EMIT (THE EMIT SAGA) (45 page)

“No, I’m not.” What was the point of fighting? “I’m not talking about this anymore.”

“Dad and I think you should go to London on Saturday. You need a break from Daniel.”

I was taken aback. “Are you kidding me? You want to separate us?”

“Of course not, but maybe you’ll get some perspective on this relationship.”

“
You’re not being fair.”

“Your priorities have changed and I’m worried about your last year in
high school.”

“Why
? It’s the summertime. School hasn’t even started. My GPA was a 3.9 last year.”

“Let’s hope
you keep it that way. Your education comes first.”

“Ay ay Mom,” I said and
saluted her. This was ridiculous.

“One other thing, Paige. If you ever talk to me the way you did at the doctor’s office, you’ll be grounded. Understand?”

“Yes,” I said and stormed off.

Upstairs, I lay on my bed.
She came up and asked if I wanted anything to eat and I said no.

“
I’m going back to the hospital. See you later.”

Five minutes passed and Daniel was at my door.

"I'm sure you heard."

“I
did, and if you were a mom, you’d feel exactly the same way.”

Not interested in talking about my temper tantrums and overreactions that Daniel was alluding to, I kissed him instead.

Daniel took my hand and led me upstairs. “Let’s focus and try searching your Dad’s office, the den and the master bedroom again. It has to be here,” he said.

Almost two hours passed and we found nothing. I had to get out of here.

“I want to go see my dad,” I said, resigned to the fact that my life would be in turmoil until this was resolved one way or another.

In the agency car, I stared at Daniel.

Daniel noticed and asked, “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing, I was just thinking about my life with you and my life without you.” I pressed against him and he embraced me tightly. When we reached the
hospital, Daniel walked me to the room and I peeked through the window to see Mom sitting on the bed. Dad was in a semi-private room and an older man was in the other bed.

“I’ll wait out here,” Daniel said and kissed me.

Entering the room, Dad smiled when he noticed me. “Buttercup, I’m glad you’re here.”

“How are you feeling?” I asked and kissed him on the cheek.
There was a weird smell permeating the air.

“Fine. I wish they’d let me go home,” he moaned.

“What kind of memory loss did you have?” I asked.

“Your father couldn’t remember what he ate for breakfast to
day. As a precaution, they want to keep him one more night. The doctor said that sometimes happens, but usually goes away in a few days,” Mom explained and tried to sound upbeat.

“I’ll be ba
ck to normal in no time. Don’t worry. Our family is having quite a summer, huh?” Dad said, pointing at my arm and his head. “And there’s Nana. Maybe it’s the universe telling us all to slow down and stop rushing around.”

“Maybe,” I agreed, knowing full well that wasn’t it at all. Nana’s fall was an accident, but not Dad’s or mine.

“Since I’m not cleared to travel, you should go and stay with your Aunt Lucy and visit your grandparents.”

“
Mom already told me. It’s only two weeks. Can I please stay at Nana’s?” I begged.

Mom
shrugged her shoulders and he relented. “Okay, she’ll be thrilled to have you. Lucy says she’s doing great and she’ll love your company. Let me ask her first.”

“Aren’t you going to miss Daniel?” Mom asked suspiciously.

“You know, Mom, we can be apart for two weeks,” I answered. She was right, not seeing him for fourteen days would have been unbearable.

Dad looked at me disapprovingly and said sharply, “Don’t talk to your mother in that tone.”

I apologized when I saw how upset he was. This wasn’t the time to fight about Daniel. Lying in the hospital bed, Dad, a tall man, looked so small and pale.

“
Are you staying here tonight or coming home?” I asked Mom.

“I’m not sure, but Daniel is not to sleep in your bed tonight, understand?”
she snapped, forgetting about Dad and looked at his reaction.

Dad stared
at me with such shock and annoyance. “Please, explain.”

“Nothing happened. Lily and I were afraid to be alone, so
we asked Daniel to stay over.”

“What were you afraid of? The incident was a pra
nk and we have doormen,” he said.

“Two men grabbed us and then tried dragging us into a van. Lily got kidnapped than returned,” I said succinctly. “
We were scared.”

Not the best time to make an entrance, Daniel walked in and the room fell silent.

“Good evening, Mr. Devon. How are you feeling?” Daniel asked politely.

Dad glared at him. “Getting better,” he answered coldly. “I need to speak to your uncle. Can you give me his number or ask him to call me?”

“Sure, I’ll call him now.” Reaching for his cell, he asked, “Is everything okay?”

“My brother-in-law called the police station and was told that
there was no report made.”

“That
’s strange! When we left, the police were there. Right, Paige?”

I tried not to lie
. “I don’t know. I was flipping out about Dad and Lily.”

“Let me call him.” James didn’t answer
, so Dad gave Daniel his cell number to leave on the message. Daniel got a call and went out in the hall to answer it.

I
left Dad’s room and found him waiting for me. “How’d it go? They seemed okay.”

“No, they were pretending. They’re sending me to London to get me away from you.”

“Great, we can fly over together now.”

“Great?” I asked
bewildered.

“They’ll come around when they realize we’re meant to be together. Don’t worry,” he said as he kissed my scowling face. “Is your mom coming home tonight?”

“She said she wasn’t sure, but you’re not allowed to sleep in my bed.” Then, an idea popped into my head. “She didn’t say anything about the couch in the living room.”

Daniel shook his head. “
Absolutely not. Let’s get food. I’m starving.”

We walked over to a little Italian place on Columbus Avenue. We ordered a pizza and shared a salad. Daniel
wanted to search for the envelope in the morning and wanted to relax tonight.

In the apartment, we made ourselves comfortable by putting all the couch pillows on the floor. Leaning on a pillow, looking gorgeous, Daniel kissed me. It really wasn’t a great idea being alone with him because I could barely control myself.

“Okay, time out.” Daniel stood up. “Paige, we need to slow down.”

“Why?” I wasn’t ready to doing anything more, but was curious
to what he meant.

“It really isn’t the right time.”

“What time then?”

“A time when you’re not worried about being killed, you don’t have a broken arm, a time when it’s all about us and not a catastrophe.”

“I just wanted to know how you felt. Some of my friends have told me they’ve been pressured by their boyfriends and…”

“And you
wanted to know where I stood.” I nodded. “There’s no rush. I have very traditional views.”

“
I haven’t been with anyone,” I said, feeling very uncomfortable.

“Yes, I know.”

We sat quietly and held each other staring at the TV. I envisioned girls surrounding Daniel and wondered how many he was with. The movie droned on in the background. Every once in a while, he stroked my arm, kissed my head and asked, “Are you okay?” Sick to my stomach, I nodded and hid my face in his chest. There was nothing I could do about Daniel’s past, but I could be a part of his present and his future.

My cell rang and it was Lily. I put her on speaker.

“Hi, Lily. I’m with Daniel. Your on speaker.”

“How’s your dad?”

“He’s still at the hospital.”

“W
hy?” she asked.

“He couldn’t remember what he had for breakfast, so they want to keep an eye on him.”

“I’m sorry. I want to come over tomorrow, but I’m scared to walk.”

“
Lily, I’ll have you picked up. Don’t worry,” said Daniel.

“Thanks. Can I invite Chad
over?”

“
Sure, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

After we hung up, my phone ran
g again almost immediately. “Hi, Mom. Is Dad okay?”

“He’s fine. I wanted to let you know that I’ll be home soon and sleeping there tonight.”

“Okay. Bye.” I looked at Daniel and rolled my eyes.

“What did she say,” asked Daniel.

“She’s coming home to chaperone us.”

“That’s wise of her,” he joked and started kissing me. I couldn’t think straight.

When we heard the door open and Mom walked in, looking ragged.

“Hi you two. What are you…” She stopped speaking as she surveyed the messy living room and shook her head.

“Sorry Mom, I’ll clean it up."

“Daniel, your uncle called and said he called the police station and
was told the same thing. There was no report filed about the incident.” She was actually being pleasant to Daniel and it was probably because I was leaving for London.

“Now what?” I asked.

“James said he’d look into it through NSA channels, but he thinks that the boys might have powerful connections and it was buried. I will be so disgusted, if that’s true.” Mom left the room.

Daniel stared at the wall, deep in thought, and finally said, “Paige, EMIT has one week left before James orders us to start back at the beginning of the year to give us more
time.”

“
But if you can keep going back in time, how can this attack happen? Don’t you keep trying until it’s stopped?” I asked.

“No we can’t keep going back. The scientists can’t figure it out, but at a certain point time travel to certain years gets blocked. We can still enter those years but none of the changes we make stick. We try not to go back until we have no other options. The scientists thought that the definitive number of entries per year for changes was one hundred, but one year we got blocked at sixty entries and we don’t want a reoccurrence of what happened that year.”

“What year?”

“The year of 9/11.” All the chaos of that day began bombarding my brain. Dad was in London on business and Mom had picked me up early at school. We went and stayed at Aunt Cecile’s house when we were able to leave the city.

“How many times has EMIT entered this year?”

“Almost fifty.”

“That’s why you kept saying that James didn’t want to waste a time travel trip for my arm and dad’s concussion. James doesn’t want this year to get blocked. What happens if you can’t stop this or the year gets blocked?” I asked, understanding that the event would happen.

Daniel looked uncomfortable.
“We’ll worry about that when we have to.”

When we heard Mom coming downstairs, Daniel kissed me and said, “I better get going.”

After he left, Mom said, “I’m taking Amber for a walk. Want to come?”

“I’m really tired. I’m going to bed. I’ll clean this room in the morning, okay?”

She said fine and gave me a kiss goodnight.

Seeing my journal on the nightstand, I quick
ly jotted down the crazy events.

Daniel called my cell. “You okay?”

“Yeah, but I wish you were here.”

“Me too. Now go to sleep and pleas
e have pleasant dreams tonight.”

“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.”
Einstein

The next morning, Daniel called my cell and woke me. “Morning, beautiful. Your mom just left to go to the hospital and I need to see your face.”

Laughing, I said, “Give me fifteen minutes, I need a shower.”

“Okay, I’ll run and get breakfast. What would you like?”

“I would love a blueberry muffin and you, of course.”

“Okay, you’ll have both shortly.”

Jumping into the shower, I daydreamed about him. Remembering our last talk, I started thinking about this attack, the what-ifs, Daniel leaving and me not remembering him. I descended into a panic attack. By the time he arrived, I was in quite a state.

“It’ll be okay. No matter what, we’ll figure it out.” Daniel’s confidence calmed me.

“Anything new on those two guys you’re looking for?” I asked. “Gilbert and Farid, right?”