Chapter Four: Interruption
Helena sighed in the dim light and readjusted herself in the seat. Only back in the Justice League a week and she was already bored. Helena wasn't a girl for sitting around and monitoring other people who are out on missions and having fun! She was an action girl! She wanted violence and chasing and adrenaline! Instead, the Justice League put her on babysitting duty...and not just any babysitting...graveyard shift babysitting.
Speaking of babysitting, it was time for check-in. Helena reached over and tapped in a set of six numbers into the computer terminal. The small screens lit up and Green Arrow's face glared out.
"What?"
"How's it going, Ollie?"
"Shove it, what do you want?"
Helena's smile faded away. Some people just couldn't take a joke. Even if that joke had been perpetuated on her first day back with the help of Captain Atom. "What's your status?"
"No sign of Poison Ivy or Bane. I don't think they're hitting the store tonight."
"J'onn said to stay until four and if there's no sign of 'em to come on home."
"Fine," Ollie replied curtly before cutting the connection. Helena smirked. What the hell did Black Canary see in that tight ass? Speaking of tight asses...Helena put in another set of numbers.
The line clicked open without a sound, but only a sliver of light played over a face, if you would call it that. Obviously Q was still in deep cover inside Lex Corp. Superman hadn't been comfortable sending Q in, with Lex Luthor being a touchy subject with the big guy, but Q had had concrete evidence of wrongdoing and Superman had no choice but to allow him to investigate.
"How's it going?"
He didn't speak, only shrugged. Helena could read him though, and spoke softer. "Coming home soon?"
Again, a shrug. In the little light, Helena could see Q tense and hear the rising volume of talk. Slowly, she began to make out their words.
"The boss wants these crates moved out, pronto and under the radar if you get my drift?" A tough voice, slight Brooklyn accent.
"I'll call Vinnie; have him get a truck over here tonight...after hours, maybe eleven?" Different voice, softer, no accent.
Q wasn't paying attention to the voices nearby, though he did take in the conversation. He was watching Helena. Her hair was rumpled and fell in tousled waves around her shoulders. She hated doing late night monitor work and would usually pass it off on someone else for a favor. So soon after re-joining the league, she'd decided to wait a couple weeks before squelching on her work. Obviously, she'd been indulging in a nap right before starting the check-ins...there was a line running right through her cheek where her head had laid on her glove seam. She was concentrating on the conversation on his side of the feed and didn't notice that he wasn't paying attention to it.
As the voices started to fade away, with the two men leaving the room, Q shut off the tape recorder in his hand. He had all the evidence he needed. Now all that was left was getting it to the proper authorities. At the echoing of the outer door closing, he sighed and rose from the cubby hole where he'd been jammed in hiding for three hours. His back cracking echoed through the monitor.
"Long day, Vic?"
"Getting longer every minute. I'll be back topside in an hour."
"Why so long?"
Q shook the audio tape recorder in his hand so that Huntress could see. "Got a delivery."
"Oh, well...guess I'm stuck here all alone..."
Q smiled at her tone, though she couldn't see it through his mask. He'd been about to reply, to offer to join her, when a voice echoed down the connection from Huntress's side.
"Coffee break!" A loudly exaggerated Southern voice carried through from off-screen, and Q recognized it. It'd been the bane of the last week, never leaving Helena's side when Q was around, though Q saw that as more Captain Atom's insecurity than a genuine need for that much attention from her. It was probably from all the Wheaties that man ate at breakfast. Everybody knows that the cereal companies put hormones and drugs in to cause people to eat more with side effects including behavioral problems and diarrhea.
"See you topside, stranger," Huntress said smoothly before disconnecting. "Well if it isn't my favorite leaguer!"
Nate grinned, and it was slightly creepy in his powder blue face. "How's the graveyard shift?"
"Horrid. I hate seeing dawn."
"Technically, since we're in space, we won't be seeing it. We're already dayside, so..."
"I get it, babe!" Huntress was quick to interrupt, for her new beau tended to spout off at the mouth sometimes. Made a girl miss Q's long silences. Course, Q's silences were usually actually just him getting caught up in Microsoft's latest dastardly plot...crazy men are sexy.
"What are you doing this weekend?" Nate asked, drinking slowly from his hot coffee, the steam making a tendril of his white hair fall forward and briefly shadow his eyes.
"My kids and their parents are having a party. I thought maybe you'd want to go," Huntress mentioned casually, watching him from over her mug as she drank too.
Nate sobered for a minute, then smiled sneaky-like. "Like this?" He asked, gesturing to his blue-ness.
"What happened to that sweet little gadget Batman gave you? That makes you all pink?"
"I gave it back. I suppose I could borrow it."
"Apparently it makes you Southern-er too."
Nate looked sheepish. "They thought that a thicker accent would appeal to you."
"Did they?" Her smile was deceiving, more innocent-looking than her thoughts were.
Oh, they would pay. They wouldn't expect it, but they would.
"Did it?" Huntress loved it when Nate tried to be charming. It was so unlike his natural militaristic self that he came off like a little-boy-trying-to-impress.
Huntress rose and smoothed her hand down his chest. It felt good to look up at a man; Q was her height, maybe less. Still, being with someone your own height made certain, more intimate things interesting.
"So are you coming? Wanna be the date of a kindergarten teacher?"
"That always surprises me."
Huntress smiled. "That I teach kids?"
"Yeah. It's so unlike your Huntress persona."
"She and Helena are one and the same. Most people don't see my soft side."
"Show it to me?"
"Maybe...if you're bad..."
When Question finally made it back to that satellite in the sky to check in, Captain Atom was nowhere in sight, and Huntress was back to being bored. She'd put her feet up on the desk and was idly watching the monitors. As usual, his approach was silent enough that no one should have heard him.
"Interesting work ethic," Q commented, taking in the candy debris and general mess she'd made in her eight hour shift.
"Yeah...workaholic, that's me," Huntress replied without turning around. Maybe she had heard him coming.
"I've got the written report for Superman, is he awake?"
"You're the know-it-all, you tell me..." Huntress said, turning her seat so that she was now facing him in all her long-legged, and pouty lipped beauty. She'd always known what buttons to push with him.
"Superman likes to wake at dawn, Mountain Time. He'd be awake and in the gym by now."
"Good boy, wanna a cookie?" Huntress asked, grinning as she cocked her head mockingly.
Q smiled, then in a move Huntress didn't expect, leaned down and brushed a kiss across her lips (as much as a man with no face can kiss). "No, thanks, Helena. I've got things to do."
"Crazy man!" She called after him, a wide smile across her face.
"That's what they tell me..." Q called back.
The grins did not last long. The two were playing a game, a dangerous one, and unlike before, this time it wasn't a duet.
Someone was going to get hurt.
