The Time Traveler's Wife - The Other Side

The Phone Call and the Book Store

September 2012

This semester truly was more stressful than previous ones and Laura was pulling a lot of all-nighters-- or at the very least, late-nights working on papers and doing readings.

Unfortunately, this was proving to be the former and she was pushing through another sleepless night of work in her apartment.

She hadn't heard from Carmilla in a couple weeks after seeing her, and was avoiding the library in order to give her some space.

Which is why, when her phone rang at 4:55am, she was tempted to ignore it. But something told her to answer it anyway. After all, she was awake already, wasn't she?

"Hello?" she answers, a bit surprised at how tired and raspy her own voice sounded.

"L-L...Laura?" a small, scared voice says.

Laura tries and fails to suppress a yawn through her shock at hearing the familiar person on the other end. "Carm?" A longer yawn. "Carmilla?"

"I—Yeah. I, I just..." There's a pause and Laura tries to contain her excitement at hearing Carmilla call her and decides not to push. "Oh, shit. Oh, fuck. It's so late. I'm so sorry."

"One could say it's actually just really early," Laura replies with a chuckle, hoping to try and relieve some of whatever tension was causing Carmilla to sound so fragile during this call. "It's fine, Carm."

"It's almost five o'clock in the morning," Carmilla sighs.

"More like It's fine o'clock, am I right?" Laura giggles, knowing Carmilla is rolling her eyes. She clears her throat. "Why did you call, though? I assume it wasn't for my awesome comedy material."

There's another pause and Laura decides maybe Carmilla does need a small nudge, after all. Especially if she's never been able to speak freely about her condition like this, before.

"When did you travel to?" Laura asks softly.

Carmilla's breath hitches in her throat. "How..."

"In those fifteen years of you traveling back to me, I changed a lot. So did you, but I guess some things never change," Laura replies lightly. "You always sound a little frazzled after you've traveled. It's just tonight, you sound... more so."

Carmilla takes a deep breath. "2007."

Laura knew Carmilla had run away towards the end of high school, so she took an educated guess. "...Your mom? The fight?"

There's a shocked pause on the other end and Laura suddenly remembers her promise to Future Carmilla to be gentle with her when she meets her.

"Crap! Sorry! I promised you—Future You—that I'd try to keep the knowledge I have about you to a minimum," Laura rambles. "Coz it might freak you out. Did I freak you out? Oh, hufflepuff, I've totally freaked you out and now you're too freaked out to tell me I'm freaking you out--"

"Laura," Carmilla interrupts through laughter. "Can you please stop 'freaking out?'"

"Yes," Laura squeaks, plopping down backwards on her couch in embarrassment.

Carmilla huffs out a long sigh. "I'm sorry. I-I'm not even sure why I called you. Just... seeing her, seeing me with her..."

Her voice trails off and Laura waits a few seconds. "Carm? Are you still there?"

"Yes," Carmilla says. There's a shorter pause. "I, uhm... feel better. So I'll let you get back to sleep now."

Laura laughs lightly. "I'm glad you're feeling better."