The day seemed endless, even if the rain ceased and the sun came out. Not only did the tire blow out by the time they reached Bangor, but there was only a doughnut in the trunk and no place nearby that sold tires. Alyssa had to sit in the car with Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Ryder, somehow managing to breastfeed the baby, making her feel a little awkward. All the way, she had to keep quiet about their next move, unsure of the next time they could speak freely. McCoy muttered about their situation though, enough that Kirk had to elbow him for silence.

In the meantime, Kurt huffed and puffed, swearing at the car as he put the new tire on. Afterward, when he was finished and Alyssa crawled back into the front passenger seat with the baby in her arms, he proclaimed that they needed to find a place to stay the night. In the morning, he promised to find a store that sells tires in the size the car needed and they'd be on their way north and into Canada before they knew it.

It was nightfall by then, with a crisp, spring breeze. With Ryder sleeping so peacefully in the car the whole trip (except when he was hungry and needed a change) and the three men behind her were so quiet as Kurt started the car and moved, Alyssa opened her passenger side window. She then stuck her head out in a reckless manner, watching as the trees blurred green and brown, searching for some signs of civilization in the wrecked world she remembered.

As Kurt drove on, she was assigned to find a sign that directed them to some motel, someplace they'd know to be safe from the snipers. The peace of the assignment was giving her the concentration she needed, making her forget about three men whose sole responsibility and wellbeing fell on her. At the moment, she fell right back into the life she knew, long before Starfleet was introduced to her over two hundred years into the future.

Alyssa squinted her eyes, trying to recall if they had stopped in Bangor the last time, but she could not recall the sequence. Instead, as she shook her head, she put more focus on what was around them and where the safety zone was. Some places had to close due to the economic, social and political times, so no signs were accurate all the time. With Bangor being large, there was no telling if or when they'd find someplace to stay the night.

However, she did remember that it was never safe to sleep by the side of the road alone and without a weapon within reach, especially in an area where there weren't too many people and most of them around meaning harm. Kurt always had one handy, be it a knife or gun, and improvised when he needed to. It was the one thing that got him killed last time, a mistake Alyssa was hoping to reverse.

Finally, before the town lines ended and after so many failed attempts in locating someplace, Alyssa found the last sign. She directed Kurt to the exit and pointed to the left at the dying street light, where a motel was said to be found. Kurt took the risk and turned in that direction after the highway, but it was miles yet before they found the motel. Luckily, it was open and vacant, had two rooms ready and a travel crib for Ryder to sleep in.

As Kurt lugged their overnight luggage into his and Alyssa's room (taking Ryder with him and putting him to bed after she fed him and the two parents kissed him good night), Alyssa sat on a huge rock at the edge of the parking lot, looking out at the lingering sunset. It was already eight in the evening and all seemed well. There were no Klingons in sight, as there had been before they hit the New Hampshire/Maine border (something that made Kurt mutter about pranks, military trade secrets and some other rubbish Alyssa could not decipher). There had been no Admiral Uriah (much to Alyssa's relief). Nobody had been killed. Everybody was in one piece.

Alyssa snorted audibly. For now.

McCoy, settling in his room with Kirk and Spock and moving the lace curtains aside for some fresh air coming in through the open window, saw Alyssa alone in the parking lot. He turned back to his shipmates, saw that they were talking amongst themselves, mostly about Alyssa and how and why she came to their time frame (and also debating whether or not to borrow the chess set from Kurt), and quietly excused himself. He opened the door to their room, passing Kurt on his way to get into his own room (cursing about his wife and her acting strange again), and walked over to her, sitting down next to her on the oversized rock.

Alyssa did not notice McCoy until he cleared his throat. "So, what's with your husband?" He was curious.

"Huh?" Alyssa blinked slowly.

"He's calling you a 'damnable woman' and cursing something fierce. What did you do this time?"

Alyssa waved her hand dismissively. "I don't know. He's probably in one of his moods."

"What, with you not helping him?"

"I'm just an unusual creature to him and he likes to call me silly things when he's in a mood. After all, I was something new to him and I always will be. That's part of our chase. He first met me when I was not even fourteen and he fell head over heels in love with me and I with him. Nothing has changed that, even our age difference. However, he just thinks that I'm a little too weird at times."

"How did you two lovebirds meet?" McCoy snickered, wanting to hear some gossip. He even showed his interest.

Alyssa was not tempted to spill that story, despite the doctor's childish attention. "None of your business," she initially said. When she saw McCoy's sarcastic grin, she let up. "Kurt just met me in the neighborhood because I hung around his much younger brothers when I could sneak out of my parents' home. I went to school with them at one point. That's all you need to know."

"And your parents?"

"They disapproved the relationship right from the start. I told you that already. It's not only the difference in years, but they did not want me to leave their sight. As strict Lutherans, they thought of me as the devil incarnate and didn't anymore want any outside influence. They only wished to exterminate me slowly. They had the idea that, by outwardly letting me have a normal life although without friends and family visibly, nobody would notice that they were beating a demon to death."

"How did you escape?"

"I just did. One night, I had enough, packed my bags and left. I never saw them again except once, when they delivered the last of my furniture to our apartment."

McCoy was flabbergasted and let it be known. He was close to his parents and did not think it possible to see it from the other side of the coin. Sure, he recalled his being the most uptight people he met. However, as he grew older and had a daughter of his own, he realized how important that development was. Alyssa mentioning a slow death from her own parents was something he could not fathom.

"What?" Alyssa grinned. "I was tired of the shit and had enough. I laid in my bed every night, wondering if I wanted to spend the rest of my life keeping a secret like that or walk out and live the one I really wanted. I chose the latter. I went after who I still love and here I am."

"You said that you lived in Louisiana after New York."

"Yeah, we moved down there after Hurricane Katrina."

"Whereabouts?"

"Baton Rouge. That was where Ryder was born."

"Oh."

"Oh? Doctor, what do you mean, 'Oh'? I answered your questions. Quite honestly, I think I told you enough for one night."

Alyssa went to get up and go to her room, but McCoy stopped her and sat her back down on the rock. "And what made you different from anyone else?" he inquired "Your parents must have looked at you when you were born and thought of themselves sinners if they thought of you as a demon."

"And your point is…?" Alyssa crossed her arms impatiently.

"Why did they beat you?"

"I told you. They thought of me as a devil or at least one of his minions."

"Why though?"

Alyssa hesitated and sighed, feeling caught in a corner again. "Well, I have black hair. On both sides of the family, it meant bad luck and that the devil himself had visited and cast a mark on the child. It was worse because my parents knew that nobody in the family, as least as far back as fifteen generations, had black hair. Worst of all was that my father thought that my mother cheated on him with another man."

"And you were punished for it?"

"Yes. It was by the both of them because I was the source of their miserable marriage apparently." Alyssa was silent for a moment, thinking about telling more, but refraining to. She decided that little was best.

"Well, that meant that Mycoff's men hitting you did nothing, if I'm thinking what happened really did happen."

"No, I had worse than that, Doctor. Far worse."

Instinctively, Alyssa went to touch her nose where she was hit and found nothing there. There was still no blood, no indication that she was hit earlier, and that alone was startling. She was so used to having a cut, a scar…something…that her fair skin shivered with fear.

"I guess whatever that thing was healed you," McCoy offered.

"Yeah, I guess so."

"But it still doesn't tell me why you're thought of as unique, Alyssa."

Hazel eyes met blue. "No, it doesn't, Doctor, but I'll get to it eventually. Maybe when you're ready."

Alyssa finally jumped off the rock, happy that McCoy didn't bother stopping her this time, albeit cross that she recalled details that she wanted to forget. Jesus, he's so nosy.

Quickly, she turned her frustrated face to one of delight when her husband stepped out to smoke a cigarette, closing the motel door behind him. Skipping one smoke break when he changed the tire (making him more irritable than usual), Kurt looked relieved when he lit his chemical stick up, visibly more so when he saw his wife coming back, swaying her hips at him. She was in a seductive mood, he could tell, and he enjoyed it.

And I forgot he smoked those horrible Camels. Alyssa smiled as she smoothly sauntered over and smelled the familiar scent, one of comfort and security.

"So, what's going on with these guys?" he asked Alyssa as she slipped easily into his arms. The grey clouds swirled around her. "Are they bothering you?"

Alyssa inhaled cigarette smoke and old leather as she snuggled further into Kurt's arms. "No, they aren't. The one over there was trying to have a friendly conversation with me."

"I hope they aren't causing much trouble. I'll drop them down a manhole and forget about them if I have to."

"No, I wouldn't think you'd need to do that. I think they just need help over the border."

Kurt looked down at Alyssa after he inhaled some of his cigarette. Putting it in-between his lips, he muttered out his reply. "Yeah, I think they need a little more than that, Alyssa. What do you know about these guys and what are you in league with?"

Alyssa's heart seemed to have stopped beating. Her eyes quickly darted to Kurt's, waiting in dread as he revealed what he knew. If her husband had an inkling of what happened and why Alyssa was stranger than normal, then there was no way they could return the future without him. The timeline would change completely.

"I heard some things from people at the last convenience place we stopped at," Kurt continued, admitting what he learned earlier. "It's got something to do with killing, time travel and other such silliness. I thought you stopped being weird and yammering about being the space cadet and having those dreams. You know, like the characters from Eureka. A geek."

"What dreams?" Alyssa could not remember talking to Kurt about her surreal visions.

"Oh, never mind. Don't worry about it. What worries me though is you. What are you up to?"

Alyssa, thinking of how the Grace Guardian had basically traveled her and erased the scars she had obtained, decided to tell the truth, but she made it out to be a story she and the others played along with for fun. "Oh, you know, Kurt, we all came from the future. Originally, it was you, me and Ryder and we went up to Connor Township, got separated and I became a love slave to some admiral from the twenty-third century who took me with him and installed me as a security officer on several starships, all going on five year missions for space exploration. I was a troublemaker and bounced from one ship to another before landing on the most famous one of all."

Kurt was amused by the story and actually believed that Alyssa was acting absurd on purpose. "And?"

"And, on a mission to a place where we were supposed to play nice and explore, the aides to the chancellor of the planet performed a coup d'état, jailed us all and sent all four of us back in time so that we can all be killed right here and now. And it'll take them a week to catch up with us supposedly, but it could be sooner that we're dead."

"And the strange guys following us from Louisiana?"

"Just a race called the Klingons, who are in actually league with the bad guys from the planet we were supposed to be nice to."

Kurt accidentally spat out his cigarette and laughed hard, shaking Alyssa in his arms. "Oh, man, Alyssa, what a story! I love it! Where did you four come up with that?"

"Oh, I don't know," Alyssa answered erratically, almost thankful that she was out of trouble for now. "I guess we were just joking around before I went to the ladies' room and we talked for a minute and here we are, helping them to the border."

"Wonderful!" Kurt used his booted foot to put out what was left of his cigarette, still laughing merrily. "Oh, Alyssa, you're good at frolicking fantasy. Those drama classes from high school really paid off, haven't they?"

With relief, Alyssa managed a smile and some more nervous merriment. "Yeah, I guess so. I guess you can say that."