CHAPTER FIVE
"Shayera? Come on Shayera, wake up." John patted her cheeks, trying to wake her up. "Come on Shy, open your eyes." She did, but they were bleary and unfocused. Then they closed again. "No! Come on Shy, look at me, look at me!" Shayera opened her eyes again, and blinked a few times before she focused on John's face.
"Hey there Marine." She said with a smile.
"Hey there yourself Green Eyes." John said with a relieved smile of his own.
Shayera's eyes shifted to the side, and Nick's face suddenly came into view.
"Hey there Shay. . ." Nick was cut off by Shayera's fist connecting with his jaw and sending him flying across the room where he hit into the wall. John watched his flight with wide eyes, then looked at Shayera.
"That really hurt." She muttered, gripping John's shoulder and pulling herself into a upright position. Nick climbed to his feet and stumbled back over to the bed where he sat down.
"Okay, I probably did something, sometime in my life to deserve that."
"You did." Shayera assured him though clenched teeth.
"I can't think of anything, but that's probably because hitting the wall did something to my brain." Nick said, holding his head in his hands.
"It will pass." John told the young man, having been on the receiving end of Shayera's fist, and mace, many times in the past.
"Yeah, another slam into the wall ought to take care of it." Shayera threatened, raising a fist. Nick put up his hands in the surrender position and tried to get away so fast he fell off the bed.
"I'll pass." His voice floated up from the floor. Shayera and John both laughed, Shayera leaning against John. Nick peeked over the foot of the bed, looking for all the world like a curious gopher. A gopher with tousled blonde hair and big gray eyes. "Is it safe?" He fake whispered to John. Shayera rolled her eyes.
"Get up here moron."
"I'm coming, I'm coming." Nick muttered, climbing to his feet walking over to the side of the bed. "Any chance of you turning around and letting me see your wings?"
"NO!" Shayera and John both yelled.
"Shayera!" Nick said in frustration. "Stop being so damn stubborn and let me see your wings! If you don't get them treated, they won't heal right and you'll never fly again! So turn around!"
Shayera rolled her eyes and turned her back to Nick so that he could look at her wings. He touched and prodded her wings, moving feathers and rotating the wings back and forth. Shayera gasped a few times and squeezed John's hands, but she didn't faint again John was relieved to see.
"Take another deep breath Shayera." Nick said.
"Why?" Shayera asked warily.
"The tip of your left wing is out of line. I have to move it so I can wrap it." Nick said gently.
"Great." Shayera said sarcastically. "You really have to work on your bedside manner Nick."
"Duly noted." Nick said with a laugh. "Ready?"
"Yeah." Shayera closed her eyes, gripped John's hand and took a deep breath. Nick made a sharp jerking movement and there was the sickening sound of bone grinding against bone.
Shayera gasped and squeezed John's hand tightly, but she didn't scream and she didn't pass out. Nick checked the alinement, then moved to the first aid box that was sitting on the dresser top. He took some medical tape and gauze and started wrapping Shayera's wing with the ease and grace born of long experience.
"That should do it, except for a few cuts that caused the blood and some bruises. I bandaged the cuts and put some cream on the bruises." Nick said, moving out behind Shayera. "Switch your bracelet back on Shay. You need to avoid using your wings for at least six weeks. The break needs to heal, and your joints are sore."
"Nick. . . !"
"I mean it Shayera. They need to heal." Nick said, looking at her sternly.
"Nick, I have to find and save my children."
"Then get help Shayera." Nick's look softened slightly. He reached out and took Shayera's hands from John's grip and held them in his lap while he sat on the bed in front of her.
"Shayera, I know you like to be the strong, independent one, but listen to me. You are not the only one who loves those children. I love them. Sara loves them. Mr. Silent over here loves them. And the kids are not the only ones who love you. I love you. Sara loves you. Mr. Personality here loves you, and there is a billionaire playboy slash dark avenger, an Amazon princess, a young man with a very fast mouth, a green Martian, and an alien from a dead planet standing just outside that door listening to my every word who love you and are ready to help you at the drop of a hat or a single word. All you have to do is ask."
Shayera started to protest, and Nick held up his hand to stop her. "Shay, I know that, for you, asking for help is only slightly less painful that having steel needles pulled through your cheeks, but it's not quite the crisis situation you imagine. No one is going to think any less of you if you ask for help. Most of the people I mentioned before are parents and they already think that you are holding together incredibly well. They don't think they could have your strength if the situation was reversed." Nick let go of one of Shayera's hands to cup her cheek. "Please Shayera. Ask for help to get your children back and let your wings heal so that when you do get them back, you can take that beautiful little girl of yours on those midnight flights she loves so much."
Shayera placed her hand over his on her cheek and smiled at him. "Thank you Nick."
"Anytime precious." He leaned forward and resting his forehead on hers and they smiled at each other. Then Nick pulled away. "Let me see that eye and nose." Shayera let him take her face in his hands. He examined her face then rubbed some cream around her eyes and on her nose. "The swelling has gone down a lot on your nose, and your eye. It should be down by tonight, but your going to have one hell of a shiner and your nose is going to bruised for quite a while." He smiled at Shayera and stood up. "I have to get home, Sara's waiting for me."
"I'll see you later Nick." Shayera said, kissing his cheek.
"Most definitely." Nick assured her, giving her a wink before walking out of the room.
"Interesting guy." John commented after the door had shut behind Nick. Shayera laughed.
"Yeah, Nick is a character. But he's a really good guy, and he's a genius, so he's allowed to be eccentric. He also loves our children, so I know he has a good heart."
"Yeah, about my children." John said, turning to look at Shayera. The look in his eyes was like a kid on Christmas. "Come on Shayera, tell me about them." He begged. Despite her worry about them, Shayera laughed at the look on John's face. She grabbed her duffel with one hand and pulled it closer.
"Well, let's see if Nick grew a brain and packed some of their pictures."
She opened the bag and dug through a little, finally pulling out a handful of pictures. "Wow, I'm surprised. Either Nick grew a sensible part of his brain, or Sara packed these."
"Which is more likely?"
"Sara packed them."
"Ah." John said, fidgeting. Shayera laughed at him and showed him the pictures.
"Here they are." She said proudly, showing John a picture of Hayden and Haylynn standing next to the swings, arms around each others shoulders, both grinning at the camera.
"This is our son, Hayden John Stewart," she said, stroking hers sons face in the picture, "and our daughter Haylynn Lee Stewart. She's the younger twin by half and hour."
"Stewart? You gave them my last name?"
"Of course I did." Shayera said, looking at him in surprise. "Their your children too."
"Wow. My children. My son and daughter." John whispered, reaching out and touching the picture. "Their beautiful."
"Aren't they?" Shayera beamed. She went to the next picture and had to laugh. It was a picture that Sara had taken at the house and developed herself, of Hayden and Haylynn flying through the large dining room, Hayden in the lead with a look of pure terror on his face, Haylynn right behind him, fist raised, fury in her eyes. John also laughed.
"Well, I can guess who Haylynn takes after." He teased. "I seem to remember a similar scene from our past." Shayera laughed along with him. "Yeah, well Hayden is just like you." She teased him back. "He knows just what buttons to push to get his sister really mad at him, then he runs." She laughed again and touched the picture.
"Seriously though, Hayden is more like you than you think. He wants to be a Marine when he grows up. He's always begging me to take him on patrol, says he has to practice helping people."
"What about Haylynn? What does she want to be when she grows up? If she's anything like you, then I'm sure it's not going to be anything normal." Shayera laughed.
"You got that right. You'd never believe what she wants to be."
"Twenty four hours ago, I wouldn't have believed I had two children. Try me."
"She wants to be a Green Lantern." Shayera smiled sadly at the picture, then wiped her eyes. "I miss her John." She whispered. "I miss both of them so much. I miss my children. Their my babies. I miss not hearing them flying or running down the hall, calling for me, or hear them laughing. I just miss them so much."
"I know." John whispered. "It's okay Shy. We'll find them, I promise." He pulled her into his lap and held her tightly against his chest. She wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face in his neck. John held her close and kissed her hair, then felt something pressing into his chest.
"What's this?" He asked, pulling back slightly and pulling on the silver chain around Shayera's neck. What he saw made him grin and shake his head. It was the top of his ring that Hro had sliced off during that last battle, the one where only Shayera's interference had kept him from losing his head to that same axe.
"Where'd you get this?" He asked gently. Shayera smiled as she took it from John's hand and let it fall back under her shirt.
"I picked it up when we left the battle. I've never taken it off, ever since Sara had it made into a necklace for me. Even before that I always had it with me. It helped me remember that you were out there, doing your job."
"My job?" John asked. Shayera smiled at him and cupped his cheek with her uninjured hand.
"Protecting the people you love. Even if they don't know you love them, or think their unworthy of your love. It doesn't matter, your still out there risking your life to protect them."
She pulled John down to her and kissed him. And for one moment it was almost like they had traveled back in time, and were once again sitting in the dark med bay at the Watch Tower. There had been no invasion, no betrayal, no pain of loss. It was only the two of them, together. The kiss was exciting and new, but comforting and familiar at the same time. John was the first one to pull away. Shayera moved her hand to the back of John's neck and looked deep into his eyes.
John obviously saw what he needed to see in Shayera's eyes because he grinned and pulled her back into his arms for another kiss. And for a while the two tried to hide from the world and the cards of pain fate had dealt them in the warmth and comfort of each other's arms.