It's FRIDAY! And in honor of Mac's BDay weekend, I'm posting Friday, Saturday and Sunday -- Enjoy!
s*t*a*r*s
Three hours later, Spencer and Emma are leaving the rehabilitations center. Spencer is still on crutches, but Emma has a temporary leg in a bag that is slung over her shoulder.
In two weeks, Spencer will have a state of the art C-leg, that had a computer chip that will, essentially, work almost as well as her own leg had. Making thousands of calculations a minute, luckily for Spencer, she still has her knee. The cost of the leg is over seventy thousand dollars, and Spencer had started to argue with Emma until Emma reminded her that it is already Spencer’s money.
They begin the almost two-hour drive back to Emma’s home, with a silent Spencer in the passenger’s seat.
“Do you drive?” asks Emma.
Spencer looks up from where she’d been staring, at her hands. Wishing that Jo was the one driving and not Emma, it is the first time in a long time that Spencer had missed her mother.
“I know how, but I never got my license. Jo taught me when I was 7 or so, just in case. I couldn’t really see over the steering wheel though.”
“We’ll have to see if we can set you up to get your license then,” states Emma. Glancing over at Spencer, who is now staring out the window of the car.
“I know I look like her,” says Spencer gruffly. “People said we looked alike all the time. I just have long hair and its blonder.”
“Slightly,” says Emma. “Jo’s hair was lighter when she was younger.”
Spencer cocks an eyebrow.
Emma laughs. “All right, more than a little. But, whoever your father is, his DNA has had an influence too. Jo was cute, handsome in a way, but you are gorgeous.”
Emma wants to say that she understands Rylee’s attraction, but she doesn’t. Emma doesn’t know if Rylee has talked to Spencer about her feelings. They drive a while longer and Emma can’t stand the silence.
“Show me what you can do,” says Emma, pulling off the highway and to a scenic road. It has been bugging her, Emma wants to know what exactly it is Spencer could do. The girl fries iPods, and can’t go near a computer for long periods of time. If she could bomb a hole the size of a house on her beach, what will happen if Spencer can control her power.
“What?” asks Spencer almost terrified.
Emma gets out of the car, slamming the door shut. “Show me.”
“Natalie says I shouldn’t…”
“Fuck Natalie Summers,” says Emma angrily. “You can’t control your powers, can you?” asks Emma. “Don’t worry, we all had to practice, and we all got a handle on them and we live normal lives. You can’t live a normal life until you start to control your powers.”
Spencer shakes her head, her blonde hair in a loose messy ponytail and now the strands work free, falling in her blue eyes.
“Amy had the same problem when we all acquired our powers,” says Emma. “Want to know how she learned?”
Spencer shrugs now getting out of the car, hopping along the side of it.
“She let loose. She just blew the hell out of things, then, in time, she could thread a needle from ten feet away. It’s about control and that comes with practice. You need to know what you can do. Let loose.”
Spencer flexes her left hand and looks out over the ocean. Her mouth dry, her body shaking. Closing her eyes, concentrating, connecting with all the living things around her, she draws in as much energy as she feels is safe. Then she pulls in more. The leaves begin to turn a sickly brown before she stops.
Emma feels the swell of electricity around her. Watching and feeling. Then she sees it, the particles in the air are on fire, bright blue and deadly, all swirling around Spencer.
With her left hand in front of her, fingers splayed, Spencer allows the energy to channel through her and into one hard blast into the ocean.
The energy hits it like a meteor the size of a football stadium, the water rises to an almost tidal wave proportion.
“Oh shit!” cries Emma, thinking that the wave would come crashing down on them, it is almost a mile high. The water forms a solid wall of water and energy, like out of a great CGI scene in a movie.
Then, she sees it again; the energy moving – Spencer is reabsorbing it and dissipating it harmlessly into the sky. The water swirls and settles back into the ocean in rivets of blue and white.
“You can reabsorb it,” marvels Emma.
Spencer turns to her, her eyes blazing hot blue fire. “I can reabsorb it now, I never could before. I couldn’t reopen the channel after I shot out the energy. In the last month I’ve gotten better at holding it in, keeping my aura in check. Letting the energy bleed out slowly, not zapping things as much as I used too.”
Emma walks around the car, studying the young girl who looks like her mother, Emma’s best friend. “Since you’ve met the girls, your powers have come into their own, Spencer. A piece of the puzzle has clicked into place by meeting the other daughters.”
Spencer nods once, curtly.
Emma’s eyes gaze upwards, a clap of thunder rings around them.
“That would be my fault,” says Spencer in a small voice. “When I send the energy up, for some reason, it produces rain and thunder, lots of lightening too.”
Emma smiles lopsidedly. “I’ll remember that. Jo was a – vampire.”
Again, Spencer nods curtly. Reaching into the car, Spencer opens the glove compartment, and pulls out a small gun that Emma keeps there. Emma doesn’t move. She doesn’t know how Spencer knew that there was a gun in the glove compartment, but she had.
Taking the safety off, Spencer points the gun at her hand and pulls the trigger, making sure the gun isn’t pointed at anything thing that would be harmed. Emma holds in the hot scream that bubbles in her throat. Watching in astonishment as the wound heals almost instantly. When Spencer looks back up to meet Emma’s gaze, Emma jumps back. Spencer’s eyes now blazes the same way Jo’s used too, but blue. Spencer smiles as she jumps, the now more prevalent fangs glint in the sun.
“Mom didn’t know about this part,” says Spencer softly, her voice deeper, filled with power. “Happened when I hit puberty, I used to heal fast, but now it’s almost instantaneous. If I use my energy power, my eyes turn blue, and when I’m hurt and heal, I have this goldish amber color to deal with.” Spencer licks the tip of fangs.
So, thinks Emma, she has a genetic power to control energy, absorb it and redirect it – and she can heal and has fangs.
Emma doesn’t release Spencer’s gaze, watching as the amber fades and the young girls eyes returned to their normal color. “Do you love Rylee?”
Spencer is stunned at the direct question. “I-I-I…,” stammers the girl. “We’re… err… not… ummm…”
“Because someday you’re going to ask her to marry you,” says Emma. Putting all her cards on the table now might ensure that Spencer makes the right choices someday. Forewarned is forearmed, as Jo used to say.
Spencer swallows hard, so hard that Emma hears the dry click in Spencer’s throat. “I think,” begins Spencer, taking a deep breath, “she’s the reason I can control myself more. I like her, and she – she makes me human. I can’t touch her without this damn blue arc of energy to connect us, but – I can touch everything else more easily. I think it’s her fault.”
Spencer’s eyes leave Emma’s. It is so much more than just liking Rylee, but Spencer can’t allow herself to attach to someone like that, at least not yet.
Emma smiles. “I’ve seen at least seven different visions, all of them tell me that you two end up together. Don’t rush, Spencer, but that is your destiny. Destiny played a huge role in our lives when your mother and I were teenagers.”
“Fate,” sighs Spencer. “It could be worse. Being stuck with Rylee isn’t that bad a fate.” Her face lights up sweetly.
Emma chuckles watching the smile spread on Spencer’s face. Then Emma realizes who Spencer also looks like and thinks of how impossible that is.
s*t*a*r*s
Christmas comes and goes quietly. Rylee takes Spencer shopping and spends much more money than Spencer is comfortable with. Spencer is getting accustom to the new leg, the C-leg’s arrival date had been pushed back, but she’d have it before school started. The new leg isn’t a high tech computerized gizmo, but it fits like a glove. Emma and Mario are amazed at how quickly Spencer adapts. Walking with virtually no limp, Spencer moves around the house and on the beach with ease. She doesn’t wear shorts but Emma is hopeful that will change.
Mario had started work again, and Emma had gone to LA twice during the week before Christmas. Leaving Spencer and Rylee alone, which is fine by Rylee. The time with Spencer only means she learns more about her, even if the information is in small doses.
Now, Emma and Mario are both home and Spencer is taking an afternoon nap after having gone shopping, again, with Rylee earlier.
“Anxious?” asks Emma.
“Yeah, it will be great to have everyone here,” says Rylee as she helps unpack the groceries.
“You realize that you two are going to have to cool it,” says Mario. “You might make the other girls uncomfortable.”
Rylee stops what she is doing, holding a large back of carrots. “Cool what?”
Mario and Emma cast looks of amusement at each other. It seems that Rylee is oblivious to the chemistry she shares with Spencer, or she doesn’t want her parents to know how she feels about Spencer.
Mario smiles brightly. “Baby, have you noticed how you and Spencer act with each other? We’ve noticed you don’t touch each other a lot, but…”
Rylee pales. Then she feels a hot blush rise to her cheek. “Oh!”
Emma laughs. “It just might make the other girls uncomfortable, until they realize…”
“We told ‘em already,” says Rylee, turning and shoving the carrots in the fridge.
Now the adults exchange looks of surprise.
“We know you’re only sixteen,” begins Emma watching as Mario hides his smile.
“We’re not… you know! Having sex! God, mom, dad, please not the sex talk! And I bet I know more about lesbian sex than you do, please, not the sex talk!” laments Rylee.
“But when you do,” begins Mario, winking at Emma.
“We don’t even kiss! Every time we try and hold hands she, well, she… zaps me,” says Rylee in an annoyed tone.
“Oh,” says Emma, covering her mouth with her hand. The daughter of Jo Wheaton can’t have sex, how interesting, that only makes Emma want to laugh out loud.
“Yeah, oh! I finally like someone and they shock me every time I touch ‘em, oh!” grumbles Rylee. “The girls know, the girls knew before we did,” snaps Rylee.
“Tegan,” say Mario and Emma in unison.
Rylee rolls her eyes. “You know what? I’m going to go take a nap too, a nap sounds like a festive idea,” grumbles the teenager.
Once she’d left the room, both Emma and Mario laugh. “We were worried about them having sex,” giggles Emma.
“They can’t even hold hands – yet,” says Mario.
“They will,” reminds Emma.
“I was thinking…,” says Mario. “Of who she looks like.”
“Hmm, me too,” whispers Emma.
“Do you remember what you told me once? That if the bloodlines had worked out the way they were supposed to, you and Amy would have been boys?” asks Mario.
Emma nods, sitting at the kitchen table. “Yeah, it is in some research that the Kindred did ages ago.” Mario sits next to her. Emma reaches out and touches his cheek. “And you my love, would be gay, because I was a boy.” Emma wiggles her eyebrows and Mario scoffs.
“What if, in this alternate reality – what if you were Spencer’s father?” asks Mario.
“Can’t be me,” says Emma. “Genetics don’t match, her eyes are blue, green, grey, whatever – no blue eyes in Asian blood. No blue eyes on my mother’s side – no blondes either.”
“Amy then?” asks Mario. “She – damn it she acts like Amy when she’s angry. She’s got dimples, if you can catch them when she’s smiling. She’s tall. Jo never stays angry with someone and she never holds a grudge. Spencer does though. And her powers…”
“I know, Amy is telekinetic, which is what Spencer is, in a roundabout way. That would make…,” whispers Emma.
“Tegan and Spencer sisters,” says Mario. “Does Natalie know?”
“I don’t think so. I have never known Natalie to keep so many things this close to the vest,” says Emma. “And I’m not saying a damn word about it.”
“Amy would freak,” says Mario softly. “It would explain a lot.”
“What?” asks Emma.
“It would explain why Jo didn’t tell anyone about her. Especially Amy, can you imagine the reaction she’d have gotten from Amy at 18? I know Jo left because she thought she had too, but she is who kept us safe all these years. The dark side of the Kindred would have come after you, after the girls, if Jo hadn’t taken them out,” says Mario.
Emma contemplates that for a moment. “But, then…”
“Then what?” asks Mario.
“But that would mean, genetically, Amy is her aunt?” asks Emma. She scratches her cheek in thought.
“I’d say her other parent, I mean, it’s one chromosome,” says Mario. “She looks like her, same colored hair.”
“She’s as tall as Amy,” agrees Emma. “We are not thinking about this.”
“Let’s pretend we never thought this crazy idea up,” agrees Mario. “Because that would mean, not only is my daughter going to marry the daughter of Jo Wheaton, but she’s going to marry the daughter of Amy Astin, and that is too much for me to handle,” snorts Mario.