For Emily Whenever...

The younger Emily was still glowing from her experience, hugging the older Emily.

"Uh, I hate to bring this up," I told them, sheepishly, "but we forgot to use any protection. You'd better get a morning-after pill."

"I've already got it covered." The older Emily answered. "I've had a bit of time to plan this." She turned loose of her younger self. "Right now I have to send your back to your time."

She reached into her bag and brought out a gadget that looked like an overgrown PDA, or maybe a tricorder prop from the old Star Trek series. She punched several buttons on the front of the device and waved at the younger Emily.

"Goodbye kid, remember what I told you to do about the rape."

"Goodbye, and thank you. Both of you, but especially you, Grandpa." Younger Emily waved back at us, then shimmered and disappeared.

"Why couldn't you just send her back a few days after the rape?"

"The equations don't work that way, you have to return to the same time you left or they don't balance. I've tried it, but there's no way around it."

"That's why you two showed up a few minutes apart?"

"That's why. Not bad, you've got an idea of how time travel works."

"Heh, not bad for a burned out high-school science teacher. Want some more tea?"

We sat for over an hour, emptying the iced tea jug and chatting while not saying much of anything. Suddenly the older Emily blinked a couple of times and sat up with a jerk. There was some kind of change going on, almost as if she shimmered for a brief moment. Like a blast of hot air had come between us and distorted the light as sometimes happens in the desert in summer. Suddenly her hair wasn't pulled back as tightly, the bun not as severe. There were now faint laugh lines on her face in place of the earlier faint frown lines.

"Are you okay?" For some reason I wasn't really worried about this change.

"It's happened." She said happily, grinning at me. "The timeline has sorted itself out, I've got new memories now. The old ones are like a dream, a bad dream. I survived the rape okay and this time I kept the evidence to get the bastard convicted."

"That's great. That's wonderful." I fetched a bottle of Pinot Noir from the wine rack, expertly extracted the cork and poured two glasses while she talked.

"It didn't ruin sex for me this time. Oh, I wasn't able to enjoy it for a while, but with a positive first experience I was able to get over that in a few months. I've even learned to enjoy giving oral sex." She was talking quickly, almost babbling as the new, happier memories crowded out the bad ones. I handed her a wineglass that she grabbed with her left hand.

"Let's celebrate." We clinked our glasses together and drank. As she tipped her glass back, the gold ring on her left ring finger came into her view. She stopped drinking and stared at the ring, trying to sort through her new memories.

"I'm married now... happily married for a long time, just once, no divorce. And you've got great-grandkids." She looked like she was on top of the world. "No great-greats yet, but give the kids some time, there might be one on the way."

"Uh, I've got to ask, am I still alive in your time?"

"Oh Grandpa, you and Grandma are in your mid-nineties, and still active. We visit when we can, about twice a month. You still play golf."

"Yeah, but I bet my handicap is way up."

She set her wine down and jumped up, grabbing me in a bear hug as I scrambled to my feet to meet her. "Thank you, Grandpa. You've fixed my life." She leaned her head back and looked into my eyes. "Thank you for being my first and teaching me about love. Thank you, thank you, thank you."

She leaned forward and caught me in a kiss that quickly became deeper as she opened her mouth against my lips. She was softer and more cuddly than her nineteen-year-old version, and obviously had much more experience at kissing. She leaned back again, but didn't let go. "I know it's only been about two hours for you, but it's been nearly twenty-nine years for me, twenty-nine wonderful years. One more time for old time's sake, please?"