In the novel Kindred, Dana travels back to 1800's Maryland 7 times. The first time, she arrives to find Rufus, drowning in the river and she pulls him to safety. When she returns to Maryland the second time, only a few minutes after the first, she rescues Rufus from himself after he set fire to his bedroom drapes while angry at his father for selling a horse he admired. 

Her third trip to Maryland comes as a result of Rufus falling out of a tree and breaking his leg, but this time Kevin comes with her by holding on to her when she is transported back in time. However, when she returns on her fourth trip to Maryland, when Rufus is being beaten to death by Issac, Alice's husband, she finds that Kevin has left the state and must survive in the Weylin household without him.

Her fifth trip to Maryland occurs after Rufus has found himself so drunk that he is face down in a puddle. And when she returns the sixth time, she arrives to find that Rufus is a much harsher man than he was when she left. On her seventh and final trip to Maryland, she arrives as Rufus has nearly committed suicide. She tries to save him from himself, but when he attempts to rape her, she stabs him twice and returns to 1976 South Carolina for good.