Time Swap

Disclaimer: I don't own the shows!

A/N:

Chapter 10 (Rules of Time)

Charlie walked with the group of babies, still lost and confused, but steadily feeling better about her current predicament. No one had picked her up just yet, so no one seemed to wonder who she was. Assuming she looked like her birth mother, then she may as well pretend to be her. Tommy being her mother's cousin, which made him her cousin, was fantastic! They didn't ask her anything about the future, probably because they didn't want to, or they didn't think she'd know that much, given her age. What they were doing was telling her a lot about her birth mom, which made her extremely happy.

"Angelica might boss us around sometimes, but she's really not that bad," Tommy said with a smile. "I bet she would love to meet you." Charlie bowed her head for the moment, holding back on some of her own tears. She still didn't understand the whole purpose of adoption, or why things were the way they were. She wanted to know why she couldn't be with her mother, and that was the one thing these babies couldn't tell her. "I think it's strange that she'd have a baby and would give her away, don't you, Chuckie?"

"Something really bad must have happened," Chuckie replied, gasping in shock. He put his hands over his mouth and whined. "Oh no, poor Angelica." Charlie raised an eyebrow at him and Tommy slowly shook his head. Susie laughed and put her hand to Charlie's shoulder.

"I know Angelica," Susie withdrew her hand and continued walking with her. Tommy followed close behind, leaving the others to fend for themselves. "Seeing as how she takes so much pride in Cynthia, I believe she would make a loving mommy in the future. Obviously I don't know what happens, but I'm sure she wouldn't just give you to another family without a good reason."

"She might make bad decisions," Tommy remarked, "But she really cares for all of us." If there was one thing she wanted to take from all of this, she wanted at least to remember some of it. She probably wouldn't, but one could dream. "Since you're back here in the past, does that mean things might change later?" She hadn't really thought about all that, to be honest.

"My brothers watch a lot of television, and I know there are some time shows they watch." Charlie tapped her chin and hummed. "I've heard something called 'butterfly effect', but I don't know what it means exactly." Susie jumped and raised her right hand, catching Charlie's attention, startling her. "You know what it means, Miss Susie?" She liked to say 'Miss Susie' because to her, Charlie remembered her as a grown woman and her birth mom's friend.

"I heard that term used in regards to something my sister watched. It means that there's a chance if you go back into time and step on a butterfly, it could send some rifting effect throughout the future!" She extended her arms up and Charlie's eyebrows rose curiously. Her heart began racing as she pondered this statement. If you change the smallest thing, it could create disastrous changes to the future. Tommy stopped walking at that, and stammered at Susie.

"Does that mean the future's going to be different now?" Tommy fidgeted and Charlie's heart began to drop. A good point, considering she was here and her birth mom was where she needed to be. In this case, why was she still alive? She could at least understand how severe it was that her birth mother was not around to give birth to her in 2009.

She heard two older voices enter the room and glanced up to see a blue haired man and another man with curly blonde hair. The two were speaking about some sort of project they were working on, though the blonde gave her a really bad vibe. "Who are they?" Tommy smiled and pointed at the two men.

"That's my daddy, and my Aunt's assistant." By Aunt, he must have meant Angelica's mother. In which case, her birth grandma! Maybe the assistant would take her to see the woman. Tommy pointed to the blue haired man, further detailing just which of the two men was his father. "The blonde is Jonathan, he works for your mom's mom."

"He scares me. I don't trust him." Tommy chuckled and insisted that Jonathan wasn't a bad guy, just stressed out. His reassurance wasn't all that comforting to her even still, considering the look in the man's eyes lacked patience and seemed full of exhausted anger. She rubbed her arm and looked over to Tommy and Susie. "I'm not sure. I mean, my instinct's never been wrong before, but…"

"I wonder," Susie tapped her chin and looked up to Jonathan and Stu, "My Nan-Nan used to always say, before she passed…If something doesn't feel right to you, don't ignore the feeling. If you're so sure that Jonathan scares you, there must be a reason." There was a reason, and she was slowly realizing it.

"I think…" Everything had gone by so quickly that she almost missed it, but she knew him from before. She'd seen him. In the car at the stop sign, Jonathan was sitting there, book in hand, watching her being chased by the older guys. A soft gasp left her lips and she slowly stepped back. "I saw him. He was there when the time thing opened up. He was reading some sort of book, his lips were moving also, but no one was with him…" The device worked though, so that was what sent her back. What was Jonathan doing, then? "Was he responsible for something?"

"I wouldn't know," Tommy answered, "I've never seen him do anything bad." Maybe he wasn't bad, in the past. Maybe he became bad, she didn't know. The feeling inside of her told her to run, to stay away from Jonathan. "Let's see what he and Dad are talking about…"

They were holding a round object, one that was familiar to Charlie. It was the device! "Come on Jonathan, why won't you let me hold on to it?" Stu asked with a begging whimper. Jonathan huffed and pocketed the object. "I could make some touches to the design."

"No! It is fine as it is," the man responded. "I would like to work further on it, but alone. I have the blueprints, I will give it to you later, but as a toy. I'm welding it shut."

"Aw, but why, I want to go back and see my mother."

"Fine…maybe I'll let it work." Jonathan peered down at the device and narrowed his eyes. "I can tell you everything about this, it is not a mere toy, Pickles. You have to be responsible with it. There's no risk to anyone in the past, no chance of them coming to the future or anything, but if you go to the past…be careful what you do. If you go back in time, you risk changing the way things are in the future. I've only traveled in time once before, but I don't dare mess with it."

"So you do know how it works!"

"Yes, but not with this device…other times I've invented machines for time travel, they wound up being destroyed when I've returned to the present. It's a cruel thing, really." This man knew about time travel? Charlie was intrigued! Maybe he could get her back to her real time. She wanted to ask his help, but at the same time, there was that deep sensation in her gut that told her to stay away from him. She didn't want to die, in the past. In other words, before she was born!

"So what happens if your device breaks down before you return to the present?" Stu was rubbing his upper lip and frowning at the invention. His eyes held a deep longing, a passion to continue working on the invention and to improve it, to make it work. He reached for it, but Jonathan swiped his hand behind his back and narrowed his eyes.

"If you get stuck in the past, I'm not sure, but I assume nothing will happen to you and you'll just age. Unless something happens to your parent, of course…If your parent dies before you were born, then you will continue aging until you reach the day and year of your birth, in which you will die when you reach the exact hour of your birth. If someone who was born on July 12th, 1986 at ten A.M. goes into the past and remains after something happens to their parent, they will die at ten a.m. on July 12th, 1986."

Charlotte froze and cupped her hand over her mouth. Suddenly the entire world grew bleak. Tommy and Susie put their hands on her shoulders, understanding the scenario, as they all knew the situation. A lump formed in her throat, her hands grew clammy, and fear gripped her like the devil's hand at her throat. If Angelica wasn't returned to the present, that meant she would never be born, in which case, if she aged until 2009, she would most certainly die. She began to whimper as Jonathan's cold, unfeeling eyes moved towards her.

"All right kid, your mother wants you home, so…" He had a nonchalant tone and a posture that seemed to state he cared absolutely nothing for her. Was this the man that was trusted with her mother? Seriously? She took a shaky step backwards as Jonathan raised an eyebrow her way. "What? It's time to go, so let's move. I have no mood for shenanigans…I'd rather not lose my job thanks to you. God knows that wench would love to do me in."

"Don't talk about grandma that way," she whispered. She didn't want to scream it out to where he would understand that she wasn't Angelica. At the same time, she knew she couldn't attempt to change the past, so she'd have to go with him, but she desperately wanted to run the other way. She leaned in towards Susie, still whispering. "If I run, how badly do you think that will affect the future? You know, my time?" Susie shrugged her shoulders and looked over to Tommy.

"I know one thing," Tommy started, "From how you talked about your brother, and then there's myself…sounds like everyone would do whatever it takes to get you back. So in other words, you'll be safe in the long run, I'm sure of it." Charlotte cleared her throat and slowly stepped forward, trusting Tommy to his words. Gabe would come for her, she knew he would. He may be tough, but inside, he had a good heart. She clasped her hands at her waist and spoke with a sweet tone in her voice.

"How do you know so much about time travel?" Jonathan raised an eyebrow and scoffed. Stu also questioned it, the man had no choice but to answer.

"I've tested some of my inventions, but mostly with lab rats. I used to be a scientist before I got stuck working for this kid's mother. Got laid off, fired for my 'strange' experiments." Ah, so he was the mad scientist type? Was this like the Frankenstein movies that Gabe watched? Horror movies terrified her, to be honest, but never when she watched with her family. With family, she knew she'd be safe. Just like now, she wanted to stay with Tommy and her Grand-Uncle, Stu, because she felt safe with them.

"Can Uncle Stu or Tommy come with us?" Jonathan raised an eyebrow and began grumbling. "Pretty please, I promise to be good?" Hopefully there was nothing so crucial that them coming along would change anything in the future. Though, she was sure her being here and her birth mom being gone, already would begin making changes to the future and altering the things that people remembered.

"Fine, I'm sure Charlotte would enjoy seeing her nephew." Charlie looked over to Tommy and frowned, he had his eyes closed and appeared to be snoozing. Though, his face was twitching. After a few seconds, Tommy opened his eyes and shook his head.

"Whoa…" Susie put her hand to Tommy's shoulder, asking if he was alright. He nodded and smiled back, then moved up next to Charlie. "I'd love to go. Also, I'm not exactly sure what just happened Charlie, but I think I had a daydream…Angelica was a lot older and I think she wanted me to stay with you or something, so…not sure what it means."

Charlie was ecstatic to have her cousin by her side, to where she knew nothing bad would happen to her. She turned back to Jonathan and bounced happily. "Okay! We're ready!"

"All right fine, let's go then. I'll just ask Didi and see if she wants Tommy along with you." She could see in Tommy's eyes, there was no way he was leaving her now. She didn't quite understand where that was coming from, but she was glad for it. Maybe her mother was somewhere, wanting to protect her. With someone like Jonathan, she could imagine why that would be the case.

As the men walked off, Charlie turned to the others and held her hands out in question. "How often does my b-mom hang around here?"

"Pretty often," Susie keenly replied, "Her mom's almost always working, and Drew tends to be on business trips also, so this is usually the place to be."

"Oh…" Well, she hoped at least she'd be able to see her B-Grandma. She wanted to get to know the woman, especially considering she had a feeling she might not get the chance later.

What do you think of this chapter? Some explanation, Jonathan in the past already seems to be a scheming bastard, wouldn't you think? Present-day Angelica can't do much in that bubble, but you do see she has some sort of influence, albeit a tiny bit.