I'd expected to have to wait at least a month for everything to work out according to our plan. Instead, surprisingly, everything fell into place the very next weekend. On Thursday night, just after Liliss and I returned home from a trip to the Yeerk Pool, my parents had announced that they were going to be away visiting friends for at least that day, and possibly overnight. Oh, and I found that that Jake was grounded for the weekend. Apparently, he'd failed another math test. To add even more insult to injury, Mom and Dad had tasked him with cleaning out the garage.

As it happened, I didn't have any Sharing meeting that weekend.

Now, it was Saturday, just an hour or so before Mom and Dad were about to leave for their trip. We were eating breakfast together, which wasn't exactly normal for a weekend, but wasn't totally abnormal, either.

"Hey, Jake? I'll help you with the garage. If you want," I told Jake as we ate breakfast.

Mom had made silver dollar pancakes, which we all drenched in maple syrup before eating. I had a stack of at six on my plate. Jake had a couple on his, but was doing more picking at them than eating.

Glancing up at them, Jake gave me his best "trying to be polite but was in a serious bad mood but didn't want to add to his grounding sentence" face.

At least, I thought it was that.

"Uh, sure. Thanks, Tom," he answered, evenly. Then, he added, "No Sharing today?"

"Nope, and I finished my homework last night. So, it's either help out my little brother or shoot hoops for the rest of the day," I grinned.

"Well, don't do all the work for him," Dad cautioned me. "Jake has to learn there are consequences to failing in school."

Ouch.

"The sooner we get it finished, the more time Jake can study, which would help him get a better grade on the next test," I pointed out, with a grin.

Tom: 1. Parents: 0.

Mom returned my smile, and Dad just nodded, unable to refute my logic.

"I'll be inspecting the garage tomorrow night," he promised.

Jake just nodded in response. In all fairness, he'd just taken a bite out of one of the pancakes, and Mom and Dad weren't crazy about us talking with our mouth full.

Mom more than Dad.

Once they were out of the house, Jake gave me a wary look. "You don't need to help me, Tom. You probably have better things to do than helping with chores."

"Like I said earlier, I don't." I gave him a smile, then shrugged. "Anyway, isn't that what big brothers are for? 'Sides, if they really want your grades to go up, they shouldn't be loading you up with manual labor. It's not like you failed gym class. That would make sense. Kinda."

"It was just a stupid pop quiz," he grumbled. "I didn't know that Mom was going to find it in my bag."

"She went looking through your bag?" I asked.

Mom was hardly the type to snoop.

"It fell out when I was getting my History book. Face up. I didn't put it back fast enough," Jake explained, sheepishly.

That was a little better.

"A word to the wise: unless you need to get something like that signed, destroy the evidence at school," I told him, giving him a little nudge in the ribs.

Jake raised his hands in surrender, moving a few steps away from me.

As much as I tried not to let it hurt me, it did.

"Yeah. Well, I'll know for next time," Jake sighed. "Which, hopefully, there won't be."

I shrugged, again, faking nonchalance. "Hey. They were too hard on you. Besides, a failed pop quiz in junior high isn't going to destroy your chances of getting into a good college, if that's what you want. Heck, it wouldn't even do that in high school. Trust me, I know."

Granted, I was in my junior year, and Liliss was helping me keep my grades up, but I didn't get an A on everything.

Especially when the classes weren't taught by Controllers.

"Yeah, I know. Thanks." Jake looked at me, gave me a small smile. "Um. I guess we should start tackling the garage now?"

"Might as well, before it gets too hot out." I winced. "Although, with the doors open, it shouldn't be too bad."

Really, even waiting until the middle of the day probably wouldn't have been horrible, but a not so small part of me wanted to put off telling Jake everything. Besides, maybe we could bond a little, doing manual labor for a few hours in the morning. Then, once we decided that it was time for lunch, we could handle telling him the news.

Or, maybe we were just procrastinating out of the enormity of it all.

Either way, I knew that the garage was a two person job (or, if you wanted to get technical, two people and one Yeerk), and if Mom and Dad came back and it wasn't looking better, Jake could forget about having a social life for at least a month.

"Cleaning out the garage" consisted of a lot of organizing as well as vacuuming and mopping. Mopping because Mom had specifically requested it, even though it wasn't like we were going to sit down there in bare feet. Since Midget didn't even have his permit, let alone his license, I moved the cars to the driveway.

We worked in silence for the first hour or so. To be honest, I wasn't sure if it was a strained silence or if we were just working too hard to bother with chit chat.

I did find a baseball bat from when Jake had tried out for Little League. He must have been around nine. From what I recalled, Marco had wanted to join, so he'd tagged along.

Neither of them were very good, based on the one game I'd gone to, and they left after the first season.

I also found some old stuffed animals, including an oversized teddy bear, that Mom must have gotten to take to Goodwill, or Salvation Army, or one of those other places that gave stuff to the less fortunate.

"We should give these to Mom," I spoke up, holding up the bear, and gesturing to the other stuffed animals.

Jake started, then glanced over at me. "What?"

"She was going to give them to some charity over a year ago," I explained. "They've been sitting here since. All squished together. Unable to breathe," I added, jokingly.

Jake walked over to the box, a strange look coming over his face. "Oh. Right."

"I'll let her know. When they get back. Unless you want to hold onto them?" I asked, my voice more gentle than usual.

Jake crossed his arms against his chest, just for a moment. "I'm way too old for stuffed animals, Tom."

Especially since you can turn into a real one, I thought.

Yeah. Not the opening I was going for.

I felt Liliss' presence in my mind, fairly quiet up until now. Her concern for me, but also for Jake.

"I know that, Midget," I conceded. "I meant, if you ever have kids. Hell, I might want to go through the box and see if there's anything worth saving for the next generation."

Jake nodded, then gave me a smile that even I could tell wasn't sincere. "Right. Maybe." He looked around at the garage. "Not now, though."

I put a hand on his shoulder. "Sure. Chores come first."

Another forced laugh, and Jake backed away as soon as he could. "Yeah."

It hurt. But, at least, I knew why it hurt. I also hoped that it would stop hurting, soon.

I hoped.

More working, cleaning, lifting and moving boxes. By the time 12:00 came around, I was beat. Jake looked pretty tired, too.

(Maybe we should wait until this evening?) I offered. (I think we could both use naps after this.)

Liliss gave me a mental nod. (If I'd known it would be so much work, I would have suggested telling Jake before you two started.)

(Then, we'd have gotten no work done.)

Liliss gave me a mental shrug.

At least, I'd done all of this work on my own. She hadn't needed to take control, and I hadn't even thought to ask her. No doubt about it, my mind and body were at least where it had been before Temrash enslaved me.

Jake was staring at me.

"What?" I asked.

He shrugged. "You had this weird grin on your face."

"You saying my face is weird?" I teased.

"No, just your grin."

I had him in a headlock, then, but before I could start attacking him with noogies, he was shaking. Like, full out shaking.

"L-let go!" he managed to cry out.

Immediately, I did. Gave him a once over. Yeah, he looked panicked. Still shaking.

"Hey," I murmured, putting an arm around his shoulder, giving him a gentle squeeze. "It's okay, Midget. I was just teasing."

Jake took a few deep breaths, forced a smile, but anyone could tell it wasn't sincere. "Yeah. Sorry."

I glanced around at the garage. We probably had another hour or so before it would be finished.

We could do it tomorrow.

"Come on, let's head inside. I don't know about you, but I feel like there's dirt and sweat everywhere, and I'm beat. How about we have lunch, and then finish the rest of this tomorrow?" I offered.

"Okay," Jake agreed, his voice still smaller than usual.

"You go first. I'll fix lunch for us," I added, softly. "Sound good?"

He nodded. "Thanks for helping me out. We got a lot done, Tom."

"Yeah, well. I'm taller, and a lot stronger than you," I teased. "Probably did at least twice as much work as you."

"Maybe," Jake agreed, barely managing to hide a yawn.

I didn't bother to hide mine. "After we eat, I'm going to take a really long nap."

"That sounds pretty good," Jake agreed, a little wistfully. "I still have a ton of homework."

"Do it later," I suggested. "I'll help, and you'll be able to focus if you're not falling asleep on your desk."

Jake seemed to consider this. "You're probably right."

Resisting the urge to hug my kid brother, we headed inside. Moments later, I could hear the shower running as I prepared a large plate of grilled cheese sandwiches. I knew that Jake loved them, and they wouldn't get too cold if they had to stay out for ten minutes. Especially since I could just reheat them.

As it turned out, Jake came downstairs as I was putting them on a plate.

"Cool, just in time. Help yourself. I'll be back in a few," I told him, grinning.

If I wasn't so dirty-minus my hands, obviously-I would have put an arm on Jake's shoulder or something.

"They look great." Jake sat down at the table and grabbed one.

"Take as many as you want. I already had one, and I can make more." I gave him a little poke. "You need to eat more, or you won't just end up a midget, you'll be a super skinny one. Like, your ribs will be showing."

Jake rolled his eyes, but added another two sandwiches to his plate.

Less than fifteen minutes later, I was back, and half of the sandwiches were gone. I grinned at him.

"Good?" I asked.

Jake nodded, taking a bite of one of the ones on his plate. "I missed these."

I tousled his hair. "Okay, okay. I promise I'll make them more often in the future."

He smoothed his hair back with one hand and gave me his best withering stare. "Do you have to do that?" he practically whined.

I grabbed a sandwich from the plate and sat down. "Yeah, if I'm going to feed you. Besides, it's the little brother tax."

Jake rolled his eyes. "Okay, fine."

We ate in silence. It wasn't exactly strained, but it wasn't an easy silence, either. Of course, I knew that this was because Jake knew that I was a Controller. Probably couldn't look at me without imagining an oversized slug in my head, wrapped around my brain, controlling my every move.

No matter what I did, until Liliss came out of my ear and I could explain everything, there would be no making this right.

I almost considered asking her to come of my head out right then, but I was pretty spent from the manual labor, and Jake must have been as well. Maybe I was procrastinating, but I didn't think being exhausted was conducive to a likely very emotional talk between myself and my kid brother.

(We can wait a few hours,) Liliss reassured me. (Your parents are unlikely to be back until late tonight, at the earliest. And you know how your dad hates driving at night.)

That was true enough. Dad, being a doctor, had seen how many people got into car accidents after dark. He'd given me a talk-which had been more of a lecture-about the dangers of driving fast at night, about not having my lights on, about being too tired to pay attention.

He'd known it was unlikely that he'd be able to tell a newly minted teenage driver that he couldn't drive at night, especially with my curfew already at 10 on weeknights and midnight on weekends, but he could try to put the fear of driving at night into me. At least, enough so I'd be cautious.

(Yeah,) I agreed.

We finished our food, and I took our plates up to the sink and rinsed them off before putting them into the half filled dishwasher. Then, I yawned.

"I'm going to take a nap. We've done enough for today. I figure another hour or so tomorrow will finish the garage," I told Jake, who nodded.

"Think I'm going to shut my eyes for awhile, too," he told me.

I rolled my eyes. "Okay, Grandpa."

"What?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. Shut your eyes sounds like something he'd say."

Jake laughed. "Oh. Yeah, I guess."

We each walked up the stairs to our separate rooms, and I pretty much flopped myself on the bed before realizing I had little energy to do anything else. I felt Liliss take over to tuck me in under the covers and give me a mental hug.

(Thanks,) I mumbled.

(You're welcome, honey,) she murmured, keeping her voice low. (Sleep well.)

I woke up a few hours later feeling a lot more refreshed. One of the advantages to Liliss, especially over Temrash, was that unless I had a nightmare, I usually woke up from a night's sleep or a long nap feeling a lot better than I had before. Not always the case with mental naps, but when I could actually lay my body down and sleep for awhile, I really felt revived. More so than before I'd become infested.

(That's because you feel safer than you had before,) Liliss had explained, once. (You know that I'm there to take control if you need me to, but you also know that I would never do anything to hurt you intentionally. This is very restorative, Tom.)

(Okay, but what about before I'd been infested?) I'd asked her.

(You still had stress in your life. Perhaps not to the same extent, but you worried about school, about making enough shots in practice or the next game, and about your social status,) had been her response.

It had been hard to believe that I could have lost sleep over such petty things, but you don't think of being taken over by an alien as something to worry about when you're a teenager.

Anyway, it kind of made sense. I more or less had my life back, now, but Liliss was there to help me when I needed her.

Right now, I definitely needed her to help me talk to Jake. The problem would be when she left my head. I knew that I wasn't going to blame Jake for my enslavement, but he probably blamed himself. More importantly, even without Liliss in my head, he might have a hard time trusting me.

Not to mention the other Animorphs.

After I'd convinced him that I was more or less myself, and definitely an ally, there would be a lot of hugging.

A LOT of hugging.

(Okay,) I told Liliss, (you ready?)

She gave me a mental nod. (We can do this, honey.)

I headed downstairs and filled a glass of water about halfway, then made my way upstairs to Jake's room.

His door was closed, so I gave it a light knock. If he was awake, he'd hear it. If not, it probably wouldn't wake him up.

There was a silence, and I was about to head back to my room and finish my math homework when I heard shuffling.

"One sec!" called Midget.

About ten seconds later, I heard the door unlock, then open.

I frowned to myself. Jake had locked his door? He was that scared of me?

Well, probably, yeah. Our parents were out, and maybe he was afraid I would try to infest him. Either in his sleep, or drag him to the Yeerk Pool.

I immediately arranged my features into a typical bored big brother expression as he opened the door completely, then stood blocking the entrance.

"Hey." I grinned. "Just wanted to see if you were up."

Jake rolled his eyes at me, which I sort of deserved. "Yeah. I'm up."

"Cool. Want some help on your homework or anything? I could go over your math quiz. That is, assuming you still have it," I offered.

Okay, I was putting it off, but at least Jake would have his guard down a little.

Maybe.

Jake stared at me for a few seconds, then shrugged.

"Yeah, okay. I have my everything in my room, if you don't mind working up here," Jake offered, standing aside a few inches.

"Sure. Wherever you want, Midget," I assured him, with a smile.

Jake headed back into his room, and I followed him after a few seconds.

"You want this open or closed?" I asked, hand on the door.

"Open. Thanks," came Jake's voice as he pulled out his school bag, then searched through the mess inside for his book and quiz.

I sat down at his desk, laughing a little. "You're a total slob, Midget."

Jake stood up, holding the quiz, a notebook with a pencil stuck inside, and his math book.

"I remember you were almost as bad before you joined—when you were in middle school," Jake corrected himself.

Yeah, Midget. Yeerks loyal to the empire were total jerks, but they were also neat freaks.

To a fault.

"You're right. I guess I just got sick of not being able to find anything," I laughed. "Okay, let's take a look at your math homework."

Jake's bed was inches from his desk, so we were able to sit close together and see everything. He was studying pre-Algebra, which had to be the creation of some deranged math teacher.

Of course, I told him this, and he managed a real laugh.

I had set my glass of water far away from his work so that it wouldn't crash into anything, but also far enough from the edge to prevent spilling. As we studied, I would turn my gaze towards it every so often. I thought I was being smart about not looking at it too often, but after the fifth time, Jake spoke up.

"You gonna drink any of that, or just stare at it?" He asked, giving me a raised eyebrow.

Oops. Guess I hadn't been as careful as I'd thought.

I shrugged. "Just didn't want to mess up your work, Midget."

"Oh," Jake realized. "Thanks."

"I mean," I added, "I can think of worse fates for math textbooks, but the school would charge Mom and Dad if it was all moldy when you turned it in."

Jake made a face. "Then, I would be grounded for life. Probably sentenced to cleaning the basement and the attic," he half complained.

"Yeah, and you don't want to be cleaning out the attic in July or August," I advised. "Okay, so here, if you take the exponents..."

We studied until Jake could answer all of the pop quiz questions correctly, and I put an arm around his shoulder in congratulations. He let me, too, for about five seconds.

"Thanks," he told me, packing up his bag. "I think I will be okay if he gives another pop quiz this week."

"No problem, Midget."

(I think it's time,) Liliss spoke up, softly.

(Okay,) I agreed, giving her a mental nod.

(Good luck, honey. See you soon.)

I hoped so.

As soon as I felt her start to disconnect from my head, I spoke up again.

"Jake, there's something else..."

It was kind of amazing timing that the moment Jake looked up at me was right after Liliss left my head. He lunged forward, but I had Liliss into the glass of water before he could reach her body. I looked down at her, just to reassure myself she was okay, before turning my attention back to Jake, holding the glass just out of his reach.

Not that he couldn't morph and knock me out, but I hoped he'd give me a few minutes to explain.

Seeing me hold the glass containing my Yeerk away from him, Jake's face turned from determined to shocked. Angry? Maybe even disappointed? I figured I better speak up before he tried anything drastic.

"Midget, I promise, it's okay. She's part of the Peace Movement. Like Aftran? She's been there for a long time. Like, way before she was assigned to me as her host," I rambled. Then, I took a deep breath. "It's okay, I promise. Can I put her down?"