Leo couldn’t sleep. He hadn’t really been able to sleep well since the funeral. He knew he should go to the doctor to get help with that or bring it up to his grief counselor, but something always stopped him. It might help if he tried to sleep anywhere but on the couch, but he got even worse sleep alone in a bed, without her.

So he got up and went to check on his daughter, Dani. She was deep asleep, half-hanging off the bed with her favorite stuffie being thrown on the floor. He left her to her sleep, knowing that she would wake up if he shifted her even just a little. Despite her odd sleeping habits, she had never fallen off the bed.

He dragged himself to the kitchen and looked around to see if there were any quiet chores he could do while he wasn’t sleeping. But he appeared to be caught up on everything in there, so he moved back to the living room. He didn’t bother turning on the news. It would just be about the inevitable invasion, which certainly wouldn’t help him. He had a suitcase packed for when and if the evacuation call came and the plan to meet his in-laws at a certain point if possible, but there wasn’t much else he could do to prepare.

He draped himself on the couch again and let out a loud sigh. It was going to be another terrible day at work if he couldn’t get any sleep at all.

Marcus watched from the pavement outside the modest little house as the kitchen light flicked on and off. He could see a tall figure inside slouch to another room: Leonard was awake then. He checked his watch, 1:45am. What the hell was Leonard doing still awake at this hour? Reflexively he glanced upwards, but the winter sky was clear and bright. He wondered where the ships of the Others were exactly. They wouldn't be visible to his human eyes, but his sharp gaze picked out the stately progress of Earth's satellites so he assumed that they were far enough away to not attract any attention on long-range sensors.

He stood still a moment longer. So this is how you've been living, Leonard? Kids bike out the front, though that wasn't a surprise as they'd briefed him that he had a niece now. He didn't have the line of sight to get a better view of the figure slumped on the living room sofa, and as he shifted a sharp jolt in his foot let him know that he'd stayed still too long. Frost crackled under his boots and he flexed his hands inside of his gloves as he stamped his feet trying to return the blood to his toes. He checked his watch again, 1:48am. Still on time, but he didn't have the luxury of getting lost in reminiscing, even if he hadn't seen his brother since he was a gangling fifteen year-old.

He rang the bell, hearing its soft chime through the thin door, and gave a couple of soft, urgent raps on the door for good measure.

Leo had admittedly zoned out while staring at the ceiling, thinking about everything and nothing all at once. So when he heard not only the doorbell ring but also the knocks that followed, it startled him enough that he jumped up. His knee slammed against the coffee table that had somehow gotten pushed closer to the couch closer than usual and he had to bite his tongue not to yell out. Who was ringing his door at this time of night? Sorry, morning.

He hopped on the other leg as his knee screamed out in pain, grabbing his communicator that sat on the edge of it. There was no way anyone who knocked at this time without any sort of indication of their identity meant them well. As he typed in the emergency number, he hopped over to the bat he kept near the door. He kept a blaster in his bedroom, properly stored of course with the little one around, but the bat was closer at the moment.

But when he looked back at the communicator, he saw that there was no signal. That was odd, as he didn’t recall there being any kind of update or downtime scheduled for today. Though communications had been patchy lately. Probably solar flares or something.

He placed himself beside the door and raised the back. If someone broke in, he would be ready for them. He wasn’t by any means that strong, but he knew how to swing a bat at the very least.

Standing in the cold night, Marcus made some quick calculations about why Leonard might not be answering the door. There was always the possibility that he had been forewarned. The likelihood of Earth knowing about Marcus' mission was slim, but in these times could you ever really be sure about who was passing information around to who. So Leonard might be making a run for it, or that man inside might not have been Leonard at all and he could have a squad of hostiles waiting for him on the other side of that door. The fingers of his left hand flickered over the grip of the blaster on his hip, but instead he brought them up to his temple and summoned an infrared viewscreen.

One man, hunched slightly and clearly favouring one leg, arms raised and holding something above his head. That had to be his brother.

"Open the DAMN door Leonard!" He hissed, giving the wood near the handle two more soft thumps. "I don't have time for your messing around!"

Leo kept the bat aloft, even as whoever was trying to get in messed with the door some more. Why did they act like they knew him? No one he knew would be insane enough to come knocking at this door at this time, not without a call first and certainly not without identifying themselves first. They must’ve been casing this place for a while. Though why they chose to break in at a time when someone was sure to be home, he wasn’t quite sure.

Something about the voice was somewhat familiar, but he was unsure how. Maybe they were using a disguiser to make themselves sound like someone he knew. They sure chose the wrong voice then if he couldn’t identify it right away.

“Go away! I’ve already called the police and I’ve got a blaster!”

There was probably a good reason besides not wanting to gamble that Leo didn’t play poker. But maybe the threat would be enough to make them think twice and go away.