In the Midnight Hour (5/7)
a Justice League story
by Merlin Missy
Copyright 2005
PG
Summary: John's been thinking.
Night, and the air is cool. It's a routine security job for less than routine people: Diana's friend Audrey is in DC for a summit — a lot of world leaders are, but Diana always gets that Look when it involves Kasnia's queen — so they're lending a hand.
He tries not to think about the last time they did security for a summit.
John's got a good position, clear sight to the building, people he trusts in the right places surrounding him. He pulls up a shadow and waits.
And waits.
His mind starts to wander. John's pretty good at dividing his attention, better than most people think just looking at him. Long before Basic had him standing out in the rain and mud for hours, grade school had taught him all about daydreaming while also staying alert. During arithmetic and spelling, he could pretend he was on patrol helping out the Justice Guild and still answer questions when his teacher called on him. During high school, he did the same thing, although he spent a lot less time thinking about the JGA and a lot more fantasizing about impressing Becky Johnson by a last-second touchdown during the Big Game. And he still got the answers right in algebra most of the time.
Tonight he watches, but he can also let his imagination go where it's wandered these last few weeks.
Another shadow detaches from the wall.
"Stop it."
"What?"
"Thinking about him. Rex."
"Really not your business." Some day John's going to insist Batman get a psychic evaluation.
"It's my business if you get me killed because you're banking on not dying." This wasn't a conversation he wanted to have, not now, certainly not with Bats. But if not him, then ... John sighed.
"I can't help it. I met him." He focuses on the building, on the dignitaries exiting their vehicles. He knows which people they've got doing undercover valet work tonight, and he's hoping Wally doesn't get stupid with the Prime Minister's car.
"And now you're thinking about the future."
"Yeah."
"Imagining your wedding. Wondering how she'll tell you."
"Yeah." Some people head out of the summit: powerful men with useless women draped on their arms, powerful women with expensive escorts. There are nights, not many but some, when he wonders if Mari just likes the look of him on her arm, if he's as much a part of her image as the clothes she models. And other nights he wonders if he isn't the stupidest man alive for not already having asked her to marry him.
He knows why he hasn't asked, why he won't. He's seen his son's face and he knows he'll marry Rex's mother because that's what a man does. He's pictured her in white, and in soft blue, and in deep green, and he's imagined her smiling as she places his hand on her belly, imagined her whispering in his ear.
"Picturing the six months of bedrest she'll be on. The fight where we lose J'onn because she's not there. How she'll start hemorrhaging during the birth and die because the nearest possible blood donor is fifteen light years away."
"What? No! That's not ... You don't know that's what's going to happen."
"You can't act as though you know it won't."
"I'm not. I won't."
"You are and you do. I've been watching you. You're going into battles with the assumption the two of you are going to walk out of them. I can't afford for you to get sloppy."
He lets out a breath. "Fine. Whatever. Lecture done?"
"You're one of the few I don't have to lecture." John's mouth twitches as Batman continues: "Consider it friendly advice."
He expects Batman to vanish again, the way he does on nights like these, but instead he waits in the shadows beside John, his breath barely a hint in the chilly night air as the time passes. They watch as more people leave the summit for the parties the League already has scrutinized and quietly staffed.
"What did you tell Diana?" John asks, as Queen Audrey steps into her own limousine.
"About?"
"The future."
"I haven't."
"I thought you would. She went with us."
"It never happened. There was nothing for her to know."
"Old You didn't have a wedding ring." It's not the nicest thing he could say.
"Old Me didn't have a Cave anymore, either. It was a pocket timeline. You need to keep that in mind while you're picking out patterns for baby booties." If John didn't know him better, he'd swear Batman is trying to still a laugh.
He pushes his luck. "Yeah, I was thinking a nice emerald pattern with duckies." He slides his eyes to watch the silent figure beside him. No reaction. Damn.
After a very long pause, Batman says without looking at him, "You could see about getting some hand-me downs from Arthur's son, assuming you don't mind lambs on everything."
John loses whatever battle they are having, breaking his focus on the last few dawdling ambassadors to stare at Batman. "You're kidding, right?"
"Do I ever kid?"
It's not an answer, but he's used to not getting real answers from the Bat. Back to work, he admonishes himself as Batman disappears for real this time. The future will have to wait.