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estinoseSummary: The couple's happy life is disrupted, but for good reason. (Moving On storyline)
Disclaimer: Characters belonged to Saban when their series was made, but now belong to Disney. A few minor characters might belong to me, however.
Spoilers: Mostly for my story "Moving On". Also assumes general knowledge of the series.
Author's Notes: I really wasn't going to follow up the rather sappy "Moving On" with anything, especially not this quasi-sequel. Still, one has to wonder how the home folks felt, especially Alex. This majorly spoils the plot of "Moving On". Please note that this is not a Wes/Jen romance.
Lawful and Good
by Estirose
copyright 2002
It was, he reflected, not unexpected.
Alex turned away from the timeship's hangar and walked back towards the administrative offices with his hands behind his back. No, it was not at all unexpected, and he shouldn't have been surprised.
It had been nearly five years since Jennifer had been presumed dead in a timeship accident, her body torn apart as the ship had been in the time vortex. But when it came to timeship accidents, one never presumed anything. A traveler could well have found themselves waking up in a different century, all communication with their own time severed and their only choice living as unobtrusive a life as possible.
Jennifer had known that. That was why, five years after the accident that had possibly claimed her life, he was still scanning. And that was why he had stumbled upon her, while making a delve into the history of Silver Hills, the Silver Hills of the twenty-first century.
Into the personal history of a certain Wesley Collins, and the continued survival of a company called Bio-Lab. She had made herself a home, all right, and given the records, Alex had to wonder if her 'accident' had been no accident at all but a deliberate flounce at Time Force.
Alex's hands tightened as he thought of his ex-fiancee's actions. She, of all people, knew that it wasn't some nonsensical law that restricted time travel. It was, like so many other laws, to keep people safe.
Until today, he had thought she'd believed in them. Believed in the rightness of the law and the reasons why one didn't go into the timestream willy-nilly. Chasing after Ransik was one thing. It had to be done and despite everything she had done it. But her brush with the past, and specifically Wesley Collins, had apparently changed her far more than he thought.
Now it was he, Alex, who had to determine if it was a timeship accident that had so fortuitously put her back in the orbit of Wesley Collins, or if it had been planned that way. It was lucky for all of them that he had discovered this. He was the one who knew Jennifer better than anybody else. It should be up to him to determine whether she should be arrested or just retrieved like the stranded traveler that she might be.
As he continued walking, intent on returning to his office and discovering more about Jennifer's twenty-first century life, his eye was caught by three figures practicing out in the area set aside for practice. Their colored shirts peeking out from under their uniform jackets marked them as Time Force's current Ranger team, still active because Time Force had no reason to ask them to surrender their morphers.
Jennifer had not protested leaving her morpher off during time travel missions, not the first time, and not the last one. There was no evidence there that she'd deliberately left her own time.
But he would not decide her innocence or guilt on only one factor. He would have to learn more. He prided himself on knowing all that he could before making a decision, and when it came to his Jennifer's future, it was more critical than ever to do so.
Turning back to his solitary walk along the corridors, he left the Rangers behind.
* * *
Alex looked at the terminal again, at the data that had come up on Wesley Collins' wife, Rachel Whannel. Born April 19, 1977, died June 21, 2008 in a car accident which took the lives of herself and her children. As he brought up one of the surviving pictures from that time, he confirmed that he was looking at Jen. The black-and-white picture made her hair seem unnaturally light, but he'd looked at the face so often in years past that he'd recognize her anywhere.
"What are you doing back there?" he asked the image of the former love of his life. Surely Bio-Lab would have recovered any technology the Rangers had missed, and therefore she should have been able to find some way to communicate with their time.
Looking back at the picture, he blinked. It was apparently a picture of her on one of her travels - he could see the sign for the Alexandria visitor's center behind her.
Could this have been an accident? Was there some galactic reason why this picture had come to his attention?
Time was very unkind to its travelers, but showed mercy at the strangest of moments. If Jennifer had deliberately made this picture for him to see, then maybe time had seen to it that she would return to her own time and cease to be a problem to it.
Or maybe she had not wanted it to come to his attention at all, and time was still being kinder than it should. Alex stared at the photograph, willing the truth to come out of it and tell him precisely why she had ended up marrying Wesley Collins. Was the early twenty-first century that backward when it came to peoples' rights? Maybe she had to marry him in order to survive.
But then again, why go by Rachel when the whole community knew her better as Jen? Why the deception?
Alex shut his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. This was an investigation IA should be doing, not him, and yet he was the one that was responsible for her initial flight into the past, for her problems readapting to her own time. It had been his own almost-dying statement that had sent her there.
He was responsible, and therefore it was now his duty to retrieve her, innocent or guilty. Besides, he knew her, and IA wouldn't understand. They wouldn't understand what had happened to Jennifer Scotts and why it would cause her to forsake her own time. He wasn't sure he understood it himself, but he had seen the effects.
If she was innocent, he couldn't leave her there to die from a timeline correction. If she was guilty, she had to be removed and brought to justice. In either case, there were children, and something had to be done about them.
Something had to be done. Getting up, he got ready to do that something.
* * *
IA was, as ever, made up of annoyances. No Time Force officer liked them, though Alex respected their intent and tried not to get in their way. His anger had nearly boiled over, however, giving his voice an unusual roughness while he was talking to the last IA officer.
He had taken longer than he expected making clearances, but finally he was ready to go. He strode towards the Timeship dock, brought up by the presence of three officers in the corridor outside the door.
"Trip. Katie. Lucas," he addressed each in turn. Before he could ask them what they were doing there, Lucas spoke up. He'd become the team spokesperson ever since Jennifer had 'died'.
"We heard Jen's alive. We want to go with you to bring her back."
Alex shook his head. "Not possible," he said, looking over at the very solid figures and wondering if he could do this without having to throw what was left of the Ranger team into holding. "The three of you would constitute unnecessary interference in the time stream."
"But... but we're her teammates!" Trip pronounced, looking desperately at him, as if willing him to know something he couldn't quite say.
"I'm sorry, Trip, the risk is just not worth it," Alex told the Xybrian, alerted by something in the alien's posture that told him that something was going on. Trip had gotten better at lying during his time in the past, but not *that* good. The three of them had an ulterior motive, and if he had to guess, it probably had to do with Jennifer's disappearance.
There was a reason why the Time Force leadership had been so reluctant to bring the team up to full strength. Ranger teams had a notorious tendency to bond so tightly that a perceived injustice against one would bring the whole team fighting.
He gave them one of his best glares, hoping that the three of them would clear out before he had to give them an order to depart, or worse, have to be delayed getting them out of there. Finally, though, his glare and his unwillingness to depart with them still remaining convinced the team to leave him alone.
Either that, or they didn't want to tip their hand and reveal their guilt in the matter, which was starting to become a real possibility. At least his reputation among the team at being a pain in the neck was helping for once.
Alex swiftly entered the timeship, making an automatic sweep to check for life-signs before preparing to send it through the portal and into the twenty-first century. No sense driving the Rangers off and then finding out that they'd gotten on anyway.
But he was the only one there, and so he set his coordinates to Silver Hills, a year before Jennifer and her children were due to die. As the ship was slammed into the vortex, he just hoped he got there soon enough.
* * *
Alex emerged into the sunlight of the twenty-first century blinking and fumbling for his sunglasses, noting with satisfaction his perfect landing of the timeship. At least something had gone right.
Taking the tracker out of his pocket, he turned it on. Due to the actions of the four Rangers, the high command had quietly and secretly placed tracking devices in their systems, just in case they went rogue again.
When Jen's tracker implant came up on the screen, he knew that he was in the right place. It was all a matter of finding her.
After what seemed like hours, he finally did. He shut off his motorbike and walked into the park where several families and their kids seemed to be present. Looking around, he tried to spot Jennifer. But she wasn't the one who caught his eye; instead, Wesley scooped a little girl up, placing her on his shoulders, while the child laughed. He turned to a woman nearby, clearly laughing along with his daughter. Beja, he recalled dimly, Beja was one of the children who died in the car accident.
As the red-headed woman turned around, Alex momentarily forgot to breathe. There was Jennifer, her hair lightened by dye and the sun. Any doubt that he personally had about Jennifer's arrival in that time being deliberate was quashed. He knew her too well. It had been her choice, her plan all along, and he knew that without having the physical evidence that would prove it to anybody else.
Which meant that it had really been a good idea to leave her teammates in the future. They would have warned her, and he would have eventually tracked all of them down... it would have gotten messy. As it was, he had orders to tag Wesley and Eric, if he could. One concession he had made to go back and one he had gladly made.
Jennifer scooped a young boy, about the same age as the girl, into her arms. He must be Richard, their third, Alexa not being in evidence. Possibly not even born yet, given her age in the records as the time of Jennifer's death.
He started towards them, then stopped. He'd made the trip under the presumption that he'd be kinder than IA, but perhaps his past relationship would make it harder, not easier, for the two of them. Still, he had no choice. He had argued to be the one to go there and he would bring Jennifer and Wesley around, even if it killed the three of them. Literally.
Regaining his resolve, he started walking towards the soon-to-be-unhappy couple.
"Jennifer."
That simple, chilling word made the couple swing around, with almost matching looks of dread. Of course, he'd rarely come to them with good news, so they had a right to be wary. And this time he was there to take Jennifer and the children away. They would hate him, that was for sure.
But he had no time for that now. It was important that he press the importance of Jennifer's return upon the couple. They would listen, he was sure, but he had to quell their panic and explain things.
The two children were looking at him in the wide-eyed look children have when they were uncertain or scared. Their parents looked at him just as silently, tensed to defend their children. And they could do it, too. Jennifer and Wesley were neither idiots nor bad at defending what they loved.
"Jennifer. Wesley. I must talk to you. Come with me."
The two of them looked at each other, then much to Alex's relief came closer instead of making him chase them down. "What do you want, Alex?" Jennifer hissed, not at all pleased by his appearance in their lives.
"You know what I want," Alex responded. "I've come to bring you back home."
"I've made my home here now."
Looking at Jennifer, at Wesley, and at the two children, Alex could easily believe that. She looked like she was at home in this so far distant past. A perfectly capable Time Force Officer turned into a brainless stay-at-home. Alex reminded himself that she wouldn't have come to the past if she hadn't felt at home. Still, it was hard to remember that with her in native clothes holding a child.
"Jennifer, if you stay, you will die here. Your children will die here."
He hadn't meant to bring one of his cards out quite so soon, but it was the simplest way of ramming the point home to his wayward ex-fiancee. It was having the intended effect, but she was still resisting, as was Wesley.
"Let's discuss this somewhere else," he said, hoping that the duo would listen, or at least come. "Meet me at the beach."
With that, he strode quickly to the cycle, leaving the two behind.
* * *
Alex paced on the beach, waiting for the two Rangers to come. Yes, they were Rangers, as he reminded himself, still bound to obey the laws of Time Force, but laws weren't always able to dictate the bounds of the human heart. Love had a funny way of ignoring the words, as he well knew. He knew that Jennifer and Wesley wouldn't realize that they were not the only ones bending or breaking the law because of love.
While he had no such love for Wesley, Jennifer still held a place in his heart.
The forms of the two delinquent Rangers appeared gradually over the horizon, and Alex relaxed a little. Despite everything, they were willing to listen to him, or at least not make anything worse by running. Of course, Jennifer probably still had enough of the old Jennifer inside her that she would at least consider what he said.
Still, it wasn't going to be easy, not with Wesley being there to influence Jennifer. Not with the attachment that Jennifer had formed to this century. But he had to have both of them there - it wouldn't be fair to Jennifer if he didn't.
The two of them drew near, and he put his arms behind his back, knowing he had to look as stern as possibly. It was a serious matter, a serious crime that these two had committed, and even though he understood why, he still had to enforce the law. Even if it was in ways that weren't set out in the penal code. Even if one of them was his ex-fiancee.
"Jennifer. Wesley. Where are your children?" he asked, knowing that they'd probably stashed them in some safe place, far away from here.
"We left them at home," Jennifer responded, shifting her stance in the way that she always did when innocents had to be protected. Recognizing the movement, Alex moved away, trying to seem less threatening. Still, he wished that Jennifer had realized that when he meant all of them, he really meant all of them.
"This concerns them as well. You shouldn't have left them there."
"The twins are three years old!" Jennifer exclaimed, tensing into the protection position again, probably unconsciously. "They're too young to deal with this."
"They are involved, whether you like it or not," Alex countered. "They do not belong here, in this time. I'm not saying this to be cruel, Jennifer. I am merely stating a fact. Because of your origin, they are something that should not exist at this point in the timeline. If you wish them to live, they have to come home to their proper time. Them, and the child you must carry, even now."
Two startled expressions greeted his pronouncement. "Jen's... pregnant?" Wesley asked.
"It doesn't matter," Alex said, hoping to save himself from any parental joy on the couple's part. "Jennifer, the deaths of yourself and your children are inevitable. The timeline will purge you and them. Even if you avoid it the first time, it will try to do it again and again. It is a very efficient and untiring assassin."
"You don't have to go through with this deception," Wesley said. "I know you want her away from me."
Alex took an internal deep breath, reminding himself not to get angry at Wesley's provocative words. "I am here because both of you broke the law, and because I also saw what would happen if I didn't intervene. It's not because any rivalry between you and me. It's because I care too much to let Jennifer and those she loves suffer."
"Alex, if you take me back, I *will* suffer," Jennifer responded, moving forward as if to block his view of her husband. "Do you have *any* idea of how miserable I was in our time? I thought I'd accepted leaving this behind, going back... but I hadn't. I had become a part of this time, and I accepted that. I can't readapt to my own time. I've dug my own grave."
"But it doesn't have to be that way!" he exclaimed. "Jennifer, there is help. We can readapt your memories, make you forget this time. Make it less real. This is not your home, Jennifer. It can never be."
"Forget it. I am not going back. I don't want to forget." Jennifer turned away, Wes belatedly following her lead.
"Not forgetting was what caused this problem in the first place. Don't you want to be happy, Jennifer? Not longing for what cannot be? You have people at home who love you. People who would be happy to see you and your children safe. It's what matters, Jennifer."
And what of Wes?" Jennifer asked, halfway turned.
"He would have to remain here. He doesn't belong in our time, even less than you do in his. I'm sorry you fell in love here, Jennifer, but I thought you understood that it could never really be. All you have here is a charade. It can never be a full life. I'm sorry, Jennifer."
"I'm sorry, too," she responded. "I... I just can't, Alex."
Placing a hand on Wesley's shoulder, she started back towards where their car had to be located. Alex's fist tightened behind his back. Why couldn't they see? Why couldn't Jen see? Well, if she wasn't willing to listen, there was only one thing he could do. Walking fast, he soon caught up to the two wayward officers.
"Jennifer. Wesley. If you go back to the car, then I'll have to arrest you. IA will investigate, and I think they'll uncover that your teammates know more about this than they should. Do you really want that?"
"You'd really arrest Jen?" Wesley asked, sounding a little stunned. "Arrest the others?"
"He would," Jen affirmed, without him having to answer. "If I had no problems turning in Steelix, do you think that he would have problems turning me in? I committed a worse crime in Time Force's eyes than Steelix did, Wes."
"He can't arrest me, however," Wesley told her.
"I can, and I will, Wesley," Alex said, turning his gaze upon the cocky Ranger. Why Jennifer had fallen in love with him was beyond Alex's comprehension. "We may not be able to detain you in our century, but I can promise you that you would be considered a rogue Time Force officer, and they would find a way to deal with your crime."
"So you're going to threaten us now?" Wesley asked. He was shielding Jennifer, as if she needed shielding. Alex was glad he had injected the tracker into his system a few seconds before. If they ran, he would be able to find them.
"I am not threatening you. I am merely stating the facts. Jennifer must leave. Your children must leave. That is what will happen, by your choice or not."
Wesley made an aborted move of his head which may have been a nod, and then turned towards his wife. Jennifer seemed to catch sight of his expression. She began to walk towards where they had come from, Wesley following. As Alex started to follow, she said, "Leave us alone, Alex. We're not going anywhere."
Alex nodded and let the two pass out of sight. He brought up the tracker, pleased to see Wesley's transmitter working, as well as Jen's. They weren't moving. He sat there, watching the unmoving figures, and waited for the two to come back.
It was Jen who came back, Wes following. "We had a talk... and I'm going back. On two conditions."
He nodded, having a sneaking suspicion what those two reasons were, but prompted her by saying, "And those are?"
"One, I'm not going through memory adaptation when I get home. I want to remember Wes. I want to know why I did what I did. Second, I want to keep my children. I want them to know their heritage, and why they are there."
Turning slightly towards her, Alex nodded. "Agreed. But only if you agree never to go to the past again."
Jen straightened up into full attention, nodding in consent. "Then there's only one thing left to do. I'll go home and bring the children."
She seemed like she was almost crying, and Alex knew it was only because she was almost crying. Jennifer had conceded to him, but it was probably at a price that he couldn't imagine.
But he didn't have a chance to find out, as Jennifer turned straight around and headed back to where he presumed their car was, leaving him with Wesley. It was no doubt meant as a good-faith gesture, but probably also as a way of keeping an eye on him in case he had any tricks up his sleeve.
As the signal that represented Jennifer rapidly moved off, he turned to Wesley, hiding the tracking device before the other man could deduce that he'd been tagged. "What made you change your mind?" he asked.
"Because you might be good at dire predictions," Wesley replied, "But you've never lied. Left things out, yes, lied, no. And I want Jen to be safe. I want my kids to be safe, too, Alex."
"They will be safe," Alex offered, as a final apology. No matter what had to be done, he too knew what it was like to have a love taken away. "Once they come home with me. The law that Jennifer broke wasn't meant to keep you apart, Wesley. It was to keep Jennifer and others like her from dying. By bringing her back, the intent of the law is fulfilled. No good will come out of doing more."
Wes nodded in resignation. He seemed to be holding something back, but then Alex guessed that the other Ranger would have little to say to the man had forced the love of his life to leave him. "Then there's nothing more to be said, except for one thing. How good at you at disintegrating cars?"
Startled by the change in direction, Alex found himself looking for words.
* * *
Jennifer arrived, the twins in tow, about half an hour or so later. Each of the twins carried a small backpack, with Jennifer carrying a duffel bag, no doubt stuff she just couldn't leave behind. "Wes," she said, ignoring Alex, "Come back here, I need your help with some stuff."
Then she turned to Alex. "Beja, Richard, this is your uncle Alex. He's going to be taking care of you for a couple of minutes while your mommy and daddy get the rest of the bags, okay?"
The twins didn't speak, but looked up with identical stares at Alex. He somehow found himself holding the hands of the two children, while Jennifer and Wesley returned to their car. He tolerated it, knowing that he would become very much aquainted with the children once they and their mother returned back to their own time.
However, that didn't mean it seemed to take Jennifer and Wesley more than a few minutes to finish unloading bags. The bags they returned with were not that big, but there must have been some difficulty in removing them from the car. "Toys, for the kids," Jennifer explained. "And some... reminders."
He could allow her that, so he just nodded. Remembering his promise to help the two of them create a cover story, he headed towards the ship. "Come with me," he said. The couple followed him and the children aboard the ship without protest, where he settled the two children and the baggage. He then set up anti-sabotage sensors and preventers before returning with a device that would make the car disappear and give Wesley's story of a missing wife and children credibility.
It was, after all, the best way to satisfy history. The best way to save Jennifer. The best way to help all involved. In the end, finally, it was good.
-end
Disclaimer: Characters belonged to Saban when their series was made, but now belong to Disney. A few minor characters might belong to me, however.
Spoilers: Mostly for my story "Moving On". Also assumes general knowledge of the series.
Author's Notes: I really wasn't going to follow up the rather sappy "Moving On" with anything, especially not this quasi-sequel. Still, one has to wonder how the home folks felt, especially Alex. This majorly spoils the plot of "Moving On". Please note that this is not a Wes/Jen romance.
Lawful and Good
by Estirose
copyright 2002
It was, he reflected, not unexpected.
Alex turned away from the timeship's hangar and walked back towards the administrative offices with his hands behind his back. No, it was not at all unexpected, and he shouldn't have been surprised.
It had been nearly five years since Jennifer had been presumed dead in a timeship accident, her body torn apart as the ship had been in the time vortex. But when it came to timeship accidents, one never presumed anything. A traveler could well have found themselves waking up in a different century, all communication with their own time severed and their only choice living as unobtrusive a life as possible.
Jennifer had known that. That was why, five years after the accident that had possibly claimed her life, he was still scanning. And that was why he had stumbled upon her, while making a delve into the history of Silver Hills, the Silver Hills of the twenty-first century.
Into the personal history of a certain Wesley Collins, and the continued survival of a company called Bio-Lab. She had made herself a home, all right, and given the records, Alex had to wonder if her 'accident' had been no accident at all but a deliberate flounce at Time Force.
Alex's hands tightened as he thought of his ex-fiancee's actions. She, of all people, knew that it wasn't some nonsensical law that restricted time travel. It was, like so many other laws, to keep people safe.
Until today, he had thought she'd believed in them. Believed in the rightness of the law and the reasons why one didn't go into the timestream willy-nilly. Chasing after Ransik was one thing. It had to be done and despite everything she had done it. But her brush with the past, and specifically Wesley Collins, had apparently changed her far more than he thought.
Now it was he, Alex, who had to determine if it was a timeship accident that had so fortuitously put her back in the orbit of Wesley Collins, or if it had been planned that way. It was lucky for all of them that he had discovered this. He was the one who knew Jennifer better than anybody else. It should be up to him to determine whether she should be arrested or just retrieved like the stranded traveler that she might be.
As he continued walking, intent on returning to his office and discovering more about Jennifer's twenty-first century life, his eye was caught by three figures practicing out in the area set aside for practice. Their colored shirts peeking out from under their uniform jackets marked them as Time Force's current Ranger team, still active because Time Force had no reason to ask them to surrender their morphers.
Jennifer had not protested leaving her morpher off during time travel missions, not the first time, and not the last one. There was no evidence there that she'd deliberately left her own time.
But he would not decide her innocence or guilt on only one factor. He would have to learn more. He prided himself on knowing all that he could before making a decision, and when it came to his Jennifer's future, it was more critical than ever to do so.
Turning back to his solitary walk along the corridors, he left the Rangers behind.
* * *
Alex looked at the terminal again, at the data that had come up on Wesley Collins' wife, Rachel Whannel. Born April 19, 1977, died June 21, 2008 in a car accident which took the lives of herself and her children. As he brought up one of the surviving pictures from that time, he confirmed that he was looking at Jen. The black-and-white picture made her hair seem unnaturally light, but he'd looked at the face so often in years past that he'd recognize her anywhere.
"What are you doing back there?" he asked the image of the former love of his life. Surely Bio-Lab would have recovered any technology the Rangers had missed, and therefore she should have been able to find some way to communicate with their time.
Looking back at the picture, he blinked. It was apparently a picture of her on one of her travels - he could see the sign for the Alexandria visitor's center behind her.
Could this have been an accident? Was there some galactic reason why this picture had come to his attention?
Time was very unkind to its travelers, but showed mercy at the strangest of moments. If Jennifer had deliberately made this picture for him to see, then maybe time had seen to it that she would return to her own time and cease to be a problem to it.
Or maybe she had not wanted it to come to his attention at all, and time was still being kinder than it should. Alex stared at the photograph, willing the truth to come out of it and tell him precisely why she had ended up marrying Wesley Collins. Was the early twenty-first century that backward when it came to peoples' rights? Maybe she had to marry him in order to survive.
But then again, why go by Rachel when the whole community knew her better as Jen? Why the deception?
Alex shut his eyes and rubbed the bridge of his nose. This was an investigation IA should be doing, not him, and yet he was the one that was responsible for her initial flight into the past, for her problems readapting to her own time. It had been his own almost-dying statement that had sent her there.
He was responsible, and therefore it was now his duty to retrieve her, innocent or guilty. Besides, he knew her, and IA wouldn't understand. They wouldn't understand what had happened to Jennifer Scotts and why it would cause her to forsake her own time. He wasn't sure he understood it himself, but he had seen the effects.
If she was innocent, he couldn't leave her there to die from a timeline correction. If she was guilty, she had to be removed and brought to justice. In either case, there were children, and something had to be done about them.
Something had to be done. Getting up, he got ready to do that something.
* * *
IA was, as ever, made up of annoyances. No Time Force officer liked them, though Alex respected their intent and tried not to get in their way. His anger had nearly boiled over, however, giving his voice an unusual roughness while he was talking to the last IA officer.
He had taken longer than he expected making clearances, but finally he was ready to go. He strode towards the Timeship dock, brought up by the presence of three officers in the corridor outside the door.
"Trip. Katie. Lucas," he addressed each in turn. Before he could ask them what they were doing there, Lucas spoke up. He'd become the team spokesperson ever since Jennifer had 'died'.
"We heard Jen's alive. We want to go with you to bring her back."
Alex shook his head. "Not possible," he said, looking over at the very solid figures and wondering if he could do this without having to throw what was left of the Ranger team into holding. "The three of you would constitute unnecessary interference in the time stream."
"But... but we're her teammates!" Trip pronounced, looking desperately at him, as if willing him to know something he couldn't quite say.
"I'm sorry, Trip, the risk is just not worth it," Alex told the Xybrian, alerted by something in the alien's posture that told him that something was going on. Trip had gotten better at lying during his time in the past, but not *that* good. The three of them had an ulterior motive, and if he had to guess, it probably had to do with Jennifer's disappearance.
There was a reason why the Time Force leadership had been so reluctant to bring the team up to full strength. Ranger teams had a notorious tendency to bond so tightly that a perceived injustice against one would bring the whole team fighting.
He gave them one of his best glares, hoping that the three of them would clear out before he had to give them an order to depart, or worse, have to be delayed getting them out of there. Finally, though, his glare and his unwillingness to depart with them still remaining convinced the team to leave him alone.
Either that, or they didn't want to tip their hand and reveal their guilt in the matter, which was starting to become a real possibility. At least his reputation among the team at being a pain in the neck was helping for once.
Alex swiftly entered the timeship, making an automatic sweep to check for life-signs before preparing to send it through the portal and into the twenty-first century. No sense driving the Rangers off and then finding out that they'd gotten on anyway.
But he was the only one there, and so he set his coordinates to Silver Hills, a year before Jennifer and her children were due to die. As the ship was slammed into the vortex, he just hoped he got there soon enough.
* * *
Alex emerged into the sunlight of the twenty-first century blinking and fumbling for his sunglasses, noting with satisfaction his perfect landing of the timeship. At least something had gone right.
Taking the tracker out of his pocket, he turned it on. Due to the actions of the four Rangers, the high command had quietly and secretly placed tracking devices in their systems, just in case they went rogue again.
When Jen's tracker implant came up on the screen, he knew that he was in the right place. It was all a matter of finding her.
After what seemed like hours, he finally did. He shut off his motorbike and walked into the park where several families and their kids seemed to be present. Looking around, he tried to spot Jennifer. But she wasn't the one who caught his eye; instead, Wesley scooped a little girl up, placing her on his shoulders, while the child laughed. He turned to a woman nearby, clearly laughing along with his daughter. Beja, he recalled dimly, Beja was one of the children who died in the car accident.
As the red-headed woman turned around, Alex momentarily forgot to breathe. There was Jennifer, her hair lightened by dye and the sun. Any doubt that he personally had about Jennifer's arrival in that time being deliberate was quashed. He knew her too well. It had been her choice, her plan all along, and he knew that without having the physical evidence that would prove it to anybody else.
Which meant that it had really been a good idea to leave her teammates in the future. They would have warned her, and he would have eventually tracked all of them down... it would have gotten messy. As it was, he had orders to tag Wesley and Eric, if he could. One concession he had made to go back and one he had gladly made.
Jennifer scooped a young boy, about the same age as the girl, into her arms. He must be Richard, their third, Alexa not being in evidence. Possibly not even born yet, given her age in the records as the time of Jennifer's death.
He started towards them, then stopped. He'd made the trip under the presumption that he'd be kinder than IA, but perhaps his past relationship would make it harder, not easier, for the two of them. Still, he had no choice. He had argued to be the one to go there and he would bring Jennifer and Wesley around, even if it killed the three of them. Literally.
Regaining his resolve, he started walking towards the soon-to-be-unhappy couple.
"Jennifer."
That simple, chilling word made the couple swing around, with almost matching looks of dread. Of course, he'd rarely come to them with good news, so they had a right to be wary. And this time he was there to take Jennifer and the children away. They would hate him, that was for sure.
But he had no time for that now. It was important that he press the importance of Jennifer's return upon the couple. They would listen, he was sure, but he had to quell their panic and explain things.
The two children were looking at him in the wide-eyed look children have when they were uncertain or scared. Their parents looked at him just as silently, tensed to defend their children. And they could do it, too. Jennifer and Wesley were neither idiots nor bad at defending what they loved.
"Jennifer. Wesley. I must talk to you. Come with me."
The two of them looked at each other, then much to Alex's relief came closer instead of making him chase them down. "What do you want, Alex?" Jennifer hissed, not at all pleased by his appearance in their lives.
"You know what I want," Alex responded. "I've come to bring you back home."
"I've made my home here now."
Looking at Jennifer, at Wesley, and at the two children, Alex could easily believe that. She looked like she was at home in this so far distant past. A perfectly capable Time Force Officer turned into a brainless stay-at-home. Alex reminded himself that she wouldn't have come to the past if she hadn't felt at home. Still, it was hard to remember that with her in native clothes holding a child.
"Jennifer, if you stay, you will die here. Your children will die here."
He hadn't meant to bring one of his cards out quite so soon, but it was the simplest way of ramming the point home to his wayward ex-fiancee. It was having the intended effect, but she was still resisting, as was Wesley.
"Let's discuss this somewhere else," he said, hoping that the duo would listen, or at least come. "Meet me at the beach."
With that, he strode quickly to the cycle, leaving the two behind.
* * *
Alex paced on the beach, waiting for the two Rangers to come. Yes, they were Rangers, as he reminded himself, still bound to obey the laws of Time Force, but laws weren't always able to dictate the bounds of the human heart. Love had a funny way of ignoring the words, as he well knew. He knew that Jennifer and Wesley wouldn't realize that they were not the only ones bending or breaking the law because of love.
While he had no such love for Wesley, Jennifer still held a place in his heart.
The forms of the two delinquent Rangers appeared gradually over the horizon, and Alex relaxed a little. Despite everything, they were willing to listen to him, or at least not make anything worse by running. Of course, Jennifer probably still had enough of the old Jennifer inside her that she would at least consider what he said.
Still, it wasn't going to be easy, not with Wesley being there to influence Jennifer. Not with the attachment that Jennifer had formed to this century. But he had to have both of them there - it wouldn't be fair to Jennifer if he didn't.
The two of them drew near, and he put his arms behind his back, knowing he had to look as stern as possibly. It was a serious matter, a serious crime that these two had committed, and even though he understood why, he still had to enforce the law. Even if it was in ways that weren't set out in the penal code. Even if one of them was his ex-fiancee.
"Jennifer. Wesley. Where are your children?" he asked, knowing that they'd probably stashed them in some safe place, far away from here.
"We left them at home," Jennifer responded, shifting her stance in the way that she always did when innocents had to be protected. Recognizing the movement, Alex moved away, trying to seem less threatening. Still, he wished that Jennifer had realized that when he meant all of them, he really meant all of them.
"This concerns them as well. You shouldn't have left them there."
"The twins are three years old!" Jennifer exclaimed, tensing into the protection position again, probably unconsciously. "They're too young to deal with this."
"They are involved, whether you like it or not," Alex countered. "They do not belong here, in this time. I'm not saying this to be cruel, Jennifer. I am merely stating a fact. Because of your origin, they are something that should not exist at this point in the timeline. If you wish them to live, they have to come home to their proper time. Them, and the child you must carry, even now."
Two startled expressions greeted his pronouncement. "Jen's... pregnant?" Wesley asked.
"It doesn't matter," Alex said, hoping to save himself from any parental joy on the couple's part. "Jennifer, the deaths of yourself and your children are inevitable. The timeline will purge you and them. Even if you avoid it the first time, it will try to do it again and again. It is a very efficient and untiring assassin."
"You don't have to go through with this deception," Wesley said. "I know you want her away from me."
Alex took an internal deep breath, reminding himself not to get angry at Wesley's provocative words. "I am here because both of you broke the law, and because I also saw what would happen if I didn't intervene. It's not because any rivalry between you and me. It's because I care too much to let Jennifer and those she loves suffer."
"Alex, if you take me back, I *will* suffer," Jennifer responded, moving forward as if to block his view of her husband. "Do you have *any* idea of how miserable I was in our time? I thought I'd accepted leaving this behind, going back... but I hadn't. I had become a part of this time, and I accepted that. I can't readapt to my own time. I've dug my own grave."
"But it doesn't have to be that way!" he exclaimed. "Jennifer, there is help. We can readapt your memories, make you forget this time. Make it less real. This is not your home, Jennifer. It can never be."
"Forget it. I am not going back. I don't want to forget." Jennifer turned away, Wes belatedly following her lead.
"Not forgetting was what caused this problem in the first place. Don't you want to be happy, Jennifer? Not longing for what cannot be? You have people at home who love you. People who would be happy to see you and your children safe. It's what matters, Jennifer."
And what of Wes?" Jennifer asked, halfway turned.
"He would have to remain here. He doesn't belong in our time, even less than you do in his. I'm sorry you fell in love here, Jennifer, but I thought you understood that it could never really be. All you have here is a charade. It can never be a full life. I'm sorry, Jennifer."
"I'm sorry, too," she responded. "I... I just can't, Alex."
Placing a hand on Wesley's shoulder, she started back towards where their car had to be located. Alex's fist tightened behind his back. Why couldn't they see? Why couldn't Jen see? Well, if she wasn't willing to listen, there was only one thing he could do. Walking fast, he soon caught up to the two wayward officers.
"Jennifer. Wesley. If you go back to the car, then I'll have to arrest you. IA will investigate, and I think they'll uncover that your teammates know more about this than they should. Do you really want that?"
"You'd really arrest Jen?" Wesley asked, sounding a little stunned. "Arrest the others?"
"He would," Jen affirmed, without him having to answer. "If I had no problems turning in Steelix, do you think that he would have problems turning me in? I committed a worse crime in Time Force's eyes than Steelix did, Wes."
"He can't arrest me, however," Wesley told her.
"I can, and I will, Wesley," Alex said, turning his gaze upon the cocky Ranger. Why Jennifer had fallen in love with him was beyond Alex's comprehension. "We may not be able to detain you in our century, but I can promise you that you would be considered a rogue Time Force officer, and they would find a way to deal with your crime."
"So you're going to threaten us now?" Wesley asked. He was shielding Jennifer, as if she needed shielding. Alex was glad he had injected the tracker into his system a few seconds before. If they ran, he would be able to find them.
"I am not threatening you. I am merely stating the facts. Jennifer must leave. Your children must leave. That is what will happen, by your choice or not."
Wesley made an aborted move of his head which may have been a nod, and then turned towards his wife. Jennifer seemed to catch sight of his expression. She began to walk towards where they had come from, Wesley following. As Alex started to follow, she said, "Leave us alone, Alex. We're not going anywhere."
Alex nodded and let the two pass out of sight. He brought up the tracker, pleased to see Wesley's transmitter working, as well as Jen's. They weren't moving. He sat there, watching the unmoving figures, and waited for the two to come back.
It was Jen who came back, Wes following. "We had a talk... and I'm going back. On two conditions."
He nodded, having a sneaking suspicion what those two reasons were, but prompted her by saying, "And those are?"
"One, I'm not going through memory adaptation when I get home. I want to remember Wes. I want to know why I did what I did. Second, I want to keep my children. I want them to know their heritage, and why they are there."
Turning slightly towards her, Alex nodded. "Agreed. But only if you agree never to go to the past again."
Jen straightened up into full attention, nodding in consent. "Then there's only one thing left to do. I'll go home and bring the children."
She seemed like she was almost crying, and Alex knew it was only because she was almost crying. Jennifer had conceded to him, but it was probably at a price that he couldn't imagine.
But he didn't have a chance to find out, as Jennifer turned straight around and headed back to where he presumed their car was, leaving him with Wesley. It was no doubt meant as a good-faith gesture, but probably also as a way of keeping an eye on him in case he had any tricks up his sleeve.
As the signal that represented Jennifer rapidly moved off, he turned to Wesley, hiding the tracking device before the other man could deduce that he'd been tagged. "What made you change your mind?" he asked.
"Because you might be good at dire predictions," Wesley replied, "But you've never lied. Left things out, yes, lied, no. And I want Jen to be safe. I want my kids to be safe, too, Alex."
"They will be safe," Alex offered, as a final apology. No matter what had to be done, he too knew what it was like to have a love taken away. "Once they come home with me. The law that Jennifer broke wasn't meant to keep you apart, Wesley. It was to keep Jennifer and others like her from dying. By bringing her back, the intent of the law is fulfilled. No good will come out of doing more."
Wes nodded in resignation. He seemed to be holding something back, but then Alex guessed that the other Ranger would have little to say to the man had forced the love of his life to leave him. "Then there's nothing more to be said, except for one thing. How good at you at disintegrating cars?"
Startled by the change in direction, Alex found himself looking for words.
* * *
Jennifer arrived, the twins in tow, about half an hour or so later. Each of the twins carried a small backpack, with Jennifer carrying a duffel bag, no doubt stuff she just couldn't leave behind. "Wes," she said, ignoring Alex, "Come back here, I need your help with some stuff."
Then she turned to Alex. "Beja, Richard, this is your uncle Alex. He's going to be taking care of you for a couple of minutes while your mommy and daddy get the rest of the bags, okay?"
The twins didn't speak, but looked up with identical stares at Alex. He somehow found himself holding the hands of the two children, while Jennifer and Wesley returned to their car. He tolerated it, knowing that he would become very much aquainted with the children once they and their mother returned back to their own time.
However, that didn't mean it seemed to take Jennifer and Wesley more than a few minutes to finish unloading bags. The bags they returned with were not that big, but there must have been some difficulty in removing them from the car. "Toys, for the kids," Jennifer explained. "And some... reminders."
He could allow her that, so he just nodded. Remembering his promise to help the two of them create a cover story, he headed towards the ship. "Come with me," he said. The couple followed him and the children aboard the ship without protest, where he settled the two children and the baggage. He then set up anti-sabotage sensors and preventers before returning with a device that would make the car disappear and give Wesley's story of a missing wife and children credibility.
It was, after all, the best way to satisfy history. The best way to save Jennifer. The best way to help all involved. In the end, finally, it was good.
-end
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