The ride across town is a blur of buildings and people, street lamps and cars. You haven't been outside the Freelancers' bunker in two years, Marc says, though it feels much longer. But he doesn't dump more information than his name on you until you're in a scrubby hotel room, in a place Marc says people don't ask questions.

It's a bit overwhelming, and you don't feel safe until Marc bolts the door. The Freelancers will be here any minute, you think, and you mention this several times until Marc gently grasps your arms and tells you it's safe, you're free. You don't have to worry anymore.

It's a lie and he's lying, because the Freelancers have eyes and ears everywhere. Marc keeps glancing at his watch, but doesn't hurry you. The room has two beds and he gestures for you to pick one. You can't get comfortable, so you take your blanket and pillow and spread them out on the floor.

Marc leaves for a short while, and the wait leaves you anxious. You curl up in the bathroom tub with the curtain shut until he gets back. He's got food, three bags of cheeseburgers and fries. You tear into one bag and with a sore belly eat some of the other. Marc calmly eats his own burger and watches you carefully, and his stare is unnerving so when he realizes it bothers you he looks away.

Fed and rested, you're ready for Marc's explanation for why you're here. He's ashamed he knew all along, that he didn't help you sooner, but asks for forgiveness. He has a family. A wife, a newborn son. He needed to piece a plan together that kept the four of you out of danger. Escape wasn't possible until now.

He timed it just right, moving his family to the country, about 500 kilometers inland and near Adams Lake.

"Ann already knows about you," Marc says, "but she doesn't know everything."

He hands you a disposable razor and some shaving cream, but your hands are shaking so bad he sits you on the toilet and does it for you. It's funny, and touching, and you want to laugh or cry or both. Your father didn't teach you to shave, and here's your grandfather making up for lost time.

He's risking his life and his family's life, breaking you out. You do cry, just a little, and Sadlers aren't supposed to cry. Marc cuts your hair next, and when you look in the mirror for the first time in two years, you don't recognize yourself. The man in the mirror died a long time ago. He leaves it a little longer in the back; Marc isn't the best barber. But it's Jason Sadler, back from the dead.

The drive to Adams Lake is long, and you take a break in a city called Hope. Your mind goes in and out between fuzzy and alert. Time travel makes your brain hurt. You and your grandfather, the same age, and you're about to meet your father. Your father! Your father is still a baby. It's amazing, it's messed up, it's impossible.

You don't know what Marc told your grandmother (your grandmother!) about why he moved them out here, but the view is incredible. There are birds and squirrels, and a blue sky with wispy white clouds floating above. You stare at the lake, mind wandering, eyes drawn to every living thing you haven't seen in two years, some you haven't seen ever. Ann is waiting inside, and you suck on your sleeve, eyes downcast, until Marc says, "Ann, I'd like you to meet my cousin Jason."

Ann holds out her hand to shake, but your hands are still drawn up into your sleeves, a green sweater too big for your emaciated frame.

"My mother's name was Annie!" you blurt.

Ann and Marc exchange a look out the corner of your eye. You can't help nervously glancing around the foyer, at everything but Ann. Your grandmother is younger than you, and it's weird. This is weird. You give her a wavering smile.

"What happened to him?" she'll ask. "He has PTSD," Marc will reply, and leave it at that until the night terrors stricken you and she needs a longer answer. Marc will reveal your past in bits and pieces, and the Freelancers are not time travelers, they're gangsters. It's just as heartbreaking an explanation for Marc's double life, but the alternative would put him in the Nuthouse too.

You want to thank her for the hospitality - she has no idea just how big a thanks she deserves - but you forget the word "hospitality" and say a quiet, curt, "Thanks." She leads the two of you into the kitchen, where a little curly-haired blonde boy sits in a highchair and looks up with wide, curious blue eyes.

"This is Alec," Ann says, scooping him up into her arms. "Say 'hi' Alec."

"Hi," he says. Your face breaks out in a big grin. You wave at the boy, at your father, and maybe things won't be so bad.

Miller and Warren are spraying you with the hose again, and the lights in your cell brighten so much it hurts your eyes. They laugh cruelly and sprout black wings. You struggle to breathe, and claw at the glass until your fingers are bloody stubs. The walls shrink closer and closer. Four feet, three feet. They mean to crush you, now, between two panes of glass to fit under their microscopes. You scream in terror, "No, no, no!"

"Easy, easy now," says a voice, and you're suddenly in a bed in a strange room. It's dark, and there's a hand on your shoulder. You pull away from the touch, but listen to the quiet, calming voice. It's Marc.

"It's okay, you're okay," he says, and fuck no, you're not okay. But you know what he means. You're safe, you're free. You're free from The Cage.

"I can't," you choke. Can't go back, can't sleep. You sit up, kick off the blankets, and sit in silence with Marc for who knows how long.

"I can't do this."

"You can do this, Jason."

"I'm not-I can't-this isn't right, it's not right."

"What isn't right?"

"What year is it?" you ask.

Marc pauses before answering.

"It's 1996."

You shake your head.

"It's 1996, Jason, but I promise we'll figure something out."

Don't make promises you can't keep.

"I'll make things right," he says. Promises, promises.

"Go back to sleep."

"No."

Marc sighs. "Let's go downstairs, get you a glass of water."

He leaves, and after a minute, you follow. Ann intercepts you in the hallway. Your mind finally registers Alec has been crying.

"What happened? What's wrong?" Ann says frantically.

"Jason had a bad dream," Marc tells her. Embarrassed and feeling guilty for waking Alec, you stand behind Marc like he's a shield. But Ann isn't upset about you waking her son, she's worried something horrible has happened. She relaxes, expression sympathetic with only a hint of annoyance. Marc's prepared her for this.

"Marc, can you take care of Alec?" He nods, and she turns to you. "Come with me. I'll make you a cup of tea."

She cinches the belt on her robe and leads you to the kitchen. There she sets the kettle on the stove, putting out two mugs and two bags of tea. The package says Salada and the bag smells of orange pekoe.

"My mother used to say tea cured everything." Once the water has boiled, she pours it into each mug. "I can't speak to that, but whenever I'm struggling, or feeling sad, tea always helps." She smiles. "Do you take milk and sugar?"

You pick up the mug and breathe deep, letting the steam rise up your nose.

"Got any honey?"

Ann retrieves some from the cabinet, and the container's in the shape of a little bear. The 20th century is full of surprises.

"We always had tea at my house growing up," you hear yourself say, "even the rare stuff." You chuckle quietly. "Chamomile, peppermint, passion fruit, ginger, oolong, roiboos, chai..."

Ann's eyebrows raise. She looks impressed. You feel impressed you can remember.

"My nanny taught me all about tea when I was little." You pour the honey and stir it with shaky fingers. "Bon pour votre santé. Good for what ails ya."

Original Notes for Chapters 1-5

*Riverview Hospital was a psychiatric facility located in Coquitlam, BC, just outside Vancouver. It closed in 2012. It was the hospital that faced a lot of controversy in the early 1990s when it discharged hundreds of patients to cut costs, which is something Jason mentions to Kiera in S1E10, Endtimes, though he doesn't mention Riverview by name.

*Warren was the leader of the Freelancers, second to Catherine, in Seasons 2 and 3.

*When Alec takes the drug Flash in S2E3, Second Thoughts, he remembers Ann and Jason having an argument. It's possible this is when she met Jason for the first time. When Alec brings this up in S2E12, Second Last, Jason says he lived with them for a while, but had to leave to protect them. In S3E3, Minute to Win It, it's revealed that Ann knew Marc faked his death and became Mr. Escher. It's possible Ann believed Marc and Jason really were time travelers.

*The title is a slightly tweaked lyric from the song Thorazine Shuffle by Savatage.

Notes for Chapter 6+

*Someone pointed out to me that Escher/Marc was the one who freed Jason from the Freelancers' prison, and that Jason lived with Marc along with Ann and baby Alec. He probably bought Jason's building as well, and I am going with this interpretation from Chapter 6 onward.

*I mentioned Jason attending MIT in Chapter 5, "in Boston," but Boston would have been flooded long before 2067. That's not to say the city wouldn't have relocated itself inland and kept the same name. (We're stubborn like that!) A new incarnation of the university may have kept this name as well. I first made this gaff because I forgot how devastated by climate change and civil unrest North America became in the series, and how much tight control Alec would have kept on Jason to make certain he didn't know how messed up the world really was. He probably attended what is currently known as the University of British Columbia, getting his practical experience at SadTech. (This actually makes it more depressing, if Alec still had little to do with him.)

*The series isn't clear how old Jason actually is, and the introduction of his mother Annie in S4E4, Zero Hour, complicates things. Jason tells Alec that he originally met Annie when he was in his thirties, and they are approximately the same age. If Jason were the same age as the actor who plays him, Ian Tracey, math would put Jason's birth in the year 2049, when Annie would be in her fifties. There's no reason to postpone having a child for so long - especially until a time of civil unrest like the 2040s! - and menopause typically begins in a woman's forties. Jason would more likely have been born at least ten years earlier, in 2039.

The math that put his birthdate in 2049 went like this: Ian Tracey was 48 in 2012. Jason first arrives in 1992, twenty years earlier. This would make him 28 in 1992/2077, if he were the same age as Tracey. I've made it clear which version I chose. I decided to place his birth in 2049. Plus, I liked the idea he was the same age as Kiera. They were both fairly young, and both grew up in a messed up world they thought was normal, only later realizing how disturbing it actually was.

By the final season, the writers clearly abandoned the idea Jason had been living in Vancouver since 1992. If he came to the year 2012 with the other characters, and was the same age as Ian Tracey when he arrived, that puts his birth in the year 2029, which lines up perfectly - Alec and his wife Annie would be 35 years old, exactly as Jason described.