"I thought you didn't believe me."

Emma glanced away, shoving some stray hair behind her ear. "Lately, I've been having trouble believing in you, Adam." She paused. "But I want to go home. Can you get us back?"

Her eyes were frightened, as if afraid of hoping. "I'm not certain," he replied honestly. "Possibly."

"When," she asked, "when do we try? How long?"

"I'll be ready in a few months. Maybe half a year." There were a lot of factors that needed to be accounted for.

Emma nodded. Another few months and this bad dream could all be over. Could she make it that long? She quickly wiped at her face, brushing away fresh tears. She didn't even know why she was crying. She told herself it was because she was happy. She was happy, wasn't she? She sat down on the couch beside Adam.

"How's Brennan?"

She shot a glare at the man. "You mean is he up for it?"

He placed his hand over hers. "I mean how is Brennan?"

She looked from the hand that was gently resting on hers up to his face. He seemed genuinely concerned. "He's... coping." She felt herself tremble. She was nervous. "Even if... If this works and you're right and we get back to our reality, he'll still be blind. Won't he?"

"I'm sorry."

They sat in silence for a moment. "What about Jesse?" He hadn't asked it, so she did.

Adam sighed deeply, squeezed her hand. "Hopefully our Jesse is fine."

That wasn't what she meant. She swallowed at the lump in her throat. "Explain multiple dimensions to me. Just the Reader's Digest version."

"In theory," Adam began, trying to keep from going into a quantum physics lecture, "there are actually infinite planes of existence, alternate realities than the one we currently perceive. In these other dimensions, every possible outcome of every event, every decision, is realized. Some worlds would be almost exact copies of our own, while others are vastly different. It's been theorized that it could be possible to cross from one reality to another by way of something called the Einstein-Rosen Bridge."

Emma held up her hand to stop his speech. "But are these other planes real? Or is it just a figment of our minds? We only think our current reality is here, but it's not actually?"

"No, where we are is very real."

"And this Jesse is real?"

"Yes."

Emma stood up, pushed back her hair again. So they were basically just going to screw this Jesse over? That certainly wasn't acting as though he were real. Adam didn't even seem to want to acknowledge him at all, other than as some form of proof of scientific theory.

Maybe it was easier that way. "This is going to be safe for Brennan, right? Recreating the whole transporter malfunction that brought us here?"

Adam's expression became puzzled.

"Star Trek," Emma said simply. "It's always a transporter accident."

"Ah." Adam nodded. "If it's not an acceptable risk, we won't do it."

"I want to do it," she stated with determination. "So long as you, me, and Brennan get across in one piece. That's all that matters."

"We'll find a way," he assured her.

Emma practically smiled. The three of them would be going home.

-----

Another day passed by, and Emma was lost in her thoughts. She still hadn't decided how and when to tell Brennan. He'd want to know that Shalimar could still be alive, and yet telling him now seemed like jumping the gun. Although, perhaps false hope was still better than no hope at all.

She entered the kitchen to help prepare dinner. Jesse and Brennan were already there, making use of the microwave. So it would be leftover takeout again tonight.

"Hi," she said by means of announcing her presence.

"Hey, Emma," Jesse said in reply.

Brennan remained silent. He, after all, didn't need to speak for them to locate him. He was at the counter, pouring himself a drink. He'd stuck his finger in the cup so he would know when it was full. In his place, Emma probably would have gone for something in a can, but she was glad to see him adjusting so well. He took a sip and frowned, clearly not having the drink he thought he'd gotten. He didn't complain and merely took another sip.

There was a Band-Aid across his freshly-shaven chin. She looked to Jesse who shrugged. "Did you tell him about the white sock?"

"Game," Jesse said quickly. "The White Sox game. They lost, Bren. Sorry, bro."

This time Emma was the one to shrug. Then the microwave finally dinged. She walked over to Brennan, lightly taking his arm. "Come on, I'll walk you to the table."

"I know where it is," he replied, shrugging away from her.

"I wasn't implying that you didn't," she said awkwardly. "I was just offering to walk with you."

"What's next, Emma? You'll offer to cut my food for me?" His tone was frustrated, telling her to back off.

She allowed him his space. "I didn't mean anything by it." She retrieved their meal from the microwave and headed for the table.

Her footsteps were loud, and the charm bracelet neither Brennan nor Jesse could recall her ever wearing before made a tinkling sound as she moved. Brennan sighed, but he was actually grateful for her efforts.

"Hey, Jess."

Jesse glanced over at him. "Yeah?"

"What color is the other one?" he asked.

Jesse didn't insult him by asking what he meant. "It's brown, Bren."

Then Brennan surprised him by starting to laugh, a true laugh for the first time in a long time. "Guess I need to start tying them together."

Jesse let himself laugh also. "You want to know what the hell you're drinking?"

Brennan nodded. "Yes. Please!"

In the other room, Emma smiled, momentarily forgetting that things were supposed to be bad this way. She didn't think about parallel worlds at all during dinner.

-----

That night, Emma was the last to bed again. She walked past Brennan's room and stopped to quietly turn off his light. In the morning, she would turn it back on.

She paused at her own room, but then changed her mind and went to check on Jesse as well. She stood in his doorway, watching him sleep. He tossed ever so slightly, and Emma wondered if the nightmares would ever stop coming.

What happened to him when she and Brennan left with Adam? All because of one little event that he recalled differently. She rubbed her tired eyes. What if she'd just allowed herself to get sucked into Adam's denial? It was convenient, wasn't it? It worked out nicely that Shal and Jesse were the ones who weren't from their reality.

Brennan's blindness was acceptable to Adam, but Shalimar and Jesse were like his children. He'd been absolutely distraught when they'd nearly lost Jesse as well as Shal. And Emma and Adam had both cried when...

Her eyes wandered to the dark silhouette of the wheelchair in the shadows beside his bed.

It would be so much easier to just pretend it never happened. They could just write this version of Jesse off, trade for a new one that wasn't broken.

He'd been Emma's sole friend and support for the last four months. Could she be like Adam and treat him as though he didn't matter? Well, she supposed she had half a year to figure it out.

"Emma." A hand softly touched her shoulder.

She spun, shocked to see Adam standing behind her. "What are you doing here?" She tried to keep her voice low and not wake Jesse. Adam didn't even look at him, only at her and the hallway.

"We need to wake Brennan." His tone was also hushed.

"What's going on?"

"We need to go tonight," he told her.

She didn't need to ask where. "Already? But you said..."

"I've reason to believe we don't need to recreate the gateway," he explained in a whisper. "I think the door is still there. We just need Brennan to act as the key."

"We're going right now?" she repeated.

"If we wait, the bridge between realities could collapse, if it hasn't already." His voice was urgent. Four months had already been too long. "If that happens, we will be faced with needing to recreate it, and without being able to work with the Brennan on the other side, we might never re-establish it, or we might end up in yet another dimension entirely."

"We're going tonight." She sounded like a broken record, except this time it wasn't a question. They were really doing this. Now.

It was time to go home.

-----