Chapter 6

"America's a whole other kettle of fish." {Harold Fraker King 'H', pg 183 book 4}

Aurora reported to her new assignment as a YA right after breakfast the next morning. Claire and the twins accompanied her. They had been given the task to help pass out sandwiches to the refugees but they wouldn't be needed until lunchtime. In the interim they stayed with her in the renovated daycare center.

The twins hurried to meet up with the child who had shared his blocks with them - Alder his name was, and as Aurora sat near to them while they played she noticed more about his peculiarity. It was akin to Olive's prowess with fire, and as he smiled and talked to the twins smoke often wafted out of his mouth.

A lot of the children behaved similarly, using their peculiarities without fear. It was something Aurora had experienced of course while living in Cairnholm, but after everything with the wights, the running, the hiding, the fearing for their lives. It was so refreshing to see that one shred of normal peculiarness – if such an oxymoron existed.

In the opposite corner of the room sitting cross legged on the floor was Roberto Popplin, a boy of about thirteen from a loop in Brazil who insisted others call him 'The Great Teleki-neato' and was currently using his telekinetic powers to assemble a thousand piece puzzle. Roberto was the eldest of the children in the room and more so used the space in his time off from other projects assigned to him in the Acre. He had shared his loop with Marblemaw, which is how he knew of the little sanctuary's existence within the former asylum.

Not far from Roberto were a cluster of four other peculiar children. The most noticeable from where Aurora sat was Slemina Gray, a girl no bigger then Claire who had white hair that stood up on end that brought to mind Albert Einstein. The hairstyle turned out to be a side effect of her peculiarity – Slemina was a galvanizer. She had such an excess of electricity flowing through her that she could power a lightbulb with just the touch of a finger. Slemina's body was said to act much like a battery and she had been considered to power businesses around the Acre before the task was deemed inhumane. She sat at a small wooden table with a radio resting on it's top. Sitting on the floor before her were Roy Chao – a water tamer – and sisters Mae and Jane who could talk to the dead but had to phone ahead first making them less useful to the Dead Letters Office then Enoch was. Aurora decided to not tell her friend about the girls who were lucky enough to get out of the dreadful task. The reason Slemina was sat by the radio was simply the fact that the transmission came in clearer when she was in close proximity to the device. And the other children had gathered around to listen to the music. Elise had told Aurora she thought it helped them picture they were anywhere else than Devil's Acre.

At the long table where Marblemaw had been yesterday were two young girls. One, Eugenia Brody, was a diviner, but what she could divine she never said, not even to her ymbryne. She had been found one afternoon after spending days standing outside a house where some great tragedy had happened, just staring at the building and whispering. Now, as she sat at the table covered in papers and crayons, Eugenia only continued to draw the same house over and over and over again as she continued to whisper to herself.

Seated at the same table, though much further down, was a girl named Lillian Link she was eight just like Eugenia was, but instead of socializing with the others she preferred the company of her pet snake. Lillian could speak to animals and when asked about joining the other children shamelessly voiced that they bored her and that none of them – even the adults in the room – were as nearly as articulate as her snake was. So she sat alone content to color and hold hushed conversations with the reptile.

The children entertained themselves for the most part, though Elise and Aurora took turns reading different picture books to the children when they got bored of the makeshift toys. Regardless of how young they looked Aurora knew their minds were likely decades, if not centuries, old. But they seemed just fine being treated like children. Maybe they knew the dismal tasks the other peculiars had to grit their teeth and bear and were simply counting their blessings that they got out of it.

When Elise told Aurora she could leave for a lunch break she wasn't too sure of where she should go. The layout of the asylum was still foreign to her and as she navigated the chilly damp halls she was glad she'd thrown on a light sweater instead of a blouse today. She passed by an office where one employee was using a broomstick handle to defend her lunch from mice that looked like they lived in whatever her office had been back when the asylum was functioning. Hurrying her steps Aurora passed the space reserved for the Ministry of Temporal Affairs next to the office for Inhuman Affairs. The next door was wide open and had no one inside, the plaque beside the door had a paper taped over it that read: Peculiar Archives.

She knew morally she shouldn't, but she also knew that if Millard's file was in there that possibly it held a list of the places they wanted to assign him to spy on. That would at least give her the advantage of time when she had to mentally prepare for him to be sent away. Despite his proclamation that he would refuse to leave her she knew how - for lack of a better term – pushy the ymbrynes could be. And refusing them while under their sharp focused stares could become an impossible task. So ultimately, she stepped inside and began to look around.

Even in the state peculiardom was in and the massive amount of tasks that needed seeing to, the Peculiar Archives were still arranged neat as a pin. Therefore, it didn't take Aurora long to find Millard's file. In fact, it was right behind hers since they were arranged by surname, which she and Millard now shared.

Flipping through she saw no information more current then: currently working in Peculiar Intelligence Department. She sighed as she mindlessly flipped through a few more papers, some drafts from his book chronicling every event to take place in Cairnholm on September 3, 1940. Notes he'd submitted from annotations to the Tales he'd been working on in his – now limited - free time. Even his degrees were here. She smiled to herself as she flipped through his law, EdD and MBCh certificates.

She remembered how hard Millard had worked over seventy years to get them, mailing in assignments, spending hours reading and studying, much of which was spent with her, sitting in the garden under the shade of a tree. Sometimes she would read as well, or draw, or work on any other skill she'd decided to pick up. The best thing about loops was they gave you endless time for hobbies, you could master as many talents as you liked whilst living in one.

"Aurora?" she heard her name and turned to see Millard in the doorway. He was wearing trousers and his usual button down, he'd also worn his vest, no doubt thinking along the same lines she had been when dressing this morning. He had his cap and jacket as well, though the latter was tucked over his elbow, his hand in his pants pocket. "What are you up to?"

She shrugged trying to look more innocent then she knew she was, not that Millard could complain, this was exactly the type of thing he would do – only he wouldn't get caught. "Since it seems no one likes to tell us anything anymore I thought I'd see what I could find."

He walked over to her and looked over her shoulder as she kept flipping through the papers. The gold seal of the university – ivy league of course – with the fancy looking signatures of the dean, the president and the chairman of the board underneath Millard's name and the subject of study in which he'd earned the diploma.

"We should have these, don't you think?" she asked, envisioning a quaint office in their future home. Millard's degrees hung neatly on the wall behind a desk stacked with his work.

"Why?"

She turned to look at him. "Don't you want to keep them?"

His vest shrugged, "Not particularly. They're just pieces of paper."

The mental picture quickly turned dim and her heart sank a little. None of which escaped Millard's notice.

"Darling?" his voice pulled her out of her freshly dashed daydream. "What is it?"

She smiled and shook her head, "Nothing."

She felt his eyes linger on her, analyzing. She did her best to not let the dull ache in her heart show on her face.

Had she been foolish for thinking in such a way? Or was she lazy and selfish for wanting to abandon peculiardom for something so simple? So peaceful?

"Aurora." Millard said, forgoing his pet name for her as he shut the file in her hands before cupping her chin to get her to look at him. "Talk to me. You seem. . . burdened."

She took a deep breath, took the file folder and turned back to the cabinet, "I'm just tired that's all." She shrugged it off, pulling herself out of his gentle grasp as she did so. "Physically, and mentally."

She heard him sigh, "I'm sorry." He apologized sounding guilty.

Aurora turned back to him with confusion written across her face.

"I've been too preoccupied with my problems. I've been going on about speaking to Perplexus and trying to get into the Mapping Department. I haven't once asked about you."

She leaned back against the file cabinet. "We might be married Millard but I'm still a grown person. The only one with responsibility to take care of me is myself. You're my husband, not my sitter."

He gave a sad chuckle, "Regardless, I want to care for you. I want to be there when you need my shoulder to cry on, or my ear to listen, and. . . I haven't been living up to that. And I'm sorry."

He'd stepped closer and the back of his fingers brushed her cheek, she leaned into his hand, letting her eyes slide shut as his thumb caressed her skin.

"Do you want to go get lunch? You can tell me all about your day."

She opened her eyes and looked to the floor. "Mill. . . do you think I'm a bad person?"

His thumb paused, "Aurora I highly doubt even a small ounce of you is a bad person."

"I feel like a bad person."

"Whatever for?" his other hand lifted to her face.

She sniffled, "I can do my job, I can be a YA. . . but not forever. I don't want to keep coming back here. I don't want a job in the Acre, as considerate Miss Peregrine was when assigning me one, I don't want it. And that makes me feel like I'm being ungrateful. But. . . I can't get rid of this urge to try and have the life I want, to pursue it. And I know no one in the Acre wants to be living this way, how disgustingly privileged must I be to think for even a moment that I. . . " she trailed off, the emotions becoming too much to hold back. She had to stop talking to focus on keeping it all in. She didn't want to cry she just wanted. . . wanted to go to sleep and wake up when everything was better.

"Aurora. . . if you were a selfish person you wouldn't be thinking of how others are going through the same thing. You wouldn't be so ridden with guilt nor would you be putting this pressure on yourself." He let out an exasperated sigh, "You're a very caring person, a very loving person, you're so considerate and kind and good. I hate that you have this doubt in yourself."

"Everyone else wants to help, even before their lackluster job assignments, and all the while I. . . I don't think I can keep up. Not like everyone else, not like you."

Maybe it was the war, and constantly cleaving to one another. Or maybe it was some unspoken expectation of being married that left the impression that if one could not keep up with their spouse or grew weary that something was wrong. Had she not just said she was no one's responsibility but her own? Did she believe that, or did she want that to be the way things were? Did she fear she would become a burden to the love of her life?

Meanwhile Millard was thinking about when he had discussed his parents with Jacob 'Knowing what I know now, how fragile the mind can be' "It's not wise to assume everyone else is coping so flawlessly. Unless you can read a person's mind you cannot know the struggles the people around you are going through. And it's usually surprising when people discover how many others are going through the same thing they are. That they're not alone." He kissed her forehead then pulled back to look her in the eye, "And you're not alone."

She sniffled again and smiled up at him. Kissing him tenderly she embraced him and let her head rest on his shoulder as she composed herself.

"Besides, some people enjoy what's going on." Millard said whilst rubbing her back, "That fool who writes for the Muckraker certainly is eating this all up. It's the scoop of the century."

She laughed at that and he held her tighter. They stayed like that for a moment not sure to continue the subject or to make another joke.

Thankfully, her stomach chose that moment to protest her diversion from getting lunch and Millard suggested a place to eat as they let the topic drop.

Long limbed Marblemaw showed up only an hour after the lunch break, his shift was meant to swap with Aurora's while Elise oversaw it all. Relieved of duty for the day she and Millard returned to Bentham's house hand in hand and found their door back to Florida. Just as they walked through the back door of Jacob's house they heard from the front door, "Where have you been?"

It hadn't just been the pair of them that heard the angry shout, as they made their way to the front door the others all popped their heads out from various points in the house looking eager to interrogate Jake and Emma who apparently just returned from somewhere unknown. Aurora had a hunch but kept it to herself.

"Where's Miss Peregrine?" Jacob asked looking around like the Bird might show up at the sound of her name.

"Still in the Acre." Horace replied, "Lucky for you all the ymbrynes are in a very long council meeting."

"Something big is going on." Millard tacked on, deducing that a long ymbryne meeting practically confirmed what he'd already overheard and speculated.

"Where were you two?" Hugh asked.

"Bum touching on the beach?" Enoch smirked.

"Off in Abe's secret bunker?" Bronwyn asked hopping on her toes.

Emma ushered them all into the living room promising she and Jake had a story to tell. And boy did they have a story to tell.

They had met with Abe's old partner, the man called H. He'd tested Jacob with a hollowgast attack and apparently he controlled the hollow. Jake spoke in awe of how the older man had the monster sitting at his feet like a dog while he fed it scraps from his plate. He mentioned the old waitress who minded the small loop that only needed to be reset every so often and how America had loop-keepers who went from loop to loop doing such a task instead of ymbrynes. Emma jumped in about the small mission he'd assigned them once Jake had proven himself and his abilities. H had given them two packages and the promise of a much more important mission if they succeeded with this one.

"You're not actually considering this are you?" Horace asked when they were finished.

"Damn right we are." Jake replied, "And we want a couple of you to come with us."

"We're a team. All of us." Emma said looking around at all of them.

The reactions were clearly divided before anyone even said anything. Claire looked angry and Horace looked nervous. Hugh and Bronwyn looked cautious while Enoch, Olive and Millard seemed ready to jump in the car right then.

Even though she couldn't see him, Aurora knew Millard well. From how still as a statue he was when Jacob was talking to how he leaned forward in his seat now. She could feel waves of excitement radiating off of him and could only imagine the light in his eyes. While assignments to spy for Peculiar Intelligence hadn't interested him this was different. This was similar to what they had just been doing a handful of weeks ago. And since they'd come out of that alive it filled not only Millard, but Jake and Emma, with confidence. Confidence that they could do it again. And no doubt there was an element of just doing it to show the Birds they were wrong for their shoved-to-the-side assignments. Getting pushed into menial tasks from the ymbrynes certainly didn't help matters and the desire to stick it in their faces and show them just how capable they were was an infectious feeling. And obviously was powering many of the emotions in the room.

"Miss P's been so good to us." Claire said sourly, "We owe her more than this."

"I agree." Bronwyn said, "I won't lie to her. I hate lying."

"In my opinion, we're much too concerned with what Miss Peregrine thinks." Emma replied.

"I think missions like the ones my grandfather and his group used to do are what we're supposed to be doing." Jake backed her up, "Not glorified office work for the reconstruction."

"I like my assignment." Hugh said crossing his arms.

"But we're wasted in the Acre." Millard debated, "Just today after lunch they tasked me with my assignment. They want me to sit in some office for waste management in a loop from 2003. Miss Peregrine said by our helping the reconstruction we would inspire other peculiars, what's inspiring about that?"

Ah, Aurora realized, that's what's made him suddenly so eager for this. Why he'd gone from 'I don't want to go anywhere' to 'I want to go somewhere that matters'. She wasn't sure to be disheartened by her husband's thought process, or to be mad at the ymbrynes. After all, if they had listened to Millard and given him a job in Mapping all would be well.

"I told you it's all politics." Enoch spoke up, "We're just children to them and they want to give us enough dull work so they don't have to worry about us. They refuse to admit we trudged through bloody world war two chased by wights and lived!"

Aurora rested her hand on Millard's leg. She could tell how easily it would be to get caught up in the moment, in the chance to do something heroic again. He promised he'd stay, she reminded herself.

"We can go fearlessly into the present." Millard went on, "Who else with our level of experience can do that?"

"She didn't mean we should go now." Hugh argued, "We've only had one day of normalling lessons!"

"You could be ready." Jacob told him.

"Half of us don't even have modern clothes yet!" Horace said overcoming his nerves enough to speak his piece.

"We'll figure it out." Jake said before bringing his tone down, "Look, there are peculiar children in America who need our help, and I think that's more important than rebuilding some loops."

"He has a point." Aurora said in a small voice, her mind plaguing her with images of small children shivering in alleyways with nowhere to go.

"Hear, hear." Emma nodded.

"There's one who needs help." Hugh clarified, "If this H fellow isn't lying."

"Abe's logbook is filled with hundreds of missions." Jake reminded him, "Half of which involved helping young peculiars in danger. Peculiars didn't stop being born after Abe stopped working. They're still out there, and they still need help."

"They have no real ymbrynes of their own." Emma said.

"This is why you're here. This is what we're supposed to do. The hollow hunters got old, the ymbrynes are too busy having meetings, and there's no one more equipped to help then us."

"If we can just prove it to some guy we don't even know." Enoch said sarcastically.

"It's a test." Jacob told him, "And it's one I intend to pass. Anybody who feels the same, be downstairs with a bag packed at nine a.m. sharp."

Jake left the room, heading for the kitchen. Aurora leaned back into the couch as Millard rested his elbows on his knees. It was the same tugging problem: the urge to help wrestling with the urge to take control of her own life. Only now instead of a bubbling pot it felt like someone turned up the heat and now everything was spilling over like an eruption.