Today was surgery day. Chantel sat in a hospital nightgown, waiting for her turn ever since she arrived here early in the morning. She heard people calling other people’s names, one by one. Some of them were not there for the device removal procedure, but for something else. Dr. Harris had a big surgery team. From what Chantel had learned about this doctor and team, they had been doing this for many young Supernatural men and women over the years.

Clutching her gown in anticipation, Chantel saw people walk in and out the doors of the operation room.  She was told by Dr. Harris that the procedure was very easy. Operation for the device removal was usually completed for about an hour and the hospital stay was about a day. Chantel took the early morning slot, while she knew Leticia had her surgery yesterday and recovered. She was nervous as a bunch of questions ran through her mind: What if this procedure doesn’t work? What if she died after it?

Shaking her head, snapping her out of these thoughts, someone finally called her name. A tall, slim nurse came out from the door with a smile on her face, holding a clipboard.

“Ms. Delisle, we are ready for you…” The nurse called.

Chantel got up and stood tall as she swallowed the nervous bile down her throat. She followed the nurse into the room. It was time.

When a bright light shined on her, Chantel woke in a hospital room and she looked at an IV drip near her bed. The doctors had successfully completed the surgery.

She felt some pain, but seemed relatively minor. Chantel half-opened her eyes as it was the amount of anesthesia that kept her sleep or she is just too tired. She looked at her wrist to see a wristband. The same one that Darren used to suppress his powers. Chantel finally opened her eyes, then sat up to see the wristband.

It was a plain, brown wristband as she saw in the watch part there is a number that listed: 20%. Confused by the wristband, Chantel wanted to experiment with this thing.

“Don’t touch it. You need to keep it at this level, so you can get used to some of your powers flowing inside you.” A voice rang as Georgia came in the room and sat down in an empty chair near Chantel's bed. “How are you feeling, dear?” Georgia asked.

“I feel the same, but different. Like there is this energy flowing inside me. Something that I never felt before. I don’t feel sick much strangely…”

“That’s normal for most of the people who went through this procedure. You made the right choice to do it. Now it is over, there is something more that I have to tell you.” Georgia held Chantel’s hand.

“Uh… I don’t think I can take any more surprises right now.” Laying back on the bed, she closed her eyes again.

“Very well, I left a picture on your desk. If you have questions, call Roland or me.” Georgia’s voice continued to ring in Chantel’s ears, then she heard  the sound of footsteps and a door slam. Georgia left the room which gave the girl a sigh of relief.

For almost half an hour, Chantel woke up to take a glance at the desk. She saw the picture of young people, an old picture. Chantel picked up the picture to see two young women and a man. One woman looked like Georgia, so it must be a younger Georgia. But why did Georgia give this to her?

She took an interest in the dashing, handsome man; his long dark brownish hair covered his eyes and his body structure looked familiar…

“This man reminds me of someone.” Chantel inspected the man closer to see his facial structure more.

She remembered her father shared a similar facial structure, though this does not prove that this man and her father are connected.

“Ah, you woke up. I see you are looking at the picture.” Looking up, Roland was at the door of the room when Chantel looked up.

“Why did you give me this picture?”

“The answers are in the picture.” Holding the picture closer to her, Roland walked into the room and sat in a same chair that Georgia sat before.

“Well, I see  in the picture are Georgia, some other girls, and a man. He reminds me of my dad.” Chantel shrugged and put it back down on the table.

“Chantel, what if I told you that the man in this picture is your father?” Roland took the picture, then pointed to the man.

“I would say that you are high on something. My dad looks nothing like that. First off, he doesn’t have brown hair, his hair is black. Also, he doesn’t smile. He hasn’t smiled in years, since he was married to my mother…” Chantel stopped when she mentioned her mother, hating the idea of mentioning her.

“Think, Chantel. You’re a Bio-Kinetic.  One of our species's powers abilities are manipulating our body chemistry to look like other people. Don’t you think this is your father, but he has taken another person’s identity completely?” Roland leaned over to her to the point of where she was forced to think about it more.

Knowing this from reading the book, this did raise a lot of questions. But her father taking on the form of another person? Doesn't that drain Aura? How could he keep this identity for years? None of this makes sense.

“He couldn’t keep up in this form for long. I mean, the person who looked like him now must have known!” Chantel exclaimed.

“You can keep up a form, if you take the identity of a dead person. Well, some of it, not all Bio-Kinetics have achieved changing our body completely. His identity right now is a poor, dead Outsider man, but your father only changed his face.”

“My father took a dead man’s identity? What the hell….” Observing the photograph again, she was in disbelief.

“There is also another thing: You are my cousin, Chantel. Georgia is your aunt and your father is my uncle.”

Chantel’s mouth opened wide in shock at Roland’s comment. She thought backwards to the past where Chantel often asked her father about his side of the family. Her father told her that all of his close family members died. Clamping her hands, Chantel was still in disbelief, holding her blanket tightly. Roland touched her shoulder, and she turned his attention to Roland once again.

“I have a family? Right here?” Chantel still felt confused. Maybe all the drugs that she was given during the surgery have not completely worn off.

“Yes. I am your family and I’m just glad to meet my cousin at last.” Patting her shoulder, Roland said to her.

Chantel blinked. She did not know whether to believe this. Then again, it made sense after so many years her father left the Supernatural community. He not only abandoned his identity, he left his family behind. Listening to Roland more, his story became more interesting as the time went by.

“Grandma Coralie Blanchet loved Uncle Robin so much. He was a favorite of the Blanchet family, next to my mother, Georgia. When he left the family to be with your mother, it devastated them. I just wanted to make our family whole again. I apologize for being secretive, but mother suggested introducing you to this stuff slowly.” Roland explained as Chantel is still reeling over the effects of her surgery.

“I don’t know if I should believe you. My father went by the name, Charlie Delisle. How do I know you're not lying?” Chantel could barely pay attention, grabbing a cup of water next to her hospital bed.

She thought while sipping her water: This story is becoming more inconceivable by the minute, and just how much of this story is real?

“I can tell you one thing: Confront him. I mean, from what you told me earlier, your father refused to tell a lot about his past. If that doesn’t give you a clue he is still hiding facts about us, I don’t know what does. Find your own methods to search for the truth. In the meantime, the Blanchet family would love to welcome our long-lost family member. We are pleased to have you in the family and for me, as my cousin.” Roland gets up from his seat, then smirked at Chantel, ruffling her raven hair.

Bidding her farewell, he left the room to give her more recovery time. Chantel rested once more until another visitor arrived at her door. This guest was none other than her friend, Darren, who walked in the room, unannounced. Rolling her eyes, she was annoyed at her friend’s lack of manners when he just came in and sat in the chair that Roland was sitting before. Chantel positioned herself again to pay attention to her “no manner” best friend.

“Finally, it's about time I got to see you. I apologized to Leticia, but she was still a bitch about it.” Darren said.

“Well, what the heck do you expect when you accuse her and her band of sleeping around with people to get ahead? It was an asshole move to say that, and you were in the wrong here. I’m not defending you for being out of line!” Chantel took another sip of her water cup before putting it back down again.

“But there was some truth to it. I mean, I kinda saw Cho around in Rockwick with an older guy after their show for a minute. I don’t know what Cho was doing with a guy that is older enough to be her dad… But...” Darren pointed out, which made Chantel irritated that he would not drop this topic.

She took a deep breath before speaking again, “Darren, did you really see Cho with an older guy? She was backstage with her band. What the hell are you talking about? People always talk about things and it doesn’t mean it’s true! So, just drop it.”

“Fine.” Darren ended the conversation.

Making things silent between the two of them. Moments later, a nurse delivered a menu for food for the afternoon and left. Chantel skimmed through the menu, while Darren stayed quiet.

“Do you want anything too?” She asked the mage.

“No. I’m good. I just can’t wait until you get out of here.” Darren answered, while Chantel was flipping through the menu.

“Same here. Darren, I… I don’t know how to thank you. For being honest, at least.” Chantel stopped flipping through the menu and looked at him. “I just want to ask, do you ever think about picking up magic again?”

He didn’t answer her. Chantel knew it had been years since Darren touched his magic and gave up since then. However, from what she had seen through the entire time he was here, he was meant to be in Roseland and the Supernatural community. From his extensive knowledge of Supernatural history to knowing the types of potions being used, magic was a part of him just as much as music is.

“No. I’m just not good at it. Let’s just leave it as that. It’s too late for me. I….” Darren said in a pessimistic tone, looking away from her.

“Darren, you look at me. I want you not to give up on magic. Look, I don’t know what made you give it all up… But you shouldn’t give up!”

“It’s not that simple! Look, Chantel, there is a place where they test all magic users. It’s called The Grand Commission of Magic Education and Laws. They are in charge of everything that is magic. Laws of using potions, spells, and many things for years. The Commission is also responsible for every magic user's education from youth to adulthood and evaluations. We magic users have to go through trials and we just can’t use our magic nilly willy. Each trial we pass, our spell books unlock new spells as soon as we master the old ones. There are fourteen level trials that we need to pass to become proficient magic users at twenty years old. I’m only at level twelve and… I’m only nineteen as it is too late for me. I had a hard time even passing the simple levels, and I failed my last trial exam.” Darren explained this to Chantel all of this at once.

Chantel watched his head go down, sensing his feeling of self-defeat. She took Darren’s hand and held it tight as Darren raised his head up.

“You told me not to give up on music when I first came back to the USA. You and Jesse helped me find my way. You still continue to do it even right now with this whole Supernatural thing. I won’t let you give up and throw in the towel! You didn’t with me and I won’t do it to you. Try again. Beat the odds. But don’t you give up!” She encouraged her friend.

She caught Darren showing a small smile. Finally, deciding on her order, she called the nurse to come back in the room to tell her. The nurse had a notepad, writing everything that Chantel wanted down. After that, the nurse left the room to get the meal, while the two continued their chat. Moments later, the nurse arrived with a tray of chicken, rice,  carrots, and green tea for Chantel. There was a package of M&M’s on the side of the meal. The nurse put the tray down, then took her leave. Chantel opened the M&M bag, taking some M&M’s out putting them into her palm.

“You want some?” Chantel offered, taking the bag and holding it out to Darren.

He didn’t answer back too quickly. Darren shrugged and held his palm out, “Ah, what the heck? Sure.”

Chantel poured some M&M’s into her friend’s palm as they continued to sit and talk, without a single interruption. For once, they needed some normalcy, at least for one day.