Interlude: Roy and Jade

AN: I don't even… the next chapter is sticky, and I'm not putting it out until it's a lot better than it is right now. Somewhere around Monday night, though, these guys started bothering me for some scene time. Sorry about this. It was supposed to be a real chapter. This pretty much has no bearing on the plot, as I didn't expect these guys to show up until, like, the epilogue, or close to it. Hope you enjoy it, though. It's barely edited, and not great, because Jade's hard to write, and I have no idea what Lian is supposed to be like, but…

XxXxX

"Daddy! You're Home!" It's the highlight of Roy's day when his baby girl comes running up to him like that.

"I am, Princess. How was your day today?" He drops his things, scoops her up, and continues in to the living room. Jade must be around here somewhere; she wouldn't have picked Lian up only to leave her at home alone.

"It was great! I got to go to the Allen's, an' Ms. Iris made cookies, an' me an' Dawn tricked Don to play ninjas and princesses with us and then we rescued him from the dragon, but he turned out to be an evil ninja, so Dawn had to rescue him with the power of her love, 'cause a good princess can't have an evil ninja for a brother…"

Lian continues to prattle on and he makes suitably impressed noises as he continues to search for his wife. She's not in the living room, the kitchen, Lian's bedroom or their bedroom. That doesn't really leave any other options in the apartment proper. She must be in the 'cape bunker,' as she so sarcastically likes to call it, then.

That's… not a good sign.

He hesitates to put Lian down. This probably isn't something she should be involved in, but if Jade is getting sucked back into another mission, back to that life, then Lian may be the only thing he has to convince her to stay.

He's hold Lian tighter as he steps into the hall closet, and slides open the hidden panel that leads to the other half of his and Jade's life.

"So then Don tried to cheat with his super speed, so I threw my apple at him. It smacked right on his forehead! Then he kinda fell a little and stepped on his toy truck and then that made him fall all the way! Dawn stopped to laugh, but I ran over an' pinned him before he could get up, just like you taught me!"

"That's my girl."

He had thought the room was empty for a moment, until Jade's voice sounded from the corner. He slips on the full set of lights, and see his wife sitting on one of the workbenches, arms crossed, waiting for him. Her Cheshire gear is laid out behind her.

"Lian, sweetheart? Mommy and Daddy need to talk about something. Could you go upstairs and pick out the book you want Daddy to read to you tonight?"

"Is it… cape stuff?" His smart, precious little girl.

"Yeah, baby. It is."

"Okay, Mommy." She squirms until Roy sets her down. She scampers back up the stairs immediately. Jade glares at him and doesn't say another word until they hear the panel in the closet open and close again. Tightly.

Jade slides off the table and turns her back to him. She inspects her sai as she says; "Iris said the most interesting thing today when I was picking Lian up."

"Oh?" And his instincts scream trap, but he's never been able to spar with her verbally. Maybe if they moved this to the mats…

"According to the Flash, Artemis hasn't checked in for a while. I guess her teammates are getting nervous." Damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it.

"Chesh, listen-" And the sai flies past his head, burying itself in the wall. She's facing him now, livid. Now he's really worried. Jade never loses it.

"No. You listen. You are going to tell me what you know about my sister. You are then going to explain why you didn't tell me. It had better be a very good reason."

He swallows. "Chesh- Jade. I don't… I don't know that much. Ollie's been twitchy all week. Artemis hasn't contacted him in over a month. So we checked with the Team… she hasn't made contact with anyone, hasn't even submitted a status report, in over two weeks."

Her shoulders are shaking and this is why he didn't say anything to her. He remembers the last time Artemis 'died.' How it tore her up inside and out. How she was angry enough to team up with Sportsmaster. How she wouldn't stop, not even for him, not even for Lian. How he and Lian almost lost her, permanently.

He's glad that she and Artemis got close again after the Invasion. He really is. It made it less awkward when they all had to show up to Dinah's mandatory Arrow Family Dinners, and gave Lian a chance to grow close to her Aunt Arty. But now it might tear Jade away from him and Lian. Because she dropped them to avenge her sister before; why wouldn't she do the same again?

"Jade." He's speaking softly, but he knows her attention is fully on him. "You can't… If something happened to Artemis, you can't leave us like you did to go after Aqualad."

"How dare you-" He closes the distance between them and grabs her wrists. She could take him down easily, if she tried, but right now he thinks she's going to let him finish.

"You once told me that Lian needs her father. That I had to be completely there for her. The same goes for you. Lian needs her mother. I know you love Artemis; she's you're little sister. Well, she's my little sister too. But Artemis is grown up now. You can't make up for how your childhoods were by going after anyone that hurts her now. She doesn't need you to! But Lian does need you. Right now."

Jade's shutting down, the real Cheshire mask sliding onto her face even as smiling red and white is still sitting on the bench behind her. He tries a different tactic.

"Kaldur hasn't even gone after her yet. He would have, if she was in that much trouble. Give her some more time. Either she's already dead-" Jade tenses, but he keeps going. "and there's nothing you can do for her, or she's on some covert op and you'll only make things worse for her. You need to be here for Lian. Let Kaldur handle this."

He can practically see the fight that's taking place in her mind. Finally she twists and he loses her grip on her.

"You will keep me posted on Kaldur'ahm's progress. And you will speak to Dinah. If something has happened to Artemis, she and Ollie can look after Lian while we go after the perpetrators."

It's not ideal, but he'll take it. "Yes ma'am."

XxXxX

Again, I'm really sorry. Especially because this will probably be the last chapter for a couple weeks. I'll be getting ready for exams next Friday, and I'll be in Japan the Friday after that. I'll try to get something up as an apology, be it one of my old drabbles, or some of the started plunnies I have to work on after Fixations is over, but this story's not going to be updated. Sorry. At least after that, it's summer, so I should really be able to work on this a lot more.