Chapter 8: The Best Day of the Year

May, 1999

He'd been waiting all year for this.

Max looked around his home again, and wondered if there was anything he'd forgotten to get. The fridge was full, he had washed everything off and he'd spent the last two weeks double checking everything from the engine to the light bulbs in the bathroom.

The Rust Bucket was in a lot better shape than it usually was. Not that he was a slob. He kept his home pretty clean. Pretty organized. Good enough for him, anyway. And it never really bothered him if he had to leave a bit of the engine on the kitchen table for a few days so he could tweak it.

There was a reason the kids called it the Rust Bucket. He remembered buying it. It was right after he'd retired, right after he lost Ver…

Even after thirteen years he couldn't finish that thought.

He sat in his home and everything he saw reminded him of her and the boys. And his boys didn't need him. Not anymore. They'd gotten used to making do without their father for most of their lives, and by the time he retired there were too many lost years and broken promises to change that. Not that he didn't love his sons, or think that they didn't love him, but they were never close. And he didn't blame them for that. Maybe if he had told them about what he was really doing, it would have changed things. But he took an oath.

He lasted a week in that house.

He was just going to sell it and buy another when he saw the Rust Bucket. No. His girl had been a beauty back then. He took one look at it and realized he could sit at home every day and do nothing or he could go and finally see all the places he'd only glimpsed at night as he came in shooting at whatever creepy crawly was causing trouble.

It was the second easiest decision he ever made.

He went. He saw. He didn't think he'd ever come back to Bellwood except for the occasional visit until the day that his boys had called to tell him that he was going to be a grandfather twice over. So he went home.

And celebrated. For the first time in his life, he felt like a normal father as he congratulated his sons and gave them all sorts of advice. And they were both so panicked that they hung on his every word. Everyone thought it was just the first of a lot of little visits until the big day, even him, and that made it easier on everyone.

But Sandra's pregnancy was difficult. They came close to losing Ben more than once. So Max had stayed through the long six months to help.

And after he saw his two grandchildren, he couldn't leave again. Not for long, anyway. But he could never bring himself to buy another house. A house meant Verdona, and he couldn't face that.

After so many years he didn't know if he could handle living in one place anyway. He couldn't even stay at the same R.V. lot for more than a month. Besides if he did, he wouldn't be able to take his grandchildren on a summer long road trips. He opened up the pantry and saw the full stock of delicacies inside, along with a few snack cakes hidden in the back for the kids to find when he wasn't looking.

He closed the door and checked the clock. His heart was racing and he felt almost giddy. He was probably looking forward to the start of summer even more than Ben or Gwen.

Their suitcases were already sitting on their bunks. They asked him to pick them up while they were at school. Neither had wanted to wait for even so much as a quick trip home before their summer started. He fluffed their pillows as he walked past the bunks.

He was about to look at his watch again when he heard something knock against the side door. He turned just as Gwen yanked the door open and pulled herself inside. She gave him a grin as she rushed him. "Grandpa!"

"Ready for summer, honey?" Max asked as he picked her up for a hug. He grinned back. He never told her, but she had her grandmother's smile. And her eyes. Both Ben and Gwen did.

"I've been counting down for weeks!" She'd said the same thing last year. He remembered her pretending to be happy then. It was an act that only lasted until she saw Ben.

He didn't think she was pretending this year. He hoped not anyway.

"Me, too." He set her down and sighed as he looked her over. "You've gotten taller."

Gwen rolled her eyes at him as she took a step back and took off her backpack. "You just saw me yesterday."

"No, yesterday you were so tiny I could hold you in my hands." God, she'd been so small when he'd met her. With delicate hair that felt like silk and curious green eyes that took everything in.

One time, before he realized just how curious she could be, she'd gotten her hands on his plasma pistol. That was a heart attack or two. He couldn't even yell at her, not really. It had been his fault. He might have been a retired, but he was still a Plumber so he kept all the tools of the trade. He'd just been dumb enough to think that keeping it out of sight was enough.

He spent months making sure that would never happen again. That was when he started modifying his home, and once he started there was always one more thing that needed doing.

"Grandpa," she said with the silent suffering of the young. She glanced at the clock in the corner and rocked back and forth on her feet with excitement. "When are we going to pick up Ben? I want to get started."

"He still has another half hour of school."

She let out an annoyed sigh. Her school started and ended a half hour before Ben's this year and she never let him forget it. "The one time that's a bad thing."

"Your mom had everything ready when I stopped by, but we can still make a quick run if you want to say goodbye." And give his son and daughters-in-law a chance to change their minds. Sure, he understood their caution, especially after all the near misses, but still...

He knew Gwen would be thrilled to find out she was going to be a big sister.

He'd almost called the whole trip off when he'd found out, but Frank and Lili had insisted. Had said it would be a heck of a surprise for Gwen when they got back. It was supposed to be a surprise for all of them, but Max knew the signs. He didn't agree, but it was their decision. Now the hardest part would be keeping the secret.

"I'll give her a call," Gwen said. Her expression darkened just a touch. Something Max didn't think anyone but he would notice. He didn't know what had happened between Gwen and her mother in the past year, but he knew that something had. He just wished that one of them would tell him what so he could try to fix it.

But so far neither would say. Not even Gwen, and she shared everything. Being left out of the loop was a change, and one he didn't like.

Some things didn't change, though, like her needing everything in its place. She slipped past him to get to her bunk in the back and started unpacking. She tossed her backpack on her bunk and opened her suitcase so she could start putting everything away. At the very top was a very familiar set of white Capri's and light blue kitty t-shirt. An outfit he remembered her saying she couldn't wait to change out of by the end of last summer. "I didn't know you had a lucky outfit, too."

"It's not lucky," Gwen said with a slight huff, "it's comfy. Only Ben has lucky shirts."

"We're just lucky he's washing them." Grandpa Max said. "I hear he's even wearing clean socks now, thanks to someone."

"He wasn't going to embarrass ME in front of Sensei."

Max just chuckled a little. He knew that tone of voice. Everyone who spent more than five minutes with his granddaughter knew that tone of voice. Even her parents would give in more often than not. Ben was the only one he knew who could ignore it.

"How is Isamu doing these days?"

Gwen gave him an annoyed look as she corrected him. "Sensei is doing well. Though he did say it had been a while since you visited."

Grandpa thought back and sighed at how time had flown. "It has been. I'll have to make it up to him when we get back."

Gwen smiled, but sifted her feet and her face got a very familiar look on it. It was the same look she'd gotten when she started to drag the laser pistol around in one fat little hand. "We… Ben was wondering… is – was Sensei just someone you met as a plumber, or was he a Plumber?"

Isamu was a man who needed his toilets fixed and Max had a cover to maintain, but what was the fun of telling her that? He smiled at her and knew he was about to drive her crazy. "Isamu's a good friend."

She scowled at him, but she didn't ask anything else. From the look of things she was too busy grinding her teeth to say anything. She pulled about a dozen books out of the bottom of the suitcase and carefully lined them up on the shelf he'd emptied off for her.

Max looked over the titles as she put them away to see which she thought were important enough to bring with her. Most were books he'd never heard of. One was a familiar and very well read copy of Huckleberry Finn. It had been his favorite book, one he'd passed on to her last summer. She slipped a hard cover physics book next to it. Well, the dust jacket said physics, the soft pink cover under it suggested differently.

He didn't pry, but she better hope that Ben didn't see it. If he found out she brought a romance novel she was never going to hear the end of it. And that would make for a very long summer.

Next came the familiar spell book she'd taken from Charmcaster, but it was the last one she put out that caught his attention. It had a simple leather-covered journal that he'd had passed on to her last Christmas as a favor. There was a bright blue bookmark inside, but he had to admit that he was disappointed to see that she was only a quarter of the way through it.

"I thought you would have enjoyed this more," he said as he picked up the book and opened it to the page she'd marked. The pages were covered with handwriting so small and tight it would have given him a headache to read it if he wasn't already used to the chicken scratch.

Gwen turned and brightened when she saw what book he'd picked up. "I do! It's one of my favorites! This is the third time I've read it. It's answered so many of my questions on how my spells work. The woman who wrote it was brilliant."

"I'm glad to hear that," Max said as he closed the book and put it back down. "But how do you know a woman wrote it?"

Gwen just gave him a look. "It had to be a woman. She made sense."

"Ouch."

"Grandpa." Gwen turned back to her clothes and grunted as she tried to shove the last few blouses into her drawer. "I should put some of this in one of Ben's drawers. It's not like he need that much room for his lucky shirts."

Max shook his head. "Would you let him keep his stuff with yours?"

"No," Gwen admitted with a sigh. Then she scowled. "Not that that would stop him."

"He is stubborn."

"I know. It's so annoying."

"It's a good thing there's no one else here like that."

Gwen sniffed delicately and lifted her chin a little. "I'm not stubborn. I'm right."

"You're as right as a mule sometimes."

Gwen laughed and gave him another hug. "I've missed you, Grandpa."

"I've missed you too, honey," Max said. "I've missed both of you."

"Even Ben?"

"Even Ben," Grandpa Max said. He glanced at the clock. "Speaking of whom…" They made their way up front and he started the R.V. while she sat in the passenger seat and leaned forward like she thought that it would make the Rust Bucket go faster. "So, how was your last day?"

She gave him a debriefing that the Pentagon would have said was to in-depth as they drove. He heard about everything from her finals, to what students were going to have to take summer school without her help, and which classes she wanted to take next year. And as she talked she sprinkled in little stories about the terrible luck that a girl in her class named Marci had been experiencing for the past few weeks; pins on the chair, missing lunches, spraying water fountains and the like. Gwen always looked so embarrassed for the girl when Max glanced over at her.

At least until he said, "And here I was worried about Ben being the bad influence." And that was when she blushed and looked away. Max didn't say anything more about it though. He'd done worse in his day.

They pulled up in front of Ben's school just as the students started stampeding out. Ben wasn't the first one out the door, but he was the first to the parking lot. Gwen saw him first, and leaned out her window to scream for him to hurry up. He came at them in a flat run with his backpack dangling from one shoulder. He slammed into the side of the Rust Bucket with a thud and yanked open the passenger side door.

"Ben!" Gwen squealed in surprise as she jumped back in her seat just quick enough to avoid tumbling out of the Rust Bucket. "We have other doors, you know!"

"I know!" Ben said with a smirk as he pulled himself up and crawled over her to get inside.

"Get off of me, Doofus!"

Ben's grin just grew as he rolled off of her. He pulled off his backpack, spun around to toss it back deeper into the Rust Bucket. Max thought he was going to sit in the back passenger seat, but instead he leaned over the back of Gwen's seat. "Hey, Grandpa! Let's roll!"

"Yes, sir!" Grandpa Max said with a chuckle. He put the Rust Bucket in gear and tried not to dwell on the fact that Ben had grown, too. He wasn't as tall as Gwen yet. Sometimes he thought that Ben would always be shorter than his cousin. But no matter how big he got, Max still had flashes of the first time he'd seen his grandson.

If Gwen had been small, then Ben had been tiny. Tiny, but with lungs of someone three times his size. And he could cry for hours. Max was just glad he'd gotten the Rust Bucket kid-proofed before Ben's first visit because he was just as bad as his cousin when it came to getting into things. And the two together… He'd seen hurricanes that were less destructive than his two grandchildren when they were babies. And they'd glow the whole time.

They'd proven a dozen times last summer that some things never change.

Too much did, though. There were times he would have given anything to stop things the way they were.

The thing was that he could. Or, at least, he knew what things he'd have to get to do it. But he could never do that to them. They had too much to look forward to. And were in a hurry to get to it. Speaking of which, he pressed down on the gas once they were clear of the traffic and headed east.

"So, anywhere you kids want to go this summer?" He winced even as the words left his mouth. When he'd asked last year it had started a screaming match that only ended when Gwen had stormed off and locked herself in the bathroom and Ben sulked in the passenger seat until they got to the campsite.

Gwen was bouncing in her seat with excitement as she said, "There's a World Karate Championship League exhibition starting in L.A. in a few weeks."

"We thought that would be cool to see," Ben added. And he actually sounded excited about it.

"Sounds good to me," Max raised an eyebrow, not at Gwen's excitement, but at Ben's. "You must really be enjoying the classes, Ben."

"They're all right," Ben said in a bored tone that would have made Ben Stein proud.

Then Gwen twisted in her seat and gave her cousin a look Max thought he'd never see on her face: pride. "He's doing great, Grandpa. Sensei already says he's the best in his group."

"Like that's a big deal. Most of my group need paramedics when they walk in the door."

"The Sensei doesn't say anything he doesn't mean," Gwen growled.

"So he meant it when he said I was as good as you were when you started?"

"He did not!" Gwen shouted. She fell back into her seat and crossed her arms. "I said you were doing good, not great."

"You said I was kicking butt."

"Lazy, out of shape butts."

"So, the karate finals it is," Grandpa Max cut in. To his surprise it stopped the fight. "Anywhere else?"

Ben shrugged. "We kinda want to go see Roswell."

Max felt his hands tighten on the steering wheel. He'd avoided the state last year in the hope that they wouldn't ask to go there. He should have known that it wouldn't last. He'd found out about Verdona there, just after the final fight with Vilgax - he still couldn't believe that he'd used a nuke, or that it didn't work- and went a little crazy. Xylene found him in a bar that night after drunk out of his mind. She helped him, and he loved her for it. And then she'd left, too. He retired the next day.

To see it all again...

Gwen must have seen his knuckles go white, because her voice went soft. "We don't have to Grandpa. We just wanted to see where this alien stuff started."

"It'd be cool," Ben said, still excited. "I want to see where the saucer… " His words died in his throat as he finally caught the wide-eyed looks and less than subtle head shaking that Gwen was sending his way, "crashed. But it's just an idea."

"Maybe-" Max said, his voice thick with emotion. "Maybe we can skip that one this year, guys."

"Sure."

"Just an idea."

Max nodded and forced his fingers to relax. "Anywhere else?"

There was another long silence. Finally Ben spoke up. "While we're in L.A. we could hit some of the museums there. Maybe stay a few days." Max jumped a little at that and looked over at his grandson. From the look on his face, each word had been agony to get out, but he somehow managed to say them.

Gwen looked just as surprised. Happily surprised. "And there's the new Super Sumo Smash movie coming out in a couple of weeks."

"All right, who are you and what have you done with my grandchildren?" Max asked. He was grinning, but his right hand made its way to a small button under the dash to turn on the Rust Bucket's scanners, just in case.

The two looked at him, then at each other. They both shrugged and turned back to him and asked in near harmony, "What?"

"Nothing." He shook his head and relaxed as he read the small display that was being shined into his retina. It was definitely them. "I'm just glad to see you guys are getting along better this year."

"Are not," Ben said and gagged at the idea.

"So not," Gwen agreed with a shudder.

"Dweeb!" Ben reached down and flicked Gwen's ear.

Gwen reached around behind her seat and clawed at Ben's leg. "Doofus!"

"Okay, okay! I knew I shouldn't have said anything." Not that it stopped the fight. Grandpa Max shook his head and listened to them to carry on. There wasn't any of the anger of last summer in their voices any more, he realized with a pleased smile. No, this was more teasing than anything mean, so he didn't see any reason to stop it.

Besides, listening to his grandchildren fight made it feel like summer had really started.

And then the dashboard buzzed. Ben and Gwen both grinned at each other. "And things are back to normal," Ben said, his hand already going to the Omnitrix.

A vent in the dashboard slid up and a green hologram painted itself across the inside of the windshield. It moved from Bellwood to the mountains that were just a few hours away before it settled on one mountain in particular. Or, more accurately, the base buried underneath the mountain.

Max read the code on the bottom. It was an alarm coming from a single motion detector deep inside the base. Probably a malfunction. The base's computer would have just filled it away to be fixed later if Max hadn't reset the alarm level. After all, no one had been in the facility since it was mothballed years ago. No one but-

"Hey, that's the base you've been taking me to!" Ben said as he leaned over and looked at the map.

Max could only nod as he felt his stomach knot in worry. He reached for the overdrive button and felt the Rust Bucket shake as the jet engines on the outside flipped into place. It looked like it was going to be a normal summer.

For them, at least.