Beware the Court of Owls,
That watches all the time.
Ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch,
Behind granite and lime.
They watch you at your hearth,
They watch you in your bed.
Speak not a whispered word about them,
lest they send the Talon for your head.
…...
"Carmen, you've had her since May-"
"April,"
"April," Batman amended, "It's September, time to bring her home,"
"But she is home, and she'll be in danger if she leaves, you know that,"
"Carmen as much as you want to believe your island is her home it isn't she needs to go back to Jenny, back to her friends,"
"Bruce-"
"Mom, " Melissa knocked on the door-frame, "Am I interrupting?"
"Of course not, Avalon" Carmen smiled, "Come in,"
Melissa joined Carmen at the desk.
"Is your leg okay, Melissa?"
"It's fine, Bruce, just a limp,"
"Jenny is eager for you to come home,"
"I know,"
Carmen was tense but quiet. Quiet was arguably worse than if she spoke but Melissa wasn't intimidated.
"Mom, it's not like I'll never come back but I need to go home to Jenny, she loves me as much as you do,"
"No," Carmen smiled, "No one loves you as much as I do, Avalon. If you really want to go home I'll take you tomorrow,"
…...
Jenny felt like she could sleep for days. The nearly one-year-old timothy was a real handful. Of course, that didn't compare to the bundle of muddled emotions that was his sister Anya. Just as she collapsed on the couch, happy that both kids were sleeping there was a soft knock at the door which forced her back onto her feet. Cringing at the thought of her appearance she lacklusterly brushed the hair from her face, tucked it behind her ears, and quietly opened the door.
"Surprise, Jenny!"
"Melissa!" Jenny cheered hugging the teen with a happy smile, "I've missed you,"
"Mff,"
"Sorry, sorry, personal space bubble, I know," Jenny apologized, releasing her and looking to where Carmen respectfully stood a few feet away, "Thank you for bringing her home,"
Carmen smiled, "I'll be popping in from time to time to visit,"
And make sure she's safe.
"Of course," Jenny nodded in understanding.
Melissa ran back to Carmen, giving her one more hug, "See you soon, Mom"
"Sooner than you think, Avalon,"
…...
"We got here as fast as we could!" Fred panted as he, Daphne and, Velma slid to a stop, "Where's the urgent case, Chief?"
"There isn't one," Chief grinned.
"Then why..."
"Hold up!" Chief interrupted Velma, "Where's Shaggy?"
"Probably tied up with his girlfriend," Daphne giggled.
"Well can someone get him here?"
"I can,"
Fred and the girls spun around in surprise, "MELISSA!"
"Guess who's back on the team?" she smirked even as they swarmed her, "Space bubble!"
"Sorry, Melissa,"
…...
"Don't touch that,"
Shaggy dropped his hand, turning to where Christina was cleaning the windows.
"How am I like, supposed to help you then?"
"Just don't touch anything glowing, floating or sparkly,"
"So basically everything in this room?"
"You got it,"
"How did you-"
"Luck, and a lot of 'take this it will help you' speeches,"
"Like a cliched fantasy hero?"
"Yup,"
The doorbell rang.
"I got it!" Christina darted out of the room.
Shaggy stood to follow only to accidentally knock something off the shelf beside him. It shattered into tiny emerald and sapphire pieces.
"Uh-oh," he gulped, a few tense seconds passed but when nothing happened he continued to the living room.
"Hey, Shaggy,"
"Like, Melissa, I didn't know you were back," he grinned but didn't hug her, something told him she had reached her limit for the day.
"You would if you'd been at ACME like you were supposed to,"
"My phone's dead and I uh, misplaced the charger?" he offered weakly.
She arched an eyebrow, "You think I believe that?"
"No"
"It's a good thing we didn't have a real case,"
"So it's not urgent?"
"No, just Chief's way of getting you there to welcome me back,"
Shaggy exhaled with relief.
"SHAGGY," Christina yelled, from the room she'd gone back to cleaning, "What did you DO?"
Shaggy raced back to the room to see the tiny shards were glowing. One had blood on it.
His.
Thunder cracked outside and Christina mowed them both down to get outside,
the sky was a black glowing vortex. Through this vortex came Velma...and him.
"I'm going to pretend I got a super important text and go somewhere that's not here so...bye," Melissa declared.
…...
"Bruce, what's so urgent?" Dick thundered into the Bat cave.
But, Bruce was nowhere to be seen. In fact, the cave was empty. Apparently, Damian had left the computer on again. Dick chuckled to himself as he neared it to shut it off.
"What's so funny?"
The lights came on and there stood Melissa at the top of the stairs.
"Firecracker!"
She held her hands out in front of her, "I love you but don't touch me,"
"Reached your limit for the day?"
"Yeah,"
"Then how bout a kiss?"
"Go for it!"
He was all too happy to do so! It had been too long.
"When did you get back?" he asked after coming up for air.
"A few hours ago,"
"I'm the last to know, aren't I?"
"Yep,"
"Why?"
"Because," she laughed, "I saved the best for last,"
"What am I going to do with you?"
"Love me," she kissed him again, fiercely.
"Always,"
It was a long time before they came up for air.
…...
The sun was setting by the time Melissa got home. With a final kiss goodbye, she jogged to the front door and let herself in quickly. The September air had a bite to it that she didn't like.
"Hi, Melissa," Jenny poked her head out of the kitchen, "Come meet your siblings,"
Shrugging off her jacket, Melissa took a deep breath and walked to the dining room.
Jenny sat between a high chair and a little girl on a booster seat. Timothy seemed more interested in the food Jenny had been feeding him while Anya turned away.
Great. This is gonna go downhill real fast.
"Anya, this is your big sister, Melissa," Jenny coaxed her to look at where Melissa stood.
The raven-haired little girl simply wiggled out of her booster seat and ran off.
Jenny sighed, "Spaghetti's on the stove, Melissa,"
"Maybe you should have left it in the pot, Jenny," Melissa smiled.
"I've missed your humor," Jenny cracked a smile of her own.
"No, you haven't,"
Melissa returned to the dining room with a bowl full of spaghetti and a piece of garlic bread in her mouth.
"So, I was thinking we'd do online school again this year,"
"Okay,"
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Because, I had to drag you screaming from public school last year," Jenny blinked, "Are you sure you're okay?"
"Yes, I'm okay,"
"Two weeks to get readjusted sound okay?"
"Yeah,"
"Okay, then tell me about seeing the gang again, they must have been excited,"
"They smothered me in a group hug"
Jenny winced.
"Yeah,"
"And Dick?"
Melissa blushed.
"Did you ever come up for air?"
"Stop"
"Okay, okay, I'll stop"
…...
Melissa woke at noon the next day pinned under excited Border Collies in an empty house.
"Jessie, Marley, off" she grunted.
Trudging sleepily to the kitchen she found a note from Jenny saying she had taken the kids to run errands for the day and wouldn't be back until late evening.
Coffee, coffee is a good idea.
After letting the dogs outside she started making it only to stop as the sound of barking met her ears. Moving to the sliding glass door she peeked outside curiously. Jessie and Marley were chasing a cat.
But not just any cat.
"Isis! Here kitty, kitty!"
Isis bolted past Melissa, hiding under the dining room table.
"Bad dogs," Melissa scolded her pets, leaving them outside.
Retrieving the trembling cat, Melissa sat down, "What are you doing so far from Gotham?"
"She came with me of course"
"Selina!"
"Hi, Kitten, I heard you came home yesterday" Selina stepped through the glass door, "You okay?" she questioned watching Melissa walk back to the coffee machine.
"Just a limp, I'm fine," Melissa grinned, "Doesn't slow me down at all"
"Too early for a hug?"
"Just a short one"
"So," Selina said, sitting across from her, "Tell me, did you have an adventure?"
"Yes"
"I can't wait to hear all about it"
…...
Unbeknownst to Melissa, Selina had another reason for showing up so unexpectedly. One does not constantly play cat and mouse with The Dark Knight without hearing things. Even if you weren't supposed to hear those things. The Court Of Owls saw Melissa as a threat. Selina wasn't about to let them get close to her. Even if that meant watching from shadows. While she was sure Batman and his plethora of sidekicks would be doing the same, Selina felt personally attacked.
This was her short-tempered Kitten after all. Harley and Ivy's cherished little sister and they weren't about to let anything happen to her.
But, Melissa wasn't going to be told. No, that was a bad idea. Like all Gotham citizens, she of course knew the morbid, whispered nursery rhyme.
A favorite scare tactic of her dead beat father, they had learned.
Now, Selina would step in to protect Melissa in her sister's absence.
Like they'd want her to.
Nothing, nothing was going to happen to her.
Nothing.
…...
It felt good to be back in her art studio after so long. Hair tied into pigtails, Melissa was lost in her painting, mumbling the lyrics to the song that drifted from her CD player.
A sudden hand on her shoulder startled her. Spinning around she grabbed the wrist of the offender, ready to throw them to the wall only to see the smiling face of her boyfriend.
"I could have hurt you, you know," she curtly informed him.
"I don't think I've ever seen your hair in pigtails," he commented, tugging on one teasingly, "Cute"
"What are you doing here, Bird Boy?"
"So you don't want to spend time with me? I'm hurt! Really!"
"Drama King," Melissa rolled her eyes, "What'd you have in mind?"
"Option one, we go to the movies, option two, we rent a movie and play board games here"
"To the movies!"
"Board games afterward?"
"Yeah," Melissa reached for the ties holding her hair in place.
"Nope, I like the pigtails, they stay!" Dick knocked her hand away.
"It's not your hair!"
"Don't care," he picked Melissa up, "Let's go!"
"I hate you"
"Love you more"
"Shut up"
…...
"That has to be the stupidest movie I've ever seen," Melissa snarked as they left the theater.
"You're going to go Cinema Sins on them, are you?"
"Not worth the effort,"
"Come on," Dick grabbed her hand, "I know for a fact Jenny has a closet full of board games and they're calling our names"
"We're not playing Clue"
"Why not?"
"Because I never win!"
"Jenga then?"
"Much better,"
So engrossed in their conversation were they that neither noticed the car that passed by. Or the scowling face of Rein within.
"She's back"