A/N: Hello all, I'm so tired right now. Right, it's Sunday, which can only mean one - of many - things: update! Yay, rejoice.
Thank you to all of the reviewers, you guys are rock awesome.
And another thank you to Greg for beta-ing this chapter.
Read.
VI.
Five and a half kilometers outside of base camp, Ben slowed in his run to a steady stride, which faltered eventually into a stealthy saunter. He slung his rifle butt into the crook of his arm and lifted its barrel out ahead of himself, hand curling easily around the barrel, fingering the trigger and resting his cheek against the stock to gaze down its sight.
There were five Skitters in the area. Two moving together roughly forty yards away, around what looked to be a preschool building, the other three were moving separately of one another, several yards between each of them, and sprawled out around a nearby park area.
Ben slid his gun up across his back once more and removed the knife he kept buckled to his upper thigh. He treaded light and breathed shallow, as he slunk through the shadows towards the first Skitter in the park, lingering around the jungle gym. Skitters could hear almost as well as he could, so if they weren't yet aware of his advancement, and from the casual sounds of their movement it seemed they had yet to notice him, then one misplaced step or sharp intake of air could alert them to his presence and steal his one advantage over them: surprise.
When the Skitter was in sight, its six legs scurrying over the top of the jungle gym, Ben moved quickly forward and attacked with his blade held out in front of him, in a parrying stance. The Skitter reeled to counter, but Ben was too swift, dodging the Skitter's initial, clumsy strike and driving his knife down its throat.
The next Skitter was on him before he had time to even pull his knife back, feeling the Skitter claw rake across his side and reach for his throat. Ben sliced his blade outward in a large arc, wrestling the squirming creature backwards then knocking it with the butt of his rifle. He stumbled to the ground, spun his rifle round, and let off several rounds before finally managing to get a bullet in the Skitter's head.
The third Skitter was racing towards Ben by the time he scrambled to his feet, and he unloaded a few more bullets into that one before it too dropped not even a yard away from him. He heard the other two en route and raced for cover amongst the trees lining the park.
Ben fired the last of his rounds into the first of the Skitter pair, and then bolted forward, using the empty gun as a club to battle his last remaining opponent. He bashed one of the Skitter's legs and it screamed, a bloodcurdling, high-pitched hiss, and slapped him with one of its claws, then barreled down on Ben, pinning him to the jungle gym and drawing itself up for a final attack.
Without thought, Ben struck with his blade and the Skitter collapsed, black blood spilling from its oral cavity over his own gashed open arm.
Ben reeled away from the dead Skitters, fighting the rising bile in his throat, shuddering against a chill breeze and stumbling towards the edge of the park, clutching his sweat-drenched, shaking body. He spat a clot of blood to the ground and inspected himself. The injury on his arm was child's play, cleaned up it wouldn't even be noticeable under his long-sleeved shirt. One of the Skitters had managed to rip their claws into his side, however, and from the sharp feel of the jagged flesh, he worried he might be favoring the wound a while.
Cleaning the blade of his knife off against his pant leg and re-sheathing it, Ben staggered down the winding, unfamiliar streets, and began back towards base camp. One of the houses in the area had a pool in the backyard, and though it hadn't been maintained in well over seven or eight months, it was water.
He used the green, algae infested pool, better classified as a pond now, to hastily wash away as much evidence of his nightly escapade as possible. It didn't need to be perfect, just enough to get him back into camp without calling too much attention to his disheveled form. Not many people stopped to stare long at Ben when he passed anyhow, ducking their heads when he wandered by, as though looking at him directly were enough to pass on his alien-altered DNA.
Once beyond the camp perimeter, it was a matter of getting to his tent without running into one of his brothers, Dr. Glass, Maggie, or Jimmy. His heightened hearing made that an easy enough dodge, for the most part he just avoided anything that sounded like people, though he assumed Matt was in bed, and everyone not on patrol was inside the community center shooting the breeze or sleeping as well.
Ben had a first aid kit in his tent. He used it to bandage his arm, as well as the three bright red gashes that ran the length of his mid-waist up along his left-backside, and then he discarded the t-shirt he'd been wearing, shredded on that one side by the Skitter claws. He tugged on his long-sleeved shirt and then startled to his feet at the sound of footsteps advancing softly towards his tent.
The tent opening fluttered, Ben spun abruptly around and tried not to appear too guilty when facing his guest.
He scowled, "What do you want?"
Hal stood at the front of the tent, his brow raised sharply and expression befuddled, as though he were surprised to find Ben in his own tent. After a moment to recover from his initial stun, Hal folded his arms over his chest and glared down his nose at Ben.
"Where the hell have you been?" Hal demanded.
"On patrol," Ben hastily lied. Hal blinked, his frown deepened significantly, and his forehead wrinkled as his brow shot farther up.
"Really?" Hal challenged, "Because you were taken off patrol tonight. So try again."
Ben sighed, turning from his older brother and pacing towards the back of his tent a few steps, "I know. But I felt restless, so I went for a walk around the perimeter."
"Right," Hal drawled, brow falling into a furrow, "Because according to Jimmy, when I talked to him in the mess hall a couple hours ago, you told him you were exhausted and wanted to go to bed early so you would be fully rested for tomorrow's assignment. How is it that you were exhausted then, but you're restless now?"
Ben winced, he hated lying; he was never very good at it. It was hard enough coming up with something that Jimmy would buy when they climbed off the bus together several minutes after Lourdes and Jamil finally left.
Jimmy had wanted to grab some dinner but Ben was still teeming with energy, it practically poured out of his ears, pooling at his feet, and he needed to do something with it before he burst. He knew if he had told Jimmy his plans, Jimmy would want to come, hell, he would demand it, and the other boy was in no condition to go on a nightly hunt, the same as he was in no condition to take the brunt of Ben's energies again, otherwise they would have never gotten off that bus.
"Well yeah, that is what I said," Ben murmured, trying to remember some of the pointers Jimmy had given him about lying, such as, stick as much to the truth as possible, "And that is…because…I lied to him."
"What?"
Ben took a deep breath, fixed his expression, spun around and met his brother's eyes with a light smirk.
"I lied to him," he repeated more firmly, shrugging, and expanding on his candid statement, "Jimmy was the one that was exhausted, but you know how he is, he would never admit it. So I told him that I was tired because I figure that way he would have nothing better to do than go lay down himself."
Hal didn't look entirely convinced, but he was starting to look as though he was losing interest in pursuing the matter. He placed his hands on his hips and shook his head, studying the ground a moment. Ben felt a groan coming on, he knew that expression quickly edging into Hal's features, and it was almost identical to the one their mom used to wear when she was gearing up to chastise the boys.
"Isn't this exactly what I warned you about, Ben?" Hal seethed, "If you and Jimmy hadn't been taken off patrol tonight…"
"Yeah, yeah, I know," Ben cut in, "Fine, you were right. You win. Jimmy's only human and I'm not. You're wise and all-knowing, and I have no clue what I'm doing. No more fooling around before patrol. I got it. Was that all, or did you have another reason for being here?"
Hal ruffled at the snappy interruption, his eyes boring a hole into his younger brother. Ben folded his arms over his chest, dropping his gaze to the ground, toeing the tent floor with his mud-encrusted boot. There was a rock underneath the tarp, and he attempted to nudge it back and forth, but it was half buried in earth and refused to move.
"I came here earlier to talk to you about tomorrow," Hal said, shoving his hands in his pockets, he wet his lips and continued haggardly, "But you weren't here…"
"Well I'm here now," Ben muttered, rubbing his face with the keel of his hand, "So talk."
"I just wanted to set some ground rules for the mission," Hal growled and Ben rolled his eyes.
"Like what?"
"Like keep your mouth shut and listen to what I tell you to do," Hal sneered.
"Those are your ground rules?" Ben shot back dubiously, "Those are the same ground rules you have for everything, Hal; that you have had for everything since we were kids, and I haven't followed them once yet, what makes you think I'm going to start now."
"You're going to start now because tomorrow we'll be out there with Pope," Hal replied sharply and Ben wavered, swallowing down hard the next comeback set on his tongue. He hated when his brother had a point, "The guy is off-balance. I don't know what Weaver is thinking sending him with us."
Ben snorted softly and recalled Jimmy's words from earlier that day, "He's thinking that Pope is the only one crazy enough to wander into Skitter-territory with only three kids and the rifles strapped to their backs."
"I guess," Hal returned, "Pope can drop a Skitter better than anyone, true, but he'd just as soon drop me or you. Don't forget that. Weaver might think it's a good idea to send Pope with us as our strong arm, as some kind of protection, but we cannot trust him," he shook his head at the floor and grumbled, "He's been giving you dirty looks since we brought you back and took that harness off."
"Him and everyone else," Ben mentioned under his breath. Hal perked a brow at him, but decided to ignore the near inaudible comment.
"I'm serious, Ben. It worries me," Hal persisted, "I don't want you near Pope. Don't look at him, don't talk to him. Dai can keep him in line for the most part, but he's going to try to goad you and you cannot respond."
"I'll be fine," Ben griped, exasperated, "I can handle it."
Hal narrowed his eyes on his brother, "I don't think you can. He is going to be watching you like a hawk, Ben, remember that. Scrutinizing your every move. Anything you do that he can take back to camp and twist around, he will. So keep your head down and stay close to me. You got that?"
Ben shook his head, shoving his hands, balled into tight fists, deep into his pockets. He glared heatedly at his brother, his heart slamming against his chest enraged. He had this sudden image of himself as a child being sent to bed without any supper and he didn't like the positioning of his brother in that image.
"Well, Ben?" Hal pressed, "You got it?"
"No," Ben hissed, "I don't actually."
Hal wrinkled his brow again, the muscle in the corner of his mouth twitching, a spasm that occurred when he was extremely frustrated.
"I can handle myself, Hal, I'm not a stupid kid," Ben raged.
"You…"
"And you're not dad, so stop acting like it!"
Ben clamped his mouth shut hard and Hal flinched back, dropping his chin downward and slumping his shoulders slightly. A chill settled over them, a world-defining silence that echoed in their ears. They didn't often speak about their father to one another, not at all if they could help it, not after word came back about their father's decision to climb aboard an alien space craft, not after the reason came out to be 'protecting Ben'.
Ben wasn't entirely sure how Hal felt about that turn of events, but he knew his older brother well enough to know that if Hal avoided a subject with someone, it was because he was too mad at that person about it for words. Hal blamed Ben for their father being missing and, honestly, Ben couldn't disagree with him on it.
Hal shifted his weight, his clothes rustling loudly at the movement. He turned to the side and peered disinterestedly up at the corner of the tent's roof. Ben tried to stop his heart's frantic attempts to burrow its way out of his chest. His whole body prickled with icicles that grew outward from his inner core.
"I'm just trying to look out for you," Hal finally said, his voice low and distant.
Ben scowled, shuddered with his pent up anger, and begrudgingly relented, "I know."
Another silence fell between them. Ben went back to the rock under the tent. Hal wandered a few steps away, eyes trailing over the mess around him. Ben had never been a very tidy person, his few articles of clothing were strewn haphazardly around the ground, his sleeping bag was rumpled and bunched together, he had a few books that he'd looted from various locations stacked here and there, they were severely tattered and the pages were all dog-eared, and he couldn't claim that the damage had been done before he picked them up.
"About Jimmy…" Hal began and Ben's heart cinched, his body tensing, and senses suddenly on high alert.
"What about Jimmy?"
Hal sighed and shook his head, looking askance at his brother, "You know, when I heard the storage rooms were on lock down, I thought it was for the best, I wouldn't have to worry about you goofing around anymore, but now I find out you've just been going to the 2nd Mass's version of lover's lane…Ben, you got to stay out of that bus."
"Why?" Ben jeered, folding his arms over his chest, pulling his shoulders back and glaring intimidatingly across the tent at his brother.
"Because…we talked about this," Hal said.
"Yeah, we did talk about this," Ben replied smartly, "And we agreed that what was between me and Jimmy was none of your business."
"That is not what we agreed!"
"It's what I agreed," Ben snapped, he jerked his head away from his brother and said plaintively, "Because that's exactly what it is: none of your goddamned business."
"No, what we agreed was that you wouldn't let it become a distraction, but whether you realize it or not, Ben, that's what it's becoming now. A distraction," Hal argued, "It's getting out of hand. You're sneaking around camp; goofing off…you're neglecting your responsibilities."
"We're not neglecting anything," Ben protested.
"Aren't you the one that just told me Jimmy was exhausted tonight? And you're going to tell me, what? That it has nothing to do with the both of you fooling around so much?" Hal retorted. He faltered, shook his head at the ground and said steadily, "You're young Ben. It's bad enough that you have to be out there killing, fighting, having to act like an adult on the battlefield, but then you come back to camp and, what? Act like an adult in the bedroom – I'm sorry, back of the bus – too? Do you even know what you're doing? Are you even being safe…?"
"Oh, hell, Hal, what is the fucking problem?" Ben cried, "It's not like I can get him pregnant!"
Hal's face blanched, his mouth pressed together into a white line that trembled with a barely contained rage.
"Is that how far it's gotten?" he demanded.
Ben blinked rapidly, fluttering his eyelids, flabbergasted. His mouth opened and closed a few times before he gasped, "What? No…I don't know. Shit. Why would you even ask that?"
"Because I'm worried about you," Hal explained fervently, "You're a kid, Ben, why do you need to be in such a rush? You're both young, you don't need to be doing these kinds of things now, you should be doing kid's stuff, for crying out loud, you've got your whole lives-"
"Are you sure of that?" Ben shot back and Hal's expression fell, as Ben wandered away, choking out, "Jimmy almost died three weeks ago. Hell, I could die tomorrow. Every time I close my eyes to sleep, I wonder if I'll wake up in the morning. Every time I wake up, I wonder if this'll be it, if this'll be my last day…if it'll be his. You know, I don't even want to leave his side half the time because when we go our separate ways, I can't help wondering if that's going to be the last time I ever see him again. Our whole lives, Hal? We don't even know if we have today."
"The fact that you've been thinking like that, Ben, does not convince me that you should be out there screwing around with him," Hal said sternly.
"Really? And you don't think that's a bit hypocritical of you," Ben snarled, "I mean, what about Karen?"
Hal darted his eyes up to meet Ben's, a panic swirling in their dark brown depths. Ben smirked almost cruelly; he knew he'd caught his brother by surprise, and that he may have just won the argument, if that expression were any indication.
"Yes, Hal. I heard about her. She was taken by the Skitters, harnessed, right? You're honestly going to tell me that before that, you didn't do anything with Karen. Anything at all?" Ben pressed, "And can you honestly tell me that if you hadn't, you wouldn't have regretted it?"
"You're going to want to drop this topic, Ben," Hal whispered.
"Why? You've never mentioned her to me. Is it because you don't want me to repeat your mistakes, or is it because you don't think they were mistakes and you don't want me to know, because then you'd have no room to argue?" Ben persisted.
"I don't mention her," Hal began sharply, momentarily flicking his eyes away from his younger brother, "Because the last time I saw her…" he looked to Ben again, a faraway sadness tinting his features, "You were dragging her away."
Without another word, Hal spun on his heel and briskly exited the tent, leaving Ben behind, stunned speechless and feeling as though someone had punched him in the gut.
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A/N: Yes, Hal is mean. I really do try to write him as a nice, caring brother, but I suppose he just comes off as an overprotective jerk. Oh well. Um...real quick, yeah...so...Ben has been lying to Jimmy. If you'll all recall, Jimmy has serious trust issues. Lying to a person - no matter how much of their best interest you had at heart - is never a good idea. Just saying. Always be honest to your loved ones with trust issues.
Anyhow, as always, tell me what you think.
Dear reviewers: Maika-LunaRota, I'm glad you really liked that scene! JDMlvr1, lol, yeah...it was a bit...romantic...I guess. Blech, romance...I'll take the smut any day. Haley, hahahahaha! Oh good, glad to hear it. Heracratzarism, awesome! Facepalmer123, I had a feeling you would say that. IcicleLilly, aw, no love for Jamil? I think Lourdes shacking up in the back of a bus would be a bit out of character for her though, ne? Good to hear you liked the chappie and that you're up for a long tale. Cookie97, I was worrying I hadn't seen your review all week. Glad you liked the chapter and that you agree...the boys just need a lot more time before they could be so forthright with one another emotionally. Maybe they'll get there one day.
Okay, brief announcement: I am going to be starting bi-weekly updates (that's two a week). I'm going to start posting a chapter on Thursdays, as well as, the Sunday chapters. And cue rejoicing villagers...oi vey, I have a headache.
Right, so I will see you all Thursday. Have a good one!