The Time-Traveling Outlaw (19 page)

“I got what I needed,” Logan said. “Let’s go.”

“You all right?”

Logan wiped away the last of the tears with the back of his sleeve. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m fine.” There was no more reason to cry for Natalie anymore. She was fine. Better than fine. She was alive, her heart fixed. She was married, with a child on the way. What else could he ask for?

“Okay,” Dylan said.

“Let’s head back to Lockdale,” Logan said. “I’m ready to go home.”

Back at the university, Dr. Tidwell was waiting for them. 

“You sure you want to go back?” he asked Logan. 

“I do,” Logan said. He wanted to see Sally, to hold her in his arms again. His life was in 1861 now, with her on the ranch. “Can you do it?”

“Yes,” he said. “Of course. The hardest part was already worked out by my other self, in the timeline you originally came from. Isolating and entangling the temporal particles was the trickiest aspect, but that’s already been done.”

“You’re saying you don’t know how to do that?” Dylan asked.

“No,” Sam said. “It’s a very difficult problem. I suppose I should be able to work it out, if my other self did. But it might take some time. Maybe years.”

“Like I said before,” Logan said. “If I were you, I’d abandon the whole project.”

“Yes,” Tidwell said. “You said it almost got me killed. What does that mean?”

“There was a man who wanted to use the technology for his own self-interests,” Logan said. “He had your daughter hostage.”

“Rebecca?” Tidwell seemed horrified, the first emotion Logan had seen him show that wasn’t either nerdy enthusiasm or curiosity.

“He never said her name,” he said. “Probably. And the last time before I went back, he actually killed you. I saw you die.”

“Oh,” Tidwell said. All the color had drained out of his face. He looked like he might pass out.

“Yeah, you don’t have to worry about him anymore. At least I don’t think so. But like I said—”

“If you were me, you’d scrap the project,” Tidwell said. “Yes, I understand. Now then, what time would you like to go back to?”

Logan realized he hadn’t really thought that through very hard. If he went back earlier than his first visit, it was possible he would undo the changes made here, and he didn’t want that to happen. 

“Just in case you’re wondering, the computer is rejecting all temporal coordinates prior to your return.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’m not really sure I do either,” Sam said. “Maybe there’s some kind of fixed property of the universe that while it allows travel through time, it somehow prohibits that person or thing from existing in the same period twice.”

That made a weird kind of sense. It would keep him from running into another copy of himself. 

“So you can either go much further back,” Sam said. “Or I can return you to anytime from the moment you left or later. Except of course during your current life span.”

“The other you,” Logan said. “His equipment wasn’t that accurate.”

“Well,” Sam said. “He was working under duress, with potentially inferior equipment. My current lab is very well-equipped. I can’t get you when you want to be within a very narrow window, down to the millisecond.”

Logan smiled and told him exactly when he wanted to return. Then he turned to Dylan, who had been waiting patiently by the door, looking like he was unsure what he was supposed to be doing.

Logan hugged him, and Dylan hugged him back.

“Thanks again,” Logan said.

“No problem,” Dylan said. “This was pretty weird, but also kind of amazing. I’m really glad I got to meet you.”

“Me too,” Logan said. He turned to Sam. “You need to do any kind of preparation? Power up the machine or anything?”

“Not really,” Sam said. “If you’re ready, just lie back down where you were.”

Logan walked to the gelatinous blue chair and reclined in it, feeling his body sink a couple of inches.

Sam sat down and wheeled his chair up to one of the computer terminals. He typed for a couple of minutes, then turned to Logan.

“You ready?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Logan said. “And Sam, thank you.”

Sam seemed to blush a little. “I’m pretty sure I should be the one thanking you.” He turned, his finger hovering over the keyboard. “All right, then,” he said. “Happy trails.”

Sam’s finger pushed down onto the key, and Logan turned his head to look at Dylan, who looked a little sad, but had a smile on his lips.

Then the whole world went white with light.

Sally threw her arms around Logan’s neck, pulled him close, and drew him in for a kiss.

Then he was gone. 

No sound. No light. He was just there one second, and the next she had her arms wrapped around nothing.

She knew he intended to revisit the future, and even though he’d said he had to return to avoid a paradox, she was terrified. She had no idea how this whole confusing thing worked, and as far as she knew, Logan could visit the future, find his wife alive, and decide to stay there and never come back.

Maybe the Logan she knew was from a different timeline, maybe one where the watch in her pocket didn’t even need to make it into the future. If he never came back she didn’t even know what she’d do with the stupid watch.

And what if she was really pregnant with his child. She didn’t think she could make it out here with a child on her own. She might have to sell the ranch after all, move back East. What if—

He was back. No sound. No light. One second there was an empty space where he had been, and the next it was filled with him. 

Everything that had run through her mind had taken probably twenty or thirty seconds. 

He was still wearing the same clothes he had been wearing before. He had a dazed look in his eyes, and then he looked up and saw her face and his eyes focused. A light smile came to his lips, but he looked a little sad too.

“Hello, Sally,” he said. 

“Hi,” she said tentatively. She wanted to throw her arms back around him, but she was afraid he might just disappear again. How was she going to live like this, always wondering when he might disappear?

Instead, he reached for her, wrapping his strong arms around her shoulders and pulling her close.

“It’s okay,” he said. “Everything’s going to be all right.” 

She slid her arms around his waist. “What if they take you away again?” she asked. “What if you—”

“They won’t,” he said. “It’s over. I’m here for good.”

“And the future?” she asked. She wanted to ask about his wife, even though it was really none of her business. Maybe in time he would tell her, when he was ready. What she really wanted to know was where his heart was, or rather,
when
his heart was. Did he really love her? Or would he always wish he was back with his wife, if she was now alive because of his actions in the past?

“Everything’s better,” he said. “I’ll tell you about it sometime, but not now. Right now the only future I care about is yours and mine.”

Sally felt the tears well up in her eyes. She hugged him fiercely, then pulled back and kissed him. He kissed her back, sliding his hands to the curves of her jaw.

They drew apart, but only slightly, their lips only inches apart, their eyes close to one another.

“I want to marry you, Sally Macintosh,” he said. “I want to get hitched. Do they say that in this time period?”

She smiled and laughed a little, tears running down her cheeks. “They do,” she said. “When do you want to get hitched?”

“As soon as possible.”

“No need to rush,” she said, moving in for another kiss. It was long and sweet. When she pulled back, she looked him in the eyes. “We’ve got all the time in the world.”

THE END