IT DIDN'T bother Amelia that she was bi.

What did bother her was the fact that Tina wouldn't stop fussing over the non-existent relationship between she and Dr Royson. She regretted telling the other girl about the other day's romantic escapades, as Albertina called them (she had resorted to calling 'Albertina' to get her to cut it out) and that day, in the hot basket, was no different.

"It doesn't matter that she rejected you," Tina brushed that fact off like it wasn't worth a crumb. Amelia rested her head against the colder wall as she sweated out the steam of the sauna, known as the 'hot basket' by the Learners and marines alike. "Once she realizes what she's missing out on, she'll come running right back —"

She regretfully tuned her friend out, and even more regretfully fingered her hair, which was coiling in wet bunches over her shoulders. Amelia did not look forward to trying to get it under control later on; her hair was always resembled a bush after 'Jurassic acclimatization' — basically suggesting that she would be struggling with her curls throughout the Jurassic. The thought made her want to cackle. So many dangers, and she was worrying about her hair?

It was, however, a valid concern, so she settled that internal debate. "Thanks, Tina," Amelia cut her friend off, though her tongue was heavy like a limp fish with thirst; ironic as they were surrounded by water vapor, albeit shockingly hot water vapor. "Even though I appreciate you going on about how awesome I am, I'd prefer to not talk about it."

Mostly because she didn't like discussing Zoey like she was a test subject. Even though they all were, at the end of the day.

Tina opened her mouth to protest, and Amelia quickly added, to appease her more than reignite her own hopes; "Besides, we'll have a whole one hundred and sixty-fix millennia to sort that out after these two weeks."

Two weeks.

Time — ever fluid, ever impatient — had passed quickly since Amelia's first few days at the facility, and even faster still after the EEG announcement. Dr Samson had withdrawn, though sightings of her still reassured everyone that she was still there, and watching.

Luca had vanished from their group as well, replaced quickly by Lale and Bradley, who —for all their prejudices and suspicion of basically everyone — were pretty good companions in the last leg of training.

The tinted walls of the glass hot basket glowed blue.

"Temperature increase," Tina turned to the dial in the tiled wall, then rolled the small black circle. "How far you wanna go?"

"Let's try fifteen degrees."

Tina turned it up, and the steam seemed to thicken. Steady drips of water fell across the glass in condensation, and the two women sank back as the air pressed against them. Amelia no longer felt the respite of a cold wall against her back, that having heated up as well, and she swiped her bunching fringe out of her face.

"Besides," Amelia continued casually, watching her friend out of the corner of her eye. Two can play at that game. "You can hardly worry about my love life, seeing as you have your own admirer."

Tina scrunched her face up in distaste — else she was just getting hot. "Who?"

Amelia rose her eyebrows in mock-surprise. "You haven't seen the way Bradley looks at you?" And it was true; she had noted that the marine enjoyed sneaking glances at Albertina, especially when she spoke. And she did that a lot.

At least I'm not the oblivious one anymore.

"No ..." Tina trailed off, obviously thinking. Amelia raised her head in victory — she'd beaten Tina at her own game.

The walls glowed blue again, and the familiar block letters crossed the glass, slightly distorted with the water droplets:

Acclimatization is complete. Final temperature recorded at eighty-one degrees. We now recommend a relaxation period.

"Welp, you heard the bosses." Amelia stood and tried to wring out her hair. Tina rolled her eyes and silently extended her hand to her, and Amelia helped her to her feet, momentarily giving up on her tangled curls.

"Let's get outta here, before the guys arrive."

━━━━

Everything at Area 51 ran on clockwork — there was a timetable for everything, a list a mile long on what to do and what not to do, and then there were the recruits themselves, who didn't always wish to follow the rules.

Everything's changed since Robert Quillan and his son arrived, Amelia reflected about an hour later, sipping on a cold glass of water, propped up against her pillows while Tina lay on her back across her bed.

"What do you think it'll be like?" Tina broke the silence, her voice unusually solemn. She was staring up at the ceiling, her hands on her stomach. Amelia lowered her glass, feeling the cold of it in her hands.

"What will what be like?"

"Don't be stupid," the harshness of her voice surprised her, and Amelia sat up, knowing full well what she was talking about. But the truth was, she didn't know. Didn't want to get her hopes up about a future that could fail.

Expect nothing, and you'll never be disappointed, the ghost of a memory whispered in her mind. But the person who had told her that was dead; she ignored it and focused on her friend.

For the first time, she realized how scared Tina was. The JEE lessons, the acclimatization, and the continuous meetings had grown to be a part of Amelia's own life, purely because she had barely had such a purpose before.

But maybe it was different for Luca and Albertina — and it occurred to Amelia that she'd never cared to ask them about their lives before. Before PAST.

It made something inside of her shrivel, and she leant forward to contemplate Tina's question, the change of her mood as sudden and startling as a slap in the face. Amelia made a mental note to be more concerned with her friends' mental health in future, for happiness was not something to be taken for granted.

"Different," Amelia finally decided. What other word was there for it? Nothing she knew in her vocabulary — and she knew what a Haliaeetus leucocephalus was.

Tina snorted, obviously unimpressed. Amelia flicked her shoulder with her finger, allowing a small smirk to cross her face as her friend squeaked indignantly.

"Fine. How's dinosaur-infested?"

Tina groaned and rolled onto her stomach, glaring at Amelia through the one brown eye that wasn't blocked by the bedsheet. "Ha. Ha. Ha." She grinned in reply, relieved that the other girl seemed to be more cheerful than before.

"I just ... can't believe it. Is that nuts? That we've been training here for weeks and weeks; and I still can't quite believe that this is happening?"

"It's happening, alright." But Amelia agreed; six months before, if someone had told her that time travel actually existed, she would've brushed them off as a psycho. The thought made her smile turn more wry. Did that mean that she was now a psycho?

"But this is for the greater good, Tina," Amelia leant forward and clasped Tina's hand, which was warm against the cold of her glass of water. Albertina met her eyes, something to both appreciate and shrink away from the show of support at the same time.

"Yeah. You and Luca'll be doing something great for the people — I'll build houses for them."

They both chuckled, and Amelia felt the heaviness in the air dissipate.

"Still," she reasoned, feeling like Tina wasn't giving herself enough credit and eager to compliment the other girl's impressive array of skills (Amelia may have known the Latin name for the bald eagle — but she really didn't understand what a stylobate was), "that's something pretty important."

The chestnut-haired young woman sat up, and her eyes were once again lit with her familiar humorous sincerity. "Even though I like you talking about how awesome I am, I'm pretty sure lunch is calling my name."

Amelia set her glass of water down on the small metal desk next to her bed, recognizing Tina's words from what she had said earlier on in the hot basket. Plagiarist, she thought, though she felt rushes of amusement rather than annoyance.

As if on cue, her stomach rumbled. She gave Tina a sheepish smile, and the girl offered her hand. Amelia took it and pulled herself to her feet.

━━━━

"Well, look who decided to finally grace us with his presence." Amelia plonked down across from Luca, who fiddled with his plastic knife and fork like he was a little kid on time-out.

Lale and Bradley weren't at the table yet, she noted — probably still getting dressed from the hot box. The images that followed after that realization flushed her from the inside out, and she focused on Luca again, feeling somewhat miffed by his avoidance of them.

Tina brought with her a fair less kindly thundercloud of bad words and death glares. If looks could kill, the technician would've long since been dead.

"— not to mention that you could've told us about your little experiment before it went ahead and hurt Amelia!" Tina folded her arms and leant back in her seat. Her words had even worried Amelia herself; then she reasoned that Luca deserved it, and kept her mouth shut.

"I said I was sorry about that!" Luca responded, though he seemed somewhat shrunken from Tina's lecture. His eyes flashed nervously to Amelia from behind his glasses, and she softened.

We all have a job to do here. Luca was just doing his own.

"Anyway, the EEG was confidential and its purpose highly classified." Luca stabbed his fork into his salad a little more aggressively than was needed. Amelia frowned, suddenly feeling deep down in her gut that something was wrong. Her grip tightened around her chocolate milk.

"But that's not just it, is it?" She questioned quietly. Amelia suddenly felt that it was vital that no one else would overhear their conversation; irrational, really, her smarter side argued. The closest table was several feet away.

Luca met her eyes once more. Out of her peripheral vision, Amelia saw Tina frown and bend closer, catching on that something was about to be revealed.

Amelia just hoped that it wouldn't be as bad as her imagination had already assumed, but they were merely confirmed as Luca lowered his voice, something he only did when something he only did when something was seriously serious.

"I — "

For a second, Amelia stupidly believed that the pitchy shrieks of a whirring alarm were coming from Luca's still-open mouth; but then her brain caught up with the wails, which were rising in intensity and volume.

"What's happening?" She heard Tina cry out — her question was answered by the harried voice of a woman echoing through invisible speakers, whose voice could barely be heard over the din. Amelia listened with growing horror, her skin turning to ice.

"All marines to report to their stations. We repeat, all marines to their stations. This is not a drill."

━━━━