Page 46 of Gryphon

“Answers what?”

“Never mind, Holly. It doesn’t matter.” At least he’d had the good sense to buy a long parka. Holly had teased him about it, but right now it protected his butt from the snow nicely, thank you very much.

There was a long enough silence for the sun to slip an edge out past Holly’s hip and shine in his face.

“I don’t get what’s happening,” Holly dropped…no, collapsed to her knees before him despite wearing only jeans. Collapsing wasn’t any familiar part of her repertoire. “Something changed, Mike. Help me understand.”

“And there it is.”

“What?”

Mike rubbed at his face, smearing cold snow from his heavy gloves. He yanked one off to clear the icy crystals from his eyes. “The thing I hate the most.”

“Me? What did I ever do to you?”

He raised his arm in demonstration, then winced at the pain.

“Okay, I might have done that.” Holly reached out to pat his arm in a surprisingly gentle gesture—but withdrew her hand before she made contact.

“Not what I meant anyway.”

“Well, you’re the magic man with words. If you can’t do it, I don’t stand a chance.”

“My action girl.”

“Woman!”

He nodded but she was wrong. Holly would always have the youthful spring in her step like Supergirl. At ninety, she’d still have a bounce and a chaotic energy barely contained.

“Please, Mike.”

There was something he’d never heard from her before. He waved a hand at…he didn’t know what. “Sure, I can talk to the ladies.”

“Like—” but she bit it off before she threw Klara in his face one more time. Small favors.

“Not like it’s important most of the time. My job is more about keeping Miranda sane and you out of trouble. But when the turds hit the fan—”

“It’s called shit for a reason, Mike.”

He ignored her. “—you’re the one who jumps out of planes to save Miranda. You’re the one who—without even asking for my opinion—threw Andi off the team.”

“I had to!”

“No, you chose to. I’m not saying you were wrong,” he held up his hands defensively, “but I’m not saying you were right either. Have you looked at Miranda lately, really looked at her?”

“Well, she’s been a bit more Miranda than usual and—”

He scooped up a fistful of snow and heaved it point blank at her face.

She fell back onto her butt with a squawk more of surprise than pain—the snow here was light and powdery.

“The woman’s hanging on by the thinnest thread. When was the last time someone else’s emotions bothered her? Oh look, the pilot is crying. But what information does she have? That’s her being normal, unaware of others’ emotions. Instead, she has to leave the building with her dog and the noise-canceling headphones on full isolation to survive a minute of it. She’s disabled only if we treat her that way. Every inch of regression over these last months is because of us. We’re the ones who are making her disabled, Holly. Not her. You and me!”

“You and me?”

“Yes! The moment you decided that Andi had to be off the team.”

“But she—”

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