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**justmedk** · May 21st, 2018, 06:07 PM

Part of Deena had expected it, but she still jumped a little when she heard him barge into her room. She had her back to the wall , so she saw the lamp he was carrying, and which he put down as soon as he saw her. She couldn't help but chuckle a bit through her tears, which she was struggling to keep under control.

The fact that he'd grabbed a weapon meant that he'd obviously been prepared to defend her, and that fact stuck with her, consciously as well as subconsciously.

She looked at him redfaced, more embarassed than she knew how to express, as he smiled at her, and she instantly felt just a bit more safe....even though he had apparently been hurt. She smiled shyly and nodded.

"Y...yeah", she answered his rhetorical question. "It..it's stupid, I know...like...not real....just....yeah...a stupid dream", she said. "I'm stupid, I know...", she went on self-denigratingly as she sat up in bed. When he suggested tea, she smiled and nodded calmly.

"Y...yes please, that'd.....that'd be great", she said as she followed him, still red as a tomato in the face from embarassment at having made such a fuss.

"I...I'm sorry I woke you", she said. "I...I promise I'll try not to...not to be too much trouble", she went on. In a saner hour, she might have reasoned that she wasn't the one who had anything to apologize to him about. But it was the middle of the night, she was frightened and vulnerable, and this hour was as far from sane as it was possible.

**guesswho** · May 21st, 2018, 06:27 PM

Harlan waves his hand. Everyone has nightmares from time to time, there's nothing stupid about that. "Don't worry, it's alright. you're the second person ever to travel through time, who can say what effects it would have." Also, it was pretty traumatic experience as well. Being irrevocably taken away from one's own time is not a nice experience he can imagine. And so he goes and makes two cups of tea for them. He sits on one side of the table and while she's not looking, pours a generous amount of rum to his cup to give it bit of a kick.

"So what was it about? Something specific? Or just general crazy nightmare?" He asks, sipping his tea slowly. Since he's up anyway, he can at least find out what's going on. He wiped the blood and fortunately his nose stopped bleeding by then. It would be pretty annoying.

**justmedk** · May 21st, 2018, 06:53 PM

Deena felt a little better as he handwaves her apology away as if it was completely unneccessary. She sighed and took a sip of her tea as he asked what it was about.

"It....it felt so real", she said. "I...you know...those kinda dreams when you're sure that it's real when you have it, and for about half a minute afterwards, you're not sure it isn't real?", she asked before she went on. "That's the kinda dream it was. And...well...it was...it was about my mom and dad", she said, sniffling a bit.

"I...I was back home and...I was listening to them talking while they think I couldn't hear them", she explained, trying her best to stay calm and objective, but her voice was betraying her state of mind.

"And....and they sounded....almost relieved that...that I was gone", she sniffled. "That....that it was "one less mouth to feed", and...and that I was getting on her nerves", Deena quoted her mother's words in the dream with complete accuracy.

"And..and then they were suddenly right in front of me and knew that I'd heard it...", Deena continued, her voice lowered to the point almost of a whisper before she sobbed "And....and they just laughed at me....and..and I told them to stop...I screamed at them to stop....but..but they just laughed louder and...you know...more...like....mean", she sniffled and wiped her nose with her arm before she paused again, only to speak up again:

"...and...and that's when I woke up", she finished the story.

**guesswho** · May 21st, 2018, 08:35 PM

Harlan watches intently, sipping his tea. That's one fucked up nightmare, and even any answer he can give will make it worse. Not a good place to be, definitely not. "I doubt it went like that." More likely, they never stopped searching and never gave up hope she might appear again. He doesn't envy her parents.

"I'd say that's just your feeling of guilt. But in the end, it's not your fault this happened." Sometimes, shit just happens and there's no stopping it. This is one of those cases.

"You couldn't have stopped what happened any more than me." There could be endless if onlies, but that never helped anyone. And for her parents, there's no help at all. "I don't think they would ever do something like this, or think something like this. Thing is...it's not like this is happening somewhere else. This happened two hundred years ago."

**justmedk** · May 21st, 2018, 08:45 PM

Deena nodded at his explanations. Intellectually, it made all the sense in the world. Unfortunately, she wasn't really in a place where it was her intellectual side which was strongest at the moment.

"I...I know", she said quietly. "I...I don't think so either", she said, and she was as convinced as she could be, that this was true: Her waking mind never doubted that her parents loved her very much, which is why shame was also a big part of her body language. Shame in having dreamt something like this.

"As...as I said...yeah, I know I'm stupid", she went on. "Just....just couldn't...you know...control it. Like....I know that there's like people who can control what they dream and stuff, but....but I can't", she explained. "I....you know...often wish I could. Life would be so much better", she sighed, before taking as big a sip of her tea as she could without burning herself, then putting the cup down, almost like a man finishing a beer puts down the glass.

"I....yeah...I...I'm sorry I woke you", she repeated, not quite knowing what to do with herself at the moment.

**guesswho** · May 21st, 2018, 09:42 PM

"Oh come on. Nothing wrong or stupid about dreams. It's okay. Don't worry about it." Harlan smiles. The rum is making this whole thing bearable, so he slowly sips his tea and enjoys it. Maybe he should give her something to drink? Nah, not a good idea. Possibly Bliss her up? Might be even worse, long term. Best let her deal with the dreams without chemical help.

"Hey, I don't mind. It doesn't always happen I think we're under attack." He says grinning widely. There are worse ways to wake up, here, at least it could be dealt with quickly. Finally, Halan finishes the tea.

"Okay, finish the tea and back to bed. You'll be alright, don't worry. If anything, wake me up." Is this parenting? If so, he's really glad he didn't go for his own kids. And even this one can already understand reason, so he doesn't expect much trouble with her. Even if, it's not likely to be serious.

**justmedk** · May 22nd, 2018, 07:51 AM

Deena finished her tea as well, and smiled shyly when he made the remark about not always thinking it's an attack, but she nodded and got up.
She hadn't planned to, but out of nowhere she found herself hugging him. At first she was surprised and a little shocked, but in a matter of moments she started clinging to him instead for what seemed like forever - but in reality wasn't more than about half a minute.

When she came back to her senses, she blushed - hard to notice as that was - and looked down shyly, trying to think of the best way to get out of there.

"So...yeah....goodnight", she said quickly and headed back to her room, thoroughly embarassed, but also strangely feeling better than she had ever since she had met him earlier that afternoon.

Once she was back in bed, she settled in, and though she was still somewhat upset from the dream, the massive panic and fear of it had subsided. She didn't feel "good" as such, but the fact that she was feeling better than at any point since she'd left her house this morning spoke volumes, and while it did take her some time to fall back to sleep, she eventually did.

________________

Deena woke up the next morning, sat up and stretched before she yawned loudly. She looked around and remembered within 10 seconds that she was not back in her bed at home, but at somewhere 250 years in the future. She felt an instant homesickness that she tried to push aside - it wouldn't do her any good.

"Heh. I wonder...", she said to herself and then looked around the room and spoke up:

"Computer. What time is it?", she asked, as a joke and a reference to herself to Star Trek and its talking computers.

**guesswho** · May 22nd, 2018, 08:05 AM

The hug comes as a surprise to Harlan as well, but he doesn't mind. Apparently, she needs it...he would need it as well, in her position. Once she's okay enough to go back to bed, Harlan gets up as well and returns to his room...just taking back the lamp he left in her room as an improvised weapon. Not being overly agile, he manages to kick the bed with his little finger in the dark. "Fucking bed..." He growls. If things continue this way, he's going to maim himself over that girl.

He gets out of his bed pretty early. There's a theatre he's supposed to make about fucked up time machine, so he gives them sort of speech on the matter shortly after waking up, and then proceeds to the kitchen to make coffee and breakfast.

____________

"It is 9:17:38, Third of april, 2254. The weather is warm. And my name is not computer, thank you very much. You can call me Frederick." The answer sounds in Deena's room. "There is breakfast being prepared in the kitchen. I know this, despite never being able to taste it. Go enjoy your human privilege. Owner of this housing unit is making pancakes." Computer adds in a flat voice in which certain anger could be felt.

**justmedk** · May 22nd, 2018, 08:19 AM

(OMG THAT TWIST!

I love the computer already :P Reminds me of this guy

)

Deena chuckled to herself in the moment before the computer responded - of course not really thinking she'd get a response, but feeling slightly proud of herself for having made that cultural reference - even if there'd been no one there to hear it.

Imagine her surprise, then, when she did hear a response from a disembodied voice. She jumped a little bit, but then nodded at the machine's explanation.

"Uhm...th..thank you....Frederick?", she said cautiously as she got up and put socks back on. She had to admit that she looked forward to getting a change of clothes. While they had never been rich, she'd only rarely worn the same clothes two days in a row - her parents had had enough pride to make sure that their kids hadn't done that.
"We're not rich, but we're not bums either!", her mom had often said when either Deena or one of her brothers had put on the same t-shirt as the day before, mostly out of convenience and location near the bed.

When she headed out her room she could smell the pancakes, and spoke up

"Mmmmm...smells delicious" she said with a smile, trying to pretend that the interruption of sleep last night hadn't happened. She looked at him and gestured towards her room.

"But....Frederick back there doesn't seem to like me much. What is that anyway? Just a Siri or Cortana or something?", she asked, using the references she knew about.

**guesswho** · May 22nd, 2018, 08:39 AM

(It's actually based on Marvin

)

Sipping his coffee, making pancakes, Harlan looks like just another random guy and not someone who yesterday abducted a girl two hundred years in the past. The absurdit of the situation is not lost on him, and he's grinning all the morning. Also, it seems they're not going to figure out who broke the time machine, and if they are, they can't prove anything.

And then the abductee enters the kitchen, apparently attracted by smell of food. And directed by the disembodied scumbag. "Oh, you met him? Mea culpa. I programmed him, when I was your age, all edgy and 'depressed' and shit, and then I imported him to the household control computer. I did a too good of a job, it's impossible to get rid of him. Folks were furious, when they had to put up with him...never let me live it down. Then I moved here, got wasted and had a great idea to replace default household computer with the shithead." He explains, while moving pancakes to a plate for Deena.

"And I'm sure I will forgive you one day." Comes the answer.

"Shut up. You see? Can't even deactivate him, because if you do, he takes everything with him. Fortunately, he knows to be quiet most of time." Harlan makes a couple pancakes for himself as well, and sits at the table. What a glorious morning.

"Well, good news, they don't seem to be able to find out how we broke the time machine. And it seems the funding isn't even going to be pulled, so in ten to twenty years, we could have another go. This time, without smoking."