It was only a few moments later when Lili exited her sleeping quarters as well. There in their living room, for lack of a better term, she found Jared looking peculiarly after where Ian had only just disappeared to his quarters.

“Was that Ian I just heard you talking to?”

“Yeah...briefly” Jared said as he forced his concentration back to his cataloging.

“So, I guess Will brought him back?”

Jared looked up at her then, “I guess he must have, considering how long it would’ve taken him to walk back. But I didn’t see Will, just Ian” Jared returned.

“And he only talked to you for a minute?” Lili asked as she moved to take a seat on the floor near Jared.

“Barely even that” Jared returned as he looked back down at his computer screen if for no other reason than to keep his eyes from lingering on Lili too long, as they always seemed to want to do.

“So he didn’t tell you then?” Lili asked worriedly.

“Tell me what?” Jared asked as he looked back up at her, his own deep pools of brown reflecting a bit of that worry then.

“About Kyle’s insane plan?” Lili questioned with the same worry that was very nearly her natural state anymore.

“Which insane plan? Kyle’s had many,” Jared attempted lightness in the face of her worry, or more likely, to cover his.

“The one about them trying to get to...” Lili began, only to lose her voice halfway through the sentence as the sound of soft moans began to drift out from behind the cloth-draped door to Ian’s bedroom.

“Ok,” Jared began awkwardly as the volume of the moans increased ever so slightly. "So, I guess maybe Will did come back with him,” he stated warily as he couldn’t help moving his eyes to take in Lili’s reaction to what was pretty obviously happening barely twenty feet away.

Lili simply bit her lip as she forced her eyes away from the doorway and down to the floor, “seems like” she agreed, though her tone was unreadable.

Jared took a deep breath, casting another glance at Ian’s doorway, then back to where Lili’s face still remained oddly blank, rather than any more obvious, or volatile, emotion having taken up residence there.

“So, um” Jared began with continued discomfort as another series of pleasure-filled moans became audible. He then took a deep breath as he looked over at where Lili’s eyes remained downwards, her features still relatively blank. Then, he just had to ask the obvious, “Are you gonna be ok with this? I mean, honestly” he asked gently.

“Ok with what?” she asked with forced innocence to her tone.

“With that” Jared returned more quietly as he gestured toward Ian’s room once more.

Lili just allowed a slight scoff and forced another nervous smile, “Come on, Jared” a slight breath, “I mean, how many times did Ian have to listen to you or Kyle making love to me? I’d be kind of an asshole if I made a big thing outta this.”

Jared watched her closely, for once wishing he could peer into her head however momentarily, just like Kyle could when he wanted to. He honestly wished he could tell for sure if Lili was just trying to put up a strong facade or if she did truly look at the situation with that sort of logic.

“So, you are ok with it, then?” Jared didn’t wanna press, but knowing how fragile she had been since the pregnancy, he just had to give her one more chance to let him know that she would actually be all right with this rather strange new development.

“I mean, yeah” she forced another smile, not able to help glancing back toward Ian’s room once more as their lovemaking continued, “though” she began, causing Jared to worriedly await her next sentence, “it might be just a tad less distracting if we went outside. I mean, it’s not like you and I really need to be thinking about sex right now, considering” she had to add.

Jared narrowed his eyes at that statement, but nodded his agreement nonetheless as he pushed himself up from the floor and offered her a hand to help her rise as well.

Once they headed outside, Jared followed in silence as Lili quietly made her way down to the riverbank where they were finally out of hearing range of that day’s indoor festivities. The two took another seat there by the water as Lili absently reached for a stone to skim across the surface distractedly.

“You’re really ok about it?”

Lili just allowed another slight chuckle as she shook her head, “you really just can’t ever stop asking me that, can you?”

“Can’t help it” Jared admitted as he allowed his own sigh as he picked up another flat rock and joined her.

Lili was quiet another long moment before she attempted to further explain her feelings on the matter of Ian and Will, as it was obvious Jared wasn’t quite buying just the simple answers she had been giving.

“Actually, I asked Ian to do this...well, he already did this” she added, more to herself, “but I asked him to go and make it right with Will after the way he acted the other day” she informed.

“You did?” Jared repeated, not quite sure how else to respond quite then.

“And I asked him to go to talk to Will again today” she added for further weight.

“Talk to?” Jared couldn’t help but repeat her choice of words. “I think they might be doing more than talking. Just a hunch.”

Lili just shook her head as she bit back a tiny smile, “but yes, I was the one who asked him to go and see Will again today.”

“Um, ok...though I think I might need a slightly longer explanation?” he dared ever so carefully. It was then that Jared had another thought, “Lili is this some thing where you think if you push Ian and this guy into some odd love affair, then that is the only way to keep Ian from trying to pressure you back into the sexual part of your relationship too soon?”

“Are you playing shrink again?” Lili shook her head, though she didn’t seem to take offense to the question. Instead, she continued, “that’s just a side-effect of this love affair of theirs. And I am ok with that, but honestly, the reason I wanted Ian to keep Will close, so to speak” she had to add, “was because of what I mentioned earlier; about Kyle’s latest insane plan.”

Jared narrowed his eyes again, “Ok, confused, but listening.”

“That plan of his, it involves Will” she offered as she looked over to await Jared’s response.

“Ok” he stated with the same confusion, “still listening.”

Lili took another deep breath and glanced back at the shack, hoping upon hope that Ian’s seductive powers were enough to save his newest lover, as well as one of her own. She then forced herself to answer, “Kyle has some crazy idea that Will could actually teleport to the twin planet, where he thinks the ship actually crashed” she finally spilled the truth, quickly looking over to see the reaction on Jared’s face.

Jared was quiet a long moment as he processed her words. Finally, he spoke, “well, if Will wore one of the suits, then there might be a minuscule chance...” he then just shook his head as he tried to reason it out in his own brain, which worked more like Kyle’s than Ian’s or Lili’s ever would. He then continued, more to himself, “but still, it’s unprecedented. Then again, everything about the E-children is, especially the oldest among us...” his voice then trailed off as he saw the shock on Lili’s face that he was even trying to validate any of the idea at all. He then quickly backpedaled, “believe me, I’m not saying it’s not dangerous. It’s beyond dangerous, but...” he shook his head again as Lili’s turquoise eyes continued to look at him like she couldn’t believe the words coming out of his mouth.

Lili was stunned into silence for a few long minutes, before both of them turned at the sound of Ian making his way from the shack and toward them, still having only donned his boxer briefs, and looking more than a bit unkempt and overheated from his recent activity. “Talking about Kyle’s latest ridiculousness?” he greeted them as he took a still breathless seat on the other side of Lili, “but I didn’t even tell either of you the best part of boy genius’s plan yet” he stated sarcastically, his breath remaining a little ragged still, as he spoke.

Lili swallowed hard, trying not to let her mind immediately travel back to the last time she had seen Ian in such an obviously post-coital state. “There’s more?” she asked in a near whisper.

“Even if they somehow survive the teleporting....” he began.

“Wait, they?”Jared asked, “so Kyle plans to go along too?”

“Are you really surprised he would?” Ian scoffed, though quickly moved on, “even if they survive the trip, the more psychotic of our two geniuses actually thinks that Will could literally bring the ship back here with them. And Will’s naive enough to buy that insanity” Ian just shook his head as he moved to skim his own rock across the water.

“Bring the ship back....the same ship that sixty-thousand people called home for two decades?” Lili stated slowly as Jared remained in a bit of silent shock at that additional information.

“Exactly what I said to Kyle. Odd how he didn’t seem to care, even if it means melting Will’s brain to try it” Ian added with an angry shake of his head.

There was another long moment of silence before Lili found her voice again, “please tell me you managed to talk Will out of killing himself just to impress us.”

Ian swallowed a bit, “we haven’t yet gotten to the talking part of our day, and he’s asleep at the moment.”

Lili sighed heavily again, while Jared remained silently staring out at the river, not exactly sharing any of his own thoughts right then. “Ian, you can’t let them do this” she reiterated.

“Well he’s a bit tough to tie to my bed to keep him here, all things considered” Ian stated, but quickly continued when he saw that she remained unamused by the statement. “But I guess if I just keep thoroughly distracting him for the rest of our lives...” he shrugged as he also looked down.

“You have to make him understand” she insisted as she looked back over at Jared, hoping for some kind of agreement from him, though the nineteen year old just continued to look down in thought. “Care to add anything?” she asked Jared with a bit of her own impatience.

“Or maybe get some vision of Will’s head exploding. Maybe that would convince Kyle...maybe” Ian added with his own frustration. He then added, “Or any vision at all would be nice here Jar.”

Jared finally raised his eyes, though he spoke quietly, “I’ve told you before, I can’t just make the visions happen.”

“Well you’re nineteen now, so figure out how to already” Ian told him roughly as he stood to head back inside, at the end of his own patience right then.

After Ian was gone, Lili finally made herself speak up again, “that’s not necessarily true.”

“What’s not necessarily true?” Jared responded with his own combination of frustration, worry, anger, and confusion.

Lili steeled herself with another deep breath, though still was not able to look up at him as she spoke, “we do know of one thing that seemed to trigger your last vision, right?”