┊┊┊┊ ➶ MJ 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

Yet another night spent in a government tent, this seemed to be a recurring event and MJ was not happy about it. The thirteen-year-old paced as she thought about the crazy series of events that had taken place in the last four days, about how her parents had died and how her only living family members, her Aunt and baby brother, ghosted her. She thought about Christy and Amber, her best friend and bully who are now dating and basically acting as her guardian. MJ sat down in the corner, she thought about how she had heard her voice telling her to free dogs from a warehouse, that voice saved two little girls. MJ's breath hitched as she thought about the plane that had exploded only nine hours ago, "Are you okay?"

MJ's looked up at a young woman standing in front of her, MJ's sight was blurred, she hadn't even realized that she was crying. MJ nodded, she wiped the liquid away from her eyes, "I'm fine."

"Are you sure?" MJ rolled her eyes, the teenager stood up and began to walk away, "Because I'm not, this is all just so much! Too much, if I think about any of it for too long I feel sick."

MJ turned back around to face the girl, she knew that the woman was only saying that to make MJ open up but she heard honesty in the girl's voice as if she was saying these words for the first time. "I'm Saanvi," the girl offered.

"MJ."

"Mary Jones?" An agent called out MJ's name, and her heart dropped as she realized it was her turn to be interviewed.

"That's me, um- thanks for trying to cheer me up."

Saanvi gave the girl a reassuring pat on the shoulder, "If you aren't okay with all this, no one would blame you. You look young, and we've been through a lot, you don't need to act so tough all the time."

┊┊┊┊ ➶ ❁ 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

"You seem to have a knack for getting yourself into trouble Miss Jones."

MJ rolled her eyes, "Yeah, because I totally planned to disappear for five and a half years only to return as an orphan."

The NSA director frowned as he observed her posture, she was closed off, similar to how she had before he told her about her parents' death. "Why were you there when the plane exploded?"

"Because I forgot about my bags when finding out that you returned from the dead, you forget some things. I was laying down when I realised that I had never received my bag which had a necklace my mother gave me," her words weren't exactly lies, she had only recently remembered her bags which she had left on the plane, a backpack and a suitcase, which had her only remaining possession of her mother's in it. Vance raised his eyebrow, not believing a word she was saying.

"Do you have any other questions, or can I go back to the tent?" There was a small silence which calmed MJ, the NSA director seemed to be out of questions. Vance grabbed his audio recorder and pressed stop, "Wha-"

"Your Aunt never arrived."

Oh, MJ knows what this is. It's the 'you're a minor, but actually not really.' She nodded, "I figured after a few hours of waiting."

"Do you have a place to stay?" MJ was shocked by the man's question and by how concerned he sounded. Vance sounded like a concerned parent, not the government official who had just been interrogating her a second before.

"I'm staying with my best friend. She was my best friend before I got on the plane, she and her girlfriend used to go to school with me."

"They're adults?"

"Nineteen."

That wasn't the answer he had hoped for but it was close enough. "I have no more questions, you're free to join the others."

MJ got up and walked to the door, just before she opened it, she turned to Vance, "Thank you for worrying about where I'm staying, you didn't have to but I appreciate it."

The NSA official nodded.

┊┊┊┊ ➶ CASSIE 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

The vibe has been weird ever since Ben and Michaela returned home, they had spent nine hours being interrogated by the NSA after they returned to the plane and it exploded. Ben and Michaela claim that they were just there to collect their bags but a part of Cassie didn't believe them, after years of lying to her parents and siblings, Cassie was able to pick up on when they were lying back to her. "Coffee, really? So that's what 16-year-olds are doing?" Ben asked as he walked into the kitchen.

Cassie smirked, knowing that Olive has been drinking coffee ever since she was thirteen years old.

"It's mostly milk and sugar."

Cassie sat down on the stool near the kitchen bench, she was watching the news coverage on Flight 828's explosion. Ben grabbed the remote and turned the tv off, Cassie glared at her older brother.

"Hey, so I've been thinking. Maybe after school, we could hang out a bit, you know, catch up. I want to hear about, you know, everything."

Cassie looked around the kitchen, this clearly isn't a conversation that she needed to overhear. She went to get up to leave but Olive's pleading eyes stopped her, and she sighed.

"I have practice and I feel pretty behind in my homework last week. Maybe tomorrow." Olive dismissed Ben's attempt at them reconnecting, Cassie looked at her brother he was heartbroken but refused to let it show. Cassie understood both of them, Olive isn't used to having a dad or a twin brother, for the last five and a half years it had just been Olive, Grace, Cassie and Kayla. Cassie knows that Olive isn't upset that her brother and dad are back, she just needs time.

Then again, Cassie couldn't imagine going on a plane and when she left it her daughter was older and felt like she didn't know her anymore. If she and Kayla ever grew apart like that, she wouldn't want to wait for them to reconnect.

"Great, whenever."

Cassie watched as her brother took the punch to his gut, quietly thinking of all kinds of solutions to fix Olive and his relationship. As Cassie was watching Ben, he zoned out, "What is that?"

"What?" Cassie asked, speaking up for the first time since he entered the room.

"What music, can't you hear it?"

"It's probably Alexa acting up in the den," Olive suggested, although both her and Cassie couldn't hear any music.

"Who's Alexa?"

Grace, Cal and Kayla walk into the kitchen, Kayla is on her iPad as Grace and Cal talk about his new outfit, "Sweetie, it's fine. It's just a narrower cut. I think you look cool," Cal looks at Grace, "After treatment, we'll go shopping, okay?

"I'll come too!" Cassie jumped at the opportunity to get to know her nephew better. Before the plane disappeared, Cassie hardly ever visited Ben and the twins, so Cassie felt like a stranger to Cal and she was aware of that.

Cal shook his head, he pulled at the sleeves of his shirt, "I just feel weird in this."

"Come on. Let's see if we can go drum up something a little less weird-feeling," Ben put down his coffee on the bench and took Cal to his room.

"Oh! Oh! I wanna help!" Kayla exclaimed as she follow Cal, she grabbed her cousin's hand enthusiastically.

When Ben left the room, Olive asked her mother, "Did you tell him yet?

"I will. Soon."

"Mum, this isn't cool. He deserves to know," Olive shook her head and left the room.

Grace stood there, her eyes began to blur as she watched her daughter leave. "Grace," Cassie offered as she stood up and hugged her sister-in-law. Grace accepted the hug. In the last five and a half years, Grace and Cassie became sisters, they basically raised Olive and Kayla together and in some ways, Cassie felt closer to Grace than she does Ben and Michaela. "You'll be the right decision, whatever that is. You always do what is best for your family."

"I'm breaking his heart," Grace's voice breaks as she thinks about Danny, her boyfriend. They've been together for three years and no matter how she tells him, she knows that breaking up will break his heart.

┊┊┊┊ ➶ ❁ 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

"What are you drawing?" Cassie asked as she looked at her nephew's drawing in black pen. From what she can tell, it looks like ink all over the walls of a living room and a shadowy figure standing in the middle of it. The drawing was actually pretty creepy but she kept that to herself.

Cal shrugged, "I dunno, I'm bored."

Cassie nodded, "Right. How about we play a game then?"

"What game?"

"Give me the paper," Cal passed the clipboard over to Cassie. She took the piece of paper out and flipped it around to the other side, she started to draw dots in the same grid until there was at least 30 dots. "This game is called Dots and Boxes, have you ever played it?"

Cal smiled, "Yeah, Olive and I used to always play this!"

"Olive was the one who taught me this game."

Cal took the first turn, he drew the first line, Cassie drew the next line and they took turns doing that until a doctor walked into the room. "Hey guys," the doctor said. Cassie looked at the doctor as she talked to Grace and Ben, Cassie couldn't help but notice how pretty the girl was.

"Honey, this is, uh, the doctor I told you about," Ben introduced Grace to the doctor.

"Nice to meet you."

Cassie and Cal get up and walk over to the group, Cal waves at the doctor but stays quiet. "Nice to meet you Dr. Bahl."

"Nice to meet you too, er-" the doctor paused as she looked down at Cal's sheet, on there it says, 'Mother- Grace Stone, Father- Benjamin Stone and Siblings- Olive Stone.' Saanvi looked at Cassie and came to the conclusion that there was no way Ben and Grace were Cassie's parents.

"Cassie, I'm this little guy's aunt."

Grace shook her head as she turned to her husband and then the doctor, "You all being on the plane together, it's miraculous." Cassie, although she didn't believe in miracles or a higher power, had to agree. The fact that her sick nephew who only had six months left to live, disappeared on the same plane as the doctor who is going to save him, was a miracle.

"Yeah, so my parents say. They've been praying at every meal. But right now, I'm gonna focus my energy on this guy." Saanvi looked at Cal, the little boy who had been quiet for most of this interaction, "You ready for round two, buddy?"

"Yep!"

"See you, bud."

"Get 'em."

Saanvi waved at the three of them, "Later, Mum and Dad." She said as if she was Cal.

"Bye, Auntie Cassie," Cal waved at the blonde-haired girl. Cassie gleamed, progress, she thought. Cassie watched as her nephew left with the doctor, she was thinking about their shopping trip and about how she planned to spoil him with whatever he wanted.

'Beep, beep, beep,' Grace's phone rang as she catches Ben and Cassie's attention. Grace looks at the name on the screen before quickly hanging up on the phone call. Grace hides the phone before turning back to Ben and Cassie. "Need to take that?" Ben asked.

Grace shook her head, "No, it's just a work thing. I'm catering this office party, and the clients always checking in."

Cassie's eyes widened as she realised that it must have been Danny calling her, because last time she checked, Grace wasn't taking any catering jobs while Ben and Cal settled in.

"Of course, I keep forgetting. My wife, the entrepreneur," Ben kissed Grace's head as Cassie began to feel guilty. She likes Danny, Danny helped Grace heal after she thought that her husband and son died, he became a father figure to Olive and he is a close friend to Cassie. Cassie knows that this isn't fair to anyone, not to Grace, Ben or Danny, but she also knows that Grace keeping it to herself is even more unfair to both of the men.

"Well," Grace laughed at her husband's compliment.

Cassie frowned, she couldn't force Grace to tell Ben, nor can she blame her for taking more than a week to do so. Grace is in an impossible situation.

'Beep, beep, beep,' Grace looks back down at her phone, Ben sighed, "I should go now, you and Cassie have a lot planned for this afternoon, I'll go make some job-searching calls, and we can meet later back home. I'll take tomorrow's shift. I'll call you later."

Grace nodded, although Cassie could tell she also felt guilty. "Okay, bye."

Ben gave Grace a light peck on the lips, "Bye, I love you."

"Love you."

He gave his sister a hug, "Have fun at the shops Cass, don't spoil my son."

Cassie chucked, "No promises."

┊┊┊┊ ➶ ❁ 🛩⌇ ｡˚ ✧ ﹐

Grace and Cassie definitely spoiled Cal. Grace was carrying five bags, three of the bags were with new clothes for Cal and the other two were of toys and colouring-in-books.

Cassie and Grace were trying to find all of Cal's old stuff, his clothes, toys and teddy bears. About a year of Cal and Ben being classified as 'legally dead', Grace had collected all of Ben and Cal's stuff and threw it away. At the time Cassie hated seeing her brother's stuff get thrown away but she knew it was what was best for Olive and Grace's mental health.

When Cal came home, he found that all of his stuff was gone and that the walls in his room were painted a poppy red. Kayla had been living in his room and she made it as girlie as possible. Kayla was eager to share the room with her new big cousin, Cal not so much.

"Look at all this cool stuff you have," Cassie beamed as she held up the two bags she was holding. In her bags there were race-car-themed bedsheets and posters, she had bought them hoping that they would mellow out the girliness of Kayla's butterfly and Emma Wiggle posters.

Cal crossed his arms, "How would you know? You have never been in my room before."

Cassie frowned as she thought about the many times she found Olive and Grace passed out in Cal's bed, his sheets stained with tears. Cassie considered correcting Cal but then she remembered that in the few times she had visited Cal and Olive before the plane's disappearance, she had never stayed long enough to get a full-tour.

"Hey, don't talk to your Aunt Cassie like that!"

Cal groaned, "But you didn't get the right Lego set!"

Grace looked around as she tried to figure out where they were going, "It's the exact set you had. It's just a different box."

"It's not. Mine had superhero mini-figures. This one doesn't!"

"Okay, we'll look at it when we get home, all right? Besides, you know, you can mix three sets together, right?" Cassie looked down at her phone while Grace and Cal talked, she didn't want to overstep.

"He is risen," Cassie suddenly heard a middle-aged woman begin to chant, she looked around, turning to find where the out-of-place sound was coming front. Her heart dropped as she saw a creepy woman holding onto Cal's arm, chant in his face, "He is not here. He is risen."

"Grace!" She exclaimed as she ran up to the woman and Cal.

Grace turned around, she felt sick as she saw the scene, "Let go of him!"

Cassie grabbed her nephew, she gave him a tight hug as the creepy woman continued to chant, "He is risen."

Cassie ran towards Grace with Cal as the woman stayed still, He is not here. He is risen!"