4.19
INT. NEIGHBOURHOOD CAFÉ - MORNING #19#
Weekday lull. Daylight washes the scratched tables. The espresso machine hisses; cups clink. A chalkboard menu, edges smudged. Plants crowd the window. The doorbell pings as someone leaves. Outside, bikes drift past.
On GRAHAM as he sips his cooling coffee; on the other side of the table, Hannah and Julia stare at him.
Why are Travellers always drinking coffee?
I can never tell whether it's my mind or my body that's tired. Don't you have that?
Julia and Hannah look at each other.
You said you knew Will.
Right. I understand he's been busy.
Hannah puts her hand on Julia's shoulder.
Why is this the first time we're hearing from you?
I was somewhere else. And he promised me he'd make things right.
Oh, he promised. That settles it, then.
Well, he hasn't. He's made things much worse.
So I gather. And making a lot more Travellers in the process.
Will? If he even got close to me, I'd...
Will turned me into a Traveller, I turned Julia.
I see. I have to apologise. Giving him powers was a mistake, in more ways than one. I knew he wasn't ready.
Is this the part where you tell us everything will be alright?
Alright? No, I'm afraid not. Those old timelines are gone. What you have now is the option to make a new one.
You don't seem enthusiastic.
(a beat)
My experience has been that changing things never ends well. But since Will already made his changes...
Tell us what to do.
Graham gets ready to grab a bottle of sugar.
Nuh-uh. Not the sugar again. Just tell us.
Fine. There is no way for you to restore the timeline. Will has made enough changes that even your original inflection points are now different, and anything you'd try and change, he will change again. However...
He lets the word hang in the air just long enough for Julia to interject.
Jesus Christ man, get on with it.
I can think of two ways. Hannah, before you got control of your powers, did Will take you anywhere?
He could do that because it was a time he'd already lived, and because you subconsciously showed him where to go. But there's another way. You can drag a Traveller through time with no orientation point. No compass. Such a person would be...
...Lost in time.
It's the equivalent of tossing someone out at sea. Even if you knew where you were, you'd keep flashing around until you found your anchor.
But?
But Will has been at this for a lot longer than you have. He'd find a way back and have his revenge.
More than he already has?
You see what he's done. I don't know what else he's capable of.
You said there was another way.
(a beat)
Will thinks he's invincible. You told me he burned his book. Without it, you have no clear navigation points to which you can travel in his life, times and places where you could get to his Traveller self.
Back when I met him, he was... different. I *could* take you there.
So what are we waiting for?
There's no way of doing this without getting more innocent people involved.
The way I see it, we're in this mess in the first place because of you.
You're right. But nothing's ever simple.
Seems simple to me. We scare the shit out of him. He leaves us alone. We get our lives back.
Even I don't really know what the world looked like before the first Traveller came along.
But you know something. Tell us.
It wouldn't change anything. And I've already said enough. I'll take you to Will. After that, you're on your own.
You have some nerve trying to keep your hands clean after everything that's happened.
Julia.
That was my life. My life. And it's gone because of you.
Yes.
(a beat)
I know what it's like. And I know with every moment we change, we lose ourselves a little more.
He puts the coffee cup aside.
I will take you into the past. You'll have to find each other. And then you'll have to find Will.
Where will he be?