Author's Note: Another month, another contest entry! This is actually something I've been thinking about for a while, and when the theme was "recurrence," it just seemed appropriate. ^^

Warnings: Nothing too bad. It might be fairly rambling and not very good, but I'll leave that for you to decide. Curse my wordy, flowery ways!

Obligatory Disclaimer: This is all I got, I own not! ^^;

Every Generation

To Ray, the mansion always seemed huge and impersonal. It made him wonder if "home" meant the same thing to Max and Rosalind that it meant to him. It wasn't unpleasant, it just never seemed like a place where people actually lived. The huge entryway, with its high ceiling and dramatic red carpeted paths, always seemed more like the church than any house he'd ever seen. Even the outside seemed strangely non-residential. But he'd always felt at home there all the same. So he figured that there was no reason why they wouldn't, especially since they'd never known anything else. And besides, he lived in a clinic, for heaven's sake. While homes probably didn't typically have vaulted ceilings, they weren't much more likely to have designated scalpel drawers or sick people wandering in and out at all hours of the day and night.

He also wondered how many hours of his life he had spent sitting on the floor, in this very spot. He felt a warm draft from the edges of the doors and windows, where they failed to keep out the heat, a weakness carrying over from last year, and they year before that, and as far as he could remember. Like summer sneaking up behind me. Elsewhere in the house, fans were blowing full blast, pushing older air in to the entryway. Ray found that it concentrated a certain smell that had been omnipresent in the building for decades. When they were younger, Max seemed to love bragging about how the house was perfumed to match the seasons, But Ray only rarely picked up on it himself. To him, it always smelled the same. It smelled like history. Old carpets and clean laundry. It always carried the most wonderful memories. After all, he'd spent a fair amount of his life sitting on this floor. Reading books and playing games, fooling around with Max, all the special moments with Rosalind… Well, getting dressed up and generally tortured by Rosalind, but he supposed it was a good childhood all the same. And he was glad his own children would grow up with similar memories.

Wait! Children! Now where… Ray had a habit of forgetting when he wasn't alone. This had always lead to someone, usually either Alicia or Max, yelling and waving their hands in his face, scaring him half to death. But that paled in comparison to the last several years, when his thoughts started interrupting themselves, usually with something to the tune of "You idiot, where in the world are your kids?" On the stairs, apparently. Sera seemed to be trying to find pictures in the marble walls, something he remembered doing himself when he was young. He'd have to show her where the best ones were one of these days. As for Serena, she was playing some sort of game that involved running up and down the stairs, tapping Sera on the head as she passed. Leann and Leonel were in here somewhere, but the twins seemed to only want to be with each other. It sometimes worried Rosalind, but Ray always thought they were pretty normal. He'd always had a somewhat limited social circle, at least. Just then, his ears pricked up. Familiar sounds were drifting down the stairs, sounds that he recognized as child-on-child mischief met with whining. Accustomed to breaking up these sorts of fights, he decided to investigate.

Leann's room used to belong to Rosalind, which meant Ray had been the whining subject behind this door countless times.

"What are you two doing in there?"

No response. He thought he heard Leann snickering. Or at least, someone who sounded like a younger Rosalind. All the women in that family had the same laugh. Ray knocked on the door a few times before deciding to just open it to verify that no one was being maimed. Little did he know that the door seemed to lead to his own past.

It took him a while to register what he was seeing. Shock, mostly, but comprehension returned quickly enough. The small person in front of him was apparently Leonel, and he was indignant nearly to the point of tears, clad in a pale blue pleated skirt. Oh, you poor kid. Leann was grinning ear to ear. Ray had been down this road before, and at least understood her motivation. Leonel was a girly-looking kid, and he knew from experience that certain girls see potential for all manner of evil deeds in that sort of thing. He just assumed it ran in the family. And the way his mother dressed him didn't help matters. And maybe he did look kind of cute, in a vaguely pitiful way.

"Doesn't Leonel look great?"

Ray shook his head.

"He looks… Well, those creases are straight alright. Nice job."

"Thank you! Mom helped me make it, and then Miss Ceci taught me how to iron it to make it all nice."

How did Ray know they'd been involved in this? They had always assisted Rosalind in humiliating him, too. Damn frilly sadists.

"…But I'm a boy!

Leonel obviously didn't approve of this arrangement. Leann shrugged.

"There's no rule that only girls look cute in skirts. You helped me prove that!"

And now she seemed to be taking on the classic Rosalind habit of framing everything as research. Ray had had about enough of this.

"Max…? Where are you? Come get a load of what your little princess just did!"

Max must have heard, because he came wandering down the hall. Ray suspected that he had been in the bathroom combing his hair for the last twenty minutes. He'd always had something of a complex about that and didn't show any sign of ever growing out of it.

"Yes? What's going-"

Max took one look in the room and burst out laughing. Ray rolled his eyes. This was usually the outcome back then, too.

"Oh for goodness sake Max, grow up!"

"It's just… That skirt… And her! She's brilliant! Isn't she brilliant, Ray?"

Max was a consummate braggart, and his progeny was no exception.

"She's… Certainly something. Very… Well, really like her aunt."

"Indeed, she takes strongly after my side of the family! I fully expect her to run the household one day!"

Leann didn't like being ignored.

"Hey dad, look at Leonel!"

"I see that! You know, your auntie and her friends used to do that to your uncle here back when we were kids. Most hilarious, really, I remember-"

"Max, that's enough!"

Ray was flushed and nervous. In a rare perceptive moment, Max cleared his throat and collected himself.

"…Yes. I remember that it was very funny. Your aunt thought it was funny, too. Take Leonel to the clinic to try and find her. I'm sure it'll bring back some good memories for her. …You know, you should try and find Leonel's mother, too. The way she dresses the boy, I'm sure she'll get a kick out of it. Run along now! Have fun!"

Leann grinned and all but dragged Leonel out of the room, eager to parade him in front of the neighbors. Max resumed laughing and didn't stop until he ran out of breath. Ray shook his head.

"Having fun reliving my childhood traumas?"

"Of course! And to be honest, I always wondered when she'd end up doing that to him. He reminds me of you when you were little. Wait… Did you and Dorothy…?"

Ray was mortified.

"…What! No! I don't get it either but that somehow came out of Barrett."

"Hmph… I'm not surprised at all. The man has no true valor."

"…Max, you're scared of sleeping in the dark."

"Well… You inspire fair maidens with the desire to put you in beautiful dresses and tie ribbons in your hair."

"Hey… Too far! It's not as though I could help it…"

"Well, it couldn't have damaged you too much."

"Hey, don't underestimate those girls! Especially your sister. She's ruthless!"

"Ray, you went on to marry that ruthless girl."

He figured Max had a point there.

Ray stood at the top of the stairs. The sky beyond the windows was shifting to a dark inky blue. Time to head home.

"Sera! Serena! Time to go home."

Serena went to gather up a length of ribbon that she hadn't come in with. He assumed it had been given to her by either Julia or Leann, probably because they thought she'd enjoy running around with it. Sera was still facing the wall.

"Dad, come look at this!"

"What is it, kiddo?"

Sera pointed at the some of the dark streaks in the marble.

"I found a shadow panther! And a lamp squid!"

"Sera, you found them!"

The young girl tilted her head inquisitively.

"When I was around your age, I liked finding shapes in these walls, too. We don't have time to find them all tonight, but I think we could stay a little longer and try to find the tricky mushroom, or maybe the mortar and pestle…"

Sera nodded, and the two of them turned wordlessly towards the wall, watching for familiar shapes, Ray trying to remember where his old observations were located. On this day, he felt as though he had wandered his way back to an old comfortable place, searching for imaginary creatures once glimpsed by him and, no doubt, by countless other children before him. Given enough time, it seemed as though everything would come back to him eventually, or be lived over again by some future generation, a world built on shared experience and relived memories.

"Now, let's go home."