CLAUDIA
It was too much, too fast, too hard. Half-blinded by tears, Claudia stumbled away from the medical bay with no clear direction, just the knowledge that she had to get away from that room, from him. It isn't fair. How could he just turn up like that, with no warning, and expect things to be the same between them, after three years?

It hasn't been three years. Not for him. What the hell did that mean, anyway? She knew almost down to the exact number of days how long it had been since the predator incident, and it was three years almost exactly. Yet according to him, he'd been gone for only a third of that time. Was that what travelling through anomalies did to you? Come to think of it, how did he even survive on the other side of an anomaly for three years? Her head was aching with the effort of trying to understand. Timelines, universes... Creatures from the past was one thing, but this was a whole new level of unbelievable. Maybe he'd simply gone crazy.

After a time Claudia found herself standing outside Dr Shepard's office. She'd visited the place countless times in the past three years, and wasn't surprised that this was where her aimless wandering had taken her. She raised a hand and knocked without a second thought. It would be nice to have someone to talk to right now.

"Come in."

Claudia entered, closing the door behind her. Brooke Shepard was a woman close to Claudia's own age, with brown hair and a thin figure. She smiled at Claudia from behind her desk. There was a nameplate that sat atop the polished wood: Dr Brooke Shepard, Counsellor.

"Good afternoon, Claudia."

"Is it?" Claudia asked, taking the chair on the other side of Dr Shepard's desk.

"You tell me. Professor Cutter has returned."

"I just went to see him." Claudia wiped her eyes on her sleeve. "He's... I don't know what happened, but somehow he thinks it's only been a year since we last saw each other. He..." She swallowed. "He still feels the same way about me. He expects me to feel that way about him, too."

"How do you feel?" Dr Shepard asked.

"How am I supposed to know?" Claudia retorted. "I've spoken to him once. He's been back for less than a day. He can't just expect things to instantly go back to the way they were!"

Dr Shepard nodded, making a few notes on the pad in front of her. "Of course. And does Jerome know about this development?"

"He knows nothing. I haven't told him about Cutter at all."

Another nod. "Are you planning to?"

"I don't know." Claudia sat back in her chair, staring at the stacks of books on the wall behind Dr Shepard's desk. "He said something else."

"Professor Cutter?"

"Yes. He was talking about... timelines. I didn't really understand all of it, but he said that wherever he's been for the past three – however long, I wasn't there. I didn't exist in that... in that world, or that time, or whatever it was."

"I see."

"And he said he dreamed about me," Claudia rushed on, "and he went looking for me, and he never stopped thinking about me. And I... I was shattered when that anomaly closed, I was, but now... I mean, with Jerome and everything..." She shook her head. "I feel guilty. That's how I feel. Like I failed him somehow. Like I betrayed him."