Two days later, Mallory was in her apartment after work, doing some cleaning while she waited for her friends to get there. When the knock came, she tossed the rag onto the mantle and swung the door open with a grin.
"Hey, sorry we're late," Raquel apologized, and Zatannna rolled her eyes playfully and added, "we had to stop like three times so she could pee."
Raquel leveled a glare at the magician. "I can't wait for you to get knocked up so I can make fun of you bumping into everything and peeing every five minutes."
Zatanna just smiled and replied, "well, in the meantime I'll just keep making fun of you."
Mallory chuckled and grabbed her wallet off the table by the door. "I'm ready. Where do you want to go?" she asked. The girls were having one more meal together before Mallory and Zatanna went to space with the Lanterns the next day. They had already spent some time with the others the night before, but Raquel couldn't come because her mother in law stopped in and wouldn't let her out of the house.
"Well, how hungry are we? I could probably just go for a coffee and donut or something," Zatanna mentioned. Mallory nodded, and they looked at Raquel expectantly.
"Well, I'm not drinking coffee and the kid hates the smell of sugar, but I can just wait outside for you two," she said.
Zatanna shook her head. "No, go ahead and pick. I forget all the stuff you can't have anymore, now that you've got a squatter."
They had reached the street now, and their friend rubbed a hand over her enormous belly as she thought about her options. "How about that little smoothie place downtown? You know, the one with the big cup on the sign?"
"That's kind of far. We'll have to take a bus or a cab," Mallory mentioned.
"I vote cab. It's faster."
"What are y'all talking about? Isn't there a zeta tube near there?" Raquel asked. The girls tilted their heads. "I mean, yeah, a block or two away I think," Mallory said. "But I thought you were supposed to stay in one piece."
The girl shrugged. "It's fine. Come on, I have to get off my feet. My back is killing me."
The group walked to the old photo booth in the alley beside Mallory's apartment building and the pyrokinetic punched in their coordinates across the city. They came out in an alley very similar to the one they left and walked out to the street. Raquel was starting to look more uncomfortable the more they walked, and Mallory winced, wishing they had just taken the cab. By the time they got to the smoothie shop, she was holding her stomach with her hands to try to get some of the pressure off her back, and she was the first to sit down, though she had to scoot pretty far away from the table to accommodate her load.
"Can you order for me?" she asked. "I'm just going to save the table."
Zatanna nodded. "Sure. Tropical mango?" Their friend smiled and nodded, and Mallory and Zatanna went up to the counter to put their orders in.
"Is it normal to be that uncomfortable?" Mallory asked in a low tone while they waited for their drinks to be blended. She didn't know very much about pregnancy other than the basics, but just from watching Raquel over the past month, it seemed like torture.
Zatanna shrugged. "I think so. I mean, she's getting close to her due date, she's only got another three or four weeks left."
"Three or four weeks," Mallory repeated, shaking her head sympathetically. She looked at her friend. "Remind me in a few years that I don't want to have kids."
Zatanna chuckled. "Sure, will do."
Their order came and Mallory paid while Zatanna gathered the drinks and brought them to the table. When they were all settled in, Raquel sighed and shook her head. "I can't believe y'all are going back to space. And I'm gonna be stuck here, at home, with family popping in every twenty minutes to make sure I'm not in labor. Argh, if I see his Aunt Nessie one more time this week I'm gonna dig my belt out of the closet and put her in a force field on the porch."
The girls laughed, shaking their heads. "What does she even come for? She doesn't like you," Mallory asked.
Raquel shook her head. "Probably to make sure I'm not drinking and smoking behind her back. That woman is such a—-"
"Hey, now, think of the kid," Zatanna interrupted. "That's his family, you don't want him to come out with the wrong idea, do you?"
The married girl rolled her eyes and grumbled a little, muffling some of her more choice words with her straw. Mallory and Zatanna chuckled and let her be mad for a moment. Zatanna glanced at the TV while she waited and nodded to the news footage playing. "Hey, look." The others turned their attention to the screen, where Hotspot and his group were fighting Live Wire.
"Huh, I don't know why I thought Toni left town again," Raquel mentioned.
"She did, but only to wrap things up back in Opal. They're getting married at the end of the month," Mallory explained.
Her friends' eyebrows shot up and they exchanged a glance. "Wow, when did that happen?" Zatanna asked.
"I don't know, I ran into him a month or two ago and he told me. Asked if I wanted to go to the wedding."
"Oh. Are you gonna go?" the magician asked.
"No, of course not," she replied firmly.
"Why not?" Raquel asked. When the pyrokinetic gave her a look, she added, "oh, come on, you haven't dated since you were kids, and if he didn't want you there he wouldn't have said anything about it."
"I don't know, Raq. I can see how it would be weird," Zatanna mentioned.
"Yeah, it's weird," Mallory agreed, stirring her smoothie absently. "Toni still acts weird around me, I don't want to ruin her wedding."
Raquel shrugged. "I guess." She shifted in her seat, and the baby kicked her, punching an outline of a fist into her stomach for a split second. Mallory and zatanna smiled at the little hand, but Raquel winced. "This kid is gonna have a punch to beat Superman," she complained.
Zatanna chuckled. "Well, you won't have to be the punching bag much longer."
"That's right," Rauqel said, then she leaned forward, pointing a finger at the others and added, "and don't either of you forget it. You'd better be back by the time this kid starts coming. I'd hate to really earn my name shooting across space to track you down."
Mallory put her hands up, laughing. "Ok, ok, easy there. We're only gonna be gone for a week, two tops. As long as everything stays on schedule, we'll be back with time to spare."
"You'd better," she muttered. "It'll take all of you to keep Aunt Nessie out of the hospital when it comes."
"We'll be there," Zatanna assured her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "We wouldn't miss it for anything in the universe."