Authors' Note: Thank you so much for the reviews. 3 Especially the guest reviewer - you really touched our hearts. Both of us are having trouble differentiating days, too. Coauthor Lois is still on furlough through the end of June, and coauthor Anissa is still doing this weird two-weeks-on, two-weeks-off, but when you're off you're still on call, sort of thing. Sunday as posting day is the one constant in our week, too.

And another big thank you to JamesTKent, who has been there for us from the beginning. We love you, Jim, and look forward to every review.

All of you who come in and leave hits or favorites or reviews are a bright spot in a very scary world. Thank you.

All of the wiring was finished, and the night's abbreviated rounds were complete. The streets were quiet, and that made Bruce uneasy. He couldn't help feeling as though this was the calm before the storm. Bruce took his time in his post-rounds shower, trying to loosen tense muscles – and wash away that sensation of the city holding her breath. If only every qualm of his could be chased down the drain with soap and hot water.

Tim had come down to the Batcave with him, and was showered and changed first, going to the main computer to check for any updates. Dick had arrived at some point, and as Bruce walked out, his eldest glanced at the screen over Tim's shoulder. "Still nothing?" he said, his voice unaccountably cheerless.

"Nothing concrete," Tim said, and looked at his brother. "Come on up to the kitchen, Dick, I need a sandwich."

Dick perked up a little at that, and Bruce hid a smile. Like himself, Dick needed to feel needed. Tim was perceptive enough to see his melancholy mood, and offer him a constructive way to elevate it. He let them precede him up the stairs, hearing them both murmur greetings in passing. Only when Bruce turned the next landing did he see who was waiting for him.

Selina, always elegant and lovely Selina, wearing his bathrobe and an indulgent smile. She was also carrying a martini, and her favorite cat was sitting on the railing beside her. "Hey there, handsome," Selina purred. "Need a drink?"

"It's appreciated," he told her, and took the martini. He sipped it; dry, two olives, just as he liked it. Bruce couldn't remember if he'd ever ordered a martini while out with Selina. She might've asked Alfred, but he suspected it was something she just knew.

She leaned against the railing, a playful light in her eyes. "I've been feeling awfully domestic lately. Had to stop myself from bringing you your slippers."

"Selina, the day you turn domestic, I'll get hold of J'onn and have you examined for symptoms of mind control," Bruce said, with the little uptick of tone that was as close to laughter as he usually got.

"At least you smiled," she said, and stepped forward into his arms, nuzzling his freshly-showered neck. "Mmm. We might have most of the house to ourselves. We could find ourselves some trouble."

"We really don't have enough of the house to ourselves for that," Bruce told her, breathing in the scent of her shampoo. The last time Selina had baited him into 'finding some trouble,' he'd ending up owing Alfred a profound apology and having to clean the leather couch in the parlor by himself.

Selina laughed softly, kissing his cheek. "Donna left, the Arrow contingent is rooming with their very own mother hen, Kala and Jay are out, Tim's going to live in his room after he's fed, and Dick is … unusually quiet, for Dick." She drew back, looking more solemn. "What exactly is up with our eldest, dear?"

He looked at her for a moment, trying to express disapproval of the joke while simultaneously suppressing a smile. Selina grinned, knowing she'd amused him, and he sighed, deciding to just answer the question. "I honestly have no idea," Bruce said.

Looking alarmed, Selina pressed her wrist to his forehead. "Are you all right? Did Batman just admit there's something he doesn't know? Is this the End Times?"

"It's Donna," Bruce explained, ignoring the teasing. "He's always a little melancholy when she leaves. Those two have known each other for a very long time, and it's always hard for him to walk away from her. I suspect it comes from being in the Titans together so young. Various forms of trauma-bonding, essentially."

"Lover, trauma-bonding is the only kind of bonding you Bats do," Selina scolded. "Hell, I think it's the only kind of bonding any of you heroes do."

There was some truth to that, Bruce knew. Even Clark, whose family was one of the healthiest and most functional in the League, had a certain degree of forged-in-crisis to his personal connections. "You're probably right."

"I usually am. Seriously, though. What is the deal with Dick and Donna? Those two…" Selina trailed off, raising an eyebrow.

"They're best friends," Bruce said simply.

That earned a little chuckle, her brow arching a little. "I didn't pine over my best friend like that, even when I was in high school," Selina pointed out. "You don't pine when Clark leaves, either."

He couldn't help but smirk at that a little. She had a point. "Selina, I don't know what it is between them. It's always been that way, even since they were kids," Bruce told her.

Selina nuzzled close again. "It doesn't seem like sexual tension. My radar for that is usually pretty well-attuned. But they definitely have some yearning going on. Did they ever date? Or sleep together?"

"Not to my knowledge," Bruce said. "Until it affects either of their well-being, it's not my concern."

"Which is Bat-speak for 'shut up, Cat, it's none of our business'," Selina chuckled.

Bruce decided to tread carefully on a conversational track he hadn't yet tried, and simultaneously steer Selina away from speculating about things he suspected Dick wouldn't want them to discuss. "Speaking of friends we miss … have you heard from Harley and Ivy?"

She sighed. "I got a text saying they made their flight. I tried to say congratulations, and the number came back as not in service. So Pam probably broke the SIM card right after she sent it. She's always been better at covering her tracks. And full disclosure, I broke mine, too. I love you, but the girls and I all know you'd try to find them."

Bruce stroked her hair gently. She was right, he would want to trace those texts. Ivy and Harley were too dangerous to be allowed to roam loose, un-rehabilitated. He could still ask if she knew where they were headed, but Selina would inevitably deny it. She was wise enough not to let them tell her … and she'd lie to him if she had any idea. Selina was one of the very few people who could do that successfully. So instead he murmured the next thought that traced across his analytical mind. "It's strange that Kala missed Harley's escape. As keen as her senses are, I would've thought she'd find Harley."

Selina let out another sigh, her breath warm on his neck. "Bruce, honey, the kid is good, but she can't catch everything. She doesn't really have that much tracking experience under her utility belt yet; give her a break, Super or not. Harley's a lot smarter than anyone gives her credit for, and she knows you're always watching. She probably took precautions."

"Evading Kryptonians is extremely difficult," Bruce mused. He had planned multiple ways of doing so, if it ever became necessary, but no one was supposed to know there was a Kryptonian in Gotham at present.

"Harley has years of experience hiding from people who want to find her," Selina pointed out. "You, of course, but also Joker, and that woman running the Suicide Squad, Waller. She would've been extremely careful about this. You can't blame Kala for not finding her, Bruce."

Was that what he was doing? Trying to hold everyone else to his own impossible standards? Even Bruce knew that sometimes, despite all the planning and preparation in the world, things didn't work out as intended. There were always a few variables beyond anyone's control. "They spent the vital first few moments of their search looking for Joker," he said aloud, remembering.

"Yeah, and even as fast as Kala is, I know Harley wouldn't hang around the scene if she could help it. She probably bolted as soon as she tossed the match. And you know, the further someone gets from a scene, the harder it is to find them. Even with the address of the cafe where I met the girls, that doesn't narrow it down much." Selina tucked her face under his chin, leaning against him.

"Kala has only been in serious training for six months or so," Bruce said. "Jay knows how to run a search, but he's accustomed to doing so in a vehicle."

"Hard to translate that to someone who can fly like Kala does," Selina admitted.

He decided to let go of that particular line of inquiry, along with the tension of the night's patrol. Bruce caught Selina's chin gently, and tilted her face up to his for one last point he needed to make. "You're glad they got away."

"I am," she replied, meeting his eyes levelly. "I won't lie to you, Bruce. I wanted them to make it out, and I'm glad they're far from here and safe from Joker. Safe from you, too. You can't judge me, though. You're always glad when I get away."

He could've argued that it wasn't the same; Selina didn't kill, she was far less dangerous than Ivy or Harley, and most of her rap sheet was simply property theft. No one starved because of what she stole, no one died after crossing her path. But Bruce had learned that some arguments couldn't be won.

Instead, he downed the last of the martini, set the glass on the railing, and swept Selina up into his arms. "Sometimes you don't try very hard to get away," he teased her gently.

Selina laughed, and kissed him. "You're right, you caught me fair and square. Now what're you going to do with me?"

He let himself chuckle, as so few had ever heard him, and reply, "I have a list…"

…

Slow to wake the next morning, Kala wasn't quite sure what time it was when she rose, only that she had missed the dawn. She felt the chill in the air, and realized belatedly that she had packed the throw last night. She should've tossed it onto the bed too, for an extra layer of warmth; if she was aware of the chill, Jay might actually be cold. Opening her eyes, the sight in front of her chased away the faintest hint of disappointment at missing the dawn, and her worries.

Her cheek had been pressed to Jay's chest, her arm draped around him as he slept on deeply. It made her smile softly to see just how wild his hair was the morning after. The most definitive hallmark of their wrecking a bed was his tousled hair. Sometimes – most of the time, given their enthusiasm – it was paired with bruises marking his hips. Kala bit her lip, thinking about that, but Jay always acted like they were merit badges or something.

The level of desperation of getting him closer, deeper, was pretty damned clear afterwards and would occasionally stay for over a week. Typical Jay, who she was growing to know was fond of his souvenirs. Just remembering the way he'd put it the one time she had fretted about it in front of him had her grinning and stifling a snicker. Yeah, you could say that he didn't mind a few bruises, or hickies, or the mark of her nails. The man was hopeless.

Just thinking about that had her reaching out to stroke the back of her hand over the light stubble coming in on his chin. Considering the many, many demons in his past, it always amazed Kala how deeply Jay slept when she was with him. These days he didn't even need to liquor to drift off. She couldn't help but hope that it might really have something to do with her presence, the same way his nearness took her out of herself. Out of the mess that was her life right now.

Watching him sleep was the antithesis of watching him fight or drive her mindless. That said, he'd likely throttle her if he knew that she'd done this a few times now, just observing him at rest. But she couldn't let herself feel bad about it. The hardness, the cynicism, the tension, poured out of him and he looked his age then. Maybe even a little younger. It did things to her heart that she would never let out of her mouth, but she thought them just the same.

Even now, he was so guarded, so many little things that he tried to keep from her. He wasn't actually doing it on purpose; after he had dropped the bomb about his past and his relationship with Talia al Ghul a few months ago, she was pretty sure that he was trying not to unload a whole lifetime's worth of trauma on her. Just the bits and pieces that came up in conversation, which Kala tried to handle lightly. She still ached to think of this amazing man sleeping on a floor in an unheated apartment – as a child.

Honestly, as sweet as it was of Jay to put on a brave face, it would be better for him if Jay did just let all of it out. True, there were still shards of her own drama-bomb cutting slivers into her personal and professional life. The whole Sebast situation was still having repercussions that she was having a hell of a time unsnarling. It still hurt, and it would hurt more when they tried to work together again. No matter what else was going on personally, she and Sebast both had a professional commitment to the tour and the label that they had to uphold. And Kala would need his support with whatever godforsaken manager they threw at her in the new year. As long as it wasn't Derek, she'd make it happen somehow. And that didn't even touch the way they were going to have to dismantle their personal relationship or their shared possessions or any of the rest of it. Not to mention, how the two men might feel when they were forced to be around one another. That was a big one. The implications just staggered her when she started thinking about it, stealing her breath away and forming a queasy knot in her stomach. There was just so much…

She could find a way to make it all work without stepping on anyone's toes. Without letting her own heartache interfere, or even show. For Jay, for Sebast, for herself, she'd find a way.

That thought in mind, she cautiously leaned forward and pressed the ghost of a kiss to Jay's forehead before quietly getting up to make coffee and get the day started. Today she'd let him get up at his own pace, taking the time to bask in her sun on the porch rather than with her father that morning. She'd soak a little more later, if she could. God knew Jay needed the downtime, whatever argument he would use. Maybe she could even get him to head into town for breakfast, considering the last time they'd eaten had been hurried sandwiches at the Manor in between wiring sensors for him and moving cats for her.

Focusing on her mind on those pleasant prospects, Kala went to the cedar dresser and pulled out the flannel pajamas that she kept here. And reminded herself to nudge the thermostat up on her way to make coffee. She didn't need to give Jay nightmares of Mr. Freeze.

…

Jay woke alone—not a shocking state of affairs, but it took him a moment to remember where the hell he was, and once he did, there was something missing. Namely, a hot Kryptonian cuddled up beside him. Kala didn't always stay the night, she couldn't, but she had the whole two weeks off and this was her family's cabin, so where…

A sound from the kitchen caught his attention, his hand automatically sliding under the pillow. But his gun was on the nightstand instead, and it only took a few seconds to realize what he heard was the coffeemaker. His stomach growled a little at that sound.

A goofy grin stretched his mouth in unfamiliar ways. She was up and making coffee already? Holy shit. He knew better by now, but it still amused him that the Goth rocker was a morning person. Must've come from have solar-based powers.

He got out of bed, his back complaining. Twisting into odd positions to wire up sensors, then rolling around in the snow, followed by enthusiastic cardio, could probably account for that. Jay twisted and stretched until something popped and it stopped aching. Then he found his boxers and t-shirt, pulled them on, and ambled toward the kitchen, rubbing a hand through his hair on the way. It was a little warmer in here this morning, finally. Kala must've cranked the heat up.

As it turned out, the coffee was perking all by itself, and Kala was out on the snowy porch, only dressed in a pair of light-colored flannel pajamas he'd never seen before, soaking up the sun. He stopped to stare at her. Something about the way she looked, her head tipped back, her back slightly arched, her eyes closed and her expression blissful … it made him wish the sun was that good to him, too. The fact that she was outside, standing barefoot in snow with exactly one layer between her and the chilly temperatures, was another reminder that his girl was literally out of this world.

Jay was still staring when the coffeemaker finished up, and Kala turned her attention back to the kitchen. She caught him staring, and just smiled lazily. That satisfied, knowing expression made Jay turn to the counter so as not to seem so obvious about his ogling.

The door opened on Kala's laughter, and she sidled up to him, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Didja see something you like, Red?" Kala asked, a wicked gleam in her eyes. The flannel pajamas did nothing to detract from that at all.

"Yeah, a smokin' hot Kryptonian chick who can't resist fondling me," he fired back, and slung an arm around her, the coffee forgotten.

That earned him another of those grins, slow and sunny, even in the freezing weather. Still took him by surprise how easily she did that. "Now who's fault is that, Big Bad?" Kala stood on tip-toe to catch a kiss that drew itself out until they were short of breath.

Slipping back down to her normal height, she looked up at him, still enveloping him in her warmth. "So, you're looking a little better this morning. Guess dragging you out here into the snowy wilds may have actually worked. Feeling a little more ready to deal with the gala tonight?"

"Or maybe it's all that good cardio we did last night," Jay chuckled, giving her an affectionate squeeze. It was like holding a sun-catcher in the middle of winter; Kala made everything around her brighter. Cheesy as hell, even in his own mind, but she made him want to be cheesy somehow.

K made him want to be a lot of things, most of which Jay couldn't really express. Worthy of her, for one. His life was a fucking mess, and she deserved better. That she came to spend time with him, that she liked him and wanted him, was still a surprise. Add onto that the other l-word she'd whispered half-asleep last month, and his brain tried to freeze up. In the good way, though. Jay thought maybe lotto winners felt like this, toting around the big check for five hundred million or whatever, like it couldn't possibly be real.

He was thinking too much, though, and didn't want Kala to look at him with that x-ray vision and have any clue how much of a mess his head was, too. So instead he kissed her neck, scraping stubble over her skin, and growled playfully. "The snowy wilds aren't so bad, if you're here and there's coffee. Maybe I'll grow out my beard again. And plaid suddenly sounds good to me."

"Okay, fine, we're leaving," Kala said, mock-horrified, and they both broke into laughter.

"Seriously, though," Jay said. "It's a nice change. You don't do anything by halves, K. When you're in the city, you live in Metropolis and fight in Gotham. When you're in the country, you're way the hell out here where the coyotes howl at night."

Those hazel eyes rolled ceiling-ward at that. "This is only like forty miles from Asheville. You can't really help it that you're such a city boy," Kala teased, smiling.

Liking the easygoing, playful flow of it, Jay decided not to mention he'd never heard of Asheville, and just joked, "Nah, babe, I'm all man—and you know it."

Kala leaned as far back as his arm around her would allow, groaning and rolling her eyes even more theatrically. "Oh, please. When it all comes down to it, all of you big tough Gotham men are just a bunch of little boys. All your protests aside."

"Yeah, yeah. I love getting lectures on maturity from someone who's two years younger than me," Jay scoffed

"It's a commonly-known fact that women mature faster than boys," she challenged, one brow arched up.

"I was living on my own at thirteen. You still have a room at your parents' place, according to rumor," Jay shot back.

"Yeah? And half the reason you started hanging around the Manor again was so Alfred could feed you. And thank God, someone is. At least I won't starve if I can't get pizza and takeout Chinese," Kala retorted, her chin up imperiously.

They both mock-glared at each other for a moment, until Jay broke out laughing. "What're we, six? You gonna stick your tongue out at me and go 'nyah-nyah-nyah' next?"

Kala stopped and blinked at him for a moment, realizing how easily he'd trapped her. She had the grace to look embarrassed, at least, even as she laughed at him. "Well, you started it."

"Real mature, K," Jay snickered, and kissed her neck.

"Oh, I think we both know how mature I can be," she said tauntingly, squirming away from the tickle of his stubble.

"Last night was rated mature, anyway," Jay said. "Almost makes it worth being mauled by bears."

That earned him the third roll of eyes he was expecting. A moment later she was shaking her head at him. "You know what? If I didn't know better, I'd think you were chicken instead of Robin. Maybe I'll take Dick out here at some point. Doubt he's afraid of bears, being a former circus boy and all." The smile she gave him made it playful instead of cruel, knowing that he'd exact equally-playful revenge for the slight. She turned toward the counter, not quite leaving his side yet. "Anyway, we'd better get you caffeinated, huh? The last thing I need is an unfocused engine of destruction in my kitchen."

"Dickie-Bird's not afraid of bears, but he doesn't like the woods, either. No audience," Jay pointed out. His hand just sort of naturally ended up following the curve of her waist down to her rear, and he couldn't resist giving her a fond squeeze. "Besides, there's already an engine of destruction in your kitchen. Just with caffeine, I can control my powers of total devastation. Without it, there's no stopping me from doing this." He lunged in and mock-nipped at her jaw, growling theatrically.

She had chuckled and leaned in when he had pulled her close, but feigned back when he pounced. "Knock it off, Big Bad Wolf," Kala laughed, swatting at him. "Who knows? I might even get you breakfast before we head back. We could go into town and gack some pretty awesome pastries from the best bakery for miles. I promise that it's civilization, Jay. They have the best wildberry danishes."

"In that case, you've got a date. Danish is pretty civilized," he admitted, letting Kala get to the coffee. Not that he expected her to make his coffee because she was the girl, or any such bullshit. Either of them would smack someone in the face for that kind of thinking, and he'd set up her coffee plenty of times when she was at his place. This was her place, though, and she knew where all the cups and spoons and stuff were, so Jay just hung back and let her do her thing.

"Hey, K," he began, and realized how lame that sounded. Jesus, it even rhymed. They were both complete mushballs this morning, acting all goofy and playful like they weren't the two most lethal things for a hundred miles. Must've been the mountain air, or something.

Kala turned to glance at him over her shoulder while stirring creamer into her mug, and he rubbed a hand through his hair again, trying to find the right words. "Thanks for bringing me out here. Little change of pace—it's a good thing sometimes. Couldn't get too used to it." He added the last hastily, and only then glanced up at her.

Those hazel eyes of hers really were windows to the soul, and Jay could see right into Kala just then. "Thank you for agreeing to come," she said softly. "You didn't have to. Could've said no."

"I don't say no to much, when you're the one asking," Jay replied.

Smiling, Kala kissed him … but evidently the sweetness got to her, too, because she pulled back awkwardly, saying, "Let me get your coffee."

"Sure," he replied, wondering when it suddenly got so real between them. Shit, they weren't just acting cute, they were acting damn near fuckin' married.

And that was disturbing enough to make him focus on the coffee, too.

…

Kala felt an unwelcome flush creeping up her neck as she passed Jay his coffee and sipped her own. For a moment there, she'd almost forgotten everything but the two of them. This was entirely too homey, almost more like her and Sebast on a typical morning than any relationship she'd been in.

Her intention had just been to take Jay someplace safe, and she'd picked the cabin over the beach house because she wanted something Christmassy – and lights on a palm tree weren't cutting it, for her. The cabin was glorious, though she wished she'd had a chance to bring Jay up here in the fall, when the leaves were turning and the mountains were a glorious riot of red, gold, and orange.

It looked lovely in winter, too, the deep evergreens and the weathered logs and the white blanketing snow. There were a few logistics problems with getting to town, though, and addressing them was a good way of avoiding the slight sudden awkwardness between them.

"Do you mind if I drive, on the way to town?" Kala asked.

Jay looked a little startled. "Drive? I figured you'd fly."

"My family's known here. If I show up randomly in town, it's better if they see the car," she replied with a shrug.

He looked outside, thoughtful. "It's your place, K, and your family's car. You probably know more about driving in mountain snow than I do, anyway."

That actually surprised her, from all she had heard of his training. Wait, that couldn't be right. "What? There's something missing from your skill set? Be still my heart," she teased gently.

"I never said I couldn't do it, I just said you probably know more than I do," Jay pointed out. "I'm used to streets that are plowed and salted."

"They do that here, too, but the driveway isn't. Which I need to go melt the snow off before we can drive down. Let me start up the SUV and let it warm up, it's been sitting about a month at this point." Kala downed the last of her coffee, her stomach pointedly reminding her of its emptiness.

"Wait, your stepmother keeps an SUV up here just to use when someone's in town? Why not rent?" Jay asked, finishing his.

"Because it lets us fly in when we want to. People assume we pay for a ride out here and take our own car, and they kind of laugh at Lana having more money than she needs, but no one will wonder how we got here, or how Mom and Dad get here. We're also talking about the woman who hates waiting for her baggage in the airport, so she ships her luggage FedEx wherever she goes. Including internationally," Kala explained.

"Damn, international shipping isn't cheap," Jay said as they put their mugs in the sink, and then they headed back to the bedroom to get dressed.

"Lana's not Bruce, but she's not broke, either. She's willing to pay extra so she doesn't have to worry about things. And I feel sorry for whatever airline lost her luggage, years back, that made her make the switch." Kala chuckled, pulling clothes out of her overnight bag, things that looked warmer than they were. It saved questions about why she was comfortable in just a sweater when everyone else was wearing coats.

She made it out to the garage before Jay, walking around the silver Chevy Tahoe hybrid that Lana had bought a few years ago. At the time, she'd thought it was odd of Lana to buy a used vehicle, but it had only been three years old with very low mileage. And Lana preferred the way it drove to the other, newer hybrid SUVs on the market. Kala checked the tires and all the fluids, looked underneath it to make sure there weren't any leaks, and listened for any unwelcome passengers. No chipmunks in the wheel wells, thankfully, so Kala hopped in and started it. Not having been run for a month, the engine sputtered a little, but finally caught. Kala let it run, leaving the driver's door open, and opened up the garage door to let the exhaust out.

While the car warmed up, she handled the driveway. Shoveling it was out of the question; the total length of the driveway was half a mile. There was a plow attachment for the front of the SUV, which in combination with snow tires and careful driving could've cleared the driveway. But Kala preferred to do it her father's way. The entire drive was shielded by trees on either side, so she simply hovered, using her heat vision to melt it.

Dad could do this a lot quicker, but Kala didn't have as much practice, so she went slowly, leaving the last few feet before the road covered in a few inches of snow. That would make it look more plowed than melted, if anyone glanced up. Safe within the treeline, Kala looked at the winding, little-traveled road and smiled, remembering how Jason tended to just blow the snow off to the sides. He always had to be different.

She soared back up to the garage, and found Jay looking over the SUV with an appraising eye. "Why am I not surprised it's a hybrid?" he joked.

"Look, we're an eco-conscious family," Kala said. "Back in Metropolis, gotta admit, I've got a Tesla."

Jay snorted at that, and Kala didn't mention that technically she co-owned the Tesla. She and Sebast had bought it together, and they split the garage fees too. She just hopped into the Tahoe, and Jay got in as well, frowning. "Are you going to lock up and set the alarm?" he asked.

It was Kala's turn to scoff as she backed out of the garage, hitting the automatic door button hung on the visor. "In summer or fall, yeah, and if we're gone more than a day we lock up. But this time of year, no one comes up here. Teenagers breaking into cabins for fun won't mess with one that's recently occupied. Lots of people out here don't lock their houses when they go out."

"Huh. Wonder what the crime rate is," Jay mused.

"Low, but unfortunately climbing. There's a big drug problem in the area – mostly prescription painkillers and meth, but it's still not like the city. They'll steal your lawn equipment, maybe, but they generally don't do armed robbery." Kala sighed, hating those statistics, but it was a feature of life everywhere these days. Smaller rural communities all over the country ended up dealing with depression and frustration as opportunities went to the bigger cities, which coupled with easy access lead too many people into addiction. It was sad, and she didn't have a ready solution for it.

"You guys do anything about that?" Jay asked, echoing her thoughts. "I doubt it's like Gotham's drug-running scene. I wouldn't know where to start."

"Neither do we, really," Kala admitted, swinging the SUV around and starting down the driveway. "You call Supers when you've got a volcano erupting, or a jet falling out of the sky, or a bomb in a crowded building. We don't get a lot of practice in systemic issues like this. Not to mention, we're trying to keep the Super-presence on the down-low here. For right now, we're putting money into the local economy and education. We pay our taxes, we buy local even when it costs more, and we donate cash and equipment to the school system. Same thing we do with Smallville, really. The problem is, any idiot can swing out here and 'develop' a town, but then you end up with either a cookie-cutter small city with all the stuff you love about the place bled dry and repackaged for tourists, or you go bust in ten or twenty years and leave people worse off than they were before. There are no easy answers."

"Throwing money at education and economy can't hurt, and might help," Jay said philosophically. "At the very least you're not fucking it up worse."

"Yeah, that's the plan. First do no harm. Although you should've seen the amount of hell my good God-fearing stepmother raised when the Smallville school board put out a notice about students with lunch debt. She's the opposite of Mom – Lana doesn't swear, and she doesn't raise her voice much – but she shamed the entire city council and the Smallville Chamber of Commerce. There is no lunch debt in our county anymore." Kala chuckled; she'd been young when that one happened, but since it was published in the local paper when she and Jase were in Smallville over spring break, she got treated to Lana's first indignant reaction and then the twenty-minute diatribe delivered at the city council meeting. The fact that Lana herself had not only paid off the existing lunch debt, but had established a fund from her own money that could feed all the students breakfast and lunch for two months, had really stung the rest of the business owners into contributing.

Having Lois' help to fine-tune her speech with some tips on rhetoric hadn't hurt, either, but it was Lana's staunch delivery of the hook – 'Our children should not go hungry' – that sold it. She'd closed her remarks by saying for the first time in her life she was ashamed to say she was from Smallville, and from the resident success story and multimillionaire fashion designer, that had really hit home, too.

Jay looked sidelong at Kala as they left the driveway for the main road, a two-lane affair. "Shit, your whole family are some kind of heroes, aren't they? Just 'cause not all of them can go pick up a sinking cruise ship doesn't mean they don't try to make the world a better place."

"It's not that," Kala demurred. "None of us really think of it that way, Jay. We're just all very opinionated. And yeah, we all want to help people. My stepfather served in the Air Force and got his journalism degree through the GI Bill. My aunt volunteers at the library with adult literacy programs. It's just what we do. I mean, if you've got enough for yourself, you give the next person a hand up. That's how it's supposed to work."

He snorted at that. "Yeah, see? You guys are perfect. Got any assholes in the family tree, or do you chase them out?"

Kala laughed out loud. "Oh, rest assured, there's still plenty of assholes. Me, for one. Mom, much as I love her, there's a reason she's got like six friends and she'd move heaven and earth for them, because most other people can't stand her. Daddy Richard's a great big troll. And God help you if me, Mom, or Aunt Lucy gets pissed off, because we're all hot-tempered and stubborn as hell. We've just got enough people near sainthood to balance us out."

"You realize you're the asshole in your family, and the near-saint in mine?" Jay laughed. "Also, what's up with the whole 'Daddy Richard' thing? I know he's your stepdad…"

"That's 'cause your family puts the diss in dysfunctional," Kala shot back. "And he's my Daddy Richard because he was the only father I knew from age three to age six. If my biological father hadn't come back from space, Mom would've eventually married Richard. In ten years or so. The situation's complicated because when I was six, I got kidnapped by Luthor, and the four people who saved us were all committed to keeping us safe from then on. Mom and Richard broke up, Mom married Dad, Lana married Richard, and I ended up with step-parents who are married to each other. But Richard was always my dad, too, so we ended up with Daddy Clark and Daddy Richard. Slowly, Dad became Daddy and Daddy Richard stayed Daddy Richard. I called him Dad when Dad's not around for convenience, but I never really changed the default and every other variation sounds stupid. So he stays 'Daddy Richard'. I'm never going to just call him by his first name because he's not just some guy my mom dated. Richard White is just as much my father as Clark Kent. Different DNA doesn't change that. He taught me how to ride a bike and bandaged my skinned knees. Not to mention, he memorized our food allergies and learned how to use an Epi-Pen."

"You had food allergies?" Jay asked.

That he didn't know that surprised her. Had she not told him about any of that? Huh. She laughed, amazed she hadn't. "Oh, Jay. I think I told you we were sickly. We were pitiful. Jase and I were always in the low end of the percentages for weight. Turns out hybridizing with aliens gives you some weird effects, at least until you can get their sunlight-metabolism turned on. We were allergic to gluten, nuts, certain fruits, and shellfish. Trick or treating was hell; we couldn't have hardly any candy or sweets because they're processed in the same facility as nuts. One time on the way home from school, I ate a Reese's I borrowed from another kid and started going into anaphylaxis. Mom had to stop the car and hold hysterical Jason while Daddy Richard gave me the shot and made sure I was breathing. Then it was straight to the hospital to get loaded up with steroids."

"Jesus Christ," Jay said, eyeing her.

"We lived on macrobiotic shakes and the handful of foods we could actually have. Trust me, rice and snow peas gets old really quick with toddlers," Kala told him. "Plus about twelve drugs and supplements every day. We both had asthma and gastric reflux and weird vitamin issues. Hell, we were both still nursing occasionally up to about eighteen months, whether the three of us liked it or not; Mom's thought was that at least that way we got some nutrition that wouldn't make us sicker."

"That's terrifying. Your mom really is a badass – but you know that. And now you can eat anything, looks like," Jay mused.

"Dad's theory is that our immune systems were out of whack. When we got kryptonite poisoned, he had to take us up into the sunlight, higher than we'd ever gone even in Daddy Richard's plane. Somehow that flipped a switch and kick-started these cell organelles we have that process sunlight and give us our powers. So we got a functioning immune system that stopped trying to attack the 'alien' cells, and invulnerability enough that allergies just weren't a thing. The problem was, then we started picking up powers at a faster rate." Kala shrugged. Sometimes it was hard, even for her, to remember being so sick and weak when her life was so much smoother now.

"I never really thought about that. How much harder it must've been for hybrids to survive, let alone grow up to be heroes." Jay sounded thoughtful.

"We got here in the end. I just hope it's easier for Elise's kids. If they're sickly like we were, we can try the sunlight cure, but we're all hoping that with them being three-quarters human, they won't have as many sensitivities and reactions as we did." Even now, with Elise due in a matter of weeks, Kala shivered a little at the thought.

A comfortable quiet descended on them both as Kala drove. The big SUV had four-wheel drive and good tires for gripping the road; she kept it under the limit, driving carefully around the dips and bends in the road. Jay watched the scenery flow past his window, and every time she glanced at him he seemed rapt. Mostly they saw bare trees or stately evergreens cloaked in snow, but every so often there would be a break in the trees revealing a snowy meadow with a house or a barn perched near the top of the hill.

The county road they were on eventually crossed a larger thoroughfare, and Kala turned onto the four-lane highway easily. Jay stirred a little, looking at the granite mountainside bedecked with ice on one side of them. "How far exactly are we from town?" he asked.

"About three miles from Hot Springs, where the cafe is," Kala told him. "I figured we'd stop in, get a drink and some danish to go, then drive on to Marshall. That's another twenty minutes on, and the county seat."

"What's in Marshall?" Jay asked.

"The grocery store, and a couple restaurants," Kala said. "We could do brunch. Danishes will take the edge off, but I'll still be hungry. There's a little waterfall not far off the highway, we could stop and take a walk, enjoy the scenery."

She wasn't really expecting Jay to jump at the notion of hiking, city boy that he was, but he just shrugged. "Might as well. I've never been out here before, K. You gotta tell me what people do up in the mountains in winter."

"Ski. Hike. Go horseback riding. It's kind of the slow season for tourism, except for skiers. There's not a lot of hikers or riders, either, but most of the major attractions close down during winter." Kala found herself intrigued by the thought of getting Jay to go skiing. It wasn't a sport she had much experience with, just an amateur herself, but she loved the speed and the beauty of the snowy mountainside flying past.

He nodded, smiling. "Skiing looks like fun, but then I wonder how it feels to hit a tree at those speeds. And I gotta tell ya, I'm not much of a horseback riding kinda guy. Iron ponies only. Figures you like animals, you'd be into horses."

"I learned to ride on mules, but yeah, I know enough to go trail-riding safely," Kala told him. They were pulling up on the intersection at Hot Springs, which featured a gas station on one corner, beside the cafe. Another two miles up the cross-road was the resort with the thermal springs that had given the town its name. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, these mountains had been the resort destination for wealthy people up and down the East Coast. That had faded with increasing air travel and huge amusement parks opening up, but Kala still enjoyed the mountains. She didn't need dinner theater, roller coasters, or three t-shirts for ten bucks. She loved the green stillness of high summer and the autumnal blaze of the leaves and the profusion of spring wildflowers. And, of course, the austere snowy beauty of winter.

Kala pulled into the cafe, and Jay looked across the intersection at the Rite-Aid there. "Hey, let's swing through the drugstore after," he said with a little twinkle in his eye. "I need to replenish my condom stash."

She barely contained her laughter. "Let's not. We can get them in Marshall."

"Why not?" Jay asked, confused by her snickering.

"You'll see," Kala told him, and got out, heading into the cafe.

He followed her, confused but willing, and gave a start when the bells on the door jangled. The young woman behind the counter looked up and broke into a broad grin. "Look who's back in town!" she called. "How's the rock star life treatin' you?"

"Exhausting as ever," Kala replied, strolling up to the counter. "I had to break away for a breather. How's college, Nat?"

"Still passing, so I call it a win," was the cheerful answer. "What can I get for y'all?"

Kala smiled at the hint of southern drawl. "Two coffees, please, and four danishes. Huckleberry and apple, for me. Jay, what do you want?"

He looked nonplussed. "Same, I guess."

Natalie looked him over with quick interest, but if Kala wasn't volunteering to explain the strange man at her side, propriety wouldn't let her ask. As she bagged up the pastries, she did ask, "How long are y'all stayin'? I can make up a breakfast pack."

Kala didn't have to fake her sad smile. "It's just an in-and-out trip, so we're gone tonight. I wanted to show off the family place. And see if the new boyfriend could handle himself in the woods."

Jay, predictably, responded to that, saying, "New?" in questioning tones.

"Since the last time I've been up, last spring," Kala explained. "Nat, this is Jay. I found him wandering around Gotham City and made the mistake of feeding him. Jay, this is Natalie. Her uncle owns the cafe."

"Pleased to meet you, hope we see you around more often," Natalie said with a broad grin.

"Nice to meet you, too," Jay said, still looking sidelong at Kala. She managed not to smirk at him as they took the pastries and two piping-hot coffees back to the car.

Once they were inside, with the doors shut, Kala finally told him, "That's why we're not buying condoms at the Rite-Aid. I guarantee you at least two people saw the car, and knew someone from the Lane-Kents or Whites or Troupes was in town. If I walk into Rite-Aid with a man they've never seen before and pick up a box of Trojans, they'll talk about it for six months. Which I really don't care about, but I don't need anyone fishing for gossip from Dad or Lana the next time they're here."

"People really get up in your business like that?" Jay asked, wide-eyed.

She laughed a little at that. "It's a small town, Jay. There's less than six hundred people living here. Everyone knows each other for a reason. Smallville's bigger, but it's the same way. They're not really up in my business, it's friendly interest."

"Okay, I heard about small towns, but I didn't really know. I would go batshit in a week," Jay said. "Friendly interest looks a lot like gossipy bullshit."

"This isn't Gotham, where you just grunt at your neighbor at the mailbox. People know each other and care about each other. Their kids go to school together. They see each other everywhere. I'm just the occasional visitor who sometimes brings a bit of interest with her. If they talk – and Nat's not a big gossip, but this is news – it gives them something to talk about besides the weather." Kala got them headed back down the highway toward Marshall. The county seat was a little bigger than Smallville, nothing Jay would recognize as a city, but it had the advantage of anonymity.

"I've never lived anywhere people were like that," Jay mused. "I do my thing, they do theirs, and we only deal with each other if we have to."

"These people have to deal with each other," Kala pointed out. "We're an hour from the nearest trauma center, and the sheriff's department is a lot smaller than any police department you've dealt with. If someone goes out on the snowmobile and gets lost, their neighbors will call search and rescue when they don't come home. If an elderly woman falls in her house and doesn't come sit on the porch for an hour like usual, the neighbors will come check on her. People look out for each other. It's just how small towns are."

Jay's eyes sparked with insight. "Maybe it's the small town look-out-for-your-neighbor mentality that creates people like your dad. Only for him, the whole world are all his neighbors."

"Probably. I do know one thing, I'd be real worried if Dad had landed anywhere else," Kala admitted.

"Shit, me too. I don't even wanna think about your dad with a typical Gothamite's attitude," Jay laughed.

Just the thought made her cringe. No, just no. "God, that'd be a nightmare," Kala replied.

That comfortable quiet landed on them again, and Kala kept sneaking glances at Jay out of the corner of her eye. He was alert and watching their surroundings, but not the way he did in Gotham, or even Hong Kong. She was accustomed to Jay making a quick, practiced scan of every room, even in the Manor, and when they drove he was always checking his mirrors and the traffic alongside them. It wasn't anxiety, just a level of awareness and readiness that she'd grown used to with him, something Jay only turned off late at night and alone with her.

Strange, that she was the one who was half-alien, who had the biggest secret to keep, and she didn't feel anywhere near as hunted as Jay did.

The oddest thing about today was that Jay seemed to have finally turned off his automatic threat-assessment. He was along for the ride, not bored, but not trying to look out for upcoming trouble. Kala realized that he was trusting her not only to make all their plans today, but to watch out for him as well. That quiet unspoken trust rattled her to the core. Jay didn't even trust Bruce. If he was trusting her, it both made her nervous, and had her primed to annihilate anything or anyone who looked crosswise at him.