Chapter Text
Jane's red Sharpie squeaked as it dragged across her calendar. Monday, December 30th. 1991.
It had been 729 days since Jane had left her friends. Since she had left her father, her mother, her brothers. It had been 729 days since she had heard Will's shy laughter, or since she had let her eyes rest in between the folds of Max's braids to calm her down. The gentle orange was like a campfire the way it always made warmth bloom inside her chest.
It had been 729 days since she had kissed Mike, and even after all that time she couldn't be sure why she had done it. Why she had said that she loved him when he still couldn't manage to say it back. She still loved him. She loved them all.
She wasn't allowed to talk to anyone about them; not that they would believe her. She kept all her thoughts inside, sealing them tight just like she had done with her powers. She had thrown her wetsuit away. She tossed Sara's bracelet into the bushes. She hadn't even had a can of Coke. Not since she had let her friends believe she had been swept away by the bomb. It was easier for them to think they was one with the wind then for them to know she was there, just out of arms reach.
"Jane! Could you come help with breakfast, please?" Margo called from downstairs. Even from up here, she could smell the twinge of annoyance in her voice. Her voice traveled throughout the little cottage and bounced off the walls, making Jane's head ache.
The Williams' family had graciously taken her in, no questions asked; they took one look at her previously pink shirt covered in blood and dirt and gave her a house. It wasn't her home, but it was a house. That was enough. She didn't not like the Williams'. She liked them. Not in the same way that she loved her real family, nowhere near it. Not with the same fiery roar of love, unstoppable, overflowing. Like a waterfall.
Their quaint cottage was perfect for reading, which Jane was getting quite good at despite all of her years lacking practice. They even had a little girl that Jane loved to play with and coo at. It was a house. Maybe in another life it would've been home.
"I'm coming, Margo." Jane threw her covers off and groggily walked down the stairs. She was disappointed in herself for spending another morning thinking about her friends, the same friends that she was supposed to forget. One day she'd move on. She had too.
"Jane!" Beatrice squirmed around in her high chair, motioning to her mother that she wanted to break free to come give her a hug.
"Good morning, Bea." Jane planted a kiss on the little girl's head. She positioned Bea on her hip, walking over to the counter to help Margo with the breakfast.
"Hey, Jane. I'm whipping up some eggs before I head into the village for chores. Can you handle Bea's first hour of school? It's really basic stuff." Margo asked weakly, purple bags lining her eyes. Beatrice had probably kept her up late again. Sometimes, a lot of the time, Beatrice asked for Jane in the middle of the night. Sometimes, she thought it made Margo resent her a little.
Jane nodded hesitantly, not wanting to refuse. She couldn't exactly tell Margo that she had little to no education, besides that one year of terror in Lenora Hills. She was lucky enough that Margo and her wife had taken her in with little to no questioning- the closest she came to being discovered was when Beatrice grabbed her wrist and innocently asked about the number branded on her wrist. She had mumbled something about it being her lucky number; she couldn't dare say that until she was ten years old, it was all she really was. A number. One of many.
"Is Lydia not home? Can she teach her?" Jane asked gently, giving her a small smile. Beatrice started to tug at Jane's long brown curls as Margo sighed with exhaustion. It was a layered sigh. If you listened to it close enough, you could hear whispers of regret about taking Jane in. "Never mind. I'll do it." Jane said quickly. Margo sighed with relief.
"Thank you, you are such a doll. I'm meeting Lyd in the center of the village so we can divide and conquer chores. Between the two of us, it should only take us like, two hours. The rest of the day is yours- except I do ask that you grab dinner in town at around 6:30?" She scurried around the kitchen, dumping the eggs onto a plate and tossing them onto Bea's high chair. She didn't cook any extra for Jane. She would make her own breakfast after she left. Jane set her down and watched her grubby little hands shovel egg into her mouth.
"Done and done." Jane smiled meekly. She could feel her hands fidgeting with themselves, which she knew Margo hated. It wouldn't make much of a difference.
"Thank you. Bye bye, Bea-Bea!" Margo beamed at her baby before turning around and leaving, shutting the door behind her with a slam. Jane knew that she and Lydia both loved Bea more than her; she couldn't even blame them. Bea was their baby. She was just some girl who wandered in, already grown, not cute or smart. Just Jane. It was nice, in a way. To be normal; not a superhero, like Mike always said she was. Just a girl. But she didn't think that normalcy was supposed to feel this degrading. Her new caretakers tried to show her the same level of love, and Jane loved them for trying.
"Kind of like how you always knew Mike loved Will a little more then-" Jane stopped herself, making yet another mental note to stop thinking about her friends.
Soon she would stop thinking about them. Soon.
But it had already been 729 days. When was soon? Bea gazed at her with her big blue eyes. They were kind of like Max's.
"Oh God, when is soon?"