I walked into Cameron's office cautiously. Man, this place gives me the creeps.

After taking a breath of the ridiculously clean air I yelled out his name. When no one answered I looked around the room. It was fairly large and was lined with metal shelves that held all sorts of odds and ins.

I ran my hand along the top shelf as I walked towards the huge white board covered in dry-erase marker. He had insisted on an old fashioned one as well as a digital one for backup. The white board was nothing special, but what was on it held far more value than any treasure on this world or the last.

One of the first things I had discovered when we arrived in this new world was the writings on the rocks near the falls. Lucas' writings.

His mathematical equations and formulas; it all made my head hurt. They were so complicated and contained symbols I didn't know the values to. But looking at Cameron's work now… I don't know why I was so impressed with Lucas' doodles.

Cameron's equations were written in his own numerical sequences because the old 1,2,3,4 system wasn't exact enough for him. I truly did have my own slice of genius living right by me.

"I have it all ready to go," Cameron said from behind me. I think I jumped three feet into the air.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Did I scare you?" His voice held an eerie calm.

"Yeah, just a little. And that was quick, you said it would be weeks." I pointed out as I took in his appearance.

His blonde hair was freshly showered and his clothes hung nicely on his physically fit frame. At least he's not working himself to death like last time.

My eyes reached his face again to see that he was studying me, too. After looking me in the eyes for a few seconds he swiftly looked away to his computer.

He finally spoke, "No, I said that it would be a few weeks before we could get it to work. It only took a few hours to figure it out and, theoretically, we could fire it up right now." His voice was flat and monotone as he explained.

"Not that I don't appreciate your advanced expertise in this field, because I do. But don't you think that if we can 'theoretically fire it up now,' we should?" Nothing annoys me more than nerd-speak.

His face held a confused look as he moved his eyes up from the computer screen. "You, told me that it would be 'a few weeks' before you revealed our existence to Terra Nova and consequently, Meralle."

Now it was my turn to look confused. "What the hell does Meralle have to do with you fixing our time fracture again?"

"Meralle holds the key to this formula," he stated simply.

"Really. That's what I get! 'Meralle holds the key to this formula'?" I was close to loosing it.

"Kue, with all do respect, would you understand me if I tried to explain it to you?"

I starred at the equation written in red marker on the board for a moment before answering, "No."

"I'm sure you are aware of how valuable my time is, now if you would please let yourself out. I have spying to do."

"You keep telling yourself that, Cameron."

Kyle was leaning against the wall on the right side of the door when I walked out of the office. One of his huge hands was holding an apple and the other was holding a cup of coffee. I didn't even have to be asked before I snatched it from him.

"And if I was going to drink that?" He asked with a chuckle. I let out the breath I had been holding. His eyes had that twinkle again, he was laughing, and he brought me coffee. We may not be out of the woods yet, but he wasn't going to mope around missing her like he had years ago.

"You don't drink coffee, remember?" I pointed out while we walked down the path to the infirmary.

"Devil's brew," he said under his breath.

"Now Kyle, as much as I would like to take credit for 'brewing' this coffee, I simple can't." I laughed. "Well, back on the subject of things that matter, what are we going to do about Meralle?"

"We could say hell with the whole thing and just stay here. They won't find us for a few decades without technical support from the future and we have all we need even if Cameron can't fix the portal." His voice held no emotion whatsoever.

"It's not that simple, Ky. You know that," I breathed.

"But it could be! You're an amazing leader, Kue. You set this place up and made it run like a well-oiled machine of nearly four thousand people. She couldn't have done that." Now he was frustrated and on the edge of anger.

I dropped the coffee and pushed him up against the nearest building, which happened to be the storage center in between towers 1 and 2. It was dark and shadowy and held a certain amount of creepiness.

"Listen to me, Kyle Cunnings. I'm not winging this! When she left she gave me direct instructions for running this place. She gave everything I needed and in return I swore that I'd never forget." I pulled up her dog tags that hung on the same chain as mine. "I'll be damned if I let anyone forget her sacrifices."

Kyle threw his apple core into the small garden area a few yards from us then looked at me. "I miss her everyday. Everyday I wonder why I did what I did. But somewhere up the line I decided that I wasn't going to play 'what if' games. I made my decision and I'm trying not to regret it. I'm just afraid- when she sees me what is she going to say? 'God, I missed you Kyle! I can't believe you're alive. This is great!' No. She's going to hate me." He took a much-needed breath and I waited. "I'm going to hate me," he finished.

"Kyle, I haven't been completely honest," I sighed heavily. "When I walked her to the Chicago train- we were waiting by the tracks and she looked at me and said, 'I don't want you to think that this is because Kyle died, Kue.' She said, 'I've helped you as far as I could without crossing that line; the line between here and an amazing new world. But I have the same problem I had when we first hatched this crazy plan four years ago. Once I go to the past I can't come back here, at least, there isn't a guarantee I can. If this was just about Kyle, I'd stay, because we both know he isn't really dead. His ego wouldn't allow it.' And then she hugged me and got on the train. I never saw her again until the 10th pilgrimage came in."

"Why'd you lie?" He asked with that even voice of his.

"I thought you'd do something stupid if you thought for a moment that she was waiting on you. I couldn't risk it," I confessed.

"You did the right thing, Kuesy. Wouldn't dream of holding it against you."

We started walking again until we reached out destination. The steps to the infirmary were lined with flowers and shrubs of all sorts. They were kept neatly trimmed by one of the doctors that had a gardening fetish.

I must have been staring at the tulips because Kyle cleared his throat and motioned to the opened door.

Inside, the technology was pristine. Bio-beds lined each wall of the main room, an ER was located to the left, and a mini lab was accessible through the door to the right. Fifty doctors and nurses kept our little community healthy.

Speaking of doctors, I touched a nurse on the shoulder and asked for Doctor Weston.

"She's over there," the blonde nurse pointed to the far corner of the room.

"Thanks," I say before I walk over to Camille.

"Hey, Cami, how's our patient?"

Camille looked up from the Bio-bed holograph and closed the screen with the settings. "Sorry, these things have to be recalibrated every few weeks. Um, the patient, right. Are you referring to the woman with food poisoning, the man who shot himself in the ass, or the five-year-old with skinned up knees because she doesn't know what 'don't run on the concrete' means?" Cami sent a disapproving look at her own daughter Katie, who was sitting on a bed with white bandages on her knees.

I sent Camille a look, which she returned with a cocked eyebrow. "Ok, I give, how is Lieutenant Washington doing?"