Nothing feels right about it, though.

Not the clothes in her bag and not the walk from the bedroom to the front door. Not the sunshine in the sky, nor the taxi that picks her up - blaring Middle Eastern music.

Nothing feels right about this and Spencer knows it and she shoves the realization down, pushes it back.

Because she is doing this for the better of everyone.

For her parents, who only love her.

For Kyla, who only wants to make things better.

And for Ashley, who can't afford a distraction like a constantly captured girl to chase after.

And for herself, for Spencer Carlin, who just wants to live a normal life again and doesn't want to fear the nighttime anymore and can't exist in the clouds forever.

But nothing feels right about it, though.

Even as she walks into her father's embrace and she holds him tightly. Even as her mother breaks down and Spencer cries as well, forgiveness given as quickly as anger was once shown.

Even as it appears like she can pick her life up right where she left it, Spencer knows that she cannot.

Because nothing feels right and everything feels off-center and a pair of brown eyes haunt Spencer's every move.

They tease from the inside, wind-swept memories and candlelight temptations in Ashley's gaze, and Spencer can't seem to let it go.

Even as she eats dinner and even as random conversation is made and even as she smiles at her brothers - and deflects their questions.

Even as she goes upstairs, to that empty bed, and lays down in the dark - windows locked and shades drawn...

...Nothing feels right.

And Spencer sobs silently into her pillow.

/ / /

"Don't do this, Spence... Please, don't do this..."

"Ash... I have to, don't you see? I can't keep living like this. I can't... I just can't."

"But I told you, I told you I wouldn't let anything happen to you-"

"That's a promise no one can keep, Ashley. Not even you."

And Spencer has seen Ashley drop from the sky, hit the pavement and create a fifty-foot deep hole, and crawl right back up - dusting off her ever-present leather jacket and grinning.

She's seen the girl go through walls and be punched and have arms twisted in ways that would make anyone cringe in imagined agony.

But Ashley Davies always shakes it off like it is nothing.

And like a runner on the track, her feet push off and she becomes a blur of motion... and whomever was trying to keep the girl down is knocked back like a feather.

Ashley isn't tough, not like Kyla - who can rip car doors off with her fingertips and who can move a building without breaking a sweat - but her speed gives her power.

She is a deadly damn bird.

But Spencer knows this hurts. It hurts in a way that Ashley cannot combat.

Because she has laid against Ashley's chest, has heard that heart beat race and then slow - listened to it shift gears like an engine - and Spencer is the one who controls it.

Even now as she breaks it.

"Please..." And Ashley's voice sounds like it never has, broken and desperate.

And Spencer ignores all the words within her, the syllables that wish to be spoken, and says what she feels she must.

"Ashley, I'm sorry... but I just think... I think we should just end this."

/ / /

She avoids it. And she graduates from high school. And she doesn't read the newspaper and she doesn't really watch television either.

But a person can only go so long without seeing what is consuming the world.

You eventually get exposed.

And like a person stuck in a cave for years who finally gets to see the daylight again, Spencer is blinded - blinking and breathless.

Ashley is on the front of every page, the face on every screen, the name in every blog.

Kyla is there, too.

The Davies sisters meet with the President, with heads of state, with governments. They are called in to solve situations that are decidedly 'average' instead of abnormal.

All those villains with crazy powers have backed off.

For now.

Never for good, Spencer knows this... she suspects that Ashley and Kyla know it, too.

And Spencer cannot look away now, not now that she has been reminded of what she cannot truly forget.

She studies Ashley's face when no one is around, runs over and over the jawline and remembers what the girl's cheek feels like and allows her chest to ache at the barest hint of those kisses they used to share.

When the sisters do a live press conference, Spencer doesn't want to watch it.

But like a secret all her own, her own hidden world, she brings it up on her computer - in those early morning hours - and watches like a man starved.

"Ashley Davies, over here... Can you address the trip to Gaza last week?"

"What about it, Mr...?"

"Albertson, Washington Press."

"Well, Mr. Albertson, we were needed to resolve a situation over there and I am glad to say that it was taken care of."

"That's very vague, Ms. Davies..."

"I know."

A round of knowing chuckles. Ashley's patented grin - though, Spencer notes, it is a bit dimmer, not as bright... not as real as it once was.

"Kyla Davies, you have anything to add to that?"

"I will say that my sister and I will do anything to assist our country in its affairs. That is why we are here."

Camera flashes and murmurs. Kyla leans over and says something into Ashley's ear and the girl nods imperceptibly.

"Yes, you in the green dress?"

"This is a question for both of you... It's been awfully quiet in the realm of your kind of enemies... Has that threat been taken care of as well?"

"I'll, uh, let Kyla take this one."

"Ashley and I are not naive enough to believe that this peaceful time will last for long, but... I am cautiously optimistic. As always, nothing is for certain."

There are more questions and more nondescript replies. But Spencer just watches Ashley - the subtle rolling of eyes, the squaring of shoulders, the way the girl looks so very bored by all of this - and Spencer finds herself smiling at the computer screen, glad that some things do not change.

The sisters walk away, close as always, and the secretary of defense steps up to take questions then.

And it does stay peaceful. For a while.

Spencer, finally choosing a college and moving everything into a dorm room. Her brothers off at their own schools already. Back to her parents almost every weekend for meals.

She gets good grades and she makes new friends and everyone has learned not to ask her about her time dating a super-hero.

Because Spencer Carlin won't kiss and tell, not even for money - which has been offered by many media outlets.

Her lips are sealed.

And... Ashley stays away. Which is what had to be, how it had to go.

There are no phone-calls. No flying around outside Spencer's window. Not a letter or a note or an email.

Spencer sees the girl on television and reads about her everywhere.

And that is it.

And it probably would have remained that way, on the surface things seemingly okay... but underneath it all, a longing that cannot be satisfied - only dismissed... It probably would have gone on like that for years and years, with every relationship Spencer could have had being just a tad less than the one she had with Ashley.

The unfairness lurking in the shadows of every touch with another, the ghosts of decisions made would have lingered until Spencer reached death.

But she should know, better than anyone, that the world never stays still.

Change, as they say, is the only constant.

And the shift is usually terribly jarring.

But then, it has to be... otherwise, you just don't wake the fuck up.

/ / /

Somehow, Spencer already knew.

She woke up with a bad feeling in her stomach, like when you haven't eaten and you are past the point of normal hunger pangs. You feel the listlessness in your gut, hollow and blank. You feel a weakness in your muscles as they refuse to pick you up and make you stand.

And her eyes open slowly, taking in the gray dawn light, and barely hearing her roommate's snoring.

Barely hearing anything other than a phone ringing.

A phone that has not made a single sound in so long and Spencer's whole body goes into a state of fearful wonder - stunted movements from her bed and trembling hand reaching out, lifting the phone to her head and not able to say a thing.

"Spencer?"

It is Kyla's voice and, somehow, Spencer knew it would be.

"Dammit, Spencer, are you there? Answer me!"

And Spencer feels like passing out already, her body going cold, blood freezing in her veins. Her tongue is useless in her mouth. Her empty hand is subconsciously gripping the corner of her desk, gripping it so hard that it hurts and will probably cause a bruise there.

"Kyla...?"

"I don't have time, okay? She doesn't have time and you need to get here."

"...What do you mean-"

"Spencer... I... Ashley, she..."

"What happened?"

But, somehow, Spencer knows.

The impossible is now possible. The unfathomable is now painfully real.

Kyla's voice finally breaks and the weeping is enough to make even the hardest of hearts shatter.

"She's hurt, Spencer... she's hurt and I can't fix it... She's hurt and I can't fucking stop it..."

And Spencer is walking without knowing it. Running without knowing it.

And she is racing through a world in chaos, because the heroes are losing this time and the bad guys are winning and Spencer takes no notice of the panic along the campus, no notice of anyone or anything... not even Kyla's ragged sobs echoing in her ear...

Spencer is running, air forced into her lungs like a fist.

She is trying to fly, after so long of pretending that she didn't want to or didn't need to.

She is trying to fly back to Ashley before it is too late.

If it isn't already.

If it isn't already too late.

/ / /

No one knows where the Davies sisters live. Spencer was only shown once, after The Mind Reader incident, and that was more of an accident really.

She always kept her eyes closed, at the behest of Kyla and for her own safety.

'The less you know, the less they can hurt you.'

Or something like that. Of course, pain has a way of happening, doesn't matter how much you do to prevent it.

All those wrong-doers tried to hurt Spencer - in order to wound Ashley - but it didn't do the trick.

Spencer did that all on her own, in the end.

She walked away. She took off without a glance back. She told the love of her life that things just couldn't work out.

Spencer Carlin did what all those others could not - she defeated Ashley Davies.

The house is well hidden and Spencer brushes past walls of ivy and deep into the forest - she presses her hand to the recognition device and the door silently swings open.

And it is so quiet inside.

Like a tomb and Spencer hates her morbid thoughts, hates the silence, hates that the world is falling apart out there and... and...

And then there she is and Spencer suddenly hates everything, everyone... but that girl, that girl on the floor and not moving and surrounded by a pool of rich red blood.

That girl is the one thing, the one person, that Spencer loves in the whole universe.

"She was trying to save this kid, you know, and it was so simple looking... so easy and she looked so happy to help him and she smiled down at me, like always... but it was a trap and I should have seen it coming, I should have fucking seen it coming... I should have seen it..."

Kyla's voice is distant somehow, Spencer hearing it through a fog. She drops to her knees slowly, edging closer and closer to Ashley's still frame against the marble tiles.

"This... thing came up out of the ground and I tried to fight it off, god did I try... and then, Ashley was down there and there were others and everything was crazy after that. They were everywhere, multiplying over and over, tricking us and people were getting hurt and we tried to save them, we tried to save them, Spencer... we were trying to fucking save them all and... and I looked over and I saw it, I saw that damn thing just... I saw it happen. And I killed it, but... not soon enough. Not soon enough."

Kyla is crying once more, rocking back and forth and clutching Ashley's hand.

And Spencer is shaking, almost uncontrollably, as she looks at Ashley - eyes shut and face pale and skin slightly cool to the touch.

If she were listening closely, Spencer could probably hear the ringing of alarms - the warning signal that the sisters set up to alert them to peril around the globe, a way to stay on top of things - or she could even possibly hear the planes over-head, military scanning the skies and attempting to stop other-worldly threats.

She might even be able to hear the terror, the screams of people as they flee for the their lives... as the bad guys wreak havoc, as the bad guys destroy, as the bad guys take this opportunity to take over...

But all Spencer can hear is her own voice, soft and pleading.

"Don't do this... Don't do this, Ash..." Spencer whispers, leaning down and brushing those lips with her own. And her hands rest gingerly against Ashley's chest, shirt soaked through with life, damp to the touch.

Somewhere, in that cage of bones and supernatural muscle, Spencer wants to feel that heart beat - she wants to feel that which she broke and tossed away.

"You said you'd be there... you said you'd be there to catch me if I fell and I... I'm falling, Ashley... I'm falling..."

She cradles the cheek and rubs her thumb over the flesh and Ashley looks like a Monet painting now, clouded by Spencer's unshed tears, and she kisses the girl again.

And again. And again.

And Spencer cries harder, drifting away and down, placing stumbling lips upon the jaw and the temple.

"Save me..." Spencer hushes into Ashley's ear.

And she repeats it. She keeps saying it. She keeps saying it, hoping and praying for it to come true.

Because the world needs heroes, true... but Spencer needs a hero, too.

Spencer needs this hero.

And all she wants is the chance to take it all back, the months away and the things left unsaid. All she wants is the chance to look into Ashley's eyes once more.

But, this time, to never look away.

Then, Spencer feels it.

One. Two. Three. Beat. Beat. Beat. And she rears back quickly, wondering if it is a mistake or an illusion.

Beat... Beat... Beat...

But it is no illusion. It is real. It is Ashley's heart, picking up speed with every second. Rapid and strong, thrumming under Spencer's palms.

And she stares so hard, waiting for more... begging for more... craving more.

And, without thinking, Spencer says it all out loud - pulling Kyla from her sorrowful stupor.

"Save me, Ashley. You've got to, okay? You made a promise to me and... and I need you to save me. Now. Right now. C'mon, Ashley... you're fucking Batman, remember? Save. Me."

Beat. Beat. Beat. Faster and faster.

And then the fluttering of eyelids. And then the sharp intake of breath. And then Ashley's eyes open, slightly dazed and darting around. Like she had just been deeply asleep. Like she had just been jerked from a dream. Not at all like she had been close to death, stomach ripped up and wounded almost beyond repair. Not at all like she had lost so much blood.
Not at all like a girl about to die.

And Kyla is in shock as Ashley sits up, hissing in pain, but is quick to action - assessing the damage and asking questions and hugging her sister in a vice-grip that would crack the spine of normal people.

And Ashley is speaking, telling her sister not to worry and that it was just her body repairing - surely, hopefully - but her gaze is trained on Spencer.

Right on Spencer, aim true and sure, and as Kyla hugs her tightly... Ashley turns her palm upward, an offering to Spencer, and Spencer takes it.

This time, she takes it and means to keep it.

This time, she means to stay.

/ / /

Is there a happily ever after? Does such a thing exist?

Maybe in fairy tales. Maybe in storybooks that you read as a child, maybe in fantasies that parents teach you to believe - before the real world rips them away.

But... maybe... they do happen.

Maybe they do come true.

And it won't be like you imagine, white horse and knights and castles. It won't even be like your adult mind pictures, money and fame and big house on the beach.

Because this world is not a made-for-television drama.

You are not some regular rags-to-riches kind of person.

And even though, at first, girls who can fly and men who can kill you with their thoughts seemed like a dream... now it is just commonplace.

Well, as commonplace as something like that can be.

As commonplace as it can be to soar up in the air without wings. As commonplace as it can be to get thrown into another state and pop right up two seconds later, right where you started.

As commonplace as it can be for newscasters to report on the scores of games one minute and about a new super-villain called The Deadly Flame in the next minute, as if it happens all the time.

Which it does.

Life is one giant mystery and no one can ever figure it out.

Like... how did one man know to create two girls, to form them into powerful machines, to set them up to rescue the world?

Like... how did those girls decide not to run away from their fate and to be there when no one else can be, a light in the dark?

Like... how does love even start up with all of that going on? How do two people even find one another when everything is crazy and everyone is out for something?

And they still ask Spencer questions and she still does not answer.

She keeps it private, all the things she has learned and all she has seen. She just smiles and nods and shuts the door in their faces.

It's not for them anyway, what she shares with Ashley, it's for her alone.

Spencer can't tell the press that the only time she has ever seen Ashley nervous is when she finally brought her to meet the parents. And how Paula scared Ashley into silence, tight-lipped and wide-eyed, with lots of 'ma'am' and 'sirs' as the only words from her mouth.

She can't tell the papers that Ashley loves ice-cream at midnight and cries over sappy romantic films. She can't tell all the blogs about how Ashley can't clean to save her life - even if she can save a million people in one day.

Or, rather, Spencer won't tell them. This is for her, this is for them, this is their life away from the turmoil - a sliver of time that is just for the two of them.

Because Spencer accepts it now, the danger and the risk. She accepts the nights up waiting for Ashley to return and the kernel of doubt that says there will be a night where Ashley won't return. She accepts that on her back is a target, a bullseye she willingly wears and that others take full advantage of - she is the Lois Lane in this tall tale and she knows it.

Because the world comes before her and Spencer can finally accept that, can finally let it be.

Because, for Ashley, Spencer always comes before the world.

And that makes everything just about perfect.

Even-steven and all that, a balance that culminates in a kiss and arms around each other as they slumber, a safe place to land.

Is there a happily ever after?

Spencer knows the answer, she's just not telling.

/ / /

END