Light Beam

Chapter 31: Heroes and Villains

"Len? Are you coming?"

"Right behind you." I called out.

"Hurry up then."

I got up from the bed and threw over a sweatshirt.

"Happy?" I asked, standing in front of Luke.

"Delighted." He leaned in and kissed my forehead casually, taking my hand and dragging me out of the house.

Luke and I had slipped into some sort of a routine. There was normalcy, even. It wouldn't work without him. Elliot and I were still in the middle of something. We both owed each other an apology but weren't willing to offer it up so easily.

It had only been a couple of weeks, after all.

Without Luke, the ecosystem we had built would collapse. Luke wasn't living with us but he was in and out of there almost everyday. He spent most of his free time with us on weekdays. Weekends we didn't see Luke and we made it a point to not see each other, either.

"You look tense." I observed.

"Well, I am."

"Why?" I knew he didn't want to talk about it. But I did.

He didn't say anything. We drove to the hospital in silence. There was news about Maze. Elliott would be there, no doubt.

Elliott had, at some point, taken responsibility of Maze. He hadn't told me anything. But he told Luke. Luke didn't understand it, so he told me.

Normally we weren't called for these things. Elliott spoke to the doctors and he communicated with Maze's family. This seemed important.

Luke visited more than I did. The nurses recognised him.

Outside Maze's room was quite the crowd. Mr. Brenner offered me a nod, he was standing with Maze's mom. There were about twelve other Supers there. And Elliott. Exhausted, baggy eyed, beautiful, guilty Elliott.

It was an accident. He had to know that.

Luke walked over to him as the only other non Super and placed a hand on his shoulder. He whispered something to Elliott that caused them both to smile, a little sadly.

Elliott noticed me and the precarious smile disappeared.

We all waited a while, hung around. Glass-cape and Incognito discussed the upcoming trial of Switch with me. Trial was a generous word for what I had brought upon Switch. Even if he survived it, there was no way he got to live out the peaceful life he had created for himself.

My parents were going to prosecute. Everyone assumed they'd win as soon as it was announced. They were the success story everyone always wanted to talk about, now they finaly had a chance to.

And then the doctor came in.

He said some stuff about how much he appreciated the contribution of Superheroes to the community but we were being an inconvenience and then he got to the issue of Maze. Maze was not looking any better. A lot of the damage was irreversible. Something about how we should limit our expectations for his recovery.

Then he took Elliott aside with Mr. Brenner and Maze's mom. The rest of us continued our insignificant conversations.

By the time their sidebar broke Elliott was somehow worse. He looked paler and he looked at me. He really looked at me.

"Elliott," I saw fit to address him.

"Come with me," he said and I followed him. He took me to this balcony area and stood stupidly close to the edge.