“Two months and a week, with one or two sessions a week, as situations allow. We’re not quite at the end, but it’s close. This was supposed to be the easy middle stretch.”

“Supposed to be? You let your guard down?”

“In a way. Maybe from the beginning,” Jessica said.

She looked genuinely bothered. I held my tongue.

She went on, “I spent so much time anticipating and planning for disaster, that I failed to see the other side of that coin. I didn’t want to think of them as capes. I sought out the things that would help them connect and find reasons to listen to one another.”

I realized what had happened.

Jessica was nodding to herself. “That was my mistake. We were approaching the end stretch, and I reminded them of the date we would wrap up and finish. The conversation took a turn, and I was caught flat-footed. They expressed interest in staying together. They want to found a team.”

“A team of?”

“Heroes, it sounds like.”

“Is that so bad?” I asked.

“Without going into any particular detail, Victoria, several are troubled, vulnerable, or both. No, I don’t think it’s good.”

Flare 2.6

“It’s not my intent to change your minds,” I said. I could see some skeptical looks on some faces as I looked around the circle. “I’m here to give another perspective, and maybe to equip you guys with knowledge. If you change your minds because of that—and I think Mrs. Yamada might be hoping for that, then that’s fine. If not, then I’d hope you were all going into this with your eyes more open about what you’re doing.”

“I’ve addressed my feelings with the group,” Mrs. Yamada said. “At the end of the session where the topic first came up, and for a portion of the last session. We had other things demanding our attention, so we weren’t able to cover it in any depth.”

“That would be me,” Rain said, raising a hand.

Jessica continued, “To abbreviate what I said then, and to reinforce it in the here and now: if you each carried on as you have been until the final group sessions concluded, then moved on from there with the skills and perspective you’ve gained, I think most of you would do fine. Most of you have reached the points in your journeys where you could continue on your own, without needing the one-on-one therapy or the group sessions. You could pursue more conventional therapy, I think anyone could, and you would have my number in case of emergencies or backsliding, but most of you would do fine.”

“Ready to be let loose into the urban wilds,” Chris said.

“Not all of us though,” Kenzie said. “You said most, a few times.”