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    Chapter 14

    tab "Hey, Tom..." I look at him from across the room. He's staring up at the ceiling, pacing back and forth across the room.
    tab "You mind if I call you that?" He stops, and looks at me.
    tab "Wouldn't have it any other way. Never did get situated with 'Mr. Jacobs'. That would probably be because--" He's abruptly interrupted by his own screaming upstairs.
    tab "You sure had a chaotic life," I comment, after the screaming dims down a bit. He sits on the couch with me, folds his hands, and starts a speech like a wise, all knowing father,
    tab "Well...Everyone has a climax in their life. But it's how we react to it that makes us heroes or villains." I nod, and then there's this weird silence. Neither of us know what to say. So then I open my mouth and say slowly and tentatively,
    tab "About earlier today, at school...I shouldn't have pressed so hard. I mean, I didn't know...I didn't know you'd react that way." Tom went into a praying position; his eyes closed, his head bowed down, his hands squeezing eachother so hard they became white...The he whispers softly,
    tab "No...I should be sorry. You had no reason to know how much this case really meant to me. It's my fault for not explaining to you everything from the beginning. It's just...I didn't want to tell you. I didn't want to let you know that that was...who I used to be. But I was wrong...and I'm sorry for that." Another stretch of silence. Another question is bothering me, so I ask away,
    tab "Do you...do you think Daniel's going to kill me? We got away once...but he's going to find out eventually." Tom just looks at me with those unsure eyes, and says,
    tab "I don't know, Tim. I just...don't know."
    tab "If you think about it...I mean, really think about it...I'm not supposed to exist. I'm a mistake. A glitch in the essence of time. You know, maybe they're right. What if I grow up and become some sort of terrorist? Some...threat to humanity?" He smiles at me, as if I just said a joke, and cracks with a chuckle,
    tab "That's a risk I'm willing to take." The smile fades away as he goes on,
    tab "But with all honesty, I don't have all the answers. I'm not the wise old man who develops intelligent hypothesises for different situations. I'm just Tom...the regular guy who somehow stumbled himself into a time machine and was warped through into the past. I don't know if what I'm doing is right or wrong. But...I can't let the innocent die. I just...can't do that." Then he gives me one of those depressed looks that just beg for encouragment.
    tab "Have you ever considered...the scope of what we're doing?" He tells me this with such a straight face that I can't say anything. He goes on anyway,
    tab "I mean, not just this science cosmo thing. Leave that crap to scientists who spend hours trying to figure out the little flaws in time traveling. But...I mean, there's just so many..."
    tab "So many what?"
    tab "People. Just so many people to save...And we only get ten shots. What about the other millions of people in the world that we're not helping?" I nod my head with understanding, and say,
    tab "Yeah, it does kind of put things in perspec--"
    tab "But," he interrupts, starting to answer his own question, "that's not what matters. You see, a wise man once told me a story...a pastor, in fact."
    tab "Yeah? I'm listening."
    tab "A boy wanders onto a lake, when suddenly, he sees an old man, throwing stranded star fish back into the ocean. One by one, he tosses them in...one by one he takes from the pile of hundreds.
    tab 'Sir,' the boy says, walking closer. 'What are you doing?' The old man stops for a second, and replies, turning his head to the little child,
    tab 'I'm saving these star fish.' The boy watches as he throws one more in, and the quickly adds,
    tab 'But...there's so many! You can't save them all!' The old man looks at the boy again with his cold, tired, wise eyes, and says with a smile, flopping the star fish he has in his hand,
    tab 'But I can save this one.' And he tosses it into the ocean." He stops preaching, and looks down. Then he laughs and says,
    tab "Sorry that you had to hear me ramble to myself. It's been awhile since I've spoke to someone in such a free conversation."
    tab "Your partner?" I say, trying to dig information up on that.
    tab "Yeah...My partner."
    tab "When'd he die?"
    tab "When'd he die? I can't say I remember."
    tab "What, you mean he didn't die?" he stands up, his back facing me, and says firmly,
    tab "A dark secret is something nobody shares. Not until the very end."