Recovery 7-1

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"Let's go somewhere." Lisa closed her laptop and stood up. "Let's just get out of the house for today."

"What? Where did this come from?" I set down my book, careful to preserve my place with a length of ribbon.

"Aren't you bored of just hanging around an empty house?" Lisa gestured at the mostly empty space.

I laughed. "It's empty cause we are on a budget remember?"

"Pfff it's not li-"

"A budget You made." I reminded her.

"Yeah bu-"

"And posted on the fridge, in emails, and texted to everyone."

She scowled at me. "Yes. Thank you, I remember."

I smiled back at her, happy with my petty revenge for her cutting my kitchen spending.

"Used bookstore." She reclaimed her crown with a single utterance. "Imagine it. I'm sure there has to be a few around here."

I frowned at her. "That's cheating."

"In a city like Chicago? I bet maybe you could even find the classics in good condition."

I clamped my hands over my ears. "Stop it."

She smiled wickedly. "I wouldn't say a first edition or two would be-"

I couldn't resist anymore, "I'm going to go get in the shower."

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A brief cab ride later saw us standing outside Bock Ordered Books. It looked a bit on the strange side, advertising occult books, various crystals and the like. My growing trepidation was assuaged with my first step inside.

I inhaled the smell of old leather, and crisp dry paper that could only be the work of many books and a good dehumidifier. A bookstore that actually cared about its books. Looking past the shiny, plastic coated, cardboard covered, excuses for literary work, I could see the true treasures among the shelves. Authors whose names were synonymous with epic tales, fantastical stories, and many hours spent with my nose in a book.

"You're cute when you drool over books." Lisa looped her arm through mine and slid up close to me so we could go down one narrow aisle together.

"I'm not drooling." I wiped my mouth to be sure.

Her eyes danced victoriously. "We should have some time to browse, so make sure you find something good."

The hair on my neck stood on end. "What did you do?"

"Nothing." She gave me her most innocent face. It was a dead give away and she knew it.

"Why don't I believe that?" I sighed.

"Taylor. It is nothing, just maybe plan on meeting Tori for a little clothes shopping. That's all, I promise." Her tone was still far too sweet.

"It won't be like you are imagining it to be." She pulled on my arm to get me moving again. "Besides, you need some better clothes."

"What's wrong with what I've got on?"

"Nothing, if we are book shopping but if I want to drag you out to some of the places in this city…?"

Her implication that my wardrobe was inadequate was both worrying and a bit hurtful.

She squeezed my arm. "I didn't mean it like that, Taylor. I should have said WE need better clothes."

I continued to yield to my worries. "Why?"

She stopped us, her expression eager but also a bit apprehensive. "I want to take you somewhere this weekend."

"Where?"

"It's a surprise."

"A surprise like the dance club that was really a deli?" I asked her. "Or a surprise like when you switched out my jogging sweats for yoga pants."

"If I told you it wouldn't be a surprise."

I tried to give her a playful glare but I aborted the motion. She was trying to make up for what happened in Lake Michigan. Just like she had been doing since we got back.

"Ok fine." I resolved to trust her. "So long as nothing jumps out at me again."

She looked a bit unsure. "I actually haven't been to one of these. I mean, I've researched it obviously, but I've never actually gone to one."

The hairs on my neck stood up. "One what?"

She looked at me, mouth open for another 'it's a surprise' rebuttal but she stopped and reconsidered before speaking. "Pride Fest is this weekend. I want to go with you."

My head rocked back a bit at the revelation. An actual Pride event. Brockton Bay didn't have Pride anything for the sheer reason that the Empire was in town. I mean, there might have been one or two attempts to start one up. News reports of beatings and outright murder in some cases put an end to any gathering before it began. But this was Chicago, a new city.

"If you don't want to go…" she started.

"I want to." And I did. "Was that the big secret?"

"Yeah?" She sighed.

"Why didn't you say so?" I hugged her.

"I wasn't sure you'd want to go." She mumbled into my shoulder.

I squeezed her as hard as I could. "If it's with you, I'd go."

"Gah." She tapped her hand against me. "Can't breathe."

I eased off and stole a quick kiss.

"What was that for?" She tried and failed to fight the little smile that tugged at her lips.

"To remind you." I released her from my arms and took her hand.

"Remind me?"

"That I love you."

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I think I underestimated the amount of people that would attend Pride Fest. When Lisa had told me about it I had of course looked it up on my phone. Sure, I saw the pictures of the crowds but they were all gathered at a parade or maybe at something like a concert. It didn't really occur to me that these things might all be going on simultaneously. That there would be crowds at each event and many more moving in between. It was wild.

It was crazy.

It was beautiful.

There were no second looks, at least not the kind that Lisa and I might have gotten in Brockton Bay. Here, it was all smiles and looks that might have said 'they look cute together' rather than the speculative double take or in some cases the out right pursed lip disapproval of a stuck up prude.

Lisa pulled my hand to keep me from colliding with a bubbly girl, her blond hair streaked with pinks and blues. She was pulling a clearly reticent ghost of a girl behind her.

"Come on Willa, the concert's already started." The blonde playfully waggled the other girl's hands in excitement. "Pride Fest is only two days and I want to see everything!"

"Pride?" The monochromatic girl arched a delicate eyebrow. "What do they have to be proud of?"

"Willa!" The blonde chided. "We have everything to be proud of. We stand up and are open about who we are. We are proud not just about ourselves but our choice in partners. Are you not proud of me?"

The expression on the dark girl's face tightened minutely and she looked away from her partner's smug look of victory.

"Good, then let's go before it gets too crowded." The two slipped back into the flow of the crowd.

"Odd couple." Lisa remarked.

"I think they were cute together." I looked back to Lisa on time to see the fond crook of her smirk and a little eye roll. "What?"

"Nothing." Her smirk grew. "Just thinking about how much they resemble the couple in your new book. You know, the one you hide from Tori and Crystal?"

Electric embarrassment shot down my spine at the mention of my guilty pleasure.

Lisa laughed at me and grabbed my hand and brought it up to kiss the back of it. It was a deliberate teasing imitation of the last chapter. I had to look away from the dancing victory that showed in her eyes.

She kept my hand in hers, guiding me through the crowd. I didn't know if she had a destination in mind but I had zero complaints with her taking the lead. There was so much going on and so many different people. People dressed in crazy eye-catching outfits, many people sporting pride ribbons, banners, shirts, you name it and someone had it in rainbow colors. I swear I even saw a man dressed up in a full leather bodysuit with a zipper over his mouth.

The crowd was overwhelming, at times shoulder to shoulder, and the familiar tingle of anxiety began to creep along my spine.

I wasn't watching where we were going and I bumped into a man in a beige trench coat.

"Oh, um, sorry." I apologized.

"It's my fault," the man had a kind of soft stoicism to his expression. Though, maybe it was a resigned confusion. "I was looking for my partner and wasn't watching where I was going."

"We hope you find them." Lisa tugged on my arm again and we moved off again leaving the man to stand there.

"Cass where have you been?" Another man passed us as Lisa pulled us away.

"Everything okay?" I pushed closer to Lisa as the crowd grew thicker.

"I couldn't get a good read on him." She eyed the crowd around us. "Just a funny feeling you know?"

In this crowd? I could only imagine the things her power was picking up.

"Come on, there's a place up the street I wanna try." She headed off again and I stayed close, not wanting to test our entwined hands in the crowd.

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The music was so loud this close to the concert that I had to lean down to speak directly into Lisa's ear. "Where are we going?"

She pointed and I followed her direction to a shop on the street corner. Judging from the packed outdoor seating, it had to be an eatery of some sort.

Lisa sighed audibly as we exited the crowd into a comparatively organized ice cream parlor. That is to say patrons were queued to the door and the seating was full. The music outside could still be heard, though thankfully muffled.

"You dragged me through the crowd for ice cream?" I teased Lisa, but she wasn't looking at me.

She was staring at a woman with dark, short cropped hair, tanned skin, and obvious muscle. I was jealous at the tone of her arms and the confidence with which she displayed them. She looked up as if she could feel our gazes and I looked away. Lisa didn't, and my heart spiked with jealousy.

"Oh shit." Lisa muttered.

I glanced back at the woman to see her headed our way.

"Excuse me." The woman's tone was smokey and sultry. "Mind if I join you?"

Lisa swallowed and stepped a little in front of me separating me from the woman. The only reason she would do that is because she thought that we were in danger. I tensed and stepped forward sliding my arm around her waist.

The newcomer put up her hands and smiled. "Woah, ladies it's not like that."

God, I wish I had a voice like that.

"Hello Dee," Lisa greeted in a far more cautious tone than I ever expected from her. "If you're who I think you are, that is."

"I am." Dee laughed. "Though I'm sorry if I don't know you. Reality falls short of reputation, thank god."

"When we spoke I went by T out of Brockton." My girlfriend melded a bit more into my side, easing my tension.

T? Were they using initials?

D looked her over. "Oh? I heard T got fired by her last employer."

The hairs on my neck rose and my temper along with it.

Lisa squeezed me. "She did. I have a new gig now."

D looked at me like Lisa sometimes did when she was working things out with her power. It was a looking-through-you kind of thing. Seeing you, but not really focusing. "I see." She said, returning her gaze back to Lisa. "The offer still stands, you know? Especially now with that dickhead out of the picture."

Lisa relaxed her grip somewhat. "That's very flattering but I want to see things through with my current job."

D shrugged. "Well, you know how to contact me if you change your mind. It's good to see- oh hell."

I followed her gaze to where two girls were bickering.

"Come on Sparkles, just a lick." Cooed the first girl. She wore a black jacket over a red crop top and her messy brown hair was held back by what looked to be a cat eared headband. She was trying to steal a lick off of her partner's ice cream while her own, a yellow pink and blue stacked cone that wavered precariously atop a too small cone.

"Eat your own ice cream." Snarled the second girl. She was done up in a flashy affair of a torn jean jacket over a yellow top tucked into a black skirt that glittered with sparkly winks of light. This apparent intentional assault of glitter was mirrored in her pink and purple hair.

The cat-eared girl lunged for a bite of the sparkly girls ice cream and said in doing so her ice cream stack fell to the ground. This set off a scuffle between the two girls as they wrestled for the remaining ice cream cone.

"I need to break them up before it gets worse. Nice to meet you in person L." She hurried to break up the scuffle that seemed to have ended with the sparkly girl sitting on the cat girl's chest and smashing the ice cream into the girl's mouth.

D picked up the sparkly girl and set her off to the side and then helped the cat girl up before scolding the both of them and corralling them from the parlor.

"Who was that?" I couldn't contain my anxiety and curiosity.

"Probably one of the scariest capes I've ever heard of." Lisa kept her voice low so no one else would hear. "I'll tell you about it later. Right now I just want a root beer float and to enjoy the festivities."

Since when did Lisa ever try to use words like 'festivities' unironically? I looked my girlfriend over. The way she was standing, the way she stayed close to me, touching me as if to reassure herself I was there.

I pulled her back to my front and slid my arms around her in a hug. It was somewhat of an awkward shuffle to move in the line holding her like that, but I could feel her tension melting away. By the time we were back outside, treats in hand, she was back to her usual self.

She sipped at her root beer float. "Mmm not as good as I imagined, but better than I hoped."

I tasted my mint chocolate chip double scoop on a waffle cone, a tried and true classic. "It's pretty good."

Lisa gave me a little smirk and watched me eat my ice cream.

"What?"

"Nothing." Her face innocent, her tone pious. "Was just thinking maybe I could have a taste?"

It was an innocuous enough request that her grin should have put me on guard. Instead I held out my ice cream and stared in befuddlement as she bypassed it straight for my face. She took one long lick from my chin to the corner of my mouth then swerved out to my cheek.

"What was that?" I squeaked and pressed a hand to the tingling path her tongue had drawn.

"You had some on your face." She beamed.

I sputtered and looked around but no one was even looking at us. We were just two more girls in a crowd of people in which we were like everyone else. Zero judgments.

"Tay, you okay?" Lisa brushed my cheek with a finger.

I sniffed. "Yeah."

She looked at me, undoubtedly doing her power thing, and smiled. A soft smile. The one that she saved only for me.

For the first time in public, I kissed her.