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The next evening, Mallory was making some nachos for an early dinner when her phone rang in the living room.
"Dick, can you get that for me? It's probably just Roy with some more cases," she called.
He picked up the phone, answering it without looking at the caller ID. "Hello?" There was a pause, then he sat up straighter, pushing away the equipment he was working on. "Oh, yeah, she's been waiting on your call. Just a minute." He muted the phone and came into the kitchen. "Mal, it's Angels Placement, the Family Advocate position."
Mallory's eyes went wide. This was the job that she never thought she would even be considered for. It was the most money out of all the places she'd applied, and the closest to what she actually wanted to do, with room to move up. She took a breath and accepted the phone with a shaky hand. She expected Dick to go back to the living room, but he stayed in the small kitchen with her, a hopeful smile on his face as he watched her intently. She sighed and unmuted the phone.
"Mallory Johnson here," she said, forcing her nerves out of her voice.
"Hi, Ms. Johnson. Sorry for calling you so late, but we had quite a few applications to go through," the secretary explained.
"Oh, no, that's totally fine," Mallory replied, shoving a hand through her hair, pushing it out of her face.
"Well, we went through your application very thoroughly, and we may be interested in bringing you in for an interview."
"May?" Mallory asked.
"Well, there are a few concerns that have been brought up. For instance, you don't quite have the level of experience that we were hoping for, and then there's the issue of your termination at your former place of employment."
Her heart dropped to her stomach. "Oh, yes, I understand if that's a concern."
"Yes, but all things considered, we would like to get you in for an interview and discuss a few things with you, if you are still interested in the position."
Mallory looked at Dick, who had an eyebrow raised, waiting for her response. She looked away. "Um, yes, of course I am," she said, but her voice didn't sound as convincing.
"Yes, well, we have two openings this week, one is Wednesday morning, the other Thursday afternoon. Which would work better with your schedule?"
Mallory bit her lip, her heart racing. "Um, would it be possible for me to get back to you on that after I check my calendar?"
The secretary paused, then sighed. "Well, it's getting late, but if you want to call tomorrow morning and let us know, that would be fine."
She looked at the clock. It was after six, the office should have closed an hour ago. "Ok, thank you, I'll let you know tomorrow," she said quickly. She was about to say goodbye when the woman on the other line said, "But, Ms. Johnson, let me make this perfectly clear. If you don't call before eleven tomorrow morning, the interview will no longer be on the table."
She nodded even though the woman couldn't see her. "Yes, ma'am. I understand. Thank you for calling." The call ended, and Mallory lowered the phone slowly, looking tentatively at Dick. It was hard to read his face at first, and they stood there for a minute in silence.
"Dick…" she started, but he cut her off.
"What are you doing, Mal? This is your big chance! This could lead to your dream job, and you'll be helping hundreds of kids find homes! Why are you putting off the interview?"
"I'm not-"
"Yes, you are. And don't think I don't know about all those other jobs you passed up."
She narrowed her eyes a little, confused. "Wait, if you knew about those, then why didn't you say anything then?" she asked.
He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Because I hoped that you would get over it yourself and you wouldn't need me to knock any sense into you." He stopped, doing a little circle in the kitchen and raking his hand through his hair, leaving it more or less the same. When he looked back at her, his face was pained, and there was deep concern in his eyes. "When are you going to realize that you don't have to be afraid of every change that happens? They're not all for the worse."
She didn't know why, but it felt like a slap in the face, him bringing up her fear. She shook her head, walking past him to go to the living room.
"Mal, I'm sorry, I just meant-"
"No, it's fine. I'm gonna go run a patrol. The nachos are done, eat what you want. I'll get something out."
"Mal, come on," he tried to grab her wrist, but she easily avoided his hand, grabbing her bag with her suit in it and slinging it over one shoulder.
"Don't wait up," she said, and she walked out the door, shutting it quickly. She jogged down the stairs, trying to put some distance between them in case he tried to follow her, but he didn't. She went to the zeta tube, changing in the small boarded-up picture booth before facing the panel. Where did she want to go? Metropolis was her first thought, but then she didn't really want to go there and have to think about the job and Jr. She thought about going to Dakota or New York, but Raquel and Zatanna probably wouldn't have anything good to say to her either.
She sighed and punched in her coordinates, coming out in Central City. She looked around. Barry and Bart would be home by now, unless something serious was going on. Iris had set a soft curfew for Barry since the due date was getting closer, and Jay and Joan worried about Bart, so he was usually in the house by the time dinner was on the table. She shot herself up to the roof from the alley she came out in and looked around. The sun was setting, and she couldn't help but notice how golden it made all of the buildings look. This was the only city that did that. She didn't know why, but sunset in Metropolis gave everything a pinkish blue tint, at least until it was dark enough to see the lights coming on in the city, and Gotham, Bludhaven, and Star didn't benefit from the color show, they just got darker as it got later.
She flew around for a while, but everything seemed quiet. After patrolling Bludhaven so much lately, Central City seemed so tame and boring that she couldn't put her finger on why it even needed a hero in the first place. She was reminded shortly when the scream of an alarm alerted her to a robbery in the area. She changed her course, following the sound quickly. Before she landed, though, she saw a flurry of activity on the street. There were four burglars running across the street to a car stalling in the road, and there was a fifth figure on an awning below her. The figure jumped into the middle of the road, standing between the robbers and their getaway car. The door to the car opened and a man stood halfway out of the car, a gun in one hand, and the new player threw a disk at him, making him drop the gun, and threw a second disk that stuck into the driver's coat, pinning him to the car for the time being. He had barely turned around when the four robbers charged at him with their guns drawn.
"Peter!" Mallory said under her breath, but before she could even move he had dropped the smoke pellets, and she saw the smoke swirl around from above as he fought inside it. She flew down to the street, hesitating to actually join the fight. Another minute went by, and the smoke cleared to show Vigilante fighting two of the men, the other two unconscious on the ground. She walked a little closer.
"Hey, Vig, need a hand?" she asked lightly. One of the burglars looked at her, clearly thinking that this was more than he bargained for, but she made no move to attack, so he just took a step back, not fighting anymore. Peter hit the one he was fighting in the stomach, and when the man doubled over he hit the back of his head with the butt of one of his dart guns, knocking him out.
"I'm fine," he said sharply. He looked at the one who wasn't fighting anymore, and the man, really he couldn't have been more than twenty, just held out his hands, ready to be put in cuffs. Peter pulled a set off his belt and was clicking them in place when the driver managed to pull the disk out of the car and started running away from them. Mallory flew over Peter and the men and landed in front of the driver. He almost bumped into her, and she grabbed the back of his collar and shook her head. He sagged a little, accepting defeat, and walked back to the others willingly, though she kept her grip on his shirt.
"Here, I think you missed one," she said with a smile.
Peter glared at her, slapping a cuff on the driver and pulling him away roughly. "I told you I don't need help," he said coolly.
She let her smile drop, a confused expression taking its place. The store owner caught up to them, and Vigilante shot a line to the roof before the older woman had a chance to say anything. Mallory handed the woman the stolen goods and made sure that the police were on their way, grabbed the disk out of the car, then took off after her brother. He was still on the roof, watching for the cops, but she started to leave when he saw her coming. She landed behind him.
"Vig, wait," she said.
"I need to go," he said, his voice icey.
She crossed her arms, her eyes narrowed to slits. "Vigilante, we need to talk," she said, her tone leaving no room for argument.
He did stop, lowering the arm that had been about to shoot another line to the next building. When he looked over his shoulder, his own visors were barely visible, his glare was so intense. "Oh, so now you want to talk?" he practically spat.
His anger took her by surprise, and she dropped her arms to her sides. "What do you mean by that?" she asked.
"Nothing," he muttered.
She sighed, taking a step closer. "Vig, what's wrong? Why are you being like this?" she asked quietly.
"Why do you even care all of a sudden?" he asked, his hands in fists at his sides.
"What?"
"You left, Mallory. After everything that had happened, after Wally, you just left and started to self destruct, like you always do. Only this time, you weren't the only one who was affected. Well, it's fine, cause I got through it without you. But that doesn't mean you get to come back now and pretend like nothing's changed."
Mallory sucked in a breath, her chest aching at the look of betrayal underneath the anger on his face. "Peter, I am so sorry about that. I didn't think, I mean, well, I thought you would be better off without me around."
"Right, like that makes any sense. You may be the one who brought Wally around, but you weren't the only one who counted him as part of the family. Mom and Dad were grieving, I was, too, and everyone at the Watchtower. I never got a break. The only people I could really talk to about it were Gar and Perdita, and even with them I had to be the strong one. I always thought you would be there for me, but you weren't around. And then, on top of all that, I have to hear from all your friends how bad you're doing, and then deal with the fallout when Mom and Dad found out you were hospitalizing people on the news. No. You've put the family through too much to get to just waltz right back in when it suits you."
They were quiet for a moment, and Mallory studied the person in front of her. She realized suddenly that she didn't even know him anymore. She really had missed a lot during those months away. He'd shot up a few inches, and he'd gotten a different haircut, shaved at the neck and long and messy on top. It looked good, made him look older. Which, she realized, wasn't the only thing making him look older. It was the way he carried himself, the look on his face, the confidence he emitted. He was almost thirteen now, every bit as capable as Dick had been at that age, and he knew it.
She sighed. "What do I need to do? What can I do to fix this?" she asked quietly.
He didn't say anything for a long time, just stared at her with the same glare frozen on his face. She'd almost given up on him answering the question at all when he said, "prove to us that you're really back, and show us that you're not going to check out on us again."
She nodded solemnly and let him run to the edge of the roof, shooting his line as he jumped off. She looked at the disk she'd pulled off the car. It was a little silver star, like a sheriff's badge, with a black V in the center. She slipped it into her jacket pocket and turned in the opposite direction, flying to the zeta tube. She went to Metropolis and flew around, looking at everything in the city and thinking about everything that made her who she was. She hated that she'd let Peter down, that she'd pushed everyone away. She couldn't get the look of hatred out of her mind.
He was right. They all were. She needed to pull herself together and get on with her life, and she needed to make this the last time she went into her self destruct mode. By the time eight o'clock rolled around, she had made up her mind. She sat cross-legged on the globe of the Daily Planet and pulled out her phone. She tapped her fingers impatiently as she counted the rings. Finally, the office picked up.
"Angel's Placement Social Services, this is Ashley speaking, how can I help you?"
"Hi, my name is Mallory Johnson. I was calling to schedule my interview."
"Oh, yes, they said you would be calling. So, did you want Wednesday or Thursday?"
She looked out over the city, her mind made up. She would not fail this time. She couldn't. "I'll take Wednesday, it's the morning, right?"