I'm starting to write again, and I knocked out three chapters in one day. I can see the finish line for the gap years, so I'm really excited about that. I can't wait to start writing season two! I honestly never thought I would make it this far into the story, so thanks to everyone who reads this, the views, favorites, follows, and reviews really keep me going. Anyway, hope you like it, please review!
That weekend, Mallory and Conner found themselves enduring the Metropolis trains and pushing through the pedestrian traffic as they made their way from the nearest zeta tube in Metropolis to Lois and Clark's apartment on the East End. It took nearly twenty minutes due to all of the stops the train made along the way, and when they finally got to the building, Conner was ready to jump through the ceiling to get there faster. Mallory chuckled at her friend's impatience as they waited for the elevator to get to the ground floor.
"Relax, Conner, a little socialization isn't going to kill you," she said. She snorted and added, "you needed to get out of the cave, anyway. You were starting to grow roots."
"What's wrong with staying in the cave? There's not much reason to leave," he retorted.
"No, no reason at all, except to have a life," Mallory replied.
"Like you?" Conner asked as they got on the elevator and she pushed the button.
"Hey, at least I have friends outside of the team. You need to get out more, meet people," she said.
"I have friends," he said defensively.
Mallory smiled with fake sympathy. "Oh, sweetie, I'm not counting people who don't live on this planet," she said.
"I have friends," he repeated.
Mallory thought for a moment, then shrugged and said, "high school friends don't count, either, unless you've seen them or talked to them in the last six months to a year."
He grunted in stubborn defeat, and Mallory chuckled to herself. The doors slid open and they went down the hall to the apartment. As soon as Conner's knuckles hit the door, it flew open to reveal Clark's beaming face.
"Hey, glad you could make it," he said. They nodded and followed him into the small two bedroom apartment.
"Is that them?" Lois called from the kitchen.
"Yeah," Mallory replied.
Lois came around the corner and grinned when she saw them. "Hey, kiddos. How you been?" she asked, giving them each a quick hug before turning on her heel to go back to the kitchen.
"Fine. I read the article. It was really good. I especially liked my lines in it, they were a real surprise," Mallory teased.
Lois gave her a backwards glance. "Was it anything you wouldn't have said?" she asked.
"No. Actually, it was kind of creepy, it was exactly what I would've said," she replied.
Lois smiled a little. "Well, then, there's no problem," she said. She finished moving the takeout from the to-go boxes onto plates and grabbed some glasses and a pitcher of lemonade from the fridge, along with a wine bottle for her and Clark. The others helped her move everything from the kitchen sideboard to the coffee table, and they settled around it and helped themselves to the appetizers and mandarin chicken.
When they had finished dividing up the food, Mallory raised her glass in a mock toast and said, "To Lois, and yet another great article written just a little too soon."
Clark and Conner laughed and clicked their glasses to hers, and Lois rolled her eyes, fighting a smile at the corners of her mouth. Mallory hid her own by taking a sip of lemonade, never taking her eyes off the reporter.
"Why don't we talk about something else? Like, Mallory, how's your night life going? Or we could talk about how Conner isn't trying to find a job." Clark snorted, and Lois shot him a look, one eyebrow raised challengingly and she eyed her husband. "Or we could always talk about how Clark hasn't submitted an article worth printing in over two weeks," she said. The three of them shook their heads, amused and offended at the same time at how carelessly she'd brought up the faults in their lives.
"Well, Peter's on the team now. That's something new," Mallory offered, stabbing a pot sticker with one of her chopsticks.
"Oh, really?" Lois asked, looking at Clark. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Clark shrugged. "Mallory was already coming over, I figured she'd want to be the one to tell you," he replied.
The reporter nodded and turned back to the pyrokinetic, her interest piqued. "How's that going?" she asked.
Mallory shrugged. "It's only been a few days, there hasn't even been any missions yet, so nothing's really changed. He was hanging around the cave anyway, now he just doesn't need to be picked up to get there, and he's getting his own room. Honestly, though, I don't know why he never got one in the first place."
Lois nodded. "Does he have a name?" she asked.
"Yeah, His name's Vigilante," she replied.
"Huh," Lois said thoughtfully.
"What?" Clark asked.
Lois shook her head. "Oh, nothing. So, Mal, is he patrolling with anyone, or is he just staying on the team?" she asked.
Mallory recognized the look in the woman's eye all too well and shook her head firmly. "No, you're not gonna grill my brother for an article. He doesn't even have a mentor, really. He's just gonna stay as part of the team. Dick's been taking him out on patrols for a while, trying to make sure he's ready, but that's about it."
Lois shrugged. "Fine, I'll just find something else to write about for National Heroes Day," she said boredly.
Mallory tilted her head. "Oh, I forgot about it," she admitted.
"Yeah, I guess I did too. Are we gonna do anything with the League this year?" Conner asked, looking between Mallory and Clark.
Mallory shrugged. In years past, the team and League had gotten together to make plans for public appearances in some of the bigger cities that generally did the most for the holiday. Last year, though, the team had gone down to the grotto and done a memorial service for Tula, renewing their promise not to forget her sacrifice and giving her the recognition that she should have been getting from the entire country.
Clark shrugged. "I don't know, there hasn't been any talk about it. I assume we'll do the usual, unless the team wants to do something different."
Mallory looked at Conner, and he shrugged. "I don't know, we haven't talked about it either," he said.
Mallory shoved another bite into her mouth, giving herself a moment before she would have to get back into the conversation. She'd have to go over to Barry and Iris's at some point during the day like she did every year to celebrate with Wally, Barry, and Jay Garrack and their families. Some years Dick had come, and Peter and her parents were always invited. She'd also have to section off a big part of her day to devote to the public appearances, and she'd have to come up with a plausible excuse to get out of any plans any of her friends would want to make for the day, but none of that was what was bothering her.
What really had her down was the thought of Tula's hologram statue down in the grotto, just stashed in the basement and forgotten about by everyone that didn't live in the house. Sure it had been her idea, and it was better than nothing, but that didn't change the fact that it just wasn't fair. It wasn't right that she would never get the recognition she deserved. She sighed and let her thoughts move from the Atlantean to Kara and the memorial wall built for her in Metropolis. Lex had blocked the move to build her a statue in Centennial Park, which now that Malory knew that she wasn't dead she was kind of glad of, but she still got thousands of people leaving her flowers and notes without public opinion turning on the League. So why would Tula be any different?
"Mal?" she heard Conner say, and she jerked her attention back to the present. "Sorry, spaced out for a sec," she apologized, looking around for a clue as to what she'd missed.
"Clark asked if you're going to be patrolling this week," Lois offered, her gaze softening as she looked at the redhead. Mallory shook her head slightly, trying to let the reporter know that it wasn't what she was thinking.
"Uh, no, probably not. I have to try to get ahead in my classes, and Jen's been getting on me about not spending any time with her lately," she said.
"You live with her all week," Conner muttered, draining his glass and refilling it from the pitcher in the center of the table.
Mallory chuckled. "You'd be surprised how much we miss each other. By the time she gets back from her last class, I'm either at the library or running errands or patrolling, and by the time I wake up, she's gone to get breakfast with her boyfriend before his class."
"Well, there shouldn't be any big crime spree in just a week without Inferno. Go ahead and take a couple of nights, have fun with your friends. You could probably use the break from hero stuff," Clark reasoned.
Mallory nodded. "Yeah, I probably will. It feels like I've been stressing about Peter joining the team for weeks."
"Oh, it hasn't been weeks. More like years," Conner said, his soothing voice turning sarcastic in less than a second.
Mallory chuckled and rolled her eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry I actually care about someone. Or, I guess I should say I'm sorry that I actually show that I care about someone," she shot back.
Conner smiled a little and shrugged. "Whatever," he said.
They looked up to see Lois smiling with interest at their banter, and they dropped the subject and let Clark move the conversation along. It happened every time they got together with the reporter. They became a little quicker to use sarcasm, and the mild jabs and sharp comebacks flowed with the conversation. It was part of the dynamic of the family. As Lois liked to say, she was training them to be reporters, or at the very least preparing them to be on the top of the food chain in every room they entered. Clark was the calmer influence, the one that reminded them that you don't always need to be in charge to make a difference.
"I talked to Ma today," Clark said, turning the conversation to calmer waters. The others leaned back a little, satisfied that the verbal sparring was over for the time being.
"How're the folks?" Lois asked.
"Fine. She wanted to know when we're going to visit them again."
"We were just up at the farm," Conner said, but Mallory shook her head and said, "no, that was a few months ago. We haven't been since before Donna quit the team." Recognition showed on Conner's face, and he shrugged. "I don't have anything going on next week," he said.
The others chuckled, and Lois nodded. "Well, I can't get away that soon, but we do need to make the trip out. They may be the forgiving type, but that doesn't mean they forget things easily."
Mallory tilted her head in silent agreement, and Clark turned to her. "She also wanted me to tell you congratulations on joining the League. She said they watched the inauguration live on TV."
Mallory nodded, feeling guilty that she hadn't called them or gone to the farm after the party to let them know. "When you get a date to go, let me know. I'm not going up there alone to face their smiles and cookies and niceness," she joked.
They laughed again, and focused back on their food as they continued their catching up, talking for the rest of the evening about everything that had happened since the last time the "superfamily" had gotten together.