Chapter 14 – It's Going to be a Long Day

"I'll get it."

Luke opened the door to find Bloom, Dimitri and another man which he didn't recognise (Alex) at the door.

"Let us in, quick," Bloom hissed. "Quick, before someone sees us."

Luke quickly stepped aside and the three rushed in. Luke quickly slammed the door behind them.

"Where are Emmeline and Leon?" Alex asked.

"Emmeline?" Luke asked, thinking immediately of Emmy's older counterpart. "Uh... Emmy and Bronev are in the kitchen.

He stormed in there and Bloom sighed heavily. He turned to Luke.

"What exactly is going on? We saw another Dimitri at the church—"

"So the professor's plan worked? Great!" Luke exclaimed. "Oh, and the professor is in the living room, so he'll explain everything to you. Follow me."

"Leon!"

Bronev and Emmy stopped talking and looked up, astonished.

"Alexander?" Bronev asked in disbelief. "I... but I thought that you moved back to Russia with your mother?"

"I came to see how Emmeline is. I never had the chance to come earlier, as the agency has been keeping me busy and mother has been very ill..."

"Is she alright?" Emmy asked worriedly. "I'm so sorry that we haven't been to visit..."

"I know that you have had a difficult time, Emmeline, it was all over the news. You don't have to be sorry." Alex smiled. "But all I want to know is what he's getting you into this time." He glared at Bronev.

"Whatever do you mean, boy?" Bronev asked coolly.

"Well, I really don't think you would have broken a crack-pot scientist out of prison for nothing, Leon."

"A rather difficult situation has cropped up, I'm afraid, and we needed that man to fix it for us."

"What sort of situation?"

Bronev cleared his throat. "Well, you may have a hard time believing us, Alexander."

"Well, tell me, and then I will decide."

Bronev and Alex stared at each other for a time. Bronev nodded.

"Alright. Basically, there is a time machine in our doctor's attic, which Emmeline and her partner will come here from fifteen years in the future. But the machine itself is not in full working order, which is where Doctor Allen comes in. He will fix the machine and enable us to send them home. Also, the younger selves of myself, Emmeline and her partner were sent here by someone named Andrea McIntyre for reasons unknown. We need to fix the machine and find out what Andrea wants before the day after tomorrow, where our younger counterparts are forced back to their own time and we all disappear because this never actually happened to any of us in our memories. Make of that what you will."

Alex frowned. He looked at Emmy, who was nodding her head vigorously and waving her hand. Slowly, Alex nodded too.

"Alright..."

"... and that is why there were two Dimitri's at the church? Because he went back in time when the time machine was fixed?" Bloom asked.

"Yes. But now, we need him to actually fix the machine and go back, so that everything will go back to normal."

"That's genius... that way, Dimitri goes back to prison with the officers and no one is any the wiser."

"Yes," Dimitri agreed, "but now is not the time. If your older and younger selves are molecularly unstable, then the sooner we get that time machine working, the better."

"That was our initial thought as well. My older self says that he knows a thing or two about the machine, so he and my wife and son will be assisting you in the repairs while we try to get hold of the person responsible for the presence of or older selves."

"Then we haven't a moment to waste," Dimitri declared. "We must set out to work post-haste."

"So, where do we go first, Emmy? I mean, where does a creepy stalker psychopath hang out on a Tuesday afternoon?" Luke asked.

"She should be in prison," Emmy said. "She was sentenced to five years, for God's sake."

"Well then why was she let out after one year?" Luke asked. "Her appeal isn't for another year and a half."

"I'm not sure," Emmy replied. "All we know is that she's out to get us, and we already know why."

"Because... she fancies the professor?" Luke smiled.

Emmy scowled.

"I actually don't blame my older self for knocking her back. She sounds crazy," Hershel said.

"And I'm prettier than her," Emmy added.

"I'm with you there," Luke agreed.

Hershel smiled. "Why, what does she look like?"

"She has dark hair, she looks like a pug and she doesn't look a day over sixty five," Emmy replied.

"Emmy! She doesn't look like a pug, but she certainly doesn't look like she's in her late thirties. I would've guessed her age to be forty-five or fifty, myself."

"Yeah, there's another point; I'm younger than her. Younger, prettier, smarter, and I'm not crazy to boot. No wonder you love me so much, Hershel!"

"Er... yeah..." Hershel went pink.

Emmy grinned at him. "Seriously, though, if that woman touches my man, I'll pound her into next week. I may be three weeks pregnant, but I can still sort her out, no problem."

Luke smiled. "I still can't believe you're having a baby, Emmy!"

"Me neither." Emmy stopped walking and stared into the distance. Now that she really thought about it, she really couldn't imagine herself with a baby. Emmy sighed.

"Emmy?"

Emmy looked at Luke, who was staring at her worriedly.

"Are you okay?"

Emmy smiled at him. "If I'm honest, Luke... I really can't see how someone like me will ever be cut out to be a mother."

"What? Emmy don't be silly! You'll be a great mum, I know you will! We all do!"

"Yeah, but can you really see me pushing a pram around the place and changing a baby's bottom? Because I can't. I'm not that person, Luke. You know me; I'm always rushing around, being Hershel's assistant and helping Scotland Yard. But now I really can't do that anymore. It's not that my life is over now, but... things will never be the same."

"Yeah, but... well... I don't really know what to say to that, Emmy," Luke confessed.

"It won't all be like that. You'll still be able to do those things after the baby is born. I'm sure my older self will do his fair share, because otherwise, he's really not me. I wouldn't just bury myself in my work and leave the mother of the child do all the work. He'll help and you'll still be able to live your own life. I'm sure of it."

Emmy turned to look at Hershel. He looked into her eyes.

"That's what a gentleman would do," he added.

Emmy smiled. "You're right. That is what my Hershel would do. I... I'm just being stupid."

"No. You're just worrying too much. That's what girls do."

"Luke!"

"So, where should we go first, Professor?"

"Well, we should start with the row of houses in which Celeste lives. We need to see if anyone witnessed Little Emmy's little showdown with her thugs and if anyone caught a glimpse of which direction she went in afterwards. Let's go."

They walked up to the nearest house.

"I'll take this one, you take the next one. If we split up, we'll cover twice as much ground."

"Okay, Professor."

"So, what did this woman look like, Emmeline?"

"She... eh... she had dark hair... and vas short... and... ze ozer vun looked the same as her... exactly ze same... I never noticed zat before..."

Leon frowned. "They were exactly the same... there must be a connection..."

"Uncle Leon?"

Leon smiled at her. "Good girl, Emmeline. That information is very useful. Very useful indeed..."

Alex turned to Leon. "How so?"

"Let's just say that I think our friend Andrea has been taking liberties with a certain machine..."

"I'm sorry, I wasn't at home that day at lunchtime, I was working, and I didn't see anything out of the ordinary that evening either. But I will let you know if I see anything of that nature."

"Alright. Thank you very much for your time, madam." The professor tipped his hat to the woman and walked back down the path. He sighed heavily. So far, he had made no progress at all this morning, and his patience on this case was wearing thin. The possibility of him disappearing into thin air along with everyone he had ever known tended to have that affect on him. He thought of Emmy, and how she was getting on. He didn't like the thought of her being stressed over what was to happen, as it was probably bad for the baby. He wondered what was going through her mind. He remembered their conversation and that she said that she was unhappy. "She will be alright," he told himself. "she'll be fine. As soon as all of this is over, she'll have less to worry about..."

And yet, the professor still wasn't sure.

"Professor! Professor I think I've got something!"

The professor turned to the sound of his name being called to see Flora rushing towards him.

"Oh really, my dear?"

"Yeah! The neighbour who lives in that house over there said that she saw two women and three men running off towards the park at the time we were there. I had her describe the women, and they both fitted Andrea's description. Though, it looks like Andrea's found herself an accomplice in all of this."

"Indeed. I say that our next move is to go to the park and ask around some more to get another direction. You know the way it is around these parts, my dear; nothing goes unnoticed in London."

"So you saw a woman matching our friend's description?"

"Yah."

"Did she have three men and another woman with her?"

"Aye, she deed, yah."

"And where was she headed?"

"Doon that rood thar an' een tha' fla' thar." The man pointed to an upstairs flat above a charity shop.

"Right," Emmy said firmly, scribbling that down in her notebook. "Thank you for your help, you've been most helpful. Have a nice day!"

"Wait! Ye have ta solve me puzzle first!"

Emmy rolled her eyes.

"Nothin's free these days, ye know!"

"Alright then." Emmy sighed again, twisting her hands vigorously. "Oh, it's going to be a long, long day."

"Pass the six-dimension alpha distributor."

"Pass the what what-what-what-what?" Alfendi asked, confused.

"The six-dimension— oh, just get out of my way," Dimitri snapped, waving Alfendi aside. He snatched it up and turned back to the machine.

Alfendi caught his mother's eye, and she merely shrugged.

"Uh, Mr. Allen—" Alfendi began.

"What?!" he snapped, not looking up from his work.

"Shouldn't my father and Mr. Folley be helping you?" He then looked over to the corner, where Markus and Layton were playing a game of chess.

"Your father has explained the gist of what as to be done. I can take it from here."

"But... it really doesn't look like what you're doing is going to work."

"Alfendi! Don't be rude to the poor man!"

"But Mother look—"

"Why don't you go over there and help Markus?"

Alfendi looked back over to Markus, where he saw most of his pieces stacked up on Layton's side of the table. He sighed.

"Yes, mother."

"Good boy."

Alfendi sloped over to the corner and plonked himself down on an empty wooden crate beside Markus and peered over his shoulder at the game in progress. Emmeline smiled. She turned back to Dimitri.

Dimitri sighed frustratedly, giving the machine a furious kick. "Why won't you work, you piece of junk!" he hissed. He tried the switch again, and still nothing happened. He kicked it, furious. "You piece of shi—"

The machine suddenly lit up, buttons flashing and the engine whirring. Layton, Markus and Alfendi looked on from the corner, bemused.

"I did it!" Dimitri cried. "I fixed it!"

"Yeah, you fixed it," Emmeline snorted from the other side of the attic. "The amazing power of your foot making harsh contact with the side of the machine magically plugged it in the socket on the complete opposite side of the room to you." Emmeline sighed, annoyed, and sat down on a nearby bean-bag. "Oh, it's going to be a long, long day."