When Sean was finally ready, we made our way down to the kitchen. I was in no mood to talk and he either wasn’t either or was willing to humor me. Luckily, I only got lost once on the way there. I found the library and made my way through the dining room again. Sean stared at everything but didn’t comment. When we entered the kitchen, Fletch was still standing at his little island, only now he was chopping something I didn’t recognize. It looked like a very large green potato. He didn’t look up until I stopped in front of him.

“Could I get a couple more pieces of that toast, please? My friend needs breakfast.”

Fletch looked up from his chopping with narrowed eyes. “Does he? Well, this isn’t a bed-and-breakfast! People marching in and out of my kitchen at all hours demanding things. He can just wait for lunch.” He went back to his chopping. It looked like David had already been here.

Sean stepped up to the island, “Listen here you little—”

I frantically motioned for him to stop. Fletch had stopped his chopping and was looking murderously at Sean.

“It’s ok, Fletch.” I said in an airy voice. “We don’t want to bother you. I’ll just get it myself.” I smiled innocently at him. “If that’s alright with you?” I made a move to the back counter.

But Fletch beat me there. “And destroy my kitchen? Oh, no you will not. I’ll get it myself.” In no time, I was handing Sean a plate of dark bread and pushing him out the door.

We made our way through the dining room, but when I turned toward the library Sean stopped.

“Where are you going?” he asked.

“Library.” I pointed to show him.

He shook his head. “Bar,” he pointed in the other direction.

“It’s not even noon and you're still recovering.” He just shrugged. “Suite yourself,” I said. “I’ll be back in a minute.” He started to turn away, but I put a hand on his arm to stop him. “Hey, you're not planning on slipping out, are you? It really is safer here.”

He shoved a piece of toast in his mouth. “Nope, this place is way too interesting.” He winked at me and headed for the bar.

In the library, I found Ben and Mel in their usual corner, but David wasn’t there. Instead, Anna was curled up in a big chair, reading. She looked up as I walked in. It looked like she’d been crying. I would have preferred to join Sean in the bar, but I had already made eye contact and I didn’t want to be rude. She got up and came to stand next to me. Even puffy eyed, she was gorgeous. I tried to smile. “Have Colin and the others gotten back yet?”

That was evidently the wrong thing to say. Tears began rolling down her face. “No.” She wiped her hand over her eyes and took a shaky breath. “I’m sorry. I’m just so worried. They shouldn’t have gone. I wish I was with them. I might have been able to help.”

I didn’t know what to say. Crying people made me uncomfortable. I thought about hugging her, but dismissed the idea quickly. Hugging made me uncomfortable too. Before I could decide on anything, though, Sean appeared at her side. He offered her a drink I suspected may have been intended for me, and ushered her to a sofa as he introduced himself. He glanced over his shoulder at me and winked again. I rolled my eyes. I was regretting saving him.

I didn’t interrupt, though. They were certainly pretty enough for each other. That left only Ben and Mel for conversation. Luckily, they didn’t seem any more interested in conversation than I was, so I made my way to the bar by myself. I had never been much of a drinker, but this seemed as good a time to start as any. Oh, I’d done my fair share in college but it got old quick and now the most I had was a glass of wine now and then. Until the last couple of weeks, at least. I had no idea what most of the brightly colored bottles behind the bar were. I opened one of the small refrigerators under the counter and found a beer. I took it to one of the tall chairs and sat down to wait.

That didn’t last long, though. For the first time in months, I had energy and was having trouble sitting still. I got up and paced around the room for a while, but that didn’t help much. I wished Nate or Cooper were there to talk to. That gave me an idea. I should check on Kennedy, I actually should have done that days ago, but he had slipped my mind after that first night. I made my way back to the library. Anna looked more calm under the attention of Sean. They didn’t even look up when I walked in. I made my way over to Ben and Mel.

“I wanted to check on Kennedy. Do you know which room is his?”

Mel stared at me like I smelled bad. Ben grinned. He made grinning look obscene, and pointed up the stairs. “Second door on the left.”

But when I knocked on the door he had indicated, it wasn’t Kennedy who answered but Stephen, looking as pale and frightened as ever. I tried to look friendly. “Hi Stephen. I just wanted to check and see how Kennedy was doing.”

“Is that Jemma?” I heard Kennedy boom from somewhere further in. Stephen stepped back silently, and I walked in. Kennedy was reclining on a big leather couch, propped up on at least half a dozen pillows. He looked less pale than he had the night before and was still beaming.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Come to check up on your patient, huh?” He laughed and winced. “Well, I promise I’ve been right here since last night. Just sitting here, healing.” He gave a dramatic sigh. “Stephen is taking extremely good care of me, though.” He nodded toward Stephen, who was nervously fidgeting around the room.

“I’m sorry I didn’t stop by sooner…” but he just waved away my protest.

“No need to worry about me. I’m sure you’ve had enough on your mind.”

I walked over and inspected the cut I’d patched. It looked to be healing well. The bruise on his cheek looked nastier, though. It had turned an ugly yellow around the edges. Looking at it, I remembered what Sean had told me.

“Why didn’t you tell anyone Sean did this to you?”

His eyes widened. “I take it he is awake then?” I nodded. “That is good to hear.” he smiled again. “I didn’t say anything because I was afraid he wouldn’t get the help he needed if I did.”

It was my turn to be shocked. “Do you really think I would have just let him die?”

“No! Of Course not! But you would have looked at him differently, treated him differently maybe, if you had known. I just wanted him to get a fair shake. He was scared when he did this. It shouldn’t be held against him.”

I had to admit; he was probably right. I probably wouldn’t have even gone to Sean’s room this morning if I had known.

“You are much kinder than most people would be in the same situation,” I said.

“Ah, what can I say?” He spread his hands. “I’ve a big heart, you know. Is he going to be alright?”

“He’s downstairs having a mixed drink and flirting with Anna, so my best guess is yes.”

“My kind of guy.” He looked genuinely pleased with the news. I made a mental note to force Sean to apologize to him later. “Listen, Jemma, I know it’s not kosher to ask and all but,” he lowered his voice, “what is your superpower? You know, your ability?”

“Ah. Well, um. I don’t really know.” It felt terrible lying to him.

“Hey! Me neither!”

“What? Really?”

“Yeah. I went through the change and all. That sucked. But I haven’t been able to figure out what exactly happened? And trust me, I have tried.” He began raising fingers, “I tried moving things with my mind, controlling the weather, breathing underwater, flying…”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it with the image of a round, rosy-cheeked Kennedy jumping off a roof in my head.

He laughed too. “Oh yes! You laugh but I tell you, that did not end well. Anyway, no luck so far. I figure it will come to me eventually, though. I just hope I get something cool, like Stephen.” I looked at Stephen. Big surprise, he looked scared. Kennedy just went right on. “He can explain it better than I can, something about bending light, but basically he’s the invisible man. How awesome is that?” He looked at Stephen with pride. “Come on Stephen, show Jemma what you can do.”

Stephen seemed to draw some confidence from Kennedy’s encouragement and nodded. At first, nothing happened, and I looked back to Kennedy. He just grinned and motioned back to Stephen. When I looked back, he seemed blurry. As I watched, he sort of shimmered and then he was gone.

“Whoa!”

Kennedy gave a full belly laugh and groaned. “See. Didn’t I tell ya? Awesome, right? It has its drawbacks though, right Stephen?”

Stephen reappeared. He was just there again and nodded. “I can’t move too quickly or it becomes unstable. But I am working to fix that. I think I can. And it only works where there’s enough light. I can’t do it if it is too dark.” His deep voice was still a surprise. .

Kennedy was nodding happily. “Yeah, but he can do that for other people, too. If they’re close enough. That’s the only reason we got away the other night. He saved us.” Stephen looked embarrassed by all the attention. Kennedy must have known he was making his friend uncomfortable because he quickly changed the subject. “So, nurse lady, when will I be able to get back on my feet? I really don’t like lying around all day. Well, that’s not entirely true. I do like lying around all day. I just don’t like being told I have to.”

“It can take weeks for broken ribs to heal.” He looked defeated. “But there’s a possibility nothing was broken. You might feel better again in a couple more days if that’s the case. Just take it easy for as long as you can.”

“Let’s keep our fingers crossed, then. Ah, I’m sure I’ll be up in no time, and back out there saving people.” He laughed.

That reminded me of Colin and Nate and Copper. What would happen to us if they got caught? Stephen’s trick was great, but I doubted he could hide all of us, and Mel had her strength and Sean had whatever it was he had done. Still, no matter what the public thought, we would have a hard time defending ourselves even with the others here.

“Oh now,” Kennedy turned gingerly to better look up at me. “Why the long face? I’m ok. Really.”

“I know. I was just thinking about Nate and Colin and Copper. I don’t know if you heard, but they went out looking for a new Phoenix last night.”

“Yeah.” Kennedy nodded earnestly. “David told us just a bit ago. He said it was something big, otherwise they wouldn’t have gone.”

“I’m worried about them. It could be another setup like you ran into.”

“They’ll be fine. Really. I haven’t seen a problem yet Colin couldn’t think his way out of. And Cooper and Nate can take care of themselves, too. They will probably be back by lunch.” I must not have looked convinced, because he sighed and patted my hand. “Don’t work yourself up. Hey, If you're looking for something to do, check out the AV room. I wish I could get down there myself. I’m dead bored.”

“What’s that?”

“Oh, it is awesome, that’s what. It’s just off the library. Big TVs with about a billion channels, computers, radios, scanners...fun for hours!”

I’d seen people in and out of that room but never been in there myself. “Yeah. That’s a good idea. Thanks.” I turned back when I got to the door. “Is there anything I can get you? Maybe some books or something?”

Kennedy waved a chubby hand. “Nah, I was never much of a reader. I’m fine. You just work on not worrying yourself sick.”