Hope you like the chapter. I have the rest of the week off school, and I plan to use it to catch up on a few chapters. If y'all have any opinions about the story, leave a review!
They didn't talk from the moment they landed in Metropolis to the door to her old apartment. She didn't know what was going to happen when they walked inside. Part of her wanted to unlock the door, shove the key in his hand, and run away, but she could have done that back at the Watchtower. No, she was here, alone, because they needed to talk. She just didn't know where to start.
"This is a nice place," Brek mentioned, glancing around the room.
Mallory nodded. "Karen made some changes while she was here."
The awkwardness screamed in the silence between them, every unspoken word thickening the two feet separating them. He finally looked at her, a strained smile conflicting with the pain in his eyes. "So, that guy Alex. He's your…you're seeing him now?"
She didn't know why, but the question brought a flush of irritation. "Really? That's the first thing you ask?" she snapped. "You left, Brek, remember? You didn't even have the decency to tell me yourself, just left some stupid letter with a 'oh by the way, you die soon, bye!' for me to find. You ruined years of my life, you don't get to come back out of the blue and question my life choices."
"You're right," he replied, the pain spreading from his eyes, evaporating the attempt at a smile. He took a step closer to her. She didn't know she was holding her breath until she felt his exhale kiss her face. He reached up, slowly taking the cap off her head, and she finally sucked in air, realizing that he recognized the baseball hat and wishing that Alex had grabbed literally any other hat, or none at all. "If you hate me so much," he said, his voice no more than a whisper as he ran a finger over the charred corner of the bill, "then why do you still wear this?"
"I never said that," she muttered under her breath. "I think I thought I did, for a while, after Wally, but… I don't know. I was mad. It was like you died, but you weren't really dead. I couldn't love you, not and stay sane, so it was easier to hate you. Do you have any idea what that feels like? To lose someone so completely, so unexpectedly, and know that it's your fault they're gone? I have relived those days a million times in my head, tortured myself to try and find the exact moment that I should have said something, acted different, known better. And then to know that you were still out there somewhere, just out of my reach?" she turned away, not wanting him to see the tears that had built up as she spoke.
He looked down at the cap, his eyelashes fluttering a little as he blinked. "Yeah, I do," he said, looking up to meet her eyes. "Mallory, I didn't want to leave you. I thought I was doing the right thing, but there hasn't been a day that's passed that I haven't regretted going back with the others."
"Then why didn't you come back sooner?" she asked, her words strained as she struggled not to lose her voice to the tears.
"You really think I wouldn't have, if I could? I can't tell you how many times I got suspended trying to steal the time sphere and come back. As soon as I got back, I knew I'd made a mistake, not fighting for you. I knew I'd made a mistake. Kara even tried to help me get back to you, but it was impossible." They were quiet for a moment, the tension between them palpable. Finally, he chanced a glance at her. "I know I don't have any right to ask this, but what are you going to do?" he asked quietly.
She looked at him, her eyebrows coming together in sadness and indecision. "I...don't know," she admitted. "Brek, I love you, but I love Alex, too. We've started to build towards a future, he knows about my other side and he's ok with it. If you hadn't shown up, I think I would have been happy with him."
Brek let a beat pass, nodding. "But I did," he said quietly.
She shut her eyes, shaking her head. "Yeah, you did." She shook her head, rolling her eyes as she looked away. "And now it doesn't matter. I'm not making it out of this, am I?" His silence, the regret written on his face, was all the answer she needed. She nodded, accepting her fate, and drew in a long, refreshing breath, a calm enveloping her like an embrace. "Ok, well, let me go see if there's anything I need to move out of your way."
She went to her old bedroom, closing the door behind her and leaning against it, looking around the dark, empty room without really seeing it. There wasn't anything in there, she just needed a moment to herself, needed to let herself feel whatever she wanted, because she was determined that once she walked out that door, she would be ready for what was to come. She slid to the floor, reaching into herself and opening each of her boxes one at a time. She took off the cap and stared at it for a moment, surprised to find that no tears came. The first time she found out about the prophecy, when Brek left, it had felt like she would drown in the water running down her cheeks. Now, after living with that truth for so many years, all she could feel was a strange sense of relief. This was what it had all been building to, and it was here.
She'd lived a life she felt good about, she'd made a family along the way, and despite knowing that they would grieve, she knew they would get past her being gone. She knew it, because she'd watched it happen too often. She traced the burned part of the cap. There was so much that still needed answering. In that moment, she surprised herself by conjuring Constantine's words, of all people. "The script is constantly changing. Your destiny isn't set until you decide it is."
Ten minutes later, she emerged from the closed room. "I'm going out, you still have access to the zeta tube, so just meet us at the Watchtower in a bit."
Brek jumped to his feet, looking worried. It might have been an accident, but it seemed like he shifted slightly to be in her path to the door. "Where are you going?" he asked.
She crossed her arms. "To my parents' house. If this is really the end, I don't want to leave this world with regrets." She moved around him, walking to the door, and her eyes caught on the gumbo pot, sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor. Apparently Mal and Karen didn't need it in their new place. A picture, no, a memory drifted to the front of her consciousness, Wally's face projecting on the backs of her eyelids. She sighed, closing her eyes and pausing just before she turned the doorknob. She had to say something. She'd been here before, and she'd just said she didn't want to have regrets. "I'm glad you're back," she murmured, her fingers resting on the doorknob. "It's…I'm glad you're back."
She didn't look behind her, and for a moment she thought he hadn't heard, but then he moved closer and said, "Me, too."
She hurried out the apartment, not trusting herself to be there, with the soft smile she knew had accompanied the words, and the eyes so deep she remembered drowning in them, and emotions running too high. She loved Brek, there was no denying it to herself, but she loved Alex, too, and no matter what happened, she refused to hurt him. He deserved so much more than to be stuck in a love triangle at this point in their relationship, at the end that he didn't know was coming.
When she came out at the familiar zeta tube in Central City, Mallory savored the two block walk, thinking back to the time when it was part of her daily routine. She paused at the head of the driveway, staring at the childhood home that had never really been hers. The white paint looked a little dim, the plants had been changed out for a rock garden and wooden decorations. A lot had changed in ten years. She had changed.
She walked up the porch steps, hesitating before trying the door. "Mom? Dad?" she called.
Elaine appeared on the stairs a second later. "Mallory? What are you doing here?" she asked, checking behind her daughter for other guests.
Mallory shrugged, shutting the door. "I just got back from a mission, thought I'd come see you before I went back to finish it. Is Dad here?"
"Yes, he's in the yard, finally taking out that hedge I've been wanting to get rid of."
"Let's go outside. Maybe he needs help."
Her mom nodded. "Just let me go save my design. I'll be out in a minute."
Mallory went on to the back door while Elaine went back upstairs, and when she stepped out onto the porch, she smiled at her dad tugging on a stubborn root, clippers and a chainsaw discarded beside him. "Need some help?" she asked.
He looked up and grinned, straightening and stretching his back. "Well, as long as you're here…"
She grabbed the root, tapped into her strength, and pulled it out of the ground. The ground looked scarred, but from the bag of soil by the fire pit, she figured he'd expected it to have some damage. He opened his arms and she gave him a hug, holding on a second longer than he expected.
Elaine stepped out of the house, and they met her on the porch. "So, what was this mission you just got back from?" she asked, sitting on one of the lawn chairs.
Mallory and Darrin followed her lead, and the redhead leaned forward, her mind running back to what started all of this. They didn't know about her near abduction, her time in the pit, her recovery, boom tubing to an Apokolips ship and fighting the Justice League. Her impending death. She shrugged. "Just a rescue mission. We have one more thing to do, so I only have a few minutes, but I wanted to come see you guys first."
"That was sweet," Elaine said.
"Hmm. So, you're getting the yard cleaned up? Why?"
Darrin shrugged, looking at the work he'd done. "Well, with all these young couples moving in around us, and your mom having clients over to talk about decorating their houses, she wanted ours to look a little more modern and clean cut."
Mallory nodded. "That's great. I saw all the signs, there's a lot of new people moving in. How many are hiring you?"
"Two, so far, but hopefully I'll get more with word of mouth."
"You will. You're great, everyone's going to want you."
Elaine smiled at the praise, but she moved the conversation on. "What about you? How's work? You never talk about it anymore."
"It's fine. There's not much to tell." In truth, her work could get a little depressing, and Inferno's work was more fun to tell, but she didn't say that. They talked for a few more minutes, but once the conversation turned to the future, which it often did these days, Mallory couldn't continue. She pulled her phone out to check the time. "I should be getting back," she said, gently cutting her mom off from asking about Alex and how things were going.
"Oh, ok. Well, I'm making lasagna for dinner, if you and Peter want to come by. We haven't had a family dinner in months."
Mallory's breath caught in her throat, and the tears that refused to come in solitude now threatened to spill over. She swallowed hard and forced a smile on her face, nodding. "I'll tell him, we'll have to see how things go." They stood, and she looked between the people who had been the first to want her. "I love you," she told them, barely masking the earnest sincerity with a false lightness. "I don't think I say it enough, but thank you, you know, for everything. For choosing me, and letting me become who I am. I know you weren't always on board with Inferno and the team, but you never made me feel like I had to give it up, or choose between you and them." Thinking about how her mom had taken Wally and the others in had her throat closing again, so all she could do was pull them into a hug, holding them tight because she knew it would be the last time.
Her dad shifted in her grip, but she didn't let go. "Mallory, is something wrong?" he asked, gently pulling her off of him so he could see her face.
She took an extra step back, shaking her head and smiling brightly. "No, it's fine. It's just been a long couple of days." The smile fell off her face, and she twisted her lips to the side, debating in her mind how much she should tell them. "Stay home for the next few days, ok? And remember that I'm doing this to protect you. We all are."
Elaine tilted her head, concern filling her face. "What are you talking about? What's happening?"
She just shook her head, giving each of them one more hug. "It's just a tip. It could end up being nothing, but better safe than sorry, right?"
She wasn't sure if they bought the lie, but she didn't give them a chance to ask anything else. She told them goodbye and went out the gate, heading back to the zeta tube. She checked her phone, and she hadn't received any messages. She still had time. She paused inside the phone booth, staring at the computer in front of her and debating where to go. She'd lived a full life, even if it was short, and now that she'd talked to her parents, and everyone else that she would want to see would be at the Watchtower and fighting by her side, she wasn't sure what she wanted to do with her final free minutes.
As she let her life flash in front of her eyes, a genuine smile came to her face, and she looked down at the screen, her fingers hovering over the old coordinates. She shifted them slightly, though, and punched in the next best thing. She knew what she wanted to do. She wanted to go home.
Conner steered Sphere over houses and fields and a school that he never thought he'd want to see again, following the blinking triangle on the screen until it showed he was right above the tracker, and when he looked over the side of the Supercycle, he saw the shock of red hair he was looking for, standing amongst the rubble and rocks. He swung around and landed on the beach, now peppered with pebbles and bits of metal, and jumped over the side, taking in the sight for a moment. It had been years since he'd been back here, to what was left of Mount Justice. Even when the League went though the rubble for anything that could be salvaged, he'd stayed away. As far as he knew, they all had. Which was why this was the last place he'd expected to find Inferno, just hours ahead of an Apokolips invasion.
He climbed over the boulders and rubble, stopping a few feet behind her. She didn't turn around, but he knew she'd seen him fly over, so he just waited, looking around the space, a tug in his chest reminding him that this had been the first home he ever had, the place where he'd made some of the first real memories of his life.
"Who sent you?"
He nearly jumped at the question, but he took another few steps forward. "Brek came to the Watchtower and said you might need to talk to someone."
"And you're the one that came."
It wasn't a question, but he felt the need to answer it anyway. "Well, Dick offered, but I didn't think you would appreciate that."
"Hmm." He was still waiting for her to say something, ask how he knew she was there, something, but she didn't. Instead, she nodded to the side, her eyes slightly glazed as she stared into space. "Remember the day Gar and Peter met each other?" He nodded, but she continued anyway. "We were in the kitchen, and we knew right away they were going to be trouble together." She laughed softly, her eyes trailing to another part of the empty space. "Or when we decided to try to give Robin a surprise birthday party?" She laughed again, shaking her head, and he found himself smiling at the memory as she finished, "half of us were down before we got the lights on. We were in the den, remember?"
She turned her head once more, and this time, Conner followed her gaze, able to picture the layout of the rooms perfectly even after all of the time that had passed. "We were there, in front of the tv the first time I brought Isaiah home to meet you guys. Roy made a special trip over to scare him." He nodded. They were always on those couches, squeezing in to fit by the end. "That's where everything changed, you know," she said, so quietly that if it had been anyone else standing there, they might not have caught it.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
She shrugged, wrapping her arms around herself. "That's where we had our last night as a family, before everything changed and we all went off in our own directions."
Conner nodded again, remembering the night, just a few days after Tula's death, when they had broken in half right there. They were quiet for a long time, thinking about those days, back when it was just the original team and they all would have been content to freeze their lives right there and stay that way forever. But the magic of memories could only last so long, and after a few minutes of picturing the cave in its prime, or at least in the team's prime, reality set in again, and Conner found himself raking his eyes over the destroyed remains of what used to be their home. "Mal, what are you doing here?"
Mallory shrugged, still not looking at him. "I just wanted to come home, one more time."
He tilted his head, confused at the emphasis she put on that sentence, but he decided it must have been Brek coming back, or maybe she wanted to think about her anger towards Dick and the others. He sure needed to.
His comm beeped in his ear, and a second later Black Canary's voice came through. "All League and team members, report to the Watchtower for preparation."
Mallory's hand went to her ear, and he knew she'd gotten the same call. She took one more look around, breathed in deeply, and then she turned and started walking back down the crumbled mountain. He just watched her for a few seconds, confused at her sudden change, until she half turned and cocked her head to the side. "You coming?"
He nodded, pushing the twinge of…something, to the side. They had work to do.
To those affected by the tropical storm/hurricane, stay safe and dry!