Ned leads Geillis and I to a private room.

"Allow these ladies some privacy, please. Please." Ned closes the door. "I'm afraid the climate has turned, and there is no coming back from it."

"Well, what do we do?" I ask.

"We save one of you," Ned states.

"Neither one of us is a witch," I protest.

"It doesn't matter what you are. It's what people think you are," Ned argues. He turns to Geillis. "And people thought you were a witch long before this English lass came into our midst. And let's be frank you've practiced your murky trade for years. The only thing that ever stood between you and a pile of kindling was your husband, and he's dead."

"Are you my lawyer or my judge, Mr. Gowan?" Geillis asks.

"I've tried, Mrs. Duncan, but you're beyond saving, and you ken it," Ned tells her.

"So what is it you're saying, Ned?" I ask.

"I'm saying that if you claimed that Geillis Duncan bewitched you and renounce her..." Ned starts.

"Renounce her?" I question.

"State that she tricked you and drew you into her evil web," Ned says.

"What if I don't?" I ask.

"They'll burn you both," Ned warns. "I'll give you a moment to think about it. But you hasten, because this court awaits."

I hear the shouting as Ned steps out of the room.

"This is just... just too much," Geillis says.

"No, wait. There... there has to be another way," I insist.

"Why are you here?" Geillis asks me.

"What are you talking about?" I question. "I was arrested. You..."

Geillis cuts me off, "No, why are you here in Scotland?"

"I was traveling from Oxfordshire," I tell her.

Geillis shakes her head. "No, you're lying. You've been lying all along. Dougal knew it. Colum knew it too. That's why he hasn't lifted a finger to help you."

"You have no idea what you're talking about," I insist.

"No more lies, Ava!" Geillis shouts. "If I'm going to die, if I'm going to burn as a witch, I need to know I'm dying for something. So tell me now. And this time, I want the truth. Why are you here?"

Ned opens the door. "They're growing impatient."

"We need a moment," I tell him.

"No, I don't think they're..." Ned starts.

"A moment!" I shout.

Ned closes the door.

"It was an accident!" I shout. "I swear to you, Geillis. I'm not here for any reason. I came, and it was... an accident."

"An accident," Geillis repeats. "So you don't want to change things or... do anything at all, do you?"

"I just want to go home," I tell her. "I don't even know if that's possible."

"Nothing. It's really all for nothing," Geillis says.

"Geillis, I..." I start.

Ned comes back into the room. "I'm afraid I cannot delay the court any longer. What are you going to do?"

"Looks like I'm going to a fucking barbecue," Geillis says.

We step back into the church.

"Your Honors, Mrs. Fraser would like to address the court," Ned says.

"Mr. Gowan is mistaken," I state. "I have nothing to say."

"Are you mad?" Geillis asks.

"Maybe I am," I tell her.

"We must rely on an injunction of the Lord. Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."

"Thereby, we pronounce Geillis Duncan and Ava Fraser guilty... and do hereby condemn them to death!"

Everyone is shouting and demanding we burn.

"Conduct the prisoners to the pyre, if you please."

Geillis turns to me. "The question you had before..."

"Wait! You cannot do this!" Ned shouts as he draws his gun. "I forbid this!"

"I think it is possible," Geillis tells me.

"What?" I question.

"1968," Geillis tells me.

I jump when the gun goes off.

"Ned! Ned!" I shout. "This has nothing to do with witchcraft! You're all murderers!" I am grabbed by the warden. "Your God will damn you all! You're going to burn in hell!"

"You will not speak before this court in that manner, woman. Strip her and skelp her!"

"No!" I cry out. "Get off me, you bastard! Get your bloody hands off me, you bloody bastard!"

Laoghaire steps up towards me. "I shall dance upon your ashes."

My shirt and my corset are ripped open in the back and I gasp. I scream as the whip hits my back. Everyone cheers. I cry as I am hit a second time. A third time. A fourth time. I lose track. All I feel is the pain.

"Ava! Let her go!"

Suddenly I fall to the ground on my hands and knees. Jamie is here. For me.

"Sir, you have no place in the working of this court."

Jamie draws his sword. "I swore an oath before the altar of God to protect this woman!" He draws another sword. "And if you're telling me you consider your authority to be greater than that of the Almighty, then I must inform you that I am not of that opinion myself. The first man forward will be the first man down."

"This woman is no witch," Geillis says. "But I am."

"Geillis, no!" I scream.

"I confess... that I killed my husband, Arthur Duncan, by the means of witchcraft," Geillis says. "I took advantage of the ignorance of Ava Fraser, bewitching her for my purposes. She neither took part in nor had knowledge of my dealings, nor does she serve my master." She pulls down her shirt sleeve. "See here? I bear the mark of the Devil."

What the villagers see is evidence of evil is actually the scar of a smallpox vaccination. And it hits me like a bolt of lightning. Geillis is from the future, from 1968.

"Run," Geillis tells me.

Jamie grabs me. "Ava, come now."

"I am the mistress of Satan," Geillis shouts. She rips her dress open. "I carry his child."

The crowd starts to shout. They rush towards her.

"Burn her!"

"Geillis!" I shout.

"I have lain with Beelzebub in the darkest hours. I pledged my soul to him forevermore," Geillis says.

Jamie rushes me from the church. We stand in an alley as Geillis is paraded down the street towards the pyre.

"We have to leave now, Ava," Jamie tells me. "We have to go."

Jamie and I ride into the woods. Jamie cleans the cuts on my back.

"The cuts... they're not deep," Jamie tells me. "I think you'll not be... be marked." He sits beside me. "Ava, I know there are things you dinna wish to tell me... but I've one thing to ask ye... honesty. When you do tell me something, let it be the truth. And I promise you the same."

I nod slightly. "I agree."

"Now, there's one thing I must ask ye for your own safety as well as mine. Are you... a witch?" Jamie asks.

"Are you serious?" I question.

"I've often seen that scar on your arm and thought nothing of it..." Jamie tells me, "until I saw the same on Geillis Duncan today. She called it the Devil's mark, so..."

"I'm not a witch," I assure him. "But after you hear the truth, then maybe you'll think otherwise." I look at the vaccine scar on my arm. "I've never had smallpox. I can walk through a room of dying men and never catch it. I can nurse the sick, but the sickness cannot touch me. This mark is... is called a vaccine, and you've never heard of it. No one here has. But it prevents me from contracting the disease. I know about Jack Randall because... I was told about him. I know the day he was born, and I know the day he will die, and I know that he works for the Duke of Sandringham because Claire's husband told me about it. I know about the Bonny Prince and the Jacobites and their doomed cause. I know what's going to happen to the Scots. I know all of this because... because..." I take a deep breath. "I'm from the future. I was born on April the 6th in the year 1923. That's 200 years from now." Jamie doesn't say anything or look at me. "Do you hear me? Do you hear me?"

"I hear you," Jamie tells me but doesn't look at me.

"You think I'm raving mad, don't you?" I ask.

Jamie finally looks at me. "No. No, I believe ye, Sassenach. So... I dinna understand it a bit, not yet. But I trust you. I trust your word, your heart. And I trust there is a truth between us. So... whatever you tell me... I will believe ye." He puts his hand on my knee and I cover it with my own. "Can you tell me more?"

"I was a combat nurse in the British army," I tell him.

I tell him everything. About me. About Claire. About Geillis. Everything just came pouring out of me like a cataract of water over a broken dam. I didn't realize how badly I needed to tell someone, anyone, until this moment. Jamie listens. He doesn't understand it all, but he listens.

"So, when I left you in the glade and went to meet Horrocks and you ran away... you were trying to get back... back to the stones," Jamie says.

I nod. "Yes."

"And I beat you for it," Jamie states. "I'm so very... very sorry."

"Don't. You couldn't have known," I tell him.

Jamie wraps his arms around me. "Rest now. No one will harm ye. I'm here."

"Do you really believe me?" I ask.

"Aye. I believe you, Sassenach," Jamie assures me. "Although it would have been a good deal easier if you'd only been a witch."

Neither Jamie nor I can return to Castle Leoch. But I will not leave Claire. Jamie is able to get her from Castle Leoch. The three of us leave for Lallybroch. Claire is still shocked by what has happened, but I manage to get her to go with us and agree to answer her questions on the way.

Over the past several days, we rode hard. We are both determined to leave the castle and the trial far behind us, hopeful the distance will overshadow the questions that remain unanswered. Jamie speaks repeatedly of Lallybroch, detailing the life we'll have together, the life he'd always imagined. I try to imagine myself there. Imagine myself at home at Lallybroch.

I sit next to a stream with Claire.

"I am so sorry," I tell her. "This is all my fault. You warned me about Geillis and I didn't listen."

Claire shakes her head. "No. No, Ava. This is not your fault." She grabs my hand. "Do not blame yourself for something countless other hands had a part in executing."

"I am sorry though," I tell her.

"So..." I turn and see Jamie standing there. "Sassenach... are you both ready to go home?"

I smile. "Yes."

Jamie reaches his hand out to me, and I grab it. I smile as he kisses me.

He pulls away and gestures to a hill. "Take a look."

Claire and I walk up the hill. It's Craigh na Dun.

"It's what you wanted," Jamie says. "Aye? What you've always wanted... to go home."

Claire nods her head. "Yes."

We make our way to the stone circle.

"Is this your place?" Jamie asks.

"This is it," I tell him.

Jamie stands in front of a stone. "This the one?"

"Yes," Claire tells him.

"So... what did you do last time?" Jamie asks.

"We really didn't do anything," Claire tells him.

"I heard this buzzing sound, and... and I just..." I hold my hands out to the stone and so does Claire. "Touched the stone..."

Suddenly Jamie grabs my arm. "Ava."

Claire and I jump back from the stone. Jamie has my arms in his hands.

"I'm sorry, lass," Jamie tells me. "I stopped you. I shouldna have done so. I just... Wasna ready."

"I know," I tell him.

"Well, there's no use in waiting. I must part with ye now," Jamie tells me. "That's why we're here. It's your own time on the other side of that stone. You've a home there, a place, the things you're used to... There's nothing for you on this side... nothing save violence and danger. Now, go. I'll stay at the camp until nightfall... to make sure that you're safe. Good-bye, Sassenach." He starts to walk away.

"Jamie," I call out. He stops but does not face me. "Good-bye."

I turn to Claire. She looks at me for a moment.

"Claire..." I start.

"I know," Claire says. She takes my hands in hers. "Jamie was wrong. There is something for you here. Something I already have back in our time."

"Someone to love," I state.

Claire nods. "You can stay." She wipes a tear from her eye. "I won't be mad."

"Thank you," I tell her through tears.

Claire wraps her arms around me. It has always been Claire and I. And now. Now it is Jamie and I.

By the time I make it back to Jamie it is dark. He's sleeping by the fire.

"On your feet, soldier," I tell him.

Jamie opens his eyes. I can tell he is surprised to see me. I kneel down beside him.

"Take me home to Lallybroch," I tell him.

Jamie sits up and smiles. I can see the tears striking his cheeks. He reaches his hand out to me and I take it. He pulls me towards him and into a kiss.