Debbie was having a very bad day. A very bad day. Ever since Mark managed to rope her into becoming the CEO of Invincible Inc., she had been keeping herself as busy as possible. She threw herself at the monstrous amount of work and unfamiliar work environment, just to take her mind off of things.
Mark naturally knew that, which was why he asked her in the first place. Debbie was thankful for her son, even if he would never admit it; she was convinced that he started all that business to take her mind off things.
There was his phobia of paperwork as well, of course, but he could do anything he set his mind to, and unlike other heroes, Invincible wasn't out there all the time. But that seemed like something that wouldn't stop him from getting hurt.
She saw how he had suffered at the hands of his father and how he seemed to have almost died. He looked horrible, and realistically, he should have died. No one seemed to understand how he not only hadn't died, but also made such a speedy recovery. He was something else, in the words of the doctors and Cecil.
Panic.
That was what she remembered feeling about the moment that Nolan revealed who he really was. Panic because she had been deceived, panic because her love seemed to have been a lie and panic that he was going to kill Mark. She didn't care that he was doing well, that her son was holding off his father, who had probably thousands of years of training and experience. Those were all inconsequential to her.
What mattered was seeing his battered face, the amount of blood and the broken bones.
Debbie also felt ashamed.
She felt ashamed that she hadn't been the one to take care of Mark after his recovery, and that it had been the other way around. Mark had seen through her facade, through the act she tried to portray to him, and he peeled it all off. He was never someone who enjoyed the intricacies of social interaction, but he always made room for her and her feelings.
He was the mountain she clung to in the storm that followed Nolan's disappearance.
And while she had managed to distract herself with the good work they had been doing with Invincible Inc., she realised just how frail her mind still was when she got the call from Cecil that something had happened with Mark again.
...
"Debbie, I'm glad you're here. Mark's just got out of--"
"Where is he?" she interrupted.
Cecil naturally understood what she must be going through and nodded, pointing down the hallway.
"Follow me."
He didn't speak afterwards, realising that she wasn't in the mood for it. And since she didn't want to hear what happened as of now, he saw no benefit in informing her, just to be shouted at.
They reached the room where Mark was lying. Debbie rushed in when she saw him.
"Mark!"
She started looking all over his body for damage, but couldn't find any. The injuries he had suffered from the fight was mostly internal, affecting his brain, since the pincers from the Depth Dweller hadn't done substantial damage. Compared to the last time Mark was there, he looked rather healthy in fact.
"What happened? Why is he here? He doesn't look injured," Debbie said.
"Sigh... because Nolan killed the Atlantean King, their customs demanded that they take it up with the next living relative. Which in this case was Mark. He was supposed to go with them to Atlantis and then marry their Queen as 'compensation' and then return. However, there was a... custom that demanded that he fight with a monster before he could do that and--"
"What?!"
Debbie went nuts when she heard that stupid explanation.
"Nolan killed the Guardians of the Globe; he killed all of those people, and Mark fought against him to stop him, and now HE has to stand up for Nolan's deeds?!"
She went on a rant, pointing her finger at Cecil, who had feared that this was coming, but also fully understood where she was coming from. Truthfully, he also thought it was a bit much to have Mark deal with this, but what was he supposed to do? He needed Invincible, and it was the best way to use him for the safety of the planet. Cecil allowed her to work through her frustration and fear, knowing she would eventually calm down.
"Get out," Debbie said.
"Sigh. If there's anything you need, please call me."
"GET OUT!"
Debbie sat at Mark's bedside, gently brushing through his hair. She cried silently, and in that moment realised how much she had needed him. To realise that your son was your lifeline was a very hard pill to swallow. It was ironic, since she did the same thing as Cecil and the Atlanteans had done: cling to Mark and handle his father's mistakes.
She remembered the card her friend Olga had given her some time ago, when they were talking after Red Rush had died. She looked through her handbag and indeed found it. This surprised her, since she had forgotten all about it.
. . . - - - . . .
Debbie saw the points and lines standing for SOS on the front, then turned it around and saw the phone number printed on the back. She dialled the phone number and was connected a moment later.
[Um... one second, please. Shh, okay. Just let me take this call. Okay... Hi. Sorry.] The woman on the line chuckled.
"Hi. Um... I got your card from my friend Olga. My name is Debbie Gr--"
[Oh, yeah. Yeah- yeah, no. Uh, sorry, no last names, Debbie. But Olga told me about you. I've been expecting your call for a while now.]
.
Debbie made her way to the Community Centre. She had been sitting at Mark's bedside for hours until the evening had arrived. There were a few other cars there already. She knew she was a bit late already, but her duties kept her from just leaving Mark or Invincible Inc.'s work. The doctors hadn't been able to tell her when Mark would wake up, so she had chosen to go to the support group. It was a support group for 'spouses of superheroes', as ironic as that was.
She entered through the door and heard one of the members talk already.
"It feels like vertigo. They talk about the physical symptoms of grief. Depression, lethargy, all that. Uh, but... when the thought of her takes me by surprise in the middle of the day, it's like I'm falling. I try to grab on to something, but there's nothing to grab. It's terrifying and exhausting, and I just... *sigh*... I still miss her so much."
"Thanks, Theo."
Debbie stepped aside to get a cup of coffee.
"Okay, let's take a few moments, everybody," the woman leading the group said and walked towards Debbie.
"Carol?"
"Hi! You must be Debbie. I'm so sorry about the other day. My three-month-old has the worst colic right now."
"Urgh, I remember. My son, he was such a fussy baby initially. Then..."
"How old is he now?"
"18."
"Practically a man."
"He is."
Carol saw the state Debbie was in, even if she misinterpreted everything. She gently touched Debbie's hand and smiled lightly. Debbie took a deep breath and calmed herself, coming out of her thoughts.
"So, some ground rules. We're not that different from other support groups, except we're even stricter about identity. First names only. You aren't required to share till you're ready, buut that's why we're all sacrificing a Tuesday night, so might as well make the most of it. Bathroom's down the hall, and the coffee tastes like battery acid. Any questions?"
"I think you covered it."
"Great. Have a seat."
"All right, everybody, who's up?" Carol asked.
...
After a brief moment of silence, a woman slowly raised her hand.
"Hi. I'm Lucinda."
"""Hi, Lucinda."""
The meeting went on for a bit over an hour. Apart from Debbie, everyone said something. Not necessarily explaining what happened to them in particular, but they shared their pain, some of their experiences and their fears. All in all, it was a relatively normal support group session. The only difference was that Debbie felt horrible attending it. She didn't know any of the people who attended the meeting, but in a strange way she... felt responsible.
Out of all of the people, she probably suffered the worst and only tortured herself by coming here.
When they were done, Debbie looked at her phone, going through the messages she and Mark had exchanged over the last few days. Unsurprisingly, there weren't many, since Mark still lived at home. Unlike what one would expect from a young man like Mark, he didn't see a problem with that. It wasn't like they were lacking money, since Mark had just sold pieces of a meteor and got filthy rich, and because Mark didn't plan on attending college, this was a simple solution for him.
What Debbie didn't know yet was that Mark planned for them to move to a bigger house, a mansion, or something along those lines. They had enough money for it, so why shouldn't they? He also realised that his mother would never get out of her 'survivor's guilt' if they remained in the same house that they lived in with Nolan.
"I didn't say much at my first meeting either," Theo said when Debbie reached her car.
He was having a smoke by his car, which stood right next to Debbie's. He needed this to calm himself down after each session.
"Took me almost a month to talk to anybody. Now they can't shut me up."
"I see."
"Sorry. I can leave you alone."
"N-no, it's fine. I visited my son today..."
"Ah. Empty house?"
"Yeah."
"I totally get it. We all do."
...
"Hey, don't take this the wrong way, but there's a bar down the street some of us like to go to after group."
"Oh."
"Yeah. Uh, I just figured, since it seems like neither of us wants to go home... But no pressure, of course."
Debbie had written to Cecil and asked for an update, but received a reply that nothing had changed with Mark yet. She put the phone away and nodded at Theo.
"Sure. I could use a drink."
"It's, uh, it's kind of a dive."
"The best ones are," Debbie chuckled humourously.
.
"Did you move after your partner passed away?" Debbie asked Theo.
"I moved the furniture. Couldn't afford to relocate. You?"
"I stayed for my son, but... now? I feel like... I'm holding him down. You know?"
"Like you depend on him? Or need him?"
"...yeah... he made a clever business decision. He had the gall to do something no one thought about for some reason, despite it being right in front of everyone's eyes..."
"That's nice. Always good that the children are doing well."
"Yeah... but maybe... maybe it's time for a change," Debbie said.
"Change is good," Theo told her.
"Yeah. Problem is, where would I go?"
"Somewhere new."
"But I already have a new job, which takes up most of my time. Besides, so much of it still feels connected to him."
"Your son?"
"No, my husband."
"..."
"When we wanted Indian food, we'd go to India. We'd fly to Tokyo and back on a Wednesday night. Oh, haha, one Christmas Eve, we made a snowman at the North Pole. My son was pissed when he didn't get to see Santa's workshop, so we told him we'd gone to the South Pole by mistake."
Theo chuckled, hearing the story.
"Sounds like you two had a pretty amazing life together."
"We did," Debbie said.
Theo gave her a moment, seeing that she was quite emotional and hurt. He naturally also misinterpreted what Debbie went through, but thought that he could relate.
"You can still be angry. That's okay. God knows I am."
"Thanks. It's good to talk with someone who understands. I talked with my son quite a few times about it, but... he has such a logical and almost detached way of seeing what happened, that it's hard to find common ground, you know."
"I wish I could tell you it gets easier, but Alana's been gone nearly a year... and I still reach across the bed for her every morning."
"Alana... you mean..."
"Yeah... She was the Green Ghost. Guess I just broke rule number one of SOS."
Debbie looked dejected and swallowed hard. Theo was looking at his drink. He was still feeling immense anger.
"Not that it matters now, since she got murdered by that alien psychopath."
"I-I didn't know she had a partner," Debbie almost whispered.
"We used to fight about that. She wanted to protect me," he said.
Debbie shuddered and started to cry. Still, she managed to pull herself together and stood up, excusing herself.
"I need to use the restroom."
"Are you okay?" Theo asked.
"No, I'll-I'll be back."
...
Debbie, in fact, didn't plan to go back. She walked out of the bar and broke down. She started crying and felt horrible. She used the wall to hold herself up and keep from falling. She wanted to get as far away from the bar as possible, but that proved to be problematic when the door was pushed open and Theo rushed out.
"Debbie. Are you okay?" he asked.
He walked towards her. Theo wasn't sure whether he had done something that upset her, since he used to get so angry when he talked about Alana and what had happened.
"Di-did I say something wrong?" he asked.
"I'm sorry. Tonight... tonight's been a little much," she tried to explain.
"I get it. I-It's a lot."
"I haven't talked to anyone about any of this... other than my son... and that probably makes me a bad parent on top of everything else."
"Hey, it takes time to heal," Theo said.
"I can't heal because my husband's not dead. He's just... gone."
Theo didn't understand what she was talking about. He raised his eyebrow.
"He's gone because... because he murdered Alana and the other Guardians and almost killed my son, too," Debbie cried.
"Your husband... Your husband is Omni-Man?"
"I thought he was Nolan Grayson, but that wasn't true. The last 20 years of my life have been a lie," she sobbed.
"I wish he was dead. I wish I could grieve and move on, but I ca-- I can't."
"I wish he was dead too. But not for your sake," said Theo.
Debbie gasped at the coldness he showed her.
"You shouldn't come back to the group. It wouldn't be a safe space with you there," he said and turned around.
"I didn't know... I didn't know who he was," Debbie said, almost begging now.
Theo stopped and looked at her with narrowed eyes, showing just how angry he was.
"You should have," he said and walked away.
He didn't get very far, though. Just as he was about to enter the bar again, he was shocked to find that someone was floating in the air right in front of him, preventing him from walking forward.
"Mark!"
Theo was confused and shocked. For a moment, he thought Omni-Man, the very recipient of his boundless rage and endless fear, had returned. And, ironically, it was easy to make that mistake, since from a simple shape-and-body-build perspective, Mark was already there. He was jacked as fuck and tall, too. And he had a similar look on his face that he had when Nolan talked shit about Debbie.
"Who-- wha--" Theo stuttered and moved back, falling back, as Mark slowly descended and walked closer.
"Those are some cold fucking words you dropped there, for an ignorant man," he said.
"Mark, don't!" Debbie said, trying to stop him from doing anything stupid.
Mark shot her a look and shook his head.
"You- you're his son...?!"
Mark sneered in disgust at seeing the man.
"Pathetic. Look at you, cowering on the ground, when you were so self-righteous before."
Mark bent his knees so that he was right in front of Theo's face. The man shook in sheer fright and panic. He was sure that he was going to die.
"You will show my mother respect. She's so much stronger than you. She never complained, never broke down. If anything, you should be kissing her feet and thanking her. After all, she is the sole reason why you're still free and alive right now."
Mark stood up and looked at his mother. He smiled and walked towards her.
"Let's go. What do you think about going on a journey?" he asked, lifting her up and flying away.
"A journey? Wher-- hold on, how are you here right now?!"
"What do you mean? I woke up and then flew here. I also had a particularly strange meeting. So what about that journey?"
"Are you talking about a journey through the state or the country?" Debbie asked.
"A bit further than that, actually."
"How much further?"
...