by Bryan Cohen
"This isn't right." Dhiraj tried to touch Jennifer's waist to push her away, but his hands were too shaky to do much of anything. "It's what I want, but not the way I want it."
Jennifer sidestepped Dhiraj and sat down on the bedspread. He joined her.
"You don't like me?" Jennifer sniffled.
Dhiraj steadied his hand and took a hold of hers. "It's the opposite. I love you. And you're my friend. I don't understand what you're going through, but I want to."
With that, Jennifer let her emotions fly out in the form of tears. She lowered her head into Dhiraj's lap and wept. He cradled her head with one hand and put the other around her waist. She laced her fingers with his and cried until she fell asleep.
Chapter 27
When Ted woke up the following morning, he was surprised he and his dad had been able to pass out on the blue upholstered chairs given the consistent beeping of the machines hooked up to his mother. When Mrs. Finley's eyes opened to see Ted and his dad sitting by her side, she smiled so wide that even Ted was almost convinced that nothing bad had happened.
"My boys." She reached for the them, and they obliged her with a gentle hug. "I'm so glad you're OK."
When the embrace ended, Ted let out a tear and a laugh. "You almost die in a fire and you're glad we're OK?"
Even with heavy pain medication, Ted's mother gave him a quick smirk. "I was afraid you two wouldn't last four hours without me, let alone an entire night." She grew serious. "How's the house?"
Ted's dad shook his head and smiled. "Aside from that terrible quilt and a few burned patches of carpet, we made out OK."
"The quilt?" She somehow smiled wider than when she'd first spied them. "The bomb was truly a gift from God, then."
His mother's smile soon gave way to a quivering lip. When she started to sob, Ted's heart completely broke. He and his father began to cry as well. There were no words for the next minute or so as the Finleys coped with their ordeal.
Ted sniffled and restarted the dialogue. "Mom, why'd you try to find me?" He took her hand. "You could've gotten yourself killed."
She tightened her grip and let out a shallow exhale. "You can't take the mother out of the mom."
Ted couldn't help but think what would've happen if the weapon had been more powerful. What if it would've taken his mother from him? Ted felt his face grow hot.
"What am I supposed to do, guys?" Ted pulled back and turned away from his parents. "These people could do this again. And they might have Natalie stashed somewhere. If I could just get my hands on Cobblestone."
"Theodore Finley!" Ted's mother could be just as stern from a hospital bed as she could from a standing position. "You're old enough to make your own decisions, but you're smart enough to make sure they aren't made in anger."
Mr. Finley took his wife's other hand. "I don't know, Deb." He glanced over at Ted. "I'd kind of like to strangle Cobblestone right now myself."
Ted appreciated the support, but he could see his father's comment start to pierce his mother's calm.
"Vigilantes? Are those the people I've married and raised?"
"But Mom–"
"But nothing, Ted." His mother looked stronger as she sat up in her bed. Past all the bandages and the beeping machines, she was still a mom through and through. "If you make this emotional, you've let the bad guys win. They want you to hurt somebody else or hurt yourself. You want justice, but they want to turn you into one of them. I'm going to be fine, but I won't be if you let them win."
Ted wasn't sure how his mother did it. She never whined or complained, and when she had every right to, she had exactly the wisdom he needed to hear. He just wasn't sure if he wanted to listen to it right now.
Ted attempted to let himself relax. He wasn't sure how well it was working. "Alright."
Ted caught Erica talking to two men out of the corner of his eye. He recognized them as Agents Vott and Harding. "I'll try my best. Be back in a sec."
Ted kissed his mom on the cheek and hugged his dad before heading back into the hallway.
Ted had gotten used to the hospital smell over the last 12 hours. It was both sanitary and sick at the same time. Every person he passed was ill, taking care of someone who was ill or doing their best to cope with someone who was ill. He'd been comforted by several people during his stay in the waiting area, though he wondered if that was the hospital community or his celebrity status at work.
Ted joined Erica's side. She covertly took his hand and gave it a squeeze before going back into business mode. Ted wondered how many people Erica had lost in her many lifetimes.
Would seeing that many people die make you care more or less?
Vott and Harding barely even noticed Ted's entrance into the chat. Ted assumed they had figured out that Erica was the one who needed more convincing than he did.
"Natalie Dormer is still missing." Agent Vott said. "She remains our #1 person of interest until we find some more evidence."
"But I already told you, she was set up." Erica had come a long way from pretending she was too stupid to function around the DHS. Now she was talking to the two agents as though they were too stupid to function. "You need to search the GHA headquarters. They probably have her in a bunker. If she's still alive." Erica looked over at Ted. "Sorry."
He nodded. "It's okay. I know she's alive. I can feel it."
"The GHA is protected by some major players in Washington," Agent Harding said. "The chances of us getting clearance to search their building are unlikely."
Ted wondered who in the government disliked him enough to protect the same people who just bombed his house. Whoever it was, he certainly wouldn't be voting for them when he was old enough to hit the polls.
Agent Vott cleared his throat. "Now, if you join up with us, we can make this problem go away and keep your family safe."
Erica scowled at the agents. "Ted's mom is in the hospital. It could've been Ted himself who was maimed or killed. Then you wouldn't even have a chance to sign him up for your little club."
Ted took Erica by the shoulder. "Hey, let's talk about this in private for a sec. Guys, can you excuse us?"
The agents nodded and Ted took Erica to the other side of the waiting area. She pushed Ted's arm off and started to pace away from him.
"I don't trust them and you shouldn't, either." Erica folded her arms and continued to walk.
"Of course I don't trust them. But just because I don't trust them doesn't mean I might not need them."
Erica gave Ted a death glare. "It's part of the job that people you love will be in danger."
Ted considered telling Erica that he didn't exactly apply for the position. He had a feeling that line of reasoning would be met with a swift kick in the gut.
"I know." He took her shoulders and did his best to look calm. "But most of the time these living souls have a secret identity. I don't, and I need to keep my family safe."
Ted's attempts to bring Erica down to a simmer were having the opposite effect. She was as tense as he'd ever seen her.
"When I was a living soul, I nearly died trying to live a normal life." She pounded her fist into her other hand. "If I'd just listened to my protector, I might have died knowing the people I loved lived happy, fulfilled lives. I didn't listen."
Ted scrunched his forehead and tried to understand exactly what Erica just said.
"You were a living soul? You were like me?" Ted pictured Erica flying through the air at top speed.
She let out a groan. "Yes. I was like you. I wouldn't listen and I got the people around me into trouble by being an idiot."
Ted didn't know why Erica was so on edge, but it was starting to damage his calm. "So, you're saying the bomb was my fault?"
Erica smacked the nearest wall, leaving a several-inch crack in the wake of her outburst. The noise from the structural assault caused more than a little attention from nearby patients, visitors and nurses.
"I'm saying there will always be human problems to worry about. You need to c
are about bigger things now, Ted. What's the point of protecting a few people when the whole world could go down in flames?"
Ted didn't care if people were looking at them, and they certainly were. He couldn't believe Erica was treating him like this.
"I already saved the world. The world isn't in 'peril' anymore."
"Your world is always in danger." Erica pulled the collar of Ted's shirt toward her. "If you join up with the DHS, maybe you'll save a few people from a hurricane or something, but right now we need to focus on whoever stole that book."
Ted heard his mother's calming voice in his head and ignored it. He felt the anger bubbling over. "How do I even know I can trust you?"
Ted had never seen Erica's eyebrows go so high. Her mouth opened as if Ted had just questioned her very core. "Excuse me?"
Ted seethed. Erica had been the one who let Natalie walk right into a trap. She'd held back on telling him about powers that for all he knew could have thwarted the bombing. And when a solution presented itself to deal with the GHA, she was the only thing that stood in the way. As much as he wanted look at her and see his girlfriend and protector before him, all he could see was a liar with ulterior motives.
"There's always one more secret." He paced away from her. "You say you're here to protect me, but it seems like you're just putting everyone I know and love in danger."
Erica grabbed his shoulder and turned him around. "The danger was coming already. If it wasn't for me–"
"Natalie and my mom might be safe."
Erica let out a roar of anger as she pushed Ted back into the wall. "You want to blame me for what happened? Fine. But this is bigger than Natalie and your parents. It's even bigger than the two of us. We have a responsibility to every world and every person in it." Erica backed away from Ted. "Call me when you're ready to handle being the man you were meant to be."
With that, Erica stomped off down the hallway and out to the parking lot. Ted knew his mother had said not to make decisions in anger, but how could he avoid it when he felt like his body was about to explode? As he thought about Erica and the way she was talking to him, three pictures fell off the wall and crashed to the ground.
Ted turned his attention back toward the DHS agents. He didn't care about his so-called responsibility to people on worlds he'd never even seen. Ted knew he had to protect his family and find his friend.
"I need a gesture of good faith."
Agent Harding was still looking at the broken picture frames on the ground. His partner smacked him and concentrated his attention on Ted. "And then you'll join us?"
"You do what I ask, and I'll consider it much more strongly."
Agent Vott folded his arms. "Name it."
"I want to meet with him." Ted stood up straight. "I want to meet with Cobblestone."
Chapter 28
Ted sounded angry on the phone when Dhiraj got a hold of him. Despite staying up way past his bedtime, Dhiraj couldn't help but get up at the crack of dawn. He wasn't sure when Jennifer would wake up, so he went out to get them some breakfast at the nearest bagel shop and called Ted along the way from his Bluetooth.
"Why the hell are you in upstate New York?" Ted sounded snippier than usual.
Dhiraj wished he could tell him, but even he didn't know why Jennifer had whisked him away in the middle of the night. He wasn't sure why she tried to make out with him, either, but he was more interested in conquering Ted's problems that particular moment.
"I'll let you know when I find out." Dhiraj tossed a few napkins into a bag of bagels and rolled the opening. "You sound like you want to punch somebody."
Ted paused like he'd just been caught with a handful of cookies. "I am perfectly calm."
"I don't think I've ever heard you perfectly calm." Dhiraj hoped his friend could survive a couple of days without him. Having superpowers could get you out of most jams, but emotional conflicts were a different story. "Why am I hearing this buzz about you meeting with Cobblestone?"
Ted grumbled. Dhiraj swore he could hear Ted put his head underneath a pillow, even over the phone.
"How do you always find these things out before me?"
Dhiraj grinned. "It's called the internet. I hear it's going to put the pencil sharpener out of business."
Ted mumbled something indecipherable.
"Look, Ted, just don't do anything stupid." Dhiraj reached the motel parking lot. "I want to be there when you do stupid things. It's more fun that way."
Ted's sigh nearly shorted out Dhiraj's Bluetooth. "No promises. You be careful, too."
Dhiraj nodded through the phone. "You've got it, buddy."
He opened the motel room door with care and saw that Jennifer was still asleep. When he'd woken up naturally before the sun rose, her arm was draped over him as if he were in his favorite dream. He'd imagined being married to his landmark crush a million times over, picturing himself expertly removing her arm every morning before heading off to his study to make them the money they deserved. He'd never imagined the same scene in a shady motel room with no idea why he was there.
When Dhiraj fished the bagels out of the bag, Jennifer began to stir. He caught himself wondering why she'd been acting so strangely. Could it still be the attacks messing with her brain? Dhiraj had almost been killed by an undead bully, but she'd been strangled half to death and learned about her best friend biting the dust. There was hardly a comparison.
"Where'd you go?" Jennifer spoke with the covers still on her face.
"There's this great place around the corner for people who've been kidnapped." Dhiraj cut his bagel in half, cream cheese oozing onto a branded napkin. "It's called Stockholm Syrup. Real fresh bagels!"
Jennifer pushed herself out of bed. She hiked up the meatloaf pajama pants that were several sizes too big for her and stood next to Dhiraj.
"You're too chipper." She took one half of the bagel and sat back on the bedspread. "This is the time of day for crazy people."
Dhiraj could feel his face betray him by reacting to the word "crazy." He thought back to the morning he brought her to school and yesterday's loud shriek in the gas station parking lot. He'd been spooked for sure, but he had no intention of pressing Jennifer on her behavior. She noticed his concern before he could return his demeanor to a neutral state.
"And these days, I'm the expert on what's crazy." She munched on the half-bagel.
Dhiraj forced a smile. "What do you mean?" He attempted to nonchalantly pick up his breakfast. Instead, it slipped out of his hands and tumbled onto the motel carpet.
They looked at the potentially contaminated bagel before their eyes met again.
"You don't have to pretend, Dhiraj."
"Alright. You've been skipping classes. You freaked out when some nerdy stranger got your attention. Plus, you kidnapped me and took me across state lines for what seems like no–"
"I found Daly."
Dhiraj's mind snapped back to the moment in the cave when the twisted deputy pointed his gun at Erica's head. If it weren't for Natalie, he might have been dead as well.
"As in deposed murderer Deputy Daly?"
Jennifer nodded.
"Where is he?" Dhiraj felt the fear double in his stomach.
"Nearby." Jennifer spoke through a half-full mouth. "He works the graveyard shift at a convenience store close by. He's going under a fake name. I have his work address."
Dhiraj felt his mouth gape open. He knew Sheriff Norris didn't like to let go of cases, but Jennifer wasn't the bounty hunter type. Then again, she hadn't been the girl he'd known since telekinesis, resurrection and mind control became part of their day-to-day lives.
"What are you going to do?"
"We're going to catch the man who killed my friend." Jennifer hopped off the bed and reached for another piece of bagel.
Dhiraj wanted nothing more than to protect Jennifer, but she was making it pretty hard.
"We should call your dad. And the local cops."
Jennifer stared into Dhiraj's eyes.
"We need to make sure it's him. Besides, he's a former cop. He'll know when people are after him and we may never find him again."
"But what if something happens? Nobody even knows where–"
"I've been seeing him." Jennifer put the bagel down on the counter. "The man at the gas station. Friends. Even my dad once or twice. I freaked out because I thought it was Daly."
Dhiraj stood up and took Jennifer's cold hand in his. He felt an internal buzz of electricity as he did it.
Jennifer gripped his hand tightly. "I need to be the one to find him. I need to end this so I can sleep at night. So I can be me again."
Dhiraj attempted to relax his fear away. "What's your – our plan?"
Jennifer looked happier than he'd seen her the entire trip.
As they got dressed and ready for the day, Jennifer explained that Daly's shift would end in the next half-hour. They would stake out the street until he headed home. Once they identified him, then they'd call the cops and nail him. Within the next 10 minutes, Jennifer and Dhiraj had pulled up their car across from the convenience store. The middle-of-nowhere shop was as beat up as their middle-of-nowhere hotel room. Dhiraj figured it wasn't as much a town for living as it was a town for hiding. Sure enough, the man behind the counter had the same build and height as Daly, though the advertisements stuck to the windows prevented the confirmation of his identity. As the man stood behind the counter, Dhiraj tapped Jennifer on the shoulder.
"Before... all of this goes down, I need to ask you about last night."
"I told you. In the parking lot–"
"No." Dhiraj started to squirm. "I mean, you trying to kiss me."
The look on Jennifer's face didn't inspire Dhiraj with much confidence. "I'm sorry. You've always been so nice to me and I tried to take advantage of you."
Dhiraj tried to start a reply several times, but he wasn't quite sure how to process Jennifer's words. "You... I... trust me, Jen, I'd be lucky to have you take advantage of me. If I'd done nothing, it would've fulfilled about 45 of my top 50 fantasies."
