A/N Chap 11 review responses are in my forums as normal.

Arc 2: The Fugitive

Chapter Twelve: Boat Girl

Subject: Boat Girl

I found some clothes, but our roommate is still down about everything. Owe you for your help. Meet?

Send Message,

Naked

Taylor wasn't sure what brought her to the comments section of the PHO message boards. No, that wasn't true. She was on PHO because even after hours of cleaning, the so-called lobby of her clinic still looked like a room inside an abandoned, flood-ravaged dump.

She'd used muscle and power alike to empty all of the crushed desks and chairs out of the three old classrooms of the church annex she planned to convert into her clinic. She'd used the broom, ice scraper and dust pan she bought from the Buy'n Large as much as she could and stripped out most of the thick coating of mud from the floor, but she couldn't deny that the walls were ruined and the windows were gone.

Entourage told her they planned to drop an add on PHO in just two days, and Taylor had no clinic.

So, after six solid-hours of back-breaking work with almost nothing to show for it, she took a break for her first meal of the day, and tooled around on her lap top and mobile hotspot as she ate hotdogs and a can of barely-seasoned green beans.

She started with a search about what the local press now called the Industrial West massacre. Surprisingly, the networks kept her role out of it. The official word from the PRT was a gang battle, likely between elements of the Elite and a Russian smuggling ring.

The list of Russian capes killed or injured spawn several pages of comments from people wondering if Bastard Son of the Elite had struck again. The word on Bastard Son was that if you had a machine gun, and you were up against a little girl with a spoon that Bastard Son had given her, you were better off shooting yourself, because no matter what you were screwed.

It was in that same comments section that Taylor found the message. She had no doubt the message was from Yuki, the little Asian girl from their cell. And their roommate could only have been Maria. Taylor distinctly remembered healing Maria's gunshot wounds, but as she thought of it she remembered that the girl also took a vicious beating to her head.

"I'm probably going to regret this," Taylor muttered.

She sent a private message and blinked in surprise when she got an immediate response:

Boat Girl: What was the roommates name?

Naked: Maria. What was the last thing you told me before you passed out?

Boat Girl: Shut up and go get dressed.

Naked: It is you! Can we meet? I need to talk to you. Please?

Boat Girl: About what?

Naked: Maria. She's in a coma. Her parents have no money, the hospital is threatening to remove her life support.

Boat Girl: But I healed her.

Naked: The gun shots. The Russians hit her so much in the head she has brain damage. She's my best friend, I don't know what to do.

Boat Girl: Do her parents know about me?

Naked: They know a cape healed her. They don't speak English, so I'm not sure how much more they know. But they'd say yes if you offered.

Taylor considered her circumstances. In a box near her computer was five hundred brand new business cards which arrived in her rented mail box ten blocks south of the Exclusion Zone that morning. She picked them up while hunting for cleaning supplies. The number on the cards went to a second burner phone.

She was about to have an advertisement dropped on PHO, but what better advertising could she have than Quintessence healing a girl from a coma in a hospital?

Boat Girl: Is she still at the same hospital? Bayview West?

Naked: Yes. Will you come?

A glance at the clock showed it was five in the afternoon.

Boat Girl: Tell the family I'll be there at 6 pm tonight. We'll discuss payment when I get there. I understand they don't have money. I'm willing to barter.

Naked: THANK YOU! I'll let them know.

For only the second time, Taylor wore her healing costume that night. The sky was already growing dark as she pulled out of her collapsed garage and started driving south. By the time she reached the hospital parking lot, only the faintest hints of color hovered over the ocean to the west. She pulled on her mask, took a shaky breath that sent vapor into the cold, brittle air, and started toward the main entrance of the hospital.

According to Yuki, Maria's family was supposed to have someone waiting there with Yuki herself. Just like at UW Medical, the moment she walked in and let her obfuscation drop, everyone within the lobby of steel and glass became intimately aware they had a cape in their midst.

The tiny slip of an Asian girl who half-ran toward her from one of the islands of guest seating barely even reached Taylor's shoulders. In the clear light of the hospital lobby, she looked almost boyish in how straight her body was—no hips nor chest to speak of. The only feminine thing about her was the perfectly around, almost porcelain-doll perfection of her face.

She was grinning manically. "Are you…um…what…?"

"You can call me Quintessence," Taylor said. She tried to sound calm and self-assured, but she wasn't sure how well she succeeded. "And you?"

"Um…Yuki Ishikawa. Come on, I'll introduce you to Maria's brother Raul."

Raul wore jeans, worn sneakers and a sweater that was so old the white had turned to grey, and all the lettering she could see once filled it had faded to occasional splotches of incoherent color. He wasn't fat, but he wasn't thin either. He had a full head of rich, black hair in need of a trim, and enough whiskers on his lip to give the illusion of a mustache.

He stood only two inches taller than she did. "You the healing cape?"

His parents may not have spoken English, but Raul had only the barest of accents. "Yeah."

"Okay. Doc said you had to sign something about consultations or something. We don't have much money to pay, though."

"What does your family do?" Taylor fell in behind the young man, while Yuki trailed behind.

"Dad's a handyman. He was a General Contractor in Mexico City before Behemoth burned it down."

Taylor almost missed a step. "That's a coincidence. My clinic's due to open in a few days now and it's still a dump. It's north of the Exclusion Zone. Would he be willing to restore it for the cost of materials only? In return or my healing his daughter?"

"He'd do anything. For any of us," Raul said. That seemed to be the end of negotiation.

They didn't get much further than the information desk before a pair of fully-decked out PRT agents stepped into the lobby on the heels of a wiry little Indian doctor with round spectacles perched precariously on the end of his long nose.

Taylor froze and set her feet, ready for a fight. The two agents noticed and visibly tensed. It was the doctor who broke the brief impasse by clearing his throat.

"Mr. Lopez. This is the cape your parents wish to examine your sister?"

Raul nodded.

The doctor turned to Taylor. "I am Dr. Agarwal. You are?"

"Quintessence," Taylor said. She slowly reached to one of the many pockets on her overcoat and, aware of how tense the PRT agents were, removed one of her new business cards. "I was licensed yesterday for parahuman healing."

"Oh! Yes, yes, I heard! Quite exciting to have a healer in the city. Congratulations for using your power to heal instead of kill. If only more of you parahumans would try that, perhaps we would not find ourselves in situations like young Miss Lopez. There are permissions and waivers you must complete before we can allow you to see our patient, though it is good that you are licensed. This way, please."

The paperwork amounted to releasing the hospital of all liability in the event she made the patient worse, as well as statements agreeing to patient confidentiality, etc. etc. By the time she finished the paperwork, it was almost seven. At no point, however, did anyone question her real identity. It felt surreal to think that just two days ago she'd killed a man in the ER lobby just on the other side of the building.

Finally, they took an elevator up to the fifth floor ICU area.

Taylor had never been in an ICU before, but the moment Dr. Argawal led them out of the elevator she realized they were in the large, round tower that dominated the east side of the hospital from the west side. The entire space was circular, allowing the nurse's station a view and easy access to each of the rooms.

Standing in a clump looking out of place in their plain, threadbare clothes, stood a large family. Taylor counted eight of them not including Raul, and at least three generations judging from the two wizened grandparents that stood near one of the taller, larger women.

"Yeah, guess I should have warned you, Maria has a big family," Yuki said. "Um, that's Maria's dad Jorge. That's her mom, Beatrice. Those are her grandparents, Tomas and Cecile. That's her sister Claire, and her sister Jennifer, and her brother Carlos and her brother Luis."

The father asked Raul a question in Spanish. Taylor didn't know the words, but she understood the meaning easily enough from the man's surface thoughts. He was asking how much to heal Maria.

After Raul translated, Taylor looked at the father directly. "Not money. Work. My clinic is in bad shape. North of the No-zone. No water, mold, holes in the walls. You fix it for me for just materials, and I'll heal your daughter completely."

The father understood English better than he spoke it. Raul translated anyway, but Taylor could see that Jorge was already thinking about it. Finally, he nodded. "Si."

He offered his hand; Taylor accepted it. Even through her glove, she felt the man's strong grip.

"I take it then Mr. Lopez agrees to sign the waiver for parahuman healing?" Dr. Argawal asked.

This time, it was the family that had to sign the stack of paper absolving the hospital of any possible blame if anything went wrong. Only after all the paperwork was signed and the hospital was clad in a lawsuit-proof armor of paperwork did the doctor lead Taylor to the room where Maria Lopez lay in a coma.

She looked small.

Taylor didn't remember her being so small on the boat, but somehow the huge bed swallowed her slight form. A glance around showed six other patients in the room, none of whom had any more privacy than a pull curtain. Under the unsparing light, Taylor saw clearly for the first time the terrible violence that had been enacted upon Maria Lopez, and not for the first time she found herself regretting the fact that she could only kill the Russians once.

The girl's jaw had been wired together such that wires actually protruded through her cheeks. Both eyes looked black and blue, they were swollen so badly.

Taylor's eyes stung just looking at her.

"I'll need a stool," she said. "This might take a while."

She almost expected Argawal to give her a hard time, but fortunately he didn't. Instead, he cleared his throat. "May I observe?"

Taylor opened her mouth to tell him to leave, but as a nurse brought in a heavily padded, rolling stool, she realized she very much wanted him there. "I'd actually prefer it, if you have the time," she admitted.

"Oh, I do. Bayview West is primarily a teaching hospital. If you do not object, residents may come by as well."

"That's fine," Taylor said. "Just…no recording, please."

"Oh, of course not. That would violate our privacy rules."

Taylor slipped off her gloves. Nearby, she saw how Argawal studied her hands with interest. In his mind, she sensed that he could tell from her hands alone how young she was. It didn't matter, though.

Maria Lopez deserved better than this.

"I'm going to heal her jaw first," she announced. "And…her ribs too, feels like."

"Yes, she had four broken ribs, one of which was fractured quite badly. We've not operated due to the multitude of her injures. I understand that she received parahuman healing at…"

"I would prefer not to talk about that, Doctor," Taylor said softly. "Some experiences are just too bad to talk about."

She knew very well that she just implied strongly that she was, herself, a brand-new trigger from the Industrial West incident.

"I…of course."

The Force came at her summons. She concentrated it down through her hands, holding her breath as she did. She didn't manipulate Maria's bones, muscle or face with her telekinesis. That's not how the Force worked. Rather, it gave the body itself the energy to heal quickly. The only thing Taylor had to do was reset the mandible bone, but then again that's why she did that before waking the girl.

"I'm going to need someone to get the wiring out of her mouth," Taylor said.

Again, she was pleased that Argawal did not give her a hard time. Though, it was actually a young woman in a white lab coat who came with the tools necessary to remove the wiring that they'd put in to try and heal her jaw—before they realized she might not wake at all.

"Go ahead and remove the tube, too," Taylor said.

With a glance at Argawal, the female resident and a nurse removed the tube that had been breathing for the girl. Even before it was out, Taylor took a deep breath and placed a hand on Maria's forehead, and another on her chest, and once more summoned the Force. This time, sensing she was now on the clock with the life support removed, Taylor grabbed at her power and pushed it with effort into Maria's failing body.

Until, eventually, her body stopped accepting the flow. At first, Taylor reared back and gasped in horror. Had she failed? Was Maria dead?

A weak cough calmed Taylor down. The Force stopped because Maria was whole.

Mr. Lopez clutched his daughter's hand. "Maria, my angel, can you hear me?"

"Dad?"

Taylor almost fell off her stool when the sounds of clapping hands filled the room. She spun and gaped at the small squad of interns and residents that had evidently gathered while she was healing Maria.

"How long?" Taylor asked.

"It's been about two hours," Yuki said. She stood at Taylor's side, weeping openly. "You did it. You really did it."

"I…need to go," Taylor said. The exhaustion made it hard to keep her eyes open.

"Indeed, Quintessence. It was an honor, thank you for letting us observe," Argawal said. "If I may, have you considered seeking a residency here? With a performance like that, you could truly make a difference."

"I…thank you. I'll…think about it."

Jorge Lopez made his way around his daughter's bed, tears streaming down his rugged face into the massive, bushy mustache he wore. "I will bring my crew tomorrow. Where do you wish us to come?"

Taylor didn't even think about it. "The old Lutheran church on California Way, five blocks north of the Exclusion Zone."

He nodded. "We'll be there. Thank you, Quintessencia. Thank you for my daughter."

He shook her hand excessively before he returned to his crying wife's side. Taylor made her way through the crowd, nervously trying to deal with the gratitude and admiration of people who, just days ago, would have spit at her and then run in fear.

It wasn't until she was in the elevator heading down that the shakes began. She didn't even mind when Yuki put her arm around her shoulders. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I…what are you doing?"

"You looked like you needed a hug," Yuki pointed out.

"I…yeah, I guess I did. But why are you here, now?"

"Oh, well, I…kind of need your help. I'm a cape too, and I'm not sure what to do about it. Could you help me? And when did you learn to speak Spanish?"

~~Quintessence~~

~~Quintessence~~

"This place is so cool."

Yuki and Taylor sat across from each other with their hamburgers and sodas in the loft of the old church. Yuki looked around the place in fascination while she nibbled on her kid's size hamburger and fries.

Taylor, meanwhile, was on her second hamburger. Her late lunch was a long time ago, and even after one hamburger her stomach still angrily demanded more.

Taylor finally broached the topic that brought Yuki to the church in the first place. "You triggered on the boat?"

In the battery-powered LED lamplight, Yuki's eyes widened a moment before nodding. "Yeah. I guess…I guess I didn't realize it at first. When the soldiers started beating Maria, I screamed. I was afraid they would hurt me too, but I couldn't leave her. But they didn't see me. I didn't realize what was going on until one of them walked right through me. I thought maybe I'd died and became a ghost, but then I was real again when you came."

"Can you show me?"

She blushed. "Um, well, it's embarrassing. I can't take my clothes with me, so I end up naked. Oh, I forgot! You've already seen me naked so it doesn't matter!"

Before Taylor could point out how she never actually got a good look at the other girl, Yuki disappeared. Her clothes fluttered down onto the short pew that had served as her seat. Moments later, she reappeared next to the table. She covered her chest, shivering.

"Shit, it's cold! See, though? I can't keep my clothes on when I go ghost like that!"

Taylor felt her cheeks blush. Having never played sports and only done gym in school, she'd never seen another girl naked before the Bratva. What she got out of it was that, in comparison, she wasn't quite as flat as she made herself out to be. Yuki looked positively child-like as she quickly pulled her clothes back on.

The thought of how innocent she appeared clashed horribly with what Taylor knew the other girl experienced on that boat. She found herself studying the other girl's body, embarrassment lost in anger, and only then noticed bruises along the girl's ribs. Glancing down, she saw little round burns on the insides of her thighs before the girl pulled her jeans up. She'd been going commando, apparently.

Yuki paused in the middle of pulling her jeans on. She glanced wide-eyed at Taylor, her lips trembling. "Did I do something wrong?"

"What?" Taylor broke her gaze. "What do you mean?"

"You….you were suddenly really angry at me." Yuki sounded like she was on the verge of crying.

Which didn't help Taylor fight back her own urge to cry. "Not at you, Yuki. For you. I was angry for you. For what happened to you. About those burns and bruises. I'm… Go ahead and get dressed, please."

"Oh." The other girl's cheeks blossomed. She pulled her jeans up, then quickly pulled on her blouse, then the coat over it. She sat to pull on her socks and shoes.

"It's okay, you know. Maria had it worse. It's not like that was my first time. Besides, the bruises were from my uncle for coming back, and the burns are old. Uncle gave me to his friends all the time before he sold me to the Russians."

Her casual tone at first confused Taylor, until the true import of her words hit like a fist to her gut. "What? Your uncle…"

Yuki shrugged. "Did it to my sister, too. I don't even know where she is. He waited until we're sixteen to actually sell us. Before it was just favors, when we were younger. Uncle launders money for Tekiya, and any time he messes up he has to pay for it. So, he paid with us, you know? But he was really upset when I came back, because he'd already sold me to Tekiya, and they gave me to the Russians as a peace offering. So I was supposed to go…what….hmmm."

The tiny girl melted into Taylor's hug with a pleased purr, almost like a cat.

"You know, my life has been utter shit the passed two weeks." She held Yuki out at arm's length. "I think you may have me beat. Come over to the cot, take the clothes off again."

Her eyes widened. "But…you like girls?"

This time, it was Taylor's turn to blush. "No, silly. I'm going to heal you. Come on."

"Really? REALLY? Can you give me bigger boobs?"

"Um, no, sorry. My power doesn't work that way. Obviously." She motioned to her own chest.

Yuki blushed. "Right. Well, that's still really cool."

She blinked out of existence, disappearing not just from Taylor's side, but from her Force senses as well. A second later a naked Yuki ran toward Taylor's cot, quickly wrapping herself up in a sleeping bag as she shivered.

Taylor moved the propane heater closer. "Okay, show me anywhere it hurts, or any old scars."

Yuki looked at her in the dim lamp light, her eyes huge. "You're really going to heal me?"

"Yeah."

A single tear ran down her cheek. "Thank you."

It felt odd touching another girl in such sensitive areas—Yuki's skin felt cold and clammy from goosebumps and nervousness. But as she did so, Taylor realized what a beating the girl must have taken from her uncle. Nothing was broken—the Uncle must have been very careful to cause pain without breakage

Yuki's cheeks looked almost dark as Taylor laid her hands on each bruise and let the Force flow. Both girls were a little embarrassed when Taylor turned her attention to the burns on the inside of her thighs.

"Some of these look years old," she noted.

"Yeah."

"And you just turned sixteen?"

"Yeah."

The Force reduced the scars in size and severity until nothing remained by a slight discoloration, which Taylor knew would also fade in time. There were seven of them in all, four on her right thigh and three on her left, some of which were precariously close to the girl's intimates.

When she was done, Yuki was sniffing as quietly as she could. She started talking in a low, steady stream of words that came like soft bullets in the gloom of the loft.

"Uncle said I was only good for whoring. My sister and I were all tainted, mother said so. My dad was Burakumin. Like…um, a black person in the United States after your Civil War. Discriminated against. Low caste. Uncle called my Dad Eta. It means… 'filthy people.' Dad lied about it when he and Mother married, but Uncle found his family name in this book, the Tokushu Buraku Chimei Sokan. He died a few days later. Mother always said it was a car accident. But I think…I think Uncle and mother had him killed. Then Uncle moved us all here and told us that we were tainted. That he could not find us good husbands so we would have to work in the brothels. He gave us to his boss or to his soldiers. The boss liked to put car lighters on us. Uncle sold my sister last year. Don't know where she is. Maria knew about it all, and she…she… I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do."

Taylor stripped quickly out of her healing costume while the smaller girl talked, changing into a sleeping shirt before she lowered the heater, turned off the lanterns, and climbed into the cot next to the still weeping Yuki.

The tiny girl, as naked as the day she was born but now whole and unhurt, turned and clung to Taylor.

"You're going to stay here, with me," Taylor said when she finally found her voice. "You can help me with my clinic. You can come up with a cape name tomorrow. You are not going back to your Uncle or mother."

Rather than agree, Yuki actually cried louder even as she clung tightly to Taylor. She continued to cry into the night, until finally, after almost an hour, she sank into a deep, troubled sleep.