The hotel was nearly fully booked up. Our options were four separate rooms each with one bed, or we all shared the last single room with two beds. It wasn’t a huge deal, not to me anyway. Having a place to sleep was more important than sharing that place. It did bum the others out. Everyone but Megan, of course. She was delighted at the idea of a huge sleepover. Her joy at the idea made it impossible to be upset at the situation, so we gladly took the single room. The little girl wanted to trust someone so badly. Maybe even needed it.
“Crap!” Lori yelled, the moment we entered the room.
“Language!” I yelled back, placing the palms of my hands over Megan’s ears, something she clearly found funny by her giggles.
“Oops, sorry.” She tossed her suitcase on the bed. Alex and I put ours in the corner for the time being. She went through her clothes and started to fling lots of them everywhere. She lifted up a tank top and pair of shorts, shaking her head at them. “Megs doesn't have any other clothes. I don’t think any of mine will fit her.”
“Do these ones stink?” Megan asked, sniffing her shirt. She came away with a shrug. “Smells okay to me.”
“Well, not really, surprisingly.” Lori started to put most of her clothes back in the suitcase, keeping a fresh change in her hands. She looked at Alex with exhausted and defeated eyes. “I’m really sorry to ask, but can you see if there’s any store open that might sell something she could wear?”
Clearly not thrilled with the idea, he pulled out his phone and impatiently tapped away at the screen. “Got it. Megan, what size clothes do you wear?”
“Thank you so much,” Lori finally said after they figured out what size and kinds of clothes Alex should be looking for. “I’m going to help Megs with her bath, so if you’re back before I’m out, just toss some clothes in the bathroom.”
Lori took Megan and her hairbrush into the bathroom, leaving me alone to finally relax and nurse the headache I had. I stretched out comfortably on the bed. As comfy as the SUV was for a vehicle, nothing beat being able to stretch out fully. A few scenarios of us needing to make a quick exit without Alex or the car occupied my thoughts, so I did my best so squash those away to avoid letting myself get in a bad mood. Lori was acting self-defense, and that guy pulled the gun on us without provocation. It would have been beyond stupid for him to try and go for a second round.
That entire ordeal must have been catching up with me, because I had a small case of the shakes on top of the throbbing in my head. It happened so fast at the gas station that I didn’t even have the time to even process the panic. I was suddenly feeling trapped in the hotel room, and it felt like there was something heavy resting on my chest. With a trembling hand, I pulled out my phone to try a video call with my sister.
It rang a few times and she answered. I was surprised by her appearance. Her hair was down, she had makeup on, and she was wearing a fancy-looking blue dress. I could tell she was happy to see me, though her eyes betrayed a look of stress. Well, she was happy to see me until she noticed the blood that I’d forgotten to clean off my face. Then she was a little less than jolly.
“Okay, it was my understanding that this was supposed to be a safe trip. Why do you have dried blood all over your face?”
A nervous laugh escaped my mouth before I could stop it, which did not soften Shelly up at all. “So, funny thing, a guy pulled a gun on Lori at the gas station, and-”
“What!? Why would someone pull a gun on her? Is she okay?”
“She kind of kicked a drunk girl’s butt and her boyfriend was the one with the gun.”
“I...okay, you’ll have to give me the full explanation later. Did that girl at least deserve it? Is everyone okay?”
“Yeah, she did, and we’re all fine. Maybe a little rattled though.” I gave her a brief rundown of what happened. Turned out there wasn’t a great way to go over everything, so it just ended up being the full explanation my sister wanted. There weren’t enough details that I could really leave any out.
“Jeez, I didn’t know she had that much of a mouth on her.” Shelly shook her head, having significantly cooled down on the matter. “At least it wasn’t some weird, power-related pickle you guys found yourself in. Honestly, that was just wrong place, wrong time.”
The bathroom door burst open, letting the sound of rushing water fill the room. Megan’s hair had been brushed fully and looked much better, but it still needed a good wash. She was all smiles while she charged toward me. Before I could react, she belly-flopped right on my chest. I’d still been holding the phone up in the air above my face, and I nearly dropped it right on my nose. I grunted from the force I couldn’t brace for.
“Ethan, Ethan!” she yelled, looking back at me. “Lori threw something in the water and it turned pink and stuff! You should come see it.”
“Oh my God, please don’t tell me you got a time traveler pregnant, and this is your aged kid.” I looked back up at my phone and saw Shelly staring at Megan with a confused look. “Why is there a small child with you guys?”
“Yeah, this one is the weird, power-related pickle you wanted,” I said, the words struggling to leave me from Megan’s weight on my chest. I looked back to her with about the sternest look I could manage. It wasn’t very effective. “I thought Lori was giving you a bath?”
“She was! I wanted to show you the pink water.” Megan’s grin was huge. She flipped herself on her back, which made me grunt again. She waved when she saw Shelly. “Ethan, is that your girlfriend? She looks like a princess!”
I could barely contain my laughter. Shelly just looked disappointed in my reaction. “Nope, that’s my sister. Say hi to Shelly.”
“Oh, okay, hi Shelly!” This time Megan waved with both her tiny hands. Shelly waved back and gave her brightest smile. “You’re so pretty!”
“All right, I like this one,” Shelly said. She did a hair flip for Megan that made her laugh.
“Sorry, Ethan. I was showing her a bath bomb.” It was Lori was stepping out of the bathroom. Despite being exhausted, she was obviously enjoying the exchange. “I didn’t think that she’d get so excited. Come on, Megs, you can play in that pink water!”
That did the trick and the little one slid off my chest, being careful not to hurt either one of us. I was really hoping that bath would wear Megan out. Lori really needed herself a good night of sleep. The giggling child had to be chastised by Lori for running in the bathroom, which was just the right amount of misbehaving I expected. Other than that, she was being a great kid.
“Now that one is the long story,” I said, before remembering that Lori had talked to Mrs. Carmichael about Megan. “Wait, Mrs. Carmichael didn’t tell you about it? Lori called her earlier today about it.”
Shelly shook her head. “Not a peep.”
“Oh, well, her name’s Megan, she was orphaned by the attack on Pittsburgh, and she has an Anomaly. I found her when I checked out a mostly-destroyed house and she was hiding in her closet. She’s been such an angel since we found her, and we think it’s best to bring her back to Luna.”
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“That’s terrible. How’s she handling it all?”
“Looks like she’s a smart kid, so I think she understands that her parents are gone,” I said, not bothering to hide how upset her situation made me feel about my own parents. “She’s sad they’re gone, but she’s been just wonderful with us so far.”
“Looks like she’s latched onto you pretty good.” Shelly changed something about her makeup and adjusted her dress.
“Why are you all dressed up anyway?” I asked. I hadn’t remembered a time where she’s actually gone through the effort to put on even eyeliner, except for maybe a job interview that didn’t go anywhere.
“I’m...testing some things,” she said, failing to hide how uncomfortable she was. “I’ll have to give you full details later. Let’s just say that there aren’t any guarantees right now and I probably won’t even stick with a look like this.”
“That explains exactly nothing and probably gave me more questions,” I told her with a laugh. Still, her business was her business. Considering she didn’t freak out too bad about the gun and bringing a child with us, I was more than willing to let her have this one. “Whatever it is, good luck. You tell me about it when you’re ready.”
It looked like a small weight had lifted off my sister’s shoulders. “I was always worried I never did enough for you, but I’m really proud of how you are right now. You’ve been through so much and you still think rationally before you do things. Thank you for saving Lori, too. Keep it up, and the world might just start believing in superheroes again. Anyway, it’s late and it looks like you guys got your hands full. If you need any help at all with her, or anything, please call me.”
“You got it. I think I’m just going to shower and sleep tonight.” I yawned, already feeling the urge to sleep overtake me. “It’s been a long one.”
“Take care of each other,” she said. She shook her head at herself in the mirror before returning her gaze back to the phone. “Love you, Ethan. See you soon.”
“Love you too. I’ll try to call again tomorrow.” Shelly waved at me one more time and the screen blinked out.
I rolled over on my side and let the fatigue settle in. I wasn’t close to freaking out like I had been before calling my sister, but I was still tired. Trying to ignore the throbbing in the back of my head wasn’t working well, so I tried to focus on the sounds from the bathroom. They were still running the water, for some reason. The sounds of Megan and Lori both laughing together helped. For a nice moment, everything was peaceful.
Then Alex nearly kicked the door in. Apparently, he’d only seen the word “subtlety” in the dictionary one time, and that was about as familiar as he had gotten with the idea. He had the cooler from the SUV and about ten different bags, all filled to the point of nearly spilling over. He set the cooler down on a long table that stood against the wall. He put the bags down on the bed that Lori claimed with her suitcase and began digging through the contents. He pulled out a pair of pajamas and a toothbrush.
“Can I throw these in there?” Alex asked, tapping on the bathroom door a few times. Lori gave him the okay, and making sure he was looking behind him, he placed the items in there. At least he had a touch of modesty.
“How’re you holding up?” I asked, slowly getting into a sitting position. He didn’t look much worse for wear.
“Fine, better than you two,” he replied with a shrug. “She’s having a tough time reconciling her personality with being a leader and you’re still working on your Anomaly. Both things are a work in progress, so I should be doing better than you two. My job is easy in comparison.”
When he mentioned that Lori was having trouble managing both her personality and trying to be the leader, it reminded me of how she was worried about her anger issues. “Do you think she’ll be able to handle it?”
“Yes,” he answered, wasting no time, not wavering in his conviction. “She has a good heart and has justified anger in there too. She just has to learn when to apply that anger to the proper causes. Just like I think you’ll be able to master your Anomaly. You’ve used it about three times now and can already stop a bullet, so I have high hopes for you.”
“Wow, that’s the nicest thing you’ve said to me,” I said, wiping away non-existent tears. “I’m touched.”
“I never disliked you, Ethan.” Alex sat down in a big leather chair by the room’s window. “I just didn’t have the time or patience to babysit your power’s growth. I apologize if I was antagonistic to you, but it wasn’t me trying to be a bad guy. In fact, once your Anomaly develops further, I’d enjoy a legitimate sparring session with you.”
“Would you throw a fit if I beat you like Rosie?” I asked, doing my best to make it clear I was joking around.
“Not one of my proudest moments,” he admitted with a wince. He ran his hand over his short, black hair. I was starting to get why Lori liked the guy. He really wasn’t a mean dude. Gruff, and maybe annoyingly handsome, but not truly mean. “I get a little into it when I can use my Anomaly. Before McLeod, people rarely sparred, because why would they need to? Everything about us was either a secret or written off as a hallucination or conspiracy. We had no need for superheroes or defenders until last month.”
“How’d you realize about your power and end up at Luna?” This was the closest thing we’d ever had to a heart-to-heart, and I was certainly curious.
“My father was a police officer in Shanghai. He’s a good man, so when local corruption took over, it ended up forcing him out of the city.” Alex folded his large arms over his chest. “He relocated to Baltimore. He doesn’t tell me much about his past life, just that he’d rather leave it behind and focus on being the best man he can be here.
“I figured out about my power when I was around Megan’s age. I was taking a kickboxing class for exercise, got a bit too excited, and I put a small hole in a sandbag. Luna invited both my father and I there not long after that. He stayed with me until I turned eighteen, then he returned to Baltimore with my mother. She never hated the powers that surrounded her. She just...had trouble understanding it. When I was able to take care of myself, I wanted her to get back to some normalcy.”
“That explains your sense of duty,” I added.
“Yeah, got that one from my dad. He drilled into me that it was his job to keep people safe. It was no different when I got my Anomaly.”
“Huh, that’s unexpectedly simple,” I said, laying back down. “I was waiting for something more complicated than that.”
Alex simply shrugged his shoulders and looked out the window. Since he didn’t appear worried, I knew we were at least safe in the hotel room for the time being. Every minute that passed without the police knocking on the door increased my confidence. But what was next for the team? I had some fears mounting that it might be too dangerous to have Megan along, but driving back to Luna would have been another ten hours.
There was a small click and both girls emerged from the bathroom. Megan looked a million times better after finally getting a bath and change of clothes. She threw herself on the empty bed and snuggled under the covers. Lori had a towel around her short hair, looking infinitely better than she had when she went in.
“Shower’s open, guys. I’d take one if you haven’t had one today.” Lori sat down on the bed and started playing on her phone.
“I took one this morning, so I’ll wait until I wake up for another,” Alex said.
“Yeah, I need to get this blood off my face.” I took out some clothes that I could sleep comfortably in and hopped in the shower.
Let me say, that shower was probably one of the best I ever took. It made me more tired in a good way. Instead of just feeling pure exhaustion and soreness, my body felt like it was winding down for bed. Getting rid of that gross dried blood was good for my mental state as well. I didn’t care for the hair care products the hotel provided, but I needed to wash, so I just bit the bullet and used what was given.
After my refreshing shower, I could barely keep my eyes open. I stumbled out to the hotel room to see Megan fast asleep, teddy bear clutched in her arms, and Lori reading a book. They were sharing that bed, which made sense. Alex had claimed the other one and left plenty of space for another person. Instead of joining him, I found a spare sheet and took the unused pillow from next to Alex.
“Don’t tell me you’re really worried about sharing a bed with another guy,” he said, frowning.
“What?” My brain was working a bit too slow to put together what he meant at first, but I got it. “Oh, nah. I thrash around in my sleep a lot. We’ll both sleep better if I’m not elbowing you in the head all night.”
“You take the bed then,” Alex said, standing up. “You need the better night of rest than I do. It’ll be inconvenient if our only long-range defense can’t do anything because he slept on the floor. Plus, no one’s going to blame me if your head starts leaking again.”
“Nice way to put it.” I did appreciate the gesture though. I was already worried about having to sleep for longer than a few hours. My tossing and turning had been bad enough that I’d concerned Shelly with the noise back in Oregon. That was without nightmares too. I was just a restless sleeper.
After getting settled in the bed, I realized we didn’t have any real plan going forward. I looked toward Lori and tried to whisper for Megan’s sake. “Hey, any ideas for tomorrow?”
“Nope. I’m in bed now. Anything about tomorrow will be decided tomorrow. I’m checking out for the night.”
Lori folded the corner of the page she left off and shut her book closed. She adjusted the covers on Megan to make sure she stayed warm. Before shutting the light off, she took a long look at Alex on the floor, a little smile forming on her face. She shook her head and turned the lamp off, plunging us into darkness.
Sleep came for me not long after, washing over me like the warmth from an embrace. I was out like a light after just a couple of minutes.