Disclaimer: I own nothing.
A/N: Just a small plot bunny that nibbled at me while I was in Driver's Ed.
"I still can't believe he left you," Mandy Teslow gave the spaghetti sauce a mighty stir. She lowered the heat and put the cover on the pot before wiping the sweat from her brow and turning to look at her daughter.
"He didn't 'leave me'" Keely said, angrily ripping the lettuce she'd been crunching into smaller pieces and throwing it into the bowl. They were having this conversation. Again.
"Well, I ask you, is he here?" her mother turned to attend to the pasta, which had begun to rattle violently. "Dear, Phil is a grown boy and is capable of making his own decisions. No one forced him to leave. And him just up and taking off, leaving you in your condition," she gestured to her daughter's stomach, where a small being had begun to make it's appearance through the stretchy fabric of Keely's shirt. "Doesn't elicit sympathy from me! I can't believe you aren't more upset about this!" Mandy gave a small frown before turning back to the sauce. A few moments later, she slammed the spoon down on the counter, making Keely jump.
"Why won't you tell me what's going on?" her mother demanded. Keely was taken aback. This wasn't usually how this conversation went. Usually, her mother would rant and rave about Phil "moving" away and be done with it for the night. Maybe they'd rent a movie. Eat popcorn. But not this. This question had never arisen.
"Tell you what?" Keely asked, her heart pounding a little harder, both from the startle and because she didn't want to reveal more about Phil than was necessary.
"Keely, you used to tell me everything," her mother said in a slightly watery voice. "Now we barely even talk any more. It worries me that you're not talking to much of anyone anymore. Something about this thing with Phil just doesn't add up. Phil is a good boy; God knows he loved you to death," Keely blushed slightly, "It doesn't make sense that he would leave. There's something you're not telling me." Keely caught her breath.
"Now I want the truth and I want it now!" her mother slammed the spoon down on the counter, spraying red globs of spaghetti sauce on the smooth white linoleum. Keely wished she were the sauce on the counter. Her heart was beating so feircly she was afraid her mother could hear it across the room.
"He just move away, that's all," Keely lied. "His father got moved to a different hardware store out of state." Keely clutched at the necklace around her neck. What was held on the chain she could never show her mother; she'd never understand. Not to mention she'd be grounded until eternity.
"And that necklace!" her mother went on, obviously annoyed with her daughter. The steam from the boiling water had made her hair stick to her forehead and the other fly-away pieces more prominent, making her look slightly crazed. Her voice was bordering on hysterical. "All day, all night! It never comes off!" This was indeed a strange occurrence, as Keely was never one to wear a piece of jewelry more than once a week. "I want to know why. I'm tired of being left in the dark. I want the truth and I want it now!" As if to punctuate this last request, Mandy threw the spoon down on the counter, letting it skitter across the linoleum before coming to a stop a few feet from the edge. Keely was getting frightened now; her mother did not usually let loose with such emotion. She was more the "hold-it-in-and-then-hold-it-over-your-head-for-the-rest-of-your-known-life" type. Mandy took a deep breath, trying to regain some semblance of control.
"I'm just tired of being out of the loop," she said, her voice a deathly calm. "Is it so wrong that I want to know what's going on in my daughter's life? I know Phil's leaving has affected you, and I want to be there for you. I want to be there for the baby when it comes. But I can't do that if you won't let me in." A few tears made their way down her cheeks. Keely didn't quite know what to say.
"I-I have to go," she said, getting up from the counter and making her way upstairs. Her eyes clouded up with so many tears that for a moment the stairs looked like large beige water droplets. A few fell onto the carpet, making the stairs look like large, spotted beige water droplets. Finally making it to her room, she shut the door and locked it, before sliding down to the ground and dissolving into large sobs. Large tears fell down her face, soaking the front of her shirt, and she gasped for breath until the baby decided enough was enough and Keely was overwhelmed with a sudden urge to retch up everything she'd eaten that day. She took a deep breath before walking on shaky legs over to her bed and collapsing onto it.
"Keel, we're leaving tomorrow," Phil said miserably, looking down at his shoes as they stood on her front porch. His eyes were red and puffy from crying, and the words sounded forced. He gave a small sniffle before continuing. "We had some officials come. From the future. They said it's too risky staying here. That we'd mess up the time line, and we'd already stayed far beyond what is legal or necessary. They told us we had twenty-four hours to pack up before they come to pick us up." He shuffled his sneakers on the worn wood of the porch as the moths circled the light. Keely was in shock. But she should have known. It was eleven-thirty at night, for goodness sakes! She saw her mother spying on them out of the corner of her eye, trying to subtly pull back the living room drapes to peek out.
"But—" Keely didn't know what to say. What do you say when you find out your boyfriend is going back to his own time? It's not something people write in to advice columns about. "I need to sit down." She sank down onto the wooden steps, leaning forward so that her elbows rested on her knees and her head in her hands. Phil sat down next to her, his expression stony. They sat there in silence for a few moments, the only sound coming from crickets hiding in the dark lawn and the buzzing of insects surrounding the porch light.
"I wish I didn't have to go," Phil said, breaking through the night sounds. "I wish it were a false alarm like last time, like all the other times."
"How do you know it's not?"
"Because they said either we go with them, or we die,"
"Die?!"
"So we don't do any damage to the space-time continuum," Phil kicked a pebble off of the step his foot was resting on. It rattled down to the sidewalk and stopped.
"I don't know what to say, Phil," Keely said. "Part of me wants you to stay here at whatever cost. But I can't stop you from living your life. 2121 is where you belong. And you should be there." Keely choked out the last part, drowning half of it with a soft sob. Phil took one of her hands in his.
"Keely, this is my life now. You're my life now," Phil said, his voice getting a little watery as he went on. "I've exhausted my mind trying to come up with a way to stay. I tried telling them I wasn't leaving, but all I received was a slap in the face and a warning to respect government officials." Keely looked at him. The side of his face sported a hefty red mark. The guy who hit him must have some power behind his punch. She reached up to stroke his injured cheek. He leaned into her touch and closed his eyes.
"You have to know I wouldn't leave unless I was forced," he said after a moment, tracing small circles on the palm of her hand. He took a deep breath before continuing. "Keels, I've been thinking."
"Yeah?"
"I love you,"
"I love you, too,"
"Aack, that's not what I've been thinking, though. I mean, that was part of it, but.." Phil trailed off before reaching into his jacket pocket. His eyes flitted to the window, where Keely's mother had given up spying. On the lawn, Keely could see the long shadow cast by her bedroom light. Phil looked back to Keely and pulled out a small box. Flipping it open, he revealed a small ring.
"Like, I said, I've been thinking," he whispered, barely audible over the crickets on the lawn. "I've been thinking we should make our relationship permanent. Before I leave tomorrow. Will you marry me?" For the second time tonight, Keely was speechless. Again, this was not the kind of thing you can learn about from a person or a book. But her mind was telling her to go with her heart. And her heart was shaking her by the shoulders, practically screaming at her to say yes. To be Phil's forever. Even if just for a few hours.
"Yes," she whispered, nodding with tears in her eyes. Phil's face turned from melancholy to joyful in an instant and he slid the ring onto her finger and kissed her. For a moment, they both could forget that in a few short hours, one half of the duo would be gone forever. For a moment they could be what they should be—a happy, affianced couple. Taking her hand again, Phil pulled her up.
"Come on, let's go," he said, nodding in the direction of his car, which lay dark and ominous in the driveway.
"Wait, what am I supposed to tell my mom?" Keely glanced back at the house. "I can't tell her I'm getting married. She'd lock me in my room until the end of time."
"Tell her you're staying over at my house tonight," he said. "You've done it a million times before." Keely nodded, went in to tell her mother, and sped away with Phil towards a life of matrimony.
Keely hugged a pillow as she lay on her bed. Her face felt scrunched up and tight from crying. Why did her mother have to make it worse than it already was? Phil wasn't around to see the birth of his—no, the birth of their child. He wasn't around to watch the baby grow up. Keely felt a gaping whole in her heart that ached as though she'd been punched in the chest. She looked at the clock. It was only seven-thirty. Too late to hang out with friends, but too early to go to bed. What an awful time. Her fingers were drawn to the cord around her neck. The cool metal of the wedding band held on the chain felt smooth and soothing between her fingers, and she soon fell asleep, lulled to sleep by the gentle tick-tock-ing of her alarm clock on her bedside table.
A/N: What do you think? Continue? Scrap? Please, read and review!