by Palladian
Victor had moved over to the stairs before anyone else and proceeded to take Kate’s arm and lead her to the empty chair at the dining table. Kate had given him a hard stare as he’d done so, but he didn’t even turn his head to meet her eye. Once Kate sat, she looked down at the table as everyone else around it directed their gazes at her.
“Would you all stop,” she mumbled, appearing both grumpy and sheepish at the same time.
“Sure,” Lex said, reaching across the table to grab her friend’s hand. Kate looked up at her as their hands touched. “As long as you tell us what’s been going on with you.”
When Kate looked back down and shook her head a little, Lex squeezed her hand once before continuing. “Kate, we’re together now. If you have a problem, we need you to tell us. We all have to be honest with one another if this is going to work. All right?”
“OK, already,” Kate agreed, rubbing the back of her head with her free hand. “You sure are pushy,” she continued, looking up at Lex with a small grin.
“Yeah,” Lex said, grinning back, “so you better come clean before I have to start pushing again.”
“Fuck,” Kate said, taking her hand back so she could rub at her eye. “There’s not all that much to say, really. Not long after Victor and I left, my eye started getting weird. At first I thought I had some sort of infection, so I tried every kind of disinfectant I could find in the drug store, but then I realized that it didn’t seem natural. I saw something move in there, and then the flesh started being eaten away.”
Kate stopped for a moment, the look on her face grave as she glanced in the general direction of the others without looking anyone in the eye.
“Yeah,” Casey spoke up, “that sort of thing is common for someone who’s had the drug regimens that we all had. The people at the lab called it ‘pulsing,’ Lily told us.”
Looking up at Casey in surprise, Kate opened her mouth a moment before any words came out. “Thank goodness. I couldn’t figure out what the hell was wrong with me. I thought maybe it was some exotic parasite I caught at one of the odd locations I’d been to. I thought about the experimental medications, but then I figured it couldn’t be, since the only problem I seem to be having is with my eye.”
“There’s a note in your file here theorizing that any change you’d undergo might focus on your eye since it was already…‘compromised’ is the way they put it,” Riss said dryly, one eyebrow raised.
“You found it!” Lex said with a big smile.
“Yes. It looks like they had her on the brain drugs,” Riss replied with a crisp nod. “There was a big argument about whether she had brain- or body-based powers, so it was a while before they figured out what they wanted to give her.”
Lex glanced at Kate and Victor, who both looked confused. “We’ll explain more about that later, but for now, it’s an explanation about why the changes you experienced have centered in your head. Has it been getting better or worse, Kate, or has it stayed about the same?”
Kate shook her head while she closed her eyes. “Every day it seems worse. The hole in my head has continued to get bigger, and every couple of days I have these awful headaches. I’m worried it’s eating into my brain.”
“Riss,” Lex said, turning to look at her friend, “do you have any way to contact Serena?”
Shrugging, Riss began typing. “Maybe. We’ll try email contact, like the kind we used before. I can find out when she usually checks her mail, so hopefully we’ll get lucky over the next couple of days. What do you want to say?”
“Please ask her to go to Union Station and shop for a new outfit, then put it on and leave her old one and her purse with everything else she brought with her in a locker. Then ask her to come to Phoenix. If she wants to come, ask her to write back and tell us when and where to meet her. OK?” Lex looked at Riss to see what she thought.
Riss smiled back. “Let’s give it a try.”
“We’re going to get you some help,” Lex said, turning back to look at Kate. “It may take a little while to get everything arranged, but we’ll work it out.”
Kate nodded, but still looked a little confused. “Why are you getting in touch with Serena, though? And how?”
Lex looked over at Riss, who quickly explained how she was able to use email to contact people without a trace. After that, Lex chimed in, “As far as getting in touch with Serena, it’s going to have to start with her. We won’t be able to make it work without her help.”
Kate nodded and looked back at Lex. “I’ll leave it up to you, then,” she said, and Lex noticed that a tension that Kate seemed to have carried since she first saw her friend again appeared to have dissipated.
Nodding back, Lex spoke again. “Good, don’t worry about it anymore, then. And let us know if you need more rest or anything, OK? We don’t have to practice for so long every day, for example. There’s no rush.”
“Now don’t you start treating me like an invalid or anything,” Kate almost growled. “Most of the time I’m fine, but I’ll tell you from now on if I start feeling bad, OK?”
“OK,” Lex said, looking at her friend seriously. “No more collapsing in the bathroom, all right?”
Kate snickered. “I’ll do my best, Lex, but I can’t make any promises.”
Lex rolled her eyes and shook her head, trying not to join Kate’s laughter. She looked around the table after a moment, noting that Victor also looked considerably more relaxed now and that Casey appeared to have calmed down, too.
“So, how about some breakfast?” Casey asked, getting up from her chair after giving Lou’s hand a final squeeze. “Does anybody feel like pancakes?”
Over the next few days, the group changed their rehearsal schedule, trying to hold it down to a few hours a day so that Kate didn’t get overstressed. Kate had grumbled about it but finally accepted the decision without too much argument, probably because she realized it was a good idea. Kate began taking naps in the afternoon, Lex noted, and she seemed as if she felt better overall.
Three days after the initial discussion, Riss came running down the stairs with a laptop late in the morning. Lex had been working on her part of a song on the keyboard and Casey was in the kitchen puttering around. Both of them looked to Riss expectantly.
“It’s Serena. She’s going to meet us in an hour in front of a coffee shop in the middle of town. I have the address here,” Riss said, bringing her laptop over to the kitchen counter and writing it down on a nearby pad of paper.
“Kate is napping and Victor’s in the middle of working on a project,” Lex said, thinking aloud. “Casey, do you want to check with Lou to see if he wants to come along?”
The taller woman nodded as she headed out of the main room for the gym. When she came back a minute later, she shook her head. “He said that he’d just meet her once we got back here,” Casey relayed with a shrug. “So, are you two both going?”
Lex and Riss both nodded as Casey smiled in return. “OK, I’ll get the keys and let’s get going.”
Casey found a decent parking spot not far from the shop, but they’d arrived early, so the three of them waited in the van. Lex found herself fidgeting, looking over her shoulder to the shop a yard behind them. Riss’ attention was consumed by her laptop, and Casey fiddled with the radio station in the van, trying to find something that appealed to her.
“Don’t worry, she’ll be here,” Casey said to Lex without looking up.
Sighing, Lex looked over at her friend. “I know, I know. I just didn’t realize how much I missed her until I thought about seeing her again. Now I can hardly wait.”
Casey smiled and continued turning the dial. “I know what you mean. It’ll be nice to see her again.”
Lex almost replied, but then her breath stuck in her throat a moment as she saw Serena stepping out of an alley beside the coffee shop. Her friend wore a black mini dress with a high collar and small black sandals. Serena’s curly red hair hung long behind her as she turned to look up and down the sidewalk,
brushing her locks over one shoulder.
A moment later, Lex found herself out of the van and bolting down the sidewalk. She’d flung her arms around her friend in a fierce hug before she realized that Serena might not recognize her, so she pulled back. Serena’s arms had ended up on Lex’s hips, but she gazed at Lex in surprise. As soon as Serena saw Lex’s face, however, she began to blink as slow recognition spread across her face.
“Lex?” Serena said, more of a question than a statement.
“Sorry,” Lex replied as she nodded assent. “I forgot that I don’t exactly look the same anymore.”
Then, Serena hugged her tightly enough that Lex gasped in surprise. “Lex, I thought I’d never see you again!” The redhead pulled back a little, taking Lex’s hands in hers in order to take a better look at the other woman. “You look really hot! Is this your—” Serena stopped a moment, looking all around them theatrically before leaning in to whisper in Lex’s ear, “disguise?”
Lex angled her face towards the ground as she felt a sudden heat in her cheeks. “Come on,” she said, hauling on one of Serena’s hands to the direction of the van. “I’ll explain everything along the way, or once we get back home. How long do you think you can stay away without being noticed?”
Serena made a face and rolled her eyes. “Probably all afternoon. They’ve been pretty much ignoring me unless they send me on some kind of trip so that I can have the majority of the spots on the Earth memorized.”
“We probably shouldn’t keep you that long, especially since you’ll have to go back home via Union Station tonight. How about we explain everything over lunch?” Lex said as the two of them stepped into the van.
Riss had moved into the front passenger seat, but Casey captured Serena’s immediate focus.
“Oh my god, your hair!” Serena exclaimed, her hand flying to Casey’s now black hair.
Casey just smiled. “It’s good to see you too, Serena.”
Serena cocked her head as she looked the taller woman over for a moment, and then hugged her. “I didn’t think it was possible, but I think you look even hotter as a brunette,” Serena said with a smirk and raised eyebrows.
Casey snorted a laugh as she turned back to the steering wheel and started the van. “All right, all right, enough of that.”
Lex tried not to laugh as she saw her friend’s ears turn pink. Serena put her hand on Riss’ shoulder before she sat down next to Lex.
“It’s good to see you again too, Riss,” Serena said, smiling.
“Likewise,” Riss replied with a little smile before she turned back to her laptop.
Serena turned to Lex and put a hand on her arm. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen her smile before! You all must be having a good time on the run.”
Lex rubbed the back of her head and laughed. “Well, a lot’s happened, that’s for sure. I’ll explain as best I can, and then, as you probably guessed, we’re going to ask for your help with something.”
The smile Serena gave in return was huge. “I’ll do what I can.”
“Let me tell you what’s going on first, at least!” Lex said with a laugh.
“No,” Serena said, suddenly looking very serious. “Start by telling me what happened when you guys left. I knew you’d planned something, but my stomach nearly fell out when the building started collapsing and you were still in it. I was worried you really were dead until George showed up an hour or so later, dried blood on his jaw, yelling about how you’d gotten away. Of course, I still had to act upset when they sent about a million people down to the sewers to check and they never found you, since the last place they could track you to was the burning building. I really figured I’d never see you guys again! It’s been so boring without you! They got a couple of replacements, but they’re both ex-military people, kind of like Joan. None of them have any sense of humor, even when I hit on them. And believe me, I’m only doing it as a joke,” Serena finished, rolling her eyes.
Casey glanced back at Serena in the rearview mirror, her eyes flicking over and then away as she bowed her head, her expression grim. Lex turned to her friend and squeezed her hand. “I’m really sorry, Serena. We should have kept you in the loop to let you know what we planned, but I think we figured it would be safer for you the less we involved you. As far as the story, I’ll start at the beginning.”
Lex relayed how they’d escaped, starting with their encounter with George in the sewer. Serena nearly jumped out of her seat as she heard how Casey had handled the situation.
“I would have paid to see that! The asshole looked like he’d gotten hit on the head or something when he got back. Everyone seemed to think he was lying or concussed. I felt so relieved, though, since I figured you’d gotten away. Before that I was sure you were dead, and I’d been crying, so, I decided to play it up. I yelled at George and said that he was only claiming crazy things because he hated you so much, Casey. I told him to shut his lying face, that those were my friends who were gone, and that if he didn’t shut up, that I’d fix it so that something big and heavy appeared in the middle of his stupid head.”
Casey’s eyes in the rearview mirror had gone wide, and Lex knew her mouth had fallen open as she looked at Serena. “Thanks for covering for us, Serena,” Lex said when she could get her thoughts together enough to speak again.
“Hell yes!” she said, smiling again. “I’d cover for any woman against that monster, but most of all you guys.”
Lex continued with the story, having to pause again when she got around to telling about her illness. “I was out of it for about a month. Casey, do you or Riss want to add anything?”
Riss said a muffled “no” from the front while Casey added a little more. “No. It sucked. I’m trying to forget about it.”
“What Casey isn’t saying,” Lex continued, more quietly, “is how I nearly died a couple of times. I wouldn’t be here talking to you now if it weren’t for her. Well, for her and Lily, but mostly because of Casey. And when I woke up, this is how I looked. Well, I dyed my hair, but it doesn’t have any pigment of its own anymore—it’s just white.”
Serena just looked at her for a moment, then smoothed Lex’s hair down. “Wow. So that’s your real eye color now? It’s beautiful; I’ve never seen anything like it!”
Lex smiled, feeling shy, and ducked her head. After a moment, she continued and had gotten halfway through telling Serena about going out to the lab to get Lou back when they arrived back home.
“Come on in,” Casey said as she got out of the van. All four of them went into the old warehouse, Serena looking at everything with great interest.
“Holy crap!” she said once they’d reached the main room, and she spun around to look at everything. “This place is great!”
“This is only the main room,” Casey said with a proprietary smile. “You haven’t even seen any of the others yet.”
Suddenly the group went silent as Lou came out of the gym and into the main room. Serena looked him up and down and then glanced at Casey, who’d stepped forward to meet him.
“Lou,” Casey said while linking their hands, “this is Serena, our old teammate. Serena, this is my boyfriend, Lou.”
“I can definitely see why you weren’t going to leave him behind!” Serena said with a wide smile. “I don’t suppose you two ever considered having a third person join you sometimes?”
Casey blushed, and Lou smiled as he saw it. “No, we’re monogamous, but thanks for asking,” Lou said, nodding at Serena. “Casey’s told me a lot about you. It’s nice to finally meet you.”
“Oh, she’s probably told you I had a huge crush on her since the time she joined the team,” Serena said with a sigh. “You two look very happy together, though, and I can totally respect that. But, Lex,” she said, turning back to her friend, “you were in the middle of talking about how you all got Lou back. Don’t stop now!”
“I’m going to make some tea while that’s going on,” Casey said, detouring for the kitchen while the others sat at the d
ining table. “Raise your hands if you want any.”
Lex continued, and everyone else added bits they felt she’d left out. After Lex got to the part where they drove away, Serena just shook her head.
“That’s just amazing,” Serena said, grinning. “I had no idea that’s what they were doing. I can hardly believe you just broke them all out and got Lou back, too. You all are just amazing.”
“What’s all the noise down here?” a new voice cut in.
Everyone looked up at the stairs as Kate walked down, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt. Everyone nodded or waved, but Serena stood up from her chair, a stunned look on her face. Lex glanced at Serena for a moment, then touched her hand.
“We haven’t gotten to that part of the story yet,” she said as Serena looked down at her, surprise still evident.
Kate walked up to Serena and smiled. “I’m glad you came. I wondered if you’d get the message.”
Serena recovered enough to speak as she grabbed Kate’s hand. “Of course I came. I didn’t think I’d ever see these guys again, much less you. Is Victor here, too?”
Kate nodded, gesturing to a room off the main one. “Yeah, he is here. He’s in the middle of one of his big projects, but he’ll probably come out later.”
Serena studied her old teammates for a moment. “How the hell did you manage all this?”
Casey smiled broadly. “You’ll have to ask Lex about that,” she said.
Lex glared at Casey for a moment, then relayed what the four of them had been up to since they left and how they’d arranged to meet up with Kate and Victor.
“I’ve got to see what you can do now!” Serena said once Lex had finished, shaking her friend’s arm and smiling. “Come on, show me.”
“What do you want to see, exactly?” Lex asked dubiously.
“How did you call to Kate and Victor?” Serena replied, waving her hands around in big arcs.
Lex sighed. “All right, hang on.”
She cleared her throat once after a sip of tea and then began to sing one of the new songs the band had been working on. After the first verse, Lex inserted the idea of being hungry and wanting lunch. After a minute, she stopped singing and looked over at the group.
