Disclaimer: The characters you know don't belong to me. This story is very (very) heavily influenced by the movie Another Earth, which I highly recommend to everyone because it's a fantastic movie. It's also partially influenced by the novel The Storyteller by Jodi Picolt. The title for this chapter comes from dialogue from Another Earth.

A/N: So I'm going to be the first person to say this story is a little out there. It's different from most stuff I write and it's something I started working on for AU day of Chaubrey-Week but clearly I missed the boat on that one. So maybe just...go with me? I'd say the story is Aubrey-centric but also definitely has Chaubrey as well. Thanks to blackindiaink and escape-fic for the constant encouragement. So...let me know what you think and here we go!

"Into the Dark Night Sky, Back in Time and Out in Space"

The night that the second Earth becomes visible in the evening sky is much like every other in Aubrey Posen's life. She spends the majority of her day working at her father's law firm and being chastised by her father because she's too slow, too sloppy, too unprofessional, too imperfect. And even though she's heard these words throughout the majority of her life, they don't just roll off her back. She takes each one to heart, internalizing it and fitting it into her brain. But Aubrey knows better than to react in any way; any sign of weakness will only make things worse.

So Aubrey just sits in the passenger seat of her father's car and lets him berate her. Her eyes are focused on the sky above; the stars are slowly starting to appear, offering just the tiniest glimpse of the worlds beyond.

"I just…I don't know why we have to continue having these types of discussions." Marc Posen continues. The fact that Aubrey has said nothing means little to him. "This is an amazing opportunity for you. And it's like you don't even want to be a member of the firm."

Aubrey purses her lips. "No, sir."

She doesn't even really think about the words before she says them. They just slip out. They're the truth but that doesn't mean that she ever wanted them out there, existing and taking on a life of their own. Aubrey doesn't know what's worse: the fact that she's finally spoken the truth or the fact that it doesn't matter either way.

But her words take Marc by surprise. "Excuse me?" Aubrey decides it best to keep silent. There's no point in speaking. "You don't want to be a part of the firm? Why does this not surprise me?" He laughs and shakes his head. "You've always just spit in the face of every opportunity I've given you. Boarding school, law school. All the connections you've made. Christ, I gave you a job at the firm that I built from the ground up, even though you didn't deserve it." Marc looks over at her, an expression of disgust on his face. "You might think you're the only one who's ever been disappointed about their lot in life but you're not that special. You've been nothing but a disappointment."

Aubrey sees the pinprick of blue light in the sky, unfamiliar and growing larger, seconds before another car slams into their own and everything goes dark.

The afternoon of her father's funeral, Aubrey doesn't move from her hospital bed. The entire day passes with her staring, unseeing, at the television. The news reports about the discovery of Earth Two have been running nonstop for the past several days and each report is still filled with an underlying sense of fear. Where did Earth Two come from? What does it mean? And, above all, what lies below the atmosphere?

But Aubrey could care less about Earth Two. She's watching the reports but all she can see is her mother's face during her one and only visit. All she can hear is the sound of the doctor's voice telling Gwen Posen that her daughter can leave the hospital to attend the funeral and her mother telling her that it would be best if she stayed. To recover, she'd said. You're not welcome, she'd implied.

Not welcome at her own father's funeral. Aubrey feels like she shouldn't be surprised. It's her fault that her father is dead; if she hadn't distracted him that night, if he hadn't been yelling at her, maybe he would have…not that it matters. He's still dead. And Aubrey still hears his words, clear as day: you've been nothing but a disappointment.

Aubrey closes her eyes but she doesn't sleep. She just listens to the beeps of the machines around her and the sound of the newscasters speculating about Earth Two. It's the end of the world, they're saying. Judgment day. Something Aubrey can relate to.

Even though crying is a useless emotion, it's all Aubrey wants to do. But she can't, thanks to the bandage on the right side of her face, hiding the stitches and the bruising and the swelling. It's probably another reason that her mother wants her to remain confined to the hospital bed. No one wants to see Marc Posen's daughter now that she's as much of a disappointment on the outside as she is on the inside.

It's been three years since Aubrey has talked to her mother or really anyone at all. There's simply nothing left to say. To anyone. She's managed to build a life around her desire to avoid people and to keep them far away from the walls that she's built since the accident.

But she also feels guilty, in a way, for this secluded life that she's made for herself. She spends her nights at the local bakery, alone in the industrial kitchen kneading loaves and mixing ingredients together for cupcakes and cookies and pretzel rolls and baguettes. It keeps her awake all night and away from the general population, but it also gives her a chance to finally do something that she's always wanted to do. Something she actually enjoys. Her love for baking has always been useless and wasteful, according to her father, and that she actually has time to do something for herself now that her father is dead is not lost on her.

Aubrey loves baking, but what she loves even more is the fact that she has the bakery all to herself from seven o'clock at night until five thirty in the morning. No one to talk to, no one to bother her or, even better, no one to stare at her. She bakes, goes home and sleeps or reads or relaxes and then she does it all over again.

The only thing that keeps her company is her iPod. She plugs it into the docking station before she starts kneading and mixing and creating and Aubrey sings along or hums under her breath and sometimes she loses herself in the music and dances between the counters and mixing bowls. This is the world she's created for herself and she's fine with pretending there's nothing outside of these four walls.

The only person Aubrey has consistently come into contact with since getting her job at the bakery is the bakery's owner, Gail. For years, Gail gave singing and voice lessons to the wealthy and privileged children of New York City's elite. She was in such high demand that some scions had resorted to trying to bribe her to take on their kids as clients. One day, she just got fed up with everything: the life, the society, the pressures and moved to Atlanta to start her own bakery. Owning a small little neighborhood shop had always been a dream of hers and Aubrey admires Gail for having the courage to just leave everything behind and do it. She never could have done that. Hell, if her father hadn't died, she'd still be working at his law firm.

Aubrey sees Gail in the mornings when she comes in to open the shop and sometimes at night if the woman ends up working all day. Even though they see each other only briefly, they've still managed to form a connection through their brief conversations and maybe it's sad but Aubrey considers Gail the only friend she has.

Or maybe friend isn't quite the right word to describe her relationship with Gail. In the three years since Aubrey has gone not speaking to her mother, Gail has stepped in to become the surrogate family that Aubrey felt like she never really had even when her father was still alive. Their conversations might be brief or far from serious, but Gail has never made Aubrey feel unwelcome. She's never made her feel like her very existence is disappointing. And she's never looked at the scar on Aubrey's face and called it ugly.

But that doesn't mean that Gail doesn't have the habit of annoying her. And when she comes in at five thirty that Wednesday morning and asks Aubrey if she'll hang around til seven and help her man the front of the bakery because Jessica is running late, Aubrey is most definitely annoyed.

"Oh, come on Aubrey." Gail is not impressed by Aubrey's death glare. "It won't be so bad. You can't be a recluse for the rest of your life."

"Yes, I can." Aubrey informs her frankly. "I'm surprised you'd even let me up front. Aren't you worried I'll scare your customers away?" She smirks.

Gail rolls her eyes. "Now you're just being dramatic. Sweetie, it's not that bad-" She reaches forward to brush Aubrey's hair away from her face. Aubrey flinches and takes a step back and Gail holds up her hands apologetically. "Sorry, sorry. But seriously, Aubrey, are you going to leave me to fend for myself during the breakfast rush? Jessica will be in at seven." She gives her an overly large grin. "Please?"

Aubrey sighs and shakes her head. "Fine. But I'm leaving as soon as Jessica walks in."

"Fine by me." Gail gives her the once over. "Did you roll in flour or…?" Aubrey looks down at herself. She's definitely not dressed for interacting with people. "You'll be fine." Gail assures her. "Most people will be too asleep to notice."

Being in the front of the bakery is a totally different world. Aubrey's always known that the place does a lot of business because she looks at the figures every night so she knows how much to bake for the following day, but actually being a part of that wave of people is totally different. While Gail mans the register, Aubrey rushes around to bag pastries and bagels and makes coffees and hot chocolates and even boxes up a few cupcakes. And she really hopes those are for later. Aubrey keeps her head down so no one will get a good look at the scar running jagged down the right side of her face but Gail's right: no one really stops to notice her anyway.

It's just shy of seven when the rush starts to die down. There's a good number of people sitting around at the few tables in the shop and Gail tells Aubrey that this quiet period will last until about seven thirty. "Luckily I'll be gone by then." Aubrey says with a hint of relief in her tone. She's not sure she can take much more rushing around.

"Hold down the fort, will you?" Gail questions. "I've had to pee for an hour."

Aubrey feels a bit of trepidation but hopefully Gail will be back before she's required to directly interact with someone.

But, of course, luck has never really been on Aubrey's side.

As soon as Gail disappears into the back, the bell above the door chimes and Aubrey turns to see a willowy redhead come rushing into the bakery. She's trying to balance a stack of folders and her sunglasses and a purse much too big to be practical and she's holding her cell phone in her mouth and generally looks like she could use an extra hand.

The girl unceremoniously drops her stuff down on the counter and breathes a sigh of relief when she takes her phone out of her mouth. "You will not believe how late I'm running." She tells Aubrey without even looking at her. She's too busy trying to reorganize her mess. "My boss is going to kill me for real this time. But you gotta have brain-food, right? Can I get a blueberry, no! a chocolate chip bagel. Those things are crazy good. And a coffee. A large. Is there something larger than a large?"

"Well…no." Aubrey isn't quite sure what to make of this one woman whirlwind.

The redhead finally looks up at her and Aubrey feels her cheeks redden. She's not used to being face to face with strangers. But the redhead just smiles. "Oh, you're new." She states. "I've never seen you in here before. I come in like three times a week. I know everybody."

Aubrey turns away from her to get the bagel. "I'm just the baker." She says with her back to the redhead.

"No way!" The other girl says this like Aubrey just informed her that she was the First Lady. "You are totes the best baker in the city. I swear I could eat your cupcakes every day."

Aubrey doesn't turn around as she continues to get the girl's order together. "Thank you." She mumbles. She's heard from Gail and the other employees that people praise her bread and pastries but she's never heard the compliments first hand.

"Are you going to make those snickerdoodle cookies again?" The redhead continues, going a mile a minute. "Those things were amazing. I used to get one every day on my way home from work. I was devastated when you stopped making them."

Aubrey realizes that she's actually expected to answer. "Oh…uh…I'm not sure. They're like a holiday thing."

The redhead does, in deed, look devastated. "Well…I guess I'll live. Your red velvet cupcakes are to die for so I guess that will have to do. Let me get one of those too." She looks toward the case of pastries. "No…yeah, just one. Oh and you have sugar for the coffee, right?"

Aubrey can't help but crack a little smile. "You have a sweet tooth, I guess." She starts ringing up the items.

"What gave it away?" The girl questions with a smile. "I'm Chloe, by the way. I can't believe that I've never seen you before."

Aubrey shrugs, keeping her head angled down to hide her scar from the girl and everyone else in the shop. It's just reflex now, something she does without thinking. "I stay in the back."

Chloe hands over her money and tucks the goodies into her bag. "You should come out more often." As Aubrey hands her back her change, Chloe glances at the time on her phone. "Oh shit! My boss is going to kill me. Thanks! See you tomorrow!"

And, just like that, she's gone. Aubrey stares toward the door almost like she's expecting Chloe to come waltzing back inside.

"She's sweet, isn't she?" Gail's voice makes Aubrey jump and she turns around to see her boss regarding her with a barely concealed smirk. "She comes in almost every day."

Aubrey shrugs and starts wiping down the counters, trying to keep herself busy so she doesn't have to look at Gail. She really hopes Jessica gets here soon.

"I think she's lonely." Gail continues.

Aubrey can't help but give her an incredulous look. "Why? She doesn't seem like the type of person who has trouble making friends."

Gail shrugs. "There's more than one type of lonely. You should know that."

Thankfully, the next person who walks through the door is Jessica and Aubrey doesn't have to respond to Gail's comment. Aubrey heads for her apartment and changes out of her flour covered clothes and falls into bed. She's used to sleeping while the rest of the world goes on without her, so the chirping birds and burning sun don't bother her in the least.

When Aubrey wakes up, it's late afternoon and she showers and changes into a fresh pair of pants and a Sunrise Bakery tee shirt. Another positive thing about not having a job where she has to interact with people is that she doesn't have to dress nicely or make sure her makeup and hair are perfect. She can just go in as herself. Her father would be thrilled.

Jesse, one of the other employees, is in the process of closing the bakery when Aubrey comes in for her shift. He smiles at her and goes back to cleaning the glass of the display cases. He knows by now not to bother to try and drag her into conversation.

In the kitchen, everything is silent and still, just waiting to be brought back to life. Aubrey smiles to herself; she puts her hair up in a ponytail and puts her iPod on. She knows everything that she needs by heart, but this time she adds a few more ingredients to her mental list. After all, no one ever said that snickerdoodles were exclusively a Christmas cookie.

The hours pass in a comforting rhythm and Aubrey is more than happy to lose herself in her tasks. She loves kneading the dough and letting it rise and she loves combing seemingly random things together to create something new and wonderful. One thing her father never understood about baking was that everything had to be neat, orderly and precise. Aubrey likes neat and orderly. She likes seeing results and taking pride in her work. She likes making something good for once.

Jessica is on time for her shift that morning, so Aubrey heads home and falls into her regular rituals. It's raining when she wakes up and she opens the windows to let in the sound of the storm and the smells of the rain. The skies are starting to clear a little when Aubrey leaves to head to work and Earth Two is just barely visible through the clouds. She looks away before she can spend too much time speculating about Earth Two and what lies beyond the atmosphere. Her job makes it easy to forget that Earth Two even exists and that's how she likes to keep it.

When Aubrey gets to the Sunshine Bakery, she finds another one of the employees, Benji, cleaning off the tables and putting the chairs back where they belong. "Hi, Aubrey." He smiles at her and even though he's worked there for almost a year, he still acts nervous around her. She tries not to take it personally because Benji is like that with everyone, even the non-surly and scarred. "Did…did you see the news report? They're talking about making contact with Earth Two."

Aubrey forces herself to make a sound of polite interest. It's not that she doesn't like Benji…she just doesn't like talking. "Hmm."

"Oh! Someone asked for you today." Benji tells her, looking relieved that he remembered to pass along the message.

This gets Aubrey's attention. She stops, halfway to the back, and turns toward Benji. "Really? Someone asked for me?" Benji nods. "But I don't know anyone."

"One of our regular customers." Benji tells her. "She has red hair. Clover or something. I'm so bad with names." He looks strangely apologetic about this. "She bought all the snickerdoodles we had left."

"Chloe." Aubrey says.

Benji nods eagerly. "Yeah, that's right. Are you guys friends?" Aubrey shakes her head. "Oh. Well, she seemed disappointed when I told her you weren't here."

Aubrey shrugs. "I don't know her." She walks into the back, effectively ending the conversation.

She makes snickerdoodles again that night.

tbc.