Disclaimer: I do not own Ben 10 or its sequels, spin-off and related characters. All is the property of Man of Action and Cartoon Network. I'm just borrowing them for some non-profit entertainment.

Before the Egg Cracks

Chapter Five: Kevin Has a Hangover, Gwendolyn Drives His Car

Gwendolyn made up the mattress in the master bedroom for Devlin, but the boy couldn't sleep.

He lay awake and listened to her making up the couch for herself in the living room downstairs.

So much had happened today that Devlin didn't even know how to process it. Everything started out all fine and dandy. Breakfast with Ben, Kenny, and Max, then everyone left for work or school, and he spent some alone time with Max being interrogated about his mysterious and anonymous mother. Then the Headquarters was attacked and he was hurled back in time to see first hand that his father used to be married to Ben's own cousin -Gwendolyn Tennyson, the Plumber-sorceress, the High Magus.

Who would have thought?

Could Gwendolyn really be his mother? Was the baby in Gwendolyn's belly right now really him?

'We've known Kevin since he was eleven years old.' Max had told him. 'That's almost all his life. And, all his life, Kevin E. Levin has only ever loved one woman. I know who your mother is, Devlin.'

Did Kevin really love Gwendolyn? Did Kevin really love anyone besides himself? Devlin already knew his father didn't love him. Even without this little trip to the past to learn that Kevin never wanted him, Devlin knew that his father didn't love him.

He heard the door open downstairs -or rather, he heard someone jiggling the lock in the door.

Then drop their keys.

Then snort with laughter. "I was using the one for the apartment!"

It took a moment because he'd never heard his father laugh before -with humor, not just an insane, maniacle laugh- but it sounded like it was Kevin that was now falling on his ass laughing because he tried to use the wrong key to open the door.

"Wait, but I took your keys away from you when we left the bar." That was the Revonnahgander -Rook.

There was the sound of a third person laughing. "I thought I told you Kevin used to live on the streets. He's, like, pro-boss-level pick pocket." -That was Ben's voice.

The door was wrenched open and Gwendolyn's voice joined theirs. "Will you three quiet down!" She snapped. "The boy from the future is upstairs sleeping!"

Someone burped.

"Have you been drinking?" She demanded.

"You let him sleep in our bed?" Kevin demanded in turn, completely ignoring her question. "You don't know where he's been!"

"He's our son, Kevin!" Gwendolyn snarled back.

She sure seemed to think she was Devlin's mother -then again, she was already pregnant and this was the year he was born. In all likelihood, Gwendolyn really was his mother. How come Kevin never said anything?

The sorceress huffed and there was an 'oof' that presumably was her grabbing her husband and dragging him inside. "If you puke on anything, I swear, you'll be sleeping with your face in the toilet tonight."

She was going to try and drown him!? Maybe Gwendolyn and Kevin really were meant for each other. She had a dark streak to her that was not unlike Kevin's own.

Kevin, for his part, did not seem bothered by the threat. There was the sound of shuffling bodies and rustling fabric and then a soft 'Mmm', followed quickly by the Osmosian saying, "You know I love you, right? I know I don't say it enough. Even after all our years together, I still don't feel comfortable being completely vulnerable around you. But I love you. I love you Gwendolyn Eleanor Levin, and if anything terrible happened to you I would lose my shit. Like really. Lose it. Worse than Ultimate Kevin, Kevin 11, and fake-Weapon XI combined. That's not a threat. That's just a statement of fact."

Maybe it was true. Maybe Kevin did love something other than himself and when Gwendolyn was pregnant with him, Devlin's Osmosian powers messed her up to the point where Kevin went crazy from worry. Max did say that all his life Kevin Levin had only ever loved one woman. What would he do if the only woman he ever loved got sick and nearly died from having their child -from having his child?

To all of that, the only thing Gwendolyn had to say was, "Gawd! Your breath is terrible! What have you been drinking?"

"You're not listening!" Kevin moaned -no, wait, that actually sounded more like a sob. Was Kevin 11,000 a weepy emotional drunk? Devlin had never seen his father drink before. He didn't know his father did drink. He had no idea what kind of drunk his father even was. "I love you!" There was another lull. Then, "Take your pants off."

"What!?" Gwendolyn's exclamation was punctuated by the sound of a solid male body being shoved with enough force to cause it to stumble off balance and fall to the floor. The whole house shook. Kevin was a solid weight.

"Let's make love!" Kevin suggested -presumably from his new position on the floor. "I wanna show Tennyson and Rook how I make you squirt. Did you know most girls don't squirt? You're amazing, Babe! I wanna show off my amazing wife!"

Someone sighed. "I believe that is our cue to leave." It was Ben's Revonnahgander partner -Rook.

"Wait! Wait! You guys gotta see this!" Kevin insisted. "She's amazing!"

"That's it." Gwendolyn cut in. "We're putting some water and some solid food in you then you're going to bed. Have a good night, guys."

There were two other good-byes and then the sound of the door slamming.

There was a pregnant pause.

Then, "You. Bathroom. Now. Go."

Devlin had never heard Gwendolyn sound so authoritative. Admittedly, the young Osmosian hadn't know the woman very long, but between both the past and present -or would it be the present and future?- that was the first time he'd actually heard her sound like the powerful sorceress-Plumber and High Magus that she was. Gosh! What would it have been like to grow up with her?

There was the sound of shuffling feet and a toilet seat being lifted.

"Kneel down with your head over the bowl. I'll pull you're hair back for you."

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" Kevin whined -yes, that was actually a whine coming out of Kevin 11,000. (Was he even Kevin 11,000 yet?) "You pull too hard! This is why I never wear it up."

"Keep your voice down!" Gwendolyn snapped at him with a hiss. "Our future son is trying to sleep upstairs and he doesn't need to hear your drunken bitching. Now, I'm going to fix you a snack, and if you can keep it down, then maybe you can join me on the couch tonight."

"I don' wanna sleep on the couch in my own home!" He continued to whine.

"Then sleep with your head in the toilet." Gwendolyn huffed.

…

Rook dragged Ben back to the proto-TRUK and shoved him in the passenger seat. "I am taking you home as well."

And the Hero of the Universe whined like a ten-year-old. "I don' wanna go home!"

Sighing to himself, the Revonnahgander ignored him and climbed back into the driver's seat. It was things like this that finally disillusioned him about just how great, and awesome, and wonderful the wielder of the Omnitrix was. Yes, Ben Tennyson had already saved the universe a number of times before Rook ever even met him. Yes, the Revonnahgander looked up to the Earthling in a lot of ways. Yes, there was even a whole chapter about him in the Plumber's Academy textbooks. But one should never meet their heroes. One should also try not to choose people their own age as their heroes. In retrospect, it actually took Rook far longer to become disillusioned with Ben as a Hero than it should have.

But they were still friends. Rook may not view the Hero of the Universe as a role model anymore. But he was still -and would always be- his friend. Then again, that just lead into the other reason that lead to Rook finally being disillusioned by the Hero of the Universe. A reason the Revonnahgander would never voice out loud. He valued the relationship he had with Ben to much to risk it in the hopes of gaining an entirely different relationship with Ben.

"Well you are certainly not staying out in your condition." Rook informed him, turning over the engine and driving back to Plumbers HQ.

"I don't wanna go back to an empty house."

"Its not empty." Rook told him. "Plumbers HQ is never empty. There's always the various shift crews, plus don't forget Blukic and Driba are always there."

"But Kai won't be." He muttered back. Then he gave an odd sort of half-sob. Not quite the drunken emotional wails that Kevin was throwing around. More like the sort of thing a person hold in for days or moths at a time and then only escapes when their control is weakened -like when they're drunk. "I don't know why she even married me! She's always gone! Even back when we were dating, she was always arguing with me and making little digs at my self-esteem. Sometimes, I think she doesn't even really love me, she just liked the idea of being married to the famous Hero of the Universe. Not that I'm accusing her of being shallow, or a gold-digger, or anything. It's just... I just... The longer we've been married, the more I'm beginning to realize that I don't actually know her all that well. We've known each other since we were kids but we never really hung out until we started dating. Maybe its me. Maybe I proposed to soon."

Too all of this, Rook said nothing. His personal opinion on who Ben should have taken as a mate were unfairly skewed and bias in favor of the least likely candidate in the universe.

"Of course, she could have just married me because she likes being fucked by Blitzwolfer's Loboan dick!" He continued, channeling his inner-Kevin and sharing far more information than Rook needed to know. "I ever tell you that? The first time we ever had sex, she asked me to transform and knot inside her. Yeah! I know! Gross, right! But it totally worked for her and she asks me to do it all the freakin' time! Of course, now that she wants to have a baby, she'll probably tone it back a notch. I mean, I gotta be human to get her pregnant, right?" Another pause. "Not that I'll have much of a chance to get her pregnant when she's never home!"

Rook remained stoically silent for all of this. In addition to not wanting to hear any of that, he also had nothing to say. He pulled into the Headquarters motor-pool and killed the engine. "We're here. Do you need me to walk you upstairs?"

Instead of replying, Ben launched himself out of the passenger seat and wrapped both arms around the Revonnahgander in an awkward sitting-GLOMP.

"I don't wanna go home!" He muttered into his partner's proto-tech armor. "Can I sleep with you tonight?"

"W-what!?" Rook blinked at him. He never would have imagined, not in a million years of ten different parallel universes that Ben Tennyson would ask him that question. If his species were the kind that blushed, he was sure his face would be a bright, bright red right now. The rest of his body certainly felt hot. He hoped Ben didn't feel it too. That would be humiliating!

"I mean, sleep at your place." The Hero of the Universe clarified for him. "Like, let me crash on your couch or something. Heck! I'll even sleep on the floor. I just don't wanna be alone anymore!"

Rook felt the weight of disappointment settle over him like a blanket. But at least he wasn't flustered anymore. He might want more from his relationship with Ben Tennyson, but he also knew that the nature of the relationship they already had was very different from the one he wanted. That, and also, taking advantage of Ben's loneliness and his drunken state was not the way for Rook to get what he wanted. Right now, Ben needed a friend, not... anything else.

The Revonnahgander sighed. "I will not make you sleep on the floor."

He pulled the proto-TRUK back out of the Headquarters motor-pool.

…

The first thing Kevin became aware of when he woke up, was that his head hurt.

The second thing Kevin became aware of was that he wasn't laying down. His body was propped up, leaning over something hard and cold.

The third thing he became aware of was that the hard and cold thing he was leaning over felt great when pressed against his pounding head.

Kevin rested his head against the rim of the toilet bowl.

He heard a door slam somewhere else in the house, the sound sending shockwaves of pain reverberating inside his skull and he groaned. The groan quickly turned into a burp, which then turned into puke, and he hung his face over the toilet bowl to void the contents of his stomach.

Why had he done this to himself? Alcohol hangovers were worse than energy overdose hangovers.

"I'm back!" He heard Gwen's voice ring through the house and he wished furiously, and prayed to all the gods he knew of aline and Earthling alike that she would just quiet down. "They didn't wanna release Kevin's car to me at first. Apparently, the motor-pool attendants find him intimidating for some reason."

She was answered by another voice. One entirely unfamiliar to the Osmosian. Young and male, slightly sullen sounding, just a bit of incredulity coloring his tone. "You don't understand why other people might find Kevin Levin intimidating?"

He wished they would stop talking. Of if they must continue, then please, just leave. His head couldn't take it.

"Has he emerged yet?" Gwen asked.

"Haven't seen him all morning." Answered the young boy's voice.

Young boy... ugh, that was right. That was the whole reason he let Tennyson take him out drinking in the first place. The obnoxious Hero of the Universe thought a drink might calm him down after a mysterious boy claiming to be his son from the future was inexplicably teleported into the center of Plumbers Headquarters. A boy who claimed to be Kevin's son, but knew nothing of Gwen being his mother. That was the thing that lead to the Osmosian's anxiety. Gwen. How could any child of his not know Gwen? Kevin wasn't interested in having children with anyone but his wife. Admittedly, he wasn't interested in having children at all, but if it was going to happen -and he'd just met some pretty compelling evidence that it was- then it would happen with Gwendolyn Eleanor Levin.

Gwen huffed. "I'll go check on him."

The bathroom door was opened and Kevin's eyes were assailed by cruel, offensive, and unforgiving light. He threw his hands over his eyes, the sudden stimulation and movement making his stomach churn all over again and the Osmosian found himself vomiting a second time -except there wasn't anything left in his stomach to throw up, so he just dry heaved into the bowl. Ugh. Being friends with Ben Tennyson was suffering.

"W-why?" He heaved into the toilet. He had nothing left to give. He wished his body would stop trying to expel stuff that wasn't there.

"I hope you learned a lesson from this." Gwen crossed her arms over her chest and watched without sympathy as her husband and father of her unborn child -or future child that was currently sitting in the living room- continued to heave into the toilet bowl without actually throwing anything up.

"Loud." Kevin groaned. Heave. Groaned again. "You're being loud."

She did not seem the least bit moved.

"I'm taking our future-son to my library at Friedkin." The sorceress informed him. "Its where I keep the Archamada. There's a time traveling spell in there that I can use to return him to his own time."

Kevin groaned again, this time trying to climb to his feet on unsteady legs. His head still hurt and his vision was a little blurry. The light of day hurt his eyes and he still thought she was speaking just a little too loud. But... "I don't want you alone with him."

"You still think our son is a danger to me?" Gwen fixed him with a glare.

"You're an Anodite, he's an Osmosian!" Kevin reminded her with a snarl, as if that was all the explanation that was necessary.

The sorceress was not impressed. "You're an Osmosian."

"And I've nearly killed you!" Her husband roared, then heaved. He caught it in his mouth, then fell back to his knees, his head in the toilet again. This time something did come out. Just a bit of thick stomach bile. There were no other contents left to expel. He heaved again. When bile stopped coming up, Kevin coughed, wiped his mouth, and tried to stand again. He cleared his throat. "I nearly killed you, Babe. And that was when I was older and had a better understanding of myself and my powers. This kid is the age I was when I was Kevin 11. When I was an amoral psychopath that thought the answer to all my problems was just kill everyone who upset me! I know what its like to be eleven years old and Osmosian, okay. So forgive me for being worried!"

For a moment, Gwen was just going to dismiss his concerns outright. But -when she thought about it- he did actually make one good point. He did know what it was like to be eleven years old and Osmosian, she did not. She knew what it was like to be eleven years old, mostly human, studious, well-adjusted, and popular. So, maybe on some level, Kevin could understand their son from the future better than she could. But that did not make him a danger. And she had some pretty convincing evidence to support her side of the argument.

"I spent the whole evening with him last night while you were out drinking." She reminded him. "As you can clearly see -I'm fine. So, obviously, Osmosian or not, Anodite or not, our son is not a danger to me."

"Yet."

"What?"

"He's not a danger to you yet." Kevin clarified. "And I'm gonna make sure he doesn't become a danger to you. You don't get what its like, Babe. When you get a taste of really potent energy..." he sucked on his bottom lip, his eyes taking on a far off and dreamy glaze. But the Osmosian caught it quickly, shaking his head to clear whatever memory he'd called up. "If anything ever happened to you, I don't know what I'd do. I'll protect you, Gwendolyn. Even if I have to protect you from our own son."

…

The car ride to Gwendolyn's library was awkward. Devlin sat in the backseat while Gwendolyn drove Kevin's car.

Kevin for his part had tilted the front passenger seat back so far, he was as close to laying down as he could be in a moving car. He groaned every time Gwendolyn took a turn a little to fast, burped, and rolled down the window for a little fresh air. He kept his long hair over his eyes the whole time and if the road turned them in a way that caused the sun to shine directly on him, he would throw his vest over his head to further block the light.

There was an awkward lack of conversation.

Devlin wasn't a very social or talkative person by nature. He preferred to remain quiet and observe rather than participate. Being out going and assertive took to much energy. But in this particular instance, he felt the need to fill the silence with some kind of inane noise.

"Does this happen often?" He ventured.

"No." Sighed Gwendolyn from the driver's seat. "Most of our battles tend to be extraterrestrial in nature. Most of the adventures that require the use of my library actually tend to also start in my library."

"Uh, no..." Now the boy was embarrassed. "I meant Kevin. Does this happen to him often?"

"Wha'd'ya tryin' ta say?" The older Osmosian slurred from under his vest. He lifted the fabric enough to peer at the boy, and for a split second Devlin saw the man he was more familiar with. The Kevin Levin that raised him. The Kevin Levin that was always angry. The Kevin Levin that was never satisfied. The Kevin Levin that reprimanded him for the slightest of trespasses. His hands tightened on his seatbelt. His father always intimidated him so easily.

Gwendolyn did not seem the lest bit bothered, though. "Oh, no. Kevin almost never drinks. That's why his hangover is so bad. He had no alcohol tolerance."

The older Osmosian groaned again and lowered his vest back over his face.

"But that does make him a pretty cheap date!" She laughed.

Kevin groaned again.

Devlin lapsed back into silence after that. It was about all the conversation he wanted to have. That, and his father -his future father?- without even saying anything managed to intimidate him into behaving. Not that trying to talk was exactly misbehaving, but if the older Osmosian was suffering from a headache, then his talking wouldn't exactly improve his condition. Devlin was a member of Team 'Lets not do anything to piss off Kevin 11,000'.

But Gwendolyn didn't seem like she was done talking.

It would only be natural, he supposed, for her to be curious. She was already pregnant and a boy from the future appears claiming to be her husband's son from the future. Of course she would have questions. About him. About Kevin. About how things were in the future. She already knew Devlin didn't know her. And she knew that he thought -he knew- his father was evil. It was only natural she would have questions.

"Does Kevin drink a lot in your time, Kid?" She asked. If she was dead and he was left alone to raise a child he never wanted to begin with, would he develop a drinking problem? A self-destructive coping method to help numb the grief over the loss of his love.

"I've never seen him drink." Devlin informed her.

Of all his father's many faults, failings, and flaws. His vices and excesses. Alcoholism was not one of them. Energy addiction? Yes. Definitely. But not alcohol.

"So then you've never seen him like this." She concluded.

"No." The boy agreed. "Not like this."

When Kevin was recovering from his excesses, it was usually an excess of energy, not alcohol. Instead of headaches, light sensitivity, and dizziness, his symptoms were irrational anger, tension, and misplaced aggression. To be completely honest, Devlin actually preferred hungover-Kevin to energy withdrawal-Kevin. At least this one wasn't threatening teach him a lesson and reminding Devlin that he was no better than Kevin himself. After all, it was because of his own inability to control his powers and curb his own energy cravings that Kevin had to take him away from his mother in the first place.

Devlin's eyes shifted to Gwendolyn.

When she cast her flight spell yesterday he had sensed a small taste of her manna, and yeah, it actually did taste really great! When he was younger... a baby, unable to tell the difference between 'parent' and 'food'... he could easily imagine himself just automatically trying to absorb her. Just on base instinct.

His eyes flicked back to Kevin.

And last night, when he was drunk off his ass, Kevin did also say that if anything happened to Gwendolyn he would 'lose his shit'.

What if that was exactly what happened?

What if Devlin really did try and eat his own mother?

…