Chapter 13: Family Reunion

I Don't Own Ben 10 Or Any Of The Characters

Author's Note:

* Hello and welcome to chapter thirteen! In this chapter, among other things, we will see the aftermath of learning about Kirby Tennyson's heritage.

* There will be quite a few interesting developments in the coming chapters, so I hope all you readers stick around for that. Anyway, on with the chapter!

Kirby Tennyson

I stared at the screen in shock. The results were there, so there was no arguing about it. I now knew that my parents were alive. And not only that, but they were in the room with me.

The legendary Ben Tennyson is my Dad?! And the General of the Resistance is my Mom?! This is so unbelievable! This is amazing!

I walked over to them.

"Dad?" I asked in a shaky voice, as I looked up at him.

He stared down at me with bewildered eyes.

"Mom?" I asked, looking up at her.

There were tears running down her cheeks and I'm not sure if that was good or bad. Not being able to handle it anymore, I hugged myself against my long, lost mother. Eventually, I felt Dad's hands gently pat my back.

It was only after that, that I felt Mom's hand lovingly tousle my hair.

So that's what it feels like. That's what a mother's loving touch feels like. The touch I never knew...

I began to tear up myself. I believed that I was crying tears of joy.

I found my parents! I have parents! The quest is over!

Ben Tennyson

Kirby hugged himself against Gwen and I. Our son. Our son. And we - no, not we - Gwen abandoned him. She left him without a mother for ten years of his life. I could hear him lightly crying into Gwen's shirt.

Were those tears of joy? I could only hope. I looked up at Gwen, who returned my gaze. She didn't look mad like she usually did. She looked sad. I think she was getting the revelation as well, that she had abandoned her child. And even if I wasn't around, she was beginning to regret it.

I opened my mouth to say something, but she shook her head.

No, she mouthed to me. Don't talk.

Just then, the door to the lab opened and Kenny walked in. He saw the results on the screen and we could see him visually grimace. He looked at us, before running out of the room.

Gwen took notice of this. She gently pushed Kirby away from her and put his hand in mine.

"Kirby, dear, stay here with your father, please." she said, practically cringing as she said that. "I have to go see what has Kenny so worked up."

And with that, she ran out of the room, without even being with her child for more than two minutes.

Some family reunion.

Kenny Tennyson

I ran down the hall, away from the lab, ashamed of what Mother had done. I heard a door open down the hallway. I heard the quick footsteps of Mother coming towards me. I turned around to face her.

"Kenny-" she began, but I interrupted her.

"You're a monster, you know that?!" I exclaimed.

"Excuse me?" she asked, with an offended look in her eyes.

"You, you-" I said, as I pointed my finger at her. "You abandoned that child! You robbed him of his entire childhood with a family! He knows no such thing!"

"I gave him up! I couldn't raise him without your father!" she exclaimed. "I couldn't raise him by myself! I gave him away so he could find a family one day! I did it for him!"

"Like hell you did, Mother! You abandoned that child!" I said. "You could have kept him and things would have worked without Dad! It could have worked!"

"Did you honestly want me to raise that child in this new world?" Mother exclaimed. "To live a short and cruel life?!"

"How can you even think like that?!" I exclaimed back at her. "You could have easily raised him. You have to raise him with Dad now! Is there really a difference?! We're so close to to beating the Vilgaxian Order! You could have done it! I'm done talking."

I turned and began to walk away.

"Did you talk with Kai and Kevin about what happened to Devlin?" Mother called as I walked away.

I whirled around to face her, crying angry tears.

"Don't! Don't even! Just abandon this conversation! It's what your best at!" I said, as I turned around and stormed down the hall. "And I thought the Vilgaxians were monsters."

Azrael/Jenny Tennyson

I walked onto the Command Deck, which it's windows overlooked Earth. Everyone's heads followed me, looking at me, and my new haircut that I had done myself.

"Good morning, Ma'am." one of the Junior Officers replied, as he looked up from his console.

"Mmm-hmm, back to work." I said, as I stepped up to the Command Deck's giant window.

"Ready to rain fire on the Resistance Base below us, Ma'am!" another Officer exclaimed.

"No, hold your fire. We must allow our agent more time to detect potential weak spots in their base." I said. "We shall not fire the Laser unless we really have to."

"Aye, Ma'am." the Officer said.

With that, everyone went back to work, and I remained at my place, looking out the large window.

Ben

Gwen and I sat in her quarters with Kirby, sprawled out on the couch asleep, with his head in Gwen's lap. She had her hand gently rubbing the top of Kirby's head. Her eyes were red from crying.

"I can't believe it. He was my own son the whole time and I didn't know." I said in a hushed voice. "How did I not know?"

Gwen shot me a look, but said nothing.

"Does this mean anything, Gwen? Are you still going to consider kicking me out?" I asked. "Now that you've found out that this boy is our son?"

She said nothing, but continued to gently stroke Kirby's head.

"Gwen, look at me! The child, Kirby, needs to know what a healthy family is like!" I whispered. "Don't divorce me! Let's stay married! If not for me, do it for Kirby! He deserves to know what being in a happy family is like!"

Gwen just looked at me, saying nothing.

"Give me a sign, Gwen! I know we can make this work!" I whispered. "We can make our marriage healthy again. I was absent when he was born, but I am here now! And I'm willing to help you! Jeez, I don't even know how Kirby came to be, but I don't care! Let's make this work!"

She finally spoke.

"That night that Jenny ran away and found Vilgax, we made love. The next morning, I woke up and you were gone." she said, looking up at me. "A one night stand is the only reason that this child exists. Isn't that crazy?"

I looked down at my feet.

"If I could go back and make myself stay, and help you raise the child, I would." I said.

"Well, it's too late for that now." Gwen said.

"Gwen, for the sake of Kirby's eventual growing up, we can't fight anymore. You can't scream at me and I can't bring our past up." I said. "If just for him, we have to act as if we're happily married."

Gwen began to sob lightly again.

"You're right. I'm sorry!" she said, as she cried silently. "If this child is the key to healing our relationship, then I'll be willing to give our relationship another try, if you will see it through. If you'll stay."

"Gwen, I'm here now and I'm not going anywhere." I said. "I love you Gwen, and nothing will ever change that."

An Hour or Two Later

Kirby was asleep on the couch now. Gwen had gently lifted his head to place a pillow underneath there and now was draping a blanket on him. I was tapping my foot, my couch being taken now.

"Well, I guess I'll go find the quarters that you assigned me." I said, as I turned around, facing the door.

I reached out to touch the pad which opened and closed the doors, but Gwen gently put her hand on my shoulder and surprised me.

"Stay. Stay and hold me. Please?" she asked.

I wasn't going to pass up a chance to hug my wife again. I turned around and hugged her and to my relief, she returned the hug. After a while she pulled away and moved to her bed, pulling back the covers and getting in.

"Well, I guess I'll be going then." I said.

"Come lay with me." she said, ignoring what I had just said.

My heart skipped a beat when she said that. I slowly and awkwardly moved to her bed and got in on the other side. We didn't say anything to each other. She snuggled up against me and eventually fell asleep. Before falling asleep myself, I realized that things can always be like this.

Me abandoning my family? Never again, never again.

Author's Note:

* And that's it for yet another chapter! So, what did everyone think?

* Does it seem justified for Kenny to be mad at his mother for abandoning Kirby after he was born? If I had said in the last chapter that we'd see some development for Tomyx in this chapter, that has been moved to the next chapter. I wanted to fully dedicate this chapter to the Tennyson's reaction in finding out where Kirby came from.

* Over to the Vilgaxian Order side of things, Jenny is going to wait for Tomyx to find weak spots in the Resistance's home base. And that once again begs the question, which faction do you think Tomyx will side with?

* You guys think about that, I got nothing else, so I'm going to go. So have a fantastic day and, bye.