“Haven’t I? Because all those guys got hurt. I let my mom down when I W—when I was careless. I let my dad down by how I acted in the aftermath of it. I let Sveta down by letting her lose her body and it was—it was really good for her to have it.”

“You’re being too hard on yourself.”

“What if I’m not being hard enough on myself, and she tears into me, and—”

“You can’t know, Vicky, unless you go talk to her.”

Sveta broke away from the group. It was her who beckoned me.

Jessica waited by the conference room door.

“You’re a good person, she’s a good person. I think your team is mostly good people, but I don’t know them that well. Trust.”

“Thank you, Vista, for keeping me company.”

“Thanks for letting me vent. Come talk to me after, if you want.”

“Sure. I’ll let you know how it goes. Do me a favor and don’t mention Orchard to Sveta?”

“Sure. I figured I shouldn’t.”

I picked up my eyeless mask, put my hand on her shoulder, then made my way across the floor. Construction workers and Warden staff were abundant enough I had to weave through, which made just getting to the conference room hard enough.

Sveta passed me, bumping shoulders with me, and headed over in Vista’s direction. Weld, it seemed, was preoccupied elsewhere.

“Hi,” Jessica said. She retreated into the room.

“Hi.”

I shut the door behind me.

Jessica was more tan than the last time I’d seen her. She might have had more lines in her face. She wore a sweater with a folded collar and slacks, with suede boots that matched the sweater. A lot of attention had gone into her appearance, as if she’d broken from her rhythm to such a degree that she’d overcompensated on coming back, even three weeks later.

“I think I’m caught up on events,” she said. “I had to ask them to take turns so one voice wouldn’t dominate the room.”

I nodded.

“You’ve worked hard,” she said. “I can’t necessarily agree with the direction of that work, but I think we’ve always had our disagreement over the balance of priorities. The balance of civilian against powers, with each of us pushing for one or the other.”

Why did you block my phone?

“I dunno,” I said. “I don’t think I push for powers that hard. I just think… a lot of the time, the happiest, healthiest cape day-to-days are the ones where they blend together seamlessly. Sous-vide with a laser sear. The little, casual acceptances of power into life.”

Don’t ramble.

“You pushed hard here, didn’t you?” Jessica asked.

“Here?”

“With the group. Nevermind. I’m getting ahead of myself,” Jessica said.

Where are you going that that’s getting ahead of yourself?

“Sure,” I said.

“I exchanged words with Dr. Darnall. He says you haven’t been going to physio.”

Is this caring about me or is it accusatory? Is it your next step in getting to the real subject of this conversation?