Chapter 32: Exothermic Reactions
Inside the Rustbucket
10 miles outside of Calatrava Pastures, Arizona
11:21 pm; June 16th, 2000
- G - G - G - G - G -
Things were perfect.
They'd been gone for almost three weeks and Gwen still couldn't believe how much she missed this. Everything from the rumble of the Rustbucket all around her as she sat there curled up in the dining booth with its old and taped up upholstery that pinched when she sat on a crack but was so comfortable otherwise, to the smell of her Grandpa's cooking and the soft sound of him singing along to the song on the radio that was beyond ancient as he drove. She'd even missed the ache in her knuckles from the bad guy butt they just finished kicking a few hours ago. It was only the second hero time of this vacation so it wasn't anything like the last two summers, but it was so much more action than they got while they were at home.
Things should have been perfect, but they weren't.
Not with Grandpa sitting upfront, singing away, and trying so hard to act like nothing happened last year. Like he hadn't just left. Like the few times that he came back made up for any of it or that the stories he told them about why were anything more than that.
The beard on his face was proof enough of that lie. That and the new lines around his eyes that it didn't hide and the fact that his hair didn't have any color left in it. It was just white now, and there wasn't anything inside the Rust Bucket or outside that could make her forget that. Not that she could see much, not when the sun had set hours ago. There was just the white lights of the headlights and the red of the taillights of the other vehicles on the road, and even then there hadn't been many since they got off the highway twenty minutes ago. Now there was just the night. A night that she tried to force back as she called mana around her hand so she could see the words that took the world away, even if the pink made the yellowing paper of her journal look funny, but she had to admit that it made the tiny, neat handwriting of the old journal a little easier to read if only she could pay attention.
If only the Doofus on the other side of the table would let her.
- want to be seen, even if they won't take off their masks -
Twelve words. That was all that Gwen managed before she bit her lip and made herself keep staring at the journal. She stared at it even as she felt the table jostle her elbow because Ben couldn't sit still if his life depended on it, not that it mattered. Not when those carefully handwritten lines turned into so many squiggles because she couldn't stop herself from looking over the top of the book to watch him fidget and dance in his seat. His hair was a mess as he wore his new Detroit Rock City shirt and -
And she pulled her knees closer to her chest as her stomach fluttered because he was wearing the shirt she bought him. Not his lucky one, and he had a whole drawer full of those. Sometimes it seemed like the only shirt he owned. And now he wore hers.
And some part, some sick, sad part she didn't even know she had wondered if he'd notice if she borrowed one of his...
Gwen pulled her knees closer at the thought even though the Rustbucket was so hot. Hot enough that she never should have worn her jeans today, hot enough that she almost ran for the thermostat again because she was getting sweaty and gross even though the air conditioner was running right for a change. But that would have meant putting the journal down, and every time she did that…
Ben was right there and it wasn't fair. He was so close like he'd been for days now when she woke up, and when they went to museums or parks or whatever crazy thing Grandpa found this time, and when she went to sleep, and when she couldn't. When she laid in her bunk and just listened to him snore because...
Because he'd barely said a word to her in days. He never sat still, but he was never quiet either, and him staying quiet made everything else he did so much louder. Every noise. Even the soft hum he made that went along with Grandpa's singing made her squeeze the book in her hand because if she didn't she would have screamed. Screamed and ran for the back and the thin curtain that would let her pretend, that would let her grab the cellphone she felt pressing into her hip even though it was so late and Michelle was asleep because she couldn't take this!
Not that hearing her best friend's voice would be any better. Not when she just wanted to know everything and got so strange when Gwen admitted that there wasn't anything to tell. Not yet. And not when her last message was still flashing in its little instant message box on her laptop screen after she'd hung up because she couldn't take the questions any more. Fine! Be like that! ( : - P) But it's been weeks and if you don't tell him soon I will, you crazy thing!
And that wasn't even what made her slam the thing shut and run out here to begin with. No, that was all the tabs she had open in her browser under it from all the websites she never looked at before and couldn't stop tearing through now; The Top 10 Most Romantic Spots in America, How to Say Those Three Little Words, How to Make the Night Magical and more, so many more. All the ways that would make telling him as perfect as they deserved. As he deserved.
She'd read enough to figure out that she couldn't do this!
None of it made any sense. Not what she found online or what Michelle told her when they were dress shopping and it all seemed so easy. She couldn't picture Ben doing anything but laughing if she took any of the advice she'd found, so she grabbed up the only thing that did after she slammed her laptop shut on Michelle's message and did the only thing none of the bad guys ever managed to make them do.
She ran.
Not that there was anywhere to run to now. Not when her whole world was this rusty old RV. She was just glad that she'd grabbed a book on the way. The only one that made sense and she'd read them all. She'd even stayed up all night once with a dictionary just trying to find the word that described how the Doofus fit into her life. There were so many that came close, but none exactly worked. Doofus was the first on one list, of course, followed by annoyance, exasperation, freak, slacker, pest, cousin. They all came so close, just like hero and friend and inspiration.
And family.
She found other words in the book, words that made her blush to think about, but there wasn't any way that she was ever going to write any of them down anywhere because that was exactly what her mom would find if she ever came snooping, but they didn't fit either.
And then there was the other word. The one that made her heart race even though it couldn't be. Not yet. It was too soon.
But that didn't stop her from spending a good hour looking at it. She was only twelve and for all she knew, this could all be gone tomorrow with a change of hormones. She'd seen it often enough in school. Kids who were strangers, and then all over each other, and then strangers again like Marie and Julio.
But if it was hormones...
The old psychology textbook she found while they were moving the library back said it was. It made so much sense in so many other places and almost as much sense as the journal she was clutching at now - but it didn't feel like hormones. She hoped it wasn't.
But she didn't know how the scruffy boy across from her felt and that was...
She didn't know what she'd do if that word worked for her but he didn't feel the same, or if she was making a mistake, or if she rushed things and didn't make everything perfect before she told him...
"Michelle doesn't know what she's talking about."
The words weren't even a whisper as Gwen clung to different ones that did. The ones that filled the journal in her hands and made so much sense that she'd give anything if she could just talk to the woman who wrote it even if it was just for five minutes. Even if it was just so she could get yelled at for how she was squeezing it so tight that her fingernails were digging into the old leather cover even before she dropped into the booth and pulled it open.
Michelle didn't know what she was talking about. She had plenty of time. She had all summer because her Doofus wasn't going anywhere.
She had a whole nine more weeks just like tonight and just thinking that made her kick her foot - kick it until she realized she was following the same beat her Doofus was as he played his game again - and as she glared at the squiggles on the page until they made sense again because she was a sorceress and a genius and awesome.
- want to know that someone saw them -
Seven words this time. Seven words before she jumped at a beep that cut through all the noise from the other side of the table. One that made even Ben freeze for a whole second. Then that one beep was followed by a rush of others, a rush that stopped when he shouted, "YES!"
Gwen forgot all about the words and her self control as she looked over the top of the book as her Doofus's fist pumped the air and hovered over his seat like he always did when they got to the top of the first hill on a roller coaster, his face glowing and it was only a little because of the green light that was pouring out of the Omnitrix's dial now as he stared at it.
Green, not yellow, and she knew what that meant.
"You got him?" Gwen asked, and she tried as hard as she could to sound bored, but she couldn't. Not when she saw his grin as he nodded so hard the mess of his hair fell into his eyes - and her heart skipped a beat as she watched him push it back out - but it didn't stop her from teasing, "I never knew you wanted to be a porcupine rat so bad, Doofus. You don't need the Watch for that. We could get you a hair gel that will - "
"Not him!" Ben scoffed as he shot a look at her, and for a second she couldn't breathe. "The big guy! The humungousaur!"
"Humungasaur?" She tasted the name even as she hid a sigh of belief because now she'd never wake up and see an alien that looked like a huge rat - and a greasy one at that - looming over her just so she'd scream because her cousin was a jerk. Not that the feeling lasted long, not when she remembered just how terrifying the huge orange scaled alien was as it knocked Fourarms clear across the street and almost did worse than that before she blasted it with her best spell…
And he looked even bigger after that as he chased her through a whole supermarket, his fists and tail destroying whole aisles until Ben was back and his four arms saved her butt. Not that she'd tell him that. Not if it meant she was just the sidekick again. So she leaned back and drawled, "Humungousaur? Really?"
"You saw that guy! He was huge! And a dinosaur! What works better?"
"Gigantarex," Gwen said the first name that came to mind just for the look on his face as she hugged her journal close. Close enough that it hid her grin as Ben blinked at that, and she saw him sound it out before he shook his head. God, what was wrong with her? "Nah. That's pretty good, but Humungasaur is better." The words barely got out of his mouth before he was on his feet and running for the front even though Grandpa was right there and must have heard everything. "I'm gonna ask Grandpa if we can stop somewhere so we can try him out!"
"Doofus," Gwen whispered into her book as she watched him go and wished she could stop smiling.
She half-listened to the voices that filled the RV after, Grandpa's booming like his laugh and Ben's didn't- not yet, some little voice said - and watched as his hands started flying. Watched until her eyes drifted down his back, lower than any cousin's gaze should go and when she realized what she was staring at…
Her face burned as she pulled the journal up and hid behind it again even as another memory filled her head. One that was filled with her best friend's teasing laugh and a whisper in her ear. 'Well, he does have a cute butt!'
"Hate you," Gwen grumbled as her face burned just like it had during that drive home from the movies because it was true. She grumbled and then groaned as her stomach filled with little stinkflies again. The feeling made her squirm as she curled up around the tingles of them and stared at the journal that was her safe space. Her eyes danced over the page as she tried to find her spot again before she gave up and just dove into the words that she could always hide in.
- Spaceman never played fair. Not from the first moment I saw him at that block party -
Sixteen words. She read a whole sixteen words before the world came crashing back as her Doofus collapsed back into the booth right next to her and the sudden jolt almost made her scream. The jolt and the fact that he was right there, close enough to touch - Close enough to kiss - and so close that it took her forever before she even realized that he was talking. " - said we can try the new guy out tomorrow."
"Well, Duh! We're already late, Ben," She laughed at the groan in his voice. She couldn't help it. She never could, but it never sounded as ragged as it did right then as she hugged her book close with both hands because she didn't trust herself not to do something stupid and ruin everything she had planned.
Especially when he shot her a look with those forest green eyes of his and it was all she could do not to bite her lip. "Easy for you to say. He doesn't care if you spend all night working on your magic with that stupid book."
"I'm - " Gwen started as she felt her hands get clammy because she wasn't and she should have been. Their summers were made for magic and this was so much better than sneaking into the park after dark so she could practice. But she needed focus so she could, and he kept stealing that away.
Just like he did the book from her hands. "Hey!" Gwen shouted as he jumped to his feet.
"Nope! Sorry, Dweeb!" Ben said with a smirk that was so wide and so wicked that she almost screamed as he dangled it over her. "If I don't get to go hero neither do you!"
"I wasn't - " Gwen started before she realized she couldn't say what she had been reading and her face flushed. "It's not all about magic, you Doofus!"
"Sure it isn't!" Ben shouted right back as he danced away from her hands as he held the book behind his back.. "I'm not going to let you waste all summer being a nerdalinger!"
"Ben!" Gwen shouted as she lunged and finally pinned him against the kitchen counter so she could reach around him and -
- and he was so close. Close enough that she could feel his chest against hers as she reached around him. Close enough that she could see his mouth drop in a surprised O and the flush start in his cheeks. Close enough that she could… Could…
"That's enough, you two!" Grandpa shouted from the front and Gwen jolted away at the sound of his voice. "Ben, give your cousin back her book."
"He always takes your side," Ben grumbled without heat even as he held the journal out as he turned away so she couldn't see his face.
And Gwen was shocked to realize that she wanted to. She wanted it even more than the book she took back even as she dreaded it because his voice sounded as off now as it had right before they'd gone to dinner back when summer started. Back when he looked so good in his suit and he looked at her like he really did think she was pretty. "Because I'm always right," Gwen said even though it was a lie. One that didn't matter. "And it's not all about magic."
"Sure it isn't." The words were automatic and so him that she couldn't help slipping into the rhythm.
"It isn't and I can prove it!" She said as she grabbed his arm and pulled him back to the booth. The journal was filled with the post-its that she used for bookmarks just so she wouldn't lose them when Ben was being a doofus. Most of them pointed to where the woman who wrote it did talk about magic. Most, but not all and she didn't look at them as she opened the book again and just started reading.
"I wish I could say it was my gift that led me to my Spaceman," Gwen started before her face flushing and she almost turned the page because that wasn't what she wanted to read. Not to out loud and not to him. Not when she heard him snort before she even got started, but that wasn't what made her almost drop the book again.
It was the way the Rustbucket jolted around her. "Grandpa!" she shouted as Ben echoed her, her mind already racing for all the spells she knew as her heart hammered and she spun around and Ben reached for the Watch. She was sure that she'd see a monster looming ahead of them just because it was them and they were on vacation.
But there was only an empty road. "Sorry, you two!" Grandpa said, "Just thought I saw something on the road."
Ben snorted at that as he slumped into the booth across from her and reached for his game again. "Good one, Dweeb," he said, his voice still sounding wrong. "Five seconds in and the Grandma who wrote that almost put Grandpa to sleep."
"She did not!" Gwen snapped. "And she is not!"
"Sure she isn't. She's not a Dweeb either. A spaceman? No wonder you like her so much."
"I'll show you who's a Dweeb, you Doofus," Gwen growled as she glared at him from over the top of her journal at that, her face burning as she did. This was the last thing she wanted to tell him, but it served him right and she wanted to see him squirm for just once this summer.
"I wish I could say it was my gift that led me to my Spaceman, but it wasn't. It was just a hot day and my magic never worked like that…"
- M - M - M - M - M -
Max tried to keep his eyes on the road, but it was a relief when he could finally pull over and turn off the engine because he didn't trust himself. Not when his granddaughter's voice was filling his home as she read all the words he never imagined he'd ever hear again.
" - wasn't the first man who came up to me that day either, but most were happy with a smile and a kind word. That's all most people want, I think, to be seen, even if it is just for their masks, and the ones who aren't…"
Max couldn't help shuddering at that as he leaned back and closed his eyes. Not when he'd seen just what a witch with a temper could do first hand. It was what made him almost warn his grandson that he should keep his mouth shut and turn off his game, but for once the boy was one step ahead of him and the RV went quiet excpet for the sound of Gwen's voice.
Of course, Ben had his own experience with angry witches and he was never stupid. The thought almost forced a smile to Max's lips even as he closed his eyes and just listened with his heart in his throat.
"I thought that he was like that, too, because he wanted so much more than a smile and more than I thought I could give back then, even if it was just my time. I was a heartbeat away from finding the words that would hurt when he did the one thing that no one else ever had, he took off all his masks for me and let me see the real him, and he was…
"He was a soldier and a hippie, and so much more. He had the soul of a knight in shining armor and never even knew it, who didn't believe it even after I told him. And he was the only man who didn't run, who didn't hide or try to hurt me when I took off mine weeks later because he deserved the truth. Who just held me and told me - "
"Told her what, Dear?" A voice that wasn't his granddaughter's asked. The sudden intrusion sent Max's hand flying down to the door and the pistol that was hiding inside before he caught himself because he knew it.
He knew it even before he heard the kids shout, "Aunt Vera!" And it was.
He spun around and saw his sister standing there, framed by the glow of her house behind her through the open side door and a smile he'd seen his whole life on her face as she asked, "Don't mind me, you two. Go on with your story, Gwendolyn. I can't wait to hear what happens next."
But Gwen was already squirming past her cousin on the bench - and Max couldn't help his frown at the sight of it - and rushing towards the woman, the book forgotten on the table. "Aunt Vera? How did you - ?"
His sister's hug took away the rest of her question. So did her laugh. "You three have been parked in front of my house for a good five minutes, not that I can blame you for not noticing. I just wanted to make sure that everything was alright because I expected you hours ago."
"It was," Max said, the words coming easily as he pushed himself up even as his sister tried to pinch the life out of Gwen's cheeks as Ben tried to shy away and the look on both their faces made him laugh. "Sorry that we're late. We just ran into some traffic."
He didn't even think about the words or the little white lie that they were. Not until he saw the smiles vanish from his grandkids' faces. He couldn't see Gwen's face, not after she spun around so she could look at her cousin, but there wasn't any hiding the glare on Ben's. Or the little nod he made as he brushed his hand over the watch and rushed forward. Somehow he moved even faster than Vera as he grabbed his cousin's hand and pulled her free and the two slipped around her for the still open door.
"Ben?" Vera called out, the shock clear on her face. "Where are you going? I barely - "
"Real bathrooms!" the boy called out even as they jumped out onto the lawn and ran for the house.
"It's been a long trip," Max said as the pit in his stomach made him play along. The one only his kids could make.
"I see," Vera said as she pointedly turned her back on the door and the flash of green light that filled the night behind her. One that his sister didn't even glance at as she moved around the booth so she could pick up the book that Gwen had left behind as the RV went so quiet now that they were alone. Quiet enough that Max could count his heartbeats as he watched her flip through the book, her touch so gentle before she closed it and hugged it close so she could kiss the cover. Then she set it back where she found it just as gently before she said, "I'm glad that she's still reading Verdona's journal."
The words were so soft and they hit so hard. "She doesn't leave home without it," Max said, his voice rough as he grabbed the back of his seat just so he didn't fall. Hearing his wife's words if not her voice was hard even when he could pretend. Hearing the truth said outright...
It was too much. For both of them
"I have some tea on the stove, Max. And don't go worring about blowing their cover. I'm sure that the kids will think of something. You always did," Vera whispered as she set the thing down again, and it was all Max could do just to nod and follow.
The walk through the chilly air helped some. The ritual of getting the cups and the tea bags from Vera's kitchen helped more just because it was hers. He'd never gotten the hang of it, but his sister had. Some part of him hated that she got so much more time with his wife than he did, but he couldn't blame her for it. Just for the surprising taste of the regular tea that he found when he finally settled at the table and took a sip. "Just plain? I was sure..."
"A tea for every mood, I remember. I just wasn't sure what would fit this one and Verdona never taught me the flavor for that," the woman across from him said as she took a sip from her cup with a look that he remembered just as well, but it wasn't from his wife. "It's not that I'm not happy to have you and to see the kids again, but why are you here, Max? I wasn't expecting you for weeks yet."
"We ran into some trouble in Phoenix today," Max allowed, his voice careful as he cradled the cup for the remembered warmth. "Some of what's left of the Blood Pack and I just wanted to make sure…"
"We're fine, Max," Vera said, her voice tight with an annoyance that he knew wasn't aimed at him. "They caught us by surprise once. It won't happen again." Those words were a threat and a promise that didn't go away even as she sipped at her tea. It was a long sip, one that he knew was just an excuse to calm down, before she set the cup back down. "What were they doing?,
Max couldn't help his grin as he took a sip of his tea because he didn't get nearly enough chances to tease his sister anymore, and making her wait was the best one he could think of after he said, "Robbing a bank, believe it or not."
The noise she made at that as she choked on her tea made it all worthwhile. "A bank? Why would those monsters rob a bank?"
"To buy their way off-world, if you heard them tell it," Max sighed as he set the cup down. Stragglers. He knew that there would be, but he never imagined he'd see them here, so close to home. "They said that some Erethizonite named Argit who said he'd get them a ship if they paid enough. He was probably full of it, but…"
"With our money? That's not worth anything out there."
"They were looking for gold and diamonds mostly, but I don't think their contact was planning on going anywhere. Not for a while." There was always someone who looked at Earth and thought that they could be the big man here even if the rest of the galaxy thought it was the sewer of the galaxy. "He got away in the mess, but that's Avalon's problem now."
Those three words felt so good when Max said them until his sister made a noise and her eyes went to the hall and the bathrooms that they both knew were empty. "Is that why you sent the kids out?"
Max just shrugged because she was his sister and some things didn't need to be said. Not even when they weren't true. He was going to go looking later, but she didn't have to know that. It should have ended there, but Vera was his sister and it never did. She didn't even have to say anything. She just gave him a look and waited for all the words that he couldn't say. So he let the ones he could out and hoped for the best. "I didn't like it. They were Blood Pack. They must have worked with the Xenocites and if they were that close…"
"It's sweet that you worried." Vera took a sip of her tea as she looked out the sliding glass door next to them and the night beyond. "And that they are. They're a good couple of kids. Have you told them yet?"
He didn't wince at those words. He didn't look at the front door and wonder where they were either. He just kept his eyes on her. All his time with the Plumbers was good for that at least as he let out a sigh and played with his cup as the tea warmed his hands and wished it was coffee instead. Coffee as black as the night outside. "No."
"Why not?"
"What am I supposed to tell them?"
"The truth."
"The truth? What, that the mystery aliens that took out Fort Tesla were out there kidnapping whole towns? That they destroyed Tranquility Base before - " Max caught himself just as the door down the hall burst open and the kids came spilling out of Vera's bedroom with something that looked like a bear tangled around Ben's shoulders as his cousin battered at him.
"I told you to be careful, Doofus!"
"Fine, whatever! Just get it off!"
It should have been funny. His sister sure thought it was as she got up and rushed over. Maybe to save her coat, or maybe just so she'd have a look at Ben while he couldn't get away. Max didn't know, he just stared at the two, blushing and silly even as they tried to escape their aunt's hands as she pinched their cheeks and shepherded them past him and into the kitchen. " - you're here and it's a clear night. I thought you might enjoy a night watching the stars."
"But - ?" Ben tried to say. If it was a year ago, Max knew that the boy would have thrown a fit at the thought, especially when his cousin's face burst out into a grin that was as bright as the sun. If things were normal. "But it's cold out and - "
"Oh, that's no worry, Benjamin. I found my old sleeping bag in the garage and if you toss it over the picnic table you'll be as warm as bedbugs."
"Ver…" Max said, those words making him start to rise.
Not that his sister paid any attention. Not as she tossed a bag that must have smelled like mothballs if the look on Ben's face meant anything before she pulled Gwen into the kitchen and shoved a bowl into the shocked girl's hands. A bowl she filled with popcorn. "I'm sorry that it's out of a bag. Dearie. I didn't have time to go to the store and get the caramel so I could do it right, but Mr. Spranger always has a few bags lying around for his grandkids and they swear by it. Now go on. You two will have the best seats in the house," she said with a smile that was so close to Mother's that it almost hurt.
Thirty-six years. Where did the time go?
"You're not going to watch?" Ben said, his eyes wide and Max tried to tell himself that it was just because he was glad he was escaping as he was rushed to the sliding glass door.
"It's a little too chilly for me tonight, and I want to visit with Max."
The words sounded right. They were everything that Max would have said and maybe that was why his granddaughter dug in her heels and asked the one question he hoped she wouldn't. "How are you feeling, Aunt Vera? We were worried about you all Christmas."
"Just fine, Dear," her aunt said with another laugh as she pulled open the door. "That doctor fixed my foot right up. Haven't felt even a twinge since. Though I do miss having Max here to boss around."
"Your foot? But - " Ben started before the door got closed in his face.
Max saw his sister wave as the two on the other side just glared before they looked at each other and stomped away towards the table. "I told them it was your knee, Vera..." He thought so anyway. Christmas…
Christmas was just a blur without them. The first one he'd ever missed…
"That's why I didn't tell them," Max said as he just watched them whisper to each other before Gwen shook her head and grabbed her cousin's hand so she could pull him over to the table. "It was bad enough they had to save those soldier boys while I was gone. The truth is I don't want them anywhere near this." Just watching them fighting off the Forever Knights was bad enough, and he didn't even know if they were there because of Driscoll or Enoch or any one of the other dozen splinter groups who all thought that they were the King now or how they figured out what was on the truck, but the look on Jim's face as he handed the tape over…
He punched the wall. He almost punched the man.
"Listen to you," Vera scoffed like only a sister could as she gave the kids one last look, her hand brushing over the door frame before she turned around and made her way back to the table. "If you'd joined twenty years earlier they would have been calling you Lancelot or Galahad instead of Whiskey Tango." She shook her head at his call sign like she always did, and her next words were so much softer as her eyes went distant. "Jim never had the flair for names that my Benjamin did..."
Max didn't say a word. He knew better. He just watched her stare at nothing for another moment until her shoulder slumped and she reached for the teapot and filled her cup, and she didn't come back until she took a sip. A sip that turned into a long and shuddering breath before she met his eyes again. "They should know. They can help. They want to help. Stop lying and just tell them."
Jim's voice sounded like cracking ice when he'd said that, and Xylene's had been all quiet confusion because her people didn't think like that, but Max didn't let his change at all as he said, "No. I never should have let them in to begin with."
"Max."
He shook his head. He hated it when she said his name like that. Like he should know better. He couldn't look at her anymore, so he looked at his grandchildren. His twelve-year-old grandchildren. "You didn't see them when we ran into the Pack today, Vera. They weren't kids anymore."
The words slipped out as they watched the kids settle onto the table. Ben threw a piece of popcorn into the air one after the other so he could catch them in his mouth even as they talked only to have the last land on a bright pink disc instead. Vera arched an eyebrow as Gwen's hand darted up to grab it as Ben grabbed for her and then their hands turned into the same blur of motion that he'd seen at their tournament before the piece ended up in his Pumpkin's mouth and she made a show of chewing it.
But Ben's show was bigger as he grabbed a handful of the stuff and threw it at her. The alien tech in that glass door should have blocked out the sound just as well as it played with the light, but Max still heard her squeal through it even as she ducked.
"Really?"
Max smiled, just a little, but it didn't last long even as he watched his grandson get shoved. Not hard. Not as hard as she could have anyway. "This is what they should be like all the time. Not..."
"Spit it out, Max."
"I've made them into weapons." His voice sounded dead as the words he'd never let himself dwell on slipped out. The words he thought every time Jim called him and every time he watched the surveillance the man collected of them. "My grandchildren were ten years old and I made them into weapons."
His wife had told him once that it was best to have something to drink nearby whenever you had to talk to somebody, because it gave you something to do while you try to think of what to say. He imagined that was the real reason that his sister had wanted tea tonight. She took a very, very long sip from her cup and then poured herself more before she finally said, "You didn't start worrying about this today."
"No," Max admitted. It was always there, but after Kenny, after he found Jim in his home…
He'd been so righteous then. He condemned the man for doing something he had already done. "But it didn't start soon enough. You haven't seen them fight. It's like they can read each other's minds..." That was so clear today. They didn't even check. They just knew that they'd be right where the other needed them, for a punch or a shield or a distraction. They just knew.
His sister sucked in a breath at that, and worry cut through her calm. "Can they?"
"No," Max said, glad that they'd missed out on one nightmare. "I did the tests."
There was no hiding the relief in his sister's face at that. "They practice. They are both taking martial arts."
"You don't get as good as they are just by practice," he muttered as he remembered all the surveillance he'd watched, all the people he'd seen them save from muggers and burglars and worse...
"They weren't just going to sit around, Max. They have too much of their Grandfather in them."
"I know," Max admitted with a nod as his stomach fell again. "I know it's my fault. I was selfish. I saw the chance to relive the old days and jumped into it. The fact that I got to share it with them was... It was a chance to make up for what I missed with my sons. To prove that I was doing something important. I never even thought about what it would do to them." What kind of man was he, that he didn't? That he just let it be an adventure until it was too late?
Vera took another drink as she watched as the kids gave up on shoves and finesse and just threw handfuls of popcorn at each other as they laughed and tried to hide behind the sleeping bag. "They look horribly abused."
"They have nightmares," Max said, his voice haunted because he remembered other sounds. Not as many as the first summer, when he lost track of how many times he'd wake up to one or the other screaming and crying in their sleep. It was enough that his hair started turning completely white a few weeks after they got home, not that it mattered. Not even as much as their second, when they didn't need to be asleep to face nightmares, but it didn't matter. Not then and not a couple of nights ago when he'd heard Ben...
Not screaming, not crying. The sound his grandson made was so soft that he almost thought that he dreamt it, but there was panic in it and it was real and he never slept as deep as his sons and grandchildren thought. So he was up and in the back almost before he knew it, and he was sure before it woke Gwen up. He was sure and he was wrong. He got there just in time to see her pull herself up into his bunk instead of yelling at her cousin or for him so he could help. She didn't make a sound until she was wrapped around Ben and started whispering into his ear. It wasn't anything that Max could hear, but it calmed the boy down.
And Gwen never looked up. She never even knew that Max was there any more than Ben did for all the times Max caught him doing the same thing for her over the years when he gave her Furry Freddy. Max knew he should have said something instead of just standing there, but it always felt like he would be intruding.
It felt like he was seeing something special, something that felt right even though it couldn't. "I hear them sometimes. They should be safe at home living a normal life."
"A normal life won't make them safe, Max," Vera whispered as she hung her head. "It didn't save Verdona."
The words were like a slap, and Max barely covered his face in time because it was still too soon, which was ridiculous. After thirteen years…
It was still too soon and watching his Pumpkin pour over his wife's journal never made it any easier. Not when he looked over her shoulder and saw her handwriting again. Especially now that his Pumpkin was growing her hair out and sometimes…
It was only brushing the middle of her shoulder blades now, nothing like the long mane his Starshine had for as long as he knew her, but before that… He'd only ever seen one picture of his wife when she was growing up, but if Gwen had freckles they could have been sisters. And when he saw his Pumpkin reading that book with her face pinched in concentration just like his wife's had been when she wrote it because she knew.
She knew and she'd never told him and that was the only thing he never forgave her for. That and leaving him, leaving them. "If I'd been there…" If he hadn't been off playing the hero and saving the world. "If I'd been there, she wouldn't be learning about her Grandmother from a book…"
"Or we would have buried you, too, Max, and Verdona knew it," Vera said, her voice tight and angry like a thunderstorm. One that didn't last long before she let it die with a sigh, "Does Gwen know?"
"No," Max growled and he was glad he had his eyes closed because he couldn't look at his sister as he said that. Not when he'd watched his Granddaughter scour through the thing day after day looking for clues, looking for the answers she needed, and the woman who could tell her.
Vera just sighed again and there was a click as she set down her cup. "She had her reasons, Max. I'm sure she did." She said the words, but she didn't believe them. Her voice shook too much as she said them if she did.
"It's too late for that now," Max muttered away the last of his anger as he dropped his hand. Dropped it when he wanted to slam it into the table and scream like he did sometimes at her tombstone when he was alone with his wife. Not that it would help.
Neither did the noise that the woman across from him made. He loved his sister, but after sixty years he knew all of her little tells and when he heard her take a deep breath he braced himself. It wasn't enough. "It's too late for them, too. I know that you're doing all you can, Max, but you have to face it. It was too late for them from the moment Ben picked up the Omnitrix."
Max couldn't say anything to that for a long time. He just sat there and stared at the birds that were frozen in her hutch and all the other knickknacks she'd picked up in a life that crossed the globe as much as his had. Only her memories crowded her home and he'd given most of his away.
All but the most important.
He wished the Omnitrix was one of them, but he couldn't even find a way to take the thing off without hurting Ben even though there must be one. The man who made the thing must have known. If only he had ignored Tetrax and everything he knew and gone with them two years ago, then maybe he could have made the Galvan who made it keep the damned thing instead of just fixing it, but he hadn't and there was nothing he could do about it now.
And even if he did, he wasn't sure if it was a good idea. Ben was already being talked about, and that was just as dangerous. Ben was in danger if he took the watch off or if he left it on. No matter what Max did, he couldn't find a way to protect his grandson, but - "Then I should have done more to keep Gwen out of it."
"Like what? Sent her home?" Vera scoffed into her tea. "Do you really think you would have done her a favor? To start with, she already thinks Ben is your favorite."
Max laughed at that. He was a bad father, he knew that, but not even his sons would say he was an unfair one. "That's ridiculous."
"Is it? She already thinks that you forgot all about her until the week before that first summer. Why didn't you ever tell her that you asked her parents months before?"
"She never asked," Max said. She never asked and he never wanted to tell her that her mother had refused to let her come at first because she thought Gwen was too young if only to spare them both the fight. He still didn't know what changed Lili's mind, but maybe things would have been better if she hadn't.
"You should have. If you had sent her home after Ben picked up that watch..."
There wasn't hiding the reproach in his sister's voice, or the worry and Max knew she was right to. Still, he could have lived with Gwen hating him if - "She would have been better off."
"Physically safer, maybe. For a while, but mentally? And honestly, how can you even imagine that you would be doing her any favors by making her think that her Grandfather was just one more person that didn't want to be around her? For God's sake, Max, she's lonely enough already. They both are."
That was another thing that was his fault. He stared at his tea and wished again that it was coffee. "I know that it's hard for them to talk to people when they have to hide so much of their lives."
"You know that better than anyone in the family," Vera sniffed her way through another old fight. He knew that his sister never understood why he worked so hard to keep his family out of his real life, but he never wanted his sons caught up in all of the madness. He should have remembered that. "But that isn't what I mean."
Max looked at his two Grandchildren. He always wanted to think the best of them, but there wasn't any point in lying. It wouldn't help them. "I know Ben has trouble making friends. Sure, he can talk to anyone, but he's too impulsive. He gets bored with people after a while if they can't keep up."
"And Gwen is a lovely girl," Vera added without heat. "But she can be a bossy thing. And she's far too clever for her own good."
That was certainly true. "That doesn't mean that she's lonely."
"I swear, Max. Sometimes I wonder if you pay any attention to anything that isn't trying to kill you," his sister said as she took another sip. "She had karate, gymnastics, did the worst jobs in a half a dozen school clubs, and whatever free time she has she used to make up charts to just make sure she didn't have any free time."
"She's stopped doing that," Max said with a shudder as he remembered the small panic attacks that came whenever he saw her with her markers and a calendar. He had been very happy when his Pumpkin finally outgrew that little obsession. "Besides, that was just something that she picked up from her mother."
"You can't blame it all on Lili. Or imagine that she could make her daughter do anything that Gwendolyn didn't want. If Lili could, she would be in ballet right now instead of karate. Please, Gwen was a lonely girl and that was how she dealt with it. I could tell that much from her letters."
"How?"
"She wrote about her latest activities, and there was ALWAYS something new. She'd tell me what her parents did, and what you were up to." Vera's eyes glittered at that, "She was better at letting me know what you were doing than you ever were, and she never used me as an excuse. And then there were her rants about her cousin… I swear, she always had something to say about that boy even if they barely saw each other, but it's been years since she mentioned friends. Now she is again."
Max chewed on that, and as he did he watched Gwen grab the bowl out of her cousin's lap and dump it on his head. Max saw the look on Ben's face just before the popcorn poured out over him and burst out laughing even as he stood. "I better make more popcorn."
His sister waved him off with a look and a smile of her own. "They're having fun, Max. Leave them be."
If Gwen didn't start eating the popcorn off of Ben he would have ignored his sister and got to work. Instead, he just stared as he sank back down into his chair and thought about what she said. Finally, he just shook his head. "She has friends. They both do. I know. I've been to their birthday parties."
Vera didn't even look at him. She just sipped her tea as Ben screamed outside and Max watched his cousin cackle while she plucked more pieces off of him. "She writes about friends now?"
His sister's smile was coy and knowing. "One or two. When she isn't going on about her cousin."
- B -B - B - B - B -
She was going to drive him crazy.
Ben knew that. He knew that in the Rustbucket as he watched her just sit there across the booth from him with her knees drawn up and her nose in that stupid book instead of having fun. He knew it even before she started reading all that mushy stuff that should have sounded like so much math homework and way before he raced across town with her in her arms as he prayed that they'd find some alien butt that needed kicking so he could forget about hers.
And now all he could hear was her laughing as he stared at the inside of a bowl that still smelled like the popcorn that was all over him now as he tried to count to ten like she always told him that he should. He made it to five before he reached for the Omnitrix because it was way past time he brought out the big guns.
The Dweeb next to him knew it, too. "Okay, okay! I give!" She laughed as she caught his hand before he could smack the watch on and find out what the new guy could do, and he wished he could just blame the fact that hers were freezing for the gasp he bit back at her touch. He almost left the bowl right where it was because the last thing he needed was her seeing his face right now. Right now or ever. Not even weeks of her always being there made things any easier, not when he could feel the line of her body pressed against his under the sleeping bag and when did that happen? He'd been so careful, but she slid over anyway and he couldn't slide away. Not if it meant that she won, no matter how crazy it made him.
She was freezing and he felt like he was on fire and it was all in his face, but at least it was dark now that Aunt Vera turned off the house lights. He lifted the edge of the bowl with a finger and gave her a very doubting stare that not even the night could hide. "If you tell me why you're so quiet lately."
There was always a catch, Ben grumbled to himself as he pulled the bowl off of his head and set it aside before he brushed the popcorn that was left from his hair. Out loud he just said, "Am not."
"You so are," Gwen said as she reached over and picked off the popcorn that was stuck to his shirt and ate it. "And you've been getting crabbier, too."
"Or what?" He shot right back instead of answering as he looked at anything that wasn't her. "You'll read to me again?" He put as much fire into that word as he could because he wished that she would. He didn't even care what. Not when she made homework or even that stupid journal sound good and if she did…
God, he was so sick!
And she knew it. She had to! That was the only reason why she was doing a Wicked Witch impression as she said, "Maybe…"
Ben fidgeted under her stare and her touch until he couldn't take it anymore and blurted out, "I've just been thinking! It's no big."
"You?"
He grabbed a loose kernel off of the table and threw it at her. He wanted to cheer when it hit her right on the tip of her nose and she went cross-eyed. She blinked and wiped the bit of butter that stuck to her skin off with the sleeve of her shirt. "Sorry, not sorry. So spill before I get Grandpa to make us another bowl the way he wants to!"
It wasn't the threat that made Ben choke. Honestly, he had no idea where to start as he stared at her lips because it was dark out here, but there was just enough light coming from the sky and the other houses that he could see the worry in her eyes and her pursed lips and glared. Lips he just wanted to…
Somehow he pulled his eyes away and stared up at the sky that didn't have any of the meteors that she's been dweebing out about for the last two days in it because a wish was the only hope he had left. He wouldn't have said a word if he didn't know her and knew she was serious. "Nothing. Stuff."
"Stuff isn't nothing, Doofus," Gwen said as she elbowed him and stared.
Stared until he squirmed. It so wasn't fair. He missed when he could just ignore her or prank her until she went storming off. He missed when feeling her arm against his was just gross and he didn't think about a thing except for - "This!" He said as he tapped the watch and almost sagged in relief because talking about the Omnitrix was safe.
It was the only thing that was.
"The Watch?" The Dweeb asked, and she sounded so relieved and maybe a little disappointed and he didn't know why. He just shivered again as she leaned in close and poked the thing. "Why?"
"I don't know," Ben muttered because she wasn't supposed to ask that, but she was a nerd and of course she did. He was almost as shocked as she was when more words came pouring out, words he never let himself think because they were about stuff and serious, but she was looking at him and he couldn't help it. "Because all my life I wanted to help people. I wanted to be the heroes in my comics instead of just the shrimp…" He heard the words and could have killed himself because they sounded so dorky. He bit them off and waited for the laugh that should have come.
Maybe it would have, but she was the Queen of the Dorks, so she just nudged him with her elbow. "I know the summer's been quiet so far Ben," she said when he still didn't say anything as her hand found his and squeezed, "but you've done it. You're a hero. You're going to be Mister Hero of Heroes."
"Yeah," Ben said as he somehow kept his voice steady, but the thought of being Ben 10,000 didn't make him any happier. The kicking butt part even when he was old was great, but the rest…
"Is that what's been bothering you? That we've stopped all the bad guys?"
"Yeah. No. I don't know." Ben shook his head and rubbed at his temple with his free hand. He could almost taste the words, but they were all muddled now that he actually wanted to say them. "I've just been thinking. I want to help, but... But is this what you want? Beating up the bad guys all of the time?"
"That's what heroes do," Gwen said, then she grimaced just a little as she added, "and sidekicks."
Ben made a face and waved that away. "You've always been a hero." The words just slipped out because he only said anything else to drive her crazy. He never thought she thought he was serious when he joked about her being anything less until he saw her grin in the night. He saw it and he just wanted to smack the old him for ever telling her that she wasn't. "It's just - I've been thinking..."
"There will always be someone else who needs help, Ben."
"Yeah, I know, but maybe..." He shook his head and looked down at the Omnitrix, "but I've been thinking about something that Azmuth said. That the Watch wasn't made to be a weapon. That he built it to help people talk to each other."
"He did?" Gwen asked, and she sounded surprised. "You never told me that."
Ben shrugged. Honestly, at the time it sounded stupid to him, so he never brought it up. Now, though...
Now, he didn't know what made him start worrying about all of this, about the Omnitrix, about thinking maybe there was a better way than his fists to make things better. That and everything else, but he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something more, something he was missing. He couldn't figure out what it was, but he was glad that his Dweeb was here with him. And that he was finally telling her. That's what made him keep going. "Do you ever think about the future?"
She jumped at that, probably because it was a stupid question. She did, of course, she did. She was already talking about college. He'd seen the brochures in her room, too. He'd seen them and felt sick. Just getting into high school with her was a crazy dream even with all the extra work he'd been doing, but college? He'd never…
"Of course I do, you Doofus. But since when do you?"
"I can think about that stuff, too!" He said with a shrug as he looked at the watch again before he looked up at all the stars. "I think that that's what I want to do. I want to go out there and learn about all of the guys in this thing. Go and talk to them. Maybe help them talk to each other. Maybe that would help more than just fighting." He shrugged and looked up. "And who knows, maybe I would even get to see something cool as I did it. I can't beat up the bad guys forever." The words felt all the worse rolling out of his mouth because he knew they were true even if they were stuff only a dork would say and he hated himself for it.
He didn't look at her at all as he talked. He'd looked at her enough already and… And this summer wasn't helping. It wasn't making things go back to normal like he hoped. He prayed that she'd drive him crazy by bugging him with rules and all the stuff he should be doing like she always did until she was just his dweeby cousin again. Until they were just friends again. And she did. She was always telling him what to do just like when they watched movies or went Heroing or studied at home because she was a dork and a dweeb.
His Dweeb and nothing she did changed that. His Dweeb, and it was just too much. It was so much more than he could deal with when he was just a doofus.
Especially when she didn't say a word to any of that. She didn't even make a sound as she let go of his hand and it hurt, but he just swallowed it down as he watched her pull her knees to her chest from out of the corner of his eye, but she still didn't say anything. Not for a long while. Then she just asked, "When?"
Now. Right now. It felt like someone was standing on his chest, thinking that, but maybe going away would make it better. He didn't know. After their tournament, after their dinner and she took his arm he thought…
But he was just being stupid and it was time to face facts. She's known for months and if she felt anything she would have said. It wasn't like Gwen could be quiet and it was time he dealt with that. Right now. He wanted to say, but he wasn't strong enough so he just shrugged and lied, "I dunno. When I grow up, I guess. In a few years."
She made a noise at that before she turned away, nodded, and stared. Not up at the sky. Not at anything that he could see in the yard around them. She just stared out into the night as she said, "My mother wants me to be a doctor or a lawyer like daddy when I grow up."
Ben just shrugged because Aunt Natalie had all sorts of plans for everyone. Anyone who ever met her knew that. "So you'll be busy," the words were a joke. They had to be a joke. Stupid. He was so stupid for imagining…
But she deserved better. Better than her doofus cousin.
"Yeah," the Dweeb said, her voice cracking as she buried her mouth in her knees and the old sleeping bag she had draped over them.
And that was what caught his attention. That was what made him turn and look at her. "Could you sound any happier about it?" He asked, and this time it wasn't a joke. None of this was, he realized and he couldn't breathe because he wasn't stupid. One day she'd go away and forget all about the heroing.
About him.
He hoped she'd read his mind now like she seemed to way too often and tell him that he was being a Doofus, but she didn't. She just hugged her knees and stared up, and when she started speaking, her voice sounded as distant as the stars. "Ever since that stupid Watch fell out of the sky…" she started before she stopped and swallowed hard. He almost thought that was all she was going to say, that it would just die there. Then she started again, "Ever since, I've wondered what was out there. I sit on my roof sometimes and - and there must be so much out there to see, to learn."
For a second he thought he saw something run down her cheek as she said it. Something that caught the starlight. "Yeah?"
"I don't want to stop helping people, I love helping people but..." She took a deep breath and rubbed her legs through her blanket as she finally looked at him, as she finally met his eyes and he saw how wet hers were. "Did you want to go by yourself?"
No, but he never thought anyone would come with him. Not even Grandpa.
"Well, you can come if you want," Ben said as he finally let himself breathe, but he couldn't make himself move. Not to take her hand or wipe away her tears and he didn't even know why he wanted to, but he did. He just sat there and watched her rest her head on her knees and watch him, but when he felt her hand take his again he squeezed it and felt her leg shiver against his, "but they probably have leash laws for humans."
She lifted her head off of her knees and glared at him as she sucked in a breath. He waited for her to start screaming and didn't even try to hide his smirk, but she didn't. Instead, she calmed down and smiled right back as she laid back on the table. "I'm not the one who turns into a big dog, Doofus!"
He made a little noise before he shrugged and followed her down. His head barely touched the sleeping bag and the hardwood under it when she bounced up and he almost thought that she'd start laughing at how stupid he sounded. But she didn't. She just grabbed the bit of the sleeping bag she had bunched up around her legs and threw it over both of them. He didn't even know how cold he was until he felt her warmth still caught in the material, and he waited for her to lie back, but she didn't. She just kept looking at him until he remembered to stretch his arm out for her. It was an old habit now. The first time he'd done it was during some movie. One of hers that sent him falling back into his bed with a yawn as he stretched his arms out and she'd accidentally laid back on one. At first, they'd both been surprised, and he swore his face burned for a week after, but now...
Now it wasn't. Now it just felt right, having her head on his arm, the smell of her shampoo in his nose, and the soft noise she always made as she got comfortable in his ears. "There are so many stars," Gwen murmured as she looked up at all the stars that were shining down.
Stars he wasn't paying any attention to. "It could take a while."
"Just a little." She looked at the stars one last time before she rolled over onto her side and put her hand on his chest. "Where do you want to start?"
Ben stared into her eyes, and he felt the same crazy urge in the back of his head that had caused so much trouble at New Years. And he knew that if he gave into it again...
If he gave into it again, he wouldn't be able to pretend it was a game anymore. Not that it ever was, not when he spent most of the drive down just watching her read, and how weird was that? So weird, but he couldn't stop and he was almost okay with it. He almost gave in, almost ended the game like he'd been dying to ever since New Years and every Friday night after when she cuddled close because she was a witch, and like he'd wanted to after that dinner after the tournament when he didn't even taste the food because she was right there in that dress. Right there and looking so…
He thought things changed after that, that maybe…
But it didn't. She didn't like him like that. The last six months proved that, and if he tried again he knew what would happen because he knew her. She forgave him once. She forgot about it once, but she wouldn't do it again. She was just his cousin and his best friend and he'd just been kidding himself imagining she'd ever be anything else. It was a lot anyway, her being friends with a Doofus like him, and the idea of her seeing the universe with him even if that was all that they were...
It was almost enough.
It was even better than the Watch and tomorrow he'd go wild with the new guy in it. He was going to scream and break as much as it took so that the almost went away and if Humungousaur wasn't enough he'd use every alien he had until the almost went away and it was just enough, but for right now he looked up at the stars that were just a blur in the sky. He could barely pick out one from the next so he just pointed at the one that stood out the most. "That one. The big red one."
"That's a good one," Gwen said and it didn't sound teasing at all as he blinked and everything came back into focus as something wet ran down his cheeks. Something he couldn't even brush away without her seeing and asking and that disappeared in the breeze almost as fast as the thing he saw streak through the sky. "It's just a meteor, Ben," she said with a laugh as he went tense.
"Oh. Iknewthat," Ben said, the words spilling out in a rush as he made himself calm back down. It was easier with her breathing right next to him even if she was driving him crazy as she stared at him.
Another one flashed by after that and he felt her jerk away this time as he watched it burn across the sky. He felt her turn her head, too, towards the dark door and the empty little table on the other side of the glass. Some part of him was surprised that Grandpa and Aunt Vera were gone to bed already, but they were old and it was late. The rest of him just stared at her and he barely remembered that he couldn't when she turned back.
But she didn't catch him. He knew that because there wasn't any way she would have stayed if she did. She just made a soft sound as she looked up at the stars and didn't make another noise until something flashed across the sky again. Then her words were so soft as she shifted closer and he almost screamed from the feel of her. "You're supposed to close your eyes and make a wish when you see a falling star, Doofus."
"So what?" he asked with a snort that he forced out because he knew that that was just what he'd do if he was normal.
His Dweeb made a noise at that. A sniff that he almost laughed at even as her eyes flashed with something that was only a little bit magic. "Just do what you're told."
And Ben couldn't help himself. "You're not the boss of me."
"Am too!" Watching Gwen shove herself up at that was even more fun than watching her glare back down at him and say in a breathy voice like she was a second away from yelling. "So close your eyes and make a wish, Doofus!"
"Well, I'm not doing it just because you told me to," Ben shot back even as he closed his eyes, but he didn't make a wish because he wasn't a baby and wishes weren't real no matter what the movies or Grandpa said. He'd made enough of them over the last few months that he was sure of that even if nothing else made any sense.
And then he felt something warm and soft brush against his lips.
He barely even realized what it was when it was over, and his Dweeb was already pulling away when his eyes shot open again. She gasped when they did, and he almost thought she'd bolt but she froze there, close enough that he could feel the heat of her breath on his face as she balanced on her hands. She froze and stared down and it wasn't real. He knew it wasn't, that it couldn't be, that she'd never…
She'd never kiss him...
He knew it until he licked his lips and tasted strawberry. Strawberry and not the cherry that he always tasted in his dreams so he knew it was real and that made his eyes shoot open and find hers as she leaned over him. Hers were open so wide and stars danced in them as she - as his cousin - his Gwen - his Dweeb asked as nervous as he'd ever heard her, "Wasthatwhatyouwishedfor?"
"No," Ben said, the truth just slipping out in a gasp from between his tingling lips and he almost told her why. Then he saw her wince and he couldn't help himself. "I just wished you were housebroken."
- M - M - M - M - M -
"I never thought that they would be friends," Max admitted as he watched his grandchildren stare up at the stars with all the wonder he remembered having.
"So you decided to stick them in an RV together for three months and drive around with them? I always knew that you were crazy, Max. I told Mother that the day she brought you home."
"I was just hoping that they would learn how to be in the same room without fighting." He never thought that they'd be like they were when they were little and inseparable again, but that didn't seem like too much to hope for and it wasn't, even if it felt like their mood swings were going to give him whiplash sometimes. "It was touch and go for a while."
"They're good for each other. I'm glad that they've finally remembered that," Vera said, and he didn't have to look at her to know she was smiling. A real one, too, this time.
"Good for each other," Max echoed as a worry itched at him. He watched Gwen lie back on the picnic table using his Grandson's arm as a pillow and the boy didn't say a word about it or shove her away like he should.
"Of course they are" She sighed and put her cup down. "Now, are you going to tell me what's really bothering you or not?"
"Nothing is..."
"Don't even, Max," Vera scoffed as she stared at him with her slate-colored eyes. "I know you didn't come all this way just to talk about work or watch the stars. What kind of sister would I be if I didn't? Just say it."
If he said it, it would be real and he didn't want it to be real, but the words slipped out anyway as he watched them cuddle on the other side of the door. "Gwen's wearing makeup now." The words should have been a joke. Considering the mess he saw, the one he already knew was going to be a story. One that should have just been one that he'd tease her with for the rest of his days, but he knew in his guts as he watched them that it wouldn't be that kind of story.
"Time flies."
"And Ben is actually taking showers. And brushing his hair."
Vera let out a sniff of a laugh. "I always thought that we were off by a decade when we translated the Mayan calendar."
"I'm serious."
"I know."
"What if..." Max paused because his granddaughter never told him why she wanted to wear makeup to begin with except that she wanted the dinner to be special, and it certainly was. Not that she had to. Especially not after he saw them both come sweeping in through the restaurant door, arm in arm. Max looked at them both then, all dressed up, and for the first time he saw the man and woman his grandchildren would grow up to be. The fight made him forget all about his arguing with the maitre'd, who looked just as shell-shocked as he felt. Their entrance probably saved their table, and he put it down as just them being them because they always had a flair for the dramatic.
Or that's what he tried to do, anyway.
Just like he tried to think nothing of the way his Pumpkin turned and looked at them through the glass. It was alook that was so pinched and worried that Max almost felt bad for watching them, even though there wasn't any way that she could see them through the alien material. Then he watched her face relax as she turned back to her cousin and all he could think about was the looks he saw across the table when the two only had eyes and smiles for each other. Ben's nervous, Gwen's shy.
They weren't looks that cousins were supposed to share.
He'd seen them scream at each other, ignore each other, laugh together and be so scared that they could barely move, but he'd never seen them so nervous that they fumbled for words like they did at dinner that first night.
Or have them look at him like they kept forgetting that he was there like they had ever since.
He kept telling himself that they were too young, that he was imagining what he saw. That they spent so much time together that they saw each other as brother and sister. He told himself that even as he watched them after. They still fought, they still insulted each other, but now...
Now all the looks he'd seen over the past few weeks didn't matter. Neither did the soft words he heard when they thought he was asleep or the fact that his grandson was letting his granddaughter cuddle against him as they watched the stars didn't matter. Not when he saw his Pumpkin push herself up over her cousin and…
And for a second Max told himself he didn't see what he thought he saw. Not when Gwen pulled away so fast. Not when he heard her shriek through the glass and raise her hand high a heartbeat later because his grandson said something. A hand Ben caught and used so he could pull her back down and then there weren't any more words, any more denials.
Not when he watched his granddaughter melt into another kiss.
"Max!" He heard his sister shout and his chair hit the ground behind him as he sprang up, his eyes on the two of them and his mind racing as he ignored her and charged the door. "MAXWELL LEE TENNYSON!" His sister shouted again, the house shook from the sound of her voice as she stepped right in front of him.
"Get out of the way, Vera," he said, his voice an avalanche of emotions because this was all his fault. If he'd been home, if he'd seen this sooner, then maybe… Maybe he still could before they threw their lives away. "I have to - "
"You have to do what?!" Vera asked as she did the only thing no one else dared to. Not since Verdona… She met his eye with a glare that didn't give even an inch. "Leave them be."
"But…" Max started before he swallowed the rest of the words because If he said them, it would be real, and he would have to do something. The only thing he could think of was to take them home and tell their parents. To separate them. And he didn't know if he could do that to them. Or if he even should, but they were cousins and this was -
As always, his older sister was ahead of him, even if she did say so in her own unique way as she sat back down. "You're dating a lizard, Max," Vera said and he almost choked at the words. "Don't look at me like that, a sister knows. You're dating a lizard and I have a mud monster for a grand-daughter-in-law." Her tone was only a little bitter at the end.
"I remember," Max said. It would be a long time before he forgot the sight of the two families - Plumber and Sludgepuppy – finally agreeing on something. That their children were destroying their lives for something that wouldn't last. Neither would this, some part of him said as he watched the kiss on the other side of the glass end and his granddaughter sink back down onto his grandson's arm as her hand found a place on his chest like she thought it belonged there.
But it didn't.
He knew that their parents would agree on that, too. Lili and Sandra's war didn't have the body count, but the hurt was almost as bad and they'd say the same thing even now.
And they'd be just as wrong, a voice inside him said. Her voice. His better half's, his angel's, his Starshine's. Her voice did the one thing that his sister couldn't, she made him stop and think, even if it was just about his grandnephew's wedding because that was safe. Or it was until he remembered something else...
It was also the day he caught Gwen and Ben dancing together years ago when they looked just as happy. He started at the memory, the one he'd thought was so cute for so long, but now he wondered. Did it start that far back? Had he been this clueless for that long? If he'd been there, if he'd been home instead of saving the world would it have made any difference? He wanted to ask his sister because she would know, but other words slipped out. Dull words he'd said so many times before, but they were familiar and safe. "Joel was hurt that you didn't come to the wedding."
He knew why she didn't go just like Joel did, not that it made it easier. Nothing here was easy. Especially not seeing his sister jump at the words like she'd been slapped.
"After all the things her 'family' did, I couldn't..." Vera's voice was tight, first from anger and then with tears. She hid her eyes behind her hand to keep her brother from seeing them as she sank back down into her chair. When she finally brought her hand down she looked as composed as ever. "I still should have gone. I made a mistake."
Max nodded. He'd thought so at the time, and had said so, but he knew that saying it again wouldn't do anything to help. Not her or him or the kids on the other side of the glass. Kids who were whispering to each other now. Whispering like -
"Don't make my mistake, Max," Vera begged before he could finish that thought and he was almost grateful, because if he did he'd have to do something. "Are you that afraid that he'll hurt her? Or she'll hurt him?"
"Never." That wasn't what he was worried about. Not really. Even at their worst, he had never worried about that.
Vera nodded as she reached for the teapot with a shaking hand and refilled her cup. "I can't tell you what to do, Max. And the Lord knows that if I did you wouldn't listen. You have to do what you think is right. Just make sure it is for their sake." Vera paused, refilled her teacup, and took a sip as she looked out the door again and smiled. "Turn off the light, will you while you're thinking about it? It looks like the show is starting."
For a second Max almost yelled at her as his head shot up, but the kids weren't…
They were just lying there on the table, cuddled together in the unzipped sleeping bag, pointing at the sky and maybe giving each other butterfly kisses as they whispered to each other. He couldn't tell as he stared at them for another long moment before his hand found the light switch. Then he went back to the table, set his chair back up, and sat back down in it. He and Vera didn't say anything else after that. They just sat there and watched the sky filled with falling stars through the glass. Most were gone in a blink. Some lasted longer. He had always thought that they were beautiful.
Tonight they only made him sad as he made a wish for the only one he could think of that would help and the only thing his grandfather said he should always ask for. Wisdom.
Not that it worked. He didn't feel any wiser or have any more answers when he saw Ben point at the sky from the corner of his eye. He didn't think anything of it until he heard Gwen scream and push herself up. This time Vera didn't stop him when he jumped to his feet, this time she was right behind him as he rushed to the door and yanked it open just as Gwen all but ran into him shouting, " -andpa!" She froze when she did, her mouth turning into an O of horror before she shook it off and grabbed his hand in both of hers.
"Gwen? Ben? What in blazes is - ?!" Max asked as she pulled him outside even as Ben just stood there by the picnic table with his hand on the watch and his eyes on the horizon. His eyes followed his grandson's and it only took him a second before he spotted the star that wasn't falling anymore. That was just hovering over the glow in the distance.
Over Phoenix, he realized in horror as another smaller and brighter light flashed down from the first and an explosion lit the sky.
- o - o - o - o - o -
Erico Omake
Omnitrix Log, Day 742
"The Tennyson child has unlocked the Vaxa- Oh. Never mind. The Omnitrix operating system determined that the genetic sample it scanned was superior to the one built into the system. At least physically. Why is it only that the most brainless and criminally violent members of the sentient species in the galaxy decide to visit Earth? There was a reason that I'd used Velomak as the Vaxasaurian sample, he at least tried to seek a nonviolent solution before charging in! Enough. Between this and the Necrofriggian sample that I still can't make heads or tails of I'm just going to modify the Vaxasaurian sample in the Index and then I'm taking a break. This child and his backwater planet just makes me tired all over."
- o - o - o - o - o -
Author's Note
The art for this chapter is from banmes. If you like it, please leave a review deviant art. Just add /banmes/art/ben10-188261696 after the com.
And there's more Little Moments too! It's not n, but delmartian has done an AU that is certainly in the spirit of the story and I think is very well done. So if you want to see more of what happened after the New Years kiss you can check it out at: /s/13639019/1/Little-Moments-AU-Side-Stories. As always, add after the net and leave a review if you enjoy it.