It was hard to suppress an eye roll at Paladin’s desire to look “dark and brooding”, no matter how much she may or may not have been joking. Nate bit his tongue – deciding against branding her as some Edward Cullen wannabe. Besides, this Stephen guy definitely had a problem with him and, while Nate wasn’t concerning himself too much about it, it seemed wise to let him talk about his more villainous designs without fear of a teasing, Twilight-themed interruption.

Paladin was apparently completely not on-board with keeping Stephen’s issues with Nate developing further. He couldn’t help but smirk a little as she cast her gaze very openly up and down him. It was a good thing her face was concealed or it may have just been too much for the guy – who was very obviously scowling now. It had become quite apparent just what his problem was with Nate. Nate was going to have to double-check that his jealousy wasn’t stemming from legitimate boyfriend status.

It seemed unlikely, but he’d still have to stealthily uncover the information just to make sure.

Then she even went and complimented him! Oh boy, there went any chance of Nate genially rubbing shoulders with a young and upcoming fashion designer.

“Heh,” he chuckled bashfully, waving his hand dismissively. “You know me, I prefer to conduct my heroic acts behind the scenes.” Which was a little true – his work was definitely important, if not heroic. There was just the small matter of Nate not actually having the tools for emerging from the backstage. Even his trust fund wasn’t exactly on Bruce Wayne’s level.

With one last hug for Paladin, and one last if-looks-could-kill glare for Nate, they made their way out of the building and into the street. There were dozens of cabs lined up and hoping to attend to the celebrity guests still inside. Well, they could have the pleasure of unknowingly escorting Paladin.

He opened the door for Paladin, slightly giddy with how successful their escape had been.

“The Carlyle, please.”

Nate turned to Paladin, talking at excited speed as he gushed over their incredible display of stealth, paying particular attention to Paladin’s skilful navigation through a pitch-black room. He stopped mid-sentence, spotting a potential hidden gem coming up on the right. “Wait, stop the cab!”

The taxi drew up perfectly beside the bar, allowing Nate to peer through the door. He turned to look at Paladin, a questioning eyebrow raised as he gestured wordlessly towards it for her appraisal. They were only around the corner from her hotel now, so making a quick stop en route wouldn’t be out of the question. Some of the patrons looked super young, so that clearly wasn’t going to be an issue. Besides, the place looked chill – full of people who definitely didn’t care about Fashion Week and definitely did care about drinking. It seemed just the rebellious spot for two people who had just snuck their way out of an A-list party.

Nate’s eyes lit up.

“That’s perfect! What’s the point in having an action figure you can’t play with, huh?” He looked pleased with himself, enjoying the way the conversation was rolling towards ridiculousness. It suited him. “You can bring them to my birthday party – all the guests will be so jealous.”

He did well to suppress an instinctive flinch as Paladin’s famously powerful punch headed straight for his shoulder. Nate needn’t have worried – she clearly wasn’t out to damage him. It was nothing more than a playful nudge, if with slightly more kick than one would expect from such a nudge. That wasn’t important – what mattered was that all of the bones in Nate’s body were still intact.

“Man, I would fire my agent if they weren’t ridiculously fabulous,” Nate said with a grin. “I think it would be great to have someone showering me with motivation and compliments all day in a sassy tone. No?” He met her eyes, his own crinkled with mischievous delight.

It was quite exciting to hear Paladin say she had a plan. For a moment, Nate pretended he was in some superhero movie and they were just about to embark on an adventure to save the world. He conveniently ignored the truth of the matter; that they were about to sneak out of a party to avoid the eyes of the paparazzi and, most importantly, Mrs Carol Havelock.

Nate thought for a moment, trying to think of how to get out of the room covertly in order to meet up with Paladin’s designer friend and receive their disguises.

“Wait here, I’m just going to make a request…”

The DJ was set up in a corner which backed onto the VIP section, along with some other tech dudes. Nate presumed – correctly – that somebody at this setup was in charge of the lights.

A subtle conversation and a quiet exchange of bills later, and Nate was back at the booth. “Okay, at the next drop in the music they’re going to completely kill the lights for about ten seconds before strobes kick in. We should be able to reach the door in that time – we don’t even have to pass through that many people – but we gotta be real sure of our route. You ready?”

“Yeah, I didn’t explain that very well, did I?” Nate said with a wry smile, rubbing the back of his neck. “Too much of a focus on the socks. Do you like them, by the way?” He wriggled his foot at her – the neon robots just visible at his ankle when he pulled at the fabric of his trousers. “I think they’re pretty sweet. But not great as a metaphor.”

He dropped his foot back to the ground, forcing himself out of the immaturity. He needed to be clear and concise with his suggestions, or he just wouldn’t be of any use to Claire. That was why he was here – to help – and he could only do so if he giving it his all and not getting distracted by his own tales of doing laundry.

“The method of inspiration isn’t important,” he said, waving his hand dismissively. “I was thinking about looking more closely at how the different components of your power function. We’ve looked at it as a whole but we haven’t stopped to think about how the components relate to each other within the whole.” The components are the individual socks, his brain explained to him helpfully. He resisted the urge to bring the socks back into conversation.

“Maybe your power can only focus on activating one component at a time, for example. Or maybe activating one on a particularly high level draws ‘energy’ from the others.” He drew air quotes. “See what I mean now?”

He nodded as she spoke, continuing to make the occasional note.

“I’d like you to keep a little diary, if that’s not too much effort. Just note down whenever there’s anything of concern like a headache or feeling like your appetite’s off – don’t worry about including all the details. We might be able to track a pattern based on your schedule, or something.”

The last part was more Nate thinking aloud to himself, but he liked to do so just in case Claire had any input of her own on the matter. She was certainly bright enough to have her own say in such things.

So… the same old dreams. Worse, even. Claire looked tired just thinking of them.

“Hey, it’s okay, thank you for telling me. It’s really useful to hear, and I’m sorry they’ve come back. Especially when I know that it’s… a difficult time for you right now. I’m hesitant to prescribe you any strong sleeping pills based on the nature of your day job but I will if you think you can’t cope with them – until you feel strong enough.”

He tried to meet her gaze with a sympathetic look.

“It must be hard to see Alice again, even just as a figment of your subconscious.”

Nate lay the pen against the surface of his notepad, doing his best to coax more out of Claire. The shoulders were dropped in defeat now, and he was worried he’d lose her. He needed to play it very, very gently for now.

Nate snorted with laughter and then leaned back in his chair, undeniably impressed. “I see! Look at you with friends in high places, it’s a miracle you managed to escape my mom at all.”

At first, Paladin seemed so reserved and reluctant to tell him her age that he was starting to get concerned that she was actually some 12-year-old kid hiding from her chaperone. Once she finally admitted it, Nate was so relieved that she was actually a legal adult that he didn’t even register the age gap.

“Aw man, guess that’s me buying all night then,” he teased. He doubted people were going to pull up a famous super hero for not having her ID. “Or we can play it safe and just raid our hotel minibars. You’ve got people paying your expenses, right?”

Nate normally avoided his hotel minibar like the plague unless there was something particularly exciting in it, but he could make an exception. Plus, hiding away in a hotel room was the ultimate foolproof plan for getting away from this party for good. No way could they be tracked down behind a locked door. As a downside, his mother would probably be delighted to find him sneaking out with Paladin – and that just wouldn’t do.

“Hey! C’mon, that is an unfair criteria for coolness – how are we mere mortals ever supposed to rule the school now?”

He laughed at the idea of ‘ruling the school’, as though it had ever been a priority of his. While he had been extremely well-liked throughout his schooling, Nate had always seen himself as more of the approachable class clown than somebody with particularly high level of coolness. Of course, that was precisely what Nate secretly thought made him genuinely cool… not that he’d admit to it.

“Don’t apologise!” he said quickly, grabbing the hand that she’d reached out with. “Please, just call me Nate. Or some other, bullet-stoppingly cool nickname – Dr Havelock is so stuffy.” He rolled his eyes childishly.

His eyes widened briefly with alarm as Paladin searched for his father, irrationally concerned for a second that he may have decided to leave his smoke-filled office and make an appearance at a fashion week party – of all places.

“Noooo, no. Oh my God, this is definitely not his kind of scene.” Nate laughed just picturing it. “My mom gave up trying to bring him to these things long ago, if she ever tried at all. That’s why she drags me along instead.”

There was a noticeable difference in the way Claire was holding herself now that Nate was accompanied by a stranger. It was strange to think how far they’d come over the time they’d been working together – how she used to eye him with that same wary stare. As he was making this observation (a habit by profession), he noticed the sleeves pulled over her fingers. She liked her hands to be cosy, but this was a little excessive by her usual standards. Maybe a nervous habit.

“Mind if we step inside? This is Anna, she’s come to see me today and I figured it might be nice for her to meet a fellow meta.”

It was a relief to be inside the apartment, away from the potential prying eyes of security, and Nate walked into the room with the comfortable air of somebody who had visited a thousand times. Which, admittedly, felt pretty true. Certainly Nate had spent a lot of time in this elegant, simple apartment – even if not quite a thousand. Maybe just nine hundred and ninety-nine trips into Claire’s humble abode.

“Woah, what’s going on here?”

There was a blank expanse of paper pinned up before him, with strong dark marks making their way out of one of the corners.

“You better not be working,” he teased. “What’s this? Looks like fun.”

He glanced back to check on Anna, hoping she and Claire were able to properly introduce themselves to each other without much further prompting. Eh, he could always step in if things got really awkward.

“Claire does a lot of sketches for her Hero work, but this looks like our resident art pro has got more creative juices flowing today!”

He looked hopefully at Claire for confirmation, elated to see her indulging in her hobby on such a large scale.

“Sure,” Nate said simply, aware that Claire was beginning to close up now. Her fingers tightened on the mug of tea – clinging to it like a security blanket. “Trust your instincts.”

He took a gulp of tea, then smiled. There was a finality in it – no more discussion of Dr. Joyce Williams.

Nate laughed, a true and hearty one that caused his tea to dance dangerously up the sides of the cup. Fortunately he didn’t spill anything. “Dream job, right? I’m serious though, we should look into diversifying service. You might have all kinds of ideas that we wouldn’t think of.” He shrugged. Again, he didn’t want to push this at all; conscious of Claire’s rather complex relationship with her manner of employment.

As Claire settled back into the couch, giving at the very least an appearance of being ready to ease herself into the session, Nate sat up a little straighter. Not in an intimidating way, but as a kind of prompt to himself that it was time to get into a different headspace. Dr. Havelock was not exactly a completely different character, but it was still his professional role and he owed it to Claire as his patient to take things seriously.

He watched as she glanced at the notes, glad to see her acknowledging them without fixating or dismissing. He’d been trying to tap into the more relaxed side of her that bubbled every so often under the surface and so far – baby steps – it seemed to be having a little impact.

“I had a brain wave,” he confessed. “Last night while I was doing laundry – pairing socks. I think we need to approach this from a more holistic view of your power set. Acknowledge the matching pair, so to speak.” Nate grinned, enjoying his little metaphor. “The tough skin is just one part of you and I don’t think it’s a case of breaking through that barrier… Do you see what I mean?”

He jotted down Claire’s concerns as she spoke them, nodding affirmatively.

“Well, keep track of those headaches. If they don’t go away, we’ll look into them. It might be worth taking another look at your medication regarding appetite – is it random or related to the type of sessions you’ve had?”

The ‘lots of dreams’ comment was vague, deliberately so, and it piqued Nate’s interest.

“Could you tell me more about these dreams?”

Nate accepted the pot of urine with a grateful smile – years of practice leaving him rather numb to such experiences. A sudden exposure of bare bottom was another thing entirely, but urine? Urine he could deal with.

He decided to wait until he had a nurse at hand before drawing any blood samples. They performed the task with far greater regularity and precision than any of the doctors, Nate included, and he wanted Anna to be as comfortable as possible with it. After all, she hadn’t exactly seemed delighted that providing samples was on the agenda, and he could only assume that she provided a great deal – necessary or otherwise – during her time in that Soviet laboratory.

Handing over the pot with one hand, her other held up a message of apology. He considered briefly that he could bat away her apology and assure her that his reaction had been ridiculous and her actions had been perfectly understandable, but he decided against it. Better to afford her the dignity she had so lacked previously and (somewhat) graciously accept apologies she deemed necessary to make.

“That is A-Okay, dude,” he said with a grin. “Hey, now you know!”

It didn’t surprise him too much to find that she wanted to visit Claire. Nate liked the idea of introducing the two of them anyway – it wasn’t like either of them had much in the way of a broad and varied social circle. Hopefully she’d be available and willing to say hello. He imagined the tiny woman with the cute bunches would bring at least a hint of a smile to that pale, serious face.

“We can pick you up a visitor’s badge that allows you the appropriate level of access, just in case we run into security,” he explained as they made their way out of the room and towards reception. “Anna Trotsky” was in the system after all, and Bethan didn’t even bat an eyelid at Nate’s request for the badge. He was strangely excited, as though he were the main character in some heist movie.

“She actually lives on the side of the building – they hooked her up with her own, self-contained apartment. It’s pretty sweet,” he added. Nate was keeping his voice a little lower than usual. By some miracle, they hadn’t crossed paths with any of the security team, but he wasn’t going to raise awareness to their unscheduled presence.

They reached Claire’s front door. “Here it is. Go ahead, knock and see if she’s home!”