"Wait- JB- you're Tete Einstein? You're my brother?"

JB was standing now, backing away from everyone else and holding his arms out as Emily said this. He had a terrified expression, his breathing slowly speeding up. He was shaking his head, wide eyes darting around.

"We can't have this!" He bent, quickly, to pick up the Elucidator from the ground and immediately punching in commands. "All of you- go back to your regular lives. Go back to normal. Forget all of this!"

He didn't look up to see if everyone had gone- he just stepped backwards until his back hit one of the plain white walls. He pressed a hand to his forehead, letting the arm holding the Elucidator fall back down to his side. Slowly, he slid down the wall, bringing his knees to his chest and resting his head on them.

"JB?"

He recognized the voice as Emily's. "You shouldn't be here right now," he said, not looking up. "I sent everyone back to their lives, back out of the time hollow. You're not supposed to have stayed."

"I think-" she paused for a moment to clear her throat. "I think, maybe I am supposed to be here. You told the Elucidator to put people back where they belong, right?"

JB finally raised his head. "I did, but this isn't where you belong." His voice was surprisingly steady, though it wavered on the last word, and he took a deep breath to try to get his breathing back under control.

"Right now I think it is," she said, eyes shifting from side to side. She sat next to him against the wall. "I mean- I belong in the 1900's, really, don't I? But I can't go back there- you said yourself that too much has happened, that there are too many paradoxes. Time stopped when Albert Einstein would have seen me. But you- technically don't you also belong in the 1900's?"

JB gave a slow nod, taking another shaky breath. He was beginning to wonder if maybe those breathing problems of Tete's- of his- were coming back.

"So maybe the Elucidator kept me here because if time hadn't been messed up you'd have known I was your sibling? And I would be dead, so normal for me would be- not existing, basically."

"That makes sense," JB said slowly. His voice was still shaking a bit. He let his legs slide away from him so that his knees were still bent but his posture was more relaxed. His hands were in his lap, but they weren't resting- he fiddled with one sweatshirt sleeve, then the other.

He looked down at his hands, shaking his head slightly and giving a short laugh.

"What is it?" Emily asked.

"All this time," he said, giving a pained smile. "All this time, and my parents- not Albert and Mileva, but my future ones, my adoptive ones- they never told me I was adopted. I'd always just assumed, because my dad was tall and my mom had dark hair and light eyes, I'd just assumed I was biologically theirs. I looked like I was, purely by chance. And nobody ever said otherwise."

Emily picked up the Elucidator from the ground, turning it over in her hand a few times.

"I think you should be alone for a bit," she said quietly. "I think you need time to think- or room to think, I guess, since time doesn't pass here- but I'll leave you here for a bit if you want me to."

JB was quiet for a bit. "I... That would be good," he said finally, closing his eyes. He hadn't noticed until then, but they'd begun to sting.

She nodded. "Stay here, in the time hollow," she said to the Elucidator, "but take me back to where I was in the 21st century, right before I was brought here."

And with that, Emily had disappeared. The Elucidator fell to the ground with a small clattering noise.

The time hollow was silent for what felt like a long time, filled only with the sound of JB's breathing- still a little too fast, still a little too loud.

And, for the first time in a long time- not so much from sadness, but rather, stress and anger and frustration- JB allowed himself to cry.