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Only a day later, Mallory, Zatanna, and Megan were getting ready for Raquel's bridal shower. None of them were in the party mood, but they wanted to be there for their friend, and they needed to take their minds off everything that had happened. Mallory gave her reflection one last look, running her fingers through her flaming red hair. She'd decided not to dye it for this. She wanted to feel like herself.
When she was satisfied with the way she looked, she grabbed her phone and the gift bag with the book and went down the hall to Zatanna's room. She knocked, and the doors slid open almost immediately, the magician ready with her own gift bag in her hand. Megan met them in the living room, and they zetaed to Dakota a few blocks away from the restaurant.
They walked along in silence for a while, then Megan sighed and said, "It's Conner's birthday today. He's never had a birthday when I haven't thrown him a party."
Mallory and Zatanna exchanged a look. "That's not really your job anymore, Megan," the magician pointed out.
The Martian sighed again. "And with Kaldur holding Lagaan captive, I can't focus on parties."
Mallory put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "We'll do something for Conner tonight, either at the cave or with Lois. Now come on, Raquel's going to kill us for being late."
They rounded the corner and saw the table with all of the women heroes. Karen saw them first and grinned. "There they are!" she announced, and the others looked up.
The three girls went around the table and each gave Raquel a hug and congratulations as they put their gifts down, then they went around to the empty seats at the other end of the table. Raquel opened Megan's present and pulled out the jewelry box with a soft gasp. "Oh, Megan, you shouldn't have! I love it."
Megan smiled. "Actually, it's from Artemis, too. We bought it together."
Everyone looked at the empty seat at the end of the table, the symbol for the hole in their group and their lives. Raquel sighed, her face falling. "What am I doing?" she asked quietly. "Having this shower? How can we celebrate so soon after–"
"Because Artemis would want us to celebrate," Mallory said firmly, forcing a smile.
Zatanna nodded. "Yeah, she'd kick our butts if we didn't."
Raquel paused, then smiled and lifted her glass. "To absent friends," she said, raising the toast. The others raised their glasses, repeating the words, and Megan stood and added, "and to the bride!" all of the women stood, repeating it with enthusiasm, and Raquel's smile finally won out over the somber mood.
"You're getting married, girl!" Karen said.
"I know!" Raquel replied.
"Have you set the date yet?" Dina asked.
"Not yet, but we're looking at venues. I can't wait to finally walk down that isle."
"I don't know where you found a guy like Darius on top of everything you do, but I'm glad you did," Zatanna said.
"Yeah, I can't wait for him to officially be part of the family," Donna said, looking at Mallory. The pyrokinetic smiled and nodded. Their waiter came to take their order.
As soon as he went back inside, a shot of ice came from the roof of the restaurant, chilling the air and casing them in. The women jumped to their feet.
"Ugh, seriously?" Barbara muttered. "The one day we're all off, they come to us?"
Raquel just chuckled. "Boy, did he pick the wrong bank to rob." She looked at Zatanna, and the magician smiled and muttered a spell that put the heroes in their costumes. Mallory ignited her hands, looking at the others. "You ready?" she asked. They nodded, and she shot fire at the ice, melting the wall in no time.
Steam filled the air for a moment, and when it cleared, all of the women were standing in a row, Inferno, Zatanna, Miss Martian, Troia, Rocket, Wonder Girl, Bumblebee, Jett, Batgirl, and Black Canary. Captain Cold's face fell and he dropped his ice pick.
"I'm completely doomed, aren't I?" he asked.
Rocket smiled. "One hundred percent," she assured him, and the women charged, Rocket knocking the villain out with one blown, the others moving to make sure everyone was all right. Mallory and Zatanna worked on melting the ice. As soon as the cops showed up, they disappeared in a puff of smoke provided by Batgirl. They regrouped on a roof a block away, where they could watch the cleanup without being bothered.
Raquel laughed. "I guess I should go back and get my things from the restaurant. I don't think we're going back there any time soon."
"I'll go," Cassie offered, and Karen went with her. Zatanna started laughing, and they looked at her.
"What?" Donna asked.
"Oh, nothing, I was just thinking how much Artemis would have loved this."
They looked at each other and joined in the laughter.
"She really would've," Raquel agreed.
"Oh, are you kidding? This would have been a perfect shower for her," Mallory put in.
They looked at each other, still smiling as they remembered their friend fondly. Cassie and Karen got back with the gifts, and Raquel looked down at her costume.
"Well, you want to take the shower to the cave?" she asked.
Mallory tilted her head. "Really? You want to have the rest of your bridal shower in the cave? You can go there whenever you want."
Raquel shrugged. "Where else are we going to go?" she asked.
Black Canary smiled. "How about the Watchtower?" she suggested.
The team members looked at the bride-to-be hopefully. They'd never been to the Watchtower before, and they were more than a little curious. Raquel sighed and smiled. "All right, let's go."
Cassie squealed and they made their way to the zeta tube, going as one group to the watchtower. When they appeared in the entrance room, all of the first-timers looked around in awe. Even Donna was speechless at the open room, the glass looking out over the Earth. Jess was the first to walk over to the window, but the others followed her, almost in a trance.
"Wow," Cassie said, her voice more subdued than Mallory had ever heard it. "It's–"
Raquel nodded. "Yeah, it is."
"What is this?" Red Tornado asked. They looked at where he was standing in front of several holographic screens.
"We moved the bridal shower to here. There was a situation at the restaurant," Canary explained.
"It is just as well. I have been trying to get in touch with Inferno for some time."
"Why?" Mallory asked, but Zatanna and Megan shook their heads, and Zatanna covered the pyrokinetic's ears playfully. "Nope, we're all off duty. If it can't wait, call Conner," the magician said, pushing Mallory out of the room. Mallory laughed and let her friends pull her away from the job, and the others followed them into the next room, the view of the Earth just as beautiful.
The girls spent a few hours there, talking about wedding plans and catching up. Eventually, they started to leave one by one. Jess was the first to say goodbye, nodding to Raquel and telling her congratulations before heading to the zeta tube. Barbara left soon after, then Cassie and Karen, and eventually even Canary left. The only ones left were Raquel, Zatanna, Donna, Megan, and Mallory, and they leaned back tiredly, looking out into space.
"Do you think they made the walls glass to calm everyone, or keep them aware of how vulnerable the planet is when there's so much out there?" Zatanna asked.
Mallory shrugged, her eyes focused on their home. "I don't know, probably depends on who you ask. Superman would've wanted it to give people hope, Batman would want people to think about it getting crushed."
Raquel chuckled and nodded. "Sounds about right," she said.
Megan was looking past the planet, out into open space. "How do you think they're doing?" she asked.
The others sighed a little, not answering. It had been months since the Leaguers left, and they hadn't had any word from them. They'd stayed so busy in that time, it was easy to forget about what was happening halfway across the galaxy, but in quiet moments like this, it was practically screaming for attention.
"They are fine," Donna said firmly, looking at her companions. "And they would not want us to be worrying about them. They are probably more concerned about what is happening here than what they are going through."
Mallory nodded in agreement, blinking to get the vision of the Leaguers saying goodbye on the beach out of her mind. She scrunched her eyebrows together, looking back towards the main room. "I wonder what Tornado was trying to tell me earlier," she said.
Zatanna shrugged. "No idea," she replied.
"Maybe I should go see," Mallory said, pushing herself to her feet stiffly.
"Oh, come on, Mal, it's your day off!" Zatanna said, making a feeble attempt to grab the pyrokinetic's ankle. Mallory laughed, hopping out of her grip easily. The others followed her out to the main room where the android was still standing in front of the screens.
"Hey, Tornado, what were you trying to get in touch with me for earlier?" Mallory asked.
He looked at her. "There was an explosion at Lexcorp earlier today, confirmed to be a failed attempt on Luthor's life. I thought you would want to respond, but the local authorities handled the situation."
Mallory smiled a little. "Who was crazy enough to try to take Luthor out?" she asked, taking some pleasure in the situation.
"Roy Harper. He awoke this morning and escaped from his hospital room."
The humor dropped and Mallory immediately looked at the zeta tube. "I should…" she started, but Raquel and Zatanna stepped in her path.
"Nope," Raquel said firmly.
"But Speedy-" Mallory started, but Zatanna interrupted, "is already back with Green Arrow, and the police took care of the explosion, which means neither will need you today. Go home, Mallory, enjoy the rest of the day. If anyone needs help, they'll call one of the boys."
Mallory sighed and nodded, smiling sheepishly. "Sorry, it's just hard to turn it off," she said.
"I know, but you can't be available to everyone all the time," Raquel told her.
Mallory nodded and sighed, turning to the others. "I'm gonna head home, I'll see you later." She looked at Donna. "It was good to see you," she said, and she turned and gave Raquel one last hug. "I'm so happy for you," she said.
They told her goodbye and she went to the zeta tube, punching in the coordinates for the cave.
As soon as Mallory got back to the cave, she knew it was going to be a hard night. She felt worse than empty. There was just a sense of sadness seeping into her heart, and no matter what she did she couldn't shake it. It was like a weight, pulling her down, making her feel lonely and cold and depressed.
She wandered aimlessly around the cave for a while, looking around the living room, her training room, the hangar, the training room, hoping for the feeling to go away, but it stayed with her. Eventually, she found herself down in the grotto, looking at the holograms of Tula and Ted and Jason, and Artemis. She sighed and stood in front of the Archer, looking up at the picture.
"You would have loved it," she said quietly, looking up at her friend. "God, I wish you were here. I don't know what we're going to do without you."
The feeling in her chest lightened with her words, and she realized that she hadn't had a chance to tell her friend goodbye, or that she was glad she had found happiness outside of the team with Wally, or that she was jealous that she had the strength to walk away. It may have just been a picture, but telling her everything she hadn't gotten a chance to say still felt very freeing. She felt herself tear up, but the feeling in her chest had changed. She was still sad, but it wasn't a crushing weight. She felt like she could finally have some peace with what had happened.
She winced. She hadn't seen Wally since before, hadn't even tried to reach out. She'd convinced herself that it was out of respect so that he could grieve in peace, but her reasons were much less selfless than that. She hadn't wanted to see her friend because she didn't want it to be real, and she didn't want to see him in pain. Still, she knew she needed to go see him.
There was a noise on the stairs, and she looked over her shoulder to see what it was.
"Jaime," she said, surprised.
"Oh, Inferno, uh, sorry, I didn't think anyone would be down here," he stammered, backing up a few stairs.
"No, come on in," Mallory said, and he hesitantly walked in and stood next to her. He looked from her to the holographic image of Artemis, and Mallory sighed and wiped an eye.
"Yeah, I just, I don't know. With everything that's going on, I just needed to see her." She let out a breath that almost sounded like a chuckle and added, "I don't know if that makes any sense."
Jaime shrugged and smiled. "Hey, you're telling that to a guy that's here to see someone he never met. It makes plenty of sense compared to that."
Mallory smiled and shifted her attention to the image of Ted Kord. "He would've liked you," she said quietly.
Jaime looked down. "I just wish I could've known him. It sucks, not knowing if he would want me to take over everything he worked for."
Mallory smiled and put a hand on his shoulder, and he looked up at her. "Jaime, how can you even think he wouldn't want you to take up his mantle? You've done so much as the blue Beetle. Ted would've been so proud of you, and he would be honored that you're carrying on his legacy."
Jaime looked up at the image, studying it, then he looked back at Mallory, a sad smile on his face. "Thanks, Inferno," he said.
Mallory nodded. "Oh, and Jaime, you can just call me Mallory," she said. His eyes widened slightly, and Mallory laughed. "Relax, nothing's going to explode because you know the secret identity of a Leaguer," she said.
"But, I mean, I didn't think," he stammered.
Mallory grinned. "Don't worry, I won't tell Nightwing. But, you know, he knows everyone's secret identities, so how mad can he really get if you know one or two? Come on, let's go see if Megan's done any baking lately," she said, and the two of them climbed the stairs of the grotto, leaving the ghosts of the past behind them.
I actually wrote the interaction in the grotto by itself months ago, and I almost scraped it because I couldn't find a good place to put it before Jaime starts being controlled, but I just really like it because Mallory doesn't have a ton of positive interactions with the newer members, and she knew Ted. I made it fit in here, and I'm glad I did. What do you think? Leave a review and let me know!