How are you doing party people? Sorry for not updating this fic in awhile. If you're reading The Queen Has Been Overthrown then you know I'm in my final year of med and was in for two month of the most grueling and intense rotation. But I'm done with the rotation. Still have some more school to go but like that was the biggest hump to get over. I just want to thank you guys for reading. I am slowly working on all the fics I have. If you want to hit me up on tumblr you can find the username on my profile page. Thanks for reading.
"Close your eyes. Focus on the sound of my voice."
"I would, if only Emily wasn't thinking so loudly." Pru had her eyes clenched tightly.
Wayne chuckled. "That's the point of the exercise. Focus on me, and ignore Emily."
"Gladly." Pru huffed.
Emily just glared at her. She moved to go lean against a tree. The three of them were in a clearing, the same clearing Wayne had brought her to when she was younger and he was teaching her to control her strength. She still wasn't sure why she was here.
"I don't know why you're here either, Emily." Pru opened one of her eyes and looked in her direction.
"Okay then. I guess I have to explain myself on why Emily's here. Let's say that a power is like a muscle. Mind reading, in your case. To make a muscle stronger, you do strength-training exercises. You challenge your muscles by increasing the weight or the number of reps and sets. Things like that. You can easily read the surface thoughts of one person when there are no distractions." Wayne explained.
"Emily is the distraction. Got it. And she's here because your family are the only ones that know I have this power. Still, I wish Mrs. Fields was here instead." Pru sighed. "Emily's thoughts are all over the place. Really don't need to read her thoughts about what she plans on doing to my best friend. The locker room? Seriously, Em?"
"That's- that's none of your business." Emily's face flushed. She couldn't believe Pru said that in front of her dad. Or maybe she could since the other girl was smirking. She narrowed her eyes. "You suck. You know that?"
"Okay, you two. Let's get back to the task at hand." Wayne grinned.
Emily rolled her eyes. How many times was he going to use that joke?
"I got the answer for you. He's very proud of that joke. And he's not going to stop." Pru said.
"You got all that. Good, good. That's progress. I guess you can handle reading two people." Wayne nodded proudly. "And Emmy, you're here because you should be observing how I'm helping Pru with her powers. Because there will be more like her. No, there are more like her. I can feel more powers. They'll be needed your help."
"About that. Shouldn't there… I don't know, be people just freaking out and losing control of their powers like I did?" Pru thought out loud.
"That's a possibility." Wayne admitted. "But people will explain some strange occurrence off as having a logical explanation. I've seen it happen countless times. To people that don't know about our existence, they're seeing things because they're too tired or too caffeinated. But then again Powers have usually just been people born with the abilities. I guess people can only make up explanations for strange things happening to them only so little times. Someone can move things with their mind, it was the wind. Or if someone breaks a door, it was shoddily made. But then they figure out that something is happening to them and they freak out and some poor soul that has pyrokinesis burns their house down. Of course, I hope to find them before that happens. Or someone else finds them."
Wayne had fully initiated Pru into this new world she found herself in. A virus had given her powers. The virus was something made by some top-secret organization looking to build super weapons in the form of people with superpowers.
"Okay. So you're just going to hide them from your bosses? I'm not really clear on what you plan to do." Pru asked.
"Shouldn't you already know the answer to that?" Emily raised an eyebrow at the girl.
"She doesn't. And she won't. Not at her level of power." He said firmly. "Plus I've been trained to shield against low level telepaths."
Emily was realizing more and more that her parents had a life before her. Her mother wasn't some housewife that was very into organizing and popovers. And her father was some secret agent. Like Nick Fury without the eye patch.
"And plus I'm not rude." Pru threw at her.
"Could have fooled me." Emily mumbled.
"Hey if I hear what you're thinking, that's not my fault." Pru glared.
"She's right. For now. She can't control her power. It's like tuning a radio dial." He stopped as he noticed their blank stares. "Okay. I get that manually tuning a radio is before your time. But this metaphor works. I'll come up with something you kids can understand. But until then you get this. You turn the dial. Sometimes you'll just get nothing, or other times static. Or then you'll land on a station and it comes in strong. All right maybe this metaphor isn't as good as I thought."
"Okay. I think I get what you mean. The more I practice, the better my reception?" Pru smiled at him.
"Yes. You'll level up. That's what you kids are saying these days, right?" Wayne looked between the two of them. Emily didn't want to tell him otherwise.
"Something like that. Right now, Pru just picks up random thoughts from people and the more she practices, eventually she'll be able to get a specific thought from someone if she hones in on their thoughts." Emily wanted to cheer her dad up after his radio metaphor.
"Exactly. But it's getting late." Wayne clapped his hands and rubbed them together. "Let's head back to town."
"I-" Pru seemed about to protest, but she stopped. "Sure thing, Mr. Fields. But I hope we can practice more. It's not as loud when I use what you taught me so far."
"Then I'm glad." He held open the car door for Pru and she got into the backseat. "And you did a great job too, Em."
"I didn't really do anything." Emily frowned.
"Yeah. But I know that you and Pru don't get along. You said she's Paige's closest friend. I'm sure she's doing to you what Spencer probably did to Paige." Wayne gave her a knowing look.
"She is. But unlike Paige, I actually deserve that." Emily hugged her arms around herself. Pru wasn't going to forget that Emily had promised to be there for Paige when she was going through some issues, but had instead gone off with Samara. That was a pretty messed up thing to do. Her parents had raised her better than that. Her father would be so disappointed in her. She knew he would because she felt so ashamed.
"Let's head back. You know how your mother gets." Wayne chuckled.
Emily nodded. She knew all too well about how her mother could get. Pam Fields was overprotective which could be seen as funny since Emily was bulletproof. But Emily knew that her mother's worry came from a place of fear. Pam knew exploitation of her powers at the hands of her own father.
Both of her parents knew what could be done to Specials. While her mother had her worry out in the open, her father didn't want his little girl to concern herself too much with what could happen. Humor was his way of shielding her. It was his job to protect their family.
Emily thought about how she in turn was protecting them from A. Emily didn't want them to worry and would hide behind the surliness of a teenage girl. She learned from the best apparently.
But A was dangerous. And according to her parents, there were people out in the world that were just as dangerous. Maybe even more so.
Together father and daughter got into the car. Pru was sitting in the back seat with her eyes closed. Emily wished the girl didn't look so tired. It was probably hard to sleep with other people's thoughts in her head. She watched as the girl frowned, and bit her lip.
"Sorry," Emily realized what she doing.
"It's fine." Pru said without opening her eyes. She turned away from Emily and curled up on her side as much as she could.
Wayne turned on some soft music. "Maybe this will help."
A bit of the song played before Pru replied. "It does."
"Maybe you can sleep with music? Or headphones?" Emily tried.
Pru cracked one eye open to look at her. "Worth a shot."
Emily nodded. At least they weren't at each other's throats. Wayne was smiling.
The rest of the ride back to Rosewood was spent listening to the radio while Emily tried not to think about anything.
Wayne stopped at a red light. He looked out the side window. His eyes went wide. Emily followed his gaze.
Caleb and Hanna were walking to his car. They seemed to be having an intense conversation since each of them were talking rapidly and looking around for eavesdroppers.
"One of them has a power." Wayne frowned.
"Really?" Emily wondered who.
"It's him." Pru didn't open her eyes. She just nodded towards where the couple were standing.
"Caleb?" Emily stared at him. She couldn't tell that there was anything different about him.
"What? Were you expecting blue fur and a tail?" Pru's eyes were open. She gave Emily an amused grunt.
"Thank you for your input, Jean Grey." Emily glared at her. Then they both burst out into laughter.
"Paige." The both said in unison.
"It's her fault we know who Nightcrawler is. And who his parents are." Emily chuckled. "She wanted me to be ready for X-Men: First Class."
"She's rubbing off on you." Pru's smirk deepened.
"Oh my God!" Emily's face went warm. That combination of words out images in her head. "You did that on purpose."
"Hey! You're the one whose thoughts went there." Pru laughed harder. "While I don't want to see my best friend in such a compromising position."
"Girls, please go back to talking about superheroes. "Even if one of you weren't my little girl, this is not a conversation meant for my old man ears to hear." Wayne's tone was a joking one, but he really meant it. Emily didn't need to read minds to know that.
Emily's face went warm and although her head was ducked, she could tell that Pru's cheeks were red.
"Uh, yeah. So Wonder Woman, Emma Frost, and uh uh." Shoot. Why were female superheroes so damn sexy?
"Yeah, you totally read for the plot." Pru snickered.
"Shut up. I totally like some of the storylines." Emily glared.
"Like what?"
"I loved the DC Animated universe. And Paige got me to read Gotham Central and Runaways. She's trying to get me to read the X-Men books by that Buffy guy." Emily fired back.
Her girlfriend was a huge fan of graphic novels. And knew enough about different superheroes to be in a huff when Hollywood would mess up the characters in a movie. She was passionate enough to talk to Emily about it. Paige was a huge fan of Batman and the Gotham characters. But also the X-Men. Any superhero that had an outsider status.
Emily frowned. The next time she saw her girlfriend, she was going to show her how much she appreciated her.
Lost in her thoughts, Emily had forgotten what had started them on this conversation about superheroes. She had missed the fact that her dad had parked the car.
"Okay, guys. I think it's best if Emily takes point on this. I know teenagers close ranks when an adult approaches them. So I'm going to grab something from the drug store."
"Because we're trying to give the impression that we don't have them on surveillance?" Emily asked. She was trying to learn about all this covert stuff that her dad did.
"Not really. I was supposed to pick something up for your mother." Her father chuckled, as he got out of the car. "Good luck."
Emily unbuckled her seatbelt and leaned forward. She was going to get out of the car as well, but Pru stopped her.
"Paige is important to me, Emily. I'm glad you're trying to give her what she deserves." Pru crossed her arms. "But if you hurt her again, I will destroy you."
Emily looked away. "If I hurt her again, I'll let you."
Pru nodded and then got out of the car. Emily followed suit. Emily thought of how to approach Caleb and Hanna. At least she was already friends with them. They trusted her.
"Hey, guys!" Emily approached the couple.
"Hi, Em." Hanna smiled at her. But Emily could tell that the smile was forced. Caleb nodded at her.
"You guys know Pru right?"
"Yeah. We have Spanish together. Paige's friend." Hanna looked between the two of them. "So are you guys doing a friend exchange? Paige gets Spencer and you get Pru?"
"Something like that."
"I think you got the better part of the deal, Em. Spencer is our friend and all, but she can be very Spencer at times. And Pru is hilarious. And has a great fashion sense. I've always been meaning to say that." Hanna rambled.
"Good to know that Emily has at least one smart friend." Pru smiled.
"Thank you! Did you hear that Caleb?" Hanna beamed at him.
"Sure did." Caleb nodded as he put his arm around his girlfriend. He looked tired. "It was nice meeting you, Pru. But we really should get going if we want to see your mom."
"Yeah. Em, we'll hang out later." Hanna squeezed Caleb's hand.
"Hanna, Caleb. We know." Emily decided to just come out with it.
"Know what? That I'll see you later?" Hanna laughed nervously.
"What Emily means is that we know what it's like. Well, I can relate to what you're going through. To hear things no one else can." Pru stepped closer to Caleb. "You're afraid. That people will think you're crazy. Trust me we won't. I know what you're thinking. Literally."
"Wait. You have ESPN?" Hanna cut in.
"Hanna, that's not-"
"Just kidding. I know what a telepath is. I couldn't help myself. I love Mean Girls." Hanna laughed.
"You know what a telepath is?" Emily looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"Don't look so surprised. I know things." Hanna sighed when Emily's expression didn't change. "Fine. You're dating a giant nerd, did you know that?"
Pru and Emily shared a knowing look. "Paige."
"So you can read minds." Caleb seemed to be thinking it over in his head. "Okay."
"You're not going to ask her to prove it?" Emily knew how it went in the movies. People always needed proof.
"He can talk to toasters, Emily. And apparently they're jerks." Pru rubbed her forehead. "Seriously?"
"This is so cool." Hanna gushed. "Do you have superpowers too, Em?"
Emily nodded. "I have super strength and super speed."
"This I gotta see." Hanna was really excited.
"I can show you, but we should probably go somewhere more private. And you should probably talk to my dad." Emily looked around for the man.
"Your dad?" Caleb made a face, like he didn't want more people to know.
"He's like us. He's the one that knew you had powers. That's his power." Emily explained.
"No offense, Em, but that's a lame power." Hanna scrunched up her face.
"I didn't win the superpower lottery, but it's come in handy." Emily's father snuck up behind them.
Emily groaned. Her dad loved those hand jokes.
"Sorry, Mr. Fields." Hanna said sheepishly.
"But it means I've had to develop a specific set of skills." Wayne winked at the blonde.
"Mr. Fields has been helping me with my abilities." Pru chimed in, ignoring Emily. "I've gotten better at controlling them."
"So, I think we should head somewhere more private. Where we can have ourselves a little chat." Wayne nodded towards Emily's car. "Why don't you girls ride with Caleb and Hanna, head over to our house?"
Hanna spoke for both of them. "Sure thing, Mr. Fields!"
"Alright, I'll tell Pam we'll be having company. If I hurry she won't be as mad as me for not giving her enough time to prepare for your visit." Wayne winked at them and headed back towards his truck.
"So this is probably the longest conversation I've ever had with your dad. And it's about superpowers." Caleb chuckled. "I guess putting people at ease and earning their trust is one of those skills in his particular set."
"Does your dad know how to fight?" Hanna asked excitedly.
"Yeah." Emily said with an eyebrow raised. "He has to know how to because he doesn't really have a physical power."
"He's teaching us too." Pru said. "Since I can just read minds."
"Great! He can teach me and I can totally one up Spencer." Hanna laughed manically.
They started walking towards Caleb's car.
"Why do you want to one up Hastings?" Pru asked.
"She makes the most hilarious face when I do." Hanna grins. "But you should have seen her when Mona showed up to teach us instead of Aria's boyfriend."
"Mr. Fitz knows martial arts?" Pru asked surprised.
The other three teens went quiet. They were all thinking it. That was their mistake. "Yeah. I know that. Aria thinks about him a lot. But apparently there's this Jake guy. Sorry, I read that wrong. I am still learning. I won't tell anyone. Sounds boring."
Hanna and Caleb relax and get into his car. But Emily's is still a warning. "If you tell anyone..."
"Yeah, yeah. You'll rip my arms off." Pru shook her head and got into the car. "Are you riding with us or are you going to pop on over there?"
"No way? You can teleport?" Hanna gushed as she turned in the passenger seat to look at her.
"Above average speed." Emily grinned.
"Awesome. Can't wait for you to show us your skills." Hanna laughed.
"Hanna, we have to leave first before you can see it." Caleb chuckled.
"Okay, okay. See you at home, Em." Hanna waved at her.
"Bye, guys." Emily waited for the car to drive off before he sped off.
The distance from Main Street to her house wasn't too much. It was maybe a twenty-minute walk if you took a leisurely stroll. It was a ten-minute drive if Caleb didn't hit any red lights and drove the speed limit. Emily didn't have that problem. She walked quickly in the direction of her house and then she broke out into a sprint.
She skidded to a halt in front of her house. She sat on the steps of the front porch. That's how her friends found her.
"What took you guys so long?" Emily smirked at them as she leaned back against the steps, resting on her elbows.
"Oh man. You barely broke a sweat. And you're not even out of breath." Caleb noted.
"Man, even your hair is perfect." Hanna reached out to touch it. "Show me everything."
"Let's go inside first." Emily got up and walked to the door.
Once inside, Emily called out for her parents.
"We're in the den!" Wayne replied.
Emily led the other three teens into the den. Her father and mother were sitting on the loveseat. The coffee table in front of them was laid out with snacks prepared by her mother. Pam Fields never missed an opportunity to be an excellent host.
"Hi, Mrs. Fields!" Hanna beamed up at the older woman. "Do you have superpowers too?"
"Hanna!" Emily and Caleb scolded her.
Pru just laughed. "You just say what's on your mind, don't you?"
The older Fields were amused as well. Pam Fields was perfectly used to Hanna, one of Emily's first friends. She smiled. "I do."
"This is so cool." Hanna pumped her fist.
"Aren't you going to ask what it is?" Emily raised her eyebrow.
"No. I'm not rude." Hanna looked over at Emily's mom. "Isn't superpowers kinda like coming out? I have to wait for someone to tell me on their own terms."
Emily shouldn't have been surprised. Hanna had known that she was gay before she had come out, or had been outed by Wilden. Hanna was very accepting. She wished she could tell Paige. At least she had a couple more friends in on the secret.
"I can control minds." Pam answered. "But I rarely use my powers."
Hanna looked thoughtful. "I can see how mind control powers could be hard. They seem like they would be easy to abuse."
"Very easy to abuse. Which is part of the reason Wayne and I are happy you're here, Caleb."
"I wouldn't abuse my powers. I promise." Caleb looked between the two adults.
"I know. Ashley is always gushing about how great you are. But don't tell her I told you." Pam said reassuringly. "While there are people that would use their powers for personal gain or to hurt people, and we're on the lookout for them, there are people out in the world that take advantage of people with powers."
"They want to use Specials as tools or weapons. Pam and I know what this is like first hand." Wayne took his wife's hand in his and squeezed it. "So I'm trying to find all of the people who developed powers after... You were sick, weren't you? With a fever? You weren't born with your powers?"
"No, Sir. I would have remembered being able to have conversations with toasters and traffic lights." Caleb grinned. "As Hanna puts it."
"A tenchopath?" Wayne looked impressed.
"I can make things. I accidentally made an EMP." Caleb rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.
"So you're the reason why all the electrical devices turned off at The Brew the other day." Emily was thoughtful.
Pam was alarmed. "You need to be careful. Not because you can make dangerous things. But because people could find out and force you to make dangerous things."
"You get what Pam is saying, son? There are people out there that would love to force you to build things for them. That EMP you made only took out the coffee shop. But you could probably build one large enough to take out entire states. You know Tesla?"
"Of course, sir. Who doesn't?"
Hanna raised her hand. "Uh, me."
"Tesla was a man before his time. An electrical genius and a brilliant engineer. And his biggest rival was Thomas Edison." Wayne paused at seeing Hanna's blank face.
Pru came to his aid. "He was played by David Bowie in The Prestige."
"Oh! That movie where Batman and Wolverine were magicians? I loved that movie."
"Right." Wayne chuckled. "So Tesla was one of us. He was a techopath. He made Earthquake Machines, teleportation devices, and death rays."
"Wait, he made them? I only thought he drafted plans." Caleb's eyes widened in surprise.
"He made them. And nearly took out a continent. After the Tunguska Event, he destroyed his machines. He couldn't let anyone get their hands on those machines."
Wayne looked at each of the teens. "This is why it's important you learn how to control your powers and not expose yourselves to the wrong people."
Emily bit her lip. She could control her powers, her current ones like the speed and strength anyway. Being indestructible was still new. She didn't know how to control that power. She wasn't sure if she could.
Her powers could be dangerous if she lost her control. She thought the worst. And the worst was hurting Paige. Her parents knew about her powers. Paige had no idea.
Besides, Paige excited her. And she could too passionate and lose control. Break bones if she got too passionate during a hug or holding. Or if she got angry.
Emily really wanted to tell Paige.
"I know what Caleb can do. And I know what Pru can do. So..." Hanna looked at each of the Fields in turn.
"Hanna!" Emily and Caleb chided her.
"Hanna, you remember when you were panicking over Caleb being shot up at the lighthouse?" Pam asked.
Emily remembered. She would always remember that. It was one of those moments she could have lost control of her powers. Lyndon had kidnapped Paige. When she saw her girlfriend tied up in that closet, she had wanted to hurt him. But she decided to lead him away from Paige.
She had to.
She couldn't risk Paige getting hurt. So she ran off, making sure she was fast enough to not be caught by him. But not so fast that he would stop chasing her and go back to Take his anger out on Paige.
She had lead him to a lighthouse. There she could loose him and head back to Paige. It would take Lyndon some time before he caught up with her. She hope he would tired out.
But he rushed up the stairs, full of energy. He came at her with his knife. She fought him. She was surprised to find it wasn't so easy to overpower him.
She had looked in his eyes. They had been bloodshot and full of rage. He was strong. But she was stronger. She had used his strength against him and directed the knife into his stomach.
It was almost like he didn't feel it. Emily pulled the knife out and stabbed him again. She pushed him off of her. He tried to come back at her. But fell to his knees.
Emily stood up in shock as she watched him bleed to death. Her hands had done that.
"Emily!"
Caleb had run up the stairs of the lighthouse with a gun in his hand. She cried out and dropped the knife. He set his gun down, and took her into his arms.
"It'll be okay."
Not yet.
Emily knew she would be okay once she saw Paige and took her into her arms. She had to know that Paige was safe before all else.
She caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned to see that Lyndon had picked up the gun.
Lyndon raised the gun, pointing it straight it at her. Before Emily could stop him, he pulled the trigger.
She put her hand to her abdomen. Now that she had something to compare it to, she knew. That night with Paige wasn't the first time she had been shot.
"Lyndon shot me." Emily murmured.
"What was that, Em?" Hanna asked.
"I'm sorry. Caleb, don't you remember? Lyndon was pointing the gun at me. He wanted to shoot me. But you ended up getting hit instead." Emily closed her eyes, trying to hold back tears. "The bullet did hit me. It ricocheted off of me and hit you."
Everyone fell quiet.
"Emily." Caleb said softly. "Like I told you before and I'll tell you again, it's not your fault. It was that bastard's."
"Yeah, Em." Hanna put her arm around her. "It was all him."
Emily was shaking. It was what she was afraid of. Hurting someone that she loved with her powers. What if the same thing happened that night with Paige. What if the bullet had bounced off of her and gone right into Paige?
Pru was clutching her forehead. "Jeez, Fields. You need to cut that out. Paige doesn't blame you. Believe me, I know. She thinks about it a lot. If anything, she blames herself."
"She shouldn't." Emily looked away. She knew Paige. She knew what Pru was saying was true.
Hanna moved closer to her. "Neither of you should."
"Emily, you need to calm down." Pam put a hand on her shoulder.
"Mom, don't!" Emily shot her mom an irritated look.
"I wasn't going to use my powers, Emmy. I just don't like seeing you in pain." Pam rubbed her hand along Emily's shoulder.
"I'm sorry, Mom. I know you never would." Emily sighed.
"Wait. You used your powers on me before, haven't you Mrs. Fields?" Hanna said quietly.
"I did. I'm sorry, Hanna. But only when you needed it." Pam looked ashamed.
"When Caleb got shot. When I was freaking out so much at the hospital. You calmed me down." Hanna looked down at the floor.
"I'm sorry." Pam said in such a distraught voice.
"I-. That was one of the worst nights of my life. So I mean thank you." Hanna gave the woman a hug. Once the hug ended, the blonde looked over at Emily. "Can we see your powers now?"
Everyone laughed. "Sure thing, Han."
"How should we do this without Emily breaking the furniture?" Wayne chuckled.
"That was one time!" Emily huffed.
"Whoa. Seriously?" Caleb laughed.
"Well you broke a couple of doors. A sink. The couch. And the bed." Wayne listed.
"A bed, huh?" Hanna teased.
"My parents are right there, Hanna." Emily glared at her friend.
"Don't tease the girl with superpowers, Han." Caleb put his arm around Hanna's waist as if to reign her in.
Wayne chuckled and Pam was actually grinning in amusement. "Emily got really excited for bedtime stories. And she jumped on the bed a few times."
Then Wayne frowned. Emily knew what her father was thinking about. The times she had nightmares. Nightmares about hurting her parents or her friends or Alison. And now Paige.
And she used to have nightmares when she had turned nine. About being strapped to a table and dark figures with lab coats cutting into her with blades and burning her to see what would happen. She would wake up from those dreams. They felt so real.
She had told her parents about the nightmares. They had reassured her they were just dreams and dreams couldn't hurt her. But she knew her parents had been worried. They had talked in hushed voices when they thought she wasn't around. They happened for years. They happened less and less. Until they stopped before middle school.
"I think I know how I can demonstrate my powers to you." Emily changed the topic.
"Awesome! Are you going to like bench press a car? Throw a train? Punch a shark!" Hanna gushed.
"Go ahead, Emmy. Show them." Wayne patted her on the shoulder. "Your mom is going to want to put together some snacks. You know how she has to be the perfect host."
They all went out to the garage. Wayne had a makeshift gym in one half of the garage. Hanna looked disappointed.
"Weights." Hanna frowned. "Boring."
Emily walked over to the weight plates. She started with the biggest, heaviest plates. And added more. She slid onto the bench and started pumping out reps like they were nothing. Caleb's eyes popped out of her head and Pru's jaw twitched as if she was struggling to keep her jaw from dropping.
Hanna clapped her hands together in delight.
"Now the car!"
Emily shook her head in amusement. She slid under the car until she was out of sight. Then the car lifted off of the garage floor above Emily's head.
"Wow. You breaking so many laws of physics right now." Hanna gushed.
Everyone looked at her.
"What. I know stuff." Hanna huffed.
"You should tell Hastings that. And let me be there to watch." Pru grinned.
"What do you have against Spencer?" Emily asked.
"You know how Hastings is protective of you? I'm like that for Paige. I still haven't forgotten when Hastings was snooping around Paige earlier this year. Before what happened at the lighthouse." Pru crossed her arms. "That could have ended badly for Paige. If Paige had shown up at the cemetery, Hastings would have seen that as proof that Paige killed Alison and Maya. That she was A."
"Okay. If I didn't know you could read minds I would have thought you were spying on us." Hanna blurted out.
"Did you get that from reading our minds?" Emily shuddered.
"Just Hastings. She's thought about that a few times. How she was so wrong about Paige." Pru looked out the window.
"You know Spencer feels bad about how she treated Paige so-"
"So what. I don't forgive so easily. Spencer is your friend." Pru grimaced. "Not mine. Look, I'm not out to spill anyone's secrets. Whatever I pick up are just accidents. I don't want to hear them."
Emily could understand that. Hating not being in control. Paige was friends with Pru. Her girlfriend trusted the girl that found herself suddenly able to read minds. Maybe she should trust the girl. "Okay. I believe you."
"Wait. So Spencer thinks about Paige a lot?" Hanna cut into the conversation.
"That's what you chose to take away from this?" Caleb shook his head.
"Money is at stake." Hanna shouted.
"Wow. You and Aria have a bet going." Pru chuckled. "I want in."
"Hey! That's cheating!" Hanna pointed an accusing finger at Pru.
"You were about to use me to get some insider information." Pru scoffed.
"Hold up. What's this bet about?" Caleb looked interested.
"When Spencer is going to come out." Pru said.
"What! Hanna!" Emily cried out. "You guys can't bet on something like that. What do you mean when?"
"Come on, Em. Spencer is so not 100% straight." Hanna gave her a knowing look.
Emily sighed. Spencer had once asked her when she knew she liked girls. Emily had often wondered herself. And before Paige, she had dismissed it as the wishful thinking of having a crush on a straight girl. "But still. It's tacky."
Pru scrunched her face up. "Really, Fields."
Emily's head snapped towards the mind reader. "Before you get all angry with me, Paige already knows about that. We don't have secrets." Pru snorted at that. "Except for me having powers. I want to tell her believe me."
Hanna looked between the two girls. "Oh my God, Em. You had a thing for Spencer?"
"No. I mean after Alison, and I just." Emily gave off a quick yelp of frustration. Hanna didn't have to read minds to know Emily. "It was a one time thing when I was lonely and wishing for someone like me so I wouldn't be the only one."
"That makes sense." Hanna gave Emily a hug. "But now you're not alone anymore. You have Paige. And us. Caleb and Pru have abilities like you. Even though I don't have powers, I will always have your back."
"Thank you, Hanna." Emily returned the hug gently.
With her arm still around Emily's shoulder, Hanna looked at the rest of the group. "So we're a team now right?"