Chapter Text
May, 2042
"You got everything?" laurel asked, leaning into the door frame of Lori’s room. Lori nodded and closed her bag "So, you'll be gone for two weeks"
"Yep" she said. Laurel might not admit it, but she was actually kind of sad Lori was leaving, even if it was for such short amount of time. Even when it comes to visiting their parents, they will usually spent the evening with them and return home for the night, there was no issue since they would just use their couriers, but since It had been such long time since she had properly visited mom, she decided to spent her whole break time back on her mom's house. It has been almost 8 months since Lori had the time to visit her mom, either she was up to her neck on tests and internship opportunities from college or her mom was too busy with her company and bureau work.
She saw laurel's eyes reflecting her inner sadness. Though it was true she could open a portal if she wanted to see Lori during those two weeks, one of the conditions her mom stablished for letting her live hundreds of miles away from her college, basically out of whim, was that she could only use her courier for that, either going to college or home. “I'll be back before you notice” she shot her an apologetic smile "So, try not to miss me so much
"Sure" Laurel scoffed and rolled her eyes trying to play it cool
After everything was set Lori preceded to open a portal to her old house not before giving Laurel a tight hug and hummed "see you in two weeks. Text me if anything interesting happens"
As if anything interesting ever happens there "Say hi to your mom for me" she finished Lori nodded and waved a final goodbye then crossed through the portal.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
The portal opened in the middle of the main Room of her old house, empty as usual "Welcome back Miss Lorelai” Nimb was the first who greeted her and informed the whereabouts of her mom.
"Miss Lorelai has arrived" Nimb voice informed Lena in her office room. She was supposed been to be expecting Lori, but one document led to another and she lost track of time. Even if she had planned on coordinate to have less work and enjoy this mother-daughter time, something always had to go off the rails. This time was the disappearance of a creature and one of the agents in charge of escorting them through the XII century, they found them eventually, but that dragged quite the amount of paperwork. She set down the few pages that were left and got out of her office to the main room, greeting Lori with a thigh hug.
"I'm so sorry darling, I lost track of time" Lena apologized.
"Nah, its fine I'm kinda early tho" she said placing her bags on the near couch to deal with them later. "So, are you set for the day?"
"Of course" Lena decided to omit the few reports that need revision on her desktop upstairs. It wasn't anything difficult so she could finish them who put any trouble later.
"Great! There's this new scones recipe I've dying to try" she beamed "Also, there these two new movies everyone has been talking about this month, all the reviews said it's a bomb" she walked to the kitchen and Lena followed "oh! And wait 'till you see all I have planned for this weekend"
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
They spent the next five days after that on all sorts of activities, Lori had planned out baking sessions, a polo match, retro movie night, turns out, her mom hadn’t seen a lot of the classics of her own time and had even included her mom work time in between all that, she had also planned a different game for each night as well, with hopes she'll finally beat her mom on at least one of them.
On the night of the 6th day Lori was particularly exhausted and after a shamesly defeat she decided that the best thing she could have for dinner that night was a whole pint of frozen yogurt, Lena wanted to object but couldn't resist how fun was Lori’s face full of yogurt getting brain freeze for how much she was eating, she for her part just ate a kale salad. They shared their good nights and went to sleep, well, while Lori fell dead on her sleep, Lena stayed up for a little longer, monitoring and reviewing the cases of the fugitives that had relocated in the last months. Then when her eyes couldn't stay open anymore she fell asleep.
"Ms. Luthor, Lori's body seems to be in...Distress" Nimb voice called her out of her sleep.
"What do you mean distress?" Lena asked rubbing her sore eyes and sitting on the bed. She picked the tablet next to her and asked Nimb for Lori's vitals. Her eyes went wide in shock when she saw the numbers rising by the minute on the screen.
She busted out of the bed to her daughter's room. Lori was struggling in her sleep, skin feverish and ragged breathing.
"Nimb, send up vial 3-36 please" she requested getting near Lori. Nimb didn't answer. She just heard the sound of air moving near behind the wall. A small compartment opened revealing the small case, a vial and a gun syringe.
"Mom?" she heard faintly while opening the case.
"Hey pumpkin" Lena smiled worriedly, cupping her face. She could see clearly that Lori was disoriented, probably overwhelmed with whatever was happening to her body.
Lori tried to speak, but only a whimper came out.
"Shh, it’s going to be okay" she loaded the syringe gun and shot Lori's with it. Quickly the girls became calm, more relax and succumbed back into unconsciousness.
"That should do it for now" Lena exhaled, moving a string of hair from Lori’s sweated face "bring her to the lab" she finished in the most monotonous tone.
Lena was terrified to say the least. She made a mental list of everything that could be happening and list was just getting larger by the minute. However back, way back of her mind she kept shoving the answer. She looked back at the tablet with Lori's vitals, numbers lower now for the exception of the sun radiation levels. She kept waiting for those numbers to down as well, but knew they wouldn't.
She barely realized when the elevator hit the lowest level of the house where her lab was. Nimb informed her that Lori's was there as well. She put herself together and stored out into the room "Did you make a full scan?" She asked Nimb.
"Of course" Nimb answered and showed the results "it's seems like-"
"The sun radiation is waking her Kryptonian part" she signed watching the results. Those numbers could only mean that.
"Yes. It seems her dampener has been working just at half of its capacity"
"I just don't understand" she ran her fingers through her hair looking at the screen. She designed the dampened to be self-sufficient; there was no reason for it to be stopping working on its own.
At this rate her dampener will stop working and Lori’s body will start to reject it. She could replace it, but Lori will defiantly notice. There was no out of this. She had been running from it for 17 years now, how could she let that much time passed? How Lori would react? She was very afraid of that one, she would probably hate her.
"Ms. Luthor?" Nimb called her out of her mind "What will be the next course of action?
I don’t know, she thought. Her mind wasn’t working as fast as it would. She couldn't extract the dampener, her body won't recover fast enough.... and overall it would not be fair. She had told herself that dampening her powers was the safest option while growing, but what was the excuse now? She knew this day would come, she couldn't postpone it anymore, or at least, she shouldn't. It was time, she had to tell her and let her decide from there. Even if she decided to hater her for that after.
"Extract all the sun radiation, and a few hours under red sun lamps. Take her to her room before dawn" that should give her enough time to find a propped way to bring all this to Lori. There was no back up from this.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Lori woke up grasping for air. The intense feelings making her sit on her bed. Hands gripping hard on her chest and Chills running down her body, as if she should be drenched in sweat, but instead she was cool to the touch. She closed her eyes and fell back to her pillow. It probably was just a nightmare. A very intense, lucid nightmare.
"I shouldn't have eaten that much frozen yogurt" she groaned. Falling back into her pillow, she noticed the slight sunlight through her window and frowned. "Nimb, what time is it?"
"Good morning Mr. Lorelai. It is currently 10:45. Would you like a brief on the news?" Nimb answered.
"No, thanks" Lori said, pinching the bridge of her nose. That was odd. She wasn't exactly an early person, but her internal clock had never woken her up that late either.
Getting from her room to the bathroom she noticed how every window was covered up, preventing sunlight into the house, for a second she thought it was weird, but didn’t pay too much attention to it.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Oh? Morning mom" she said as she noticed her mom sitting on the table when she entered the kitchen.
"Someone's up late" Lena said
"I blame that on the frozen yogurt" she groaned "how could you let me eat that much?" Lori said, taking down a box of cereal and a bowl form the pantry "for real, I'm banning it for at least a month" she heard her mom giggle from behind
She groaned again and sat on the chair after the one next to her mom "I feel like I was hit by a truck" she took her phone out of her pajama pocket "I should start listening to laurel and plan a healthier routine" she finished, Going through her phone and getting excited when she saw a message from laurel. It wasn't until a few mouth full spoons of cereal that she notice her mom, who had stopped paying attention to what she said, glancing at her.
"Is there something wrong?" she frowned, spook still in her mouth
"How are you feeling?" Lena quickly asked
She looked confused for a moment "What do you mean?" then, placed her phone face down on the table
Lena realized that might have been a little too fast-forwards “Nimb told me you were having a bad dream last night “she tilted her head” are you feeling okay?”
"Oh… that" she remembered. The feeling brought bitter taste to her mouth "I can barely remember what was that all about" Lena still looked concerned "I'm fine mom, really. In fact I feel great" she beamed "apparently oversleeping can have its benefits"
"Sure" Lena chuckled a little bit "hey, what if I take care of game night today? I have some stuff I've been meaning to show you
"Oh, Really?" Lori said full of curiosity "Ow dang it, but today is Clue night! Juts so you know, I've been practicing with laurel to finally beat you"
"Oh darling, I hardly doubt it" her mom confidently answered.
"Can I at least get a hint of what is this mysterious thing you're planning?" she put her hands under her chin and put on her best puppy eyes.
Lena just smiled "I just hope you like it" Lori pouted loudly saying how unfair that was and Lena laughed.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Lena had taken the afternoon to plan their evening, hoping Lori wouldn't hate her at the end of the day.
"Mom?" Lori peeked into her mother's office.
"Yes, darling" Lena said without lifting her sight.
"Nimb went offline for an update, so if you need anything I'll be on the rooftop” Lena lifted her sight to that.
"Nimb went offline already?" She looked at her desk clock. Nimb update was scheduled to be on during the day, so in the meantime the house was left unprotected they'll be aware of. Hopefully, she'll be back online before dinner "Ok, just don't fall asleep on the rooftop please, you'll get sunburn" she tried to joked a little. Lori had been indoors the whole day, getting little to none direct sunlight, she was afraid not knowing how her body was going to keep reacting to sun energy
"I'll try not to" Lori did a finger gun gesture and opened a portal.
"You can just take the stairs darling, it's not that hard"
"Ugh too much walking" she sneered "see you at dinner" was the last thing she heard when the portal closed.
Now, onto business. Lena rested her face on her palms and groaned loudly. She had been trying to find the best most organic way to bring the subject into the table. I wonder if this why Kara never actually told me-
No. She shook her head. This was no time to be thinking about the past. She wasn't as mad as she used to be about it anymore, she was...disappointed to say the least, wondering if after this She was going to have to go back to all those buried memories. If she was honest to herself, she could actually use Kara's help on this.
She rubbed her temples and sighed in defeat, she still had some work files left to work on and a little bit of krypton research to do as well.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
A few hours later on the rooftop, Lori already had part of her work done, she was about to stand up to for a little stretch when a sudden wave of dizziness and nausea almost made her faint, she grabbed the table for support when her knees threatened to give up. Suddenly she could feel her eyes burning and her ears ringing, everything to bright and too loud. She felt like she was having a panic attack. She finally dropped down and curl herself into a ball, her breathing getting more and more erratic at his point. She thought she was dying.
Then everything went silent, a very chill breeze made her look around. There was nothing but blue. She looked in every direction, she was floating or flying? Nope, she couldn't be flying that was impossible. She shut her eyes tight, repeating to herself that this was just another nightmare, that she was going to wake up and everything will be fine.
But it wasn’t.
And she was falling. Falling fast very fast, the world spinning around her as her body lost her gravitation center. That was it; she was going to die she thought as tears run out her eyes into the open. Then she remembered her time courier. Everything was blurry as her fingers, frenetically, tried to press the buttons on the small device with no success until a final push opened a portal and smashed the device at the same time.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Laurel was in the kitchen refilling her water bottle, it got empty about an hour ago and without Lori there to burst into her room and remind her to stay hydrated while she studied, she practically forgot about it. It was now her leisure time and she hadn't heard from Lori since the morning, she took her phone out and started to tap when the sound of a portal opening caught her attention.
"What the-" she was cut out trying to glimpse on the other side when something or rather someone shoot out of it crashing on the wall in front of them.
Both her phone and her bottle fell on the floor, eyes wide in shock when she realized that it was Lori who hit the wall.
"Oh god" she quickly kneeled Down to her side, her hands shaking "Lori?" she didn't get an answer right away but, slowly, Lori started to move "wha- how- are you okay are you hurt?"
"I'm fine Laurel" she said holding her head, the room was still spinning.
"You just crashed into a wall, how can you be fine?!" laurel practically yelled "we need to call an ambulance, you may have a concussion or be bleeding internally-
She quickly lost laurel's voice into the mess that was her brain, she didn't feel hurt, she was fine. Again she thought this probably was another dream, she probably fell asleep on the roof, that's all. The situation was too surreal to be true. Everything was going to be alright, Right? If she kept repeating that, it'll probably be true.
Again, it wasn't. When her brain finally caught Laurel's voice again, she couldn’t take it anymore.
"I told you I'm Fine!" she shouted at the same time hot red beams came out of her eyes. She quickly covered her face, hissing as she felt her eyes burning in pain.
Laurel crawled back into the wall, processing what had happened looking into the two burning holes on the wall next to them. Then she felt Lori quivering and sniffing next to her
"Lori...?" she place her hand on her shoulder, Lori got tensed by the touch "hey, would you please Look at me?"
"No. What if I that happens again?" she quivered, her breathing still ragged "I don't want to hurt you"
Laurel softly smiled "you won't, okay" but Lori still didn't move. She knew this could go south very quickly with how fast she was breathing. She wrapped her arms around Lori, she heard her breath hitched for a second, her body still trembling but starting to relax. After what it felt like a minute or so her breathing was close to normal, laurel leaned back and Lori finally uncover her face revealing her irritated eyes.
"Yikes, that doesn't look good" Laurel said moving a loose strand of hair from her face, examining Lori red puffy eyes. She stood up and asked Lori to follow her to the couch and to wait there.
Lori stayed put on the couch, gripping hard its cushions. She was exhausted once again, she kept replaying everything that had happened, clearly there was something going on. She felt chills all over her body. This feeling wasn't unfamiliar, no. She wondered if her mom knew about this and that is why she was so preoccupied this morning. She clearly remembered her mom voice telling her everything was going to be okay, but...her mom had told her it was a dream, she wouldn’t lie to her like that...would she?
Part of her messy brain knew that it was irrational, it was her mom after all but the mere thought of her lying again clouded her entire judgment. Was she experimenting with her? Or she knew that whatever was happening was going to happen? Her mind kept filling with questions; she could feel the panic rising again...
"Lori?" laurel's voice brought her back. She has holding a small tube of what it looked like eye drops. She had completely forgotten about her eyes, they didn't burn anymore.
"Here" she poured a few drops on each eye, then she noticed Lori’s smashed courier "gosh what happened to this?" at first she thought that maybe it was because of the crash, but looking at it closely she noticed some finger marks on it.
Ah right, she smashed her courier too... Lori closed her eyes and took a deep breath "Something really messed up is going with me" she stated the obvious.
"Yeah, no shit" Laurel smiled, trying to joke it out, but worry still show on her face "sorry, it's just..." She tried to find the words "we should really call someone, like you mom! She pro-
"No!" she almost screamed at the thought of getting her mom involved. She grasped laurel's shirt for support. What if her mom tries to cover everything up again? She already lied once, what can assure her she wouldn't do it again? Or, what if her whole life had been a huge lie?
"What?" Laurel questioned confused at the odd reaction of Lori. "If anyone can get a grasp of what’s going on it's her, you know that" she tried rubbing Lori’s arms to calm her but Lori only gripped tighter
"I think..." she squeezed her eyes and gulped "I think she already knows"
Laurel frowned "What?"
"I- I'm not sure, she told me it was probably a bad dream or something, I never thought-” She quickly shook her head and cover her ears “I can't think with all that noise"
"Noise?" she asked wondering since the only voices in the room were theirs.
"It’s not here-" She gripped eras tighter "it’s everywhere I can't-" Lori felt like she drowning in a sea of voices and sounds. It was overwhelming and the quick rise and fall of her breathing was just making it worse
"Wow, hey it's okay" Laurel rounded with her arms again, holding her close, trying to calm her calm "ah- what if...what if you focus on something? The vents, the water pipes, erh... I don't know my voice?"
Lori tried, until her mind finally focused on a steady sound "Hmm...Your heartbeat it's pretty loud"
"It’s not like I can make it stop you know" Laurel smiled "is it working?"
Lori hummed, taking her hands from her ears she placed her chin on the crook of Laurel's neck, taking deep breaths had focusing on the steady rhythm of laurel heartbeat "yes"
A few moments later Lori leaned back "better?" laurel asked gently squeezing her shoulders. Lori nodded in agreement, her body seemed relaxed but her face still displayed worry looking down. Laurel placed her index finger under her chin, forcing her to look at her and with the most soft tone aske "penny for your thoughts?" she tilted her head a bit.
Lori slightly blushed at the gesture looking directly into her blue eyes. She exhaled "its juts- what if it happens again and I lose control of it? What I hurt someone? A- And your mom's have to arrest me for disturbing the peace or some other shit?"
"Oh don't be so dramatic, they'll never do that. They love you" she slightly nudged her.
"They won't love me so much when they find out I'm this laser shooting monster" she brought her knees close to her chest and buried her face in them.
"Hey. Don't say that. You're not a monster" she gently squeezed her shoulder “we’ll figure this out and you'll be back to normal in no time"
"How?" Lori mumbled.
Laurel quickly thought that whatever it’s happening to Lori might have to do with a magical creature since they were everywhere now. Ever since the placement program was implement humans and creatures started to mix, now days you could find beings half human half magical creature, it was to be expected and most people didn’t mind, however, everyone had to be register on the bureau system so they could have a grasp how much the magical population was growing and provide help for those with powerful abilities "Oh! I know" she resolved "the bureau!"
"What? Are you going to hand me over?" she heard Lori’s muffled voice.
She looked dead serious at her "It hurts me that you have such low faith in me" she sneered "The bureau has a database of all known magical creatures and their abilities and characteristics. If you got infected with something it has to be there.
Lori lifted her head, peeking slightly, still not convinced.
"Oh come on! It's better than nothing" Laurel said "and if we go now there might not that many people in the building, no one it's going to notice us"
Lori thought about it. Sooner than later her mom was going to figure out she wasn't on the roof anymore. She might have enough time to investigate on her own before confronting her "okay" she finally said “but until we know what's happening we can tell anyone"
"Of course" laurel pressed her courier, opening a portal "let's go"
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
The portal opened near the storage side of the building, they made their way to where most of the offices where. Just a Laurel said, people were already leaving for the day, meaning it'd be an easy to find an empty office to sneak in without someone finding out.
After avoiding some potential agents that might recognize them, they found an empty office with no one left near it. They got in, turning the flash of Laurel's phone to see better their surrounds. Laurel instructed Lori to stay near the door in case someone tried to open it or something while she went through the Bureau system.
"Can I ask? How is that you have access to the system? I thought only agents could log in" she looked at laurel confidently taping in.
"I may or may have not put myself on the system when auntie Z asked me to help her update it"
"And they never found out?" she said with a frown on her lips. Laurel just hummed in response “No wonder mom uses her own"
Laurel kept tapping until a window asking for what she was looking popped on the screen "so, I'm in. Let’s see...you have shown increase on audio sensibility" she tapped “Laser eyes...super strength?
"And flying" Lori added "or is it floating?" but Laurel didn't heard that last part.
"Right and flying “she finished and the search started "this might take a few seconds.
Lori nodded; she focused her sight on the blurred window of the office. She could hear the murmuring voices of the agents that were still on the building, along with the dim lights outside, She was getting dizzy again, feeling a knot forming in her throat, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and tried to steady herself, that's when she heard a familiar voice outside, not close but it was near.
"Huh? That's weird..." Laurel voice cut everything out.
"What is it?"
"There is no record of any magical creature with your characteristic but…" she scrolled down the results "There this two...aliens?"
"What?" then she heard the voice getting closer "I think your mom is coming"
"What?"
"Just, print everything. She’s getting close" she rushed her.
"Okay okay" she pressed some final bottoms on the keyboard and the printer started,
Lori felt her knees wanting to give up again. She felt like fainting. Laurel grabbed the papers once the printer finished and quickly went to Lori’s side "hey! You okay?" she asked worried
"Yes. juts...let's go," they examine the hallway and walked fast when they didn't see anyone but just around the corner a voice stopped them dead in their track.
"Laurel?" the director voice came from behind them.
"Mom!" she turned around and greeted her in a high pitched tone "Hi"
"I didn't know you were coming by, what you are doing here?" the tall blonde frowned.
"Ah...yes, I’m-" she trailed off trying to come up with a believable excuse "It’s just, With Lori gone the apartment feels so lonely, and so I thought 'Hey why not surprise mom at work on my leisure time' you, know?
You came for dinner last week" she said bluntly, crossing her arms to her chest.
"So much time” Laurel answered quickly, eyes wide open. Her mom just raised an eyebrow.
And Lori is right there...?" she tilted her head, looking behind her daughter.
"Ehmm...right! She kinda texted me on my way here and decided to join me" Lori gave her a weak smile,
Ava features softened in concern when she saw the state of Lori "Oh Lori darling, you don't look so good, are you feeling okay?"
"Ahh...yes it’s...."She forced herself to smile " my period, sometimes it just hits harder you know?
"Do you want some Tylenol?" she placed her palm on her forehead "you're a bit warm, you should definitely be resting"
That’s what I told her" she looked at Lori realizing that she looked more exhausted than before but carried on with the act " See I told you " she turned back to her mom "anyway, my leisure time it’s about to end and you know how much you hate messing up my daily schedule plus I already say hi to you, I should just go and tuck this one in" she said rather fast hugged her mother "Miss you already, say hi to mama and Jordan for me bye" she rushed opened a portal and disappeared.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Well, that was close" she turned up to Lori who struggling a bit to stay stand "wow, you really, don't look good, you sure you're alright? We can pause this whole thing for a bit if you need to rest"
"No, no I'm fine it’s probably just…the stress from all that's happening catching up" she plumbed into the couch. She didn't felt hurt or anything and the dizziness was gone, but her body was still feeling exhausted. As if was working without any energy to burn and decided to just eat her inside “what do we got? "
"Right..." Laurel took the pages from her pocket, unfolded them and started to read "they fought alongside the legends and the other teams on several occasions, at least they're good guys" she continued “it says they're aliens ; kryptonians to be precise, and pretty much match all of your symptoms" Laurel read a little bit more to herself before adding "huh? So that's the super woman mama and the team mentioned" Laurel remembered a few stories where the things got so complicated the team needed the help of heroes from another universe, apparently things have been manageable enough since her mom’s haven’t talked about any of them in a long time.
"Does it say if they infect people or have a pathogen of some sort?"
"Mmmm....no, they don't. But it says they get their powers from the yellow Sun, well, our Sun"
"Where are they now?" Lori asked closing her eyes, feeling the exhaustion taking over her body.
"Well" Laurel flip the pages “it says they're from a 'National City', earth 38. So like...not even our same universe apparently"
"Great" Lori spat "My only chance at this and the answers are not even on this universe"
Laurel wasn't an stranger to interdimensional travel, it's not like her moms and their friends didn't like to brag about their adventures every holiday, however she wasn't quite sure if the waverider was capable of such thing, every time the subject matter was brought it was always from...
"Oh wait, I know who can help us" Lori looked at her "Nora!"
"Mrs. Palmer?"
"What? No" She frowned a little "you've met her uhhh" she tried to recall the last get together their families had "thanksgiving, 2 years ago?"
"Oh right, Mr. west-Allen daughter" Lori remembered "But, aren’t they speedsters. What is she going to do? Yeet us into realities? "
"I mean, I guess she can but no, she probably has access to Cisco's lab. Luckily she owns me a favor" Lori looked at her not quite seeing where the conversation was going "Cisco? He works with portals and weird energy stuff"
"Oh! Right right" Lori pretended she already knew "what? Sometimes you guys talk too much about things I'm not that interested on, or wasn't there when it happened so, I might had zooned out a couple of Times" she confessed, taking her phone out to look at the time. It was almost time for dinner "okay, let's go"
"What? Like, Right now?" Laurel said, remembering that Lori was a the verge of fainting earlier "you need to rest"
"I told you I feel fine" those words are starting to lose sense by now “and we don't have that much time" she looked at her phone "my mom probably think I felt sleep on the rooftop by now, and I don't think Nimb has come back online so chop chop"
Laurel took her phone out, looked through her contacts and dialed Nora "hey" she said in a cherry tone when the line came through "Are you busy right now?"
-
"I need you to find something on Cisco's lab. Does he have any device that can, hypothetically, travel through dimensions?"
"Hmmm, I never thought you'll send to steal, that's new"
"It's not stealing, we're just burrowing....for research"
"Yeah, whatever helps you sleep at night " She mocked "lucky for you, I know what you guys need" she disappeared in a flash of purple and yellow lightings and came back in less than a second with a small device in hand. "This is an Interdimensional extrapolator" She explained "it opens a portal and swoosh you're on another dimension"
"That’s it? Really" Laurel said in disbelief and Nora just shrugged "ah well… okay, set it to earth-38"
Nora nodded and after a few adjustments she pressed the button and a swirling glimmering portal opened. That was it. Seeing everything coming to place suddenly gave Lori a sense of clarity on what was happening ever since she crashed on their apartment. Everything was catching up to her, everything that she had done. She thought of her mom. There was still time, she didn't have to jump. If she decided to go she knew there was not going to be a turning back, she definitely will get in a Lot of trouble, not only her but...
Her eyes wider in realization "Laurel wait-" she grabbed Laurel's wrist "this... You don't have to come with me"
"Lor- what?" Laurel brows frowned in confusion,
"I've already put you on so much trouble today and this...jumping into a universe we don't know anything about juts because of my own stubbornness and selfishness… it's Just too much" Her grip slightly tighten "You can back now and I will take full responsibility for everything"
Laurel took Lori’s hands in hers "we've come this far, I won't let you face this alone you silly" her eyes glimmered with the portal’s shine "yes my moms are going to be pissed, but trust me, they'll understand.
"It might be dangerous"
"I know"
"We might not have a way to come back"
"I know"
"Laurel-" Lori looked at her, eyes starting to swell with tears "please"
"You can cry all you want, but I'm not leaving" Laurel wiped a single tear on Lori’s cheek.
"You jerk" she sniffed.
"So are we doing this or what?"
Lori whipped her eyes and nodded; Laurel took her hand in hers and jumped into the unknown.