Right now, you're faced with the hardest choice of your life. Do something with the finals hours of the day, or stay in this beautiful, soft, plush, warm bed. You feel yourself sink further into the covers, and you hear a blissful sigh escape you. As your eyes drift close, you see the clock go from 8 to 8:01.
… oh, screw it.
Pushing down on the covers, you rise from your wonderfully plushy prison to the cold, uncaring world of the rest of your room. Instantly, the aches come back to you. Gritting your teeth, you ignore the drums blasting in your head, choosing to focus on your ears as the pods threaten to burn straight through your ears. Your head swoons as waves shine in your vision. They come in, only to blink out a second later. For every one that comes in, you bite down the pain. The taste of blood burns your mouth, but you get to your feet regardless. You lurch forward, barely managing to catch yourself on the counter. Taking a deep breath, you wipe the line of sweat off your forehead. Forcing yourself a step forward and you're right back to holding to counter.
It looks like it's back to the basics.
Lean into the wall, use it as your support. Keep as much weight off your legs as you can manage, and start putting one foot in front of the other. If the pain gets worse, just deal with it. After all, it's nothing you're used to by now.
Treading along the wall, you shuffle along the wall till you're back at your door.You push it open and keep your shoulder flush against the wall. A wave screams in front of you, and you jerk back. Your arms flail, but gravity pulls you down.
And just like everyone still normal in the world, you fall.
There's a flash of pain sending the world into a tailspin as you lay there on the floor. You hear a groan, and slowly you feel the stinging pain burning the back of your head. First your ears, now your head.
At least you were going to go to bed soon.
Rolling to the side, you push with what little strength your arms have left to get you back to your knees. You crash your weight into the wall. It hurts too, though it's enough to support to get your legs under you. The rise up is slow, painful, and all around torture, but it at least gets you there.
You pant as you take another step, barely leaning into it, testing yourself to see if you can support the weight. When it holds, you lean a little more, and then a little more until you can put one foot in front of the other.
Seven agonising steps is all that it takes to get you to your adjacent room. You could see the light coming from under the door, and you let out a breath you can't remember holding.
Rebecca was in, thank god.
You risk everything reaching for the handle. The second your balance slips, you grab it so hard the metal starts to bend in your fingers. It turns and flies open as you lean a little too far into it.
For the second time today, you fall without a way to stop yourself. You feel your knees hit the floor, but your head is cushioned by a wave.
Which only made the ringing in your head worse.
You felt the pods in your ear scream as they desperately tried to shield you from the noise, but it was too much at this point. You could barely hear yourself blink. Something makes the room rumble. Blinking away the haze, you see a hand reach down. It cradles your head while another hand snakes around your waist. You feel yourself turning and lifted into the air. The air slaps against your skin as something carries you to the centre of the room.
You're slowly let down and you sink into familiar plush covers and pillows. If your head weren't trying to kill you, you'd probably just fall asleep right then and there. But the ringing keeps your eyes open, forcing them to focus and open up the room.
It was Rebecca's room, and unlike yours, she apparently had enough time to give it a personal touch. The empty walls that filled your room are replaced with tall ceiling bookshelves, filled to the brim with more books than you can remember seeing outside of a library. In the far corner sits a metal desk, every inch filled with books and stacks of paper, both of them standing at least three feet up.
It probably cost a fortune, but it would never sell that well now. Even from here dents the size of fists dotted the edge. Books are piled seven high, and the space and the floor around it are littered with crumpled up and torn apart pieces of paper.
You roll your head to the side and see Rebecca launch out of her chair. Her eyes dart over you, and you don't need to be a genius to know that she's trying to keep a brave face. It cracks the second Rebecca focuses on your face. She tries to say something, and nothing but a sharp gasp is all that she manages.
You crack the bravest smile you can manage.
"So, this is what it looked like from your end."
Rebecca's jaw drops, and she slaps your shoulder, making you wince. The smile that starts to form instantly turns into worry.
"Oh my god I'm sorry."
She reaches forward, and you catch her wrist with your hand. It's not forceful, hell; you could barely keep the arm up. Rebecca's eyes your hand, shaking it off with barely a twitch. The concern on her face grows, and you put on a confident smirk you always have.
"Don't worry about it," you say, holding up a calming hand.
You try to lean forward, but the second you do your head starts ringing again. You feel your back dip, but thankfully you've got Rebecca. Her hands seem to just appear behind your head. She gently starts to lead you back until you feel the support of the bed. Gently as she could, she quickly takes back her hands, rubbing them together while doing her best not to let anything show on her face.
"Thanks," you say, "How long was I out?"
"Just a few minutes."
You blink and smirk a little.
"Oh, that's good."
Rebecca's worry caves to a glare.
"How is collapsing on my bedroom floor good?"
The question sends a shiver down your spine as you try in vain to move back. Your back digs into the bed frame, and the small pinch doesn't do a thing to stop the nervousness that Rebecca's sending you. You swallow something, and your smirk starts to feel heavy.
"That was-"
Whatever you're going to follow with your little tough guy act stops when Rebecca's glare kills the words in your throat. She blinks back, her expression shifting back to worry as she looks you over. Raising a hand, she slowly reaches towards your head. You don't stop her; you don't even move. You just let her gently touch the pods in your ear, making you wince as the heat is pressed deeper into your head.
You wince, and Rebecca jerks back. She starts to move again, gently taking her hand off of your ear. Once her hand is gone the burning fades away as she hides the action behind a mask of anxiety and unease.
"Alex," She starts, "What…?"
The question hangs in the air, and when you don't answer immediately, she starts to get up.
"Rebecca."
The one word is enough to make Rebecca freeze in place. It twists something in your gut, but it's not the most painful thing you've felt today.
Not that it didn't come close.
Hiding the feeling as best you can, you slowly reach for her sleeve and pull her down. She lets you guide her back down to the chair. You force a smile back on, making her wince.
"I'm fine," you say.
If she didn't believe you before, she doesn't believe you now. She looks down at your hand like it was poisonous. Your smile is gone in a heartbeat, and you pull away. Rebecca winces from the action, but pure bitterness forces her to keep up the facade.
"If you're fine, then how did you end up like this?"
She stops, her glare going so sharp a shiver runs down your back.
"Was it Contessa?"
You quickly shake your head, only for Rebecca to raise a disbelieving eyebrow. Combine that with her glare, and you find yourself trying in vain to move back, just to be stopped by the bed frame.
"I… I just might have overused my powers."
"Might!?" Rebecca exclaims.
If you could still use your powers, you'd probably be flying. Or you wouldn't because you can't even move as Rebecca towers over you.
"Alex, you could barely walk! That's not might, that's a fact!"
You raise a finger, only to lower it as Rebecca doubles down, slamming her hands against the bed so hard you swear the room learches, making you go stone still. Rebecca's eyes light up with realisation. She looks down at her hands, and they seemingly disappear from the bed to end up next to her. Wiping a strand of hair out from her eyes, she tries to regain some of that fire. She can't, but you won't fault her for trying.
"What…what did you do with Contessa?"
You ring your hands together, shifting on the bed as Rebecca sucks down as much calming air as she can.
"I went to Pennsylvania."
Rebecca nods, her hand twitching against her lap.
"I met a kid named Harbinger," you continue, all bit it far slower than you might have.
She perks up an eyebrow at the name, but she nods regardless. The twitching doesn't stop, and you grimace as you hear yourself say, "We ran into…. A psychopath."
She doesn't nod this time.
She doesn't even flinch.
There are just wide eyes, staring at you.
"He shot bullets and lasers at me."
Rebecca's eyes widen to the size of dinner plates.
"We fought, me Contessa and harbinger won. Then he dropped a mountain on us. I caught it, I threw it away, and after a…" you grimace as the next word crawls its way out of you "Talk with Harbinger, we all came back here."
As you finish, you lean back against the bed frame. Closing your eyes, you wait for the inevitable tongue-lashing that always seems to happen after you tell something like this.
You wait for a second, then two, but nothing.
Sneaking a peek, you see Rebecca hasn't even sat down. She's just staring at you as he jaw goes slack. Her head falls into her hands and stifles a groan of frustration, leaving you just sitting there.
"...sorry," you offer.
Rebecca's head snaps out of her hands as she looks at you, her brows locking together, daring you to repeat that.
"Sorry?" she asks, "That's all you have to defend yourself with?"
"Well, what am I supposed to say?" you ask meekly.
Rebecca blinks, the anger leaving her almost as soon as it came.
"I… I don't know."
Her legs give out from under her, sending her crashing down on the chair. Her hair goes all over her face, but she doesn't care. She just stares at the ground, clutching the bed sheets so hard her knuckles go white.
Just like that, you feel like someone punched you in the gut.
First Clint, now Rebecca.
No wonder he was worried if you could even get Rebecca of all people to worry like this.
You reach forward, biting back the pain as you force a wave into the world. It's barely a blip, a tiny thing, only enough to brush the hair away from Rebecca's eyes.
But it's enough for her to look at you again, and for you to gain the courage to reach for her hand. You give it a quick squeeze, surprising yourself just as much as it did Rebecca.
"I'm sorry."
She opens her mouth, but you shake your head.
"I have to say it because it's the truth," you say.
Shrugging for good measure, you feel a bashful chuckle force itself forward as you gesture at the rest of you.
"And I'm sorry that I made it worse for you by coming in while I was like this."
Rebecca forces a smile, a false acceptance. It just stings as she pushes your hand away, pushing your smile away with it.
"That's…"
She trails off, her worry coming back in full force. The two of you sit in the silence. Rebecca folds her arms, rubbing the edges of her suit as she avoids your gaze at all costs.
This hasn't happened in a long time. The last time that this happened, you were talking about her parents. She closed herself off, but you managed to get her out of it.
Come on Alex, think! You can remember her favourite birthday present for god's sake, this should be easy!
Then it hits you.
"You know," you start, "We never really said it, did we?"
Rebecca blinks, tilting her head in confusion.
"It took us six months, but we finally made a bunch of Doctors eat their words."
The jab rips a snort out of Rebecca. She snaps up a hand to hide it, but you can still see the start of a smile behind her fingers. She fights it down, but even after she takes away her hand, you can still see it.
"See, that's why I came," you smile, "I couldn't let my best friend spend god knows how long working on laws without stopping by."
Her smile returns, but when she tries to fight it down, it doesn't seem to want to go away. She jabs your shoulder so gently you barely feel it. But you still mouth ow, making a show of rubbing the spot, getting another snort out of her.
"As nice as that is, you still should have gone to bed," she reprimands.
Saying it through smiling teeth though, you didn't even feel a pang of guilt. Playing along, you shrug in agreement.
"Yeah, I probably should have," you reach up and rub around your ears, "My poor ears can agree to that."
"It would have been the smart thing," she points out.
"Still not good at that, remember?"
She gives you a rueful half-smile, shaking her head.
"You're going to have to get better at that if you want to keep me from having a heart attack."
"Or you could just come with me wherever I go out, make sure I'm not doing something stupid," you offer.
Utter silence follows as you stare at a completely dumbstruck Rebecca. Her eyes dart all over you, looking for something, only coming back to your own dinner plate sized eyes.
She purses her lips, and you rub the back of your head.
"So... how's lawmaking going for you?" you interrupt.
The question knocks Rebecca out of her stupor. She looks over to the mess of a desk and sighs. Launching out of her chair, she floats over to the counter and picks a single big stack of paper and a book. Flying back, she ignores the chair entirely to land right at the edge of the bed. You move over to give her enough room, but you don't think she even notices the action as her hands skim through the titles of the papers. She hands you the book, and you quickly take it. A grunt escapes you as you almost fail to lift it making Rebecca send another worried look your way. Rolling your eyes, you make a show of waving the book around which makes Rebecca crack a small smile.
With her hands-free, she goes through the papers again, her eyes flying through what she had. With every second that passes, you see her frown deepen with each page that goes by. You lean forward, stretching as far as you can to look at the pages. It isn't much, the papers only at the top of the pile for a second at a time, but you don't need that much to see how far she's gotten.
Or more accurately to say, how little she's gotten done.
There were barely single paragraphs for some of the pages, and others only had titles. You purse your lips as Rebecca runs a hand through her hair.
"Not going well?" you guess.
She sighs, shaking her head as she needs her probably aching temple. You raise an eyebrow, but she just keeps kneading her forehead.
"Got something for your headache?" you ask.
"It's not a headache," she corrects, "I haven't had a single one of those since I drank my vial. A small miracle, because these final pages are the most frustrating thing I've ever had to deal with."
She stops, giving you a small half glance.
"Well, second most frustrating."
"Ouch," you deadpan.
Rebecca rolls her eyes, grinning at her rib. Leaning back against the bedframe, she passes the pile of papers to you.
"Want a look?"
You wave it off, and a give a little laugh.
"I don't think a passing grade in Government is going to help you that much," you say.
Rebecca's hand drops, only to shrug her shoulders in agreement. Standing up from the bed, she takes the few steps towards the desk, returning the papers to their proper place.
"On the bright side, if I keep this up, I should be done by the time I promised."
You tilt your head.
"Really? Those papers didn't look like they were even close to done. Besides, aren't laws like…" you space out your hands, till they were about the size of the old college textbooks that Clint used to bring home, "This big?"
Rebecca's turns just enough for the corner of her eye to dart towards you.
BASE STATE: IMPRACTICAL
"These are the hardest like I said, the base laws won't be too difficult. Although, it's not going to help how long this is going to take," she grumbles.
REVALUATING BASE STATE
Slumping in her chair, Rebecca massages her forehead. Pushing against the bed, you wince as the movement puts your head into a tailspin. You feel gravity take hold as you lean dangerously close to the edge. You grab hold of the bed frame, crunching the wood beneath your fingers.
STATE: ACCEPTABLE
Oh crap.
You slowly tilt your head towards Rebecca and, why are you raising your hand? Your arm is up stone still towards Rebecca. The base of her chair screams as her fingers bite straight through the metal.
"How about we both call it a night?" you offer quickly.
Rebecca purses her lips, gradually letting go of the chair. Your arm falls back down to your side, and you have enough sense to swing your legs around to the floor before gravity makes you fall again.
Alright, just like always, you think.
Without waiting, you jump off the bed, and your feet manage to chat you. In the corner of your eye, Rebecca raises just a bit off her chair. You risk a step forward, your legs hold. They hold out for another step, and another, and before you know it, you're at the door.
You pull on the handle, leaning into it for as much support you can manage. Turning one last glance around to Rebecca, you see her hands flipping through a page as she leans on her other arm.
"Night Rebecca," you say.
Rebecca stops her reading, brushing a strand of hair away from her eye, you catch the edges of a smirk.
"Thanks for doing the smart thing."
Your lip starts to quirk upwards, and as your knees begin to buckle you head out the door. You're already halfway to your room by the time that it clicks shut. Your eyes droop dangerously low as you reach for your door handle, but it's enough to let you see the door swing open. At this point, everything goes on autopilot. You barely feel your feet moving. You can't hear the waves as the pound in the back of your head.
And when you get to your bed, you feel yourself fall forward, but you don't feel the covers.
Burying your face in the covers, you groan as light burns behind your eyes.
Morning, a new day.
Here's hoping it's not as crazy as yesterday.
[] Don't go see anyone, just go to the cafeteria. Food first, work to change the world later.
[] Check the lab for Charles. The guy has probably been working for as long as you've been sleeping. You can't help him build, but hopefully, a break does him some good.
[] Go to the game room, see if Matthew's come back. If he hasn't already, he's in for the news of his life when he hears what's happened around here.
[] Go to the training room. You promised David that you'd give him another chance. It's not going to feel good, but that doesn't matter.
[] Don't get out of bed. Wasn't yesterday enough? Ten more minutes, please.
