Jim grunted as he landed hard on his back. The Forge began to slow around him until the spinning gears ground to a stop and an echoing silence replaced them. He glanced over to the control switch and saw that Blinky had been the one to turn it off.

"Not that I do not appreciate your dedication to more training, Master Jim, but if I may point out, it seems you have something weighing on your mind this evening."

"How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough. I must say, it is inadvisable to train alone in the best of times but given your distracted state I would highly recommend having backup on hand. Now, come over here and let's talk. What is it that has you so out of sorts?" Blinky could guess what might be bothering the young Trollhunter, but he wanted to let the boy have the chance to explain things in his own words.

Jim gave a long sigh as he rolled himself to his feet and made the short walk over to his mentor. He was grateful for a chance to talk to someone about what had happened this afternoon. He wasted no time filling Blinky in on the details of his plan and the unpleasant consequences that followed.

"I mean, I feel kind of bad, but I don't think I should? Am I wrong for not wanting them to get along so well? Was I wrong for using that elixir? I shouldn't be the one who's feeling guilty!"

Blinky nodded thoughtfully as he debated on how best to give advice in this particular situation. "I think, perhaps, the reason you do feel some measure of guilt is because of who you are at your core. You are a good person, James Lake Jr., and you have a great deal of honor. Personally, I don't feel bad about what you did. That changeling did tie me up to use as leverage against you, among a great many other grievances. However, I can understand why you are upset, and you have every right to be. It is a complicated situation."

"This whole thing is one giant headache."

"Indeed. Yet, I have met your mother and spoken to her twice now. She is a formidable woman." Vivid flashbacks of their first meeting came back to him and he grimaced. Formidable might be an understatement. "If her involvement is the root of your worry then I would suggest sitting down, in private, and having an honest conversation with her."

Jim heaved a small grunt of agreement.

"With the timing of everything, would I be correct in assuming that you have not yet had a chance to really talk to her?" Jim gave stiff nod. "Then, that may be the best place to start. As for the changeling, you do not owe him an apology. The way I see it, being forced into such an interrogation is a fair price to pay, all things considered. Still, Velsanlei Serum has its reputation for a reason. May I ask what you did with the rest of it?"

Jim shrugged, "I dumped it on the lawn before I came down here."

"Not the option I would have gone with, but perhaps it is for the best. At least now it does not run the risk of future misuse. That does bring up another point, I'm going to have to ask Draal about his dubious contacts. First that Grit-Shaka and now Velsanlei! I really want to know where he's coming by these things."

"Hey, Jimbo! Why haven't you been answering your texts?"

Jim looked over to where Toby was jogging his way toward them. Claire followed behind the other boy at a more relaxed pace, but she looked equally concerned. Jim dismissed his armor and pulled out his phone. He had eight unread messages and five missed calls. He winced with guilt.

"Sorry, Tobes. I've had a lot on my mind."

"No kidding! Which is why I was starting to get worried when you wouldn't respond, dude!"

"Sorry."

"Yeah, yeah, it's all good. Is it all good? You okay?"

"I'm okay. More weirded out than anything, I think," he answered honestly. Having gotten the chance to unload everything to Blinky, as well as getting the troll's validation, had soothed his ruffled nerves enough that he was beginning to think a bit more clearly.

"Who wouldn't be?" Claire nodded with a shrug. "But, you have to admit, it isn't the weirdest thing we've had to deal with." Jim's tired chuckle and shy grin of acknowledgment was met with Claire's fist bumping his arm gently.

"Next time you run off without warning, take your phone off vibrate, okay?" She scolded him lightly with a fond roll of her eyes.

"Will do," Jim promised.

O-_-o-_-O

By the time Jim returned home he was pleasantly tired and his limbs burned from the long but satisfying evening. After the initial check-in and fussing, Claire and Toby had been more than happy to push the awkward drama out of mind with some friendly sparring. After the chance to vent, Jim's concentration had vastly improved and he was able to throw himself into a workout routine more fully.

He stopped mid-stretch as he walked into the dark and empty house. He was just beginning to worry when the muted sound of laughter drifted in from the back yard. His shoulders dropped in relief as he shut the door behind him then made his way to the other end of the house.

His fingers reflexively tightened into fists as he looked out the window and saw his mother sitting shoulder to shoulder with Strickler, and wearing the brown jacket he favored. She was saying something Jim couldn't quite hear, but both Draal and Strickler laughed loudly at whatever it had been. Draal slapped his knee as he caught his breath and then reached forward and bumped his mother playfully on the arm which knocked her into Stickler. In turn, the changeling pushed back against her, righting her again, and seeming to get in a joke of his own in the process.

Jim bit his lip as he watched them and the tension gradually melted from his frame. Before he started jumping to any more conclusions he would take Blinky's advice and actually talk to his mother. Feeling only a minor guilt at interrupting whatever conversation the three of them were sharing, he opened the back door.

The laughter faded slowly as the others became aware of him. His mother turned to face him fully once she realized he had come home, and she smiled warmly up at him. Shrugging the jacket off her shoulders to stand, she hugged him and greeted gently, "Hey, honey."

"Hi mom," he hugged her back. "Could we talk?"

Barbara's eyes softened knowingly and she nodded. She turned back to address the others, "If you gentlemen will excuse me, we'll continue this discussion later."

"But of course, Barbara the Bold," Draal said with exaggerated deference. Strickler began snickering helplessly as she threw her hands into the air.

"Barbara Flame-Wielder," the changeling added.

"Later, I said," she warned as she rolled her eyes in playful exasperation.

Jim gave a startled laugh, "What?"

"Nu uh, come on before things get sidetracked." She placed her arm across his shoulders and led him back into the house, shutting the door firmly behind them.

Draal observed the changeling closely as he, in turn, watched the two humans depart. With the certainty of the truth serum, along with the offer to help Aaarrrgghh, he found that he was actually beginning to respect the other male. It was not an entirely welcome feeling, but it was getting harder to keep disliking him. Because, despite everything, Stricklander could be surprisingly charismatic. He even decided that if Barbara consented to let him, he might not object if the changeling tried to court his friend in earnest.

"I know what was said today, but if you ever hurt them, I will find some way of severing that Bond and smashing you into a gooey paste."

Walter's eyebrow raised a fraction as he turned his attention back to the other troll. His smile was rueful when he answered, "I never would have expected to be on the receiving end of a shovel-talk. It is made one hundred times more surreal coming from you. Though, I do appreciate your level of dedication."

"A shovel, a hammer, my bare hands, it will not matter. You have been warned."

He snorted in amusement and nodded, but did not bother to correct him. They sat in comfortable silence for several long minutes after that, until finally, Draal stood up and walked back to the bulkhead door.

"I told Aaarrrgghh that I would let him know when I had an answer from you."

Walter dipped his head in acknowledgment, "Goodnight, then."

Draal huffed before gruffly muttering a returned farewell and closing the door behind him.

Walt wasn't sure how much time passed after that before he finally stood up as well. He shook the pins-and-needles out of his leg with a grimace and let himself back into the house. The kitchen light was on and the dishes that had been in the sink were now on the drying rack, but there was no sign of Jim or Barbara. Feeling a little out of place, he quietly set out to look for them.

The door to Jim's room was open a crack, and he found them propped on Jim's bed talking softly to one another. Barbara was running her fingers through her son's hair while he gestured lazily along to whatever he was saying. The feeling of intruding on something private was immediate, but he couldn't help but to watch them for a few seconds longer.

A sharp pang of jealousy flared up, but he swiftly chided himself for it and pushed the feeling to the back of his mind. Before he could think more on the unexpected emotion, he silently turned to go back down stairs.

Once in the den, the tenderness of their expressions was burned like an afterimage in his mind as he sat on the tattered couch. That sort of familiarity and love was something he didn't feel like he deserved, but the craving for it left a tightness in his chest all the same. It nearly made him bitter to admit that he wanted it, the last coils of his changeling upbringing loosening as he had to reminded himself that it wasn't a weakness to want trust and intimacy. It didn't make him lesser for wanting to belong.

Thoughts of what he wanted for his life now, and how best to try to get it, followed him to sleep.

O-_-o-_-O

Aside from the previous night, Barbara could not recall a time that her house had been so full. It was proving tricky to navigate with all the bodies trying to occupy the same small space. The dining room table was overflowing with food and papers as Walter attempted to speak over the din. The friendly chaos only subsided when Barbara finally intervened by loudly clearing her throat and tapping a pair of tongs against a tray.

She had awoken to the smell of bacon and come down stairs to find her house already stuffed with trolls and teenagers. It was a sunny Saturday morning and plotting was afoot.

"Good morning, Dr. L!" Toby greeted as he pulled the last free chair back from the table and offered it to her.

Barbara's smile turned into a yawn that she hid behind her hand as she accepted the seat. She had barely gotten out her own greeting when a plate was plopped in front of her that was piled with eggs and toast. Personally, she would have been fine with just a bowl of cereal but she accepted the breakfast graciously and motioned for the discussion to return to whatever it had been trying to accomplish.

"Thank you. Now, as I was saying, we will need to be quick about this. While I'm unsure if my office at the school will be under watch, I am positive that my own living quarters will be. Claire and I will go to my home for the spell books most likely to have the Creeper's Sun cure; so, that will leave you two to retrieve what you can from my office. Simultaneous action is likely our best chance." He pulled out a pen from his pocket and handed it to Jim. "You will need Notenrique, as I'm sure you remember. Please, don't break anything and try not to get caught."

"I'm not sure I'm comfortable with Claire going alone with you," Jim said as he accepted the disguised key.

"If that's because you still don't trust me, then-"

"No, it's not that. But, shouldn't you guys have more back up if that's the place you're suspecting is going to be more heavily guarded?"

Claire rolled her eyes, "It'll be fine. You know I can take care of myself."

"While you make a fair point, our goal is stealth. The idea is to be in and out before it is even suspected that anything is amiss. Any more than two people would increase the chances of being caught. Preferably, I would like to just go alone, but the shadow staff is an advantage I'm not going to disregard."

"This is so nuts! Mission impossible style!" Toby interjected around a mouthful of bacon. "I still can't believe we're just now finding out about all this, though. Not cool, wingman! You were just gonna suffer in silence and leave us in the dark?"

From his nearby seat beside Draal on the floor, Aaarrrgghh shrugged apologetically.

"Didn't want worry."

"Nah, I mean, I get it. Don't like it, but I can get it. What I don't get, though, is how you didn't know there was a cure if it's supposedly a common method of torture for Gumm-Gumms. Which, by the way, holy heck, talk about messed up." Toby gave a full shudder of revulsion at the thought.

"I said it was common, I did not say it was a long standing or traditional practice. The good general here defected nearly five-hundred years ago. Creeper's Sun didn't even exist back then. That poison has only been in use for the last two centuries or so, and all details of its components have been well guarded secrets."

"Then how do you have the details?" Claire asked with an arched brow.

"I may or may not have refused orders to burn a library's worth of invaluable books, and instead secreted them off to my own personal collection. Said books range in content from everything like history to spells and poisons."

"You know things are getting real when book burning gets involved," Toby nodded sagely.

"What I wouldn't give to get my hands on such a collection!" Blinky's eyes were gleaming at the very idea of forbidden historical texts.

"You will be more than welcome to borrow my books, but that does hinge on getting them in the first place. So, if we could get back on task, please."

Barbara watched with appreciation as Walter went into lecture mode as he outlined the finer points of the operation. She picked at her plate with little interest as she followed his plans. Worry for the potential danger was somewhat tempered by his streamlined strategy and attention to detail. It was no wonder the man had made such a good teacher, she thought ruefully.

Walter was just wrapping up when Barbara's phone rang. She bit her lip as she checked her caller-ID, already knowing who it was likely to be. She sighed as her suspicions were confirmed and she pushed her chair back to excuse herself.

"Sorry, it's the hospital, I've got to take this. Don't any of you leave until I get back," she said as she stood up.

"Your mother really is a remarkable human," Blinky said as he watched her hurry out of the room.

"Fighting evil by moonlight, saving lives by daylight," Toby joked while playfully nudging his friend with his elbow.

"If only she had such a manageable schedule. As it stands, it's far less predictable and more like doing both without regard for where the sun is," Draal commented.

"I was just making a reference to a show. But yeah, does your mom ever take a break?"

"Ugh, I wish," Jim answered with a tired sigh. It was kind of nice to have others recognize how awesome and hard working his mom was, but at the same time he found it a little uncomfortable that more people were getting into their bubble and could see what he saw, how tired and relentless her work could make her. She couldn't even finish breakfast before her phone was going off reminding her she needed to be somewhere else.

"Okay, I'm back," Barbara said, returning to the table none the wiser about having been a topic of conversation. "I told them I was going to have to come in a little later. I've got about a two hour window, do you think you guys can be back before I need to leave? I would like to be here just in case something goes wrong."

Walter nodded crisply, his shoulders straightening. "If all goes according to plan, it should not even take a full hour. On that note, Ms. Nuñez, do you think you could call your brother and have him agree to be ready to meet at the high school?"

"The changeling posing as a baby has a phone?" Blinky asked while looking surprised.

"Why not? We gave you a phone, too, remember?" Claire pointed out as she pulled up Notenrique in her contacts list. She shrugged and added, "Still not the weirdest thing to happen in the last few months."

"I'm beginning to wonder what your idea of weirdest is," Toby challenged with a laugh.

"It's more about looking at things as a whole rather than little individual oddities. Now, shush."

As the teens bickered and finished off their food, Barbara caught Walter's eyes from across the table. He gave a small, slightly crooked grin when she smiled at him. "Please, be safe," she said softly. He gave a single, serious nod in answer.

"I will," he promised.

After Claire finished her call and everyone began getting up to set out, Barbara pulled Jim off to the side to remind him to be safe, too. They had stayed up well into the night talking and the air between them was much lighter. There was a new and better level of understanding as she pulled him in for a hug, "Just be careful. Remember to stay aware of your surroundings."

Jim rolled his eyes fondly, "I know. I've been doing this Trollhunter thing for a while now, remember? This will be a piece of cake."

"Don't jinx it, Jim! You know those are famous last words!"

"You don't jinx it!"

"Alright, enough of that. Let's go."

I had every intention for this to be the last chapter but it was getting way too long and if I had not of cut it off here it may well have been another two weeks before I updated. I figured you guys would like two bite-sized chapters instead of waiting longer for one huge one. Plus, doing it this way brings the chapter count up to a nice, round 10 rather than cutting off at 9. (not that that matters but it pleases me on an aesthetic level)

I'm going to go into more detail with the next chapter's end notes but for now let me just say again how deeply I appreciate everyone who has left me a comment on this fic. I am continuously in awe of how nice and wonderful you guys are and it is a genuine pleasure to write for y'all!