To those reading this chapter for the first time, ignore the section that is in bold. I had forgotten to add a scene and the bold section is the revised bit for people who are re-reading. :)

WillowTree1221 thank you so much for your review on the last chapter! This next one I dedicate to you! I hope you enjoy it!

CHAPTER 21

Aurora rushed down the stone streets of Cairnholm headed for the bog where she could - hopefully – lose her pursuer. The young man was fast but luckily Cairnholm's streets were always taking twists and turns and Aurora knew every single one of them, so she at least had that advantage. She made it to the point where she'd turn off the cobblestones and walk through the bog without being caught. She looked behind her to make sure the man wasn't there – he wasn't. And just as she was about to step off the road an arm shot out from the bushes and pulled her into the green foliage.

The man pulled her further into the trees but not deep enough, she could still see the road from where they were. He tugged on her arm making her face him.

"Aurora." He said almost in shock but didn't let go of her arm, knowing she'd run. "How? Mother thought you were dead."

That immediately stopped her struggling. Her mother? He knew her mother? The man looked her over almost like he was seeing a ghost. "My God, you haven't aged a day. How can that be?"

He must have noticed the confused look on her face because he gave a chuckle, "Aurora, it's me, Noah."

Noah? Her baby brother Noah? The last time she'd seen him he was only ten months old and now, she did the math quickly in her head, now he was a man in his early twenties. She was too stunned to speak so Noah continued speaking.

"Mother said that you would have found some way to contact us if you were alive. Why didn't you? What happened after you ran away? And how on earth have you stayed so young?" he rambled off questions in his American accent. Did her family leave Europe after the war?

"Noah, I . . . I can't explain it." she stuttered

"Can't or won't?' he asked letting go of her arm, confident that she wouldn't run from him.

"I. . . " age out a voice whispered in her head and she realized how long she'd been away from the loop. "I have to go."

He grabbed her arm again, "Aurora please, I just got you back. Don't go." He pleaded. Aurora looked into his blue eyes and saw the baby she'd left behind that night, the brother she never got to really know.

"I'll meet you here tomorrow."

"Aurora –"

"Tomorrow, and I promise I'll answer all your questions."

Unfortunately, stubbornness seemed to run in the Abbott family. Aurora could tell that Noah was following her all the way back to the loop entrance. He stayed far back not making it too obvious but she could tell someone was following her. She didn't stop him, there was a small part of her that hoped that if he followed her, if he found the loop, maybe he'd be able to pass through, maybe he was peculiar too. It could run in families, Bronwyn and Victor were evidence of that.

NOAH P.O.V.

Aurora traveled down an unmarked path through the bog, it amazed him that she seemed to know every marshy spot like the back of her hand, where as he had to keep stopping to pull his feet out of sink holes and mud. There were a few times where he lost sight of her and for a moment he feared that he'd lost her, but then he'd catch a small movement in the corner of his eye and would continue his pursuit.

Eventually Aurora left the bog, Noah was sure they were in an area of the island where few people dared venture. It wasn't muddy here – thank god – and once again she wove through the large boulders and navigated the rocky cliffside like she was reading it from a map. He ducked behind one of the boulders when he saw her turn, clearly looking for anyone who might spy on her. When she seemed sure the coast was clear she entered a crack in one of the massive rocks.

Noah knew it was wrong and very rude to be following her but he had to know just where she was going. There was absolutely nothing here, what would make Aurora come to such an abandoned place? He ran after her into the dark tunnel doing his best to make sure his footsteps didn't echo and just when he thought he'd caught up to her – he hit a dead end. His sister was nowhere to be found and there was absolutely no way she'd turned around without him seeing her. He felt along the wall for another exit but there was none. He left the dark hole and hoped that she'd keep her promise and meet him the next day.

AURORA P.O.V.

She'd made it to the dead end and felt the air change as she was pulled back into the safety of the loop. She stood in the cavern for a minute or two and when Noah didn't appear she gave a heavy sigh. That small piece of hope inside her shriveled up and died as she tried to cope with the harsh reality. Her brother wasn't peculiar and she was back to feeling alone.

oOo oOo oOo

Aurora kept her word and met Noah the next day just as they planned. When he saw her his face lit up with a smile so bright it rivaled the sun. She knew she didn't have long, a few hours at most so she got straight to it. She started with the night she ran away and how now she lived in a time loop – a day that repeated itself - and that's how she never got older. She explained about people who were gifted and had to hide their abilities – what they called peculiarities – from the rest of the world because they knew they wouldn't be accepted.

"Like the X-Men comics?" Noah asked, his question puzzling her.

"The what?"

"The X-Men. It's a new comic book series. It's actually really similar, people called mutants have these super human abilities and use them to save the world."

"Mutant?" Aurora asked, the term making her somewhat offended.

"Yeah, don't take it as a bad thing. They're called that because their abilities come from a mutated gene they carry. They're actually really cool, like superheroes."

Aurora tried to imagine that for a moment, if the children at Miss Peregrine's home used their peculiarities to fight crime. She almost couldn't hold back the laugh when she pictured Horace trying to talk fashion sense into a criminal robbing a bank.

She'd gone on to talk about ymbrynes and how they created the loops and watched over the peculiar children. She even mentioned briefly about hollowgasts and wights but didn't dig too deeply into those subjects – he might be a grown man but Noah was still her little brother and she didn't want to give him nightmares.

"What about the ghost?" Noah asked.

"What ghost?"

"Whenever I asked about you and Dad was around he'd start muttering about some ghost that attacked him. I could never figure out what he meant."

Aurora couldn't stop the laugh that erupted from her chest and found it hard to stop once she started. Eventually though she needed to breathe so the laughing fit calmed down enough for her to talk.

"That wasn't a ghost, that was Millard!" she said still giggling but soon the laughter stopped and the smile fell from her face as she remembered Millard and all they'd been through. Noah saw the joy in her eyes turn to sadness and as much as he didn't want to bring up a painful memory he wanted to know more so that he could help comfort his long lost sister.

"And Millard makes you sad?" he asked finding no better way to push the subject.

"Millard and I are. . . complicated." She said quietly. She saw the curiosity in Noah's eyes and knew she wasn't getting out of this.

"Millard is the first peculiar I met, back in France during the war. We grew close very quickly and when Father found out we'd been sneaking around he got angry. That was the night I left. Millard's invisible, that's his peculiarity."

"Like Sue Storm?"

"Is she one of the X-Men?"

"No she's one of the Fantastic Four, she can turn invisible too."

"Millard's not like her."

"How do you mean?"

"You said she can turn invisible?" Noah nodded, "Millard can't turn it off, he's invisible twenty-four seven, three hundred sixty five days a year."

"Wow, that's. . . " Noah's brow furrowed as he clearly struggled to find a word to describe Millard's peculiarity. Finally he settled on one, "tough."

"It is. Millard's very bright but he still struggles with things."

"Like what?"

"Like. . . feelings," she replied taking a deep breath to steady herself and tried to describe Millard from a objective third point of view, "Because he can't be seen Millard finds it hard to believe that anyone can ever have feelings for him."

"Do you?" Noah asked.

"I do." She said in a quiet voice, "Millard and I we are- were. . . " she trailed off, their new relationship status still too painful to talk about. Noah, thankfully, was able to piece it together.

"What happened?"

There was a long pause while Aurora held back tears, once she was sure none would fall she answered, "He dumped me."

"Because he doesn't believe that you can care for him because of the invisibility thing, right?"

"Not exactly. Millard knows I love him, he just. . . thinks that I can do better. Which is absolutely absurd."

"How does he know?" Noah asked.

"Beg pardon?"

"You said Millard knows you love him. How? Did you ever tell him 'I love you'?"

"Well of course I – "she paused as she thought back. She must have said 'I love you' to Millard at least once. But the more she thought the more she was certain that she'd never said the word, and neither had Millard. It hadn't bothered Aurora before, their feelings for each other had always seemed so obvious – neither one had felt the need to say it. But what if that's where Millard's doubt had come from? Not once in their seventeen year long relationship had they said 'I love you'.

"Well, we never said the actual word but, Millard's so clever and it was so obvious he had to have known."

"Can I tell you a secret about men?"

"What kind of secret?" Aurora asked skeptically.

"A very big secret, one men refuse to acknowledge as the truth, but deep down know it is."

"And what's that?"

"Men are fucking stupid."

"Noah!" she slapped his arm for his foul language but Noah only laughed.

"It's true. If you like a guy you literally have to spell it out for him. Never assume anything, and if you must assume then assume that we have no clue." He continued to laugh and soon Aurora was laughing with him, her sadness – for once – forgotten.

AN: I did not make this up! I had a crush on a guy and asked for advice from one of my male cousins and that was his exact response!