Generation 1, Chapter 49

 

Peter kept his promise to take Jean into the future to meet Emit. It had to a be a quick trip, just long enough for the two to meet and talk. Upon stepping out of the portal, Jean was astonished by all the things she saw and wished they could stay longer to explore it all.

 

Peter guided her to the kitchen, where he planned to introduce Jean to his good friend Emit.



"Hey Peter long time no see," Emit warmly greeted Peter "Who's this?" Emit asked even though he already knew the answer.

"Emit this is my wife, Jean."

"Hi Emit. I've wanted to meet you ever since Peter told me what you did for him," Jean gushed in awe of the time traveler. She wasn't sure what she expected but it wasn't this young man with wild blue hair. There was something familiar about him, she just couldn't put her finger on it.

"It's nice to finally meet you too, Jean," Emit smiled "I hope you enjoy your time in Oasis Landing."

"Oh I will but according to Peter, we can't stay long. Something about the time line being in flux and we might mess it up by being here too long. To be honest I didn't understand it."

"Peter is correct. You never know what one thing might change the whole fabric of time."

"Oh I'll try not to do anything to cause problems. But I so wanted to thank you in person for helping Peter."

"You're very welcome. This whole timeline depended upon Peter being well and healthy. I only did my job.

"Was that all there was to it? Just doing your job," sighing heavily, Jean looked down at her plate. Somehow she imagined that Emit had gone out of his way to save Peter's life. Knowing it had only been to correct the timeline, was somehow disappointing.

Emit stood when Jean got up to bring the dishes to the counter. He followed her, wanting desperately to explain that it was much more than just his job. It had been a matter of life and death, his very existence was in jeopardy and still was. He had changed his name so that no one would be able to trace his family line back to the beginning. He thought it was the safest course to take, knowing that every generation of his family line throughout history would be in jeopardy if someone wanted to take control of time travel. Correcting the time line had never been so personal before as he had been responsible for saving the very founder of his own lineage. Could he trust Jean to keep his secret? Would she help him correct his error?

"Jean I know you are disappointed by the idea of it only being my job. I need it to appear to be only that to protect the people I care about."

"I don't understand. Are you telling me that you saved Peter because of personal reasons?"

"Yes I believe I am. Come over hear away from the crowd so that we can talk. I need your help before everything I've tried to protect will be lost forever."

Emit went on to explain how he was a descendant of Peters and he may have inadvertently put his existence in jeopardy by warning Adam about Windy. He had known the sad history of Adam's life with Windy and it was worse than that of Vallari and Peter. He had wanted to protect Adam from that fate. But by doing so, he failed to realize that he was potentially wiping himself out as he descended from both Windy and Adam. Now he was facing the worst timeline paradox he had ever encountered. If Windy and Adam do not have children, time travel would not be discovered and Peter would not be saved because he would not be around to bring him into the future.

"Oh no you can't allow this to happen. Peter would have died without your intervention. I can't bear the thought of losing him again. What can I do to help?"

"Then don't hinder Adam from pursuing Windy. I know it will be difficult. He deserves better but she may have changed from her experiences in Military school. In the previous timeline she hadn't been sent away, so there may be hope that things will be different."

"I'll do whatever has be done and I'll be there for Adam when he needs me. Is there a particular child that they need to have to insure your existence?"

"They only had one child in the previous time line, a boy."

"So after that they could divorce if things got bad between them?"

"Yes and please Jean don't tell Peter I'm his descendant. I broke my one rule of time travel, to never get involved with family. But the day I met Peter my time portal malfunctioned and I landed in his front yard. I knew I shouldn't have gotten involved but I liked Peter and well time travel can be a lonely job at times." Emit glanced at his watch "Excuse me but I have an appointment I need to get to. It was nice meeting you Jean."

Jean watched Emit walk briskly away.  Then went to find Peter and located him watching someone playing a video game. Jean smiled faintly seeing how engrossed Peter was in watching the game.

"Honey are you having fun?" she asked.

"Huh what?" Peter said dragging his attention away from the game.

"I asked if you were having fun," Jean repeated.

"This game is intense. Did you have a good time with Emit?" Peter asked, the game completely forgotten.

"Yeah, it was ok," she shrugged "He seemed distracted."

"He probably had things to do. I'd imagine keeping the timeline straight is a consuming job." Peter yawned "I'm tired. Are you ready to call it a night?"

Jean nodded and followed Peter to a room where they could sleep for the night.

"Just wait until you try these dream pods, Jean," Peter enthused "I wish we had one of these at home."

Laying down Jean turned to Peter and asked "What do I do?"

"It's easy," Peter explained as he brought up the menu.

"Can we try this one?" Jean asked "Sharing dreams is an interesting concept."

"I haven't tried it. I'm game if you are."

They were soon fast asleep, enjoying the same dream.

The next day once they arrived at home, Peter and Jean snuggled together on the couch.

"So was your trip to the future all you imagined it would be?"

"Not really. I wish we could have stayed longer."

"So do I but Emit suggested we wait awhile before we make any extended visits to the future."

"He's worried about repercussions in the timeline," Jean said.

"I wonder what has him so concerned."

"What do you mean?" Jean asked.

"Nothing really, it's just that he seems familiar."

Jean felt bad that she couldn't tell Peter that Emit was his descendant, through Adam and Windy. Emits' entire existence was at risk because of his warning he gave to Adam. She didn't know how she could help Emit, when she disliked Windy so much. It hurt her to know that she was participating in the unhappiness of one of her children. She was supposed to protect them not hurt them. What was she going to do? She couldn't tell Peter because she promise Emit but he was already suspecting, so she needed to distract him somehow.

"What are you thinking about?" Peter asked.

"Oh how much I love and admire you," Jean said leaning in to kiss Peter; which effectively diverted Peter's attention.

Jean felt guilty that she had to keep this secret from Peter. As much as she disliked Windy she would do what was necessary to help Emit. It was the least she could do to help repay him for what he did for Peter.