Chapter Twenty:

Jim POV:

Many months have passed but the hardships endured on my journey where I sought the elusive Treasure Planet are anything but forgotten. The first few nights after returned I would wake in a cold sweat, clutching at my sheets, and calling out the name of the girl I left behind. Although they are less frequent—occurring only two or three times a week—they are far worse in their intensity and nightmarish imagery. Instead of just hearing her scream at me to "Go!" I now am forced to watch her death replay in countless ways as the guilt corrodes my sanity. Even though the dreams remain on replay she dies differently every time. The look of agony is always the same though; I watch while she dissolves into flames as the self-destructing planet's explosions enfold her, see her being crushed by falling architecture, unwillingly stare as she tries her hardest to restart my failed surfer only to have the stress ignite her condition causing her to fall asleep while she plummets unknowingly to her death. The worst ones though are where she actually manages to get the surfer working again, is able to sail through the portal alongside the Legacy despite being unseen only to have to be obliterated by a stray explosion or large flying shrapnel that slipped through the portal before it collapsed. The fact that these are all possible is what makes them so terrifying and the truth that we will never know her exact cause of death will haunt me until my dying day.

I won't lie and say that I haven't moved on somewhat though and I know I'm not the only one either. The Captain stayed true to her word and wrote a letter of recommendation to the Academy for me. We haven't had much contact besides that though; I know she and Doppler are married and from the bit of news he's told me that they have got a little family going too. With the money Silver gave me—before he disappeared—my mother and I managed to reconstruct the Benbow Inn. It was really all her because while construction was going on I was at basic training.

Tonight is the grand reopening celebration and also a bit of a welcome back party now that I've finished basic. I'll get to see everyone again and I'm sure even the Captain will be on her best behavior. She's not openly malicious or hostile but I know she has to force herself to be polite and not cause a scene—usually by breaking down and weeping. I don't blame her for doing it, she has every right to be livid with me, especially after she found out Silver escaped. Everyone else though is normal, when they're not looking at me with pity in their eyes telling me that it's not my fault. The only one I really don't have issues with is Morph but he's been with my mom because he couldn't accompany me during basic. It will be nice to see him as well even if the meeting is bittersweet because when I look at him I immediately think of Silver.

Silver and Kalena...two people I'd known only briefly but the impact they had in my life is so great and now that they're both gone it's like I'm left with huge craters after being hit by a flurry of asteroids.

I break my melancholy reverie upon hearing a rap at my door. I open it to find two officers of law—the same two who cited me for surfing in an off-limits zone what feels like eons ago—here to escort me to the party at inn. Time to make an entrance.

xXx

The party is wonderful, the music is excellent, people are dancing, and everyone was so excited to see me in my dress uniform which is reserved only for special occasions such as these. I was able to see Doppler and the Captain's kids and they are ridiculously precious. The Captain is way happier than the last time I've seen her and every so often I catch her staring at me, like she's expecting something to occur and wants to watch my face when it happens. Even though I'm content I can't help but feel somber knowing that this evening and every night after will be incomplete.

I've drifted over to the window and gaze out at the gigantic rolling clouds full of gold and red from the setting sun. The light bounces and tricks my eyes into seeing Silver's face in the cloud shapes. Kalena and Silver...I really can't go a single moment without my thoughts tracing back to them in some way. Will the rest of my life be like this if I never find closure? How will this affect my future? What if-

My line of questions halts when I notice the eerie quiet that has filled the room. The door clicks shut signaling that someone has just entered the room. But who? If it was just an ordinary friend or familiar face from town or a past customer everyone would not be silent like they are now. I leave my position by the window and push through the frozen partiers. I pass the Captain whose chilling eyes are totally fixed on me, gauging my reaction, and I can feel her stare following me as I move further into the crowd. I catch glimpses of the person between the others in the crowd, but they are as determined as I am to gaze upon him/her so I don't see any sort of identifying detail.

Whoever it is, is being helped out of their coat by B.E.N.; he waits patiently as he/she carefully undoes all the clasps, once done with that they raise trembling hands to lower the hood that shielded their face. Everyone gasps and presses together even tighter upon seeing the individual's face but I had the luck to have my view blocked at that moment by a particularly large guest. Whatever it was about the person was shocking enough for me to double my efforts to reach the front and see it too.

Finally, I'm there and I squeeze past an old patron who was standing by my mother. She's transfixed by the new arrival as well but her gaze looks more like she's appraising the person, judging and determining their worth even though she probably has no clue who the mystery individual is. I walk forward and stop when I see the windblown brunette locks tumbling past slight shoulders. Their back is to me as they pass their coat to B.E.N. who takes it and folds it neatly before backing away into the crowd. My heart is pounding away; each beat harder than the last and I'm terrified that at any moment it might just suddenly stop or even disintegrate.

She turns around and our eyes meet.

xXx

Kalena POV:

Slowly, tortuously time progresses until finally eye contact is made. We hit, and my heart soars seeing his beautiful azure eyes again. Time creeps to a still and I wait in agony for him to make the first move. My heartbeats are indistinguishable from one another due to the rapidity of their pace; if my pulse increases anymore I will surely combust. My skin tingles as the cataplexy stealthily threatens to set in; if I can't manage to calm down I will be overcome by the numbing paralysis and shortly after I will end up collapsing without knowing when I will wake up again. I can't stop questioning and worrying in my mind though. What if he doesn't recognize me? What if he finds me horrendous looking or thinks it's awful that I'm here, doing this to him? What if he never wanted to see me again? What if-

"Kalena." I inhale sharply as he whispers my name; even in the awful quiet he's barely audible. I open my mouth to speak but he tackles me in an amazing hug that crushes me and sets off all of my various hurts. I don't care. "I thought you were dead." His voice is muffled against my hair but I still detect the tears in it.

I smile sadly and lean into him, stroking his hair with my good hand as I give into the embrace. 'So did I.' Even though my eyes are now closed I feel my own tears slip through and fall onto his spotless uniform.

He releases and pushes me away until I'm at an arms distance. I watch as he scrutinizes every detail. He pauses while looking at all the obvious injuries: both arms are fully bandaged and the right is a limp sling, my awkward stance as I favour my left leg over the right one, and of course the bright red scar that stretches from the middle of my forehead to just above my cheek on the left side. I know how bad it looks and the fact that he's more focused on that fault over the others makes me self-conscious. I shrink under his gaze and tilt my head forward enough so that my unruly bangs cover the majority of my face.

He lets go of me and my heart recoils at the obvious rejection. Fresh tears roll when I feel one of his hands slip under my chin and lift up my face. I try and blink away as many tears as I can while he just stares at my face. I've had enough of this. I don't need someone—especially him—emphasizing just how damaged I am right now in front of all these people. I go to pull away but he brings me back; holding my face still with both hands he leans down and meets my lips with his. A current runs through us powerful enough to rival the energy in the birth of a star and it spreads out into the crowd. The accidental audience—who had been watching all of the proceedings with rapt and silent attention—bursts into cheers and rounds of applause. I'm sure they don't have a clue what just happened but in the end does it matter?

I've waited so long to see him and now that I have him in my grasp once more leaves me feeling like I'm on cloud nine. All of my pain is forgotten as we press closer to one another as if trying to physically say, "Never again will I ever let you go". His touch was the like a miracle, it alone seemed able to spark the true healing I'd been missing all this time as I lingered in an abyss of pain. I break the connection between us in need of oxygen and breathe deeply while Jim continues to kiss the rest of my face and neck. I lean happily against him, content to linger in the world of our reunion without any sort of interruption; my desires would not be fulfilled.

'"Ahem."' The peace is shattered upon hearing the voice; I flinch and look at the source of the noise which causes Jim to stop and look at me questioningly until he turns to gaze at the speaker as well. A human woman with curled and pinned up brown hair dressed in a dark blue gown stood watching our embrace with open interest and visible scrutiny. Hands placed firmly on her hips she locks her eyes onto mine even though she addresses Jim with unusual familiarity. '"Well Jim are you going to introduce me or not?"'

"Oh, right..." he mumbles and detaches himself from me. "Mom, this is Kalena Aderyn and Kalena, this is my mother, Sarah Hawkins." I blink in surprise, temporarily shocked and embarrassed that his mother—who I wanted to meet so badly before—found us in such a precarious position. I recovered enough to shake her hand—my cheeks tingling with heat—and I tried not to wince when she grasped mine with unnecessary strength.

"'How do you do?'" She said while giving me the once over, examining all of my injuries like Jim had done only moments before.

'I'm fine; it's a pleasure to meet you.' I said meekly, continuing to shake hands with her awkwardly because I had to use my left hand since my right is currently out of commission. She finally lets go and flicks her gaze over to Jim where it softens considerably.

'"So how do you two know each other? I don't recall you telling me of any girls on your voyage, is she from the academy or your unit perhaps?"' I could tell the first sentence was meant to be a barb at me, she's wondering where Jim managed to find such a damaged girl as me. She was also wondering what my purpose was here since I was not invited.

"Well mom, you see it's kind of complicated because she was on the voyage. I neglected to tell you about her because the pain was still fresh and I didn't want you grieving over someone you didn't know." He answers sheepishly, shuffling his feet while he speaks. Is he embarrassed by me?

'"That doesn't explain why she wasn't invited or why she suddenly appeared at our party."' His mother replies sternly. She places her hands on her hips and assumes a well-practiced "scolding mother" face.

""Kalena is one of my officers."" A new voice says. Our little gathering opens up and Amelia walks through to stand by my side. ""Forgive me for interrupting but I was on my way over and overheard the conversation. I feel that this sort of explanation is best left to the higher-ups.""

I cast Amelia a grateful glance and she places a reassuring hand on my good shoulder. '"I'm listening."' Mrs. Hawkins says while crossing her arms. All eyes are now on Amelia.

""As I said Kalena was one of my officers on the voyage to Treasure Planet and after Mr. Arrow's death she became my second-in-command. She is an Academy graduate with expertise in weapons and security; she also specializes in mechanics and reconnaissance and she was the record keeper for our voyage. During the course of our venture she and your son became romantically interested in one another only to have it cut short after the mutiny of our crew and Kalena being kidnapped. She sacrificed her own safety for the sake of ours, meaning Doppler's, my own, and your son's during the venture; and in the end it was deemed she was "killed in action" as we all believed she was dead. How she is alive is a miracle, but I can assure, I am very glad to have my daughter back."" Amelia finishes the last sentence with a slight quavering and when she turns to me her eyes have the beginnings of tears glistening within them.

'"Your daughter?!"' Mrs. Hawkins inquires with disbelief in her voice. I don't blame her; genetically, me being her biological daughter is impossible.

""Well technically adopted. My parents and I found her abandoned as an infant on Montressor when I was very little. She bonded more with me since I spent all of my free time playing with her. The age gap made it so that we were more like mother and daughter than sisters."" Amelia says matter-of-factly. I nod in agreement; I am not ashamed of my upbringing and it makes me proud to be called her daughter.

'"I-I see. Well...this is all coming as quite a shock. Welcome to the newly restored Benbow Inn. I look forward to getting to know you."' Mrs. Hawkins speaks with a bit more kindness and less open hostility for which I am grateful; I know it's going to be awhile before she accepts me since Jim totally disregarded telling her about me.

Mrs. Hawkins leaves to go mingle with her guests and probably process the information she just received. I turn to Amelia and tell her with blunt honestly how appreciative I was of her saying all of that in my behalf.

""It's nothing my dear."" She replies with a smile.

"Wait, so you knew this whole time? You knew Kalena was alive?" Jim interrupts.

""Of course I knew! Kalena wouldn't dare to show her face to me only here and now. She came to my door a few days ago at the building where we used to live. I was there cleaning out the rest of my things since Doppler and I were moving into the new place and all of a sudden the bell rings and there she is. I was just as surprised as you were Mr. Hawkins, you know for fact we all believed Kalena was dead. How she survived is a mystery she has not cared to explain for me yet though."" Amelia shoots me an inquisitive stare and I look down guiltily.

'I wanted to wait until we were all reunited and could have a chance to talk about everything." I say slowly. 'Are you free sometime during the next few days Jim?'

"Of course. There's even a gazebo out back where we could all sit and talk. But what do you say we put that aside for now and just enjoy the party?" He takes my hand and kisses it. I laugh and link arms with him and Amelia leads me towards the back of the room where B.E.N. and Doppler wait with the babies.

Morph attacks my face eagerly, happy to see my face again. Doppler knew of my return in advance like Amelia did since I stayed at their new house during the couple days before Jim's party; he seemed pleased that I had been received well by everyone; Jim's mother being the only exception. In a few days' time everything would be laid out and it would be ten that we decide where our lives will go from there.