-two weeks later-

'Morning,' Ben said offhandedly as Abby hopped out of the med-bus bearing several full mags.

'Morning, goldilocks,' Abby grinned, causing Ben to stop what he was doing and glare at her.

'Would you stop calling me that?' Ben grumbled, resuming cleaning his gun. 'I'm not even blond.'

'You sort of are,' Abby shrugged.

'No, I'm really not,' Ben sighed.

'Well, you don't want to be called Benji,' Abby shrugged. 'I'm just getting creative.'

'No, you're not,' Ben retorted.

'Well, someone's in a negative mood today,' Abby rolled her eyes.

'I can think of so many comments to respond to that,' Ben sighed.

'Then say one,' Abby challenged.

'My mom always taught me that if I had nothing nice to say to say nothing at all,' Ben replied.

Abby laughed. 'You win this round. That makes… Ben: four, Abby: seven.'

'You're padding your stats,' Ben protested. 'You only had five yesterday.'

'No, I had six when we started, and I won,' Abby corrected him. 'That makes seven.'

'Five when we started,' Ben argued. 'There was definitely a five.'

'Pretty sure I started with six,' Abby shook her head. 'But, since you're losing, I'll say that I have six now.'

'Yeah, cos you do,' Ben protested.

'Do you two ever stop bickering?' Hal groaned.

'We're not bickering,' Ben retorted.

'We're bantering,' Abby replied.

'The ability to banter indicates a healthy mind,' Ben added, putting his gun back together.

'Where did you even hear that?' Hal laughed.

'It's a commonly known fact,' Abby shrugged, handing Ben a fresh mag for his gun.

'I get the strangest feeling like you two are ganging up to pull one over on me,' Hal mock-glared at the duo.

'Who, us?' Abby said innocently, clicking a new mag into place in her gun.

'We would never,' Ben agreed.

'Or maybe we are ganging up on you,' Abby suggested.

'Just not to pull one over on you,' Ben continued. 'To inform you of facts.'

'I give up,' Hal groaned. 'You two are admittedly one of the best tag-teams I've ever gone up against.'

'Only one of?' Abby grinned innocently.

'Hey, Jimmy and Deni are back,' Ben poked her with his elbow. 'That means we should head out on patrol.'

'See ya, Hal!' Abby grinned, standing up with Ben.

'Bye, Ben, Red,' Hal called after them.

'Yeah, cos that's so original!' Abby called back as she and Ben set off for the woods.

They passed Jimmy and Deni on the way out, Abby giving high-fives to her pack-brother and his partner and Ben dodging a light-hearted punch from Jimmy. Tom watched them leave, smiling at how easily Abby, and the rest of her pack, had fit into the 2nd Mass. At one of their stops, Anne, Korinne, and Lourdes had found fresh clothes to replace the tattered ones worn and carried by the spike-backs. Currently, Abby was wearing her favorite of the clothes: dark grey-blue skinny jeans tucked into the heavy boots Matt had found her and layered shirts: a striped navy and grey fitted long-sleeved t-shirt; a zip-up red, blue, and green light hoodie; and a heavy grey sweatshirt with a wool-lined hood. Beside her, Ben wore his usual dark jeans, fitted black shirt, black coat, and beat-up grey sneakers. Abby's vibrant red hair was pulled into a thick ponytail, long bangs escaping to frame her face, and Ben's was overgrown enough to hang in his eyes. Abby was short enough to barely reach Ben's shoulder, but both had the same catlike grace and coiled power behind every motion. The duo made an odd pair, almost as odd as Maggie and Hal, but seemed perfectly suited to each other.

Jimmy and Deni on the other hand seemed completely perfect and complimentary in every way. Unlike Abby and Ben, Deni was the taller of this couple, although the height difference was less, with Jimmy coming up to her ear. They had the same feline grace and power of Abby and Ben, although they were younger and had noticeably less presence. Deni was small and wiry, with a head of thick, black, corkscrew curls; she wore a dirt-stained bright yellow shirt, which contrasted neatly with her dark skin, and black jeans. Jimmy wore a dark red hoodie and light blue jeans with holes in both knees. Somehow, they gave off an air of lower ability than Ben and Abby, although Tom knew that all four were equally capable.

Tom watched Abby and Ben disappear into the forest as Jimmy and Deni approached, grinning. 'Nothing out there that we could find, Professor,' Jimmy said.

'Then what are the smiles for?' Hal teased.

'Something Abby said on the way out,' Deni replied.

'Oh?' Hal pressed.

'Not something you'd get,' Deni shrugged.

'It's from our time with the skitters,' Jimmy explained. 'Actually, it's kind of a skitter joke…'

'Not something you'd guess unless you were inside a skitter's head,' Deni added.

'Skitter jokes?' Hal said incredulously. 'Cos that's not at all disturbing.'

'They have some pretty sick humor,' Jimmy admitted.

'Some of them, anyways,' Deni agreed. 'But humans are the same way, aren't they?'

'Have to give you that one,' Tom agreed with a smile.

'You guys are exactly like Abby and Ben,' Hal said suddenly.

'What do you mean?' Jimmy asked, swapping a glance with Deni.

'The way you talk—the way you think,' Hal explained. 'It's like you think together. You're always on the same track. You finish each other's thoughts, if not sentences. It's like you work together to say things.'

'It's part of the connection,' Deni shrugged.

'How so?' Tom asked, intrigued.

'Well, Deni and I connected the same way Ben and Abby did when they met,' Jimmy explained. 'When you connect with someone, it's always different, just like everyone interacts with different people differently. It's kind of like the spikes are telling us who is what to us. Like, they told me that Abby, Dallon, Harlem, Amanda, Mariah, Colm, and Summer were my family.'

'Not literally,' Deni interjected. 'It's like… our brain chemicals react differently to each person we meet. The spikes do the same, they just make it clearer to us than our brains do sometimes.'

'Cos that clears everything up,' Hal rolled his eyes.

'I think I get it,' Tom said. 'It's like when we fall in love. Our brains have a chemical reaction when we meet the person we love. The spikes simulate that.'

'Something like that,' Deni nodded.

'Or so we think, anyways,' Jimmy added quickly. 'I mean, we don't know for sure. This is all conjecture.'

'Well, considering the harnesses secrete an opiate into the wearer, I think that's a perfectly plausible theory,' Tom smiled.

Jimmy and Deni grinned back, but Jimmy suddenly froze, his hand flying up to the back of his neck. 'Augh,' he gasped, gritting his teeth.

'What's wrong?' Tom demanded, putting his hands on the boy's shoulders and looking into his eyes. 'Jimmy? Can you hear me?'

Wordlessly, Jimmy nodded, grimacing and gripping the back of his neck. 'It's not skitters,' Deni said. 'I don't feel anything.'

'It's my pack,' Jimmy mumbled, his knees buckling. Deni and Tom caught him quickly, lowering him to the ground gently. 'Something's wrong,' Jimmy gasped.

They heard a wail of sorrow start up from somewhere else in the camp, quickly joined by two others.

'Dad!' Matt cried, racing up to his father. 'Something's wrong with Summer!'

'Dad, look!' Hal pointed towards the edge of the forest. They could see Ben jogging back to camp, Abby cradled in his arms.

'What's going on?' Matt said, sounding terrified.

'Something's going on with Dallon or Harlem,' Deni replied. 'That must be it. That's why Ben and I aren't feeling anything. That's Colm, Mariah, and Amanda you hear crying, and Matt said Summer…'

'What can we do?' Tom demanded.

'Nothing,' Deni shook her head. 'We can get them in the bus, lay them down until they recover, keep an eye on them to make sure they don't get dehydrated or anything.'

'Let's do that,' Tom nodded. 'Hal, help Deni with Jimmy and let Anne and Lourdes know what's going on. I'll go with Matt for Summer and see if I can find the other three.'

Hal nodded and scooped up Jimmy. 'I'll go with Tom,' Deni said, jogging after Tom and Matt. Hal and Ben carried Jimmy and Abby onto the bus.

'Anne!' Hal called into the back of the bus. 'We got trouble.'

'What happened?' Anne demanded, rushing forward.

'Not sure,' Ben replied. 'Something with Dallon and Harlem. It's effecting them because of their connection. All we can do is make them comfortable until they wake up.'

'It's all six of them,' Hal added, placing Jimmy on Ben's cot.

'Where are the others?' Anne asked, checking on Jimmy as Hal stepped aside to let Ben place Abby on her cot.

'Dad and Deni went to find them,' Hal replied.

'Here!' Tom grunted from the doorway. Hal hurried to him, leaving Ben and Anne with Jimmy and Abby. 'Take her,' Tom said, holding out his arms. Hal lifted Amanda out of them, allowing Tom to slide Summer off of his shoulder. They carried the girls into the bus.

'Bunk them,' Anne instructed, stepping aside and pulling Ben with her. 'We'll put Colm and Mariah in the front cot; they're small enough.'

'Gotcha,' Deni called from the bus. She had Colm and Mariah slung over her shoulders and laid them down on the bed.

'What do you think caused this?' Anne asked, pulling off Jimmy's shoes and setting them on the floor beside his bed.

'No idea,' Deni shrugged. 'It's definitely something to do with Dallon and Harlem, since it's not affecting me or Ben, but we have no way of knowing what.'

'And it's probably nothing good,' Ben added, helping Anne tuck blankets around the de-shoed kids.

'Most likely one or both of the boys got hurt,' Deni said. 'It sent these guys into shock, basically.'

'How long will they be out?' Anne asked. 'Any guesses?'

'There's no way to know,' Ben shook his head. 'It could be minutes, hours, days, or even weeks.'