Initial Draft Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

"We must be nuts." Justin's grin stretched ear to ear as he watched Sousa climb out of her mother's SUV. That smile dimmed when he saw that she wasn't alone.

Sousa sighed, feeling jittery and uncertain. She answered the younger teen's question without him having to ask. "I told mom I was taking Mac out for frozen yogurt."

The budding sociopath's smile brightened once more. "You lied." He crooned while still giving a cautionary look at the blond and befeathered nine-year old beside her.

Sousa gave him a sour look of her own and turned around to glance at Finn. Her friend wasn't looking at her, instead he was staring at the building in front of them. The building that housed the Department of Social Services among other things. She approached him, feeling the intrinsic warmth he always seemed to generate. Whether or not that 'warmth' was physical or emotional, it always seemed to register with her. She was usually happy in his presence, like it all fit somehow. But today she couldn't find the center. Maybe it was only because of what they were planning on doing, but his presence wasn't having as calming an effect on her nerves as she would have liked. "Smithy." It was a greeting as well as a question. A question along the lines of, "are we really going to do this?"

He ignored her question, choosing something else to talk about. "You lied." Finn's voice was low, nearly a whisper. Only for her.

Sousa nodded easily enough, though she did shift her weight slightly more onto her good side. "How else was I supposed to get out of the house for this? Saturday night. Can't claim a date and bring Mac along." The instant the words left her mouth she knew them to be a complete mistake.

Now she saw Finn's dark eyes slide over to watch her. She let her own gaze move to the building building in front of them. "Did you have a date?" His voice was not a whisper and not quite a demand. Cautious. When she didn't answer right away, Finn pressed again though he still didn't raise his voice. "Date. You. Yes or no."

"No." Sousa couldn't complete the lie, not right now. "Not after I canceled it anyway." She didn't need to meet his dark-eyed gaze to know he was unhappy with her answer. Then again, so was she. Why did she date others? Finn was it. She knew it bone deep. But when the guy you're in love with leans in close to kiss you and your body reacts on instinct by pulling away, you know it's not right. Then again, it wasn't 'right' with anyone else yet either. On some level, Sousa wasn't sure that she wasn't completely broken inside. As if her childhood accident had shattered more than just bone.

"You still lied." Finn continued, obviously not wanting to dwell on the subject of her dating life.

Relieved Sousa took the conversational bait. "Frozen yogurt. No major. We'll even swing by the store after and get some to make it not a lie if you want."

He shook his head sharply, making his longish hair fall into his face. Hiding his profile from her. Making his words that much more distancing. "Today, this afternoon. You lied to us."

His body heat didn't change, but suddenly Sousa felt the chill from the early Spring evening. Or maybe the chill was from deep inside her somewhere.

"Ara Sagittarius. Perescope, Pare a green ..."

"Sagittarii. Peregrini." The words she supplied tasted bitter in her mouth, almost metallic.

His voice rumbled forward, as if unaware of the turmoil inside her. "What do they mean?"

"I don't know." She snapped defensively.

"I call liar." Whispering, Finn stepped away from her and now she definitely felt chilled without his presence beside her. It didn't help that he was right too. She was lying. Ara Sagittarii. Family of Archers. Peregrini. It's not just that she knew the word meant 'not citizens', but that she knew that it meant more than that. It meant 'free people' who weren't citizens. But citizens of what? And how could she possibly know what the words meant? Or that's what the shield represented?

It was like an entire visual in her head. Row after row of military precision, small round shields on the backs of soldiers as they marched away. Their backs to her. Soldiers like she'd never seen anywhere. Ever. The memory did have the feel of a documentary, as if she'd watched but hadn't actually been there. Sousa clung to that thought. And she could have told the others that she'd watched something, seen something, maybe in school. But ...but she knew she hadn't. So where? How?

"What did you do, bring snacks?" Sousa could hear the sneer in Justin's voice somewhere behind her, and she didn't need to see his face to know it was there.

On the other hand, her sister didn't even bother to sound defensive. "Flashlight and camera, stupid." Mac's voice held all the superiority that a nine-year old girl could muster, and that was a lot.

"Mac." Finn's rumble of a voice rolled over Sousa's skin, calling forth prickles of sensation. She had always felt so drawn to him. So why did she keep pushing him away? She didn't think it was magic, or any supernatural explanation. Sousa closed her eyes for a second, taking a deep breath. What if she was just wrong somehow? Maybe she hadn't been claimed by family after the car accident because they didn't want her. What if her family hadn't died? What if they were just relieved to be rid of a child who was broken on the inside as well as the outside?

Maybe the answers were inside this building. Answers to their pasts. Today at the picnic, that police detective had asked what foster kids thought about, talked about. They'd told him that the past was usually an off-topic, not discussed.

Later, between the four of them contemplating the strangeness in both Finn and Justin's lives they wondered if maybe delving into the past might be a good thing. Luckily, their pasts didn't need to be searched for, not really. Not when DSS had their files from when they'd been found on up to the current day. Social workers ruled them basically, where they lived, how they lived, what they were allowed to do and even who their doctors were. Deann hated the boy's dentist, having gone to high school with him. But she was not allowed to switch to anyone else. DSS ruled all.

And if the boys found answers, great. While if she happened to stumble across her own adoption file? Who needed to know?

"We need to do it now, Mac and I don't have a lot of time." Sousa sounded stark, even to herself. Breaking in had sounded fun and exciting at the picnic, an adventure in the abstract. Now? Faced with a darkened building, it was another matter entirely.

"Oh, and I guess it was a cinch for me and Finn to sneak out?"

Sousa turned to the younger Michaelson brother. "Oh, like you two didn't use the trick of going all invisible and just walking out of the house? What? Deann and Roger don't think you're still in your room watching some dumb movie?"

Blue-green changeable eyes regarded her for half a second then Justin grinned and shrugged. "Well, yeah." He admitted. "Something stupid and animated. I really don't want anyone thinking I watch that stuff."

"I've seen it twice." Finn protested absently, studying the building in front of them.

Justin's sneer returned. "Exactly the point. In my opinion, you basically suck anyway."

Finn turned toward them, looking at Justin first, then Mac. He grinned. "The point of me caring is slim to none."

Justin's sneer faded into a look of disgust as Mac giggled happily. Then the nine-year old asked what should have been obvious. "How did you guys get here? You didn't walk all the way from home."

"Matty." Finn sounded unhappy, almost angry. Which is how he always sounded when he was forced to part with money. But beyond the mere price of the ride, was the company he'd been forced to share.

Mateja Czjzek was the teen equivalent to a taxi service. The senior had an old beat up car that he'd 'rent' out a ride ...for a price. No questions asked. It was a good source of income for the quiet teenager, and a great way for other teens without a ride to get around.

Finn didn't like Matty much. Mostly because the older male had taken Sousa out for a movie date about two years ago. It must have been an interesting, and very quiet, ride over here, she mused.

Sousa shifted her weight uneasily, testing her left leg. No pain, not even an ache although it wasn't the most comfortable position to hold. Able to take her full weight as long as she didn't over do things. But not as strong as her right leg. Never as strong as she'd like it to be. Her whole life, she'd tried to tell her parents, doctors and therapists that she could feel the metal pins in her body. They'd all listened, and almost every one of them had believed. Yet each and every one of them had also wanted her to move on, to get better, to ignore and overcome.

What she'd not been able to explain was how wrong the metal felt. That it shouldn't be there. Yet the metal pieces and bits were what had held her pelvis and upper leg together, allowing her to walk and function at all. Necessary, and now a part of her.

"So. We discussed this at the picnic this afternoon." Justin's voice turned eager. "We're not backing out now? Even with the tyke tagging along? Couldn't you have come up with a different excuse?"

Sousa's melancholy mood kept her smile to the bare minimum, even as she turned to look at her grinning baby sister. "Mac decided if I left without her, she'd tell mom that I was off sneaking around if I didn't take her with us."

"Blackmail." Justin cocked his head slightly to the side, his blonde hair looking almost gray in the dim light of parking area. "I can almost respect that." Sounding the tiniest bit impressed.

She hadn't said that the threat was to tell their mother she was sneaking out to go kissing and stuff, Mac's word for it, with Tom Braswell. Not a name she wanted to wave around right under Finn's nose. And not someone she even particularly wanted to go to prom with anyway. Tom was cute, tall, athletic and at least middle-of-the road intelligent with A-B honor roll, but no accelerated classes. Nothing wrong with Tom at all. Except that he wasn't Finn.

Sousa looked over toward the subject of her thoughts, only to find his dark-eyed gaze on her. Her breath caught, unable to read his mood like she usually could. Suddenly uncomfortable, she spoke. "We need to get this done, if we can. Don't have a lot of time."

Finn nodded, the odd look in his eyes fading as he took on a worried expression. "This might not work."

Mac grinned and ran up to grab his hand, the dim lighting in the parking lot leeching the bright colors from the tiny feathers in her hair. "Won't know until we do it. Come on!" She gestured for the others to get closer.

Justin snarled and then gave a coughing sort of laugh. "I'm not holding his stupid hand, no way. Don't need too. We've done this a couple of times and we don't have to be touching. Just don't start crying because it got too dark for you. I'm telling, it's wicked blank when he crosses over. Nothing. Sure you want to come?"

"Maybe you're the scared one!" Mac retaliated quickly.

Sousa ignored the small squabble, walking over to join the other three, pretending not to see Finn's hand he held out for her. Or his disappointment as he dropped that hand once it was obvious she wasn't reaching for him in return.

"Are we ready? How does this .... Oh!" Mac's voice stopped suddenly as she caught her breath harshly. "I don't like this! It's really dark!"

Justin's words were a smooth drawl full of a sneer he had to be wearing, even if it couldn't be seen. "I told you it got dark. I hate to say it, but I did tell you so."

"You don't hate to say it, you love to say it!" The nine-year old girl sounded highly peeved.

Sousa looked around her in confusion as Mac and Justin argued over how dark was dark, and how a warning was supposed to really work. Every word they spoke grated on her last nerve. She turned toward their voices and watched in confusion.

Finn caught her looking at the others and reached out for her. Without thought she drew back her arm before he could make contact. For no reason she could possibly name.

Shame and bitterness swamped her as she took a deep breath, wanting desperately to apologize.

"You can see?" Finn whispered to her, but the question was overheard by all despite the barely heated argument going on between the two youngest members of their group.

"Wait. What?" Mac protested shrilly. "That's not fair! I wanna see too!"

"The hag can see? Finn, are you screwing around with us keeping it dark like this for everyone else?" Justin's voice was no less than threatening.

The older teen shrugged helplessly, "I'm not doing anything differently for anyone."

"I can't see, not really." Sousa spoke quietly. "Everything is really wonky, almost blurry and with wild colors and streams of light that make no sense. It's enough to make a girl dizzy."

"No fair!" Whined Mac.

Sousa looked around carefully, able to tell the others apart from the background. They were still human-shaped after all, a person sized siloutte filled in with weird combinations of colors. Justin's colors were murky and shadowed, muted in some way but not ugly. Almost beautiful in fact. There was a subtle bronze and copper glow beneath the surface of his ...skin? The colors shifting on the surface of the teen with a nearly mesmerizing pull. He looked boy-shaped and odd, and she couldn't see his face or anything.

Mac appeared a bit differently though, less a burnished copper like Justin and more a subtle daffodil color. Not quite yellow though, more like a shifting tide of gold, citrus, vanilla and very pale yellow. With tendrils of bright butter yellow color running from sister to sister, connecting them. But there were other tendrils too. Thick ones, vibrant with thinner veins of pale mauve running between the younger girl and ... Finn? A glance down showed that she too was connected some how with Finn. But her colors appeared a muted silver. What did the different colors mean?

Connections. Another glance at Justin revealed the fourteen-year old seemed self-contained. No tendrils or, wait ...no, there were some. Dark and almost blending into the background. Of course they connected to Finn mostly, but one led right back to her. A thick vein, ugly and dark.

Uneasy, Sousa ran her hand over that one lone connection traversing between she and Justin. Her hand passed right through it without any effect. Like there was nothing solid there. But she could see the line between them, ugly and thick as it was. How come she couldn't feel it?!

"What do you see?"

Turning to Finn, Sousa swallowed hard. Fire. Her friend was on fire. Flames sizzled through him so quickly she nearly flinched away out of instinct every time she looked at him. The thin barrier of his skin appeared to be the shell keeping all those flames at bay as they seemed to roar inside of her friend. Blues, reds, yellows, back to deep burning blues with small veins of utter black.

"Smithy." She drew out his nickname as if tasting the sheer rightness of it for the very first time. "What do you see? When you look around?"

The Finn-shaped fire thing shrugged, moving like her friend usually moved. Only she couldn't see the outside of him at all, only all those flames. She was amazed that when she sniffed the air, nothing smelled like it was burning. "I see gray layers. This here-and-now parking lot. A meadow. Another meadow. A field. Some sort of industrial room with lots of pipes and crap."

"Two meadows and a field, what's the difference? Why not just say three meadows?" Justin kicked at something on the ground that Sousa couldn't see, or at least that's what it looked like his shape did anyway. Since he couldn't see, she put it down as a nervous gesture.

"Two open areas with wildflowers, untouched. Could be flowering weeds, what would I know? Those would be the meadows. But the field looks like it has growing crops in uniform lines, all the same plant at basically the same height and development. See? Field."

"No, I can't see you puff!" Justin snarled. "But you let the hag get a good look, don't you?"

Finn and Justin started arguing lightly about descriptive words all while the older boy kept stating he had nothing to do with what she could see. Ignoring them both, Sousa looked around herself carefully.

No layers, gray or colored. One world, theirs. A faint outline of her mother's SUV. Dark and vague. Parking lot, dark blob of nothing. Small trees ornamentally placed in little grassy areas within the parking lot? Those were light green, almost a sickly yellow. They glowed silently, but with a pale and uneven appearance. Off in the distance though, there the sky was lit up with the soft glow of green. Probably the thick trees behind them in the distance.

From last year's state history class, Sousa knew that North Carolina used to be considered 'jungle' back during the Civil War. An underdeveloped area thick with vegetation and swamps. Could that be the green glow she was seeing? But why was it so weak? The colors appeared vibrant enough, healthy. Yet Sousa couldn't sense much ...oomph in that glow. No sense of strength. Something was missing. Something important. Only she didn't know what that something could be.

Turning she looked at Justin, then Mac. Low oomph. But looking at Finn the oomph was there, in spades. Uneasy, and wanting not to think about what all this could mean, Sousa tuned back into the group discussion.

"Look, let's just get this done. I'm tired at looking at dark." Mac whined a bit.

Justin groaned. "You can't look at dark, it's the absence of light. Not a tangible object or anything. You can't look at what's not there."

"Jerk."

"Baby."

"Let's go." Finn interrupted, tugging on Mac's hand. "Justin, put your hand on my shoulder if you're coming."

Mac swung Finn's hand in excitement. "I thought you didn't have to touch to make this all work."

Sousa watched as Finn shrugged again. "We don't. When we stand still and go from one place to the next. But if we're going to walk into the building, then we need to be in contact. At least for those of you who can't see anything."

"Let's go." Justin put out his hand in front of him swinging it left and right, striking Mac awkwardly in the head.

"Watch it!" The youngest member of their group protested.

Obviously unable to see, Justin reached out for Mac's head again, probably to follow her hold onto Finn. But the nine-year old wasn't happy and ducked down, letting go of her own hold on Finn.

"Freeze!" Sousa watched Mac instantly freeze and Justin cross his arms in irritation.

Finn reached out, grabbed Justin's hand and put it on his shoulder. "Don't let go."

"I'm not holding onto you!" Even without being able to see her face, Sousa could tell from her baby sister's body language that she was frustrated. And her ... aura? ... was shifting to a more burnished, darker yellow.

"I've got you." Finn grabbed the nine-year old's hand and looked over at Sousa. At least she thought he was. It was highly disconcerting to see a human-shaped flame turn in your direction. She eyed where Justin and Mac were both touching Finn. Neither could see, and neither were protesting. They couldn't feel the flames living inside him. And their auras? Staying separate. Nervously she swallowed.

"What?" Finn asked her, frustration tinting his voice as well.

Sousa mumbled something inane and turned away. "Let's go." Not wanting to discuss what she could 'see', or why.

Carefully, so no one lost touch with him, Finn started toward the building, trusting Sousa to follow since she could see enough not to have to be led. Nausea threatened as she pushed aside the confusing jumble of thoughts and half-formed speculations on just what she was witnessing and focused instead on the task at hand.

The building housing the DSS department would probably be considered a small building for such places as New York or L.A., but here? The three story building was one of the biggest in the county seat. Next door was the sheriff's department and jail, although the main prison was a few towns over. Next to that was the grand courthouse with it's statues in front and white pillars before the entry way. The four of them weren't even in their home town, but in the next town over. Which would mean more in a bigger area, for them it was only a ten minute drive down the highway. Eighteen minutes if you avoided the highway like Sousa had, since she got extremely nervous driving on them in the first place. A left over from her past.

Her past. Their past. The reason they were doing this little foray in the first place.

"If I step in dog-poo while not in our world, would it squish for real?"

Startled, Sousa's errant thoughts snapped back with a sudden snort of real amusement. "What?"

Mac was clinging to Finn's hand with both of hers now, obviously a bit awkward as they walked. "Would the poo squish down like an invisible foot touched it, or would my foot go through it? Would my foot be all smelly and stuff?"

Justin actually laughed too. "Try it and find out."

"Ew!"

"Hey! You brought it up, no complaining about the subject from the peanut gallery!" Finn's mood lightened. Sousa watched him as his internal flames appeared to slow a bit, changing more to orange than blue. Interesting. Although the blacker veins seemed to be slightly larger, or was that her imagination?

Justin stuck out his free hand out into 'space', but didn't encounter anything. "At the risk of sounding like a cliche ...are we there yet?" His voice took on a sickly sweet tone in the imitation of a toddler. "Hey, the title for this could be 'Into Darkness'."

Finn shrugged off the suggestion. "Already used, and recently enough. In a big way too." Referring to a mega-hit at the movies a while back. "We're supposed to make up new ones, no recycling."

"Yeah, nothing comes to mind. All the good ones are used. Army of Darkness? Used. Darkman. Used. Heart of Darkness, well I think that one is used too and if not it should be."

Sousa couldn't 'see' Justin's expressions, or even his face. She could only go by the tone of his voice, and it sounded almost engaged. Never having been one to enjoy the younger Michaelson brother's company, she stepped into unknown territory as she spoke. "Edge of Darkness. Used."

Finn stopped, and by extension so did the other two holding onto him. Both the 'auras' of the brothers appeared to turn in her direction. A long moment of silence. What were they thinking about? That she was intruding on something private between the two boys? Would Justin make some cutting remark?

"Dark Shadows." Finn said quietly, no censure in his voice at all. "Used."

Justin's voice was soft, not tentative, but not challenging either. "Darkness Falls. Horror. Used."

"Wait Until Dark. Hepburn. Used." Sousa replied, her own voice carefully neutral as she looked over at the burnished copper that was basically Justin-shaped. The younger brother was silent for a long moment, then appeared to nod slowly. "Nice one. Haven't seen it though."

"The Dark Crystal!" Mac's voice was loud as she joined in, nearly bouncing on her toes in excitement and completely oblivious to the moment that had just passed.

All three older teens groaned.

"New rule." Finn laughed lightly. "No animated movie titles. Unless anime."

"It wasn't an animated movie!" Mac protested in utter shock.

Justin sighed heavily for effect, his voice a study in fake disappointment. "Peanut is right. It wasn't animated."

"See?!" Mac tugged heavily on Finn's hand to emphasize the point. "Not animated."

"Whatever. Are we ready to do this now?" Finn asked.

Justin's voice took on a teasing edge, "Don't let him fool you, he used to love that movie. Now let's get this thing done. March on!"

"Yeah! March on!" Mac repeated, tugging on Finn's hand again as she moved forward.

Finn sighed. "Okay, okay ...not over there, this way." He adjusted their direction slightly to the right. Sousa followed him easily, being the only flame-based being around. Funny though, she couldn't see the building at all. Vague outline that she might miss if Finn weren't in the lead. Faint glows from vegetation she knew to be around them, but nothing to warn her of danger.

"Curb."

Sousa stopped, putting her foot down carefully. "Where?" She asked, not wanting a fall. Falls were bad enough, but she didn't need to hurt or twist anything to make her limp worse. She hated, hated, hated walking on crutches like she had last year after a nasty tumble. Wet pavement and a missed step caused over a week of misery and nearly a month of aching musculature.

"Right in front of you." Finn's voice, her anchor in this strange half-world between one place and the next.

Feeling terribly awkward, Sousa picked up one foot and slowly put it down. Even. The next foot, taking all of her weight on her weaker side. She flinched slightly as she struggled to keep her one-footed balance. Walking was generally easier when not done in slow motion. It reminded her of the Tai Chi classes her father had signed her up for several years ago, to improve her balance. Her right foot came down slowly, no curb. "Where?"

Finn's voice sounded a bit strange. "You just stepped right through it."

Sousa paused, using her left foot to wiggle in the area in front and to the side. Nothing.

"Looks so weird, your foot is going right through the curb and the grass. From here it looks like you are sunk into to ground which starts around your ankle."

"Huh." Sousa blew out the breath she hadn't even known she'd been holding.

Justin sighed heavily. "Let's get this moving!"

Sousa could almost feel her friend's reluctance, but Finn did start to move forward and she followed. Justin and Mac getting tugged along behind him slowly. Since she couldn't see objects, only the energy filled capsules that were people or plants, Sousa couldn't tell exactly where they were. It wasn't until Finn stopped that she looked around. And still saw nothing but them and a sickly weak brown-green aura coming from one corner. Probably an indoor plant she decided. "We there?"

Finn's flame aura nodded as he turned around, Mac and Justin still touching him. "Yeah. We're in. But there's a problem. A big problem."

"Just pull us back into reality." Justin grumped. "I'm tired of dark."

"Oh! Dark Side of the Moon!" Mac chirped happily. "I win."

"Offsides!" Finn protested with a quick chuckle. "Not a movie, it was a studio album. Classic though. Great band."

"No points for you." Justin actually sounded this side of amused.

Mac whined a bit. "There are no points and it does so count!"

"Nope. Sorry. Out of bounds, early disqualification." Justin denied the nine-year old. "Challenge denied, loss of down."

Finn's voice sounded odd as his flame aura turned in Justin's direction. "Loss of down? You hate football. Besides, it's loss of time-out."

"Oh, like you don't watch enough of it ...."

"It does so count!"

"What kind of problem?" Sousa raised her voice, imposing her will onto the conversation. "What do you mean we have a problem?"

All three voices fell silent quickly. Waiting.

Sousa pointed at the aura of her friend, his flames burning but producing no smoke. And only the heat she was used to feeling from him, nothing extra thank goodness.

"The DSS office we need? Second floor." Finn's voice sounded bland, and possibly a touch relieved as well as frustrated. "And in this half-way state, our feet will go through the steps like yours did with the curb."

Justin swore under his breath. "And we can't touch the elevator then, our hands will pass through the walls and controls."

Mac tugged on her arm, to get attention from Finn, not to let go. "Easy. We reappear, go up the stairs and then disappear again."

"Cameras. Security. And who's to say we won't fall back down to the bottom floor when I take us back out of reality?" Finn spoke quietly.

"We haven't fallen into a basement or anything." Sousa looked down at her feet. She caught her breath, her feet 'disappeared' into the ground. It was like she was still standing at the level of the parking lot where they'd started out. But the floor of the building was a slightly higher level. Built up. But her body was still stuck at the original starting point. She picked up her foot. It was still there, attached and without pain. Wild.

Justin snorted inelegantly. "Basement? We're not in Oklahoma. This is North Carolina. Tobacco and pig pickin' bbq. Not tornadoes."

Mac's voice turned mulish. "There could be a basement. How would you know?"

"Finn?" Her voice was low, soft. But it didn't escape anyone's notice. Both Justin and Mac were touching the older boy after all.

Finn's voice sounded strained to her. She reached out and touched the 'skin' of his aura, more than a little happy that it felt like his real skin. Cupping the side of his face with her hand, she felt him breathe in her scent. "With the bird, I was on a higher floor of the hospital. On the same level of the bird apparently. Same as everywhere else we've gone." He took a long moment, then shrugged. "I'm sorry."

Silent, the group stood there. Each contemplating how to achieve what they wanted. It wasn't until her baby sister broke through the silence that Sousa realized that not all of them had the same goal in mind for what they 'wanted'.

"Kiss her." The nine-year old hissed up at Finn.

Startled, Sousa let her hand fall and took two big steps back. "Mac!"

"Hey, it's not like we could see you. Me and Justin are in the dark here. Completely blank." There could be no mistaking the smile in her younger sister's voice.

"Interesting as that would be, we have other things than Finn's lack of a social life to worry about." Justin's verbal sneering was clear and loud enough to break the mood. "I say we take the brat's plan and reinsert ourselves here, and just walk up the stairs. Who cares if they have cameras? We have alibis."

"Against photographic proof and probably DNA or fingerprints? And Matty could always testify that he dropped us off out here." Finn's voice had dipped into hoarse. Was that from embarrassment, frustration over their situation ...or frustration over their lack of a romantic relationship? "Yeah, our alibis of a movie at home alone? Bah. A yogurt run where no one saw the girls actually in the store, you think that will hold up under scrutiny? Double bah."

"You could say you snuck out on a date with Sousa. Me and Justin could back you up on that." Mac sounded so eager for that, it was if she really hoped that might be the case.

Justin choke-laughed and then poked fun at the 'alibi'. Drawing sharp protests from the youngest member of their group.

Hidden in the darkness, Sousa suddenly felt glad that no one could see her blush. Then she stiffened. Finn could 'see' here, he could see her! Couldn't he? Was it clear as day to him or like those gray films he'd described to them earlier? "Finn? What exactly can you see?" She asked urgently. Could he see her well enough to read her facial expressions? Could he feel the heat from her blushing?

Sousa stepped back further, ostensibly looking around them. Nothing new. "Can you see the offices we need?" Her face burned with embarrassment.

Finn's head tilted back as he appeared to scan the area. Much better than having him look in her direction! Suddenly chilled, Sousa wrapped her arms about herself, feeling foolish. Filled with flames as he was, he still stood right in front of her, stupid to feel chill bumps just because he was looking elsewhere.

***

Something was wrong with Sousa. Finn's thoughts raced as he studied the floors above them, taking his time in order to gather his thoughts and feelings into something resembling order.

Touching him was nothing new, or out of the ordinary. So why was she acting like his presence was uncomfortable? Colors were washed out here in the half-way spaces of reality. But he could almost swear she was acting embarrassed. But why? Because she'd touched his cheek? Stupid. Self-consciously he ignored how he'd felt when Mac had made her suggestion to kiss Sousa, focusing instead on the task at hand.

"Can't you move us up to the next floor?" Mac tugged on his hand. "What's the point of being able to move around like you do if you're stuck to one place?"

Justin whistled tunelessly through his teeth and sighed. "We've tried."

Sousa gave a rough laugh that didn't hold much in the way of humor. "You mean you've tried to make him do it."

"Yeah well, it didn't work." Justin snarled. "And while we're talking about this nonsense, I'm stuck in the damned darkness without any light at all!"

"Me too." Mac's voice was quietly stubborn. "I'm in the dark too."

"Oh, let's not forget the baby who blackmailed her way to be here. Your choice!" Justin's temper appeared to be fraying at the edges, never a good thing.

Finn stepped in figuratively. "You chose to be here too." He didn't look at his younger brother, still studying the floors above him through the gray transparent layers. There was a front room, but he knew it was encased with security. You could walk in the double doors, but the receptionist was behind clear partitions and all visitors had to sign in, be announced and all that. You couldn't even be buzzed through, the DSS employees had to come out and get you to escort you back into the office warrens.

Offices. Lots of offices, not all of them used. Several for storage. "Bathroom."

Justin's voice turned cold. "Hold it. I am not holding onto you while you pee and you are not leaving us alone in the dark. Bring us back to reality first."

"No, I mean there's a large bathroom with several stalls up there. We'd all fit and there are no security cameras there like there would be anywhere else." Finn's answer sounded snippy, even to himself.

Sousa stepped in closer too him and he was grateful. Even as she pointed out the obvious flaw. "We still have to get up there."

"Sousa will kiss you if you get us up there."

No one else spoke for a moment as Mac dropped her little cattle prod into the conversation.

Finally Justin snorted. "10-0, 10-0. Big cautionary pause. You can't make promises based on the actions of others. But hey, if Sousa is willing to kiss the puff and it gets us where we want to go ..."

"You do too make promises for other people." Mac pointed out with all the certainty of a nine-year old. "I've seen you do it."

Justin chuckled. "That's called lying. But I just don't make crap up, I am a keen observer of human nature and know what is possible ...and what isn't."

"You just like making people do what you want." Mac sniped at him.

The fourteen-year old spread his free hand and shrugged, although the girl he was talking with couldn't see him. "True. But I know what limits to push, and which ones are unlikely."

"Have you really tried to go from one place to another like that?" Sousa didn't comment on her sister's offer and Finn was grateful. Uncomfortable, but grateful. He shifted his weight slightly, it didn't put much distance between them physically but emotionally it did help a bit. He hoped she didn't notice. Watching her frown at him, he thought maybe she had noticed after all. Was that a good thing, or a bad one?

"Have you?" Sousa prodded him verbally, even though she didn't touch him. Much to his disappointment. Again. "Have you ever tried it?"

"Yeah." Finn admitted with some reluctance, barely blowing out a breath to make the one word answer audible. "It's like, really thick syrup. Glue maybe. I see where I want to go, but the layers don't want to yield to me."

Justin tuned in to their conversation, ignoring Mac as she tried to needle him. Finn tugged gently on the younger girl's hand, letting her know he wanted to hear what Justin said. "You move from one spot to the other with ease. It's the same spot in different places though. So how is moving from two spots in the same place so difficult?"

"I don't move. The worlds do." The moment he said that, Finn knew it to be true. The words tumbled from him as if a dam had sprung a leak. "That's what it's like! I stand there and mentally flip through a rolodex of worlds and places and pick one."

Mac tugged back on her hand in excitement, nearly dislodging his grip on the younger girl. "Viewmaster!"

Finn didn't understand, but apparently Sousa did. The older teen girl gasped and threw up her hands as if she suddenly understood. "Those older toys. My dad had one he gave us. You look through the double lens and put in a wheel of pictures, clicking the handle on the side down to change the picture. You could go from one place to the next, see one country or the next with the pull of the handle. But you didn't move!"

Justin nodded thoughtfully. "I see what you're getting at. Physically, Finn is the constant and the worlds are in motion."

"I said it first!" Mac pouted.

"I said it better!" Justin snarked.

The nine-year old was obviously getting testy, probably from being stuck in sheer darkness so long. "Fancy words don't make what I said wrong!"

"So you postulate a magic Viewmaster?"

"Sousa! He's cussing!" Mac yelped, angry and a bit hurt.

Justin protested angrily. "Postulate is not a cuss word. Damn is a cuss word. Shit is a cuss word. And F ...."

"Finish that word right now and I'll knock you on your ass." Finn jerked his shoulder angrily, jerking away from Justin's hand and leaving him alone in the absence of light.

Silence. Contemplation of threat. Weighing of options. Justin couldn't see him, couldn't tell how serious the threat might be.

"Ass is a cuss word too." Mac's small voice was almost a whisper.

The moment passed, taking the majority of anger with it. Frustration levels decreased only slightly, but the threat of violence seemed to leech away.

"Betcha you can't think of any movies with cuss word titles." Justin's voice was back to an almost normal level. "Any non rated-X movies anyway."

"Damn Yankees." Sousa's voice threaded out between the group members. More frustration limped away. "Musical."

Mac actually giggled.

Finn shook his head, both frustrated and amused at the same time. "Not a good conversational thread to start."

"Right. Okay. How do you go from flipping through worlds, to moving through worlds?" Luckily Justin was willing to turn away from listing bad language titled movies.

Sousa's voice cut through the dim gray layers, pulling at things deep within him. Things he needed to put aside for now, belatedly he realized she'd said something and he'd missed it. "What did you say?"

She reached out and lightly slapped his bicep. "Listen up." Good, she was feeling more comfortable too. Maybe they could regain their balance mentally and get on with their plan for tonight. "You said the worlds resist? They feel thick and syrupy?"

Finn nodded, and obviously she could see enough to note that as her voice continued. "Not when changing one world with another, but when trying to move from one space to another in the same world. Damn it."

"Cuss word." Chided Mac, but no one paid any attention.

"But you managed to pull that bird into your hospital room, and send it back." Sousa prodded.

He shook his head in denial. "Again. Solid point of reference, at least I think so. I pulled the bird from one world to another, but not to a different spot in a different world."

"No, that's not what I meant. I mean that you could push yourself and others with you into another world, but you can also pull things into your world. Maybe it's just a matter of looking at it differently. Maybe find an anchor or something up there, and pull yourself toward it."

Finn ran her words over and over in his mind, looking up at the transparency of the layers before him. He could 'see' the rooms upstairs. Even the outline of the weight bearing walls holding them up. He knew on an almost instinctive level where it would be safe to ...land, and not end up in a wall or something.

Narrowing his eyes, Finn focused firmly on that bathroom. It wasn't a single person room, but longer, with three stalls and a long mirror on the wall. He couldn't see the details, and maybe that was the problem. Something in him resisted as he focused on the sinks, zeroing in on what type of spigots they had. Did you pull them? Twist them? Push them in for a timed stream of cold water? What brand name were they?

A burning in his lungs had him realizing that he was holding his breath. Finn deliberately opened his mouth and nothing happened. Needing air though, he pushed out his exhalation and thankfully his lungs automatically pulled in the next breath. Yet his eyes never left those faucets, although they were beginning to feel dry and gritty.

Vaguely Finn could hear someone calling his name, but he ignored the distant voice. Something tugged on his arm while something else tried to turn him away with a fumbling grip on his shoulder. He ignored it all, supremely focused on 'seeing' those sink faucets clearly. He needed that. It had to be.

Inner pressure seemed to make his ears pop and he yawned to equalize them. It didn't help. More pressure, building up inside him as he mentally 'reached' for those faucets. He could almost see them clearly now, but as he pushed and pushed, something in him resisted. But the more he strained, the closer he felt ...to ...something. Something beating within him. Something moving. With a shock he realized he was listening to his own heart beat, and it was going really fast! How fast was too fast? Was sixteen too young for a heart attack? The thought made him pause for a second, that's when he felt the presence of something else, something entirely different.

Heat. He was feeling hot. How had he missed that? And that heat was almost tangible within him. Lost in the wonder of it all, he mentally wrapped part of himself around that delicious warmth and it didn't burn him. The pressure behind his ears let go suddenly as he embraced something, taking it inside himself completely.

Energy flooded him. Finn smiled without thought as he looked up at the floor above him. The faucets in the sinks. There were two at each sink, one for hot and one for cold. You had to push them in to work and they automatically timed off. Without even thinking about it, instinct seemed to kick into high gear.

Finn took that wonderful heat deep inside him and swallowed it down as he stepped from one place to the next.

Sudden pain nearly floored him. Aches bit into him, making his muscles seize up into spasms that left him gasping for breath. His vision swam in front of him in an odd pattern of small blue squares. The pressure in his ears was back and seemingly trying to squeeze his very brain. It was instinct alone that had him yawning heavily and it eased that pressure enough that he did that twice more, shaking his head to try to stop the screech of ringing in his ears.

Only a second may have actually passed, but it seemed far longer when Finn suddenly realized something important. His ears weren't ringing. The pressure had muffled the sound, but now? Finn jumped up, spinning around to see what had Mac screaming in fear.

Several things became quite obvious in that one instant. One? They were no longer in Kansas, figuratively speaking. They were in the upstairs bathroom he'd been looking at earlier. But a sense of victory didn't fill him as his eyes widened. None of them were in the gray spaces as it were, but in the actual bathroom. Full color. Full state of being. And that bathroom? On fire!

Tile didn't burn! Right? Right? So why were there flames and why weren't they dying out? Sousa and Justin were actually holding onto each other and Mac as well, staying in the middle of the bathroom and as far away from the flames as possible. Flames. Like small islands of fire, not one big conflagration. Little tongues of intense heat melting tile, since there didn't seem to be any flammable ...oh, there went the paper towel dispenser. Crap.

Guilt swamped him. Then water.

Automatic sprinklers went off, drenching all four of them. Mac's screaming stopped as the nine-year old hunched her shoulders in either relief or protest. Or both.

Mac's shut mouth gave Finn another clue. It hadn't just been her screaming. There were alarms going off.

They had set the building on fire. No, he had set the building on fire!

Rough Chapter 6

Chapter Six

"How bad has it been?" Mac asked him, leaning up against his leg as he sat perched on top of the picnic table.

Finn didn't want to answer that, so he didn't. "Your mouth is blue." He mentioned lazily, not moving as he let the sun shine down on him. Enjoying the warmth and the company.

Mac shrugged and tore off some more of her cotton candy, sticking the wispy confection in her mouth to melt with a giggle and a smile. "You look like a cat, Smithy."

Sousa was sitting next to him on the top of the table as the trio looked out over the cook-out. Her part of the picnic table sheltered in the shade from a nearby Bradford pear. It was past when the tree bloomed so spectacularly right at the start of spring and now was just green and alive with new vigor. Which was good, since as pretty as the blooms were, for that particular tree, they stunk like dead fish. Spring break was officially over and they were all back in school, but without the constant homework. Mac was in a whirlwind of pre-testing and preparation for the end of grade exams while the two high school students were gearing up for course exams and practice SAT's, which wouldn't even become relevant until their senior year. Less homework, but more pressure.

Making a beautifully sunny weekend day at the playground of a local church all the more appealing. The Department of Social Services held a cook-out around this time every year, inviting all the foster and adoptive families in the area. Not only was it a time for social support and fun, but foster parents needed a certain number of credit hours per year in order to maintain their licensing.

Finn and Justin were always there, because there was no way either Deann or Roger were sitting through a continuing education course to get those needed points, picnics were more their style. Roger volunteered to grill hot dogs and hamburgers while Deann helped set up and clean up.

Mac and Sousa weren't necessarily part of the group, having both been adopted young. However, both Mr. and Mrs. Whittal had been avid supporters of the foster care system in the county and that hadn't changed. Doug Whittal had even served as a Guardian ad Litem for many years before getting sick, being the voice for abused children in court. They usually volunteered as a family, even after Mr. Whittal had passed away. Recently, Mrs. Whittal had been making some noises about becoming one of the guardians herself.

Sousa leaned over and out of the shade to lightly jab her elbow into Finn's side. "No more seizures?"

The teen shook his head and closed his eyes. No. No more seizures for Justin, who was currently the tallest kid in the multi-colored bouncy house rented just for today. He stirred long enough to turn and watch as the fourteen year-old tried to make a somersault as if on a trampoline. A near-by adult told Justin to calm down, though from this distance he couldn't tell if the instructions came to prevent escalating wildness in all the kids or because of what had happened last month.

Finn frowned, remembering the flurry of doctor's appointments and 'talks' with various social workers and doctors following his little brother's incident at the public library.

"They're not going to figure out what's wrong." Mac pulled off more blue-wisped sugar from the cheap paper cone. "It was magic."

Finn cut his eyes over toward Sousa who shrugged. "You try keeping information from her." Was all the older sister would admit.

Mac tilted her head back, grinning up at Finn. "Different worlds? Disappearing? Unbreakable bonds? Magic. Pfft."

"It's not magic." He huffed, though he wasn't actually sure of that anymore. "Just because I don't have an explanation, doesn't mean there isn't one."

"Silly, magic is an explanation." Mac insisted. "Just because we don't understand it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Look at how much used to be science fiction, and now it's real stuff."

Finn looked surprised and Sousa smiled rather sheepishly. "She's really been thinking about this a lot."

Laughing, Finn looked over at Roger standing over the grill, his back to the entire group. Deann smiling and laughing with the other foster parents, each patting themselves on the back for all the good work they did. His laughter faded and he sighed a little. Sure, some of them were good foster parents. Some were in it for the state support money. Others? Who knew why they did anything?

"I don't see Charlene and Tiandra." Sousa commented, mentioning twin girls who had been at the last DSS Christmas party. "They were fun."

Finn shrugged. Kids came and went. No one could tell you much due to privacy laws. He'd been in the system his whole life, he knew the drill. Have fun, play with who was there, but don't get attached. The friend you played with one day could be gone the next with little to no explanation.

"A new boy." Mac commented, not mentioning the cast on the arm of the under-sized toddler. "Seems quiet."

He watched Sousa as she looked around the people at the picnic, looking for the new child. Her eyes stopped. Seeing something odd in her expression, Finn started to turn as well. "There's your cop. What's he doing here?"

Startled, Finn stared. Yep. The detective that had questioned him in the hospital was talking to his DSS social worker, Mrs. Tilmer. His eyelids drooped as he saw her point over towards their group sitting on the picnic table. "Not my cop, I don't claim him." He muttered dimly.

Mac wrapped the last of her spun cotton candy around her finger, talking around her sugary mouthful. "He's not in uniform."

The detective walked up to the youngsters sitting on the picnic table, the picture of adolescent chill. Mac was sitting cross-legged on the bench and leaning against the table with her now empty paper cone stained blue. "Looks like you're out." The man joked.

Silently Finn handed Mac his own untouched cotton candy, making the nine year old smile gleefully. "Nope!"

"Aw. I see there is a conspiracy here." Detective Ryeman laughed, nodding at the youngster. "I think that was planned."

"10-4!" Mac grinned as she took a bite out of the spun sugar. "You remember what that means, right?"

If the officer was surprised, it didn't show as he nodded gamely. "Absolutely. Did you learn any new ones?"

Nodding, the nine year old stuck her finger in her cotton candy, dragging wisps out to be bitten with relish. "10-zero means caution, and 10-22 means disregard."

"Yes they do! I'm impressed!" The detective's smile grew wider, then he leaned in conspiratorially. "But it's 10-0, like 'oh' in surprise, not zero. Still, quite impressive!"

Sousa grinned, "You'd be less impressed that she had to ask what disregard meant in the first place."

Mac stuck a stained-blue tongue out at her older sister.

Detective Ryeman ignored the comment, focusing on his new young acolyte. "Here's one for you, 10-33. But use it very cautiously. Do you know it?"

The entire group could tell the nine-year old wanted to say yes, her head even nodded, but her eyes betrayed her as she struggled to remember the code. Her thin shoulders slumped and she finally shrugged.

"Look it up when you get home." Detective Ryeman's voice was pleasant and even, not condescending. Finn could almost give him a pass for being a nice guy. Except for his being a police officer, and specifically the one who'd questioned him after the shooting. Which didn't technically make him a bad guy, but it did mean wariness on his part. Why was the man here?

Finn eyed the detective a moment, the guy was still bald but whether it was by nature or shaving the teen couldn't tell. The nose was still just slightly off, as if broken in the past. The clothes were a welcome change, no uniform or stuffy suit. Tan. Too tan, maybe foreign? Accent was pure North Carolina though, eastern part of the state too. Jeans and a college t-shirt, purple and gold. Decent choice around here, being only about an hour away from that particular college. Finn stayed quiet, knowing it was better that the adult start the conversation rather than assuming he knew what the detective wanted to speak to him about. Almost like a chess game.

"Beautiful day out here. Did you all enjoy your Spring Break?" Ah, first move, pawn. Being polite or testing the waters?

Finn wasn't going to hurry to reach the point of this meeting, so a pawn move to match. "Yep." He agreed.

Sousa nodded and Mac grinned, even as Justin came up to the group with a soda can in hand, looking a bit sweaty from jumping around in the inflatable bouncy house. Finn stiffened, but his little brother didn't speak, just took a long swig of caffeine laced with sugar and bubbles while watching everyone else.

The detective smiled at them. Three teens and one precocious pre-teen. Finn knew what they had to look like. Sousa relaxing spraddle-legged on the picnic table under the shade of a tree, silent and waiting in her own jeans and a t-shirt. He himself was lounging cross-legged on the sunny side of the table top. No jeans for him today, camo shorts with big pockets and a sports t-shirt for a team he cared nothing for, the shirt having come from a local charity store for a dollar. Dressed nearly identically as his older brother, Justin was giving a neutral expression to the detective, leaning against the picnic table and the picture of relaxation. Only Mac in her colorful shorts and ruffled shirt was smiling.

One. Two. Three. Four ...

"School will be out before you know it." The detective tried again, making Finn grunt slightly. Another pawn move. This was boring.

Sousa nodded politely while Mac sucked the sticky blue mess off her fingers. Justin took another drink from his can and Finn just waited.

But the sixteen-year old guessed you didn't get to be a detective by being easily intimidated, because Ryeman didn't flinch at all in the face of their scrutiny. The man smiled easily enough. "Tough crowd."

Sousa asked her question quietly, tilting her chin slightly to indicate the building over to their right. "Do you belong to this church?"

Ryeman shook his head, the sun shining on his bare scalp. Finn wondered briefly if bald people got sunburn up there?

"Are you volunteering with the Department of Social Services then?" Surprisingly it was Justin who asked that question. His tone neutral, matching Sousa's.

Shoulders shrugged without effort as the detective shook his head. "Have in the past for some events, not today."

"10-0. 10-0." Finn commented dryly. "Caution, caution."

"No need to be cautious." The detective protested mildly, his voice rumbly as he waved one hand at his casual clothes. "Just commenting that it was a beautiful day out here. Really only came by to drop off my cousin, her car broke down. Happened to recognize you over here, that's all."

The kids all turned to look in the direction of the adults. Justin nodded thoughtfully, as if filing away some important piece of information. "Ms. Fellows is late, that your cousin?"

"Guilty. Her sister will pick her up after, I've got yard work waiting for me at home." Ryeman said with a fake sigh and a real smile. "Like I said, just saw you over here and thought I'd say hello on this beautiful day."

Sousa nodded from her seat on the picnic table, happy in the shade. "It's a bit hot though, especially for yard work."

Finn shook his head, his half of the picnic table top in direct sunlight. "I was thinking it was still a bit cool out with this breeze, great day to mow."

Detective Ryeman gave a surprised chuckle. "Opposite ends of the temperature scale are you two? How does that work when dating?"

Silence.

The detective wasn't stupid, he made a face and shook his head as Sousa's eyes sent her gaze off to the side with the trees and Finn's own gaze dropped. "Sorry. Assumptions are evil, aren't they?"

Assumption? Finn wondered, or had it been a bishop or knight move to see what kind of reaction the other player would have? Too bad he knew only the rudiments of chess, and the computer beat him 9 times out of 10.

Justin grinned snidely as he spoke. "10-0. 10-0." Caution, caution. Mac actually gave a surprised laugh, quickly smothered as she looked studiously down at her cotton candy treat as if it were suddenly all important.

"Everything alright over here?" Mrs. Whittal arrived with a polite smile and looking alert.

"Ah! 10-33!" He winked at Mac. "Keep you from having to look it up, it means 'emergency'. But you lot have been saved by the responsible adult. Parent?" Detective Ryeman's own smile lifted past polite into genuine. "Strange man talking to the kids?"

"Not kids." Justin forced a burp and crushed his soda can with the crunch and squeal of protesting aluminum. "Excuse me."

Finn sighed. "Mrs. Whittal? Meet the cop whose questions made me throw up in the hospital."

"Detective Ryeman, ma'am. And to be fair, I think the bullet and surgery had more to do with your upset stomach, son." He spoke to Finn even as he offered a hand for Mrs. Whittal to shake as her smile turned real. "Please, I'm John. I brought Cinda because her car wouldn't start."

"Not your son. Not anyone's son." The words maybe should have sounded bitter, but were spoken more matter-of-fact. Finn yawned and leaned back on the picnic table, the picture of a lazy teen even though he was paying sharp attention to anything the cop said or did.

"Jessica." The girl's mother introduced herself with a more friendly smile now that she knew how to catalog the newcomer.

Justin watched with his own lazy interest. "Why didn't you fix her car for her?" Curiosity or needling? Finn couldn't tell from the lack of inflection in his brother's voice. Either would be in character.

The detective laughed with self depreciation and ran one hand around the back of his bald head as he shrugged lightly. "Not my area, it wasn't the battery because we replaced that last month. Third time this has happened, so the problem is deeper than my knowledge base."

"Oh boy." Mac interrupted with all the grace of a water buffalo, sitting up straighter as she started to put the two empty blue-stained cones down on the table. "Jet-pack Timmy is here."

Justin shook his head and leaned in to rest his weight against the picnic table, turning to face the group gathered around the grill. "He's annoying."

"Jet-pack?" The detective gave a shake to his shoulders to indicate he was asking a question for more information.

"He's not a bad child." Jessica started, drawing a chuckle from Sousa. "Well, he's not! Here, Mac, give me those." She took the now-empty, sticky, cotton-candy holders.

"You called him a menace at the last event." Mac pointed out with all the inelegant grace of a nine-year old pointing out their parent's flaws.

Jessica's mouth twitched and she sent an apologetic look toward Detective Ryeman. "I shouldn't have called him that. He took Mrs. Tilmer's car keys and threw them on the roof."

"Of the car?" The officer frowned slightly.

"Of the restaurant." Sousa offered with a bland expression.

The detective smothered a poorly hidden smile and sighed. "A menace indeed."

"It took her husband over an hour to get out of work and go home to get the spare set of keys." Sousa continued. "But the time before that? Jet-pack climbed on the roof of his foster home and refused to come down unless they called his father to come get him."

Ryeman's amusement dried up and he looked sad. "That's ..."

"Yeah, don't waste your sympathy." Justin interrupted, pulling an irritated look from the adults. "He is constantly going on about how he wants to go home with his dad. But he's what my therapist would probably call a habitual runaway, from his dad. Oh, and he talks all the time about how his father had shoved him down onto some broken glass and ..."

"And he nearly bled out, lost so much blood they had to replace almost all of it." Finn continued dryly.

"Terrible scars too near his heart." Mac spoke up next.

Sousa chimed in next. "This was after the whipping with the belt that nearly cost him an eye."

Jessica looked appalled. "Stop! Look we all know how he tells these tales, but you shouldn't be talking about his private information."

Justin sneered. "Even when Timmy's the one telling everyone?"

The detective looked grim as he eyed the teens in front of him. "It's still not a story to be bandying around. His pain should not be for you to make fun of and all. You can't know he's telling tales, what if it was all true?"

Finn sighed and blinked as he looked skyward. "No scars."

Ryeman stopped and cocked his head slightly to one side. "Excuse me?"

Sousa sighed. "Jet-pack has no scars on him. Not near his eyes, not on his chest, back or legs. We had a YMCA swimming party several months ago. Nothing. Not a wound, not a scar."

"Not a bruise or a scrape." Finn nodded slowly.

Justin's smile looked fake, half-way to becoming a sneer. "I know he was a run-away from home at least seven times. Keeps making wild accusations and none appear to be true. His name? Jet-pack? He tells this wonderful story over and over again about how his last foster family makes all the kids go to school wearing jet-packs so they won't have to drive. And one of the jet-packs exploded, killing one of the kids. But how the foster parents didn't care."

Jessica gave a weak smile. "Obviously something isn't right at home."

Sousa nodded and shrugged. "True. But you can't trust a thing Timmy says."

Ryeman looked from teen to teen, his face inscrutable. "Do you know all the stories of the children in this group?" Obviously he didn't seem to like the idea of children knowing the details of abuse and neglect.

Justin shrugged lightly. "No. Jet-pack is the only one who talks so much. Everyone else? It's all about what's going on now."

"Or nothing at all." Sousa sighed sadly. "Some will talk about siblings and maybe going home, but mostly they just talk about the here and now. Superheroes, movies, t.v. shows, food, and stuff like that."

"School?" The detective asked.

Jessica Whittal gave him a solemn look and slowly shook her head. "Most foster children don't talk about what they don't trust, don't like or don't want to face. Not school, not their pasts, and a lot don't know about the future or if one really exists. We hear a lot more about siblings that they care about and miss or events they've been to, that sort of thing."

Ryeman looked thoughtful, but not happy.

"That's a generalization, obviously." Jessica told him sympathetically. "And a lot of people can't deal with how these kids view the world. Ask about a favorite movie? You'll get everything. Ask about just about anything else? Silence." She moved over next to the officer and pointed at a girl who looked about fourteen. "She's a vegetarian. Didn't tell her foster parents for nearly five months. Tried to hide the fact that she wasn't eating much."

The detective nodded and then shook his head. "Why?"

"She liked the foster family. Didn't want them to think she was trouble and send her back."

Jessica nodded at this story, taking a deep breath. "She was acting out in various ways, but after she finally was able to tell her foster parents a lot of those behaviors have cooled off."

Ryeman blinked and turned to look out over the parking lot.

"These kids will get to you." Sousa murmured. "No past, no future. Present tense only please."

Looking puzzled, Ryeman's turned back to face them and his eyes slid from Justin, to Finn, to Mac and then to Sousa. "You don't include yourselves with 'these kids'?"

"Uh, no." Justin smirked at the detective. "No family to idealize, no hope of reunification. Abandoned. Want grief, loss, and coping counseling? Finn and I could give you a master class."

Ryeman nodded. "Okay, do you see a future for yourselves?"

Sousa nodded as Mac grinned. "Yes."

Justin shook his head and shrugged. "Maybe."

Finn didn't answer. He didn't have one to give. He used to have a plan for the future, but it was all up in smoke now. Gray transparent smoke.

***

"I want more cotton candy." Mac groused, pushing away her plate with a half-eaten hotdog.

Sousa grinned, finishing off her potato chips. "It'll make you sick, so much sugar."

"The point of me caring is slim to none." The nine-year old whined.

Justin shook his head and sighed, his plate empty but for a smear of ketchup. "The point of what? That doesn't even make sense."

Mac made a face as she deliberately burped, shaking her head at him. "Did you understand what I meant?" With obvious reluctance, Justin nodded. "Then it did make sense."

Finn watched them all, his own food basically untouched. They were all walking on eggshells, and what should have been a comfortable afternoon, simply wasn't.

Justin gave a deep sigh, relaxing as he dropped his head down onto his arms as they rested on the picnic table.

Okay. Uncomfortable for the rest of them. Justin never appeared as if he had a care in this world.

Justin. Finn could have put the blame for his discomfort on the fact that his younger brother was hanging with them over here. If he and Sousa and Mac were the core of their group, Justin was more the satellite. Or the fartherest dwarf planet in their miniature solar system. Cold, frigid and without life. But Finn didn't have to ask why Justin was with them today, just as he knew what they were all not talking about.

"Your cop is flirting with my mom." Sousa said, her voice unreadable.

Finn cut his eyes to the side and grumped. "So much for yard work." He said, watching the two adults chatting over by the other adults near the grill. "And he's not my cop."

Justin's grin was more of a sneer really. "Maybe your mom is doing the flirting."

No one rose to the bait. Once again an uneasy silence fell over the foursome.

"Have you tried it again?" Sousa's voice was whisper soft, but everyone else stiffened with the expectation. No one turned to look at Finn, but he could almost feel their efforts not to stare.

Holding his breath a moment, Finn waited. No one interrupted the silence, no one turned the subject. No one was going anywhere until they'd finally talked about ... "It. Nothing better than that to describe the impossible."

"Magic." Mac sighed happily.

"Bullshit." Justin snapped.

Snapping back, Sousa glared at the fourteen year old. "Language."

Justin wasn't cowed at all. "She's been with you to the farm, I'm sure she's stepped in cow shit, horse shit, or maybe even real bull shit before."

"Ugh." Mac protested. "They don't keep bulls, just horses!"

Sousa's eyes snapped with temper as she turned on Justin, but the younger male simply spread his hands in surrender. "But we're getting off topic here. Yeah, he's tried it."

"I wanna see." Mac whined a bit, finally turning to look up at Finn.

Uncomfortable, the older boy shook his head, saying nothing.

"You've tried it ...with Justin." Sousa commented dryly, appearing a bit hurt as well.

Finn shrugged. "He was there."

Sousa shook her head. "No, not good enough. You tried it with your brother because he goes into seizures if you go anywhere special without him."

"We never go anywhere really cool though." Justin sounded a bit disgusted as he made a face.

"But no more seizures if you're with him, am I right?"

Turning, Justin glared at Sousa, gritting his teeth as his eyes hovered between green and blue yet ice cold in expression. A long moment passed before he gave the smallest of reluctant nods.

"If you're with him, you don't feel all spazzy and junk." Mac piped up, earning her own glare from the fourteen year-old boy. "Like I said, magic!"

Justin clenched his jaw tightly before looking away and they let him take a beat of silence. Finally he nodded in a jerky motion and roughly shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah. I'll admit it. If Finn doesn't have me with him, I go into seizures. The doctors and hospitals found nothing. No epilepsy no nothing. Right now they think I might have been taking drugs, either accidentally or on purpose. Stupid shits."

"Language." Sousa chided again, but with zero challenge in her voice. For the first time in her life she sounded the tiniest bit sympathetic with the younger Michaelson brother. "I'm surprised you didn't put the blame on Finn, tell them that he gave you something funny."

Justin coughed-laughed and groaned. "Yeah, like I need Finn to be sent away anywhere and leave me quivering and shaking on the ground to bite my own tongue off."

"Ew, gross!" Mac made a face of disgust.

Justin smirked at the younger girl.

Sousa sighed. "Well, I don't believe in magic or magic theories. But this is definitely on the weirder side of things. Unexplainable things. Especially with Justin going off into seizures like that."

"While Finn doesn't have any problems at all." The bitterness was clearly evident in Justin's voice.

Finn didn't look at his brother, not wanting to admit to anything. Sousa took her cue from her friend's silence, and kept her own tongue under control. And he could only hope that Mac would follow suit.

"Finn goes ice cold, unable to breathe or talk if he even tries to tell anyone about your bad stuff." Mac dropped that bombshell without warning, making Finn close his eyes and shudder.

Justin stiffened, looking surprised. The younger brother turned to glare with both shock and anger as the sixteen-year old refused to meet his eyes.

Mac sighed and waved a hand at the two of them. "Magic. I told you. It has to be magic. Think about it. You have an unnatural bond, twins don't go through what you two do. And since you two don't tell each other what you go through, then no wonder you didn't know it was magic all along! One kid with seizures ..."

Sousa sighed and nodded, looking reluctant. "One who goes deathly still if his brother isn't near enough to him. Or goes into ice-block mode if he tries to tell anyone about how much of a creep Justin is."

Justin continued to stare at Finn, ignoring the creep comment completely. His voice sounded hoarse as he sought confirmation. "Seriously, dude? That's why you've never spoken up? No matter what I did to you?"

Finn made a face, but didn't deny the charge.

Justin's smile could have lit up an entire auditorium. "Oh, how I could use this."

"Seizures." Sousa intoned darkly. "Seizures. Mess with Finn too much and he could leave you shaking in your own vomit to choke."

"Gross again!" Mac protested, making a snarly face.

The smile on the fourteen year-old's face dimmed only slightly. "Lovely image there, thank you hag." Justin ran one hand through his blond hair and shook his head as if trying to clear his thoughts.

"So. Unnatural bond between brothers. Weird space bending place thingy. Magic. I so call magic." Mac grinned widely.

Justin sat down on the picnic bench, propping his head on his hands as his elbows rested on the table top. "I don't care what you call it, the possibilities are endless."

"No."

Sousa looked between each of the brothers, her expression troubled.

"No." Finn repeated, ignoring Justin as the younger teen stared while his smile grew and grew.

"It's perfect." Justin crooned slyly.

Sousa sighed and shook her head. "You two are not becoming super villains or any such nonsense."

The fourteen-year old budding sociopath raised one eyebrow rakishly. "Robin Hood. Give to the poor."

"And we're the poor? No." Finn shifted in his seat, highly uncomfortable.

Mac fairly bounced in her seat. "They could be superheroes!"

"Screw saving the day." Justin's smile didn't even droop slightly as he continued. "We could take anything we want. Money, jewelry ...anything."

"Oooh! You could hang the Mona Lisa in your bedroom!"

Finn turned to stare at Sousa in shock. "What? You too?"

Her pale-blue eyes sparkled with amusement. "Just kidding, I promise Smithy. But think about it. The Mona Lisa. In Deann's house. Oh the deliciousness of it all!"

"We could get Roger arrested as a master thief!" Justin crowed, then hunched his shoulders and turning his grinning face away from the adults that had turned to look in their direction.

The image of Roger with his arms hand-cuffed behind his back did dazzle Finn for a moment. With reluctance, he pushed the image aside. "I am not turning thief."

Mac took a big breath and then stopped as Finn stared pointedly at her. "Nor am I putting on tights and a cape and fighting crime."

"Aww."

"Sousa might like to see you in tights." Justin provoked with a sly smile. "Then again, maybe not."

"10-0, idiot." The girl in question kicked at Justin, who moved out of the way easily.

The group settled into an easy silence as they all thought about the possibilities. Then Sousa wrinkled her nose. "It's one thing to get into a place, it's another to get things out of a place."

"And not get caught." Justin nodded.

Finn watched them both and shook his head. This was the most normal conversation he could remember those two ever having, and it was about the most un-normal topic! Was un-normal even a word? Didn't matter. Okay, so maybe not normal, but at least the most civil.

"How does it work?" Sousa asked quietly. "I mean, I know we don't know how it works. But when you do the impossible, what actually happens?"

Finn shrugged and Justin sighed. It was the younger teen who answered the question. "From what little we've experimented with, it seems that we can 'disappear' from a spot and go to another spot ..."

"Teleportation?" Sousa interrupted.

"Not exactly." Justin waved a hand rudely in her face to make her shut-up. "It's still the SAME spot."

Mac shook her head, her expression confused. "Huh?"

Finn smiled at the youngest member of their group and reached out, pulling her into a rough hug for a moment. "It's hard to explain, really. I go from reality, or place to another but it's the same place ...just in another layer. It's still North Carolina, but say I was standing in my bedroom. Suddenly I'm in a place where my bedroom should be, but it's not! We might be in someone else's house, or the woods, a street, or whatever. But not Paris. Not the Louvre. So much for the Mona Lisa."

Justin rolled his eyes. "Idiot. I don't mean teleport to Paris. Fly to Paris and go to the layered gray place you're always yapping about and walk through security like you were invisible. Then reappear long enough to take what we want."

"Appear. Disappear. If I hadn't seen you do it ..." Sousa's voice trailed off as she grimaced. "How do you propose we get to Paris in the first place?"

Growling noises had them all turning to look in Finn's direction. "We are NOT stealing the Mona Lisa!"

"It'd be pretty neat." Mac's voice held a wistful giggle as she looked at him with shining eyes.

"It's wrong!" Finn pointed out to the youngster poking out her lip at him.

Justin looked skyward, smiling. "Doesn't have to be the Mona Lisa. Could be ...one of the banks here. Or all of them."

Sousa sucked in a deep breath and sputtered for a moment as Mac looked cross. "No supervillain stuff!"

Justin stared at the youngest member of their group. "You wanted the Mona Lisa."

"Not for reals!" Mac protested sharply.

"Well, for reals," Justin sneered mockingly. "We could be damned rich!"

"I told you to watch your language, jerk." Sousa sounded both snippy and distracted even as she scolded Justin. "Are you saying, that what? You can disappear on one side of a wall and go to another world that's the same world, only different, walk forward and come back here to find yourself on the other side of that wall?"

Finn gave a jerky half-nod. Justin grinned outright. "We don't even have to go all the way to another place. See? There's a half-way place, Finn can see there but when I'm with him it's completely dark. He talks about these layers of gray. I can only see darkness though. Which makes sense, because he's kind of like the pilot. See?"

Mac shook her head, looking puzzled.

Sousa sighed heavily.

Finn tried to explain. "Remember what I said about the gray layers? They are each a different place. Some are really thick and some look really fragile and thin. Justin and I haven't visited them all, but a couple. And only when no one's around. No more 'ghost' ladies." He gave a weak smile.

Sousa gave him a snarly look with a narrowed gaze. Obviously she hadn't forgotten that his first ghost lady had been doing an unknown strip tease.

"From what we could tell from looking around, we are always in the exact same spot, just in a different world." Justin continued, his voice excited. "It's still the same physical spot, but in one place it was North Carolina, in another it was just Carolina. One place we heard people speaking Japanese."

Finn shook his head. "It could just have been a Japanese family living in North Carolina, a different version of North Carolina but still. Geez. And it might not even have been Japanese, I told you. Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, or something else entirely!"

Mac nodded. "In China they speak Mandarin and Cantonese, mostly anyway."

All three teens stared at the nine-year old who shrugged. "We studied China. Talked about silk and paper and gunpowder and ..."

"And I don't care." Justin turned away from the younger girl.

Mac made a face, and took her fork out of her untouched baked beans, wiping it on her napkin. She moved to stand next to Finn and crouched down, finding a sandy, bare spot in the trampled grass around the picnic table. With the fork, the youngster marked a line and two x's on either side. "They are the same spot and you can go back and forth between the two?"

Justin reached out and snagged the fork from Mac, drawing a protest. "Hey!"

But the fourteen-year old turned the fork around and stabbed the ground about half-a-foot away, leaving the handle sticking up into the air. "And that's Paris. Finn can't go to Paris from here, unless he buys a ticket and goes to Raleigh first. Gets on the big, shiny aircraft." Justin's voice was pure mockery. "That's a metal bird, dear."

It looked like Mac's blonde hair was about to stand on end. Her older sister put a hand on her shoulder, soothing her as she shook her head not to fight.

"Weird." Justin shook his head and spread his hands. "It's all extremely weird. Searched the internet. Nothing but fiction or fanfiction on the subject. Or conspiracy theories. So this definitely falls into the unexplainable category."

"No kidding." Agreed Finn.

Justin smiled, looking charming. Finn was instantly wary. "But. Oh but the possibilities. Locked vault door? Stand in the parking lot of the bank and disappear to the half-way place. Walk through where the walls should be and into the vault. Wait for it to be empty. Reappear. Take what you want and disappear again. Pfft. Simple!"

Sousa made fake gagging noises as she shook her head. "Bank parking lots have security cameras."

"Oh like they could prove teleportation. In court." Justin blew off the comment. "Or we just don't start in the parking lot, but at whatever buildinbg is next door. Who cares?"

"It's still wrong." Pouted Mac.

"Oh your honor, we don't know how he does what he does. No, we don't have proof. He's on this camera, then he's not. The money disappeared, obviously he stole it. No, like I said, we have no proof! What do you mean you're throwing out the case?" Justin's voice dripped with sarcasm and malicious glee.

Finn sighed and rolled his neck, making popping noises that drew a wince from Sousa. "Like they don't have cameras in their bank vaults. And forensics."

Justin leaned in, obviously excited and determined not to be thwarted. "Forensics only work if they have a sample to compare what they find to, they'll never know it was you."

"Us."

"Whatever." The younger boy sneered, his blue-green eyes still sparkling.

"No. No. And again, no." Finn turned away feeling unsettled. He wasn't a thief.

Justin's voice turned syrupy. "You know you hoard money."

"Save. Save money, not hoard." Sousa looked like she was going past irritated and into angry. "Finn is thrifty, that's all."

"He's a miser." The blond pointed out while rolling his eyes. "And he thinks I don't know where his stash is."

Finn stiffened. It could be a bluff. A way for Justin to get a rise out of him. His fingers itched to go check his small savings. Yet he knew better than to overreact to whatever his brother said, it amused the younger teen far too much.

Justin's voice took on a cold, hard edge. "And you can't move your money to another world, because you can't travel without me."

Damn it!

"We're stuck together. Two peas in a pod. Forever. You can't get away from me." Justin's words bit deep. He bent over and grabbed the plastic fork sticking up from the ground, then snarled as the handle of it broke off in his hand.

Sousa sighed heavily. "You're stuck with Finn just as much as he's stuck with you. I know who I would consider the loser in this trade-off."

"Shut up, hag." Justin sat down on the ground, his anger flowing away as quickly as it had appeared. He pulled his knees up and rested his forehead there. "Don't you think I'm aware?"

Mac reached over and tugged on Finn's shirt. "Hey. You can get through locked doors, right?"

Finn groaned affectionately and shook his head. "I am not turning thief."

"Can you get me into a concert?" Mac's light blue eyes never held the same level of spookiness of her sister's, more of a flower petal kind of color. Right now her eyes were bright, and wide, and eager.

Melting a bit, Finn nodded as a small smile played over his lips. "Maybe." Mac gave a happy squeal as she wiggled on the picnic bench in an imitation of a dance move.

Justin groaned. "Oh yeah sure, don't make us all rich beyond our imaginations, but take a baby to see a boy band." Ruthlessly he stabbed the broken end of the plastic fork at the ground, making lines idly.

"I like her more than I like you." Finn said, courting his brother's temper with resignation. He had to draw the lines now, not later. "I will not become a thief, I will not fall into any plan you come up with. Deal."

Justin's voice felt laden with distaste. "Sure. The universe gives you a huge gift, and you're afraid to use it."

"I am not afraid." Finn was outright lying on that one he was pretty sure.

"Could have anything you want in the world, and you offer to take a toddler to see the Teletubbies concert."

"Hey! I'm not a baby!" Mac protested sharply.

"Baby." Taunted the younger teen boy, his blond hair all they could see of his head as he drew roughly in the ground with his make-shift tool.

"I said, I'm not a baby!" The nine-year old stood up on the picnic bench and stamped her foot, looking like a colorful bird with her feathers and bright clothing. An angry, colorful bird.

Sousa and Finn's eyes found each other and they both stifled the smiles that threatened them as they deliberately looked away. Laughing at Mac right now would only escalate the youngster's fury.

"Take it back! You bad guy!"

"Bad guy?" Justin finally looked up. "If you're going to call me a name, make it count. Call me a bastard or an ass or something. Even your language is baby-talk!"

Finn sighed, this was going too far. "Justin, shut it." He looked at Sousa for support, only to find her staring at the ground. "Hey?"

The dark-haired girl pointed at what Justin had been drawing in the dirt. "What is that?"

Finn looked down and shrugged. Justin moved his hands out of the way and looked too, his shrugged mimicked his older brother. "It was the design on a shield."

Shield. That word trigged a visual memory of that weirdness at Rose Wall Manor. Finn stared at the crudely drawn circle with the design of three stars and a moon sliver. "Should be green with white edging."

This startled an actual laugh out of Justin, who held up his broken fork handle made of white plastic. "Kind of limited with my color palate over here."

"That was in the ghost room?" Mac leaned forward, still standing on the picnic bench, trying to get a good look. "What is it?"

"Ara Sagittarii. Peregrini."

Startled, three sets of eyes turned to stare at Sousa. She lifted her gaze from the scratched out drawing in the dirt, watching them each without saying anything else. Finn thought she looked ready to bolt, her eyes wide and edged with confusion. Possibly even panic.

"How do you know that?" Mac asked the obvious question, scratching her head and making the small feathers in her hair flip over.

Sousa gave a jerky shrug. "I don't know. I just saw it, and knew."

Justin looked down at his 'artwork' and up at the older teen girl, his own blue-green eyes speculative. "What do those words mean?"

"I don't know!" Snapped Sousa even as she hugged herself as if suddenly chilled to the bone. And Finn was more than certain she was lying.

Mac grinned ear to ear and basically crowed. "I told you. It's magic!"

This time, no one contradicted her.