Melissa

"Okay, I'm here. Are you going to tell me more about what happened last night?"

Melissa kept her nose in her menu as she answered Mick. "Sure, I'll tell you more. Ask anything you want. And here," she put down the menu and pushed it across the table, "you might as well get some food while you're here. The beef fajitas are pretty good."

Mick scowled disgustedly at the offered menu. "Screw the beef fajitas, Melissa. I only agreed to come here because you said you'd tell me how I ended up with an extra hour in my day. And don't give me any more 'because you were born at midnight' bullshit. I've been awake at midnight plenty of times before and never seen a damn thing out of the ordinary. Then that little redhead disappearing right when things went back to normal; I've been looking all over and can't find a trace of her anywhere else…"

Geez, this guy talks a lot. I better cut him off before he gets to full-on rant mode. She held up a hand, and Mick stopped talking, but kept his resentful glare in place. As Melissa explained about how the blue time started only in Bixby but was spread all over the world by the rip, Mick's glare was gradually replaced by awe. "…and that's how Jessica ended up trapped in that one hour. Rex called it temporal dependence."

For a moment, Mick just sat there with his mouth hanging open. Melissa pushed her water at him. "Here, have a drink, and don't even think about going into shock on me."

Mick obediently sipped some lemon-laced water, then asked, "and who the hell is this Rex, again?"

"He's a seer. Back when we lived in Bixby, he was pretty much our leader."

"Oh. Well, you seem to be the leader now. Did seer-dude like, die, or something?"

Melissa's jaw clenched. She was quickly making up her mind that Mick was an insensitive jerk, plus, she was less than happy with Rex at the moment and didn't really want to talk about him – not to a jerk like Mick, anyway. "No, he isn't dead. He stayed in Bixby to take care of his dad." Just leave it at 'his dad', I do not feel like explaining about Madeleine. "His dad died a week ago, so now he's leaving Bixby and joining us."

"You don't seem too thrilled with that. Do you not like him?"

Crap, an observant insensitive jerk. "I like him just fine. Anyway, once he gets here, I'm hoping he'll be able to help me figure out what your power is."

Mick blinked. "I have a superpower?"

"Yes, all midnighters do."



"Like that dude I met last night, Jonathan or whatever, that you said can fly? And the vanishing redhead that sets stuff on fire? And you… what exactly do you do, again?"

"I'm a mindcaster. Basically, I can read people's minds. That's how I found your house last night."

"Huh. That sounds pretty cool. Hey, you think I'll be able to fly or read minds?"

The waitress who had appeared with Melissa's beef fajita platter raised her eyebrows at Mick. Melissa smirked, enjoying his discomfort, before rescuing him by saying, "you'll have to excuse my friend; he's a huge Star Wars fan. I used to try to convince him that the Force doesn't really exist, but I gave up years ago."

The waitress nodded understandingly. As she set the plate on the table, she muttered, "You can do better than him, honey. You don't wanna stick with a guy who's gonna end up naming his kids Darth and Chewbacca."

Melissa laughed and Mick's glare returned.

An hour later, Melissa walked out of the diner with a definite feeling of relief. Mick was one of the most obnoxious midnighters she'd ever met. First, he ran his mouth way too much, but that was excusable. After all, most of the new midnighters I've met have had lots of questions. The only problem with Mick is, he doesn't just stick to technical questions about midnight and darklings; he thinks he gets to ask personal questions, too. Then after he's poked his nose into the details of midnighter life in Bixby, he decides he's hungry after all and takes one of my fajitas! She shook her head, amazed that any one person could be so pushy. I just hope he doesn't end up staying with us, like Alex did. He probably won't. He really has no reason to want to spend any more time with us.

That night, Melissa told Jonathan to head on over to Mick's house so he could be there when Jessica materialized. Alex didn't need to be sent away; he sensed Melissa's tenseness and made himself scarce.

As soon as she was sure the others weren't around, Melissa headed outside to wait for Rex and Dess. She didn't have long to wait before they were there, getting out of some generic rental car. Melissa got off the butt-numbing wooden bench she had parked herself on and walked toward them, calling, "hey guys. Long time, no see."

They both turned in the direction of her voice. Rex smiled, but Melissa could taste a bit of nervousness. He's probably embarrassed about the way he acted when his dad got sick, crawling into a hole and refusing to talk to anyone… as well he should be. Dess, on the other hand, didn't look nervous at all. She was taking in the surroundings, most likely calculating their exact latitude and longitude. And there's Miss Math. I'd almost forgotten what all those calculations buzzing around her brain taste like. At least she doesn't still taste bitter about that one time I touched her. Good, that'll make being around her a lot easier.

Melissa kept these thoughts off her face as she reached her old friends. "Was your trip all right?" she asked politely.

"Yeah, it was fine," Dess answered. She checked to be sure Melissa's gloves were on, and then held out her hand. They shook hands quickly, then Dess pulled back and asked if this was where Melissa and Jonathan were staying. "I guess Jessica doesn't really need a hotel room, does she? I mean, she can't even call for room service, huh?" Dess looked a little hesitant to broach the Jessica subject, as if she was asking how someone was coping with a deadly disease.

"No, Jessica doesn't stay in the hotel. She gets in Jonathan's car right before midnight ends; that way if we drive to another town during the way, she won't be left behind."

Dess nodded. "That makes sense. So did you get rooms for me and Rex, or are we sharing with you and Jonathan?" Dess grinned evilly at the thought of Rex and Jonathan stuck sharing a room.

Melissa assured Dess that she had gotten other rooms for them, so they weren't stuck with roommates. As she led them to their rooms, she also explained about Alex and Mick. "We don't have a clue yet what Mick can do. I was hoping maybe you could help with that, Rex."

"All right. We can do that during midnight. For now, I want to get some coffee, preferably before all the baristas in town freeze. How about you two?"

Melissa agreed, but Dess said she'd rather take her stuff to her room. "You go enjoy yourselves," she said, grinning again.

As Melissa helped Rex and Dess unload their suitcases, Alex showed up. "Hey, when do you want to head over to Mick's place? I think we should try to get there while we can still use cars…" he stopped as Rex and Dess turned to look at him. "I mean… uh… who, um, who are you?"

Melissa sighed. "Rex, Dess, this is Alex, the lock-melter I was telling you about. Alex, meet Rex and Dess. He's a seer, and she's a polymath."

Dess smiled at Alex. "Hi, nice to meet you," she said.

Alex shook her hand and mumbled something that sounded like 'nice to meet you too'. He then volunteered to help Dess carry the luggage into the hotel, leaving Rex and Melissa free to head to Starbucks.

"What was up with that Alex guy?" Rex asked. "He looked like he was expecting to get poked with a cattle prod. Did Dess and I scare him? Or have you been scaring him?"

"Me, scare someone? Innocent little me? No, Alex always acts like that. He's even afraid to break into other people's houses; can you imagine that?" Can you imagine someone ignoring their best friend for about two months, then showing up and chit-chatting like nothing happened?

"No, I can't imagine that. Especially not from a lock-melter. You'd think he'd be a natural at breaking into houses."

Melissa's nails dug into her plastic coffee cup. "Come on, it's a bit of a drive to Mick's house. I want to get there before midnight; I had my fill of crashing through windshields three years ago."

Melissa tossed her empty cup in the trash can and walked to the car. Rex trailed behind her, looking confused at her snippiness. He's got some nerve, being confused! All that time of not answering me when I tried to call him and now he doesn't even say 'I missed you'! Well, that's fine, he can just focus on finding out what power Mick has… and I'm not about to tell him how much I missed him.

A/N: I apologize for the slowness of this chapter, and promise more action in the next one.