The lawn in front of the school, Sunday night

[notmyownage]

Claudia hit the ground with a soft whump and blinked into the dirt. She looked up just in time to catch the last of the clouds disappearing on the horizon.

There was a horizon again! She remembered horizons. Horizons were good.

She remembered the rest of it, and not sure where the urge came from, she focused in on it nonetheless, remembering her dorm room and her friends and the town, her brother and their parents and Artie and the Warehouse and Myka and Pete and their families and Leena and Mrs. Frederick and everything else she could think of.

It took awhile, that much remembering. But for the first time in what felt like ages, Claudia figured she had awhile to spare.

[ooc: sure, it can be open, why not?]

Comments

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

" -- I think I passed out," Quinn whined from her spot a few trees over. (Get Nothing'd drunk, pop back into existence with a hangover.) "Ow, my head."

She sat up expectantly, realizing how not-panicked things seemed to be. "Wait, is it over?"

[notmyownage]

"Quinn!" Claudia shouted, probably rather too loudly for poor Quinn's hangover. "You're okay!" And then Quinn was about to be engulfed by a far to chipper and cheerful roommate.

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

Quinn hugged her back gingerly. "Hey, yeah, you're a lot happier than you were last time I saw you," she said, a little weirded out since form her point of view that was, like, three hours ago. "I need aspirin."

She was remembering in spite of herself: cheers, Puck, her mom, the Lima mall, entire cycles of America's Next Top Model.

[notmyownage]

"You're back!" Claudia explained. "And okay! You were gone like everyone else and it turns out I really missed you!" She pulled back and looked around again. "Look, there's a sky again and everything!"

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"I wasn't gone, I just came out to fight the crazy people, and --"

Quinn frowned, realizing what must have happened. She was also deciding to give up drinking for good.

"Oh." She looked up, grinning at the sun. "So somebody saved the world, huh?"

[notmyownage]

"I guess," Claudia said. "I was just trying to test the force field, but I doubt that would have --" She winced. "I guess I must've disappeared, too."

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

Quinn reached over to fluff Claudia's hair. "See, we're both morons," she said affectionately. "I think I'm going to go take a shower so I smell a little less like a brewery, then go try to find somebody who knows what we missed."

And Puck.

[notmyownage]

"I wasn't going to say anything," Claudia said, wrinkling her nose a little. "Sounds like a plan. Omigosh, I have to try calling Joshua!"

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"Joshua, Franny, my mom ..." Quinn was going sing-song. "And I have to find Puck. I miss the doofus."

[notmyownage]

"Lord knows why," Claudia teased. "I'll see you back upstairs later."

[chief-cheerio.livejournal.com]

"Absolutely. One more hug?" It was a little weird, but Quinn might be hugging people a lot for a while.

[notmyownage]

In response, Claudia glomped her again.

She would be hugging people a lot for awhile, too.

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully was running, as soon as thing were--- around, again. Just to see--

The Island was back. And then.

"YES!!!!!!!!"

[notmyownage]

Claudia looked up and grinned. "I'm assuming you guys fixed . . . whatever it was!"

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully beamed rushed over, then just tried to squeeze the life out of Claudia. "It's Sunday, you missed camping out in Special Collections, and it worked!"

[notmyownage]

"Wait, it's Sunday?" Claudia blinked, then hugged back. "Okay then! What worked?"

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"I'm a little fuzzy on the particle physics," Scully said breathlessly, unable to stop grinning. "But we wound up in a place in Special Collections, or attached to it, where we just had to concentrate on remembering and... I guess we re-booted the Universe. Es. Universes."

[notmyownage]

"There's something deeply existential about that," Claudia noted, remembering being freaked out by the thought that the world would vanish if she blinked, amongst all the other memories. "But you guys did it! You're my heroes!"

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Don't vanish on me again!" Scully pleaded, sniffling and laughing. "That was horrible! I was scared-- I mean, I was worried--" She gulped, and rubbed at her eyes, exhaustion hitting her like a 747 hitting the tarmac. "Oh, God, I could sleep for a month."

[notmyownage]

"I'm sorry," Claudia said sincerely. She knew what it felt like to have people disappear on you, even before everything had started happening. "I was trying to help."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

Scully sighed and hugged her again. "I'm too relieved to yell or hold it against you or anything at all. You're here. We remembered you guys. That's what matters." She looked around, and shook her head in wonder. "Amazing."

[notmyownage]

"You mean how we can watch the world end and still save the day at this school?"

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"Exactly. What do we do now?" Scully wondered, still overwhelmed.

[notmyownage]

"I vote get drunk," Claudia said. She looked around. "Apparently after I clean up all the stuff I was throwing at the force field."

[showmetheproof.livejournal.com]

"I'll help. On both counts."

[notmyownage]

"Sounds like we've got a plan, then."

[exactlyaverage.livejournal.com]

Jack? Jack was leaping, running and yelling "SHE'S ALIVE!" at the top of his lungs as he bolted through the school grounds.

Yep. He's ecstatic.

[notmyownage]

Claudia cheered for him as she watched him rush by. She could guess who he was talking about.