Chapter Twenty-Seven — Shaken
"You really shouldn't say I love you unless you mean it, but if you do mean it you should say it a lot; people forget."
In order to catch up on work he was constantly missing due to his duties to the Green Lantern Corps Hal Jordan usually worked long hours; usually, because just as common as it was for Hal to spend twelve or thirteen hours a day at Ferris Aircraft it was also common for him to be sent homes half-way through the day because tremors from an earthquake or violent winds that came with sandstorms made flying conditions too dangerous for him to continue test piloting.
So when Hal Jordan, in his aviator jacket and with his old Air Force dog tags tucked into his shirt walked into his and Arley— and Guy's —apartment just a quarter to noon, Arley, who was on the couch with a book on Atlantean culture in her hands, and her phone on the coffee table, face up, wasn't surprised to see him.
The menorah Hal had bought for Arley after adopting her sat in the window of the living room, it was a simple silver menorah and each of it's candles were blue; six of the candles wicks— including the shamash —were burnt and Guys grey slippers he usually kept tucked half under the couch at night were closer to the leg of the coffee table then the couch due to Arley wearing them to the kitchen when she had needed a drink.
"Hey Kid," Hal beamed as he shrugged off his jacket and hung it up on the coat-rack that was next to the apartments front door, Arley looked up at her adoptive father and shot the man a closed lipped smile,
"Hey Hal."
Hal paused at Arley's lackluster tone and frowned in the girls direction, she hadn't seen him since before she'd left for the Mount Justice cave the day before; hours before Oliver had even suggested she and the other ex-sidekicks even take the Sportsmaster mission. Arley hadn't had the chance to tell him or Guy what had happened after the mission― with Wally and Roy ―when she'd got home because both men had been fast asleep, and by the time she herself had woken up they'd both been long gone with only notes on the kitchen refrigerator left behind,
"Everything alright?"
"Yeah," Arley said automatically, unthinkingly, her shoulders sagged against the pillow she had propped up behind her and Hal leaned against the back of the recliner, "Sort of, maybe, who knows!" Arley placed her book in her lap and threw her hands in the air, when she lowered them her palms were flat against the very top of her head and tears glossed over Arley's hazel eyes, the Lantern looked up at the apartments white ceiling as she blinked her tears back. "I think I ruined everything, Hal."
Hal moved and when Arley looked at her adoptive father the man was in the recliner, his elbows on his knees.
"Look whatever happened, I'm sure it's not ruined." Arley scoffed,
"I've called Wally like a dozen times and I just keep getting his voicemail, Hal―" Arley cut herself off as her voice cracked, "―What if he doesn't want anything to do with me ever again? What if I lost him?"
"Okay," Hal said with raised brows, "How about we start with what happened in the first place, and then I'll tell you how wrong you are." Arley couldn't help the snort that escaped her at the pilots words, "I'm serious," Hal told her, "You and Wally, I can count the number of times you two have fought on one hand okay? I'm sure whatever happens , it isn't too bad-so what happened?"
"Roy and Artemis," Arley said, "Oliver he sent us on a mission yesterday―"
"―The Sportsmaster one, yeah," Hal nodded, all the young heroes mentors and parents were notified when their protegees went on last missions, even last minute ones, so even if it hadn't been Batman who sent Arley and the others after the assassin, Oliver or Red Tornado had still notified Hal and Guy.
"Exactly, and Roy he was total moof-milking nerf-herding, prick to Artemis the whole time because he thinks that's she's the mole on the team Sportsmaster told Kaldur about back in September," Arley explained, "And she's not, we don't have a mole on the team." Hal nodded silently, "But Artemis―" Arley growled, "Artemis pulled some shit, like she swears there was a good reason but she tried to capture Cheshire and Sportsmaster all on her own and I totally snapped at Wally."
Hals brows knitted together, "Because Artemis pulls some shit?"
"Because he was taking Roy's side," Arley explained with a shake of her head, "Artemis is our team member and we're supposed to trust her just like she's supposed to trust us and Wally-I, I could have been nicer to him but I wasn't and now he won't talk to me and he probably hates me and never wants to see me again."
"Well I'm willing to bet that's a gross exaggeration."
"It's not!" Arley moaned as she pressed her hands against her face, "He hates me and he'd probably sooner change planets then ever speak to me again!"
Hal let out a loud, bark of laughter.
"Kid look, I'm sure Wally doesn't hate you," Hal put his hands up when Arley's hands fell away from her yes and she shot him a sharp look of disbelief, "Here's some fatherly advice I wish my old man had been able to give me, the first fight is always the worst, maybe it's because you don't know how to make it up to the person or maybe it's because that's signaling the honeymoon phase is coming to an end but it's called a first fight for a reason."
Arley rolled the inside of her cheek between her teeth as she digested her sector leaders words.
"So what do I do?" Arley asked, "I've called and texted-I mean I don't want to show up at his house like a total freak and make him talk to me but I want him to, you know?"
"You wait," Hal said, "Give Wally some time. He likes Artemis just as much as you do so I'm sure he's also having trouble swallowing whatever she pulled on your mission." Arley nodded and Hal leaned forward, his hand wrapped around the ankle of her fuzzy polka-dotted sock, "Everything's going to work okay? Just hang tight and believe."
...
Hal was in the kitchen making himself a sandwich and Arley had gone into her room, the Lantern was only half dressed— the shirt she'd chosen to wear for the day was still in her hands —when she picked up her phone and unlocked it. There were no new messages; Arley bit her lip and went to the green contacts app at the bottom of her screen and tapped her thumb against the most recent call before she held the phone up to her ear.
The phone rang and rang and Arley continued to hold her breath until Wally West's voicemail picked up.
"Hey this isn't me but in an alternate reality it is. Anyway leave your name and whatever you wanted to say after the beep and maybe in this reality I'll get back to you." Arley sighed, it was loud and heavy, and then she heard a beep so the youngest Lantern in sector two-eight-one- four sucked in a deep breath.
"Hey Wally it's me-again, er-Arley, it's Arley, I just wanted to call you, to talk to you and say I'm sorry for snapping at you last night." Arley licked her lips, "Call me back, please?" The phone beeped loudly in her ear before the automated voice that followed started to tell her what button that she could press in order to re-record her message, instead Arley― with another sigh ―hung up and tossed her phone onto her bed.
Hal usually got the spelling of words like handkerchief and Pharaoh, he also usually forgot how long you were supposed to leave cookies in the oven but he wasn't wrong when it came to people and Arley knew he wasn't wrong when he told her everything would work out; he couldn't be.
...
It wasn't the twentieth of December― it was the cold and dreary sixth ―and yet Arley Gluck still found herself in her mother's hospital room. When she'd been a small child― before foster care ―and she had scraped her knee at the local park or burned her hand on the stove she wasn't supposed to touch, Arley had always run to her mother.
When she'd been thrown into foster care, on the nights she's be battered and bruised Arley would pull out the only picture she had of her mother and cling to it as she tried to fall asleep and during her year on Oa, in boot camp, after she had gotten her ring, Arley had— more then once —formed a construct in the shape of her mother, just to remember what her mothers hugs had been like, so it wasn't a surprise that Arley had gone to visit her mother when Wally continued to not return her calls.
Maria Gomez was in her usual hospital gown. The walls of her room were bare and bland, the white walls seemed to glow under the hospital wings fluorescent lighting, and most importantly the woman who had been living in the hospital room for the past twelve years, stared down at her hands as she grinned wildly; the Joker-esque smile on her mother's face made Arley's gut churn.
Arley could only imagine what her mother was thinking as she continued to smile; she should have kicked in the Joker's teeth when she and the team had faced him and the rest of the Injustice Society back in October. She should have made sure that the doctors in Arkham would've had to wire his jaw permanently shut and that the Clown Prince of Crime would've never been able to smile again.
Arley looked at her mother as the television played a re-run of an old Adventure time episode. It was the Slumber Party episode and Finn the Human, as he cited Seven Minutes in Heaven, pushed his adoptive brother Jake, a magical yellow dog— that could stretch his body the same way Plastic-man could —into a closet with another character; Lady Raincorn, a rainbow unicorn that had a blonde tuft of hair atop her pink head.
M'gann loved the show; the Martian girl loved all television shows but there was something about the cute animation and characters of that show— Adventure Time —that drew the Martian girl in.
Arley rolled her eyes away from the television, she knew she couldn't grab her mother's hand because if she did her mother could be thrown into a violent fit but all Arley wanted to do was hold her mother's hand; all she wanted was a hug and for her mother to tell her everything with Wally would work out, just as Hal had done back in their Coast City apartment. But she couldn't and so Arley swallowed down what she wanted and turned her attention back to the cartoon that was playing.
...
Just like what Arley heard around Christmas time, there were Hanukkah themed songs playing throughout the Jordan-Gluck-Gardner apartment when Arley got home; Conner was there with Hal in the living room, at the coffee table. There was gelt piled around the table and Arley's blue and white dreidel spinning around the top of the table; Arley could hear Kilowog— who had been on a mission the first few nights of the holiday —and John and Katma's booming laughter echoing from the kitchen as Guy whined something like Forget you, in their direction.
Arley could smell Guy's cooking; she could practically taste the red headed Lanterns lakets, honey balls and sweet noodle kugel.
Hal looked up from his spinning top and at Arley as she shrugged her winter coat off and hung it up on the coat rack next to the door.
Conner, still looking at the top, threw up a hand and waved in Arley's direction; it was as if the half-Kryptonian believed he could make the dreidel land on gimmel just by focusing on it.
"Arley's home!" Hal called out and the dreidel stopped spinning; Arley could see Conner pout from where she stood as the clone threw a piece of gelt into the pile and though she heard Kilowog say something she looked at the boy she thought of as a brother,
"Hal kicking your ass again?" Arley joked and Conner turned, he was swearing one of Hal's ugly Hanukkah sweaters, this one lit up and the lights that'd been sewn into the fabric— the ones that rested above each candle —blinked to the beat of the song Hanukkah Blessings. The sweater Hal wore had a picture of challa bread on it and the words Challa At Ya Boy sewn next to the bread.
"I'm going to win this time," Conner said determinedly and Arley held back her snort. Conner hadn't won the dreidel game once since the first night of Hanukkah. Kilowog, in his usual Green Lantern uniform emerged from the kitchen with his arms stretched out, and with a smile Arley turned to the Bolovaxian.
"Kid!"
Arley felt her feet lift off the ground as Kilowog scooped her into a tight hug. Arley wrapped her arms around the aliens thick neck and pressed a kiss to his cheek— Hal and John and Guy were her fathers but Kilowog had been the first; he'd been the first adult in years to look at Arley and tuck her into bed and be there for her when she woke up screaming —and when Kilowog placed her back onto the wood floor of her and Hal and Guys apartment Arley kept her hand on the aliens forearm.
"Happy Hanukkah!" Arley beamed, Kilowog moved his arm from under her hand and placed his large palm onto the very top of Arley's head,
"Happy Hanukkah kid!" Kilowog said back, "Sorry I couldn't make it for the first night."
"It's fine," Arley shrugged, "You had your orders-which by the way how was the mission?" Arley wondered, "What was the mission?"
Kilowog put his hands on his hips and smiled.
"I had to help mediate a peace treaty between the Utapauians," Kilowog explained, Arley nodded, already knowing that on the far off planet of Utapauian there were two different species— the Pau'an and the Utai —that had evolved from a common ancestor, "Nothing flashy, though one of the council members for the Pau'an's pulled a blaster when the Utai wouldn't budge on being allowed to live on the surface world so I can't say it was all boring."
"Tha—"
"—Incoming!" Guy shouted as a tiny orange hair ball bounded out of the kitchen and to Kilowog. Arley's eyes widened because what Kilowog had bent to pick up was a vulpimancer— a young, infantile vulpimancer, but still a vulpimancer all the same —an alien, dog like species that was found thousands of light years away from Arley and the others sector.
Of all the things to come out of that kitchen, Aniell mused, A vulpamancer pup was the last thing I expected.
Arley continued to gawk at the wriggling alien puppy in her old Training Sargenst arms; You can say that again.
Guy, John and Katma appeared in the doorway between the kitchen and living room; Guy smiled guiltily at Kilowog; Kilowog, with the young vulpimancer in his arms, turned and shot a dry look at the three other Lanterns.
"Sorry Sarge." Kilowog rolled his beady red eyes and Conner and Hal looked up and away from their dreidel game as the last Bolovaxian turned to Arley and held the vulpimancer out towards her, to which Arley just raised her brows.
"Happy Hanukkah kid," Kilowog said as he held the alien dog closer to Arley; the female Lantern— as she blinked —took the orange vulpimancer from the Bolovaxian and cradled the alien canine against her chest.
"Happy Hau—" Arley, with a bright smile, cut herself off and turned to Hal, "—I can keep him?"
"Well he's certainly not here for a visit," Hal laughed,
"Seriously!" Arley pivoted back to Kilowog who smiled down at her, "He's my present?"
Kilowog put a hand on her shoulder and the vulpimancer wiggled and turned in Arley's arms so that it's front two paws and chin rested on the shoulder Kilowog hadn't placed his hand on.
"After I left Utapaun a ship crash landed on Vulpin and I went to help, I found this little guy all alone, without a pack around and I know here on this planet animals can be used to help people."
Arley's heart clenched as warmth flooded through her chest; her hazel eyes flickered away from Kilowog and down at the vulpimancer in her arms, when she looked back up at Kilowog her smile— though had dimmed —warmed.
Kilowog cared, Hal and Guy cared and though she'd gotten used to it over the years, it always felt like a punch to the gut when she was reminded by the fact she was loved because no matter how much time had passed sometimes she still felt like she was seven and she was all alone on the world. Arley blinked away the happy tears in her eyes, and what she didn't blink her new pet licked away.
"Thank you," Arley said emotionally as she placed her hand over Kilowogs and as the vulpimancer licked Arley from chin to cheek— her tears all gone —the Lantern let out a giggle before she pressed a kiss to the orange alien dogs head.
...
Conner, Arley and the vulpimancer were on the couch, Kilowog, Hal and the other adults were in the kitchen chatting about adult things as the two teens flipped through channels; neither of them spoke about why they thought Artemis had pulled what she had the day before on the mission and instead choose to sit in silence. Conner, who was on one end of the couch looked at Arley, who— with the vulpimancer in her lap —was on the other end.
There was a bright green collar round the vulpimancers neck— something Kilowog had gotten from Tomar-Tu —that allowed Arley to disguise the alien dog and make people believe that she had a Komondor puppy, not an alien space creature that was similar to a dog.
"Have you spoken to Wally?" Conner asked, Arley pressed her lips together as she paused on a commercial for Sketchers Sneakers.
"No," she said, "I keep calling but he won't answer." She had, in under five minutes, ruined the relationship she'd been wanting for years with the boy she had loved since she was thirteen. "Hal says to give him time."
Conner nodded,
"He'll call though," Conner told her firmly, "He cares about you."
Arley shrugged as she blinked away the nasty retort she thought of in response to the clones declaration and instead focused on scratching the vulpimancers head. It was quite for a moment as Arley had let the conversation die.
"Have you thought of a name?" Conner asked and Arley looked down at the puppy in her arms;
"I have actually," Arley said, "I've always wanted a pet so I've had this in mind for a while."
"It's not princess right?" Conner asked sarcastically; Arley stuck her tongue out in his direction.
"No," the Lantern said, "So in Scottish folklore there's this figure, a Bodach, that's basically just a boogeyman and well he's a vulpimancer; in a few years what's going to be scarier than him, you know?" Conner nodded,
"So Bodach?"
"Bodie for short," Arley smiled.
...
Bodach— Bodie for short —was already curled up on Arley's bed; the alien dog looked like a small pile of orange hair someone might find at a barbers shop and yet Arley couldn't help but beam at the alien puppy. She knew that one day Bodie would be twice the size of Wolf and that without the help of her ring there'd be no way she could pick him up or let him share her bed with her but Arley couldn't find it in herself to place the puppy on the floor, not when he looked up at her with his pink tongue lolled out to the side.
Arley's heart squeezed in her chest as she let out a soft-sounding coo, her hand flattened outwards and Bodie's thin tail whipped back and forth across the white of her fitted bed sheet. The green collar Kilowog had gotten from Tomar-Tu was bright against the alien dog's orange hair and the Lantern smiled at her dog.
You are a pushover, Aniell said, You have the backbone of a chocolate éclair.
Arley couldn't help but snicker as she knelt on her bed and Bodie toddled over to her from his spot next to her pillow. Arley picked the vulpimancer and the alien dogs hind legs hung limply as Arley brought her face closer to the animals; the Lantern pressed a chaste kiss to where— if it had been a normal dog from Earth —it's nose would be.
"Oh I love you," Arley said in a high pitched voice most people used on babies, "Yes I do, oh yes I do-I love you so so much."
Bodie' tongue poked up and licked the underside of Arley's nose; with a giggle the Lantern held the vulpamancer away from her only for the alien canine to kick his hind legs as it wiggled forward in her grip causing Arley to bring the puppy closer to her once more as she dropped another kiss to the crown of it's orange head.
...
Arley was already awake when Wally's West ringtone started to play from her lit up phone; she'd been awake for hours, unable to sleep due to a nightmare so when she heard the choirs lines from Fall Out Boys A Little Less Sixteen Candles, A Little More Touch Me started to play the Lantern wasted no time picking her phone up off the bedside table and holding it to her ear.
"Babe?" Wally's voice said softly through the speaker and Arley's grip on her phone tightened.
"Hey," Arley replied just as soft.
"You know," Wally said, Arley could hear his feet drag across the carpet from his end of the line, "Part of me hopes I didn't wake you up but a total 'nother part of me hopes I did cause it's two thirty in the morning."
Was it? The last time Arley had checked the time it had been twelve-twenty-two and the nightmare she'd jolted awake from had still been fresh in her mind. It'd been Wally's birthday and just as Arley was destroying the Ice Fortress she, Conner and Black Canary had all been sent to stop Batman's voice coming in through her earpiece; her teammates were on the ship, Hal and Guy and John were on the ship. Wally was on the ship and there was nothing she could do because by the time she had recalled her construct the ice Fortress had started to explode.
"I was up," Arley told him, his ghostly figure— the one she had dreamed about —flashed through her mind. She was going to lose him, one way or another.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Wally asked kindly,
"I want to talk to you," Arley said earnestly as she turned to her side and came face to face with a sleeping Bodach; the vulpamancer had uncurled from the ball he'd fallen asleep in and, with his belly to the world, was stretched out on his back. The alien dog's front left paw twitched and Arley smiled at the sight.
"I'm sorry," Wally said, "I shouldn't have blown you off all day."
"I snapped at you," Arley said as she turned back onto her back, "I'm sorry-you're not a prick." She sat up in bed and her blankets fell around her waist, Bodach let out a soft whine as he turned and curled back up into a ball and Arley's empty hand pressed against the skin under her collarbones.
"You were just protecting Artemis," Wally said, "Roy was being an asshole."
"But that doesn't mean I should take it out on you," Arley told the speedster, "Artemis did pull some shit."
Wally was quite for a moment and Arley focused on the speedsters breathing,
"I don't like arguing with you," Wally said. "All day, all I thought about was how much you must hate for ignoring your calls—"
"—Why'd you ignore them then?" Arley asked softly.
"Because I was still angry, at first I mean. I was angry at Artemis for what she did and I was angry at Roy for how he treated her and I was mad at you for jumping down my throat without giving me a real chance to express myself and I was angry at myself," Wally said; he finished softly, "I was angry I didn't stick up for Artemis more during the mission, she's our teammate, we're supposed to trust her and once Roy showed us that third tracer I didn't."
"Why not?" Arley wondered,
"Because she didn't-she doesn't, trust us and I was angry at her for that."
Arley nodded understandably from her end of the line.
"I was hurt," Arley said, "All I want to do is shake her until it sinks in, we're not going anywhere."
"Maybe we need to beat up the biggest kid on her block," Wally suggested— Arley could hear the slight smile in his tone —and Arley snorted loudly; the Lantern clasped a hand over her mouth as Bodie's head picked itself up off the comforter. The vulpamancer looked in her direction before once more laying back down. "I mean, it worked with you."
It had; back when they had first met Arley hadn't just magically opened up to Wally West, it'd taken weeks for her to even smile at him and it wasn't until a holiday party at the West family house that they'd become friends. It'd taken Wally standing up to a slightly older boy who lived several houses down from him— and getting into a fist fight with the twelve year old boy in Arley's name —for Arley to trust that he really meant it when he said he wanted to be her friend.
Arley had of course stepped into the fight as saved Wally, but it was the sentiment that mattered; Wally had stood up for Arley in a way few others in her life ever had.
"It did," Arley nodded, "I-Wally?"
"Yeah Babe?"
"I love you," Arley said; it wasn't something she had said since that night on the boardwalk— after the simulation —but it had been something that'd been stuck in her throat ever since because Wally had said he had been falling in love with her, not that he loved her like she loved him and she didn't want him to feel rushed or panicked just because she knew exactly how she felt.
"I love you too," Wally answered after a beat, and Arley grinned in her dark room at nothing in particular because Wally West loved her.
