"Ready to go?"  Anne Steele asked her partner.

    "Yep," Arwyn swallowed down the pills.  As it turned out, he did exist in the original time line, and he even worked for the force.  He worked in the archives.  Anne had worked out a transfer, and he had passed the Detective's test with flying colors much to everybody in the department's great surprise.

    She looked over to John and Bertram and they nodded as well. 

    With that affirmation they punched coordinates into their Time Travel Devices and disappeared to the 82nd century.

******

  Gerald Moxley heaved a sigh of relief the morning after he had restored the Knott's Berry Farm Restaurant.  He had woken up in his own bed, all of his equipment was back in place and as he opened his balcony doors he took in a deep breath of clean fresh air.  All was right with the world again.  He had proven his theory.  He made his way down the stairs and found the place disconcertingly empty.  His parents must have went on another diplomatic liaison.  There was a knock on the front door, which was odd he thought.  There was a key needed to access the lift to the penthouse.  He shrugged to himself and walked over to the peephole.

    "Who is it?" He asked as he spied four people standing there.

    "Police," John barked.

    Gerald swung the door wide open, confident in his lying abilities and that he wouldn't get caught, or if he did, that he would never get convicted.

    "Hello officers," he greeted them with a smirk.

    "No time for small talk," Anne growled at him.  "Gerald Moxley, you're under arrest for violation of Time travel code Article I section 42."

    "I have no idea what you're talking about." Gerald feigned innocence.

    "Save it, Moxley," Bertram replied.  "We have a witness."

    "What?"  Gerald was suddenly caught off guard.

    "I'm sure you remember Phillip Jones," Arwyn contributed.

    "Phillip Jones..." Gerald's eyes popped open wide.  "He's supposed to be in Chromia! or, or Earth at the least."

    "Funny," John replied.  "He's totally not.  Hands on the wall, mate."

    Gerald shook his head and backed away from them.  "No, no, no, he can't be.  He wouldn't..."

    "Rat you out?"  Anne asked.  "Why not?"
    
    Arwyn approached Gerald with his cuffs in hand.  "Gerald Moxley," he began.  "You have the right to remain silent..."

 
  ONE YEAR LATER:

    Bertram and John stood outside of the door to the modest apartment of Phillip Jones.  He answered the door with a sleepy expression that told them he had just been wakened from a deep slumber.  It took a moment for him to register who they were, and then he rolled his eyes at them with barely contained disgust.

    "Really?  What has it been?  A day since the last check?"  He pulled down the collar of the ratty old shirt he had been sleeping in and presented his shoulder implant for them to scan.

    "I swear I haven't been time traveling in the past few hours," he muttered.  "You can check."  He offered his shoulder to Bertram again who just told him to stop it.

    "Will you deactivate that thing already, John," he muttered at the other detective.

    John held out a device and pressed it to Phillip's shoulder. 

    "There," he said.  "Free to go."

    "Umm, why?"  Phillip frowned at them, completely perplexed.

    Bertram and John turned to grin at each other then let themselves in past Phillip and sat down at his kitchen table.  He joined them more confused than ever.

    "Well, it's been a long hard road," John told him.  "We confiscated the contents of Gerald Moxley's flat, but we didn't need all the evidence presented there.  We had your eyewitness testimony and enough of his notes for the conviction, not to mention that massive meltdown he had on the witness stand."

    Phillip couldn't help it when a small giggle escaped his lips. 

    "Yeah, so it's taken this log to decode all the crap on all his computers," Bertram said.  "And we finally came across the files he had for his chosen victims.  We think you'll find David Rodriguez's file of special interest."

    Bertram pulled out his trusty hand held and flicked it on.  He opened the file and paged through to the chemist's great success...a clean burning renewable fuel source.

    "What exactly did Gerald tell you about him?" John asked.

    "Just that," Phillip replied.  "He created our the fuel source that replaced gasoline and...that's it.  It changed the world and it's still being used today."

    "That's what I thought," John replied as he nodded at Bertram.

    "Did he tell you he had a partner?"  Bertram asked as he punched up another screen.  It was a newspaper article, and there was a picture.

    Phillip squinted at it disbelievingly.

    "That's not me, is it?"  He gasped.

    "It is," John replied.  "You're supposed to be in the twenty first century."

    "But..."

    "It happens," Bertram replied.  "Sometimes it's accidental, sometimes it's purposeful, but it happens.  I don't know why you would have gone there in the first place, before all this...maybe because of this, but the fact remains that this information was time locked by Gerald so the fissure wouldn't affect it. You know. It's one of those time things that makes no sense and can't be explained. It just is."

    "I was there whether he broke the time line or not," Phillip said.

    "So, you're free to go," John said.

    "Live your life in the 21st century," Bertram added.

    "What if I don't want to anymore?" Phillip replied.  "It's been a year."

    "Is that true?" Bertram arched his eyebrow skeptically.

    "Oh, god no!" Phillip finally let it sink in that he was going to see David again.  He jumped up from his chair and ran into his room.  He returned with his own TTD in hand.

    "You know that's illegal." John eyed him.  "How did you hide that temporal tech from us?"

    Phillip shrugged then grinned.  "Time locks are wonderful, versatile, things. So, you don't have any rules for me to follow?"

    "Don't be too brilliant," Bertram advised.  "But no.  Whatever you do there is what you're supposed to be doing."

  ****

      David was shocked when Phillip showed up on his doorstep one day with a smile and a suitcase, about one year after they had parted.

    "Wha...What are you doing here?" He stammered.  "You're going to get in trouble for violating the terms of your plea agreement. You have to go back. I don't want you to go to prison for me."

    "No," Phillip shook his head then smiled up at David.  "The deal is off.  They freed me."

    "But why?"  David asked, perplexed.

    Phillip stepped up to him and released his hold on the suitcase.  He wrapped his arms around David's neck and kissed him. David made no move to stop him.

  "To make a long story short," Phillip whispered once they parted. "It turns out that I belong here."