You never know when your entire world is going to confuse the living heck out of you. But when it does, all that anyone expects out of you is a lot of questions and denial. And that's where my story starts...

~~~

  She had dreamt she was fighting zombies again. Again, because she'd dreamt this before quite a few times...

  She awoke in a cold sweat, sitting up and looking around her room frantically. After a few minutes of adjusting her eyes to the dark and scanning her room, she calmed down. It was just another one of those silly dreams.

Brushing her damp brown hair off her forehead she froze as the door creaked open.

"Joyce dear, are you awake?" It was her mother, peeking her head into the room.

  Joyce's mother had the same long hair as her but it was black. Joyce's brown hair came from her father. She had an older brother, Roy, and he had gotten the same black hair as their mother.

  "I'm awake mother." Joyce spoke up, sleepily. Peggy, her mother, nodded and opened the door a bit wider to light the lantern in her room. In the light Joyce could see her mother properly. She wore a blue bodice and skirt today.

Once Peggy had lit the lantern she tied up her silky black hair in a bun.

  "Well then, get dressed and come help me make the boys some breakfast." With that Peggy left the room, closing the door behind her. Joyce stretched and swung her legs off the bed. Then stood up to straighten the disheveled blankets.

  Her room wasn't fancy. It was livable but it also wasn't decorated to a T like higher class families. She had a comfy bed, a dresser, mirror, closet, and a small desk with a chair. Joyce walked across the hall to the bathroom. She took care of her business and brushed out her tangled hair, ripping half of it out in the process.

  After braiding some of her long brown hair into a braid crown, Joyce walked back into her room and pulled out her favorite dark green bodice and skirt from her dresser. A small frown appeared on her face. Some days she hated wearing these. But she had to. It's just what society says a woman needs to wear. The pants guys wore looked so much more comfortable. Biting back a groan she got dressed.

  "Joyce!" Her mother called, sounding a little irritated. Joyce got up and walked into the kitchen to find her mother at the kitchen stove making some eggs, wearing her white apron. The sizzle of the eggs on the hot pan and smell of them in the air makes Joyce's stomach growl.

  Her mother looks up and gestures for her to come help. Joyce hurries over and takes over stirring the eggs. She adds a little salt and pepper to the golden bunch of eggs as she stirs.

  After a while the eggs were done and Joyce took the pan off the burner. She then scooped a spoonful of eggs onto each of the four plates on the small family table before putting the pan in the sink.

  Peggy put some other good smelling food on the plates, put the dishes in the sink and took off her apron. Joyce sits down and starts shoveling the food in her mouth. Her stomach had been begging for food the entire time they'd been cooking.

She heard her mother clear her throat and looked up to see her with her arms folded.

"We have to wait for the boys." Peggy said sternly. Joyce groans,

  "But it'll be cold by the time they come back from the field!" She complains. Peggy taps her foot just once then uncrosses her arms.

  "Then run along and go grab them for breakfast." Joyce nods and quickly eats a few more bites of eggs then gets up and runs to the door before her mother could protest and scold her for eating more.

  Their land was wide open with a small forest on the south side of the field. A quaint little red barn with white trim stood on the border of the forest and field. Animal calls and sounds could be heard from where Joyce was walking, swinging her arms back and forth a little. From chickens to a cow to a sheep or two. They were loud.

  Joyce walked along the dirt road to where she could see the boys in the distance. A small early fall breeze blew through her hair. It was early September so Joyce's father and brother were harvesting some of their crops. The sky looked a tad bit gloomy.

When she approached them Roy looked up, wiping some sweat off his brow.

  "Morning little sis." Roy's black hair was peeking out from underneath his brown cap and it seemed to make him look like a young boy instead of a 21 year old man. Roy's light green eyes were looking at Joyce, silently asking her why she was standing in the field with him and their father.

  Their father, William, stood up now and stretched out his back with a small groan. He runs his hand through his sweaty brown hair as he looks at Joyce.

  "What are you doing out here sweetheart?" He asks, hand still in his hair. Joyce folds her hands behind her back.

  "Mother sent me to tell you breakfast is ready and getting cold." She tells them. Roy perks up at the word 'food' which makes Joyce giggle. William looks at Roy and puts both hands on his hips. He looks up at the position of the sun with his squinted eyes. Joyce looks up too. The sun was pretty hard to spot behind the gathering clouds.

  "Guess we can take a small break, eh Roy?" William says. Roy nods excitedly, probably hungry and anxious about the food getting cold.

"That answers that question." William turns to Joyce again.

  "You run along back to the house and try to keep that food warm for us. We'll store this food and join you and your mother in the house." Joyce nods at her father and offers them help storing the food. William just waves her off saying they don't need help but her mother does.

  So Joyce leaves the boys and starts heading back to the house. Why can't I help them with the farmwork? It's always the housework and cleaning and sewing together clothes. Joyce sighs and drags her feet as she makes her way back.

  As she passed the barn she heard some strange crash in the woods behind it. Turning toward it Joyce saw some crows flying off some trees, screaming into the sky. A strange bluish green colored light glowing through the tree leaves throbbed then faded out.

  What was that? Joyce looked around her then walked closer to the woods and started to hear a strange humming sound get louder the closer she got. Joyce now stood at the back of the red barn, one hand on the building, looking into the woods. The humming continued, drawing her into the woods. Just because she was confined to the house didn't mean she hadn't been in the woods before. She stepped around shrubs and small trees slowly making her way deeper into the woods. Knowing the forested area like the back of her hand.

  Toward the heart of the wood Joyce could hear someone talking. The voice sounded distinctly female. Following the voice so it became louder Joyce finally found its source. Standing about fifty feet away was a young woman.

  She stood around Joyce's height with blonde hair tied up in a ponytail. Two front strands seemed to be halfway braided in front of her face. She wore black overalls with a white shirt underneath and stained white shoes. Joyce froze as she saw what the woman was looking at in front of her.

  It was a big white...thing. The humming seemed to originate from it. The overall shape looked like it was a giant egg that came from a giant chicken. A small tendril of smoke was coming from it. The smoke coming from it must've been from it running into the tree in front of it causing the front of it to dent.

  Joyce looked on, baffled, and took a small step back. A loud snap followed her step and the woman spun around. Finally noticing Joyce, her eyes widened like a deer caught in headlights. Joyce took a few more steps back. I think I need to leave. I'm having another one of those weird dreams again. She glanced around quickly anticipating that at any moment zombies were going to leap out at her. The woman walked quickly over, scaring Joyce who receded back even more.

  "No no no it's okay, I won't hurt you. I know this looks....weird. But I have a perfectly good explanation for this." The woman said with the same British accent as Joyce, catching up to her and grabbing her arm. Joyce froze, hazel eyes wide. This close up she could see the woman better and saw things she didn't see before. She wore gold clips in her hair, a gold heart necklace, and had a bandage on her nose. For what purpose Joyce couldn't figure out. The woman's eyes were mesmerizing. One was green and the other was blue.

  The woman pushed up the glasses on her face and slowly started walking back to the big egg with Joyce in tow. Once they were close enough for the woman's satisfaction she slowly let go of Joyce's arm.

  "My name is Harper." She says with a smile. Joyce attempts a small smile back but all of this was getting to her and she had no idea what to think.

  "Anddd...this is my parents' time machine." Harper continues, doing jazz hands in the direction of the giant chicken egg. Joyce blinks confused and stares at the egg.

  "A...what..?" She asks quietly and confused. Harper looks at Joyce strangely then fiddles with something on her wrist, muttering to herself. She looks up at Joyce again.

  "Bonjour? Est-ce que tu parles français?" Harper says with an eyebrow raised. Joyce can't help but let out a small giggle.

"I speak English. I'm just confused..." She clarifies. Harper blinks and switches back to English,

"Confused about what exactly?" She asks. Joyce gestures to the egg,

  "What that is..." The brown haired girl tried to ignore her shaking legs. Harper's mouth made an o shape.

  "The time machine? You don't know what that means do you? That's right my watch said I'm in 1492...they don't know the space time theories." Harper spoke the last half to herself. Joyce patiently waits for Harper's explanation. Poor Harper seemed pretty maladjusted to the time period and stood there for a few minutes trying to figure out how to explain in a way Joyce could understand. Joyce let her muse and watched the smoke curl up and over the tree line. Once Harper gathered her thoughts together she began to explain.

  "A time machine brings people to the past or the future and back to their present. You can hop through time with it. I'm from the future." Harper explains. She looks at the machine, eyeing the smoke tendril.

  "And I think I've majorly messed up..." She says quietly. Her voice has a slight melancholy tone to it. Harper hugs herself, her glasses slipping down her nose a little bit. Joyce still didn't understand what all was going on but she did know that this poor girl was upset about something.

  Without thinking Joyce wraps her arms around Harper. The latter freezes, blinking in confusion. Slowly Harper hugs Joyce back with a wistful look in her eyes. Joyce lets her go.

  "Apologies, you just looked upset." She says acting a little bit demure. Harper's lopsided smile returns,

  "Thanks. I just didn't expect that from you. I was expecting questions and denial." Harper explains. Joyce shrugs and giggles a little.

  "I've got plenty of that, don't worry." Harper looks over at the giant egg she called a time machine with concern.

  "It would be a lot easier to get home if I hadn't crashed it into a damn tree." Harper snaps quietly. The blonde folds her arms, glaring at the smoke curling out of the machine.

  "Can you fix it?" Joyce asks the grumpy time traveler. Harper stares at it, her countenance being one of thoughtfulness.

  "I think I can. It depends on what's broken..." With that Harper starts to circle around the time machine. Harper vanished from sight and a small 'bang' sounded through the wood. Joyce jumped and Harper peeked her head around the machine.

"Sorry. Was trying to get the engine panel open." She disappears only to reappear seconds later.

  "I didn't catch your name, fair stranger." She winks. Joyce steps a little closer to the machine, still eyeing it warily.

"Joyce," She replies. Harper nods, processing the name.

  "Joyful!" She pops out of view once more. Joyce giggles and follows Harper around the machine, hesitantly trailing her fingers along the smooth white metal. Once around the egg Joyce finds Harper deep in the engine panel. There's some clanking going on and Harper's taking notes out loud to herself. Joyce keeps her distance watching circumspectly.

Harper backs up looking at the engine, hands on her hips.

  "Well the steness is fried. The whyl is chipped. And the onoutpout is completely disconnected from its mainframe." Harper taps the thing on her wrist again.

  "I have the instructions and knowledge to fix them. But I might need a few things..." She trails off. Suddenly she turns toward Joyce.

  "Can you help me please?! I could use an extra pair of hands. And my family's kinda in a conundrum at home at the moment." Harper says, wringing her hands together and looking worried. Joyce thinks about it for a second. Harper didn't seem like a devious person with a subversive plan. She was a sweet young woman who just wanted to go home.

  "Of course I'll help you. But my parents won't believe the whole time travel thing. I can barely believe it myself to be completely honest with you." Joyce says. Harper nods,

  "That's understandable. We don't have to tell your family all the technical stuff. I'll spare you all the technical talk too. It gets really complicated." Harper chuckles. Joyce sighs,

"Thanks."

~~~

  Turns out the time machine had a cloaking switch. Harper had climbed in it before they left to go to Joyce's house and it disappeared with the visual of water being poured on it. Once the giant egg was inconspicuous and hidden they walked to Joyce's home. It was late in the afternoon and Joyce knew that the moment she stepped into that house she was in trouble for staying out for too long.

  The first thing they did was sneak into Joyce's room. Harper couldn't go walking around in her 22nd century attire. So Joyce opened her window from the outside and they slipped into her room. After rummaging through her dresser she pulled out a lavender bodice and skirt and handed them to Harper.

  "Here. Try these on." She incited. Harper carefully takes the clothes from her and glances around the room.

"In here?" She asks. Joyce nods.

  "I can turn around if that makes you more comfortable." She offers. Harper nods bashfully. Joyce turns around and folds her hands behind her back. While Joyce is facing the other direction Harper undresses quickly and puts on the skirt then the bodice. She starts to tighten the bodice and soon starts to struggle with it. Harper frowns,

"H-hey Joyce? Can y-you give me a hand??" Harper asks nervously.

  "Sure," Joyce replies and turns around. Harper's face turns a little pink as Joyce steps closer to help her tighten and tie the bodice around her.

  "There you go." Joyce says, looking back up at Harper's face and noticing how pink it is and that she took the bandage off her nose. "Are you alright?" She asks. Harper nods quickly. Then gestures to her other clothes, trying to distract Joyce from her blushing face.

  "Can we keep those in here until I can go back to the time machine and store them there?" She asks. Joyce nods.

  The two friends store Harper's clothes under Joyce's bed and crawl out of the window. Harper struggled a bit, not used to wearing the dress and Joyce had to help her out. Outside the window they headed around the house to the front door, avoiding being caught by the boys.

  Joyce opened the front door and walks inside, obligating Harper to follow her. Harper crosses the threshold and looks around the house. Not minutes after they walk inside Joyce's mother comes walking to the door to see who just walked in. Her attention immediately goes to Joyce.

  "Where were you?!" Peggy scolds her daughter, "You were supposed to be back with the boys. When they came back you weren't with them!" Joyce's facial expression shifted as if someone had just called her an imbecile and she frowns.

  "I'm sorry mother. I got a little distracted." She tells her mother timidly. At this moment Peggy notices Harper beside Joyce. She smiles, her scolding attitude melting away like frost on a sunny summer morning.

  "Why hello there. Are you one of Joyce's friends?" Peggy asks sweetly. Harper smiles at her and nods.

  "This is Harper. Her family's going through a tough time and we were wondering if she could stay here until that passes?" Joyce questions. On their way to the house they came up with this alibi. Crossing their fingers they watched Peggy think about it.

  "As long as she helps out around the house a little bit. And if she's not from around here don't tell your father. You know how intolerably xenophobic he is. He'll incriminate me for it." Peggy warns Joyce. She nods.

"I know."

  "She'll stay in your room. We don't have room for her anywhere else." Peggy states. Harper smiles,

  "That's alright with me." Harper says happily. Peggy looks at her as if trying to decide if her accent was veritable or not. Thankfully it was genuine and Peggy wanders off to do some more housework, but not after telling Joyce to help her. Joyce gives Harper an apologetic glance and quickly tells her where her room is located in the house before rushing after her mother. Harper turns and goes to find Joyce's room and hang out.

~~~

  Harper spent the entire rest of the day in Joyce's room messing with her watch. She knew what was wrong with the time machine, she just needed to figure out how to fix it. Thankfully the watch her parents gave her had all the things and knowledge she needed to fix it up and go home.

  Looking up from her watch, Harper stared out the window at the field outside. Clouds were starting to gather overhead more heavily which earned a worried frown from Harper. She really just wanted to go back to the sanctuary she called home.

~~~

  Joyce returns to her room to find her sagacious friend looking frustrated. What's wrong? Closing the door behind her she asks Harper what's wrong. Harper was laying on Joyce's bed and starfishes her arms.

  "My hightech watch works but my iPhone won't work. I forgot you guys don't have wifi or internet." She sighs dramatically. Joyce blinks.

"What does that mean?" She inquires. Harper turns her head to look at Joyce.

  "It's kinda hard to explain in a way you would understand..." Harper says hesitantly. Joyce walks over and sits on her bed next to Harper, who's still laying down.

  "Can you try?" Joyce presses. Harper stares up at the ceiling with her pretty mismatched eyes and pushes up her glasses.

  "Umm...magic? Not diabolical magic, helpful magic I guess. I dunno how else to explain it." Harper tries to explain. Joyce stares at the wall across from her trying to process and nods.

  "Great, I've lost her. Mayday mayday we're going down!" Harper jokes. She whistles, pretending her hand is flying through the air then crashes it on the bed and makes a pretend explosion sound. Joyce giggles and tries to hide a small snort behind her hand. Harper joins in with her own cute little laugh.

  "Have I confused you enough for one day?" Harper asks when the laughter dies down. Joyce looks down at her,

  "You've only fostered my curiosity about the future, but I don't think I can handle any more of this today." She says, an exhausted look on her face. Harper nods and looks back up at the ceiling,

"Fair. I'll just scramble your brain more tomorrow." Harper states, eyes closed.

  "Can't wait." Joyce replies, almost sarcastically and getting up off the bed at the same time. Harper opens one eye and watches Joyce who opens her closet and grabs a few blankets out of it. Joyce spread the blankets down on the floor, making a bed to sleep on.

"Is that for me?" Harper quizzes. Joyce just shakes her head, focused on the task at hand.

  "Nope, this is for me. You can take the bed." Harper opens both eyes and sits up a little on the bed.

  "You don't have to do that. I can take the floor." She says almost embarrassed Joyce is offering her bed to her.

  "Don't give me that. I've slept on the floor hundreds of times when family came to visit. I'll be fine." Joyce counters, her hand waving in Harper's direction. Harper began to argue again but Joyce fixed her with a tenacious look which shut her up. After a few minutes of Harper just watching Joyce set up her own bed she finally spoke up.

  "Do I have to sleep in this dress? It's kinda uncomfortable." Joyce sits down on her pile of blankets and answers Harper's question.

  "No, we have less restricting nightgowns. You can borrow one of mine. I promise they're more comfortable than that." Harper beams, prompting Joyce to get up and grab them both nightgowns from her dresser. She hands one to Harper,

"The bathroom is just across the hallway. You can change in there this time."

  "Mkay. Thanks." Harper says, holding her nightgown then wanders out the bedroom door to the bathroom. Left alone in her room Joyce quickly changes into her nightgown and puts her bodice and skirt away. Her mind wandered as she did so, getting the day straight.

  I just met a time traveler today who's from the future. I'm hiding the fact that she literally came out of nowhere from my parents. Dad and Roy asked questions but agreed to leave her alone. She's really funny and smart. Her eyes are beautiful....

  Joyce blinks and shuts her dresser drawer, staring at it. Where did that thought come from? She stood there confused and questioning until Harper returns from the bathroom.

  "You're right. These are much more comfortable." Harper freezes in her tracks and looks at Joyce with a confused expression.

  "You good there princess?" She asks. Joyce turns to look at her. The faintest bit of blush dusts her cheeks.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine." She pauses, "Princess?" Harper shrugs,

  "Dunno. We look like princesses in these." She does a little spin to prove her point. Joyce giggles and agrees. Harper hands Joyce the dress she was wearing. The latter folds it up and puts it away.

  When Joyce turns back around she finds Harper sitting on the pile of blankets she was going to sleep on.

"Hey-" Harper raises her finger, silencing Joyce.

  "Nope! I will sleep on the floor." She states, her turn to be tenacious. Joyce shuts her mouth, giving up and too tired to argue. She makes her way to her bed and sits down on the edge of it. Harper stretches and yawns,

  "I dunno 'bout you but I'm beat. All this supplementary adventure wore me out." A small yawn escapes Joyce's lips, unaudiably agreeing with Harper. Joyce watched Harper as she tucked herself under the covers and slowly closed her eyes. Joyce followed suit and soon heard soft snores coming from Harper. That's kinda cute....

Soon Joyce's eyes drooped shut and she too was asleep.

~~~

  Over the course of the next few days the two friends continued their clandestine quest to fix the time machine so Harper can head home. They shared stories of their lives and Joyce got to learn a lot about the future.

  The tyranny Britain would go through and is going though. Harper told her about the Civil War and the journey there to liberate slaves and denounce slavery.

  Joyce told Harper about the belligerent way the Queen was forcing a specific religion on England, and the martyrs they'd learned about.

  Another thing Joyce learned was the profuse amount of profanities Harper would use while working on the time machine. The engine was in worse shape than before because of the heavy amount of rain that fell on it during Harper's first night in 1492. She was having a difficult time trying to fix the engine, even with her fancy tech watch.

  Some days Joyce noticed Harper's positive attitude degenerate quickly and she lost her patience with her project.

  "Damn it!!" Harper snapped, throwing her wrench down on the wet soggy ground beside her. Joyce looked up at her from her spot down on the wet leaves. Harper paced furiously in front of the machine, muttering all sorts of curses under her breath.

  Whenever they came to work on the machine Harper always changed back into her 22nd century clothes. One because she didn't want to get Joyce's dress dirty and torn. And two because it was so much easier for her to work in her comfortable overalls. Which didn't help Joyce. Growing up in the 1430s and 1440s she'd never seen a female wear pants like the men did.

  When Harper turned around in her pacing Joyce looked back up at her face. Blushing slightly as she realized she was staring.

  "Why can't I fix the fucking steness?! It's not that hard. Would've been a lot easier if it hadn't pissed rain on us!" Harper shouted the last bit at the sky, which looked as gray as ever.

Joyce got up off the ground and walked over to Harper, putting a hand on her shoulder.

  "Why don't we take a break?" She suggested, acting dauntless toward Harper's sour mood. When Harper got into this negative snappy mood that usually meant she needed a break.

  Joyce led Harper over to a dry spot under one of the trees to sit down. She sat down first and pats the spot next to her. Harper in her foul mood goes to sit down next to her but lands in her lap. Joyce lets out a small surprised sound and looks at Harper with wide eyes.

  Harper, surprisingly, paid no attention to the fact she was sitting on Joyce's lap instead she continued to rant under her breath about the secular sciences only she understood. Joyce eventually calmed herself down and tried to calm Harper down.

  "Harper, you've made so much great progress so far. It's just a little setback right?" Joyce looks at her with a small curious look. Harper sighs.

"Yeah..." Joyce smiles,

"And you can fix it right?" She says encouragingly.

  "Guess so. It'll just be a bit more difficult and take some more time..." She replies, moping. At least she stopped cursing and ranting... Joyce thinks to herself.

Harper moves in Joyce's lap to put her forehead on her shoulder, then sighs.

  "Sorry I'm getting so worked up with this all. I just wanna go home and see my parents again..." The end of Harper's sentence trails off sadly, causing Joyce to frown a little bit.

  "It's okay. Did-" Before Joyce could even finish her question Harper starts shaking and hugs Joyce. Joyce hugs her back as soon as she hears a small hiccup sob come from Harper.

  "Did something happen that caused you to come here?" Joyce asks softly. Harper nods her head against Joyce.

  "I panicked and jumped in the time machine..." She said, her voice shaking. Joyce decides not to ask what happened.

  "I was supposed to go see my cousin's baby..." Harper says quietly. Joyce smooths Harper's hair down.

  "We'll get the time machine working again and you can go see her baby. I'm sure your parents are fine too." She tries to comfort her. After a little while Harper sniffles and pulls back from the hug, her bicolored eyes shiny.

"I hope you're right..."

I hope I am too.

~~~

  A week later Harper had finished fixing the machine. She was ecstatic when she finished and so proud of herself. Joyce was happy too but deep down inside she was sad about it all. She didn't know the reason why, but she felt melancholy when the two of them walked to the clearing for the last time together.

  Harper had been oddly quiet the entire morning during breakfast. Joyce didn't want to ask why, she assumed it was the same reason she felt down.

They had to say goodbye today.

  In the clearing the duo looked at the machine in all its egg-shaped glory. Harper had her face turned away from Joyce so she couldn't tell what she was thinking. Turning toward Harper she opened her mouth to say the words she'd been dreading to say all morning.

  "I guess this is goodb-'' Joyce was cut off by Harper quickly spinning around and kissing her. Joyce's eyes go wide and she kinda freezes. Harper's eyes are closed and she has her arms wrapped around Joyce's neck. She pulls back and looks at Joyce, cheeks flushed red. Joyce blinks, feeling her face burning with blush as well, not knowing what to do.

Harper lets go of Joyce and steps back a foot or two.

  "I-I'm sorry..! I-I just w-wanted..." Harper tries to quickly explain, stuttering along. All the while Joyce is thinking to herself. This is why it's so hard to say good-bye. I like this girl!

  "I just h-have to g-go and I c-couldn't just leave without t-telling you how I felt. O-or showing you a-at least..." Joyce snaps out of her daze and kinda interrupts Harper's panicked rant.

"Nono! I-it's okay...!" Joyce says, panicking a little herself. Harper blinks,

  "W-what?" Joyce tries to form an explanation in her head while Harper looks at her. As Joyce tries to think all the explanations she came up with would disappear and she would lose it.

  Harper looks at Joyce, hopeful and awaiting an answer. After a few minutes of awkwardness and silence Joyce steps forward, engulfing Harper in a hug. Harper immediately hugs her back.

"You know this is really bad nowadays..." Joyce tells her.

"I know. It's not when I come from." Joyce could hear Harper sigh.

  "I told myself not to catch feelings because I knew I was going to leave. But obviously that didn't happen." She explains further. Joyce continues to hug her.

  "But now you have to go home..." She says sadly. Harper nods and lets go of Joyce who notices that she didn't embellish her hair with golden clips today. Harper's eyes looked a bit shiny, starting to fill with tears as she unclipped the gold heart necklace from around her neck.

"Here." Her arms wrapped around Joyce's neck to clip the necklace in place.

  "You can have this. As something to remember me by." Harper smiled wistfully. Joyce looked down at the heart necklace around her neck with a soft smile.

"Thank you." She says quietly. Harper nods and glances at the time machine.

"I have to go. My parents are probably really worried..."

"Okay." Joyce mutters with a frown. Harper turns back to Joyce.

  "C-can I kiss you again..? Or was that too much?" She nervously asks, wringing her hands together. Joyce smiles a little and nods, gently wrapping her arms around Harper's waist.

  Harper closes the gap between them, kissing Joyce softly on the lips. They both close their eyes, blush growing on both of their cheeks. Eventually they separate and Harper steps toward the time machine, turning around to look at Joyce who waves a little. Harper waves a little too then walks all the way to the time machine.

  Harper steps up into the machine where the seat and controls are and steals one last glance at Joyce before sitting down and closing it. Joyce watches the giant egg looking machine turn on and hover a few inches off the ground. She could swear she heard Harper's excited yell from inside over the hum of the machine.

  The time machine hovered for a few seconds before it faded a bit and seemingly got sucked into the area around it. The area flashed bluish-green. The same color Joyce had seen weeks earlier illuminate the forest. Then it was gone.

  Joyce stayed where she was. Astonished that it actually worked. Curious how it did that. And finally. Sad that Harper was now gone, maybe forever. A few tears slid down her cheeks. She let them come and cups the heart necklace in her hand.

"I love you..."

~~~

  Harper made it back to the University safely. As soon as she stepped out of the machine she was trapped in her parents arms. It was a tearful reunion following a tearful bittersweet goodbye. Harper was bombarded with questions but at the end of the day she got to do what she wanted to do weeks before.

  Snuggled up by her parents she looked at the small baby in her arms. Her cousin sat across from her with a huge smile on her face and her hand intertwined with her husband's. The baby in Harper's arms blinked up at her with the same hazel eyes Joyce had. Harper smiles at her.

"Hi Joy."