The joy of feeling Keziah's lips engaging his, of her hands pulling their faces together, of her [i]not[/i] preventing him from pulling their unfamiliar bodies more firmly together raised William's spirits and hopes as rapidly and amazingly as the lift off of the rockets he'd described to her in his conversation of the future.  And then, just as quickly, the [i]rocket[/i] exploded on the launch pad.  She pulled back and -- without even making eye contact with him -- went back to her end of day tasks as if nothing had happened between them.

William cursed his 21st century self for what most would consider a gross violation of 18th century Keziah's honor.  Oh sure, she was no still-pure virgin: she had been married, and she'd been courted by a second man with whom he'd thought there may have been some [i]fire[/i]  (Over the next few hours, as he replayed the aborted kiss in his mind, William would come to dismiss any thought that Keziah had parted her thighs for the man, though he was unable to dismiss his own fantasies of her doing such for him someday soon.)

[color=tan]"I want to return to Lexington. To my father."[/color]

"Of course," William said immediately, without even thinking.  Keziah needed to be with family, and her suggestion didn't require any discussion of pros or cons.  "I will talk to the Lieutenant ... maybe the Colonel about it.  Keziah, I'll make sure this happens.  I promise you."

[color=tan]"I...I want you to come with me."[/color]

While Keziah's first comment had made so much sense, [i]that[/i] one took William by surprise.  He contemplated a response, wondering why she would want him -- a stranger, maybe even a madman when you thought about his wild tale of being from the future -- to accompany her to Lexington?

[color=tan]"If this battle that took place today wasn't supposed to happen...then..."[/color]

William had, off and on all day long, been doing his own contemplating about how today's apparent and [i]unscheduled[/i] Patriot victory might affect his own future ... [i]if[/i] such a future even existed.  Should he have vanished, like Hollywood liked to present in their movies about time travel?  If what he'd done here today had altered his ancestor's arrival in New York next year, if it had changed the circumstances of the man's capture, imprisonment, pardon, and eventual citizenship, if it had prevented his marriage years later to Ella Burn, who would be the first woman in a lone line of ancestors to ultimately lead to the birth of one William Kutcher, shouldn't he have gone [i]poof[/i] as soon as those guns began firing their dangerous projectiles at the South Wall?

While his mind had been on this subject all day, trying to make sense of it, at this very moment in time William's entire thinking was set on Keziah's request for him to accompany her to her father's home.  He was about to ask her the reason for wanting this when she continued, [color=tan]"But before I go to Lexington...I want to find Samuel and Elizabeth."[/color]

Again, and without hesitation or thought, William responded, "Of course, Keziah.  I .. I'll go talk to the Sergeant now.  See if there is any word about them ... or ... if there is anyway we can go look for them.  I'm sure that by now the Second controls your old neighborhood."

A chill rushed up William's spine as he suddenly thought to himself, [i]If that neighborhood even exists anymore.[/i]  Just as will the oh so many wars that had preceded and would follow it, this war would see a great many neighborhoods, cities, hell even entire countries laid to waist as forces clashed within them.  While most of the army to army, head to head fighting had occurred out in the open away from most urbanized areas -- as depicted in the paintings and movies to come -- there [i]had[/i] been a few tragic conflagrations during the Revolution that left little but ash and death behind.  Some of Boston's neighborhoods had been razed, but as that hadn't been an area of intense study for [i]future-[/i]William, he couldn't know whether Keziah and/or Elizabeth's homes still stood today.

"Why don't you get ready for bed--"  The words caught in William's throat at he imagined Keziah slipping into a Victoria's Secret negligee and warming up some body oil.  He cleared his throat, turned to hide his reddening face, and finished, "I'm going to go talk to the Sergeant.  But ... I'll be right back.  I promise."

..........

It had taken some major insistence from William -- and a reminded that [i]he[/i] was responsible for their great victory -- to get the Sergeant to take him to the Lieutenant.  And when the Lieutenant refused to help, the pressure to climb the ladder repeated until William was standing in the Colonel's tent.

"I can't permit you to leave the Regiment," Harding responded to the request.  The Colonel winced at the first aid being rendered to the minor wounds he'd received from some shrapnel earlier in the day.  When William asked why not, Harding continued, "You are a valuable asset to The Cause, sir.  If I were to allow you to simply walk away, I would be hanged, drawn, and quartered ... likely by none other than General George Washington himself."

William tried to argue that he'd done his part and should be allowed to get [i]his wife[/i] to safety.  He even offered to do so under guard and then, once she was with her father in Lexington, return to the Second to continue his duties here.  But the Colonel was having none of it.  "I will see to it that your wife is escorted safely to Lexington.  The Lieutenant here will send ... what, six men...?"

"Four would be more easily done, sir," the lesser officer responded.  "Two would be sufficient, to be honest.  I believe that the road between here and Lexington is--"

"In the hands of a Redcoat Captain named Archibald Harrison," William cut in quickly.  "A man who, I believe, you aware of yet can't find."

When both officers shot him surprised looks, William knew he'd gotten their attention with information they hadn't expected him to have ... [i]again.[/i]  Clearing his throat, he began spilling out all of the details of yet [i]another[/i] Redcoat squad about which he was more informed than they.  Occasionally, either the Lieutenant or the Colonel would give some input that told William they'd known of Harrison's general presence and location, but it was obvious that they hadn't know as much as what William had learned from a PBS documentary he'd watched just two or three months earlier.

"So, here's the deal," William said, possibly overstepping the bounds of military etiquette seeing how he was, essentially, blackmailing them this time around.  He asked them some specifics about their control over the Boston Bottleneck and the southern portion of Boston proper, then -- satisfied that where he'd begun this amazing adventure was within that zone -- he told them, "I will tell you [i]exactly[/i] where Archibald Harrison is ... how many troops he has with him ... guns, cannons, horses.  [i]Oh[/i], by the way, he has a cavalry unit that you are totally unaware of, and he'd going to use it to take one of your bridges, though ... I'm not going to tell you which one unless you give me what I want."

The Lieutenant, by now angered at William's [i]impertinence[/i], got embroiled in a short argument with his superior about what he'd [i]like[/i] to do with William.  He obviously didn't like spies and traitors, even if those spies and traitors were aiding The Cause.  After the less senior officer was softly chastised for his insubordination and went dutiful quiet, the man doing the chastising asked William, "What exactly do you want?"

"I need a squad to escort Ke--  my wife to Lexington," William began with feigned confidence, while deep inside his heart was actually beating with fear of, first, having his request rejected and, second, being tossed into a stockade to wait out the war.  When the Colonel gently nodded his approval and gestured William to continue, the latter went on, "Second, I need another squad to escort me past the South Wall to look for my missing brother and his wife."

The Lieutenant began to argue this point, but William pointed out that Samuel was a doctor and that it would be better to have the man aiding Patriot injured rather than Redcoat casualties.  William hesitated before he continued, unsure of how this was going to play out.  "And ... I want a Pass ... that will give me free, unfettered access to New York."

"A pass...?  To New York?" the Colonel asked, confused.

"Signed by General Washington," William added quickly.

The Colonel suddenly straightened, waving away the Doctor who was still fussing with his bandage.  "Why by General Washington?"

"Not something you need to know, Colonel..." William responded.  Then realizing that he was pushing it a bit, he added, "...with all due respect, sir."  The Lieutenant again jumped in, then went silence after a glare from his superior.  William continued, "I have business in New York ... unrelated to the war.  If I can't conclude this business, there is no reason for me to aid you in your fight against the British."  After a moment of hard scrutiny from the Colonel, William stressed, this is non-negotiable.  Keziah ... Samuel ... pass.  All or none."  

As he studied the Colonel, William began to see that the man was about to tell him no so he added quickly, "And I'll tell you what you will have to offer the French to get them to come into the War within six months."

This time the Colonel smiled, then laughed in surprise.  It was no secret that the Patriots had been trying for the past few years to get the French -- who they (as British Citizens) had defeating in a War just a decade earlier -- to get into the War on their side.  He added, "I can tell you specifically what you have to offer ... and with their Navy providing a blockade of British held ports, this war will be over before you know it."

Of course, William wasn't planning on offering the Colonel -- and in turn the General -- anything that history didn't show had been offered.  But he could see that the suggestion had the wheels inside Harding's head spinning fast.  After some more back and forth between the two officers, the Colonel agreed to William's terms.  He assigned the Lieutenant a new task -- directly supervision of and protection for William and his wife -- and sent the well informed and traitorous Hessian spy away to make his preparations.

..........

"You need to get your things together, Keziah," William said upon his return, forgetting that she didn't really have any things as she was taken away in the night without notice.  He told her all about the deal he'd made with the Colonel, explaining that she would be taken south, then west to Lexington; and that he would go up into Boston to search for Samuel and Elizabeth.