I Fell For My Nemesis

Jocelyn was amazed that a former hero—one of the best—could be so well acclimated to family life after formerly having a schedule not much different than hers. Granted, it had been a few years at this point, but she didn't think she would be able to do the same in that timeframe. 

Mercury looked happy. Genuinely happy. Even when his daughter played pattycake on his head. And when his wife teasingly took a bite out of the food in his hand. He just laughed it off and poked her cheek when she grinned mischievously at him. 

They used to be enemies but their relationship sure looked solid now. How was that possible? 

Jocelyn didn't think a solid relationship was possible for her even with someone she did get along with. Things never went that well for her. 

She continued watching them, rather transfixed, until Mercury kissed his wife and daughter in front of the elephants and left them there before marching over to her with a rather formidable expression on his face. Oops. He might have noticed all of the staring. 

"What's your deal? Do I need to report you for stalking? You've been following my family since this morning!" 

Jocelyn blinked at him. She hadn't expected to get caught. 

"I'm sorry. I don't mean any harm. I was just amazed that things worked out so well for you. We do know each other but um…it's kind of a long story," she said awkwardly. 

His eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Who are you? I've never seen you before. And even if I had that's still really creepy."

Jocelyn sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Sorry. My name is Jocelyn Normandy but you wouldn't know that. We knew each other before you retired and I followed you because I was hoping for some advice."

She saw the exact moment Mercury realized who she was because utmost disbelief flashed across his face. He mouthed her hero name and she nodded. His expression was even more incredulous now. Well, he had experienced quite a shock. She would too if someone randomly approached her and said they knew who she was. 

"How did you—"

"Let's just say my powers of deductive reasoning are more a curse than a blessing. And before you ask, I haven't told anyone and I don't intend to. It's not my business," Jocelyn said firmly. 

"Then why approach me at all?" Mercury asked with a furrowed brow. 

"I told you, I was hoping for advice. About retirement. And how to navigate knowing the secret identity of someone close to you. I don't have anyone else I can talk to about this but I really didn't intend to bother you until I saw you and couldn't resist. My apologies for disturbing your time with your family. I'm glad things worked out between the two of you."

He put together the clues and sighed heavily before shaking his head in disbelief. "You know about my wife too, don't you?"

"Yes."

"You would benefit from talking to her more than me. She figured out who I was first. But I have to ask…who do you need advice about?" 

Jocelyn shrugged helplessly. "It's not my secret to tell." 

"Okay, fair enough. Why don't you come over and meet my family instead of lurking. I'm Christian, by the way." 

"I know. Thank you."

Nox was standing with a hand on her daughter's head and looked at her husband in concern as they approached. "Uh, Christian? Why did you invite the person following us over here?"

"She isn't a threat. You've met before. She's an old colleague of mine and helped us out once."

Nox gaped at Jocelyn as it hit her. "How did she find us?!"

"It wasn't my intention to scare you," Jocelyn said lamely. "I just sort of…figured it out. I can't tell you why either because of confidentiality laws. But I pose no threat to you and we're even since I've revealed myself now too. It's nice to see you again under better circumstances than last time. I'm glad there weren't any issues and that your daughter was able to be born safely. She's beautiful." 

"…confidentiality laws?"

Christian sighed. "I think I know what happened. Anyway, Avery meet Jocelyn. Jocelyn, Avery. She wanted to get some advice from you." 

Avery was clearly taken aback. "Me?! What advice could I possibly give?"

"I'm in a similar situation to the one you and Christian were in before," Jocelyn hedged. "I haven't been able to talk to anyone about it but I thought you would understand and might be able to help direct me."

"You're in love with your nemesis too?!" 

"No…it's my best friend. I know them in both identities and put the pieces together by accident. They don't know I know and I don't know how to tell them."

Christian scrutinized her, clearly trying to figure out who it was, but she wasn't about to give it away. Not a single detail that would clue him in that it was Delta she was talking about. It wasn't his business. 

Avery seemed less concerned by this. Likely because she didn't know any other heroes personally. "I see. How about this? Why don't I give you my number and we set something up for later? Bailey really wanted to come to the zoo today and she's getting kind of restless."

Sure enough, the little girl was whining and tugging on her mother's pants because she wanted to go see something else. Jocelyn didn't mind at all. She hadn't meant to impose on their outing in the first place. 

"I would appreciate that! Thank you."

"No problem. I do owe you for helping save my life and Bailey's. Next time you need to talk to someone though don't stake them out like that. It was weird," Avery said with a small laugh. "Do you have your phone?"

Jocelyn blushed. It had been pretty stupid of her. She had never done anything like that before and never wanted to again. 

She opened her phone and created a new contact. "Ready."

Avery listed her number off and checked to be sure it was right before Jocelyn sent her a test text and she replied to it so both numbers could be saved. She appreciated this more than she could say. 

"Thank you and sorry again. Enjoy the rest of your weekend," Jocelyn said before hurrying out of the zoo in humiliation. 

She still had all of her errands to do and had wasted so much time! Despite her embarrassment she couldn't completely regret what she did though. She might actually get some sort of help with her ridiculous situation now. If anyone understand what that was like it would be Avery. 

She hoped their eventual conversation would allow her to have some clarity for the first time in a while. Her head had been muddled for far too long.  Talking to someone with experience should help give her some sense of direction. 

Jocelyn needed to know what to do about Keith/Delta. She had been trying to keep her cool all this time but it was becoming progressively more difficult the further along things got. 

The last thing she wanted was for him to get mad at her for hiding what she suspected from him. She wouldn't be able to stand that. Not when he was her only friend and the most important person to her. 

Admittedly, her head wasn't where it should have been when she finished all of her chores and errands and headed out to do hero work for the rest of the day. Perhaps that was why she ended up thrown into a wall unexpectedly in the middle of a fight against multiple villains. 

A pained scream escaped her when she tried to move her knee and she ended up fighting waves of dizziness in a desperate bid not to pass out. Broken. That was definitely broken. 

Despite the haze of pain washing over her, she managed to freeze the villain in his tracks so he couldn't cause further injury. The problem was that she couldn't move and needed to get out of here. 

Jocelyn gritted her teeth and tried army crawling but that only made things worse. Delta's words from a while back came to her in her moment of need rather uselessly. "Who looks out for you?" Right now she could say with certainty that no one was looking out for her. No one had even noticed she was hurt. 

She was currently in an alley. Who would see her back here when her ice was blocking the exit freezing that villain in place? 

"Help," she said feebly. "Somebody. Please."

"Frostine? Is that you?" a concerned, familiar voice called. 

Jocelyn nearly wept from relief. "MultiMan! Yes, it's me. Can you get me out of here? I think I broke my knee and I need to get to the hospital right away." 

A tower of MultiMen propping each other up made it to the top of her ice wall and over it. Two of them gingerly helped lift her up and passed her along to the other copies back to the other side of the ice. 

"I'm going to call an ambulance for you, okay? Hang tight," MultiMan's voice rippled from his many copies as they began to be sucked back into his main body. 

"Thank you," Jocelyn said wearily.. "I appreciate your help."