A/N: Thank you to the reviewers, you guys are as awesome as ever!

LV.

Not many fighters were on patrol that night. They'd moved into a lull, and the 2nd Mass felt foolishly safe. For Captain Weaver's part, he more or less intended to give his men as much rest as possible, taking advantage of their hard earned quiet to prep for whatever next big alien attack awaited them.

Ben ran the perimeter that night, practicing dodging patrols, staying under the radar, while working out the restless energy and constant rush of emotion coursing his veins. Besides, it wasn't as though he had much else to do. He finished up lap, well, he wasn't entire sure, twenty was the last number he could recall before he lost count, and then found a water source about a mile outside of camp to clean the sweat off his brow and neck.

Four days had passed.

Four days since Tom Mason, the prodigal father, returned to the 2nd Mass. Four days since Ben had laid his every emotion bare to Jimmy in an abandoned insurance company, only to have it all shoved nonchalantly back in his face. Who knew four days could feel so eternal?

There was a crunch of debris underfoot nearby and Ben scowled. Hal clearly thought he was sneaking up on Ben, and Ben let him move in close enough to launch his usual asshole older brother assault, which involved trapping Ben in a headlock and giving him the timeless 'noogie', before Ben spoke up.

"What's dad's status?"

There was a pause, a drawn out quiet.

"You know, it's a little creepy when you do that," Hal muttered complaint.

Ben scowled, kept his back to Hal, filling his palms with water and greedily sucking it down. Hal was obviously still upset about their last encounter, their argument over Matt learning to shoot and the subsequent physical altercation. It didn't escape Ben the implication in Hal's words as to what the creep factor was, Ben's alien genetics, and Ben couldn't help wondering how much of that translated into a kind of envy, superior athlete Hal Mason outmatched by his wimpy, dork of a little brother. If only Hal's old teammates could see them now.

"It's immature that you still think it's funny to sneak up on me in the middle of an intergalactic war," Ben returned sharply, standing and drying his hands off on his pants, and finally turning to face his older brother.

Hal had been returning from scout. He'd rolled his bike up towards Ben, left it parked several yards away, barely visible through the dark. Weaver estimated they were about three, maybe four more days outside of the hangar he'd chosen as their next temporary "safe haven", but they'd slowed their movement since finding Tom.

"Why is that? Because you might put a knife to my throat again?" Hal challenged, folding his arms over his chest and sizing Ben up.

It felt like a clean slap across the face, more so because Hal had no clue the level of truth he'd touched on. Ben smirked sardonic, dropped his eyes and shook his head, pushing past his brother back towards camp.

"We want to talk about that? You putting a knife to my throat?" Hal called question, and Ben came to a slow halt, "Or do we want to talk about you choking me out in front of Matt? You scared the hell out of him, you know that?"

"Kind of figured that out when he started avoiding me after it happened," Ben replied, grumbling, "He's not very good at it, though, should probably get pointers from Jimmy."

"Really? And since when does Jimmy avoid you? I thought you two were in a deep, meaningful relationship. People in deep, meaningful relationships don't avoid each other," Hal mused, though he sounded more dubious than caring.

Ben struggled against the hot surge of anger that shot straight to his head, balling his hands tightly into fists a moment, setting his jaw, then turning to face his brother. He kept his eyes focused on the area just past Hal's left shoulder; he knew he'd lose control if he looked right at that smug face.

"Why am I not surprised that something going on in my life is so beneath you, you can't even pretend to know about it?" Ben seethed, "Everyone else has noticed, hell, our nine year old brother has noticed that Jimmy can't stand to be within a fifty foot radius of me, everyone except you. Everything in your life is just so much more important that you can't bother, but please, please tell me right now, Hal, please tell me how you knew all along that this is what would happen, and that you told me so. Please, because I really need to hear that from you right now."

Hal loosened his stance, lowering his head a little, and to his credit, almost looked abashed. Ben snorted softly, scanned the surroundings in hopes it would dry the tears forming in his eyes.

"Ben, I didn't know," Hal started softly.

"Yeah, no shit."

"I'm sorry. I really am," Hal insisted, shook his head at the ground, "How…what happened," meekly attempted a joke, "You put a knife to his throat too?"

Ben winced, the memory of his confession to Jimmy suddenly afresh at the forefront of his mind. He hesitated, sharing that pain with his older brother seemed like the last thing he wanted to do at the moment, yet a strange part of him was dying to tell someone, anyone, about it and he thought maybe getting it out, unloading his burden a bit, might somehow ease his heartache.

"Sort of. I told him I loved him," Ben quietly confessed, and the verbal realization of everything that had happened instantly jolted through him. Nothing was ease. Instead, it just felt more real, somehow, now that someone else knew. A few tears strolled aimless down his cheeks and he rubbed them away.

"You did what?" Hal cried, incredulous, raking a hand through his hair in stun, "You haven't even been together two months. You don't drop the L-bomb that early in a relationship."

"It's how I feel. I'm not supposed to tell him how I feel?" Ben demanded, feeling hot and erratic. How did Hal manage condescending even when he was trying to help?

"Not when you've been together less than two months," Hal said, exasperated, rubbing his hands over his face, "Look, I know I don't know much about your situation, hell, the aliens invading changed a lot of rules as is, so I don't really know much about any situations now, but I know one thing for certain has always remained true: anyone would run for the hills from someone hurrying that word out so early on. There's a time frame for these kinds of things, Ben, shit, how do you not know that?"

"How the fuck would I know that?" Ben growled, though his rage was starting to die down a little, replaced by the overwhelming sorrow of his loss, "And what time frame? When exactly was I supposed to say it then?"

"Three months minimum," Hal said automatically and Ben made a face at him.

"Right. Okay, fine, I guess I never got the memo. But I said it. It's done and can't be changed. I fucked up," Ben grumbled, "Now what?"

"Well, what happened after you said it? What did he do? What did he say?" Hal questioned.

Ben dropped his eyes and shrugged, "Nothing."

"Nothing?" Hal repeated dumbly.

"He just turned and walked away," Ben whispered, grinding the keel of his hand under his eyes, smearing the unshed tears into oblivion as the scene playing through his mind's eye once more, a cold, numb feeling seeping through his body, "And that's it. I said something stupid and now he's gone."

"That doesn't necessarily mean he turned you down," Hal pointed out, "It's not a yes but it's not a no either."

"Really? Because it felt a hell of a lot like a no," Ben muttered.

"Maybe he just needs time. To think about it," Hal suggested, insisting, "Come on, Ben, you can't just give up. You know, it's not over until he asks for a restraining order."

"World ended, legal infrastructure collapsed, there's no courts to issue a restraining order," Ben muttered off-handedly.

"Which only works to your advantage," Hal said light-heartedly, Ben smirked somewhat, and Hal cleared his throat, casually wondered, "So when did that all happen?"

"After I shot dad, later that day," Ben murmured, sighing, "This sucks. I really just thought that…I don't know maybe I was being stupid, hopeful, but I kind of thought he might feel the same and...and he didn't, doesn't…I don't know, so now I'm just..."

"I'm not convinced he doesn't," Hal interjected, brow furrowed together, "Couple days ago, after I caught you teaching Matt to shoot, he practically ripped my head off about going easier on you. You don't defend a person the way he did if you don't feel something for them."

"I don't know," Ben said, fidgeting somewhat with the buckle of his knife sheath, "He cares about me. I know that. I'm not worried about that…"

"Listen, he's young, you both are," Hal started, "He's probably just scared, confused. These are tough emotions and this has got to be the first time he's ever really dealt with this stuff and it's not exactly easy to figure out once you've been around the block a few times, believe me."

"Yeah, I guess," Ben relented. They fell silent a few seconds, and Ben noted, "You handled this conversation better than I thought you would."

"What are you talking about? I'm an expert at this," Hal teased, clapping Ben heartily on the shoulder and half-grinning, "And I'm excited. My little brother's in love. It's…uh…it's cute. A little weird. Jimmy's not a bad choice though, right? I don't really know for sure, that's not my area of expertise…I sort of feel like you could do better. Could you do better?"

"No one is better than him," Ben stubbornly whispered and then cautiously asked, "Have you ever…did you ever think you were…in love before?"

"Uh…yeah, once or twice," Hal admitted, shrugging and admitting, "I kind of thought that…I never said anything, but, well, I sort of felt like, maybe…Karen…"

"Hal," Ben interrupted, eyes darting up at movement through the dark, "Your bike."

"What?"

Hal spun round, just as the engine of his bike roared to life, an unfamiliar figure straddling its chassis, and shooting off into the night. The Mason brothers gaped blankly at the empty road it retreated down.

"Who the hell was that?" Hal roared, smacking Ben's shoulder suddenly, "Why didn't you say something?"

"I did," Ben protested, "What? I didn't notice until it was too late."

"Great. What do we do now?" Hal griped.

"We?"

"This is sort of your fault. What good is that super hearing of yours if you only use it to keep me from sneaking up on you?" Hal demanded.

Ben rolled his eyes, and filtered out his brother's whining, listening for the roar of the engine. It was already dying out, less than half a mile down the road.

"Fine. Let's go. They stopped a little east of here," Ben said, striking forward towards the sounds of the bike puttering to a halt.

"How do you know that?" Hal questioned.

Ben offered him a dumbstruck look, "Weren't you just complaining about how I need to put my super hearing to good use?"

…

Dr. Glass had gone to check on a few other patients around the 2nd Mass still sporting injuries from the community center attack when Jimmy crept anxiously into the medic-van. It looked at first like Professor Mason might be sleeping, lying on a cot with his face turned away, so Jimmy began tiptoeing back out, but stumbled against a box of supplies on his way, making a bit of ruckus and causing the professor to startle, sitting up slightly, and turning to look at Jimmy.

"Hi," Jimmy mouthed, stiffly raised his hand up as though to wave, realized how awkward it looked, and quickly dropped it back to his side.

"Jimmy? Is that you?" Professor Mason whispered greeting, straightening as best he could and grunting with the effort. Many of the injuries he'd come to camp with were nearly healed, but the bullet wound obviously still smarted.

"Sorry, Professor Mason, I didn't mean to…" Jimmy mumbled, edging forward a step, then back two more, ducking his head, and peeking up at the older man through loose strands of shaggy hair, "I wanted to see how you were doing. I'm sorry I woke you..."

"Oh, no, I wasn't sleeping," Professor Mason said, motioning Jimmy to a chair as he rubbed the exhaustion from his features, "Bored out of my mind though. Sit down. Keep me company for a minute."

Tentatively, Jimmy crept across the room and took a seat. He eyed Professor Mason uncertainly, his heart rapidly pounding against his chest. He wasn't entirely sure what possessed him to pay the professor a visit, partly dying of curiosity at what Ben had spoken with his father about days before that seemed to rile Ben up so much, partly a desperate need to feel close to Ben, no matter how indirect, without having to face those damnable words.

"I haven't seen my sons much since I got back. You'd almost think I wasn't abducted by aliens," Professor Mason joked, though it sounded more like he was saying it to himself than Jimmy. Jimmy leaned forward, arms braced across his knees, and he chewed his inner cheek ragged with anxiousness.

"They worried about you, while you were gone," he assured the professor.

"I regret doing that to them. Leaving them," Professor Mason turned his head to the side, carefully prodded his bandages, tears welling in his eyes, "I just needed to…to protect my son. I'm sorry. Anne has me on so many painkillers right now, I'm having trouble maintaining myself. How are you, Jimmy?"

"I'm okay," Jimmy closed his eyes, tried to believe the lie himself. Cold rippled through him, nausea turned his stomach. His hands were trembling and he didn't know why.

"Anything exciting happen while I was gone?" Professor Mason asked.

"Not really," Jimmy answered, smirking up at the professor, "Just the same old. Aliens are still here, we're still at war. Oh, wait, someone had a baby, I think."

"Anne mentioned it," Professor Mason confirmed, tipping his head forward, screwing his eyes in a funny expression that prompted Jimmy to straighten, wrinkle his brow in concern, "I talked to Ben a couple days ago."

Panic immediately set in and Jimmy prepped himself to bolt for the door.

"Anne told me he's doing alright but…" Professor Mason trailed off, sighed, and touched his fingertips to his forehead, "I'm sorry. You're his age, you always remind me of him."

Jimmy forced a small smile, ignored the pang of hurt at that admission. He'd always known Professor Mason, all the Masons for that matter, were just a little kinder to him than other children in the 2nd Mass because, in a way, he recalled their missing son. Lost and alone.

Like with Hal, when Ben returned, things grew awkward between Jimmy and Professor Mason. Jimmy was no longer needed to fill the gaping hole in their hearts that Ben left behind, which meant he really didn't have a place in their family anymore. It was fine, he had told himself, he needed the reminder that his life had little worth beyond the bullets he put in Skitter heads. Which didn't number very many at the time. Things were different though, if not a little more awkward, now that Ben wanted to drag Jimmy back into his family, carve out a place for him.

"I'm worried about him though. I know you and Ben weren't really getting along when I left," Professor Mason said, and Jimmy shifted uncomfortably. He'd forgotten about that, it seemed so far in the past, a distant memory, those days when Ben was the unharnessed other and Jimmy wanted nothing to do with him, "But maybe you'll know better than Anne. You and him are close in age and you speak to the other kids around camp, right?"

"A little."

"How is Ben doing? Do you know? Is he getting along with others? Has he made friends, at least?"

Jimmy slumped slightly, studied his boots a moment. He flashed briefly on Ben's expression after those words tumbled into dead air, features expectant and apprehensive, only to wash away into utter defeat as Jimmy let seconds of silence tick by.

"Some people are nice to him, I guess," Jimmy murmured, paused, and confessed, "Most people aren't."

"Right. I suppose that's to be expected," Professor Mason scoffed, rubbing the agitation from his brow.

"We, Ben and me, we aren't really getting along right now, either," Jimmy sheepishly admitted.

"I'm disappointed to hear that," Professor Mason said, laying back against the bed once more, staring up at the ceiling and Jimmy could feel the older man's words frosting over, "I'd really hoped that you and he would figure out a way to get along while I was gone. I know you don't really owe me anything, and that respect's never been your strongest trait, but he is my son…"

"No, that's not what I mean," Jimmy hastily cut in, then dropped his voice again and mumbled, "I don't know what I mean. Forget it."

"Is everything alright?" Professor Mason questioned, lifting himself slightly to glance at Jimmy, concern passing over his eyes at the strange tone in Jimmy's voice.

"Yes," Jimmy answered, shook his head, "No. I don't know."

"What's wrong, Jimmy?" Professor Mason pressed.

"Nothing. The aliens…what was it like? What did they do to you?" Jimmy questioned, peeking up at the professor, trying not to look for the similarities with Ben in those wizened facial features.

"I really shouldn't talk about it with you," Professor Mason replied, taking a deep, trembling breath, "It's not something you need to concern yourself with anyways. I don't want you thinking about the aliens, and what they're capable of. I want you to think about keeping out of their reach, keeping yourself safe and healthy, alive. Let the adults worry about it."

"I have to worry about it, though. The aliens are a part of everything in my life," Jimmy countered.

"Not everything."

"Yes, everything. Everything and everyone. The aliens took my past, and my entire future is going to be determined by them," Jimmy returned sharply.

"You'll determine your future," Professor Mason argued, struggling to sitting again, "I don't like that you're talking this way. My own son thinks the answer to getting through this war is obsessing over the aliens. Jimmy, you've got to focus on the other things in life, try to salvage what parts of it have nothing to do with…"

"You really believe that?" Jimmy challenged, "Every choice I have involves the fucking aliens in some way, they're genetically entwined with the most important parts of my life, for Christ's sake, there's no getting around them. I wish it were easier, but it's not. I wish I had a future to think about, but I'm not sure anyone, least of all me, has a future to think about. And I really wish I knew who was actually in control, but does it actually change anything, if it's real or not? In the end the aliens are still here, it's still going to hurt either way and I still have promises to keep."

"What are you talking about? What's going on with you?" Professor Mason gently questioned.

"I don't know. I'm sorry. I don't know what I'm talking about. A lot's happened recently," Jimmy shook his head, burying his face in a palm, searching for an excuse, "We got hit really hard a few weeks ago. A lot of people died. A lot of kids."

"I heard," Professor Mason whispered, "Anne's family…"

"Ben was there," Jimmy supplied, shifting and sniffling, "He saw Uncle Scott…"

"I didn't know that part," Professor Mason softly noted.

"Tell me something about him," Jimmy prompted, swallowing back the emotion cracking in his voice. Professor Mason perked a brow, confused who Jimmy meant, and Jimmy clarified, "Ben. From before the aliens…before the war…and the harness…"

"Why would you…?"

"I just do," Jimmy murmured, lowering his head and picking at the dirt around and under his fingernails.

Professor Mason studied Jimmy, considered his request a painfully silent moment, before speaking again.

"I'm not sure what you'd want to hear about," Professor Mason started, settling back and closing his eyes, "He wasn't much different from any other teenage boy, I guess. He worked hard in school, hung out with his friends, struggled with girls."

Jimmy smirked distantly, ignored the odd pang in his chest, absently nibbled his inner cheek. Professor Mason sighed heavily, memories and distant heartaches flooding back to him.

"I think he felt like life was harder for him than everyone else in the world, in some ways, he might've been right. You probably can relate with the feeling that no one in the world understands, it's a teenager universal," Professor Mason continued, "If I tried to help, he'd push me away. Though, to be honest, Hal was the more difficult of the two."

Another brief pause as Professor Mason attempted to recollect himself.

"But I worried about Ben more," he confessed, cleared his throat and quietly relinquished, "I guess I still do. Rebekah and I tried to treat all of our sons as equally as possible, but, and when you have children of your own one day you'll understand this, they aren't the same and, unfortunately, they're not always equal in everything. Sometimes Ben wanted more from life than he was capable of handling, and it really got to him whenever he'd come up just short."

"He's more than capable now," Jimmy commented, trying to imagine a Ben that didn't more from life. Ben consumed the world, he was insatiable, unstoppable. It's one of the things that Jimmy liked about the other boy. As if there was anything Jimmy didn't like.

"He never knew his limits when he was severely limited," Professor Mason said, "An it scares me so much now that he's far less limited. You have no idea."

"I guess," Jimmy murmured, tentatively climbing to his feet and edging towards the exit, "I should go. You should probably sleep. Be sleeping."

"Can I ask why you're suddenly so interested in my son?" Professor Mason asked as though forgetting entirely the several months that had passed between the boys in his absence.

"Oh. I…uh…was just making conversation," Jimmy stammered lie, taking a few small steps towards the door.

"Right," Professor Mason accepted, then wondered, "Why is it that you two are having such trouble getting along?

Jimmy stumbled down the first step out of the medic van, barely catching himself against the counter, a small, startled gasp escaping his lip.

"No particular reason," he hastily excused, pushed open the door, hesitated, his voice small, and quaking, "They're a part of everything in his life too."

"What's that?" Professor Mason called after as Jimmy slipped out the van, door clacking shut behind him.

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AN: Not entirely pleased with this chapter, but, eh, what am going to do. Right, I should probably remind you all here, because we're jumping ahead to events in later episodes, that I warned earlier I would be changing cannon events around all willy-nilly. Because I'm the writer, and there are things I wanted to happen in the show that didn't, like you know, Jimmy to live and have a sweet, deep and meaningful relationship with Ben, as they slowly learn about themselves and each other in a post-apocalyptic world. Can't have everything we want, I guess, I'll settle for candy.

I'm on my dinky netbook right now, my PC is in critical condition at the moment. GFX card's life is slowly flickering out, but fret not, my sister has one she can lend me if the warranty on my is over. And no one cares. Moving on.

Please let me know what you think of the chapter! Review, review, review!

Speaking of reviews: SassySavanna190, tolerating or supporting Ben/Jimmy's relationship seems to be the deciding factor for most readers as to whether a character is likable or not. And yes, of course there's a good side to Ben. He's the hero of the story., Gia just said so Unless you believe creepy blonde vision chick, which you shouldn't. typhoonboom08, I'm glad Gia's got a little bit of love from your corner. As I've said before, none of the unharnessed kids are bad, maybe just misguided. Though, I doubt I'll convince anyone on Roman. Maybe...no. Don't worry, when the boys reconcile this time, there should be several chapters of relaxed content...or as relaxed as I get, before I screw things up with them again. Maben00, but making you cry is exactly why I do it. Kidding. Sort of. Stirring emotions in the readers is always my agenda in writing a story. I want you to feel something or I'm not doing my job right. That you're constantly surprised by my chapters is perhaps the best compliment I've ever received on my writing, thank you! And I know exactly what you mean about wanting more Ben/Jimmy stories, though, admittedly, I don't read much fanfiction anymore. I know that WhisperMaw has some good stories for the pairing, and FacePalmer123, and Cal MacDonald (which is Greg's penname), and EWookie (I think is the penname, I've seen popping up some stories). If you haven't read their's yet, go check them out. I can't guarantee all of them are good, I haven't actually read most of their stories, but they're Ben/Jimmy so...support the cause! Dee, some good thoughts and questions. Gia, Roman, Doug and Kelsey are supposed to be the others that were rescued and unharnessed with Ben, the events Gia is talking about are what led to them being harnessed, so it would have happened before Ben rejoined his family and was saved by the 2nd Mass. It's not so much that they blame him, as they aren't entirely convinced he's free of the aliens' control. I'm glad Gia has won you over a little. Her "slip of the tongue" about Roman's crush really was just that, she's sort of got a big mouth and is a bit of gossip if you hadn't noticed in past chapters. Can't keep a secret to save her life. I'm sorry, Roman and his feelings for Jimmy are really not going away anytime soon. But where would the fun be if they did, right? :D And that's an interesting insight into Roman's possible motivations, his not entirely being sure he hates Ben for Ben killing his grandmother. Very interesting...WhisperMaw, always a pleasure to get a review from you! You may be the only one that doesn't outright hate Roman, which is very awesome. I had to reread that sentence in all caps several times, and I'm still not entirely sure what you meant by it. I'm going to go with it's referring to the "I love you" chapter, and say, yup, exactly the emotions I was hoping to make you feel. Yup, I love me angst. Doug will probably be getting a chapter to shine, story is far from over. Eventually Ben and Jimmy will make up, eventually. I can't rip their hearts out and smear all over the floor until they do. There's an evil laugh accompanying that.

And that was far longer than I thought it would be. See you all next Sunday! You all rock and junk.