Chapter 16: Beebo Day

Kal tore off the wrapping of his very first Christmas day present and blinked. "What's this?" He lifted the specimen up, admiring its soft blue fur, goggle eyes, and surprisingly firm midsection.

"A Beebo doll!" Ruby unhelpfully informed him, removing the wrapping from her own gift, her face brightening when she saw it was a pack of art supplies that she wanted.

"Beebo doll?"

Ruby excitedly nodded, grin still on her face. "Yeah! My mom got me one as a kid, and it helped keep my company whenever felt lonely. Now, whenever you feel lonely, you'll always have some company."

Kal blinked and looked at the stuffed toy with a little more regard. Hesitantly, he squeezed it, jumping when it responded with a "Beebo hungry!" in a clearly animatronic voice. Ruby giggled.

"Be careful: he's very huggable!"

Barry opened the door, and smirked. "So, you two decided to come after all."

Cisco lifted his hands. "Hey, it was either this or visit my family for Christmas, and trust me, I do not want to spend what's supposed to be the happiest time of the year watching my parents slobber over my jerk brother."

"And I just didn't want to spend Christmas alone." Caitlin followed, though with little of the hostility that usually colored it. On the contrary, she was pale, smiling shakily.

Barry quirked an eyebrow. "Alright then. Let me welcome you into Casa de West." He pulled them forward and towards the living room, where Iris and Eddie were arguing half-heartedly.

"Iris –"

"Eddie, it's Christmas. I think the Streak can wait a day or two." Iris calmly rebutted.

Barry clicked his teeth. "Listen to her Eddie. She's always right." Eddie glared at him, only to sigh and finally concede.

Iris blinked, taking in the two new guests. "You invited people, Bar?"

"Yup. Iris, Eddie, this is Cisco Ramon and Caitlin Snow, my two coworkers at S.T.A.R. Labs. Cisco, Caitlin, my best friend Iris West, and her boyfriend Eddie Thawne." Barry introduced the two pairs to each other as everyone exchanged handshakes.

At that point, Joe exited from the kitchen, setting down the eggnog. He looked up, beaming at the sight of Barry's 'friends.' "You two must be Caitlin and Cisco!" The two scientists looked at him nodded. "Wonderful. I'm Joe West, Iris' father and Barry's foster father."

As the scientists went to greet him, Iris took Barry and Eddie to the aside. At her guarded look, the two leaned in, careful to keep out of Joe's sight.

"Don't tell Dad, but I invited a couple more people to the party." She whispered conspiratorially.

Barry and Eddie exchanged looks, and then Barry blinked, looking hard at his best friend. "Iris, did you invite them?"

Iris shrugged. "I figured it was about time they meet." she murmured back.

"Combining a house-warming party and a Christmas party into one – that's certainly a new one for me." Tommy mused, looking around the mish-mash of decorations and moving boxes.

Sara hummed, pouring herself another cup of eggnog. "Well, we're not all old money, high-society billionaire types who need to have a party for every single occasion, Tommy." she snarked back.

Tommy scratched the back of his ear. "I know, I know, Sara. I'm not completely removed from the workings of the average lifestyle of the middle-class American, contrary to popular belief."

"But you're still removed." Sara pointed out.

Tommy opened his mouth to argue his case, only to stop when he noticed something by the entrance of the kitchen.

"Oh." Oliver's head was tilted upwards, and he was openly staring.

Mistletoe.

"Yeah." Laurel's head was in a similar position. She rubbed her arm as she and Oliver made eye contact once more. "So…"

Oliver cut her off, lightly grabbing her chin and giving her a chaste kiss on the cheek. Laurel blushed hard, smiling widely when they separated. The Queen rubbed the back of his head, returning the smile with one of his own, though far more clumsily.

Tommy grit his teeth and looked away. Sara noticed, but made the smart decision not to comment – there were some things that were better left alone.

The doorbell chimed. Joe West turned towards it, confused.

"Did anyone invite anybody else?" He called out to his guests, specifically towards Barry, Iris, and Eddie.

"Just me!" his daughter called back. Joe frowned, and turned the door knob, pulling forward.

He froze, shocked.

"Hello again, Joe." Francine smiled at her ex-husband.

"Francine." Joe said, in complete disbelief. Then, shaking his stupor, he gave his ex-wife a nervous smile and went in for a short hug.

When they released their embrace, he looked at her with a more inquisitive expression. "What are you doing here?"

Francine smile had a hint of sadness to it now. "Iris invited us."

"Us?" Joe asked, even more perplexed.

Francine didn't respond, instead simply moving aside, revealing a young man behind her. Joe's expression turned into one of even greater shock, and he had to grab the door sill to steady himself.

"I'm Wally West." The young man stuck his hand out.

"You've got quite the reputation, Miss Arias." Moira complimented the younger woman. She, Sam, and Kara were all sitting together, huddled against the fireplace.

Sam flushed. "I hope it's nothing bad." she responded shyly.

Moira shook her head. "Farthest thing from it. I've only heard good things about you from others, including my husband and Tommy's father."

"Robert Queen and Malcolm Merlyn themselves?" Sam asked in awe.

"Yes." Moira took a sip of her eggnog. "When Robert heard you and Kara were acquainted with another, he all but begged her to invite you to our Thanksgiving gathering. Unfortunately, you and your daughter were out of town at the time."

The other woman rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "It's kind of mine and Ruby's thing to spend every Thanksgiving out of town. We either visit the Macy's Parade up in New York or spend a couple of days at an amusement park together."

"I understand completely. Thanksgiving is time for family after all. I still wished you could've joined us, if only to hear Kara's beautiful singing voice."

Kara, who had been listening to the conversation silently, sputtered. "Moira…!"

The Queen matriarch gave her a dismissive gesture. "Pish-posh, Kara. Humility is fine, but you should take at least some pride in your abilities. I, for one, think your voice is wonderful – I insist you perform a song or two at one of our larger gatherings. Perhaps our charity gala this April?"

The Kryptonian floundered, her arms waving vigorously in front of her. "My singing experience is only limited to baby songs and karaoke, Moira! I'm sure you can find better entertainment than me with the money at your disposal." she insisted. She was lying, of course – she had vocal training from her time in the League. That being said, she was in no way keen on performing in front such large crowd, especially when it would be mostly filled with complete strangers.

The two women continued to playfully argue over the merits of exploiting Kara's singing abilities, completely unaware of the blinking dot on the wall outside of Kara's apartment.

From across the street, in a small café, Astra listened to the conversation from her headset, frowning at the borderline maternal tone that this 'Moira' addressed her niece with. Though she didn't want to admit it, she was jealous – it seemed in that a fleeting time, this human had already developed a matronly bond with Kara that was not that different from one she had shared with her.

Her envious thoughts were purged, however, at the sound of Kara's voice. Seeing her picture, watching her on the news – none of it compared to hearing the dulcet tones of her niece, positive proof that Kara was truly here on this planet, alive. Her voice had deepened, of course, and hearing it in one of this planet's foreign languages was somewhat startling. Astra, of course, had mastered English in preparation for Myriad, as had Non and Indigo, but it still sounded exotic to her ears at times. Hearing it in Kara's cadence, her tilted 'l's and cheery tone, was just as unfamiliar as it was nostalgic.

It was only a reminder of all the years they had lost together. Kara should've been with her, raised by her, taught by her, standing side-by-side with her, her remaining blood family, rather than consorting with a foreign species. If only Astra had known, that it was her and Kal-El's ship that had dragged Fort Rozz out of the Phantom Zone; she and Kara could've been preparing for Myriad right now. Instead Astra had to lower herself to spying on her own family, while Kara remained completely unaware of her continued survival. It was a dream almost as much as it was nightmare.

Silently, she turned the headset off, deactivating the bug. She was tempted to retrieve it, but thought better of it – Kara had no reason to believe she would be spied on, and Astra knew it wouldn't be long until she would return in hopes of catching another glimpse of her niece. With the gathering going on upstairs, it would just be asking for trouble.

Still, her mind dwelled upon the incident with Vartox a couple of weeks ago. They had yet to locate his body, nor had they determined what exactly happened during the Valeronian's confrontation with the Girl in Blue. Even now, Astra was befuddled over what exactly Kara did, and perhaps her occasional surveillance on her niece would shed some light on the truth.

Her mind set, Astra departed from the café, dropping a small tip into the glass jar on the counter along the way.

"You're an engineering major?"

Wally hummed. "What can I say? Cars are my one true love."

From their vantage point by the table, Barry and Iris smiled at the scene. "It's going well." Barry stated happily, idly taking a bite out of a gingerbread cookie.

"I know. I'll see if I can drag Wally to dinner here another time." Iris commented back, grin wide, showing all her teeth.

Barry turned to her, taking another bite out of his cookie. "So, does this mean you're ready to bury the hatchet?"

"I guess so." Iris shrugged. "I thought on what you said, and we've been hanging out more in the last couple of months than we have in the last six years because of you and, well…I'm just tired of being angry. It's time we moved past all that."

The speedster nodded. "Eddie will be pleased."

Iris snorted. "A month or two ago, maybe. These days he's too concentrated on the Streak to pay anymore attention to the state of my relationship with Dad."

Barry furrowed his eyebrows. "I knew you told me it was bad, but I didn't realize it was that bad. How much effort did it take you to get him out of the station?"

"Way more than it should have, I can tell you that." Iris said, leveling a small glare at her boyfriend's back. Eddie was currently conversing with an amused Francine and an uncomfortable-looking Cisco about the vigilante, slightly intoxicated by Grandma Edna's famous eggnog.

Amused, Barry was about to respond, only to catch sight of the ashen Caitlin, who was nursing her own drink on the stairs, deep in thought and clearly distressed. "A moment." Not waiting to see if Iris heard him or not, he quietly made his way to the bio-engineer, careful to not catch anyone's attention.

"Hey." Caitlin looked up, haggard. "You okay?" Barry asked with concern. While they didn't have the best relationship, they were still coworkers. Barry had noticed that Caitlin had seemed more withdrawn lately, but he hadn't put much mind to it. He did question Cisco about it, and heard from him that this would be the first Christmas since her fiancé Ronnie's death. Figuring that was the issue, and that Caitlin wouldn't like to be reminded of it, he invited her to the party in hopes of cheering her up.

Something told Barry, however, that wasn't the real source of Caitlin's current state. At least, not entirely.

"It's nothing." Caitlin tried to shoo him away. Barry wouldn't take that for an answer, however, and took her by the hand, forcing her gaze towards him.

"Caitlin. It's Christmas. Whatever it is, just let it go. Just for tonight." He insisted gently.

Caitlin hesitated. Then, seeing the genuine expression on Barry's face, slowly nodded, and allowed him to guide her back to the festivities.

"I don't know why, but I feel that this doll is way more important than it actually is." Kal commented to his cousin, staring hard at his newly acquired Beebo doll.

"It's your Christmas gift, Kal. Of course it's important." Kara told him, absentmindedly placing the rest of the leftovers in their new fridge. The party long over, everyone had departed back to their own homes, and Kara was cleaning up the remaining food and waste.

Kal shook his head. "Not for sentimental reasons. For some reason, I think this doll is pivotal to some world-shaking event. Something that could change reality as we know it."

Kara stared at him for a moment. "…Kal, who gave you the eggnog?"

"Tommy, and no, Kara, my mental faculties are fully functioning. Earth alcohol can't affect us Kryptonians anyway, you know that."

"Fully-grown Kryptonians are immune to Earth alcohol." Kara corrected him. "We have no clue how it would affect the body of a developing Kryptonian child."

Kal leveled an unimpressed look at her. "Kara. I. Am. Not. Drunk."

"Whatever you say, Kal. Whatever you say."

Kal opened his mouth to argue back, only to be cut off by the loud chime of the doorbell. Kara peeked her head outside of the kitchen as he went to open the door. "Who'd be visiting us at this time of night?"

Kal shrugged, and distractedly opened the knob. He lazily turned his head to see who it was, and froze.

"KARA!"

Kara, having turned her attention to putting away the dining ware, exited the kitchen with a bowl in her hands. "What is it, Kal –" she stopped immediately, inadvertently stiffening. Her arms fell to her sides, and the bowl dropped to the floor, shattering upon contact with hardwood.

"Night, Bar."

"Night, Joe." Barry bid his foster father goodnight, watching as the light turned off from his bedroom. He frowned when he heard the tell-tale sound of his phone. Picking it up, he saw a text there.

MY PLACE NOW BRING OLIVER WITH YOU

Quirking an eyebrow at the inarticulate sentence, he shrugged. A flash of lightning later, he was gone.

"Wonder why she wants us here." Oliver mused as Barry inserted his spare key and turned the front doo open. "I just left this place a few hours ago."

Barry shrugged. "Whatever it is, she was pretty urgent about it. I –" His voice caught in his throat, his body completely immobilized. He had been the first to cross the threshold of the condo, and thus the first to see what was inside.

Oliver, confused over Barry's reaction, frowned and pushed his way in, causing the younger man to stumble to the side a bit. He looked up, and stopped dead.

"Slade?"

Yes, it was Slade all along, though I imagine all of you already knew that. Quick warning, the next chapter might take a little longer than usual. It's going to cover what Slade has been doing for the last eight and a half years, and how exactly he ended up in Amanda Waller's grip.

As for the title, I am indeed a follower of our one true god, Beebo. PRAISE BEEBO!