Looking for a Hero

23. Lost a Hero: Part 4

"Wake up, sleepyhead! Wake up!"

"Ugh," Missy groaned and hit her alarm clock.

She got up and stretched with a yawn. She grabbed a pink shirt and a black shirt to hold up to the mirror.

"This one says 'talk to me' and this one says 'leave me alone'. 'Leave me alone'," she nodded.

"Time for breakfast, Missy," Marcus called through the com bracelet.

It was a gift to her when she turned nine. It was the last thing her mother gave her, and that was about two years ago.

"Good morning, dad. I'll be right there," Missy answered.

She got dress and walked into the kitchen to find her father cracking eggs open and dumping their content into the sink. He was interested in whatever was on the news.

Marcus turned the TV off when his daughter approached. He didn't want her to see the news and get worried.

"You sleep okay?" he asked.

Missy pulled out the egg shells with a disgusting look.

Opps, Marcus thought. Those were supposed to be egg yokes.

"Did you?" she questioned.

She grabbed the cereal bowl and cereal to take to the kitchen table.

"I can see you're wearing 'leave me alone'," Marcus noted, "You know I want you to try to make some friends."

He could really use their help to help his daughter fit in, find acceptance. It was the one thing his wife wanted. She wanted Missy to have friends and a happy family. She was getting over her grief better than he was, but there were still moments he caught when she wasn't looking.

"Yeah, not today," Missy said like a promise before her eyes caught the TV he accidentally left on.

"Whoa! Is that Miracle Guy?"

He was being taken off on a stretcher.

"That is just a trainning exercise, probably," he lied, "A... a... what if."

"As long as there's no 'what if' that involves you rejoining the team," Missy emphasized.

"Relax. Even though I'm still leader of the Heroics, I'm doing it from the safety of my own office," he promised.

She looked at him suspiciously before striking her own pose.

"Good. Because a deal is a deal," she gave him.

He chuckled at that. She had been spending too much time around Miracle Guy.

***
Marcus pulled onto the curb of Missy's school.

"See you later, dad," Missy said as she got out.

"Yep, be good," he smiled at her but he knew it didn't reach his face.

Would Reena be proud of her? Was he doing an okay job? It was like all his insecurities about being a parent had skyrocketed since she left.

"Hey? What's wrong?" Missy asked.

"Oh! Nothing," he tried to recover.

He also was thinking about his friend being hurt, and that worried him because aliens shouldn't have been a problem.

"I'm just... uh... I love you," he finished.

He was not recovering from that one at all.

"An 'I love you' at 8am on a random Tuesday?" Missy asked suspiciously.