Daniel Nockby and Ava Harlow were the two other members of the 2005 team. They were in the very center of the photograph. Everyone had their arms around each other, except those two. His father and Daniel could have been brothers, they were so close. Daniel was attractive and strong. However, Ava was the most beautiful woman Xendo had ever seen. She had dark brown skin and chest-length passion twists strewn over to one side. Her lovely smile and intense hazel eyes made Xendo never want to look away. They were mysterious and kept drawing him in. 

“You don’t talk about any of them that much,” Xendo muttered, not releasing the woman’s frozen glance. “You must miss Ava.” 

“She was my best friend,” Blinda sighed. “Even though we came from separate parts of the world and had no classes together, we were still inseparable at SIYT until our Primary Advancement. She stayed for SIYT’s Human History when I left for my culinary graduate program. She also introduced me to Jerome.” 

Xendo had always wished his mother would share about his father more, but he never wanted to push. Xendo didn’t even think to ask if she missed the other team members. He could tell his mother must have had many depressing nights after the day this photo was taken. 

“Ava was the only person who told me if my food wasn’t good enough. Jerome just ate everything.” Blinda laughed as a tear fell. “With his mouth stuffed full of food, he’d spit out, ‘Delicious, babe!’ But Ava would tell me if she thought I could tweak something to make it better.” 

Xendo placed his hand on her shoulder. She reached up to hold it.

“If the mission hadn’t failed, what do you think they’d be doing now?” Xendo asked empathetically. 

Blinda took a deep breath and looked up in thought. “Well, the public never knew they traveled to the past before Irwin’s accident made it a huge scandal. Most historical agents keep working for the government after missions if they’re not too worn out. Neither Daniel nor Ava were really the quitting type,” Blinda muttered softly and smiled as she gazed into the photo. “Jerome would have retired, that lazy bum.” 

“It’s really a shame.” Xendo hugged her from her side. He put his head into her shoulder. “Maybe, if they had come back, Daniel and Ava could have worked their way up at Global, could have found cool spouses, and started families of their own. You could cook for dinner parties,” Xendo nudged her playfully. “C’mon, you’d like that!” 

“Yeah.” Blinda snorted absentmindedly. “Other spouses.” 

Xendo felt her smirking and got confused. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Xendo chuckled as he took his head off her shoulder and looked for meaning in her smiling face. Blinda stopped suddenly and looked away from the photo. 

“Mom?” Xendo asked curiously. Something was amiss. 

Blinda ignored him and suddenly acted like her old crumbled up recipes at the bottom of the storage pod were like rare, ancient American dollar bills. Xendo stared at his mother and made a fed-up face. 

“All right! She has been gone for over a decade.” Blinda slowly flattened out a recipe for coq au vin, then raised her eyes to meet Xendo’s gaze.