The faint conversation grew louder, and while he couldn't pinpoint whose it was, he knew it wasn't Evie's voice. It was that of a man. A familiar man, multiple familiar men.

Ethan closed his eyes, focusing on them.

It wasn't hard for the darkness to overtake him again. The heat and smell slowly disappeared, and for that alone Ethan was grateful, even if his body felt like it had been through the wringer as he came to. The incredibly uncomfortable bed he woke up on only made him feel ten times worse, but that might have been because it wasn't a bed at all. He assumed whatever was digging into his back were rocks, until he moved and assumed Heisenberg was to blame for the metallic sound.

"He's waking up…" One of the aforementioned familiar male voices spoke, only to shout the next minute (As if he needed another sharp throb to the temple). "Captain!"

He blinked through the haze coating his eyes, turning the amalgamation of oranges and desaturated yellows, greys, and blacks into shapes. Those shapes soon became Chris, as whichever of his men that had called for him stepped away for the man himself to inspect him.

"Good, you're awake." He offered his hand for Ethan to take, and take he did.

The sound of scrap metal and falling pebbles accompanied his rise to his feet. Surprisingly, the sound of cracks and creaks from his weary bones didn't join them, given he felt like he'd been laying there for far too long. "What happened?"

"We were hoping to ask you that, but later. First, we need to leave."

There he goes again , Ethan thought and for once he felt too tired to argue. "Fine. Only if Rose is still safe."

"She's fine, we need to move out," He reaffirmed as he climbed over the debris.

Ethan's hand met stone to follow, but his legs didn't continue. Instead, they stalled for a moment as he took in the scene around him: rubble, destroyed machinery, and a disgusting pool of liquid mold in the crater he'd once seen Miranda bound and near death. Unless he was told otherwise, that pool was Miranda…

…and she better stay that way.

Beyond that, he saw only half of Chris' team with no other familiar faces. On top of that, the sun had descended further down the sky, hanging lower than he remembered it being. What had happened while he was out? In that moment, where the air felt still in the storm's wake and time was more illusion than fact, he listened to the quiet chatter around him.

"…I'm just glad we don't have to carry him."

" We? No, no, no… you and Lobo would've done that, I have my equipment and that's heavy enough, thank you."

"So Heisenberg didn't snatch anything on his way out, I take it?"

"Doubt it, he was long gone by the time I got up here…"

Heisenberg was gone?

"Ethan!" Chris' shout snapped his head back towards the man and his legs finally brought him over the rubble he'd been leaning on. The action held an unfortunate reminder that he was still sore from whatever Miranda had done. "Let's hustle."

"Why are you in such a rush anyway? Mind telling me that at least?"

"Explosive charges," He answered, moving once more as Ethan caught up to him. For many that answer would've been enough. Ethan's sigh said he was not one of those people, or maybe Chris simply knew him well enough by now to continue. "There's nothing else here to preserve. It's better off destroyed before someone else gets their hands on it."

"It better not be timed."

"It's not, but trust me, it's better we leave sooner rather than later."

"Right…"

A silence settled around them, save for the continued chatter nearby, the rustle of clothing and bags, and the crunch of snow underfoot. Then, as they exited the entrance stairwell, there was the sound of rushing water under the bridge. As cliché was it was, it felt like forever ago since he'd first stepped over it with nothing but Rose and the fear of a Louisiana repeat.

Now he was crossing it with protection, with friends and daresay family waiting for him, and the knowledge of Rose's safety. The village itself felt warmer than it had before—no matter how destroyed and ravaged it looked as they passed the stone doors and saw what was less a village and more a war zone. The growths of mold sprouted out like a tree, or a wound, he couldn't quite tell. He could see why Chris wanted to destroy it sooner rather than later.

So much mold…

"Hey, Chris…" he began, neither stopping in their trek.

"Mm?"

"I take it you don't know what happened either?"

"No, we don't." Instead of Chris, it was Night Howl that answered, "After Miranda lunged and grabbed you, you were both encased in some molded cocoon. Nothing we did made a dent, a few of us started to get real worried, but then it just…melted away, leaving you on the ground and no Miranda."

"That damn doll was a mess, don't let her tell you otherwise," Canine added.

Chris finally piped up. "What did you see in there?"

"Miranda, and she wasn't too happy with me either."

"I take it she was trying to kill you?"

"Heh, how'd you guess?" There was sarcastic amusement but no bite to his words. "But that wasn't all."

The crunches of snow gained speed as Night Howl focused on staying close. "Was something else trying to kill you?"

"No, save me, actually. Which is weird, she loved trying to kill me last time."

"She?"

"Yeah, Eveline."

"Eveline?" Chris turned, abruptly enough to nearly collide with Ethan. The cloud that often hung over his eyes, filled with an unknowable distant future and all the plans a leader was burdened to prepare (and the weight of those that failed), was cut through in that moment. His full attention was on Ethan in a way that had him feeling like a kid in trouble.

"Yeah…she's the reason Miranda didn't kill me."

"That doesn't mean she's not still a threat." He huffed while turning, boots carving their soul into the soon-to-be-destroyed snow again. The man returned to his mission.

"She's a brat…but I think she's lonely."

"Lonely kids can do a lot of damage."

"She's not any worse than our company this week."

When silence met him, he smirked to himself. So that was why everyone on his team seemed to love banter, and why Jill always had such a smug look on her face when she succeeded in getting the last word.

"When we get back to the lab, there are some tests I want to run." Night Howl spoke once more, "I'll need your permission, and time. I want to hear everything that happened in there."

"Yeah, sure, later. "

"Yes, sir."

The rest of the questions and conversations sitting on his tongue and mind remained in place. The cold grew harsher as the sun set deeper. The oranges that had settled on his vision since he'd woken up were growing colder, and the warm hue transitioned into purples and blues as the night crept in. From the hill they were climbing, he could see them clearest as they painted the ruined village.

The town itself was gifting the view to him in farewell, a gruesome painting to remember it by. A morbidly beautiful sight that was interrupted by a high pitched voice he knew well, "Ethan!"

He felt the corners of his lips tug up, unable to resist a smile despite himself. Such a shrill voice should be driving him crazy. He looked towards the helicopter as the hill leveled out, seeing the white dress and skin standing out against the black dress behind her. She looked the same as she did when he left the Duke's carriage. There was no reason to worry, but it was a relief nonetheless.

The only thing that was different was the lack of Rose. The bundle instead rested within Dimitrescu's arms behind her. Her form was that of a woman again, the one he'd grown used to. Whatever he'd seen back in the meeting room was gone. How? He had no idea, but he wasn't going to question that sort of thing anymore.

"You are the biggest, stupidest, dumbest, biggest— "

"You said that twice."

"I don't care! You're the biggest, dumbest idiot!"

"Sorry for scaring you, Angie." Except he didn't sound too sorry when there were traces of a smile on his face and in his voice.

"You should be!"

Nearby, he heard Night Howl and Lobo loading the remaining equipment into another helicopter. It seemed he wasn't the only one who heard them as Angie directed her anger and frustration towards them next, like a dog barking at anything that got close to it. A chihuahua at that, one with too much emotion for it's shaky little bones. "And you slowpokes—!"

Along with the men's voices (and over top of Angie's) came an unfamiliar cadence. A look at who it belonged to hardly answered his curiosity. Whoever he was, Ethan assumed he was the cause for the smell occasionally floating towards him. One that reeked of murky waters and that which grew within it.

"Ah yes, you haven't met Moreau yet, have you?" Dimitrescu was the one to properly answer him (as Angie continued to yelling 'motivation' at the men; something Ethan instinctively tuned out).

"Who…?"

"The fourth lord, or former lord now…" He caught the wistful way she said it, giving him pause. A reminder they were losing their homes, their way of life.

"I remember when we first moved here," He offered. While he addressed Dimitrescu, his eyes and hand went towards Rose. Her own little fingers wrapped around one of his. Maybe it was silly, but her big eyes seemed to say that she was thankful he had returned safely. "A whole new continent, new language and customs…away from everyone we knew…"

"Don't think I can't handle a little change." Her wistfulness rested under a new coating of nonchalance, "This is far from the first time I've been uprooted in my life." But the new coating hardly masked what rested underneath as her gaze found something further into the helicopter. "Although a warmer climate may just suit my little saplings better."

He had followed her eyes towards her daughters, all three of them huddled around a portable heater. Not only were they shivering under their blankets, but their skin was coated in a faint white sheen as well, something Ethan had no frame of reference for, but it looked cold. "What's wrong with them?"

"It's too cold for them here."

Too cold…and living in the snowy mountains? The thought had almost made it to his lips before he heard a rumble in the distance. With that rumble came Chris's men shouting louder and the clanks and slams of equipment being strapped up and ready to go. Past him walked Chris who motioned to hurry up and get inside properly.

"Ooh, oh! I want to see the explosion!" Angie excitedly squealed as Donna and herself walked to the front alongside Chris. The man only shook his head with a silent sigh. A picture that brought Ethan amusement before his eyes caught something else: a blanket over a shape, both strapped down on a bed of metal. The outline was one dreadfully familiar enough to pang his heart.

All lighthearted cheer or airs of relief fell into his stomach and turned his feet to lead. It was heavy, but not impossible to lift as he took step after step to reach it. Ethan sat beside her, a hand finding another under that sheet, pulling it out from under to clasp between both of his. His warmth refused to meet hers, met only with a stone cold that bit at him harder than the air and snow outside.

He knew it was so.

He knew Mia was dead.

He felt the pain and hurt of grief regardless of these facts.

His lips pulled and contoured as a heavy breath left him and only him.

"Sorry, Mia, I couldn't protect you this time." His words were drowned out by the take off. The sound of his voice was lost to the void, only to be heard by Mia's deaf ears. That almost felt poetic as he thought about it, a bittersweet comfort given he was never the poetic type. Direct sentiments were his bread and butter, but maybe it was a sign from Mia, as she had been the one who loved them. It was a ridiculous and healing thought.

"Ethan! Ethan! Come look!" Angie cheered, oblivious to the surreal reality behind her.

On his behalf, Lady Dimitrescu attempted to speak, "Now is not the time, Ang—"

"Boom!" She yelled as Chris pressed the detonation button.

He could see the cloud forming in the distance, could feel the shake of turbulence from the airwaves, and he realized he'd been lost in the moment for longer than he'd thought. Only that sense of outer-body didn't dissipate as he was brought out of his grief—not when he saw his attempt at a new life going up in smoke and clouds. It had already long been destroyed but that bomb was the undeniable proof of it all.

Something that he wasn't alone in, as Lady Dimitrescu had mentioned prior.

"Ethan!" Angie called again. He wondered if Rose was going to call his name that many times once she learned how to speak.

"For the last time—"

"It's okay, Alcina." He relaxed her with a soft smile, one with a strength that sat beside the grief to ease her concerns before he addressed the chatty doll beside him. "What—?"

Angie spoke again before he could even finish, "When we settle down in the new house, I'm thinking a greenhouse and a garden! It'll be great! We'll get Rose's thumbs turned green in no time!"

"The hell are you talking about?"

Chris interrupted before Angie's deep breath turned into words, "All hallucinogens will be kept inside the greenhouse at all times , understood?"

"Yeah, yeah, roger that!" She did a mock salute before shuffling close to Ethan and loudly whispering, "We'll get some on the coffee table too, in a vase—"

"No, you will not— "

"Ugh, stop butting into our conversation!"

"Now just…back up a second first," Ethan interjected, a hand raised so no one else interrupted, "what's this about a new home?"

"I suppose I should explain what happened while you were out." There was a shuffle of clothing as Chris moved to sit across from him. His eyes flicked towards where Ethan's hands were still wrapped around Mia's. A tired sympathy crossed them before he steeled himself. "While we were unable to break you from Miranda's mold casing, Heisenberg fled."

"Always a stubborn pain, even when he's not here," Dimitrescu muttered to herself.

"Moreau agreed to return with us to the labs, there he will be both monitored and participating in our research. If all goes well, we may be able to reverse some of the more intense side effects."

"Do you think he can be cured?"

"No, not completely, but we're hoping to mitigate the worst of the symptoms. I'd rather not have him puking all over the labs."

Angie gagged, "remind me never to visit."

"As for those here…" Chris looked between the women seated around him.

It was Bela who spoke up from their huddle for warmth. "We want to stay with you, Rose needs some older sisters."

"Yeah! Who else will show her how to use her first knife? Chris?" Cassandra grinned with mischief and Ethan heard one of many sighs of the night from the aforementioned man.

"She will have no knives." Despite it all, Ethan was still incredibly uneasy about the girls holding sharp objects around Rose.

"Wait until she becomes old enough to get the attention of boys…then you'll be changing your tune."

"…When she's old enough we can talk about it."

With such a reply, she turned and elbowed Bela thrice, "See? Told you he'd loosen up from that."

"I take it this means it's a yes." Chris spoke up, ignoring the girls and looking directly at him.

"For…?"

"Starting a life with these women."

"Is that really okay?"

"Yeah, so long as we don't kill anyone else." Daniela spoke up after huddling closest to the heater, inching closer each time her sisters were distracted.

"Which sucks."

"I believe it's a fair price to pay." Lady Dimitrescu brushed her fingers along Rose's thin tufts of hair on her head, ignoring the thud as Cassandra pulled Daniela back from the heater to even out the heat between them again.

Rose looked so comfortable in her arms, motherly arms that she'd always long for if he were to lose both Mia and Lady Dimitrescu. "Yeah, sure, I know how much they all want to stick around Rose."

"It's not only Rose," Lady Dimitrescu countered, smirking up at him.

"But she is a big part of it, no offense." Something in Angie's voice told him she didn't give any care to if it was offensive or not. In fact, that may have been a part of the appeal.

"Come now, I think Ethan is the best man thing we've ever countered!"

"Uh huh." As dismissive as he was, he couldn't help the upturn of his lip, something that spread further as he remembered something. "Can you really say that Angie, when you were so worried about me earlier?"

"Who told you!?" She squeaked, "I wasn't! Nu huh! You can't prove it!"

"Ooh, busted! We all know you're a softie," Bela teased while holding Daniela by the back of her dress. Said woman grumbled and swatted at Cassandra, the latter sticking her tongue out in retaliation.

"I'll show you how much of a softie I am!" Angie left his side then, focused on her 'fight' with the girls.

With the group of them creating a commotion, the weight of everyone's attention was lifted from him. Their various voices bounced around in the air, turning into white noise around him as he looked back down at Mia. That smile still rested upon his face, no matter how bitter or sweet it sat. It was a shame she couldn't be here, but he couldn't imagine her agreeing to have such a lively household, nor could he see her agreeing to a lot of things that had been an enormous help these last few days.

Bittersweetness was destined to haunt his grief, but the chaos around him acted as a barrier to prevent his grief from haunting him.

Between the pages of a diary sat a simple piece of paper. The three creases from its years in an envelope remained etched into its existence and would remain there for the rest of its days, no matter how long it remained flattened in its new home.

It was during milestones such as these that it was taken out read, it's words memorized by now.

Happy Half-Birthday, Rose!

My gift to you is a promise.

I'll always be there for you. No matter what. I'll be there every birthday to watch you blow out the candles on your cake. I'll be there to make you breakfast and walk you to school every day. I'll be there when you have a bad dream and sing to you until you fall back asleep. I'll hug you tight when you're troubled or worried and tell you that everything's going to be all right.

You are my precious Rose.

Never forget that.

Dad.

As the final word was read, her father's voice came muffled through her half-closed door. "Dinner's ready!"

"Just a second!" She yelled back.

Like clockwork, the voice of another immediately trailed hers. "It's never a second! It'll get cold!"

No matter who it was—and this time it was Bela—they always knew her too well. A second would become several and then she'd be getting more than just one voice demanding her presence downstairs.

She couldn't help but roll her eyes as she stood, but she failed to put her pencil down, only the letter. Her hand continued to write furiously to get all she had to say onto the paper. It was never enough once she'd been bit by the journaling bug: from her time at school, to her time at the lab, and everything in-between.

No matter what everyone else said, her life was pretty damn cool.

September 4th

It's happening tomorrow, High School! Dad said he'll finally let my sisters teach me how to use a knife, even Chris said he'll let me apply it to my self defense lessons (but let's be real, whoever's reading this, it's because we both know they won't teach me defense, only offense lol).

I'm excited to try wearing the new clothes Jill gave me! They're more my style than what my sisters suggested, but I have a hard time saying no to them, and get this, she told me…

…

"Rose!"

"I'm coming!"

A/N: Originally this fic was going to have 17 chapters with the 17th chapter being an epilogue. This has been scrapped as I now plan to have a sequel fic in the future! Said sequel will be on the back burner as I focus on other projects and ideas I have lined up. When it's complete and ready to be posted, it will be available on my Archive of Our Own first before cross-posting anywhere else (Username: Katophoenix).

For those unfamiliar with AO3, the website has a feature called "series" which links related stories together akin to a book series. "A family of Weirdos" is the first part of what is named "The B.O.W. Family" series (fun fact: this was originally the name of the epilogue/chapter 17). To get an idea on what the next story in this series will be, the sequel will follow Rose in a heavily divergent version of the DLC (with special guests Eveline and other familiar faces in the mold…)