Author's Note: I'm back! Sorry it took so long. Not vacation this time—writer's block, another (ORIGINAL) story, and laziness. Mostly laziness.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Animorphs... yet...

Chapter Nineteen: Elfangor's POV

I recognized the man the minute I saw him. Loren's brother. We had hated each other with a passion. The sight of him always sent adrenalin slamming through me. I only hid it for Loren's sake.

Tobias was trembling. I felt my dislike of Pete increase violently. My son was terrified of him.

After greeting Tobias (with surprising courtesy) Pete turned to Ricky. "I'd better go."

"Why? You just got here."

"I'm seeing my nephew in your kitchen and I know he's on the other coast, so either I'm hallucinating or I'm drunk."

Ricky spun around to stare at Tobias. "You're related?"

Pete seemed equally surprised. "You can see him too?"

"He and some other people are staying here for a week."

Tobias made an odd squeaking noise, like a frightened mouse, and attempted to dive under the table. All he did was bang his forehead on it.

"Are you okay?" I demanded, coming closer. Tobias moaned. Pete's eyes snapped from Ricky to me, and I felt that I could hear his own adrenalin start pumping.

"Hello, Alan," he snarled. I heard Loren sigh from behind me. She knew we didn't like each other, but for some reason, she always felt that we should get along better than we did. I personally felt that not killing each other on sight constituted getting along very well.

"Hello, Pete," I said coldly. We eyed each other warily, sizing each other up.

"You haven't changed a bit," he observed.

"You have become a drunken imbecile," I shot back.

"ALAN!" Loren admonished. Pete turned to her.

"Hey, Loren," he said, somewhat more warmly. "Long time, no see. What on earth did you ever see in that guy?" He jabbed his thumb towards me.

Loren rolled her eyes. "Why can't you just accept that I love him and stop trying to break us up?"

"He DID abandon you."

I made to jump at Pete, but Ricky got between us. "Guys, please, chill." He turned to Pete. "They'll be staying here a week. You don't like it, to bad, so sad." He turned to me. "Pete's my friend, and, if I follow right, your brother-in-law. No fighting."

Tobias continued to make very strange noises. He sounded like he was ill. Ricky's sister Amy was standing next to him, eyes wide with concern. I had forgotten she was there. "Are you okay?" she asked him.

"Fine," he mumbled. At least, I think he was mumbling. He might have just been making an extra-odd moan.

"I think he's scared of me," said Pete matter-of-factly. "I got drunk a lot when he was with me."

I turned slowly back to Pete. "Sorry, Pete. I'm not sure I understood you. What do you mean by 'when he was with you'?"

He glared at me. "Since you ABANDONED Loren, she wasn't able to take care of YOUR kid, so she left him with our sister, and then our sister passed him over to me. As you can guess, I'm not parenting material, and neither was she. He's been shunted back and forth between us for years." If I had cared to notice, I would have noted that Pete sounded sorry for Tobias, but I was getting mad.

"YOU PASSED MY SON AROUND LIKE A PET NOBODY WANTED?" I roared. Now Tobias actually did get under the table.

"Well, that's not my exact phrasing, but basically."

"YOU—"

"May I remind you that there is a child present?" Loren interrupted.

"Amy's heard worse, believe me," said Ricky, scowling.

"That's no reason to swear in front of her!"

"I know, I'm just saying it won't matter very much."

"What makes you think that I was going to swear?" I demanded.

"Well, you are really mad."

"Perhaps I should just go," Pete suggested again. "Happy birthday, Amy—Rick, I'll see you in a week." He left before Ricky could protest again.

Loren turned on me. "You just HAD to argue with him, didn't you?"

"He started it!" I protested, sounding like a spoiled three-year-old.

"He said hello and that you hadn't changed a bit! You called him a drunken imbecile!"

"Are they always like this?" I heard Ricky ask Tom in the background.

"No, they're normally louder."

I bit back the retort I wanted to throw at Loren and turned back to my son. "Did you by any chance see how scared Tobias was when Pete came in?" I said quietly. Loren softened.

"Tobias? Are you okay?" Rachel asked. She, Cassie and Jake was trying to coax him out from under the table.

Tobias moaned again. "It's okay," Cassie reassured him. "He's gone. He's not going to hurt you."

"Has he ever?" I asked sharply. Cassie and Rachel both turned to Jake.

"We don't know," Jake answered cautiously. "Tobias got beaten up at school a lot, but nobody knew whether or not he was mistreated at home, too."

Aximili was standing in a corner looking shocked and confused. "What exactly was that all about?" he asked me.

"That was about various things. Loren's brother and I don't get along very well."

"Why not?"

"No particular reason, we just don't." Aximili still looked baffled.

"That explains why Tobias looked familiar," said Ricky simply. "Amy, bedtime."

His sister immediately left the room, hugging her stuffed unicorn. A few minutes later we heard a door shut.

"Well, I guess we have to decide who sleeps where," Ricky continued. "Someone can have my bed, I think the couch is sleep-on-able and I'm pretty sure we've got a two-person air mattress and pump for it somewhere. I'll go find it." Thirty seconds later, he came back with a folded air mattress and foot-pump. "I figure if someone helps, we can move the couch and clear the floor in the living room for it. I found some sleeping bags and blankets in the closet with these," he held up the mattress and the pump, "but I'll need some help to set them up."

He, Tom and I moved the couch and set up the air mattress. We all took turns at the pump—Aximili thought that it was pretty stupid, since it would probably deflate by morning.

It was decided that Aximili and I would sleep in our Andalite forms so we would have to wake up every two hours, and because we only had three sleeping bags. It wasn't a major issue—until Tom began sneezing non-stop. Aximili suggested that we could sleep outside, but Ricky argued that the neighbors would see us. Marco—startling everyone because he hadn't said anything in a while, and we had almost forgotten he was there—suggested that Tom sleep outside. No one thought that that was a good idea. Eventually, Ricky insisted that Tom take the bed and sleep with the door shut.

The rest of the arrangements were as follows: Cassie and Rachel shared the air mattress, Jake, Marco and Tobias slept in sleeping bags, Loren got the couch, and Ricky fell asleep in an armchair.

Author's Note: YEA! I'm done! Don't worry, Pete isn't gone for good—he shows up again later.

yrkh8tr: No, Pete is NOT Ricky's employer (though it would be funny if he was). Ricky is a clerk at a 7-Eleven, and it says in book 33 that Tobias' uncle works as a roofer. I'm not sure how old Pete is, so I'm going to say thirty-something. You are too kind.