As a general rule, compared to his wife, John was the opposite of an early riser. It was for this reason that the sight of the sunlight through the blinds left him feeling so puzzled.

He at least took a bit of comfort in that the sun had already risen. From what he could see of the early morning light, the sky had already settled in a nice shade of light blue rather than the typical oranges and pinks that heralded the oncoming sun. A glance at the clock on the bedside table confirmed his thoughts. It was a little after six in the morning. Early but not ungodly so.

John yawned, and rolled over onto his other side. Shayera was still asleep; he knew she was on a deep space mission so she must have gotten back sometime during the night. John grinned, a little flare of victory rising in his chest. If Shayera was still asleep, that meant John could get away with going back to sleep. Not that Shayera would make him get up anyway but John didn't like staying in bed all day if Shayera was up and about.

John looked at the Thanagarian laying next to him. She had a deep bruise on her torso that he knew must likely resulted in a broken rib or two. And that was when his eyes were drawn to the light scars along Shayera's back.

It wasn't the first time John had seen Shayera without a shirt and just a sports bra on; it was common for the Thanagarian to not get dressed for bed during the summer months. Also it wasn't the first time he'd noticed the scars either. Though it was the first time he'd really looked at them when he wasn't preoccupied with other things. The scars were faded and a bit difficult to make out as a result. Nonetheless John found himself looking closer anyway. Most of them weren't very big. Each one was about the size of a small coin and just as round, though there were jagged lines connecting some of them, usually in pairs of two. John also knew she had one light scar that marred her stomach over her belly button, courtesy of an Nth axe years prior.

All thoughts of settling back down to sleep gone now, John reached out, gently touching one circular scar with his finger. He lightly traced the line to the scar connected to it that was dead center between her wings.

"What'cha doing?"

John quickly pulled his hand back. Shayera's voice was thick with sleep and her eyes were only open halfway, though still lit with curiosity even in her grogginess. John hadn't been doing anything wrong. There was nothing wrong with him touching his own wife but he still suddenly felt like he'd been prying into something he shouldn't have.

"I was just looking," he said, and when Shayera raised her eyebrows, he clarified, "At your scars."

"Hm?" Shayera looked over her shoulder as John poked one of the little circles again. "Oh, those ones."

"How did you get them?" John asked. There was a part of him that didn't really want to know the answer. Knowing about her war stories back on Thanagar, he could imagine a good majority of them were from that.

"Gordanians," she sighed as she lightly stretched and then hugged her pillow closer to her. "You know how sensitive the center of my back is. Let's just say...Gordanians normally exploited that against Thanagarians."

John looked away from the lighter scars and looked across Shayera's back until he found another one just next to the base of her right wing. John lifted one hand to touch it. It was bigger but pale like the rest except this one was indented. He frowned in puzzlement. "What about this one?" When he didn't get an immediate answer, he looked over to make eye contact with her, "Shayera?"

Shayera frowned, "Are you sure you wanna know? This isn't exactly some happy, early morning conversation."

"I want to know," John said, and when Shayera continued to look at him doubtfully he insisted, "Really, I do. What's this one from?"

Shayera hesitated a second more before she said, "Gordanians tried to cut my wing out."

John stared at her, thinking that maybe she'd say 'just kidding' after and tell the real story. When no such punchline came, John asked, "What?"

"I was stupid and was careless," Shayera said and she ran a hand through her hair. "I was a new recruit and picked a fight with a group of Gordanians I couldn't win." Shayera shrugged. "It wasn't a big deal. The rest of my squadron got there and killed the Gordanians before they could do anymore damage. I learned my lesson back then. It took months for my wing to recover. I was lucky there wasn't any permanent nerve damage."

"That's..." John looked down at the small piece of the mattress between them, unsure of what to say. He knew Shayera was tough. He'd known it for years, practically since they'd first met. But it was odd, somehow, hearing the stories and seeing that they were attached to something. Little marks that were mostly unnoticeable until one were to look closer but were etched like permanent badges sewn into her skin all the same.

"You okay?" Shayera asked. John blinked, and looked up quickly, bewildered.

"Why are you asking me that?" John asked. "You're the one who went through all that."

"Yeah but I went through it," Shayera said and John was about to say that was exactly the point when she said, "So I've already been through it, it doesn't bother me anymore. It's your first time dealing with it and it looks like it upset you."

John sighed, "I just wish you didn't have to deal with that is all."

"All that stuff is in the past now, right? I don't have to deal with it anymore and so you don't have to worry about it either. All we have to worry about is whatever comes up next," Shayera lightly smiled and poked John in the cheek. "So cheer up, okay? Don't let it bother you."

That was easier said than done but it was hard to stay worried when Shayera smiled like that. At the least, John couldn't help but smile himself as he said, "All right, I'll try." It shouldn't have been possible, really, but somehow Shayera's smile seemed even brighter, and on impulse John leaned over to lightly kiss Shayera on the lips.

Shayera yawned, "Can we do back to sleep? I've only been back for three hours. I need some sleep."

"I wouldn't mind five more minutes myself," John wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her a bit closer.

"I need more than five minutes. I need another five hours," Shayera smirked as she snuggled against him. "Especially since someone needed to wake me up."