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Author's Chapter Notes:
Julie finds a friend? And hope.
They had made it all the way up to the man's room before the gravity of what the man said hit her full force. Before she could question him though, the stomach cramps came back and she rushed to the bathroom to finally allow her stomach release. She locked the bathroom door and laid her head down on the floor, relishing in the coolness of the tiles. How did this man who was unknown to her know her name. Did she mention it at the diner? She didn't think so, she was careful to keep her identity to herself when she planned on eating and running.

Her stomach racked with pain again and she threw herself back into position hovering over the toilet. She sat like that for several minutes to no avail. Her stomach was in pain, but nothing was going to come of it. She grabbed a towel from the rack and hugged it to her chest as she laid back down on the floor. A very light knock sounded through the small room.

“Are you alright? Can I get you some sprite?” the man who knew her who she did not know asked.

“Uhhh.” was all she managed to get out. She closed her eyes unsure of how much time was passing as she lay on the bathroom floor. The watch she wore when she started jumping was an item of wonder for a medieval village, they took it from her before imprisoning her. She watched as the beginnings of a pyre was being built for her, thankfully she managed to jump into a new time before they could come for her. After her few scares, she felt every jump could be her last. It did not take long for her to cling to the shadows and to stick to places she would blend in and be unmemorable.

Another knock at the door brought her back to the present. “I have a glass of sprite for you.” The man said. She managed to move enough to unlock the door so he could come in. 'Hell, if he is a psycho killer at least he would put me out of the misery of being sick, and I would no longer be faced with the unending time jumps.' She thought to herself as she made her way back to her spot near the toilet.

The tall, raven haired man slowly walked towards her, bent down and handed her the glass. “We can talk when you are feeling better. You should be feeling better in a few minutes.” He stood up and walked out of the room. She could see him sitting on the couch, eyes focused elsewhere she guessed on a television screen.

She managed to sit up, slowly sipping the carbonated beverage. The pain in her stomach becoming a small ache and then disappearing altogether. 'Did he slip something in the drink?' She wondered. She managed to pull herself to her feet, clinging to the towel and the drink she managed to make her way to the room that the man was sitting in waiting for her.

“What did you put in this?” She questioned him immediately after taking a seat on a nearby chair.

“The antidote to what I slipped into your drink at the diner.” The man spoke non-nonchalantly, his eyes still focused on the television screen.

“You poisoned me?” She slammed the drink down on the table and flew towards the door. She knew this man was trouble the minute he offered to pay for her meal. Before she could open the door, he was there in front of her, grasping her arms tightly, pushing her back into the room. He shoved her back into the chair and stood over her.

“I've been carrying that vial around for months, every time I thought I found you I'd arrived too late. It wasn't poison, only to make you sick. A way for the agents to be able to lend you a hand and get you into a private area.

We have very little information on times you have been in Julie. I waited at that cafe for hours waiting for you to arrive, hoping I wasn't too late again. We managed to find police report about a young woman with your description eating without paying. We hoped it was you, thankfully it was and now, that report is known to nobody but a few of us.” He smiled warmly at her and took his seat back on the couch, now facing her.

“How? Who are you?” She stared open-mouthed at him, unable to comprehend the information he provided her with.

“My name is Kevin Richardson and I am from eighteen years after the explosion at UCLA when you went missing. I am part of a volunteer search and rescue squad to find the missing from that explosion in 2012. You and a handful of others were in the vicinity of an experimental time teleportation device when a test run went awry and people closest to the experiment were, for lack of better words, flung through time.”

“So I wasn't the only one displaced?”

The man shook his head. “After it happened, those in charge of the device worked tirelessly to figure out a way to make it work so that we could retrieve you all and put you back where you belong.”

“How did they know we lived, that we actually went through time?” Julie picked up her glass of Sprite and started to chug it down now.

“They grew suspicious when no bodies could be found, no trace of any of you. You just disappeared. Of course, authorities looked into alternative theories but came up empty handed. Then there was the newspaper article of the first poor soul they found. A student in the psych department was doing research for a paper and came across and article dated 2001 about Mary Durance being admitted after screaming that she was from the future, scaring her family who, thankfully, kept the ten-year-old Mary away from the door.” The man glanced at his watch and looked at the door as if expecting someone.

“They managed to get an interview with the woman who still lived in the mental hospital. Charlie said he would never forget how her face lit up when she saw him and another student they mutually knew walk into the common room. They promised her they would find a way to bring her back. It took another eighteen years to perfect the device but the first volunteers managed to go back to 2001 before Mary could get to the door of her parent's house. They brought her back, our first success.” The man stopped talking and moved to a small refrigerator pulling a bottle of water out and drinking.

“So you've come to bring me home?” Julie's face brightened. It was the best news she'd had. She would get to go home, she stood and hugged the man tightly. “When do we leave? Is there anything I need to do to get ready?” She could feel the smile on her face, it had been so long since she had any reason to smile.

The look on the man's face forced the smile to disappear again. “I'm sorry Julie, I won't be taking you back right now.” He shrugged as she pushed him backwards.

“Why did you bring me here then? Why drug me? Why give me hope and then pull it out from under me?” She was screaming, it was her attempt to keep the tears from falling, but it was not working. She felt all hope slip from her in that moment. Why did he do this to her? Was it all a sick joke?

“How long have you been, lost?” He asked her, his voice still calm.

Julie wiped her eyes and nose on her sleeve. “Best guess, five years. Hard to keep track of but I think I managed to keep a decent account.”

“If I were to take you back to 2012 now, you would be five years older then when you disappeared. I'm here to get the information of your first jump. Where did you end up? What year, what time, I need to get all the information from you I can so that I can jump back into that time and take you home so none of this will ever have happened.”

“Really?” she asked, a little wary.

“Yes, really Julie. I will bring you home, and none of this will even be a memory.” He moved closer to her but before he reached her pain shot through her stomach again, before she could get back to the bathroom she fell onto the floor, nausea sweeping through her.

“NO!” She heard Kevin yell out.

Tears fell freely from her eyes. She missed her chance. He was there to save her, but it came too late, she felt it for sure this time. She jumped. Her eyes confirmed it when she opened her eyes to see that she was now on the beach next to some ocean. With no one in sight, Julie curled up on the shore and cried at her missed opportunity.