Chapter 18: Worries, Old and New

February, 2000

"The kids miss you, Dad," Carl said into the phone. The kids and him. After a lifetime of being away, he had gotten used to finally having his father around. He'd honestly thought that things had changed over the last few years, but this was all way too familiar for him. The last minute cancellations. The weeks away from home. Sure, Dad was gone quite a bit anyway since he retired, but when he said he would be somewhere, he was. At least he had been. Not anymore though.

Carl still couldn't believe that his father missed Christmas this year. Thank God Dad made the kids' birthday party. He had been ready to hunt the man down if he tried to miss that.

"I miss them, too," Max said with a sigh. "But I'm tied up right now and - "

"You'll make it up to them later," Carl said together with his father. He knew the words by heart now. He rubbed at his eyes. He was used to this kind of thing, but it killed Ben every time his Grandpa called now.

"I know that you've heard all of this before, Carl, but this is something I have to do."

Carl shook his head and was more mad at himself than his father. This was all his fault, after all. His and his brother's. He'd thought that ever since Dad had told them that he was going back to work. "If its money, dad, you know that Frank and I can help."

It had to be money. Nothing else made sense. He knew that his Dad got a good pension from both the Air Force and his old Plumbers business, more than enough to take care of anything he or that RV of his needed in his travels. Enough for him, but was it enough for the kids, too?

They had offered to help pay for things before the first road trip, but Dad turned them down and they'd let the matter drop. They had let it drop even though they both knew that the kids' food bills alone could bankrupt a small nation. They should have insisted.

And now their father was working again. Working and gone.

"I know you would," Max said. "And its not that. One of my old projects is acting up again."

"And you stand by your work."

"Just like you do."

Dad's life lessons. Always do your best, and always clean up your own messes. Only he and Frank had dropped the ball on the last one. It was past time to fix that. "Yeah, but if you want to do another trip this year..."

"You know I do. Unless the kids -"

"Are you kidding? They're dying to go. But if you want to do it, you have to let us help out with the bills this time."

He heard his father blow out a breath. "All right. Hopefully I'll get everything wrapped up in a couple of days and I can come home. Give everyone my best, Carl."

"I will, Dad." And then he was gone, again. Carl had dreaded these calls when he was young. That was why he turned down so many jobs now, because they would take him out of town and he would never put his son through this.

He hated these calls when he was young, but they were even worse now. He could already see the look on Ben's face when...

The thought of his son made Carl glance over at the clock. Glance and let out a curse. Sandra and Ben would be back from karate soon and he had not even started dinner yet.

Thank God he was the master of spaghetti.

He turned on the television and half listened to the news as he made the sauce. The talking heads talked about the same thing they'd been talking about for the last three days, the motorcycle gang that tried to highjack a military convoy heading to the new Army base just outside of town. Apparently they'd gotten wind of the fact that it was carrying the kind of sensitive equipment that people would pay top dollar and went for it.

That place was already trouble and it wasn't even open yet. Carl wished he knew who decided that Bellwood needed an army base just so he could give the man a piece of his mind, but no one would say who it was. They probably didn't want anyone to know that they decided these things by giving a monkey a dart and pointing him at a map.

He barely paid any attention to the report, at least not until he heard the words, "...exclusive video of the attack."

They got a video, but not a very good one. It was from a cellphone camera and it looked like whoever was taking the film did it while hiding under his dashboard and waving the camera around over his head. It was kind of nauseating to watch all the moves the camera made. It was well after midnight, so the only light came from a couple of burning Humvees and the way too familiar flashes of laser fire on the soldiers as they took cover behind whatever they could.

The soldiers got off some shots of their own, but the bikers were moving fast and had absolutely no problem dodging between the now parked or wrecked cars that surrounded the trapped convoy whenever the shots got too close. Cars full of people. Families.

Carl shook his head and felt sick to think that there would people who would do that when a brilliant flash of purplish blue light that caught his and the camera man's attention. The picture blurred and shook before it settled on the only Humvee that wasn't on fire. A dozen bolts of light shot at it as the bikers tried to fix that, but a glowing dome had appeared around the truck.. The shield cracked under the attack, but it didn't break.

A moment later there was a second round of fire, but it was scattered, panicked. Only one or two shot again after that. And then it was over. The dome vanished, and Carl waited for the talking heads to come back. Except they didn't. The news station just left the video kept running.

He was just starting to wonder if someone at the station had fallen asleep when there was the bang of something tapping on glass. The news bleeped what the man holding the camera shouted as he spun around. Outside the drivers side door was something that looked like a blue dinosaur wearing a black tracksuit. Carl blinked again when he saw it, while the camera man let out a whole string of bleeped words.

"Are you okay?" The dinosaur asked with a slight hiss as it kept looking up and down the street. The man whimpered something and the dinosaur turned to look in. The thing winced when it saw the camera. It raised its three fingered hand in a halfhearted wave and said, "If you see this, don't be mad, Grandpa." And then it was gone.

Carl laughed at the words. The alien – it had to be an alien – seemed so human right then.

And then the talking heads were back. This time with a still picture of the alien from that video and pictures from a whole bunch of other rescues that were superimposed over a map of the country. The thing had been busy and had seen more of the country than Carl ever had. "Good for it," Carl said with a nod. At least it was trying to help, and that was more than anyone could say about most aliens.

And then the other talking head weighed in. "How do we know that the alien wasn't a part of the attack? It didn't stay around to answer any questions. And my colleague's map just shows how wide spread the infiltration -"

"Well, I'm sure he's glad that he stopped to help now," Carl muttered as he turned off the television. He listened to enough idiots like that at work. He didn't need it at home, too. He was about to grumble some more when he heard the rumble of the garage door go up and all thought of aliens fled.

He gave the sauce one more stir before his beautiful wife hurried through the door and walked up to him. She didn't say a word before she kissed him. It was her favorite distraction tactic, and his, too, but it didn't really work any more. He enjoyed the kiss for a moment before he asked. "What happened?"

Sandy sighed and looked back at the door to the garage. "Don't be mad."

Those words were always the perfect way to start the weekend. Carl was about to ask about what when Ben came through the door. He was still in his gi – with his new orange belt - and grinning as he finished off an ice cream cone.

"Ice cream?" Carl said with a frown. After what happened yesterday at school? "I thought I was the one who spoiled him."

Sandra had the good grace to look apologetic as she shrugged. "He made a 95 on his history test. I thought he deserved a reward."

"Yeah, I guess he does." Carl grinned at his son. 95? He always knew that Ben could do it if he just tried. "I hope you brought some for me."

"You are on a diet," Sandy said as sternly as she could. Then she sighed. "But I didn't mean the ice cream."

Carl raised an eyebrow and was about to ask when he saw Ben looked over his shoulder and say, "You better have a good movie this time."

And Gwen walked through the door behind him with her own ice cream cone in one hand and a small gym bag in the other. Carl wished that it was a surprise to see her, but it wasn't. "Its a classic. The Princess Bride."

Ben groaned. "No. No way. No princess anything."

It was a good thing his son couldn't see the scowl he was getting. "You know our deal."

Carl waited for his son to start sulking, or go into full insult mode. Instead he looked to the sky and threw up his hand in good natured defeat. "Fine. I'll watch a quarter of it."

"A half. It has a wrestler in it."

Ben blinked and looked over his shoulder at her. "Which one?"

"Andre the Giant."

Ben paused in thought before he nodded. "All right. A half." He looked over at his parents. "Hi, Dad."

"Hi, Uncle Carl," Gwen said with a grin and a wave of her ice cream hand. "We'll be right back."With that the two ran upstairs to get changed.

Carl waved back, but his eyes were on his wife. His very guilty looking wife. "I thought we talked about this?" He loved his niece with all of his heart, but this would be the fourth week in a row she'd come over after karate. At first it had been fun, but it was getting to be a bit much.

"We did," Sandra said as she waved her hands in frustration. "We did. I know we did. I tried to say no, but..."

"But they both gave you the wide-eyed Bambi look?"

"You were right. That is very, very hard to say no to."

"I want you to remember you said that. That I was right."

She put her hand on her hip and he knew that he was going to pay for that remark later. "At least it takes both of them to get me."

"What did Lili say?"

"That she'd be by around ten like always. I think she was expecting it."

Which explained the bag. Definitely a bit much. It would have been nice if Gwen had asked them first, but even if she had, Carl had to admit that something about all of her visits was starting to bother him a little. Maybe it was just the fact that he'd gotten used to the two kids fighting over the years and the change was throwing him off.

"Its our fault, you know." Sandy said. "We've always told him to be nicer to her, and that it wouldn't kill him to spend some time with her."

"Some," Carl said to emphasize the word. "This is way past some. I was already going to talk to him about what happened at school. I guess I'll just add this to the list."

"I know what will take your mind off of it," Sandy said to him as she put her arms around his shoulders again and leaned in to him. "I'll help you set the table." She laughed at his expression and gave him another kiss. It turned into a game, and the two managed to get the table ready and share six good kisses before the kids came running down the stairs.

And that started another ritual. Spot the bruises after karate. It was the only part of the class he hated. Neither of them had managed to break anything yet, thank God, but some of the bruises they'd gotten over the last year were hideous. Today didn't look that bad. Ben had a scrap across his right cheek and a bruise on his arm that was already turning colors, but he wasn't limping or favoring anything.

"Gwen," Sandy said in her worried mom voice.

Carl glanced over at his niece. At first he didn't see anything wrong with her, but it only took a minute for every dad alarm in his head to start going off. She was wearing a sweatshirt and was trying to hide her arms behind her back. And she looked guilty as hell. "It's nothing."

"Gwen," Carl said.

Gwen hung her head and pulled up the sleeve of her left arm. She had a bruise on her upper arm that was almost as nasty as Ben's. "See?" She said as she pulled down the sleeve.

Sandy crossed her arms and glared. "You're other arm."

Gwen let out a guilty little whimper and Ben looked at the floor as she pulled up the other sleeve. There was a bandage hiding under it that went from just above her wrist to her elbow. Carl felt his heart skip a beat. "Did you get that in class?"

"No!" Gwen said in a rush as she pulled the sleeve back down. She only winced a little when it touched the bandage. Tennyson tough. "No. I was baking a snack after school a couple of days ago and I bumped the pan. Sensei had me practicing my kicks on the bags just so I wouldn't hurt my arm."

"You know you have to be more careful with the oven," Sandra said.

"That's what I told her," Ben muttered as he gave his cousin a look. It wasn't mocking, which was strange. It was worried. Which was even stranger.

"It wasn't like I meant to do it, Doofus," she said. The words sounded just as annoyed as ever, but the look she gave Ben was more of an apology than anything. Even stranger.

"Still."

"I know."

Carl had stood there and listened to the whole conversation, but it was like he was only hearing half of what they said to each other. "Just be more careful. You know how your Aunt and I like to worry."

"I will be," Gwen said as she sat down next to Ben in what was quickly becoming her seat and filled her plate.

And now that that was done, Carl turned to his son and said. "Ben, Sandra told me that you aced your history test! Congratulations!"

Ben scrunched down in his seat a little. "It isn't that big of a deal."

Sandy shook her head. "A 95 is too a big deal. We're so proud of you."

"95?" Gwen asked as she turned and grinned at Ben. "Way to go! Why didn't you tell me?"

His parents say something nice and he looked miserable, but for her he looked happy. Of course. Carl guessed that was the way it always was with kids. The rest of the dinner was downright fun, right up until the end, when he knew he couldn't put it off any longer. "Grandpa Max called..."

Ben knew right away. He didn't throw a fit like he used to, but he tightened his hand around his fork until his knuckles went white as he glared at the tablecloth. "He's not coming home this weekend, is he?"

"I'm sorry, Ben."

Gwen looked just as shaken as she turned to her cousin and put her hand on his. "I'm sure its something important."

"That's the problem!" Ben snapped as he turned to her. "We should be..." The angry words died in a strangled noise and both kids froze.

For just one second Carl hated his father for hurting the kids so much. He was about to say something when his wife beat him to it. Sandy got up and hurried around the table to hug them both. "You are important to your Grandfather! Don't think for a second you aren't. I can still remember the way he cried when he saw you both for the first time."

The look of relief on Gwen's face was heartbreaking. "He saw me first, though, Doofus."

"That's why he was crying, Dweeb."

Carl shook his head at the insults. At least they didn't sound like they wanted to kill each other any more when they said them. "He loves you both very much. He's just... busy right now. He said he would be home as soon as he can."

"Yeah, I know," Ben said. He sighed and put down the fork and turned to his cousin. "Wanna play some Sumo Slammers before the movie?"

"You want to hit things, too?" Gwen asked with a grin as she stood up. "Thank you for dinner, Uncle Carl, Aunt Sandra."

Carl took one deep breath and nodded at his wife. Sandy stood up and started collecting the dishes. "Actually, Gwen, honey, could you help me with the dishes? Carl has to talk to Ben about something for just a minute first."

"You do?" Ben asked and hunched up his shoulders. "This is about yesterday, isn't it?"

Carl nodded and stood up. "Lets go talk in the cave." The cave was the workroom he had added onto the back of the garage a few years ago. It had all of his tools and somehow seemed the best place for man to man talks. It must have been the smell of the sawdust.

Ben nodded and hung his head. His mom patted him on the shoulder, but it didn't do much to help. He did look a little better when Gwen did the same thing, though. Carl opened the door for his son as they went into his workroom.

"About yesterday..." Ben started as soon as the door closed.

"I already saw the note your teacher sent home," Carl said.. "You know you could have been suspended."

Ben gave his father and angry and frustrated shrug. "What was I supposed to do? JT and Cash were ganging up on the new kid."

"You can't threaten them."

"I didn't," Ben said with some defiance, but he wouldn't meet his father's eyes. "Ask Mark, he said I didn't."

Yeah, the new kid was really going to rat out the kid who saved him. Carl sighed and thought about how much easier things had been when he was little. At least back then the school worried about who started the fight instead of just suspending everyone. "I know you want to help people, Ben. I've always been proud of that." Carl felt a little better when his son sort of smiled at that. "And I'm not going to tell you that violence is never the answer. We both know that that isn't true, but there are other ways to deal with bullies."

"Not that I've seen."

"Have you tried talking to them? I know that you and JT used to be friends."

Ben shook his head. "He doesn't want to talk."

"You might be surprised. You should at least try before you start fighting." Carl sighed and wondered if any of this was sinking in. "I mean, how long have you been dealing with those two?"

"It seems like forever."

"And has fighting solved anything, or has it just gotten you into trouble?" Ben didn't answer. He didn't look like he even wanted to answer. Maybe it was too close. Carl tried to think of another example and remembered the news. "I was watching the news today. An alien saved some soldiers just outside of town and if he'd stayed to talk for even a minute after he would have saved himself all kinds of trouble."

Ben gave him a confused look. "Trouble?"

Carl nodded. "Yeah, there are people calling him a threat because all he did was fight."

"They are?" Ben asked with a scowl. "But he helped people. Why would they think he was a bad guy?"

"Because some people are afraid of the aliens. Do you think that him beating up more people would help that? Or should he try talking?"

Ben looked surprised at the thought. He even nodded a little. It lasted for almost a good ten seconds before he glanced at his watch and Carl knew that he'd lost him. "I know that you're only twelve, but you're going to have to find another way to deal bullies eventually. It isn't like you can spend your entire life beating up the bad guys. There are other ways to help people."

"I know dad. I'm sorry." He was inching towards the door before he even finished talking. "Gwen's waiting, can I?"

"There was one other thing." Carl said. The fighting thing was easy compared to this. "We weren't planning on seeing Gwen tonight."

Ben winced. "I kinda forgot to tell you. Sorry. I'll remember next time."

"Next time," Carl repeated. He had a feeling next time would be next week if he didn't do something about it now. "I want you to know that I'm very happy that you and Gwen have stopped fighting..."

Ben blinked in confusion. "Yeah?"

"I love Gwen, and I'm glad that you are getting along with your cousin now, " Carl rubbed at the back of his head as he tried to decide how to put this. "but you know that you don't have to hang out with her just to make us happy, right?"

"I'm not." He gave his father a 'dad's gone crazy' look. "Are you feeling okay, Dad?"

"Not really," Carl admitted. "This isn't going the way I wanted. Don't you want to spend some time with your friends?"

Ben squinted a little and said, "I am," very slowly.

The words 'since when' almost slipped out of Carl's mouth, but he realized how ugly they sounded. Though the truth was, except for karate, the two had to be forced to spend time together. Heck, even back during New Years Ben complained the whole day about being trapped in the room with Gwen. Frankly, he expected them both to try to kill each other, or one to run out of the room screaming within ten minutes of Gwen getting there.

They didn't though. Whenever anyone checked in on them it looked like they were having the time of their lives. Well, until the end, anyway. Carl still remembered how they looked when he checked on them that night. He must have interrupted the fight, because they were both still red and wouldn't even look at each other. He would have said something, but it was time for them to go to bed anyway and they didn't make a sound after.

Maybe Ben was feeling guilty over the fight. That would explain why he spent so much time with her now. He thought about asking, but he couldn't think of a way that wouldn't make things worse. So he went the safe route and said, "Well, I'm glad that you think that she's your friend now, but don't you want to spend more time with the guys?"

Ben shrugged. "I see them at school."

"You could have them come over more often."

Ben was getting a familiar and stubborn look on his face as he figured out where this was going. "They were over just last week."

Sandra said that a couple of his friends had come over to play games and they had all left before dinner. "Yeah, but you have Gwen over every week. If you want, I'll take Gwen home and you can call the guys up..."

And that suggestion did not fly. At all. It didn't even get off the runway. "You want me to hang out with my friends. I am. Right now."

"But..."

"Is there something wrong with hanging out with Gwen?"

Not yet, Carl thought, and he was surprised by the thought. He shook his head. "No. No. Just, remember that you have other friends out there." Ben looked at his father and didn't even blink. Carl knew that look. His son was seconds away from an explosion. It was best to wrap this up before things got bad. "Its just another thing to think about, okay?"

Ben nodded once and stormed out of the room.

That did not go well, Carl thought as he followed Ben.

Sandy and Gwen were already done with the dishes and were looking at a fashion magazine together on the kitchen bar. Sandy was leaning on the counter while Gwen sat perched on a stool next to her. They had been laughing, but the smile froze on Gwen's face when Ben yanked open the door. She gave him a wide eyed worried look as he stomped across the kitchen and went by her without saying a word.

Not that she needed one. She turned and glared at Carl, and the hot anger in his niece's eyes stopped him in his tracks. He felt the irrational need to either apologize or explain. Not that she seemed interested in either as she hopped off of the stool, spun around on one foot and sprinted off after Ben. The two took the steps at a full run, and the whole house shook after one of them slammed Ben's bedroom door shut behind them.

Sandy came up and gave him a much needed hug. "No good?"

"Eh. He took the fighting talk well enough, but I think I FUBARed the rest of it."

"Well. It could be worse," his wife pointed out. "He could be hanging out with thugs. Or be getting into fights. Real ones, not like the one he had with those two idiots at school."

Carl nodded. That was true enough. "And I guess she is a good influence. I can't believe he got a 95."

"Well, he did get my brains."

Carl gave her a look, and Sandy grinned back. "I just wish... I don't know. He should be hanging out with other kids. Not just his cousin. How much time did you ever spend with yours?"

"A couple of days in the summer. But it wasn't like we were the same age. Or even lived in the same town. What about you?"

"Gordon is nearly twenty years older than me. He was more like an Uncle than anything. And as for mom's side... They didn't come around much." He thought for a minute as he figured out what had been worrying him. "But none of my cousin's looked like Gwen, either."

Sandy's face turned red and she smacked him. "Carl!"

He shrugged. "She's cute."

"She's going to be beautiful," Sandy corrected.

"Yeah. Yeah, that does not make me feel any better."

"You're being silly. They're cousins. Until a while ago they couldn't even stand each other. You're worrying about nothing." But she looked upstairs and made a little face. "But if her being here bothers you that much I'll drive her home."

Carl stood there for a minute and thought about it. Then he shook his head. "No. No, you're right. I'm being stupid. I'll go apologize to them."

Sandy caught his arm. "Let them watch their movie and cool down a little first."

"Cool down? Did you see the look Gwen gave me?" It was a bad one, and that was before she even knew what had made Ben so mad. Once he told her – and he would, Carl didn't doubt that – he would be in real trouble. "If I wait for them to do that, Gwen won't be over again for a month."

Sandy shrugged. "Well, then that solves one problem, doesn't it?"

So Carl waited. And he was right, it was almost a month before they saw their niece again. They didn't see her, but Ben did. He just went over to her house on Friday nights instead.

And no one said a word about it.