Hecate bolted awake, flinging sweat across the blanket bunched around her legs. Kylan rolled away from the movement as Hecate gulped in air in an attempt to stabilize herself. She looked around the room unseeing, taking in heaving breaths still living in her nightmare. Bella crawled over to Hecate when she sensed the movement. Bella reached out and tugged at Hecate's hand several times before Hecate was finally pulled into the present. Hecate’s eyes softened as she looked at the toddler. 

“Hey, Bella. What are you up to at this time of night,” Hecate whispered, picking up Bella and placing her on her lap. 

Hecate reached over to grab her flip phone before remembering that Mitch had grabbed it when she had walked by. Having a sigh, Hecate turned Bella towards her before giving a small smile. Arayn tugged the blanket that was wrapped around Hecate’s legs until it gave and he stole it. Hecate whipped her head to look over at the sleeping monster, glaring at him for stealing the blanket. Bella giggled happily at the display. Hecate turned to look at her before gently putting a hand over her mouth. 

“Shh, Bella. We don’t want to wake Mitch up.” Hecate whispered into Bella’s ear before slowly taking her hand off of Bella’s mouth. 

Bella silently nodded at Hecate before snuggling up in her arms. Hecate wrapped her arms around Bella, gently rocking her until Bella drifted off to sleep. Hecate looked around silently taking into account all of the children surrounding her. Arayn with his stolen blanket, Kylan still in a deep sleep, Bella asleep on Hecate’s lap, Jack and Jill snuggled together in the corner, and finally, Astrid curled up at Hecate’s feet. 

Hecate closed her eyes after taking account and stock of all the kids, not like Mitch would ever do so much for them. Mitch hadn’t bothered to put in mattresses for the children so they were all lying on whatever blankets Hecate had managed to scrounge up. Before Hecate came to live with her uncle, all the children were just lying on the floor. Living meal to meal, if Mitch remembered to feed them. Hecate had no idea how Mitch was allowed to run an orphanage, though, to be honest, it wasn’t that surprising. Society never cared about the less fortunate and that wasn’t going to change with the rise of superheroes. In fact, society never cared less for the less fortunate now that superheroes were only fighting supervillains instead of the real villains in society.

Bella shifted in Hecate’s arms, likely responding to Hecate’s negative thoughts. She never could truly control them. Hecate shook her head slowly, as to not wake Bella up. They all deserved a good night's rest. 

Hecate took a deep breath in and then let it out. She then went through a breathing exercise that her therapist recommended. They were court-mandated appointments. Everyone thought that it was a villain that killed her parents, maybe it was. When Mitch was contacted, Hecate was non-responsive. Mitch said that the only way that he would take her is if the court-mandated and paid for therapy sessions. He didn’t want to deal with “another broken and unresponsive leech”. Leech wasn’t the word he wanted to use, as Hecate quickly found out. 

As Hecate’s breathing evened out, she drifted back to sleep. The fuzzy room assembled itself in front of her eyes and she quickly snapped back awake. 

“Looks like I won’t be getting any more sleep tonight,” Hecate said, gently brushing Bella’s hair out of her face. 

Bella shifted slightly in Hecate’s arms before settling back into a deep sleep. Hecate heaved out a deep sigh and reached under her pillow grabbing the book she had been reading. Hecate opened the book to where she last left off, Bella still cradled in her arms, and began reading.