“Doctor Baker, Doctor Baker, you are wanted in ICU. Doctor Baker,” the sounds of the hospital intercom rang in Peter’s head as he sat in the waiting area of the emergency room.
As he glanced around the room, he saw Davy and Ursula sitting next to each other, on one small couch, holding hands. Davy starred at the floor, while Ursula had her eyes shut as she quietly prayed.
Mike walked in and handed Peter a Styrofoam cup of coffee and sat down beside him. Peter automatically brought the cup up to his mouth and swallowed some of the bitter brew. Making a face, he set down the cup and glanced over at the other couch.
His heart ached as he saw Adriana curled up against Micky, crying softly into a tissue. Micky had his arm around her, rubbing her shoulder, starring into the distance.
Peter looked down at his hands and sighed.
“She has to be okay,” Peter thought, “We were just beginning. There’s still so much more life left.” He felt Mike’s hand on his back and he turned to look at his friend. Mike had always been so strong. As the tears began to well up in Peter’s eyes, he willed them to dry. He wanted to be strong like Mike.
“Excuse me,” a woman’s voice came from the side of the room. “May I please speak to the closest relative of Miss Johanson.”
Slowly Adriana broke away from Micky.
“You gonna be okay,” Micky asked her quietly.
Adriana nodded her head mechanically, stood to her feet and walked over to where the doctor was waiting.
All eyes were on the doctor and Adriana. What exactly was said, no one could tell for sure, but as Adriana turned to walk back to the waiting area, everyone saw her look of despair and the way her body shook as she crumbled to the ground in the middle of the waiting room.
Katerina had died.
Micky stood up and rushed to Adriana’s side, Davy put his arm around Ursula and held her tightly, Mike put his arm around Peter’s shoulders.
“No,” Adriana cried softly as Micky held her and rocked her back and forth as he knelt next to her on the cold hospital floor.
Peter couldn’t hold back any longer when he heard Adriana sob. He put his head in his hands and began to cry.
Mike tried to comfort his Peter as it really began to sink in that she was gone.
“It’s not fair, Michael,” Peter said as he quietly cried. “It’s just not fair.”
“If you would like to see her,” the doctor interrupted, walking carefully into the waiting area, “you may.”
Micky helped Adriana to her feet. Peter abruptly stood up and began to follow Adriana. When they got to the room, as Peter was about to go inside, the doctor stopped him.
“I’m sorry,” the doctor said, “family only.”
“He is family,” Adriana said shakily.
The doctor reluctantly let him pass and Peter made his way to where Adriana was standing at Katerina’s bedside.
“Look at her Peter,” Adriana said quietly, looking at her cousin with tear stained eyes. “Why did this have to happen?”
Peter put his arm around Adriana and looked into her eyes. For a moment, he thought he was looking at Katerina again.
“I don’t know,” he said quietly as he let go of Adriana and dropped to his knees beside the bed.
Reaching out, he took Katerina’s cold hand in his own. His heart ached as he remembered the warmth that used to be there. Peter held her hand to the side of his face and closed his eyes, remembering the other night when she told him she loved him.
Peter had always gotten the reputation of being the dummy of the group, but in fact, it was just his idealism and innocence that made him more child-like and loving that the others. Maybe he wasn’t as book-smart as some of this friends, but Peter was smart enough to know true love only comes once. Part of him wondered if this was it. If the few months of a blossoming relationship and a few days of knowing what it was like to truly be in love was all Peter Tork was going to get out of life.
Peter sighed and carefully reached up to brush her hair away from her face and traced the outline of her features. Tears began to fall from his brown eyes once again.
“If only there was a way,” he thought to himself as he wept quietly, “If only I hadn’t been such a chicken. Why didn’t I go after her sooner? She probably thought I didn’t care. Why did I let her go off with that guy? I wish I could just go back and…”
Suddenly he stood up.
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” Peter said excitedly, his eyes open wide, brushing back the tears as he looked from Adriana to Katerina laying there.
“What do you mean,” Adriana sniffled, looking at Peter like he was crazy.
“When are Jessie and Link coming for another visit,” Peter asked, running a hand though his hair nervously.
“Wha…,” Adriana asked, still puzzled, looking down at her watch, “Ursula is supposed to go back and get them in less than an hour, actually. Link had to work late…”
“It’s time we put that time machine to some real use,” Peter interrupted, rushing out of the room.
“So, you’re saying you want to go back in time, to Thursday night, and warn her,” Link asked Peter as everyone stood in the living room of the Pad in the very early morning hours of Saturday.
“Yes,” Peter said excitedly. “Doesn’t it make perfect sense?”
“I think it does,” Adriana agreed. “It’d be the perfect way to get her back.”
“I don’t know,” Link said, slowly sitting down on the sofa.
“What do you mean you don’t know,” Jessie asked, walking over to where Link was seated.
“I’m not sure it would do any good,” Link said softly.
“Why not,” Micky asked.
“Well,” Link started, “there is a number of factors to consider when doing something like this.”
“Like what,” Jessie asked.
“Okay,” Link said, pointing off the facts on his fingers, “First off, we’ve never used the time machine to go further into the past from this point in time. How do we know what’s going to happen? You could end up in the past of mine, Jessie’s, Ursula’s, and Adriana’s time period.”
Peter began to pace back and forth near the door.
“What else,” Ursula prodded.
“You could run into yourself,” Link said.
“No,” Peter responded, “I would make sure to approach her when I knew I wouldn’t be around.”
“There’s also the question of fate,” Link said carefully.
“What’s fate got to do with it,” Mike questioned.
“Well,” Link said with a sigh, “if everyone has a destiny, a fate, a course of life events, how do we know that going back and changing someone’s life isn’t changing some bigger plan?”
“What,” Peter asked, pacing faster, “you mean to say that Kat should have died? That it’s just what was supposed to have happened?”
“I’m not saying that definitely,” Link answered, lowering his voice a bit. “It’s just...well…if fate is fate then nothing will be able to stop her death. If she wouldn’t have died then, she would have died later.”
Adriana looked struck as Link said those words. She knew it was true, but she didn’t want to believe that her cousin was meant to have died.
“I don’t know,” Peter said, stopping his pacing.
“I’m sorry,” Link said, looking at the floor. “There’s a lot to consider. I guess you have to ask yourself if it’s worth the risk of possibly loosing her again sometime in the future.”
“At this point,” Peter said, after a moment, “I’d risk anything just to be able to hear her say my name again. To be able to just sit across from her and watch her eyes light up as she talks.”
The room was quiet as everyone looked at Peter as he slowly walked over to where Link was seated. Peter stood before him and looked from Link to Jessie. Link then turned and touched Jessie’s hand.
Link reached into his pocket and pulled out a set of keys to the van.
“Thank you,” Peter whispered as he took the keys from Link, turned on his heel, and walked out the door.
Peter watched in silence as he lived Thursday night’s events over again. But, this time it wasn’t through memories, it was playing out right before him.
Gratefully, Link had been wrong about traveling back from the alternate 1967 time period. The time machine took him right where he had wanted to be. Maybe the “bugs” were just with traveling from the 2001 future to the past.
“And man am I thankful for that,” Peter thought to himself from his hiding place behind the stairway of the Pad. There, he could perfectly see Katerina and himself walking hand in hand back to Micky and Adriana’s apartment Thursday night.
He smiled a bittersweet smile as he watched the scene unfold before him.
Peter remembered that he had been nearly walking on air all the way back from the campfire he had set up on the beach. Knowing that she loved him was all he could have ever wanted. They hardly spoke a word on the walk back, but nothing needed to be said.
“Thanks again, Peter,” he heard Katerina say, as he watched the two of them stand by the back door to Micky and Adriana’s apartment, “for everything.”
“Thank you,” he heard himself say.
“I hope you didn’t think I was too forward,” Katerina said, a bit of shyness peaking through.
“No, no,” Peter said waving his hand in the air, “not at all. I’m glad you said what you did.”
“Good,” Katerina said with a nod.
“Well,” Peter said, “I guess this is goodnight.”
“Yeah,” she returned, “I guess so.”
Peter remembered feeling incredibly shy right then. They had kissed a few times on the beach, but he still felt a bit apprehensive about the whole thing.
Peter watched himself as he leaned forward and hugged Katerina. It was interesting watching how she reacted. He’d never seen things from this angle before. Peter saw her smile and close her eyes as he embraced her.
Peter pulled away and nervously said, “Well, goodnight.”
“Goodnight, Peter,” Katerina said as he turned and began to walk away. “I love you,” she said quietly.
It was enough for him to hear it again. Peter watched himself as he stopped, did an about face, and walked back up to Katerina. Dropping the bundle he had under his arm, he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her passionately.
As he watched, Peter’s heart ached at the thought of never being with her again. He longed so much to tell her about what was going to happen the next night that he almost wished the other Peter would hurry up so he could approach her.
Soon, the other Peter had departed and he watched as Katerina opened the door to the apartment and step inside. Peter then bolted from his place behind the stairs and ran to the apartment door.
Stepping inside, he saw Katerina turn back to look at him with surprise.
“Peter,” she whispered loudly, “what are you doing in here?”
She surveyed him in the light and with a puzzled look asked, “How did you change your clothes so fast? You look exhausted too. Like you’ve been crying.”
Peter grabbed her hand and pulled her back outside.
When they got outside, Peter paused for a moment and looked at her. A soft ocean breeze began to pick up and her long hair flowed in the wind.
“Katerina,” Peter said gratefully, as he moved to embrace her.
Katerina took a step back and held her arms up to stop him.
“Wait a minute,” she said, looking at him quizzically, “something is just not right here. I know I saw you leave just half a minute ago. Now, there’s no way on earth you could have made a transformation like this in such a short time.”
“Not if you have a time machine,” he admitted.
“You used the time machine,” Katerina asked with surprise. “Why? What time did you come here from?”
“Tomorrow night,” Peter answered.
“Why,” she asked. “What’s going on?”
“Come here and sit down,” Peter said, leading her to the back steps of Micky and Adriana’s apartment, “I have to tell you something very important.”
“Wow,” Katerina breathed, putting a hand to her head, hardly able to believe what she was hearing, “you mean all of this is going to happen tomorrow night after the gig at the club?”
“Yes,” Peter said, quickly, “and like I said before, you have to say no to Adam Cartwright.”
Katerina stood up slowly, leaned against the rail, and stared out into the ocean.
“Peter,” she said softly, “this is so much to take all at once.”
“I know. And I’m just so sorry,” Peter said, getting up and standing at her side.
“It’s just so hard to believe,” she said. “Maybe…maybe I don’t have to do the drugs. Maybe I could just say no and he’d still give me the deal. I could try talk him out of it.”
“I don’t know, Kat,” Peter said quietly.
“I mean, a deal like that only comes along once in a life-time,” she said. “Maybe there is a way I could get around the LSD thing.”
Looking down at his hands, Peter said, “I don’t know, Kat. All I know is how I felt when I lost you. Link was telling me what a risk it is just to come here and tell you. He said there could be a possibility that if I changed things and didn’t loose you tomorrow night, I’d just loose you again another time. If there really is fate.”
Katerina turned and looked at Peter. She’d never seen him so frazzled before. His hair and clothes were a mess. His face was worn looking and his eyes were puffy and red from the lack of sleep and crying. She never thought she could be missed so much by one person.
For his sake, she wanted to do the right thing tomorrow. On the other hand, tomorrow could be the night her dreams could come true.
“Promise me that you’ll do the right thing,” Peter said, looking up at her.
“I…I…,” Katerina said, swallowing hard, looking into his sad brown eyes, “I will.”
“I really should go,” Peter said reluctantly, taking her warm hand into his own. Shivering at the remembrance of holding her limp, lifeless one just hours before. He didn’t want to go. What if this was the last time he saw her?
Peter reached up and smoothed her hair back away from her face. He then lightly kissed her and held her for a moment. Then, placing her hand to his mouth, he kissed it and whispered with determination, “I will see you later. I love you.”
Knowing that if he didn’t leave at that moment, he might never, Peter quickly turned on his heel and left for the van. His heart skipped a beat as her quiet return of, “I love you too,” met his ears as he walked away, not looking back.
As Peter got back into the van to go back to his time, he wondered if she really would make the right choice. He knew how strong the pull and hope of fame could be. Quietly he prayed that Katerina would be able to resist it.
“Uhhh,” Peter moaned, slapping at a pesky fly that seemed land on his face and ears.
After parking the van in the driveway the night before, he had come back to the Pad, exhausted and flopped on his bed. His slumber had been fitful most of the night, wondering if he would ever see his girlfriend again. Finally he had managed to fall into a normal sleep, but now he had to be annoyed by a fly.
Half-asleep, half-awake, Peter continued to wave away whatever kept landing on the side of his face.
“Ouch,” he heard a female voice exclaim after his hand had made contact with flesh.
“Huh,” he questioned sleepily, rolling over on his side to see whom he had hit.
“Kat,” he exclaimed, rubbing his eyes, hardly believing what he was seeing, “Is it really you?”
“Of course it’s me, silly,” Katerina whispered from kneeling at the side of Peter’s bed. “Don’t be so loud. You might wake Davy.”
“Oh, Kat,” he said, setting up in his bed and reaching out to embrace her, “I’m so glad you did the right thing.”
“What can I say,” she whispered in his ear as he hugged her almost too tightly, “A promise is a promise.”
Peter pulled away from her. Looking at her, he touched her face, her neck, her arms, almost as if he had to make sure she was really there.
Then, he cupped her face in his hands and kissed her on the lips. The kiss was light at first, but began to deepen as he felt the relief of having her back again. One kiss seemed to flow into another and another until a certain roommate clearing his throat rather loudly interrupted them.
Peter and Katerina looked over to the side of the room to see Davy standing by his bed with his arms folded in front of him.
“And you guys are always pickin’ on me about things like this,” Davy accused.
“Sorry,” Katerina said with a laugh as Peter wrapped his arms around her and pulled her onto the bed.
“Okay, okay,” Davy said as he made his way through the door, “I’m not going to ask wha’ she’s doing sneaking into our room at 7 AM. I’m just going to walk out tha’ door and leave you two alone for a few minutes.”
Davy then walked out of the room and shut the door behind him.
Katerina and Peter began to laugh hysterically.
“Oh,” Davy said, popping his head back in the door, “and I do mean a few minutes. If you guys are not out of there in less than three minutes, I’m coming in after you.”
“Yeah, okay,” Peter said, still laughing he threw as rolled up sock at his friend.
Davy dodged and shut the door.
Katerina and Peter stopped laughing as they looked at each other. Once again, Peter moved to kiss her.
Katerina stopped him, putting her fingertips to his lips.
He looked at her quizzically.
“Thank you,” she whispered.
“For what,” Peter mumbled.
“For saving my life,” she answered.
Peter smiled a huge dimpled smile and returned the thanks.
“Thanks for what,” Katerina asked with a giggle as he wrapped his arms around her and held her with her back towards him and his head resting on her shoulder.
“For saving mine,” he whispered in her ear.
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