A/N: Sorry for the long wait with this loves. I've been away a lot working and coupled with everything else that has been going on…my muse kind of took leave.

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Ahem….hope you enjoy the chapter (:

. : Chapter 31: Time Machines : .

I woke the next morning to the sounds of TV and muffled shuffling downstairs.

For a split second, as my eyes fluttered open and I saw a ceiling so familiar, bathed in glowing morning light…I thought…but I stretched, and my feet found open air.

No, too tall to be six again. My feet never hung over the end of my bed at that age.

Notsix,eighteen.I thought with a disappointed sigh. A very complicated eighteen at that. I'm damn sure at least ninety percent of other eighteen year olds didn't shoulder the things I did. Too be so young again…I know I'm still young, but not in the mind.

It'd never happen, that's what. Unless Ty came up with a time machine he'd let me borrow. I doubted that, unless it was made specially for me, Ty was very hesitant letting me play with anything he created. Couldn't imagine why, I'd only set fire to his lab once. Once! I might be part dog, part witch, but I'm not physic. I had no idea the pen-look-alike was actually a miniature flame thrower…thing.

Speaking of witches, maybe Mum knew a spell for that? Age reversal…or maybe a memory eraser. To start anew, as someone else…

A laughing shriek echoed up the stairs and through my closed door. It was followed by Ben's joyous little voice yelling incomprehensible things as he laughed. Someone was playing with him obviously, probably tickling him.

I couldn't leave him, no matter how bad everything else got, how hard I struggled to get through it, to find my footing again. To live without knowing that gorgeous little life, his mother and father…if I was given the option to start again, I still wouldn't take it. I wouldn't leave them.

I pondered for a moment as to whether or not my stubborn as hell loyalty was a long-buried wolf trait. I paused, startling myself. I'd accepted that I had a goddamn wolf tied up inside me? Since when?

I grumbled. Admittedly, I hadn't actually doubted Mother when she'd told me as much. I sure hoped this wasn't a sign that I was suddenly going to take in everything I was told as…blindly. Even for a civilian, that is just stupid. I'd be dead in a week.

And with the way things were looking at the current stage, dead within a week was probably up there in the ReasonablePossibilityThereOf chart.

Yippy skip. We already know my self-preservation is fairly low, so…bring it on.

I rolled my head to the side to see that Yas was indeed already up and gone, her bed unmade. The girl might've been as tough as any soldier, but she'd never quite gotten into the other side of our military-style training. If the Sargent had seen it in such a condition, she'd probably still be running laps at midnight.

Slowly and reluctantly, I dragged myself out of bed then begrudgingly left my room.

Ben's breathless laughter washed over me full-force as I stepped off the last stair. His father had him held securely in a head lock and was tickling his side, grinning like a fool. The covers had been removed from the two old leather lounges and Maddy was sitting on one, an open file in her lap, as she kept one eye on the surveillance screens and with the other watched her boys with a contented, loving smile.

As always, it was both wonderful and heartbreaking for me to see them like this. At the same time the smile spread across my face, my chest constricted to the point of it almost being agonizing.

"Aunty Evie!" Benny shrieked, having seen me. He tried fruitlessly to get free and waved his arms wildly. "H-Help!"

I chuckled, voice still husky from sleep. "Ah, kiddo, I'd love to. But you know I can't do much of anything until I've had a coffee."

"P-please!" He squeaked around the giggles.

Giving in, like always, I grinned at the computer genius. "Dan, let ya boy go."

He laughed, scooping his son up and pressing a kiss to the panting toddler's cheek. "You're lucky you've got your Aunt here to watch your back. But, victory will be mine!" Dan gasped dramatically.

Ah, they were playing 'war' again.

"Nooo!" Benny yelled, and then he latched hold of his Dad's nose, the 'killing blow' in their favourite game.

Dan made several choking noises and comically made a show of slumping to his knees, Benny still clutched in his arms. Then, he dropped backwards, playing dead. BB propped himself up on Dan's chest and poked curiously at his face.

Maddy rolled her eyes and chuckled at their ridiculous, but totally adorable antics.

"Daniel, would you stop dying on the floor, please?" CJ called from the kitchen. "If I trip over you again I swear you won't return to the world of the living."

Dan's head shot up, getting a squeal of surprise from his son, he grinned. "No worries, Miss Claudia, we'll take the next battle elsewhere."

"Not now you won't. Breakfast is ready. Is Evie up yet?"

"Present." I called, winking at BB and strolling into the kitchen.

"Oh, good morning." She smiled at me, setting a large bowl of scrambled eggs and a small mountain of toast on the table so we could dish out our own. "How did you sleep? Dan, go and get Jay and the girls would you?"

I blinked. Sleep? "Uh…alright." I'd slept? So I had. And I hadn't dreamed.

Maddy arched a brow at me as she took her seat, she must've took something from my expression because then she smirked.

I scowled at her. If she thought I was going to admit to the possibility of… anything…she was damn well wrong.

"You're as stubborn as a mule, Eva Hanson." My partner chuckled, shaking her head at me.

I wrinkled my nose at her, taking a piece of toast off the plate CJ was holding out for me. "One would think that you'd be used to it by now."

"I am. It just never gets old."

"I'd have thought it'd be as annoying as hell." I smirked. How many times had I been told that?

Maddy smiled. "But you pick the strangest things to be stubborn over, Eves. You act like conceding defeat would be the death of you."

"Depends on who heard me say it." I muttered, scooping out a decent serving of eggs. Damn, I hadn't felt this hungry in days, either.

"What was that?"

I blinked innocently, ignoring her question. "How's the current situation looking?"

"All's clear." Jay's voice replied, and we looked up to see the missing three wander into the kitchen and take the remaining seats. "As clear as CJ's mother's crystal wine glasses. Oi! Landmine, you can't possibly eat all that! You'll explode!"

Yas gave him a glare from over the small mountain of the fluffy scrambled eggs on her plate. "I'm a growing girl. You do realise just how much energy I burn, don't you?"

"Leave some for the rest of us!"

CJ rolled her eyes at them. "I swear, if you two were the same shade, I'd call you siblings. You squabble like children! Jay, you're not going to go hungry, leave the girl alone."

"Yes, Ma."

"Smartass."

"Can we be serious for a second?" I grumbled, taking a mouthful of the coffee CJ had placed in front of me. I swear the girl is an angel. "Can I possibly have an update?"

"Ah hem."

I rolled my eyes impatiently. "Please."

"That's better. You're a terrible influence on Ben-" Dan smirked at me.

"Too late."

"-As to the update, all is well. The night went smoothly. Two other blips appeared, but there was no interference within the systems."

I raised an eyebrow. "What the hell is a blip?"

Danny coughed. "Blip. Like the one that Tess found in the computers last night."

"Oh…oh!" Code-naming werewolves as blips? Dear god. I'd just love to tell Sam that. "Are you having any troubles with…blips, at the moment?" I almost snickered.

"Nope," Tess grinned, obviously relieved. "Systems are running smoothly."

I gave my grinning comrades a cautious look. "…You didn't nuke them, did you?"

"For that we would've needed nuclear weapons. And you know we don't have any of those." Tess answered, chewing thoughtfully, as if she might've contemplated the idea. They'd obviously freaked her out, and spies were trained to eliminate their fears.

I nearly scoffed out loud at that. I'd done such a terrific job on eliminating my own fears. You'llgetthechance. Part of me whispered. You'llwin.

I clicked my tongue and snorted, whether at my thoughts or at Tess. "I know Jay's got prototypes-"

"I do not!"

"Do so. I've seen them. Little things, 'bout this big," I indicated with my hands to show about twenty centimetres. "Silver, in that black and grey striped case you've got."

Jay paused and stared at me. "Have you been going through my stuff?"

I shrugged. "Not recently. Used to though, to practice. Now I just recognise the case."

He opened his mouth, and then closed it, unsure what to say or probably feel about it. Finally he nodded approvingly and grinned at me. "That's my girl. Knew I'd taught you well."

I raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, uh huh. Aren't you a little old for comics, though?"

His grin turned into a scowl. "Don't diss the classics, baby girl."

Chuckling, I returned my attention back to the previous conversation. "Now…what was I talking about?"

"You were concerned that'd we'd nuked the blips." Tess supplied helpfully.

A smile tugged at the corners of Maddy's lips and she went to open them, so I rushed to stop whatever smart-arsed remark she had. "Correction. I was concerned you'd nuked the blips withoutme." If there was going to be any explosions of any kind, I definitely wanted a hand in them. If this whole shit situation was going to revolve around me and the demons from my past, then I wasn't just going to sit idly on the side lines while the rest got to fight them.

Notacoward.Manythings,butneveracoward.

Lie. I knew deep down that if Jacob Black were to walk through that door right now I'd turn tail and flee. I'd just never admit that I am this pitifully, pathetically weak. I'm an agent, goddamnit! I'm not supposed to be like this.

"We thought it'd be a good start to get a scope on the surroundings. Canvas the area. We've already done a two hundred metre radius out from the house. We've got motion sensors and cams up to cover the whole area. I say we put out further sensors every hundred metres, if more then one is tripped then we go into alert. Three triggers and we hit lockdown." Jay was saying, drawing a diagram of his plan in the eggs he'd flattened on his plate.

To me, it looked like a spider web, though I knew each line represented a sensor line. "You've been wandering around the in woods?" I asked dryly. "Have you lost your goddamn minds?"

"This is a strong hold, Eves." Jay told me patiently, like this was my first time. "We have to know when we're being approached. We've got precious cargo here, remember?"

I glanced at my godson. I knew that. "And what if the blips reoccurred while you were traipsing around? What if they detectedyou?"

Yas shook her head. "There were no signs."

I gave her a look. "Their sneaky blips. They won't just appear on your screens waving a flag in your faces."

"You need to stop stressing. The last blip disappeared just after daylight. My theory is that the temperatures affect their signal strength. Night time might possibly be the only time when the signal can affect our equipment." Dan said reassuringly, looking pleased.

Somewhere in all the drivel he'd just sprouted, I think I grasped his meaning. He thought the wolves would only watch us at night. "Notice how you say 'mightpossibly', and how you're still referring to them as blips. I'd have thought you'd have a longer name for something that messed with your toys."

He cleared his throat. "You know me, always better to be safe then sorry."

I eyed them uncertainly. "How sure are you that their not in the systems right now?"

"Positive. Not for two hundred metres at least."

Ohgod,pleasedon'tletthemhaveseenthemsettingthesensors.There would be nothing stranger. Even though I doubted that they'd actually figure out what I was, it still wouldn't help. If Sam became any more suspicious of us, he'd have a guard sitting on the bloody back door step.

"It would be handy if we knew how good the blips sensors were." Tess put in, biting her lip.

"It would be handy. How do you propose we go about it? Do you want me to wander out and ask?"

"Evie, don't be absurd." CJ chided.

"I'm not! You keep hinting at me to do something about it! I am not going near them. End of story. Contact with all blips must equal a big fat zero. Zilch. Nip. Na da. None." Okay, so maybe I could use some more sleep and something stronger then coffee to do something about this stress. My nerves are about shot to bits, apparently. I breathed out slowly. "Sorry. I'm…I'm sorry."

"Oh, honey," CJ smiled and reached over to take my hand, which I had clenched into a fist without realising. "It's okay, shh. We're not making you do anything-"

I gave her a sharp look. Like hell they weren't!

"-Alright, point taken. We're not making you do anything else you don't want to do, okay?"

"It's probably better if you stay out of sight for a while, anyway. The sight of you will only stir things up." Maddy reasoned, helpfully.

I gave her another look, too. "I won't stand aside while my battles are fought for me. You know me better then that."

She met my gaze calmly. "Indeed I do, partner."

A/N: The fact was sort of lost on me the last chapter but….wow. I'm up to 31? And 305 reviews? That's insane! More then I had imagined :D I can't thank you guys enough, honestly.

So this was not the Jake/Evie reunion that I know your all waiting for, but I promise that will be very, verysoon ;)

I am going to work this afternoon, for an unsure amount of time. I know that we'll be working through the weekend so we can try to get them all finished before the next rain hits though. Just a warning, I have no idea when I'll be able to reply to your responses, so...yeah. But I promise I will when I'm able to :) To anyone I missed for the last chapter, I'm sorry, but you know you have my thanks *hugs* :)

Thank you all so much for your patience and understanding. Your baring with me means a lot (:

Love and peace,

-Meg xx