Chapter Twenty-One - Nicole

Nicole turned the television on once they got to the hotel. Didn't even care what she watched. Just scrolled through the channels, letting the sound of the commercials, sitcoms, and television dramas distract her from today's events.

And still, Grace sat beside her on the bed. "You wanna talk about it?"

Nicole had to work hard not to roll her eyes. "If I wanted to talk about it, would I have turned on the TV?"

Grace didn't say anything. Just sat beside her on the bed as they let the brightly colored pictures wash over them.

Except, the longer Grace sat beside her, the more pressure Nicole felt built up inside her. Like she needed to say something or she would explode. Finally, she hit the power button, and the television screen faded to black. "I always wondered what it was like to watch my dad in action. I mean, he was always the guy who would talk about ethical dilemmas or the significance of a particular culture on how we see the world. Today, though, there was this moment—and I could have sworn for a second that it was him. Then, he looked at me like I was a complete stranger."

Grace patted her knee. "That must have been hard."

Nicole shrugged, trying to play off her pain as if it hadn't been a big deal. "Yeah, well, it is what it is. Now, if you wanted to tell me we're going to break into whatever impound lot the secret service have stashed your car in, I'd be all about breaking it out."

Grace pursed her lips. "You think that's the best way out of this? Not to ask permission?"

Nicole stood, too agitated to keep sitting on the edge of the queen bed. "I think we should have slammed that car in reverse the minute we couldn't find our hotel reservations. We knew something had changed, then. We were just naïve enough to think it was of little consequence."

"I was naïve enough, you mean."

Nicole tensed as she looked back at Grace. "I didn't say that."

She didn't seem angry. Just pressed her hands between her thighs as she contemplated their situation. Then, she looked up with a sardonic smile. "All my life I've been afraid. Afraid of the dark because of my dreams. Afraid of losing my family because of how my parents died. Afraid of what the world was trying to tell me by giving me warnings of things I couldn't control. Afraid of what would happen to Jacob or me if someone figured out how different we were. Afraid of losing another family."

Grace crossed her legs, sitting like a small child on the edge of the bed. "Now, I'm here. Sitting across from copies of my parents that aren't quite right. Trying to fix something I don't quite understand."

"And?"

Grace tried to smile, but her brown eyes were sad. "I wasted so much time being afraid. I think if we get out of this. If we get back home, I'm going to see what I can do to unlearn all of that. Because my parents aren't going to be around forever—even in the world I remember them from. I want more than a few snippets of joy here and there."

Nicole's enthusiasm was lackluster. "That's great."

Grace caught her gaze. "Nicole?"

"Yeah?"

Grace bit the inside of her cheek before she spoke again. "I don't think it was a mistake to come here. Painful, yes, but if we'd gone back without some idea of how things had changed—without some of the knowledge we have now—we could have made things a lot worse. Your dad would be the first to agree with us."

Nicole didn't speak for a long moment. Then, she pointed toward the bathroom. "I'm gonna hop in the shower. Then, I think I'm gonna get some sleep."

Jacob met her outside the room the next morning, two cups of coffee in hand. He offered one to her. "What's your plan?"

Nicole took a sip of the coffee, not surprised when it was almost exactly the way she would have prepared it herself. Just a touch cooler than she would have preferred. She wondered how long he'd been waiting for her to exit the room. "Who says I have a plan?"

"Your parents met when your mother stole the Prometheus." Jacob's lips lifted in a smile. "I know you have a plan."

Nicole walked into the hotel's fitness center. "Well, I'm not my mother."

Jacob snickered as he picked up a set of weights from the corner of the room. "I never said you were. Don't get me wrong, I think your mom's hilarious. You're just your own person."

She took a deep breath as she tried to center herself in the martial arts Teal'c had taught her and Jacob when they were growing up. Her mind always seemed to circle back to the podcast host she'd met yesterday. To Jacob in the corner of the room. To her mother, probably still hosting Qe'tesh in some corner of the galaxy.

"Your stance. That's your problem."

Nicole cracked an eye open and glared at Jacob. "I was at those lessons right alongside you, Jake. You can stop pretending like you know more about this than I do."

Jacob dropped the weights back on the shelf. "Never claimed to know more than you do. In fact, I think if I were to take a video of you doing that move, you'd be the first to agree with me. Your feet are a little too far apart."

Nicole dropped her practice and faced Jacob. "Did you need to talk to me about something? Because if you do, I'd rather get it over with so I can get back to what I was doing. By myself."

Jacob was quiet for a long moment. Then, he took up his own stance. "Okay, fine. We'll spar. If I win, you have to tell me what's really bugging you. No holds barred. If you win, I walk out of here, and I leave you alone for the next twenty-four hours. Deal?"

Nicole studied him out of the corner of her eye. "Is that really what you think I want? For you to leave me alone?"

Jacob raised his hands in surrender. "We're still in the negotiating phase here. If you want to switch things up, that's cool with me."

Nicole took a deep breath, not completely sure what she wanted from Jacob. Things had gotten so confusing in the last couple of days, not just with their time traveling and this new timeline, but with him, too. "What do you want, Jacob?"

Jacob gave her the easy smile he'd inherited from his dad as he shrugged casually. Looking at him, it would have been easy to believe he was just a bystander in all of this. "Hey, I already told you what I want. I just want you to get whatever it is that you've got on your chest out in the open."

"You mean, like you?"

Jacob stilled, and for a second, she could have sworn she saw a note of panic in his eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"You're the closest thing I have to a best friend, Jacob. We've known each other since we were babies. There's nothing you can't tell me."

Jacob tried to play the panic off as teasing, lifting one corner of his lips into a half-smile. Another of the expressions he'd inherited from his father. "I wouldn't say that. Pretty sure if I asked you out you'd run the other direction."

Nicole's heart stopped for a split-second. So, she hadn't just been imagining it, this tension creeping between them that she hadn't seen coming. "Do you want to ask me out?"

The look on Jacob's face was hard to read. He just stuffed his hands in his pockets. "That's not really here nor there, is it, Nic? I mean, we've got to figure out this timeline stuff. Until that's sorted out, we really can't afford to get distracted."

She swallowed. "You didn't answer my question."

He studiously examined the mat. "Drop it, Nic. I know it's not what you want, and that's fine. We can just be friends."

The resignation in his expression hurt. "How long have you felt this way?"

He shrugged, still avoiding her gaze. "I don't know. A couple years, maybe."

She blinked. "A couple years?"

He almost looked like he was trying to stifle a laugh at her incredulity, but at least he was looking at her again. "Somewhere around the time you went off on that backpacking trip with What's-His-Name—"

"Stephen?"

He nodded. "About the time you left, I realized I was going to miss not seeing you, but it wasn't until I realized I resented Stephen for tempting you away that it occurred to me I might be a little jealous."

Nicole cracked a smile. If he'd only known... "Stephen was just a friend, Jacob."

"If you say so."

Nicole snickered. "I'm serious, Jacob. Stephen and I kissed once that first weekend away, and it was like kissing my brother. It made the whole trip awkward."

She nudged his shoulder. "I actually kind of wished you'd been on the trip with me instead of him."

Jacob's head snapped up. "You did?"

She nodded.

His eyes darkened in confusion. "But—"

She raised a hand to stop him. "I don't know what we have or what I want right now. Not about this. You were right about that. But when this is all over, I think I'd be in a better place to find out."

Jacob caught her fingers in his and squeezed. "That's fair."

With little effort, Nicole maneuvered herself into a position from where she could throw Jacob over her shoulder and flat on his back. "Now, what was that about my stance again?"

Jacob just laughed. "I'll give you one thing, Nic. Things are never dull around you."

She offered him a hand up, and he took the opportunity to overturn her easily. Her breath trapped in her lungs as he pinned her on the mat. "Like you're any more predictable?"

Jacob smirked as he finally let her up. "Gotta keep you on your toes somehow."

Nicole playfully slugged him in the arm. "Yeah, right. Now, come on. Let's do this for real now."

Jacob crossed his arms and shook his head. "Not until we settle what the winner gets."

Nicole's smile brightened. She may be in a different timeline from the one she'd grown up in, but something told her that things were looking up.