Author's Note: A shorter version of this story (less than 1200 words) is posted on another site for a contest I entered (they were specific with word count so I had to tweak and hack this short story from its original finished length). Anyway, this is the ORIGINAL finished version of Right Place; Wrong Time. I hope you enjoy it and let me know what you think!
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Eliza was running late – again. And tonight of all nights too! Her half-sister will definitely kill her if she ruins her wedding rehearsal. She left work late after getting caught up on her latest project; if she nailed this presentation Eliza was looking at a very hefty bonus come Christmas time.
She just parked her trusty seven-year-old SUV on the nearest empty parking slot closest to the church’s entrance and high-tailed it to the doors when out of the blue someone materialized right in front of her, causing Eliza to collide with him and they both landed on the ground.
“I’m so sorry!” She apologized to the stranger once she regained her bearings. She thrust out her hands and pushed herself up. “Are you okay?” she looked down at the man who cushioned her fall. One thing stood out as soon as she looked at the man lying on the cold hard sidewalk underneath her. At first she thought her eyes were deceiving her, but after blinking a couple of times she was still seeing the same thing.
“You’re not from here!” Eliza exclaimed then clamped her hands to her mouth in shock of her raised voice.
The man Eliza collided with appeared very much winded and disoriented. It took him a while to focus his gaze on her. He gave her a lopsided grin that brightened his strong, chiseled features. He reminded Eliza of one of her numerous heroes from those romance novels she was fond of reading.
“‘Allo,” he greeted, his voice hinted of a Scottish brogue that Eliza found sexy. Upon closer inspection Eliza thought he even looked like David Tennant, one of her most recent imaginary boyfriend and favourite hero to imagine when reading one of her romance novels, and with his accent he could very well be him. “I’m sorry, but what year is it?” The handsome stranger inquired while still sprawled flat on the ground.
“Twenty-twelve,” Eliza answered and held out her hand for him to grab.
“Thank you,” he smiled and accepted her hand. He gave her a slight pull then pushed himself upright. “My name’s Ethan, by the way,” he added once he was upright and facing her.
“E-Eliza,” she stammered.
“Nice to meet you, Eliza,” he pumped her hand he was still holding and gave her a cheeky grin. “Sorry to drop in on you like that,” he let go of her hand and lifted his arm to show off a brown leather wristband with some sort of futuristic device strapped to the middle of it. “Still trying to get used to this,” he boasted and tapped on the device strapped to his wrist.
Eliza gave him a queer look. Clearly she doesn’t understand what he was talking about, but she was a clever girl with an overactive imagination. She was slowly putting two and two together and coming up with a big freaking migraine. She took a step back and regarded the man clad in Victorian attire. He spoke with an accent befitting that era and yet she got this vibe off him that even back in Victorian London he was as out of place as he was here and now.
“From when are you?” she asked.
“From the future,” was his nonchalant reply. He was busy checking something on the device on his wrist and from the worried look on his face Eliza got this feeling that something was wrong.
“Is everything alright with that bracelet of yours?” she inquired.
“No, not really,” he groaned. “I think I fried it.”
“Fried it?” she echoed.
“Yeah. I jumped one too many timelines at once. I must’ve overused the time boost. It needs recharging per use as it takes up a lot of power jumping from one timeline to the next,” he explained.
Eliza’s head was still swimming trying to wrap her mind around the fact that she was standing with an actual time traveler from some time in the distant future. How distant in the future she doesn’t know since he was pretty vague when he told her from when he came from, but she got the gist that whenever in the future Ethan came from time travelling was made possible.
“There you are! What are you doing just standing there? Greta’s about ready to throw a fit because we can’t start without you,” Janice, Eliza’s other half-sister, stalked towards her. She didn’t notice Ethan until she yanked Eliza towards the church and she received resistance.
Eliza remained rooted where she stood. She couldn’t just leave Ethan out here.
“What now?” Janice demanded.
“I can’t leave Ethan out here by himself,” Eliza answered.
“Ethan?” Janice echoed then followed Eliza’s finger pointing at the tall, dark haired man smiling at them. He looked very out of place and his outfit was clearly not from this time. “Are you an actor?” she asked.
“I beg your pardon?” Ethan frowned.
“An actor,” Janice repeated then gestured at his attire. “You’re dressed up in some period piece. I know there’s a big movie production company filming a period piece in the area. Are you an extra in the movie?”
Ethan and Eliza exchanged incredulous looks then burst out laughing. Janice gave them a queer look and stepped back.
“What did I say?” she asked.
Ethan and Eliza paused, looked at the bemused Janice, then burst out laughing again. Janice glared at the duo for laughing at her. She grabbed both by the wrist and dragged them into the church. That stopped them from laughing and Eliza actually started to protest, but it was too late.
“Oh thank God you’re here,” Greta, the frantic bride-to-be, appeared relieved to see her two bridesmaids.
“What’s wrong?” Eliza asked.
“Your partner, Ken, dropped out at the last minute. Some family emergency so he’s taking the red-eye out tonight,” she explained.
“So you’re short a groomsman,” Janice pointed out.
“Yes!” Greta half-screamed and half-groaned.
“Don’t you guys have any backup?” Eliza asked.
“Ken was the backup.”
“No one else is available?” Eliza frowned.
“No one that we like is available,” Greta confessed.
Yikes. That indeed was a dilemma.
“Who are you?” Greta just noticed Ethan’s presence. She looked at both her sisters for answers.
“Ask Eliza,” Janice took a step aside and left Eliza to handle the introductions.
“His name’s Ethan and—”
“And you’re perfect!” Greta exclaimed. “I didn’t think Eliza would be bringing her new beau with her to tonight’s rehearsal, but I’m glad she did. You’re a life saver!” Greta giggled and threw herself at Ethan, hugging the surprised Scotsman before pulling herself away and ran back inside to tell her fiancé that she found a replacement for Ken.
Ethan gave Eliza a questioning look.
“I guess you’re Ken’s replacement,” was all Eliza could say.
Janice left the two of them alone by then. She followed Greta inside to get ready.
“But I can’t stay.”
“I know. But didn’t you say you fried your time jumping device?”
“Yeah, so?”
“So, while you let your device rest and de-fry, why not take a break from your time-jumping escapades and stick around for a day or two,” she invited.
Ethan thought about her suggestion for a bit. He worked out the odds of him being found by those in pursuit of him here. He figured he had a good two to three days head-start from his pursuers, so yeah he can stick around here until after the wedding ceremony. Besides, he also needed some time to fix his device so it won’t overload the next time he tries to jump more than just one timeline.