Five Days Later

S he wasn't supposed to bring her work home with her. Every item they pulled up from the ship was supposed to stay at the lab, where it could be kept and conserved. But this strange briefcase thing wasn't part of the ship; it was something else, and Rosie needed to know what was inside it. They'd run it through the X-ray the day before, not prioritizing it over the actual objects of historical significance, and she'd gotten a look inside for the first time. Unfortunately, the X-ray hadn't revealed much. The object looked almost like a boomerang, but not at the same time. It was definitely metallic and seemed to have something like a cord or cable hanging out the back of it. Or, maybe it was the front. She couldn't really tell from the images.

She'd had one of the techs who usually worked modern warfare shipwrecks and knew about ordinance from all the major wars take a look at it, but he had no idea what it was. All he'd been able to tell her was that there wasn't anything that looked like it could explode inside. Rosie knew better, but there was just something about this random thing she'd found at the bottom of the ocean that had her intrigued even more than the things she was supposed to be cataloging with her team.

Spending the better part of her life in school and earning a Ph.D. by twenty-six because she'd started college a few years earlier than most, Rosie had been highly requested as a marine archaeologist. Her published papers had been game-changing for the historical record of three major sites around the world. She'd been asked to examine two shipwrecks from the Viking Age, and one was not where it was supposed to be, altering what scholars and scientists had previously believed about the Viking's primary pillaging routes. Then, there had been the site in London, where they'd found old Roman docks and roads under the modern city. The location where she'd found a ship's hull couldn't have been where a ship could have been on the water because the river hadn't flowed through there even during the Roman times when its path had been different from the river today. She'd discovered that it was there because the Romans had actually built their own inlet to allow for more vessels to enter and leave. A major port, it couldn't be called, but an inlet made more sense. Later, she'd located one of the most famous undiscovered shipwrecks in history, and it had been a full seventy-four miles away from where they'd thought it had gone down in the sixteenth century. She'd had to work hard to find that one, but the ship had been all wood and hadn't been large compared to the ships of the day, which meant it had easily been carried off by the currents, and she'd needed to research to discover where it could've ended up. Finding it had solved a mystery, and that was the part of her job that she loved.

Finding objects was exciting, yes, but she liked solving the mysteries around why a vessel had gone down in the first place. If it was missing, why wasn't it where they'd expected to find it? Of course, if there was something onboard the ship that people had been trying to find for centuries, she wanted to find it, but she liked solving the puzzles more.

This box and this thing inside it were puzzles to her, and so she'd taken it home. Now, she had it on her kitchen counter, and she was holding bolt cutters in her hands, waiting to unlock the large padlock and get a real look at the object.

"Are you supposed to bring that home?"

"Oh, hi," she said, quickly moving the bolt cutters behind her back. "I didn't know you were here."

"It's Monday. I pick you up and take you to the office whenever you're home. It's my way of paying you without actually paying you for that mentorship you promised," Felicity replied.

"It's Monday?"

Felicity laughed and said, "Yes, it's Monday. Did you lose track of time again?"

"I just thought it was Sunday," she replied.

"Is that why you have something strange-looking on your kitchen counter?" Felicity asked, walking over. "And bolt cutters behind your back."

"We found this on the expedition," Rosie revealed and set the bolt cutters down next to the briefcase.

"I gathered." Felicity sat on one of the stools then and looked at it. "What is it? I know I don't have my Ph.D. yet, but that doesn't exactly scream seventeenth century to me."

Rosie laughed a little and said, "It's not. It was just there, resting on the hull, and we brought it back."

"And you brought it home?"

"I wanted to open it alone. "

"Why?"

"I don't know. I just did. Can't really explain it. It's been cataloged, and we also ran an X-ray. It's not dangerous, from what we can tell."

"From what you can tell ? So, you don't know?" Felicity stood abruptly.

"If you're scared of what's in this box, you'll never make it onboard a ship."

"Hey, I'm working on it," the woman replied but still took a few steps back.

"Felicity, you could just be an archaeologist. You don't have to be a marine archaeologist."

"I've loved the water ever since I could swim. I want to do what you do. I just have a hard time being on the water."

"That's kind of a big part of it," Rosie pointed out for the fiftieth time since she'd met this woman as a grad student.

Four years ago, at twenty-three, Felicity had been a promising student in one of the seminars that Rosie had been asked to deliver by a local university. She'd requested a chat with Rosie afterward, and Rosie had obliged. They'd gotten along well, and Felicity had offered to be her assistant, or, really, her intern whenever she needed one. On the next trip, she'd invited Felicity with her, but Felicity had struggled onboard the research vessel, having never been on one before. She'd been horribly seasick for most of the time on the water and hadn't been much help. She'd been rather useless to Rosie onboard, but when they'd returned, Felicity had explained that when she was twenty, she'd almost drowned when a current had nearly swept her away, and her friend had saved her life. She'd been a little terrified of the water after that but had loved it before and was working through her fear to get back to the place where she could go out on the water and not get sick or terrified. Rosie had admired her courage ever since because she knew that to do this job, Felicity didn't technically have to go on the water. She could certainly remain back in the lab and handle analysis. Still, typically, marine archaeologists were on or in the water, so not being able to do that would greatly limit her potential to get hired on to do the job.

Four years later now, whenever Rosie was on land, Felicity would pick her up and take her to the lab or the office as a way of saying thank you for Rosie's mentorship over the years. While Rosie had totally forgotten what day of the week it was today, she usually looked forward to Felicity coming over. She'd even given the woman a key because she had a vast collection of books that Felicity loved to use for her research. The key allowed her to come and go as she pleased whenever Rosie wasn't there and to come in for coffee on the days Felicity was going to take her to work, if Rosie wasn't running late.

"So, I think I'll wait outside," Felicity told her. "If the house explodes, I'll call the fire department."

Rosie just laughed at her and decided to have a little fun with her this morning. She reached for the bolt cutters and quickly snapped the padlock apart.

"Rosie!" Felicity yelped, and her hands went to her face as if protecting it from the nothing that was happening.

"I told you it's not dangerous." She lifted the lid and was happy to discover that she'd been right.

There was no water damage. This case was top-of-the-line and hadn't succumbed to the water pressure. Of course, the ship had been hundreds of feet deep and not thousands, so that helped.

"What is it?" Felicity asked, leaning over now to take a closer look.

"I thought you were waiting outside," Rosie teased.

"Fine. Fine. Just tell me what it is, if you survive."

Rosie laughed. Then, her glance landed behind Felicity, and she saw someone she hadn't expected to see.

"You're back."

"What are you doing here?" she asked her ex-girlfriend.

"I needed to talk to you about something, and I drove by and saw your car was here. End of the season?"

"Yeah," she replied. "What did you need to talk about?"

Rosie hadn't seen Ami in four months. The last time they'd seen one another had been when Ami had just moved in down the street. The woman had bought a house so near the one they'd shared briefly when they'd been together, and she'd wanted to tell Rosie that she would be there in case they bumped into one another on the street or something.

"I should leave you two alone," Felicity spoke, looking a little disappointed.

"Thanks, Felicity," Ami offered. "She'll be out in a minute."

Rosie lifted her eyebrow at her ex, not liking the way she'd simultaneously dismissed Felicity and had spoken for Rosie.

"I'll be in the car," Felicity said .

"Thank you. I'll be right out."

Felicity turned around to go, and just as she was almost through the door that led out of the kitchen, Ami reached for the handle and turned to close it. Rosie hadn't planned it, but when she'd reached for the lid to close the case, her wrist brushed something, and suddenly, the room was black. One second. Two seconds. Three. Then, the light returned, but it wasn't Felicity leaving the room anymore. Ami was leaving. Rosie was standing off to the side of her counter. She was standing off to the side of… herself.

"I still don't like her," Felicity stated.

Rosie went to say something in response, feeling utterly confused as to what was happening, but as she opened her mouth, she heard herself say something instead. But it wasn't her. It was the other Rosie, who was standing three feet away from her.

"She never liked you much, either. I don't know why," the other Rosie said as she shook her head.

"I do." Felicity sat back down on the stool and closed the lid of the case for the other Rosie.

"You do? Why?"

Rosie's eyes were wide as she watched this exchange between herself and Felicity, who had just walked out the kitchen door but was now sitting on the stool, and it had been Ami who had been dismissed somehow instead.

"I think there are things that are obvious to you, but more often than not, some things escape your attention. For example, if it's not at the bottom of an ocean, lake, or river, you might not notice it."

"I'm sorry; are you taking my ex-girlfriend's side here? I think those were her exact words when she dumped me."

"Pretty close," Rosie couldn't help but reply before she covered her mouth because she expected the two women to turn and see her standing there.

They didn't and carried on their conversation.

"Ami never liked me because she knew that I liked you ." Felicity shrugged her shoulders. "I always have. That's why I went up to you at the seminar and asked to talk to you. Yeah, I wanted help with my career, but it was more about me thinking you were so smart and funny and that I thought you were beautiful."

Rosie dropped the hand from her mouth and watched as the other Rosie reacted to Felicity's declaration.

"Ami could tell that I was jealous of her and that I was in love with you. Well, still am. Honestly, I should just switch to regular archaeology. It might mean more time in school, but I'm not meant to be on ships. I've tried. I'm miserable. As much as I'd love to be out there with you, therapy is a long process, and I'm still working through what happened that day in the ocean before I met you. I've stayed because of you. You broke up with Ami, but you've been on one boat or another ever since, with only a month or two here and there on land, and I've never found the time to tell you how I feel to see if maybe you feel the same way about me."

What was happening right now? Rosie was standing next to herself , watching Felicity confess to her that she'd been in love with her for four years.

"Oh, I…" the other Rosie began and looked a little nervous.

The real Rosie felt that nervousness, too.

"It's okay if you don't feel the same way. In all honesty, I ran into Ami at the grocery store, of all places, yesterday. I was on the phone with a friend. She overheard me talking about you and that I was going to finally tell you how I felt. My guess is that Ami's here to talk to you about getting back together or, at least, see if that's an option."

"What? Why would she–"

"She broke up with you because you weren't here, Rosie, not because she didn't love you."

"I'm still not here much," the other Rosie replied.

"Your next expedition isn't for another four months. I might have mentioned it to my friend, but Ami overheard it." Felicity stood up.

"Wait," the other Rosie said quickly and walked around the counter. "I… don't want Ami."

"You don't?"

"No," the other Rosie replied, shaking her head. "But you're… my mentee. It's complicated."

"You're not my professor. You're not my advisor. You can make sure you're not on the committee when I present my dissertation."

"You've thought about this a lot."

"For about four years, yeah." Felicity took a few steps forward. "You don't pay me for anything. I help you because I want to learn and spend time with you whenever you're here. It's not that complicated. That is, if you feel the same way I do. It's pretty simple, then."

"You want to go out with me?" the other Rosie checked with a smile .

"Well, more than that, but that would be a start." Felicity laughed a little. "Do you want to maybe go out with me?"

"You know I leave in four months, and I'm gone for two then."

"I know. Why do you think I've been going to therapy for the past several years to try to deal with nearly dying in the ocean? I want to be able to be there with you when you go."

"You shouldn't do that for me."

"I'm doing it for me . I do miss you when you're gone, though. We talk, but not regularly, and I hate that part. I also want to do this job. I could switch disciplines, but I don't want to. I want to work with you one day. Same boat. Two bad-ass doctors scouring the ocean for mysteries to solve."

Rosie smiled because Felicity had always understood why Rosie loved the job so much. The other Rosie reached for Felicity and cupped her cheek.

"That sounds amazing."

"It does?"

"Yeah. Let's talk more about this after I talk to Ami."

"She's going to–"

"Whatever she says or wants doesn't matter. I just need to talk to her to get her out of my house. Then, you and I can talk on the way to work about whatever this means." She dropped her hand from Felicity's cheek.

"I kind of thought you were going to kiss me there for a second." Felicity blushed a little.

"I don't kiss a woman before the first date."

Felicity nodded and said, "I'll wait in the car, then."

"Okay. I'll be right out." The other Rosie reached for and squeezed Felicity's hand before adding, "Tonight? If you have plans, maybe cancel them if you can," she suggested.

Felicity smiled wide and nodded.

Real Rosie saw black again. One second. Two seconds. Three. She was back in her original position, with her hand on the lid, about to close it. She looked around. Ami turned back toward her. Felicity was gone. The other version of herself was gone, too. What the hell had just happened?

"What's that?" Ami asked.

"Uh…" Rosie looked down at the device and quickly slammed the lid. "Nothing. Work."

"Ah," Ami said as she walked farther into the kitchen and sat on the same stool Felicity had just vacated. "So, can we talk, or do you have to run?"

"Talk?"

Rosie's head was still spinning, and she couldn't focus on anything. Her heart was thundering in her chest.

"About us," Ami said.

"Us?"

"Yes, us, Rosie."

"What about us?"

"I don't know. Maybe I'm a glutton for punishment here, but I thought we had something very real. I moved in here. We talked about getting married."

"We did, yes," she said. "But you broke up with me."

"Not because I stopped loving you," Ami revealed. "I never have. I just needed someone who could be present, Rosie."

"I still have the same career I've always had, Ami. I don't plan on quitting anytime soon."

"I know. I wouldn't ask you to do that. I just feel like I'm a different person than I was two years ago."

"How so?"

Rosie picked up the briefcase and carried it over to the kitchen table, where she sat it on a chair and pushed the chair in so that nothing and no one could accidentally press that button.

"I was co-dependent. I think we can both agree on that. I had a relationship with someone right before you that wasn't exactly healthy, and I think I transferred some of that onto you. Not that I want to have you gone more than you're here because I love you, and I want to be around you, but I wasn't supportive when I should have been."

"You knew I'd be gone as often as I am when we met, Ami."

"I did. You're right. But it's different, experiencing it."

"I get it."

"Can we just maybe, I don't know, try again? Grab coffee or something and talk more? See if there's something still here? I haven't been with anyone since you. I've been working a lot on myself, and I'm freelance now, Rosie. I don't work for that soul-sucking corporation anymore."

"Okay?" she asked more than said. "Why does that matter?"

"I don't know. Maybe it doesn't. I just thought I could go on a ship with you sometime."

"Ami, it's not a vacation. I'm working when I'm there. "

"I know. I didn't mean every time. I–" She paused. "You need to get to work. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have just stopped by like this."

"But you saw Felicity in the grocery store?" Rosie asked before she could change her mind.

"Yeah. She told you?"

"Uh…" Rosie wasn't sure how to answer that question.

No, Felicity hadn't told her. She'd told the other Rosie in Rosie's hallucination. Still, if Ami had just confirmed that the grocery store thing had actually happened and Felicity hadn't said anything to Rosie about it, it couldn't have been just a hallucination.

"I'll let you get to work, but… Coffee, maybe? Please? My treat. One cup of coffee, and if you never want to see me again, I'll drive the other direction on the street when I leave the house."

"Yeah, sure," she replied more to end the conversation than anything else because she needed time alone to think about what in the hell was going on.

She turned to look at the device, which was locked up safely and still sitting on the chair.

"Great. Maybe tonight?"

"I can't. I have plans."

Wait. Did she have plans tonight? Was it real?

"Oh, okay. Tomorrow, then?"

"Sure. That's fine. I'll… pick you up… whenever you want."

Ami smiled at her then, and, for whatever reason, Rosie couldn't help but smile back.