Wardrobe

“Kailey! Kailey! You’re all right! Kailey, you were dreaming, now wake up!”

The Black shattered, flying to pieces as a hand cracked hard against her cheek.

She blinked, staring at her right arm, a needle embedded in it, a tube trailing down and away.

Her left hand went up to her cheek. It was hot, slightly tender.

“You hit me!” She still hadn’t processed just who’d done it, but whoever it was…

“You were bringing half the hospital down on us!” a fuzzy, buzzy voice was saying.

“I can’t—” Her voice was all fuzzy-buzzy, too. “It sounds like I’m chewing on bees.”

“Did you hear that, Wizard? Bees? What the heck is in that IV besides nanos, and where can I get some?”

** Remotehost override /tuneaud/pitch-4— var-3-44-/ **

The bumble-buzzing stopped abruptly.

“How’s that, Kailey?” came the Wizard’s voice in her head. “Pardon the temporary relaxation of Assignment naming protocols, but your brainwaves are all over the place, and I don’t want to confuse you any more.”

Kailey blinked. Had she imagined those words, glowing in her vision?

“It’s fine, thanks.”

“You don’t have to talk out loud. Just thinking the words will cross them through your speech centers, and—”

Okay, okay, I’m starting to wake up now, Wizard, she thought. God, I hate when Sleep mode gives me nightmares.

“That’s not something we can tune on this end, Kailey, those are all your demons.”

She sighed.

How long was I out?

“Coming up on three hours. You’re almost done with the nano drip. About ten percent left. Can you run calibration tests on your own?”

Yeah. The dreams were bad this time. Starting to fade, though.

“Take your time. There’s no rush.”

I’ve been sitting still too long.

“Diagnostics first, then running around.”

* * * * *

“You’re not even old enough to drink, what are you doing with the whole field sobriety test?” Lieutenant Danz asked.

Kailey was walking heel-toe, her balance improving with each step.

“Not that I’d know anything about field sobriety tests,” Danz muttered.

“Every batch of nanos has to learn its place, and attune itself to the network. That would be me,” she said, as she bent down and touched her toes.

Danz looked up, at the wall, anywhere to avoid making a comment that would get him slapped.

A small fist hit his arm, and he scooted along the counter a bit with the impact.

“Hey! I didn’t even say anything! What was that for?” he said. He rubbed his arm. “You’ve got a hell of a right.”

“You should see what I can do with my left,” she said, blowing on her other fist and dropping into a perfect boxer’s stance.

“Uh uh. No way. I don’t hit girls.”

“You smacked me in the mouth!”

“That was different. You were yelling, thrashing around. Scared the poor nurse half to death.”

“I told you, it was the dream.”

“I know, nothing personal. Look, I smack you, you smacked me, so now we’re even, right?”

Kailey stood, feet together, arms straight out at shoulder level. She touched one shoulder, then the other.

“You do the hokey pokey, and you turn it all—”

“Don’t make me use the left, Danz,” Kailey said as she glowered at him.

“Well, when you get done with all that,” he leaned down, picked up something he’d been standing in front of. He set the shopping bag on the counter.

“I was supposed to give you these earlier, but there was that whole nasties-in-the-blood thing and you going ten shades of white. Anyway, something a bit less conspicuous than the Grays and combat boots.”

Kailey went over to the bag, stood on tiptoe to peek into it. She saw cotton, and denim. A box with a familiar sports shoe logo on it. Not a ruffle or frill in sight.

“Oh,” Danz said, picking up a duffel that was lying by the door. “This, too. Wizard says you’d best wear this as backup. Said some of the nanos in the soup might have been fried by the flash.”

Kailey frowned.

Guenevere, flashmail to Wizard. Start: Wiz, the suit? I hate the suit. End. Send.

A minute later, there was a chime in her ear, and a message began rolling across the bottom of her optic screens:

**Incoming text: Forgot to mention that. Wear it. For your own good, and in case you need to go up again. Permission granted to hit Tin Man if he ogles. **

She picked up the bags, and the nurse, who’d been watching the diagnostics tests and banter with some amusement, showed Kailey to the nurse’s lounge, where she could change in comfort.

* * * * *

With the gel-suit, “comfort” was a relative thing. It looked like a wetsuit, and fit even tighter. Kailey had to have one of the nurses who’d walked in help her roll the suit on. She held her hair up and away and sucked in as deep a breath as she could as the nurse tugged at the zipper up the back.

“Goodness,” the nurse said. “It certainly doesn’t leave much to the imagination, does it?”

Kailey grimaced. “Unfortunately, for this thing to work, it has to stay against my skin. All of it.”

The nurse nodded. “It almost reminds me of the burn suits I’ve seen in the medical journals. That lining looked a lot like it.”

Kailey nodded. “It’s similar. Microchannels for coolant circulation, using excess moisture. Never let them see you sweat,” she added with a smile.

The nurse ran her fingers over the arm.

“I’ve never felt a fabric like this. And it’s… it feels almost… squishy.”

“Carbonfilament weave,” Kailey explained. “Think… Kevlar on steroids.”

The nurse’s eyes went wide.

“Between that and the squishy layer of inertial gel, I’m just about bulletproof.”

The nurse looked in the duffel bag. “I see gloves and what looks like a hood. No cape?”

Kailey laughed. “It’s still at the cleaners.”

“Well,” the nurse said, laying her hand on the girl’s arm again. “My shift is about to start. Did you need help with anything else, Supergirl?”

Kailey laughed again. “No, thank you. I think I can manage the rest.”

* * * * *

She emerged from the lounge in a pair of relaxed-fit jeans, mid-top cross-trainers, and a nondescript tee under a gray-and-red-on-white flannel button-down. The gel-suit’s collar stuck up from the neckline, but the flannel shirt covered the sleeves.

Danz was at the nurse’s station, and he looked up with a grin as Kailey approached him, holding out the shopping bag. The boots clunked against the counter as he took the bag. He looked down, saw her rolled-up flight suit. His grin fell as he poked a bit deeper in the bag.

“Aw, you mean you’re not wearing them?” he asked.

Danz stood a good foot and and some change taller than Kailey. Two of her didn’t even weigh as much as he did. But she managed to grab his hand, twisting it and a few fingers in such a way that had the rest of him twisting in all sorts of different ways, down on one knee, his back hunched, bringing his face even with Kailey’s.

“I’ve got something to wear under my flight suit, so I don’t need any spares, thanks.”

She gave his pinky finger a jerk, and he flinched.

“And when I say ‘no ruffles’? That goes for whether it gets worn on the outside or the inside.”

“C’mon, Hot Cakes, can’t you take a little joke..?”

“You try to pull five or six gees wearing those, and tell me how it feels,” she whispered.

She let him go, and he rose slowly to his feet, cradling his arm.

“Did you see what she did to me?”

“Yes,” said one of the nurses. “I wonder if she can teach me that trick, too.”