The Last Superhero (54 page)

“
G!” Excited
whisper. “You're up.”

“
Is he in there with
her?” Dad asks while Simon and I hug.

“
He is.” Simon
holds me at arm's length. “He wanted to wait until you awoke,
but we don't know how much time we have.”

Don't let that sink in or
you won't be able to do what you do next: reach for the door, open
it, and see him sitting next to her, his hand on her temple.

A faint smile on her lips.

A halo of happiness above
them.

He sees me, beckons me
forward. I sit on his lap. He delivers a gentle kiss to my cheek
before letting me lean on his shoulder and the moment his fingers
touch my temple I'm there.

A house. A different one.
With a beautiful backyard with a garden and trees and flowers, lots
of flowers.

And the boy under the tree
with the toys he's so fascinated with.

And Mom's there, pushing
locks of dark hair out of his face and being a serious grandmotherly
pain in the ass, but he doesn't mind her fussing over him. Not one
bit.

Then I feel an arm wrapping
over my shoulders and the kiss that lands on my head and it's all so
perfect.

“
She wanted to meet
him,” Steven whispers into my ear.

“
Is she dying?”
I crane my neck to look up and he's staring straight at her as he
nods his answer.

So I do the same and we're
witnessing what will never be but that, at the same time, is.

Yet it doesn't take long for
the boy to put the toys down and seek refuge on her lap. His arms
around her neck, they fuse with each other for a hug that lasts until
the light suddenly dims and we fade out into reality.

Into the room with the beeps
and I cling to Steven, my fingers burrowing into his shoulders
because of the tears and the heaving and the I can't hold it in
anymore.

He soothes me, coos me.

Because this was what she
was waiting for and she got it and now she could leave, she could go.

Content.

59

It's hard to explain how one
feels when you don't even have a clue about how you feel in the first
place.

So many mixed emotions, so
much to take in.

Daphne comes over to share
our last moments with Mom before the doctors come in to certify her
death. And she finds it awfully difficult to dislodge herself from
the room once she has to go back to her house, but she eventually
does.

I've cried so much I can't
even think. Yet I can say the crying isn't exactly sadness or
despair; it's more like a release. A need to open the dam and let it
flow so I can breathe again.

And Steven doesn't leave my
side, doesn't let go of my hand, doesn't let me stray.

And when Clarice breaks down
in a bundle of nerves, he takes me away.

That's when, for the first
time since we got together, his arms go limp around me as we both
fall into peaceful sleep.

No nightmares.

Just the rhythm of our
beating hearts.

A slow intake of breath, a
rustling of sheets, the feel of sunlight flooding the room, and a
smile, crinkly eyes, a kiss.

“
Good morning,”
a voice that sends trails of gooseflesh down my arms.

A finger that wipes away a
tear.

Daphne's around for
breakfast and we sit in silence at the table. A silence that is
broken only by Clarice's sniffles.

Thank god they sent the kids
to her parents or it would be doubly difficult.

Steven can't help the smile
that escapes his lips every once in a while at the thought of us
having slept together all through the night like normal people do.

And I can't help but
reciprocate it because it was what we were working so hard for.

“
She asked to be
cremated,” I comment.

Simon raises his eyes from
his plate.

“
It's been taken care
of,” Dad replies. “Don't worry.”

Protocols are different for
people who die at home, but yeah, they've already worked that out.

They've worked it all out.
Especially Simon. That one's got a lot to answer to.

However, it doesn't take
long for the rest of the gang to arrive and even though they've been
rallied by the sad news and pay their condolences first thing,
they're too happy about the result of our mission to even care about
the wounds they sustained.

The bloody knife? Fletcher
had it lodged in his thigh for a moment, but he was able to do what
Frances kept shouting at us: Think it away.

She's the first one to hug
me while also jumping with joy and I have to remind her I had a real
wound in my leg that I couldn't, for all I had, think away.

“
What about Briggs?”
I'm led to sit on a sofa by Dad while the rest take places around the
giant living room.

Daphne to my right, Steven
to my left. It's like I'm inside a cozy bed fort.

Ross stays standing by a
window. “He's alive, but you shouldn't worry about him.”

Wyatt's sitting in an
armchair with a bandaged hand that he keeps steepled under his chin.

Jake and Frances are sat
together in a loveseat while Dr. Morgan, Dr. Fletcher, and Dr. Hudson
took over an L-shaped sofa facing the one I'm in.

Cane and Wells look us over
from a window seat, their eyes switching from the landscape
stretching outside the glass to us.

Powell and Suárez,
like Ross, appear unable to sit down.

“
Briggs won't be a
problem.” Simon walks into the room, his lovely dark eyes soft,
tender. “I'd like to express to you all how grateful I am for
what you've done. It was a heroic act for which we're all thankful
for your perseverance and determination.”

“
We?” I ask
before anyone stops me.

“
The other sponsors
prefer to stay anonymous; as I would've liked to had it not been for
Briggs's intrusion.”

Oh. There are more?

“
It should be me
saying thank you.” Steven's hand squeezes mine over my thigh.
“You've given me a second chance in life and that is something
I will never be able to repay you for.”

“
So, it's over?”
Dr. Morgan springs up on her seat. “No more nightmares?”

“
No more nightmares,”
Steven answers, his eyes setting on mine.

A collective sigh travels
around the room and faces that had frowns upon them cheer up.

“
We'd still like to
run some tests.” Dr. Morgan looks at her companions for
approval. “To make sure.”

Doctors.

“
Of course.” He
looks so glad I bet he'd do anything they tell him. “Anything
you need.”

“
You too,” Dr.
Hudson says my way.

“
Sure,” I drawl.

There was no way I was
getting away from this, was there?

At least it gives me some
time with Dr. Morgan as we sit in the room Clarice set up as the
kids' classroom. With the chalkboard and the table with the brightly
colored chairs and books and toys and pictures.

So appropriate for the
subject I'm about to bring up.

“
I'm curious about...
Do you have any information on being pregnant by a superhero?”
I ask as she draws blood from my left arm just so I can think of
something else and not the blood trickling into the tube. AGH. “I
mean, if they age slower than normal humans then this may take longer
than a normal pregnancy, right? Will I be pregnant say, as long as an
elephant? I don't think I'll be able to
endure
that!”

“
I don't think it'll
take as long, but we don't have much information on the subject.”
She releases the tourniquet, her eyes still on the needle. “We'll
have to monitor you and your baby and see how it develops.”

“
He,” I correct
her, which brings her attention to me. “It's a boy. We saw him
in the nightmares.”

“
How can you be so
sure?” Her eyebrows meet for a moment as she pulls out the
needle and covers the area with a swab.

“
Salvatore’s
father confirmed it in a way.”

She's surprised by this. “I
still want to do an ultrasound whenever you find it convenient. I
know you're going through a tough process right now.”

That feels like I've just
run into a wall.

“
I'm sorry,” she
says and that's when I realize I've lowered my gaze.

“
At least she met him.
Our son. Steven managed to show him to her in a fantasy.”

And the face grows tender.
“That's a great thing. That she got to meet him at least.”
And a caring hand sets on my right forearm. “I promise you
we'll be there for you all through this. I can't tell how much longer
Steven will live, but believe me, you are the bravest woman I've ever
met and I will be forever thankful to you not only for what you've
done for Steven but for letting us be a part of it.”

“
It was you who did
everything.”

“
But if it hadn't been
for you, our efforts would have been meaningless. It was you who
saved him. It was you the only one who could do it and you did it.
You should be proud of yourself, as we are, as your mother would be.”

And I don't know how it
happened, but the hug that comes next is filled with an energy that
runs through my system like an electric current. Her hand rubbing my
back feels so comforting, so familiar, so motherly.

And when we pull ourselves
out of it, her hand rests on mine and she says the words I needed my
mother to tell me, the ones I'll never hear from her but from this
woman who, right now, feels so much like her. “Everything, from
now on, will be fine.”

60

Time is really a
wibbly-wobbly thing, more so when your days are filled with sunshine,
even when there's a storm somewhere, inside.

We're set at the house
Steven lived in during our month-long separation. A spacious home in
the middle of the woods with a mile-long driveway and lush gardens
owned by one of those benefactors Simon has worked so hard to keep
anonymous even when I ask him for their names every single day. I
didn't want to send those thank you cards nameless, but alas, he
wouldn't yield. At least he said he'd deliver them.

And everything's been fine
ever since.

Dad and Mari Paz moved to
the States and visit us often. Everybody visits us pretty often since
we can't go out much. So we have dinner parties and garden parties
and have to keep Frances and Daphne away from Steven when they're
here because they use him to project fantasies so they can plot their
stories.

“
They're using you,”
I tell him through the giggles that him kissing my overgrown belly
produces. “The little chits.”

His laughter reverberates
through my skin and I feel it, a kick.

“
Don't do that! You
know he responds to your voice!”

But I can't chide those
beautiful eyes that look at me with such love as he comes up for a
scorching kiss.

And I hold on to him as he,
too, can't resist the urge to do those things I like so much, to draw
a soft moan from my throat that harmonizes so well with his.

Because even that's
improved. Sex. No more of that loss of control. No. Just love. Making
love like the world's going to be over soon.

Since it probably is.

At least for us.

Dr. Morgan's visits are
frequent. She sometimes brings Fletcher, other times Hudson, while
Cane and Wells rarely come by and only when we invite them to our
parties.

Because even when the news
is that we managed to stop the nightmares, irremediable damage was
done.

She confided this to Ross. I
confided it to Wyatt and he's been of great help whenever I feel like
drowning and need to talk. And Dad, who tries to spend as much time
with us as he can.