When Lily Stein awoke from her coma, her father sat by her bedside. She woke up, confused about her environment. Hadn't she been sitting in the car? They had been driving home in horrendous weather. Somehow, she had ended up in a hospital bed. She panicked and almost hyperventilated, the memories of that evening and the crash flooding her mind, hitting her like a tsunami.
"It's alright," Dr. Stein said. He placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. "You're here, you're safe."
Lily calmed down, as far as that was possible for the situation. She turned her head to the other side, expecting to see her mother there. Clarissa Stein was not present. She had been resting in her grave for three months now.
Her father broke the sad news and Lily broke down in tears. Her mother was gone; she couldn't even say goodbye. Dr. Stein leaned in to give her a hug and comfort her during these hard times. They talked about what had happened and Dr. Stein said something he really should not have said.
"Don't worry, darling," Dr. Stein told her, "the culprit will be sufficiently punished."
Lily furrowed her brow. "What do you mean."
The mechanic will get his due. I'll make sure of that."
Lily slowly shook her head, flabbergasted, and she leaned back against the pillows, piled up to support her sitting upright. "It wasn't him."
She remembered it clearly. Their driver would have been home early if it weren't for the check-up of the car. He had expressed his dismay about time with his family being stolen away from him. He only dared to speak because Dr. Stein wasn't with them. When they finally returned home after the visit to the garage – which had taken longer than the driver liked – it had started to pour. The driver wanted to be home so badly that he had speeded. Clarissa noticed and told him to slow down. Initially, he had listened to her, but he soon speeded again. On a particularly slippery road, he had lost his grip due to the excessive speed and the car slipped. It crashed into the side of a building. The driver miraculously only suffered a broken rib and a bruised leg. The Steins were off far worse. Lily had sustained brain damage and had fallen into a coma. Clarissa Stein passed away on the way to the hospital.
The driver testified at the police station. To save himself, he claimed Jax had worked on the brakes and 'fixed' them, but the driver thought the mechanic had tampered with them. He would have braked properly if it weren't for the tinkering and the sabotage of the malicious black-skinned mechanic. Dr. Stein learned of this and persuaded the cops not to arrest him. Instead, he brought Jax to his lab and began serving as Dr. Stein's unofficial lab rat.
Lily was horrified to learn what her father had been doing and she was disgusted by the proud and vengeful tone in his voice. She could not believe that Jax should be blamed for something because it was the easy thing to do and she barely cared about the fact that she missed out on three months of her life.
However, she knew she would not be able to talk her father out of this crazy plan. from birth, he had tried to instill into her brain that she deserved this great life they were leading; she was a Stein, for goodness' sake, a descendant from Germans! Fair-skinned and blue-eyed and with great name recognition, she was told she would get everything she ever wanted and that she deserved it, that she should be unapologetic for her behavior.
And yet, her mother managed to keep her humble and, well, kept her from acting like a true Stein. She took more after her mother than her father would like. He did kind of blame his wife for telling Lily time and time again that minorities didn't deserve to be discriminated against and that they deserved the same rights as whites.
Lily told Dr. Stein she wanted to be alone, and he obeyed and left the room. Each time he came to visit her during her stay in the hospital, their conversations were short and cold. Lily refused to smile or feel good around her father unless he promised to release Jax. He could not even lie to her to get some affection, and he no longer stayed by her bedside for an hour, but merely five minutes.
As soon as Lily was allowed to leave the hospital, she cut ties with her father. No matter what he tried, she did not want to talk to him. As far as she was concerned, he might as well have been dead.
She visited the company her father worked for once. She came in completely unannounced and did something her father would be proud of; she used her name and status to get access to areas she shouldn't have access to. Excuse me, do you know who I am? I demand to see the security tapes immediately. The poor employees must have had a big scare – "my god, there's two of them" – but they pulled up the security tapes she wanted to see. Lily took a quick picture and left before anyone could alert Dr. Stein that his daughter had asked to see the security tapes and took a picture of some footage showing Jax's imprisoned life.
She brought this to her first lawyer, presenting her case to him. However, he was not willing to help her out. Pictures, however authentic they may be, could be doctored. It was her against Mercury Labs and her testimony would be drowned out by the hundreds of employees the defense could call to the stand – employees who would probably confirm there was no prisoner held inside the facility.
Lily sought out more lawyers, but they all told her the same things. She always left feeling disappointed in the system, but with hope. She eventually decided it was worth the wait. The perfect moment would present itself eventually. It will come, she told herself. Her father would be brought to justice for what he was doing to Jax.
Lily's patience paid off. After the Fall of the New Reich, she contacted a brilliant lawyer who was willing to defend her case. She dragged her father to court at last, to a judge was not afraid of the wrath of Dr. Stein and who only cared about fair trials and punishment. He previously refused to sentence a Latina to a prison camp because, like Jax, she had been at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Dr. Stein and his lawyer relied heavily on racism and the Stein reputation. Yet, that defense did not defend Dr. Stein at all; it only further proved Stein was more than capable of holding a black boy captive because he happened to have fixed the car on the day of an otherwise unrelated accident. Lily's lawyer had gathered enough information in the meantime to prove that Stein had indeed been keeping Jax prisoner. This included a surprising testimony of Stein's long-time friend and protégée Dr. Caitlin Snow, who condemns Dr. Stein and strongly disagrees with his actions.
The judge ruled in Lily's favor. He declared Dr. Stein guilty of violating human rights and illegal experimentations. Lily had won and the case was reported in the media all over the country.
Dr. Stein went to prison, where he stayed until his death. Lily was allowed to join the police as they went to Mercury Labs to free Jax. He looked different than the first time they'd seen each other. He'd become dangerously thin and his body was covered with scars in different shapes and sizes. There once would've been a smile on his face, but that had been beaten out of him a long time ago. His eyes were empty and seemed lifeless. The most telling was that, when the door opened for the final time, Jax did not react anymore. He just waited for them to take him away with his head bowed down.
"Jax." The prisoner lifted his head, if only out of curiosity – the guards never spoke a word to him – and his eyes widened in confusion when he saw Lily. "You're free."
It took him a while to process the meaning of those specific words. He glanced at the door leading to the labs as they passed it and walked to the elevator. Only when he saw the lobby and, through the glass, the outside world again did it truly sink in. He was free.
Standing outside was a woman he hadn't seen in a long time: his mother. He couldn't help himself and the tears streamed down his face. It only grew worse when he finally held his mother in his arms again. They did not let go for at least ten minutes. They cried on each other's shoulders, not minding or even noticing the press standing around them, shooting footage and pictures of the reunion. When all was said and done and Jax was ready to go home, both he and his mother turned to Lily and extensively thanked her.
To this day, she is still a good friend of the Jackson family. She also has become a prominent advocate against race-based discrimination and she used the Stein name recognition to call for a more tolerant society.
Vigilantes in this part don't necessarily need to be heroes who punch bad guys in the face. as previously established, they can be everyday people fighting the injustices without any violence. Lily Stein saved a life at the cost of her father's freedom, a price she's paid willingly and gladly. She more than deserves this entry.
