Boilerplate Disclaimer: Disney owns everything

There is a reference or two in the chapter to A Markov's Follow the Queen II: Deuces Wild. Someday I'll have to write a story explaining the basement door. I know what happened, but haven't explained it to anyone else yet. It wasn't broken when it was installed.

When Are We?

When the light from the open door above them was cut off three little girls ran up the basement steps and entered a room they hadn't left. Doors and windows were in their proper place, but it wasn't their kitchen. Everything was wrong. It wasn't even the same time of day. They had gone down at night, and now sunlight shining through one of the dirty windows illuminated the room.

While Kasy frantically opened and closed the basement door, hoping it would return to the basement she knew, Briana looked outside. Instead of the grays of winter even the season was different, the world outside was green. "I'm scared," the blond girl confessed, "where are we?"

"When are we," Sheki corrected her. "I… I think we're in the past. Eemah said the house looked bad when she and Mommy moved in." She turned to her sister, "And Mommy says the basement door was okay before uncle Wade and uncle Drew had some time thing we took."

Kasy kept opening and closing the basement door - it brought them here, it could take them home. Briana moved over to stand with Kasy and hope the basement changed again. Sheki, unsure what to do, called, "HELEN! HELEN!"

An annoyed looking ghost glided into the room, "Why are you children in my house?"

"It's our house too," Sheki answered defensively.

"She can really talk with the ghost?" Briana whispered to Kasy. "I don't hear anything."

"Neither can I, but she can," Kasy admitted reluctantly - hating the fact Sheki could do something she couldn't.

"This is my father's house, and-"

"We know your father built the house," Sheki said politely, "but other people can live in it too." It would have been impolite to tell the ghost that her father had died many years earlier.

"Ask her when we are," Briana suggested.

"Sheki says Helen isn't much good with dates," Kasy whispered. "Eemah says… Eemah says she's living in the past."

"We will live here someday," Sheki told Helen, "and we will be friends."

The young woman in white, dressed for an entirely different century, looked puzzled. "Father is selling the house? Where will I go?"

"You'll stay here. We're your friends. But we're lost today."

"Can I help you?"

Sheki thought for a minute, there was nothing the ghost could do to help. She wasn't sure if anyone could help. "No… Thanks, but we need to find someone else. I just wanted to see you before we figure out what to do."

"Well, if you think of anything I can do, just call," Helen told her, and then faded from sight.

"What are we going to do?" Briana demanded.

Kasy continued to open and close the basement door, but was beginning to accept it wasn't going to work. "We need someone smart. We need someone old, so they'll be alive now."

"We don't know when now is," Sheki reminded her.

"Well, it was before Mommy and Eemah moved here… Grandpa James."

"Grandpa James?" Briana asked.

"Mommy's daddy," Sheki explained. "That's a long walk… and we don't have coats."

"It's not cold outside," Briana told her, "I looked. How long a walk is it?"

"Really, really long," Sheki sighed. "When we walk with Mommy and Eemah it takes almost an hour. I don't think grandpa is a good idea."

"Why?"

"Well, if we haven't been born yet he won't know us."

"He has to help us. He's our grandpa."

"And don't bad things happen if we see people before we're born?"

Briana added her opinion. "Nothing bad will happen to us… But we shouldn't tell people. They'll think we're crazy."

"I want to see Mommy!" Kasy added.

"No, Briana is right. We shouldn't let many people see us. It could be bad."

Kasy opened and closed the basement door twenty-five more times for luck, and then they headed out. The side door locked behind them. Their neighborhood seemed uglier than when they lived there. Vacant lots lay where they remembered new houses, and two decrepit houses stood where they remembered empty lots. As they left the area near campus they were relieved to find Middleton looked more like itself.

Briana fished a newspaper out of a garbage can and did some fast math on her fingers. "I'm not going to be born for three or four more years. What happens if we can't get home? Will they put us in an orphan place?"

"Grandpa can get us home, he's a rocket scientist," Kasy assured her.

"We don't need a rocket," the blond protested.

The three started planning as they neared the Possible home. "Mommy's in high school now… That means she and Eemah don't like each other yet…"

Kasy had an idea, "I want to see Mommy! I want to tell her to stop fighting Eemah. Then we'll be older."

"Or maybe we won't be us! We only talk with grandpa James."

"What if mommy answers the door?"

"Briana will go to the door-"

"Why do I have to go to the door?" Briana protested.

"'Cause Kasy talks too much and I look like Eemah. If uncle Jim or uncle Tim see us they'll tattle to mommy-"

"What do your uncles look like?"

Kasy did fast math. "They're big kids. They may be eleven or twelve."

"And if your mommy… Do you have a grandma?"

Kasy nodded yes.

"What if one of them comes to the door? What if nobody's home?"

"If someone who doesn't look like a grandpa comes to the door, ask for James Possible. Tell him it is very important."

"Where will you be?"

"They have a neighbor with a blue house. We'll be by the garage there."

When they got there the neighbor's house wasn't blue. The paint supply called it 'desert sand'. But the garage was there.

Briana felt nervous and scared as she walked up the sidewalk to the house. The trip to the basement wasn't fun at all. She timidly rang the bell. A minute later a boy answered, "I would like to see James Possible, please," she asked politely.

The boy turned his head and bellowed over his shoulder, "Dad! There's a kid here to see you."

In the kitchen James looked at his two guests and raised an eyebrow.

"Ask him to describe her," the young man suggested.

"What does she look like?" James called.

"She's a little kid!" he son shouted back.

"Ask about her hair color," the young woman told him.

"What color is her hair?"

"Blond."

The young man and young woman looked at each other and shrugged, "It doesn't sound like either of them."

James got up, "It may be some neighbor's child. I'd better see who it is."

After he left the kitchen the dark-skinned boy turned to his partner, "Interdimensional criminals from a parallel universe? Interdimensional criminals? That was the best you could do? He's never going to believe that if he sees them. They're what - five years old?"

"They're older than me! And they're evil."

"They're not older now. And that's what uncle James is going to see."

"Well then, we can't let him see them now - can we? Wait, age regression! If he sees them we tell him they used a regression and rejuvenation ray to disguise themselves. We tell him we need to arrest them, and then we take them into custody."

"Just as long as we can keep them from seeing Dr. Renton. If she sees them we're both in trouble. Especially you."

"Why me?"

"'Cause you're the one who installed the faulty time portal."

"I didn't install a faulty portal… Or I'm pretty sure I wouldn't… I haven't installed it yet. It was your dad's invention that messed it up."

Team J quarreled in the kitchen for several minutes before it struck them that James Possible had not returned.

The dark-skinned youth looked at his chronometer. "What's keeping uncle James? He should have been back."

The redhead slapped her forehead, "Oh, Shaz! The blond must have been Sheki - she got a wig somewhere. She's devious, and Kasy always has grandpa wrapped around her little finger. He's not coming back! We've got to find them! C'mon Junior."

They went out the side door and split up, he circled left and she went right. They met on the other side of the house.

She frowned, "I think they may have given us the slip."

"Uncle James is a cagey old bird."

"Ha! My grandfather is a rocket scientist."

He raised one eyebrow, "You really want to go there with me?"

"Not now," she told him. "We need to put this away fast. I've got an idea.