Cassie stared at Jaime as he sat at his desk.
"Cassie? What're you doing here?" His voice was surprised, but held a note of exhaustion. He had looked up from his desk when she had come in and his eyes had widened comically.
Almost comically.
It would have been funny if the reason for her visit had not been so dire.
Steeling herself, Cassie tried to hype herself up. He hadn't called her by her full name, which was a good sign. She could do this. Her eyes focused on his, and for a moment she faltered.
"You didn't text me you where coming, my room's a mess!" he said, clearly embarrassed and a little aggravated - whether with himself or her, Cassie was not entirely sure. "We could have met elsewhere."
"Honestly..." she began, not quite certain where her sentence was going. "Would you have let me come if I'd texted first?" she asked in a soft, almost accusatory voice.
He gave her an odd look, trying to reach for some junk that was scattered around on his floor. "I mean, would it have stopped you if I'd said no? Bart and Connor just come whether I want them to or not. But at least they've kept in contact, you..." he trailed off, finally grabbing what he was after and tossing it in his bin. "You've been ghosting me since..."
Since that day he lost that contest, her mind supplied. It was true. She hadn't visited him, let alone texted him. She felt a strong pang of guilt in her chest, but it started mixing with indignation. "W-Well... You've been ghosting pretty much the entire team, too!" she replied. "After what happened. I didn't even know if you ever wanted to see me was I supposed to know? One of the last things you told me was that... was that..."
"I'm not part of the team anymore," he finished for her. "And it's true. I'm no hero-"
"Don't say that, Jaime."
"I'm no hero," he reitirated. "Not anymore. I'm not even sure if I ever really did any good. After the invasion, I was never sure." He took a deep breath and patted his leg. "And this just put the final nail in Blue Beetle's coffin. Now I'm just Jaime."
"But you're still part of us, part of the team! It doesn't matter if you're not a hero, we still care about you." I still care about you...
Jaime looked at her, nonplussed. "Is that why you came here? To tell me what a hallmark card could have?"
"What! I just spilled my guts and that's how you reply?" she demanded, incredulous. Why was he being so harsh? "We haven't seen each other in like, what, a year? I'm trying to be nice, I care about you Jaime!"
"Yeah, you've already told me that like three times in the five minutes we've been together. Besides, you waited a whole year to tell me that?"
"No!"
"No?"
"NO!" she nearly shrieked. Gods, he had never been so infuriating before!
"Then WHY are you even here!" he shouted, gesturing wildly with his hands.
"Because Nightwing thinks you stole millions of dollars!" she finally cried out. Deflating, Cassie took a moment to mentally berate herself.
This was supposed to have gone much more smoothly. She would come and he would welcome her with open arms, and she would tell him, and then... And then everything would be fixed.
"... What?" Jaime deadpanned. Her words had taken the wind right out of his sails. What was he supposed to say to something like that? It didn't even have anything to do with what they were talking about! "Wait... what!?"
"I'm not making this up, I-"
"Shh," he shushed her, waving his hand in irritation. Cassie cast him an insulted glare, but he didn't care. "I'm trying to think."
"Don't shh me!" she told him sharply. "And maybe let people finish their sentences next time!" she huffed, running a hand through her hair. "I overheard Nightwing and Artemis talking together I... I didn't mean to I swear. But... Super hearing, y'know?" she paused, biting her lip.
Jaime's eyes were boring into her own, with that laser focus he got whenever things got serious on a mission. It aged him, in a good way; he looked more mature.
"And? Cassie, I need to know," he whispered, as if her next words held all the answers he ever needed.
"And, she mentioned Canary. Artemis, I mean, she mentioned her and said... said to give her another week. T-To see if you were innocent." She took a quick breath. "And before that, Nightwing was talking about... Well not bringing you in, but asking you some questions."
"Questions about what?" His entire body was stiff, frozen, and tense.
"To see if you were the one behind the thefts... Because they were done through hacking."
"B-But... I can barely work a computer, especially compared to Nightwing," Jaime explained he couldn't have hacked anything... Not by himself.
"H-He knows that, Jaime, and I do too..." She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. It had thinned, just like the rest of him. Jaime had never been muscular like Connor, but he had been pretty svelte. Now he felt almost skeletal under her touch, and she felt her heart ache for him more. "But the scarab, it-"
He didn't hear the rest of her sentence; his mind was going through the events of the past year, since the accident. Teaching the scarab about Robin Hood; stealing money; telling the scarab to stop; his quality of life becoming so much better; Dinah, Bart, and Connor visiting; and now Cassie.
Were you...
Yes.
Jaime almost collapsed on himself. "Holy fuck."
"What?" Cassie asked, worried that her fears would be proven true.
"Holy. Fuck." He became a bit more lively.
"What?" she demanded again, needing to know what sudden epiphany had assailed him.
Maybe... Maybe he knew who was doing this?
"Holy fuck!" he nearly shouted, almost making himself fall backwards.
"For the love of- Jaime, will you tell me what is going on!?" She grabbed him by the shoulders, ready to shake some sense into him.
Jaime's eyes were unfocused, darting to and fro as he did mental calculations. Finally, he focused on her - making her realize they were quite close - and she noticed his lip was quivering nervously.
He licked his lips and gulped loudly. "H-He's... right."
Jaime had been in such a hurry to leave, he'd asked Cassie to carry him down the stairs - "Quickly," he'd said, not wanting to be seen carried around like a kid - and was in his chair in a flash. The rest of his family - not counting Jose, who was out with friends, for the first time in weeks - was in the living room, but luckily, were all enthralled in other activities.
"Mom! I need to, uh... I-Is it okay if I go out?" he asked, wheeling into the living room, stopping next to Milagro, who was colouring some drawings.
Suddenly, all eyes were on him. If he could have, he'd be shifting from one foot to another nervously. As it was, his right hand was strumming along to an unheard song. He was fidgeting.
"Where are you going?" Mrs Reyes asked, looking from him to Cassie, a glint in her eye.
"Uh..."
"Just for a walk, ," Cassie supplied for him. "After all that homework, we figured we could use a small break." It was casual enough that it wouldn't be weird for Jaime to leave.
Milagro gasped loudly, slamming her small fists onto her colouring book, "Are you going on a date?" she demanded of Jaime, tugging on his pant leg excitedly.
Instantly, a blush made its way up Jaime's neck, colouring his skin with a beautiful pink. If Cassie hadn't been blushing as hard as him, she'd have thought it looked cute.
"W-What? Pfff, no! W-We're , just... just-" Jaime began to say, but his mother cut him off.
"You are!" she replied, talking over him like he wasn't even there. "You!" she pointed at Cassie, startling her a bit. "Be nice to Jaime! He's a loser, but he's my big bro!"
"I, uh, uh..." Cassie was at a loss for words. Was this what having siblings was like?
"Milagro, stop embarrassing me in front of me friends!" Jaime glared at Milagro.
Unaffected, Milagro gave Cassie a once over. "If he's being dumb just hit him."
"MOM!" he whined.
"Milagro, stop embarrassing your brother," Mrs Reyes told Milagro, though she was chuckling. Clearing her throat, she fixed Jaime with The Look, raising an eyebrow to make him squirm. "Hmph. Come here, Jaime," she said, while motioning him to come closer.
Jaime cast a glance at Cassie - noticing her heavy blush as she looked away. Would it be so bad if it were a date? he wondered. He sent a glare at his sister for getting him in trouble, before making his way the couple of feet to his mother.
"Si, Mama?" he asked, bashfully, looking downwards.
His mother leaned forward, and pulled out a folded bill, and pushed it into his hand somewhat forcefully. "I don't want to hear anything bad from this nice young lady when you come back, are we clear?"
Jaime wanted to disappear. To be sucked into a hole in the ground and just forgotten. He was sure he looked like a tomato, blushing as he was; he could feel the heat in his cheeks! "U-Uh, s-si, we're clear... Mom can I please go now?"
"Sure," she replied, cheerfully. "Don't stay out too late, kids!" she called cheerfully as Jaime wheeled himself towards the entrance, practically dragging Cassie along as he sought their escape.
"Let's go, let's go, let's go!" he mumbled under his breath, as Cassie struggled to put on her shoes as quickly as she could.
"Oh, relax, will you! It's not like Nightwing is going to just disappear if we're not there in five minutes!" she replied, whispering so wouldn't hear.
They were making their way towards the nearest zeta beams and Cassie noticed that, for how hurried he seemed to be to get out of his house, they were actually going at a pretty sedate pace. She couldn't blame him, this wasn't a conversation she was too anxious to have, and it wasn't even about her. She could barely imagine what Jaime must have been feeling; knowing your old team - your friends - suspected you of stealing so much money.
Even if he had stolen - or had he? - the scarab was its own entity, so did that even count? But Jaime was the host, he was supposed to control it. Right?
She looked to the side, watching him pushing himself forward. The stark moonlight highlighted his features. She noted that he had nice cheekbones, and that they were still sporting a blush.
He almost could've been a model, she thought to herself, causing her cheeks to heat up at the thought.
Jaime cast a glance in Cassie's direction. She was looking away, but she had that small embarrassed smile of hers trembling upon her lips. He could tell her cheeks were rosy even under the light of the moon. Once, he had a crush on her and he thought he had gotten over it, now he wasn't sure if he had.
"Thank you," he said, his voice soft; the first sound either of them had made since they'd left his house. "For telling me. I had suspicions something was about to go down around here."
"Yeah?" Her voice was similarly soft, as if they were both afraid of breaking something if they spoke too loudly.
"Yeah. Between a guy smuggling alien tech, Bart and Connor, and... and Dinah-" he said the last part with difficulty- "I was sure something big was going to happen. I didn't expect it to be me." He exhaled sharply, his voice thick with emotion.
Was he about to cry? No, but he was getting emotional. Jaime had thought - he'd truly believed - that Dinah had come to help him. He'd been keeping to himself and stewing in his mind, and Dinah had been a good ear to talk to. Now he'd found out she was just playing spy for Nightwing and Artemis.
He felt betrayed.
It hurt. Jaime's heart ached dully. He was used to pain from his short career as a hero, but this was a different kind of pain. He briefly wondered if this was how the others had felt when he had betrayed them? When The Reach had used him as a weapon again his own friends? Jaime had learned a new pain then, a new fear.
He'd learned yet another one today.
"We'll make this right," Cassie's voice broke through his dark thoughts. "I know what you're thinking, Blue-" the nickname did not sound alien on her lips, like he'd never stopped being Blue Beetle, and she'd never stopped calling him that- "and I'm sure Nightwing isn't going to condemn you for... Okay, he might not be happy with you-"
"That's putting it lightly, I think."
"I know this'll end up being all right. I just know it."
He slowed to a stop. The zeta beams were just up ahead. Looking up at her, her eyes were full of sympathy, not pity - he noted - and hope. She believed her words, and when she was like that, it was hard for Jaime not to feel a glimmer of hope as well.
"I'm tired of shit going wrong," he told her, his voice shaky. He could feel adrenaline start to pump through his veins; he was anxious about the meeting he was about to have.
The two stayed there, silent for a minute or two, appreciating what might be Jaime's last moment of silence for a good long while, before making their way through the zeta beams to the Team's headquarters.
"Recognized Wonder Girl B-Twenty-One," the computerized voice announced as she made it through the teleportation process.
Cassie took a few steps out of the apparatus, coming to a stop in the bay.
"Recognized Blue Beetle B-Twenty-Two," the voice announced just a moment after she'd arrived. Through a flash of light, Cassie could see Jaime's silhouette coming forward slowly. As the light faded, and his features came back into view, she could see the apprehension in his face; the tension in his shoulders.
He was afraid.
She came up and walked behind him. Her hands brushed his shoulders gently, before grasping the handles at the back of his chair. "I'll push you," she said.
I'll be right here with you, her actions said.
"I can push myself," he replied.
Thank you, he meant.
She understood.
The moment was broken when a loud "WOOHOO!" echoed through the hall and bay. In a flash, Bart was skidding to a stop next to Jaime.
"HERMANO!" he cried out excitedly, lunging to hug his friend. "Ineverthoughtyou'dvisitagainafterallthistimeIwassureyou-"
"Dude, DUDE! Slow down," Jaime cut through Bart's too-fast-to-understand babbling. "I can barely understand you."
"You understood any of that?" Cassie asked.
"Ha! Told ya he could understand me!" Bart cried out. "We have a special something going on he and I."
"... Yeah, uh listen, we-" Jaime began to say before Bart cut him off.
"Supes'll be here in a sec. By the way why're you here?" He paused a second, which for him must've felt like an eternity. "Not that I don't want you to be here!"
"Actually, Jaime needs to talk with Nightwing. It's... important," Cassie said, hoping to move things along. While she didn't want to keep the boys from a heartfelt reunion, she wasn't sure now was the time.
"Oh, yeah, do you know where I can find him?" Jaime asked Bart.
"Yeah. Wait is it because you're coming back? Oh! Oh! Is it because of that secret mission I went on with him and Artemis? You know you can tell me..." he said, nudging Jaime, before his eyes widened comically; darting between Cassie and him. "Wait how come she's with you?"
"Oh, uh..." she started.
"You see..." Jaime tried to say.
Luckily Connor entered the room just about now, though he wasn't rushing quite as much as Bart had been. As a matter of fact, his stride slowed when he saw Cassie pushing Jaime's chair.
"I thought the computer was glitching when it announced you were here," he said, reaching to shake Jaime's hand. Despite his words, he had a smile on his face. "What made you come all of a sudden?"
"Oh, we were just telling Bart," Jaime started, deliberately slowly. He didn't know what to say, and he didn't to lie - he couldn't - he'd never get away with it. "I need to talk to Nightwing."
It wasn't often that Connor could be surprised - showing that he was surprised was even rarer - but judging by his raised eyebrows and wide eyes, Jaime would bet he was.
Unlike Bart, he wasn't a flurry of questions and nudges. Instead he just asked one question. "Is that good or bad?"
"Well... that's why I'm here, to figure that out," Jaime told him. "I just hope things finally go my way."
Connor offered him a sympathetic look and a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Even if doesn't, you know we're always here for you."
If only you knew, Jaime thought, bitterly. You might not be offering me anything but contempt.
Bart's hand came crashing down on Jaime's other shoulder. "Yeah y'know I always wanna chill with you and whatever happens it'll happen right? But we're still bros!"
Despite his inner turmoil, Jaime felt a smile tug at his lips. "Thanks, guys." He sighed. "That means a lot," he told them, even if he believed that if they knew, they would not be bothering with him.
Jaime felt their hands slowly slide off his shoulders and he took a breath before Cassie started pushing his chair again. Going at a sedate pace - and stuck in his head - it took him a while to notice that Connor and Bart were walking with them. He didn't look over his shoulder at Cassie, but he knew what she was thinking: they needed to ditch their friends, at least for Jaime's sake.
Jaime could barely stand himself when he learned what the scarab had been doing behind his back. Seriously, he hadn't thought it was possible. Other people didn't understand the scarab nearly as well as Jaime did - or thought he did, anyway - and he knew they would doubt it could act without Jaime even knowing about it.
Thankfully, it seemed Cassie shared his concerns. "Hey... Bart," she said, very awkwardly. "Could you go fetch Nightwing for us? Or at least look for him?"
Bart nodded. "Oh sure! Back in a flash!" He ran away laughing.
"Man, I hate it when he says that," Connor said after Bart had been gone for a moment. "That joke's gotten real old, real fast."
"It's part of his charm," Cassie protested, amused.
"Bart has charm?" Jaime asked teasingly, earning a chuckle from Connor and Cassie. "Hey, Connor..."
Cassie slowed to a stop, and Connor came to stand just a bit in front of him.
"What is it, Jaime?"
Gulping, Jaime steeled himself. "I-I need to talk to Nightwing alone, without you... or Bart there."
Connor's brows furrowed slightly, whether in thought or worry, Jaime was unsure of. Eventually he opened his mouth to speak.
"Oh. This sounds important. And bad."
"It's super important," Jaime assured him. "Just... trust me when I say I need to clear up some things before-" if- "I tell you guys what this all about."
There was a long silence, even Jaime could tell the other two were holding their breath. The hallway itself was silent, as if the ventilation had been turned off, and it felt like time stood still for a moment.
Eventually, Connor broke the spell. He nodded and offered Jaime a smile. "Whatever it is," he said, putting his hand on Jaime's shoulder once more. "We're always there for you." He took a step back. "I'll make sure Bart doesn't crash in on you guys during your talk."
"Thanks," he said, unsure if he could really say anything else at this point.
The three started making their way down the hallway once more in silence; still, albeit less tense than before.
It was still awkward, being back - never mind the reason why Jaime was back - after such a long time. Jaime didn't think he'd be this nervous, if he'd ever decided tocome back. He'd considered never coming back, but now that the reality of it was about to slap him in the face...
He wasn't sure if he could go through with it.
A hand slid onto his shoulder from behind him, squeezing gently. Connor was a few steps ahead, so Jaime looked up at Cassie. She offered him a small smile, patting his shoulder gently. She couldn't say much in front of Connor, and nothing she wouldn't have already said, but as their eyes locked, she hoped Jaime would see how she felt, how she hoped things would be okay.
"He's coming," Connor said, coming to a stop.
Cassie heard the rapid pitter-patter of Bart's feet as he came closer.
"Nightwing said to meet him in Canary's office," Bart told them as he skidded to a stop in front of the group. "I told him I could take him to you guys, but he said he needed to collect some files for a mission."
Right, Jaime thought, and I need a treadmill. Obviously, Nightwing was just getting whatever info he had on Jaime's... situation, so he could be ready to talk.
"Well, uh, thanks. Cassie'll get me there," Jaime said, and before Bart could protest or say anything, Connor spoke up.
"Bart, I need your help with Sphere anyway. Jaime'll be there after his talk."
"But-"
"Come on," Connor said, gently tugging Bart along by the arm.
"But, hey! Jaime you better come back to see me after the talk or I'm coming to your house tonight!" Bart called out as Connor dragged him away. "And I'll be dragging Connor!"
It was silent for the rest of their walk to Canary's office.
They loitered outside the door for a while.
Cassie was visibly nervous and kept fidgeting.
"Cassie, wh-" Jaime tried to say, before she cut him off.
"I don't know if I should come in with you," she blurted out. Why should she come in? She didn't know much of anything except for what she had overheard. Jaime had been remarkably tight-lipped about the subject as they made their way here. She couldn't blame him, she wouldn't want to have to repeat any of this more than she had to in his place.
"I don't know..." he replied. "All I know is that I'd like to have someone have my back."
"Then I'm coming."
"But will you stay on my side, after I say everything?"
Cassie turned his chair around so that he faced her. She looked at him straight in the eyes and said, "Jaime, unless you were stealing from orphans to feed into your personal drug cartel, I'm sure you had a good reason... I wouldn't have warned you if I didn't think you were innocent somehow."
"Well, that's why you're here, isn't in?" asked Artemis, who had been standing behind them. Jaime wasn't sure how long she'd been there, or how Cassie hadn't heard her. "Come on, we have lots to talk about."
Nightwing was already inside the room, standing near the back wall, looking at something at his holographic computer. Jaime saw the minute fall of his shoulders, as if he let out a sigh. It seemed, at least, that no one was looking forward to this.
Nightwing turned around, a grim expression on his face. Artemis walked farther into the room, to stand closer to him, leaving Jaime and Cassie on one side.
"So," Nightwing said, lamely, breaking the silence. "I don't suppose you're here for our weekly movie night?"
Jaime heard a dash of hope in Nightwing's voice. How sad was it that he actually considered saying Yes, I am?
"As much fun as those are," Jaime said slowly, choosing his words. "I think there's more important things to talk about right now."
"Like?" Artemis asked.
"Like how you two have been keeping tabs on Jaime," Cassie replied quickly, the waver in her voice betraying her nervousness..
"You make it sound like that's a bad thing," Nightwing said and before he could continue, Jaime cut him off.
"It is when it's because you think I stole millions of dollars."
"We didn't think you stole millions of dollars," Artemis said. "We were just making sure you didn't steal millions of dollars."
"So you planted a mole, on me, your teammate. Your friend." His voice was quiet, but held enough of an edge that even Artemis found herself speechless.
"We had to be sure," Nightwing replied, and it was clear he felt ashamed. "We thought that, maybe, someone was forcing you to."
"Then you should have told me. I could have helped."
Cassie could tell Jaime wanted to hit something; to pound his fist on his armrest, or anything really. But he was still as a rock. It was unnerving. She felt she shouldn't be there to see him like this. It felt both raw and guarded somehow; like this layer of him was the rarest form he could muster, but it was so quiet... So cold.
"Instead," Jaime's voice sliced through her thoughts. "You used Dinah to spy on me. You used my counselor, my therapist to get info on me. I told her things I've never told anyone else, and she was supposed to keep them secret, not tell you."
"She didn't!" Nightwing quickly tried to reassure Jaime, though it was obviously falling flat.
"And she wouldn't even if we would've asked," Artemis finally said, having regained her footing. "We don't want to spy on you, Jaime, you're allowed your private life. We - I - just didn't want to believe you had anything to do with the thefts. Like, at all."
"I had to convince her to even let Dinah go," Nightwing continued, earning a glare from Jaime. "It was a precaution, I swear. Look, at best, Dinah could help you through your issues and lend a hand if anything happened in El Paso."
"And at worst?" Jaime asked, but his voice was flat. It was a rhetorical question.
Cassie hated the implication of it, and looking over at her two teammates, she could tell it displeased them just as much.
"At worst she'd notice something was off But we'd never ask her to tell us what you guys talked about. We were worried about you too, okay?"
"Worried?" Jaime asked, his voice flat. "You were worried?" he repeated, enunciating the last word, like he was explaining what it meant. "So when did you come tell me that you were worried, was it before or after you started spying on me? Because I really don't remember." His face was twisted in a sneer, a look seldom seen on his face; he was almost unrecognizable.
"Jaime-" Nightwing began, but was cut off.
"No, I don't care. Whatever you have to say to explain yourself, you can stuff it. I left this entire shitshow, I never wanted to hear about another bad guy to stop every again; but this concerned me. It concerned my family," he paused, struggling to take a long and deep breath. His voice had been quivering and there was a dark look in his eyes; one that made everyone uneasy.
"First sign of anything, you should have told me!" He pointed angrily at Nightwing and Artemis, his finger shaking from the nerves. "You two are team leaders, you're supposed to look after the team, and no matter how adamant I've been about leaving, you guys made it plenty clear you still consider me part of it." He felt Cassie squeeze his shoulder lightly, and he laid back in his chair a bit. "So, there's no reason for you to have done this."
Artemis sighed, looking away briefly. "Look, we can stay here all day arguing and apologizing, but we did what we thought was right. I'd do it again if it meant you really got to leave all this," she said, her voice quiet.
Jaime knew she was talking about Wally as well as he, and he felt a pang of guilt. He still blamed himself for his disappearance. The sincerity in her words was palpable, and Jaime didn't need the scarab to tell him she wasn't lying to know it was all true. He felt guilty coming here to bite their heads off.
They'd only been trying to protect him and keep him happy, even if it made them miserable. Jaime felt even worse when he realized what other reason had led him here. A cold shiver sucked the anger right out of him and his spine tingled in a way it hadn't for a long time.
Jaime was afraid.
He sighed, running a hand through his hair; it was sweaty now that he'd gotten worked up. Jaime had inherited that from his father, "emotional sweaters," he would jokingly say whenever Jaime got worked up enough to stain his shirt.
"Look, I-" he tried to say, but Nightwing spoke over him.
"Jaime we really weren't trying to spy on you to get you or anything like that. Worst case, someone was forcing you to do this and we could help, right?"
There was a resounding silence in return. Jaime, being the only one sitting down, was the only one not fidgeting however slightly.
"No."
"Jaime, I don't think there's anything you could do to stop Connor from mother henning you at that point," Artemis said.
"A-Artemis," Cassie spoke up, finally. " I- that's not... what he meant."
Jaime could feel Artemis and Nightwing's eyes boring into him, either as the realization set in or as their puzzlement furthered. He didn't look up from his lap.
"There is an even worst case scenario," he finally said quietly. "But ironically, it isn't that far off from what you said..."
"You mean..." Nightwing began to ask, but the words died in his throat.
"No..." Artemis let out.
"I wasn't even aware of it, not at first," he said, finally looking up at their faces. Eyes wide, mouth agape; they looked like he betrayed them all over again. "I told the scarab to stop as soon as I learned what it was doing, I swear on my father's grave." His voice was beginning to quiver with the adrenaline and the emotion.
Nightwing walked around a chair, to let himself fall into it. He'd closed his mouth, but the white lenses of his mask were still widened. Jaime could tell, though, he was looking into a far-off place, trying to make sense of what he was hearing.
"But you didn't stop," Artemis finally said, dragging everyone from their thoughts. "Money, by the hundredth of a penny, from various departments, from multiple companies, was transferred - not reported as a theft in the system, but the pattern of the transactions gave it away - to a seemingly random list of recipients. Except it wasn't random. All of them had one thing in common, Jaime, they were all low-income families. Months after you began, we found more transactions, more thefts." Her voice became livelier as she spoke, her famous temper starting to rear its head. She felt like he'd played her for a fool, and she had trusted him. "You told the scarab to stop. Were you in control?" she asked, a mix of emotions in her voice.
She was grasping at straws for an excuse not to be hurt again, not to lose someone she had let into her heart. But she was angry - disappointed in Jaime - whether he'd been controlling the scarab or not, she felt betrayed that he hadn't reached out to them for help.
"Artemis-" Jaime tried to explain himself.
"We offered you help, Jaime," Nightwing interrupted. "Why didn't you take it?" he asked quietly, his voice in direct contrast to Artemis'.
"I thought when I told the scarab to stop, that it stopped!" Gone was his anger from earlier, replaced with more erratic energy. He'd come to set the facts straight, but that didn't mean he wouldn't make a case for himself. "Besides, you must've seen that the money wasn't being used for selfish reasons, right..?"
Artemis exhaled through her nose. "Just because other people in need benefited as well doesn't mean your actions aren't selfish," she explained tersely. "Jaime I swear to god if you tried to play Robin Hood, I'm going to kick your ass so hard you won't be able to sit for a week!"
Wait, he thought, Robin Hood! "That's it!" Jaime cried out. "Artemis, you're right!"
"I'm- What?"
"You see, I told the scarab about Robin Hood! A long time ago, I was moping around because-" Jose had still been a good-for-nothing piece of- "my family was barely making ends meet and I wished there'd be a way to easily get money. The scarab, it... told me something, later that night. It never clicked until now because it didn't seem important."
"Well, what'd it say?" Cassie asked hurriedly.
"Something about keeping my family unit safe. I wasn't playing Robin Hood, the scarab was! It must've bypassed me telling him to stop to preserve me or something." He was breathing heavily, sagging in his chair after his realization. A quick mental question to the scarab revealed he'd been right; but the real question was, would Artemis and Nightwing believe him?
"It does have a will of its own," Nightwing mumbled, before turning to look at Artemis.
"It's still Jaime's responsibility, if he can't control it, the scarab's the same as a loaded gun," she replied quietly.
Jaime agreed, though he said nothing. He didn't want to go to jail - especially not for a crime he didn't know he was committing! Technically, he wasn't sure he was committing anything, since the scarab was its own entity.
"The scarab is a symbiotic being," Jaime explained. "I am its host. If it believes that my life is in danger, or my quality of life is poor, no matter how many times I tell it not to do something, it won't listen. The only reason I was able to save Cassie was because it didn't have time to figure out what I was going to do before I'd done it. I'm not making excuses for what the scarab did, I'm just telling you that it noticed that I… go without so that my family has more." It hurt him to admit this, but he sat ramrod straight in his chair, as if daring them to pity him.
"Then," Nightwing said. "it's like if a kid robs a bank, right? They're the parents' responsibility, sure, but they're also their own entity. And nobody got hurt - at least physically - so it's not like criminal negligence on Jaime's part or anything."
"That's true enough, I suppose," Artemis replied. "But he- You," she turned to Jaime, "still need to be accountable for what happened." She sighed. "But I wouldn't want to send you to jail for the scarab wanting to feed you and your family. And... other families" Her voice softened at that, filled with sympathy.
There's was a long silence. Artemis had said what everyone in the room was thinking, what else was there to say? The seconds ticked by, slowly becoming minutes, but still no one spoke.
Jaime stewed in his chair. What were Nightwing and Artemis thinking? he wondered. His worries had been assuaged by his friends' words: they did not seem to want to convict him any more than he did.
But he had to be held accountable for what he - indirectly - did.
"So, what's going to happen to me?" He finally asked. Everyone's attention suddenly focused on him. "I-I don't want to go to jail." His voice had started to quiver, but unlike earlier, it was from fear, not restrained outrage. "It'd k-kill my Mom..."
He didn't mention that it would leave his baby sister with José, and no more extra money for him to laze around.
Artemis' eyes softened, she understood how Jaime felt towards his mother. She couldn't imagine hurting her own by following in her father's footsteps. Jaime had lost enough. She had fought tooth and nail until now to prove he was innocent, and while that was proven somewhat untrue, she felt the fight in her start anew.
She wouldn't send Jaime to prison one way or another.
"I have an idea," Nightwing said. "Have any of you ever watched Catch Me If You Can?" Before anyone could reply, Nightwing went on to give a brief synopsis of the plot. He ended with, "If the government can get a criminal to work for them and not penalise him, why can't we? Honestly, life isn't so black and white that every act, by and of itself, is wholly good or bad. You stole, you committed a crime; but you also helped a lot of people get back on their feet. If you and the scarab could do that without breaking a sweat or even communicating together, imagine what you could accomplish if you two worked as a unit. I don't think any firewall could keep you out."
Jaime leaned forward in his chair. Unsure of what Nightwing was proposing. "What do you mean?"
It wasn't Nightwing, but Artemis, who spoke next. Chuckling, she replied, "He's trying to recruit you instead of sending you to jail."
Jaime let the words sink in.
"How long would he have to... uh, work for? To gain his innocence?" Cassie asked, mostly out of curiosity rather than negotiating for his freedom.
Nightwing shrugged his shoulders. "I dunno. We can hash out the details later, if that's okay with you?" he asked Jaime.
"Honestly," he said, with a sigh as he sank into the back of his chair. "LAter is good. I'm kinda pooped and I don't really wanna talk about this anymore tonight, if it's all the same to you guys."
Nightwing and Artemis looked at each other. They seemed to pass a nonverbal agreement and he clapped his hands. Standing up, he said, "That settles it! Tomorrow, or whenever, we'll set up a meeting and discuss the details. But for now, there's a sofa waiting for my butt," he mused with a smile. "it's movie night and we're watching that new horror movie about not making a sound."
"Want to join us?" Artemis asked them.
Jaime didn't have the heart to say no - nor would he have wanted to if he had had the heart.
A/N: This story is reaching its end, after all this time! There's some things that need working out though, so stay tuned it for that! I want to apologize for the lack of updates; I tried, I really tried to update this in a more timely manner. I've just been so tired, guys. Since the beginning of January, I've had one week off - and of those days, I've had maybe one or two to fully relax. So I don't write much because I'm tired; but now that this is the last part, I wanna finish it nicely!