Shayera lightly sighed as she woke up on John's side of the bed. She glanced at the alarm clock on the nightstand and frowned. She ended up getting less than three hours of sleep. She closed her eyes as she buried her face into John's pillow. She had spent half of the night camped out in the bathroom and the other sitting on the end of the bed, attempting to stave off her nausea to no avail. Though she now noticed that this morning was the first time in the past week she had woken up without feeling nauseous. At this point she would take that as a small victory.

Shayera yawned as she sat up and pushed the covers off of her. It was early and the light shuttering across the bed was soft. This was her favorite time of day, when everything seemed so quiet and peaceful. The only noise she could hear was John moving around in the kitchen. She mustered the energy to leave the bedroom to investigate.

Shayera made her way to the kitchen and stretched her arms over her head as she spoke, "I would have hoped that you would have woken me up when you got up. I can't believe I overslept again."

"You looked too tranquil and comfortable and I didn't have the heart to disturb you. I figured I would let you sleep in," he replied, turning to face her as he continued stirring the eggs on the stove.

She then grimaced as she stretched her back out, "I must have slept wrong last night. My back is hurting."

John smirked, "That's more of a reason why you should have stayed in bed a bit longer."

Shayera raised an eyebrow, "You're making breakfast?" Normally they would just grab something quick during the mornings like cereal or toast and go on their way. Not that she was about to complain about having an actual cooked meal for breakfast for once.

"Yeah," he gestured towards the table. "It would have been breakfast in bed but some Thanagarian had to wake up instead."

She sat down and lightly chuckled, "Sorry John, I didn't mean to ruin your surprise."

"I was thinking that we could spend the day together," he casually mentioned and she looked intrigued. "I mean neither of us have monitor duty, the Guardians didn't request me for anything, and if the League needs us, they can call us on our commlinks."

"True," she said, twirling a loose strand of hair around her finger. "Does that mean that you have a date planned for the entire day and evening?"

"Maybe I do," he replied with a smirk as he pushed the eggs onto the plate. "Just how you like them."

"Scrambled with hot sauce, sour cream, ketchup, and that cheese from the can?" Shayera asked as he brought the plate over.

"As disgusting as it is," John gave the plate a repulsive look and she lightly smiled at him as he set it in front of her.

"Thanks," she said, watching him carefully. She reached over to grab her fork, hunger winning over curiosity. "Aren't you going to eat?"

He threw her a quick grin over his shoulder, "I already did."

"Didn't feel like waiting for me huh?" She asked with a slight smirk.

She hadn't even been able to eat a quarter of the eggs before a sudden wave of nausea hit her like a tank. Shayera closed her eyes as she inhaled and resisted the urge to vomit right then and there with every ounce of restraint she had. She slowly exhaled as she set the fork down and stood from the table, "You know I really appreciate the thought John but I'm not that hungry after all."

"Shay are you feeling ok?" John asked her with a raised eyebrow. "You never pass up that breakfast."

"Yeah I'm fine, don't worry. I'm just not hungry." She looked back at him and flashed him a quick smile, "I'm just going to go take a quick shower."

John sighed as he gave her a quick nod, "Alright, we'll get going after you're ready."

They walked to the laundromat a couple blocks away. John was still in his pajamas, though his version of pajamas were sweatpants and a t-shirt. Shayera was still unable to get used to the strangeness of it. Wandering down the street in clothes that were still sleep-warm, dirty laundry literally on display for all to see. She had pulled on a pair of workout shorts and a tank top after her shower. He had told her before they left that, after the trip to the laundromat, they were going to do something more enjoyable. Of course he wouldn't tell her just what he had planned.

Shayera stopped as they walked past the park. They passed it all the time but she never gave it any attention until now. She watched as a group of kids were playing basketball. Her hand started to raise to her stomach but she stopped herself. She sighed as she looked on. Humans really had no idea just how lucky they had it on their planet.

Shayera sighed once more. Her own child would never truly understand how lucky they were for being born on Earth and not Thanagar. At the same token they would also never see her homeworld; their heritage. They would never experience Thanagarian culture. They would only know the peaceful life of a human and it made Shayera torn on how she should feel. She didn't know whether to be completely relieved or disheartened. She supposed she was feeling a bit of both.

Shayera's lips quirked as she absentmindedly stared towards the park. Despite the chaos of being a Justice League member, she still considered her current life peaceful to how she lived on Thanagar. This was the exact life she had always dreamt of having. The type of life she wanted her own child to have and experience while growing up. They wouldn't be brought up around constant war like she had.

John had stopped walking when he realized Shayera wasn't following behind him any longer and looked back at her. He knew something was definitely up with her. He wasn't receiving a bad vibe off of her though. Despite her rather odd behaviors recently, the Thanagarian seemed more exuberant and cheerful than normal. He then noticed that Shayera looked absolutely radiant. Though he figured it must have been the way the sunlight was shimmering down on her at that very moment.

She turned her head to see John staring at her. "Sorry," she began to walk again. "I got sidetracked."

"Don't worry about it," he reassured her. "Saw something that got your interest?"

She shrugged and tried to sound as nonchalant as possible, "You could say that. Nothing too fascinating though."

It was hot in the laundromat, they could tell as soon as they walked in. They were the only people there, much to her relief. She preferred it when they were alone and it was just the two of them. Mainly since she then wouldn't need to deal with people.

Shayera took notice that some of the machines were already running with clothes in them. She never really understood why people would just leave their laundry there. As if there was no chance of someone taking it. Maybe she just didn't have enough faith in people.

Shayera stretched her arms over her head. She felt her shorts slip down on her hips and amusedly thought of how she would miss that feeling in a few months. She then lightly shook her head and bit her lip. Considering how petite she was, Shayera also didn't know how well pregnancy was going to even look on her and she shuddered at the thought. She had always been physically fit throughout her life. She wasn't quite sure how well she was going to adjust to being rather unfit for a change.

"Shay," John took her hand and she slightly jumped. "You're spacing out again. Seriously, are you ok?"

"Yeah just thinking about what Bruce said yesterday," she lied. He held her gaze and she sighed, "No more spacing out, I promise."

"Alright but that's what you've said the other times," he decided to let it go. Obviously she didn't want to talk about whatever was on her mind. John knew from experience that getting Shayera to talk when she didn't want to was next to impossible. The Thanagarian was inhumanly stubborn.

They stood in silence for awhile. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence but Shayera still felt like she needed to fill the empty space between them.

"I've always wondered what it would be like to be trapped in a dryer," Shayera said, glancing over her shoulder at the row of dryers against the wall. "You'd die, right?"

"I guess so," John replied, pausing briefly to examine the tag on one of her shirts. "I don't think I've ever even considered it. Though for people who are as claustrophobic as you are, I guess you would think about it more than others."

"It seems a little morbid to me," she conceded, leaning her body against his as she lightly frowned. "Even if it wasn't on the feeling of being trapped would be pretty unbelievable and terrifying. I wonder what would end up killing you first. The heat or lack of oxygen? Though perhaps the panic would cause you to have a heart attack before either had the chance to do the job."

"Do they have safety latches? Just in case someone is that stupid to get locked in a dryer? They have them on the inside of car trunks now."

"That's rather bizarre," Shayera chuckled. "That must mean that people are stupid enough to get locked in trunks often enough for it to be considered a problem."

"Or everyone just because that paranoid," John pointed out, looking down at her and shrugging. "Plus there's crazy people that kidnap other people and stuff them into trunks."

"That's probably it. Everyone's just so jaded and cynical these days," she lightly sighed, earning a short laugh from John which made her grin.

"Coming from you of all people," he stated with a smirk. "You know, we could go to the park after we're done here and grab some lunch. You looked like you wanted to go there before"

"Maybe," she replied as she averted her gaze. "I don't know about the food part, I'm just not feeling hungry at all"

"You're not hungry at all? You didn't even eat breakfast," John raised an eyebrow at her. "Shay there has to be something wrong with you if you won't eat breakfast and lunch."

"I think it's the stress over the marriage license and the citizenship mess," she said, hoping that he would believe her and let it go. "I just feel kinda overwhelmed and my stomach is a little unsettled. Nothing food related sounds appealing right now. I'll probably feel fine later."

"You've been acting weird for the past week Shayera. You know that you can talk to me about anything."

Shayera continued to avert her gaze as she felt him eyeing her intently. What did he want her to say? What did she even want to tell him first? How was she going to tell him? How was she supposed to start a conversation like that in the first place?

"I'm..." She sighed and instead faked a smile, "I'm fine John. I know I can be rather odd at times. Really though, it's just some stress so don't worry about me. I'm just not that hungry. We can still go and you can get something to eat if you want."

John wasn't in the mood to eat alone but he decided to let her be. Perhaps it was just stress. After all, stress effected everyone differently. He sighed and then gave her a small smile, "Alright if you say so."

She started to feel nauseous from the heat so she decided to wander around the laundromat, listening to the sounds of the machines rattling over and over. She was on her third round when John called over to her, "Wanna go grab a coffee?"

Shayera turned towards him and shrugged, "Yeah, why not? I could use some caffeine."

Shayera tightly clutched John's arm as they walked down the street. When they had first went out, not too many people were out and about yet. Shayera knew they merely just tolerated her presence due to the amount of respect they had for John. While not everyone in Detroit openly despised her, there were still a good amount of people that made their contempt visible whenever she went out in public. That and her enhanced senses meant she could hear a good amount of the snide comments being made about her. It was at times like these when she hated going out in public.

"Just ignore them Shayera," John had repeatedly told her. Even once he had said, "You have just as much of a right to walk around in public as they do."

The coffee shop was no better; it never was. Anytime they went out together it was always like this. The majority of the time Shayera didn't know why John bothered taking her out in public with him. There was nothing that could ever change things. Shayera knew that, no matter what she did or how many people she saved on a daily basis, the majority of people on Earth would never trust or respect her again. And she also knew she had no one to blame but herself.

They managed to get seats in the far corner of the shop and away from other patrons. That made her feel slightly more at ease but still not enough to calm her anxiety.

"John this isn't a good idea. I should just go home," Shayera stated, once they were both seated. John gave her that look he always did when they were out in public. Just ignore them. She rolled her eyes and sighed. He just didn't understand how hard it was to ignore them.

"Do you want anything to eat?" He asked though he expected her to say no

Shayera silently sat for a moment. She wasn't feeling nauseous anymore and she knew that she needed to eventually eat something. She ended up nodding as she looked up at him, "Sure I'll have um...a blueberry muffin I guess."

John admittedly felt a bit relieved that she had finally agreed to eat something. He figured he had in fact overreacted to her behavior. Besides the spacing out and not being hungry, she seemed to be perfectly fine.

While waiting for John, Shayera realized she recognized the song that was playing over the speakers in the coffee shop. She couldn't remember the name of the song or the sing but she knew she had heard it before on Wally's iPod. It wasn't a half bad song either. She began to tap her fingers against the table in rhythm to the beat of the song as she quietly hummed along to it.

"Are you humming?" Shayera froze as John sat across from her. He looked rather amused. Obviously the line had been as long as she thought it would be.

"No I wasn't," she denied in a rather flustered tone. "I was...I was just clearing my throat is all."

"In the same tune as the song?" He asked as he smirked and raised an eyebrow.

Shayera gave him an unamused look, "Lantern, just give me my food."

John continued to smirk as he slid the muffin over to her. He watched as she picked around the top first. She claimed that it was the best part of a muffin.

"You know, I just realized something," he mentioned.

She took a bite from the muffin before she spoke, "About what?"

John raised an eyebrow, "Chew and swallow before talking Shay."

She rolled her eyes and swallowed before speaking again, "What John?"

"You said once that you hated blueberries yet you're eating a blueberry muffin."

Shayera narrowed her eyes, "I felt like having one. Is that a crime?"

He shook his head and shrugged, "No, just pointing it out. You have more bizarre eating habits than even Wally."