Chloe wakes up

Now he was alone in the living room, alongside a sleeping Chloe. He approached the tiny blonde and poked her on the cheek. She stirred. Her eyes fluttered open.

"Mr. Aaron…?"

There was nothing in those eyes of hers except confusion. Good.

"Awake, sleepy head?" Aaron smiled. "Good to see you."

"Are you okay?" Chloe asked, expression scrunched. "I had a really bad dream where some strangers broke into our home, took you, and slapped me in the face…it was so scary."

He saw the red mark on her cheek. A handprint. He suppressed his wrath and placed a hand on her shoulder. "It was just a dream."

"And then…" Chloe gulped lazily, eyes half-open. "...some other people broke in and hit me. A purple guy. My shoulder hurts…"

Prometheus. Yeah, fuck him. Aaron felt justified murdering him.

"Yeah, dreams can sometimes feel eerily real," Aaron consoled. "You're okay though. Actually, I need to go to work right now so I need to drop you off at Claire's place. It won't be long, maybe three or four hours. Okay?"

"Okay." Chloe yawned. "Claire is fun."

"She is, isn't she?"

He held hands with her as they went to the second floor and knocked on their informal babysitter's door. A minute passed and the young college woman in shorts and a loose purple shirt. Her crystal blue eyes were surprisingly dim.

"Hey…" Claire greeted, throwing a lazy hand up. "Is, uh, something up?" She yawned.

"Can you take care of Chloe for the day? I'll pay you double."

"Double…?" Claire crunched the numbers, brows furrowed. "So like…six hundred?"

"Six grand," he corrected.

"For the entire day…?" All of a sudden, she blinked to life. "Six grand for twelve hours? Holy…uh, s-sure. I mean, I'm feeling weak right now, but…" Claire glanced down at the nine-year-old. She faked a laugh. "H-ha! Hahaha! It can't be that hard!"

"You alright?" Aaron asked, squinting. Her muscles were unexpectedly brittle, like all the strength had been taken from her.

The edges of her eyes wrinkled and she almost groaned. "It's like my powers–I mean, my, uh, er…"

Aaron blinked. He and Chloe exchanged looks. "Powers?" Chloe repeated.

"My educational prowess!" Claire corrected in an over the top shout. "It has, uh, weakened. I'm failing classes and missing assignments, b-but don't worry! I got it!" Claire yanked Chloe to her side and smiled. "Don't worry about your little girl either. I got her too!"

Aaron eyed her skeptically. "Uh-huh."

Yep, he was shelving that into his library of mysteries for later.