Darla felt licking against her dimpled cheek and she slowly woke up and shook her head. "Ugh..." she held her head.
"Are you okay, Darla?" Emily asked her adoptive daughter. "That was some fall you had..."
"I had this weird dream..." Darla mumbled. "This lady came to the door and said she was my grandmother."
"Oh, that wasn't a dream, dear." Emily said.
"Huh?" Darla asked.
"Come on, let's get you to the couch..." Cherry helped Darla up. "Up and at 'em..."
Darla rolled to her feet and shakily walked to the couch and plopped herself down on it, she then rubbed her eyes. "Okay... What's happening...?"
"Come in, Mrs. Beaumont." Patrick told the blonde woman who had come to their door.
The elderly woman nodded and came in, smiling to Darla. "I told you I was your grandmother and you passed out, deary."
"So it really wasn't a dream." Darla said.
"No, it wasn't... You probably don't remember me that much... Let's start over..." the woman said, patting Darla on the head. "My name is Charlotte Beaumont and I'm your grandmother on your father's side."
"Yeah?" Darla asked.
"Yes, I am," Charlotte smiled back, though softly. "We met on your first birthday, your family was very poor, I always offered to give money to the family, but your parents asked for so little... I was so devastated to hear about the incident when you were four and I've been trying to track you down ever since. I thought maybe you'd be happier since the people told me you had gotten adopted and I thought it was a strange coincidence or a dream, but I knew it was you once I heard about you being a movie star, that it was you. You look so much like me when I was a little girl."
"R-Really?" Darla smiled.
"Oh, yes..." Charlotte said to her. "I heard about that incident you caused..."
"Oh, yeah, that..." Darla looked down at the floor softly.
"That was really bad of you, dear..." Charlotte only slightly scolded.
"I know..." Darla sighed, then looked back up. "I'm really sorry for it, but I don't think anyone will listen to me... I have a better life here though, Atticus's family treats me like one of their own."
"It's true, we really do treat like one of the family." Emily smiled.
"I'm glad you've found a place to call home after that nasty stage flooding..." Charlotte smiled to her biological granddaughter. "I guess you'll live here instead of me and your grandfather..."
Darla pouted then. Was she meant to choose between her natural family and her new family that was more of a family to her than Hollywood was?
"I can let you think about it..." Charlotte suggested. "I'd just really like to get to know you better since I've only known you when you were a little baby."
"Thank you, Grandma." Darla said.
"Call me 'Nana'," Charlotte preferred. "It makes me feel like a youthful grandmother."
Darla giggled. "Nana..." she repeated, liking how that sounded as well.
"I'm sure we could work something out..." Charlotte patted her curly blonde hair. "Maybe tonight I could tell you a story."
"Yes, please, Nana." Darla smiled.
Emily and Patrick started to make dinner then. Darla was looking at her school assignment again to write about her family. Now that her grandmother was here, she felt even more lost. She also felt a little dizzy.
"I guess liking pink and being blonde runs in the family..." Cherry joked as she came into the living room with Atticus.
Atticus was about to say something, but rushed to the little girl. "Darla, are you okay?"
Cherry ran over too to possibly help.
"I-I feel all dizzy all of a sudden." Darla said while holding her head.
Cherry put her hand against Darla's forehead. "There isn't a flu bug or anything at school, is there?"
"N-Not that I'm aware of." Darla groaned.
"She looks sick..." Cherry was worried for Darla now.
Darla's eyes were very widened right now. Everybody kept calling her name which made her violently shake and she seemed very unwell right now.
"I don't know why, but this makes me think of when I was with Marty," Cherry spoke up. "We accidentally went back to when his parents first met, but his parents almost didn't fall in love because something changed the past and Marty felt really sick and fell on the floor and almost disappeared from existence..."
"Wait, then, maybe that's what's happening now." Atticus said.
"What could be happening though?" Cherry asked.
"Someone's changing the past..." Atticus suggested, helping Darla lay down on the couch so she wouldn't fall off the edge.
"I don't feel so good..." Darla moaned.
"Hmm..." Cherry hummed, she then looked to her best friend. "Atticus, does Darla still have that picture of her with her parents before she got adopted?"
"Yeah, it's still in her room." Atticus said.
"Go get it and quick!" Cherry urged him.
Atticus ran upstairs then to Darla's room, once he found the picture he gave it right back. Cherry took the photograph and took a look at it. It appeared to show Darla's biological parents, but her father seemed to be slowly disappearing off the photograph.
"It's like he's being erased." Atticus said.
"Erased from existence." Cherry looked back.
"Who's being erased from existence?" Patch asked once came in.
"Darla is." Cherry said, bending down.
"But how?" Patch asked.
"That's what we need to find out..." Cherry said. "Guys, my Uncle Emmett warned me and Marty that time travel is dangerous, but we have to go back in time and save Darla's life or else she'll be gone forever and won't exist anymore!"
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's find a way to time travel!" Patch insisted.
Cherry looked to Darla as she looked more and more sick. "I know we're saving her life, but I think she should come with us... We'll find out our progress if she comes back healthy or not."
Atticus actually agreed, he wrapped a blanket around Darla and carried her in his arms. Darla frowned in her blank state and hugged her arms around his neck.
"Come on!" Cherry ran out of the house to help them time travel.
"Where are we going?!" Patch asked while running.
"Forte has a time travel watch, it can take you anywhere, anytime, anyplace!" Cherry said.
"Doesn't your uncle have his own time machine?" Atticus asked.
"It was destroyed after Uncle Emmett met Clara and decided to stay in the Wild West," Cherry explained. "I was in it with Marty, but we ended up on the train tracks back home and a train destroyed it just as we got out of it. It was really intense."
"Yikes." Patch said with widened eyes.
"Yeah, try being in there when it happened..." Cherry said back.
Forte had been gone for a while for personal business, but he left Cherry the key to the church if she needed any reason to go there. She unlocked the door and came into the church as it was dark and cold. Darla gently shivered, but kept holding onto her brother as she was quite ill from the past being changed.
"Hopefully while we're in the past, at least for a little while, Darla will be restored like nothing happened." Cherry said as she grabbed the box that was by the organ bench and she opened it, finding several sheets of paper with a few other treasures.
"Cool." Patch smiled.
"So, Darla will be okay in the past?" Atticus asked.
"Mostly yes, but we'll still need to fix this problem by the time it fractures the past before Darla disappears from existence." Cherry said, then found the watch. "Aha! Now... Where do we go?"
"I think Darla's grandmother said she was from New Orleans." Atticus suggested.
"Hopefully this'll be the right time, now, everybody hold on so we can all go at the same time together." Cherry warned as she set the watch for them to go forward to the past.
Atticus, Darla, and Patch all then huddled together with her. Once they were set, Cherry pushed the top, and they disappeared together in a beam of bright light. And where they would appear in the past.