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whiskeycoffeeTitle: Holding Out for a Hero
Author: m.jules (as Iuile)
Disclaimer: Hero and all characters therein belong to Perry Moore.
Fandom: Perry Moore's Hero
Author's Notes: I took the liberty of giving Goran's little brother a proper name. Also, thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
whetherwoman for beta.
Things are more complicated, sometimes, than I'd really like to think about. After everything that happened to make me an orphan - and really, thank whatever God is out there that I was old enough not to become a ward of the state at that point - I had a lot to think about, a lot to handle, a lot of loose ends to tie up. All I really wanted was to take some time and explore this new thing I had going on with Goran, but there wasn't much time for that.
There were bills to pay and legal things to deal with, even after I got out of the hospital. I was glad for my paycheck from the League. I sold our old house after a lot of consideration. I wanted to keep it - Dad had worked so hard for that thing, I didn't want to let it go - but too many people knew I lived there, and no matter what good I'd done, there was still a lot of prejudice in the world against heroes and against guys who wanted to kiss other guys. Besides, it felt weird to be in that house without Dad or Mom, and know neither one was ever coming back.
I bought a new house in a different neighborhood. Nothing too classy, but nice, with a fenced-in back yard and everything. So maybe I was thinking about Goran and his little brother, and how they were orphans too and how I thought maybe we could be some patchwork kind of family. So maybe I was getting ahead of myself, but I couldn't imagine ever finding anyone else who would understand me like Goran did. I mean, he got me from the very first day. Everything.
And my dad liked him. Maybe it was crazy, but I hoped I never dated anyone besides Goran because my parents had met him, however briefly. They'd known of him and Dad, at least, had approved of him. They wouldn't have a chance to offer their opinions on anyone else.
Goran was always two steps ahead of me in all my thinking, though. He knew things somehow. Maybe just by looking at me. Maybe he could read my mind and had never mentioned that particular power.
He was doing it now, staring holes through me as I struggled to light the briquettes in the grill. Everybody was going to show up in about an hour and a half, and I had to give the coals time to settle into that perfect burn.
Kind of like the one that was starting up low in my belly at the look in Goran's eyes.
"What?"
It wasn't the sexiest reaction in the world, but Goran put me off balance. All the time. Still.
"Do you mind if we stay after?"
He meant himself and his little brother Jovan, asking if they could stay after everyone else left the barbecue. Ruth couldn't be there, of course, but Scarlett was showing so much she looked like she was going to pop, Kevin was impossible to live with as a result, and of course Larry would be there, too. We'd thought about inviting the rest of the team, but in the end we decided we wanted this one to be just us. And Goran, because everyone sort of accepted that he would have been there anyway.
"Of course you can." I think it came out too fast, like maybe I was trying to get it out before he changed his mind. The house I'd bought had two bedrooms, and I remembered standing in one of the rooms with its angled ceiling and skylights and thinking that Goran's little brother would like it. I might have even started decorating it with an Asian theme, knowing how much the kid liked his karate.
And maybe the bed in my bedroom was too big for just one person.
Goran smiled that knowing smile again, and I crowed in victory as I finally got the briquettes to light.
There was no beer, partially because Scarlett couldn't have any and partially because Kevin pretended to disapprove of us drinking when most of us were underage. The burgers and dogs were amazing, though, even if Goran did have to pause to remind Jovan not to put so much in his mouth all at once. The kid really loved the hot dogs.
Everyone agreed we were glad things had settled down and the worst we had to deal with was ambiguous press from the media - heroic praise tempered with distrust and caution. We sat around and let our full stomachs make us drowsy, lulled by the warm summer twilight and the easy conversation of old friends, full of comfortable silences.
Kevin kept Jovan busy, wearing him out with a slowed-down but still unfairly-weighted game of tag, and Scarlett smiled as she watched them. I felt sort of bad for Larry, who was the only post-adolescent in our group not in a couple, but he seemed happy enough. It occurred to me that his would be the worst power I'd ever thought of. Unless he'd learned how to control it, he couldn't touch anyone with affection. He couldn't share the sort of easy kisses that passed between Kevin and Scarlett while Jovan was catching his breath; couldn't hold hands the way Goran had twined his fingers with mine.
I felt guilty, actually, like it was my fault. But I saw Larry watch the way Goran sat close to me, the way we shared the same space on the bench, and just smiled, like he was happy that we were happy.
By the time they all went home, the fireflies were out and Jovan was falling asleep on Goran's shoulder.
"You can put him to bed in the spare bedroom if you want," I said quietly, not wanting to wake him. Goran nodded and headed inside, leaving me outside to finish cleaning up. I got a can of beer then, wanting the familiar taste on my tongue. It felt oddly domestic, putting away barbecue utensils and throwing away paper napkins while Goran tucked Jovan in upstairs.
While I was musing on this, I heard a whisper of movement behind me a half-second before strong arms slid around my waist and a nose pushed into the hair on the back of my head. I shivered, pausing with the lighter in one hand and tongs in the other. Goran nuzzled in more, pressing himself against my back, and my breath caught. My fingers didn't want to seem to work right, and I dropped what I was holding. Goran chuckled and turned me in his arms until I was facing him, chest to chest and suddenly very shy.
We'd been so very busy, our budding relationship had left a lot of physical territory still largely unexplored. A few kisses here and there and one very hot makeout session had not yet gotten me used to being this close to him, feeling the attraction and affection between us. Maybe I'd never get used to it. I hoped not, anyway.
I opened my mouth to say something - what, I didn't know yet - but Goran saved me from myself and kissed me, pulling my lower lip into his mouth for a sensual nibble that made me shudder.
I joined the kiss wholeheartedly, my yelp of surprise muffled by his mouth when one of his hands slid under my shirt at the small of my back. I was suddenly very conscious of how my mouth must taste - mustard and beer - but Goran didn't seem to mind at all.
I was breathing hard by the time we broke, and I was glad to see a flush staining his cheeks in the quickly-fading light. It was nice to know for sure I wasn't the only one affected.
"How much do you have left?" he asked against my lips, and my heart stuttered as my brain refused to comprehend the question. How much did I have left of what? Self-control? Almost nothing.
"What?" was all I could get out.
"How much cleaning up do you have left to do?" he asked, grinning like he knew why I'd had to ask.
"Oh. Um. Just have to take the stuff in and put it in the dishwasher."
"Good," he said. "Want to finish that first?"
Oh God, first. As in, we'd finish something else - this - afterward. I thought of my oversized bed upstairs and shied away from the mental picture of Goran spread across the mattress, welcoming and waiting. Or, more likely, me sprawled across the mattress and him prowling forward like he was going to attack. What had I been thinking? I couldn't imagine that he was as inexperience and awkward as I was sure to be. I couldn't even bring myself to think of the details beyond the sort of kissing and petting we'd already done. It was too daunting.
Putting away dishes while being distracted by thoughts of my raging hormones and my superhero boyfriend - the thrill that went through me at that word was shocking; I hadn't dared think about him in those terms before, but it was what we were - was a dangerous undertaking. Once, Goran took a handful of knives away from me with a chuckle and placed them in the little silverware basket. No sooner had I closed the door on the dishwasher and pressed the button to begin the wash cycle than Goran's hands were on my hips, lips brushing lightly against the back of my neck.
I jumped, but he just laughed softly and kissed my skin more firmly. I had to fight the urge to arch my neck and back like a cat, begging for more touch. Apparently I didn't manage to restrain myself from whimpering, though. Goran hummed against my throat, just below my ear, and I shivered. Without really realizing what I was doing, I turned in his arms and put my arms around his neck, pressing closer. It was awesome that he was so take-charge with me, but it was time I showed him a little aggression, I thought.
I pressed in close and initiated a kiss, warm and wet and with the most amazing tingle when his tongue met mine. I couldn't have kept my eyes open if I'd tried. His hand was under my shirt again, a little damp from where he'd rinsed some of the dishes off before handing them to me to put in the machine. I was starting to warm up to the idea of both of us taking our shirts off, the deliciousness of bare skin pressing against each other, and reached underneath his shirt.
He must have read my mind. He broke the kiss long enough to back off and yank his shirt over his head. I didn't have to be told to follow his example. We were back in each other's arms before our shirts hit the linoleum, and then he was pressing me back against the counter. I started when I felt the heat and steam escaping from the dishwasher curl up my back, but it wasn't unpleasant, and certainly not a reason to stop kissing Goran. The scent of detergent, synthetic lemon-lime, drifted up to me but it couldn't completely mask the flavor or smell of his skin, and I found I was moving restlessly, as if I might want to try climbing up his long, lanky body.
I was just starting to warm up to the idea of maybe taking this out of the kitchen - like maybe the couch in the living room, or maybe the bed upstairs if I could make it that far - when he pulled back suddenly, his attention no longer on me.
"Damn."
He let go of me and tore out of the kitchen, leaving me dazed and confused against the counter until I finally got it together enough to follow him. He'd gone up the stairs, and just as I was reaching the top, I saw him disappear into the guest room. Jovan's room.
There was a loud thump, and a strangled curse, and then I was in the room and staring in absolute shock.
Goran was trying to climb through the open window, and Jovan was nowhere to be seen. I wondered if the kid had crawled out onto the roof and Goran was going after him, but then I saw how the covers were partially pulled away from the mattress, like someone had been holding onto them and been dragged out of bed against their will. Fear slammed into my stomach, and then I saw three small flecks of blood on the white sheets. My mouth went dry and I looked over to the window. Goran was standing outside on the slanted roof, looking lost in a pale wash of moonlight. I'd never seen him look like that. I think that scared me more than the state of the bed.
I carefully climbed out the window and stood beside him. A breeze ruffled my hair and I realized what we must look like, two young men, shirtless and barefoot, standing on the roof under a full moon, staring out into the night. Except anyone who saw Goran's face wouldn't have thought of anything but getting out of his way.
"I wasn't fast enough," he said, sounding like his throat was too tight to push words through. "I must have heard them climbing out here."
"Them? Was there more than one?"
"I don't know." It looked like it killed him to say that. "My brother can fight, but he is still small, and he was asleep."
"Can you tell which way they went?" I felt stupid asking that, but the truth was, I still didn't understand most of Goran's superpowers. Hell, I still didn't understand most of my own.
"No." He scowled. "Not yet. But I will."
A vibration in my pocket made me flinch, bumping into Goran. He looked at me oddly as I pulled my cell phone out, blinking at the caller ID. I looked from the phone to Goran and held it up so he can see.
He knew what I was asking and nodded. "Go ahead," he said. "Tell them."
I answered the call. "Kevin, I'm glad you called."
Hospitals were not places I liked to have debriefings. Even if everyone was okay - and they were; Scarlett's contractions had been a false alarm - I wasn't fond of the smell or the artificial hush or the way I always felt like I was in someone's way all the time. My skin tingled with the presence of illnesses just a few floors away and I was glad we were in the obstetrics unit. Most people here were happy and healthy, just pregnant.
"I don't think we should tell the rest of the League," Goran was saying, and Kevin was nodding.
"They'd be happy to have the publicity after the Wilson Memorial debacle, but I can see why you wouldn't want them to."
"I'm afraid they'd be so happy to have the publicity that things would get a little out of hand."
Goran had a point. Uberman and the others were hungry for a little good press. But rescuing Goran's little brother wouldn't be a matter of good or bad press. In fact, any press at all might be detrimental. It was better if we kept it as low-profile as possible.
"Scarlett won't be able to help," Kevin said. "The doctors want to keep her for observation."
I thought about our little group getting smaller - again - and winced. If Ruth had still been around, would we have known about Jovan's kidnapping in time to stop it? Would Goran and I have gotten so distracted kissing in the kitchen that we hadn't heard the intruder until it was too late?
"Thom?"
My head came up at the sound of my name as I realized I must have been so lost in my own head I hadn't heard Kevin's question. "Sorry, what?"
"I was asking if you had any leads."
I sighed. "No." This was when I would have liked to have had someone with tracking superpowers on the team. Even just a dog.
"I can ask some questions," Goran said, and somehow, even without his costume on, he was Dark Hero in that moment, every inch of him. It was a little unnerving.
"So will I," Kevin promised. "And I'll call Larry. We'll stay in touch."
"So will we." Goran was standing, pulling me to my feet, and I followed him. I didn't know where on earth he was going to go to ask some questions or whether it would even be a good idea for me to go with him - we'd already established that my handling of situations was rarely as suave as his - but I was following him, at least until I had any ideas of my own.
It turned out that Goran went off on his own to do his mysterious question asking. He said he didn't want his sources to get nervous if he showed up with someone else and that he wanted me to stay at the house in case we heard any news from the kidnappers. With any luck, we were dealing with your average, run-of-the-mill criminals who just wanted some ransom money from the rich young heroes in the modest two-story two-bedroom with the nice yard, and we'd be getting a note or a phone call to that effect soon. It was possible, however, that we were dealing with villains who were trying to get to us.
Goran had been gone about two hours and I was wound more tightly than Warrior Woman's magic lariat when a knock on the door sent me shooting toward the ceiling. I tried to reach out with my senses, to see if I could sense the sort of mind that was on the other side of the door, but the metal in the door provided a lot of psychic static. I shook my head at myself; it wasn't like the kidnappers were just going to knock on the front door, anyway.
Still, I peered through the eyehole before I opened the door.
Larry stood on the other side, twisting a handkerchief and looking miserable. "I'm sorry," he blurted as soon as I opened the door.
"You're sorry?" For the briefest moment I had no idea why he would be apologizing.
"About Jovan. I heard. Kevin called me."
"Ah." I opened the door wider and let him in, closing it behind him and throwing the latch. "Thanks. Yeah it was..." It hit me all over again, that Goran's little brother was missing and that I'd been kissing Goran when it happened. What was it about kissing me that gave villains a chance to get their digs in? Hell, I'd been getting my first kiss from a man when King of the Sea was murdered by Justice. A frisson of fear worked through me and I was grateful that Justice wasn't in the picture any longer.
"Kevin said we weren't telling the rest of the League about it." Larry's voice pulled me out of my reverie of guilt.
"No, not yet." I sat down on the couch. "The less noise gets made about it, the better."
"Understandable." Larry blew his nose into his handkerchief, then folded it over again. "Have you guys found anything out?"
"Not since we talked to Kevin at the hospital. Goran is out asking questions right now." Not wanting to sound like I was a lazy, stay-at-home coward who couldn't do his own reconnaissance work, I added, "We decided I would stay here in case the kidnappers tried to make contact."
"It's weird," Larry said, just as the clock over the mantle chimed eleven. Damn, it was getting late. I hoped Goran would be back soon. Even if I knew he could take care of himself, I liked being able to see that he was okay. "It happened right after we all left earlier?"
I nodded. "Yeah." It hit me then that it had only been a few hours. It seemed like days already. The rest of the team had gone home around seven. Jovan had been kidnapped around eight. Only three hours ago. Maybe Goran could find him easily and this would all be over with quickly.
Just as I had that thought, Goran came down the stairs in jeans and a tight black shirt. He must have come in the upstairs window and changed out of his costume before coming down to see who our company was.
"Larry." Goran nodded in greeting.
Larry stood up quickly, still twisting his handkerchief. "I'm sorry, it's late. I should be going."
"It's all right," Goran said, and even though he tried for a smile he sounded very tired.
"Thanks for coming by," I said to Larry. I reached out to shake his hand but he just gave me a wry smile and left.
After the door closed, I moved to lock it behind him and paused with my hand on the deadbolt. I was trying to decide if it would be better to leave it unlocked. If Jovan came back, he would need to get in. On the other hand, if whoever kidnapped him came for us... well, Goran and I could probably handle it. I moved away without locking it.
Goran was watching me with a somber expression, but he seemed to approve of my decision. I stood for a moment, feeling awkward in the silence. I was the first to break.
"You can still stay here tonight if you want to," I told him. He nodded. When I went upstairs, he followed me without a word. Without any discussion at all, he trailed behind me into my bedroom and I gave him a pair of pajama pants to sleep in. We stretched out on opposite sides of that great big bed and I worried about whether I should touch him, hold him, curl my body around his. I didn't know if he would find it comforting or annoying.
While I was worrying, he reached out and dragged me across the mattress to him, pillowing my head on his shoulder. I felt myself go hard almost instantly against his hip, but neither of us made a move to acknowledge it. I lay awake long after Goran's breathing evened out, wondering if it was selfish that I was angry the kidnappers had picked this particular night to act.
Goran's sources were quiet for the next couple of days and everyone got nervous and edgy. There were no ransom notes or phone calls, and no one had heard about any new villains on the scene. We got updates from Kevin on Scarlett's condition in the meantime. Her regular obstetrician was on maternity leave herself and Scarlett was giving the replacement doctor all kinds of hell. Apparently he wanted to run tests to make sure the baby was okay, what with her past medical history and the onset of cramps almost four weeks before the delivery date, but Scarlett was having none of it. Kevin said he thought she had had her fill of tests back when she'd been taking chemo; they were lucky she was letting them keep her in the hospital to begin with.
Then, three days after the kidnapping, Goran got a message. It showed up in our mailbox one afternoon, unstamped, as if it had been delivered by an invisible or telekinetic messenger, which was entirely possible. The note asked Goran to be in the warehouse district of the city at exactly 2:17 AM and specifically said he was welcome to bring his "team." We weren't sure whether that was supposed to put us at ease or make us feel threatened.
We called Kevin and Larry, and Scarlett checked herself out of the hospital against medical advice. She told them she'd had years of listening to her body and she knew her limits. Kevin worried but she promised him she'd go straight back to the hospital if anything went wrong.
So at a quarter after two, four of us were standing around looking fidgety and anxious, and Goran leaned against a wall, stone-faced and still. I watched as my watch clicked onto 2:17 and held my breath, waiting to see what would greet us. Fifty-nine seconds ticked away uneventfully, and then just as the minute hand moved toward 2:18, a woman stepped out of the shadows. She wore a bulky leather bomber jacket over a skin-tight green shirt and pants that looked like they'd been painted onto her Marilyn Monroe curves. Larry's eyes bugged and Scarlett elbowed Kevin before he had a chance to get a good eyeful.
The woman lit up a cigarette, and in the lighter's glow I saw that she had intriguing white streaks in her long, dark hair. Her features were so pretty they were almost delicate, in odd juxtaposition to the way she carried herself. In a way, she reminded me a bit of Scarlett when I'd first met her.
"This is all of y'all?" the woman asked, looking over our group as smoke curled up from her lips. Her voice was low and whiskey-rough with a thick Southern drawl.
"Yes," Goran answered her. We all accepted that he was the default leader for this mission. He had the most to lose.
The woman threw a pointed look at Scarlett's very pregnant belly but didn't say anything. Scarlett glared back at her challengingly. Goran ignored the exchange between them.
I felt useless and wanted to be doing something. Being as brilliant as I always was, I blurted out the first thing that popped into my head. "Who are you?"
"Renegade, honey," she said, sounding amused and annoyed all at once. "What's your name?"
"Uh... Thom." I really was going to have to come up with a code name one of these days.
"Nice to meet you Uh Thom," she smirked. "And the rest of y'all?"
"Not important," Goran interrupted. "You said you had information."
Renegade looked at him, narrowing her eyes. "Dark Hero, right?" Damn, did everybody know him? Of course, wearing his costume, complete with cowl and cape, he was pretty unmistakable. "Yeah. I got information. What's it worth to you?"
"What do you want?"
I made a mental note never to get on Goran's bad side. Or even his ambiguous side.
"Honestly?" Renegade took a long drag on her cigarette, then blew out the smoke while she let the question hang in the air. "I just wanna shut this guy down."
"It's just one guy, then?"
"One guy and a lot of little henchmen," she said, studying the cigarette between her fingers.
Scarlett spoke up then, and I realized I was surprised she hadn't said anything before. "What's in it for you?"
Renegade's eyes snapped over to her and I took a step back, even though I wasn't the one she was glaring at.
"Plenty, honey," Renegade drawled in a tone that said she wasn't saying anything else about it.
"All right," Kevin finally put in. "I hate to break this up, but I still haven't heard any useful information." And there was our old leader Golden Boy again. It almost made me smile.
"All right." It was a perfectly reasonable thing to say, but somehow Renegade managed to sound like she was mocking Kevin. She flicked her cigarette away and it rolled into the gravel against one of the warehouse buildings. "This is what I know. The guy who took your little brother is not new to the villain scene. He just thinks the spotlight is for posers. He calls himself Dr. DNA -"
Somebody snorted at this. I couldn't tell who.
" - and he's got a whole lab full of test subjects. I can't give you the address, but I can take you there, and I'll help you take him down."
I wanted to ask her questions - how she knew so much about the guy and where he could be found - but Goran asked his questions first.
"Can we go there tonight?"
Renegade looked at him and shoved her hands into the pockets of her bomber jacket. The movement pulled the leather tight across her shoulders and drew attention to the nip of her waist. Even I noticed, and I wasn't that interested. Larry and Kevin, on the other hand, were pretty darn interested. Scarlett noticed and the next thing heard was Kevin hissing in pain. I winced. Even I knew that looking at another woman while your superpowered - and very pregnant - girlfriend is beside you was probably not the smartest thing.
Renegade lifted a few feet off the ground and hovered in the air, reminding me crazily of a planeless pilot with her windblown hair and her bomber jacket. She glided down the street. We followed after her, Scarlett trying to lift into the air and frustrated when Kevin wouldn't let her, claiming they didn't know what kind of stress it would put on the baby. She couldn't walk fast enough to keep up, though, and she finally agreed to let Kevin carry her.
She scowled as he picked her up and I heard her grumble under her breath, "You're as bad as Dr. Anderson."
Goran was ahead of us, keeping pace with Renegade, and I started to catch up with him but noticed Larry hanging back a bit and decided to talk to him. He'd been sort of quiet and I wanted to see what was going on in his head.
He looked up at me as I dropped back beside him but didn't say anything, just nodded. I carefully did not touch him; now would not be the time to come down with an accidental case of asthma, and I was still figuring out how to use the healing on myself sometimes. After a few minutes of watching, I noticed his eyes were following Renegade whenever they weren't on his feet.
"She's something, isn't she?" I commented idly, and Larry's head jerked around to look at me like I'd hit him.
"What - I didn't - I didn't notice," he stammered, breathing a little quickly. We hadn't done team sprinting in while and it was starting to show.
"Sure you didn't," I grinned. Larry looked back at Renegade, then blushed and focused his eyes on his feet for a while. "It's all right," I said. "It's natural to notice other heroes." My eyes went to Goran's swirling black cape as I said it.
Beside me, Larry laughed, and I realized I must have had that goofy look on my face like I did sometimes when I looked at Goran. I glanced sideways to give Larry a wink and a grin, but failed to watch where I was running. A crack in the pavement caught my shoe and I pitched forward, palms skidding across asphalt and gravel as I tried to catch myself. My cheek hit the ground as well and I winced at the burn of abrasion. My knees felt bruised.
Larry shouted in alarm, but before I could even sit up good, there were hands on my shoulders, helping me balance. I thought it was Larry and fought not to flinch away, but then there were hands brushing across my palms, knocking the tiny pebbles loose.
"Don't let your skin heal up around the gravel." Goran's voice right next to my ear distracted me from the injuries and the heat that was blazing through them. I blinked up at him and he smiled grimly before moving away to follow Renegade again. For a moment I sat, stunned. How had he gotten back to me so quickly? Had he heard me fall?
At that moment, I realized Goran was paying closer attention to me than even I had given him credit for. It gave me a warm sort of feeling and I brushed the dirt off my pants as I stood, determined to do everything I could to get his brother back. I'd give him everything I had to give.
I thought I saw Renegade give me a curious glance over her shoulder, but before I could be sure, she stopped and pointed out an abandoned warehouse down close to the docks of the river.
"As recently as two weeks ago, Dr. DNA's lab was in that building," she said. "I haven't tracked him since then, but he'd been there for at least three years, so I doubt he got a hankerin' to just up and move all of a sudden."
But apparently he had, because the building was as abandoned as it looked. Goran looked grim, and Renegade kicked a nearby wooden crate in frustration. Despite the sturdy planks, it shattered like dry-rotted driftwood. That must have hurt, but she didn't even flinch. I realized she must have had some kind of invincibility and strength to go with her flight. Hell of a combination of powers for a hero I'd never even heard of.
We all looked crestfallen, but as we turned to go, Scarlett latched onto Kevin, her hand clawlike on his arm.
"Baby? You okay?"
She shook her head, her nostrils flaring as she drew in a sharp breath. "Contractions," she managed to get out. Without another word, Kevin swooped her up again and was off in a golden flash.
Goran looked at me and sighed.
"Let's go home."
The next day, we went to visit Scarlett in the hospital again. The place was in an uproar. After a few minutes, we finally located Kevin and asked him what was going on.
"Scarlett's replacement doctor has gone missing," he said. "He's got a patient in delivery and hasn't shown up for work today and isn't answering his beeper."
On cue, the loudspeaker above our heads went off.
Paging Dr. Anderson. Dr. Anderson to the delivery room, please. Paging Dr. Anderson.
As the echo died away, Goran looked at Kevin. "Is Scarlett in labor?"
"No, not yet. They're not letting her out of the hospital this time, though. The cramps last night were enough they thought they were going to have trouble. She's still got more than three weeks left to go."
Just then, I heard my cellphone go off, loud and raucous in the hospital. Several nurses turned to give me dirty looks and I mumbled an apology as I quickly moved out of the waiting room and down the hall. I pulled out my cell phone to look at it as I moved, and was baffled to see that it was set to ring at top volume. I was sure I had turned it off before we went into the hospital.
What's more, it didn't say anything about having missed a call. While I was staring at the screen, it rang again, and this time a number popped up. Cautiously, I answered it.
"Hello?"
"Thom, honey, get your boyfriend and meet me at 22 Orchid Street. Don't lollygag, now."
"Rene--"
The connection died before I even got her name out. How had she even gotten my number? An intern passing by gave me a death look as he glanced toward my phone and I quickly switched it off before stuffing it back into my pocket. I trotted back to the waiting room where Goran and Kevin still were.
"That was Renegade," I said quietly. "She wants us to meet her at 22 Orchid Street." Kevin looked torn, like he wanted to go with us but didn't want to leave Scarlett. I shook my head at him. "Stay here," I said. "She only specifically said for me and Goran to go."
Kevin looked a little relieved, and Goran and I left with a promise to call if we found anything significant.
We found 22 Orchid Street - a restored Victorian on the other side of town from my house - and looked around for Renegade. We finally spotted her idly pushing herself on a swing in the park across the street and went to see what she'd found.
"He moved his lab," she said. "Took us almost ten hours to find him again."
"Us?" A small girl two swings down from Renegade waved at us and it took me a moment to realize that she was the other person Renegade was referring to. She looked like she was about nine years old, just a few years older than Jovan. Something about her seemed very familiar, but I couldn't place it.
"Maddie here is a telepath and telekinetic," Renegade explained. I noted with some satisfaction that Maddie didn't have a codename either, then realized how pathetic it was that I was measuring myself against a nine-year-old.
"How did you find him in the first place?" Goran wanted to know, and I figured it was about time we knew that answer.
"I grew up in his lab," Renegade answered, one eyebrow arching coldly. Maddie made a noise at that and I figured that maybe she had, too. "He got me when I was about your brother's age." She addressed this to Goran. "I was an orphan, nobody to take care of me, and I kept gettin' passed from foster home to foster home. I was a lot of trouble and my powers manifested early. He got hold of me when I ran away from one of my foster homes. He's all into figuring out what makes heroes. Genetically, I mean."
That made sense, I realized. Dr. DNA. He must have been trying to isolate the hero gene. If he thought it was a gene, it would explain why he took Jovan - it would stand to reason that Jovan might at least be a carrier of the gene even if he never manifested, since Goran was a hero.
Renegade stood up from the swing and put her hands in the pockets of her jacket as she changed subjects. "He's got a lot of kids in there now. I took Maddie with me when I broke out, but her twin brother Jean is still in there. And of course your brother. And more."
Renegade rolled her shoulders. I didn't know what we were planning on doing - maybe busting in the door or something - when Larry came stumbling up breathing hard.
"You okay?" I asked him, seriously worried he might have an asthma attack. My powers didn't work on his own random illnesses, since it was part of his own power.
"Fine," he gasped. "Ran. Kevin. Told me. You'd be here."
Renegade nodded. "I think we can get in there and get him tied up, get the kids out." She looked at me and Goran. "As long as nobody tries anything more heroic than they can handle."
We made a plan. With Maddie's help, we determined that the kids were being kept in a homemade lab in the basement of the house. There were about seven of them, she said. Dr. DNA, meanwhile, was in his study on the second floor. Goran and Renegade would go for the doctor, Maddie and I would go for the kids, and Larry would stand watch to make sure the villain didn't get away. We agreed that calling Golden Boy for backup would be a good idea.
Maddie said there was a way to get into the basement from the outside, through the storm cellar, so we headed that way. Renegade flew up to the second story window and Goran - Dark Hero - was right behind her, bounding up the side of the wall, using windowsills for his ledges. I watched for a moment before I followed Maddie and wished I'd been with him instead. But it made more sense for him and Renegade to go after the doctor and for me to rescue the kids in case any of them were injured. My power would be more useful in that situation. It sure as hell beat standing around waiting.
Following Maddie, I crawled into the storm cellar and then through the small tunnel in the back. It was plenty of room for someone Maddie's size, but I was tall and bigger through the shoulders, and I had to scrape the dirt away from the sides a little more to squeeze my body through. I hoped fervently that I wouldn't get stuck.
What seemed like an hour later, we pushed through into another room. The hole was hidden behind several crates, and Maddie squeezed out between them and the wall, her tiny body slipping through the two-foot space with ease. Grunting, I shoved the crates with my shoulder, trying to make room for me. I had expected to hear odd sounds, or at least crying, but the room was completely silent. It didn't take me long to find out why. Inside several wire cages, the kind that are used for big dogs like Great Danes, were the kids. They were all sound asleep. I thought it was weird that the scrape of the crates moving hadn't woken them, but then I realized they were probably drugged. There was a cot in the corner and I wondered who slept there.
I spotted Jovan almost immediately, and was thankful to realize he looked mostly unharmed. That was when I noticed the padlock on the cage. Looking around, I realized every door had one.
"How are we going to get them out, Maddie?" I wasn't sure why I was whispering, but it seemed the smartest thing to do in case there was any way Dr. DNA could hear me from upstairs. The thought made me wonder, briefly, how Renegade and Dark Hero were getting along.
Maddie didn't answer me, just stared at the padlock like she could make it open by thinking hard enough. And when I heard the tumblers moving inside and saw the lock drop open, I remembered that was exactly what she was doing. Telekinesis must be a handy superpower to have. That's when I realized why she looked familiar - she'd been in the hospital waiting room right before Renegade called me. She must have been the one who switched my phone on.
While Maddie moved on to the other locks, I opened Jovan's cage and reached inside for him, hefting him in my arms. He flopped against me, his head lolling back on his neck. Definitely drugged. I needed him awake and alert, though, or I'd never get him out through that tunnel. Concentrating, I shifted him so that his face fell against my neck and I could grab his bare arm with my hand. My skin began warming, like water coming to a sluggish boil, until it finally seemed to realize what was going on and the temperature shot up in an instant.
Jovan began struggling in my arms like he was fighting something in his sleep, and then his eyes opened and he screamed. I clamped my hand over his mouth, my heart thundering in my ears. That shrill scream probably broke windows three houses away; there was no way Dr. DNA hadn't heard it. I heard a couple of thumps upstairs and realized I was just going to have to trust Dark Hero and Renegade to take him out, and be prepared to fight him myself if they didn't. That was an idea I didn't relish, not in this small, dark space with drugged, sleepy children.
Jovan finally stilled, his eyes focusing on my face in the dimness. I took my hand away from his mouth and he croaked, "Thom?"
"Hey, kiddo," I said, relief flooding through me and making my veins tingle. "How're you feeling?"
"Kinda fuzzy," he said, wrinkling his nose. "Like when I'm sick and my brother makes me take medicine. But it's going away."
I brushed my fingers across his forehead, feeling the streaks of heat they left behind, and nodded. "Stand over here and wait while I wake everybody else up, okay?" I told him. "Then we're going to get out of here." I hoped Larry was still waiting outside the storm cellar.
One by one, I dragged the kids out of the other cages Maddie had opened, holding them until enough of the sedative was out of their systems that they could stand without falling down.
"Everybody okay?" I said, and got a round of cautious nods. Maddie and Jovan's faith in me had gone a long way toward putting the others at ease, but they were still a little wary. I couldn't blame them.
"Okay, listen up. One of my friends, Larry, is standing outside the storm cellar at the other end of that tunnel, making sure it's safe to go up," I said, "And I'm going to be behind you all making sure no one follows us. Go through the tunnel one at a time and very calmly. Maddie will go first so she'll know if something's wrong, all right?"
They all nodded again and I took a deep breath. This might not be a fight like the one Dark Hero and Renegade were probably involved in, but it was dangerous in its own way, and I was a little nervous. I prayed that everything would go okay, and then watched as each child followed Maddie into the tunnel. Her brother Jean was the first one through, and then a couple others. One little girl was afraid of the tunnel and started crying. A couple of the others shushed her, and Jovan reached out to pat her awkwardly on the shoulder.
"It's okay, Rosemary," he said. "Thom is my brother's friend. He's a big hero. He saved the world. We'll be okay."
My throat closed up at Jovan's expression of trust and I tried hard to look strong and capable when Rosemary turned skeptical, red-rimmed eyes up to me. With a little more coaxing, Rosemary finally went into the tunnel, and the others followed. Jovan was the last one in and when he smiled up at me, bright and confident, I couldn't help but smile back. God, I hoped this worked.
Crawling out through the tunnel was worse than crawling in had been, because I knew there were eight kids on the other side, standing around waiting for me - or Dr. DNA - to join them. I reminded myself that Renegade, Dark Hero, Larry, and probably Golden Boy stood between the villain and us, but until I could see with my own eyes that the kids were safe, the butterflies in my stomach wouldn't settle down.
All these kids reminded me of the ones I used to read to at the Student Life Center and I felt a twinge of wistfulness. I wondered if any of these kids ever went there before they were kidnapped.
They were all quiet as I led them cautiously out of the storm cellar, but I could still hear Rosemary sniffling behind me. Larry was standing a few feet away as I pushed the door open and climbed out.
"Coast clear?" I asked him, and he nodded.
"Did you get them?"
"All seven." I grinned then, I couldn't help it. "Is Golden Boy here? We should get these kids away from here as quick as we can, just in case."
"He's on the other side of the house," Larry confirmed. "Want me to get him?"
"Yeah."
It didn't take long for Kevin to zoom each of the kids across the street to the park. We debated, briefly, who should stay with the kids while the others stood guard at the house and finally decided that if Kevin stayed in the front of the house, he could see them on the playground and get to them in plenty of time if something happened. Maddie and Jovan put themselves in charge of the others and we headed back to the house. Just as we got close, there was a crash and a loud yell from inside.
Shouting at Kevin to stay where he could see the kids, I started running toward the door but stopped when it flew open and a man, trussed up in rope, fell facedown into the grass. Dark Hero was behind him, a grim set to his mouth, and he jerked the man up as soon as he reached him, shoving him forward.
"Call the cops," Goran growled. "They'll need to take care of this one."
Hearing another crash and another yell, I glanced up at the windows of the old house. "Is this Dr. DNA? What's going on in there?"
"Yeah, this is him. Renegade's in there having a talk with someone she used to know."
"You won't get away with this," the doctor finally said. His voice was rough like maybe Goran had roughed up his windpipe. I hoped he had. "You can't just arrest me without a warrant."
"We're heroes," Larry interrupted. "We're not the cops."
Dr. DNA looked up and spat toward Larry, who didn't even flinch. Kevin, however, let out a surprised cry.
"What the hell!?" He pointed at Dr. DNA. "You - you're - you're Dr. Anderson!"
"Aren't you brilliant," the doctor scoffed. "Dr. David Nicholas Anderson, at your service."
"You son of a bitch!" Kevin yelled, stalking forward. "THAT'S why you were trying to make Scarlett have all those tests! You - you - dirty, rotten, slimy -" Kevin threw a punch that hit Dr. Anderson in the face. With his arms bound to his body, the doctor didn't have a way to regain his balance and went flying backwards onto the ground. Nobody said anything to Kevin until he moved forward, intent on doing more damage, and then Goran put his hand on Kevin's arm.
"That's enough," he said. "The police will take care of the rest."
Kevin looked like he didn't want to listen, but common sense kicked in and he backed down. "All right," he finally said. "Has anyone called the cops yet? Let's get them here so they can figure out what to do with this slimeball and get the kids taken care of."
Several minutes later, as the cops were arriving, Renegade touched down between me and Goran. Her hair was mussed and her shirt was torn underneath her jacket, but I couldn't see any marks on her - no bruises or scrapes or anything.
"Everyone okay?" she said, looking over our group. Kevin was across the street with the kids we'd rescued, supervising them on the playground. She walked over to Larry and reached out to shake his hand. When he didn't respond, she took his hand anyway and shook it. "Good job," she said. "If it weren't for you, Ricky would've gotten away."
Larry was trying his best not to be rude by pulling his hand back, but I could tell by the fear in his eyes that he was terrified of what he'd just done to Renegade.
"You really shouldn't touch me," he said, sounding like he could sink into the ground from shame. "I could make you sick." He swallowed as Renegade gave him an incredulous look. "That's my power. I make people sick when I touch them."
Renegade grinned and held on tighter. "Don't worry about it," she finally laughed. "I've got invincible skin and immunity to everything. I've never been sick a day in my life."
When several more seconds passed and she still didn't show any signs of dropping like a fly, Larry finally relaxed. I remembered what she'd said when she first shook his hand and I was curious.
"Who's Ricky?"
"Ricky is... one of the other kids who grew up in the lab," Renegade said, finally letting go of Larry's hand, only to sling a companionable arm around his shoulders. Larry flinched, but soon his surprise was overridden by the flush working its way into his cheeks. "He's got invisibility and is all kinds of acrobatics. Calls himself the Ninja. When we were sixteen, the doctor gave us the option of working for him and being treated like an employee, or remaining the lab rats we were. Ricky took the option. I started making plans to break out." She shrugged. "He's probably the one who took your brother, Goran. He's the one who grabbed Maddie and Jean."
She cracked her knuckles, looking satisfied. I thought about the crashes I'd heard and wondered what she'd done to him. She caught my look.
"I was just taking care of some unfinished business with him, but he might've gotten away before I could catch him if Larry here hadn't stopped him."
Larry looked proud and shy all at once and I couldn't help but smile. Things were looking up for him, it seemed, and everything else promised to turn out all right as well.
"What do you say we grab Jovan and go home?" I said, biting back a yawn. We hadn't gotten much sleep in the last few days, and not for the fun reasons, either.
"Sounds like a great idea to me." Goran looked at the others. "Can you handle the rest of this?"
They assured us that they could and we told them that if the police needed to question us, they could call. Thinking that I wanted to sleep for about twelve hours, I added that they might want to wait a little while if the questions weren't urgent.
Renegade and Kevin gave us knowing smirks and Larry looked away. Goran snickered. It was a good fifteen seconds before I realized what I'd said and what it must have sounded like, but by that time protesting would have just made it worse.
Entrusting Dr. DNA and the kids to our friends and the law enforcement that would be arriving soon, Goran and I each took one of Jovan's hands and headed home.
I thought I would fall asleep instantly and sleep through the night and maybe the next day, but I was wound up and edgy, all the adrenaline and stress of the past few days fading and leaving me with nothing but a great big bundle of nerves. I was pacing the floor of the bedroom, probably wearing a path in the oriental rug, when Goran appeared in the doorway, leaning against the frame with his arms crossed over his chest.
I stopped for a minute, opened my mouth to say something, then shook my head and started pacing again when I couldn't find words to explain the restlessness.
"Jovan's asleep," he said. "I locked the windows."
I nodded approval. Ninja was probably in police custody by now, as was Dr. DNA, but that didn't mean it was okay to be careless. I stopped pacing, but I couldn't stop fidgeting, shifting my weight from one foot to the other, picking at my fingernails.
"Thom," Goran said, firm but amused. I paused. For all that we spent so much time together focused on each other, it wasn't all that often that he said my name - or that I said his. It still gave me a funny thrill to hear it in that thick Croatian accent of his. It was... sexy. "Be still."
I opened my mouth to protest - I could feel the way my face screwed into a rebellious expression, but he was next to me in two long strides, hands on my arms. I froze at his touch, my complaint dead on my tongue. All of a sudden, what I really wanted was to hold him, to be held. I hesitated, wondering if it would be okay, then figured what the hell. If he thought I was being clingy, he could tell me.
I slipped my arms around his waist and leaned into his chest. To my relief, his arms curled around my back, holding me to him. We stood there for what felt like forever, just holding each other and breathing. I felt the tension slowly easing out of his body, my own relaxing in response, and realized that he must have been at least as worried as I was. Jovan was his brother, after all. He just always wore that cool, too-old expression, the one he earned by taking care of his brother through a war and across the world from his home.
When our bodies were leaning against each other, warm and pliable now, all the jitters melted away, Goran pulled back just enough to kiss me. It was soft, a subtle brushing of lips, but it felt like the best thing in the world. I felt like I could just kiss him like that forever and never need anything else.
"Thom?" He sounded more uncertain than I'd ever heard him, and I could feel tremors working through his muscles. Mine shuddered in response. "I, um..."
I could barely hear my own thoughts over the pounding of my pulse and the way my head suddenly buzzed. I thought I knew what he was saying, and suddenly I wanted it so much I was scared of it.
My fingers tightened on his back and he cleared his throat. Neither one of us could say anything but I nodded. There hadn't been a question, exactly, but Goran knew what I meant and sighed, a huge exhalation of relief. Then he was kissing me again, but instead of the languid caress of earlier, it had fire behind it, a purpose. It was wet and sloppy, a little overeager, but it was amazing.
He eased me back toward the bed, tugging on my clothes, and all of a sudden all my pent-up restlessness had somewhere to go. I let him help me out of my shirt and jeans, but started working on his before he could get to my boxers. Soon enough, we were lying on the bed, the length of our bare bodies pressed against each other, and my heart was pounding in my throat. I could feel the flutter of my pulse against my trachea and wasn't sure I could even speak.
Suddenly, lying there under him and looking into his eyes, I had a revelation.
I was about to have sex with Dark Hero.
The thought made me want to giggle. I tried to stifle it, but I couldn't help grinning. Goran gave me a questioning look, and then I did giggle, high and nervous, almost like a girl.
"What is it?" His lips brushed against my forehead and I closed my eyes, pressing into the touch.
"Just... thinking how many teenagers wish they were me right now." I nipped at his nose and he smiled, looking pleased and a little embarrassed.
"I'm not the only hot superhero in the room, you know," Goran said with a little growl, biting the side of my neck in retaliation.
"You're the only one with a cool codename," I pointed out, grinning. My lack of a codename didn't really bother me, but it served my purposes at the moment. His argument was to kiss me, and I really had no objection to that. Long minutes later, we parted reluctantly, needing to breathe.
"You're sure you want to do this?" His hand was stroking my chest and I thought it was grossly unfair to ask questions like that when he was touching me the way he was.
"Maybe not... the whole thing yet," I said. I knew I wanted that - God, did I want that - and I knew I wanted it with him, but just then I was feeling a little intimidated. I'd never even jerked off with anyone else before, and I didn't want to rush it.
"All right," he agreed, and then his hand was lower, and my brain popped and sizzled like a livewire.
When I could breathe again, I realized he had both of us together in one hand, pulling in long, firm strokes. It was the best thing ever, and I made sure he knew I thought so.
We moved together, restless hips and hands, lips pressing anywhere they could touch, hungry little kisses all over flushed skin. It was over far too soon, and there was nothing left but the lingering warmth of love and satisfaction and a rapidly-cooling stickiness that was beginning to glue our stomachs together.
Goran was breathing just as hard as I was, the rosy color in his face making his eyes seem even darker, as if they were just bottomless pools of night. I touched his face with one trembling hand and thought that my life, with all its problems and challenges, was perfect.
When he smiled at me, I knew it for sure.
Two weeks later, Scarlett finally had her baby, supervised by a very pleasant doctor whose background Kevin had checked out personally. She named the baby girl Ruth, and there were five of us in the hallway peering in through the window when the nurse held the little baby up to wave at us. Jovan was riding on Kevin's shoulders, and Larry stood a little ways away from the rest of us, grinning. Goran held my hand.
"She's gorgeous," Larry said, looking over at Kevin. "Congratulations."
"Thank you," Kevin answered, beaming as if he'd been personally responsible for every ounce of perfection in that tiny, rosy body.
"Rennie said she'd be by later with Maddie and Jean," Larry added and I looked at him in surprise, raising one eyebrow.
"Rennie?"
He blushed and Goran elbowed me in the ribs. Larry and Renegade were certainly very good friends these days. As we walked away from the observation window, Kevin swinging Jovan by his feet, Larry fell into step with us and said, "By the way, Thom, Goran was telling us about your idea for a center for powered children. I think it's a great idea. Rennie said she'd like to help, too."
After I had realized that a lot of teachers and parents had trouble coping with children whose superpowers manifested early, and remembering how much I missed working with the kids at the Student Life Center, I'd asked Goran what he thought about starting a center with staff specially trained to work with kids with superpowers. His eyes had opened a little wider, like he'd never thought of that before, and he agreed wholeheartedly.
With the stipend from the League, we had more than enough money, and it seemed like the perfect thing to do.
"I agree," Kevin said over his shoulder, pitching his voice to be heard over Jovan's giggles. "I think it's long overdue."
I felt the warmth of happiness steal over my body and grinned. Yeah, I thought to myself, my hopelessly screwed-up life was pretty damned perfect.
Author: m.jules (as Iuile)
Disclaimer: Hero and all characters therein belong to Perry Moore.
Fandom: Perry Moore's Hero
Author's Notes: I took the liberty of giving Goran's little brother a proper name. Also, thanks to
whetherwoman for beta.Things are more complicated, sometimes, than I'd really like to think about. After everything that happened to make me an orphan - and really, thank whatever God is out there that I was old enough not to become a ward of the state at that point - I had a lot to think about, a lot to handle, a lot of loose ends to tie up. All I really wanted was to take some time and explore this new thing I had going on with Goran, but there wasn't much time for that.
There were bills to pay and legal things to deal with, even after I got out of the hospital. I was glad for my paycheck from the League. I sold our old house after a lot of consideration. I wanted to keep it - Dad had worked so hard for that thing, I didn't want to let it go - but too many people knew I lived there, and no matter what good I'd done, there was still a lot of prejudice in the world against heroes and against guys who wanted to kiss other guys. Besides, it felt weird to be in that house without Dad or Mom, and know neither one was ever coming back.
I bought a new house in a different neighborhood. Nothing too classy, but nice, with a fenced-in back yard and everything. So maybe I was thinking about Goran and his little brother, and how they were orphans too and how I thought maybe we could be some patchwork kind of family. So maybe I was getting ahead of myself, but I couldn't imagine ever finding anyone else who would understand me like Goran did. I mean, he got me from the very first day. Everything.
And my dad liked him. Maybe it was crazy, but I hoped I never dated anyone besides Goran because my parents had met him, however briefly. They'd known of him and Dad, at least, had approved of him. They wouldn't have a chance to offer their opinions on anyone else.
Goran was always two steps ahead of me in all my thinking, though. He knew things somehow. Maybe just by looking at me. Maybe he could read my mind and had never mentioned that particular power.
He was doing it now, staring holes through me as I struggled to light the briquettes in the grill. Everybody was going to show up in about an hour and a half, and I had to give the coals time to settle into that perfect burn.
Kind of like the one that was starting up low in my belly at the look in Goran's eyes.
"What?"
It wasn't the sexiest reaction in the world, but Goran put me off balance. All the time. Still.
"Do you mind if we stay after?"
He meant himself and his little brother Jovan, asking if they could stay after everyone else left the barbecue. Ruth couldn't be there, of course, but Scarlett was showing so much she looked like she was going to pop, Kevin was impossible to live with as a result, and of course Larry would be there, too. We'd thought about inviting the rest of the team, but in the end we decided we wanted this one to be just us. And Goran, because everyone sort of accepted that he would have been there anyway.
"Of course you can." I think it came out too fast, like maybe I was trying to get it out before he changed his mind. The house I'd bought had two bedrooms, and I remembered standing in one of the rooms with its angled ceiling and skylights and thinking that Goran's little brother would like it. I might have even started decorating it with an Asian theme, knowing how much the kid liked his karate.
And maybe the bed in my bedroom was too big for just one person.
Goran smiled that knowing smile again, and I crowed in victory as I finally got the briquettes to light.
There was no beer, partially because Scarlett couldn't have any and partially because Kevin pretended to disapprove of us drinking when most of us were underage. The burgers and dogs were amazing, though, even if Goran did have to pause to remind Jovan not to put so much in his mouth all at once. The kid really loved the hot dogs.
Everyone agreed we were glad things had settled down and the worst we had to deal with was ambiguous press from the media - heroic praise tempered with distrust and caution. We sat around and let our full stomachs make us drowsy, lulled by the warm summer twilight and the easy conversation of old friends, full of comfortable silences.
Kevin kept Jovan busy, wearing him out with a slowed-down but still unfairly-weighted game of tag, and Scarlett smiled as she watched them. I felt sort of bad for Larry, who was the only post-adolescent in our group not in a couple, but he seemed happy enough. It occurred to me that his would be the worst power I'd ever thought of. Unless he'd learned how to control it, he couldn't touch anyone with affection. He couldn't share the sort of easy kisses that passed between Kevin and Scarlett while Jovan was catching his breath; couldn't hold hands the way Goran had twined his fingers with mine.
I felt guilty, actually, like it was my fault. But I saw Larry watch the way Goran sat close to me, the way we shared the same space on the bench, and just smiled, like he was happy that we were happy.
By the time they all went home, the fireflies were out and Jovan was falling asleep on Goran's shoulder.
"You can put him to bed in the spare bedroom if you want," I said quietly, not wanting to wake him. Goran nodded and headed inside, leaving me outside to finish cleaning up. I got a can of beer then, wanting the familiar taste on my tongue. It felt oddly domestic, putting away barbecue utensils and throwing away paper napkins while Goran tucked Jovan in upstairs.
While I was musing on this, I heard a whisper of movement behind me a half-second before strong arms slid around my waist and a nose pushed into the hair on the back of my head. I shivered, pausing with the lighter in one hand and tongs in the other. Goran nuzzled in more, pressing himself against my back, and my breath caught. My fingers didn't want to seem to work right, and I dropped what I was holding. Goran chuckled and turned me in his arms until I was facing him, chest to chest and suddenly very shy.
We'd been so very busy, our budding relationship had left a lot of physical territory still largely unexplored. A few kisses here and there and one very hot makeout session had not yet gotten me used to being this close to him, feeling the attraction and affection between us. Maybe I'd never get used to it. I hoped not, anyway.
I opened my mouth to say something - what, I didn't know yet - but Goran saved me from myself and kissed me, pulling my lower lip into his mouth for a sensual nibble that made me shudder.
I joined the kiss wholeheartedly, my yelp of surprise muffled by his mouth when one of his hands slid under my shirt at the small of my back. I was suddenly very conscious of how my mouth must taste - mustard and beer - but Goran didn't seem to mind at all.
I was breathing hard by the time we broke, and I was glad to see a flush staining his cheeks in the quickly-fading light. It was nice to know for sure I wasn't the only one affected.
"How much do you have left?" he asked against my lips, and my heart stuttered as my brain refused to comprehend the question. How much did I have left of what? Self-control? Almost nothing.
"What?" was all I could get out.
"How much cleaning up do you have left to do?" he asked, grinning like he knew why I'd had to ask.
"Oh. Um. Just have to take the stuff in and put it in the dishwasher."
"Good," he said. "Want to finish that first?"
Oh God, first. As in, we'd finish something else - this - afterward. I thought of my oversized bed upstairs and shied away from the mental picture of Goran spread across the mattress, welcoming and waiting. Or, more likely, me sprawled across the mattress and him prowling forward like he was going to attack. What had I been thinking? I couldn't imagine that he was as inexperience and awkward as I was sure to be. I couldn't even bring myself to think of the details beyond the sort of kissing and petting we'd already done. It was too daunting.
Putting away dishes while being distracted by thoughts of my raging hormones and my superhero boyfriend - the thrill that went through me at that word was shocking; I hadn't dared think about him in those terms before, but it was what we were - was a dangerous undertaking. Once, Goran took a handful of knives away from me with a chuckle and placed them in the little silverware basket. No sooner had I closed the door on the dishwasher and pressed the button to begin the wash cycle than Goran's hands were on my hips, lips brushing lightly against the back of my neck.
I jumped, but he just laughed softly and kissed my skin more firmly. I had to fight the urge to arch my neck and back like a cat, begging for more touch. Apparently I didn't manage to restrain myself from whimpering, though. Goran hummed against my throat, just below my ear, and I shivered. Without really realizing what I was doing, I turned in his arms and put my arms around his neck, pressing closer. It was awesome that he was so take-charge with me, but it was time I showed him a little aggression, I thought.
I pressed in close and initiated a kiss, warm and wet and with the most amazing tingle when his tongue met mine. I couldn't have kept my eyes open if I'd tried. His hand was under my shirt again, a little damp from where he'd rinsed some of the dishes off before handing them to me to put in the machine. I was starting to warm up to the idea of both of us taking our shirts off, the deliciousness of bare skin pressing against each other, and reached underneath his shirt.
He must have read my mind. He broke the kiss long enough to back off and yank his shirt over his head. I didn't have to be told to follow his example. We were back in each other's arms before our shirts hit the linoleum, and then he was pressing me back against the counter. I started when I felt the heat and steam escaping from the dishwasher curl up my back, but it wasn't unpleasant, and certainly not a reason to stop kissing Goran. The scent of detergent, synthetic lemon-lime, drifted up to me but it couldn't completely mask the flavor or smell of his skin, and I found I was moving restlessly, as if I might want to try climbing up his long, lanky body.
I was just starting to warm up to the idea of maybe taking this out of the kitchen - like maybe the couch in the living room, or maybe the bed upstairs if I could make it that far - when he pulled back suddenly, his attention no longer on me.
"Damn."
He let go of me and tore out of the kitchen, leaving me dazed and confused against the counter until I finally got it together enough to follow him. He'd gone up the stairs, and just as I was reaching the top, I saw him disappear into the guest room. Jovan's room.
There was a loud thump, and a strangled curse, and then I was in the room and staring in absolute shock.
Goran was trying to climb through the open window, and Jovan was nowhere to be seen. I wondered if the kid had crawled out onto the roof and Goran was going after him, but then I saw how the covers were partially pulled away from the mattress, like someone had been holding onto them and been dragged out of bed against their will. Fear slammed into my stomach, and then I saw three small flecks of blood on the white sheets. My mouth went dry and I looked over to the window. Goran was standing outside on the slanted roof, looking lost in a pale wash of moonlight. I'd never seen him look like that. I think that scared me more than the state of the bed.
I carefully climbed out the window and stood beside him. A breeze ruffled my hair and I realized what we must look like, two young men, shirtless and barefoot, standing on the roof under a full moon, staring out into the night. Except anyone who saw Goran's face wouldn't have thought of anything but getting out of his way.
"I wasn't fast enough," he said, sounding like his throat was too tight to push words through. "I must have heard them climbing out here."
"Them? Was there more than one?"
"I don't know." It looked like it killed him to say that. "My brother can fight, but he is still small, and he was asleep."
"Can you tell which way they went?" I felt stupid asking that, but the truth was, I still didn't understand most of Goran's superpowers. Hell, I still didn't understand most of my own.
"No." He scowled. "Not yet. But I will."
A vibration in my pocket made me flinch, bumping into Goran. He looked at me oddly as I pulled my cell phone out, blinking at the caller ID. I looked from the phone to Goran and held it up so he can see.
He knew what I was asking and nodded. "Go ahead," he said. "Tell them."
I answered the call. "Kevin, I'm glad you called."
Hospitals were not places I liked to have debriefings. Even if everyone was okay - and they were; Scarlett's contractions had been a false alarm - I wasn't fond of the smell or the artificial hush or the way I always felt like I was in someone's way all the time. My skin tingled with the presence of illnesses just a few floors away and I was glad we were in the obstetrics unit. Most people here were happy and healthy, just pregnant.
"I don't think we should tell the rest of the League," Goran was saying, and Kevin was nodding.
"They'd be happy to have the publicity after the Wilson Memorial debacle, but I can see why you wouldn't want them to."
"I'm afraid they'd be so happy to have the publicity that things would get a little out of hand."
Goran had a point. Uberman and the others were hungry for a little good press. But rescuing Goran's little brother wouldn't be a matter of good or bad press. In fact, any press at all might be detrimental. It was better if we kept it as low-profile as possible.
"Scarlett won't be able to help," Kevin said. "The doctors want to keep her for observation."
I thought about our little group getting smaller - again - and winced. If Ruth had still been around, would we have known about Jovan's kidnapping in time to stop it? Would Goran and I have gotten so distracted kissing in the kitchen that we hadn't heard the intruder until it was too late?
"Thom?"
My head came up at the sound of my name as I realized I must have been so lost in my own head I hadn't heard Kevin's question. "Sorry, what?"
"I was asking if you had any leads."
I sighed. "No." This was when I would have liked to have had someone with tracking superpowers on the team. Even just a dog.
"I can ask some questions," Goran said, and somehow, even without his costume on, he was Dark Hero in that moment, every inch of him. It was a little unnerving.
"So will I," Kevin promised. "And I'll call Larry. We'll stay in touch."
"So will we." Goran was standing, pulling me to my feet, and I followed him. I didn't know where on earth he was going to go to ask some questions or whether it would even be a good idea for me to go with him - we'd already established that my handling of situations was rarely as suave as his - but I was following him, at least until I had any ideas of my own.
It turned out that Goran went off on his own to do his mysterious question asking. He said he didn't want his sources to get nervous if he showed up with someone else and that he wanted me to stay at the house in case we heard any news from the kidnappers. With any luck, we were dealing with your average, run-of-the-mill criminals who just wanted some ransom money from the rich young heroes in the modest two-story two-bedroom with the nice yard, and we'd be getting a note or a phone call to that effect soon. It was possible, however, that we were dealing with villains who were trying to get to us.
Goran had been gone about two hours and I was wound more tightly than Warrior Woman's magic lariat when a knock on the door sent me shooting toward the ceiling. I tried to reach out with my senses, to see if I could sense the sort of mind that was on the other side of the door, but the metal in the door provided a lot of psychic static. I shook my head at myself; it wasn't like the kidnappers were just going to knock on the front door, anyway.
Still, I peered through the eyehole before I opened the door.
Larry stood on the other side, twisting a handkerchief and looking miserable. "I'm sorry," he blurted as soon as I opened the door.
"You're sorry?" For the briefest moment I had no idea why he would be apologizing.
"About Jovan. I heard. Kevin called me."
"Ah." I opened the door wider and let him in, closing it behind him and throwing the latch. "Thanks. Yeah it was..." It hit me all over again, that Goran's little brother was missing and that I'd been kissing Goran when it happened. What was it about kissing me that gave villains a chance to get their digs in? Hell, I'd been getting my first kiss from a man when King of the Sea was murdered by Justice. A frisson of fear worked through me and I was grateful that Justice wasn't in the picture any longer.
"Kevin said we weren't telling the rest of the League about it." Larry's voice pulled me out of my reverie of guilt.
"No, not yet." I sat down on the couch. "The less noise gets made about it, the better."
"Understandable." Larry blew his nose into his handkerchief, then folded it over again. "Have you guys found anything out?"
"Not since we talked to Kevin at the hospital. Goran is out asking questions right now." Not wanting to sound like I was a lazy, stay-at-home coward who couldn't do his own reconnaissance work, I added, "We decided I would stay here in case the kidnappers tried to make contact."
"It's weird," Larry said, just as the clock over the mantle chimed eleven. Damn, it was getting late. I hoped Goran would be back soon. Even if I knew he could take care of himself, I liked being able to see that he was okay. "It happened right after we all left earlier?"
I nodded. "Yeah." It hit me then that it had only been a few hours. It seemed like days already. The rest of the team had gone home around seven. Jovan had been kidnapped around eight. Only three hours ago. Maybe Goran could find him easily and this would all be over with quickly.
Just as I had that thought, Goran came down the stairs in jeans and a tight black shirt. He must have come in the upstairs window and changed out of his costume before coming down to see who our company was.
"Larry." Goran nodded in greeting.
Larry stood up quickly, still twisting his handkerchief. "I'm sorry, it's late. I should be going."
"It's all right," Goran said, and even though he tried for a smile he sounded very tired.
"Thanks for coming by," I said to Larry. I reached out to shake his hand but he just gave me a wry smile and left.
After the door closed, I moved to lock it behind him and paused with my hand on the deadbolt. I was trying to decide if it would be better to leave it unlocked. If Jovan came back, he would need to get in. On the other hand, if whoever kidnapped him came for us... well, Goran and I could probably handle it. I moved away without locking it.
Goran was watching me with a somber expression, but he seemed to approve of my decision. I stood for a moment, feeling awkward in the silence. I was the first to break.
"You can still stay here tonight if you want to," I told him. He nodded. When I went upstairs, he followed me without a word. Without any discussion at all, he trailed behind me into my bedroom and I gave him a pair of pajama pants to sleep in. We stretched out on opposite sides of that great big bed and I worried about whether I should touch him, hold him, curl my body around his. I didn't know if he would find it comforting or annoying.
While I was worrying, he reached out and dragged me across the mattress to him, pillowing my head on his shoulder. I felt myself go hard almost instantly against his hip, but neither of us made a move to acknowledge it. I lay awake long after Goran's breathing evened out, wondering if it was selfish that I was angry the kidnappers had picked this particular night to act.
Goran's sources were quiet for the next couple of days and everyone got nervous and edgy. There were no ransom notes or phone calls, and no one had heard about any new villains on the scene. We got updates from Kevin on Scarlett's condition in the meantime. Her regular obstetrician was on maternity leave herself and Scarlett was giving the replacement doctor all kinds of hell. Apparently he wanted to run tests to make sure the baby was okay, what with her past medical history and the onset of cramps almost four weeks before the delivery date, but Scarlett was having none of it. Kevin said he thought she had had her fill of tests back when she'd been taking chemo; they were lucky she was letting them keep her in the hospital to begin with.
Then, three days after the kidnapping, Goran got a message. It showed up in our mailbox one afternoon, unstamped, as if it had been delivered by an invisible or telekinetic messenger, which was entirely possible. The note asked Goran to be in the warehouse district of the city at exactly 2:17 AM and specifically said he was welcome to bring his "team." We weren't sure whether that was supposed to put us at ease or make us feel threatened.
We called Kevin and Larry, and Scarlett checked herself out of the hospital against medical advice. She told them she'd had years of listening to her body and she knew her limits. Kevin worried but she promised him she'd go straight back to the hospital if anything went wrong.
So at a quarter after two, four of us were standing around looking fidgety and anxious, and Goran leaned against a wall, stone-faced and still. I watched as my watch clicked onto 2:17 and held my breath, waiting to see what would greet us. Fifty-nine seconds ticked away uneventfully, and then just as the minute hand moved toward 2:18, a woman stepped out of the shadows. She wore a bulky leather bomber jacket over a skin-tight green shirt and pants that looked like they'd been painted onto her Marilyn Monroe curves. Larry's eyes bugged and Scarlett elbowed Kevin before he had a chance to get a good eyeful.
The woman lit up a cigarette, and in the lighter's glow I saw that she had intriguing white streaks in her long, dark hair. Her features were so pretty they were almost delicate, in odd juxtaposition to the way she carried herself. In a way, she reminded me a bit of Scarlett when I'd first met her.
"This is all of y'all?" the woman asked, looking over our group as smoke curled up from her lips. Her voice was low and whiskey-rough with a thick Southern drawl.
"Yes," Goran answered her. We all accepted that he was the default leader for this mission. He had the most to lose.
The woman threw a pointed look at Scarlett's very pregnant belly but didn't say anything. Scarlett glared back at her challengingly. Goran ignored the exchange between them.
I felt useless and wanted to be doing something. Being as brilliant as I always was, I blurted out the first thing that popped into my head. "Who are you?"
"Renegade, honey," she said, sounding amused and annoyed all at once. "What's your name?"
"Uh... Thom." I really was going to have to come up with a code name one of these days.
"Nice to meet you Uh Thom," she smirked. "And the rest of y'all?"
"Not important," Goran interrupted. "You said you had information."
Renegade looked at him, narrowing her eyes. "Dark Hero, right?" Damn, did everybody know him? Of course, wearing his costume, complete with cowl and cape, he was pretty unmistakable. "Yeah. I got information. What's it worth to you?"
"What do you want?"
I made a mental note never to get on Goran's bad side. Or even his ambiguous side.
"Honestly?" Renegade took a long drag on her cigarette, then blew out the smoke while she let the question hang in the air. "I just wanna shut this guy down."
"It's just one guy, then?"
"One guy and a lot of little henchmen," she said, studying the cigarette between her fingers.
Scarlett spoke up then, and I realized I was surprised she hadn't said anything before. "What's in it for you?"
Renegade's eyes snapped over to her and I took a step back, even though I wasn't the one she was glaring at.
"Plenty, honey," Renegade drawled in a tone that said she wasn't saying anything else about it.
"All right," Kevin finally put in. "I hate to break this up, but I still haven't heard any useful information." And there was our old leader Golden Boy again. It almost made me smile.
"All right." It was a perfectly reasonable thing to say, but somehow Renegade managed to sound like she was mocking Kevin. She flicked her cigarette away and it rolled into the gravel against one of the warehouse buildings. "This is what I know. The guy who took your little brother is not new to the villain scene. He just thinks the spotlight is for posers. He calls himself Dr. DNA -"
Somebody snorted at this. I couldn't tell who.
" - and he's got a whole lab full of test subjects. I can't give you the address, but I can take you there, and I'll help you take him down."
I wanted to ask her questions - how she knew so much about the guy and where he could be found - but Goran asked his questions first.
"Can we go there tonight?"
Renegade looked at him and shoved her hands into the pockets of her bomber jacket. The movement pulled the leather tight across her shoulders and drew attention to the nip of her waist. Even I noticed, and I wasn't that interested. Larry and Kevin, on the other hand, were pretty darn interested. Scarlett noticed and the next thing heard was Kevin hissing in pain. I winced. Even I knew that looking at another woman while your superpowered - and very pregnant - girlfriend is beside you was probably not the smartest thing.
Renegade lifted a few feet off the ground and hovered in the air, reminding me crazily of a planeless pilot with her windblown hair and her bomber jacket. She glided down the street. We followed after her, Scarlett trying to lift into the air and frustrated when Kevin wouldn't let her, claiming they didn't know what kind of stress it would put on the baby. She couldn't walk fast enough to keep up, though, and she finally agreed to let Kevin carry her.
She scowled as he picked her up and I heard her grumble under her breath, "You're as bad as Dr. Anderson."
Goran was ahead of us, keeping pace with Renegade, and I started to catch up with him but noticed Larry hanging back a bit and decided to talk to him. He'd been sort of quiet and I wanted to see what was going on in his head.
He looked up at me as I dropped back beside him but didn't say anything, just nodded. I carefully did not touch him; now would not be the time to come down with an accidental case of asthma, and I was still figuring out how to use the healing on myself sometimes. After a few minutes of watching, I noticed his eyes were following Renegade whenever they weren't on his feet.
"She's something, isn't she?" I commented idly, and Larry's head jerked around to look at me like I'd hit him.
"What - I didn't - I didn't notice," he stammered, breathing a little quickly. We hadn't done team sprinting in while and it was starting to show.
"Sure you didn't," I grinned. Larry looked back at Renegade, then blushed and focused his eyes on his feet for a while. "It's all right," I said. "It's natural to notice other heroes." My eyes went to Goran's swirling black cape as I said it.
Beside me, Larry laughed, and I realized I must have had that goofy look on my face like I did sometimes when I looked at Goran. I glanced sideways to give Larry a wink and a grin, but failed to watch where I was running. A crack in the pavement caught my shoe and I pitched forward, palms skidding across asphalt and gravel as I tried to catch myself. My cheek hit the ground as well and I winced at the burn of abrasion. My knees felt bruised.
Larry shouted in alarm, but before I could even sit up good, there were hands on my shoulders, helping me balance. I thought it was Larry and fought not to flinch away, but then there were hands brushing across my palms, knocking the tiny pebbles loose.
"Don't let your skin heal up around the gravel." Goran's voice right next to my ear distracted me from the injuries and the heat that was blazing through them. I blinked up at him and he smiled grimly before moving away to follow Renegade again. For a moment I sat, stunned. How had he gotten back to me so quickly? Had he heard me fall?
At that moment, I realized Goran was paying closer attention to me than even I had given him credit for. It gave me a warm sort of feeling and I brushed the dirt off my pants as I stood, determined to do everything I could to get his brother back. I'd give him everything I had to give.
I thought I saw Renegade give me a curious glance over her shoulder, but before I could be sure, she stopped and pointed out an abandoned warehouse down close to the docks of the river.
"As recently as two weeks ago, Dr. DNA's lab was in that building," she said. "I haven't tracked him since then, but he'd been there for at least three years, so I doubt he got a hankerin' to just up and move all of a sudden."
But apparently he had, because the building was as abandoned as it looked. Goran looked grim, and Renegade kicked a nearby wooden crate in frustration. Despite the sturdy planks, it shattered like dry-rotted driftwood. That must have hurt, but she didn't even flinch. I realized she must have had some kind of invincibility and strength to go with her flight. Hell of a combination of powers for a hero I'd never even heard of.
We all looked crestfallen, but as we turned to go, Scarlett latched onto Kevin, her hand clawlike on his arm.
"Baby? You okay?"
She shook her head, her nostrils flaring as she drew in a sharp breath. "Contractions," she managed to get out. Without another word, Kevin swooped her up again and was off in a golden flash.
Goran looked at me and sighed.
"Let's go home."
The next day, we went to visit Scarlett in the hospital again. The place was in an uproar. After a few minutes, we finally located Kevin and asked him what was going on.
"Scarlett's replacement doctor has gone missing," he said. "He's got a patient in delivery and hasn't shown up for work today and isn't answering his beeper."
On cue, the loudspeaker above our heads went off.
Paging Dr. Anderson. Dr. Anderson to the delivery room, please. Paging Dr. Anderson.
As the echo died away, Goran looked at Kevin. "Is Scarlett in labor?"
"No, not yet. They're not letting her out of the hospital this time, though. The cramps last night were enough they thought they were going to have trouble. She's still got more than three weeks left to go."
Just then, I heard my cellphone go off, loud and raucous in the hospital. Several nurses turned to give me dirty looks and I mumbled an apology as I quickly moved out of the waiting room and down the hall. I pulled out my cell phone to look at it as I moved, and was baffled to see that it was set to ring at top volume. I was sure I had turned it off before we went into the hospital.
What's more, it didn't say anything about having missed a call. While I was staring at the screen, it rang again, and this time a number popped up. Cautiously, I answered it.
"Hello?"
"Thom, honey, get your boyfriend and meet me at 22 Orchid Street. Don't lollygag, now."
"Rene--"
The connection died before I even got her name out. How had she even gotten my number? An intern passing by gave me a death look as he glanced toward my phone and I quickly switched it off before stuffing it back into my pocket. I trotted back to the waiting room where Goran and Kevin still were.
"That was Renegade," I said quietly. "She wants us to meet her at 22 Orchid Street." Kevin looked torn, like he wanted to go with us but didn't want to leave Scarlett. I shook my head at him. "Stay here," I said. "She only specifically said for me and Goran to go."
Kevin looked a little relieved, and Goran and I left with a promise to call if we found anything significant.
We found 22 Orchid Street - a restored Victorian on the other side of town from my house - and looked around for Renegade. We finally spotted her idly pushing herself on a swing in the park across the street and went to see what she'd found.
"He moved his lab," she said. "Took us almost ten hours to find him again."
"Us?" A small girl two swings down from Renegade waved at us and it took me a moment to realize that she was the other person Renegade was referring to. She looked like she was about nine years old, just a few years older than Jovan. Something about her seemed very familiar, but I couldn't place it.
"Maddie here is a telepath and telekinetic," Renegade explained. I noted with some satisfaction that Maddie didn't have a codename either, then realized how pathetic it was that I was measuring myself against a nine-year-old.
"How did you find him in the first place?" Goran wanted to know, and I figured it was about time we knew that answer.
"I grew up in his lab," Renegade answered, one eyebrow arching coldly. Maddie made a noise at that and I figured that maybe she had, too. "He got me when I was about your brother's age." She addressed this to Goran. "I was an orphan, nobody to take care of me, and I kept gettin' passed from foster home to foster home. I was a lot of trouble and my powers manifested early. He got hold of me when I ran away from one of my foster homes. He's all into figuring out what makes heroes. Genetically, I mean."
That made sense, I realized. Dr. DNA. He must have been trying to isolate the hero gene. If he thought it was a gene, it would explain why he took Jovan - it would stand to reason that Jovan might at least be a carrier of the gene even if he never manifested, since Goran was a hero.
Renegade stood up from the swing and put her hands in the pockets of her jacket as she changed subjects. "He's got a lot of kids in there now. I took Maddie with me when I broke out, but her twin brother Jean is still in there. And of course your brother. And more."
Renegade rolled her shoulders. I didn't know what we were planning on doing - maybe busting in the door or something - when Larry came stumbling up breathing hard.
"You okay?" I asked him, seriously worried he might have an asthma attack. My powers didn't work on his own random illnesses, since it was part of his own power.
"Fine," he gasped. "Ran. Kevin. Told me. You'd be here."
Renegade nodded. "I think we can get in there and get him tied up, get the kids out." She looked at me and Goran. "As long as nobody tries anything more heroic than they can handle."
We made a plan. With Maddie's help, we determined that the kids were being kept in a homemade lab in the basement of the house. There were about seven of them, she said. Dr. DNA, meanwhile, was in his study on the second floor. Goran and Renegade would go for the doctor, Maddie and I would go for the kids, and Larry would stand watch to make sure the villain didn't get away. We agreed that calling Golden Boy for backup would be a good idea.
Maddie said there was a way to get into the basement from the outside, through the storm cellar, so we headed that way. Renegade flew up to the second story window and Goran - Dark Hero - was right behind her, bounding up the side of the wall, using windowsills for his ledges. I watched for a moment before I followed Maddie and wished I'd been with him instead. But it made more sense for him and Renegade to go after the doctor and for me to rescue the kids in case any of them were injured. My power would be more useful in that situation. It sure as hell beat standing around waiting.
Following Maddie, I crawled into the storm cellar and then through the small tunnel in the back. It was plenty of room for someone Maddie's size, but I was tall and bigger through the shoulders, and I had to scrape the dirt away from the sides a little more to squeeze my body through. I hoped fervently that I wouldn't get stuck.
What seemed like an hour later, we pushed through into another room. The hole was hidden behind several crates, and Maddie squeezed out between them and the wall, her tiny body slipping through the two-foot space with ease. Grunting, I shoved the crates with my shoulder, trying to make room for me. I had expected to hear odd sounds, or at least crying, but the room was completely silent. It didn't take me long to find out why. Inside several wire cages, the kind that are used for big dogs like Great Danes, were the kids. They were all sound asleep. I thought it was weird that the scrape of the crates moving hadn't woken them, but then I realized they were probably drugged. There was a cot in the corner and I wondered who slept there.
I spotted Jovan almost immediately, and was thankful to realize he looked mostly unharmed. That was when I noticed the padlock on the cage. Looking around, I realized every door had one.
"How are we going to get them out, Maddie?" I wasn't sure why I was whispering, but it seemed the smartest thing to do in case there was any way Dr. DNA could hear me from upstairs. The thought made me wonder, briefly, how Renegade and Dark Hero were getting along.
Maddie didn't answer me, just stared at the padlock like she could make it open by thinking hard enough. And when I heard the tumblers moving inside and saw the lock drop open, I remembered that was exactly what she was doing. Telekinesis must be a handy superpower to have. That's when I realized why she looked familiar - she'd been in the hospital waiting room right before Renegade called me. She must have been the one who switched my phone on.
While Maddie moved on to the other locks, I opened Jovan's cage and reached inside for him, hefting him in my arms. He flopped against me, his head lolling back on his neck. Definitely drugged. I needed him awake and alert, though, or I'd never get him out through that tunnel. Concentrating, I shifted him so that his face fell against my neck and I could grab his bare arm with my hand. My skin began warming, like water coming to a sluggish boil, until it finally seemed to realize what was going on and the temperature shot up in an instant.
Jovan began struggling in my arms like he was fighting something in his sleep, and then his eyes opened and he screamed. I clamped my hand over his mouth, my heart thundering in my ears. That shrill scream probably broke windows three houses away; there was no way Dr. DNA hadn't heard it. I heard a couple of thumps upstairs and realized I was just going to have to trust Dark Hero and Renegade to take him out, and be prepared to fight him myself if they didn't. That was an idea I didn't relish, not in this small, dark space with drugged, sleepy children.
Jovan finally stilled, his eyes focusing on my face in the dimness. I took my hand away from his mouth and he croaked, "Thom?"
"Hey, kiddo," I said, relief flooding through me and making my veins tingle. "How're you feeling?"
"Kinda fuzzy," he said, wrinkling his nose. "Like when I'm sick and my brother makes me take medicine. But it's going away."
I brushed my fingers across his forehead, feeling the streaks of heat they left behind, and nodded. "Stand over here and wait while I wake everybody else up, okay?" I told him. "Then we're going to get out of here." I hoped Larry was still waiting outside the storm cellar.
One by one, I dragged the kids out of the other cages Maddie had opened, holding them until enough of the sedative was out of their systems that they could stand without falling down.
"Everybody okay?" I said, and got a round of cautious nods. Maddie and Jovan's faith in me had gone a long way toward putting the others at ease, but they were still a little wary. I couldn't blame them.
"Okay, listen up. One of my friends, Larry, is standing outside the storm cellar at the other end of that tunnel, making sure it's safe to go up," I said, "And I'm going to be behind you all making sure no one follows us. Go through the tunnel one at a time and very calmly. Maddie will go first so she'll know if something's wrong, all right?"
They all nodded again and I took a deep breath. This might not be a fight like the one Dark Hero and Renegade were probably involved in, but it was dangerous in its own way, and I was a little nervous. I prayed that everything would go okay, and then watched as each child followed Maddie into the tunnel. Her brother Jean was the first one through, and then a couple others. One little girl was afraid of the tunnel and started crying. A couple of the others shushed her, and Jovan reached out to pat her awkwardly on the shoulder.
"It's okay, Rosemary," he said. "Thom is my brother's friend. He's a big hero. He saved the world. We'll be okay."
My throat closed up at Jovan's expression of trust and I tried hard to look strong and capable when Rosemary turned skeptical, red-rimmed eyes up to me. With a little more coaxing, Rosemary finally went into the tunnel, and the others followed. Jovan was the last one in and when he smiled up at me, bright and confident, I couldn't help but smile back. God, I hoped this worked.
Crawling out through the tunnel was worse than crawling in had been, because I knew there were eight kids on the other side, standing around waiting for me - or Dr. DNA - to join them. I reminded myself that Renegade, Dark Hero, Larry, and probably Golden Boy stood between the villain and us, but until I could see with my own eyes that the kids were safe, the butterflies in my stomach wouldn't settle down.
All these kids reminded me of the ones I used to read to at the Student Life Center and I felt a twinge of wistfulness. I wondered if any of these kids ever went there before they were kidnapped.
They were all quiet as I led them cautiously out of the storm cellar, but I could still hear Rosemary sniffling behind me. Larry was standing a few feet away as I pushed the door open and climbed out.
"Coast clear?" I asked him, and he nodded.
"Did you get them?"
"All seven." I grinned then, I couldn't help it. "Is Golden Boy here? We should get these kids away from here as quick as we can, just in case."
"He's on the other side of the house," Larry confirmed. "Want me to get him?"
"Yeah."
It didn't take long for Kevin to zoom each of the kids across the street to the park. We debated, briefly, who should stay with the kids while the others stood guard at the house and finally decided that if Kevin stayed in the front of the house, he could see them on the playground and get to them in plenty of time if something happened. Maddie and Jovan put themselves in charge of the others and we headed back to the house. Just as we got close, there was a crash and a loud yell from inside.
Shouting at Kevin to stay where he could see the kids, I started running toward the door but stopped when it flew open and a man, trussed up in rope, fell facedown into the grass. Dark Hero was behind him, a grim set to his mouth, and he jerked the man up as soon as he reached him, shoving him forward.
"Call the cops," Goran growled. "They'll need to take care of this one."
Hearing another crash and another yell, I glanced up at the windows of the old house. "Is this Dr. DNA? What's going on in there?"
"Yeah, this is him. Renegade's in there having a talk with someone she used to know."
"You won't get away with this," the doctor finally said. His voice was rough like maybe Goran had roughed up his windpipe. I hoped he had. "You can't just arrest me without a warrant."
"We're heroes," Larry interrupted. "We're not the cops."
Dr. DNA looked up and spat toward Larry, who didn't even flinch. Kevin, however, let out a surprised cry.
"What the hell!?" He pointed at Dr. DNA. "You - you're - you're Dr. Anderson!"
"Aren't you brilliant," the doctor scoffed. "Dr. David Nicholas Anderson, at your service."
"You son of a bitch!" Kevin yelled, stalking forward. "THAT'S why you were trying to make Scarlett have all those tests! You - you - dirty, rotten, slimy -" Kevin threw a punch that hit Dr. Anderson in the face. With his arms bound to his body, the doctor didn't have a way to regain his balance and went flying backwards onto the ground. Nobody said anything to Kevin until he moved forward, intent on doing more damage, and then Goran put his hand on Kevin's arm.
"That's enough," he said. "The police will take care of the rest."
Kevin looked like he didn't want to listen, but common sense kicked in and he backed down. "All right," he finally said. "Has anyone called the cops yet? Let's get them here so they can figure out what to do with this slimeball and get the kids taken care of."
Several minutes later, as the cops were arriving, Renegade touched down between me and Goran. Her hair was mussed and her shirt was torn underneath her jacket, but I couldn't see any marks on her - no bruises or scrapes or anything.
"Everyone okay?" she said, looking over our group. Kevin was across the street with the kids we'd rescued, supervising them on the playground. She walked over to Larry and reached out to shake his hand. When he didn't respond, she took his hand anyway and shook it. "Good job," she said. "If it weren't for you, Ricky would've gotten away."
Larry was trying his best not to be rude by pulling his hand back, but I could tell by the fear in his eyes that he was terrified of what he'd just done to Renegade.
"You really shouldn't touch me," he said, sounding like he could sink into the ground from shame. "I could make you sick." He swallowed as Renegade gave him an incredulous look. "That's my power. I make people sick when I touch them."
Renegade grinned and held on tighter. "Don't worry about it," she finally laughed. "I've got invincible skin and immunity to everything. I've never been sick a day in my life."
When several more seconds passed and she still didn't show any signs of dropping like a fly, Larry finally relaxed. I remembered what she'd said when she first shook his hand and I was curious.
"Who's Ricky?"
"Ricky is... one of the other kids who grew up in the lab," Renegade said, finally letting go of Larry's hand, only to sling a companionable arm around his shoulders. Larry flinched, but soon his surprise was overridden by the flush working its way into his cheeks. "He's got invisibility and is all kinds of acrobatics. Calls himself the Ninja. When we were sixteen, the doctor gave us the option of working for him and being treated like an employee, or remaining the lab rats we were. Ricky took the option. I started making plans to break out." She shrugged. "He's probably the one who took your brother, Goran. He's the one who grabbed Maddie and Jean."
She cracked her knuckles, looking satisfied. I thought about the crashes I'd heard and wondered what she'd done to him. She caught my look.
"I was just taking care of some unfinished business with him, but he might've gotten away before I could catch him if Larry here hadn't stopped him."
Larry looked proud and shy all at once and I couldn't help but smile. Things were looking up for him, it seemed, and everything else promised to turn out all right as well.
"What do you say we grab Jovan and go home?" I said, biting back a yawn. We hadn't gotten much sleep in the last few days, and not for the fun reasons, either.
"Sounds like a great idea to me." Goran looked at the others. "Can you handle the rest of this?"
They assured us that they could and we told them that if the police needed to question us, they could call. Thinking that I wanted to sleep for about twelve hours, I added that they might want to wait a little while if the questions weren't urgent.
Renegade and Kevin gave us knowing smirks and Larry looked away. Goran snickered. It was a good fifteen seconds before I realized what I'd said and what it must have sounded like, but by that time protesting would have just made it worse.
Entrusting Dr. DNA and the kids to our friends and the law enforcement that would be arriving soon, Goran and I each took one of Jovan's hands and headed home.
I thought I would fall asleep instantly and sleep through the night and maybe the next day, but I was wound up and edgy, all the adrenaline and stress of the past few days fading and leaving me with nothing but a great big bundle of nerves. I was pacing the floor of the bedroom, probably wearing a path in the oriental rug, when Goran appeared in the doorway, leaning against the frame with his arms crossed over his chest.
I stopped for a minute, opened my mouth to say something, then shook my head and started pacing again when I couldn't find words to explain the restlessness.
"Jovan's asleep," he said. "I locked the windows."
I nodded approval. Ninja was probably in police custody by now, as was Dr. DNA, but that didn't mean it was okay to be careless. I stopped pacing, but I couldn't stop fidgeting, shifting my weight from one foot to the other, picking at my fingernails.
"Thom," Goran said, firm but amused. I paused. For all that we spent so much time together focused on each other, it wasn't all that often that he said my name - or that I said his. It still gave me a funny thrill to hear it in that thick Croatian accent of his. It was... sexy. "Be still."
I opened my mouth to protest - I could feel the way my face screwed into a rebellious expression, but he was next to me in two long strides, hands on my arms. I froze at his touch, my complaint dead on my tongue. All of a sudden, what I really wanted was to hold him, to be held. I hesitated, wondering if it would be okay, then figured what the hell. If he thought I was being clingy, he could tell me.
I slipped my arms around his waist and leaned into his chest. To my relief, his arms curled around my back, holding me to him. We stood there for what felt like forever, just holding each other and breathing. I felt the tension slowly easing out of his body, my own relaxing in response, and realized that he must have been at least as worried as I was. Jovan was his brother, after all. He just always wore that cool, too-old expression, the one he earned by taking care of his brother through a war and across the world from his home.
When our bodies were leaning against each other, warm and pliable now, all the jitters melted away, Goran pulled back just enough to kiss me. It was soft, a subtle brushing of lips, but it felt like the best thing in the world. I felt like I could just kiss him like that forever and never need anything else.
"Thom?" He sounded more uncertain than I'd ever heard him, and I could feel tremors working through his muscles. Mine shuddered in response. "I, um..."
I could barely hear my own thoughts over the pounding of my pulse and the way my head suddenly buzzed. I thought I knew what he was saying, and suddenly I wanted it so much I was scared of it.
My fingers tightened on his back and he cleared his throat. Neither one of us could say anything but I nodded. There hadn't been a question, exactly, but Goran knew what I meant and sighed, a huge exhalation of relief. Then he was kissing me again, but instead of the languid caress of earlier, it had fire behind it, a purpose. It was wet and sloppy, a little overeager, but it was amazing.
He eased me back toward the bed, tugging on my clothes, and all of a sudden all my pent-up restlessness had somewhere to go. I let him help me out of my shirt and jeans, but started working on his before he could get to my boxers. Soon enough, we were lying on the bed, the length of our bare bodies pressed against each other, and my heart was pounding in my throat. I could feel the flutter of my pulse against my trachea and wasn't sure I could even speak.
Suddenly, lying there under him and looking into his eyes, I had a revelation.
I was about to have sex with Dark Hero.
The thought made me want to giggle. I tried to stifle it, but I couldn't help grinning. Goran gave me a questioning look, and then I did giggle, high and nervous, almost like a girl.
"What is it?" His lips brushed against my forehead and I closed my eyes, pressing into the touch.
"Just... thinking how many teenagers wish they were me right now." I nipped at his nose and he smiled, looking pleased and a little embarrassed.
"I'm not the only hot superhero in the room, you know," Goran said with a little growl, biting the side of my neck in retaliation.
"You're the only one with a cool codename," I pointed out, grinning. My lack of a codename didn't really bother me, but it served my purposes at the moment. His argument was to kiss me, and I really had no objection to that. Long minutes later, we parted reluctantly, needing to breathe.
"You're sure you want to do this?" His hand was stroking my chest and I thought it was grossly unfair to ask questions like that when he was touching me the way he was.
"Maybe not... the whole thing yet," I said. I knew I wanted that - God, did I want that - and I knew I wanted it with him, but just then I was feeling a little intimidated. I'd never even jerked off with anyone else before, and I didn't want to rush it.
"All right," he agreed, and then his hand was lower, and my brain popped and sizzled like a livewire.
When I could breathe again, I realized he had both of us together in one hand, pulling in long, firm strokes. It was the best thing ever, and I made sure he knew I thought so.
We moved together, restless hips and hands, lips pressing anywhere they could touch, hungry little kisses all over flushed skin. It was over far too soon, and there was nothing left but the lingering warmth of love and satisfaction and a rapidly-cooling stickiness that was beginning to glue our stomachs together.
Goran was breathing just as hard as I was, the rosy color in his face making his eyes seem even darker, as if they were just bottomless pools of night. I touched his face with one trembling hand and thought that my life, with all its problems and challenges, was perfect.
When he smiled at me, I knew it for sure.
Two weeks later, Scarlett finally had her baby, supervised by a very pleasant doctor whose background Kevin had checked out personally. She named the baby girl Ruth, and there were five of us in the hallway peering in through the window when the nurse held the little baby up to wave at us. Jovan was riding on Kevin's shoulders, and Larry stood a little ways away from the rest of us, grinning. Goran held my hand.
"She's gorgeous," Larry said, looking over at Kevin. "Congratulations."
"Thank you," Kevin answered, beaming as if he'd been personally responsible for every ounce of perfection in that tiny, rosy body.
"Rennie said she'd be by later with Maddie and Jean," Larry added and I looked at him in surprise, raising one eyebrow.
"Rennie?"
He blushed and Goran elbowed me in the ribs. Larry and Renegade were certainly very good friends these days. As we walked away from the observation window, Kevin swinging Jovan by his feet, Larry fell into step with us and said, "By the way, Thom, Goran was telling us about your idea for a center for powered children. I think it's a great idea. Rennie said she'd like to help, too."
After I had realized that a lot of teachers and parents had trouble coping with children whose superpowers manifested early, and remembering how much I missed working with the kids at the Student Life Center, I'd asked Goran what he thought about starting a center with staff specially trained to work with kids with superpowers. His eyes had opened a little wider, like he'd never thought of that before, and he agreed wholeheartedly.
With the stipend from the League, we had more than enough money, and it seemed like the perfect thing to do.
"I agree," Kevin said over his shoulder, pitching his voice to be heard over Jovan's giggles. "I think it's long overdue."
I felt the warmth of happiness steal over my body and grinned. Yeah, I thought to myself, my hopelessly screwed-up life was pretty damned perfect.
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