As soon as one of the pilots in our convey radioed in that the centipede had been killed, they vacated the area, and the centipede’s body was bombed with enough explosives to broil its carcass into a charcoal stain in the ground.

The radish demons who’d survived the fight with the centipede were killed by the blasts before they’d even had a chance to realize my mother was dead.

Vargo had given his soldiers the order before we’d ever left California.

Brutally clever of him.

Our group was helicoptered to a nearby hospital. I was whisked to a bed tucked away in an isolated wing of the building. After someone determined that my injuries weren’t life-threatening, I was promptly forgotten about as the entire hospital continued to brace itself for the incoming wave of victims from the nuclear blast nearby.

A few hours later, Jack appeared in the doorway to my room.

He sported a robotic brace around his knee. Well-lubricated pistons slid up and down his thigh as they balanced the load of his body weight.

His shoulders drooped as he caught sight of me and realized I was awake and still possessed all my limbs.

“Oh God,” he murmured. “You’re okay?”

“I’m okay,” I echoed. “Just a few bruises.”

He entered the room, bobbling on his mechanically stabilized limb like a stiff-legged robot. He stopped a few feet from the bed, hesitating.

“I heard about what happened to you mom.”

“Yeah.”

“How are you feeling?”

“I don’t know. Still in shock, I guess.”

He nodded respectfully.

“I guess we can’t go back home,” I said.

His lips pulled into a tightrope across his face.

“I guess not.”

No further elaboration.

“Jack.”

He’d been studying nightstand next to my bed. He attuned to my voice.

“Are we okay?”

The rubber-band stretching silence before his answer was telling. Jack was never one to conceal his feelings well.

“You’re my wife.”

“I know,” I said. “But I can tell something’s wrong.”

He carefully assembled his next statement.

“Can you just…can you think about things from my perspective?”

“Sure?”

“You told me the world was in danger and that I have to go into hiding. Then you ran off with a mysterious stranger and disappeared. I thought you were dead. And as soon as I start to process that, you come back, but I can barely recognize you.”

“What do you mean?”

He pointed at a scrape on my arm. The scab contained a glossy layer of autocoagulators that gave it a laminated appearance in the harsh hospital lighting.

“You vanished for two months, and when you came back, you were shooting lasers and picking me up like I weighed nothing. You told me your bones are full of wires and your blood is full of nanobots.”

He ran a hand through hair that had overgrown over the last two months.

“Are you the same person that you were when you left?”

“Those are just body modifications,” I said. “I needed them to stay alive and to fight. I still have the same brain. I’m still the same me.”

“You acted differently, too.”

“I mean, spending two months living with a guerrilla army probably changed me a little bit.”

He didn’t respond, and I sensed I’d hit on something.

“Are you upset that I left a second time?”

“For a few hours, I was back in that space. Not knowing if you were dead or alive. I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t stand losing you again.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I understand why you needed to go and fight the centipede, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt.”

More silence.

My husband’s brow furrowed in the way it did when he was fighting not to betray emotion.

“I’m sorry.”

He nodded.

“I shouldn’t have left to fight the centipede. There was nothing I could contribute. Really, I was just following my mom.”

“Why?”

“I don’t know. Because I felt an urge to protect her? Because I felt like she’d finally become the mother I'd wanted her to be? Because I felt we were on the verge of a breakthrough, and I wanted her to apologize?”

“Did you get that?”

“Sort of.”

Jack considered the response.

“I promised that was the last time I’d do that to you,” I added. “And I mean it.”

Jack nodded.

“Do you trust me?”

I hung over the edge of a cliff waiting for a response.

“I want to believe you.”

Ouch.

“But,” Jack continued. “I don’t know how to make myself do that. I thought I lost my wife for two months. You don’t know what that does to a person.”

“I don’t.”

I pushed myself up in the bed to meet his eyes better. Anything to break through the invisible glass that had somehow conjured itself between us.

“Will you give me time? Let me earn your trust back?”

He leaned back on his heels.

“Okay.”

The balloon in my chest didn’t deflate, but it did splutter out volumes of aching air.

“Thank you.”

“As soon as I get out of here, I want to go home. I want to be with you and Violet.”

“We don’t have a home. It was blown up, along with the rest of Pendervale.”

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“Let’s go somewhere else.”

Jack frowned.

“Where?”

“Anywhere far from here. Your sister lives in Cincinnati. Why don’t we go there?”

“But what about your research?”

“There will be places to do research in Cincinnati, I’m sure. Besides, the entire field of genetics is about to get the world’s biggest overhaul once we formally join the multiverse.”

He studied me the way one studies a bee in their garden. With a mixture of curiosity and fear that it might buzz forward and sting them. It stung me more than I expected.

“You know, this doesn’t sound like my Laura at all. You loved your research.”

“I still do, but it just doesn’t feel as important after all this.”

I gestured in the direction of Pendervale’s ruins where the corpse of the centipede and dozens of dead radish demons lay soaking up nuclear fallout.

“Fair, I guess,” Jack admitted. “Does this mean you don’t want to follow your dad’s footsteps anymore?”

“I did a lot of thinking about why I wanted to be a scientist while I was on the widow’s nest, and I truthfully think it had more to do with my mom than my dad. But after all this, I don’t think I want to be just like either of them. Maybe I can just take their best parts moving forward.”

He nodded.

“Just don’t change yourself too much, please. I fell in love with the person you were.”

“I’m not changing who I am,” I promised. “Maybe just learning to do things because they’re what I want to do. Without any other motivations.”

“And what do you want to do now?”

“Well,”

I hesitated.

“I really want to kiss my husband.”

He smiled. I smiled back.

He approached the bed and wrapped his arms around me gently. The fabric over his shoulder scrunched into my chin, and I could smell him and his familiar soil-after-a-thunderstorm scent.

We kissed. Softy.

I leaned into his weight and let him hold me. Our lips mashed together like hot wax pressed onto crisp paper. I ran my hands down the bristle of his jaw and enjoyed the familiar tactility.

Long seconds passed until there was a cough from the door, and we pulled apart like teenagers caught behind the bleachers.

Lannon was standing at the room’s entrance.

“Sorry to interrupt,” he smiled. “But I only had a few minutes before someone tracks me down and yells at me to get back in my bed.”

I motioned for Jack to sit down in the visitor’s chair pressed against the wall on the left side of the room.

“It’s okay,” I told Lannon. “How are you feeling?”

The side of his face and his arm were mummified in gauze.

“I’m stable. Nothing a MEAD surgeon can’t repair. The doctors here did a scan and kind of decided not to mess with me once they realized I have more technology under my skin than a supercomputer on this Earth.”

I smiled but didn’t quite crack a chuckle.

“What happened to the bridge the centipede came through?” I asked.

“Collapsed,” Lannon said. “Like a burrito with too much rice shoved inside. The centipede destroyed it by burrowing through.”

“So there’s still no exit off this reality?”

“Not yet.”

“How long before MEAD punches another thread here.”

“Probably after a few days. For search and rescue. Once we have an escape route, we’re out of here. The Republic can take over transitioning this planet to the multiverse. We’ve made our statements. Everyone here will know it’s thanks to MEAD that they can enjoy the fruits of the multiverse. As more Earths are liberated, eventually the political power will shift away from those pricks running the Republic.”

“What happens when an Earth gets transitioned into the multiverse?” Jack asked.

Lannon shrugged.

“Beats me. Lots of paperwork. Lots of meetings with leaders of your nations. It’s been done a few thousand times now, so the process is pretty streamlined. Usually peaceful.”

He raised a finger.

“This Earth will be a little different since the Republic will first have to scour this part of the planet for any demon eggs that weren’t destroyed in the blast, but with some neutrino scanners, that shouldn’t be hard.”

“And what about us?” I asked. “We fought against the Republic. I lived with MEAD for two months. Are we going to be sent to prison in the multiverse?”

Lannon dismissed the question with nonchalance.

“Nah. Citizens of new Earths aren’t subject to Republic laws until after their reality is formally welcomed.”

“So we can just…do whatever we want now?”

“Pretty much.”

“That’s a pretty good deal.”

“It makes the transition much more peaceful if the Republic doesn’t step in and immediately begin arresting people.”

“Makes sense.”

Lannon grinned in agreement.

“Well, Laura. The real reason I came by is because I wanted to say goodbye. I’m leaving this hospital soon to link up with my soldiers. We’ll be escaping as soon as a thread to the widow’s nest is put down.”

He stepped forward, and at the same moment, a shadow flashed behind him.

I heard the click of a laser being armed. Lannon froze. A man was standing behind him. Tall, with a bald head that glared off the LED lights.

Vargo.

He pressed a gun into Lannon’s back.

“Don’t move,” he warned Lannon. “I know your shield is down.”

He looked over at me.

“You too, Dr. Parsons. I know you’re unarmed, and it’s best you stay out of this.”

He glanced over at Jack, saw that he was unarmed, and turned his attention back on Lannon.

I stared in disbelief at the captain. He was still draped in his hospital gown and wearing a pair of bright yellow socks given to him by nursing staff.

“What is this?” I demanded. “I thought there was a truce.”

“There was,” Vargo said. “But now it’s over. I know I can’t risk an all-out fight with MEAD on this planet, since their reinforcements might arrive first. But I can kill their leader right now. Before anyone realizes what’s happened.”

“That’s nutbrained,” Lannon warned. “MEAD won’t let you leave this planet alive.”

“MEAD only has a month before the Republic establishes permanent contact with this planet. They won’t waste their time chasing me. They’ll escape back to the widow’s nest as soon as they get a chance.”

“You’re a dead man if you kill me,” Lannon repeated.

The threat was pretty much all he had right now. Vargo had caught us in a totally compromised position. Lannon was injured, with no battery in his shield to power a force field or a protective shockwave. My own shield was down. And I wasn’t carrying any tools that could be used to retaliate.

“There’s only one way you’re getting out of this room alive,” Vargo said.

He pressed the gun harder into Lannon’s back for emphasis.

“Tell me the coordinates of the widow’s nest.”

Lannon smirked.

“You’re a fucking porkhead if you think I’ll tell you that.”

I noticed Jack moving in his seat out of the corner of my eye. I fought every urge not to look at him, for fear of drawing attention, but internally, I was shouting at my husband to stay out of whatever was happening right now. Vargo almost certainly had a body shield on and was armed with a gun that could put a quarter sized hole through a steel beam.

“Alright,” Vargo said to Lannon. “If you won’t tell me the coordinates, maybe she will.”

Keeping the gun locked against Lannon’s posterior spine, he turned to look my way.

“Me?” I asked. “I don’t know where the widow’s nest is.”

“But you’ve been there?” he demanded.

“Well, yes.”

“Describe it to me. Maybe we can puzzle it out.”

The shadow of Jacks’ frame drifted slowly out of the chair. Maybe he was running for help. That would be smart. Anything else was suicide. Along with a body shield, Vargo had armor plating in most of his bones and meshed wires over his internal organs.

“Laura. Don’t play this game,” Lannon warned me. “I’d rather just get shot.”

“I truthfully don’t know anything about where the widow’s nest is,” I said. “It’s just an Earth with a big desert.”

“Tell me about how you accessed it,” Vargo urged. “Was it through a specific portal?”

I hesitated.

“Come on!” Vargo roared at me. He jabbed Lannon hard enough with the gun to make the man flinch. “Describe the portal.”

Jack’s shadow wasn’t leaving the room. He was creeping around Vargo’s blind side. He was unarmed and without body modifications. Vargo could kill him easily.

God damn my boneheaded husband. Why was he trying to get involved?

I tried to stall.

“It’s, um, a big black circle. I think I saw stars or flickering lights of some kind inside it.”

“That’s what all portals look like,” Vargo snapped. “Where was the portal? Was it on this Earth.”

“It, um,”

Jack sprang into action.

He danced forward, staying in Vargo’s shadow. My husband’s arm flashed forward in a swinging right hook. Broad knuckles somehow passed through Vargo’s body shield and mashed into the right side of his jaw with a loud bone-snapping crack.

Vargo didn’t fall, but his head was jerked to the side, and he stumbled, grunting in pain.

Lannon took advantage of the situation, lunging for Vargo’s gun. The MEAD leader’s tackle knocked both of them to the floor. A laser blast discharged, scorching a hole in the wall, before Lannon got his body weight on the gun, pinning it down.

“Shock!” Vargo shouted, and the room burned bright with electricity.

I had microscopic insulation embedded in my epidermis. Lannon did as well. The electrical discharge passed over us harmlessly. Jack, unfortunately, caught the brunt of the shock. In the corner of my eye, I saw him jolted and knocked to the ground.

There would be time to check on him later. I jumped out of bed to help. With our enhanced strengths combined, Lannon and I were able to pin Vargo to the floor. Lannon aimed the gun at his head.

Vargo sneered at us.

“Go ahead. Shoot me. Put an extra million florals on your bounty.”

“I’ve got a better idea,” Lannon said.

Vargo frowned.

“You’ll stay with me,” he said. “As insurance that we make it off this Earth in one piece.”

“You think you can use me as a hostage?”

Lannon fired the gun at Vargo’s head. The blast dissolved in his body shield, but the man flinched regardless.

“I’d say I’m doing that right now. How much shield do you think you have left? Can’t be more than one or two high-powered shots.”

Vargo didn’t say anything.

Lannon turned to me.

“Laura, take your husband and get out of here. This is MEAD business now, and you can’t be getting involved.”

He looked over at Jack, who’d pushed himself back up to his feet.

“Thanks.”

My husband tipped a nod at Lannon.

“Anytime.”

He put his arm around me, and we left the interdimensional conflict behind. Jack guided me to the visitor’s waiting area. A middle-aged woman was sitting in the corner sipping the complimentary coffee. She gave us a funny look but didn’t say anything.

We sat down.

“How did you do that?” I demanded of Jack. “Vargo had a body shield.”

He grinned and held up his right hand.

“I licked my knuckles until they were coated in spit.”

My eyes widened.

“I’ve learned a thing or two while you’ve been running around fighting monsters.”

He used his left hand to tenderly squeeze his metacarpals.

“Think I might’ve broken something, though. Felt like that guy’s jaw was made of metal.”

I laughed despite his misfortune.

“It probably was.”

He shrugged.

“Good thing we’re at a hospital.”

“Good thing.”

He put his hand down.

“Where’s Violet?” I asked.

“Some FBI people are taking care of her. Back in California.”

“Why don’t you get that hand looked at while we’re here,” I said. “And then let’s go get our daughter and get the hell away from here.”

My husband’s cheeks crinkled as he smiled at me.

“I’d like that.”