It was a few days before Bogg felt well enough to get out of bed for longer than a few minutes at a time. Mostly he slept, making sure each time he awoke that Jeffrey was still there, that the memory of seeing him sitting on the bed wasn't just a fever dream. Jeff teased him about it. "Bogg, I'm fine, and I'm not going anywhere. Stop worrying."

Finally, he woke one morning feeling more like himself than he had in a long time. He crept out of the bedroom so as not to wake Jeffrey and looked out into the apartment's main room. It was empty. The only indications someone had been there recently were a plate and glass next to the sink and a pillow and blanket on the couch. The girl – Rebecca, Jeffrey had said her name was – had apparently gone out. He looked out the window past the rusted-out fire escape to the street below. The neighborhood looked like it has once been a successful shopping district that had fallen on hard times. Burned out storefronts peppered the street, and the few stores that were open appeared to have empty apartments over them. Phineas turned away from the window, went to the bathroom, and got cleaned up, putting on his own clothes. Like Jeff's they had been at the foot of the bed and, also like Jeff's, had been washed. When he emerged from the cloud of steam, the girl had returned.

She was at the kitchen table kneading dough, a laundry basket on the floor nearby. She looked exhausted, and Bogg felt a twinge of guilt for all they had put upon her. "Can I help with anything?" he asked.

She shook her head. "No. This is just about ready for the first rise." She looked toward the bedroom. "Is Jeff up yet?"

"No," he answered, wondering if he should be more worried that Jeff wasn't yet awake or that the two of them seemed so friendly. He watched as she put the dough in a large bowl, covered it with a towel, then went to the sink to wash her hands. As she moved to the couch, he picked up the laundry basket and followed her. A memory rushed to the front of his mind. "Bat's breath," he muttered to himself. Then he addressed the girl. "I'm sorry about your coffee table," he said. "It was an accident," he finished lamely.

"It's okay," she replied, taking the basket from him and starting to fold the laundry, mostly sheets. "The state you two were in, I'm amazed there wasn't more damage."

Phineas picked up a pillowcase and started to fold it. "Jeff tells me you're Rebecca."

"That's me," she said. "Rebecca Levy. He tells me you're Bogg."

"Phineas," he said, placing the pillowcase on the couch and grabbing another. "Bogg is my last name." He paused for a moment, waiting to speak until he knew he had the words right. "Thank you," he finally said. "You saved Jeff's life. I couldn't have taken care of him. If anything had happened to him, I..." he trailed off, not even wanting to consider what could have happened.

Rebecca shook her head. "I know what it's like to lose the most important person in your world." Her eyes started to shine, and when she spoke again, her voice sounded rougher. "I'm glad I was able to help you keep yours." At that moment, the bedroom door creaked, and Jeff came out, fully dressed. "Do I smell bread?" he asked hopefully.

Rebecca broke off the gaze she and Phineas were sharing. "I'm making challah for Shabbat." She shook out a towel then turned towards the window as more fire engines raced by the building.

"What's with all the sirens?" Bogg asked.

"Yeah," Jeffrey chimed in, "I grew up in New York City, and I don't think I've ever seen this many firetrucks before in my life. What gives?"

Rebecca shook her head and let out a sigh. "Lawrence has a bit of an arson problem." She put down the towel and rubbed her forehead. "Is the aspirin still in the bedroom? I've got a headache." She walked off to go find it.

"A bit of an arson problem?" Phineas said. "With that many sirens? That's like saying Pompeii had a slight problem with ash." He turned to Jeffrey. "Hey, while she's gone. Lawrence, where? When is it?"

Jeff pulled the omni from his front pocket and opened it. "Lawrence, Massachusetts. May 8, 1970. Red light." He handed the omni to Phineas who stashed it in its usual place. "And before you ask, I have no idea why." He thought for a moment. "The only thing I know about Lawrence is its mill history. The towns around here were all textile mills in the late 1800s; Lowell was another one. In 1912, there was a big strike here, the Bread and Roses strike. It ended peacefully with the workers getting a lot of concessions from the mill owners." He shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe we're supposed to stop the arson fires?"

"The bottle's empty," Rebecca said as she walked back in the room. "I'll have to put it on the shopping list." She rubbed her head again.

The rest of the day passed quietly. Rebecca gave Jeff a lesson in braiding challah, then made him smile by showing him her book collection. Bogg went for a short walk outside to see if he could find clues to the red light and returned to find both teenagers asleep on the couch, their books open on their laps. As the sun set, Rebecca lit candles and said the prayers that brought in the Sabbath. After dinner they watched the candles burn down, then Phineas convinced Jeffrey to turn in early. "Rebecca looks like she still has a headache," he whispered to the boy, "and I don't imagine she's gotten much sleep the last two weeks taking care of us." Jeff nodded, and they said goodnight.

Once in the bedroom, Jeffrey sat down to to read his book, but Phineas put his hand over the page. "Kid, I need to ask you a question," he said. "She just showed you the bookshelf today, right? " Jeff nodded. "So...," Phineas looked down at the bedclothes "just what have the two of you been doing for the last couple days while I've been sleeping?"

"What?" Jeff's face mirrored the shock and outrage in his voice. "Bogg, she's older than I am! And her grandmother just died!" He pulled the book out from under Bogg's hand. "I can't believe you'd even think that! All we did was talk!" Jeff was angry now. "Just because you have a girl in every time zone..."

"Okay, Okay! I'm sorry!" Phineas said, relieved at Jeffrey's indignation. Then something tugged at him mind – Rebecca's understanding of what it would have meant if he'd lost Jeff. "Wait. Her grandmother just died?"

Jeff glared at him. "Yeah. Her folks died when she was a baby, and her grandmother raised her. She dropped out of school a year or so back to take care of her. She'd been back from the funeral for something like thirty seconds before we dropped in," he said, calming down somewhat. "She's spent all her time since then taking care of us. It's been kind of nice having someone close to my own age to talk to." Bogg heard the wistful tone in Jeff's voice and felt a momentary pang of guilt. "We spent most of our time in here, talking and watching you sleep," Jeff continued. He paused and thought for a moment. "I wonder if that's what the red light is."

Phineas cocked his head to the side. "You lost me, kid. If what's what the red light is?"

"Us," Jeff replied. "For all we know this was a green light zone until we dropped in with the Spanish Flu. It's not like either of us was in any condition to check when we got here." He looked troubled. "Bogg, what if we brought a pandemic into the future?"

Phineas thought for a moment. "Well, the only person we've had contact with so far is Rebecca, and aside from some exhaustion, she seems fine so far." He rubbed his chin. "I think I'm too tired to deal with this right now. I'm going to turn in." He sat down on his bed. "Don't stay up too late reading." He stopped for a moment and looked Jeffrey in the eyes. "And, Jeff. I'm sorry, but I had to ask." Jeffrey nodded at him and picked up his book. Phineas lay down and fell asleep almost immediately.

o-o-o-o-o

Several hours later, Bogg sat up coughing, unsure of what had woken him up. Something wasn't right. His eyes were stinging, and his brain felt woolly. He smelled smoke. Within seconds, he was fully awake, jumping off the bed and shaking Jeff awake. "Jeff! Jeff! Get up now!"

Jeff groggily turned over. "It's not morning yet, is it?"

Phineas grabbed him by the shoulders. "I think the building's on fire. Get up now!"

Jeffrey sat bolt upright. "Fire?" He jumped off the bed. "Rebecca's in the living room!" He threw the door open and ran into the main room. "Rebecca!" He reached the couch and found Rebecca stretched out in the same jeans and shirt she had been wearing earlier in the day. Smoke was starting to fill the room as he shook her by the shoulders. Phineas jerked open the door to the hall, then slammed it shut as he felt the heat emanating from the corridor. "Bogg, I can't wake her up!" Jeff shouted. "She's breathing, but she won't wake up! Help me!"

Smoke was now billowing in from under the door. Phineas unhooked the omni from his belt and made a split-second decision. "Jeff, hold on to her," he shouted. "I'm getting us out of here!" He ran over, grabbed Jeffrey's right shoulder with one hand and Rebecca's left shoulder with the other, then pressed the omni.