[identity profile] clayangel.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] wl_fanfiction
Title: Seldom Second Chances
Author: Clay
Pairing: Ryan/Colin
Rating: NC-17 (for later chapters)
Summary: When a freak accident drops an impossible opportunity in Ryan's lap, it's up to him to decide whether to squander it, or to change his fate by going after the one thing he's always wanted.
Word Count: ~3700
Prompt & Author's Notes: Again, for the Thon Prompt 33: Strangled by the red string. As always, betaed by [livejournal.com profile] asuka14.



Chapter 10a


Ryan let the gentle rocking of the boat lull him into a sense of calm. He closed his eyes against the slowly brightening dawn and wrapped his fingers a little tighter around the fishing rod, not wanting to get so relaxed that he let it slip through his fingers.

Not that he thought he’d really get that relaxed. He’d settle for simply quieting the voices that had been running rampant in his mind since the night before.

After realizing the phone he’d been holding wasn’t his, the first thing Ryan had done was to dig through his overnight bag to see if this was actually a second phone or if his own had just been altered somehow. He’d found his phone tucked inside a rolled up, dirty t-shirt. Taking it out, he’d held it against the second phone, and the difference became that much more obvious. He hadn’t even realized that they weren’t the same model—his phone was slightly taller, and the camera was in a different position.

So if this wasn’t his phone, whose was it?

“Ryan!” Colin had called from outside, startling Ryan into nearly dropping the phones. “Dinner’s ready! Did you find wine glasses?”

Not wanting to field any questions, Ryan hurriedly restowed his phone, then placed the other on top of his bag, where he’d found it. But then he paused, staring at that second phone, thinking. How had it gotten there, on top of his bag? For the thing to pop up out of the blue was strange enough, but for it to be sitting on his bag made it feel like fate had put it there for him to find. But that still didn’t explain where it had come from.

As he slowly stood up, Ryan suddenly noticed Colin’s suitcase. When they’d initially entered the cabin, they’d simply stashed their bags against one wall and left them there as they unloaded food and fishing gear. They’d remained there all day, with Colin’s larger case snug up against his own duffle bag. Like Ryan, Colin must have stashed some things before they’d headed out on the boat, leaving a small pile of papers, car keys, and his wallet atop his suitcase. Could the phone have been part of this pile and just slipped off, onto his own bag?

Maybe it hadn’t been fate that presented the phone to him but sheer dumb luck. The only problem, Ryan reflected, is that meant the phone had come from Colin, and that didn’t make any sense.

“Ryan?” Colin called again, starting to sound concerned.

“Be right out!” Ryan made the quick decision to put the whole mess out of his mind for the time being. He still had dinner to get through, and until he had a moment to think it over, he didn’t want to talk about this with Colin or clue him in on his suspicions. The best thing to do, he thought as he grabbed up the wine and the glasses, was to pretend that everything was fine.

But that was easier said than done.

Annoyingly, his mind wouldn’t stop working long enough for him to even taste Colin’s delicious dinner. Outwardly, he’d been laughing, smiling, and making conversation, but inside he’d been trying to wrap his mind around the mystery of this second phone. He was trying so hard to focus on so many things that he couldn’t fully focus on anything, especially with Colin sitting right across the table from him. In the end he settled for trying to get through the rest of the night simply without letting on that something was amiss and then excusing himself as soon as possible.

He’d gone to bed early with the reasoning that he wanted to do some more fishing in the early hours of the morning. Colin, as he’d hoped, was less than enthused to join him, so Ryan had given him the bed in the back room while he had bunked on the futon out front. This way he could awaken early but allow Colin to sleep in, undisturbed. By six a.m. Ryan was geared up and settled back in the same place on the lake they’d been the day before. It was a prime time and location to catch more fish, but honestly, that was the last thing on his mind.

He was finally alone, and a night's sleep—as restless as it had been—at least somewhat calmed his initial panic at finding the phone. If he was going to figure out what was really going on with that phone, now was the time.

He thought back to the night before as he reeled in his line, checked his bait, then cast again, once more closing his eyes so he could concentrate.

Assuming the phone had fallen off Colin’s suitcase, logically, it had to be his. The problem was that iPhones hadn’t existed in 2001, had they? Not having paid much attention to the vast majority of technology for most of his life, Ryan couldn’t say for sure, but he was almost positive they hadn’t shown up until much later, especially because he’d seen Colin's phone from this era. Ryan could clearly remember him toying with the little silver flip phone all throughout their meal in the Mexican restaurant.

What was more, the second iPhone had had that video labeled April 22nd, 2013, so it had to be another future phone, but then whose was it? Again, logically, it had to be Colin’s, but how could Colin have gotten a phone from the future? It just didn’t make any sense unless Colin was also from the future.

But, Ryan thought, he would have noticed something as obvious as that. After all, he'd made everyone think he'd gone mad when he first showed up. And it didn't make sense for Colin to have shown up before him, either. For one thing, Colin obviously hadn’t known what the iPhone was when he’d found Ryan’s in the car. It had seemed like ages ago, but it had only been two days since they’d set out on their road trip, and he could clearly remember Colin scrounging around the backseat for a fresh pack of cigarettes and coming up with the iPhone. He’d started to ask what it was when he’d cut himself off.

Ryan frowned deeply, opening his eyes to see that the sun had risen a few more degrees while he’d been thinking. The rest of the world seemed to stand still, however; the lake bore a calm, unbroken reflection of the surrounding trees, and his fishing line remained static, untouched by even a single nibble. Ryan kept his eyes trained on the tiny ripples in the water emanating from where the line cut through the surface of the lake, concentrating on the memory.

Now that he thought about it, something about that moment had seemed strange, even at the time. He remembered Colin asking about the phone, and then… then he’d gotten distracted by something. Right? Or was that just how Ryan had perceived it? He remembered thinking that something had been wrong, that maybe Colin had been angry at him, or he had a stroke, but what if it hadn’t been any of those things? What if he had instead just been transported 12 years into the past?

Ryan shook his head, chuckling softly. No, no that was silly. Wasn’t it?

If Colin had gone back in time, too, he would have done more than stare blankly out the windshield, wouldn’t he? He would have panicked and asked questions, like Ryan had.

But that thought just made Ryan frown deeper. Could he really assume that Colin would react the same way he had?

Ryan often liked to think that he and Colin were like two sides of a coin—veritable twins in some ways and opposites in others. It was part of why they got along so well; they both understood one another and balanced each other. When Ryan took that into consideration, then there were two possibilities. Either Colin would respond like he had back in the studio…or he would do the opposite: sit back, observe, ask questions, and test his surroundings.

Ryan’s memory of that evening got splotchy after they’d started drinking, but he could clearly picture the events from earlier in the day. He remembered Colin’s quiet confusion at where they were. It had been logical at the time, as Ryan, himself, hadn’t even known. He also remembered that Colin asked him at least three times why they were there. Again, it made sense at the time, but it would also make sense if Colin was trying to figure out when and where in time he was. In fact, Colin had asked a lot of questions that night.

“No,” Ryan said aloud, as if speaking the word would make it true. Everything Colin had done that day had been logical. It had all made perfect sense at the time, and just because this phone had popped up, none of that changed. Besides, Colin would have picked up on the fact that Ryan was from the future, so he certainly would have confided his own time travel. He couldn’t imagine Colin keeping something like that from him.

Not the Colin from 2001, at least, a traitorous little part of his mind said.

The Colin from 2013, however, had been cold, distant. Colin wasn’t acting like that now, of course, but it didn’t mean he wasn’t still acting, still testing the waters.

Ryan sighed heavily and looked toward the cabin. He could sit on the water contemplating the facts all day, but he wasn’t getting any closer to figuring out what was going on or where that phone had come from. The only way he was going to get an answer was to ask Colin.


When he arrived back on shore just over an hour after he’d initially set out, however, Colin was nowhere to be seen. The cabin was dark and empty, and the car was missing as well.

Since they’d neglected to pick up breakfast items during their shopping trip the previous day—a fact Ryan only realized when his stomach started rumbling as he rowed back to the cabin—he was hoping that Colin had gone out for coffee and something to eat.

“If we really are psychic,” he said, touching his fingertips to his temples, “bring back bacon...”

He smiled at his own joke, but the levity only lasted a moment before he was somber again. He took a seat on the futon and grabbed up the remote, thinking he could pass the time with a little television as he waited for Colin to return, but instead, he just found himself staring at the far wall, lost in thought.

The more time that passed, the more he was losing his nerve when it came to confronting Colin about the time travel.

He wanted to know the truth. He wanted to know if Colin was lying to him. He wanted to know if they were sharing this experience. But would knowing any of those things really make his life any better? What if outing Colin made him revert to his sullen, 2013 self? Or, worse, what if the revelation caused Colin to abandon their trip and return to Canada? Of course it could go the other way, and the conversation could bring them closer, but was he willing to take that risk?

And what if it turned out that Colin wasn’t from the future? If he pushed hard enough, Colin would truly think he’d gone insane, and then where would that leave them?

The second phone was his best evidence. Ryan looked over to the suitcases as he thought of it, but Colin had moved his into the bedroom the night before, and the phone was missing from the top of Ryan's duffle bag, too. If Colin had taken it, then that was another indication that it was his phone, but that didn’t help Ryan much now. Maybe he could ask about it without actually accusing Colin of anything. If Colin really was trying to hide something, then he’d probably just brush the question off, but at least it was a starting point.

Thinking of the phone reminded Ryan that he hadn’t actually gotten to check the video on his own phone the night before, and now was as good a time as any to see what the future might hold. He retrieved his iPhone from his bag, then returned to the futon to check the list.

The April 28th video wasn’t there.

“Of course,” Ryan muttered, scanning through the rest of the list. Others videos had returned, like the one of he and Sam having a beer, and that eased his mind a little, but the fact that this one particular video kept disappearing was driving him crazy. Was his life in such a constant state of change that his future was so uncertain? Or was the phone waiting for him to make a decision that would cement the way his life would turn out? What if he made the wrong choice again? He wasn't sure if he could handle another shock like the one he'd gotten after seeing that news report.

Fed up with all of it for the moment, Ryan tapped on the video of Sam. At least he could try to take his mind off his worries for a few minutes. The little wheel turned, and the video started without incident. Smilng, Ryan leaned back against the futon and watched. The video played out just as he remembered it, with the two of them sharing a beer and talking about girls. He smiled a little wider at not only the sight of his son, but of himself. God, how he missed being that care free.

Suddenly he saw himself turn away from the camera, as though he’d heard something. He remembered the moment quite clearly. Pat had come to the patio to ask him a question and steal a sip of his beer. On screen, he saw himself answer the question, and then his head moved, his eyes following Pat as she made her way toward the glass of beer.

But just when her hand would have come on screen, the video stopped. Ryan got a flashback to the video he'd watched on the second phone the night before, and just like with that video, the screen went black, then there was the spinning color wheel, and finally the error message.

Ryan stared at the phone, frowning, as he was kicked back to the main screen. It was exactly the same thing that had happened the night before. It was a different phone, a different video, but the same result. There was no way it was a coincidence. So then what did it mean?

Ryan considered the two videos. They were both home movies, but the surroundings and people involved were entirely different. A thought occurred to him then—the people. The error had come just before a person would have been revealed in both videos. He could still remember sharing a beer with Sam, so maybe the incident on film was sure to happen, but the players weren’t set in stone yet? It made just about as much sense as anything else.

Ryan was still contemplating the videos when the front door of the cabin opened. He looked up as Colin came in, holding two white plastic bags and a cardboard drink carrier.

“Are you seriously playing with your phone?” Colin asked before he could say a word. “That's a first.”

Ryan looked from him to the phone, then hurriedly shoved the iPhone in his pocket. He still hadn’t decided if he wanted to broach the subject of time travel with Colin, and besides, if Colin’s bags contained food, then they definitely took precedence.

Ryan stood and crossed over to Colin, where he took the coffee from him and closed the door behind him. “Tell me you have breakfast,” he said, watching as Colin put the bags down on the kitchen counter. “I'm starving.”

Colin chuckled softly, nodding as he unloaded multiple Styrofoam containers. “Yes, I have breakfast,” he said. “I found an IHOP, so I got us some pancakes and hashbrowns, and a couple sides of sausage and bacon.” The moment he said it, the smells of baked goods and bacon grease hit Ryan’s nose, and his mouth immediately started watering. “I didn’t get eggs because I didn’t think they’d travel well. I hope you don’t mind.” Colin looked up at him earnestly.

Ryan, meanwhile, had crossed over to the counter, himself, and he stood, looking down at the smorgasbord like a ravenous wolf. “Colin,” he said, as sincerely as he’d ever been in his entire life, “I could kiss your right now.”

Colin laughed, shaking his head, and watched as Ryan stole a coffee and a container of pancakes, then started to load the latter up with bacon and syrup.

“How about you just take care of our next couple of meals since I did dinner and breakfast, and we’ll call it even?” He waited until Ryan had finished and darted off to his old familiar seat on the futon before getting his own breakfast. Once his own container was full, he leaned back against the counter, chopping up pancakes with the side of a plastic fork as he watched Ryan dig in. “Catch anything this morning, by the way?”

Ryan shook his head, too busy chewing to answer properly. By the time he swallowed, however, he’d thought of something, himself. “I can’t believe you found an IHOP,” he said, licking his lips. “I was craving pancakes like you wouldn’t believe. How did you know where to look?” He watched Colin closely. The fact was that if it were him, he knew exactly how he would have found an IHOP—ask Siri.

But Colin just shrugged and smiled at him. “Honestly, it was one of the first places I ran across.”

Oh. Ryan tried not to let the disappointment show on his face as he shoved another forkful of pancakes into his mouth. He still wasn’t sure he wanted to talk about this future thing, but it only made sense to grab at any opportunities presented to him.

“Oh, and I stopped back at the visitor’s center,” Colin was continuing. “I was seeing what else there was around town in case we wanted to go out, and I found something.” He set his pancakes down on the counter, then produced a couple of folded brochures from his back pocket. He crossed over to Ryan and dropped them down on the coffee table.

Ryan forgot his conundrum, curious to see what had captured Colin’s attention. He immediately recognized the Eagle Paragliding logo on the top brochure, and he was about to protest when Colin reached down and slipped out another that had been hiding beneath it. He offered this second brochure to Ryan, then took back the paragliding one without bringing it up, much to Ryan’s relief.

He turned his attention to the new brochure. This one was done up in black with large gold letters that somehow managed to look both classy and garish at the same time. It read: Comedy Hideaway. The face of comedy in Santa Barbara.

Intrigued, Ryan put his pancakes aside to unfold the brochure and take a closer look. Even as he did so, however, Colin was continuing.

“It’s a comedy club in town,” he said, taking a seat next to Ryan. “They have shows most nights. Mostly locals, but there are some bigger names on the weekends. I thought maybe we could check it out.” He frowned suddenly, bending lower to take a look at the rough schedule outlined on the brochure. “Oh,” he said, sounding disappointed. “But Wednesday is open mic night.”

“What day is today?”

Colin laughed and threw him a sidelong glance. “Wednesday,” he said.

“Oh, shit,” Ryan said, laughing, too, as he scrubbed a hand over his face. “Maybe I should be keeping better track of that. I keep forgetting that I have to be back in L.A. on Friday for court.”

Colin gave him a confused frown for a moment before his eyes went wide with realization. “Oh, that's right. Because you were arrested. You said that.”

“I said that?” Ryan echoed back at him. “What do you mean? You were there. You picked me up from the station. Remember?”

Instead of answering right away, Colin chose that moment to get back up and head back to the kitchen counter, where he'd left his pancakes. He picked them up and took a bite, chewing slowly as he turned back toward Ryan.

Ryan watched him warily as he waited, turning Colin's words over in his head. Colin had been there. He'd even spoken to an officer about the whole thing—unless he hadn't. If Colin had switched into the one from 2013 after that point, then there could be a number of things he didn't know.

“I meant you told me about court, not being arrested,” Colin amended when he finally swallowed his mouthful of pancakes.

“Oh, right, yeah,” Ryan came back, but he wasn't buying it.

His original plan had been to come straight out and ask Colin about the time travel, but now he wondered if he could trip him up instead, especially considering his worries about how the straightforward attempt would play out. It probably wasn't the best way to get information, but it was one he was actually comfortable with. He and Colin had always made a game of trying to outdo one another, and when a challenge like this presented itself to him, he couldn't resist. Part of him actually hoped Colin picked up on the game, and—if he really was from 2013—started to play back. Ryan was fairly confident he could play dumb about future events.

“But like I was saying,” Colin said, bringing the conversation back around, “Wednesday is open mic night. So we can find something else to do.”

“Are you kidding?” Ryan retorted, grinning from ear to ear. “If tonight’s open mic night, then we’re definitely going.”


To be continued...
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