AU: Make It Right

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Somewhere in time and space

They had sons. Two of them. Older now, in this particular time. Old enough to know the story of how their mothers met, and how they were seconds from walking away from one another before this happened. Time was never simple, but this was entirely strange for the traveler. She never imagined she would be granted the chance to have a child, let alone two, and most certainly she would have never guessed that she would find herself apparently married and in love with Lucy Serrano.

Precise steps brought her back into the console room, pursed lips bringing on a silence she couldn't think to break. At least not yet. It wasn't even a day ago that the pair fought. That the only thing either of them could agree on was that they were both better off without having to deal with the other. She was loud. Reckless. Created tidal waves rather than ripples. The exact opposite of Penelope Blaise in every and any way possible.

Her fingertips brushed across the edge of the console, pressing the necessary switch to close the door as Lucy walked through it. Even upon agreement of going their separate ways, she couldn't leave the Australian accented woman with their future children. Actually, she could, but simply refused to allow it.

This had to be a mistake, right? The way her eyebrows furrowed showed signs of the way Penny was determined to figure out some sort of solution to this complex equation put in front of her. Time was ever changing. Very few things were certain, yet once the future and past ran into each other, it was set in stone. A fixed event in time. Finally, she turned, leaning back against the console's edge with crossed arms.

"Do you think they were lying?"

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

For her entire life, Lucy had been positive children was just out of the question. Having kids involved meeting someone worth having kids with; worth building a life and a family with. She had always been relatively sure that such a thing just couldn't exist for herself. If not for the fact that she was so naturally difficult, than surely for the fact that it was as fabled in practice as it seemed in mind. There was no way it would work out so easily for everyone in the world.

But there were two boys, old enough to know her without ever meeting her. She knew that was the way with these kinds of things, but one of them looked so incredibly familiar. Features and slang and expressions all felt like permanent imprints from her own mark to his. It was the most silent she'd ever been in an encounter with anyone.

Despite how determined she had been to leave, she found herself walking back through those doors without any indication that she should have. Though she knew she wouldn't really get left in the wrong place and time, she had been sure that such difficulty would have been enough to try and teach her a lesson. There had to be some point to landing there in the first place, and it had nothing to do with her.

But the surprise in those familiar dark eyes could only remind her that she likely had no part in it, either.

"No way. Did you see his face?" She asked, knowing all too well that she didn't need to play with specifics, "He's yours alright."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Although both hands remained on the console, Penny hadn't made a move for the nearby lever, nor any of the switches that would put them someplace far away from this point in time and space. The corner of her mouth dragged down as she thought, turning her head to look at the available screen. Details of where and when they were, she could only hope there would be a connection.

She couldn't accept this. Not yet.

A sharp, frustrated sigh passed her lips. Penny had hoped that the resemblance she had seen in the older of the two boys was only that of her own mind. That those characteristics in his mannerisms weren't her own to pass on, even if they were some of the one she knew she carried in her own blood.

"I don't love you." She announced, her tone taking on an edge she didn't have the means to bring into play with two young men in their proximity. She shifted from edge, turning again and turning a dial. "It doesn't make sense. Not you, not them, and certainly not Vermont."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

A nonchalant manner might have been the exterior Lucy offered, but it was the most perfect front she could provide to such a situation. It was clear without even looking that she was going out of her mind over this. She had a look about her that proved just how stumped she was. Sure, it was always easy for her when everyone else was being forced into moments they couldn't handle, but this? It was rare. It was new. And as such, it was raw.

The words felt like a literal shot to the chest; the kind where her eyes narrowed instinctively at the accusation. She knew she should have let it slide. She even took a breath as a means to maybe - just maybe - calm her own hot-headed nature.

"Don't talk to me like I need convincing." She tried, but a calm exterior never looked real on her. Because it never really was.

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Penny was a lover of rules; they put order in a most hectic universe. They might have put limits on everything, but they existed for a reason. There was little that could stop her and what she did, but at the end of the day there was always going to be rules. She liked it that way. Except for now. There was no order to any of this, it was the complete opposite, to which she found incredibly taxing.

Despite the way Lucy tried to speak, it wasn't hard to catch the slight edge that took to her tone. As much as she found herself irritated with the accent, she was thankful for the aggression behind it. There was always something the two could fall back on, and it was that they did not get along.

So she kept moving, taking a few short steps to reach another switch before backtracking to hit another. It was never meant to fly with just one person in control, but she learned by then how to. It was something to focus on other than the second presence in her space. "Good." She replied shortly, pulling the lever to take off with a jolt.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

That single word could be used in so many different ways. For the most part, she could tell when it was a choice to sign off on a moment completely. Lucy didn't take steps to join her anywhere near controlling the thing now, because it wasn't her place. As far as she knew - and she was almost certain of her own right - she was being taken back home. Back where she was found. Dropped like time had never changed. Like she herself hadn't changed from one technical minute to the next.

Arm spread wide, attention drawn. Though it hardly took anything so physical to get attention directed right at her.

"Do you see me standing here asking you to love me?" Lucy asked her, voice elevated enough to echo through the proverbial hull they were standing in. "Am I asking you to marry me? Did I ever? Am I standing right in this room looking at you and begging to build a family with you? Am I longing to have two boys with you?"

Hands dropped, settled at her side as she stood somewhere so useless. "I'm not asking to be loved. I'm not asking for anything. So don't talk to me like you're breaking my heart."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

The moment she pulled the lever down, Penny took a half step back, bracing herself for the inevitable shake that came with traveling. Her back was still faced to her supposed future wife, but a glance in her direction, and there she was, arms spread out as wide as her attitude. Nothing could be small with her.

Penny's eyes narrowed as she faced Lucy; nothing could be quiet with her, either. Her jaw clenched as she was provided with an onslaught of questions, none of which did Penny believe she was actually supposed to answer. That much was made incredibly clear between them. With every added remark, she felt the physical blow that words could provide with it, despite it all being fact. The time traveler simply put it to the raised nature of Lucy's voice as to why it irked her so much.

But she continued nonetheless, and Penny's temper only grew shorter with every passing statement and emphasized word. Although she wanted to be as far away as the universe would allow her to be from the woman, she still stepped closer. A few paces away, allowing the proximity to give her some sort of driving force.

"Trust me, you've already made it perfectly clear you want nothing to do with me." She argued back, her own voice raising.

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Suddenly the distance was dwindling between them, but Lucy stood her ground all the same. She could provide just as steely an expression to the person who seemed so aggravated by each and every statement she offered. It must have been just as annoying as it had been to have the concept thrown back at her in the first place. That irksome nature had been sticking harder and harder over the last few days. No wonder they were where they were.

Still, she wore none of the blame for it. She even scoffed at the words used, hands pressed firmly to her hips as a regulated point of power. Like nothing could truly topple her now that she was where she was, despite the overarching inevitability here.

The actual. Not the recently proposed.

"Kicking myself out am I?" Lucy asked her, shrugging her shoulders at the stupidity of the thought, "Dropping myself back off in the middle of piss-nowhere? Oh yeah, definitely all my idea."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Just as Lucy was determined to stand her ground, Penny felt the same. Her arms folded over her chest, stance challenging the individual who stood in front of her. Annoyance never wore well on her, and yet it was a constant state of being over the past seven days - and really across thousands of years as they continued to shift from one time to the next. She could get into an argument with Gandhi, Penny was sure.

Her eyebrows shot up in a clear look of surprise at the Lucy shrugged her shoulders. Of everything this woman wore, she was now trying to shift the blame of this all away from herself. Penny exhaled a sharp, overwrought breath that bordered morbid amusement. "Do not act as if you're innocent in any of this now that we're here." She replied, shaking her head in disbelief.

Because they were there. All it would take was a few steps and Lucy would have found herself in the same place she was first found, barely a minute having passed.

"It was your idea to kiss me!"

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

Lucy could dissect the truth from the simple statement she was given. It was practically an order; like she should truly believe on some level that she ever got a say here. It might have just been overly convenient that they fought when they had; tension had been so high for so long, it seemed, and the only way to dissolve it was for one of them to go. Of course it would be her. Of course they would be here.

She felt the threat of normality coming for her. She felt that her own stubborn nature had set it in stone in some way, but it didn't mean she had to openly admit that.

And even now - as she brought up the topic Lucy was sure they weren't talking about - Lucy was determined not to allow such things to settle on her shoulders. It took two in everything to follow the course of reciprocation. Her eyebrows shot up before they furrowed her brow in turn; it was the closest thing to offended she was going to wear.

"Twice!" She retorted, providing supple context where it felt so necessary; "You let me!"

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

There it was, the thought she was actively trying to avoid for days now. However, her temper was unforgiving, and now that she was seconds from dropping the woman off, she had every right to voice her opinion, even if she admittedly thought it was a stupid move to make at all. Tension might have existed for days before the occurrence, but not like this. It was her fault.

Twice. Like she needed a reminder. And somehow, Lucy tried to turn the tables - that Penny could be blamed for reciprocation in response to the move she had made. She scoffed, dragging an arm away from the other in order to push back dark locks as her fingers worked through her hair.

"So what?" Penny was yelling now. "You kissed me - twice - then walked away! You can't just do that!"

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

"Do what? Kiss you? Cause yeah I can; you let me." Lucy argued back, her tone dropping against the shouting nature thrown at her. If only because it was clever arguing in its own right; Lucy could take that step and dismantle everything with a single sentence if she so chose.

But it was an assumption. Regardless of whether or not it was right, it still deserved the answer she gave for it. "You're a big girl. If you wanna tell me not to do it again, just say so." She continued on, but seconds later she was shaking her head. She was laughing at her own disbelief. Or perhaps she found simple, immediate humour in the ridiculous notions of the entire situation they were in. "Or don't bother. I reckon you already have."

The door was right behind her. She could feel the itch to turn away and leave it as it was. That was, after all, the highest point sellable here. "That's it, right? Just walk outta here and you'll keep going."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Speaking to a brick wall would have proven easier. She proved to be just as thick as one, at times despite the clever worded reply she offered. Leave it to this woman to be obnoxious until the very moment she stepped out of the door. Yet she had yet to. Lucy made no attempt to walk out, nor Penny to push her.

With the drop of her voice, Penny felt the desire to keep her own elevated. Frustration fueled her movements, but continual yelling felt as if she'd lose on some level. Because she could manage to keep an even tone, and with a breath, Penny tried herself, even while her eyes narrowed on the way Lucy laughed.

"That's right." Penny replied with her own branded edge, but it felt weak for a flickering moment before her eyes hardened once again. There was an evident struggle to let the conversation go just yet, despite the ultimate goal being within reach. "Four steps and you'll have run away."

[Lucy Serrano-Blaise]

The mere mention of running away burned her in a way it shouldn't have. But she had to figure that that was the risk that coincided with following someone so seemingly daring; they got to see just about everything that made a person tick. Every instance called to some kind of personality trait. It was, in turn, the easiest way to get to know a person without ever having to ask a single question about them.

Fingertips worked their way into her front pocket slowly. Tight as it was, it proved uniquely easy to fish out the key she was searching for. It was the only thing she kept there, and for good reason.

"And you'll find someone new, like I was never here." She reasoned, then. And within the break of her own creation, she held the key out. It was, after all, completely hers to begin with. So it was hers for the taking. "Someone who won't kiss you; you'll like that."

[Penelope Serrano-Blaise]

Penny knew what it meant to jump into a time machine and travel through the stars. She knew why it was attractive and why someone would take up such an offer. Who wouldn't? It was the perfect chance to run away, and it was hard to stop. It wasn't hard to make a connection that part of Lucy was sensitive to the fact.

Dark eyes flicked downwards as a hand disappeared into her pocket. Tight as her black jeans were, there still managed to fit something in them. A key, after all, wasn't all that large.

Penny hadn't asked for it back, but part of her expected it left behind regardless. However, the thought of Lucy physically handing it over to her hadn't crossed her mind. She hesitated, if only for a moment before she took another step, but she made no move to take the key yet.

"I never told you not to." She pointed out finally, only then lifting her hand, palm towards the sky. "Do not assume I take on anyone so easily."