---Sage's POV---

I was relieved that the professors and the doctors I worked with were so understanding of my situation as I told them about dad and how I didn't want the authorities to rip my family apart. They assured me that I was doing the right thing and Dhr. Tyler even gave me his card for when I found myself ready to pursue my dream.

A sigh escaped me as I flipped the card around between my fingers before pocketing it again and making my way back home. Even if I could go back...I don't know, it felt like something had changed. Those doctors back at base couldn't save dad, even with their education.

The loud honk of the car behind me jolted me out of my gloomy thoughts and I put my hand up as apology, since I had been waiting in front of a green light. I was back home a few minutes later, tapping on the remote to lock the car while I fished my keys out of my pocket and opened the door.

Soft voices were murmuring in the living room but I ignored that for now while kicking my shoes out before sighing as I noticed a trail of toys up the stairs. "Really Ellie?" I sighed before crouching down to scoop a set of pink glasses up while gathering a few plush animals in my other hand.

I nearly tripped over her pillow, which somehow found it's way in the middle of the stairs, probably being dragged out of the bed by a sleepy Ellie before she had heard the noise from Richard in the kitchen and came to investigate. I teetered dangerously back and forth until a pair of warm hands was holding me firmly in place.

Looking up in a pair of familiar light hazel eyes did weird things to my stomach as my mouth suddenly dried up. This was the first time that Declan was standing so close to me without pulling away. Instead, his eyes roamed over my face before smiling teasingly.

"Easy there Sage. You don't want to fall down these stairs now, do you." He stated, his fingers pressing firmly against my hips before he removed his hands and picked a few toys up and moved his head, gesturing for me to lead the way.

"Uh, no sir." I said slightly confused but overjoyed that he seemed to be attracted to me. I mentally snorted at myself. "First I didn't want to start anything with him, now I'm happy like a puppy that he gives me some attention. Davy is a bad influence."

I stepped forwards and placed the toys in Ellie's room before grabbing the laundry and moving towards Laura and Davy's rooms to repeat the process. Meanwhile, a curious Declan was following me, watching every move I made. I could almost feel the questions brewing until he finally caved in when we arrived at the washer and I started loading everything in.

"So...what did you do when...your dad...was called in?" he asked, rubbing his neck when he brought dad up. The lump in my throat presented itself with a burning sensation before I swallowed past it. "Everything, basically. I cooked, cleaned, brought the others to school and followed my own classes in between." I stated while pouring some liquid soap in the destined cup and started everything before finally looking at the man.

His eyes flashed back towards my face, making me eye him curiously before I realized that his gaze had been transfixed on my behind. Declan nodded, trying to ignore the fact that the tops of his ears were growing red under my scrutiny until I smirked to myself and just shook my head.

Ignoring his embarrassment, I simply passed him to go towards the living room, where I took a small notebook so I could figure out where to place these guys permanently and to give them the general layout of the house.

Hearing a soft curse coming from the couch, I looked up and snorted in amusement when I spotted Richard glaring at my laptop, oblivious to the fact that I had returned home and was aware that he was trying to hack into my files.

At my snort, he looked up before a sheepish smile slipped on his face, his hands slowly lifting from the laptop as if that action would make me forget that I didn't give him any permission. I simply chortled and reached for a pen while saying, "Good to know my files are safe."

I scribbled a few things down, roughly sketching the layouts from the house before looking back up when I heard Richard stand up again, this time joined by Declan and Josh as they were all eying me curiously.

"How did you know we were looking for your files? And who secured your files while we're talking about this?" Richard asked, tapping his fingers on the glass in the dining table while Josh leaned against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

I simply smiled, looking back at my laptop before looking down at my notes, ripping them out and curling them up in a ball before I threw them in the trash. "You were looking on my laptop without permission while Declan had said this morning that you'd need our cellphones and laptops as a precaution."

Walking around the men staring at me, I went to one of the drawers and retrieved the plans of our home, shutting the drawer with my hips. I flicked through the plans while squeezing my way between the men with my eyes narrowed until I smiled as I found the plans.

"By now I've guessed you've searched for the basic data of my family so you can protect us better against that group. By the way, the army needs to crank up on their codes, I cracked it under five minutes."

I couldn't hide the grin when all three of the Navy Seals were staring at me with their mouths wide opened, clearly in shock. Smiling slightly, I tapped my forehead slightly, referring to my heightened IQ before I spread the plans out on the table and plucked a pencil out of Laura's book.

"Uh, I uh-" Richard stuttered slightly while Josh uttered a soft, "Damn, we can't hide anything from you huh?" I chuckled and shook my head slightly, feeling amused about the fact that my mind was able to make the connections faster than theirs, plus the little secret that I still kept from them."

Tapping the map to gain their attention, I stated, "Anyhow, you guys obviously need rooms of your own plus some sort of headquarters for your research. I understand that you want to keep most of whatever you know hidden from us but please understand that I'm not like the others and I'll understand more than you probably think.

These rooms are all free, since Dad had expanded our home after Ellie was born, thinking we all needed more space. This is mine, Laura's, Ellie's and Davy's." I looked up right in Josh's exited face and noticed the excited gleam in his eyes before he quickly winked in my direction.

Shaking my head at his action, I simply motioned back to the plans. "If you guys want to exercise, we have a small gym over here with the basic necessities. Game room over here and that's basically it." I stated, leaving the maps on the table for them before I went to work on the last of my patients' files.

---Declan's POV---

It was strange to realize how...mature Sage was for his age. Sure he was in his twenties but I had expected him to be more laid back, making stupid decisions like most young males of his age.

Instead, we were dumbfounded by a sophisticated young man that was able to let us know in just a few sentences that he knew exactly what we were up to. Even more, he showed that he had thought ahead by giving us the map of his house so we could easily improve the security and chose a spot where we would work from.

Richard was shaking his head slightly, though the amused smile on his face showed that he wasn't annoyed; he was awed. He snickered to himself before looking up. "I have a feeling that we haven't seen the last of him."

Josh chuckled loudly at that before flashing his eyes over his shoulders towards our point of interest. I followed his gaze and felt my lips curl up when I noticed him typing away on his laptop, easily accessing the files that had remained off-limits, making me smirk.

My hands still held the notes we made with the plans for the next few days and after looking at them, I snorted and laid them to the side. "I think its best that we get to know the family better for now before we start with our plans. Otherwise we might be sorely underestimating our resources and allies."

"Smart move." We all looked up at Sage's muttered comment and turned around. He showed no sign of having spoken, simply kept typing away before heading towards a file cabinet and removed a large leather folder before walking back to the table. "Hope that Eric is still at the hospital..."

He murmured some more before flipping a cellphone out of his pocket and proceeded to talk to the other person with such complicated medical terms that my head was spinning slightly. A hand patted on my back and I could nearly feel Josh smirking behind me. "Good luck with that buddy."

I snorted and shouldered his hand off me before I went out of the dining room, giving Sage some privacy whilst knowing that the others were following me. As soon as we were in the living room, I turned around to look at them. My face scrunched up in thought while my feet started pacing me back and forth.

"What are you thinking about Declan? I've never seen you so agitated before, unless the times before we started a mission; you always had to plan everything out just to make sure nothing could happen and that we always had a back-up plan." Richard sat down in the seat across the table while Josh leaned against the doorway, his hands stuffed in his pockets.

I passed the soft cream-colored curtains one last time before halting against the seat, placing my hands firmly on the soft leather. "Sage has already made the first steps to support his family by giving up on his job to accommodate to a job he can do whilst staying home."

They both nodded, noticing my more commanding tone and perked up a bit, knowing that I was currently full on thinking about our mission, my mission, to keep Sage and his siblings safe and alive.

"We need surveillance cams set up, the phones wired so we can intercept any unsettling or unknown calls and we need to contact Base to see if Wolfpack's survivors are up to travel here."

Richard was typing away on his laptop, nodding his head as he made notes while Josh frowned, shaking his blond hair out of his face before licking his lips slightly. "Too bad that the twins aren't old enough for college, we need someone their age to keep an eye on them, or someone needs to become a teacher at their school so we can keep them safe when they're out."

I looked up, nodding in confirmation whilst feeling pride of my friend. He was putting his interests to the side, just like me, for the sake of everyone's safety. Richard clicked on a few more buttons before looking up from the screen.

"They'll know instantly guys. I mean, we haven't known them for fairly long, but even I can see that Davy is a very bright guy, he'll detect it instantly and 'll probably find out why we're here."

"Oh, he knows already." We all gasped and turned around, looking at Sage as he stood there with the phone in hand before throwing it in Richard's lap. He looked down at the device and blinked before looking up again.

"Wire my phone, I know you guys need to. You'll need to ask Davy and Laura's for theirs though...Good luck with that, Laura hasn't parted with her cell the day she got it from dad."

He went to turn away but I halted him by reaching out, cursing mentally when I felt the muscles react and twitch under my hand. It was unsettling in a good way, feeling my instincts roar to life as my nostrils flared with the stab of hot desire flushing through my skin.

It didn't help when Sage turned around and lifted one eyebrow, the light enhancing his sharp features and jawline whilst his brown eyes were filled with questions. I shoved the ache to touch him down and smiled politely.

"We can use your help; we still need to get to know you guys better to find out the perfect way of protecting you and honestly? You probably have some great ideas to help us out on this."

I wasn't ready for the broad grin that slipped on his face, illuminating it in such a way that my heart thudded heavily in my chest before I managed to snap myself out of it. I had made a choice before and I was going to stick to it, not jump the poor boy's bones in front of my comrades.

------

How I made it past these few hours where Sage was sitting beside me, helping us set up in the center of the house was beyond me. Every gentle touch of his knees against mine when he rearranged his weight in the seat was to lose my mind over and I had long since stopped to try and ignore the way he made me feel.

I mean, the guy was genius, pointing out that we were safest from discovery in the center of the house since prying eyes couldn't reach there; there were no windows so outsiders couldn't look into our new 'headquarters', all of their rooms were close by if something happened and the room itself was spacious enough for a more than moderate set up.

We had called back to base, or rather the few contacts we could trust, informing them of our plans and gaining the go for our plans before they placed an even heavier burden on us, a burden that caused me to growl and clench my jaw in pure hatred for the rat in our army.

Wolfpack had all but been annihilated. Only Viper had made it out alive, barely and all thanks to his buddy Foxtail, who had shoved him down and caught the bullet that was intended for Viper's head with his own.

Viper was still recovering, mourning the loss of his teammates and Mother and was in no state to travel back to us. Base did tell us that they would send us all the equipment we needed for our mission before they told us to be safe and disconnected the call.

I sighed and leaned back against the wall, my head rolling back to look at the ceiling before I sighed, smiling despite myself when I heard the delighted giggle in the other room.

The kids had been home for several hours now; after Sage had finished helping us, he had to rush to get to school in time, seeing that it took us most of the day to plan everything out. Now all we could do was get to know them better, not only for the better of the mission but because it was hard to not love these kids.

I stepped around the door, smiling at little Ellie as she was looking in wonder at Richard's rapidly typing fingers, cheering him on and urging him to go faster before she laughed when he stopped and gave her a fake, scolding look. She smiled sweetly and stepped back before dryly stating that her brother could handle computers better than Richard and skipped away, leaving Richard behind to gawk at her.

A laugh nearly escaped me but I managed to muffle it to the point it became a choked snort and walked inside. My eyes found Sage instantly; whom was looking over his family with warmth mixed with sadness before glancing at me, a sweet smile slipping on his lips.

The smile pushed all plans to unravel the Dark Sun's motions and plans, the thoughts of Viper and his team's untimely demise, all those thoughts were pushed to the background at the tidal wave of emotions rushing through my body.

My feet moved on their own accord until I was standing behind Sage's seat and looked at my friends and the Commander's children mixed in a playful banter as they unknowingly helped us relax and wind down, removing all the tension and hurt we had build up in the past mission. I looked down at Sage and smiled.

Yes, it was definitely time to get to know this family better.

So, what do you think? Any ideas who's behind the assault on both the teams? ^-^ I love hearing your ideas

And what about our little group here? Should Declan go after Sage?

Comment and vote ^-^