A/N: I'm sick. My stupid, mean, nasty, horrible, vindictive, infectious little brother (ish, he's taller than me - but younger, that's what counts!) gave me his cold. However, not your problem, so thanks for the reviews! I had a couple of anonymous ones I wanted to answer.
lallymoon: I appreciate Michaela is not a likable character, but I think wanting her to miscarry is a little harsh. Give her a chance to redeem herself, we're still in the beginning stages of the story.
Coco y Loco: Kara Kent will be making an appearance in the story, but I'm not telling when. Batman's investigation of the Joker revealed nothing; whoever killed him disappeared without trace and didn't have a criminal record, so it's still an unsolved case. It will, though, get solved before the end of the fic.
Thank you both for the reviews, I appreciate it.
Chapter Thirteen—Spilling of Beans
Diana stretched and stifled a yawn. She winced as she raised her arm—there was a dull ache sitting on her left shoulder. An old injury of Bruce's that she knew plagued both of them, even though her husband never showed it, of course. She bent her other arm around and massaged it softly. The pain would dissolve much quicker if it were Bruce's fingers, although she doubted that they'd stick with pain-relief for long. He might be approaching sixty, but their love life was still as active as it had ever been. He was like a fine wine, she often thought. Just gets better with age.
She checked the time, wondered if he was done talking to Clark yet. When she'd learned what Michaela had done to her daughter, the princess had almost been ready to teach Supergirl a lesson herself, angrier than she'd been in a long time. No one hurt her children, no one. And for Michaela to attack over such a trivial, meaningless thing! Diana sighed. Perhaps she was being overly harsh on Micheala. The girl was pregnant after all, carrying Diana's own grandchild, and naturally seeing anything that looked like kryptonite was going to cause more of a shock than it would ordinarily do. But to blame Sarah without a shred of proof...
She was almost at the end of her Monitor duty shift, and just as she glanced at the clock, the doors hissed open behind her, admitting Warhawk. Diana smiled at him. Rex was usually a few minutes early, but then he'd had military discipline drilled into him from the age of five, including punctuality. Technically he wasn't supposed to be on active duty for at least another month, but he'd managed to persuade his parents and J'onn that Monitor duty didn't constitute anything too strenuous.
"Good morning."
"Hey, Aunt Diana. Busy night?"
"Not really. A few incidents; one in Thailand, there was a minor earthquake in California, but apart from that, nothing major."
"Cool," he nodded absently, before making sure the door was shut behind him. "How's Sarah doing? Didn't get to really check she was okay, and she's not answering her phone. But then she hasn't been for a while..." he muttered under his breath.
Diana's sharp hearing picked it up perfectly, and she frowned. "Oh." Diana's heart sank. The suspicion she'd had for a while now was right then—Sarah was cutting herself off from the League, but she hadn't expected her daughter to include Rex in that list, in fact she was fairly confident Sarah was harbouring feelings for the young man. Though that could be exactly why… Hiding her dismay, Diana forced a caring smile onto her face. "Well, I'm heading home now. I'll let her know you called her."
"Thanks."
Diana squeezed his shoulder comfortingly as she passed, but she had the depressing feeling that Rex knew exactly what Sarah was doing. And was as disappointed by it as she was.
She transported home, changing out of her uniform before heading upstairs to the manor. Intending on a quick breakfast before she went to bed, she headed to the kitchen. Pushing open the door, she found Sarah in there, staring absently out of the kitchen window at the sink, her hands in soapy water doing the dishes.
"Sarah?"
Her daughter turned with a smile. "Hey, Mom. How was monitor duty?"
Diana managed to hide her grimace at the fully-blossomed bruises on her daughter's face—she had a black eye, a purple nose and her mouth around the split lip was red and swollen. "It was fine," she answered.
Sarah nodded and pulled the plug out of the sink, drying her hands on a towel. "I saw Rex," Diana said deliberately, watching her daughter's posture. She had too much self-control to still completely, but her voice was a little higher than usual when she asked, "Really?"
"Why are you ignoring his calls?"
"I'm not."
Diana sighed. "He's not stupid, little star. If you keep ignoring him he'll get the message that you want him out of your life."
Sarah headed for the door. "Good."
Diana caught her shoulder. "Sarah. You're not a heartless person. Don't become one now. You've had boyfriends in the past–"
"None of them were him, Mom."
"I don't understand what you're afraid of. Aphrodite–"
Sarah scoffed. "Aphrodite. That's what I'm afraid of."
"What? Why?" More silence. "Sarah! Why are you afraid of it?"
Sarah dragged her hands through her loose blonde hair. "Because I could love him!" she burst out. She repeated it more softly. "I could love him."
Diana turned her to face her properly, putting both hands on her shoulders and looked earnestly into her face. "So love him, darling."
"I can't. You don't understand."
"Then help me to."
Sarah sighed, and then looked down. "Twenty-two isn't exactly when most people find their soul-mates, is it? What happens when mine pops up and I just run off after him? Rex doesn't deserve that kind of heartbreak."
"Do you think yourself so fickle?" Diana asked sadly. "And have you even considered the possibility that Rex could be the one?"
"Of course I have," her daughter snapped. "Which makes it even more dangerous."
Diana felt completely lost now. "Dangerous?"
Sarah stared at her for a brief moment, and then shook her head. "Doesn't matter. It's irrelevant anyway."
"Sarah–"
"I've gotta go, Mom," she cut her off, pulling out of her grip. "Nicky wanted to talk to me about something."
Diana stopped speaking. If Nicholas was about to tell his sister what she thought he was, then now was not the time to lecture her about her love life. More like not committing homicide...
"I'll come with you."
They found Nick, Bruce and Terry in the drawing room, one looking faintly amused, one very serious and one terrified. Diana took Sarah's hands and sat her down on the couch. Sarah stared at the four of them staring at her. "Mom," she said slowly, "what is going on?"
Nicky was the one who stammered out a reply. "I...that is, Michaela and I...we're...going to have a baby."
Sarah blinked. "What?" she asked, her voice flat with incomprehension. Surely she hadn't heard him right. There was no way...
"Michaela and I are going to be parents, Sarah," he repeated.
That was when the synapses began to fire again. Her thoughts raced. This isn't happening, she repeated like a mantra in her mind.
"It's true, dearest," Mom broke in. "Michaela went and had her doctor confirm it just two weeks ago."
Sarah's eyes narrowed. "Two weeks ago?" she repeated. "And you've all known since then?" She glared at Nicky. "Why am I the last to know here?"
"Well, I know you and Michaela haven't ever gotten along–"
"You got Psychobitch Kent pregnant?" Sarah abandoned all her attempts to stay in control. She didn't give a damn anymore. Wrenching her hands out of her mother's grip, Sarah jumped to her feet, shouting, "It's supposed to be an act, you ignoramus! You're not supposed to actually sleep with every girl you meet!"
Nicky held up his hands. "Come on, Sarah, it's not like that! Michaela's not that bad–"
"That brat called me a degenerate psychopath!" Sarah cut him off. Her hands curled into fists.
"Oh come on, you guys were just kids!"
"That was yesterday, you idiot!" Sarah clenched her teeth. This was a disaster. Her future niece or nephew was going to be half-Kent! Granted, Aunt Lois, Uncle Clark, and Jonathan didn't bother her. Michaela, on the other hand, was such a...urgh.
"Why couldn't it have been Iris or Isabelle? For the gods' sakes I know Kyra's not stupid enough to sleep with you but there are plenty of other girls in the League!" she half-pleaded.
Nicky didn't answer, just shrugged helplessly.
"Oh, so Zippy or Turbo as a mom doesn't scare the hell out of anyone but me?" Sarah heard Terry mutter, but she ignored him.
Instead, Sarah growled. "Nicholas Alexander Wayne, I have two words for you...start running."
Her brother was many things, but a fool in the face of his sister's temper being unleashed wasn't one of them. He turned and raced out of the room. Sarah paused only long enough to grab the poker from the fireplace before tearing after him, raising the iron instrument high.
"Now I know why the goddesses banned men from Themyscira!" she shrieked.
The living room was silent in the wake of the twins' abrupt departure. Terry pushed himself up from leaning against the fireplace. "Well," he said, "that went better than I thought it might."
"Did it?" Diana asked wryly, rubbing her forehead tiredly.
"Oh yeah," he said, "I thought for sure she was just going to take him out right here and now. Sarah still gave him a warning before she went after him." Terry shook his head. "Man, I wouldn't want to be there when she catches up with him."
"Too bad," Bruce said, "you will be."
Terry looked at him. "What?"
The old man's face was positively gleeful. "Get after them, McGinnis. Make sure Sarah doesn't beat Nicholas too badly. Separate them if you have to."
A cold trickle went down his spine. Sarah was good, as good as the old man had been in his prime. Bruce actually wanted him to get in her way when she was red with rage? Not that he really blamed her. Terry had met Michaela Kent. She took the whole 'Super' image to new heights—he'd heard about what she'd done to Warhawk—while somehow managing to be a vicious bitch to people. Just what Nick saw in her he would never understand.
"Move it, kid."
"Please, Terry."
Terry sighed and started out of the room. It wouldn't take much to find them. Sarah was still shouting at Nick, and there would likely eventually be a trail of broken furniture and such for him to follow.
Terry silently wondered just who the hell he had pissed off in a past life.
He found them in the one place Nick could find safety—the Batcave. Namely because Nick could fly up to the ceiling of the Cave where Sarah couldn't beat him over the head with the poker.
"Don't think that's going to save you!" she yelled.
"You can't see him, Sarah," Terry pointed out nonchalantly from the top of the stairs.
The smirk she sent his way could only be described as evil. Uh-oh. "Nick?" he called. "I'd come down if I were you—she's going all Bruce again..."
"I'll risk it!" came the echoey, panicked reply.
"Mistake," Sarah said casually. She strode over to the weapons' cabinet, took out an ultrasonic batarang and threw it at a stalactite. Then she pressed the corresponding activation button. "Terry, I'd take shelter if I were you."
No less than five seconds later, the Cave erupted in a flurry of wings, screeches and guano. Sarah and Terry—closeted under the computer desk—were safe from it. Nick, however, was not. With an alarmed cry, he fell out of the Cave roof and crashed to the floor. Sarah turned the batarang off, and then strode out into the middle of the Cave, poker still in hand.
She only pointed it at him, but Nick decided to err on the side of caution and caught it, then snapped it in half. He threw it over to his left—and Sarah's fist connected with his jaw.
"Ow! Sarah! I think you broke my teeth!"
"I'll do more than break your teeth, Nicky! Michaela! How could you?"
"It wasn't like I meant her to get pregnant–"
"Nicky, the girl is a moron!" she snapped. "She'd play kryptonite football if you told her it was just painted green!"
Terry watched Sarah spend the next ten minutes yelling at Nick about how stupid Michaela Kent was. About three minutes in, Nick finally got tired of it and started shouting back, not exactly defending his pregnant girlfriend, but more along the lines of his decision to date her and then sleep with her.
Bruce may have told him to separate them if things got too bad, but seeing as both Sarah and Nick were extremely pissed off at each other, Terry stayed a safe distance away, by the computer. No way was he getting between Reaper and Prometheus when they were two shakes away from ripping each other to pieces. He valued his existence and continued ability to eat solid food. Plus he figured he was safe by the computer since neither of them would risk the machine's safety and thus incur Bruce's wrath.
It finally ended when Sarah stormed off, going towards the garage. Nick scowled after her for a moment before tapping his communicator and ordering the Watchtower to transport him out of the Cave. Terry stood there for a minute, then shrugged and left, going back upstairs.
Bruce and Diana were still in the living room, the former reading the paper and the latter reading a book. They both looked up when he entered. "What happened?" Diana immediately asked.
Terry shrugged. "Nick's gone up to the Watchtower and Sarah was heading toward her motorcycle."
She nodded, unsurprised. "So they've both gone to sulk and lick their wounds." Diana shrugged. "They'll be fine by this evening."
Terry snorted as he sat down in an empty chair. It was actually kind of funny, but Diana was right. The twins didn't fight often, but it usually only lasted a few hours, ending with them apologizing to each other in a very roundabout way while yet never admitting to any wrongdoing on either side.
"Why exactly does Sarah hate Michaela Kent so much?" he asked curiously.
Diana rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Oh it goes back to when they were children," she told him. "One silly accident."
"Huh?"
Bruce put the paper down. "Sarah's always preferred high-tech toys. Michaela accidentally spilled her punch on Sarah's laptop at Iris and Isabelle's fifth birthday party."
"It wasn't just Michaela's fault," Diana said. "Sarah knew she shouldn't have had that laptop out at a party, much less a party for the daughters of Wally West." She laughed quietly, clearly amused by the memory.
"Sarah and Michaela had been provoking each other," Bruce added, "but to hear Sarah tell it, even today, it was a deliberate act of terrorism. Of course, so was what she did in retaliation."
Terry eyed him. "Do I want to know what she did?"
Bruce just smirked. "Michaela had a teddy bear at the time that she adored, a Superman bear. The party was a sleepover and when the girls went to bed, Michaela found her bear's costume had been replaced with a suit and its head shaved bald."
Diana sighed. "Sarah had hacked into Bruce's file on Lex Luthor just before the party. It was no doubt still fresh in her mind."
Terry stared at both of them. I'm related to these people? he thought.
After Terry had gone for the night, and there were no more sounds of fighting from downstairs—or explosions—Diana decided to go in search of her daughter. She felt like some mother/daughter bonding was in order. When stressed, Sarah's reaction had always been to do one of two things—kick some major ass in the city, or do some manual labour that didn't require her to think. Diana was betting on the latter, and sure enough, she found Sarah in the garage, in the middle of taking apart the engine on one of her motorcycles, cleaning every last component carefully before putting it back together. Her face was grimly blank, but when she saw her mother she grimaced.
"I cannot believe him. How could he do something like this? How could he let her get away with it?"
"Don't you think you're blowing this a little out of proportion, Sarah?" Diana asked, leaning against the doorframe.
Sarah tossed one of her wrenches down and grabbed another before turning back to her motorcycle. "No," she snapped, "I'm not. This was a deliberate move against me!"
Diana raised an eyebrow. "I wasn't aware Nick and Michaela dating and doing...other things...included your involvement."
"Of course they do! Michaela would do anything to spite me, and what better way than to sink her claws into my own brother?" Sarah growled, then she stopped. Standing up, she whirled to look at her mother, horror falling over her face. "Sweet Aphrodite, they're not going to get married are they?"
Diana stared at her daughter. She looked like she was on the verge of hyperventilating. "There's been no talk of marriage," she admitted. "And personally, I don't think it will happen. Nick and Michaela don't seem..."
"Utterly and completely in love like you and Daddy?"
She smiled faintly. "Yes, that." Diana shrugged. "I could be wrong, though." She gave her daughter a searching look. "Could you handle that, having Michaela as part of this family?"
Sarah held her gaze, but then her shoulders slumped. "I don't know," she admitted, "I honestly cannot stand her, and she despises me just as much. I have no idea if we could stand something like that. I don't think I could stand sharing..."
Ah, there was the heart of the matter. Sarah had never really had to share her brother with anyone that wasn't family. Diana felt her expression soften. "It was bound to happen one day, little star," she said gently. "But he'll still be your brother."
"Yeah...but now he's going to be a dad and Michaela's… Michaela's...whatever he is. We're not going to have chocolate cake binges at three a.m. once we get back from patrol anymore. Hell, he's not going to be patrolling with me, is he?" She wiped her forehead with her sleeve. "I love Terry, Mom, but he's not Nicky. And now Nicky isn't Nicky anymore. He'll just be...Nick," she finished, looking down and fiddling with the wrench in her hands.
Her mother walked forward and enfolded her daughter into her arms. "Now I'm certain that isn't true. Sarah, you're the only one who calls him Nicky, and if you stop again it'll only upset him. You are twins; there is a bond between you that is yours alone. No one can break it." She leaned back and wiped her daughter's cheeks free of oil, sweat and the tears that she chose not to point out to Sarah. "No matter how strong they are."
Sarah sniffed. "You think so?"
Diana nodded and kissed her forehead. "I know so." She put an arm around Sarah shoulders and walked her to the kitchen, feeling a little Ben and Jerry's was in order. "Besides," she pointed out as they walked, "sooner or later someone would have turned your head. Then Nicky would be in the same position you are."
"I would never have picked someone Nicky hated, much less gone behind his back to–"
"Missing the point, Sarah," Diana interrupted softly. "You're not losing your brother, but you could never stay as you were forever. It's not the two of you against the world. You have your own lives."
Sarah's head hung, a curtain of blonde hair hiding her face. "That's it though, isn't it?" she asked bitterly. "I don't. I'm just..." She shook her head with a sigh of frustration. "Doesn't matter."
Diana frowned. She wasn't about to let her daughter become her father, and that was exactly where she was headed. "If it matters to you, it matters," she said firmly.
Sarah smiled sadly and kissed her mother's cheek. "Never mind me. I have some software upgrades to make on the Watchtower. I'll see you later, Mom."
Diana sighed as she watched Sarah leave the kitchen and head to the Batcave, then took Sarah's untouched ice cream into the drawing room for her husband, along with her own.
He raised an eyebrow when she put the bowl in front of him. "Must be bad if she turned down phish food." His tone was light, but Diana could see the worry in his eyes. "Is she taking it that hard?" he asked.
She nodded. "She's lonely, Bruce."
He frowned. "Lonely?"
"Think about it. Everyone she loves has someone." She took his hand, squeezing his fingers without looking at him. "We have each other. Terry has Dana. Dick has Barbara. Tim has Jenny. Now Nicholas... Sarah, for all that we love her, is alone."
A/N: Review please!