Dire Decisions

At a time in everyone's life, a crossroads may be reached; the path we always thought was straight suddenly presents us with a confusing set of choices that try to tempt us towards differing uncertain futures. Do we take the safest path, or do we take the one less traveled by?

It may only be a simple choice, but we should always take care: the path to helping an old friend could turn into a ruinous nightmare; the path to saving a lover could turn into self destruction and obsession; the path of confession could lead to retribution; the path of curiousity could lead to unexpected consequences.

Still, there's always opportunities to turn back, or to take a different road...

... it just may be difficult to find the way out once we've finally realized that we've lost our way.

When Travis awoke, his eyes took their sweet time adjusting to his surroundings. His head ached, pounding harder each moment he regained conciousness; his muscles seemed to scream as he pushed himself to a seated position against the pillow behind him.

This would be all fine and dandy... if it happened to be a bed he recognized.

Once Travis finally felt a bit less like he was going to slump over onto the floor in a heap, he hobbled towards the window to try and get his bearings. 'Where am I?' he asked himself, slightly disturbed that he couldn't remember.

'It must've been quite a night,' he pondered. 'But it'd be really nice to know where it lead to...' But, to his chagrin, the scenery outside the window was not scenery he recognized. Well. He knew he was still in Twinbrook -- that much was obvious -- but other than that... Anyone's guess.

The room wasn't all that helpful, either. The place wasn't bad, but it wasn't an image of beauty either. Still, he knew he was on the top story off a house -- and he didn't know many people in Twinbrook that could afford a house that big.

And yet, what was more disturbing to him than that was not just the fact that the bed he'd laid upon was one he didn't recognize, but the fact that it looked as if he had not been the only one laying in it.

'This can't be happening,' he groaned.

He stumbled over towards the desk to try and get some more clues, but it proved unnecessary when the door opened, and Lolly Racket walked tiredly into the room -- apparently not even noticing that he still stood there, waiting for her.

Well... At least, that may be what it might look like to her.

Travis was at a loss; none of this made any sense. The last thing he remembered was the lake... watching Lolly run away... How did he get from there, to here?!

"W... What's going on?" Travis asked slowly, walking up to Lolly as she finally noticed that he'd been lurking behind her. "What happened last night?"

"You don't remember?" Lolly said, obviously amused with a lilt of a laugh on her tongue. "We had a fantastic night together, is what..."

"But, but that doesn't make sense," Travis moaned. "Once we got to the lake, I told you to go away--"

"And then shortly after, you came running up behind me, and... Let's just put it mildly, you pretty much threw yourself at me."

"What are you talking about, Lolly?!" Travis' voice grew loud as his temper began to flame. "I didn't want anything to do with you! There is absolutely nothing that would possess me to want to be with you! End of story!"

Lolly just rolled her eyes. "Man, are you seriously confused or what..."

"Yes Lolly, I am confused! Confused why after everything I insisted, you still managed to seduce me? To drag me here?"

As his anger grew, Lolly slowly backed away. "Look, I didn't mean to make you angry--"

"Angry?! Angry?! You think I'm just angry?!" Travis could feel the rage pushing his heart to beat faster, though he didn't care -- his pulse meant nothing more to him than a measure of his anger. "You're evil, Lolly! You're seductive, you're manipulative, you're--you're..."

Travis had run out of applicable insults; anything further and he might as well call her a girl from a street corner, but they both knew that's not what she was -- even if Travis felt like he'd been used. Or had. Or something to that effect.

Lolly, on the other hand, shook her head in disbelief. "You have no idea what you're doing, do you, Travis? You scream no, and yet you know that Jade isn't giving you what you want... And you know I can give it to you. So you took it. You didn't object last night... What gives you the right to suddenly call me the bad guy?"

As Lolly glared at him, awaiting an answer, Travis couldn't think of any; maybe he'd order far too many Spline Reticulators, but was that a suitable excuse? Had it really just opened up what he really wanted, and he was refusing to see it?

He hung his head, ashamed; he'd made a terrible, terrible mistake... But he knew that he didn't feel nearly as bad about it as he should.

The drive home was miserable; he had to wait for a cab, which felt terrible when he knew that Lolly was watching from an inside window. Even worse, when he realized that the taxi cab driver was someone he knew -- obviously, since Twinbrook isn't that big of a town -- and he secretly prayed that it wasn't anyone that knew Jade. That was the last thing he wanted: Jade to find out. She had enough on her mind right now.

He changed into a fresh set of clothes, but it still couldn't clear his mind; nor could it get rid of that horrible hangover. Man, he had really screwed up this time.

His anxiety compounded when, only minutes after he returned home, a ring came at the door; when he looked outside, he saw it was Jade.

'Oh plumbob,' he thought to himself. 'The cab driver did know her, didn't she... She knows! Plumbob, plumbob, she knows!'

But, he decided he was going to play it cool. Duh; this is Travis Kane we're talking about, here. He's always cool! "Jade?" he asked slowly, his heart sinking when he saw the tears on her face. "Honey... what's wrong?"

When she moved closer to him to move into a hug, he breathed a sigh of relief; the Jade he knew would kill him if she knew about his night at Lolly's place.

"I don't know," she murmured, her voice solemn. "I just feel so lost lately, Travis... So confused. I don't know what to do anymore."

"That's fine, Jade," Travis said, trying to sound reassuring. "It really is. You know I don't care."

"That's... That's part of the problem," Jade stuttered, pulling herself away from his grasp. "You don't care. You keep me at such a distance, you act as if this all doesn't bug you, when I know it doesn't..."

"But I--"

"No, Travis, don't lie to me," Jade cut him off.

There was no use arguing with her, so Travis remained silent; in his stead, she continued.

"I know that the whole commitment thing scares you, Travis, but you don't understand anymore that what happened to Emerald haunts me. That I'm so scared of it happening to me, too. I need a reassurance that I just don't think you can give me, anymore. I thought, when things first happened, that you could. That after what happened, you would change... But you haven't, Travis. You haven't changed."

"Jade--"

"No, Travis. It's... it's over."

Travis was utterly, and completely, confused.

"Look, Jade, just come inside, just calm down for a minute and think this through," Travis said, moving in to try to hold her. "You don't know what you're saying." His words only made her tears run faster, and she quickly pulled away from his advances.

"Please, Travis," she gasped, "Please don't make this harder than it already is."

Between the headache, the confusion, and the infuriation he'd felt that morning, Travis couldn't bottle it in anymore. "What do you want from me, Jade?! I've loved you, I've bought you everything you wanted, I've treated you right, I've always made you an important part of my life... So I don't want you to move in, yet? That's it? You're freaking out because of that?"

"No, Travis! It's not just that!" Jade's voice seemed to screech and crack as she spoke. "It's anytime I try to get closer, you push me away, and you find a way to try to drive a wedge between us. I try to take one step closer, and you take one step back. I can't handle it anymore, Travis... I just can't."

"Jade..." At this point, Travis wasn't even sure what to say. Was this really the end? Did she really want this to be through?

"I just... I just..." stuttered Jade, but once the tears started rolling again, there was nothing else she was able to speak.

She reach her hand out towards his arm, and he towards hers... Both knew what they wanted, but wasn't sure what the right thing was to do.

In times like these, almost nobody does.

---

Travis Kane and Jade Greenwood spent a good chunk of the rest of the morning trying to figure out what they were going to do after the culmination of recent events, but they were unable to do it with each other; Jade left, leaving Travis alone on his door stoop, baffled by both his incredible insensitivity and his incredible intolerance to Spline Reticulators.

Time rolled on, though, and at 6 P.M. on the dot, Travis' ride to sport's practice rolled up to his house, and he disappeared down the road with all his thoughts safely tucked away at home, where they belonged.

At exactly 6:10 P.M. Bradley Kane emerged from the bushes next to his brother's abode.

Now, it is first important to articulate a little better why Bradley felt the need to waste a perfectly good afternoon crouched in his brother's front lawn, and it begins with his Quest to save Emerald.

Bradley, now, had not just gone back in time four times to try to save Emerald. Not five. Not six. In total, twenty trips had Brad taken to Twinbrook B.E.D., and, obviously, none had been successful. Time and time again, Emerald found ways to twist his words, to outwit his foils to stop her, for Jade to continue getting involved -- you name it, Bradley tried.

In the end, Bradley's tired, twisted mind had come to one singular conclusion: Travis Kane must die.

Yes, Bradley had not slept in almost six days, and yes, he hadn't quite thought everything through, but it seemed perfectly logical to him. According to some rough napkin calculations, if Travis was removed from the equation before it even became a problem, then Emerald would be fine. Now, things in the past didn't seem to be effected unless they were things that had also come true in the present, so...

... Well. You can see where this is leading. Is it complete nonsense? Obviously. Unfortunately, inside Bradley all the strings had snapped; one by one, his hopes and dreams had been crushed dismally, and it was all his terrible, horrible brother's fault.

All it'd take is a few handy tweaks to The Beast, and Travis Kane would be no more. 'I'm brrilliiiannt,' Bradley cackled evilly to himself, tiredly delusional.

"... Brad? What are you doing?"

The voice -- that voice -- it came behind him once again, but this time, Bradley was no where near as thrilled to hear it.

Bradley groaned. "It's you again, isn't it?" he growled at her, hunching his shoulders under the weight of his frustration.

"Yeah, it's me," Alesha said with a begrudged sigh.

The anger boiled inside Bradley. His time-majjiger wasn't working as intended. His brother was an arse. The rest of his family was nosy. His soulmate was dead. And now, this crazy person was stalking him.

"Why. Is it. That every. Where. I go. YOU. ARE. Following me?!"

After Bradley has sufficiently released his rage in small yell, he realized how horrible he sounded. 'What is wrong with you, Brad?' his conscience seemed to ask. 'Are you even listening to yourself?'

Bradley wheeled around to face Alesha, but his head hung slightly in shame. "I'm sorry, that came out wrong, I just-- I don't know."

"Bradley, are you okay?" Alesha stared into Bradley's eyes, but what she saw shocked her. His eyelids sagged with darkened skin, his lips were dry and cracked, and worry lines seemed to burrow in every inch left of his youth.

The rain around them began to fall harder, but neither teen seemed to care; as water soaked their clothes and hair, the layers of protection seemed to wash away from both their skin and their souls.

Their eyes met, and for a moment, they saw each other in a way they never had -- but it was smoldered the second that Alesha finally spoke.

"Brad, I'm really worried about you. This isn't you... This is wrong. You need to fight it."

"What are you talking about?" Brad murmured in response. "I'm fine."

"I'm not an idiot, Brad. Fine. I'll admit it. I've been following you -- just because everyone's worried, and I was afraid you were going to do something stupid. And I think you've finally reached that point -- and seriously Brad, it's time to snap out of it."

"I'm. Just. FINE," Bradley growled  back. "I have everything under control. Once he's gone, everything will work! It has to! You're just trying to stop me, because you're jealous! Jealous of Emerald!"

"Bradley?" Alesha's voice was quiet, disturbed. "What do you mean, 'once he's gone'?"

"It's not important!" Brad's voice was hoarse and dry. He didn't even sound like himself, anymore. "You wouldn't understand!"

"You're-- You're thinking of trying to hurt your brother, aren't you?" Alesha yelled. "Aren't you?!"

"So what if I am!" Bradley yelled back. "It's the only way it will work!"

"That has nothing to do with it, Brad! You just want him to pay! This is for revenge-- not for some stupid experiment!"

Finally, Alesha cracked: the years of her parents cheating and fighting, the years of third-hand clothes and birthday-gift socks, friends' betrayals, classmates putting her down, and the boy she adored ignoring her existence finally exploded from the thickly wrapped shell of sweetness and goodness that is Alesha Drudge.

She couldn't stand for this -- not for someone she cared for to turn into something he shouldn't become.

"What has happened to you, Bradley? What happened to the sweet boy I knew who helped his friends with their homework? That built his sister toys? That took hikes in the wild, and fished, and gardened, and used to watch the stars at night for the right reasons? You've become obsessed, and broken, and insane!"

"I know what you're trying to do, Brad!" Alesha continued, her fury only dimming in the volume of her voice. "I know you've been trying to save Emerald! I know about the time machine!"

"H-H... How?" Bradly stuttered, utterly confused. He hadn't told anyone -- even though he'd had it in the yard, he'd told his family that it was a waterless shower. Or... something. They'd bought the story, at least.

"It took me a while, but I figured it out! How? Because I was there, Brad!!"

"You were... where?"

"At your house, all those months ago! I was there the night you came back! At least... I assume, one of them."

"But... But-- how?"

"I was in your parents' room, using their mirror... I moved away just for a second, and saw you outside the window. I couldn't understand what was going on, why you suddenly materialized out of thin air -- I couldn't understand, because I was too young, because I didn't know anything existed that could do something like that."

Alesha continued, "But now I do. Now I know why you came back that night, what you were trying to do when you argued with Emerald, when you fumbled with the car's engine, when you tried to stop her. You were trying to save her life."

"But you have to understand, Brad," Alesha pleaded. "I know these things because I saw them, all that time ago. I remember them because the past is concrete. It can't be changed. You need to stop trying, Brad. There's nothing you can do to save her...'

'It's time to stop before you ruin yourself."

Alesha's face fell, horrified, when he responded, "But I can't, Alesha. I have to keep trying! You don't understand that I can't! She's the girl I loved, Alesha. If I give up now... I've failed her."

"But Brad... Don't you realize that she's not the only person that will ever love you?"

"Alesha," he said, looking upwards towards the slowly appearing stars. "No one could ever love someone like me. Not the way that she did."

"You don't get it, Brad!" Alesha tears melted into the rain streaking across her face as her despair overtook her. "You're dwelling so much in the past that you can't see the present anymore! You can't see that there is a future, one where you're loved by someone far more than you ever thought you could be."

"Yeah, who would ever love me that much?" Bradley scoffed, disbelieving. "Who would ever love what I've become?"

"I would, Brad," Alesha choked, a piece of soaked wet hair falling into her eyes. "Because I already do."

"Y-y-y, you what?" As much as Alesha was choked up to say it, Bradley was equally so in surprise.

"Look," Alesha quickly said, trying to avert the course of the conversation back on track. "I don't care how you feel about me, right now, or about how you feel about Emerald, or about how you feel about your future -- but you have to understand, that what you're doing is a mistake."

"It has to stop," she continued. "Your time machine, your plan for Travis -- it's not going to work, and all you're doing is destroying yourself. I can't see you do that to yourself, anymore."

"So, what if you're right. What if there's nothing I can do, and all my work has been for nothing. I just move on, huh? Start acting like she never existed? Date you? Get married? Have kids? Grandkids? Forget that the girl I loved even existed?!"

"I... I don't know, Brad," Alesha said, muffled under the palm of her hand. She was afraid if she moved it, she would burst into sobs. "I can't make your decisions for you."

"Well, I'll tell you one thing," Bradley said, his face pale and cold. "I could never love anyone as much as I love Emerald."

"N-no one?"

"No one. Especially not you."

The pitter patter of rain hitting wet asphalt was the only sound that could be heard along that street, now. There were no words that Alesha could say without her salt-streaked lips starting to weep, so she only raised her hand from her mouth to her eye, trying to hold away the tears -- as if, somehow, it would also hold back the pain.

As Bradley watched this, a sick feeling of remorse caught him by the throat. The Brad he used to be would never make anyone feel like this. The Brad he used to be would never have stood there and watched.

It hit him so fast that he didn't truly understand what had happened until much later: he suddenly realized, the 'Brad he was' hadn't gone anywhere. He was still Brad. He was still that Brad. And there was still time to stop what he was doing before that Brad was gone forever.

But it was too late -- too late to stop Alesha. As his mouth opened to try to suck back in the horrible things he'd said, his eyes watched her turn from him and run, running through the rain as if the clouds were waging war against her for her very life.

His words died in his throat, knowing that there was no way to stop her, now...

... but it didn't matter, because above all, she had stopped him, and he was more thankful for that than he'd ever been.

---

It was as if the rain had washed away many layers in Twinbrook; layers of protection, layers of fear. As the world grew anew and all the plants felt replenished, more souls finally chose more paths to go down -- and one of these was Naomi Leman.

The next day, while the sun shone so bright than no one would ever have guessed that there was a storm the night before, Naomi Leman finally found the girl she'd been looking for, but that didn't make this any easier. She was a brave girl, but some things you need to say take more than just bravery.

Maybe that "more" is what the rain finally gave her... but, maybe it was just the impending timeline.

Because, it was either now or never for Naomi Leman.

Something Amelia Kane was distinctly unaware of. "Hey Nammers," Amelia said cutely between a few chords of her current song. "Check this out! I totally learned a new piece, it's so cool! You'll love it!"

"Yeah, sure Amelia, I bet I will... But, there's something else I need to talk to you about. Like, right now. Can you stop for a minute?"

Amelia groaned, but she put away her guitar and turned towards her friend. "Well, this better be important, because I was totally in the groove, there." With a dramatic toss of her hair, she asked, "So, what is it?"

"Oh, it's important," Naomi said through gritted teeth, her usually calm face lined with the pain of what she knew she was about to admit. "There's something I need you to know... Before it's too late."

Several minutes later, after Naomi had told Amelia all she thought she needed to know, the two stood quietly as Amelia listening patiently to the sound of ringing on the other end of her phone, with her hand resting gently on her friend's shoulder.

As she heard the phone pick up on the other end of the line, her hand dropped.

"Hey, Daddy," Amelia said carefully, more seriously than she'd said anything in her entire life. "Listen... We need to talk."

---

Not too far across town, Amelia's mother was knocking back a drink whilst telling a joke to her friend, Marta Tomasi. The two laughed, but it wasn't long until Meredith realized that Marta wasn't laughing as enthusiastically as she normally was -- and paranoid Meredith wasn't one to ignore subtle details like that.

"Marta? Is everything okay?" Meredith asked softly, cautiously looking into her friend's somber eyes.

"No, not really," Marta said with a sigh, her voice honest and morose. "It's just... You've been such a great friend to me, and I've just been so... not, lately."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, I totally hit on Jeb and tried to get into his pants. It was stupid, but after the whole breakup with Abel, I just wasn't thinking and seemed to forget that not only is he my boss, he's my best friend's husband, and... Yeah. It was really stupid of me."

"And... he turned you down?"

"Yeah. Not sure why I didn't think he would."

Meredith did her best to hide her surprise -- thank the plumbob, she could actually trust her husband! -- as she reached over to grab her friend's arm in reassurance.

"Honey, I honestly don't care. As long as nothing happened, I really couldn't care less. You've always been a great gal, a strong gal, too... There's nothing wrong with having a few moments of weakness here and there. Plumbob knows I've had more than my fair share."

"Yeah, you're right," Marta said with a smile. "I don't know what I was thinking. It's all that Abel's fault, anyways, right?"

"Duh," Meredith responded with a laugh. "It's always the man's fault."

After the two laughed, Marta shrugged slightly and said, "Honestly, I've just been under so much stress lately. Abel was really just the frosting on the cake, I really thought I was gonna lose it there, for a while. And with the heist going down tonight, I honestly feel like I'm about to crack under the pressure, ya know?"

Meredith paused a moment, confused. "... The heist?"

"Yeah, you know, the heist? The one Jeb's been planning for, like, the last two months? 'Course, Jeb's as cool as ice about the whole damned thing, which makes it that much harder to act all tough about it, but it's actually not that bad ever since he changed the plan last minute so I don't actually really have to get my hands all that dirty..."

All the while as Marta spoke, Meredith listened intently, her sense of humor dying away as if everything funny had gone from the world.

"So... Wait a second. Jeb is plotting a heist?" Meredith asked as calmly as she could. "Like, he's planning to steal something?"

"Sorta, yeah-- why? Didn't he tell you about it?"

"Of COURSE he didn't tell me about it!" Meredith yelled. "That rotten, bloody liar! Why would he tell his wife, when he swore years ago that he would never touch crime ever again?"

"He swore that?" Marta asked, surprised but amused.

She was no longer amused when Meredith continued to yell. "Of course he swore, when his stupid antics almost destroyed our entire family! And here you are, this entire time, in cahoots with him over the whole thing! I can't believe you, Marta! I trusted you!"

"Wait, wait Meredith, just calm down," Marta said, not losing her cool, yet. "Look, I had no idea that Jeb wasn't supposed to be doing that anymore, so don't you dare blame me, alright? It's his own darn fault if he's been lying to you, not mine."

"Uuuuggh, I know, I just--" Meredith felt as if she was about to throw another temper tantrum. Why?! Why must Jeb continue to lie to her? Here she was, trusting him, finally regaining the respect and the love she'd had for him -- and he betrayed her again!

Although disgusted and angry, Meredith breathed deep and tried to relax -- there were people here, in this bar, and she didn't want to make a scene... But she wasn't sure there was anything that could make her feel better, at this point. Not when yet again, her husband had proved how untrustworthy he was.

"Look, I don't know what he told you, or what you've been believing all this time, but I don't think it's right that he's been lying to you. If I'd known... I would've told you right away, Mere. You know that."

"I know... I'm sorry. But, I should probably go-- I need to go confront that no-good-two-face-stupid-piece-of--"

"No, don't," Marta said, stopping her friend; her face now read serious, and her intent strong."You don't need to go anywhere..."

With a deep breath, Marta finished: "I'll tell you everything."