Hope Comes to Brockton Bay


Part 53: In which Hope and Amy have their beauty sleep interrupted by an unexpected visitor


After the news crews left, Hope and Amy re-entered the shelter. Lisa met them with a hug for Hope and a smile for Amy.

"That was brilliant!" she said, and jingled a donation tin. "They really wanted that interview, didn't they?"

Hope shrugged slightly. "It seemed like a good idea at the time," she allowed. Amy stumbled slightly, and Hope caught her. "Look," she said, "we're both really tired, so could we just get some sleep?"

"Oh, sure, sure," said Lisa. "We'll fix curtains around your beds, so you aren't disturbed by movement. And we'll ask everyone to keep it down."

She was as good as her word; heavy blankets strung as curtains muffled the outside noises to a certain extent, and Hope's fatigue did the rest. She may not have fallen asleep the exact instant her head hit the pillow, but the actual interval would have required an extremely precise timepiece to measure.


She woke up once, briefly, to someone shaking her shoulder. She opened her eyes to see Amy's face.

"Whassup?" she murmured.

"Can't sleep," came Amy's voice, sounding lost. "Sleep in your bed?"

"C'mon then," Hope offered, moving over as far as she could. Amy climbed on to the bed and snuggled up; Hope put her arms around her, and then extended a wing over her, as she had done with Vista.

Amy breathed out, relaxing; as far as Hope could tell, she was asleep by the time she finished exhaling. Hope wasn't far behind.


The second time she woke up, it was an indeterminate time later. She was dimly aware of someone shaking her again. She was also aware of Amy, snuggled up warmly beside her, fast asleep.

"No r'm," she mumbled. "Get noth'r bed."

Whoever it was, shook her harder. She opened her eyes, looking around to see Lisa leaning over her. "Hope!" whispered Lisa sharply. "There's someone here to see you. It's Glory Girl!"

Hope half-closed her eyes again. "Tell'r come back later. Tired. Sleep."

Lisa shook her head. She looked worried. "She won't take no for an answer. She says it's vital. If you don't go out there, she'll come in here. She's really agitated."

Hope blinked a few times, processing that. As her brain kicked over, she felt herself waking up, the warm fuzziness of sleep receding. She really wanted to go back to sleep, but it probably wasn't the best idea to keep an agitated Glory Girl waiting too long.

Carefully, she slid her arm out from under Amy's ribs, then pulled the blanket over the soundly sleeping girl. Her wings proved to be a bit of encumbrance when it came to rolling off the other side of the camp cot, but her right upper and lower wings managed to act as support so she could get to her feet without losing balance altogether. Lisa helped her stand upright, supporting her when she swayed a little.

"Gonna need some –" Lisa handed her a litre bottle of cold water, " – cold water. Uh, thanks." Popping the cap off, she drank down half without pausing, then handed back the bottle and skinned out of her clothes. Swapping the bottle for the clothes, she poured the remaining water over her head. It ran down her body in thin rivulets and pooled on the floor at her feet, leaving her body dry. But, in conjunction with the half-litre she had just ingested, it served to go a long way toward waking her up.

She took her clothes back from Lisa, and climbed into them again. "Okay," she said. "I'm almost human again. What did she say she wanted?"

"Just to talk to you," Lisa said. She indicated Amy. "I think it's about her."

Hope blinked. "Okay." I know something's going on there. But Amy hasn't opened up and I haven't pushed. Maybe I should have. She sighed. Time to go and defuse another unexploded bomb, I think.


By the time she got out into the general area, Glory Girl was pacing back and forth, looking more than just 'agitated'. She looked up as Hope approached her. "There you are," she declared.

"Here I am," agreed Hope.

"What took so long? I was beginning to wonder if they were slipping you out the back way."

Hope was too tired to even chuckle at the absurdity of this, though she did manage a weary smile. "Why would they do that?"

Glory Girl shook her head. "I don't know." Mood changing again, she looked closely at Hope. "I need to talk to you. As soon as possible."

Hope made a gesture with both hands that indicated, you are here, I am here. "So talk."

"Not here," hissed Glory Girl. "We need to talk in private. I don't want anyone else hearing what I've got to say."

"Oh," said Hope blankly. "Okay." She looked around for a few moments, as if a private spot was going to manifest itself in the middle of a crowded shelter. Nothing presented itself. Then her brain kicked properly into gear, and she pointed out the door. "Come on. Let's go flying."


It was easier said than done. Glory Girl, as a well-known cape, came in for her share of attention, but this was the first time she'd shown up at this shelter. However, Hope was a familiar sight here, and she had performed a considerable amount of healing assistance when she first turned up the day before. Everyone wanted to talk to her, to thank her, or even just to give her a heartfelt hug.

She smiled, thanked them, and excused herself, eventually ending up outside with Glory Girl.

"Whew!" she said with a little laugh. "My adoring public."

Glory Girl made an impatient noise. "You could have just asked them to stand aside. What I've got to say to you is important."

Hope looked at her, puzzled. "So are they. Everyone's important." She gestured skyward. "Shall we?"

Glory Girl nodded and shot skyward; Hope unfurled her wings and followed suit.


It was good to get into the air once more, not going anywhere in particular, just flying for the sake of flying. Once she got some altitude under her, Hope stretched her wings properly and pulled some hard loops and figure-eights, revelling in the rush of wind over her crystalline pinions. The rush of cooler air cleared the last cobwebs from her mind and she came to a hover, facing Glory Girl.

"You really like flying, don't you?" inquired the superhero.

"Oh, yeah," Hope affirmed with a nod and a brilliant smile. "It's the best thing ever. Better than hot showers and chocolate ice cream." She pulled another somersault in midair, then returned to a hover. "So, what's the problem?"

Glory Girl regarded her steadily. "Do you love Panacea?"

Hope blinked. What sort of a question is that? "Um, yes?" she ventured. "She's a really nice person, and I care a great deal about her ... wait," she said suddenly. "Do you mean love, as in 'want to care for her and keep her safe' or love, as in 'want to do sex things with'? Because I don't do sex things with anyone. I'm not ... I don't ... that doesn't happen with me."

Glory Girl snorted. She managed to make even that sound ladylike. "That happens with everyone. Trust me on this."

Hope shook her head. "Not with me," she corrected gently. "I don't have the hormones. My body doesn't produce them. I don't feel sexual attraction toward anyone, ever. Just like I don't look sexually attractive to anyone. Thank goodness," she added.

Glory Girl considered that. "That's really bizarre," she said at length. "Even if it's true. But you don't know Panacea –"

"Uh, that's Amy," interrupted Hope. "She doesn't use the other name anymore. She's very firm on the subject."

"Fine, then," snapped Glory Girl, irritated. "Amy. You don't know her, you don't know what she's willing to do to get what she wants."

Hope paused, thinking about Glory Girl's words. A few things were becoming clear now. "I think ... you'd better tell me what she did," she said slowly.

"First," said Glory Girl, "I want you to tell me how you feel about her." Her voice was insistent.

Hope shrugged slightly. "She's a sweet girl. I like her and I want to protect her. I care a great deal for her, and I can see she's been through a lot and she's very fragile, so I'm giving her all the attention and support she needs to work her way through her problems." She paused. "And yes, I love her."

Glory Girl blew out her breath in a long, aggravated sound. "I'm too late," she muttered. "She got to you."

"... got to me?" asked Hope, her head on one side.

"She adjusted your body chemistry, made you fixate on her," Glory Girl explained. "Made you love her."

Hope blinked. "No, I don't think so," she said after a moment's consideration. "I feel this way about everyone in need."

Glory Girl stared at her. "You're kidding."

"Nope." Hope shook her head. "I love people. I love to help them. It's what I do. When someone needs help, I give everything I've got to make it right. And right now, Amy needs that help the most. But I'm not fixated on her; I can help others too. When I was with the Wards, Vista and I became close. We still are."

Glory Girl shook her head. "You can't be serious. No-one can love everyone that unconditionally."

"Sure I can," said Hope. "Everyone deserves a chance." She paused. "What ... happened with you and Amy?"

Glory Girl shook her head angrily. "You probably won't believe me."

Hope moved closer, took Glory Girl's hands in hers. "Try me," she said as softly as she could, and still be heard over the rhythmic chiming of her wings.

Glory Girl's face crumpled. "She – she's had feelings for me. For years. Her own sister. She hated my boyfriend. Was glad that he's dead. And then when I wouldn't ... be with her, she ... did this to me. Changed the way I think. Mind-raped me. Made me want her. Want to be with her." She pulled her hands away from Hope's, clutched at her own forehead. "When I think about her, I want to go to her, be with her. Do what she wants."

"Wow," said Hope. "That's ... wow." She moved closer, put her arms around Glory Girl. The superhero resisted for a moment, then let her enfold her in a hug. "That sound horrible," she said. "Amy's said a little about it. I didn't know what she was talking about. But she said she's really sorry, and she'd change it back if she had a chance." She paused. "Why don't we give her a chance to make it right?"

Glory Girl pulled back away from her. "You can't be serious!" she shouted. "Didn't you hear what I just said? She changes people, manipulates them for her own ends!"

"I heard everything you said," Hope told her gently. "You've got no reason to lie to me. But you might be seeing things your way, instead of the way they actually are."

"What other way to see them is there?" snapped Glory Girl.

"How about from Amy's point of view?" prompted Hope.

"How about from my point of view, or my dad's?" yelled Glory Girl. "Amy was my sister. Okay, she was adopted, but that didn't matter. I loved her – like a sister! Dad treated her like a daughter. And then when Dad was hurt in the Leviathan attack, suffered brain damage, she wouldn't heal him! She's always said she can't heal brains! Even when we asked her to try, she refused, just let him sit there on the couch like a stuffed dummy, like the way she uses her powers is more important than her own goddamn foster father, the man who brought her up!"

She paused, catching her breath, and Hope interjected. "So what happened then?" she asked gently.

"Bonesaw happened then," snapped Glory Girl. "Invaded the house, did something to Dad, so Amy decided then to heal him." Her face twisted with disgust. "It took that to make her change her mind. All the pleading and begging I did, Mom did, nothing. A supervillain comes in, she changes her mind. Like what we want isn't even important to her."

"It might be more important than you think," murmured Hope. "So when did she do ... what she did ... to you?"

"I went after her, after she left a note and ran away," said Glory Girl. "Caught up with her. Tried to convince her to come back, that all was good, that we forgave her for holding out on Dad. But as soon as I hugged her ..."

"... it happened," Hope finished for her. Pieces were dropping into place now. "I think I see what's happened. And I think I can do something about it."

Glory Girl stared at her. "What can you do about it?"

"I can get her to fix it," Hope said. "What she did to you is wrong, on so many levels. But she knows that. And she wants to change it back. Make it right."

"And you believe her when she says that?" sneered Glory Girl.

"I do," said Hope. "You see, I trust her to do the right thing when she says she will."

"What about what she did to me and my family?" snapped Glory Girl bitterly. "Tell me where the 'right thing' was in all of that."

"It wasn't right. But she didn't have much of a choice," replied Hope levelly. "Especially after what you and your family did to her."

Glory Girl looked at her as though she was speaking in tongues. "What the hell did we do to her, to deserve this?" she asked.

"Well, let's see now," said Hope. "How long have you known who her true father was?"

"... a little while now," admitted Glory Girl. "Mom and Dad told me about it."

"And so, after Tattletale gave her the heads-up about that, with you in the room, when exactly did they sit her down and give her the true facts, so that she could work it through for herself?"

Glory Girl blinked. "They didn't," she said. "Because they didn't know how she'd react." She waved her hands. "And they were right! Look how she reacted when she did find out!"

"Yeah," said Hope. "Look how she reacted when she found out you'd been hiding it from her all this time. Couldn't you have trusted her to be sensible about it?"

Glory Girl's silence answered the question.

"So," said Hope, "it appears that the way to ensure her trustworthiness was to treat her as untrustworthy." She raised an eyebrow. "Good going there. Really. I mean it. You couldn't have done a better job of pushing her away if you tried." She raised a finger. "Oh wait, I was wrong. You did do a better job."

"Now wait just a minute –" snapped Glory Girl.

"No," said Hope calmly. "You wait. I haven't finished yet. We haven't covered the mind-screwing yet."

"Yes!" replied Glory Girl. "I keep telling you –"

"Not what she did to you," interrupted Hope. "What you did to her."

Glory Girl looked puzzled. "What the hell did I do to her?" she asked.

"Okay, look at it this way," said Hope. "Amy's about your age, right? But you're a little taller, more athletic, so she basically sees you as her big sister. She always looked up to you, thought you were the best thing since sliced bread. You're assertive, attractive, attentive to her. So even as a sister, she loved you. And then, just about the time she's hitting puberty, you trigger and get your powers." She paused for effect.

"Puberty is maybe the most emotionally vulnerable time in a person's life," she went on. "The body's changing, hormones galloping around the body, the brain is in a state of flux ... and the sex monster is just beginning to loom its ugly head. So this is happening to Amy ... and your powers kick in. One of which is to give everyone around you an intense feeling of awe. And I'm willing to bet she got dosed with it more than once."

Glory Girl mumbled something that may have been an affirmative.

"And so," Hope went on, "you went from being a loving sister to being an object of desire. Your power changes brain chemistry. It's like a drug. And you addicted your sister to it."

Glory Girl looked stricken. "I didn't mean to!" she blurted.

"And nor did she," Hope replied relentlessly.

"Yes she did!" snapped Glory Girl. "She's always been able to control her powers!"

"Okay, let's lay it out," Hope said. "She gets her powers. She can quite literally change someone's mind for them. She doesn't want to do this indiscriminately; she considers it to be way too much power to just be using willy-nilly. So she decides not to use that aspect of her powers. Which is entirely admirable. But causes her problems as people think she just isn't trying hard enough. Even though she's only trying to protect everyone else from the consequences of her powers, used for the wrong reasons."

She gave Glory Girl a look, to see if she was paying attention. "So then your father gets hurt. She can't just heal him outright without admitting she's been lying all this time, and she feels horribly guilty for letting him stay hurt. But then Bonesaw comes in and injures him to the point that he's likely to die. So she has to make her decision; keep up the pretence and let him die, or break her own rules. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. She breaks the rules, heals his brain. He chases off the villains, all is good. Except the cat is now out of the bag, everyone is going to know she can mess with brains, and she's just broken her cardinal rule. And everyone's going to know she's been lying all this time. So she does the only thing she thinks she can do."

"She ran away. Like a coward," said Glory Girl bitterly.

"No," said Hope. "Like someone who didn't believe she had a future there anymore. Everyone would have been why didn't you tell us? and she would have been under pressure to use her abilities in ways she didn't want to, sooner or later." She gave Glory Girl a direct look. "Tell me I'm wrong."

Glory Girl was silent.

Hope nodded once, then went on. "So then, she's run away, and you intercept her. She's already conflicted, she's a mess of emotions, she's still torn up from breaking her rules, even though she knew she had to, and you confront her. And you're still her object of love, of desire, that she knows that she can never have. And of course the temptation is there to make you want her. She wouldn't have been human if she didn't have that temptation. But she knew she shouldn't." She paused. "I bet she told you not to touch her."

A long moment, then Glory Girl nodded.

"But you did anyway. You grabbed her and hugged her. And there she was, all messed up inside, and the woman she loves more than anyone else in the world, wants to love her back, is right there, holding her. Full-body contact. Right then, right there, she couldn't help it. She did exactly what she knew she could do. She made you into someone who would love her back. And that's why she warned you not to touch her."

Silence, except for Hope's chiming wings. Glory Girl was watching her, mesmerised.

"And she had an immediate reaction of remorse. She offered to fix it, to make it right." Hope's voice was hypnotic. "And you rejected her, didn't you? You rejected everything about her. You rejected her love for you, rejected any chance you may have ever had for a relationship, and you rejected her as a person, just because she had one moment of weakness at a time of incredible stress."

And still, there was not a single note of scorn in her voice. No suggestion of judgement. Just a flat, calm, relentless laying out of the facts.

"So," said Hope. "I know what she did to you. I know what you did to her. There's breach of trust on both sides. There's a serious amount of mind-screwing on both sides. But you're the lucky one. Because what was done to you can be fixed. What was done to her can never be undone."

"How are you going to fix what was done to me?" challenged Glory Girl. "Every moment I'm not concentrating, I'm obsessing over that –"

"It's simple," said Hope. "She'll do it, and she'll do it right. Because I will ask her to."

"You can't seriously think you can trust her - !" burst out Glory Girl.

"But I do," retorted Hope. "She healed my eye. She saved the lives and sanity of twenty-odd members of the Chosen that Bonesaw had fused together into one pile of flesh. And she has done other things – things that I asked her to do – which have worked out perfectly. You see, I gave her love and trust and someone to lean on, which is all she really needed. And that has made all the difference."

Glory Girl was staring at her. "You're serious," she said.

Hope nodded. "She can fix what she did," she affirmed. "She will fix what she did. You can be free of whatever it's doing to you. All you have to do is trust me." She held out her hand.

After a long, long moment, Glory Girl took it.


Glory Girl sat in a chair. Hope stood behind her, hands on her shoulders. Amy, woken up by Lisa and fortified by about three cups of horribly strong coffee, sat in front of her on another chair.

"Are you sure about this?" asked Glory Girl, for about the third time.

Hope sighed. "Amy. You're just going to reverse what you did to her, right? Nothing else? Just change it back to the status quo?"

"I promise," Amy confirmed. "All I want to do is fix things, Vicky," she added, looking her foster sister in the face. "That's all I ever wanted to do."

"Well," said Hope, before Glory Girl could reply, "that's good enough for me. I trust Amy to do the right thing. I'm reading your body to make sure nothing untoward happens. Kindly trust me to know what I'm doing, all right?"

Reluctantly, Glory Girl reached out her hands, and let Amy take hold of them. Amy closed her eyes, concentrating.

Hope, good to her word, monitored what Amy did. It only took a second or so, and Hope very nearly missed the minuscule change in Glory Girl's brain functions.

And then it was over. Amy opened her hands, and reluctantly let Glory Girl's fingers slip from hers.

"Thank you," she whispered. "Thank you for letting me fix things."

Hope couldn't tell if Amy was addressing her or Glory Girl.

Glory Girl, for her part, seemed a little dazed. "Are you all right?" asked Hope, leaning down alongside her head.

"Holy god, what a relief," whispered Glory Girl. "I can't believe how much of a strain I was under." She gave Amy a glare, tempered only fractionally by gratitude. "Thanks for fixing what you did. Don't you ever dare do that again."

She stood up and turned to Hope. "And thank you for showing me just how far I had my head shoved up my ass," she said. "Until you pointed all that out, I just hadn't put it together."

Hope shrugged. "Sometimes you just need someone with an outside perspective. Friends?"

Glory Girl smiled. "Friends." She clasped Hope's hand, then gasped in surprise as Hope gave her an impulsive hug.

"Silly Vicky," said Hope, giving her one last squeeze before releasing her, "I don't just shake hands with my friends."

Glory Girl's mouth quirked. "So I see." She looked from Hope to Amy and back. "I've got to get back now, but I just wanted to say, thanks." She looked directly at Amy. "One of these days, I might even forgive you. But in the meantime, you do what Hope says. She seems to know what she's doing."

Amy nodded and ducked her head. "I already do," she said with a shy smile. "Take care, Vicky."

"You too, Amy." She turned, took two steps out of the door, and then launched herself skyward.

Hope looked at Amy. "You think we can get some more sleep time, or will any more of your relatives be dropping in?"

Amy shrugged. "I hope not. Race you."

It was close; Amy won by a short head. Hope won the wrestling match for the blanket, but then shared it anyway.

Even the coffee failed to keep them awake.


To be continued ...