Henry rolled off of the naked blonde next to him and breathed out heavily. He ran a hand over his sweaty face and licked his lips as he stared up at the ceiling, trying to tune out her panting and praises for the session they just had. He didn't care at all, he got what he wanted and wanted her to leave. He turned over and opened the top drawer to his nightstand, grabbing a band of cash that was already counted out. He laid on his back again and tossed the money at her.

"Alright, go," he dismissed her without even bothering to look at her. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat up, grabbing an already prepared joint from the nightstand and placing it between his lips. He grabbed his lighter and lit it as he inhaled deeply, letting the drug invade his lungs as he listened to the shuffling and soft sighs leaving the woman as she got redressed. Even though less than five minutes had passed, he found himself growing annoyed and impatient. He told himself he was annoyed with her for taking so long to just get out, but he was more so annoyed with himself that she was even there. He didn't want to think about what his family or Ray would think of him if they knew who he became - a guy who slept with prostitutes frequently and did other things he wasn't proud of. Five years in Dystopia changed him, but he changed a lot more in the past four years. He sported a buzzcut now, hating his curls once she left and needing a change. It left him with a short cropped look that displayed his natural dark blond color which matched the small facial hair he had on his jaw. He was still thin but worked out a little so his body was toned as he sported a sculpted sheet of abs and full pecs, the right one decorated with a tattoo to hide a scar from a stab wound. He had more tattoos now, including a full arm sleeve on his left arm and a series of different tattoos on his back. He changed physically, but he changed more mentally and emotionally. The longer she took to leave, the more he had to think about his decisions. He quickly stood and grabbed his joggers, pulling them on and holding the joint between two fingers as he looked at her.

"Come on, hurry the fuck up!" he demanded. The woman scoffed and finished getting dressed. She grabbed the band of cash and quickly counted it before strutting out of his bedroom.

"Thanks for the romp, big boy," she purred as she walked past him and he rolled his eyes. He quickly walked her to the door and opened it, watching as she left the apartment finally. He sighed and closed the door behind her as Jasper left the kitchen with a cigarette hanging between his lips and a cup of what was probably vodka in his hand. Long gone was the chubby curly haired kid from Swellview, Dystopia Jasper was almost a completely different person. He already started working out back in Swellview, but now he had become really committed to it and his hard work was evident. His frame was broad and thick with well built muscles and abs. He wasn't as buff as Ray but he was damn near close. His body was scarred with bullet wounds, cuts, healed stitches, and a long scar on his face that went from the corner of his left eye and down to his chin. He still stuck with his naturally straight dark blond hair (Henry will never forget when he found out that the curls he had were thanks to hair curlers and weren't natural) and he grew it out so it was now a medium length.

"Didn't I tell you to keep your whores quiet when you bring them over? You interrupted my beauty sleep," he complained and plopped down on the couch. Henry chuckled softly.

"Sorry, I'm a good lover. They can't help but scream my name," he said with a cocky grin and the other rolled his eyes.

"Mail's here, super stud," he muttered and gestured towards the stack of papers on the coffee table. Henry walked over and placed his joint between his lips again, taking a deep drag of it as he grabbed the papers and looked them over. It was the usual; junk mail, letters meant for different apartments, bills, and…

Well, shit.

"Fuck," he mumbled as he stubbed out the joint. Jasper looked up at him.

"What?"

"It's a letter from my mom…" the tall blond answered and sat down on the couch. This peaked the blue eyed boy's interest. The two of them basically lost contact with anyone in Swellview so long ago, neither of them really bothered to keep in touch when Charlotte left.

"What's it say?" he asked curiously and watched as his friend tore open the envelope and read the letter to himself.

Dear Henry,

This is Kris Hart, your mother. Do you remember me? We met 23 years ago when I gave birth to you! You may not remember that, but I do. I remember it was a 19 hour labor that practically ruined my body. I tell you all this because I haven't heard from you in four years. You used to call every weekend, then every other week, then once a month, then once every three months, then nothing. You completely forgot about your family, Henry. I miss you, your father missed you, Ray and Schwoz miss you — they also said they saw you five years ago? Why didn't you come to see us?! Even Piper misses you even if she won't admit it. Anyway, I'm writing you this letter because Thanksgiving is coming up and we miss you. Please come home, even just for a week. We want to see you so badly. Attached is a pair of plane tickets that I bought with your father's credit card without him knowing. If you don't come home, I will buy tickets and come to Dystopia myself and drag you home. So, see you at Thanksgiving!

With love,

The Woman Who Gave Birth to You, Your Mother :)

Henry sighed and pulled out two plane tickets from the envelope. His mother was serious about him going back home and he couldn't really blame her. He had been kind of a shitty son and was just living his life in Dystopia. He mainly avoided them because he didn't want to deal with any judgment for just how he lived his new life. As he read the letter to Jasper and showed him the tickets, he laughed and shrugged his shoulders while tossing the butt of his cigarette into the ashtray.

"So, are we going?" he asked and Henry sighed heavily, and Jasper knew what that was for, "You think she'll be there?"

"Knowing her? Most likely…" he mumbled and sank against the couch. Four years. It had been four long years since they saw each other and yet he still thought about her constantly. He knew she probably graduated by now and was probably back in Swellview working with Schwoz and creating all kinds of cool weapons. That was the main reason why he blocked him and Ray, he didn't want to hear about how awesome she was. Because he already knew that.

Charlotte Page was the love of his life. He kicked himself for only realizing this when they got to Dystopia and he saw her in a different light. She was more assertive especially as she fought crime and there was just something so incredibly sexy about a woman who could single-handedly take down three grown men and keep them down. It took him a while to muster up the courage to finally confess to her and it took him longer to convince her that he was worthy enough to date, to completely change such a long solid friendship. But only two weeks after they finally got together, she chose Stanford over him, and it completely destroyed him. He had heartbreaks before but this was on a completely different level. He liked Bianca and Chloe, he loved Charlotte, and losing her made him feel like his life was over. And he was honestly scared to see her again because the Henry he was now wouldn't be one that she'd want to be with.

"Let's just go, dude," Jasper said, pulling him out of his thoughts. "You can't keep playing little bitch and avoiding her. Besides, I miss her too. And I wanna show off how hot I am now." He smirked and Henry rolled his eyes. He sighed again and thought it over. He did miss his parents, he weirdly missed Piper, and he missed Ray and the Danger Force kids. A quick trip home wouldn't be too bad and he could probably just avoid Charlotte. Maybe she wouldn't even be there.

"Alright man, pack up your shit. We're going back to Swellview," the blond said and the other nodded, finishing his cup of breakfast vodka and standing up.

"Swellview here we come!" he exclaimed and went to his bedroom to start packing his things. Henry grabbed his phone and bit down on his lip as he pulled up his texts. There were hundreds, if not thousands of ignored texts from his family, Ray, and Schwoz. But none from Charlotte. He sighed and pulled up his messages from his mom and sent her a text for the first time in four years.

Henry: Hey, mom…I'm sorry I haven't contacted you in so long. There's no excuse for that. I got your letter and the tickets. See you at Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, on a long strip of highway that stretched from California to Swellview to Nevada, a black Nissan Altima filled with three women sped along the highway. Charlotte sat in the backseat, her face sticky from tears and her head pounding from crying for almost two hours straight, and the angry ranting from Tati. Jasmine just focused on driving, listening to her heartbroken friend's sad instructions, and trying to drown out her angry friend with the stereo. It didn't help though when Ain't Shit by Doja Cat started playing and simply affirmed everything the brunette was ranting about.

"See! Doja's right! They're not shit! Ooh, Jas, you should've let me taze that son of a bitch!" she ranted and slammed her fist against the window.

"Don't break the window," the driver mumbled and kept her eyes on the road. Just one more hour and she'd be free from this damn car.

Charlotte sat quietly in the backseat with a drenched tissue in her hand. She couldn't stop thinking about what she saw. Eddy, naked and in a room with some random girl. Eddy. The man she was supposed to marry, the man she was with for four long years, the man she loved apparently. He called her a few times before she finally blocked him, not wanting anything to do with him. She was so hurt and her heart ached with pain, but there was something else and it confused her. Deep down, a part of her felt almost relieved. She didn't understand it. She loved Eddy, she was going to marry him. Never mind the fact that a part of her worried that she was too young to get married, never mind the fact that she was petrified at the idea of being a mother already, and definitely forget the fact that she wondered how Henry would react to the news of her marrying someone.

She had absolutely no reason to care about what he would think. She had no intention of letting him know she was engaged and would just let the news of her marriage find him naturally. It upset her that it meant that Jasper wouldn't know either and wouldn't be at her wedding, but that was just a casualty of her and Henry's breakup. It seemed like their breakup had a lot of casualties that many weren't aware of though. Losing contact with Ray and Schwoz was one, losing contact with Piper and the Hart parents was another, and even not seeing her mother in person for years was another. It was insane to her that a two week relationship did so much damage. But it wasn't just two weeks. It was decades of friendship that developed into a love so intense that Charlotte thought she'd never experience something like that ever again. Eddy never loved her as intensely as Henry did. Two weeks with Henry had more passion, romance, and love than four years with Eduardo ever did. Maybe that's why she only mourned the loss for two hours, while she mourned for Henry for a year. Sometimes, she still mourned the loss.

She was mainly upset now because she felt so stupid and so humiliated. She wondered how she missed all the signs and why she allowed herself to stay with a guy like Eddy. He was cute, he had black curly hair, gorgeous bronze skin, a chiseled jaw, soft full lips, and breathtaking green eyes. He was mostly sweet as well, he was charming with a kind personality, but he could be so damn selfish. During her first year at Stanford, she skipped an embarrassing amount of classes at his request because he wanted all of her attention and he always complained when she tried to put herself first. Usually, she'd never let someone do that to her, but after losing Henry, she became a bit more insecure. She let him walk all over her. As she thought about it, this likely wasn't the first time Eddy cheated on her. She remembered nights she'd go to his place to see him and he wouldn't let her in, or when she'd see hickeys on his neck but he'd claim they were bug bites, and once she even found an STI test in the garbage - it was negative thankfully, but it sparked a massive argument that ended in him hitting her. They broke up for a month after that until he finally convinced her to take him back. She loved Eddy, she told herself she loved him, but sometimes she wondered if she even liked him. She had no idea why she was even marrying him. He was just convenient and there.

But now she finally had an excuse to get out. It was a horrible and humiliating excuse, but an excuse nonetheless. She was done with Eddy and she could move on to someone that she actually would've been excited to marry.

"Is this the exit?" Jasmine asked and Charlotte looked out the windshield to see the exit coming up. She smiled a little to herself and nodded.

"Yeah," she answered and leaned back as they took the exit. One long turn later and she saw the sign: Welcome to Swellview! Home to Captain Man and The World's Fattest Monkey! She smiled at the sight of it. Her hometown was quirky and incredibly weird, but she missed it a lot and was happy to be home. She gave Jasmine directions on where to go and as they approached that ever so familiar street, Charlotte could feel a ball of anxiety growing in her stomach. It was a street that brought back many memories which would usually be good ones but some of them made her heart ache more, made her mourn the loss more.

"Is this the house?" Tatiana asked as they pulled up to a white siding and brick two-story house with a large oak tree in the front yard. Charlotte couldn't help the smile that grew on her face.

"Yep! My childhood home!" she exclaimed rather proudly. Despite being an only child and living with just her mom - and sometimes her Uncle Roscoe - they had a big house that had two extra bedrooms and a third bathroom. She always used to ask her mom why they had such a large home for only them and her mother would always say that they'd need room for guests and family. It would definitely come in handy now. The girls got out of the car and began to take out their things as the front door to the home swung open.

"Charlotte! Welcome home, baby!" An older woman called out as she ran towards them. Ever since Charlotte told her they were on the way there, she stayed by the window watching and waiting for the sign of her daughter's return. Upon seeing her, Charlotte instantly forgot about getting her luggage and ran to meet her mother, hugging her and exclaiming happily. Tati and Jasmine were left to empty the car but they didn't mind, happily watching the reunion between mother and daughter. Three years was a long time and Charlotte had almost forgotten how amazing her mom's hugs were. They always made her feel so safe and loved. As they finally pulled away to look at each other, her mother's excited smile slowly faded as her brown eyes scanned her daughter's face.

"You've been crying," she observed, "what's wrong?" Charlotte put on a smile and shook her head dismissively.

"I was just so excited to be home that I was crying on the way here," she explained. It was a lie. If there was one thing about Diana Bolton that could easily define her, it would be how well she could read her daughter. She knew everything about her, even things she didn't know that she knew. Like how the job she used to work at as a teenager that made her work such odd hours was clearly a front for something else, or how she used to be enamored with Captain Man and Kid Danger when she was 13 then suddenly became rather disillusioned - especially with Kid Danger. So, it caught her by surprise when her 18 year old daughter sobbed hysterically when she came home the night Kid Danger died. It was a tragedy of course, but the way her daughter sobbed and shook seemed to be from a mix of fear and relief. The way she continuously glanced at Henry during Kid Danger's funeral told her all that she had already suspected, but she never said a word because it was up to Charlotte to confide in her whenever she was ready. Usually, she did, but she withdrew from her while she was in Dystopia and withdrew even more when she started Stanford. Her daughter seemed so miserable during her time back at home on that first break, so she didn't pressure her to come back again, not expecting it to become a three year absence. But Diana knew her daughter and she knew that whenever she was ready, she'd tell her what she needed to tell her. So, she just gave her child a comforting smile and squeezed her arms gently.

"Okay," she whispered and saw relief wash over her daughter's face, "let's get you girls inside and get you all something to drink." She led the three girls inside with a smile growing on her face, excited to have her daughter home, even if she came with more secrets than she left with.

A/N: Thank you for reading! Please feel free to share your thoughts, I'd love to see what you all think!