I Fell For My Nemesis

Jocelyn was going slightly crazy trying to convince herself that Keith and Delta were not the same person. She tried to dismiss it but it was difficult to ignore the evidence in front of her. 

Her hunches were rarely wrong. Too many coincidences had stacked up here. 

But what could she do? She couldn't ask and have her suspicions confirmed. She was just going to have to deal with this and that was all there was to it. She would have to keep treating them as though they were two separate people because, for all she knew, they were. 

She managed to hold it together pretty well the next time she saw Keith but something was definitely going on with him. She had never seen him look so embarrassed. Had Marchella said something to him while she was in the bathroom? But what could she have possibly said to leave him like that? 

No. That couldn't be it. There had to be something else going on. 

Something seemed off about him the next day at lunch too but it wasn't quite as obvious as it had been the day before. Whatever was going on, he didn't seem willing to talk about it and it wasn't her place to pry. 

So Jocelyn kept her mouth shut and acted like everything was normal. She wished he would confide in her though. Maybe she could help. 

It was strange seeing him be less self-confident. He was normally so over-the-top. But no one could be confident all the time. She couldn't help but wonder if his goofiness was some sort of defense mechanism or if he was truly as easy-going as he appeared. 

Maybe he was stressed about his firefighter exams or applications. But wouldn't he tell her about something like that since he already came to her about career advice before? 

Keith's unusual behavior and wondering if he was truly Delta left her feeling unsettled. That only intensified when she ran into Delta later that night. She needed to act normal. As if she didn't have any suspicions about his identity whatsoever. 

"Have you eaten yet?" Jocelyn asked as a somewhat lame icebreaker. 

He shook his head. "No. You?"

"No. I was about to go get a hot dog or something. Shall we?"

"Sure."

They headed to the nearest hot dog stand and got their food before finding a nice rooftop to eat on where they wouldn't be disturbed. Jocelyn was careful not to get any ketchup on her face and ate slowly because she didn't have much of an appetite though she knew she needed to eat. 

She couldn't be hungry when she was this worried. When was the last time something stressed her out this much? Was it when she was trying to find an internship in grad school in the middle of midterms? 

She didn't end up having to say anything because Delta spoke up first somewhat hesitantly. "Hey, Frostine…you're smart."

"I am?"

Jocelyn suddenly recalled that Keith had said she was probably tied for the smartest person he knew with a coworker of his who was supposedly brilliant and had helped him with career advice as well. It would be too ironic if he was talking about her both times!

Ironic yet oddly touching. She didn't get compliments often. And the fact that he potentially thought she was the smartest person he knew as two different people added to that unfamiliar warm, fuzzy feeling.

"Yeah," Delta coughed out, a bit embarrassed. "One of the smartest people I know, actually. So I was wondering…do you have any experience with liking someone you aren't supposed to like? Because someone I know is in that situation right now and having a hard time."

Jocelyn blinked at him. This sounded a lot like Mercury and Nox's situation. 

"Not personally but I have a friend who had that problem."

"What happened with them?"

"They got married and have a daughter. I don't know any of the details but I suppose they were able to work out the issues of why they weren't supposed to like each other and made it work anyway." 

"For real?! Do you at least know why they weren't supposed to like each other in the first place?" Delta asked in disbelief. 

Jocelyn didn't want to give away her old colleague's secret, especially because Mercury was a mutual acquaintance. If she said it was because they were nemeses that would indicate that at least one of them was a hero and Delta knew he had retired to get married. 

"Yes, but it's not my secret to tell," she said apologetically. "It was a pretty solid reason though. Originally, the husband didn't like her at all because of it. But they must have come to some sort of understanding." 

Delta squinted at her. "Not your secret to tell? What does it matter? It's not like I know these people. Hang on…do I know these people?"

Jocelyn didn't say anything but he took her silence as a yes. "No way! Who is it? If it's someone we both know it has to be a hero! Or…a former hero. You're talking about Mercury, aren't you?! I knew there was something fishy about the guy who saved him! 

"Don't tell me—that guy was actually a villain and a girl. This is completely insane! How did you even find out about that? I seriously doubt he would tell you something like that. And he seemed so happy to be getting married too!" 

Jocelyn let out a heavy sigh. Delta wasn't stupid. She shouldn't have said anything. But she had absolutely no intention of mentioning she knew Mercury's secret identity. She would only tell what she had been involved in as Frostine, not what she found out later as Jocelyn Normandy the therapist. 

"Do you remember when Nolan Hunsacher got arrested?" she asked. 

Delta looked at her in surprise. "Yeah. It was huge news because of how rich he was. Why do you ask?"

"You remember he got nailed for murder among other things, right? One of the people he had killed was a nanotechnologist who worked for him. A nanotechnologist who knew what he was up to and wanted to stop him by any means necessary. 

"When he was killed for his efforts he passed on a super suit powered by nanobots to his daughter. She took his place as an antihero known as Nox whose mission was solely to take Hunsacher down. 

"Nox was Mercury's nemesis. I don't know exactly what happened there but I do know that he asked me about her once back when he thought she was a man. He told me about a villain he knew who wasn't like the others because he never purposely hurt anybody, worked from the shadows, and stole insulin. 

"I thought that sounded more like an antihero—a Robin Hood—than a villain and told him so. I thought that was the end of it until I saw what happened to him when he was stabbed by Circus Freak. Someone fitting the description of the villain he described before saved him. 

"I thought he was dead for a while. Then you passed on his message that I was right. I knew what he meant immediately. He had to have come to some sort of accord with Nox. Again, I thought that would be the end of it, but that night Mercury randomly kidnapped me was because he needed help saving Nox's life.

"It seemed that he felt like he owed it to his former nemesis because she had saved him before. A reluctant life for a life. But then I got there, found out she was a woman who knew his secret identity, and watched the two of them bicker. 

"It hit me that Nox had to be in love with Mercury. She saved his life because she knew who he was and wasn't willing to let him die even if it did ruin her own plans. That made me think that she was who he had retired to marry but that he didn't know who she was at that point. 

"He must have figured it out sooner or later but I can't go into how I know some of this because it has to do with my secret identity. I was only able to put it all together in the end because of someone I know outside of the mask who knows them," Jocelyn finished wearily. 

Delta's eyes nearly popped out of his head. "You know who Mercury is?!" 

"Believe me, I didn't ask for it. But yes. I know who Mercury is. And I can't tell you anything else about him because he doesn't know I know."

"I can't believe you figured it out! Your deductive reasoning skills are off the charts. That's completely insane."

Jocelyn sighed again. "I know. I really do. Sometimes I wonder if he's truly happy. But it's not like I can ask him. He doesn't know me when I'm not Frostine and I'm not about to tell him I know who he is because of something a mutual acquaintance of ours let slip. It's a sticky situation. I did look him up on social media out of curiosity once. His wife and daughter are beautiful and they seemed happy but pictures can be deceiving." 

"Unbelievable," Delta said with a shake of his head. "You're too smart for your own good, you know that?"

"No one has ever told me that before."

"Well, you are. Geez…liking your nemesis is so much worse than liking your best friend."

Jocelyn tilted her head at him. "Is that the problem your friend is having? Why is that an issue? Isn't friendship a solid foundation for a romantic relationship?"

"Not if you can't afford to lose them if you screw up," Delta said with a shrug.