Sorry for the late update, I have my days all mixed up this week. Hope you like it, please review!
"Guys, I'm fine, just give it a rest," Mallory snapped, pressing one hand to her forehead to try to stop the throbbing. She'd been diagnosed with a severe concussion as soon as she'd been examined at the Watchtower the day before, and the League, Clark at the head, had insisted that she be on bedrest. Now, though, her apartment was crowded with her friends and family, all insisting that she come stay with one of them so that she would have someone to watch her, They claimed that it was out of concern for her health, but she had to wonder if it was really just that they didn't trust her not to go out.
"You clearly aren't," Raquel shot back, switching Amistad to the other hip as she fixed a mom glare on the redhead.
"It's not that big of a deal," Mallory argued, keeping her voice low so the vibrations wouldn't make her throw up.
"Ok, then, it's settled. You can move in with any of us, but you're going to pick someone and we're going to get you there today," Megan said firmly.
Mallory sighed, looking around at the original team, Peter, Gar, Brion, V'lana, Jaime, her parents, and Lois, all crammed in her living room and all staring intently at her. "Fine," she finally agreed, looking at Dick. "Your couch still open?" She figured since he was almost never home, and since he'd gone on patrol with a concussion and even a broken arm in his time, he would be the most understanding about leaving her alone. He shook his head, though.
"Ugh, anyone but me. Sorry, there's just…too much going on in Gotham. I think I'm going to have to move back into the manor for a little while to help Bruce sort everything out."
"Any luck tracking him?" Lois asked.
He shook his head. "Nope, and now we have the other problem."
"What other problems?" Roy asked.
Dick rubbed the back of his neck, sinking down to the arm of the couch. "Bruce's son."
The others exchanged confused looks. "Jason's the first problem, remember?" Peter said.
The former Boy Wonder shook his head. "Not Jason. His son, his actual, biological kid. The mother dropped him off at the manor last night, and, well, it's an adjustment for everyone."
Lois's eyes widened as he explained his statement, and she sat down on the table, shaking her head in disbelief. "Bruce…has a kid," she repeated, still not sounding like she really believed it. She looked up, a curious expression replacing the shock. "Who's the mother?"
Dick let out a humorless laugh. "Oh, you'll love this. Talia al Ghul. The kid's been raised as an assassin his whole life, and now she decides to dump him on us and make it our problem."
"How old is he?" Zatanna asked.
"Five, but he's not…he's not a kid. I don't know what they did to him, but he's…well, listen. He ran away after Talia left, and when we found him, we had to talk him down from running a mugger through with his sword. He's killed before, and he'll do it again. And the way he talks, he understands way too much about the world. He's never had a childhood, all he knows is battle and training."
"Well, I'm sure Bruce is handling that well," Kaldur muttered sarcastically.
"What about the others?" Artemis asked. "This affects them too."
"Well, for starters, Jess dropped off the grid right after Bruce told her not to go looking for Jason, and before we could go out looking for her, Damian showed up. Tim, Steph, and Cass are out looking for her now, and Barbara is back at the manor helping Alfred with the little ninja. As soon as I leave here, it'll be my shift with him."
"And…where does Bruce fall in all this?" Elaine asked, arching a judgmental eyebrow. The Johnsons had never been very approving of Batman, not before they knew who he was and certainly not after.
Dick shrugged. "He's still trying to track Jason down. We have to find him and take him down before he attacks another League base, or he could end up killing someone next time."
"Well, we'll give you a hand if you want it," Roy assured him. "Just let us know."
"Yeah, sure. Thanks, but this is family business. We'll take care of it," Dick replied. He shook his head and turned back to Mallory. "So, sorry, but my place is out. Next choice?"
"Oh, before you answer that, I think our place is out, too," Artemis said quickly, glancing at Roy.
"Right," he agreed, nodding. "We ran out of room with Tara."
"Yeah, and I don't think we can deal with anything else."
"She's still acting weird?" Mallory asked.
"What do you mean?" Brion asked.
Roy shrugged. "She's been quiet since her freak out. Hasn't really wanted to talk to anyone. Has she said anything to you?" he asked, looking at the prince and V'lana. They both shook their heads, both seeming to have noticed the girl's unusual behavior.
Peter narrowed his eyes slightly, looking to the side, and Mallory caught her brother's eye and shook her head. The young royal had been through enough, she didn't need Vigilante giving her a hard time just because she'd gone back into herself, especially now, with her brother in the room. She still wondered what had triggered her.
"Mallory, it might be best if you come stay with us for a few days," Darrin suggested, bringing her a cup of tea. She started to refuse, but Megan linked them and pointed out that it was only for a few days, so the pyrokinetic finally sighed and agreed.
"I'll just need to call in. Ugh, I don't even know how I'm going to explain this one."
"Don't worry, it's already taken care of," Zatanna reported. "I called your office and told them that you were on bedrest after getting in a car wreck and hitting your head on the dashboard. They wished you a fast recovery and said not to worry about anything."
"Thanks. I should probably also call Alex and let him know I'll be out of commission for a few days."
"Done," the magician said. There was a knock at the door and she glanced at her phone and bit back a smile. "Huh, I wonder who that could be."
Mallory rolled her eyes, watching Kaldur go to answer the door. "I can't believe you told him to come," the redhead muttered.
Zatanna smirked. "What, you didn't want your personal doctor to check in on you?"
"Hello, how can I help you?" Kaldur asked.
"Um, hi, I'm Alex, I heard that Mallory was hurt. Is she ok?"
"She will be fine. Come in, she is in the living room." The Atlantean brought the doctor into the apartment, and he went right to her, looking her over for injuries.
"Hey, how you feeling?" he asked, cupping the side of her face to keep her head still while he checked her pupils.
She fought a smile, not wanting to admit in front of her parents and friends that she felt a lot better with him there. "Fine, that's what I've been trying to explain to them for an hour, but maybe they'd take it better from you. Can you please tell them that I don't need to have a babysitter just because I have a little concussion?"
He shook his head, sitting down on the coffee table across from her, right next to Lois. "Sorry, but you're not going to get a lot of cooperation from me there. I'm on their side."
She rolled her eyes, and the room kept spinning so much that she had to lean forward and shut her eyes for a moment to get it to stop. When it was gone, she slowly opened them and Alex's green eyes were fixed on her with a compassionate 'I told you', and she couldn't help the sheepish smile that spread over her face. "Fine," she murmured.
A silence settled over the room until the outsider looked around. "It looks like I walked in on something. I can leave, if you want, I just wanted to make sure she was all right."
Roy put a hand on his shoulder, stopping him from getting up. "No, don't worry about it, I think we were about done making the arrangements. Besides, your professional opinion might have helped our case."
Alex tilted his head, looking at Mallory. "Ok…"
She sighed, twisting her lips to the side as she considered how she wanted to handle this. "Well, this isn't how I imagined this going down," she started, "but I guess this is as good a time as any for you to meet my family." He looked around, mild surprise on his face. "Oh, this isn't all of them, of course," she added. His eyes widened a little and she chuckled. "I told you about my friends in college. Well, this is them. My team, and my brother and parents."
He looked around slowly, curiosity in his gaze, and she smiled, almost hearing his thoughts as he tried to put together which person wore which costume. "I see," he murmured.
Dick's eyes went from dull to mischievous in a split second, and he leaned forward with a warm smile, extending his hand. "Hey, man. So, you're Alex, huh?"
"Yeah, I guess you've heard about me already. And you are?" He returned the handshake, but instead of Dick letting go, he tightened his grip and pulled him forward a little.
"Nightwing," he said, dropping into his Bat voice. "That's Red Arrow, Tigress, Super Boy, Miss Martian, Nautica, Vigilante, Beast Boy, Aquaman, Blue Beetle, Zatanna, and Rocket. Oh, and let's not forget the rest of the Justice League that couldn't be here."
Alex's lips twitched in a suppressed smile, and he looked the hero right in the eyes, not wavering. "You can relax, Nightwing," he said calmly. "I'm a doctor, remember? I already took an oath to do no harm. Besides, why would I put myself in this when I already knew she had a lot of backup. Don't worry. I'm here for the right reasons."
Dick narrowed his eyes, searching the doctor's face, then smiled and nodded. "Well, in that case, you can call me Dick, and it's nice to meet you." Introductions went around, with almost everyone giving the new boyfriend a real first name, the only exceptions being Brion and Raquel, who had gotten more serious about keeping her home life private since she'd brought Amistad home. Once the heroes were done, Darrin stepped forward, extending a friendly hand, though he was clearly still sizing Alex up.
"I'm her father, it's nice to finally meet you. We haven't heard too much about you yet, hopefully that can change now."
Mallory felt everyone's eyes on her and she groaned, pressing a hand to her head to play up her injury. "Ok, do all of you have to still be here? My head hurts, and I have to pack."
"That's all right, you won't disturb us," Zatanna said sweetly, but Roy shook his head and stood.
"All right, come on, you all have something else to do. Dick, call if you need help with your family stuff. The rest of you, out." He herded the group to the door, only leaving Peter, Alex, Elaine, and Darrin. Mallory caught his eye, offering a tired smile as a thank you, and he nodded and planted a kiss on the top of her head. "Don't be stupid, ok? Listen to the doc, rest and get better."
She shrugged. "What else would I do?" she asked, arching an eyebrow mischievously.
He gave her his best Stern Dad look, silently warning her not to try anything, then said goodbye to her parents and followed the crowd out the door.
With all the distractions out of the way, Alex let out a breath, moving from the table to the couch. "Well you could have at least warned me," he said, letting out a nervous chuckle.
"I didn't even know you were coming until you showed up," Mallory said defensively.
"You handled it very well, though," Elaine said, and Peter snorted and added, "yeah, a lot better than most of the team's outside SO's." Elaine looked around, then stood up. "Well, I'll start getting some of your things together. Darrin, why don't you run to the store and fill her prescriptions? Peter, give me a hand getting the suitcase packed. Oh, and give Gar a call, he'll need to move to the couch so she can stay in his room."
"'His' room?" Mallory called down the hall her mom was already halfway down. "I thought it was my room."
"Oh, please, it hasn't been your room since you bought your first apartment," Peter shot back, scooting past her. She sighed and leaned on the back of the sofa, enjoying the quiet.
"So, how many of them are your family again?" Alex asked.
She smiled. "All of them."
"I mean your biological family."
Her smile widened. "Oh, well then, none of them." She felt Alex tilt his head in question and started to explain. "I'm adopted, remember? And I only lived with my parents for three years before I had to get put in boarding school because of my powers. By the time I got enough control of them to move back in, I had already been working with Superman for four years and been recruited for the team. They adopted Peter not long after that, so honestly, at this point, they're all family. The only one I have."
"You say that like it's not made up of a hundred people."
"Hey, it's not a hundred…probably. Honestly, I've never counted, could be close." He snorted, and she cracked an eye open. "You know, I could put in a good word, get you in as the Justice League's personal physician."
He thought about the offer for a moment, but he shook his head. "Let's hold off on that. For now I'm good just being Inferno's personal physician."
"Aww. And after you've seen what that could entail? Hearing that I got a concussion in space in the middle of the night?"
Alex shook his head. "Please, I asked you out after you showed up at my clinic in the middle of the night with a melted bullet in your side and a more than half dead friend in tow. I think I've already seen the worst that can happen here."
She sighed, wincing as she shifted to a more serious tone. "No, you haven't," she said quietly. "Not even close."
"What do you mean?"
"Do you remember in college, when I told you about my friend's little brother getting killed in Gotham?"
He nodded, seeming to understand where this was going. "Yes. He was one of the team, wasn't he?"
"Yeah," she replied. "And…he was the one who attacked me last night."
"That's not possible," he said matter of factly, slipping into his doctor voice as he continued, "you hit your head, you have a severe concussion. It's not uncommon to have hallucinations, think you see or even hear things that aren't there."
"I know, and believe me, that's what I thought at first, but he was really there, Alex. The cameras caught him."
He shook his head, his eyes darting around as he tried to find an explanation. "So… he faked his death?"
"I wish it were that easy," she replied. "Someone very powerful used something called a lazarus pit on him."
"Lazarus? Like in the Bible?" he asked, clearly not buying it.
"Yes," she said, and he shook his head.
"Wow. Saying any of this is complicated is the understatement of the year," he muttered.
She shrugged. "You have a better word for it?"
"Nope."
They let a beat go by in silence, then she looked at him. "So, you ready to run yet?"
He shook his head, no trace of hesitation or doubt on his face. "Nope. What else you got? Oh, how about you tell me about that alien DNA you said you had?"
She pressed her lips together, smiling a little, and her mom and brother came back in from the bedroom with her suitcase in hand.
"Well, I think we got everything, but if you want anything else I'll just send one of the boys to go get it. Are you ready to go?"
Mallory chuckled and slowly got to her feet. "Yeah, just grab my phone and charger, they're on my bedside table."
"Already got them," Peter reported, holding them up.
"Hey, don't I get an answer?" Alex asked, standing and taking the suitcase from Elaine.
"Maybe some other time. You're going to have to leave us at the sidewalk, you're not in the computer to zeta to Central with us."
"Zeta?" he asked, not protesting when Peter took the bag out of his hand.
"Oh, you have a lot to learn," the teen said with a smirk, and the three Johnsons and Alex left the apartment, locking it up tight behind them.