That night, Nick sat up with Udonna, talking—about his "childhood". They also worked out their shared family tree.

"Are you done cleaning, Bowen?" Udonna asked her son.

Nick nodded and said, "Yes, Mom."

Udonna smiled and said, "Come with me, Bowen. I have something to show you."

He nodded and carefully put the broom away. He then followed Udonna to her room. He blinked when he noticed the small cradle and the baby toys. Was all of this—his?

"Was all of this…?" he asked.

Udonna nodded and said, "Yes, this was your cradle. And those were your toys."

Nick spotted a rattle-like toy and quickly picked it up and shook it. Udonna laughed. He blinked and she explained, "That was always your favorite toy. After your father made it for you, you refused to play with anything else—just as you refused to take any naps unless you had your blanket—unless you didn't have a choice."

Setting the rattle aside, Nick looked up at her and murmured, "I was pretty stubborn, wasn't I?"

Udonna smiled and, stroking his cheek, replied, "You are so much like your father, Bowen."

Nick nodded and then asked, "What are those?"

She glanced at the parchments. "Old pictures—from when…" she trailed off.

"Our family was whole?" he asked, reaching for them carefully.

She nodded. He unrolled the first and saw four people. "Mom, is this all of us?" he asked, sheepishly.

She smiled and said, "This is our family before you or Clare were born. It was that afternoon that Niella informed her significant other of her pregnancy with Clare."

She motioned to each person and said, "Those two are me and Leanbow. That's Niella."

He blinked and asked, "Why does the fourth person look like Calindor?"

"That is Calindor," Udonna answered shakily.

"Calindor is Clare's father?" Nick asked uncertainly.

Udonna nodded. "Don't tell her—she has enough issues with him—we don't need to add the fact that her mother and father fought on opposite sides," Udonna murmured.

Nick stared up at her and muttered, "He may have been her father, but that doesn't make him my uncle."

"Why not? He is your cousin's father. A cousin's father usually is an uncle or some degree of uncle. He should, therefore, technically, be your uncle," Udonna countered.

"He chose to betray us—to betray his family," Nick added. "And did you forget, he tried to kill me!"

"Technically, he wasn't really part of our family," Udonna murmured in a soft voice. "Later, that afternoon, in fact, he left Niella, forcing Leanbow and myself to support her."

Nick's eyes widened. Then he whispered, "So you were the natural choice—not just because you were her aunt, because you helped care for her anyway."

Udonna nodded as she rubbed Nick's shoulder and they went through the other pictures.

After they finished, Udonna led Nick to his new room. The two sat on the bed and Udonna asked, "Do you want to tell me about your childhood, Bowen?"

"It wasn't much of a childhood," Nick responded.

She sighed and he began, "I think I liked living with you and Leanbow best."

Udonna smiled and pulled Nick into her arms. "Bowen, Leanbow and I never meant for you to be put into foster care—we'd wanted what was best for you," she murmured.

Nick nodded and said, "When I was little, I used to tell my "siblings"—they were sometimes reunited with their parents or their parents would come and visit—that someday, you and Leanbow—or maybe one of you—would come and get me and we'd go home together and I'd have my family again."

Udonna smiled and murmured, "I'm glad you at least had that idea. When I learned you were alive, I planned—after defeating the Darkness—to search for you, using the old pictures and that technology in the human world that lets you see how you look after so much time."

Nick mumbled, "That's not always accurate."

She nodded and said, "But there was also the fact that I knew you were supposed to look like your father, so I would have used one of them for a comparison of the older version of you."

Nick smiled up at her and she stood up. Holding out her hand, she asked, "Don't you have a school project to work on?"

Nick grinned and followed her downstairs. "Mom, will you help me?" he asked.

She smiled and said, "Yes, I'll help you, Bowen."

The two sat at the table and Udonna murmured, "We'll work backwards."

He nodded and starting at the bottom of the page, wrote two names—Bowen and Clare. Under Bowen, he wrote down Nick, drawing an arrow pointing up to show that Nick and Bowen were the same person. Then above that he wrote three more names, Udonna to the left of Bowen and Leanbow on the right, and Niella just right of Udonna's name. Drawing a horizontal line, he connected Udonna and Leanbow's names and then drew a vertical line straight to his name.

"Mom, what about Clare?" he asked, uncertain.

She nodded and whispered, "Include Calindor—only the other rangers will know who he is—but you must swear them to secrecy."

He nodded obediently and soon the two most recent generations were completed. Nick carefully marked down that Calindor was deceased and marked down today's date. Then he glanced at Niella's name and asked, "Mom, when did Auntie Niella die?"

"Twenty years ago," she replied.

"I mean, what was the date?" Nick asked.

Udonna shrugged and said, "We measure more by years than by days, Bowen," she explained. "We didn't keep as careful track—unless it was a birthday."

Nick nodded and marked deceased, twenty years ago, exact date unknown.

Nick and Udonna went back only five generations—to Nick's great-great-grandparents. Each time, as the generations got further from him and Clare, Nick wrote down deceased, the years they had been gone, and exact date unknown.

After they finished, Udonna sent Nick to bed. "But Mom, I still have to do the paper on the family hero…" Nick protested.

"Bowen, you need your rest, now run along and get into bed," Udonna told him. "You can work on your paper tomorrow morning."

Nick nodded and trotted into bed. Udonna carefully tucked the blankets around him and murmured, "Sleep well, Bowen. I love you."

"I love you, too, Mom," Nick mumbled, drifting off to sleep.

Udonna slipped the family tree into Nick's backpack and then crept to her room and slipped into bed, a smile on her face for the first time in years.