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The Hullabaloo disbanded shortly after George came back.
Lewis’ letters to his parents were published in a newspaper, which was how Christine Carroll found them one morning. Crying to herself, she drove to the headquarters to collect her son. Lewis was more than happy to see his mother, who he hadn’t had contact with for multiple years, and officially introduced her to his best friend, Jack, and his boyfriend, Oscar, who she met while the two were in school, but had no clue he had a crush on.
Douglas, who looked up to Lewis, introduced himself to Christine, who suggested that her son continue teaching him as a private tutor. The young boy was ecstatic to hear this, and continued with his education, finding he was good – extraordinarily, as Lewis and Oscar would put it, good, - at math and physics, just like his teacher. He also started to frequently write letters to Anna, telling her all about how great his new life is, and how she and possibly Rina as well should come by and visit him someday.
Once Robert’s name was put on full blast to the public, he lost funding for the Hullabaloo, and was forced to resign and look for a different job. He lost most of his investments, and fled the city. For six months, not a word was heard from him, until one day someone found out that he was living with Walt in a rural village. Valentine could not bear to hear the news of what turned out of her son, and wanted nothing to do with any updates about him.
Oscar himself became quite a successful painter – much better than just a hobby artist. He opened his own store where he sold his paintings, which included portraits, scenery and even surreal artwork. One painting forever stood out to his customers: a painting of a young man that resembled Oscar, but without glasses and with golden-blond hair. The man in the painting looked rather charming and pleasant, but no matter how much an eager customer or art connoisseur begged, the painter would not give the piece up.
Jack was one of the first to move out of the Headquarters, only asking for his wardrobe to be returned to him, but nothing else. He moved into a cottage in the woods, where he set up Christmas lights (even though it was only June) and bought hundreds of lion plush animals, which he placed all around the house. He worked from home, allowing patients inside of his wardrobe on a trip to 30 years to the past.
One of his best patients was Postie, who had explained how xe did not want to leave Max entirely, but wasn’t fit for a romantic relationship. With Jack’s help, the two of them remained friends – close friends – without being romantically involved.
His other favorite patient was, of course, Lewis, who decided to give it some time before talking to Mary next, reassessing why exactly he was upset with her and how he could voice his discomfort to her without expecting her to know the answers.
As for Mary, she joined the Guild and travelled the world on the Moby Dick. She oftentimes visited Lexi and Faina at the Mindbreak Headquarters, as now she had all the funds that she needed to visit whomever she pleased to see. She also finally went back to university to pursue her lifelong goal of being a proper doctor, just like Lexi.
Arthur, Arabelle and eventually Mr. Priestley from the Mindbreak started their own private detective agency. Once Hans turned 20, they filed the papers for Margery’s adoption and the two of them permanently moved to Denmark, which was where the young girl would spend the rest of her childhood. Elwyn left back to the United States to live on her grandmother’s old farm, and Beatrix came along with her. The two of them were once again dating, just like before Beatrix was voided.
And that left just George and Herbert.
George found Herbert when the boy was just fourteen.
Jet black hair that fell down to the middle of his neck, big midnight blue eyes, and a skinny yet tall frame – that was the Herbert that George first knew.
He had no memory of what his name was, what he was supposed to even be . He was terrified of the older man and promptly turned invisible on sight of the camera when he tried to approach the boy.
But seeing how hurt George was when he turned invisible, and noticing the blindfold on the man’s face, he went back to visible.
The boy’s last name was Wells.
That was the reason he approached him. No first name, no middle name. But the last name sounded similar to his own.
The boy wasn’t quite like him. But close enough.
He was lonely, just like George.
Wells, though – that name sounded like Orwell, but had a bit of a dark hue to it. Like a dark well that someone could stare into and see the reflection of the stars in the water.
George named the boy Herbert. He couldn’t explain why, he just “seemed like one”. As for his middle name, Herbert figured it out himself – he named himself after his new brother, George.
Ever since then, George considered himself to be Herbert’s official older brother. He was happy to have someone by his side, even if it was an alien that only resembled a human and wasn’t actually one.
And now that Herbert was old enough – sixteen – to figure out whether or not he wanted to officially become part of his family, the English Socialist was able to sign some legal documents to adopt Herbert and claim him as his adopted brother.
Both George and Herbert moved in to the Off-Compass Headquarters permanently.
On one day, when George was in his garden, finally enjoying the peace of being around nature without the fear of being yelled at for not using his ability, planting the bush of red roses that Murray gave him as a present to celebrate the first day of autumn, Herbert ran up from behind him, screaming, “Georgie! Guess what! Guess who came by to visit!”
George looked up.
Of course, he couldn’t see. But he could hear voices and recognize footstep patterns.
One of the voices belonged to Herbert, of course. The people next to Herbert were also around his brother’s age – they must have been Douglas and the two girls from the Mindbreak, Anna and Rina. From what George gathered, the four of them became very close by writing letters to each other.
The other footsteps were uneven and shaky... like someone’s first day on high heels. It must have been Elwyn. And the woman standing next to her must have been Beatrix.
Upon realizing Elwyn was there, George ran to his best friend and gave her a hug. They hugged back.
“It’s been ages since we’ve spent time together,” George said, grinning widely as usual.
“Yeah, it has,” Elwyn replied. “I actually wanted to tell you something!”
George tilted his head. “What is it?”
“Well, I don’t know if I should say this in front of Herbert and the others,” she giggled, then said quietly, “I finally got surgery!”
She was met with yet another crushing hug. “Elwyn, I’m so happy for you!” George exclaimed. “That’s incredible!”
“Aw, thank you,” she said, laughing. Her Southern accent was definitely showing. “Did anything new happen with you?”
“Well, I officially adopted Herbert,” George told her, “and I live with Murray and the other Off-Compass members, though Max mostly spends time with Postie at their Egoist Milk Shop and Charles has taken a liking to travelling and studying evolution, so it’s just me, Murray and Herbert in the house most of the time.”
“That’s lovely!”
“It sure is,” George agreed. “I’m really glad things went the way they did. Now I can finally live in peace.”
And by the looks on everyone’s faces, the peace was not going away any time soon.