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“What were you doing in Midtown today, anyways?” Bobbi asked. Nadia feinted with a right hook and hoped Bobbi wouldn’t notice her left uppercut—but no such luck. They continued to circle.
“I was visiting a new friend, in Queens!” Nadia said excitedly, bouncing on her toes. Bobbi tried to catch her while she was off-balance, but Nadia barely stumbled.
“Ohhh, right.” Bobbi nodded. Her eyes searched for an opening. Nadia did the same.
“Right?” Nadia squinted.
“We were talking,” Tai offered.
“You were—?” Nadia turned to look at Tai with frustration, and it was all the opportunity Bobbi needed. She lunged forward, sweeping Nadia’s legs out from under her. As Nadia landed on her back with a thud, Bobbi held her foot over her neck. Defeated.
“Nice round,” Bobbi said, stepping back and offering Nadia her hand. Nadia reached out to grip it—but instead of Bobbi hauling her to her feet, the older woman squeezed her hand and knelt down next to her, pulling her up to sitting.
“Listen.” Bobbi leaned in close. “I know Tai is Tai, but she’s not wrong. We don’t know Margaret. Like, at all. I’m not saying she’s a bad person—she could be a great fit for G.I.R.L. But we should let Janet and Lexi approach her like they approach all of our other partners. Okay? Let’s do this right.”
Nadia squeezed Bobbi’s hand back in reassurance. “She’s different, Bobbi. She’s one of us. She wants to help with Like Minds, to do something really impressive and meaningful. She interned for my father, even!”
“And he didn’t hire her,” Tai reminded her from the sidelines. “Kind of a red flag.”
Dropping Bobbi’s hand, Nadia pushed herself to her feet. “Lots of things Hank Pym did were kind of red flags,” Nadia said, a little sharply.
“Yeah, he had plenty of those,” Bobbi agreed, standing back up. She was so tall and lovely and muscly and blond. Nadia was glad she hadn’t wanted to fight with the sticks today. “But one thing he had going for him was that he was a good scientist. And Janet’s a good leader, a good judge of character. So we should maybe trust her to handle this. Even if you don’t want to trust her with Maria’s journal.”
Nadia rounded fully on Tai this time, her hands on her hips. “You told her?” Nadia couldn’t believe Tai would divulge a secret that wasn’t even hers to tell.
Tai at least had the grace to look away, embarrassed. “You said you didn’t want Janet to know—but I told Bobbi about VERA and Margaret and I wanted it to make sense.…” Tai finally looked Nadia in the eye. “I’m just…” Saying things with emotion was not Taina’s forte. She gritted her teeth. “I’m just worried about you. Is all.”
Nadia was caught off guard. Taina didn’t usually put things so plainly when it came to what she was feeling. Nadia knew how to read Taina, knew that she cared even when she didn’t say it. It was always evident in the things Taina did. Hearing Taina say out loud that she was worried cut through Nadia’s anger like a blade.
“Don’t blame Tai,” Bobbi said, stepping in between the two girls. “I’m not going to tell Janet about Maria’s list. But we’re all just worried about you, after last time.”
Last time. Before Nadia’s diagnosis. When she’d fallen so deep into a manic episode, before she even knew what a manic episode was, that she hurt her friends physically and emotionally. Nadia appreciated their concern. She knew how scary that time had been. It had been scary for her, too.
Nadia was used to not being able to trust. Things. People. Appearances. Optics. Promises. The Red Room had made sure that her sense of trust was thoroughly eroded.
But she’d always been able to trust herself. Not being able to trust her own brain had shaken Nadia to her core. It had rewritten rules she thought she knew, overnight. She was managing it now, but in the immediate aftermath of the manic episode that had changed everything, she felt like she was constantly searching for her footing, trying to find her balance again.
But this wasn’t that. This didn’t feel like that. This had nothing to do with having bipolar. This was just Nadia being excited about something. This was Nadia finally feeling inspired after feeling like she had been drowning in appointments and schedules and only-potential plans for weeks. Plus, she’d been working hard on maintaining self-awareness about her disorder. They just weren’t listening.
Nadia picked up her gear and headed for the stairs back up to the lab. “I just think, with Margaret on board, we can make a real difference with this Like Minds project. I’ve been thinking all day about data and communication networks and interconnectivity and I know there’s something here. I know there is. I just want to make something that matters,” Nadia said. She felt helpless with Bobbi and Taina both following her in silence. “I just want to make something that makes a real difference.” She didn’t know what else to say.
“And I think we can do it without her,” Tai said under her breath.
“It’s late,” Bobbi said loudly, over Taina. They walked into the lab, where Priya was half-asleep on a couch already. “Let’s all sleep on it and we can talk about it again tomorrow, okay? With more of the G.I.R.L. squad, even, if they’re here. Everybody’s making good points. Let’s just take some time.”
“Fine,” Tai said.
“Okay,” agreed Nadia. She turned to make her way toward her own room.
Suddenly, the doors to the lab slammed open. Nadia spun back around.
“Where’s the emergency?!” Ying stood in the doorway, disheveled but looking ready for a fight. Shay was next to her, hair mussed. They must have run here from…wherever they were.
Nadia sucked in her bottom lip. She needed to not say anything for a minute.
“You missed it,” Priya said groggily, sitting up on the couch.
“Technically, so did you,” said Bobbi. She just shrugged in response to P
