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Will

We're all staring at the note like it contains the plague that will kill humanity.  There's nothing for any of us to say because the words have been stolen from our lips.

"Does this mean that he can still affect our lives?" Leslie stammers out, and I see her starting to drain of color.  "He can still hurt our futures."

I reach over and pull her tight into my arms, knowing she's thinking of almost losing me.

"What do you think, Will?  Should Michael accept this even though it came at the hands of your future self?" Caitlin looks nervous, fiddling with the hem of her shirt.

How do you answer a question like that?  I don't necessarily have a clue what my future self was planning, and I was being even more cautious about what I did now.  Trying to find a way to access the future was dangerous because it could mean he would find his way back to this time.

I bite my lip and realize that everyone is waiting for my answer.  The only noise that punctures the silence is Chelsea and Chloe cooing over the triplets in another room.

"Tread carefully," I manage to force past my lips.  "He may not be able to rewind us again, but this proves he still has influence here.  Unfortunately, since we are in his past, he knows basically everything we will do.  There's hardly any way to outsmart someone like that."

I tuck my arms tighter around Leslie.  "We all have to be careful.  If he can get a note to Michael, you can bet he will try to get one to each of us.  They will be designed to mess with our minds and force us along the path that he wants us to tread.  It's a game to him, a game with high stakes, and right now, he holds more cards in his hands."

My girlfriend shudders against me, and I lock eyes with Michael, whose own arms are wrapped about Caitlin.  We are united in the same grim mission to protect our girls no matter what.

"I'm going," he announces, steel stiffening his spine.  "We can't allow this fear to control our lives, and he is trying to frighten us into his trap."

"Michael," his girlfriend starts to protest, but he bends to her ear, whispering something.

She nods once, tears glazing over her eyes and a knot growing within her throat.

"Will," Leslie whispers, "is there anything else that Mr. Baker told you while you were corresponding that could help us now?"

I shake my head quickly, almost too quickly.  "No, Les.  There's nothing left to discover there.  It just confirms what a snake my future self is and how much I need to work to not become him."

A line from one of his emails comes back to me, and I blink hard to dispel it from my mind.  It had just reaffirmed my belief that I wasn't going to let my future become his.

The room fell back into silence, each of us lost in contemplation.  We all had something more to lose if my future self managed to release chaos back into our lives.

"Who wants cookies?" Chloe calls, poking her head into my room and beaming a huge smile.  "They're just Oreos, but I feel bad not offering anything."

"Chlo, we're not five, having a meeting in our 'secret' clubhouse," I complain.

There is a pause before she starts to laugh in her typical way, loud with a little snort as she tries to catch her breath.

"Hard to think of you as five-year-olds when two of you are parents," she gasps out.

A smile tugs at Caitlin's lips, and before long, she's laughing as well.  Leslie's body shakes, and it takes me a moment to realize she's giggling and not crying.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love those twins and their eerie way of lightening the mood?

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