Chapter 2: Refuge and Regrouping

Jake waited back at his car, stewing in the smell of his own vomit. It could have been minutes or hours. His world had shrunk to hell he’d just experienced in his bedroom.

Finally, a cute brunette arrived in a nondescript Toyota. He chose her back seat and slumped down sideways, clutching the duffle bag he’d somehow held onto like a life preserver. Jake briefly met Kate’s piercing brown eyes in the rearview mirror as she inspected him, but thankfully she held her tongue. Even though he had called her, Jake wasn’t ready for conversation yet.

Kate wasted no time in taking off and they quickly left the condominiums behind them. His friend cracked her window down an inch but didn’t otherwise acknowledge the vomit smell.

With the rescue underway, Jake attempted to clear his mind. He wanted to think about something else. Anything else than his wife’s betrayal. Streetlights made moving shadows across the back seat. He tried counting each time a shadow crossed his hand but then he remembered the way the bathroom light had created a shadow across his bedroom. Every thought, every memory seemed to snap back to the end of his marriage.

Sometime later the light and shadows changed, then the car came to a stop. For the first time he bothered to wonder where Kate was taking him. Her apartment didn’t have a parking garage like this.

Still without a word, Kate exited from her side, opened his door, and reached for his hand to help pull him out. Like a child, Jake allowed himself to be led through the quiet garage to a bank of elevators. Once inside, she pressed a pair of buttons and a hidden panel opened to reveal a retina scanner. That’s when he figured out where he was.

The elevator swiftly climbed to the 46^th floor and opened into a small foyer. Before Jake could take more than a couple steps a door on the other side swung open to welcome them. A stunningly beautiful, black woman stood at the door wearing a robe over a set of silk pajamas. The richest woman in greater Grant and the third-richest in the state—Veronica DeVries, also known as Hellcat—stepped aside for Jake to enter her penthouse.

At Jake’s approach, Veronica’s neutral expression flickered to shock and she took an involuntary step back before catching herself. A moment later her expression turned to concern. On her, both expressions were foreign to him. While he knew her alter ego Hellcat as witty and uninhibited, Veronica DeVries was legendary for her ice cool demeanor both in and out of the board room.

Jake paused at the doorway and took in a deep, shuddering breath. “Thanks,” he said, proud that his voice didn’t crack.

Veronica nodded, her expression already having reverted to the stony exterior found in countless magazine and news pictorials. Only her eyes reflected something other than indifference as she slowly reached out to his face, as if afraid of spooking a wild animal. She cupped his cheek and swiped her thumb under his eye, rubbing away the reforming tears.

The mocha-skinned woman turned to Kate. “Thank you for letting me help.”

Kate—aka the super genius Sleuth, aka his best friend—gave her fellow heroine a quick smile and nod before turning to Jake and divesting him of the gym bag he’d somehow held the entire trip. With that done, she led him through the grand penthouse to a guest bathroom.

“Here,” she said, breaking her silence for the first time. “Strip and push your clothes out the door, then take the hottest shower you can stand. Take at least 10 minutes, but if it’s more than 30 then one of us will come in after you.”

Jake hiccupped a laugh and closed the door. Even the guest bathroom was palatial. He followed his Kate’s instructions, stripping and blindly dropping the clothes outside with one arm while standing behind the door to protect his modesty.

Thinking seemed like far more effort than he could muster, so he didn’t. He just let the rainfall-style shower head gently send a patter of water on his scalp and shoulders. Kate had said to make it as hot as he could stand, so he gradually cranked up the heat until it was full blast. His power wouldn’t let it scald him; he automatically absorbed the excess energy and stored it to Reflect later. Even though it couldn’t literally fuel his body, in a way it felt like recharging his batteries.

He had no idea how long he’d been in the shower, but he didn’t want to test Kate’s threat to come in after him. The super-genius had a cavalier attitude about social niceties at the best of times and since she was a lesbian he feared she wouldn’t think twice about walking in on him, naked or not. After toweling off, he put on the terrycloth robe hanging from a hook off the bathroom door. He couldn’t bring himself to care whether it had been there when he stepped into the shower.

Upon opening the bathroom doors, he found the hall lights had been dimmed to a soft, warm glow. He flicked off the bathroom light and padded down the hall toward the living room to find his friends. The living room lights were equally dimmed and Veronica sat on the couch reading from a tablet, still in her robe and pajamas. He briefly appreciated her beauty for the work of art she was, but it was merely a factual appreciation. Distant. Impersonal. He felt too raw, too worn out to muster emotion.

Kate entered from the kitchen wearing a matching robe and joined Veronica on the couch. Out of nowhere, the side-by-side contrast of Veronica’s dark skin and Kate’s paleness brought to mind piano keys. Kate carried a steaming mug and gestured for Jake to join them. He slumped into a love seat situated at a right angle to the ladies’ sofa. Kate handed him the coffee mug.

“Drink this,” she ordered. “It’s my grandmother’s special bedtime recipe.”

Jake wordlessly took the mug, blew on the top of the liquid, and took a sip. It caught him off guard. It was like hot cocoa, but different. Definitely warm milk, but the rich combination of other flavors defied his pallet. He took another sip then held the mug to his chest.

Veronica spoke carefully. “Jake, I know our personal lives don’t usually intersect, but I want you to know you are welcome here for as long as you need. I was on the phone with Kate when you called and I insisted she bring you here.”

“Thanks Hellca—, um, Veronica,” he said. It was an unspoken rule among the heroes. Don’t use personal names when in uniform or hero names when out of uniform. You never knew who could be eavesdropping. It was weird hearing her call him Jake because—as she’d said—they never socialized out of costume. It would have been suspicious given their vastly different social strata.

“I, um. I’m not at my best right now. But I knew I could count on you,” Jake added.

A Mona Lisa smile briefly broke the businesswoman’s placid expression. She leaned forward just slightly. “Can you tell us what happened?”

Jake stared into an empty piece of space, lost in his own memories. Veronica made as if to speak until Kate put her hand gently on her thigh to forestall her. Eventually, Jake spoke to the empty space.

“I decided to go home early last night after we finished at the legal clinic. God, what a cliché. I wanted to be there when Terri got off her shift but her car was already out front.

“Terri was asleep in our bedroom. The covers were thrown back just to her waist and she was naked. She was...

“She was draped across another guy, just like she does with me after we’ve ... after we’ve had sex. They wore themselves out having sex and fell asleep. In our bed. In my bed. With my wife.

“Part of me just wanted to die on the spot. Literally ... die. And another part of me wanted to kill them both. It would have been so easy. I had plenty of juice left even after Bishop’s thugs. You can’t imagine. You can’t. It’s so much power. It would have been nothing. I could have crushed their windpipes. Or their skulls. Or just their ... parts. I wanted to. I still want to. Never have I wanted to use my power so much.

“Somehow I didn’t. I left them sleeping there. I walked away, I threw up outside, and I called Kate.”

Both ladies had tears in their eyes. Kate stood and reached out her hand to Jake, who interpreted the signal to stand. His friend stepped close and gave him a long hug. Jake took a shuddering breath and awkwardly returned the hug while trying to keep from spilling the drink she’d given him. Veronica watched the exchange with an unreadable expression.

As Kate released him she added a kiss to his cheek and said, “That’s enough for tonight. Let’s go to bed and get whatever sleep you can. We’ll talk in the morning.”

Jake nodded and Kate led him to a bedroom. Why? It wasn’t even her condo. Even there, the lights were dimmed. Jake didn’t know what to think when she closed the door with herself in the room.

“Go on, big guy. Climb into bed. I got something to explain,” she said.

He was still naked under his robe and tried to figure out how to get into bed while maintaining his modesty before deciding it wasn’t worth the effort. It wasn’t as if Kate cared. He turned his back to her, dropped the robe, and crawled under the covers.

His friend sat on the corner of the bed and faced him. “We’ve known each other for four years, been close friends for a little more than two years, right? You’ve saved my life, I’ve saved yours. We’ve even hung out as Jake and Kate. So, do you trust me?”

Jake still felt emotionally and physically raw after spilling his soul on the couch just a minute ago. In a rough voice he replied, “Kate, you’re the one I called. Of course I trust you.”

The brunette nodded. “I know. I just wanted to remind you. I’m going to make a promise and it’s important you believe me. You’re feeling betrayed by the one you love the most. I don’t want you getting any silly thoughts in your head about who else you can’t trust. I promise you I am one hundred percent in your corner, always.

“But ... you know how my brain works. I can’t get out of my own head. I’m always thinking ahead whether I want to or not. Sometimes I hate myself. I hate that I can’t live in the moment like everyone else.”

The brunette puffed out a breath in frustration. “I’m not explaining this right. Look. Ever since you called, I’ve been in overdrive thinking through every possible scenario. Veronica’s place is way more secure than my apartment, not to mention cleaner. Decreasing your body temperature can signal your body that it’s rest time, so after the hot shower your body has been cooling down. The lights are all dimmed to signal your brain that it’s time to rest. The drink I gave you is caffeine free and helps you fall asleep. By telling us what happened you shared your burden and gave your brain permission to break the fixation cycle.

“Do you see? You’re in bad shape and you need real sleep to get your head on straight. Everything I’ve done since you called has been to make you feel safe, relaxed, and get you the sleep you need. I’m telling you this because there’s a 73 percent chance you’d realize it on your own eventually and I don’t want you to feel manipulated. I want you to feel cared for.”

This was way too much for Jake’s current state of mind. All he could do was nod in agreement. At Jake’s sign, Kate blew out her breath again and allowed her shoulders to slump. “Good. Good. Now for the very last part. I’m going to spend the night with you here in bed.”

Jake started to protest but Kate held up her hand. “When you sleep next to someone else your breathing syncs together and you rest more deeply. Think of me like a big teddy bear. We both know this is just sleep. Yes, you’re naked but I’m wearing Veronica’s pajamas.”

He felt like he should argue more, but he just didn’t have the energy. This night had long since entered the Twilight Zone. Kate took his silence for assent and turned off the bedroom light. Jake caught the rustle of fabric as she let her robe drop to the floor. The bed shifted as his friend climbed under the covers and scooted over until she was right up against him.

“Is this really necessary?” he asked wearily, already knowing he had lost the argument.

Kate ignored his comment altogether and ordered, “Turn,” as she flipped onto her side facing away from him.

Jake turned the other direction.

Kate snorted and said, “The other way, dummy.”

He flipped over again and Kate backed into him until they were spooned together. She grabbed his arm, brought it around her, and put his hand firmly on her covered breast. “There. I’m betting this is how you usually sleep. You’ll feel my heartbeat and my chest move as I breath. We’ll sync up and sleep deeper than either one of us alone. You’re welcome.”