Time After Time (Book 1)

Chapter 11

Hope and Josie were cuddling in bed, after Hope stayed the night. Josie woke up before she did but she decided to let her girlfriend sleep. So she grabbed a book off her bedside table and started reading. Girlfriend? Wife? Future wife? She wasn't really sure what to call her. Her phone vibrates and she quickly checks the message. Lizzie. Something about Frodo, Landon, now being called Birdboy. Apparently, he's a Phoenix. Cool. Ok. Hope suddenly starts whimpering in her sleep and Josie quickly puts her phone away and turns to her. "Hope? Hey, you ok?" She gently shakes her. Hope still seems to be in her dream so she decides to syphon some magic from her, in hopes of waking her up. Something they decided a while back that they would do from now on.

--

"Jo, can I talk to you about something?" Hope asks her. "Of course, what is it?" Josie turns to her as they lay in bed. "First, I need you to syphon me." Hope tells her. "What? Why? Doesn't it hurt?" She asks. "Just do it, I'll explain after." Josie looks at her weirdly before syphoning her girlfriend. Hope remains calm, no sign of pain whatsoever. After about a minute, Josie stops. "Are you ok?" She asks her. Hope nods. "I'm fine, I promise. I needed you to do it." Josie shakes her head. "Why? Doesn't it hurt you?" She asks. Hope sighs. "Just the opposite actually. It helps relieve some of the magic that's locked up inside me." Hope tells her. "What do you mean, locked up?" Josie sits up and looks at her. Hope sighs as she sits up. "I never told anyone this, but this Mikealson necklace that I wear, it's spelled to keep my magic at bay. I'm a first born Mikealson witch. Which means that I've been cursed. I'm filled with unlimited magic that eats away at me from the inside. And with my family history, I'm more likely to hurt someone, so when I was born my mom had my aunt Freya spell a bracelet to hold my magic inside. It broke when I was about seven so I started wearing my necklace instead. I never told anyone because I was worried of how they'd react." Hope starts playing with her hands. Josie notices and she grabs her hands and makes Hope look at her. "I'm not afraid of you. Or anything that has to do with you. I'm in this for the long game. Clearly." Josie glances at the photo of their twins on her bedside table. It appeared randomly one day and when she asked the twins about it, their only answer was, "I thought you'd want a family photo, for after we get back to our time." Hope follows her gaze and chuckles slightly. "Yeah, I know. I'm just worried one of these days, I'll hurt you." Josie lifts her chin and makes Hope look her in the eyes. "You could never hurt me." She leans in and gives her a kiss.

--

"Hope, wake up." Josie shakes her again. Hope wakes with a scream as she blasts Josie across the room. Josie then uses magic hover over Hope's painting supplies, she hovers just in time to not get any on herself but just a little too late when her foot knocks them over. "What happened?" Hope asks as she sits up. "Well, you were having a nightmare and then you screamed. And I almost ending up one of your paintings." Josie dusts off the clothes as she walks back to her. "Oh my god, I am so sorry. Did I hurt you?" Hope scoots down to the end of the bed. Josie shakes her head. "No, you didn't. I think because I syphoned some magic from you before you woke up. So yeah, you blasted me but I used some magic to recover and I'm ok. But I think you might want to talk to my dad about this." Josie suggests. Hope shakes her head. "No, it's ok. It was probably just some nightmare." Josie looks at her. "Are you sure?" She asks. Hope nods. "Yeah, just been stressed lately. I'll be fine, I promise." Hope smiles at her. "Ok. If you're sure." Josie smiles back before she kisses her cheek. "I'm gonna go wake the twins and see if they want to get some breakfast." She pecks her on the lips before she leaves and closes the door.

She makes her way down the hall, past the twins room, and to her dad's office. "Dad? Can we talk?" Alaric looks as she walks in. "Yeah, sit down sweetie. I'm just doing some phoenix research for Landon." Josie nods and takes a seat in one of the chairs. "Ok, I actually wanted to talk to you about-" "Is MG still acting weird?" He asks her. "Um...." "Cause Emma knows intensive therapy, she'll work with MG. And she'll work with Landon." Josie sighs. "I think he's ok, he's probably just glad to know what he is. And that he belongs here." Alaric nods. "Good." He looks at Josie's neck. "You got a little uh...." Josie wipes her neck and sees some paint that probably got her when it went flying in the air. "That's actually what I wanted to talk you about." "Paint?" "Hope." Josie sighed. Alaric looks at her before standing up. "Josie, would you mind finding your wife and sending her to the gym today?" He clears some things on his desk and starts to leave. "She's not my wife!" Josie shouts after him. "Not yet!" Alaric replied as he turned the corner. Josie walks back to Hope's room and sees her in her bra. "Oh my god! I'm so sorry, I should have knocked!" She quickly shuts the door and turns around. Hope chuckled. "It's ok, Jo. I don't mind, you're my girlfriend. Soon to be wife. It's pretty obvious that we're gonna see each other naked at one point." Hope walks over and lifts her hands from her eyes. Josie slowly opens them to see her still in her bra. "Um....what was I gonna say?....oh! Um, my dad wants to see you in the gym." Hope nods. "Ok, with the twins?" She asks. "Uh, no. Just you." Josie starts looking anywhere but her girlfriend. "Ok." Hope grabs her face and makes Josie look at her. "Hey, it's ok. I trust you. You can look, I don't mind." Josie sighs and slowly looks down.