Hi guys! Can I just say...OH MY GOSH 23 reviews!? That's...WOW...thank you sooo much :) I was smiling all week. I had trouble imagining that many people would really read this after such a long gap between updates, but NOPE, you guys are just that AMAZING! All the reviews and favourites and follows and reads were just incredible to see! So THANK YOU! :) (Ahhh, look at all of these exclamation points! That's you guys making me so happy!)

I don't own Lab Rats...or James Bond.

This chapter is I think the only one (I can remember) without any line breaks (which for me is incredibly odd considering I generally use them ALL the time). So that should be interesting, especially since it jumps into the recent past for a bit.

Enjoy!

Oh and THANK YOU for telling me how to spell Eddy! I'd been double guessing myself all over the place, so it was great to know the definite way :D

It had been 27 hours and fourteen minutes since they stepped out of their capsules. Both Adam and Bree felt like they had spent the past day and a bit stuck in a foggy type of neutral they couldn't quite shake. Just one step away from it all feeling real. It was maddening.

They felt like actors, or at least well-rehearsed liars, returning to a role they had long since forgotten how to play. Every move they made was cautiously executed, as if the two were worried they would misstep and the actor would shine through more than the character.

They were characters now, weren't they?

The Bree and Adam everybody wanted weren't military trained, Resistance allied soldiers; but the two bionics who awoke in their capsules were. The 'Bree' and 'Adam' Leo was familiar with were still just teenagers.

At first they it was obvious -they were being obvious- but as soon as they emerged from the lab, both bionics decided that for the moment, they couldn't bring themselves to care enough to stop gaping. The house was intact, their surroundings more clear and welcoming, real, than even their most vivid dreams had made them.

Tasha was there too, pouring herself a juice after her early morning yoga class. She had offered them a small smile of acknowledgment, like she was greeting them after a single night apart, not 365 of them. To Tasha's credit, she had tried not to be too taken aback when she was pulled into a tight hug by the two. She was more accepting of the sign of affection than Leo had been before, but also more worried.

"Are you two okay?" Tasha had breathed, pulling them back to inspect their faces for any signs of pain or injury, in such a heartbreakingly familiar way.

"Bree, Honey, what's wrong?" The woman had noticed the tears pricking at the corner of her step-daughter's eyes. Bree's response had been a small smile, an attempt at a laugh and to fall back into another hug with her mother figure.

Tasha clutched her back, and bitten her lip in concern, shooting Adam a calculating look as she tried to deduce his likelihood of bursting into tears. But Tasha, no matter how much they had missed her, wasn't the one their tears were saved for.

"Mr Davenport?" Bree finally remembered questioning, barely louder than a wavering whisper. Both bionics had held their breaths, hoping, but ready for a negative response.

"Sorry honey, you just missed him." Tasha had frowned, before they could see her blinking in concern. Obviously two bionic teenagers before her had let their faces slip behind their automatic protective mask of indifference far too quickly. It wiped their faces void of any emotion, and as Tasha had proven, even the little tells only a mother could pick up on.

"Missed him..." Bree had shaken her head minutely. "What do you mean?"

The woman had paused, thinking back on how Donald had definitely said goodbye to the bionics last night, at least that's what he had told over his suitcase as he made her pick between fourteen practically identical ties for the most 'I don't know, the most professional…no, the most flattering –oh who am I kidding, they'd all look fantastic below this money maker' look. Before she could formulate an answer, however, the door swung open to reveal a familiar figure.

"You're too late," hanging off the door Chase had responded for her, which caused his two siblings to recoil back. "…Mr Davenport has an overnight conference, remember?"

The stiffness in the elder bionics' shoulders had subsided minutely, and, the slight intake of breath they had taken in to gasp had been slowly released. A conference, of course.

"Oh, darn," Bree had snapped her fingers with a fake smile too obvious to make the last ten seconds of silent staring and computing be dismissed without an explanation.

Adam recalled remaining silent beside his sister. Unlike her, he had to bite his cheek to stop himself from barking out another warning, and actively focus on stopping his body from falling into a natural attack stance. Chase had shot both Adam and Bree and indecipherable look. Finally the younger boy had turned his head to the side, "You were saying, Leo?"

They were out of touch with who they were expected to be; that was clear. Their behaviour was seen as odd, even strange enough to cause awkward silences and obvious subject changes.

Both bionics remembered watching him, Chase, and took in the subtle smiles and convert glances he kept sending around the room. Had he'd been proud to have achieved such perfection in a recreation, or, was he just in a good mood?

"Happy to be surrounded by his family I bet," Bree'd huffed.

"Don't." Adam had warned, "He's not….don't even joke about that."

Bowing her head for a moment, the two remembered refocusing to see just how close the King of Darkness was to Leo. The two younger males were bumping shoulders, elbowing each other and laughing, wrapped up in the hushed conversation they were having by the kitchen island that Tasha appeared to be pointedly ignoring in favour for her juice.

It looked so normal, so casual, so not real. Once again they had felt the familiar urge to go on the defense. Adam had wanted to run across and wrench the two apart, whilst Bree wanted to jog Leo away to safety. Chase hated Leo, had killed him before their eyes –listened to him beg and….No, the past cannot be undone, don't think about it.

So why had he been sitting there? Looking so engrossed in a conversation with the boy he was scheduled to destroy in a little over a month.

The two had shuffled absentmindedly closer to the older siblings, who had moved to (and were attempting casual poses by) the dining room table. "It's like a thousand tiny eyes just boring into our backs, yeah?" Adam and Bree had deciphered Leo's words.

Chase had nodded, chuckling slightly, "Shhh," he raised a finger to his lips, "They think they're being covert."

The only Dooley only rolled his eyes and turned on his heels to face his eldest brother and only sister, "Okay guys, you can stop with the creepy staring now."

Adam and Bree had blinked simultaneously, before turning to face one another.

"Abort?" Adam remembered suggesting.

''Better just play along; 'see how it pans out," Bree responded, having taken care to project her thoughtful tone into her older brother's mind.

The two had nodded fractionally to one another, taking identically deep breaths as they turned back around to face the two boys before them.

"Oooh, we're busted, Adam," she had tried to turn it into a joke, allowing some artificial laughter to bubble out for authenticity.

"Oh no!" Adam copied her tone, thinking back to how he would have reacted before, "Quick, Bree, hide!" he ducked behind the couch, grabbing his sister's arm and dragging her down with him.

After a moment of nothing, Leo's dumbfounded voice broke the silence, "…Are they?"

"Yeah, I know, they're just playing some weird game -ignore them," Came the crisp response from Chase, even if he spoke it with a slight undertone of both concern and unsureness.

"So anyways….I was all like, 'dude, you can't just do that!' and he just went, 'oh yeah, and?'….."The boys were walking away, so eventually Leo's words were lost.

They had resurfaced to find Tasha holding her glass of orange juice, blatantly staring at them while gnawing on her lower lip. If emotions could be felt, she was dripping with concern. But where Tasha hadn't known, Leo didn't understand and Chase….Well he had done his best to distance himself from them, only shooting them indecipherable glances when he acknowledged their eyes on his back…Mr Davenport would know.

After a silent discussion:

"Should we tell Mr Davenport? Adam had broached the topic.

"I'm not sure…."

"He'll be able to tell that something is up anyway. He could help."

"I don't think it would be that simple. We should proceed with caution then."

"So we'll tell him?"

"No." Bree bit her lip. Not 100% convinced that that was the best idea. There were too many factors to consider, like whether or not Mr Davenport would call them crazy, or spontaneously combust or trigger some alarm that would alert him to the fact that they were fully aware of who they were. "Why don't we just play it by ear?"

"How do you suggest we do that?"

"You said it yourself, what if this is time travel?" Adam had picked up on that hopeful note, the one that he tried to pretend he also didn't possess. The silent 'what if this is our second chance' hung heavily above their heads.

"…What if it's not?"

"Look at my hair, your skin, my nose. Those kind of things don't just happen."

"Sorry for being cautious." Which was loosely translated to 'sorry for not wanting to get our hopes up'.

"Look, either way this is all an awful lot of effort for someone to go through to. The most logical solution would be to just play along."

"Play along?"

"Think about it, Adam, if it's time travel we're not at risk of giving Leo a heart attack, even if we break everything down Barney-style for him. If it's a simulation, or a trick, maybe if we play along we can postpone what's about to happen." It would also be…good…Bree supposed, good to only have to focus on playing herself, and not any wars for the time being. "I just don't want to rush into this and make a mistake. We both know how costly those can be."

The two bionics took a moment to remove their heads from the past and get back to the issue at hand.

"…I trust you."

"Thank you."

The two bionics decided to prepare for Mr Davenport's arrival, and, they supposed, the foreseeable future. This basically involved the two soldiers staying down in the lab adjusting to old skin. They spent time rearranging younger faces into expressions once so effortlessly pulled that were now unfamiliar snippets of long buried memories. It was all unsuspectingly challenging.

He had initially been downstairs, obviously knowing their luck, but as soon as he saw them he had muttered something about 'stupid long games' and 'I'll leave you to it' before taking the very same lift they went down in back up to presumably find Leo. He was safe for now, they had decided, Chase seemed to be talking to the only Dooley a lot, collecting intel probably. Bree was also prepared, ready to leave the lab as soon as any signs of danger appeared, to whisk both Leo and Tasha away to safety. It was risky, but they needed to be alone for this. This being the exact same reason why Eddy was long removed after a few clicks and lines of coding from Bree's newly tech-savvy hands on the first day they were awake. His constant questions were grating and his subtle, yet growing suspicion was not something they wanted to deal with.

After the gnawing fear that something would happen to their step-brother was washed away with self-comforting and over explanations, they returned to their preparation. This was still a mission, they decided, they still needed to prepare for it- even if it meant preparing to play themselves.

They were left probably half an hour's grace to rehearse before Mr Davenport arrived home and it would be too unusual for them not to go upstairs and welcome the man home. He would definitely come to check on them again if they spent too long. But that was a thought best not dwelled upon.

After a silent, mutual agreement, they both split off to try to channel the 'them' that wouldn't make Leo crinkle his eyebrows in confusion and suspicious when he so much as looked at them.

Bree sat in the corner with her phone on her knee and her hands trying to figure out what to do with her suddenly long hair.

Adam tried to remember how to uninstall the filter that he had been using to block out all of the 'irrelevant' and 'unimportant' thoughts he had had from dribbling out during war time. As counterproductive as it felt, it was an important measure to implement to lessen any suspicion raised.

"Hey did you see that?" He practiced to himself in the corner by one of the control boards, "I didn't know couches had….no….uhh….So the sky's looking pretty blue today. That's a thing."

There was a slow, sarcastic clap in the corner from his sister. "Well done, you had me completely fooled."

He tried again, only to have his tongue twist and his brain unable to form a cohesive sentence for his mouth to spew. Adam ended up growling in frustration. A simple action he couldn't stop almost catching himself over. But no, he wasn't back at base trying to learn a new formation, he was just trying to talk like he used to.

Adam had spent the longest time not permitted himself to show any external, negative emotions in front of his comrades. He had hidden his frustration and anger from his team, had buried his worry and tried to bottle up his sadness. His thoughts were his to do with what he liked, he could curse the enemy for thwarting their attacks once again, he could lament over the loss of yet another fallen comrade- but in front of his team Adam offered a blank mask. A mask that could wash away their concerns, a mask that could comfort them with its apathy, a mask that gave them hope- because it showed that Adam Davenport was okay; he had everything under control. Away from his team he was a different story, he would yell, he would cry, he would beg. Nobody there would have hope to lose. He had slipped, many times, usually in matters dealing with his….with Chase…but for once he didn't need to lay awake later beating himself up about it.

He allowed himself the priceless luxury of allowing his blank mask to slip once more. He growled again and smiled ruefully.

Adam had heard the expression that 'you're not your past' or how you and your past self were two different people, but this was ridiculous. How could it be so hard to slip back into the seemingly thoughtless ramble he had never had in short supply before.

Bree glanced up from the device she had been toying with, "Look, don't be too hard on yourself, these things take time. Just take little steps."

He nodded once and straightened his back.

"You've got this,"she added reassuringly.

"Hello, I'm Adam Davenport." He tried, but his voice was too harsh, too biting. Bree shook her head at him. "Adam Davenport here!" Now it was forced, too unnatural, he received a thumbs down and tried once more. "Adam, my name is Adam."

"Who knew saying your own name could be so challenging," Bree hummed, "Try a fraction faster, and perhaps at a slightly higher pitch- remember, youthful and cheerful."

"Davenport, Adam Davenport," he tilted his head and smirked.

"Great," Bree smiled, offering her brother a small clap, "…But I'm fairly certain it's a bit of a stretch for you to suddenly know James Bond overnight."

"I'm hardly sure it would be unheard of for me to have known such a famous introduction."

"If you're sure," Bree shrugged, not willing to admit that she couldn't quite remember the finer details of their lives before and to what her brother may have been exposed to. She turned back to the phone she had been awkwardly tapping away at. It felt like forever since she had bothered to use one. "Adam?"

"Hmm?" He hummed from beside the mirror he was flashing variations of a goofy smile in.

"….Do you remember my phone password?"

Adam shook his head, never taking his eyes off his grinning reflection, "Sorry."

Bree bit her lip and placed the phone next to the charger she had located it by, "Doesn't matter," she shrugged, "If worse comes to worst I'm sure I can figure it out later."

"It never left your pocket before," came the slow reply. "That I know for sure."

"Yeah, and you'd never heard of James Bond." She quipped before standing up and squaring her shoulder, "Come on, trivial idiosyncrasies aside, we've been putting this off long enough."

There was muffled shouting upstairs, a welcoming, Mr Davenport was home.

Adam nodded and took a deep, calming breath.

"Remember, they don't suspect anything unless we make them. We've already got the upperhand," Bree hummed, more to reassure herself than to her brother. "Now come on…we've got to make sure Leo's alright." They got to see Mr Davenport remained another unspoken reason.

Actors don't need to understand or emulate the characters they play 100%, they just need to smile on cue (at least that was what the two told themselves when they took the lift upstairs, playing mere caricatures of who they once were).

As the lift rose the sounds of above slowly became clearly, voices could be heard mixing. Leo chattering away about some Pig Zombie movie, Tasha yelling at him to get off the couch arm while asking her husband how his trip was. He was there too, giving Mr Davenport a rundown of something that made him fill his voice with pride and self-assurance; a combination the two were all too familiar with. Then Mr Davenport had muttered something and their knees almost buckled.

Bree and Adam shot each other a quick look. It was different, somehow. They'd never said it before, or ever really acted like Mr Davenport was anything more than the person who'd stop them doing fun things, made them run what they now realised were invaluable training exercises, and, they occasionally poked fun at. But after a little over three quarters of a year without him, with the weight of his death falling heavily on their consciences, hearing the voice of the man they'd always taken for granted of always being there was the final piece that made this whole picture feel like home.

"Ready?" Adam whispered.

"Uh huh," Bree swallowed and nodded, before rearranging her face into a look of indifference as the lift stopped its ascent and the doors slid open.

So...What did you guys think? Personally not my favourite by far. There were so many different places I wanted to take this chapter but I just couldn't get it there...which was a little disappointing for me, but HOPEFULLY you all enjoyed it (totally understandable if you didn't, it wasn't my finest work).

It was very Adam and Bree centric, but DON'T WORRY, all the other characters will be included a lot more in upcoming chapters (I've got it all planned out). Donald will appear in the next chapter too, I'm just trying to work out how to do it, as in, should they be like they were with Tasha (hugs and tears), or play it off cool (and either fail miserable or succeed)...decisions, decisions.

Oh, I feel like I keep writing about how bad Chase is, but why is only vaguely mentioned or implied, so what do you guys think of a couple flashbacks?

Character Explanation Time *insert super fantastic jingle here that will BLOW YOUR MIND BY ITS EPICNESS (too far?)*

Okay so Adam and Bree still aren't 100% sold at the start on the whole time travel thing, but have decided that the best course of action would be to go with the flow until it's proven otherwise. The problem with this, however, is that they've lived through all of these horrible things in the space of a year and the them they were before are harder to be than they anticipated (ergo the practicing). I also like to think that Adam became a lot more knowledgeable about things in more than just an intuitive sense (if that makes sense) and the world stopped being sunshine and rainbows so he had to do A LOT of growing up (which is pretty darn sad :/). Bree would've grown a bit more cynical, but out of the two of them, would find it easier to slip back into being 'Bree'. Her phone, however, during a war was not needed in the slightest- therefore a simple thing like her password was completely forgotten.

Tasha was also a little worried about Adam and Bree, and she can tell something is wrong, but hasn't known them long enough to be able to pinpoint exactly what it is. Leo is the same, but unlike Tasha who sees a real problem, Leo just sort of sees it as his older step siblings being weird and confusing, but nothing major.

Chase can also tell something is up, and after that whole 'you're right about not being my brother' thing, he's giving Adam and Bree space because he's
a. probably a bit hurt, that wasn't very nice, not like he's actually going to admit that though.
b. leaving them to do their own thing.
c. is trying to figure out what is up with them.

So thank you all so VERY much for reading. You are all WONDERFUL, INCREDIBLE people :) I cannot get over how AMAZING you all are, seriously, I just CAN'T. I hope you all have GREAT days (or good night's sleep, depending on when you're reading this) :D

I'll try to update in another week :)

Catch ya next time, yeah? Bye!