Chapter 52
Orange rays of sunlight peeked through the skyline of Metropolis, the sun was floating down towards the horizon, piles of wood and bricks littered the sidewalks, as people helped to board up broken windows and restabilize damaged structures.
Batgirl heaved a long 1 by 4 board out of the flatbed of a pickup, she added it to a growing pile of timber, she dusted her hands on her cargo shorts and turned to find Robin watching her, she put her hands on her hips,
"Are you gonna help, or are you gonna just stand there?" She asked, playfully,
"You seem like you've got it handled, anyway, I like the view I'm getting" Batgirl looked away, grinning, she used the back of her forearm to wipe sweat from her forehead.
There was a commotion behind Batgirl as a convoy of vehicles pulled up, a black SUV pulled up first and a man with blond hair and a goatee, wearing a suit stepped out, Oliver Queen began giving instructions to people as they stepped from the other vehicles, after a minute he noticed Batgirl and Robin, he motioned for his assistant to take over.
"What are you doing here?" Robin asked, as Oliver approached,
"Hello to you too" Oliver said with a smile, as he pulled Batgirl into a side hug,
"I saw what you all were doing and figured I would do my part"
"You were already in Metropolis?" Robin asked, skeptically,
"I flew in, I wanted to talk to you two sooner or later anyway" Oliver answered, Batgirl stepped back towards Robin,
"We already spoke with Artemis and Wally" She said, Oliver smiled a nervous, but hopeful smile,
"And?" He asked, stretching the word out a little longer than necessary,
"And? since when did the Titans become a training camp for the Justice Leagues sidekicks?" Robin asked, Oliver's face turned to the look of a sympathetic business man, almost fake, but Batgirl and Robin believed it was at least mostly real,
"We weren't all opposed to the Titans, but Diana made a good argument for why the Justice League needed to look strong, and the Titans would have worked against that, I don't even think Diana was actually appalled by the concept, it just didn't seem like the right time, maybe we were wrong" He admitted, Batgirl glanced at Robin, who nodded,
"We've already spoken with both of them, they're welcome on the team" Batgirl said, Oliver let out a breath of relief,
"That's good, thank you" He said, before turning his attention towards the convoy he had arrived in, "I hope your teams hungry, we're about to buy a bunch of food from the businesses that were damaged, we'll be cooking it up on grills over there" He said pointing to where his employees were setting up a tent near the edge of the Metropolis city park.
The Titans say around a picnic table in the park, groups of people dotted the park around them, a group of Queen industries employees were passing out food and drinks, while another handed out blankets and other necessities to families, the sky was now dark pink as the sun had all but disappeared from view,
"You know Garth will want in on the Titans when he hears about it?" Wally was sitting on the edge of the wooden table talking with Dick and Barbara,
"Might as well put the whole team back together" Donna joked, through a bite of her burger, her voice had an edge to it, Garfield was sitting beside her and looked up from his salad,
"You guys were on a team?" He asked her, as Wally went back to his conversation, Donna swallowed the bite she had just taken.
"It wasn't really a team" She said, "More like the Justice Leagues sidekicks just messing around, I don't even know if all the members even met each other, it was just kind of whoever happened to be in the same area at any given time" She explained,
"What happened?" Garfield asked, Donna ran her tongue along the back of her teeth,
"I was sent to Themyscira maybe halfway through the whole thing, it ended abruptly while I was gone, from what I understand they stepped into something they shouldn't have, the League put an end to it, but whatever they found turned the most loyal sidekick I've ever know, soon after Roy…" Donna paused, searching for the right word, "Died, after that we all knew it was done"
"I'm sorry" Garfield apologized, everything became quiet.
"We should start heading back to the Tower for the night" Barbara said, she looked around the table, confusion passing across her face, "Does anyone know where Rachel and Kara went?"
"I think they went to use the girls room" Artemis said, tilting her head towards the concrete building, Barbara glanced in that direction, before turning her attention to Artemis and Wally,
"Do you guys have a place to stay in the city? If not, we can get some rooms prepared" She offered,
"I've got a place" Artemis said,
"I could use a room" Wally said,
"As Titans you'll both have designated rooms, even if you don't need them" Dick said,
"I'm gonna go get Rachel and Kara, it was good meeting" Barbara offered a hand to Artemis, who shook it,
"Thanks, you too," Artemis smiled.
Rachel's back was pressed to the concrete bathroom wall, Kara's hands cupped her face as they kissed passionately, Kara pulled away, her hands went to Rachel's waist, she began pulling at the button of her jeans, Rachel's hands began exploring Kara's body, Kara pushed Rachel's jeans down to her knees, their lips locked again, a second later they were interrupted, the door squealed, they froze as shoes scrapped on the floor as someone stepped around the corner.
"Kara" Barbara said, the single word sounded like a question, Kara turned, and Barbara spotted Rachel behind her, "Oh my God" She exclaimed, she looked away, clearly unsure of what to do,
"Barbara" Rachel started, but Barbara put a had up,
"We're going back to the Tower, put your clothes on, we're gonna talk about this later" She started to leave, Rachel struggled, trying to get her jeans up with 1 hand as she rushed to catch Barbara, who was about to turn the corner to the door,
"Wait" Barbara turned back to her, she glanced down at Rachel's state of partial undress,
"Rachel, put your pants on, we'll talk later" She said, her tone was stern, but it betrayed her awkwardness, she then walked out of the bathroom,
"Shit, shit, fuck" Rachel exclaimed, as she yanked her jeans up past back past her hips,
"Do you think we're in trouble?" Kara asked,
"I don't know" Rachel sunk down against the wall, she shielded her face with her hands on either side of her head, she was making herself as small as possible as though she wanted to disappear into the floor, "I think she was hurt we didn't tell her, we should have,"
"You said you didn't want to" Kara said, confused,
"I know, it was my choice, it's not your fault, I want to talk to her" Rachel said, quietly.
Paula Crock rolled her wheelchair through the mostly empty rooms of her new apartment, there were a couple of cardboard boxes littering Artemis' room, and a few more in the main living area, filled with random things that had come from the apartment they had lived in before she had gone to prison.
There was a noise from the room at the back of the apartment, Paula instinctively searched for for something to defend herself with, she came up empty, the door swung open slowly, Lawrence Crock stood in the doorway, his wide shoulders reached past the doorframe on both sides,
"Is Artemis here?" He asked,
"No" Paula answered, "What do you want?"
"I want to know why you're letting my daughter be turned into some assholes circus monkey?" Lawrence asked, twisting through the doorway,
"That has nothing to do with me, that happened after you left me to be put in prison" Paula shot back, Lawrence scowled, then he laughed, 2 bursts of air between his teeth,
"That's not how I remember it, I remember you pulling a gun on me while we were getting ready to break into a jewelry shop, tried to shoot me in the back of the head, I still have the scar on my neck to prove you missed" Paula's eyes drifted away from him,
"You were hurting our daughters, I was protecting them" She said, through clenched teeth, Lawrence smiled, a sick, sadistic smile,
"That how Jade remembers it?" Paula swallowed hard, "As I recall, she didn't even let you touch her, she was scared of you" She looked back at him, staring daggers at him, her mouth tight with hatred,
"We both know she wasn't scared of me, I made a mistake, lost my temper, and I paid for that, she took her anger out on me because she knew she couldn't take out on you, she told me never to touch her again, because she knew I respected her enough not too" She spat,
"I made our kids strong, and you didn't stop me, so don't pretend you're some kind of Goddamn saint" He said, aggressively, the silence between them became deafening, after over a minute they heard a key slid into the lock of the door to the apartment.