Chapter 5

I Need a Vacation

The reinforced door to Jessica's apartment creaked open after a thorough inspection by her ring to make sure nobody had tampered with the lock. She stumbled through the darkness, a dull green light around her, protecting her from anything short of a nuclear bomb, and she spent several minutes longer than necessary scanning every nook and cranny of her apartment for any trace amounts of DNA that shouldn't be there.

"Negative," her ring said. "We are alone, and your apartment is exactly as you left it."

Jessica relaxed and went to work relocking the door and barricading it behind her. "Home sweet home," she muttered.

She took a few steps into the living room before dropping her duffle bag and collapsing onto the couch. If she fell asleep at that exact moment she could still get six hours of precious sleep with just enough time to shower before work. After a week off, she didn't know what she would be walking into, or what all had happened since she went on vacation. Another alien invasion perhaps? She didn't know, but she also didn't particularly care. All she cared about was sleep.

"At least Starfire isn't here to bother you," her ring noted. After a week underground away from the sun, Starfire had all but lost her powers and couldn't fly back to Titan's Tower, and realizing that her sister could use some time to herself, Sara had invited Starfire to crash for the night back at her dorm. Her roommate was out of town, celebrating the championship just like herself, and wouldn't be back for another day or two.

"Isn't this the very same couch she slept on?"

"Ring, right now, I don't care if she sleeps naked. I'll burn the couch later."

"Perhaps all the bathing in emofluid has done you some good after all."

"Shut up and let me sleep."

"I'm little more than a manifestation of your intrusive and subconscious thoughts. You-"

Without a second thought she removed her ring and tossed it across the room. She was just beginning to doze off when an alarm sounded from within her bag.

She buried her head under the pillow knowing exactly who was calling and what they wanted. "Why couldn't you have called me in during the vacation," Jessica whined. She tried blindly fishing for her Justice League communicator but remembered she could just use her ring, and summoned it back to her finger with a single thought.

"What do you want?"

"Sorry to interrupt your beauty sleep," Cyborg said, "but I'm gonna need you to come into work a little early. As in right now. We've got a problem. A new god from Apokolips just boom tubed into Metropolis."

"Sounds like a job for Superman."

"It is, along with Power Girl, and they've got their work cut out for them. They need someone in their weight class pulling perimeter duty, making sure civilians don't get hurt and that there's as little damage to the city as possible, and can hold their own against Alpha Level threats. I need you there now, Jess, and so do they."

Jessica groaned, and it took all of her supposedly legendary willpower just to sit up. "Tell them I'm on my way," she said absently. "J-Bird out..."

She sat there for a moment, mentally preparing herself for the rising anxiety and inevitable panic attack. Possibly dying on the job was bad enough, but even worse was the very real possibility of making a mistake and getting chewed out again by her seniors. What if she screwed up so badly it caused the League, her fellow Lanterns, and everyone on Earth to hate her? What if she got civilians killed or one of her fellow Leaguers?

"Oh God, Superman's gonna be there," she said, practically hyperventilating. "They called me to back-up Superman!"

"And Power Girl," her ring added. "I know it's hard, but try not to stare this time. It would be awkward if you got caught again."

As if on auto-pilot, Jessica dug around the duffle bag for her medication, and swallowed a few pills down with help from a bottle of water. It would be time to take them in a few hours anyway, and her ring would've warned her if there was even the slightest possibility of an overdose.

She stumbled toward the door, already suiting up, and rested her head against the cool metal.

"I need a vacation..."

(A/N: Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed. All of my Jessica Cruz stories mean a lot to me, but "Holiday From the Limelight" holds a special place in my heart as a LONGTIME fan of Starfire, and a more recent fan of Terra/Atlee. While reading "Power Girl: Power Trip" last year, my immediate thought after learning about emofluid was imagining a story where Jessica is forced to go on vacation and swim in emofluid not unlike other DC heroines. It seemed like a fun premise for a story, especially since it'd mean more interactions between Jessica and Sara, as well as Starfire and Atlee.

All credit goes to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who has blessed me with this story and wonderful readers such as yourself. God bless)