This is my sequel to the Midnighters trilogy, set three years post-Blue Noon. I DO NOT OWN MIDNIGHTERS. Seriously, do I look like Scott Westerfeld? Oh, wait, you can't see me. Well, I'm not him, sadly. All characters you don't recognize from the books are mine. I hope this doesn't resemble anybody else's stories on , but if it does, I promise it's an accident.

SUMMARY: Rex's dad dies, and he leaves Bixby and tries to reconnect with Melissa, Dess meets two new midnighter guys (one with a really cool power) both of whom are attracted to her, and there's some stuff about how Jess and Jonathan's relationship is affected by the Jess-trapped-in-the-blue-time thing, but I don't want to give too much away. Please R&R. I don't really like writing in 1st person, so I'm just going to focus on one character in each chapter; all thoughts (in italics) are that person's.

Rex

Rex Greene picked up the phone, wishing for the thousandth time that he had Caller ID so he could screen the calls he didn't really want to answer. And why would I want to answer any calls? How much more bad news do I need, anyway? "Yeah, hello?"

"Rex?" asked the familiar voice on the other end.

Oh, of course, it's Dr. Thompkins. I could learn to hate hearing from him. Ever since Rex's dad's lungs had really started to crap out, Dr. Thompkins had called every other night to give Rex updates. Wearily, Rex tried to force some interest into his tone. "How is he?"

Dr. Thompkins cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Well, Rex, I'm afraid I have some difficult news for you. Your father is dead. He passed away half an hour ago. Rex, are you still there?"

Rex turned the question over in his mind. Am I really here? If I'm here, shouldn't I feel sad, or at least feel something? What are you supposed to feel when the man who used to beat you up and shove you into bathtubs full of tarantulas dies? "Yeah, I'm here. I'll have to pick up his stuff, right?"

When he replayed his memories later, Rex realized he couldn't remember exactly what things of his dad's he retrieved from the hospital. In fact, he couldn't remember much about the whole week. Everything: the doctors' explanations of precisely what had gone irreparably wrong with Mr. Greene's respiratory system, the condolences from various people, and the funeral preparations, were all mixed into one indistinct blur through which Rex moved like a zombie.

He finally reanimated about halfway through his father's funeral. The catalyst for this reanimation wasn't any part of the service; Rex had never cared much for church-type things. The line of people who said they were sorry for his loss didn't make an impression either.

Finally, when the mourners had left, and Rex was left alone by his father's grave, Dess came up beside him and squeezed his hand. "Hey, Rex. So I guess you're in kind of a weird situation now, huh?"



Rex shook his head to snap himself out of his reverie and focused on Dess's face. "What do you mean?" he asked. The words felt strange coming out of his mouth, as if his voice was rusty from disuse. Haven't I said anything all week?

Dess shrugged and looked down at the fresh grave at her feet. "I mean, you stayed in Bixby all these years to take care of your dad. Now that he's gone, there isn't much reason for you to be here anymore. You can leave right now, if you want. You can go see Melissa."

"Not right now, I can't. I can't leave town for another two weeks." Dess looked up at him, obviously confused. Rex grinned. "You're graduating from high school, remember? I can't miss that."

"Oh! You're staying for that?"

"Sure I am. Unless you don't want me there."

"No, of course I do. I just figured you'd want to leave Bixby the moment there was nothing left for you here."

Rex shook his head, causing raindrops to fly out of his floppy black hair. "I wouldn't say there's nothing left for me here. You're still here." He and Dess turned and walked out of the cemetery, her hand still in his.

The day after Dess's graduation, Rex was pulled out of his book by a knock on the door. He opened it to see Dess standing there. "Do you have some time to talk?" she asked, then pushed through the door without waiting for his reply.

"Come on in," Rex muttered, closing the door behind her. "Can I get you a snack or anything?"

"No, I already had lunch. I came to talk about what you're going to do now."

"My immediate plans included making a sandwich."

Dess waved a hand impatiently. "I don't mean what you're doing for lunch, Rex. I mean, what are you going to do with yourself? When Melissa, Jonathan and Jessica left, you stayed here to take care of your dad and Madeleine; fine, everyone understands that. Well, your dad and Maddy are gone now. You can't be planning to stay in this crappy dump for the rest of your life."

Rex nodded. "I know. I don't plan to. I do want to find out how the rest of the midnighters are doing, and how many new midnighters they've found since the blue time spread, but…"

"But what?"

"But, I haven't seen any of them for three years now, and ever since my dad went into the hospital, what, four months ago, I haven't really talked to any of them on the phone, either." Not that I really wanted to talk to Flyboy, and calling Jessica is impossible, since she only exists for the one hour that my phone doesn't work, but not talking to Melissa… what does that mean? Probably something bad.

Dess shuffled her feet. "Oh. I didn't know… I mean, I thought you and Melissa still called each other all the time. I mean, you still talked to me all the time."

"Well, yeah, you know… you were right here, in the same zip code and everything. It's easier to talk to you." And I like talking to you. "But yeah, I want to go find the rest of the old gang. What about you? What do you want to do?"

"Um, I guess I want to check up on them, too. They've probably found a bunch more polymaths out there, and I'd hate to think of them trying to explain the blue time in mathematical terms without me. So, you give Melissa a ring and find out where they are, and we can go meet them."

"Sure thing. After I get that sandwich. You sure you don't want one?"

Dess shrugged. "All right. Whatever you're having is fine."

Rex hurried into the kitchen; standing there with Dess was suddenly uncomfortable. After she had said 'we can go meet them', Rex felt strangely thrilled that she would be coming with him. Well, Dess is the only other midnighter I've hung out with in three years; and after having all this time with just the two of us, it makes sense that we've gotten closer, right? It's perfectly natural to be happy that she and I are sticking together; feeling this way doesn't mean anything special… right?

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