"Dad," Rory wandered over to his father. "I'm concerned. Bridget's still out late and it's almost ten o'clock."
"Rory," Paul rolled his chair round from the computer. "You sister didn't go out. She's still upstairs."
"Oh yeah…" Rory realized his confusion. "Sorry, force of habit…" He started to turn away, then thought of something and turned back to his father. "Are you sure she's up there?"
Paul reached out to smack him out of annoyance without hurting him and Rory jumped out of the reach of his arm.
"I mean," Rory looked to Kerry sorting the Supergirl pictures from Kyle's collection and the newspaper then back to his father. "Maybe we ought to turn on the news to keep an eye on her. She's up to a hundred and twenty-three sightings so far."
"Thanks for reminding me." Kerry determinedly and eagerly switched the channel over to a network for the local TV news and scrambled to record it to be prepared just in case the news did feature another sighting.
"I cannot believe you two." Cate sat curled up on the sofa with a book, relishing her night off with a Danielle Steele novel and a hot cup of coca. "I will have you know that your sister is home tonight and in my bathtub taking a long relaxing soak." She paused to take a sip of her cocoa. "And besides, even she could not be stupid enough to vanish from this house while we are so close to busting her."
"Cate…" Paul whiled around partially from the computer trying to sway her back to his mindset. "What did we agree to the other night? We don't have enough evidence. There is no possible way our dear sweet Beej could possibly be… Kerry, turn the volume up so I can hear it."
Kerry made a face determined to bust her sister and beamed privately picturing the look in Bridget's face when they got the truth out of her. On some level, she didn't want to know, but then she just wanted to be a part of the secret. If Detroit's reported unsolved mystery appeared on the news and Bridget was home, it was all over there; Bridget had been telling the truth. However, if there were no sightings tonight then it might mean that Bridget might have forsaken whatever superhuman gifts she now had for the night and they had more evidence it was actually her. Switching channels from Discovery Channel to the local ABC network, the family's chosen regular local news outlet, Kerry missed the opening montage and caught the cusp end of the opening story for the night.
"…had no official comment." Head anchor John Cage reported the news. "Two blocks of Lafayette Street are closed down tonight as police and rescue teams monitor a possible jumper on the top floor of the Ritter Building in downtown Detroit. The structure was built in 1899 and since being used as a school, it now houses many of the cities' legislative offices including human services and twelve lawyer's offices. After James Gregory Kent, 39, an unemployed grocery clerk was refused state health and financial services, he climbed out on the ledge of the building screaming that he was going to jump rather than live his life without the financial support he believed was due him. Cursing at God, the world and his otherwise uncaring relatives, Kent was almost pulled in an hour ago as the footage shows…"
Footage on the TV showed Kent skirting attempts to be rescued as the downdraft from TV news helicopters nearly blew him off the building.
"But the police involvement has only made his status even more desperate as he has managed to climb up even higher up on the roof, where he is now clutching on to a pipe for safety. Human services refused to give a comment, but the police will drop any charges they have on Kent if he gives up willingly. We will keep you updated as this story continues.
"As denizens of Detroit have been aware of for almost a month, we're being haunted. No, not by ghosts, but a seemingly angelic blonde presence in red and blue who up close looks remarkably like the character of Supergirl, one of the trademark characters from the DC Comics series of comic books, even right down to the familiar red and yellow "S" emblazoned across her chest."
"She was so hot!!" A series of teenagers started screaming in a montage of clips.
"I saw her flying over the courthouse."
"I think she goes to my school!"
"No, she goes to my school!" Kerry told the TV. "I even share my bathroom with her!"
"My best friend saw her tossing over a truck over on Monroe Street." A televised young girl replied. "Just as the police arrived, she sailed up into the sky. I later learned the guys in the truck had sped through a stoplight trying to escape the police."
"She plucked my daughter out of traffic!"
"I've seen her over the Highland Park area a lot."
"Supergirl, will you marry me?!"
"As if her ego wasn't big enough…" Rory stared at all the TV coverage from past stories. "Wait a second, we haven't heard from Bridget's ego in a while have we?"
"No, we haven't…" Kerry looked to him and reflected on that fact. "Isn't it interesting?"
"Officially, the police department has nothing to say about these alleged sightings," Cage returned to the screen with the familiar icon of the Kryptonian superhero in the upper right-hand corner of the screen. "However, they have to admit that street gang activity has decreased in Detroit by at least twenty percent and they now have eighty percent of all local wanted felons off the streets or in the hospital after experiencing flipped over vehicles or… underwear burn."
Paul cringed a bit in his seat. According to the morning newspaper, a deadbeat dad from out of Milwaukee was found hanging off a radio tower by the band in his underwear. No one knew how he got three hundred feet into the air, but when he got down, the former Point Place native was screaming about flying blonde that had thrown him around as if he were a toy.
"However, one Manhattan police detective would like to believe that our lone possible female superhero possibly exists." Cage continued. "Lieutenant Ed O'Neil has been with the New York City Police Department for forty years and has been a bit of a maverick known for using psychics and mediums for solving unsolvable murder cases, but now, he's been turning to our own possibly extra-terrestrial comic cutie to try and get her help in another case at the top of his books. Since last night, O'Neil has been shining a searchlight with a red comic book symbol painted on it into the sky and aiming it eastward toward Detroit in trying to get her attention."
"In 1998," O'Neil appeared in the Detroit news. "An unidentified party attacked, raped and murdered seven young girls within the span of three weeks using the same M.O. within Central Park before he vanished. I have talked to three witnesses and two psychics who have given me leads to follow, and yet, this creep still runs loose. I will not retire until I have this waste of a human life off the street and closure for the families of the victims."
"Oh, gee, you think we should tell Bridget about this?" Rory looked to Kerry.
"But why would we do that?" Kerry regressed back to being condescending sarcastic. "I mean… our sister's just a typical stuck-up and materialistic prima donna…" She looked to her mother. "Or she used to be…." Cate just stared down to her daughter and tried to scoff at the notion.
"Lt. O'Neil has tried to contact the young heroine through the Detroit police force, but they have not been able to complete the request."
"Now, John…" Cage's co-anchor, Ashley Clarkson, commented on the story. "I've been hearing a lot about this girl and what she's supposedly been doing, but why can't we just get a picture of her to prove she exists?"
"Good question, Ashley," John turned to her. "Now, from what I understand, for the first three days of her appearances, we know the newspapers were buying up all the pictures they could get of her, but as late, no one has been able to get a good photo of her. Rumor has it she can drain camera batteries and prevent herself from being photographed. The Detroit Tribune is offering $2000 for a decent up close photo of her."
"Cate," Paul turned to his rave-haired wife. "We still got film in the family camera, don't we?"
"Yeah, we still got a few frames left over from…." Cate realized what he was thinking. "Paul, busting Bridget is one thing. Outing her identity to the world is another thing!"
"I could superimpose her face on to Helen Slater's body." Rory spoke up referring to the one actress to have actually played the role and also to have worn the costume.
"I'm sure the newspaper is smarter than that." Kerry stabbed his idea before he got to far before rolling her eyes back to the TV.
"Well, that's one way to protect your secret identity." Ashley commented on TV. "Might want to start getting ready for winter, we got a cold… Wait, we're getting a new update from the Ritter building jumper where our own Katey Bundy is on the scene." She changed her routine for the new story. "Katey, can you tell us what's happening?"
"Did we get her? Are you sure we got her?" The Christina Applegate look-alike spoke up bundled up from the weather at the news line across the street at the Ritter Building then realized she was on the air. "Ashley, just a moment ago, a police negotiator dangling from a police helicopter tried to pluck Kent off the roof but he slipped and knocked himself and Kent off the steep roof. Just as that happened, a red streak swept over our heads and caught both men, depositing them safely at the end of the block well away from our cameras!"
The Hennessy family in unison lowered their heads and dropped their mouths open.
"I guess that's sighting hundred and twenty four for us." Katey jumped excitedly with the field report. "Back to you."
"She played me!!!" Cate screeched and spun around the end of the living room sofa as she launched to her feet. "I had her, and she played me! Depressed, my ass!"
"Cate, calm down!" Paul rushed to stop her at the foot of the stairs.
"Yeah, mom," Rory jumped up ready to confront Bridget. "I hear she's bulletproof now." He smirked being funny. "I wouldn't want to break my hand trying to hit her."
"Rory!!!"
"Mom, " Kerry had to get her little comment in as well. "You don't want to go up there without kryptonite handy!"
"Kerry!" Paul faced his daughter as Cate rushed past him and up to her bathroom upstairs above the living room. Her spirit was determined, her trust was broken and her maternal self was desperate. With her husband and other progeny behind her, she quietly and unwaveringly marched into her bedroom, her fingers reaching into a ceramic pot in the room off her bedroom and held up the ring of extra keys for the house. One key unlocked her bathroom.
"Cate," Paul caught up to her. "I want you to calm down." He tried to dissuade her thoughts with a look of compassion.
"I am calm!" Cate snapped at him under her breath. "Bridget is my daughter, and I got to know." She unlocked the door. "And I believe my daughter is not in this…" She swung the door open, took two steps and saw her daughter's face floating in the water under the suds. "Bridget?"
"Huh… what?" The blond one opened her eyes and sunk under the water. There was nothing but an unbroken layer of foam for a moment and then she lifted her head up. "Mom?!" She looked around a moment. "Did I fall asleep?'
Kerry walked in, saw her sister floating under the water and cursed under breath. Foiled again! She turned back out past her father and brother standing outside the room.
"Bridget," Cate had to know the truth. "Did you leave this house tonight?" Bridget reacted confused and violated as she tried to understand where this question was coming.
"What?!" She tried to discreetly cover herself up in the foamy and soapy water. "You mean like this?!"
"Never mind…" Cate seemed to find her answer. "Sorry, honey… you just… enjoy your bath… You might want to get out before you prune up." She gasped, placed her right hand to her head and tried to stroll out of embarrassment. Her feeling was awkward, the situation was embarrassing and the moment anticlimactic. Her emotions were vented now. Cate could just grit her teeth together feeling ashamed of what she was doing.
"Sorry, Beej…" Paul covered his eyes as he reached to the door and pulled it shut. There was a sound of Cate the mom hailing herself for thinking what she did and Paul trying to comfort her. Kerry screeched frustratedly through the house and Rory started spouting the facts behind the would-be confrontation. The family was getting even more confused. Was Bridget secretly a superhuman protector for the city, or had she just merely changed in her attitude for the better?
Lifting herself up from out of the bath, Bridget braced herself on the sides of the tub as she reared her body up from out of the water, torrents of water poured down out from the costume she was wearing hidden under the foam. The soapy scented bath had covered it entirely, but had saturated it down to a second layer of skin. Her cape hung straight, drops and rivulets of water pouring from its corners. Bath water still pouring out of her ever body crevice, Bridget put one foot on to the floor and placed her hand against the door, her other hand pulling her wet hair out of her face. She hoped this outfit would not shrink in the downstairs dryer. Forget that, she'd use the Laundromat. It was more private.
"I've got to get my own place." She whispered to herself.