Chapter Text
Your lover (who you are dying to meet) confronts you after the last game. She's angry, and rightfully so. You haven't spoken with her in months - a bit hard: you were in Elsewhere, and now your number is different. You have much to explain, so you talk it out. You tell them how much you love them.
"For all intents and purposes I am her," you say, "the time-traveler, the temporal anomaly, the spark of divinity, the famous player. I'm her memories left behind, all gathered up and rearranged. I hope, eventually, we can be together again."
"Yeah, yeah me too. I just... It's hard." Betsy says, looking away from you. "To see a person the same but different. Not bad. Just hard."
They glance back at you. You watch emotion shift across her face. She punches you in the arm a moment later. "Don't think I'll go easy on you."
You share a laugh, then, genuine and honest. When was the last time you felt real joy?
"One last thing, before we have to go," you say. "You crossed over once, didn't you? From another place and time?" Your expression grows serious. You want your lover to understand. "I think she went to go find you."
This seems to take them off-guard.
"O-oh. Yeah, I did. That... I hope they find each other…" Betsy gives you a wan little smile and nods. "I never could feel my other self. Not like you seem to be able to."
You shrug - a casual, powerful gesture. "It will fade over time. Soon enough it'll just be my life, rather than a borrowed one." You take their hand and give it a squeeze. It feels just the way you remember.
"They will have each other, then. And you will have me."
***
A young man places his usual order of a half dozen pastries at his favorite bakery. He's a regular and the baker makes pleasant small talk with him while she serves the coffee and wraps up his order to go. As they wind down their conversation, the bells at the entrance chime, and a new customer walks in. Both of them pause to look at her.
Her curly dark blonde hair is tied back, streaked with white and a few colorful hints of dye jobs since grown out. She shoulders a battered athletic bag and wears a baseball jacket with only a faded mark where the team's logo should be. When she makes eye contact with the young man and the baker, her tired face breaks into a relieved and joyful smile.
The young man nearly drops his cup of coffee. The baker catches it before it can spill.
"Sebastian," the woman breathes out his name with relief. "Betsy."
He rushes to her and throws his arms around her neck. Betsy hurriedly wipes their hands on their apron and vaults the counter to run to her.
"Jessie!" Sebastian sobs into her neck while Betsy crushes them both into a hug.
Jess wraps her arms around them both. For a moment she remembers being much taller and much stronger: that Sebastian had an extra eye and that Betsy's skin was made of brass - but that evaporates into static moments later. She buries her nose into Betsy's hair and runs her fingers through Sebastian's.
"I'm home," she murmurs, "I'm finally home."
After a moment, Betsy nudges her in the ribs and takes her hand, holding it up. The baker gestures to the unusual ring Jess wears - a latticework of yellow gold over a faceted turquoise in the shape of a heart.
"What's this, Jess?" Betsy teases. "Are you promised to someone else?"
"Never," she laughs.
"Don't be coy," Sebastian says. "What is it, then?"
She looks down at it. A matching tan line stands out on an adjacent finger - a memory of another ring just like it.
"A memento," she says with finality.
"Of… of what?" Betsy asks, confused by the sudden somber look on her long-lost lover's face.
A half smile tugs at Jessica's mouth and she shrugs. "I don't remember."