Waters of Time

Disclaimer: Don't own Victorious

A/N: This oneshot is a personal one, not in a bad way but it's along the lines of something I've thought about for many years. Something I wish I could do, though there's no humanely way, haha. Anyway in this, the parents are an uncle and aunt for an obvious reason that you will find. June 29th is coming up, so this is my annual oneshot Well, enjoy it!

-PART DEUX-

When she awoke, she was no longer on the beach but in a dark and familiar room. Her body tensed as she spied the twelve year old version of herself asleep in her Scooby-Doo covers. Her face was lit up by the sunlight spilling through the venetian blinds. "What is this?" Her heartbeat's racing had grown loudest to which it was the only sound in the room.

"June 29th. That's you, asleep. Obviously." She twisted around and narrowed her eyes at a short woman with red hair. Her heart stopped and her eyes widened as she studied the gentle, freckled face looking back at her. She'd only seen one photo of the woman, but recognized her in an instant.

"Krissy? What the hell are you doing here? Fuck that, what am I doing here?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"Yeah." Trina rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. "It's obvious, just like it's totally obvious how cats can suddenly start barking-no it is not obvious." She looked back to her sleeping form and walked towards her with a trembling heart. "A-Am I dreaming? Am I dead?"

"No, I wouldn't say that."

"Which wouldn't you say?" The woman had always been blunt before, so Trina couldn't figure out why she was beating around the bush now.

"Either." She watched her younger form roll over, then let her eyes drift to the clock on the bed. "That's right, it's seven o'clock. In one hour your mom and older brother-you know. The car crash."

Her heart stopped and the world began to crumble around her while the icy fingers of terror tore into her chest. "Why am I here? How am I here? If it's not a dream and I'm not dead, then what the hell is going on? How am I not dead, I'm pretty sure I just drowned."

"Yeah, um, I'm sorry about the storm." This wasn't Krissy, it couldn't be her. Maybe it was an angel, but if she wasn't dead, she wouldn't be seeing those either. "It was the only way to get you here."

"Care to explain?"

"Very little time to do so. Just understand you're being given a chance to change time. To do as you truly desire and to save your mom and brother." She tried to respond, but the oxygen in the room evaporated and left her breathless in an instant. "I'm supposed to tell you what will happen, but before that, you have a choice to make. Do you want to change your history?"

Trina caressed the face of her younger self and felt weak when she thought of the pain this child would go through. "What kind of question is that Krissy?" If she didn't, then she knew what was coming. Years of perceived misery and sorrow. Years of wishing she'd been in the car with them, or at least that it had been her instead of Joshua. "How could I stop them from leaving? How could I prevent that crash?"

"Well. What was the most important thing in your mother's life?"

"Her children, of course." Sherry had to take Joshua to get some medication for his acne, and also and an appointment that day. Josh left late, so Sherry was late, therefore she was speeding down the road.

It rained the night before, but they'd recently moved into the country, so it shouldn't have mattered. It shouldn't have mattered when the car hit that puddle, and it shouldn't have mattered when the red convertible spun on the road. It shouldn't have mattered when Sherry swerved.

"Just one fucking car on the road." Trina's eyes clenched shut and a sob left her lips while her chest trembled with pain. "Only one fucking car! Where did that minivan come from, Krissy?" She could feel herself dropping to her knees, and with each breath, a sob rattled from her lungs. "They died instantly. That's what the officers said, anyway. That's what Uncle David and Aunt Holly said, what they said to a little girl who lost her mom and brother. I can't know if they suffered, why would you tell a child their relatives suffered?"

"I don't know."

"Oh come on Krissy, you have an answer for everything."

"But I can't tell you how to feel. The decision is yours."

"Of course I want to save them." Her voice lashed out and she glared angrily at her friend. "Think how much better my life could be if Mom and Josh never died."

"But you don't know if it would be better or worse. That's just the thing. That's why you're being given this opportunity, so that you'll have something to compare to…" Krissy guided Trina outside the bedroom and into the living room. She pointed to the phone on the coffee table and looked up. "Call your mother. Say you're the neighbor and that her daughter was laying in the yard this morning. Tell her something that will make her come home, something that will keep her from driving into town."

"What?"

"Your mother met with Joshua at the gas station outside the Kiowa community gate. At this time, your brother's already gone to the gas station and your mother's getting ready to leave work. It will take her thirty minutes to get back, she and your brother will discuss the plans for the day and then take her car to drive back into town. If you call her now-or even if you call your brother-and say something is wrong with her child that's left at home…then the course of time is altered. They live."

A lump formed in her throat as she stood before the landline. Beads of sweat appeared at her forehead while her trembling hand hovered over the phone. "Why is this decision so hard? What's going to happen?"

"I cannot tell you that."

"You can't?" She narrowed her eyes and looked back to the woman with a deep frown. "Or you won't tell me?"

"Have you made your choice yet?"

"Tell me first, am I dead?"

"Are you worried you have nothing to go back to?" She pulled her hand away momentarily and winced as she remembered the feeling of her lung filling with water. "If you really want to know, you're not dead. You're asleep."

"So I'm dreaming?"

"Well. Yes…" Krissy rolled her head to the right and sighed heavily. "And no. Your body is comatose, and the life you knew has been put on pause for the time being while your mind is here and you're able to remember that life you've had."

"Why do I get the feeling you're not telling me something?"

"If you decide to keep things the way they are, then there is no need to tell you anything at all, and you'll wake up in the time that you belong."

"I'm not used to you talking in rhymes, by the way."

"I am your best friend, you call me your 'sister', so it's only right that I appear to you." Krissy's eyes slanted and her lips curled into a smirk. "Deal with it."

Trina rolled her eyes and laughed once. Her eyes turned to the phone and she let out a heavy sigh. "If I pick up this phone. If I make that call…what happens?"

"God you're persistent with your questions."

"You know me."

"Of course." Krissy took a deep breath and walked around her, stopping with her back towards her. "Pick up the phone, you're given a brief period of time in the present day as though your mother and brother never died. You'll still remember your old life during this period…more than that, I will not say."

"So it's kind of like a trial period kind of thing?"

"Are you going to make the call, or not, Trina?"

"I am." She grabbed the phone without a moment's hesitation. When she heard her mother's voice on the other end of the phone, fresh tears flooded her cheeks. "Mo-Mrs. Summers? This is your neighbor, it's about Katrina…" She closed her eyes and covered them with her hand.

Let's see if it's all she thinks it is