Disclaimer: the usual. I don't own 'em get over it. *sigh* I really get tired of disclaimers. You know the drill, don't like html. --- is little dots * is thoughts. Read review enjoy. I've actually re-uploaded the story with some new bits and fixed bits. So double enjoy.

~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~

Indiana Chicago didn't know when things started to go wrong, but suddenly, they were sitting in the Food Court and Birony and Silvya weren't talking to each other. She had gotten a shock this morning when two of her best friends had shown up in the Recovery Unit and announced that they were going to treat her to a day out for her birthday. Maybe it was in hopes she would talk, or maybe they just wanted to make her feel better, let her know they were there for her. Whatever their good intentions they had fallen apart as soon as they'd gotten to the Mall, and now, instead of listening to the cheerful chatter of her friends, she was watching the steady ebb and flow of the crowd and trying to place them in society.

There were the new mothers, with babes in arms, at one table, a couple of bums spread about the place, the regular lunch guys in suits, your picnicking family types, and some seriously weird body guard guys, six in all, sitting in a group of to the side.

Indiana's attention was draw back to her own table. Birony was talking about the new boat her parents had brought, but she shut up when Silvya kicked her under the table.

*Now how do I know that?* Indiana thought to herself.

That had started to happen a lot after the accident, this--- Knowing--- of things, and it scared her silly. Because anything out of the ordinary was wrong, weird, strange---

Mutant.

The last thought was what scared her the most, that she was a mutant, a hated and feared genetic screw-up, one of the minority that the majority wanted dead.

Indiana smiled to show her friends that she took no offence at the accidental mention of parents. Everyone had spent the last five weeks treating her as if she was ticking bomb, able to go off at any second. She just wished that they'd stop. It was getting inane. Yes, she had lost her parents in a massive thirty-car pile-up on one of Canada's busiest motorways, and yes she had been the only survivor, just.

But Indiana was getting sick of all the therapy sessions, and the heart-to- hearts, and all the well-wishers. She just wanted to be left alone and to get on with her life, that's why she'd brought only certain things today. Because as soon as Indiana entered the Mall she knew for certain she was never going back to the hospital.

With a smile and some hand gestures Indiana indicated that she was going to the Rest Rooms. That was another thing that had changed after the accident, her voice, or lack thereof. She had been struck dumb it seemed, by the shock of being in a space no higher then thirty centimeters with the dead bodies of both her parents for two days. When Indiana thought back to the random photographs that made up her memory of that time she couldn't blame herself for being struck dumb. The doctors assured her that her voice would return in time, and then tried various measures to try and bring it back. None had worked. One kindly old Doctor had told her that her voice would return when she needed it, and not before. It hadn't helped.

With a sigh she rose and headed for the bathroom.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Review please. Be nice. Reviews make me feel good.