DISCLAIMER: No, I don't own LOST or Daniel Faraday. Or Sayid. Or Frank Lapidus. Or Miles Straum. Or Kate. Or Jack. But I do own Jeremy Brown and Celia Daweson. Both are mine :D

Hi there FanFiction people! So this is my second Faraday-fic. I'm sorry I find him slightly gorgeous! Anyways, this story is sort of a play off of "The Constant" and what went on in Daniel Faraday's past. No, I truly don't believe the writers of the show went this direction (or thought of this at all... that would be purely coincidental!) so don't think that this could seriously happen. If you like this, go check out my other Faraday-fic "Alone". And Enjoy... OH! and R&R please and thanks :D.

Chapter 1: In which Daniel Faraday hires and assistant.

He led me into an empty room the size of a small library and I smiled. This would be perfect! Where else could all my trinkets and observations and experiments go? Surely they wouldn't fit in my apartment.

"So, Mr. Faraday, this is your office here, and you're class is the 9:00 am slot in the main lecture hall," Jeremy Brown added as I walked around the room, feeling each surface, watching every corner. Mr. Brown was the official in charge of the science department at Queen's College, Oxford University. Not only was he in the board of directors at the college, but he also got me the teaching position I received. I was only 26, and this was a dream come true. "Do you need anything else?"

I stood for a second, then looked at him. "Well, I'd like to maybe hire an assistant..."

"We can't provide the assistant themselves, but the science department will gladly fund one for you."

"That'll do."

Jeremy smiled and clapped his hands. "Let me just say that it is a delight to finally get a young physicist so interested in doing his job! I'll leave you to your work, and if you need anything, just drop by my office."

But I didn't hear that... I was miles away. Simply miles and miles and miles...

"Will you shut up Miles?" Frank yelled, "you're not making this easier!"

I looked around and saw the trees, the survivors... god this place was crazy. I was already feeling a bit queasy from all the yelling around me, and it was bad enough to have no idea what was going on.

"He can come along if he wants," Sayid replied, taking his gun out and pushing the scrawny Miles in front of him. "It'd be nice to have some company."

Kate ran over. "I'm coming too."

"No you're not..." Sayid plainly put it.

I tuned out for a few minutes, making sure my experiments hadn't gone haywire. True, I was paying attention to my whereabouts, but it was weird seeing my old teaching days up in the blue. I mean, it had been a while ago, and I haven't thought about it since. Come to think about it, I couldn't remember anything after that. Maybe a little bit into the future... I wasn't sure.

When I looked around, there was only me, Frank, and Jack standing there, and I knew it was time to keep myself busy. But I wasn't planning on blanking out.

"So what's your name?" I asked her as she sat at my desk.

"Harriet."

Her English accent made me smile. "Great... uhh. So. Why are you interested in this position?"

"I'm a physics major, and I want to get my hands wet in the learning process."

"Have you ever done experiments, by yourself?"

She looked away. "Not exactly. I'm not the 'experiment-type' so to speak."

"So, you just wanted to watch?"

"Sure, you can say that."

I sat confused for a second. My eyes studied her face, but it was nearly blank. The more I sat there, the more I noticed her striking resemblence to a ditz. Her blonde hair, her voice (even with the accent), the outfit. It was all so, well, un-sciency.

"I'm really trying to find someone to be sort of a - guinea pig... but if you're interested, you can take my course."

She sighed loudly, got up, and left.

I was in a rut. She was the sixth person to come in and ask for the position, and sadly she seemed the most promising. A young man came in earlier only to make fun of my long pauses, and another girl came in who plainly said she wanted to lick chocolate off my chest (whatever that even meant). I was losing hope.

Then she walked in. Her book bag hung loosely by her waist, and she was carrying a few notebooks in her hands. Upon further inspection, loose papers jutted out of each notebook, dogeared and slightly torn on some sides. She looked aimlessly around, finding me above my piles of papers and books, and took a deep breath. It appeared as though she had run to find this office, but I didn't question it. After she locked her eyes on mine, she smiled and said, "Hi there!"

I didn't know how to respond, and only stammered a quick "hi" as she walked over to me and attempted to shake my hand, only to drop her books and loose papers on the floor.

"Shit..." she muttered, trying to pick them up. I walked around my desk and knelt next to her, helping her pick up the books and things. She stood up, glowing a bit red, and smiled. "Sorry about that..."

"It's... no problem," I replied carefully, motioning to the chair in front of my desk. She set her books and things down on my desk, took off her bag and set it next to the chair, and sat down. I took a seat in my chair and silently smiled at her. She was a pretty girl: wavy black hair, green eyes underneath her glasses that stood lightly on her nose, short and lean... I didn't really know exactly what to say. "So... uh... my name is Mr. Faraday... what's yours?"

"Oh! Sorry! My name is Celia Daweson... nice to meet you, Mr. Faraday." She stood up lightly, nearly knocking over a stack of papers as she shook my hand.

"Pleasure's mine," I replied. "Celia... uhh..." My mind went blank. "Are you here... for the assistant position?"

She nodded. "I heard someone talk about it yesterday outside of the lecture hall, and I decided to check it out."

I leaned in closer. "If you don't mind me asking, uhh... how old are you?"

"Twenty-four."

"Interesting..." I sat back in my chair again. "So, uh, what experience do you have in the field of Physics?"

She smiled and said, "Well, I'm majoring in it right now, if that's what you're asking." I grinned back. "It's true, but I'm also interested in the out-of-the-ordinary kind of things."

"So what pulled you in here?" I asked politely.

"Just by looking at you, I can assume that your experiments are quite out-of-the-ordinary. I mean, take your last name for example..."

Where was she going with this, I wondered.

"Michael Faraday was a physicist back in the 1700s," she replied, "and he worked in the field of electromagnetism. His main fields of study were in places that people don't even think exist! I wrote an entire essay on him and his work, and he became my idol then too. Like, how can you be so sure about all these imaginary things without actually trying them. To be honest, I suspect he did see them... he did experiments that proved them true but couldn't explain them to anybody. Anyways, when I heard the other students talking about this position, I couldn't help but to think 'Wow, wouldn't it be amazing to look into the life of Michael Faraday... nearly 200 years after his research... and see what he saw?'"

She was the perfect girl for the job. I got up from my chair and nearly tripped over the side of my desk as I rushed over to the chalkboard. Not only had she proven worthy to be my assistant, but her talk about Michael Faraday, my ancestor, gave me an idea. One I couldn't shake off if I tried.

I chalked calculations, random words, letters, numbers... anything I could think of and slowly things started to make sense. It didn't even phase me that Celia was still sitting at my desk near the window. When I had finally reached a stump, I felt embarrassed and ashamed.

That's when I kind of fell in love with her for a second. She walked over to me and smiled wide. "You made a mistake," she plainly said.

"What? Where?"

Taking the chalk from my hand, she erased part of my equation, the part I was iffy on in the first place, and replaced it with something so simple that sort of made sense. "In order for the equation to work, you have to start with basic mathematics and polynomials to get a certain degree that electromagnetism can be conducted at."

I was shocked. "When can you start?" I mumbled incoherently.

"Sorry, what?"

"When can you start?" I said, turning to see her bright face shining behind me. I was smiling big.