“I think… fuck me, I think even now, I can’t quite see myself being anything but a hero. There are good people I’ve gotten to know. People I want to protect and help. Like Gilpatrick, like Weld and Vista and my cousin and a couple of the teenagers I was working with in Patrol block. You. I want good things for them.”

“Thank you,” she said. “That means a lot to me.”

“I’ve been trying to convince myself there’s some other way, but… I can’t not do anything.”

“There’s worse things. Especially if you can do it smart and centered.”

“I don’t want to be Glory Girl,” I said. “Someone remarked yesterday that they’d thought she died and… good. She can stay dead.”

“Sounds like you have an idea of what you’re doing next.”

“It’s the wrong climate for it,” I said. “I just watched a team of heroes get eaten alive by the public. One took a bullet.”

“Figure it out,” she said.

I frowned.

“Again, there’s no rush,” she said.

“I can’t sit still,” I said. “There’s a bit of a rush.”

“Touch base with me,” she said. “We’ll go out for coffee, catch up. I can offer unofficial, more-friend-than-therapist advice. I think you’ll figure it out, and I can give you a few nudges here and there.”

That gave me pause.

“You’re not a therapist anymore?” I asked.

“Just the opposite,” she said. “I’m very much a therapist. Ten hour days, six or seven days a week, and other peripheral obligations. I’m afraid I’m not in a position to take you on as a patient again, Victoria, as much as I would dearly like to.”

That hurt. I didn’t want to say it, but it did hurt.

“I just joined the Wardens as a staff psychologist for their junior members and some special cases, and I’m just not equipped, unfortunately. If you want it, I could try finding a colleague who you could talk to. Most are as busy as I am, so it might take a bit of time.”

I want you.

I want—

“Sorry to take up your time today, when you’re as busy as you are.”

“It’s more than alright, Victoria,” she said. She was looking straight ahead as she talked, one hand on her jacket as she walked. “With the hours I work, I lose objectivity. It becomes the work, and I lose sight of the patients. Sometimes it’s hard to see the wins. Like I said, you were a patient close to my own heart, and I thought you were one of the ones we lost. Seeing you, hearing you? It means the world to me. It gives me a measure of hope.”

I nodded.