Sorry for the lag there! I was busy with end of the year school stuff and planning out the rest of this story. So far I've got about thirteen more chapters planned and that's just through this first arc! Anyway! Here's Chapter 3!
Love Don't Die:
"I swear it was her." Damian cried, feeling like a teenager again.
Selina was distraught, "Damian, your sister is dead. You couldn't have seen her." She turned to Dick, "Test them for hallucinogens, won't you?" She was in full mother bear mode, and most of the Leaguers were totally unused to that level of ferocity in Selina. Damian was thirty four, but he may as well have been ten the way she was fussing over him.
"Mom, leave me alone! I'm not crazy!" Damian yelled, trying to shove her off.
She may have retired from the field after killing his other biological mother, but she was still strong for her age, and kept her arms wrapped tightly around his shoulders. The only way he could free himself from her grip would be to hurt her. Selina stroked his short black hair like he was one of her cats, "Calm down, and let M'gann look."
Red was struggling against J'onn. "I know what my own damn wife looks like!"
"It's been years, wishful thinking, Red." Bruce snapped harshly, pinning him down.
"Wishful thinking? Do you think I would risk changing my daughter's whole life for wishful thinking?" Red yelled, glaring at Bruce hatefully. "Lian is the only good thing I've got in my life right now, and I won't ruin her for some wishful thinking. She's had a hard enough life without all this."
"We aren't telling Lian." Bruce said instantly.
Red stilled, scowl still in place, "At least we agree on something." He shook J'onn off, looking over at his younger brother-in-law, "Damian, give it a rest. Let her look. Maybe we did imagine it, all I know is we need to find out." He gave Damian a double take, "Dude, do you have gel in your hair?"
Damian glared, "Really, now you notice? Ass."
Selina hissed softly, "Oh, honey, did you have a date?"
He blushed, "No!"
Red narrowed his eyes, "You still can't lie to me, you little shit. When we've got all this done, we're so talking."
"Dude," Damian began mockingly, "I'm thirty four, you don't get to try to pseudo parent anymore, especially now."
Selina was teary eyed, "You had a date? I interrupted you on your way to a date? I'm sorry!"
Damian hugged his mother, rolling his eyes at her dramatics. She was doing what Red was doing, trying to distract from Kat. He ran a hand down her graying brown hair, "It's okay, Mom. I'm glad I went. Someone had to be there to stop Red here from getting his ass kicked by that woman."
"What he saw is true. Identity confirmation, Helena Katherine Wayne-Harper." J'onn said, apparently having finished his scan of Red's mind.
M'gann nodded, "Same here."
"So they weren't seeing things." Bruce said slowly.
Selina took in a ragged breath, rubbing her hands on her shoulders, "So that could be Kat. She really could be alive."
"Don't get your hopes up." Bruce growled, not looking at the crushed expression on her face. That was how they worked, he didn't coddle her. "She could still be a clone or be under an illusion spell."
Dick nodded, "I'll compare DNA, but if you want me to check for cloning, I'm gonna need more of a sample."
"We need to track her down." Red said softly.
"Let's get started." Selina said, shaking off her anxiety.
Bart came inside the room, and Dick blanked the screen. "Lian's not looking so great."
"What?" Red exclaimed, grabbing the front of Bart's shirt.
Bart shook him off, "She's kind of feverish. More nightmares. She was complaining about being nauseated earlier."
"Did you get my daughter pregnant?" Red growled.
Bart rolled his eyes, "No, you ass. We're careful. Lian says she wants at least five years before kids. I'm totally fine with that. Pretty sure she's got an infection or something. Unfortunately, the best I can do is sew up battle wounds. Past that, I'm useless in the medical department."
"I'll take a look." M'gann said, smiling at Red, "She's not pregnant, Red. My uncle and I would know and she wouldn't be on missions. Actually, with her powers, we'd all know. Lian's control is tenuous at best. The hormone fluctuation would probably affect the strength of her power vastly."
"Says the woman who used to lobotomize people!" Bart snapped. "Lian's control is just fine."
M'gann scowled, an ashamed blush coloring her green features. "I'll go check on her."
Bart followed.
Lian was feverish. M'gann touched her and instantly pulled her hand back, wincing, "She's got an infection, and that tenuous control is weakening. Her body will naturally fight the infection off in a few hours, but I'll need to stay with her until Raven can return from the Titans to watch her. Otherwise, we'll all be in her nightmares."
Bart chuckled, "She plays her power down, but my girl's got something kick-ass, doesn't she?"
M'gann nodded, "Probably the strongest human empath I've ever seen. She could develop it into something more if she really wanted to. She's shown very little interest in Raven's training though."
"That's what happens when you grow up in a house full of powerless heroes. Bruce, he doesn't like relying on his super-powered peers, between him and Red, it's a miracle she's learned as much control as she has." Bart said, brushing Lian's red curls from her damp face.
She opened her eyes at his touch, whispering, "Hey."
He smiled, "Hey yourself, Princess. How you feeling?"
"Like shit." She said hoarsely. "Where's my dad?"
"He was just in the command center talking to Damian." Bart said, wishing he'd kept is mouth shut when her eyes widened.
"Uncle Damian's here? Where? Why hasn't he come to see me?" Lian asked in a rush.
Bart pushed her back down when she tried to sit, "He did. You were asleep. He's leaving soon, but I'm sure he'll be back to check up on you when you're more up for company." He hoped she didn't sense the lie. He didn't know why Damian was on the Watchtower without coming to see Lian, but he'd find out.
Lian nodded, eyelids heavy again, "Okay. Love you."
Bart grinned, kissing her forehead, "Love you too, Li." When she was asleep, he narrowed his eyes at M'gann, "Alright, Martian, spill. Why's Damian here, and why is Red not killing him?"
"I can't tell you." M'gann said stonily, imitating her uncle's favorite expression.
"Bullshit." Bart hissed, "Why the hell not? I'm the Flash these days, or has everyone failed to notice?"
"Because you'll tell her. You won't mean to, but you will. Your mind is closer to Lian's than anyone else's. She might not know how to intentionally, but she'd read it from your mind if you so much as stressed over it an instant in her presence. She loves you, and that's a weakness here." M'gann explained.
"So I'm in the dark about something that would upset me. How the hell am I not going to be stressing about that?" Bart groaned, rubbing his face.
M'gann was stoic, "You'll lie to her, or forget about it. Your choice."
He sighed, "Well, let's make small talk then. How're the kids?"
M'gann smiled, "All growing like little weeds!" She gushed for hours about the kids she and Conner were raising on the Kent farm. They weren't theirs biologically, but that didn't matter, Bart had never seen more devoted parents.
Meanwhile, Red, Damian, and J'onn had suited up to go after the woman. "Try not to hurt her." Bruce said roughly.
"You think we'd hurt her?" Damian asked, "We're more likely to hurt each other. Talk to J'onn about hurting her if you're that worried."
"Damian." Selina scolded.
"Mother." He snapped back, earning a cuff on the back of the head from his father.
"Speak to your mother like that again and I'll show you just how in shape I still am." Bruce growled, taking Selina's hand in his. "You should go home, get some rest."
She shook her head, "No, I want to be here. I need to be here." She pulled away from him and pulled Damian back into her arms, "Be careful, baby boy. I don't know what I'd do if I lost you too."
Damian breathed in her familiar scent. "I'm sorry, Mom."
Selina laughed softly, "Water under the bridge, Damian. You're upset, and I was a convenient target. It's okay, I'm upset too."
He gently shook off her embrace so he could look her in the eyes, "Doesn't excuse my behavior. I love you." The way she smiled at him was all he needed to see to know just how much she loved him. As a child, he'd have killed to see her look at him like that. It was a tragedy that it had been Kat's death that had brought them together.
But what if she wasn't really dead? He pushed the thoughts down, wary of the look J'onn shot his way as they headed out.
It took them hours to find her, but one of the chemicals she'd stolen left a very faint trail, so really, they just followed it.
She'd changed clothes, looking more like the Kat they remembered. "Why are you following me?" She asked after they'd followed her for several blocks.
"You need to come with us." J'onn said evenly.
She sneered, "I don't think so, green-man."
Damian and Red headed her off. "You don't have a choice."
"The hell I don't!" She yelled in protest, hitting Damian, hard. He crumpled.
"That was not a request." J'onn said as he came behind her and rendered her unconscious. When they returned to the Watchtower, Dick took a blood sample from her and ran off to his lab.
Red watched through one way glass as she woke up.
"You shouldn't go in there." Bruce said firmly when Red put his hand on the door knob.
Red growled at his father in law, "Why the hell not? She's my wife!"
"You hope. There's every likelihood that she's a clone or it's an illusion." Bruce said for what had to have been the hundredth time.
"There's no magic there." Zatanna said from where she'd been staring into the room for the last half hour.
"Nothing?" Red said, hope in his voice.
"Nothing." Zatanna confirmed, an uneasy smile on her pale face, "Still, that doesn't mean she's not a clone."
Red walked into the room where they'd tied her up. "Kat?"
She stared stonily at the door, "I believe I have the right to a phone call."
She had an odd accent, and it startled him. She sounded like Talia.
He found his voice after her cold eyes continued to stare at him, "No phone call here."
"Then I'm not talking."
He sighed, "I wish you would, Kat."
She wrinkled her nose, "Why do you keep calling me that?"
"Because it's your name." He said softly.
"My name is Mina." She replied, not sure why she'd told him that. He just seemed so familiar. "What's your name?" She asked before she could stop herself.
"Red." He answered, chest clenching.
"Red." She echoed, trying to place his face. She was usually very good with faces. Her curiosity got the better of her, "How's the little one? With the red curls."
Red perked up. She was asking about Lian. "Better. The knife wound got infected, but she's a fighter. You could have killed her."
"I know." She said easily. "I could have, but I didn't. Is that why you tracked me down like an animal?"
"Partially." Red admitted. "You look exactly like my wife."
She scoffed, "My only husband has been dead for five years now. I think I'd remember being married more than once."
"I think there's a lot of things you've forgotten."
She jerked against her restraints, "Let me go."
"No."
"Well then at least free one of my hands, my leg's aching like a bitch." She bemoaned.
Red stared at her oddly. "Your leg?" She nodded, eyes hard. He sank to his knees in front of her.
"Hey, stop that!" She cried when he started pushing up the left leg of her yoga pants. How had he known which leg?
There was a scar, deep, still slightly redder than the rest of her skin, right where one of the wounds that had killed her had been.
Red ran his fingers over it, eyes wide, "Oh, Kat."
She ignored the tingling of her skin at his touch. This man was some kind of sick pervert, his touch shouldn't feel good. "Get off me, you psycho. I'm not this Kat you're so crazy about."
J'onn came in and hauled Red out of the room, "You were told to wait."
"Yeah, well I've never been too great at following orders, especially when they concern Kat." Red snapped harshly.
"We don't know if that's really Kat." Bruce said from his corner, looking weary. "Dick's checking with the sample he collected when she got here. We'll know soon enough."
"I don't need a test to tell me what I already know. That's my wife!" Red yelled.
Selina was holding herself up against the wall, "Red. Enough." He stared at the woman, and she shakily sat down, "I feel it too, you know? Every fiber in my body is telling me that that's my daughter, but, Red, what if she's not? What if this is some kind of elaborate trap or distraction? We have to know for sure or we'll never be able to trust ourselves around her."
Red nodded. "You're right."
A cocky half smile pulled onto her face, "I'm always right."
"Think she's hungry?" Red asked.
Selina shrugged, "Probably, but let her ask."
"Why?"
"Because then she'll be a whole lot more appreciative." Selina drawled.
Red shook his head, "Punishment for hitting Damian?"
"Of course." Selina said, stroking a still unconscious Damian's hair, "I never did let them fight each other, I'm not going to start now."
"If I know one thing, that's true
It ain't what you say, it's what you do
And you don't say much, yeah, that's true
But I listen when you do
A thousand years go by
But love don't die
If I know one thing, that's true
It's that I'm never leaving you
And you don't say much, yeah, that's true
But I lose it when you do
Don't let them tell no lie
Love don't die
No matter where we go
Or even if we don't
And even if they try
They'll never take my body from your side
Love don't die"
Love Don't Die
By: The Fray
Hope you guys enjoyed! The next chapter is totally finished already! I'll post it after I get some reviews! Keep in mind, next chapter, all your questions will be answered! Not gonna lie, the next chapter is kind of rough emotionally, but it's necessary, I promise. Piggythelaw, we're gonna find out exactly what Lian's been having those nightmares about. (Next chapter song is Whisper by Evanescence if you want to take a listen!)
Review please!
-Jenn
