Noah sighed as he worried the splinter in the table he was sitting at. It was weird that the table had worn down in the same place as it had in his universe, but not weirder than the fact that it was still here long after he'd already fixed it. "I don't know about this." Other!Jeff seemed to have every contingency planned, but given the basic insanity of the situation, their options to fix everything were likewise insane.

"You have another plan?" Other!Jeff challenged him. "Since we don't have any idea of how you got here, we're going to have to plan for everything. I'll e-mail my friend studying Quantum Mechanics for hints on how spatial rifts work."

"Assuming he believes you," Noah pointed out.

"I'll tell him it's research," Other!Jeff insisted. He unabashedly reached into Other!Noah's bag and pulled out a handful of paper. "But just in case this is some kind of wish-verse, you're going to write down everything that happened to you today, no matter how unimportant. And to make sure we've got all our bases covered, our Noah is going to put on his big boy pants and finally TALK to our Luke about everything that's been festering the last six months."

Noah smiled a little, not feeling hopeful yet, but not completely hopeless, either. "I would never have guessed that having a fan fiction writer as a friend might turn out to be my salvation."

"He's got quite an imagination, that's for sure." Other!Noah was leaning back in his seat, looking uncomfortable and not at all like he was about to head anywhere.

"Noah," Other!Jeff chided gently, his chair creaking as he leaned forward.

"This isn't going to work!" Other!Noah exclaimed.

"Noah," Other!Jeff repeated, crisply. It was a shock, as neither Noah had ever seen either of their Jeffs reach the end of his patience. And given that he worked in the service industry, that was saying a lot. "Luke still loves you, you'd have to be blind, deaf, and living in Bay City to not notice. I didn't say anything before, because it's your business, and you and Luke weren't hurting anyone but yourselves. NOW, you are."

"I didn't say I wasn't going," Other!Noah insisted, though he looked shamed. "I just said this isn't going to work."

"If you need seduction tips, you do have someone else with insight," Other!Jeff quipped, all annoyance suddenly gone, and a thumb directed at Noah.

Both Noahs went red with embarrassment. "I know how to seduce Luke, trust me," Other!Noah declared.

"I, ah--" Noah stammered. "We haven't actually--"

"You haven't?" Other!Jeff asked, shocked. At Noah's embarrassed nod, Other!Jeff rolled his eyes and sighed playfully. "You two are HOPELESS!"

Noah's face fell so hard that he wouldn't have been surprised if it hit the table. This was not the time to be reminding him of the fact that he'd wasted almost every second he'd ever had with Luke. Especially given that there was now no guarantee that he'd get any more. "I'd noticed."

Other!Jeff winced, immediately repentant. "Dude, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean it like that." He laid his hand comfortingly on Noah's shoulder. Noah had to fight the urge to just give up and sob into his friend's Java uniform. Besides the uncomfortable polyester, only Luke was going to make him feel better.

Other!Jeff smiled that soothing smile his counterpart was famous for. "I just- Promise me that when you finally get back home, you're gonna lay that boy on his back and sex him up." The comment was so unexpected that both Noahs snorted with laughter. Other!Jeff turned back to Other!Noah, this time a cheeky smile on his face. "And YOU go do it now."

LUKEAND NOAHFOREVER

Luke had been searching the park for about half an hour. At least that's what his cell phone told him; it wasn't much good for much else this far in the past. He kept checking it, though. It was somehow comforting to know exactly what time it was at home, and he didn't know what he'd do once the battery ran out of power.

Of course, if he had his old phone, which lost bars and clockworks even on some spots on his Grandma's farm, he wouldn't even have that.

He ran back to the gate they'd entered the park through, in time to see Mayer and Luciano come running up from the directions they'd headed in. Unfortunately, they both came back alone. It was getting late in the afternoon, and if this boy went someplace else, they might never find him. "Nothing?!" Luke asked, barely able to keep from whimpering.

"How can one lose a person from a hundred and thirty years in the future?" Mayer asked , rhetorically. He was, for both Noah's, uncharacteristically irritated. "You stand out even WITHOUT being in Luciano's company."

"Perhaps he's gone," Luciano suggested hopefully. "Perhaps the effect is temporary."

"Perhaps," Mayer considered.

Luke wasn't so convinced. Of course, he was the one that was stuck here. He had a right to be less calm about the situation. "Believe me, I'm not that lucky."

Mayer looked at Luciano. One of those pained looks that Luke was growing to hate. A reminder that Luke wasn't the only one that was stuck here. "Neither are we."

Luke winced. "Not what I meant," he insisted, trying to be upbeat. "Come on, we'll find him."

"We need to be getting back," Luciano told him, reluctantly. "The wedding is in a few hours."

That was the last thing Luke needed to be reminded of. He remembered how awful it had been for him, watching Noah marry Ameera. But that was a mission of mercy, trying to keep her from being deported. He couldn't imagine how it would feel like knowing that this marriage was permanent. That Noah would be going home with her. Making love to her. Especially since that 'her' was Maddie, and that opened up a whole different can of insecurities. "But--"

"I applaud your trying to bribe us with some imaginary happy ending," Luciano said, rather condescendingly. "But we have obligations. Once… it … is over, assuming you haven't found him, you have my word that we- I will come back."

"So that's it, then?" Luke snapped. "Tough luck for all of us, but there's nothing we can do?"

"There IS nothing we can do," Luciano insisted, just as calmly as before, but Luke could sense frustration building in him. "There may be someone able to rescue you in this 'miraculous future' of yours, but in the here and now, WE are POWERLESS."

Luke frowned, feeling disgusted and just as willing to talk down to Luciano. "You know, you may look like me, but I don't know who the hell you are."

"Well, I'm not you," Luciano pointed out tersely.

"You got that right," Luke fired back, reminded of a similar conversation he'd had with Noah so very long ago. Though this time he was trying to shame himself, rather than Noah. So instead of repeating his comment from back then, that at least he was happy with who he was, he went right for, "At least I'm not a damned coward."

Luciano's eyes blazed with anger. "How DARE you. You presumptuous little--"

"Okay so maybe this guy can't wave a magic wand and fix all our problems," Luke conceded, though he was still sniping with frustration. It was probably wrong to say any of this, but Luke thought that Luciano needed to hear it. And this pompous asshole was going to hear it. "But if you're ANYTHING like me, there's no way in HELL you're going to let Noah just walk out of your life like this."

"What do you expect us to do?" Luciano shouted. It would have been scary if you couldn't hear the pain radiating out of his voice. "Run off into the future with you?"

"Maybe, " Luke replied, anger and fear making him glib. "Maybe you should just take the Grimaldi money, find some deserted island somewhere, and just tell everyone else that they can go fuck themselves."

"Just like that?' Mayer almost sounded like he was scoffing, but be damned if Luke didn't hear something in his voice that sounded like consideration.

"No," Luke answered, quiet and calm. "Luckily enough for me, the first step is deciding you'd rather stay here on what could turn out to be a wild goose chase, than go and marry someone who isn't him." With a gesture to Luciano, though Luke was pretty sure Mayer was smart enough to assume that's who they were talking about.

Mayer and Luciano looked at each other and, hallelujah, for once it wasn't painfully. They just gaped at each other, shocked, for several minutes, before Mayer quietly said, "Luke," to Luciano, not to Luke. "I'm staying."

That provoked a complete change in Luciano. Gone was the arrogant façade, the crisp elegant sophistication. There was just a young man, smiling with love glowing in his glistening eyes. "Really?" Luciano looked at him only a second more before replying. "Okay."

LUKEAND NOAHFOREVER

Noah threw down his pencil, irritated. "This isn't working." He'd been writing down everything he could think of about that day. But it had been half an hour, and he still didn't have much more than he'd had after his first run through.

"Drawing a blank?" Other!Jeff asked, as he texted person after person from the other side of the table. Java had pretty much emptied out, owing to Jeff still not getting back to work, and lack of interest now that there was only one Noah in the coffee shop again.

Noah could only hope that his boss in this dimension was as forgiving as the one he'd left. "I'm going to retrace my steps. Maybe I'll remember something else."

"Good luck. I'll text if I find anything." Though Noah wasn't entirely sure that his phone would receive messages from alternate universes. Did his provider think of that? This message comes from a dimension other than this one. Some universes may contain viruses that your current filters may not be able to guard against. Download our current-- God, if he kept up with these maudlin jokes he really would lose his sanity.

"Thanks. I'm going to need all the luck I can get." There was a bell on the main door at Java. Noah remembered hearing it when he opened the door on his way in, despite how freaked out he'd been. So it was a surprise that it suddenly didn't seem to be working. He turned around to mention to Other!Jeff what a sad rattle it was making.

But Java wasn't there anymore.

Noah found himself on a rolling hillside, with about a million cave entrances embedded into it. He'd clearly jumped again, though god only knew where he was now. The only clue seemed to be the rattle. He'd heard it before, at the farm before he'd seen Luke (Other!Luke, he reminded himself shakily). Could that be some kind of trigger?

Before he could consider this further he found himself shoved to the ground from behind. Rough hands started pulling at the waist of his pants, trying with limited success to pull them down. Noah tried to break free and run, but whoever it was who'd attacked him was a lot stronger, and Noah found himself securely pinned to the ground. Fearing the worst (which was likely the best course of action in the current situation) Noah found a burst of adrenaline that at least allowed him to get himself turned around.

Only to stop short at what he was seeing.

The hair was wild, and a shaggy beard covered his face, but it was definitely Luke. A Luke in animal skins, looking every inch a caveman. A Luke who, based on the hard bulge digging into Noah's thigh, was much happier to see him than the one he'd just come from. "NNNNNNNN?" It seemed to be the limit to Cave!Luke's speech.

Of course, Noah's speech wasn't that much better at that point. He was barely able to close his mouth enough to gasp, "Luke?"

Cave!Luke sat there for a moment, clearly puzzled by this clean shaven version of what was presumably his own Noah. Noah didn't have time to marvel at the fact that even here, there was a Luke and Noah who were together, before Cave!Luke finally let him go and got up, only half standing. He turned around, calling out "NNNNNNNN?" as he departed. After only a couple of calls, another familiar voice answered with "LLLLLLLL!" This seemed to make Cave!Luke happy, and he bounded off in that direction.

Noah's head flopped back on the ground as he sighed in disgust. "Oh, my god."

LUKEAND NOAHFOREVER

They searched until the sun was going down before they found the boy. He seemed to be about sixteen years old, and so matched Luciano's descriptions (both his initial one and the more thorough one he'd made on his way here), that Luke recognized him immediately. And despite Luciano's earlier comment, there was something about the boy that made Luke instantly think of Noah. Something else, too that made Luke feel instantly connected to him. Finally there was the pathos of the fact that he was sitting forlornly on a park bench at the far end of the park, staring at the setting sun. No, it wasn't possible for your heart not to go out to him.

Luciano sighed quietly, "It would figure that he'd be at the opposite end of the park than the one we started at."

Mayer smiled at him, though. "Lucky we don't have anywhere we have to be."

"That's me: Lucky Luciano," he smiled back. But as Luke started for the boy, Luciano called out a caution: "I should warn you, he'll likely react as oddly to you as he did to me."

Luke was about to ask what that meant, but the sound of Luciano's voice had alerted the boy to their presence. He turned around, and his eyes widened as they took in first one Luke, then the other. He finally turned his gaze from Luciano, to stare at Luke with hope that took Luke's breath away.

Even before the boy called out, "Dad?"

(to be continued)