Title: Love and Science.
Disclaimer: I own nothing in connection to the characters and properties of Legion of Super Heroes. Not now, and probably not ever. I make no money from writing this, etc.
Summary: A prequel to my other fic Big Momma and Careless Father as suggested by Dranzers Inferno. Winema Wazzo has a little conversation with Timber Wolf after his conviction is overturned.
It was a good idea, so I went for it. I'll admit to being a little lazy with BMaCF and I am grateful for having someone point it out to me. As such, this is dedicated to Dranzers Inferno for sending me in this direction. It gave me the opportunity to look into TW and PG's backgrounds. This takes place just a little time after the events in "Cry Wolf."
This is just a small apology for misspelling the President's name. I had to go to five different sites to find the proper spelling, where everyone disagreed and finally had to watch the first episode she was in and read the end credits. The fic has been edited to record her name in correct spelling.
Something had gone awry. Or, rather, it had gone exactly in the way it was supposed to and thus, Winema Wazzo found herself at the entrance of the Legion's headquarters, a sort of hard look on her face as the doors opened with a subtle hiss and she entered. Her guards had been ordered to stand out front until she was finished and they were not to say anything or do anything to anyone who came in. As far as she was concerned, this was the safest place to be.
She had heard a few days ago about the Legion's little fugitive that had killed his father and been disappointed that one of them could kill anyone. But then she'd heard that her daughter was assisting him stay out of the Science Police as well as the Legion's grasp and there was this strange feeling that settled within the president. It was like falling off a step on a staircase really fast, suspended in dread, brain unable to comprehend what was happening. As a mother she wanted to side with her daughter and she could just understand that her girl wouldn't do anything like this unless it was for a good reason, but as the President she would have an obligation to turn them in if they sought her help.
Then it had been found that the young man was not only wrongly convicted, but framed by his own father as well. Another feeling, this one much more positive, rose up in her and she'd set out to go and see her daughter and the young man for herself. Better to do that, to be a mother first and a politician second, than to go and hunt down the heartless bastard responsible for this whole ordeal. No, that could wait until later.
Stepping with her own subtle grace through the halls, the tall, gentile woman came upon a little member of the Legion, orange in color and too engrossed in the dent he had apparently made in the wall to notice the woman come up behind him until she tapped him on the shoulder. He gave a little jolt at the touch and turned around nervously, expecting to see one of the other Legion members, mouth already working words over his tongue to explain himself. When he actually looked up at her, his antennae flattened against his head like a rabbit's ear and his pupils dilated, giving him a rather comical look, and she just smiled sweetly at him.
"Hello, I'm looking for Tinya or a Timber Wolf. Do you know where they are?"
The little one, a Durlan she noted absently, shook his head out of his startled look and cleared his throat, "Um, Phantom Girl is out on a mission, but Timber Wolf is…baking cookies, I think."
Winema's smooth eyebrows raised at this, but she held her smile, "Could you please take me to him, Mr.…."
"Oh! Chameleon Boy, Miss—Mrs.—Madame President!" he saluted, giving a little bow before standing tall again and scratching the back of his head, "Yes, uhm, right this way."
Winema suppressed the giggles trying to slide up out of her throat like pleasant, tickling vines trying to sprout flowers and followed after Chameleon Boy. He had turned into a dog and led her through the halls, once in a while stopping and starting like he didn't quite know where he was going himself, sniffing the air once and a while as well. There were quite a few halls they passed, occasionally passing other Legionnaires who gave the President a startled look with wide eyes and stilled movements while she gave them a little tilt of her head and continued on, white cloak flowing around her serenely in her midst. Regal looking and having a mission to do.
Eventually, they came to a kitchen and Chameleon Boy showed her in and sat her at the island table where she could observe the tall, powerful looking young man who was too caught up in working on some only half finished cookie dough to notice them. He looked intent on finishing his work with those clawed hands and watchful eyes and she felt most guilty when the little Durlan coughed into his hand and got the other's attention. He didn't turn around, but his pointed ears tilted back at his friend and a husky, strong voice spoke back calmly.
"No, Cham, the cookies aren't finished yet. I told you I'd call you in first when they were."
"Um, Timber Wolf," Chameleon Boy started, backing up towards the door, "You have a visitor. Turn around, dude."
With that little suggestion, Chameleon Boy bolted out of the room, obviously not tempted to stay for this conversation. It was a little weird to have the President in Legion HQ and he didn't want to be any part of this. He had to go and call Phantom Girl and find out why the tall, intimidating woman was there before anything else.
Startled by the sound in Cham's voice, Brin turned not exactly quickly, but fast enough and was met with the sight of a woman who looked so like Tinya sitting comfortably in one of the kitchen chairs. Her head was balanced on her right hand and she scared him a little with how she looked at him so…calculatingly. She even smelled near completely like Phantom Girl that it was probably the only reason he hadn't known someone not in the Legion was in the room. He had assumed Tinya was trying out a new perfume and was just trying to sneak up on him passed Cham.
Straitening himself, Timber Wolf bowed his head apologetically, "My apologies Madame President, I thought you were—"
"My daughter? Hm, yes. I've been reading up that you have a very keen sense of smell. It seems my daughter did like that perfume from my collection I gave her after all." Winema smiled, eyes still fixed on him in a way that could only make him nervous.
"Is…Is there something I can help you with? Tinya's not here, but—"
"Tinya can wait until later," she cut him off as politely as she could, "I actually mostly came to see you."
His ears dropped rather like the Durlan's had, and his posture went rigid. It was obvious she had heard about the escape for his life and the attack of his father, but he couldn't know why she wanted to actually, physically talk to him. It showed in his eyes that he was a little afraid of what a conversation with the woman would bring and he couldn't help by eye the door. An escape route might be needed in case she got like Tinya and started throwing things if and when the dialogue went downhill.
"Oh don't look so terrified," she spoke again, voice reminding him of gentle bells and kindness, "My daughter doesn't tell me nearly enough about her friends when she visits and I just wanted to find out more about you. She did risk quite a lot to help you out for some reason and I want to know why."
"Tinya is one of my best friends," he started truthfully, "Her and Chameleon Boy knew I was innocent even when I didn't believe it entirely myself. I wouldn't be here if she and Cham hadn't helped me."
"Ah, so that's why the Science Police said you kept disappearing. But why were you convicted for murder when your father was alive? And what do you mean you didn't believe it yourself?"
Brin sighed and leaned on the counter, arms crossing and feet planting so he wouldn't sway. This conversation would need to be long and detailed to get what really happened across to the woman. He didn't want to go into all the details, like why his father did what he did, but if the questions arose, he didn't think he could hide it from her. Most likely she had looked up certain things, but even if she hadn't he didn't want to lie to Tinya's mother.
"My…My father framed me for his murder so I would revert into a savage beast and be a general for his new army. He sent a sort of…well, in layman's terms, a virus to make me more aggressive and I sometimes blacked out as a result. When I went to Rawl, he told me his plans and I did turn into that beast. When the Legion came, I attacked them and Tinya tried to snap me out of it…I slammed her into a wall and knocked her unconscious…"
Winema's eyes, dark, onyx and so reminiscent of her daughter's widened and then narrowed at this statement and she straitened her posture into a stiff, regal position. She wanted to say something, cruel, harsh, unkind, but she let him continue. There was more to the story and she wanted the whole of it.
This seemed hard for him to continue, but he swallowed and went on, not one to give up for the sake of bad emotion such as guilt and shame, "I-I was going to keep attacking her, but then, I remembered that she said I had to choose. And the sight of her there woke me up. She's always waking me up, I think," he chuckled warmly at that, "Then I went after the control my father had and destroyed it. It controlled the "virus" you see and then I…I wanted to attack him, but I couldn't. It wouldn't have been right. And it wasn't him anyway, it was just a clone that dissolved and revealed that my father was off planet. He has new sons now. I hope he won't come after me or the Legion again."
He kept his head low at the end of the explanation, terrified of the woman before him. He hadn't even forgiven himself for what he had done to his friend and would not expect as much from the woman who raised Phantom Girl. He could smell anger wafting out of her like fog. It would not be out of line for her to attack him.
Turns out she was angry for a whole other reason. She gently put a hand across the counter and laid it firmly against his shoulder, strong but kind as her next words.
"Where was your mother in all this?"
His eyes, gold balls of a gentle beast, flickered up at her and he spoke a little bitterly, the little streak of his white hair falling over one of his eyes in doing so, "My mother was a test tube. My father is the only one who had a hand in raising me. He just wanted a kid and thought looking for a wife would be a waste of time."
In spite of him thinking she would be appalled at touching a person who looked like a monster and was raised by a different kind of monster—the human, sociopathic nutcase sort of monster—her eyes somehow became…understanding. He almost balked at the sight and she hid a little smile behind her hand.
"What? What's so funny?" Brin asked, a little insulted that she was laughing at him.
She waved her hand before her face, "I'm sorry. I was just thinking how similar you and my daughter are."
"…Similar?"
"Well, in a way. You only have one parent and Tinya only has one parent. And neither I, nor the good doctor," this phrase used to describe Dr. Londo comes out contemptuous and sarcastic, making Brin smirk a little himself, "Wanted to look for a suitable mate to have children. Oh, and neither I nor Londo are very good at understanding our children. Him quite a bit more so, but still…"
One of Brin's ears tilted all the way back in a common sign of curiosity among dogs that bothered to stand still and his mouth ran before his brain had time to catch up, "Tinya doesn't have a dad?"
"Not in the traditional sense, no," Winema answered a little embarrassed, "I wanted a child, but had no interests in falling in love with anyone beforehand. The man I got the other half of Tinya's DNA from was one of the few bodyguards I could stand. He was serving his last month on the force protecting me and said after he retired he was going to go looking for Ms. Right. Sadly, he was killed protecting the room I was staying in and never got the chance. He donated his body to science, though and I got his DNA so some little part of him could live on."
"You so wanted a child…"
"Yes. But that didn't mean I had to love or really even know Tinya's father."
She paused here, a slight blush lighting up her face and her ears on guard in the event that Tinya should come rushing into the room and yell at the President for saying something so…well, personal, embarrassing, weird, humiliating were some of the few words that came to mind that would most likely fall out of Phantom Girl's mouth like acidic spit some reptiles spew when met with a threat. It didn't mean much to Winema when Timber Wolf was obviously still friends with Tinya after this ordeal, the President had never been one to hide anything unless it involved interplanetary security, but Tinya had the right to her privacy.
Winema supposed, anyway.
For some odd reason, Winema noted that Timber Wolf looked like this was both very interesting and a sort of invasion of privacy on his part; avoiding eye contact and looking out the door at the same time.
Winema still had questions though and he would have to suck up the embarrassment for the time being.
"But, anyway, we're getting off track. You and my daughter are on good terms even after all of this, I assume?"
Brin nodded.
"Do you have any idea why she was so sure of your innocence?"
"I couldn't say. I have a feeling Chameleon Boy had a big role in it, but I can't be sure."
"You haven't asked her yourself?" she asked, a little surprised.
"Um, no," he said, almost bashful, "I don't want to bother her with too much just yet."
"That's very considerate of you," Winema continued to smile, getting up from her chair slowly, "Your cookies in the oven are burning."
"Wha—" and just like that, his head spun around on his shoulders so hard he felt like he suffered whiplash, but there it was, unmistakable. Smoke was coming out of his oven.
As he panicked a little and grabbed his oven mitts, bright and bold and yellow with little scorched holes in them that looked just a bit like cigarette marks or even acid burns and flipped the oven wide open, smoke spilling out like poison smog, burning his eyes and nose horribly, she slipped out the door.
Where she had been sitting, on the counter and looking innocent and innocuous, she left a little white slip of paper with her handwriting on it in neat, prim print,
'Tinya, I just wanted to drop by to say hello. Call me when you can. Love, hugs and kisses, Mom.'
Passing through the halls again, this time alone and with a little more of a bounce in her step, Winema had thoughts in her head about the sweet young man her dearest daughter had become such friends with. He was certainly different from the young men Winema kept introducing Tinya to in hopes of them hitting it off and starting to date. He seemed very thoughtful and aware of his actions. Qualities that Winema could come to like, and on some level, already did.
As she passed by the last hall before she left the building, the President smiled at the sound of the smoke alarms and the sight of a little blond haired, green skinned young man walking by her with a fire extinguisher with a very irritated look on his face.
The smile leaves her as she steps outside, though. A thought, an afterthought really, had slipped into to consciousness and when her guards come up to her she says tightly and in that same commanding tone that means 'no-nonsense' and 'no arguing' that won her election, "We have one more stop to make. Get a cruiser here to meet us at the space station. We have to make a quick trip to Rawl."