Chapter 12

Episode 10 - Whistle Down the Wind

“Well, this is it, bud.” Brady sent one last glance around the room that he would probably always think of as Marcus’s before turning to the teen in the wheelchair, who had been relatively quiet for the last few hours. “You ready?”

Dr. Mattox had played things unusually safe, at least for her, keeping Marcus at the center for nearly a week after she’d made the cure theory official, both to wean him off the heaviest of the painkillers and to monitor him for any signs that the asthma might be creeping back. But in all that time, he hadn’t displayed so much as a single cough, and the fragile hope that they’d scarcely dared to believe was starting to harden into something much more certain—so much so that Quentin was finally on his way to take him home for good.

“I—I guess.” Marcus’s voice was much too tentative for the moment Brady knew he’d been praying and longing for since he’d first been brought to the center. Brady slid onto the bed next to the full suitcases and eyed the younger boy with a questioning gaze.

“You guess? Tell me you’re not going to scoop up all those baby cousins of yours right straight in your arms as soon as you walk in the door. Or”—as the memory of Marcus’s injury suddenly hit him despite the fact that he’d been in a wheelchair the whole time—“you know, as close as you can get without hurting yourself.”

“That’s just it.” The words were soft and uncertain. “Brady, I don’t—I mean—I’ve had asthma since I was three years old. I don’t—don’t have any idea how to do—well, anything. What if I mess it up? What if I—I don’t know—play too rough and hurt someone? It’s always—always been the kids that had to be careful of me. I don’t know how—”

“Marcus. Marcus.” Brady attempted to draw the teen’s attention, but he doubted Marcus even heard him above the nervous flow of words. “Hey, whoa!” He gripped Marcus’s arm, and the cascade ground to an abrupt halt. “Slow down and take a breath, bud. You still need those.” Brady crouched next to the chair, holding the boy’s gaze, and waited until Marcus had sucked in a few shaky breaths before attempting an answer. “Now listen to me. You’re going to do just fine. I’ve seen you with wind breath, remember? That’s way more power than any person was made to hold. And you were so careful with it—you worked so hard to keep it from hurting anyone. Did you mess up a couple times? Sure. But you did your best to take care of people, and that’s not going to change now that you’ve got normal-people strength back for once in your life. Okay?”

Marcus nodded slowly, but a little crease formed in his forehead as he appeared to take in the words.

“Speaking of—I still can’t figure out what went wrong that day. It keeps playing over and over in my head, but I don’t know where I messed up—what I should have changed.”

“Oh, bud, don’t.” They had all been completely overwhelmed with the monumental changes of the last week, but at least one of them ought to have realized that Marcus hadn’t had any chance yet to process the trauma of the day that had started it all. “You didn’t do anything wrong; I’m like—ninety-seven and a half percent sure you didn’t. The injection was working way less predictably than any of us guessed, and sticking where it was mean to, so it probably hadn’t cleared the allergies the way you were used to. If anyone thought there was the remotest possibility of you sneezing in that death trap, we never would have let you inside in the first place. There’s nothing for you to have done differently. I know you can’t help the questions, but—just hold tight to those answers, okay?”

“Brady?” There was a distinct quiver in Marcus’s voice now. “Can I—can I just—call you up sometimes—for you to give me weird, random percentages and things?”

For answer, Brady wrapped his arms around the teen’s still too thin shoulders and held on hard, his own eyes stinging as Marcus’s uneven breaths hitched against his chest.

“You’d better. You’re going to be in serious trouble if you don’t call us sometimes—and come back and visit any time you want to. You know all the codes and all the shortcuts; you don’t need anybody’s permission to just show up, okay? And if someone tries to tell you otherwise, I’ll—”

“You’ll what?” A soft note of laughter fought with the choke in Marcus’s voice, and Brady offered a wry smile as he leaned back to look in his eyes again.

“I’ll sic Dash on them. How’s that? But I mean it, buddy. God’s given you an incredible gift—the one we’d all just about given up hoping for—but you’ll always and forever be one of us. And if you ever need us for anything, whether it’s a superhero mission or a weirdly specific percentage, you’d better not hesitate to call. Okay?”

“I’m going to miss you guys—so bad.” Marcus blinked hard and wiped at his nose with his sleeve, and Brady tried to swallow down the lump that was rising in his own throat.

“I know you are. And we’re going to miss you just as bad. But just remember, the whole time you’ve been with us, you’ve been missing your family like crazy too. Right?”

“Wish I didn’t have to pick.”

It was on the tip of Brady’s tongue to say he wished the same when a sudden reminder checked him.

“You’re not picking, Marcus. You might have to sometime, but this wasn’t given to you as a choice. God’s picked for you; you just bloom where you’re planted and have the most amazing time possible with the family that’s taken such good care of you for so long. You’re going to be so happy being home again—and you can’t start feeling bad about it, hear me?”

“So, don’t be sad about being happy?” Marcus gave a weak snort, and Brady offered a half grin.

“Yeah, well, in case you haven’t noticed, just about everything in our lives is super complicated. But that’s the gist of it. Enjoy your family, and don’t feel bad about us. We’ll be just fine.”

“I wish it could have worked for you all too.” Marcus lowered his eyes, and Brady squeezed his arm again.

“I know you do. Just like I’d wish it in your shoes. Don’t let that become survivor’s guilt, okay? Nothing you could’ve done would make it work for any of the rest of us, and not a single one of us would take it from you if we had the chance. Not even Dash.”

“You say it like that’s a shock.” The corners of Marcus’s mouth tilted upward just a little. “If somebody did try to take it, I think I’d be more scared of Harper’s big puppy eyes.”

“That’s…fair.” Brady shook his head and pushed himself carefully back up to standing. “Although you’re definitely not one to talk about the puppy eyes. Have we got everything? I know everyone else’ll want to say goodbye.”

“Yeah. I—I think I’m ready.”

Brady nodded and took his place behind the wheelchair, guiding it carefully out of the room and down the hall to the common, where Rachelle stood in the door as though she’d been watching for them, which she most likely had.

“Everything okay?” She touched the arm of the wheelchair, but her gaze lifted to Brady, and he nodded carefully.

“I think so. Just—getting a couple of things straight.”

“Plenty of that to go around.” Rachelle turned her attention back to Marcus, and her smile only faltered a little as she bent down to hug him hard. “Marcus, I’m so thankful we got to have you here for the time we did. If there’s ever anything you need from us, just know we’re here, all right?”

“Been over that.” Marcus offered a watery chuckle. “Really sorry I’m missing Grace…”

“No, don’t be. You said goodbye this morning. You just go love on the kids that are waiting for you at home. Besides, she’ll see you again. I already told Janelle we should try to schedule a playdate sometime, and she knows she’ll have to rope you in to help supervise.”

“Yeah, sounds good.” Marcus sniffed and blinked a little, but he managed a smile. “Thanks for—for everything.”

“No thanks needed, Marcus. You’re a wonderful guy. I’m just so glad we got to know you.” Rachelle’s lips trembled a little as she ran a hand gently across his tight curls, and a throat cleared from behind her.

“You two have a monopoly, or do the rest of us get to say goodbye?”

Rachelle moved out of the way, and Brady nudged the wheelchair through the door and over to Harper’s couch, where Dash had already parked his own chair.

“I’ll—I’ll miss you guys.” Marcus broke the long silence that was starting to grow awkward, and Harper rubbed hard at her eyes and looked up with unmistakable pain on her face.

“You’d think I’d be—used to saying goodbye by now. I just don’t—let a whole lot of people slip under my guard. You were—a great part of the team, Marcus.”

“Are.” The word was so quick and sharp that Brady barely realized it had been a word until Dash continued. “Still are part of the team. We don’t yank your card because you’ve lost your powers, got it? You can leave us, but we’re not leaving you.”

“Wish I could have both.” Marcus’s voice was choked again, and Brady stifled a groan, but before he could go over that ground again, Dash’s hand awkwardly slapped Marcus’s good leg, and Rachelle cut in quietly.

“That’s not what he’s saying, Marcus. You’re not leaving us that way. Not moving on because you’re done with us. You’ve just been—reassigned to a different mission.”

“Kid duty. Ugh.” Harper shivered and grimaced expressively. “Better you than me. I’ll stick with invisible.”

Marcus gave a startled little laugh, and Dash squeezed his leg before pulling his hand back.

“What she said.” He jerked his head roughly in Rachelle’s direction, and Brady felt a smile tug at his lips.

“Think that makes it unanimous, bud. Don’t care where you go or how well you get; you’ll always be one of us. That’s a promise.”

“Thanks.” Marcus’s whisper was thick with feeling. “You guys are the best friends I’ve ever had.”

Harper buried her head in her hands again, and Rachelle slid past Brady and onto the couch to lay a hand on the other girl’s shoulder. Dash growled something in his throat that Brady was almost positive wasn’t a word this time.

“Look, you trying to drown us on the way out, or what?”

“Maybe.” Marcus gave a shaky little chuckle, but after a second, his eyes lit with the beginnings of a grin. “Bad time to reveal I was a plant by a supervillain league, sent to take you all down from the inside?”

Dash snorted, Rachelle smiled, and Harper managed an uncertain giggle.

“Almost took out the whole center on that first day. Not sure how we missed it.” Brady caught the boy in the gentlest possible headlock and held him for just a half second before letting go. “It’s too late, bud. Blended in a little too well and got yourself fully adopted, so your evil plan is foiled. You’re part of this team forever, wherever you go from here.”