Authors' Note: We're glad that you're invested in this story and our heroes. Be forewarned, though, there's a bit of a tone shift coming next chapter. If you've read us before, you know we don't do this much fluff unless we have something hidden up our sleeves.
It will all work out right in the end. If it's not all right, it's not the end. Of the series, anyway.
There should be a couple of rather hilarious moments in this chapter, anyway, so we'll all have some sweetness to savor when real life intrudes.
Jay watched the fields and hills flow by the window. Kala was a pretty good driver; weird, considering how she flew. If he had that power, he might just fly everywhere and forget how to drive. Being in a car with her driving was new.
Honestly, it was all new to him. The way Kala's family were about things was just so … relaxed. 'Yeah, sure, bring your new boyfriend who was recently a villain out to the cabin. Borrow the car while you're at it.' Actually, he wasn't even sure if Kala had even told anybody about it, but she sure didn't seem worried about them finding out. This was just an accepted thing, that a twenty-something with powers could be responsible. On the other hand, Bruce would've grilled him fifteen ways from Sunday on what exactly he was planning. Even Babs and Dick were a little too interested in what Jay was doing. And then there was the way Lois Lane reacted to him; Superman himself was surprisingly calm about his daughter dating Red Hood, but Lois actually teased him about it.
It was a kind of family life that he could actually kinda like, the more he was around it. Well, except her brother who probably still wanted to smear him into the ground, but other than him they all sounded okay with the situation. Not what Jay had expected from Supers.
Then again, what he expected was the Fortress, stark cold beauty. Not handmade quilts and small-town friendliness. Maybe that was the key to the Supers' legacy after all. Not the powers, the heart. Kinda scary for someone like him to contemplate.
Just then, Jay's phone rang, and he rolled his eyes to see the name on the screen. Glancing at Kala, he said, "It's Dickie-Bird. I'm gonna troll him."
"You say this like you don't troll everyone who calls you," she snarked back with a laugh.
Jay didn't dignify that with a rebuttal, even if it was true. Grinning, he answered the phone in a low, smooth voice. "Velvet Touch Massage Parlor, we never rub you the wrong way."
A pause, and then Dick's thoroughly confused voice said, "Jay?"
The shocked tone was loud enough for Kala to hear, making her snort and shake her head at him. Glancing his way, she mouthed 'such a Robin'. That got Jay laughing harder than Dick's confusion alone warranted. "Who the hell else?"
"You are a sick, twisted man," Dick told him, but he was laughing, too. "I just called to check in, see how you're doing, make sure everything's okay."
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just needed some space," Jay replied. There was still a deep, simmering anger in him, aimed at Joker, but he was learning he could put a lid on that and let it bubble away, not interfering with his present situation. It was as if he'd boxed up Gotham and all its problems, and shoved the whole mess on a shelf somewhere to focus on K and this little adventure.
Dick sounded pleased with that answer. "Good, good. So what are you guys up to?"
Jay snorted in amusement. "Oh, we're somewhere up in the mountains in North Carolina, middle of Nowhere, driving to a bigger town so no one will recognize Kala buying condoms with some guy they've never seen before. How's your day going?"
"Dammit, Robin, hush! He doesn't need to know that!" Kala scolded. She'd been giving him the side-eye ever since he answered the phone, not quite trusting when he was up for cat-and-mouse, and now she took one hand off the wheel to lightly thwap his shoulder.
"I did not need to know that, but shame on you for not coming prepared," Dick laughed again, clearly amused as well as horrified. "And both of you guys gonna make it back in time for the gala, right?"
"Look, I have condoms stashed in all my safehouses and my vehicles, but I only had one in my wallet," Jay replied. He heard Kala chuckle, and continued, "I've got the fastest pilot on the East Coast, Dickie-Bird. We know the stakes. Black tie or not, asshole Clown or not, we'll make it to the Mistletoe Masquerade."
"The what?" Kala yelped, laughing. Ah, so she hadn't heard it yet. Big Brother was in for it now.
"Oh, come on, no one even calls it that," Dick laughed.
"Bullshit. Everyone calls it that," Jay shot back.
His girl didn't quite get the joke yet. "So, this gala we're going to has two names? Sounds complicated," Kala offered, raising an eyebrow even as she kept her eyes on the road.
"The Wayne Enterprises Holiday Masquerade Ball is a nice, generic, non-offensive, very PC name," Jay said, for both of them. "But it's a mouthful. So, many years ago, Mr. Wayne's quippy young ward started calling it the Mistletoe Masquerade. That stuck. It's never on any of the official signage, and you couldn't get Bruce to say it to save his life, and Dick won't call it that because he's embarrassed. Everyone else calls it the Mistletoe Masquerade."
"I'm not embarrassed. It's just not the right name," Dick said, trying not to snicker.
"I heard from Babs that you were trying to call it the Jingle Ball. Now that's embarrassing." Jay couldn't help grinning as he gave Dick grief for it.
"I was like twelve, gimme a break," Dick tried to defend, but it was too easy to hear him fighting off his own amusement. "Look, Jay, I just wanted to make sure you were coming. I know you'd rather be roaming the woods with Kala…"
"More like soaking in the hot tub, naked, and watching the snow fall and listening to the fucking coyotes," Jay cut in as Kala blindly swatted at him. "What do you have on offer again?"
Dick continued patiently, "It's an important event. Personally I'd rather be naked in a hot tub with a gorgeous woman, but you can't do that twenty-four seven. If nothing else, you'd prune to death."
"Then we go upstairs and snuggle under the quilt," Jay chuckled. Kala was still darting disbelieving glances at him, and he enjoyed being able to mess with both of them. The gala was a pain in the ass, really. Too many rich people crammed together, showing off how utterly shallow and fake they all were. He'd rather be in the Bowery. Shit, there actually were some decent people in the Bowery, if you knew where to look. The only reason he was going to the damn party was the opportunity to dance with Kala … and the off-chance of seeing Joker, getting a chance to throw that asshole back in Arkham.
Or a morgue.
"Jay, you said you'd go," Dick scolded.
"I changed my mind. I'm calling in sick."
He had to cover the mouthpiece to hide his laugh, and Kala just shook her head at him, smiling even as she shot him a scolding look. "You did, and we are. Stop harassing your poor brother, Red."
At last Dick got into the spirit of things, and said in a deadpan tone, "Nope, no good. You used up all your sick days. Bring your sorry butt in."
"Fine, I'll just call in dead. Worked once before," Jay shot back. Kala hissed his name and poked him in the side for that.
"What? Look, I'm allowed to make zombie jokes," Jay complained.
Dick sighed theatrically. "Kala, I know you can hear me. Just have him here in time, okay? Don't let him distract you."
"How early do you need us there?" Kala asked, pitching her voice to carry to the receiver without being overtly loud. Running with a professionally-trained singer had unexpected benefits.
"It's not until seven, so be here by five-thirty or six so we can set up," Dick said, with a certain smug satisfaction in his voice.
Kala grinned warmly at that, the smile warm and affectionate. "No worries, Dick, I'll get us there with more than enough time. Won't take us twenty minutes to get home."
"Go on and gloat, Golden Boy," Jay said indulgently. Dick had never seen both of them dressed to the nines and at the top of their game. They razzed each other a bit more before signing off, and Jay sighed deeply. It had been a long time since he'd felt this content anywhere except in bed after a good night of patrol, with warm scotch in his belly and Kala snuggled up beside him.
They pulled up in what he finally recognized as an actual town – more than a handful of buildings and a crossroads. To his surprise, his training took a glance at the surroundings and dismissed all of it as harmless. Normally he would've at least noticed the average fitness of the people around him, whether anyone moved like a trained athlete or martial artist, if anyone seemed to be armed. Jay did that even in the diner back home. Here, he saw boots and jeans and rugged-looking coats on men and women alike, pickup trucks and sensible sedans in the parking lots, and an easy-going sort of manner from everyone. Nobody here was secretly working for the League of Shadows or any kind of super-villain. No one could possibly recognize him. None of them had any clue that Red Hood and the Blur were strolling among them. He was armed, Jay would no more walk outdoors without a gun and two knives than he would walk out naked, and Kala was always armed by virtue of what she was. But it didn't matter. Neither of them were going to need it, here. They could just be themselves for a while.
Kala stopped in at another Rite-Aid, busier than the one in Marshall, and picked up a few things: a pair of gloves with reindeer on them, some Christmas candy on clearance, one of those weird air freshener things that plugged into the wall. And then she stopped by the 'family planning' aisle. Jay couldn't quite stifle his snort of amusement. "Shut up, where do you get yours from?" she muttered at him, picking up a box of Trojans.
"I buy mine online," Jay told her.
"Of course you do," she sighed, rolling her eyes.
"Seriously though, 'family planning'?" he asked as they headed toward the registers.
"That's what I always see it listed under. They can roll it up with the pregnancy tests and ovulation tests and the fertility supplements and not have to actually put 'condoms' on the sign," Kala replied, glaring at him.
Well, that made some sense, and Jay got in line with her. The person at the register was having a lively conversation with the cashier, something Jay wasn't used to seeing in stores. No one else in line seemed to be bothered by it; the woman in front of them was scrolling through her phone, and the man in front of her carried his basket with a nonchalant air. Jay noticed the guy was about his own height, with similar black hair, but he held himself in a far more relaxed manner.
A little kid went running past them all, and Jay didn't even flinch at the high-pitched laughter. Kala glanced up, but rolled her eyes indulgently. "You sure you're up for a hike in this weather?" she murmured.
"With you? Sure. If I fall in the river you can fish me out," Jay replied, keeping his voice soft like hers. "Just feed me first. And then we can head back for another dip in that hot tub."
"It is addictive," Kala said, smiling a little. "I've fallen asleep in it before."
"Don't worry, I won't let you fall asleep," Jay said, grinning.
Even relaxed, he was still peripherally aware of his surroundings. So he heard the slightly-harassed sounding mom tell the little kid, "Go hold Daddy's hand, I'll be right there in a minute." Jay didn't pay any particular attention to it, until the clatter of little footsteps stopped beside him, and a small mittened hand grabbed his.
Jay did startle then. He didn't do what training demanded, though; Kala wouldn't appreciate him whirling around and pulling a knife on a kid. He looked down, eyes wide as saucers, and a little dark-haired girl looked up at him in obvious surprise.
She'd be really damn surprised if she had any clue she'd just walked up to the most – well, second-most – dangerous person in the whole freaking store.
Jay did the only thing he could think of, and said, "Hi."
Her eyes only got wider; the strange voice and accent probably didn't help. Luckily, Kala saved him, leaning around him. "Oops, sweetheart, I think you got the wrong guy. Is that your dad, two people ahead?"
The little girl swiveled her head, and Kala's voice still carried, so the guy two people ahead in line turned to look. "Laura, come here," he said, a little chuckle in his voice, and she released Jay's hand to happily skip to her father's side. Looking up, he nodded to them. "Sorry about that."
"She's adorable," Kala said, and the dad smiled at them both.
Finally letting out the breath he'd been holding – visions of a small child yelling 'You're not my daddy!' and having to fight their way out of the store dissipating at last – Jay turned to Kala and quirked a brow. "Thought we were gonna have a moment there."
"Nah, it's fine. You worry too much, Jaybird. Kids are rambunctious. Probably happens a thousand times a day, all over the world," Kala said easily, shrugging the whole thing off.
He scoffed a little. "Still damn near gave me a heart attack."
She chortled at him. "Speaking of heart attacks, Jay, when we were seven, Mom took us to one of the big department stores. Usually we were good about sticking close, and even when we wandered, Jase and I stayed together. This particular time, I saw a lady with a really cool Nightmare Before Christmas purse that I liked, so I walked away from Mom and Jase and strolled right up to her. Stood there staring at her purse until she noticed me, and when she looked down I just gave her a big toothy grin and told her I liked her purse. Her and her husband couldn't have been much more older than we are now; they were more confused than freaked out. The lady asked me where my mother was, and I just kinda shrugged – I could hear her, so I could find her. Meanwhile Mom was ready to call in the National Guard. This was only a year after the whole business with Luthor. But these people didn't look scary, so I just walked right up."
"God, you were bold as hell," Jay said, shaking his head. The line moved forward, and Kala smiled.
"It was a cute purse. And I scared them more than they scared me. Besides, I could've gotten away if I wanted; the speed was already kicking in. Most little kids are pretty trusting, if they're not shy. And I was never shy." Kala glanced at the girl, and her gaze softened.
Jay cocked his head. Kala got really protective of Julio's pack of kids, and she was tender with the little girl just now. A question popped into his head, and he was so chilled out he just asked it, without thinking about it at all. Hell, there was next to nothing he couldn't say to Kala, she knew all his secrets. So the instant it occurred to him, Jay asked lightly, "You want kids?"
Kala swiveled her head to him, her eyes wide, and damn near dropped the basket she was carrying. That was enough time for Jay's internal censors to come online and blare a huge warning; that was not something he wanted to ask! What the hell was wrong with him?! Holy crispy shitting fuck!
She blinked, probably seeing the panic in his face, and managed to laugh. Kala glanced meaningfully at the condoms in the basket, and told him with a self-conscious smile, "Obviously not today."
It took all of Jay's self-control not to burst out in wild laughter in the middle of the store. Not today, for fuck's sake! What the fuck, shit, now what? How the hell do you play that off? "I didn't mean now," he managed to say, knowing his cheeks were flushed. If he was lucky, people might think it was windburn. "I didn't even necessarily mean us. It was just a general question. You're good with kids, you obviously like 'em."
"So're you," Kala pointed out, which only deepened his blush.
"Nah, I don't know the first damn thing about dealing with kids. See, that near-panic just now," Jay replied. "Besides, I asked you first."
Kala shrugged thoughtfully. "I do, yeah. Eventually. The rock star life isn't exactly conducive to a stable child-rearing environment, so it's a ways down the road. And I always figured I'd adopt."
The line moved, and Jay stepped forward alongside Kala. "Makes sense. Because your dad was adopted?"
She got that hunted look in her eyes again, as if she was almost afraid to answer. "That, and honestly, everyone's pretty sure it's gonna be really difficult for me to get pregnant," Kala explained, though she looked like she couldn't believe she was talking about this. But she went on, lowering her voice, conscious of people around him. "With my family history, there's fertility issues. Jase and I are both pretty much miracles, and it took a lot of trying for him and Elise to get pregnant. It'll be even more difficult for me."
Now that Jay thought about it, that made sense. The whole hybrid thing must've made it all more challenging. And then he thought about invulnerability and super-strength, and looked at the condoms in the basket again. "Huh. Do we even need those?"
It was Kala's turn to blush, and she bit her lip. "Well … better safe than sorry, right? Especially now."
"What's special about now?" Jay asked, his brow furrowing.
Again with the shy look, steadfastly not looking at him. Now that was interesting. That little huffed laugh, her blush just intensifying. "Let's just say this week is a good week to be extra careful," Kala managed, and then another cashier opened up, so they had to move anyway. The whole transaction was fast, although friendlier and folksier than Jay felt comfortable with, and then they were on their way out to the parking lot. He'd figured it out by then. The ovulation tests in the 'family planning' aisle were kind of a big hint.
Most of the women he'd been with had been on some form of birth control, but Jay always used condoms, so he hadn't really learned the intricacies of various methods. He was responsible for his side of it, and let them make their own decisions. He hadn't thought about how things might different because Kala was half-alien.
And it was weird, the way that knowing she was probably ovulating right now made him want to take her back to the cabin immediately. Not that he had any intentions of getting her pregnant – Jay shuddered at the thought – but this had to be the time when she wanted sex the most, right? It just made biological sense. And he had the privilege of giving her what she wanted.
His girl hadn't said a word since they'd left the registers, still avoiding his gaze when they got in and got going. They were about a half-mile up the road before she broke the silence. "Finally got too weird for you?" Kala asked, in a carefully deadpan voice, and Jay realized he'd fallen silent.
"Nah, I just realized I never asked if you were on birth control. I was indoctrinated into the Church of Always Condoms, Every Time, so I never got around to asking that," Jay replied. He grinned at her. "You got me good with 'not today', I gotta admit."
That brought her around, those gorgeous eyes mischievous. "Yeah, well, I'm going to remember that. It was a helluva zinger," Kala told him, smiling proudly.
She shifted the Tahoe into a higher gear, and Jay leaned back in his seat. He decided to return to the conversational track they'd been on at first. "So, you're gonna adopt a kid or two eventually. Makes sense, especially if having them is harder for you. I wonder about the whole parenting-as-a-hero thing, though. What do you tell your kids? When do you tell 'em? What happens if they're in kindergarten and tell the teacher Mommy's a superhero?"
Kala shrugged. "Kids say wild stuff all the time. And maybe I'd adopt an older kid. By six, Jase and I understood we had to keep Dad's identity a secret."
"I can't imagine keeping a secret that big, that young," Jay mused.
"We dealt with it. I figured out real quick I had to hide my powers, too. And then we waited to tell my little sister, but it turns out she figured it out before we blew it. I've got time – I'm not planning on looking into adopting for at least ten years or so. Maybe fifteen." Kala spoke calmly of it, and he knew this was something she'd thought about seriously.
Jay did some mental math, and said, "In fifteen years you'll be almost forty, K. Guess you'll have to adopt an older kid, if you don't wanna be dealing with teenagers in your fifties."
Her expression changed, becoming more serious and a little sad. "I'm not real worried about it. According to Jor-El, we're going to age slowly. Dad got a little of the premature-gray gene, so he looks the age he's supposed to, but as long as he's under a yellow sun, he could live a very long time. And no one knows exactly how it'll work out for us. We're pretty sure we won't have to deal with a lot of debilitating symptoms though."
She glanced at him, and Jay felt a whisper of unease in his gut. "Yeah, well, Lazarus Pit reset here, too. No telling if that added a few years to my total, either. I'm not planning on going back for seconds when I get my first gray hair, either. Assuming I make it that long – we do a lot of risky shit, K."
"Yeah, but you have a lot of power watching your back," she reminded him with a stern look. "And I like this planet a lot better with you on it."
"Way to feed my ego," Jay chuckled.
They stopped at an intersection, and Kala turned to look him full in the face. "I mean that, Jay."
She might as well have said the words, right then. It meant the same thing. And he knew what he would say back to her, now, if she did voice it while they were both awake and had no excuses. Instead of taking the plunge, Jay sidestepped the serious moment, because they were getting a little too intense for what was supposed to be a day off, and just said, "I like the world with you in it, too."
Kala smiled at that, and took the turnoff. She pulled up in front of a cafe that looked a bit like the diner back home; not a chain, locally owned and operated, maybe a little worn around the edges. He smiled at the sight, and Kala chuckled. "I can't wait to find out what you think of cheese grits, biscuits and sawmill gravy, and country ham."
Jay raised an eyebrow. "Who eats ham for breakfast? And 'grits' doesn't even sound like food."
"Southerners. Don't diss grits, I love them," Kala said, with a spark of challenge in her eyes. Jay decided he might as well trust her with food decisions along with everything else.
…
Harley figured she was settling in pretty well, all things considered. Getting here a couple days ago had been interesting, but once they arrived, everything was quiet. Pam hadn't told her where they were going at any point on the trip, and Harley figured that was fair, so she hadn't pushed. At least Pam had unshackled her when they got to the airport in Gotham.
That trip was a longish cargo flight, no windows to even gauge where they were headed. Harley had huddled with the boys, shivering, until they landed in the afternoon someplace far west and high up in altitude. The air was thin and cold, even more bitterly cold than Gotham, and the view was astonishingly flat, with some distant mountains off to the west. Not Pam's kind of place, Harley had thought at the time, and her bewilderment must've been obvious.
"We're not staying here," Pam had said, with a little smile. "Just a few days, long enough to meet our financiers and conduct our business."
"I don't think Batsy would ever guess we'd come someplace like this," Harley had replied. She narrowed her eyes as she glanced around. "Is that a barb-wire fence? Are we out in the Wild West?"
Chuckling, Pam had told her, "This is Denver International Airport. I think Denver is rather more New Age meets hipster than cowboy country, these days, but it is the West, still. Come on, our ride is waiting."
"I gotta let the boys out," Harley said, and Pam nodded. All of their luggage had been carefully unloaded while they got out and stretched their legs, and was already being reloaded into a cargo van that was parked and waiting for them by the same no-nonsense, no-questions burly guys who'd been on the flight with them. A shiny SUV was parked in front of the van, and a couple of antsy-looking business types were standing next to it. Their contacts, Harley figured as she went over to the two big airline kennels that had just been offloaded.
Bud and Lou started whining immediately, and Harley soothed them as she spun the combination locks on their kennels. One of business guys looked over, and asked worriedly, "Do you need a leash for them?"
"Nah, they come when I call 'em," Harley replied, and then for effect she added, "Mostly."
The two men looked at each, and at Ivy standing calmly by, before the first one asked, "Is that … safe?"
Harley couldn't help laughing, and Pam didn't scold her, so she figured she'd play into it. People who were a little scared of you were less likely to try and screw you over. "Buddy, you're standing within fifty feet of Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn. You passed 'safe' a while back. Don't worry about the boys, I won't let 'em eat you. Unless you deserve it."
The hyenas showed little interest in the men, galloping around the flat snowy field. Still, one of the business guys said to Pam, "We're not looking for any trouble."
"Neither are we," Pam told him calmly. "The hyenas have been crated since last night. They need a chance to stretch, too. Just don't make any sudden moves, and they won't bother you."
"Understandable," the one guy said. "Did you have a good flight?"
"No cause for complaint," Pam said with a shrug, and Harley began to get the idea that these guys weren't used to working with metas – or masks. They both seemed awfully nervous. And who ever asked about a good flight?
"Good. We brought the up-front payment, as requested," the other guy said.
Pam nodded. "Thank you. Gentlemen, you don't need to worry. We really have no interest in making our presence here known. I'll need a day or two to settle in, before we can get the work done. But I do appreciate your courtesy." Harley felt her eyes damn near bugging out of her skull; Pam was never that conciliatory. She was fucking Poison Ivy, she demanded respect – and got it. Then again, these two might just piss themselves if Ivy and Harley didn't play along with the normal-business-people act.
Of course, just as everything was loaded and Harley was getting ready to call the boys back and kennel them up, Lou decided to approach the two business guys. The taller one stepped back a little, but the shorter guy held his ground, looking more fascinated than scared. "They're actually really cool-looking," he said, and started to hold out his hand.
Lou leaned forward to sniff … and delicately closed his teeth around the fingertips of the glove. One sharp pull, and he yanked it off, cantering away with his prize. "Hey!" the guy yelled.
"Sorry, that's his glove now," Harley said apologetically. If Pam could play nice, so could she. 'Don't scare the normies' wasn't her favorite game, but she could be good at it. "Real leather, right? They love leather. You don't wanna know how many shoes I lost when they were teething."
Bud loped up to Lou and snatched at the dangling glove; in seconds they'd torn it apart. The business guy looked chagrined, but not too pissed off – or scared. Pam just sighed. "Sorry about that, gentlemen."
"That's all on Neal," the taller guy said. "Trying to pet the hyena? Really?"
"Hey, he didn't bite me," Neal said.
The tall guy just shook his hand, and then stepped forward, as if that incident had broken the ice somehow. "Anyway, I'm Stephen, this is Neal. I hope you had a safe trip, Ms. Ivy, Ms. Quinn."
"Just Ivy," Pam said, with a slight lift of her eyebrow at the formality of his manners.
Harley scoffed. "If you really wanted to suck up, you shoulda led with Dr. Isley and Dr. Quinzel. I didn't spend eight years in medical school for Ms."
"My apologies, Doctor," Neal said quickly.
She laughed a little at that; these guys were so tense! "Nah, I'm just messin' with ya. Harley's fine. Keeps us all on first name basis, nice and cozy. Pleased to meet you guys."
Pam nodded, and Harley got the boys off the glove and into their kennels in the back of the van. She kept a sharp eye out; Pam hadn't told her what these 'financiers' wanted, and Harley didn't exactly trust them. Hell, if it had been anyone but Pam, she wouldn't have gone to an unknown destination and chatted up a couple of strangers, not without making sure they really understood who they were dealing with first. Preferably by breaking someone's nose.
Maybe a chewed-up glove made the same point. It could've just as easily been the guy's hand.
Honestly, for anyone but Pam, she never would've agree to fly this blind. The whole trip was one long trust fall, in a way. Every new twist was another chance to ask what was going on, to demand some answers, and each time Harley chose not to. Pam didn't play mind games. There were no roundabout 'I didn't tell you because I expected you to ask, and you disappointed me by not asking' sort of tricks in their relationship. She might answer, if Harley asked, the way she'd answered where they currently were. For the moment Harley was content to trust her, and not asking questions proved that she trusted Pam to handle everything.
Pam walked around to the back of the SUV, and Stephen popped the trunk to hand over a briefcase. She opened it in front of him, looked at the bills inside, and nodded in satisfaction. "Very good. I'll make some arrangements, and see you both in two days."
"Thank you," Stephen said, and Neal actually waved to Harley before they drove off.
Pam added the briefcase to their luggage. Harley finally let herself ask a question. "Do these guys have any idea what they're doing?"
"They're leaders in their field. But their field is completely legitimate, above-board, and legal," Pam chuckled. "So they've never dealt with anyone like us before."
Harley snickered. "Really jumping in at the deep end, huh? I almost feel sorry for them."
"They shouldn't give us any trouble, at least," Pam replied. "Come on, let's find this house I'm renting."
"Ooh, nice," Harley said, hopping in the passenger side. "Seems a little weird to rent a whole house for a couple days."
"It's a weekly rental, and I wanted room for the boys. We're well off the main roads, too." Pam looked up directions in the new phone she'd bought on the way out, and started driving out of the airport lot.
"Y'know, I wouldn't mind living in the sticks, maybe," Harley opined as she looked out the windows. "I read this article about how the Midwest is being invaded by lesbian organic farmers. That could be us. I could drive a Subaru."
To her surprise, Pam laughed out loud – not something she did very often. "Harley! You would go stir-crazy in a week, love. And I'm not planning on staying here. I've got one more stop to make after this, and then if no one is trying to follow us, we can make long-term plans. I wouldn't do that without your input."
"Pam, I'm fine with you runnin' the show," Harley said earnestly. "I mean, the last few years, you've known what was best for me better than I did."
That turned things serious again, as Pam looked over at her. "Harley, you can't blame yourself for that. And it's not as if I didn't have an ulterior motive. I thought I was best for you."
"Well, you are," Harley said with a little shrug. It seemed perfectly self-evident to her.
Pam just smiled, and fell quiet as they drove. Harley leaned against the window, looking forward to whatever the next adventure might be.
…
After breakfast, Kala took Jay out for the promised hike to work off the calories. Biscuits and sawmill gravy were delicious, and the salty country ham was almost as good as bacon, but he couldn't get with grits. Then again, he hadn't liked polenta in Italy, either. It was a texture thing. Kala didn't mind, that left more for her.
The road Kala took looked like any other twisty two-lane in the area. They parked in a spot scooped out of the grassy shoulder, just a car-length of gravel. Jay raised an eyebrow; a partly-frozen stream ran alongside the road, and he could see a spot to cross over just ahead. "Is this a real hiking trail?" he asked.
"Yeah, but not one of the popular ones," Kala said. "It connects with an old railroad track that goes up to the Mountains-to-the-Sea Trail, and that crosses the Appalachian Trail. This one's mostly known to locals, and hiking addicts who want to explore everything they can. It does bring you to a nice waterfall, though."
Jay opened his door and looked out. They'd been winding through mountains and foothills all day, and from what he could see the land rose up on the right. Evergreens and bare trees mingled together, and the air was cold and crisp. The ground was patchily covered in snow; wherever the sun shone through the trees, it had melted, but every shadow had a shallow coating of the white stuff. All he could hear were distant cars and the trickling stream. There was nothing like this anywhere near Gotham.
He stifled the urge to ask her if she knew exactly where they were going. Worst case scenario, she could soar up and find the car. He wasn't exactly going hiking with a typical suburbanite. Jay stomped on his worries, checked to make sure his boots were laced up tight, and followed Kala as she walked toward the crossover.
She turned and glanced back at him appraisingly. "You've got good tread in those boots, right?"
"Shit, are we rock-climbing?" Jay asked.
"No, but it might be a little slippery," Kala replied. She tilted her head, and really looked at him, and he guessed she could see his unease no matter how he tried to hide it. "Jay, we don't have to go hiking if you don't want to. I'm fine with heading back to the cabin and making hot chocolate."
He sighed and closed the distance between them, knowing he had to word this just right. He didn't want to hurt her feelings, and Kala read him too damn well. "It's not that, K. I wanna go because you wanna go, and this is all about hanging out in your world, right? Well, your world includes hiking."
"You still could've told me you don't like it," she said, taking his hand. "Really, Jay, it's fine."
Jay squeezed her fingers, and admitted, "It's not that I don't like hiking. It's just that I haven't done a lot of it. And I'm a little cautious about roaming the woods where I don't know exactly where I am, and I do know there are bears and coyotes around."
"Bears hibernate," Kala said affectionately. "Jay … I'm surprised you didn't do wilderness survival training, before. I wouldn't have thought anything in these mountains could rattle you."
He scoffed lightly. "I have done training. But I don't have any survival gear on me right now. If I was by myself, or with anyone else, I wouldn't go, because we could get lost and no one knows where we are. But I'm with you, and first of all you're the most dangerous thing in these woods. Second of all, you can fly out if we do get lost. So it's really safe, it just feels like it isn't."
Kala smiled softly at him. "I would never take you anywhere actually dangerous. That said, it seems weird that you're uneasy in the woods."
Jay took a deep breath of crisp mountain air, smelling of fir trees and snow. "Yeah, well … it's a good thing Bruce did insist on some survival training. You know what happened to me right after I clawed my way out of the Pit? Ra's was losing his shit wanting to kill me, so Talia shoved me off a cliff into the river and I had to walk out of the middle of nowhere with exactly one bag of gear. She got me some more training later on, but it's never been my favorite thing. I'm a city boy, I guess."
"You're my city boy," Kala told him. "And you shouldn't have needed to go through that. You shouldn't have had to deal with any of it."
He could only shrug. "Getting tossed in the Pit is the only reason I'm not a fucking vegetable, K. And getting pushed off a cliff is what it took to keep me alive when Daddy Demon wanted to rip my head off for it. I can't be too mad about either."
"You shouldn't have needed to go searching for your mother all by yourself, either. And she shouldn't have handed you over to Joker. None of that should've happened to you," Kala pointed out.
"No, it shouldn't have," Jay said, and felt something in his chest loosen a little at the admission. Kala beamed at him, too, like he'd finally gotten something she'd been trying to impress on him for a while.
"It won't happen again. Not if I have any say in the matter," Kala informed him.
Jay smiled at her easy reassurance. "Well, if I can trust you to have my back in Gotham going up against every crazy asshole in town, I guess it's not much of a stretch to trust you to lead me up a mountainside."
Laughing, Kala tugged gently at his hand. "Come on, city slicker. It's not quite a mountain, but the view is worth it."
Fifteen minutes later, after winding through the woods and scrambling up a couple of hills, Jay walked around a corner to see a frozen waterfall in all its icy glory. The dark granite bones of the hills were draped with a lacy fringe of icicles, and the tall evergreen trees still held snow. It was utterly quiet except for the trickle of the water beneath the ice, and their own breathing.
As it so happened, he'd held Kala's hand throughout the hike. There was no one around to see them and snicker, plus she was steadier than he was. His usual athleticism didn't kick in until about halfway here, when he'd finally gotten used to the rougher terrain. Even potholed roads and neglected rooftops weren't quite as uneven as tree roots and gravel. For the moment, the pair of them just stood there admiring the view, their breath frosting in the cold air.
Jay couldn't help being struck by how profoundly foreign this was to him. Even Hong Kong, a completely different culture and language and cuisine halfway around the world, had been easier for him to navigate, because he knew his way around cities all over the place. But this, this timeless peace and natural beauty, made him feel a little out of place. He was keenly aware of his knives and the gun stowed at the small of his back, and how his motorcycle boots really didn't give the kind of grip he needed out here.
Then again, Kala had done the hike in fucking heeled boots, because that's what she happened to have on when they left Gotham yesterday. No risk of a Super breaking an ankle on the trail, and if she slipped she could just hover anyway. Sometimes it wasn't fair.
Something clicked for Jay, and he was surprised enough that he said it out loud. "No wonder you like this place. With the snow and the icicles and the way the trees close in overhead, it's almost like the Fortress."
Kala tipped her head back, considering. "That's funny, I never thought of it before, but you're right. It does feel like that. Almost like a cathedral."
"Don't get religious on me," Jay joked lightly, and Kala laughed. That wonderful, silvery, open laugh of hers fit right in with the gentle sound of the stream and the diffuse light filtering through the trees. If anything, it made the moment even more perfect.
Kala leaned up on her toes and kissed him; her lips were warm and soft. "Tell you what, Red. Since you were nice enough to follow me out into the scary winter woods, how about we head back to the cabin and I'll warm you up?"
Jay smiled slowly. "Are we talking about hot chocolate, or good cardio?"
"We still have a few hours," Kala said, her eyes dancing. "Why not both? If I didn't actually scare you off with the science lesson earlier?" One dark brow rose questioningly, watching his reaction.
He wrapped his arm around her waist, pulling her close, and replied, "Both works for me." And then kissed her laughing smile.