Before Its Ever Even

by RenkonNairu

Kevin and Devlin still aren't allowed to see each other and the Osmosians are getting fed up with the arrangement. Devlin's ready to confront his father and possibly reconcile with him. Meanwhile, Kevin might be a Plumber again, but that doesn't mean that he's back doing his old job. Max confines Kevin to desk duty at Headquarters and refuses to let him work cases with Ben' Team

4. Ben's Situation

Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

…Before Its Ever Even...

Chapter Four: Ben's Situation

Kevin was packing flash drives into a foam lined box, carefully ordered and meticulously labeled. He had spent the latter part of the week carefully going through each file on each drive, moving them between drives, keeping cases together, alphabetized them, and relabeled each one. The task took him three days, and he was pretty sure that someone better suited to clerical work could have gotten it done in one. It was just noting case numbers and making sure all documents with the same number made it into the asme file on the same drive. Gwendolyn probably could have gotten it done in an afternoon.

But it was done now, and Kevin could pack them back in their box -remembering to relabel it too- and take it back down to the records room in the basement.

It was as the Osmosian was just standing from his desk that Kai marched up to him. Her hands balled into fists at her sides, corners of her mouth down turned in a frown, eyes glaring daggers at anyone who attempted to make eye-contact. Kevin had pissed off enough people in his lifetime to recognize the different kinds of pissed off a person could be. On Gwendolyn that expression would have set him groveling for forgiveness. It was the expression of a lover so at odds with her partner that her anger went beyond words.

"Where's Ben?" Kai demanded when she reached the Osmosian's desk.

"Fuck if I know." Kevin snapped back. She wasn't his wife, he had no cause to tip-toe around her feelings. If she was going to open with hostility, then he would answer with hostility. "I haven't seen him all day."

"Professor Paradox showed up, said something about Eon and 'timebeast eggs' and they just took off!" She snapped at him, as if the Osmosian should have already known that and owed her some kind of explanation.

Kevin just matched her glare with one of her own, unimpressed. "Then he's somewhen between 2003 and 2004."

"What makes you say that?" Kai demanded.

"Because that's when the Time War happened from that end." The Osmosian informed her. "Apparently, this is when the Time War happens from this end." He tried to brush past her. "Now, I've got work to do. Don't you have something to do too? Go polish a bone, or something."

Kevin couldn't squeeze between her and his desk, so he went around the other way, heading for the lift that would take him down to the basement and Records. The Osmosian didn't look back to see if he'd insulted her, or pissed her off further. Either, or both were just as likely, but he didn't care. Kevin didn't exactly dislike Kai, but he didn't exactly like her either. He held her in the same regard he held most of the extended members of Ben's Team. She was helpful on cases, and useful in fights, but he never really wanted to hang out with her and get all buddy-buddy. The only opinion the Osmosian had of her that set her apart from the rest of Ben's Team was that Kevin never thought Ben should have married her in the first place. Sure, Tennyson liked her, and had liked her for years. But liking her did not mean she was good for him -or him for her. More than ten years of marriage seemed to have proven that assessment correct. Ben and Kai were not good for each other.

But the Osmosian wasn't going to say that out loud.

Especially not to either of their faces.

He retreated into the lift and was relieved when the door slid shut without Kai trying to follow him. The ride down to the basement was shorter than Kevin would have liked, all too soon the door seemed to be sliding open again, hitting him with a face full of cool but dry air that smelled of old paper, copper and factory fresh plastics. With a sigh, he tucked his box of flash drives under one arm and stepped out into the corridor.

Overall, the basement's main corridor was dimly lit. Off to one side though, light pored in from the server room. Easily both the brightest and also the coldest room in the whole of Plumbers Headquarters. It housed the servers for every computer in HQ, was kept well lit for the techs that maintained it, and was climate controlled to near freezing to prevent the mingled alien and terrestrial terran tech from overheating. Opposite the server room were the power generators. Kevin felt his mouth water as he passed them, his Osmosian instincts registering the power that pulsed there and how much of a temptation is could be for him. He walked faster as he passed the generators. Temptation had always been an uphill battle for him.

Records was at the end of the corridor.

A small and unassuming door with a modest placard proclaiming it for what it was. From all outward appearances, it looked more like a broom closet than a vitally important archive of Plumbers activity and history. But when the door slid open, the room widened into a cavernous chamber full of tall shelves packed with boxes. Some, no larger than the shoebox sized one Kevin now held, others the size of cardboard xerox boxes, meant for hard-copies and paper files. The Osmosian stepped up to the counter where a loan file clerk set, bent over a crossword puzzle. Kevin set his box of flash drives on the counter next to the clerk's crossword.

"Anything else Max wants me to waste my time on?"

The clerk spared him a single pitiless glance before opening the box. He took one flash drive out of the foam that held it in place, examined Kevin's messy hand writing identifying what it was and where it belonged in the order. After deciding that, while messy, it was clear enough to be read the clerk placed it back in its place and closed the box again. He jerked a thumb at a sizable stack of xerox boxes that had been pulled out of their places and off of their shelves, all piled neatly next to the counter, from the floor up to just a bit above the clerk's own head.

"Max wants these digitalized."

Kevin suppressed the urge to groan. He grabbed the top two boxes and stomped out of the room. He'd come back for the others. The Osmosian hadn't thought to bring a dolly or anything to help him carry more than that, and paper was heavy.

He way maybe a quarter of the way into the first box, and the day wearing thin when Ben finally reappeared at Plumbers HQ. And 'reappeared' could not have been a more accurate descriptor.

A green vortex appeared in the bullpen. A circle of light in flux and bent itself around a hole in time, and out of that hole walked two figures. Professor Paradox exited first, his white lab coat almost all but obscured under layers of steampunk-style epaulets, chevrons, and panels of cog-wheel themed armor. Half a step behind the Time Walker was the Hero of the Universe -Ben 10,000.

"Well, here we are. Back in your own time." Paradox announced, he looked at his pocket watch. "And you're not even late for dinner! Good work today, Ben, ta-ta for now."

He disappeared back into the time vortex and was gone.

"Your wife was looking for you." Kevin announced once the green light faded and the fabric of time and space settled back to its normal ebb and flow.

For half a second, a look of abject panic flitted across the Hero's face and the Osmosian had to wonder just how bad his relationship with his wife had gotten. For Ben to be so fearful of the mere mention of her looking for him. Then Kevin quickly reminded himself that he did not care. Tennyson's problems with his wife were just that: his problems. It was no business of Kevin's what went on (or didn't go on) between them behind the closed doors of the residential floors of Plumbers Headquarters. The Osmosian was trying to stay out of Tennyson's personal drama. Not jump headfirst into it. He had enough personal drama of his own to keep him occupied.

But the expression was there and gone in an instant. Covered up by one of Ben's patented 'Hero of the Universe smiles'. "Wanna get a drink?"

Kevin checked his watch. It was nearing the end of the day anyway. Max shouldn't mind him taking off a little early. "Sure. I could go for a smoothy."

"No, no. I said a drink." Ben had to clarify for him. He was more than well aware that the Osmosian did not drink alcohol. As a general rule, Kevin tried to avoid anything that loosened his hold in inhibition, or altered his mental state. All his life, sanity and stability had been uphill battles for Kevin and getting drunk never did him any favors. At best, he got a nasty hang over, at worst he absorbed something he should have, went crazy, and had to beat down by Ben and his Team. But the Hero of the Universe seemed not to be bothered by those detailed. He grabbed his frienemy by the arm. "Lets go get a beer. Grab your coat. You can be my designated driver."

Without ever agreeing to anything, Kevin found himself being dragged to the motor-pool and shoved into the car he'd checked out for personal use. Apparently, Ben was serious about the designated driver remark. Unsure as to why he was even going along with this, Kevin drove himself and Ben to the closest bar to HQ.

Ben slammed his credit card down on the bar counter the moment they were inside. "One Tennyson Special, and a water."

"Diet coke." Kevin corrected. "But make sure he gets his water. I don't wanna have to hose puke out of the car because he can't hold his liquor."

"I can hold my liquor." Ben grumbled as the bartender placed a cup of acid-green liquid that bubbled and hissed in front of Ben. It was hard liquor mixed from terran vodka, rum, and silver tequila, but also a couple alien beverages that Kevin was pretty sure humans should not actually be consuming. They called it a Tennyson Special, or a Ben 10,000 depending on what bar you went to. Next to this hissing and bubbling concoction was placed a pitifully small glass of water. Ben ignored the water and grabbed his cup of hissing green poison. "You're the idiot who gets all weepy and starts trying to hug everyone and have public sex with your wife after just one beer!"

"I do not!" Snapped the Osmosian defensively -because he knew it was true. Kevin was an over-emotional drunk, and even worse, because he drank so rarely, he had no tolerance for alcohol and so got drunker faster on less alcohol than anyone else in their group.

Ben only scoffed. He picked up his Tennyson Special and his water from the bar counter and motioned for Kevin to follow him. They sat down at a table near the back. Out of the way and with a wall on one side so that if Kevin turned his chair, he could sit with his back to a wall -just the way the Osmosian liked it.

Kevin flopped down in his chair, rested on arm on the table, and waited for Ben to start explaining why he felt the sudden and inexplicable need to get plastered so early in the evening. Ben sat down on the opposite side from him and continued to sip his bubbling drink. Kevin sipped his soda and tapped his fingers on the table.

"Okay, so what's the deal?" The Osmosian finally had to ask. "This can't be because you're trying to hide from your nagging wife."

"Huh? Oh, Kai. No." Ben blinked at his companion, took another sip of his hissing beverage, set it back down and paused. He ran a finger around the rim of the glass, feeling how the mingled terrestrial and extraterrestrial ingredients prickled on his skin. "Its Rook." He finally admitted. "He was there when Paradox and I were trying to stop Eon from getting the Time Beast eggs. Past-Rook, I mean. He was always there for me -all the time, for every adventure- until I fucked it up. Ya know, for all those time travel adventures we used to have, it was always just me and Paradox who came to the past. We never met a future-Rook. I never really thought to wonder why."

So this was more about Rook. Kevin thought it was odd how Ben seemed to be so very interested in Rook that one time he saw the Revonnahgander talking to Kevin.

"Has Rook been by since the last time?"

"No." The Osmosian informed him. "Unlike you, Tennyson, Rook's job actually makes demands on his time on a daily basis. He can't just goof around all day and wait for disaster to strike before making himself useful."

Disasters in the Null Void tended to be fatal, but Kevin wasn't about to remind Ben of that fact. Maybe in conversation about himself and how unfortunate his life has been because of Ben and his habit of sending the older man to the Null Void. But not in a conversation about Rook and his job as Warden of the Void. Kevin liked to throw pity parties for himself and invite everyone else along. But Rook didn't need pity, he deserved respect.

"His job is preventing disasters."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." The Hero of the Universe begrudgingly admitted before taking another swig of his drink. Then another. And a third. When Ben finally paused for air his cheeks were pink. "I just miss him sometimes, ya know. He was my best friend! And I pushed him away."

Kevin just looked at the younger man, unsympathetic.

"I mean, you're kinda my best friend too." Ben hastily amended. "Sometimes. But you've got consistency issues. We're not always friends. But Rook and I, we were always friends, and I didn't have to worry about him absorbing my Omnitrix, or stealing Grandpa's Rust Bucket, or selling weapons to two sides of a war I was trying to stop. I could trust him. He was consistent. We were tight!" Another deep gulp of his drink, the glass was almost empty now. "Then I fucked everything up!"

Admittedly, Kevin hadn't been there at the time, but he wasn't going to argue. From what he'd heard, Ben had royally fucked up his friendship with the Revonnahgander after learning that Rook's feelings for him went beyond the platonic bonds of friendship. That was all on Ben. Kevin wasn't in the habit of reassure the obnoxious hero when he actually was the one at fault. If he didn't want to ruin his friendship with Rook, then he shouldn't have acted the way he did. (Of course, if Rook hadn't wanted to ruin his friendship with Ben, he never should have felt him up while he was laying unconscious in an ambulance. But Rook wasn't the one wallowing in self pity in front of Kevin at the moment.)

The Osmosian sipped his coke and pulled his phone out of his pocket. To text Gwendolyn that he might be late. This might take a while. Kevin hoped Ben would cry at some point before the drinks were done. That alone would make this worth his time, and his phone also had enough battery for video. Entertainment for days to come. Flagging down the bartender, Kevin indicated Ben's almost empty glass and motioned for another round. While the Osmosian still wasn't too keen on taking care of a drunk Ben, Ben was an honest drunk and he was keen on getting so new and current blackmail material on his long time frienemy.

"Drink your water." Kevin pushed the smaller water cup closer to Ben. Because taking care of a drunk still meant that you had to take care of them and Ben would be less likely to puke in the car if it broke up his drinks with water and stayed hydrated.

"Do you think I fucked up?" Ben asked, eyes pleading for Kevin to tell him he did nothing wrong and Rook was the one that had been overreacting for the past eleven years.

Well, if that was what he wanted, then he came to the wrong friend. "I mean... I've always thought you were a fuck-up ever since we were kids, so..."

"You're mean!" Growled the younger man.

"Yeah. And?" Kevin growled back, matching Ben's tone. If he wanted someone to tip-toe around his feelings and spout niceties then he should have picked someone else to drag to the bar with him. Kevin wasn't generally in the habit of tip-toeing around feelings -especially note Ben's- and he didn't think he even knew how to say a generic nicety.

The bartender brought over Ben's second round and removed the empty glass.

Kevin continued to sip his soda slowly.

Finally, the Osmosian decided to ask the thing that really bothered him about this. "Why are you so worked up about this now? I mean, its been over ten years."

"Well," Ben fidgeted in his chair, "it's just that he's been showing up a lot more recently. He helped Red with you back when you were all nutty, he's been coming by to see you a lot since then-" he had come by exactly twice in the past year "-and the Time War just came around from this end and I'll be seeing a lot more of him now. Past-him, I mean. The Rook from when we were still friends. I just... It makes me think..."

"Makes you regret, you mean." Kevin translated. "And you want me to reassure you that you did nothing wrong."

There was a beat of silence. Ben took a sip of his new drink. The bright green fluid sputtered and hissed as it passed his lips. He set the glass back down and glared at it. As shade of green just a touch brighter than his own eyes.

"I guess I should have handled it differently." He finally admitted. "I shouldn't have said I didn't want him around me. I was just so... So much was going on! I'm way better at taking care of strangers than I am people I actually know, people who need more than just a heroic rescue, but actual 'emotional availability'. I'm not good with that at all. But you were gone, and you took Devlin with you. Red was a mess. Kai was pregnant. And then Rook just drops that bomb on me... how the fuck was a supposed to react?"

For half a moment, Kevin thought about telling Ben how he would have reacted if someone who was not his wife had kissed him while unconscious. Due to being sent to an extra-dimensional prison at the young and impressionable age of eleven, Kevin had some very strong instincts about people touching him while he was asleep and unable to consent or fight back. If Rook had tried the same thing with him, the Revonnahgander would not have had the chance to explain himself before Kevin made sure he never did it again. So, in all honesty, the Osmosian didn't think Ben overreacted. He just thought Ben handled his reaction poorly. There was a difference. A subtle one. But a difference.

But he wasn't about to tell Ben that. The fact that he wasn't generally in the habit of coddling the obnoxious Hero aside, Kevin didn't talk about that sort of thing. Not even to Gwendolyn.

Instead of answering the younger man's question, Kevin got up from the table and crossed to the bar to order a refill of his soda. That done, he sat back down with his frienemy.

And changed the subject.

"Week's over." He announced. It was now fifty-two consecutive weeks since Kevin was reinstated as a Magister ranked Plumber. "And Max still hasn't signed off for me to get back out in the field."

"Ya know, in the past, if Grandpa Max set a rule we didn't agree with, we'd just bend it, or go around it, or flat out break it." Ben reminded the older man. He was a little miffed that Kevin was changing the subject on them. He wasn't done agonizing over his lack of relationship with his former partner.

Kevin shook his head. "I promised Gwen I'd behave."

"Then maybe you should take Rook up on his offer." He announced, effectively swinging the conversation back to what he actually did want to talk about. "Grandpa Max is the Magistratus of this space sector, but he still answers to the High Magistrata at Galvan Prime. If she okayed your field deployment, he's have to go along with it. And your experience and talents would certainly make Rook's job easier. He might actually have time to 'goof off'."

"Why are you always trying to send me to the Null Void, Tennyson?" Demanded the Osmosian. "Does it get you off, or something?"

"I'm not trying to 'send you to the Null Void'." Ben took another sip from his hissing drink. "I just think its a good deployment for you. You're better equipped to handle the Void than any other active Plumber I know. Rook probably knows that too. That's why he wants you."

"Do I need to remind you why I know the Null Void better than anyone else?" Kevin growled. "Stop using my disreputable past -a disreputable past which you caused, I might add- as an excuse for why I should help your boyfriend."

"He's not my boyfriend!" Ben snapped, rather shrilly.

"Really?" Kevin leaned over the table to glare at the younger man. "Because you seem a lot more concerned for him than you do your actual wife -whom has been looking for you all day, by the way."

Ben gave a small little 'hmph!' sound and grabbed his drink, spilling a bit of it on the table with the force. It bubbled on the wood and when Kevin wiped the small splash away with a napkin, some of the finish was missing. That drink really was not meant for human consumption. How did Ben even manage it? Kevin had to wonder as he watched the supposedly normal human chug what was left in the glass.

"Anyway, I'm dropping you off back at HQ." The Osmosian stood, heading to the bar to close out Ben's tab for him. The bar tended did not even bat an eyelash when Kevin sighed the receipt for him with a near perfect forgery of the Hero of the Universe's signature. He came back to the table and yanked Ben out of his seat by the armpit. "Gwendolyn and I were planning to spend the weekend together and I don't wanna be late for that. My son will being sleeping over at your place this weekend, by the way, so please try and at least pretend to be a responsible adult. Its bad enough Devlin picked up my bad habits, he doesn't need yours too."

The Osmosian dragged the younger man out of the bar.

Speaking of Gwendolyn and Devlin, Kevin's dark blue 'everything proof' car pulled into the motor-pool just before they did. Kevin parked next to her and Ben gave an affectionate wave, staggering a bit as he got out of the car.

"Where did you two go?" She asked. While it was true that Ben and Kevin were -more of less- friends again, they didn't really tend to do the traditional friend activities of 'hanging out and having fun' together. Their friend activities tended to lean more towards the 'try and see who can tear down the other's self-esteem faster' side of the spectrum. Either that, or just out-and-out fight. Niether of them seemed to be sporting any obvious injuries, so it probably wasn't the latter.

Kevin's eye's momentarily flicked to Devlin climbing out of the passenger seat on the opposite side and in an uncharacteristic moment of concern decided to shelter the boy. He didn't need to know the Hero of the Universe was chugging mixed poisons and bemoaning missed opportunities in life. "You know Tennyson's unquenchable thirst for smoothies."

But Devlin looked up at that. His dark eyes meeting his father's in mild challenge. "Kenny and I didn't see you at Mr. Smoothy's after school."

"There's more than one Mr. Smoothy in Bellwood, kiddo." Replied the older Osmosian smoothly and seamlessly.

Ben burped.

Gwendolyn wrinkled her nose at the smell.

"Will you be okay to watch Devlin this weekend?" She demanded. Already, it was not off to the kind of start she would have liked.

Kevin vowed that if he couldn't spend the weekend with his wife because of Ben, then the Hero of the Universe would be the one to get thrown into the Null Void this time!

"Sure. I'll be fine in a few hours." Ben assured her. "And anyway, Kai's home. She'll help out."

"Why would it take you a few hours to be fine if all you had were smoothies?" Devlin asked. His eyes flicked back to his father, this time instead of challenging, his glare was an accusation. "What did you do to him?"

If Kevin had a comeback for that, Gwendolyn cut him off before he could even open his mouth. She flashed the disarming smile she used specifically for diffusing tense situations. After a year of keeping the two Osmosians apart for their own good, they were now just a few feet apart with nothing but a car separating them. She was not about to let one goad the other into a confrontation after all her hard work and care.

"Why don't you head upstairs." She suggested to her son. "If Kenny's already finished his homework maybe Kai will let you play."

Devlin cast one more challenging glare at his father before pulling his overnight bag out of the back seat and heading into Headquarters.

Gwendolyn waited until the count of ten after he was gone before rounding on both her cousin and her husband. "Okay, what the hell, you guys!? Ben, you knew I would be dropping Devlin off today so he could spend the weekend with Kenny. Kevin, you knew we were gonna have a weekend together just the two of us. What in the world possessed you to go drinking tonight?"

Kevin raised his hands in surrender. "I just want to clarify, I just had soda. I didn't drink anything."

Her eyes flicked to her cousin. "Ben?"

"He got all emotional because Paradox took him to the past this morning, and he got to see Rook when they were still friends." Kevin explained for him. "Now he's all angsty and depressed."

Gwendolyn crossed her arms over her chest, not at all moved by her cousin's apparent emotional distress. "Ya know, if you miss Rook, you could just use the comm system in your Omnitrix and call him. He's in the Null Void, not dead. If you miss him, just tell him."

Throwing his arms up in frustration, Ben just stormed out of the motor-pool to follow Devlin upstairs. "You guys just don't understand!"

Kevin and Gwendolyn were left by the cars.

The Osmosian flashed an amused smirk that might have bordered on scathing. "Its nice to see he never changes."

"You hush." Gwendolyn growled at him. She was glaring at the lift all the way across the bullpen where her son and Ben had just disappeared.

Kevin's scathing smirk at Ben still having the emotional maturity of a teenager melted at the concerned expression on her face. The Osmosian came around his borrowed car to wrap his arms about her in what he hoped was a comforting hug. "Ya know, if you're worried about Devlin spending the weekend with Ben, we can cancel. I'll head back to my place and Devlin can go home with you."

Turning around in his arms, Gwendolyn stretched up on the tips of her toes to place an affectionate kiss on his lips. "The fact that you're okay with that is what makes me sure you deserve this weekend. Ben'll be fine in the morning and, besides, the boys will have fun together."

"That, and you want us to have fun together too." That smirk was back on his face. This time playful.

"That too." Gwendolyn returned his smirk with one of her own.

…