Running Out of Time

by Lady Dawson

Chapter Four: Jailed

Henry couldn't move.

Or breathe, for that matter. His entire body had completely forgotten how to force oxygen in and out of his lungs. Every fiber of his being was just in shock as he stared at the pregnant woman not five feet away from him.

The woman that was pregnant with him, at this very moment. That was him, in her belly there. Henry tried to wrap his head around that, but that just made him even more tongue-tied than he already felt.

He wasn't sure what he expected, when he finally came face to face with his biological mother, but the five feet four inch woman in front of him definitely wasn't it. For one thing, she was much younger than he'd ever pictured her (which made sense, considering they were sixteen years in the past, but still) and for another, she looked just like him.

Or rather . . . he looked just like her.

That alone made his insides squirm and he couldn't even come up with a single coherent excuse that was obviously a lie as she narrowed her eyes at the two of them. Ray was still on the ground next to him, massing his jaw where she'd smacked him with her bag from the grocery store, which looked like canned beans.

"Well?" she demanded when neither of them answered.

"We, uh . . ." Ray threw a worried look at him but Henry couldn't even pry his tongue from the roof of his mouth to form words and that was presuming his brain would even let him get out a coherent sentence. "We're, uh . . . selling Girl Scout cookies."

Girl Scout cookies?

If Henry had any control over anything in that particular moment, he would've burst out laughing at the blatant lie but right now, he couldn't do anything but stare at his mother, who cocked her eyebrow at Ray.

"Girl Scout cookies? In November?"

Henry couldn't blame her skepticism, but Ray just gave her his "Captain Man" smile, being as charming as possible.

"Absolutely," he agreed, gesturing toward Henry. "You see, uh . . . my son's little sister wanted to beat out all the girls in her troop last year, sell the most cookies, you know? So we decided to help her out by going around and taking everybody's orders now. That way, come March when all the other girls start to take orders, they won't be able to because everybody already has their cookie order in."

Kathryn stared at him, then looked to Henry. "Is he serious?"

"Uh . . ." Henry tried to form a word, any word, but his mouth refused to work and his brain was just a blank, so he ended up nodded quickly.

She frowned at him and was his imagination or did he detect concern in her eyes? But she turned away and told Ray, "Look . . . I don't know what your deal is, but you don't follow a pregnant woman around just so she'll buy cookies—in fact, you don't follow anyone around so they'll buy cookies. That's just creepy."

"Duly noted," Ray said quickly, getting to his feet. "We'll just, uh . . . be on our way. Sorry to bother you . . ."

"Oh, you don't have to explain it to me," Kathryn told him, fixating on something over Henry's ear. "But them? You might have to explain it to them."

Turning, Henry froze in alarm when he saw the cop car pulling up next to them and there were two cops climbing out with their weapons already drawn, heading straight for the three of them.

"See, I noticed you following me awhile back, figured something was up," Kathryn said casually. "So I had my friend at the café call them."

She had noticed them all that time? Henry thought in surprise. Four years of being Ray's sidekick had taught him a thing or two about sneaking around and he knew that Ray was even better at that he was, so how was she able to notice them following her?

"Hands up," the cop called.

"Wait," Henry blurted out desperately, looking to his—his mother. She returned his gaze evenly, her gaze softer towards him than it had been towards Ray. "This is a mistake; we're not trying to hurt you."

"Tell it to the judge, kid," the second cop said and Henry felt the cuff clasp around his wrist before he could even consider moving it out of the way. On the other side, Ray too was being handcuffed and hauled away to the police car.

"Don't say anything," he warned Henry, sounding just as nervous as Henry felt. This couldn't be happening; they couldn't be going to jail sixteen years in the past and possibly sentenced than their past selves would be in the same timeline.

Henry grunted as the cop all but dragged him over to the cop car but before he could even get the door open, Kathryn blurted out, "Wait! I want to talk to him for a second."

The cop that had Henry by the arm looked surprised but didn't protest, just shrugged like he didn't care one way or the other and stepped away, leaving Henry standing there handcuffed next to the car with his birth mother.

No sooner had Ray been thrown into the car did Kathryn look at him and again, he was surprised by the look of concern that was in her brown eyes. His eyes, he thought with his insides squirming again.

"Are you okay?"

He blinked. "What?"

"Are you in trouble?" she elaborated. "Is that guy bothering you?" She nodded towards Ray sitting in the car.

"No, we—he's not," Henry stumbled over the words. Stupid, stupid tongue, just work, dammit. "He's my friend."

"But not your dad?"

It took him a minute to realize why she'd said that but remembered what Ray had said, calling Henry his son. "It's . . . complicated. He sort of is. He's the closest thing that I've got to one, anyway," he admitted because really, he never thought of Jake when he thought of his dad. It was usually Ray that came to mind.

Kathryn clicked her tongue. "Are you sure?"

"I'm not in trouble, but you are," Henry blurted out because he didn't know what else to say. This could be their last chance to stop Drex. "Look, this isn't gonna make any sense, but you and your son are in trouble."

"What?"

"Your baby's in trouble," Henry repeated. "There's this guy that's looking for you and he's a really bad guy and—"

"No, hang on, back up," she interrupted him, eyes suddenly sharp and reflecting something that Henry didn't really expect, nor did he really know what it was. "Did you say my son?"

"Yes," he insisted. "He's in trouble. Please, you have to believe me. Get out of town as fast as you can. Go anywhere that's not here. The baby's not going to be safe here, not while that guy's out there."

His mother stared at him with that same odd expression that he couldn't place, but just as she opened her mouth, probably to question his sanity, the cop suddenly came up and took Henry by the arm.

"All right, let's go. Lots of paperwork to take care of."

Craning his neck as the cop forced him into the back of the patrol car, Henry tried to keep his mother in sight, but to his surprise, she came over to look at him sitting there, but she didn't stop the police from driving away.

But she was still there, standing in the same spot, watching them drive away and remained there until the patrol car turned onto a different street and then she was gone.

Your son is in danger.

The boy's words resonated over and over in Kate's head, even when she left the spot where they had taken the two weirdos away and headed for her apartment. She couldn't get the words out of her head, even when she climbed up the steps and opened the door, headed for the kitchen and put everything from the store away.

She couldn't even get them out of her head when she went into her room to put the stuffed rabbit into the crib that she'd set up in there. It wasn't a large space, what she'd carved out for her baby, but her roommate had been nice enough to let her have the bigger room. The changing table and everything had been set up, plus Kate had been buying stuff little by little. She figured that everything she bought would be used up in six months after her baby was born, though.

It hadn't matter, though. She already loved her little peanut, as she had taken to calling the reason why she wasn't sleeping at night. Everything over the past nine months had been in preparation for this baby. She'd even been taking double the number of classes she normally was just so she could finish in time for the baby to be born next month. Her due date was the week after finals, which put it a little close but she was all set to graduate a semester early.

Everything had worked out. She hadn't thought it would, especially in the beginning and especially considering the father, but it had all worked out.

At least, that's what she thought until today.

Your son's in danger.

"How did he know?" Kate muttered, not that there was anybody there to answer her. "How could he know?" It wasn't like she even knew herself that the baby was a boy. She hadn't wanted to know, preferring to do it old school like in a sixties tv show, where someone would come out and announce what the gender was and the waiting room would cheer.

Maybe that was a little corny, but Kate didn't care.

Now, though . . .

She still had the envelope that her doctor gave her, in case she changed her mind. Kate had tucked it into her dresser, where it was out of sight and out of mind. Her roommate/best friend bugged her every other day, wanting to do a gender reveal, but Kate preferred her plan of not knowing.

Rubbing her belly, Kate muttered, "This is crazy. A couple of guys follow me and suddenly, I just want to forget about my plan." She sighed, looking down at her swollen stomach. "What do you think, peanut?"

The baby kicked her.

"Ow," she complained. "That's not very nice, sweets." But the baby just responded by kicking her insides again. "Hey, stop that or I'm gonna be grounding you for the next eighteen years."

She sighed and glanced over at her dresser. All it would take to answer the million dollar question as to whether those guys were telling the truth or not was to walk right over there, open the envelope, and see what her baby was. Maybe she would get lucky and the baby was a girl and she wouldn't have to worry about it.

But if was a boy?

What would she do that?

The bigger concern that Kate had was, what if that kid was telling the truth? She knew he believed it; she could see it in his eyes, how desperate he was. There was something about him that just . . . she couldn't put her finger on it, but she wanted to help him. He was in trouble; she could feel it.

Maybe not from his friend, but in trouble nonetheless.

"Dammit," she muttered, getting up off the bed. "Fine, peanut. You win."

Walking over to the dresser, she pulled open the bottom drawer, where she kept all of her summer/winter clothes that were not in use, and moved all of her swimsuits, short sleeves, and capris that were neatly folded until she reached the bottom.

There it was, where she had placed it all those months ago.

Opening the flap, she pulled open the results that Dr. Swanson gave her and read it.

They were in jail.

They were in jail.

No, not only were they in jail, but they were in jail in the past.

Henry was just kind of glad that they didn't fingerprint anybody at the Swellview PD, like they did on cop shows on TV, because that would have thrown up a whole bunch of red flags. How would they even explain that? Ray would come up in the system but it was obvious than he wasn't in his twenties.

And Henry?

How could they even explain that he wasn't in the system because he wasn't born yet?

But thankfully, the PD was just as useless now as they were in the future, so they just sat in a cell with the rest of the criminals waiting to be ordained, all the while Drex was out there somewhere and hopefully had no idea who his birth mother was.

Sure, he could figure it out, same way they had, but hopefully that would take time and hopefully, Kathryn would get out of town before then.

He didn't understand her. The way that she spoke to him, she was genuinely concerned about him and she seemed just as concerned about her baby, when he told her that the baby was in danger. The fact that she would just leave him in an alleyway, after he was born, didn't add up with the woman he met.

But he couldn't figure out what did.

"Any ideas, kid?"

"No," Henry muttered, glaring at the lock. "What are we going to do? Drex could be—"

"Drex could be anywhere," Ray assured him. "He's probably watching the hospitals, keeping an eye out for any babies that are born today. Remember, he doesn't know about . . ." Ray lowered his voice. "About where you were found."

That was true, Henry thought, and despite the anger that it usually brought, it actually brought a wave of relief. Since he wasn't born in a hospital (presumably, anyway), there was no way that Drex would be able to find baby him. And if that was true, then that also meant that there was a good chance that he would be fine.

They just had to get out of here first.

And stop Drex before he found Kathryn.

So wrapped up in his own thoughts, Henry didn't even notice the guard that approached the cell, not until he said, "Wayne and Richard Grayson," and it still took him ten seconds to remember the fake names that Ray used.

Thankfully, the guard didn't notice.

"You've got a visitor."

Henry exchanged a bewildered glance with Ray. Visitor? Who the hell would be visiting them in a jail cell in this time period?

Drex, he thought, heart pounding. Drex must have found them. That was the only answer that made any sense.

To his surprise, it was not Drex but Kathryn that walked inside and stopped just on the other side of the cell. Her brown eyes were narrowed, surveying him critically, even though it was Ray that approached.

"What are you—"

"You, shut up," Kathryn retorted without so much as looking at him. The look on Ray's face was so comical that it would have been amusing had the situation been less severe. "Kid, come here."

Confused, Henry got up from the bench and walked over.

She was paler than she had been just an hour ago and she looked almost . . . stunned. Yes, that was a good word for it. Her face was filled with shock that had certainly not been there when they had been driving away.

But she was here, at least. And she was still pregnant. That meant Drex hadn't gotten to her, so that was an upside.

"How'd you know I was having a boy?"

Henry was taken aback. "What?"

"You said that my son was in danger," she replied. "But the thing is, nobody knew that I was having a boy. I didn't even know until I looked at the piece of paper the doctor gave me an hour ago. So, explain to me how you knew I was having a boy."

Panicked, Henry threw a glance at his boss but Ray looked just as lost as he felt. There was no way to explain this away, he knew. There was no way that they could just talk their way out of this one.

He'd messed up. That one word "son" was all that it had taken for her to know that something was up, but maybe that was a good thing because if she knew, then maybe she would take his warning seriously?

Her brown eyes, sharp and beautiful, burned into his. So warm and maternal, Henry couldn't help but feel safe in her presence, as messed up as that sounded, knowing everything that he did. There was just something about his birth mother that—

"Who are you?"

And, before he could even stop himself, before he could consider the consequences of what saying those words meant, Henry said the three words that changed everything.

"I'm your son."

AN: Ta-da! And I gave you guys three more pages than I normally would, so I hope you enjoy! And to Molly Engh, who has been giving me such lovely reviews that I really appreciate, I hope you have a very happy birthday.

For everyone else, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please review! Thanks for reading!

Lady Dawson