AN: Thank you to the reviewers, you guys are awesome!

And a thank you to Greg for being the beta, he's also awesome.

XLIII.

Inside the sewers, with the dim light streaming through the manhole overhead, Ben checked the time. His blackout had taken a huge chunk from him; if everything went according to schedule for the plan then twenty minutes had passed since the bombs went off.

Five minutes.

Jimmy had told Ben to wait for five minutes and leave to retrieve the others if he never showed, but they'd never discussed what would happen if Ben didn't come back. Jimmy clearly wasn't in the sewers waiting, but Ben couldn't be certain if that was because Jimmy left to get the others, didn't return and was lying somewhere hurt, possibly trapped, or if he did return but left the sewers to look for Ben after those five minutes were up.

The only way Ben could determine to rule out at least one scenario was to backtrack to where the others were left. If they were still at their locations waiting, that would at least mean Jimmy hadn't gone to round them up, which would leave the two other options, that he either never returned or he went searching when Ben didn't return.

Getting back to where Kelsey and her group had been left proved difficult. Ben had done his best to make note of where they'd been left in the rush to put their plan in motion, but the situation had been stressful, and they were moving pretty fast, and Ben's senses were all so bogged down in the sewers as it was that he struggled just to put one foot in the other and not crash into a wall, memorizing a particular location might have been asking too much. When Ben reached the ladder, he wasn't certain it was the right one at first, but the manhole cover had been removed and when Ben peeked topside, he felt certain he was staring out at one of the explosions' origin points.

Ben went back in the sewers and called out for the four unharnessed teens a few minutes. He struggled to listen for sounds of them though all he could hear was the roar of water rushing all around. There was no hint of their presence, they were gone, which meant Jimmy had come to pick them up after all.

Ben hadn't expected that turn of events, and he wasn't sure of his feelings at the moment. On one hand, he was glad of the seeming confirmation that Jimmy had gotten through the plan without a hitch and was somewhere safe, yet at the same time, there was an inexplicable searing of pain seeping through his chest. Despite telling himself that he wouldn't have wanted Jimmy to do something so risky and dangerous, somehow it hurt that Jimmy hadn't gone to look for him.

Of course, there was also the possibility that Jimmy never showed up and in his and Ben's absence, Kelsey and her lot had decided to leave, maybe make their way back to camp or forge ahead with whatever ominous purpose brought them out there in the first place. Heading to Rick's location would give Ben certainty, Rick wouldn't leave without the others. At least, Ben didn't think that Rick would. Thoughts and emotions were overwhelming Ben though, and the stifling nature of the sewers was not helping matters. He felt just short of a panic attack and didn't know if he would be able to stagger to Rick's location. Every part of the sewers was blending together; the sound of water was drowning him, the air tasted stale and was hard to swallow – it felt precisely like his asthma attacks from childhood.

Ben climbed from the sewers, crawling out of the manhole and dragging himself several feet along the street. He lay against the pavement a moment, catching his breath, braced against the ground, and then he carefully lifted himself to his feet. Everything around him laid scorched black, scattered debris and rubble unidentifiable from what it had once been, before the explosion, before the war. Triumph of man lost in a single act of hopeful salvation – what did humanity really have left to sacrifice, what more tithe to pay for his continued existence?

Ben closed his eyes, took a deep breath, focused on the world around him. There were still Skitters in the area and a few Mechs, but their numbers had decreased significantly, and the ones near were too distracted to pay Ben any attention. It gave Ben a sense of relief. If the swarm of enemy in the area departed after the explosion, than that could possibly mean that the enemy attacking the 2nd Mass fell back as well. His brothers might be saved after all.

As for other forms of life, Ben couldn't pinpoint a single heartbeat. Breath trembled into his lungs.

Alone.

In all his time in that apocalyptic world, Ben never felt more alone than he did in that moment. It seemed unlikely that Jimmy would leave without him, but then, it also seemed unlikely that Jimmy would deviate from the plan and puts others' lives at risk searching the ruins for him. Kelsey and her group wouldn't support staying and looking for Ben, and Rick…there was no telling what Rick would support at any given moment. His volunteering to come out to that crumbling district with Ben in the first place had been sudden and unexpected.

Ben rubbed a palm across his face, smearing sweat and dirt and blood. He felt at a loss; horrible fear squeezing his heart. All evidence pointed to Jimmy gathering the others and leaving, but then, it could also indicate that the others left of their own accord, without Jimmy or Ben, which could mean that Jimmy was still somewhere in the area, hurt or even possibly…

Ben shook his head and growled low in his throat. He needed to trust in Jimmy's capabilities. Jimmy had been in far worse situations, and managed to walk away, there was no reason to believe that he hadn't done the same this time. Maybe it meant that Jimmy left without Ben, but Ben could deal with those odd feelings like betrayal later – Jimmy had expected Ben to leave without him, there was no reason that Ben shouldn't have expected the same from Jimmy.

For now, Ben needed to get back to the 2nd Mass, needed to learn his brothers' fates.

There was no telling how thick with enemy the route home would be. The original plan had saw Jimmy leading the group through the sewers back to the 2nd Mass but without Jimmy, Ben had no choice but to return topside. Getting to the district with Rick in his wake had been easy enough, not surprisingly, they'd worked well together, picking up one another's very small amount of slack, but Ben predicted he could move just as easily – if not more so – by himself.

Figuring out direction had never been intuitive to Ben before. His father had taught him a few tricks for determining where north was, but admittedly, since the harness had been removed Ben found he had an almost animalistic attunement to the world around him. He didn't need to think about it, he just knew the cardinal directions. Without so much as a precursory glance to the surrounding environment and any possible land markers, Ben spun on heel and headed the direction he instinctively knew pointed to the 2nd Mass.

…

There almost seemed no need for scouts or flanking guards, the area was near devoid of all alien units. Jimmy leaned heavily against Anthony as he walked, forcing his mind from the pain flooding through his body at every step. He kept his focus on thoughts of Ben, on finding Ben. Part of him wanted to believe that when he didn't show up, Ben gathered up the others and headed back to the 2nd Mass, but he couldn't shake that knowing feeling, that Ben would go back to search for him.

Pope picked a building out, and the group ascended to the roof. They could see parts of the street where the structure had stood and it didn't take long before they spotted movement. It was momentary, barely a flash before darting out of sight, but discernible as life, and Jimmy felt his pulse quicken, wondering if the cosmos had finally decided to let up and give him a break for once.

"Could've been Skitters," Boon pointed out, as they made plans to head off the sighting on the other end of the street.

"Between them and these 'teenagers' we're looking for, is there a difference?" Lyle returned.

"That's why you've got the gun, genius," Pope muttered, "If it's Skitters, we'll just shoot them."

"If it's not Skitters, can we still shoot them?" Crazy Lee wondered.

A few of the adults gave Jimmy jeering looks, obviously more interested in his reaction to their words than the actual sentiments expressed therein. Jimmy set his jaw and turned his face away, ignoring their snickers. He'd made his choice to stand by Ben amidst peers who exerted far greater pressures months ago, the roughhewn adults around him couldn't come close to shaking his resolve, and he wasn't about to give them the smallest of flinches for their efforts.

"I vote yes," Pope decided.

"No," Anthony groaned.

"Can we just go now?" Jimmy growled.

Heading out on the streets once more, they broke up into groups. Pope led Crazy Lee up and around the street corner, Tector and Boon headed off another direction, and Anthony with Lyle, took Jimmy down another. Their hope was to converge on the unidentifiable life form they saw scurrying around from all viable escape routes, ensuring that they didn't miss whoever that movement could be attributed to, be it Ben and the others, or Skitters and Mech. Though the plan should've worked, they maneuvered through the streets and met at the center without coming across the possible figure they'd seen from the rooftop.

"This is ridiculous. Can we go home now?" Pope complained.

"We're near where the alien blob stood. Let's go back there," Jimmy suggested, "We saw movement in these streets, that means I was right, they're here looking for me."

"Or a few straggler Skitters are here trying to clean up the mess you made," Tector countered, "Pope is right, we should leave. We've been here long enough, if you can get us back to the 2nd Mass faster, then quit fooling around and do it, they probably need us right now…"

"I'm not fooling around," Jimmy grumbled.

"They might be right, Jimmy, we have no idea how to even go about…" Anthony started.

"You said we'd stay for a couple hours, it hasn't even been an hour," Jimmy cut in, petulant, "We saw movement down here, at least can we find out if it was them!"

"How much longer are we going to humor this kid? We all know what he's thinking with right now, and it's not his head," Lyle grunted.

"There are six people lost out here, not just Ben," Jimmy stammered protest, flustering and tipping his chin down to hide the color tinting his cheeks.

"No, Jimmy, there are six fighters lost out here," Anthony returned gently, "Capable of getting back to the 2nd Mass on their own. I know it's not easy, not knowing the status of someone you care about…"

"That isn't all this is about," Jimmy snapped, grasping desperately at threads, "I'm responsible for Roman and the others, Anthony, they're not completely trained and they trusted me to get them out of here alive, it's why they dragged me out here in the first place. If anything happens to them out here, it'll be my fault, and…and…I just…" he dropped his eyes, and whispered, "I don't want any more blood on my hands."

"Take my word for it, kid, the more you get on your hands the better, that way it all blends together, easier to get used to," Pope recommended, smirking viciously, "Eventually, you'll start to like it there, kind of a familiar feeling to it; warm and cozy, almost, just like home."

Jimmy scowled, brow crinkling, chewing his inner cheek as the older man's words swarmed into him.

"Stop talking to him, Pope," Anthony warned, placing his hands on Jimmy's shoulders and saying, "We'll double back to the structure, alright, take a look around, maybe call out a bit. These kids have super hearing, though, Jimmy, and if they're looking for you that means they're listening also. If they are here, they would have heard us – these guys aren't exactly subtle – and they would have come to us by now. So if we don't see them and they aren't there, then we have to assume they headed back to camp and leave."

"Okay. Fine," Jimmy mumbled, shaking his head and glaring at the ground.

"Listen…if something happened to any of them, you're not responsible," Anthony said in a low voice, "They made their choices."

Jimmy nodded but didn't reply.

They trekked back towards the block of city the structure had occupied, bits of debris and scorch marks scattered around, marking where the edges had been. The area under where the mass had stood was exposed now; much of it empty and vast, a flat plane, but nearing the center was an oddity.

Springing out of the ground were plants – predominantly red and green, at a distance they appeared to be any other overgrowth now taking hold on the unmaintained cities of the world, but as the group formed a tight unit, and moved swiftly closer, they could see that the plant-life was unlike anything any of them had ever seen on Earth: little purple vines dotted with green spots crawling along the ground, red flowers with dual-pronged spikes jutting out of their heads growing up out of fluffy pale green bushes, yellow shrubs with bright blue orbs dangling off their branches – a tiny alien garden.

"What is this?" Jimmy asked, glancing nervously at Anthony.

"I'm no expert or anything, but I'm going to go with plants," Pope supplied grimly.

"I've never seen plants look like that," Boon commented.

"And you've seen every plant in the world?" Crazy Lee replied, a slight hitch to her words, "They got plants that smell like rotting carcasses and eat people out in Africa…how much you want to bet this is some exotic strain of flower that escaped a rich man's garden after the invasion. Probably comes from China or something."

"Seems a little too coincidental that they're growing up where that alien thing-a-ma-bob was at, though, don't it?" Tector mentioned.

"We can't worry about it right now," Anthony decided, eyeing the unfamiliar stalks warily, "Let's just keep our distance, finish looking for these kids and then get the hell out of here."

They started back towards the streets, but froze at the slap of footfall nearby, swiftly falling into a battle formation, standing back-to-back with guns at ready. Lyle caught sight of them first, a few figures ducking and dodging on the outskirts of the street, but Jimmy was the one that recognized them, commanding the others to lower their weapons, which most of them didn't, as he called out to the group attempting to move stealthily passed.

"Hey, Roman, Gia," Jimmy yelled as loud as he dared, mindful that they were still in enemy territory, wagging his hand overhead, "You guys, over here!"

It was several seconds later that Roman stepped out into the open, gun dangling at his side. Tentatively, Douglas and Gia followed behind. They all faltered several yards back, warily eyeing the group and Jimmy glanced at the haggard fighters around him, realizing the three unharnessed teens' reluctance.

"Stay here," Jimmy quietly told Anthony, just barely loud enough for the others to hear, "I'll go talk to them…they don't really trust you guys."

"Ah, well, tell them the feeling is mutual," Pope grit out and Anthony shot him a warning glare.

Jimmy took a few steps towards Roman and the other two darting anxious looks all around them. Partway towards them, Jimmy faltered, scanning the area behind those three teenagers, expectant for more movement. He frowned, stalked the rest of the distance between them.

"Where were you? Where did they come from?" Roman spoke first.

Jimmy glanced back over his shoulder at the group of adults. Lyle still had a gun trained on the three teenagers, Pope examined his fingernails, Anthony swatted a fly buzzing around his face, Crazy Lee stared out at the demolished buildings around them, Tector and Boon exchanged low whispers, darting unreadable looks the teenagers' direction.

"I guess the 2nd Mass fled the community center, and they're taking heavy fire now. That lot headed out here when they had a chance, intent on taking down the alien mass, but we beat them to it," Jimmy explained, then ducked his head and sheepishly continued, "I…uh…had some difficulties with my part in the plan and…um…well, I didn't make it back. Anthony and them found me, though, and we came back to look for you. Uh…where is..." he bit his tongue on Ben's name, "Everyone else?"

"Don't know," Roman answered earnestly, there was a strange tone in his words, "We got through our part alright, but no one ever came for us. When we got tired of waiting, we back tracked to where we thought Rick was supposed to be, but he wasn't there..."

"We thought you guys left without us," Gia confessed in a shaky voice, her eyes on the ground, hands trembling noticeably, wrapped tight enough round her gun to whiten her knuckles.

Suddenly, the three's demeanors and expression came into focus for Jimmy. It was obvious in Gia's features that she'd been crying. Douglas looked terse, he stood closely beside her, but his eyes were distant, slightly red around the edges. Roman stared openly at Jimmy, a strange, unfamiliar softness in his eyes and around his mouth that, like everything else about Roman, Jimmy couldn't quite decipher and wasn't entirely sure how it made him feel. Then something else occurred to Jimmy, something that should've been obvious from the moment he'd seen them, should've been the first question he'd asked.

"Where's Kelsey?" he blurted out.

The three immediately averted their gazes; a guilty hush fell over them. Jimmy narrowed his eyes to slender slits, folding his arms over his chest.

"Where is Kelsey?" he repeated, more firmly, then questioned, a tiny break in his voice, "Did something…happen…to her?"

"We can't tell you," Douglas said.

"Be quiet," Roman hissed.

"What? What can't you tell me? Is she hurt? Is she…?" Jimmy demanded. He trailed off, looked at each of them uncertainly, and asked, "Why are we here? Why did you guys want to come here?"

"Kelsey is fine. She just left somewhere," Roman said, "That's all…"

"Left where?" Jimmy cried, suddenly panic-stricken. He thought of the peculiarity of Kelsey's behavior since day one, she'd been the most inconsistent of the unharnessed teens, and now she was gone, just left, who-the-fuck-knew-why-or-where, "Why are we out here? What is…?"

All Kelsey's talk of the harness in that truck on the way out to the shopping complex, of remembering being harnessed and wanting to make a grand gesture of disconnect from the aliens, the four vehemently insisting that Ben couldn't be trusted, that he could still be under alien control, Roman's story about Ben's role in all of their harnessing, suddenly rushed at Jimmy, and a strange, sickening thought occurred to him.

"Are you working with the aliens?" Jimmy asked.

"What? Fuck no," Roman spat out, heated, reaching towards the other boy, "Jimmy, you just have to trust…"

"I don't have to fucking trust anything you say," Jimmy seethed, pulling away, ignoring the pained look, for once an emotion Jimmy could read in Roman, that flickered across the older boy's features, "Give me one reason right now why I shouldn't tell those people back there that you're all possible traitors…"

"She went to look for the signal," Gia interrupted, slapping a hand over her own mouth and looking apologetic to the two boys now sending her exasperated looks, "We have to tell him…if he understands he won't betray us. You won't betray us, right, Jimmy?"

"You can't tell anyone about the signal," Douglas whispered harshly to Jimmy.

"What signal? Is this the same one Rick and Ben were talking about?" Jimmy questioned.

"Maybe. Who knows what those razorbacks were hearing," Roman muttered.

"It got faint when we blew up the structure," Gia explained quietly, "But it was so loud before that…and Kelsey…she could barely concentrate...it was so loud."

"Gia, stop telling him things," Douglas exclaimed, grabbing her gently by the shoulder and placing a hand over her mouth. She squirmed out of his grasp, brushing his hand away and replacing it with her own, staring petulant at the ground.

"Jimmy, we got to get going," Anthony called.

Jimmy darted a look over his shoulder, gestured with his hand for a few more seconds. Anthony groaned, throwing his hands up and shaking his head, the other adults anxious at his back.

"This signal…only we've been hearing it. Us, and the razorbacks," Roman whispered explanation, "If people around camp knew we were hearing this…"

"They'd panic," Jimmy realized, "They'd want to kick all of you out or worse..."

"Ben included," Douglas added pointedly and Jimmy lowered his eyes, frowning, his stomach turning in despair.

"Why didn't you guys tell me about this sooner?" Jimmy demanded.

"I think you're asking the wrong alien altered people," Roman grumbled, folding his hands in front of himself and perking a brow, a cool smirk on his lip, "We're not the ones obligated to tell you nothing about ourselves. Seems to me your mutt might need to go back to obedience training, he's got a bit of trouble with the 'speak' command."

"And you guys have no clue where he is?" Jimmy asked quietly, looking out at their surroundings, then frantically back to Anthony and the others waiting somewhat impatiently on them.

"Not a clue. Though if I had to take a guess…" Roman muttered.

"Shut up," Jimmy growled, "He didn't go off with the aliens. He didn't leave me here to die. He didn't turn traitor. Whatever you're about to say, he didn't."

"He's not here, he's not in the area, what other explanation could there be?" Roman challenged.

"I don't know. I told him if I didn't come back to leave without me, go and pick you guys up," Jimmy mumbled, "Maybe he got lost looking for all of you. Or maybe…maybe you guys didn't wait long enough…"

"We waited half-an-hour for you guys to show up," Douglas complained, ''You're going to tell us it took him half-an-hour to return from a place it took you guys five, ten minutes tops, to get to?"

"Maybe…I don't know…maybe he waited longer for me than I told him to," Jimmy whispered, shaking his head furious at the ground, grinding his inner cheek between his teeth. A new thought occurring to him, one he didn't like, one that seemed more likely with each passing minute and each mysterious piece of information, about what could've possibly happened to Ben.

"The only explanation is that he decided to leave without us," Roman muttered.

"Or maybe he didn't decide anything," Jimmy whispered distractedly, heart hammering away in his chest.

They'd had their backs to the wall, little to no choice, but in retrospect, leaving Ben alone might not have been the wisest choice, not in a high pressure situation, with emotions running high and everything at stake, the kind of boiling pot situation that seemed to cause Ben's volatile outbursts, the ones he said were out of his control and beyond his recollections. His explosive had gone off, it must have to take the alien structure down, but if he'd lost control afterwards there was no telling where he went or what he did from there.

"What does that mean?" Gia wondered.

"Nothing," Jimmy muttered, "Come on. We need to get going then."

Jimmy led the way back to Anthony and the other fighters. Roman, Gia, and Douglas trailed hesitantly behind him, hovering a few feet away with Jimmy between them and the 2nd Mass fighters. They all eyed one another reproachfully.

"My math might not be so great, but I only count three, and I thought we were looking for six," Crazy Lee noted.

"Where are the rest?" Anthony asked, surveying the three teenagers, dusted with debris and sweat and looking a lot worse for wear than usual.

"Ben never showed up to meet them so they went looking for Rick and he wasn't where he was supposed to be – by then it would have been forty minutes, he probably got anxious waiting and headed back to the 2nd Mass alone…he didn't really want to be out here in the first place, and Kelsey…" Jimmy started explanations.

"We lost Kelsey looking for you," Roman spoke up. Jimmy glanced back at him and he perked a brow, a silent message to 'play along'.

"Yeah. They…um…" Jimmy grimaced, glared at the ground, "Lost her looking for me."

"Great," Anthony sighed, saying in a low, sympathetic voice, "Jimmy, that wasn't your fault."

Jimmy shook his head and said nothing.

"Are we done with this missing person drill then?" Pope bellowed question, "Because I'd really like to get back where the giant bugs are and start squashing a few, you understand."

"And a fifty percent recovery is not bad," Boon noted.

"Considering we were hoping for a zero percent recovery," Lyle muttered.

Jimmy shifted uncomfortably, positioning himself more fully in front of his three charges, as they darted tiny sharpened glowers the direction of those five grizzly adults.

"Jimmy…?" Anthony questioned.

Jimmy lowered his eyes, gave a short, stiff nod of his head.

The chances of finding Ben at that rate were slim to none, and if Ben really had lost control, it was possible his raging subconscious prompted him to seek out enemy units and slaughter them the way he'd done the other night. Majority of the enemy unit left in the area were still carrying out their assault on camp. That meant, whether by choice or not, it was most likely Ben headed back to the 2nd Mass.

"Finally," Pope groaned, "Not that this hasn't been a beautiful practice in time-wasting but I'd really like to focus on more productive things now."

Jimmy scowled, as they all trudged into formation and sought out a sewer entrance. He couldn't let himself hope that Ben was back at camp, he would be too devastated to get there and find the other boy still missing, and no chance of a search and rescue being set up. But Jimmy had meant what he told Anthony at the café, if it came down to it, he would stay behind and find Ben on his own…and then he would punch Ben for being an idiot. He smirked wryly, a terrible feeling churning in his gut. Yeah, that's exactly what he would do.

.

.

.

AN: Sigh, yeah, so this isn't going to be a long ass separation ala First Patrol some fifteen chapters or more (I can't remember how many it was...), for any of you that might've been fretting. It kind of happened on accident, actually. I didn't think the boys would be separated at this part but they were.

Anyhow, please let me know what you think!

Reviewers: Sassysavanna190, I'm glad you laughed and weren't thinking I should be committed or sent to AA meetings. I do apologize for the oddity of my author's notes last chapter, though, that's kind of what happens when I decide to update at four in the morning. Rambling like a lunatic. Anthony is a great character, I love Anthony. And I am having way too much fun writing banter between him and Pope. I guess they did uncover a few things along the way. Your random questions: Jimmy pregnant is a bit weird. My first thought is...he's a boy, kind of missing the necessary machinery. I got a whole rant on Mpreg stories, to be honest, I don't really like them for several reasons, I've actually never read one I usually back right out when I see that warning, but to me they unintentionally support anti-gay arguments, that being, "same sex relationships aren't valid because they don't produce offspring". I know most Mpreg writers write those stories because they think "oh, a pregnant man would be funny", but there is also that side of it where they're, either intentionally or unintentionally, attempting to solve this "problem", "validate the relationship" so to speak, and thus giving credence to the argument that only couplings that can produce offspring are valid and meaningful. Sorry, off on a tangent. As for Tom's reaction to Ben's new relationship status, I guess you'll just have to read to find out. :) Cookie97, lol, I'm not sure what word you were looking for, but I'm going to assume it was a positive one because of your love for it. Techtor and Anthony are good characters. I'll admit, I do like all of the characters from Falling Skies, mostly, I just never much cared for the things the writers did with them.

Right. Next Sunday. I need food now.