Anything and Everything

Doubt Comes In

I

"Everything is coming along nicely. If we keep this up, we'll be able to get to her in no time." Ollie commented as he watched Will flip through pages and make notes in a notebook.

Will shrugged. "I don't know. I never studied this much magic before in my life and now when it comes to this- I feel like I might mess up and make things worse instead of better." He let out a sigh, putting down the notebook and massaging his temples with his thumbs. "I definitely should've studied more magic back when I was younger." he groaned.

Ollie chuckled. "William Taylor. You worry too much. That is where I come in. Have you forgotten that I was the one who taught Casey to harness the magic within her?"

Will looked up from his hands. "Wait, so you can teach me to do all this? To make a portal in order to reach Casey?"

Ollie nodded. "But keep in mind that alternators haven't used portals to reach other timelines since- the incident. After that, all use of portals was banned unless you were using it to make sure the alterations didn't cause too many major changes within the timeline."
"But Ophelia banned them all together after you stepped down, I think." Will added. "I couldn't even mention portals to her because then she'd get all weird on me and not let me talk about it." he commented.

Ollie nodded, frowning a bit. "Yeah, I feared that she would do that the minute I stepped down as director. She's made a lot of good changes, but that was the one thing I feared she would do. How do you all even make sure that the alterations don't cause anything too catastrophic?"

"Well, we just make the alterations and the fixers handle the rest, really. But ever since that happened, Casey told me about how much more difficult it had been for the fixers. How physically taxing the job became. I tried telling Ophelia that but she wouldn't have any of it and shut me out."

"That's the thing about Ophelia." Ollie started. "She's the kind of woman who will take away something that could potentially help out a lot in the future, all because it made things bad one time." he shook his head. "Sometimes I wonder if me stepping down from the position of director was the right thing to do. Don't get me wrong, Ophelia is great but- things like that are what make me question her ability to run things effectively. That and her involvement with David in the kidnapping of Casey."

Will nodded. "Ophelia was great before Casey disappeared. Now it seems like everything she does is to get me out of the way. Or from finding out something that I'm not supposed to find out. If only she knew what I know now." he chuckled.

Ollie nodded. "So I never asked. Were you and Ophelia ever a thing, or..?"

Will let out a sigh. "It's complicated. I was vulnerable one night and crying about Casey, and she comforted me. She was there when nobody else was and well- we sort of started a relationship, but it didn't last very long, cause Casey came into the picture and later, Thomas. But it was- okay. Considering that I spoke about Casey a lot." He let out a laugh. "Maybe I shouldn't have spoken about her as much as I did, though. Sometimes I feel like Ophelia constantly compared herself to Casey."

Ollie nodded. "I see. So Ophelia couldn't have been motivated to assist David in Casey's kidnapping because you got back with her, right?"

Will shook his head. "I don't think so- and according to what you told me, it seems like she intended on keeping the thing about Casey's parents a secret. One of the many secrets of the organization, I suppose."

Ollie nodded. "It sure seems like it. You know, with the incident, at least when I was the director, I was open about it. But I guess that Ophelia won't even talk about it now, is that right?"