The missing siblings that time forgot

They were back again. The same coffee shop, the same table, but this time a little more prepared to actually achieve something. Peter had a massively wide smile on his face when he saw Buck, hugging him just as tight as their first meeting, but without the tight grip of desperation they both had had as soon as they had seen each other. Peter had been a much more bubblier version of himself than the last time he sat opposite Buck and it had calmed the jittering nerves Buck was still coping with after the high school fire. 

He had spent the rest of his shift trying to act as casual and normal as possible, but as anyone would tell you, trying to act normal is harder than it looked. While the others had dropped the question following his explanation after a few good hearted jabs here and there, Eddie had taken slightly longer to follow the trend, knowing Buck as well as he did. It didn’t help that Buck had basically tried to drown himself in the shower. However, Eddie had eventually bowed down to ongoing reassurance from Buck and had waved goodbye to Buck the same way he always did as he left at the end of their shift, with a final promise from Buck he would join him and Chris at the zoo the following day. But just because his team had been on his side this time, Buck didn’t stop thinking about the one other person that had been a part of that conversation, and the effect he had had on Buck’s life. That’s why he had jumped at the chance to meet Peter when he had texted half way through his shift, he was desperate to know what he had found on the investigation, and how to clear him. 

“So … set anything else on fire, poodle boy?” Peter asked with a smile. Cheeky git.

“Yeah … a couple of cars, one or two apartment buildings, you know, casual after work activities,” Buck replied with a smile. He could play Peter at his own game that was for sure. 

“Ah, you're doing your due diligence to society then , good, good,” Peter smirked as he casually sipped at his coffee. 

“And you? Still in a romantic relationship with your toaster?” Buck smirked back as he sipped his own cup of coffee.

“Hey, it isn’t my fault my powers turn the toaster on everytime i'm near it,” Peter gasped as his brows furrowed in frustration. 

“Yes and you are meant to be turning Ronen on instead,” Buck laughed.

“Oh don’t worry, I am doing that too,” Peter smirked at Buck as he wiggled his eyebrows. Turns out Peter had taken full advantage of their unique situation in the last week. Their daily text updates had told Buck that while he was going back and forth on what he wanted, Peter had left their last meeting with a minimal hesitance and had clearly been enjoying his results. Touche little brother.  “Let me guess, you have been overthinking everything on your end?” 

“Maybe just a little.”

“Well stop and think about more important things instead. Like our siblings, how did your research go?” Peter asked with excitement and hope. He had told Peter about the disaster that was his research on Cameron, but he hadn't told him about the others.”It might be easier to go from oldest to youngest, it isn’t easy to keep up at this point.”

“Ok oldest to youngest,” Buck agreed as he wrote his siblings down in the notepad he had brought with him.

“Ok so the oldest is me, present and accounted for,” Buck smiled as he added his name to the top of the list.

“And the one who lives the most in denial,” Peter laughed back as he leaned in closer to look at the paper with Buck. 

“Shut up,” Buck grumbled as he gave a flick to Peter’s ear. “Then we have TK. Present and accounted for in Texas. Then Ian. Alive and present and according to his last message, is being driven insane by his siblings already.”

“I don’t bloody envy him. You lot are enough to drive someone insane already,” Peter smiled as he thought about his older brother. Buck had to agree. He didn’t know how Ian and Ron coped with the sheer amount of siblings they had to put up with. 

“Then we have Peter, sadly he has turned up, can’t get rid of him, frankly the worst brother,”Buck smirked as he added Peter to the list.

“Yep hate that guy, real douche, should have cooked him while you had the chance” Peter laughed back. This was what Buck needed, someone to take a breath and laugh with. 

“Oh for sure. Then there’s the triplets. Ron, Elijah and Connor.”

“And we have 1, doing well.”

“One is better than none. Elijah we have. He has the most stable family unit out of all us outside the compound so we don’t need to worry about him too much. TK said he is taking care of Gabriel too so …”

“Hey no skipping steps,” Peter mockinly scolded Buck.

“Sorry, fine, screw Gabriel. Connor is in the wind. TK is trying to find him as best as he can. I spoke to him yesterday and he said  that he had been around Connor’s old flat and spoke to his mum but she hadn’t heard from him. Was kind of hoping he would have used his powers to drown the arsehole living with her but that was a no go, TK said he is alive and accounted for. TK is using Carlos’ connections at the moment to search any known runaway popular spots but so far nothing. I have tried to find anything on him online but there isn’t much I can find right now but we will keep trying.”

“He’ll come around. He won’t be able to cope with leaving his mum with that perfect example of God’s mistake for long,” Peter said with an unspoken prayer and plea behind his words. They couldn’t guarantee it, but they had to hope Connor’s love for his mum far outweighed his fear of his stepdad. Especially now he could fight back. “What about Ron?”

“Ron was a tricky one. I managed to find his last name after a lot of searching, but still no contact.  I messaged him on instagram but nothing. I don’t even know if he can check it. He always said the signal was terrible at school.” Buck sighed. 

“We need to think of something else then,” Peter said as he looked down at his hands, messing with his nails as he tried to think. “Could send a drone in? Or one of my microbots?” 

“We are trying to be inconspicuous Peter. What if they are watching the school and see a random drone fly into the library? And how would we find him anyways in a school that big? Love the energy but I don’t think that’s going to work.” 

They went back and forth on ideas for a while trying to think of other contact options to get ahold of Ron. Buck suggested phoning the school and pretending to be a relative, but Peter had reminded him that it could look suspicious seeing an American number on the other line. Ron’s family were exclusively british. Ron had always had suspicions as well that someone in the school was working for the compound. Imogen and Ron had been taken straight out of the gates in the middle of the night after being drugged at dinner which slowly made them pass out over a few hours. Someone has snuck into their rooms and bundled them both up before disappearing while the rest of the school slept. No one but a staff member would have access to the dorms, the food, or the ability to open the main doors without setting off any alarms. It had definitely been an inside job in their case. Buck and Peter couldn’t risk tipping anyone off if they picked up the call. It was 10 minutes later when Buck spotted a man in line at the counter that gave him the idea. 

“What about sending him a letter?” Buck asked. How had they not thought of that sooner. It would take a couple of weeks, but it wouldn’t raise any questions. 

“A letter, what are we 87?” Peter asked as he looked at Buck in disbelief. Peter’s whole world revolved around technology. The mere suggestion of using anything that didn’t involve technology was foreign to Peter.

“Yes a letter, it’s perfect. No one will look at Ron differently if he receives a letter. And it is so old fashioned I doubt the compound will think of checking it. They were just as into modern advances as you are. Their whole belief was that technological means were the only things that mattered,” Buck said as he began to smile. It was perfect. 

“Ok what about the others?” Peter asked with a pout.

“Gabriel is struggling slightly from what TK said. He keeps wondering what happened to his younger siblings once he went missing. His mum and dad are just as neglectful and uncaring as they were then. He is burning himself out trying to make up for something the kids have no idea happened. For something even he doesn’t know what happened. But Elijah is helping to take care of them as much as he can. Skyla and Imogen are their usual airy selfs. Completely untraceable. But Ian is checking her house everyday waiting for her to come back. And if we can get ahold of Ron, we hopefully get Imogen. And that leaves…”

“That leaves Cameron,” Peter finished with a sigh. 

“That leaves Cameron,” Buck nodded. “Like I said, we need to get the others before we can get Cameron. We also need to figure out where in the hell the compound is and if they even have him.”

“I am going to start looking into trying to find them on the servers after this. As much as I don’t want to ever think of that place again, Cameron needs us to,” Peter said as he slowly faded back into himself. Buck hated seeing it . He loved seeing Peter carefree, but one mention of that place, and his confidence goes from 100 to 0. 

That was it, they were still only half way to finding all their siblings, and it was driving Buck insane. It was like he was completely worthless without them all now. What was the point in savings lives at work if he couldn’t protect his own family. 

“It doesn’t feel great huh? Still five siblings missing,” Peter asked as he looked at their list. They had hoped to at least have found one more by this point, but instead they had just found evidence that one sibling was in a worse situation than they had thought. 

“Like a knife to the gut,” Buck answered as he felt the burning feeling return. He had been losing control more and more since they had returned. He had never had so much trouble with his powers before, but he guessed instinctively his powers were more linked to his emotions than they were before the compound, even if this body hadn’t been through the same training as hsi other one had. His mind had though, and his mind was struggling to keep up and come to terms with it all. 

“I can smell you burning,” Peter said with a raised eyebrow as he looked over at Buck who had hidden his hands under the table. 

“I know, I’m sorry. I am trying to keep it under control, but it hasn’t been easy. How are you managing?” Buck asked as he looked at Peter and the perfectly content devices dotted around the coffee shop with no glitches in sight. 

“I was used to it before,” Peter said as he smiled regretfully at Buck. “ I had already tried to train myself before the compound was even interested in us. I grew up around a lot of people. Like Ron and Ian, I had to learn to control my powers quickly. There were too many eyes on me to risk losing control. Ron and Ian were luckier, if they lost control in front of their siblings I doubt they would have dubbed them in, but for me, I would have been thrown to the first government official they could find. You can’t pretend they don’t exist, Ev, I tried that. You have to get your powers to listen to you again. Which means practising and regularly using them when you want them to. Not when your emotions want them to. Otherwise, you’ll end up committing an actual arson and you will not make my Buck is innocent research be for nothing. I worked hard on this!” Peter said with a squeeze to his hand before pulling a tablet from his bag. 

“So, tell me what you found,” Buck said nervously as he looked over at Peter who was engrossed in scrolling through his tablet.

“That the fire department has terrible internet security,” Peter scoffed as he continued to scroll to the documents he was after.” I was able to get past all their security measures in like 10 minutes. I could train a monkey to break into their servers.”

“Yes yes, everyone has terrible security but you, I know , I know. But what did you find ?” Buck asked urgently.

“ Nothing,” Peter said with a smirk as he finally looked up.

“Nothing ?” Buck deadpanned as he stared at Peter.

“Nothing that incriminates you anyway, not yet.”

Buck was shocked. The first fire had been weeks ago? But yet there was no evidence against him? None at all ?

“ The original investigator has a shitty track record from what his work file tells. There was no way he was ever going to solve the case if you walked up to him and screamed you were guilty to his face. Yeah they had the ignition boxes, but they had no idea where they came from and weren’t having any success at all with witnesses and other leads. There was no way the original investigator had you in their sites.” 

“So I am not on the radar right now?” 

“No you are,. But only recently. A new investigator seemed to join the scene a couple of weeks ago and your name seemed to pop up on the list of suspects that followed him. There are a lot on the list right now though,” Peter said as he pulled up a long list of names on the screen. “ It seems he is exploring every link and crossing them off one by one. You're lucky right now. There are so many on the list, your name doesn't stand out but it will eventually. It must be at one point for you to be arrested eventually.”

“Where did this new investigator come from?” Buck asked in surprise as he glanced at the list of names trying to work out who could be the guilty one. As if the name would jump out of the screen like a dolphin jumping through the waves of the ocean.

“From out of state it seems. Somewhere in Nevada. He seemed a great asset at his old station but doesn't seem to be an investigator long. Only a couple of years. Must be some sort of natural. His arrests and incarceration numbers are extraordinary for the amount of years on the force. He is your biggest obstacle. His track record is so good that no one would argue against him if he made his guilty verdict.”

“No. No one argued last time or questioned it no matter how much I plead my innocence.”

“Do you remember the original investigator Buck?” 

“I do. Sattari. I have seen him at a call once or twice already so …”

“So he is already around you? Is he taking a keen interest in you?”

“No, he doesn't seem to suspect something right now.”

“Good, you need to keep it that way … it is funny though. His picture. That face. I feel like I know it somewhere, but I cannot place it.”

“I thought that too when I saw him again for the first time, but I can only remember him from the case. Maybe you know him from there too? I'm not proud of it but the case was all over the news when it came to a head before. “

“Must be.” Peter mused as he continued to stare at the screen in front of him. 

“So what do we do now? We have a list of where we are up to with the others. We have an idea on our biggest obstacle with the case, but I have no idea what it all means. Do you?” Buck asked in some confusion. It was good to have the answers I suppose, but it didn’t help when you were left with even more questions. 

“Well we should … we will … I have no idea,” Peter sighed as he looked back up at Buck. They hadn’t thought this part through he supposed. Neither of them had. There seemed to be a flaw in their plan. 

The brothers sat next to each other in silence for several moments in stunned silence as they tried to think of a plan. Planning was never their strong suit. For either of them. They were people of action and motion. Yes they thought of ideas and carried them out in split moments, but a prolonged plan was never something either had ever really had to worry about or consider. They always had others to do it for them. Parents, teachers, mentors and trainers. Buck realised in that moment that none of their siblings had ever truly had to fully think for themselves and what they wanted. What a truly sad thought. 

“Ok … so we get in contact with Ron and Imogen. That seems like a good next step. Also trying to find Skyla is something we should look into as well. I know we have Ian much closer, but we can’t guarantee he won't miss something. Three sets of eyes are better than one.” Buck said as he began to count their next steps on his fingers before gesturing to Peter to make a note on his tablet, the younger brother rushing to begin to make a list of his own.  “Then we need to find a way to sway Sattari off my scent and find a new suspect. We have a list now to work off and we can look at those on it to see who was the true criminal. If you are right on Sattari’s history, one of them has to be the right one, he was just probably swayed wrongly by the compound planting evidence in order to take me.”

“Ok so we work on those three for now and we need to find more evidence to link to the list of others. Is there a way of getting into the current crime scenes? You're a firefighter. Do you have any way of gathering your own evidence?” Peter asked as he began to smile with the knowledge a plan was coming together after all. 

“I can try. At this point, all we can do is try. It isn’t like there is a guide for this type of thing. No bookstore sells a back in time to solve your problems play by play to follow. Or a how to solve the arson case you are being framed for book. I will go to the sites and try to find more evidence. You will see if you can find anything that would cause any people on this list who could possibly want to commit arson in any way. The PD will be looking too but we both know who can search the internet better than anyone else on earth. You’re like a walking talking google,” Buck rambled as a plan began to form in his head.

“A walking talking google?” Peter asked with a raised eyebrow and unimpressed look on his face. 

“I am trying to figure things out as I go ok. Give me a break.” Buck huffed, even with a soft smile on his face. “I will write a letter to Ron and Imogen and wait for them to reply back to me and we will both work the Skyla angle together. She was part of some community back in Chicago wasn’t she? Maybe we can work that angle. I’ll try and speak to Ian too, he may have some more insight we can use on our end.”

“It sounds like you have it all figured out, so why do you still have that look on your face?”

“What look?” Buck said with surprise. 

“One that seems like your dreams will never be a reality. Does this plan not include those? That was the whole point of all this Buck. We spent hours discussing it last time. Don’t tell me you have given up already.” Peter sighed sadly as he took Buck’s hand gently. 

“I have spent my whole life getting everything wrong, I don’t want to get this wrong too,” Buck sighed as he looked down at his hands. He had spent their last conversation comforting Peter, but while Peter had flourished, Buck should have listened to his own advice. 

“There is getting things wrong and doing nothing at all Buck. We spent years blending in. I have been doing some thinking, and it just doesn't seem worth it anymore.” Peter said with a soft smile as he looked at his oldest brother. “I wanted Ronen, I wanted my job, so I took them. Grabbed them both with both hands. We should be able to have our own lives or what will be the point in any of this. Stop being a git and stop finding excuses. Be happy.”

“I thought I was meant to be the big brother giving you advice,” Buck softly laughed as he looked at Peter with a proud smile.” You're the one that has given me all the advice this time around.” 

“Well … maybe you should start taking your own advice then. I learnt from the best Ev. You know what to do, you're the only one from stopping yourself.” Peter said as he returned Buck’s smile. 

Peter was right. They spent so long doing what everyone else wanted them to do. Maybe it was time to stop thinking. Eddie had always been his person. Chris had always been his kid. They had always been his family. He had them once. He was going to have them again. And he wasn’t going to let anyone take them away this time. He had made his decision, he just hoped Eddie would be agreeable.