No Angels

Chapter 15

"You know," Joey began, "I'm kind of hoping I get the answer to why you all are wearing the same outfit. Suit. Thing." His eyebrows furrowed, and he opened his mouth to continue his rant, but Heather held her hand up, stopping him. If she was going to do it, she needed to get it over with.

"I'm a mutant."

Joey blinked. "What?"

"I'm a mutant."

Two blinks this time. "Wait - what?"

Heather sighed. "I'm a m - "

" - No, no, no," Joey shook his head wildly, "I got it the first few times. I just mean - what do you mean you're a mutant? Heather, is this because kids used to call you freak? Because we talked about this. You're perfectly fi - "

Heather let out a loud groan. "God, no, Joey. Just - listen to me, okay?" She took a deep breath, trying to convince that she was doing the right thing, before she began. "I can see ghosts. Well, okay, I can do more than that, but that's just the general idea. And, uh, a woman named Edie came to me and asked me to find her son. Remember Erik?" Joey nodded slowly. "Yeah, that was, uh, that was him."

"And when I found him, I decided to stay behind and help them, uh, defeat Shaw. Sebastian Shaw. He was a complete nutjob - " Not that you're any better right now, she thought to herself, " - and he wanted to end the world with nuclear bombs. But we stopped him so - nothing to worry about anymore."

Joey was silent for a while, his mouth hanging open a bit. Heather bit her lip again, her stomach dropping fearfully at the silence, before she weakly questioned, "Are you going to say anything?"

Heather suddenly found herself wrapped up in a tight hug, her nose being squashed rather weirdly against Joey's chest. "Jeez, Heather," Joey said finally, "I just - I'm sorry I didn't know before." Heather tried to say something - anything to comfort him, but the words died in her throat when Joey pulled away, holding her away from him at arms length. His babyish face looked wrecked - like he'd just seen Bambi's mom get shot. 

"I love you, Heather. You're - you're like a sister to me. I just wish you would have told me before."

"I wanted to," Heather insisted, "I was just - scared."

Joey hugged her again, adding softly, "Don't be. You can trust me." Heather felt her eyes tear up. She had never had the chance to tell her brother or father about the power - they both had been long dead by the time she had discovered the name for it. And the first person she had ever told had screamed and wailed at her, insisting she was a freak, that she was a curse. Nothing more than a dirty mutant.

The first people to accept her had  been her own kind. 

And for the longest time, she never wanted to tell Joey; afraid that he'd react similar to her mother. 

But she had been proven wrong.

The two hugged for another minute, before they parted, each wearing a small smile. Heather's smile, however, faded once she remembered what else she had to tell Joey. "I'm also, uh, going make to New York with the others. To start a mutant school. I'm going to be a teacher." Joey raised an eyebrow in surprise, questioning her further. "Don't you need, like, a teaching degree?" Heather shrugged. Joey was silent for a moment, before saying, "Do you - Are you going to be alright up there?"