It had been 2 days already and he was still in his old house with his pregnant wife . This seemed less and less like a dream. He never cared much for Science Fiction but the term parallel universe did cross his mind a lot over the past 48 hours. According to Nancy´s pregnancy and today´s paper it was obviously 1984. He was still a Sergeant with Robbery/Homocide and he and Nancy had only been married for a little over a year… apart from a few minor disciplinary issues at work due to his infamous temper he had always recalled this time as the happiest and most content in his life. Regarding the lack of a logical explanation for his current situation he had, at least for now, decided to play along, trying very hard to remember the little details of their life back then. He was grateful that destiny (or whatever had put him here) had chosen a weekend and apparently a weekend during which he was not on call, for his situation was hard enough to deal with without work on top of everything, he´d have to face that part of his life soon enough, tomorrow morning to be exact, but for now dealing with an upset Nancy required all of his attention. She´d always been rather hot tempered, much like himself, a fact that had initially attracted him to her. He loved how her blue eyes sparkled and how carefree she seemed at times. That carefreeness had disappeared rather quickly even before he started drinking excessively. Facing the reality of his job had been equally hard on her especially after they´d had children and their difficult tempers ,exciting in the beginning, had slowly started to work against them. Right now she was upset about him falling asleep on the sofa the last 2 nights. It was a conscious decision on his part but of course he couldn`t tell her that. The thought of spending the night next to her made him feel rather uncomfortable although he knew she would demand an explanation rather sooner than later. "Listen, it´s not a big deal,okay? I have a lot on my mind these days and I didn´t want to wake you coming to bed in the middle of the night and tossing and turning afterwards. You need your rest right now!" He figured that this would trigger a whole new line of questions but it was the best he could come up with at this point. Surprisingly enough though, Nancy´s features softened somewhat:" I know this case has been bothering you more than usual lately but if that´s how it`s gonna be every time….", she paused and her gaze wandered to the floor,"this isn`t gonna work, I need you here with me", one of her hands slid down to her belly," WE need you here!" It felt like a slap in the face, like a sudden revelation. Everything seemed to fall into place now…there it was, right in front of him, the second chance he had craved for so long, the chance to wipe out all of his failures, a chance for a life without addiction and disciplinary actions, a chance to be a good father and a reliable husband…it was so incredibly tempting and just maybe a little too tempting….for some reason a scene from a play he had seen on a date years and years ago came into his mind. Doctor Faustus it was called and one scene in particular stayed with him all that time: The devil promised Faustus a new life in exchange for his soul after his death. Yes, that´s exactly how he felt right now. While watching the play back then, he would have switched places with Faustus instantly, for he felt that there wasn`t much left of his soul to begin with and he would have gladly given that up for the very opportunity that so willingly presented itself to him in this moment. But right now he was full of doubt.