The flight home was odd. He could hear people whispering, knew they knew his name, but he still managed to sleep through most of the flight, waking up when his brother shook him awake. Gerald met them, which made the arrival considerably easier. On the way home both brothers demanded an explanation, and did he know where mom was? The last question almost reduced him to tears again.
He told them what he knew, and what he remembered from what Brian had said while helping him change, which admittedly wasn't much. There was silence in the car for a minute, then "You're saying Dad was right?" Tim asked.
"About Mom? Yes."
"Kev, that's impossible," Gerald said.
"I'm still blind," he reminded them. "And I've experienced that... spacial displacement, whatever that means."
"You vanished," Tim said flatly.
"Nick saw it happen." He was quiet for a minute. "She wanted a hunt." He was too tired to do this. "I know, it sounds crazy. We'll never find Mom."
"Did Dad know? When he married her?" Gerald asked.
Kevin shrugged. "I don't know. Does it matter?" He wasn't going to tell them she killed him, too. That was a secret he could keep.
His brothers were silent. "No," Tim finally ventured. "I guess it doesn't."
"You know," Kevin said softly. "She would have vanished regardless. Only, if things had gone her way, I'd be dead, too."
The silence was deeper this time.
Tim's wife Chirelle met them at the door and immediately took charge of Kevin, guiding him gently into the guest room. "How are you feeling?" she asked as he sank tiredly onto the bed. She wasn't surprised when tears filled his eyes; she'd known him when his father had died. She sat next to him and held him while he cried, waving her husband away when he checked in.
Her children weren't deflected so easily; they loved and missed their uncle. One by one they crept in and were shooed out after asking questions she couldn't answer. Kevin was no help at all. She actually didn't know if he was even aware of the children. After they were gone, Gerald's children crept in, one at a time, but asked no questions and left soon after.
Her oldest daughter, Lacey, returned and sat quietly in the doorway, staring at them. Shortly after that, Kevin calmed; the tears had been tapering off, and now he sat back and sighed. "Feeling better?" Chirelle asked.
"Yeah, a little. Sorry about that." He brushed futilely at his eyes.
"It's okay, Kev. What did the doctor say?"
"He said that he didn't know why I was blind." The helplessness in his voice scared her. "There are a couple of specialists I can talk to; Tim has their numbers."
"Where's Nana?" Lacey asked suddenly.
Kevin stiffened. Chirelle glanced at him, but his face gave nothing away. "I don't know, Lacey," she answered.
"But she went to see Uncle Kevin," Lacey persisted.
"I never saw her," Kevin said. The tension in him was incredible, and Chirelle shifted, suddenly uncomfortable.
"But...." Lacey started again.
"That's enough," Chirelle said. "Go find your sisters."
"Yes, ma'am." She left. Chirelle noticed Kevin rubbing at his chest, wincing slightly, a hauntingly familiar gesture.
"You've either been hanging around Brian too long, or something hurts. What's wrong?" she asked, taking hold of his hand. He flinched, and a shadow of fear crossed his face and was gone.
"I got... burned, wandering around blind," he said. "It just hurts sometimes is all."
She nodded, not really understanding. "Okay. You going to be okay now?"
"Sure." He didn't sound it at all, but she stood up and left the room, pausing once to look at him, hunched over on the bed, looking very small and vulnerable.
When she went to get him for dinner, he'd managed to change into something that looked less ridiculous, which meant it fit him better and was likely his own clothes. He'd also managed to fall asleep so deeply that he didn't even stir when she shook his shoulder. She didn't have the heart to do what it would likely take to get him up for dinner, so she let him sleep, certain he was exhausted.
Kevin woke with a start, the blackness before his eyes no longer so much of a shock. The pain in his chest was growing again, and although he couldn't feel anyone touching him, he swept a hand through the space in front of him, just to be sure. He found nothing.
"What happened to Nana?" He thought the voice was Lacey's, and he tried to remember what she'd sounded like earlier.
"Lacey?" he asked.
"Yes. What happened?"
He paused, and sat up. "I'm not entirely sure," he said slowly.
"You were there."
"I couldn't see," he answered, then wondered how she knew. Lacey? Mom's... heir? He shuddered, and found he couldn't stop trembling. "What Brian told me wasn't too clear." That hadn't been Brian's fault, he thought.
"I want to know what happened," she said evenly.
"All right." He leaned down to find his shoes. "Let's go see Prue." That was the name of the sister Brian had told him about, right? "Pack yourself an overnight bag, and I'll get a cab. You'll have to help me," he added.
"I can do that."
It took him some doing, but he got a cab to pick him up, and two plane tickets for San Francisco. He was calling information to get Prue's number, since he couldn't remember the other sister's name, when the cab arrived and Lacey tugged gently at his arm.
From the airport he called and left a message at Tim's, explaining where he'd gone and that he'd call them from there, then they settled into the first class seats. Kevin rubbed his chest; the pain was getting worse. He fell asleep before the plane even left the gate.
The sudden premonition left Phoebe shaken as she set her mug of coffee down on the table. Then it sank in. "Oh my gosh! Prue! Piper!" She began to dig into her purse to find her keys.
"What?" Prue yelled down.
"Kevin's back. There's a little girl with him, and if we don't stop her, she'll kill him!"
The other two sisters exchanged glances and dashed down the stairs. "Where is he?" Prue asked as Phoebe virtually pulled them out to the car.
"The airport. He'll be getting in soon, I think."
Once there, she moved deftly through the crowd, muttering about how glad she was she knew it pretty well. Piper and Prue followed, almost as amused as they were bewildered, and hoping she knew what was going on. The crowd parted abruptly in front of them to reveal a touching scene; Kevin was on one knee in front of a little girl who wore a backpack. He had one arm around her, and she looked tired. She seemed to lose her balance, and reached out to touch his chest to get it back.
"Piper!" Phoebe hissed, and everything froze around them. "Great. She can't touch him."
Prue moved the girl back with her powers, then Piper's short spell ended. Phoebe caught the girl as she nearly fell. Piper steadied Kevin, who looked just as tired as he had when he'd left. "Whoa, that was close," Phoebe murmured.
Kevin stood unsteadily, and his hand covered Piper's on his arm. "I know that voice," he said. "I just don't have a name to put with it."
"Hi, Kevin," Piper said. "We never did introduce ourselves. I'm Piper."
"I'm Phoebe," Phoebe said. "And who is this?"
"My niece, Lacey. She wants to know what happened to her Grandma."
"Nana," the girl insisted. Kevin nodded wearily.
The three sisters glanced at each other. "All right. Let's go," Prue said, and Piper gently led Kevin out of the crowd.
They had him sit in the front seat, away from Lacey, who sat between Piper and Phoebe. Prue glanced more than once at Kevin; he kept rubbing his chest. "Are you okay?" she asked gently under the cover of a story Lacey was telling about her uncle's cute friend, Nick.
"Yeah," he answered. "It's just pain. Brian goes through it all the time."
"What?" Prue demanded.
Kevin shook his head. "No, nothing like that," he said quickly. "He was born with a heart condition. He had an operation last year that helped him a lot. He doesn't do it as much any more." He fidgeted slightly with the edge of his shirt. "Can you help Lacey?" he asked softly.
"Yes. I think so."
"Good. Because I don't want Tim to kill me. I didn't tell him I was coming, or that I was bringing her." She glanced at him as he winced, rubbing his chest over his heart again.
By the time they got back, Lacey was asleep. Kevin carried her in without falling, an unusual occurrence for the last couple of days. He set her on the couch, then Phoebe led him to a chair not too far away. "We'll be right back," she told him, and they ran up to the attic.