It was late as Kara and Barry ate a late dinner in her office. "The question, as I see it," Barry paused as he took a drink of his beer. "As I see it, is do we bring Cisco, at least, into the secret?"
Kara nodded as she chewed on her spare rib. Pointing at him with the gnawed bone, she countered, "Olsen."
"True. Didn't see that coming," Barry agreed digging into his Szechuan Beef. "But Cisco is different, isn't he? He's not a groupie looking for fame or…," his eyes narrowed in dangerous anger, "Less savory things. My old Cisco lived for the engineering challenge. This Cisco is the same kind of guy. I think that he would be on team SuperFlash in an instant."
Kara was more reluctant than her husband, "Maybe."
"What if we ask J'onn to scan him?"
Nodding, she admitted that the Manhunter's opinion would assure her
"How are Kirby and the teleportation group doing?" he asked.
"Making progress. They've got the basic concept characterized in equations. The big question now will be power requirements and the power source."
"What about Palmer's idea?" he asked as he spooned another bowl full of rice before covering it in orange chicken.
"Using the dwarf star matter to create a fusion engine?" Kara shook her head as she reloaded her plate. "He's not figured out how to stabilize the process and harness the energy output. It's a great idea, but without those two breakthroughs, he's not going anywhere with it."
"Hey Boss Man and Boss Lady," came the perpetually cheerful voice of Ray Palmer as he knocked on the door of Kara's office, Cisco Ramon just over his shoulder.
"Hi guys, come on in," Kara waved. Gesturing to the pile of food, she offered, "Hungry?"
Ray blinked at the piles of food on the meeting area table, but didn't respond. Cisco grabbed a paper plate from the pile as he loaded up on pork fried rice and sweet and sour chicken. "Thanks, I'm starving. I forgot to eat lunch. You two have enough here to feed an army."
"Yeah," Barry temporized before reorienting the conversation, "So, how can we help you?"
"We were just talking about Cisco's new earbud antenna approach and we realized that we could use that in the energy transmutation aspect of the new fusion reactor."
"Which doesn't exist yet," Cisco added.
Ray agreed with a hand gesture and a nod, "Which doesn't exist yet. But in using the tri-polymer approach he created for the earbud antenna, we could use it as a coil for a reverse generator; the magnetic field would induce electricity just like a conventional generator, but instead of artificially generating the magnetic field and rotating magnets to generate alternating current, we'd rotate the magnetic field using the plasma controls that Dr. Stein is working on and the coils would then transmute the field to AC. "
Kara swallowed her bite of beef, "Have you figured out the math? What about heat dissipation?"
Ray smiled as he handed over his tablet. They all ate while Barry handed Ray a beer. After Kara flipped through the equations, she handed the tablet to her husband, "This could work."
Barry sat back in his chair holding the tablet. Just as he started to review Ray and Cisco's approach, his phone rang. Looking at the caller ID, he blinked. Catching Kara's eye, he mouthed, "Jessica."
"This is Barry," he answered.
"Hey, I need you and Kara. I have a lead on the escaped Kryptonian from Fort Rozz." Kara's eyes widened as she listened in with her superior hearing. "Clark and John are already here. Diana and Cassie are on Themyscira and I can't reach Billy or Mary." Barry knew that the two Marvels were in Philadelphia for their foster mother's birthday.
"Yeah, we can meet for that. Now?" he asked in as a generic manner as possible with both Ray and Cisco sitting there listening.
"Yeah. He's holing up in an abandoned mine in the Wyoming Range. I'll text you the latitude and longitude. Can you make it?"
"We'll be there shortly. Gotta wrap up here and we'll be on the way.
Handing the tablet back to Ray as he hung up his phone, Barry turned to Ray and Cisco, "This looks good, guys. Put it out for peer review through the usual processes, and we'll push this through. That was the bank, we need to go over some issues with them."
Cisco looked at his watch, "At nine PM?"
Barry shrugged as he stood. He knew he was a terrible liar, but he just couldn't think up something better. "We've got to go; we'll see you tomorrow."
After Ray and Cisco meandered out of her office, Kara turned to Barry, "I have an idea." Picking up her phone, she made a call. "Winn, I need you to do some SuperFlash work."
"Yeah, now. We're heading out to the Wyoming range to help some of the rest of the League wrap up the last escaped Kryptonian from Fort Rozz. I need you doing satellite intercepts. I want to know if Cadmus is watching while we work."
"Good. Be here soon. Like five minutes soon. We're leaving now."
Thumbing her phone off, she saw that Barry had already changed into his uniform as she pulled her blouse off, exposing the shield of the House of El.
Then the door opened. "Hey, guys…," Cisco started. Taking in the sight of his bosses dressed as superheroes, his eyes rounded. "I knew it," he whispered.
Kara and Barry exchanged a glance. Their discussion from earlier was out the window. "Cisco, you absolutely cannot tell anyone this."
Nodding his agreement, he waved his hand, "Of course…omigod. The earbuds are for the Justice League, aren't they?"
Barry couldn't help himself, he laughed. "Yeah."
Thrusting his hands in the air, the Latino shouted, "Yes!"
Kara supersped into the rest of her uniform. "We've got to go," she urged.
Barry nodded, "Dude, Winn is coming in to monitor what we're doing. Meet him in his office, tell him that you know. Help him with what he's doing. He'll explain it all, but we've got to go."
"Totally got it. Go save the world or whatever very cool and heroic thing you're about to do." Pointing to the both of them, "You guys are now officially the most badass bosses on the planet."
.oOo.
Barry was going much slower than usual. He usually didn't run at Mach 30 while carrying his cell phone and wasn't sure it would hold up so he was running at a pedestrian Mach 2. Google Maps was great, but it just didn't update fast enough. Running up the side of a mountain with Kara just overhead, he heard her mutter, "There has to be a better way."
"Next task for Cisco. Better directions system," he agreed.
Reaching the appointed plateau, he saw this wife land just ahead. She called to him and as he closed her, Superman, and the Green Lanterns emerged from the mid-summer gloom. "He still there?" the Flash asked.
Superman nodded. "Just over that ridge," he gestured above them.
Deliberately looking at Jessica, the Chairman of the Justice League asked, "So, what's the plan, Green Lantern?"
The junior member of the Lantern Corps took a steadying breath, obviously intimidated by the heroes who stood with her. Yes, they could level mountains, lay waste to continents and even destroy worlds, but more than that, Jessica Cruz respected Barry, Kara, Clark and John. She looked up to them and wanted to be like them as heroes and as a person.
"Superman and Superwoman, I need you two to do a long-range reconnaissance with your vision to look into the mountain. I don't want this guy to have an easy way out. If we go in, I want him to have to burrow out."
Superwoman and Superman both got the faraway look that the Flash recognized as them using their X-Ray vision. Superwoman shook her head, while Superman replied, "It's a dead end mine. It goes maybe," he traded a look with Superwoman, "a mile or so in?" She nodded her concurrence with more than a bit of diffidence.
Barry suppressed his frown. While he knew that Kara had quite a bit of resentment of Clark dropping her at the Danvers' when he should have taken her in, Barry didn't think that she'd let it interfere with League business. More often than not, she was distant with Clark and even hostile on occasion. Putting it on the back burner, he readdressed himself to Jessica.
"Ok, here's what we'll do. Flash, I want you to run in the mine full tilt to spook him out. If you can knock him out, great, but the idea is to flush him out of his hole. Superwoman and Superman, I want you two just overtop the mine exit. When he comes out, I want you to drop on him like Thor's Hammer. If he gets by you, John and I will contain him. If that happens, I need all three of you to dogpile this guy. A badger in a trap won't have anything on this guy. He knows he's the last one and will fight like crazy. I don't know how long John and I will be able to hold him, so get him out soonest."
"After he's captured?" the Flash asked.
"We'll transport him to Oa for incarceration," Jessica replied. With a hint of uncertainty, she looked to the other four, "Any questions or thoughts?"
Superwoman smiled, "Sounds like a good plan, Green Lantern."
The Flash nodded while Superman clapped her on the shoulder. "Let's get this joker."
Jessica's uncertain face hardened. "Places, people. Let's roll."
.oOo.
"He squeaked? Really?" Kara laughed as they changed back into their civilian clothes in her office.
"Totally," Barry laughed. "I was going just fast enough so my lightning trail was really noticeable. I was vibrating and completely insubstantial because I wasn't very sure I could get him down at that slow of a speed and knew he'd knock the stuffing out of me if he landed a single punch."
Kara shot him a lusty look as he stripped out of his suit, stood there in only his boxers.
"Later, sweetheart," he said with a saucy smile. "Anyway, he sees me coming, squeaks like a little kid and bolts out – through me mind – and I hear this collision as you and Clark smashed him out."
"One punch each at the same time. You know, Kal-El is really slow. I had to hold back so we could arrive together."
"This teaming up thing really drops the risk factor a lot," Barry mused as he pulled his shirt on.
Kara nodded as she shimmed her skirt up around her waist. "That it does. Hey, let's see if Winn and Cisco found any snoopers tonight."
Ten seconds later, they were knocking on Winn's door before letting themselves in. Winn and Cisco were side by side and typing furiously on the workstation setup on the side by side desks.
The heroes traded a look before moving to the chairs without disturbing the tech geniuses as they worked.
"Be with you in a minute," Winn murmured while typing furiously.
"Got him!" Cisco shouted. Standing, he pointed at the computer, "You may be good, Mr. Man, but I'm better. Yeah! Oh crap!" he shouted before plopping into his chair and typing furiously again. "Damn," he muttered after a bit, sitting back in his chair while Winn began to bang his head on this desk. Seeing Barry and Kara watching them wearing amused smiles, Cisco stilled. "Hi."
Barry chuckled while Kara smiled, "Hi, guys. Having fun?"
He gave a half abashed half cocky smile, "Those Cadmus guys were watching the action up in Wyoming with you guys. We intercepted their signal before you mixed it up with that guy – bad ass by the way – and shut them out."
"And tracked them back to their location before they did a hard shut down," Winn finished gloomily.
Barry blinked as Kara gaped. "Where are they?" she finally managed to ask.
"Well, they shut down before we could get an address, but they are definitely in the city limits of Metropolis," Winn replied as he ran his hand through his hair in frustration. "Thirty seconds longer and I would have had an address and even the room number for you."
Barry clapped Winn on his shoulder as he nodded to Cisco. "Great job, guys. We're one step closer to figuring these guys out. Go on home, we can pick this up later."
.oOo.
She heard his heartbeat before he knocked on her doorframe. "Hey, you got a minute?"
She didn't look away from her computer as she reviewed the proposed budget for her department. "Of course, let me just finish this up." She heard him shut the door as she scrolled through the numbers, mentally checking off the projects, equipment needs and projected salaries along with management reserve to deal with unexpected, but yet expected, funding diversions and needs.
"There," she announced as she hit save before closing the document. Turning to her husband, she smiled broadly, "I'm all yours."
Barry wasn't smiling. This caused her to frown, "What's up?"
He looked away for a long second, "We're committed to being always honest with each other in all three aspects of our lives, our marriage, our business here, and as heroes."
She nodded, concerned that something was wrong with him. Maybe he was sick or there were dimensional issues that were just now catching up with him. Sitting forward in her chair, she took her glasses off, "Babe, you're scaring me."
Nodding, he cut to the chase, "I know you don't want to hear this, but I think you need to deal with your resentment of Clark."
A frisson of cold skittered down her spine. Her concern melted to an emotional wasteland. Sitting back in her chair, she deliberately put her glasses on her face before turning back to her computer. "Oh?"
Barry sighed, "I knew this would go badly." Running his hands through his hair, he explained, "We've been seeing Clark a lot more…"
"Kal-El," she interrupted with a short glare. "His name is Kal-El." Unreasoning anger flooded her senses and she wanted to lash out at Barry for daring to bring this up to her. Narrowing her eyes, she nearly dared him to continue.
He regarded her for a long moment, "Maybe that was his birth name, but the name that characterizes him as a person is Clark Kent. All of his conscious memories started in a farm in Kansas. His mom is Martha and his Dad is Jonathan. True, his parents are Jor-El and Lara, but his mom and dad are two Kansas farmers."
She glared at him, "He wants to be a Kryptonian, then he should act as one."
Barry nodded, "Clark has made more than his share of mistakes. He has three personalities that he's not done a great job of reconciling. He was raised as Clark Kent, Kansas farm boy. He was born as Kal-El, of one of the ruling houses of Krypton and is now adding Superman to the mix. He's not reconciled the three despite his - what I think - is an earnest effort to do so. Because of this…trichotomy? he makes some serious errors in judgement.
"The worst was dumping you on the Danvers' and not seeing you very much at all. Even if he couldn't financially afford to raise you, he could have seen you more often than not. How long would it take you, at top speed, to fly from the Danvers' house to Metropolis?"
Her expression softened, "Maybe a minute."
He nodded, "Exactly. Clark was wrong. Unutterably and nearly unforgivably wrong to drop you at the Danvers' like it was the lost and found."
The frozen wasteland of her heart began to warm and it wasn't a pleasant feeling. All the pain of losing her family, of losing her life and friends, of losing her planet began to resurface.
"I know he's not, but the sentiment is relevant: Clark is human and he made a mistake."
A traitorous and unwanted tear formed in the corner of her eye. If it was anyone else saying this to her, she would have thrown them out of her office – maybe even literally. But this was Barry. She knew that he loved her more than his own life.
"Look, I'm not saying that you have to like what he did. I don't like it. If I didn't have a healthy fear of Kryptonian tempers, I'd give him what for." She gave a half smile at his well-meaning attempt at levity. "But you need to forgive him for yourself. You are the most positive person I've ever met and I'm not referring to your sunny disposition. You have your down days. You have a lot of deep seeded anger that I'm pretty sure comes from the way your planet was destroyed." She was shocked at his concise and accurate understanding of her inner turmoil.
"Your positivity comes from your very existence. You are the person who others gravitate to because you are you. Your persona is so attractive, so wonderful even with the darker aspects, that people want to be near you. It's what first brought me to you." He smiled and she knew what was coming. She was smiling as he said, "And you look dead fucking sexy in your uniform."
She wiped the proto-tears away as she laughed, "Well, if you've got it…"
He laughed in return before sobering. "Forgive Clark for yourself if not for him. You deserve to be free of this anger; of this resentment."
The tears came in earnest. Before she could wipe them away, he was holding her. "I don't know how," she whispered.
He nodded in to her shoulder. "I felt the same way with my dad."
"What did you do?" she sniffled.
"I made a decision to stop hating him."
She frowned as she relaxed into his embrace. Even in the midst of an emotional storms she felt safe and secure here. "So easy?"
He snorted a laugh. "Hardly. I had to make the same decision over and over for days on end before it stuck. On more than one occasion I really didn't want to forgive him and I think that my decision was half-hearted at best, but I tried. In the end, neither he, nor I, deserved my anger."
They were silent as they held each other. Around them the sounds of life at S.T.A.R. Labs continued. The air conditioning whooshed out of the vent. The elevator down the hall creaked as it came up. Voices in the meeting room down the hall discussed approaches for cooling superconducting conduits. Trying to calm herself, she centered on his heartbeat. It was that wonderful sound, which had become home for her.
"How did I get so lucky to win you in the lottery of my life?" she asked sotto voce.
He kissed the side of her head. "I ask myself that about you every day. One of these days I will be worthy of your love."
She leaned her head into his. "You are worth my love and more, Barry Allen."
"Then today is a good day," he replied softly. His hand cradled her head as they held each other, trying to find healing amidst their love.
.oOo.
Barry, Kara, Mary, J'onn, Diana, and Clark were gathered about the table in S.T.A.R. Labs with all the evidence that Winn and Cisco had collected about Cadmus. The heroes had arrived in uniform, because the tech geniuses were presenting to the abbreviated League. They'd been working on trying to solve this puzzle for weeks but made no headway. Winn and Cisco's localizing of Cadmus' headquarters to Metropolis had been as much headway as they had made.
"I have no idea where to go from here," Winn was running his hand through his hair while Cisco was unnaturally subdued.
The heroes looked around at each other. Kara spoke up for her people, "Winn, Cisco, no one here can fault any of your efforts. You've done more than any of us have been able to do in zeroing in on Metropolis as Cadmus' headquarters." She put her hand on Cisco's shoulder, causing him to look up to her, "You two have done a great job." Diana and Mary nodded their concurrence while Clark patted the downhearted Winn on the shoulder.
"Thanks, Superwoman," Cisco replied with a yawn.
"Go on home, guys. Get some sleep," Barry encouraged. "You've been working twenty-hour days for a few weeks now."
Nodding, the two headed out. After the door closed behind them, the heroes made their way to the round table off to the side. Everyone sat, relaxing and considering. "Where do we go from here?" Mary asked.
With obvious resignation, Barry looked across the table to Clark, "Do we bring in the Batman?"
Clark nodded while Diana scowled. Like the others, she'd not had a good experience with the Dark Knight. "He's got his rough edges, but he's an amazing detective."
"Do we invite him into the League?" J'onn asked.
"We've not really discussed adding members and how that would happen," Kara observed. Turning to Barry, she asked, "What do you think, babe?"
Barry ignored Mary's smirk as he pushed his cowl back and ran his fingers through his hair. "In general, I think that we should have a sponsor and a second for a new member. Have a biography built and submitted for the membership to vote on. If the person gets…," he trailed off as he considered. Looking at the other members, he asked, "A majority? A unanimous vote? They get in."
Diana mused aloud, "This person should also have to swear their oath as we all have done." Immediate nods of agreement were made by all present.
"So, a majority or unanimous vote?"
Mary spoke up, "I think unanimous. We all have to trust our lives in potentially working with this person. I would have a real problem working in a life or death situation with someone I didn't trust enough to be a member of the League."
"Good point," Barry observed as he looked around the table for more comment.
Clark offered, "I trust the Batman enough to collaborate on this investigation, but would be reluctant to sponsor him into the League. I haven't worked with him enough to trust him at that level."
"Those of us that fought at Fort Rozz and later in Gateway City have a special relationship," Kara countered. "We were put in the Crucible in the desert that day and we have a bond that can't be earned any other way." Placing her hand on Wonder Woman's shoulder, she said, "I trust Diana with my life, my husband's life and any children we may have. That level of trust can't be acquired cheaply. Is this too high of a standard? Perhaps in a year after our next Crucible, we would hold this Batman or others like him in the same regard." She shook her head, "I don't know. But Mary makes a very good point. We are trusting each other with our lives and perhaps even our identities."
"I think it's evident that we're not going to resolve this tonight and we need to have the entire League discuss and meditate on this issue," J'onn observed.
Barry nodded as he took a long drink of water. "I'll type this up with some of the issues that were brought up about voting, unanimity, oaths and…," he was searching for a descriptive word that eluded him.
"Criteria for voting?" Diana offered.
"That's it. Thanks, Diana." Pulling out a pad of paper, he jotted some notes for the email he'd send later this evening.
They were all silent, before J'onn stood, "I must go. We're having our monthly League meeting next week?"
"Yes," Barry replied. "Diana and Cassie have offered to host this time so we'll meet in Boston."
There were choruses of "Thanks, Diana," while she nodded and smiled.
As everyone moved to leave, Kara called, "Clark, can I talk with you?" She could tell that Barry had an idea of what she wanted to discuss with her cousin, as he scurried out of the meeting room, heading to his office. The others all flew out of the large bay windows at the end of the room and in just a moment, the room was only occupied by Kryptonians.
"Let's sit, huh?" he suggested.
As they settled, she saw a hint of trepidation flash across his expression. In an odd way, this helped her. "I need to tell you some truths for me, and I need you to hear them." He nodded as she continued, "It will be easier if you let me get to the end before commenting."
"Of course."
Taking a steadying breath, she began at the beginning, "When I arrived on this planet I was confused, afraid, alone, and to be honest, terrified of what was going to happen to me. While I didn't recognize who you were, I recognized the crest of our house on your chest," she gestured absently to the crest of the House of El on his chest. "You have no idea how relieved I was at seeing that." Her face hardened as the anger rose, unbidden, in her chest, "Nor do you know the devastation I felt when you dropped me at the Danvers' home less than twelve hours later as if I were an unwanted toy."
His face fell. It was obvious to her that he wanted to look away, but to his credit, he continued to meet her gaze.
"You came to visit me four times across the next four years when it would have taken you less than a minute to fly from your home to where I was housed."
"I didn't learn to speak English for nearly six months. Even your halting Kryptonese would have been a boon."
"I had to learn how to control my powers on my own. I doubted my sanity when my X-Ray vision surfaced."
"Every moment of every day I felt like a freak."
"I was homesick for my lost family; those who died and those who abandoned me."
A tear trickled down his left cheek.
"Jeremiah vanished a year after I arrived and I blamed myself. Eliza tried, but she was barely emotionally available to herself in her grief, much less a young teenage girl suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder."
"I hated you for so long because you treated me like unwanted trash. When Barry confronted me about how this hatred was eating me up from the inside, I wanted to lash out at him for daring to raise the topic." She leaned forward to emphasize her words. "My husband. The man I love with all my being. The man of my dreams who I will live with and love for millennia. My reaction was to hurt him for raising this topic."
Sitting back in her seat, she had to look away as another tear began to trickle down his other cheek. She sniffled, unaware that at some point, she too had started to cry. "I can't live like this any longer, Clark."
"I'm so sorry, Kara."
She waved her hand in a motion of acceptance, "I know you are, Clark. You're not a bad person. Barry made me see that you're a good person who made a terrible mistake that you couldn't get out of. I see that, but it doesn't make what you did Ok."
He nodded despairingly.
"I want to forgive you. Barry entreated me to forgive you for my own sake so that I would be free of the anger and resentment. But he knows me too well. I want to forgive you for yourself as well."
"I don't deserve it," Clark replied in a miserable whisper.
"No, you don't. But do any of us really deserve forgiveness?"
She stood, moving to his side and wrapping him in her arms. In a moment of clarity, she felt that she was finally fulfilling her parents command to her. She was protecting Kal-El.
"Zhalish rup zhalish," she whispered to him.
From her arms, he asked in a low voice, "Forgive, what? My Kryptonese isn't very good."
"Forgive yourself as I have forgiven you."
Now he began to cry in earnest as she wrapped his arms about his cousin. For a full minute she held him and, in that minute, she felt the burning and immovable resentment begin to melt and soften. She felt the forgiveness flow through her and into her cousin.
Going one step further, she whispered again. "Nɑn vɑsɑ zɪ.ga͡ɪ ʒ͡rɪ.θɹev bɑ El, vɑ.ðɑ ʧæðɹɑʒ." Deciding to give him a break, she translated, "Be a champion for the House of El, as you have been."
She held him until he calmed. Finally, from withing her arms, he whispered, "Thank you Kara."
"You're very welcome, Clark. We're family, and family forgives."
.oOo.
A/N
1. I own nothing