Zee and Todd

Mori:

Mori wasn’t in a talking mood to Quinn the next day. They had gotten into some stupid argument the other night and both were still quite ticked of each other. Quinn had the morning off and he was already up and dressed to go work out at the gym. To avoid talking she went automatically to get ready. By the time she was dressed in her work clothes, he was gone.
Mori was dressed in a pencil skirt with a nice tank top and was hooking on a nice necklace as she walked to the kitchen. She called out to Zee to get up as she grabbed a breakfast sandwich to go. Zee didn’t answer so Mori quickly walked back to her room and knocked on her closed door.
“Sweetie! Make sure not to sleep the day away,” Mori called opening Zee’s door a crack.
Zee didn’t stir from her bed and Mori shook her head with a smile. She walked next door to Jack’s room and saw that his door was locked. Mori knew that she had to get going, so she left Jack alone. Her motherly intuition was telling her that she should stay and talk to him, but being late for her job was never a good thing. Her boss wasn’t so nice especially since she was his go to gall for snooping and getting facts for the paper.
Mori grabbed her bag, purse, two cell phones and keys and ran off to the garage saying that she loved Zee and Jack. She heard a moan from Zee’s room and Mori left to her car. Jack’s car was in the drive way in its usual parking spot. She didn’t remember him coming home last night. Zee didn’t look that happy so she wondered if something happened between the two. She shook her head and focused on the job she had to get to.

After parking in the city parking garage and climbing two flights of stairs, in heals, and crossing over a moving walk way to the large news building, she was feeling hungry again. Her secretary then came running up to her, taking her bag and handed Mori her coffee.
“Good morning, Stacy,” Mori said to the young woman, “what’s new this morning?”
“Well, the mayor is finally having that press conference today about running for senate, there was some strange fish found in the river today, those masked mischievous gang “Tracers” have been spotted again down by-”
“Stacy! I meant with you!” Mori laughed sipping her coffee.
Stacy smiled placing her hand over her mouth in embarrassment. She didn’t tell Mori much, but it didn’t matter since she was stopped by her boss.
“Thank you, Stacy,” he said as she left to take Mori’s things to her office.
Mori’s boss was a balding man with gray hair. He had been in this business for a long time and wasn’t going to stop when newspapers were losing their touch. Everything was electronic, and telecasted to the world instantly. Their city was one of the firsts to actually get the news live on the cell phone reception in the city. Most kids, like Mori’s, hated the news and actually got Quinn to block the reception on their phones so that they didn’t have to hear it.
Mori followed the man as he was talking again about how the youth of the world don’t appreciate the news and stuff. Mori sort of toned him out. She kept feeling as if she needed to go talk to Jack. Every step she took in her uncomfortable heals just kept telling her to go home, go back to bed, and forgive her husband. She wondered if this was just about Quinn but she was interrupted by her thoughts.
“So I want you to tour our new intern around the office!” her boss said with a smile.
They were at his office looking in to see a young man about twenty five waiting patiently in the office. He got up out of his seat and Mori’s boss and he shook hands.
“Moria I would like you to meet, Xavier, a student from the university here in town. He is interested in learning more about the levels of the news here. And I want you to show him around.”
Mori shook the man’s hand. He had a firm hand shake and was quite handsome. Mori smiled sweetly and asked if she could talk to her boss alone. The man understood and the boss and her walked out of the office. Her look changed to a “seriously” look and a scowl on her face.
“I’m sorry, sir, but I have no time to baby sit a new possible recruit to the business. Can’t you get Stacy to show him around? Or any of the other workers? I have to get down to that press conference and set up with the others!”
“This won’t take that long, Moria, besides, he could be your next partner on those trips of yours.”
Mori sighed and walked back in the office. She told Xavier to follow her and she left her boss’s sight. She showed him around the offices on the floor they were on. The small cubicles were all located in the center while the larger ones were on the outer sides of the floor. They had big windows all around that lit up the large open room with the rising sun. Moniters were located all around the room and they passed by several conference rooms.
Xavier asked random questions about the company and Mori answered them quickly. She showed him around the other floors and then the top floors of where the news was filmed. The sets were busy with people and the show that was airing now was currently on break.
“I would have never thought that a woman like you would ever rise to such a company,” Xavier said as Mori guided him behind the scenes, “to think that you were just once an annoying kid taking pictures.”
Mori placed her hands on her hips about to tell the story of a young working mother rising to the tops of a company when she realized that no one really ever knew that she loved photography. Mori doubted if her kids, before they went into the past, even knew that she used to run around with a camera and take pictures of every part of her life. She turned around to see Xavier. That feeling from before came back. The feeling that she should have just stayed home today.
Suddenly, Xavier changed in front of her eyes. He was no longer the handsome young man, but an older gentleman with graying hair and a crooked smile.
“Carter…” she said backing up, “What…”
“What am I doing here?” he smiled, “trying to get you and your brother out of my hair for a little while.”
Mori wondered if anyone noticed the man. He was different unlike the others, especially the way he dressed. She turned briefly to see the workers behind the scenes getting ready to continue to show the live news. They didn’t seem to even notice that they were there. It was as if they were invisible. She turned back to Carter and he moved his hands around in a certain manner. Suddenly the ground underneath Mori started to sink. She felt herself being pulled down into a black sticky goop that reminded her of ink.
The first thought, oddly, was that the black goop was destroying her nice clothes, but she then realized that she was sinking. The more she struggled, the more she continued to sink. She looked up feeling her arms being pulled down and her whole body too. Carter was there watching her sink. He gave a crooked smile, a slight wave, and turned around to leave.
Mori didn’t know what was going on, or where she was sinking too, but if Carter was the cause, then this was bad. Soon the black goop was over her head and she couldn’t see anything. She felt as if she was in a dream, falling and falling down in a hole. She couldn’t scream and the pressure became too intense. She then closed her eyes and heard a familiar voice.
“Mori! Mori wake up!” Quinn cried.
Mori opened her eyes slightly and saw her husband at her side with a scared look on his face. He was wearing something strange and was so glad to see that she was alright. He hugged her tightly and thanked God that she was alright.
“Mom!” Zee called running into the room with Todd close behind, “Mom thank goodness you’re awake! Uncle York isn’t waking up yet either!”
All of them were wearing strange clothes. Mori looked down to see herself even wearing something strange. She pushed off the bed she was sleeping in and followed her family to York’s room. Just as she entered he was just waking up with Gretta by his side. Mori hugged her brother as he too was confused.
“What is going on?” York asked looking to Quinn who shrugged.
“We had found you all sleeping in the middle of a road on a rainy night,” a voice called behind the families.
They all turned around and saw a young man, no older than eighteen, standing in the door way. He had nice clothes on of the time period that they were in, and his red hair flipped to the side in an fashionable manner of the time. He was quite handsome and Mori could see Zee’s look of approval on her face.
“And who are you, sir?” Mori asked standing up to see the young man.
He bowed slightly and looked up to them all, “My name is Louis Cassidy. Please, will you join my father and mother for dinner? We can discuss your arrangements there.”