.
“Can I have this dance?”
Kat looked up at the sound of Janis’s voice, and her voice caught in her throat as she saw the state of Janis. Talk about dead in a ditch!
“Oh my God, what happened to you, Janis?!”
Sweeping back damp hair, the waterlogged teen held a hand to her. “I’ll tell you later, Kat. Please just dance with me so this whole prom doesn’t end up nothing but bad memories?”
“There’s not even any music…”
Just as she said it, an SUV pulled up by them, and the door opened wide, bathing the area in the car stereo’s music: Beautiful by Christina Aguilera.
“Nice timing, Dad,” Janis said, grinning at her father in the front seat, who gave her a salute.
“Welcome back, pumpkin,” he said quietly to her.
Janis moved in closer to Kat, resting a head on her shoulder.
This felt more like Janis’s usual affection, Kat thought as they began to sway to the music.
Janis felt very damp, her dress was torn up, and she had cuts and scrapes all over her body. Shoes long gone. Where the hell had she been? She’d been pretty wasted—had she fallen into some fountain somewhere? Or worse?
“Janis… I don’t want to spoil the moment, but do you need medical attention…?”
“Just dance, okay? Happy memories.”
Kat sighed. “Yeah, okay. Happy memories.”
As the song came to its conclusion, Janis gave Kat a soft kiss on the lips.
“Thank you, Kat. Let’s go home.”