Reading Time: 93 Minutes

Title: A Brother’s Protection
Author: ThirteenRedVampireBites
Fandom: 9-1-1
Genre: Crossover, Dimension Travel, Family, Fusion, Hurt/Comfort, Kid!fic, Pre-Relationship
Relationship(s): Gen, Minor Pairings
Content Rating: R
Warnings: Hate Speech, Discussion – Child Abuse, Discussion – Suicide, Implied Deaths Off Screen, Homophobia, Racism, Discussion – Violence, Health Issues and their consequences, Not Maddie Friendly,
Author Note: Please see notes in master post
Beta: Grammarly was an okay friend.
Alpha: didbuckygetaplum
Word Count: 123,305
Summary: Daniel happens to overhear one conversation he shouldn’t have. His resulting Emergence changes the lives of every member of their family. One brother’s protective instincts set the world on an entirely different course. Some changes are for good, and some just take a left turn.
Artist: didbuckygetaplum

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Part 25—All new arrivals

“Daniel Buckley to the head office. Daniel Buckley to the head office, please,” the intercom announced in the middle of Daniel’s Pre-Christian History class.

He looked up from his textbook and the various images of several different Ancient Egyptian tombs to squint at the speaker on the wall. With a sigh, he started packing up all his stuff in his backpack. He was just about to put his textbook in his bag when the possibilities of everything finally hit him.

“Oh, oh, oh,” he breathed and started to rush. He hurriedly pushed his textbook into his bag, shoving his agenda inside after.

Elijah leaned over from the desk to his left and poked him gently with his pen. “What’s up?” he murmured.

“Aunt Max went into labour!” Daniel hissed in an undertone, and Elijah’s eyes widened dramatically.

“Mr. Brandt,” Mr. Wayne called from where he was helping another student on the other side of the room. “You may escort Mr. Buckley to the office. Pack your things, and both of you go.”

Elijah jumped into action to pack all his things, and soon enough, the two boys were exiting the room. “Are you sure?” Elijah questioned once they were in the hallway, hurriedly walking down to the end towards the nearest stairs.

“I’ve been antsy all day,” Daniel pointed out, reminding his best friend of the two times he’d already been called out in class for being restless. It was nearly the end of the day on a B-Week, and so far, in the long class right before lunch as well as the first short class after lunch, the teacher had had to talk to him about restlessness and fidgeting disrupting the learning of his classmates. “I thought it was just Ev being excited because we promised him the park after school—you know how strong the Bond has been this week—but,” he shook his head, “I don’t know how I missed the new Bond forming.” He pressed a hand to his chest and rubbed a firm circle over his heart. “I can feel it now though.”

“Your strongest Bond is still with Evan,” Elijah reminded as he pushed open the stairwell doors. He waited for Daniel to go down first, following along behind him. “You told me the Bond with him eclipses every other Bond you’ve got, so it doesn’t really surprise me that you didn’t feel it because of that.” He shrugged when Daniel looked at him. “How does the Bond feel?”

“Small,” Daniel admitted. “It’s so thin that I wouldn’t have noticed it at all otherwise.”

“Again doesn’t surprise me,” Elijah added as they tromped down the stairs. He directed Daniel down towards the Art Wing, knowing that they would need their coats since it was still the middle of February. He considered what day it was and couldn’t help but laugh.

“What?”

Elijah took a moment to calm down before he explained. “It’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow,” he pointed out with another laugh.

Daniel snorted and ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know that Aunt Max would be happy with that,” he muttered as they came to their lockers. “She’d probably figure out a way to hold off on labour just for spite.”

Elijah laughed and unlocked his locker, emptying his backpack of everything not important before refilling it with everything he’d need for the rest of the day. He grabbed his jacket, tugging it on before swinging his backpack on. He shifted from foot to foot, waiting for Daniel to catch up before he grabbed Daniel’s wrist and tugged him down the hallway.

“Slow down, Eli!” Daniel laughed, nearly tripping over his feet as he followed Elijah down the hallway. A few turns later, they were coming down the hall next to the office.

Through the glass of the interior windows of the main office, Daniel could see Anders standing next to the reception desk in his BDUs, waiting for them. He had a warm coat on, but otherwise, looked just like he’d stepped out of his office.

“Grandad!” Daniel greeted excitedly as he pulled open the door.

“Daniel,” Anders laughed. “Yes, she went into labour about forty minutes ago.”

Daniel cheered, bouncing as he came to a stop at Anders’ side. “Has she had the baby yet?”

Anders shook his head, “No, her labour has stopped again. She figured you’d be distracted by the forming Bond, so to save you from coming down here to call us, she told me to get you early.” He focused on Elijah, “I spoke with your father, Elijah; he agreed that you can come with us to keep Daniel entertained while we wait.”

Elijah snickered as he came up behind Daniel, wrapping his arms around Daniel’s shoulders and leaning on the smaller teen. He tucked his chin over Daniel’s head, humming at Daniel’s aggravated sigh. “I can do that,” he agreed with a grin. “We have a project for Pre-Christian History that we were doing planning on when you got Danny called down here.”

“Alright,” Anders agreed. “I’ll get you two signed out and then we can go join the rest of our menagerie at the hospital while we wait for Max to bring our newest member into the world.” He reached out and gently touched both teens before crossing to the desk, taking the clipboard from the receptionist and quickly signing where he was required.

“Alright boys, let’s get going,” Anders directed, ushering them out of the office ahead of him. “My car is in the front lot.”

Daniel pushed out the front door first, taking a deep breath of the sharp February air. He paused at the top of the stairs as the forming Bond pulsed quickly, another filament strand weaving into the cord between him and the new baby. He sighed deeply and quickly two-stepped down the stairs, eagerly crossing the parking lot to Anders’ new gray SUV, bouncing as he waited for the doors to unlock. As soon as the door was unlocked, he was setting his bag inside and climbing up next to it.

It wasn’t long before they were ready, and Anders was backing out of his parking space and driving out of the parking lot.

“I know Aunt Max had a class this morning,” Daniel started, staring out the window at the passing scenery. “Did she…?”

Anders snorted. “She was in the middle of a guided meditation session when her water broke. Luckily for her, there were a couple of Medics in the class. One of her students bundled her up and got her to the hospital; Tyreen called me when she left the building to let me know what was happening, but he was in the middle of class so he couldn’t leave at the time, so your Grandma and I went to meet Max at the hospital.”

“Is Tyreen there now?” Daniel asked.

“No, we told him to keep Evan at the Center until we know what the timeline is. There’s no reason to coop the kid up in the hospital when he could be at the Center with the other kids. He’d enjoy that a lot more than waiting in the hospital,” Anders told him, turning the next corner. “And when Tyreen looked in on him after his class, Evan was very enthralled with a couple of the other kids and some blocks, so he didn’t feel like trying to drag Evan out either.”

Elijah snorted in amusement. He knew from a few times they’d walked the couple blocks to the Center to get Evan after school that if he didn’t want to go, the tot could throw a tantrum like no one’s business. “He’ll be disappointed we won’t be going to the park today, but I think the distraction of a new baby will be more entertaining.”

Daniel snickered. “We can only hope it doesn’t take forever then,” he hummed as they turned the final corner to the hospital, Anders turning into one of the many parking lots.

Anders paid the parking fee and went through three aisles before finding a spot, parking between a large truck covered in mud and a small white car. “Grab your things, boys,” Anders directed as he turned the car off and gathered his things. He pulled the keys from the ignition and waited for the boys to be ready before he opened his door and stepped out.

“Do you know what room she’s in?” Daniel asked as they edged around the car into the open driving lane.

“No, but we’ve been asked to wait in the maternity ward waiting room until she’s had the baby and is settled in a recovery room,” Anders replied and paused to lock the car before he led the way up to the smaller non-emergency entrance that was closest to the maternity ward. “Kallen and Henri are on their way, but they won’t get here until much later today.”

“That’s too bad,” Daniel murmured, looking around as they stepped inside the hospital. This was the first time he’d been in a hospital for any reason that wasn’t for himself other than the day that Maddie was born. The only reason he’d been around for Evan’s birth was the fact that he’d demanded it.

The receptionist at the front desk looked away from speaking with another small group of people and waved at Anders before focusing back on her work. Anders hummed and headed for the elevator, pushing the button to go up before waiting to the side for the elevator car to arrive.

“So we’re just going to wait?” Elijah asked in an undertone as they waited.

“We’re just going to wait,” Anders agreed with a slight smirk. “It could be hours; it all just depends on what happens with Max.”

Both boys wrinkled their noses but nodded as the elevator doors opened to let the previous occupants out. A young girl came bouncing out first, red curls bobbing around her head as she moved. She was chattering away to a young man around Liam’s age and an older man, likely her brother and father, excitedly talking about the new baby in their life.

Anders led the way into the elevator as the girl’s father reminded her to breathe; the doors closed as she took a dramatically deep breath, and her brother laughed at her. Anders’ grin was visible in the mirrored side of the car, getting matching grins from both Daniel and Elijah before he pressed the button for the fourth floor labelled ‘Maternity’. The elevator jolted sharply before beginning to rise from the ground floor.

The car rose to the second floor before stopping, doors opening so that someone else could get in. A nurse in bright green scrubs with blonde hair stepped inside, smiling at them. She twisted around and placed herself against the wall of the car, reaching over to press the button for floor 5, ‘Radiology’.

After the interruption, the elevator car rose straight to the fourth floor. The doors opened, and Anders led the way out of the elevator. “Mira was in the purple waiting room when I left her here to go pick up the two of you. Let’s see if she’s still in there,” he led the way down the hall, motioning to the various coloured cards outside small glassed-in waiting rooms. It didn’t take long for him to find the one he needed, and a quick glance through the window showed Miranda sitting on a dark purple armchair with a book in her hand.

Miranda looked up as the door opened. She smiled as they entered one by one. “Hey boys,” she greeted, putting her bookmark into her book and setting it aside. “We probably could have waited until they were finished,” she pointed out to Anders. “Nothing has happened yet, and it’s only an hour until school is over.”

“It wouldn’t have been long before Danny felt the Bond,” Elijah interrupted, dropping his backpack onto the free couch along the other wall that Miranda wasn’t using. He dropped down next to it, blinking at Miranda and Anders when they looked at him. He shrugged and looked up at the clock on the wall, “He probably would have noticed the Bond in about fifteen minutes.”

Anders snorted as Daniel made a face at his friend, following the older boy across the room to the couch and practically falling down on the cushion next to him. He practically pouted as he pulled his backpack between his feet, stripping off his winter jacket at the same time and throwing it over the couch arm.

“Fair enough,” Miranda agreed with a small laugh, “And he would have called someone demanding to be picked up once he did feel the Bond.”

“I’m right here,” Daniel complained. He huffed and folded his arms across his chest.

“We know,” Elijah teased, leaning across the couch to poke him in the cheek gently. He grinned when Daniel turned to look at him, leaning further over to press a playful kiss to Daniel’s cheek.

Daniel blew a raspberry at him before turning his attention to his backpack, bending over to dig through his bag for his notebook and textbook. He kicked off his shoes and pulled his legs up onto the couch, folding them under himself so he could use his knees as a table. He bent down to grab a pen, flipping open his notebook to the page for his project.

“And it’s back to waiting,” Anders sighed as he joined Miranda on the other couch, settling comfortably and throwing his arm around her shoulders as he rested. He tipped his head back against the back of the couch, his eyes slipping closed as he settled into an almost meditative state.

Daniel studied his grandfather for a moment, trying to figure him out. One would think a Sentinel, especially one of Anders’ power, would be on edge with a member of their Pack in pain and separated from them. And usually, that would be the case; usually, a Sentinel would be pacing up and down the length of the room, snarling and growling about the whole process. But as Daniel reached for his grandfather with his Gifts, he realized what Anders was doing—his grandfather had dropped into the Bonds, and Daniel could feel Anders pulling part of Max’s pain onto himself so that he was feeling it instead of her. Daniel wondered if it was helping and what it felt like for Anders, but he didn’t have enough control over his Gifts to manage anything like it.

Anders hummed, eyes opening slightly to look at him, and Daniel felt a nudge against their Bond. He huffed at the slight grin on Anders’ face before turning to his textbook. There was going to be plenty of time tonight before Max had the baby for him to come up with a list for him and Elijah to go through for possible project topics.

–

Jasmine Alayne Buckley was born at 1934 hrs on February 13th, 1995. She was a large 14 inches and 8.5 lbs. She was born with a full head of thick dark hair, little curls filling the top of her head that told everyone who looked at her who exactly her parents were, especially when Kallen leaned over the hospital bed to press his forehead against Max’s as they looked down at Jasmine for a posed picture at Henri’s urging.

Daniel eagerly waited his turn to hold her, watching as each Guide in the room held onto the baby, small wisps of blue psionic energy floating around them. He knew from his lessons at the Center that it was an intrinsic part of family bonding, even with children who were only gene carriers. Every Guide in the family would bathe the baby in psionic energy for at least a couple of minutes, then they would pass the baby on to the next Guide to do the same. The psionic bath would help with the formation of the family Bonds—something that Evan had missed initially, but that had been quickly remedied about ten minutes after they woke up from that first nap—and it was a proven boost to a baby’s immune system to get that bath.

Daniel cooed as he took Jasmine from Miranda, scooping her up against his chest as he leaned back against the wall. He gently brushed the back of a finger down Jasmine’s cheek, smiling as the psionic energy began pooling around his fingers, blue sparks flying off his skin to sink into Jasmine’s skin.

“Hi, Jas,” Daniel murmured, leaning down to press a light kiss to her forehead. The psionic energy around them thickened, covering them nearly entirely in blue. She wiggled at the whole process but was otherwise calm and settled. Daniel kept it up for a few more minutes before he wrangled the psionic energy under control and started weaning it off, thinning the blue slowly until it finally disappeared. He leaned down to press another kiss to her head before handing Jasmine over to Elijah, getting a squawk of surprise from his best friend even as he took the baby easily.

“Hi there, squirt,” Daniel heard from Elijah as he moved to the hospital bed to hug Max.

Less than a month later, after Max had only been home for two weeks, Max got a phone call in the middle of the night. The ringing had woken everyone with a phone in their room, but before anyone else could grab the phone, it stopped ringing. There was some muffled talking from the nursery that they tried to ignore, at least until Max left the nursery to knock on Anders and Miranda’s door.

Daniel sat up in his bed, letting the blankets pool around his waist as he reached for the switch of his bedside lamp. He groaned at the invasion of the lamp light into his eyes as he reached up to rub his grimy eyes. He was only left alone to wonder what was going on for a few minutes before there was a slow knock on his door.

“Come in,” he croaked and rubbed a hand through his hair. Squinting against a yawn, he watched Liam come into the room, wrapped up in his blanket and dragging the edge of it across the floor. He waved at the older teen, flopping back on his bed and scootching over so Liam had space to climb up onto the bed and join him. The older teen came over and sat down on the edge of the bed, taking a moment to tug his blanket off before he tipped to the side and landed in the open spot, wiggling a bit until he could put his head on the other end of Daniel’s pillows.

“Something’s happened,” Liam muttered into the little space between them, kicking his feet to settle his blanket over himself. “Something bad.”

“I think so,” Daniel agreed, eyeing the partially open door. He wondered if they would get news about whatever was happening tonight or if they’d have to wait until tomorrow.

His question was answered soon enough as there was a short knock before the door opened, and Max stepped inside, closing the door behind her. She sighed as she came over to the bed, sitting down next to Liam’s hip.

“Alright,” Max huffed, reaching up to pinch her nose. “I’m going to lay it out straight. That was your Aunt Jen.”

Daniel sat up and frowned at her. “Is she okay?”

Max wrinkled her nose and sighed deeply. “No. She was rushed to the Gaffney Chicago Medical Center tonight after she collapsed in the kitchen trying to get a drink of water. Kelly called for the ambulance after she fell, and he and Jackson went with her to the hospital. The doctor who looked her over told her that her cancer has gotten to the point where she’s going to need to be admitted.”

Daniel winced and slowly laid back down. “Oh,” he breathed.

“Yeah,” Max murmured. She ruffled a hand through her bedhead, tugging the longer strands back from her face. “Mom and Dad are going to pack some stuff, and they’re going to take a week or two and go get everything settled for Jen, including getting the boys ready to come here.”

“When do they leave?” Liam questioned.

“In the morning. Jen gave Wallace Boden temporary custody of the kids until they can get to Chicago,” Max explained.

Daniel nodded slowly. “We’ll have to go to the store while they’re gone and get their rooms ready.”

Max smiled at him slowly. “We can make a list in the morning, see what your grandparents can get shipped from the house and what can’t. We don’t want to have them start entirely over, they’re going to want some of their own things in the house other than the clothes and things.”

“Okay,” Daniel agreed. “We’re going to have to move things around, aren’t we?”

Max huffed. “I think so,” she replied. “I’ll talk with Yarrick and Mathilda in the morning, and we’ll have a very frank discussion about what we want to do here.”

“Okay,” Liam agreed with a yawn, running his fingers through his hair. “In the morning.”

Max laughed quietly, reaching over to pat both teens on the knee before she pushed herself up off the bed with a grunt. “I’ll leave you two to sleep, and in the morning we’ll get started on everything that needs done.”

“Goodnight, Aunt Max,” the boys toned sleepily, twisting around until they were curled together like puppies.

Max paused at the door to smile at the sight of them, “Goodnight, boys.”

–

Daniel was sitting on the porch swing in the heated porch, waiting, when the SUV pulled into the driveway. He waited for the SUV to come to a stop near the garage before he got up and grabbed his jacket, pulling it on before pushing his way out of the heated porch onto the outside porch.

Kelly got out of the car first, looking every inch the sullen teenager. He shut the car door roughly and spun to face the house.

“Kel,” Daniel greeted softly, coming down the stairs and pausing on the edge of the front path and waiting for him. Kelly paused next to the car, and in the next moment, Daniel opened his arms for a hug, and the younger teen raced across the snowy driveway to press against his chest. He wrapped his arms around Kelly, sighing quietly into the top of Kelly’s head. “I’m sorry, Kel.”

“Mom knew what she was doing,” Kelly muttered into Daniel’s chest. “She knew she couldn’t take care of us anymore.”

“Still doesn’t mean you won’t miss her,” Daniel whispered, swaying them gently. He rubbed a hand up and down Kelly’s back soothingly. He squeezed Kelly lightly before pulling away, looking down into the younger teen’s face and giving him a sad smile, then turning to look as who could only be Jackson came around the other side of the SUV.

Jackson looked like a mini Kelly if Daniel was being honest. Much more like Kelly than he did their dad, who they both took after. There were small differences, of course, they did have different moms, but so many of their features were the same that it was easy to trick the viewer into ignoring them. The biggest difference was their size; Kelly had always been taller than most, and he had limited baby fat from helping out around Jennifer’s flower shop, but Jackson was small and lanky with that little bit of baby fat still clinging to his cheeks.

Daniel took another step forward and offered a hand to Jackson. “Hi, Jackson,” Daniel coaxed as Jackson stopped on the edge of the driveway stiffly. “I’m Daniel.”

Jackson rolled his lip between his teeth and nodded slowly. “Hi,” he responded, shuffling his foot through the snow.

Daniel watched him for a moment before holding his arms out in a different offer. “Can I give you a hug, Jackson?” he asked softly. He waited patiently as Jackson decided what he was going to do, staying calm as the younger Severide shifted from foot to foot as he thought about it. It took another moment before Jackson made a decision and hesitantly approached. Daniel waited until Jackson was within arm’s reach before he snapped his hands out and dragged Jackson into his arms, squeezing the boy gently.

“You’re okay,” Daniel murmured into the top of Jackson’s head, swaying them gently. He pulled one arm away from Jackson and dragged Kelly into the hug as well, pressing the brothers against his chest and rubbing their shoulders gently. He felt a warm weight press against the back of his legs and peeked down to find Elpis pressing herself against his calves. She pushed her nose against Kelly’s hand and brushed her fan tail across Jackson’s side.

Daniel kept the hug going as he watched Miranda and Anders drag all the bags into the house, passing nearby enough for Miranda to gently pat Elpis on the back as she walked by. Once it was just the three boys standing on the snow-covered path, Daniel pulled back to look at them.

“How about we go inside?” Daniel suggested, tapping each on the shoulder before stepping back. “Aunt Max made some hot chocolate, then we can show you your rooms.”

A beat passed before there was a hesitant nod from both younger cousins, and Daniel was taking Jackson’s hand and grabbing Kelly’s sleeve to lead both inside the house. Daniel expected that this was going to be a hard adjustment period for them, and in a way that it hadn’t been for him and Evan, considering how close Kelly and Jackson were to Aunt Jen versus how pissed he’d been and how oblivious Evan was. He only hoped that having all of them around would help as it had for him and Evan. Only time would tell if it would.

Only time would tell.

Part 26—A first letter

Dear Liam,

By the time you get this, we’ve probably already spoken on the phone, and I’ve likely told you the whole story in full detail, but I have nothing better to do while I wait for Aunt Max and Colonel Brandt to get here, so I figured I might as well write the whole thing down for you.

I got the pictures you sent. It’s nice to finally have faces to put with the names from your letters. Tell Morgyn that my favourite hairstyle of hers is the braided braid thing she does. And ask Russell if he has any tips for snakes; Jackson’s been asking for one, and I think Aunt Max is caving to the puppy eyes. And I understand why Mango is, you know, Mango.

Before I get into the major news, I have some family news. Aunt Max finally got Jasmine in for an appointment with the hearing specialist. She’d barely laid out what we’d noticed about Jas before the specialist was getting out all these instruments and doing a bunch of tests. It didn’t take long for her to tell Aunt Max the result: Jasmine is Deaf. They won’t know what type of deafness she has or how long she’s been Deaf without further testing, but that won’t happen for a few more months. They can’t be sure she can hear anything without some of those tests, but she’s deaf enough that the specialist recommended teaching her ASL and getting interpretation cards ready for her to learn from.

It won’t be a hardship for Aunt Max since Uncle Kallen’s sister, Giselle, and his brother, Mika, are also at various levels of deafness. She’s been signing since she was a kid, and she’s promised to help us learn. She told me to tell you that she’ll have the books ready for you once you get back. However, she recommends that you look into the USMC offerings on ASL or other hand languages if you don’t want to wait for that. It probably wouldn’t be a bad idea, regardless, but it’s up to you.

Anyways.

Do you remember how I told you about that week-long trip to NYC we were going on as a class? Well…

It went alright for the first couple of days; Uncle Owen and Aunt Gwyn let me and Eli stay with them instead of at a hotel. It was nice to see TK; he’s gotten so big! I included a picture from the day that we took him with us to the American Museum of Natural History, he was very interested in all of the animal exhibits. I liked getting to see all the museums and galleries they’d arranged for us to go visit. I loved the concert they also lined up for us; you know I don’t usually go for classical, but with the concert being a soundtrack for a ballet… It was good! I might have to see if Aunt Max can find anything else like it so I can go again. It was a peaceful evening, and I loved that.

Two days before we were supposed to leave, Eli and I went with a few classmates on a trip to a couple of shops on the other side of Manhattan, so we took as much transit as we could. We were on a transit bus from the subway to one of the shops when there was a major accident in front of us; the bus barely stopped before hitting the taxi in front of us. We were evacuated from the bus onto the sidewalk out of the way.

Unfortunately, moving onto the sidewalk brought us closer to the accident, and it was like a switch was flipped. One minute Eli was fine; he was talking and laughing and then worrying as we got off the bus, but then as the trucks from 252—’cause why wouldn’t Uncle Owen be involved? —it was like something turned over. I went to grab his arm, and I barely touched his skin before I figured out what was happening to him.

I mean, to be fair to Eli, I had been feeling the turmoil going around as well, but where I had shields in place to hold those feelings back, Eli didn’t. So, it really didn’t surprise me when I touched him, and his blooming Gifts sparked off my shields. I hurried to use the techniques that Tyreen showed me and threw a shield around him, but I knew it wouldn’t hold, and he would need an isolation room ASAP. Thankfully, Jana, the only Sentinel in our year, was calm enough to listen when I sent her to find anyone from the 252 with a message to get me Uncle Owen and an S-G team.

It didn’t take long for Uncle Owen to come and find us with one of the paramedics on the team. She was nice, and she immediately called for another S-G team from the Center to come specifically for us. It didn’t take more than five minutes for the response team to get there. The Guide of the Pair took over for me in covering Eli; she was a bit surprised by the ease I’d shown in doing so, so she asked me to come with them—not that I wouldn’t have gone with him anyway, Eli is my best friend.

We’ve been here at the Center for maybe thirty minutes now? I called Grandad first, since technically he’s our Alpha, to let him know what was going on. He’s in DC for a meeting, so he won’t be able to get here with any kind of speed, even for this kind of emergency, so he told me to call Aunt Max. I was planning to call her anyway, so it wasn’t a big change.

After I hung up with Grandad, I called Aunt Max. She assured me that she and Tyreen would be there soon, so after getting all her assurances, I called the number that I had for Colonel Brandt. One of his Squad mates answered his phone; apparently, Colonel Brandt was on a training flight, so he couldn’t come to the phone, but I could hear London rushing from the ready room to the control tower to get word to him. I told London to tell Colonel Brandt that it wouldn’t be a problem if he needed to finish; we aren’t going anywhere, so it wouldn’t matter too much if he took his time. He promised to go as quickly as he could but assured me that he wouldn’t cut his day short. So now I’m just waiting while Eli is evaluated by a Guide healer.

Eli will probably need a Conservator, same as me, but whether it will take a long time for them to find him one or not will change what happens from here. I’m wondering if Tyreen would be a good option; he does still have a minor Bond with me and Evan, but he rarely needs to step in for me now that it might be possible for him to cover all of us…?

I don’t want Tyreen to leave. And there has been talk between Tyreen and some of the other Guide Healers at the Center about him stepping back now that I’ve gotten a better handle on my Gifts. He’d probably go back to Philadelphia if he steps back, and I have an instinctual feeling that he needs to be here in Virginia, that it’s important that he be close at hand, and I don’t know how to explain that to anyone except maybe Grandma, Alpha Guide to Alpha Guide. There has to be some kind of instance where she knew something that couldn’t be explained or hadn’t happened yet.

With the feeling that Tyreen must stay, I hope that he’s a compatible Conservator for Eli so he can stay for whatever it is that I’m feeling. I suppose we’ll have to see what happens with all this.

It looks like Eli’s evals are done. I’m going to go back into his room now, so I’m going to call this letter done. I’ll send it with my next one once we get back to Norfolk. Love you, Liam.

-Daniel

Part 27—Additions to the Family

“So, I was thinking…” Daniel started as he made himself a large cup of tea early one morning, the summer before his junior year of high school. “Ev is old enough now…”

Max turned in her chair so that all three adults were facing him from the breakfast table, watching as he puttered around between counters to make his tea and breakfast. She leaned her arm across the back of the chair, waiting for him to speak again.

“Ev is old enough now, and Jax has been asking for a pet for a while…” Daniel continued, tapping the end of his cereal spoon against the countertop.

Miranda hummed a low tune. “What were you thinking?”

“Tione’s sister works at the animal shelter,” Daniel started, “and Tione volunteers there on the weekends and during the summer. She told me that they have a bunch of kittens right now, and I thought that maybe that would be a good pet to start with since cats aren’t the most labour-intensive pets, unlike a hamster or something that would need cleaning and things that I don’t think either would really be able to manage.”

“Jax would be okay with a hamster, I think,” Kelly mumbled around a bite of toast. “He’d probably go with a rabbit though.”

“So, I thought I’d take them to see what the animal shelter has for pets.” Daniel shrugged, studying Kelly. “You want to come with us?”

“No, I think I’m going to go for some time in the pool,” Kelly replied, shaking his head. “Nadia’s supposed to come over later too.”

A sly grin spread over Daniel’s face, but Max cut him off before he could make any teasing remarks. “Don’t bother your cousin about his friends,” she warned, waving a finger at Daniel. “If you don’t want it turned back on you, I wouldn’t hand it out.” She turned back around to finish her breakfast, watching Jasmine continue her demolition of her fruit salad.

Daniel huffed at her and poured the boiling water from the kettle over his teabag before bringing his cup and his bowl to the table and settling into the open space to Anders’ right.

“Take your credit card,” Anders suggested as he reached across the table for the salt. “If they find pets they want today, get them, if not, well, better to have it just in case and not need it.”

Since he had his mouth full, Daniel just raised a hand and gave him a thumbs up. He shovelled another spoonful of apple cinnamon Cheerios into his mouth with a hum. Before taking his next bite, he asked, “What’s the plan for everyone else’s day?”

Max pushed Jasmine’s bowl back closer to her with a finger before signing, Slower at the tot. “Jasmine, Lyra, and I are going to the library; there’s a sign story time on today with several readers covering everything from AUSLAN to ASL, and I think there might be a Hand Talk speaker coming in, but,” she shrugged. “I don’t remember if Noreen was clear on if they were free for today or not.”

“Tyreen and I have some lessons to teach at the Center, and your grandfather is doing some training with some baby Sentinels in this last group of Cadets out of the Naval Academy before they’re given ship assignments in the fall,” Miranda commented before taking a sip of her orange juice. “Gina will be over for dinner since Adam is away for some flight training.”

Daniel tapped his fingers on the table from pinkie to index before looking up at them through his bangs. “Do you think we can go to the lake this weekend?”

Miranda waggled her head absently. “We’ll have to see, but even if us adults can’t go, I can find out if someone in the Pack will be available to supervise you. Maybe your Aunt Lanie will want to take Marcus out there, or your Uncle Matt will need a break from his latest project.” She picked up another slice of toast from the plate between herself and Anders. “If not, I suppose you and Eli are old enough to supervise the kids for a weekend.”

Daniel grinned at her brightly. “Thanks, Grandma.”

“You’re welcome, honey,” Miranda agreed, buttering her toast. She took a big bite of her toast.

“The boys are still sleeping, so you have time to go call Eli and get it all figured out,” Max suggested as she tore up a piece of toast for Jasmine to eat, scooping a large spoonful of the apple jam onto the tray of her highchair for the tot to dip her toast bites into.

Daniel nodded, chewing another bite of cereal. He covered his mouth with his hand as he swallowed most of it, speaking carefully around the remaining bits, “I’ll call him when I’m done. He should be awake by then.”

Kelly snorted in amusement around a mouthful of watermelon. Eli’s ability to sleep like the dead was a well-known fact in the Buckley household after the Fire Drill Incident at Mason; Eli had slept through an entire fire drill in the infirmary’s isolation room after the nurse forgot he’d come down with a headache. It hadn’t been funny at the time—the drill policy had changed for the infirmary, and the Center had opened a slot for an Online Guide as a secondary nurse—but it was a bit funny now that some time had passed.

Daniel finished his breakfast and took his mug with the remainder of his tea with him as he went to his room to call Eli. He peeked into Evan’s room, finding the boy still sprawled out across his bed, dead asleep and curled around what Daniel thought was his wolf plush at first glance before it began to move. The pup, who Evan still hadn’t publicly named, raised her head to look at him, bleary amber eyes peering at him. Daniel hummed softly before closing the door. Next, he peeked into Jackson’s room, spotting just a lump under the older boy’s blankets that moved with his breathing. Daniel smiled and closed the door before heading for his room.

He set his tea down on his desk, pulling out the chair and settling onto it with a sigh before he reached for his cordless phone on the back edge of the desk. He tapped in Eli’s home phone number by memory, pressing the phone up to his ear and listening to it ring.

“Brandt residence,” Gina Brandt greeted, and Daniel leaned back in his chair.

“Hi, Momma G,” Daniel greeted back.

“Ah, Daniel,” Gina hummed. “Eli’s in the shower at the moment, but I don’t expect him to be long if you can stand to talk to an old lady for a few minutes.”

“You’re not old!” Daniel protested. “And I’d love to. We can have a chat before you come over for dinner tonight.”

Gina laughed. “What are the plans for today for you boys?” she questioned.

“I got permission to take the boys to the animal shelter today,” Daniel started, spinning in his chair, making a full circle to grab his mug. “I’m gonna bring Eli to help me corral the boys. Taking Jax and Evan to the shelter is going to be like feeding them a bunch of candy then letting them go hog-wild on a toy store.”

Gina laughed again. “I’d bet.” She paused for a moment before speaking again, “What are you hoping they pick out?”

“Something small? Something easily cared for?” Daniel shrugged one shoulder before taking a sip from his mug. “Jax has mentioned wanting about six different animals in the past year, so who knows what he’s going to pick out, but one of Evan’s friends from the Center day-care had a cat climb in through her bedroom window and have kittens in the blanket drawer under her bed, so he’s been demanding to see the kittens.”

Gina huffed in amusement. “That family got claimed by that cat,” she announced. “And I get the feeling that if you take Evan into that kitten room, you’ll be coming out with at least one little fluff ball. If not more, since you’re taking Jackson with you.”

“We’ll have to see,” Daniel agreed. “Jax may pick something else, but I honestly hope for kittens from both of them.”

There was a pause from Gina’s side, and Daniel suspected that Eli was out of the shower. Gina spoke again after a moment, “I can hear him getting dressed in there. Now, do you think your aunt would like me to bring some wine or something to dinner?”

“I’m not sure what she’s making, so I don’t have any recommendations,” Daniel told her. “I would say bring anything you want to drink or something you might want to try with Aunt Max, but otherwise, I can’t really tell you either way.”

Gina hummed a low note. “Well, I’ll think of something,” she agreed with a sigh. There was some banging on the other side of the line before she snickered, “Eli’s just going to put his things in his room then he’ll come claim the phone from me.”

“Okay,” Daniel agreed. “Do you have any big plans for today?”

“Eh, I have chores and errands to run, so no, nothing interesting for today,” Gina said. “Now, here you go. Have fun with Eli, Daniel.”

“I will,” Daniel assured her, waiting for the phone to change hands before he greeted Eli. “Good shower, El?” he teased.

“It was warm,” Elijah deadpanned, and there was some rustling like he was running a towel over his hair. “And wet.”

Daniel giggled and leaned back in his chair. He rocked side to side, asking, “Are you up to helping me corral the boys today, El?”

“What did you have in mind?” Elijah asked warily.

“I thought about taking the boys to the animal shelter,” Daniel admitted.

“So, it’s more a matter of keeping them from trying to bring everything possible home with us than actually trying to corral them,” Elijah mused.

“Sounds about right.”

Elijah sighed in amusement, “I suppose I can come with you to keep the monkeys contained.”

Daniel laughed. “Well, they’re both still sleeping, so we probably have an hour or two before we have to go, so did you want me to come over and get you now or…?”

“I am going to do a few things at home first, but if you wanna come get me in like an hour?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Daniel agreed before taking a drink from his mug. “I’ll call before I come over, let you know I’m on my way and you should get your shit ready.”

Elijah snorted, “Is there anywhere else you plan on going other than the animal shelter, so I know what to pack?”

“Not right off the bat,” Daniel told him. “If the boys find a pet they want, Grandad told me to bring my credit card with us so we can get them all set up, so we may end up going to the pet store. And if they don’t well, I might take them to bookstore for books on pets.”

“Alright, I’ll pack for a trip to the bookstore,” Elijah hummed. “We should take them for lunch if we have time.”

“We’ll have to what the boys want to do,” Daniel agreed. He could hear some shuffling down the hall, likely either Jackson or Evan finally getting up and going about getting ready for the day. “I can hear one of them up and about, so I’ll let you go.”

“I’ll see you in a bit,” Elijah agreed before the phone clicked as the line disconnected.

Daniel hung up on his end, spinning idly with his foot so he could put the phone back on the charger, taking another drink from his cup. He sighed quietly and leaned back in his chair. It would be breakfast and showers for the boys, so he had time to waste before they’d be leaving to get Elijah, leaving him only a matter of deciding what to do with that time.

With a hum, he reached for the hefty bag sitting next to his desk that held his current crochet projects. He had a couple of blankets and a long sweater he was making for Lyra, so it was a bag full of different crochet squares in a myriad of colours that he only kept separated because they were so different from each other. One blanket was autumn colours—reds, oranges, yellows, and a muted green; the second was based on a picture of a cherry blossom tree his Uncle Tyler had sent him—several shades of pink, white, an almost white green, and a bit of light brown; and the third blanket was all in blues from an almost white to almost black that was for Eli’s birthday. Lyra’s sweater looked like a Lisa Frank illustration threw up on it—there were so many colours and so many different squares that he wasn’t entirely sure how he was going to put it together, so it didn’t look like a mess.

He pulled out all the yarns for the autumn blanket, setting them in order across his desk and finding the hook he needed in the pocket on the inside before putting the bag away. He hummed happily and reached for the little stereo on the corner of his desk, turning it on and humming as he listened to the Journey album, he had left in it the night before. With the music on, and everything he needed, he settled in to get some work done on his blanket squares.

–

An hour and a half later, Daniel pulled his black and silver Bronco up in front of the Brandt house, honking twice to let Elijah know they were there. The windows were open, and Daniel had AC/DC blaring from the radio to the joyful singing of the boys in the backseat.

Elijah came out the front door with the small satchel bag that they all jokingly called his purse, stopping on the doorstep to lean back inside the house and talk before he was letting the screen door swing closed, spinning on his toes to push the door closed.

“Hurry up!” Daniel laughed, watching as Elijah nearly tripped down the stairs to come down the sidewalk. “And don’t die on the way by!”

Elijah flipped him off and came up to the side of the truck, opening the door and climbing into the passenger seat. “What’s up, squirts?” he questioned the boys, turning around in his seat to look at Jackson and Evan.

“Going to the animal shelter!” Evan cheered. “Gonna see the kittens! All the kittens!”

Elijah laughed and twisted back around, pulling his seatbelt on and clicking it into place. “We’ll see if you find any that you like; how about that, Ev?” he suggested, twisting slightly so he could still see the boys. “You never know, one kitten might choose to plop itself in your lap and go home with you, or maybe none of them will be comfortable with your canine energy.”

Evan pouted but nodded. “I hope I find one who likes me,” he murmured, turning his attention out the window. He watched as Daniel pulled away from the Brandt house and headed down the street.

The Norfolk Animal Hospital and Shelter was a squat, two-storey building just on the outside of the base’s property line. It was funded by the military complex, the civilians, and the Council, so it was run entirely on donations and volunteer time for every position except for the Vet and his Medical staff—though occasionally, other Vets and zoological health staff did volunteer to cover. There were several newer additions to the building that had been added when what had once been solely a hospital had floated the idea of opening a shelter as well.

Dr. Leighton Gage was a popular and well-loved Veterinarian in the community—he and his staff covered the 6 independent cities in the southeasternmost corner of Virginia and dealt with everything from the smallest mouse to the largest bull with the running list sounding more like a zoo than a medical office. There were thousands of clients he handled, from farms to private citizens to businesses and even a couple of zoos. Last Daniel had heard, he was in the market to bring on another Vet on a permanent basis rather than the paid consultant contracts he was functioning with.

Daniel parked his Bronco in the open space between two Buick Rivieras, one red and the other white. He pulled his keys from the ignition and grabbed his wallet and Nokia cell phone out of the centre console, clicking the lid shut before he opened his door. Behind him, he could hear Jackson climbing down from the truck and closing the door before the boy was squishing himself against Daniel’s back.

“Come on, Danny!” Jackson complained, pushing at the small of his back with both hands.

Daniel laughed and walked a bit faster out of the space between vehicles, stepping out onto the sidewalk and spinning a bit to wrap his arms around Jackson’s shoulders. “Alright, Jax,” he started, waiting for Elijah and Evan to come out, grinning at the sight of Evan sitting up on Elijah’s shoulders. “What do you want to do first?”

“Can we just walk through and see everything first?” Jackson requested, looking up at him.

“Sure, we can walk around and see what they’ve got for options,” Daniel agreed. “I don’t know what all they’ve got in here actually. I know from talking with Tione that most of these adoptables are surrenders or rescues brought in by the animal control specialists. So, we’ll have to see what they’ve got.”

Jackson grabbed the belt loop of Daniel’s shorts, tugging lightly as he led the way up to the building. He pulled the door open, holding it for everyone to get inside, even an older lady who’d come up behind them. He bounced on his toes as he followed her inside, joining his cousins and Elijah off to the right of the foyer. He watched the older lady open a door on the left side of the foyer that had a large sign over it, Veterinarian. There was a matching sign over another door on the right that said, Shelter.

“Ready?” Daniel questioned, resting a hand on the door handle. He raised his eyebrows at the younger boys, waiting for an answer.

“Yes!” Jackson and Evan cheered together, keeping quieter in deference for the animals on both sides of the building.

Daniel grinned and opened the door, waving the younger boys through with a dramatic bow. Jackson grabbed Evan’s hand and let the pre-K boy drag him into the shelter portion of the building. Elijah followed the younger boys through, Daniel bringing up the rear.

Tione was at the reception desk when they stepped inside. She smiled at the group and stood, pushing blue-dyed hair back from her face. She rounded the desk and came over to them.

Tione Valadez was a tall, skinny girl, but don’t let that fool you; Tione was number one on the Mason Institute Fencing team, and in her pre-graduation training to join the Marines, she could bench almost 200 lbs. She was a muscular skinny, not a general skinny. She kept her hair up, always, though the colour and style changed constantly. Currently, her hair was a dark cobalt blue, and she had it in a thick braid down her spine. She was dressed comfortably in gray linen shorts and a black tank top with leather sandals on her feet.

“So, pet hunting, are we?” she directed at the younger boys as she carefully hugged both Daniel and Elijah, making sure not to touch their skin too much like Latents were always trained to do with Online Guides.

“Looking,” Daniel agreed. “The boys wanna take a walk first, see what all is around before they decide on anything to look at.”

“Well,” Tione grinned, “That’s easy enough. There’re three hallways,” she started pointing, “Hallway one is dog kennels, hallway two is the cats, and hallway three leads around to the back and has all the smaller animals like rabbits and reptiles.”

Daniel looked down at Jackson, “So where do you want to start?”

Jackson worried his lip for a moment before pointing down the hallway for the dogs. “Dogs first?”

Daniel turned to Evan. “Dogs first?” he questioned.

Evan nodded eagerly, grabbing Elijah’s hand and dragging the oldest teen across the foyer toward the hallway they could hear the sounds of dogs coming from, even with thick walls and a fair bit of space between the entry and the first kennel.

Daniel laughed and waved to Tione as Jackson hopped to follow, practically skipping along as he caught up. Daniel rushed to catch up with the others, coming to walk next to Elijah.

There were old dogs and young dogs. There were small, medium, and large dogs. There were sleepy dogs, active dogs, and frightened dogs. There were kennels with one dog, kennels with several dogs, and one kennel that had no dog in it, but the information on the door was for an older Doberman with a big sticker that said, Adopted next to it.

Evan got briefly distracted at the glass wall separating the hallway from a bunch of hyperactive puppies of several different breeds playing around on a brightly coloured carpet with some teenage girls while their mom watched. He wiggled his fingers for a clumsy Labrador puppy that had noticed him, giggling as the little black puppy chased his fingers. They let him play for a moment before getting him back on track.

The next to get distracted was Elijah, who stopped at a kennel with a fluffy Corgi puppy in it, the little brown and white puppy chewing on a small rubber bone on top of a green dog bed in the back of the kennel. He got a look on his face that Daniel recognized, and the blond hid a grin behind his hand as Elijah crouched down to try coaxing the puppy away from its prize. He knew what Elijah was going to do: try to convince his mom to get a dog.

Daniel nudged Elijah’s foot with the toe of his shoe. “Come on,” he urged gently, watching as Jackson and Evan kept walking a bit further ahead, Jackson reading out the information on kennels for Evan.

Elijah sighed and got up, letting Daniel take his wrist and pull him away down the hall after the boys. The boys were stopped in front of a kennel with a young Borzoi in it. Jackson was reading out the information for Reba, the dog. Her former owners hadn’t been able to take care of her after an accident, so they’d surrendered her to the shelter.

“Look at how tall she is!” Evan cooed, leaning close to look at Reba closer. She was a gorgeous red, and she would make any family a good dog; that was obvious from the gentle way she approached even the glass to get close to Evan’s cooing form.

“She’s a pretty girl,” Daniel agreed, reaching forward to run his fingers through Evan’s short curls. “But we have more animals to look at, remember that.”

Evan nodded and waved at Reba, getting a quiet wuff from the half-grown pup before they moved on.

“Cats next?” Elijah suggested when they came to the intersection point between the three areas.

“A good enough plan,” Daniel agreed, running the directions through his mind. Going through the cat hallway would bring them out to the end of the small animal hallway, which, if they went down the small animal hallway, would bring them back to this junction point and let them go wherever the boys wanted if they wanted to look at anything specific.

“Kitties!” Evan cheered, grabbing Daniel’s hand and tugging. He pulled the older blond almost off his feet since he was distracted, but Daniel kept his feet and followed the younger boy with a laugh. Coming down from that end, the solo cats—usually new arrivals, injured, or the troublemakers—were first kept in stainless steel cages with warm blankets and all kinds of toys behind glass so they could be seen. There was one cage of kittens in the corner, tiny little balls of fluff with no adult cat in sight, and Daniel remembered Tione mentioning the bottle babies she had to feed.

Further down the hallway was a large open glass room with the older cats inside. It had perches and toys and fountains and everything else a cat could need. There were cats of all sorts inside; the first one to draw attention, however, was a large, long-haired gray cat that was practically hanging off the top shelf of a tall cat tree that was right up against the glass, fast asleep with not a care in the world for its precarious position. The whole room had a sense of calmness to it; the older cats were either sleeping or relaxing or quietly playing by themselves with some of the toys in the room.

Kittens were in the next big room, and there was no sense of calm to be found there; the kittens were constantly off the walls or rolling each other around the room. It was a similar-looking room to the previous one, just chock full of kittens. All kinds of kittens.

“Kittens,” Evan squeaked and rushed over to press himself against the glass of the wall.

“Calm, E,” Elijah warned as he followed the boy over. “They’re already riled up, and they don’t need anyone adding more mayhem to the room.”

Evan pouted at him from where he was pressed at the glass but nodded. “I’ll be good,” he promised, leaning closer to press his face against the glass and keep an eye on the kittens.

“I take it you want to look at the kittens more closely?” Elijah questioned with a short huff of amusement.

Evan nodded rapidly against the glass. He was practically wiggling out of his skin as he stared at the kittens playing inside the room.

“Well, we’ve got one more place to look at before we can go in and play with the kittens,” Elijah reminded and got a dramatic sigh from Evan before he pushed off the glass and moved away to re-join the group.

Daniel laughed and swung the four-year-old up off his feet, getting a shriek from the boy before he started giggling like a mad thing. He wrapped his arms around Daniel’s neck, leaning against the older boy’s chest.

“Can I sit on your shoulders?” Evan asked quietly, patting his brother on the cheek gently.

Daniel heaved a dramatic sigh and tipped his head back briefly. “Fine,” he play-protested, shaking the boy gently before hoisting him away and offering him out to Elijah. “Hold this for me,” he requested, and Elijah took Evan from him, bouncing the kid a bit as Daniel spun around to give his back to the other teen. Elijah helped Evan get himself settled on Daniel’s back, Daniel’s large hands clamping down gently on the boy’s legs as he wrapped them around Daniel’s ribs. He hummed and bounced to make sure Evan was settled before turning to Elijah and Jackson. “Shall we?”

Jackson was a bit distracted by the kittens, but he nodded at the question and grabbed onto the edge of Daniel’s shirt. “I—Yeah, the little pets,” Jackson agreed, following along as Elijah led them away from the kittens and down the hallway a bit further to get to the entrance to the small animal section.

There was a bit of everything as far as Daniel could see from the end of the hallway. He bounced Evan gently before taking the first steps into the hallway and towards the first of many cages lining the hallway.

There was a brown rabbit in the first cage. It was happily munching on some hay in the corner of its cage, sitting half inside the little hutch that was for it to hide in. It perked up a bit when they approached, black eyes focusing on them through the glass separating them. It blinked at them before grabbing some more hay, munching happily and wiggling its nose at them.

The next three cages also had rabbits: a white one, a gray one, and a brown and black one. The gray one was sleeping, curled up in its little hutch so only a bit of fur could be seen. The white one was relaxing against the glass, dozing in a bit of shadow in the corner of its cage. The brown and black one was sitting on top of its hay box, staring at them through the glass as they passed by.

Then there were a couple of guinea pigs in the next couple, all of them in pairs. Daniel wrinkled his nose a bit at that, knowing from some of the research that Jackson had done that it was best for the guinea pigs to be in pairs, and he wasn’t sure that it was something either of the boys would be interested in, let alone the adults in the family.

There were a bunch of chinchillas and other rodents in the next dozen cages. Most of them were doing the same as the rabbits and guinea pigs: eating, sleeping, or dozing in the open of the cage. Some, however, weren’t relaxing; they were running around their cages like mad things, using their toys or play equipment to have some fun as they watched.

A variety of lizards filled the next few cages, some that Daniel recognized and just as many that he didn’t. Once they got past the lizards, it was on to the snakes, and Daniel couldn’t help but be tempted; snakes were one of Daniel’s favourite animals.

Daniel was looking at a small brown and tan corn snake when a violent shiver went down his spine. His jolt got a yelp from Evan at the movement, and he had to tighten his grasp on his brother to keep from knocking him off his shoulders.

“What was that?” Elijah asked quietly, coming over to stand close to Daniel’s shoulder.

Daniel turned his attention inward for a moment, searching with his Gifts for any possible reason for him to have felt like someone was walking over his grave. “I don’t know,” he admitted after a minute, tipping his head to the side to look at Evan. “Sorry about that, Ev.”

“S’okay,” Evan assured, reaching up to pat Daniel’s cheek lightly. “Just don’t drop me.”

“I won’t, I promise,” Daniel promised, nodding along. He turned his attention to the rest of their little group, “Everyone done down here?”

Elijah nodded quietly. He’d seen what he wanted, and he was happy to move on if anyone else was ready to go.

Jackson backed away from the cage with a small cream-coloured boa in it, watching as it continued writhing around on the heated rock in its cage. “I’m ready to go,” Jackson agreed, coming to stand next to Daniel and playfully poking Evan in the leg.

Evan leaned over and stuck his tongue out at Jackson, blowing a raspberry at the older boy. Jackson blew a raspberry back at him before the two giggled, Evan leaning down to poke Jackson in the cheek.

“So, anyone have anywhere they want to go back to?” Daniel questioned, waiting for what he was expecting from Evan.

“Kittens!” Evan cheered, keeping his voice down a bit, but it was still loud in Daniel’s ear.

Daniel and Elijah shared a snort before they nodded. Elijah tapped the top of Jackson’s head, “Opinions, Jax?”

Jackson nodded eagerly. “I’d like to see the kittens too,” he agreed, tucking his fingers into the belt loop of Elijah’s shorts.

“Alright, kittens it is then,” Elijah announced, tapping a quick staccato across Jackson’s shoulder before nudging the boy forward down the hallway to the junction between the areas. He tilted his head back to make sure that Daniel was following, getting a gentle kick in the ankle for his worry before they wandered down the cat hallway to the Kitten Room.

Jackson eagerly pushed the door open, bending down to scoop up a ginger kitten that tried to escape through the open door. He cooed at the little, short-haired menace as he bounced the kitten in his arms while everyone else came into the room, Daniel stopping off to the side to let Evan down to the floor.

Evan wandered into the middle of the room and sat down on the floor, reaching for a feather toy and jiggling it slowly to see if any kittens would come to play with him. Many of them were avoiding him, and in a way that everyone could tell was deliberate, but it wasn’t all that disheartening; it had been explained several times by several of the Guides in their family that even with him only being Latent, he still felt like his Spirit Guide. And even with them not knowing for certain what kind of canid Evan had for a Spirit Guide, he was still a candid, and many animals had problems with canids.

Jackson didn’t have the same problem. They’d only caught wispy glances of Jackson’s Spirit Guide, but they could tell that it was something small and something felid, but there were so many options that they weren’t sure what it was, and Jackson wasn’t telling. Either way, Jackson could coax pretty much any animal into liking him—even wild animals were fairly relaxed in his presence.

So, while Evan was sitting in the middle of the floor waiting for any kittens to approach him, Jackson was sitting on a padded bench across the room with four different kittens crawling all over him. There was the ginger he’d taken from the door, a fluffy gray and white one that had jumped down onto the bench from one of the towers, and two tiny tabby kittens—one a dark, dark gray marble and the other a brown and white patched—that had needed Jackson’s help to get up onto the bench. He changed his focus from one to another in turn, gently petting and playing with each of them.

Daniel was in the middle of a staring contest with a blue-eyed black cat sitting on the top of the tallest tower, and Elijah was snickering at his side as a small chocolate brown kitten played with his shoelaces, batting the aglets around and pulling at the laces in a threat to untie his shoe. Daniel slowly approached the tower, making sure to keep his movements slow and calm so he didn’t spook the little gargoyle. Elijah watched, scooping up the tiny kitten playing with his shoelaces and pulling it up to his chest.

Evan hummed and wiggled the feather toy again, listening to the bell mixed into the feathers jingle. He watched out of the corner of his eye as Daniel moved across the room, but quickly enough, his attention was taken by a fluffy white kitten peeking out at him from the hole of a box at the bottom of a wide tower. This kitten wasn’t acting like the other kittens; the other kittens were jumping all over the place, but this one was just curled up in the box, resting its chin on the edge of the hole, and it didn’t look like it was looking at anything. So, concerned, Evan got up and went to Elijah.

“Eli?” he questioned, and his brother’s best friend looked up from fussing over the tiny kitten crawling in his lap.

“What’s the matter, Ev?” Elijah asked, gently moving the kitten off his lap to the floor and spinning to face Evan.

“There’s something wrong with that kitten,” Evan whispered as he pointed to the white kitten that had taken his attention.

Elijah hummed and pushed himself up off the floor. He offered Evan his arms, and when Evan pushed into his hold, he swept the boy into his arms and carried him over to the information sheets posted up on the wall. It took a few minutes for them to find the right one.

Evan pointed to the picture of the kitten. “It’s this one!”

“Let’s see what it says then,” Elijah murmured, stepping closer to look. “So, her name is Marta. She’s a Maine Coon kitten, and she’s about nine weeks old. She was surrendered to Dr. Leighton at three weeks because she’s blind—”

“Blind?” Evan questioned.

“She can’t see,” Elijah explained. “Like Jas can’t hear, Marta can’t see. The breeder who had her parents couldn’t find anyone who wanted to take her, so she was turned over to Dr. Leighton. One of Dr. Leighton’s vet techs took her home to his new mama cat who took care of her. She’s here now to see if she can find a forever home.”

“She can’t see…” Evan murmured, looking down at the feather toy still in his hand. “She can hear though. And smell.”

“That’s right,” Elijah agreed as he set Evan down on the floor. “Do you want to see if you can find a louder toy to play with her?”

Evan nodded and handed Elijah the feather toy before wandering off. Elijah shook his head in amusement and took the toy to play with the chocolate kitten that had followed them over to the info board.

Evan, on the other hand, noticed a big ball with a bell inside it that was half hidden under one of the towers, and he wandered over to grab it, having to practically crawl under the tower to get it out. He finally got his hand on it, dragging it out with a clash of jangling noises that alerted not only the white kitten he’d been eyeing but practically every other kitten in the room. He clutched the ball to his chest, staying as still as possible for a minute to let the kittens all calm down before he carefully carried it across the room to sit about three feet in front of the box the white kitten was hiding in.

Evan jingled the ball, watching as the white kitten perked up, her head coming up off the edge of the hole. Blind heterochromatic eyes turned to look at him, one blue and one green. Evan grinned and shook the ball again, getting her attention again. She pushed herself up to her feet and cautiously crawled out of the hidey-hole. She came to a stop about a foot and a half from him.

He jingled the ball again, giggling quietly when her head abruptly turned to face him, ears twitching rapidly. “Marta~” he sing-songed, jingling the ball again before gently rolling it toward her. She crouched down and listened for the ball, waiting until the last second before she pounced, just barely missing the ball but still sending it skittering across the floor, jingling all the way. She raced after it, and Evan giggled as he watched.

He was just about to go after the ball and Marta when Jackson said loudly, “Daniel?” He turned his head to look and found Daniel staring blankly out the glass of the wall.

“Daniel?” Evan repeated worriedly, pushing himself to his feet.

Daniel blinked and shook himself out. “We need to go,” he murmured. “Right now.”

“Daniel?” Elijah questioned.

“We need to go, right now,” Daniel reiterated, reaching for his phone with one hand and motioning to Evan with the other. “I’m sorry, Ev, but we really need to go. We can come back later, but right now we need to go.”

“What’s going on?” Jackson questioned anxiously, making his way over to the door quickly, gently grabbing Evan’s hand on his way by the younger boy.

“Something’s wrong,” Elijah agreed, gently nudging his follower back from the door as they moved to leave the room.

“What is?” Evan asked worriedly.

Daniel and Elijah shared a loaded look before Daniel answered, “Something’s happening with Killian.”

Jackson’s eyes widened. He’d heard from Anders that Killian was out on a training exercise today. “Oh no,” he breathed.

“Exactly,” Daniel agreed before finally getting his phone out of his pocket. “I need to make a call to Grandma and Grandad,” he announced, digging his keys from his pocket and handing them to Elijah. “Eli, get them in the truck please?”

“Course,” Elijah agreed and took the keys from Daniel as Daniel began to dial Miranda’s cell phone number.

He ushered Evan and Jackson outside, waving to Tione as they passed her desk. He unlocked the doors, helping Evan up into his car seat and waiting for the youngest of them to get himself at least mostly buckled in before he reached in to help him with the rest. He checked that Jackson had managed the sticky seatbelt on his own before he climbed into the passenger seat. He leaned over to push the key partially into the ignition before he sat back and focused on the front doors to watch for Daniel to come out.

Daniel came out a few minutes later, his phone still in his hand. He opened the Driver’s door and climbed inside, setting his phone and his wallet in the cupholder instead of trying to put it in the centre console.

“Are we going back to the house?” Jackson asked as Daniel pulled his seatbelt down and plugged it in.

“No,” Daniel replied, shaking his head and starting the truck. “When I got through to Grandma, she was busy trying to help Tyreen who’d gone into Guide Shock. They still didn’t know that anything had even happened to Killian until I told them. Grandad was going to call Admiral Burns as I hung up with Grandma to find out what exactly was happening.”

“But we can all see that Tyreen and Killian are linked,” Elijah interjected slowly as Daniel backed out of the parking space.

“I know, but Tyreen’s never registered anything with the Center because Killian isn’t—” Daniel cleared his throat, “sorry, wasn’t Online. He didn’t want anyone to try to claim that he’d influenced Killian in any way, so he never said anything to anyone, and if anyone noticed, they didn’t say anything either.”

“So, we’re going to the Center? And you’re going to do what?” Elijah questioned.

“I have certain rights as one of Tyreen’s Conservees,” Daniel reminded, “Not to mention my spot as one of the highest-ranking Guides living in a fifty mile radius from the Center. I have psionic connections to both Tyreen and Killian, which will be super helpful in the next few hours.”

“You’re going to have to drag Tyreen out of his shock,” Elijah said, thinking of the possibilities. “Maybe not entirely, but at least enough to get him to recognize Killian as his Sentinel if he’s deep enough.”

“And depending on what state Killian is in, I might need to drag him up too,” Daniel sighed. He reached up to run a hand through his hair. “I get the feeling that whatever Killian was involved in wasn’t physically bad or fatally bad, but something happened that wasn’t supposed to happen.”

“Do you have any idea what he was supposed to be doing today?” Elijah asked.

Daniel shrugged, “He said something last week about doing evacuation manoeuvres this week, but I have no idea which one exactly they were doing today.”

“So, it could be anything that he’s gone through, it all depends on what they were doing today and where they were doing it,” Elijah sighed. He reached up to rub his forehead, “And those factors will also affect how this all plays out because depending on where they are, what happened, and how long it takes them to get Killian back to the Center will determine how badly his Bonding to Tyreen is going need to happen and how long they’re going to be out for the Bonding period.”

“Yeah,” Daniel sighed and turned down the road toward the Center. “I get a feeling it’s going to be a long one.”

Elijah nodded. He got the same feeling through his Bond with Daniel, that was echoing the feelings Daniel was getting from his Bonds with Tyreen and Killian and the blooming Bond between the two older men. He could feel how frayed it was, how sluggish it was moving, and he worried about the mental states of Tyreen and Killian.

“Jackson, I need you to take Evan to the Den, please,” Daniel requested, looking up into the rear-view mirror to see Jackson in the back seat.

Jackson wrinkled his nose like he wanted to protest, but he sighed and nodded. “Yes, Daniel,” he agreed, reaching up to rub his nose.

“Thank you,” Daniel told him. He flicked his eyes between Jackson and Evan. “I promise I’ll take you back to the shelter sometime later this week.” He sighed, “But it won’t be until this is all settled down and we’ve all calmed down.”

“That’s okay,” Evan said quietly, eyes wide as he worried about what was going on.

“We’ll let you know what is happening,” Daniel promised, pulling into the parking lot for the Center and parking in the first open spot he could find. “It won’t be right away, so I want you to just focus on whatever is going on in the Den rather than what is going on outside it.”

“Is Killian going to be okay?” Evan asked quietly.

Daniel turned around to look at him, face to face. Blue eyes met, and Daniel assured him, “I can’t promise anything exactly, but I can promise you that we’ll do the best we can to make sure that Killian is okay.” He reached out to gently squeeze Evan’s ankle before twisting around again and going through the motions of getting ready to get out of the car.

Two minutes was all it took for all four of them to get out of the car and go up to the doors of the Center. Anders was waiting for them in the lobby when they came inside, he was dressed down in his PT uniform, a bit of sweat running down his neck and darkening the fabric of his shirt at the collar.

“Boys,” Anders greeted, crouching down to let Evan press close, kissing the top of the little boy’s head. “It’ll be alright, Ev,” he assured, gingerly hugging the boy and rubbing his back gently. “We’ll get this all figured out.”

“Love you, Grandad,” Evan murmured into Anders’ chest, pushing his face into the middle of Anders’ chest.

“Love you too, pup,” Anders hummed, kissing the top of his head again before pulling back, “Time for you and Jackson to go to the Den.” He waited for the nod and for Evan to pull away to take Jackson’s outstretched hand before rising back to full height, watching as the boys disappeared down the hallway and through a door, heading for the secured child center in the middle of the Center.

The doors closed, and Daniel focused on Anders. “What do you know about Killian?” he questioned urgently as they walked down the other main hallway toward the medical wings.

“So far, nothing concrete,” Anders reported as he swiped his access card down the access machine. “His team was sent out on an aerial evacuation manoeuvre this morning at o-six hundred. They had hourly check-ins until ten hundred, then there was nothing. Another team was sent out to search for them at ten-fifteen after they failed to get them on the line.”

“It’s,” Daniel looked down at his watch, watching as the second hand raced around past the 12, “eleven-twenty-three now. Did they find anything?”

“Nothing so far,” Anders sighed, shaking his head. “They’re going through a grid search, so we don’t know what is happening just yet, but we have suspicions.” He’d barely finished before his cell phone was ringing. “Hello.” He listened to whoever was speaking on the other end of the line. “You found them—That’s not good. He’s going to need to be tranquillized and brought here to the Center. Don’t even bother taking him to the hospital; we’ve already got everything set up for him to be here.” He opened another door and waved Daniel and Elijah in first. “Tell the Petty Officers to pick whoever is the best shot and do it from a distance. I know those choppers are packed with a complete Sentinel Kit, so they’re going to have to figure out how to do it.”

Daniel stared wide-eyed at Anders. He knew from his classes at the Center and through the Mason Institute’s JROTC program how a Feral Sentinel was to be handled depending on the scenario. In a civilian setting, a specialty team from the Center would be sent out to handle it, or a special team from some of the State level law enforcement teams would be sent out. In a military situation, every team had what was lovingly dubbed ‘The Sentinel Kit,’ a specialized medical kit set up for dealing with any kind of emergency that a Sentinel could possibly fall into. It was mostly Sentinel Friendly products, but the big thing was a set of three dart gun syringes filled with a Sentinel-formulated sedative for putting down Feral Sentinels.

If Anders was telling whoever was on the phone to use the Sentinel Kit, it sounded like Killian had come Online. Daniel was partially afraid to find out what had happened to bring his usually fairly docile pseudo-cousin to that point after coming Online or as the way he came Online. He couldn’t be sure that Killian would be in a place to Bond with Tyreen, but Tyreen would help no matter what mindset Killian was in. Even if they couldn’t Bond until they’d both come to an even keel, just being around each other would be good for Tyreen and Killian.

Or at least, that’s what so many of the Bonded Guides Daniel had had lessons with had told him when he asked about it. Miranda had told him about her and Anders’ experience; Anders and Hollis had come Online after an explosion after all, and the Feral Drive they’d both fallen into had been hard on them. Miranda had been one of the nurses assigned to them, and Ehryn had stumbled into the infirmary only a few hours after Anders and Hollis were brought back, and he came Online at the first sight of Hollis sedated and laid out in one of the infirmary beds. Just the presence of their Guides had been enough for the Sentinels to calm down and relax enough, though it had taken almost three days before they were in a position to Bond.

There was a big difference in this case: the preliminary Bond between Tyreen and Killian. That filament connection between the two had sent Tyreen into Guide Shock, likely at the same moment that Killian had come Online out in the field.

“They found them?” Daniel asked urgently, looking at Anders.

Anders nodded and motioned to a Bonding Suite that had a placard that said Tyreen Oroyo in his wife’s handwriting. “Come on, we’ll get Tyreen up a bit, and then I’ll explain everything that we know so far.” He pushed the door open and motioned them inside. He glanced at his watch, “We may have about forty minutes before the search team shows up with Killian.”

Daniel nodded and tromped into the suite, finding Tyreen sitting on the couch with Miranda watching over him. It was obvious that Tyreen wasn’t all there since he didn’t move a muscle as Daniel came close and crouched down in front of him. Usually, Tyreen would be greeting him with some kind of teasing remark or a grin, but Tyreen was just staring blankly ahead of him like he wasn’t mentally all there. But that lack also made sense to Daniel; he’d had moments like this when Evan had gotten hurt, and the feelings through the Bond were overwhelming for him to feel. Daniel had also gotten that feeling shortly after Elijah had come Online once their Pack Bond had snapped into place; he hadn’t fallen too badly, but it had taken prolonged contact with Elijah before they’d both come out of the blank state they’d fallen into when Elijah came Online.

“Ty?” Daniel called, reaching out to gently rest a hand on Tyreen’s knee. “Tyreen, can you hear me?”

Tyreen blinked, the first time that Daniel had seen in the time since he’d entered the suite when he should have been blinking constantly. His fingers twitched where they were lying across his stomach as he leaned back against the back of the couch. He blinked again, but he still wasn’t there.

“Tyreen,” Daniel demanded, pushing a bit of his Gifts into his voice. “Tyreen, you need to come back. You’re needed here, not there.” He shook Tyreen’s knee gently, digging the nails of his fingers into the skin revealed by Tyreen’s cargo shorts. The flicker of pain seemed to do more for dragging Tyreen from the psionic plane than Daniel’s demands, but either way didn’t matter as long as Tyreen left the psionic plane enough to be aware and understanding of everything that came next.

It took a few minutes and another few demands and pinches before Tyreen was blinking and moving to sit up off the back of the couch to look around them. “What happened?” he murmured, his voice still holding that distinctly sleepy quality that came with falling into the psionic plane and being gently coaxed out of it.

“You went into Guide Shock,” Miranda explained from the side, coming over to run a finger down the length of one of the braids tight to Tyreen’s head. “Can you focus enough for us to tell you what happened or no?”

Tyreen blinked slowly and looked up at her. “I can focus,” he promised, leaning back to look at her.

“Alright,” Miranda agreed and patted the top of his head. She motioned to Anders to explain.

“Killian went out on aerial manoeuvres this morning,” Anders started, and Tyreen nodded along, knowing that had been the plan from Killian. Anders hummed and continued, “They were fine as of their oh-nine-hundred check-in, but then ten-hundred hours came and went with no response. The Tower gave them fifteen minutes to make contact—there’s a known glitch with the system in the helicopter they were using that causes communications malfunctions, but usually, it doesn’t take long to fix, so they waited—but when the fifteen minutes passed with no contact, the Tower sent up another helicopter to go look for them.

“All we know so far is the helicopter crashed, and it’s gone. Everyone inside is alive: both pilots, the three medics, and the ‘patient’ all sustained injuries but nothing life-threatening. Whatever happened, Killian came Online, and he’s in a feral state which means when he arrives in thirty minutes, he’s going to be unconscious and unresponsive.” Anders focused intensely on Tyreen, “You need to be prepared to hold off on doing any kind of Bonding with him until he can be fully evaluated by a health professional.”

Tyreen breathed in harshly through his nose. “It’ll be best if I stay in here then,” he admitted, ruffling through his braids and tilting his head up to look at the ceiling, “I know myself. I know that if I spend even a second in Kee’s presence that I’m gonna fall into the Bond between us, and I know that isn’t what he needs right now.”

Anders studied the younger man intently. “If that’s what you want,” Anders agreed, folding his arms across his chest. “Do you want us to stay with you until we get Killian brought in, or do you want some space to meditate while you wait?”

Tyreen stayed quiet for a long moment, thinking, before he lowered his head to look at them. “I’d like the space to meditate if you don’t mind.”

Anders shook his head, “No, that’s fine. We’ll leave you to your meditation. I will check on Killian, Miranda will keep an eye on you, and the boys can all go home. Either way, you and Killian will be coming back to the little guest house for the rest of your Bonding period, so you can both be in the home territory while Killian’s senses settle.”

“That would probably be best,” Tyreen murmured quietly, nodding. Not only would the guest house be a good idea for Killian’s territorial response, better than the Bonding Suite Tyreen was currently sitting in, but having Miranda and Anders around would be a soothing set of presences that would help with Killian keeping his senses on an even keel. Let alone what the proximity of Evan and Daniel would do for Killian.

“Time for us to go,” Miranda urged, gently ushering the boys out of the room. “We’ll leave Tyreen to his meditation and check back on them in a few days depending on what’s wrong with Killian.”

Daniel stopped in the doorway to look back at Tyreen, watching as the man pulled his legs up onto the couch and folded himself into a comfortable position to settle into a meditative trance. He could see the discomfort on Tyreen’s face, the occasional wince as Tyreen’s Gifts reached for Killian and failed to connect since he was unconscious and still so far away. And as much as Daniel wanted to comfort him, he knew instinctually that it wasn’t any use, that the only thing that would comfort Tyreen would be Killian.

As Tyreen let out a deep sigh and relaxed back against the couch, practically going boneless as he fell into meditation, focusing everything he could on getting ready for a Bond with his Sentinel.

–

A week later, there are officially three new members of the family Pack.

Tyreen and Killian spend nearly three weeks sequestered in the small guest house, rounding out their Bond and settling their Gifts. Tyreen is re-evaluated as a Level 8 Guide and settles into the space left open as the Gamma-level Guide of the Pack, falling into place at Miranda and Eryhn’s sides like he was born for it—and he was. One day—long in the future, if anyone had anything to say about it—he and Killian would take over as Alphas for the Pack, but for now, they were simply third in the hierarchy, the go-to for the youngest members of the Pack.

Jackson and Evan bring home their new pets ten days after the accident.

Jackson gets a kitten. Jinx is an eight-week-old, two-and-a-half pound, black marble tabby kitten. At a quick glance, he looks like he was entirely black, and it had been surprising for Jackson when Jinx had jumped down into his arms from an upper tower level, and he’d been able to see the faint shadowing of the tabby pattern across his sides. Between that and the big green eyes staring up from that tiny face and Jackson was a goner. He immediately laid claim to the kitten and almost refused to be parted from him for the three days of pre-homing quarantine.

It was a similar event with Evan and Wynter. On the day Killian came Online, while he was inside making his phone call, Daniel had stopped to talk to Tione to see if there was a possibility of putting the blind, white kitten, Marta, that Evan had been so fascinated with on some kind of hold so that if Evan wanted, he could take her home. Tione set it up so that she was still there for Evan to look at when they returned later. It had taken only five minutes of play before she climbed into his lap, and Evan had been looking up at Daniel and Max and giving them puppy-dog eyes as he asked to keep her. Marta became Wynter, and she followed Evan around the house like a duckling whenever she wasn’t curled around his shoulders like a fur shawl. She wasn’t slowed down in any way, shape or form by her lack of sight, and her favourite place to be—other than Evan’s shoulders—was the top of Evan’s bookshelf, so Anders got her a comfy and fluffy bed for up there, and they let her do whatever she wanted.

Elijah also managed to talk his mom into getting a pet, and they ended up with a middle-aged lab mix they named Tasha. She was a lithe thing, mostly black, with white socks and some white spots on her face and back. She was going to be a perfect running companion for all three members of the household, and Elijah was excited to take her along for one of their hikes through the woods.

Many new members of the family. Many loved members of the family. All finally together.

Part 28—A New Start and an Ending

Daniel pulled open the back door of his Bronco, leaning against the edge of the door with a grin as he watched Evan struggle with his car seat straps. He was waiting for Evan to ask for help; it was something that Tyreen and the Center therapist had worked together with them on—getting Evan to ask for help and controlling Daniel’s need to be all over his brother.

“Help please,” Evan requested petulantly, dropping his hands from the buckles and waiting for Daniel to help him out of the car seat.

Daniel huffed a laugh and pushed off the door, leaning inside to unclip Evan from the car seat. He waited for Evan to climb down from the seat, grabbing the kid-sized Batman backpack off the middle of the bucket seat and holding onto it as Evan climbed out of the truck and dropped heavily to the sidewalk next to Daniel’s parking spot. He stamped his feet, watching the soles of his shoes light up gleefully before turning his attention to Daniel.

“Ready for today, Ev?” Daniel murmured, closing the door behind them and offering Evan his backpack to put on. He patted Evan’s shoulders once the boy had both shoulder straps slipped on before offering his hand for his brother to take.

“As ready as I can be,” Evan chirped, taking Daniel’s hand and holding on as Daniel led the way across the school parking lot and brought Evan through the front gate. Elijah was waiting on the front step, leaning against the thick railing on the edge of the landing. He had thick headphones on, so when Evan broke away from Daniel to race up the stairs and slam into Elijah’s leg, Elijah jumped with a curse and grabbed the back of Evan’s shirt to keep from throwing the boy down the stairs.

“Hi, Ev,” Elijah sighed and gently pushed some of Evan’s riot of curls back from his face.

“Hi, Eli!”

Elijah gave a snickering Daniel the stink eye and flipped him off out of view before focusing on Evan again. “Are you ready for your first day of school?” he asked, using his hold on Evan to gently guide the boy inside.

“Yeah! I’m ready to read and learn and find out everything,” Evan announced as he followed Elijah’s directions. He waved his hands as he spoke, leaning against Elijah’s side and staying close as Elijah led the way down the Grace Wing of the Mason Institute.

The Seniors shared a smile as they led the way to Evan’s kindergarten classroom down the brightly coloured hallway with a marine theme. There was a large octopus on the right wall, its arms stretching across the hallway to wrap around several doors. A half dozen different fish swam across the left wall around plant life and rocks, and from the ceiling, a pair of blue whale miniatures swung in the slight breeze coming from a vent in the hallway.

They stopped in front of Room G15, one of three kindergarten classes in the Grace Wing. It had a bright blue door with starfish in various colours painted on it. The plaque above the door read: Miss Jaylin Hannett. The door was open, and the chaos of a dozen small children could be heard through the opening.

Daniel reached out and knocked on the door, waiting with Elijah and Evan for the invitation inside.

A tall, dark-skinned woman in a brightly coloured and patterned knee-length dress stood up from where she was crouched down near a short table with four kids sitting in bright-coloured chairs. Her hair, done up in a pair of thick puffy buns at the top of her head and two braids framing her face, was tied up with a brightly coloured scarf, the knot at the top of her head.

“Hello,” she greeted, smiling at them widely and stepping around several kids as they played with some toys on the floor. “Now who is this?” She flicked amber eyes from the two older boys to Evan.

“I’m Evander!” Evan announced, holding his hand out to her like he’d been taught.

Miss Hannett smiled and offered her hand back to him, the Guide bracelet around her wrist jingling as they shook hands. “Nice to meet you, Evander. I’m Miss Hannett, Guide.” She turned her focus to the older boys, “Your brothers?”

Evan nodded rapidly. “My bruver, Daniel, and his beta, Elijah!”

Daniel laughed and gently tapped the top of Evan’s head. He folded his arm over his chest and dipped his head to Miss Hannett. “Guide Daniel Buckley,” he introduced himself, smiling as he waved at Elijah. “My beta, Guide Elijah Brandt.”

Elijah repeated his greeting, tipping his head more in Daniel’s direction as he bowed. “Nice to meet you,” he greeted.

Miss Hannett crouched down to meet Evan’s eyes. “There’s a cubby in the classroom with your name on it. Why don’t you go put your things in your cubby while I have a quick discussion with your brother?”

Evan grinned and looked up at Daniel. “Bye, Daniel! See you later,” he said, tugging at Daniel’s hand to get him to bend down so he could kiss Daniel’s cheek. He repeated the motion with Elijah before he stepped into the classroom and left hearing range.

Miss Hannett looked at the older boys very seriously, leaning against the door jamb with her shoulder. “You’re Online.”

Daniel tugged at his backpack strap, settling it against his hip a bit more comfortably. “Since I was thirteen,” he agreed, folding his arms over his chest.

Miss Hannett nodded. “I’d heard about the both of you,” she admitted. “The budding Alpha Seniors.”

Elijah laughed. “It doesn’t help how we both came Online,” he sighed. He leaned against Daniel’s side, tipping his head against Daniel’s shoulder.

“No, it doesn’t,” Miss Hannett agreed in amusement. “Now, I have a few questions.”

“Shoot,” Daniel told her.

“Will you be dropping Evan off every morning?”

“Either me or Eli,” Daniel agreed. “We have alternating spare mornings; I have A-Days, and Eli has B-Days. We’ve just got a bunch of Senior stuff today, so we’re both here.”

Miss Hannett nodded, “And who is going to be picking him up?”

“Well…” Daniel wrinkled his nose. “It’s a revolving door depending on the day,” he admitted. “Me, Eli, my aunt, my grandparents, my god-uncle and his Guide, my great-uncle and his Guide, Eli’s parents, my older brother—”

“I kinda get the idea,” Miss Hannett laughed. “Does the office have a comprehensive list?”

Daniel nodded, “The office has a full list of everyone who will commonly come to get him. Everyone else will be sent with notes and forewarning.”

“Does Evan have any allergies I should be aware of right now before I take a look at his file later tonight?”

“Latex and pollen that we know for sure,” Daniel told her. “He has an appointment for a more comprehensive test early next year, but,” Daniel shrugged and ruffled a hand through his hair.

“Latex and pollen,” Miss Hannett murmured, nodding along as she filed it away in her mind. “Anything else I need to know?”

“Evan is very intuitive,” Elijah pointed out, “It has to do with his Latent status, but he can read the emotional tone of the room like a Guide, and his senses are limitedly enhanced, so he’ll likely notice anything that might go wrong in the classroom.” He stood up and shifted his shoulders, settling the strap of his backpack more comfortably on his shoulder. “He also has ADHD, so you’ll need to keep an eye on that.”

“There are several students with ADHD in the class,” Miss Hannett hummed. “My daughter also has ADHD, so I’m well acquainted with some strategies to handle it; I’ll just have to see what works best for everyone involved.”

Daniel nodded, peeking into the room to check on Evan briefly. He grinned at the sight of Evan sitting with a little girl with bright red hair, the two of them passing a ball back and forth. His watch beeped with an alarm, interrupting his watch over Evan, and Daniel frowned down at the item before he turned the alarm off.

“Evan!” Elijah called, leaning into the room partially. He waited for Evan to look at them before speaking again, “We’ve got to go, Ev. We’ll see you later.”

“Bye!” Evan called back from inside, twisting to face them. He waved and gave them a brief grin before focusing back on the game he was playing with the girl.

“Well, we’ve been told,” Daniel joked, jostling Elijah’s shoulder gently. “Let’s go. We’ve got classes to go to.”

“Thank you for bringing Evan right to the classroom,” Miss Hannett murmured, smiling at the two of them. “He’ll be in good hands with me.”

Daniel smiled at her, “There’s no doubt.” He waved before grabbing Elijah’s wrist and dragging the other teen away from the classroom and out into the hallway to their own classroom.

–

Months later, Daniel and Elijah waited in one of the two theatre classrooms attached to the auditorium with the rest of the male students in the graduating class of ’97, preparing to walk across the stage to get their diplomas. Daniel helped Elijah smooth out the collar of his dress shirt between the lapels of his suit jacket rather than over it, ensuring that the S-G collar pins Elijah had gotten as a graduation present were the right way up. When Daniel was done with Elijah, he held still for his turn, shivering slightly at the brush of Elijah’s fingers against his throat as Elijah fixed his collar and his matching collar pins—though Daniel’s pins had three lengths of thin chain between them rather than the thick single chain that Elijah’s had—that he’d gotten from Max for graduation. Daniel knew that Max and Colonel Brandt had gone to the jewellers together, so he wasn’t surprised by how well they’d coordinated to get the perfect.

“Alright, everyone, gather around!” Mr. Poland announced as he rolled a clothing bar into the room, his assistant, Miss Regan, bringing up the rear with a large box in her arms. “We’ve got all you boys’ gowns and ribbons, and I hope you all have your caps.” He eyed all the boys critically before continuing, “Walking the stage starts in t-minus fifteen minutes, so you have plenty of time to finish your preening.” A short burst of laughter went around the room, and Mr. Poland grinned as that had been his intention. “You’ll meet the girls backstage to get into alphabetical order. In the meantime, I’ll call names, and we’ll hand everything out.”

Mr. Poland grabbed the clipboard from where it was hanging from the end of the clothing rack and set it on the table next to his hip where Miss Regan was setting her box. “Let’s see,” he murmured, leaning over the clipboard to get a good look at the list. “Andersen!”

There were only four boys in front of Elijah; Michel Andersen, Payton Atticus, Jacob Barton, and Kyle Benson. They went up when they were called, and it didn’t take long for them to get their graduation robes and their ribbons before it was Elijah’s turn.

“Brandt!”

Elijah stepped away from Daniel and walked over to Mr. Poland and Miss Regan, waiting patiently as they conferred over their paperwork and plucked things from the rack and inside the box. The robe was in a clothing bag, and Miss Regan pulled an organza bag from the box with his name written on the tag attached to it.

“Thank you,” Elijah chirped before returning to where Daniel was waiting.

“Buckley!”

Daniel patted Elijah on the shoulder as he passed, calmly walking across the room to receive his grad gown and ribbons. He waited patiently for Mr. Poland and Miss Regan to finish going through the paperwork before he took both packages from Miss Regan. He dipped his head to them quickly before going back to Elijah as Mr. Poland called, “Carson!”

Elijah had everything laid out on the desk they’d claimed. His shimmery blue-gray gown with the matching cap above it. The stripe on the sleeves of the gown was a dark gray like matte steel, and it stood out enough without being a distraction for any Sentinels in the audience. Elijah’s braids and ribbons were laid out carefully across the length of the table, in line based on how he’d have to put them on. The five-inch Oxford blue ribbon for his advanced placement was first, then the four-inch white academics ribbon with its stripes, followed by the two-inch blood-red sports ribbon with its stripes. The black JROTC braid came next, then the rose-gold braid for Honours, and finally, the gold Guardian braid.

Daniel knew his set would be similar. There were two differences between them: Elijah’s academic ribbon had a robin’s egg blue Biology strip—Daniel had a poison green Chemistry stripe instead; Elijah had four grass green stripes for Track—Daniel only had three grass green; the fourth space was taken up by a pastel pink stripe instead for the Dance program he’d taken in place of Track. Otherwise, they had identical sets, and Daniel was proud to have matched Elijah step for step considering how much time he’d spent in hospitals and outside of a classroom for most of his formative years of learning.

They dressed in their grad gowns in silence, pulling the silky fabric over their suits and closing them in the front with the zipper. Daniel offered Elijah his ribbons first, helping the slightly taller teen to get them into place before holding still for Elijah to help him do the same. He wrinkled his nose at the feel of the braids on the table, playing with the tassel ends.

There was a specific system for how the braids were supposed to hang on their chests, mostly in terms of where the ends were pinned, how much slack was to be in the braid, and how much length was left to hang free at the ends. The Honours braid was easy: it needed to be pinned from shoulder to shoulder across their chest over the ribbons, and since they were measures to fit, needed an inch of slack, and only three inches should hang from the pins at most. The Guardian braid depended on whether the student in question was a Guide or a Sentinel, and for both Daniel and Elijah, as Guides, it was easy: Guides had the braid go from the right shoulder down to the left hip with another three inches to hang from both pins, while Sentinels had it the opposite—left shoulder down to the right hip. The JROTC braid was thicker than the other two, which made its placement easy: both ends were pinned together at the left shoulder, draped over both front and back, and the braid went around the torso, the middle of the braid pinned in the middle of the ribs to hold it up.

It took a few minutes for Daniel and Elijah to get the braids settled where they were content with the look of it. The braids kept twisting and not sitting right, and just when Daniel was getting frustrated with Elijah’s JROTC braid twisting up, Elijah pulled at the starting end a bit and got it to settle.

“Alright boys! The Walk is t-minus three minutes out,” Mr. Poland announced, pushing the clothing rack off to the side of the room. “Is everyone ready?” He waited for a moment to get agreement from the group of boys before continuing, “Alright, let’s join the ladies and get you all settled in and ready.” He motioned all of the boys out of the room, waiting for all twenty of them to go out before following them. “The girls are this way,” he said quietly, waving the boys ahead. He led the way down the small hallway, waving at the female teacher who was directing the girls around. “Find your places in line boys. We’re about to get started.”

The boys quickly but calmly joined the open spaces between the girls, falling into alphabetical order with all the ease of well-trained military brats everywhere. Mr. Poland’s watch began beeping just as the last two students in line, the Zarnafsky twins, twirled around each other to get into proper alphabetical order.

“Alright people! Go time!” Mr. Poland announced and motioned the line ahead. “Principal Kassidy will be waiting on stage, and Mr. Johannsen will be reading your names from the list. Wait until he has finished saying your name before coming out through the curtain.”

The wait was a bit nerve-wracking to listen and not see a thing as the eleven classmates ahead of Elijah went out, one after another, after their name announcements. When it was finally Elijah’s turn, he took a deep breath and moved to stand next to the desk where Mr. Johannsen was standing with a microphone and a clipboard.

“Guide Cadet Commander Elijah Brandt.”

Elijah stepped through the curtains and out of Daniel’s sight, but he could hear the cheering for Elijah; specifically, he could hear Evan shouting his congratulations from his seat. A grin spread on Daniel’s face as he listened to the cheering and felt Elijah’s minor embarrassment at the attention. However, his embarrassment was mostly overshadowed by pride and a sense of giddiness that felt like carbonation bubbles in the back of Daniel’s mind.

Daniel took a deep breath and stepped up to the desk for his turn.

Mr. Johannsen smiled at him before raising the microphone to his mouth. “Guide Cadet Captain Daniel Buckley,” he announced and gave Daniel a nod to let him know he was clear to go.

Daniel took another breath before pushing his way through the curtain, dipping his head to keep from knocking his cap off. He stopped outside the curtain to look up at the audience, zeroing in on his family easily and smiling at Evan, bouncing in his seat in between Max and Miranda. Daniel raised his hand and waved as he walked down the stage, moving smartly across the stage like he was in a JROTC drill.

He shook the hands of all the staff on stage, smiling and taking their congratulations happily. He paused, hand in hand with Principal Kassidy, for photos, grinning at the cameraman before taking his roll of paper and walking off to join the rest of those who’d already gone through. He sat down next to Elijah, thumping their fists together when Elijah offered his hand to him.

“We made it,” Elijah murmured, grinning.

“We made it,” Daniel agreed, a similar grin on his face as he leaned against Elijah’s shoulder to watch the rest of their class graduate.

Part 29—A Second Letter

Dear Liam,

[There are several severely blacked-out words at the top of the page where they’ve been viciously crossed out with a thick black pen.]

You’re lucky.

You being only Latent saves you from having to deal with this nonsense. I’m never doing this again.

[Another couple of blacked-out words.]

I told you in my last letter that I was thinking of going to one of the civilian Sentinel-Guide Mixers for the Greater Norfolk Area. Since I’m eighteen now, I thought it might be a good idea. Big mistake.

Last night, I went to one of those Young Guardian Mixers—you know, the ones for 18 to 25—and it was the worst. I stepped inside the gathering room at the Center, and it was like walking into a fog of feelings, scents, and noise. I honestly don’t know how the Sentinels involved didn’t fall into a zone at the chaos.

The ratio of male to female was largely in the favour of females, and it showed. The fruity drinks, the music, the perfumes filling in the area; it was all very feminine. I mean, it makes sense considering the largest pool of Guardians in Norfolk are all military, and the mixing of civilian and military is limited to three Mixers a year, but this was more like what I imagine a nightclub is like than any kind of formalized meeting. It kind of reminded me a bit of those school dances from teen movies.

The things I could sense going on in the background didn’t help matters.

I know that finding your match as a lower-level Guardian is a lot different than the immediate feeling we get as High-levels, but the amount of leaving the gathering to go … test the waters, was a bit much for me to take. The contentment was manageable to deal with, but the overwhelming feelings of disappointment that far overshadowed it was hard to take.

I kept to myself as much as possible, if I’m being honest. I got a soda from the bar and tried to blend into the wall, but that still wasn’t enough to keep several Sentinels and a couple of Guides from approaching me.

The first Sentinel was actually a classmate who’d come over to discuss their surprise that I was alone—they figured that Eli would have come with me (which he would have, except his sister-in-law went into labour about two hours before we were supposed to leave). We talked for a bit since I hadn’t seen them in a couple of months, and they’d come Online in that time—it was a natural thing for them, no trauma required.

We talked for a bit before they got distracted by a girl around our age on the other side of the room, so they left, and I was left alone with my tall glass of soda.

Do you remember Jana? The Sentinel from when Eli came Online?

She and her twin, Lara, came over about five minutes later. I don’t remember if I told you how they came Online; they came Online our sophomore year on a camping trip with their cousins when they got stranded on a cliff face after a slide on the trail they were hiking on. Jana broke her arm in the fall, and Lara broke something in both legs, which meant they had to wait for the park rangers to bring a Search and Rescue team out to get them from down there.

Lara isn’t looking for her Sentinel with any kind of zeal, she’s just taking it as it comes; she’s more interested in getting into her pre-med courses and prepping for college than she is in looking for her Sentinel.

Jana’s looking for her Guide with a bit more interest since her senses give her a bit of a problem under stress. We know the statistics, though, so she’s not super focused on finding her Guide the way some of those other Sentinels and Guides were.

Thank the spirits for the two of them, though. The three of us together was enough to put off several older Sentinels who were focused on us, mostly on me. Jana only had to growl at one guy who tried getting handsy with Lara when we went to get more drinks.

Elpis only showed herself once. We were on our way out after spending the two hours that got us free from the squinty eyes of the Center staff that set up the Mixer. I went to use the bathroom before I was going to drive the girls home and then go to the hospital to join Eli.

You know how the Center bathrooms all have the toilets in little water closest? Well, I opened the door when I was done, and there was this guy standing outside in the main part of the bathroom, just leaning against the wall and waiting. He was a Sentinel; that was obvious without even looking at any of his labels. He stood up and opened his mouth, but before he could even say anything, Elpis was appearing between us with a growl that almost echoed in the cement block bathroom.

Elpis is still growing; the size of her ears and paws makes that clear, but even still growing, she’s large enough to be a good deterrent for anyone trying to make an ass of themselves. I mean, right now, Elpis is about 175 pounds and like two and a half feet tall at the shoulder, so she’s not small by any means.

The guy practically pissed his pants, and he was real quick to back it up and get the hell out of my space. I know what he wanted, though.

This guy, like pretty much all of the Sentinels present at this Mixer, was pretty average. He was likely a Level 5, so not extremely low on the scale, but… I’m a Level 7 already. There was no way he’d actually be able to handle being my Sentinel; I’d burn out his senses with ease. But he’s like every wannabe boy possible: he wants the prestige and perceived power that comes with Bonding so much higher on the totem pole. He’d probably last like two weeks before he’d be demanding to break the Bond.

Elpis ended up escorting us out of the Center and to my Bronco. She disappeared once we were all inside the vehicle.

Even with the backup, I’m still not doing this again any time soon. I’m going to wait a while, a long while, before I try anything like this again. Blegh.

I told Aunt Max about it this morning, and she called it a “meat market.” We nearly had to explain what that meant to Evan when he came in at just the wrong moment. That was an awkward conversation narrowly avoided. Thankfully we didn’t actually have to explain, and he was more interested in getting breakfast than pressing us ’cause I’m not sure how we’d have made that child friendly.

I hope if you come Online any time soon, you find your match quickly, ’cause I wouldn’t wish this nonsense on anyone. I will be happy to find my own, but I have a feeling that it won’t be through one of these things.

I hope you’re okay, wherever you are.

Love you, bro.

-Daniel

Part 30—A decision made

Daniel sucked a deep breath in, holding it as he stared at the closed door of his grandparents’ office. He’d come to a decision finally, and now it was time to tell everyone what he’d decided to do with the rest of his life—at least the rest of his life right now, but things could always change later. There was no knowing for sure what life would bring, but he’d come to a decision about what he wanted to do right now.

“You can come in, Daniel!” Anders called from within the room, and Daniel huffed out the air before turning the knob and stepping into the room.

His grandparents were both in the office like he’d hoped. Anders was behind his desk, working with some files that he closed as Daniel came inside. Miranda was sitting and reading in the bay window to the right of Anders’ desk instead of at her own that was across the room. They both straightened as Daniel came to stand in front of Anders’ desk; Anders folded his hands over his files and raised an eyebrow at Daniel while Miranda closed her book and twisted to drop her feet to the floor.

“I’ve come to a decision,” Daniel announced plainly, stopping between the two chairs in front of Anders’ desk and falling into casual parade rest.

“Oh?” Anders questioned, leaning back in his chair and reaching into the top drawer of his desk. “Does it have something to do with this?” He pulled out another file folder, this one the blue used by the Naval Academy with the Insignia on the front. There was a little tab on the side where Daniel could see his name.

“Yes,” Daniel admitted. “Eli and I have both decided to apply for nomination to the Naval Academy. Why do you have it?”

Anders smirked. “I’m an Admiral, Danny,” he reminded. “Your JROTC instructor brought me a copy when you and Eli submitted your applications. He had concerns that you hadn’t discussed it with me, and I admit, I expected you to go to college first.”

“We put in applications for college, too,” Daniel assured them. “We just figured we’d put in our Naval Academy applications now rather than wait and have even less likelihood of getting in later.”

“So, the Navy,” Miranda mused, a fox grin spreading on her face. “What’s wrong with the Air Force? After all, both Colonel Brandt and I are Air Force.”

Daniel rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, “The Navy has better assignment policies about Guardian partners than the Air Force.”

Miranda tipped her head. She had to give them that; the Air Force had pretty rigid policies regarding the assignments of the Protectorate—only Bonded pairs had assured placement; any other Bonds were up in the air.

“So, you two want to stay together, and the Navy was the best choice?” Anders questioned, putting the file back into the drawer of his desk.

“It was either the Navy or the Corps, but that’s not really what we’re interested in?” Daniel explained, breaking from parade rest to sprawl in one of the chairs. “We want to fly, and there aren’t that many opportunities to do that in the Corps unless we wanna join the Paratroopers.”

“So, what do you want to study otherwise? I’m assuming you’ll take Aerospace Engineering at the Academy, so what else?” Miranda asked.

“I’m thinking of going for Chemistry or Criminal Justice. Eli wants to get a History or Biology degree.”

Anders nodded slowly. “And if you get into college over the Academy?”

“We’ll just join NROTC as a steppingstone; we picked colleges with good programs for both sides,” Daniel explained.

Anders hummed in acknowledgement. He stared at Daniel for a long moment, long enough to make the teen squirm, before smirking, “Maverick really caught your interest, didn’t he?”

Daniel huffed and threw his arm over his face as he collapsed back in the chair. Meeting Guide Lieutenant Commander Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and his Sentinel, Captain Thomas “Iceman” Kazansky, had been a turning point for both Elijah and Daniel. It had been interesting to see and hear what Naval Aviators do, and hearing what the guidelines were for Guardians in the Navy was an eye-opener for them. It didn’t help that they were hot like burning, but that wasn’t something that Daniel was ever going to tell his grandparents.

“I’m going to take that as a yes,” Miranda snickered, pushing her fingers through her hair.

Daniel groaned and waved his other hand in her direction. “Maybe.”

Miranda and Anders laughed. “So, college then the Academy,” Anders hummed, folding his hands on the desk again.

“That’s the plan,” Daniel agreed, pulling his arm down from his face and looking at them.

Miranda smiled and got up to wrap her arms around his shoulders. “It’s a good plan, little wolf,” she praised, kissing the top of his head. “We’ll have to see what happens now.”

“Thanks, Grandma,” Daniel murmured into her shoulder, hugging her tight.

“We’ll have to celebrate when you get your admissions,” Anders mused, humming and reaching up to tap his fingers across his lips. “You think about it and decide on something for us to do when they come in.”

Daniel nodded against Miranda’s shoulder and reached around her to give him a thumbs up. He grinned against Miranda’s shoulder at Anders’ laughter, leaning into the fingers Miranda dragged through his hair.

“Now, tell us what you plan to do between graduating the Naval Academy and your flight training,” Miranda requested and dropped down on the arm of the chair to focus on Daniel.

Daniel sat up properly, keeping Miranda and Anders in view so they could discuss what his plans for the rest of his future were.

–

They got their college acceptance letters back in mid-July, and since they were back long before their Academy acceptances—which honestly weren’t likely to come in until August, so they decided to defer their Academy applications for the meantime. They moved into a small Council-owned apartment a few blocks away from campus together and settled in to go through their course loads.

It seemed like the five years of college courses passed in the blink of an eye. Daniel ended up taking dual majors in Criminal Justice and Chemistry with minors in History and Classical Literature, getting comments from the family wondering when he had time to sleep or eat. Elijah ended up going for a Biomedical degree with minors in History and Zoology. Thankfully, they had been able to test out of several courses due to their High School courses. And with their Protectorate Midshipman scholarships, they hadn’t needed to worry about anything else but their courses and making sure they kept up with their NROTC requirements.

They returned home for every break they could, and they enjoyed spending time with their family, managing somehow to line up their breaks with leaves for their siblings twice. It was good to see not only Liam but also Eli’s brothers, Darian and Trenton, and his sister, Naomi. Summers, when they weren’t needed for training, were spent at the Lakehouse with Evan and Jasmine and the other younger cousins, and winters were spent at home with their families, enjoying the Virginia snow.

After they got their diplomas in the summer of 2003, they returned home to wait for their duty assignments. Anders brought their duty assignments to the Lakehouse, where they’d taken the younger cousins to relax, and they were relieved to find out that they’d been assigned to Norfolk together for more training.

They stayed at Norfolk for sixteen months before getting their first ship assignments, and Daniel had to laugh when they were handed their paperwork, and it said, USS Visionary. Captains Carson and Martins were still in charge, though Daniel had heard rumours that they were thinking of transferring to somewhere state-side in a few years.

Daniel knew he surprised the other transfers when he greeted Captain Martins by name even before the older man could introduce himself. He’d had to explain to his and Elijah’s bunkmates how he knew the Captains, and it had gotten a laugh from Ensign Ian Marcus and a wide-eyed look from Ensign Sam Bentley. He’d gotten a couple more funny looks when he was called to the Captains’ office.

Since Justin and Dillon had been staples in the house when he was a kid, it didn’t surprise him that they wanted to know what his plans were. It had been easy to admit that he was planning to go to the Academy and study Aerospace Engineering along with Elijah and that he was planning to apply for a spot in Navy Flight School after that. It also didn’t surprise them to hear that since Anders had apparently been gossiping about the visit from Maverick and Iceman. It had been surprising for Daniel to hear that Justin had been in one of Maverick’s classes while he’d been an instructor at TOPGUN; it was interesting to hear the stories about Maverick and how instruction under Maverick had worked. Justin promised that when he was ready to send in his application again that they would add their recommendations to his papers.

The Visionary spent a year on assignment before returning to Norfolk for some scheduled maintenance… just in time for the Annual Armed Forces Protectorate Gala, also known as the Military’s version of a Mixer. Daniel and Elijah had no choice but to attend. It was a full-dress event, so everyone showed out in their best uniforms, well put together, and mingled while Bonded Brass wandered around and kept an eye on everything. Daniel was beyond thankful for Elijah’s presence during the whole thing, especially with how focused the Brass were on several of them—mostly those who were High-Level and/or Legacies. Anders and Miranda weren’t as focused on matchmaking, more focused on mingling with the lower ranks and learning about the Guardians under their commands.

After it was all over, Daniel sent a short letter to Liam:

Liam,

Military Mixers aren’t any better.

The only difference: the Brass have expectations.

Love you, bro.

-Daniel

 

Part 31—A Knowing

JUNE 2006

Daniel stopped mid-step on the deck of the Visionary, pausing to look out over the railing of the ship. He had a box in his arms, one full of medical supplies that he was supposed to be taking down to the infirmary. He almost dropped the box on his foot as he felt his Gifts violently fluctuate. His shields dropped away to almost nothing, but before it could become a full-blown meltdown, they were rebuilding, different, but rebuilding to full strength.

Elpis appeared at his side; one second, the deck was empty, and then suddenly, there was a 250lb Direwolf standing beside him. Elpis was fully grown now; her shoulders reached his hips (and he was 6’4″ and mostly leg), and she was big enough to put her feet on his shoulders with ease. Her mostly white fur practically glowed with psionic energy as she came to press her head into his hip.

Daniel shifted his hold on the box, pressing it into his opposite hip as he reached for her, digging his fingers into the fur of her ruff. “He’s Online isn’t he?” he breathed as he looked at the horizon.

Elpis huffed, nudging him gently as she sat down next to him. He got a feeling of agreement from her, and he had to set the box down and hunch over to do some breathing exercises.

“Fuck. Fuck.”

For his Gifts to have fluctuated like that, it meant that his Sentinel had to have come Online under some kind of duress. Knowing that, even if he didn’t know that, it made Daniel long to be at his Sentinel’s side, to be able to comfort him, to help him through this, but there was no chance of that. They hadn’t met yet, and Daniel had no idea where to even begin to look for him. He’d feel the draw to his Sentinel eventually now that he was Online, but that wouldn’t happen yet, not for a few weeks at least, as his Gifts reached for his Sentinel.

“Buckley, are you okay?”

Daniel took a deep breath and looked up to find Sentinel Lieutenant Commander Harrison, his immediate CO, standing out of Elpis’ reach. He picked his cap up off the ground and straightened, rubbing a hand through his hair.

“I—” Daniel cleared his throat and pinched the bridge of his nose as he breathed through the remainder of his spike of anxiety. “My Sentinel has come Online,” he admitted, sliding his cap back on and reaching down for the box he was supposed to be carrying.

LCDR Harrison hummed under his breath. “Handle that box,” he directed, pulling his clipboard up to make a few notes on his paperwork. “Then go back to your berth and get a handle on your Gifts. If you must, go to the infirmary for a quiet room, but get a handle on your Gifts, then come report to me when you feel best.”

“Yes, sir,” Daniel agreed quietly, nodding sharply and resting a hand on the top of Elpis’ head again. He led the way off the deck, heading down into the depths of the ship. After so long on the ship, it was easy for him to make his way through the winding hallways and floor changes that was necessary to get to the infirmary.

He took the box into the infirmary, handed it over to the nurse, and rather than going back to his bunk, he asked the nurse on duty to assign him a quiet room for the night. He took the key card from her and went inside, sitting down on the bed and digging his intra-ship PDA from the right thigh pocket of his pants. He sent a quick message to Elijah asking for some things from their bunk before setting the PDA on the little shelf next to the bed. He flopped out on the bed, staring up at the ceiling as he went through another breathing exercise.

The bed dipped next to him as Elpis jumped up onto the bed, flopping out across the bed beside him and setting her head on his chest. He reached up to brush his fingers through her fur, focusing on the motions to keep himself calm and help settle his Gifts back into place.

There was a long road ahead, but Daniel was excited to know that his Sentinel was Online, and they were finally on the road towards getting together. It may take years, and it might be an accident they even meet, but they were on the way to Bonding and spending the rest of their lives together. Daniel couldn’t wait.

There was a knock at the door, and Daniel gently nudged Elpis away before rolling off the bed, getting to his feet and going over to open it. Elijah stood out in the hallway with one of his satchel bags over his shoulder. Daniel took the bag when Elijah offered it and leaned against the doorframe.

Elijah reached out and squeezed Daniel’s arm. “You’ll be okay,” he murmured, “I know you want to be with him, but we know that isn’t possible.” He reached up with his free hand to rub circles into his sternum.

Daniel knew that Eli was feeling his pain. Last year, Eli had basically collapsed while they were home for a leave, and it hadn’t taken long for them to figure out that his Sentinel had come Online violently. It had taken three days for him to come around, and when he did, his Gifts were all over the place as they settled back into their new normal of reaching for his Sentinel like a missing limb.

Daniel nodded and leaned forward to drop his forehead briefly against Eli’s shoulder before he pulled back. “I’m going to spend the night in here,” he admitted.

“Take as long as you need,” Elijah reminded and patted his shoulder before stepping back. “I’ll let the others know where you are if they ask, but don’t worry about anything else but getting yourself comfortable.”

Daniel sighed. “Thanks, Eli.”

“You’re welcome!” Elijah announced as he turned down the hallway and started walking out.

Daniel watched him go for a moment before he stepped back into his quiet room and closed the door, dropping his bag on the chair and going back to the bed. He settled down with Elpis, sighing quietly as he sprawled out on his back and let her drop her weight on his chest. He set a hand on the top of her head and let out a deep sigh as he settled.

“I’ll find you,” he murmured. “It may take a while, but I’ll find you.” He rolled over to throw his arm over Elpis’ back, pressing his face into her fur. He closed his eyes and settled down for meditation.

One moment had changed his life, and he was glad that it had brought him here. He wouldn’t change anything for the world—he was happy, Evan was happy, and their lives were heading for perfect. One brother’s protective instincts had changed everything in their lives and changed it for the better.

One single moment in time and everything was different.

---