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We talked about Cody and our parents and the fact that Christmas was coming up soon. That brought up a conversation about our different traditions – my mom was so obsessed with Christmas trees that she put one in every room, including the bathrooms. Kim’s idea of tradition was hunting a deer on Christmas morning and opening presents only after it had been gutted and cleaned for dinner.

Then Iggy sat up, faced me, and surprised me by saying, “Thank you for saving my life.” She tilted her head to one side and murmured, “I seem to be relying on you a lot lately,” as if she felt ashamed for it.

I brushed some hair away from her forehead. “You’re welcome. Just don't ever do that again.”

After looking at me sadly for a minute, she stood up. “I need to thank Wesley. I’ll be back in a little bit.”

“I’ll go with you,” I offered, still not wanting to let her out of my sight.

Hand in hand, we walked down to his room. His door was cracked, so she knocked. When she didn’t receive an answer, she pushed it open. I stopped her. “Maybe he needs his privacy.”

Iggy understood my meaning. “If Alex is in there, she’ll have to deal with it. He’s
my
best friend, and I’ve barged into Wesley’s room for years now.” But she squeezed her eyes shut as she inched her way inside. “Wesley?”

I laughed at her. “You can open your eyes. He’s not there.”

Iggy figured out he was in the shower; she heard the water and saw his clothes laid out on his bed. She knocked on the bathroom door as I shut the main door as far as it would go.

“Iggy? Is that you?” he called out.

“Yeah. It’s me. Just wanted to let you know I’m waiting in your room to talk to you.” She turned to me and smirked, “See? Told ya so. He’s used to it.”

I laughed and sat down on Wesley’s sofa, pulling Iggy down to sit on my lap. She leaned against me and closed her eyes. We were quiet for a while until Wesley swung open the bathroom door, letting out the steam. He was wearing only a towel wrapped around his hips, which wouldn’t have bothered me, but Iggy sat up and stared at him.

“What’s up, Iggy? I guess you really need to talk to me or you wouldn't be waiting.” He reached for the clothes on his bed, but she walked right up to him and put her hands on his back. Wesley’s eyes went wide and he turned to face her before glancing up at me with his hands up in the air. “What are you doing?” He stepped back. Iggy stepped forward. He said to me, “I'm not doing anything, Cael.”

“I remember,” she breathed, trailing her fingers through the water over Wesley’s skin.

“Iggy? Are you freaking out again?” he asked her, but she ignored him.

I was already on my feet, starting to get seriously pissed off. But the look on Iggy’s face was the same weird, happy one she’d worn this morning. Wesley exchanged another look with me, and I shrugged, willing to let this play out another thirty seconds or so.

She slid her hand around Wesley’s neck and thrust her fingers into his hair. He muttered something about not being comfortable with what she was doing, but I don’t think she heard him. And I sure as hell didn’t believe him. She squeezed the hair and then pulled her hands back, examining the water on her palms with a smile.

“I can remember.” She rubbed the water in her left palm with the fingers of her right hand. Then she turned and headed toward the bathroom. From the doorway, she motioned that we should come in. And once inside the small bathroom, she shut the door and positioned me and Wes beside each other near the sink. Then she turned on the faucet and stared at it with a big smile.

“Iggy, please don’t weird out again,” I pleaded. But her smile just widened. I was shocked into silence when she touched her lips to Wesley’s. I thought he’d pull away, but he didn’t. Before I had time to react, she stood on tip toe and pulled my head down to kiss me. Maybe some morbid curiosity kept me from shoving her angrily away. Or maybe it was because she looked high.

Wesley rumbled, “Iggy. Are we about to have a threesome here? Because I really didn’t think you were that kind of girl.”

I glared at Wes. “I don’t share.”

Iggy backed up a step and practically squealed with delight. “No, it’s okay. I love you both, and I want to show you something wonderful. It's...beautiful.”

Iggy loved me
? Did she really mean that? Or did she say that because of the strange mood she was in? I prayed it was real, but she’d been acting so different, and I was scared they were just words to her.

Wes and I looked at each other. Neither of us was prepared for this. But then Iggy put her hands into the faucet water, giggled like a little girl, and said, “Watch.”

She moved her hands away and the water followed. Then it divided into three small streams which curled around her fingers. She laughed like a child playing with her favorite toy. I stumbled backwards, hit the toilet, and plonked down on it. Wesley stood frozen. Iggy moved her arms up and down and in circles, and the streams followed like living creatures under her spell. She spread her arms in different directions, split the streams again, and then she sent them traveling in S-shapes from the ceiling to the floor.

She breathed, “This is what I was doing underwater this morning.” She looked at her own creations with adoration, swirling and twisting them. “I figured out how to do this, and I made a beautiful world.”

Wesley reached out, grabbed her arms, and shook her. “Stop it, Iggy!” The suspended water dropped instantly, splashing all over us and the bathroom. The look on Iggy’s face changed from the strange happy one to her normal self. Wes slammed his hand on the faucet handle to shut the water off, and then he stepped back and stared at Iggy, breathing as if he’d just come back from a run.

She backed up, looking hurt, and then she sat on the edge of tub with her bottom lip sticking out and quivering. “I thought you’d like it. I thought you’d be proud of me for figuring it out on my own.”

He knelt down in front of her, grabbed her arms again and snapped, “You can’t let Jensen or anyone else know you can do that. Do you understand?
Ever
.”

“I
know
that. I would only tell the two of you. This is such an important discovery, and thought you would think...” she trailed off, scowling. When he didn’t respond as he stood up, Iggy buried her face in her hands.

I pushed Wes aside and pulled Iggy to her feet. She wrapped her arms around my waist and hid her face against my chest. “You’re not helping her by yelling at her,” I griped at him.

“She can’t let this power slip. We’re not supposed to be able to control anything that isn’t a living organism. This defies everything we’ve ever known about…Jensen’s research would…he’d do anything.” He balled his hands into fists and slammed them against the door, then he leaned his forehead against one arm.

Iggy flinched, and Wesley stared at the wall, trying to get his temper and his breathing under control. I rubbed Iggy’s back and kissed the top of her head. “You can’t go swimming anymore. Doing this with the water makes you different somehow.” I felt her nod.

Wesley turned back around to face us. “Give Cael permission to read your records, Iggy. I’m desperate, here. I don’t know what to do or what to think. This is a nightmare.”

“Fine. He can read them.”

To Cael, he said, “I want to know why she’s been acting strangely since the last test and if it has anything to do with this new manifestation.”

“Jensen’s not going to tell me shit. But if I ask too many questions, he will get suspicious. I think she just needs to go on as if the last three days never happened.”

“Maybe Jensen is the one who triggered this new thing she can do. But if they’re giving her some new medicine and we don’t know about it, how can we figure – ”

“Will you both please stop talking about me as if I’m not here?”

“
Are
you here?” Wesley snapped.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Iggy stepped away from me and planted her hands on her hips.

“You keep checking into the funny farm. Getting this weird, space cadet expression and smile on your face. Being stupidly happy. Just a minute ago, it was like you were looking at me, but you weren’t
seeing
me.”

“Of course I’m seeing you. But sometimes I just see more clearly, and everything I don’t need to see becomes background noise so I can focus on what I’m doing.”

“In other words, you zone out.”

Self-deprecation washed over her. I could see it clearly on her face. I scowled at Wes and said, “Don’t start labeling before we even know what exactly is going on. She sees things differently. Let’s start with
that
instead of accusing her of ‘zoning out’ or being ‘stupidly happy’.”

Wesley threw his arms up in the air. “We don’t have time to be politically correct.”

“Well how about you try being a little understanding then? I get that you function best in asshole mode, but why don’t you calm down and think about what this is like for Iggy? It has to be scary for her to lose her memory, ‘zone out’ as you call it, discover she can do something new and amazing, and then have you throw it back in her face.” I stepped closer to him. “Damn! The girl drowned this morning! Cut her some slack!”

“Exactly my point. She should be put on suicide watch now because trying to drown herself is obviously part of zoning out!”

Iggy's arms snaked out and she shoved Wesley backwards into the door so hard that he bounced off it. “I did
not
try to commit suicide!” Then she yanked open the door on him and stormed out.

I gave him a thumb’s up. “You handled that one really well, asshat. She loves you, trusts you with the most important discovery she’s ever made, and you call her a suicidal, stupid, space cadet. You’re a great friend.” I gave the door another hard shove into him and followed my girlfriend.

Iggy had just passed Alex’s open door as I rounded the corner at the nurses' station. Alex came out, took one look at Iggy's wet hair and clothes and said, “Did you just try drowning yourself again, Iggy? Not getting enough attention these days?”

Without so much as a pause to think about it, Iggy punched her in the face. Alex’s head snapped to the left, and then she let out a piercing scream before hurling herself at Iggy.

I ran.

Brodie’s room was next to Iggy’s, and he beat me there. The two girls were rolling around on the ground while Brodie tried desperately to get a good hold on one of them. But Alex whacked him in the shin with her foot and he moved away. I reached for Iggy as students poured out from every orifice to stand around and watch. Two security guards came running down the opposite hallway.

I hauled Iggy up and she still kicked at Alex. The dark-haired girl lunged at her, but Iggy planted a foot in her gut. Gavin made a comment about how sexy the whole thing was as Pippa ran up and started screaming at Alex. Wesley ran to the scene wearing only a pair of scrub pants as the nurse shouted at the girls to stop fighting. Just as Alex came at Iggy again, Devon grabbed hold of her long hair and yanked. Alex turned to punch Devon, but Wesley snagged her around the waist, pinning her arms to her side. The security guards skidded to a halt with tranquilizer guns pulled.

The taller guard boomed, “Settle down
now
! Or we’ll shoot you all full of tranqs!”

Iggy went slack, her chest heaving with each breath she took. Alex yelled at Wes to let her go, and she gave Iggy an icy glare before walking into her room and slamming the door with a resounding crack.

I told the guards, “They’re good. It’s over. We’re all going back to our rooms.” I released Iggy, and she walked off. The guards stood there and watched, tranq guns following our movements.

I cracked the door closed behind me as I entered Iggy’s room. She puffed, “If you’re here to scold me, go away.”

“I’m not. Alex deserved it.” What I didn’t say aloud was that it could have gone very badly had Alex decided to use her power. Who knew what Iggy would have or could have done in retaliation? And I planned to make sure Iggy understood this after she calmed down.

Two horn blasts and an announcement that all students were to return to their own rooms had me bristling with anxiety. I hated leaving Iggy, and the nurse must have known that, because she showed up at the door with both guards. “Back to your own room,” one of them ordered.

Iggy said, “We’ll talk later.”

I nodded and left. Less than a minute after a guard shut my door, I heard the lock engage.

Chapter 26

Cael

I didn’t see Iggy the rest of the weekend. We were kept on lock down – meals were delivered and reading materials provided. I declined the outdated magazines, but I asked for any books they had related to biology and chemistry. And then I spent the rest of my time reading about my girlfriend and pondering her confession of love. Or maybe I was just reading too much into everything.

After staring at a wall for thirty minutes, I forced myself to stop thinking about love and concentrate on the task I had given myself. I knew sections were missing from the files, and I wasn’t surprised. Jensen would never want me to know details about his more questionable tests and experiments. And I was sure that if I read pages of all the horrible things Iggy had been through, I would be so angry that I would get myself into a lot of trouble. I wanted to stay focused and sharp. I wanted to help her discover everything she could do, and I wanted to understand everything about her.