This was strangely familiar. I thought as I looked around. Last time, I was transported into a sea of green grass. Here I am in the actual sea. In any case, I was lucky enough to be on a boat at least. But this dingy-looking thing was a fisherman's boat. Not something that could withstand the outrage of the sea on a bad day.

What the hell happened to me? I looked down at the dragon scale. It was still as beautiful as before but it no longer thrummed with power. It was just an empty husk. I slipped it into my space and walked around the boat's rusty, dirty-looking places.

This was the first time I'd genuinely been out to sea. I had yet to use the ferry system to get to Alcom's Cove or go on a boat. It was pretty cool. The sea also smelled, and I made a face at the stench.

No one was manning the boat up top, but what if someone was below deck? How could I explain showing up dry as dust on their boat in the middle of the sea?

I ran through possible excuses as I went to the deck below to the cramped bottom floor of the boat. A man was lying on the bed, taking up half the cabin's space.

"Excuse me." I said, sounding casual and nonthreatening, "I was just wondering if you knew where we were? I landed here by accident and…" I trailed off as the man sat up to look at me. There were bandages on his face, covering his eyes and arms. He looked like he'd been through battle.

What was most shocking, however, wasn't any of that. It was the fact that it was Adam.

Against any delayed rational thinking, I dove for the man, saying his name repeatedly. "I was so scared, Adam," I told him. I tried to delicately give him a hug, wondering how badly he was damaged.

Maybe I'd been teleported to part of whatever trial Acuzio had given him. Adam came back smelling like the sea after all. I kissed his lips and hissed an apology when his eye wrapping started falling. His lips stiffened under mine, and I pulled away, hands up in an apology. "I'm sorry. Did I hurt you? How did this even happen to you? What if it scars?" I fussed over his face and possible scars as I held his face in my hands. His free dark brown eye stared at me, filled with bewilderment.

Adam was strangely frozen and unresponsive this entire time. Even with part of his face hidden, I would recognize Adam anywhere, so I got rid of the slight fear uncurling from my stomach pit.

Did he lose his memories again, then?

Before he could say anything, his eyes rolled, and he collapsed. I rushed forward to catch him, and gravity tumbled us into the bed. Thanks to a Belgian hospital show Grandpa Evans loved, I knew how to find Adam's carotid artery to check for a pulse. His breaths were too shallow to track, but his pulse was strong.

I pulled out what I needed to reset his bandages and looked over him. A handful of seconds, at best, passed in this fashion before he woke up.

Adam's dark, inquisitive eyes narrowed at the sight of me with suspicion. "Who are you?" His voice was rough from disuse and exhaustion, but it was Adam's.

"Wendy," I said as I wrapped his face. The nasty wound was doing what it could to heal. It looked like something acidic had hit his face. My fingers were gentle as I wrapped it tight. "You don't remember me?" My voice was relatively strong for the heartbreaking agony my chest was putting me through.

"How could I?" He said.

I pulled away to inspect my handy work. I didn't know what to say. The dragon scale was supposed to grant my greatest wish. I had wished to stop the meteor. Yet here I was. What if it had ignored me and instead granted a desire I'd been trying to put to bed.

My longing to go to the second timeline.

Adam didn't want me to, but I'd be foolish not to wish for it. I would like to see him on another timeline and maintain continuity in the future.

Shame colored my cheeks as I sat back. I must be in the second timeline with Adam. An injured one who was being patient with the strange woman he didn't know showing up on his boat and kissing him.

"I'm not Adam. My name is Rex." Adam's smooth voice, as always, was balm to my frazzled mind.

Liar. I thought, but I didn't say this out loud.

"You're not my Adam." My own words burned my mouth coming out. He was...just not yet. "You look like him, though."

"Half of my face is covered." He sounded incredulous.

But your voice wasn't. Your hands and lips felt the same. Seeing Rex in front of me brought regret to creation. I shouldn't have wished this, even if it meant it messed up our time in a strange time paradox.

"I met my Adam in a different timeline."

My use of the word timeline sparked something in him because he visually stiffened.

"I have to leave this world and get back to him." I stood up and left the room to climb the steps to the fishing deck.

I stared at the darkening sky and choppy waves. How was I going to make it back? Mordecai talked a big game about what I could do, but like everyone else in the family, he didn't explain it.

I closed my eyes and found my space. It came with me, luckily. Could I use my plant powers? The ocean was too deep and strange to find plants. My reach had grown, but that was on land. I held a hand over the water and attempted to find plant life.

"What are you doing? Adam's voice came from behind me, and I spun around to see him staring at me. His dark eyes had turned into a laser as he inspected me. He removed his bandages.

I made a face. "You shouldn't have removed those bandages since you're injured. The saltwater won't feel good on it."

"Wendy, what were you doing?"

"Trying to see if I could call upon any plants. I don't know if my power will be intact since landing here."

"What is your power?"

"Plant manipulation and premonition. I'm not good at the precog. I occasionally dream up warnings, but it's not reliable."

"That's it? That's all you can do?" Adam said this as he stepped forward with a rather strange expression. His hands came down on my shoulders, and he shook me. Why did this feel like an accusation?

"I have a dimension space," I said quickly. "I have your favorite food in it. I can give you some. This boat doesn't seem to have much." I wanted to bring up his space or anything I knew that proved I wasn't the average loon. But what if that made him more upset? It was better to leave before I made a bigger mess of things. Maybe I was just meant to say a few things to this Adam.

"I don't like food."

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"It's just substance. I know. I learned how to cook when we were kids, and you gave me feedback." As I said this, I looked into his eyes and reached up to push back a strand of hair that fell into his face.

His grip loosened on my shoulders, and he stepped back, dodging my hand a moment too late. Adam looked dizzy and pale. Why wouldn't he? He was injured, and some crazy woman was acting like she knew him.

Adam was too polite to tell me this, but his customarily controlled expression showed how he felt about me. He thought I was crazy.

A sliver of fear struck my heart as I looked at the mess I had created with just a few minutes with 'Rex.' What if I wasn't in the second timeline? Could I have gone someplace else? I'd grown complacent with Adam's kindness. He took whatever I said in stride and never judged me. This was not my Adam. This was Rex.

The not-so-gentle rocking of the sea took this opportunity to shake the boat even harder. Rex made a face, and I saw his face turn green with pain before he fell to his knees. I knelt down to check and maybe help him, but he pushed me off.

"I don't know who you are or where you came from, but you must leave." He spoke through gritted teeth and fierce, glowering eyes. If this were anyone else, I might have jumped into the sea and taken my chances in marine life.

This was Adam. Even if it wasn't my Adam. "No. Not when you're like this." The boat shook harder, and waves rose and crashed over the small boat.

With the waves, something washed up. Several somethings. I watched in horror as the ugliest and fattest toads were dropped on the deck of the boat. The goo that wafted off them did more than turn the stomach. It was melting everything it touched.

I didn't have to steal a glance at Rex to understand that this was likely what damaged his face.

I barely had time to register their existence before they were torn to shreds.

I did look at Rex now; it was better than seeing blood, gooey body parts, and death. Rex had his hands up. He was moving his fingers as a pianist might work their piano keys.

Each of his fingers twisted and warped space to slice the frogs up. There had to be at least one hundred slices per slimy frog.

Unable to stop my dumb, curious brain, I watched. It was too soon to feel safe before more frogs swarmed the boat.

Instead of just plopping on the deck as lazy lards, they opened their mouths to shoot acid. An involuntary scream escaped my mouth.

The frogs were erased much cleanly from reality this time. The spacial slices were wide enough to chop off the heads of the frogs so that they landed sideways.

And yet, despite so many fallen comrades, more frogs came on board. They seemed to have endless numbers.

I couldn't just sit on my ass; I had to figure out a way to help. So I stood up and pulled out two handfuls of seeds. I poured my energy into cracking them open. Luckily, I learned to do this all those years ago. I was still not very good at getting plants to be violent, but I could at least protect us from acid and keep the boat from getting too damaged.

But something strange happened to the sprouts in my palms. I watched, fascinated and horrified, as they melded into one another to form huge protective leaves that covered us. I didn't have time to look at Rex because that was when the lights went out.

"Wendy." Adam's voice tickled my face, and I smiled at the warmth it infused me with.

I opened my eyes to see his dark, liquid brown eyes looking at me affectionately. "Adam." I was lying down with my head in Adam's lap. We were sitting under the apple tree, and I could feel the sun's heat on my skin.

I reached up to touch his face, and he grabbed my hand. "I need you." I pulled his hand to my face and fought back the tears that wanted to form. This should have been a good moment, but my stupid emotions were getting in the way.

"I'm always here for you." He said.

"I'm scared," I said with a shaky voice.

"I'll protect you."

My sobs became muffled by his chest, and when his hand came down to pat my head, I only cried harder. "I wish this wasn't a dream, Adam."

"Last time you were sure it was." His voice was muffled, and I strained my ears to hear.

"This time, it has to be. I'm not with you anymore."

"Are you sure about that?"

His words were like cold water to my senses, and I closed my eyes. When I opened them again, I was sadly on a beach. The boat was nearby, but there was damage to it. Pieces of dead frogs decorated the remains of the poor vessel.

The part that Rex and I had been on was almost undamaged. I would like to know if the strange plant I grew was useful.

I scoured the sandy beach for it, but it was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Rex. I suppose he teleported away when he could.

I flopped back on the sand and rather pathetically. "I miss you, Adam," I said to the sky. It was strange to be alone on this beach. I was genuinely alone this time. It's been forever. Even during my emotional freakouts, there was someone nearby. I had the animals at home, including my friends and Adam. Even Mordecai hung out in my head and kept me company.

The breeze brushed over my skin gently, and it was sweetly lulling. The sky was bright blue and clear, as if the storm from before never occurred. It was remarkable how nature bounced back while we mortals were left to toil with the mess.

Given Rex's age, the meteor had already struck. If I were to look at the sky, I could calculate that enough time had passed for the space dust to pass as well. I began muttering calculations about the plot. I hadn't finished the book and regretted that for the millionth time.

I closed my eyes and looked through my space. How did I stock enough food to last a lifetime but forgot to store clothing? I was supposed to be at Evans's home, so I never thought about the worst case. Great.

I had some things stored; however, there were a few dresses I wanted to have on hand to change and a few lovely shawls. I needed jeans and something sturdy to move in. Not date clothing to match whatever Adam wore.

By the time I decided what to wear, my dress had dried in the heat, and it became a no-brainer to skip changing for now.

Besides, this dress tied me back to the last time I saw Adam.

While digging through my space, I found things that served a purpose other than what I wanted. I had The GPS phone Adam had given me, one of the lemon tart boxes, and a box of papers both of us had worked on over the years. I munched on the lemon tart as I went through the documents. The last lemon tart box Adam had given me had gone into the pile I had started stockpiling. I would find it eventually, but not today. I needed to savor these lemon tarts like our memories together. Like the memories, we worked hard together. Adam helped me grow my brain when it came to planning out farm stuff, but just in general, it was fun to work on his homework with him.

My brain, eager to escape, slipped into a memory of such a time.

I stood up, recalling Adam's words from that memory. Creating a timeline of events could help me maintain my sense of time and figure out my next move.

"Adam was right about creating timelines." I reached out my hand and, obliging, one of the trees extended a branch towards me. "Thank you," I said before snapping off a branch big enough for what I planned. I reached out with my energy to give back to the tree and watched as it receded away when I was done. I smiled as the branch that I took from grew back with some interest.

"Okay, the first thing that happened was when I entered this world." I used the stick to draw out my age after my initials.

"I met Adam, and thanks to him hitting me with the car, I was able to slip out of this world for a moment to go back home to get what I needed," I said with a snort as I drew the car that hit me. If Adam's car was a masterpiece, then mine was the scribblings done by a lab rat's tail after a drug experiment gone wrong.

I casually drew out the basics of my story with Adam with what I thought was witty commentary.

The nearby trees and plants were my only listeners, so it was a tough crowd. I skipped a good chunk of things, leaving out the sad memories like Gavin. And getting to the gritty stuff like our first night, his almost proposal, and my family shenanigans.

"Then I learned that this was all his third lifetime," I said softly, barely above a whisper. "How easily it all could have been erased by a choice. I would have run the other direction had he told me, Rexford."

Mapping out this timeline could help me explain what I needed to do in the second timeline, Rex. If he did fall in love with me, then we would be together in the future. That is assuming this is the second timeline. I should accept that because if it wasn't a second timeline, I would be a leaf in the wind of timelines with no tether.

"I can't see how to solve this problem. He thinks I'm crazy, and I don't blame him." I flopped back on the sand, ignoring that my painstaking drawings looked even more wild for it.

If I had finished the book, I might have known why Rex was alone in a boat with strange injuries and acid-spitting frogs on his tail. I hadn't, and he was nowhere to be seen to answer, not that he would. I lazily pulled the box of papers to me with the branch. I didn't have Adam or any pictures of him, damn dumb me left them in my room, but I had stacks of paper filled with his handwriting. I didn't need to be a literary witch to love that, just a girl in love. Holding these papers gave me the strength to not cry or give up. Eventually, I put them down to embrace the sadness overflowing my senses. I didn't want to ruin the pages with my snot and tears.

"It's not fair that he could be across the world by now with his powers. I should have kept my mouth shut and acted sane." I smacked the sand, forgetting to cover my eyes from the fallback. Predictively, I was slapped in the face with the coarse grains, and I had to take out water from my space to wash them out.

Even more time passed by the time I could blink comfortably, but by then, it was dark, and I was getting scared.

I should search the woods, look for Rex, and find shelter. But I found myself doing something far less productive. I pulled some blankets from my space, dug out a little hole for a bed, and crawled into it.

I wanted to sleep, and if lucky, I would dream of Adam again.