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Zatanna knocked on Mallory's door a few days later to find the pyrokinetic sitting on the floor beside her bed, staring up at the top of her dresser absently.
"Hey, what are you doing?" the magician asked.
Mallory shrugged. "Just thinking," she murmured, not looking up.
"You still feeling bad about Roy?" Zatanna asked gently.
Mallory rubbed a finger over the bill of the black baseball cap in her hand and looked at her friend. "Yeah, I guess."
Zatanna smiled. "Well, I have some news that should make you feel better," she said.
Mallory smiled a little, her friend's excitement infectious. "What is it?" she asked.
Zatanna paused for effect, then burst out, "Raquel's getting married!"
Mallory scrambled to her feet, tossing the baseball cap onto her dresser. "What?" she asked, her face splitting into a smile, her gloominess forgotten instantly. "When did that happen?"
"Darius proposed to her on Valentine's Day. Come on, I told her I'd round everyone up so she could tell you."
"Wait," Mallory said, side-eying the magician, "so she could tell us?"
Zatanna smiled. "Oops," she said. "Well, you know how to act surprised."
Mallory laughed, putting the cap on and grabbing her phone on their way out the door. The next stop was Megan's room, where the Martian immediately knew that something was up.
"What happened?" she asked, looking between her friends. Neither of them could contain their smiles, and finally Megan just read their minds. "Raquel's getting married?!" she squealed when her eyes went back to normal.
"Megan!" Mallory scolded playfully, but neither of them really cared about it.
"I know, sorry. When did this happen? I saw her just a few days ago and she didn't say anything about it."
"It happened on Valentine's Day. Come on, we're meeting her in Dakota to hear the news for the second first time."
It only took ten minutes for them to round up the rest of their friends and get to the restaurant in Dakota City. Wally held the door open for their group to file in, and they found Raquel and Darius sitting at the head of two tables pushed together. They found seats, exchanged greetings, but everyone was waiting for the couple to make the announcement. It didn't come until after their food arrived and everyone settled into eating.
"So, today wasn't just about seeing you guys," Raquel started, looking at her now-fiance.
Wally looked between them as he grabbed a chip. "What, you guys getting married?"
"Zatanna!" Raquel said, looking at the magician with playful accusation.
"I didn't tell him," Zatanna replied.
"Him? So who did you tell?" Darius asked.
Mallory and Megan exchanged sheepish looks and Mallory raised her hand a little. "Right here," she said, and Megan said, "Me, too."
Raquel gave the magician a look, and she rushed to defend herself. "Ok, hold on. Technically, Megan read our minds, so that doesn't count, and Mallory needed cheering up. You didn't want me to bring her all mopey, did you?"
"No, I guess not. She would have been dead weight just sitting there."
"Hey!" Mallory objected, trying not to laugh, "I'm a delightful person, thank you very much!"
Her friends gave her sympathetic faces. "Sure you are, Sweetie. Sometimes," Zatanna said. Mallory glared at them playfully, and Raquel moved on down the table to Conner.
"So you knew, too, didn't you?" she asked.
He shrugged. "I heard them talking about it from the kitchen," he explained, smiling.
Zatanna and Mallory exchanged an annoyed look. "You can't trust any Kryptonians around here," Zatanna muttered.
"Says the human who blabbed about my wedding to the entire group," Raquel shot back.
"How many times do I have to tell you, I only told Mallory! Is it my fault that we live with a Martian and a Kryptonian?"
"Well, that isn't exactly a secret," Darius put in.
"Stay out of it, Darius. You're not in the family yet," Mallory said. He laughed and leaned back in his chair.
"What about you guys? How did y'all know?" Raquel asked, looking at Artemis, Wally, and Dick.
"Megan told me when she called to tell us to come," Artemis supplied readily.
"That figures. What about you two? Who told you?"
Dick shrugged and smiled a little. "I've known for days," he said, "I was just waiting for you to say something."
Raquel and Darius exchanged a glance. "How did you know? We didn't even tell my dad about it until this morning."
"When I saw you the day after Valentine's Day, when you needed me to track that guy for you?" Raquel nodded slowly, waiting. "You kept touching your ring finger like you were expecting something to be there. You don't wear rings, so I decided to test out my theory. Every time you talked about Darius, you would grin and almost start to say something, then stop yourself and say something pointless about the tracking. It really wasn't that hard to figure out."
Raquel rolled her eyes, and the others were shaking their heads.
"Showoff," Mallory muttered. Dick just smiled and took a sip of his drink.
"I forgot who I was dealing with here," Raquel said. She turned to Wally. "So, did you hear it from Dick, Artemis, or Mallory?"
Mallory and Dick exchanged a look. "Why are we the untrustworthy ones?" Mallory asked.
"Because you're the ones that would have spent time with him in the last few days. So who told him?"
Mallory shook her head. "I didn't talk to him after I found out," she said.
"I didn't tell him. I know how to keep a secret," Dick said, shooting Zatanna a pointed look. The magician just laughed and shook her head.
"I didn't tell him, either," Artemis said, suddenly looking at her boyfriend in confusion. "Wait, how did you know?"
Wally looked around, suddenly surprised. "Wait, so everyone knew except me?" he asked incredulously.
"What do you mean, you didn't know? You're the one who brought it up!" Zatanna said.
Wally shook his head. "I was just guessing, I didn't think I was right."
They looked at each other, and they all burst out laughing.
"Well, I don't care how y'all found out, I just wanted you to hear about it before everyone else," Raquel said.
"We're so happy for you guys. Not exactly surprised, but happy," Mallory said.
Raquel smiled and laced her fingers through Darius'. "It was a surprise to me. I didn't even want to go out, I was tired and y'all know how I feel about Valentine's Day. But he made me get dressed and go to that food truck down the street, and he put the ring in my nachos."
Darius smiled at the memory. "It was a pretty perfect night, if I do say so myself," he said.
"When are you going to set the date for?" Megan asked.
They shrugged. "We haven't gotten that far yet. Probably soon, it's not like we have anything to wait for. We're just going to do a small wedding, just our immediate families and some friends." Megan and Zatanna gave her a look and she added, "and yes, you're all invited."
"Hello, Megan!" Megan said suddenly, drawing the others' attention. "We have to throw you a bridal shower!"
"Yeah, duh! We can invite Dina and Karen and Cassie, and maybe Donna will be able to come, too!" Zatanna said.
"Oh, you guys really don't have to do that. My aunt is going to throw me a shower for the family members to get to know each other a little better, so she's got that covered."
"But we won't be there," Mallory said. "Don't take this away from us, you're the first of us to get married, and we want to do everything right."
Raquel laughed. "Do I get a say in it at all?" she asked.
"Of course not, now stop talking so much, you're interrupting the plans," Artemis said with playful force.
The Leaguer complied, sitting back and chuckling as the girls hashed out the details of who they would invite, where it would be, and if they should make it casual or dressy, just the girls or invite the boys too.
Two hours later, the group was leaving the restaurant together, walking down the street towards their friends' apartment to find a zeta tube and say goodbye. There was a tube in an old picture booth at the end of an alley, so they paused at the opening. Megan pulled Raquel into a hug.
"We're so happy for you," she said.
"Thanks. I can't believe I'm really getting married!" Raquel said, her excitement clear in her voice.
"Where's the ring?" Artemis asked. Raquel pulled the diamond ring out of her jeans pocket and held it out to her friends.
"It's beautiful," Mallory said.
Raquel slipped it securely onto her ring finger and held her hand out at arms length to admire it. "It really is," she said, like she was still getting used to looking at it.
"Careful," Dick said, punching Wally in the arm. "If they keep looking at that thing, you might have to go buy one next."
Mallory looked between Artemis and Wally. "It wouldn't be the worst idea in the world," she said, looking at them hopefully.
Artemis just laughed and shook her head. "Relax, guys. We aren't in a hurry. We have plenty of time to figure things out."
Mallory shrugged and looked at the others. "I tried."
Wally put an arm around the pyrokinetic. "Yeah, you did. Maybe I should try something, like finding you a boyfriend so you don't have so much free time to try to get me married off."
Mallory rolled her eyes, shoving him off gently. "Nah, I'm good. It's more fun to meddle in other people's lives. Especially yours."
"Ok, guys, we're gonna go on home, we're meeting our parents for dinner, and trust me, that's going to take some prepping," Darius said, one arm around Raquel. The group said their final goodbyes to the couple, and they moved on down the street. The others looked at each other, not quite ready to go home yet.
"Let's go shopping, we can get our shower gifts and decide what restaurant and everything while we go," Zatanna suggested.
Artemis shrugged. "Sure, I don't have to be back for a few hours."
"Well, not that an afternoon of shopping with the four of you doesn't sound just delightful," Wally said sarcastically, grinning at the girls, "but I think I'll pass."
Dick turned to him and Conner. "You want to go back to the cave and play some video games? Peter convinced Bruce that they're a good cognitive training exercise, so there's a whole new box I haven't even gone through yet."
Wally laughed. "Man, I wish I could've seen that," he said. "Let's go steal a few games and bring them back to my place. I don't want to have to explain to anyone who I am and why I'm chilling in the top secret base."
The boys went to the zeta tube, and the girls headed down the street to find some shops.
"What are you thinking, practical or fun?" Artemis asked as they window-shopped, looking for an idea.
"Definitely fun. She's going to get all the boring useful stuff from her relatives," Mallory said. They wandered into a book store and started looking around. Mallory found a book on one of the shelves and pulled it off, flipping through the pages. "Hey, guys, come see," she said. She showed her selection to the others.
"What is it?" Artemis asked, looking over Zatanna's shoulder to read the summary.
"It's bridal advice through the centuries," Mallory explained, taking the book back and flipping through the pages. "Look, this one's from the 1800s, and it remind new brides that yes, they had to try to save their husband from himself even if they want to see him break his neck from riding a horse that they told him not to buy. It's just two pages of ranting about men not listening. Look, even the type starts to slant, like a hand shaking."
They chuckled and each flipped through it. "That's perfect. She'll love it," Zatanna said.
"Yeah, I think the book thing's done, how about we go to the furniture store, maybe there'll be something little we can get," Artemis suggested.
"Ok, you guys go ahead, I'll catch up when I pay for this," Mallory said. They nodded and headed out the store, and Mallory hurried to pay for her book and cross the street to the antique furniture store her friends had gone to. When she found them, Zatanna had picked out a snow globe that had two champagne glasses inside.
"I'm going to get their names engraved on the bottom," she explained when she showed her pick to the pyrokinetic.
"I love that. What about you two? Find anything?" Mallory asked.
They shrugged. "Well, kind of," Megan said.
"What does that mean?" Mallory asked.
"Well, it's just a little expensive, I don't know if I can spend that much right now," Artemis explained.
"What is it?" Mallory asked. The former archer held up an antique jewelry box shaped like the moon, with a small rocket attached to it. "Aww, she'd love it," Mallory said, opening the box to see what the inside looked like. It had a good bit of space, making the potential gift both practical and fun, playing on her hero name in a subtle way.
"I know," Artemis said. She looked at Megan. "Hey, do you want to go in on this with me? We did kind of see it at the same time."
Megan smiled. "Yeah, let's do that. Wow, I just can't believe we're buying Raquel's bridal shower gifts! I mean, she's actually getting married."
Zatanna smiled. "Yeah. She knew she would, though. She knew he was the one pretty much as soon as she met him."
Mallory smiled, touching her cap as they walked up to the registers. "We haven't talked about the shower at all," she pointed out.
"Right! Ok, so we should probably keep it small and just invite Dina and the girls on the team," Megan suggested.
"Yeah, and don't forget Donna and Jess. Too bad Diana and Shaiera are off world, they would have loved to be a part of this," Zatanna said.
"Yeah. What about the restaurant?" Mallory asked.
"Raquel likes that place over by the plaza, but it might be kind of hard to get reservations right now," Artemis suggested.
"Well, you guys buy your stuff, I'll go outside and see what days we can get a table for," Mallory offered. Her friends nodded and she left the store, looking the number up and calling. When the place answered, she said, "I need to reserve a table for eleven in about a month. I don't have an exact date, I was just calling to see what kind of availability you have," she said.
The man on the line paused, then came back. "I'm sorry, the only day I have open for March is the 21st, but it's for brunch. If you want, I can put your party down for it now, if not, I should warn you that we fill up very quickly."
Mallory bit her lip, a conflict immediately rising. "Um, could you hold for a moment?" she asked seeing her friends coming out. She went over to them. "They only have a table for brunch on March 21st," she said, looking at them to see if they knew why the date was a problem.
"But, that's Conner's birthday," Megan said.
Mallory nodded. "I know. Do I take it, or do we find somewhere else to do the shower?"
Artemis shrugged. "There will be plenty of time in the day to do something for Conner's birthday. I say take it."
Mallory looked at the others for confirmation, and they nodded. "Hello?" she said, getting back on the phone. "Yes?" the man asked. "We'll take the table," she told him.
"All right. You have the choice of inside or outside."
"Outside is fine," she replied. She finished making the reservation, and when she hung up the girls looked at each other.
"I think we just made a bridal shower," Megan said.
"Great! Can't wait to tell Raquel when it is," Zatanna said.
"Should we have asked her if it was a good day for her?" Artemis asked.
Mallory shook her head. "She's not going to have anything planned in Conner's birthday, no one does. Not with the parties Megan always throws." Megan winced, and Mallory remembered about the breakup and sighed. "Sorry, I forgot."
Megan shook her head. "No, it's fine. You're right, she's not going to have anything planned. Let's call her tomorrow and tell her we have a date."
The others nodded and they started to make their way to a zeta tube to go home, ending the day with smiles for the first time in a long time.
