May I hold you

As you fall to sleep

When the world is closing in

And you can't breathe?

Trading Yesterday-May I


Call it mother's intuition, but something was wrong with Devlyn; Gwen just knew it. She was quieter than usual at dinner and her mind seemed to be in two different worlds. She barely ate when her favorite dish was served and her responses to Ken's jokes were only half-hearted when she was usually laughing till her sides hurt.

She had glances at Ben during dinner to make sure she wasn't the only one who noticed this and saw her husband give their foster daughter a quizzed look and Ken looked concerned. Maybe she was worried about Kevin showing up at their house which he hadn't so far. Gwen had been surprised because of how possessive he tended to be in his nature. Even if he didn't care two cents what happened to his daughter, she was still his daughter and darn it, he would have his daughter back with him even if she had to be dragged back kicking and screaming.

What a bullet Gwen had dodged.

Looking back, she wasn't sure what she had ever seen in Kevin Ethan Levin except that he was good looking and she had been going through the good-girl-can-make-a-bad-boy-good phase, which was bogus; you can't change a person if they don't see that they need to change, and Kevin to this day still belonged to that category. She understood and even shared some of Devlyn's anxiety; she had been on the receiving end of Kevin's wrath before.

But still, Devlyn had seemed to have been getting over her fear of him coming for her up until today…what had changed?

A chill came over Gwen and she stopped brushing her hair. He hadn't shown up at the house, but had he shown up to her somewhere else? The library maybe? Had he been spying on her up until recently?

She set her hairbrush down and looked out of her bedroom window and saw nothing out of place; just the usual lamp lit road and darkened cars outside of their owners' homes. Still, she closed the curtains, sat down on her bed and did some more thinking.

There was nothing Kevin loved more than a good argument so that's why she and Ben kept thinking he would show up at the house to fight to get Devlyn back, but maybe that wasn't the case this time. Kevin might be a hothead, but he was also a calculating hothead. Perhaps he had shown up to her at a public place when she, Ben or Ken weren't around and threatened her. Or them.

"Thinking about Devlyn?"

Gwen looked up to see her husband sit down next to her. She nodded.

"She was awfully quiet at dinner."

Ben nodded thoughtfully and rubbed her back.

"I noticed."

"So did Ken."

"She's probably worried about Kevin. Sometimes the waiting is worse than the happening."

"But she was getting over that fear up until recently. What if he showed up to her at the library when she went earlier this evening?"

"Do you think he did?"

"I don't know; it was the only time since she found out that she had been completely alone in a public place so it would be the perfect opportunity to threaten her without either one of us stopping him."

Ben considered this.

"You've got a point." He admitted. He covered his mouth thoughtfully. "Maybe we should ask her."

"She turned in early."

"Okay, something's definitely up; she usually stays up until midnight. Especially if she finds new reading material."

"Exactly."

"We'll ask her tomorrow. First chance we get; even if it's before she takes off for school."

"Sounds good to me."

Both were silent for a moment as each was wrapped up in his or her own thoughts.

"You know," Ben finally spoke, "Devlyn's abnormal behavior could be something more basic."

Gwen scrunched her eyebrows together.

"What else in her life could cause her to be this depressed or anxious?"

"Well last I heard, Ken is going with Helena Armstrong to the next school dance."

Now Gwen was even more confused.

"What does that have to do with anything? Devlyn doesn't even like those kind of things."

"No…not dances."

Gwen was feeling more and more lost by the moment.

"A boy she might like at school?"

"Not at school."

Bewildered, Gwen knew Ben was getting at something so she thought about it for a moment.

And then it dawned on her.

"You think Devlyn's developed feelings for Ken?"

Ben tilted his head knowingly.

"I'm not sure, but I've been…catching things lately between the two of them that haven't been so platonic."

Wait, what?

"Such as…." Gwen willed herself to keep calm and not think about the fact that their rooms were only three feet apart.

"Oh, the way Devlyn looks at Ken when no one's looking or she thinks no one is. They've been more physical lately as well."

Gwen's eyebrows shot up.

"Not in an inappropriate way, mind you! It's just there and I've been catching it."

Dumbfounded Gwen felt her jaw drop.

"And how have I been missing this?"

Ben shrugged.

"I don't know; maybe you've always been too caught up in the fact that you finally had a daughter to think too much of what could happen by the time they grew into teenagers."

Gwen tilted her head in agreement.

"Hmm. So you think Devlyn's depressive attitude has something to do with Ken going to the dance with Helena?"

"Like I said, I'm not sure. But, I will say, that she's acting just like I did when you went to that dance with Kevin." (A/N Let's just say for the sake of the story that Kevin and Gwen actually did make it to that dance and Ben wasn't having issues with his Omnitrix.)

Gwen smiled and rested her hand on her fist.

"Really?"

"Yeah, after you went to that dance, I sat home depressed and watched equally depressing movies. Not by choice, but whatever was on just happened to take depressing turns no matter what channel I turned to. And that was before my parents installed Netflix so I didn't have too many options available to me that night."

"But…you gave Kevin advice and everything; you even helped him get a tux."

"Yeah, why did you think I had that tux on hand? Besides the fact that it belonged to Grandpa Max."

Gwen blinked as what he implied got through to her.

"Wait…you wanted to go to that dance with me?"

"Yeah, but you asked Kevin before I could ask you; besides, he seemed to make you happy so I decided to give him a chance. I still didn't trust him as far as I could throw him as Gray Matter, though."

"You didn't go on a date with Julie?"

"Well…that may have been the night I broke up with her?"

"….I'm only learning about all this now why?"

Ben shrugged.

"It never came up."

"Wow." Gwen become thoughtful then smiled as she leaned into his shoulder; Ben put an arm around her. "Looking back, I would've taken you over Kevin in a heartbeat."

Ben chuckled.

"Well, I would hope you would say that now." He kissed the top of her dark red head.

"No, seriously. I was saying that by the time the dance was through. I never told you this but he made a horrible dance date."

"You mean he couldn't dance?"

"No; actually, he was a really great dancer. But was rude to everyone on purpose.

"I know that's how he was usually, but he was worse that night. Let's just say that by the time he dropped me off I was thinking on how you would have made a better partner."

"For real?"

"Yep. You wouldn't have liked all the preppy stuff that was going on there but you wouldn't have retaliated by being rude; you would have been very pleasant. And you're not a bad dancer either."

"Well, I had a pretty good teacher."

"I still remember teaching you. Man, if only our younger selves knew then what we did now."

Ben threw his head back and laughed.

"What?" Gwen smiled as her husband covered his eyes, "What's so funny?"

"I was just imaging your younger self's reaction to you dating Kevin never mind the fact that you and I are married!" He continued to laugh.

Gwen covered her eyes.

"Oh, you're right."

"She would've thought you lost you marbles."

"And she would have every right to."

"Yeah, no kidding; especially looking on how he's turned out."

Both became serious again as they pondered on that last statement.

"Well," Ben rested his chin on her head, "I'm turning in now; I'll let you know what Devlyn's response is if I catch her first in the morning."

Gwen looked up at him.

"Alright."

"You staying up a little bit longer?"

"Mhmm."

"Alright." He leaned down and kissed her. "I love you."

"Love you too."

As Ben pulled the covers onto himself, Gwen's mind was racing. As she often had over the years of having Devlyn live with them, her thoughts turned to the photo that she had shown her of Devlyn's mother. It still made Gwen shudder.

Why did that woman look so much like her?


Gwen woke up in the dead of the night with a start.

She felt the weight of Ben's arm around her waist and her eyes found the alarm clock on her nightstand. 3:09AM. What had woken her up?

The sound of whimpering through the halls caught her ears and she sat up.

Devlyn.

Gently lifting Ben's arm and laying it on the sheets next to her, Gwen quietly got out of bed and tip-toed quickly out of the room and into the hallway.

As she neared her foster daughter's room, the whimpering grew louder but she also heard her son's voice in the same room.

"Devlyn, wake up; whatever it is, it's not real. Devlyn?"

Gwen slowed down then peeked into Devlyn's room. The moonlight shone on her bed where Ken was holding Devlyn in his arms gently trying to wake her up by rocking her back and forth. Gwen decided to stay a fly on the wall for a moment more to see what would happen.

Ken got a little more forceful and shook her hard.

"Devlyn, wake up."

Devlyn woke up with a start.

"Hmm? Where am I? Ken?"

"You were having a bad dream," Ken kissed the top of her head, "Maybe of your dad?"

A moment of silence passed between the two teenagers.

"Oh. Right." Devlyn crossed her arms over her chest and touched Ken's arms her hands.

"Want to talk about it?"

Devlyn shook her head.

"Not really."

"Alright; want me to stay with you until you fall asleep?"

Devlyn nodded.

"Okay."

Devlyn turned on her side and Ken pulled up the covers to her chin and smoothed her hair back; he began to rock her gently back and forth. Gwen watched on with amazement. How could she have missed this? How they felt about each other was plain. Gwen liked to think that she was smarter, but maybe Ben was right: she had seen Devlyn as a daughter for the last 5 years and hence saw her also as Ken's sister. But she wasn't his sister. And Ken clearly didn't see her as his sister any more than Devlyn saw him as her brother.

Gwen decided to stay and watch until Devlyn fell asleep. 5 minutes later, Ken gently lifted her and placed her back down on her bed. Devlyn stirred softly as he tucked her in and kissed the side of her head; he walked toward the doorway.

Gwen was trapped; there was no where to hide. She decided to just stay and scare the life out of her son by default.

"She asleep?" Gwen asked as Ken walked into the hallway.

If Ken was a cat, he would've jumped 15 feet in the air, but since he wasn't he stared wide-eyed at his mother.

"Basically; how long have you been here?"

"A little while now. Why do you think her nightmares have increased?"

Ken relaxed and crossed his arms. Not defensively but thoughtfully.

"I don't know; I've tried to reassure her over and over Kevin won't come for her, but she doesn't seem to believe me."

"She has a lot of trauma dealing with Kevin from the time she was 8 years old. Remember, he accidentally killed her mother right in front of her."

Ken drew in a sharp breath and nodded slowly.

"Maybe she should get some kind of therapy for that."

"I thought maybe her living here had cured some of that, but I guess it just buried the deeper issues; I'll talk to her about it tomorrow and see what she thinks about it."

Among other things, Gwen thought to herself.

Ken nodded.

"Okay; sounds good to me. Night, Mom."

"Good night, Ken."

She watched as her son returned to his room before she returned to her own.

Ben was still sleeping soundly. She smiled; even after all those years of Plumber training, he still slept like a rock.

As she crawled back into bed and slid herself close to her husband, her thoughts were on Ken and Devlyn. Did they know one had feelings for the other? Or were they oblivious to their feelings for each other, like she and Ben had been for many years before it hit them like a ton of bricks? She hopped that was the case, because, in the meantime, she could figure out how to handle it until that day came. On further reflection, they didn't make a bad couple. And, considering Devlyn's history with men, it made sense she would fall for the first nice guy that she met. She didn't disapprove of them together per se; she was just going to have to get used to it, plus there was the issue of keeping their rooms apart.

Maybe they wouldn't figure it out until college; that was perfectly fine with Gwen as long as they didn't get their hearts broken with other people in the meantime, like she had with someone else long ago.


Alright, I thought a different point of view would be a nice switch-up for this chapter. Besides, Ben and Gwen haven't been as involved with this story as they should.

Anyway, please review or comment, but please no flames, foul language and or/character bashing.