“Emmett come inside, just don't touch yourself.” I tell him, glaring at Justin snickering. “Justin in the living room, Mikey hold Jenny.” I tell them, as Mikey looked like I asked him to hold a bomb. “Emmett get the fuck in here.” I tell him when he stands outside the door.

“One thing that hasn't changed is he’s bossy in my time too.” Emmett 1.0 says.

“It's why he's successful in every life.” Emmett 2.0 tells him.

“Um, could someone explain to me where the hell we are?” Mikey asked, trying to get Justin to take Jenny.

“Marty, you want to tell us?” I ask.

“In order for us to not have a reboot none of us want, you can’t be there. Neither can Justin or Michael, if the other two are going to be able to pull this off. They knew you wouldn’t come back knowing that Justin was going to be in the line of fire.” He tells me.

“You don’t see a problem with this Justin and Michael knowing what’s going on?” Emmett 2.0 asks.

“When they get back hopefully it won’t matter anymore, otherwise it really doesn’t matter which timeline they're in, because let’s just say think of Noah.” Marty tells us.

“In other words I get to babysit while Justin could get hurt.” I tell him.

“This is really weird, I mean, there are two of Emmett, you guys are going all apocalypse on us, and Brian acts like he gives a shit about me.” Justin tells us, smirking at Michael’s sour look at the last part.

“Justin, leave Mikey alone, and yes I more than give a shit about you.” I tell him, almost kissing him, but for some reason stop, like Michael said, this is confusing as shit. “Emmett we need to figure out what is the beginning of us.” I say, without remembering there were two.

“Um, me or him?” Emmett 1.0 asks.

“It could be a couple things. but the one that stands out the most is the night you stopped me from letting Ted drag me down with him. It was the moment I knew, as Baby says, you gave a shit.” Emmett 2.0 tells me.

“When did Ted do that?” Mikey asks.

“When we thought we should date.” Emmett 2.0 tells him.

“I date Teddy, why would I date Teddy?” Emmett 1.0 asks.

“Really, Ted?” Mikey asks.

“I don’t really know him that well, but he isn’t like a troll, so yeah, I could see it.” Justin chimes in.

“Just sort of well, not exciting.” Mikey adds.

“Which doesn’t matter because it won’t happen if Justin and Michael can’t fix this bullshit. In order to do that I need Emmett 1.0 up to speed. Which means Emmett 2.0 needs to stay here and babysit.” I tell them, dragging Emmett 1.0 out the door. Having to stop the Emmetts from once again trying to touch each other.

“Sorry, it’s like a big button you're told not to push, but you do it because you just can’t resist.” Emmett says to Justin and Mikey.

“You know, there were days in this life where Justin actually got on my nerves, but nothing in comparison to Mikey of old.” Marty tells me.

“So what was Emmett 2.0 talking about?” Emmett asks me, giggling at my way of trying to deal with having two of them in a room.

“In the timeline that is playing out right now, Ted gets involved with crystal, and you think it’s supporting Ted if you let him drug your ass. Justin and I found you in Babylon ready to fuck up your life by joining Ted in his crystal nightmare. I stopped you, because in the end I couldn’t save Ted, but you I could. When we change the timeline, it’s not something you and Ted do.” I tell him.

“It’s really weird you know, this version of you.” He tells me.

“It’s what happens when abuse isn’t a daily thing growing up. Which like I said, wasn’t important. What is important is that you tell Justin exactly what is going on. Lindsay can’t change where she is going to end up, so she wants to make sure I get to be there with her for eternity.” I tell him.

“She’s trying to take you to hell?” Marty asks.

“Sweet innocent Lindsay?” Emmett says, like he couldn’t understand.

“She’s really not anything she gets you to believe she is, but yes, exactly. She blindsided us, by using the list of people she tricked us into believing was her real plan. Michael ended up figuring out something was wrong because nothing we knew about was really hard to fix. Justin doesn’t need to worry about the rest of the play list, it doesn’t matter. He needs to figure out how to break down my walls faster, any way he needs to, tell him that.” I tell him, still not liking what that would imply, and yes, I’m jealous of myself.

“Both Brian’s and Justin’s are you and Justin, just a different timeline.” Marty tells me.

“I get that, but we also know what I was like with Justin, and the games I played, taking Justin with me. Sorry, but the idea of anyone but me fucking Justin makes me want to fucking kick my own ass now.” I tell him, as we pull up to a closed Babylon.

“How do we get in?” Emmett asks.

The door opens and Todd sticks his head out the door. “Come on, we need to make sure Justin and Michael know what’s going on.” He tells us.

“Todd?” I ask.

“Todd, Uriel, depends on the day and my mood.” He tells us.

We follow him in and I start to worry we could be breaking too many rules. As much as I want this over with, I also want it to end without divine intervention screwing us.

“All I did was unlock the door, I even have a key.” Todd tells me.

“What now?” Emmett asks.

“We dance.” I tell him.

JUSTIN

Waking up to see Brian next to me, at first was great, until I realized it wasn't my Brian. He was still sleeping, so I slid off the bed and grabbed my things. Then needed to hurry before he woke up, because it feels wrong, even when he's Brian. Sneaking past him to the bathroom, I looked at myself, not sure I could pass for seventeen. I jumped when Brian walked past me, turning on the shower.

“You need a lift to school?” He asks, while I try to look everywhere but at him.

“It's early enough, so I'll just catch a bus.” I tell him, running out to get the hell out of here.

I stopped almost at the door, trying to figure out where to go. It was confusing as hell, waking up in the wrong bed, not knowing what was going on. The loft door slid open and ‘what the hell’ was all I could think, looking at Lindsay bringing Gus in.

“Shouldn't you be at school?” She asks, but it wasn’t easy answering her when there was no face.

“What are you doing here?” Brian asks, coming down with just his pants on.

“Mel and I started fighting after you left. I don’t know what to do. Brian she implied… I don’t even want to say it.” She says, walking into the kitchen, looking through cabinets.

It was easier to deal with her when I didn’t have to look at her face, but what was she up to? After Brian and I held each other it was like the day with Todd, everything blacked out again. I was starting to hate this shit, especially not understanding what I was seeing.

“What did she say?” Brian asked, picking up Gus, who Lindsay just left in the middle of the loft in his car seat.

The door flew open and Michael and Emmett came through, out of breath. Lindsay’s head turned in their direction and I was glad to watch Michael’s spooked expression.

“Hey, we came to see if you wanted breakfast.” Emmett says, not seeming to have a problem looking at Lindsay.

“If not it’s cool, we could just take Justin. Ma said to feed Sunshine.” Michael says, grabbing my arm to pull me out the door.

Brian looked at Michael’s hand on me, and then really looked at me. “I’m taking Justin to school, so wait for me to find out what Lindsay wants.” Brian tells Michael, pulling me towards him as Michael tightened his grip on my arm.

“I can take Justin to school, since it will keep you from being late.” Michael tells him, yanking me towards him.

“I SAID, I’ll take him.” Brian practically growls, yanking me hard enough that I end up falling into him.

“Let Michael do it, I need you to stay and help me figure out what I’m going to do. I don’t think I can stay with Mel, she made it sound like you should be in jail with those people who got arrested the other night.” She tells Brian.

“For what?” Brian asked.

She waved her hand at me. “Brian, there were kids Justin’s age, that those men not much older than you were buying. If Mel wanted to, she could whisper in the right ear about this situation. Are you really willing to risk your career and Gus over whatever you're doing with Justin?” Lindsay asks him.

Michael latched on to me when Brian let me go, which stopped me from going towards Lindsay. Brian put Gus in my arms and took Lindsay to the bedroom to talk. We could hear them whispering but not what they were saying. I turned to Michael in hopes that he could fill in some of the blanks.

“We need to go, there’s a lot you don’t know yet.” Michael whispers to me.

“What’s going on with her face?” I ask.

“I’m just glad that whatever it is, I can’t see what you two are seeing.” Emmett whispers to me.

“We need to get out of here, because we don’t know if she can tell we aren’t who we’re supposed to be. I’m having a hard time acting in love with Brian, which even he’s noticing.” Michael tells me.

“We can’t take Gus with us.” I tell him.

“I’ll stick around. Just go before Brian comes back and uses you to play tug-of-war with Michael again. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep Brian from going to hell.” Emmett tells us, taking Gus.

Michael and I were out the door before Brian and Lindsay came out. Michael turned us into an alley before stopping.

“Tell me Emmett was kidding about the hell thing.” I tell him.

“I wish I could, Emmett got sent to our time and Brian sent him back so we’d know what was going on. Everything that was going on was too easy, think about it. You come back and your dad immediately backs off. We barely had to do anything to get Rickert and Rita busted. Then this Brian and I were talking and I couldn’t figure out why Lindsay was changing everything if her only goal was to split you and Brian up. Plus when you think about it, what would be the point, when if the future plays out, you’d be gone anyway, and Lindsay still didn’t get what she wanted.” He tells me.

“Why does she think Brian would end up in hell with her?” I ask.

“If Brian doesn’t change his life, the life he was living with you is like catnip for the Big Guy from down under.” He tells me.

“Okay, but can you explain the face?” I ask, still creeped out by it.

“Apparently only you and I can see it, but it has something to do with her being a wraith.” He tells me.

“She died with darkness surrounding her, so it makes sense. At least that’s all she is.” I tell him.

“That’s not bad enough for you?” He asks.

“Michael, I’ve met fucking arch angels, so a whining bag of wind, not really the worst we could be dealing with.” I tell him.

“Justin that whining bag of wind is someone that can get people to do stupid shit. Remember why this timeline was changed?” He tells me.

We both looked at the street when we heard a car braking hard and reversing.

“Get in the fucking car, you and I need to talk, both of you.” Brian tells me and Michael.

We came out of the alley and everything stopped, and the silence was back. Michael was staring at the car that was driving by, frozen in place. He walked to the jeep and waved his hands in front of Brian, frozen with a scowl on his face.

“Justin?” He asks.

“Free will, you can’t tell him everything, by doing that you mess with free will.” We hear from behind us, before everything starts again.

“Get in!” Brian orders us, and speeds away from his loft.