Electra

"Phantom?" Jessie repeated the name when Phantom said it, then seemed to check out of the conversation in the abrupt way she had when she was chasing a mental rabbit down one of the holes in her memory. She frowned and hummed and rocked back and forth on her heels, entirely ignoring Taylor and Indira's suggestions that they move somewhere more private. Suddenly her face came alive again, cleared of confusion, as she pointed at Phantom. "You," she informed the superheroine, "have a baby. And you wear a purple... cape, purple thing," She mimed swishing a cloak with her arms. "Did Erin send you to look after us?" Most of the hostility had cleared from her attitude, but she was still obviously curious.

"I'm sure they'll be able to handle him at Nicholson, I've heard nothing but good things. People are coming in from all over the world to send their children there, it must be a good school, right?" Stesha considered the cake, then served herself another sliver. "Playdates sound like great fun, though. I haven't seen JJ in such a long time, it's hard to imagine him ready for school. And Ammy could use more company. I never really planned for her to be an only child..." Stesha shut herself up with an unwisely large bite of cake, followed by a gulp of wine that left her coughing and Amaryllis giggling.

"Oh, I don't know, there aren't really any other superpowered children in the schools here, at least not that I know of," Stesha explained with a slight frown. "None of the other children are from Earth Prime, and you know how we got way more than our fair share of metahumans compared to a lot of worlds. And most of the children here are probably going to be here their whole lives, unless they go to college or trade school or something like that. Prime isn't their home the way it is ours." She brightened somewhat. "You might be right about the other thing, though. At Nicholson, Ammy wouldn't be the boss's daughter or the only metahuman, and that might be good for her. She's getting a little bit s-p-o-i-l-e-d," Stesha spelled out, glancing at her cherubic daughter.

Ammy nodded enthusiastically, though her mouth was too full of cheesecake to speak. "Ammy's in the creche school here on Sanctuary," Stesha explained, taking a much more dainty bite for herself. "Her name is down for Nicholson next year, but I'm just not sure. Her powers are really well-controlled right now, all fairy rings and dandelions, and she's made a lot of friends here. But I also want her to be comfortable living on Prime, since she'll spend part of her life there. But it also feels weird to start a school for the children who live here, and then send my own child to school somewhere else. It seems like I lack faith in the program." She licked her fork. "Has JJ gotten over the whole biting thing yet?"

"Wow..." Stesha took the bottle and topped up Taylor's glass a little fuller. "I did always wonder a little about JJ, big JJ I mean. He seemed so immature for his age, but I'd wondered if I was just projecting from baby JJ. That must've been a shock for you. What are you going to do? I assume you're not planning on letting him live on his own again anytime soon. Will you be sending him to school?" Ammy chose that moment to come in with a clatter, her hair now a dandelion-pouf of green curls, her outfit a sturdy set of blue overalls and a pink shirt, accented by a large pair of tulle fairy wings. "I got dressed!" she announced importantly, then climbed into the seat next to her mother. "Cake, please!"

The smell of breakfast had Gina stumbling in within a few minutes, her hair wildly tousled from sleep, her eyes still half-closed. She picked up the glass of soda from the table and drained the entire thing in long swallows, shuddering a little as she finished. "Whew. I gotta stop staying up all night in the lab. Poor Miss A's having a sleepover in her office. As her eyes and mind began to focus, she looked over the spread on the table. "This is nice... did I forget some kind of special occasion?" Highly unlikely, since for all her faults Gina never forgot anything, but sometimes Steve imputed meaning to the damndest happenings. She'd hate to miss the anniversary of the date they both sat on the couch together for the first time or something.

Stesha shook her head, then nodded, then looked in the direction Ammy had gone and shook her head again. "I can't," she murmured. "I'll just fall apart again, and I don't want to scare her. After it happened I was just... just useless for days. It's getting better, but it still hurts. Can we just open the cake instead?" she asked plaintively, turning to the cupboards for plates, forks and wineglasses. "And I appreciate the gesture, but you know you didn't have to come bearing gifts. You're my friend, Taylor. I'd never throw you out." Stesha busied herself with opening cupboards and the large flowers that dotted the counters, pulling out supplies, finding a corkscrew, pouring juice in a plastic cup. She passed the corkscrew to Taylor. "I'll let you do that part."

"How do you know my name?" Jessie demanded, apparently unmoved by the appeal to her roommate's sore feet. She kept her hand clenched tight around her chilly weapon, but at least she hadn't started swinging yet. "Why were you watching us? What do you want?" Subtly, perhaps even instinctively, she eased forward and angled her body so that Aquaria and Indira were at least partially shielded behind her. If the stranger wanted to do something bad, she would have to go through Jessie to do it. Not everybody needed to dress for a fight in order to be dangerous.

"No, don't go," Stesha replied immediately, looking from Taylor to the apology gifts on the table. "I missed you a lot. Things were so-" Again she cut herself off, this time turning away to the kitchen to dry her hands and eyes with a dishtowel. "If you were in danger, you had to go. But you could've told me, or your other friends. Maybe we could've done something to help you, or to track down the threats." She turned back, twisting the towel in her fingers. "But it's okay now? No more trouble than usual?"

Still looking a little stunned, Stesha stepped back from the door to allow Taylor inside. Stesha's house had grown a bit, which it seemed to do organically over time, so that now the kitchen had a full set of pantry cupboards and a center island, plus there was a small foyer that opened onto the living room. She set down her daughter and gave her a little nudge towards the hallway. "Go on now, your clothes are on your bed. Don't forget the underpants! Then you can come back and have some cake." Amaryllis' mutionous look cleared up entirely with that promise, and she raced away down the hall, leaving Stesha and Taylor standing in the living room. "Where did you go?" Stesha blurted, as soon as Ammy was out of the room. "I needed- I mean, I tried to call you so many times, and you were just gone. I thought something had happened to you!"

Knocking on the door of a house made of leaves was not an uncomplicated process, but after a moment Taylor was able to find the resonant wood center that broadcast her knock loudly into the house. Moments later, there was a loud, high-pitched "I'll get it! I'll get it!" followed by racing footsteps and a "Come back here, you little monkey!" before the door was thrown open by a small green-haired girl wrapped in a hooded bath towel and entirely dripping wet. She gave Taylor one look and shrieked "Stranger Danger!" before slamming the door in Taylor's face. "Amaryllis Marie Lumins! That is not how you answer the door!" The door opened again a moment later to reveal Stesha, her flower crown askew and her green braids trailing down her back. She was fully dressed, but also pretty wet, since she'd scooped up a recalcitrant Amaryllis under one arm. "Sorry ab- Taylor?" she gaped, staring at her long-absent friend. "Oh my god, you're back!"

"Oh no, no, that's bad," Jessie demurred, shaking her head at Aquaria's shiny-eyed suggestion. "We don't even have an outside, you can't be doing that on the sidewalk. Somebody would get mad at you. If you want to eat lobsters you've got to cook them first, and they cost a lot of money. Can't we just buy you some more goldfish? You liked those." She checked her list again, selected a bag of frozen fish filets, then twitched again. "Something weird is going on," she muttered. "Somebody's watching us." Jessie looked around, and this time she noticed Indira talking to the strange girl. She sidled in that direction, still holding the bag of frozen fish, but now instinctively clutching it like a cudgel.

"You should come over anyway, I need to figure out what to do to upgrade the kitchen," Erin told her. "We're keeping most of the house the same for now, at least for awhile. Some new furniture," and Erin's quick, embarrassed grin meant that Alex didn't need to be a mind reader to know what had happened to the old stuff, "but we like a lot of the old style, plus it was Travis's. But all the kitchens are about twenty-five years overdue for an overhaul, and I'm going to do up at least one of them so it's nice. Your place here is great, maybe you can give me some tips." She gestured around at Alex's lovely living quarters. "So, have you got any board games?"

"You just liked Faith because she totally distracted Mark from the whole "you can't get pregnant from boob-touching" fiasco," Erin teased, slumping comfortably in her chair. "And I think Chris had a lock on the category in junior year, but he could've passed the title along. Nina kind of manages him, but not in a weird way. More like a "you can't be fifteen and just granting wishes forever" sort of way. They have an actual real apartment that's not full of pets or made of chocolate or anything. I was pretty impressed. And she saved me that one time when her dad plunged me a couple miles under the ocean and broke most of my ribs in the process so, you know, she's pretty good in a crisis. You got a place we could all get together, or should we do it at Trevor and my place?"

"And you know, normal is relative," came another voice from behind Mike. Erin White dropped comfortably onto the stool on his other side, still dressed in the simple blue uniform she wore as head of securty at HAX. She looked at Mike's little collection of empty shot glasses, then plunked a large white styrofoam cup down onto the bar and slid it over to him. "You'll probably enjoy this more, and it'll have the same effect. I got it from that place you like." Inside the cup was a chocolate milkshake, only slightly melty from the heat, the same sort he and Erin had gotten during their one practice date years ago. "Our mutual friend is worried about you. Rounded up a little moral support. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, she's basically a member of the Liberty League now, Typhoon disowned her for being too heroey, so now she and Mark are living together and everything." Erin wandered away from the window and settled into one of the living room chairs, comfortable in Alex's home now that all the friendship business was nicely sorted out. "She's really not the kind of person I'd ever have seen him with, but they seem to bump along pretty well. She's nothing at all like Faith, thank god. You'd probably like her. Maybe we can all get together sometime, we could do it on the QT and you could even invite Mike along."

Erin's eyes went a little wide as she began to realize what she'd gotten herself into. "Um, bridal shower, yeah. I guess there is one of those. Something small, I'm sure, and simple, and not too, um..." She trailed off when she realized she couldn't think of any words that didn't risk insulting her friend's unique sense of taste. "I think all of that will have to wait anyway, at least till we've set a date and thought about what we want and all that. I don't know how interested Trevor will be in planning all that stuff, but he should probably get some input." She drained the rest of her Coke in one long, bracing gulp. "By the way, have you met Mark's girlfriend Nina yet?"

"Well I have to do some kind of dress, Frank would be heartbroken if I didn't let him design me something with a dozen secret pockets that inflates into an emergency cold-weather shelter or something," Erin admitted. "But there's definitely going to be plenty of weapons available, too. I know how to fight in a dress when I have to. And you don't have to worry about needing weapons to fight." She hesitated for just a second. "I was wondering... I know you planned that you'd get married first, and it didn't exactly work out just yet. But if it won't make you, you know, uncomfortable or sad or anything, will you be my maid of honor?"

Whee, art time! I haven't got any art for my character Hologram, so anything for her would be very nice! She looks about 35, brown and brown, keeps her hair cut short in a trendy mom style, fit but not skinny, average height, wears a lot of casual blouses or turtlenecks and blue jeans. In her uniform, she wears a black turtleneck with a holographic patch on the shoulder, a silver belt, close-fit black slacks and a domino mask. And one picture I would love to have is a picture of eighteen-year-old Wander and Midnight from the end of the Graduation Day arc. She's wearing her blue and gold Young Freedom uniform, but it's all but burnt off her in a lot of places, and he's put his black uniform jacket and his fedora on her. They are both singed and sooty, but triumphant! The post is here. If you could draw them like that, it would be amazing!

Erin ran a hand through her hair again, more sheepish this time. "I almost wish we could just run down to Vegas and get married by Elvis, have it done in a day and then boom, we're married and I don't have to think about it, you know? Because I want to be married to him, I want to be with him. I don't want to put it off for a long time, cause who knows how long any of us have, right? It's a dangerous world. We do dangerous work. I like to think that someday when we do go, we'll go together, but there's no guarantees, and I don't ever want to have to feel like we missed our chance. But if we're gonna do it, and we're damn well only gonna do it once, we ought to have a party and celebrate it. We've got like the sixth biggest house in the city or something like that, it would be stupid not to use it and have people over. And cake, and dancing," she added with a quick smile. She took a thoughtful sip of her soda and looked out the window, towards the distinctive castle topper of the DuTemps Building. "Jessie's living over there now," she commented, nodding towards the building. "Eve gave me a great price on the rent, and it's a very secure building. She's doing pretty well there, I guess. I get, you know, updates and stuff. I should go visit more, but we don't exactly get along. I look at her and remember how I used to be when I got to Prime, and it makes me wonder what I'm doing thinking about being in a relationship at all. Lotta crazy buried under the surface."

Jessie took the list and held it in both hands as they walked into the store, then balanced it on the seat of the cart to keep it close by. Aquaria was not good at pushing carts. "We should get lots of canned food," she told Aquaria, "especially things that are high in protein for you. If anything ever happens, it's important to have food put away. We need to get dry milk and powdered eggs, freeze-dried fruit..." She continued down her list, which sounded as though she were preparing for an especially arduous hurricane season, or an extended camping trip. "And we should also get some fruits and vegetables," she concluded with a nod. "Some" fruits and vegetables actually consisted of quite a lot of fruits and vegetables. When faced with the wonders of a well-stocked produce section, Jessie appeared ready to try a little of everything, filling nearly half the cart before they even neared the frozen food aisles. It was actually kind of fun, enough to get her smiling here and there. But the more they shopped, the twitchier Jessie became. She hesitated in front of a display of hashbrowns, rubbed her neck, looked around indecisively as she tried to spot what was bothering her. When nothing was immediately obvious she began pushing the cart again, but glancing over her shoulder every few moments as she did so.

Erin considered that. "A wedding at midnight might be more thematic, but I can see there being a lot of logistical problems," she allowed. "And you're practically begging for a supervillain attack. But sunset might be good. A little light, a little dark. And Trevor would probably be able to come up with something really offbeat and cool for the lights. He loves that kinda stuff. We'd need to have like, some kind of fancy coffee bar for the reception. Is that a thing? Are there like coffee shops that do event catering?" She rubbed a hand over her face. "I think I'm geting ahead of myself. I really love him, you know, and I want to marry him, but the idea of actually _gettting_ married is still so surreal. Like I'm the last person who should ever be marrying somebody, especially somebody I really care about."

Erin grinned back, let the subject pass for now. Alex needed to work things through in her own time, and she would do so, with a few seeds planted. "You may be right about that," she allowed. "But we still haven't told Mark a thing, because I'm terrified what he would come up with. I don't think "small" would be one of the adjectives we'd be able to use. But we'll have to tell him something soon, or it'll hurt his feelings when the truth comes out." She drummed her fingers lightly on the windowframe. "I was thinking maybe outside at the Manor. With lots of flowers and stuff. You'll help me, right?"

"Hey, I did use some of that money you gave me," Erin told Alex, lifting a hand in mock protest. "A pretty good chunk of it, actually. I gave it to Trevor's dad the investment guru, and he did stuff with it and made more of it, and now it's funding Jessie's first apartment and her tuition at FCU. She needs it a lot more than I ever did, and who knows, maybe she'll take after Erin in Seattle and be a good student. But she definitely needed to get out of Project Freedom." She watched Alex as the small psychic crossed the room, cocking her head to one side. "You don't seem really happy here," she observed quietly. "Or not totally comfortable, anyway. You could do anything you wanted, anywhere you wanted. Is this still all about trying to fix things for Mike and Zoe?"

"We do okay," Erin agreed, "but I miss you being around. You know I'm so proud of everything you're doing here, and I can tell people how I knew you when, but I miss doing hero work with you like we used to.You'd come up with a plan, and I'd hit the things that needed to be hit, we'd save the day, then we'd go home and stay up half the night talking or playing board games." She smiled a little. "Maybe I'm just feeling nostalgic for high school. I know things can't ever be how they used to be again. We've all grown up." Erin paused a moment. "I'm sorry I never picked up my badge till now."