The weeks that followed were a blur of activity and excitement, mostly revolving around Angela's re-kindled relationship with Hadley, but also involving several more visits with JB and Kylin, trips to the park with Gregory and Henry, and a few days here and there spent back in her own time period, to "keep the time pathways fresh," whatever that meant. These days in the twenty-first century were enjoyable, but strange. Although Angela liked spending time with Maria and Leo, keeping in touch with her family, and getting the occasional phone call from one of the Skidmores, she always caught herself looking around for Gregory and Henry, before remembering that they were still safe and sound in the future. Despite knowing that no time at all was passing for them during her excursions to the twenty-first century, she was always glad to come back and see that they were safe and sound.
JB came to visit Angela's apartment in the future one afternoon, looking mildly agitated. "What's wrong?" Angela asked him.
"I just got some news and I'm not really sure how to deal with it," he admitted, picking up one of Gregory and Henry's toys and fidgeting with it. The boys had just gone down for their nap.
"What's the news?" Angela wanted to know.
"The team of analysts tasked with figuring out Second's motives just finished their most in-depth analysis yet," JB explained. "They looked at everything he did regarding his younger self, Rathbone, and the Skidmores. And… me." He sighed heavily. "What happened to me, with the un-aging and my schizophrenia and having been two different people, was unprecedented. No one knows for sure what would have happened if I'd been re-aged at the same time as everybody else, but it's likely that I would have suffered brain damage, or that my schizophrenia would have been permanent and incurable, or that I would have only remembered being Tete. Second was the only one who knew how to cure me safely, using a combination of technologies he'd developed and solutions that were banned by the time agency years ago. But he also would have known—also did know—that that that action would create enough of a disturbance in time that Rathbone would be able to find him, and that upon finding him, Rathbone would kill him."
Angela nodded slowly. "And yet even knowing what would happen, he still chose to cure you."
"Yes." JB's face was haunted. "He gave his life for me. After completely betraying and manipulating and tricking me back in the sixteen hundreds. It doesn't make sense. I thought he…" JB shook his head. "The thing is, I didn't need to be cured in order for time to be saved. You and all the other twenty-first century adults needed to be re-aged, but anything at all could have happened to me, and time would have been fine. The experts all agree that the only reason Second did what he did, the only possible explanation that makes sense, is that he wanted to cure me more than he wanted to preserve his own life."
Angela let that sink in for a moment, imagining herself in JB's shoes. JB had undoubtedly written Second off as an enemy after what he'd done in the sixteen hundreds—the worst of all kinds of enemies, a traitor. But then that "traitor" had sacrificed himself for JB.
No wonder JB felt so conflicted.
"Were you friends, before the sixteen hundreds?" she asked softly.
"I think we were, as much as anyone could really be friends with Second," JB answered, his eyes on the floor. "Sam, as we called him back then, was—I think people from your time period would refer to him as a nerd? Incredibly brilliant, always talked about things that were way beyond everyone else's comprehension, always right about everything. He was a little arrogant, but he had a good sense of humor and, I don't know, a certain quirkiness that made him likeable. He'd been at the time agency for several years by the time I achieved a high enough level of certification to be granted the privilege of having a one-on-one projectionist, and I knew immediately I wanted him. He and I worked together for three years, and every mission we did together was a success, because he was just so good at knowing all the possible outcomes. We hung out in the break room sometimes, and had lunch together, and I trusted him as much as I trust Hadley or Kylin or anyone else. Was that all him manipulating me into trusting him? Or…" He trailed off.
"It doesn't sound like it," said Angela. "I don't think he would have given his life for you if he didn't truly care about you. Maybe he always had secret plans and schemes in mind, but that doesn't make the friendship he had with you any less genuine."
JB nodded slowly. "I guess… maybe you're right. It's just so… I want to talk to him, to thank him, but I can't, and… I don't even know what I'd say anyway. For months I imagined myself saying some very different things if I ever saw him again. So part of me is relieved that I won't ever have to worry about it, but then I feel guilty, because I'm not glad that he's dead, and it just—ugh." He buried his face in his hands, then gave a start as if he'd just remembered something. "Oh! And that's the other thing they discovered. It was necessary for Rathbone to die in order to save time. But there was an alternative way it could have played out, in which Kevin never got un-aged to infancy, and Jordan was the one to activate the command that aged Mr. Rathbone forward and killed him."
Angela realized what JB was implying. "So Second sacrificed himself again, in a way, to spare Jordan the guilt of knowing he'd ended someone's life."
"You could say that," JB said carefully. "And I think that was part of why he went that route. But nothing is ever straightforward where Second is concerned, and we're working on a theory that he might have had a reason for turning Kevin into a baby as well."
Angela couldn't think of a single reason why Second would want the younger version of himself to be turned all the way back into a baby, just to be re-aged and questioned by the time agency. "What's that?"
JB fixed her with a sudden stern look. "You can't share this information with anyone outside the time agency, okay? Not until we're completely sure."
"Who would I tell?" Angela asked with a slight laugh, gesturing around the small apartment. "Oh. You mean when I'm in the twenty-first century," she realized. "That's fine. I won't tell anyone."
"The thing is," said JB. "Second was a mastermind not just at making predictions, but also at programming. My guess is that after Gary and Hodge brought him to this time period, he spent decades in a secret time hollow, learning everything he could about how our technology works. I don't know whether anyone already told you, but the age-changing feature on every Elucidator we've examined is stuck in "off" position, and nobody's had any luck turning it back on."
Angela nodded, remembering Hadley explaining that to her the first day they'd gone to the park.
"That's a change that had to be programmed—not the result of latent energy from the time merge, as we first thought," JB elaborated. "I think Second embedded that change into the command that re-aged you and all the others. The analysts are going to look into that next."
"You think he intentionally made it so that nobody can be re-aged? Or have their ages changed at all?" Angela thought about all the problems that could solve—avoiding what had happened with Second's world, eliminating the possibility that time would end as a result of people being the wrong age, and destroying Interchronological Rescue's entire business model. "But then he'd be stuck as a baby, wouldn't he?"
"Kevin—the thirteen-year-old version—spent some time in a time hollow with Jordan before giving the command that set Second's plan in motion," JB said in response. "The two of them watched Jonah, Katherine, and Jordan's entire childhoods. Then Kevin agreed to help, only after making Jordan promise something."
Angela hadn't heard about this before. "What did he make him promise?"
JB met her eyes. "That he would take care of Kevin the same way he'd care for his own family."
Angela gasped, remembering how Linda and Michael had come over to ask JB about Kevin that night in Rathbone's office. "You think… he wanted the Skidmores to adopt him?"
"It makes sense in a way, doesn't it?" JB asked. "We know that Second/Kevin had a miserable childhood. And the adult Second would have known—and Kevin would have just seen—that Michael and Linda are good parents who really love their kids. And he probably also would have known that involving Jordan so deeply would help bridge the prejudices that Jonah and Katherine would undoubtedly have at first, knowing who the baby was."
Angela let this all sink in for a moment. "So… is that what's going to happen to him, then? He's going to be adopted by the Skidmores?" Just the other day, during a phone conversation with Linda, Linda had asked about Kevin, and Angela had told her that he was still a baby. Linda had sounded slightly hopeful as she'd re-iterated the sentiment that she and her husband were still open to adopting him.
"I'm hoping so," said JB. "There are a lot of legal hoops we'll need to jump through to make that happen, but… I think it would be nice." His face took on an expression of sadness again, and Angela was wondering if he was thinking of Kevin's adoption by the Skidmores as a way of thanking Second for what he'd done for JB.
Suddenly, she thought of something else. "Wait, so if the inability to change people's ages is permanent—does that mean that Gregory and Henry are free to be adopted now too? Will there even need to still be a trial?"
"Nothing's set in stone yet," said JB. "There's a lot that's still being investigated. We'll just have to wait and see how everything plays out."
The thought pervaded in Angela's mind well after JB had left. What if everything with Gregory and Henry was suddenly resolved really, really quickly? If they were adopted… there would be no reason for Angela to stay in the future anymore. She'd be sent home to the twenty-first century, for good this time. Which would be okay, except…
She'd really miss eating dinner with Hadley every night, and staying up late having deep conversations with him. Singing lullabies to Gregory and Henry, playing peek-a-boo with them, listening to their happy babbling and wondering if they were secretly communicating with each other in baby language, taking them for walks though the park with Hadley, having picnics, feeling like a family…
Angela loved her life in the twenty-first century, with her renewed relationship with her parents and siblings, her friendship with the Skidmores and Maria and Leo, and her soon-to-be pilot's license. But she also loved this life. These last few weeks had been perfect, being able to jump from one life to the other without missing any time at all in either time period. She wouldn't mind if things went on like this forever.
But by the sound of it, these perfect days were numbered, and would be coming to a close much sooner than she'd be ready for.