AN: I was thinking that perhaps it being merely a prediction device may have been a better choice overall, but no going back now! And I think this chapter works quite well. A bit short, but I hope you enjoy! :D I'm sorta sad that this's getting closer to the end!

Connor stood by the building inside which the anomaly was set to appear in a month's time, holding his device in a tight grip, Kieren beside him. The team had cordoned off the area, and as soon as Jacks returned, he would open the anomaly and go through with Kieren. He was waiting for Jackalyn because he wanted to say goodbye. He'd already said farewell to Claudia Brown, the only other of his friends who he would not see on the other side. Jacks wasn't Abby, but he still had come to care about her... she was a friend.

So he wasn't going to go home until he'd said goodbye. He had all the time in the world, thanks to his new device. Connor glanced at it, grimacing. That was a dangerous thought. New Dawn and Phillip Burton had awoken Connor to the possibility that people could want to use his inventions for evil.

Kieren caught his glance.

"What're you going to do with tha' after we get back? You know the Matt from our time won't be happy about it." Kieren echoed Connor's thoughts.

"It'll go somewhere safe, and I'll take out the power pack." He replied, "Matt'll understand. How d'ya think he got to our time? Just waited around 'till the right anomaly opened?" Connor added, humor in his tone. "Someone must've invented something like this."

Kieren nodded. He was the newbie; Connor knew their team leader far better.

Jackalyn left Matt by the temporary police barrier they'd put up, smirking a little. He looked uncomfortable wearing the same sort of outfit as the soldiers, much to Becker's amusement. But they'd thought it best for this specific situation. Usually they wore their ARC jackets and that was enough, but they didn't want this to be noticed.

If the public knew they had the power to open anomalies, and were doing so at this moment, there would be uproar. Jacks knew enough to know that for sure. She'd tried not to pay too close attention to what Connor was doing while he worked on his device, because she didn't want to accidentally learn how to make it. She had been surprised to hear that in his world, he was the tech and dino expert (so to speak, and of course she meant 'prehistoric creatures', not only 'dinosaurs', but that was neither here nor there), and she- or another version of her - was the lizard girl. In Jack's world, she was the techie-genius, and her Connor had been both lizard boy and paleontologist. It was interesting... but thought for another time.

So she hadn't wanted to learn how to make one of his new devices, because she knew how potentially disastrously dangerous it could be, in the wrong hands. She wasn't so sure she wanted to be responsible for something that risky, which would need to be under lock and key and security greater than that of the ARC alone.

Jacks shook her head, rousing herself from her musings. Connor was leaving, about to go through an anomaly and get back to the woman he loved. Hopefully she would get her own Connor back. The world was a little more grey without a Connor Temple around to lighten it up.

...

Abby sat inside an office building and watched the corner of the room. Beside her, on her left, sat a man who looked just like Connor, who had his name, but was not him. On her right, Matt sat, reading a journal.

"Are you sure it's going to open here? And Conn's going to come through?" Abby asked, frowning. "And is this Connor going to vanish when our's returns?" She added. The man on her left looked at her in alarm.

"Wha'?" He exclaimed, looking at Matt now. "I could disappear?!" Matt turned the page in the journal, muttering something. "And whose journal is that, anyway? You're being all mysterious!"

"Calm down, Conn." Abby said, smiling despite herself. He was very much like her Connor, in his tendency to ramble, his enthusiasm, and a variety of other things... but the differences were jarring enough. He sat back, fidgeting nervously. "Matt!" She tried to catch the time traveler's attention.

"Hm?" Matt looked up, and their questions finally connected. "Oh! Ah, well, I might as well tell you. This is our Connor's journal." Abby and alternate!Connor boggled at him. "If you look under his pillow, you'll find one. This is from my timeline."

Abby had comprehension in her eyes, and a hint of suspicion, whilst alternate!Connor just looked puzzled.

"Later, Abby." Matt said. After he glanced at the book, before nodding to himself. "You-" he pointed at the other Connor, "-will have to enter the anomaly at the exact moment Connor does. Luckily he writes it down. If you do it this way, you'll both return to your right timeline."

Abby gazed back at the wall where the anomaly would soon be.

"When?" Her voice was shaky. She had missed him so much, and she knew that this Connor missed his Jackalyn just as much.

"Fifteen minutes from now until the anomaly opens. Five minutes after that on the dot Connor'll step through."

Abby glanced at the alternate Connor.

"Hey, Conn?" He tilted his head. "Tell her how you feel. I know she feels the same, if she's anything at all like me." He blushed. All they had to do now, was wait.