Julie got off the bed, her eyes glancing at the new computer on her desk before she left the room and headed towards Howie's office. Her thoughts floated around how she wanted to handle it. Her heart did not want to say that Howie was involved. He acted suspiciously; he even acted mean towards her sometimes, but the memory of him in 2045. He was the reason she kept her memories, she would not forget that.

Memories of that day came back to her. She almost turned back, how could he be the one involved if he still worked with the project in the future? Eventually someone else would have stumbled upon what Nick came across right? What if Nick wasn't supposed to live, what if he'd really died? Maybe no one else did find out someone within the project was making money off of changing history. She thought it would be best if she turned back and went to her room to sleep.

She looked up and noticed she was standing in front of Howie's office. She sighed, no point in turning back now. She held her breath and turned the handle of the door, pushing it open. She let out her breath when she noticed that Howie was not in his office.

Julie made her way over to his desk, there was no telling when he would be getting back and she did not want to be caught snooping. She managed to find a stack of papers and right on top was a check. The check was coming from some organization that Julie had not heard of before and simply had the memo “vaccine help.”

Before she had a chance to think about the check and the memo, the door to Howie's office opened and he came wandering in. “Julie?” He questioned when he saw her. “What brings you down here? Lonely?” He asked with a warm smile.

“A little. How do you handle it when all the volunteers are gone? What do you do with your time?” She asked hoping he might slip and give her some more information.

“I work on various side projects.” He shrugged and moved to the area Julie was in, seeing the check on top of the pile he quickly snatched it away and shoved it in his pocket.

“What was that?” she played innocent hoping he might open up about the check and tell her what it was, tell her that it had a legitimate reason to be on his desk.

“Nothing important,” He smiled at her again. He stood looking at her, silent. She stood looking at him with nothing to add. The silence between them was beginning to become very awkward when the door opened again it caused Julie to jump.

“Hey How...” The person started and stopped when they saw Julie. “Julie,” Kevin breathed out her name.

A huge grin broke out on Julie's face as she saw Kevin, the man she loved, enter the room. She flew into his arms and wasted no time kissing him. Her brain reminded her of the time spent with Nick, the urges she had when he was near. She shuddered and shook them off as she let herself melt into Kevin's embrace.

“When?” Kevin questioned.

“She arrived shortly after you left. Seems she had quite a rough time with the last jump. Her clothes were ripped and she talked about almost being burned alive.” Howie spoke up for her, though she felt her face flare crimson at the mention of her ripped clothing.

Kevin held her tighter after finding out about almost being burnt alive. “How did you get away?” He asked.

Julie shrugged. “Someone confessed to the crime I was being killed for before the fire was lit.” It was what she had told everyone else; there was no point in worrying Kevin about her feeling the heat from the torches, peeing herself with fear that she would die. She really didn't want to mention Nick speaking out for her; she knew he'd paid for her to be released. He couldn't very well let the woman he was using die.

“Have you rested?” Kevin asked her, still clinging tightly to her.

“Some,” she stated. It was the truth, but she'd been too busy investigating and keeping herself busy. She knew that if she let herself think about what had just happened to her, being on the brink of death again, and what had transpired between her and Nick, she would possibly lose her mind.

“Have you figured out why she is jumping?” Kevin asked Howie.

She knew the silence was probably Howie shaking his head.

“Did you give her anything so she could sleep?” Kevin asked. He knew her too well. He knew that with what had just happened closing her eyes to sleep would be difficult.

“I did,” Howie answered simply.

“I didn't want to take any and miss your return in case I jumped soon again.” She lied, somewhat. She really didn't want to miss Kevin returning but she had tossed the pills Howie had given her into a drawer and had proceeded to investigate based on the information Nick had supplied her with.

“Well I could use a nap,” Kevin smiled down at her. “Care to join me?” He asked.

Julie's bones ached with weariness and she really did want to sleep so she nodded. She and Kevin walked back to their room in silence. Neither one discussing anything about their jumps. When they got into the room, Julie pulled the sheets back, threw her shoes off, quickly changed into her pajamas and slid into bed. Kevin's warm body joined her shortly after. The sheets felt nice and she wondered when Kevin had the time to get new ones.

Kevin pulled Julie close and she could feel herself involuntarily tense up. “Julie what happened on your jump? I know you have been close to death before, we all have, but you seem to have something else on your mind.”

“I just found something out on my last jump. Found some information that hinted a few volunteers are on the take. Changing history for payment.” She shrugged and sat up to look at Kevin who was sitting on the bed next to her already. “I think I've already found who though, so it's a moot point.”

She tried to lie back down in the bed but Kevin grabbed onto her arm and pulled her in his general direction. “Where did you get this information?” He asked her. His face was as serious as she had ever seen it before. She knew that if she didn't tell him he would never back down until she had, he was going to be upset with her either way so she decided to just tell him.

“Someone saved me from being burned, someone who knows us.” She looked at him hoping he would guess and guess correctly. When he continued to wait for her explanation she continued. “It was Nick.” She said his name quickly and watched as Kevin's face went from serious to outright angry.

“Nick? How is that possible? He died.” Kevin started to speak asking her but did not wait for her response. “Are you sure it wasn't one of your dreams?”

Julie shook her head, her cheeks burning as she remembered his touch. “No, definitely not a dream.” She looked away from Kevin's eyes briefly before she could continue. “He told me that he has reason to believe someone inside the project is changing history for money and he asked for my help to find them.”

“So let me get this straight.” He started moving off of the bed and pulled his pants on. “Nick shows up after you were saved from dying,” His face lit up like something just struck him, “Most likely he saved you and tells you some wild ass story about being someone inside the project taking money to change history and you believed him?”

Julie stood and moved close to Kevin and attempted to pull him close to her but he moved away. She opened her mouth to try to explain to Kevin but he cut her off.

“How could you be so blind? He tried to kill us both and now you are working with him?” Keivn stormed across the small room and stood on the opposite side from Julie. “Why did you just bring him in when he saved you? Is there something going on I should know about?” He narrowed his eyes and looked at her.

“No, no.” She answered a little too quickly. “He wants me to look into it is all. If he's wrong he promised to surrender.” She forced a smile on her face in an attempt to show Kevin that it really was alright that she was working with him.

“And you think he told you the truth?” Kevin scoffed and shook his head. “I am upset but maybe this can be turned to our advantage and you can double cross him and bring him in.”

Julie remembered being asked to do something similar a few months ago by Howie and Kevin and it didn't turn out well. “I can't do that.” She muttered.

“There is something between you isn't there?” Are you screwing him again?” The words hurt coming from his mouth and stung since there was a hint of truth. She had almost slept with Nick again, but thankfully things had stopped before they reached the point.

“We are linked.” Her voice was small as she answered.

“What do you mean linked?” the anger was still in his voice as he spoke.

Julie delved into the story about how Nick managed to get Charles and used him in an attempt to help him jump through time again. Charles' solution was to link Nick with another traveler. He chose her to be linked. “I have no control, he does. It makes me at his mercy. Eventually, the link between us will kill me.”

Kevin was silent staring at her. She could see the conflict of anger and sadness at what he viewed as her betrayal in his eyes. “This is...I...” he started then threw up his hands before exiting the room completely leaving Julie standing there.

Tears formed in her eyes and she dropped onto the couch. The unwelcome feel of a couch not broken in caused her to look closely at it. The couch was new. She wiped the tears and took a survey of the room she shared with Kevin: a new computer, new sheets, and a new couch. She knew she hadn't bought them so Kevin had to. Where did Kevin get the money for these new expenditures? She gasped in realization that Kevin might be on to take too.