The light on the street drew Terisa's attention to the window once again, but the car drove past without stopping. She sighed, looking over at the clock. 11:17 PM. Ernie was almost never home this late; even when he had to miss dinner, he would move Heaven and Earth to be back by their youngest's 8 PM bedtime. And he'd been gone all weekend on this Washington trip, and hadn't been home yet. That's a week's worth of comp time already. Guess we'll be able to take that extended second honeymoon after all, she thought without mirth.

She'd already seen him on TV, trying to keep on his brave Silver Avenger face for the press, while he shook Lonergan's hand when he took over as interim Base Commander. But Terisa could tell he was dead tired, and something in his eyes showed...What? Fear? Rage? The news report had made it clear things were bad, but Terisa knew her husband well enough to know it had to be worse still.

What was going on with Barbara? Why this, so suddenly? Terisa was aware of Chicago's reputation for corruption - her time as a prosecutor had destroyed any naïveté. But Barbara? Terisa wondered what was going on. If only Ernie would get home! Knowing better than to interrupt him with a page or cel call, Terisa had forced herself to display a calm and collected front to her children. She'd shared a concerned look with Betty across dinner, but hadn't vented any of her frustration about not knowing until she retired for the night. Alternatively flipping through documents and pacing the floor, time had crawled.

More lights on the street; this time, they pulled into the driveway. Relieved, Terisa listened to the familiar sounds of the car door, then the garage closing, followed by the screen door on the porch. She set aside the briefs she'd been trying to read and pulled on her robe as she went downstairs to meet him.

Ernie was sitting at the kitchen table, still wearing his Avenger's uniform. He'd hung his coat on the rack by the door, but was still wearing his boots; the accumulated slush was slowly melting onto the linoleum floor. His briefcase was sitting on the table in front of him, his hand resting across it, while his bloodshot eyes stared into space without seeing. His entire body radiated exhaustion and despair, but somehow he forced a smile at his wife's entrance.

"Hello, 'risa," he said. "Thanks for waiting up." His voice was tired, delivering the old joke between them almost by rote.

"Hey yourself," she responded quietly, but with a smile, leaning against the door jamb. "Sounds like you've had a rough day." Avoiding the melted snow and stray crayons on the kitchen floor, she moved until she was standing behind him ,and began to rub his neck. "What's going on at PRIMUS, Ernie?"

He sighed, corners of his mouth turning up into a hint of a smile. Terisa always got straight to the point, wouldn't let him keep anything from her. It was good to be with someone like that, he thought. Someone who wouldn't let you lie to yourself.

"You saw the news? About Barbara?" he asked.

"I saw, but I don't believe it for a minute. I can't believe it," she said. "It seems so out of character. We would have known, Ernie, if she'd been involved in something. I know we would." Terisa thought back to their holiday open house, the week before Christmas. Barbara had seemed tired, to be sure, but certainly couldn't have been living that kind of lie - could she?

"She wasn't involved in anything!" he said, fists clenching on the table. For a moment, it looked like he might slam his fist on the table, which would likely have broken it. But he regained control. "She wasn't thrown out for corruption, she was thrown out for," he has to force himself to say it. "Incompetence. Glenn more or less asked her to leave -- I don't think he wanted to, but with the IA report, I guess he didn't have much choice." He put his head in his hands. "It's bad, Terisa. Really bad."

"What is so bad?" she asked. "What do they really think is going on? Did you see the IA report? I know that the press has been making noises about that group of paranormals that PRIMUS teams can't seem to capture, but from what you've said in the past, there were all legit reasons for the failures. Is it more than that?"

"A lot of it could have been legit," said Ernie, "But taken together, it's sabotage. Has to be -- There's no way things could have fallen apart that fast." He shook his head. "But it's hard to believe the kind of corruption they're talking about. There'd have to be at least a dozen people in on it, all from different departments. And even then, there'd have to be holes in our security a mile wide. Whoever these guys are, they know us perfectly; they've cut us off at every turn." He paused. "I'm really sorry I didn't call. I didn't know how late I was going to be, and I've been trying to get up to speed on everything...I lost track of time. I'm sorry," He repeated.

"Ernie, please," Terisa said, stopping the backrub to pop him on the head with her fist. "I'm not concerned about that - your mother might be," she laughed, "But I know that it had to be worse than even the press had been told for you to miss so much time away." After thinking for a moment, she said carefully, "Do you think it's tied into the…type of corruption that DJ was telling us about a few months ago?"

Ernie frowned. He'd been mulling that one over. "No," he said. "I don't think so. I think Vasquez is cashing in on this -- Internal Affairs are under his control, and he wants to use this to embarrass Glenn and keep him off-balance. But I don't think they're behind it. I don't know who's behind it!"

He gritted his teeth. "There's a bigger problem, though. Alex Richardson sent me a message today -- They picked up a buddy of Oculon's, who said he'd gone to Chicago."

"Ernie, c'mon," objected Teri, "You guys can handle Oculon with your eyes closed -- "

"Yes, but it's not going to end there! Oculon's headed to Chicago because he's heard PRIMUS is weak here. And if half a dozen other paranormals get the same idea -- "

"It'll snowball," finished Terisa, light dawning. "Like in Tokyo, after Godzilla." She sat down at the table next to her husband, and absently ran a hand over her hair.

Ernie nodded. "Yeah. Every one of them that gets away with something will get air-time with the media, and make us look worse. Which will pull more bad guys in --" He breaks off. "We need to end this now, nip it in the bud. Make some big busts, and get this team. Because if we don't, sooner or later we really will lose control."

Terisa was silent for a moment. "Who would have a reason to do this to Barbara? Or, assuming that it's bigger even than that, who hates the Chicago PRIMUS base this much? Yes, yes, I know, I know," she said, waving her hand, "Everyone who's ever been captured by PRIMUS here would have a reason. Hm, maybe it's bigger than that, too - have there been any similar occurrences at other PRIMUS bases that perhaps the media hasn't noticed yet? Anything pop up in the Avenger briefings?" she asked, referring to the teleconferences the Avengers had every two weeks, to talk about trends they'd noticed in their respective areas and to share information.

"No, nothing like this is happening anywhere else," he said, "At least, not that anyone's been able to tell." The Avenger thought it over. "It hadn't really occurred to me this was all to get at PRIMUS," he said. "All the raids, they've seemed to have definite goals. Physics equipment, mostly. Hell, they stole part of a beamline from Argonne National Lab," he muttered darkly. The well-publicized raid had been the most recent and most humiliating of the team's capers.

"Great, another giant destructo-ray to destroy the city," Terisa lamely joked. "Has Mechanon rebuilt himself again? The Hawks did quite a number on him last year."

"Maybe they are deliberately out to humiliate us," he concluded, "But if they can walk all over us like this, I don't see why they'd bother."

"Also, is there any chance of getting the Sentinels to come and help you out?" Terisa shuddered as she recalled what DJ had told them about PRIMUS' paranormal team. The poor kids, she thought.

"Glenn wouldn't give me a definite answer, but I think the answer is no. Same goes for DJ," he added. "I've got a bad feeling it has something to do with the new Commander Glenn hasn't assigned us yet. He wouldn't have said anything to Barbara until he knew who he would replace her with." The Silver Avenger chewed his lip. "DJ and the Sentinels aren't popular in some circles. And with Vasquez involved, God knows what the politics are."

"But you aren't going to much good to yourself or the base if you haven't gotten any sleep," Terisa said. "And if I'm not mistaken, you didn't do much sleeping in Washington, either, if I know anything about how you and DJ get when I'm not around. C'mon, off to bed with you." Terisa stood up, and held out her hand to Ernie. "And we both know you'll be wanting an early start tomorrow."

She expected him to take her hand, expected the smile and embrace. But instead he looked warily at his briefcase, and then to her. "Honey," he said hesitantly. "I didn't really want to do this to you tonight, but -- I don't want to sleep on it. And I don't think it can wait."

"What is it?" she said, sitting back down, tucking her cold feet under her, wishing for the bed with the electric blanket set on "high." Terisa hated being cold.

"When Barbara left, she told me to do something unpredictable," the Avenger continued. "She said we'd never beat them if we played it the usual way." He shook his head. "She's right; they know our operations better than we do. So our best bet is to hit them from an angle they're not expecting, come up with... a force they can't anticipate. And with DJ and the Sentinels on the sidelines, we have to look closer to home.

"What we need is someone who can organize the local paranormals, get them to work together. As a group, they could take on these guys, and maybe go a long way towards heading off the Snowball."

Terisa began playing with her engagement ring, a square cut ruby that Ernie had surprised her with on her twenty-fifth birthday.

"Thing is, they're pretty raw these days," he said, choosing his words carefully. "The Cane's disappeared, and most of the others don't have much experience. We need a strong leader -- Someone who can pull them together." He broke off, knowing by the look in her eyes that she understood.

"Honey, I know how you feel about this," he concluded. "If -- If it can't happen that way, I understand." There was pain in his eyes; he hated himself for asking.

Terisa was stunned. She'd known what her husband was going to say, before he'd even said it himself, but the question itself floored her. A myriad of emotions washed through her - the night her mother's body was found nad her father's reaction. There was more, though -- remembering the exhilaration of flying through the skies over the city all night (too cold for that tonight, she thought pragmatically) and the feeling of success when she'd stopped VIPER raids was an unparalleled high. There was the feeling that her mother's death hadn't been in vain, and knowing that her powers had to exist for some reason. On the other hand again, it was, well, wrong for her to play both sides, wasn't it? She sighed, and looked down at the table, avoiding Ernie's eyes. Christine Hawkins doesn't have problem with it, she thought, thinking of Stephen Hawkins' wife's poorly kept heroic ID, and she's in what? Her second year of law school now? She'd asked her about it, when they were in Hudson City last month. Christine had shrugged and looked down at her young son, David Albert Hawkins, then at Stephen. "How can I not act, with all the lunatics running around out there," she'd said. Terisa had been thinking about it ever since.

He wouldn't ask if it wasn't important, a voice inside her said. He's desperate and he needs you. Another part of her realized that it was what she wanted, as well.

"Well," she said finally, smiling weakly. "I think that if Christine thinks she can hack being a mom, a wife, and a lawyer as well as a superhero, I sure as hell can," she finished uncharacteristically. "But can you see about getting that PRIMUS suit rigged up to withstand colder temperatures? It's awfully cold this time of year."

He met her eyes, a hint of a smile in them. "Have you considered a cape? They're warm, and come summer you'd look great with one billowing behind you."

Terisa laughed, tossing her head back. "That is a good idea - they were just so out of vogue the last time I tried the paranormal business."

Ernie joined her laughter. "Boy, I'm glad I wear a uniform," he said, "I don't have to make fashion decisions!"

"At least I can't go as wrong as Odyssey's first costume. I think Jacob has the Time photos of her up in his locker," Terisa said. "Where did she get that idea - Calvin Klein?"

"I can just see it - the paranormal costume department in Macy's," countered Ernie. "Walk up to the salesman and say, 'I'm looking for something that says, 'Nigh- invulnerable, with total power over the atom,'" he quipped.

"'Something with a cowl, then,'" replied Terisa, still laughing.

They laughed long and hard, then Ernie slid his hand over hers. "Thanks," He said, his eyes speaking volumes of gratitude.

Terisa smiled and squeezed his hand. "My feet are cold, Ernie," she said factually, standing up. "Now will you come up to bed?"

He stood and kissed her, then followed her up the stairs.