Mornings were usually long for Wren, between helping her parents open up the cafe and heading to school, but it was an especially long morning - and it wasn't even a school day. After helping out in the cafe, she had gone on her usual patrols. Part of her had hoped that the nice weather would convince people not to commit any crimes, but she wasn't that lucky.
She felt like everywhere she looked there was someone else committing a crime. If Wren didn't get a break soon, she was going to find a nice, quiet alleyway to hide in and cry.
Right now she was fighting someone she barely knew anything about. Sometimes she ran into other people with power's, but it was pretty rare for her to. And the police were usually good about keeping an eye on the first time offenders, too - this man was an outlier. He didn't really have any martial arts skills, but he was fast.
Every time Wren blinked, he was somewhere else. It felt like all of the space around them was being sucked towards him. Maybe Wren shouldn't have been so surprised when he whipped out something that definitely looked like a portal.
And she definitely shouldn't have been surprised when the portal sucked her right off the rooftop they were standing on.
When she stumbled through to the other side, everything was different. The buildings were all wrong, she was on the pavement instead of on a roof, and it was fall instead of spring - she could just barely make out the red and orange leaves of a tree planted across the street.
And the few people she saw in the street were all wearing clothes that didn't match the time she was supposed to be in. It wasn't the future - thank God. Wren had read about heroes going to the future in the comics, and she didn't think she could be prepared for that. But going in the past was a little scary, too, especially when-
Wren's eyes widened in horror.
Superheroes weren't a thing yet.
And here she was, looking like The Actor - she was wearing her black spandex suit with the red accents, red cape, and her black domino mask. Cheeks flushing red in embarrassment, she slipped back into the alleyway she was standing in front.
Come on, she told herself. Think.
What was she supposed to do? She couldn't keep walking around as The Actor. But if this was some kind of trap and not completely accidental, she couldn't walk around as herself, either. She couldn't risk losing her secret.
She leaned up against the wall and slid down it, pulling her legs close to her chest once she hit the ground. Should she look like Adrian? Was that a good idea? The villain - if he was here - would be expecting a man with black hair and brown eyes. But that was what she was the most familiar with; she wouldn't have to worry about being clumsy. Plus, she could fight like that if she needed to.
She screwed her eyes shut in concentration.
The clothes outside weren't too unfamiliar. Maybe it was the 90s, then? Wren wasn't too good with what clothes people wore in different times, but she had seen a few men before she ducked into the alleyway. Jeans were okay. She could still wear those. And she could switch out the leather jacket she usually wore as Adrian with a flannel shirt tied around the waist. The black t-shirt could become a white one, and her black combat boots could become brown ones.
The shifting was complete.
Dusting herself off - she didn't want to look suspicious once she left the alleyway - Wren took a deep breath. She could do this. She'd figure out where and when she was, and how to get back to her time and city.
Melissa Leary walked down the street with a coffee tray from Starbucks in her hand. Small Americano for her, medium vanilla latte for Amy. It was a perfect, crisp fall day, not too hot but still warm enough to be comfortable in a black maxi dress and denim jacket. Her dark hair in a high ponytail to keep out of her eyes. It wasn't quite hat weather, not yet, but she was getting there.
It was a precious, precious Saturday and she and was looking forward to spending quality time with her friend away from school. Later she'd have to grade math tests, but today she and Amy would plot Halloween. And the coffee would be perfect fuel.
It was as she approached Amy's apartment that she became aware of a man staring at her.
"Hi," she said.
The man hesitated. He was looking at her like he had something to say. So laughed slightly, careful to not let herself blush too much. He wasn't bad looking.
Just then, Amy came down to get the mail. It had been a while since she and Melissa had hung out inside of school. It had been five months she and Scott had broken up, and in that time she'd become aware of just how much she'd let her other friendships fall by the wayside. Melissa had been one of them. But Amy was lucky that she understood, and felt grateful to have a friend like her. Earlier that week Amy told her the truth about her father and she'd listened the whole time.
She got the mail out of her mailbox, just bills and credit card offers (typical) when she saw Melissa with the coffee. She staring at a guy. He looked barely familiar, but she couldn't place him. She waved at Melissa and opened the door.
"Hey," she said, as Melissa began to walk inside. The man stayed there.
"Can I help you?" Amy asked him.
All our dreams can come true — if we have the courage to pursue them. -- Walt Disney
When Wren made eye contact with the woman, she froze.
The woman was carrying tow coffees. Wren didn't wonder who the second one belonged to; she was too busy trying to think of what to say. She wanted to ask what time it was or where they were, but she knew she couldn't. It went against all of the rules of things like that.
Besides that, it wasn't a normal thing to say. And the very last thing that Wren ever wanted to do was to be something other than normal. She shifted uncomfortably, glanced around, and then caught a glance of another woman getting her mail.
And her heart skipped a beat.
"Amy?" she managed to get out, eyes widening in shock.
Then her hands shot up to cover her mouth - Wren had been so surprised that she had forgotten Amy didn't know her like this. She had only seen her as herself.
Please don't freak out about a strange man knowing your name, Wren desperately begged in her head, even though she knew there was absolutely no way to get that across to Amy.
How did he know her name? How did he know where she lived? Her heart started to pound. When her mother had given that 60 minutes interview over the summer, she had mentioned her daughter was named Amy. And they'd shown pictures of the two together.
She remembered that Rebecca Schaeffer's stalker had found her address at the DMV. But Amy wasn't a TV star. She was just a middle school teacher.
"Do I know you?" Amy asked the man.
"Let's go," Melissa whispered.
Still, Amy lingered, the whole thing making her feel uneasy. She repeated. "Do I know you? Otherwise, you better explain how you know my name and where I live."
Amy wondered in the back of her mind if maybe if it wasn't the best idea to be aggressive, if he had a gun like Rebecca Schaeffer's stalker did.
No, it would be alright. She wasn't about to get shot. Not today. But he could at least answer a simple question. If he was still weird, she could call the cops.
All our dreams can come true — if we have the courage to pursue them. -- Walt Disney
She wasn't freaking out, but this was still going wrong.
"I don't know where you live," Wren frantically protested, only to realize a second later that they were standing in front of Amy's mailbox - that wasn't convincing at all!
"And you, um, do know me?" she hesitantly replied. She shifted her wait from one foot to the other. "You might not recognize me right now, though...um..."
She stared down at the ground, trying to think of what she could say without sounding too weird. It wasn’t just Amy here - she had a friend with her, too.
"We met at the cabin," she said. "The cabin in the woods in the winter! We were there with two other people, and then two more showed up. And we got into argument, too..."
Amy hadn't argued with anyone other than her. That had to help her figure it out, right?
That was odd, because it sounded just like the vivid dream she'd recently had, but she didn't remember any men in the cabin, until the end when everything got fuzzy. She'd told only Tara and Adam abut her dream. Maybe it was possible one of them told someone else and somehow this guy found out about it?
That seemed like a stretch, and besides, it wasn't like Tara or Adam to share those kinds of things anyway. But she couldn't think of any other explanations.
"I'm calling the cops, just so you know," Amy said. "Have a nice day."
She slammed the door shut and shared a look with Melissa.
"What was that?" She screeched. "What if he comes back? Like Rebecca Schaeffer? He came back and shot her after she turned him away the first time."
"You're not going to end up like Rebecca Schaeffer," Melissa said calmly. "We'll call the cops, and just don't answer the door if you're not expecting anyone."
Amy nodded. They got up into her an apartment and she collapsed onto the couch. Melissa handed her the coffee and that helped her relax. Then, she dialed the police. They said there wasn't much they could do right now, but told her call them back in case anything escalated. Great. So helpful. At least they knew, and there was a record of her calling in case anything happened to her.
Amy cupped her face in her hands as Melissa sat down next to her. "Adam's had plenty of crazies over the years," she said. "I guess now it's my turn."
Melissa gave her a reassuring look. "Let's try to forget about it. We're not going to let him ruin your day."
"No," Amy said, taking a sip of her coffee. "You're right."
All our dreams can come true — if we have the courage to pursue them. -- Walt Disney
Amy had closed the door on her, and she was calling the police.
Wren was trying the best to resist the urge to cry, but it was getting increasingly harder not to. Today was so tiring, and everything kept going wrong. She sniffled and wiped the tears from her eyes, glancing back in the direction of Amy's home.
Crying next to Amy's mailbox wasn't going to help her. It was just going to make Amy even more worried; she had to do something else.
And once Wren wasn't panicking, she knew what she had to do - even if she was still scared about sharing her identity with other people. She just had to hope that no one paid attention to her, and that Amy wouldn't say anything about who she was in front of her friend.
Wren left Amy's mailbox.
Then she found a nice, private place to change forms in, and she quickly turned back to herself. She made sure to change her outfit so it fit in more - now that she knew she was in Amy's time, it was a little easier to figure out what clothes to wear.
Now armed with overalls, sneakers and her trusty pair of glasses, Wren returned to Amy's door. She took a deep breath - feeling smaller and more anxious than usual - and gave it a hesitant knock.
...Then she noticed the buzzer, and the faded name on the door. She was still sure it was Amy's apartment, but the last name on the door was Harper - not Fox. Wren decided that she wasn't going to figure out why right now. She had too much to worry about beside it.
"...Hi," Wren managed to get out - feeling like the word was lodged in her throat. She knew Amy's friend had no reason to guess that she was the man she had just seen, but she was still terrified that she would.
She took a shaky deep breath.
"Is Amy home?" she asked. "I, um, need to talk to her. My name's Wren..."
Melissa raised her eyebrow. She'd never heard Amy mention anyone named Wren. She felt bad for her friend, and wondered if this was part of the reason her mother had waited so long to tell her who her father was. Because she knew what people were like.
"How do you know Amy?" She demanded. It came across a lot snippier than she had intended.
All our dreams can come true — if we have the courage to pursue them. -- Walt Disney
She knew Amy's friend had every right to be defensive of her after what happened a few minutes before. But Wren hadn't said anything weird this time, and she didn't think she looked suspicious...
She hesitantly glanced up.
"It's, um, a long story?" she admitted, her nervousness seeping into her voice. She was trying to figure out what she could say - if she brought up the cabin again, she was sure her friend would shut the door. "We, um..."
She bit her lip.
"...Can you ask Amy if she recognizes my name?" Wren asked. "If you don't know who I am, then she probably didn't bring up how we met. So I, um, don't think I can tell you without sounding weird. I'm also friends with Wilson and Hablex. She probably didn't mention them either, but..."
She took a deep breath.
"I'm...I'm going to leave now," she finally said, gesturing behind her. "If Amy knows who I am, I won't be far away. I just don't want to make this even more awkward then it is..."
Melissa raised an eyebrow. The poor girl, Wren, was shaking like a leaf. She wasn't sure how old the girl was, but it could have been an old student of Amy's. Still, that didn't explain why Wren couldn't just say that, and how she knew where Amy lived.
And who knows, she and the guy that was there earlier could have been associated somehow, whether this was his younger sister or girlfriend or something like that. But maybe she could give her he benefit of the doubt.
"Listen, I believe you," she said. "But Amy and I both work very hard and our weekends are very precious. And it's not exactly appropriate to show up at someone's house uninvited." When Wren didn't respond, Melissa sighed. "Stay here."
Melissa walked up the stairs and back into the apartment, where Amy was sipping her coffee.
"Do you know someone named Wren?" Melissa asks. "A girl, maybe sixteen?"
Amy shook her head. "Doesn't ring any bells."
"She says she knows you."
Amy sighed.
"Do you need me to get rid of her?"
"No," Amy said. "Let's go see what this is about."
"You know," Melissa said. "If you ever need a break from the crazies and need to crash at my place, just let me know."
"I appreciate that," Amy said. They walked downstairs together.
It was funny, because the girl outside looked just like slightly annoying girl from her dream. Exactly like her dream. But it was said that your brain made up a face, so the only explanation was that this was an overeager former student of hers.
"Hi," Amy said. "Can I help you?"
All our dreams can come true — if we have the courage to pursue them. -- Walt Disney
Amy's friend really had gone to get her. Wren couldn't help but give a quiet sigh in relief. She didn't see a look of recognition when she scanned Amy's face - at least, not in the way she had been hoping - but dealing with someone she knew was different than dealing with someone she didn't.
"Hi," Wren whispered. Her cheeks were red, but she couldn't tell if it was from her embarrassment at how badly this was going, or the little beginnings of a crush she had on Amy.
"I, um..." She faltered. Could Amy help her? Amy hadn't even believed that superheroes existed. How could she help her get home now, especially when she didn't seem to really remember what had happened?
She took a deep breath.
She had already said the story before when she looked like Adrian, and she was terrified that saying it again would only end badly. But Amy was here now. If she could just jog her memory...
"I think so," she finally answered, looking back up at her. "I'm just not sure how."
She stood a little straighter and more confidently. It wasn't much of a change, but it made her feel a little better about what she was about to say.
"I'm Wren," she said. "Wren Carter. I'm not sure how long ago we met, but we met in the woods. It was winter, and we went to a cabin that belonged to two...uh..."
She glanced over at Amy's friend.
"...interesting people? There was also Wilson and Hablex there, too. I, uh, think you thought it was a dream the entire time, even though it wasn't..."
Amy froze, still unsure how to respond. She wracked her brain for everyone she'd told about her dream. Oh. She had said something about it in the teacher's lounge the other day. Maybe one of them told? It was still a stretch or an incredible coincidence.
"Very funny," Melissa said. "Listen, tell your brother to leave us alone. And that it's not polite to bother people on their days off."
Melissa slammed the door the girl's face. Part of her felt bad about it, but there was probably a reason the guy had sent her instead. "I'm sorry," Melissa told Amy as they walked back to her apartment. "I thought she was a former student of yours or something."
"Who knows, she could have been," Amy replied. Her heart was pounding. She'd have to call Adam for sure and tell him about this, since he'd been dealing with it all his life. It was sick, the amount of fans their father had.
They sat back down. Amy took the phone and brought it to the coffee table. She told Melissa she was going to call Adam.
"Your hot brother?" Melissa replied.
"He's married, sorry," Amy said with a laugh. "He's not going to leave his wife for you." She'd never even met Adam, only seen his picture, and ever since it had become somewhat of a running joke.
"Whitman Residence," came Adam's voice.
"It's me," Amy replied.
"Amy, how are you?" Adam replied.
"Good. Um, I'm with my friend this morning and we had a stalker at my place. Seems like a girl and her brother."
"Oh jeez," Adam said. "I'm sorry."
"I'm worried they're going to come back," Amy said.
"Did you call the police?" Adam asked. "Sometimes you have to keep doing it but usually they just want attention and go away after a bit."
"I guess," Amy said.
"Well, hey, I'd love to keep chatting but I have to go take Rachel to her riding lesson. Maybe we can talk more later."
"Yeah, sure," Amy said quietly.
"I love you," Adam said. Amy paused for a moment before she realized that she didn't think Adam had said that to her before. It was nice.
"I love you too."
They hung up and Amy exhaled deeply as she collapsed back onto the couch. "So," Amy said. "I was thinking I could be the Evil Stepmother from Cinderella and you could be the Evil Queen from Snow White."
"Disney Villains? I like it. We should get more to coordinate."
"It'd be fun, and for the kids," Amy said. "Or I could be Ursula, but I don't know if I'd want to wear all that purple makeup."
"You're an Evil Stepmother for sure," Melissa.
"Great."
The two women laughed. This is what they had gotten together for, and already she was forgetting the people at her door.
All our dreams can come true — if we have the courage to pursue them. -- Walt Disney
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