Chapter 17

The world below was misted in white clouds circling around the houses and blurring over the vast trees. The silence was deafening. But it was world at it's most beautiful to Bubbles. It was peaceful and beautiful with the rays of heated sunshine against her back and the silence of the morning surrounding her. Morning was always her favorite time of day. It meant that another bright new day of fun and love and promise had arisen. However, today she had a mission.

Bubbles floated slightly above her house in the suburbs of Townsville. A sweet little house seemingly glowing with family unity and yet identical to the houses around it. It was snuggled safely between two hedge fences and a white picket fence that laced the front of the lawn. And a little white gate slowly banging up against it's opened lock, bringing an air of mystery and perhaps even horror to the sweet little home.

She landed on the sun-bleached sidewalk with a large lump in her throat. Bubbles swallowed hard as she stopped the gate from swinging. Her mitt was resting on the gate when a loud yell was heard and a sobbing scream. It was very quick and sad as if the breeze had brought it along. Bubbles's tiny mitt clutched the top of the gate. She took a deep breath.

"Things that are pretty on the outside…can be ugly on the inside." Bubbles whispered softly. She opened the gate and walked to the front door peeking it open just a crack. The door let out a squeak as she looked in.

The walls were scratched with dark marks etching across the white walls. The family photo, one they had gotten from Mr. Banwick's so many years ago was hanging on its side. Slivers of glass littered the carpeted floor. Bubbles pushed open the door against a table that had fallen from the hallway. A smashed vase lay helplessly on the floor while Bubbles floated in.

She was more scared than she had ever been. Her house was a mess and as she quietly ventured forward, she could her soft whimpering from somewhere inside the house. Bubbles took a deep breath and flew into the living room.

The couch was turned over on its side and the end table with a broken leg laid beneath her. Broken. Bubbles put her hands over her mouth in shock. Who…who could've done this to my home? Bubbles questioned. But, she all ready knew the answer. She heard some light sobs from behind the couch.

The blonde-haired girl peeked behind the sofa carefully.

Nancy Fisher lied on the carpeted floor with her robe wrapped around her more like a blanket. Her knees were tucked up to her chest and she was weeping…softly into the sleeves of the robe that draped over her slim hands. Her face was covered by the thick sleeves of the blanketed robe. Nacy's brown hair circled around her head as she wept carefully as prey trying not to be discovered.

"Mommy?" Bubbles innocent voice stopped Nancy's weak cries. Through the sleeves over Nancy's face Bubbles heard:

"Bubbles?" Nancy whispered fearfully.

"Mommy what happened?" Bubbles asked kneeling next to her mother's form. Nancy shivered and she turned away from her surrogate daughter as more sobs shook her frame.

"Bubbles." She said again, swallowing hard. "You have to leave honey…I…I need you to…" She began to cry again. Bubbles hugged her.

"Mommy, what happened?" Her voice began to get shrill and more and more frightened. "Mommy what's going on?!" Nancy lay motionless with her covered hands still shielding her face. For a moment Bubbles thought her mother had passed out again. "Mommy?" She whispered her eyes were teary and her voice was shrill but soft.

Mrs. Fisher slowly lowered the hands that covered her face. The cuffs of the sleeves slid down over her nose and over her lips and finally revealed the picture of her mother's face.

"Mommy!" Bubbles cried tears flying from her eyes.

Nancy's face was black and blue. The edges of her face were jaggedly cut with a thin line that stretched around as if she had stuck her face in something with a ragged edge. The lines weren't bleeding but circled around her sullen face. Her lip had split and rivulets of blood dribbled over her chin curving around her jawbone. Her cheeks were swollen and her nose broken. Nancy Fisher's face wore a testimony of everything that had happened. Nancy needn't have said a word. Her face told the story.

"Bubbles, you have to leave. I…I'll send you to live with your aunt. My sister…" Nancy sat up shakily slouching as she put a shaky hand to her head.

"But…Mommy I all ready am going." Bubbles's wiped her eyes. "Come with me Mommy. Come and live with me an' my sisters." Bubbles lip quivered as she spoke the next words in a whisper, "Please Mommy. I don't want to be scared anymore. I don't want…I don't want you to be afraid…I didn't want you to be hurt. Please Mommy…please come with me." The blonde girl pleaded clinging to her mother.

Nancy didn't understand. She wasn't quite sure what her daughter meant. But, inside something…something told her that what she was speaking of was far greater than she could ever hope to understand. The little girl knew far more than Nancy could have fathomed…that, Nancy had always known about her.

"I…can't." Nancy whispered.

"Whyyyyy?" Bubbles whined looking into that beaten face.

"I belong here…I have to…have to take care of Jack. He needs me." Nancy lied back against the turned over couch with a barely audible whisper she spoke, "He needs me."

"No…you can't let him do this! You gotta be safe with-" Bubbles began but she never got to finish.

"NANCY!" A voice, and a tone, Bubbles had known oh to well. Her body twitched and she braced herself as heart rate rose. The heavy footsteps of her father approached them. Nancy held Bubbles to her.

"No…" She spoke in an undertone as those footsteps drew nearer like the heavy thump of a great house tumbling to the ground. Bubbles's breath was coming out in gasps of fear as she felt her mother's arms around her, clutching her tightly.

"NANCY!" He bellowed with a glint in his eyes, which had never been quite as evil. Like the grasp of sanity had let go of him, Jack circled around the fallen couch slowly with a hiss to his voice when he spoke. "Here you are."

She tensed and held Bubbles. She whispered harshly, "Go Bubbles, when he grabs me…just go. Don't even look back. I love you." Nancy said it quickly and covered Bubbles with her robe just as Jack grabbed her shoulder.

"Nancy! What the hell is wrong with you! Don't you REALIZE how IMPORTANT it is to find her?! Why are you WASTING TIME?!" Jack growled, as his grip grew tighter. Nancy yelped.

"MOMMY!" Bubbles shrieked. Jack's piercing blue eyes shot toward her. Bubbles cowered beneath his shadow.

"Jack NO! Don't hurt her Jack!" Nancy begged almost screaming he threw her to the side. Nancy hit the wall harshly and she yelled out in pain again.

"Here you are." Jack's voice seethed out with an odd mix of satisfaction and anger. Bubbles was hefted off the ground by her collar, till she was face to face with her furious father. Her legs kicked, as she no longer was grounded. She winced as he breathed hard with a funny scent on his breath. Alcohol.

Jack Fisher was usually not a big drinker. A simple sip here and there with business partners was usually the norm for a man such as himself. But, when things got bad. Really bad. It was back to the old habit for him. He had only dipped into the alcohol this badly twice before. Once when Nancy and himself were suffering from financial troubles. And once again when Bubbles's was only two-years-old. On Christmas Eve. That was a time Bubbles had tried so hard to forget. The first time her daddy had ever struck her.

Bubbles's eyes shimmered with fear as she remembered that smell on his breath and the feel of his angry hands. The look in his eyes was almost inhuman. The sound of his voice was hitting her hard. It was as if he was hurting her without even touching her.

Please Bubbles begged to no one but herself please let him not hurt me too badly. Please let him leave Mommy alone. I WANNA GO HOME! She cried in her head closing her eyes tightly. But then, it hit her. But…I'm a superhero. He can't hurt me! Bubbles's blue eyes blinked open with the realization. "Oh yeah." She said aloud.

"Oh yeah?" Jack questioned with a deranged sound to his usually pleasant voice. "Is that all you have to SAY?" He screamed. But, Bubbles's eyes showed no more fear. They showed only anger. However, Jack could not see this in her. Bubbles's teeth grit and she gave the most wretched glare she'd ever made. The anger and pain that had been suppressed over the years built up in her voice until:

"How could you?" Bubbles let out a horse statement with tears in her eyes. Jack's lips curled into a sneer with the look at his "hopeless" yet defiant daughter. He brought back his fist.

"NO JACK! DON'T!" Nancy screamed. But it was too late as Jack's hand flew toward the face of the tiny girl with the power expected to take down a man.

However, that fist didn't connect with Bubbles's face.

Jack Fisher was shocked as his daughter lifted him, by his balled up fist, into the air and over her into the wall. Jack shook his now throbbing head. Bubbles stood before him huffing heavily with hate, actual hate, in her eyes.

"How could you do this to your family?!" She screeched lifting him above her head and throwing him again. "I'm your daughter!" She cried again, with tears flowing freely now as he hit the all ready overturned couch to the other direction. Jack was hoisted up by his collar till he was face to face with the floating child. She sneered at him, crying. "We're your family, not your enemy." She closed her eyes in pain as she relived the most painful years of her life, "WE SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN AFAID OF YOU! YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO PROTECT US!" Bubbles cried rearing back her fist and punching him in the face. All she had been feeling turning into a blind rage. Her tiny mitt smashing into her father's face hard enough that she was sure a bruise would have formed…at the very least.

"A father's supposed to love and protect his family!" Bubbles stated hitting him again and again. "YOU NEVER DID THAT!" Bubbles was now sobbing. "YOU NEVER LOVED US!" Bubbles shrilly wept as she pounded him again and again, her fists burning.

She reared back her fist again, the tears blurring her vision. Her fist was shaking and Jack's face was swollen and bruised. Bubbles's anger and frustration and fear controlled her as she mercilessly harmed her own father. He hadn't uttered a word out of shock. Now he couldn't of if he had tried. "You never loved us." Bubbles whispered. She swung.

"STOP IT! STOP!" Nancy shrieked. "STOP! PLEASE STOP!" Nancy cried, the tears spilling over her cheeks. "Please…" She sobbed. "I'll do anything you want just please don't hurt him…please." Nancy wept into her hands.

Bubbles looked at her mother stunned and then to Jack. Her father. His eyes were black and blue. Blood trickled down the side of his face, and there was a big, ugly bruise on his cheek. Like hers.

Bubbles Fisher gasped as the realization hit her. She had become him. Become the person she'd feared and shied away from and secretly wished he'd just stay on vacation forever. Him. She dropped her father down and covered her face with her mitts.

"What have I done?" The little blonde five-year-old questioned. She couldn't imagine looking herself in the face again. She couldn't imagine what her mother now thought. "I'm…sorry…I'm so sorry." She whispered. She took off but Nancy stopped her.

"No! Don't go. Bubbles, it's not your fault." Nancy snapped from her shock. She reached her arms up to Bubbles and she reluctantly floated down. Mrs. Fisher was still shaking as the tiny blonde floated to her arms "Shhhh. You don't have to be like him." Nancy said comfortingly, her mind still in a bit of a scramble. "Jack's a good man, but he's made a lot of mistakes in his life. You don't have to make those mistakes."

"I couldn't stop myself, Mommy!" Bubbles cried openly. "I just thought of all those bad things he did and how scared he made me an' you. I…I didn't want to hurt him! I'm sorry!" She wailed.

"It's okay. You don't have to let that anger control you." Nancy tried to keep her emotions down, the thing that was important was her daughter and husband and calming both of them down. She was unusually calm herself.

"I don't wanna stay anymore. I don't wanna be hurt or hurt anyone." Bubbles sniffled sadly. "But…but I don't want to leave you Mommy. I don't want you to be hurt either." Bubbles begged to her surrogate mother with the bluest eyes.

"Bubbles…" Nancy began, "I don't think that me going with you is for the best."

"Why?!" Bubbles questioned again.

"Well, I have to help your father. He…he needs help now. I know that he won't be able to stop by himself and we both need help." She glanced over to him, his lifeless form lied on the ground. His breathing was shallow. She looked back to her own daughter. "I knew I should've never kept you here." Nancy's eyes began to fill with tears. "I knew it." She whispered.

"I won't leave you!" The blonde cried again sadly. Nancy Fisher looked into those soft blue eyes. She'd seen them over and over as her daughter had grown up…but she never realized how truly beautiful they were. Nancy bit her lower lip and shook her head.

"I think it's about time I let you go, Bubbles." Nancy whispered slowly, "I need to take care of Jack and you need to go on. You were never meant to stay here in this family anyway." Nancy began to cry, "We were supposed to love you and care for you. I was supposed to protect you…I never did that. Why?" Nancy asked herself pathetically. Bubbles just rubbed her mitt over her mother's hand.

"It's okay, shhhh. I'm sorry." Bubbles consoled.

"No…no, it was my fault. But, I'm not going to let it happen anymore. I have to take control of my life." Nancy's voice was a little stronger now. "You have to take control of yours." She looked her daughter in the eyes. "You are very special Bubbles. You have a special gift, don't EVER use it for bad things. Don't EVER let your emotions control it Bubbles. You're very special, but I can't let you be in harms way anymore. Please…go on." Nancy gripped Bubbles's tiny mitt tightly. Bubbles was all ready weeping.

"I-I can't. I-I won't." She wept holding onto her mother. Nancy nodded slowly.

"Please Bubbles, I don't want you to be hurt anymore." They were silent. Bubbles gulped deeply. Her eyes spilling with tears.

"Will I…will I see you or Daddy…ever?" Bubbles questioned. Nancy nodded closing her eyes tightly and forcing out some more tears.

"I'm sure you will." Nancy hugged her daughter for the last time. "I'm sorry, honey. So sorry."

"Me too, Mommy." Bubbles rested her head against her mother's chest as they wept in the corner of the room. The glass shards circled around them in the disheveled living room as their weak bond grew stronger, but would, undoubtedly, be broken.