Miss Porter was a nice guest.

  Slowly, she came out of her shell, she seemed to be in when she came back the first night.

  “I’d like to go back to the city and check my apartment.”

  Lián Xīng nodded. “You shouldn’t go alone. Even if you can’t get infected again, it is still dangerous out there.”

  “I’ll go with her.” Lián Liwei spoke up, “XīngXīng, stay with the kiddos and spend the day with them. They’ve missed you.”

  Lián Xīng looked to Miss Porter for confirmation who nodded in agreement.

  Lunch that day was just Lián Xīng and the kids. She made them rice bowls with chicken nuggets in the shapes of different animals, including prehistoric ones. She smiled as Měi Lán took one of her dino nuggets in her hand.

  “Roar!” She moved her chicken nugget toward her brother’s bowl, “Nom, nom, nom.”

  Mùchén moved his bowl away from his sister.

  “LánLán, it’s ok to play with your food but its not polite to touch other people’s.”

  Měi Lán pouted but went back to her bowl and continued making the munching sounds with her dino before biting off its head with a big grin on her face.

  Lián Xīng leaned forward after taking a sip of her teacup. “What do you two think about Miss Porter?”

  Měi Lán shrugged, her mouth still full of food.

  Mùchén tilted his head, “She’s nice, but will everyone you heal come live with us?”

  “I’m not sure. I think it would depend if they have somewhere to go back to or not.” Lián Xīng fiddled with her napkin, not wanting to admit she was nervous about the idea of being too far from someone she’d healed from the infection. She thought that when it happened with Měi Lán, it was due to the prior relationship as aunt and niece, but she felt the need to protect Miss Porter too. She felt almost like she was her responsibility now. She looked up at Mùchén, “Of course it would also depend if that got along well with the family, too.”

  Grandpa Lián Liwei came home with Miss Porter just as Lián Xīng and the kids were in the middle of a board game.

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  Mùchén had a big grin as he moved his playing piece to the red square, he let out a little cheer. “Yes!” He jumped up and ran around Lián Xīng and Měi Lán in a circle tapping each their heads quickly using his wind powers to speed around them so he wouldn’t get caught by them.

  “Mùchén cheated!” Měi Lán pointed at her brother. “He used his wind.”

  “Where in the rules say I cheated?”

  Měi Lán crossed her arms over her chest and pouted.

  “Měi Lán, I’ll put it in the rules for next time. Mùchén, you get one pass on it.”

  Mùchén looked so arrogant, his little nose in the air, and Lián Xīng couldn’t help but boop it.

  “Hey!” He covered his nose while his sister dissolved into giggles.

  Lián Xīng looked up to see that her grandfather and Miss Porter had come in at some point. Miss Porter looked as if she had been crying, and she had a bruise in the shape of a handprint on her arm.

  “What happened?”

  “Please excuse me…” Miss Porter ran off to her guest room and a sob in her throat.

  Lián Xīng stood and went to her grandfather, and he nodded in the direction of his office.

  “I’ll be right back, kiddos.”

  She patted their heads before following her grandfather to his office. He closed most of the way, leaving a crack open so they could hear if the kids needed anything.

  “Her apartment had been ransacked. We weren’t the only ones there when we arrived. Her ex-husband had remembered she’d been infected and had gone to take her things. Very arrogant fellow, she made the mistake of mentioning how you healed her. He seemed to get very interested then. He demanded her to tell him all she knew about you. I was able to get his hands off her and protect her from further injury but…”

  “The handprint?”

  Her grandfather nodded.

  “I think they followed us here. You’ll have to be careful when you go out. I have a bad feeling about the men he led.”

  “Did he have a superpower?”

  He nodded.

  “He burned a photo album she tried to take home.”

  “Thank you for protecting her, Grandpa. It would seem she has nowhere to go but here.”

  Miss Porter didn’t come to dinner that night, so Lián Xīng decided to bring dinner to her.

  She knocked on the guest bedroom door, balancing a tray with some noodle soup in the other hand.

  “Miss Porter, I have dinner for you. Something light but nutritious.”

  The door cracked open, and Mister Porter looked at her with those deep blue eyes, reminding her slightly of the first time she met her slightly.

  “Can I come in?”

  A nod and the door opened wider. Boxes sat by the bed, photographs with a person torn from them in an album on the bed.

  Lián Xīng sat the tray on the desk by the wall.

  “How are you doing, Miss Porter?”

  “Arabelle, please.” The woman looked better than she had after the first time she healed her. She was in fresh clothes, clean, but her eyes sparkled from the tears that had fallen. “I knew my ex was a jerk… I just…” She sighed, “It’s all my fault. He’s going to come after you now.”

  “Well, you are welcome to stay here as long as you need. There is safety in numbers.”

  “He thought that too, the com…” she shut her mouth as if she had said something she shouldn’t before shaking her head. “I’m sorry.”

  “You might have been healed from the infection, but it can take a while to heal from its effects. Take your time.” Lián Xīng patted the woman’s hand, “You have a new family now. We protect our own.”