Becca hurried around the house, picking up after her son. He was - thankfully! - with his grandparents now, but she still had to get the house cleaned up before the realtor arrived with the potential buyers. If the house didn’t sell soon, she was going to have to either drop the price or go with one of the “cash for your house” offers, and those wouldn’t even pay off what was left on the mortgage.

Vultures was what they were, circling around people in trouble. They claimed they gave a lifeline but really all they gave was more problems. She didn’t have the cash to cover the difference, either, so while she could maybe get an offer that would get her out from under, it was more likely that she’d have to take out an even worse loan to get there. The only other option was to let the bank take the house, and that - well, she would if she had to. It would be better than one of the damned predatory loans the “cash for houses” people were offering.

If only Carl hadn’t died in his Tutorial! They’d done well before he vanished, but even though he had insurance, it wasn’t going to pay out without a death certificate and those weren’t available for people who died in a Tutorial. She’d gotten hopeful when people started coming home after being kidnapped, but that ended months ago. Carl wasn’t one of them.

With the kid’s room picked up (or at least the toys tossed in the toy bin and the clothes tossed in the dirty laundry hamper in the closet), Becca moved on to the kitchen. She’d managed to keep the other rooms in “show” state since the realtor’s visit the previous day, but she always had to clean the kitchen and her son’s bedroom. It wasn’t too bad, just the dishes from dinner.

She was grateful for Carl’s parents. Her parents were not people she’d ask to watch her child, but his parents were loving and close. They didn’t have the money to save the house, but they did have a spare room she and her son could move into. It was Carl’s old room, back when he lived with his parents, but at least it was there. With that, their help watching her son, and her new job as a florist’s assistant, she could dig her way out of this.

In another six years, she could jump through the hoops to get Carl declared dead. She hated the idea, but it should help with her son’s-

Becca was knocked out of her concerns by a knock on the door. She wasn’t quite done with loading the dishwasher, but she set the plate down, rinsed her hands, and turned off the water before she glanced up at the clock. The realtor was early; she wasn’t supposed to be here for another fifteen minutes.

Becca hurried towards the front door as another knock rang through the house. The realtor usually used the doorbell, but sometimes the buyer would knock. She quickly unlocked the door and flung it open.

The apology for taking so long to get to the door died on her lips as she saw a man standing in the doorway without the realtor. He was a few inches taller than she was and well-muscled. The clothes he wore were odd and the bag slung over his shoulder didn’t look like a normal messenger bag. He wore long sleeves, but they didn’t hide the slight greenish tinge to his skin tone. He had dark hair; it might have had a green tinge as well, but that could easily have been her imagination.

It was his eyes that caught her. They were green, as well, but they were also worried. Scared. Nervous. It was a look she remembered well on a face she remembered well. All she had to do was ignore the odd clothing and skin tone and she knew exactly who this was.

“Carl?” She couldn’t believe it was really him. He was dead!

Carl stepped forward and enveloped Becca in a hug. “Becca. Oh, Becca, I’ve missed you so much.”

Becca nestled into Carl’s embrace. She still couldn’t quite believe it. This had to be a dream, but it was so real!

She felt something wet drip onto her head. Was Carl crying?

Becca pushed against Carl, trying to free herself. His arms didn’t give at all for a moment, like he was far stronger than she remembered, but before she started to panic, he let her go. She looked up at his face and saw another tear drip from his eye. “You’re crying?”

Carl reached up and brushed away the tear. “Only tears of joy,” he countered. “I - for a long time, I thought I’d never get back. I don’t think I knew it was real until I saw you standing there.”

That was Carl, all right. “I thought you were dead,” Becca admitted. “It’s been awful without you.” She didn’t want to dump the money worries on him immediately, but she was going to have to tell him at some point. He needed to know, especially since ... “Oh, crap.”

“Becca?”

“I have to finish the dishes before the realtor gets here!” Becca turned and fled towards the kitchen.

Carl caught up to her in the kitchen just after she turned the water back on. “Honey? What’s wrong?”

Becca rinsed the last two plates and set them in their places, followed by the last cup. She added soap and closed the dishwasher before she turned back to her husband. She couldn’t put this off any longer, however much she wanted to. She took a deep breath, but didn’t let herself delay any longer.

The words spilled out, one after another with no thought about what it would mean to Carl. “I’m selling the house. I can’t afford the payments without your income, and our savings are almost gone. Caleb’s with your folks right now, they’ve been a great help. I’m slowly moving our things over there, but I’m taking all the hours I can get right now to make ends meet until I can get out from under the house.”

Carl’s expression shifted from worried to shocked to hurt. He gaped for a moment, but all he could seem to come up with was “I’m glad you were still here.”

This time, Becca initiated the hug. “Me too.”

This time, the hug was interrupted by the doorbell. Becca glanced up at the clock; it was still a couple minutes early, but not so much that it was likely to be anyone other than the realtor and possible buyer. She headed to the door; Carl followed along behind her without saying anything.

The realtor was indeed at the door, but Becca didn’t pay her any attention once she saw the man standing next to her. He was just the perfect height, a little shorter than Becca. Even though she’d always liked taller men, he was just the right height for himself and it showed just how that height was perfect. He was well muscled but not too much; a bit more than Carl used to be but less than Carl was now. He had bronzed skin that clearly saw the Sun a lot. It was the most beautiful tan Becca had ever seen. His blond hair gleamed in the sunlight, just the right shade to look like liquid gold.

All of that was before she got to his features! A sharp nose complemented his square chin and piercing blue eyes, perfectly proportioned for the ideal male face. He said something and the music in his voice made it hard to hear the words.

Had he asked her something? He wanted-

A large, warm hand fell on Becca’s shoulder. It felt like a haze was stripped away from in front of her; she could suddenly see that the man in front of her was simply another man. He had blond hair, blue eyes, and sun-bronzed skin, yes, but he was no longer the perfect man. He didn’t even fit her actual preferences; those were much more in line with Carl than with the man in front of her, even if the green did seem rather odd.

“You are not welcome in this house.” That was Carl’s voice, but it somehow didn’t sound quite like Carl. “Leave before I throw you off the land as well.”

Becca turned her head towards Carl. His eyes glowed a solid green as he stared at the other man menacingly. His hand was on the zipper for his messenger bag; Becca had a moment where she wondered what was in there before she dismissed the thought. Something he thought would help; she could find out later.

Something had clearly happened to him while he was missing, but he still cared enough to not only come find her but defend her. It completely pissed her off that she had to be defended, but this time he was right; the man trying to buy her house had bespelled her. What was it for? To get her to sell cheaper? She couldn’t afford that. Any other option she could come up with was even worse.

She was glad Caleb was with his grandparents and even more glad that Carl was here, however changed he was. She set her hand on top of his and looked back at the two people outside the door. “I’m afraid we can’t take visitors right now. My husband,” she emphasized the words carefully, “has just gotten back from a long trip and we need to talk before we decide what’s happening with the house. Together.”

She might be screwing up their credit by not selling the house, but there was no way on Earth she was going to sell to someone who tried to entrance her into thinking he was perfect. She closed the door and locked it before they could say anything.

Becca watched as Carl’s eyes stopped glowing and returned to the same green as before. He seemed tired, so she pulled him over to the kitchen and into a seat before she took one for herself. She wasn’t sure where to start, so she gave Carl a minute to put his thoughts together.

“I’ve been fighting for too long,” Carl finally said. “I don’t think it’s going to be easy for me to go back to being the man you knew. It’s probably not even possible. I need to tell you the whole story, I just need to figure out where to start. Chronologically won’t make much sense, since I didn’t find out what was going on until much later.”

He bit his lip and got a distant look for a moment. “Serenity says he’s having someone look into the man who was trying to buy your house; he hates people who manipulate minds like that.”

Becca blinked. That came out of nowhere, but it was the name-drop that really got her attention. “You reported him to Serenity? Wha - How?” She hadn’t even started thinking about who you’d go to over someone who tried to control your mind. How would anyone ever prove it?

Carl rubbed the back of his neck in a familiar nervous gesture, then scrunched his face up. He was definitely not comfortable with her question, but he’d already decided to answer it. She’d seen exactly that reaction before. “That’s part of the same explanation. Serenity saved my life; I keep in contact with him. That’s the end of the story, though. I guess the place to start is that I was abducted from the tutorial. You’ve probably heard about that, I know the returns made the news here. Well, some of us were harder to get to; we’d been hidden away in a secret base…”

Lillene

Carl has enough valuables on him that he can almost certainly save the house. I suspect that conversation isn’t going to happen for a while, though.