Ethan isn't really sure what to make of this new kid, even with four days to try to figure it out. They'd recognized each other from school, from before Ethan had dropped out. Peter seemed nice enough— maybe a little too nice toward Ash, but whatever. Hannah absolutely adores Peter already, the pair were even watching Disney movies together at this very moment. Since Peter had arrived, Hannah had barely glanced at Ethan, which was pretty disheartening.

In turn, Ethan's been spending a lot more time with Tim up in the front bedroom, sitting at the piano. Ethan's been trying to teach the six year old how to play, but the kid's attention span is more suited to coloring pictures and listening to Ethan play, than trying to play himself. Sometimes Theo will join them, sometimes their friend Megs, sometimes Ash.

Another odd thing that's been happening is Hidgens, lurking around sometimes. Ethan's half worried he's planning something again, but he also knows he wouldn't dare, not with Hannah, Ash, and now Ted around.

The door creaks open, and the professor himself peeks his head in. Ethan's playing a little tune he wrote himself a while back, and Tim is quietly coloring something that Theo had drawn for him.

"Ethan, might I have a word?" Hidgens asks quietly, and Ethan stops playing.

"Go for it," Ethan deadpans.

Hidgens glances at Tim, then back to Ethan. "In private," he clarifies. "You… and Theo."

Ethan quirks a brow, but gets up nonetheless and follows the professor. Theo's already waiting in the hall, hands in their pockets, and both twins follow down to the lab. Hidgens hands them each something that looks like a long Q-Tip, and Ethan stares at him.

"What the fuck is this?" he asks.

"Theo said something a few days ago that got me thinking." Hidgens takes a deep sigh. "I knew someone a long time ago, a woman named Beckett Green. Is that name familiar?"

"Our mom," Theo confirms. "She died almost three years ago."

"Your—" Hidgens sighs again, looking resigned to something. "I was… I suspected that was the case. Would you two mind doing me a favor?"

"You think you're our dad," Theo says evenly. It's clearly not a question. Hidgens nods.

"You two are about the right age for it to be possible," Hidgens admits. "And you said it yourself— Ethan looks just like me."

"And now you want to do a DNA test to prove it." Another nod. Theo shrugs, and swabs the inside of their cheek.

"Why both of us, though?" Ethan asks, reluctantly following his twin's lead. "We basically have the same DNA, right? Isn't that how that works?"

"I want to run the tests twice, to be absolutely certain," Hidgens says. "Better to be safe than sorry." He takes the two swabs from them and turns around, doing something that the twins can't see from where they are. Pulling out another swab, he does himself and adds it to the machine he's using.

"How long is this gonna take?" Ethan asks, shifting his weight nervously from one foot to the other. Theo plays with one of the blue streaks in their hair, looking more curious than nervous.

"A few days." Hidgens sighs. "You two can go back to what you were doing. I'll let you know as soon as I get the results."

Ethan heads back up to the bedroom, where Tim hasn't moved. His mind is in a fog as he sits back down at the keyboard. He and Theo had never known their father. All they'd had was their mom, and their stepdad for a while. Ken had been cool, until he'd left for another woman. That was one of the things that Ethan and Ash had in common, back when they first started dating. He'd been able to comfort her about it.

A small cracking noise breaks Ethan out of his thoughts, and he looks over to Tim, who's managed to somehow break the sharpie he'd been coloring with. Ink is spilling everywhere. Ethan groans a little.

"How in the hell—" he mutters, before getting up to find some rubbing alcohol and paper towels.

•~~•

Ash falls asleep on the couch, her head in Ted's lap as he plays with her hair, and dreams of her old life. Except… it's like she never existed. She wanders around her house, totally invisible. Her old bedroom is brown and gray, instead of the bright turquoise it should have been, and it's decorated like a guest bedroom. Like no one ever lived in it permanently.

Her brother and parents don't notice she's missing from their lives, they don't notice when she stands in front of them and tries to get their attention. Ash runs out the front door, seeing her car is gone from the driveway. She goes back inside, scouring every picture frame in every corner of the house.

She's in none of them.

She doesn't exist.

She never did.

Ash wakes up in a cold sweat, Ted already trying to soothe her.

"It was just a dream, Peanut," he murmurs as she sits up and clings to him. The memory of the dream sticks out, more vivid than any she's ever had before. Deep down, she knows it wasn't a normal dream. "What was it about? You wanna talk about it?"

Ash shakes her head, unable to even begin to try forming the words to describe the way she felt. The terror wasn't coming from the idea that no one back home remembers her… it was from the fact that she didn't care that they didn't. From feeling like she should be sad or scared.

Just as she opens her mouth to assure him that she's fine, a shout echoes from down the hall. Emma's freaking out about something, and it sounds like Paul is, too. It's a sufficient distraction for both Ted and Ash, and they go to investigate what's happening.

Paul's standing outside the bathroom, Emma on the other side of the open doorway. Lucy's standing down the hall, watching somewhat nervously. Ash looks to her, eyebrows slightly raised in a silent question, and Lucy nods.

"But we were so careful!" Paul says.

"Sometimes that's not enough, Paul," Emma says, clearly frustrated.

"What's going on?" Ted asks.

"Fuck off, Ted," Emma snaps. "Not now." Ted raises his hands defensively.

Paul is less frustrated than Emma, and quietly says, "She thinks she might be pregnant."

"Um… congrats?" Ted says, unsure if it's the right thing to say. It clearly isn't, because Emma slams the bathroom door closed in their faces.

Paul sighs, and knocks on the door.

Ted leads Ash (and Lucy) back to the living room to give them some privacy. Hannah comes in after a minute, dragging Peter behind her.

Peter smiles shyly at Ash, and she returns it before leaving again to find Ethan— mostly just to hide her blush.

•~~•

The next morning, Ash wakes up alone. Slipping out of bed, she heads to the bathroom before going to get some breakfast. Peter and Ethan are sitting at the table, eating silently. Ash's tempted to back out silently, before either can see her, but it's too late. Her boyfriend looks up and beckons her over, kissing her cheek when she sits down in the chair next to his.

He offers her a bite of his pop tarts, but she declines with a small shake of her head. Ethan gives her a worried look.

"I— it's nothing," she mumbles. "Just not hungry…" It's a half lie. She had been pretty hungry when she'd gotten up, but now she's lost her appetite.

"You sure?" Ethan asks. "I could fix you something else. Waffles? Or— uh, maybe…"

"It's okay, Ethan," Ash says softly. "I'm really just not hungry yet." She kisses his cheek, then glances over at Peter and blushes.

He's blushing, too, not looking at either of them. Ethan clears his throat, staring down at his pop tarts sullenly.

"So where's Hannah?" Ash asks, looking around. "I figured she'd be out here with one of you guys."

Ethan shrugs, breaking up his food with his fingers. Peter looks around, too.

"I saw her heading down to the basement earlier," he says.

"She probably went to Dad and Henry's room, then," Ash says with a sigh. "She's been having bad dreams lately. They've been the only ones who can calm her down when she wakes up…"

Ethan frowns, glancing over to the stairs to the basement. Ash gets up and goes down them, peeking her head into the bedroom at the bottom. The only one there is Ted, so she heads down the hall to look elsewhere. Ethan follows her quietly.

Henry and Hannah are in the room to the side of the lab, the one with the real piano. He's teaching her how to play, and she's soaking it up. They don't notice the teens in the doorway, too absorbed in the piano lesson. Ash smiles, before backing away and leaving them be.

With a small smirk, Ethan grabs her hand and pulls her up the stairs and out the back door. They pass right by Peter, who has now been joined by Lucy, Megs, and Paul at the table. He takes her outside, and pulls her to sit with him on the bench from that first day. She laughs quietly, curling into his side.

"What's this about?" she asks teasingly, as Ethan wraps his arms around her.

"Just wanted some alone time with my girlfriend, that's all," he replies innocently, and kisses the top of her head.

"You're up to something, Green," she accuses, but he just shrugs, pulling her closer.

"I'm always up to something, Foster," he says, smirking again. "It's one of the many things you love about me."

She giggles. "You sure about that?"

Pretending to pout, Ethan retracts his arms from around her and goes to stand up. Her giggles turn to full laughter as she pulls him back.

"Oh, come on, E," she says. "You know I love you… I'm just teasing. You make it so easy to do…"

"Don't throw my words back at me," he grumbles playfully, but relaxes again. Ash lays her head on his shoulder and sighs.

"I really do love you," she murmurs, and he starts playing with her hair. He whispers it back.

Holy shit, I've been here less than a week and I already mean that, she thinks to herself. What is Hatchetfield doing to me? It took me six months to tell- don't think about him. He was an asshole, and not the lovable kind like Ethan.

Meanwhile, Ethan is staring at the door, lost in thought himself. There was just something about Peter that Ethan couldn't get his mind off of...

•~~•

Megs sits at the piano again that evening, playing a soft melody from a musical she'd been co-writing before this whole mess started. She wonders vaguely if she could remember enough of it off the top of her head to re-write it in this world. She hopes so- she was so excited about it…

The song ends, and she stops singing, the last note trailing off into a sigh. If there's one thing about the old world that she misses, it's Orbit.

"That was beautiful," someone comments, and Megs jumps, spinning around on the bench to look. It's Henry Hidgens, and Megs blushes. "What was that from? I don't recognize it, and I'm pretty familiar with most musicals."

"Oh, um- I wrote it myself," she mumbles. "Me and a friend from school…"

Henry goes over and sits on the couch, giving her his full attention as she explains the plot. It's pretty complicated, but he easily follows along. He grins as she finishes.

"That sounds like a show I'd very much like to see," he says, and Megs blushes again.

"Really?" she asks. Henry nods. "Well, I'm still working on the music- that's only the third song I have, and there are still at least a dozen more."

"Perhaps I could help you, if you want," he offers. "I… have some composition experience, myself."

Megs' eyes widen- she knew he did, but the fact he's offering to help her with her show?! Holy shit. She nods. "Can I hear some of your stuff that you've already written?"

"Of course," he says, and Megs swaps seats with him so he can have plenty of room to sit and play the piano himself. "Now this is the title number of a show I've been writing myself. It's called Workin' Boys…"