Chapter 23

Iwake up in a white room. Feels like I've been hit by a transdimensional bus. Maybe a few of them. I run my tongue over my cracked lips and taste blood. When I stretch, my muscles feel like piano wires, and several joints pop audibly.

"Take it easy," a voice says. It crackles worse than my joints. I need to blink several times before the face to my left comes into focus. Dark lashes, fire engine–red hair streaked with black. Red cat-eye glasses. But it's the way Clarissa cringes in the corner, whining softly like a frightened cocker spaniel, that gives me the confirmation I need.

"April," I say, swallowing a few times, trying to find some spit to lubricate my throat. "I'm at SPAM."

"You'd rather be at City General?" she asks with an arched eyebrow. "I'm sure there are police there right now looking for anyone who was in the building when your lab spontaneously exploded last night."

Individually, I understand the words she's used. But the whole picture is a completely different story.

"The lab?"

"Ezekiel," Clarissa says, rushing forward. "They only found two of you when they started digging. Did you see Ezekiel?"

The last time I saw Ezekiel, he was trying to kill me. I shudder at the memory. There is still the feeling of Indigo inside me, like it's stuck to my cell walls, polluting me.

I'm going to throw up. I push onto my elbows as nausea swamps me. April and Clarissa scurry to respond, and I close my eyes, fighting to maintain a little dignity. At the last second, there's a pop and a sizzle, and when I open my eyes, the hospital room is dark and my sheets are stiff like they've been hung out to dry on a cold day. At least I haven't vomited.

But I've put my hands out like I was warding off an attack, and now, in front of my palm, is a tiny ball of fire, hung in the air waiting for me to direct it.

"Wow," I breathe. I haven't seen fire like that since... not since my mother fell from the roof and died.

"That is ..." Clarissa's cell phone light flashes on. She's looking up at the ceiling, which is basically gone. Not like the panels have burned or cracked to reveal the wiring and ductwork above. The whole thing is gone, leaving a black void like nothing has ever existed in that space. Who knows where it leads.

"I'll get someone to check on the offices upstairs," April says without looking away from the ceiling. But Clarissa's gaze turns to me and I hold it, daring her to ask for an explanation. Not that I can give her one.

"Wait," I say as Clarissa's previous question comes back to me. "What do you mean there were two of us under the building? If it wasn't Ezekiel, who was it?"

Even April looks uncomfortable as she and Clarissa exchange a glance. Oh, this is going to be bad. Maybe they found two of me and would like an explanation as to how that's possible.

"It's your mom," Clarissa says, earning a sharp glare from April.

"My mom? Mother? She's alive? Awake?"

"She's—" April starts to say, but her answer doesn't really matter. If SPAM found my mother's body under Ziro Labs, they wouldn't have left her there. Which means she's here. I swing my legs over the side of the bed, yanking at the IV in the back of my hand. "Stop!"

"I don't work for you," I say as my feet hit the cold floor. The hospital gown barely covers my knees and my ass might be on display for everyone to see. Doesn't matter.

"Morgan!" April calls after me as I hurry into the hall.

"You should be in bed," Clarissa says, but she takes my elbow, leading me through a heavy door and to a glass wall. She slows, and I'm about to protest until I catch sight of my mother's red hair on the pillow.

"What—" I say, though I don't know how to finish that sentence. It's my mother. Here, and very solid, if the way Vee—dressed in a hazmat suit complete with a breathing apparatus—holds her hand as she sits by the bed is any indication.

"You can't go in there," Clarissa says. "It's an isolation room until the doctors figure out..." She waves her hand. "Everything."

"But Vee's in there."

"She was very insistent," April says as she catches up to us. "Forceful, even." She winces, and I notice the bruise forming on her cheek for the first time. I whistle softly. It takes a lot of woman to dare to punch April.

"Did someone call her?" I ask.

"She was at the lab when the emergency vehicles showed up," Clarissa says. "I don't know why. She's refused to talk to anyone. All she does is sit with your mom."

I watch them for a minute. My mother is unconscious. Vee's holding on to her hand, rubbing one thumb back and forth over her knuckles. It reminds me of the way Ezekiel held her hand. They both loved her so much, in their own way. Though hopefully Vee's way doesn't include breaking laws of physics and murder. What would be the sentence for killing someone a thousand times? We'd have to rebuild the machine for Ezekiel to live long enough to serve it. Assuming he's even alive now.

I tap on the glass. Clarissa shushes me, and even April jumps, but Vee looks up and when our gazes meet, something like surprise passes over her face. She sets my mother's hand down and rises.

It takes a few moments for her to get through several air locks and take the suit off.

"You made it," she says, like she's been waiting for me.

"What happened?" I ask.

She thins her lips and glances at April and Clarissa. After a moment of awkward silence, April nods and steps back. Clarissa says something about checking on the excavation and disappears up the hall.

"You've got some explaining to do," Vee says.

"So do you. I thought I told you to stay at the diner."

"I did," she says. "For a while, anyway. Until the board lit up so bright at the lab, I'm still seeing spots. After that, I don't care what noble intentions you had. You needed backup. And since Jasper was?—"

"Jasper?" I practically shout it. "Is he—where?—"

Her expression softens and my stomach drops. I shake my head. No. He can't be dead. Not after everything. I may or may not have a supervillain living inside me. Maybe some of my mother's powers too. Surely that's enough price to pay.

"I don't know," Vee says. "He told me to go. He was worried about you too. But Morgan, I wouldn't get my hopes up. He didn't look good. I'm so sorry. I should have checked on him, but your mother was?—"

I don't wait to hear the rest. We can sort out questions of my mother's resurrection and everything else later.

"Clarissa!" I call as I run down the hall. April's wandered off to do something officially SPAMmy—maybe to see if any of the agents who worked above my ceiling hole were transported to another dimension—but Clarissa's head pops out of an open office door. "Where are my clothes?"

My clothes were taken for analysis, apparently, though Clarissa can't say what they're being analyzed for. God only knows what residue is on them after years of time travel and whatever may have been present when I passed through the machine. I did say I was going to burn them, so it's no great loss, aside from wasting time I could use to find Jasper instead of trying to find a fresh set of something other than a hospital gown.

My phone has also disappeared, so Clarissa calls me a ride. Driving to Wench feels absurdly normal, but the driver has barely come to a stop before I'm stumbling out onto the street and through the diner's front door. Vee gave me the keys. The inside is dark, like everyone has gone home.

"Jasper?" I shout. My gaze is on the kitchen door, and my heart is already halfway down the stairs. I dread the thought of finding Jasper dead on the floor. This can't be it. We can't be over.

A flash of green catches my attention on a table in one of the booths by the wall. Jasper's toque. Beside it, his feet stick out, motionless on one of the benches.

No.

"You're late."

I trip over my feet as a dry voice comes deeper inside the booth. Then Jasper sits up, bracing between the table and the wall. His hair is askew and the buttons of his flannel are undone, but I don't care. I practically sprint across the room and throw myself at him.

"You're here," I say. "You're here. Are you okay? Are you?—"

"I'm fine. I'm fine. Morgan. It's okay." He doesn't fight when I push up his T-shirt and inspect every inch of his chest. No sign of bleeding. No pain when I press my hands to his skin. He tangles his fingers in my hair to hold me in place while he kisses me long and hard. "I'm okay," he says.

"What happened?" I ask.

"Don't know. I don't remember a lot. Vee left. I was cold. So cold. But there was this flash, and when it cleared, I was sitting here."

I laugh, wiping my nose with the back of my hand. "The day reset? Just for you? How?"

His grin is perfectly uneven. I love him so much. "You're asking me? You're the scientist, Morgan. I'm only a lowly henchman." His stomach growls, and he flushes. "Sorry. I'm still hungry. I'm always hungry here."

That requires more kisses. "You're way more than a henchman. Partners. That's what we said."

"What happened?" he asks, gasping against my onslaught. "With Ezekiel?"

"My mother," I say. "She stayed. After the flash, she was still there."

I tell him what I know about Mother, which isn't much. About Ezekiel, which is more.

"You're okay?" he asks.

"Mostly." I wriggle my fingers. "Aside from the fact I have no idea what day it is. Or how my mother is back. And I may or may not be sharing my body with a supervillain." One of my feet is falling asleep, and I regretfully crawl back so I can sit across from him. I take the opportunity to groan as I bang my forehead on the table. "Guess I'm back to working for SPAM again. There's no way April's letting me out in public until we know exactly what the Ziro Machine did to me." I trace a finger over the tabletop, leaving a trail of frost on the veneer.

"And me? Did Ezekiel tell why we started remembering?"

I shake my head as I pull his hand across the table. "I'm sorry. I let him talk as much as he wanted, but he didn't say anything about that." I give him what I hope is a roguish smile. "Maybe you were so swayed by my charm you transcended the bounds of reality and time travel. We were fated, Jasper, and even a time loop couldn't stop us."

We stare at each other. His hazel gaze is endless. The circles around his eyes are gone. He looks exactly like the first time I remember seeing him. Healthy. Charming. So far out of my league.

He bursts out laughing. "Fated? That's the most out there thing I've ever heard you say. You believe in fate?"

I didn't use to. But I also didn't believe you could live the same day over and over or get a second chance to make a first impression. I was wrong about a lot of things.

I'm still holding his hand, but I let it go long enough to hold mine out to shake. He grins as he takes it.

"Hi," I say.

His smile is bemused. "Hi?"

"I'm Morgan Murray."

His grin grows exponentially as he stands, still holding my hand. "Jasper Jackson, at your service." We both come around the table until we're standing face-to-face.

"Nice to meet you, Jasper. Clarissa's told me a lot about you."

"You too. Alyssa said you were really cute, but I can tell we're going to have lots to talk about besides that."

I can't think of anyone I'd rather have a conversation with.

"What do you do?" I ask.

He straightens, eyeing me carefully. "I work IT and security for Walter Wolfe. I was studying to be a doctor, but life got in the way. Maybe someday..."

Someday soon. My new catalogue of powers means I'll be able to look out for the people I care about, including Jasper and his family. If Wolfe thinks he can keep blackmailing Jasper about the drug trial, I'll make him wish he'd stayed a block of ice up in the penthouse.

"You said you were hungry?" I ask.

He winks. "Starving."

"Great. Looks like they closed up this place, but I know somewhere else we can go. They make the best deep-fried pickles."

Jasper laughs as he leads me toward the door. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. They have mustard in them, though, so I can't eat them. Allergic."

"Oh, that sucks."

"I'll survive. Want to give it a try? You can tell me if they're as good as everyone says."

He pushes open the door as a bus rumbles by. "I'm sure they're great, but is that really what you want to do on a first date? Just pickles?"

I slide my hand into his. "We'll start there. After that, who knows? I've got all night."

"That's great! So do I!" Jasper smiles. I can't believe a guy like him is smiling at me. He probably thinks I'm some kind of fussy lab nerd. Wait until he hears I've got superpowers. But I can tell him about that later. Tomorrow, even.

We've got all the time in the world.