She gave herself a few moments, enough time to collect her thoughts, calm her heart, which was beating way too fast. She'd almost lost him. She shook her hands several times, really hard. What if he didn't want to see her?

That look on his face immediately after Garza had released him, his relinquishing of fear…the onrush of relief and redemption. Kiera would never forget that look, that coalescence of passion and pain in that young face.

She sighed. Redirecting her thoughts.

How would she have gotten along without him? He was more than just some mere tool. Tool? Had she just thought that? The very word made her ashamed, had justification oozing from every pore. In all honesty, she had viewed him in those terms in the beginning when hearing his voice in her head would send her mind spinning. Discarding that dehumanizing opinion had happened some time ago.

Inspiration hit her full force. This was a new day, another new beginning. Squaring her shoulders, she lurched forward. Always forward, she foresaw. Without further delay, she entered Alec's lab, the butterflies in her stomach at full strength.

His not wanting to see her, having no desire to involve himself in her priorities, was a real possibility. He had weighed the danger and decided he couldn't do this anymore. She'd be unhappy, but she would make herself understand. Setting her face, she was ready to meet whatever actuality head on. She had saved his life. Wouldn't he take that into consideration? She convinced herself that he would.

At the bottom of the stairs, she observed him. Alec was doing what he was born to do. He was tweaking, having the arc spark, not as much as it once had, before. The time travel device was his 'baby,' he considered. Kiera had used it to save his life. He took a step back with a look of abiding satisfaction, knowing she was watching him, and he reflected on how much her friendship meant to him. The smile was on his face before he turned to face her.

"Are you going to stand there, studying me like a lab rat?" he jounced.

"Are you all right?"

"Do I look sick?" Alec parried. He left off fiddling with the advanced chunk of technology, opting to give Kiera his undivided attention, maybe even offer her a slice of carrot cake. Emily had actually baked. He really wanted them to be friends, not adversaries, he in the middle of a tug of war. He couldn't have that. He liked Kiera more now, than before, ever since the debacle at the farm. Saving his life cemented their alliance. He'd seen a side of her he'd never seen, a dimension of caring he had never imagined existed, lurking beneath the surface of her tough exterior before this latest development. And he was falling deeply in love with Emily. She was the kind of girl he had never thought would give a guy like him a second glance. He was not about to lose her. Kellog could go flush himself into the Greater Vancouver Waterfront. How dare he tell him who he could have in the lab and who was off-limits. If it weren't for him, Kellog would be just another time traveler who had lost his way, and not his problem. Kellog would be more future Alec's problem, as far as present Alec was concerned.

So the pushy micro-manager had better watch his step, or Alec would leave the hassle of figuring out how to manipulate the future to his advantage to him because he would be bailing. Then, he could spend as much of his free time with Emily as he wanted.

Alec smiled.

"What are you looking so pleased about?" Kiera asked.

The smile never left his face although he grew more thoughtful.

"Well?"

"Oh, nothing…much," Alec eventually acknowledged.

Following the pronounced pursing of her lips, Kiera seated herself as he had done. Lately, he had noticed that she was seriously more animated, more so than when they'd first become acquainted. She was smiling at him, refraining from letting her technology give her a heads-up on his current status. She was learning that people in this age were big on safeguarding their identities since there were hoards of criminals bent on stealing them. In most instances, the "internet" made it child's play. Alec was certainly entitled to his private reactions to his thoughts and feelings. She'd indulge him.

"You look hard at work." She sounded blithe, cheerful, almost. "Your normal m-o."

"Ah, another contemporary reference, Kiera." Alec smirked a little, but not enough to earn him any additional smugness on her part. He liked her new-and-improved persona. "How much television have you been watching since you got here?"

Playfully sounding stiff, she replied, "I haven't become a raving fan of the 'idiot box,' if that's what you mean, Alec." Carlos was though, she thought, smiling at the idea. He had several favorite series, in addition to televised professional sports.

"Oh, no?" Alec jived, then quickly remarked that the 'idiot box,' for some, was welcomed companionship, the relationship bordered on familial, akin to dropping in on family. For many persons, T.V. was all they had, and all they wanted. If you felt like hearing voices, and not the kind that got you locked up in a mental institution, the small screen filled the bill.

Kiera reserved airing judgment, but wondered about such folks. Did they suffer from acute loneliness?

Alec did not hold back, champing at the bit to bring it up. "Wait, wasn't it the other day you had this burning thirst for knowing who the actress was who played Gaila in the twenty-eleven Star Trek reboot you saw on SyFy?"

Kiera looked stumped.

"Uhura's green-skinned roomie in the Academy. The buxom girl Kirk was hooking-up with when Nyota barraged in and began to undress. Which almost gave Kirk a nosebleed. The wild and crazy ladies' man that he is." Alec kept jogging her memory. "As I remember it, you said you thought Rachel Nichols looks a lot like a cousin."

Huffily, Kiera rectified, "What I said was I thought she bore a strong resemblance to my mom's sister, Lisa."

"Ooooh," Alec hectored, fleering, "excuuuuse me." Softly, he rolled his eyes. "Your aunt. Still…all in the family, eh?"

"I have…" Trailing off, Kiera grappled with herself, holding firm and not frowning. Defiantly, she refused to alter the tense. Speaking in the past riled her. All her relatives still existed, in the future, where she hoped to return to one day. "I have a big family, at least it is for twenty-seventy-seven."

"On your side, or…" Alec followed her lead. "Your husband's?"

"Both," Kiera proudly offered, her gaze wandering to the curious chunk of time traveling technology. Her eyes took on a wistful aspect. As much as she had come to terms about being trapped here, resolving to make a go of it, so much of what the future held for her tugged at her heartstrings.

Alec saw the subtle appearance of pain, which had cropped up in her eyes. Wisely, he shuffled the subject. "So…you moved in with Carlos. Does he snore?"

Evenly, Kiera replied, "I'm not the one to ask, since I don't know."

Alec arched an eyebrow. "You're not sleeping with him?"

"What makes you think I would?"

She forced air from her nostrils forcefully. "Not that it's any of your business, but n-o, no. Why should I? Spliced and splintered timeline, or no, I have no intention of cheating on Greg." She warmed at the memory. There were more good times than trying ones, as she recalled; they'd had their share of both. He was a stickler for candor, as she was. Her hand leaned against her forehead, her arm rested on the serviceable counter she sat at. Greg's lean, angular face loomed larged in her mind's eye. Words felt thick in the sigh she sighed. "I can't betray his trust. I won't."

"What about Carlos?"

She straightened up from the slumping position she had assumed to center her eyes on Alec.

"What about him?" Kiera retorted, pragmatically, not losing patience, but it was fraying a bit at its edges.

"He has a thing for you, y'know." Alec sounded pleased, having voiced his assumption so assertively. Carlos had asked Kiera to move in. Didn't that prove there was serious fire where smoke had first materialized? Then again, maybe not. He could be wrong about them. Alex began vacillating. The pleasure he experienced began evaporating.

"You're kidding, right?" So much for thinking her deadpanning was working. Alec saw right through it. "Tell me you're kidding," Kiera put across, mugging. She was overdoing it.

"Do I sound like I'm kidding?" Alec couldn't help his wiseacre grin, deducing that he had struck a nerve. His swagger went to full strength. Its potency saturated his boyish features. "Admit it, you two have gotten all kinds of chummy. It isn't all one-sided."

So what if we have, she wanted to shout. They worked together, shared much the same sensibilities. What they lacked having in common was made up by understanding where the other was coming from. So, how wrong was it to think of Carlos as a close friend, maybe something even closer than that? Time, Kiera sagely considered, would tell.

She recalled Carlos asking her if he should be jealous since she and Gardiner had teamed up.

Instead of taking Alec down a peg, Kiera deflected, precluding with a sigh and noted, "The same can be said for you and…Emily."

Alec's eyebrows scaled his forehead when they lifted. "Uh…"

As his voice trailed off, Kiera replied, "Feel free to tell me what I just told you. It's none of my business."

"I want you and Emily to be friends," Alec requested, looking as if he had donned a sackcloth and his face was smudged by ashes. Sounding contrite, he capitulated, "You're right. I'm sorry. What you and Carlos are…it is what it is. It isn't any of my business."

"If Carlos and I cease being 'just friends,' you'll be the first to know," Kiera assured.

"And you and Emily? Friends?"

Resignation framed her words. "I'm working on it," she patiently awarded, refocusing on the exotically-connected time machine. "These things take time."

Cheerily, Alec piped up, "Like a slice of the carrot cake she made—from scratch. Please, try some. It's fantastic!"

About to accept a piece, Kiera needed to answer her mobile phone. Carlos was calling. After she broke off talking with him, she said, "Next time. My partner needs me."

"Yeah, I bet," Alec taunted, grinning. He didn't dilute the camaraderie. "Em made plenty. It'll keep." He shooed Kiera off. "Go, go."

She began scooting. "We'll be in touch."

"True that." He heard her leave through the nondescript access, then turned his full attention back to manipulating the miraculous device, hoping to discover its full potential and exploit it before too long.

TBC…