AN: If you're still reading this, I owe you a sincere and immediate "Thank You!" as much for your support of this story as for your dedication when it came to reviewing. It's strange, trying to get back into the mindset of me-from-nine-months-ago and me-from-three-years-ago, but I promise you, this story will be finished (relatively) soon, and in the next few chapters the action will be building up. Now, here we go, and let's hope we won't ever again need one of these long "I'm-back-and-I'm-sorry" author notes.

There's this train of thought that says that you'll act in a manner that is imposed upon you by others. So if people tell you that you're smart, then you'll act smart, until eventually you really are smart.

I didn't know if that was true or not, but I had decided to believe in it. And maybe, just maybe, if I acted enough like a leader, then I could become one.

"So." I paced very carefully throughout the barn, weaving between cages as I practiced what I would say. "We've got a mission, guys. And I know that we can do it if we all just work hard and do what we're supposed to. So, let's go out tomorrow and do what we need to do. Okay?"

"Cassie, who are you talking to?" I spun around to see my mom standing at the door of the barn, an amused smile on her face.

"I'm rehearsing lines for this play we're doing in English class," I told her easily. I hated how easily I could lie to her, but that didn't stop me from taking advantage of it.

"Oh," She said. She stood at the door, looking at me, and I stood in the barn, looking at her, and our customary awkwardness settled in. Suddenly, we both began speaking at the same moment.

"Cassie, I think we need to-"

"Look, Mom, I really don't have time to-"

Both of us stopped. "You first," She said.

I knew exactly what she was going to say. She was going to ask if we could talk, if we could sit down and work through this huge wall between us so that we could go back to how we used to be.

And it made me feel horrible, but I didn't want to work through it. I didn't want to have to deal with all the things that were preventing us from talking to each other. I wanted to just focus on the one big thing that was coming closer with each second: The Sharing's concert tomorrow.

"Mom, I really can't talk right now. Rachel's about to come over, and we have some pre-cal problems to work on that are going to take awhile. Maybe, uh, tomorrow?"

She frowned. She knew as well as I did that I wasn't going to be home tomorrow. She knew that this was my way of avoiding it. "Sure, Cassie, that'd be…fine." She turned to walk back into the house, and then stopped and faced me once more. "Did you say that Rachel was coming over?"

I nodded, hoping that she wouldn't want to stay around and talk with her. "Yeah, she is."

"It's been awhile since she's come over, hasn't it? Did you two have a disagreement or something?"

The understatement of the century.

"Sort of." She waited around after I spoke, as if expecting me to elaborate. But what more could I say?

"Oh," She said, once she realized that I was done speaking. "Oh, well, I think I hear the phone ringing. Let me go pick it up."

The phone wasn't ringing, and we both knew it. I winced as she left and the door swung shut behind her. Why did it feel like in order for one part of my life to start straightening out, another part had to be disintegrating?

(Harsh,) I heard a voice say in my head. I sighed and glared at Tobias, who was sitting in his usual spot in the rafters. (Sorry,) He said sheepishly.

"Yeah, well…." I said, and rubbed my forehead tiredly. "Everything will work out when this stupid concert is done with."

(Okay,) Tobias said doubtfully. I knew what he was implying. There was no way that all the discarded pieces of my life would fall right back into place without any effort on my part.

"Oh, Tobias!" I suddenly remembered. "Rachel's coming!"

(What?)

"I talked to her yesterday in school. I'm sorry, I forgot about it until right now. But she's coming back."

(What do you mean, 'coming back'?)

"She's joining us. She's going to fight with us."

"Who's going to fight with us?" Rachel asked as she entered the barn. You know how some people just enter and it's as if the entire mood of the room has changed? That was what it was like. Both Tobias and I turned to stare at Rachel, who stood in the barn with her hands propped on her hips, looking like a model.

"Uh…you. We're the us," I said stupidly.

But Rachel furrowed her brow. "We?"

And then I felt like double the idiot, because of course she didn't know who "we" and "us" were. "Um-"

But I didn't have to say anything, because Rachel's eyes swept up to the rafters, where they locked on Tobias.

"Oh," She said.

Uh-oh. I hadn't thought about Rachel and Tobias in terms of Rachel and Tobias at all. I hadn't even considered that things might be uncomfortable when the two spoke to each other again. I remembered my supposed position as a "leader" and opened my mouth to say something about how we should set aside our personal problems and focus on the task ahead of us, but I couldn't. I felt like a kid pretending to be one of the big-time bosses of corporations on television.

Tobias swooped down from the rafters and landed on the floor of the barn, where he rapidly began morphing to human.

I stepped back and decided that I would let the two of them work things out by themselves. Mainly because I had no idea what to do.

When Tobias was completely human, Rachel took a step towards him. Her eyes regarded him coolly, but her voice betrayed her when she spoke. "Tobias."

"Rachel."

There was a long moment of tense quietness in the barn, where I felt like something had just happened and it had gone completely over my head.

"You didn't-"

"Because you wouldn't-"

And suddenly I got the uncomfortable feeling that maybe I shouldn't be here for this. And yet, there was no way for me to leave without it causing an unnecessary disturbance. Besides, where would I go? Back to the house, so I could be uneasy with my mom?

"I can't help it if I care."

"You know it has to be like thi-"

"It doesn't have to be, Tobias; that's the point!"

"It does."

They were stepping closer to one another, and Rachel's eyes weren't nearly as chilled as they had been before. I glanced up at the ceiling, at the floor, at the wall, at the animal's cages, anywhere but at the two people in front of me.

Tobias' voice dropped, but it was still loud enough for me to hear it. "I can't do that."

I crossed and uncrossed my arms. Played with my necklace, brushed imaginary dirt off my clothes.

And Rachel said, very quietly, "I know." And then, so quietly that I wasn't sure if I heard it or not, "I'm sorry."

I knew what was going to come next, and even if it made me look like a loser who got embarrassed far too easily, I had to let them know that I was still there. I cleared my throat. "Uh, guys?"

That seemed to snap them out of their trance. Tobias turned around to face me, and Rachel switched her gaze from him to me. They looked at me expectantly, and I blanched as I realized that I had nothing to say.

"Just…yeah," I muttered, casting my eyes downward and still feeling stupid.

Rachel raised an eyebrow at me, but she turned back to Tobias and pushed him affectionately. "That still didn't mean that you had to stop coming by."

Tobias' face was as blank as it usually was when he was in human morph, but his voice sounded guilty. "I didn't know if you were mad at me."

"I was," Rachel told him point-blank. But then she grinned. "Wimp." But there was no menace in her voice as she smiled at him, and he returned it warmly.

I cleared my throat again, but this time I did have something to say. "So, the mission."

Rachel perked up. "You have no idea how much I've missed hearing someone say that."

I grinned at her. "Maybe we have some idea."

She looked back at me, understanding and her typical Rachel-smile on her face. "So what's the deal?"

"Okay," I began. Tobias and Rachel trained their eyes on me. "So the concert's tomorrow. According to Erek, the Yeerks are definitely going to be trying some sort of infestation thing there. He doesn't know exactly what and where, but as soon as he figures it out, he'll let us know."

"When will that be?" Rachel asked. Tobias only nodded; he already knew what the plan was.

"At the concert. Preferably towards the beginning. That's where we're all going to meet, too." I made eye contact with both of them, and then continued. "As soon as Erek finds out, he'll find a way to tell you and Tobias. You two will be with each other, at least in the beginning. Tobias will thought-speak the location and logistics to me, and we'll all meet in the back of the school. Erek should be leaving the door open. We'll figure out the rest there."

"And by "figure out" you mean…"

"Distraction," Tobias answered for me. "Distract and infiltrate."

Rachel laughed. "Okay. I can go for that." She glanced between the two of us. "When did you guys figure all of this out?"

I shrugged. "We've had a little bit of time."

"It was mostly Cassie," Tobias interjected. "I just helped with some of the details."

Rachel gave me an approving look before pointing out, "Would have been hard to pull off with just the two of you."

I shrugged again. "We were going to go with luck."

"Lots of luck," Tobias added.

I nodded. I was just glad that Rachel hadn't thought to ask about why I wouldn't be with her and Tobias. I didn't feel like bringing up Austin. Tobias seemed to have picked up on my reluctance to talk about him, because I noticed that he hadn't mentioned Austin's name either.

"What we really need to focus on now," Rachel said, eyeing my overalls, "is what you're going to wear to the concert. I'm thinking lots of black, and maybe-"

"Hey, Rachel?" I blurted out, interrupting her. "I'm glad you're back."

She didn't say anything, just grinned at me. And it was true; things felt just better with Rachel around. We weren't a full group, but we were more like one than before. And I felt good—maybe it was Rachel's always-present confidence, or maybe it was the way that she and Tobias would share glances when they thought I wasn't looking, or maybe just the happiness I felt at not being the only one up against The Sharing. I didn't know what it was, but something made me feel like maybe, just maybe, I could do this thing. We could do this thing.

"Rachel," I asked, unable to keep the ridiculous grin off my face. "Would you care to do the honors?"

Her eyes lit up, and Tobias smiled. She looked at both Tobias and me, savoring the moment, and then there was that reckless tone that I had missed so much. "Let's do it."