Previously

Bogg and Jeffrey were separated on a voyage. Jeffrey got stuck in the 18th century without the omni, and was enslaved on a coffee plantation. Five years have passed for him before Bogg finally rescues him. For Bogg, however, 21 years have passed, time he spent looking for Jeffrey. Bogg's daugther Kate shows Jeffrey how hard her dad has tried to find him. By accident the two of them voyage to 1963. Kate tampers with the time boundary of the omni so they can go to the 1980s. In 1989 they meet Jeffrey's parents, alive and well. Kate assures Jeffrey this is one red light they do not need to set straight. Jeffrey decides to stay with his parents. When he and Kate say good bye, the omni is triggered.

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Sullivan County, 16 August 1969

This can't be happening. This is not real. He must be dreaming. He did not just voyage. He's still lying on the couch in his folks' apartment, asleep, dreaming. He should pinch himself to verify, or better yet, pinch Kate. Jeffrey gets up, grabs some of the skin of her arm between thum and fore finger and gives it a good twist.

"Aow." Kate pulls her arm back and rubs the sore spot. "What did you do that for?"

"What do you think?"

"No reason to resort to physical violence. That never solves anything."

"If you don't take me back real fast I might resort to strangling, you."

"I can't take you back." Kate jumps a few feet back when she sees the look in Jeffrey's eyes. "It's a red light here. That means that the future from this point is alternate to the future we came from. Don't ask me about the specifics. That's relativity theory and I only understand very little of that. Just that 1989 from here may be different from the 1989 we just left. Did your dad happen to mention anything about Woodstock?"

"It didn't come up." Jeffrey turns on his heels. "It's only fair," he says.

"Fair?" Kate looks puzzled.

"I took you away from your dad, now you took me away from mine."

"We're even?!" Kate tries to figure out whether Jeffrey is being serious or sarcastic.

"Not quite. You also took me away from my mom."

"Yeah, it would prove difficult to get even on that one." Kate pulls her ear. "Look, Jeff, I'm really sorry, very sorry. I didn't mean to trigger the omni like that. I wish I could make up and take you back, but I don't think it'll work."

Jeffrey takes a deep breath. "There's no saying that if we fix the red light here we will be able to get to the 1989 we left. And we don't know whether we will be able to get back to that 1989 from here at all, even if we left right now."

"That pretty much sums it up." Kate is surprised Jeffrey understands this part so quickly.

Jeffrey runs his hands through his hair. Kate sticks her hands in her pockets and just stands around biting her lip. She waits for Jeffrey to make a decision either way. She knows that there is a chance they can get back in the same 1989, but it's a slim chance. About as slim as getting there in the first place.

"All right." Jeffrey stops pulling at his own hair. "Let's first try to get back."

"Okay. Not making any promises." Kate takes the omni and sets the data and location. Jeffrey puts his hand on her shoulder and she presses the button. Nothing happens. "I think we're meant to stay here."

"Try again."

"I've tried again. I've set the date and location, I pressed the button, and all that happened was that the dials reset themselves for this date."

Jeffrey utters a few phrazes he learned on the plantation.

"I do hope you learned some more Mandarin Chinees than just the swear words."

He looks at her in surprise.

"I speak 8 languages fluently and have a working knowledge of 15 others."

"That is quite impressive. Really."

Kate shrugs. "There's nothing else to do on the Island than to learn a lot of foreign languages I'm probably never going to use. But what are we gonna do now the omni doesn't want us to leave here?"

Jeffrey rubs his hands over his face, then throws his arms in the air. "Let's find out why there is a red light here." He starts walking. Kate nods and follows him in silence.