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[fire_punk]

[The Kevin on camera looks older than the one in the infirmary yesterday. He's taller, no longer a gangly teenager.]

So I'm back. How long has it been here? Steph, if you're still here, I didn't want to leave. Jesse, I got my GED while I was gone.

Comments

[Private]

[yeahscience]

[Wait, what? he manages not to say, even though that's his immediate reaction. The truth is, he's spent this last 24 hours just a little bit preoccupied, and without Kevin on his item he honestly hadn't realized he was gone. He'd just assumed he was off with Steph, or sleeping, or something. For once, though, he actually manages to wait to reply until he can contain his reaction, because there's a lot to deal with here.]

Holy shit, dude.

[Okay, he sort of contained his reaction.]

[Private]

[fire_punk]

Yeah, Lewis brought be back to life somehow. Two years ago.

[Private]

[yeahscience]

You've been gone two years?

[Private]

[fire_punk]

For me, yeah.

[Private]

[yeahscience]

Two years. I saw you two days ago. I know the Admiral works in mysterious ways and all, but God...

[Which is really all the more reason to do the next thing sooner rather than later, but he'll check in first:] You okay?

[Private]

[fire_punk]

Yeah, I wasn't sure if any of you would still be here.

[He smiles.]

Of course, now that I'm back. I mean, I was there, too, until the end.

[Private]

[yeahscience]

Yeah? Everything go okay?

[Private]

[fire_punk]

Kind of. I didn't have to kill Yvette. I took her Djinn while she was busy with Lewis. And, umm, I told him to give me her powers until she stopped being so... [He shrugs.]

[Private]

[yeahscience]

So... [He makes a face to acknowledge that he knows exactly what Yvette is so, but then he brightens up.] Yeah? That's great, dude. So now you're all benevolent and superpowered.

[Private]

[fire_punk]

Well, I was before, too. But now I can mess with the weather, too. And weather's trickier than fire. More you can screw up if you don't know what you're doing.

[Private]

[yeahscience]

Weather? That's awesome. Yo, give us some tropics up on the deck, how about that?

[He grins -- but then it occurs to him that unless Kevin does it, say, tomorrow, he's not going to be around to see it, and his smile fades again.]

Um, listen, there's something I got to tell you. Something happened right before you left, and with you graduated and all... I'm leaving. Me and Lua, I mean. We're checking out.

[Private]

[fire_punk]

I can't change seasons, Jesse. But I guess I could make it rain...

Wait.... Leaving? Like, for a honeymoon?

[Private]

[yeahscience]

[He chokes a little, even though it's not like the truth is all that different.] Uh, no.

[Except the truth is actually worse, for a certain value of worse.] We're not... coming back.

[Private]

[fire_punk]

What happened, Jesse? [He's pretty sure Jesse wouldn't be leaving unless something happened. Not suddenly like this, anyway.]

[Private]

[yeahscience]

Actually, um... [And now he smiles, because the worse is that he's leaving, but there's a whole lot of better behind it.] Lua's-- we're gonna have a kid. A baby, I mean.

]Private]

[fire_punk]

Jesse, that's... Wow! [He's going to have a nephew! Well, as close as he'll ever get.]

That's awesome!

[Private]

[yeahscience]

Yeah. [He laughs, looking a little shy, hands hooking behind his neck.] Uh, don't tell no one, she's trying to keep it, like, DL.

[Private]

[fire_punk]

Yeah, sure. But that is really awesome.

[Private]

[yeahscience]

[All he can do is nod to that: the truth is, he really has no words to talk about it. It comes through in his boyish grin, the brightness in his eyes.]

You get why we gotta go, though, right?

[Private]

[fire_punk]

Of course.

So... Where are you guys moving to?

[Private]

[yeahscience]

I dunno just yet... that's one of the things we're still working on, one of the reasons we haven't left yet. Probably one of the New Yorks -- our friend Amanda lives out there.

[Private]

[fire_punk]

Just... Let me know before you go. I'll come see you sometime.