Super Family? Or Superheroes?

Liberty's Anxiety

Mika's POV

2 years later...

It's a regular Saturday in the O'Brien household but today we are taking the kids to the park because these two speedsters need to tire themselves out and liberty needs to meet some friends. She's been stuck in the house for most of her life and her only friend has been justice and her little brothers. The school has been telling me she's extremely shy in class and will be invisible just to not be noticed but she's incredibly smart and her grades are saving her right now but she has to participate in some class lessons or else she won't move up to the 3rd grade. The doctor diagnosed that she got very bad separation anxiety from being cooped up inside the house up until the age of 5. Preschool was torture but now she doesn't have panic attacks before elementary school which is amazing but she still is very anxious. So the doctor said to bring her out as much as we can and to start early with the boys or we will be repeating the same social anxiety with them. Besides the anxious 7-year-old, we have 2-year-old toddlers. Mickey (Older by 5 mins) is a mama's boy but extremely mischievous and not the brightest bulb. He's always speeding through the house and getting into stuff but he's 2 so hopefully, when he gets a bit older he listens a little better. Lastly, our baby Barker is the happiest boy except when Mickey bothers him but he's very clever and sometimes he will figure out how to get something to go his way. Barker is a daddy's boy but will not hesitate to butter up mama when he wants something from me. We finally made it to the park after a 10-minute walk and the boys immediately ran off right after being taken out of the stroller but as usual, Liberty clung onto Bose, started to tear up, and didn't look like she was letting go.

"I'm scared." Liberty says.

"Sweetie, there is nothing to be afraid of. We are here to have fun and hopefully make friends!" Bose explains.

"But I want to be with you!" Liberty says.

"Come on Lib it's going to be ok." I say.

I grab Liberty to slowly tear her away from Bose but that was nowhere near a good idea...

"NOO!" Liberty screams.

Liberty blasts her force field my way and it shoots me across the park...

"Mika!" Bose exclaims.

"Momma!" The twins yell.

"Mommy!" Liberty yells.

They all run over to me, the twins faster obviously but once bose and liberty make it to me I see the face of pure concern on my husband's face, fear on the twin's face, and overwhelming guilt on Liberty's face. The park was almost empty but the few people that saw instantly took their kids and exited the park. I was hurting obviously but nowhere near any pain I felt before when I was fighting crime as a teenager and young adult on a daily but I realize Liberty's anxiety is on a whole new level and I don't think either of us is fully ok because of it.

"You hurt momma!" Mickey said.

"I didn't mean to." Liberty said.

"Yes, you di-" Barker got cut off.

"STOP IT!" Bose yells.

The kids immediately become silent.

"Honey are you ok?" Bose asks.

"I'll be ok but I think it's time to go home." I say.

"Twins go sit in the stroller and liberty go buckle them in and all of you wait there while I help mommy." Bose says sternly.

The kids immediately did as told since Bose barely ever talks serious like that but this time I'm glad he did. Bose picked me up and put me on his back, we walk over to the kids and they are ready to go. The walk home was silent unlike the Gregorius and joyful conversations we were having on the way here.

Bose's POV

We get back to the house, once everyone has taken off their shoes I tell the twins to go to the playroom and tell liberty to wait for us in her room. I lay Mika down on the couch, take off her shoes, and get her some water and an ice pack. After 10 minutes I ask her...

"How are you feeling?" I ask.

"Physically? Better. But Emotionally. I'm so confused. I'm mad at liberty for using her powers unreasonably, I'm upset at myself for coping her up too long, I'm sad that such a young girl has to deal with this, and...I don't know what to do. We cant have liberty stuck in her little force field all her life but I don't want her to feel so scared and accidentally hurt people." Mika explains.

"I know Mika it's hard and I feel the same way but we need to find a middle ground. A way to keep Liberty happy but also break her out of her shell." I say.

"Yea I know. Let's go talk to her and see if we can figure something out."

Mika and I walk upstairs towards liberty's room bracing for the worst but when we open her door and see an empty room we soon realize liberty went invisible again. We search up and down but after 20 minutes of searching, we find nothing but a note left on the bed. I pick it up and can tell it was written by a 7-year-old...my 7-year-old.

"Dear Mommy & Daddy, I ran away because I make you guys sad, scared, mad, and hurt you guys. I love you so much and tell the twins I love them too but don't touch my toys." She writes.

"Liberty ran away, she wrote a goodbye letter, she said felt bad since her anxiety was giving us a hard time." I say.

"Oh No...where is my baby, my sweet baby! If she can't even survive at a park with us how can she survive out there all by herself? What are we going t-" Mika was cut off by her phone ringing.

Mika looks at her phone and sees it's chapa calling, she immediately answers hoping to spread the word about our missing daughter.

"Hey chapa, before you say anything I need your help Liberty is missing!" Mika says.

"Okay, Mika chill ou-" Chapa gets cut off.

"Don't you dare try to tell me to chill out I don't know where my daughter is and you're telling me to calm down!" Mika exclaims.

"Chica, Liberty is at my place." Chapa says.

"What." I say.

"She knew my place was around the corner but she got lucky since she caught me leaving out right before I was about to pick up justice. Now come and get your daughter because I need to go!" Chapa says.

"Ok, I'm sorry for snapping chapa we're on our way." Mika apologized.

"I know Mika, just come get your girl." Chapa says.

Chapa hangs up the phone and Mika and I grab the twins and head around the corner to get our sweet liberty.