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Amy suddenly woke up from her little nap when something crushed downstairs. Her first instinct was, of course, to hurry there and ask if anyone was injured, but the IV drip in her arm and everything else reminded her that at the moment she wasn’t Panacea. So Amy only sighed and tried to make herself comfortable. Sure, the hospital placed her in their best ward, but she was used to her own bed. And wasn’t used to bandages and casts on her body, unfamiliar surroundings and inability to be the person people needed.
Well, she hoped that, at the very least, the doctors around here weren’t stupid enough not to bring anyone in critical condition to her bed.
Amy didn’t really know what time it was, but it was already dark outside. So she should’ve tried and get a little more sleep – even if she was sure that no amount of sleep could actually make the bruises under her eyes go away. But her attention, as always, turned to the most important and precious person in her pretty miserable life, who was currently sitting in the chair near Amy’s cot and, probably, trying really hard to fall asleep as well.
“Your face expression,” Victoria immediately opened her eyes as Amy started talking, “betrays you.”
“...Yeah, I’d guess. Not the most comfortable chair I had the pleasure sitting on.” Victoria pursed her lips. “But I thought, you know, if you fell asleep, I should too – so I wouldn’t do anything that could wake you up ‘cause I was bored…”
“Well, you have a perfectly fine bed. In your room.” Amy rolled her eyes.
“God, not you too.” Victoria sighed. “I already argued about it with mom, dad, aunt Sarah, Crystal, your doctor…”
“Uh-huh, I heard the first two. They all might have a point, though.”
The blonde didn’t reply, only lowering her gaze to Amy’s injured arm.
“Victoria…”
Amy didn’t really know since when her sister started to prefer the nickname instead of her actual name. To be perfectly honest, she knew for a fact that somewhere along the way it became their thing, and Victoria stopped appreciating her other friends calling her that. Or, maybe, she never did and just stopped pretending.
Victoria met her eyes and started pouting.
“You know this is stupid, Vicky.”
“Maybe.” She nonchalantly shrugged.
“The PRT left several officers here to guard me.”
“Yeah, too fucking late for that.” Victoria snorted. “Once again the world proves to me that I shouldn’t leave you just like that,” she said much more quietly, unwittingly cracking her knuckles.
A year ago Amy would’ve probably made a snarky reply about how everyone will die someday or about how easy it would be for somebody to kill her if needed. But after she actually almost died and understood just how right she was, saying it started feeling stupid.
And even if nowadays Amy stopped caring that much – death was death, and it would come one day no matter what – she cared about her sister and how she tried not to let it happen.
Victoria frowned and mumbled a few more words which Amy didn’t hear.
Being Panacea was her life and job. But seeing Vicky sad…
“Since you’re actually here, want to cuddle?”
“You’re injured, Ames.”
“My other side is fine.” She raised her left hand and wiggled her fingers.
Victoria stared at her a few seconds, but then finally let out a weak smile. She lifted into the air and landed on the other side of Amy’s cot. Amy tried to make room for her, but, unfortunately, even her fancy ward wasn’t meant for more than one person. After a moment of thinking, Victoria nodded to herself and just laid on her side, letting Amy use her arm as a pillow, and snuggled closer.
“Your hair is actually soft.” Vicky smiled. “Unbelievable. Should I ask the nurses here about the shampoo they use?”
“First of all, don’t you dare, I like my hair as it is. Second of all, it’s soft because they had to wash my hair three times. There was a lot of blood, if you remember.”
“What can I say, little V doesn’t mess around,” Victoria said in an uncharacteristically even voice. “And she did save your life.”
“No shit.” Amy chuckled. “She happily gave a middle-finger salute to the second most powerful organization in the country.”
“Not happily. Really not.” Victoria sighed. “But, well…”
“So you’re still thinking about her?”
“How can I not?” She tilted her head. “I mean, even after everything… God damn it, I thought I lost her! Maybe even in a literal sense! Just like you…” she broke off and gently put her head on Amy’s shoulder.
Old Amy probably would already go bright red and, maybe, lose her consciousness, since having her beautiful and amazing sister that close made her extremely happy, shy and, among other things, horny. But, for better or worse, old Amy was killed by the Slaughterhouse Nine and their actions. By all those deaths and suffering, by Bonesaw and her test, by Siberian and her games, by Crawler and…
Actually, as it turned out, it was quite easy to handle her feelings. She just needed to be tortured almost to the death psychically and mentally, and then to spend several hours putting her sister back together from a half-melted mess of blood and bones.
Amy was also sure she was on the edge of the total mental breakdown that whole day, but it seemed that she was lucky. Well, lucky enough not to suffer anything that serious before – except her own trigger event, but it happened a long time ago. More than two years ago… In Brockton Bay that was a whole life.
Amy was used to lying to herself that she could be content with just having Vicky in her life as a friend. But watching Vicky’s heart fall apart in her own hand managed to actually put things into perspective. And it became easier than ever to forget about hope and just continue going through the motions. It probably wasn’t a good thing, but, well...
“Vista is stronger than any of us could ever be,” Amy muttered. “Even though it’s not her fault.”
“Whose is it, then?”
“Oh, I can start saying names. But not all of them will be villains’, you know.”
Victoria only sighed heavily.
“To be honest, wouldn’t want to offend her, but I always assumed that Vista was, like, a soldier through and through.”
“Don’t think she would get offended by that,” Vicky murmured.
“No, I mean, gung-ho type. Stars and stripes all the way.”
“She isn’t the one who actually wears them, though.”
“Who cares what people wear? It’s about what they believe in.”
“Clothes can mean a lot, Ames.” Vicky shook her head. “But fine, whatever. And?”
“And I was mistaken, obviously.” Amy rolled her eyes. “I always thought she would be one of those people who doesn’t change. Like me being Panacea. But damn, if even Vista the child soldier said ‘fuck it’, maybe…” she broke off, looking at the ceiling.
“I sure as shit hope you don’t also want to join the Undersiders,” Victoria laughed and lightly touched her hand.
Amy easily recognized the unusual nervous tone in her sister’s laugh and tried to smile reassuringly – she probably failed since she didn’t really make those… ever.
From her point of view, no one who knew her could think that, and especially Vicky who knew very well how big of a grudge she held against Tattletale, even though she didn’t know the reason. But Vicky always was a bit protective toward her little sister… And after everything that happened, after her own almost-death, after seeing bodies in their house, after days of crying and brooding over Amy’s injuries and missing fingers that particular trait of hers grew tenfold.
Amy still remembered how a month ago Victoria almost punched somebody who accidentally bumped Amy’s shoulder while they were walking from class. Of course, Vicky managed to restrain herself in time and no one saw anything, but Amy knew very well how exactly Glory Girl moved when she wanted to actually punch. Yeah, old Vicky probably wouldn’t be able to stop herself, but old Vicky also would never think to punch somebody over something so trivial.
They both refused therapy after everything, and while Amy knew for a fact that she was not a shining example of mental health and she didn’t need anyone else to tell her that, she wasn’t sure why Vicky did that. But, as Amy thought, it would be extremely hypocritical of her to point that out, and for everyone else they both seemed… normal enough. Vicky certainly looked like her old self most of the time, even if that took a lot of effort on her part nowadays.
“No chance in hell.” Amy snorted. “But you do know that I… Huh. Well… I’m not exactly fond of this city.”
Just another stupid thing they talked about in their sleepovers which now happened every few days instead of weeks. Apparently, they both had a lot to talk about – even if nowadays it was more about their nightmares. And traumas. And fears. And dreams, but only sometimes. No more low-quality horror movies and popcorn, just attempts to fall asleep in each other’s embrace and talking when that failed.
“Little V made you change your mind?” Victoria asked in surprise.
“Kind of. Now I don’t just think about that, but want to do that as fast as possible.”
“...Oh.”
“I’ve had enough of this place.” Amy closed her eyes. “Of all these memories, of threats, of… certain people. I’ll remain Panacea ‘till the day I die, but it would be nice to… I don’t know, have something nice before that.”
“We would have to leave our family then…” Victoria said quietly.
“They all are welcome to visit m- us there. Somewhere. New York, maybe.”
“All?” Amy saw with her power how her sister’s face let out a wry smile.
“I don’t want to talk about Carol.”
“The problem is that she doesn’t want to talk about this,” VIcky grunted. “After all these years still… One could almost think that she’s just as blind as I was. Hmpf.”
“You know I don’t blame you.”
“Maybe you should. Especially after today…” Victoria felt how Amy’s fingers squeezed her own. “Yeah-yeah, fine.” She sighed.
“Besides, it’s not like we’re supposed to live with our parents all our lives.” If Amy could, she would roll her eyes again.
“The reasons should be different, I think.”
“But in a bigger city you will have an easier time achieving your own dream as well, sis.”
“Low blow.”
“Well, you should think about yourself too sometimes.”
“I do!” Vicky pursed her lips. “Whenever none of my friends are trying to work themselves to death or simply disappearing, my sister isn’t being kidnapped and my cousin is not arguing with the whole New Wave about our long-term goals!”
“I mean, Crystal kinda did have a point, I guess, but she’s so fucking optimistic. And she didn’t yet have a chance to actually fight the bug girl, much less the bug girl and her new space-bending sidekick.” Amy huffed. “So yeah, I also don’t want to be here when another gang or a bunch of psychos will try their luck against the Undersiders.”
“...You don’t think that we, like, we all can eventually change things for the better?”
“I am currently all out of hope, try again later,” Amy muttered venomously.
“Maybe you’re right.” Victoria grimaced. “Sure, I guess, it will be easier for me to start… my new, eh, career in a place like New York. But…”
“But you actually may have a chance in changing something, Vicky. The only thing I can do is heal people. And that is useless when you need to change people’s fucking minds. Unlike some pretty words.”
“And I was always of the opinion that it was you who changed the world – already – because you saved the life of a new Plato or Martin Luther King.” Victoria smiled.
“We’ll see. But I doubt it.” Amy was feeling skeptical, as usual.
“Besides, we can’t exactly leave just like that, you know. So many things to decide, problems to resolve, words to say – oh boy, there’ll be a lot of words from our parents if they hear about it…”
“Trust me, I know. I mean, without you I am too much of a pussy to follow through with something like this.”
“And, I think, I am not yet… done with Brockton Bay,” Victoria said, sighing heavily. “Also I am not going anywhere until I’ll be sure that my friends will be alright. Well. As much as possible. Not only Missy, though, of course, at the moment she is… you know…”
“Exploring her potential of becoming the world’s most dangerous villain?”
“Ames.”
“I am just saying, if the PRT didn’t realize that Missy is capable of fucking up our Earth completely whenever she wants, it was idiotic. Just as was this whole, ahem, chain of events. Saying as the person who’s also capable of that.”
“You will never do that, and if I have to tell you that forty eight times more, I will,” Victoria said firmly.
“You actually keeping count?” Amy even opened her eyes, so that she could meet her sister’s gaze.
“I try to remember everything that relates to the people I care about.” Vicky shrugged.
“None of us deserve you. Except Carol, so that she could look at you and think about how she shouldn’t be proud of her parenting skills and it’s all you.” Amy smiled when Victoria actually laughed a little. “So, erm… We kinda agree on the idea?”
“In general?” Vicky said thoughtfully. “I guess, yeah. One day.” She glanced up, looking at the darkness beyond the ward’s window. “We can be more, we can do so much… And I do want to tell that to everyone. Especially, you know, capes.” She lowered her eyes again, looking at Amy, but, thankfully, refraining from mentioning her as well, since Amy didn’t want to disappoint her sister, at least today. “And all those millions of people in New York will be ecstatic to have Panacea there, that too.” Victoria snorted and shook her head.
“Glory Girl will probably also like to fly around all those skyscrapers, hmm?”
“That would be amazing, not gonna lie.”