Chapter Forty Five

Reunion

Morgan watched the giant alien charge for Black Beetle, when Arsenal, the trouble-making teenager himself, popped up next to her and her small, temporary team.

"Arsenal, what the hell?" She exclaimed. "How do you screw up so tremendously?"

"Yeah amigo, you don't seem quite clear on who we're rescuing." Ed doubtfully added.

"Trust me, I'm clear." Arsenal assured them as he held his arms out and took a few steps back, forcing the rest of them back as well.

As Black Beetle finally noticed the other alien running straight for him, he aimed a fierce glare at him and shouted, "Mongul! This is all your fault!"

"Reach.." Mongul growled under his breath, as if it physically hurt him to say the name.

The two collided as they battled it out.

Morgan now understood why Arsenal had let the big bad out of his pod.

His was easily their best shot at defeating Black Beetle. And the rest of them could escape while the two were pre-occupied.

"You guys free the Team!" Arsenal ordered. "There's something else I need to get!"

He leapt away as Morgan and the others turned around, Ed using his stun-staff to fire shots at the pods, making them malfunction.

The red membrane that kept the Team closed inside their pods fell away, everyone immediately waking up. Morgan was absolutely overjoyed. It had been scary to watch her team mates frozen in time like that. Not even breathing.

As the Team came too, Arsenal reappeared, carrying what Morgan recognized as parts of Guardian's armor.

"Let's go!" Arsenal ordered, clearly in control of the Team. The rest of them were still a bit confused and disoriented. "Move!"

After a few seconds, everybody was on their feet and following after the guy. He reached the main entrance and paused by the opening mechanism.

"Okay, get ready." He warned seriously. "There's a squad of Reach soldiers on the other side, waiting for us."

He turned and pressed a button, the giant metal door slowly hissing open.

Morgan steeled herself and got into position, ready to defend her still groggy team mates. They'd gotten this far. That was no way she was going to let them get captured now.

As the door moved up to give them a clear view of the room behind them, Morgan's arms dropped slightly on their own accord, and she straightened.

All the soldiers had been knocked out and were lying harmlessly on the ground.

Standing above them, eskrima sticks in hand, looking as handsome and strong as always, was Nightwing.

Her heart absolutely soared at the sight of him, more than she'd imagined it would.

And landing next to him was M'gann.

Morgan finally shook herself awake enough to get her face muscles working, and she smiled enormously at the sight of her friend, who apparently wasn't kidnapped anymore.

Simply because she so very desperately wanted to shout 'Nightwing!' and launch herself at her mentor, she instead focused entirely on M'gann. "M'gann!" She shouted and ran for the Martian, hugging her tightly.

M'gann hugged her back, laughing in relief.

"Hey fearless leader." Arsenal greeted Nightwing, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "Better late than never."

"Everyone safe?" Nightwing immediately asked back, not bothering to react to Arsenal's snark.

God, it was good to hear his voice again.

Morgan couldn't resist simply studying him for a moment as his eyes swept over their team, reaching her as the last.

And her knees got weak.

How utterly pathetic.

She told herself that it was because she was weak from hunger, but that didn't explain why it only happened when they made eye contact.

"For now." Arsenal responded, sounding very pleased that he'd managed to free the Team before Nightwing.

"They've been frozen in pods for days." Morgan elaborated, suddenly need his attention to be on her. Such a strange desire, but she couldn't help herself. She kind of wanted to just straight out kiss him, but that obviously wouldn't do, so she just settled for talking to him. "It might take a while for them to fully wake up."

She reasoned that she and Arsenal were best equipped to explain everything because they were the only two on the Team who'd actually been awake to experience it all.

"The crystal key?" He asked next, all business. Not even a 'hey, I'm glad you're still alive and stuff.'

"Gone." Arsenal returned.

Wait, the key was gone?

This had to mean bad news.

There was a loud crashing sound behind them, and Morgan was suddenly reminded that Black Beetle and Mongul were still battling it out.

"And we'd better get gone too before one of them declares a winner!" Arsenal announced.

"Right." Nightwing agreed. "Move out."

The weakest on the Team were all placed onto Sphere. Despite M'gann telling Morgan that she should sit down too, she refused, claiming she felt well enough to walk. It was more stubbornness than anything at this point. She didn't want to appear weak in front of her mentor.

"I'm fine." She mumbled. "I've been running around for days, what's a bit of walking going to do?"

Nightwing, apparently having heard her, shot her a disapproving look, but let her walk on her own.

The walk took them roughly twenty minutes, and then they reached that very familiar docking site. Morgan could've cried with relief when she spotted the back of the Bio ship, docked and ready to take her away from this horrible place.

At that moment, the ship felt more like home than any other place had ever felt like home before.

"All aboard." M'gann gently ordered. "We're almost home."

The Team wordlessly shuffled onto the ship, but Morgan, Arsenal, Nightwing and the four teenagers they'd fought together with lingered. She wanted to see what Nightwing was going to say to the four teenagers, and make sure she got to say goodbye, should they chose to not go with the bio ship.

In the corner of her eye, Morgan could see Bumble Bee watching them.

"I think congratulations are in order." Nightwing spoke up, smiling widely.

Oh goodness, that smile also made her knees all weak. It was like her hunger and thirst and exhaustion made Morgan twice as aware of everything he did. Either that, or it was simply because she'd been running around War World, scared out of her wits for almost four days, a time span in which she'd thought of him quite often.

She'd missed him, as stupid as that sounded.

"No training, no guidance.. And yet you pulled it off." He complimented. "When we get back.. After a de-brief, there might just be a spot for you on the Team."

Virgil gasped in surprise. "Really?" He asked in wonder.

Tye, however, was not as easily impressed. "So now that we saved your butts, you're cool with us not being STAR lab's guinea pigs." He critically pointed out.

"Dude, chill." Virgil immediately told his friend, obviously finding the offer very attractive.

"Hadn't that been for your own good, though?" Morgan pointed out, speaking in a low voice.

Tye furrowed his brow at her and was about to respond when Arsenal interrupted what would've undoubtedly have been an argument.

"Before we head back, we need to talk about Blue Beetle." He demanded, his voice dark. "He betrayed us!"

"Look who's talking!" Bumble Bee suddenly decided to join the conversation, placing her hands critically on her hips as she walked forward. "Last thing I remember is you blowing an airlock without warning! Nearly got us all killed and absolutely guaranteed our capture!"

"Hey!" Arsenal walked towards her as well. "After eight years on ice, there was no way I was getting grabbed again! And in case you hadn't noticed, my escape resulted in you being free to stand here and complain! So how about a thank you?"

"Woah, guys." Morgan stepped between the two of them as they continued glaring daggers at each other. "Just.. take is easy."

She wondered when she'd become the level headed one.

Nightwing had approached the small group, placing a hand on Arsenal's shoulder to get his attention. "You're right, Arsenal." He calmly said. "Thank you. And after we get back on Earth.. You're. Off. The Team."

Morgan's eyes widened and her mouth opened slightly in shock.

He was kicking Arsenal off the Team?

"Nightwing, you can't!" She immediately blurted out, jumping to his defense immediately. Arsenal had messed up pretty bad, that was true. But he'd also saved all of them! Morgan and he had saved each other's butts countless times in their brief team up. She'd gotten fond of the snarky teenager.

Nightwing aimed a glare at her that had probably meant to make her drop the issue.

"Wait a minute!" Tye also seemed to disagree with Nightwing's decision.

"If it hadn't been for Arsenal, we wouldn't have rescued anyone!" Virgil said, also standing up for the red-head.

"That may be true." Nightwing admitted. "But this isn't the first time he's pulled this kind of stunt: Intentionally endangering the lives of team mates to further his own agenda or guard against his personal demons. It's unacceptable. So until you prove yourself a team player, you have no place on this team."

He looked at all of them seriously, Morgan instantly meeting his glare with a fierce one of her own, doing everything she could to let him know that she strongly disagreed with him, without outwardly disrespecting him in front of the others. She could tell he was in a mood where she'd been ill-advised to cross him.

Well, Morgan had never been good at following advice.

But she'd wait until they were somewhere more private to start arguing. She was pretty sure that was best for everyone.

"Now let's get aboard and get out of here." He ordered, his authoritative voice leaving no room for arguments. "We can discuss this further when we're not behind enemy lines."

The four teenagers exchanged a look and all seemed to agree on the same thing.

"Sounds like there's nothing left to discuss." Ed told Nightwing.

Virgil took over. "See, we don't need your help getting back to Earth. Or your offer to join the Team. We have our own way of doing things."

"What do you say, bro?" Tye asked Arsenal. "Wanna ride with us?"

"Sounds like a plan." Arsenal agreed smugly.

The four teenagers looked at Morgan next, like he hoped she'd join them too, but she sighed and shook her head slightly, a small, sad but reassuring smile on her lips.

She took a step closer to the small group. "Good luck you guys." She offered, shrugging once. "We made a good team. You have a lot of potential."

Ed smirked. "We've got a position open in case you decide to stop hanging out with these sticks in the mud."

She smirked slightly and shook her head again, taking a few steps back up the ramp, as if to further prove that her place was with the Team. "Nah, I'm fine where I am."

To her surprise, Nightwing placed a distinctly possessive hand on her shoulder, and Morgan looked back at him briefly to find his jaw clenched tightly and his eyes narrowed into two small slits as he kept them trained on the group of five.

Asami pulled a small box out of her pocket – Morgan recognized it as the thing they'd used to track Superboy down with.

Her mentor let go of her shoulder and took a startled step forward. "Wait!" He called out. "Is that a-"

"Home, please." Asami said. A swirling circle, like yellow mist, erupted beneath their feet and they all sunk into it, disappearing in a second.

Morgan, Nightwing and Bumble Bee watched in shock at where the teenagers had stood before.

After a few seconds, Bumble Bee shook herself awake and shuffled onto the bio ship.

Nightwing followed suit, pausing when he realized Morgan wasn't coming with. "Morgan?" He asked, the first thing he'd said to her since her rescue.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes briefly before turning and leveling him with a withering glare. As she marched passed him, she intentionally bumped her shoulder harshly into his. He didn't budge, but Morgan, already weak and unsteady from the horrible treatment of her body in the past few days, fell to the side and almost lost her footing.

His hand shot out to steady her, but she shrugged it off harshly. "Don't touch me." She growled out.

He sighed tiredly but removed his hand, waiting for her to enter first before following.

Seriously, he'd found her, like, half an hour ago, and they were already fighting?

What was wrong with them?

"Morgan.." He sighed tiredly as he followed after her inside the bio ship.

Everyone else on the Team looked their way and, noticing the tense line of his shoulders and the scowl on Morgan's face, they all knew what was coming.

Their leader and his impossible student were about to argue.. again.

Nightwing was so not in the mood for this.

Open hearing him sigh her name in that tired, annoyed way, Morgan immediately whirled around on the spot and fixed him with a fiery glower. Her movement had been so fast that Nightwing hadn't registered it immediately, but simply kept walking, meaning they were now standing much closer than his nerves could honestly handle at the moment.

"Arsenal didn't deserve to be kicked off the Team." She immediately said, sounding like she didn't have the slightest doubts in this.

He frowned at her. "I told him he was welcome back once he learned how to be a team player. It was his choice to join the others."

"Oh, and you'd expected him to take being kicked of the Team in stride and simply go and work on being a team player, just because you asked him to? This is Arsenal we're talking about!"

"I expected him to want to be on this team enough for him to actually take what I said to heart!" Nightwing protested.

"And how is he ever going to become a better team player if he's not allowed on the team? Kinda hard to practice that sort of thing on your own!" Morgan shot back.

He sighed harshly and ran a hand through his hair. He honestly didn't understand why she was feeling so strongly about this. As he quickly looked up, he was very aware that the rest of the Team was watching them in silence.

"And it's not true that he can't be a team player." Morgan went on before he got the chance to answer. "He and I were together for several days on the War World. The moment he found out I had escaped too, he went and found me! He had lots of chances to abandon me to further his own safety, but he didn't! He's saved my ass several times in the past few days, and I've completely trusted him to do so, because we were a team! He's proven himself a team player, at least to me."

Nightwing probably should've weighed his words more carefully, but at the moment he was simply too tired and annoyed to really do so. "That's all well and good, Morgan, but one positive incident isn't going to make up for several bad ones. I can't allow him back on this team simply because you think he deserves a spot." He snapped.

Morgan's mouth dropped open in shock as her face contorted into a disbelieving glare. "Det var dog utroligt! Hvad er dit problem? 'Bare fordi jeg synes at han fortjener en plads'?" She paused and let out a sound that was somewhere between a shriek of frustration and an angry growl. "Den eneste grund til at jeg ikke smadrer dig ind i væggen lige nu er at jeg tror jeg måske er forelsket i dig!"1

After her screamed Danish that Nightwing honestly hadn't understood a word of, Morgan turned on her heel again and marched further inside the bio ship, placing herself as far away from the helm as possible.

There was awkward silence in the entire ship for several minutes as Nightwing took the helm and steered them towards Earth.

As soon as they arrived back at the Warehouse, Nightwing honestly just wanted to take Morgan aside and finish this argument properly, but he knew he had other more important duties as the leader of the Team.

So instead, he headed for the TV screen so he could show the others the situation with Blue Beetle. Everyone else got off the platform as well and started walking in each their own direction, all of them prepared to get some proper sleep. He noticed that Morgan kept to the small platform, her arms crossed angrily over her chest, eyes boring holes into him.

Before he got the chance to turn on the TV, Impulse zipped up next to him. "Look, I know finding the missing key is important, but we need to focus on-"

"Blue Beetle," the TV went on for him, Nightwing having pressed a command to bring up the news recording. "The so-called 'Reach' hero has dominated this news cycle, with US secretary General Tseng announcing his plan to present the Beetle with the international medal of valor for saving Earth from the War World."

"That's a load of good press for a traitor." Tim uttered darkly.

"Hey! Don't blame Blue!" Impulse jumped to his friend's defense immediately. "He's just as much a captive of the Reach as we were. We have to set him free."

Impulse glanced briefly at the TV before turning to them with a worried look on his face. "You know.. before he conquers the Earth and enslaves all of mankind."

Nightwing sighed under his breath and placed a calming hand on Impulse's shoulder. "And we will. We just have to find out how first."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Morgan roll her eyes and drop her arms to her sides, walking silently out of the Warehouse. She'd taken her mask off at some point during the ride back.

Nightwing locked gazes with Tim briefly, who had also noticed the girl leaving.

"She shouldn't go." He told their leader. "If it's true that she's been running around War World for days without any sustenance, she'd risk fainting and falling into the harbor."

Nightwing sighed. "I'll get her."

He still had some stuff to talk to her about.

She'd walked about a hundred feet down the docks when Nightwing emerged from the Warehouse.

"Morgan!" He shouted to get her attention, his voice unexpectedly hostile as he started jogging towards her.

She stopped walking and paused for a second before turning around, staring sullenly at the ground beneath them as if unwilling or unable to meet his gaze.

"You need to get back inside." He told her when he'd reached her.

At that, she finally fixed her stormy eyes onto his face, and Nightwing got the impression that that had been the wrong thing to say.

"I don't have to do squat." She snapped back, making to turn back around.

He grabbed hold of her upper arm and held her in place. "You need to rest before you end up seriously harming yourself."

She let out a startled and scornful laugh. "What, you don't even trust me to walk down the docks without harming myself? Am I really that pathetic?"

"No!" He protested immediately, wondering why she always seemed to twist his words like that. "You know that's not what I meant!"

"What did you mean then? That I have to get back just because you said so? I hate to break it to you, 'fearless leader', but not everything you say is law!"

Did she really want him to pull the 'I'm your mentor so what I say goes' card? Because he totally would.

"That's not what I-" He groaned loudly and looked to the dark sky above for strength. "Why do you always twist my words?"

"Why did you feel the need to point out in front of everyone on the Team that my word doesn't mean shit?" She shot back.

He paused for a moment before realizing what she meant.

"Is that what you're angry about? Me saying that Arsenal isn't a team player just because you think he is?"

"He didn't deserve to be kicked off the Team! He saved my life several times, but apparently that doesn't matter, does it?"

Despite the strength in her voice, Morgan's body was obviously growing weaker by the second, because her eyes suddenly rolled into the back of her head as her body sagged. Instinctively, Nightwing reached out to steady her, arms around her torso, his fingers spread across her back.

She'd gone without food or water for four days. She needed rest, now.

"You need to rest." He firmly said.

Her eyes blinked open, all intense and alert again. "I said I'm fine!" She protested, even as she placed a small hand on his bicep for balance.

Nightwing finally snapped. He was so damn angered and annoyed by her apparent lack of concern for her own well-being. Annoyed with the fact that they didn't seem able to be in the same room for a longer period of time before eventually blowing up at each other. Annoyed that, despite this, he still had feelings for her.

"Why are you so goddamn infuriating!" He growled. "Why do you insist on fighting when all I'm trying to do is make sure you don't injure yourself from pure exhaustion? I'm trying to help, Morgan! Stop making me an enemy!"

"I don't need your help!" She shouted back. They locked gazes again, both narrowed and fiery.

Then Nightwing made the mistake of looking at her lips, plumb and parted as she drew in harsh breaths of agitation.

And suddenly he was kissing her. For all he was worth. Not even realizing that he was basically stealing her first kiss from her.

And it was stupid and wrong because he was her mentor. There was a line, and he'd just crossed it.

But it was also so very easy because he'd still had his arms around her and she'd still had a hand on his bicep and she'd been beautiful in the moonlight despite the bruises under her eyes and the rat's nest that was her hair, because she was Morgan, and that was enough.

Nightwing found that he couldn't even be angry with her, not really, because he was just so goddamn relieved that she was alive and well enough to actually fight with him. He was so relieved that she was safe again. That he could finally relax for the first time in four days, because Morgan was safe again.

So for once, Nightwing decided to damn the consequences. He told himself that he could worry about those later. Right now, he planned to savor it. He'd be selfish for just a small moment.

She'd gone completely still in his arms for a few seconds. Then she placed a hand on his chest and he was terrified that she was going to push him away, but to his surprise and delight, the hand simply stayed there as she tentatively started responding to his lips.

One of the hands he'd had across her back came up to the back of her neck and then to caress her cheek with his thumb so he could hold her in place as Morgan moved the hand on his bicep into his hair, which felt so very good.

And suddenly he was pushing her against a wall and was gently biting her lower lip and, oh no, now there was tongue..

He was forced to bend low to properly reach her because she was such a small thing and despite knowing she was strong, she still felt fragile in his arms. His heart was pounding away in his chest and he was afraid she'd be able to hear it, but his hand on her jaw line could feel her own heart pounding just as fast as his so he wasn't embarrassed.

And she kind of really smelled of sweat after running around for four days, but then again so did he because he hadn't actually taken a shower in those four days either, so it didn't bother him at all as the hand on her lower back pulled her closer, their bodies suddenly flush against each other.

Nightwing later remembered thinking that it was unfair how good she was at this, considering it was her first time.

He kind of wanted his hand to travel lower, but he was very aware that he hadn't even asked her if he could kiss her and he didn't want to force himself on her in any way, so instead he moved it higher up on her back.

Which caused his hand to brush against the base of her wings, and the spell was suddenly broken.

He was suddenly awfully reminded that it was Morgan he was kissing. Not just some random woman, but his trainee. His friend. His team mate. The infuriating girl. The girl he could never agree with. The girl he'd wanted to kiss more than once but had always refrained from trying to because it was wrong and unprofessional. Kissing her had consequences that he wasn't sure he wanted to face.

He remembered Bart almost calling her Morgan Grayson all those months ago, as if she'd become that in the future, and he was suddenly freaking out all over again.

And despite it being on the hardest decisions he'd ever made, he abruptly ended the kiss and let go, marching away without even looking back at her once.

1 "Incredible! What is your problem? 'Just because I think he deserves a spot'? The only reason I'm not smashing you into the wall right now is because I think I might be falling in love with you!"

So.. Yeah, that happened.

I wanted to celebrate passing the thousandth review mark, so here ya go. Seriously, mroe than a thousand reviews, before the main characters even got to kiss? Amazing!

I hope this was as good as you imagined it.

Fun fact: After doing a quick bit of manthwork in my head, I realize that roughly 1.400 words on the posted story so far is pure authors notes. In my word document, the kiss happens at the 213.00 wordcount, and we're now at.. 227.000 words? I ramble a lot, apparently.