ok so thanks for checking this one out. It's a bit of fun, so please don't go too deep into the accuracy of things in the past... I can only research so much... Anyway, here is the next chapter. Sorry for stealing from BttF but hey, it is one of my favourite movies...
Chapter 2 - Making it work
Quill and Embry had no idea what we were building, but they had made something of a game of guessing at it. "Oh, wait, is it a transporter, like in The Fly?" Yelled Quill, full of enthusiasm.
"There's only one, dumbass." Replied Embry. "Anyways I told you, it's a shower, isn't that right, J man?"
Jacob just ignored his friend as he continued to tinker and mess. I was in my ever-useful position, perched on the bonnet of the Rabbit with my calculus book wide open in front of me. I noticed the pair had fallen quiet so I looked up, which turned out to be a mistake. They had quietly approached me and were now inches away.
"C'mon Bella, tell us what he's building." Whined Embry.
"Yeah, we figured you must know, since you're the brains of the operation and all." I just shook my head. "Please Bella, it's driving us crazy!"
I mimed zipping my mouth shut and threw the imaginary key over my shoulder, smiling my best 'aw shucks' smile. They did not look impressed. Even less so when they realised Jacob had stopped working and was standing right behind them. The wrestling match that ensued managed to distract them for long enough, and eventually they gave up and left. I got up and walked over to the machine.
"Do you really think it'll work?" I asked, running my finger over the blank readout on the side. It had taken on the shape of a beehive with a high school football scoreboard fitted to the side and a door hidden on the other side.
"I have no idea." He smiled. "Do you?"
"Jake, you know I've really enjoyed coming up here, watching you work on this thing, right?" The smile spread wider. "And when it's done and we don't go back in time, we can just find another crazy project, right?"
He chuckled "Yeah, like fixing those old bikes up and going off roading?" His smile was disarming and honest.
"Yeah, exactly." I sighed. "Listen, there's a group of us going to he cinema to see this new movie, something about zombies and aliens, I don't know. You up for it?" He nodded eagerly. "Cool, see you down there tomorrow night?"
"Sure, that sounds like fun."
It may have sounded like fun, but fun it was not. All of my friends dropped out except Mike Newton. I had a sneaky feeling he had talked the others out of going, in a last ditch attempt to make it a date. To make matters worse Jacob seemed to have the same idea where the date thing sprang to mind. They didn't exactly see eye to eye. The movie itself didn't help matters either, as Mike spent the whole time trying not to vomit and Jacob just shovelled in the popcorn and chuckled. I didn't watch it, as I was trying to make up my own head movie, but that is certainly not exciting enough to discuss here. So things were pretty sucky and then Jacob almost attacked Mike as we left. I had no idea what his problem was but he suddenly became really aggressive and amazingly sweaty.
Needless to say the evening was a bust and I drove home, wondering what Jacob would tell me the following day. A question I didn't get answered, when I called ahead Billy answered and told me he wasn't home. I was not very impressed so I went to my room and did homework until it was dark outside and I had no more work left to do. There was a creaky floorboard that was bugging the crap out of me, since I had now taken to pacing. I was sure it wasn't like that before, but what did I know. Anyway, eventually I decided it was late enough for bed. Despite the knowledge that I would just spend the night worrying about Jacob I got into my nightwear and slipped into bed.
A half hour after the light went off there was a tapping at my window that made me jump out of my skin. I hauled myself back out of bed and crept over to the window, the bed sheet wrapped tightly around me. What in the hell was tapping at my window at this time of night. I closed the gap as the tapping persisted, an inky blackness all I could see outside. Then it stopped. I pressed my face to the glass and took a look outside. Then a face appeared right in front of me and I just about jumped out of my skin, stifling a little scream.
"Jake you asshole!" I hissed as I opened the window. He was grinning sheepishly. "What's up?"
"Sorry I scared you." He whispered as he climbed into my room making me feel very conscious about my lack of clothing. My pj's felt very lacking and I was glad I had my cover wrapped around me. He closed the window and turned to me. "Look, I'm sorry about tonight. I spoke to my dad and it looks like I'm about to go through some kind of change.." He trailed off.
"Jake, what kind of change?" I fought to keep my voice under control. "Is this a Sam Uley thing?" It had seemed that some of Jacobs friends had been recruited by the older boy, and his name now sent shivers down my spine.
"I don't know. He didn't get into it." He was hard to read. His voice was trembling with what almost sounded like excitement. "But he said something that sparked my brain into gear." His eyes were on fire. "Bella, I did it. It works." His smile threatened to split his face in two.
"You did what? What on earth are you talking about?" I struggled to keep the impatience from my voice.
"The machine." He breathed. "It works."
"Oh my god." It took a moment to sink in. "Really? How do you know?"
"Oh come on, don't tell me you never saw Back To The Future?" My face was blank. "Doc Brown? Einstein? The alarm clock test?" I shook my head in confusion. Sci-fi movies were not exactly my thing. "Really?" He sighed and exasperated sigh. "Ok, the guy, Doc Brown, he builds a time machine and tests it. He puts his dog..."
"Einstein?" I guessed.
"Yeah, he puts him in there with an alarm clock and sends him like a minute into the future. When the machine reappears the dog is fine and the clock is a minute fast."
I was stunned into silence for a moment. Then it hit me. "Oh my god, who's dog did you fry?"
His grin did not fade. "I used a mouse. The clock was exactly a minute fast and the mouse was fine."
"Wow, ok, shall we try it tomorrow night?" My eyes were wide with wonder. Finally. I would see him again.
"Bella, we need to go now." Now his grin was gone. "Dad says tomorrow some real shit is gonna happen to me, to enjoy the night." He looked worried. "I don't know whats coming but it does not sound good."
"Jake, maybe Charlie can help?"
He shook his head. "Not on this one Bella. Tribe business and all. We need to go now."
"Now?" He nodded. Oh my god, not only was I considering this, I was going to do it. "Wait outside, give me five minutes."
In that amount of time I had pulled together a night bag (I didn't know how long we would be gone) and gotten dressed. My hair was a birds nest, but I figured it didn't matter. He was waiting for me when I got outside, and silently lead the way to his rabbit. The drive to La Push was quiet. Neither of us could think of anything to say, and anticipation made the air hum like an approaching storm. I was picturing the scene. Would I be able to remain hidden? Would I intercept him as he left me or would I just follow him, finding his location and then return to the present to use the information? Would he catch me? Would he be mad? And what about Jacob? How would he feel when he realised this had been my plan all along? I knew how he felt about Edward (just thinking his name was getting me more excited,) and he would surely not approve of the whole thing. Was it sad? Was it obsessive? Most important of all, was it an immense abuse of power? How often would an opportunity to travel through time present itself? A chance to right the wrongs of the past. Did I have a moral obligation to do something major like trying to stop 911? Did my love life really count for more than the chance to save thousands of lives? And then there was Jacobs choice of destination. He had been mulling this over for the past week, trying to decide between going to see his great grandfather Ephram and telling him the machine worked, and going to see his mother, a noble destination as he would not be able to interact with her.
This was something we had discussed at length and even gone so far as to write a set of rules and pin them to his tool box. Mainly they involved not stepping on butterflies and the like, but one major rule was that we were not to interact with anyone who could put the existence of us and our friends in peril. This seemed like a very absolute and easy rule to follow, and I fully intended to follow it.
We pulled up outside the garage. No lights were on inside the house, so we quietly got out and tiptoed into the garage and turned on the light. The machine looked the same as the last time I had seen it. Maybe a few more parts dangled from it but mostly it was the same. He put a finger to his lips and threw a switch. The ground began to vibrate and the machine hummed. A green glow emanated from inside, he pointed to the keypad. "Ladies first." He said.
I entered the date. My birthday. I entered the year. This year. I entered the time after a seconds thought. Ten am should do the job. Then we crowded into the machine and he gave me a wink, pushing the large red mushroom head button. The air around us thrashed violently but we were perfectly still. My hair didn't even blow. The green light intensified until I couldn't bear to keep my eyes open and the hum cranked up a notch. I felt as if I would pass out any second. The hum built to a crescendo and the light seared my eye lids. Then there was nothing. Silence and darkness. I knew I was alive because his warm arms were still holding me.
I opened my eyes and it was dark. The machine had powered down. As the buzz in my head faded it was replaced by the chirp of cicadas. It felt cold and I was instantly glad to have brought a sweater. I looked down and saw the outline of my bag in the dark next to his ruck sack. We opened the door slowly and looked around. It was still very dark, but we were apparently still in the garage. Although it seemed different. I was so excited I didn't really stop to take in the details.
Outside it was crisp and clear. Stars sparkled in the night sky. This was the first time I thought something was wrong. "Jake, I set the destination to 10am... It shouldn't be dark right now."
"Yeah..." He said slowly leading me back inside. The garage looked very barn like. I had never really realised how much like a barn it was. Maybe it was just the workshop and tools that made it less like a barn. Then a thought occurred to me.
"Um Jake, where's your Rabbit?" It should have been here, but only hay bales filled the space. And our machine in the corner.
"Uh Bella, I need to tell you something." He whispered. "The barn... This barn... My dad knocked it down in the Eighties. Apparently it had woodworm so he knocked it down and replaced it with the garage."
"Jake...?" He looked straight at me. "When are we?"
