Super: Origins (11 page)

Lex smiled cautiously. “Thanks, Kurt, for being such a good sport about this.”

She felt relieved that he seemed happy about her new job, but she didn’t look forward to going to that place. Lex had been there with Kurt once before, and she’d felt like a strange animal on display the entire time. Since Kurt had chosen it to celebrate her new position, however, Lex resolved to go and try to enjoy it. The whole thing seemed odd to her, though, as if she’d stepped into someone else’s life.

“Hey, we
should
celebrate! Soon, you’re going to be making a lot more bank than I am. I’ll have to brag to everyone about my rich fiancée,” Kurt replied, grinning at her.

She tried to smile again, but worried that it probably came out small and sad looking, since she wasn’t crazy about his celebration pick. “I should get ready if we’re going over there. I remember the last time we went that everyone was pretty dressed up.”

“That sounds good. Why don’t you wear the dress I got you last Christmas?”

“Sure,” Lex replied, with a smile that probably looked more like a grimace and turned back to the bedroom to change clothes.

The dress he’d mentioned was an expensive, short pink one with a big bow on the back. Lex would never have picked out an item of clothing like that for herself, and wearing it made her feel like a complete ass. It also made her feel uncomfortable, since she worried that due to the length people could see some of the scars on her upper thighs. But since Kurt was being so good about her new job, Lex figured she could put up with it. She also applied makeup, something she only ever did for Kurt, and brushed her hair out until it was shiny. When she came back to the living room, she modeled it all for him. “How do I look?” she asked.

“Like a million bucks. Give me a few minutes and I’ll be ready to go.”

Lex sighed quietly as she perched on the couch without sitting back so that the bow would remain unwrinkled, at least for a little while. She found herself wishing she’d had some warning about what he’d planned so that she could have mentally prepared.

The evening passed by in a blur, Lex thought later. She remembered working hard to smile and mostly just listening to Kurt’s stories about work. The people at the restaurant had looked at her like they had last time, the same way Kurt’s parents did. Somehow they had known she didn’t belong, and they had stared at her like an oddity. Some had looked pitying and some looked curious, but none of them had really seemed to see her at all. She’d felt so uncomfortable she’d hardly eaten anything, and what she had eaten seemed to taste both flavorless and disgusting. The restaurant was in a drafty old house with the air conditioning on too high, so the short dress had left Lex shivering at several points during the evening. She hadn’t been able to help her feeling of utter relief once she sat in Kurt’s sports car again, speeding for home.

Oddly, she’d felt even worse after they’d had sex that night. Although she could come on her own, she’d never been able to reach orgasm when the two of them were together. That normally didn’t bother her, but tonight, when Kurt had fallen asleep not long after he’d finished, it had made her feel even more disconnected. It had been a while before Lex’s nerves had allowed her to rest.

Lex remembered one thing clearly during that night of fractured sleep—waking in the darkness after a dream of being back in middle school again, walking through the halls. No one there had seemed to be able to see her at all, however, not even people she’d considered her friends. She had wandered aimlessly, feeling like a ghost, until she’d finally woken up. Lex shivered for a while, lying sleepless in bed and wondering disjointedly if she’d ever find somewhere she belonged, until sleep claimed her again.

Chapter 5: Beginnings

When the alarm rang the next morning Lex looked at it for a moment and then closed her eyes to go back to sleep, but as she started drifting off, Kurt kissed her. “Hey, sleepyhead, you have to get up this morning, too! Don’t forget this is the first day of your new job.”

She groaned and rolled over, trying to adjust to the idea of being awake since she’d never functioned that well in the morning. Lex finally dragged herself out of bed as Kurt went to take his shower. Picking out some jeans, her workout sneakers, and one of her favorite t-shirts, she laid them out for later. Heading to the kitchen, she started water for tea, turned on the coffeemaker for Kurt, and put bagels in the toaster. As she finished that, Kurt came out of the bathroom, showered and cheerful. She sighed, feeling a bit forlorn in comparison.

“It’s all yours,” he said with a grin. Lex felt tired enough that she couldn’t even get up the enthusiasm to appreciate his towel-clad ass disappearing into the bedroom. Sighing again, she went to take a shower as well.

Lex felt a little more energetic afterwards but not perky by any measure. She ran a hand across the mirror to clear away some of the fog and looked at herself while she re-wrapped her hand in a clean gauze bandage and blew her hair dry enough to look presentable, then she went to dress. After putting on her outfit, Lex quickly finished her packing and then set her backpack, travel bag, and purse on the end of the couch nearest the door. The sight of her bags ready to go caused an odd lurch in her chest, but she tried to ignore it as she went back into the kitchen, where Kurt greeted her with a smile.

Lex returned it a little wearily and breathed in the bracing scent of morning coffee as she poured herself a cup of tea. While she had breakfast, she looked across the table at her fiancé. “Do you think I made the right choice?”

“Of course,” he replied with another smile. “It sounds like it’ll be a great job for you.”

“You’re not upset about me having to be away?”

“Well I’d prefer it if you could be here, but I know you’ve been looking for a job for a while, and this seems like a really good one.”

“Thanks for supporting me in this,” Lex said, smiling in earnest now, mostly because she thought Kurt sounded like someone trying to talk up a job to her in an interview. She shook her head at the strange idea that Kurt would try to sell the idea of employment to her as she finished savoring her bagel, happy that there’d been some blueberry ones left.

When she and Kurt walked to the metro together a while later, Lex kept trying to think of a way to talk to him about something real, something that would sustain her for the next two weeks, but she found she didn’t know what to say. Instead, she smiled as he talked about work and tried to keep the sadness out of her face. As they got just past the turnstile, Kurt handed Lex her travel bag so they could go to opposite sides of the station. Kurt’s way led downtown and Lex was headed into the worse neighborhoods in the opposite direction. She kissed his cheek, her voice now stuck in her throat, and watched his backwards wave as he went down the escalator.

As she made her way to her own platform, Lex heard the distinctive braking noise that meant Kurt’s train had arrived. She watched as he hurried down the escalator until the train blocked her view of him. Once she stood on her own platform, Lex looked over to see Kurt’s train pull out. The station seemed suddenly empty, despite the commuter crowd all around. Lex sighed and opened her backpack, pulling out a favorite detective novel that she’d read many times. She buried herself in it again, feeling her shoulders relax a little as the familiar passages and words appeared in front of her eyes. Lex barely noticed the train ride to the M Agency stop, and felt a little sorry that she had to stop reading when they arrived.

When she arrived at “headquarters” (as Lex reminded herself with a mental smile), she noticed that the huge puddle of paint on the sidewalk had dried completely, probably due to the heat. She pressed the front door buzzer a bit nervously as she glanced briefly upwards in memory of when she'd been there before, but she only spotted a fairly cloudless blue sky that already looked a bit faded, seeming to foreshadow the heat of the day to come.

The door slid open more quickly this time and Casey stood there smiling, dressed simply in blue bike shorts and a yellow t-shirt, her gold hair pulled into a ponytail. “Welcome back, Lex. I told you I knew you’d get the offer.”

For some reason, Lex felt a little lump in her throat at what Casey had said. She smiled a little sheepishly in return. “I know, I just didn’t believe you. Thanks for being here to let me in.”

“No problem. When anyone first gets here, they’re paired up with a buddy. So I volunteered to be yours,” the blonde added.

Lex smiled, feeling truly happy as she walked inside. “Thanks, I’m glad to hear it.”

The other woman just grinned in return as she slid the door shut.

“Where should I put my stuff?” Lex asked, gesturing with her travel bag.

“That’s probably where we should start,” Casey replied. “There are a couple of empty rooms you could pick from. I asked about them, and found you can take any one you like. Let’s go upstairs and I’ll show you what’s available.”

They took the set of stairs to the right. Once up to the second level, Casey gestured down the hall to the left. “Most of the rooms are full back there; you saw the conference room, and there’s a situation room right next to it. Riss lives across the hall from that, next to the computer room, and past that are Lily’s and Joan’s rooms. Straight ahead here is my room, and there are empty ones to the right and left of it. There’s also a room available on the other side of the hall, but I can’t say I’d recommend it.”

Lex glanced up at her with a look of puzzlement. “Is there something wrong with it?”

Casey sighed. “I don’t think so, but the placement probably isn’t good. You’d be right next to Serena.” She paused and scratched the back of her head, looking embarrassed. “She can be…loud sometimes at night.”

Lex made a thoughtful noise, trying not to crack a grin and thinking that she’d take Casey's word for it. “Could I look at the open rooms?”

“Sure, they’re not locked.”

Lex went into the one to the left of Casey’s room. It was clean but had a slight stale smell as if it had been closed up too long. The room currently had no furniture in it, which showed off the wall of windows along the back that reached from floor to ceiling. The room also contained a small bathroom with a sizeable closet opposite it. When Lex peeked into the bathroom she noted a standing shower stall, commode, and sink. She came back into the hall outside and peeked into the room to the right. It looked much the same as the other room but had a slightly nicer view over the water to the buildings beyond. Lex smiled and called out to Casey.

“I think I’ll take this one,” she said, putting her bags in the closet and closing the closet door. “How can I get some furniture in here?”

Casey handed Lex a piece of paper. “Write down what you want. If we can get this list to the shoppers before lunch, they should be able to get everything by the end of the day.”

Lex took the paper and began thinking, her gaze mapping out the space in the room. “Can we include electronics on the list?”

“Whatever you want. All of us have all different stuff in our rooms; I've never heard that there are any restrictions”

“Does this come out of our pay?”

Casey took a moment to respond as she turned from looking out at the view. “Oh, we each have a weekly limit before what we request comes out of our pay. I think it’s a thousand a week in general, but it’s different the first couple of weeks you get here. I think that limit is ten thousand so that you can get set up.”

Lex’s jaw dropped open. “Are you serious?”

Casey nodded. “When I asked about it, I was told that it’s because we have to be here pretty much all the time. I don’t think it bugs Sauer at all, though; he seems to be really loaded.”

Lex rocked backwards on her heels and then started to write. Her list included a double futon mattress and frame, bed pillows, a couple of bed sheet sets, comforters, a clock radio, a few small tables and lamps, a desk and office chair, laptop with basic software loaded, drapes, a TV and DVD player, a loveseat and some chairs, and a collection of towels, everything in greens and blues. Lex thought a moment to see if she’d forgotten anything, but realized if she had, she could just ask for it the following day. She handed the page to Casey, who laughed.

“Well, that didn’t take long!” The blonde read the list and grinned. “It’s going to look really nice in here when you get everything set up. So, are you all ready to finish your paperwork?”

Lex almost nodded, but then had a different thought. “Is there any way I could get some tea first?”

“Let’s go to the kitchen,” Casey replied with a nod. “That’s probably good, anyway, because I can explain the rules while we’re there.”

When the two arrived back in the big kitchen on the first floor, Casey turned on the tea kettle while Lex looked at a large selection of interesting and eclectic teas. “Pretty much everything here is fair game,” Casey said, continuing their conversation. “With that said, we all realize that there are some things that unspokenly ‘belong’ to someone…“

Casey had broken off to open the huge freezer and pull something out. She turned to face Lex with a container of chocolate chocolate chip ice cream in her hand. “For example, I wouldn’t recommend you eat much of this if you value your life, or at least your ears. This is Serena’s favorite, and if she’s in a bad mood and it’s gone, we’re all likely to hear about it.”

She replaced the carton and continued. “Anyway, other than that, feel free to eat what you see. If anyone orders something special that they need for a recipe or something, they can put their name on it with one of these sticky notes,” Casey said, tapping a note holder on the refrigerator door that also had a pen in it. “Cleanup is on your own. We have a big dishwasher, so usually all you need to do is rinse stuff and put it in there. If it’s full, please run it; the soap is under the sink. If it’s clean, please empty it.”

Lex, meanwhile, had picked out a nice-smelling English breakfast tea and poured near-boiling water over it into a large mug. The bracing scent coming from the cup made her smile. “Is that it?” Lex asked after a moment, surprised that Casey had stopped.