When they came into the waiting room, several of the staff had left their posts and were out in the lobby watching the television hanging at the corner of the wall and ceiling.
Joseph walked up to the nearest person, pulling Chara along in his handhold like she was an orbiting moon. He tapped the man on the shoulder. “Hey—um, excuse me.”
The man turned, startled. “Oh—I apologize, can I help you?”
“I should hope so,” Joseph said, a little affronted, “This is the urgent care.”
Chara was only half listening. The past hour or so she’d been floating, almost dazed. And her gaze had drifted over to the television. Even now, she always caught herself looking up.
“Come this way,” the man said, beckoning them toward the check in desk. Joseph started to follow, but when he tugged, Chara didn’t come.
“I can check myself in,” Chara said, “I’m a grown woman."
“Oh—okay?” Joseph said. He let go of her hand.
Chara shrugged. “I just thought—since you were telling me about the work you’d left at the office.”
Joseph looked baffled—he’d not spoken a word until they came in here—and in that moment Chara knew that his every other expression of naive confusion had been mostly put-on.
Then he saw the tilt of her eyes, and he looked up at the muted television screen.
“Ah,” Joseph said, “Perhaps you’re right—if you’re sure you can—”
“Yes,” Chara said, brushing past him. She made it to the desk before she had to stop and look back.
Joseph was just opening the door to leave.
“It’s a good thing you made it in when you did,” the man said, producing a clipboard from the recesses of a desk cubby, “That fight looks like a doozy—unfortunately, we might be pretty slammed later tonight.”
Chara nodded. Irradiance’s lasers were thin, but far reaching. Sometimes they pierced through four layers of insulation and cut through a support beam entirely by accident.
“But enough about us,” the man continued, setting a check in form and a pen where she could reach. “Why don’t you fill that out, and we’ll see what we can do for you.”
“It might scar,” the nurse said.
Chara looked up, jostling the bandage that the other woman had been trying to attach to her cheek. “Oh? That’s fine.” She'd been more worried about the way the shot had gone past her face and back through her afro. Several minutes ago, she'd stood in front of a bathroom mirror, pulling out the broken strands, trying to reshape it so it looked halfway decent. She'd have to figure out a real plan later.
That was before Zephyr had appeared on the news.
The nurse laughed. “I was going to say, if you take good care of the wound, then it might not.”
“I’ll do my best,” Chara said, but her head had already turned again.
The nurse looked over her shoulder, down at the phone held sideways in her hands. “That’s tonight’s fight, isn’t it?” she said.
Chara nodded. It was hard to see on the tiny screen, and she’d turned her brightness down to conserve the battery. But she could still make out the forms, the movement. It transfixed her.
“Maybe this is bad to say, given my profession,” the nurse said, standing up again, “And of course, I don’t want anybody to be hurt—but I love the fights.”
“I know what you mean,” Chara said. It felt trite to say it like that, impossible to say anything more.
After she’d been seen to, Chara went back out to wait in the lobby. It was easier to see the screen out there, but the fight had mostly wound down. The news crews were covering the property damage, playing the action shots from twenty minutes ago over and over again.
A few minutes after that, Joseph came back in through the door. He looked uninjured, from here at least.
Chara stood up from her seat and walked over, schooling her expression. “How was work?” she said.
“Ah—hi,” Joseph said, stepping away. The door was still in his hand, and it swung out with him, letting in the cold night air. “Work was—I mean, I just had to get some things in order, check that everyone was out of the office. Can’t be dawdling around downtown on a night like this! Who would have thought that—”
Chara walked past him out the door. She couldn’t say any of the things she wanted to inside.
This time, Joseph trailed after her. She could sense him hovering just over her shoulder. There was no one else around.
Still walking, Chara turned her head and whispered, “How are you back so soon! Don’t you need to reassure the news crews?”
Joseph shrugged. “I don’t know if you’d noticed, but I’m a little off kilter tonight. I’m not sure I would do any good. And anyway, Vicky has it handled.”
Chara stopped in her tracks. “Victor? Do the newsroom writers go in person to—oh, wait a minute! Is he Current? He’s totally Current.”
“Huh,” Joseph said, “That’s—we thought you knew that already.”
“Why would I know that?” Chara exclaimed, throwing her arms out. Then she remembered, and drew herself back in again, spoke a little quieter. “What earthly reason did I have to know that? I didn’t know about you!”
“Why were you helping him at the warehouse then?” Joseph asked. “And you knew something was going on at the Auge convention! How did you know what he was up to?”
Chara shrugged. “I didn’t really. I followed to find out.” Then she stepped down off the sidewalk, making her way across the parking lot. She’d just spotted Joseph’s car.
“Rats,” Joseph said, “This means I lose the argument.”
Something about the phrase settled strangely in her mind, like a magnet cast on the desk, making every other piece of metal turn a little, shift toward it. She felt her thoughts rearrange. She did already know some things about Zephyr and Current, and their friendship.
“I thought he was acting behind your back,” she said, “But you two were in cahoots all along?”
They reached the car, and Chara stopped. Joseph stepped around her and opened the passenger door. “Well, yes,” Joseph said. “Wow, you know way less than we thought you did. I could have introduced you two much sooner—maybe you really wouldn’t have had us figured within the week.”
“Sorry to disappoint,” Chara said, but she was smiling, She slipped past him into her seat.
She expected Joseph to close the door then, but instead he leaned down, arm resting on the roof of the car. “I didn’t mean it like that,” he said, “We were mostly trying to keep it from you. Honestly, it’s kind of more impressive how helpful you were considering you knew so little.”
Chara shook her head. “Joseph, I’m not offended.” Her mind had settled even as it spun, and she could see now that there were some things she’d been too caught up in herself to notice. If it had been anyone else, if she hadn’t turned her mind from the thought every time it drew close, then she would have had it figured. It felt so obvious, in hindsight.
“Alright,” Joseph said, shifting a little. “And you—you’re alright?”
“Yes!” Chara said. She pointed over to the driver’s seat. “Stop standing around in the cold already! I want you to take me home.”
Evelyn, one of the maids, cut off halfway through a song, jumping back a step. She stared across the room at Chara, wide eyed.
“Good morning,” Chara said. She was sitting on the end of Joseph's bed, wearing his bathrobe, trying to decide what she wanted to do with her day.
“I didn’t think anyone was in here.” Evelyn admitted, picking up the basket of cleaning supplies. “Joseph usually goes for a walk in the mornings.”
Chara glanced around at the empty room, the open window. It seemed like Evelyn was right, at least partially.
“Well,” Chara said, a little pettily, “I am his wife. Maybe you should have expected me.”
Evelyn didn’t move, mouth bobbing like a goldfish. Finally, she said, “Can I—help you?”
“Yes,” Chara said, drawing Joseph’s robe a little closer. “Would you bring me my pajamas—the indigo set with the stars? I don’t want to put on my dress from last night again. I think it needs to be washed.”
Chara had been in the kitchen for nearly half an hour, watching the news and holding a mug of coffee between her palms, when Joseph came in through the back door. For a moment, she almost didn’t recognize him, and then, like they had so many times, the details came sliding into place. The curls he normally wore tight and flat were loose now, bounding around his face. He must have gone flying out of costume right after they got wet, before the helmet had a chance to press them down.
“Where have you been?” Chara demanded, even though she mostly knew already.
Joseph looked up at her. “Oh—hi Chara! Is there anything scroungeable down here?”
Chara grabbed the remote and muted the television. “I haven’t looked yet,” she admitted. “Coffee came first.”
“Then before we get going on breakfast, I want to show you something." Walking over to the table, Joseph pulled out a chair, but instead of sitting, he reached down and picked up his beloved briefcase from the seat. It had been hidden there, under the top of the table.
Chara stood up and walked closer, ready to peer down at whatever documents he was about to reveal. It would be helpful, in the future, if she wasn't running around their schemes blind. But when Joseph opened the top of the case, there weren't any papers inside.
"You're kidding me," Chara said, but some of the effect was gone. It was harder to be any more surprised than she'd already been.
There on the inside of the case was Zephyr's costume.
Joseph smiled, and then he released a flap that he'd been holding, and a slot fell down over the suit. Now it looked like a normal briefcase again, if a bit narrow. "I thought maybe I might need it sometime, and not be able to say," he explained.
Chara smiled back at him. She understood—there was a lot that she wasn't quite able to say either.