Author's Note: I own nothing.

8 While You Were Gone

It was when she took his hand that Rook noticed that Jen's arm was scraped and bruised. He frowned pulling her away from the crowds of the auto show. He pulled a small med kit out of a pocket on his armor. It looked like she hadn't even bothered to clean up the small injury before coming here to help. Rook's frown deepened.

"What happened?" He asked gently and Jen let out a huff.

"Gwen needs to learn not to toss weapons of mass destruction." Rook looked up at her, beyond confused. She sighed and explained the whole affair he'd missed, including her cousin tossing the Annihilargh at her. His hand tightened on hers. "It was a fake. But no one told me it was fake, not until after." Rook shook his head, finishing up cleaning her injury.

"They should have told you." He stated and Jen nodded.

"Yeah they really should have, I don't even know if Gwen knew it was fake." She ran her free hand over her face and Rook gently pulled her to him.

"I have not known your cousin long but from what I do know I cannot see her being cavalier with a device that could destroy all of existence." Rook was gentle when he pointed it out. Jen nodded slightly scrubbing at her eyes with her hands.

"You're right and I should have known that." She said shaking her head. He gently turned her chin to look at him.

"In a situation like that it is completely normal to not think clearly. You believed that a single careless act would have ended all of existence. I cannot think of anyone who would have thought clearly about intentions in that moment." He reassured and she smiled.

"Yeah, that's true." She leaned forward and kissed him. He smiled lightly.

Soon enough the Proto-truck was repaired and they had the engine block of Kevin's old car in the back and the Taydenite car he'd picked as his replacement hooked up to tow back to Earth.

"I gotta say Jen, I am desperately curious where you learned that level of manipulation." Argit asked sounding impressed. Jen shrugged.

"I have been hanging with Kevin for a few years now." Jen pointed out. Argit shook his head.

"Kev's never been a negotiator." Argit said and Jen grinned, leaning back in the seats.

"Well then you'll never know." She said winking at Rook who rolled his eyes but couldn't help the smile that pulled at his lips. It took them five hours to get back to Earth, they dropped off Kevin's new car at his base, he refused to give Argit the code to get in. Rook had offered to pick Gwen up and drop them back off at their base, since Kevin didn't exactly have a car anymore but when they arrived Max and Gwen were waiting for them. They had let Argit out outside the base since none of his warrants were active but no one exactly wanted him in the base. Gwen practically ran up to her cousin.

"I am so sorry. Patelliday mentioned that it was fake while you were fighting Psyphon but I thought you heard him." Jen shook her head hugging her cousin.

"Next time maybe let's not throw things that are even possibly weapons." Gwen hugged Jen, the brunette hugging her back and holding on for a moment. Then Jen grinned. "I broke your boyfriend's car again." Gwen laughed.

"How many times is that now?" Gwen asked and Jen shrugged.

"I've lost count, but she made up for it this time. Rook's gonna take us home." Kevin said from the back of the Proto-truck where he was checking over the engine block that was all that remained of his car. "We just need to pick up Zed from my mom." Gwen nodded hugging Jen again then hugging Grandpa Max. Jen made to step back into the truck but Max shook his head.

"You're on trash detail today remember." Jen swore under her breath and nodded. Kevin frowned.

"You're not a Plumber though, how do you pull trash detail?" Jen shrugged.

"I practically live here I got added to the chore roster cause it wouldn't be fair if I lived here and did nothing." She explained stepping off the truck. Kevin nodded slightly.

"See you around Tennyson." He said grinning and Jen nodded, smiling slightly.

"See you later Levin. Have fun at college Gwen. See you when you get back Rook." Jen said waving and heading off to start on trash duty.

Trash duty was one of the chores on the roster that no one really liked doing, for obvious reasons, but also because it was one of the chores around Base that took the longest. This was because the person collecting trash had to collect all the trash from the base, including the barracks and the cellblock. It meant several trips to the trash disposal on base, a machine that vaporized the trash the base generated. Jen had already made two trips there by the time she made it to the cells. She hated doing this part of the job but last time she swapped with someone else she'd gotten a talking to from Grandpa Max, so she slipped her headphones in to drown out the threats and catcalls from the prisoners and set to work. But as she double checked the roster she frowned.

"When did Azmuth transfer Albeda here?" Jen rolled her eyes and headed back down to the newly occupied cell. Someone had put her negative double at the lowest level of the cells, almost all of them were unoccupied. Jen cranked her music as she passed level after level of people she had gotten put here shouting abuse after her. It was nice when she got to the levels without anyone in the cells, but she couldn't help but wonder why someone had essentially placed Albeda in solitary.

In all honesty it was really odd to her that Azmuth had placed Albeda anywhere near her, let alone in her home base. He had taken it upon himself to keep the human-Galvan away from Jen, though Jen wasn't sure if it was for his peace of mind or if it was to keep Jen from bothering him about fixing her. She tended to bring it up to him if he let her talk long enough. She still didn't think it was fair that Albeda had been trapped as her for three years now. Maybe she could find a way to fix her doppelganger while she was here in the cellblock. She frowned as she approached the cell wondering if she should bother talking to her acerbic double. But before she had a chance to make that decision something grabbed her from behind and cut off her airway with one arm, the other hand of her attacker gripping her Omnitrix arm well out of reach of her other hand. She kicked and clawed at the figure but they were much stronger than her and she couldn't get to her knife. Her world went dark as she saw Albeda approach the cell door smirking.