Ok, so just some more of her getting over the Watchtower. I would love to hear some suggestions for missions the team could go on or things you might want to happen in the story. Please review with ideas, comments, complaints, etc. Hope you like the chapter.
Mallory stared at Canary, who was sitting across from her with an expectant look on her face. She rolled her eyes.
"Look, I've told you, I don't need this. I'm fine."
Canary sighed. "And yet, you still aren't sleeping, and your caffeine intake has increased over the last few weeks."
Mallory glanced guiltily at the cup of coffee on the table. It had been three weeks since she'd started therapy, and Canary still hadn't cleared her for action. Her ribs were all healed, so she was back in training, but she couldn't go out on missions and she had to sneak out of the cave to go on patrols.
"Mallory, I don't understand why you seem so opposed to talking to me. The more you cooperate, the sooner you'll be back in the field with the team. Now, why don't you tell me about your dreams."
Mallory glared at the floor. "I told you, I don't remember them," she lied. Even as she said it, she saw Batman shooting her and Superman throwing her to her death. She clenched her eyes shut, trying to push the visions away.
Canary raised an eyebrow. "It sure seems like you do. Timing suggests that it has something to do with Vandal Savage infiltrating the Watchtower. I'm sure that must have been horrible for you, having to fight the very people you thought you could trust, having to possibly hurt us even though you knew we weren't in control of our actions. I can't imagine how disorienting and upsetting that must have been. And then there were the physical injuries you suffered, and at the hands of the man you've worked with almost half your life. That must have been traumatizing."
"You don't have to imagine it," she muttered.
Canary shook her head. "No, I'm sure you can see it clearly enough. Having to go up against the most powerful group of individuals in the world, knowing that you might not survive the fight, knowing that someone you know could kill you."
"I've never been afraid to die for the team," Mallory said defensively.
Canary leaned forward and put a hand on her arm. "Mallory, We're all afraid of dying. It doesn't mean that we'll do less as heros because of it. It's ok to admit that you have fears."
"I know that," Mallory ground out.
Canary tilted her head. "Do you? Because for all the time we've spent in here over the last few weeks, you've yet to say what it is that you're afraid of that's causing you to have these dreams."
"Why does it have to be something I'm afraid of?" Mallory asked.
"Well, you said that it wasn't anything that happened on the Watchtower, which I'm having trouble believing, so it must be something else. Maybe it has something to do with Red Arrow?"
Mallory let out a frustrated sigh. "It has nothing to do with Roy," she said impatiently.
Canary nodded. "Right, because why would it have anything to do with finding out that someone you trusted, even loved, as a friend and teammate, is actually a clone and was an unknowing traitor who put you and the team in danger. There's clearly no problems there, so why don't you tell me what you think is causing the nightmares?"
"I don't know, maybe it's because a guy dressed like a bat told me to go to therapy with a lady calling herself a bird. That sounds like a bad dream to me."
Canary sighed, starting to lose her patience. Before either of them could start yelling, Zatanna knocked on the door.
"Oh, sorry, I thought you'd be finished by now," the magician said. "Mallory has to leave. Her parents want her to go to the adoption agency with them."
Canary let out a breath. "Well, as long as we're not getting anywhere," she said, standing up. "Mallory, it's time to start thinking about your commitment to the team."
Mallory looked up sharply, then nodded gravely. She followed Zatanna out the room, and the girls ducked down a hallway the League didn't use very often.
"What was that all about?" Zatanna asked worriedly.
Mallory sighed. "Canary and Bats say they're going to kick me off the team if I don't get over my nightmares, or at least start talking about it in therapy."
Zatanna eyed her friend. "Why won't you just tell her what she wants to know? You can't risk your place on the team."
"I don't want to talk about it," Mallory said, continuing down the hall.
Zatanna pulled her to a stop and faced her. "Why not? You gave up your old school and friends, and living with your parents, and almost your life for the team. Why won't you just play along?"
"Because I can't!" she snapped, a little too loudly. Zatanna recoiled a little and Mallory sighed. "Sorry, I've been holding that in for three weeks." She took a shaky breath. "I can't talk about it, I just don't know how. Just thinking about it makes me shut down. I wouldn't know how to tell someone about the dream, about the flashbacks."
Zatanna looked at her sympathetically. "If you want, I can put a spell on you, make you get it all out quickly and painlessly."
"Thanks, Z, but no thanks. Honestly, I don't want Bats and Superman to find out about it."
"Well, you could just tell Black Canary that," Zatanna said.
Mallory started walking again. "Thanks, I'll think about it. Right now I need to meet my parents at the adoption agency."
She walked to the training room and zetaed to Second Homes Adoption in Central City.
It was two hours before Elaine, Darrin, and Mallory were admitted past the first lobby, and in the second her parents were given even more paperwork to fill out. They were brimming with excitement, but Mallory's anticipation had worn off around the first hour mark, and now she just sat there boredly, looking around.
There were pictures of groups of kids in a collage that took up one whole wall. She walked over to it and studied the pictures idly, looking for a picture of herself. This was the same home her parents had gotten her from. She found it and smiled a little at the toddler picture of her.
"Mallory, come sit down. Someone will bring us to the back in a little while," Elaine told her. "Oh, I can't believe we're at this point. I can't wait to meet the children!"
Mallory smiled for her mom and sat down. She went on her phone until an older woman came in to get them.
"Well, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson. It's so nice to see you again. And this must be Mallory. Well, you've certainly grown up quite a bit since I last saw you."
Mallory looked between the woman and her parents awkwardly.
"Oh, of course, you don't remember me. I was the director here when you were brought in. I raised you until you were adopted. And I'll tell you what, there were times when I didn't think you'd make it as long as you did."
Mallory nodded. She knew what the woman meant, but it seemed like a strange thing to say to someone who didn't even remember you.
"Well, let's go meet the children, shall we?"
The Johnsons followed Mrs. Tompson into the nursery and Elaine and Darrin immediately started going around to the children to meet them. Mallory hung back, wanting her parents to have their moment with the kids first.
"So, Mallory, tell me about yourself," Mrs. Tompson said.
Mallory gave the woman a sideways glance, but she said, "Well, I'm ahead in school."
"Oh, good for you. And I see your hair changed. When you were little it was such an unusual red, but I see it turned black. Or is it dyed?"
"No, it's not dyed. I've seen pictures of what it was. I wouldn't mind it still being that color, to tell the truth."
An awkward silence settled between them, then Mallory asked, "So, um, you were here when I was brought here?"
Mrs. Tompson nodded.
"What happened to my birth parents?" she asked curiously. It was strange being back at the home. There were so many things that she'd just never questioned about herself and where she came from, but being in that building, all the questions were rising to the surface.
"Well, I don't know. Your mother died during her labor, apparently she had some sort of rare disease or something. From what I understood from the investigation before they dropped it, she had burns from the birth. She must have passed whatever she had on to you, because you had such a strange sickness when you were younger. Do you know that-''
The woman kept babbling on, but Mallory blocked her out. Her birth mother had had burns from the birth. She'd killed her mother, burned her from the inside out. She shut her eyes, a wave of guilt washing over her.
"Mallory, come here," Elaine called.
Mallory put on a practiced cheerful look and walked over to her parents, who were talking to a young boy about five or six.
"This is Peter. Peter, this is our daughter Mallory." The boy smiled up at her, and Mallory knelt next to her parents.
"Hi," she said. The boy gave her a shy nod, a lock of black hair falling on his forehead. Mallory smiled at the way he impatiently pushed it back in place. "Well, Peter, what kind of stuff do you like?" Mallory asked.
The boy grinned. "I like superheroes. When I grow up, I want to be one."
Mallory smiled. "Do you have any powers?" she asked, only half kidding.
The boy shook his head. "No, but there's tons of heroes who don't have powers, like Batman and Green Arrow and Robin, um, well there's tons."
Mallory nodded, continuing the list in her head. "Yeah, and there's heroes who were chosen, like the Green Lanterns." Darrin gave her a look, and she took the hint and changed the subject. "Do you like anything else?"
Peter shrugged. "I guess."
Elaine cleared her throat. "Well, Peter, it was so nice to meet you. I know we'll see you again."
The boy beamed up at her. "I like you," he said.
Mallory saw the glow come on her mom's face, and she knew in that moment that she'd just met her little brother.