He studied the woman standing in front of his desk, her eyes fixed on the wall behind his head. Grime smudged into her skin and her hair coming loose from its braid, her clothes were surprisingly neat. Dirty, but respectable looking, not detracting from her overall mien. Even so...

"You look like hell," Wes told her.

Taylor tilted her head in acknowledgement without catching his eye. "Thank you," she replied ironically. She stood at attention, but she didn't call him by his title or bother with formalities like "sir." He supposed he should get used to it. "You should see the other guy."

"We have," Jen interjected from the chair she was occupying on the other side of the room. She had set up in front of his computer days ago, and she was annoyingly good with the jury-rigged technology. "We threatened to check Eric into a hospital if he didn't go home and get some rest."

A smirk tugged at Taylor's lips. "I guess those quantum powers aren't everything they're cracked up to be," she mused aloud. "Maybe next time he'll listen when I tell him to duck."

"The way he tells it," Wes remarked, amused, "it sounds like he was the one covering you."

"He was," Taylor agreed. Her admission was unexpectedly civil, until she added, "Because he couldn't run, so I was the one with the crystal. And the detonator. I only have so many hands. And his aim is better than nothing... barely."

Wes exchanged glances with Jen. The Time Force commander rolled her eyes, making it clear what she thought of Taylor's attitude. He just smiled. Funny, coming from someone who had first reacted to him exactly the same way Taylor treated Eric now.

"Well, you completed the mission and saved the timestream from further disruption," Wes said, leaning forward companionably. Then, because he couldn't resist throwing it in, he added, "You two are a good team."

Taylor rocked back on her heels, looking him straight in the eye with a disbelieving expression. "If it helps you sleep better at night, Wes, you just keep telling yourself that."

He tried not to grin, but in the end he couldn't help it. He wouldn't tell her that she had just repeated, almost word for word, what Eric had said about her only half an hour before. But he sure enjoyed hearing it. They were two of a kind, she and Eric.

"Before you go," he said casually, the words stopping her before she could turn away. "I have a proposal I'd like to run by you."

Her incredulous expression did not abate, and she looked down at herself pointedly before lifting her gaze to his again. "Can it wait?" she demanded. "You have the crystal. Now I want my shower."

He really was drawn to attitude, wasn't he. First Eric, and then, years later, Jen. Now Taylor Earhardt. He'd like to think it was a case of opposites attracting, but he knew that if he put the situation to his father, he would get a very different opinion. Birds of a feather, no doubt.

"This will only take a minute," he told her. "Then you can think about it while you get your shower and a change of clothes."

She let out a long-suffering sigh. "Make it quick."

"The Silver Guardians need a chopper pilot," he said bluntly. "I'd like it to be you, for two reasons. One, of course, your flight experience, and two, your military background."

Taylor was already shaking her head. "No," she said as soon as he paused. "I won't join the Silver Guardians. I've already had this discussion with Eric."

"Now you're having it with me," Wes responded. "This isn't all about you, Taylor. We need someone who has more than experience--someone with a background like yours. Not your Ranger skills," he said, when she opened her mouth to protest. "Obviously those help, but I'm talking about the Air Force."

"Eric and I have never served in the armed forces," he continued. "A lot of the other guys have. Occasionally that causes problems. Problems we could solve by having a USAF lieutenant in a position of command."

That brought her up short, and her sharp look was impossible to miss. "A position of command?" she repeated skeptically.

He nodded, careful to repress his smile. "The rank of field commander, if you'll take it. The only people you won't be able to boss around are me and Eric... and I figure you'll do that anyway."

Her suspicion was almost tangible. "Did Eric put you up to this?"

"I do come up with my own ideas from time to time, Taylor. Eric approved it, of course; we both have to approve all staff-related decisions. But this is about a position we have to fill, sooner rather than later, and skills you have that would make you the ideal candidate."

She hesitated, and he leaned back deliberately. "Think about it," he suggested. "I'm not trying to drop career-altering decisions in your lap when you've just been through a time warp and the destruction of at least one major landmark. I just wanted you to know about the opening."

With a small smile, he concluded, "We need someone. And if it's not you, we're just going to have to break in a whole new James Bond type. Think of the demolition expense."

"Not to mention the cost of Eric's therapy," Jen commented unexpectedly. Her eyes were still glued to the computer screen. "Socializing him to someone new is no easy task."

Taylor's gaze snapped to her, and she regarded the Time Force officer for a long moment before her mouth quirked and she inclined her head. "I've noticed," she agreed at last. Looking back at Wes, she added, "I'll think about it. All right?"

He nodded. "All right," he repeatedly calmly.

She was barely gone when his phone rang, and he shook his head. "What do you want to bet it's Eric?" He caught sight of the caller ID before Jen could answer and he picked up the phone. "Hey, Eric."

"Did you talk to Taylor?" Eric's voice demanded. No hello, no how are you... just typical Eric. Single-mindedly focused on someone other than himself, for a change. Having the two of them both working for the Silver Guardians was something Wes could already see himself coming to regret.

"Sure did," Wes answered. "Got her side of the story... what's this about you not being able to run? And since when are you not the best shot at SGH?"

"Since Taylor's name came up for the piloting position," Eric retorted. "Did you ask her?"

"Yes," he said with a smile, rather enjoying Eric's impatience. "I mentioned it to her. She's thinking about it."

There was the briefest hesitation from the other end of the line. "She's killing me," he heard Eric mutter. "That's what she's doing."

"She doesn't want to stay on the base any more than you want her there," Wes said carefully. Reassuring Eric was a difficult and occasionally dangerous job, since he was as likely to take offense as be comforted. "She just needs a reason to leave."

"Yeah, and apparently I can't give her one." Eric sounded thoroughly disgusted, which Wes had come to realize was his way of disguising hurt.

"Eric..." He glanced over his shoulder automatically, but the office door was closed. "Would she be enough for you, if your positions were reversed?"

There was nothing but silence from the phone.

"Look," Wes said finally. "Get some rest. We'll all catch up tonight, okay?"

"You send Taylor home?" Eric wanted to know.

"I have even less authority to order her than I do you," Wes countered. "I let her go wherever she was going. She said something about a shower."

Eric grunted. "Not the Animarium, then." There was a pause, then, "Well, what do you know. Look what the cat dragged in."

Wes frowned, but before he could ask, Eric added, "Eagles don't drag. They devour. You of all people should know that."

Comprehension dawned, and Wes couldn't suppress a grin. "Company?" he inquired politely.

"Later, Wes." There was a click, and the line went dead.

Wes replaced the phone with a sigh, wondering why he had been surprised. "Opposites attract." Sure. More like "identical forces converge."

Jen gave him a bemused look, and he just shook his head. "Taylor broke more than the speed limit to get to his house in that amount of time," he remarked, by way of explanation.

"Magical travel," Jen guessed, looking back at the computer. "A thousand years from now and we still haven't figured that out."

"Speaking of which." Wes folded his arms, giving the personnel files on his desk a speculative look. "Think there's any way to get Merrick to stick around?"

"Ask Princess Shayla," Jen said absently. "She's the one who sent him away the first time."

Curious, Wes frowned in her direction. "What did she say to you in the future? About why she wanted to help, I mean? The Wild Force team wasn't the only one we could have asked to back us up."

Jen didn't look up, but she raised her eyebrows at the computer screen pointedly. "Would you have wanted anyone else?"

He considered that from every possible angle. "No," he admitted after a moment. "But that doesn't answer the question."

Jen paused, finally, tearing her eyes away from the computer and fixing her solemn look on him. "She said she didn't want to be alone."

Oh. He didn't look away. He didn't like it when she got that wistful expression on her face, the faraway look in her eyes that said she was thinking of a future he would never see. No matter how close she was, it made him feel very...

Alone.

The princess wasn't the only one who didn't like that feeling.

"Wes," Jen said quietly. "I have to tell you something."

He forced a smile. "I'm not sure I like the sound of that," he teased, making an effort to keep his voice light. He didn't like her timing, either. He knew she couldn't stay forever. Unless she was leaving tomorrow, though, he didn't really want to be reminded of it.

She couldn't be leaving tomorrow. He almost stopped breathing as the thought occurred to him, but Jen wasn't giving him that look. He could read her expressions very well by now, and this wasn't the "you know I have to do this" look. In fact, this wasn't any look at all--she was fumbling with her coat, pulling something from the pocket where it was draped over the back of his chair.

"Captain Logan did some research," she said, keeping her voice low. "I don't know when, or how long he's known. But he told me this morning, when it looked like the temporal effects might be permanent."

"Told you what?" Wes wanted to know. Or, he thought he wanted to know. Yeah, he was pretty sure. She looked... focused. Not worried, not upset or resigned... just, like she suddenly knew something she had suspected all along.

Jen stopped playing with the plastic card in her hand and held it out to him. "Recognize her?" she asked, intent gaze fixed on him now.

He looked down at the holo-ID. It was one of the blank ones that all Time Force officers carried for fingerprinting or "carding" witnesses. And suspects, when the need arose. But this one wasn't blank anymore--it displayed a holo of a woman, maybe middle-aged, long brown hair shot through with silver as it fell in waves over her shoulders. With wide brown eyes and an upturned nose...

Wes lifted his gaze to the woman standing in front of him, searching her face for the age he saw in the holo. "It's you," he said softly.

Jen nodded once. He looked back at the holo, noticing that the hard glint in her gaze had softened to a twinkle, and there were laugh lines around her eyes. It was an amazing vision to have, and he couldn't quite get his mind around it. His attention finally shifted to the name at the bottom of the card.

"Jaycee Collins," he read aloud. He looked up, frowning slightly. "Jen?"

"Jen Collins," she said with a tentative smile. "JC. At least, that's what I'm guessing. I must have needed a new identity, at some point."

"But..." She had married him. She... would marry him? It must be even more confusing for her, existing as she did in two times almost simultaneously. On the other hand, she had been trained for it. He tried not to think too much about the future, other than as a sort of distant planet from which orders and reinforcements sometimes came.

"Something's going to happen, Wes." She sounded almost like she had already seen it. "Not this time. This time Eric and Taylor came back, and they brought the crystal with them. But sometime... someday we won't be so lucky.

"I don't know when," she said quietly, "and I don't know how. But something will happen, and I'll be stuck here. I'll be sent, or I'll run, or... I don't know. All I know is that this--"

Jen reached out and tapped the card in his hand. "This is me," she told the card. "And it's not me in 3023." She looked up at him intently. "It's me twenty years from right now."

He stared back at her, his thoughts refusing to resume their normal speed. "So... you--you will...?"

"I'm going to stay," she finished for him. Then she added hastily, "Not now. Not anytime soon, as far as I can see. Time Force is my life, and I'm not going to turn my back on it just because of some old hologram. But... someday--"

"Someday really will come," he murmured, staring down at the card like it might revert to blank plastic if he looked away long enough. "Jen... I wondered. I did wonder."

"Me too," she admitted softly. "I know, we always say we can make our own destiny..."

"But how often do we really believe it?" he suggested dryly. Lifting his gaze to hers again, he smiled. "I'm looking forward to someday, Jen."

"I'm still enjoying today," she informed him. "Careers before family, Wesley Collins."

"Oh, now there's family? My father will be thrilled." He smirked at her. "Do you know that for a fact, or are you just anticipating?"

"I don't know anything," she insisted. "Except that," she added, pointing at the card again. "But we both have jobs. We're lucky we get to see each other at all."

"That's the depressing way of looking at it," he complained, hitching one hip up on his desk and leaning back.

"Only if the glass is half empty," she countered. "I won't leave Captain Logan in the lurch, and you wouldn't abandon the Silver Guardians either. We'd have to, right now, if we were going to evade the Force from the future."

"You think they'd hunt you down?" he asked, suddenly serious. "After Logan showed you this picture?"

Jen hesitated. "I think it depends on the circumstances," she admitted after a moment. "There are people who have disappeared into the past with the blessing of the Force. But if I gave it all up, right now? I'm not sure I'd have it."

"Something will happen," he repeated, tapping the card with his index finger. "Something's going to happen. In the meantime..."

"In the meantime," she said firmly, "the glass is half full."

He grinned at her insistence. "All right. The glass is half full. I get to keep my job with the Guardians--not to mention my good relationship with my father--and hopefully prevent Eric and Taylor from tearing this place apart from the inside. While you..."

Wes considered her speculatively, but he couldn't resist. "Looks like there's time for Time Force after all, hmm?"

She almost giggled before she caught herself. He heard it in the breath that escaped as she rolled her eyes. "Cute," she told him. "Very funny. Get back to work."

"I'm at work," he pointed out, holding out his hand to her. "With my beautiful bride-to-be--"

She yelped indignantly as he caught her fingers and pulled her closer. "Bride-to-be?" she demanded. "Don't you think you're getting a little ahead of yourself?"

"You've got a thousand years on me," he reminded her, stepping away from the desk and drawing her into his arms. "I'm just trying to catch up."

She leaned into his kiss without further protest, bridging a gap between them that was more than just space. The holo-ID slipped from his fingers, landing on top of the personnel files on his desk: one more face in the pile, one more story already in progress. It wasn't the history, or the records, or even the names that mattered... it was the experience. The experience they shared.

They were neither of them alone.