Chapter 17

Jenny had made her excuses to Lester about leaving early, lying and saying that she had a headache from when she 'fainted', or rather when her alternate reality self had caught up with this version of herself. She was in her car, pulling up outside her parents magnificent house. Usually, this place filled Jenny with a mixture of dread and anger, but today was different. She rang the bell twice and when there was no answer, she started to bang on the door with the side of her fist. Before she knew it, she was slapping the palm of her hands on it in her desperation to see that they were alive and well. Eventually, the door was wrenched open, and her Mother's face appeared, looking livid.

"Have you lost your mind - ?" she began, before Jenny flung her arms around her neck and hugged her tight as relief clouded her mind.

"You're okay," she sighed, pulling away to see her Mother's expression was a mingle of disapproval and concern.

"Jennifer, are you drunk?" she accused, looking her daughter up and down.

"I wish," Jenny replied, still unable to believe she was standing in front of her. She thought she'd never seen her again. "Where's Dad?" she added. "And Chris?"

"Your brother is in University, as you very well know," her Mother replied in cold confusion. "And your Father is in the lounge -"

Without another word, Jenny ran past her and across the hall towards the living room. She spotting her dad behind a newspaper as usual.

"Dad!" she exclaimed, unable to adopt a more nonchalant attitude.

Her father looked up from his paper, his expression pleasantly surprised.

"What are you doing here Princess?" he asked as he put his paper down and stood up.

Jenny hugged him tight, unable to control the fresh wave of sobs that had engulfed her.

"I can't believe you're alive," she gasped before she could stop herself.

"What?" her Father asked, hugging her back.

"Jennifer, are you having some kind of break down?" her Mother asked from behind her.

"Just get the girl a drink Fliss," her dad said, looking concerned as he shepherded Jenny onto the couch. "Just sit and try and calm down."

Jenny sat down and tried to pull herself together, but it was so hard. Her relationship with her parents had always been strained at best, but the though that they had been killed in the alternative reality was unbearable. It had certainly made her re-think things; she had been given a second chance, and she needed to make more of an effort with them, despite how difficult her Mum was.

Her Mother handed her a glass of brandy to calm her nerves and took a seat next to her, and her Father leaned in from the chair.

"Are you in some kind of trouble Jennifer?" he asked gently.

Jenny hiccoughed, and took a sip of her drink to avoid answering.

"Are you pregnant?" her Mother asked urgently, making Jenny gag on her drink slightly. "Oh God, you are aren't you? Pregnant out of Wedlock - " she gasped, putting her hand to her mouth.

"It's not the end of the world - " her Dad soothed.

"No, it's not that I swear," Jenny insisted. "I just . . . I just had a really bad day at work and I just wanted to . . . wanted to see you," she finished, not meeting them in the eye.

She saw them both exchange an unconvinced look.

"Since when have you ever came to visit us voluntarily?" her Mother pointed out. "You usually avoid us like the Bubonic Plague - "

"Well that's going to change," Jenny informed them. "I'm going to be coming round more often and spending more time with you."

"You're not ill are you?" asked her Mother, looking genuinely worried. "You do look very pale."

"No everything's fine, I promise," she sighed. "I've just . . . had a bit of a wake up call that's all."

When Jenny left her parent's house an hour later feeling much better about herself, she had the intention of going back to the ARC and claiming that her head now felt fine and that she was well enough to return to work. But there was one final pit stop she had to make; it had been nagging at her since she had regained consciousness in Lester's office. She pulled up outside a horribly familiar house that brought back a million bad memories as soon as she set eyes on it. But she had to know. Having no idea what she was going to say, she walked up the path, and rang the bell, shuffling with nerves on the step as she waited for someone to answer.

A few moments later, a blonde-haired woman answered with a baby in her arms. Jenny's heart seemed to skip a beat as she looked down at the little girl she had raised for weeks . . .

"Yes, can I help you?" the woman asked kindly.

"Er . . . yes," Jenny said, thinking fast. 'Actually, no . . . I was looking for a James Lester, but I think I've got the wrong house," she lied, picking the first name that popped into her head.

"I'm sorry, no James Lester here," the woman smiled politely.

"Well thank you anyway," Jenny said, but as the woman made to close the door, before she could stop herself; "Is this your baby?" she asked, knowing she sounded rather nuts.

"Yes," the woman nodded, smiling down at the little girl. "My little Holly."

"Holly," Jenny repeated fondly. "That's a beautiful name."

"Thanks, I named her after my Mum," she said; apparently this woman was rather chatty and found Jenny's curiosity completely normal.

"Well she's lovely," Jenny said, looking at the baby who was gurgling away in her mother's arms. "She seem's . . . happy."

"Yes, she's a cheerful little thing."

"Well, I'm sorry to bother you," Jenny said, turning to leave.

"Do you have any children?" the woman asked kindly.

"No," Jenny replied with a forced smile. "Bye," she added with a small wave.

"Bye," the woman said cheerfully as she closed the door.

As Jenny made to return to her car, she felt relieved that the little girl was content; her mother was a tad odd, but nice and friendly, which is as good as can be expected, Jenny supposed. She could relax now; she was sure 'Holly' would have a happy life there.

"Well, you certainly are predictable," Cutter's voice said, making her jump.

He was leaning against her car.

"I figured you'd go to your parents house first, then here," he continued as he opened the door for her.

She smiled and got in the car, and let him drive them back to the ARC.

As they pulled in, Jenny noticed for the first time that the crater in the concrete made by the Future Anomaly had been filled it. Vaguely, she wondered how they had managed to explain the phenomenon to the public, but she supposed that it was not really her problem. She had more important things to worry about.

"Her name was Holly," Jenny informed Cutter as they pulled into the car park.

He looked at her sadly as he turned the engine off. "Pretty name."

"Yeah," Jenny sighed, making to leave the car, but Cutter stopped her with a hand on her shoulder.

"I want to discuss something with you - " he began.

"You're not going to propose are you?" she joked, closing the car door again.

"No," Cutter smirked. "I wanted to talk about Helen."

Jenny felt a familiar jolt of hate shoot through her at the thought of that woman.

"What about her?" she asked coolly.

"She needs to be found," Cutter explained. "She came through the anomaly with us, so there's a good chance she remembers everything as well. I think she's too dangerous to be left to roam through our history; she's already made it perfectly clear that she's out to destroy mankind."

"So what do we do?"

"Well, I think we should tell Lester," he replied, but obviously catching sight of her shocked expression, he corrected himself. "Not tell him everything of course; he'll think we're all barking. No, I think we should come up with some reasonable excuse why she needs to be found. I doubt Lester will take much persuasion; he's made it perfectly clear he doesn't like the idea of her running loose with the ability to jump through time."

"Okay, yeah," Jenny agreed, although how they were ever going to find her was anyone's guess.

Cutter nodded, and undid his seat belt, before hesitating.

"By the way, I'm not going to propose, but it might interest you to know that we're living together."

"What?" Jenny gapped. "How? When?"

"I have no idea, but before, Abby asked me how it was going since you've moved in," Cutter smirked. "Apparently, alternate reality Jenny and Nick weren't ones for wasting time."

"No, I guess not," Jenny replied, still shocked. "So all my things are at you're place?"

"No, all your things are at our place," Cutter corrected her. "Is that okay? I mean, we don't have to if you don't want to . . ."

"No Nick, it's fine," she said. "It's wonderful actually. It's just that . . . well . . . it's very soon . . ."

"Well technically, we've been living together for a month anyway," Cutter reasoned; he obviously thought she needed any persuasion.

She placed her hand on his leg and smiled.

"It's wonderful Nick, and I'm thrilled," she said truthfully.

He smiled in a relieved manner, and kissed her tenderly and slowly. However, they broke apart with a jolt when someone tapped on the window, Jenny complaining that he bit her lip. Cutter rolled the window down, muttering under his breath.

It was Conner.

"Steady on you two," he laughed in an embarrassed manner. "Sorry to bug you, but we've got another anomaly; we're going now."

Cutter sighed and looked at Jenny.

"We'll follow behind you," he said, rolling the window back up as Conner made his way back to his car.

"There's no rest for the wicked," Jenny smiled as she re-did her seatbelt.

THE END

Aww I had a great time writing this! I hope everyone who read it enjoyed it too.

Thank you to all my reviewers, especially CakeyxClickx, Steph1, jojokidi and Kathryn Hart!

Let me know what you think of the ending.

Love Nikki x