"It's been two days."

"Dramatic much? It's been thirty-six hours."

"How are you so calm?"

"Because I have to be," D'avin snapped.

Their eyes met and he knew he was being unfair. Neither one of them had really slept. Delle Seyah and Caspara were the ones that had actually gotten sleep. Lucy had taken them back to orbit Westerley. It made him want to go down to Old Town and get a drink at the Royale...but Pree wasn't down there...and Dutch wouldn't show up like the last time.

"She's going to show up, right?"

"I really hope so."

"Do you think we're going to get out of this whole mess okay?"

"I want to say yes, but at the same time...we haven't really gotten information on this Lady…" D'avin told him honestly.

Johnny knew that D'av was right. As much as he wanted to hear that everything was going to be okay, he also wanted to hear the truth. The truth was exactly what he needed to hear. "You know what I think we might need to do?"

"What?"

"Go pick up our nerdy little sister."

"I have you."

Johnny made a face at his brother. "Ha! You're so funny!"

"I'm so glad you noticed."

It was stupid, but there was something nice about this stupid moment between them. They hadn't even gotten into the hokk yet, but sometimes they just needed to talk until the stupid came out. He shook his head, a smile in place. "You know I meant Zeph, right?"

"Did we adopt her?"

"Pretty sure you and Dutch did when I was gone before."

"Zephyr Jaqobis?"

"I mean I'm not sure she's down with changing her last name-"

D'avin shrugged. "Not like we tend to use the last name all the time anyways, so will she really care?"

"Nah…" Johnny sucked in a breath. "The only thing I'm worrying is that we'll leave where Lucy's got us parked to pick up Zeph and we'll miss Dutch."

"Assuming that I'll leave without the next protocol," Lucy spoke up.

Johnny leaned back in the pilot's chair and sighed. "Seriously?"

"No."

He made a face. "So sassy, Luce."

"You love the sass, John."

"That is completely...not a lie." He didn't miss the grin on his brother's face. Johnny sat up straight at a thought. "Maybe we really shouldn't go get Zeph...maybe we should go ahead and let her come to us."

"Are we going to grab Fancy too?"

"How thrilled do you think he's going to be to see Delle Seyah or Aneela or possibly pulled from the green Khlyen?" Johnny was fairly sure that with Khlyen having been the one who made Fancy into Hullen originally that there was a high possibility that he wasn't a fan...or that there might even be a possibility that Fancy might want to be re-Hullenized.

"Maybe we should just wait a little longer before contacting the RAC and Zeph."

"We're probably already on their radar," John pointed out. "Though, I would have thought that Turin would have contacted us by now if he'd noticed Lucy in the neighborhood."

"I'm pretty sure he gets off on our Team Awesome Force updates."

"Yeah, when we're being awesome," Johnny pointed out. "We don't have Dutch right now. For all we know, she's dead."

"Don't say that. She's not dead."

"I know, I'm just saying-"

"Well, don't say it."

He stared at D'av. "Okay," he said quietly.

The beeping was what woke Johnny. He immediately leaned forward until his hands rested on console. "Luce, what's going on?"

"There's a Hullen ship on my sensors, John," Lucy reported. "I thought you might want to know."

"Dutch?"

"I don't know, John, but I hope so."

"Sick of listening to D'av and I fight?"

"I still do not approve of Delle Seyah being aboard."

"Yeah, well she sort of was a package deal with my niece," Johnny said. "Not that she'll admit that Caspara's actually my niece...but that's a whole other thing."

"What can I do, John?"

"How long until they're in communications range?"

"Two minutes."

"Cross your fingers, it's Dutch."

"I don't have fingers-"

"Okay, okay...it's just a saying, Luce…"

"Your sayings are confusing, John."

He just sighed. "You'd think after all of these years that they'd make more sense to you," John said, thinking back to the beginning when it had been just him, Dutch, and Lucy… Things had been simpler and still complex back then, but...he wouldn't change having D'avin with them. He hadn't been sure in the beginning, but they were a good team and a family. Even with all the mistakes and screw ups, they'd made it work.

"John, the Hullen ship is hailing us."

"Put it through, Lucy." He looked up at the screen, his mouth opened and ready to shout for D'av, but the person who appeared caught him off guard. He'd expected to see Dutch...or Dutch's face in the form of Aneela. That wasn't who was on the other end of the call, though. "Holy shitballs," John exclaimed. He wasn't sure his feelings in that moment, even though he knew what that meant.

It was clear that Johnny's remark and response only irked Khlyen who was on the Hullen ship. "I promised Yala that I'd contact you, I hadn't expected such...crude response."

"I actually am a little surprised it worked."

"Yes, Yala told me that it was your plan," Khlyen said and it was still clear that he wasn't impressed or really thrilled in the least. "Where's D'avin?"

"Where's Dutch?"

"Aneela and Yalena are resting," Khlyen informed him. "The whole process took a lot out of them. Now, if you wouldn't mind...I'd like to talk to the elder Jaqobis."

"You do realize I'm not some little kid, right?"

"I have alerted D'avin," Lucy chimed in.

"Seriously, Lucy?"

"I believe that D'avin is currently in charge with Dutch not present onboard," Lucy replied.

"Wait...what?"

"He instituted Dutch's master protocol-"

"I didn't vote for that!"

"Vote for what?" D'avin asked as he entered the cockpit.

"Apparently you're in charge of things, per Lucy," Johnny said grumpily.

"Per Dutch, actually," Lucy said. "Don't be upset, Johnny."

"Yeah, you're still Lucy's favorite," D'avin told him before turning to Khlyen. "So, it worked?"

"Yala told me of your reasons behind pulling me from the green space," Khlyen said. "Though, I don't know if I can actually be of much help. The Lady will stop at nothing, especially now that she knows that Aneela has pulled two from the green."

"Aneela is only of concern to me because of her link to Dutch," D'avin said.

"Of course," Khlyen said. He paused for a moment. "And I've been brought up to date about the two children that have been brought into the world. Becoming a grandparent was a dream that I imagined was long past."

"Caspara is safe and so is Delle Seyah."

Johnny wasn't thrilled about this whole thing still. Khlyen wasn't someone that he'd vote to have around kids, not after what he'd done to Dutch. No matter how much they'd learned for his reasonings behind it, he just couldn't get over the fact that those things were just not something that you did to someone you saw as a child...as your child.

"The Lady will want the children as well," Khlyen said.

That wasn't surprising.

"Aneela's research should be destroyed, but I am fairly sure that the Lady has been given it every step of the way in my absence," Khlyen continued. "So, the best step is going to be to keep the children safe...that means pulling your child from hiding."

"You do realize I'm the father of two children, right?"

"Which I find deeply troubling."

D'avin and Johnny sighed and looked at each other before shaking their heads. "The other child is fine and safe...we don't even know where he or she is," D'avin said. "If anything, it's something we should do with Caspara so that she's away from the Quad."

"It's not just the Quad or even the J we have to worry about," Khlyen told him. "The Lady's reach stretches much farther."

"Look, we can discuss and hash this all out once we're all together," Johnny said sitting up straight in his chair. "I'm sure Dutch is going to have some things to say about it, probably ones that you're not going to agree with." Khlyen didn't seem to be pleased with him talking, but that wasn't going to keep Johnny from continuing. "Unless she's really not just napping?"

Silence.

"Khlyen?" D'avin pushed, anger rising up inside of him.

"Yala's connection in the green space was too much, she hasn't woken up...it appears from what Aneela has been able to assess that she has slipped into a coma."

Coma.

"Hells," John mumbled. "We've got to get her," he said turning to D'av. "We've got to get Zeph. Have her looked at by someone who's not Hullen-"

"Do you really think that I would want any harm to come to Yala?"

Johnny and D'av just exchanged looks before turning back to Khlyen.

"It is possible that she'll wake up very soon from what I understand."

"Or it could be days, weeks, months, years? Never?" Johnny put out there.

"All true, but no matter...the Hullen are still a risk to the Quad. To the children and to Yala," Khlyen reminded. "I am here to help you. Are you going to trust me enough to allow my help?"

TBC…