Well well, an update. These characters aren't mine, by the by.

-Storm Clouds Gather-

Jessica squinted, her eyes adjusting to the morning sunlight as she, fresh out of the painfully rigorous security checks, lugged her bags and suitcase out of the inner spaceport and into the multi-windowed terminal. It was always a pain having to get used to a planet's daylight after space travel. She did her best to look around. Hector should be here, she hoped she'd be able to see him-

"Jess? Jess!"

That was him. She opened her eyes wider, and there he was.

Jessica dropped all her bags right there and hurtled right into her brother, nearly knocking them both into a passing ectoplasmic Subspacer, who garbled huffily at them. Her cheek was pressed against his chest. Even as adults he was annoyingly taller than her.

"Whoa, whoa, Jess!" Hector said, a bit of the wind knocked out of him. Jess looked up at him, and he looked down at her. "Aw, Jess…" then he frowned.

"Have you gotten shorter? I swear you were taller when you left. Did space shrink you?"

Jessica leaned back and groaned, rolling her eyes and lightly punching Hector in the chest. "Great, I leave for a couple years and my brother thinks he's a comedian!"

Hector chuckled. "So… how are you?"

Jessica paused. "Um…" she tilted her gaze up and grinningly shook her head at the ceiling, spreading her arms in a shrug. "…fantastic?"

Hector hugged her again. "Great. Me too."

Jess and Hector lugged the last of the luggage into Hector's trunk. Hector grabbed the trunk lid. "So Mom and Dad said-" -he closed it- "-that they think they should be able to get back in a couple days. They're gonna try anyway. Jules is coming with them." Jessica leaned against the car and sighed. The idea of seeing her mother, her father, and Jules again, all at once, was so tantalizing that the prospect of having to wait was almost a physical ache. But it couldn't be helped.

Hector continued as they both got in the car "They were pretty upset that they weren't gonna be here when you got back. They said they were sorry."

"Well, it's not like it's anyone's fault. I mean, the message only got here a couple days ago, they were already across the country, and I don't want them dropping everything and losing potential clients just because I'm back. I'll feel better knowing that everything is settled when I see them."

Hector nodded. "Yeah, true."

"And, hey, at least them being out of town meant they could pick up Jules. That way, we can all see each other together."

"Uh-huh. Have you called them yet?"

"Yeah, I tried while I was waiting in the inner port, no answer. Probably in a meeting or in the mountains or something. No big deal, I'll try again later." She cracked up a bit. "Moral of the story, kids: messages sent through space are unpredictable. You never know when they'll actually arrive. These are words to live by, kids, pay attention." Hector chuckled.

Hector started the car and started to drive out of the parking lot. "So, you wanna go back to my place now?"

Jessica thought for a moment. "You know, actually, if you don't mind, I kinda want to go to the Electric Diner first."

"All right, then, the Electric Diner it is." Hector turned out of the parking lot and into the crazy streets of New York City.

"And you're sure me staying at your place until I find another apartment is no trouble?" Jess asked.

Hector waved his hand dismissively. "Absolutely not. Where you going to sleep, a hotel? Nah… my shampoo is better than any hotel's."

Jess snickered. "Your shampoo is better? Seriously?"

Hector winced. "It was… all I could think of."

"Hmm." Jess grinned mischievously. "Well, so long as I don't bother you and Lisa."

"Me and- oh, ha ha ha, who's the comedian now?"

Jess smirked and rolled her eyes. "Come on, Hector! It's been years, and you're still just dating."

"Hey, hey, no need to rush things if you don't need to."

Jess snorted. "Rush things. Yeah, right. When are you two gonna get married? And have some kids? I wanna be the cool aunt!"

Hector groaned. "Can we change the subject?"

"Heh heh. Okay, fine, dropping it. Seriously, though, how is Lisa?"

"She's doing good. Still working at Dooley; she's pretty happy there."

Jessica nodded. "And everyone else?"

"Well, Marcus has been going through a lot of jobs recently, trying to see what feels right, you know how it is. I think he… delivers pizza now? Yeah, a pizza deliverer. He seems to like it. Shock's still working with me at the diner, so that's going good. He actually invented a new kind of smoothie a while ago, the "Blue Spring", or something like that. I, uh, don't care all that much for it myself, but the customers think it's great, so it's all cool. And Keith… Keith's doing okay."

There was something in Hector's voice. Jessica frowned. "Is… is something wrong with Keith?"

"Oh no, no, I just don't really see him as much these days, that's all. He's living with Leo, you know, helping him out with things I guess, and it seems like they're moving around the city a lot. It's like every time I get a change to talk to him they're living in a different place."

"Wait, so what about the restaurant across town? I knew it was still having all those construction problems when I left, but even now it's not open? After all this time?"

Hector shifted in his seat as his hands guided the wheel. He looked uncomfortable. "Hey, uh… you never actually went to that restaurant, right?"

"No, Leo always said he wanted everyone to wait until it was open."

Hector nodded. "Right, yeah. So… look, maybe I shouldn't be saying this, but… I don't think the restaurant exists."

Jess blinked. "What?"

"Hey, I don't know for sure, I might be totally wrong, but… I've never heard anything about the place outside of what Keith and Leo said, and none of us ever went to it, and Leo talked about it always having some problem with the construction or other. All the recent times I've talked to Keith he never mentions it. But I dunno, maybe I've got it all wrong, maybe I'm way off base."

Jessica thought. "Wow. …Do you think Leo was in some kind of trouble, or debt, or something?"

Hector shrugged. "I'm not sure. I mean, if Leo needed money, he could've just sold the whole diner to me instead of co-owning it, so I don't know how debt would be involved, but then again it might explain why they seem to move around so much… on the other hand, we're Keith's best friends, I think he'd have told us if something was wrong with his dad… beats me, like I said, I might just be totally wrong.

Jessica looked out at New York's passing walls of cement and ivory. Was that true? Had Leo lied to them? Had Keith lied to them? She shook her head. There would be plenty of time for questions later, and as troubling as these ideas might be, she was not going to let them ruin her return to home. "Well, whatever's going on, I trust Keith. Anything he did or said, he had a good reason, I know it."

"I agree."

Jess stared out the window some more. New York City was glinting in the sun, and she drank it all in. The streets, the sidewalks, the shops, the apartment buildings; she might not be familiar with the particular places they drove by, but she recognized the concrete and brick and glass and steel all the same.

She recognized the people, too. The great mix of nationalities and species New York was known for, all hurrying between themselves to cross the street or reach the bus in time.

But wait… something seemed off. Didn't add up. It took Jess a minute to figure it out. "Where are all the aliens?"

Hector looked over at her. "Huh?"

Jessica gestured out the window to the crowds on the sidewalks. "I thought there'd be more extra-terrestrials. I mean, what with the spaceport being finished I was expecting to see a lot more aliens on the streets, but it looks like there's less then there was when I left."

"Well, there has been some… suspicion recently."

"What do you mean?"

"I… look, Jess, I don't wanna dump all this stuff on you on your first day back."

"Hector, it's okay. I want to know everything that's been going on. Please tell me."

"Okay… there's just been a lot of talk about potential alien threats for a while."

"Talk?"

"There hasn't been any definite proof, at least not that has been publicly revealed, see. But there's been government warnings, security all over has been ramped up, there's rumors and paranoia everywhere... honestly it seems like there's a new potential threat from some alien group or other every week these days."

Jessica glanced out the window again. "And so a lot of extra-terrestrials…"

"…don't really walk around the big streets of New York in the middle of the day any more, yeah. I mean, there's still plenty in the city, you'll see a lot in the poorer areas, but I think most of them have picked up on how the climate isn't in their favor right now, and they're either leaving or laying low."

"But there haven't been any actual attacks?"

"Nothing proven, or big enough to lead to any actual state of emergency."

Jess bit her lip. "Hector, I can't… suspicion, paranoia… what started all this?"

Hector winced. "It's kind of been building slowly for a while, but I think the ball might have started rolling after… you know… what happened at Eldrimk."

Well, a huge scandal like that playing into everything Hector was talking about didn't surprise her. But if that was what started all this, why hadn't she noticed these things happening afterwards? Was she too caught up in her own issues, her own hang-ups over what had happened on the space station, to see what was going on in the city around her before she left? She swallowed. Guilt wouldn't help anything, not now. She had to think of other things, find out more about what was going on.

"So, are there any politicians with an agenda involved with this, or something like that?"

"I guess… if anybody is, it's Antigone Carruthers."

"Antigone Carruthers?"

"She's the mayor now."

Jess smirked and shook her head. "Of course she is. All the billionaires are going into office while I'm gone. But she never really seemed like the anti-alien type to me."

"Me neither, actually. She never really said anything about it when she was getting elected, but a little while after she started making all these statements about potential threats and trying to set up all these new security measures."

"Wow. Okay." Jess sat and thought. She cracked up a bit. "I bet Francine's somehow even worse, then, if her mom's the mayor."

Hector's brow wrinkled. "Huh… I actually haven't seen Francine for a while. Don't think I've seen her since Antigone became mayor, really. Which, yeah, is probably a good thing if I don't wanna hear her bragging about being the mayor's daughter."

Jessica nodded and looked out the window again. Things were looking familiar. The diner wasn't far away now. She had small butterflies in her stomach at the thought of actually being there again. She reached over and lightly squeezed Hector's arm. "Well, whatever else is going on, thanks for bringing me home, bro."

"You're welcome."

Antigone Carruthers rested her face in her hands and massaged it. Did her skin feel slightly baggy, or was she just imagining it? Either way, she knew the dark circles under her eyes were definitely real. It was taking all her makeup expertise to look normal before the public.

There were a couple small beeps deep in the bowels of her desk. She shook herself and reached down to unlock the drawer, pulling out a tiny, phone-like device. She held it to her ear. "Hello?"

A rough voice. "It's Joe, your mayorship. The Ruiz lady got to the spaceport, she just left with her brother."

"I see. Do you know where they're headed?"

"It's probably the guy's apartment, but I dunno for sure."

"Can you tail them?"

"I can try."

"Very good. That will be all."

"Yes ma'am."

Antigone hung up. She took a deep breath, and then dialed again.

The voice that answered was softer, too soft, too soft and too quiet. "Yes?"

The mayor wiped her brow. "It's Antigone."

"I know it's you, Antigone dear. You have news?"

Hearing her name spoken by the voice made Antigone's skin crawl. She cleared her throat. "Jessica Ruiz just arrived in the city and went with her Hector Ruiz, Joe will to try to tail them."

"I do hope he can manage to read all the big words on the street signs. But good, this is good news. Things are progressing. Have as many of your people as you can keep an eye on all of them."

"Every electrician?"

"No, every member of the sewing circle. Yes, Antigone, every 'electrician'. Any other news?"

"No." And then, the whispered question was out of Antigone's mouth before she could stop it. "She's the one you hate the most, isn't she?"

"Indeed, Antigone. Indeed she is." The voice was colder now. "Now, you keep doing what you're doing and I'll keep in touch. And don't worry, Antigone dear, I'll tell Francine how much you miss her and how hard you're working to keep her safe and healthy. Have a lovely day, madam mayor." The device went silent.

Antigone shuddered and sighed. She pressed a button on her intercom. "Shiela? Bring me a bottle of… something, I don't care."