Yaay! Chapter 10! I bet none of you even noticed that, huh? First time a story of mine's reached double-digit chapters :D Anyway, I'm proud of myself! Managed to finish this one two days early. Totally not 'cause some of it I'd written before chapter five...

Caboose liked his English teacher. The old man had a slow, steady voice which he found calming. He also let Caboose do what he wanted, which was nice; some teachers kept trying to get him to do stuff he didn't understand. Even with Sheila's help.

Sheila wasn't with him now, though. Instead some other student with a weird voice sat beside him. His voice was called something… What was it? Bobbish? Brotish? Yeah, that sounded right. The Brotish boy was scribbling in his book, some picture Caboose didn't understand.

"What's that?" Caboose nudged his hand, causing the pen to slide across the paper.

"Jesus Christ, seriously? You just stuffed it up." He glared at Caboose for a moment, not seeming to be affected by Caboose's friendly smile. Eventually he went back to trying to fix his drawing.

Huh. Maybe the teacher knew what the Brotish boy was doing. "Principal Miller?"

Mr Miller looked up with an irritated scowl, making his way through the rows of desks. "I'm not the Principal, Caboose. Vic is. Now, can I help you?"

"What's he doing?" Caboose pointed, and the kid blushed, shoving his drawing out of sight.

"Jo-annes, what are you doing?"

Joannes muttered something under his breath which sounded like 'Jones'. "Nothing sir."

"Yeah," Miller grumbled. "You're doing nothing. Get to work."

Joannes muttered an apology and reached for his book. "I thought I hated you enough when you were an asshole." He muttered darkly. He wasn't looking his way, but even Caboose knew who he was talking to.

Why does everyone hate me?

"Hello Theta." Delta muttered, already heading to the cafeteria.

"Hi." Theta followed him closely, chatting on about his class. Out of all his siblings, Theta was closest to the blonde. Omega and Sigma always stuck together, and Gamma hated Theta's childishness.

"Um.. Dee... The cafeteria's that way."

"I have to go to the library. I'll meet you in a bit."

"Aww, come on! You go to the library all the time, what's so urgent that you need to go to the school's shitty one?"

Delta frowned at Theta's language. "I'm just curious about something." Theta noticed some small object in his older brother's hand. "I won't be long."

Theta groaned and gave up, walking towards the cafeteria on his own. "Now I'm being ditched by my brother as well. Great."

Theta wandered over to the cafeteria, which was already filling. The Freelancer table was pretty full; he made an effort to keep away from there. Especially since Epsilon seemed notably happy. Creep.

"North?" The Freelancer in question was sitting alone, head buried beneath arms, at the table where Theta usually sat. He looked up, and Theta's wish to run faded slightly. Even with all the scary stories about gang members and Theta's terror of ending up like Wash, North's expression concerned and him. He looked... empty, and hopeless. It reminded him of Sigma, like she was when she thought no one was looking.

"Uh... Hi."

"A-are you ok?"

North studied Theta. Why would the kid give a fuck? Lie, some corner of his mind told him. He wouldn't care about South; North didn't want Theta's pity anyway. Right? Theta has siblings. He'd understand where York doesn't.

"Fuck it," North mumbled, not loud enough for anyone but himself to hear. In a louder yet unsteady voice, he explained to Theta what had happened. "South's gone missing, a-and she could be hurt, or dead. I don't know where she is, who has her, what they want... I can't help her." The last sentence brought tears to his eyes. The next few moments were spent blind as he tried to hide them. Therefore it was a surprise when small arms wrapped around his torso. Theta was hugging him? What the hell?

"It's not your fault." The kid muttered.

"You're wrong." North wanted to push away; he was surrounded by students, many of whom were looking his way. But he couldn't deny it felt soothing. "It is my fault. I should have volunteered to go on the mission, instead of her."

"But you didn't. Because you didn't know. You couldn't have, no more than you can go back and change it now. You can keep moping here, or you can try and get her back if she is still alive, or find a way to cope if she isn't."

"One, how the hell am I supposed to cope with that, and two, how the fuck do you know all that?" The kid was what? Thirteen?

"You'll find a way. It gets easier quicker than you'd expect." Theta looked at him with somber eyes, and North remembered hearing about how the O'Malleys were orphans, or something along those lines.

"Maine! Hi!" Several thoughts ran through Maine's head as Sigma ran towards him, the foremost being, 'Stop enjoying the fact she noticed you.'

"Uhm... Hello."

"What are you doing?"

"Looking for Wash. I haven't seen him all morning." He didn't tell her how much that worried him.

"He's with Doc and Omega. Come on!" She grabbed his arm gently, leading the huge teenager across the school. Maine grinned at how ridiculous the sight must have been. "So, why do you still call yourself Maine?"

"What?" He still wasn't used to Sigma randomly starting up conversations.

"Well, you left Freelancer, right? So why do you use your codename?"

"Same reason Wash does, I suppose. It stuck."

"Do you like being called Maine? I mean, I could call you something else if you wanted..."

Maine actually had to think about it. No one had ever asked him that. He'd always taken it for granted that that memory of his part in Freelancer would stay forever. Did he like it? "I don't think I mind. It's just a name."

"Oh, ok then Maine." Sigma's smile was infectious, or maybe Maine just loved her smile. "We're here! Hey guys!" Doc returned Sigma's frantic waves, and Wash smiled. He seemed ok, to Maine's relief. Omega, however, didn't let his eyes leave Maine. The ex-Freelancer felt a twinge of fear. Sigma's twin still didn't like him. He seemed worried.

Worried I'll hurt her. Goddam it.

Tucker couldn't focus. No matter how much his teachers yelled at him, he couldn't bring himself to give a shit about the work given to him. It wasn't like he couldn't do it, it just didn't seem important.

He knew about Sister's past coping mechanisms; there had been a month at school when all anyone talked about was the girl who was in hospital for attempted suicide. And while Grif and Sister bickered almost as much as Tex and Church did, she still clearly cared for her brother. Tucker's worry grew as the period went on. By the time it was lunch, he'd already decided what to do.

He didn't bother saying bye to Church; he could text him later if anything came up. Instead he headed straight for his locker, grabbed his bag and walked out of school. Detention wasn't worth shit against his girlfriend's life.

The walk to the Grifs' house was pretty long, but he didn't have any money for a bus and didn't want to wait anyway. As long as he was moving, he could convince himself he was doing something.

When he finally got there -ok, so it was a lot further away than he'd thought- Tucker noticed the lack of a car in the driveway. Had Sister gone out, or was the car still a wreck after the crash? Maybe they couldn't afford to repair it.

"Kai?" The front door was locked. He repeated the name again, louder this time. Please let her be fine please let her be fine please let her be-

"Tucker?"

Oh thank god. Sister was disheveled and sleepy, still in pajamas, but she was ok! "Hey."

"It's one-thirty."

"Yeah. I know."

"You skipped school?"

"Uh... Yes."

Sister gave a weak smile and opened the door. "Come in, I suppose."

Tucker tiptoed in. He was always weirdly nervous whenever he went to Sister's place, as if Grif would barge in suddenly. It didn't help seeing all the pictures of him with Sister, and Simmons...

There were no pictures of their parents. All he'd known about them was from Sister, and all she'd told him was her mother had joined the circus as both a bearded and fat lady.

"So... how are you doing?"

Sister shrugged. "I'm not the best. But... I'm coping."

Tucker could always tell when she was lying. He reminded her of this fact by crossing his arms and giving her a stern look.

"Ok, so maybe I could be better."

"Let me see your arms." Sister sighed, and Tucker feared the worst. Two shaky lines crossed her left arm, just below the wrist.

"I'm sorry, ok? It's just... I can't believe he could be gone."

Tucker stared at those two little lines. They didn't look that bad, but then again, that's how all this started. A few little lines would eventually turn into Sister in the hospital, or dead. "I'm not going to leave you until all this is over," he promised, hugging her tightly.

"Doc?"

Doc looked up, confusion touching his expression at Omega's look of worry. "What is it?"

"Look out for Maine."

"Why?"

Omega frowned. He seemed unable to look up. "He and Sigma are getting really close."

"Maine adores her! She's so friendly and happy around him. Usually everyone's afraid-"

"She's not."

"Huh?" Omega sounded annoyed. Doc mentally checked over his words, wondering how he could have offended him.

"She's not happy." He muttered angrily.

"But... I don't get it. What does Maine have to do with this?" Silently he disagreed with Omega. Sigma was the cheeriest person he knew. Second only to Donut, perhaps.

"Maine looks like he could kill someone."

His voice was calm, but Doc thought he was joking. He had to be. What the hell would Sigma have to do with Maine if he could kill someone? "Why... What?" One question stuck. "Who?"

Omega found the courage to look at Doc, black eyes meeting grey-blue. "Our father."

Silence.

"What?" Doc finally managed to whisper. "W-why would Sigma want your father dead?"

Omega looked down again. Doc guessed he hadn't told this story many times. "When our mother died a few years ago, our dad used alcohol to numb his grief. It was almost a month after I first began dating Texas that he started hurting Sigma. My brothers and I... we had no idea. I was with Tex more than not, Delta and Theta stayed in the public library until it closed and Gamma spent as little time at home as he could. Sigma... I think she didn't want us confronting dad and getting hurt ourselves.

"I came home early in the morning once to find Delta yelling at dad. Dee had found Sigma crying on her bed, half-naked with blood..." Omega tried to subtly blink away the liquid pooling over his eyes. "...blood between her thighs."

Doc blinked, aghast. "He... raped her?"

Omega's expression changed from sadness to anger. "I-I could have stopped him! Had I not been with Tex she'd never have to fake her happiness or suffer through nightmares... We got rid of dad soon enough, chased him off with threats of a jail cell to his own. We preferred not to take it to a court; all of us agreed we could take care of ourselves, so long as we could stick together."

"And what about Tex? What happened with her?"

"I had less time for her. Delta and Gamma had to work, so I had to look after Theta and Sigma. None of us wanted to leave her alone. Also... I know it's irrational and stupid, but the small part of me that didn't hate myself blamed Tex. Each time I saw her, I couldn't help thinking 'if it weren't for you, I would have protected Sigma and she'd never have been hurt.'"

Doc had nothing to comfort Omega with. He himself felt horrible; how had he missed all that? He'd thought Sigma was the second happiest person he knew...

Instead of words, Doc pulled him into a gentle hug. Omega returned the embrace somewhat hesitantly, as was his nature, though he was grateful for the gesture.

"Just watch out for Maine. I don't want him to get dragged into this."

Soooo... Yeah. I have nothing to say, tell me what you think.