Second Chances (29 page)

She squeezed his hands. "Not with those," she said as she tilted her chin toward the books on the table.

She was right. They were much too recent. He released her and scooped up the books. He return a moment later with four others. He took the top one and handed it to Paige and then took the next and began looking through it.

Two minutes later he stopped looking. His eyes were locked on the picture in the yearbook.

"I...I found...her? You?"

She closed the book she'd been looking through and leaned over to look at the one in front of Nathan. She stared at the picture. A smiling face she knew so well stared back at her. She lifted the book and looked at the date on the cover. The book slammed down on the table as her hands flew to cover her mouth. He thought she was likely holding back a scream. They'd both known this was a possibility, had been looking for the proof of it. And yet the reality of actually seeing it was more than she could handle.
 

"How is that possible? Seventeen years ago?" Her voice rose with each word.

"I don't know."

"Nathan, I was only six or seven years old. How is that possible?" Her voice cracked and almost every eye on the floor was looking their way. He did the only thing he could think of. He pulled her into his arms, just as she started to cry. Her body shook against him as she sobbed.

Nathan stared daggers at those who were gawking at them. He wanted to scream at them to look away. How dare they view Paige's anguish as a spectator sport. He gently rubbed her back and whispered soothing words to her. Promising that he would make everything right. He had no clue how he possibly could keep those promises, especially given he was as confused as she was, but he aimed to do everything within his power to keep his word.

After a few minutes she stopped crying, but continued to cling to him.

"This can't be. This has to be some horrible dream. Come on Paige, wake up," she said to herself.

"Sorry, but this is no dream."

"You're right. It's a damn nightmare."

"Paige you..."

"Well it can't be real, can it? Can it?"

Nathan could tell she was on the verge of going back into hysterics. He lowered her into a chair and sat down as well. He took her face in his hands, looking deeply into her eyes.

"Paige. I swear we will figure this out. It doesn't make sense to me right now either. But someone out there has to have answers, right? Someone has to know something."

She looked back into his eyes and then nodded.

"Time travel is starting to seem more plausible, isn't it?"

He couldn't help it, Nathan laughed and nodded.

"Yeah I guess so. I still don't believe it, but I suppose this does make it a bit more plausible."

"Someone has to know something," she said, mimicking his words from a moment ago. She looked down at the yearbook and repeated the words again.
 

"Yes," he agreed.

Her eyes went from the yearbook to her photograph.

"Daniel," she whispered.

"Who?"

She ignored his words and flipped through the pages of the yearbook. She stopped and pointed at a picture of a young man. He could see relief flood her face.

"Daniel. He was real."

"Who?"

"Daniel Perry. He was the one who took the picture. The real picture. He was my boyfriend during my..."

"During what?"

"My senior year? Her senior year?" Her face twisted in concentration. "That would have been this year?
 
God, I am so confused. What is happening?"

"I don't know Paige, but you say you have memories of this man?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. I really don't know anymore. All I know is that Daniel Perry took this picture. I don't know....no, I do know, that this couldn't have been me, but I am certain that whoever that is, it was Daniel Perry who took that picture."

She looked at Nathan, her eyes begging him to give her answers, to make everything all right. He desperately wished he could.

He picked up the photograph and stuck it in his pocket before taking Paige by the hand.

"Okay, let's go see if we can find Daniel Perry."

Julie stood behind the wheelchair, looking out of the elevator. She hesitated and the door began to close. Jason moved his leg forward, triggering the door's sensor and causing the doors to stay open. He coughed softly and that spurred Julie into motion.

They came around the corner and almost ran into Doris.

"Oh my! I thought I had heard the elevator, but when no one came out," she began.

"Sorry, Doris. I must have hit the brake on the wheelchair so it took me a few extra seconds to get moving."

Doris nodded her head and looked at Jason.

"All cleaned up. You look very nice, Jason."

He did his best to remain still, his eyes averted.

"I thought we'd take a stroll around the grounds before I need to get going. Is that okay?"

Doris turned her attention to Julie.

"Oh certainly."
 

Julie looked around the room.
 

"Is Sarah out here? I wanted to let her know, so she doesn't worry."

"I think she ran to the kitchen for a drink. Don't you worry. I will let her know when she comes back out."

"Thank you so much, Doris."

"Don't mention it." She patted Julie on the back and returned to her position at the front desk.

They moved through the room, heading for the front door. Are we going too fast? Too slow? Acting normal was a lot harder to do when you had to think about it.

A minute later they were out the front door. Julie pushed the chair down the ramp and there they stopped for a moment. She looked around the area, no one was close by. There was another resident in a wheelchair with his caregiver strolling down the same path they had used yesterday, but other than that she didn't see a soul.

"Okay, I am going to move the chair over to the car. I don't want you to have to exert yourself until you have to."

Julie cursed as she pushed the chair into the gravel parking area. On the rare occasions that residents were transported to or from the facility, they used the rear entrance that had a smooth paved parking area. Of course Julie couldn't have used that area without raising suspicions. She had to shove hard to get the chair to move on the gravel. The ride was bumpy and she could tell that each little jerk of the chair hurt Jason. She had to strain to turn the chair to get it in line with the car and was out of breath by the time she got the chair properly situated. She pulled open the door and bent down next to Jason.
 

"Okay, are you ready?"

He nodded and said, "Yes."

"Julie? What are you doing?"

She turned to see Sarah standing at the open door of the house.
 

"I...uh." She froze, her palms going sweaty.

"Where do you think you are going?" Sarah's voice had taken on a hard tone and she moved forward, the door closing behind her.
 

"I thought that..."

"You know you can't take Jason anywhere."

"I wasn't. I just...shit."

"You just what? Are you going to tell me you aren't trying to put Jason into your car?"

"Screw it," Julie said, stepping forward to block Sarah.

"What do you think you are doing? Are you trying to kidnap Jason? That's crazy."

"I am not kidnapping him."

"No? Are you trying to tell me you aren't taking him?"

"No. I mean yes..."

"Move aside, Julie, I am taking him back inside."

"No," Jason said as he pushed up on the arms of the chair trying to stand.

Sarah's jaw dropped.

"Jason? You...you..."

"We need your help," he said as he came fully erect, Julie slipped an arm around him to steady him.
 

Sarah looked from Jason to Julie.

"He's talking. He stood up on his."

"Yes," Julie said.

"Yes. I wish there were time to explain it, but there isn't. Sarah, I can't tell you how grateful I am for everything you've done for me. All I can say is I have to go." He reached out and placed a hand on Sarah's shoulder.

"No one is going anywhere."

Sarah spun around and the three of them stood looking up at Doris, who was framed in the front door with a pistol in her hands.

"Doris?"

"Not now, Sarah."

"You don't want to do this, Doris," Julie said.

"You are right, I don't. However I will, unless you put Jason back in the chair and bring him back inside.

"Wait Doris, just listen a minute."

"This isn't a negotiation, Julie." She pointed the gun at the trio, her hands shaking a little.

Sarah looked from Jason to Julie and finally back at Doris. "Has the entire world gone insane? Doris what the hell is all this?"

"No time to explain."

"Well make some damn time." She stepped away from Jason and started up the ramp. Behind her Julie started to help Jason toward the open car door.

"Stop. Move out of the way, Sarah." Her hand continued to shake.

Sarah turned back to look at Jason and Julie.

Julie felt the wetness of the blood on her face before her mind even registered the sound of the gunshot. She let go of Jason, thankfully he was already halfway into the car and he dropped into the seat, letting out a shocked cry of pain. She looked over and saw the blood blooming in the center of Sarah's blouse.

"Oh my God," Doris screamed. "But the safety was on. The safety was on. Oh my God."

Julie could see the light going out of Sarah's eyes as the woman dropped to her knees and then crashed the rest of the way to the ground. Doris was moving towards her, the gun still shaking in her hand.

Jason was struggling to lift his legs into the car.

"Julie," he hissed.

The sound of his voice spurred her into action. She lifted his legs into the car. He was situated on the side of the seat close to the door and when Julie slammed it shut, the door handle jammed against his side and he let out a startled cry of pain.

"Wait. Don't go. You need to help Sarah. I didn't mean to. It was the safety," Doris was saying as she neared the fallen body of her coworker.

Julie ignored her and ran around to the other side of the car. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the guard from the entrance come out of the guardhouse and start to move towards them. He was too far away to have seen what had happened, but he had certainly heard the gunshot.

She started the engine and slammed the car into reverse, pulling away from the house. The wheels spun and flung bits of gravel as she put the car into drive and gunned the engine. The guard was waving his hands as she shot past him. She swerved as they neared the guardhouse, almost losing control. They slammed into the wooden bar of the gate, shattering it as the car rocketed off the property. She twisted the wheel hard and almost spun out of control, but the wheels caught at the last second and she managed to keep the car on the road.
 

Jason was yelling at her to slow down, but she could barely hear him. In her head all she could hear was the echo of the gunshot and all she could see was Sarah's lifeless eyes.

He watched them from behind the stacks of books. He hadn't been able to hear them, but he saw everything. The old woman had obviously given them some important piece of information. Could she have been part of all this? He didn't think so, but had snapped a picture of her with his phone just in case.
 

He watched it all. When they returned the books to the shelves and headed downstairs, he moved quickly over to where they had been and examined the books they had been searching. Old yearbooks. He frowned. How much did they know?

He rushed to catch up with them and almost ran into them on the stairs. He pulled up quickly, shifted to the other side and proceeding passed them. When he reached the bottom, he moved off to the right and waited. They came down and headed for the exit. They stood by the door talking for a minute. Paige leaned forward and Nathan held her close for a moment before they left.

He was just exiting the building when his phone began to ring.

"Yes."

He jerked the phone away from his ear. He tried to make out what was being said, but the voice on the other end was hysterical. He thought he heard the word dead, but couldn't be certain.
 

He moved off, away from the entrance of the library, far enough away that he hoped none of the students around could overhear him.

"Calm down. I can't understand a damn word you are saying. Calm down and tell me who this is."

"It's me. Doris. Doris Flanders. I shot her. She's dead. She's dead. I killed her. Ms. Murphy was taking Jason. You told me to make sure nothing happened to him. I shot her."

"Who? Who did you shoot? Julie?"

"No, Sarah. I shot Sarah. The safety wasn't on. I thought it was on."

"Jesus. You are not calling me from your phone are you?"

"I shot her. She's dead. What am I going to do? You need to help me. The police will be here any minute. What should I do?"

Cameron let loose a string of expletives. What the hell had happened? She had shot someone named Sarah? Who the hell was that? What else had she said?

His face went white.

Doris was still screaming into the phone.

"Doris, shut the hell up," he snapped into the phone. "What happened to Jason?"

"He's gone. She took him. What am I going to do?"

He didn't need to ask who 'she' was. Damn, he'd known something wasn't right. What the hell was Julie doing? Was this all part of the plan? Of course it was. The entire thing was probably her idea. Julie had run off with Jason. Doris had just killed someone during their escape and then the dumb bitch had called him. She had called him on his cellphone. What was she thinking? If the police had anyone half as smart as Jimmy they would be able to track him.
 

"Son of a bitch," he swore into the phone.

"What am I going to do Mr. Kroft?"

Cameron laughed into the phone.