(What happens to future Shelby and Cyd after they leave with Janet? Set after "Fight the Future, Part 3". Femslash. Cyd/Shelby)
"Well that's that," remarked Cyd with satisfaction as the deputies in the future jail ("We just call it 'Jail'," she recalled telling her younger self) hauled a kicking and screaming Janet Smythe away.
"This isn't over," the now former head of GloboDigiDyne challenged the two girls. "I'll be back and you'll regret the day you crossed me."
"Like we haven't heard that before," remarked Shelby.
"Yep. What now?"
"Let's go file our reports and go home."
"I hate reports."
"Like I haven't heard that before too. It's not like you have to write or type it or anything like that. Just go tell it to the word-processor as always. It's nothing you haven't done it before. We're not in high school anymore."
"Oh alright," Cyd grumbled.
Why do we go through this every time wondered the blonde time agent with a smile. Because it's Cyd she reminded herself.
In spite of Cyd's grumblings in no time at all they were finished and walking out of the non-descript building that held the headquarters of their division of the Time Patrol, responsible generally for policing time travel and travelers from approximately 1950 to 2050. As they climbed into their fusion-electric car Shelby saw Cyd looking at the building.
"Thinking about it all again?" she asked the dark-haired girl as they closed the canopy and tapped the computer screen. Automatically the vehicle started for home. While they could have taken manual control both girls preferred to let the computer do the driving.
"Well sure." Cyd replied, a far-away look in her eyes that Shelby was familiar with. "We thought we were unique, two of a kind, the only time travelers to exist. And then one day we're told, by our future selves of all things, that there are many time travelers. So many in fact that sometime well in the future an organization was created to police those travelers. Did you ever think we would grow up to become cops?"
"No," Shelby admitted. "But Cyd we ARE unique. Everyone else travels through time using machinery. We're the only ones who do it under our own steam. And they haven't been able to figure it out or duplicate our powers no matter how long they tried."
"Don t remind me of THAT," Cyd shuddered. "All those years spent as lab rats. We might as well have been strapped to those tables at GloboDigiDyne."
"That's not true," Shelby patiently reminded the other girl. "You act like it was all torture just because we had to get up early in the morning, earlier than you wanted. Besides, snacks were available all day long. You loved that."
"Well who gets up at six in the morning? Voluntarily that is."
Shelby had to laugh. Some things never changed and Cyd's passion for sleeping late was one of those. Speaking of that, she saw her partner had reclined her chair and closed her eyes.
The blonde followed suit but rather than sleeping she thought. She recalled their actual recruitment by a man she still suspected was not entirely human. The training at the Patrol Academy, in North America but set literally millions of years ago. Although they had their own ability they still needed to know how to operate the motorcycle like transports everyone else used because their use was not limited only to travel through time but across the world high in sky and invisible if needed. They had to learn weapons and communicators and learn not only the theory of time travel but what was permitted and what was not.
"Basically," one of the instructors who taught their class but also spent extra time with just the two of them, "You cannot change major events. By your very being anywhere in time you can't help but make some impact but the time stream is very strong and it tends to remain the same, snapping back into its original shape. You don't know how many people have tried to change American history by killing John Wilkes Booth. Even when they succeed it turns out someone else assassinates Lincoln and Booth is still declared to be the killer."
He had studied them and smiled. "Fortunately you two have kept your time traveling to minor incidents, just exploring a bit and trying to solve personal problems. Take your attempts to befriend Rob, or at least make him less of a horse's ass. Turned out that no matter what you did he was the same. Nice elbow to the gut by the way Cyd."
A soft chime brought her back to the present. They were home. Cyd slept on. Shelby rolled her eyes, wondering if she would have to drag her out by her feet. NOT an easy prospect. A wicked smile crossed her face. There was one practically foolproof way to wake Cyd up quickly and completely. However it was generally best to be used when privacy was assured and there was something soft like their bed for them to end up on. But miracles still happened and the other girl woke up as Shelby was getting out. Amazing.
It was the blonde's turn to gaze at a building and lose herself in memories. Even after all these years as wonderful to live once more in the same house they had basically grown up in together after Cyd had moved in. It had been renovated several times but still looked pretty much the same. Of course it was quieter now; her brothers out and on their own years ago and on the other side of the country. Astoundingly they actually didn't live together. Next door to each other but still. Her parents and Cyd's parents were long gone. Now it was just the two of them. Being back here again was comforting and it was still home, even if they had had to leave for many years until everyone who knew them was gone one way or another and couldn't see how the two girls seemed to never age.
Cyd touched her arm. The other girl's brown eyes were understanding. She touched Cyd back and they went in.
All the space in the world here now and they had always elected to remain in the same room they had shared as teens. Of course it had all the modern conveniences now. Shelby commanded the data terminal to open and programs began flashing across the screen that filed one entire wall.
"See if anything interesting is going on here," requested Cyd. "Tomorrow that is. Tonight I just want to sleep." She headed for the bathroom, shedding her clothes on the way. Shelby watched with amusement as she hopped up and down to get her boots off. The last glimpse was of her now naked body as she disappeared. Shelby heard the shower come on and Cyd began to sing. Sort of.
The blonde grinned. She checked the local news. There were a couple of things they might like to go to. Even after all these years she still enjoyed craft fairs. All these years. She had just enjoyed the sight of Cyd's nude body. Still firm and athletic. Cute butt too. They both appeared to be still in their mid-late twenties, the same age that they had been when they were recruited by the Patrol. But longevity treatments meant that they would look that way for a long time. Already both of them were in their fifties but their ageing had stopped thirty odd years ago.
"How long will this last?" a curious Shelby had asked the woman who administered the treatments.
"No telling, had been the reply. "A long time. Centuries possibly longer. It's hard to tell. Very few Time Patrol agents die in bed after all."
As she pondered that fact Shelby undressed, putting her clothes up before heading to the bathroom. She grinned at the trail of Cyd's clothing on the floor. That never changed either. Reaching the bathroom she slid open the door, closing it as she stepped into the steam and hot water. Immediately Cyd was in her arms.
The two girls kissed; once, twice and then three time quickly and then locked mouths. Cyd hooked one leg around Shelby, her calf rubbing the back of the blonde's thighs while her hands gripped the other girl's hips. Shelby wedged one hand between them cupping one breast while the other slid down her lover's back, coming to rest in the small of Cyd's back with her splayed fingers teasing the curves of her bottom.
They pressed together, the soapy water cascading down their bodies. Tongues dueled, advancing and retreating. The grip each had on the other tightened. Shelby shifted the slightest bit, enough to allow her thigh to slide between Cyd's legs. The dark-haired girl responded. The leg already around Shelby lifted until it was on her ass and pulled the blonde in. Her other leg was now between Shelby's legs and the pair began to saw against each other.
Cyd's hands gripped Shelby's shoulder blades. The blonde's hand between them had released Cyd's breast and raced down to join her other one, now firmly locked on Cyd's firm little ass. Both yanked, crushing them together. Four hard nipples bored into breasts, bellies and mounds molded and moved against each other. Shelby pinned Cyd against the shower wall, raining kisses over her partner's face, neck and shoulders along with the water raining on them.
Already urgent their movements together became frantic. The thighs ground harder and faster. Cyd buried her face into Shelby's shoulder. A shudder ran through her body, every quiver of which was felt and matched by the other time agent. The dark-haired girl strove to hold her orgasm at bay, wanting to find her release at the same time as the other girl. She hoped Shelby was close because she wasn't going to hold out much longer. And then she couldn't.
Her cry was matched by Shelby who did indeed shake, arch and all but slam Cyd through the shower wall. Relaxing in the glow of their shared orgasms that wall proved to be very handy for holding them both up as they seemed to have run out of energy.
"Golly, this mission must have taken more out of us than we realized." Shelby didn't even realize she had said that aloud until Cyd chuckled.
"I know. Usually this just gets us started but I'm really wiped out tonight."
"Maybe it was experiencing that event with our younger selves. We have known about it since then but it was kind of strange to be on the other side of it so to speak."
"Maybe."
Their exhaustion was confirmed as they washed each other's back and then fronts for good measure. Normally that touching turn into caresses and the caresses turned into much more. Tonight it just felt good, as did washing their hair and then taking turns drying and brushing it while seated on the bed wearing their soft floppy nightshirts. They really were that tired.
"That feels so good," Cyd murmured as Shelby finished the one hundredth brush stroke. The girls changed position and Cyd started on Shelby.
"It does feel so good," She grinned. "This and our shower together are, after all, two of the reasons I married you Cyd Marcley."
"Oh there really are others?"
"Well think of how nicely we were able to combine our last names into one."
"It WAS a good idea," Cyd agreed. "Beats Marcus-Ripley all to pieces."
"Oh and there also is how much I am still in love with you after all these years."
"That's the best. Because I still love you Shelbs."
Conversation ceased. After Cyd finished her turn with the brush that the duo snuggled together, pulling the covers up over them. They wiggled slightly until they were perfectly comfortable. Shelby had one final thought.
"Cyd?"
"Yes Shelby?" her partner in all things replied sleepily. Shelby smiled. One thing that never ever changed was Cyd's ability to fall asleep and stay asleep whenever she thought the situation called for it, which was most of the time when they weren't actively living their lives. Because of their training as Time Agents they were capable of going for days and days on snatched cat-naps with Cyd loudly complaining the whole time, almost as much as she moaned about missing a meal. But that wasn't the only thing that never changed and she needed the dark-haired girl's thoughts on the most important thing.
"Do you think we should have told them?"
"Told them what? Oh THAT."
"Yes, THAT. That no matter how many time-lines get reset, no matter how many alternate time-lines we explore one thing always stays the same. Always, everywhere and whenever; the two of us always end up together."
Cyd didn't reply at first. "Let them find that out on their own. We did." Then she began to snore.
"Yeah, that's what I thought too," Shelby snuggled with her girl. "They'll find out themselves. Whenever."
(The End)
(Note: Thanks to the late great writer Poul Anderson who s "Time Patrol" stories were some of the first of the genre I read. Those and so many other of his sci-fi and fantasy stories fired my imagination to think "what if?". I gratefully acknowledge borrowing the Time Patrol, its Academy and some of the discussion on time travel from his incredible works.)