by TJ Klune
Dad had been brave, Cap told him. He wouldn’t expect anything less from one of his officers. They’d been inside the apartment building, trying to get the homeless people to safety, the sounds of the Extraordinaries attacking each other echoing through the streets. His dad had been one of the last people in the apartment building, checking to make sure they’d gotten everyone out. He’d found a woman huddling in a corner, bent over what looked like a pile of dirty rags.
It turned out to be a baby.
She’d been terrified, unable to move. Until Dad picked up her baby. Then she came to life, snatching the child out of his arms. He’d pulled them toward the front of the building.
They’d almost made it out to the street when the Extraordinaries slammed through the roof, seven stories above them. They’d crashed through floor after floor, the building groaning dangerously.
The explosion, when it came, was fierce and bright. There was a flash of light, then fire bloomed from the inside, the remaining windows shattering in the shockwave. Shadow Star was knocked through the front of the building and out onto the street, landing on top of a cruiser.
As the building began to burn, Pyro Storm burst out of the flames, going after Shadow Star.
The building collapsed behind him.
Dad had managed to get the woman and her baby out the front, shoving them through the entrance. The woman had been knocked off her feet, curling her body around her child as she hit the ground.
Nick’s dad hadn’t been so lucky. A beam had collapsed on top of him.
Dad was brave. But so were his brothers and sisters on the force.
They’d rushed forward and managed to pull him out in time. He’d been unconscious, and his breath had rattled dangerously in his chest, but he was alive. And remarkably, the explosion must have burned the fire out. All that remained were hot, glowing embers in the charred wood and brickwork.
No one else was hurt. The woman had a few scrapes, and the baby had a scratch on their cheek, but that was all. It could have been much, much worse.
“And that’s what you need to focus on,” Cap told him. “That’s what you need to remember. He’s a hero, Nick. He was doing his job. He saved those people. And yes, he was hurt, but he’s alive. Tough guy with a hard head. They gotta keep an eye on it, make sure his brain just got a little rattled and nothing more, but it’s going to be okay. He’s going to be okay.”
“Did you get them?” Nick asked, hands shaking. “Did you get Pyro Storm?”
Cap shook his head. “They were gone.” He hesitated. “I don’t want you to leap to any conclusions. We don’t know what exactly happened. We don’t know if it was—”
“It was him,” Nick snapped. “It was Pyro Storm. He did this, okay? He’s the bad guy. Shadow Star was trying to stop him. He was trying to save Nova City. If he’d known my dad was still in there, he would have done everything he could to help.”
Cap smiled tightly. “Okay, Nick. Sure. I understand. But let’s not worry about that right now. Let’s get you up to see your dad. I know he’s going to want to hear the sound of your voice.”
It was too much for Nick to handle. As soon as the elevator doors closed, he collapsed against Cap, splintering off into pieces. Cap wrapped an arm around his shoulder, whispering that it would be all right.
* * *
They got off on the fifth floor, Nick wiping his eyes. He didn’t want anyone to see that he’d been crying. But what he saw threatened to set him off all over again.
Cops lined the hallway, men and women in rows standing against either wall. Some looked exhausted, faces streaked with dust and grime, their heads tilted back against the wall, eyes closed.
They were all in uniform, service caps clutched in their hands in front of them.
When they saw Nick, they all snapped to attention, squaring their shoulders.
Cap kept his arm around Nick’s shoulders, leading him down the hallway. Every officer nodded in turn at Nick as he passed them by. Nick acknowledged each of them. Some he recognized. Some he didn’t. Officer Rookie had somehow made it up before Nick and Cap did, and he offered a small smile to Nick before schooling his face again.
Toward the end of the row of officers were a group of men standing in plainclothes, badges hanging around their necks.
Detectives.
His father’s former coworkers.
These were the people who had fought for Aaron Bell when Before had become After, and his dad had lashed out against someone he shouldn’t have. They were the ones that had argued with Internal Affairs and the higher-ups, telling them in no uncertain terms that Detective Bell shouldn’t be dismissed, that he was an unmatched asset to the Nova City Police Department, and to lose him would mean losing someone who bled blue.
In the end, he’d been demoted, but Nick had never forgotten. Dad had tried to shield him from the majority of it, but Nick had known more than he probably should have.
They clapped him on the back as he walked by, telling him it was fine, it was going to be fine. You’ll see, Aaron’s gonna pull through, Nicky, he’s going to pull through and be back on the job before you know it.
They reached an open doorway.
Cap stopped him before he could see inside.
“Remember,” he told Nick. “It always looks worse than it actually is.”
* * *
It looked bad.
That couldn’t be denied.
It looked so bad that the floor tilted beneath Nick’s feet. Gut-punched and heartsore, it took him a moment to figure out how to make his legs work again.
There were two nurses in the room, and they smiled at him before turning back to the man on the bed.
Machines beeped and whirred, and Nick found himself distracted by the beat of his father’s heart, a spike of green that rose and fell. It was steady.
There was tape over his father’s eyes, keeping his eyelids shut.
There was a strap around his neck, attached to a breathing tube, holding it in place.
There were bandages wrapped around his right arm, where he’d been burned.
But it was the bruising that was the worst of all.
It looked as if every inch of visible skin was covered in deep bruises, blue and red and violet. His chest rose and fell, and there was a white clip attached to the tip of one of his fingers, but even his knuckles were purple, as if all parts of him had been crushed.
“You must be Nick,” one of the nurses said, sounding inordinately cheerful.
Nick nodded, unable to take his eyes off his dad.
“I’m Becky. I’ll be your father’s nurse today. This is Renee. She’s going to be helping me out. You need anything, all you need to do is ask us, okay?”
“Or one of the officers outside,” Renee said, shaking her head. “I’m pretty sure they’d do anything you wanted too.”
“Your dad’s doctor will be in here in a little bit to talk to you,” Becky said, changing out an empty IV bag for a full one. “He’ll be able to answer any questions you have. You can come over here if you want. I know your dad will want to hear your voice.”
But Nick couldn’t move.
All he could do was watch the heartbeat.
“Nick?” Cap asked.
He turned and ran.
* * *
Gibby and Jazz found him.
He didn’t know how long he’d been curled under a table in the empty room he’d found on the second floor. It looked as if it’d been used for storage. Chairs were stacked on top of one another. Cleaning supplies sat on shelves against the wall. It smelled like bleach.
The door opened, light and noise filtering in from the hallway.
He heard a sigh above him. “In here.”
He blinked as two sets of legs appeared in front of him.
He turned his head.
Jazz and Gibby crouched down.
“Hey,” Jazz said, smoothing out her skirt.
“Hi,” he said back.
“Everyone’s
looking for you,” Gibby said. “You’d think all those cops would be better at it than they are.”
“How did you find me?” Nick asked, looking at the underside of the table.
“Small dark room. It’s where I’d go too. It’s the tenth one we checked.”
“They were looking on the roof,” Jazz said. “It’s like they don’t even know you. Can I come under the table with you?”
Nick shrugged. “The floor is kind of dirty.”
Jazz snorted. “Like I care.”
Nick pushed himself closer to the wall to make room for Jazz. She crawled underneath the table, cursing quietly as she hit her head. She lay down beside him, taking his hand in hers and squeezing gently. Nick’s lip trembled, and he looked away.
Gibby reached back and closed the door behind her before she sat down, bringing her legs up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.
Jazz spoke first. “I think someone drew a penis on the underside of this table.”
Nick choked. “It’s a stain.”
“What? No, it’s not. That’s definitely a penis. Okay, maybe it’s water, but it looks like a dong.”
“What does that say about you that you see penises?” Gibby asked her. “It doesn’t look like—okay, that’s a penis.”
“I wonder if it’s like one of those inkblot tests,” Jazz said. “What does it mean that I see a penis?”
Nick shook his head. “Probably a sign of the onset of a debilitating mental illness. Hooray.”
“I don’t know how I feel about that.”
“It’s okay,” Gibby said. “I’ll still love you anyway.”
“Even if I see penises where there are none?”
“Even then.”
“Oh my god,” Nick groaned. “You should leave if you’re going to be adorably weird. I’m vulnerable right now, and I don’t know if I can take it.”
“Nah,” Jazz said easily. “I think I’ll stay right where I am, if that’s okay with you.”
It was very okay with Nick, though he didn’t say it out loud. “I just … needed to hide.”
Gibby hummed. “Don’t blame you. It’s tough.”
“It was the heartbeat.”
Jazz squeezed his hand again. “What about it?”
Nick’s eyes felt like they were filled with sand. “The beeping. And the line. It was a lot. It scared me. Because it was him, but it didn’t look like him.”
“Looks a little beat up, right?”
Nick shrugged. “A lot beat up.” He swallowed thickly, trying to stay in control. “I didn’t mean to leave.”
“I don’t think anyone’s mad at you for that,” Gibby said. “And if they are, they’ll have to get through Jazz and me first.”
“I can beat up men twice my size,” Jazz said. “I got your back. And your front.”
Nick closed his eyes. He didn’t want to know the answer, but he had to ask. “Seth?”
It was Gibby who answered. “He’s … I don’t know, Nick. I know he wants to be here.”
“But he’s not.”
Gibby hesitated. “No. He’s not.”
Nick opened his eyes. “Where is he?”
Gibby shrugged and looked down. She picked at the frayed hem of her jeans. “It’s … there are things going on, Nick. Things that I can’t explain.”
“Why?”
“It’s not my place. You need to hear it from him.”
Nick chuckled bitterly. “Don’t see how that’s going to happen. He’s not here, after all.”
“He wants—”
“Maybe I don’t care what he wants. My dad is in the hospital, and he can’t even take the time to answer the phone? I tried to call him, and you know what happened? It rang three times before it went to voicemail. If his phone was off, it would have rung once. If his phone was on and he missed the call, it would have rung six times. But it rang three. Which means he saw who was calling and then sent it to voicemail.”
Gibby winced. “You can’t know that.”
“Do you know where he is?”
Gibby didn’t answer.
Jazz looked at her. “Do you?”
Gibby sighed. “Look, it’s not my place to tell. I made a promise that—”
Nick sat up. Of course, he hit his head on the table. “Motherfu—ow. Why is this table so hard?”
“It does have a penis on it,” Jazz said helpfully. “Maybe it likes that kind of thing.”
Nick glared down at her. “You’re not funny.”
“Excuse you. I’m hysterical.”
“She really is,” Gibby said. She sighed as Nick and Jazz looked at her again. “I … crap.” Her shoulders slumped. “It’s not what you think. Believe me when I say that Seth would want nothing more than to be here, okay?”
“Then where is he?” Nick asked. “Why can’t he even pick up the phone when my dad is in the hospital because of Pyro Storm?”
Gibby lifted her head sharply. “That’s not true.”
“It is,” Nick said fiercely. “Cap told me what happened. Shadow Star and Pyro Storm were fighting and crashed into a building. And then it exploded, and there was fire everywhere. Pyro Storm was trying to kill Shadow Star, and he didn’t give a damn who else he hurt in the process. He’s the bad guy. The villain. He did this. It’s always been him.”
“No,” Gibby said, shaking her head. “Nick, that’s not—you know what? I don’t care anymore. I’m tired of all of this.” She stared at him for a moment. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Then, “Nick, there’s something I have to tell you. It’s about—”
The door opened.
Light spilled in.
Officer Rookie sighed. “There you are. Dammit, Nick. As soon as we can look back on all of this and laugh, I’m going to handcuff you and put you in the back seat again.”
“Wow,” Jazz said. “Isn’t that illegal? Nick is underage. You shouldn’t be flirting with a sixteen-year-old. You’re, like, thirty.”
Nick sniffled. “That’s what I said. But apparently Officer Rookie finds me irresistible. I mean, I don’t blame him. I’m pretty cute.”
Officer Rookie rolled his eyes. “Whatever gets your rocks off.”
“Ew,” Gibby, Jazz, and Nick said.
“You probably shouldn’t be talking about that with minors,” Jazz told him.
“You’ll go to jail,” Gibby said.
“Be nice to Officer Rookie,” Nick said.
“Thank you, Nick—”
“I mean, it’s not his fault he has a crush on me.”
“Who has a crush on you?” Cap asked, appearing in the doorway.
Officer Rookie looked as if he were about to die. “No one, sir! It’s absolutely nothing!”
Cap narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “Hmm.”
“It’s fine, Cap,” Nick said.
“Is it? Why don’t you let me be the judge of that? Officer Morton, I’ll handle this from here. Make yourself useful elsewhere.”
Officer Rookie nodded and fled.
“Strange guy,” Cap said, staring after him.
“He’s all right,” Nick said, crawling over Jazz to get out from underneath the table. “He’ll make a good cop.”
“Yeah? Seal of approval?”
Nick nodded. “Little wet behind the ears, but he has to start somewhere.”
Cap rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Good to know.” He glanced at Nick. “We okay?”
Nick shrugged and looked down at his shoes.
“Sounds about right.”
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have run away.”
“Sometimes we have to run away in order to clear our heads and put ourselves together as best we can. The important thing is that we return stronger than when we left.”
It’s easier to stand together than it is to struggle apart.
“I don’t know if I’m strong enough,” Nick admitted.
“I think you are,” Cap said.
“Me too,” Gibby said while she helped her girlfriend up
.
“The strongest,” Jazz agreed. “And even if you’re not, you’ve got us.”
Nick loved them very much.
* * *
Mary Caplan came and fussed over Nick. She was a no-nonsense Black woman who told him in no uncertain terms that he would be staying with them when he tried to tell her he’d be fine on his own. “Don’t even try and come at me with that bull,” she told him. “I won’t hear of it. You will stay with us, and I’m going to feed you like you wouldn’t believe. You’re far too skinny. I made meatloaf and pot roast and bought sixteen frozen pizzas before I came here. You’ll eat all of it, and you will like it.”
“This is going to be great,” Cap whispered to him.
“Oh, don’t believe any of that is for you, Rodney Caplan,” Mary said, mouth a thin line. “You get kale.”
“But—”
She glared at him.
Cap sighed. “Yes, ma’am.”
She leaned forward and kissed her husband on the cheek.
Cap smiled adoringly at her.
Nick didn’t understand old people.
* * *
Jazz and Gibby went with Mary to the Bell home to pack Nick a bag. As weirded out as he was by the idea of them digging around his underwear drawer, he wanted to stay with his dad as long as he could.
Becky smiled at him when he returned, gesturing toward a chair set up next to the bed. “Doctor Chaudry will come talk to you in a minute. Your dad is in good hands.”
Nick sat in the chair. “Is he—is he hurting right now?”
Becky shook her head. “It looks worse than it is, trust me. He’s probably going to be in some pain when he wakes up, but that’s what morphine is for. We’ll get him stoned, and you can record him for blackmail later.”
Nick liked the way Becky thought.
* * *
Doctor Chaudry gave him the breakdown. Two broken ribs, punctured lung. Superficial burns on his arm. Contusions. Abrasions.