Some days, overconfidence could bite the siblings hard in the proverbial rear.

  Riding high from their recent triumph helping their parents solve a financial issue, Emily and Daniel felt unstoppable. Their success had emboldened them, making them believe their skills could effortlessly transte to other challenges. The universe, however, was about to serve them a lesson in humility.

  It all began on a Saturday afternoon. The family was gathered in the living room, watching a show featuring a talking car and its suave driver—a low-budget equivalent of a certain beloved series from Daniel’s past life.

  “What the heck is this?” Daniel muttered internally, swapping in for a moment. “This is a knockoff of Knight Rider, but worse. Look at that car—CG? Animatronics? I can’t even tell!”

  Emily chuckled aloud, then covered her mouth as Sarah gnced at her. Switching internally, she smirked. “You’re just mad because the effects are trash and they didn’t ask you for input. I bet if you were in charge…”

  “No, you’re right. I am mad,” Daniel grumbled. “What is this? Holographic noodles? They’re trying to pass this off as special effects?”

  Emily giggled again, trying to stifle it. “Okay, fine, it’s bad,” she admitted. “But seriously, Danny, you can’t expect Hollywood-level production everywhere.”

  “Forget Hollywood. Did they try?” Daniel said dramatically.

  As their banter continued internally, Sarah and Thomas watched the show, oblivious to the invisible critique unfolding in their daughter’s head.

  “I don’t know what’s worse,” Emily said after a particurly grainy scene, “the bad effects or the random static popping up. What’s with that?”

  “Yeah,” Daniel agreed, his attention shifting. “Hey, quick question—what’s up with the TV? That blur and static… that’s not normal, right?”

  Emily switched in and posed the question aloud. “Dad, why’s the TV all fuzzy sometimes? Is it broken?”

  Thomas gnced over, raising an eyebrow. “It’s not broken, it’s just this house didn’t have all standardized wiring when we moved in. Some of it was kind of creatively installed.”

  Emily winced. “That sounds bad.”

  “It’s not great,” Thomas admitted with a shrug. “I’ve been meaning to get it checked out, but honestly, it’s not a big deal.”

  Emily, already feeling her confidence bubbling, switched in fully. “Dad, come on! This is the centerpiece of the living room. Danny and I can fix it. Maybe we could make the picture crystal clear, like those fancy TVs in electronics stores!”

  Sarah looked over, frowning. “Em, Danny - I don’t know. Electrical stuff isn’t a joke, and this house isn’t standardized. It’s not like the computer you took apart st year.”

  Daniel swapped in, holding up Emily’s hand. “Mom” he began a little too confidently. “First of all, I’ve built computers. Out of scraps. People paid me for it.”

  Emily switched back in with a cocky grin. “And second of all, I’ve got Danny’s knowledge, right? Rewiring tech, setting up home theaters, basic repairs? We can totally handle a few wires.”

  Daniel switched back seamlessly. “And third - this is low voltage stuff.” Noticing Thomas gncing at Sarah skeptically he added “It’s like phone wires or batteries. No danger. Promise.”

  Sarah sighed. “Fine. Take a look. But no stunts. Just observe and tell us what you find, okay?”

  As the show ended, Thomas moved the TV away from the wall, revealing the coax outlet. Emily eagerly unscrewed the cover, revealing a chaotic mess of tangled wires that looked like spaghetti. No, it was worse - it looked like spaghetti that someone had jumbled and tossed in.

  The wires were frayed in pces, twisted together at odd angles. Some were bundled so tightly they looked fused, while others seemed to have been spliced hastily and wrapped in electrical tape that was now peeling, almost as if someone had tried to build a bird’s nest out of cables. Dust clung to the corners, and a faint metallic smell wafted making Emily cough.

  “Whoa,” she murmured, leaning closer. “This looks like someone dumped out a box of cables, threw in some chewing gum, and called it a day.”

  Daniel swapped in, his irritation palpable. “Yeah this is so far from standard. Slipshod contractors I swear - they exist in every universe.”

  Emily smiled as she felt him focus - his knowledge and troubleshooting evident to her too. “But the colors match. It’s still coax - just messy coax. We can totally work with this.” She smirked, her confidence returning. “Dad and Mom are going to feel so silly when they see how much better this looks after we’re done.”

  Without hesitation, the siblings began sorting the wires, reconnecting splices, and adjusting connections to reduce interference.

  “Okey-dokey, piece of cake” Daniel said standing up as he turned the TV on. “Moment of truth!”

  The picture was worse.

  Much worse.

  The colors were almost gone, repced by a grainy snowstorm. The image jittered as if caught in an earthquake, and the audio crackled with static.

  “Uh Danny?” Emily whispered, her voice shaky. “I think it’s getting worse.”

  “It’s fine,” Daniel replied quickly, his voice tight. “We just need to readjust. Undo a few things.”

  Each adjustment made it worse. The image turned into a snowstorm of static.

  “No, no, NO!” Emily shrieked internally, taking over. “What the heck happened? We did everything right!”

  Daniel froze, his hands trembling. “What have I done? I messed up, Em. I messed up bad.”

  “Hey, it’s okay,” Emily tried to reassure him. “We’ll expin to Mom and Dad. They’ll understand.”

  “I’m supposed to know this stuff!” Daniel interrupted, his voice cracking in her mind. “I’ve done this a million times. Why didn’t I stop when I realized it was different? I just… I thought…” His voice trailed off, but the guilt roared louder. “They told us not to mess with it. They told us. I screwed up. I always screw up. And now…”

  “Danny, stop,” Emily urged, feeling his panic bleed into her. The pressure in her chest built as his emotions flowed freely into their shared space. It felt like a storm—waves of guilt, fear, and regret crashing over her.

  “Why am I always like this?” Daniel murmured, his voice breaking. “Why can’t I just let things be? Why can’t I just listen?”

  Emily felt her own heart race, her nerves tangled in his spiral. “Danny, cut it off!” she called internally, desperate to calm him. “Please, you’re making me—”

  “I’m supposed to be the older one, the smarter one,” he muttered, his voice barely audible. “How can they trust me after this? I’m just going to make things worse. Your dad just started trusting me, and now…”

  Emily felt panic fring within her as her brother spiraled deeper, guilt beginning to bleed into her in earnest. “Danny, don’t do this. We both agreed to this. We made the same choices.”

  Abruptly, his emotions vanished.

  “Danny?” Emily called, her voice trembling. “You’re still here, right?”

  Suddenly, the connection between them shifted. The emotional storm vanished, leaving only a faint echo - a memory.

  “Danny?” Emily called, her voice tentative.

  “I’m here,” Daniel replied, his tone distant. “I just cut you off. You don’t need to feel this. I’m sorry. I need a minute.” he murmured as he retreated deeper. “Just give me a few minutes,” he said. “I’ll take the fall. Just give me a few minutes.”

  —

  True to his word, ter that day, Daniel switched out with Emily, nervous about upsetting Sarah and Thomas and earning their ire. He tried to insute Emily from the worst of his stomach-churning fear, but she still felt faint ripples of his apprehension.

  Inside, Daniel felt paralyzed by dread—terrified that Sarah might reject him, that the bridge he had only just begun building with Thomas would crumble, and that his worth to the family would evaporate. The thought of being seen as an emotional screw-up, as he had feared he was in his st life, made his stomach churn even more.

  Taking a shaky breath, he began. “I… messed up. Big time.”

  His voice was quiet, and his eyes stayed glued to the floor as he expined the situation. The cabling was messy but still coaxial in nature. He thought he could improve the picture quality as a surprise. He admitted they had ignored Sarah and Thomas’s explicit instructions and dived in.

  As he spoke, Daniel’s hands fidgeted, and his words came faster as he neared the end. By the time he finished, his voice was barely above a whisper. “I thought we could handle it, but I was wrong. I’m sorry.”

  He gnced up cautiously, only to see Sarah and Thomas’s stern expressions. Were they angry? Disappointed? He couldn’t tell, but their silence was deafening. His stomach dropped.

  From their shared space, Emily huffed. “Danny, stop taking all the bme! We both did this, remember? We were in sync!”

  “Because I don’t want my kid sister getting in trouble, okay?” Daniel snapped back. “Let me handle this. Please.”

  “You’re impossible sometimes, you know that?” Emily sighed, though Daniel felt her affection softening her words. “Fine, two minutes. But I’m stepping in if you go full martyr mode.”

  He didn’t respond, his focus entirely on Sarah and Thomas as he waited for the hammer to drop. He felt every second of their silence stretch into eternity, his palms cmmy, his chest tightening. “Here it comes,” he thought. “They’re going to regret ever accepting me.”

  Finally, Sarah sighed, rubbing her temples. “Oof… I knew something like this might happen. Danny, Danny, Danny…”

  Thomas shook his head, irritation clear in his tone. “You should’ve waited. Like we agreed. We had a deal, Daniel!”

  The words made Daniel’s chest ache as he braced himself for the inevitable rejection. He was certain it was coming.

  But then Thomas continued, “And Emily, don’t think you’re off the hook. It’s clear your brother is trying to protect you, but we both know you were part of this too.”

  Emily immediately switched in, her expression defiant. “Hey, I didn’t ask him to take the bme, okay? I was totally part of this. We were in sync the whole time. So yeah, I own this too.”

  Her voice softened as she added, “We’re both sorry. You’re right—we should’ve waited. We should’ve stuck to the deal.”

  Daniel switched back, his voice quieter now. “I thought we could handle it. I thought I could handle it. I’m sorry. I don’t know what went wrong. But you’re right. We should’ve waited.”

  Sarah and Thomas exchanged a look, muttering to each other in hushed tones. Daniel couldn’t make out their words, but their expressions weren’t angry—just contemptive.

  Through their shared space, Emily tried again. “Danny, you’re spiraling. I can feel it. Talk to me, big bro—what’s going on?”

  “Why do I screw everything up, Em?” Daniel’s voice was shaky, his panic rising. “Why don’t I know when to stop? Now they’re going to think I’m useless.”

  “No, they’re not!” Emily said firmly. “I don’t know what happened in your st life, but this isn’t that. Mom and Dad aren’t going to reject you. Trust me, they won’t.”

  Before Daniel could respond, Thomas finally broke the silence.

  “Well,” he said gruffly, “I needed to get an electrician in to standardize those wires anyway. Might as well do it now.”

  Daniel blinked, his spiraling thoughts grinding to a halt as he processed Thomas’s tone. It wasn’t angry.

  Sarah leaned forward, pcing a hand on his shoulder. “Danny, are you okay? It’s still you driving, right?”

  Her voice was soft, her expression gentle.

  Daniel stared at her, his mind reeling. This wasn’t the explosion he had braced himself for.

  Sarah continued, “We’re not mad, Danny. We’re not disappointed either. Frustrated? Sure. But this isn’t the end of the world. Let’s just learn from this, okay?”

  Thomas, catching on, added, “You’re both brilliant, but intelligence doesn’t mean you know everything. Sometimes, you need to take a step back and admit when you don’t know enough.”

  Sarah chuckled softly. “Your dad learned that lesson the hard way. You know how good he is with cars, right? Well, even experts get overconfident.”

  Thomas grinned sheepishly. “Yeah… once tried to fix an engine I didn’t fully understand and ended up making it worse. Doesn’t mean I don’t know cars—it just means I needed to step back and learn more before diving in.”

  Sarah nodded. “So next time, if something isn’t familiar, pause. Learn what you need to, then act. Even the best of us make mistakes.”

  Daniel stared at them, his throat tight, his eyes stinging with unshed tears. He hadn’t expected this level of patience or understanding.

  From their shared space, Emily whispered, “See, Danny? They still trust you. They still love you. You’re not in your st life anymore.”

  Her voice softened. “They love you—even when we mess up.”

  Daniel smiled faintly, looking up at Sarah and Thomas with grateful, slightly teary eyes. “Thank you. Both of you. I… love you. I just need to think for a bit—letting Emily back now.”

  —

  Daniel switched out, retreating to the dreamscape to process everything, while Emily immediately began chattering away to fill the silence - profusely thanking her parents, expining her brother’s spiral and guilt, grateful that they showed him that mistakes were part of life.

  Sarah and Thomas exchanged a gnce, their expressions thoughtful as they observed the siblings’ dynamic, but each knew that while the tension was resolved - they had glimpsed something deeper, some secret Daniel was hiding..

  Later that night, Sarah and Thomas sat together in their bedroom, considering the day’s events as they continued to linger between them. It wasn’t strictly the electrical repairs that would be needed - but Daniel’s reaction that concerned them.

  Thomas leaned back against the headboard, staring at the ceiling, his arms crossed over his chest, while Sarah sat cross-legged beside him, her fingers idly pying with the bnket.

  “Did you see how scared he looked?” Thomas began quietly. “I mean, I get nervousness about making a mistake, but that wasn’t nerves. He looked - petrified, Sarah.”

  Sarah nodded slowly, her brow furrowing in thought. “I saw it too. That wasn’t just a fear of getting in trouble. It was something else—something bigger.” She paused, her voice softening. “Like he thought we were going to reject him.”

  Thomas exhaled deeply as he adjusted his seating position. “Emily confirmed it. She told us he was spiraling, that he thought we were going to hate him for messing up.”

  Both were silent for a moment as they contempted the raw fear they had observed on Daniel’s face. All the more disconcerting because even though it was physically Emily’s face - the fear made it evident that the person in front of them, for a brief spell, was not Emily.

  Thomas’s jaw tightened, and he let out a heavy sigh. “You know, maybe that’s not surprising. I kept him at arm’s length for so long. I didn’t make it easy for him to trust me, and now... maybe I’ve done more damage than I realized.”

  Sarah turned to face him, her expression thoughtful yet gentle. “I doubt that, Tom. Yes, you did keep him at arm’s length for a long time but you’ve also done a lot to show him that he’s part of this family. It hasn’t been perfect, none of us are, but you’ve made huge strides, especially in the st few weeks. And he knows that.”

  Thomas shook his head, frustration flickering in his eyes. “Then why would he be so scared? It’s like he thought we were going to reject him over a TV. A TV, Sarah!”

  Sarah reached out, resting a hand on his arm. “Tom, this isn’t just about you—or us. This goes deeper than that. Whatever happened to him before he came into our lives… it’s still shaping how he sees the world.”

  She leaned back against the headboard and sighed “Emily did say he hides some memories of his past. Some because they are not child appropriate, others because he is protecting Emily. She mentioned he doesn’t talk about his childhood or his family in his old life. No, I think something much deeper is going on.”

  She hesitated, searching for the right words. Finally, she said, “Call it a maternal instinct Tom. Tonight, when he was standing there trying to expin what happened, he didn’t look like a scared adult. He looked like a scared kid. The way his shoulders hunched, the way his voice trembled. I’ve seen Emily act like that before, but not Daniel. Not until tonight”

  Thomas’s brow furrowed. “But he’s not a kid. At least, not emotionally.”

  He paused as if a revetion was on the edge of his thoughts - one that hadn’t quite crystalized but begun to show itself nonetheless. “Not really, right?”

  Sarah tilted her head slightly, her eyes narrowing as if she were piecing together a puzzle.

  “I know. And yet... he is. Or at least, part of him is. And I’m not just talking about the body he’s sharing with Emily. It’s something in the way he acted tonight—the way he couldn’t meet our eyes, the way he kept bming himself, the way he seemed to fold in on himself.”

  Sarah nodded, her eyes narrowing in concern “That’s not just guilt, Tom. That’s fear. Fear of rejection. Of being abandoned.”

  She shook her head, pying with the bedsheet again. “He has been through something, Tom, a lot, even if he doesn’t talk about it. I think he’s still figuring out how to let himself believe that he’s safe here. That he’s allowed to make mistakes without losing everything.”

  She paused, watching her husband as he carefully considered her words, clenching and unclenching his hands. She could sense the remnants of guilt within him - for all those months keeping Daniel at bay, in spite of everything she had expined.

  As such, she felt compelled to add “Tom, tonight wasn’t just about what happened to him before. I want you to consider - it was also about what we did. We didn’t lose our tempers. We didn’t make it worse. We showed him that we’re here for him, for both of them, no matter what. And every time we do that, well, I believe, it chips away at those walls he’s built around himself.”

  She chuckled dryly “In some ways, it's deja vu. It’s like those first few weeks all over again when he first arrived in this universe - watching us, hoping, but waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

  Thomas looked up, directly at Sarah, his eyes wide with this new understanding. “You’re right - we did keep our cool. And eventually, he’ll figure it out. Right?” he asked, his voice mixed with hope and a need for reassurance.

  Sarah gently replied, running her hand through his hair much as she did when comforting Emily. “He will, but it’s going to take time. He’s not used to this—to unconditional support. He’s used to... something else. But we’ll show him, every day, that this is different.”

  Thomas nodded slowly, his expression softening. After a moment, a faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “You’re right. As always.”

  Sarah smiled back, her hand still resting on his arm. “It’s not about being right, Tom. It’s about being here. For him. For Emily. For both of them.”

  With a twinkle in her eyes, she couldn’t resist adding “But yes, I’m right as usual”

  The unspoken weight in the room dissipated some as both Sarah and Thomas chuckled. While there were more secrets to uncover, more lessons to be experienced - their mood was lightened by their shared resolve for both Emily and Daniel. Sarah turned over to turn off the mp, and as both husband and wife settled into bed, they felt that perhaps they were one step closer to walking in step as a family - to understanding the mystery that was Daniel and Emily.