AN: I apologize for the almost 2-year wait for a new chapter. My Writer's Block was serious! But i will try to post new chapters for this fanfic with less time gaps between them from now on. Hope you enjoy!


Chapter 2: A Startling Discovery

Claire awoke, scared and cold. She didn't dare to open her eyes; she knew what awaited her. She was back in her time, 10 years before; the day of the experiment. She waited, bracing herself for what was coming, but nothing happened... yet. Maybe I'm early, Its only a matter of seconds before the explosion

Memories flashed through her head; the day of the explosion. She was with Hershel, the last time she would share a cup of tea. A few exchanges of scientific terms amongst the scientists. She walked to the machine and... Boom All those screams heard, the cries of the bystanders and the walls of the building came crashing down. She had witnessed all this as the machine was bringing her to the future, flashing between the two timelines, unstabling her cells.

Claire had tried so hard to be strong for Hershel when they had to say goodbye. Hershel had his own struggles to let her go, but, of course Claire had her own. She had to hold them inside or it would have been harder for him. But she was going to die. She knew that when she was sent to the future; that it wouldn't last. She had studied enough of science to know that she was unstable. Every minute that she lived in the future could have been her last. And, of course, this terrified her immensely.

She cried, but her tears were angry. She was angry at everyone: Dimitri, he was the one who built the faulty time machine. How could he have been so stupid as not to realize that it could never work properly?! He was supposed to be one of the best scientists in their facility! Hershel, yes, she was angry at him too. He let her go. He let her go so many times. Why did he have to let me go? She went to the labs, put herself in danger. She returned to her own time. But he had let her go. If he had only held on for a little while longer... This never would have happened. Most of all though, she was angry at herself. She couldn't blame two of the men who loved her most. She too broke the laws of nature, and she had to pay. She tried to cheat death but it was wrong to escape fate. The time machine was built, and many died. And soon so would she.

So she waited longer. Almost 15 minutes passed, but there was nothing. Slowly opening her eyes, Claire was shocked to see that she was in the Science Lab but there was no Time Machine in sight! It should have been there if she was truly ten years in the past. Perhaps she wasn't sent back, after all. Mixed feelings flowed throughout her head: happiness, of course, not to be dead; terror, because it could only be a few seconds before she is sent back to her time. Confusion, sadness, excitement. All these emotions, not knowing which to lead her.

Suddenly the door opened. A man, wearing a lab coat entered the room, carrying a box of spare machine parts. Seeing Claire, he dropped the box in surprise, the parts scattered on the floor. The scientist was Dimitri Allen, the one from her future!

"Claire?!" Dimitri asked, still in shock, "how can you still be here? I thought you were sent back to-"

He paused, with a look of concern on his face. He was a scientist, and he was sure Claire was going to go back to her time. But she didn't, she was still here. He didn't know how long it would last.

"If you don't mind," Dimitri began, "we're going to have to run the some tests to measure your molecular stability"

Claire nodded, and soon she was hooked up to a machine. This was familiar to her, as Dimitri had run these tests on her when he found out she survived the Time Machine Explosion. They both exchanged some scientific terms and and ran different tests, when they reached a startling conclusion...