Carol walked into the kitchen wearing a business suit while I finished cleaning up the table under Amy's watchful eye. The older woman gave her adopted daughter a respectful nod, which shocked the recalcitrant healer.

“Amy, keep him under observation while I'm out and make sure he doesn't get into more trouble. Alex, expect my call around 10. I should have something for you by then.” Carol said and gave Amy's shoulder a light pat, filled a travel mug with coffee, and left with her head held high and a smile on her face.

“What. The. Fuck.” Amy said as soon as the front door shut, the shock clear on her face.

“I tried to warn you.” I said and tossed the used paper towels into the trash. “As far as she's concerned, almost none of the last sixteen years affected her in a negative way.”

“Oh, fuck off.” Amy spat at me. “There's no way she can ignore everything she did while raising Vicky and me!”

“Ignore it? Not a chance.” I shook my head. “She will see it through a normal retrospective insight instead of her heavily biased and clouded viewpoint.”

Amy opened her mouth to refute me, then looked at where Carol had been slammed against the stove. “Oh, shit. She's acting like a fresh trigger that just gained their powers.” She said in understanding.

“I'd say so. It's a pretty great natural high.” I agreed. “Carol's like a newborn cape with her powers at their peak, despite having them for decades.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” Amy said and then sighed. “She is going to railroad me when she comes home from work, isn't she?”

“Maybe if you do something to piss her off.” I said and pointed at her t-shirt.

Amy looked down at it and sighed. She didn't have to read the test that said she was the top of the food chain and you better be prepared for her to eat you.

I chuckled at the quote and gave her a thumbs up. “Carol's going to love confiscating that.”

“Ugggh.” Amy groaned and drank the last of her coffee. “Kiss my ass.”

“You would hate me if I did, so I'll pass.” I said and she nodded and walked by me. “Say hi to Glory Girl for me.”

“She's still asleep, so she's Vicky for at least another half an hour.” Amy said and left the kitchen.

“Make sure to wash her asshole before you lick it!” I reminded her, probably unnecessarily.

“Fuck you.” Amy said and flipped me off with both middle fingers as she walked up the stairs.

“No, I won't discourage you. You made your choice, Amy! Stick to it and be true to yourself!” I encouraged her with two thumbs up and she laughed before I lost sight of her at the top of the stairs.

I went back into the kitchen to work on the stove and cleaned it up pretty quickly. The floor was more difficult and it took me another fifteen minutes before I had it clean. That was a relief, because Victoria Dallon suddenly came flying down the stairs with Amy running behind her in a futile attempt to catch her or stop her.

“ALEX!” Vicky yelled and slammed into me as she tackled me to the floor.

“Ooooff!” I wheezed and caught her.

“I just saw Taylor's post about what happened!” Vicky said and and she kissed my face several times and she didn't seem to mind briefly locking lips with me. “I'm so sorry you're going through this!”

“You mean having to leave the Wards and not being mauled by you, right?” I asked.

Vicky giggled and sat up on me. “Of course! Everyone loves being mauled by me. I'm awesome!”

I leaned my head to the side just enough to look past Vicky to see Amy's stern face. “Amy fully agrees with that statement and resents I'm the one currently getting mauled.”

Vicky laughed and stood up. “Amy resents everyone, so it's okay.” She held a hand down to me and hauled me up to my feet when I grabbed on. “She knows I won't do anything to make her angry.”

“Besides teasing the hell out of me all the time?” Amy asked her and did up two bowls of cereal. “We have half an hour before we need to leave for school.”

“That's plenty of time to goof off.” Vicky said and accepted one of the bowls and leaned against the counter to stare at me. “What's it like being single after so long?”

I raised my eyebrows at her. “How many times did you and Dean break up?”

“Oh, hey! You have your eyebrows back!” Vicky pointed out and ate a spoonful of cereal. “We broke up all the time, duh. It was part of our relationship.” She said and ate another spoonful. “I'm glad we ended it a while ago, though. Having his work come between us again would have seriously pissed me off.”

“Like building destroying pissed off.” Amy agreed with a smile.

“Yep! If I'm suffering, everyone needs to know it!” Vicky exclaimed.

I chuckled. “I wasn't tempted to wreck everything, which is surprising. I mean, I fought hard to get back to her because I love her; but, I knew she was safe with Taylor taking care of her. With this new thing, they took that comfort away from everyone and not just Vista, so I didn't think getting angry at being screwed over by the authorities was fair of me to do. I just left.”

Both Amy and Vicky gave me wide eyes.

“You were going to convince Missy and Taylor to leave the Wards!” Vicky gasped.

I pointed at Amy and Vicky looked at her.

“He was going to have all of them leave.” Amy said with her spoon halfway to her mouth.

“Yes, I was. If I had known they already assigned a new director after Tagg was tossed in jail, I would have sent messages to everyone to not sign anything without talking to Carol first.” I said and decided to eat a bowl of cereal myself. “Taylor said the guys didn't even read it before signing it.”

“Idiots.” Amy said and Vicky nodded. As the daughters of a lawyer, that was the first rule they had ever learned. Always read something before you sign it.

“What are you going to do?” Vicky asked and finished off her cereal.

I shrugged my shoulders and started eating. “I'm kind of a free agent right now. Everything is up in the air and I asked Carol to look into the situation for me as a ward that's not a Ward. I don't even have a real address because I was assigned living quarters on the Rig.”

“That sucks.” Vicky said and handed her bowl to Amy and she put it on hers and put both in the sink. “Hey, I just had a great idea! You could crash here for a few days until you get things settled.”

Amy and I chuckled and she motioned for me to speak.

“You're pretty smart for thinking that because Carol already offered me the guest room.” I said.

Vicky beamed a smile at me for the compliment. “Awesome! We have to celebrate!”

Amy shook her head. “We need to get ready for school.”

“I'm ready.” Vicky said and stood.

“Are you wearing bicycle shorts under your skirt?” Amy asked her with a knowing smile.

“Ah, crap. Be right back.” Vicky said and floated up into the air before she flew out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

“I guess that's a constant problem because she flies all the time?” I asked.

Amy nodded. “She forgot once when in costume and someone was lucky enough to take a picture. I swear a million copies of her wearing a thong appeared instantly online and she was embarrassed for weeks afterwards.”

“Someone as hot as Vicky was embarrassed that people saw the proof?” I asked, a little confused.

“Thank you!” Vicky shouted and tackled me again and we landed on the floor. My face was quickly peppered with kisses once more and I didn't fight it. I even puckered my lips a few times to make her giggle.

“Just because she likes getting attention normally, she doesn't want negative attention.” Amy said.

“Ah, I get it.” I said and Vicky stood up and helped me stand, too. “You don't want to be objectified.”

“That's right! I'm more than my pert ass and a pair of beautiful tits!” Vicky agreed.

Amy shook her head. “At least call them breasts or something. Tits just sounds so... ugh.”

“Tits, tits, tits!” Vicky said and laughed at Amy's scrunched up face.

“If you're done being vulgar, we need to grab our school bags and go.” Amy said and looked at me. “Don't get into trouble or I'll be in trouble.”

“Right! Find trouble and avoid it.” I said and stood at attention. “You can count on me, Healer Woman!”

Vicky laughed and slapped my arm. “We'll see you after school.”

I nodded and they left the kitchen at a fast walk and they went up the stairs in the living room. They didn't come back down, so I went to the back of the house to open a window and saw Vicky flying away carrying Amy in her arms. I left the window open and walked back through the house to go up the stairs.

A very quick touch with my copy of Nilbog's power let me know where the only other living thing in the house was. I had been tempted to leave Mark Dallon alone until later, then decided it was better to get it over with. Carol had mentioned healing him as part of our deal and I wasn't going to disappoint her, even if it had been a lie she told Amy to cover up how we had started having sex.

I still didn't feel bad about it, which felt odd, because I should have felt guilty about it. I pushed those thoughts away and knocked on Mark's door. He didn't answer and I opened the door anyway. He looked up from his messy bed and he looked like he hadn't showered in days. A spilled pill bottle was on the nightstand and pills were scattered across the carpet.

“Do you feel good enough for a visitor?” I asked him and he blinked his eyes at me. “If you watched the news recently, you probably recognize me.” I said and stood in a hero pose. “I'm Healer Man!”

Mark's eyes seemed to focus on my face and he smiled briefly.

“Can you guess why I'm here?” I asked and he shook his head no. “I'm going to dance!”

Mark's chest moved up and down slightly several times and my enhanced hearing picked up that he was softly and almost silently laughing. I walked over to the bed and looked down at him wearing just jogging pants. His muscles were going soft after years of not going out doing hero work and he had a bit of a pot belly.

I held a hand down for him to take and let him make the choice. Mark looked at the hand and back at my face. I was sure he saw that I wasn't judging him and his hand twitched before it lifted just enough to take mine.

“Thank you, Mark.” I said and absorbed all of his damage.

Mark sucked in a huge breath, as if he had never had enough for a long time, and it took several moments before my power was done. “My... wife is... a fucking bitch.”

I laughed and nodded. “She has several t-shirts saying that, so she agrees with you.”

Mark slowly sat up, as if he hadn't done it in a while, and used my hand to balance himself. He also looked surprised at how easy it was. “I'm not sore or dizzy.”

“I took it all. Whatever was wrong, it's gone. I absorbed it.” I told him.

“I can...” Mark stopped and his eyes widened as he looked at me. “My head's not cloudy anymore.”

I shook my head and gave his hand a squeeze. He noticed he was still holding on and he smiled, then used it as leverage and stood up beside the bed. He didn't sway like he expected and a huge smile started to grow on his face.

“My pills.” Mark said.

“You won't need them anymore. You just need to get used to being normal again.” I said.

“No highs and lows?” Mark asked me.

“Only if you choose to let them get that way, and you don't have to.” I said in encouragement.

Mark nodded and let my hand go. “I need a shower.”

“I think I hear my dead mother calling me! Healer Man, away!” I said and ran from the room.

Mark's laughter followed me down the hallway and I heard a door shut and running water, too. With my good deed done for the day, I went downstairs and took out my cell phone. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, though. There were no messages from either Taylor or Vista, not that I really expected them. We didn't part on the best of terms.

“Alex, are you okay?” Dragon asked me from the earpiece I still wore as her drone floated into the living room through the window I had left open.

“I don't know.” I said and sat on the couch in the living room. “I know I should feel guilty about what happened with Carol, except all I feel is relaxed and a bit relieved. I had an unexpectedly good time and I didn't think that was possible.”

“I think I understand.” Dragon said.

“Do you? Because I need it explained to me. I love Vista and it hurt me a lot to have to give her up so suddenly, then I had sex with the very first woman that made any kind of gesture of interest towards me.” I said and sat back to stare at my phone and didn't do anything with it. “What's wrong with me?”

Dragon sighed. “You needed reassurance. Whether it was to be desired after losing your first love or just to have someone to be with and to hold you, doesn't matter. You needed to be needed.”

I went over everything that had ever happened to me and I knew she was right. Every time something happened, I had always felt like I was needed or needed to get back to someone that needed me... and now I didn't have that feeling anymore.

I looked up from my cell phone at Dragon's drone. “Now I really don't know what to do.”

The drone floated over to land beside me and I put an arm over it.

“We'll figure something out soon. I promise.” Dragon said.

I nodded and sat there with a cell phone in one hand and a drone held by the other.

*

Carol Dallon entered the law firm she had been working at for years and she had a smile on her face. “Good morning, Jill.”

“Ah!” The receptionist gasped. “M-m-morning, Miss Dallon!”

“We've known each other for years, Jill. Please call me Carol.”

Jill looked terrified and shook her head.

Carol chuckled under her breath and walked by her desk and went to the elevator. A man came in and nodded at Jill and stood a couple of feet away from Carol near the elevator.

“Good morning, David.” Carol said.

The man jerked as if slapped. “I... ah... morning, Miss Dallon.”

Carol gave him an amused smile and the man trembled, clearly afraid. The elevator doors opened and he darted in and hit the button for his floor several times. Carol did her best to hide her laugh at his behavior and calmly tapped the button for her floor and stepped to the side of the elevator car and waited patiently.

The doors seemed to close agonizingly slowly, according to David's agitated perception, and he kept pushing the button. It didn't do anything except give him something to do, instead of worrying about what Carol had planned for him if she was being this nice to him out of the blue.

Carol had to clamp her mouth shut to not laugh out loud at his flustered state. She hadn't realized her reputation as a hard-ass lawyer was that impressive, not until Alex had used his powers on her and healed her. It was almost as if he had sucked out all of her worries and anxiety and it left her in a state of happiness that she had never experienced before.

Of course, she had to rock his world after him giving her such a great gift and she didn't feel guilty about it, even knowing he had just broken up with his two girlfriends. That thought made her softly laugh, because the sounds he made when she used her skills on him, let her know that those girls hadn't been taking care of him as much as they should have.

Carol felt herself grow wet at remembering how Alex had let her be in control and she had gotten off dozens of times, both from the great sex and him submitting to her. Having such a strong young man under her had given her an even bigger boost to her confidence than him healing her had, which was impressive. His rock hard penis had impressed her as well by not going away.

The elevator doors opened and Carol suppressed the snort that tried to escape as David escaped from the elevator. A woman stepped in and her eyes widened at seeing Carol off to the side. The realization on her face that she should have waited for the next elevator or used the stairs, was plain on her face.

“Good morning, Janice.” Carol said, almost teasingly.

“G-good m-morning, Miss Dallon.” Janice barely squeaked out.

Carol smiled at her and the woman shivered. The elevator rose to the floor they were both going to and as soon as the doors opened, Janice fled from her presence even faster than David had. Carol walked out calmly and nodded or waved at several other people she passed on the way to her office and each of them reacted in an amusing way to her and the smile on her face.

She entered her office and closed the door just in time to stop everyone from hearing her loud laughs that she had held in since she entered the building.

“This is going to be a great day.” Carol said happily and took off her suit coat to hang it up.

She sat down behind her desk and started to work on her caseload. She had a lot to get through before she could take a break and deal with Alex's problematic situation. She looked forward to it, just like she looked forward to possibly arranging another alternate payment session with the well hung young man.