"Okay, how come Sam got to stay in a fancy French mansion on her first trip through time and we slept on the floor for most of our trips?" Katherine interrupted when the screen changed to a scene inside an ornately decorated bedroom. Sam sat at a vanity, combing pomade through her hair. JB pressed a button on the elucidator and the image froze.

"The circumstances were very different," said JB. "You know that."

Kevin felt there was a more urgent matter to discuss. "I thought time was supposed to be fully healed after you returned all the missing kids to their pasts and brought them home. Are we in danger now? Does Sam have something to do with it?"

JB shook his head. "You're all fine. Sam is…" he closed his eyes and swallowed. "You're safe, I promise."

"Then what's the point of all this?" said Jordan.

JB pinched the bridge of his nose, looking exasperated. "I already told you. Someone needs to see this before I die or no one will know what really happened."

"JB, are you dying?" Jonah said in a concerned whisper.

JB waved away the question. "We're all dying. It's just another word for living."

"Hey!" Katherine shot to her feet and glared at him. "Don't give us this wise old man nonsense just to avoid the question. You know we're smarter than that."

JB raised his arms as a sign of innocence. "I'm in my hundreds, Katherine. That's all I'm saying. At my age, people like to tie up loose ends."

Katherine stared him down for a long moment, but eventually huffed and sat back on the floor with her arms crossed. "This thing you're showing us, it better start to make sense or I'm leaving."

"Katherine," Jonah reminded her. "JB has the elucidator. We can't just leave."

"Here." JB tossed the elucidator to Katherine, who gasped, but caught it. "This isn't a kidnapping. You have every right to leave if you want."

"We don't want to leave!" Kevin insisted before Katherine could press any buttons. "Right?"

"Right," said the twins.

Katherine rolled her eyes, but sighed, "Right."

"I think I have a better idea," said JB, now pacing—or rather, limping—about the room. "I'll leave you four alone—not permanently," he added just as Katherine opened her mouth. "Just so you can watch everything and pause to talk amongst yourselves if need be. You can just call for me when you're ready."

Katherine snorted. "'Talk amongst yourselves?' What is this, a classroom?" But JB had already vanished. "Damn—Er, I mean darn!"

"I'm thriteen," Kevin reminded her. "You should hear the words I've learned just riding the school bus."

"Let's not, please," said Jordan.

Jonah nodded. "Yeah, let's focus on the subject at hand. Like, why is JB acting so weird?"

"He's definitely hiding something," Katherine agreed. "And I don't know about you, but I think Dr. Cretney—or, Sam, I guess—has a bigger role than just a history advisor. I mean, come on, JB loves history. Remember when Chip and Alex were in the fifteenth century with Elizabeth Woodville and then King Richard came in and JB started fangirling about subtext or something? I'm sure he has all of human history memorized."

"Not necessarily all the social stuff," Jonah reminded her with a snicker. "Remember that one time he said 'scout's honor' to me? I still cringe every time I think about it."

The other three laughed, but Kevin turned his focus back to the frozen image of Sam in front of her vanity, her mouth parted in a wide grin, her eyes crinkled with delight. Something about it seemed too good to be true, especially with how ominous JB sounded when he talked about her. "I'm with Katherine. JB's not telling us everything."

Jordan shrugged. "I think that's the point. He wants us to watch this movie or memory or whatever it's called. I think that's how we get our answers."

The siblings blinked at each other, and finally Katherine said, "I guess I can't argue with that. Elucidator, resume."