A/N… I know, it's been too long. I'll let you get to it. We left off after the fight at Aunt Kate's and the capture of Kim Min-Jun, the asshole who started all this.

~o~H&E~o~

Chapter 31

BELLA

"This ankle is sprained. Could've been worse, though," Dr. Sharp said, wrapping my ankle securely.

I nodded, giving her tent a long, slow glance. Kim Min-Jun was bound and gagged in the corner, and his face was a mess, thanks to Edward. Eleazar was coordinating his cleaning crew, who had arrived about an hour ago. The bed across the way was covered, but beneath the sheet, I knew it was Boris. He'd saved my life when we'd been ambushed.

My daughter was sitting on top of the table, with her dad in the chair in front of her. He was checking her over, cleaning the bites and scratches the mother cat had given Bethy when she'd panicked. At the same time, my daughter was cleaning Edward's face – the cuts, the bruises, the split lip and eyebrow.

"Two peas in a pod," the doc muttered.

Snorting, I rolled my eyes up to hers. "You have no idea."

She set a bag of ice on my ankle, saying, "Let that take the swelling down a bit before you get up."

I agreed, and my eyes drifted outside to where Aunt Kate's beautiful big barn used to stand. The fire was out, but there was nothing left. A temporary tent had been put up in the paddock, and all the horses were safely contained again, although it had taken a great deal of persuasion on Edward's part to calm Goliath down. All the dogs were fed and passed out on the front porch, completely exhausted and finally out of their bullet proof vests. However, the mother cat was still MIA, which made my son rather worried.

Just outside the medical tent, the body bags were stacking up. We'd killed most of Kim's men, and the ones who weren't dead were injured and currently detained by Eleazar's men. This was now a Homeland Security case. Terrorism being the charge. They'd never be free again.

"Shit," Edward hissed. I turned to see him gritting his teeth and squeezing his eyes closed as Bethy had turned her attention to his knuckles, which were split and bruised. I was certain that it was the little girl in front of him that had stopped him from outright killing Kim.

"I'll let that one slide," she warned him, and he huffed a laugh. "I know it stings."

I let out a chuckle. I simply couldn't stop it.

"Laugh it up, sweetness," Edward muttered sarcastically, and while there was teasing in his eyes, I saw him give me the once-over to make sure I was okay.

Alec had come into the tent to check on all of us. He was currently going through everything that had been on Kim's person – keys, phone, wallet, and a thumb drive. He held the phone and the thumb drive up to Eleazar.

"El, you want Alice on it? Or your people?" he asked.

Eleazar waved him on. "Alice is a thousand times better than my people. Let her at it."

"Hell yeah, she is," I heard from the tent entrance and smiled at Jasper as Alec left, taking the phone and thumb drive with him.

"You should be off that leg," the doc told him.

"Yes, ma'am, I will. Just checkin' on these guys." He pointed to Bethy, Edward, and me.

Jasper walked to Edward and Bethy, but it was the handsome little boy stepping through the door who caught my attention.

"Hey, Sammy," I said, opening my arms for my son. He stepped into my embrace, giggling when I pulled him onto my lap.

"You okay?" he asked, glancing back at my ankle and then facing me again.

"Yup. Just a strain. No biggie. Kinda like the one you had to your wrist playing baseball," I explained.

He smiled and nodded, but the smile fell quickly. "I can't find the momma cat."

"I heard. Give her a bit of time, buddy," I soothed, taking his baseball cap off and raking my fingers through his hair. "She had quite the scare, and there's lots of people here."

He wrinkled his nose. "Yeah, but the kittens are hungry."

I couldn't stop my smile. "Oh, she knows. All moms know what their babies need. She'll come around."

"What if… What if she got hurt?"

That was something to consider. There were lots of things going on when the cat took off – fire, bullets, horses running, grenades…

"Okay, I tell you what," I started and cupped his sweet face. "We'll go see Tom. I'm willing to bet he knows exactly what we can do for those kittens."

I started to get up, but Bethy hopped down from the table. "Mom's not supposed to get up. C'mon, Sam, I'll go with you. Maybe we can bottle feed the kittens."

There was a dreamy-sweet expression on my daughter's face, and I chuckled as she dragged her brother off my lap and out of the tent.

A heavy kiss pressed to the side of my head, and I leaned into it, closing my eyes. Our work with this mess was far from over, but at least the fighting was done. I hoped. I gave a quick glance to Kim, who was still bound and gagged over in the corner. His eyes were fierce but clearly defeated. My gaze then raked up my husband's strong form, meeting beautiful green.

"Sweetness? You okay?" he asked, his brow furrowing when he checked my ankle.

"Oh, I'm fine. Nothing fatal." I took the gauze and alcohol from him and pulled that damaged fist of his to me. Bethy had cleaned it some, but not enough in my opinion. "It's been a while since I've done this."

Edward chuckled. "Yeah, I think the last time was when you were pregnant with Sammy."

I laughed and nodded. "Perhaps."

It was healing, soothing to tend to his injured hand. He didn't flinch, and he stayed quiet and let me work.

"I-I c-couldn't k-kill h-him."

His stutter stopped me cold, and I met his worried gaze. "Okay. I would've backed you either way."

"I-I kn-know. I-I… I-It w-w-was B-Bethy. Sh-She w-was w-watching, a-and…a-and…"

I brought his face down to mine for a kiss. "It wasn't a wrong decision, baby," I whispered against his lips. "In fact, it was probably the best decision, because now Eleazar has a face to put out there as the cause of all of this." I kissed him again. "And I think you are the best dad. Ever."

He grinned. "Thanks, sweetness." His eyes drifted past me and out into the yard. "We'll need to rebuild…everything."

I nodded, kissing his injured hand before continuing to clean it. "I figured. New barn, new fences, new landscaping. Though that last one is all on your dad."

Edward chuckled. "Do I want to know why?"

"Oh, grenades, fire. That was all his call." I smiled up at my husband, who looked completely exhausted. "I'm not wrapping this until you've showered. Okay?"

"I'll live, Bella."

"I know, tough guy."

I wrapped my arms around him, laying my head against his chest. I felt long, heavy kisses to the top of my head, and I closed my eyes to simply absorb the feeling of him in my arms. This whole mess could've gone sideways. The attack on Twi Towers alone had cost us so many innocent lives. My crew could've lost more than just Felix and now Boris. We'd almost lost Jasper, almost lost Alec, and I had narrowly missed drowning at the pier. In fact, they were all too damned close for my taste.

Suddenly, I felt weary with grief and exhaustion, because it wasn't only Aunt Kate's that needed rebuilding – though that's where we would start first – but Twi Towers and the mountain cabin needed it too.

I opened my eyes to see Boris's covered body, and I whispered, "He saved my life, Edward."

Strong arms pulled me closer. "I don't doubt it. And I am forever grateful," he whispered back, lifting my gaze to his with a gentle finger beneath my chin. He kissed my lips. "Let's get you in the house."

Nodding, I reached for the bag of ice, but Edward's strong arms slipped gently beneath me. He lifted me up, cradling me against his chest. When I started to protest, he simply kissed my lips.

"Stop, sweetness," he whispered against my lips. "Of all the bullshit we've been through and as fucking tired as I am, this is hardly an imposition."

I smirked, letting out a light chuckle. "I can't hate it, Edward."

He flashed a quick, stunning grin, which turned into a chuckle as soon as Aunt Kate met us on the front porch.

"Edward Anthony, get yourselves cleaned up. The food'll be ready soon. Some of you haven't eaten in like twenty-four hours. I plan to rectify that situation."

"Yes, ma'am," my husband said through a soft laugh as he took us to our room.

Our shower was shared, which was necessary for me since my ankle was iffy at best. I'd now been off it for a few hours, so the adrenaline had faded and the swelling had kicked in – not to mention the exhaustion and the hunger and the slight bit of anxiety of all of it. A part of me simply wanted to stay standing under the spray of hot water, letting the stress and dirt and sadness wash down the drain. However, Edward didn't want me on my ankle too long, so the small, intimate bubble burst far too quickly for my liking.

Edward dressed quickly after our shower in sweats and a T-shirt and helped me balance so I could do the same. Once his hand was wrapped in gauze and my ankle back in its wrap, I glanced up at him.

"We're a mess, Edward." I huffed a light laugh, my brow wrinkling.

He grinned, kissing my lips roughly. However, the smile faded as he cupped my face. "No offense, sweetness, but I'm perfectly okay with some cuts, bruises, and a sprained ankle. This whole thing could've gone so much fucking worse."

"No shit," I said, taking a deep breath and letting it out to settle down the latent anxiety.

"You okay?" he asked, searching my eyes.

"Yes… No? Maybe."

"Well, that narrowed it down," he teased, but he knew to wait, and when I didn't say anything, he took a seat on the sofa, pulling me to sit on his lap.

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly as I raked my fingers through his still damp hair. Pure patience and love gazed back at me through sweet green eyes. There was no teasing, no urging, just waiting for me to find the words.

"We…" I started, swallowing back the lump in my throat. "We could've lost so much more than we did, but I can't help but feel… I dunno." I shrugged a shoulder, leaning into the hand on my face that was tucking my hair behind my ear. "Wrecked, angry, and anxious, because I know it's not over. Maybe the fighting is over, but there's someone else responsible for this shit, Edward, and we need to figure out who it is."

Edward nodded a little, wrapping a strong arm around me to hold me close – or hold me together, I wasn't sure which. He hugged me close while his free hand cupped my face, bringing me close enough to press the softest, sweetest kiss to my lips.

"All those things are pretty much running through the entire farm right now, sweetness." He nodded, smiling sadly and tilting his head a little. "I thought the thing in Russia was bad, o-or th-that b-bullshit w-with B-Bethy, b-but n-no." He shook his head a little. "This was fucking huge, Bella. This was terrorism and attacks on not just us, but innocent people."

I nodded. I knew what he was trying to say. Since we'd met, anything we'd encountered was a part of something concerning just us – Gravity, Carlisle, my dad, me. This attack, though, was aimed at innocent lives – the Twi Tech employees, the people on the streets surrounding Twi Tower, the workers at Port Angeles harbor, and at the same time it was still a personal attack on us, our friends, our families, and Carlisle specifically.

He kissed me again. "Here's what I know. I know that everyone out there is okay – perhaps a little banged up," he said, holding up his wrapped hand, "but okay. We'll heal, we'll grieve, and we'll rebuild. We'll sit down in front of IGOR and do that fuck awesome shit we do; we'll put all the info together, spread it out, and put the last fucking piece into the puzzle. It's what we do, sweetness. And we've gotten really good at it."

"We always were good at it," I added, and he smiled sweetly.

"I'm personally grateful for who's still here. We had some really close calls this time. That motherfucker out in that tent wouldn't have stopped until he'd destroyed everyone and everything on this property. And before you sit down in the computer room to pour all the puzzle pieces out onto the table, that asshole will be answering some questions." I opened my mouth to say something, but my husband kissed me hard with firm lips, a sweeping tongue, and gripping hands. "But not right now," he whispered against my cheek. "Right now, we're going to take a moment to breathe, to eat, and celebrate those left. Okay, love?"

Tears welled up in my eyes as I nodded. Edward cupped my face in both hands, gently wiping the tears away when they spilled over.

"I think I'm overly exhausted and wrung out."

"And it's totally understandable. So am I, baby. It happens once all the adrenaline stops pumping through these veins," he whispered, picking up my hand and kissing the inside of my wrist, letting his tongue lightly tease my skin.

I raised an eyebrow at him. "You are starting something, Cullen, you tease."

He chuckled, shrugging a shoulder. "Sweetness, how many times do I have to tell you I'm a sure fucking thing?"

I giggled against his lips, holding his face in my hands. "I love you."

Edward's stomach growled loudly, practically vibrating against me, and I laughed, my head falling back. Edward's chuckle was adorable as his lips met my throat.

"Angry bears?" I asked him.

"Sweetness, I could eat a bear right about now."

"Okay, okay, okay," I chanted, rolling my eyes at how I sounded like Alice. I got up off his lap, reaching for his uninjured hand.

He stood up, wrapping his arm around my shoulder and sweeping me off my feet. I laughed a little, and before I could tell him it wasn't necessary as he walked us out to the living room, he kissed me to shut me up.

"Just…" He kissed me again once he'd set me down on the loveseat. "Let me do this, Bella," he whispered, propping my ankle up on a throw pillow. "Don't move. I'll fix your plate."

Knowing he probably needed this, I simply nodded and thanked him.

I glanced around the living room, taking in everyone there. The kids were still up, despite the ridiculous hour, and they were bottle feeding kittens under Tom's supervision. Jasper was propped up like me on the sofa, his injured leg elevated. Alec was still hobbling around, until Sarah forced him to sit at the table. Esme hugged Carlisle, Aunt Kate whispered something to Edward, Obie and Mickey had a sweet private conversation at the kitchen counter, and Rose was having a rather secretive and intense chat with Emmett.

I'd almost forgotten her news, until he bellowed out, "You're knocked up!?"

Rose rolled her eyes, but she laughed, nodding excitedly.

"Well, hot fuckin' damn!"

"Emmett!" several people yelled, but it was my daughter who piped up the loudest.

"Keep it up, Uncle Em, and you'll be in debt to the swear jar just like Uncle Alec!"

Alec just shook his head, but he couldn't stop his laughter or the shrug of his shoulder. Apparently, Alec's tally had sky-rocketed when he'd been shot in the leg, and my daughter had kept up with every cent.

"You tell him, little sweetness," Edward praised her, meeting my gaze from the kitchen as words of congratulations were aimed Rose and Emmett's way.

The whole room shifted. We'd gone from exhausted and heartbroken to excited and laughing. We'd needed a bit of good news after the long night we'd just survived. And while I knew we weren't done with this case, we would revel in the news until tomorrow, when we had to get back to work.

~o~H&E~o~

EDWARD

The house was practically silent when I awoke with a start from my nightmare. A glance at the clock showed four o'clock in the morning. I shook my head. It seemed I'd slept most of yesterday away after we'd finished eating and celebrating Rose's new little one on the way.

A glance over at the other side of the bed showed my Bella was still asleep. I pressed a soft kiss to her hand that reached out for my pillow and got up to start what would probably be a long-ass day.

After a shower and some fresh clothes, I made my way out to the kitchen to start coffee. I shook my head at the plastic-covered windows of the living room. Bella had said that they'd shattered when a grenade had been thrown toward the barn, which was how Bethy had ended up separated from everyone else.

It was probably too early to even consider making breakfast for everyone, so I opted for some toast to tide me over, which I munched on while wandering into the empty computer room.

IGOR never slept, so different tasks ran on every screen in there. The Gravity GPS locations were on one, and we were all in one cluster. The cameras spread all over the farm were on, and the only movement was Alaska's wildlife – a raccoon sniffing around, a deer wandering by, an owl swooping down from above, and a wolf dragging what looked like a human arm. I snorted to myself on that last one, because while Eleazar was trying to clean up the entire mountain, it seemed he'd missed one. As far as I was concerned, every apex predator up here could have all those motherfuckers.

Alice's personal computer was running some list, and closer inspection showed that it was scanning whatever was on the thumb drive that had been in Kim's pocket. My curiosity skyrocketed, but I'd let Alice do that genius/pixie thing she always did, because there was a method to her madness in every keystroke.

I heard a door open and close somewhere, and the muted sounds of mewling kittens met my ears. The sight of messy hair that matched my own made me smile as Sammy trudged into the kitchen with eyes half closed. He went into the fridge, grabbed a container, and then reached for the four tiny baby bottles in the drainboard.

I didn't want to scare the shit out of him, so I closed the door of the computer room with a soft click. Sammy spun around, dropping a couple of the bottles.

"My bad, kiddo," I said softly. "I tried not to startle you."

"S'okay," he mumbled, breaking out into a wide yawn.

"Are you the only one on bottle duty?" I asked, picking up a bottle that had rolled almost all the way to the dining room.

"Nah, Beffy did the last one at like one o'clock," he said through another yawn, putting the container of formula that Tom had made in the microwave. "Tom said we had to feed them every three to four hours."

Nodding, I helped him fill the bottles, put the nipples on them, and we took the box of noisy fluff-balls into the living room.

"You have to…" he started to instruct me but smiled when I took the little white one out and started feeding her.

"You know I've done this before," I teased him, picking up a little tabby one and getting that one going as well. "Lock and Load needed bottle feeding. Never mind that you and Bethy required a bottle at one time."

"Oh, yeah," he said through a sleepy smile, but he was sad. "We looked for the momma cat last night, but we still can't find her."

"I'll keep an eye out for her when the sun comes up a little more, buddy. From what I hear, she had a pretty good scare, and there were some hefty things happening when she ran away, but no matter what, we'll take care of these guys, okay?"

"Yeah," he said in his usual slow way but smiled up at me. "Thanks, Dad."

His eyes were Bella's warm brown, but Sammy wore his worry like I did when I was his age – quiet and contemplative with a wrinkled brow and fidgeting hands. When the kittens in our hands were done, we each picked up the last two – the black one and another tabby with white paws.

"That one's yours, right?" I asked him, smiling as the little black ball of fluff decided that playing was more important than food…until he smelled it.

Sammy grinned, nodding. "Yeah. He kinda crawled all the way up my jeans the first day we saw them."

Chuckling, I shook my head. "Got a name in mind?"

He wrinkled his nose. "Not yet. I think Bethy is naming hers Tinkerbell or somethin' like that."

Once the last two were fed and sleepy, we set them back in their box with the rest. Sammy shifted the box down to the floor.

"Can I stay with you for a bit?" he asked, pointing to the TV.

I studied his face, and I could see the events had worried him a little, but not enough for tears or panic. Feeding the kittens had taken the edge off some of it – and that went for me as well.

"Sure, Sam. Think anything is on at this hour?" I teased him, but he picked up the remote and leaned into my side, and I couldn't help but wrap my arm around him.

"They must've blown up the satellite dish," Sammy grumbled after a minute when nothing worked, turning the TV off.

"Hey," I whispered, tilting his head up. "You okay?" I asked, and he shook his head and shrugged, looking like me made over. "Wanna talk about it?"

"I… Last night was scary."

Nodding, I leaned in and kissed his forehead. "It was. I was scared too."

That seemed to shock him a little. "You were?"

"Heck, yeah! It was scary stuff. I was worried about you guys and Mom and Poppy. I had to make sure no one came near the house or the barn. I had to keep fighting to get to the bad guy. All of that scared me."

Sammy smiled a little and nodded. "Bethy said you caught the bad guy."

"Yes. He won't hurt us anymore."

"Bethy said you let him live."

My brow furrowed at that, but I pulled him to my lap, raking my hands through his hair like his mother did all the time. "I did. He needs to answer for what he did, Sam, and he's done a lot. He also needs to answer some questions before he goes away for the rest of his life."

"Good," he said, breaking out into another big yawn. "I'm glad you caught him."

Smiling, I kissed his forehead. "You need more sleep, buddy."

"Yeah, but I don't…" He trailed off, but he pointed back toward the hallway.

"You wanna sleep with Mom? She's the best at snuggles," I whispered to him, smiling when he yawned again and nodded. "You got it. I'll watch over the fluff balls while you sleep."

"And you'll look for the momma cat?"

"I'll see what I can do. C'mon, Sammy. Let's put you back to bed."

I carried him to our room, carefully pulling back the covers on my side of the bed. I dropped kisses to his forehead and then a kiss to Bella's hand that had immediately curled around our boy, whispering I loved them both. I was pretty sure they sank into deep sleep before I even left the room.

I picked up all the empty bottles and washed them out, putting them in the drainboard for the next feeding. No one was up yet, so I decided to take a walk outside. The sky was lighter, and I'd be able to survey the total damage outside.

There were war zones that were cleaner than what I set my eyes on when I stepped out onto the front porch. There were gouges in the lawn, trees and bushes obliterated by bullets and fire, and vehicles that would never run again. Eleazar had set up another tent to house the injured and captive men. It was next to the one holding Kim Min-Jun. Both tents were guarded by two men each. His men had also cleaned the yard and the surrounding fence area of the dead, but I didn't see where they'd been taken.

All four dogs were lying on the porch, but Lock and Load decided to follow me. Smiling down at them, I ruffled their heads. Without those two dogs, I was pretty sure I wouldn't be alive. And it had all started in Twi Tech Tower.

The barn was burned to the ground, and I shook my head at just how close that shit had been to my kids, to Esme. I wanted to rage, but I couldn't. I honestly didn't have it in me. This last fight had brought shit too close, and I was grateful for who was still standing and saddened by who wasn't. We'd lost Felix and Boris. So many injuries – Bella, Jasper, Alec, and Dean. Even Bethy bore the scratches and bites from the momma cat she'd been protecting. No, this shit was too close and way too fucking big. And I for one was just damned grateful it was over for the most part.

Kim still needed questioning. He was a puppet; I was sure of it now. And we needed to find out if my brilliant wife was right, if it had been Cho Jin-Sang all along. According to Eleazar, he was still under lock and key on the base where he'd had his surgery.

As I walked through the wreckage of the barn, I shook my head at what was left. The door to the underground shelter was scarred but intact. The only thing left of the hidden cache of weapons was the safe, and it would've survived no matter what. But the hay loft, the stalls, even the saddles and Tom's apartment were all gone.

I turned when I realized I wasn't alone. "Hey."

"Son," Dad greeted, walking to me and squeezing my shoulder. "You okay?"

I had to smile, considering I'd just had the same conversation with my own son. "Yeah. Just…utterly fucking grateful."

Dad huffed a humorless laugh. "No shit."

I gazed around, noting that the horses were all accounted for and in the paddock, which was surprisingly untouched.

Gesturing with a finger around at the destruction, I said, "We need to rebuild this. We need to fix this shit."

"We will. Once everyone has had a chance to rest and heal, we'll get started. I'm sure the girls will hit the computers hard at some point today," he muttered, giving the tent a hateful glare. "And we'll be asking Kim some questions, too, I imagine."

"Yeah, I might sit in on that," I mumbled, nodding a little, but I pointed toward the fence line. "I promised everyone I'd look for the mother cat, so I'm gonna walk the fence."

"I'll join you. No one's up yet."

We were quiet most of the back fence. Lock and Load came with us, sniffing about. I kept my eyes on the ground, searching for the cat. I would love to bring her back, just for the sake of my kids and those kittens. Something about children without a mother bugged the piss out of me, and I knew why. The loss of my own mother, and Bella's loss of hers, made us incredibly sensitive about the topic.

"This cleanup will be a fucking nightmare undertaking," Dad suddenly said softly. When I looked over at him as we turned the corner, he shrugged. "I still have all of Twi Tech to deal with, not to mention memorials for the ones executed. Jacob Black could handle most of it, but it's only right that I show up, take over, speak at the memorial."

I snorted, rolling my eyes as we continued along the west fence. "I almost put a bullet in his head. Asshole decided to pick a fight at the wrong motherfucking time. Blamed you and me and Bella all for the loss of Lauren."

Dad sighed deeply. "He's a coward, and a bit of a weasel. His work is fine, and he's fair and honest with employees, but I worry that he'll always have a problem with us. Bella severely kicked his ass in my office when we were held up there, because he was about to out you to Kim when shit was going sideways with his plans." We stopped at the gate that led to the mountain trails, leaning on the fence for a moment. "I've wondered more than once if I should encourage Jake to go be successful elsewhere."

Laughing a little at his phrasing, I shrugged a shoulder. "He's a pussy, and he knows it. He also knows that he's the lowest piece of shit every time he looks at Bella. And now, he's a single father, which probably was the only thing that saved his life."

Movement caught my eye on the other side of the gate. Narrowing my eyes, I tried to see what caused it. I carefully opened the gate.

"What is it?" Dad asked.

"I'm not… Wait there."

I crept closer to the grasses that moved, kneeling down in order to shift the grass and bushes aside.

"Well, shit," I huffed, a laugh escaping me when bright yellow-green eyes blinked up at me. I reached in and scooped her up, giving her a onceover. "There was a part of me that thought… Hell, I didn't think she actually made it."

"She okay?"

"I think so. Some missing fur and what looks like a hurt front paw – cuts on her pads. Her whiskers are a little singed, but nothin' major," I told him, keeping her in my arms, where she seemed pretty content for the moment. "Let's get her back to her kittens, because holy shit, I honestly didn't think I'd find her."

Dad laughed at me. "You are truly your mother's son. I swear Elizabeth saved everything from squirrels to horses."

Grinning, I nodded. "Yeah, I know."

My mother was a gentle soul, a beautiful heart. It was easy to learn those things from her. She loved the horses and riding. She loved Aunt Kate's huskies, the sheep, and all the little creatures that inhabited this farm. There was a part of me that had forgotten those things when she died, or maybe I'd pushed them away, because those things made me miss her more.

However, that gentleness and the ability to care for smaller or weaker things all came rushing back to me the very second I'd stepped into Miller's basement and lifted Bella off his table. Another wave hit again when Bethy was born, and at that point, it never left. My wife and kids brought out in me things that I hoped would make my mother proud, because there were things I'd done before they came into my life that wouldn't have.

As we made our way back up to the porch, my dad piped up. "You makin' breakfast or what?"

Snorting, I shook my head once we were in the kitchen. "Yeah, yeah. Let me feed her and get her back in her box with her kittens, and then I'll feed you, old man. You want a bowl of milk too?"

Grinning, he slapped my shoulder. "Shut the fuck up. No, I want eggs and bacon and maybe those kickass blueberry pancakes you make."

Rolling my eyes, I nodded. "Fine, fine, fine," I chanted, sounding a hell of a lot like Alice.

"Good, because I have a feeling that today will be a long, shitty day."

As I set the mother cat down with her bowl of milk, because her food had burned in the barn, I gazed over at my dad. "You're probably not wrong. And as far as Twi Tower goes, we'll help because this whole thing was too fucking big. I have a feeling we'll have to talk to your buddy, Cho, before it's all over anyway."

"Mmm, probably."

I pulled out the ingredients I'd need to get started but finally turned his way, pointing a spatula at him as he sipped his coffee. "I'm still voting for your retirement."

"Yeah? Well, we can all put it to a vote when this shit is all said and done."

It was a joke, the whole retirement thing, but I honestly didn't think he was ready. And really, this was another result of our past coming back to bite us in the ass. Try as we might to avoid it or prepare ourselves, or protect our friends and family, there would always be something that returns for revenge or retribution. We'd stopped the sale of nuclear weapons two years ago, and while that had been a harsh and nasty and honorable fight, we'd in turn blindly created another enemy.

Slowly, the house started to come alive, and I knew that the computer room would be full and booming, not to mention the questioning of Kim out in the tent. I took a deep breath to prepare for it, because we weren't quite done. There was one more enemy to find and stop. The only solace I had was that this one had been a coward to hide behind Kim and his army. It would be interesting to see how all that shit played out when this person found out that the army they'd put so much faith and money into was now no more.

~o~H&E~o~

A/N… I realize it's been over a year since this updated. And I haven't abandoned it, but it's been slow going getting back my muse. I had to build it back up, and I used my other story Judas to do that.

If I had to take a guess, then this has maybe two more chapters left to it – give or take the epi. I'm going to try to start the next chapter today. My goal is to finish this story by Christmas of this year. My goal. So we'll see how that goes.

Thank you all for your patience. Until next time… Mooches, Deb ;)