AN: H.G.'s eighteen and Myka's sixteen. Oh, and H.G. is a boy in this one. Some mentions of season 2 and 3. Time machine ideas were taken from Michio Kaku's Parallel Worlds.
The first time Myka met H.G. Wells was when she was sixteen. She was the gawky tall girl no one knew how to talk to. She was taller than most of the boys. And somehow that made her a threat which she never did understand. She was also very smart and she didn't try to hide it – she didn't boast either – which made her much more of a threat because apparently it's not a trait to be proud of.
She always thought maybe if she was as pretty as Tracy, people would overlook those other things and she'd have friends who don't only come to her when they needed help for their homework. She's smart enough to know that's a silly thought because instead of her brain, they'd befriend her for her looks which should be ten times worse.
But she's sixteen. Her intelligence didn't stop the hormonal mess every teenager in the world experiences. She wanted to tell or maybe squeal about the crushes she has to someone. She wanted a cute boyfriend who leaves cute love notes in her locker. She wanted sweet kisses between classes. And she's a little curious about sex.
It's ironic how the tallest girl in school can be so… invisible. Maybe some of it was her fault. She didn't understand them. They talked about things that seemed so mundane to her. It's so hard to appear interested when they speak. And for a while she did pretend to like the things they liked. But in the end, she decided she'd rather spend time with her books than her peers.
That's why she spent her lunch time and free periods in the library. It's the only place in the school where people are required to be quiet and it's almost empty most of the time. Occasionally, there'd be a few students frantically finishing their homework but she never saw anyone who would go from shelf to shelf with a look of wonderment and awe.
She had no idea he was the H.G. Wells because if she knew she would have fainted right there and then. She stared at him until he said, 'You're staring.'
'I'm sorry,' she said, diverting her eyes.
'It's not a problem,' he spoke with a British accent. Maybe he was an exchange student because there's no way someone in Lincoln is that interested in books. 'Why wouldn't you want to stare at this –' he looked at his arms, rubbed around his chest area and then grabbed his crotch. '– I'm a boy!' he exclaimed which prompted the librarian to shush them. 'A scrawny boy. Do me a favour. Please tell me that I'm at least good looking.'
He wasn't handsome but he wasn't ugly either. Maybe she should lie but what if he thinks she likes him. She could like him if she knew him better. But she also knew how it felt to be told that she's not pretty (which is usually followed with 'like Tracy'). She didn't know if boys felt differently about it. Finally, she settled with, 'You're okay looking?'
'What does that even mean?' he asked. 'It's alright. I'll just find a mirror.'
He rushed out without waiting her response only to be back a few seconds later. 'Could you direct me to the nearest mirror?'
He must be an exchange student. Shouldn't he have someone to guide him around? 'Just exit the library, turn right and there's a toilet at the end of the hallway.'
He was a little weird but he liked books so he can't be that bad.
…
Miss Penelope decided to show them slides on the Second World War during history class. She was a little late so by the time she came into the class, it was already dark. She took a seat in the third row. When Miss Penelope was finished with the slides and switched on the lights, she saw that the boy in the library was sitting right next to her. He looked disturbed.
Even when the bell rang and everyone stood up to get to their next class, he still sat there frozen as if his whole world just came crashing down on him.
'Are you okay?' she asked.
He didn't respond. She wanted to call his name but she realised she didn't know what it was. She tapped his shoulder. It startled him so much that he almost fell from his chair.
'Are you okay?' she asked him again.
'I'm fine,' then he mumbled something about a bleak future and no hope for humanity.
She collected her books and put them in her backpack. She realised that he didn't have any books or a bag with him. He didn't even bring a pen. 'What's your next class?'
'I, uh, don't have one,' he said.
'Didn't they give you a timetable?'
'No. I just went into rooms that seemed interesting.'
At that point, she should have known that something weird was going on. But there was something about this boy that fascinated her. She couldn't stay away. She reasoned that maybe exchange students get to sample classes before deciding which classes they want to take.
'And so far?' she asked.
'Nothing I didn't already know. But there are certain apparatus that the teachers used which interest me,' he said. He was smiling now. That awe she saw before returned in his eyes. 'I'd love to take them apart to see how they work but apparently that is vandalising school property even though I promised to put it together the way I found it.'
'Why don't you come with me to the biology lab?' she offered. 'We're dissecting a frog today.'
She didn't know much about boys but she knew they've all been excited about it for weeks. Maybe he would be too.
'Oh, no,' he said. 'I am all for dismantling inanimate objects to see what they're made of but a live creature? Never.'
'So where do you want to go?'
'Out of this building. I just need to find the exit.' He looked at her expectantly.
'No,' she told him. 'No. No! No! I will not help you cut class.'
'Does it help if I tell you that I'm not a student here? That I'm a time traveller who wants to explore as much of this future as possible before her, his time is up.'
She knew it was too good to be true. She met someone interesting, someone she didn't feel like killing herself when talking to. It turned out, he's crazy.
'I'd say let's go someplace where there are more people.' The bell had already rung. The hallway was empty. She inched herself away from him as discreetly as possible so it wouldn't alarm him. She knew martial arts and she could probably take him but she has never been in a situation where she'd have to use it. She wasn't sure if she's as good as she thinks she is. If there are other people around, at least she'd have backup.
'I should have figured that even after more than a hundred years, the concept of time travel is still deemed impossible,' he said not hiding his disappointment.
She took a large step back not so discreetly anymore. He had already noticed her alarm. There was no need to hide it anymore.
He didn't step closer which is a relief. For the life of her, she can't remember the stance she should take when an attacker approaches. He just smiled. 'Well, it was a pleasure Miss…'
Like she was going to tell a lunatic her name.
'Still a pleasure,' he said before turning around.
But the school entrance was in the opposite direction. There were two options. Unleash a maybe crazy person into the Lincoln High School population or unleash him into the Colorado Springs population. She was tempted to do the former but the latter seemed like a much safer option. On the off chance that he was a violent lunatic, there would be fewer casualties if they were outside. People were spread out more and there would be more space to run.
She's probably going to regret this but, 'Hey!' she called out. 'Where are you going?'
'As much as I want to explore how much the human mind has evolved, I don't think this is the place to do it,' he said. 'They seemed awfully obsessed with football which is so different from the football I know. Although, they haven't really established clear rules for the sport in my time. So it is understandable that it has changed this much.'
'It's American –,' she tried to explain.
'And they are also very fascinated by this group of friends. What they do each week. In fact, the group is so well known that people just call them 'friends' and everyone knew. They must have a really good friendship.'
'You mean Friends as in –'
'Oh, you know too. I hope I get to meet them. And balls. I travelled one hundred and fifteen years in the future and they are still important. I think you call it, prom?'
'Okay, stop,' she said before he can continue on with his ramble. 'I meant, the entrance is that way,' she pointed towards the opposite direction they were walking towards for the last five minutes.
'Why didn't you say so?' he asked.
She rolled her eyes. She saw that he was struggling to hide a smirk. Then she walked right by her towards the direction she just pointed.
After a few steps, he stopped and said, 'Well, aren't you coming?'
'I can't.'
'Come on,' he turned around to face her. 'You're a smart girl. I can tell that you already know what they're teaching in those rooms. Besides, I expect that I have to make a few turns before I reach the entrance. I might take a wrong turn and if I am as crazy as you think I am, it should be better for me to be out there than in here, don't you think?'
She could just give him the directions and alert the principal immediately. But he liked books and called her smart (like a compliment and not an insult). He can't be that bad except he might have just read her mind which would be super romantic if it wasn't about how he might be insane. But he's a scrawny boy who was shorter than her, she could probably take him.
…
He called himself H.G. like the writer except it's not Herbert George, it was Herbert Gustave. It made her laugh and relaxed her a little.
'H.G. it is then,' she said. 'Your parents must really love reading.'
'You mean Gustave Flaubert? Yes, they are very big fans of him.'
It should clue her in about his real identity when he didn't mention H.G. Wells. But she figured it was because he read The Time Machine too many times that he probably thought it wasn't fiction and H.G. Wells didn't exist to him because that might shatter his delusions.
She had to explain many things to him.
One of the things she had to explain was the difference between CDs and records. How CDs store information in digital form and records store them in analog form. He understood the concept of digital system but didn't quite believe it when she told him that it has the potential to store enormous amount of information. More than analog. And that's why most advancement in technology nowadays involved the digital system.
'Digital has a lot of advantages compared to analog,' she said. 'But that doesn't mean it's better. People say music sounds better with records than CDs but I could never tell the difference. Since you're from the past,' she smiled teasingly. 'Maybe you can.'
He agreed with that assessment. They ended up listening to music on her bulky Discman in the park. It was a compilation of 1998 hit songs. They were mostly pop songs. He called it dreadful, juvenile and made him want to tap his foot repeatedly during the whole duration of the songs.
'That's what good music does. It makes you want to dance,' she said.
They were lying on their backs staring at the sky. He told her he liked looking at the sky. It reminded him of the vastness of the universe. That patch of sky they were staring at accounted for a very small percentage of the universe but it looked big to them. Endless even. They were just so small and insignificant. But it also meant they will never run out of places to explore.
'Of course, but it should make you sway instead of inducing a nervous tic.'
'You sound like my mom and dad,' she faked a gasp. 'Maybe you are from the past.'
'Oh, now you believe me,' he chuckled. 'When you think my taste in music is ancient.'
'Gettin Jiggy Wit It' started playing. He sighed, possibly mourning the English language.
She propped herself up on one elbow, facing him. 'Let's say I believe you. How did you do it?'
'It was more accidental than intentional,' he said, smiling sheepishly while still staring at the sky.
'That's convenient,' she muttered.
'Hey,' he rolled to his side, facing her. 'Accidents are important in science.'
'Yes, but it doesn't make it easier for me to believe you. You don't seem crazy to me but you also believe that you're a time traveller.'
He chuckled.
'What?' she asked, annoyed because she's really trying to understand him and he laughed at her.
'It's fine if you don't believe me,' he said. 'We have only known each other for five hours. It takes more than that to trust a person.'
'But I let you talk me into cutting class. Then I followed you around town like an idiot. What if you are a danger to me? And my body ends up tossed in some dumpster behind an alley.' She was sitting up now. 'People would be reading about my murder on the news and they'd all think, what a foolish little girl, following a stranger who claims to be a time traveller. She definitely deserved it.'
He sat up too sometime during her ramble. He took her hands and looked directly into her eyes. 'Nothing about you is foolish or idiotic. You are the smartest girl I know.' He had a playful smile before saying, 'Well, maybe second.'
She would have rolled her eyes if she wasn't still concerned about letting a strange boy touch her. She shifted her gaze downward to avoid his eyes and pulled her hands away from him. She didn't know what else to ask him, if she wanted to ask him anything.
'We live in a four dimensional world,' he said. She looked up from the ground. 'Every real body must have length, breadth, thickness and duration.'
Great, he was quoting The Time Machine. 'And you think that we can travel through time because once upon a time human can't even dream of travelling upwards and now that we have the vehicle for it, it's possible. So in conclusion, if we had a vehicle to travel through time, it is also possible.'
'How did you know?'
She sighed, yanking the ear bud in his ear. 'Did Betsy Haynes pay you? I knew she wanted the perfect attendance award but I didn't know that she'd go this far to get it. You can tell her, congratulations. She got it and when the principal hand it to her, she can just shove it up her –' she hesitated but then realised she didn't care to be polite or proper at the moment. ' – ass.'
She reached for her Discman but his hand stopped her. 'I don't know who this Betsy Haynes is. And I doubt she would devise such an elaborate plan for some perfect attendance award. I was just telling you my process. What I did before I came to this time. I don't understand how it happened and I know that there must have been some advancement in science to at least warrant the possibility of time travel even if it is still not practical. So maybe you could understand it.'
'I'm a high school student,' she said. 'Not a physicist.'
He had that playful smile again. 'I take back what I said. You are the smartest girl I know.'
'You keep saying that,' his hand was still on hers. 'Why?'
'Because you are.'
She pulled her hand away again. 'I mean,' she hugged herself. 'It's not something people usually appreciate about me. But the way you say it, it's like it's the most wonderful thing about me.'
He smiled but this time, it wasn't playful or teasing. It was… earnest. He took one of the ear buds lying on the ground. 'Your intellect is most definitely impressive and I find it unbelievable that people can't appreciate it but no, Myka, it's not the most wonderful thing about you.' He went back to lying on the ground and said, 'Shall we listen to more of your absurd music? There is a puzzle we need to solve and weirdly, I find that they stimulate my thinking process.'
…
She had done some research on time travel before. They relied a lot on Eintein's Theory of Relativity. The mathematics of it all was hard to understand because it needed certain skills that she wasn't equipped with but she understood its implications.
From what she read, for someone to travel through time, they need a black hole or an infinite rotating cylinder or a rotating universe. The ability to travel near the speed of light is also essential for these methods to work. All of which were not available in the nearest supermarket.
According to him, he was from the year 1884. When she asked him if he knew Einstein, he just gave her a blank look. So far he has been consistent with what he should and should not know. Einstein only proposed his relativity theory in 1905 and discussions on its implications span a century.
But just because he has been consistent with his knowledge didn't mean he was a time traveller. All those methods she thought of were currently theoretical. He didn't even know who Einstein is let alone know how to put Einstein's theory in practice.
He thought it would help her believe him but it only gave her reasons not to believe him. But it didn't stop her from trying. Behind the wonder and excitement he showed at just about everything, she saw a glint of fear. And that was reason enough for her to believe him but her need to be rational kept her from admitting it.
'Thorne!' she exclaimed suddenly but then she shook her head. 'No.'
'Just tell me about it,' he said.
'Okay, there's this thing called negative energy that you can create by putting two metal plates very close to each other. What Thorne suggested was to have those two metal plates be made into a hollow sphere. Take two of those spheres and string them together with a wormhole which I explained to you just now. Then take one sphere and put it into a rocket that can travel near the speed of light. So time slows down in the rocket and the spheres are no longer synchronised in time. If someone were to jump into the sphere that's on Earth, they would get to the rocket which is now in the past. But,' she stressed on the word, 'the negative energy created is only enough to hold the wormhole that is smaller than an atom.'
'And this wormhole, does it occur naturally?'
'According to Thorne, yes but – '
'So what if there is a wormhole in your time and one in mine?' he asked. 'And I just happen to be at the right place at the right time.'
She didn't realise how close they were until just then when she felt his warm breath tickling her neck as he spoke.
'But,' she was trying to concentrate really hard on Thorne's idea. 'You'd have to be travelling near the speed of light.'
'What if I had a device to do that?'
She felt herself blush. She knew he was facing her and she was trying really hard not to look at him. She has never been this flustered before and she didn't know how she would react. And like it wasn't bad enough, 'I Don't Want To Miss A Thing' started playing. Damn Aerosmith.
'There's also the problem with the negative energy. Even with Thone's method, there's no way a teenage boy could fit into the wormhole.'
'Who says I'm a teenage boy?'
That irritated her. What insane thing was he going to tell her now? For a moment, she forgot about her flustered self. She looked at him.
He was gazing at her intently. The ends of his mouth curved up slightly when she looked at him.
'Shame,' he said. 'That would have romantic, don't you think? It's as if we are bound by fate.'
She studied several martial arts ever since she was a kid. And she faced opponents who were bigger than her and had scary looking faces. But she considered this to be the bravest thing she had ever done.
It was also the most exhilarating one. She had heard some girls complaining about their first kiss. How it was sloppy and wet and never what they pictured it to be. But this was… it was simple. She panicked a little when her lips touched his because she had no idea what to do. But then he kissed her back gently like he understood. Their lips linger there for a moment as if each was trying to remember what the other felt like before parting.
She didn't have a mirror but she knew she had a silly smile plastered on her face. He was smiling too but his was more of a satisfied smile like he has been planning this all along.
'I wish there was a book about you,' he said.
'Why?' she asked.
'Because you would have read it and could explain to me how after all the exciting things I saw today,' he took her hand and placed it over his heart. 'Not one has even come close to making my heart beat this way.'
…
It had been a week since they kissed. And within that duration of time, he had given her everything she had dreamt of.
The cute notes in her locker. Except they weren't just cute. Some made her giggle. Some made her stomach flutter in a way she's never experienced before. And some made her blush so red that it made her a little dizzy. She even went to the nurse later that day to check if enough blood was flowing to her brain.
The sweet kisses between classes. Except on the third day, it became more heated than sweet. They became that annoying couple who made out in front of other people's locker between classes which also made her a frequent latecomer to her classes. She would scold him for it but he never once told her that it was her fault too.
She didn't even care that she didn't have anyone to tell about him.
And sex, well, let's not get ahead of ourselves now. But she now knew how it felt to want to rip a person's clothes off just at the sight of them.
She had never felt this happy before. It's terrifying. At sixteen, she didn't think she had anything to lose. Well, according to her father, she needed to be gaining more. But now she did. And the nagging feeling that it had an expiry date wasn't helping either.
Sometimes, to ease this fear, she'd ask him, 'You'd never leave me, right?' and he'd tell her, 'If I had a choice, no.'
If he had a choice, like some mysterious power was going to snatch him away at any time. It frustrated her. And she wanted to scream at him. Force him to be in the present. Not the 1800s. But the boy she fell in love with was the one who wholeheartedly believed that he belong in the past. If that went away, would he still be the same boy?
'I thought I'd find you here,' a gentle voice interrupted her from her thoughts.
'Hey,' she said softly. They were in the library. 'How long have you been standing there?'
'What do you mean?' he asked, faking a confused look.
She just looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
'I don't wanna close my eyes,' he sang. 'I don't wanna fall asleep –'
'Stop,' she told him.
He continued singing, ' – I'd miss you babe and I don't wanna miss a –'
'Please stop,' she said, stifling her laughter. 'I don't want you to die from saying too much wannas.'
'Good point.' He took the seat across her. 'So, what are you reading? Or not reading? Or you can skip the summary of that book and tell me what you were thinking so hard about.'
'Nothing,' she played with his fingers. 'Everything. I'm feeling nostalgic I guess.'
'You know, Myka, people usually feel nostalgic when they no longer have the thing or the person they're feeling nostalgic about.'
She slotted her fingers between his. It made her palms tingle. It had only been a week but something in her told her to say it. She didn't care if it would scare him. She just knew that she felt it and she had, no, she needed to say it.
'I love you.'
She loosened her grip on his hands but he still held hers tightly. She focused on how their hands tangled. So she didn't realise that he was leaning closer and closer towards her, until she heard his chair fall. By then, his lips were touching hers.
Her heart wasn't only beating at an abnormal pace, it was beating loudly. She can hear it like someone was banging a drum very close to her ears. Which was distracting but then he did that thing he always does with his tongue, and she felt the sound of her heartbeats starting to fade.
'I love you too,' he whispered after the librarian who interrupted them left.
…
She woke up the next morning feeling like she's made of feathers. Her steps felt so light. She wanted to skip all the way to school. But when she got there, he wasn't waiting for her. That added some weight to her heart. She waited for him until the first bell rang. He still didn't turn up. She felt heavier.
But she chased away her fears by telling herself that he overslept or was purposely late. He would do something like that. She'll see when lunch comes around. He'll show up with that charming smile that simultaneously annoys her and melts her into a puddle.
But lunchtime came and he wasn't anywhere. Not in the library. Not in any empty classes. Not even in the cafeteria. More weight settled on her heart.
She had a free period. The free period she shared with him. She waited for him in the library. But her patience only lasted for ten minutes. She headed for the main office while concocting some believable lie to get some information about his whereabouts. The only reason he wouldn't be at school was if he was sick. Not because the idea of learning thrilled him. But because she would never miss a day of school.
He told her every day that high school was boring. There were other more interesting things to learn out there. She smiled remembering all the speeches he gave to convince her to skip her classes. But she always refused. She was only going to do it once because if her father ever finds out, she'd be dead.
That always shut him up. He would look at her very seriously and tell her, 'I can't imagine a life without you.'
Then he would go to his classes and when school ended, he would be waiting for her so he could walk her home even though his house was nowhere near hers.
When she entered the office, there was a woman who looked upset. The principal was with her. He was saying, 'Don't worry about it. We'll figure something out so he won't be left too far behind.'
She just knew that they were talking about him. She couldn't move. The weight was too heavy now.
The school secretary noticed her presence. 'Myka,' she was a friend of Myka's father. Another reason why she can't skip school. But that's not the issue here. 'Can I help you with something?'
The woman turned to her. 'You're Myka Bering?'
She nodded.
'Dylan has been talking about you this past week. Maybe –'
'Dylan?' she felt relieved. They weren't talking about H.G.
'Yes, my son,' the woman said. 'Did you know how he – wait, what lie did he tell you?'
That wasn't a good sign.
'Nothing,' she said. 'I don't know any Dylan.'
The woman shook her head. 'You poor girl. Let's sit over there.' She gestured at the chairs near the door.
She didn't think she could feel heavier. But her knees can barely support her body right now. Apparently, she thought wrong.
…
The woman's name was Helen Smith. Her son's name was Dylan. In the past week, Dylan had been acting differently and speaking in a perfect British accent. Mr and Mrs Smith thought it was a phase. And apart from the accent, the change was actually welcome. He was reading more and had taken an interest in science.
But this morning when he went into the kitchen for breakfast, he was speaking without the accent. Mr Smith had joked about it and Dylan looked at his father like he was crazy. But Mr Smith had been a recipient of that look hundreds of times since Dylan was fourteen. He didn't think any of it.
The Smith household was heading out the door when Dylan asked Mr Smith if he was going to pick him up after school for his driving test. Mr Smith proceeded to tell his son that he took his test last week and failed. That confused Dylan greatly.
He looked at his watch and saw that it was the twelfth not the fifth of May. That really disturbed him because he can't remember what he had been doing for the past week. By then, his parents knew that there was something wrong. After he was done crying for two hours and a two hour family discussion, they went to the emergency room. The doctor who examined him recommended a one week stay at the mental ward.
Mrs Smith had asked all of Dylan's friends if they knew anything about his change of behaviour. They said he had been ignoring them like he didn't even know them. And that Dylan had been spending a lot of time with that freakishly tall girl. Even when they called out to him, he didn't respond. And when one of his friends confronted him, he just said, 'I'm not Dylan.'
Myka ended up comforting Mrs Smith. The doctor said it might be Dissociative Identity Disorder but it was usually brought on by trauma. But she could tell that the Smiths were a good family. There was no way they could hurt him. Mrs Smith came to the school to inform the principal about Dylan and to understand what had happened to her son. She tried so hard to understand.
But there were no answers. She asked Myka if she knew anything. But Myka didn't. She was just as confused as Mrs Smith.
Myka didn't cry. She went to all her classes. She walked back home. She was strong. She's not going to let the weight bring her down. It wasn't until she was in the privacy of her own room when she let the weight win. She collapsed onto the floor because she can't bear to take the three steps it took to get to her bed.
In the back of her mind, she always knew that it had an expiry date but she didn't know that he was going to leave without saying goodbye.
Twelve years later, she found that goodbyes are overrated.
Those memories of a boy who called himself H.G. came flooding back to her. It was that smile – the one he, no, she has whenever she thinks that she's doing something clever – that made her connect the dots. There was regret because if Myka was being honest with herself, she knew all along. But she kept telling herself it was impossible.
His name was Dylan and in a moment of madness, he made her fall in love with him. He's now an accountant for a law firm in Seattle. She looked him up sometime after Helena was debronzed.
And it became even harder to believe when Helena wanted to destroy the world because her H.G. wouldn't have done that.
But when they were investigating the Joshua's Trumpet case, she began to see more of the H.G. she knew in Helena. After the case, Myka wanted to ask her but it wasn't like she knew where Helena was and the ball wasn't where she left it. She asked Artie about it and he said the ball was somewhere safe. She didn't push the issue because she already felt like a crazy person. There was no need to add another person to that list.
She couldn't ask Helena when they were looking for Sykes. Besides, there were always other people around. Then Steve died and it didn't matter anymore.
There were too many people that needed saving. Save Helena. Save herself. Save Pete. Save Pete's mom. Save Artie. Save the warehouse.
It wasn't until Helena trapped them in that protective bubble that she remembered. That smile that always annoys her and melts her into a puddle at the same time. But it was too late, wasn't it? She thought at least this time, although not said explicitly, she had her goodbye.
But it wasn't enough. Her H.G. was disappearing right in front of her and she can't do anything about it.
As she stared at the spot where Helena stood, she can only think, 'Liar. You said if you had a choice, you wouldn't leave me.'
Thank you for reading.