"Parallel Lives"

That oh-so-famous crackling sound of thunder woke David Clarke from his sleep. Even though it was still disappointing, it was not surprising. Every single time he ever rode in an airplane and they encountered a storm of any kind, it always woke him up, startling enough that he not only left the land of dreams, but could not return. He was awake for the next couple hours, no matter how many Ambiens he took.

He tried to adjust his chair, sitting uncomfortably between a large American woman who snored loudly and a larger Japanese man who would shudder and shake uncontrollably. With "friends" like these, David began to wonder how he fell asleep at all under these circumstances. His pillow had fallen to the ground during his nap and he picked it back up, putting it behind his head and trying to get as complacent he could under these circumstances. He reached into his bag and picked up a book.

"The Description of a New World, Called the Blazing World" was written in 1666 by the Duchess of Newcastle, Margaret Cavendish. Generally thought to be one of the first works of science fiction, it was the book of the month for the club David sparingly attended to with Diane. Though he hadn't been to one of the meetings in two months, he decided that for once he might actually read the book, though whether he would actually attend the meeting was another story completely.

He opened up the vintage hardback, when the plane started to shake rapidly, shifting back and forth, waking up the woman and man on David's sides. "Attention, this is the Captain speaking," the intercom blared, in a calm and collected tone of voice that was obviously fake, "We will be experience some… slight turbulence. Please fasten your seat-belts and stay in your seats."

David put the book down and clamped together the metal and cloth of his safety requirements, taking deep breaths as the ship continued to rock back and forth. After a few more agonizing seconds, everything returned to normal and he sunk back into his chair. This had been one of the wildest weeks of his life (capped off by having to fly home due to the assassinations of the Prime Minister and President a couple days earlier); he didn't need any more excitement.

Worried and frankly, fed up with everything, he took out his mobile phone and dialed a number from memory. It had been almost a week since he had spoken to Diane, his wife, confidential work and all that, and he missed her terribly. He hadn't even been able to inform her he was coming home so early.

"Hello?" he heard on the other side of the line.

After briefly smiling to himself, he replied back, "Hey. How's Jamie?"

"She's sleeping; has been for quite a while now. How was work?"

"You do this every time. You know I can't tell you."

"Yeah, I know. Just wanted to tease ya for old time's sake. You going to be home soon?"

"Yeah—" Just as he was about to give her details on the flight's landing and when he would be home exactly, she spoke again.

"Hey, on your way home, can you pick up some milk?"

David considered this a sort of odd request to a man on a flight, on his way back from Japan, miles above the planet Earth. "Um, sure," he replied.

"Thanks, but I really gotta go. Love you, bye!" And then she hung up.

He took the phone away from his phone and stared at it blankly for a few seconds, not sure what was wrong with the conversation, but knowing something definitely was. He shook his head and put the phone back in his pocket.

Two hours later, Oceanic Flight 313, an enormous Boeing 747, landed in London Heathrow Airport, around 3:00 P.M., London time. Another hour after that, David Clarke finally got to leave the airport and got into a nice, black Cadillac and drove three hours to the small town of Cambleton.

It was almost 7:00 P.M. when, driving towards his house, David remembered the cryptic question Diane asked him. "Hey, on your way home, can you pick up some milk?" He was unsure why in the hours that followed she couldn't get it, not to mention, felt it was important enough to casually mention after no speaking to him in over a week. But he dismissed any thoughts and turned left instead of right, going toward the nearest supermarket.

After picking up the largest carton of milk he could find, David walked out of the store, bag dangling from one hand, whistling a tune he learned in Japan. But as he approached his car, he stopped and stared at something halfway across the parking lot. On the very edge, three figures were laughing and having a fun time together.

The first was the one David recognized quickest. Female, short, 6-years- old, curly, brown hair, wide, blue eyes, a scar on her left knee that she got when she was 4 and a dress he bought her for Christmas. Jamie. His daughter.

The second was a lot taller. Female as well, 29-years-old, short, blond hair, black top and a short blue skirt, not to mention, absolutely gorgeous, legs like a supermodel and the rest… any man would be proud to have her as his wife. And David did.

The third figure, although obviously male, was obscured by Diane's face. He could tell from the way Diane's head shifted back and forth and how uncomfortable-for-David their bodies were that their mouths were touching each other, either gently or roughly massaging each others' tongues or lips. This man was kissing his wife.

A .44 Magnum gun known as "fury" was pointed against the temple of David's head and after the trigger was pulled, a bullet known as "anger" shot through the other side, splattering his brains all over the parking lot concrete. He was amazed that within the matter of a few seconds, he thought of over 2,900,876 different ways to kill this man. "Who is he?" was the first thought, obviously, though several more soon came. How long had this been going on? Was it just since he was gone? Or was it longer than that? And why the hell did she bring Jamie along with her; showing their daughter her indiscretions?

And then they pulled away and he saw the man. He was taller than her by at least five centimeters, large, muscular, showing it off in a tight, short-sleeved, blue shirt. He was dressed casually, that aft-mentioned shirt and a pair of jeans, though with the top tucked into the pants and fastened with a belt. He had a long, narrow nose and a large chin, but was extremely attractive for a man of 30, topped of with a frizzy but short mane of brown hair. The man was holding the hands of Diane and Jamie. David Clarke recognized him instantly. How could he not? It was himself.

This was… this was impossible. He was standing right here, watching his wife kiss this other man. But there wasn't another man. The muscular, handsome boy-toy she interlocked fingers with looked identical to David Clarke. He began to walk backwards in doubt. There was no explanation for this. Then, he thought about it for a second and considered three, feeling a bit embarrassed for believing there to be none. The first explanation—

His concentration on them was broken by a short man in a straw hat. Not thinking, David, well, the David in the parking lot, had bumped into the both of them. "Watch where you're going," the man told him. David didn't care enough to apologize. A doppelganger had taken his wife and kids and in one second sent his life swirling in directions he never imagined. What the hell was he doing that was so important?

The first thought that came into his mind was a shapeshifter. Some kind of alien or genetically created creature, vicious and swift and its true form having vampire like teeth or slimy tentacles or, in David's mind, both, who wanted to explore the human dilemma (and then obviously devour them hours later) and so impersonated some guy, which just so happened to be him. After a few seconds, he realized this was a bit absurd and went to possibility number two, a far more likely solution. He was a clone. His work or possibly somebody else took his DNA and used it to make an exact, genetic replica of David Clarke, who then unexpectedly broke out of the lab and escaped, with the obvious intention of devouring his wife and daughter hours later.

And then he snapped out of theorizing and looked up, realizing they were all gone. Kicking himself (metaphorically; it'd be quite difficult to actually move his foot towards his own body right now, nor would he want to, given the immediacy of the situation), David ran down the streets in the direction they were going. In haste, he completely forgot the little pieces of metal in his hand were called car keys and they took him to a vehicle called a "car." Later, after running on foot for an hour straight, he would regret this immensely.

It was night when David had finally tracked them down. Though he did not ever find them roaming the streets again, he did know that it was dark and therefore, Jamie needed her medication and thus, they would be surely be home by now. Cambleton was fairly small, mostly country, but they lived in one of the few houses in town. The street it was on had almost no houses, instead, setting up small businesses that usually closed in the late afternoon. No one would notice David stalking and spying on his own house.

He silently peered into the other side of the glass, window pane, looking into the living room. On the TV, a trio of animated, teenage girls in school uniforms did an elaborate dance set to an infectious, Japanese pop-song, while Jamie did her best to keep up with the rest of them. David chuckled quietly. "She was just learning how to do this two months ago and look how far she's gotten," he thought to himself. Within a minute or so, Diane came in and took her to bed.

After this, he watched the bedroom window. That David, or Nega-David as he started to think of him as, was taking off his shirt, showing off his impressive chest and smooth abs, though admittedly, it was nothing David himself didn't have. Except for one thing. This intrigued David the most. On his right peck, he had a large scar going down it diagonally, which David did not have. He wondered what it meant.

Diane similarly removed her clothing, leaving David slightly ashamed he was peeking on his wife being naked, then realizing that he was, leaving him even more ashamed he was in this situation in the first place. He couldn't take another minute of this. How could he approach this though? Barging in and attacking Nega-David was no solution. It would just frighten and intimidate Diane and Jamie, not to mention, the shock of two of him was enough for him to be amazed, and he had seen a lot, so how would they react? They wouldn't be able to take it. But he had to stop him somehow. He couldn't steal his life and take his loved ones and… no. He wouldn't let him.

Then Nega-David did something David never expected him too. Both naked, he held onto her, looking into her eyes and began to cry. His words are inaudible, but David knew what he was saying. He loved her. With all of his heart, body and soul. Every single molecule on his body, regardless of they belonged to some clone or monster, adored her and wanted to be with her the rest of his life. He wasn't faking. The look he was giving her told him everything he wanted to know about Nega-David. That same look was given to her by David on numerous occasions. She would be able to tell if he was a fake in any way, shape or form. She didn't. Diane put her head on his chest and cried as well. It really was him. The man in the bedroom was the "real" David.

The David outside the window literally sunk his body to the ground, leaning up against the wall. He thought of what this meant. It was obvious to David that choice number three was correct. This was the same person he was, only a time traveler. He knew time travelers existed, but he didn't expect time travel to occur this close in the future (Nega-David didn't look considerably older than the one outside the window). Did something happen in the future? He had heard of at least one very famous time traveler, who was known for picking up human companions. Maybe something happened to Diane and Jamie. Racked with grief, he chose the company of this traveler and got to visit his family again. But the possibility of Diane and Jamie possibly…

Just like Diane and the traveler, David began to cry, wondering how in the matter of hours his life could turn so completely upside down, craziness infiltrating his life, like a parasite leeching onto his back, slowly sucking out his blood until he became a pale, lifeless corpse, his last breath escaping and floating away with the wind. This was the last thing he thought before he fell asleep.

When he woke up, it was bright outside. David squinted his eyes as the great, yellow bully above mocked him and kicked sand in his face. He turned his head and noticed Diane's Aztec was gone; due to the absence of his Cadillac, he presumed Nega-David had drove it to work instead. He looked back inside the window, noticing the sleeping Diane and the clock flashing 7:00 A.M. He had time to run back to the market and get the Cadillac back, then hopefully, find out what the hell was going on.

He got home about an hour and ten minutes later. The first thing he did was check up on Jamie, not wanting to wake her, but tip-toeing into her room and kissing her on the forehead. After this, he got in the shower, turning the water as hot as it could get, focusing his mind to think only about the pain and sensation. He needed something else to concentrate on. Once dried, he went into his bedroom to get his work clothes. Unexpectedly, Diane woke up.

"You're home already?" she asked, groggily, eyes barely open.

"Just for a minute. Left something here." He considered telling her that everything that happened and breaking down into tears, but he knew he couldn't.

"Oh." And with that, she fell back to sleep. David smiled and walked up kissing her on the forehead, just like he did Jamie.

He drove around for quite some time, carefully planning out when he got to work. He arrived at exactly 10:05, right after Peter left his position as security guard and John (plain names, David thought; though who was he to talk?) took it up. When he pulled up to John's post, he asked him why he was coming in so late. "I had to go out and get some files about the project in Brighton," he said in his head a million times before and finally out loud to John. Taking his word on it, John gave him the nod of approval and opened the gate, allowing him to drive through.

Looking in the parking lot, he did indeed see the tan Aztec Diane bought two yeas ago. It was pouring down that day. Diane told him that her father used to say, "Never buy a car on a rainy day. Nothing but bad luck." But at the same time, she admitted to him it was ridiculous and she never heard anyone else say it. He wondered if this was the result. If somehow, Nega-David wasn't any of the other options, but created purely out of the will of a malevolent car. It willed Nega-David to exist, because she bought it.

No. That would be silly.

Twenty minutes later, he finally reached his office inside the building. Here was a bit surprised to find it empty. It had been cleared out completely. Not a single thing remained. Not his awards, not his work, not his pictures of Diane and Jamie. Was this due to those above him? Or was it Nega-David? He wasn't sure, but regardless, he felt a bit agitated at this. Even if Nega-David was himself as a time traveler, it was still the "current" David's stuff, he thought.

"David Clarke?" he heard a voice say behind him. David turned around to see two men in uniform looking coldly at him. "We have orders to take you with us."

Though by all means he should have obeyed, something, deep in his gut told him this was wrong, these men were not here to help and that if he went with them, he would be in great anger. It might have been the guns they were pointing. He didn't know.

Turning around as quickly as he could, David took them by surprise and knocked the guns out of both their hands ("That training wasn't for nothing," he thought to himself, as grammatically incorrect as it may be) and ran down the corridor, turning it as quickly as he could. He was already at the end of it when they shot at him, both missing. "Those boys never were very good shots," he chuckled to himself.

Escaping through an exit only a few employees knew about (he had pretty high clearance), David determined going for his car was too dangerous. They would have no doubt informed the guard and every single person on the premises by now. Instead, he ran and ran through the woods. He was always very good at obstacle courses and the ones here proved no different. Jumping over logs he only saw moments before he took the action, ducking his head to avoid hitting branches whilst losing none of his speed and momentum. It was extremely exhilarating and the danger of being caught only added to that feeling.

But when he finally got back to town, the rush of adrenaline left him and he was back to be scared and paranoid. He heard a few of them in the woods, but he was better than them on his home turf. When he was a child, he spent entire days doing nothing but exploring the forest behind his house, inspecting every single twist, turn and formation, until he knew the entire forest so well he could walk through it blindfolded. But this was a land of metal and concrete, not plants. They had the advantage here and he couldn't worry about stopping them, he just had to protect Diane and Jamie.

He saw an old woman start to get into her small, broken down, blue car. He whipped out his gun and pointed it at her. She screamed, despite his outfit, because let's face it; it doesn't matter who's pointing it, if a gun is pointed at someone, they're going to be terrified. "Sorry, ma'am," he told her, "For the sake of the world, we need this car." He didn't know what he talking about, but she believed it. He felt bad for having to do that, but ultimately, not that bad.

Why were they doing this? The thought ran through his head over and over and over again. Had Nega-David done something? Despite the love he had for his wife, he must have done something that his superiors disliked. He hated him for it. He started to doubt that this David was in fact a future version of himself. Now, he "figured out" they must obviously think he's Nega-David and Nega-David is he. But why would they care so much? And what did this have to do with his office being cleared out? None of it seemed to make very much sense.

Then, he figured it out. This time, he was absolutely certain. There was a fourth possibility; one he never thought of. Parallel universe. That would explain how he still loved and cared for Diane, yet was still responsible for any acts he committed, or heck, just wanted by his bosses because he was from a parallel universe. They were real, of course. There was a recorded incidence of one years ago, back during the Inferno project. And just recently, the damned Cybermen that entered his and everyone else's homes were from a parallel universe as well. Is it not possible, that when they invaded, a rogue human from their world followed? Of course. It makes so much sense.

David was feeling quite triumphant in this realization, before he came to another one. He was already home. Diane and Jamie opened the front door and walked outside. "Hi, Daddy!" he heard being yelled. David got out of the old woman's vehicle and walked towards them, realizing they were leaving anyway, so they might not be in danger.

"What happened to the Aztec?" she asked.

"Broke down. Had to go get it fixed. Friend let me borrow this."

"Oh," she said, a bit confused.

"Where are you guys going?"

"The store. Somebody forgot to buy milk."

David let out a single breath and said, staring off into space, "Yeah." He snapped out of it and looked back at her. "Sorry."

"It's okay." He took her and kissed her, savoring every single moment and feeling, making a few seconds seem like an eternity wrapped inside a few infinities until the end of all of them. He reached down and gave Jamie a huge hug, telling them both he loved them.

"Love you too!" Jamie said, with a toothy grin.

"Love you," Diane told him, a smaller grin, but with all of the same adoration

He felt like crying, but knew he couldn't. They had to leave. They went into the garage and got into a small, green Lexus. "Sometimes," he thought, "It's really, really good having three cars." They drove away and eyes welling up with tears, he walked inside.

It wasn't five minutes before he heard the door open. He assumed it was them, coming to take him away or shoot him or something. David was so tired and broken by that point, he hardly cared. But it wasn't them. It was one man. A man with large muscles and brown hair, holding a box full of mementos. Nega-David.

"Oh, crap." They were the first words he heard Nega-David say.

David charged at him, grabbing him by the collar and slamming him, hard, against the wall.

"Who the hell are you?!" he shouted, his voice an erupting volcano, complete with the ash and lava spiting out onto Nega-David's face.

"I'm you. I'm your shadow."

"What the hell kind of answer is that?!"

"It's kind of… hard to explain. Please, calm down. Sit down. I'll explain everything. God, I… I had no idea you'd be back so soon."

David took a beat, then let go of Nega-David's collar, turning around and sitting down on the coach. Nega-David followed and sat down in a chair in front of it.

"So…" Nega-David stated, "I'm sure you have a lot of questions."

"You can say that again."

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions"

David didn't laugh. Nega-David cleared his throat. "So what do you think I am?"

"Me in a parallel universe."

Nega-David said nothing.

"Or… me from the future. Or… an alien clone… that shape-shifts."

Still no response.

"Well?"

"The first two."

"You're a parallel me and a future me?"

"Yes. Well, no. Well… okay. Time is not a one way street. Time is more like crazy country roads, constant forks in the road, turning every which way. A million possibilities."

David never paid close attention to the time travel stuff at his job, so he felt compelled to ask, "What are you talking about?"

"Sometimes, people are powerful enough and have the resources enough to change our path though. Make us go this way instead of that way. I'm you from a history that wasn't supposed to exist, but did and so I'm here."

David didn't know what to say.

"One week ago, the President of the United States was assassinated, as was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, moments later. But that's not how it originally was. Originally, the Prime Minister ruled over Earth for an entire year. A year that never was. He was a fierce, brutal dictator, slaughtering whole countries. A group of us stopped him and turned the clock back, to one week ago and stopped him from taking over. That's where the problem arose."

"What do you mean?"

"In order to stop him, the ship, the Valiant, had to be neutral. As in, it had to have still gone through that year. For everyone else, this wasn't a problem. Everyone else had been on it when the President was assassinated, but I wasn't. I was in Japan. You were in Japan. Months later, before Japan was destroyed—Christ, destroyed… I was chosen to be a part of the staff on board. But when time was reverted back to normal, everyone on the Valiant remained unaffected. Including me. Despite the fact that…"

"I was still in Japan," David finished.

"Yes."

David put his face in his hands and sighed loudly. "Are you… the same? I mean, can I feel?"

"No," Nega-David said sternly. "I have strict orders from the Captain. Touching each other would be a very, very bad thing."

"The Captain?"

"Yeah, he was the one who helped me. When he told us the time mechanics of the situation, look at me, talking about 'time mechanics,' I told him my dilemma. He told me the yahoos in charge would no doubt want us, but as long as they didn't know I was part of the Valiant, everything would be fine. But he also gave me strict orders not to interfere with my normal life. But I couldn't do that, could I? Could you? I knew you were in Japan so I came back for just a few days. See the old gang, spend time with Diane and Jamie, then leave forever. I cleared out my stuff at work today."

"My stuff."

"Yeah, sorry about that. Anyway, I didn't think you were coming back so soon. I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't be here, I shouldn't even exist…"

He started to cry. David leaned forward to put his hand on his shoulder, but then remembered they weren't allowed to touch each other.

"Just…" Nega-David started, trying to stop the tears, "Just tell me one thing."

"What?"

"I saw the Cadillac. They did not, I repeat, not figure out there were two of us, did they?" David said nothing. Nega-David's face fell. "Did they?"

Almost as if on cue (and perhaps it was), the door was busted down, the windows shattered, as legions of men infiltrated the house, wearing the same UNIT uniforms the Davids wore, but complete with gas-masks. They took out canisters and let them loose, the gas engulfing the room and causing both David and Nega-David to cough and eventually collapse.

In a damp, muddy corridor, miles away from civilization, two identical figures sat in a cell, while on the other side, two shadowy figures in military uniforms and red hats stared at them through two-way glass, being able to see them, but not vice versa.

"How could this happen?"

"We don't know. A census was taken as soon as UNIT found arrived back on the Valiant. No pun intended, he shouldn't exist."

"I'll put in a call with Dr. Jones and maybe even the Captain, see what they know."

"Sir, what are we going to do with them?"

"Don't know. We can't keep them forever. We don't arrest people. Just… investigate them."

"What about his wife and daughter; do we let them know?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

"Sir… may I ask you a question?"

"You may."

"Which… is the correct one?"

"Ah. Now, there's an interesting conundrum, isn't there? Is the Corporal David Clarke, who was in Japan the correct one because he's from our timeline, the 'correct' timeline as it is now? Or is it the Corporal David Clarke from their timeline, that non-existent reality the correct one because he was 'there first' and our David was simply an accidental re-write? Doesn't really matter. Both are David Clarke. They feel what he feels, thinks what he thinks. Just a question of if time ever decides to sort herself out."

"Which one will she write out?"

"Exactly. You're catching on."

"I do my best, sir."

"All this time stuff confuses me. Always has. The… other aspects of our jobs I can handle easily. Despite what people think, the belief that on other worlds, life exists is easy. We see life all around us. New animals, planets and human beings are constantly coming into this world, with a variety like no other we've seen. It's not that much of a stretch to assume somewhere, out of the billions of planets, one more kind was developed. It's time… that's where I think we'll always be behind. It's grabbing the laws of physics by the balls and forcing reality to do your will. That's something… way beyond us, human beings."

"But didn't we used to have someone at UNIT who handled that stuff? What about him?

"He's… an exception. Never mind. Get them something to eat. Something expensive. Put a guard down here at all times. We'll have a meeting about this tomorrow. Agree on where we can put them."

"Sir…?"

"Yes?"

"Is it dangerous; them being here? Isn't it a…" He struggled for the word. "…Paradox?"

His superior smiled. "It is indeed. But then again, out of all the millions of species of different animals and bugs and creatures, human beings being the only one of them to develop not only intelligent thought, but language, art, machinery, entire civilizations for thousands of years… is a paradox." A beat. "Don't question it."

And with that, two branches on the UNIT hierarchy turned around and left the two Davids alone in their cell, while outside, thunder began to crack, warning everyone, everywhere a storm was coming. After it, neither David could sleep.

The End

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