Worlds Apart

Chapter 19

13 months later...

It turned out, even with help from some of the best astrophysicists in the world, learning how to build a multidimensional time traveling machine was no quick or easy task.

Of course Max knew it would take a while and was prepared for it to go on for a while, but considering she had been away from home for about a year and a half now, the amount of time it was taking for anything to happen was frustrating, to say the least. The major problem with astrophysics (at least the parts of it she was trying to study) was that it was mostly theoretical; i.e. no one actually knew if what they were talking about was correct or not.

And the problem with theoretical science was that if you wanted an exact, finite answer for something, you needed to make that discovery for yourself, which required a lot of trial and error. So while Max understood the subject better and was much better off than she was before, she was still extremely far away from any actual breakthroughs in her own research.

It also didn't help that she had to do all of this in her free time. She still worked at Stark Industries as the head of cybersecurity full time, so she wasn't making progress as fast as she might've if she were spending those hours at work focused on her research. If she thought she could, she might've quit her job to focus on getting home, but unfortunately, she still did need to make money in order to survive, so she couldn't let go of her only source of income.

Besides, she wouldn't want to leave Pepper in a tough spot by quitting and making her friend have to search for a replacement. Ashley, the one Max had originally thought would become head of the department after the old head had left, had switched companies a couple of months after Max got hired into her current position, so since Pepper's only other candidate was gone, she would most likely have to hire externally. That was a hassle that Max didn't want to put Pepper through unnecessarily.

Pepper had been such a great support for Max this past year. With all of the extra hours she was putting into her research, finding time for them to get together had become a bit more difficult, but even if they didn't get to hang out at all in the span of a couple weeks, Pepper was still eager to talk with her and made sure to pick up the phone to call her a few times, when things were slower and they both had a few minutes to talk. Obviously, Max felt bad that she couldn't hang out as much (and she was sure that Pepper was a bit disappointed as well, though she didn't show it), but it was nice to know that Pepper supported her the way she did and understood, to a certain point.

And they still made time for each other for special occasions. Whether it was their birthdays, holidays, parties that Tony was throwing, or when Pepper brought her kitten home for the first time, Max always made sure she had time for her best friend when it really counted.

So, when Pepper asked Max if she could pet sit for her cat while she went away on business, of course she said yes. Not only did she want to help her friend out, but she also loved that cat, and she would take any excuse to spend some time with her. Of course, that meant she would have to stay in Tony's mansion in Malibu for the weekend, since they lived together now and Max lived about an hour away, but she didn't mind. In fact, getting to stay in Tony's mansion by herself might've been one of the coolest experiences she'd had since coming to this world. Not only did the place look amazing and larger than she was used to, but the technology incorporated into it was something else. Plus, she got JARVIS to help her out when needed, which was an added bonus.

By the time Max arrived at 6:30pm, Pepper was already on a plane to Detroit and Tony was already at the unspecified country Pepper had told her he'd be away at, so Max had the place to herself from the moment she walked in the door.

As Max walked further into the house, her eyes caught a glimpse of a reflection of herself in a particularly reflective vase sitting on one of the sideboards and stopped to stare for a moment. It was still so weird to her, even after almost a year, seeing only her natural brown hair again after so long.