Unlikely Heroes

Mikaela didn't understand why Cal had come to check on her, and she didn't want to admit that she was glad he was there. She couldn't begin to remember the last time anyone had tried to comfort her, and she had grown used to handling her problems on her own. But she didn't tell him to leave. She just kept her face buried against his chest as he leaned back against her pillows.

"Do you need anything?" he asked after a while. Mikaela shook her head.

"Have you eaten in the last two days?"

Another head shake. She had shuffled aimlessly around the house a couple of times, but every time she entered a room she couldn't remember why she'd gone in there and had wound up back in her room hiding under her blanket. Cal sighed, tugging the blanket up to her shoulders.

"Have you slept at all?" he asked.

"Not really." Every time she tried her dreams were plagued with images from that night and she always woke up with her heart pounding. Cal didn't ask her any more questions for a while, just sat with her while she clung to him. Eventually her shaking eased and she lifted her head.

"I suppose I may as well tell you what happened," she said quietly.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," Cal replied, voice surprisingly gentle. But Cal was the only one she could possibly ever talk to about this. She closed her eyes.

"I assume you've heard about what happened to Derek and the others?"

"Yeah, it's all anyone can talk about. Is that what's wrong? You're worried about Derek?"

"What?" Mikaela's eyes flew open.

"I just thought maybe that's why you're upset. You guys have a history." Cal had a weird look on his face, like he didn't care for the idea. Mikaela snorted.

"We went to a couple of dances together and hooked up a few times. It's hardly a history," she said. "Derek is an asshole. That's kind of the source of my problem." She took a breath before continuing.

"When I was leaving school the night of the crash, Derek showed up in the parking lot with Jeff and Mikey. He...he forced me into the backseat and the three of them were going to take me somewhere."

She felt Cal tense next to her. "Did they hurt you?" he asked.

"No, because I hurt them first." Mikaela's shoulders slumped. "I couldn't control my power," she said miserably. "Derek wouldn't let me go and he had me trapped against the backseat. He kept trying to kiss me and I just freaked out. I made the car crash, Cal. I didn't mean to but I couldn't make it stop. We hit the gym and there was glass and blood everywhere. I called for an ambulance and then I ran."

She pulled her knees up to her chin and wrapped her arms around them, starting to tremble again.

"Hey." Cal sat up and rested a hand on her shoulder. "It wasn't your fault. None of them would have gotten hurt if they hadn't attacked you."

Mikaela turned to look at him.

"It's getting late," she said. "Won't your parents be expecting you home?"

"Nah. They're both busy with work a lot."

"Oh." She bit her lip, feeling suddenly almost shy. It wasn't a feeling she was very familiar with. "Well, um, if you don't have anything better to do, would you...like to stay here tonight?"

Cal looked surprised by the offer. Mikaela was hoping he'd say yes, but she didn't want to outright tell him that she didn't want him to leave.

"Yeah," he said. "I'll stay."

"Okay." Mikaela nodded, trying to keep her expression neutral. She laid back down next to him, staring at him for several minutes before he made a funny face at her. She felt a small smile form on her face.

"What?" Cal asked. "Are you just soaking in my hotness?"

"Yeah, you caught me." Mikaela rolled her eyes. Cal gave her a lopsided smile.

"I knew it. I know, it's hard not to stare. You don't have to be so blatant about it though."

"You are annoyingly self-assured."

"Thank you."

Mikaela laughed quietly, shaking her head. "Good night, Cal."

"Good night, Your Highness."

She scooted closer to him, resting her head on his chest. She finally gave in to sleep, listening to his steady heartbeat. And this time, the nightmares left her alone.



"The contents of your kitchen are lacking."

Mikaela was sitting in front of her vanity trying to wrestle her damp hair into a bun. She could see Cal enter the room in her mirror and she was surprised to see him. She had woken up early and slipped quietly out of bed to take a shower and get dressed and when she came back to her room to put her make up on Cal hadn't been there. She had assumed he'd taken off. But there he was, his sandy hair mussed and munching casually on handfuls of dry Frosted Flakes. She froze, just staring at his reflection over her shoulder.

"Oh, sorry," he said. He walked over and held out the box. "Did you want some?"

"You're still here," Mikaela blurted.

"Yeah. I thought I'd give you a ride to school."

"I'm not going today."

"Oh. Well. I guess you probably want me to go now, then."

He lowered the cereal box and reached for his jacket and shoes.

"Actually I was thinking I should finally drag myself out of the house for a while. Like you said, the kitchen is sort of pitiful right now and I'm kind of starving. Do you wanna get breakfast?"

Cal paused in the middle of putting his shoes on, his eyes snapping up to meet hers. Mikaela returned to casually doing her hair, trying to act like there was nothing unusual about her asking him to breakfast.

"Are you sure?" Cal asked. She nodded.

"Yeah, sure. Why not? I mean, unless you don't want to."

"I never turn down food."

Mikaela slipped some wedge heeled boots over the black tights she was wearing and stood up, appraising herself critically in the full length mirror for a moment. She noticed Cal watching her and grabbed her purse off the nightstand, hurriedly turning away from the mirror.

"There's a little twenty-four diner a couple blocks over," she said as they climbed into Cal's car. The diner was mostly empty when they arrived and they slid into a corner booth. The waitress on duty seemed annoyed, until she got to their table and saw Cal sitting there. Then she was suddenly all smiles as she asked what she could get him in an overly chipper voice. Mikaela rolled her eyes but the waitress, whose name tag identified her as Tammy, barely seemed to notice she was even there.

"Stack of blueberry pancakes," Cal said, with all the seriousness of the heads of state having a secret meeting. "Swimming in maple syrup. No, drowning in it. With no life preserver. And covered in whipped cream. In fact, just bring me a bottle of whipped cream and I'll handle that myself. And if you have sprinkles go ahead and cover them in those too."

Tammy's brow was furrowed as she jotted down Cal's specific and unusual order. But Cal smiled brightly at her and her face smoothed out as she returned it. "Sure thing, honey."

Mikaela cleared her throat quietly. Tammy's sunny expression dimmed almost immediately as her eyes flicked to Mikaela.

"And what can I get for you?" she asked, with considerably less enthusiasm. Mikaela resisted the urge to say something snotty.

"An English muffin with egg whites and a cappuccino, please."

After the waitress shot Cal another beaming smile and bustled away, Mikaela gave him an exasperated look.

"What?" he asked innocently.

"Do you make your order so complicated because you can?"

"What do you mean?"

"Come on, Cal. That waitress was practically drooling over you."

"Was she? I didn't notice. I just like pancakes with syrup and whipped cream."

Mikaela shook her head. "You could have ordered pheasant and she would've gone hunting for you."

"Does that bother you?" Cal arched an eyebrow.

"No," Mikaela said, a tad too quickly. "I don't care who hunts your pheasants."

Cal laughed. "That somehow sounds extremely dirty."

Mikaela tried to glare at him but found herself laughing too. Cal leaned forward, propping his elbows on the table.

"I've been giving more thought to this whole super hero thing," he said in a low voice. "I'm not sure plain black hoodies are really gonna do the trick."

"Are you suggesting we wear super suits?"

"Why not? All the greats do it. It's a time honored tradition. I can wear a cape and you can wear a Lycra body suit." He grinned and Mikaela scoffed.

"Okay, let me make this clear. Neither of those things is happening. Besides I'm starting to have doubts about my own ability to be a super hero."

Cal frowned. "Why?"

"Because...because of what happened." Mikaela stared at the table top. "Maybe I can't really control this thing. You were right in the beginning. Trying to be a super hero was a stupid idea."

"Come on, we're still new at this. What happened the other night was an extreme circumstance. You're getting more and more control of it all the time. You're Super Girl."

Mikaela didn't know how to respond to that, but was spared answering when Tammy returned with their food.

"Here are your pancakes, honey." She set a huge plate of pancakes in front of Cal, and a bottle of whipped cream. Cal looked like a kid on Christmas morning and Mikaela watched in morbid fascination at the thick waterfall of syrup oozing over the stack of pancakes. He carefully bedecked the stack in whipped cream, looking as focused as a doctor performing surgery.

"Aren't you gonna eat?" Cal asked when her food was left untouched.

"I think I lost my appetite," she said as he took a huge bite of pancake. Cal munched happily on his sugary monstrosity while Mikaela finally started nibbling her English muffin.

"Want some?" Cal gestured to his plate.

"No thanks. Some of us have a figure that needs to be carefully maintained."

"Live a little, princess." Cal patted the bench seat next to him. Mikaela hesitantly stood up and moved to sit beside him, eyeing the pancakes warily. Cal held up his fork, and she took a tiny bite.

"I think I just became diabetic," she said with a grimace.

"Don't be a hater. Hey you got some whipped cream on your face. I'll get it."

Before Mikaela could reach up to wipe it away, Cal caught her face in his hands and kissed her. He tasted like maple and blueberry. He pulled back after a moment and studied her. "Hmm, nope. Missed a spot."

He kissed her again and Mikaela leaned into him. They stayed tangled up in each other until Tammy returned to refill Mikaela's coffee. She looked less than thrilled to see the two of them with their lips locked but Mikaela gave her a bright, smug smile as she poured the coffee. They left after Cal finished his mountain of pancakes.

"How are you not throwing up right now?" Mikaela asked in amazement. "You probably just consumed a gallon of syrup."

"I'm a super hero. I can't be taken down by something as innocuous as syrup."

"Look at you and the big words," Mikaela laughed. The laughter died in her throat as she noticed a little girl drop the pink ball she'd been playing with and it rolled into the street. The girl's mom was talking into her cell phone and didn't notice as the girl darted into the street after her ball.

"Cal," Mikaela said, her voice slightly panicked as a moving truck hurtled down the road. The little girl was bent over chasing her ball and the driver clearly didn't see her. Cal vanished beside her and she felt a gust of air as he took off across the parking lot at a full run. Taking deep breaths to calm herself, Mikaela let pressure build in her head, focusing on the truck. She imagined the brake being hit, slowing the truck so Cal would have time to get the little girl out of harm's way.

"Slow down slow down slow down," she whispered. The truck jerked slightly, swerving in the lane and she gritted her teeth, trying to simultaneously slow it down and keep it in its own lane. Her ears popped painfully. The truck was almost upon them and then it skidded to a halt, less than a foot from where the girl was standing. Mikaela could tell Cal was ushering her out of the street. The girl's mother finally noticed that her daughter had narrowly escaped death and she ran across the parking lot to grab her hand.

"Lacey!" the woman sobbed.

"There was an angel, mommy!" the girl said excitedly. "I could hear him talking to me!"

The frantic mother didn't seem to hear a word she said but Cal was grinning slightly as he reappeared next to Mikaela.

"You stopped the truck," he whispered excitedly. Then he frowned. "Your nose is bleeding."

"It is?" Mikaela reached up and swiped at her nose, pulling her hand away with a smear of blood on it. She sagged against the wall of the diner.

"Are you okay?" Cal asked.

"I feel a little dizzy," Mikaela said.

"Come on, you should sit down for a minute." He put an arm around her shoulders and steered her to the car.

"I might get blood on your interior though," she protested.

"You're worried about my junky car?" Cal asked, looking amused.

"I...shut up, Cal."

He chuckled. "It'll be fine. Wait here while I get you some tissues." He turned to go back inside but paused. "For the record, you were wrong."

"About what?" she demanded.

"Not being a super hero." He grinned, winked, and vanished into the diner before Mikaela could reply.