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"Are you sure you want to do this again?" Rex asked Circe. Circe was looking out the window of the jet plane.
"Yes." Circe said firmly. She turned to Bobo who was flying the plane. "We there yet?"
"Almost." Bobo was uncharacteristically quiet. Usually he would be teasing Circe or making crude jokes, but today he was almost respectful. If Rex didn't know better, he'd have thought that it was Robo Bobo.
"Thanks." She said.
Bobo just nodded. "Almost there."
"Why are you going through this again? What changed?" Rex was curious.
Circe sighed. "Lots of things that happened to me after they threw me out, really messed me up. I'll probably be working through them for the rest of my life. But telling my family to kiss off might not be a good start to dealing with this. I really should have heard them out."
Rex squeezed her hand. After a while she gave him a squeeze back.
"Get ready for landing." Bobo announced. A few minutes later, Circe was standing in front of her old home. Nothing much has changed. There was the exterior white vinyl siding, the white picket fence, and the neat little pebble and brick path that lead to a small porch. She looked up at Bobo, who gave her a thumbs up. "Anytime you're ready to go." He said. She gave him a grateful smile. He put his feet up on the dash board and pulled out a magazine. She looked at Rex who was looking at her.
"Ready?" He asked.
"Ready." She answered. They walked up the pathway.
0o0
"I'm sorry for my outburst." Circe said as she at a small table with her parents opposite her. Rex sat next to her. Pulling out some index cards, she started reading them out loud. "There's a lot of hurt I am processing through right now. But I guess I want to know why you did it. I was… am your daughter. Shouldn't you have tried to help me? Did I mean so little to you?" Circe stopped and looked at them expectantly.
Her mother dabbed the side of her eyes. Her father remained quiet but his dour look softened.
Finally, her mother took a shaky breath and spoke. "I guess we were scared." She said softly. "All those stories in the newspaper… we had no way of knowing what… what you might do… Later when we learned that some people can control their mutations…" She broke down and softly sobbed.
Her father continued. "We were scared. Remember Otis from down the street?"
Circe shook her head. She did not remember Otis.
"His son got the sickness. He tore through the house… killed his mother and sister before he was put down by Providence." His father said flatly.
"What about those things you said to me? About being a disgrace and an embarrassment to you?" Circe glowered at them.
"I was angry. I just saw all my dreams die when… I know I was being selfish. I know that now. You were always different and it was wrong of me to try to make you into me." Circe's mother took a deep breath before continuing. "I had a breakdown after you left."
That was unexpected. Circe looked at her mother in surprise.
She nodded. "I was in the hospital for over a year. I worked with a therapist. She helped me work through my issues. I realized how wrong I was. When I got out we tried looking for you."
"We didn't know where you were, or even where to start looking." Her father added. "We finally concluded that you had died."
"I'm not sure I can believe you." Circe answered.
"I know a trite, I'm sorry, isn't going to cut it. But maybe we can start slow. You don't have to pretend that everything is fine. But maybe we can start with dinner once a month." Her mother started.
"I guess… we can try that." Circe said slowly.
"We also want you to meet someone." Her father added. He got up and went to the bottom of the stairs. "Androtimos!"
"Yeah?" A male voice answered.
"Come down." He called.
There was the sound of the door opening and footsteps coming down the stairs.
A young boy appeared. "Yes, father?"
"Circe, meet your brother Androtimos." Her father said putting a hand on his son's back.
"You see Circe, I was pregnant when we found out that you had the sickness." Her mother said. "Your father was frightened for both of us."
Circe stared at the little boy who had her eyes and nose. She got up slowly and walked to the boy. They stared at each other.
"Hello?" The little boy spoke first. "Are you my sister?"
Circe nodded unable to speak.
"Ok, bye." He turned around to go back upstairs.
"Wait, Androtimos." His father ordered. "We're going to have dinner soon. Please go wash your hands and come back down."
"Oh, okay." Androtimos pouted as he went upstairs.
Circe looked at her father. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"We didn't know how to bring it up. We were hoping that we could reconcile first." He said. "Androtimos helped us realize all the things we did wrong with you. Can you forgive us?"
It was the first time she ever heard her father ask for forgiveness. "I… I… don't know."
Her father looked disappointed. "I understand. I didn't think it would be easy. Hopefully, one day you can find it in your heart…" He trailed off and walked back to his seat.
His wife put her hand on his arm as if to comfort him.
"Circe, please stay for dinner and get to know your brother. I know we did you wrong but he never has. Stay and don't deprive your brother of his sister." His mother said.
Circe felt like it was emotional sabotage. "Look, you just sprung this on me." She could feel her anger rise. "I'm not sure how to feel."
Rex got up. "I think it's time to go. It's nice to see you again. Tell Andy, we'll catch him later." He ushered Circe out.
Once outside, Circe exploded. Can you believe them?" She practically shouted. "They just up and tell me that I have a brother! They replaced me and then ask me to forgive them. They almost had me until… I can't believe that they'd do that to me!"
Rex wisely waited for her to run out of steam. When she was done, he spoke. "Feeling better?"
"No! I'm not feeling better!" She growled. Running her hands through her hair, she paced around the front yard. "I need to go for a walk." She stormed off.
Rex shook his head.
"You understand why we did what we did." Her mother had stepped outside. She looked imploringly at Rex.
Rex paused a moment. "Ma'am, I'm not here to judge you. If anything, the Nanite Event has taught me that people do what they think is best… but what they think is best might not always be the best."
She looked at him questioningly.
Rex sighed. "I'm going to check on Circe." He left her standing on the porch.
0o0
Circe was walking on the side of the street when Rex caught up to her. He came along side but remained silent.
"Am I overreacting?" She asked.
"Depends on what you mean by overreact, I guess. You didn't blow down their doors or windows." Rex shrugged. "For the record, I don't think they were replacing you. She was pregnant before they found out you were… you know…an EVO."
"I think they just want to stop feeling guilty. They don't care about me!" She declared.
"I didn't quite get that either. They do feel bad for throwing you out but they thought they were protecting the baby. But I don't think they're trying to bring you back just to make themselves feel better. They just want to right a wrong." Rex said.
"You think so?" She asked him.
"Well, I think after the initial fear wore off, they probably felt really bad about throwing you out." Rex theorized.
"She did have that breakdown. I wonder if Androtimos was born before or after the breakdown?" She wondered out loud.
"You can ask, if you go back. But hey, you have a brother, like me." Rex pointed out.
"Except he's so much younger…" She paused. "I hope he's not crazy like Caesar."
"Hey! Caesar's not… well, he's getting better." Rex conceded.
"Okay, so where do I go from here? I can't keep being this angsty teenager that keeps blowing up at her parents." She said.
"I don't know." Rex admitted. "But you need to decide if you're going to let them be apart of your life or tell them to get lost. But either way you're going to need to forgive them."
"What?" Circe stopped in her tracks.
"Yeah," Rex turned to look at her. "If you don't want anything to do with them you have to forgive them and if you do want them in your life you have to forgive them."
"That doesn't make any sense." Circe declared as she started walking again.
"Look, Doc, helped me with this when I was angry at Caesar for that whole shooting-a-laser-at-me thing. Holding a grudge only hurts me. It gives the person power to hurt me all over again every time I think about it. So I have to drop it. It's not easy and forgive doesn't mean I necessarily allow them back into my life. It just means that I don't let the anger and hurt eat at me." Rex said.
"I don't think I can do that." She said in a small voice. "I'm not a saint like you."
Rex laughed. "I'm not a saint… but I am awesome." He gave her a toothy grin. She laughed and gave him a playful shove. "So what's it gonna be?" He asked.
She thought about it.
0o0
Three months later…
"So how's the therapy sessions going with your parents?" Walter asked offhandedly.
"A little slow. But we're getting all our grievances out. I think it's really helping. But Andy is real cute." Circe said brightening. "The other day he lined up all his dolls…"
"Action figures." Rex corrected her.
Circe rolled her eyes. "Action figures and had a meeting to decide if I could be in his secret club."
"So what did they decide?" Walter asked.
Circe rolled back her sleeve. A crudely drawn A with purple ink lay on her skin.
"Ha! That's cute… if a little disturbing." Tuck said.
"How is it disturbing?" Cricket asked. "We have nanite ink tattoos."
The little group sat around the table talking amicably about random things. Rex noticed that Circe did not withdraw any time family came up. She was open about her own situation. She and her parents were not buddies yet but the healing had begun. It also helped that Andy loved his older sister and Circe seemed to have a soft spot for him too.
"Oh, look at the time." Circe checked her watch. "I need to pick Andy up from his playdate so we can go on our playdate."
"Okay, have fun." Beverly called out.
Rex got up with her. "Hey, I'm proud of you." He told her.
"Why?" She asked.
"You took a bad situation and made it into… well, if not perfect… something better." Rex finished awkwardly.
Circe smiled. "Thanks. I couldn't have done it without you."
Rex puffed up his chest. "Well, you know me. I'm an expert on families."
"Mijo, can you come here? I need a test subject who can stand up to grueling temperatures." Caesar called from down the hall.
"Ack! Quick, pretend you didn't hear him" Rex turned the other way and ran to the hanger.
Circe watched with amusement before following him.
Sorry, for the delay. I developed bronchitis and wasn't feeling up to writing. But I hope you liked it. Not a lot of action just straight up drama. I am thinking up some new stories. I hope you stick around for them. Thank you for reading, reviewing and favoring.
God Bless!