ic Through the Vaulted Door

[Avenger Assembled]

"No, it's fine," Mark assured her as they headed down the corridor. "I didn't really have anything else to do today, and this is interesting. Besides, afterwards we'll both want somebody to talk to." Normally men weren't allowed in the women's corridor, but since Mark was a superhero (and Dr. Franklin was Jessie's registered doctor) an exception was made today - they headed down what looked like a spartan dorm or hotel corridor until they reached a room near the end of the hall. "Jessie, this is your room," said Ms. Wainwright, opening the door to an undecorated room with a single bed against the wall, a desk and small row of bookshelves, a few generic pictures of oceanviews and mountains, and a window - the view showed the backyard of the house, a well-maintained lawn just beginning to turn green again, with a few generic red-grained pieces of yard furniture about. 

 

"You'll be sharing a bathroom with Aquaria, who's doing a project on the Riverfront right now," Harriet was explaining. "I'll make sure you meet her as soon as she gets in. We like to give our residents a chance to be themselves. If you want decoration, you can pick up books from our library or try your hand at art projects - I understand you've been doing quite a lot of those?" she asked of Jessie. 

[Electra]

"Art therapy," Jessie replied absently, already focused on learning this new room. She set the broken duffel bag down on the bed and went straight to the window. It was small and heavily reinforced, to the point where the view through the glass was slightly wavy, but it was a real window and it was hers. The cell at Blackstone'd had pretend windows, light projections on the walls that could show different views on different days, but they weren't real. It was not the same. She pressed her hand flat to the glass but exerted no force, just feeling the cool of the air outside through the thin barrier. This was the perfect way to experience the world, she figured, close enough to see and nearly touch, far away enough to be safe. After a moment, she remembered the conversation enough to add "I have crayons and colored pencils, but I'm not very good..." 

 

"We'll get you some posters," Erin interjected, her voice a little harsher than she'd meant it to sound. This sterile room reminded her too much of her own early days on Prime, when she'd been locked up in the Goodman building for the safety of her and everyone around her. She remembered drawing all over the papers that were supposed to be homework, just to get the images out of her head, but she was a terrible artist. She wouldn't have put any of those pictures up, no matter how bare the walls had been. At least Jessie could have something decent to brighten up the place while she was stuck in here. "Whatever you want to have up, I can find it for you. You don't have to tack up crayon doodles to have pictures." 

 

Jessie frowned, looking rather hurt by the comment, and Dr. Franklin jumped in quickly. "The room is yours to decorate how you like, Jessie, whether that's by hanging posters or creating your own works of art. And it looks like you'll have plenty of room for all your things here. When I come in for your session next week, you'll have to show me everything you've come up with." 

[Avenger Assembled]

"I'm sure you'll make it look really good," Mark told Jessie reassuringly. "You'd be surprised how easy it is to make rooms like this look great, even with just simple supplies. You'll really be able to make this place your own." Jessie seemed to like that idea, though it was hard not to like something Mark said when he was right there talking to you about it. A few moments later, Wainwright's cell beeped, and she stepped away to take a call while Dr. Franklin and Jessie talked quietly by the window. Mark looked over at Erin to see her reaction just before Wainwright came back in. 

 

"All right, I've just gotten some news that will be of interest," said Wainwright to the others, "Aquaria has finished her business a little early, so she's actually just arriving downstairs now. Now, Jessie, Aquaria looks different than most people. She has big eyes and greenish skin, and she's partially amphibious, which means she spends a lot of her time where it's very wet." That certainly explained the thin layer of condensation on the opposite door. "Do you think you'll be okay with that?" she asked the girl seriously. 

[Electra]

Jessie hesitated, giving the door to the bathroom an uncertain look. "I guess so," she said, obviously trying to give the right answer. "I mean... if she doesn't come into my room. Or make a lot of noise when I don't expect it. I don't like being surprised," she told Ms. Wainwright earnestly. She rather wished that she had her own bathroom so that no one could get in, especially if she was trying to shower or get dressed, but she would get what she would get. "Does she smell bad like fish?" 

 

For her part, Erin seemed a little chagrined by the results of her earlier comments, and had retreated to lean against the wall by the door, keeping an eye on things but keeping her mouth shut. This seemed like a decent enough place, even if it was pretty soulless. Jessie was still too damaged to want to make friends or go outside, so it was probably just the right place for her to be right now. Erin certainly wanted to think so, and tried not to wonder if that was mostly just so she could make her own escape that much faster. Most people seemed to get along with their universal doppelgangers just fine. Why did hers always make her feel so weird? 

[Avenger Assembled]

Aquaria turned out to be younger even than Jessie, barely eighteen, with a tall, rounded build that reminded Mark vaguely of what seals looked like. She was humanoid, though, and downright human as she got closer, talking animatedly to a security guard about what she'd been doing underwater. On closer inspection, as she reached the door, it soon became clear Aquaria wasn't entirely human at all - she had big, wide-open eyes that only occasionally blinked, and pale skin underscored by faintly greenish veins. She looked, to Mark and Erin, like what she was - a hybrid of Deep One and human being. "Aquaria, this is Jessie, she's going to be sharing Suite Gamma with you. Jessie White, this is Aquaria Innsmouth." 

 

"It's not my real last name," said Aquaria with a nervous, bubbly laugh, "but it's the only one people can pronounce. Hi!" she added, waving without reaching over to shake hands. She was still wearing her orange Project Freedom costume, though up close hers was more like a wetsuit. "Nice to, uh, meet you. As long as you don't take a lot of showers, we'll be fine!" 

[Electra]

Jessie leaned away and made a face when Aquaria got too close, though after a moment she remembered that was rude and corrected herself. The fish person did smell bad, like brackish water and old seafood. The smell wasn't overwhelming, but it was definitely present. "It's not my real name either," she told her new suitemate solemnly. "But she's using the real one." Jessie nodded to Erin, who gave a minute shrug of her shoulders and went back to not looking at the interaction. "I take a shower every day," Jessie continued firmly. She hadn't before, not when it was so complicated at Blackstone, but Dr. Franklin had told her that was one of the perks here, and she wanted it. "If you can deal with that, we'll be fine." 

[Avenger Assembled]

"Okay, sure," said Aquaria cautiously. "Sounds like we'll do fine," she reassured Ms. Wainwright. "Anyway, as you can probably tell, I've spent the whole day cleaning up next to Riverside Park and I'm filthy. I'm going to go take a long, hot shower." And with that she turned around and headed into the bathroom, leaving the little group to themselves. 

 

"I think I'm ready," said Jessie suddenly, looking around the room and then at the others. "This is a good place for me. Thank you for coming, Erin," she said seriously as the sound of the shower started up in the bathroom. 

 

"I'm going to talk with Jessie some more about our facilities," said Wainwright, "and give her more of a tour. You're welcome to stop by any time," she said to Erin, "just make sure to call ahead first so we can make sure it's all right with Jessie." 

[Electra]

"I'll do that." Pushing away from the wall, Erin walked over to her doppelganger. "Be good, okay? I'll come back and visit next week, see how you're doing and bring you some regular clothes. You think about things you might want to decorate your room with." When Jessie nodded acquiescence to that, Erin reached out and gave her an awkward hug. Awkward because she wasn't big on initiating hugs and it was sort of weird to hug yourself, a hug because she remembered how lonely it was when no one would touch you because you're too dangerous. 

 

Caught by surprise, Jessie hesitated and stood stiffly for a moment, then seemed to relax into the quick embrace. "Don't forget to come back, okay?" 

 

"I won't," Erin promised, feeling a pang of guilt. Not getting Jessie released on time hadn't been her fault, but it hadn't seemed wise to dig too deeply into the issue of robot doppelgangers with her fragile double. "Even if I have something come up, I'll make sure to call you or send you a message. I'll see you later." She headed out of the room and down the hall, but didn't breathe deeply again till she reached the elevator to the lobby.

[Avenger Assembled]

Mark didn't comment on the way out; this was a serious moment and he could tell Erin had something weighing on her mind. He knew the feeling, and was really glad things had gone so well with Singularity. When they were outside, and no disasters or frantic cries had called them back in, Mark gave Erin a bright smile. "So, you still up for lunch?" he offered. "I think we deserve a little credit, and a little reward, for a job well-done. It's been a long time since I've actually eaten something in Freedom City that wasn't for work or at home. But I still remember most of the good places. There's a nice catfish seafood place around here," he offered, "a guy from Louisiana moved up here when the voudon stuff took off and now he's got a good spread." 

[Electra]

It took Erin a few seconds to come back from wherever her mind was woolgathering, but she mustered a smile for the idea. "Yeah, I'm starving," she agreed. "You lead the way and it'll be my treat. I really do appreciate you coming along to help out on this whole thing. I half expected her to finish out today back in Blackstone, but she did all right. Assuming she and Aquaria don't come to blows over the shower, anyway." She fell into step with him as they headed down the street away from Project Freedom. "So what else are you doing with yourself lately, with Nina off doing her thing? Seems like I've seen you around the city a little more." 

[Avenger Assembled]

"Well, like I said, I've been visiting my mom, doing some stuff around the house for her..." Mark's aura of good cheer dimmed at that for just a brief moment before he went on. "And working with Claremont some too. Some of the new kids have been volunteering through the internship program, or the service learning stuff, and they've actually gone on some UNISON expeditions. I wish I'd thought to do that when I was a student, it might have made my job a little easier," he said with a grin. "Anyway, things have been pretty great, mostly. Nina's on her way back from Socotra with her break over, so I'll be able to start seeing more of her again." 

The catfish place turned out to be a fairly straightforward Southern-style eatery right there in Port Regal, not the only one of its kind but by no means unpleasant. Mark and Erin wound up with a table underneath a giant picture of a fishing boat at the mouth of the Mississippi that was probably older than both of them put together. "So how are things going with you and Trevor? I hear you've done some cool new stuff lately..." 

[Electra]

"It's good, things are good," Erin told him, sounding only slightly nervous. "We're moving in together at the end of the month when my lease expires. It's kind of a big step, but we've been dating for a long time now. And it makes sense, we'll be able to deploy faster on calls for the Liberty League, and save on the bills, and it's better for Charlie..." She heard herself rationalizing and stopped, shaking her head in rueful amusment as she buttered a piece of cornbread from the basket on the table. "Well, eventually I'll be really used to the idea. It'll work out. How are things going with you and Nina? Have you been to Socotra with her yet?" 

[Avenger Assembled]

"No, he...hey, I guess I never showed you!" Mark reached into his pocket and pulled out his big brown leather wallet, digging out a family picture that it took Erin a moment to recognize - the dark-skinned man and woman in the hospital room were unmistakeably Prince Morakot and his bride Nepthys, and the little baby she was holding had to be the serpentine child, particularly when she looked closely and saw the cat-like gleam in tiny, half-opened eyes. "You're a god-aunt, kind of! Prince Siddig was born back in early January, and everybody's doing just fine. Luckily Serpent babies don't change their shape until they're teenagers. It's so their mothers don't get exposed when they're sneaking around. I sent pictures to you and Trevor, but that was....you know, back when." He shrugged. 

 

"Anyway, Nina's dad didn't take it well." He frowned. "Morakot hasn't been back to Socotra since, and I don't think he wants to. The royal family doesn't see foreign visitors much these days. Half the time I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop and Nina's dad to pull her out of school and take her back home, but she says she's pleaded with him enough to let her finish her education that it hasn't been an issue yet. As for how things are going...it's kind of weird," he admitted. "I've never dated a girl this long before, but things are going well. She's very...intense, very driven. Not like some of the girls I knew at Claremont." 

[Electra]

Erin smirked a little at that. "I dunno, from what I recall, you always dated the driven, intense girls. There was Alex, who started up her own company as soon as she was old enough to get her driver's license and is now an international magnate of something or other. And there was Faith, who was really intense and driven about stalking you in a kind of creepy weird way. And oh yeah, Zaranna, who was very driven and intense about pretty much everything, and also had the velociraptor who was intent on taking a piece out of your ass..." She gave him a friendly and very light punch on the arm, then sobered up. "You and Nina have been dating a long time," she allowed. "How much longer does she have before she graduates?" 
 

[Avenger Assembled]

"She's got two more years. She settled on metahuman studies for her major, finally, so she'll have a real degree when she goes back to Socotra." He grinned at Erin, though he didn't punch her back. "And that's the thing, all those were just a passing fling, one way or another. But this is...different." He shrugged. "I know she can be kind of a jerk when we socialize, but that's just how she acts around other people. When we're together, she's a different person. Sometimes that's good, sometimes that's bad, you know how it is." When the food got there, they stopped talking for a few moments to eat before Mark went on. "You know, it's kind of funny. For all that her family talks about being royal, their lineage doesn't go back any further than her dad. I think that's why they overcompensate sometimes, since most of the Socotran royal family thing is just stuff Typhoon made up in his head." 

[Electra]

"What, so you don't really get to be a prince if you marry her? That's disappointing." Erin scooped up a forkful of jambalaya and dumped it on her cornbread. "You know, if she decides she doesn't want to go back, I'm pretty sure she could get asylum," she offered. "Typhoon is still listed as a supervillain, far as I know, so the Freedom League pretty much has to try and help people who want to escape from him. I know it's a family thing and that's complicated, but it's something to think about, at least. Typhoon can't control her entire life just because he calls himself the king of some teeny little island the size of Rhode Island. And you know if it came down to it, we'd help her too, for your sake." 

[Avenger Assembled]

Mark shook his head immediately. "No way, she'd never do that. Nina and her father have a weird relationship, but she loves him. She thinks he's a great man, and a great ruler of his people. A lot of the time she tries to convince _me_ to move to Socotra permanently, since I can just warp my way back home if I need to." He sighed. "It's because she's the youngest, I think. The older kids like Morakot grew up in the old days when Typhoon was always fighting supervillains, or looking for a new wife, or something like that, but as long as she's been alive, she's been the youngest, and he's always been there for her. She's never seen him with the mask off. Well, I mean, she's seen him with the mask off, that would be really weird, but not the "not-such-a-bad-guy" mask." He smiled a little. "She does admit she would like not having to bow to him so much, so at least there's that. So, tell me more about you and Trevor," he suggested. "You guys have been together a long time too..." 

[Electra]

Erin shrugged, once again on the conversational back foot as the topic shifted to her personal life. "It's good, I mean, things are good. The moving in stuff is kind of weird and new, but we lived together before, right after graduation and all the stuff that happened then. I think part of it's that he wants to keep an eye on me and make sure I don't get replaced by any more robots, but there are lots of better reasons, too. And his grandpa and I get along a lot better now than we used to, mostly since I'm not so nervous about what he thinks of me anymore." It was more about her personal life than she'd have shared with most people, but she and Mark went way back, and had been through a lot together. In a weird way, he was kind of like a brother, even in how she teased him about girls. "Oh, and Redbird is going to start a taxi service. I guess she's bored just hanging around the mansion." 

[Avenger Assembled]

"Hey, neat! Well, I guess I can understand that, there's only so many things a space robot can do to pass the time in Freedom City. If Redbird wasn't bored, you guys would probably not have the free time to settle down together anyway. So that's cool. And I think it's really great you guys are moving in together like that. You make a good couple. Just don't tell Trevor I said that," he added with a laugh. He fell silent for a moment, thinking, then went on, "You know, I think about that timeline we went to during graduation a lot. You know, the terrible future one where Freedom City was gone and you and I had hooked up and had a kid?" The restaurant was noisy enough that luckily Mark's words vanished beneath ESPN beyond their table. "There wasn't any real risk of that happening here, but we've both been lucky to skip a lot of mistakes most people our age make. So good for us." 

[Electra]

Erin made a face briefly at the reminder of that particular alternate timeline. "I've thought about it some,too," she admitted, smashing a hush puppy into the large pool of spicy ketchup on her plate. "I wonder if Clara is doing all right, and about those other kids. Not kids, really, but you know." She shrugged. "Sometimes I wish we'd gotten more of a chance to talk with her, just so I'd know how it happened, how you and I got together and what went wrong. Cause it didn't sound like things just went a little wrong, or got stale or didn't work out." 

 

Erin ran a hand through her hair and studied her plate, then looked up to meet Mark's eyes. "I have messed up a lot of my relationships. I really, really don't want to mess things up with Trevor. Sometimes I wonder if I at least knew how it all went so wrong in that timeline, maybe I'd at least know what not to do." 

[Avenger Assembled]

"I think we're safe from the you and me having kids thing," said Mark with a grin. Seeing that the subject had Erin legitimately unsettled, though, he sobered and went on. "I think that, in any timeline, Trevor and I are different enough that whatever mistakes we made there, you're not likely to make with him here. Trevor's a good man, and he won't...I got the feeling that the mistakes were on the other Mark's end. Even I noticed that she called _you_ Mom." He met her eyes and went on, "And you guys are really good together, seriously. I know all this is really weird and new, but I have a feeling you guys'll be fine. You guys are smart, you're in love, he's got that cool old house with the stuff underneath it...man, living there will be great! And c'mon, you can't have messed up more relationships than me, right? You never got bit on the butt by anything, and you never had somebody get all weird on you like Faith did, and your boyfriend's not going to be a super-villain." 

[Electra]

"Well, it's not just dating relationships that can get screwed up," Erin pointed out, making a vague gesture with her fork. "You've met the version of my family that live here. Look at them, look at Sing-- Jessie. She's got so many problems, and even then I can't stop being annoyed with her or scaring her. For pity's sake, I can't even get along with myself," she admitted ruefully."Luckily, Trevor's willing to put up with a lot from me. And he does have a cool house." 

 

She took another bite of her food, idly chasing a piece of okra around her plate. "What made you think about it?" she finally asked, her curiosity piqued. "I mean, the whole alternate future thing. You said you thought about it a lot." 

Edited April 7, 2013 by Electra

[Avenger Assembled]

"Oh, I did the math the other day, and I guess we'd be starting on Clara about, well, now if we were in that timeline." He looked down at his food for a moment, then back at Erin. "Weird to think about. I mean, I...I really don't want to have kids right now, that's for sure!" He didn't even add 'especially not with you', because that would have been rude. "It's just...I grew up thinking that there was an order to things, you know. To the universe, to our lives, to what happened...People had their role in life, even if it was a bad one, and things happened the way they were supposed to happen. Because they did, for me, all the time! But now...I don't know. I guess it's easier for me to think about one future, even if I know it won't happen, then admit I can't really control the future at all." 

 

He blushed. "Listen, I'm sorry, I know I don't have any right to complain. I've had some bad stuff happen, but I'm still really, really lucky. I just wish everyone else I love was lucky too." 

[Electra]

"Jesus," Erin muttered at Mark's reminder of when Clara would've been conceived. "I guess maybe that was part of the problem right there. I don't know if there's any universe where I'm ready to be a parent." She grimaced at the thought, then shook it off. "Anyway, she seemed to turn out all right. And the future doesn't have any guarantees, that's for damn sure,  but I guess it is nice to know we've avoided one set of mistakes." 

 

When Mark stammered and tried to walk back his own worried, Erin reached out and gave him a light shoulder-punch across the table. "You know better than that," she told him. "You can play the who-has-it worst game, that's stupid. Neither of us would ever be able to complain about anything." She thought for a moment about Singularity, still locked up in a box, albeit a far more comfortable and friendly one. Never before had her own history been so comparatively appealing.  

 

"I mean, I used to feel that way, when I first got here," she admitted with a shrug. "Like it was hard to sympathize with anybody because nobody had seen what I saw, you know? But I was holed up in my room all the time anyway, so Dr. Franklin gave me a bunch of stuff to read. He was my doctor too," she explained. "And one of them was like this sermon from a guy back a hundred years ago, and it was something like 'be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.' Things are tough for everybody, just in different ways. Just because you're lucky doesn't change that."  

[Avenger Assembled]

"I guess that's true," Mark admitted. "It's never been easy for me to look for help, but it's good to have somebody to talk to about things like this. You're really my best friend, you know? You and Trevor, and Joe too." He certainly couldn't talk to his mom about it, and he sensed Nina's advice would be rather less than helpful. "I know I'm not ready to be a dad, and at least I'm safe on that end too." He grinned. "Though when I do have kids, and someday I will, you and Trevor are totally godparents. Chris and Liz are on the list too, but you guys first. Any kids our generation has are going to grow up with the super thing right from the beginning, and you need...you need a good hand for that, otherwise things get a little weird." Lunch was winding down about then, and Mark had to resist the urge to try and pay the bill - he knew Erin was fine with money these days.