The End of Summer - Kidman

"And that is why Batman is better than Superman." Kidman nodded absently as she dozed on the garage counter. The scent of warm hay drifted in through propped open windows, carrying away with it the usual smell of diesel, while in the distance the stop and start of an engine droned over intermittent construction noise. Suddenly a curdling scream ripped through the afternoon's comfort, sending the lot of them out of the garage to find a construction worker huddled over a body on the ground about a 100 feet away. "Someone get a medic!" The man cried out as he fought to staunch the blood rushing from the woman's neck. "I'm on it." Ted, one of the garage mechanics assured as he dialed into medbay. "The hell happened here?" "Ma' nailgun slipped, got ‘er in the neck. Ah' think it hit somethin' big. Aw God, Jan, don't die on me!" A fearful Kidman hung back as others rushed in, but the gathering crowd swept her forward until the injured woman suddenly came into view. She sensed a body in panic, struggling to to regain what it had but failing. Something slipped across her mind's eye and when the girl moved next, it was on instinct alone. No one noticed the small agent force her way through the ensuing chaos, nor noticed her pale hands amidst the others pressing a bundle of bloody shirt against Jan's neck. Only after the medevac helicopter came and went did anyone notice her; slumped unconscious in the dirt. ------ Several hours later, a small group of technicians sat around in medbay tossing cards into a hat. "Hey, hey Kid. Hey. Hey. Hey." "Stop it, Tony, that's annoying." "Your face is annoying." Kidman rubbed her head as her teammates came into view. A thin man with scraggly beard stared back intensely. "What the hell happened to you? I didn't know you was afraid of blood. Probably shouldn't look at your hands." The girl held them up with some difficulty, for her whole body felt as if it was filled with wet sand. "Oh, that's not my blood. I say, is the lady okay?" "Okay, not afraid of blood. Why'd you pass out, then?" Kidman paused to put words to it.  "I think... I used too much thought to make to fix the hole. Is the lady okay?" She asked again. "It don't really take much thought to hold a shirt down-" he got out before Ted elbowed him in the ribs. "Jesus, Tony. Kid nearly saw somebody die, okay? Drop it." Rum, a large man with a warm, deep voice gently pushed Tony aside.  "Jan'll be fine, hunny. They thought something major got cut, but it just passed over. A miracle, they're saying, ‘cause where it hit, it shoulda got somethin' real bad." "Bloody." Boulder muttered in disbelief. "Crazy how that stuff ‘appens." Kidman looked at them quizzically. "It did cut open. We just closed it is all." The others looked at each other with uncertainty until Tony asked the obvious; "We did what now?" "You know, when you.... you show the pieces to grow back. With thoughts." She hazarded, trying to demonstrate with her hands. Kidman wasn't entirely sure what she had done, but it didn't feel like anything unusual, just difficult and exhausting. "And not you guys, the man next to me." Tony scratched his head. "You mean the guy that was with her? He wasn't healing her with thoughts, Kid! He was applyin' pressure to stop the blood! Don't you know first aid?" "But I... Are you sure?" "People can't heal with thoughts!" The thin man burst out in exasperation. Kidman stared at her hands as something ominous rippled beneath her mind. Rum reached over and pat the girl on the shoulder sympathetically. "Ahm sorry, hunny, people just can't do that sort of thing, but don't worry much about it. Jan'll be fine. Go have a wash off an' get some sleep. You had a rough day." "You're better off without ‘em anyway." Tony said as he lit a cigarette. "‘cause if you really did have magic healing thought powers or whatever, they'd lock you in a lab." He let go a puff of smoke. "Forever." ---- Kidman stood in the shower for what seemed like hours that night, trying and failing to match two pieces of reality together. What had happened with the artery was real, she was sure of it. All that she had perceived through Jan had left imprints in her mind as memories do, although differently than usual. ‘If people can't heal with thoughts, why can I?' She thought as stepped out into a bathrobe. ‘I'm just like everybody else.' She caught sight of herself in the mirror, and for the first time, really looked. A growing mystery looked back. Grey hair wasn't like everybody else. She hadn't seen it on any another young person. Then there were her scars. She had seen those on other people, remnants of terrible injuries, often from terrible things like wars, fights, or prisons, although there was the occasional mislaid firecracker. ‘Then where did all of mine come from? How? Why?'' The bathroom grew colder and dimmer as Kidman traced the lines on her face. ‘What... happened to me?' She had never cared much about her hazy memory before, but now as she cast about the inky blackness for answers, its true horror finally made itself known. There was nothing there. Nothing at all.