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Mom popped her head around the corner of my door. She had a huge smile on her face. “Guess who’s getting discharged today!”
Dad walked in beside her. “Is it me? Gosh, I sure hope it’s me.”
“Daaaad,” I groaned. I sat cross-legged on my bed, and Dean was in the armchair by the window, as we’d both been waiting anxiously for my parents to arrive.
“Well, it does feel a bit like we’ve all had a long hospital stay. Aren’t you ready to go home?”
I paused and bit my lip. “Not really. I don’t think I can come home yet.”
“Do you think she’s scared about re-integrating into society?” Mom asked Dad, cheekily.
Dad looked at me, offended. “It can’t be that you like the food here more than you like my cooking.”
“I’m serious, guys. I... kind of can’t leave until Dean leaves.”
I didn’t need empath powers to understand the looks they were giving me.
“It’s not what you think. This isn’t just about some teenage crush. There’s more to it than that, and I know it’s going to sound crazy, but just hear me out. This is truth time, okay?”
At the word truth, I had their full attention. Mom sat on the bed beside me, dead serious. “Okay, Livvy. We’re listening.”
“There’s so much to tell you...” I took a deep breath and started at the beginning. I explained what I’d experienced the night of the quake, and leaving with Jake and his team. I explained my powers and how they worked. I explained how Jake was able to manipulate me, and them, with those same powers. I explained what had happened the night in the park, what had really happened, and what I’d really done. That I remembered it all, and the effect it was having on me now. I explained that was why I had to stay close to Dean.
My parents listened. They didn’t say anything. But what could they say when presented with it all?
“I know this is a lot to take in, and I know you are having trouble believing any of it is real, which is why I asked you to bring something in for me.”
Mom reached into her tote bag, looking dazed. “The phone directory? I had to ask around our neighbors to find one. What is it going to do?”
I half-smiled at my mom. “Hopefully, it will prove to you what I can do. It’s my disposable demonstration tool.”
I took the brick-sized book off my mum, and let the emotion I could feel nearby channel through me. Even with Dean in the room, I was still ‘on.’ With his blocker ability, he basically brought me back down to normal empath level. I had plenty enough strength for my demonstration, and without even flexing, I easily tore the phone book in half across its spine.
Mom gasped.
Dad picked up one of the halves and had a couple of unsuccessful goes himself, inspecting it for clues as to how I’d done it.
“It’s not a trick. And you know I’ve been screened for drugs—this isn’t some steroid- or meth-induced rage strength,” I reminded them.
The room was silent for a while.
“Okay,” said Mom.
“Okay?” I replied.
“Okay.”
“Okay,” added Dad.
“Okay,” Mom said again for emphasis.
She looked back at Dad and at me and at Dean.
“Well, this is huge. Okay.” She took a deep breath. “I don’t know what to say.”
“Congratulations on having superpowers?” Dad half-smiled, and I laughed out loud.
“This is really real?” Mom asked, and Dean and I both nodded. “Okay. I believe you. I do.”
Dad became serious again. “Who else knows?”
“Just the girl, Emma. And the other guys that got brought into hospital, but... you know. I don’t think the detective knows. I’ve tried not to give anything away.”
“Good. That’s smart, Lollipop. We’re going to have to think about this some more, work out what it all means. But thank you for telling us. You really can tell us anything. Even when you develop superpowers, since that seems to be what you teenagers are doing these days.”
“Oh, my girl,” Mom sobbed and stepped across to wrap me up in a huge hug.
“Are you the same, with super-strength?” Dad asked Dean.
“It’s a bit different for me. Not as exciting.”
From within Mom’s embrace, I said, “His power is what’s keeping me stable now. He has sort of a dampening effect. That’s why I need to stay near him now my powers are overloaded. Dad, you saw it in the corridor that day.”
He puffed out a breath and rubbed the back of his head. “I did see something. I could see it was real, but I thought it was psychological trauma real, not paranormal superpowers real.”
I reluctantly withdrew from Mom so I could get to the next big issue. “That’s why I can’t get discharged until Dean does. I figure it will be easy to make them keep me in longer again. I just have to have another seizure.”
“On purpose?” Mom looked shocked. “We can probably just ask to hold off on discharging you. I know they are short on beds, but still.”
“Trust me, I’m not looking forward to doing it. But Dean could easily be in here another week or two, and they won’t let me stay that long without a reason. I mean, if they try and wheel me out of here, it’s going to happen again anyway.”
“Let us at least talk to the doctors first. We’ll say we saw some odd behavior from you just now. That should be enough to get some more time,” Dad said.
Mom took a chair by the bed, shaking her head slightly. “This is all so... Dean, how did your parents handle this when you told them?”
My whole body froze and I tried to somehow suck Mom’s words back out of existence, but there was no way of dispelling the tension they’d just dropped into the room.
Dean didn’t look phased, but he rarely did. He spoke calmly, and I gritted my teeth and tried not to cry as though every bit of emotion he was blocking ended up channeled into me instead. “My mom died a while ago, and my dad won’t visit hospitals. We haven’t told him anything. He’s not very... reliable.”
“He hasn’t visited you?” Mom looked enraged. “At all?”
Dean actually looked worried. He shrugged and mouthed ‘no’.
Mom stood back up and went straight to him, giving him a hug that was even longer and more smothering than the one she’d given me. I could feel Dean’s shock hit me like a wall as his blocking abilities disappeared for a moment and a huge swell of emotions washed over me.
Luckily, he recovered quickly, and he even brought his arms up and returned the hug. No one could deny a mom hug.
“What happens once you are both discharged from hospital?” Dad asked me, looking like he had already thought through what was going to happen next and wasn’t sure he liked it.
I put on my ‘please forgive me’ face. “Can Dean live with us for a little while?”