No longer! I had not seen Sophia for a week, not since I had sent her off Saturday morning and I did not like that one bit. Sure, we had talked on the phone and messaged but it was just not the same. On the phone, I could not hold her, on the phone I could not kiss her and there was no way to message the feeling of closeness.

So, I did not wait for her to come to me, I went to her. We met close to her home and she did not look good, not at all. She looked more tired and beaten than I had ever seen her, including the time I had operated on her and it tore at me. I wanted to hold her, kiss her and make all her pain go away. We hugged in greeting, but she was tense, so I kept it short but grasped her hand, pulling her along with me. As much as I could truly pull someone who could bench-press the average family-car without trouble. But she went along with me and once we were on a bench in a secluded park, she relaxed a little and clung to me, sobbing into my chest.

The feeling of helplessness returned, stronger than ever. Over the last year, I had done so much. I had usurped the power of the sun, bottling the force that drives it, to use at my pleasure. I had taken what some claimed was God’s creation or, according to others, the product of millions of years of natural selection and appropriated it to further my goals, literally making me something other than human in the process. But when it came to helping the one in my arms, the human I cared most about in the world? I was powerless. And I did not like that feeling one bit.

It was not that I had no ideas to solve her problem, but there was a problem, holding me back. Or rather, what some called Mencken’s law, saying that for every human problem, there was a solution, which was neat, simple and wrong. My solutions all fell under the scope of that law, as they had all a neat simplicity to them and I could see them all going horribly wrong. So, I would keep my peace, hold Sophia whenever she needed to be held but not try to push her to follow any of my ideas to solve her family situation. Which was probably good, after all I had solved my own family problem with the age-old solution of a fiery purge and it would be a little suspicious if two girls, who were friends, from the same school burned to death in mysterious house-fires within months of each other. Even if Clark was not the sharpest tool in the shed, he might get suspicious.

After a while, Sophia had cried herself out and I handed her a tissue.

“I’m sorry. The last few times we had time together, all I do is cry on you.” she said with a few sniffles while cleaning up her face.

“None of that. I told you, I’ll be there for you. If I had any idea how to help you, I would. And if the only way I actually can help you, is be a shoulder to cry on, then so be it.” I gave her a squeeze, affirming my words.

“It’s my father. He got a new job, a few weeks back. Two weeks ago, he started to stay out late in the evening, as he always does. He gets a job, starts drinking, screws up because he’s drunk, gets fired, sobers up and searches for a new job. I’ve seen the cycle play out, over and over again, like a bad advertisement and it’s always the same pattern. It starts with ‘drinking a few beers with his friends after work’ and escalates from there.” she explained with contempt in her voice.

“So, I wasn’t surprised when it started again. At the same time, he and mom got into it a lot more, blaming each other for my brothers disappearance, when they were not blaming me. They got on my case for staying out late, for not having a job, for being lazy, for not having perfect grades, nothing I could ever do was good enough.” I could feel her getting tense, so I started stroking her back.

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“But, it seems this time it’s different. He…” she paused for a second. ”This Sunday, he went to church.” There was a tone of disbelief. “He asked me if I wanted to go, but I said no. He never went to church before, ever. But I thought, hey, it can’t be worse than drinking himself into a stupor, can it? Turns out, it can. Now, instead of yelling drunkenly, he yells while he’s sober and blames mom and me for everything. Says that mom’s loose morals have driven his son away, says that I’m a worthless whore, just like my mother.” Another bout of crying shook her, tearing at my heart.

“Sweetie, you are not worthless. And you are certainly not a whore. You are a bright and bubbly young woman, full of life and potential. To me, you are the most important human on the whole planet.” I pulled her head up slightly, to give her a soft kiss.

She looked at me, tears still flowing down her face but hope in her eyes. “Really?”

“Yes, really.”

I must have said the right thing as she brightened up considerably, used the tissue again and started fussing about the wet spot she had left on my t-shirt. I almost started laughing, as if I cared about a wet spot, just seeing her happier was worth hundreds of t-shirts.

“So, how are things with the Omegas?” she asked in a total non-sequitur, almost giving me whiplash by the abrupt change in topic. Maybe she wanted to keep her good, current mood not think about her father and bring it back down.

“Still gathering data. But I think I have an idea who I want to use as a chess piece in the police-department.” I told her, before explaining the circumstances surrounding Detective Kendall and why I believed it would be a good idea to let her be our hound.

We stayed on the bench for some time longer, until her mobile rang and ripped us out of our bubble of tranquility. She answered and I was easily able to hear her father yell at her that she should be home, not tramping around outside. A large part of me wanted to take the phone and yell at him, for making Sophia feel bad, but no, it would not help, only escalate things. So, after a long and desperate kiss, we split, she went home and I went into my bunker.

Once there, Galatea had a treat for me. A video had mentioned me and it was something positive, positive enough that she insisted that I watch it on the big screen.

On the screen, a small girl was hobbling with a crutch towards a middle-class house. After a second, I recognised the girl, it was Eliana, the girl I had found ten days ago. Her leg was still in a cast and she had a thick bandage around her neck but it seemed she had recovered from her fall quite well. The video cut to Eliana sitting on a sofa, with her mother next to her, an arm around her child.

“Hello folks. My name is Kira and this is my daughter, Eliana. Ten days ago, my sweetie had an accident, she fell down a ravine and hurt herself. You can see her cast, you can see the bandage, but you can’t see the bruises and the broken bones. You can’t see that she was incredibly lucky that her neck was only cracked, not broken.” There was a tear, running down her cheek.

“And you can’t see that she’s sitting here with me, because of a true hero. To that hero, my daughter wants to say something.” She continued with a smile on her face.

“Hi Metis. My mama said that you found me. I want to say thank you, for finding me. And thank you, for saving me. Mama said that I’m really lucky and the doctor said it was a miracle. And you made it possible. So, Thank you.” The girl probably had been told what to say, but it did not change that it felt good hearing her, seeing her smiling.

“I don’t know your circumstances, Metis. I don’t know why you choose to defy society to walk your own path. And I don’t care that they call you a villain, a vigilante. You saved my daughter. For that, I will always be grateful. For that, you are our hero.” The mother concluded and Eliana raised a drawn picture of me. Well, probably. It was a little hard to make out, as it was clearly drawn by her but at that moment, it did not matter. What mattered was that I was not helpless. That I could make a difference. That I had made a difference in the life of a child, the ultimate difference.

There was no reason I could not make a difference in Sophia’s life. Somehow, I would manage to do so.