"A-a-achoo!"

"Yeah, this is most definitely a cold."

"This is bad," Martin said through a stuffed nose, "and the dance is only a few days away."

"Martin, if Jenni never went with you before why would she after the two hundredth time you asked her?"

Martin Mystery had come down with a cold that waylaid him in bed for the day. When Isaac and Diana noticed he was not in classes, they had assumed he may have been called away on a solo mission – a rare occurrence but it does happen – or another training mission which had happened around a month ago. Instead, they found him bundled up in bed, and with a bad cold.

"Just don't take me to the Center, please," Martin pleaded, "I'm not going there sick after what happened last time."

"What happened last time," Isaac asked Diana.

"A…Bit of a misunderstanding," Diana said with a chuckle.

Isaac let that one slide. He knew more than anyone M.O.M could sometimes take over-the-top measures. He remembered that she quarantined him in his room once when he had the chicken pox when he was eight.

"All right then," Diana said, tentatively reaching for Martin's U-Watch, "then I guess that leaves me with this for the time-being."

"C'mon, Di," Martin complained, "why would M.O.M call us in on a mission so close to Christmas?"

"She called us in for a mission last Christmas and during the last two summer vacations, didn't she?"

That silenced Martin's protest. "We'll get Java to help take care of you until you get over your cold. With luck, his chicken soup should have you feeling better in a day or two."

Martin shivered. As good of a cook Java the Caveman was, when he made his soup hot, it was really, really hot.

"So now that Martin has been taken care of, is there something you want to ask me?" Diana said expectantly.

Isaac gave her a glance from the book he was reading, and continued reading. There actually was not anything he wanted to ask Diana about at the moment. "I do not know what you mean," Isaac bluntly said.

"I am talking about the dance, Isaac."

The implications flew right over Isaac's head. "Ah, the dance. Well, have fun at the dance when it comes around."

Diana could not believe it. How could Isaac be so dense? "Do I have to do everything in this relationship," she muttered to herself, "do you want to go to the dance with me?"

Isaac stiffened and his eyes shot wide open. Diana Lombard was asking him to go to the dance with her? He closed his book and looked at her. "That is a bit sudden, don't you think?" He said nervously.

"I've been waiting for you to ask since the dance was announced," Diana explained, "but it is almost as if you do not care about the dance."

"Why me?"

"Why? Ever since you and M.O.M got back from that mission thirty years into the future-"

"Twenty-one years, Diana," Isaac corrected.

"You have been closed off," she continued. "Outside of missions, you rarely socialize with either me or Martin, and I'm trying to get you out to do things."

"Let me make one thing clear," Isaac stated. "One, I can't dance."

Diana's jaw dropped. Isaac could not dance? "Two, the school dance does not interest me. I'm primarily a home-schooled boy, remember*? So I've never been to any school dances before, nor had the opportunity to experience them. Three…" He closed his eyes. "You should know very well why I've been closed off."

Diana did know. M.O.M told her about what happened in that alternate future – including what happened to the Diana from that time. She knew how badly it shook Isaac up, and she did not like the fact Isaac was using it as some kind of excuse. "You do not need to tell me twice," Diana replied, "but all I am saying is-"

A ringtone from the U-Watch caught Diana's attention. "It can wait," Isaac stated, setting his book down and started looking for the portal to the Center. Diana gritted her teeth. She was not going to let it wait.

They found the portal in a closet near the back of the library, and walked in. "No, it can't wait," Diana told Isaac, and I have several reasons why. One, you don't really need to know how to dance, and if it is that big a deal, I can teach you how to dance."

"Diana, that-" Isaac cut himself off as the eye-scanner activated and confirmed their identities. "Two," Diana continued, "not only is it a dance, but it is a Christmas Dance. Everyone in the school is looking around for dates to take with them to the dance."

"And three," Diana finished as she stepped into the elevator, "the fact that it would be your first school dance, and a Christmas one at that…wouldn't you want it to be special?"

Isaac looked at Diana, and averted his eyes. Even if it was a Diana from a different timeline, he already lost her once. Even though he also remembered the twins they had together…He did not want to feel that pain again.

Ever.

Besides, not even the holiday had much appeal to him, all things considered. "It's not just the dance, Diana. The Winter Holiday itself does not hold that much appeal to me either. Too many of those holidays happened without my mother."

The elevator stopped before M.O.M's office. "You do not enjoy the winter holidays?" Diana said incredulously. "What's next? You are going to tell me that you did not believe in Santa Claus when you were little either because of that, aren't you?"

All Diana got in return was a knowing smirk. "A fine line exists between 'belief' and 'knowing'." He stated, and he walked towards the door.

"…A little higher. The decorations need to be precisely where they can be best displayed."

"Then there was this," Isaac said with a deadpan tone as he saw his Mother – M.O.M as the Center knew her – directing the decorating of the tree in her office, all the while putting up ornaments herself. He glanced back at Diana. "When she was at home, she directed decorating like a military operation."

"I heard that, Isaac," M.O.M called from the ladder she was on, and climbed down from the ladder. "You aren't one to point fingers, because you were as concerned about placement or ornaments as I was."

"M.O.M," Isaac's eyes flickered towards the agents decorating the tree. A couple of them stopped to listen to the conversation.

She glanced back. "All right people," she told them, "you can take a break and come back after this briefing is done."

The agents quickly stepped down and exited the room for their break. "So what is the mission?"

"First thing is first," M.O.M raised a hand. "Isaac, I suggest you go to the dance with Diana."

Isaac's voice caught in his throat and he went pale as a ghost. "W-WHAT!?"

"Do you think I haven't noticed how stand-offish you have been since the beginning of November," M.O.M told Isaac. "As Diana said, you need to start socializing a bit more. A good team needs such communication, not one of its members closing himself off in his room at every other chance he gets."

Isaac's eyes narrowed. That meant she was watching him again like some Big Brother figure. He shivered a bit. "How did you…Never mind," Diana stopped herself from asking the same question she and Martin once asked before. "Look, you don't have to order Isaac to go to the dance." She looked over at Isaac. "I'll talk to him about it."

"I am just making sure that he will consider going."

"But, Mom…" Isaac protested.

"Isaac Kirby Alexander," M.O.M stressed each word individually, "you will consider going with Diana, won't you?"

Isaac snapped to attention that the utterance of his full name. "Y-yes, Mom!"

Diana raised an eyebrow. That was her first time hearing Isaac's full name, and it was clear he responded quite readily to its use. Then again, it was probably just M.O.M.

"Good," M.O.M stated, "now to discuss the mission I'm sending you two on to Transylvania. There have been reports of several disappearances in the province of Klausenburgh."

"Klausenburgh as in Dracula's home province?" Isaac asked.

"Pretty much," M.O.M replied, "but don't get any ideas that the culprit is him."

"How do you know?" Diana asked.

"Simple. He's not a vampire; he's a Devil, and he is locked away in The Reach. I, Harold and Colin put him there."

"That is the first time you have ever mentioned the Reach in casual conversation." Diana mentioned. Shortly after the incident with Octavia Paine, Diana, Martin and Java had to deal with a Navajo Witch – a skin-walker. They barely escaped that mission with their lives, because it was not anticipated that it would be the culprit behind a series of gruesome murders.

It was the first time they heard of the Reach, an inter-dimensional prison that was used to contain monsters the Center's normal containment units could not safely contain. If Hell could be considered a prison for condemned souls, then the Reach was the closest the Center had for heavy-hitting monsters.

"It probably is not vampires, all things considered, but I suggest that you two be careful all the same. In the meantime, I have the lab working on a fresh batch of antidote."

"Antidote for vampires," Isaac asked.

"Assuming that there are any not fully turned yet."