The Conductor {Black Lightning}{Wattys2018}

Ch. 37: Long Ride Home

A/N: There's a little bit of Spanish in this chapter. It's simple enough that if you put it in Google Translate, it should make sense. For those who already know Spanish, enjoy. :)

***

As she walked away from the main desk, Eugene stuffed her medicals bills in her pocket, refusing to look at them. That was a tomorrow problem. Today's problem was the bitch taking her home.

Lady Eve's face wrinkled in disgust as her eyes scanned the walker Eugene had borrowed from the hospital. "You're not going home in that old-lady walker, are you?"

"I'm fine," Eugene grunted as she struggled to get the walker over the large bump in the doorway. Lady Eve eyed her skeptically.

"Actually, scratch what I said. That was an insult to old ladies. I've seen grandmas with better walkers. Just let me get you a wheelchair and I'll push you."

"I'm fine," she repeated. No way in hell was she letting Lady Eve push her in anything anywhere near water. One wrong word and she'd be pushed right into the harbor - she could just see it now.

Together they walked toward the dock that would take them back to Freeland. Themyscira's harbor had magical properties that connected to all the rivers in the world. Eugene winced as the walker scraped against the boardwalk, grating at her eardrums. At some point, someone in front of her yelped in pain; she had knocked them over while trying to turn.

"Oh, sorry!"

The woman Eugene had knocked over pushed her long, black hair out of her face as she got to her feet. Despite it being at least seventy degrees outside, her sleeves covered every inch of her arms.

"It's fine," she said, dismissively turning away from Eugene.

Lady Eve turned on Eugene, pursing her lips. "And that is why you should've let me push you in a wheelchair."

"I'm fine."

They ended up sitting in the same cabin as the woman Eugene had knocked over. Desperately wanting to talk to anyone besides Lady Eve, Eugene gravitated toward her. But she immediately put her earbuds and Eugene reluctantly returned to her seat next to Lady Eve.

"Gonna leave me all by myself, were you?" Lady Eve asked. Eugene shifted in her seat so that she was as far away from Lady Eve as possible. That was definitely a threat.

"I just wanted to talk to someone who looks like they might be able to actually say my name right."

"That's racist. Just because she looks Asian doesn't mean she's Korean. Or that she even knows Korean."

Eugene suppressed the instinct to puff out her cheeks. This was going to be a long ride. "Well, that's why I said 'might.'"

"Hey, Yoojin, why are you using a special needs walker?"

Lady Eve let out one her tinkling, Umbridge laughs. "Well, there's someone who can pronounce your name right."

Eugene clasped her hands together. This was still going to be a long ride - but maybe a little more bearable.

Eugene sighed as she turned on the newcomer. "C.J, why did you call my call my walker 'special needs'?"

Despite being siblings, Lupe and C.J were polar opposites appearance-wise. While Lupe had ivory skin and dirty, blond hair, C.J's skin was golden and his hair was jet-black.

"Well, to be honest, it's more disabled than you are," he chuckled. When she didn't laugh with him, he grimaced. "I'm sorry, was that offensive?"

"Well, most disabled people probably don't want to be compared with a hunk of metal, but I'm kinda preoccupied with more pressing matters, so I don't really care at the moment."

He nodded, but then grinned as though he had just thought of something. "Por supuesto no te preocupa...porque tú eres una conductora."

It took Eugene one moment to translate his sentence in her head, one moment to process the joke, and another to decide that she was gonna bitch-slap him into next month.

"Oh, I see." Eugene scoffed. "Hilarious. Well, in that case..vas a agarrar estas manos conductivos."

C.J's eyes drifted down to her crackling hands and his grin vanished. "Okay, now you're offended...I'mma go. Adios!"

"You'd better," she mumbled.

***

"So what happened?" Lady Eve asked as she drove Eugene home. Her lips had set into a hard frown and her voice had a gravelly, curt tone to it. "Why did you go into cardiac arrest?"

Eugene forced herself to glance over at Lady Eve. Looking straight ahead at the road would be too unnatural. "My powers malfunctioned."

"They did?"

Eugene's throat tightened as she tried not to gulp. Everything was so tight. The seats suffocated her; the windows were closed; her heart pounded as though it was fighting its way out of her chest, and she still had a good twenty minutes before they would be at Gambi's.

"I was walking home and I was tired, so I decided to draw energy from the streetlight, but I was actually pulling it from myself," said Eugene. "And then by the time I realized, it was too late."

"So what you're telling me is--" Lady Eve spoke with an airy, dangerous sort of silkiness. "--you can't tell the difference between yourself and a streetlight?"

"Like I said, I was exhausted. I had gotten, like, six hours of sleep over the span of two nights. You know, with teaching and everything--"

"Well, in that case, we need to ease up your schedule. I can't have you making mistakes like that," said Lady Eve. "And since you got plenty of rest at the hospital, I expect for there to not be any repeats of this in the near future."

"Yes, ma'am."

Somehow, Lady Eve's response didn't make Eugene feel any better. Yes, she acted like she believed the lie, but she could've done that to make Eugene lower her guard while she investigated further.

"I don't know. I was out."

Lady Eve clenched her jaw. "And you didn't think to ask the doctor or somebody there?"

"No. I was just...glad to be alive." Eugene let the stammer in her voice go unrestricted. Maybe making Lady Eve pity her would help. "I'm - I'm sorry. This mess won't happen again."

"For your sake, I hope it won't." As the car came to a traffic light, Lady Eve bared her teeth at Eugene and Eugene sank farther into her seat.