Mod Superhero (Book 6 STUBBING on Oct 27th)

Chapter 6.59 - Clara

Clara watched both Emmetts climb into the submersion tank. It had opened up along an invisible seam like a futuristic egg and then sealed them inside, leaving her alone in the room. She meant to leave the room, but stopped short.

Clara formed a chair out of nanites and sat there for an hour afterward. Twice, she started to say something, but stopped.

TINA whispered in her earpiece, "They can't hear you inside."

"I know. It's just..."

"I can record a message and play it for Emmett when he wakes up."

"That's sweet, TINA... but I'm not sure I want to do that either."

"Sometimes just speaking our thoughts aloud can help us sort our feelings."

Clara knew that. She'd used self-talk numerous times over the years. Clara probably would've talked to herself at her Dad's bedside already, but he was in the process of waking up now. Clara would talk to him soon enough.

Dad would wake up. She knew that. It was just a matter of time.

Emmett would wake up too.

"Okay..." Clara took a breath. "We're here again. I know it's not the lab, but we're in the same spot. ...How many times have we been here? Let's see, there was the first time you almost died, then your skeleton, then when you fought Lock and almost died again. Then that monstrosity—the first one that you blew up—and your brain. I probably missed one... And now we're here again. You're unconscious, and I'm waiting for you to wake up.

"I guess you've done the same thing for me—waited beside my tank as I cooled off from a meltdown. You've been there for me as much as I've been there for you. That's not what I keep coming back to though. I'd still sit here with you, even if you didn't feel the same. Even if something changed between us. But...

"Is it worth it? All the struggle and the pain and the... Is it worth what we're doing to ourselves? I know I don't have a right to complain. Not compared to you."

Clara sighed. "What I'm saying is, we don't have to be heroes. We could just leave. There's got to be somewhere we could go where the Brotherhood couldn't find us. We'll take your family with us, and TINA, Lock and McGuire and all the others. We'd find a way."

Clara trailed off. Emmett didn't answer. Of course, he didn't. He was deep in his own mind, going through yet another unprecedented medical procedure that he shouldn't have to go through.

It didn't matter that Emmett had signed up for most of them—all but the very first procedure. He'd gone through all the others willingly.

But that knowledge didn't help Clara.

Clara stayed there with Emmett for an hour—mostly in silence. She turned over the events of the past two years in her mind. Just a few feet away, Emmett was doing something similar.

~

Clara and most of Emmett's family took turns sitting beside the tank. His mom, dad, brothers, and Maci all sat with him, and they all left a message for Emmett when he woke up.

Lock wasn't going to go at first, but the nephews dragged him there.

Clara was already in the biolab when they came in. She was sitting beside the tank and playing the Full Throttle Heart mobile game on her phone when the nephews dragged Lock in. Lock was stooped over so that he could hold their hands.

"Don't you guys have school?" Lock asked.

"We finished. We finished," Justin replied.

"You should say hi to Emmett and his shadow," Martie added.