Consequences

Part 8 of 9

It started to rain the moment Ben "10K" Tennyson felt his back scrape the ground. He pushed his bangs out of his face as he watched his irate cousin step back through the portal after him. A galaxy of beings would tremble before the woman in front of him, but he was not intimidated.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he bellowed, standing up and using his height against her. "I'm on a mission! You can't just yank me out in the middle of it!"

"Mission?!" she retorted, getting right up in his face. "Obsession is more like it. You need to back off and let the others handle this one. I told you, you're getting too crazed. How many times have you told the group that if you seek revenge, you will make mistakes and people will get hurt? You know this, Ben. You're not thinking rationally! I'm your friend, I have to stop you. Forget that as your second-in-command it's my job AND I promised Kai and Grandpa I'd look out for you. You're irrational, exhausted, stressed, and grieving. I'm not letting you out there until you deal with it."

"He hurt my children, Gwendolyn!"

"You think I don't know that?! You think I don't love them too, that what happened isn't tearing me up inside as well?! It is! But they need their dad, and they won't have him if you keep this up!"

"I have to stop him! I have to make him pay!"

"Dad?"

The adults turned around, flipping water from their now dampened hair, to see the three kids standing there, silently watching the display. Neither had seen them since hours after the rescue, as they had been "out".

"Dad," Ken repeated, running over to his father and throwing himself in his strong arms. Ben hugged him back, tightly, "Kenny…"

The others still hadn't moved when the two parted minutes later.

"Kenny, son, why are you guys out of bed so late? It's raining out here, we need to get you inside-"

"Dad, so much is messed-up." Ken suddenly threw his head around, looking back. "Devlin's trying to run away!"

"What?!"

"It's true, you gotta help us stop him!"

Ben looked at his oldest son, whose face was suddenly guilty. "Dev, come here." The boy reluctantly obeyed. "Why are you trying to run away?"

Ben watched Devlin's eyes filled with tears. "Cause it's all my fault. My father, he, he, took Ken and Gwen and hurt them because of me. I had to go, so he'd leave you all alone."

"Devlin, none of this is in any way your fault," he responded firmly, catching on to the problem. "That man, well, he's messed-up, but that has nothing to do with you. You are my son now too; don't know how it'd hurt if we lost you? You are part of this family now, not his, and we all love you the same as we do Ken and Gwen. It's my job to protect you, you and your brother and sister, not your job to protect us. Sometimes," he paused, feeling Gwendolyn's eyes on him, "sometimes the bad guys just get in a lucky shot. It happens, and it's not anyone's fault. You belong here, with us, now. Ok?" Devlin nodded. "Come 'ere," and Ben pulled him into a bear hug.

He shared an apologetic look with Gwendolyn, and placed a hand on each boy's shoulder. "Come on, it's cold and rainy out here. Let's all get inside and talk in there. Come on Gwenie."

They moved towards the door, but Ben paused when he heard Gwendolyn call out to the girl again, "Come on Gwenie, what's the matter? We're all going inside." Ben turned and looked at his daughter fully for the first time that night. She was still in the same spot, frozen, and her face… The look on her face was pure terror.

"Gwen? Sweet Pea, what's wrong?" He moved towards her, and she took a step back, frightened. Ben halted with confusion, but Ken was instantly at her side, bending down a little. "What's wrong?"

She turned to him. "I'm scared, Ken."

"Of what?"

She remained silent, eyes wide, but she took an involuntary glance to Ben. "Of Dad?" She nodded. "Why?"

"He feels bad."

"Bad?"

"Like… he did. Angry and scary."

"Do you know what she's talking about?" Gwendolyn asked Ken.

"Yeah, I do. Aunt Gwendolyn, with your powers, can you ever, like, feel people? Like, telepathy?"

"No…"

"Well, I think Gwen can, now. It started when we were captured; ever since then, she's been able to pick-up people's feelings and stuff. Dev, that's how we knew about you tonight. Anyway, the feelings sometimes hurt her and she can't really shut them down yet."

"That makes no sense, if can't do it, she shouldn't be able to."

"But you said yourself you don't know all about your powers still." Ken looked thoughtful. "And somebody, I forget who, said lots of times part alien kids' powers, what's that word, manifest? During times of stress. Well, we were under a lot of stress."

"That does make sense," she responded looking at Ben.

"But why's she scared of me?" Ben replied. This was a new experience for him. He'd never seen his children scared of him, not even in his most intimidating alien form. It caused his chest to tighten.

"You were kinda intense a couple minutes ago," Ken reminded him.

"She's seen me yell before!"

"But she's never felt you yell before, it makes a difference." He turned to his sister, "Gwen, it's ok, it's Dad, you know he'd never hurt us."

"But he was so mad. He was mad and sorta crazy, just like 11K. And he hurts bad guys all the time. He wants to hurt 11K, just like 11K wanted to hurt us." Her eyes filled with tears. "My head hurts." Ken hugged her.

Ben was floored and ashamed with himself. In his anger, he had hurt his baby girl. She was terrified of him. Nothing he'd ever done his whole life seemed quite as bad as that. He looked over Devlin's head at Gwendolyn for guidance. She looked at him sympathetically.

"If I'd known this would happen, I would have transported us somewhere else for our 'discussion'," she apologized.

"What do I do?"

"If she really is empathetic… Try this: feel good thoughts at her. Feel your love for her, comfort, and reassurance. Let her know with your feelings that even though you were angry you still love her and she's still safe with you."

Ben slowly walked closer to his youngest children. Gwen stiffened, but stayed still with Ken's arm around her. Ben stopped a few feet from them and crouched down more eye level.

"Gwen," he began, focusing his emotions behind his words, "I love you very, very much. I would never, ever, hurt you. I'm going to do everything I can to keep you safe, always. I'm sorry I failed, but I'll never stop trying. Yeah, sometimes I do get mad; everybody does sometimes, and that's ok. I know it must be very hard for you to feel right now; I didn't mean to hurt you or scare you. Sometimes I get so angry I want to hurt bad people. That's because what they do makes me so mad. But then I calm down. I will never, ever be like Kevin 11 Thousand, because he hurts people for fun, and I never do. I try not to hurt anybody, but sometimes I have to, to make them stop. "

He took a deep breath, glancing at his feet and back up, rain dribbling down his nose then flipping up. "You guys, you, Ken, Devlin, and Mom, you're my whole life. You're what make my whole life worth living. When he took you, I was so scared. I don't know what I would have done if we hadn't found you. When we got you back, all that fear turned to anger because of what he did to you. I'm so sorry I made you feel that. I'm also sorry I wasn't here for you kids."

"We needed you here, Dad," Ken said softly.

"Yeah," Devlin added.

"I'm really sorry to all of you; I should have been here. And Gwendolyn, I'm sorry I made you put up with me this past week."

"That's all right, I'm used to it," she teased lightly, standing next to Devlin with her arm around his shoulder. "I've been doing it since we were kids."

Ben refocused his attention on Gwen. "Can you forgive me, honey?"

Gwen sniffed, rain running down her face, and wiped at her eyes with the back of her hand. She looked up, nodded, and ran to him, burying himself in his arms. He rubbed his cheek against her sodden brown hair, stroking it with a hand, picked her up, and they all walked inside.

Together

Author's Notes:

Thank you, AFigureofSpeech!

Last up is the epilogue.