Chapter Text
Of course, nothing could ever go right with their plans. Something had to fail at the most crucial moment. Jared just wished that it wasn’t this plan.
Of course Matt’s shoddy thing on top of CN tower wouldn’t hold. Jared should’ve helped him up there. But they’d probably both fall off. He’d run off, probably in cowardice.
Even worse, Jay was on the news, and the police were talking to the cover band. Hopefully it was just about them not having a permit to do a shitty blockade.
They’d probably be going to jail for the rest of their lives, trapped in this timeline where Matt was the most annoying man in the world. What he wouldn’t give to have the old Matt back.
“BREAKING NEWS: there is a man on CN tower! He seems to be the well known ‘fedora guy’ from Jay McCarrol’s concerts.”
Oh god Matt. Oh wait, he seemed to be fixing it! And yelling about being Jay’s number one fan. Whatever gets him famous.
—
“I got it! Hey can you guys get my good side? The arm with the tattoo. Yeah! Look at me baby!”
“Matt shut the f-ck up. Be serious. Please. For one goddamn second.”
“But I get to be as famous as you!”
Jay hated this Matt. He hated how conceited he was. He hated how he made his life revolve around Jay. Well, normal Matt’s life revolved around Jay, but that was manageable. This wasn’t. He didn’t know how the cover band could manage living with.
Even worse, the goddamn idiot had pulled the cable out. He should’ve known not to trust this awful version of Matt. No, real Matt would’ve pulled the cable out. But it would’ve been on accident. He would’ve excused an accident.
“Don’t worry Jay McCarrol, I know just what to do!”
“I wish I fell for one of my Matt’s plans! At least he actually cares about me! At least he wants me to be happy! You don’t care about anyone but yourself and your obsession with me. I hope I don’t share a f-cking jail cell with you.”
“I’d love that! I hope I get Jay McCarrol branded bedsheets”
Jay wished he could crush the walkie talkie in his hands. He should’ve done that. No, it would probably fuck his hands up for a bit.
He watched as Matt took out a Jay McCarrol branded parachute, and be taken in the complete opposite direction of where he needed to be.
What a worthless idiot. He was going to have to share a cell with him for the rest of his goddamn life.
He wished Matt was dead.
—
Jay was frightening when he was angry. His normal demeanor instantly melted away into one of complete annoyance. The Turner incidents were playing in Jared’s mind. But he couldn’t think of that right now.
Jared had to make a choice. He could stay here with Jay while the cops came, or he could run to the power box. He could do nothing like he always did. Maybe Matt would change course! He seemed to know how to control parachutes well.
But Matt was far away, and Jared was near.
So Jared ran. He told Jay to go ahead with the plan. He would fix it. He had to. This was the only way.
Jared was a fast runner. You had to be one to keep up with Matt and Jay. For 40 year old men, they were surprisingly spry.
Jared reached the power cord. He looked silly jumping in the street with his trusty camera at his side. It was probably weighing him down, but he got the power cord either way.
He tried to connect it to the outlet. But it just wasn’t budging. Matt probably did that on purpose. He wanted to keep Jay in this horrible awful cursed timeline. He noticed that Matt had finally aimed the parachute towards the power box.
But then the wind blew him the other way. Hopefully it would blow his stupid ass hat off too. He didn’t deserve that hat. He shouldn’t be thinking about ‘Matt’ right now, he should be figuring out a way to connect the cord.
He saw Jay down the street. The cops were chasing him. Jared had to think of something fast. He didn’t want to do this, but it was the only way. A tabloid with Jay’s face on it was blown onto the power box, but Jared just ignored it.
He smashed his trusty camera.
—
The lights on the thingy had lit up! Jared had done something! He was finally going to be rid of Matt! He’d get his Matt back! He’d get his life back!
Oh. That’s how he did it.
Jared was using himself as a conduit for the lightning. His camera lay broken on the ground, and he was holding a bit of it up to the outlet. Memories of Jared filming the two suddenly came back.
He was just as important as Matt. He was their main camera man, but he was also one of their friends.
The alarm clock went off.
—
Jared remembered his life.
How he first met Matt and Jay in their 20s. They hired him right on the spot, and the three became fast friends.
He remembered Andy, Luca, and all the rest. He remembered the nights they would spend editing the footage into episodes for a future documentary series. They held movie nights when Matt and Jay went to sleep.
He remembered running around Toronto, capturing everything the two friends did together. He’d never see either of them again. He wished that Matt was here.
Jared stopped remembering.
—
Matt had finally landed. Jay McCarrol was gone. How rude of him to time travel without his number one fan by his side! He noticed a large crowd was crowded around some flames. The crowd should be looking at him instead!
But the flames weren’t what people were looking at.
Matt looked on in horror. He didn’t look at him for long. He slumped to the ground, and cried. His tears glistened.
“You better fix this, Jay. You better.”
—
“Are you sure this will save both Matt and Jared?” Luca asked. He was still shaken by what Jared had done.
“I don’t know. Let’s find out.”
Jay realized he didn’t have any way to power the time machine. He’d have to go back inside. There was an Orbitz bottle waiting for him that wasn’t there before. Odd, but he’d take anything.
He swore he saw young Matt.
—
Jay was exhausted. He didn’t even know if this would work. For all he knew, this was someone else’s house.
Good thing it wasn’t.
Matt was back. It was his Matt. The Matt that he knew since childhood. The Matt he’s spent 17 years with. Jared was alive and well. No scars or anything. He was so glad that his plan had worked.
Jay hugged them both. Maybe a bit too hard.
“I missed you guys.”
“Bird, you were here yesterday.” Matt said.
Bird. That felt good to hear.
“Yeah man. What’s up with you?!” Jared said.
“Can’t a man miss his friends?!”
Jay decided to deflate the tension with a movie. They argued on what it would be for a while, but they decided on Jurassic Park. Jay and Luca fell asleep halfway through the movie.
—
“So guys, this is Nikolai! Jay said he met him a bit ago.”
Jared was always happy to get a new camera man to help out. He was getting the strangest sense of Déjà vu however.
He shrugged it off. Luca seemed extremely happy to see Nikolai. Almost like they were old friends.
Hey maybe they were, you never know in Toronto!