Perspectives

Chapter 38

Piper gritted her teeth against the constant rocking all around her. She had quickly given up on standing or even sitting, as it had all seemed to end with her sprawled out on her back anyway. As a result, she was now laying on the bottom of Jed's briefcase, among various papers, pens, and device Piper would never be able to identify. 

While she knew that riding into the SSD in Jed's briefcase was her way back home, that didn't mean she hated it any less. Knowing that it would be her first and last time doing so was getting her through the stomach churning experience. 

As Piper lay there, she thought over her goodbyes with Kalen earlier, and Devon and Celia just recently.  She would be lying if she said she hadn't gotten the slightest bit emotional. After all, these had been the people that had saved her from certain doom. Even Kalen, with all his faults, had played a role in keeping her safe, despite having done it in the shittiest possible way. While Piper was undeniably estactic about being able to ditch Giantville, the fact that she would never see Kalen, Devon, and Celia again made her departure somewhat bittersweet. 

Piper's thinking was interrupted by a sudden unfamiliar female voice. "Dr. Ambrose, it's unusual to see you at this hour." Said the woman. 

"Ah hello Dinah!" Jed's voice boomed cheerfully from above. "Orton and I traded shifts for today." 

"I see, well head on in." The woman Jed had called Dinah said. With a lurch of the briefcase, Jed was back in motion.

After a couple minutes of walking, Jed came to a stop once again. Piper hoped they had reached their destination, because she was only getting more nauseous with her continued exposure to Jed's springy gait. 

"You must be filling in for Orton tonight." Came someone's voice from across the room.

"Oh, Jordis! I wasn't aware you worked this shift." Jed said, a clear note of awkwardness in his voice. 

"You sound uncomfortable, Jed." Jordis replied, a bitterness to his tone. "There's no reason we should be incapable of working together." Jed's awkward shifting movements could be felt by Piper in the briefcase. "Besides, we ended our relationship ages ago." Jordis stated nonchalantly. Piper bit her lip. It seemed things had just gotten more complicated. 

"Of-of course." Jed stuttered. Piper choked back a yelp as the world around her suddenly swirled into motion. She could only guess that Jed was setting the briefcase aside somewhere as she slid around uncontrollably until she finally came to a stop when what had once been a wall became the floor. Piper huffily blew a strand out hair out of her face. She could not get home fast enough. 

For hours Piper sat in the dark briefcase, listening in on the two giants' conversation, which seemed to consist entirely of meaningless science jargon. She had nearly fallen asleep when she heard the topic of conversation take a sharp turn. "I had at least expected an apology." Jordis said suddenly. 

There was a moment of silence before, "What are you wanting me to apologize for, Jordis?" 

"You refused to put political opinions aside for the sake of our relationship." Jordis spat back venomously. 

"To me the hatred of an entire people is more than just political opinion." Jed retorted sharply. 

Jordis made a growling sound in the back of his throat. "You put your obsession with humans over what we had together." A soft gasp escaped Piper, fortunately unnoticed by the arguing giants.

"I could not love someone so filled with unjustified hate." Jed stated, a certain coolness in his voice. Before Jordis could respond, a high pitched dinging sounded across the room. 

"Your break has commenced." Said an automated voice over the intercom. What followed was a tense moment of silence before the sound of someone hastily storming out of the room could be heard, followed by the loud slam of a door.  

Piper's anxiety amplified exponentially as she realized that this was it, this was her chance to get back home. A moment later, light broke into the briefcase, nearly blinding Piper has Jed's hand entered the bag and swiftly scooped her up. 

Blinking away the spots in her eyes, Piper took in the room around her. Unlike what Piper had been picturing in her mind's eye, this room was not all white, but rather looked more like a fancy kitchen with lab equipment scattered around. The floor was dark hardwood that matched the cabinetry in the room. The walls were taken up almost entirely by holographic screens on all four sides, covered in various writing and complex math equations. In the center of the room was a large metal device made up of several different parts and decorated with holographic screens. Piper didn't need to be a scientist to know what this thing was. The vast glass chamber in the center was indication enough. 

"Let's hope Lora took care of the cameras." Jed muttered as he rushed over to the inter-dimensional transporter. With his free hand Jed typed something in on one of the holographic screens. A second later the door on the glass chamber slid open. Hurriedly Jed placed Piper down on the floor of the chamber. Before Piper could get a word out he had closed the door again. 

She wrung her hands as she watched Jed fiddling with the machine, her eyes darting back and forth from him to the door. Her heart felt like a jackhammer and her hands were quickly becoming clammy. She was so close, mere minutes away from getting the thing she had been dreaming of ever since she had woken up in this fucked up dimension. 

"Almost there." Piper heard Jed mutter from the other side of the glass, his fingers tapping away on the screen at lightning speed. 

Piper had barely registered the sound she had heard coming from the room door when, in an instant, it flew open. In the doorway stood a stunned giant, Piper assumed to be Jordis. "What the hell are you--" 

"Initiating sequence now!" Jed shouted with the slam of a button. A robotic voice began counting down from twenty. 

Piper ran to the glass, pressing her palms against it. She could only watch as Jordis screamed for security, as large men grabbed Jed and began to pull him out of the room, and as Jordis ran to machine, pressing all kind of buttons in an attempt to stop the countdown. But Piper knew it was too late. She would be teleported back home, leaving Jed with the consequences of helping her. 

A loud thrumming sound overcame her, just as it had back outside the school all those days ago. The last thing she saw before everything went white was Jed being dragged out the door.