"Eighteen. I was only seventeen for like a couple weeks. So maybe I was slightly conditioned to expect certain reactions. Maybe." John grinned. "And maybe the fact Savannah is as kick ass as she is also helped with the dismissal of the younger people problem. It wasn't just one of us being different, even if I'm still pretty different from the rest of them."
Sighing, he shook his head. "Nothing, really. Just thinking about Dom and Blaze...Mom, how much like my childhood these kids' childhoods are going to be. Did I ever tell you I was born in the jungle? Somewhere in Central America. Not sure where. Just Mom, a knife, and a bottle of whiskey. Stayed down there for years, just moving around. We used to play hide and seek the way they're teaching the kids now. Scared the hell out of Mom the first time I was able to hide from her for real. Learned her lessons pretty well, I guess." Laughing, John nudged the older man's shoulder with his own. "I might be talking to the man who took me in and became a friend while he helped me grow up."
John really didn't like what Vance was saying about the headaches and the rift openings. While O'Conner's power was a mystery, the implications of the rest were, frankly, frightening. He needed to talk to Dom, triple and quadruple check as best they could that they weren't going to cause the same problem in any dimension they took the machine to. But, that was another conversation. "Yeah, I'll talk to him. One less thing for you to worry about more than necessary. I know there are things I can't do, or know to do, but if there is something I can do to give you a break right now, you let me know."
Taking a breathe, he rubbed absently at the back of his neck. "Not blow a fuse when you see the potential bill for the birthday party Brian and Nell and I want to throw for Derek? You know I wouldn't normally ask to spend a lot of money that could be better spent on necessities and supplies. But, I've also noticed what you've been doing with the dinners and parties and Disneyland and the wedding in Florida. You're giving people a last chance at the sort of things we're not going to have a chance for when we leave, aren't you? I recognize the behavior. Brian's been getting me to do things I won't have in my world since the day I met him. And this...well, other people are going to go home or they're going to settle somewhere they can have a life. No matter what I choose to do, Derek's going back to a war and a world where even something as simple as grass is a luxury. And leaving from this? I like L.A. and all, but it's a dry, brown, desert in the midst of a drought.
"He deserves to have some beauty, to remember what we're really fighting for instead of just to wipe out the enemy and live on in the desolation our world's become. He was fifteen when the war started. I've had more of a life than he has. I've even had the big party with everyone to celebrate my birthday for the last three birthdays. So, we found a place up in Sonoma. Wine country, timberland, horseback riding, hot air balloons. It comes with a price tag even the Hammonds probably won't sneeze at. But, it's remote while still having the amenities others will want. It's pretty close to looking like paradise. And it's something he'd never ever consider doing for himself. Something I want him to have at least once, to remember what living feels like before we go back to Hell."