In a hurry... lots going on (again)... will edit as soon as possible! ;) Edited. Thank you, Bow Echo and Whirl Girl! (Heh! The iceman cometh!)

42

A month earlier, on Tracy Island-

One at a time, the 'New Crew' arrived, joining a critically short-handed rescue organization much in need of help. Caleb Gonzalez had two vital projects going on; one sort of back-burner, one right the heck now. Had to get his team back together, you know? Step one, for everything else still to come. It helped, that everyone already kinda-sorta remembered their once-ago past.

First to show up was Josh Kelly, a big, dark-skinned guy, very soft-spoken, great sense of humour. He was a racecar mechanic and volunteer fireman from Manitoba. Teaching him to fly was like giving swim lessons to a brook trout. He "remembered" it all very quickly, and got right to work.

A few days after Josh, Janice Ming arrived, flying her own smallish passenger jet. A former college basketball star, she operated a pet taxi service out of Hong Kong. Family was stupendously wealthy, but Jan had a stubborn, independent streak… and was head-snapping beautiful, too. Not very funny, though. Too serious.

One day after Jan, Piper Austin turned up, seeming nervous, excited and shy, all bundled up with awkward, cute and determined. She'd hitched rides to get there her own way, bringing nothing but her skateboard, laptop and helmet-cam. Pip was in her first year at junior college (undeclared major), and her hair was shock-you purple. Back-alley gen mod, probably, but it looked cool. She was also really tall, which kept reminding Caleb of… well, his second objective, still coming along. It was frickin' hilarious, though, how Alan and Pip snapped together like a couple of magnets.

Only one of the crew was still missing; Iceman. Cody Beech. Weirdly, he seemed not to exist in the WorldGov population database, no matter how hard Caleb searched, or which sneaky backdoors he pried open. The guy just wasn't anywhere. Only, he had to be. Caleb's shaky other-when memories couldn't have lied about that. The other possibility… that somewhere back in the timeline, someone had stepped on a bug that didn't get in the eye of a girl who then didn't ride her bike straight into some dude she soon fell in love with, leading to Cody (or something like that) … Caleb refused to accept. They'd find him. They had to. He hadn't come all this way, escaped the kiddie-hell that was frickin' Wavey-World, to get blocked, now.

Anyways, the rookie aquanaut got them all sorted, introduced and berthed, up there in the ring-house. (Which had seemed like a good idea, at the time. Plenty of room.) Captain Taylor and Mr. Brain handled the training, which freed Caleb to hang out in the lab and do a little private tinkering of his own.

Alan Tracy would have cleared his throat and said that Caleb was exaggerating. It wasn't exactly like magnets, him and Piper. She just, all of a sudden, was there, having got a lift from the regular mail plane. He spotted her standing on the tarmac, looking like everything in the world that mattered to Al. Right at that second, everything else disappeared; morning sunshine, ocean breeze, distant surf-roar. Gone.

He'd been up on the main balcony, drinking soda and idly watching the skies (his turn to collect the snail-mail, that day). Then the plane showed up as a buzzing black dot in the gem-pure sky, to circle, land, taxi, and deliver... her. Alan couldn't have told you how he got down to the airstrip so fast. Just seemed to surf on pure joy and adrenaline.

See, there weren't two people in the world with that shade of brilliant amethyst hair, that baggy, green-canvas flight jacket. She looked like a goddess to Alan. Didn't have any luggage for him to carry; just a backpack and her skateboard, which she'd already unstrapped and set down on the tarmac.

Alan got there super-quick, unable to quite restrain a huge, delighted grin.

"Hey!" he called out, jogging up to the red-and-white plane. The mail guy thrust something at him, needing a thumbprint. Could've been anything at all from a bomb to a puppy, for all Alan noticed, or cared. He'd have signed over the deed to Tracy Island, just then.

Accepted some packages, mumbled a halfway polite "thanks", and then turned all his attention back to the purple-haired skater chick doing lazy maneuvers and tricks on her board. Flip turns, hops… crap like that.

"Hey," he repeated, catching up to her (parcels dumped on the ground). "Welcome to Tracy Island. You're Pip, right? I'm Alan."

This was actually half said, half panted, as they got off the airstrip so that the mail plane could take off, again. So, there was, like, wheel clicks, engine-roar, wind, and Alan's own breathing all mixed in with that eager welcome. Pretty sure his heart was loud enough to be picked up on seismographs, too.

She'd stopped skating at the edge of that crooked, steep path leading up to the house, and stood now, looking it critically over.

"Challenging," Piper admitted, giving Alan a sort of shy, through-the-hair-curtain smile. He winced, then grinned again.

"Ohhh, yeah. I mean, you can do it coming down… I have… but there's a couple of handrail grinds that'll spill you every time, if you don't hop the gaps just right."

She nodded, once, then turned to face him squarely, holding one end of her board so that it rested upright on the toe of a battered and shredded blue sneaker. Bright-orange wheels spun slowly, their noise a faint hum. Underside of her board was a combo of kitten and skull decals.

"You demo, first," she said to him, adding, "Know how, sometimes, you just feel like you already know somebody?"

"Like you've been friends, forever?" he supplied, grinning like a fool.

"Yup. That's me. Hi, Rocket-man… it's good to see you." Again.

Alan wanted to whoop aloud. To seize the girl of his dreams and toss her up into the air, but he didn't. Just gestured up at the house, saying,

"Same, Chica. C'mon. This way. I'll get my board, and we'll do the Tracy stairs death-drop!"

"Live and on cam!" she laughed, loping up the stairs after the single perfect, most awesome guy in the universe. They were holding hands, by the time they got to the house.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

At about the same time-

As for Charlie, he was busy exploring the world like a zippy, fast-moving experience sponge. His dad, Gordon: the best. His 'uncle' (new word) other-brother-Alan: cool. Zara: okay… Dad acted funny when Zara was there, but she made good food and she liked them, so Charlie liked her.

And Gramma! She looked scary, first, but she knew fun things to do, like go for jungle walks and play checkers. She told him all about being a Tracy (secret stuff, even Dad didn't know).

She read to him, too, from a big old book with lots of cool pictures. He learned about monsters and trolls (the Mechanic), beautiful princesses (Zara, Lady Pee and Kayo), and brave heroes like dad, Alan and grand-daddy. He learned that good guys are always supposed to win, and bad guys fall off the cliff or get locked up. That someone name God was watching and keeping them safe, if they were good and always be'd careful.

Charlie Tracy soaked it all up, sitting in the rocker, cuddled beside Gramma, hearing stories about book people and real people, like his father. The pool was the most awesome, cool, big amazing fun in the world. You could float, like space, but move on your own, too, not get stuck yelling for help. Dad and Zara taught him to swim, splash around, cannonball and open his eyes… under… water.

You could go outside with no pay suit. You could see birds, catch lizards and bugs, eat food with no queeze-pouch, and run forever, all up and down the stairs. You could chase waves on the beach and run away from them, screaming, with Dad and Zara.

Everything was mostly real fun, only Charlie didn't get why he had to have a stupid bath if he already went swimming! Or how come he had to aim in the potty, not go in a tube. Or, how come food was supposed to be breakfast, lunch, tea-time and dinner. Couldn't you eat when your tummy was hungry, sleep when you wanted to? Why not?

And then, the more bigger bad part was… Dad went to go rescue people, like back on Mars, only… Dad didn't want to bring Charlie. So… maybe he kinda got mad and froze everybody, to find out why. Not being bad! Just wanted to know.

"I could help again, Dad! It's teamwork, right? You said so!"

Gordon got down on the kid's level, putting his hands upon Charlie's trembling shoulders. Everything else was perfectly still; time-locked in mid hurry and shout, all around them.

"You're right, Buddy. You were a lot of help on Mars, and we really needed you, but…" the aquanaut pulled his confused, angry son in close, for a quick, rough hug. "…it was really dangerous, too. You're just starting out. Just a little dude."

"I could get big," Charlie insisted stubbornly, his brown eyes very serious. Very intent.

"I know you could," Gordon agreed, smiling a little. "You could be big as me, on the outside, and here in your heart. But in here," he touched the boy's forehead, "you're still learning the ropes. I'm your daddy, Chipper… and if anything happened to you, I wouldn't get over it. Not ever. I have to take risks with my brothers and sister, Big Guy… but not with my kid. Not yet."

The hug tightened.

"Tell you what. You learn to fly, from Uncle Lee. Learn to jet-pack, from Scott, how to put out a fire from Virgil, how to handle huge emergencies, from John. Let Kayo teach you to fight, and Alan show you how to stick a point-perfect landing… and then you can come help."

The boy had been ticking off goals on his pool-pickled small fingers. Now, he objected,

"But, Dad…! That'll take my whole life. FOREVER!"

Gordon hugged him close, fighting the sudden urge to cry. Charlie smelt of chlorine and chocolate cookies. How had so much of his life come to be wrapped up in someone so small? So recent?

"It'll go by faster than you think, Buddy," he said. Then, pulling away, again. "How about this? If it gets bad out there, we'll call for you. Then, you can freeze everything but someone here at home, and they can bring you on out to save the day. What d'you think, Kiddo? Sound like a plan?"

Charlie scowled, relenting a bit,

"You promise? Daddy, you promise you'll call me? 'Cause I'll be there so fast, like POW! For teamwork, okay?"

Gordon nodded, hugging his son once again.

"I promise, Big Guy. Now, let 'em go. We've got a train to catch." (Literally)

And that's how it went, until the big day when John called in from Mars orbit. They'd come back to real time, at last. They were alive, they were safe. They were coming home.

…And Grandma wanted a party.