Faces, Names, and Memories (completed)

Chapter 50 - Endgame

Hours of intricate planning later, Spenzo is in the kitchen teaching Tammie to cook pasta; Deen, Cale, and Kinnie are going over some of the weapons and the blueprint I'd drew for them, and I'm in the bed room changing. As soon as we finalized the plans, I'd gone to shower because I was sick of being the only one that didn't smell.

After I force myself into sweats and a button up shirt, I hobble towards the door and bump right into Cale as he opens it.

"Oh hey, Jade," He asks.

I nod, looking at the floor. "Yeah, I was just going to go look at the blueprints again."

He replies. He steps into the room a bit and lets the door slide shut. I try to push past him, but he stops me with a hand on my shoulder.

"Jade, are we good?" He asks.

"What? Of course," I say to the door.

"Not of course. You haven't looked me in the eye since this morning. Whatever it is, you can tell me."

I look at the door for about a second, then I turn around and bring my eyes up to his face for the first time since the incident this morning.

"It's nothing," I answer. "Everything is cool."

"Okay, good," Cale nods. I'm getting good at telling when he knows I'm lying. "And, look, I know that tomorrow night going to be... hard. If you need someone to talk to, I'm here."

I nod. "I appreciate it. Same here, if you need to talk to someone about..."

He nods, too, understanding what I mean. We don't say anything about Stave or Tressa out loud since we don't want a repeat of last night.

"Do you think this plan is actually going to work?" I ask him. "Not work like first and second times, but go off without hitch, work."

"There's always a hitch," Cale answers. "I'm just hoping it's not a big one this time. We do have more to work with this time, after all, weapons, full stomachs, comfortable sleeping arrangements."

"Right." I pause for a second, then add, "We really can't afford a big hitch. Not when there's so little left until the Time Machine's complete."

"Yeah. I don't understand anything about time travel, temporal physics, or the firefly effect-"

"It's the butterfly effect."

"That's beside the point. All I know is that if Jaz gets that thing operational, it's over. By now, he knows that you know the blueprint. If he catches us..."

"Let's not think like that, please."

"Okay."

"I can't believe that we're actually doing this tomorrow. I can't even walk, and it's just yesterday that..."

"I get what you mean. But, we don't have the time to wait a few days. They could have figured out the cooling system by now."

"I know."

"Now, you better head to the bathroom now, I'm guessing you're going to need your hour now, and tomorrow morning," Cale tells me.

I frown at him.

"I mean that you'll need to remember how to do your hair, and then undo what the fire and the coma did to it," Cale says.

"Nice save," I say with a half-smile.

Cale half-smiles back and taps the wall so I can hobble through the doorway.

I don't know how tomorrow is going to go. But, I just hope this time ends up better than the last two. Losing two friends is enough.