An Alternate Life AU
Chapter 14 Just A Kid
Real
Jeff paced back and forth, his heart pounding. When both voyagers materialized he easily picked out Bogg and approached. He was dusty and looked exhausted, but he was standing up. Jeff hesitated, and then approached him, slowly at first, then suddenly rushing forward to embrace.
Bogg smiled to himself as he hugged him back. Jeff hadn't touched him like this in weeks, even when they reunited during their last mission after being separated for several days. Jeff had been hesitant, had seemed embarrassed to greet him physically. Bogg understood that it was just part of growing up, but it had been hard to resist giving the kid a good hug, he'd been so relieved to see him.
"What d'you need?" Jeff whispered, interrupting Bogg's thought.
"Water."
"He needs water," Jeff turned his head and barked the order to the staff, but they were already in action, bringing not only water, but a chair as well.
Jeff eased him down into the chair and watched him worriedly as he took a long drink. Under the exhaustion and dirt, he seemed okay, but Jeff wouldn't be convinced immediately. Then he heard a familiar voice.
"That was a stupid thing to do!"
Jeff turned to face the other voyager who had returned with his partner, it was Dan Steel.
"I don't think so," Phineas replied quietly.
"You could've gotten us both killed, and all those people saw us disappear!" Dan shouted.
"They were gonna kill that boy."
Jeff's eyes traveled from man to man as they argued.
"They were just gonna put him on the train!"
"Same as killing him."
"I told you that according to the guidebook, he wasn't important to history."
Bogg reached out for Jeff's arm and squeezed it as he whispered, "I was shot."
Jeff's eyes widened, "shot? Where?"
"Just my arm, it's not too bad, but I need a doctor."
"He's been shot!" Jeff called out to the staff again. Suddenly they were surrounded by medical personnel and Jeff was pushed back.
As the team started to work, Bogg spoke in Jeff's direction, "they always act like this, don't worry."
Suddenly Bogg was gone and Jeff was standing with Dan Steel and Trevor Dillon.
"What happened?" Trevor asked bluntly.
"He couldn't have been shot, there was no gunfire!" Dan explained.
"What happened?" Trevor repeated.
"We had to protect Miep Gies so she could hide Anne Frank and her family. I got beat up and couldn't get to her, so I sent the distress call. Phineas found me, I told him what to do, and he did it. But he had no papers and they thought he was a Jew so they put him in a holding cell until they could identify him. I finally managed to find him there and break him out. That's it."
"What about the boy that wasn't important to history?" Jeff said menacingly.
"Who're you to question me?" Steel's voice was icy.
"Answer him," Trevor interrupted.
"It was just a kid, that's all, nothing special. We were sneaking out of town and we saw him get picked up by the police. Phineas jumped the Nazis and the kid escaped, but a dozen of them came down on us and we had to omni out in front of the whole crowd of them."
Jeff stared at him in contempt. "So he saved a kid's life and you didn't think that was important."
"Not to history! We were there to fix history! Not to omni out in front of a crowd. That's not what Voyagers do!"
"So when did he get shot?" Jeff asked quietly.
"I don't know, look, I never heard any gunfire."
"But you were separated when he was in jail."
"That was 3 days ago."
"It took you three days to get him out of that cell?" Jeff shouted.
"Calm down," Trevor counseled putting a restraining hand on Jeff's shoulder. "What happened?" he asked Steel.
"I had to recover first, then find him and then figure out how to get him out."
The room was suddenly silent, and then Jeff heard the click of Trevor's communicator. "Inform the Medical Center that Voyager Bogg was shot sometime during the last three days." Trevor paused and turned to Steel, "we lost the tracking on his omni, can you think why?"
"The cell was in the basement of a cannon factory. There were raw materials for manufacturing down there."