Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed. Working on this slowly, but it is getting worked on.

* * (Fifteen Days Ago) * *

"Well, do you think we're supposed to…do something?" Jack asked, staring at the beeping device in his hands. He'd seen Seth use the thing in half a dozen different ways, but that didn't mean that he knew how. When the kids had said that he and Alex keeping it meant that they could find them, he hadn't realized that it would also require some sort of action on their part. And that was the sort of thing that really needed to be mentioned, especially when it came to alien devices.

"I don't know." Alex finished the last of her soup and shook her head before taking the device from him and turning it around in her hands. He didn't have to read her mind to know that she was just as uncertain as he was. "I mean, it's been constant for the past two days with no sign of the kids, but the little blue spinning lights did speed up a little after we left the city."

"Well, is spinning faster good?"

"I don't know. I mean, never mind 'good,' I don't even know if it means anything. None of the passive scans I did on this thing told me anything, and I don't dare try any active scans since I don't want to risk damaging it."

He nodded. She'd told him all of that last year, when the kids had left the thing behind.

She shook her head again, setting it back down on the table. "If we assume that it does mean something and that something is good, maybe we can try using it to track down whatever set it off. Like playing hot-and-cold."

"Or 'travel in that direction,' part two." He stared at it for a moment and then shrugged and stood to clear their dishes off the table. "But I haven't got any better ideas. You did say that Harlan and whoever his sources are haven't had any new sightings of UFOs around here recently, right?"

"Right; there's been nothing within a hundred mile radius since that genius across the border painted his Piper Cub glow-in-the-dark green and scared half a dozen kids walking home from baseball practice last month." She frowned for a moment. "I did get an email about a blip up in Oregon a day or two ago, but given that there was a hot air balloon race going on in the area at the same time and absolutely no hint that anything landed, I'm really inclined to say that it was a standard sighting-on-cloudy-day misreport."

There had been plenty of those in the last year, and he nodded. "I guess we try using the device, then." As his own employer—becoming a famous author might have allowed him to purchase his own dream car, but working on other cars was what kept him busy during the day and paid his half of the bills—he could take a couple days off if he wanted to do so. Especially since there was nothing critical in the shop at the moment. Max didn't even want his car back until the show…some sort of deep, abiding terror about dinging up the paint job, Jack thought, but reading Max's mind meant a two-day headache so he didn't bother anymore. "Head out tomorrow morning?" he suggested, and then frowned. "Can you take the time off from your research? I thought your next speaking thing was in a week or two."

She waved a hand. "The conference doesn't start until next Thursday, and my talk isn't until Friday evening. And I'm more than prepared for it. Honestly, my eyes are going cross-eyed from staring at star-charts; I could use the break. Just remind me to bring my laptop."

"Have you ever forgotten your laptop?"

"Do you think they will come?" Seth asked, his fingers brushing the Guide's screen lightly. This one was much less advanced than the one that they'd left behind on their last trip, but it was the only thing that he'd been able to conceal on his person when they'd been escorted off the ship. And however limited it was, the location of the second Guide was clearly visible on the screen.

Unfortunately, the second Guide had not changed position by any great amount since he had first searched for it. Jack and Alex had helped them once, certainly, and Seth wanted to believe that they would again, but he had never been one to trust easily. And after what had happened at home….

"They will come for us." Sara's voice was assured, but then, she had always had faith enough for the both of them. Even in circumstances where it wasn't justified. "It is simply that we did not tell them they might need to, so it may take some time for them to realize it."

Which was reasonable, he had to admit. Things would be much simpler if they had currency and could go to Jack and Alex themselves, but since they didn't and no longer had any way to get some, the plan was not feasible. They'd tried to tell a cab driver here that Jack would pay them if he would only take them to Las Vegas, but the man had just laughed at them and made them get out of his car. And they didn't dare go to the authorities to request help, not after what had happened the last time they were on this planet. Especially now that they had no way to judge who might be relied upon or any viable means of defense.

He pulled his newly-stolen jacket around him more tightly, even though it was not particularly cold out, glancing up at the slowly-darkening sky before handing the Guide back to Sara. "Come. We must find a new place to spend the night." This morning a man had chased them out of the abandoned building they'd been sleeping in since they first arrived here, and Seth didn't want to risk going back tonight.