𝐍𝐎𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐎 𝐍𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓 → 𝑭. 𝑯

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘: 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒔𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒌𝒔 𝒇𝒍𝒚

"What do you want to do?" He asked instead, unsure himself.

"Well, one thing is that I want to live somewhere nice. Maybe New York for a while or many move higher up the coast? Like Maine or Connecticut. I had enough of the heat back in Texas." She chuckled. "I think I'd like to go back to school. I never did get to study music or film back in 2005. I never got to travel, so I'd like to do that." She leaned forward, holding onto the car with her hands, looking down and into the car at Five, who finally caught her eyes, "Would you like to do that with me?"

Five smiled, "Anything." He leaned back, gesturing for Juliette to come down. She hopped down and sat in the car with Five, facing him as he faced her. "Anything with you, I'll do. We can finally have a life together. A second lifetime."

"I'd like that." She went silent for a moment, feeling the guilt build up in her. "I have to tell you something."

"Oh, I know." It wasn't condensing, more so approving that he knew she was hiding something. She kicked herself for acting like he wouldn't know. For every thing she knew about him, he knew three.

"I know that you know that I...exist here. Some other version of me." Five nodded at her words. She didn't say it, but with some sentences and the constant mutters around her from other people was enough for him to assume. "I...I don't know how you'll see me, other me, when you do."

"I'm not going to change my mind on you from another version of living a different life. I know that both of us changed the course of our life there." He said. "I am married to you. No one else. Not even Juliette 2.1 or whatever she is."

She reached out to brush his hair out his face, "I know. I just can't help but feel like I'll be judged because of the life choices she made."

"You won't." He said it like it was final. What he said went. She wouldn't be judged. Not by him. Not by his siblings. Not by herself. He'd make sure of it. "Something else is bothering you." Again, he said it like he already knew.

Oliver, she thought, but she shook it away. He didn't need to know. He wasn't going to know. That was something she'd take to the grave. And she almost did twice. She could do it a third time.

"Viktor's plan." She leaned back in the seat. It wasn't a lie, but she couldn't look him in the eye. "I almost agreed with Viktor...about going back. Mainly because of Allison, though. She lost her daughter and when it comes to kids I–" She swallows the lump in her throat. "I also thought of my mother. I wonder if she felt the same way and I...I wish I could see her again."

And at that time, somewhere in the different timelines and universes and whatever it is you'd want to call it, Elena Valendur was smiling at a picture of Juliette – in some she is only a baby, others she is toddler, a ten year old and even her sixteen year old self – and held it close to her. She knew her daughter was out there somewhere. And she knew she was safe. That was all that mattered until she saw her again. If she ever did.

Five sighed, "We can't mess with time again. It's too risky."

"I know." She nodded, looking at her hands. "I know. I'm happy nothing happened here, but it doesn't stop the 'what ifs'." She bit the inside of her cheek in order to keep her emotions in check, "Is it bad that sometimes..."

Five's heart dropped and he almost wished it hadn't. He was being selfish. He knew what she was saying. He understood it was coming out of the greatest parts of her noble heart. But he couldn't help but wonder if they'd even had met in the original timeline. He had the candor in his heart to say yes, but also enough to say that they wouldn't have made it.