Time Swap
Disclaimer: I don't own the shows!
A/N:
Chapter 7 (Learning the Future)
An unsettling feeling swept over Angelica as she entered the Duncan house with Susie. She looked up to the pictures on the wall and pulled her lips back, seeing the family with the little blonde girl that was apparently her child in the future. Already she knew she was going to need to investigate this place. "Susie-" She could not get used to them all being older than her now. "-Is all this going to affect me if I go back to my own timeline?"
"I don't think so, but we'll see," Susie replied. Yes, because how on earth could a four year old girl remember any of this stuff? She moved over to the couch and climbed up. Susie moved beside her. She folded her arms and leaned back, shutting her eyes and sighing heavily. Was she still friends with Susie in this timeline? Did they still know Phil and Lil? What was going on with her mom and dad, or even Jonathon?
More importantly, why was her child with a family she didn't recognize? Whose bright idea was this? She looked down to Cynthia and slowly brushed the doll's hair. "Susie. Are we still friends? Did I do something wrong and lose my own baby?" Susie smiled at her and shook her head.
"No Angelica. It's a very complicated situation, and you're only four, so…" She didn't want to hear this age talk, she could understand whatever someone told her if they explained it well enough. "Charlie, or Charlotte…" Her heart skipped a beat and she quickly looked up. "You named her after your mother, that was the only thing you wanted, to leave something of yourself behind with her. The issue was, you were only fourteen…the guy that got you pregnant was someone named Spencer Walsh, and he's the father." Her eyebrows lifted up and her jaw dropped. How could she wind up having a child at fourteen? She knew how young that was! "The uh…he pressured you into…doing um…" Come on Susie. She rolled her eyes once more and dipped her head into her hand. She knew what sex was, she heard it enough on the playground with the older children.
"You don't need to shelter me, I know what s-e-x is…" Susie raised an eyebrow and chuckled once. "Mommy told me I shouldn't talk about something like that, but that it's something I'd learn about when I was much older…the one thing she did tell me was my 'body is my own', and I should never let anyone take advantage of that."
"She's right, and you've always followed her advice to a fault." Angelica beamed with pride, but still it hung in the back of her mind that she would have ever let something like this happen. It wasn't something that would damage her too much, because she was just young enough to try not to focus on it. All she knew was some guy named Spencer was the father of her child. "Now Spencer was and is a bit of a…what's the word I'm looking for?" Susie started snapping her fingers, groaning with annoyance. Angelica let her eyes drift to the kitchen doors, then back, knowing she couldn't simply leave right now. "He's not a good guy at all, Angelica."
"So he's bad people?"
"Yes. Bad people…You kept a pretty strong front in telling him no, then finally just caved in to get him to stop. Of course I, and just about everyone else you know, told you to break up with jerk!" Susie smacked her hand in the air and Angelica's heart clenched inside her. She felt a stabbing sensation in her belly. Sure she didn't often listen to the babies, but when it came to those kinds of decisions, she would think that she would have listened. "But regardless, circumstances didn't allow you to be able to raise a baby on your own, and…your only option was to give her up." Angelica bowed her head and clenched her eyes shut, feeling an extreme amount of guilt.
"Why do I feel bad about that?" She pat her hand over her heart and looked up to Susie for answers. She was just a kid, she shouldn't feel bad about something in the future that was this serious. Susie smiled at her and put an arm around her shoulders.
"Because past or future, you still have your maternal instinct. In this timeline, you were devastated over having to give up your child for adoption. Though, so devastated that you're afraid to bother coming over here…I'm the one that intervenes because my cousin happens to be best friends with the family." Angelica's eyes dropped for a brisk second. She didn't even visit her daughter? What kind of mother was she turning out to be? "But anyway, that's what happened in regards to your baby. You and your dad just simply couldn't do it." She and her dad? What about her mother? Honestly, anytime she brought up her mother, the people around her just put it off, refusing to explain anything. Did something bad happen, it seemed like it.
"So what I'm getting is, I became a pregnant teenager, gave my baby to another family, and…I still don't know anything about my own mother." Judging by the fact that no one was talking about the woman, and her daughter was named after her, it seemed very likely that her mother was dead in the future. Her breath caught in her throat and her hands flew to her mouth. Tears welled up in her eyes. "Oh no, please tell me my mommy isn't…I want my mommy and daddy, Susie. I want them!" This was breaking her heart. Screw the ramifications of seeing them! This was the future, there was nothing she could do in the future that would affect her.
"I'm sorry Angelica, and it's for your own benefit. You have to understand the importance of keeping this time stream the way it is. If something's wrong, who knows where everyone's going to wind up…" She didn't worry too much about all of that. She understood the importance just fine, and she was also counting on Tommy and Gabe to get her back to the past, and bring her daughter back here. "If you know certain things, you'll be inclined to change once you get back there."
"What if I don't like what I see? What if there's something that I see that I could change when I get older? For example, what if I decided to keep the baby the second time?"
"Well then…" Susie closed her eyes and brushed her hands against her knees, sighing heavily. "I don't know, but I do know this family would be a lot different, and very unhappy." Angelica frowned. Her brows meshed together and her arms folded across her chest. A part of her didn't want that to happen, but a part of her also still held the selfish bone in her, but once again, Susie was making her feel bad about her selfishness. As always. It was hard to believe Susie was still good at doing that! "When you gave birth, Mrs. Duncan here gave birth to a baby of her own. That baby was stillborn."
"What does that mean?"
"It means the baby was dead upon birth, Angelica…" Angelica's heart crashed in despair and her jaw fell open. "You heard her cries in the next room, and I was with you. I was…the only one there…but beside that, my cousin was with the family. She told me what happened, and that's when you decided they would make a good family for your daughter. They could, and have, taken care of Charlie and given her a much better life than what you could give her at the time…their adopting Charlie saved them…and I'll be honest, not a day goes by that you don't tell me how glad you are that they're doing well and your daughter is too." Angelica slowly nodded her head and gazed down at Cynthia. Maybe it was best that she didn't go back home and try to change that aspect. Same for the birth father, as much as she didn't like it.
"So, I get the importance of that." She also paid attention to the whole discussion of the time issue, and truly she didn't want anything bad to happen to Charlie. "I don't want anything to happen to Charlie. If she doesn't come back into this time…it'll be like she never existed?"
"Yeah. Apparently. Memories will change, surroundings may change…and then you being here…I imagine that'll upset your parents as they realize Charlie isn't their daughter. I don't know what'll happen to everyone, but only because I've never lived in a world where you didn't exist. I'm sure nobody wants to imagine that, especially not Tommy and the others."
"Yeah…I guess Uncle Stu shouldn't have been an inventor, huh?" Susie laughed and Angelica's lips turned up into a smile. She was beginning to get accustomed to this older version of Susie, as difficult as it was. "Nobody knows how much time they have to fix it?"
"Yeah, but I'm pretty sure it won't be a long time." Susie pulled her phone from her pocket and shifted down the contact list, wincing painfully. "I still remember everything about you over all these years, but you…because you're here, your older self is gone. Where? I don't know….Tommy and Gabe are going to have to go to the exact day and place that Charlie entered, and switch you two out right there. You may or may not remember everything, but Charlie shouldn't…if anything happens."
"The day? I think I have that…" Susie raised an eyebrow as Angelica looked down at her dress. "I was wearing my Sunday clothes."
"Makes sense, I guess. It's Sunday today. Though today is September 16, 2012." Angelica clapped her hands together and shook her head.
"I don't think it was September, schools weren't open yet. Anyway, the babies had pulled me into a game of hide and seek while you were out in the backyard…" That didn't give a lot of information, she knew that, but maybe there would be something crucial that would pinpoint the day. "Church was over, the pastor was talking about the school week starting the next week."
"Okay, so August, but I don't remember when the schools started up back then."
"Um I remember another thing, it was a few days before that, Thursday I think, one of your relatives just passed away."
"My relative?" Susie's eyes widened and her muscles tensed up. Angelica felt remorse for bringing up the issue so soon, but at the same time, the concept of time was escaping her. "My Nan-Nan, she passed in 1999. She was one hundred years old. August 12th, 1999, she went in her sleep. That Sunday at church, the pastor talked about her."
"Oh yeah, there was that today!" Angelica pumped her hand in the air, overjoyed that they finally made some sort of connection. Of course, she still felt bad about bringing it up. "Today the pastor talked about the life she had and the impact she had on our community, how she loved walks on the beach, flowers, and loved everyone in her family." Susie's eyes started to water, and she reached over, hugging Angelica. "What? I'm sorry…I didn't mean to make you feel bad."
"No you didn't, it's not that, it's just…it's been thirteen years, I hardly remember that, and I can hardly remember Nan-Nan. So I appreciate it." Angelica smiled at her and blushed.
"Aw, it's nothing…she was always fun to visit at the nursing home."
"Right. So." Susie sat up and started wiping her eyes with her shirt sleeve. "So August 15th, 1999. Sometime in the afternoon, probably close to three, because I remember we stayed late."
"We did. We stayed at the church until two, went to have lunch with your family, and then they decided to drop you off at Uncle Stu's with me. The last I looked at a clock, back there, it was 3:25."
"Great! I can tell that to Tommy. They can use it." Angelica smiled at her and nodded her head. Now came the questions in regards to where Susie lived, and what she could do. Did she come around often?
"So, if I have to stay here…what about you? Do you stay here, or…"
"No Angelica, I have to be with my family. Cousin Ivy comes over a lot, though, but you can't tell even her who you really are." Not like anyone would believe a four-year old girl, anyway. She wouldn't talk, not at this time. "I guess I'll try and come around more often." Susie slowly rose up from the couch, tapping her hand against her left thigh. "By the way, that guy that is also the father of the child? He's dating Teddy now."
"Teddy?"
"The family here…you have Mr. and Mrs. Duncan. Bob and Amy. You've got the kids…PJ, Teddy, Gabe, Charlie, and Toby. Each of them, except Toby, who is a baby, and of course Charlie…the other kids are all dating someone. PJ's dating Skyler, and they're very much in love, from what Ivy tells me. Teddy's dating Spencer, but he actually cheated on her…"
"Cheated? What does that mean?"
"It means he wasn't loyal to her, and he basically did to her what he did to you, or will do to you. He was dating someone else at the same time…" Angelica slowly nodded, understanding what this issue meant. "And then the girl that was with Gabe, that is Jo, his girlfriend."
"Okay…"
"So, do you think you can handle it from here? I need to run and tell Tommy about the date you were in."
"I think so…" She really didn't want to be left alone, but at least it left her with time to explore. Not only that, but she wanted to make sure she got to know this family. She gave Susie one last hug and watched as she left the house. Her heart was racing now, and her palms were sweaty. "I think it just hit me…" If Tommy and Gabe didn't fix this problem, she was in for a lot of trouble.
So what are your thoughts as you read this? What observations do you have?
