"...Danger room."

Those two words together just made her think of a room full of knives, or running chainsaws.

"... Well that sounds like something I'd do, at least. Maybe I didn't change as much as I thought I had."

Three and a half?! Jeez! "We were together for a few years then... Sorry. Again, for... Being flakey I guess."

His comment about Jr, her... Child, dragged a small laugh out of her. "Clarence?! No way! That sounds like something my dad would have chosen. That or Giles. Saphirus Jr sound much better in comparison. Pfft, Clarence."

Marrying in Vegas sounded like her too. She'd never been a Glitz and Glory kinda girl, so something fun and quick was right up her alley. "Did we drive or fly? I've always wanted to road trip across the states and that sounds like a perfect excuse."

An idea hit her right then, "oh! Do you have any more pictures or...or videos of us? I wasn't able to find much on older me online. It be... Neat to see it. Like... How I was before."

"You don't- Oh, yeah, right, memories. Danger room.. eh... Magic box that makes holograms of hard light... Anything can be made in it. You asked me to marry you in outer space. Planets and everything."

He looked over to her as she apologized for being flaky. "Yeah, a little over four...It's not your fault. Like you said... You were alone and confused and stuff."

He smiled as she reacted to Clarence. "Yep, that was Collin. You liked it, though. Then again, you'd do anything to make your dad smile after... uh..." @#$%in idiot. Let's remind her of the worst experience of her life over and over again. Brilliant.

"We drove. You really wanted to. Best week of my life." He took a good look at her; it was the first time he'd managed to just... look at her, without feeling the need to turn away, or glance to the side. She almost seemed excited, didn't she? To see herself, older, with him. He didn't know what to make of it.

"Oh, eh, yeah. You tended to put a lot up on MyFace... But I would get you sleepin sometimes. Always liked how peaceful you looked when you slept." He dug for his phone, before paling a bit when he realized he left it in the car... across town. "Uh... Phone's not on me, though... Sorta... Came here in a hurry." Didn't want her to just into a painting... like this, he supposed.

"Got more of JR... Sorta been taking a lot more since you disappeared. Wanted you to see him growin..."

The idea of a magic box that could make.. projections? Oof, yeah, that went right over her head. She could tell he wasn't lying to her though, so... thoughts for another time.

"Yep, that sounds like me. I love the space. Have I already subjected you to all of the various facts and space puns I know?" If she had, that would be disappointing.

"You've met him then? My dad? I tried calling the number he used to have when I first woke up because I figured he and my mom would be able to help make sense of everything, but it was disconnected. Never was able to track him down."

...She couldn't help but wonder what might have been different if she had been able to talk to him.

"I did? I didn't know I had one. I wasn't able to unlock the phone I woke up with." She didn't have it on her, either. It was at home in a drawer by her bed just... waiting.

Fishing her own, new phone out of her pocket, she hopped onto the Myface app that had come already on the phone to try and search herself up.

"... Do you wanna go back and-"

An unholy shriek interrupted her as the monster from the lake finally hauled itself up over the cement ledge, and the huge monstrosity started scrambling toward them with wet, squelching steps.

"Oh, hey, it worked! Time to go!" She reached out to try and grab Saph.

"Yeah, you still do... Wanted to paint JR's room all planets and stuff. I uhh... Yeah, you say that stuff to me. Most of it sorta goes over my head, I guess. I like space and all, but I gotta lot here that takes up most of the space in my head, y'know?"

He raised an eyebrow when she asked if he'd met her dad. "Yeah, yeah, he's watching JR right now. I woulda gone insane if Collin hadn't been there. He's here, you know? He moved into town about a year ago." Collin was going to cry when he saw her. The guy was a big softie.

Not that Saph hadn't come close a couple of times already. "Yeah, you got one. It's got your art and videos and stuff on it. I dont really use mine a whole lot, bein honest. Time and all."

He watched her pull out her phone. "Heh... When I saw mine as a kid, It just confused me. Didn't know phones would ever look like that back then."

She started to say something, but a giant monster appeared. As she reached out to grab Saph, she would see him a good fifteen feet away from her, and toward the beast, hobblesprinting at impressive speed as he pulled back a fist, launched himself forward, and swung with all of the might he'd gotten from falling from the sky to land in front of her.

THUD! .... SPLASH!

He knocked the giant monster into the lake once more, standing toward the edge and staring into the water intimidatingly for a long moment. "What was that? Oh, right, yeah, we can go grab my phone and car... I left it on fifth and franklin."

Well.

Ooookay then. She was going to have to re-work some of the monsters in her defensive paintings. Saph could one hit her current renditions of scary monsters.

Shelby hadn't moved from the bench and was instead turned around and peeking at him over the back. She had a lot to think about. what them finally meeting meant, what eventually meeting her son would mean... that her dad was in New York and she'd finally be able to see him again.

It was a lot to process and she really didn't have a choice anymore.

"oh, yeah, I could get us there. Unless you wanna talk and walk."

She stood, tucking her paintbrush away in her pocket, and waited for an answer.

As he returned to his... wife? Not wife? Technically, she never married him, but he'd definitely married her, he had a sort of wide smile on his face. He clearly liked hitting things to some degree.

"Oh, uh, sure, if you want to take us there. you, eh.. You can?" He looked around, somewhat confused by her statement. She knew how to travel long distances now? That was new... That explained why she'd been so hard to pin down...

"Yeah, I'm game! I'd love to see what you can do!" He smiled a bit, walking up to her, stopping himself from reaching out to drape an arm over her shoulder. Muscle memory was a weird thing, but he was in charge of his own faculties enough to know that she wouldn't be expecting any contact, and might not be comfortable with it.

Damn, he really couldn't get over how strange this all was. His wife was right in front of him. She looked at his face like he was pretty much a stranger. What was he supposed to do? He couldn't just... expect things to go back the way they were. Take it slow. Find out the game plan.

Take a breath.

He... was actually quite good-looking when he grinned like that.

She felt a little jolt of something she didn't quite understand and tried to shrug it off. No time to dwell!

"Gonna have to take my hand though." She offered him her left one, keeping her dominant hand free.

Once she had a grip on him somehow, she'd head them off toward the entrance frame for the other artists' work.

One pop later they were in a much more realistic park setting, probably in oils, with a replica of her sitting a dozen feet away painting. The paint!Shelby was humming some tune she had never heard while going through the motions of putting more color on the painted canvas.

Shelby spotted a few more paintings around the rim of the world and headed for one that looked like a patch of street art on a city wall.

They moved through seven different spaces, each artistically different from the last, before popping out of one on the same street he had mentioned, 5th, with his abandoned car in sight.

"That it?" She dusted a bit of chalk from one shoulder, from a quick trip through a mural of a Holi festival.

He saw something in her expression as he walked back up from the short confrontation with the monster. Something that made him pause for a half second. It was that, 'I'm into you right now' sort of look that he'd grown to know meant good times were near over the years... But in this situation it was oddly unsettling. He set his jaw, and walked onward.

"No Problem." He took her hand. It wasn't like it was anything, right? She just needed to use her powers, that's all.

Pop! Woah. They were back? No, not quite. It was... a painting of the park? They'd moved to another art piece? He looked around questioningly as he realized that there was another her here. Someone had been painting her? He felt his hackles raise for a second before taking a the quiet breath. Why would he be mad about that?

They moved on, and what followed felt like a strange dangerroom session of a sort. When had she learned to walk from painting to painting? That's what he gathered was going on here. It was like... some sort of dimensional travel.

Pop! They were out on the street again. The real, honest city street. He took a breath, scanning the surroundings for a moment before nodding at the sight of his car. "That's the one." He let go of her hand.

Walking up, he couldn't help but open the door for her. Force of habit. "So... to the house? Do you... want to meet Jr?"

He confirmed it was the car and she paused, gaze going a bit distant for a moment. Wait, how had she known that? Was.... was it a good guess or...

Had she recalled it?

She blinked and shook herself a bit. He was talking. Oh @#$% what had he said?!

"Uh." She eyeballed the open door to his car like it would bite her. Where were they going? The house?

...oh.

THE house.

Well shit.

"I... need to go grab my easel and paints if we are leaving." Yeah, that was a good excuse as any to pop away for a moment and collect... her... thoughts? Sure.

Against her better judgment, she reached up to unclasp her necklace with one of the little painted pendants she always wore.

"Here, hang onto this for a moment? So you know I'm like... coming back and stuff." She held it out awkwardly, blushing on habit alone, and then awkwardly pointed a thumb back at the wall art they had popped out of. After a touch and a Pop! she was on her way back toward the park.

She was gone for five minutes as she gathered everything up, and maaaaaaybe spent a few of that panicking.

Unbeknownst to her he had gotten in his car and started driving at some point.

So, when she finally decided to go along with his offer, she popped back into painting space and headed for the locket. Which... was further away than before? sure felt like it. Like... a couple blocks away. Was... he moving?!

She finally managed to tag the exit frame to her locket and Popped! back out beside him.

... Only he was in his car and driving.

She squawked like an outraged parrot as she appeared above the middle console of the Prius and fell, rolling into the backseat in a flail of limbs and painting supplies.

A wet canvas landed neatly in his lap.

"You LEFT!?"

There was a pregnant pause after he asked about heading to the house. She'd stared off into space. Aw Crap. She wasn't ready, was she? He'd scared her off. Shelby stated she needed to get her paints.

He frowned a bit, and nodded slightly. As she unclasped her necklace, he rubbed the back of his neck, and looked down at his car's dashboard through the window. Aw, crap, he'd gotten a ticket. He looked up to take the necklace. The piece she was leaving him to, what, remember her by? Like he could forget... No, that was her job.

He sighed as she disappeared into the wall once more. Why didn't he stop her? A long sigh preluded his arrival at the notion that he was also terrified of all of this.

How could be blame her for leaving?

After standing there a couple of minutes, he took a deep breath, and turned to climb into the car. Speeding off at his usual speed, he started toward the house. Colin would be there with Jr. He needed to see them right now.

Pop! "SH#@!" He swerved a bit as she appeared in on the center console and spilled a wet painting on him, barely correcting course in time not to go over the curb.

"I left?! You left! You even gave me a memento!" Wait, so she hadn't ghosted him?! Oh #@%^! He'd ghosted her! @#$%in @#$^! What an @#$hole!

He tried to pay attention to the road as he tossed the painting to the side, looking at the wet paint in his lap. "crap..."

A ruffled head of pink hair popped up from the backseat, with newly splashed paint on her cheeks. "Memento? It's an exit! I gave you a portal so I'd pop back out right beside you, ya dummy!"

Leaving her paints scattered for the moment, she scrambled into the front passenger seat and sat, buckling herself in and huffing with her arms crossed. "I was gone for like five minutes! Jesus![/color]

After a momentary grump, she switched to trying to wipe the drying paint off her face, and then notice the paint all over him.

"Oh, crap, sorry!" The urge to lean over and try to wipe it up with something was, uh... there, but it was also like all over his crotch so THAT was definitely not happening.

"I can help you get that out at the house! Do... you have Acetone? Did I have Acetone? I probably had Acetone." This was weird. Super weird. Trying to guess what her older self had done or owned was just... ugh.

Though, the fact that he was now splotched in various places with swirls of what used to be grass and bushes... was kinda funny.

She may have giggled a bit and tried to cover it by looking out the window and covering her mouth.

"Well how the @#$% am I supposed to know that?! An' don't call me a dummy! Anyone woulda thought what I thought!" He swerved a little as he looked to her, raising his voice just a little as he stepped onto the defensive. He corrected quickly again, gritting his teeth again.

"Oh, come on, alright! It was a misunderstanding!" He shook his head. Jesus, he was covered in paint. He looked down a few times. Greens, golds, blues. Awesome. Just awesome. It was drying super fast on him, too. Obviously it was a bad sign that he'd driven away on her, but he thought... What did he think? That she was just as afraid as he was, maybe.

She started asking him about cleaning supplies. How was he supposed to know about any of that?! He wasnt' the artist, she was. "Acetone? I don't even know what that is. You got paint cleaning stuff there, yeah. Can- Can you just wait with the questions? I gotta @#$%in landscape on my goddam crotch, here, and I gotta focus on drivin."

He could tell when she was trying to hold back a laugh. He knew her. Well, not her, her, but HER!

"It ain't funny. I don't got a lotta clothes like you do." He grumped something fierce as he took a turn at just a little faster than one should. He didn't seem to mind or notice, considering he always drove like this.

It... was getting harder not to outright laugh at the absurdity of it. He was speeding, and constantly checking the drying paint on his... on him and was grumpy as all hell about it too.

"Do you get a lot of momentoes from people? Is that a common thing this day and age? I thought that was just a thing that happened in old poetry books when lovers were fated never to be together, or one of them was gonna go die."

"Can- Can you just wait with the questions? I gotta @#$%in landscape on my goddam crotch, here, and I gotta focus on drivin."

The dam burst. She started giggling uncontrollably. A landscape on his crotch! Pfft!

Side note, potential future piece title there.

"Sorry, sorry! It's not like I meant to appear in the middle of your car and spill stuff on you! That's just where you dropped my pendant."

Speaking of, she reached out to snag that necklace back and slip it back on. Always helped to have an exit close by if she needed one.

Shelby instinctively reached for the Ohshit handle as he took a turn a little fast, gripping the edge of her seat with her other hand.

"I think your pants look better like that anyway. Sure beats car grease stains."

She tried to take note of street names and numbers as they passed them by, creating a map that probably wouldn't stick in her head for... well, escape reasons really. As she did so a bit of the mirth died off and she was left with questions. Endless questions. Her... her life was gonna be like that for a long while, wasn't it?

"So... uh... when did we decide to have Jr.?" She didn't look back at him yet, finding it easier to ask while watching the world pass outside.

"No I don't get a lot of- What kinda f$#%in question is that? I just thought- It doesn't matter what I- GET THE #@$% OFF THE ROAD GRAMA- some of the people they let drive in this city- I just- I thought it was somethin... @#$%in you would do." He shook his head as he swerved around an old lady driving five under the speed limit. He definitely gave her the finger.

Was she? He looked to her, then the road, and back and forth a few times rapidly. She was laughing at him. What was funny about this? "Well, I dunno, be more careful next time!" He caught her grabbing the oh shit handle and rolled his eyes a bit. She commented on his pants. "My pants looked just fine before, and they're gonna look just fine after you get all this off of them." He muttered as he changed lanes to pass another person.

She asked when they decided to have Jr. He bluescreened, shaking himself out of it quickly. "C'mon, I said no questions yet, alright? I mean it. How'm I gonna answer something that complex with alla this goin on while I'm driving?" She shook his head again.

#@$% he was just so grumpy! It was almost like all of this tension was something he naturally channeled into aggression as his coping mechanism, which worked well when he could just go out and fight criminals to blow off steam, but here? All he could do was squirm. He hadn't felt like this in years. Not since... Not sice Andrea had gone missing what? Ten years ago, and he knocked down the golden doors of the sancutary to get her back.

And here he was, sitting feet away from his beautiful wife, who didn't know him, and was making fun of him. @#$%.

Goodness gracious, he was really bad at driving. Almost to a concerning degree. He flipped an old lady off and Shelby craned her neck to see the older woman's reaction, which was to clutch at her chest and swerve abruptly.

....Maaaaybe this hadn't been a great idea.

"That sounds like we are assuming I am going to be randomly popping into your car mid-drive some more after this?

He.., didn't answer her question about the child and her head finally turned to face him, brows pinched and lips set in a flat line. Complex? He'd used the word complex. What did that mean?! Why was it COMPLEX?!

"I mean... maybe if you slowed down you wouldn't have such a hard time concentrating on both the road and the question at the same time? You're going like 15 miles over the speed limit right now."

Huffing, she fiddled with her pendant absently.

"...What else are we supposed to talk about if I'm not allowed to ask questions?"