MIRA

I woke on the couch, leaning against a passed-out Henry, the sun streaming through the blinds. Despite the healing of my injuries, there was a phantom ache in my arm, leg, and temples. I slowly sat up to hear the singing of the birds. I moved myself away from Henry and observed him for a moment as I tried to recall the previous night.

Holy Hell, I thought as I watched him turn his head. His lips moved, but I couldn't make out what he was saying. Otherwise, he was very still.

I rolled my neck and stretched my arms and legs. I wasn't used to sleeping by actually lying down on something. I liked it, I decided. It was a lot less hassle than getting into the sleeping tubes.

I glanced around me, at the Reagans' apartment. It was pretty much what you would expect from your average midwestern nuclear family living in the city. It was a larger apartment, likely afforded by the Reagans being a nurse and a doctor.

Photos of Henry and two siblings plastered the wall—there was an older brother and a little sister.

I frowned—I'd never heard about his family. With a growing shame in my chest, I realized I never thought to ask. I was so focused on my mission and myself, I'd neglected to ask Henry anything about himself, except when it was relevant.

I was terrible at being a person.

Then again, I wasn't supposed to be a person. I was a tool, a weapon.

And yet here I was, dealing with the emotional fallout of failing to be inhuman.

I was grateful that I didn't have my earpiece on me, and it was instead in the backpack.

But what was I going to do? I'd done exactly what Verity did. I'd gone rogue. There was no going back.

I had to leave, I realized. I was putting Henry and his family in danger by staying here.

Atomic Energy wouldn't come for me directly—after all, we hadn't done that for Verity. But I'm sure the alarm was up and everyone knew to look for me.

What did Saige, Aleister, and Ryder think of all this? Had Dr. Banning told them yet what I'd done?

Did they think that I'd betrayed them like Verity did?

I stood up, throwing my arms out to balance myself. I was still a little unsteady on my feet.

I heard a groan—I turned to see if Henry was waking up. But he had only rolled over, now that I wasn't weighing him down.

I breathed a little sigh of relief. He didn't need to see me leave. Otherwise he'd want me to stay, he'd want to continue helping me. Never mind the consequences.

He was too much of a hero for his own good.

That assumption hadn't changed, the more I got to know him. In fact, his confessions on the tram the night before only confirmed it.

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I'm sorry you got hurt because of me. No more of that.

I started toward the door—my hand had only just clasped the door handle when I heard a voice behind me.

"Leaving so soon?"

I turned to see Carol Reagan emerging from the bathroom, an eyebrow raised in questioning.

I didn't know what I should say, so I said nothing. Instead I looked to the floor, trying to analyze what exact shade of brown or beige the carpet was.

"Come on, you're not leaving without something to eat." Carol approached me and placed a hand on my shoulder. She gently pushed me back into the living room and towards the kitchen/dining room hybrid. "And without POG juice."

I frowned. "POG juice?"

"Had a roommate in Hawaii who swore by it, it's got all sorts of vitamins, the good stuff." Carol's hazel eyes twinkled. It was easy to see Henry in her, or perhaps it was really the parts of her that were in Henry. She turned and opened the fridge, pouring the orange liquid into a glass. "Trust me, I'm a doctor."

I accepted it, but stared at the liquid in the glass for a moment. "You're being really casual about this."

"I know my son's a superhero, Mira."

I jumped. I hadn't told her my name.

"Henry told me." Carol sighed as she shut the fridge. "Not everyone in the family knows, it's just me and his older brother, and only because we caught him. But if he didn't want me to tell his father, he has to tell me what he's up to."

I felt as if my heart were stuck in my throat. "I'm so sorry."

Carol just raised her eyebrows "I don't know all the details of what the two of you were up to, and God knows I probably wouldn't sleep if I knew the truth. But you both got back here safely, and that's all that matters."

"We almost didn't."

"If there's one thing I've learned from working in a hospital, it's that you can't get hung up on the 'almost.'" Her tone turned stern. "You got back home safe. You succeeded. That's all you need to worry about. Now, how do you like your eggs?"

"I don't know," I admitted.

Carol tilted her head to the side. "How do you not know?"

"It's complicated."

We both turned our heads to see Henry walk into the kitchen and he took a seat at the island counter next to me.

"I see you've finally met Mira," he said. "I might not have given all of the relevant information."

"I see." Carol pulled back out the carton of POG juice and waved it.

"Thanks, Mom." Henry smiled.

"It's no problem." She smiled back at her son and poured a glass. "I've got to go on-shift soon at the hospital, and your dad is sleeping, he just got off his shift."

"Oh." Henry's face darkened. "Did he have questions—"

"None that he asked me, but that's your business to figure out." Carol continued moving around the kitchen. "I trust you can handle that."

"I'll figure something out." Henry sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "That didn't go the way it should have."

"You came home."

There was so much emotion packed into those three words. The fear, the love, and the mere simplicity of it. I could see it in her eyes, the memory of being forced to sit and wait as her child was taken and experimented on.

"I always will, Mom."

It was a promise I think we all knew that he couldn't really make. Not with heroics as his line of work.

"So, will you two be going out again today?" Carol closed the fridge and set a carton of eggs on the counter.

I shared a look with Henry.

"Not until tomorrow—-can Mira crash here?" Henry turned back to his mom. "Her situation is complicated—but she can't go back home."

Carol bit her lip, looking me up and down. "I don't like to turn someone in need away."

My grip tightened on glass. I knew it. I knew she didn't like me all that much. Not that I blamed her.

"I won't cause any trouble, or at least, I'll try not to." It was a promise I couldn't keep, but like Henry's, it seemed to endear her to me.

"It's alright, Mira." She gave me a rather maternal look, that was softer and somehow seemed more genuine than Dr. Banning's. "Stay as long as you need to."

"Hopefully I'll be off your couch within a week." I didn't know where I'd go after—but that didn't matter.

What mattered was discovering the truth.

And we were going to find Heretic and learn it straight from her.

Then I'd know why Verity joined her.

But I also knew now that Atomic Energy had something to do with it. I could never go back—and I couldn't avenge Verity by bringing in Heretic.

And no matter what I did, it wouldn't bring her back. It wouldn't end the pain, the sorrow.

I'd been relentless in pursuit of my mission. But that left me with nothing for when the answers finally came.