a Justice League Unlimited story
by Merlin Missy
Copyright 2005
PG-15
Chapter Two
The low-rent neighborhood and the filthy front door make this place look like a dive, but the restaurant has the best sushi in three states. Conveniently, it's also on the other side of town, away from where people might know his face. She wore a wide-brimmed hat when she met him, but she set it aside as soon as they were seated, and now he resists the urge to brush her hair away from her face as she deftly moves the food around on her tray.
He dated in high school, not much, and again in college, a bit more. This is the closest they've come to anything resembling what he considers a real date. The restaurant isn't crowded, and they have a booth in the back, but they are still circumspect about references to work.
Instead, he tells her jokes. She tells him about the last movie she saw. He wonders how regular people manage to make conversation.
She excuses herself to the ladies' room before the check comes. The server puts down the bill, and moments later, slides into the seat across from him. It takes him a quarter of a second to realize there are in fact two different people, another half-second to establish his new companion isn't a threat, and a full three seconds further to identify him.
"You could have called," Rex says, pulling out his wallet and handing a card to the server, who is still standing there waiting. Merina usually insists on buying when they eat out; he likes getting the tab when she doesn't notice or can't object. "How long have you been," he glances at the departing server, "in town?"
"We got in this morning, and we did call. Check your messages." Rex curses to himself; he hasn't been home yet today.
His father leans back in the booth, stretching out a bit, casting a careful eye around the dining area. Part of him looks perfectly comfortable here, on his home world, in his city, in one of his favorite restaurants, but Rex knows the other signs to look for. There are many ways in which his father is more of an alien to this place than his mother is. They've lived off-world for ten years, ostensibly for her benefit, but really for John's and for Rex's.
"Where are you guys staying?"
"Tower."
"You could stay with me."
"You don't have the room, and anyway, it looks like you have company."
"Dad."
"I'll have you know, I'm resisting a ton of crude remarks right now about the two of you at a sushi place."
"Dad!" There are few things in the world more mortifying than having parents. Having parents with an active sex life is, sadly, one of those things.
A grin. "Sorry. Anyway, I thought all the Atlantis-types were vegetarians."
"Some are. She's not." Merina is occasionally ashamed of her own eating habits, but she says if she's going to eat meat, she might as well not make it preferential to land animals only.
"Mr. Stewart?" Both their heads turn, but the server is looking at his father. "Your order is ready."
Dad nods at her, then casts what he probably doesn't think is a patronizing smile back at Rex. "Your mom wanted ebi for dinner." He slides out of the booth, then grasps Rex's hand. "You and Merina come by the Tower later."
Rex glances at the back, where the restroom doors are behind a partition, but she still hasn't come out. "The others don't really know," he whispers.
"Yes, they do," Dad says, and bends over and gives him a quick kiss on the head. "I'm going to go before the food gets, I don't know, deader maybe." He grabs the bag from the counter, waves to the cook, and leaves, just as Merina comes back to the table.
"You're blushing," she says.
"My folks say 'hi.' And they'd like to see both of us later."
Her eyes widen.
The team is always changing. Members come and go, obligations to home towns and home worlds shift. Some get married. A few have kids. Others join up. So when Micron announces he's going to take a leave of absence to spend time helping his wife with the baby, they give him a warm sendoff with promises of babysitting help. And when Cassandra appears on the front doorstep a week later and informs them she's going to join the League, it's not as big of a surprise as it probably was when Lobo did the same thing fifty years ago.
Her hair is golden, not literally but close, and she can bench-press a tank. Kai is smitten.
No one has the heart to point out that she doesn't notice, and none of them know just how to bring up the subject of the Greek pantheon and why getting romantically involved with that crowd is one of the worst ideas in the history of very bad ideas. He brings her flowers, and makes interesting ring constructs to get her to laugh. Her laugh is a lot like Queen Diana's, and she has taken on the mantle of Wonder Woman. When Superman contacts Diana to ask her about the new arrival, Merina watches from behind, and notes a kind of sadness in her glance, a hesitation in her voice as she says, yes, she knows this girl and believes she would be an asset to the League.
She stays.
It's nice to have a younger female in the Tower. Merina loves Barda like an aunt, but as naive as she is, Cassandra makes a much better friend for whispering secrets and going out to clubs. Terry watches her, sometimes as much as Kai does. Merina has met Terry's girlfriend, though; she wonders if he's told her yet.
Cassie asks about the stars. Golden stars are embedded in one wall of the entrance to the tower. Some have names, some just initials, and she tries to understand as Merina names each one in the sad constellation: those who have fallen, those who are missing and presumed dead. She pauses at her father's star, brushing her fingers across it like a kiss.
The following day, Merina is with Barda in the training room, practicing. They watch as Kai follows Cassandra past the doorway. Barda snorts: "Save us from fire, flood, and Green Lanterns in love."
Batman invites them all to the wedding, knowing most of them won't be able to attend. Kai says he'll send a gift, then sighs a little when Cassie announces she's going to wear a wig and go anyway. Barda gets thin-lipped and wishes her best for the happy couple; Scott Free has had a star for over ten years. Superman, in suit and glasses, will go and cover the event for the Planet Online. Already the gossip magazines are enjoying the little sheen of celebrity that follows the Wayne heir, but the reputable news sites are also interested.
Rex isn't into weddings, and he kind of still hates Batman, but Merina talks him into it by showing him the slim black dress she's planning on wearing. Wayne Manor has plenty of hide-holes, aside from the infamous one in the basement, and she whispers they can slip away during the reception to find adark and quiet spot and make like the Bats do.
Rex doesn't particularly want to know what the Bats do.
Merina is on the guest list as a VIP, the kind of society girl Old Man Wayne would have wooed in his younger days. Rex arrives with Cassie and meets Virgil and his wife there. Merina sits with them, while Superman sits near the front with Wayne. He recognizes some of the faces in the crowd as people who are on the guest list merely to be on the guest list and score points with the old man. He doesn't recognize any other costumes. When Terry and his girl take their vows, Merina slips her hand into his without looking at him.
The bride's gorgeous. Her makeup doesn't smear when she cries, holding her new husband or hugging the gaggle of girlfriends around her. Rex compliments her dress when he shakes her hand in the receiving line, just as he's been instructed to do. She stares at him a moment, as if trying to place him, and he knows that she knows who her lover is and who his friends are.
Rex rapidly discovers the reception isn't going to be nearly as much fun as he's hoped. There are security guards quietly stationed at points around the Manor to guide errant guests back to the party and away from Mr. Wayne's personal effects. He could take any of them, even unarmed, but there's no point.
The only person he knows at his table is Cassie. Virgil and Daisy are at the same table as Superman and Merina. There are two open spots, so Cassie drags him over to their table, introduces herself to people she already knows, and joins them anyway.
"And you are?" Merina asks him politely, extending her hand.
"Her babysitter," he says, and everyone laughs. The food's great, and the wine is a good year. Bruce always had the best taste in everything.
There is dancing. Rex hates dancing. Cassie jumps up to join the party, and with a quick glance back, Merina goes with her. The Graysons and the Drakes, the other Wayne heirs, are seated two tables away, and it isn't long before Superman and Virgil are talking with them in low voices. Old times, he's sure. Virgil's wife starts a conversation with Mrs. Grayson and Mrs. Drake, possibly comparing notes on how much it sucks to marry into superheroing families.
No one is talking to Rex.
The room is dimmed in a classy enough way, lit with candles and recessed lamps, but the darkness is getting to him. He takes off his sunglasses so he isn't completely blind.
"This seat taken?" One of the bridesmaids plops down beside him. The deep maroon of her gown, which makes the other bridesmaids looked peaked, compliments her nicely. She smiles at his notice, and says, "I suppose everyone tells you that you've got your mom's eyes, huh?"
"Dammit," he says, and fumbles out the glasses again.
She places her hand on his to stop him. "I don't think anyone who doesn't already know is going to notice."
Something about her voice, the tone and the air of mirth. He draws with his finger on the table: BG. She nods.
"Call me Maxine."
"Rex."
"I know. The old man has a file on you."
"Thought he didn't share those files."
She smiles, showing her teeth. "He thought it was better encrypted than it was."
So. Batgirl. Batman's partner for over five years, now on her own in Blüdhaven. He met her in costume twice, talked a few times on the monitor. He wonders how many of the others here tonight know who she is.
"How'd you meet Terry and," he thinks fast, "Dana?"
"High school. We go way back." She smooths her hand over her dress. He wonders if she ever pictured herself in the white gown beside Terry, with Dana in the red. There's no way he's ever going to ask.
She smiles at him. "So, why aren't you out dancing?"
"I'm not one for cutting a rug."
She stares at him. "Huh?"
"I don't dance." One of the many problems of being raised by people who are slightly displaced in time is that he sometimes forgets and uses expressions that are over seventy years out of date. It's like having been raised by his grandparents. The fact that sometimes he catches himself thinking in Thanagarian doesn't help.
Maxine taps her foot in time to the music. It's the newer music, which he can't stand; another problem, having grown up listening to long-dead singers and long-forgotten bands.
She asks him what he does, and he tells her. He's getting used to making small talk, less so with people who already know his secret identity. He doesn't have to watch himself as much. Maxine is in charge of the network at the D.A.'s office in Blüdhaven. That D.A. is currently telling a joke to Superman, friendly arms spread wide in what's sure to be an interesting punchline.
They talk for almost an hour, while he glances around from time to time to see what the others are doing. She finally yawns and stretches and stands. "I need to get back home. Here," and she digs out a pen from her purse, leans over to write on something. He thinks this is so cliché, that a woman he met at a wedding is going to give him her number on a cocktail napkin, but she hands him her business card instead, with a number written on the back. "Dr. Maxine Gibson," it says, and he thanks her as she waves and walks away to say her goodbyes to the bride and groom.
He leaves a few minutes later with a quiet nod to Virgil, who is deep in conversation with Drake.
At home, he removes his suit, hangs it in the closet, and takes a long, hot shower. When he exits, Merina is already reposing on his bed, still wearing the black dress. Her hair is mussed, and she smells like candlesmoke and she tastes like Bruce's good wine when he kisses her. She is frantic for him tonight, desperate in her need. He's not sure who she's thinking about as she bites his jaw, and he doesn't want to know if this is what Bats do as he yanks the dress up against her velvet-soft thighs.
Triton is dead.
The entire world has tilted, and even the stars are improperly aligned, for her brother is gone forever.
She spends an hour, more, staring at the light glimmering from the star that bears her father's name. Another King of Atlantis has passed, another two children are left fatherless, albeit both daughters this time. Their mother will act as regent until Erissa is old enough to assume the throne.
Their mother doesn't want to act as regent. She doesn't know how.
Triton is not going to summon her home. He is not going to greet her at the shore with arms spread wide and face beaming with joy at the sight of her. He is not going to fills the palace with his booming laugh, or lift his pretty wife into the air, or tickle his children under their chins, ever again.
Merina sobs, and Rex just holds her, there in front of the wall.
"I'm going back," she says. "They need me."
He kisses the top of her head, squeezes her more tightly. It's the first time he's kissed her in the Tower, and neither of them gives a damn who sees.
Erissa and Estella wear matching black dresses. Estella has just learned to swim, and clutches her sister's hand, innocent of all that is happening around her. Merina escorts her brother's body to the resting place of all the rulers of Atlantis, speaks the traditional words, stays with him for hours afterwards, holding his still hand.
When she returns to the palace, she commands the nursemaids to take the girls to their playroom, and she goes into private conference with Adela. Her brother's widow is thin and bent, the weight of the seven seas on her shoulders. She made an appropriate queen, but she does not know how to rule alone in her child's name. Merina has been trained to govern since her birth. Both are sensible women.
Adela will remain regent, will have the authority to countermand anything Merina orders. Merina will be Queen in all but name and that one fact. Erissa will stay beside her, learning as much as she can, the Queen-apparent but not yet sitting on her own throne. Merina will wield the sceptre and wear the crown.
She needs a consort. She needs heirs. Knowing it would come to this does not make the moment any easier to bear.
Triton never stopped looking for suitable mates for her. She reads through his notes, finds three names from decent families, summons them to the palace individually.
The first is intelligent and cold. The second is brainless but kind.
The third is brighter than the second, but does not give her his full attention. She knows his name, cannot place why he is familiar. She asks him about his father, and then understands why she knows of the man. He too lived on the surface, working with those on land to protect the world from all threats, and his son has spent time above. Garth's son is not the man his father was, but "he has stood on the sand," as their people say and where they use it as an insult, to Merina it is as close as she will find to a soulmate here in the depths of the sea. He knows his duty as she knows hers.
She contacts the League and, thank Neptune, Kai answers.
"His name is Cerdian. The wedding is tomorrow. I understand no one will be able to come. I miss you all. I'll try to visit soon."
She names an ambassador, the role she herself has played these long, wonderful years. A distant relative, male. She allows him to live at home, but insists he work together with the World Assembly and with the League, and she watches him go with a sadness she does not allow to shine in her features.
And then she dons her wedding garb.
There's a knock at his door, and Rex is unsurprised to see Terry there, holding a bottle. He is more startled to see Kai with him. Kai doesn't normally drink, even though he's been old enough for a few years now.
They sit in his cramped living room, passing the alcohol around. They don't actually mention her by name. While Rex is still sober enough to care, he wonders if Dana will yell at Terry for coming home drunk or not coming home at all. He also wonders who's guarding the night, because they told him it was being taken care of, and that meant they told someone else, maybe a few someones, of their plans for the evening.
Kai sings a little after just a few drinks, and then passes out on the couch, where they cover him with a blanket.
Rex and Terry talk for most of the night, about old girlfriends, about parents, about everything. Rex doesn't hate him any more, not even a little. They're never going to be good friends, but tonight, they understand each other perfectly.
In the morning, the three of them stumble out for eggs and coffee at the diner down the street. Kai has his hat on and isn't in uniform, and it's like they're just three guys out after a night on the town. Rex is a little worried to realize, as the waiter brings them a stack of toast, that Kai and Terry are probably his best friends.
He isn't looking for friends. He isn't sure what he's looking for. He works, and he patrols, and he fights, and he goes to bed and gets up a few hours later and he does it all again. Up until a few days ago, he had someone in his life who understood what it's like to be him, to walk (or fly, or float) in two worlds and not really belong to either one. Terry has found a way to blend his lives, and Kai is always the Lantern in the same way Rex's dad was when it was his ring.
The memory comes upon him suddenly: himself as a child, watching his parents soaring and swooping high above him in combat maneuvers, the desire sour on his tongue as he ached to join them in the sky. He's spent the rest of his life trying to catch up.
He takes a long drink of his coffee, listens to his friends talking. It's probably selfish, to wish this life on anyone else, wish this kind of impossible want on someone who doesn't own it already by choice or destiny.
Rex is feeling very selfish this morning.