Little Moments Rebooted

by shadows59

The summer is over, they're not. As the pressure of real life and heroing builds, Ben and Gwen turn to each other more and more. Eventual Bwen. Rewritten in 2019. By Shadows59 & Erico

34. Little Lies

Chapter 34: Little Lies

Gwen Tennyson's House

Bellwood, California

10:58 pm PT; June 16th, 2000

12 minutes after Viglax's attack began

The music that filled her dreams didn't go away when Lili woke up.

No, it clung to her like sleep did as she gave her husband's cheek a kiss and they stayed with her as she slipped out of his arms with just a smile and his shirt on. The one she'd only worn tonight for modesty's sake because it was too hot for anything else, but the feel of it brushing her thighs almost made her feel like she was still wearing her old tutu.

Maybe that was why she started dancing as she slipped down the dark hall. She was almost surprised by how quick her feet found the old steps, even if the carpet tickled her toes like the oak she remembered never did as she played the part of the swan instead of the Princess that she'd been when she'd finally outgrown ballet.

Such a downgrade would have been the end of the world back then, but tonight she didn't mind. Not when she could still see the stage when she closed her eyes, even if she wasn't the one dancing in her dream…

And hers stopped in front of the door by the stairs with a bow and a grin as she opened her sleepy eyes and looked for the crowd that should have been there and cheering, and not for her. She was only a little disappointed when she saw the door by the stairs instead of her baby taking her bow and getting her roses as she took her turn in the spotlight.

It was Lili's oldest dream and her favorite even if it wasn't her daughter's. It was the same part that just wanted to spend the night cuddling as they talked about the recital until her little Swan fell asleep on her shoulder just like she'd done with her Mor when she was little.

And the fact that it never happened and never would only hurt a little, but she was a Larrson and a lady and…

And it wasn't just the dream that brought her to this door. Or a habit that was born twelve and a half years ago that made her reach for the doorknob, even if she'd somehow let it lapse over the last year.

She just wanted to see her baby again.

The part of Lili that was almost awake watched for the soft gleam of the flashlight that meant that her Silly Bean was reading under the covers again. That or the glow of her phone and the soft snorts and giggles that always came with Gwen texting her cousin even though it was late enough that even Sandra should have said something.

Lili had her scowl ready, but even half-asleep her lips twitched up at the thought of telling them both that it was time for bed. The only thing sweeter would have been if she could have seen the boy's face when she did it because her Silly Bean's was always such a show. Or if she could tell him herself, but she already knew that Gwen wouldn't hand her phone over for anything and…

And Lili couldn't blame her.

Guilt stopped her hand halfway to the knob. It was the same feeling she got every time she walked past this door without even realizing it until she was in bed and almost asleep and almost as bad as it was all the times she did look and caught Gwen studying. Studying when she should be sleeping or having slumber parties with all of her friends, and more than just Michelle even if she was such a dear. There should be a whole room full of girls just like Lili had when she was little. A room full that would be giggling and hushing each other as she pushed open the door.

Instead, she found an empty room and a made bed.

Sleep vanished in a second, and panic almost sent her running from the room and screaming for her husband before she remembered, but that didn't stop her heart from pounding or keep her feet from forgetting all of their grace. They barely got her to the bed that hadn't been touched in weeks so she could sink down onto it.

"I'm glad you're not here, Gwendolyn," Lili said, her voice shaking even as she made herself laugh into her hands. "I can just see you rolling your eyes right now, young lady, and I..."

And the rest of her words died off because they were such a lie. The truth had her back on her feet after just a few more breaths so she could go downstairs and check the answering machine again just in case they somehow missed a message since they'd gone to bed. Check even though it was long after her daughter would have called. Maybe Ben didn't mind waking his parents up, but her daughter was raised right and -

- and Lili wished that she wasn't just so she could hear Gwen's voice again. She knew it was silly, but she was up and halfway to the door anyway as habit made her reach for the switch and flipped it even though it was off already.

The sudden light drove away whatever sleep was left in her and almost made her say something that would have gotten so much more than a scowl from her Mor, but that wasn't why she sucked in a breath when she could see again.

No, it was because Gwen might have been states away and having the time of her life with her Grandpa and her cousin, but there was still so much of her all around. There was even some of her in the door-frame, and Lili's fingers brushed over the odd little marks that she'd caught her daughter carving into it just after her birthday last year. Marks that cost the girl her supply of X-Acto blades and would have cost her so much more if Ben hadn't just started Karate.

And if they hadn't made such a mess out of everything last year. Enough that Gwen felt like she had to…

That mattered more than a door frame and the floor molding, but thank God the phase passed as quickly as it came and never touched anything more than the walls. Besides, the marks weren't that deep. Frank said he could sand them out, and if he couldn't then Max or Carl could fix it all in an afternoon if she just asked, but it always slipped her mind.

Lili was glad it did now as she ran her fingers over the odd little squiggles and shapes one more time before she let her hand slip away as she just wandered around, overwhelmed by all the rest.

She brushed her hand over everything as she walked, all the bits of her daughter's life that wouldn't fit in a suitcase or her Grandpa's RV. Not hard enough that she moved anything out of place because that just wouldn't do, but she still touched them, still remembered.

"I'm glad that you do, too, Silly Bean," she said, her voice as soft as her smile as she found her favorite of her daughter's mementos, the seashells on her daughter's bookcase of junk. The ones that she'd found when they'd all gone to the beach for the first time. Gwen was such a small thing, her and Ben both, but she could still remember how they squealed as they brought the shells over by the handful even though they were barely old enough to walk.

Sandra still had the picture somewhere, Lili was as sure of that as she was she'd find a book on her Silly Bean's desk. It was the same one she'd been staring at for weeks now because it was the only thing that was out of place. The only thing that Gwen left behind the morning before her tournament and called about in a panic the night after.

Enough of a panic that the little white lie didn't seem to matter, not then or not now as she looked at the page that her daughter had left the book open to for the dozenth time because maybe this would be the one that would make her understand. She should have felt guilty, but it was her book even if she hadn't touched it since she was a freshman. It still had her old marks in it, too; the green and yellow that were splashed all over and faded by more time then she wanted to think about.

Most of them were anyway. Some were new, though, and those were the ones that always made her look closer just so she could see what her Baby thought was so fascinating; Adrenaline causes the heart to beat faster and stronger, resulting in a surge of energy and focused attention on a partner -

"I thought I'd find you in here," a voice called out behind her before she got halfway through the yellow line, and it almost sent her heart through the roof as she spun around.

"Frank!" She shouted because she could when she found her husband standing there in his pajama bottoms yawning and blinking at her owl-like through his glasses. She glared as hard as she could, and it just made him smile until she crossed her arms and sighed. "How did you - ?"

"The light was a bit of a clue," he said before she could finish with a laugh that just made her pout more. A pout that died in his arms as he crossed the rest of the room and held her close. "And the bed was getting cold."

"Liar," The words were a teasing murmur, but they still made her bury her face in his bare shoulder and felt the sweat on his back as she put her arms around him. "Sorry, I was just…"

"I know," Frank said, and she was so glad when she felt his lips press into the top of her head. Glad enough that she pulled her head back even though her face was red so she could feel them where they belonged, and when he broke away again he was smiling, even if it didn't last long. "I miss our Pumpkin, too." The words were a sigh. One that cut right through her as she watched him look around, too, before his eyes settled on the book. "So what was our little genius reading?"

"My old Psych book again," she said, proud and sad all at the same time. She'd lasted a semester, but she didn't even know how many times she'd caught their daughter pouring over it over the last few months.

"Well, good. Your Mor always did want another doctor in the family," the love of her life said with a laugh that was just proud and she could have hit him for if he wasn't holding her so tight.

So she sniffed instead, which was just a mistake when he was so close because she loved the smell of her husband, even after all these years, and Tennysons never played fair. "It's your fault," she murmured as she kept her eyes on the book because she wouldn't give him the satisfaction. Not when she was already blushing. "She gets her brain from you."

"And all the good stuff from you," Frank said with another quiet laugh and a soft kiss. One that didn't last long enough before he pulled away and gave her the look. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Lili laughed even as her eyes welled up and she slipped out of his arms. If the bed wasn't right there she might have gone all the way down to the floor, but it was and she didn't. She sank down and grabbed a pillow so she'd have something to hug, something that smelled like strawberries. "It's just too quiet," she mumbled into it.

Too quiet without the rush of all their daughter's activities. Too quiet without hearing Gwen babble about her day and the sound of her rushing around as she got all the things she needed for school or clubs or karate.

A quiet that was broken by another laugh. One that was the deep chuckle that Frank got from his father and never lasted long enough, not even as he joined her on the bed, wrapped an arm around her waist, and pulled her close. "After the last few weeks, I'd think you'd be thrilled with that." She almost started at the words, and when he kept going she did. "I was sure Ben was going to move in towards the end."

This time Lili did slap him, and hard enough that his shoulder went a little red. "He wasn't that bad!" Her husband just laughed again at that, his eyes sparkling under his glasses even as she glared. "He wasn't!"

Ben really wasn't. He was every bit as sweet as she remembered when he was little - before he grew up and decided he had to hide it by acting like a punk. She was just about to tell her husband that when he raised an eyebrow and she wilted. "Maybe he's a little rambunctious," That got another smile because it was such a lie. Their nephew was so loud. Loud as he ran from one place to the other like he didn't know that there was any other way to get around, and even louder when a vase paid the price. And he forgot that he was chewing when he talked far more than Lili liked, but…

But he was fun. Having him here every Friday for dinner, watching his hands fly as he told one story after another about his day or karate or his parents and seeing Gwen sniff or giggle next to him as she caught all of the ways he exaggerated, and hearing them both laugh as they watched a movie on her laptop upstairs...

Losing a vase was nothing compared to how good that sounded, even if Lili did wish that they didn't watch quite so many ones about monsters. "I forgot how good it was having him here," Lili murmured.

No, she'd made herself forget after everything that happened, after Sandra…

But maybe it wasn't all her sister-in-law's fault. Maybe it was time to stop blaming her for everything, especially after how wonderful she'd been for the last year. Maybe it was well past time that she remembered that they were sisters because of the man sitting next to her and his brother.

Maybe she could even forgive herself for missing so much of her nephew's life just because she had to be right.

Maybe.

"I know it was," That man said with a sigh that was as quiet as the rest of him, but no less real. It was at least as real as the burping contest that he got into one night with their nephew because it didn't matter that he was a husband and a father and a lawyer, he was still a boy at heart and their daughter was a traitor for encouraging them with her giggles even as she yelled. "It was great having Ben around and not being completely outnumbered for once, but Carl still owes us for all those Fridays."

Lili sighed and nodded as she leaned against him again even though she didn't care who owed who what. Not right then. Not as he squeezed her tighter even as she looked around at all the pictures of her daughter's friends that lined the walls and waited on her nightstand and she knew that they must all be missing her daughter just as much even if the girl in the newest one was the only one who came around and asked about Gwen. She took them all in and started as she had the best idea. "We should have a surprise party when she gets home! When they both do! We'll do it right this year and - "

She felt the grin on her face as her mind raced over all the details and the plans she'd have to make and she was sure she'd see a smile on his face, too. A small one, because he was never one for parties until he was in them, but it should have been there. A smile and not the worried little frown that was there as he looked at her. "What?"

She saw him hesitate like he never did when he was at work. Not when he was an assistant DA when he started and he had a police officer on the stand or as a partner now as he faced down whole companies and tore them apart question by question without ever raising his voice. He didn't raise it now, either, as he destroyed her with one. "'We'll do it right this year?'"

"I - " Lili started, and that was all that came out. She didn't cry. She'd run out of tears a year ago, but she sank into his arms anyway.

And he held her so close despite the heat, despite what happened. He still didn't raise his voice, but there was so much steel in it as he whispered, "It wasn't your fault."

"I ruined everything," Lili finally said the words she'd been holding in since that horrible day and felt sick. Sick as she shook her head and tried to push him away because she didn't deserve…

But he wouldn't let her. He never did, not in all the nights he found her in his office long after they'd moved everything back. He never said anything. He just wrapped his arms around her like he did now as she found out she was wrong, she still had tears after all. She did and she cried into his chest until she just felt empty as the sounds she made finally turned back into words. "Their whole summer and Dad went away and - and - " and their son.

Their Kenneth. Just thinking of him made Lili hide her face in her husband's shoulder as she whispered, "I just want to hold my babies…"

A year. She'd waited a year for her family to hate her like they like they should, but they never did. Not even now, when she was just being silly and selfish. No, Frank just sighed as he stroked her hair until even the emptiness started to go away. At least it did until he said, "I don't care how much they were looking forward to it. I never should have let Gwen go. Dad would have - "

"No!" Lili gasped as she finally pushed away and saw the guilt on his face. The guilt she couldn't stand any more than she could the wetness on her face that sent her scrambling for the tissues that were waiting just inside her daughter's lampstand and wiped her eyes. "No. Let them have their summer. They deserve it."

"But - " Frank started, so worried as he looked at her. "But we always said - "

"I know," Lili said before he could finish and she pushed the pain back down because it was a year. She didn't even know why she thought of it except…

Except somehow one summer had become two - she still wasn't sure how, but it did - and now three. Three years of plans that all went out the window at the last second and a quiet house, and she couldn't even feel bad about it. Not while Frank was still looking at her, his green eyes full of steel and love. "I know, but we owe it to them and…"

And this was the last one.

Lili didn't say it. She didn't have to. Next year the kids would be getting ready for high school and then college and there wouldn't be time for summer trips with their Grandpa. Next year they had to get serious. Next year they'd be…

"They probably won't even want to go after this anyway."

The words just slipped out of Lili's mouth as she turned towards her daughter's nightstand and the framed photograph that was waiting on it. The one that was only a few weeks old but earned its place of honor the very night it was taken, and it wasn't because of the cheap Hawaiian backdrop or the wonderful quality that came from a movie theater photo booth.

Somehow just looking at it took the sting from her heart as she slipped out of her husband's arms so she could pick it up and hold it close. You'd have to have a heart of stone not to when her Silly Bean was blushing so hard even as she smiled. One that was echoed and looked just ghastly on her cousin's face as he tried to imitate it on the other side of the photograph. The one he never wanted to be in and she could still hear him shouting about as Gwen dragged him into the booth. Him and the girl who was sitting between them.

"I know that she misses Michelle, but…"

"I'm willing to bet she's not the only one," Lili murmured because maybe the camera caught Michelle's eyes in mid-roll after Gwen pushed her in the middle at the last moment, but it also caught the surprised flush on her nephew's face. It was such a small thing, he was just a little red really, but it was adorable how nervous Ben was as he sat there, the three of them almost cheek to cheek.

Almost as adorable as the look that crossed over her husband's face as he missed the obvious, which made her laugh again even as she gave him the cuddle she knew he'd need, kissed his cheek, and explained, "They're growing up, Frank."

She knew she'd always remember the moment he realized just from the way his eyes went wide under his glasses as he looked again. "You mean, Ben and - !"

Boys, Lili thought as she rolled her eyes and only glared a little. "Ben could do a lot worse. Michelle is a lovely girl." It was a good match. The only real surprise was that Gwen saw it, too. Usually she was so possessive with her cousin, but she was the most mature of all of the three. And the bossiest so of course her Silly Bean would try to set them up.

"I know!" Frank sputtered, his face red as he tried to recover. "I know she is, but he's only - "

"I had my first boyfriend when I was eleven!" Lili sniffed as she remembered the torrid affair that lasted all of a day and wouldn't even count if she hadn't gotten her first kiss in the middle of it. One by the swings while everyone else ate lunch, which was all she really remembered about the whole day. "And I know how old you were when you met that Alice - "

"Amber," the love of her life corrected without even thinking about it before his whole face burned as she glared. A fake glare. That girl might have been Frank's first kiss, but she got the rest and the best and she knew it. Still, making him squirm was always fun. "Fine. I was twelve, but…"

"But nothing," Lili sighed into another kiss. One Amber would never get. "They're growing up."

"I know…" Frank groaned, and then he added a second later, "but if Ben starts dating then - "

"Then Gwen will be right behind," Lili finished with a little wince of her own as she looked at their baby girl because it was always a competition between the two.

"But - but we just brought her home!" That got another laugh, a wet one, and a kiss because it was true. One that Frank barely returned because he just looked stunned. Stunned and then worried. "If this is the summer that she discovers boys… And she's out on the road! Who knows what kind of jerk she's going to meet out there!"

"That's the only thing I'm not worried about, Frank," Lili giggled as she took the picture back and set it down on the bed. "Not with Ben there. He's even more protective than you. Between him and Dad she'll be fine."

"I love Ben, too, but... And Max!." Frank made a face at that. A little one, but Lili saw it. And she ignored it and the little voice that worried he might be right. As much as she loved Dad, he could be oblivious to some things. He could be, but Ben?

"But nothing! Don't you remember the punks that we ran into right after they took this?" Lili knew her husband did the second she said the words just from the way he scowled. And she would never forget the three boys who were barely any older or all of the foul things that they shouted at their daughter and Michelle the second they walked out of the movie theater. Words that the girls just ignored as they raised their noses and just walked by them all arm in arm. She was so proud of them for it, and of Ben, too, even if Frank had to grab their nephew and hold him back. Sure, she knew that some of it was him showing off for Michelle and he was shorter than each and every one of those boys, but there wasn't a doubt in Lili's mind what would have happened if he got loose. "Ben will protect her."

Lili knew that all the way down to her bones. She didn't know how they became such good friends again, but she knew it just like she knew the man next to her would protect them all just like he did that night just from the way he made the same growl now that sent those punks running. A growl that came back now as he muttered, "I remember them and what they said."

Just the sound of it in his voice made her heart do something she never thought it would again. It skipped a beat.

"You were so fierce that night," Lili murmured as she set the frame down so she could reach up and run her hand over her man's chest and feel the hair and the sweat there. Feel it and remember all the times she'd left him like that. They'd made love a few times over the last year because she couldn't deny her husband that, but for the first time…

For the first time since everything went wrong, she bit her lip and stared up at her husband, her rock, her man.

"Of course I was," Frank said, his voice a rumble and his eyes full of a fire that not even his glasses could hide as he met her eyes. Then his went wide for just a second as he looked at her. Almost as wide as his grin got a moment later as he stood up and pulled her to her feet. "No one gets to say that to my girl." The rumble didn't go away either, not even as he cupped her bottom in both hands and pulled her right up against him and kissed her hard.

No, as he claimed her. Claimed her with all the fire that only she ever saw. All the fire that she forgot she needed.

And maybe… maybe it was okay. After a year, maybe it was okay that she felt like this again. Not enough to try again, not yet, but - but maybe it was good that their daughter was off seeing the world, too. "No, but you could ask if you wanted to," she gasped at the horrid words filled her cheeks with a wonderful heat as she pulled away.

Or tried to, but Frank didn't let go.

Even if he did let a hand slip further down her side as kept the other one pressed against the small of her back so he could hold her in place, and the way he smirked as he caught the hem of her shirt - his shirt, the one he wore all day yesterday and she stole just because it smelled like him - and made her shiver just like it did the first time she saw it all those years ago. "Please. I'm not some punk kid and I don't need to ask if they match. I can just check."

"Counselor!" Lili gasped as he started to pull her shirt up, and again when they heard a phone ring in their bedroom. His cellphone by the sound of it. She hated herself for the words she said next as she grabbed her hem and pulled it back down, but she did anyway because she was a lady. "You have to work tomorrow! And what if that's Gwen?!"

Or she tried to, but her man didn't let go. He just shrugged and smirked. "Work can wait and she's having her adventures. We'll call back after we have ours." There weren't any more words after that as Frank pulled her into the hall and towards their bedroom. Not that they made it. Not before he pushed her against the wall and his lips found hers again. Found them and kept them until she forgot all about being proper and just caught his hair with both hands so she could pull him even closer. Kissed him until he groaned even as she felt him pull her shirt wickedly high. High enough that her man could have seen everything that those sad little boys never would, but he didn't even try to pull away so he could look and he didn't stop. He just kept pulling her shirt higher until she was the one who let out a wicked moan, which earned her a hungry smirk. "Maybe I'll just call in sick tomorrow and we'll spend the day in bed," he rasped after they ran out of air and the phone finally stopped, his lips still so close to hers that she shivered from the heat of his breath on her face. "Have our own summer adventure."

You could hide so many lies in words, Lili knew that, but she didn't know how her husband could possibly fake what she felt pressed against her as he held her against the wall. The proof of how much he wanted her. Still wanted her.

"Fr - Frank!" Lili started before his name just became a moan as he ducked his head in and then there were teeth on her throat and the words didn't matter. She just wrapped a leg around his waist and -

And heard three phones start ringing. His and the ones in his office and downstairs. It was enough for them to stop, but not pull apart. The need hammering through Lili wouldn't let her. Not until the answering machine kicked on. If the house was any louder she never would have heard Sandra's voice after the beep. Not when it had to come from all the way downstairs, but maybe she would have because the woman was frantic. "Lili?! Frank, are you there? We can't reach dad or the kids! Are you there?! Have you - ?!"

Lili had never been so glad that she was with Frank as she was right then because he didn't freeze like she did when they heard that. There was just the thunder of his steps as he rushed into the bedroom for his still ringing cell phone even as the machine stopped and he found the words she couldn't when he grabbed up his cellphone as she finally made her feet follow after him. "Carl?! Carl, calm down, I can barely - ! No. No, she didn't call tonight. I didn't think she would. Why? Yeah, I think they do. I don't know how he would get to Aunt Vera's house without driving through - why? What's going - ?"

There wasn't a bit of panic in any of that. There was just the calm rock that her husband always found when the rest of the world went crazy. That was what made her scream when he staggered and grabbed for their dresser. Scream and run to him. "Frank?!"

He only looked at her after she grabbed his arm, his face so pale in the reflected light and his eyes wild as he croaked out, "Turn on the TV."

Lili had so many questions. Questions that all died as the man just looked at her. He said some of them as she turned and dashed down the hall and the stairs without any of the grace she had a few minutes ago. He never stopped talking to his brother as he followed behind, but she could barely hear his words over the pounding of her heart, much less anything her brother-in-law said.

It was hard enough grabbing the remote, and she almost fumbled it even as she turned back and asked, "What channel?!"

Her husband looked even paler in the light of the TV as it turned on and she saw his lips move, but she never heard his answer. She didn't have to, the screen did it for him and the remote slipped out of her numb fingers.

- o - o - o - o - o -

Eternal Heart Hospice

York, England

7:13 am GMT; June 8th, 2000

27 Minutes after Vilgax's attack began

Amara heard the folder explode as it hit the floor by her feet in a flurry of charts and notes. At any other time she would have remembered her first day as a nurse and all the giggles that still haunted her after she'd done the same thing, but now…

Now she forgot all about the papers that had spilled everywhere and why she'd even walked into the room as she just stared at the TV. The one she didn't even think would be on yet, that she wouldn't have even glanced at if the room wasn't so crowded and so quiet already, and just froze.

She'd seen enough riot-torn streets in the movies. Movies she only went to because of her friends, but even the best of those looked fake enough that they usually didn't bother her much. Not when she'd seen the real thing when she was growing up.

What she saw now didn't look fake. She didn't know the movie, but she could tell that whoever made it had seen the real thing, too, from the moment she saw the people frantically running down the street. Someone must have muted the TV because she didn't hear any noise, not over the pounding of her heart, but it didn't matter. Not when she could remember the screams as she watched them run. Run like she wanted to. Run for home, for cover, just to get away in the light of the few streetlights that were still working as they went right by the camera, which looked like it was set up behind a van that had the words Fox 10 News printed across the side, even if she only saw it in flashes as the cameraman panned this way and that. He was good, too. The picture didn't jitter around like it did in the new movies so it would look 'real,' and when it settled on the woman who was in her pajamas as she tripped and fell and the crowd just kept going…

Her breath caught as she remembered the rough cobbles under her hands as the crowd pressed in just like she remembered how she cried and choked on the smell of the smoke before her father grabbed her and pulled her back to her feet like no one did for the woman on the screen as the camera just watched…

Or it did until it spun around as soldiers rushed down the street. Their splotchy uniforms were so different from the green ones she remembered from that day, but she knew what they were just from how the rifles in their hands.

If Amara could breathe she would have screamed as she waited for them to make a line and bring those guns up, but she couldn't. No one could. No one made a sound in the room and even the oxygen machines seemed quiet as they all watched the men, but they didn't try to stop the crowd. Not like she remembered. They didn't scream threats or fire into the sky. They just waved the crowd on as one hurried to the woman who fell and the rest spread out behind walls and in doorways.

The camera caught it all, and she waited for the cut she prayed was coming as the crowd thinned out, but the scene didn't change as she hoped. The camera spun instead past all the people who were still coming, and when she saw the thing that the crowd was running from…

The robot towered over everything else on the street, even the buildings that hemmed it in as it chased after them. Most of it was just a shadow, but what light caught it showed blood-red armor as a huge leg crushed a car it didn't even seem to notice as it went by. Then the camera panned up so fast that Amara almost felt sick and caught its head turned this way and that high in the sky without any kind of reason that she could see, even though the crowd was right there and if it wanted to…

"What are you waiting for?" Someone rasped around her as the thing got closer and the camera swept again towards the soldiers just stood there, their rifles up and aimed but no one fired even as the robot brought one of its hands up and fire burned in the circle in the center of its palm. Burned but didn't fire. Instead, the robot just froze before its head turned to the left. It's head and then the rest of it.

That was when the fire came. A tower of it from a soldier who was half-hidden behind a wall and had a tube on his shoulder. A tube he was already lowering even as the picture jumped and the camera found him before it followed the fire high into the sky as the robot spun back around.

Not fast enough, though. Not fast enough to let the fire out of its hands or dodge the explosion that lit the night right by its shoulder and sent the thing staggering into a building. Amara felt the cheer build up behind the hands she had clamped over her mouth even though it was just a movie, just a -

And then the robot pushed itself back up. Its armor was still smoking, but it didn't seem to hurt at all as it pushed off of the building and raised its hand. She saw the fire again before there was just the street and legs caught in the moment between standing and running. Legs that were wearing jeans and sneakers that were both stained with dirt.

Legs that vanished in a flash of light before snow and static took its place. Snow and static and two words: No Signal.

Words that Amara just stared at as if she could will the world back before she remembered it was all fake. Before she made herself move because she was the nurse here and her patients needed her. Patients that she could hear gasping and see crying all around her. The ones who weren't just frozen, anyway. "That's enough of the movie. They'll be serving breakfast in a moment and I know how you lot are for your fry-up," she said as calmly as she could. She heard her accent coloring her words more than she'd usually allow even as she cut through the crowd for the TV in a way she usually wouldn't dare because it was the quickest way to get a pinched bottom from the men who were too frail for the slap that they deserved and knew it, but she did it now anyway.

Not that anyone tried. No one else even moved except her as she reached the front row and the knob on the TV. A knob she never reached as the picture burst back to life. Amara jumped when the static went away and she saw Jon Snow sitting behind his desk. There was a picture of a ship that was hovering over a city that she'd never seen before in the background, most of it lost in the shadows except for the storm between the blades at its bow. And it was a ship she ignored as she stared at the old news anchor in his bedraggled suit and saw the truth in his haunted face.

This wasn't a movie.

Amara realized that and almost crumbled even though she couldn't hear a word he said, but the words that scrolled across the bottom of the screen? Nothing could make those stop. - dition BIKINI Red. Alien attack on the United States of America continues. Possibility for further attacks unknown. Her Royal Majesty's Government advises that all her subjects shelter in place and keep the roads clear. All Units and All Reserves are to report to the nearest base for immediate combat operations. This is not a drill. Repeat, Defense Con -

Those words stole all of Amara's away. They were everything that she never imagined she'd see, not here. Not when everyone always said how peaceful and how shy the aliens were. Words that were just so many lied as she just stood there and stared at the truth.

Stared at until she felt a hand grab her arm. A hand she tried to pull free from even as she spun around, but the grip was too strong. Stronger than she ever would have guessed from the man who that hand belonged to. "Mr. Brown!"

She almost cried out as she looked at him. He was so pale except for his liver spots. Pale enough that the scars that covered the side of his face and disappeared under an eyepatch that stood out even more as he stared up at her with his only remaining eye. "You have to tell him, girl," he rasped into his oxygen mask.

"Tell - ?" Amara asked even as she fought down a wild laugh. They had so many procedures, but not for this. Not for the end of the world.

The thought vanished as he squeezed her arm tight. Tighter than he ever should have been able to, and tight enough that his knuckles went white against her dark skin. "You have to tell him! Maybe this will do it. Maybe this will…" he said, hope and fear both warring in that one eye until they both disappeared in a coughing fit.

A hope Amara wished she felt even as she shook his hand off even as everyone else started to murmur and nod, and one of the younger patients even pushed himself up on shaking knees as he reached for his walker. "Dr. Burgess," the name just slipped out of her mouth. He was the director. If anyone knew what they were supposed to do…

If he was even here. "I have to - "

"He's here, Amara!" A woman from the back called out. "He was heading for George's room when I passed him a few minutes ago."

Amara almost laughed because she should have known. Everyone checked in on Old George. The man hadn't moved or said a word in all the time that she'd been here - and some of the nurses swore it was longer than that in whispers. Not that she believed any of it. Not when the stories kept getting more and more ridiculous until she was sure that she'd be hearing about how the man had been asleep since the War. But still, it was nice that there was never any end of visitors in his room and he was always the first stop the doctors made. "You lot heard her Majesty! Stay here!" She said with all the force her twenty-four years gave her even as she turned and she slipped through the crowd and passed the file she dropped and forgot about. It still didn't matter, not as she ran down the hall for the stairs at the far side of the facility because she didn't trust the elevators. Not today.

She was only half up before she felt it for the first time. The dull thump that she couldn't tell if she felt through the soles of her trainers or somehow heard, but still made the hairs on the back of her neck stand up.

Everything inside of her just wanted to run when she felt it. For the basement, for the door out. It was the same panic that sent her into the crowd when she was little and scared, and it was the only thing that kept her going up because she always swore she'd never let fear do that to her again. Not to her mum and dad and not to any of the patients that were counting on her.

Not even as two of the newer orderlies came bursting out of the door she was heading for and almost dragged her back down the stairs with them as terror sent them screaming past her.

A terror she felt down to her bones as she took those last few steps and saw the violet light burning halfway down the hall on the other side of the door. One she was sure was a fire until she shoved the door all the way open again. Her hand was half-way to the alarm on the other side when she saw it, the light spinning in on itself like the water in her tub after she pulled the plug and just hung in the air like a mirror.

Or a door. An alien door in her retirement home. It really was the end of the world.

"My God," she whispered as she took it in, her feet frozen until she heard the screams further down the hall on the other side of it. Screams just like the ones she imagined she heard on the TV only moments ago, only this time they were coming from people she knew.

And they were screams that weren't drowned out even as an alarm filled the air.

The wrong one. Amara knew that even as she let go of that little red lever she always prayed would never need to be used and wasn't the right one for now anyway. No, that one was on the other side of that light or all the way downstairs. One that would be a race full of people who couldn't hurry, but she couldn't just leave sitting in their rooms. Not when getting out was their only chance if she didn't make it.

Which didn't make getting closer to that light any easier. "My God, my God," she whispered to herself over and over as she hurried down the hall towards that burning violet and passed the doors that were closed tight even with the alarm still ringing over her head. The light burned even with her eyes closed, but she could have sworn she saw something on the other side. Something that looked like it was made out of bricks instead of golden light or the fire she heard so much about on TV and didn't care about her karma either way.

Or maybe she was wrong. Maybe it did, and maybe the world ended without her ever even knowing it. It must have, there was no other way she could explain the thing that filled the hall on the other side except that it was a demon.

One stitched together out of so many things, none of which were the least bit human. Something with tails and wings that were made out of crystal and flesh and burning brimstone. Something with too many arms - none of them alike - as it stood there with its back to her as it stalked toward the old couple who were collapsed by the elevator doors. The pair she was always so jealous of, that she was still jealous of as the man held his wife close and tried to protect her in a way that no one she ever dated would even though they were both over eighty and he could barely move without his walker.

He moved now as he reached a shaking hand for the buttons that would open the doors so that they'd have a chance. He even got close before the demon leaned down and said, "Boo!" The only thing worse than the sound the couple made was the rough laugh that came from the monster as it straightened back up. One that froze Amara in her place.

But not everyone.

Someone burst out of the room he must have been waiting in and charged right at the monster in his security blues. Someone that Amara knew. Jerry, who'd been working security here for so long that what hair he'd had left had gone gray with time and barely even scared the junkies that were always sniffing around with the nightstick he'd insisted on carrying.

She never imagined he would ever take it out of its holster much less use it, but he held the stick up high as he charged forward and yelled. Amara knew she should move, that she should use the seconds that he was giving her to get by so she could call for help even as the monster spun around so much faster than anything that big should have been able to.

Instead, all she could think about was how the man had invited her over to his granddaughter's birthday party just last month because the girl wanted to be a nurse when she grew up and Amara was the first one that Jerry thought of. Amara had never seen anyone light up as much as his little girl did when she showed up in her scrubs, or who had as many questions…

Almost as many as Amara did right now as the demon grabbed Jerry up with the hand that looked like nothing so much as the geodes she used to collect when she was little. Caught him and held him until Jerry shrieked as it laughed and asked, "You're what they left on guard here? I'm doing you a favor, Gramps!" Then the creature tossed him away like so much trash and the sound he made when he hit the wall…

The only thing worse was the way the demon snarled, "So say thank you!'

It was all over in a few seconds. Over before Amara could even think about breathing, much less helping. Not until it was too late. Not until the thing started to laugh. Then the fear didn't matter. Then she just charged forward and got close enough that the demon's tail almost caught her even as she slammed her hand on the elevator's down button. She wished she could have stayed to help the couple into it, that she could have helped Jerry as she heard the ancient thing ding and hum behind her, but she couldn't.

Not as the thing whipped around shouting all the words that belonged in its mouth as she raced by for the door at the end of the hall. All the words that would have ended with her tasting soap almost as bitter as the adrenaline that filled her mouth now as her heart hammered in her chest as she raced for the door that was their only hope with the demon just steps behind just like that mob had been so many years before.

Somehow she made it this time. Somehow it still didn't matter.

There was nothing special about the room. Nothing that separated it from any of the other rooms in this old building except for the man who never woke up and the little alarm by his bedside that looked just like the one she'd already pulled except for the fact that it was gray instead of red and she was sure that no one would ever use this one.

Not as Old George slept on and on even as time wrinkled his face and turned his hair gray. What it didn't steal away, anyway, as the rest of the world went on. He slept even now, even as she came bursting through the door with a monster worse than anything that her favorite author ever dreamt of just two steps behind her.

And instead of the doctor she was looking for there was a figure who was cloaked in a black cloth that was edged in the color of blood looming over the foot of Old George's bed ahead. Shadows almost as dark as the night Amara had walked through for her shift clung to the figure even with the morning sun shining through the window off to the side and reached for the man on the bed without ever touching him.

It couldn't. If Amara wasn't seeing it for herself, she never would have believed the rainbow of light that was flickering around the old man's still form or the symbols that burned so much brighter over his head and heart. Lights that burned bright for a heartbeat and drove some of the oily smoke away.

Enough that Amara saw the skull at the center of it. A skull that forced old prayers out of her even as she realized that it wasn't in any way human. It almost looked like a bird, but one that was as foreign as the huge gold ring and the violet light that burned in its otherwise empty eye sockets as it spun around. One that didn't belong in this world any more than the monsters that were raining fire down on a city half the world away.

Not like the almost delicate gloved hand that was holding it. "Kevin!" The woman - no, the girl, even if her long hair was already silver - spat out as she pulled her hood back with her free hand and glared right at Amara with bright purple eyes. A girl Amara took in in a heartbeat she had left as the night melted away. The rest of her clothes were a mix of colors that were all different shades of purple and her almost black thigh-high boots. All of it except for the true black and red cloak she was wearing and the thing that almost looked like a black crown on her head. One with a single yellow stone set in the middle.

A stone that was too plain over eyes that burned with a fury too raw for someone so young.

"Yeah, yeah," the demon behind Amara growled. The one she'd somehow forgotten about until then from the sheer shock of the girl in front of her. Or she did until he caught her with an arm that was as big as a pillar and almost looked human caught her around her throat. Almost, except it had the wrong number of fingers and the color was a red she'd never seen outside of a body. She wanted to scream, but she couldn't make her body work as it dragged her back. "I'll get rid of her."

"Wait," the girl said with a wave of her hand in her fingerless gloves and a smirk that was as cold as her eyes as she gave Amara a look before she turned back to the bed. "We might need her."

The demon just hummed at that, and Amara couldn't tell if it was a laugh or if the thing was thinking. "Damn right we do, 'cause I don't care what I owe you, Princess. I'm not changing any geezer's diapers if you're wrong."

"I'm sure, and don't call me that!" the sorceress said as she took her staff with both hands.

The beast just laughed at that, low and mean. "And what are you gonna do to stop me, Charmcaster?"

The girl smirked at him as she raised her staff high. High enough that the demon flinched. Then she spun around and drove the tip into the ground. This time Amara didn't just feel the thump. This time it tore right through her as a purple flare exploded out of the bird's eyes towards old George.

And then she let out a shriek when the violet hit the rainbow aura in a flash that made even that seem dim. It was bright enough that they burned even as Amara squeezed her eyes shut. She wished she could shove her hands over her ears so she could block out the sounds that the girl called Charmcaster was chanting ever louder, but the demon wouldn't let her go. Not even as it muttered something under its breath in the hall behind them. "Et sopitas et evigilare faciatis! Et sopitas et evigilare faciatis!"

Amara screamed again as the violet light burned at old George. Not like she expected, not with the horrible smell that she dreaded and still remembered. No, it looked like it burned away time itself, as impossible as it was. But there wasn't any other explanation for how the years fell away from the man under that horrible violet light even as Amara watched the wrinkles that covered his skin smooth and the blond she'd seen in the old pictures came flooding back into his hair before the light brushed it and it started to burn. Amara tried to run forward, tried to scream for help, but the arm around her throat tightened until she couldn't breathe. Until all she could do was stare at the man she should have been protecting.

Which was the only reason why she saw him twitch for the first time she could remember in that terrible light

Then there was a sound like shattering glass as something like the sun filled the room. Enough that even the monster behind her let out a bellow of pain as it stumbled back. She wanted to scream, too, as she choked, but the light was too much.

But even half-blinded, Amara still saw something move in it. Something that flowed like water or lightning as it moved up from the bed. "No more, witch." a voice she didn't know said with a hiss as the light vanished and something heavy hit the floor.

A hiss that Amara and the girl both echoed, but Amara wasn't the one who found a man at her back, a plastic serrated butter knife at her throat and her staff knocked halfway across the room. The girl blocked most of Amara's view, but nothing could hide his dark hair and beard - both just peppered with gray - as he loomed behind the sorceress, his blue eyes searching the room. Eyes that showed didn't show any fear as they took everything in.

And they were eyes that looked almost impossibly old.

Older even than her grandparents' had the last time she'd seen them when theirs had been clouded by the years. Clouded, but still so proud when she'd gotten her nursing job here even though it was half the world away. Prouder of her than they'd ever been. As proud as they'd been as they filled her head with all the stories that made her come here so she could serve, too. Stories that they'd been telling her since she'd been a little girl, and they all came rushing back to her now as she got a good look at the face of a man who didn't look a thing like Old George, but could be nobody else.

The sleeping king. The one who was hidden. Lost. A man Amara's grandparents had only ever whispered about like they did the War and always set a place at their table for, just in case. Amara had always dismissed it as superstition, the musings of old people on the cusp of senility clinging to a version of Santa Claus. But now...

"Your majesty?" She whispered, doubting her senses and her sanity.

"Don't call me that," The man who was Old George said with a wince as his eyes brushed over her before they settled on the demon who was holding her. Settled and narrowed just a little as he studied the thing for a heartbeat before they flickered away again even as the arm holding her tensed. Tensed until the girl it called Charmcaster shook her head. Not much, but the monster stilled when a single drop of blood appeared on the silver-haired girl's pale skin at the move. Not that Old George saw it as his eyes came back to Amara. "Who are you? Where are my knights?"

"I can take you to them," the sorceress in his arms said with a laugh like he was talking to her. Then she turned her head to him even with the knife at her neck. Her head and the black crown with the stone in it that glowed with her words with a light that showed the black lines carved deep in it. Lines that Amara stared at now even though she could only see a sliver of the stone and it drew her in until all the world was just the yellow and black and the echoing sound of Charmcaster's voice as she added, "Father," from so far away...

- o - o - o - o - o -

Ben Tennyson's House

Bellwood, California

1:34 am PT; June 17th, 2000

2 hours and 46 minutes after Vilgax's attack began

"Dad?! Hello, Dad?!"

Carl shouted those words into the phone the second he heard it click, and kept shouting them until he heard the sharp whistle and a woman's voice call out through all the hisses and pops that crowded the headset, "We're sorry. All lines are - "

They were the words that he'd heard so many times before and almost sent his cellphone flying against the wall now as he heard them again. Almost. Only the barest shred of restraint stayed his hand. A restraint shaped like his son and his niece and his dad, whose voice reminded him that the phone was a lifeline and only a damned fool threw those away in another old lesson.

They were lessons that usually made him feel better, but now they helped almost as much as the radio that was still playing or the clothes that he jammed into the suitcase that was open on his bed. Clothes he didn't even see because his flashlight was still on the dresser, and he didn't care about. He just jammed more in as he listened.

" - been almost fifteen minutes since the Air Force destroyed the last drone, but the President and the Joint Chiefs are still recommending that all non-essential personnel stay indoors until the all-clear is issued. Stay tuned to this station or your local news for further updates and orders. Repeat. This is a message from the Emergency Broadcasting System and this is not a drill. Repeat, this is not a drill. The alien attack on Phoenix, Arizona has - "

The words were almost as robotic as the one he heard on the phone, but at least this time he got the satisfaction of yanking the cord out of the wall even though he knew he'd be plugging it in again in a minute because not knowing was so much worse. Almost as bad as the quiet that filled the house now.

Enough of a quiet that he could hear the sniffling coming from down the hall. He followed it with only the soft light of a nightlight guiding him so he didn't trip on everything that had gotten knocked over in the rush earlier. It was all the little bits of art and life that his wife loved to collect - all the things that she said made a home - and he followed the mess of them down the hall to the heart of theirs.

Ben's room, where he found his Sandy Bear rushing this way and that before she stopped in front of their son's dresser with its pulled open drawers, and just froze as she stared at all the clothes that she usually would never have touched. Not even when he used to leave them in piles on the floor until they stank because it was his stuff, his room, and she didn't have the right.

That was the one rule that they always held to, no matter what the books said. It was the only one that Sandy always insisted on, and seeing her standing there now when their son wasn't home and hearing the noise she made as she broke her rules and reached in and grabbed a handful of clothes for the already full suitcase waiting on the bed behind her…

It was almost as hard as the lines he saw glistening down her cheeks as they caught the reflection of the nightlight she'd found and plugged in or seeing her go ramrod straight before she cried out, "His toothbrush!" Those words were barely out of his wife's mouth before she spun around and rushed for the door. Her blue eyes were so wide as she did, but Carl wasn't sure if she even saw him until she stopped dead in her tracks and squeezed her hands together. "Did Dad…?"

The only thing that felt worse for Carl than shaking his head was seeing the look on his wife's face when he did it. For a second he thought she'd collapse and he went to catch her, but she caught herself and scowled as fiercely as he'd ever seen her. "He'll need his toothbrush. They both will, and I have spares."

"Sandy…" Carl called out as she rushed by. There wasn't anything but determination in her steps as she rushed into the dark bathroom. More than were in Carl's as he followed, as he felt the weight of the night on his shoulders. "Sandy, we don't even know where they are."

And those words were the hardest he ever said just because they were true.

Sandra stopped dead with her head buried under the cabinet in the dark bathroom. Only a few rays of light made it to her, but it was enough that he saw the set of her chin and the fire in her blue eyes when she turned back. "We will. Dad's going to call any moment now and - and - "

And what? Carl almost asked. He still didn't know if they were going to his brother's or if Frank and Lili were coming here or what they'd do after. Not like he knew that he was supposed to be on his way to work the second the lockdown was lifted, and probably before that if things went wrong in town like he was sure that they would. He tried to tell himself that it didn't matter how many people were depending on him and that he could always find another job even if it was just slinging burgers, but just driving off?

Was this how Dad felt all the time? Carl wondered even though he knew it wasn't. Taking care of some pipes wasn't even close no matter how many people depended on them, but still…

How did he do it?

He saw the blue eyes he loved go so wide at the words he didn't say just like he saw his wife's shoulders slump, but he wasn't sure who needed the hug more when he caught her. "They're okay," he whispered the words he needed to hear. "Dad wouldn't let anything happen to them."

Not as long as the man still breathed. Carl knew his dad and he knew that like it was carved in stone.

But it didn't make him feel any better even though the words made his wife nod. He tried to lose himself in the feel of her silky blond hair as it brushed the side of his face and her even softer lips as they pressed against his before she took a breath and whispered. "I know. I know, I just…" Sandra just shuddered then as she ran out of words, and he felt it cut right through her body.

"We'll find them. We'll bring them home."

His Sandy Bear just laughed then. A laugh that sounded like a sob. "Of course we will. I just wish we had an RV of our own. Then we wouldn't have to worry about stopping." Carl laughed and kissed her again just like he knew she wanted him to. "And we'd be with them right now."

"Sounds like a plan for next summer," Carl said before he added with a laugh, "I can just see Ben's face when we tell him."

"He'll get over it." The words came with a giggle. A sad one. "Thanks for turning off the radio, the vibes were…"

"I know," Carl said when she didn't finish. Then he kissed her again because he had to know. "Get the toothbrushes. I'm going to try Dad again." Sandra nodded at that, worried and relieved even as he pulled the phone out of his pocket. He'd tried both of the kids' phones and his father's so many times already that their voicemail wouldn't even take any more messages, but he'd do it again. He'd do it for the rest of his life if he had to.

He was sure of that until he heard the phone ring and dread didn't even let him look at the number. Not when he knew that the mayor was on the other end and he'd have to make a choice. His family or everyone else, and dread almost stole away his voice. "Hello?"

"H'llo? Ca'l?"

Some scared, small part of Carl never thought he'd hear his father's voice again, even if it was almost lost in the static, and he couldn't help his jump any more than his wife could keep spinning back when he said, "Dad? Dad, are you there?! Are you and the kids okay?!"

There was so much noise on the line. So much he was almost sure he imagined the voice until it came back, and it sounded so far away. "We're 'ine, C'rl. Th' 'ids are fi'e. Ev - ing's 'kay. - been try'g to call but the ' ones…"

The words were a puzzle, but the best kind. The kind that stole his breath away as he pulled Sandy close and rested his forehead on hers. He almost reached for the speakerphone, but he didn't trust himself or the line. He just turned the phone so she could hear, too, as she shoved her hand over her mouth and fresh tears ran down her cheeks. "I know, Dad. They're bad here, too. Can we talk to Ben?"

" -n't st'y on the line 'ch 'onger. C'll your br'ther - me?" Dad started and Carl couldn't even tell if the man heard what he said last there was so much interference and felt his heart fall even more. "'ove you."

"I will, Dad!" He shouted back just as the line clicked and buzzed and his next words sounded so small. "We love you, too."

Then arms were around him again as he stared at the dead phone. "They're okay," his Sandy Bear whispered as she hugged him close. "They're okay, they're okay."

"Yeah," Carl said and he wanted to laugh and cry at the same time because that was all that mattered. He knew that he had to call his brother, but for right now he just held the woman he loved tight. As tight as he was going to hug the three of them when he saw them again, and if Ben didn't like it he could just deal. "They're okay."

- o - o - o - o - o -

The Base of Chase Tower

Phoenix, Arizona

2:28 am MT; June 17th, 2000

Two Hours and Forty Minutes Since Vilgax's attack began

"- okay is the last word I'd use, Sir."

Luther Albright didn't spit out those words, he didn't look up, didn't try to find the man with his sniper rifle in the window above him, or stare at the starship that hung over them all as he made his report. Adapt and overcome were the words he lived by, the ones that kept him moving in Afghanistan and got him through all the madness that came after, but this?

He didn't know. He didn't even know where to start after all he got from Merlin was a curt, "Roger," that reminded him why he hated this job.

It wasn't even the big stuff. It wasn't the jet fighters that he heard rumble by overhead every few seconds or the tanks in the streets he'd seen when he was coming in. He'd seen enough of that in Bosnia.

It didn't help that he'd driven through this city once when he drove across the country with his best friend before they both enlisted. That made it harder, but it wasn't like people didn't talk about things like this happening on the home ground. It wasn't even the giant ass alien ship that was still filling the sky over his head. The monkey part of his brain kept screaming that it shouldn't just hang there, that it was going to fall any second…

He heard the old terror and he put it away. There wasn't a thing he could do if it did and he had more than enough of his own problems. The teams he'd seen board the ship not ten minutes ago were going to have to deal with that. The last teams on the scene, the ones who arrived almost an hour after his. It was the mission that he was sure that they'd get before they were sent here instead of up there or out to fight the drones when they got the alert. He knew why, but no one else did.

Not yet, but he could see the rest of his squad eyeing their objectives even with their helmets hiding their faces. Not that they were much to look at, not when the boy just sat there with his head in his hands. A boy who didn't look any older than his Alan and the girl sitting next to him could have been the daughter that they never had but he knew that his wife always wanted, always planned for in the rare moments when he was home. And beyond that, they were kids who shouldn't be here. Kids who should be home and in bed like his son was.

And they were kids who shouldn't be able to do what they did.

At least the pink bubble around the two was finally gone. He tried not to think about what he'd seen her do with another bubble just like that or that all of his men together weren't as big as the giant attack drone he'd watched her do it over a satellite feed while they were jetting in. He tried and tried, but he couldn't get over how she crushed it like it was nothing and Luther didn't know how but he knew it was because of her, and it was nothing compared to the trail of destruction that the boy left in his wake.

No. Ben and Gwen. They weren't just objectives.

Ben and Gwen. That was what he'd heard the Colonel call them anyway. He'd heard the names slip out more than once while they were serving together and over and over tonight as he tried to convince his granddaughter to drop the shield. They were words that she just ignored as she clutched the brown-haired boy at her side until he finally woke up a few minutes ago. She still didn't let him go now as she held his hand with hers like he was the most important thing in the world.

And maybe he was, but still so hard as he watched the boy just ignore her and them both shiver even with the silver blankets wrapped over them. Shiver and look so pale...

It was almost as hard as just sitting here and setting up a perimeter when the rest of the city was still going crazy, even if the fighting was done. Sitting here in the shadow of the massive ship that still hovered overhead. A ship that could fall out of the sky or explode at any moment and they all knew it, but it didn't change a thing. It didn't even slow down the two shuttles that disappeared into it not an hour ago and he could still hear the teams inside fighting with the drones inside whenever he listened in.

Which he didn't. Not much. Not like he was sure that the boys at Area 51 were. He didn't pace either. Not to check the perimeter or the body on the other side of the truck. He'd seen enough of the alien thing already. Enough to know that it looked just like he always imagined things would be out there in the dark, right down to the tentacles that hung from its head. And enough to know that it was dead and it was the crystals that did it. The crystals that were still stained with green gore and blue blood. He'd seen worse. He'd done worse, but that didn't mean he had to sit there and gawk. He'd check the stasis pods when they were full, but for now…

For now, he just stared at the Colonel as he hovered over the two kids. The man who knew, who never said a word even as they fought for their lives or after Armstrong and Wheels lost theirs…

Stared until the voice in his ear growled out, "And what about the device?"

The words brought Luther to his full attention as he looked around at the other Plumbers. The ones who kept glancing over, too, whenever the Colonel wasn't looking. Some of them he knew, but they weren't his and he'd skin them if they found something and didn't tell them. "What device?" He snapped as he missed Armstrong and Wheels all the more.

"The one on the boy's wrist, Yankee Sierra," Merlin snapped. "I want a status update on the device now."

Ben, Luther almost said before he remembered his orders. Orders that made him grit his teeth because the boy deserved a name even as he looked over, looked past the Colonel as he paced around the two with a cellphone pressed against his ear. A phone that Luther should have taken because his orders were clear, but the man was right. Not answering would cause more trouble.

And he couldn't imagine what the kids' parents were going through right now. Or what kind of people would let their children go through this.

He couldn't stop that thought any more than he could the one about what he'd do if Alan was the one here right now. Trouble would just be the start of it for whoever brought him, Luther was sure of that as he stared at the boy and the watch he was wearing. A watch he barely even let himself think about until now, and as his eyes flickered over the only thought he had was that was too big for someone so scrawny.

Knowing what it really was - what the old man swore it was as Merlin matched him step for step on the way to the transport and read him in, his voice a growl and his eyes promising terrible things, it didn't change anything - it didn't change anything. That was just a little boy sitting there on the cement and Luther couldn't wrap his mind around it.

Any of it.

That was the Omnitrix? That was what half the aliens he'd run into kept going on about? He could live in a world with aliens and demons and gates to other worlds that were hidden under the island he had his honeymoon on, but one where the most powerful weapon in the universe looked like a bulky wristwatch?

And a twelve-year-old boy had it. One who wouldn't look up now even with his cousin at his side and his grandfather stopping every few seconds to ruffle his hair and whisper words that no child should ever have to hear after he'd done something that no one should have to do.

He was twelve. Who would do that to him? And Merlin wanted to hear about a watch? Luther didn't even try to keep the growl out of his voice as he reported it in. "It's fine, sir."

Merlin sighed like it was the best news he ever got. "Not even a scratch?"

Luther shook his head and almost punched the wall just for the flash of pain that would make sense, but he kept it all out of his voice. "No sir. If it wasn't for the way that it's glowing I - "

"Glowing? What do you mean glowing?"

Those words were filled with all the surprise and worry that Merlin never showed. Enough that Luther couldn't help looking over his shoulder again at the boy and the faint light that was still shining through the rag that they'd wrapped around the thing on his wrist. Only his training kept his voice steady as he said, "The face of it has been glowing yellow since we got here, Sir. I asked the girl to turn it off before it caught anything's attention while we were waiting for the boy to wake up, but - " but she just glared like he'd kicked her puppy and held the unconscious boy closer behind the shield she'd made. "Covering it with a rag was the easiest option, sir."

There was nothing else to say after that, so Luther didn't say anything as he waited for the next order. Not an explanation. He'd been a Plumber for almost two years now and he knew better than to expect that from the man people called Merlin enough that he wondered. This job was even more tight-lipped than the army ever dreamed of being and if it bothered him at all…

One look around at the fires and the ship still in the sky reminded him that there were worse things out there. One of those terrible things found the Colonel right then even as Luther's radio went dead, and the big man jumped as his phone rang.

Luther hated doing it, but these suits were a miracle and he needed some clue about what was going on. He watched the Colonel limp away from the kids and the rest, moved to a dark corner that only did a little to muffle his voice as Luther dialed in the microphones that were built into his gear and he would have killed for back when he was a Ranger. " - told me that Vilgax did something to it just before he…" the colonel said, his voice resigned and nasally because even alien tech needed a bit of time to heal a nose that was as broken as his. His nose or his twisted ankle, not that it slowed him down any other way, especially not the draw that left Luther staring down the barrel of a plasma pistol when they landed. "I don't know. It's never done this before. No. No, it's not the self-destruct. I know what that looks like, unless it has more than one. It's not like the Watch came with a manual. The only person who knows for sure is the one who made it."

Merlin never said goodbye, but it was easy enough to tell when he was done just by how the Colonel let the phone drop like he was beyond done. Luther just wished he was, too, as that raspy voice filled his helmet again. "I want the colonel and those children heading out of that city in the next twenty, Yankee Sierra. Bring them home. Whatever it takes."

And that was it. Merlin was just gone with barely even a click. There was just the pit in Luther's stomach as he took in the three as the Colonel went back to his kids even as another Plumber came up from the street. A man he knew, and he couldn't say that about many here. "You better have some good news for me, Cruz, or I'll tell your daughters what happened to their quinceañera money."

Julio should have laughed at that. Laughed and said something about what Marie and Ashley would do to them both if they ever found out about that card game in the desert, but he didn't. He just nodded back the way he came, back to the street he was supposed to be watching just like Albright was him. He'd only been back for a few months from the injury that sidelined him in Afghanistan, and he was only here because Luther asked for him. Because he wanted another friend in this madhouse. Now he was the only one left, and Luther couldn't help but notice how still he moved as he nodded back the way he'd come. The other Plumbers were still in position at least, and so were a pair of headlights that weren't a minute ago. "We've got a situation, Boss. A civilian who - "

"Get them moving, Captain," Luther snapped and he didn't even try to keep the edge from his voice. "And what are you doing, letting yourself get spotted?"

"She knows the codes, sir," Julio broke in as he reached for his left forearm and pushed a button. "All the codes. She says the Colonel sent for her."

Luther sucked in a breath as he looked through the eyes of the man who was still watching the woman as she sat in her car with a calm look that didn't do anything to hide the worry or the steel in her eyes. Eyes that were set in a face he knew and sent him marching across the distance that he gave the Colonel out of respect. For just a moment, he was ready to turn the speakers all the way up just because the man had it coming, but when he took a look at those two kids again…

"Who's the civilian, Colonel?" he barked out without touching the volume as he caught the Colonel by the arm and dragged him away from the two. He saw the man's eyes go wide as he looked to the street before they narrowed again and Luther could see the lies getting ready. "And don't pretend you don't know her. Not when she could be your - "

"She is," the Colonel said, his eyes hard even though they were already turning black. "I called my sister. We're taking the kids home." The threat in those words was bare and there wasn't even the least bit of give in them.

Not that there ever would be any from Max Tennyson. Luther served with the man who was almost a legend for a year now. A year spent on a dozen battlefields that went all the way to the fucking moon and he never heard the mountain of a man sound so sure. Not even when he pulled a pistol on a prisoner. He didn't miss how the man's hand drifted towards the same weapon now as it waited on his hip either. He didn't reach for it, not yet, but the message was clear.

Clear enough that Luther felt his hand tighten into a fist because they'd been in the trenches together and the man never said a word. They'd lost friends together, friends who might still be here if…

If the Omnitrix was on Max's wrist, or anyone else's. Anyone but a twelve-year-old boy. Luther's eyes flickered to the boy who looked dead to the world and saw his Alan sitting there - saw that thing locked on his wrist and shuddered - and when he looked back at the Colonel…

Tennyson was a legend who spent most of his time on the front lines and saved the world more than anyone could count. Luther tried to remember that, but all he saw right now was a dad. Saw him and said the only thing he could from one father to another. "You've got fifteen minutes to get them out of town, Colonel, before it's both our asses."

Somehow the exhausted gratitude that flashed over Max Tennyson's face was harder to take than his dare. Not that he saw it for long, not before the man rushed for the kids. "Let her through, Julio," Luther said with a sigh and Cruz was gone with just a nod.

The Lincoln got there just as Max got Ben back on his feet. The girl at his side tried to stand, too, before her face just went white and the boy cried out as she fell back to the cement. If Luther had any doubt about the Colonel having kids, they vanished as he swooped her up in his arms, his bum ankle be damned, and she just collapsed against his chest as the boy stared at her and wobbled on his feet as his mouth moved with the first words he'd said since they'd gotten there.

Words that Luther didn't even try to listen in on as he watched the Colonel hold them both just like he used to hold his son when Alan was little and sick. It was a thought that he tried very hard not to think as he watched the Colonel stand there, somehow still smiling as he said something to the boy and they both got moving even though his leg must have been in agony.

Hell and back. That thought was easier as he stared at the man and it was enough to get him moving so he could help.

Not that he got a chance. Not before a woman popped out of the boat of a car. He waited for her to stop and gawk at him and the rest of the gray suits, but she didn't. She just hurried by with a speed that belied the decade it looked like she had on her brother, her whole attention on the three and there was worry written all over her face as she hugged them all.

Luther had just enough time for a smile before he heard a voice hiss in his ear, "Sir?!"

Luther didn't turn around at the woman's voice. He didn't look back. He didn't even glance at the readout on his helmet. Not when he already knew that she was coming and she was bringing the storm with her. "I'm doing just what Merlin said, Swift. I'm sending them home."

"We have our orders!" The woman let out another angry little hiss, the only kind of sound he ever heard from her or the man quiet next to her. Leander never said much, he couldn't with the burns that covered his face, but even with his gloves on Luther knew that the man was holding his rifle so tight his fingers would be white as he stared at the girl. He never would have brought either of them if he wasn't so sure that they'd be doing a lot of killing today. "She's a witch. We're supposed to bring them in or - "

"I was ordered to get them out of town," Luther snapped because it was true. "And you were ordered to follow mine."

That part he wasn't sure about. Not even as he finally turned and glared into the woman's facemask. Somehow, he was sure that the blank slab of alien metal was warmer than the look under it. "When Merlin hears about this... "

Luther grinned at the grumbled words. "It's my ass and my ass will be just fine. Question me again and it'll be yours. Understood?"

"Sir." Swift saluted then. One that was picture perfect and all the more mocking because of it before she spun and marched back to her little killer friend. He gave two one last look before his eyes went back to the car. He saw red hair disappear inside as the colonel helped his granddaughter into it, the worry clear on his face as he did.

And that was better than the quiet nothing on his sister's as she watched Swift and Leander talk and hugged Ben closer to her side. Somehow that look was scarier than any glare, even if it vanished in a smile the moment the Colonel stood back up. A worried one as she led Ben over and she didn't let him go until he was inside.

Not that the boy noticed. Not that he noticed anything, but that was normal and he'd get over it. They both would.

The Colonel saw more than enough anyway. He saw him watching and gave Luther a nod and a smile before he got into the passenger seat and the car backed onto the road. Luther smiled back as it drove even though no one would be able to see it through his visor. He nodded back and prayed he wasn't lying to himself.

- o - o - o - o - o -

Michelle Hallam's Basement

Bellwood, California

4:12 pm PT; June 17th, 2000

17 hours and 26 minutes since Vilgax's attack began

"Stop lying to me!"

Michelle hissed the words out and heard them echo off of the stucco walls of the stairwell around her. She would have yelled at them if it wasn't for that, if it wasn't for the fact that the basement was huge and empty with the boxes that were down here pushed off to the side so they could make it as comfy as they could with the blankets that they'd spread out over the floor. Not that it mattered, not when the rest of her family was right there not six feet from the bottom of the stairs as they huddled around a little TV with a VCR built-in and all the toys that they could get in five-minute runs upstairs. Minutes that were better spent doing something else, even if having her mother standing and worrying right outside the door meant it was only a little bit better than using the bucket that was waiting in the far corner behind a sheet that was hung first thing.

But at least they got that much time above ground after the Colonel called and gave them the all-clear. It didn't change the fact that they'd be stuck down here until the man actually came home if she knew her mom at all. Her mom, who was still smiling even as Matthew sniffled in her arms and Elias banged his favorite toys together so hard as he sat next to them that he'd already broken one. Her mother, who smiled through it all and didn't need her yelling or crying. Not right now.

Even though that's all she wanted to do as she pulled at what was left of her braid.

Be brave. We have to be brave. Those old whispered words went through Michelle's head as her mom's spun around just from her tone, caught her eye, and mouthed them again.

Michelle hated those words, but she hated the haunted look in her mom's eyes and the fear in her brothers' more. She wanted to explain, to apologize when she heard the girl on the other end suck in a breath, but she just curled up tighter around the cordless phone instead and whispered, "Just stop saying you're fine over and over and over again, Crazy Girl. Do you think that this is the first time I've gotten a call like this?"

It wasn't, it so wasn't. None of them were as bad as the one they got last year after the Colonel just vanished for three days before he came back with his arm wrapped up like a mummy's and a hurt in his eyes that never went away. That one was the worst, but it didn't make the others any easier. It didn't make the waiting today any easier either, and they'd been waiting ever since the Humvee showed up in the middle of the night and her dad disappeared into it with barely a word. Just a quick hug and a kiss goodbye for all of them.

A hug and a kiss she turned away from and felt sick about ever since because she didn't know if she'd ever...

"Please just tell me what's going on! Please!"

"We - We're - "Gwen started before her voice broke. She stayed quiet for so long after that that Michelle was afraid that she'd hung up. Then she heard the soft rustle and she could just see the girl sliding down a wall until she huddled on the floor just like Michelle was on the steps. She would have given anything for a hug from her best friend, or to give her one, but all she had was the phone that she squeezed the phone tight as her eyes burned until Gwen finally came back, her voice cracking just like the line as she said, "We were in the city during the attack."

A noise filled the basement after she said those eight words. A noise that Michelle didn't even know came from her until she saw her mom bolt up and she heard the girl on the other end call her name. She wanted to push her mom away like she did her dad, but her hug felt too good. So good until the woman reached for the phone and she had to bolt back just to keep it even as tears ran down her cheeks as she glared up. A glare her mother took with just a sigh as she sat down next to Michelle and rubbed her back. She wanted to yell at the woman so she could at least pretend she had some privacy or at least shoo her brother's away as they drew closer, but the touch felt too good. Good enough that she could pull herself back together enough to ask, "A - are you okay? Is everyone…?"

And when she heard the noise Gwen made on the other end, she was sure she had her answer even as she felt the weight of it sit on her chest. A weight that vanished with a single sniffled, "I don't..." The words sounded so, so far away. As far away as her best friend really was. Then she swallowed hard and almost sounded like herself again. "We were stuck in some road construction when one of those drones flew by and blew up a building right next to us. It was… Gr-dpa gunned it and just we went through all of the cones and w' were almost out of the c'ty when…"

Michelle heard the pause and her pounding heart filled the silence as she squeezed the phone so hard it hurt even as the popping and crackling she'd been hearing every time she picked up the phone today came back. "Crazy?"

"There was a truck… Gr'ndpa didn't see it in t'me a - and the R'stb-et is 'taled now, but..."

"But you're okay?" Michelle squeaked out as tears ran down her cheeks. Tears enough that her mom hugged her hard and her brothers just stared. "You and Ben and your Grandpa?"

"We're - " Gwen's voice broke then. Broke with a sound that Michelle only ever heard her best friend make once before, a sound that meant that tears were going to come at any moment, but they didn't. Michelle could tell that much at least even as the static on the line got so much worse. "We're h're. My a'nt 'ame 'n p-cked us up. The p'ones are st- 'azy so it m-ht be a wh'le..."

"Of course things are crazy, you're down there," Michelle teased with a relieved laugh as she wiped her eyes and let her mom squeeze her tighter. Tight enough that more tears slipped out. Happy ones. "And thank you. Thank you for telling me the truth."

- o - o - o - o - o -

Aunt Vera's House

Calatrava Pastures, Arizona

5:15 pm MT; June 17th, 2000

17 hours and 29 minutes since Vilgax's attack began

The truth was that Vera was never very good with children, she never had a chance for all that she helped out when Frank and Carl were little and all that she adored being around Ben and Gwen before she moved.

And she moved now. She moved the moment she saw the lights flicker and heard Gwen's voice catch. Not fast enough to save the phone that she'd run out to the couch just so her grandniece could use it, but the smoke she saw wafting out of the receiver didn't matter nearly as much as the girl who held it. "I - I - " She heard Gwen gasp, her voice cracking and her eyes swimming as she clutched at the ancient piece of plastic.

"It's alright, dear," Vera murmured as she gently took the phone from her hand and let it drop so she could hold the girl even softer. As soft as she could, but she still felt the bandages that she'd wrapped around the girl's middle under her borrowed shirt, felt them shake as Gwen cried into her shoulder. "I have another one in the garage somewhere. Give me a moment or two and I'll have it right as rain so you can talk to your friend some more."

The only answer she got from her great-niece was a shake of her head as the girl pulled away, put her head on her knees and disappeared even more into the shirt that dwarfed the poor girl, but at least it didn't stink of mothballs like Ben's clothes did. And they were clean, which was so much more than could be said of the clothes that she found them in. They both deserved so much better, but it was all Vera had left to give anymore.

That and love. All the love in the world as Ben just sat there in the corner without saying a word as he stared at his cousin, his face white. Almost as white as the bandages that were wrapped around Gwendolyn's head. "Then let's get you back to bed. Ben, do you want to - ?" Vera tried as he just stared, but the words made him jump and his face somehow became even paler. He still didn't make a sound, not even one of the words that were barely grunts that he'd made when his parents called an hour ago and Vera couldn't put them off any more. No, his eyes just fell back down to the Watch wrapped around his wrist as his cousin went so still on the couch. At least he'd stopped pulling at it, Vera tried to tell herself as her heart fell, even if the skin all around where it became a part of him was covered with the marks he'd left behind when he had.

Vera wished that she could say that she didn't know just what was going through his head, through both of their heads as she watched the girl who held her grandnephew's hand for as long as she could, for the whole ride home until Max made her let go so they could get her in bed and check her over again, curl deeper into herself. As deep as her body would let her, desperate for a hug that wasn't coming. She wished she could just write it all off to him being twelve and a boy, but Vera knew that she couldn't. She knew it, but she didn't know what she could do about it except be patient.

She told herself that again and again and wished she could believe it.

Her mother's words were easier. 'You do what you can with what you have.' They were the words she heard the whole time she was growing up and saying them again almost helped. It was enough that she could at least make herself smile for the two of them as she brushed some of Gwen's sweat-stained hair from her bandage and ask, "Your Grandpa will be back any moment now, I'm sure. And I don't know about you two, but breakfast was always my favorite meal of the day. Would either of you…"

She stopped because the words didn't get the slightest bit of a reaction even though neither of them had even looked at her fridge since they woke up. She didn't even get the gagging she expected from her nephew. Not that she took it even the least bit personal because he didn't know better. She almost told him that. She would have if she thought he would listen, but she was sure he wouldn't.

Vera had seen that look before, and she felt sick seeing it on them now.

Seeing it and not knowing what to do. Not when she'd been wrong about so much already. She'd been wrong about them 'going hero' or however the saying went and about seeing Max after they'd gotten Gwen stabilized because she was sure that the worst was over. Her eyes went to the medkit that was still waiting, that could still give them both the sleep that they needed and her the time until her brother got back.

He was the one that they needed.

He would have known better than to think that she'd find them all curled up together after they slept off the worst of the alien drugs anyway. Curled up even though propriety demanded that she give Ben the guest bed and Gwen hers while she tried to watch over from the chair she dragged in just for that, and when she drifted off…

Vera wouldn't have said a word if they were. Not to their parents or even her brother. She was so sure that she would even as she drifted off. She was as sure that Ben would sneak past her as she was that the smell of smoke and dust would make her dream of having hay under her again and the man who should have been her husband over her…

But Ben didn't. She woke up and found Ben just staring from the hall, his face pale and his fingers red and they'd both moved like robots as she brought them out here just so she could keep an eye on both because she could feel the pain coming off of them. A pain she just wanted to take away, but all she could do was clean them up and try to get them to eat. And maybe…

"If either of you wants to talk," Vera said, the words so hesitant even though she was desperate to be of some help, "I'm right here. Ben, I promise I won't make any bird calls unless Gwen asks. You can tell me anything. I swear. And you don't have to - " She caught herself before she said the word 'lie,' but they both heard it and flinched anyway.

They made three phone calls that lasted maybe ten minutes altogether, but Vera lost count of all the lies that they told to the people they loved. She lost count, but she wouldn't forget the pain she saw in the children's eyes as they said each one.

It was a part of the life, she knew that as well as she did that they'd learned it from their Grandpa, the man who hid everything. It was like he lived two lives, and the only place they touched was with the two she was watching over. She couldn't imagine living like that, not for all these years, but somehow Max managed. It helped that he had friends he could talk to who were in the know even if his wife and sons weren't.

And he had her.

Who did Ben and Gwen have besides each other and their Grandfather? And if they couldn't talk to each other...

Vera also knew Max didn't want her to tell them, but he wasn't here. How could she expect them to talk if she wouldn't? Not that she would tell them everything, but she could be there for them. "You don't have to hide anything from me. I know about the Omnitrix, you two, and the magic. And the Plumbers and aliens and - " she caught her ramble before she could say you. They should work out whatever was going on between them for themselves. Not hear it from her that she'd seen their first kiss.

Her words got Gwen's attention at least. "How?" Gwen asked with a cracking voice and wet eyes.

Eyes that broke Vera's heart even as she reached down and brushed at the girl's hair again. "Mostly from your grandfather, dear. And from Gordon. And my Benjamin. Your parents never told you about him, did they, Ben?" She asked even though she knew the answer. They barely knew about him, and when they told her what they were going to name their son…

Verdona was gone by then, but she could just imagine her friend's smile when Carl admitted that the name was her idea. One last gift…

One that caught her nephew's attention now. She saw him turn and look at her, his green eyes the only color on his pale face. They were both still so pale and she couldn't miss how her niece still held her stomach. The alien medical nanotech they were both pumped full of did wonders - without it they would both be in the hospital. Ben for a few days, Gwen for weeks - but they could get overwhelmed. They very nearly were last night.

"He was just as much trouble as your Grandfather. And you," Vera said with a shiver as she pushed that thought away for one that was so much better. Even with everything else, she still smiled as she remembered the first time she'd seen him, so proud and so tall in his armor. "And just as brave."

Braver than the ones she saw last night. Even with their helmets on, she could feel their fear filling the air as they kept glancing over at the two. The last thin line and they were terrified of two children who were sitting on the road and shivering together.

"Where - " Gwen asked, her voice still hesitant but her frown as she thought was so her that Vera could have cried. "You never… Where is he? What happened to him?"

Vera's smile slipped at the words even as her hand froze because she knew she made a mistake. That none of this was what they needed to hear. "He-he's…"

Thankfully, Max always had a sense of timing if not manners as he came through the front door without anything so much as a knock. Vera almost pulled her niece behind her until she saw him behind the big cardboard box he was carrying and heard him call out. "I'm back and just wait until you two see what I got, you two!" Still, it was only the smile she saw on his face kept her tongue in check. This house needed a smile right now. Especially since it was already catching as the kids climbed up to their feet, or Gwen tried to before Vera put a hand on her shoulder and gave her brother a look. One that made him wince but didn't touch his smile as he came rushing over as well as he could on his leg. The one that the stubborn old cuss didn't even tell her was hurting until after they'd taken care of the kids. "No need to get up, Pumpkin. I need to stretch my legs anyway."

The words made Gwen frown, but they didn't take away any of her curiosity as she asked, "Where did you go?!"

"What did you get?" Ben asked at the same time as he came over as nervous as a raccoon.

"One at a time, you two!" Max said with a laugh that Vera never would have guessed was an act if she didn't know him so well. It wasn't much of one either, just enough that it took the edge off until he put the box down on her table so he could hug them both. Her brother always said that their hugs were the best medicine, and Vera never doubted it. "I got us some supplies that are still in the car, and I went to see what I could get out of the Rustbucket. Found some real treasure, too."

Ben and Gwen turned and for the first time they actually looked - well, not happy, but as they got closer. Maybe she'd been wrong, Vera thought as she watched. Maybe they just needed something to focus on that wasn't last night. If so, she had a whole garage full of them that they could go through. There was stuff out there that was strange enough to even get Ben's attention if the box didn't quite manage. Which it must not have, not when he looked up and asked, "The Rustbucket, Grandpa, can you…?"

Gwen sucked in a breath at the words and turned, too, and seeing four of those green eyes staring just wasn't fair. Vera knew she wouldn't have managed it, and Max almost didn't. She could see the sadness in his eyes, but all that reached his voice was a little sigh. "I'm not going to lie to you, Ben…"

"Oh," was all the boy said as his face fell even further as Gwen's eyes went wide with worry.

Wide enough that Vera didn't know how anyone else missed how she felt about her cousin. Not when it was written all over her face as she reached for the box for some distraction, and the face she made as she pulled out a pile of Max's Hawaiian shirts was almost as exaggerated as her gasp. Exaggerated enough that Ben's eyes went right to her. "Won't anything destroy these?"

"Hey now!" Max protested even as Vera let out a startled titter of a laugh.

"Remember the one we tried to burn?" Ben asked a second later. His voice was rough and hesitant, but his lips twisted up and Gwen glowed.

"Wait, you did what?" Max asked, and he tried to sound outraged, but Vera saw him wink at her.

"We threw it right into the campfire and when we came out the next day it was fine." Gwen gave the shirt a poke. "What are these things made of?"

Nanocarbon tubes, Vera almost said, but she liked her brother's answer better as he took his shirt back. "Style."

An answer she ignored as she leaned close to the kids and mock whispered, "Your grandmother tried to do the same thing after I got him the first one." And the startled laugh that got from Ben was worth the world.

It was almost as good as the horrified look her niece gave her. "This is your fault?"

Vera faked a shudder. "You've never seen him in polyester." That got the desired wince out of both kids.

And the outraged look from her brother. "Hey now! I like my shirts. And my suit! I really cut a rug back in the day!"

"Grandpa!" Ben groaned before it was his turn to give her a look. "What about the cooking?"

Vera gasped and it wasn't even a little bit fake as she lifted her nose high. "Mother always taught us waste not -"

"-want not," Max finished. "And what's wrong with my cooking?"

"Nothing!" Ben and Gwen said together as they gave each other a look, one that made Vera's breath catch as she waited for Ben to recoil away again, and he almost did. Almost. And then his mouth twitched up into something like a smile. One that caught on Gwen's face. Not a big one, but it was there and it was enough that some of the knots in Vera's stomach started to undo themselves.

Especially when Ben leaned forward and asked, "Is there anything else good in there?" And when she saw the books he brought out. Both of them were a little scorched but they looked okay. Her eyes barely brushed over the one with the odd purple and gold cover, but when Vera saw the other with its plain leather one…

It was such a stupid thing, worrying about a book with everything else that was going on, but she did. She did and the relief almost sent her to the floor when she saw Verdona's journal again. There was so little of her best friend left. Nothing but her words and a few pictures and she wanted to grab the book and hug it close. But it wasn't for her, so she crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at her grandnephew instead as her grandniece squirmed and stared at both books like she was ready to pounce on them. "Are those yours, Ben?"

"As if!" Ben shouted with some of his old fire. A fire that turned into something else, something almost shy as he turned and shoved the books into his cousin's hands with a mumbled something that ended with, "They're my Dweeb's."

And the look on Gwen's face when he said those three words. Vera was sure that she'd forgotten all about the books even as she hugged them to her chest as she stared at the boy and started to smile. Then she ducked her head and remembered. "They were on the table. I never thought that I would..."

"They must be lucky," Ben said as innocently as he could.

Vera didn't get it, but Gwen just laughed and it was the sweetest sound to her. It was even better for Ben, though, as a grin split his face for the first time all day and it stayed there even as his cousin took her turn to search the box. She pulled out some black and white electronic contraption that Vera had never seen before, but Ben's eyes lit up when he saw it. He pulled it out of her hands and flipped it open, as happy as she'd ever seen the boy. Especially when something in the box rang and Gwen dove back into it. Her smile was just as big as she pulled out another one just like it, only in the same shade of blue that Vera saw in all the pictures that weren't from school or her dressed up. "Yes!"

Ben nodded. "Still has all our texts and everything! Who rocks?" The words came with such a smirk. One that got him a hand on the hip and a raised eyebrow before Gwen's grin finally broke through.

After that, the treasures got smaller. Max's old eagle scout compass, a small metal box that was cracked and had a sticky note on it that read laptop hard drive. Vera didn't know much about the things, but she knew that wasn't a good sign. Neither was the way Max rubbed the back of his neck as he tried to explain, but Gwen just got the same look in her eyes that her grandfather did when he had something to fix. The same right down to the little twinkle in their eyes. Under that was a jewelry box that was even smaller. One covered in a singed purple velvet that Max took with a gasp and a soft word that caught in his throat like he didn't even know it was there, which was more than enough to get Gwen's attention as he flipped it open. "Grandpa?"

"It's nothing, Pumpkin," Max said, the wet shine in his eyes giving lie to his words as he closed the box again, gave the box a kiss before he slipped it into his pocket. Then he reached over and squeezed her shoulder. "It's just something I didn't know that the guys found."

"But isn't that Grandma's - ?" Gwen started, Max's words only made her grandniece more curious, Vera could tell just from the way her brow pinched just like Verdona's used to.

Started, but her cousin was back in the box and reaching for the bottom before she could say another word. And then he was bounced back up with a cheer, "My tape deck! Sweet!

Gwen moved faster than she should have ever been able to as she sprang to her feet and grabbed the thing out of her cousin's hands. "You mean my old tape recorder!" It was so much like old times that it should have been adorable, but that Vera's eyes watered as she looked into the empty box. The box was empty and they'd all lost so much, but neither of them said a word about it and she knew her brother never would. He barely even seemed to notice it as he watched the two argue with a smile on his face like he could hug them both.

"Is not!"

After a moment, Vera smiled, too because it was cute. Cute enough for a picture.

"Is too! That's mine! I lost it years ago and I had to buy another one!"

Or a couple of smacked bottoms.

"You don't need two then!"

Vera did laugh at that as she watched Gwen's mouth drop as words failed her. Words, but not the happy glitter in the girl's eyes that made her glad that there weren't any barns around tonight. Maybe it was the look or her laugh that made her grandniece sigh and say, "Fine. You can have it. Just let me make sure my old notes aren't on the tape," as her finger found the play button.

And then Ben's voice called out with a groan like it was the last thing he wanted to admit, "Gwen, you did a good job."

Five words. Five words that didn't make any sense to Vera. Not any more than the crack about luck, but they made the girl suck in a breath and go so pale as Ben's head whipped around to her, his eyes wide and confused and worried as Gwen went still.

Still enough that Vera wasn't sure if she even breathing. "Gwen?" Max asked, his voice soft, even as Vera reached out.

That was when she felt the electricity fill the air. That was all the warning she got, and it was barely enough for her to grab her brother and nephew and pull them back before the whole room burned pink and the room filled with the stink of ozone. "Gwendolyn!" She cried out as she heard a sob and a wind fill the room that tore at her and everything around. Vera opened her eyes again just in time to see the girl at the heart of the storm collapse as what was left of the tape deck fell out of her hands.

Somehow Vera caught her before her knees hit the ground, but she felt every one of her seventy years when she did and she was only one person. One person trying to watch two -

"Ben, wait!" She heard Max shout even as the boy backed away, his face just white as he stared at his cousin. Backed away until he turned and bolted as he tore at the Watch again. Max took one step to follow, and then he looked back.

"I've got her!" Vera shouted at him and that was enough. It had been ages since she'd seen her brother run, but Max hadn't lost a single step. He hurried after Ben, calling his name the whole while, but it was too late. Vera heard a door slam shut.

The kids had been so close to – well, not being back to normal. That would have taken a lot longer, but they were at least seeing that normal was possible. To watch it all slip away...

Vera kissed the top of Gwen's head and gently rocked the sobbing girl back and forth as she kept repeating, "It's okay, Dear. It's okay. Everything will be okay," even as magic burned in the air around them.

Enough that it could do anything but put the world back together.

- o - o - o - o - o -

Author's Note

The title and the theme song for this chapter is Fleetwood Mac's Little Lies.