Just Between Us

Chapter Two

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You can easily cheat, but this is the honor system ladies and gents. Hope you learn a little something about integrity!

Comment on this paragraph with the time period you think it is -- no spoilers!

xoxo

Daisy Reed

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This has happened only once before with my brother's dog, Charlie.

    As far as Beckett knows, Charlie ran away but what he doesn't know will probably hurt him even more. I was petting him in the backyard when my brother was inside watching a movie while ignoring his beloved beagle.

    I remember closing my eyes for a second and then waking up in an alley in the early 20th century. Charlie ran away from me and I couldn't find him in time for me to go back. So if you think your dog running away is traumatic, imagine him running away and being lost in a completely different time.

    But this is different. This isn't my brother's dumb beagle, this is a human being and if I don't go back home with him, someone's bound to miss him.

    He groans again, shaking me from my frozen spot.

"Hold still," I whisper to him, crouching beside him and observing the damage to his head. No bleeding, but possible concussion from a nasty fall through time. "Okay, everything looks okay," I sigh, "I'm going to slowly turn you over. Just don't freak out."

I grab his shoulder and roll him onto his back to see his face. It's a face I should probably recognize given his chiseled jaw-line, his long lashes, and his small nose. Those are the only facial features I notice, but they're the only ones I need to know that he didn't look like most high school boys.

I'm staring at him, mouth open for another minute before he groans again.

Great, I get post-travel nausea. He gets a head injury.

"Hey," I say softly trying to hush him and keep his head straight, "Breathe now. Deep breath in," I inhale, "Breathe out." I'm following my own instructions while simultaneously running a full assessment of the situation.

I don't know when we are. That could be dangerous for a number of reasons. We don't have the proper apparel nor know the appropriate social cues to blend in. It could be a potentially dangerous time in general and we might not survive if this lasts long.

A stranger hijacked my travel and now poses a threat to my secret. If I don't leave him behind, he could expose me. If I do leave him behind, it will expose me.

This is the second time I've traveled in one day and that's never happened before. This is all new territory.

Breathe in, breathe out.

When I open my eyes, his pair of bronze eyes are looking back at me - his hard, confused bronze eyes. "Oh," I say nervously. "Didn't realize you were...alert?" It takes a second for me to swallow the lump in my throat, but it's not any easier when Mr. Stow-Away is watching her. "I need you to-um...." the words are struggling to come out, "Well, can you get up?"

"What the-," He finally says, looking around, "Where are we?"

The grass and trees surrounding us for what could be miles at sunrise confuses him. The last thing either of us remembers is being in the poorly decorated gymnasium in the early evening. For all he could be thinking, I'm some strange girl that drugged and kidnapped him.