Sylvia Wayne "Wildcat"
Miami
March 19th, 2016
"Okay, so you know I want to name it Thomas if it's a boy, so before we go in there, you can call dibs on the name if it's a girl," I told Wally, and he smiled. The two of us were at the doctors, waiting for our appointment with the obstetrician.
"Well, don't kill me for snooping, but… I saw the list on your phone and I found a name I liked and when I googled the meaning, I really liked it," he told me and I got a little confused.
"Which name did you pick?" I asked, rubbing my sizeable belly. I was five months along and we were about to find out the gender. Neither of us could wait, we just wanted to know.
"Well, in hopes that our little girl will be like her father, a cute redhead, I was thinking we name her, if she's a her, Lena. It means torch. And I think it's more fitting than the other names," he told me as he put his hand on my stomach. It was weird, it was like the baby knew its father was touching because the baby would just start wildly kicking for him, like a little soccer game.
"That's perfect… if it's a girl," I said as a nurse came out.
"Sylvia?" She said my name, the two of us stood up. "Come on back," the woman smiled.
The Cave
A few hours later
Wally and I had just came through the zeta tube, so excited to tell Nightwing our news. He, Superboy, and Mal were sitting at the holocomputer. I was ready to finally let them know who the winners were in the Team-wide bets on which gender the little one is. As soon as my brother saw, me, he tapped the other two, letting them know we were here. I thought the computer would have tipped them off, but they must've been too engrossed in their mission planning. Tonight was important. As we approached, I noticed Mal crossing his fingers.
"So?" Mal asked excitedly.
"What is it?" Superboy asked. My brother just smirked. I was starting to think that my face gave it away for him. He and Superboy lost the bet.
"Well, hopefully on July 20th, we will be expecting the arrival of one Lena West," I told them, and Mal did a rather loud WHOOP in excitement. He and a couple others won the bet. Nightwing moved to hug me, but stopped when he got a rather big jolt of static.
"Wow, were you scooting your feet on some carpet before you got here?" Dick asked and I laughed.
"I don't think so…" I half joked, looking at Wally. He just put his hands up in defeat.
"You know what happens when to metas get together. It's not my fault," He laughed before putting his arms around me. He wasn't shocked, not even a little bit. But then when Wally let go of me, Mal decided to poke me, and he was shocked too. Wally noticed this and poked me, not getting shocked. "Mal, what happens when you poke me?" Wally asked.
"I don't know," Mal said, then poked Wally. "Oh, just a little static shock," Mal said and I noticed that Wally was vibrating slightly. Like he was trying to get the energy building up within himself, like when he throws lightning. He can't do it as strongly as Barry, but he can do it. I just pinched the bridge of my nose.
"If I have a child, who will be running around our house at the speed of sound before they're out of diapers, I will kill you," I said as I looked at Wally with dead eyes. I was starting to realize that I was using the stoic and rather malevolent glare that I inherited from my father when Wally looked at me, all bug-eyed and wary. The moment when my phone buzzed in my pocket. Tori, had just gotten out of her college classes and was ready for me to come over.
"What is it?" Wally asked, as I put my phone away.
"I gotta go for my girl's night with Tori and Lenny. I'll see you tonight?" I told him and he smiled, giving me a hug as he kissed the top of my head.
"Yeah, I'll see you when you get home." Wally gave me a hug and I kissed him, having to get on my tiptoes and pull his face to mine a bit to get around the rather large stomach between us. Just as I got in the zeta tube to leave, I could hear the computer announce the arrival of Artemis. I'm supposed to hang out with her tomorrow.
When I emerged from the Zeta Tube, I found myself in the familiar alleyway. I just stashed my coat in the designated Zeta cache and straightened my long sleeve maternity shirt and pulled up my leggings a bit before shifting the weight of my purse on my shoulder and walked towards the street. I hailed a cab and climbed in, the driver taking me to Tori's house out in the suburbs. As I watched out the window, it was house after house until I finally arrived at the two girls' home. I was excited to ask Tori how college has been treating her lately. She's been attending one right here in Coast City so she can take care of Lenore while her father is at work. When I paid my fair and got out of the cab, I barely made it to the door before it burst open, Tori, excitedly running down her little front walk way in a blur of platinum hair. She finally bleached it.
"Hi! Oh my god, you have to tell me what gender it is!" She was so excited, jumping up and down. I could barely contain myself as her excitement rubbed off on me. I knew I couldn't jump, but I was just shaking, wanting to tell her so badly that we were having a little Lena.
"Let's go inside first," I laughed, grabbing her hand and leading her inside. Lenore was standing in the doorway, smiling and waiting for the same verdict as her older sister. The two of them led me to the kitchen and the three of us sad down for dinner. It was a bunch of chinese food and a variety of dessert foods since it was girls night and I was pregnant. We all went in for noodles, steamed vegetables, chicken, pork, beef, rice, different sauces, and I started hording the crab rangoons.
"So, now that we all have her food, please tell us!" Tori begged.
"Come on, please!" Lenore grabbed my arm from across the table. I smirked and decided to get clever with it. I looked to the dish of cupcakes and scanned them for the flavor I was looking for. With a rather large smile, I looked at them with big eyes as I grabbed a yellow cake cupcake with pink frosting. I took a bite as they started to figure it out.
"Oh my god it's a girl!" Tori was so excited as she squealed and jumped out of her chair. She ran around the table and gave me a hug, hugging my stomach, then giving me another hug. The night went on with us eating out dinner and taking all of the desserts into the living room for movie night. It started with 10 Things I Hate About You, then it went to Knocked Up, and once it got really late they turned on Pitch Perfect. The three of them lived for these movies, singing along, quoting the movies as it went, bringing up the same confusions and controversies that they brought up every time that they watched these films. Lenore had fallen asleep on the floor, her mouth wide open, causing Tori and I to chuckle quietly a bit to ourselves. When Tori fell asleep on me, I fell asleep, my head leaning on top of hers. The three of us were soon blissfully unaware of the movie playing before us. We had only made it halfway through. I woke up to my baby kicking very quickly, the way she only kicks when her father is around.
"Hey, I came to see you," he whispered. "It's time to go," his face was sullen. I nodded and wheedled out from my spot with Tori. Her eyes blinked open.
"Going home?" She asked and I nodded but Wally shook his head.
"We're going to the cave. I came to get you too," Wally told the two of us. We looked at each other and shrugged, probably mutually assuming that Tori was needed for a mission and Wally was just getting her since he was on the way to get me, but that made no real sense. If it was a pending mission, they would have messaged her on her comm. The two of us made our way outside with Wally herding us like cattle, but I made him stop for a moment and grab a plate of desserts. I piled on cupcakes and cookies and little candies for him to take with us. I was just so hungry that I was contently eating my little snacks as we took a cab that he had waiting for us back to the downtown zeta tube. As we stood outside the teleporter, Wally took a second. I knew the look on his face. He was about to tell us something, and I was hoping it would be why he looked so down and sullen. Tori and I were as happy as we could be, aside from being really sleepy.
"Wally, what is it?" I asked him, Tori's eyes flitting between the two of us, then staring at Wally expectantly.
"The mission tonight… To protect the satellite to bridge communications with Mars… The Team failed…" He took a moment, making a face that I knew to be his thinking face, he wasn't quite sure how to say his next statement.
"Is that it?" Tori asked, still watching him with expectant eyes. I was waiting, but the longer he took to figure out how the words should be strung from his mouth, the heavier my heart grew. I knew that look on his face. I had seen that look many times on many different people. Once was on my father's face, the day I woke up in that hospital and they had told me that my littlest bird had been murdered, the day I was told that my newest brother was dead.
"Who is it?" I asked Wally, and he sighed, looking at the concrete of the alleyway.
"It's Artemis. Nightwing reported that Aqualad ran her through with a sword," Wally said, and Tori seemed like someone broke her heart like a hammer with a glass antique.
"Let's go then," I told him, holding myself together the best I could. The two of us hadn't talked in a while since I joined the League and she decided to take a break from being a hero while she was in college. But, nevertheless, she was my sister. The three of us got in the Zeta-tube and came out the other side into the Cave. Everyone was mourning, and everyone was out of their uniforms aside from Nightwing.
People were standing around, but M'gann was on the couch. I set my plate of deserts and moved to sit with her. I saw Connor, looking at M'gann with sad eyes, and I grabbed his wrist to come with me, but he pulled his hand from my grasp and stayed where he was. I sat down with M'gann as Garfield started to console her. When I sat down, she let go of the younger boy, snuggling up to me as she cried. Wally found a place at my side on the couch, his hand finding it's way to my stomach as it always did, but the little one did not kick. I wondered if she knew how distressed I was, or how distressed everyone else was, but I knew she was probably asleep. It was late. I was extremely tired, but I had to be there for everyone. We were all here for eachother. But I realized someone was missing. My brother was here just moments ago, but I was sure he hadn't left quite yet. I stood up and went to track him when I caught an exchange between Connor and Mal.
"Where's Nightwing? He should be here. Hell, his pregnant sister is here," Mal said, and Superboy just looked at him.
"He went to tell her Mother," Superboy informed him as I sped out of the room. I was starting to feel my side cramping as I walked to my brother. He was just about to walk into the zeta-tube.
"Hey!" I shouted, nearly screaming at him. He stopped and walked back out of the tube and approached me. I could feel myself breaking as the cramp in my side grew worse. I could feel my face growing hot and tears welling in my eyes.
"Sylvia, maybe you should go back to the others, maybe we can get you to sit down," He started to have a worried look on his face.
"No!" I yelled at him. I took a second to calm down, but I was still trying to speak to him through the pain. "It was her first mission back, and you let her die. How could you not have stopped her? They said it was Aqualad who killed her, so what I want to know is why did you let her take him on, all on her own? Huh? You basically killed her!" I nearly started laughing, I was hysterical. The pain in my side grew sharper and it began to spread. I thought that maybe it was just me stressing out, that my body was reacting to the stress.
"Sylvia, it was no one's fault. Aqualad is just not what he used to be, and he killed her," he tried to reason with me, trying to calm me down, but it was no longer the sadness of her death. The pain was taking over.
"Dick," I looked at him, remembering only after that I wasn't supposed to say his name out loud like that when he's in costume. "Go get Wally," I told him in a shaky voice. My legs were shaking. Something was very wrong. Nightwing ran off to get Wally, but I was starting to get light headed. It was like a horrible cramp just consuming me. My legs were growing week. I could hear the two of them rushing down the corridor, but before I could see them, my vision blurred. It that moment, that I collapsed.