Chapter 15

Carla's POV

I threw Henry onto the hardwood floors of the cabin's entryway. All eyes were on me and then Henry. I saw the brown haired girl who saved me laying on the couch, almost lifeless other then the slow, steady lifting of her chest as she breathed. A reddish brown haired girl stood above Carter's almost lifeless body on the floor.

I walked over to her, grabbed her by her hair, and threw her into the livingroom. I had taken her powers. I touched Carter and he immediately woke up. Everyone else looked at me wide eyed.

"Hi Carla," Hannah greeted, "Welcome back."

"I have been through too much in the past few hours," I growled as I walked over to the fridge to grab a canteen of cold water, "I really don't want to hear you guys' comments to my entrance right now."

I chugged the water canteen and then another before I leaned against the counter. Cleo stood up from the table and hugged me.

"I missed you," I whispered into her blonde hair as I wrapped my arms around her in a tight hug.

"They were telling me what you did," Cleo sighed back, "You did your best."

"You're safe now, you're okay, and I promise it's never going to happy again," I whispered back. I copied the bulletproof power into her. No way was I going to let that happen again. I don't break promises.

I pulled away from the hug and looked over at the reddish brown haired girl that I pretty much threw. She was laying awkwardly on the ground.

"Is she okay?" Hannah asked.

"Yeah," I said and then I turned to Hannah as I finished my answer, "I knocked her out as soon as I touched her and took her power."

"Carla that's your daughter," Nathan explained, "I know that sounds weird but she's from the future."

"Yeah," I answered, "I know, I just came from the future."

"Wait are you future Carla?" Carter asked as he pulled himself up to sit on the counter.

I let out a half laugh, "Nope I'm this timeline's Carla." I smiled.

"How is the future?" Liam asked.

"Different," I answered before taking a drink from the canteen again. I gestured towards Henry with the half full canteen, "That buttnugget has changed everything in our timeline up until to when we were made into superheroes."

I took another drink of the water.

Everyone looked at me, surprised at my actions up to this point. Even Eclipse looked at me like I just burned down a city.

"What?" I asked towards everyone.

"It's just-" Kathy started. She stopped mid sentence.

A few seconds of silence passed.

"It's just what?" I asked.

"You broke the door, you're angry, you're chugging water nonstop, and Eclipse looks terrified of you which tells us something is wrong," Carter explained, "You're acting like something's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong," I answered, "I've been trying to get home for the past three hours and I'm dehydrated."

"You shook the house with how hard you busted down the door," Sage explained.

"You're fixing it by the way," Axel added.

I walked slowly and silently over to the door and started silently working on putting it back together.

A few minutes later I felt a soft hand on my shoulder, I looked to see Hannah standing next to me. She placed her hand over mine and pulled me away from the door. She stood me up and looked at me worriedly.

"Carla I know you're going through something right now, and I'm not going to ask what it is. I know if you were ready to tell us than you would. Henry is starting to calm down."

"That just means I need to give him another dose of his own medicine," I mumbled as I stranded to walk over towards him.

In a flash of lightning, Carter was infront of me so I couldn't get to Henry.

"Carla stop. Since when did you get revengeful?" Carter asked concerningly.

"Fine," I sighed, "I'll just question him."

"That means you can't force him to answer with nightmares!" Liam called out.

"Well that means you can't death hug someone," I added.

"Deal."

I crouched next to Henry and stopped the nightmare. He sat up immediately and quickly jerked his head side to side like he was looking for something. He stopped when his eyes met mine. He pretty much jumped into my arms in a tight hug.

"Carla please don't ever leave me again, I don't know what I'd do."

I pushed him back so his back was against the side of the couch.

"What are you talking about?"

"You were dying. You were dying over and over again," Henry explained with tears in his eyes, "I couldn't stand it, I couldn't stand losing the only parent I have left."

"I gave you a nightmare of your greatest fear and it was me dying?"

"It was everyone, it ended with you, I couldn't control myself. Carla I was killing you over and over in the dream and I couldn't control it."

"Calm down," I soothingly told him. I looked at Eclipse, "Can you get him some water please."

Eclipse nodded and walked towards the fridge. Henry continued crying.

"Hannah, can you tell me everything that Charlotte told you?"

She explained everything while I helped Henry calm down. He was hyperventilating and shaking really bad. I felt horrible for putting him in this condition. It took at least an hour for me to calm him down. Everyone had broken into their own conversations, everyone but Eclipse who sat beside me with a hand on my shoulder. He gently moved his thumb back and forth, the only time he stopped is if I asked him to get me anything.

I was on the verge of having a breakdown myself. Helping Henry was the only thing keeping me together. I finally got his breathing to slow and his shaking to a minimum.

Eclipse looked at me the whole time, every now and again I'd look at him and give him one of my fake smiles to act like I'm keeping myself together.

He returned my smiles with frowns. He knew I was faking happiness.

"Are you calm enough to talk or do you need a few more minutes?" I calmly asked Henry. My question caused everyone to stop talking and pay attention. I wasn't paying attention to them though.

He nodded, "I'm alright."

I gave him a smile to help calm him.

"I have a few questions," I started.

Henry nodded.

"Earlier you said you couldn't stand losing the only parent you have left," I asked, "But I thought Paige was your mom."

"She is," Henry gave her an furious look, "She was, but something happened and you adopted me."

"What happened?" I asked.

"She tried to kill me."

Paige gasped and covered her face. When I looked she was on the verge of tears.

"Paige wouldn't do that," I explained.

"She did, I was six," Henry explained, "The Thing controlled her. He had her try to kill me."

"What happened after that? Paige isnt in the future."

"The Thing controlled him and had him shoot her," Henry explained.

Ryder who had been in the room this whole time gave Paige a tight hug as she cried.

"He got so ashamed of it that he ran off."

I looked back at Henry who had never stopped looking at me.

"Was that when I adopted you?" I asked.

Henry nodded, "It was a week after Charlotte turned five."

I nodded and looked over at Charlotte who was leaning against the wall paying attention to every word.

"Why did you change the entire past?" I asked.

"You had been gone for three years, I was eighteen but the seventeen yearold was chosen to be leader. I listened and obeyed rules until she called off the search for you and Carter last week. When that happened I tried to convince her that she was wrong and she banished me."

I turned and looked at Charlotte, "Your turn. What happened?"

"He was acting erratic. I told him if he didn't chill out he was going to create problems and he told me if didn't start searches up again then I'd have problems," she explained, "So I banished him for threatening me."

"Ugh," I groaned.

"What?" Eclipse softly asked.

"This is why seventeen year olds shouldn't be moms. Y'all are headaches," I answered with a slight laugh, "Can we get some sleep and then talk about The Thing in the morning."

Eclipse's facial expression was pure sadness. Everyone else seemed to agree with me.

"Goodnight everyone," I called out as everyone walked up the steps to their rooms. Charlotte, Henry, Cleo and the brown haired girl stayed back in the living room. I was still in the livingroom. I fully intended on sleeping on the couch again.

"What is your name?" I asked the brown haired girl. She had beautiful chestnut eyes and a button nose.

"Gena," she answered with a gentle smile.

"Thank you for saving me," I thanked with a nice smile.

"I've heard about you, you're a hero, I just wanted to help," Gena answered, "You're welcome Carla."

"Cleo, Gena, and Charlotte: You guys can sleep in my room it's the room all the way down on the right. Henry, there's a spare bedroom, first door on the right. There are blankets and sleeping bags on the top shelf of the closets."

"Eclipse you can sleep in my bed," Carter said with a smile. He surprised me when he said that. He didn't really like Eclipse so letting him sleep in his bed was way out of the ordinary for the two of them.

Everyone nodded and walked up the steps.

"I'll take the porch swing," Carter mumbled as he walked towards the half-broken door.

"No."

"No?" Carter asked.

"No, if you go out there you'll get a cold. There's a fold up cot in that closet," I pointed to the closet door on the livingroom side right next to the archway, "You can sleep in here."

"Aren't you sleeping in here?"

"On the couch," I responded.

I realized how worried he was about what I felt about the whole situation.

"It'll be okay, you can set it up over there," I pointed to the seven foot space between the L shaped sectional and the wall that faced the porch. The couch was in one corner and the space was in the other. We used to have a table there but after an unfortunate event between Carter and Liam having an arm wrestle there we had to get rid of the splinters.

I pointed at the couch to signal Carter to sit and I jogged to the closet. I pulled out the heavy, blue sheeted cot and dragged it to the corner. I set it up and draped a thick white comforter over it and a black pillow. I turned to see Carter just a few feet behind me. He was standing with a smile spread across his face.

"Carla?" He asked.

"Yeah?" I responded.

"Thank you for that," he said gesturing to the cot.

"You're welcome Carter," I answered with a smile.

"What're we going to do tomorrow?" He asked as he sat down on the cot.

"Probably train-"

"I meant tomorrow night."

"Same sleeping arrangements," I answered, "it'll be like this until I can make Cleo and Gena their own rooms."

"You're not sending Cleo home?"

"Cleo's dead, Henry snatched her from somewhere. She has no recollection of being shot or anything. I'm going to ask Henry where he got her from and find out if they need her. Its ultimately up to her but I'd like to keep her around."

Carter nodded. I turned off the living room light and walked into the kitchen. I turned the lights down in the kitchen so I could see but barely and got some more water. Carter had already laid down to sleep so I was quiet.

I grabbed for or five big canteens of water, a big bag of deer jerky, and walked out onto the back porch. I was careful to be extremely quiet.

I sat on the covered back porch and lit the circular firepit with my power. I set down the food and water on the end table beside me and leaned back. I thought about everything that's happened the past few days. I analyzed everything that I was told and made predictions in my head. I ate a lot of deer jerky and drank more water than was probably good for me.

I drank water when I got super stressed or angry to help me cool down. It was a healthier way to cope with everything other than punching things for people.

I knock rapped of the sliding glass door that led onto the porch. Carter stood in the doorway, he was leaning against the doorframe.

"Shortcake. Get to bed," Carter said, "Don't you want to sleep?"

"I'm not tired, I'm hungry. You can go sleep. I'll be okay out here," I explained.

"Comeon, I know you better than that," Carter sighed as he walked towards me.

"Can I please just eat in peace."

"You've eaten a whole two gallon bag of jerky by yourself, how about you go sleep, you've eaten enough." He picked up the bag and started walking away with it.

I grabbed it from his hands and sat back down, "Mine, go get your own."

He smiled and shook his head at me. It only took a few more seconds of me being stubborn for him to grab me by my bicep and pull me into the house. He made me sit on the couch and then covered me in a blanket.

"Go to sleep," he said as he sat down on the cot.

I sat up and looked at him.

"Only if you help me take everyone home tomorrow."

"As you wish shortcake."