Never Wake a Sleeping Dragon

[vinewood_wand]

Who: Hermione Granger and the residents of Wes's house
What: Checking up on a friend
Where: ...Wes's house. And maybe Dok's too.
When: First thing Saturday morning
Why: Because public forum posts can make a person worry.

Comments

[vinewood_wand]

Stunned, she blinked up at him. "Thanks for noticing," she said, breathlessness tempering the acid in her tone. He was probably lucky he'd tackled her-- her wand was already out, and she had a hair-trigger response to hex people if they startled her while her guard was up. But, really, she wished he hadn't. After a brief, panicky inventory of her own well being-- she was fine, though she'd probably have some bruises-- she looked at him shrewdly

[vinewood_wand]

Hermione turned that piece of information over in her mind, analyzing it. Did he mean that they came from the same hometown? Were they childhood friends, or acquaintances? They didn't seem to have much in common, personality-wise, although she was sure Wes wouldn't have allowed Jim to stay in his house if he disliked him.

No, it had to be something different. Hadn't Wes told her that he lived and worked... on a starship? Was that what he meant? It would put the 'First' that he almost said earlier into context, too... but only if he were the Captain of the ship. (After all, he'd started to say "his first mate.")

That was a lot to surmise, though, and he didn't seem to forthcoming about it, so once again, she let it go. However, the admission did tell her something else. "Which means you're from the future, too," she said, reaching around him and turning the knob that operated the gas burner. It clicked a few times before the pilot lit and the flames burst into being. "Am I right?"

[notyomammaskirk]

Kirk was going to kill the kid.

Not that he had any right to keep calling Wes a kid, he was probably only a few years younger than himself.

He put the kettle on the lit burner and glared at Hermione. Not that it was her fault he was really mad at Wes. But damn it, why did this shit always fall in his lap.

"I'm going to kill him. Really I'm going to kill him, you don't screw with timelines." he groaned, "And telling people you're from the future, screws with timelines."

[vinewood_wand]

Hermione's eyes opened wide. "...What?" she said. "You're upset because he mentioned he's from the future? Why? I'm from three years in the past, myself. And from what I'm given to understand, most of the town was pulled out of random periods of time. Several others came from the future, while some-- like Merlin and Arthur-- were pulled out of the distant past." She wrinkled her nose. "I think this town messed up any hope of keeping the timelines sacrosanct. And it's easier for us to assimilate people into the town-- and for people to get acclimated-- if we know where, and when, they're coming from."

She studied him for a moment. "You... traveled through time before this, didn't you?" she guessed. "You wouldn't think about 'screwing with the timelines' if you hadn't..."

[notyomammaskirk]

Kirk snorted, "Not exactly, I was one of the people on the other side of the mess when someone from the future came back to the past, and changed things around so the future now is probably going to be different than what the old present, my future, was to him and Wes."

His brow furrowed as he tried to parse what he just said into something resembling sense.

"And, that made absolutely no sense to anyone but me didn't it?"

[vinewood_wand]

Hermione pursed her lips. "You had me up until you got to the part about the 'old present' being your future... no wait, I think I have it." She put a finger up in the air. "Someone went back in time and changed the past, so you and Wes live in diverging timelines. He knows a version of your story that is now going to be completely different because someone went back and changed something!" Excited now, she said, "It's just like that story, isn't it? Where the tours take people back to the time of dinosaurs, but one of the tourists accidentally steps off the platforms and kills a butterfly, and when he arrived back, the world was different than how he remembered it?"

[notyomammaskirk]

"Pretty much," Kirk said with a little bit of surprise in his tone. She'd gotten it from his babbling and come up with the appropriate physics concept to explain his story further.

"The guy that killed the butterfly well, he's dead. But someone came back to try and stop the guy that killed the butterfly. He's the only reason I knew of the other timeline before I met Wes. But the damage was done anyway and our timelines had split." he massaged his forehead "or at least, we assumed they split, there's really no way to get back to the other one to tell."

He groaned, "Temporal mechanics make my head hurt, I can do 'em but I need a beer afterward."

[vinewood_wand]

"Oh, but it's fascinating," Hermione gushed, warming up to the subject. "That a series of events can be so critically altered as to separate one version of a timeline from another... is time rewritten? Or do all of these parallel versions of the universe exist at once?" She paused, considering. "Then again, I imagine you don't find it as fascinating, seeing as how you're the one it happened to. It would be like Harry suddenly discovering that someone went back in time and saved his parents..." But if Lily was currently here in town... would this be a timeline of its own, then, running side-by-side with all of the natural, not-tampered-with timelines? The possibilities were staggering!

But not anything she could deal with right at the moment. "You may have a beer, if you want," she said. "Even if it is first thing in the morning. However, I will not be able to join you in having one, myself."

[notyomammaskirk]

Kirk actually snorted a bit at that, "Yeah, funny, turns out the thing that started the split for us was the destruction of my fathers ship. He didn't make it out."

He smirked at the change of subject and gestured to her belly, "Well, yeah."

"Oh, I have an idea, wanna have some fun with Wes?"

Yep, crazy Kirk was back, he got the kind of look on his face that usually made Bones run for the extra hyposprays.

[vinewood_wand]

At this, Hermione's eyes widened. "Oh Jim, I'm so sorry. I didn't realize, or I wouldn't have gone on and on like that!" Now she felt terrible, though she supposed she couldn't have known... but she could have asked, couldn't she?

And... somehow the conversation had come back to her rather apparent pregnancy. Which was, admittedly, her own fault. So she gave him a wry smile, which faded into a look of suspicion as a sort of manic gleam appeared in his eye.

"...define 'fun'."

[notyomammaskirk]

Kirk waved off her apology after seeing her face and that she honestly hadn't known. He really had to get used to being anonymous here. No one knew about the "Kelvin Baby" or had expectations for him. It was sort of freeing. "No sweat." he muttered

[vinewood_wand]

"Oh, coffee mugs are fine," she said. "It's what we use at home, anyway; Harry and I don't stand much on ceremony." She rifled through the box on the counter, looking for anything decaffeinated, but suddenly craving British Breakfast tea, which she hadn't had in months. Deciding to treat herself, she pulled out that tea bag and dropped it into the steaming hot water. Then she frowned, thinking over his words. "Well... a little teasing never hurt anyone." She gave him a pointed look. "That's all you're going to do, right? Tease him, and work him up a bit?"

[notyomammaskirk]

"Yes, knowing what the culture is here, I know why he broke the rules, and actually, I probably would have done the same thing. I'm just gonna get him a bit riled up as Bones would say."

At that, he walked over to the phone on the wall and called the number Wes had left on a piece of paper. It really was amazing how some technology, the basic design, or at least user interface had pretty much stayed the same. It was different than the coms, obviously, but the input method and ideas behind it really hadn't changed over the centuries.

When Wes picked up, he put on his most serious captain tone, all the while making a somewhat silly face to Hermione.

"So, Wes, you wanna explain why I have a clear violation of the Prime Directive standing in my kitchen drinking tea?"

[shut_up_wesley]

When the phone rang, Wes did his best to ignore it. Flopped nearly asleep in the guest room of Dok's house, he'd been asleep maybe three hours, having spent the better part of restless night trying to figure out a way not to become a vampire snack. However, one look at the number made him groan loudly and grope for the sleek black and red cellphone on the bedside table.

"What in the--?" He grumbled, cut off by Kirk's greeting. "...A what? What are you talking about?" His tone was half way between confused and incredulous. "Are you drunk or something?" Sure, that was maybe a bit mean, but it was early, Wes had been working on something until rather late, and he was looking forward to sleeping in.

[notyomammaskirk]

"Drinking, not drunk."

Kirk just smirked, and winked at Hermione "Anyway, I have a very pregnant Prime Directive violation, of the temporal kind. Standing in the kitchen drinking tea. They do have the Prime Directive in your day don't they? Or have they replaced it with something new and shiny?"

[shut_up_wesley]

Several things went through Wesley's mind at once, all of which made him blush bright red before wincing when his exhausted brain finally caught up with everything else.

Oh for Cochrane's sake...'

"First of all, it's not mine, and there's at least three doctors in this town that can vouch for that. Second of all, how is having friends a violation of the Prime Directive and third of all why is there alcohol in my house?" He sat up, swinging his legs over the bed and stretching with his one free arm.