Chapter 34: Echoes of Another Time

"It's ridiculously unfair," Cassidy complains, "My sister gets pregnant, so now I'm not allowed to leave the house."

"Well, at least he's letting me come over to visit you," Jesse says, trying to cheer her up.

"Actually, you're here because he wants to have a talk with you."

"Oh, geat," Jesse says, "How mad is he?"

"Don't worry," Cassidy laughs, "He won't hurt you."

Just as Cassidy is being kept under guard now because of Delaney's actions, Jesse is facing the scrutiny from her father that Jack never had to deal with. Luckily for Jesse, he has a spotless record, good grades and a promising future to present as proof of his worthiness.

Elliot is satisfied he's done his due diligence as a father by vetting Cassidy's boyfriend, and feels better about getting to know the boy. That doesn't mean he's ready to let her out on unsupervised dates again, however, and he joins the young couple in the rec room for a game of foosball.

Aurora knows Ariel Hawksquill primarily as a close friend of her parents, and as Shadow's future father-in-law, but he also runs the local hospital, which means he holds the keys to the future she's chosen for herself. 

"I'll be graduating soon," she says, "And I've decided to pursue a career in medicine."

"Your father has told me how you excel in the sciences. You'll be a welcome addition to my staff, Aurora. I know you'll go far."

"Farrell, I found this old bottle of nectar in an old trunk," Aouregan says, placing the bottle on the counter for him to look at, "The label is addressed to a ''Beloved Farrell', and it appears to me written in my hand."

"You don't recognize it?" Farrell asks. He'd wrapped the bottle carefully after he'd retrieved it from that tomb in France. It had been a mystery then, one that lead him to find her in the past. But he hadn't thought about it in years.

"Recognize it?" she asks, bewildered, "Why would I recognize it?"

"When I first met Moth, here, in my time, he told me you had left something in the tomb for me, protected by magic. I found this bottle there, with my name on it. I didn't know it then, but it had to have come from you..."

"But I've never seen it before," Aouregan says.

They bring the bottle to Ariel and Noelle, hoping their friend can help solve the mystery.

"It's definitely my handwriting," Aouregan explains, "But I know I never wrote that note."

"I found it in a tomb in France," Farrell says, "The bottle is certainly old enough to have come from Aouregan's time."

Ariel reaches across the table to touch the bottle, to see if his ability to read the history of people, places and some objects might shed some light on the mystery.

"Well, that was...interesting," he muses as he sits back against the couch again.

"What did you see?" Farrell asks.

"What Noelle or my daughter, or you, Aouregan, describe as 'possible' futures, some of which come to pass and other which do not...I believe these visions aren't simply possibilities, but actual futures. Those that don't happen here do happen elsewhere, in alternate universes. I know you're more well versed in quantum physics than I am, Farrell, you must be familiar with the concept."

"Yes," Farrell agrees, "Multiple parallel universes, each a different version of the same reality, in which  different choices are made or events happen differently. But we're not considering the future of this bottle of nectar, we're looking for it's history."

"My gift is not so different from clairvoyance," Ariel explains, "I see the history of people, places or things mostly within our own time line. But sometimes, very rarely, but sometimes, I see echoes of the history of other time lines as well. They are usually weaker, so subtle and vague that I can barely see them at all, and they are always overshadowed by the very distinct and clear history of this time line. But this bottle...for the first time ever in my experience, or in the experience of my ancestors, I've encountered an object with no history in this time at all. All I'm getting are echoes of another time line."

"You're saying the bottle doesn't exist?" Farrell asks.

"Well, it obviously exists now," Ariel laughs, "But it has no history except for the echoes. I can see, vaguely, Aouregan writing the label. And I see her holding it as she lies down on some kind of altar. There's a blue fairy, she puts a spell on her. And Aouregan falls into an enchanted sleep, holding the bottle. After that, nothing."

"But that's not how it happened," Aouregan says, "I went with my brother to the Landgraab castle, and they imprisoned me. Evenfall, the blue fairy you most likely saw, did put me under an enchanted sleep, but I was not with her at that time; she performed the spell at a distance. And I most certainly didn't write the label on this bottle."

"Exactly," Ariel says, "The bottle never existed in this time line."

"Yet I managed to get hold of it in this time line," Farrell observes, "Unless, my own time travel changed the way the past would unfold. I created a new chain of events in which Aouregan would never leave this bottle for me."

"Wouldn't the bottle just cease to exist if that were true?" Noelle asks.

"Disappear in a puff of logic? No," Farrell laughs, "The bottle existed in my present before I traveled back in time, it wouldn't just disappear, would it?" he looks to Ariel for corroboration.

Ariel shrugs, "I'm a doctor, not a physicist. This is your field, my friend. If you can't figure it out, no one can."

Delaney wakes the next morning looking forward to big pancake breakfast. Her plans are changed when she goes into labor.

Elliot escorts his daughter to the hospital.

Cassidy texts Jesse, who texts his brother, and Jack rushes to the hospital to be with Delaney. He isn't allowed past reception, however, under Elliot's strict orders to keep the boy away from Delaney.

Delaney gives birth to a baby boy she names Jace. 

"Hey, Shadow," Delaney whispers over her shoulder as her cousin joins her in the nursery, once Kyle's bedroom, "Do you want to hold him? He's kind of sleepy."

"That's okay," Shadow says, "Let him sleep. I came to talk to you."

"By 'talk' you don't mean 'lecture', right?" Delaney says.

"Of course not, Laney," Shadow answers, "I just wanted to say, if you ever need anything, I'm always here to help."

"Aw, that's sweet, Shadow," Delaney says, hugging him gratefully. "There is actually one thing  you could do for me. I don't want to involve Cass, she's gotten in enough trouble due to me."

"How much trouble are we looking at?" Shadow asks warily.

"Oh, please, your parents let you get away with everything," Delaney rolls her eyes, "I just need someone to tell Jack to come by tomorrow night, late, after everyone is in bed. I'll let him in to see the baby. My Dad is being a real hard ass about that."

"Sure, Laney, I can do that," Shadow agrees.

"You've seen him? Tell me, what's he look like?" Jack asks.

"He's a baby?" Shadow answers with a vague shrug, "You can see him yourself tomorrow night. Delaney says to come late, and she'll let you in."

"Thanks, Shadow. I'm surprised anyone in your family would be cool with my sneaking in like that."

"I think you've gotten a raw deal, Jack,"Shadow says, "That's your baby, you have every right to see him."

"I've been thinking I should put off my wedding. Delaney needs me," Elliot tells his brother, "But I have no idea how I'm going to break it to Claire. She's been waiting for this for so long now."

"I know how hard it is, letting your kids go. Delaney's got some challenges ahead, but she needs to face them as an adult. She can't have her daddy watching over her every second."

"But what if she gets back together with that delinquent?" Eliot protests.

"You can't stop her," Farrell says, "And, honestly, you trying to stand in her way might just make her more determined. You and Claire have been looking forward to getting your own place. Don't give up on that."

Today was Jack's birthday, his eighteenth. Unlike other young men his age, he didn't celebrate his new status as a legal adult with a party, he just waited by himself until late into the night, to sneak into the Brannon house to finally see his son.

"He's beautiful, Laney," he whispers, holding the newborn gently, afraid he might break him.

"Listen, I've been getting some cash together. By the time you turn eighteen, I'll have a place for us. I'll be able to take care of you, I promise," Jack says, taking her in his arms.

Hearing noises in the nursery, Elliot comes in to investigate, and finds the one person he's forbidden to enter his house.

"You!" Elliot shouts, "I told you to stay away from my daughter!"

"I just wanted to see my son," Jack says, raising his arms defensively, "I'll go now, okay?"

"It's not okay! You have no business here!"

"You can't keep me away from her, or my son, forever, you know," Jack retorts.

Elliot growls as he lifts his fist, prepared to swing.

"Daddy, no! Don't hurt him!" Delaney shouts.

Elliot drops his arm, realizing that, as much as he wants to throw a good, hard punch into Jack's face, doing so would only make Delaney angry at him, and see Jack as the victim of his brutality. There has to be a better way to get this delinquent away from his daughter, and Elliot means to find it. "Go," he growls, "Go and don't come back."

"I can't believe you!" Delaney shouts as soon as Jack is gone, "Why are you doing this to me?"

"Delaney, I'm just trying to protect you," Elliot tries to explain.

"I don't need to be protected," she says, turning away and storming out of the nursery.