Breaking Point Rebooted

by shadows59

With Vilgax gone, the watch off, and their heroing days behind them Ben and Gwen's only worry should be their new relationship, but the world hasn't stopped and the people who threaten it are closing in. It was never over. Sequel to Little Moments Rebooted. Bwen

14. Chapter 14: Remember the Good Times

Chapter 14: Remember the Good Times We've Had

Hallam Residence

Bellwood, California

Wed, November 22, 2000

9:58 PM.

"Your father will be home soon…"

Nadia didn't even know how many times she'd said that over the years. She'd said it before plays and birthdays, on the first days of school and the last, and more Christmases than she could count. It never got any easier, but tonight…

Tonight wasn't like that, thank Allah. Tonight there weren't any tears or little faces trying so hard to be brave even with everything that would be happening tomorrow.

But her children weren't trying very hard to be good either, though, and that was why those words spilled out of her mouth this time. They were the words that she always ended up using when any or all of their three angels were dancing on her last nerve. Usually with the darkest of glares, too, but that was impossible when she was already fighting down a smile as she leaned over. "And when he is, what should I tell him you're up to, mon petit canard?"

Because whatever her baby boy was doing, it wasn't what she told him to, even if he was technically already in bed.

"Finishin' up my Thankgivin' cards," Matthew told her around the tongue that he had sticking out of the side of his mouth as he sat there on his heels and drawing like mad with his crayons. The best part was how serious he looked. Just like his father, and if she ever wondered what her Jonathan looked like when he was little….

Not that she needed her imagination, not when his parents still had photographs and not when she'd been through all of this once already, even if Elias took more after her in looks. The attitude though…

"I told him to knock it off," she heard the boy mumble from behind her, where he'd thrown himself over his bed where he was making a show of playing the very portable Gamestation that she'd forbidden him from touching for the rest of the day.

She loved all of her children, but if they were going to ignore her she preferred the drawings. Which made it all the easier to sit down next to Matthew after she sighed her middle child's name and asked, "You are supposed to be sleeping, but - Can I see?"

And the way Matthew's face glowed when he looked up at those words should have been illegal. It did make her pepper him with kisses until he was pushing her away, giggling. "Mama! Mama, you're going to bend the pages!"

"And we don't want that, do we?" Nadia sighed again as she relented and gathered up the scattered bits of folded construction paper, all of them the brightest colors, and on them…

On them were the little hand turkeys that she never saw until she came to America and only looked a little like the birds on the television. Not that it mattered, she loved just because her husband taught all of their kids how to make them as soon as they could hold anything. Only these were wearing army helmets and -

And Jonathan never taught them how to make those.

"They've been drafted," Matthew said, his face so solemn as he looked up at her. "Like Papa."

"They're very nice," Nadia whispered around the lump in her throat as she opened the card up and saw the huge and messy block letters Miss You Papa written inside. She blinked away her tears. The ones that she swore she'd used up when she was just a girl herself as she whispered, "But your papa wasn't drafted. He's just out on a drill and they're birds, they should be - "

Free.

She only caught herself from saying it when she saw Elias glance over, his look as dark as his hair and too dark for any ten-year-old as he started slamming down the buttons on his electronic toy. "Don't know why he even made that one, Papa's going to be back tomorrow. He promised."

"He said he'd try," Nadia reminded him as gently as she could as she folded up the card and handed it back with the smile still on her face from long practice. Besides, even if he was a day or two late, it was still better than what they were used to. "And he'll love this whenever he sees it, Honey. I know he will."

"Okay," Matthew said in a voice so soft and relieved that she barely heard it as he hugged the card tight and his eyes fell to the colorful cartoon soldiers that were splashed across his bedspread.

"If that one was for daddy, then who are the rest of these for?" Nadia asked as she looked at the next couple which were for his grandparents and then she got to the second to the last.

"Mama!" Matthew squealed as he dove across his bed so he could yank it out of her hand, but she had a feeling she knew and it brought the smile right back to her face.

There was only one person that her son drew hearts for, after all, and -

"ThatonesforGwen," Matthew admitted in a rush that mimicked the speed of the red-head girl's words very well when she got excited as he shoved the card under his covers. Then he started fidgeting just like he had the other day when she caught him stealing a Maamoul. "That's okay, right? I just - I miss her and I thought - "

"Of course, it is," Nadia promised. "I miss her, too. I just thought you'd be a little older before I had to worry about a girl stealing my baby away."

"Mama!" Matthew squealed before he disappeared under the covers, too, and only Allah could make anything so adorable.

Or infuriating.

"Gross," Elias hissed from the mess of his bed and he didn't take it back, not even when she gave him a look that would have made him cry just a few years ago.

"This is why you're going to bed early, young man," Nadia didn't hiss the words out as she got up and yanked the Gamestation out of her son's hands, but she came close. Especially after how he acted when his sister came home alone today. Maybe her maman was right. It didn't matter how old they got, they were still boys at heart, and she'd never understand them.

"Omm!" The boy howled like he was the one who was still five as he glared at her, furious, and not about his game.

"No, Elias!" Nadia snapped as she shoved the device into her robe's pocket. "You can have it back tomorrow if you remember that you are your father's son and you don't talk to women like that! Not even your sister! Not after everything that she'd been through this week."

Elias's mouth moved a few times at that, soundless before he threw himself on his side as dramatically as anything she'd seen on stage or the soccer field. It was just too bad for him that she could read lips. "What did you say?"

"Nothing," the boy hissed out as he grabbed his covers so he could disappear under them, too.

If she let him. Which she didn't. Somehow she didn't lose her temper either, but it was such a close thing. "What happened at the mall wasn't your sister's fault and if I ever catch you saying that it was again..."

"I know!" Elias shouted back as he gave up on fighting for the covers and just curled up in a ball with his back to her. Then as quick as it came, it was gone and she heard him start sniffling. "I know," he repeated as a wave of hot anger filled his little dark eyes while he crossed his arms and muttered, "If I'd been there…"

And just like that, Nadia felt hers melt away as she sat down beside him and brushed her fingers through the black curls of his hair. "I know. I know. You would have saved the day just like your Papa."

Like his Papa almost had, she didn't tell her son, when he finally got home on Monday. Somehow he'd been as exhausted from spending three days on base as he'd ever been after a six-month deployment. Not that she blamed him, not after the accident, but once she told him about the bullies and what they'd done…

She never liked seeing her Jonathan mad, but there was something about him when he was. Something dashing and -

"Like Ben should have," Elias spat out.

"Ben?" Nadia started as the name completely derailed her train of thought. "Who's Ben?"

"Nobody," Elias muttered.

"He's Gwen's boyfriend!" Matthew called out from his bed, where he was peeking out from under his covers.

"Is not!"

Nadia caught her oldest son before he could get up, but not before her youngest squealed and hid under his covers again and just laughed. "Gwendolyn n'a pas de petit ami!"

"Yes, she does," both of her boys chorused. One happy and one not.

"I think that Michelle would have told me," Nadia said. Sure, and not just because of that. She loved the American girl, but she couldn't imagine anyone who would catch the eye of a girl so serious. But still, the thought was so delightful as she kissed her boys goodnight and turned off their light.

Unfortunately, her delight only lasted until she saw how dark Michelle's room was. It was something that she'd dreamt of ever since her little night owl was born, but between what happened last Friday and after what Elias shouted at her today…

Words that never bothered her baby before, but somehow hit home now and she wished that the girl had stayed awake long enough that they could talk about it, which was probably why she snuck off to bed.

"Michelle?" Nadia asked as she knocked on the door. She wished that she got an answer, but she wasn't surprised when she didn't and if her daughter was asleep….

"Faites de beaux rêves, Mon Ange…"

She hoped for the same herself as she thought of her own bed which was waiting for her right at the end of the hall. She thought about it, but she'd gotten so used to having her husband beside her again that she couldn't face the cold sheets tonight. She just couldn't, so she let her slippered feet take her downstairs where she heard the television. It was even playing her favorite show.

"- see, Unc? It's no wonder I never got a Section Eight; there's nothing special about me. Everybody here is crazy!"

The voice was the sound of a home she lost a long time ago, but it still kept her company through all of the bad nights. Nadia just didn't think that she'd have more than a voice tonight. "Michelle?"

She didn't know when her oldest had snuck downstairs and she wasn't in her usual spot on the far side of the couch. The spot that she'd only claimed out of desperation years ago after her brothers made a game of climbing all over her on their way to the kitchen when she sat anywhere else.

No, tonight she was curled up on the good spot and looking so at home there in her pajamas with one of Nana's old afghans tossed over her lap and a cup of tea in her hands that Nadia hurried across the living room so she could press her lips against her daughter's forehead.

"Maman!" Michelle squealed in surprise, almost spilling her tea. And then again when she realized, "I'm not sick!"

"I just wanted to check," Nadia said, and she almost wished that her daughter was. A fever was easy. Easier than admitting that as much as MASH was her favorite show, her Habibti only watched it when…

"Your father's going to be fine, Michelle," she sighed as if she didn't have any doubts about that. Doubts brought on from the way Jonathan had been making a point of hugging them all this week like he only did when he thought that he was going away soon…

Well, she knew how to swallow that down, too. "It's just a drill. He's not even overseas this time. Tu t'inquiètes pour rien."

"Je sais," Michelle whispered back into her mug.

Nadia just stared at the girl who looked so much like her father right then and knew that she should chase their daughter off to bed as the end credits splashed across the screen. She was too young for worries, and it wasn't her job anyway. Not when she couldn't even hide how she kept glancing at the phone that was hanging from the wall over the kitchen counter…

But she was as stubborn as Jonathan, too, and that was what made Nadia sigh and walk away. Not far though. Just into the kitchen, where the half-filled kettle was still waiting. The bagged tea wasn't anywhere near as good as what she grew up with, but it would do as she poured herself a cup of her own as the theme song started again.

"Another episode?" She asked as she settled in next to the girl, who - miracle of miracles - even shared the afghan as they settled in to wait together.

"Sounds good," Michelle murmured and took a sip.

They watched together in silence and Nadia was glad when she saw Trapper John. She couldn't handle a serious episode, not now. Not as she murmured into her tea, "Elias didn't mean it."

"I know," Michelle muttered, her face twisting as she took another sip as if her tea was all lemon and no sugar before she spat out, "L'andouille."

"Michelle! He deserves worse than that," Nadia gasped, shocked by how soft an insult it was, especially considering some of the language that she'd caught her daughter using before, and then she burst out laughing when she realized that her baby knew exactly what she was doing. "You brat!" And, to her relief, her daughter actually smiled when she did. Almost. Close enough that Nadia could relax just a little before she went for the heart of the matter. "Matthew said that Gwendolyn has a boyfriend…"

And she couldn't help but wonder. Not if it was true, but if that was why the redhead hadn't been around all week….

It would make more sense than just some bullies at the mall. It broke Nadia's heart, but her daughter had dealt with more than enough of those before. Michelle had been dealing with them her whole life because of who her parents were and the color of her hair and skin and they'd never bothered her like this before.

But maybe she should have asked in French. It was the best language to talk about love in, but it was too easy to slip into that world with her daughter and never come back. She'd done it before and never even realized it until her husband made a point of leaving his French-to-English dictionary sitting open on the table.

The words felt like home, but she had to be fair. Mostly. "I hope that he's nice if she does."

"I guess. For a boy," Michelle answered with a shrug before she realized it. And then the panic hit, which was almost a relief. It wasn't the reaction that Nadia was dreading. It wasn't jealousy, even if it did get tea splashed across her sofa as her daughter spun around in wide-eyed terror and grabbed her arm. "You can't tell Mrs. Tennyson! She'd - they'd - !"

"I won't," Nadia promised as she fought back a laugh at the reaction. "As long as he treats her right." That was what mattered now that she was sure that this wasn't all over some silly crush. Not when she knew that something like this would be gone in a week anyway. Besides, if someone went running to her mother every time she liked a boy at their age…

Allah. I'd still be locked in my room, she tittered to herself as she brushed a hand over the little gold crucifix that was hiding at the end of a necklace under her top and had been since she was little. After all of the time that had passed, keeping the laugh and the blush from her face should have been child's play.

And maybe it even was. Or else Michelle was too distracted by the sigh she let out. One that made her throw her head back with a groan and ended with a proper Gallic shrug. "He - Well, Crazy Girl likes it."

Oh, there was a story there. One that Nadia would dig into later. "Is that why Gwen didn't come by today? Because of her boyfriend?" She tried to keep her voice light and her eyes on the television, but now she was worried. Nothing she heard about Friday was that bad. Not bad enough for her daughter to hide for days even with all of the bruises and scrapes that she came home with. Which meant things that she didn't want to think about. But a mother's job…

"Mom! Please don't do this when Gwen is here!" Her daughter begged, but not that hard, her lips twitching again even as she hid her face in her hand. Then her good humor dropped with that hand as Michelle shot another look at the phone. One that made her brow wrinkle. "And no. She was just busy with family stuff."

Which wasn't a lie and Nadia knew when her daughter was. And besides, it made sense considering what tomorrow was, but it didn't explain the dark circles around the girl's eyes or the sleepless nights. Or the way that she glanced over at the phone again. "Then what are you worried about, Habibti?"

"Nothing…" Michelle whispered as she sank back into the couch with her eyes falling back to the mug that she wouldn't stop playing with. "Can - can we just watch?"

She couldn't help the little hum as she thought about pressing further, but her baby girl wasn't hiding in her room for days either and this was progress, so she let it go. "How many more episodes do we have?"

"It's a marathon," Michelle told her as she put down her tea cup and snuggled in close. "They're playing all night."

"Good," Nadia murmured and she kissed the top of her daughter's head again as they settled in together…

- o - o - o - o - o -

"Ma - !" Nadia gasped for her mother as she jerked awake with tears on her cheeks, her heart in her throat, and the sound of mortar fire in her ears. She tried to get up, but the weight that was on her side held her down and she tried to pull away from it even as her head jerked that way. And for a second, she saw her cousin Adi again. Or the only part of him that she still really remembered, which wasn't his jokes or the way he always had candy for her and made time to play when he visited no matter how much she wished it was. It wasn't the uniform that he was so proud of and looked so handsome in either.

She didn't even remember his smile. Not really.

Because he wasn't the last time she saw him. He just looked so surprised as he held her tight under her in the collapsed ruins of her house. His eyes were wide and still even as the dust blinded her, dust that just kept coming down as pappa dug through the rubble with his bare hands and maman -

She could still hear her maman screaming when she woke up. Screaming as pappa pulled them both out, but Adi…

Adi wasn't snoring back then. Not like the person on her arm now was. That was the only thing that let Nadia swallow her own scream as she blinked away the nightmare until all that was left was a bit of the family's nose on her daughter's face.

Her Michelle. Her Habibti. She looked just like she did when she was a baby, right down to the squished look on her face as she snuggled against Nadia's shoulder as the television's familiar light filled the living room instead of the fire she was sure she'd see.

"War is war and hell is hell and of the two of them - " Alan Alda's voice called out from the television that they'd been watching and Nadia remembered. Remembered as her eyes filled with silent tears that Lebanon was long behind her, that it had been since she was her daughter's age, that she was in America now, that she was home with her babies and safe, and that maybe, just maybe she'd fallen asleep watching the wrong show when she was so worried about -

And then the noise came again. The noise that she was sure was her pappa digging through the rubble with his bare hands again when she was asleep and that she prayed was from the television now even though she knew it didn't.

No, it was coming from the front door behind her. It was a quick series of knocks that were a nightmare all their own as she dared a look at the glowing numbers on the VCR because there was only one reason that anyone would be at her door at this hour.

Her knees felt like jello as she slipped out from under her baby girl and got up, and the only reason that she did was because she knew that the man outside wasn't going to leave and sooner or later his knocks would wake her babies up, too. Somehow she made it to the front door without falling and the only thing that she could think was that she wished that she hadn't left her hair wrap upstairs, but…

But she couldn't imagine holding herself together long enough to get it. Not when it was all she could do just to open the door after she peeked through the peephole and saw the lieutenant standing there in full uniform, lit by the headlights of his Humvee.

"My children are asleep," Nadia snapped, her tone harsher than she meant to as she slipped out, but that was the only way she could get her next words out now that her mouth felt like it was stuffed with cotton as she looked past the man for the chaplain. Looked and looked, but there wasn't anyone else there but the driver, who was waiting in the truck. That one look told her everything she needed to know, and some of the tension left her shoulders. "What happened?"

But just some.

"You're husband's fine, Ma'am," the man opened with as he stood at attention and carefully kept his eyes locked on a spot six inches over her head. That was when she realized that she was standing in front of him in just her nightgown and robe.

And it didn't matter.

"What happened?" Nadia repeated as she squeezed the door handle behind her hard enough that her fingers went numb.

"There's been an accident," the man said, the words rote even as his own worry made him glance down and swallow hard and that was when she realized how young he was. How young they all were as he pressed on. "With casualties. We don't know how many yet, or how bad, but the Colonel wanted you informed so that you and the other officers' wives can - "

"You come here at this hour and tell me that and you have the gall to try telling me that my husband is fine in the same breath?!" Nadia hissed even though she knew that she shouldn't. That it wasn't fair. But none of it was, and that was what made her swallow hard before she asked, "How hurt is he if he can't call me himself?"

"..." The man's mouth hung open and he didn't get any words out before he finally said, "He's overseeing the medevac efforts."

"He - " Nadia started, but that was as far as she got before she saw the soldier's eyes dart away towards something over her head and that was all the warning that she got.

"Why can't you just tell us the truth?!" Michelle yelled, filling the quiet house with noise behind Nadia. "What happened, and don't you dare tell us that it was just a training accident again!"

"Michelle!" Nadia gasped as she spun around and saw a stranger standing by the couch. That was how ashen her baby's face was as she stood there with her hands in fists and just shaking as the man who had combat badges on his uniform actually took a step back and all she could do was stammer out, "I'm so sorry! I don't know what - "

"No!" Michelle snapped right back as she charged across the room, her finger flying as she screamed at the lieutenant who kept his face oh-so-carefully blank, even after she jammed his finger into the officer's chest. "No, I'm tired of getting lied to! I'm - !"

That was as far as she got before Nadia grabbed for her arm, but the girl was too quick. Unfortunately, tonight Nadia's temper ran even faster as she shouted back, "Arrête! Arrête! Tu vas réveiller tes - !"

"Mama?" Another voice cut in. If they hadn't been shouting at each other then maybe Nadia would have heard her sons stomping down the stairs before she heard Elias's voice squeak out, not nearly as asleep as it should have been and sounding so much smaller and younger than his ten years. "Why are you and 'Chelle yelling?"

Nadia did notice them when they finally appeared in the corner of her eye, clinging to the railing together and staring at the Army man in the door. They were terrified, and she knew why. Even Matthew was old enough now to be afraid that their daddy wouldn't come home, and they'd have some officer standing in the doorway apologizing for it.

Just like right now. Oh, Allah.

"Some soldiers got hurt today, but not your papa. He's fine," Nadia said as calmly as she could manage. "Your sister is just - "

She didn't know.

Michelle had never acted like this before. She had never flinched away when her mother reached for her and Nadia didn't know what to do. Not for her, but she gestured for her sons to come down, and pulled them into a hug because they needed it and because she prayed that maybe her little flea would realize that she did, too, if she saw it, but her boys wouldn't come. They just stood there and stared. "There was an accident at the training he went to. We have to be strong for him. We have to let him do what he has to do so he can - "

"Merde," Michelle spat out right in the man's face and that was enough.

"Michelle!" Nadia gasped again, but this time she caught her daughter's arm so she could yank the girl away from the man who was standing there at parade rest and ever so carefully looking like he wasn't seeing any of this. And she didn't let go after. She just squeezed. She didn't even know how hard until she heard the girl gasp. And that hurt more than anything. It hurt enough that she let go. It hurt enough that she wanted to explain, but all that came out was a tired "Devons être courageuses."

And the look on Michelle's face when she said that.

It hurt enough that Nadia turned away and went to her sons, who both flinched as she pulled them close and whispered the words again into the tops of their heads. Heads she barely saw as she cried quiet tears into their hair.

But not quite enough. Not for Michelle, who finally broke and ran at the sight of them. Not that Nadia knew she had until after the girl dashed past them and up the stairs. "Michelle!" Nadia called up after her, but the girl didn't even turn or stop. Not until after a door slammed upstairs.

Her door. Not her daughter's. The sound of wood slamming into wood and the heavy thump of somebody throwing themselves on a bed was too far away for Michelle's room or her brothers'. Nadia wondered why even as she remembered the old tantrums that Elias used to throw because he never took it well when he found out that they were moving and all of the things he broke during them.

If Michelle was acting like that now, too…

It was just stuff, Nadia thought as she held Matthew and Elias closer and promised, "Everything will be better in the morning…"

- o - o - Alan - o - o -

Somewhere on the US-101 N

Thursday, November 22nd, 2000 (Thanksgiving Day)

3:01 AM.

" - not the monster here, abomination."

Alan jerked awake, his head ringing as he grabbed out as something white filled his vision. He didn't even realize that it was headlights from the other side of the highway until he felt the steering wheel jerk away from his hands.

"Man," he gasped as he let it go and collapsed back against the silver blanket he'd draped over the ancient upholstery as he tried to catch a breath that he didn't need as his mind raced over what he'd almost done. What he would have done if the old R.V. wasn't smarter than him.

So much smarter, because he was sure that the computer in the thing wouldn't have taken so long to realize that it wasn't his head ringing. "''Llo…?" He asked after he grabbed up the flip phone that was lying in the drink holder. It wasn't the one he'd been keeping around. It wasn't Mr. Tennyson's, not when that was just plain silver and this one was a light blue, but by the time he realized that the air was already filling with the stink of scorched plastic. "Shit! Shit!"

It took him a few seconds to find the oven mitt that he'd been pulling on all week when he had to as the phone just kept ringing, and another before he could push the speaker button with his fat fingers.

"Matchstick?" A voice called out again. A tired one that was so, so welcome.

"Michelle?" Alan asked, his thoughts lost in a swamp of sleepy confusion until he heard her sniffle. Then the night vanished in a flash of orange light as his fire raced with his thoughts. "Are you okay?! Did - ?"

"I'm fine, Matchstick," the girl finally said after a flurry of noise that sounded like somebody was dragging the phone across something soft. "Are you? Because you took forever to answer and if you're surrounded by bad guys and you worried about the phone any way I don't care how hot it is, I'm gonna kick your - "

Despite it all, Alan laughed because he could just see the look on her face and the little scowl on her pretty olive skin. It just was a hollow little chuckle that he wished would have lasted longer as he relaxed back into his seat. "I'm not. We're not. We - "

A honk cut him off then. One that was just enough to make him stop and the girl on the phone start. "Then please tell me that you're not letting Watch Boy drive! Not after what almost happened at school today. "

"Don't worry," he told her and for the first time that night, he almost smiled. "I'm just up here keeping an eye on everything. Not that I have to. This old thing drives itself."

It just seemed like somebody should be up here as it did it, even if it was lonely, and it was better than being in the back. It was better than…

It was better, but nowhere near as good as the voice on the phone. The one he let distract him even as she teased, "Mr. Tennyson's letting you drive and Crazy Girl gave you her phone? No fair! Do you have any idea how much work I put in before she even gave me a hug? I'm - "

Alan bit his lip when he heard the girl on the other end of the line stop talking. It squished a little - like gravel over cooling lava, if he had to describe the sensation - but it was a far cry from what he should have felt as he just sat there and let her voice wash over him.

Sat there for too long. Long enough that she must have sensed it. "...Something happened, didn't it." It wasn't a question, and for the first time since he answered Michelle sounded scared. Alan shut his eyes, pulling the foil thermal blanket tighter around his shoulders with his left hand as he wondered what he should say.

Wondered until she begged. "Please."

And that was all it took. "It…it was a trap. For the Army."

"For - ?" Michelle echoed, her voice catching. "They - there's a messenger at our house. He said that the Colonel was alive, but…" She stopped to suck in a breath, and he could hear a scraping noise. Like fabric against a wall. "You were there, too? Please. I need to know what happened. You'll at least tell me the truth."

The truth. Yeah, because that would be the easiest thing in the world to say. Alan could sum it up in two bitter words. We Lost. Because yeah, they'd saved the Army guys and the Plumbers, and stopped the aliens from pulling their plan off, but…

"We found Mr. Tennyson," he started, and once he did the words just started spilling out even if they were as jumbled as his thoughts. "Once we were in town it was easy. Gwen didn't even need the rings, she just… And Ben… He turned into this giant dinosaur thing for the first time and just - " It was like he was born in that body. Alan didn't know how he could even walk in it, much less fight, but he made it all look so easy. "And Mr. Tennyson… He was ancient, but he was up and kicking butt not five minutes after we saved him. No wonder dad told me to…" Alan choked then. Choked and sank back into the seat. "We were kicking so much butt, but the bad guys - The bad guys were everywhere and - and then this giant showed up and - "

"- and it was all my fault," Alan finished in a broken whisper as he hung his head and stared at the steering wheel, which just kept turning like he wasn't even there. Which was just how the alien giant had treated him. He could still feel the huge hand close tight around his leg before he was yanked from the sky. Everything else was a pained blur after that, but he knew that was when it all went wrong.

Because of him. If he'd just been faster….

But he didn't know how to put any of that into words. Not for the couple in the back, and not for the girl who wasn't saying anything on the other end of the line. The best he could manage was a weak, "Sorry. I'm - Let me go get Gwen."

Maybe Michelle said something after that. It sounded like she might have, but the words were muffled as the phone got lost in the oven mitt. As muffled as his steps as he made his way back into the R.V. as it kept driving. Back past the fridge and the bathroom…

All the way back to the couch that he'd camped on for the last week. The one that he'd been told twice over unfolded into an actual bed, but he never bothered.

And neither had they.

He didn't think either of them was asleep. He knew that much just by looking at them in the dim light that he couldn't help giving off as they lay there, all tangled together on the narrow couch. Gwen had her back to Ben and he had his arms wrapped tight around her middle and she had hers latched over his as they lay there still in their Plumbers suits, but Alan couldn't tell who was holding onto who. Not really.

Not any more than Alan wished that they'd said something after they'd finally had to give up looking for their Grandpa. Something besides programming the autopilot before they came back here and…

And he didn't know. He did his best not to spy as he sat up front, but he knew that neither of them said a word or anything. He didn't even think that they cried.

Or maybe they had, and he just hadn't noticed, because those green eyes looked awful red when they opened and looked up at him.

"It's Michelle…" Alan said as he held out the phone.

- o - o - Michelle - o - o -

Hallam House

6:37 AM.

The sun wasn't even up yet, and despite the news from last night nobody else in the house was moving. Nobody but Michelle, if only because of what Gwen had said to her last night.

That they'd almost gotten their grandfather back before the aliens had overwhelmed them. Before they'd been lucky to get out of there alive, and only because the man they'd gone to rescue had held the worst alien off long enough to get them out of there. To set off the bomb that wrecked the trap the aliens had set for the Army. For the Colonel.

If Alan had been sad, then Gwen…

"We heard him outside, calling for the aliens to surrender over some speakers." Gwen had said, her voice listless. Tired. Wrong. "I'm glad he made it out of there alive." That was when Michelle's stomach had startled curdling again.

But she'd told the truth. And she remembered her promise. "We're…we're still going to the lake. Be out in front of your house before sunrise. I'll have Ben swing by to pick you up."

Those words were her only company for the rest of the night. They stayed with her even after she'd fled back to her own room and just waited as they repeated in her head over and over again until…

Until she couldn't take them anymore.

Them or anything else, and that was how she ended up standing outside of her house almost a half hour early, bundled up in her thickest jacket and wearing an old wool stocking hat and mittens her Maman had knitted while they'd still been living in Germany even though they so didn't match. It was almost cold enough that her breath frosted - colder than the air had been even in the ice skating rink for Gwen's last birthday - and all the excuse she needed for why she couldn't stand still as she waited there in the dark.

She looked down the street one way, then down the other, looking and listening for the sounds of that lumbering RV that had belonged to their grandfather as her nose slowly went numb and dark blue touched the black sky.

For them, and not back at her home. Never back at the house behind her or the light that was already on in her parents' bedroom. It hadn't gone off all night as far as Michelle knew as her mother pieced together what happened last night and planned out all of the visits she and the other officers' wives would be spending the day making instead of turkey.

The visits right behind whoever was in charge while the colonel was away and the chaplain…

She'd seen it before. She'd watched it happen too many times to count. The Colonel was responsible for everyone under his command, she'd heard the man joke before, but Maman was responsible for everyone, and Michelle…

Michelle turned away from hers and took a single step down the empty road.

What she thought was an empty road anyway. There was just a bare flicker of movement before something screamed past her so fast that she couldn't catch a glimpse of it, causing a gust of wind to rise up and ruffle the hood of her coat. She thanked heaven she'd decided to wear jeans, because if she'd gone with another skirt that wind would have been cold. It was still cold, it just didn't bite as deeply.

Whatever it was came back from the other direction and came to a stop ten feet away from her, resolving into a - A blue dinosaur in a tracksuit with a helmet and a giant knapsack tossed over its shoulder. And somehow the last was the thing that she couldn't stop staring at, her scream caught in her throat as the creature looked around for a moment more before the visor on its helmet lifted and faintly glowing yellow eyes looked right at her.

"Sorry. Had to check that nobody was around." It said, a faint snakelike hiss permeating its voice. One that got a little louder as it added, "You're early."

Michelle opened and closed her mouth a few times before her thoughts finally caught up to it and she caught on. "Is that you, Ben?"

The alien dinosaur smiled a little, and even that little showed off too many sharp teeth. "Yeah. XLR8. Good when you need to get somewhere fast."

"...I thought you'd come in the RV."

His smile dropped. "Didn't feel up to it. We left it back at the lake." He glanced her over. "I'm glad that you're dressed for a - " he started, and even with the hiss she could tell that he was just teasing her. She had her glare all ready and everything if he kept doing it when they both started at a single soft tinging sound. One that sent his talons reaching for the pocket by his hip - and somehow the fact that he had pockets in that getup was the weirdest part of all of this.

Or it was until he somehow fished out a flip phone - one that was so familiar even if it was white and black instead of the powdered blue that she was used to. Familiar enough that her fingers almost itched for a chance to see what photos he had on his and if they were as good as all of the ones that she knew were on Gwen's. But even with all of the times she'd used Gwen's phone, Watch Boy still somehow got the phone open even quicker even though his claws should have made it impossible and for a second, she even thought it might have been good news when she saw his tail start wagging back and forth in a stiff arc as he whispered, "Grand - ?"

And then his whole body sagged as the word died in his throat. "Ben?" Michelle asked as something stuck in hers.

"It's nothing," he muttered, his head falling as he closed the phone with a click and shoved it away again.

"But - ?" She tried as she took a step toward him even though they weren't friends. They really, really weren't. She just couldn't help it.

Not until he jumped and took a step back the second her hand found his arm. "It's just - " he started before he shook his head and pulled the knapsack in front of him like it was a shield. "I gotta get something. Can you wait a sec?"

Michelle just nodded, too confused to even be hurt, and watched as he disappeared in another blur. This time it was a whole minute before he came back. Enough time that she couldn't help looking back because now was the time that Matthew always woke up and her room was his eternal first stop of the day even though he was almost six now. She'd left the door closed behind her, but she never had the heart to lock him out, and if she knew her baby brother…

Another gust of wind blew the thought and her hat both away. "Sorry," Dinosaur Ben said as he stopped in front of her again. He stopped with her hat already in his hand as he teasingly held it out and the tension that filled his body just a moment ago was gone as he shifted the weight of the bag on his shoulder. "Had to pick something up."

The suddenly full bag, but with what Michelle didn't know and she didn't ask even though she could tell that it was heavy as she watched him check it over like it was full of glass before he slipped it behind his back again and gave her a look. A real one, one that she would have sworn would have come with a blush as she found out that even alien dinosaurs could squirm. "What?"

"I - " Ben started, his hands flexing before he reached for the back of his head in a move that was so him even though he only had three taloned fingers now and even less hair than her grandfather. "When I do this with the Dweeb, I just carry her."

"You - "

"Well, I've tossed her over my shoulder a couple of times," he said with a smile that showed a line of teeth that could have come from a shark, "but she never liked that. I could carry you piggyback. We've done that, too, and there aren't even any bugs around today."

"Ew." Solidarity and shock made Michelle yank her hat out of his hand and yank it back on as she tried to picture her best friend putting up with either, and nerves made her pull it as far down as it would go. Nerves and the fact that she could have sworn that she heard a faint call of her name from the house behind her as more lights came on.

Especially when she saw the dinosaur's eyes flickered that way, too. "Was that - ?"

"Just carry me the way Gwen likes best," Michelle spun around and choked out before he could finish the question. Ben's eyes snapped back to hers and they narrowed into golden slits and she knew if he said anything…

But he just nodded. "You asked for it. Come on. I don't want to time out before we get there."

The sadness in his voice at that prospect tickled her brain. 'Timing out' must have been bad. She nodded and took a step closer to him, squeaking when those strong arms picked her up as easily as if she was a rolled-up blanket and pulled her in close against his chest.

"Now if you don't want to risk wind burn, duck your head and don't look away from me." He warned her. Heart thumping in her chest, Michelle did so, burying her face against the alien fabric of his tracksuit. She felt his grip tighten on her, and then there was a moment when she felt his weight shift where she wondered why he smelled like dirt -

And then there was nothing but the wind.

- o - o - Gwen - o - o -

Essex Pond

(NE) of Bellwood, California

6:41 AM.

Gwen could almost see why her grandmother loved this pond so much as she looked out over it and the forest that surrounded it. One that was bright with the colors of fall even now, even with the dawn barely touching it, but all of that only made it pretty. There was just a feeling. Something that she couldn't put into words even as the world woke up around her.

It felt like peace. Like Grandpa Max.

And that was what drew her out after her Doofus left even though her hair was still wet from the shower and the air was barely any warmer than the water had been by the time she was done.

Not that she felt it, even if the logical part of her brain knew that she should have been freezing since she came out without a coat or even Ben's windbreaker. Just a light sweater and the pair of jeans that she'd slipped into the Rustbucket with all of her other necessities after Saturday, just in case. She'd packed away socks and sneakers, too, but she'd forgotten about them until she felt the dew-kissed grass under her bare feet, and by then they didn't seem to matter.

Nothing really did as she sat there with her chin on her knees and her arms wrapped around her legs on top of a rock at the edge of the pond. A huge one that she knew people used as a diving board when they weren't sunning on it because she'd seen her Doofus jump off of it so many times after they got back last summer. 'It's deeper than it looks!' He'd shouted right back with a laugh every time she told him how bad of an idea that was. It was the same laugh he'd had years ago at a different lake when they were still strangers to each other and he still thought that scaring her was the best thing ever while Grandpa just watched them both with a shake of his head and a chuckle. It drove her nuts back then, but she would have taken all the scares her Doofus could dish out just to hear that laugh just one more time.

She tried. She did, but the air stayed as still as the dark water in front of her lit up as she looked down into it and wondered…

Not where the light came from. There weren't many fires out here, and only one that walked like a man. "We came camping here a few times," she said, somehow smiling absently as she saw something rush by under the water. A shape that made her hug her knees closer to her chest as she wondered, even if she didn't know why. "Just me and Grandpa Max. It used to drive Ben up the wall, but…"

But he always knew when she just had to get away. Even when she was barely more than a baby.

"You like to go camping?" Alan asked when she didn't go any further, his voice still rough and disbelieving as he stopped in his tracks and she knew if she looked at him he'd be fidgeting just from how his flames danced in the water in front of her. "Is that how you found the place?"

"Grandpa Max found it before I was even born. Grandma Verdona - Dad told me that Grandma loved the water, " Gwen admitted with a shake of her head, and she didn't know why the word hurt so much or how it could make her shiver when the chill couldn't. "And so do I, but camping?" She shrugged, and then she smiled again as she looked over at the R.V. that wasn't home, but it was so, so close. "Not that sleeping in the Rustbucket really counted as camping. But I loved…"

Spending time with him. She tried to say, but she just choked on the words.

The past tense.

Those words wouldn't come, but others did. Others just rushed out of her while she blinked away the blurs of fireflies playing in the fog over the water. Fireflies that looked so much like - "But he had this telescope, you know? A big one, too. We set it up every time and he showed me the moon and the planets and - and he told all about the constellations and - "

And it was so easy, feeling him standing behind her as she watched those dancing yellow lights. She could almost hear his voice and she dug her fingers into the fine weave of her sweater just so she wouldn't reach up for the shoulder that he always had his hand on while she was seeing the universe because she didn't know how she would survive not finding it there now.

It must have been written all over her face because she heard Alan's feet shift in the sand. "We could - "

"It's gone," Gwen told him before he could finish, her voice cracking as she shook her head. It was just one more thing that they lost in Phoenix.

"I bet you that my Pop Pop could have found you a new one," Alan offered, the words coming too fast and too slow all at the same time as Gwen wiped her burning eyes with her sleeve. "He knew every thrift shop and flea market in town and he could find anything. We were going to do an intervention, but…" His voice drifted off then, and Gwen didn't push him. She just nodded as they watched the fog lift over the water together. Fog that caught a touch of the color that was already filling the clouds high over their heads. Color that caught Alan's attention before he looked back. "They should have been back by now."

He sounded as worried as she knew she should have been, but she didn't look back at the RV or the road. "They're on their way," she said absently as she stared down into the dark water as she shifted her weight on the smooth stone beneath her.

"How - ?" Alan started when a distant howl of a siren answered for her. No, not a siren, a shriek. One that got louder as it got closer and never, ever stopped. Not even when the blur did, not five feet away. Alan let out a yelp and jumped, and Gwen smiled in spite of herself and wiped her eyes one more time as XLR8 gently set down the precious cargo he'd been carrying.

Michelle wobbled a little but didn't fall down as she stepped back away from XLR8 with her eyes shining. "That was…wow." She managed to say, and Gwen's smile widened as Ben looked away, but even with his faceplate down she could tell he was beaming. Michelle looked over to Gwen and bit her lip as she tried to fix her windblown hair. "And you carried Gwen like that all the time?"

"When we needed to get somewhere fast," Ben bragged, and a brief flash of red light enveloped the blue dinosaur before Ben took its place. He mustered a weak smile as his eyes found her. "Of course, sometimes the Watch didn't cooperate and Stinkfly had to do an aerial lift."

"If I didn't see it happen when trouble started, I'd swear you were doing it on purpose just so you could spread the smell, Doofus," Gwen accused even though her heart wasn't in it as she got up and walked over to them. Neither she nor Ben said anything else after that, and Michelle proved how good of a friend she was when she read the room.

In two seconds, Michelle had stepped over to her and wrapped her up in a hug that Gwen hadn't even known to ask for. "I'm sorry." The girl whispered. "I'm so sorry." Gwen didn't trust herself to say anything to respond to that, so she just closed her eyes and focused on the hug. It went on for too long, and not long enough, and she tried not to think about how she'd never feel one of Grandpa's again.

He always had the best hugs…

Finally, reluctantly, she pulled away from Michelle and sniffled a little, looking over to Ben. "Did you get them?"

Ben unslung his knapsack and nodded. "Do you wanna go now?" He asked, and Gwen shook her head.

Alan and Michelle looked at each other, and Gwen could see the both of them wondering if the other knew what they were talking about. "There's something here we wanted to show you, but first…" She gestured to the rock that she'd been sitting on and walked back to it. Ben was with her first, and Michelle and Alan trailed behind a second after.

Alan sat on the sand in front of the rock by the shore while Gwen sat between Ben and Michelle on their perch. The both of them ended up leaning in and resting their heads on her shoulders, but Gwen found she didn't mind. She just stared over the calm surface of the lake as the sun started to come up, soaking in the heat from Albright like he was a firepit and finally allowing herself to stop and feel. Nobody said anything as the sky turned from black to purple to a soft blue. Nobody said anything until the sun finally peeked over the horizon and put an end to the darkness of the long and terrible night.

"This…is kinda nice," Alan murmured.

"Grandpa loved it here," Ben said, tucking in a little closer to Gwen. Close enough that she felt his pinkie finger brush against hers, the dork. "He told me once that the sunrises here were the best in the whole world. We never got the chance to see it before, but I always figured…" He stopped talking again.

That they would have time, Gwen finished as she took his hand and squeezed it. Then she felt another arm wrap around her shoulders, one that was too soft and hesitant for her to ever mistake for her boyfriend's, but that she knew just as well. They were sitting so close together that Michelle must have been bumping Ben's as well, not that the girl seemed to mind.

And for once, Ben didn't either. It was a good thing, too, since Gwen couldn't move. Not when she was trapped by her boyfriend, her best friend, and their new friend as they watched a new day dawn.

It was almost perfect, and then it wasn't.

"We don't have to do this. Not today."

- o - o - Michelle - o - o -

Michelle didn't want to say it. She wasn't stupid. Some part of her was dying to know, but the rest…

She could have been blind and she still would have seen that her best friend, that they all needed this. Just a moment. Just a chance to watch the world and catch their breath without worrying about her even if this was almost torture sitting here and feeling lost in a way that changing continents never made her. She knew the second that her feet touched the ground again and she saw the look on Gwen's face.

And that was the worst part.

Wanting answers when she knew that her father had made it out of that mess last night alive. Her best friend and Alan and Watch Boy had. But their Grandpa hadn't. She didn't even have to ask or look toward the RV. She just knew, and she wished she didn't.

She wished that she could just forget about it all and tease her Crazy thing about being one of those girls instead, the kind that they saw in the movies who always gushed about being carried around by their boyfriends just because she knew it would make the prim girl blush and maybe - just maybe even giggle. And maybe after that, she would even admit that she could see why when having Ben hold her like that…

She didn't even like Watch Boy - not like that anyway - but it still felt like a roller coaster even before he started running, and being embarrassed was so much better than thinking about her house and everything that she'd just run away from.

And everything that she was running into.

It would have been perfect and it disappeared from her head even faster than her house had behind Dinosaur Ben as she raced over to Gwen and pulled her friend in for a hug, holding her tight and refusing to let go. That Gwen hugged her back and still hadn't let go set off every alarm bell in her head.

And now all she could hear was the ringing as they all stared at her.

"We don't, " Michelle repeated when she finally worked up the nerve to speak again. Alan's head ducked down, and Gwen shut her eyes and said nothing. "I can… I understand."

And it was only a little bit of a lie. And a lifeline, even if she didn't know for who.

"No," Gwen finally said when she opened her eyes again. Eyes that were so, so red and went right to Michelle's as something that looked as much like a smile as her nana's licorice Turkish Delights tasted like candy went across her face. "No, you've waited long enough and - " her voice went haggard as her hand went to her eyes and proved her next words another lie. "And I don't have any more tears right now."

"Okay," Michelle answered even though it wasn't and she said it through lips that felt thick and dry. It was the only word that she could think of except for, "What happened?"

They all looked away at that, and in the end Ben was the only one who spoke, his voice detached. He didn't move anything but his head as he sagged and stared at the water. "It was a trap." He said. "For the Army. They had water tanks full of…" He gestured vaguely around his head. "They had one on Grandpa, we pulled it off of him and he helped us fight them. But there were just too…" Michelle tried to listen to his words, but she couldn't stop staring at the dark, puffy bags that were under his eyes. Had he slept at all last night?

Had any of them?

Then she jumped when Ben's hand curled into a fist and he slammed it against his hip, holding it there, but it was Gwen who kept talking as she sank into herself and wrapped her arms around her middle. "We lost. Grandpa… stayed behind. Made sure they couldn't hurt anyone else."

Alan finished, his flames dim as he looked away from all of them. "He was a hero."

And now he was gone.

"He…" Michelle tried but she kept stumbling over the next word, the noise in her head too loud for her thoughts to stand a chance.

It was a silence that Gwen finally broke as looked over to Ben. "Now?"

"Yeah." And Ben pulled around the knapsack that he had on over his shoulder, unzipping it to reveal it was stuffed full of…

"Flowers?" Michelle asked, gaping. Beautiful yellow roses, plump and healthy when nothing should have been growing, not with how cold and wet it had been. Was that why Watch Boy disappeared on her? So he could hit a flower shop?

"From the garden behind my house," Gwen explained as she carefully pulled the flowers out of the bag. Flowers that weren't cut. Not like all of the ones that Michelle had ever seen. Flowers that still had their roots on them, roots that were covered in dirt, and a little shovel tucked away under them along with some pair of thick and well-used leather gloves.

It didn't matter. She still stared at the bush, her stomach twisting into knots as bad memories of every military funeral she'd ever been forced to go to were dredged up in an instant. Time after time, her father handed over that stupid folded-up flag to the wives, the kids of the soldiers who had just lost someone, who had a hole in their lives they'd never get away from. Having to stand next to those graves, flinching from those gunshots, wanting to be anywhere else, and wondering if the next time it would be -

"Mom said that Grandma grew these before…" Ben started, his voice trailing off and his eyes clouding as he pulled a couple of loose bulbs that had broken off of their stems out from the bag. "Not that I listened. What guy cares about anything as stupid as flowers?"

"Grandpa did," Gwen said as she took the buds and tucked one of them behind her ear. The color shouldn't have worked, not with her hair, but it did and despite it all Ben was smiling as she gave him a kiss, and then she turned and looked right at Michelle as she offered the other. "I'm sorry you didn't get to meet him. Them."

Michelle numbly shook her head as she stared at the rosebud. She couldn't understand why Gwen was even apologizing. Her pain, their pain was so much worse than what Michelle was feeling. "Come on."

"Where are we going?" She asked, the words finally coming out as Gwen gave up on waiting and just leaned forward and slipped the bulb into Michelle's hair so that they matched. She didn't help, but she did let herself get pulled up while Ben…

Ben offered Alan one of the pairs of gloves. A glove that Matchstick just blinked at a few times before he put it on - and then he held his hand out to the boy who was still sitting on the ground, and the look on Alan's face when he reached up and took it…

"There's something we want to show you. Both of you," Ben said as he pulled the other boy up and they started on a curving walk around the still unfrozen water and into the woods.

The woods, where the dawn still hadn't reached and nobody came to clean up the leaves or anything else on the ground. "You're going to cut your feet," Michelle whispered as her mother somehow channeled herself through her mouth. Except her mother would have been so much louder, and that just seemed wrong here.

They were the kind of words that would have gotten her so much hell in school, but Gwen just smiled and shook her head as she looked around. "Not here," she murmured, and for a second Michelle thought that the girl meant that nothing bad would happen in this park and then she heard someone scoff.

"Of course not, Dweeb," Ben said, proving her wrong as he pointed with his free hand. "It's over there."

"I can't believe that you managed to find a tree in the woods, Watch Boy" Michelle teased because she had to say something as he led them over and around one that looked just like all of the others around them. "Good job. What do you do for an - "

And then words failed her when she saw it, them. The hearts that were carved into the bark right next to each other, one just a little higher than the other, and the initials inside and she shoved her hands over her mouth so she wouldn't scream.

- o - o - Ben - o - o -

"Hey, Grandpa," Ben said finally as he stared at the M+V that was carved there. He looked at his own and Gwen's first, letting good memories run through his head before he reached up and traced the heart outline above theirs. The one Grandpa and Grandma had made back before he'd lost her. But now…

Now they were together again just like Grandpa made sure that they were after -

"Grandpa brought us here this summer. After…" Gwen said, continuing Ben's thought without even realizing it even if she couldn't say the rest.

"After Phoenix." Ben finished, finally pulling his hand back. "We'd known about the lake, that he loved coming out here. But we didn't know why until he showed us this."

"This place was special to him," Gwen added, sitting down on her knees. "It was because of this tree. Because of Grandma. That's why I had Ben stop to get the flowers." Ben looked at the other two and blinked. Alan seemed confused. Michelle wasn't saying a word. If anything, she looked like she was fighting back a sob as she stood there with her hands over her mouth and just kept staring at the hearts carved into the tree. "And because I've always thought that this place needed…"

"These were Grandma's," Ben explained, handing Gwen the trowel he'd used to dig up the rose bush in the first place. "And we're planting them here. All of us." He didn't say anything else after that, he just helped Gwen dig the hole while Michelle and Alan watched. When it was big enough, he stepped back and handed the other glove to Michelle before he set his bag and the dug-up rosebush next to the hole.

Alan and Michelle caught on, and with one gloved hand each, they pulled the bright yellow flowers and their roots out and set it into the hole. With gentle scoops and pushes, they filled in the hole and patted the dirt down around the roots, and as they worked…

"If you want," Ben told Alan, squirming as he knelt there until he finally shoved a dirty glove through his hair. "We'll go looking for the knife later. Or find another one. The Dweeb and I were thinking that - "

"That maybe you would want to carve your parents' initials, so we can remember them, too." Gwen finished as the burning boy just stared up at them both until he didn't. Until he was staring down at the hole in the ground and he whispered an answer.

"Thank you."

Michelle reached over and took his gloved hand in her ungloved one. His grip was as tight as it was hot, but she didn't mind as Alan held on for long seconds until he finally gave her a smile and they went back to work together.

When it was done, Alan stepped back, keeping the glove on so he could pat Ben on the shoulder. He gave the other boy a smile and a nod because of course guys couldn't just say what they were thinking.

Michelle lingered, though, kneeling by the rosebush and looking between the flowers and the engravings on the trees. "You and Ben…" She said, glancing at Gwen and looking lost. "Why?"

Ben watched Gwen look over at him and caught out, she gave him a smile that didn't break the sadness of the moment but softened it. "Tradition." She said, and Ben felt his heart thump a little at everything wrapped up in that one word. Then she got down beside Michelle and reached for her friend's hand, tugging the gardening glove off. "One last thing to do."

"What? What are you…" The girl stammered as Gwen's pale fingers threaded through the space of her olive ones.

"Just feel." Gwen shushed her and took a breath. So did Alan, whose eyes went wide while he took a step back as a soft pink glow settled over Gwen's hand.

"Is it - ?" Michelle asked the same thing that Ben knew that he probably should have the first time he'd seen it happen. Except this kind of magic was different than the kind that Hex and Charmcaster were always blasting at them. That was like an electric storm and this was like bread fresh out of the oven, but what would be the fun in telling her that? So he just crossed his arms and waited.

And he didn't need magic to know what Army Girl was thinking when she shot him a dark look after that.

Then the violet light flowed out of her hand, across Michelle's, and down into the soil around the transplanted rose bush. It took only a few seconds, but when Gwen pulled back, Michelle stared at her hand like she'd never seen it before.

"What did you do?" Ben heard Alan ask and the awe in his voice made Michelle jump and finally look at his Dweeb again.

And Gwen just shrugged. "Gave it a little help." Only people who knew her would see the worry in her eyes.

Worry that faded away as Michelle looked at the roses again and whispered, "Magic can do that?"

"Magic can do a lot of things." Gwen stood up, and she conjured a shield spell flat on its side. It looked like glass, and it didn't. It was solid and not all at the same time and Gwen hopped up onto it like it was nothing. She took a moment to settle herself on the glowing pink disc before turning around. "I like using it to fly. Do you want to try?"

"I-I don't know if I should." Michelle stammered. "You just lost your grandfather. And don't think I don't know why we're here! This is a - a- ! Are we allowed to…to have fun?"

"Of course we are." Ben snorted. "Grandpa'd scowl up a storm if we didn't."

"...Are you sure?" Michelle pressed, still looking at Gwen.

Gwen just nodded and smiled as she looked around again. "He wouldn't want us to be sad. Not here."

"...Okay." Michelle breathed, clenching and unclenching her fists a few times. "Okay. Is it safe?"

"Safer than Ben's driving." Gwen teased.

"Hey!" Ben called out with a grin that felt like it should have been impossible. It eased some of the tension Michelle still carried, and Gwen held out a hand to her friend.

"Do you trust me?" She asked Michelle. The girl bit her lip and nodded her head, finally holding out a hand. Gwen pulled her up onto the disc, holding her hand even after. "Okay. We'll go slow. Hold on tight."

Gwen's slow must have still been fast enough, because as soon as they took off through the hole in the tree canopy overhead, Michelle was shrieking again. In surprise at first, and then with delight.

Ben rolled his eyes, then looked over at Alan. "We're not going to just stand here and let girls hog all of the fun, right?"

"Hell, no." Alan huffed, restraining his laughter. Ben smirked and reached for the dial, powering it on and sliding his selection into place before slamming his hand down.

Out of the flash of green light, Big Chill emerged. Alan stared at him with his glowing Pyronite eyes, and Ben flexed the overgrown moth wings of his chosen form.

"Come on, Butane Boy. Let's go flying." He teased Alan and shot off with a mighty wingbeat. Alan was half a step behind him, shouting back.

"That's not my superhero name either!"

They quickly caught up to Gwen and Michelle, and Ben grinned when he saw how Gwen was lit up with laughter as they soared over the lake while Michelle clung on for dear life even as she finally looked to be enjoying it. Learning, just as Ben had, how cool magic was. How awesome the Dweeb was for being able to use it.

How being able to fly was so worth so many other things.

A cold-breathing mutated moth, a burning alien rock monster, and two girls on a magic disc flew around each other and across and above the surface of the lake that had been Grandpa Max's favorite place in the world…

- o - o - Michelle - o - o -

20 Minutes Later

Michelle had to admit that even if she'd been scared at first…flying was amazing. And magic was turning out more amazing, the more she learned about it.

The four of them sat around a campfire Alan had started with an old boombox radio Ben had pulled out of the RV playing Rock N' Roll songs from an Oldies station that had a strong enough signal. Alan and Ben kept trying to brainstorm 'hero names' and that had been a shock to her, to find out that Alan really was as much of a geek as Ben was when it came to comic books.

The names Ben gave his aliens made so much more sense once she'd realized that. She just hoped that Alan kept Gwen's boyfriend from naming him something stupid like 'Hotfoot.' Or Matchstick, she decided. Michelle liked calling him that, but she didn't like the idea of anyone else using it. That was her nickname for him.

But she'd let them work that out. She had her own mysteries to solve as she reached up and touched the next stone in her hair. "So what's this one?"

Gwen leaned in and examined the scratches on the polished violet rock, squinting a little to make it out. "I think that one was supposed to be a protection charm. A minor one."

"So I shouldn't run out into traffic then?"

"No, but have you stubbed your toe lately?" Gwen asked. Michelle blinked and thought about it before shaking her head. "They're…little things." She admitted, brushing back at her hair and looking strangely bashful for a girl who was usually anything but. "Nothing like how the Charms of Bezel were supposed to work. Those things were dangerous."

"They're gone now, at least," Ben added, butting into the conversation. Michelle let her hair drop and gave the boy her best unimpressed stare, and Ben smiled and shrugged. "And Hex will never get them back again if he does crawl out from whatever rock he scurried under. Good thing, too, considering how close he came to throwing us off of Caesars Palace the last time he had them."

"Off of? You two…" Alan said the exact words that Michelle was about to from her side, even if he snorted the words and she shot him a grateful look as she pulled her knees up close to her chest. They'd shared a few stories about their first and second summers together, traveling with their Grandpa and getting up to all kinds of craziness. Then he asked the question that she didn't dare. "Can you think of something you did that first summer where you weren't almost killed?"

Ben and Gwen looked at each other, and Michelle could have sworn that they were almost communicating with their eyes alone. Ben put on a smirk. "Well…"

"No, Ben."

"But…"

"Or should I tell them about the time you…"

"No, okay! Okay, sheesh." He made a face and Gwen smiled, settling back with the satisfaction of someone who'd won the argument without really trying. "Well…if you leave out the heroing, or you focus on the edges of it…" Ben made a face. "Gwen?"

Her best friend sighed and pushed a hand through her red hair. "Honestly, it's not like we went looking for trouble. It just…always seemed to find us."

"The Tennyson luck, Grandpa called it once." Ben agreed, pausing as the radio finished off the Beach Boys track and went immediately into the next song. "Oh, man." The boy's eyes went wide with the first few hectic notes as he grinned. "Hey Dweeb, you know who this is?"

Michelle tilted her head to the side, trying to figure out why he was so excited about a band that she didn't recognize. Alan seemed just as clueless, but Gwen perked up after a few seconds. Slower than Ben had, but she still caught it.

"Shag Carpeting? Wow. This station does play all the old stuff."

"It grows on you," Ben admitted, before smirking a little bit and adding, "Like a fungus." That got a laugh from Gwen and Alan chuckled a bit himself. "I even managed to find an old T-Shirt for his Christmas pres…"

He stopped talking so suddenly that he almost choked, and Gwen whipped her head up in horror as the smile melted off of his face. He closed his eyes and clenched his hands into fists for a couple of seconds before relaxing them again.

"We were in Chicago, the first time we heard them play. Grandpa wanted to share some of his music with us, the stuff he listened to when he was - not our age, that stuff was ancient, but the stuff after he got back stateside. And of course some idiot had to go and ruin it with the monster of the week, and I got to go Fourarms and Rock out like nobody's business to stop it, but…"

Michelle didn't know what to say as Watch Boy just fell apart on them. He didn't wail, or moan, but every time he tried to say a word he choked on it until Gwen couldn't stand it any longer and pulled him in for a hug that didn't stop while Alan looked away and she…

She just stared, her whole body numb as Ben's pocket tinged again, but this time he didn't even reach for his phone.

"I was such a jerk." Ben finally managed, the words strangled as he kept his eyes closed. "He didn't deserve it. All he wanted to do was rock out with us and I - I - "

"It's okay, Ben. He forgave - "

"He didn't deserve any of it! This wasn't even supposed to happen! He was there when we went - he was supposed to get a robot arm a-and - he was supposed to be here," Ben snapped, shaking and holding onto Gwen like she was the only thing keeping him from flying apart and - with tears in her eyes - Michelle had a sudden thought that maybe she was.

Especially when his hand flew for his pocket, and that was how she knew that she hadn't imagined the sound of it pinging a message just like she knew that his phone would have gone flying if Gwen had let go even a little. "And Dad just keeps calling! A-and I don't know what to say! How do I tell him that Grandpa's - ?"

His voice broke then on a word that was too big for any of them, and the quiet that came after that was only disturbed by the sound of old men singing about a world long gone….

- o - o - o - o - o -

Finally, Gwen's pocket rang, too. It rang on and on, but she didn't reach for her phone either as she just held onto her boyfriend until it stopped and she promised, "We'll think of something."

But the words just sounded hollow.

"Didn't - " Alan started as he shifted in the sand for a long moment before he nodded at the R.V. "Your Grandpa has that thing rigged just in case he has to get somewhere fast and he needs a nap. Didn't he - He was as much James Bond as my dad. Didn't he tell you what to do if he - ?"

Matchstick choked on the last word, too. The whole world did, which only made Ben's snotty snort all the louder when he finally broke it. "Yeah. We're supposed to call Aunt Vera."

"What's wrong with that?" Michelle finally dared as she hugged herself tighter and dug the toes of her sneakers into the sand. An adult. If they ever needed an adult it was now.

But even Crazy Girl was biting her lip and looking away before she finally allowed, "Aunt Vera's very nice, but - "

"If we needed to know how to talk to a bird she'd be great," Ben said flatly. But not flat enough to hide how he really felt when he hung his head and croaked. "And she's his sister."

"We'll think of something," Gwen repeated, this time a little surer.

Ben just nodded into her shoulder and then he straightened and looked at them all. "We'll have to. And it's got to be good because this isn't over."

"What?"

The word came from somewhere far, far away. So far that it took Michelle forever to realize that she said it. Because her ears were ringing and she felt so dizzy just then. Like the whole world had shifted under her feet, and she looked first at Ben because she couldn't believe she'd heard him right, and then at Gwen.

Michelle saw the stranger from last Friday sitting there next to her and the girl she met two years ago. The one who came into the principal's office yelling at the woman and who had saved her at the museum without even a thought even though she could have been expelled just a few weeks later. The one who could find the best horrible outfits and who had magic and fought aliens. Who had just lost her grandfather, and wasn't running away and hiding like any sane person would be. Who had nodded at Ben's declaration, and was ready to run back into war and the only ones who saw sense were her and -

"He's right," Alan said with a nod and a scowl and for some reason, those words hurt coming from him. "Those monsters… They planned on losing Santa Mira. They wouldn't do that if they didn't have somewhere else already set up. We have to - "

"What?" Michelle demanded as she turned and stared at him even as she waved her hand at the Rustbucket. "Go play Scooby-Doo in that thing? Do you have any idea how crazy that sounds?!"

"Michelle - " Gwen started as she pulled away from her boyfriend and reached out for her. Like she was the one who was -

"No! You already lost your Grandpa!" Michelle shouted at them, at all of them, but her eyes were locked on Crazy Girl's even as tears started pouring from hers. "Let somebody else do it! You don't have to!"

Gwen's mouth moved wordlessly as she looked up until she finally found them. "Nobody else can."

"What about the Colonel?! Go talk to him! He's already knee-deep in this, just - "

"We can't," Ben said, scowling even as he shoved his hand through his hair. "This is a job for heroes, not - "

"Heroes," Michelle echoed because it was just one little word, but it knocked the knees out from under her anyway. "You don't think that I know about heroes?! I'm - I'm an army brat! I see them every day! I've spent my life watching them go away and knowing that s- some of them won't - "

"Mich - "

"And my maman and everybody else are always telling me that I have t-to be brave! That I always have to be brave! I have - I have - " she kept saying the words over and over even after she felt Gwen pull her into a hug and she was just weeping into her best friend's shoulder.

"I always have to be brave for him!- For them!" she sobbed. "Every day! It doesn't stop! It never stops and I can't - I can't - !" And then, the last of which were barely words, "I thought that you were safe."

"I know..." Gwen whispered, crying too, as her hug got so much tighter. "But you don't have to. Not for us. Not for me. We can - "

It was all slipping away from her and Michelle was panicking. Freaking out. In one horrible moment, Michelle saw herself standing in another cemetery, over not one grave but two, watching as two coffins were lowered into the dirt and rifles fired overhead. Grave markers in white limestone with their names carved into them, Benjamin and Gwendolyn, and a terrible sentence beneath. Together in life, together in death, and those words burned to think about as an imaginary Alan walked over to her with two goddamned flags…

Michelle jerked out of Gwen's arms and felt herself shaking just as hard as Ben was and wanting so badly to scream. Why didn't they get it?! Why didn't they understand that they…

"NO! If you leave, you don't come back, you hear me?" She yelled. "I won't watch you two get yourselves killed! You keep going after this, and - and - and we're through!"

- o - o - o - o - o -

Michelle regretted the words the moment they slipped past her lips because Gwen flinched away like she had slapped her, Ben looked furious, and Alan was gobsmacked. All the rage and fury Michelle had felt drained out of her, and she shut her eyes. "I'm…I'm sorry. I didn't mean…" She squeaked when she felt familiar arms wrap around her, and opened her eyes to see Gwen hugging her again. Hugging her when she'd just…

"You did," Gwen told her. Sad, but understanding. "You meant it."

Michelle cried, knew she was crying, and she didn't care. Gwen had cried herself out but Michelle had tears to spare, and it felt like she was crying for the both of them. "I can't go with you. I'm not…" She wasn't special. Not like them. She wasn't strong enough. She'd fired that alien gun wildly, hadn't been of much help for anything, and a week later she was still shaking like a leaf.

They had told her the truth, just like they promised they would. Ben and Gwen had shown her a world full of aliens and magic, the good and the bad, and who knew how much more there was she hadn't seen…but they were going back into the fight. They weren't even thirteen yet and they shouldn't have the fate of the world on their shoulders. It wasn't fair.

And whether it was right or wrong, they weren't going to stop. And Michelle…

"I can't come with you." She told Gwen, hugging her back.

"I wasn't going to ask you to. This isn't your problem, 'Chelle. It's ours." Gwen replied. "And even if you can't…I'm still your friend. Forever."

"Crazy," Michelle whispered, and couldn't say anything else she wanted to. I didn't mean it. I'm still your friend, too. I don't want to lose you. Any of you. Please don't…

But they would. Michelle knew they would the second she opened her eyes again and looked at them. They pulled apart and Michelle wiped at her eyes before she whirled around and pointed a finger at Alan. "Alan Albright, you swear to me you're going to keep these two safe. They're too crazy to look after themselves."

The living fire and rock boy nodded. "I will." He rumbled, and there was a flare of heat from him that made the promise carry weight. He probably still blamed himself for everything, even though none of it was his fault. Michelle looked at him standing there, solid with flaming hair, and saw he never wanted to lose anyone ever again.

Even as he lost someone again. Because of her.

Nobody said anything else after that. There was just a long and awkward silence that lingered between the four of them, nobody wanting to move past the moment because Michelle knew what came next, and she didn't want to talk about it. They didn't either. But they had to.

"Take me home?" Michelle mumbled, looking down at the ground as her hands trembled.

"...Okay." Ben exhaled.

And that was that.

- o - o - Ben - o - o -

They left the Rustbucket, and Alan, back at the lake. He'd taken Michelle home first the same way he'd brought her out - as a blur that screamed by a world trapped in slow motion, that only sped up when he finally slowed down again. The girl had given him a smile as he set her down just up the street from her house, a smile full of regrets and words she didn't say. One last hug he hadn't expected, and then - he ran back to Gwen.

Ben wished that he didn't have to stop running.

Maybe if he didn't, maybe if he just kept the girl he was carrying in his arms there for long then today wouldn't have happened. If XLR8 was just fast enough….

But he wasn't.

"Ben," Gwen finally said, her head pressed firmly against his chest as he ran her home. She must have said it a few times, because she was pushing back against the wind so she could look at him, and when she did…

When he saw the hurt in her eyes. "Yeah?" He asked as he finally slowed to a stop not more than a couple of blocks from her house and in the shade of some trees.

"I…I can walk from here."

"It's no big deal. Just a couple of sec…"

"Ben." She cut him off and shook her head. "I need to walk home. I just…need some time to think."

Ben almost gave her the comeback resting on his tongue, what was there left to think about? But like so many of the impulsive things he'd wanted to do ever since last night - since last week - it went unsaid. But something else slipped out instead. "She'll come around. You'll see. Army Girl's just - " He didn't know. Not words. Those were always her thing, but he thought he knew people well enough and he'd been sure…

"Ben…"

"She'll come around," Ben repeated, desperate as he watched her face drop and take a shuddering breath. Then he swallowed down the lump building in his throat and nodded, stepping back away from her. She grabbed his hand before he could go too far and kissed his cheek, and he felt disappointed. "You missed."

Gwen just stuck her tongue out at him. "I kiss my boyfriend, not the blue alien he turns into." She didn't giggle, but her smile wasn't as thin for a second. "Call me later, okay, Crocodile Lips?"

"Of course." He quickly nodded his helmeted head, feeling his tail lash behind him nervously as he set her down as gently as he could. Gently enough that her sneakers barely made a sound when they touched the sidewalk. "And…"

She shut her eyes. "Tonight. We'll leave tonight."

"Yeah." And pray that their parents forgave them for this. For everything. But he knew just like she did that they had to do this. Grandpa was gone. Army Girl was gone. They were all that was left.

Gwen stepped away and raised the hood on her jacket. "Now get going. I heard your phone ding again on the run over."

"So did yours."

"Brat!" She shooed him off. "Get going, Ben. Don't keep Aunt Sandra and Uncle Carl waiting any longer than they have. We're late for Thanksgiving already." There was only one thing he could have ended with, but he still hesitated to say it. He settled for one last nod and dropped down the visor on his helmet, then took off in a dead run again, leaving Gwen behind. Leaving her neighborhood behind.

The road home was one he'd gone down hundreds of times, but he couldn't make himself run it to the end either. Something made him stop just outside of his old elementary school. It was as closed as everything else, but it wasn't anything in the building that drew him there.

It was the tree outside. The one Grandpa had saved him from on the very first day of the best summer ever and something made him sit in it again then. Sit there as the last few seconds counted down as he watched the road and -

And the man didn't come.

Not then, or when the Watch timed out, or a minute later, or two, or three. After five, Ben finally dropped down to the sidewalk again, slipped his hands in his pockets, and started walking with his head down and it stayed that way the whole walk home until he made the last turn onto his street.

Which was more crowded than he ever would have expected, even for Thanksgiving. And not just with cars, but with people, too. Most of them he knew, some of them he didn't and none of them paid him any attention even as he started slipping through them. Not any more than he paid them.

"-think happened?"

"- bet it's - "

" - probably the mom. You know how those hippy types - "

"Ben?" He heard a man call out over all of them, one so pudgy and old that Ben was sure that the phrase stopping dead in his tracks was going to come literally true one day. Hopefully for him because seeing the old neighbor on the sidewalk in sweats and with the wrist weights was just wrong. He'd used most of the aliens in the Watch just so this wouldn't happen, and somehow it still did.

"Hey, Mr. Baumann," Ben said with the best smile he could manage because for once the man hadn't shouted his name like a curse. He still didn't say it like he was glad he saw him, but being stunned was better than nothing. "Happy - " he started with as much of a smile as he could fake.

Started and stopped when he saw the man's eyes flicker back the way he'd come. Back the way everybody else was looking. Back at Ben's house and the police car that was sitting in the driveway.

He saw it and started running.

- o - o - Sandra - o - o -

Tennyson Household

9:08 AM.

"He'll be home soon."

Sandra didn't even know how many times she's said that over the last few hours. It felt like every time the phone rang those words came out of her mouth for anyone who needed to hear them. For Frank and Natalie. And for her husband. Always for her husband. She couldn't even count how many times she'd said them to him. It never got any easier, but that morning…

That morning was the hardest. Not just because she had to say them again even though she was sure that her son would have been home hours ago. Say them again even though it was Thanksgiving and her family was scattered to only God knew where.

No. The hardest part of saying it now was who she was saying it to.

"I know, ma'am," Lieutenant Flanagan said as he stood there in the kitchen with her, watching her as she made another pot of coffee. He seemed like such a nice man, maybe just fifteen years older than her, but they looked like good years. His tone and face were both kind and somehow that just made it worse.

"I mean it," Sandra added, her whole focus on the coffee maker as it dripped out the last few drops because she knew that if she looked at the man or his blue uniform right now she'd just lose it. This was something that happened on the news, not to real people. Not to her family. "This just isn't like him. He's never done anything like this before. He's - "

The ding from the coffee maker cut her off. It was a ding she'd heard every morning for years, but now she just stared until the man at her side cleared his throat and reached for the pot. "I can get it. We have plenty of practice down at the precinct."

"Nonsense," Sandra said with a jump before she started channeling her sister-in-law as she poured four cups out as carefully as she could. Which wasn't careful enough. She saw the black liquid spill as her hands shook and for a moment she was back in the Reverend's house, her mother watching. Her mother always watching….

And that was what saved her. That's what let her grab onto all of her fear and shove it away, just like she had so many times before. Shove it down far enough that she almost managed a smile for the officer as she took two of the cups she'd poured. The two that had the coffee sloshed over them. "For luck."

"I won't turn that down," Lieutenant Flanagan said with another smile as he took the other two and they made their way to the dining room.

"Just push all of that out of the way," Sandra told him when he paused and eyed all of the printer paper that covered the table there. Paper that she'd grabbed because her drawing pads were too far away and she knew that wasn't making art anyway even as she covered them in charcoal. She just needed something to keep her hands busy while she sat by a phone that never rang with the news she needed and doors that never opened.

"Alright," Lieutenant Flanagan said as he did just that. But carefully. Respectfully even though it was all going in the trash later. She already knew that. There wasn't anything about the last day that she wanted to remember. The man set one of the mugs down and took a sip from the other. It was one of the joke ones that Ben sent them from that first summer off with his grandpa. He'd gotten it in Florida she thought, based on how the palm tree was bending over in a storm, but knowing them it was probably Gwen who picked it out. Either way, that one was hers and she almost snatched it back as she watched him lift it to his lips.

Almost.

She wasn't sure if he even tasted the liquid before he set it back down again, his smile melting away the whole time as he reached for the file folder that he'd had under his arm this whole time. "I know that this isn't easy, Ma'am, but…"

"You're out of your goddamn mind!" Her husband's shout cut him off. His shout and the thunder of his steps down the stairs. Steps that weren't just his, and the ones right behind him were every bit as angry.

"And you're this close to spending the day in a cell for obstructing an investigation, pal!" Another officer said. The one that Sandra was glad left the room before because officer Johnson was the opposite of Lieutenant Flanagan. Everything about the man who was just a step behind her husband now screamed that he might have been the same age as his partner, but none of those years had been easy.

And her husband wasn't helping as he spun around on the man who was only a couple of inches shorter and twenty pounds heavier. "And you're - "

"Carl!" Sandra called out as she ran for him because she saw Officer Johnson's eyes flash the second her husband jammed his finger into the man's chest.

But it was Lieutenant Flanagan's barked, "Bryan!" That calmed things down.

Or at least made his partner turn away and start stomping through the living room as Sandra brought her husband back to the table. Her husband, who looked exhausted now that his temper cooled. He'd looked that way since even before the police showed up after he'd spent a day and a night driving around town looking for their son with his brother.

And he wasn't done yet. He'd only paused so he could get changed into something more comfortable than his work clothes before he went out again. Not that he'd had a chance yet. The police came before he could, and they didn't seem to care that he was still wearing the clothes that he'd left in yesterday morning and he smelled like it. She wanted to tell him to go get a shower - to lie down - to just hold her for a while, but she couldn't. All she could do now was brush her thumbs over the stubble on his cheek as she took his face with both hands and kissed him. He tasted like stale coffee and morning breath, but she didn't care. "They're here to help."

"Like hell they are," Carl muttered back even as he let her lead him back to the table. The table where he didn't so much sit as collapse into a chair. For a second it looked like that was all that he had left in him, but then he reached over and pulled out a chair for her, too. Sandra loved the gesture, but she almost laughed. Like she could sit right now.

But she made herself smile. Sitting was only a little harder.

"We really are, Mr. Tennyson," Lieutenant Flanagan promised, his voice still kind and his look… Well, his look darkened for a second when he heard his partner scoff even as he picked up a framed family photo and studied it like he'd never seen anything like it before, but when he looked at them again there was only kindness in his eyes. "Please forgive Officer Johnson. It's just that we've been through situations like this before and it never gets any easier. Not even for us."

"Like this? " Carl started, his eyebrow going up in surprise before his scowl cutting deeper as he glared at the file folder.

"We know that you have, Officer," Sandra said with as warm a smile as she could manage before her husband could finish, and she was glad that he relaxed a little when she reached over and found his hand.

Her husband's hand was always so big. Big enough that it felt like hers was lost in it, but he was so gentle, too. And he was gentle then, too, until the officer started talking again and Sandra let out a little gasp when his fingers clenched. Not because he hurt her. He would never, but because she felt the true strength in his grip before he caught himself. The strength that came from a lifetime in construction even if he did more desk work now than swinging a hammer.

It was a strength that Sandra depended on and it never let her down. Not even now. Not even as she felt his hand tremble from the stress of a long day and sleepless night and now this. He was her rock. He had been for so long, but now he needed her and…

And she didn't blink. "It's just hard to believe. He's - "

"I know, Ma'am. And call me Walt, please," Lieutenant Flanagan told her as he tapped the folder a couple of times and eyed them both. Then he sighed and turned the thing before he pushed the thing across the table. "If you could just take another look before we go, and if you have a more recent picture it would help us out a lot."

Sandra took the folder even though she knew what was in it, right down to the grainy surveillance pictures. She wanted to shove the thing away, but she just nodded and reached for the edge so she could open it.

She would have if her husband didn't bring his hand down on top of the folder as he gave her a look. "Frank will be here in a few minutes. Maybe we should just wait."

"Waiting won't do anybody any good, buddy," Officer Johnson spat out as he shot her husband a dark look. One that Carl more than matched.

Which was enough of that. "Maybe this would be easier if your partner took a look around outside," Sandra said in the exact same tone her mother used to give anyone who didn't measure up. It was a tone that Sandra still hated, but it did come in handy.

"Bryan," Lieutenant Flanagan said again, and if nothing else, it made the other man turn away before her husband did something Tennyson. "I know that this is hard to believe, Ma'am, but you and your husband really are our best lead and anything you can think of could be a help."

"All right," Carl said as he started to open the folder like seeing the photograph and paperwork inside would make a difference this time. "I - "

And then the front door exploded in because of a living whirlwind that she knew so so well. "Mom? Dad?!"

"Ben?!" Sandra gasped as she spun around, the officers and everything else forgotten when she saw her son standing there in the doorway, his green eyes wide and -

And he looked perfect, standing there in the same clothes and green windbreaker that she'd seen him in yesterday before he vanished outside of his school.

"Ben!" Sandra shouted as she raced across the room and tackled him up before he could disappear again. Raced toward them and tackled him and peppered his face with kisses even though she knew that she should have been mad, that she - she -

She didn't care. Her son was home!

"Mom!" Ben shouted as he tried to squirm away - like she would let that happen! - but he didn't try too hard, and after a moment… After a moment he was even hugging her back and that was what made her open her eyes and look at him. That and the way his voice cracked when he spoke. And it wasn't because he was getting older. "I'm sorry, I - "

"We'll talk about it later," she told him as she hugged him even tighter because he looked just as tired as she felt and she knew why. She knew why the second she looked past him at the still-open door and just saw the police car sitting there. She never thought that he'd actually find his grandfather, but she hoped.

Especially now.

"You better believe it," her husband agreed, his rumbling voice coming from out of nowhere and her eyes shot open again in a sudden panic when she saw him standing right there next to them and his face a storm. One that went away as he looked at their son, but he didn't look any younger when it did. His voice just caught as he choked out, "A-and a whole lot, but later."

And then he was hugging them both like only a Tennyson could, and it was heaven. It stayed that way even when she heard her son mumble from somewhere between them, "I was only gone a day. I can't believe that you guys called the cops."

A day. Sandra couldn't tell if she wanted to laugh or cry because it felt like so much longer and she didn't get a chance to choose. Not when she opened her eyes and saw the hopeless look on her husband's face. It was a look that froze her even as it reminded her why the officers were there. "Ben…" she started, her voice strangled as her husband, her rock…

Carl didn't let go of Ben or her as he knelt down and all of the relief washed off his face. "They are - We didn't call them. You better believe that we were about to, but they're not here for you. They're here - "

"Something happened to your Grandpa Max," Sandra said, her voice cracking as she watched her husband choke and crumble. "Something - "

She didn't get a chance to finish. Not before a sudden siren cut through the room and got everyone's attention. Sandra's head shot up around because she was sure that it came from the police car in her drive, or maybe another had shown up, but the car was still alone and dark there. It didn't sound right anyway. No, it sounded…

It sounded more like something that came from those space movies that Ben liked so much. The ones with the pirates. "Ben?" She asked as she felt her son squirm against her, his face white as his left hand flew for his pocket. Her grip on his jacket slowed him down just a little, but he shoved his arm through the sleeve before she could let go. The green glowing dial on the weird watch that his grandfather got him slowed him down a little more as it caught on the slick fabric before it followed and -

"The Abomination!" Lieutenant Flanagan howled like a wolf the second it did.

"Wha-?" Sandra said as she spun just in time to see Officer Johnson drop the framed photograph he was holding and draw his pistol, his hand moving so fast it was almost a blur.

Drew and fired.

- o - o - Author's Note - o - o -

We got the next chapter done sooner than we expected, so come back next Friday for the end of the arc!