The Girls Are All Grown Up

Ch. 45

Butch was sat on the ground with his back to the wall as he watched them. His wound wasn't healing fast enough for him to be able to even walk by himself. The pain was agony but there wasn't much else they could do for it at the moment as they were hiding.

The only relief was seeing Buttercup and her father together.

Buttercup hugged her father for the first time in years. Taking in the clean linen smell on his coat that always made her think of home. Her childhood home used to have the same smell whenever the Professor did the laundry and had his weekly cleaning spree when she and her sisters were younger.

That'd been so long ago, she'd forgotten all about it. About that smell that made her feel more at home in her father's arms than since... she couldn't remember when.

''Buttercup,'' the Professor murmured her name softly into her hair, his voice choked with tears. ''I've missed you girls so much.''

''I know, dad,'' Buttercup felt her lips wobble, ''But I missed you more, I promise.''

He let out a choked, wobbling laugh. He laughed because that used to be his line he'd tell the girls every night when he tucked them into bed and when they flew off to save the day and fight bad guys.

No matter how many fights the PowerPuff Girls had gone through, or how bad, or even when they messed up-- the Professor had always been there waiting for them to come home. And had always told them he missed them more than they missed him.

This--this is home, Buttercup thought as she hugged her father harder. I'm home again.

Butch, for his part, didn't want to interrupt the father and daughter reunion. It was a shame that it had to be in a dirty, abandoned warehouse on the edge of the City, but it was a reunion that brought tears to his own eyes. 

Tears for Buttercup. The toughest and strongest person he knew, who deserved so much more than she'd gotten and a safe place to go to. She was able to finally see her father again, something she thought she'd never have.

An eerie CREAAAKK sounded throughout the warehouse, making the hair on the back of Butch's neck stand up.

Buttercup and the Professor kneeled down on either side of where Butch was resting, trying to not make a single sound as they searched for the source of the sound.

Nothing moved in the darkness around them, not even wind through any of the broken windows across the first floor of the building.

Butch felt Buttercup's fingers find his and tighten. He squeezed back.

He wasn't any good to fight right now, but he'd make sure that at the least Buttercup and the Professor could get away no matter what he had to do.

THUMP THUMP

It sounded as if it was coming from the second floor, Butch peered up at ceiling but still saw nothing except some dust particles in the air.

There was an utter stillness in the air that made him worry to exhale his own breath.

Another CREAKKK sounded. This one right above him.

He knew.

He wasn't sure how he knew, but he just knew. Maybe it was all the years he'd been fighting and his experience, maybe it was just a ironic terrible sort of luck, but whatever it was-- he knew without a doubt they were going to come crashing down on them within seconds.

If Buttercup and the Professor were going to survive and get away, they needed to get out now. And they'd be able to get further if they were without him.