I tried to enjoy the quiet times, I was never sure how long they would last. As I browsed through the beautiful displays of flowers all around me, sometimes I opened my eyes just a little bit to see them as the rest of the world saw them.

Even more beautiful that way, as it turned out.

For probably the third or fourth time, I saw Steffie push herself up out of her wheelchair to barely peek over the large glass counter filled with vases of roses to steal a glimpse of me. I pretended not to notice, but there was very little which I didn't.

The same day I'd woken up being able to be somewhere else was the last day I'd really used my eyes to look at the world. With them eyes shut, I could see all around me, through walls even, like surveying the scene from a bird's-eye view, but not from a bird's-eye view. Color was almost nonexistent, but I think it might be overwhelming otherwise. Perhaps x-ray vision was the more common term, but that was absolutely incorrect too. First off, I didn't give people cancer by looking at them too hard, and second, everyone didn't look merely like bones.

However one described it, I could see everything around me with as much detail as if I were focusing on it, including Steffie straining her untrained arms to lean out of her wheelchair and surreptitiously steal glances at me. I felt bad making her struggle like that. I always tried to help people avoid their struggles when I could, which was actually why I was here.

Other than me, there were also two rather menacing XPCA soldiers. Not in full exosuits, thank goodness, but still obviously armed, and obviously stationed here by the door. I couldn't imagine they were good for Steffie's sales, or her blood pressure. I didn't know on whose orders they'd been stationed here, but ever since we found out, Tower and I had been taking it in shifts to keep an eye on them while they kept an eye on her.

She was, after all, still legally supposed to be dead presently, and the XPCA did love keeping things legal where they could.

But it had been three days without issues greater than Steffie's growing paranoia and unease. We were deploying tomorrow, so if any sort of final solution were to be drawn up, it'd have to be today. I always tried to aim for final resolutions where I could, I wasn't much a man for loose ends.

So, to cut out the chaff, I headed for the counter. Steffie was sneaking another peek, and almost fell out of her chair to see me coming right at her. Almost unconsciously, I appeared at her side and helped her back into her seat, but to my surprise, she slapped at my hand and looked at me viciously.

"Just finish the job already. I don't know why you're still here," she said bitterly.

I would have blinked in surprise if my eyes were open.

"Ma'am, I have no intention of killing you," I explained.

"I might be a weak, stupid, Exhuman cripple, but I'm not an idiot," she yelled. "Chariot saved me, and now that he's out of the picture, it's just you two and your hired guns to finish the job. So? What are you waiting for? Trying to get me to use my powers again, because it's not happening, I'm not falling for that bait."

"Relax, please. I assure you, me and my broad-shouldered compatriot mean you no harm."

"Then why are there armed soldiers at my door every day? Why do you loiter in my store smiling all day without ever talking to me? And why do you just...smile. That's so creepy."

"That's an awful lot of questions," I said, thinking.

"Oh, God, you're going to silence me," she said, gripping the wheels of her chair.

"If by silence you mean attempt to answer them so you worry less, then perhaps so. I was just thinking of where to start."

She still had the wheels in her hands but didn't move. I opened an eye to peer at her face, and saw it was trembling. She was scared, but wanted to believe me. I supposed starting with the most embarrassing story would probably put her mind at ease the fastest.

"Hmm, well, why I smile. That is quite the question. It's a number of things, I think. I've been doing it so long, it just feels strange not to now. This may surprise you, but I can actually see quite well with my eyes shut, as part of my powers, but I have endless trouble reading faces with it. Even though it is limiting to open my eyes, I still do it from time to time just to check."

"I thought you were just winking at me."

"Why would I do that?" I shrugged. "But seeing everyone else with blank faces all the time...I suppose it helps to make me forget that to smile all the time is unusual."

And then as though it were an afterthought I added "Also, the last words my wife said to me before I woke up Exhuman were that I would look a lot better if I smiled more. I try to take her words to heart."

"Oh," said Steffie, sitting back further in her chair and putting her hands in her lap. "When was that?"

"About three years ago? I try not to keep track."

"Sorry."

"It is no matter. I had very little control over my powers when I first got them and was disappearing and reappearing everywhere with a mere thought. Understandably, she took our child and tried to flee, but if by her side was where I wished to be, that is where my powers took me, no matter where she ran. I fear it was rather traumatic for both of them."

I felt something unusual on my face and realized I wasn't smiling. I sighed and took in the beautiful flowers around me for a moment to strengthen myself.

"As for your other questions, Tower and I have been ignoring you because we were attempting to leave you in peace, as much as that was possible. As for what the soldiers are doing here, we have no idea, and that is why we are here, to make sure they do not harm you."

"Why didn't you just say that when you first showed up?"

"I didn't wish to trouble you by introducing the worry that these men might be sent to murder you."

"Yes, because having those men and you standing around silently for three days is much less scary."

"Hmm." I spent a moment chewing on her words. "I suppose in retrospect, it seems natural you would conclude we were with them. I apologize for the misunderstanding. Now hopefully I will do what is long overdue and speak with those two gentlemen and get all three of us out of your lovely shop."

She nodded, but didn't seem optimistic. I stole a glance and confirmed my suspicions. Oh well. I walked around the counter and towards the men.

"Hello," I said airily to the two of them, flanking the door like gargoyles.

"Sir," one said. They didn't salute, which was fine, I was in civilian clothes.

"You two know who I am?"

"Yes sir."

"Why are you here?"

"We're keeping the Exhuman under armed guard, sir."

"I don't suppose I have the authority to supersede this order?"

"No sir."

That would have been far too easy. And unlikely besides. The amount of rank we were to hold exactly was still a matter discussed reasonably heatedly through the XPCA, but in the meanwhile we'd levelled out somewhere just around specialists and NCOs...important enough that we shouldn't be bothered by the enlisted, and if any of them decided to be a hero and give us a hard time, a court-marshal for assaulting a superior officer was a certainty...but also not high enough to affect any XPCA operations but our own.

"The girl is having a hard enough time without us looming threateningly," I explained. "I'm going to have to insist that if you are keeping her under guard, you do it less conspicuously. Keep outside, wear street clothes, and carry concealed."

"Is that an order, sir?"

"Yes." I'd take it up with Cosette when I got back, but I was almost certain I could push that much through, at least. Dealing with living Exhumans without killing them was, so far, almost exclusively the purview of our team.

"Yes, sir," they turned and marched outside, where they took up post across the street. Good enough, I supposed.

"They really left," Steffie said, sounding surprised. Slowly, she wheeled out from behind the counter next to me.

The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

"I assume you heard all of that? I can't get rid of them, but they seem to just be keeping you under guard. Think of it as house arrest, minus the house. And arrest, I suppose."

"No, yes, I did. Thank you, really. You may have just saved my business."

"Helping Exhumans is our new plan," I said, with a smile.

"Look, it's about closing up time here, I'll give it another shot tomorrow...could I get you dinner or something to thank you? I feel terrible that I had just assumed you were...bad."

"I have no other plans. Do you need help closing up?"

"Won't say no if you're offering."

I helped her move flowers into the cool rooms in the back and close up while she filed paperwork and orders, and in about half an hour, she closed the door behind us and locked it.

"Do you...want a push?" I asked, not certain how tactful to be about this subject.

"No, I've just been sitting there all day, I'm never going to get stronger if I don't do it myself." She wheeled clumsily in place and joined me going down the sidewalk. I liked her attitude, but thought privately that the snowy sidewalks were far more trouble than that attitude was worth. Of course, using my own powers as often as I could, I wasn't the model subject.

Still, we weren't going far, and she made constant, if slow, determined progress. I stepped into the street as the light turned green and waited for a moment while she unstuck herself off a bump in the snow, compacted down by dozens of footprints.

Without so much a glance in my direction, the driver of a blue pickup truck tore through the intersection, turning right at speeds to make his tires squeal, and headed straight at me.

Of course, it would have been trivial to simply be out of the way, but this was a crowded public intersection, and I didn't want to use my powers in public if it could be avoided. For the driver's idiocy, if he wasn't going fast enough to flip his truck in the turn, he wasn't going fast enough to hit me without me having a chance to move.

So move I did. I jumped for the sidewalk, seeing the car pass by where I just stood, missing me by inches. The driver gave me a look I couldn't read, but it involved his mouth hanging open like an idiot.

I stumbled on the sidewalk and landed on my bad leg, collapsing in a heap next to Steffie, who screamed, startled more than afraid, I hoped.

"I'm okay," I announced, as a couple of other good samaritans helped me to my feet. "It is nothing, thank you." I peeked at them, unable to read the mood of the crowd, and was relieved to see them all merely helpful and worried. One informed me I should 'sue that blind idiot', which I promised him I would take under consideration. Hoping to escape the crowd, I got Steffie over the bump and put us through the intersection before the light changed its mind.

"It's hard, isn't it," she asked, sounding sad. "Not using your powers."

"I am rather more dependent on them than I would like to admit."

"I saw you fall. What's wrong with your leg?"

"You are one to ask?" I said jokingly. I realized it didn't come out that way, and cringed behind my smile. "Um, I will tell the story over dinner, perhaps?"

Dinner was no fancy affair, which I preferred, just a corner deli. If she were taking me out as thanks and there truly was no ulterior motive, it would make no sense to celebrate the revitalization of her business by spending all her profits. She had a salad, and I had an egg salad sandwich.

Cooking was another thing I had lost considerable proficiency in. Like faces, it seemed my powers cared very little for the details which were essential to preparing food. I could see, heck, count the individual strands of pasta in a pot if I desired, but being able to glance at toast or chops for color or consistency? Impossible.

Not that egg salad was beyond my reach, but I still enjoyed any meal I didn't have to labor through. I had shirked cooking duties at Blackett manor as much as humanly possible.

"I owe you a story, I believe," I began as we ate. "But before I tell you, I should inform you, this is not a story you want to hear. I encourage you to abort this line of questioning now."

"I'll be the judge of that afterwards, I guess."

"I suppose so. Say, have you been speaking to any doctors or therapists about what transpired with your legs during the Exhuman event?"

"Yeah. They say there's good odds of recovering function if I get surgery soon before the nerves wither. I'm just trying to scrape together the money now, which is another reason I really didn't appreciate you and your friends."

I felt my mouth twitch. "I...do not mean to be too forward, but I...would encourage you not to pursue that course of action."

"Why?"

"It comes to my leg, you see. I told you, when my wife and child fled, I harried them for quite some time, without control of my powers. It was actually a matter of days before her sister intervened and alerted the XPCA, though I believe they'd heard about it before then and were already preparing for me. Regardless, at some point, without warning, from outside of my visible range...everything past a distance simply looks black and nonexistent to me, perhaps about a city block...something hit me, and XPCA appeared from everywhere."

"I had been stunned by whatever attack they used, and in my moments of lost lucidity, they detained me and evacuated my family from the scene. It took me mere minutes to realize what happened, and when I did, addled though I was, I went after them. They were beyond my sight, but if I opened my eyes, I could see the van taking them away, driving away from me half a mile away or more. I didn't even consider, I went to them...and realized why I needed both halves of my power working in tandem to function."

"What happened?"

"I went to them without being able to see, and so appeared inside their van blind, unaware of what was inside. When I materialized, my leg was inside of one of the metal benches, just as you had been forced to materialize inside of a wall. In my experience, when I appear in a place, I simply do so, I do not displace what exists, both of us exist in the same place. For air this is apparently trivial, but not so with metal benches or stone walls."

I looked down at my leg. "I think that even now there is a van driving around with a piece of my leg embedded within it on some submicroscopic level, and that within me resides the matching pieces of that bench. I have been through regenerators and visited doctors and none can find a thing wrong with me except that from the calf down, one of my legs only barely functions. I can walk on it and little more. Like you, I was offered positive prognoses, but none ever worked. I suspect...your fate will be similar."

I checked, and she had teared up. I offered her a napkin which she accepted with gratitude.

"I should have known," she said, her voice choked. "I should have known that it was too good to be true. And the whole time I was getting X-rays and blood work, I was just worried they'd realize I was an Exhuman somehow and call the police. When they told me my odds of recovery looked good, I could hardly believe it."

I squeezed her hand. "I'm sorry. I understand your pain, and I feel guilty for having my powers used to do this to you. Doing that to others is something I try to avoid, but obviously our thief had no such restraint."

I comforted her a while longer while she bemoaned and accepted her fate, and cried. I tried to keep smiling for her as well.

Finally, eyes red, salad long-since ruined with tears, she seemed finally defeated, or to have defeated her emotions, and sat unsteady, bleary, and with a napkin in hand but no more tears to use it on.

"Jack," she said, only a slight catch in her voice. "You are a really nice guy."

"I try."

"No, you didn't have to do any of this. Tell me your story, or protect my store or me from those guys, or ask them to go, or open up to me about your past life. This was all just so...so unexpected."

"Like I said, I felt like I owed you at least this much for allowing my powers to be misused in such a way."

"Is that really it though?"

"I suppose I also thought you looked like you could use a hand and some encouragement."

"Yeah. And that's why I said you were nice, because you had those thoughts and then you also did something about them. I'm sorry I called you creepy."

"I am accustomed to it. At least you weren't using my name to invent disparaging nicknames."

"Is Jack your real name? I thought you all had fancy codenames like Tower and Chariot."

"The codenames came after me. I was the second in the group, and there is little use for codenames when there is only one. Amusingly my name honestly is Jack. I suppose my codename is 'Jack of Swords' if we are being specific. Though...I don't use a sword, a knife once, but I lost it somewhere during the event. It is difficult to procure any back at XPCA which has any air of refinement."

"A knife?"

"Yes. Though this is hardly appropriate dinner conversation, I apologize."

"That's...funny." She plunged into the large purse hanging from the back of her chair, and pulled out what looked like a short wooden rod and handed it to me.

It was about a foot long, and there was a seam about a third down the length. I gripped either side of the seam and pulled them apart, drawing an eight-inch blade from the two-thirds which were a wooden sheath. The blade was sharp, straightforward, and elegant.

"What need does a florist have for a weapon such as this?" I asked.

"Well, when I thought those guys were going to kill me, I started bringing this in. I don't know where it came from, it was something of my grandfather's, he had tons of weird junk. I never thought I'd use it until just a couple days ago."

"This is a long single-edged blade, strengthened and pointed for thrusting but capable of slashing as well. Very flat, ornate mounting, but simple in design. I believe it's called a tanto."

"I don't know. I just thought it was a big knife. Do you want it?"

"Only if you don't."

"Well, if your story about the doctors is true, you saved me enough credits to buy ten of those, so please, take it if you'd use it."

I thanked her and held onto it. I'd have to ask to have a holster made for the sheath on my belt, but the simple wood case was inconspicuous enough despite its size that I could carry it at all times. I quite liked it.

We wound up chatting for another hour about happier things, and then I insisted on walking her home, citing that I'd just stolen her single means of self-defense. She agreed on the terms I gave her my mobile contact, in case the men came back, which I happily obliged, and then we walked slowly back until I saw her safely inside. I refused the invitation of having a drink, citing that we were deploying for a mission tomorrow.

I lurked nearby, keeping an eye on her with my other sight until I was sure she was comfortably at home, feeling some small guilt for spying when she did some celebratory spins and accompanying dancing. I supposed she was just happy to finally be rid of us and the XPCA.

I turned into a dark alley, and then appeared closer and closer to the Raven's Nest, arriving in a matter of moments. Policy dictated that I go through the security checkpoint with each entry or egress, but that was really far too much trouble, and I simply appeared within our bunk, Tower and Chariot already asleep in their beds, and Tem asleep on the floor near Chariot, somehow looking comfortable despite having no pillow or blanket.

I smiled at them, and said a silent prayer for Mage, whom I hoped was happier wherever she was now. I gently draped a blanket over Tem and put a pillow near her, which she wrapped herself around with a contented murmur, and then appeared in the shower, leaving my clothes behind as I went.

My leg was killing me. I hadn't done this much walking in a long time, and for good reason, but it had all been worth it to see Steffie's exultant celebration back in the privacy of her home.

I thought back to my reasons I'd listed for why I smile and considered that, in future tellings of that story, I would have at least one more to add. I tried to always keep the good things in mind.