Here we are folks, your ride is slowly coming to an end. I sincerely thank you for sticking with me this far and I hope you’ve had a good time with this story (I’m never sure if anyone actually reads my stuff). All disclaimers from part one still apply. I still don’t own the characters, Hallmark & James Gurney do, and I’m still not profiting from this.

14

Karl opened his eyes to daylight.

The forest and the hunter’s pit were gone. He was back on the cobblestone streets of Waterfall City, in the exact pile of baskets where he’d landed when they’d toppled over the merchant’s booth. His hands and Jack’s were wrapped around the faith stone. However, despite their having returned to the scene of the crime as it were, Karl still wore the bronze-orange skybax rider uniform and Jack was still clad in the loose-fitting civilian garb that Karl normally favored. Wait, something’s wrong…why am I still dressed this way? What happened to---?

“David!” Karl dove for the unconscious form, now lying on the pavement among the scattered baskets.

Jack was slowly opening his own eyes and glancing around. He saw the Tohma Faiere still clasped in one hand, the bone dagger upraised in his other hand, and dropped both objects as if they had bitten him. He looked from the discarded stone to Karl, who had his hands pressed over the bandages on David’s shoulder, trying to staunch the flow of blood. Jack went quite ashen. “Karl, I’m----I didn’t mean for…I didn’t know…” he stammered.

Karl spared him a glance somewhere between pitying and murderous. He’d feel bad for Jack later, after all, the kid had gone from being a Dinotopian hero and part of the Scott family back to being an outsider and a thief in the blink of an eye, and he was visibly upset about it. Karl would deal with him later; David was Karl’s immediate concern. Why was he still hurt? Karl wondered in rising panic. Why didn’t that stupid rock put things back the way they were before Jack messed with it? “Go get help…now, Jack!”

Jack didn’t take one step before Freefall let out a deafening cry that drowned out the chatter of the curious citizens who were gathering around the trio. From his vantage point, perched atop the bridge with Pterra, the dinosaur had a clear view of what was happening. Freefall’s call was a simple cry used on approach when patrols returned from a flight or a fight: “Injured rider.” Faintly, over the thunderous beat of the agitated pterosaur’s wings, Karl heard the roar of acknowledgement from the approaching saurian guards.

The quiet city suddenly came to life. Skybaxes resting below now sprang aloft and circled above, just in case they were needed. Noree and Marion heard the call from the Temple of the Falls. They hurried up the towering stairway to the street above, where spectators and guards were gathering. Alano and Romana reached the trio first. They hadn’t been far behind David and Karl when the Scotts had pursued the outsider into the marketplace, but they’d briefly lost track of the boys. Now that he’d finally spotted them, Alano used his considerable size to shoulder his way through the crowd, Romana at his heels. Freefall bellowed a warning to the crowd: Move it! They were blocking the path for the help he’d summoned for his rider. Obediently, the spectators made way.

Alano took in the scene with a single glance, from his injured friend to the thief to the discarded dagger. The former outsider recognized the thief at once. He frowned, then suddenly grabbed Jack and lifted him bodily off the ground by the throat. “What the bloody hell happened?! Is that your doing, Barrett?” Alano pointed to David.

Jack couldn’t draw enough breath to answer. He turned frantic eyes to Karl. Alano hadn’t touched the faith stone. Only people who used the Tohma Faiere would remember the other timeline. Noree had said something about that, Karl remembered. Reluctantly, Karl spoke in the outsider’s defense, “He didn’t do this, Al.” Well, not directly, anyway. “Don’t kill him.”

Alano merely set Jack down. His large hand still gripped Jack’s neck, staying any chance of escape. “Don’t even think about running. He only said not to kill you…I can do you a world of hurt without killing you.”

Marion pushed her way through the crowd. “Karl! David!” She surveyed the scene and crouched beside David, pulling the cloth away from the wound to have a look. “What happened?!”

“I don’t understand…the spell should have ended,” Karl thought aloud.

“Spell? Don’t tell me you used the Tohma Faiere?” she snapped.

She hadn’t used the faith stone. She really didn’t remember the other timeline, Karl realized. “No! Not really. I’ll explain later. Help David.”

Twenty-Six gave a frightened cry from where she’d hidden beneath a pile of baskets and dashed towards Karl, David, and Marion. Romana snatched up the baby casmasaur immediately, less it get trampled in the bustle of activity.

Karl turned his attention to the saurian keeper beside Marion. “It didn’t work!” he snapped at Noree accusingly. “You said if we found whoever used the stone everything would change back to normal! Well, you in the other timeline said that.”

The Keeper was impassive. She may not know what the ‘other timeline’ was, but she knew what the powers of the Tohma Faiere were. “It did work.”

“What are you talking about? Why do I remember that other reality? Why am I still in this uniform?” Karl waved a hand at his brother. “Why is David still hurt?”

“Calm down, Karl!” Marion said. Karl withdrew his hand to give the matriarch’s daughter room to work and leaned back on his heels, watching silently while she laid a hand on David’s forehead, doing her empathy/healer thing.

Noree addressed Jack. “Where is the Tohma Faiere?”

Jack, trapped in Alano’s grip, couldn’t move, but he pointed to the spot where he’d discarded the meteorite. “It was…I didn’t mean to do it! I didn’t know how the thing worked!” he squeaked. Under the force of their glares, he looked quite cowed. “I’m sorry.”

Noree carefully placed the faith stone into its box. Her large, saurian eyes turned to Jack, studying him with as close to a smile as a dinosaur could manage. “The way of the faith stone, is not about blame, nor is blame the way of the Dinotopians.” Jack had the feeling that she knew exactly what the stone had shown him. “Strange, isn’t it?” the Keeper asked Jack.

Jack rolled his eyes. ‘Strange’ didn’t begin to cover it. Personally, he didn’t care if he never saw that rock again.

“Speak for yourself,” Romana disagreed, poking Jack in the chest with her very strong forefinger. “You’d better hope nothing happens to my wingmate, or you and I will be having a chat,” she voiced what was on her, Alano, and Karl’s minds.

Noree saw that Karl still looked extremely skeptical. She smiled enigmatically. “Do not worry so, Karl Scott. Physical consequences of this ‘other’ timeline will be real for those who used the Tohma Faiere---I presume that’s you, David, and this Outsider boy? But, everything has been restored to the way it should be. See for yourself.” She nodded to David.

“See for myself?” Karl demanded. He stood up, pacing nervously. “What does that mean? How do I do that…?” Why did everyone on this island have to be so freakin’ cryptic about the meteor rocks? He paused when he caught his reflection in one of the merchant’s mirrors. Karl frowned at the skybax corps uniform, no longer---never---his own. His face was caked with dirt and scratches and smeared with blood. He wondered---since his sense of time was now totally screwed up by going from one ‘reality’ to the other---how long it had been since he’d slept. There were black circles beneath his dark eyes….

Dark eyes…

Karl whirled and hurried back to his brother. He elbowed past Marion, apologizing as an afterthought, and grabbed David’s uninjured shoulder. First, Karl looked at his brother’s hand. The Shō tattoo was still there. Was that a ‘physical consequence’? Hope fading fast, Karl shook him, not at all gently. “David! Wake up! Rise and shine, bro!” he ordered.

“Karl, what are you doing---“ Marion protested.

David let out a growl of extreme annoyance, face contorted in a grimace of pain, and pried one eye open just long enough to give Karl a dirty look. He muttered a threat that made even Marion gasp in shock of what he’d do if his brother didn’t shut up and let him sleep. That was all right. Karl let him rest, let Marion resume tending to the knife wound. He had seen enough.

“What?” Marion asked.

“Dad’s eyes. He has Dad’s eyes again,” Karl answered simply, smiling ear-to-ear.

*

They’d settled David into the guest room Flippeau had set up for the Scotts all those months ago when they were first stranded. Romana had appeared not long afterwards, having gone to retrieve Frank Scott. Jack stood in the corner of the room, under Alano’s watchful eye, while Karl filled in his father about all that had happened, mentally debating whether the hulking ex-outsider or Frank Scott posed the more imminent threat of killing him on the spot. Frank’s face was a mask of confusion. ‘Parallel timelines’ sounded like something out of a science fiction novel or a hokey television show.

“The way of the Tohma Faiere, when it was used in ancient times, was to teach,” Noree explained patiently. “Without your memory of those events you experience under its power, without real physical consequences to those who use it, there can be no learning. You remember, and you will always remember, all things that are real, and all things that the faith stone showed you that might have been. In that way…” She directed her next remarks to Jack, who was doing his best to be invisible in the corner “…you receive enlightenment. Those events happened, and the physical consequences for you three remain. That, you see, is why the Tohma Faiere is kept within the Sactuary, where its powers can be controlled. You are only meant to touch the stone, receive a vision that answers whatever questions trouble your heart, and that is the end of it.

“I would not have believed the stone existed or in its powers to create alternate realities if I hadn’t seen it for myself. You did not know what you had found, Jack Barrett---how could you have known? You are not to blame for what the faith stone did, Jack Barrett. You saw only a pretty rock of some value. Next time, you and I will both have to treat our artifacts with more respect and discretion.”

Jack snorted, “’Next time’? Yeah, right.”

The Keeper chuckled at that, as though she were privy to some joke the outsider didn’t know about. She bowed to Karl and Frank. “I will take my leave, now. You will need me no longer.”

“Are you sure?” Karl asked warily.

She could do no more…the Tohma Faiere could do no more. The brothers would have to make their peace with each other---or not---on their own. “Very sure, Karl Scott,” she sounded amused. Then, she was gone.

Alano took his cue from her. “Er…right, well, I should take this worthless bugger to Rosemary, let everyone know David’s back among the living. When the slugabed wakes up, tell ‘im I’ll look in later.”

Karl nodded. Frank, however, intercepted Jack at the door by catching him by the back of the neck. Alano relinquished his prisoner without hesitation. Jack stared at Scott with dread. “Let’s talk, you and I.” Frank said. Giving David one last, worried look, he told Karl, “I’ll be back in a bit” and then guided the outsider into the hallway. Jack dragged his heels like a condemned prisoner walking his last mile.

Karl sagged down onto the foot of the bed, careful not to disturb Twenty-Six, who was curled up asleep there. The casmasaur refused to let Karl out of her sight that night. He closed his tired eyes as his adrenaline began to wear off and all that had happened---in both realities-finally caught up to him. He let out a breath he felt like he’d been holding for years. Asthma, waterfalls, rampaging pteranodons, and now homicidal outsiders…if David keeps this up, we’re going to have to get some Dinotopian Blue Cross for him or something.

He watched as Marion began picking up the rags and empty herb pouches that the healer had left behind. “In case I forget to say it later, thank you.”

“For what?” She gave him a quizzical look.

“For what you did at the sanctuary, for helping us figure this whole mess out. I know you don’t remember, but I don’t think we’d have found our way out of the faith stone’s spell without you.”

She read the worry in his face and reassured, “He’s going to be all right, Karl.”

Karl nodded, grateful for that fact. Still, he had to know: “What about us? Are we all right?”

“What are you talking about?” she asked.

“What I said this morning---well, whenever it was, my sense of time’s all screwed up now---I was mad, Marion. I didn’t mean it. It was just….you turned me down when I asked you to the festival, I thought you were gonna say yes, but you walked off like that. I know why you did it and you were right, I didn’t know what I was asking…” Karl might not have understood before, but he’d gained some insight into the commitment she was talking about in his alternate lifetime as a skybax rider. In that lifetime, he had shared that dedication to the island, but in this lifetime, his real life, well, it was painful to admit it, but she was right. He wasn’t ready to give up his hopes of getting off the island. In the back of his mind, he’d always assumed Marion would go with him when the opportunity presented itself. She’d even confessed the temptation to go once, but that had been months ago. Before the Tohma Faiere’s interference, he hadn’t understood the pledge he would have been making walking into that festival with Marion. “Then I saw you with David, and…” That’s right, moron, put the blame back on her and David again. Karl was botching his apology and he knew it. Better just keep it simple. “I was a jerk. I’m sorry.”

Marion paused, trying to find the words for what she wanted to say to him. The silence stretched into minutes before she finally sat down on the small bed opposite David’s. “Karl, I know that you weren’t familiar with the custom of the Dawn Festival. I wasn’t trying to hurt you. When you started talking about your home, I realized----you care about me and about Dinotopia, I know you do, but you still don’t think of this island as your real home, do you?” He didn’t answer, which told her all she needed to know. “I’m going to be matriarch one day, Karl. As much as I would like to see your world, I may never be able to leave this island. Dinotopia is my home, my obligations are here, and anyone I’m with has to be ready to make the same commitment to the island. I don’t know how else to explain it. I know you’re not ready for that right now, are you?”

Karl surprised himself by asking, “Was Dinotopia the only reason you hesitated?”

Marion’s eyes widened at that, crimson coloring her cheeks. This time, she was at a loss for an answer…which was answer enough for him.

Finally, Karl broke the silence. He stood up. “I think I should change.” At her uncomprehending frown, he indicated the skybax rider uniform he still wore. “My clothes, I mean. Can you keep an eye on David until I get back?”

“Of course.” She took up the spot at the foot of the bed that Karl had just vacated.

Karl reached the door before Marion called, “Karl?”

He glanced back.

“I do love you, you know,” she said.

The words sent warmth through him, despite also hearing her words from long ago in his mind: I love you both.

“Do me a favor, Marion? Don’t go to that festival too soon,” he asked. Then he walked out of the guest room, closing the door behind him. “And I love you, too,” he said quietly.

*

The crowd in Flippeau’s house had thinned by the time Frank and Jack made their way back into the living room. Romana stood in one corner of the living room, not chatting with anyone, her gaze occasionally wandering to the hallway that lead to the guest room. She broke from her preoccupation long enough to give Frank a questioning glance. He offered her a nod and a smile, and she appeared greatly relieved. She briefly offered Jack a glare of pure loathing instead of the mere annoyance she’d felt with him in the alternate reality.

Rosemary, Noree, and Flippeau were in the room as well, chatting quietly. Rosemary spotted Jack and looked as though she might have summoned him. Something in Frank’s face forestalled her. Through one window, Jack saw Alano talking with a pair of human guards. He was patting Pterra’s neck. Jack realized the guards were probably waiting to drag him off to face the Council for punishment once Rosemary was done with him. If Frank leaves any pieces of me to punish, that is.

Scott led the Outsider into the kitchen, where he poured a rather large drink for himself. Frank needed something alcoholic, preferably with a high proof, but he wasn’t going to get it in Flippeau’s house, so he settled for juice. He filled a second glass and slid it across the table to Jack. There was something comforting about the familiar gesture. Jack still had the memory of being Frank’s son and stealing Frank’s hooch to mix it with Coke. No, that wasn’t his memory; that was Karl and David’s memory, their lives.

With regret, Jack recalled that the other times he’d shared a drink of any sort with Scott in this real timeline. Frank had been the one who boasted to Jack about his sons saving Dinotopia two times over from saurian rampages…and about other adventures his kids had shared, including using Marion’s medallion to power Cyrus’ submarine and rescue their father. Jack had used those tidbits of information to create this rather spectacular mess. Jack the Outsider had rationalized that Frank had dealt with his kind long enough to know better than to trust information like that to one of them.

“Is this a last drink for the condemned, Frank?” Jack finally asked.

“I really can’t decide, Jack, if I should get Rosemary to let you off the hook or if I should pound you into the ground myself,” Frank admitted. “Lucky for you you’re just a kid. I still don’t know what to do with you, so, while I’m deciding, have a drink.”

There was no small truth to the statement. He was wavering between the residual paternal instinct for the kid who had---even if it was only in some sort of alternate reality of which Frank had no memories---temporarily been a Scott and the instinct he would have had under any other circumstance to make a rug out of anyone who betrayed his confidence and, worse, put his sons in jeopardy. The tavern owner was by far the most tolerant of any person on the island where the antics of the outsiders were concerned because he relied on, even enjoyed, their patronage of his pub. But, even he had lines that could not be crossed, and the biggest was drawn firmly in front of Karl and David. That was common knowledge to every Dinotopian and Outsider.

“I’m sorry, d---Frank.”

“Sorry for what? For taking something I told you and using it to almost get my sons killed?”

Jack felt his face flame. “Yeah, for that. I didn’t have a choice. Payden wanted the medallion.”

“Have we met? If you really were part of my family in that parallel universe, then you know I don’t buy that crap. You had a choice. You take responsibility for your own actions.”

“It’s a lot simpler for a ‘topian than an outsider…”

“Bull. Do you really think Gabriel Dane was going to forgive you for whatever you did to tick him off and take you off this island if you brought him that medallion? And what were you thinking messing with Dintopian artifacts that you didn’t even understand?”

“I thought he would. I sure as hell know better now.”

Frank considered that. “What are you going to do now?”

“Wait for the guards to haul me off to whatever prison you ‘topians have and throw myself on the mercy of the Council?” Jack offered lamely. “If I go back, Gabriel and Payden will throw me into that hunter’s pit.” He had few friends in the pack. Dayel might have talked his father out of killing Jack for failing to deliver the medallion, but Dayel was gone. His friend’s death during that hunting trip gone wrong had been inevitable in both timelines. Jack’s switching back hadn’t saved anyone in the pack; his presence in the pack didn’t change anyone’s fate. Who else might help if Dane came after him? Not Miguel or Robere, that was for sure. Paiva and Jerald might look out for him, but then again they might not.

“You could go back to your pack and take your chances,” Rosemary’s voice right behind Jack scared the bejeesus out of him. He hadn’t heard her walk over. “Or you could stay.”

“Eh?” Jack frowned.

“I know Outsiders are not fond of our ways, but the Tohma Faiere has given you the chance to see the island from a different perspective. I think we can be…forgiving…in light of that education and the good things I’m sure that you did while you were in the alternate reality. What I told you in that timeline is true---you are of the Earth, even if you seem not to accept that,” she teased. “That doesn’t have to change now that your time under the effect of the faith stone has ended. You may keep your place at Earth Farms if you wish it. We’ll be glad to have you.”

“Can you really see me plowing fields and picking crops? Jack snorted. “I didn’t like it when I was a ‘topian. Why do you think I kept hiding in the hatchery with my radio….” At the mention of the radio, Jack recalled many days hiding from the pack, reading the song lyrics and wishing he’d heard them for real, that he knew what they sounded like. He remembered the other timeline, when he’d wished that he’d at least remember the melodies when he was an Outsider again.

He remembered. He could see every street in every city that Jack Scott had visited, and he could hear the notes of every song Jack Scott had ever heard. That fact hadn’t dawned on him until just that moment. Guess in its way the freaky rock did grant one wish. Somehow, that was almost a consolation. Jack smiled to himself.

The Keeper saw the small smile and wondered if it was agreement to Rosemary’s suggestion. “There would be one condition.” Noree stepped forward. “You must accept a saurian life partner. It would be…what’s the word?” She glanced at the off-worlder.

“’Probation’,” Frank supplied.

“An older saurian life partner, one who would accept responsibility for your education and perhaps help you find a place among us where you will be happy.”

“Not to mention safe from Dane and Payden,” Frank added. Jack was not so sure there was such a thing as ‘safe’ from the vindictive outsiders, but didn’t voice that concern. Some farm tools and a pet dinosaur wouldn’t stop Dane if he decided to get Jack any more than an entire city full of saurians had deterred him from coming after David.

Noree was staring at Jack. Slowly, it dawned on him what she was really suggesting. “What---you mean you? You want to be my saurian life partner?”

“I’ve never accepted a human life partner. Humans tend to find life in the Temple rather---limited---even by Dinotopian standards. But, I think I have much more I could teach you, Jack Barrett, and much I could learn from you. Frank and Alano have agreed to help you---Alano has some understanding of the difficulties involved in breaking ties to the packs, as you know. If you were to agree to stay, I’m sure the Council would be more forgiving of the faith stone incident. I’m sure that the matriarch would help them see that a year or so on the Farms and in the Temple might present less hassle than trying to keep you under house arrest.”

“I would,” Rosemary confirmed.

“From thief to Sanctuary Keeper, eh?” Jack finished off his drink. “I’m sure the Council would think that’s a very Dinotopian solution.”

“What do you think?” Frank asked.

“I think I’m going to need a much stronger drink.”

*

David Scott woke to sunlight pouring through the windows of Flippeau’s guest room…and to Karl staring, almost nose-to-nose with him, with a grin of pure evil on his face. “I cannot believe you boinked Le Sage, bro. I mean, she’s a babe, no question, but dude she’s almost old enough to be our mom…” Karl taunted.

His brother was confused for a minute, not fully awake yet and sorting through the jumble of two lifetimes’ worth of memories that were rushing back to him. His shoulder-his entire body for that matter---ached…so the whole fight with Payden Borale must have been real. And there was a horrid tattoo for a band he didn’t even like on his hand. He cringed just looking at it. The whole time spent as an Outsider hadn’t just been a bad dream. “Oh God, that really happened?”

“Oh trust me, the image is burned into my retinas. It’s absolutely horrifying. I’m going to need therapy,” Karl confirmed, enjoying his brother’s embarrassment immensely. God knew Karl had been on the receiving end of David’s lectures about his own ‘hit and run victims’ often enough. “’Course, ‘real’ is kind of a relative term right now.” Karl sat down on the edge of the bed. “Noree says it all really happened---the stone Jack brought back from the inner island is some sort of Dinotopia teaching tool. Let’s you live out an alternative life of your own design for awhile so you can basically can see how life would suck if you had everything you wished for. It’s the whole Frank Capra ‘Wonderful Life’ thing. When the stone sets things back to normal, only the ones who had contact with the stone remember whatever happened under its spell. Which, I’ve figured, means that you, me, and Jack remember, since we all used the rock in the other timeline----”

David blanched. “And Le Sage.” Yes, he definitely remembered catching her messing with the stone back in her chamber.

Karl’s grin returned. “You’re kidding?”

Sure, Karl could smirk…he wasn’t the one Le Sage was going to kill once she figured out what had happened. “No, I’m not kidding!” David snapped, regretting the outburst when it sent a sliver of pain through his head. He tried sitting up too quickly and grunted at the twinge from his injured shoulder. He tried a second time to move, taking it more slowly this time, but had to settle for rolling onto his non-injured side when being vertical made him too dizzy. “Ow! I thought the stone ‘reset’ everything?” he complained.

“Oh, that was the other thing---you remember everything you do, and you also get to keep all the physical consequences. Which means that if you get in the way of an outsider with a knife like an idiot, you get to keep the scar. I suppose that also means that you really did do the mattress mambo with Le Sage, too, and lucky me I get to have that nasty image of it for the rest of my life, since I get to keep my memory, too.” Karl laughed, thinking that if David blushed any harder, he might burst into flames. “So, what was it like bagging the outsider queen?”

“I am not discussing it with you,” David said.

“All right, all right,” Karl dropped the subject. It was no fun teasing David when he was groggy---and he had years to torment his brother about the whole affair (pardon the expression) once David was back on his feet. “Here’s the bad news: Jack said that Payden tried to use the faith stone, so there’s a chance that he might remember the other timeline too. And if he does, he’ll probably tell Dane all about you. Seriously, what’d you do to piss off Dane so bad that he wanted to kill you?”

“We fought, he fell,” David reluctantly admitted.

Karl raised an eyebrow. And?

“Into a hunter’s pit.”

“With?” Karl prompted.

“With a baby T-Rex,” David added. “You saw his hand, right?”

“You did that? You are so going to tell me everything that happened while you were with the Outsiders. I gotta hand it to you, bro, when you go over to the Dark Side, you go all out. Why’d you try to feed him to a T-Rex? ‘Alpha Male’ thing?” Karl asked, impressed.

David’s expression darkened. “A ‘trying to make me kill Freefall’ thing. I was sick of getting the crap kicked out of me every time he wanted me to kill a scalie and I said no. And then Marion came along and I was afraid Dane was going to hurt her…”

Karl sobered immediately.

“What happened to Dane and Payden, anyway?” David had a vague recollection of Payden dragging him to Gabriel’s hunting grounds, but the details of what happened afterwards were fuzzy and fragmented.

“I’m not exactly sure. Depends on the whole ‘physical consequences’ thing I was telling you about. When we were in the other universe, Alano said Le Sage left Gabriel tied to a pier in Zuru before he came looking for you. I asked him if she untied him before the tide came in, and all he said was, ‘Oops’. You don’t think he was serious, do you?”

David grinned a bit. Good old, Al… “Probably.”

“As for the real Dane…Noree said physical consequences are only real if you use the stone, and since Dane didn’t use the stone, I assume he’s probably still lurking around on the island somewhere. But hey, at least, he won’t remember that he wants to kill you now that the stone fixed things, since he didn’t have contact with it…” Karl tried being optimistic. David was silent.

“And Payden?” David asked.

“Last I saw of him in the other timeline, he was floating down a river. I don’t know what happened to him, if he had real physical consequences because he tried to use the stone or not. He might be alive and he might remember.”

“Great,” David muttered.

His grim expression was scaring Karl. Concerned now, he asked: “You think they’d still come after you? You didn’t do anything to them in this timeline except screw up some of Jack’s food runs at Earth Farm.”

“I doubt Payden would unless Dane asked him to. He never hunted without a good reason…at least, according to his own definition of a good reason. Gabriel Dane’s another story. Never underestimate Dane’s need for revenge,” David advised.

“He’s not stupid enough to tangle with you, me, Dad, and the entire skybax corps, is he?”

“Like I said…never underestimate Dane.”

Karl shifted uncomfortably; then, he finally stood. “I should tell everyone that you’re back among the living. Just to warn you, I already got my lecture, but Dad, Rosemary, and Marion have had all night and most of the morning to refine your lecture on using Dinotopian magic rocks and tangling with dangerous outsiders. They’re getting pretty good at it. And Romana is planning to volunteer you for double patrol duty for the next six months for making her miss her shift today…”

He noticed that David wasn’t laughing. David looked at Karl and his brow furrowed as if he’d suddenly remembered something else. He glanced at the chair in the corner of the room, noticing for the first time that his own bronze-orange skybax corps uniform had been placed there. He felt like he hadn’t worn it in years. Was it only yesterday that all this began?

“What? What’s wrong?” Karl wanted to know.

It had come back to David, the reason for the nagging, uncomfortable feeling he’d had since waking. The cause of the strange feeling returned to him: the entire argument between him and Karl right before the faith stone sent them into an alternate reality, their being at each other’s throats (again) over Marion and over David sponsoring Alano into the skybax corps, the escalating tension between the two of them over the past few months...

“Karl, you know, if you’re really serious about wanting to train for the corps…”

“Are you saying you were lying about not wanting me to join because I’m not ‘committed’ enough?” Karl grinned.

“Absolutely not.”

Karl waved a hand, dismissing the notion. “Well, bro, as it turns out, it isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I mean, sure, I look way better than you in the uniform and it’s really cool flying around and all, but, you know, it takes forever to oil a pterosaur’s hide and you can never get the smell of dinosaur out of your uniform…and have you ever tried curbing a two ton bird in the city? You need a pooper-scooper the size of a Volkswagon. I don’t know why you think all that is fun…” He didn’t quite sound convincing.

“If you change your mind…” David offered.

“I won’t. My days as a Dino-Scout are over. But, thanks.”

David could sense there was more coming.

“Listen, bro…” Karl was having a hard time figuring out precisely what he wanted to say. “…and don’t interrupt me, ‘cause I’m not going to be able to say this again. I’ve been thinking about it a little---since I had some time because my idiot brother got himself stabbed by a psycho outsider and kept me awake all night worrying---thing is, I’m never going to be okay with sharing Marion. But, that faith stone kind of reminded me how much you and I used to fight before we came to this island. I think it was just growing up in different houses, sometimes in different cities, and only seeing each other on weekends or whenever Dad took us on one of his adventures or when our moms packed us off to camp somewhere, we never really had anything in common. I thought you were a geek, you thought I was a moron. We still fight here, but at least we’ve started becoming friends. I didn’t realize it until I got stuck in the other timeline with that nitwit Barrett for a brother, but if I get everything I want on this island and lose that, the price is too high. And if you tell anyone I said that, I’m dragging you into that boxing ring and kicking your ass.”

David had an admission of his own to share. “Marion didn’t ask me to the festival either…” David told Karl. When his brother opened his mouth, David added: “…and it’s still none of your business what we were doing, so don’t ask me.”

Karl leaned against the door, not smiling but looking appreciative at least. “Thanks for telling me.” Then he shocked the hell out of David by suddenly walking back long enough to pull his brother into a one-armed hug. “I’m glad you’re back, bro.”

“Yeah, so I am, bro.” It was time to ask the question that most concerned David. “So…we’re all right then? We’re not going to zap each other into some alternate reality with a space rock again?”

Karl shrugged, retreating to the door again. “Welllll, that depends…you planning on kissing my girlfriend again?” The tone was light, but the smile didn’t quite reach his eyes.

“She is not your gir…”

Karl ignored that. “’Cause, you know, now that you have this whole relationship with Le Sage, she’ll get all jealous of Marion, and then things would really get ugly---”

David moved faster than Karl would have thought possible with that bum shoulder. His brother hurled a throw pillow at him so fast that Karl didn’t have time to duck before it bounced off his arm. “You! Out!” David pointed to the door, working hard to hide his own grin. Karl dove behind the open door to avoid a second pillow sent flying his way.

Yes, they were going to be all right.

Karl took the opportunity to make his escape. Frank passed him on his way to the guest room. “Do I even want to know what he’s laughing at?” he asked David.

“Trust me, you don’t.” David leaned back against the pillows. He had a dim recollection of waking during the previous night and seeing his father in that chair, watching but not sleeping, and the impression that Karl and Marion had been there several times, too. However, he had the feeling he was forgetting someone…and finally, it hit him: “What happened to Jack?” he asked Frank.

“I think right now Noree’s trying to teach him Dinotopian law and footprint language. She’s going to have her hands full. Karl, of course, had to show him how to hide magazines in his school books, so it could take a while…” Frank shook his head at the image.

“He didn’t go back to the pack then?” David was relieved to hear it. He’d thought Le Sage’s gang was bad, but she had nothing on Dane and Borale. That group was no place for a kid.

Frank took a seat on the chair beside the bed. “So, how ya feeling, kid?”

David winced. His shoulder was killing him and he had a head full of memories from two different lifetimes that he’d probably be spending months trying to sort out. “I don’t think they’ve created a word that covers it.” David noticed his father looked about as bad as he felt. There were dark circles beneath his eyes and weariness in the way he was sitting on the chair. Probably hadn’t slept all night…had it just been one night? David didn’t know for sure how long he’d been out. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Whatever had transpired to cause that Outsider to use a dagger on Frank’s child, the off-worlder was grateful that he had no memory of it. If he ever laid eyes on the real Payden Borale, Frank was going to have a hard time reminding himself that it was the other Payden who had tried to kill his boys. Semantics didn’t mean anything to Frank where protecting his sons was concerned.

David closed his eyes for a few seconds, and Frank wondered if he’d drifted off again. “You should rest. I’ll come back---”

He stood, but David opened his eyes. “No, wait a second,” he said. Frank sat back down and waited. The kid looked like he wanted to say something else but wasn’t really sure how to say it. Finally, David took a shot at saying what was on his mind: “Listen, Dad…I’m sorry I haven’t been around much lately. I was…I just didn’t want to fight about the mission anymore.”

He’d thought Frank had made his peace with David staying the Skybax Corps, since his father hadn’t offered any more protests about it following the second sunstone failure. The idea of David being gone for weeks at a time on the expedition to the inner island, and the dangers that presented, had set off Frank and David’s arguments again, sparked them to new heights. The Corps, the mission, having the moral leg against his father, it had all seemed important before this whole business with the Tohma Faiere. He’d felt more at home among the other riders than in the tavern with his own family. But, after months—real or hallucination---of being alone with the pack, who didn’t care if he lived or died, David was glad to have a family to drive him to distraction arguing when he took risks like that again.

He just didn’t know how to put that into words. Not yet, anyway.

Frank considered that for a long while. “You probably think I don’t have much room to point fingers about sticking around. We haven’t talked about this much, but…I wish I had the first few years after you were born to do over again. When you were born, I was young and I didn’t take responsibility and commitment as seriously as I should have. By the time I got my head screwed on straight, I had two boys with two ex-wives on opposite sides of the country and a job that took me all over the world and barely left me time for either one of you. I’m sorry about that.”

“Did I ever tell you that the first weekend your mother left you with me, you had your first bad asthma attack?” Frank asked.

“No, you didn’t.” David didn’t remember that at all. He’d only been three years old at the time. All he remembered was an apartment door and a smelly hallway.

“I didn’t listen to your mother about your food allergies. Then you got a fever and then---well, for a while at the hospital that night, I just didn’t know what was going to happen. It scared the hell out of me that a stupid, irresponsible thing like putting the wrong ingredients in dinner could kill my son. I hope neither of you boys ever has a moment in your lives where you have to wonder if you’re going to outlive your own children. I’ve tried to keep you and your brother safe since then---but here we are at the least safe place to live on the planet, and here you are with the least safe job on the island. That’s the reason I had such a problem with the Corps, David. I’ll probably never be okay with you taking chances like that, but I know it’s important to you.”

David wished he’d known that before…but then, he supposed he hadn’t been around enough to give Frank much time to explain. “You want to give me another shot at being around?” he asked with a grin.

“You want to give the old man one more shot at getting the supportive parent thing right?” Frank countered.

“How about we talk about it over a game of cards?”

Frank raised an eyebrow. “Since when do you play cards? No wait, let me guess---‘long story’?”

Karl interrupted, poking his head in the doorway. “By the way, bro---” He couldn’t resist adding as a parting shot, “this whole ‘real physical consequence’ thing begs one question, especially since Le Sage messed with the stone and might be part of the physical consequence thing: You did practice safe sex and all that while you were in your whole ‘Evil Dave’ parallel universe, right? ‘Cause we really don’t need any little Le Sages running around the house…”

He was rewarded when David’s face became a mask of dawning horror. “Oh God…”

Karl snickered all the way back to the living room.

Frank frowned at that, looking at David for an explanation. “‘Safe sex’?”

David picked up a pillow and used it to cover his face so his father couldn’t see his face burning and vowed that, just as soon as he was on his feet again, Karl was definitely going to pay for that one….

- Fin -

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