Page 59 of Evermore

Thomas nodded like this was exactly what he'd expected to hear. “The echoes appear during medical crises, when the patient's condition reaches critical points. Sometimes they try to communicate directly, sometimes through environmental manipulation.”

“Environmental manipulation?”

“Equipment failures, power outages, circumstances that prevent certain choices from being made.” Thomas gathered his documents carefully. “Have you noticed unusual interference around Finn's episodes?”

River thought about the equipment failures, the power outages during important conversations, the way Finn'sepisodes always seemed to escalate at moments that drove them toward crisis.

“Someone's been sabotaging us,” River said, understanding hitting him with devastating clarity. “Someone who knows how this ends, who's been trying to prevent us from making choices that lead to disaster.”

“That would fit the pattern I've documented,” Thomas agreed quietly. “The question is whether you're going to fight the manipulation or try to understand what it's warning you about.”

Before River could answer, Finn's heart monitor started beeping faster, his peaceful expression shifting to something more active. His eyelids fluttered, and River felt hope explode in his chest as consciousness seemed to return after three days of absence.

“Finn?” River leaned forward, taking his hand and feeling it squeeze back weakly. “Hey, you're in the hospital. You're safe. You're okay.”

Finn's eyes opened slowly, unfocused at first, then finding River's face with obvious relief. “River,” he whispered, his voice hoarse. “You're here. You're real.”

“I'm here. I'm not going anywhere.” River felt tears on his face that he didn't remember starting. “How are you feeling?”

“Like I've been living other people's lives.” Finn tried to sit up, wincing at the soreness in his muscles. “But River, I need to tell you something important. About what I saw during the treatment.”

“What did you see?”

Finn's expression grew serious, his brown eyes holding knowledge that seemed too heavy for someone who'd just regained consciousness. “I saw him. The older version of you. He's been manipulating my episodes, trying to drive us apart to prevent something terrible from happening.”

River felt the world shift around him as Finn confirmed what he'd barely been willing to believe. “You saw him too?”

“He's been interfering with my condition, making the episodes worse at specific moments to sabotage our relationship. He thinks he's protecting us, but he's actually destroying what we have.” Finn struggled to sit up further, urgency in his voice. “River, we need to understand what he's trying to prevent, because whatever it is, he's willing to sacrifice our happiness to stop it.”

River looked at Thomas, who was listening to their conversation with the fascination of someone whose research had just been vindicated by living witnesses.

“It seems,” Thomas said quietly, “that your temporal displacement has attracted the attention of someone who's lived through the consequences of the choices you're making now.”

“But why would a future version of me try to destroy our relationship?” River asked, his mind struggling to process the impossible situation they were facing.

Finn met his eyes with an expression that held both love and terrible understanding. “Because in his timeline, trying to save me destroyed us both. And he'd rather have us broken apart than watch us repeat his mistakes.”

River felt everything he thought he understood about reality crumble around him. They weren't just dealing with Finn's medical condition anymore. They were dealing with someone who had lived through the consequences of their love and was actively working to prevent them from fighting for what they had.

The question was whether they would let fear of an unknown future destroy their present, or whether they would choose to face whatever was coming together, regardless of what older and supposedly wiser versions of themselves thought was best.

Looking at Finn's face, seeing the determination in his eyes despite everything he'd been through, River knew which choice he was going to make. They would fight for their love, even if it meant battling against versions of themselves who thought they knew better.

Chapter 18

Pieces of Truth

Finn

The knock on the hospital room door came with a hesitation that made Finn's chest tighten before he even saw who was standing there. Maya stepped inside first, her expression carefully neutral in the way that meant she was about to drop a bomb on his already fragile world. Behind her, filling the doorway with uncomfortable silence, stood their father.

Captain Torres looked older than Finn remembered, his Coast Guard bearing intact but somehow diminished by the hospital setting. The smell of antiseptic and illness seemed to make him smaller, like he was shrinking away from memories that lived in places like this.

“Dad,” Finn said, his voice coming out flatter than he'd intended.

“Son.” Captain Torres stepped into the room with the careful movements of someone walking through a minefield. “Maya said you were... that you needed family here.”

Finn almost laughed at the irony. Family. The man who'd walked out when their mother started getting confused, who'd abandoned them to handle medical crises and insurance forms and the slow dissolution of everything they'd thought was permanent.

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