Chapter 11
CHAPTER 11
Sadie banged on her sliding glass door. The vindictive pigeon stared back from where it was sitting on her balcony railing.
“Go away!” she yelled, banging harder.
The pigeon studied her for an unhurried moment, then hopped around until it faced out. Then flapped its wings and took flight, dropping two big glops of poop on the back of her patio chair.
“ Noooo! You suck so hard!”
Another day, another victory for that jerk.
Her phone chirped from the kitchen with the text tone she’d selected for Joan. A tone she’d heard a lot that morning as they made plans to walk to work. She cast a forlorn glance at her poop-covered chair, grumbling, “Stupid rat with wings. I hope you eat rotten garbage, and I’m an animal lover.”
On my way out now.
“You can’t ruin my day, you gross pigeon. I get to see Joan to make up for our interrupted date.”
She gathered the two metal travel mugs and her keys off the kitchen counter. It would’ve been much nicer leaving Joan’s place after a wonderful night together. Per the text she’d sent at one a.m., it had been a rough night.
Sadie exited her apartment, carefully balancing the mugs. A door opened across the hall, followed by Joan saying, “Let me help you with that.”
“Good, because one of these is for you.”
Joan trotted over and snagged the red tumbler. “I was kidding about the coffee in my text.”
“Coffee is never a joke with me,” Sadie said.
“It wasn’t at all necessary, but thank you.”
She made sure her door was locked, then turned to Joan. They both leaned in to share a brief but lovely kiss. “Hi,” Sadie murmured.
“Hi.” Joan pulled her into her arms and squeezed tight.
“Aww.” Sadie nestled against Joan’s warm chest, taking in her citrusy scent, the feel of her hard body. “This is nice and unexpected.”
“I’m just glad to see you.”
“I’m glad to see you, too.”
They drew back slowly. Sadie dragged her fingers along one long sleeve of Joan’s thin black button-down shirt. Her vivid red pants and white sneakers were much more Joan Malone, and complementary to Sadie’s hot-pink shell top, lilac-colored capris and rainbow sneakers.
Joan kissed her on the cheek and grinned. She seemed awfully chipper for someone who’d gotten home late. Though it was a little after noon.
“What kind of coffee are we having today?” Joan asked, glancing at her mug.
“I made you a little something with ground ginger steamed into the milk.”
“Ginger?” She took a sip, then Mmm -ed in delight. “Sadie. You are spoiling me rotten.”
The way Joan said her name caused a thrill to zigzag up Sadie’s spine. “I believe I told you I’m more than happy to fuss over you.”
Joan took another sip. Her Mmm was lower, throatier. Speaking to what else Sadie could do to fuss over her.
Sadie twined their fingers as they moved toward the elevators. A sweet kiss, a big hug, holding hands as they drank coffee… A girl could definitely get used to this every day.
She opened her mouth to ask how things went last night, but Joan spoke first. “So you enjoyed the steak?”
“It was really good.” Sadie glanced up with a little smile. “I got hungry and ate the whole thing. Sorry.”
Joan laughed and squeezed her hand. “That’s okay.”
“I didn’t want it to go to waste.”
“Hey, I deserve that for leaving. When can we have our rain check dinner?”
“Not ’til Saturday,” Sadie sighed. “I have to work every night until then.”
“We could make it breakfast or brunch. I can scare that pooping pigeon off your balcony.”
“You literally just missed it.”
“Darn. I’ll get it next time.”
Joan was smiling, and had her hair pulled back in a tiny bun, and she just looked so damn adorable and snuggly, and she genuinely wanted to make up for…
Why was she so chipper? Was it simply a good mood from fighting crime or whatever she’d done last night? There had been no news about major Super activity, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t been doing something important. It’d been significant enough for her to step away from a very promising date.
“I make a really good frittata,” Joan said.
Sadie blinked and stirred out of her reverie. “I’m sure you do,” she said. “Did everything go all right last night? It sounded pretty important.”
Joan drank some coffee. “Nothing ended up happening. At least not with me and Mark. We have to have a serious discussion with Perry about something today.”
“So this was a found family thing? Not a work thing?”
“My found family is usually a bit of a work thing.”
“I’m only asking because you’re not as tired as I figured you’d be, and if it was related to your job…” Sadie trailed off, biting her bottom lip.
Joan tapped the elevator button with her elbow. Cradled her coffee against her chest. Rubbed the back of Sadie’s hand with her thumb. “I want to be as honest as I can with you,” she murmured.
“I appreciate that, and I know you can’t give me the specifics. I just thought you’d be exhausted after last night’s activities.”
“It ended up being some frustrating meetings.”
“And you’re having another family meeting today?”
Joan took a sip of coffee. “Another meeting.”
Huh. That was somehow more confusing. “You’re really just having meetings? That’s not code for something?”
“It’s really just meetings. This one’s less formal. Just Mark and Perry.”
“I can’t believe you ditched me for a meeting,” Sadie half-joked.
“It sounds weak, I know, but I had to be there.” Joan looked at her with those arresting amber eyes. “I had a good talk with Race. At a different meeting. Some new things came up.”
Hmm. A talk with Race, but not the others. “So Mark and Perry,” Sadie said. “And Uncle Mel. Are they…?”
The elevator doors to their left opened. A twentysomething Black man glanced up from his phone as they stepped in. Sadie raised her eyebrows at Joan, telegraphing she had to answer when they were alone.
She felt bad poking into Superhero affairs, but she had a long history of people not being fully forthcoming with her. Joan had said her “uncle” and “big brother” weren’t who Sadie thought they were, but who else could Uncle Mel and Perry be but Flight and Lunk?
And where did Mark fit into the equation? He had unusually bright blue eyes. Joan always referred to her cousin with he and him pronouns, so he wasn’t Race. Was he a sidekick? An ally who assisted in the fight against crime? Maybe he was an unknown Super. Or he could really just be Joan’s cousin, sworn to secrecy.
How did all the puzzle pieces fit together?
The elevator reached the lobby. Sadie firmly held Joan’s hand and all but dragged her away from the other residents milling about.
“So.” She leaned close and murmured, “Mark and Perry. How are they both work and family?”
Joan’s chest rose and fell with a deep sigh. “It’s really not what you think,” she said. “Like, it’s really not what you think.”
“Can you tell me who they are to you?”
“I can tell you they’re not…” Her voice had dropped to a near whisper. “Heroes.”
Sadie matched her volume. “They’re not Flight and Lunk?”
“Not at all.”
“And Uncle Mel?”
Joan snorted. “Definitely not.”
They exited their building into the brilliant sunshine. Joan released another deep breath. “We’ve had a miscommunication. I need to tell you… That is, I should’ve told you…”
She glanced across the street. Her eyes widened.
“Princess! No!” a woman screamed.
Joan took off running straight into traffic. Sadie’s blood froze as she helplessly watched Joan scoop up a fluffy little white dog. A large SUV squealed to a stop right in front of her.
Joan leapt on top of the hood, then took two big steps and pushed off the windshield with one foot. She landed in a crouch, cradling the dog. Then she jogged to the sidewalk and held the dog out to a middle-aged white woman.
“Here you go,” Joan said.
“Oh, Princess!” The woman hugged her dog tight. The little pup wiggled and licked her face all over.
Joan patted its body. “I had a dog like this when I was a kid.”
“How did you do that?” the woman asked, clearly in awe.
“I used to be a gymnast,” Joan said smoothly. Still holding her coffee like she’d just taken a stroll to the break room.
There was a pause in traffic, so Sadie made her way across the street. Her pulse pounded with a rush of relief. That had been terrifying and incredible to watch. Obviously, Joan was in shape to do the things she had to do. But seeing her in action, being so athletic, was…
Why had she jumped out of harm’s way? Not that anyone should voluntarily let a car hit them. But Catch could absorb a blow like that. Sadie had witnessed her stop a train. Wouldn’t it have been easier for Joan to just stand there?
“Are you okay?” Sadie asked, grasping Joan’s upper arm.
“I’m fine. So is Princess.” Joan smiled at the dog.
“Thank you,” Princess’s mom said. “Thank you so much. She’s my baby.”
“Happy to help. You behave yourself, Princess.”
The woman moved one of the dog’s legs up and down to wave goodbye.
Sadie slid her hand down Joan’s arm. “I can’t believe you ran in front of all those cars.”
“I grew up with a dog who looked just like that,” Joan said. She took several steps back on the sidewalk.
“It was pretty awesome.”
“Sometimes I do nice things.”
“Of course you’d save a dog. But why did you do the fancy gymnastics instead of absorbing the impact?”
“Well, I am in disguise.” Joan gestured to her clothes. “The thing with a secret identity is keeping it a secret.”
Oh. That made sense. Everyday people did not stop cars with their bare hands. A hero was a hero, no matter what they wore. “It’s all about the goodness on the inside,” Sadie said.
Joan took another step back, surveying the area. “Yeah, and speaking of secret identities…”
“Yes.” Sadie grinned. “Mark calls you Joanie. Which I love. Can I call you that? Bear in mind no matter what you answer, I’m going to call you that.”
A brief smile flitted across Joan’s gorgeous face. “That’s cute. But I need to?—”
“Or what about Joanie Maloney?” Sadie mused, then giggled hard. “A play on both your names. That is too adorable. There’s no going back now. You are henceforth Joanie Maloney forever in my mind.”
“Okay, sweetheart, but?—”
Sadie surged forward to wrap her arms around Joan’s neck and plant a big wet one on her mouth. Good god, Joan could call her sweetheart in that low, silky voice ’til the end of time.
“Sorry,” Sadie breathed. “You were saying?”
Joan looped her arms across Sadie’s lower back. “I completely forgot.”
“I’m proud of you for rescuing Princess, Joanie Maloney.”
Her eyebrows drew together in concern. “I want you to be proud of me.”
“How could I not be?” Sadie gave her a peck on the cheek before untangling her arms and travel mug. “That’s probably the smallest good thing you’ve done this week.”
Joan dropped her arms. Pulled her sunglasses from her shirt pocket and put them on. She glanced around, then said, “Can we go over there for some privacy?”
She jutted her chin at the small greenspace in front of the tall office building next door. Sadie followed her to the narrow stone path outlining the grass. “I didn’t mean to talk about Supers and everything in public,” she said, keeping her voice down even though they were alone.
Joan gulped her coffee.
“I’m just trying to figure out how your family fits in with your work stuff if they aren’t involved.” A new idea sprang to mind. “Are they with the police? Some special task force that works with the Supers? Or the mayor’s office?”
“Nothing like that,” Joan said.
“I guess I don’t understand how you can have one found family, and then another family with the Supers?—”
“The Supers are not my family,” she stated firmly. “They’re work acquaintances.”
Her vehemence was rather unexpected. “Oh,” Sadie managed. “I figured they would understand you, because?—”
“Mark and Perry are my family.” Joan kicked at a small rock. “That’s the truth. Perry has been like a father figure. He let Mark and I live with him for years. He taught us how to survive. How to harness my abilities so I wasn’t so destructive. I don’t know what would’ve happened if he hadn’t done that. I was with them last night while also having to deal with Super activity. The meeting with Race.”
“Okay.”
She looked over at Sadie. “Remember the man-baby I told you about? The one who doesn’t care about the safety of others?”
Sadie nodded.
“That’s Uncle Mel. Or really, just Melvin. I don’t want to think of him as any kind of family.”
“So when you got beat up by Spark last week, Melvin was there?”
“He was the reason that fight happened. He’s an asshole and is up to no good.” Joan clutched her coffee tightly. “He needs to be stopped. Mark and Perry are trying to help me stop him.”
“Oh. I just thought Spark was being a jerk.”
Joan flinched. “Spark’s not… She’s not the worst of…”
“Um, she shoots fire. That’s pretty scary.” Sadie swirled her coffee. “You’re lucky you can absorb it and give it back to her. A taste of her own medicine.”
Joan stared at her tumbler for a long moment. “Spark’s not really that bad,” she said quietly.
“ Shoots fire ,” Sadie said.
“And that automatically makes her bad?”
“She’s a Villain. Literally the definition of a bad guy.”
“Not all Supervillains are inherently bad. Some do bad things because they had no other option.” Joan looked up, meeting Sadie’s eyes. “It’s hard to go through life scaring everybody off because you shoot fire, or ice, or lightning bolts.”
“Yeah, but you can suck the energy out of people. And Race can literally run circles around us. You use your gifts for good. It’s a choice.”
“Is it?” Joan stopped and fully faced her. “There’s no real hope of living a normal life with these gifts . You can’t just get any job. It’s hard to work in customer service when a client pisses you off so badly that you melt your phone. And computer and desk. There are some powers that make it impossible to exist in normal society.”
“I guess, but…”
“Even if you try to hide, the truth comes out in the end. Breeze went to college. He got an MBA. But he ultimately couldn’t pursue his passion for curating art.”
“Not legally,” Sadie drawled.
“Sometimes they try to go legit. Spark and Ice have tried. We’re not…” Joan’s mouth twisted. “We’re not meant to live like the norms.”
“The norms?”
“Regular people, like you.”
“Ah.”
Sadie’s heart lurched from the hurt expression wrinkling Joan’s face. Clearly, this was a sore spot. “I’m sorry,” she said, rubbing Joan’s shoulder. “It has to be hard for you. I didn’t consider the drawbacks of being so extraordinary.”
Joan dug her thumb into her travel mug. “I’m just saying not all bad guys are bad. And not all heroes are heroic. I could tell you things about the Supers that would…” She shook her head.
Like what? “Some people—I’m definitely not one of them—but some people say the Supers create as much damage as the bad guys they’re trying to stop. Is it things like that?”
“Yep. They never offer to rebuild. Just expect people to be grateful and show their gratitude with a bunch of free shit. Not that they ever share that free shit, even with folks who really need it.”
“You pay for things,” Sadie pointed out. “You paid for the window at VCC, and you’ve paid for food and coffee with me.”
“I’m not like them,” Joan said.
Another thing she’d never considered: Joan didn’t have a good relationship with the other Supers. They always appeared to work well together. Maybe that was just for show. A united front in the face of crime.
“Did something happen?” Sadie asked gently. “A rift between you and the other Supers?”
“You could say that.”
“Can I ask what it was about?”
“We have different ideas about some things,” Joan said.
“That’s why you’ve been spending so much time with Mark and Perry,” Sadie guessed.
“For sure.”
They began to walk again. “But you all ultimately want the same thing. Justice, safety, fighting the good fight.”
“That’s what all Superheroes want.” Joan’s eyebrows quirked. “Sometimes, that’s the only thing they can see. They don’t always notice when a Villain tries to do some good.”
“Wow.” Adoration flowed through Sadie’s bloodstream. “You can see the good inside a Supervillain. That’s so noble. And honorable. You’re kind even to your archenemies.”
A strange sort of sadness played across Joan’s face. “Remember that about me, okay?”
“How could I forget?” Sadie said, tucking her arm through Joan’s.
Her gaze swept over the travel mug in?—
“Joan.” She stared at the deep ridges that hadn’t been in the red metal a few minutes ago. “What happened to my tumbler?”
Joan lifted her thumb out of the rut it had created. Her other fingers rested inside more grooves. “Shit,” she muttered. “Sorry. That happens sometimes. I’ll buy you a new one.”
“Was it because we were talking about superpowers?”
“No, it’s… Sometimes when my emotions run high, stuff melts.”
“Yikes.”
“Oh, yeah.”
Trying to keep things upbeat, Sadie joked, “Absorbing the caffeinated energy from the coffee?”
Joan pushed her sunglasses back.
“I’m sorry.” Sadie squeezed her arm. “Your powers aren’t a joke. I shouldn’t be so flippant and nosy.”
“It’s okay to be nosy. I’d be curious if I were you. And I don’t want you to feel like you can’t ask me things.”
“So you still cause a little damage when you’re upset?”
“When I’m strongly emotional, yeah. A little.” With a smirk, Joan added, “I don’t incinerate equipment sheds anymore, so progress.”
“Very good progress.” Though the metal tumbler might not agree. It was melted .
She nestled her arm more snugly through Joan’s. “I appreciate you telling me all you have. And I’m sorry you’re having problems at work. With your coworkers.”
“Thanks,” Joan said.
“It’s nice you have Mark and Perry to turn to.”
“It is.”
“And…” Sadie glanced up through her lashes. “You have me. I like you for exactly who you are. If the other Supers can’t see how great you are, well, that’s their problem.”
Joan stopped walking again. Her lips parted like she was about to say something.
She drew Sadie into a tight hug instead.
Sadie rubbed her back, feeling the tension knotted in Joan’s muscles. Her work problems were really weighing on her. That could explain why she wanted to open a food truck. And why it’d be an unobtainable dream. It was hard to be ordinary when everything about you was extraordinary.
“I really like you,” Joan murmured against her ear. “For exactly who you are.”
Her heart swelled. “Maybe I can help you be more average while you help me climb out of mediocrity.”
A balmy breeze of laughter rushed out of Joan’s mouth and traveled down Sadie’s neck. “That would be great.”
“But you still have to save dogs,” she teased.
“I will always save a dog.”
Joan kissed across her cheek, landing a soft one on Sadie’s lips. She claimed Sadie’s hand and said, “Let’s get you to work. Making you late won’t win me any favors with Amit.”
They stepped off the stone path onto the sidewalk. Joan’s palm was abnormally warm. Not in a painful way. Just a…
Sometimes when my emotions run high, stuff melts.
Had that story about melting office equipment been about her? Another unfortunate error by young Joan? She’d said she’d caused a lot of damage. Things had been bad enough for her parents to send her away.
Sadie wanted to ask. Should ask. Like, really should ask. It wasn’t too nosy. But all she did was ask Joan questions about being a Superhero. And about the other Superheroes. There was more to her than that, and she was probably tired of talking about all that. It wasn’t the only part of her, and Sadie didn’t want her thinking that was the only thing she found interesting.
Joan kissed the back of her hand. “So the thing about liquids is their instability. They’re hard to control in terms of temperature…”
Sadie half listened as a tiny sliver of doubt threaded through her. Why would Joan have these problems? Too much excess energy stored in her body from being Catch? And how did she know so many details about what the Villains did?
She shook that away. Come on, Sadie.
Past hurt was making her suspicious of a literal hero. Joan wouldn’t lie to her. She wouldn’t have risked injury—or revealing her true identity—to save a dog’s life. And it was her duty to know the goings-on of the Supervillains. She was a kind, sympathetic person who saw them as more than just the enemy.
Joan was amazing, and she really liked Sadie, and she needed to be supported. Fussed over.
Joan Malone deserved only the best, and Sadie was going to give that to her.