"I never knew,
I never that everything was falling thru;
That everyone I knew was waiting on a cue
To turn and run,
When all I needed was the truth..."

'What?' she whispered. She didn't move.

It couldn't be true...

It was fear, fear that kept her from feeling it was that it wasn't true. Hoped it wasn't true.

And she couldn't move. Her whole body felt to be frozen in place. Her throat felt completely dry, aching like sand.

She couldn't move.

When she spoke, no words came out. Her throat was as dry as cotton. She swallowed again roughly. Her feet felt rooted in the ground.

Tayoncé opened her mouth again, and this time words came out. "W... W-what...?"

"Look, I'm very sorry," Tallulah spoke sincerely. "But there was no other way..."

Tayoncé's vision swam. Her body felt to be tilting slightly.

Gaston interrupts. It was either you or them..." He then thought about his answer and tried to soften the blow. "Not to be rude or anything..but... We had to—-it's our…job."

From behind the next corner, Wilbur's was shocked. It was more from the fact that his two cousins actually had a job, and one this serious. Then their words sunk in and he was hit with a different kind of surprise.

When you thought about it, keeping a secret this big wouldnt be hard in their house. Everyone kept to their own and if no one asked, no one would tell.

But what job? For all Wilbur knew, Gaston hadn't had one since college and Tallulah had barely had one since she's started college, and this is her last year.

Where they were in the house, it was absolute quiet and time felt to have stopped, except for the sound of Billie's train. Wilbur peeked around the corner. His cousins were speaking just above a whisper and it was difficult to hear. Billie, who had been on the other side of the room, had paused and looked over. Catching that whatever conversation this was, was very sensitive, she left.

"What..." Tayoncé didn't even hear herself utter the word. She continued looking down at her feet.

Tallulah looked at her uncle. This was becoming too intense, she whispered to him. It didn't feel right, suddenly, almost like they were stealing.

He shot a look at her. You just thought of that? his face seemed to say. What a time to grow a conscious now.

Tallulah flinched. Gaston had never been so serious before, at least not as intense as this. And she wasn't used to this side of her relative that she's rarely seen.

"..Why...?"

The two turned to the small girl. She seemed to suddenly be interested with her shoes.

"Why what?"

Tallulah felt like she could have melted when Tayoncé looked up at her. Tallulah felt like she was looking at a baby—a helpless and innocent. Tayoncé didn't know what was going on; all she wanted was to go home.

"Why did they die...?" She managed to choke out in a whisper then swallowed the lump in her throat. "What did they do... What...what went wrong..."

The two Robinsons blinked. "They didn't do anything wrong, exactly..." They then saw her eyes beginning to water.

"I don't think now's the time to be discussing this..."

"Is everything alright?" Billie asked, concerned. She had poked her head back inside The Train Room, checking on them just in case.

Tallulah almost jumped at suddenly hearing her aunt behind them. She forced a smile, ready to lie once again.

"Nah, everything's fine," Wilbur sauntered towards them.

Gaston's eyes widened and Wilbur could tell that he was angry, and like Tallulah, jumped a bit.

Billie turned away, departing once again.

"Now why don't you think she should know about her own home?" He shoved his hands in his pockets, eyeing both his cousins.

Tayoncé watched him from out the corner of her eye, face still turned downward.

Wilbur turned to Tallulah and blurted another accusation. He knew he was venturing into dangerous territory by questioning authority. He didn't listen to his cousin's warnings either, nor his uncle's annoyed glare.

"You don't think she has a right to know about her…family? Something you two obviously should know nothing about?" He smirked toward Tayoncé.

"Wilbur, this is none of your business."

"And you don't think she should know?" Wilbur questioned back, "when it's hers too?" He then thought. "…Or, I'm sure it would be everyone else's business either if they were to know what you two are up to."

Tallulah's eyes widened.

Gaston sighed in defeat. He knew this would happen one day. He just didn't think it would be his nephew that would blackmail them. But again, he wasn't quite surprised either. He was never prepared for their secret being found out, especially with their most important client.

*~o~0~o~*

"But that's how it's got to be,
It's coming down to nothing more than apathy,
I'd rather run the other way than stay and see
The smoke and who's still standing when it clears...

"It wasn't them, it was a neighbor—a smoker downstairs."

Gaston had indeed lost the argument with Wilbur. After being ganged up by his two younger cousins, plus a teary-eyed Tayoncé, he had to give in. He and Tallulah had to reveal everything.

They were currently inside the garage—Gaston, Tallulah, and Tayoncé—just in case, so no one would overhear them and they wouldn't be questioned further.

Wilbur had slid his hands in his pockets and trotted off with a small smirk when the argument had been over.

"They had been careless and didn't put out the cigarette correctly," Tallulah explained. "Soon after, the whole apartment building had caught on fire." She tried not to look at Tayoncé's horror-stricken face. "It was going to happen the day we had found you. If you had went back, you would have been burned to death that night as well. So you see, we had to do it—for your sake."

Tayoncé was quiet for who knew how long before she spoke again. "...But... Why me...? Why just me?" She looked up at the Robinsons. Tears had begun making trails down her cheeks. "You saved me from Mom with that thing...that time-car-thing..."

Then in a flash, her expression changed from one of total defeat to one of anger. The information began to piece together.

"Y'all said you saved me 'for my sake'...? You have this...th-this—this time machine, and you couldn't save anyone else!? If you really wanted to do what was best for me, you couldn't save my family?!" The young girl eyed them, throwing an arm in the direction of the parked vehicle. "Or even stop them from starting the fire in the first place!" She was outraged, yet tears still cascaded down her cheeks. "You say how you want to save people," she then gave a dark chuckle, "but you know what," and she sucked in a large breath, "YOU ARE JUST A PAIR OF COWARDS!"

Both Robinsons were speechless. Tayoncé glared at them back and forth, not looking away from either, her yell still hanging in the air. Minutes passed before someone decided to speak.

"You don't understand...It had to be done..."

Tayoncé was just about to call "liar!" but Tallulah continued, her tone still low.

"The fire was an important event, and if we had stopped it, we would have greatly altered history more than we've already done." Tallulah fixed the girl with a look of sympathy, then took in a long shaky breath. "And you will not be able to go back and fix it. That fire is one of the things that helped shaped today—-uh, I mean, the future in our time."

Tayoncé could only mouth "what," still shocked.

Tallulah continued, "you belong here, in this time, Tayoncé."

The girl continued staring at Tallulah as if she had lost her mind.

Tallulah sighed. She didn't think Tayoncé would have understood, not immediately with all this other information she had to take in. So she was going to put it as simple as she could, she told the girl.

"Tayoncé," Tallulah stared again, taking another breath, "you were kidnapped when you were really young from this time and taken to another—the one you're so used to. No, you aren't the only one this's happened to. There are dozens of others. We," she gestured to herself and Gaston, "are apart of this secret service that help to put these people back in their right times and straighten out history. We don't know exactly who is responsible yet and are still trying to find the kidnappers, but..." She looked down at her bright-colored designer's shoes.

Gaston could swear that she was about to burst into tears. It puzzled him because this would have been the second time Tallulah would have cried since joining the service. He began speaking in case she actually did cry.

"But the bottom line is that this is the right time for you, and you can't go back and change it no matter what." He then added softy, "I'm sorry."

Tayoncé shook her head. "No... No, I don't believe you." She slowly looked up at them, and the two were shocked to see her look of rage. "You two are l..." She trailed off, her head starting to spin as the info sunk in. "Y-you two are lying. You're liars!" She sucked in the tears that so desperately wanted to be free. "I don't believe you!"

Gaston huffed, crossing his arms and turning away. "Okay, I am getting tired of this..."

Tallulah turned to him and watched as he flipped several gears on his hat, surprising both girls as he pulled out photos and documents. He practically shoved them in Tayoncé's face. "Look," he pointed at a document. "This was filed the day of the fire, stating how it started, how much damage occurred, and how many people died."

Tayoncé's lip trembled.

"These are copies of files about those who died. All including your friend and her mom." He seemed to hold no sympathy as he placed two separate files in her hands.

Tayoncé felt her body freeze up again, her veins growing cold with the sensation of her stomach dropping down and onto the floor.

On the front page inside the first folder read the name "Mayonna Baldwin. Age: 15. Gender: Female. Nationality: Caucasian American/White." And just beside it was a picture of the young blonde, her bright blue eyes scrunched up in a smile. On the other was her mother, "Jessica Baldwin."

Gaston pulled two more photos from within each stack and pointed at them. Tayoncé didn't even need an explanation of whose charred corps where in each vivid photograph. But he had regardless. Her vision swam, barely catching Gaston's remark of, "these, plus hundred others, were all that were left.

Tayoncé's eyes widened in shock, dropping the pages like hot coal. They hurt to touch, yet her eyes refused to move from them not he floor. Her hands flew to grip the sides of her head.

Tallulah noted her shallow breathing immediately.

She tapped her uncle on the shoulder to get his attention. After the fourth, fifth, then sixth try, he looked. But by the time Gaston turned suddenly towards Tallulah, Tayoncé had already fell to the floor, fainting.

"Softly we tremble tonight,
picture perfect fading smiles are all that's left in sight,
I said I'd never leave, you'll never change
I'm not satisfied with where I'm at in life.

Am I supposed to be happy?
With all I ever wanted, it comes with a price.
Am I supposed to be happy?
With all I ever wanted, it comes with a price.
You said, you said that you would die for me..."