Five Minutes Later

E liza and Lydia were sitting on the loveseat. Rosie and Felicity were standing in front of the fireplace. Violet and Rachel were sitting on the sofa. Rachel held on to Violet's hand tightly, and Violet was glad for it because it gave her something familiar to hold on to. Without a word, these women had walked through her garage, past the cabinet where the device still sat locked up, and into her home. Violet knew this visit from four women, one of whom had lived here before her, was not a good thing. The looks on their faces told her as much, but even if they had been good actors, Violet had a feeling that she couldn't shake.

"Can I get anyone something to drink?" Rachel asked, trying to play hostess. "We have everything, I think."

"No, thank you," Eliza replied.

Lydia nodded as well, agreeing with the woman who appeared to be her wife if the rings on their fingers and the way they held hands were any indication.

"We need to dig up your pool," Felicity said then. "But we'll pay for it, and it shouldn't take more than a few days. We can call the same company Rosie used to put it in. They were pretty good, right?" She turned to Rosie.

"Yes, they were good. I have their number in my phone right now. I just need them to find something for me."

"Something under the pool?" Violet asked.

"Yes. I buried something there a while ago. Then, I forgot all about it… and built the pool on top of it."

"Wouldn't they have found it for you when they dug for the pool?" Violet asked, trying to see what else she could get them to volunteer before she admitted to having the device stowed in her garage.

"It was pretty deep," Rosie said. "So, they didn't find it."

"You buried something that deep? The pool is five feet deep at one end, so they would've gone deeper than that to put it in."

"Is it a body?" Rachel asked. "Did you kill someone and bury them in our backyard?"

Violet looked at her and tilted her head, in the way Rachel normally did, to indicate that she should probably avoid asking questions like that because they'd just invited these women into their home.

"No," Felicity spoke. "We're not killers." She laughed a little nervously. "We just need what my wife buried out there."

"Well, we're not letting you tear up the backyard. That pool is Rachel's favorite thing about this house."

"Besides my wife and our dogs," Rachel corrected. "They're out back; both German Shepherds who are very protective of their moms. So, if I call them in here and tell them that we're not happy with this strange invasion, they might decide–"

"My God!" Eliza stood abruptly. "This is stupid. It's a case. It's a case that has something inside it. That something isn't a dead body, gold, jewels, or anything else of value. We dropped the damn thing into the ocean, thinking no one would ever find it, and had no idea that these two would be out there hunting for shipwrecks. They'd not only found it but brought it up, and then…" Eliza faded out. "Anyway… We just need to dig up the pool and take the thing. We're not here to hurt anyone or cause any problems. Like Rosie and Felicity said, we'll pay for the damages. We just need it. I'll call the company and pay them extra to get it out of there today."

"You dropped it in the ocean?" Rachel asked.

"You hunt shipwrecks?" Violet asked.

"We're marine archaeologists. I found it on an expedition years ago, brought it up because it clearly didn't belong there, and before I put the pool in the backyard, I buried it." Rosie pointed to the backyard. "So, can we please just dig it up and get out of your hair?"

Violet turned to Rachel and silently asked her a question. Rachel understood her and nodded.

"What did you see?" Violet asked the four women then.

"In the backyard?" Rosie asked.

"No, with the machine. The device. What did you see?"

All four women looked shocked. They turned to one another before turning to Violet and Rachel, who sat still on the sofa.

"You know?" Felicity asked, seemingly the brave one in the bunch.

"I was putting the fence around the pool, and they discovered an issue out there. They dug it up, and I brought the case inside. I opened it and saw what was inside."

"You obviously used it if you know we saw something," Eliza noted before she sat back down next to Lydia. "What did you see?"

"My future," Violet said. "Well, our future. It was years ago now. About a year after I bought this place."

"You saw the future?" Lydia asked.

"Yes."

"I saw the past," Eliza revealed.

"The past?" Rachel asked as she leaned forward.

Violet moved her hand to Rachel's back and rubbed it, hoping this stress wasn't too much for her or the babies.

"I saw something from my past. It was clearer with the device, and I was able to close a door that I hadn't been able to for years."

"I saw the present," Rosie shared. "Well, one version of it, anyway."

"My wife here saw a possible path to take where she could date me, but she chose to take the other way and ended up marrying someone else instead," Felicity said. "I still give her a hard time about not choosing me first."

"But you're married now?" Rachel asked.

"We are. I tried the device again," Rosie shared. "And, well, it gave me something, but not exactly what I was looking for. I've always kind of thought that maybe it gave me just enough, but the rest was up to me. I got divorced, and I ran after her." She smiled over at Felicity.

"I saw Eliza breaking up with an ex-girlfriend," Lydia shared as well.

"You tried it, too?" Violet asked.

"Accidentally. Both Eliza and I pressed it accidentally. I heard her and that ex talking. It was clear that Eliza loved me, so we confessed our feelings after that, and we've been together ever since."

"We were together when we were kids and best friends for years after that, so, technically, we got back together after that," Eliza corrected, earning a smile from her wife.

"So, is this some sort of time-traveling machine that brings love to a bunch of lesbians?" Rachel asked. "Not sure if you're all gay or not, but seems like it helped us all find love."

"We don't know what it is, exactly, but we got rid of it for a reason," Eliza said.

"We went on a cruise and tossed the thing overboard," Lydia added.

"Is it dangerous?" Violet asked, now even more worried about Rachel and the babies.

"I don't think that the device itself is dangerous," Eliza said. "But having it is. "

"Why?" Rachel asked.

"El, why don't you just start at the beginning?" Lydia suggested.

"And maybe we should have that drink," Felicity added.

"I'll get us all something," Rachel offered.

"No, sit. I've got it," Violet said and stood. "Is water okay, or should I put on coffee? We're not big drinkers, but we have wine."

"Water is fine," Rosie replied before she sat down on the bricks in front of the fireplace.

Felicity sat down next to her, and Violet walked into the kitchen, pulling six glasses out of a cabinet and finding the pitcher of filtered water. She placed everything on a tray they used to eat in bed sometimes and carried it back into the room.

"Help yourself," she said.

No one did.

"When I was a teenager, my father was murdered in front of me," Eliza began. "It was outside, and it was dark, so I didn't get a good look at the guy who did it. When I was cleaning out my father's stuff years later, though, I found a metal case. Not the one you found." She looked at Felicity and Rosie. "Or the one you found," she added to Violet and Rachel. "There was a note inside. We didn't put the note in the new case because we didn't expect anyone to find it." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. "Here." She reached over and handed it to Violet, who unfolded the paper.

"Read it out loud," Rachel requested.

"To Whom It May Concern: If you're reading this, it means you've found the device. I can't tell you too much, but I need to warn you: the things you'll see, you weren't meant to see. There was a tragedy, and energy was absorbed. This is confusing to you, I'm sure, but people died making this thing. Some people were brought back to life. One of them put the device inside this box and gave it to his son to keep it safe. Destroying the device was too risky, but keeping it safe and away from the government was paramount. Its original intent was something altogether different than what it does, and it hasn't been explained by any conventional science. There was a team of people who were tasked with creating something. They were successful, but it was also very dangerous, so they protected each other. One night, something happened, and a woman died. Something about her death transformed the device. We can only assume it was the energy. Everything runs on energy, you know? We tested the device, but it no longer worked as intended. It did something else. If you're reading this note, you're now in possession of something that you cannot allow to get into the government's hands or anyone else's. It's likely you're related to the man we brought back. That man is me. I wasn't supposed to have a family. I should have died, but the team brought me back. I came back, and I got married. I had two kids. My wife died young. So did my first son. I told my second son about the device and asked him to keep it safe. That's as much as I can tell you without bringing you in all the way and risking your life. This should be enough to make you not want to learn anymore, but if no one has taught you about this because they died young, too, that should be a good enough warning to leave this alone. Lock it away and pretend it doesn't exist. Bury it far from your family and forget the location, if you must. This note is confusing, but I don't have time to type it again. I changed my name, but I know they've found me. It's only a matter of time. I wish you luck."

Violet stared down at the paper, trying to make sense of it all.

"Since we got rid of the device, Lydia and I did a little research on my family," Eliza continued. "My mom died a couple of years ago and we found even more after that. We've done this quietly because we didn't want anyone else to know. The man who killed my father is dead. After I went into the past, I was able to identify him. They found him, arrested him, and he supposedly killed himself in prison, but he didn't. Someone else killed him."

Eliza went on to explain that her father had been in possession of the device and that the man had killed him because he wouldn't hand it over. She explained further that the man who had been killed in prison was the son of a man who had been in the CIA.

"The CIA ran a project. Well, back in the sixties and seventies, they ran a lot of them, and not all of them were successful. This one was, though. Lydia and I found a journal that my father had written. My mother had kept it hidden all these years. I don't know if she ever actually read it, but I don't think so," Eliza said. "Anyway, in that, we found the CIA connection. The government ran a project that focused on bringing the dead back to life."

"Bringing people back to–" Rachel stopped.

"Yes. And it worked. My dad didn't put all the details in this journal, but he mentioned that it worked on at least one person."

"That person was Eliza's grandfather," Lydia said and took Eliza's hand.

"He'd been close to death already, so he volunteered, and it worked. He was brought back to life and lived until he was old and gray. He told my dad about the device and asked him to protect it from the man with the CIA."

"But the CIA created the project that made the device," Rachel noted.

"The man who was running the project wanted to take the device and use it for soldiers on the battlefield. The device didn't just bring people back one-hundred-percent. It cured my grandfather's cancer somehow, but that was probably due to the radiation the device emitted, according to the journal."

"Radiation?" Violet asked, turning to Rachel now.

"The device you have isn't that one," Rosie explained. "Long story, and it's confusing, I know, but she's getting to the point. Go on, Eliza."

"Anyway, the soldiers they wanted to use it on would be shot, blown up, and battered, and the device would bring them back, but if they'd lost an eye or had brain damage, it wouldn't just fix that. They'd be in pain and miserable. The team who created the original device didn't want that, so they destroyed it."

"They just destroyed it?" Rachel asked.

"Yes," Lydia replied. "But when they destroyed it, the energy that the thing emitted killed someone. It was a janitor who was working in the building. The team had all left and set a timer to have a shock short out the device. They were going to go back in and tear it apart after. They didn't know that the guy was inside until they found him."

"Destroying the new device is dangerous, which is why we didn't do it the first time and tossed it into the ocean instead," Eliza added. "Anyway, the CIA agent wanted the device, and the team wouldn't make him a new one. There's more to it than that, but the gist of it is that this should've been the end of it, but the CIA agent was essentially ousted from the agency and blackballed, from what we found out later. He had a son, though, whom he raised to be a bitter man who resented anyone involved in the project, including my grandfather and, as a result, my father, whom he killed searching for the device and the redemption that his father clearly craved. We think he was hoping to bring his father back to life with it as well, but the device my dad had wasn't that original one. It was different."

"It allowed Eliza to see the past, me to see the present, and you to see the future," Rosie said. "We don't completely understand it, but it's as if it's meant to help you when you need it, show you something to get you somewhere else."

"We've always seen it as a good thing," Felicity added. "And we didn't know anything about it other than that until Rosie did a documentary about her work on that shipwreck and they showed footage of the expedition."

"I'm a nerd," Lydia said. "I watched the documentary and recognized the case."

"We realized Rosie brought it up and went to find her just to see if she still had it," Eliza added. "We didn't know if she'd used it or not. But she had, and then, she told us she buried it here. And now, we're sitting in your living room."

"But why do you need it now?" Rachel asked. "You said that the guy who killed your dad is dead."

"Someone else is looking for it," Eliza replied. "A man showed up at our house. He didn't say he was looking for it, exactly. He told me he was a cop and that he had more questions about my father's death, but his questions weren't really about that at all. He asked for water and when I came back from the kitchen with a glass for him, he wasn't there. I found him in the garage. He said he was looking for the bathroom, but he wasn't. He was looking for the device."

"Who do you think he is?" Rachel asked.

"I don't know. He had a badge and a gun. The badge might have been fake, but the gun wasn't, and it's possible he has a real badge, too," Eliza said.

"When she told me about that, I knew we needed to find it and finally destroy the thing," Lydia explained. "We'll do it far away from people, but we can't have this thing out there."

"It doesn't bring people back to life anymore, though," Violet noted.

"No, it doesn't. The note said that it was altered by the death of some woman. The journal we found said that she had made the new device. I don't know if she was on this team or what, but she died, and the device ended up in the hands of my grandfather. Now, I need to destroy it so that no one else dies. I got the impression that this guy wasn't going to just take no for an answer. Lydia got home and opened the garage just in time. There were people outside, walking their dogs, and parents with their kids, or I think he might have pulled that gun on me and asked me where it was, just like the other guy did with a knife to my father. "

"You think he'll be back?" Violet asked.

"We know that he was," Lydia shared. "Our house was ransacked two days ago. That was when we visited Rosie and Felicity, hoping that they had the device. We thought we'd just ask for it back, saying it was our luggage or something from the cruise we took, and it fell overboard. Stupid, I know, but it was the only way I thought we could convince them to hand it over, no questions asked."

"They thought I'd put it in some museum or in storage as part of the wreck findings," Rosie offered. "And, well, I didn't, obviously. They gave us enough to let me know that they'd used it, too."

"And they looked scared," Felicity added.

"So, we told them about our story with the thing and that it was buried under my old pool."

"Now, we're here to get it back," Eliza finished.

"Someone ransacked your house?" Rachel asked and took Violet's hand.

"Yes. We got home after a dinner out and found the door open a little. Nothing was missing, but cabinets and drawers had been pulled open, and they went through literally every room," Lydia explained.

"Then, we also went to check the storage unit where we still have some of my parents' stuff stored. After my mom's death, we sold her house and didn't know what to do with some of her things. Anyway, when went there, the padlock on it was broken. They went through my mom's stuff and my dad's old things, too. They're gone, and that's all I have left of both of them."

Lydia wrapped an arm around her wife and said, "They didn't take anything again, but we know that what they were looking for wasn't there."

"Who is it? The CIA wants some old thing back that doesn't even work how they intended? How long ago was this project thing again?" Rachel asked.

"The sixties. The whole team disappeared afterward, from what we found out. My dad had their names in the journal, so we looked them up. They're all long dead now. There were four of them: my grandfather and three others. You know about my grandfather. He was left alone for a bit because they wanted to see if he'd stay alive. After the incident with the woman, though, he ran and changed his name. I don't think they found him, but they found my dad instead."

"But why now? You said your dad died a long time ago," Violet said .

"We don't know," Felicity spoke up.

"It's true; I have no idea. The three other people on the project died at least ten years ago. One died back in the sixties. One died in the eighties. And the other one passed away in the nineties. So, it's not any of them, and we don't know why the CIA would want the device now. It's not only that this device seems to work differently, but also that pretty much no one should know it exists. It was classified, and no one is ever going to un-classify this because if people found out that there was some device out there that could bring back their loved ones, the US government wouldn't hear the end of it.

"So, everyone's dead?" Rachel said. "Except for the six of us?"

"Does anyone else know?" Violet asked.

"About the device? No," Eliza replied. "Lydia and I have kids, but we'd never risk telling them about this. My mom didn't seem to know anything, but she's gone either way, and neither of us dared to tell anyone about it until we met Rosie and Felicity here and found out that they already knew. Our kids are with Lydia's parents right now."

"We haven't told anyone. We don't have kids, and none of our family knows," Felicity said.

"How many do you have?" Rachel asked Eliza.

"Three," Eliza replied. "We had three in four years, actually. Long story."

"Not that long. Eliza got pregnant, and we had our first. Then, I wanted to be pregnant, which was surprising to me because I wasn't sure I'd want to be, but we had our second. After that, she wanted another one, and we thought it might take a bit for her to get pregnant again, but our youngest surprised us," Lydia explained. "Now, we have three kids."

"And we're done," Eliza added. "Officially done."

"We're having twins," Rachel announced.

"Really?" Lydia said. "That's amazing."

"It is, yes," Violet said with a smile.

"Violet saw them in her future vision. They were adults. When I got pregnant, I worried we might not have them."

"This time," Violet added.

"You saw your kids grown-up?" Rosie asked with a smile.

"They had kids of their own, too," Rachel said. "And we just found out today that we're having twin girls." She placed her free hand on her stomach. "I will do anything to protect them."

Violet was surprised at the change in her tone, but she understood her wife's meaning.

"Does anyone outside of this room know that the device is here?" she asked.

"No," Rosie confirmed. "We planned to grab it and go. We never wanted to bring anyone else into this."

"But you deserved the truth," Eliza said.

"Then, you can take it with you," Violet told them. "I'll grab it for you, and you can go. All I ask is that you pretend like you were never here."

"Violet…" Rachel said.

"I don't mean to be rude. I'm sorry that you lost your father over this and that it's caused so many problems, but to me, this thing was a gift. It gave me so much. Rachel is the love of my life. I don't know what would've happened had I not seen that vision, because I don't know for sure that we would've ended up here, but I also don't care to find out. We're here now, and we're about to have two children. I don't want anyone coming in here and ransacking our house or hurting my pregnant wife because we still have this thing."

"I understand," Eliza said. "And no one knows where Rosie stowed it, so you should be okay."

" Should be?" Rachel asked.

"No one knows Rosie had it," Lydia explained. "They ransacked our house, which means they thought we did. I think the best thing we can do now is get this device, take it deep into the woods somewhere, set it up to blow or something, and go. Then, none of us has it, and there's nothing to find."

"That could also make them angry, whoever it is that's coming after it now," Felicity suggested.

"Maybe, but it's all we can do. If we don't have it, they can't take it, and maybe they give up. If they don't, we–"

"Why don't you go to the police?" Rachel asked.

"Because they can't do anything. If this is the CIA, they'll get away with it or just cover it up," Eliza said. "If it's some criminal, they're not going to stop even if the cops know."

"Just get it out of our house," Violet told her. "I don't care what you do with it after that."

"Babe!"

"What? It's the truth. Again, I'm not trying to be rude, and I don't want anything to happen to any of you, but I won't risk anything happening to Rachel. "

"I'd suggest you move, then," Lydia spoke. " We are."

"You are ?"

"We're going to change our names, too. It's going to be a mess with the kids, but they're young enough, and we're only going to change their last names. Whoever is looking for us can probably still find us, but we're hoping they give up before that."

"What about you two?" Violet asked Rosie and Felicity.

"No one knows we had it, so we think we're okay. We never talk about it at home now, so if they did know that Rosie brought some case up and they were, I don't know, listening in somehow, they wouldn't have heard us talking about it. They might just assume it was in storage, like these two did. We haven't heard of any break-ins or issues where the shipwreck stuff is stored, though, so we're pretty sure we're okay. We only came along because you would've remembered at least Rosie, and we were hoping she could convince you to let us dig up the pool."

"At least, we don't have to do that," Rosie said.

"You're going to destroy it and run?" Rachel asked Eliza and Lydia.

"For now. I'm hoping we can find some way to end it. I just don't know how yet," Eliza shared.

"We need to figure out who's coming after it," Lydia added.

"And we can't help you," Felicity said and took Rosie's hand. "I don't want anyone to know that we had this thing at some point and come after us or our families. Eliza said the guy who killed her dad didn't come after her or her mom again because he realized they had no idea about the thing, but he did listen in and watch their lives to some extent. I don't want to worry about who's watching us or listening into our conversations in case Rosie accidentally says something or I do. My mom isn't well, so she's probably going to move in with us soon, and I don't–"

"It's okay," Eliza told her. "We know we need to do this alone. And for the kids, at least, I wanted Lydia to be safe as well and run with them while I dealt with this, but Lydia refused to let me do it alone."

"For better or worse," Lydia replied simply. "I don't want our kids to be without their moms, but I can't let her handle this by herself, either. If we were you and no one knew we'd ever even had it, we wouldn't be going to such extremes, but I don't want anyone coming after my kids in ten years or something. They were in the car with me that day when I pulled in, and I distracted them, so they didn't see the gun, but I won't let anyone hurt them. We're ending this." Lydia shrugged.

"We just need the device," Eliza said. "And we won't tell anyone where we got it from."

"If you do…" Rachel began but didn't say anything else.

"We wouldn't," Eliza repeated. "I wouldn't ever want anyone to go through what I went through. I watched my father die, and then I basically watched my mother turn into a zombie because she lost the man she loved. I'd never put anyone else in that position. I won't risk our children going through that, and I wouldn't risk their lives, either."

Rachel nodded and turned to Violet.

"I'll get it. Then, you can go," Violet said and stood.

"Thank you," Eliza replied, standing up as well, with Lydia following suit. "And I'm sorry we had to come here at all."

"Don't be," Rachel replied with a soft smile. "We know now. I'll admit that we don't know much, and we definitely don't know it all, but we know that we're not alone now and that Violet did see the future. She no longer has to wonder if it really happened. We also know, at least a little bit, about where the thing came from. It's some kind of science, but also maybe not."

"The energy," Felicity said. "Yeah, I thought about that, too."

"What do you mean?" Violet asked.

"That note said something about the trauma of someone's death impacting the device. The thing doesn't seem to need to charge, and it takes people into time and space somehow. I'd go with science fiction, but I don't think that's it, either," Rachel said.

"You think the same thing I do, then," Felicity shared. "Something in the energy."

"Paranormal?" Rachel checked.

"Paranormal?" Violet asked.

"Just guessing here, but, yeah, maybe," Rachel replied. "Either way, you can go get it, and Eliza and Lydia can take it. We got all we'll ever need from it, babe."

"Yes, my love," Violet said, smiling down at her.

The four other women in the room all made different sounds at that. Felicity chuckled a little and looked at her wife. Rosie smiled back at her before she laughed lightly. Eliza gasped a little, and Lydia pulled air through her teeth before she nodded .

"What?" Violet asked.

"Have you always called Rachel there your love?" Rosie asked.

"Since we got together. Why?"

"That's something we call each other."

"Us too," Lydia shared. "Her dad used to call her mom that, so she does it with me."

"Did you ever call anyone other than me that?" Rachel looked up at her. "I don't think I've ever asked you that."

"No," Violet said, realizing it at the same time. "I didn't. Babe, baby, honey, and–"

"Okay. I get it." Rachel tapped her on her butt. "Don't need to know all the nicknames you used, sweetheart."

Lydia laughed and said, "She calls me that, too." She pointed to her wife. "Weird. Not really common nicknames these days."

"I'll be right back," Violet said and walked through the kitchen and into the laundry room.

In the garage, she unlocked the cabinet they'd locked as well when they got back from Greece the first time, pulled out the case, and walked back inside the house. She set it on the floor in the middle of the room and watched all four women stare at it.

"I have the keys to the padlock. They're just upstairs."

"We'll use bolt cutters. Don't worry about it," Lydia told her.

"The faster we leave here, the better," Eliza added. "We left our phones at home so that it's harder to track us while we do this, and the old car you saw in the driveway was bought in an all-cash deal with someone two towns away from us, but we should still get going."

"Us too," Felicity said as she stood.

"Let's carry it out through the back just to be safe," Rosie suggested.

"Actually, can we crack it open and put it in something else?" Lydia asked. "Less conspicuous that way."

"I'll get the key, after all, and find you a bag to put it in," Violet said.

She nodded toward Rachel and walked up the stairs, finding the key quickly and rummaging through their closet for a bag. She found a purse that would fit the device and headed back down the stairs. After the case was opened, all six of them stared down at the object that was still so mysterious for at least a minute before Lydia picked it up carefully to avoid pressing the button. She placed it into the purse top-up so that the button wasn't pressing against anything and handed the purse to Eliza.

"Be careful," she told her wife.

"I will," Eliza replied. Then, she looked at Violet and Rachel and said, "Thank you."

"Good luck," Violet replied before adding, "When it's all over, will you tell us or, at least, find a way to let us know that you're okay?"

"Yes," Eliza said. "If something happens to us, Lydia's family will take care of our kids, but since they don't know anything about this, well, I hate to ask, but–"

"We'll find a way to check in on them," Rachel promised and took Violet's hand. "Don't worry."

Lydia swallowed hard, and Eliza nodded with tears in her eyes.

"Thank you," she said.

Before the women left, Violet hand-wrote their phone numbers, along with other pertinent information, on a piece of paper so that it wasn't stored on any phone or computer hard drive and locked it in their safe. Then, she found Rachel standing in the middle of the empty room that would be the nursery, and she was rubbing her belly.

"Everything okay? Maybe you should lie down, my love."

"My love," Rachel repeated after her as she turned to her with a smile. "Can we paint this weekend?"

"Um… I can paint," Violet replied. " You can lie in our bed and have all the windows open so that you don't inhale any of the paint fumes."

"Fine. Fine," Rachel said and wrapped her arms around Violet's neck. "It's gone."

"I know."

"How do you feel?"

"Scared for them," Violet answered honestly. "And a little for us. But I trust them, too."

"So do I," Rachel said. "But I also feel, I don't know, relieved somehow. Like, it's out of our hands now, and we can't just press the button whenever we want to try to force the future it shows us. I know we said we wouldn't, but now, we can't."

"Hey, earlier, what did you and Felicity mean about the energy?" she asked, wrapping her arms around Rachel's waist.

"Well, you hate scary movies, so you never watch things with or about ghosts, and I'm not sure they're real, exactly, but energy is always mentioned in those. Even in those ghost-finding shows, it's about the energy we leave behind. Sometimes, when people die horrible deaths, like when they get killed, the energy is amplified. That's what I think, at least. Maybe that energy got to the device somehow, and it changed its purpose."

"A lesbian love finder?" Violet joked.

Rachel laughed and said, "I don't know. I like to think of it as it somehow tells you what you need to see or know at that point in time to make the decision you need to make. Or, it guides you in the direction you need to go, kind of like it guided you toward me."

"That sounds nice, actually," Violet said.

"Want to go order those cribs now?" Rachel asked and kissed her sweetly on the lips.

"Yes, my love," Violet answered.