^^Above, chapter title credit: Song by Modern English.^^

{Geoffrey}

Ridley pops up again, in the form of a newspaper article. It says he's planning on holding a rally to try to garner even more support, since the debate seemed to make his numbers fall, not rise, in the polls. When Raina sees it, she just shakes her head. Ridley seemed incapable of handling anything like an adult, and this was no exception.

"Does he really think that hiring a bunch of people to stand in front of him and wave signs is going to do anything?" she asks that morning at breakfast. She looks tired, eyes red-rimmed and hair tangled, and unusually quiet.

"Works for some candidates," I say with a shrug. "Probably not for Ridley, but—"

"Geoff, Howard tried to kiss me last night," she says abruptly, hands turning into white-knuckled fists on the table. "I stopped it before it went any further, but I wanted to tell you before he did..."

"Hey." I reach across, setting my hand over hers. She looks up at me, brow furrowed. "Don't worry, okay? I know you think he's changed his ways, but he's only done it for you. Once he sees that you're used to it, he'll revert right back."

"I don't know, Geoff, his worry about Felicia seemed genuine..."

"Any super who's smart is going to be," I say, feeling a flare of irritation. As much as it seems Eckles has changed, there's one thing I knew he couldn't stop doing, and that was thinking he had some sort of romantic connection with Raina. Of course she was pretty, smart, and appeared to radiate confidence and charm. But it appears that once again, I'm going to have to assert myself in front of him, that she was my wife and not his.

"Ba ba," Cam says from his high chair, pointing at me with a little finger. "Ba...ba."

"That's Dada, Cam," Raina says as she takes one of his hands, waving it at me. "Can you say Dada?"

"Da ba," says Cam, and that makes me grin.

"Close enough, kid." I ruffle his hair, coming in as fair as mine but as curly as Raina's.

"There's something else," she says as we head back towards the elevators, me carrying Cam. "Why didn't you tell me about that restraining order earlier?"

"You had other things on your mind," I say, but she shakes her head.

"No, I know it's not that. You didn't think I'd find out, did you?"

"Well..." I start without looking at her.

"Geoff, can't you see?" she hisses, grabbing my elbow and spinning me to face her with a surprising amount of strength. "She's manipulating you. It's a trap. You said it provoked this cascade of events, but I think it's something else too. She gets you alone, and once you violate the order, she's led Ridley straight to you."

"And by doing that..." I start, and she finishes right away.

"He can eliminate you with no witnesses. You keep fighting him, he'll either break you or get you out of the way." She leans back against the elevator wall, raking both hands through her hair. "That's why we have to get to him first."

"I hope you're not suggesting what I think you're suggesting." I hitch Cam higher as he wriggles, sucking on two fingers.

"You mean eliminating Ridley first? As tempting as that sounds, I don't think we'd reasonably get away with it." She sighs, gripping the rail behind her and tipping her head back.

"But I know you considered it," I say, grateful that for once, her temper didn't snap.

"He got El killed and nearly blew us to Hell. Of course I did."

"Look at us. We're like a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde." I grin at her, and when she meets my eyes again she blushes.

"Only with a lot less guns, I hope."

≈

We arrive to the rally late. The crowd's already gathered, and I can hear a mess of voices coming from across the street, even over the city noise. I don't know why he thought it was a good idea to have the rally outside, in July, when it's probably upper nineties out here.

"Wish I'd brought some sunscreen," Raina says, stopping to pull her hair up and off her neck. "And a hat. And maybe a bathing suit."

"Ridley's fault," I say, which is pretty much our go-to for everything bad that happens to us now. I fan my face, feeling my shirt sticking to me from the sweat.

"If only we could blame him for the weather," she says, securing her hair tie.

"Probably too easy." I shrug.

We cross the street, to Madison Square, where it appears it's SRO. Ridley's up on a makeshift platform, dressed in a button-up and trousers. The two of us squeeze in at the very back, half in and half out of the shade.

"Salinger says he loves the poor," Ridley's saying. "But you don't know his background. He has a house in the Hamptons, and one on the Upper West Side! He has a maid, a chauffeur, and a groundskeeper! Poor people don't have that. Poor people are the ones working for people like him!"

The crowd cheers their agreement, and I see Raina scowl. She knows as well as I do how much Ridley hates that he was poor once too. But now he's playing it to his advantage, a hypocritical action if I'd ever seen one.

"I was working-class once," he says, beginning to walk back and forth while speaking into his microphone. "I know what it's like to live paycheck to paycheck. I've experienced wanting something and unable to have it, but working my hardest just to get it. If elected, I'll keep on working for it, and this time it'll be on your behalf."

The crowd cheers again. I cross my arms and look down at the ground. Ridley's never wanted to work for anyone. And just hearing him say it makes me want to take him out right here on the spot.

"And now I'd like to bring to the stage my pick for deputy mayor, Ms. Felicia Burgess."

The thunderstruck expression on Raina's face mirrors mine, I'm sure. She'd never even been mentioned in his campaign ads. How could we have missed this?

"Thank you, Ridley," she says as she takes the mic from him, dressed in a tight skirt and blouse that clearly show what she'll offer if elected. "You know, standing in front of you all today, I'm reminded of a certain other event..."

"I can't listen to this," Raina growls, shoving past me.

"Raina, wait..." I go to follow her and stop in my tracks. She's frozen to the spot, eyes glued on something high above us. I follow her gaze and my stomach plunges. After all these years, it's back. The Blob. It's oozing down the side of the nearest building, leaving a slimy green trail in its wake. I grab Raina's hand, and that seems to startle her. "We have to go."

"What is it doing back?" she asks as I begin to pull her away, up the street and towards the platform.

"I don't know, and I don't want to—"

There's a loud crunching noise, and that makes more people turn. The Blob appears to have launched itself off the building and landed on top of a car, crushing it and making its alarm go off. There's only a second of silence before utter chaos breaks out. The crowd stampedes, running in every direction. I lose my hold on Raina, her hand wrenched out of mine.

I spot Ridley, jumping down from the platform, and make a beeline for him. He seems surprised to see me coming, and even more so when I pounce on him, shoving my forearm into his neck.

"What the actual hell, Ridley?"

He holds both his hands up, palms out. "I swear, I don't know. It just showed up."

"Geoff?" says Felicia's voice, and then there she is, coming towards us. Right that second, I hate everything about her — the tight clothes, the sway of her hips, the fake concern on her face.

"Come any closer, and I swear I'll throttle him right here," I snap, fisting my hands in his shirt and yanking him towards me. I want to punch him so badly. "You two are despicable. How can you live with yourselves?"

"I'm sure you don't mean that—" she starts, but she's cut off by a scream.

I whirl around and see the Blob oozing up the sidewalk, towards two people standing on a park bench. With a growl and one last glare at Ridley, I shove him aside and then duck behind some trees to put on my suit. I've been carrying it with me much more often now, mostly because I don't want to be caught unawares.

Once it's on, I leap out from behind the tree and zap the Blob with two lasers, right to its midsection. It screeches, that sound like nails on a chalkboard, and rears back, its tentacles flicking in and out. Once it spots me, though, it hisses and comes straight for me. I zap it again and again, but I can see it's clearly forcing me to back up. I look behind me, noticing it's backing me towards the fountain.

That gives it the advantage. It whips out and punches me in the chest, sending me reeling backward and into the water. That makes my next laser go wide, hitting a nearby lamppost and bouncing off. Before I can recover it slithers into the water with me, spreading itself out. I feel its tentacles wrapping around my legs, binding them tightly together. They twine up my torso and trap one of my arms against my body. I manage to free my other arm and grab a tentacle before it can get me, squeezing it as hard as I can.

Suddenly it lurches, its hold loosening. I kick its tentacles away and stand up, finding another super's joined me: Supernova. He's holding a humming blue rod of energy in his hand, like a real-life Lightsaber. The Blob tries the same technique, aiming at him with a tentacle. He slashes at it, and actually manages to sever the end off. It screeches again, but doesn't give up. Supernova keeps going, chopping off tentacles left and right. I jump out of the fountain and begin with the lasers again, zapping it from behind.

Finally it seems to give up, curling in on itself and melting through a crack in the sidewalk. It leaves a viscous green sludge behind, so big I have to vault myself over it.

"Supernova!" I run over to him, where he's inspecting someone who fell in the stampede. I can't see Ridley or Felicia anywhere. They probably ran off, like the cowards that they are. "Where's my wife?"

"There, man," he says, pointing towards the courthouse. "Should go check on her."

I nod and mumble a quick "Thanks" before taking off, bounding across the street in a few steps. Instantly I'm mobbed by fans, all wanting a chance to meet me. But I only have eyes for Raina, leaning against the wall and holding her arm across her chest. I fight off the admirers, running over to her. She looks up at me, a deep furrow between her eyebrows and worry in her eyes. I nod down Madison Avenue, and gingerly she pushes herself away from the wall.

We stop in a mostly deserted green area on 28th, where I wrestle myself out of my suit and then run over to her, where she's sitting down on the edge of a planter. I kneel down in front of her and cup her face, checking her over for injury.

"Are you okay? Where are you hurt?"

"Geoff, it's fine, really..."

"You're covered with scrapes, Raina, that's not fine." I see one on her shoulder, her cheek, and her knee, and she's still holding her arm to her chest. "What happened to your arm?"

"Someone stepped on it..."

I pull her arm gently away from her chest, and her hand flops forward, lying unnaturally flat against her arm. Her wrist's definitely broken.

"Do you hurt anywhere else? Be honest."

She bites her lip. "Just a little bruised, that's all."

"Are you sure?" I know I must look overprotective, but after the explosion, I can't take any more chances.

She nods. She still seems a little shocked, and I can't blame her. Whatever that was, it definitely ended in chaos.

"Let's get you to the hospital, okay? And then home."

≈

I keep my hands clenched into white-knuckled fists all the way home. Raina tries to talk to me, make me look at her, something. But the more I think about Ridley, and how he must have been planning that all along, the less I have an inclination to speak.

Finally, when we get home, I climb out of the car without looking back. I know it's unfair to Raina, who probably just had the misfortune of being a bystander. I hear her trying to quiet Cam, who's starting to cry. He must have sensed the anger in the air all the way home.

"Dada's home, Nana!" I hear Ettie's voice the second I step inside, and a second later she's running out of the living room towards me. "Hi, Dada!"

"Hey, sweetie." I catch her under the arms and scoop her up, and she giggles.

"Again, Dada, again!"

"Not now, sweetie, Daddy has to work." I give her forehead a kiss and then set her down.

Mila comes out just as Ettie spots Raina, running to her and latching her arms around her neck. Her expression is grim, and as she comes closer she pulls a piece of paper from her shirt pocket. I take it from her and unfold it, and my stomach drops. Louisa McNaughton, tried to reach me four times, left her husband's number.

"Was this just recently, Mila?" I ask her as she passes me to take Cam off Raina's hands.

She nods. "She is expecting to hear back soon, Mister Geoffrey."

I groan. As if this day couldn't get any worse. I can't even think of what she would want. We've been over for almost ten years now.

"Geoff?" Raina says as I pass her, turning to follow me. "Where're you going so soon?"

"I'll be back soon, Raina," I say, seeing her face fall. I almost want to forget the whole thing, but I know if I don't nip it in the bud, Louisa's going to get a hold of Raina, and I don't want that. She'd chew her up and spit her out.

"Okay." Her voice is small and sad, and I see her hand tighten on Ettie's.

"Where Dada going?" Ettie asks as I turn and walk away.

"He's going to work, sweetie," Raina answers, and I can imagine her crouching down on Ettie's level the way she always does. "Want to show me what you and Nana were doing?"

Their voices are cut off when I shut the door to my office, and for a second, I lean against it and press my forehead into it. I know it's too much to ask for a normal life with my kids and my wife, but then there's girls like Louisa, who can't let things go. That almost makes it worse.