Chapter 37 – Present-day

A trip in time later, they were back in their own time, and Layton and co. were making their way back home to tell Hershel and Flora of their experience in the past.

"It's so strange," Luke said. "Here, it's as if we never left. I mean, we spent a whole twenty-four hours away from here, yet everything is exactly as we left it and no one will ever know that we've gone back in time. Except if they knew you, Claire…""

"That's a good thing, Luke," Claire assured him. "The quicker we get back to Hershel's place, the less the chances are of me being recognised by someone uninvolved in this situation. This whole thing is enough of a mess as it is without other people getting dragged into it. We just have to go home and figure out how to send Hershel's younger self back."

"But what—" the professor just managed to stop himself before anyone realised he had spoken. "What about you Claire?" he thought. He didn't like the idea of just wiping her memory and sending her back, like they had done with Little Emmy and Leon. Just making her forget the fact that she was going to die soon after all that she was going through at the moment seemed almost cruel to the professor. Somehow he didn't think it was going to work, but then again, what choice did they have?

The professor was deep in thought when they arrived at his estate. They hurried over to the professor apartment and quickly entered. They all sighed with relief that no one had stopped them in their tracks.

"Right, I'm putting the kettle on," Luke decided, entering the kitchen.

"Good idea," Claire sighed, following him. They all entered the kitchen, apart from Emmy.

"I'll just go and check on Flora," she called, heading upstairs.

"So, what now?" Luke asked as he filled up the kettle. "Do we send Hershel back straight away, or do we go out and find Andrea first?"

"Why on earth would we want to go anywhere near that old cow again?" Markus exclaimed.

"Well, she has to send him back in time like we did with Little Emmy and Leon, remember?"

"I don't see why we can't do that," Markus frowned. "I mean, we could convince him to come with us, and then drop our Hershel off there, and once Claire goes back, we're sorted, right?"

"Well, yes," Claire agreed. "Provided I was supposed to know about my death… was I?"

"Well, I don't know," Markus frowned. "If you did know, you kept well schtum about it, because neither mother nor I knew anything about it…"

"Or maybe we need to wipe your memory, like we did with Little Emmy and Leon?" Luke suggested.

"Maybe, although I really don't like the sound of— Emmy, are you alright?" Claire asked suddenly as Emmy entered the room with a panicked expression on her face.

"Emmy?" the professor stood up and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "Emmy? What's the matter?"

"They… they're gone," she said faintly.

"What?" Luke stood up too.

"Flora and Hershel. They're gone. There's nobody up there…"

Everyone got up at this.

"Flora…" the professor took Emmy's shoulders. "Are you sure you looked everywhere?"

"Yes, Hershel, they're gone! I looked everywhere upstairs, she must have taken them when we went back in time, and it was all a trick!"

"Well, they can't have gone far, we weren't gone for that long!" Claire exclaimed, heading for the door.

"Claire, no! Wait! You can't go out there, if someone recognises you it could have dire consequences!" Markus shouted, grabbing her arm and dragging her back. "Sit down and stay there. We'll go out and look for them. Come on, everyone."

"Wait," the professor said, taking Emmy's hand as she made her way out. "My dear, I think you ought to stay here."

"What? But I can't, I need to find Flora—"

"We can handle this, Emmy." He leaned in closer to her and whispered in her ear. I have a feeling that this could be dangerous, and I don't want to put you and the baby at risk."

"But Hershel…"

"Leave this to me. Luke and I can handle this. Luke is a young man now, I'm sure he'll be fine with me. You need to rest. "He kissed her on the cheek. "Let's go." He charged out ahead of everyone else and marched off down the street.

Emmy stood there staring after him for a moment before Claire spoke up.

"Is everything alright?" she asked.

Emmy nodded silently. Claire sighed and stepped forward to wrap an arm around Emmy's shoulder. "Everything will be alright. Andrea won't hurt her, I'm sure of it."

"How can you be sure of anything she does?" Emmy asked hoarsely, blinking back tears.

"It's what she's doing that makes me so sure," Claire smiled. She laughed when Emmy turned to frown confusedly at her and decided to elaborate. "I mean. Look at what she's done. She sent you all into the past just so she could kidnap her. She went into the past and instructed herself on how to make this crazy situation even crazier, and for what? A simple kidnapping that could just as easily have been accomplished in one night. What does that tell you?"

"That she's a psychopath and you can't trust her not to hurt Flora?"

"That's not the message I'm getting," Claire replied. "I think she's stalling. She's going right out of her way and busying herself with all this complicated nonsense just so she won't have to complete her own objective. She's scared."

"Scared…?"

"Yes. She's so obsessed with getting her own way with Hershel that if she went through with her objectives outright it would probably be too much for her to comprehend. Deep down inside, she knows that she won't stand a chance with Hershel. She knows that, even if Hershel is blackmailed, bullied and tortured into being with her, it still wouldn't feel right."

"Yeah," Emmy agreed. "Being in a one-sided relationship can be worse than being in a fight, you know."

"exactly." Claire squeezed her shoulders. "Deep inside, she knows. She knows that she'll never be happy unless she moves on from these feelings. But she can't. I mean, she's apparently had these feelings since before I started seeing him, and that was fourteen years ago. And if she has only been acting like this recently…"

"For the last eighteen months," Emmy said. "She was the one who orchestrated the whole charade last year…"

"Well that means that she has been holding onto these feelings for the last twelve years," Claire said. "That has probably driven her to this kind of madness…"

"Yeah…" Emmy sat down at the table and sighed. "Why do these things always happen to me…?"

Claire smiled and sat at the table beside Emmy. "You know, I've been thinking the same thing…"

"Excuse me, madam, have you seen this girl…?"

"No, sorry sir."

"Excuse me, sir, have you seen this girl, she was with a young lad with an afro and a tall lady with dark hair—"

"No, sorry mate."

"I'm terribly sorry, madam, but—"

"Sorry, love, can't help you!"

As the afternoon dragged on into evening, the professor's search became more and more frantic. He knew that there was a very small time frame in which Andrea would have been able to abduct Hershel and Flora, and that there was a very slim chance of them going about unnoticed in the busy city of London. But it seemed that no matter who he asked, no one had seen them. And the longer they were gone, the further away they could be going. It was nearing six o'clock in the evening when the group had decided to split up and try to cover more ground. That had been a few hours ago. The professor let out a long sigh, both audible and agitated, and looked around. He heard loud, fast footsteps quickly approach him, and he didn't even bother to turn around, as he already knew who it was before they even roared his name.

"LAYTON!"

Grosky grabbed the professor's shoulder and pulled him so that they were facing each other. "Layton, I ran into young triton a few minutes ago and he said that young Flora was missing! Since this afternoon, no less! And you didn't think to inform the police? Layton, explain yourself."

"I…" the professor trailed off. "Well…" what on earth was he going to say? Was he supposed to retell the whole story…?

"Well come on, Layton I haven't got all day!"

I think we ought to go back to Scotland Yard headquarters and have a chat in your office. I fear this may take some time to explain…"

"Have you heard anything yet?"

Claire stared at Emmy as she waited on the phone for Bronev's reply. As if waiting hour after hour and trying to mentally prepare for the worst wasn't bad enough for the pair, but after several attempts to contact their beloved professor, there was still no reply. There had been no word from Luke, celeste or Markus either. Everyone either had their phones switched off or simply couldn't be bothered to answer. Thankfully, being the ever-sociable uncle/father/whatever to Emmy that he was, Bronev had remained contactable and they got through to him right away by phone.

Emmy nodded, closing her eyes. "They still haven't found them yet, have they?" Claire thought glumly, resting her head in her hands.

"How is Hershel?" Emmy asked, twiddling a long strand of her hair between her fingers. She nodded again. "I can imagine he would be… I know, Uncle. I know you'll find her. Andrea's no Targent, and she isn't exactly the smartest woman around, she's just really awkward… well, if I hear anything from Flora, I'll be sure to let you know. Okay. Bye, Leon." Emmy put the phone down on the coffee table and sighed.

"Still no sign?" Claire asked.

Emmy shook her head. "Nothing. They asked everyone they came across and looked everywhere they could think of, but there's still no sign of any of them…"

Claire sighed too as they both fell silent.

A few minutes passed before Emmy gave up on moping and decided to take action. "No, I simply can't stand it any longer, I'm going out to look for them."

"What?" Claire asked as Emmy grabbed her yellow trench coat. "Is there any point, I mean Bronev just said that they looked everywhere—"

"Yes, but I can't just sit here while Flora could be in danger," Emmy protested, heading for the door. "Besides, you can never have too many eyes out. Stay here in case they come back. My number is written on the notice board by the phone if you hear anything." And a slam of the door later, she was gone.

An hour later, Emmy was still wandering around London looking for any of her friends. She would have been content with seeing the professor or Luke or anyone at this stage. She sighed agitatedly. "For God's sake, Hershel, where are you?" she crossed the road and made her way back home. "Maybe Hershel is home by now…"

Emmy didn't expect what happened next. Someone suddenly had her in a headlock and had dragged her into the bushes. Emmy gasped audibly and winced as the person's grip tightened on her. A black car pulled up beside the hedgerow and Emmy was dragged towards it. Emmy dragged her heels and tried desperately to land a snap-kick on the person's legs, but in her panic she just kept missing.

"Let me go!" she gasped.

The front door on the passenger side opened and a smug looking Andrea stepped out.

"Well, well, Miss Altava, fancy seeing you here?"

"What do you want? Where's Flora and Hershel?"

"Don't worry poppet, you'll be reunited with little Miss Reinhold soon. And as for young Hershel, well… I have something very special in mind for him." She smiled at the look of fear on Emmy's face and turned to the person holding her in the headlock. "We'll put her in the boot. C'mon." Andrea opened the boot and grabbed some rope. She then proceeded to tie up Emmy's legs, with great difficulty, narrowly avoiding her kicks. They then lowered her to the ground and proceeded to tie up her arms. It was then that Emmy got a better look at her captor.

"No… oh God, I don't believe it…"

"You know, Altava, when they said that seeing is believing, you really ought to have listened," Andrea smiled. She turned back to her accomplice. "Grab her."

And with that, Emmy was scooped up and thrown into the trunk.

"Why?" Emmy choked. "Why are you doing this? I thought I could trust you!"

"Sorry, Emmy. But when it all comes down to choosing between my future and yours, I have to look out for number one. I'm sorry." She closed the trunk.

"No!" Emmy yelled. "No! NO! CLAIRE PLEASE!"

ONE HOUR EARLIER

Claire sighed yet again and slumped back on the sofa. "I hate just being stuck here, unable to do or say anything to help!" she buried her face in her hands. "There has to be something I can do…"

"Why so glum, chum?"

Claire's head immediately shot up out of her hands as she glared up at the newest speaker. Andrea leaned against the living room doorway and smiled. "You know Claire, it doesn't have to be this way."

"I agree. You could always just leave Emmy alone and let us all go back to our lives," Claire snarled.

"I could," she agreed. "Or I could tell you the truth about why you are here."

"I'm here to stop you from ending the world as we know it," Claire snarled.

"No, Claire. You're here for a very different reason. You have a mission, Claire, a mission to save your future."

"Save my future…?"

"Yes. There is still a way, you know. A way you can still be with Hershel. A way to cheat death. You are going to lose everything, Claire, but I can prevent it. But I need your help."

"… What do I have to do?"

Andrea smiled. "I need you to help me kill Emmy Altava."