It was a little hard to explain to the nurses what exactly happened. My natural instincts, after all, weren't all that natural. Who gets startled and pushes the bar up? Me. The idiot. The one that put Jonas in the hospital.

He looks so peaceful lying there. His eyes are shut, and so are his lips for a change. They said he would be alright.

They don't know about his super power.

All night I've been sitting by his bedside, waiting for him to wake up. The doctors said he wasn't in a coma, so why won't he wake up already? I need to know if I ruined his power. A bar with 100 pounds on it can't leave you unscathed in your brain.

What if he wakes up with annesia? Of course more thoughts like this flood through my mind. Just what I need to stay calm.

"Della, we need to talk." Mason appears from the doorway. I blink and remain sitting in the metal chair.

"Don't give me this attitude, I didn't do anything wrong. You were the one who snuck out and went to my hideout without my permission. This is on you." He scolds. His voice obnoxiously cuts through the air.

"Don't you think I know that?" I snap back, "Now my best friend is unconscious because I spazzed out. I'm such a clutz."

Mason sighs and walks over to me. He's wearing gym shorts and a plain black t-shirt, what he was wearing earlier this morning. I realize I haven't changed clothes either, but I haven't been home yet. Looking up at the wall clock, I see it's ten a.m, and I've been sitting here for six hours. My fingers brush along the the hem of the t-shirt I wore to bed. My athletic shorts leave my legs freezing. Did I really just slip on my Keds last night to meet up with Jonas?

"Look," he plops into the chair next to me, "The nurses said he'll be alright."

"But what if I took away his only power?" I whisper, thinking it over for the millionth time.

Mason's quiet for a moment. He stares at Jonas, contemplating.

"You're in love with him, and he's in love with you. His ability to read minds won't change the way he's been looking at you for years." Mason pats my hand and leaves the room, slowly I might add. As I watch him walk away, something touches my arm.

It's a good thing I don't have a barbell in my hands at the moment. Jonas' eyes flutter open after he reaches out for me. My heart is beating a million times a minute.

"Jonas!" I scream out. I'm sure his parents, who are waiting in the hall, will come running in any second now due to my shriek.

He smiles, painfully. "Hey Del. What happened?" Okay, good, he remembers me. No signs of amnesia.

"I kind of... Hit you in the head with a barbell." I sit next to him on the bed, although I sit upright while he lays down.

He lets out a low whistle, "That knocked me out pretty good. I feel like Sleeping Beauty." He chuckles and then suddenly looks sick. Quickly, I cup my hand to his face.

"You probably have a concussion. Don't over do anything." I absentmindedly run my fingers through his hair.

"Jonas?" I think I should ask sooner rather than later.

"Yes?" He looks over at me, but he's still wincing in pain.

"Can you... Can you read my mind?" I blurt out. I can't believe I'm so insensitive.

Jonas squints, trying to concentrate. No. No, he has to still have it. He's the only one that knows me. I don't even have to explain myself around him.

A tear slips down my cheek; maybe it's for selfish reasons. I'm the one responsible for the loss of his power. What kind of hero am I?

"Della, I'm not getting anything." He whispers.

My heart drops to my stomach. What have I done? The feeling of someone punching me in the stomach encompasses me.

He looks up to see me failing in my attempt to hold back tears. "Jonas," My voice breaks, "Please forgive me. I'm so sorry, I never meant for this to happen."

He grabs my hand, which he did without hesitation. Maybe Mason was right, Jonas won't look at me any different.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm not going to stop helping you." He uses a soothing voice to relax me. Why is he the one helping me relax? I should be helping him!

"Don't beat yourself up over this, Del." His thumb makes small circles over my hand.

When I'm at a loss for words, Jonas doesn't usually have an issue with filling the silence. But for now, he stares into my eyes, and I think about how much I'm falling for his smile. For his eyes. For his caring, gentle heart. For his forgiveness. For his patience with me.

Jonas Coleman may be one of the best people in this world.

He shifts around to where he can sit up straight. He twists his upper body to fully face me. Then, just like the time before, his hand reaches out to touch my cheek and brush my hair away from my face. Time freezes and we're the only two people that exist.

His lips are closer than inches from mine, more like centimeters. Jonas brushes his lips across my own, I suppose to tease me. My nose rubs against his and then his lips crash down on mine. The kiss doesn't last any more than three seconds, but I lost track of time in this moment.

When I'm met with his eyes again, I think I may be dreaming, or in a trance. His eyes soften when they look into mine.

He bites his lip, "Hey, Della?"

I smile in return, "Yes Jonas?"

"I didn't lose my power. The only thing I lost was the bet."

My mouth drops open and I consider punching the crap out of him for lying to me and making me cry. Perhaps I deserved his trick, though. Instead of pummeling him, I choose to ask a follow up question.

"So what is my reward for winning?" I smirk, teasing him just as he did to me.

He opens his mouth to speak, and then his parents bust in the room.

"Jonas Hunter Coleman, you better have a good explanation for all of this!"

I guess that's my cue to run for the hills.

***

The nurses and his parents flood the room, and I decide I would rather wait in the hall. I feel bad to leave him alone, being heavily questioned by the doctors and his parents. How is he going to explain this incident?

"Della? Della! What happened?" Great, mom's here. Dad tags along behind her. I stand up from the bench- which is more comfortable than the metal chair.

"I don't really think I can tell you here." I shrink in fear.

Mom's jaw clenches, as she tries to hold back her anger.

"We have been waiting as well as Jonas' parents for six hours for news of his condition. And you're saying you can't tell us now?"

"Mom, please, can we talk about this at home?" I beg of her.

Dad grabs the crook of her arm to make her retract from pointing her scrawny finger at me. "Come on, Audrey. Let's give Tom and Kathy some time with their son." That's not exactly why we need to go home, but mom listens to dad. She huffs and storms off down the hall.

Oh. That's where I get it from.

Dad rolls his eyes and turns to follow after her. I'm not sure where Mason or Ash are, but I don't want to speak up any more. Mom doesn't seem too thrilled to hear me talk lately.

Once we've exited the hospital, mom is practically speed walking to the car. Why is she acting so childish?

"Audrey. Audrey. Audrey!" My dad calls to her, as she's already crossed the street, looking through the parking garage for dad's truck.

"James, let's just hurry up and get home," She yells back, turning to face us. "Crap! Where's Mason?" She exclaims, throwing her hands up in exasperation.

"He's with Ashlynn." Dad responds as we cross the street. We find the truck and mom jumps into the front seat.

Was mom like this when she was my age? Stubborn, easily angered, and persuaded only by her best friend?

"Would you calm down? We're going home. It's not like you wanted to tell her out in the open halls of the hospital. Especially with Tom and Kathy in earshot."

"Tell who what?" I interject.

Mom continues the argument, "She's not ready to hear it. She needs to tell me what happened first."

I'm being referred to in third person. They do realize I'm sitting in the back seat, right?

Dad's lead foot goes five, now ten, now fifteen miles over the speed limit. Our house should be ten minutes from the hospital, but we arrive in five. Both of my parents make their way into the house, slamming their car doors and leaving me in the truck with no explanation.

Once I'm in the house, I observe them yelling at each other, the cacophony filling my ears. I can't begin to comprehend what they're screaming about anymore.

"Stop!" I screech at the top of my lungs. Once both of my parents look my way, I realize I'm not sure of what to say next.

Dad is the first to speak up, "Let's go to the kitchen and talk things over." He walks past mom and I to the kitchen table and takes a seat at the head of the table.

Mom sits on his left side, the chair closest to the bay window. I sit across from her on dad's right side. He folds his hands together and places them on the mahogany table top. Mom is either glaring at me or she's not looking in my direction. I wouldn't know because I'm not looking up at either of them.

"Della, I need you to take this seriously if you want us to take you seriously. Why did you sneak out?" Dad snaps at me.

"Because I had to destroy Red Raven's schemes." I state blankly.

"Why did you involve Jonas?" Mom interjects.

"He's my sidekick. I couldn't really do the job alone." I try not to sound sassy, but I'm not sure how they will twist this on me.

"What happened to Jonas?" Mom's voice slices through me.

I carefully choose my next words, "We finished up our job with Red Raven. Then we decided to go work out and prepare ourselves for our next fight. I was lifting weights when I was startled and knocked Jonas in the head with the barbell." I try to leave out specific details that may allude to Mason's presence. I'm sure he hasn't told our parents about his villainous ways.

Dad sighs, "Well at least he's okay. But Della, what were you thinking?!? You can't just sneak off in the middle of the night!"

"Well I couldn't do it in broad daylight." Uh-oh. My tone could not have sounded pleasing to their ears.

Thankfully, dad is the one to reply, "Look, we know how important being a hero is to you-"

"No, dad, I don't think you do. And it's not just important to me. The whole town needs me. If you haven't noticed, I'm the only one out there fighting for what's right!" There goes my chances of keeping our conversation civilized.

Mom and dad don't scream at me anymore. In fact, they remain speechless for a good 30 seconds. Dad looks over at mom, who seems to be staring at her hands in her lap.

"I think now's the time to tell her, Audrey." My dad reaches out for my mom's shoulder. She looks up with a facial expression I can't identify. Somewhere between distraught, frustrated, and like she's going to explode.

"Tell me what?" I ask, trying to get my voice back down to a normal level.

They simultaneously sigh (which kind of freaks me out) and dad begins. "You keep saying that you're the only hero out there, fighting crime and taking down the bad guys."

"Right. I am. Ever since Titania disappeared off the face of the earth-"

"Della. I'm Titania." My mom looks me dead in the eyes to interrupt my sentence. There's no longer hatred in her voice or motions. But I can't promise I'll be as easygoing with this information.

"You're Titania?" I scoff, "So, dad, you must be Vortex, right?" I laugh in their faces.

"That's right, I'm her sidekick." Dad admits.

Maybe now isn't the best time for me to speak, due to my rage of anger that's about to erupt. But do I listen to my voice of reason at this point? No.

"You knew I was a super hero when I was in the hospital. I heard you talking," I suddenly remember. "Why did you scold me for a business you two were involved in yourselves?" I start to exclaim, but I restrain my anger.

"We wanted you to make the decision on you own. That's why, when we found out years ago that you had powers, we chose to drop out of the limelight to allow you to see how you could help your community." Dad explains.

"Hold on!" I screech, "You left our entire town defenseless so that I could make a decision if I wanted to be a hero or not? What kind of supers do that?"

"Della, calm down now. It was time for us to settle down. We couldn't keep hiding our identity from you and Mason." Mom is finally using her calming voice. Too bad it's doing anything but calming me.

My fists ball up and my chair slides back. It hits the counter wall with a loud bang but I ignore it.

"You have no right to call yourselves heroes. You left the town defenseless and hopeless for years, just waiting on a teenage girl to step up to the plate." I shake my head, refusing to look at my parents.

Before they can make up any more excuses, I make a dash for the door. I'll decide my destination later. Right now, I'll try to get rid of the pain in my chest.

A/N
Ahhhhhh!!! It's been killing me this whole time trying to hide this huge secret. Some of you may have pieced clues together already, but here it is, finally!

Still a few chapters left! Please continue reading! I would love it if you would vote, comment, and follow!

Thanks for reading!
Always, Sunny