Not my best chapter, but there had to be a transition. Anyway, hope it's not too bad, and please review.
Mallory looked up from her texts with Alex, checking on Dick's sleeping form. He was still relaxed, his breathing even, his face smooth and peaceful. Her phone buzzed with an incoming text from Artemis, and she winced when his eyebrows came together slightly at the noise. She eased off the chair, her footsteps silent as she crossed the floor and shut the door softly behind her. She shot her friend a quick update on her way to the living room, her gaze lifting to the kitchen when the smell of eggs and coffee greeted her.
"I just couldn't sit still anymore," Zatanna explained, scooping the eggs out of the pan. "You want some?"
Mallory shook her head, settling on the couch and pulling her legs under her. If she'd gotten even a wink of sleep the night before, she might be able to convince herself that the whole thing, from the moment they returned from their mission to now, was just a bad dream, but she hadn't, so she couldn't.
Zatanna seemed to read her mind, coming over with two cups of coffee and silently sliding one into the red head's hands, taking the seat beside her. "He's still asleep?" Mallory nodded, and she breathed out a sigh that was almost relief. It had been a long night for them, but it was downright draining for him. It had taken until daybreak for him to doze off, his head resting on Megan's shoulder. Conner carried him to bed, and after a short discussion between the group, they decided that it would be too much for him to wake up to all of them still there, so they'd settled on Mallory and Zatanna to stay the night. "I called the station for him, told them that he has the flu so he could be out the rest of the week."
Mallory nodded, glad that she didn't have to be the one to come up with an excuse for his absence. "Did Megan get Rachel?"
Zatanna nodded. "She brought her to their place for now, but we'll have to figure out something more permanent soon. I don't think it's a good idea for her to come back here, at least not for a while." She looked out the window, where the sun was well up in the sky. "Do you need to go? You've been gone all night, shouldn't you go talk to Alex?"
Mallory shook her head. "He's at work, I texted him that I might be out again tonight, I don't want to leave before he wakes up."
The magician gave her a small smile. "Mal, that could be days. Who knows when the last time he slept was."
A pang went through her chest and she looked away, tightening her grip on the cup in her hands. Days. He hadn't slept for days, and then he went straight from work to patrol, chased Blockbuster down, and Tarantula showed up and brutally killed the villain right in front of him, and…her teeth ground against each other. "Why do we keep doing it?" she asked, a hollowness in her voice that she couldn't quite find the energy to fill.
"Because…we do."
It wasn't an answer, and yet, it was the only way to put into words the reason that every hero continued to show up day after day, even through all of the obstacles. It was what they did, no matter if people died, or were hurt, or were changed because of their experiences. She looked at her friend, a secret that she didn't want to keep anymore rising to the surface. "Z, about your dad," she started, and immediately the magician's eyes were locked onto hers.
"What about him?"
"I talked to Waller a while back, asked if she would be willing to use Fate as a Suicide Squad sort of thing."
"What?" She spoke the word softly, but there was an edge on it that betrayed her true feelings. "When was this?"
"The day you brought me on the mission with Fate, with the demon twins."
"Why would you do that without talking to me first?" the magician asked, and Mallory couldn't decide if her tone was calm or just tired.
"Because I knew what you would say."
"And you thought I was wrong."
"No, I don't think anyone is right or wrong here, but I also don't want Fate to take the last years you might have with your father away from you. You deserve that, at least."
She shook her head. "It's not about what I deserve, Mallory. My dad would never want someone else to bear that burden."
"That's why this is a good idea! If Waller used the helmet as a prison, it would never have to be one person hearing it for the rest of their lives. Fate would understand that there would always be another magic user to wear it, and he would agree to take it off to change partners, like he did when Kent Nelson was Dr. Fate."
"You already talked to him, didn't you?" Mallory nodded, and she tilted her head, going silent for a moment. "And…this is actually going to happen?"
The shred of hope weaving into the question brought a ghost of a smile to Mallory's face. "Well, I haven't heard back from Waller yet, but she liked it enough to talk to her superiors about it, so maybe. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, Z. I just, I didn't want you to be mad at me, and–"
Zatanna wrapped her arms around her, and she let the apology die on her lips. "Thank you," the magician murmured, and Mallory nodded against her shoulder, returning the hug.
The moment ended when they heard Dick moving around in his room, and Mallory checked the time on her phone. "That didn't last long," she mentioned. He'd only managed to get five hours of sleep.
"Well, I'll get some coffee ready," Zatanna offered, getting to her feet. She'd barely made it to the kitchen when a heavy knock sounded at the door. The girls exchanged a glance and Mallory got to her feet to answer it.
When she pulled it open, she felt her face go slack with surprise. "Bruce." She hadn't seen Batman since he walked off the League all those months ago, and she hadn't seen him out of costume…ever. Not in person, anyway.
He glanced around the living room, his eyes landing back on Mallory and Zatanna, who'd made it to the pyrokinetic's side by now. "Where is he?"
"He's fine, Bruce, really, just—"
In a blink, they were staring right into an original Bat Glare, and an actual shiver went down Mallory's spine, even without the cowl. "Where. Is. He?"
If it had been any other situation, they might have caved and let him in. But instead, they responded defensively, subtly shifting to completely block the doorway. "He doesn't want to see you," Zatanna told him, being gentle but firm. "Just leave it alone."
They found themselves in a staring contest with the billionaire, neither party willing to give in, but soft footsteps behind them broke all of their concentration. "Bruce?"
Dick's voice sounded completely normal, no cracks from lack of use, no grogginess or slurring, but the pain and struggle for composure that seeped out with the name wasn't missed by anyone in the room. His surrogate father walked in, barely even brushing past the girls as they stepped aside for him, and he embraced Dick without a word. They went to his bedroom, shutting the door behind them, and the girls exchanged a glance, not moving from where they were standing by the door. A few minutes later, Bruce came back out, coming straight for them.
"You can leave now," he told them. Zatanna nodded and started gathering their keys and wallets off the table by the door, but Bruce wasn't done. He raked a hand through his hair, tightening it into a fist a pulling on the black locks caught in his grip. "Has this Tarantula been…handled?"
Mallory traced the scabs on her knuckles with her finger, a shadow of regret passing through her mind. "Yes," she told him, part of her taking offense to the question. "Has the Joker?" Dark fury crossed over the vigilante's face and she twisted her lips to the side, immediately regretting her words. "Sorry," she murmured. Now wasn't the time for that.
"I'll call if you need to come back," he told them, ignoring the comment and the apology.
Zatanna nodded and handed Mallory her things, pulling the door open. "We'll be around."
They started down the stairs, and Mallory shook her head, looking over her shoulder. "How did he know?"
Zatanna gave her a look. "Really? After all these years, you still question it?"
"Good point."
They were rounding the last corner when they saw Raquel just starting the climb. "Hey, what are you doing here?" Zatanna asked.
Their friend stopped and waited for them to get to her. "I thought I'd see if y'all wanted to go get something to eat or something. Why are you here and not upstairs?"
"Bruce is with him," Mallory explained.
"I thought–"
"We didn't call him," she interrupted. "He just showed up, and Dick seemed ok with it."
Zatanna glanced up the stairs, as if she could see back into that apartment. "It's probably best, anyway. We should have called him as soon as we found out."
Raquel shrugged, holding the door open for the others. "It wasn't our place. Sometimes we don't want to be around family, and that's fine."
Mallory and Zatanna exchanged a glance at the coded tone. "Everything ok?" the magician asked.
Raquel shook her head. "Oh, yeah, just fine."
Mallory rolled her eyes. "We know what that means, Raq. Come on, after last night, we could use another problem to put our minds to."
They walked in silence to the end of the block, but when Raquel pressed the button on the crosswalk, she sighed and shut her eyes for a second. "I think my marriage is over."
The traffic stopped in time with Mallory's heart, and none of them made a move to cross the street.
"Oh, Raq," Zatanna murmured.
"Come on," Mallory said, starting to walk down the block instead of crossing the street. "There's a bar around the corner, they make great nachos."
"He's just been so against me, whatever I say about Amistad, he has to go in the other direction. And the criticism is just nonstop. I'm too busy, I'm never home with him, I don't pay attention to his school. I am always there for my son. Always."
"What does he say you aren't around for?" Zatanna asked, supportively annoyed at Darius.
"Amistad's teacher called a conference with us, and of course that was the day Poison Ivy and Swamp Thing decided to try to wipe out half the East coast with the renewal of the Injustice League's Mother plant. I couldn't just ignore that, the entire League was in the field, and it's hard enough with the powerhouses off in space and Batman's group scattered in the wind."
The others were nodding, both knowing how short handed the League was, and how stressful that day had been. "So, what was the conference about?" Mallory prompted, pulling a chip off the plate of nachos in front of them.
"They don't think it's appropriate for him to stay in the classroom anymore. They want us to send him to a special school, somewhere he can have more 'tailored learning'."
Her friends exchanged a look, a little confused. "And that would be bad?" Zatanna clarified, though neither of them really saw the fault in the suggestion.
"Yes! Amistad doesn't need all that."
Mallory shrugged. "Sure, but it might make things easier on him, being in an environment where he's not the only different one."
"I don't want to make things easier for him, I want to raise him in the real world. He needs to figure things out now so he won't have to do it later on. I just don't want to leave him unprepared. I don't understand why Darius doesn't get that."
"And you think sending him to this school will do that?" Zatanna asked, softening her skepticism with a gentle look.
"Obviously. All these places do is accommodate the students and make exceptions for them when they don't rise to the expectation. Well, the world isn't going to make allowances for him. He needs to be able to step up and meet the challenges head on, no matter what obstacles he has to overcome." A long silence punctuated the declaration.
"He's not you, Raq."
The Leaguer looked at Mallory, her eyebrows furrowed with either confusion or anger. "What?"
"He's not you. You've always been able to step up to challenges, be a great hero and wife and mom, but… it's ok if Amistad isn't ready to make his mark as soon as you did."
The mom shook her head, tears pooling in her eyes. "I'm not." Mallory and Zatanna exchanged a look, neither knowing what to say, but Raquel just shook her head again. "I'm not doing this because I want Amistad to be me, I want him to be better. I thought I could do this, balance everything, but I can't. Darius is right, I'm not a good mom, or wife. And I throw myself into being a hero because at least that is something I'm good at. I don't know, at some point protecting my family meant leaving them, and now I don't know what to do. I can't always be there for Amistad, and I can't teach him how to protect himself if I can't get into his head, and…"
"And…what?" Zatanna asked.
Raquel tilted her head back, taking a breath. "And… Darius thinks we should start thinking about a divorce. He thinks that would be better for our son, separating now before things get worse between us."
A shock went through Mallory's chest, and she glanced down at her phone, remembering her texts with Alex that morning. Lies, and half truths. She'd convinced herself that it was better that way, to not burden him with every crisis that came up, but… her eyes caught on her scabbed knuckles and she realized that that wasn't the only thing she'd wedged between them. The way she'd gone after Tarantula the night before, she'd been ready to kill her. Alex would never understand that part of her, but she'd made him a promise to tell him everything. Well, she'd also promised no unnecessary violence and putting herself in danger if she didn't have to, but they both knew she'd never be able to live up to that. She twisted her lips to the side, replaying all the things she'd told him about this part of her life recently, a truth becoming clear in her mind. For all the talking that they did, she was still controlling the narrative, and what was worse, before that moment, she hadn't intended to stop. What would happen years from then, with kids in the mix? Raquel had thrown herself into the League, and now her marriage was over. Was that what she was looking at five years from now?
Raquel pushed their plate away, breaking the pyrokinetic's spiraling thoughts. "Thanks for listening, but don't worry about it. We'll figure things out. Are y'all going back to Dick's place?"
Zatanna shook her head. "Not with Bruce up there. Let's give them some time."
Mallory nodded in agreement. "Dick's the strongest of all of us. He's going to get through this, he just needs time, and support."
"Well, he's got that," Raquel said, and Zatanna nodded. "For as long as he needs."