Page 63 of Echoes of Us
"I didn't do it for-"
"I know."He leaned against her desk, closer than he'd allowed himself since everything fell apart."That's why it matters."
After that, something shifted.The awkward silences that had plagued their lab work dissolved into comfortable conversation.Dale started bringing her coffee again in the mornings - not out of obligation or lingering feelings, but simple friendship.She found herself staying late to help with his experiments, enjoying his quiet company and steady presence.
"You two seem better," Sarah commented one evening, watching Dale explain a complex equation to Eddie across the lab."Less tragic romance, more actual friends."
Ashley smiled, surprised to find it genuine."We are."
The last weeks of summer fell into an easy rhythm.Lunch breaks were spent sprawled on the physics building lawn, Sarah and Eddie bickering good-naturedly about quantum theory while Lisa rolled her eyes and Dale played mediator.Weekend gatherings at the local pub, where Ashley discovered Dale's hidden talent for terrible science puns and his complete inability to play pool.
One particularly warm night, they all ended up at Dale's apartment, takeout containers scattered across his coffee table as they argued about parallel universes.
"But theoretically," Eddie insisted, gesturing with his chopsticks, "if every decision creates a new timeline-"
"Then somewhere, there's a universe where you actually understand what you're talking about?"Sarah dodged the fortune cookie he threw at her, laughing.
Ashley caught Dale's eye across the room and saw her own amusement mirrored there.It felt good, she realized.This easy friendship, this sense of belonging.No pressure, no expectations - just genuine connection.
"Speaking of parallel universes," Lisa said later, helping Ashley gather empty containers, "have you heard?Cole's coming back for the semester."
Ashley's hands stilled on a takeout box.Across the room, Dale's conversation with Eddie paused briefly before resuming.
"Yeah," she managed."I heard."
The news should have felt like a victory.The plan had worked - Cole was coming home, back to where he needed to be.But as August crept toward September, another thought began to gnaw at her edges, keeping her awake at night.
September 6th.One year.She had one year before the car accident that would end Dale's life.Cole had never wanted to talk about the details and had closed off completely whenever she'd tried to ask.Now, watching Dale alive and laughing across the room, the weight of that knowledge pressed against her chest until she could barely breathe.
This timeline had already shifted so dramatically from the one she knew.Cole in Geneva, their confrontation at the party, her friendship with Dale - none of it had happened in her original life.She couldn't help but wonder: had those changes rippled forward?Would the accident still happen, or had she already inadvertently changed that too?
The butterfly effect, Ezra had mentioned it.One small change created storms she couldn't predict.She'd been so focused on getting Cole back, on fixing what she'd broken between them, she hadn't really thought about what it meant to carry this kind of responsibility.
How do you save someone when you don't even know what you're saving them from?
CHAPTER24
September arrived with an unseasonable chill, turning Yale's campus into a painting of red and gold.Students flooded back into empty spaces, their voices and laughter filling the quiet that had settled over the summer.The physics building hummed with new energy - fresh faces, new research proposals, and whispered excitement about the master's student who'd just returned from Geneva with glowing recommendations.
Ashley had managed to avoid the department's welcome breakfast, citing lab prep work that Dale knew was a lie but didn't call her on.She'd spent the morning reorganizing equipment that didn't need organizing, her hands steady even as her heart raced every time footsteps passed the lab door.Somewhere in this building, Cole was starting his first day as a master's student while she began her final year of undergrad - a fact that felt impossibly strange given their shared future she remembered.
"You can't hide in here forever," Dale said, not looking up from his whiteboard equations.The summer had softened something between them, turned awkwardness into genuine friendship."The first-years are touring the labs this afternoon.He'll be in Professor Chen's rotation group."
"I'm not hiding."Ashley adjusted a beaker that was already perfectly aligned."I'm working."
"Right."Dale's tone carried gentle amusement."That's why you've reorganized the same shelf three times."
Before she could respond, voices in the hallway made them both freeze.One was Professor Chen's, familiar and warm.The other...
"The Geneva research group showed fascinating results," Cole was saying, his voice carrying that quiet confidence she remembered from another life."Their approach to quantum entanglement theory opened up some interesting possibilities..."
Ashley's hands stilled on the shelf.Through the lab's glass walls, she caught a glimpse of him - the first in months.He looked different.Sharper somehow, more polished.The summer in Geneva had transformed him, his casual energy replaced by something more deliberate.More controlled.
Professor Chen was introducing him to the other students in the rotation group.Cole nodded at appropriate moments, his attention focused and professional.When his gaze swept the lab, it passed over Ashley with practiced indifference before acknowledging his brother with a slight nod.
That carefully crafted politeness hurt worse than rage would have.
"Interesting," Dale said quietly."He seems...different."
