"Uh…it's hard to explain…" Jeff tried to back around the topic.

Z noticed and knew something was wrong. He looked closer at Jeff, trying to figure out what it was. "What's hard to explain? There's no hurry, I'm not going anywhere."

"Well…Blake Holsey High…it's sort of a…you see I play...ummm…it really is difficult to explain…" Jeff floundered for the words. He wasn't sure whether to tell the professor and whether or not he could tell him.

Z was getting a bit impatient and a little worried. Is something wrong with my timeline that he knows about and won't tell me? Should he tell me? Too much information can be dangerous. Then again, too little information isn't good either. Z made up his mind. "You should tell me, it might be important."

"All right…if you're sure…It still doesn't make it any easier." Jeff took a deep breath, then just blurted it out. "Strange Days at Blake Holsey High. It's TV show." He looked up to see Z staring at him in disbelief.
"What?" This was not what he had been expecting at all. This timeline must be skewed. He thinks he's in a TV show. Unless, we are in a TV show. Z resisted the urge to turn and look for a camera. Well, if we are it's too late to keep the wormhole a secret. I need more information. Z started to ask another question before realizing that Jeff hadn't answered his first one. Z focused on Jeff and found him glancing with a worried look at Z's own face.

I hope he's taking this well. It's got to be a shock to find your recent life has been set up. Then again, did Jim make it up? If he did, how is it possible he's here? Jeff shook his head and answered Z's question slowly.

"Well, you see, this is the Auchmar Estate. It's the set for the television show, Black Hole High or Strange Days at Blake Holsey High. I play… Professor Noel Zachary." Jeff paused again, waiting.

Z's partially formed question lie forgotten as he felt the hit of this new bit of information. He struggled for something to say. "Well…I guess that explains the resemblance."

Jeff, for some unknown reason found this enormously funny. His face split into a grin, then he started laughing. Z, caught by this hilarity, began laughing too.

They continued to laugh a few moments longer, then fell into a comfortable silence as they looked around the bare office. Jeff reached up to wipe away a tear that had found its way out as they were laughing.

"So," Z began after another moment. "I'm a character in a… television show, you're the actor who plays my character, and this is the set for the show."

Jeff nodded without looking at him.

Z shrugged, "All right then."

Jeff looked at him and grinned again. "Well, now you know why I had a hard time believing you. I think that you actually, must be much more open minded then I am. You're coming to grips with it better then I did."

Z looked across at him with a small, slightly guilty smile, "Actually, to begin with, I thought you were…" He trailed off.

"Kidding? Lying? Insane?" Jeff laughed at the last, "I was the same way with you."

Z smiled and looked around once more, then frowned. "Wait a moment, if this is the set for the—what did you call it?—Strange Days at Black Hole High? —then why is it empty? Where's all the lights, cameras, action?"
Jeff looked uncomfortable again, and Z's stomach twisted. Is something already going wrong here because I came? What if, by changing this timeline, I change my own, for the worse! "Is something wrong?" Z asked worriedly.

Jeff tilted his head slowly. "Not exactly…"

"How do you mean?"

Jeff wondered how to tell someone that his life might cease to exist once Conclusions aired. "Well, we just finished filming Conclusions, —what happened after Josie disappeared—and its going to air in January I believe. Then," Jeff shrugged, "that's a wrap. Series is most likely over." He paused thinking, "Of course, it did come back after almost a year, anything is possible."

"Wait, you know what happens after Josie disappeared? Is she all right? Where is she? How do we get to her?" Z completely disregarded everything after 'what happened after Josie disappeared'.

Jeff looked at him, slightly afraid of this Z he'd never had to play. This man before him was genuinely worried about Josie. He knew her as a student and cared about her like a daughter. Jeff felt guilty for a moment for just acting what this man lived. He, Jeff, had pretended to do what this man had done and felt the consequences of. The real Professor Zachary hadn't just stopped feeling and worrying after the camera lights had been shut off. This was a real person with real feelings and Jeff could never hope to act with the emotions Z was going through right now.

"I'm not sure if I should tell you…you might just have to live through it and wait for it to happen…" Jeff wished he tell Z more, but he'd acted in enough of the show to know that if it was all real, he couldn't afford to give to much information.

Z froze staring at Jeff with disbelief in his eyes. "If you know if Josie is all right, you have to tell me. If she's coming back, I have to know." He said this dead serious, but Jeff could hear the under currants of pain.

He sighed deeply, feeling sympathy for the man in front of him. "What if the time line is…screwed up though? What if…" Jeff thought for a moment trying to remember the right words. "In your desire to save Josie, you end up destroying everything?" Jeff said this slowly, modifying the original script of Wormhole2 to fit.

Z started and looked at Jeff, unbelieving. "You really do play me! That's what I said to Josie when she came back from three hours in the future! Before that I explained about multiple dimensions to her using---," He broke off as Jeff interrupted.

"Cat's Cradle." Jeff nodded, then realization struck. "Hey! You didn't believe me?"

Z looked guiltily at him. "No, I didn't really. It's hard to grasp. You're saying that everything we've gone through is a made up television show. Would you believe it?"

That made Jeff pause. It was a lot like what he was feeling now. "Probably not. Then again, if you're here, then it can't be completely made up, can it?"

"True." Z stopped and thought a moment. "You say that someone made up this…show, and I'm a character in it. Is it possible that our dimensions have somehow overlapped? We have separate lives and timelines, but this common factor."

Z's face lit up with sudden excitement, and he turned to Jeff. "Do you understand the implications of this? The possibility that timelines can overlap opens entirely new doorways for science! The space-time continuum is layered with the different dimensions of all the decisions ever made and this could mean that it's getting smaller. The timelines may be overlapping and eventually combining entirely! Our different timelines are now connected in a very small but significant way, but over time, that connection may expand to the entire dimension and it would meld the two timelines together. One day, far in the future, our timelines may be one. And if that's possible, anything may be." Z ended with a shrug, a grin still on his face as he looked at an indiscriminant point and thought about the possibilities.

Jeff looked at the man, and tried not to laugh, Professor Z was so excited about this meeting, and why shouldn't he be? He's a scientist. You're having fun, he's discovering new possibilities. It is funny though, he acts just like I had to in the show. Z's next comment broke into Jeff's thoughts.

"…If my timeline is a TV show in yours, it there a chance that this conversation maybe just is written too? Maybe, somewhere, in another timeline, there's a couple people acting out this scene right now." Z looked to Jeff.

He thought about it and shivered, it was weird to imagine someone acting out what you were living.

"Exactly." Z said, still looking at Jeff. "That's why it's so hard to believe you."

It took Jeff a moment to connect what Z was saying. "Am I that transparent?" He asked.

Z laughed, "No, I just figured that's what you'd be thinking, that's what anyone would be thinking. That's what I'm thinking…" He trailed off, looking at the empty office.

Suddenly, he snapped back to focus. "About Josie, is there anyway to get her back?"

Jeff sighed, he'd hoped Z would forget about that. "I can't tell you, you know that."

"You have to be able to tell me something!" Z insisted.

"All right…she'll come back on her own…eventually." Jeff hoped it was vague enough, yet still satisfactory.

"Eventually? How long is 'eventually'?" pushed Z.

"Ummm…within a year." Jeff answered.

Z leaned against the wall. "A year, an entire year. Oh, Josie…" He removed his glasses and wiped them on his shirt before replacing them and turning back to Jeff. "Is she all right? Safe I mean?"

Jeff shrugged helplessly. "I don't know." The show never really explained how exactly Josie survived in the other timeline. "She will come back though, I promise you that."

Z looked to him. "I'm holding you to it." He was completely serious.

Jeff stared at the crestfallen man before him and tried to turn the conversation to a lighter topic. "So…You do believe me now right? That I play you on Black Hole High?"

Z willingly turned from the previous subject. "Honestly? I'm not sure, you seem to know about these things, but it could just be coincidence. Do you have any physical proof?"

Jeff shrugged. "Like what?" Then his eyes lit up, "Yes I do! I have proof you won't believe!"

"Well, that won't do much good will it?" Z asked rhetorically.

"Follow me!" Jeff ran out of the room and walked quickly down the hall with Z following wonderingly behind.

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Thanks pinoyjdem7195 for reviewing, I really appriciate it!

I hope you all enjoy it enough to review, because that would be great!

Oh yeah, I forgot the Disclaimer. I just say that I own nothing. Sigh.

And just to let you know, I couldn't get the subscript to work so I know it's wormhole squared not wormhole 2. Please review!