So sorry for all the chapter swaps etc etc! Something went wrong with my laptop when I was fiddling round with a few things and I ended up deleting chapters and uploading the wrong ones and then managed to incur the wrath of the dreaded Blue Screen Of Death. What a nightmare! So once again, sorry!

Hopefully everything is now fixed...

UPDATED 02/08/2012

WE ALL BLEED THE SAME WAY

DANCERINTHEDARK101

Summary: [Set between S1 and S2] The three months where the Mason family dynamics changed so much; where Hal became the leader, Ben decided to pick up a gun and fight; and Matt was left just hoping his family came back alive.

-FALLING SKIES-

Hal sighed as he looked upon the sleeping figures of his two younger brothers. Ben lay on his stomach, one arm spayed above his head, the other tucked beneath the pillow that his head rested on. It was obvious that the middle Mason boy couldn't sleep on his back on account of the silver spikes that pierced the skin and ran the length of his spine. Sometimes Hal just had to take a minute and be grateful that they'd finally got Ben back after months of searching and not knowing. The harness had safely been removed, but now… the spikes weren't going away and Hal new there were other changes affecting his brother. Whether they were good or bad was yet to be determined.

And Matt, the youngest of the three brothers; he was laying on his side, curled up into a tight ball as if that could protect him from the nightmares and the alien creatures ravaging their planet. He was only nine years old, but had seen and done more than a nine-year-old boy should ever have to do. The eldest brother was just glad that he had not been required to pick up a weapon yet. He was hoping that it would be years before that would have to happen, but realistically, Matt would become a fighter sooner rather than later.

Leaning back against the chair he was sitting in, Hal shifted the gun in his lap. It had only been a week since the attack on Boston, but it felt like years. A week since they had defeated several Mechs with the transceiver signal, and a week since their father had willingly got on board an alien mother ship to save his middle son.

A lot had changed in that week. When Captain Weaver had first come back, alone, there had been chaos. Pope and Anthony had arrived earlier, wounded, but alive with no news to speak of, other than that they had seen smoke billowing from the tower.

And then Weaver had arrived without Tom Mason. The attack had been somewhat of a success as the tower hadn't fallen, but had been very severely damaged when a wounded Beamer had crashed into one of the arms.

Clenching his hands into fists as he watched his sleeping brothers, Hal remembered when they were all told about his dad. Weaver had told him to gather everyone left into the auditorium, without answering any questions that had been rapidly fired in his direction.

Hal remembered having to wake Ben up at Weaver's orders. He had wanted to let the teenager sleep; due to the severe headaches he had been on the receiving end of because of the signal they had blasted to confuse the Mechs and Skitters. But Weaver had stated that Ben needed to attend the briefing as well.

"Tom Mason has boarded an alien mother ship in an attempt to negotiate with the aliens and hopefully find out a few answers as to the harnesses, the enslavement of the children and why they came to Earth in the first place."

Of course, most of that was a carefully fabricated tale told so that to certain people of the 2nd Mass it seemed like that Mason had a legitimate reason as to boarding an alien mother ship. The real reason, as told to Hal and a few others in the inner circle chain of command – was that they had threatened Ben's life; had said that he wasn't fully free from the effects of the removed harness.

Hal sighed again. God… they'd only just got Ben back and they were already threatening to take him away again. Sure, he was his bratty, younger, geek of a brother… but he was his bratty, younger, geek of a brother and there wasn't anything he wouldn't do for his family.

A low moan snapped Hal out of his thoughts and he was on his feet in an instant. Ben was tossing and turning on his cot, the sheets long been kicked off his partially naked form exposing the spikes running along his spine.

"Ben," he whispered, his hand snaking out and shaking his brother's shoulder. "Ben, wake up!"

With a gasp the middle Mason boy twisted and shot upright, his chest heaving as he sucked in much-needed air.

"Ben?"

Hal locked gazes with his younger brother, relieved to see that he was alert and his pupils reacting normally.

"Hal?" came the whispered response. "Wha? What's going on?"

"Nightmare. You remember what it was about?" Hal replied, motioning with his head for Ben to move over. He sat down on the cot, his hand still grasping his brother's shoulder.

Ben shook his head. "No," was the whispered response as he looked over to his still-sleeping brother.

There was a few minutes silence where they just sat next to each other, marvelling in the fact that they were both still alive and together. Hal checked his watch after a while, noting that it was almost six AM; time to get ready for the day ahead. He was just lucky he hadn't been put on night sentry that night.

"I gotta go, Ben. Captain wants us assembled at 0630 to discuss what the next course of action is. We can't stay here much longer. We're sitting ducks."

He ruffled his brother's hair and moved to get up when a hand shot out and gripped his forearm. Shocked, Hal stopped.

"Ben?"

His brother's eyes were focused, more so than he had ever seen them before. "I wanna fight," were the words he spoke. "I wanna help kill the Skitters. I want to get payback for what they did to me… to you and Matt, and to dad. Please…"

Hal was shocked. His geeky little brother wanted to fight?

"Ben… have you ever even held a gun before?"

"Well… no, but…"

"Ben…"

"Hal!" Ben shouted, forgetting completely about Matt. "I'm fourteen! Jimmy's the same age as me and he's been a Fighter for a long time now! Teach me… teach me how to shoot; how to fight. You know that I'm stronger now. I'm faster, more resilient and you know that I'm a quick study. Please, Hal… just ask, for me?"

The eldest brother looked down at the hand tightly gripping his wrist, the grip stronger than he ever remembered his brother being and realised that Ben was right. He was stronger, faster and more resilient. Those traits could come in handy, but at what price?

"Alright…" he stopped at the grin blossoming across his brother's features. "Look, you can come with me to the briefing this morning and ask Captain Weaver yourself. He can make the decision. But if he says no, that's it. Okay?"

Ben nodded, the grin still clearly in place. "Sure."

-FALLING SKIES-

Captain Dan Weaver stood in the tent that served as the command centre. There were several others in the tent with him; Dai, Anthony, Maggie, Jimmy and Pope. He was just waiting on Hal to arrive so that they could start the briefing and figure what on earth they were going to do next. They had lost too many fighters in the attack on the Boston tower and with the amount of civilians they were to protect… it was going to be a hard road ahead of them.

Weaver was snapped out of his thoughts as Tom Mason's eldest son entered the tent, followed by the middle child; Ben.

"Hal? What's going on?" he asked, wondering why the dark-haired teenager had brought along his younger brother to a classified briefing. He was a little shocked when the younger Mason spoke up instead of his elder brother.

"I wanna fight."

A snort erupted from Pope at the statement. "Come again?"

The young boy's eyes narrowed. "I want to fight," he repeated. At this, Pope couldn't contain the laughter and Weaver glared at the ex-con.

"And why would you want to do that, Ben?"

"Because you need all the help you can get. Because of the harness, I'm faster, I'm stronger and I'm more resilient than I've ever been before. You could use me."

Well, he had to hand it to the kid. He was gutsy that's for sure. "And you're fourteen years of age," he pointed out. He wasn't keen on using kids as fighters, but Jimmy was roughly the same age as the Mason boy and he was coping fine. And to be honest, they did need all the help they could get. They were low on fighters as it was.

"…Alright, but-"

"You can't be serious!?" exclaimed Pope.

Weaver glared at the man. Why he had invited the convict to the briefing in the first place was beyond him. "And what seems to be the problem, Pope?"

The shaggy-haired man glared right back. "How do you know if he can be trusted?! The kid's got freakin' spikes sticking out of his spine and you wanna hand him a weapon?! Come on!"

Weaver could see the kid's hackles rising as Pope slammed him. "Pope, I am in charge here, not you! And if I decide to give the kid a weapon, then it is my decision, not yours!"

He turned to Hal. "I trust that you will take care of training Ben and making sure he follows the chain of command? He'll be your full responsibility."

Hal nodded. "Of course."

"Good. I'll bring you up to speed about the plans later. You can go and get a weapon sorted for Ben and get him up to speed. Dismissed."

The two Mason brothers left the tent and Weaver wondered whether he was doing the right thing by handing Ben a gun. There was no telling what that harness had done to him, or what it was still doing.

End Chapter 1

Next time: Ben starts his training. Matt begins to feel left out and the 2nd Mass is under attack.

A/N: Well, there is the first chapter. I have no idea where this story will be going or how quick updates will be, I just had the idea in my head after re-watching all of Season 1 and the aired eps of Season 2 and it wouldn't leave me alone.

After having a look at the Falling Skies fandom, I also decided that there needs to be WAY more stories in the fandom =] It's such an amazing show. I have a few oneshot ideas floating around to, so watch out for them.

Hope the chapter was good and that you enjoyed it! Please leave feedback, as this is my first Falling Skies fic and I would love to see if the characterizations were right etc. Also, they haven't elaborated much on what happened right after the Boston attack and those three months, so if anything is wrong, I do apologize. Creative licence is being used XD

Sorry for the long authors note! Thanks for reading!

-Dancer