Time Capsule

Chapter 11: Tomorrow's Another Day

"What are you doing, mom?" Dante queried as he stepped down the stairs into the basement.

"Trying to- ugh, find something down here," his mother answered as she shifted old cardboard boxes out of her way, "For goodness sake, what is it with this basement, it looks like it hasn't been dusted down here for over a decade."

"And what are you trying to find?" Dante pressed as he sat down on the last step.

Emese stood up straight and cracked her back, "It's for your brother. It's this little metal box about yay big that has 'time capsule' written on the top. I've looked all over this basement and can't find it. I'm starting to think that it's buried somewhere in the back yard. Honestly, the lengths I go to for that boy…"

Dante interrupted her ranting, "Did you look under the stairs?"

Emese turned around to see that her son had just what she was looking for gripped in his hands, "Yeah, thanks honey," she said as she blew a stray hair from her face.

The sound of the doorbell rang throughout the house; "Oh, the guests are here," Emese said, slapping the dust off her arms and legs, "Here, I'll take that, why don't you go up and answer the door."

"Okay," Dante replied before heading back up the stairs.

Lor and Carver waited patiently outside until Dante opened the door, "Hello?" he asked, not recognizing them immediately.

"Hey little man," Carver greeted him, "Remember me?"

Dante narrowed his eyes at him, "Yeah, Carver, you were the guy my sister always called a 'two-timing jerk'."

Lor couldn't help laughing at Carver's expense, "And you do remember me?"

Dante took one look at Lor and his eyes went wide, "… Wait a minute… LOR?"

Lor kneeled down to his level, "Yep, how's my little hellion. My God, look at you! You're like twice the size that I've seen you last! Have you been working out?"

"Aw, yeah, I've gotten stronger," Dante boasted.

"Yeah, well, as tough as you are, you can still get beaten up by a girl," she said as she jokingly began to roughhouse with young Dante.

Emese eventually came to the door, "Dante, why don't you let Lor and Carver in?"

"Can I just let Lor in?" Dante asked.

"Dante!" his mother scolded.

"Alright, I'm sorry Carver," He apologized, even though he didn't really mean it, "Please come in."

As they were let in, Emese excused herself to go get her eldest son out of his room. "How come Dante likes you more than me?" Carver whispered to Lor when they were left alone.

"I don't know, I guess it's because I was his favourite babysitter, and you have a track record for cheating on his sister."

Carver was truly offended, "Hey! Now that's just malicious! Does it mean nothing to you people that I asked her to marry me?"

"Just call it a subtle reminder."

"No one trusts me here. I'll admit, it took some trial and error on my part, but now I know all there is about relationships. And I will NOT leave Moira's side."

"Alright, I'm sorry Carver." Lor sincerely apologized.

"Thank you," Carver smiled. Just then a very melancholy Tino made his way down the stairs, "Hey there T, we would have come here with Tish but all we got was her answering machine."

Tino raised a hand to stop him, "Guys, if you don't mind, I don't want to talk about Tish ever again." And with that he carried himself over to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

Lor watched him then spun her head back over to Carver with a venomous glare in her eyes, "You know all there is about relationships, eh?" She accented by giving him a very unfriendly punch in the arm.

"Ow! Hey! What are you looking at me for? It's not my fault if those two can't get their acts together!"

"You shouldn't have left them alone so soon! Now they'll never speak to each other again, it's impossible!" Lor hissed.

"No. Impossible was me and Moira getting back together again, and I made that happen. Compared to that, this will be a snap."

"Well you'd better start making with your fingers, because this reunion won't be going on for very long."

Carver shook his head. "Lor, Lor, Lor. This is me you're talking to. Carver. The man. Trust me, by the time we part again, those two will be making goo goo eyes at each other. Heck, I bet Tino takes more time off and flies home with her! It's just a matter of--" Carver froze mid-sentence, his eyes getting narrow. "Oh sweet mercy!" He whispered, then cleared his throat. "Uh, guys. I'm really sorry, I just remembered somewhere I have to be!"

"Huh? Carv? Your leaving so soon?" Tino asked, looking confused.

Lor elbowed Carver in the stomach, pushing him into the dining room. "Um, excuse us for just one second." Lor grinned, showing all her teeth. As soon as they were safely out of Tino's earshot, she unloaded on her friend. "Carver! What do you think you're doing! You can't leave me alone with sad, sad Tino all day long! He's so depressing when he gets like this!"

"I know, I know. But trust me on this, it's very important that I leave!"

"Why!" Lor demanded.

"Because if I don't, the whole plan could fall apart!"

"You're serious?"

"Dead serious. Look, just trust me on this, okay? But I've really gotta go, before it's too late!"

Lor scowled, hiding her face. "You owe me so many for this it isn't even funny."

"Hey, if this all works out, it will be more than worth it. Besides, you know how to have fun! There's got to be some way to jolly Tino out of this. I'm sure you'll think of something." Carver poked his head back into the kitchen. "Hey, T. Sorry I gotta motor. Business calls. I promise I'll wrap it up today and make sure the rest of the week stays clear."

"Oh..." Tino seemed rather disappointed, and Carver couldn't blame him.

"I'll make it up to you, I promise. But hey, it's cool, because Lor is gonna spend the whole day with you!"

"She is?" This caused Tino to brighten considerably.

Lor waved hesitantly in his direction. "Yeah..." She laughed nervously. Not that I know what we can possibly do!

Carver made his way for the door when he bumped into Mrs. Dickson, "Whoa, where are you going in such a hurry?" the woman of the house asked.

"Uh, sorry Mrs. D, business calls," and with that he exited the house and drove off.

Emese watched him leave and then closed the front door, "He seems to have a lot of work for such a young man, I hope he doesn't grow old before his time." She then entered the kitchen, "Ah, Lor, will you be staying?"

"For the moment," Lor answered.

"What's in the box, mom?" Tino queried.

"Aw, c'mon, don't tell me that you guys don't remember this thing." Mrs. Dickson smiled. They both looked at her blank faced. After a while, she gave in, "It's your time capsule! Remember? When you guys were twelve."

"Are you kidding me?" Lor jested, "I can't even remember what I had for breakfast."

"Yeah, well, I thought now was as good a time as any to dig this old thing up… except that I was hoping that all four of you would be around to enjoy it."

"No problem, we'll just have to catch Carver when he's done doing what he's doing," Lor said.

"And… what about Tish?" The older woman boldly asked.

Lor looked over to Tino to field this question, but he only sat silently, looking off to the side with a bitter expression in his eyes. Lor bit her lip then looked back towards her hostess, "You know what? You should probably hold on to that for now. We're gonna go out for a bit."

"We are?" Tino asked.

"Sure, you need to get some fresh air. Take you're mind off of… stuff. How's about a movie. I think that 'Deranged Humanoids Ate My House' is playing right now."

Tino pondered for a moment then cocked a smile at Lor, "Sure, why not?"

A little while later, elsewhere in town, a melancholy woman stood at a bus stop speaking with her parents.

"I still don't understand why my Little Sweet Pea has to go so soon." Tish's mother pouted.

"Mama, I told you, I have an emergency teacher's conference that I can't miss!" Tish explained. She knew that the lies were piling up. But she simply felt that she had to leave. She had already caused enough grief for her friends. She even cut off all ties with one of them, and being so condescending to the other two, she was sure that she didn't deserve their sympathy. It was better for her to just slip away; return to her other life before she made things any worse. "I promise that I'll come down and visit more often," She said as she forced a smile.

Her father sighed and shook his head, "Whatever you be doing, know that we are always proud of you, Petratishcovna."

Tish looked over at the sound of a large vehicle approaching, "There's my bus. I'll call you when I land, Bye-bye Mama. Bye-bye Papa." She finished by giving them each a hug and stepping on the bus destined for the airport.

Once she took her seat she looked out the window to watch her parents wave at her before fading into the distance. Afterwards, she sank her head into her seat and closed her eyes. She didn't notice that a familiar face climbed onto the bus at the next stop and sat down right beside her, "And where do you think you're going?"

Tish bolted her eyes open "Carver? What are you doing here?"

"I asked first."

Tish brought the tips of her fingers up to her forehead and rubbed her eyelids, "Isn't it obvious? I'm going back home."

Carver leaned back in his seat, "Ah, that's it. So you think that if you leave now you can't screw things up anymore."

Tish shot him an icy glare, Carver caught the glare and tried to lighten her mood, "You see, at this point, Tino would say something like, 'knock before entering my mind'." He let out a quick laugh then retracted it when he saw that Tish wasn't sharing his humour.

"Are you going to bug me for the entire bus ride?" Tish asked with a lack of amusement.

"Okay, jokes aside. You should get off this bus."

"Why?"

"So that we can sit down at a restaurant and have a nice talk. That, and the longer we sit here, the further of a walk we'll have to get back to where I parked my car."

Tish cocked an eyebrow at him then pulled the cable to signal for the next stop, "Honestly, I don't know how you do it, Carver. Alright, I'll give all of this a second chance."

"More like, you should give yourself a second chance," Carver spoke under his breath.

While they got off at the next stop and made their short trek back to Carver's car, a certain blonde woman stormed out of a movie theatre.

"God, that movie was terrible," Lor complained as she left the theatre part way through the film.

"And you're not just saying that because the usher kicked you out for throwing popcorn at the screen?" Tino smirked as he followed after her.

"It was cause and effect," Lor pointed out, "I threw the popcorn because the movie sucked."

"Right, so what do you want to do now?"

"I don't know. I've got some good movies on DVD back at my place. Want to go watch?"

"Are you sure? Won't it be crowded?"

"Duh, I live by myself now, you know?"

"Oh, right. Sorry, it's kind of hard to picture you in a house without all fourteen of your brothers. What's it like?"

"Paradise," Lor threw her arms up. "You don't know how lucky you are never to have to worry about getting dog piled every time you walk in your door. You had such a lucky childhood."

"Hey, you're the one who grew up with your family intact. I hardly ever get to see my father."

Tino's words set a cold feeling in Lor's stomach, a feeling Tino could see reflected in her face, "Yeah," Lor breathed sadly before turning her face away from her friend.

"W-Wait, Lor! Was it something I said?"

Lor let out a staggered sign, "Let's just say that my dad and I weren't exactly on the best of terms when I left home to go to Europe."

"Wow, I'm sorry Lor, I didn't know."

"Of course you didn't. It was something that I kept from all of you when I left," She shook the melancholy out of her head, "But I'm back in Bahia Bay, right? So I can call him anytime I want."

"But, have y-"

Lor cut him off, "C'mon, you haven't seen my place yet. It's real nice, let's go." She said with a smile as she motioned Tino to follow her down the sidewalk towards her place.

Tino wore a concerned look, "Yeah, I'm sure it is," He said before following after her.

Author' Notes:
Hey everyone, I'm back! Sorry for the long absence, there were several reasons why I didn't complete this chapter much earlier. Firstly, I felt that I needed a break from all this high-strung drama stuff so I turned my attention towards writing my Teen Titans fan fic "In Purgatory's Shadow". Namely because I thought that if I wrote for a busier fandom I'd get more reviews. But ironically, most of the reviews I got for that story had been, well, short and meaningless, basically just telling me to update soon. And to my surprise, I've been getting very meaningful reviews for Time Capsule in the last couple of days. Another reason why this update took so long is because I really don't like how this chapter turned out, and I'm still not 100 happy with it. Actually, this chapter serves as more of a filler, a set-up for the events that will follow. And if you think that the story was dramatic before, just wait until you see what happens next. To wrap up here, yes, I am back to writing Time Capsule… and In Purgatory's Shadow both at the same time. So the next update hopefully won't take quite as long. Later days.