Time Swap

Disclaimer: I don't own the shows!

A/N:

Chapter 21 (The New Memory)

Angelica's seventeen year old, misty eyes slid open and a grown fell from her lips. Her hair was down in front of her face and in her lips. Her body ached, still hung in the air within the time bubble. She'd almost faded away completely, but much to her astonishment, her body had suddenly become that of full flesh. Her bones and muscles had returned! "Finally, I'm back…" She panted and turned her eyes towards the observation screens, whimpering slightly, still trying to conceive what just happened. Her baby was back home, finally safe! "That's all that matters."

Tommy and Gabe truly came through, impressively so, but now they just needed to figure out how the hell to get her out of this bubble! She still wanted to kill Jonathan once she got out of here, but that would have to wake. Her memories had changed a slight bit, and it would appear that everyone knew of her. Instead of the old memory that had been completely erased, a brand new memory overtook her mind. Considering she no longer had to fight a fading existence, she could freely let these memories play for her with no risk of trauma.

Two months shy of her sixteenth birthday, Angelica Pickles, scrambled through her attic, looking through old storage boxes of the items that reminded her of her mother. Her dad wasn't doing so hot these days, but then, his health had been failing him since her mom's death. Now there was a chance Jonathan may get out of prison in a few months. This scared the hell out of her, since that man had been after her ever since she could remember.

It was a distant memory, but she could vaguely recall stealing something from his office and pissing him off. She turned her eyes to a small cardboard box and hummed, smiling gently as she reached for it. "I wonder if I put Cynthia in here. I can't even remember what I did with her…" Since her mother's passing, she'd put Cynthia away and focused solely on her father. She still wanted to see Charlie, desperately wanting to love her daughter, but she'd been too scared to interact with the Duncan family. What would she even say? Would they judge her for having had a baby at such an early age?

Susie often checked up on Charlie for her, albeit through her cousin Ivy. Ivy wasn't completely knowledgeable about Charlie's situation, but that was fine.

Angelica pulled the box over and started to open it. The scent of pine touched her nose, filling her with a pleasurable feeling. This was Cynthia's box, of that she was sure. After all, she put a pine air freshener in the box to give Cynthia a feeling of home. Sure enough, inside the warm cardboard was the nonchalant face of her childhood doll looking up at her. She grinned and carefully pulled her from the box, holding her close. "I found you, Cynthia!"

In some ways, this doll reminded her of her mother, as her mother was the one who got it for her when she was a little baby. When she was thirteen, he nearly lost the doll, but Susie and Harold helped to get it back. It was a difficult effort, but she never gave up. There was something to this doll that she wasn't sure of, as if Cynthia had some important message to give to her. She could feel a pull towards her.

She heard Harold and Susie calling her from below and quickly descended the wooden ladder that led down from the attic. Cynthia was close in hand. Excitement flooded her veins as she charged into her living room and sat down with the doll. Her home wasn't much, ever since her mom died, she and her dad had to move into a much smaller apartment. Even now, with her dad's failing health, they could barely afford this apartment.

Harold and Susie walked over to her, and Harold's eyes landed on the doll. "Is that what you were looking for?"

"I guess, I just felt like I should bring her out of her box." She shrugged her shoulders and gingerly smoothed her finger along Cynthia's coarse hair. Her heart started to break as tears began to fill her eyes, much to her chagrin. She'd become an emotional wreck ever since she gave up her baby, and the reason she put Cynthia away to begin with was a void that the doll couldn't fill. "I still want to see my baby…I miss my mom, my dad's not getting any better, and I'm sitting here alone with a childhood doll. I hate it…"

"You're not alone," Susie remarked, "You have us." She scoffed and closed her eyes. As if they made her feel any better. There was nothing she had against them, but even they couldn't fill the void within her. She wanted to be a mother, ever since she gave Charlie up, she wanted to be there for her. Yet, she couldn't. "I know you want to see your baby, there's no reason you can't try to make yourself known to that family."

"No I can't, they wouldn't want me around." Susie and Harold sat beside her, with her in the middle, and put their hands to her shoulders. She glared down at Cynthia and moved her fingers along the top of the doll's dress. "You know…I've always wondered why her shirt's glued to her back."

"You never looked to find out?"

"Never cared to." She may as well look, what was the harm? She needed something to get her mind off thinking about her daughter. It annoyed both her best friend and boyfriend, Harold, to no end. Every day almost, she thought about Charlie, and every night she wished to see her. She never wanted to take Charlie away from the Duncan family, she wouldn't dream of doing that, because the little girl made them so happy! "I guess I can take a look, I just don't remember gluing her dress like that."

"You must have, no one else ever had her, remember?"

"True…always thought maybe it was Tommy or Dil, or one of his friends that did it." She started tugging on the dress, grunting as the entire thing was stuck to her back, save a small portion in the middle. After a few extra tugs, she finally managed to tear the dress from the glue. Her heart sank down as a glaring tear taunted her. "Great, the dress is messed up now…"

"It's old, but I'm sure you can buy new doll clothes for her."

"They wouldn't be Cynthia originals though." She muttered and carefully removed the dress, groaning at the now nude doll. She could hear the distinct sound of paper crinkling inside, and pushed her finger through the neck hole. Feeling a piece of folded paper was startling to her, so she quickly turned the dress inside out and stared down at an old, brownish sheet of paper. "What the hell?" Upon seeing the paper, she could distinctively remember gluing it there when she was extremely young. Her eyebrows rose and she began to unfold the paper.

"What do you think it says?" Harold asked.

"I'm not sure…" Much to her surprise, when she went in to read, she recognized it as that of her own handwriting from when she was only four years old. It was barely legible, but still written well enough for her to tell what it was saying. "It's…it's a message for me, from me…"

"Angelica, you might not remember going to the future, but that's not important. One day you're going to have a baby and give her to a wonderful and loving family. She will miss you…be a part of her life, the family won't judge. They're nice. You'll be happy, and so will your family, and the Duncan family…"

Tears welled up in her eyes, her lungs deflated and her stomach flipped in place. How could she have written this? How could she have known about any of that? Susie and Harold were speechless. "Angelica?"

"W-What?" She let Cynthia fall towards the floor. Her chest ached for her to release a cry, but she fought against it. She moved her hands to her eyes and shook her head. "I don't know what…all that means…how could I have written that?" She did remember bits and pieces of going into the future, but she always thought it was a dream.

She remembered a drawing that she'd done, of two girls in a time stream and their families on the outside edges. Above was a sad angel, and below was the demon responsible. "Charlie would be two years old now…I wonder how she'd be if she got older and didn't know she was adopted, or who you were. Maybe she'd go along without even caring, or maybe she would wonder, but never know. Is it worth it to you for her to never know you? All you've been is sad and depressed these last few years, maybe actually being a part of her life would make you happier…"

"Maybe…"

A few days later, after intensive thought over the note she'd found scribbled on Cynthia, Angelica was carefully making her way towards the front door of the Duncan home. Beside her was Susie, Harold hadn't been able to be there. They'd talked with Ivy, who spoke with the Duncans, who in turn were able to tell Charlie about her. She'd even been able to speak with Charlie over the phone! It was a relief to hear her voice.

Now, however, she was a ball of terror waiting to go off like a firecracker. How on earth would she be able to go in there and know what to say? She looked to her right from the porch and smiled nervously at the elderly woman at the house next door. The lady was watching her closely. She jumped when she felt Susie's hand on her back. "You're going to be all right Angelica. They're happy to meet you, remember? Ivy said that…"

"I know, I'm just..I don't know what's going to happen. I'm scared." She took a deep breath and whimpered at the door. Much to her astonishment, Susie reached over and knocked for her. She screamed out once and quickly grabbed Susie's arm, leaning close and speaking with a frantic voice. "What did you do? I wasn't ready! They're going to kill me, Susie…" Susie looked at her with an arched brow and shook her head.

"They're not going to do that. Ivy said they weren't judgmental."

"I know! But come on, I was thirteen when I got pregnant through that jackass. Fourteen when I had a baby. Everyone judges that! They'll call me a slut, they'll call me names. They're judging me, I know they are!" She didn't hear the door open, and continued her rant, stopping only when she heard a mature woman's gentle voice embracing her eardrums. She slowly looked over, whimpering at the mother of the family, and a taller girl that she recognized as Teddy.

"We don't know you," Amy said with a subtle smile. "We don't know what happened, so why would we judge you? What we do know is, you're the girl that gave Charlie to us, and you deserve to be a part of her life." Angelica was amazed, and a bit surprised. She didn't know of anyone that would be willing to accept someone who got pregnant at such an early age. Her eyes flooded with tears as Amy turned sideways and called into the house. "Charlie, she's here."

"My B-Momma?" Charlie's voice tantalized her, enchanting her ears as a sweet melody. She put her hands to her chest and gazed in at the small girl standing behind the two, close to the couch. Charlie had a stuffed bunny in her left hand. She was rubbing her eye with her right hand. The young girl looked up at her and gave her a timid smile. "Hi."

She'd become such close friends with the family now, and they accepted her as though she was their own. She'd been seeing Charlie almost every weekend at this point. It wasn't a lot, but it was a start. Charlie knew her cousins Tommy and Dil, along with Uncle Stu and Aunt Didi. Even Grandpa Lou enjoyed taking Charlie on his hiking trails with his grandkids. Angelica also would go on vacation with the Duncan family from time to time, and Teddy was of course, her best friend aside from Susie.

Teddy never pressured her about the guy who got her pregnant, Spencer. Even when she started to date Spencer, Angelica never wanted to say anything. Teddy had been beginning to pick up the hints, though, considering Angelica avoided him at every turn. She did tell Teddy nearly two months ago, and ever since, Teddy had been trying to do well just dating him without feeling entirely awkward.

From the observation window in this bubble, she'd seen many things happen that terrified her. She wasn't sure what she was going to do about her dad, or who she was going to stay with. In fact, a changed memory now was that Bob and the Duncan family, minus Amy, went to meet with the Pickles family at the Java Lava to discuss her living arrangements. She simply could not afford to live in that apartment while trying to go to school.

She wanted to blame Jonathan, but he wasn't directly responsible, so she couldn't. He may be trying to kill her by putting her in this bubble, but she would get out. One way or another, she would get out, and she would tear him limb from limb.

He was not taking away her happiness again. "Come on Tommy, Gabe, everyone…" She breathed in deep and tilted her head back, bellowing out. "Get me out of here!"

Well what are your thoughts? Of course some things have changed, and over the chapters I'm trying to ease into the fact that things are a bit different. Namely, Angelica's now involved in the Duncan family's life.