Lauren started at the popcorn ceiling above her, bored out of her mind. Andy and their mom weren't back yet from trying to get supplies. After the whole incident with Sentinel Services and everyone figuring out exactly who they were and what they could do; the underground decided that it wasn't a good idea to let Andy and Lauren go anywhere together. Unfortunately, that meant one of them got stuck in a room by themselves for long periods of time.

Lauren understandably hated this. She hated being stuck in a room all by herself with only her thoughts to keep her company, hated being alone, hated being left behind, hated all of it. She wanted to be out helping people but she couldn't, not until the next time they were invited to help out which rarely happened.

It had been three months and she had left a total of two times. At least Andy got out of the stupid room. He hated being stuck there more than Lauren did.

Lauren sighed and rolled onto her stomach. She just had to wait until they got back, then at least she would have someone to talk to.

She looked at the music box sitting on the ground next to the cot she was laying on. She was going to get rid of it when they first ran and got out of D.C. but she just couldn't. No matter how much she tried to convince herself it was a good idea, that it would help, she just couldn't. She hadn't played in a while. Not since she showed it to Andy. After seeing how it affected him, knowing that it affected her the exact same way, she knew that her Dad had been right. It was bad for them, but she just couldn't get rid of it. It was a part of her history.

Lauren reached her hand out about to open the lid but before she could reach it she felt a searing pain go through her upper right arm. She bolted upright clutching her arm where she felt the phantom pain.

"What the hell?" she whispered to herself.

Her mind started going a million miles per minute. Andy, her connection to Andy, could she be feeling something he felt? What would that mean? Did Andy get hurt? What was going on?

She got up and started pacing the room, not that there was any space to pace in. She walked anxiously back and forth in about 3 yards of space. She tried to calm herself down but it wasn't working very well. She stopped pacing and took a deep breath. There was nothing she could do until the others got back. Then she could see if her theory was true.

About a half-hour later Lauren heard the door open in the next room over. She bolted to the door and threw it open even though she wasn't supposed to open the door ever.

She made eye contact with Andy who was clutching his upper right arm, blood soaking through a rag he had pressed on it. Lauren was instantly across the room checking on him.

"What happened?" she asked, pressing on his arm where it was bleeding as he sat on a chair. Their mom had run to get supplies from the small bathroom across the hall.

"Bullet graze, purifiers were there," Andy said grimacing as Lauren pulled the rag he had been using to try to stop the bleeding to see the wound.

As Lauren inspected the wound Andy watched her.

"How bad is it?" he asked.

She sighed, "Not too bad I don't think. Like you said it's just a graze, but there is still a lot of blood."

"It hurts like a bitch." he said, half-heartedly laughing.

"I would think," Lauren said. She got up and grabbed a clean cloth from next to the kitchen sink. She walked back over, "How long ago did this happen?"

"I don't know, maybe a half-hour. I kinda lost track of time." Andy said, shrugging.

She paused, "I- I think I felt it when you got shot," she said quietly, her voice shaking as she put pressure on the wound again. Andy stared at her as she kept talking, "I felt this searing pain go through my upper right arm about a half-hour, maybe forty minutes ago."

Andy stared at the floor, "That's definitely not normal"

Lauren rolled her eyes, "Since when have we been normal?"

"Fair point." he laughed then winced, "Damn that hurts."

"Well if you stopped moving it wouldn't hurt," she said, poking him in the stomach.

Andy rolled his eyes, "Says the person who keeps talking to me."

Lauren was going to say a snarky reply but Caitlin walked in before she could. Both siblings stopped talking and looked up at her, waiting for any kind of direction. They both only knew enough about medicine that they had to stop the bleeding and keep the wound clean.

"I have all the stuff I could find, there wasn't any numbing cream. Lauren can you move over a little bit so I can get to the wound." Their mom said. Lauren nodded and moved back a little bit, watching with worried eyes.

"Okay, I'm done. Are you okay?" Caitlin asked her son. There hadn't been any numbing cream so she had to sew the wound without it. She remembered having to sew herself with a much smaller wound with numbing cream and pain medication and it still hurt a lot. She couldn't imagine what Andy was feeling right now.

"What do you think?" Andy mumbled, hanging his head barely conscious. Lauen was watching him intently, her brows furrowed. She gently held his wrist on his uninjured arm.

"Do you want to go lay down?" Lauren asked quietly. Caitlin almost didn't hear her.

He nodded, closing his eyes. Lauren gently helped him onto the cot next to hers and put a blanket over him. Caitlin could tell he fell asleep within seconds.

She walked over to Lauren, "Make sure he drinks water when he wakes up. And change the bandage in 12 hours."

"Wait, why me? Are you going somewhere?" Lauren asked quickly, facing her mom.

Caitlin sighed thinking about the reason they needed supplies in the first place, "Yeah, Lorna and John need help. Marcos is busy helping the mutants here and there are a lot of mutants out there that need help. We have to set up a place for them and a system for them to survive. It'll probably be a day or two. Andy was helping get some initial supplies for those mutants to get them set up. We can't leave until we know they can survive on their own and stay hidden."

"We need you. Why can't Lorna and John handle it? They're smart, why can't they do it on their own?" Lauren said, stepping forward, her eyes frantic.

"Because sometimes it's too much for just two people to handle, Lauren. They have a lot on their plate." Caitlin said defeated, Her kids needed her but Lorna and Marcos needed her more. There was so much they didn't know and she couldn't tell them.

Lauren rolled her eyes, "Like what?"

"Keeping you safe for one. They are constantly making sure that no one finds you and Andy. They are making sure what's left of Sentinel Services doesn't find us. Not to mention taking care of the displaced mutants that were pushed out of their homes by the government or Purifiers. There is so much you don't see!" Caitlin said, starting to get frustrated. Half of what they did was to keep them safe and all they ever did was complain.

"Maybe if you'd let us help more than once a month we would know what was happening and we could help," Lauren said, crossing her arms bitterly.

Caitlin sighed, "You know that's not safe."

"What about just helping people here? Instead of helping we are just stuck here all the time." Lauren said motioning around the room. "We're not even supposed to go into the main room when you're not here. Only leave to go to the bathroom or get food and all that crap."

"You know why. They blame you two for what happened. They have no idea Esme and her sisters were there. They think you're the reason that they were declared illegal for just existing." Caitlin tried to explain even though she knew she was fighting a hopeless battle. Lauren was stubborn to a fault, she wasn't going to let this argument go even if she stopped today. It would just be brought up over and over again.

"Are you going to leave then? You clearly don't want to actually help us." Lauren said, sitting on her cot facing her brother.

"Lauren." Caitlin tried.

Lauren interrupted her, "Just go. I'll make sure Andy's okay just like I always do. ."

Andy was laying on the cot next to Lauren's trying to sleep a little under a day later. His arm really hurt. He kind of felt bad about how hard he squeezed Lauren's wrist while his mom had been stitching it up.

He sat up, careful not to let anything touch where his arm was wounded, and sat on the bed unsure of what to do with himself.

"I hate being stuck here." He said finally.

"I know. I do too, but until mom gets back we can't argue with her to let us help. Besides, you like just got shot." Lauren said, laying on her cot staring at the ceiling.

Andy sighed, "Yeah I know but I feel useless. We could be doing so much more instead were just stuck here doing nothing. It's stupid."

"Mom says that we can't help here because everyone blames us. I think she was worried that if we tried to help they would try to hurt us or yell at us or something," she said sitting up.

"If they tried they wouldn't get very far. We'd stop them," he said point-blank. No one could hurt them when they were prepared. Only telepaths really ever stood a chance. Unfortunately, those were also the people with the most malicious intent.

"I think that worries her more than the alternative," Lauren said.

Andy sighed. Lauren was right, what they could do still freaked their mom out. Using their powers around her still made her slightly uncomfortable even after well over a year. He hated it, their powers were a part of them and they weren't going away anytime soon.

"Is this really what we're going to do with the rest of our lives? Hide forever?" Andy said, shifting the conversation in a different direction.

"I've been thinking about that too. I mean, is this our fate? Just being stuck here, hiding constantly, not allowed to help." Lauren said getting up and started walking aimlessly around the room as she talked.

"What if we just leave, go somewhere, do something, anything?" he said, shifting how he was sitting on the cot.

Lauren faced him, "We can't-"

He interrupted her before she could finish, "Can't we though? What's stopping us?"

Lauren paused looking around the room desperately trying to find the right thing to say. She glanced at the music box sitting on the floor then shook her head.

"We can't leave Mom alone." she finally said.

"But we can't just stay here and do nothing either," Andy said then paused, "The world blames us for what happened right. What if we prove them wrong somehow by helping people."

"Maybe...But how would we explain that to Mom? it would be really dangerous and she never even lets us help her do small things. How would we convince her?" Lauren said, sitting back down on her cot.

"I don't think we could," Andy said quietly.

"So we should just leave? Abandoned everyone?" Lauren said getting up again unsure of what to do with herself

"Not forever, just until they see what we would be doing was a good thing, that we were helping people," Andy said, moving to sit next to Lauren on her cot being careful with his arm still.

Lauren didn't say anything at first. Andy got worried she would tell him no again. He couldn't accept living like this anymore. If this was what their fate was he wasn't going to just accept it.

"If we do this we'd have to leave tonight before mom gets back. This would be a big decision to make in a couple of hours," she finally said.

"I know but I can't keep living like this. This can't be the rest of our lives." Andy said quickly, watching Lauren intently, hoping to convince her.

Lauren stared at the ground for a while before she said anything, "Let's do it. Just trying to help people. In the beginning, they won't trust us but eventually, they will see. They'll figure out that we're trying to be the good guys."

"We'll do this right. I promise. We'll find a way to fix this," Andy said smiling, "We should like pack stuff."

"Yeah we probably should," Lauren said laughing.

*So I got bored and needed a break from some other stuff I've been trying to write for a couple of months so I wrote this. Enjoy!*