"I still don't want to talk about it J'onn." Shayera kept her head down, looking at her intertwined fingers rather than the red eyes she could feel boring into her.
Shayera and J'onn sat opposite one another in the counseling center of the Watchtower, just as they had been at least once every day since Green Lantern's death.
"It's been almost two weeks. You need to vent this emotion. It's crippling you." J'onn spoke quietly but firmly. "This guilt you feel for his death…it's unfounded."
Shayera's head snapped up at that, a fire in her words that hadn't been present for quite some time. "You would dare read my mind with a situation like this! You don't have the right!"
"Shayera, please," J'onn replied quickly, quieting the start of an eminent rant. "I have not invaded your privacy. My observations are based purely on your behavior over the past weeks. You are my friend, and I can sense when you are not one with your usual self."
A silence impregnated the room. "It is my fault," Shayera whispered, tears welling up in her bright green eyes. "If I hadn't told him to come, he could have … I knew his ring was almost out."
"You could not have possibly known the mission was going to get so out of hand. Not a single one of us did. You cannot blame yourself for calling in another member, just as you cannot blame yourself for John's fate."
Shayera visibly winced at the sound of his name. "Don't tell me what I can and cannot feel," she replied venomously. "It was my sorry ass he had to save when I fell. It was my weakness, my failure, my stupid god damn life that he died for."
"Shayera," J'onn began softly.
"Save it, J'onn, I don't want your pity," She stood up abruptly. "I think we're done here."
The martian made no motion to stop her. As she strode for the door, J'onn gazed upon her bandaged wing, realizing that Green Lantern was not the only one to have been lost that day.