A/N: After the recap, I'm going to take it back a few moments in the story, so we can follow Nikki after she leaves her room and find out what happened to her.
Disclaimer: not mine, will never be mine, I'm not trying to say it's mine, please don't sue.
Ch. 7: We All Have Things We Aren't Proud of In Our Past
Recap: "Yeah, don't ravage the poor guy, Spot," Marshall called to Nikki.
"Oh, you know me, Marshall," Nikki teased.
"What did you just call him?" Lucas asked.
"I called him Marshall, isn't that his name, Lucas?" Nikki replied.
"Yeah, it is, it's just... never mind," Lucas answered, a chill running up his spine as he realized that the person he was talking to was not Nikki and praying that they didn't realize yet that he knew.
Then another thought passed through his mind that made his blood run cold. If that is not Nikki, then where was she?
As Nikki walked down the steps she could faintly hear Lucas' voice, but she could not make out what he was saying, so she just kept walking.
"If I were my book, where would I be?" she thought aloud, mentally reviewing where she had last had it, subconsciously slowing her decent of the stairs. "I know I brought it with me out of English, and then in Math I read it after the quiz, and put it back in my bag, and in science club Z was late, so, I took it out while we were waiting, and I... I didn't put it back after club," she finished, turning in the direction of the science room.
When she got to the door, she was almost shocked to see Tyler in the door, holding the door just open, so he could just peek inside.
"Spying on Professor Z, Jessup?" Nikki asked.
When she spoke, he jumped a little, and shut the door quickly behind him.
"Jeez, Nicks, you startled me. Where is your little posse?" Tyler asked, moving in front of the door.
"There are back in my room, why?" she shot back, starting to get a little suspicious when he kept shifting as though to better cover the door.
"Just curious. Professor Zachary is not here, by the way," Tyler said, his nervous and abrupt tone setting off warning bells in her head.
"I know," she spoke, trying not to alert Tyler that she knew he was hiding something. "I'm left my book in here, after club this afternoon, and my friends don't want me to fail English," she finished.
"Yeah, that sounds like the science club. Well, just wait a moment, and I will get it for you," he said.
"My eye you will, I'm not invalid, I will get it myself, unless of course you have a reason for not wanting me to go in there," she replied.
After checking his watch, he nodded to himself, opened the door and said, "No, no reason, go ahead."
"You are acting really weird, Jessup, you know that?" Nikki asked, edging past him through the door.
"How so?" he tried to sound nonchalant, as he followed her as she walked to the desk.
"You just seem like you don't want me here, like you think I'm going to see something you don't want me too," Nikki noted.
"What gave you that idea?" he asked, almost pulling off an airy tone.
"Nothing," she replied, reaching the table and picking up her book.
"Ok, well, you have your book, shall we go then?" he asked, and she could tell he wanted to get her out of there as soon as possible.
"What are you hiding, Tyler? You know you were never good at keeping secrets. Especially not from me," she chided.
"Oh, you know me, Nick. If it's not one thing, it's another," he said in an almost sad tone.
"You are right, Ty, I do know you. I know you well enough to know that you are trying desperately to get me out of this room without actually having to throw me out. And I also know why, so I am going to ask you two things, one, what are you trying to protect me from and two, what do you think gives you the right to protect me any more? You gave up that right, remember?" she asked.
"I've said it once and I'll say it again. You know me Nick. I'm a glutton for punishment. But I bet you five dollars that you don't actually know why," he spoke.
"You arrogant child, always the martyr, aren't you. Always the one who has to come out of the relationship hurt. And I do know why, you are scared of what I will see, that you won't be able to explain it. But as I've said, you have no right to protect me anymore, you gave that right up. So I would like you to answer my questions, before I lose my patience," she said through clenched teeth.
"I am trying to protect you from something you aren't ready to handle, and I promised you a long time ago that I would always protect you , and that is a promise I intend to keep, Nicola," he replied.
"Don't you call me that. Do you know that it used to mean something to me when you called me that? Now it just makes me cringe," Nikki spat.
"You don't mean that, Ne," he said, referring to her by one of his old nicknames for her.
"Don't you tell me that and call me that, I have moved on, Tyler. We all have things in our past that we aren't proud of, and you are my past. The Ty I knew is dead to me, you are dead to me," she spoke louder.
He started to pace a bit as he said, "So, that must mean you have moved on. Who is the lucky guy, huh? Someone from home, maybe Raj? He is cute, blue eyes, dark hair, I see a pattern. Or maybe Pete, the oldest friend, defender, confidant. Or maybe it is someone here," he said, stopping mid-pace, to look at her. "You have a thing for Lucas. And it is more than just proximity and lack of options. You like him. A lot. How cute. Have you told him?" he asked in a bitter tone.
"What business is it of yours?" is what she would have said. Unfortunately, the vortex chose that moment to open.
Before she had time to think, Tyler emerged. She did a double take as the papers that had been disturbed settled to the ground. Nikki voiced the first thought that came to her mind. "Good lord."
"What is she doing here? Since when has it been policy to bring old girlfriends to jumps?" Tyler #2 asked.
"Look, I tried to change it, but like they said, some things can't be changed. Lucky for us, I came prepared. Once you get her down stairs, you will have to get the rest of the science club quickly. We will start with Lucas, he will be alone shortly after I get up there. Wait five minutes in the basement, then come up and help me. Once we are done with that, we have a lot of work to do, and we can't have any accidents this time," Tyler #1 trailed off realizing that Nikki was still in the room.
Nikki finally seemed to find her voice again. "What does that mean?" she asked, the shock of seeing two Tylers melting into fear at his words.
"Don't worry, Nick, you will be fine, I am just trying to make enough the same that I know what will happen, but change the outcome. Night night," Tyler replied, pushing a button on his watch and Nikki fell over unconscious.
A/N: I know, most of that came out of left field for some of you, but if you pay attention to what Nikki says when they ask Nikki about why she does not like Tyler it fits. And most of the time travel stuff is based on my belief of what would be possible if Copernican time travel were possible. For those of you who don't know, there are two theories of time travel, Ptolemaic and Copernican. Ptolemaic is the belief that when you travel thorough time, you stay in place, but the world goes back to the place it was at that particular time. In Copernican time travel, you and the world travel together. Next chapter you will find out more about that theory. Oh, and by the way, Tyler's nickname for Nikki, Ne, is pronounced the same way knee is.
Next chapter: the science club finds themselves in a bad situation.
