Holy crap has it really been 7 months since I last updated ANYTHING?! X_X I meant to take a break but not THIS LONG! Yikes!

I was actually working on Remember Me? but it's a long chap so I decided to do a quick Moment to let y'all know that I'm not dead haha. That one will most likely still be next though so stay tuned! I'm just super slow rn due to life and health things ugh! ;_;

Anyway! Enough idle chitchat! Onto the update!

Disclaimer: If TS WAS mine, I'd for sure have to come up with episodes faster than I do chapters lmao! So yea, it's not mine! :P

.:.39.:.

Fate

"Got him!" Alex declared triumphantly as her Web Body Cup hit their badguy's feet bull's-eye. And with a strangled yelp he tripped and fell on the roof of the skyscraper, crumpling over into a heap just seconds after and effectively ending the chase.

"Nice shot Al!" Sam called out impressed with her best friend's deadly aim as she quickly sped over to slap handcuffs on the fallen man's wrists with Clover in tow before he could recover.

"Finally!" Clover cheered, excited that this nonsense was dealt with. "We can head back home!"

The three girls let out a relived sigh of agreement. While it was always kind of cool to go back in time when a mission called for it, they had things they needed to do in their own timeline and friends and families that they missed whenever they were so far away.

Especially now that all of them were in serious, committed relationships.

With that thought in mind the trio hauled their criminal to his feet, the task made a little difficult with how he'd bumped his head and was now out cold. But with the three of them tugging with all their might, they were able to start making progress in heading out to be picked up by WOOHP choppers.

"Jerry told us to contact him and then wait in the alleyway," Sam reminded as she put her compact away after doing just so, and went back to pulling her share of their bulky felon's weight.

All they had to do now was make it out of here without being seen and they were home free, which would have been an easy task in any other setting but this one as their villain-of-the-week was a now disgraced ex-WOOHP employee and had chosen to travel back in time to no other place than WOOHP in order to steal a gadget which had been scrapped due to it being too dangerous, a fact that this guy was in denial of and had foolishly taken to theft to try and save what he felt was an amazing invention.

Swerving their heads around the dark and winding stairway, they tiptoed not to be detected as they were not agents in this time and would surely be arrested for impersonating officers were they caught.

Well at least for as long as future Jerry cleared things up because they had been warned that the time machine they'd used to go back hadn't even been imagined to be possible in this period, and their explanation of being future spies visiting the past would only be laughed at and not at all accepted.

Pausing to catch their breaths after descending three flights of long stairs they waited for a minute before resuming again because they had a lot more to go before they made it to the basement and the hidden exit they'd been instructed to use.

When they'd made it down another few and were exactly at the main floor, Clover suddenly stopped and groaned, refusing to move anymore.

"Can we pleeeeeeease take the elevator?! She begged, hopping from one foot to another awkwardly like a rabbit while making painful noises. "My feet are totally gonna like fall off!"

In response to Clover's question, Alex looked towards Sam who'd always been the unofficial leader of their group with puppy dog eyes because she'd also been silently thinking the same thing.

"But we can't! We might be seen!" Sam warned despite also being exhausted. There were always agents moving from place to place in WOOHP's halls; that was why they'd been told to take the stairs in the first place! As tiring as this charade was, they just had to suck it up.

It was at this point that Clover reached into her pocket and made them all gasp when she held out what looked like an ordinary bubble blower but they all knew was actually the Bubble Blaster Invisibility Shield.

A gadget that made the user or users invisible but was high risk because the merest quick movement while inside it could cause it to burst and blow one's cover.

"Absolutely not! You know how fragile that thing is! It's too risky!" Sam immediately disagreed to shut down her scheme, choosing not to comment on Clover's taking it from WOOHP in the first place because by now they all knew she had a habit of keeping an emergency stash of seemingly handy gadgets just like this.

Realizing that she was right, with long sighs they began to trudge along again with hisses and mewls of discomfort. But when on the next flight of stairs, Alex almost tripped from the heavy weight they held and Sam felt a blister literally pop up on her toe, she finally caved in.

"Okay we'll take the elevator! But we have to be quick in case the gadget backfires, kay?!"

No arguments were made against that plan as they limped to the door that led into the floor's hall. Grabbing the handle, they opened it just a crack and peered inside.

"Coast is clear!" Alex whisper shouted, excited that they'd be able to get away with taking the elevator after all.

Activating the shield and clambering into the corridor they speed along with eyes darting back and forth to make sure they were not being watched and thankfully, just a few minutes later made it to the elevator.

They wasted not a second in hitting the "Down" call button and smiled when it illuminated only to frown when they saw that they'd have to wait until it made it to them all the way from the 20th floor.

Praying that they gadget would hold up until then they decided to glance around to pass the time and as they did, they noted how despite it being almost six year's back WOOHP pretty much looked exactly the same.

Same blue walls, same monotone furnishings and overall minimalist design.

"Jerry should sooo think of hiring a decorator," Clover mumbled under her breath prompting a small giggle from Sam and Alex because they'd been thinking the same.

Didn't anyone tell him that a nice looking work environment inspired better performance? Then again to Jerry who liked things orderly and to be honest utterly boring, this was probably what a nice looking workplace looked like.

"Hey wait a minute!" Alex suddenly exclaimed, her eyes lighting up as she noticed something they hadn't on their original assessment. "What with … the décor?"

Following her finger to where she was carefully pointing not to break the purple barrier around them, for the first time they saw that there were flower bouquets and satin sashes placed all around the floor. Granted they were still hard to see seeing they were all blue or white and almost blended right in but they were still definitely there. And they couldn't help but wonder why.

"…Maybe it's a birthday party?" Alex suggested with a small shrug only to get eye rolls from both her friends because Jerry didn't even celebrate his own birthday let alone anyone else's before Clover started huffing now having a totally different and totally unfair explanation for the uncharacteristic jazzing up of the building.

"Did WOOHP used to have parties all fancy like before?! All we get is Jerry's lame-o, annual Christmas bash and they used to get random soirées?! Just you wait until I get back to that old goat, he's soooo gonna get to hear it!" Clover seethed with nostrils blowing steam while her friends shushed her for fear that talking too loud would reveal them. They were invisible after all, not inaudible.

Suddenly Sam's attention was pulled from Clover's histrionics onto a man that had walked into the passage just now. And even though she had just caught him from the corner of her eye, her heart skipped a beat immediately when she recognized him in no time.

"Hey you guys? It's … Tim."

When she said that all of them took note of him waltzing in elegantly dressed in a slick, all black suit as opposed to the WOOHP male uniform he'd be wearing on a normal day and perfectly styled hair.

"He worked here at this time…" Sam smiled, still focused on the past form of her husband who used head the WOOHP Weapons Department at this time and be Jerry's favourite agent while Clover was still busy complaining.

"So HE got the good parties too?! NO FAIR!"

"Wow he looks … amazing," Sam commented, her eyes going dreamy as she admired her beau from afar and how perfect and handsome he was and paid no mind to Clover's ranting or anything else but him now that he'd arrived.

She blushed hard, her face catching flame when she was nudged by Alex's elbow and heard her whisper teasingly in her ear. "As if you'd ever think otherwise about him!"

"Point taken," Sam guiltily confessed before putting her eyes back on Tim Scam whom yes, she'd always found to be maddeningly attractive and rightfully so seeing that he was her man for life.

But that wasn't why she'd actually been staring so hard at him right now. There was another reason for it. Namely that he looked … extra hot right now.

It was as though he wasn't merely attending whatever event this was but was going to be its focal point or something and that was why he had to look his absolute best, a point she was about to bring up only to be cut off by Clover who by now had had her full of her salivating over him so shamelessly and desperately needed her to cut it.

Being mad at Jerry for his treating his past agents so much better than present ones was a way more important issue right now than Sam drooling buckets over a guy, that she'd be able to soon go home to and do whatever she was clearly getting urges of doing to him with no restrictions. She was his wife after all and had the right, or was she forgetting that part?

"Can you stop being so thirsty already! You KNOOOOOW you can't just go and make out with him or whatever else it is that you're feeling like right now!" She joked making Alex full on choke back the need to bust a gut laughing.

But unlike her friends, Sam was no longer in a happy mood because she'd noticed something that concerned her. It was Tim's face and it looked … sad. Why did he look so unhappy at WOOHP's special party when everyone else they'd seen pass by looked excited and happy?

As she continued watching him covertly to try and get a clue she then saw how every other passer-by would stop, go over to him, and shake his hand or pat his shoulder while saying something which prompted him to smile for just a second but not at all genuinely.

Was he getting promoted or something? But that wouldn't make him upset. That didn't make any sense!

But all of her confusion and wonder over why he looked like that evaporated the second she watched with wide eyes as a woman, a slender, tall, brown-haired, brown-eyed woman that was no longer alive in her time but she still hated more than anyone that she had ever hated before slithered into view and linked her arm around his like the grip of a snake.

"Sheila Vale!" Sam hissed, and it didn't take her more than two seconds after that to put two and two together and realize exactly what was being celebrated here that WOOHP was all dressed up for and Tim looked so miserable over.

His engagement with Sheila.

With an angry roar so loud that it actually snapped several confused heads in their direction, Sam nearly leapt out of the invisible shield and blew their cover in an attempt to forcibly rip Sheila away from him.

But before she could succeed, she was promptly stopped and quieted by her friends who despite understanding her justified rage knew that she couldn't attack Sheila no matter how badly she wanted to.

"You can't Sammie! You could change the present!" Alex reiterated the severe risk of messing with past events to the broiling redhead who continued to glare daggers of sheer hatred into Sheila's face and body as she remained glued to her Tim's side.

"Yea Sammie! He could wind up actually marrying Sheila or something!" Clover added trying to tell her how serious this was only for Sam to snort.

"As if! He'd never do that! He hates her!"

"That could change though if you try and meddle!" Alex tried to reason. What if her exposing Sheila's blackmail in public led to the woman actually feeling guilt and changing her approach to try and win Tim Scam's heart in a more genuine way?

"And if not her then he could still find someone else! You won't even meet him for three more years! Three years is a long time Sammie!"

At that Sam faltered, not being able to bear the thought of Tim winding up with another girl. But…

Closing her eyes for a moment she took a deep breath before shaking her head no. No, she couldn't think like that! She had to think about him! She loved him and coming from the future she had foresight! She knew exactly what kind of hell was coming his way! How could she not want to rescue him?!

If he was unhappy now, it was only going to get worse! So much worse!

He was about to be framed by his best friend! To be fired by Jerry! Be put in prison and start his life of crime!

Sam so badly wanted to shelter him from all of that injustice. And now? Now … she had the chance.

"If my not being with him means that he won't have to endure the pain that he did for three long years then … I'll let him go."

"Sam!" Alex gasped in so much shock that she actually dropped their bad guy almost popping their bubble. Thankfully Clover grabbed him just in time while Alex started shaking Sam's shoulders rapidly to snap her out of her crazy talk.

"You can't mean that! Let your husband go?! You LOVE him!"

"I do!" Sam cried out feeling torn on what she should do. Should she listen to her friends and take the safe way out for herself? Just let things be? But weren't Tim and her meant to be? Didn't fate come to pass no matter what anyone did to try and stop it?

"To be honest … I don't believe that even if I did theoretically change something by intervening now, that we wouldn't get to be together." Sam voiced her thought aloud. "Tim and I? We're soul mates! We'd find each other even without all those awful things happening to him! I really believe that!"

Clover and Alex exchanged an exasperated glance with each other at how irrational Sam was being before trying a different approach because they knew that love was hardly ever rational.

"Look Sammie," Alex tried again. "If Tim never got kicked out WOOHP then the game plan was for him to take Jerry's place, remember?"

It was something that Jerry had mentioned many times to them that he saw Tim as his heir and successor and had only stopped believing so when he'd been falsely branded a traitor.

"If that were to happen then by the time you'd show up years later, there is no reason why he wouldn't have a woman in his life! Remember how fast YOU fell for him when he was posing as WOOHP's leader? Well this time it would be legit! Do you know how fast he'd be snatched up? Probably seconds!"

"And!" Clover added frowning seriously. "If he did become our boss then he probably wouldn't be allowed to have a relationship with a spy! A subordinate anyway!"

If it wouldn't be illegal as per the agency rules, it would most likely still be very much frowned upon.

Sam said nothing even though she knew everything they were saying made perfect sense. But that didn't make her want to protect him any less and so she continued to protest even though it was useless.

"But¾"

"No buts!" Clover argued before softening her tone at the dejected puppy look on her best friend's face and placing her hand in a comforting way on her shoulder.

"You'll get a lot of time to make him happy later but right now … you gotta walk away. Those things, as horrible as they were are part of his life. They are part of his fate. You KNOW how obsessed Sheila was with Tim; she'd do anything to have him! If this engagement doesn't happen now, she'll just find some other way to make it happen. Maybe even something worse than blackmail and threats!"

Sam sighed feeling defeated.

"Clover's right Sammie," Alex nodded, giving her other shoulder an additional squeeze of support. "And you KNOW it's not just about her. Remember how wacko Michael was over Sheila! I mean he was Tim's BEST FRIEND and he still stabbed him in the back over her! If you stopped one of his schemes he'll just come up with another! And it's not like you can march right over and TELL HIM or JERRY that Michael Denev is evil without any proof! They'd never believe you! They don't even KNOW you yet!"

Having heard both their points in full, Sam nodded giving up. She knew they were one hundred percent correct about this. Unfortunately the story of Tim's past life had not one but many enemies that were dangerous and ruthless and no matter how desperately she wanted to, she couldn't stop them from hurting him.

What she could do was continue to heal his wounds and shower him with love when he was past all of that. That was something neither Michael or Sheila could take away from him or her. Ever.

Glad beyond words now that Sam was willing to just go back home just as she'd come, Clover and Alex moved to enter the elevator that was now open for them. But just as they were about to step inside, suddenly they felt the weight on their shoulders of the body they were lugging grow heavier as Sam left it all on them and separated herself from their huddle.

"Wait! Sammie! What are you?¾"

"I'll only be a minute; promise!" She quickly whispered before using the Virtual Reality Disguise Belt around her waist to make herself look like the first random woman she could think of that Tim wouldn't recognize (the super nice Teacher Assistant that she'd had when she'd been in the first year of kindergarten) and exiting the bubble shield and running off inside the room that he'd now walked into.

She ignored her friends' worried calls behind her because this was just something she had to do. Tim just looked so hopeless that it hurt her soul. He could fool everyone else with that fake smile he was wearing but not her. She knew him inside out and right now his eyes were reflecting all his sorrow and pain.

She couldn't just turn around and leave him like this! Not when he was enduring the worst time of his life! At the very least she had to do this much. She just had to talk to him and give him the shred of hope that he sooo badly needed to feel right now, that one day things would turn out to be okay.

It didn't take her long to spot him in the large, circular room despite it bustling to the brim with celebrating agents because he was helping her by not fitting in whatsoever.

There he sat in the furthest corner on a chair brooding and staring absentmindedly into the champagne flute he held but wasn't drinking from because he didn't want to make a toast to his own misery.

Taking advantage of the crowd which helped hide her unfamiliar face, she made a beeline towards him. When she reached, she stopped for just a second just behind his form preparing herself before reaching out and tapping his shoulder for his attention.

A 27-year-old Tim Scam flinched expecting the fingers now tapping against his shoulder with urgency to be those of the woman he loathed to no end, those of his forced fiancée, and sighed before turning around to see what she wanted.

Apparently she was taking a break from showing off the ring he'd been compelled to put on her finger and had decided to take it by harassing him with her unwanted touch and presence.

But when he did turn around, he was left taken aback at the unfamiliar person that stood before him. It was woman he didn't recognize at all. Some blond-haired, blue-eyed female who looked to be around his age.

He stared at her in confusion for a long minute before figuring she was a new hire. After all Jerry had invited the whole of WOOHP to what he believed was a happy occasion, hadn't he? She was probably going to congratulate him for his engagement just like everyone else had.

Deciding to cut that congratulation short because he was sick of hearing it, he smiled politely before opening his mouth to say that he appreciated her well wishes and hoped she'd enjoy the party before turning back to his drink only to be stopped when she spoke first.

And what she said, left him reconsidering this stranger immediately.

"You look upset."

His eyes widened a little as he realized how it wasn't even a question. She'd said that sentence with so much confidence as though she could actually see just how unhappy he was right now, see past his poker face in a way that no one else even those closest to him, Michael or Jerry had been able to.

But how? How could she read him so well? He didn't even know her name.

"Yes, I'm upset. I'm more than upset," His tongue itched to confess to this unknown woman who oddly seemed to know him better than anyone else.

But he held himself back knowing that he couldn't. If Sheila Vale caught any wind of him starting drama or attempting to get himself away from their arrangement, then WOOHP would suffer more for it. And that wasn't something he could allow.

"Do I?" He instead feigned being clueless, letting out a fake chuckle to dismiss her concern and buy himself some time in their conversation before he continued.

"It's just that, I guess this is all happening so fast that it's not exactly turning out to be what I had planned for my married future."

"Boy is that an understatement!" Sam thought before acting on her plan. As much as she wanted to just stay here with him forever, she was on limited time and had to get moving.

"But sometimes the best things are unplanned," She advised him with an optimistic smile because it was true. Heck her loving him, once her sworn enemy was the last thing that she had ever planned to do but she wouldn't change it for the world now.

At that thought for a moment, just a moment she remembered the whirlwind love story of theirs that he was oblivious to right now. Of how exactly she and he would come to fall in love.

That freak accident on that seemingly standard mission which would occur, how they'd become trapped for days on that island, and how eventually they'd fall madly in love and want to spend the rest of their lives together by becoming husband and wife.

She tried to suppress it but felt her lips bloom into a smile, a rosy blush coming next at the happy memories which for him were not yet memories only to vanish when she saw how he was frowning sourly right at her as if she'd upset him by what she'd said.

And soon enough he revealed why all while looking more and more livid.

"So you're saying that this engagement will turn out better than I hope?!" He nearly barked, no longer being able to keep up his happy façade because if there was one thing he hated more than no hope in this world then it was false hope and that was what this anonymous lady was offering him.

Why'd he ever think she understood him anyway? Clearly he'd been stupid to do so if she ever thought that he'd be okay with Sheila Vale having manipulated him into marriage. There was no way he'd ever grow to have feelings for such a vile and disgusting woman. Never. Not him. Not for as long as he lived!

Feeling the urge to yell at her to go away, he once again stopped himself remembering what was at stake and also the fact that just like every other person at WOOHP, this girl didn't know what was really going on with him and Sheila. She just thought he'd fallen in love with a fellow colleague and wanted for her to be his wife.

Deciding it was best to just go back to pretending he was fine because it would pass the party sooner and then he could be alone, he just mumbled a small apology for his outburst to the woman, blaming pre-wedding jitters before moving to turn back around to his champagne, this time thinking of downing it in the hopes that being tipsy would help him to keep his cool a little better.

Literally feeling him putting up a wall between them with his cold and dismissive behaviour, Sam panicked as it dawned upon her that he had taken her words the wrong way. She hadn't been talking about Sheila but he thought she was telling him that they'd live happily ever after; something that couldn't be further from the truth!

She pouted sadly. But to Tim who felt he was condemned and had no way of getting out of marrying Sheila, of course he'd take it that way. He didn't know what was coming like she did.

Knowing she'd just made him sadder with her failed attempt to lift his spirits, Sam thought long and hard and chose her next words carefully instead of walking away as she knew he was expecting and wanting her to.

"Well … Who says just because you're engaged to Sheila that … she'll actually be your wife?"

Her words had their intended effect as she heard him take a sharp intake of breath and almost choke on the liquid in his mouth. He coughed for a second or two before whirling around and planting his widened and shocked sea green gaze right back on her.

"Wh-what?!" He sputtered wondering if he'd heard her right. Had she really said that he wasn't going to marry Sheila?! Who on earth was she? A psychic? Why would she make a statement like that to him on the day of his engagement no less?

But she offered him no answers and only piled more bewilderment onto him by just standing there wordlessly and giving him a mysterious little smile along with this look that he couldn't understand at first because he'd been given so little of it all his life but then slowly began to decode as … love.

His eyes only grew bigger and threatened to pop out as he made sure he was seeing right. But there was no question of that. That emotion in this woman's eyes, it was love. Deep, unwavering, untainted love and nothing else.

But why would she have such affection for him? They'd only just met! … Hadn't they?

"Who are you?" Scam once again urged to know. Why did it feel like she was toying with him? As if she was a long last friend or something more who had decided to come see him after years only while wearing a disguise? As if he should know who she was?

Why? Why did he feel this pull towards her like she meant something to him? Everything to him?

It was something that he couldn't explain or put into words but it was strong. Just so strong. As if it were … fate.

Not being able to figure her out at all he just stared at her unblinkingly, perplexed which such intensity that he only snapped out of it when Sheila Vale broke his concentration by arriving.

"Heyyyyyy baby!" She called out in what he was sure she felt was a sultry manner but made him want to vomit.

Grabbing his hand she announced that it was time for them to make their toast to the crowd and started leading him away.

Watching him get up to go with zero arguments, Sam had to refrain from slapping Sheila in the face right then and there for how much of a shell of himself she'd already turned Tim into.

So subservient and docile. This wasn't him at all! He wasn't the kind of man that could be forced to do something, anything he didn't want to!

Unless it came to the wellbeing of people he cared for which she knew was just what Sheila was using to keep a leash on him.

Refusing to let him go without giving him at least one last bit of comforting, she sidestepped Sheila, reached out, and twirled his free hand into a handshake.

"I wish you happiness and for things to turn out even better than you ever envisioned," Sam smiled, still not congratulating him for his commitment to Sheila, something he appeared to notice as he gave her an authentic little smile and returned her handshake.

His eyes drifted from her face to their joined hands and he felt it again, that inexplicable pull towards her. He almost didn't want to let her go as he kept his grip on her slim fingers, something even Sheila seemed to pick up on as she glared and physically yanked him free.

"Come on! We HAVE to go!" She ordered bossily leaving him to sigh but nod as he finally released Sam's hand. But not before she'd felt how his entire body had tensed up the second Sheila had put her hands on him as opposed to how relaxed he'd been in her arms.

Sam smirked to herself privately because it was just another sign of how he felt for his fiancée. Repulsed and hateful. But Sheila was too blind to see it or too ignorant to want to.

"I have to go but … thank you," Tim said those last words before Sheila once again rushed him to leave.

"Yes, yes, thank you for your congratulations! Bye now!"

And with that overt rudeness and giving her one final smug sneer, Sheila succeeded in stealing him away and disappearing into the party.

But Sam just rolled her eyes feeling like laughing in her face for so many reasons. That thank you Tim had given her hadn't been for a congratulations. No, it'd been for giving him a ray of hope that he may still one day escape from Sheila's clutches.

But Sheila didn't know that because she didn't know Tim at all. So was so stupid. She thought she'd won but she was nothing but a loser.

The way he resisted Sheila's touches, hated the sound of her voice, ran from her shadow, heck even that ring she was wearing wasn't the one that Tim would propose with to a woman that he truly loved.

No, she knew which one that would be. It wouldn't be a generic, soulless one from some store, it would be the antique and priceless one that had once belonged to his great-grandmother! The one that he'd proposed to her with!

This engagement meant nothing! It was just a farce! She could force him into putting a ring on her finger but that was as far as she was going to get!

Sheila would never get to stand at an altar and exchange vows with him! She'd never get to experience the passion and romance of their first night together! Ever get to know what it felt like for Tim to actually desire her, nor ever get to wake up next to him every day afterwards feeling like the luckiest woman alive for having complete and utter wedded bliss with a husband so wonderful that he seemed to come right out of a romantic novel!

Because Sheila didn't have his heart and never ever would. Never! Not in a million years! Never, no matter what trick she tried and pulled! She'd never be able to make Tim hers!

A soft smile tugged at her lips because of the secret that she knew, the same secret that gave her the courage to walk away and choose patience instead of action. And as she did so she felt the weight of the ring on her finger even though it was invisible.

Sheila would never have Tim.

But one day?

She would.

It was FATE.

Hope y'all liked this!

It's been so long since I last updated so if you read this, I'd love to hear from ya! :D

Btw if you have a fic you really want updated, PLEASE let me know and I'll try and prioritize it more!

More updates to come eventually! I wanna wish you all a happy belated Valentine's Day and hope that everyone is well! ^0^

Bye for now,

Cres