Chapter Six: The Way

While the sun dipped lower behind the horizon, Elizabeth's trousers became less and less comfortable. For a few minutes, she seriously considered pulling her socks and her trousers down, but then that would ruin the fact that she was all dressed like a 18th century boy, complete with a hat to hide all of her hair. In her own time, she looked far and wide for a decent dress of the period, but decided it was cheaper and easier just to modify some clothes she already had.

As she walked up a curve, she had the faint fear that something would happen in the night if she stayed out for too long. Of the many people she had asked, two pointed her to Vichy, one pointed her to a whorehouse, one pointed her to some bakery, and one pointed her to the sky. After learning that Vichy was a few hours' walk and that the whorehouse didn't know any Schuldes, she hoped that the man who had pointed to the sky was wrong.

Through the glow of the dusk, Elizabeth found her destination as shown by the small wooden sign labeling it Bussereau's. She ran to the meet the woman that was halfway through the doorway, flipping a sign to "Closed."

"No! Stop! Please!" she shouted in broken French.

The woman yawned at her. "We're closed. Come back tomorrow."

"No, please!" Elizabeth searched through her memory to find the right words. "Please, do you know a Ferdinand or a Claudia Schulde? It's very important."

The woman stopped, and she stared at the girl until it made her uncomfortable. When the light was right and her face was shown under the hat, she gasped with a slightly confused, "Elizabeth?"

"Are you... Miss Bailey?" Elizabeth asked with some uncertainty.

With a cheerless laugh, she replied in English, "Yes, I am." Kate seemed to shudder as opened the door wider. "Won't you come in? Are you hungry?"

Elizabeth stepped inside the bakery, and through the light she could only see a collection of dusty shelves where a little girl of about four years was taking the many breads off of the display. "No, thank you. I'll eat when we get back. I've been here about six hours already. We should leave as soon as possible."

"Right," Kate said quietly. "Of course. You know, I started to think- I mean, excuse me of course. I'm so glad you've come. It's better a bit late than never, right?"

"This is the first time I've time traveled anywhere, so I do think 1790 is quite close to 1785 in terms of the whole universe. If you want, I can try again and pick you up before the war. I'm sure you've gone through many difficulties in this century."

Kate didn't reply. She just swallowed, and paused, and said something in French to the little girl, who she called "Clarisse." Then, she reminded Elizabeth about her earlier comment of being in a hurry, and told her to follow her upstairs.

"I cannot tell you how good it feels to wear this," Adam sighed with pleasure, admiring himself in the window. He wore the clothes that Elizabeth had brought: a white silk shirt with dark jeans and sneakers. Kate was wearing something similar, although she kept commenting that it felt so awkward. Since Elizabeth wasn't expecting a third passenger, their daughter, Clarisse had to wear her little dress.

Despite Kate wanting to pack some things, she found that there was really nothing to pack. They were never going to wear the clothes again and the predicted that even using the money for its historical value would put it against Elizabeth if Adam could not clear her name. They had little else since they were of course in the middle of the French Revolution, and no one really had anything.

Meanwhile, Adam carried Clarisse all around both floors of the building, even stepping outside to say goodbye (and good riddance) to the dead tree in the front. He literally kissed the bakery goodbye, leaning a temporary mark on the window, and let Clarisse kiss right below it. She didn't know what was going on, but never had she seen her father so happy.

"What's this? What's going on?" Simon-Pierre looked very out of place in all of this, but he blinked and rubbed his eyes furiously to make himself believe what he saw.

Kate immediately gave him a hug and a kiss on both cheeks. At once, her eyes started to tear. "I know nothing I could say would make any sense to you, and I'm very sorry. We're going home. Will you give our thanks and farewell to everyone else? Tell Jean-Clair that he should keep his shop open; the war won't be long now. And Louise, tell her the secret of my crepes is just a little lemon juice. Not too much. And tell Madame Noelle that she has no business in telling you who to marry. And-- I'm sorry, so sorry. We have to go now-- Yes. Now. There's really no--"

She stopped short, running to a loose floorboard, which she lifted and dug through the interior. Nine books of varying colors and sizes were removed, and she handed these to Simon-Pierre. "These are my journals," Kate said, very seriously looking him in the startled eyes. "I'll trust you with them. They will explain everything. I'd just hate to leave you out in the dark. Okay?"

Simon-Pierre struggled to keep all of the books in his arms. "Okay," he nodded a little, still having no idea what was going on.

"Kate..." Adam started to struggle as Clarisse squirmed in his arms.

Kate gave the young man a final kiss on the cheek, and gave a final, "Goodbye, Simon-Pierre." She walked back to the impatient others.

Elizabeth held out her hand and after helping Clarisse take a finger, they all grabbed their own. The teenager took a deep breath with one last look at the century, and closed her eyes.

They were gone within the next second.

"God, you've got to be kidding me!"

The four were in an odd sort of place, or rather the lack of a place. All they could see was darkness, as if their eyes were closed, but they could feel some kind of vibrations moving past their legs and hear Elizabeth's complaint as if she was whispering in their ear.

Clarisse started to whine so much that Adam just had to ask, "What's going on?"

Elizabeth swore vulgar words, but replied as she held them tighter, "I'm being redirected."

The meaning of this was soon apparent in a momentary flash as their ears started to ring slightly and they stood in a place that wasn't exactly a room in a building, but wasn't outside, but wasn't exactly the sky either. It was bright, though, a noisy sort of gray with words appearing before them in addition to a voice that seemed to come from their own minds, "Please stand by."

Another moment later, they were on solid ground, in a solid room. The walls were the same noisy gray, and there were no windows, but it was pleasant nonetheless. There was a Ficus in the corner and four chairs upholstered in red velvet before a glass desk, where a woman sat in her own velvet chair with a keyboard and a computer monitor.

"License, please," the woman said without even a glance at the people who had just appeared in her office. Upon closer inspection, it could be found that her name was Lisa Shetler, Immigration Officer. Or, at least, that was what stated on her nametag.

While saying things like, "I'm sorry. I didn't know when it was all starting. Really, if I had known, I would have never left," Elizabeth leaned just above the desk, where a metal rod extended from the side to her face, and with a soft buzz, dragged a beam of light across her eye.

"Only implemented nine hours ago," yawned the officer. She tapped a few things into her keyboard, and finally glanced upon the girl's face, simultaneously reading, "Elizabeth Ferguson, Space Manipulation?"

Elizabeth nodded, and without a look up from her keyboard, the woman asked, "You two, as well."

"Miss... Officer, they aren't registered yet," she took to explaining once Adam and Kate looked dubiously at the eye scanner.

For the first time, the officer looked surprised at all of them. "Aren't registered in any system? Any at all?"

"I think I'm registered in the WWF." Adam couldn't help but to say with a sly smile.

Kate pinched him while the officer held a sour face. "Absolutely none at all," Elizabeth ignored him completely. "They're... er... what's the word?"

"... Gypsies," finished Kate. "The government hasn't been satisfactory until now," she said fluently.

"Right. What she said," added Elizabeth.

The woman looked back to her computer screen with a tired sigh. She tapped a few things into a computer, simultaneously saying, "You're very lucky, all of you, that the Union decided to reset the boarders. A billion more hours' work for me, but at least there is a chance for less of a war. Well, never mind."

She started to pull out a half sheet of paper, which she ran through her printer, which spat out a long speech of small words. At the end, there was a line, which she signed and punched with a stamp.

"Here you are. Hand it to the man at the door to take your name, then you can stay in the waiting room until some one can take you," the officer handed the paper to Kate with a half-hearted smile. "Mind you," she addressed Elizabeth, "that you can't go with them. I'll summon a teleporter to take them to the main immigration building. He should be here just a few moments."

"Oh." Elizabeth didn't know much to say. She found that she really couldn't argue with anything.

Turning around she gave Adam and Kate a helpless look, while they themselves gave her one that made it clear they had no idea what was going on.

"I'm sure someone you see will explain it all. I'm really sorry about this. I... didn't know exactly when the borders would reset; I thought we would've had more time. In any case," she took a breath, "you know where to find me once they let you out, yeah? We still live in Queen's Park, but you know, just ask around. Is there anything else I can do for you right now? Again, I'm really sorry."

Kate didn't know what to ask. "No, we'll be fine."

"It really shouldn't be too long. Just a whole load of paperwork to fill out, then an interview. Shouldn't take more than an hour, I'd expect," Adam raised an eyebrow.

"You'd be surprised," the officer said. "Ah-- Alright, Billy?" she smiled brightly at the thick and stout man that had appeared out of nowhere. "Got another load of unregistered for you-- these two and the little one."

The teleporter grunted with a nod, offering an arm to them.

"I guess I'll see you, then," shrugged Elizabeth.

Adam nodded. "Right."

Kate smiled a farewell. "Yes, see you."

And without anything else, they were gone.