A/N: The first part of this is set sometime pre-Wild Cards. The second part of this is set post-Destroyer but very shortly before Small Talk.

Hawks were always very graceful in the sky. Gliding through the air and careening around corners as they flied. A much stark contrast to their waddling little cousins, the ducks.

True ducks were bumbling little fools on the ground and could fly but beneath the water they were just as graceful as their avian counterparts were in the sky.

Now if one were to throw a hawk into the water one would find the hawk to not be graceful in the least. They weren't ducks after all. Most likely the hawk would drown.

John mused on this fact as he watched Hawkgirl warily look down at the water below them as they flew over the Pacific ocean off of the coast of South America.

"Something on your mind Hawkgirl?" John broke the silence between them. "You seem anxious."

Hawkgirl seemed to snap out of whatever thoughts she was musing over and glared at him. "I'm fine." She looked back down below her. "Why are we even here?"

"Well," John said with a bit too much humor that irritated the Thanagarian, causing her to frown, "Apparently Devil Ray has been looting cargo vessels in the area. Didn't Batman brief you?"

"Yes he did. I meant...never mind!" Hawkgirl snapped at him as she continued to frown. What she meant was why the two of them were on this mission together. For one she was near water and didn't want to be anywhere near it. And second, she didn't want to be anywhere near the resident Green Lantern. He seemed to irritate her to no end.

John turned his head back forward and smirked. He knew what she meant. He was starting to pick up in the subtle clues in her tone and body language. He could tell she was a bit nervous. Honestly he couldn't blame her. For someone as confident as even she was, there would always be a weakness.

He noticed hitting her in the back, right between her wings, seemed to paralyze her temporarily if hit hard enough. Her wings themselves were just two long bulls-eyes on her back. He was beginning to suspect that swimming wasn't exactly one of her strong suits either.

"Water's probably warm," John said with a smirk.

"Yeah...fantastic. If you go in let me know," Hawkgirl kept her frown planted on her face as she looked forward. It was obvious that she was trying to ignore him.

Avoidance...she was nervous. John took notice of this right away. It wasn't everyday he saw the fearsome Hawkgirl actually nervous.

"You don't swim?" John asked her but he knew what the answer would be.

Hawkgirl gave him an unamused look and narrowed her eyes, "Do I look like I swim often?"

John just let out a short chuckle and that seemed to aggravate her even more. John found himself consciously testing her patience each day. He wasn't sure why he was doing this. Partly he wanted to see her reactions and how she would respond to certain questions.

"Is something funny Lantern?"

"No...just an observation."

That seemed to intrigue her as she tilted her head a bit, her frown disappearing. "About what?"

"Good thing you didn't call yourself Duckgirl," he playfully quipped.

"Funny," she rolled her eyes. "Look I know the fundamentals of swimming, I'm just not good at it. You take care of the underwater part. I'll trash whatever is above the surface. Deal?"

John locked eyes with her. It was rare for her to admit she couldn't do something. He wondered how much of her pride it cost her to say that. Though she was growing impatient for his response. He could tell by the way she narrowed her eyes at him and the growing scowl on her face.

"Deal," he responded with a smirk.

John frowned as he landed on the beach. Honestly this mission was proving to be a headache.

The Legion of Doom had attempted to rob a shipment of diamonds that were bound off the coast of Africa. Giganta had been their muscle and defense. Volcana was using the tropical climate to her advantage as she raised the temperature by a few hundred degrees. Electrocutioner and KGBeast had been sent as the brains of the operation and had pioneered the cargo vessel by taking the crew hostage.

With John had been sent with Shayera and Fire. He lost track of Shayera as she went after Electrocutioner and KGBeast, who were on-board the cargo ship holding the crew hostage. John was assuming she wasn't having any problems. Fire was proving to have little problems dealing with Volcana. They were currently in a stalemate but it appeared Fire was beginning to take the lead.

John had to admit that Giganta was troublesome to deal with. As girly as she was, she could pack a punch. Plus, with her size, she could take plenty of hits. John was getting annoyed as he threw construct after construct at her.

Finally an anvil construct brought Giganta down. John sighed in relief. He then heard a yell and both saw and heard Electrocutioner land on the sand a few dozen meters away. He looked up to see Shayera looking rather smugly over the railing of the cargo ship. Though within seconds KGBeast tackled her from behind and threw her against one of the shipment containers. From there he heard KGBeast open fire.

John scowled and turned to Fire, "I'm going to help Shayera. Keep handling Volcana."

Fire merely nodded as she and Volcana went back to their fiery tango.

The second John landed on the ship's deck he was sent flying back against the wall as KGBeast threw Shayera into him.

"Making friends?" John grunted as Shayera untangled herself from him.

Shayera grimaced as she put a hand against her ribs, "Yeah best buds."

That was when John noticed the blood trickling down her side as well the lateral wounds on her wing.

Shayera noticed where his vision was trained on, "I'm fine. It was a through and through shot."

"Yeah for your body but not your wing." He watched as her right wing twitched every so often. He knew from her nonverbal habits that meant she was in pain. Though the scowl on her face also made that evident.

"One shot got me in the side. Doesn't even hurt."

He heard her hold back a grunt as she took off in the air. He noticed that she was mostly gliding and not flying, not a good sign. "Yeah doesn't hurt," he sarcastically repeated to himself as he followed her.

He quickly constructed a wall around them as KGBeast opened fired. "Now stay-"

"Get out of the way, I got him!" Shayera insisted as she flew around his construct and dive-bombed the villain.

John let out an exasperated sigh as he watched Shayera's mace make contact with the deck of the ship as KGBeast tuck and rolled out of the way. Shayera frowned as she took to the sky again to try her aerial assault for a second time.

KGBeast loaded an explosive into the mounted gun grafted to his left arm. John saw this and quickly created a fist construct, landing a hit to KGBeast's jaw.

KGBeast quickly turned the gun to John and fired the small explosive rocket at him. John swiftly dodge but heard the explosive go off, a pained grunt, and then a large splash into the ocean water surrounding them.

"Shayera!" John exclaimed as he turned his head towards the water, not sure of where she had landed.

"You can either save her or the crew." KGBeast held his gun up to the ship's crew he had hostage on the deck. "Your choice Green Lantern. Either way someone is bound to die."

John looked back at the water before turning his attention to KGBeast and his hostages. He scowled at the Legionnaire. These were the situations he dreaded. Knowing Thanagarian physiology, John knew Shayera could hold her breath a lot longer than a human. He just hoped she entered the water conscious.

"You just made a very big mistake," John blasted KGBeast into a cargo container with just a simple blast from his ring. Though he repeated the process six more times to make sure the Russian wouldn't be getting back up anytime soon.

Without even checking on the hostages, John dove into the water. It didn't take him long to find Shayera, sinking like a rock. Though, as he feared, she had entered the water unconscious. Even though he could have simply lifted her out of the water with just his ring, John still wrapped his arms around her as he flew them both out of the water and onto the deck of the ship.

Upon setting her down he found she had a pulse but wasn't breathing. Immediately John's mind went into overdrive. Could he possibly succeed with mouth-to-mouth? Thanagarian lungs were stronger than human lungs but John would be damned if he wasn't going to try. This wasn't how things were supposed to turnout. This wasn't her future. It wouldn't be her future if John had a say in it.

He tilted her head back and began to give her mouth-to-mouth. He noticed her chest wasn't rising and he knew there was a very good chance there wasn't enough oxygen going into her lungs.

"Don't do this to me Shayera."

John wondered if this is how she felt back on the Vegas strip. Did she feel this panicked? This hopeless?

He continued until a few minutes later she began to cough and choke up the salt water. John immediately turned her on her side as she continued to cough and gasp for air. After five minutes she stopped choking and slowly opened her eyes.

"Hey," John softly said to her.

Shayera slowly looked up at him, "Hey."

"How are you feeling?" He quietly asked her as he placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Like shit," she then slightly smirked.

That confused him, "You seem rather cheery for someone that nearly drowned."

"Just reminded me of something."

"Remind you of what?" He asked as he helped her sit up, keeping his hand firmly against the wound on her side that was still bleeding.

"Why I didn't call myself Duckgirl."