I hemmed for a second before I composed a straight answer. “You got on a plane to Minneapolis and as soon as you got off, you got your ass kicked by the bad guy.”
“Oh, man,” he said, closing his eyes, putting fingers on the bridge of his nose to knead it. “The team.” His eyes snapped open and he looked straight at me. “What about—”
“They’re all fine,” I said. “Our bad guy … wasn’t quite so bad, at least to you guys. No fatalities, and everyone seems to be recovering. You’ll walk away from this one with nothing scarred but maybe your pride.”
It was his turn to hem. “Did you, uh … kick his ass? In your own, inimitable way?”
“He’s dead, yeah,” I said, looking away. “I tried to spare him, but …” I shrugged. “He wouldn’t have any of it.”
He stared right at me. “Did you try and absorb him?”
Why did this dreamwalk suddenly feel so desperately uncomfortable? “Yeah,” I admitted after an awkward pause. “He wasn’t interested, so I let it pass.”
Reed just stared at the dark ground for a few seconds before replying. “Damn.”
I stared at him, a little surprised. “Why ‘damn’?”
He shrugged. “I mean … obviously you beat him without any additional powers, and … you’re totally a badass and all, it’s just …” He did another shrug, like he was trying to squirm his way out of having to answer an awkward question. Finally he broke through with a sigh. “I just want you to be safe, and having all the powers you can … makes you safe … er. Because there’s no way you’ll ever be totally safe, at least not the way you live.”
I gave him a jaded eye. “The way I live? Which one of us is presently paid to deal with metahuman criminal menaces?”
“Yeah, with an agency you set up.”
“But you’re doing the dirty work—well, most of it, anyway. I mean, sure, you gotta call in little sis every now and again when things get really hairy—”
“I did not ‘call you in’—I left you day-drinking on the Gulf of Mexico—”
“But you knew I wouldn’t just sit this out when it got personal—”
He sighed again. “Yeah. I had a feeling that if anything would pull you out of your funk and back into the game … it’d be a serious meta threat.”
“I’m, uh … done with the drinking,” I said, looking away. “I mean, I’ve probably still got some mild withdrawals to go through—thanks, metahuman powers, for blunting the impact of that—but, uh …” I looked up and found his eyes. They were, thankfully, kind, and filled with concern for me. “… I’m done.”
“Good,” he said, and he sounded a little hoarse. “I’m glad you’re … done. I wish I could have helped more, but …”
“You did it right,” I said. “One mental crisis at a time. Honestly, I was … such a mess. I’m surprised you actually thought I’d leave my stupor to get in on this.”
“It’s who you are,” he said softly.
“A crazy person?” I said, half-joking.
“A hero,” he said, not.
“She took everything from me, Reed,” I said, looking at the infinite blackness below. “My powers, my memories … pieces of who I am. She even broke my confidence, though apparently my ego is so massive she couldn’t take all of it. But … strip that all away … and I have to ask, what’s left?”
“A hero, still. Duh,” Reed said, answering instantly. “Also …” His voice softened. “My sister. Who’d be kinda super even without a single power.”
My throat got very tight, and my eyes misted up. “Thanks … bro. I love you, too.”
He brought it in, and we hugged, his arms around me and mine around him, for what felt like forever—in the best way. Finally, he said, “So … this is goodbye for a while, I guess?” And he pushed back slightly, so he could look me in the eye. “Since you can’t call me anymore, and I presume you’re … headed on your separate way.”
I held his gaze, and smiled. “Maybe we should make this a weekly thing? Like, ‘Sienna Nealon, phone home’? But with dreams?”
He smiled. “I’d like that. A lot.” And he hugged me tight again, and didn’t let go for a long, long time. I liked that, too.
44.
The van rolled to a stop outside a hotel in Burnsville, Minnesota, just south of the cities, off Interstate 35. Harry was at the wheel, and I sprang out the side door as Eilish stepped out of the passenger side, her little bag slung over her shoulder.
We both peered inside; there was a man at the front desk, and Eilish sighed in relief. “Excellent prospects.” She was tense all the way through, looked like she was about to spring a leak from contracting her muscles so tight. “You sure about this?”
“Reed said he’d be happy to have you on the team.” I looked her right in the eyes. “You’ll be fine, Eilish. It’ll give you a chance to see if doing this … heroing thing … is something you want to do. It’ll pay … well, I might add, and …” I shrugged. “He’s got connections. You’ll be able to stay here for a while if you’re of a mind to. It’ll give you a chance to work things out without worrying that you’re going to be … y’know, implicated in assisting a fugitive in her flight from justice, decency, and railroading.” I shrugged. “They probably wouldn’t write up the indictment quite like that, but …”
“I appreciate it,” she said, staring back at me with a curious intensity in her eyes. “I’ve been … lost … without Breandan. It’s been years since I felt … steady, I guess? And … I hope you don’t take this wrong, but these last few months, after Scotland, coming over here with you, watching you dive into the bottle? It’s really woken me up to the fact that I need to work on a life for myself. So … maybe I will find it here.”
I looked back at her. “I’m guess I’m glad that somebody got some benefit out of me hitting rock bottom.”
“That’s thinking positive,” Eilish said, and thrust out her hand. I shook it quickly, and she headed for the door.
“They’re good people,” I said, calling after her. “My friends. Take care of them.”
She looked over her shoulder at me. “I’ll do what I can.” And then she went into the hotel, already speaking to the man behind the counter as the doors whooshed shut behind her. “Would you kindly …?”
“She’ll be just fine,” Harry said as I climbed up into the passenger seat next to him.
“I know she will,” I said, settling in and staring at the glove box and the dashboard. Now Reed was gone, at least for a while, and I was separated once more from my team. With Eilish saying her farewell, and even Cassidy being gone, I was left alone with Harry Graves.
I looked at him, and he looked at me. He smiled and shifted the van back into gear as he took us out of the parking lot. I was left to wonder how long it would be until I was on my own again—
“A good long while,” Harry said, smiling over at me.
“Oh,” I said. Question answered, I guess.
We headed south as he turned onto Interstate 35, and I held the rest of my questions in, just basking in the quiet glow of having another person with me—at least for ‘a good long while.’
However long that might last.
45.
South Dakota
Daybreak