Cathy sat in a chair, and the young child sat on her lap. He looked out wide eyed at everyone and everything around him without focusing on any one thing or person in particular. He cuddled Cathy in a way that made Niki think he spent a good portion of every day sitting on someone's lap.

     Trevor sat next to Alison on the sofa. 

     "So, you guys been here all year?" he asked her. "Hidden underground like this?" 

     "No!" Alison snapped. "We had a house and everything for eight months."

     "I've rarely left my son's side." Adam looked over at the infant on Cathy's lap. The so very young boy fingered his shiny white robe like the feel of it fascinated him.

     "You're thinking he might be the multi-dimensional messiah you were created to father?" Niki asked, "in spite of the fact that his mother was not the Madonna the Azure chose for this timeline?"

     "To say the least," Adam had to admit.

     "And isn't he supposed to be a..."

     "A woman, a female," Adam replied, finishing her sentence for her. "Yes, our multi-dimensional savior was to lead the multiverse as its queen, but..."

     "The Azure certainly don't think he's any sort of messiah," Gramps said.

     Skip returned with the muffins. He put the plate down on the serving table so that anyone could get one if they wanted. 

     Skip took one himself. 

     Trevor took a handful.  

     "What are you doing?" Niki asked. "You're not going to eat all of those all at once."

     "I'm hungry." 

     "I haven't been able to play any new games," Skip said. "Technolica controls all of that now."

     Trevor pointed to Cathy. "And you? How are you doing, Cathy?"

     She shrugged. She'd lost a good twenty pounds since Trevor had last seen her the year before. Her face looked thinner. She wore glasses now, and they gave her face a more studious, adult look. 

     "I'm like everyone else in this family," she said. "As soon as we get our lives back on track again, Gramps and Adam snatches us away. I guess I'm used to it by now." 

     Alison added, "What she's really saying is that she wasn't that crazy about her boyfriend in the first place, so she was kind of happy to leave."

     "What about you?" Cathy shot back. "You and Enrique?" 

     "He wasn't my boyfriend. He was just a guy." 

     "So there's a portal a hundred miles in circumference," Niki said, "and we're going to disable it using just the van and some Azure weaponry?"

     "Unless you've got a better idea."

     "Uh, speaking of Azure crap," Trevor said. "You don't happen to have a healer on you, do you Gramps?" 

                                                   CONTINUE