By the time the month long trip back home was over, I still didn't know how I was going to face everyone. I sent in weekly reports like always, just so they knew I was still alive, except that I did it without visuals and wouldn't accept any calls. If I did, I would have to acknowledge the wrenching hole in my heart and I didn't want to do that while I was still alone.

When I entered the Dizahl System, I received an automated message that warned me to identify myself. If I was an Order ship, I was to immediately surrender or be destroyed. I sent Hela's ship ID in response and the message stopped.

“Welcome home, Grandpa.” Opina said over Hela's intercom. “We're all waiting for you.”

I touched the button that said I acknowledged the message and didn't say anything. I flew the ship all the way through the system and docked Hela between her mother Adona and her father Udelis. I took several deep breaths, because even though I had intentionally limited my detection range, I could still feel everyone waiting for me at the docking hatch.

I stood up and walked, one step in front of the other, until I reached the hatch. I hit the button to open it and everyone stood there. All of their faces were tear streaked, full of sadness, and right in the front was Hailey's mother, Monica.

“N-n-no.” Monica said and started crying again. “No.” She said and wiped at her eyes. “My baby's really gone.”

I stepped into the docking ring and put my arms around her, then she started balling her eyes out. She grabbed onto me and held on as she poured her sorrow out. It didn't take long for it to turn to anger at me, and then she started punching me.

“No! My baby! You let them take my baby!” Monica said as she pounded on my chest.

“I invoke our vows.” I said and her strikes slowed down, then she looked up into my eyes.

“Wh-wh-what?” Monica stuttered.

“You promised that if anything happened to me or Hailey, you would resume your duties.” I said and caressed the side of her face, then I kissed her briefly to hand responsibility back to her. “Mom, I'm so sorry. Your daughter is gone.”

Monica's face crumbled and she burst into tears again, then she put her arms around me and cried and cried. Everyone else cried as well, and it wasn't even a Presence effect, because Noma stood there among the others and her face was tear streaked like everyone's and she wasn't feeding. I looked at her and motioned for her to step close.

Noma shook her head and I used Presence to pull her close. She sucked it in and shivered. “No, I... don't make me feel good now. Please, don't.” She said. “I'll only take your excess.”

I smiled sadly and took her into a hug with one arm. “Thank you for understanding.” I said and gave her a kiss and a touch of Presence that was filled with sadness. I let her go and she stayed right there, because she knew now that she was desperately needed if I made a mistake or let my Presence go unhindered. I let Monica go and she looked into my eyes again.

“Hunter.” Monica whispered.

“I've got the means to destroy them all.” I said and caressed her face again.

Monica nodded and stepped back and Simone came over next. She didn't say anything and just took me into a hug and rested her forehead against mine.

“Ohhh, godddd.” Simone whined as I shared the times I had with Hailey with her. “Nooo. Noooo.”

I put my arms around her and kissed her and let her see and feel everything, even the memories that Hailey had given me at the end. When I let her go, she kept her eyes closed and walked over to Monica.

“S-S-Simone?” Monica asked, almost scared, then Simone kissed her and gave her Hailey's memories. She whined just like Simone did and held onto her until she was done. Her tears dissolved away when Simone broke the kiss.

“Hailey didn't want anyone to be sad, especially Hunter and her family.” Simone said and went to Sandy and Beatrice. “I want permission to share this with you.”

Beatrice and Sandy exchanged looks and then looked at me.

“Hailey would have wanted you to see this.” I said.

“It won't break your vows to each other.” Simone said.

“Kiss Beatrice first.” Sandy said and Simone nodded, then leaned in and pressed her lips to Beatrice's.

Beatrice whined like Monica and clung to Sandy while she kissed another woman for the first time, then the memory sharing ended. “Q-quick! Before the clarity starts to fade!” She said and Simone gave Sandy a kiss to give her the same memories.

Sandy didn't whine as she took the memories; but, her eyes shed tears constantly. Simone broke the kiss and stepped back out of the way, then Sandy and Beatrice looked at each other.

“She loved us almost as much as she loved her own mother.” Sandy and Beatrice said together and kissed, unlike every other time we had seen them, they kissed passionately and without reserve. They showed everyone their love for each other and they knew that we were seeing it for the first time. They did it so that we would all see the same thing that Hailey saw.

“That's so sweet.” Jelly said and her fiance took her into his arms and kissed her. It wasn't that he felt that he needed to impress everyone, he only wanted to add that he loved her, too.

Deborah's husband did the same thing to her and she didn't protest or fight the public display. She knew that they needed to show everyone they were in love, too.

Gleas gave me wide eyes as I walked over to her. “Hunter, no. You... you don't...”

“You're right. It's not the deep and passionate love that the others have.” I said and took her into my arms. “We're not each other's soul mates, or destined to be together, or even regular bed partners.” I looked into her eyes. “We're just good friends that occasionally have sex.”

“Hunter.” Gleas blushed.

“It's still love, though.” I said and gave her a kiss and a touch of Presence. “Thank you for not pushing me when you very easily could have or tried to derail Hailey's happiness.”

“She claimed you first, even as young as she was at the time.” Gleas said. “I had no right to try and usurp the dreams of that beautiful little girl.”

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“She grew into a beautiful young woman and we all loved her.” I said and gave her another kiss, then let her go. “All of our lives changed because of her.”

“They did.” Sheph said. Even though she would very much like a kiss from me, she knew there was only friendship between us and she had accepted that a long time ago.

“You'll change your mind when I finish growing my hair out.” I said and shook my head as I stopped concealing the hair I had grown out to match Hailey's fake hair at the wedding. I hadn't even realized it had happened until a week after leaving the planet Hailey had died on. That last visit to our personal eternity had given me more than I realized.

Sheph gasped at the braid down to my waist and she covered her mouth with both hands. “Hunter!”

“Go ahead.” I said and turned around.

Sheph quickly undid the tie and unravelled the braid. She spread my hair out like a short curtain and buried her face into its golden softness. “I followed this hair across three galaxies and two wars.” She said and rubbed it on her cheeks and took in a big breath and wallowed in the smell. “Ahhh.” She sighed, then she quickly did a half braid with it and secured the bottom with the tie.

Simone was drooling about two feet away because of Sheph's thoughts and emotions. I turned towards Isabella and she held up a hand.

“I do not see you in that way, in any capacity.” Isabella said. “You are only a great boss.”

“And you are a great Lieutenant Commander.” I said and gave her a salute, which she returned. The last person I turned to was Hen.

Hen let out a squawk and shook her head. “N-no, you can't.” She said and I stepped over to her. “I have a nest and a Tiercel.”

“I know.” I said. I made a clawed hand and gave her head a quick grooming. I didn't find anything. “I'm glad he actually cares about you.” I said and she let out a low warble of appreciation.

“Th-thank you, False Tiercel.” Hen chirped and tweeted, because she had been too nervous I would be angry that she had brought someone here so soon and couldn't speak common at the moment.

I actually smiled for the first time since Hailey's death. “Be happy and let us know when you start to gestate.”

Hen nodded several times and bowed, then suddenly Noma was beside me.

“We need a shuttle!” Noma said.

“Monna is in Hela's shuttle bay.” I said and then felt a wrenching pain in my heart.

Noma took my hand and we disappeared back into Hela and went to her shuttle bay.

“Can you... fly a... shuttle?” I asked and another spasm of pain hit me.

“You can.” Noma said as Hela opened the shuttle bay door, then Noma flew Monna out of the ship and gave her more power than I thought necessary, until another spasm hit me and I felt my heart beat twice as fast as normal. Monna didn't yell in delight as we made another hot orbital insertion, because she could see that I was in pain, a pain she couldn't explain, and she didn't want to enjoy anything if I wasn't going to enjoy it with her.

“Emergency landing protocol initiated.” Monna said as the only landing Noma could get from me at the moment was an emergency one. The shuttle screamed towards the ground in the middle of nowhere, then it suddenly slowed and came to a stop and landed as light as a feather.

Noma grabbed my hand as the side hatch opened and we disappeared from the shuttle and ran at my full Presence Run speed. We stopped ten miles away, still in the middle of nowhere.

“Okay, Hunter. Let it out.” Noma said.

“I... don't know... what you mean.” I said and another spasm hit me and it felt like my heart was going to burst from my chest.

Noma slapped my face as hard as she could and used my own Presence to do it, which made my head whip around and almost broke my neck. “Remember what Hailey said!”

“I... I can't.” I said and gripped my chest over my heart.

“Let. It. OUT!” Noma said and punched me right in the face. She broke my nose and one of my eye sockets and my blood started to splash out... then it froze still as my anger rose. The blood slowly flowed back into the tear in my skin and my nose reformed almost instantly.

“Stop.” I said and grit my teeth.

“I love you enough to do this!” Noma said and hit me again, this time in the side of my chest. The black bodysuit didn't move; but, my chest caved in and crushed my right lung.

“STOP!” I yelled and my lung instantly reformed and my rib cage healed and I finally let my anger out. “ARRRRGHHH!”

I formed two giant Presence Hands, a hundred feet across each, then formed them into fists and started to pound the ground. When that wasn't enough, I opened the hands and dug down into the ground and crushed the dirt and rock into dust and dug... and dug... and dug some more. When I started to become exhausted, I stopped what I was doing and fell to my knees. I absorbed the two giant hands and looked at my handiwork.

I had made a crater over a thousand feet deep and two thousand feet around. Piles of sand littered the landscape around the monstrous hole, because I tossed the crushed contents to the sides to get it out of the way so I could keep digging.

“Oh, god.” I said and looked at what I did. “I really could have stopped at each planet and crushed the buildings myself.”

“No, you couldn't.” Noma said and I turned to look at her. She was completely unharmed.

“Noma! How...”

“You love me.” Noma said and knelt beside me and kissed me. “I tried to get in front of you several times and do you know what you did during your blinding rage?”

I shook my head.

“You gave me a kiss and a bunch of Presence, asked me to step aside, and kept going.” Noma said and took one of my hands. “You only gave me enough to weaken yourself and not enough to knock me out.”

I had to concentrate and thought back over the last hour, and she was right. I remembered her standing there in front of me several times. She didn't try to stop me or even told me to calm down. She just stood there and I gave her a kiss, asked her to step aside, and kept going.

“Noma, I could have...”

“No, you couldn't.” Noma said. “You destroyed everything around me; but, you never once spoke in anger towards me.”

I looked into her eyes and waved at the destruction. “What does this mean?”

“It means I will stay near you whenever you try to suppress your anger for too long. When you break from the strain, you will destroy everything around you. You will not need to worry because you will also leave the people you love alone and completely unharmed.”

I caught my breath. “The habitat.”

“It would be wrecked on the inside and the hull and the structural integrity would still be intact.” Noma said and gave me another kiss. “You would never endanger anyone from your family.”

I closed my eyes and she rubbed her hands over my black bodysuit. “I need to keep using up my anger or it overwhelms me.”

Noma nodded and rubbed her hands across my chest. “This is real and it's also not.”

“It's also not made of Presence.” I said and she gasped. “That's why it didn't deform, even when you hit me so hard. There's no Presence inside of it to manipulate.”

“It's only a versatile covering and nothing more?” Noma asked, surprised.

I nodded and we sat there in silence for quite some time. “All right. I think I'm okay.”

“You always were.” Noma said and stood up, took my hand, and pulled me up to stand beside her. “You just have to relieve your temper now.”

I looked around at the destruction. “That's some temper.”

Noma let out a soft laugh. “This is over a month's worth of pent up anger.” She said and we floated up into the air on my Levitation technique. “Do you really think that either of us will let you stay pent up for that long from now on?”

I took a deep breath and let it out. “Thank you for looking out for me.”

“You took care of me for a long time.” Noma said and we landed beside Monna. “It's about time I started to make up for all of the things you did for me.”

I took her into my arms and kissed her. “Do you think it'll be safe for me if I knock you out tonight?”

“It won't be if you don't!” Noma said seriously, then she gave me a tender kiss and we climbed aboard Monna.

I took the flight controls and I flew us back up through the atmosphere and into space. “I don't know how I'm going to explain this.”

“You just tell them the truth.” Noma said. “Gleas and Simone will understand you the most.”

“That I know.” I said and I checked the space lanes to make sure it was clear to go back to the habitat. As an afterthought, I placed a call to the Bogorim Corporation. “Hi, there. Who do I talk to about causing damage to corporation owned land?”

After a few minutes wait, a green alien female with a high pitched voice came onto the screen.

“Hello! We have a lot of corporation owned land. Can you be more specific?”

“Sure.” I said and sent her the coordinates and an image of the place from the satellite in orbit around the planet. “How's that?”

The green female alien stared down at the image on her screen. “What in the world did that?”

“I did. In an hour.” I said.

She gasped and looked at me. “I need to call you back!” She exclaimed and cut the call.

I looked at Noma and she covered her mouth to stop her laugh.

It wasn't a laughing matter.

Not in the least.

We didn't feel like laughing.

We didn't.

An image of Hailey's happy face and the sound of her giggle filled my mind, then Noma got the image and sound of Hailey's giggle from me.

Noma couldn't help herself and laughed out loud.

I smiled for the second time that day.