AN: Thanks for the incredible response to this Snowing story! See previous chapter for important authors notes on characters and story notes.
Just a couple of notes for the last chapter and the next few. The Characters of Aaron Glover, the podcaster and Paul and Helen Santino are from Manifest and not Once characters. Another note: In this universe, Killian and Liam are not related, nor do they know one another.
Special Note: By now, those who watch Manifest, will have seen the season 3 finale. I won't say anything else in case someone hasn't seen it, but I can assure you that there will be certain changes. No decisions yet, as I'm kind of waiting to see what happens in season 4, if we get one. But yeah, I'm already gaming out how to get around a certain major character death. Just FYI.
Another Special Note: By now, most of you know that NBC made the horrible decision to cancel Manifest, despite ending season 3 on a terrible cliffhanger. The series creator says he is committed to giving the series some kind of conclusion, even if it just means a wrap up movie or something. No word yet on if anything is happening. However, if it doesn't, I will finish this story and give it some kind of conclusion. Just FYI.
This one will update bi-weekly on Monday nights. Please consider leaving a review, it is much appreciated. Here are individual responses to reviews:
Ghostwriter: Thanks, glad you're enjoying!
Jennifer Baratta: Thanks!
Grace5231973: Yeah, Emma breaking things off will be for the best. Yep, Henry is still a kid, despite his new abilities. Yes, I think there will be a bit of progress soon hopefully. Glad you're enjoying it!
Number Ten: Yes, very particular lightning. Yep, it's definitely a conspiracy of some sort. Yeah, those were cute moments. Glad you enjoyed it! :)
Sexystarwarslover: Yep, Emma and Henry are having fun. Yep, the Captain flew through the storm and now he's suspect. I'm sure Vance doesn't think the pilot is responsible exactly, but the pilot always gets blamed. I agree too...David is handsome. Yep, David is going to be helping Liam. Yep, Henry is going to spend the day with Emma. Yep, that cause of death really makes it suspicious. Nah, it's probably for the best or it will be in the long run. Yep, Liam is trying to recreate that night. Yep, David is a nerd, but a sexy, adorable one. Yeah, the plot thickens and Henry knows David is supposed to help him. Glad you're enjoying it!
AnonSnowing: Yeah, it was a little crazy to fly through that storm. Yeah, I really hope we get a wrap up movie or something. Yeah, I thought Liam made sense as the pilot. Yeah, David is the handsome and charming family chef. Yep, Henry knows that David is supposed to help the pilot. Yeah, Margot/Robin, her niece, though she doesn't know that and has no idea she has a sister out there either. Yeah, Emma is doing the right thing. They made a mistake and she's trying to correct it. Yep, the coverup started when they disappeared. Yes, Margaret and Emma have very different love lives. Yeah, Emma is the cool aunt for sure. Yep, they make a good team. Glad you're enjoying it!
Lightning in a Bottle
Chapter 34: Contrails, Pt 2
David arrived at Liam's apartment door and the Captain opened it, before letting him. David was then amazed to see that the Captain had his own wall, similar to his own, but mostly with articles about the plane, maps, and weather modules. It was a little unsettling and suddenly, he wondered if this is what his family saw when they looked at him. He put that thought aside though and examined what the Captain had. He noticed Glinda was also on his board and at the center of it.
"I was able to locate the meteorologist in the Senate report. He lives on a lake upstate," David said.
"You think he's going to talk to us?" Liam asked.
"I think we have to try. He might be the only one that can give us the actual weather conditions from that night. The ones they are trying to hide," David replied.
"And you still think she's not involved in this?" Liam asked.
"I get why you think she could be, based on her research, but honestly, I think she's been used like the rest of us. Maybe more than the rest of us," David replied. Liam snorted derisively, like he didn't buy that for a second.
"We disappeared for five and a half years, due to this dark lightning and this storm that came out of nowhere and then suddenly, we're all mentally connected and she just happened to be on the plane?" Liam asked.
"Come on David...this is a government conspiracy and cover up. We're lab rats and she was conducting the experiment for them," Liam replied.
"Okay...then let's head upstate and get this guy to talk to us. His name is Roger Mencin," David said.
"Okay...let's go," Liam agreed, as they headed out.
Margaret walked into the break room at lunch time that day, only to find eyes on her again and the chatter ceasing. She rolled her eyes and grabbed her lunch out of the fridge. She was about to leave, but stopped and turned around this time.
"You know...I get that a plane coming back after being missing for so many years is an incredible thing. I get that some people find it fascinating or scary or even think it's sinister," she announced.
"But you know what? It's a miracle to me," she added.
"The man I love, someone I would never be able to get over losing, came back to me," she said passionately, as she teared up a bit.
"And not only did he come back, but so did our son and my sister-in-law. Half of my family came back. Losing them destroyed me. My daughter was the only thing keeping me from giving up completely," she said.
"So you can whisper and gossip about it all you want, I can't stop you from doing that. But for me, it's nothing less than a miracle and my husband is the same incredible person he was almost six years ago as he is today," she added, before storming out. But someone followed her this time.
"Margaret...wait!" Frederick called. He was one of the gym teachers at the school and a longtime friend of theirs. He was married to Abigail, whom they had both known since grade school, since her father was in the same social and financial circle as Margaret's. Abigail had always been kind and they became friends after reconnecting at a staff Christmas party one year when they realized that Margaret's colleague Frederick was married to Abigail, who was an executive at the corporate level of her father's banking chain.
"Listen…I just want you to know I wasn't gossiping with them, but I shouldn't even be listening to it," he apologized.
"No, it's not your fault. It's just hard seeing everyone look at my husband like he's not human sometimes," she said.
"Hey...we don't feel that way about him and I think I can speak for Abigail too," he assured her.
"Then why haven't either of you even reached out to us since David got back? We used to go out together as couples all the time and since the plane came back, not one phone call," she said. He sighed.
"You're right...and that was wrong. We were just giving you time to adjust," he replied.
"No need. The day he came back, I felt alive again and we fell right back in sync," she said. He smiled.
"We should have known. You two were always like that," he said. She hummed.
"It was like half my heart stopped beating for all those years and then the other half restarted when I saw him on the tarmac," she said. He smiled.
"That's truly wonderful and I'm sorry...and we should get together very soon," he said.
"We'd like that," she agreed.
"For what it's worth though...today they weren't gossiping about David so much," he offered, as he walked her back to her classroom.
"Then who were they talking about?" she asked. He winced.
"You haven't seen the Times yet today, have you?" he asked.
"No...why should I?" she asked with trepidation. He sighed.
"I hate to tell you this, but a reporter took pictures of your daughter with a man named Lance Knight. The article says he's her big brother, which he became after the plane disappeared. Apparently, the reporter was only too happy to imply that he may be carrying a torch for you and David's return dashed his hopes. You know, stupid gossip that really belongs in a tabloid and not a supposedly credible newspaper," he said. She sighed.
"Thanks for the heads up. Normally, I ignore this stuff, but if they have gone after my daughter, then that reporter is about to see the wrath of this very irate mother," Margaret said, as she hurried to her computer. Frederick winced and went on his way. If that reporter wasn't a slime ball, he might feel sorry for the storm that was about to be upon him.
"Ha...I won! I beat you, kid," Emma called, as she was victorious in the race.
"Yeah…I guess it had to happen eventually," Henry joked and she moved to start tickling him. But a knock at the door saved him.
"Saved by the bell, so to speak," she said, as she got up and answered the door, finding Aurora Rose behind it.
"Oh...hey," Emma greeted, a little surprised to see her.
"Yeah…I'm sorry that I just showed up unannounced, but I need some help," Aurora confessed.
"Uh yeah...okay, come in," Emma replied, as the young woman noticed Henry's presence immediately.
"Hi," he said. She smiled.
"Hello," she replied, as she took a seat on the sofa.
"So what's going on?" Emma asked.
"Before the plane...I did some stuff. I used to run with people that stole other people's identities and I own what I did was wrong. Except that when the plane disappeared, my so-called friends did it to me and now I'm stuck with a lot of charges for things I didn't do," she confessed.
"Okay...and what do you need from me?" Emma asked.
"Help me find these people? Help me clear my name?" Aurora pleaded. Emma gave her a long look and then nodded.
"Okay...give me some information and I'll see what I can do," Emma agreed. Aurora smiled.
"Thanks," she said, as she noticed Henry drawing in his sketchbook.
"Do you want some coffee?" Emma asked.
"Sure," Aurora replied.
"Can I have cocoa?" Henry asked.
"Sure kid," Emma replied, as she went to the kitchen.
David and Liam arrived at the lake from the information they garnered from the information in the binder. They approached the dock and the man on it by a boat.
"Roger Mencin?" David asked, as the man looked up.
"Yes?" he asked, a tad nervously.
"I'm David Nolan and this is Captain Liam Jones. We were on flight 828. Can we talk?" David asked.
"I'm sorry...I can't help you," Roger said quickly, as he walked back onto his boat.
"Please...we just want to know what happened to us up there and I think you know something," David pleaded. Roger looked at them and sighed.
"They made me swear not to talk about it," Roger said.
"Who? The NSA?" Liam asked. He sighed.
"Look...they made you retire early and they're trying to ruin me too. It has to stop," Liam insisted. David saw how intense he was getting and stepped in.
"I know this is hard...but we just want the truth," David said. Roger nodded.
"Follow me," he said, as he led them inside his lake cabin.
"The lightning that night was unlike anything I had ever seen and I've been in the sky for more than twenty years," Liam said.
"Dark lightning," Roger said, as he poured himself a drink and took a sip.
"Do you think this dark lightning is what catapulted us into the future?" David asked.
"I don't know...but that storm was something to behold. They told me to destroy everything I recorded that night," Roger said. Liam looked down in frustration, but David saw the look on the man's face.
"But you didn't…" David realized. Roger pulled a picture away from the wall and revealed a safe. He opened it and took out a large file, before handing it to Liam.
"Kindly see yourselves out," he requested. They nodded and made their way out.
"I...I didn't think he was going to give us anything," Liam said in surprise.
"Well, you're kind of abrasive," David mentioned.
"Perhaps, but you certainly can turn on that whole I'm a charming husband and father thing. I'm afraid I never had that," Liam replied. David smiled slightly.
"No family?" he asked.
"Oh, I have a wife and son...they didn't want much to do with me before we disappeared so as you can imagine, they have no interest now," Liam replied.
"I'm sorry...that has to be terrible," David said. Liam shrugged.
"It's okay...I've made peace with it. That's why I have to clear my name. Being a pilot is all I have," Liam replied, as they got in his car and looked at photos he had taken on his phone of pages in the binder. David had left the real binder at Emma's for safekeeping.
"Here...this is the real weather readings," David said.
"This is...something. Are you up for another round at the simulator?" Liam asked. David nodded.
"Let's go," he agreed.
Later that Afternoon
"Hey…" Emma answered her phone.
"We found the meteorologist and he gave us the real conditions from that night," David said.
"Really? What was different about it than what's in the binder?" Emma asked. Conversation about the binder caught Aurora's attention and she listened.
"There was something called Dark Lightning that night and we flew through it. Roger said that he was ordered to destroy all his research on it...but he didn't," David said.
"So...what does that tell us?" Emma asked, not quite following.
"I'm not sure yet. We used the conditions on the simulator, but each time it ended with a crash. Captain Jones was pretty frustrated by not being able to replicate and still thinks Glinda is in on everything. I'm going to talk to her now," David said.
"Okay...just be careful," Emma warned, as Aurora pretended not to hear the conversation. She stood up and decided to make her exit. She needed to report in.
"Thanks for talking to me today...I should be going," she said, as Emma saw her off and went back to playing a game with Henry.
Sometime later, Margaret arrived and knocked on the door.
"Hey…" Emma greeted, as her sister-in-law stormed in.
"Whoa...where's the fire?" the blonde asked.
"This is the fire," Margaret said, as she handed her the newspaper.
"One sided romance jilted further by 828 return," Emma read the headline.
"What does that mean?" Henry asked. Margaret sighed.
"It just means that people's fascination with the plane has gone too far, honey, but you don't need to worry," she assured him. That was enough for Henry and he returned to his game, while the two of them went into the kitchen.
"Lance Knight, a volunteer for the Big Brothers and Big Sisters organization first met young Olive Nolan six months after the disappearance of Flight 828 in late 2014. But Mr. Knight's fondness of young Olive soon extended to widow Margaret Nolan, who is the wife of Flight 828 returnee, David Nolan," Emma read and smiled coyly.
"Emma...this isn't funny," she scolded.
"It's not...but this guy should be writing for the National Enquirer, not the New York Times," she said.
"More like the New York Slimes," Margaret muttered.
"Yeah, looks like it these days if this is all the reporting they can come up with," Emma said, as she continued.
"Mr. Knight, a now permanent fixture in young Olive's life, clearly feels slighted by the return of the adolescent's biological father, in more ways than one," Emma read. Margaret rolled her eyes.
"While he denies it, Mr. Knight clearly has been a replacement figure in young Olive Nolan's life and had hopes of being the same for the girl's mother, in a romantic way," she continued.
"That was never going to happen," Margaret said.
"While this may sound like stuff out of a daytime soap, it raises real questions concerning the return of the Flight 828 passengers, and questions beyond just the mystical and mysterious lamentations too," Emma continued.
"The return of the passengers has created social and emotional upheaval in many lives. It's unclear what the ramifications could be on the social level with passengers returning to newly formed families or remarried spouses," she continued.
"Beyond the unbelievable and impossible aspects of the plane's return, it's clear that some of the return passengers were not welcomed back with open arms, like the lucky David Nolan, whose wife didn't move on and welcomed him back with utter elation," she said.
"At least he got that right," Margaret mentioned.
"But the Nolan case is not the norm. While Mr. Lance Knight may be able to move on, there are many out there where their new families and relationships may suffer greatly," Emma concluded and frowned, no longer finding any humor in it.
"Now you see why it's so upsetting," Margaret said.
"Yeah…I officially hate this guy," she spat and the raven haired beauty squeezed her hand.
"He's talking about me...even if he doesn't know it," Emma said.
"Emma...no," Margaret replied.
"If Killian ends his marriage, despite me saying that nothing's going to happen between us again, then it's my fault," Emma stated.
"No...if it ends, then it's because he wants it to at this point. You broke ties with him and so now it's all on him," Margaret stated.
"I broke it off after he cheated on his wife with me. Trust me, MM, I'll be the reason their marriage ends," Emma replied. Margaret was silent at that. She had no experience with this and hated that Emma was probably right.
"I'm sorry...I shouldn't have brought this article up," Margaret said regrettably.
"No...it's okay. There's a lot of people out there that are thinking this. A lot of people wish we would have never come back," she said. Margaret put her hand on Emma's.
"Not me...my whole world restarted when you did. Olive's too," she assured her. Emma smiled.
"I know...this family's love will always be true and solid," she agreed, as they shared a hug.
"We should probably get out of your hair though," Margaret said, as she stood up.
"Nah...it's not like I have anything else to do," Emma replied.
"Then why don't you come home for dinner?" Margaret asked.
"I would...but I need to grab some sleep before my next shift," Emma answered.
"Okay...but promise me you'll get a good meal before you go in," Margaret said.
"I got leftovers," Emma said, pointing at the pizza box and Emma got Margaret's "Mom" look at that.
"Leftover pizza is not what I had in mind for a good meal," she chided.
"Leftover pizza with a side of pop-tarts is a great meal," Emma said, with a cheeky grin. Margaret rolled her eyes.
"I swear...it's easier getting vegetables in Henry than it is in you," Margaret said, as she gathered his stuff.
"Come on Henry...time to go," she called. He put the controller down and got his bag from her, not realizing that he was forgetting his sketchbook.
"Bye Aunt Emma," he said, as they hugged.
"Bye kid…" she called, as she saw them out. Once they were gone, she locked up and went to grab a nap.
David and Liam arrived back at the airfield and the former followed the pilot up to the simulator again. Liam took to the controls and input the conditions from Roger's report from that night into the simulator.
The screen changed to dark clouds and lightning flashed before them.
"Is this what it looked like that night?" David asked in amazement.
"Yes...now we're getting somewhere," Liam replied, as he proceeded to repeat his actions from that night. But he did not have the same success as he had that night, as the simulator crashed.
"Dammit…" Liam cursed.
"That's not what happened at all," he added.
"Well…the simulator isn't going to time travel. It makes sense that it's not going to give us the same results," David tried to reason, but Liam wasn't hearing it.
"Let's go again," Liam said, but after the third time and crash, he tossed his headphones off.
"This just confirms what I thought in the first place," he said.
"What do you mean?" David asked.
"That witch...Glinda Goode. She's behind this whole thing," he reasoned. But David shook his head.
"I don't think so...she helped us," he refuted.
"Oh wake up, David! We're her lab rats! The plane was her experiment and I am getting blamed for it!" Liam shouted.
"Okay...okay…I'll talk to her. She's not going to tell you anything if you barreling in there like a raging bull. But she trusts me," David said. Liam sighed.
"Fine…" Liam agreed, as he stormed back to his car to take David home for the day.