Author's Note: So this chapter's a little shorter than usual for me, but that's the trade-off for updating so soon after the last one. Thanks again my lovely and talented beta Not Just A Nerd for her assistance in keeping everyone in-character. If you're one of those readers who's just started to get into Jalex, you really owe it to yourself to read her stuff. She's been writing for the pairing a lot longer than I have, and her stories are awesome.

Hopefully this update satisfies everyone who felt there wasn't quite enough forward momentum in the last one. Some of the seeds that I sowed as far back as Chapter 1 (and especially in Chapter 5) are finally starting to bear fruit, here. That final turn I promised last time? It's coming up pretty quick, folks!

Thank you as always for all your kind reviews, favorites and alerts. Or for just plain reading, period. I really appreciate it!

OK, that's enough preamble from me. On with the show...

xxvi

So it turns out that mentioning off-hand to the school principal during fifth period that she almost didn't bother to come in at all? Yeah, not the best choice Alex could have made. Particularly not on the same day that she's skipped out on her History presentation, which apparently is worth thirty percent of her grade for the semester. (Seriously, like half! Who knew?) Laritate calls her parents at home that night—right in the middle of wrestling, naturally which only makes things worse. One short, very terse phone conversation later, Alex finds herself staring down the business end of two very cheesed-off and slightly bloodthirsty lucha fans who've just missed the best match of the night.

Dad, true to form, gives her his patented "we're not angry, we're disappointed" speech, which is somewhat undermined by Mom interrupting him every few minutes to yell at her, mostly in Spanish. At least Alex has the presence of mind not to point out that she can't understand, lest she get crapped on for failing Spanish, too.

"Mister Laritate says that you told him you have some new hobby that's been keeping you up at night," Jerry adds, once he can get a word in edgewise. "So much so that you've been falling asleep in class."

"He what?" Theresa snaps, then spins around to glare at Alex. "You're what?"

"Ugh." Alex hangs her head and silently vows to strangle Laritate with his own bolo tie the next time she sees him.

"He also says," Jerry continues, more to Theresa than to Alex, "that she's been painting the same picture over and over again in art class. Of a wolf, howling at the moon. Like she's fixated on it, or something. He thought she was over it, but apparently she's just started again."

"I have not started again!" Alex says, her chin coming up sharply. "I told him, I'm just drawing something familiar while I figure out how to use that stupid tablet Justin bought me for Christmas! Besides, those stupid paintings don't mean anything! It was just an artistic phase, that's all. Look, if Da Vinci can have a Blue period—"

"Alex," Jerry cuts her off sternly, before his eyes soften a little at the edges. "C'mon, level with us. What's going on?"

"Nothing!" Alex lies. Because, seriously, if they think they're disappointed-not-angry now, it's nothing compared to how much they'll completely lose their shit if they ever do find out what her new "hobby" is. Not to mention who it revolves around.

As if on cue Theresa crosses her arms over her chest and tilts her head to one side, her eyes flaring.

"Do you think we're stupid, young lady? Do you really think we don't already know exactly what's going on? This isn't the first time we've gotten a call like this!"

"Honey, wait..." Jerry says, glancing at his wife with a warning look in his eyes. "I think I know what you're gonna say, and I'm not sure we should be—"

"You're not sure?" Theresa says, staring at him incredulously. "Jerry, this is exactly what Justin warned us might happen! We have to put a stop to this before she does something stupid!"

Alex feels the bottom drop out of her stomach, even as her heart leaps up into her throat. A thousand panicked thoughts crowd into her head all at once, jostling each other for her attention. And it's a clear measure of the company she's been keeping lately that the only one she can pick out clearly is "I've got a baaaaaaaad feeling about this..."

"Theresa...let's calm down and give Alex a chance to explain herself," Jerry says, patting the air with both hands. "We shouldn't just leap to the conclusion that that's what this is all about."

"What are you, blind? Of course that's what this is all about. This is exactly how Justin was last year!"

"HEY!" Alex reaches between then and snaps her fingers, drawing their attention back to her. "Remember me? The daughter you're disappointed-not-angry at? You wanna tell me what the hell's going on? What was it Justin warned you about?"

Jerry and Theresa exchange glances, silently continuing their argument for a moment longer, before Theresa takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly.

"Justin told your father that he was worried you were going to become obsessed with the idea of getting Mason back," she says, sounding oddly calm, "and that you might do something really reckless and dangerous to make it happen."

Alex blinks so hard in surprise that she can feel it in the back of her brain. The wave of relief that runs through her is so palpable that she actually goes weak at the knees, forcing her to plop down on the orange loveseat behind her to keep from collapsing to the floor in a heap.

"Ohmigod, Mason?" Alex laughs, aware that it comes out sounding more than a little manic. "That's what you think this is about?"

"Uh, yeah," Jerry says, glancing from her to Theresa and back, as though he's missing something. "The whole wolf motif was kind of a tell, see? And Mister Laritate did say that, in your last painting, you had somebody hiding behind the wolf with a net..."

"Oh, for the love of..." Alex giggles, sliding one hand over her face, and shakes her head. Sweet zombie Jesus, it's like a bad episode of How I Met Your Mother.

"We got a very similar call from Mister Laritate about this same time last year, but about Justin," Theresa sighs. "It turned out he was falling asleep in class, or skipping school altogether, because he was spending all his time hunting down that mummy who'd kidnapped Juliet."

"And look how that turned out," Jerry adds somberly. "And as awful as what happened to Juliet and Mason was, you kids actually got off lucky. That mummy could have wound up enslaving all of you...or even worse."

"Wait, wait, wait, stop," Alex says, waving one hand, still reeling from the giddiness of how incredibly off they are. "Justin told you I was going to flip my shi—um, lid—and go after Mason? When was this? And what the hell gave him that idea?"

Theresa looks at Jerry, holds up both hands and leans back. "OK, this part is all you. I seriously don't get all your hocus pocus malarky."

"It's not—!" Jerry breaks off with a grunt of annoyance, then takes a breath and starts again. "Justin came to me about two weeks ago and said he'd had a spontanous premonition...uh, that is, a vision of the future that came out of nowhere."

Ignoring, for a moment, the fact that he clearly feels the need to dumb down his explanation for her benefit, Alex slides her hand off her face, and cocks an eyebrow at her father. "A vision of the future. Out of nowhere. Really."

"It can happen sometimes, particularly to really powerful wizards. Um, no offense."

Alex narrows her eyes at him, but resists the urge to point out—again—that, for all his stupid power and potential, Justin wasn't the one to win the competition the first time around. If only because Mom and Dad don't exactly remember it.

"And did he say exactly what this stupid, reckless thing I'm supposed to do is?" she asks instead.

"Actually, no," Jerry replies. "I asked, but he said it was all really vague. Just a really strong sense that you were going to do something crazy and impulsive to bring Mason back."

"And put the entire family in danger doing it," Theresa says pointedly.

"But that's ridculous!" Alex blurts out as she jumps back up to her feet. "Mason was turned into a wolf for all eternity! Dad, you said yourself that there's no way to turn a werewolf back after he's been bitten by a vampire!"

"Nothing that's ever been tried has worked," Jerry nods. "It's what hasn't been tried that worries me, when it comes to you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"That you constantly do things other that people can't, or won't, because you seem to think that life's rules don't apply to you," Theresa says softly, placing her hands on Alex's shoulders. "And as much as I admire your strength and your courage, mija, they scare la mierda out of me, sometimes. "

"Mom..." Alex groans, smiling despite herself at her mother's tendency to say all the really fun parts of a sentence in her native tongue.

"Hey, don't 'mom' me," Theresa says. "Are you honestly telling me that if you found out a way to get Mason back, no matter how crazy or farfetched it sounded, that you wouldn't be out that door the second you heard about it?"

"Please, she wouldn't even bother to use the door!" Jerry points out.

"Mom...Dad..." Alex sighs. "Look, six months ago? Yeah, totally! If I'd heard so much as a rumor that there was a way to find Mason and turn him back, I would've flashed my butt out of here faster than Mom can swear en Español!"

Theresa snorts, but narrows her eyes at Alex. "And what about now?"

Alex takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly, then shakes her head.

"That's not what I want anymore," she says. "I mean, I'd wanna help him out, sure. I wouldn't want him to have to spend the rest of his life as a wolf if he didn't have to. But I wouldn't be doing it for me, because I wanted him back. I'm...over that, now. OK? So you don't have to worry."

(And yeah, so that's totally a lie. At least the part about them not having to worry about it, anyway. And maybe she feels the tiniest, uncharacteristic pang of guilt about it. Because, hi, if they had any idea why she didn't want Mason anymore—and who she now kinda, sorta wanted instead—they might wish she had gone and done whatever stupid thing they were afraid of.)

Jerry and Theresa share a long, meaningful look, before Jerry shrugs and Theresa nods at him. And for maybe the first time, Alex realizes that she and Justin aren't the only ones in the house who are capable of their particular brand of nearly-telepathic, non-verbal communication.

"OK, mija, we believe you," Theresa says, giving her a tiny smile, "but you're still grounded."

"What?" Alex shouts. "You're grounding me? For something I haven't even done yet? For something which, we agree, I'll probably never do? Ohmigod, this is so unfair!"

"Actually, no," Jerry says calmly, cutting her off in mid-tantrum. "What we are, in fact, grounding you for is cutting school, skipping out on your History presentation, and falling asleep in class."

"Ohhhhhh, right," says Alex, with a wince. "That stuff."

"Also for failing Spanish again," Theresa adds, elbowing her husband in the ribs and jerking her head at Alex. "Nobody who was passing would've pronounced en Español that badly."

xxvii

Alex stomps angrily up the spiral staircase, two at a time—because so what if the punishment fits the crime, it's still her right as a teenage girl to pout about it, goddammit—and storms down the upstairs hallway. Completely bypassing her own room, she stops instead in front of Justin's door, and literally kicks it in, Alex-proof security wards be damned.

Near the far wall, standing in front of a half-empty bookcase and surrounded by stacks upon stacks of books, Justin and Zeke both yelp and jump about a foot in the air, then turn around to stare at her, white-faced from fright.

"Alex?" Justin says, frowning at her. "What the heck! You nearly scared la mierda out of us!"

Alex glares at him for a second before turning her eyes on Zeke, who actually cringes in response.

"You!" she snaps, then jerks one thumb over her shoulder. "Out!"

"B-but we're right in the middle of alphabetizing J-Man's RPG books!" Zeke protests. "We've been at it for two solid hours, and we only just finished with AD&D!"

"Oh, you want letters? Here's some: IDGAF!" Alex snarls. "Now STFU and GTFO before IKYMFA!"

Zeke opens his mouth to reply, then breaks off and frowns at her, puzzled. "Wait, run that last one by me again?"

"OUT!" Alex howls, taking a threatening step towards him.

"Eep! Later dude!" Zeke squeals, flailing one arm in goodbye to Justin as he cuts a wide berth around Alex—scrambling over Justin's crisply-made bed to do so—and practically hurls himself out the door. Watching after him, Justin heaves a sigh and drops the book in his hand onto the nearest stack.

"Great, thanks Alex. Now I'll have to decide whether to shelve 3rd Edition and 3.5 together or seperately, all on my own. And you just know he'll have an issue with however I do it. What's your problem?"

"Why don't you tell me, Edith Keeler?" Alex growls, crossing her arms under her breasts. "Or should I call you Sam Beckett?"

'I—what? Why would you—?" Justin blinks a few times, then shakes his head sharply. "You know, this may be the first time that you've made a geek reference that I don't understand?"

"It's from your LiveJournal, you idiot!" Alex says, storming forward to poke him in the chest. "That whole thing where you polled your little band of perverts about whether or not to toss Mason in the hoosegow to keep us from dating?"

"Alex, shhhh!" Grimacing at her, Justin hurries over and shuts his bedroom door. "Zeke's probably still within earshot, and Mom and Dad are right downstairs! What's the matter with you?"

"The matter? You wanna know what's the matter?" Alex asks, furious. "I just got my ass grounded, for God only knows how long, because you told Dad two weeks ago that I was gonna go off and do something stupid to get Mason back someday!"

Justin blinks at this, and at least has the good grace to look chagrined. "Oh..."

"Yeah, 'oh'!" Alex growls. "What the hell, Justin? First of all, we agreed over a year ago not to tell Mom and Dad about the books, so Future Harper didn't get in shit from the Wizards' Council!'

"I didn't tell them about the books...exactly," Justin begins, "I just—"

"And second," Alex cuts him off, "who the hell do you think you are, anyway? You don't get to decide my future for me, egghead! Only I'm allowed to mess it up! Got it?"

"Says the girl who's been putting a duplicate of me through college for the past three years so I won't have to go," Justin says wryly. He holds out his hand to her, as though initiating a handshake. "Nice to meet you, pot. I'm the kettle."

Alex's mouth drops open in shock as she stares at him, wide-eyed. "You know about that?"

Justin drops his hand to his side, and rolls his eyes. "Alex, of course I know about that! It's in the—"

He breaks off and looks to his right, squinting at the shelf where his worn copies of the Charmed and Dangerous books are neatly lined up between a set of Captain Jim Bob Sherwood bookends.

"You still haven't finished Book Six," he says, taking note of the one that's missing before turning back to her with a frown. "You've had it for awhile. Have you even started it yet?"

Alex shrugs noncommitally. "I've been busy."

"You've been putting it off, you mean," Justin snorts.

"Nooooo, I mean I've been busy," Alex repeats. "See, there's this complete dork online, with this pathetic little cyber-crush on me? So distracting. He's been making it impossible for me to get anything else done."

"No I hav—I mean, no he has not!" Justin says. "I happen to know full well that he's been keeping his distance and giving you plenty of space to approach things on your own terms. If anything you're the distracting one, with all your frakking mixed signals..."

"Oh, you wanna talk mixed signals there, dude?" says Alex. She raises the back of her hand to her forehead, and leans back dramatically. "Oh woe is me! I can't possibly change destiny to keep the girl I love from getting her heart broken by her poor, doomed werewolf boyfriend! It would be oh so wrong! Waitasec, she's gonna try to get back with him now that I'm dating her? Well, then fuck destiny! Yoink!"

Justin's frown deepens. "Waitasecond...are you mad at me for trying to mess with your future, or because I didn't try hard enough?"

Alex lets her hand drop and stares at him as though he's speaking another language. "Duh! Yes!"

"But...that...doesn't..." Justin trails off, lets out a frustrated sigh, then shakes his head as he sits down on the edge of his bed.

"OK, for one thing," he says, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees, "and you'd know this if you'd actually bother to read Book Six, that poll had nothing to do with you."

"Oh, bullshit it had nothing to do with me! You put it up right after you posted that fic about you hunting down Mason!"

"Well, yeah...I'm not saying I didn't consider it," Justin admits, "but it wasn't your future I was debating about changing. At least not directly."

"Right," Alex scoffs, placing her hands on her hips. "Now try pulling the other one. It has bells on it."

Justin cocks an eyebrow at her. "What? Bells? What's that supposed to—?"

"I don't know, I think it's a cowboy thing! The point is that I don't believe you, stupid! Whose future were you "directly" trying to change, then? No, lemme guess: Mason's?"

"No," Justin says, very quietly. "Juliet's."