Julie glanced at Kevin sitting next to her.  Her eyes moving to Charles sitting at the head of the table.  Briefly her eyes flitted across the table to Nick before she looked down at the plate in front of her.  She still couldn’t get over that Charles, Nick and Steph had been eating dinner like a family since the day Charles arrived. They were even dressed for the period and since Kevin and Julie were there now Charles insisted they dress for dinner as well. 

When she saw the servants enter with the plates of food to serve them she understood, at least, why they dressed in the clothing.  It was easy enough to tell that they were all from the time period.   Julie waited until the first course was set before her and everyone else before she picked up her utensils and started to eat. The entire table was eating; there was no talking from anyone. 

Julie looked up to see Nick looking at her across the table; she looked away and shoved the fork with food on it into her mouth as fast as she could.

“Well as entertaining as it is to sit here in silence, we should discuss the current predicament,” Charles spoke from the head of the table wiping his mouth with the napkin and motioning to the servant to remove his plate.

Julie wanted to ask how they could afford the manor and the servants but Charles continued to talk. 

“We are of two minds about Justin and Tessa and I can only see one way to solve the matter and to research who else might be behind these changes.” Charles crossed his hands in front of him on the table.  

“We need the books,” Kevin piped up.  “Before the last jump away I managed to hide a few of the books that detailed where and when everyone jumped.  Charles and I agreed that I would go back and retrieve the books.”

Julie whipped her head to look at Kevin. “You can’t they think… they will…” She was feeling flustered and was unable to finish her thoughts.  She just knew that if Kevin went back something would go wrong and they would capture him, then she would never see him again.

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Nick chimed in.

Kevin glared briefly at Nick before continuing.  “Julie I know my way around the project, I can get in and out fairly quickly.”

“What if they found it already and they are waiting for you to come back and pick it up?” Julie was close to a panic attack.  Kevin put his hands on her head, the heat from his hands calmed her some but she still felt anxious about Kevin jumping back to the project.  He leaned in and kissed her, she tried to kiss him hard enough that he would change his mind and not go but to her disappointment he pulled away and smiled.  She knew he’d go to their room, change and be gone.

Feeling eyes on her she turned to see both Nick and Steph looking at her.  Steph was glaring at her and Nick looked as if someone just took a lollipop away from him.   Julie looked away quickly, her eyes falling on Charles who had been looking in their direction too.

A smile broke out on Charles’ face forcing to Julie to return the smile.

“Steph and I have other business to attend to,” Nick’s voice was monotone as he and Steph rose from their chairs and exited the room leaving Julie alone with Charles. 

“Do they do that often?” She asked him.

“Yes.”

“And do you ever wonder what they are doing? They could be working to change something in history and you are doing nothing to stop it.”

Charles shrugged and continued to smile at Julie.  “Nick and I have talked, we have an understanding don’t worry about it.”  He winked at her and she was instantly reminded of Howie. Thinking about Howie reminded her where Kevin was headed in a few short minutes if he hadn’t left already. 

“He’ll be fine,” Charles voice rang out in the hall with a slight echo.

She nodded and silently hoped it was true. 

“Charles, can I ask you about the link between me and Nick?”

“Of course,” he answered.

“Howie was thinking the link was similar to the one that links the librarian to The Library but is more rudimentary and is going to kill me.”

Charles nodded.  “I knew he would figure it out. If he wasn’t being obtuse about the entire issue at hand he would have a cure quickly.”

“You don’t have one?” Julie asked a little shocked. She thought for sure the man who created the virus would have a cure for it before it was administered.

“Julie, I believed Howie would find the cure.  I have been devoting my time to determining how to make the link unnecessary, to give Nick back the ability to jump alone.”  He was calm, his hands folded neatly in front of him on his lap.

“You would really give him the ability to jump again knowing that he will go around giving us problems to fix, changing history. Aren’t you against that?” Julie asked a little astonished that the man behind the project would give this man back his ability to go through time and ultimately change history.

“Like I said before, Nick saved me.  I owe him.  I do, however, apologize that it was used on you.” 

Julie shrugged in response to his apology.  “I can’t blame Nick for wanting to be independent again.  I might have done the same thing if I was in the same position.”  She said the word ‘might’ but she knew that if she was unable to jump again she would have done anything to get back to Kevin, including signing someone up for a death sentence.

“I am close to fixing Nick.” Charles stated straightforward and when he offered no other information Julie spoke up.

“But you have no cure for me?” She sighed the words out.

“I knew Howie would come up with the solution, besides…” Charles looked up at Julie and stopped talking.  Julie knew there was more, that he was leaving something out but she also knew that if she pushed him too much he would simply leave and she wasn’t sure she was done getting answers from him yet.

As they both sat in silence, Julie could no longer take it anymore and asked him, “Besides what?” She narrowed her eyes slightly at the man and hoped that he would answer her question.

“Nick asked me not to until his cure was found.”

“What?” Julie shrieked out.  She knew she was letting Nick get under her skin.  She didn’t know why she thought she could trust him, that he might have feelings for her that she was crushing but this cemented for her that he was after nothing but more revenge, to play with her emotions more.

Charles held out his hands as a sign for her to listen before she got really upset.  “In all fairness I did tell him that your cure would be fairly easy to devise and generate and his would be much more difficult.”

“But he knew this was killing me, he expressed that he didn’t want me to die but what you are saying it sounded like he didn’t even care.”

“He cares Julie.  At first I thought he chose you out of malice, especially after what happened between you but as time wore on I could see that there was something else.  I don’t typically pay attention to the emotions of the people around me but since I do not have my lab to distract me I have become an avid observer.”

Julie shook her head.  “I need some air.” The revelation that Nick might have been telling the truth when he said he missed her was too much for her to handle. She needed to go outside.

“Julie,” Charles voice rang out and she turned to see what he wanted. “If it’s any consolation, it will kill him too.  The link will need to be severed for you both to live.”

Julie hadn’t thought that the virus inside of her might also be the same virus Nick had. She hadn’t thought it would kill him.  If she had found this out after first being injected she might have thought that he deserved it.  But now, even though she had committed herself to Kevin, the thought of Nick dying did not sit well with her.

She exited the manor and took a deep breath as she started to walk the grounds.  Her mind was thinking a mile a minute with everything she just found out.  Charles was sure he’d be able to cure her, but was Nick’s cure as simple as hers.  Somehow she doubted if he did not get his gene to jump through time back he might die even if the link was severed.  Maybe there was more to the link; maybe it linked them not only in traveling through time but perhaps they were linked in other ways.

Julie thought about how she felt when she was around him.  It was hard to keep away from him; she had to touch him to be near him.  Perhaps the link was to blame for that as well.  She felt as if a weight had been released from her shoulders. She didn’t have feelings for him; it was merely the link that was forcing her to be as close to him as possible.

“Julie,” a voice from behind startled her.   It wasn’t Nick, it wasn’t Kevin and it definitely wasn’t Charles. She spun around to see Brian standing behind her.   “You have to come back with me.”

“Is it Kevin?” She asked worried forgetting that Brian was still with the project, thinking that Kevin’s cousin would be impervious to the lies Jessica would spread about them. 

“You have to come back with me.”

Panic swept through Julie as her mind wondered what had happened to Kevin.  ‘Please let him be alright.’ She pleaded silently.  “Okay.” She muttered as she stepped closer to Brian.