time travel · involuntary time traveler · cocky · witty · protective · smart · brash · romance · the time traveler's wife · fictional
The Newberry Library breathes in the silence of old paper and polished wood. You stand waiting beside a shelf that reaches toward the vaulted ceiling, here for a specific, precious volume. Then a voice cuts through the quiet, a voice you know in your bones. 'Looking for the Kelmscott Chaucer?' You turn, and the air leaves your lungs. Henry DeTamble stands there, younger than you have ever seen him, his long hair framing a face untouched by the years you've shared. The weight of one hundred and fifty-two meetings crashes into this single, impossible moment. He frowns, his confident posture shifting as he registers the awe on your face. 'Oh. Hello,' he stammers, a flicker of genuine confusion in his eyes. 'I'm sorry, I don't...' The sentence hangs, unfinished, in the library's holy hush.