A/N: Hey howdy. So I was hoping to fold this sequence into the next chapter of the story, but then I ran out of time (as you can see, I'm already a day late). Chapter twenty eight, which I hope to have the time to finish soon, will pick up directly after the scene where Billy makes his dramatic entrance in the previous chapter and keep going with the story. Sorry to float this in the middle of nowhere, but I really wanted to do a Thanksgiving story.

Hope you like it, and as always, I love your reviews :)

Chapter Twenty Seven

The West family was mostly gathered in their kitchen getting ready for a Justice League alumni Thanksgiving celebration up on the Watchtower. Jai was at the table frosting cupcakes, Linda was putting the finishing touches on her stuffed acorn squash, Wally had been relegated to doing dishes (without superspeed; kitchen rule) and Irey was battling with stubbornly sticky oatmeal raisin cookie dough. "Mom, does this need more flour?"

"If it's not coming off the spoon then maybe," Jai teased.

Irey held up her hands, which looked something like low grade monster movie effects with the way the bits of oatmeal were flaking off of her skin, and pouted. "Can someone get the flour out of the pantry for me? I thought I was done with it already."

"You have superspeed, you do it."

"Jai, just get your sister the flour. We've been over this; no speed in the kitchen when the stove's on," Linda snapped.

"But Mom, I'm doing someth-"

"Then you shouldn't have been rude to your sister. Get up mister man and get the flour."

Grumbling under his breath, Jai reluctantly made his way to the pantry. Feeling a little bad, Irey took a look at his cupcakes and let out an excited squeal. "Those look great so far, Jai! The little turkeys and pumpkins you made on them look really cute!"

"Thanks," Jai mumbled. He was almost to the counter with the flour when Irey's phone went off. She shot puppy eyes at Jai, who scowled at her.

"For the love of…I've got it." Wally dried his hands off with a dishtowel and then picked up Irey's phone. He clicked on the text and read it aloud. "'Hey hon, Daddy was just in talking bout the party. Creep boy's going to be there so make sure you wear something baggy. Can't wait for your cookies'…Irey, what the hell is this?"

"Was that from Lian?" Linda asked, looking away from her pan of squash. Even Jai was staring at her. "What did she mean, wear something baggy?"

"I think it's pretty obvious what she meant, Mom. Who's Creep boy?" Jai asked.

"Um…um…" Irey clenched and unclenched her hands a few times. The dough squelched unpleasantly through her fingers, but it was nothing to the discomfort of having her family staring at her with varying shades of concern on their faces. "Y'know…that probably was Lian, and um, I don't think-I don't think I got it either. M'gonnagoacrossthestreetandask heraboutitreallyquickberight back-bye!"

She took off running, and by the time she was through the Harper house and standing in front of Lian's bedroom door the speedforce had burned off the cookie dough. She knocked on Lian's door, then barged in anyway, breathing heavily and visibly shaking.

"Lianwhatthehell?!Mydadreadthattextaloudinthekitche n!"

Lian was sitting in front of her makeup mirror with a brush halfway through her waist length black hair. She regarded Irey with some surprise, and arched one of her thick, shapely brows. "Uh…huh?"

Irey forced herself to take a few deep breaths and tried again. "Dad read your text aloud."

"Shit." Lian set her brush down and rose to her feet. "Shit! Irey, why did you run here?!"

"I don't know, I panicked!"

"Yeah, apparently! Oh shit, Irey, what are we going to do?"

They were interrupted by a knock on the door. "Girls, can we talk for a minute?"

Lian shot Irey a glare worthy of the Bat family, then went over and opened her bedroom door. Both of their fathers were standing in the hallway, and Wally was still holding Irey's phone. "So…about Creep boy," Roy said.

With a long suffering sigh, Lian stepped aside and let them in. Irey went to stand in the corner, still breathing rather fast and fidgeting with her fingers. Wally crossed the room to stand next to her and wordlessly handed her the phone. Irey took it and put it in her pocket, all the while avoiding her father's eyes.

"Girls, we're not mad at you," Roy said. "Irey, sweetheart, please calm down. We just want to talk about that text."

"It was just a joke, Daddy," Lian said, with a smile that looked completely natural. "It was an inside thing. I guess you didn't get it."

Wally frowned at her. "It sounded an awful lot like one of our friends makes you girls uncomfortable."

"Guys, we know what Gar can be like," Roy added. "If he's saying anything inappropriate you need to tell us. He's probably just joking anyway. We'll have a talk with him and straighten it out, okay? Seriously, we don't want you to be uncomfortable at Justice League gatherings."

"We're your dads. It's our job to look after you," Wally said with a nod.

It was more than a little weird to see them agree about something, since Wally and Roy had been snarking at each other almost constantly since they'd become neighbors. But everyone always said that when it really mattered, Red Arrow and the Flash could work together. Apparently that went for parenting moments too.

They were also saying pretty much everything Irey had wanted them to, so she broke silence first.

"It's not that he's making us uncomfortable per se…he just says weird things sometimes and his jokes fall flat."

Wally nodded, but Roy still looked skeptical. "Y'know, when Mia first joined the Teen Titans Gar was one of the peer mentors. She was sixteen at the time, and he was far enough into his twenties that he should not have been flirting with her. And Gar sucks at flirting. I had to talk to him about not sexually harassing Ollie's new sidekick."

"Whoa, Roy, that's going a bit far, don't you think?" Wally asked, starting to look as tense as his daughter. "I mean, Gar is Gar, but sexual harassment? That's kind of a serious term."

"Yeah, and try to tell me it didn't pop into your head when you found out our kids are putting on sweatshirts so he won't ogle them," Roy snapped. He turned to look at Lian. "I noticed you're not wearing that new dress you bought for the party."

She was wearing a floor length skirt and a loose fitting sweater instead. Her cheeks went pink. "Yeah, um…well the skirt was kinda short."

"I pointed that our when you wanted to buy it. Didn't bother you then."

Irey smirked. "Well sure, it's all well and good to wear flirty clothes when you only think it's gonna be Damian-"

"Irey, shut up right now or I'm not helping you with your hair ever again."

Wally rubbed at his eyes, looking exasperated. "Girls, can you give us a straight answer here? What is Garfield saying to you, exactly? And if you feel harassed, you feel harassed. We'll put an end to it. It's kinda in the daddy job description."

"Well…he makes weird purring noises, for starters. Like usually when we hafta bend over and get something, but sometimes it's just when we walk into the room," Irey said.

"He calls me legs sometimes," Lian added. "And he says weird comments about arrows and shafts."

"Sometimes I say stupid things and he twists them around sexually on me. And then he does the purring thing again."

"He offers to turn into a horse and let me ride him."

It took the girls nearly ten minutes to get through every inappropriate thing Roy and Wally's longtime friend had ever said to them. By the end of it, Irey felt like a weight had been removed from her. She'd never bothered confiding all that to anyone, even Lian, because she didn't really like to talk about it. They'd acknowledged to each other that Beast Boy sketched them out, and they helped each other avoid him, but they usually didn't say much.

Lian chewed on her lip, still looking nervous. "It's…really okay? You're not…mad?"

"Not at you," Wally said, in a tone that was nearly a growl.

"I wish you'd told us all that sooner. Li, I know Gar's a perv. The guy's always been that way. I just really didn't think he'd say that shit to my fourteen year old daughter."

"Fucking tell me about it," Wally said.

"Well, I mean, it never seems like he means it." Irey hoped it was clear that even though she felt awkward around Beast Boy and wished he wouldn't try to joke around with her, she still felt safe around him. She didn't think the older hero would ever act on his horrible innuendos.

"It doesn't matter if he means it or not. He still shouldn't be saying those things to you girls." Wally placed a hand on Irey's shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "We'll talk to him honey, I promise."

"And you won't punch him in the face?" Lian asked wryly, nodding towards her father.

Roy smirked. "Depends on what he says when we bring it up."

"I don't want you guys to lose a friendship over this. You guys have known Beast Boy since before we were born," Lian said.

"Yeah, but you come first," Roy said simply. "You always come first. You're our daughters. And seriously girls, don't hide shit like this from us."

"Yeah, what he said," Wally sounded in with another nod. "You come to us if anything like this ever happens again, okay?"

"Okay…" Irey mumbled.

Wally and Roy turned to leave when Lian cleared her throat. She looked exceptionally emotional, and she still wasn't quite meeting Roy's eyes. Irey stared at her in some surprise. She'd thought the conversation was finished.

"Um…Daddy? What if there's someone else besides Gar Logan and, um…would you still talk to them for me too?"

"Of course Peanut. Who is it?" Roy asked. Wally stopped walking, also engaged with the conversation.

Irey couldn't remember ever having inappropriate comments made to her by another superhero, so she also perked up, wondering what Lian was going to say.

"Um…I mean, I mean it's not as bad as what Beast Boy says, but…could you talk to Uncle Hal?"

"Hal?" Roy repeated, sounding stunned. "What's Hal been saying?"

"It's just stupid stuff, but he talks about how pretty I am a lot. He says I really shouldn't try so hard at school and read all those books, because I don't need to be smart with a body like this. He said I have a nice shape, and that I'm going to make some boy very miserable someday. It's-it's stupid stuff. But I wish he wouldn't say it."

Roy looked like he'd been punched in the stomach, but he still nodded. "I'll talk to him. Li…I'm glad you told me." He gave her a hug and kissed the top of her head. Lian squeezed him tightly, then turned away and wiped at her eyes. "Oh, and wear your new dress. I spent eighty bucks on that thing, and it wasn't so it could hang up in your closet."

"Yeah, Irey, that goes for you too. Wear whatever you want, okay princess? If anybody says anything they'll answer to us."

Irey smiled at him. "Thanks Daddy. Um…I'll come home and finish the cookies in a minute."

"That's cool. I need to fill your mom in anyway."

The adults left the room, Wally shutting the door behind them, and then Lian sat down heavily on her mattress. "Well that was one of the most awkward conversations of my life."

"Yep. That royally sucked."

"Hal fucking Jordan!" Roy's incredulous shout reached them from the end of the hall, through the closed door. Wearing an amused smirk, Lian went over and opened her door a crack. Irey stood behind her to listen. "I can't believe I have to tell the most bad ass of all Green Lanterns to stop sexually harassing my kid! God! Why is this even an issue? What the fuck?! I don't want to say this to Hal! The guy's a god damn legend. It's totally different from telling Gar to cut the shit."

"Blame Cheshire's genes," Wally answered smugly. "My teenage daughter is flat as a board. Doesn't hold the interest of perverts and makes my life easier."

Irey felt her eyes well with tears. She stuck a fist in her mouth and bit down, hard.

Lian let out an indignant huff and threw her door all the way open. "Mr. West, you're an asshole!" Then she turned to Irey. "Sweetie, do not listen to him. You are beautiful, okay? You are lean and elegant and I would kill for your bod. Seriously. You're built like a dancer and it's lovely."

"I look like a prepubescent boy," Irey sniffled. "And apparently even my daddy thinks so, and he always said I was pretty."

Wally tried to walk into the room and Lian slammed the door in his face. She locked it, and then went to her dresser, fetched a box of tissues, and handed them to Irey. Wally was knocking on the door. "Go away!" Lian yelled.

"Princess, I did not mean-"

"You didn't think we could hear you!" Lian snapped, rolling her eyes.

"Irey, sweetheart, you're a beautiful girl!" Roy called, clearly standing some distance from Wally and the locked door. "Your dad was just being an ass!"

"Hey!"

"Well dude, you were. Seriously, we weren't even at the stairs yet."

Lian unlocked the door and flung it open again. "Oh, so it only matters what you say about us if we can hear it? You can't just be gentlemanly about girls all the time? You know what, maybe you shouldn't talk to Beast Boy and Green Lantern for us, because I don't think you know what you really need to say. It's not 'don't say sleazy things to our daughters', it's getting them not to think sleazy, degrading things about women in general. That's the fucking problem."

Irey stared at Lian in some awe. "Um…yeah. What she said."

Wally rounded on Roy. "Are you really going to let her talk to us like that?"

"I didn't raise my kid to keep her thoughts and opinions to herself." He looked past Wally and inclined his head slightly towards Lian. "You've got a point, but Li, we can only do so much to change their minds. Okay? I'll do what I can. At the absolute least, none of my friends are ever going to say sleazy things to you again."

"Thanks Daddy."

"Unbelievable," Wally snapped.

Roy turned an exasperated look to the speedsters. "Wally, can you just leave and finish your baking? I think Li and I need to have some one-on-one time."

Wally answered with a scowl. "Yeah, I think we could use some one-on-one time too. Irey, want to take a run before you finish the cookies?"

Irey wiped at her eyes again, but she nodded. "That'd probably be good. Um, bye Lian. See you at the party."

Lian gave her a hug, told her she was pretty again, and then Irey and Wally generated their costumes from the speedforce and took off.

Wally and Irey didn't have much of a heart to heart on their run. They just ran, enjoyed each other's company, and when they stopped in Quebec for some ice-cream Wally apologized for what he'd said. He fumbled the conversation a little, talking about teenage girls and body issues the way a cocky adult male who was completely out of his comfort zone would, but he was trying and Irey appreciated it.

The fact was, she was just never going to feel pretty. For as long as she could remember, she'd been surrounded by people who were the epitome of human (and superhuman) beauty. Even the non-metas in her life. Her mother was a knockout (and so was her brother, as he'd inherited the best of both his parents' physical features, leaving Irey with the gangly limbs, long nose, and wide mouth), her aunt Iris had been a classic beauty and was aging very gracefully, and her best friend couldn't walk down the street without getting catcalled and hollered at.

It's not that she wanted people to catcall and holler at her, but it would have been nice if people flirted with her sometimes too. Only her family called her pretty, and she didn't really believe it when it came from her mom or her uncle Barry or someone.

When they got back to their house, Irey asked her mom if she could just finish the cookies for her. She went upstairs and went through her closet, wondering what to wear to the stupid party.

Then Jai walked into the room. "Jai!" Irey squeaked. "Haven't you ever heard of knocking?"

"Hey, you're not naked yet." He strolled over to her and started inspecting her clothes. "Lian called me and filled me in. We figured that you were probably being down on yourself, considering Dad's fuck up."

"Um…just a smidge."

"Look, stop trying to dress like you have a figure you don't and you'll be stunning. Seriously, rock the androgyny a little more. I do, and it works great for me."

"You're femmie gay kid," Irey pointed out skeptically.

"Trust me, girls can do this too without looking butch." He handed her a black pencil skirt their aunt Iris had bought her for Christmas (and that she'd worn once to make the woman happy and get her mother off her back about it), and then disappeared for his own room. Irey stared at the skirt with a wrinkled brow, and a moment later Jai came back with a blood red dress shirt, a black fedora, and a makeup kit. "Put those on, with a black tank top and some nylons. Do you still have those army boots you got when we went shopping for school?"

"Yeah…"

"Wear those."

Deciding it was easier to just listen to Jai rather than argue with him, Irey did as instructed and went to the bathroom to get changed. When she came out Jai unbuttoned half the buttons on the dress shirt so that the tank top showed. Then he styled her hair and did her makeup.

When she looked in the mirror she hardly saw herself in the reflection. "Oh Jai…I look so pretty! I don't look like me at all, I look like a model!"

"You're built like one. You're five ten and you're all lean, pretty angles. And you do have a figure, even if it's not exaggerated like Lian's. Seriously Irey, you are beautiful, and I'm not just saying that because I'm your brother. You just have to work it. Okay?"

Irey pulled him into a tight hug that he resisted, and she lost half her lipstick kissing his cheek. He snapped at her while he fixed the makeup, but he looked pleased when he left the room.

Irey was all smiles when she walked into the assembly hall of the Watchtower, carrying a pretty serving plate of oatmeal raisin cookies that her mother had resurrected for her (their best guess was that she'd accidentally used two and a quarter cups of flour instead of two and three quarter cups). She greeted a few acquaintances as she made her way to the food tables with the rest of her family, then stopped in her tracks when she heard a familiar purring noise.

"Wow kiddo, that's quite the new look. Uncey Gar approves."

Wally's face contorted at the comment that likely would have seemed harmless to him before that morning's discussion. "So Roy's not here yet, huh?"

Gar cocked his head to the side. "I think I missed a segue somewhere. No, not yet."

"Ah. Let's go wait for him by the teleporters." He handed off the pan of squash he was carrying, grabbed Gar's arm, and yanked him away.

Irey was smirking when she set the cookies on the serving table.

She was sitting at a table with Jai and X'hawn when Lian did finally show up, wearing a wispy earth toned dress that called quite a bit of attention to her shapely legs. She had a wide smile on her face. "Our daddies are talking to Creep Boy."

Irey giggled. "How's it going?"

"I heard the words 'neuter', 'pedophile', and 'sleazebag' before I stopped eavesdropping and left them to it. I think they'll threaten him better when I'm not lurking around."

"Probably," Irey said with a nod. Jai got up and started walking towards the direction Lian had come from. "Hey bro, what are you doing?" Jai turned and smirked at her, then kept going.

Lian shrugged and sat down at the table. "Let the creeper go do his creeping, I guess. How's he doing lately anyway?"

Irey caught her up on her moody and mysterious brother, which didn't take very long as he still wasn't talking to her very much. She knew he had a new crush that had helped him get over the boy that had broken his heart over the summer (Lian had assumed some local college kid had been the source of Jai's romantic woes, and Irey had no plans to correct the misconception), but she had no idea who it was on. In many ways, he appeared to be doing much better, but Irey still didn't like the changes in him.

She shrugged. "I'm not worried about him committing suicide anymore, but I still don't think he's happy."

"That sucks," Lian said, frowning sympathetically.

X'hawn's eyes darted between the two girls. The poor kid looked more than a little lost, meaning this was probably the first he'd heard of Jai's suicide attempts and depression. That was encouraging. The hero community was nothing if not gossipy; Irey had assumed everyone must know about it.

X'hawn got them talking about the new team for a few minutes, until Lian sat back in her chair and glanced around the room with a dramatic pout. "Where the hell is Damian? Stop giggling Irey; you already knew I bought this dress so he could see me in it."

"Was it really eighty bucks?" Irey asked, marveling that a piece of shimmery brown fabric could cost so much money. Granted, it looked fantastic with her warm skin tone, but still.

Lian rolled her eyes. "I put it on Grandpa Ollie's credit card. I don't know why Daddy even cared."

Then Jai slunk back to the table and plopped down between Irey and Lian. Without saying anything, he set up his tablet and hit play.

And the teens spent the next twenty minutes watching the footage Jai had covertly gathered of Wally and Roy intimidating the perv right out of Garfield Logan.

Everyone really was right when they said Red Arrow and the Flash worked well together. On this one point, they were in perfect synch.

A/N: And now it's time for some shameless plugging. First on the agenda; I'm part of a few LJ comms devoted to the Flash Rogues. We're a great sub-fandom to be a part of, and we're trying to reignite some interest in our community with a Flash Rogues Big Bang. You don't have to set up a livejournal account to participate, the admit is fine with people doing it with anon comments (you'll just have to let us know who you are). We're going to start sign ups in January. Writers will have until June to come up with a 10,000 word piece that is somehow Rogues related, and they'll be paired up with an artist who will illustrate a scene from it. It sounds like fun, I'm definitely going to participate, and we're hoping some of you might too. The more the merrier ;)

Shameless plug two. My first piece of professionally published fiction is coming out next month. It's called A Turning Point, and it'll be available in e-book form from MLR Press. My professional pen name is Valerie Myers. If any of you want to follow my professional exploits, look for me on facebook. My profile pic says 'Read More', and my cover is of a rainbow typewriter. This is me: (facebook).com(slash) (valerie).(Maiers). Sorry it looks so funny; this site makes it difficult to post links. I promise not to abandon any of my fics, though writing for deadlines might slow the updates down a bit. I will do the best I can though.