∆∆∆∆∆∆∆Sammie's POV∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆∆

Sammie's eyes opened, slowly. Her body felt tired and sore. Most likely due to sleeping on the lumpy couch. She closed her eyes again.

“...on't really know what you expect me to do. I can't keep her locked in her room all day.”

Sammie opened her eyes again, confused. Oh, right. The couch sucks, which explains her back pain on trying to sit up. She thought she heard talking. She was alone on the couch to now, and had the whole blanket to herself. What time was it?

Then she heard Alex's voice carried from the kitchen, just above a whisper. Was he on the phone? She thought sleepily, rubbing her eyes.

“No, actually, I can't,” he hissed to whoever he was talking to. “Of course I fucking care. She's my best friend, isn't she? Why do you think I called...” his trailed off as the other person talked over him. It was then that Sammie could hear that it was Angela's voice. Her loud distinct voice. What the fuck?

They were talking about her. Shit, she had been slipping. Immediately, she laid back down. Pulling the blanket up higher, she closed her eyes and forced herself to relax. Just in case Alex happened to walk into the living room. Meanwhile, she would try to figure out what exactly they were discussing so she could come up with a countermeasure. She couldn't let them figure out, it would be bad for everyone.

She won't let them figure out.

“I know it wasn't you, I never said it was from you,” he said just a bit louder, “I'm not accusing you of anything. I just couldn't think where else she could have got...uh-uh, well jogging wouldn't leave mark-....uh-huh..”

Sammie wanted to laugh, Angela did have a hard time with the 'taking turns' part of phone conversations. She was too alpha for that.

“It can't be more than a couple days old,” Alex whispered, answering whatever her question was. “It looks like a very weird bruise.”

The marks were faint, she thought he would just overlook them. She mental scolded herself for being so careless. She must have let it slip during the day.  Of course he was bound to notice!

Alex sighed. “I have no idea, she sure as hell hasn't said anything about it. I honestly doubt she will say anything even if I asked.”

How was she this obvious? No more. She needed to keep up appearances better from now on. No more letting cracks show. What if they demanded answers? How could she protect them now?

How could she have been so stupid? And on top of everything else, now she was upsetting her sister and Alex when she could have prevented it. There was nothing they could do, and they were only safe as long as they were ignorant. The least she could do for them was keep them safe. No matter what happened to her.

Alex must have hung up, since he wandered back to the living room, Sammie turned to her side, and made a show of being 'woken up' by the scuffing of his footsteps.

“Oh, hey,” he said, almost as he had forgot she was there. “You okay? Not coming down with something, are you?”

She was about to protest that she never got sick, but caught herself. No, this was a good idea.

“Maybe,” She fake yawned. “What time is it?” She already knew what time it was, she had checked it twenty minutes ago when she actually woke up.

He frowned at her. “It's almost noon. You must have slept a good ten hours.”

Alex's concern face made her feel guilty again. She never slept that long. She'd never needed much sleep, but with all the things going on every night. She was burnt out, mentally and physically.

Lately, though, she hadn't been getting even more than a few hours of sleep. It had to catch up with her eventually.

She sat up, slowly. Honestly, she might as well have been sick, since sleeping on the couch had left her sore. Yawning for real, she stretched. Great, I work tomorrow, she thought bemused.

“Remind me never to sleep on this stupid couch ever again,” she said.

Alex smiled, and shrugged. “Never sleep on that stupid couch ever again.”

"Wow, thank you.” Sammie rolling her eyes, let out a sigh.

Alex laughed. “You're welcome.”

If she tried, Sammie could almost forget about the phone call she'd just overheard, and pretend this was a normal morning.

“Uh,” Alex mumbled, stuffing his hands in his hoodie pockets. “Angela called. Since she had the day off she wants to do some training with you. I told her you weren't feeling well, but since you're up it's your call.”

If she hadn't known for a fact that Alex was lying to her, she would have never have been able to tell. The way he looked her square in the eye, with the same air of aloofness that he always had. She wanted to learn to lie like that. To look them straight in the eyes, though that's not really a good goal to have..

It would solve a lot of her current problems. She supposed she'd simply have to practice. Which she is sure she'll have plenty of chances. Her first step was going to Angela's for training.

Alex had given her an easy out, but she loved spending time with her sister. She liked boxing. Had liked, anyway...but she couldn't say she didn't now without alerting everyone that something is wrong with her

She had been careless before. No more. The couldn't bear the thought of what might happen if their questioning got out of hand.

No matter what it took, no matter how much her body would be abused and burnt, she vowed to keep them safe.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

Sammie watched as Angela move her new dummy aside, suddenly nervous. “Sissy, I really don't think this is a good idea,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper.

Angela turned to face her, her face serious. “Look, Sam,” she said, arms stretched up, “I get that you're still a little freaked out, but you can't just be scared all your life. I believe you can do great.”

The old torn up dummy by the back wall caught Sammie's gaze like a magnet. Her stomach hurt.

Angela snapped her fingers to get Sammie's attention. “Hey!” She glared, her facial expression somewhere between mad and concerned.

“If you start getting scared of your own potential, you'll never be able to control it. Then how will you defend yourself from burglars?”

“I just don't want to hurt you.” she knew she was annoying her, but her fear of hurting her own sister (the woman who raised her) made her put her foot down. Not that it would last long. Sammie was used to letting her sister have her way since they were little. It was only a matter of time until she caved to Angela's wishes.

She was wearing yoga pants and her, too big for her body, long sleeve hoodie. Angela had eyed her since it was really warm out today, but said nothing. Angela was wearing a shorts, tank top, and jogging shoes that she favored. The thin garments would be less than useless if Sammie let her full power come out. No flame, no flame, she thought over and over again. Almost like a chant, an Angela protection chant.

Angela sighed. She wasn't a patient woman, but she was trying. Mostly due to fear of pushing Sammie too far, and making her give up instead.

“You won't hurt me, sis, c'mon.” Angela scoffed.  "Shit happens. You're just stronger than you thought, and you're not used to it. I can show you what you need to know. I trust you.”

Sammie relaxed, Angela had a point, though. She had gotten too scared of what she could do. If she was so scared of a lot of things right now, but her powers were the one thing she could actually do something about.

“You're right, like always,” she said, smiling at Angela, and tiltng her head to the side. No flames, no flames, she repeated mentally.

“Now that's more like it!" Angela smiled, and pumped an arm up into the air. She squared her shoulders, and readied her stance. “There is nothing to keep you down.”

"If it makes you more comfortable,” she said, looking straight into Sammie's eyes, “we can start with just me attacking and you defending. Then we can go from there.”

Sammie reluctantly settled into a defensive stance, and pushed down her instincts to summon flames. No flames, no flames, please.

“Yes,” Sammie said, nodding. “I can do that.”

When Sammie had first started training with her sister, she had found Angela's fighting capabilities intimidating. Once she had gotten to comfortable, however, she felt better knowing Angela wouldn't use her full force on her.

She hated to think that Angela was worried about her, so she put her all into making this training look as normal as she could.

For the first half hour, she simply dodged Angela quick jabs and kicks. Angela started off slow and built up speed. Her swings rarely connecting with Sammie. This gave her some time to get into the proper headspace. The magic in her, however, wanted to be released. No flames, no flames..

By the time Angela started to use her all, Sammie was able to smoothly transition from dodging to blocking.

Angela praised Sammie, as she stood her ground. Blocking hits, and countering every now and then.

But her magic was building again ready to strike, she started to loosen up. Against her better judgment, she started to have fun. Angela was an amazing fighter, even for her squadron. The differing of their fighting styles made it all the more exciting and challenging.

Angela was an aggressive fighter, and with her height advantage she was basically a storm with legs. Angela was as taller than most of the men in town, and she loved it. Angela had papa's height, and it was her favorite thing about herself.

Sammie, much smaller, was like a lightening, quick hits out of nowhere, and then gone before they could think to hit back. Sammie was momma's height, not that she ever saw what momma looked like except in the few pictures they had of them.

“All right,” Angela said, trying to uppercut Sammie. She missed. “Warm-up's over. I'm going to keep hassling you until you counter me.”

Here was where things could go south. But Sammie wasn't feeling scared or overwhelming. Angela left herself open briefly between throws. Sammie hesitant, but not wanting to disappointe her sister, fought as hard as she could without using magic.

Dropping her defenses, Sammie ducked to one side and swung a weak jab. Unsurprisingly, it didn't connect.

“You can try harder than that, come on!” Angela yelled.

Apparently, it was Sammie's turn to be attacker. Taking a deep breath, she shifting her stance. Nothing had gone wrong yet. She could actually do this!

Angela blocked each and every swing, swatting them from the air. Not even Sammie's kicks were landing on her, though just barely.

“Hey, sis,” Angela said, between swinging and dodging. “If you're gonna keep it up with these wimpy-oof!” She stumbled when a right hook kick connected with her chest, knocking her back a half step. She continued. “-these wimpy punches, I might as well crouch and stand still.”

"What?!" Sammie shouted, both offended and scared.

"I won't move, I'll just block."

Sammie righted herself without missing a beat, and continued to swing as weak as she could without looking to incompetent.

"Are yo- are you serious?"

Angela always said fighting with Sammie made her feel like Goku. While it pissed her off, she didn't feel that now was the best time to show her up, not when she still wasn't sure if her magic would keep behaving itself. It kept flaring up, desperate for a chance at release. Ready to burn everything it can come across.

“Yeah, yeah, you worry too much,” Angela couched, going from her full 5'9 feet tall to 5'4-ish. Her face look thoughtful for a second, “You're attacking like you're fighting with Alex, or something."

Sammie nodded, not liking the idea at all but not wanting to disappoint her sister. She took a deep breath to calm herself down, but Angela kept yelling, trying to rile her up.

"Sammie! Try to actually fight me, for fucks sake!”

“If you insist, I guess I could try.”

“Yes! Lay it on me, sissy.”

She pushed her magic down again. “Remember you don't have to hold still,” she said. Her nervousness slowly melting away as she saw Angela blocking hits perfectly. Angela did stand completely still, blocking everything flawlessly. She let herself smile as Angela seemed to be doing great.

“Two hundred times the Earth's gravity, but that won't stop me,” Sammie heard Angela mutter to herself.

She figured Angela would quote that. Maybe just to piss her off so she could hit harder. It was kinda working. She let herself swing harder, and faster. Even start sweep kicking, though that wasn't fair.

They exchanged blows this way for a good while, Angela was blocking amazingly despite her 'handicapped' movement. The strain to stay crouched was on her face none the less.

Sammie let her gaurd down. Angela had been right all along. She knew what she was doing, and so did her sister. Sissy trusted her.

"Wanna take a break Ang?"

“Five more minutes!” Angela grunted, blocked a uppercut. “We still got some magic left, sissy, lets keep going.”

'Magic'? Sammie halted for second too long and felt a quick jab hit her arm. She moved away before Angela took advantage.

She swung another high kick, even smiling as she did so, when something light quickly moved behind Angela. It was by her backyard wall. Distracted, Sammie's eyes focused past Angela.

Samuel looked over the wall, smiling and waved a little at her. His blond hair was what caught her eye.

Then everything went wrong.

Sammie's kick went straight to Angela's temple. Who normally could have moved away but she was too crouched, too tired, and there was no time. In the split second her kick connect, she sent her sister across the yard like a rag doll. Sammie let out a horrified scream.

“Angela!"

Sammie's eyes darted back to where Samuel was, he was gone. She was wondering if she imagine him.