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Alicia stumbled through the smoke-filled hallway, coughing and choking while trying to draw on what little fresh air there was closer to the floor. She wore her goggles and a filter mask she carried in her jump bag for this sort of situation, but her throat was raw and her eyes were burning despite their protection.

She paused at each door and listened, making sure there was no one left behind in her effort to evacuate the rowhouse as flames ate at the aged structure. She could already feel the heat of the approaching blaze and fought the panic bubbling in the back of her mind.

Alicia tried not to dwell on the events that had led up to this point. When she'd busted that basement meth lab, she'd had no way of suspecting that a stray shot would ignite the volatile chemicals and start a fire in the rowhouse full of innocent tenants. She'd called 911 then gone frantically door to door, clamoring for people to escape before it was too late.

It was getting harder and harder to move, her senses overwhelmed by the sting and stench of smoke and the roar of the fire, but Alicia would not give up until she made sure everyone in that building was safe. She stopped at one door and caught the sound of a faint sniffle coming from the other side.

Without hesitation, she jumped back and delivered a kick against the door, breaking it open. She moved quickly into the apartment, letting her ears guide her to the small bathroom, where a small boy, no older than six, sat crouched in the bathtub, tears staining his eyes.

"It's all right. I'm here to get you out," Alicia reassured the kid, as she grabbed a towel, soaked it with the lukewarm water still coming out of the faucet and wrapped the sodden cloth around him. She carried him towards the gaping front door but stopped as the smoke and the heat grew too much to bear. That way was no longer a safe exit.

She put the boy down and scanned the small apartment for any other way out, with no success. She knew from her previous exploration that there was no fire escape on this side of the building. Under normal circumstances, she could've simply climbed or somersaulted out, but not with the building on fire and carrying another person, no matter how small.

The teen hero could hear the sounds of sirens and people outside. In sudden inspiration, she grabbed a kitchen chair and heaved it through the window, smashing it open. She hoped the opening would draw some of the smoke out of the room and let the firefighters know there was someone still inside in need of rescue.

Instead, the smoke got thicker, causing her to fall to the floor in a fit of coughing, and she could hear the fire now out on the hallway. She heard the young boy gasping, unable to breathe in the foul air. Desperately, she crawled to him and ripped her mask off, shoving it in his face to ease his breathing at the cost of her own.

Alicia huddled on the floor with the boy, blinded and half-asphyxiated, thinking this was a really shitty way to die.

---

Sammy had followed the fire engines again, as she had been doing for some days now.  When the chair came crashing out the window, she could see the flames behind it, and realized there was no way the firefighters could get there in time to save whoever was trapped inside.  In an instant, she was at the windowsill, using a wall of air to hold back the flames.  Problem was, the flames burned even brighter on the other side of all that air... Shit!  That's Alicia! and some kid?

Sammy dashed in and lifted them out, flying them to safety and dropping them near the paramedics station.

Eyes bright with emotion, Sammy looked at Alicia. "Are you ok?"

Alicia managed to croak, "More people... inside"

Sammy's head turned as she heard sounds that might have been shouting and screaming; it might just have been the old apartment building letting go of its heart.

"I -- I'm sorry, ok?  Please don't die on me.  I--I gotta go."  With that, she headed back to the top of the burning building to save who she could.

The last of several trips down was for an old lady with an armful of cats.  Sammy put her on the ground and said, "I need to make one last check.  Stay here."  She zipped back up into the building.  A moment later, there was a huge explosion and the roof gave way in a huge gout of flames.  There had been somebody flying just over it as it went, but there was no sign of her now, just debris flying everywhere.  At least one of those pieces of debris was disturbingly human shaped.

---

Alicia saw the explosion from her vantage point by the paramedics. Pushing away an overzealous EMT, she leapt up to the roof of an ambulance and searched the skies. Without stopping to explain, she jumped into the open ambulance door, grabbed an emergency kit, and dashed over the car roofs and across the street.

Stopping to get her bearings, she clambered up the side of another rowhouse to the roof. Pausing to sniff the air once more, she made her way through the dingy roof cluttered with antennas and HVAC units until she reached her prey.

Sammy lay sprawled on the roof, unmoving. Alicia's heart caught, and she rushed to her fallen friend. She turned Sammy over, and gasped as she saw Sammy's chest fail to rise and fall and could not hear the sound of her breathing.  There was still the throb of a pulse visible on her neck.

Panicked, Alicia closed her lips over Sammy's mouth and began breathing air into the other girl's lungs.  After what seemed like an eternity, Alicia became aware that Sammy was responding.  She still wasn't breathing, and her eyes were still closed, but her lips were kissing the other girl back. Despite the realization, Alicia found herself unwilling to break the contact.

Finally, Sammy opened her eyes. "Oh," she whispered, "I'm not saying you aren't a good kisser, but you can stop breathing for me now.  I don't need to breathe, remember?"

Alicia leaned back. Sammy was rewarded with a sight she thought she'd never see: Alicia blushing shyly, the reddening showing clearly on her dusky skin.

"Yeah, sorry. Slipped my mind, I guess," she said, a bashful smile blossoming on her lips. The smile flashed away, to be replaced by tight lips and a closed face.

To cover her obvious discomfiture, Alicia reached over to snag the field kit and began extracting bandages, scissors and ointment from its interior. "You got some nasty burns, but nothing beyond first-degree," she stated, the business-like tone in her voice belying the tension in her bearing. "Looks like some of your hair got singed, too, but then so did mine. We'll be sporting funny hairdos for a while."

Sammy's hand flies up to her head.  "Noooo," she moans.  "I'm going to the Senior Prom!"  After contemplating the impending horror associated with not having a satisfactory hairstyle on the Big Night, her hand drops.  "Are you sure you're going to be okay?  You were sucking in a lot of smoke."  Her brow furrows.  "You heard me when I said I was sorry, right?  I still mean it, even if you aren't dying."

Alicia carefully arranges the things she'll need. "I won't be singing opera for a while," she says with a slight smirk. Indeed, her voice does have a rough edge. "Who knows? Maybe I'll keep the rasp. It worked so well for the Bat-guy, didn't it?"

"Besides," she adds off-handedly, "what are you apologizing for? I'm the one who f**ked up. Wasn't for you, I'd be crispy critters." She pauses, looks down and takes a deep breath. In a completely different, subdued voice, she says, "Thank you."

"You're welcome."  Sammy's gaze drifts over to the still-burning building, and she watches the firefighters move around.  "I... Sarah, then Colin... I... I'm sorry for acting like a jerk lately.  I thought... it doesn't matter what I thought.  I still didn't need to be such a bi+ch, at least not towards you."

Alicia sits uncannily still for a moment. There's obviously a lot of thinking going on behind her bloodshot yellow eyes, free of the goggles' enclsoure now that they're away from any bystanders.

Haltingly, she tries to explain, "You had a reason to be angry at me, and I should have tried to understand that, rather than just reacting to the emotion. I'm still working on that. At least these days I can trust that my feelings come from me, even if they're not always good ones."

She licks her lips nervously before continuing. "Sam, I'm not the person you first met anymore, but understand that you're still my friend, no matter what."

It strikes Sammy that Alicia was the first one to stop calling her using the diminutive of her name.

Except for Sarah, who used Samantha.  Ha.  Maybe that's it.  Maybe if I change something external about who I am -- other than my hair, ohmigod I hope its not too awful-- maybe it'll help me change things inside.  Sammy was upset.  Samantha or Sam don't give a sh1t. It's worth a shot, even if it turns out I'm just playing a role on a stage.  Nobody else needs to know if I'm faking it unless I tell them.  Or they guess.  But I can deal with that then if it happens.

Sammy is obviously listening to Alicia's words.  "It's ok that you're changing, if you're happy with the changes.  Everything changes, even if I don't like how it is going.  I've been angry about a bunch of things, and sad and scared and feeling lonely and rejected, and I thought you had gone away too.  That's why I yelled at you."

OOC: Just a nit-pick. Alicia did call Sammy "Sam" before the Beach Blanket Bingo thread, Just sayin'. ;)

Alicia sighs and sprawls back to lean on a nearby chimney stack. She looks down at some undefined point as she talks, absent-mindedly shredding a bandage with her claws.

"I knew you were angry at Laney 'cause of John, so I thought if I could figure out what was goin' on between 'em, that would help out.

"I figured John was all over Laney 'cause she was so helpless and pushin' his Boy-Scout button. So I sicc'ed Jack on her, thinkin' if she toughened up that would, y'know, cool things down. Next thing I know, Laney's hangin' around helpin' me pass History, which I needed to do if I was gonna keep trainin' with Jack, and Jack's having me use her as a tackle dummy as part of the trainin'."

Alicia grimaces and focuses her gaze on Sammy. "I didn't mean it to look like I was taking sides or didn't want to hang with you no more. I'm sorry. I was just tryin' to keep the group from fallin' apart, y'know?"

She chuckles dryly, "Stupid, huh? I should leave that s**t to Colin."

Sammy snorts.  "No.  You shouldn't.  I'll give him credit, he tried really hard, but even now I'm not sure he totally gets what's been burning me.  Between him and Sarah I caught a clue though, so it wasn't wasted.  I thought I'd say something to you tomorrow, but I guess that's taken care of now.  And,"  she takes a deep breath, "I'm not mad at Laney just because of John.  That's a big part of it, but its not anywhere near all.  Did you know Nick asked her out in front of me?  And now, he says at least, he doesn't have a clue why.  Other weird things happened too, people acting out of the ordinary, sometimes it even seemed like events changed, minor changes but still, and it seemed like I was the only one to notice it, but it was always around her.  I don't know, I tried to be nice at first because she was new and all, but it's difficult for me to even be around her -- no!"  Her voice drops, and she starts muttering angrily to herself.  "Stop it, Sam.  You just sound bitter and petty.  Be better than that.  Let. It. Go."

Sammy gets control of herself.  "Sorry."

Alicia looks steadily at Sam during her diatribe. After it's over, Alicia says quietly, "I noticed how people tend to be nice to her when they're around her, and I figured it was that whole 'helpless lil ol me' vibe she puts out. I gotta admit she caught me up on that one a few times, but..."

Her gaze sharpens a bit as she asks, "Sam, how much do you know about Laney's powers?"

"She finally admitted to it?  No, I don't know anything about it, other than her uncanny ability to drive me nuts."

Alicia is deadly serious. "Jack knows about it and he explained it to her with me there. Not that the whole thing made much sense to me, but from what I did catch, Laney affects probabilities.

Alicia waves her hands vaguely as she tries to grasp the concept, "She... I guess generates luck. Good and bad. And she doesn't control it most of the time."

"It's why she's so accident-prone. And why things tend to get screwy around her. It's even the reason she's so spaced-out. I got the impression she, like, sees all the possibilities at once, or the 'causation chains' or some s**t like that."

Alicia rubs her face and winces as her fingers run across a burn. "The point is, Sam, you have a reason to get that vibe from her. But I'm not sure she's doing it on purpose."

Alicia does not hide the doubt in her face over her last words. There are things she's not ready to say out loud yet.

Sammy struggles to maintain her grip.

"She made Nick ask her out, even if she 'didn't know' she was doing it?  So maybe she... no.  No no no no no.  It doesn't matter, the damage is already done and can't be fixed.  All the more reason for me to stay the he11 away from her."  Sammy pauses, then asks, deadly serious, "Did she kill her family then?  Do you know? All I know is that there was some sort of accident that killed everybody but her.  Was it her fault even if it 'wasn't' her fault?"

Alicia shrugs sadly. "No f**king clue. Although the way Jack was talking to Laney, I think she may be afraid of that, which is probably one of the reasons why she was so freaked out at first when the idea of her having powers came up. No doubt, that girl's f**ked up all over."

Alicia goes back to nervously demolishing the bandage. "Sam, if I hang with Laney, it don't mean I don't want to hang with you too. If you need company, or something, I can, like, be there for you, OK?"

"Whatever," Sammy replies quietly.  "I can't stop you from being friends with people.  And you can't force me to like them.  So she got John.  She gets you.  And she gets my place in the group because I can't stand to be there when she is, and she's always there.  Wonderful.  At least she let me keep Elrod and Nick, although she's in the drama group too, so who knows how long that will last..."

Alicia's eyes blaze as she says, "Sam, as your friend, please don't take this the wrong way, but... Get. The. F**K! OVER YOURSELF!"

She bites her words off with a clenched jaw. "This isn't a f**king popularity contest, no matter how goddamn hard you try to make it so. We're here and willing to be with you. And there's always a place for you at our side. Laney didn't 'get' John. Or me. She doesn't get the right to claim people. AND NEITHER DO YOU!

"You don't like Laney? FINE! No one's saying you have to. But no one's pushing you away either, not even her. You're the one drawing the line in the sand and marking off territory. You're the one putting up the chart and deciding who goes on which column!"

Alicia draws herself up with a deep breath and declares, "I am and will always be your friend, Sam. BUT I'M NOT YOUR F**KING PROPERTY! So stop treating me like a goddamn chess piece in your goddamn mind games!"

Despite the palpable anger rolling off Alicia, her face and body are under tight control, muscles tensed as if ready to leap. The effect is spoiled, though, as she collapses in a fit of coughing from straining her abused throat.

Cool air pools around Alicia, making it easier for her to breathe.  Sammy's voice cuts through the space between them, hard and fierce and taking on a strange resonance.

"I know that, Alicia.  I know I'm the one with the problem.  If you will recall, that is why I have been staying far away and why I am considering cutting ties completely.  You're not revealing any great and terrible secret knowledge, except for the part about people being my personal property; I was unaware that I thought I owned anyone.  I thought quite the opposite.  I'm not quite sure what exactly you mean when you propose I Get the F**k over myself --I've tried, but my own efforts to fix myself have failed, so perhaps you can enlighten me?  If you have any f**king suggestions as to how exactly I go about doing that, you might want to share them.  Anything?  Or are you just going to yell?"

Alicia gasps in the offered air and the coughing fit subsides.

Hoarsely, she says, "Just don't pull away, Sam. Stay, <cough> talk to me."

She takes a couple more cleansing breaths, then continues, "I'm sorry about the yelling. It's the only way I know to get people to listen sometimes." She gives a sickly smile.

She sits back against the brick wall, marshaling her thoughts, trying to think of what to say. "So, you've got a problem. What do you think it is?" she asks, straightforward.

"I'll start with the most obvious.  I don't like someone who everyone else seems to get along with, or at least tolerates.  It is not fair to ask everyone to drop her, so the clearest, easiest solution seems to be to cut myself out of the picture."

Alicia huffs quietly. OK, how am I going to put this? "Why would we have to drop her? We can be with you and with her, even if it's not at the same time."

Sammy's hand itches idly at the spot where Colin's tattoo lies.  "I bet I could will this away," she says.

She smiles sadly.  "You asked me what my problem was -- I told you.  I haven't heard any new solutions yet.  Is that because the one I have proposed, me going away, makes the most sense because I'm the one with the problem?"

Alicia is trying to remain calm, but her frustration leaks into her voice. "I'm still trying to understand the problem, Sam. How can I offer a solution if I'm not even there yet?

"I'm here, right now, and I can be here again. Even without a burning building. Why is that not enough for you?"

Sammy sighs a deep sigh, and the wind carries the sound through the gaps and passages between the nearby buildings.  "It is enough.  You don't seem to believe that I believe it.  I'm just saying it would be easier, probably better for everybody if I was gone, but you won't let me walk away, none of you... never mind.  This is going nowhere.  We're talking in circles."

She scratches more vigorously at the tattooed area.

"Maybe you should try to tell me how to fix the problems you do understand. Those would be the ones you have already spotted without me telling you about them."

"Sure, Sam," Alicia says, in a voice as cold and hard as the brick and mortar stealing the warmth off her back. "I got one for you."

She rolls smoothly into an effortless squat, arms resting on her knees. "You're scared. You're afraid that if you stick around, people will end up choosing between you and Laney. And that they won't pick you. You're scared of being rejected.

"That's why you want to go away. It's a preemptive strike. Leave us before we leave you. Save yourself the pain of being abandoned by being the one doing the abandoning."

Alicia leans forward and places her hands down to support herself. A trick of the light leaves her face in shadow, so that all Sammy sees are her glowing eyes. "And the solution? Trust. Pure and simple. Trust us to stick by you, thick or thin. That's what friendship is about."

She is crawling now, slowly approaching Sammy, her movements eerily graceful even in such an ungainly position. "Tell me how I can prove myself to you. What would you like me to do?"

"Stop."  Sammy throws up a hand in a halt gesture, and her image becomes fuzzy as a thick protective layer of air goes up around her.  "Yes, I'm afraid, but why not?  Why shouldn't I be?  I'm in a bad, vulnerable position and I know it.  I've already suffered because of it, and I'm lined up for a world of hurt more.  I just want to go away from the hurting.  Why won't you let me go?"

"Because running away doesn't solve the problem. Because pain is part of life. You don't run away from it; you endure it, you accept it, you use it."

From this angle, Sammy can see that the back of Alicia's jacket is scragged from the fire; a nasty red weal runs across her back where the material burned all the way off.

"I'm not giving up on you because I know what you want to do will just end up hurting you more. And I... care enough about you to not let that happen."

"You don't know that.  You're only guessing and hoping it will be worse than it already is.  The parts away from you guys are good.  Nick is good.  Elrod is good.  Music is good.  None of them fill the hole, though, and staying only makes the hole worse.  And you are burned.  You need somebody who knows what they are doing to look at your back.  Stop it, Alicia.  Cut your losses, go get your back fixed, and let me go!"

Alicia turns her head slightly as if to inspect the damage and shrugs dismissively, "It'll heal. That's what wounds do.

"And I'm not guessing. I tried running away too, remember? The pain is in you, Sam; you can't run away from it. You can find things to distract you from it, to make you believe it's not there, but it comes back. The only way to take it away is to face it, deal with it, conquer it.

"But you don't have to do it alone. Your friends can help you, but only if you let them.

"Let me help, Sam. Please."

Sammy starts crying big, loud, gulping, chest hurting, eye burning tears.  The air wall drops, but she's floating at the edge of the roof and dust is being kicked up everywhere.  "Let me go," she cries.  "It already hurts too much.  Let me go.  I have Elrod, and Nick, and music.  I'm happy when I'm away from you guys, away from here, away from the things that cause me pain.  You're asking me to knowingly hurt myself again and again, every fricking day.  I don't want to, Alicia, I've already tried toughing it out.  It didn't work.  I just want it to go away.  You're not making it better by asking me to stay, you're only making it harder for me to go because I'll have to hurt you and other people to get you out of my way.  I'm not mad at you, I said I'm sorry, let that be enough.  Let me go let me go let me go."

Alicia rises to a stand, her muscles fairly vibrating. She wants to leap at Sammy, grab her, hold her, get through to her the need to be a part of something, to belong.

Scraps of memory blow across her mind. Flying with Sammy that first night. Sitting in her garage, listening to her sing. Feeling her embrace as she holds on, heedless of her injuries as Alicia fights her inner demons.

She hears the echo of Jack's voice: "Get used to failure. It's part of what we do." She'd been worrying about losing Rhys, not realizing her heart had more than one hostage.

Alicia realizes her grand hypocrisy. Here she is, accusing Sammy of treating other people like they were property, when Alicia herself is treating Sammy as some treasure to be hoarded.

She lets her tension go, almost but not quite toppling from the release. She chokes back a sob and shuts her eyes tight to keep the tears burning in her eyes from flooding out, then realizes she no longer has a reason to keep them in.

Her cheeks wet, Alicia looks towards the blurry image of her friend. Mustering every resource to keep her voice from shaking, she says, "I can't stop you from leaving if-f... if that's what you want, Sam. But I can't let you go." She clenches her jaw to keep from losing her self-control and blubbering nonsense.

Sammy sags and comes to the ground; whether she's collapsing on herself in fatigue from her emotional burden or from surrender is another question.  Between her own sobs, she chokes out, "I guess I have to stay then.  None of you will let go."

Alicia moves in to hold Sammy in a fierce bear hug. She's crying too, sobbing and murmuring into Sammy's hair as she clasps her, "Perdoname. Lo siento. Perdoname."

"You'll always hurt the ones you love," she remembers the dark voice whispering back when her mind was a dark maelstrom of twisted emotions. And God help her, she can't argue against it any more.

[OOC: good place to wrap it?]

OOC: I'm good if you are. :)