Time to Say Goodbye

March 17, 2020 - afternoon.
Ernest releases his grip on the Bitendo Verse controller after Carmilla trounces him once again in a round of Bash Sisters. “Don’t go easy on me just because you’re a guest,” he says with a smile. It doesn’t last long, his face quickly falling into a more neutral expression. “Hey, I, uh, really appreciate you coming by yesterday and today. I kinda needed someone to keep me from hiding in my room all week? But I don’t want to take up all your time. Wouldn’t you rather be hanging out with Ellen or something?”
Tay grins and throws a cushion at him. "Nah dude. I hang out with her all the time. 'Sides, I don't sleep so I got like, a ton of time to fill." She puts down her controller. "It's kinda nice to be in like, an actual house, too. Broom closet gets a bit stale."
Ernest manages to block the cushion just before it catches him in the face. “Yeah, feel free to come over any time. The apartment’s been super quiet now that Timothy’s living in New York.” He glances down the hall at the closed door to Timothy’s room. “If you want another place to stay, we’ve got an extra bedroom now. My mom’s been kind of weird about supernatural stuff lately, but I could probably convince her.”
“I really don’t want to take your little brother’s room, that’s weird and don’t you need that for when he visits?” Tay frowns. “Wait, uh, does she like, know? That you invited me in? Me, a bloodthirsty vampire? A horrendous creature of the night?” She makes a Bluhhhhh face.
“Hey, a couple nights on a couch won’t hurt him,” Ernest shrugs. Alarm flits across his face as Carmilla brings up his mom knowing. “I think so? I mean, I didn’t ask about today specifically, but I must have mentioned you being a vampire at some point.” He does his best to mimic her expression, although the effect is lessened by his lack of fangs. “I’m like, technically still grounded from supernatural missions, but I never asked if supernatural teammates counted as part of that.”
"Huh. Why supernatural missions, specifically? She's fine with you fighting a mad scientist but not if there's ghosts involved?"
“She was at a bank when a bunch of ghosts showed up to rob it and we showed up to stop them and I guess it kind of freaked her out to see how dangerous being on Big Team actually is. And I know that missions without ghosts can be just as dangerous than missions with them, but I don’t really want to be grounded from all missions, so I haven’t brought that up.” Ernest shrugs. “Not, uh, not that I’ve stopped going on supernatural missions anyway.” He looks mildly guilty.
Tay laughs. "Hell yeah, fuck the ghost mission police. Man, isn't it weird that parents are always worried about this shit when statistically it's far more likely they get hurt than the actual hero? I mean," she quickly adds, afraid that she's being insensitive, "Not that that's a good thing either or anything I'm just saying like – ah, scheiße, that isn't helping is it."
Ernest looks over to her in surprise, unable to suppress a giggle. “You know, my mom swears in German too. Maybe you two would get along alright.” He sighs. “I don’t want her to worry about me, but putting yourself in dangerous situations is kinda the whole point of the hero thing.”
“Yeah. Yeah… Uh.” Tay looks down at the cushion she’s sitting on, bunching it up in her hands. Part of the fabric had started to tear where her nail touched them. Great, another thing I’ll have to apologize for after this. 
“About… hero things, I guess. Sort of. I, uh, have to tell you something. It’s pretty important.
I’m leaving.” She looks up at Ern, unsure of exactly how to phrase things. “Not now, but, like, uh, soon? Maybe? We don’t have an exact plan yet.”
“Oh.” Ernest picks up the controller again, fiddling aimlessly with the joystick. “I’m guessing ‘we’ is you and Ellen? I can get her not wanting to stick around Halcyon with all of her doubles running around here. Thanks for giving me a heads up, though.” He knows how tempting it can be to put off the goodbyes until they’re too late. “I’ll miss you, but you’ll like, keep in touch, right?”
Tay grimaces, a full face of teeth visible almost like a grimacing emoji. “Uh. Right, that might be tough. We’re… uh, going into the past? Like, where she came from?”
“What?” Ernest’s fingers slip and he accidentally starts the next match, the announcer’s booming voice splashing hot pink across his vision. He quickly powers down the console before turning back to stare at Carmilla. “You’ll be gone, gone then. Like Grim.” He pauses for a moment, thinking about the letters stashed in his desk that he can’t send. “You really want to go that much? I mean, I know you’ve been mad at Atlanta and that I’ve been kind of a bummer to be around lately, but it’s not all bad here, right?”
“Ern…. it’s not that I don’t like it here, or that I actively want to leave. I do and I don’t.” Tay’s face falls. She’d known it would be difficult, but she hadn’t expected to actually feel this guilty. Her ears lie flat on her head. “But…” She sighs. “I don’t want to lose Ellen, and… honestly, the moment I realized she was going to go back to her time, I realized I had already made up my mind to go with her.”
She drops her controller on the floor next to her and falls back, looking up at the ceiling. 
“I have a lot of my own reasons, too. There are so many things I could fix if I went back. I… can’t prevent my death or anything like that, but I can save my family’s, and my friend’s, and maybe countless others.
I will miss all of you a lot. I mean, uh,” she blushes a bit, “I say all of you but it’s like, you and Atlanta, let’s be real, nobody else really likes me too much. And I guess I’ll miss modern technology, as dumb as it sounds to miss a fucking iPhone.
But I still want to do it.”
“Hey, if other people don’t like you, they’re the ones missing out. You’re one of the coolest people I know.” Ernest nudges her with his elbow teasingly, but his tone becomes more serious. “You were one of the first friends I made on the Big Team. One of the first friends I made in Halcyon, really. I can’t say I don’t wish you’d stay, but it sounds like you’ve thought a lot about this. So like, if there’s anything I can do to make it easier, let me know?”
He hesitates, trying to figure out the best way to phrase the piece of advice that’s nagging at him. “Just.. be careful with the whole trying to change the past thing? I still don’t really get time travel, but one time we went back and tried to stop something bad from happening and just ended up being part of what made it happen instead.” His voice trails off as he becomes lost in thought, but he shakes his head to bring his attention back to Carmilla. “I get wanting to go back and fix things, though. And it’s probably possible if you do it right, but… just don’t go in thinking it’ll be easy. You’ll be fighting like, fate or whatever.”
Tay nods, sitting back up. “Yeah… I did think it through. More than I think I’ve ever thought about anything else. Deffo more than I thought about, uh…” She gestures at the bite marks on her neck. 
She nudges him back with a grin, then turns serious. “I don’t fucking know how time works, dude, I’ve accepted that I probably can’t ‘fix’ this timeline. And, like,” She laughs. “I don’t even really want to, because I’d stop existing? Maybe? But even if I only manage to change one thing in one timeline that isn’t this one or something that’d be better. And even if I don’t, I got Ellen.”
“Yeah, if there’s one thing that seems to be true about Ellens across all timelines, it’s that they’re all badass. You two will do great.” Ernest says encouragingly.
He leans back against the cushions, pulling his legs up in front of him, before asking, “You’re gonna tell Atlanta, right? I know we’re in the Angry at Verve Club and all, and I can’t really talk since I haven’t really spoken to her since finding out, but… I’ve made the mistake of skipping town without telling someone who cared about me and ended up really regretting it. And if you’re going to the past, it’ll be even harder to fix anything after you leave.”
“Yeah… I know.” Tay says, quietly. “We know.” She looks up at Ernest, turning to face him entirely. Her face is open and honest, with no trace of her usual sarcasm or jokery. “I talked about it with E, and we’re gonna tell her together. We gotta be honest, even if… it sucks balls.
Why are you so worried about it, though? You’re like an old veteran grandpa in a tv show with one eye being like ‘Don’t be like me kid, tell her you love her before she gets eaten by zombies…’. Did you travel through time? Are you from two thousand and seventy eight where you left behind a husband and four kids?” She grins. “A wife? A wifsband? Husfe? I got no clue what your preference is, tee bee H.”
“Oh, uh, no preference? Er, all preference might be a better way of saying it? I don’t really think about it too hard.” Ernest sighs in response to her teasing. “It’s less fun and dramatic than all that. But kind of, I guess. I didn’t tell my girlfriend that I was moving to Halcyon before we left New York City. Which, looking back was an awful idea, but for some reason it made sense to me at the time? I just don’t know how to talk to people when the only stuff to talk about is bad.” Which is why he hasn’t talked to Atlanta for the past few days. Or Boon, or even Melody.
“Woof, dude, you ghosted your girlfriend?” Tay grimaces. “You might not have time travelled, but that’s plenty bad. Like, no offense, but… sheesh.” Her face turns sympathetic. “I hope she was real angry at you, but… deffo looks like you learned that lesson.
I kinda get it though. Before I died my life was just a lot of bad news, and you just kind of pretended it didn’t happen, you know? Nobody visiting a sick kid in the hospital wants to hear about their seventeenth unsuccessful treatment, they’d rather hear about how school’s going.
Still, take your own advice. You gotta!”
Ernest hides his face between his knees. “I know it was pretty terrible. And yeah, she was pissed at me for months, which was fair.” He takes a deep breath before raising his head again to look at Carmilla. “I guess… I’ll try to talk to Atlanta tomorrow. If she wants to. I did kind of blow up at her last time.”
“Oh, dang, uh.” Tay stands up and walks over to Ernest, wrapping her arms around him as she sits down on the bed. “Sorry, dude, I didn’t mean to be harsh. It’s tough, but like... “ She pulls back to look him in the eyes, brows knit together in concern. “You’re really fucking brave, you know? And I don’t just mean for offering a vampire a place in your home,” she grins, “but like, everything. You got dealt a shitty fucking hand with your powers and still go out there all the time. I know you can do it. And I’m proud of you, man.” She ruffles his hair.
Ernest leans into the hug. “It’s alright. I should try to fix things before they get as bad.” He offers Carmilla the best smile he can manage at the moment, which is still rather strained. “Thanks. I don’t know if I’d still be doing it without knowing that people like you have my back. That’s a standing offer by the way. If you ever want to crash here, just let me know.” He picks up the controller from where he had placed it. “You up for another round?”
Tay grins widely. “Hell yeah, I’ll wreck you again.”
----
March 18th, 2020 - late at night.
Ernest sits at his desk, finishing up an entry in his journal. It’s been a long day, but Carm had been right about taking his own advice. He feels a lot better after talking to Atlanta and Melody. He’s about to turn in for the night when he hears a knock on his window and goes to open it.
Outside, flying in the night, is a single, tiny bat. Red eyes blaze above a tiny off-white cravat. The moment the window opens it flies in, depositing the backpack it was carrying on the floor before - poof! There stands Carmilla, wearing a button-up and jeans. “Morning! I, uh, thought maybe I would… take you up on your offer? Sorry for just dropping in.”
“Morning? It isn’t…” Ernest glances at the clock next to his bed. “Okay technically it’s the next day, but if it’s dark out it still counts as night.” He grins at Carmilla. “And absolutely! I think my mom’s asleep, so we can let her know in the actual morning.” He gestures for her to follow him into the hallway. “C’mon, I’ll help you get set up in Timothy’s room! He’s been a huge fan of you ever since I told him about how you bit that hippo at the funeral home and made it disappear, I bet he’ll be really excited to hear that you’re staying over.”
“It’s morning for me! You know, nocturnal and all that.” She laughs as she follows him, backpack slung over her shoulder. “Thanks. I, uh… I think we’re going to be leaving soonish, so I thought it’d be nice to… to spend some more time with you, I guess?” She drops the bag on the bed when they walk in, looking around at the room.
Unlike Ernest’s room, whose floor was covered with haphazardly scattered books and clothes, Timothy’s room is largely empty aside from a cup full of pens and pencils on the desk and a few posters for musicals left up on the walls. Ernest scratches the back of his head. “Thanks. I’ve always known you’ll have my back in like fights and everything, but just hanging out with me this week has really meant a lot. I probably would have let things get out of hand with everyone else if you hadn’t gotten me back on track. And if you’re leaving soon…” Tears start to burn in his eyes, but he smiles anyway. “I’ll have time to be sad after you’re gone. Let’s make the rest of your time in the now-Halcyon amazing, okay?”
Tay nods, and hugs him again.