"Yes it is. I mean we have a mall... had a mall but this..." Joyce shook her head as she looked around before turning toward the other woman. Young woman, a face she wasn't prepared to recognize. Not like that.

"El? Oh my god, you are here." A rush of maternal concern pushed her to the girl and Joyce folded her arms around her. "Are you OK? You're not hurt or anything?" Half hugging, half checking her for injuries.

So what if she was some uber powerful anomaly of science, she was a girl who had lost too much and seen too much and Joyce was a mother.