“So, I assume you’ve been living in the ship all this time?” Kyle asked Tyler as Will served them their breakfast that morning. He then took his own seat next to Kyle, and offered him a tiny kiss on the cheek before starting on his meal, as Kyle just took another uncomfortable breath in response and tried to move his concentration to his food as well.

Tyler raised a brow slightly, but managed to respond to Kyle’s question, “well, we’ve been trying to, but anything computerized quit working when Serena...died” he swallowed again before he took a bite, “so, we’re locked off from most of the ship still, and then there’s the damage from the crash” he then added, “not that that really matters since none of the computers work anymore anyway.” he sighed.

“You could probably fix those” Will put in innocently as he looked back over at Kyle with that same content smile he had been wearing since Kyle first gave into his wiles late the previous evening, and continued to do so into the morning. “You’re very good at fixing things” he added with another smile.

Kyle took a breath to try and find words to respond with, but Tyler instead let out a little chuckle before he could find them, “yes?” Kyle asked a little defensively.

“Lots of shocking discoveries today, is all” Tyler returned with another slight chuckle.

“Meaning?” Kyle swallowed a bit as he cast Will a sideways glance.

“I just never pegged you for...”

“For what?” Kyle swallowed painfully again, suddenly being faced with all those fears of judgment after having convinced himself he was over them at last, just the previous night.

“I mean I’m cool with it, totally, just surprised is all” Tyler told him apologetically.

Kyle forced himself to find some response that befit that particular statement, and finally decided to try something that at least resembled the truth, “he grew up all alone on that planet with literally no one around at all, since he was only five years old. The whole...concept” he decided on, “that you’re referring to; he just doesn’t even get it or understand it. He’s just this way...naturally...with anyone” Kyle attempted some defense.

“Uh huh” Tyler responded as he looked at Will once more, but said nothing else on the matter just then.

Will simply gave Kyle a skeptical look as well in response to his previous words. Then, letting out a somewhat frustrated breath in response to the feeling that Tyler had been completely unconvinced of anything by his explanation, Kyle forced himself to move back to the more pressing subject.

“So, you keep saying ‘we.’ Exactly how many of you did survive?” he had to know.

Tyler let out another sigh as he finished swallowing another bite of breakfast, “as of a few hours ago, there’s seventeen of us left, but...” he shook his head.

“Seventeen?” Kyle returned with a wide grin, suddenly feeling as though all was not lost for him and his own companions waiting for him back on the other planet, after all.

“But,” Tyler interrupted Kyle’s momentary glee, “of those seventeen, only six of us are even over twelve.”

Kyle did let his smile waver only slightly, “that’s a lot of kids to look after” he said quietly.

“No kidding” Tyler sighed again. “and Oddra’s only two” he added, referring to the last born E-child, before the one he still didn’t know of yet, anyway.

“Oddra?” Kyle smiled, then looked up, “how many girls are there in that list of seventeen?”

“Ok, that’s an odd question” Tyler chuckled, “but yeah, if you count India and Miranda, there’s eleven girls; and counting me, there’s seven guys, plus now, the three, err four of you. But I guess with Lili, that makes eleven girls and eleven guys altogether, ironically” he smiled.

“Did you say Miranda and India are both still alive too?” Kyle asked with more than a bit of shock at at least one of those names.

“Well, for now” Tyler returned, though a sadness crept into his tone as he did.

“Actually, there’s twelve girls...more of them than us now...ironically” Kyle repeated the other teen’s earlier word choice.

“Who am I missing?” Tyler asked.

“Hope.” Kyle sighed, “Lili had a little girl a couple months ago.”

“No shit” Tyler responded with further surprise, “but who’s the dad?” he had to ask.

“Long story” Kyle shook his head, “but what do you mean, for now? Is something wrong with India or Miranda?”

Then that sadness came back into those clear blue eyes of Tyler’s, “both, actually.”

“What?”

“They’ve both been really, really sick since we first got here, and no one knows why. Everyone else is fine, physically, anyway” Tyler informed.

Kyle narrowed his eyes at that piece of information, trying to search his brain for a logical explanation, as he was hardly the doctor among them. He then thought back to their first days there on the other planet, and how Lili very nearly died then as well. He and Ian were never really clear on what it was that made Lili so sick until months later, when they got the bombshell about the baby and how Jared had needed to remove her IUD to save her life.

“Wait, India and Miranda are the only sick ones, right?”

“Yeah” Tyler confirmed with the same sadness.

“And India’s what, sixteen?” Kyle pressed.

“Seventeen next month” Tyler responded.

“And who’s the next oldest girl?” Kyle continued attempting to prove his theory.

“That’s Cayella” Tyler answered, though with a confused look.

“And how old is she?” Kyle pressed onward.

“Um eleven now, I think” Tyler responded.

Kyle sighed once more, sure that his still unspoken theory on what was making the only two women of childbearing age sick, was now correct.

“You know what’s wrong?” Tyler asked with a combination of wariness and hope.

“I think so. The same thing happened to Lili when we first landed. But Jared fixed it” he admitted. But he then had to look up quickly, as Jared had implied that it was going to very quickly kill her if he hadn’t fixed it, “but how have you kept them alive this long if they’ve both been sick this whole time?”

That was when Tyler cast his eyes downwards once more and took another deep breath, “I can make them better, temporarily” he stated in a near whisper, “but it never lasts long, and they always get sick again after a few days” he added in the same soft, sad tone.

Kyle narrowed his eyes once more, as he couldn’t stop himself from looking into the other young man’s head then, needing clarity. He then blinked in surprise a moment later, “you can heal?”

Tyler looked up with his own bit of surprise then, “and you can apparently read minds...”

It wasn’t too long after breakfast that Tyler helped Will and Kyle gather their things and begun leading them back to that ship that Kyle had been hoping to finally see again, for over a year now. Kyle’s excitement was obvious as he and Will trailed about ten to fifteen feet behind Tyler as they pressed on toward what was left of the home he hadn’t seen in so long; not to mention, more people, who he also hadn’t seen in so long. He may not have been much for socializing when he had lived aboard the ship, but somehow, he had a deep new appreciation for the idea of finally having other people around him again.

“So, what do you think is the better plan? To take them to Jared or to bring him to them? We can worry about you trying to move the whole ship later, once I have a look at it. Who knows, maybe I can even get the computers up and running again. Then hell, you wouldn’t even have to blink us back there, we could just fuckin fly back” Kyle chuckled eagerly.

Will tried very hard to follow the rapid flow of words coming out of Kyle’s mouth so quickly then, but honed in on the one thing he could follow, “you seem much happier now” he told Kyle with what was almost a wistful tone.

“Well, of course. We did what we came here to do, we found survivors and we’re on our way to the ship. We did everything we came here to do!” he repeated with another smile. Kyle then couldn’t help adding, “plus, the female population just jumped by ten. Sure, most of them a bit young still, but, I mean, this is amazing. Plus, last I remember, India was pretty fuckin hot, even at fifteen, and she’s almost seventeen now. You know, once we keep her from dyin” he added, though cast a furtive glance up at where Tyler still walked several feet ahead, not quite clear on what the relationship was between he and India just yet.

“It’s girls you’re happy about?” Will asked with a furrowed brow.

“I’m an eighteen year old guy; girls always make me happy” he teased, blushing slightly as Tyler gave him a slightly questioning look back over his shoulder, causing Kyle to drop his volume once more, “besides, I figure more girls would make you happy too. You did say you wanted to know what that was like, right?”

Will offered no more response other than a slow nod of agreement, though his big brown eyes were cast a bit downwards as he offered that silent concurrence. He then swallowed a bit as he lifted his head once more, and picked up his pace to catch up with Tyler.

“Hey, Will” Tyler greeted his approach, still seeming more than a little wary of the older man.

“How far til the ship?” Will asked as he looked off into the distance in front of them.

“Probably, uh, three hours or so” Tyler answered with a shrug.

“Show me” Will said as he stopped moving to look down at Tyler and pose the request.

“Show you what?” Tyler asked with a bit of confusion as Kyle slowly began to catch up to where they had stopped ahead of him

“Show us where the ship is” Will stated matter-of-factly as he gestured to Kyle.

Tyler scoffed with a bit of confusion, “that way?” he offered questioningly as he gestured off into the distance, then added, “sorry, I didn’t exactly bring a map.”

“No, just think it; think of where it is. Kyle will know. Then we go” Will stated with a simple shrug, though somehow seeming agitated by something else at the moment, which was almost a foreign emotion for him.

“Think it?” Tyler repeated, “oh, the mind-reading thing” he stated, still a little unease showing about that subject, “but aren’t we already going?” he had to ask with another crease of his brow.

“No, you don’t understand” Will stated with a bit of frustration, “think of the path from here to there. You think it, Kyle sees it, shows me, I take us.”

“Pardon?” Tyler asked, only further confused by the request.

“His thing” Kyle offered, “well, one of his things” he corrected more quietly before continuing, “he can teleport. He just needs you to think the path into my head, and he can take us there... in seconds” Kyle explained.

Tyler looked more than a little impressed then, “man, what’s his other things?”

“Long story” Kyle repeated once more.