“It’s mostly capes here. Word gets around. I guess I don’t get an invite. Unless that’s why you’re here?”

Crystal opened her mouth, trying to find words.

“I’m… I know I don’t get an invite. I’m well aware,” Amy said.

“Yeah.”

“Whenever I get a drive into Gimel proper, I worry I’m going to run into Victoria. I look over my shoulder, and I worry I’m going to be my worst possible self again. Or she’ll make true on her promise to try to drop something on me again, like she did while fighting the Simurgh, or… someone she’s told about me will assume I’m a monster, when I’m just an idiot who’s done something monstrous.”

“She’s spent a lot of time looking over her shoulder too, Ames.”

Amy nodded, staring at the ground. She took a drink from her mug and found it empty. She set it down with more force than necessary.

Crystal broke the silence, venturing, “If you want pity, I don’t know if I can spare it. I don’t… you’re not the victim here, Amy.”

“I have to catch myself when I start thinking that I’m working hard, I’m making sacrifices, I’m spending days getting to and from therapy, while living far enough away from everything because… Gimel’s small right now, you know? There aren’t that many settlements. It’s easy to run into people when it’s mostly just the capes and a couple hundred thousand relatives and friends sticking around.”

“I respect the effort,” Crystal said. “I do mean that. She’d be relieved to know you were taking those steps to stay out of her way.”

“She would be? Not will be?”

“She’d be bothered if I told her we met. She’s told me she doesn’t want to know.”

Amy nodded, expression sullen. Her fingers ran over her tattoos. “I want to do the hospital thing again, but I think I’ve burned that bridge. I’m stable, I’ve practiced on hurt animals. But I can’t go to where patients are.”

She huffed out a laugh.

“What?” Crystal asked.

“The way Victoria’s been getting hurt, it’s inevitable I’d bump into her at a hospital.”

“No injuries recently,” Crystal said.

“No?” Amy asked. She looked up to meet Crystal’s eye.

“I’m not expanding on that. I’d hope you’d get the okay from your therapist before doing anything.”

“I would. Covered that before the animal healing.”

“Good,” Crystal said.

Amy nodded.

The silence stretched between them. As it did, Amy seemed to draw into herself, fraction by fraction.