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It's fairly early in the morning when Mel, Sokka and Steph crest the final hill and find themselves looking down from the Heights towards Gotham City. Mel is keeping the girls happy in the back; Steph's driving. She doesn't ask before slowing gradually to a stop, eyes on the vista before them.

Gotham. Smoky, dark, twisted, gothic. It almost looks organic, lumpy and misshapen as it is, every building sprouting gargoyles and added wings, twisted into fantastic shapes.

It's so familiar it makes Steph's heart lurch; she hasn't been home for almost a year. She knows the skyline inside out, knows exactly how it feels to leap from the casino to the street below and swing up exactly in time to land on the train, knows where the instabilities in the gargoyles are and just how hard to throw a grapple to get from one end to the other of Ninth in under two minutes. It's filthy and ugly and disease-ridden and smoky and it's home.

Except ...

... this isn't the home she left.

It's with a sigh of pure relief that she realises, slowly, that this is Gotham before the quake, missing the light-filled spires of Luthor's redesign, all the old buildings still standing tall. This is Gotham before she had the baby, before the No Mans' Land.

This isn't her world.

The grin she turns to Sokka is enormous and full of relief.

"It's not mine. I won't find th— her here. Oh, thank fuck for that."

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"I understand your friend's concern," Erin said as she crossed her arms and gave her sister a stubborn look. "But you don't appreciate the gravity of the situation. People in there are either dead or comatose."

"So we want to check that her Mom and... that her Mom's not one of them."

Mel's returned look is steady, but a stubborn frown is rising up.

"I'm me. Whatever's in there we can deal. And we have a friend who's keeping tracks to zap us out if we need it."

"I know you're you," Erin said reluctantly, "But it's dangerous in there."

Erin looked back at the cruiser and Jim ~~who she assumed was still sitting there~~.

"Look. There's a cop I rescued from the city. He probably knows the place better than your friend," Erin continued. "And the cruiser can get in and out faster than that antique over there you're driving. If you have to go in there at least use that."

"Makes sense," Mel agrees. "Think that'll take all seven of us, or do you guys want to wait?"

The argument over going she considers settled.

"What makes you think you're going?" Erin asked stubbornly.

She may not be her exact sister but protective streaks are hard to break.

Mel's face turns stubborn again.

"Because he's going with her and I'm going with him. And 'cause I'm the best fighter. We come up against something, it'll be me gets us out."

Not that Sokka and Steph aren't capable on their own, but she's her.

Erin rolled her eyes. Yes. This definitely is her sister. No matter from what timeline or world she came from.

"This isn't a gang of lurks you're going up against, Mel. It's... it's like a disease. It hits you quick and the next thing you know you're not reacting to anything," Erin argued. "What good are you going to be to your kids if you can't move?"

"You've only just met them and already using them against me?"

Mel glares at her sister - because timeline or not, this is definitely her - over Hana's oblivious head.

"I quit giving up a long time ago," she says, an edge working its way in. "I couldn't let them go without me if I wanted to."

Erin pinched the bridge of her nose as she heaved a mighty sigh. "Jesu. Mel, I'm just trying to look out for everyone," Erin said trying to clamp down on her frustration. "We're talking about going into a city that's for all intents and purposes-"

Erin looked over at Mel's friends and dropped her voice so that only Mel could hear.

"Dead. And I mean that, Mel. I was only in there for a few minutes and all I wanted to do was lie down and die."

"You found your new cop friend," Mel snaps. "Weren't even looking for him, right?"

"I was lucky. He was lucky," Erin snapped back. "And do you think we didn't try to find people alive in there? It's a bunch of bodies lying on the streets!"

When Hana starts to fuss, Mel just pulls her closer to her chest.

"Every street? You check every building? Jesu, Erin, this is family I'm talking about."

Her family, almost.

Erin bit her tongue and swallowed the snarky comment she almost made. Getting Mel riled up wasn't going to solve anything.

"Fine," she said sternly."But let's not endanger everyone. I have comms in the cruiser that we can use to remain in contact with everyone. First sign of anyone getting cold or giving up? Your zappy friend there does her zappy thing and gets people out of there."

"Right," Mel confirms, now rocking Hana slightly. "We stay in the vehicle, we keep alert, and we keep an eye on each other. But we have to do this, Erin."

That last sentence was toned almost like an apology.

"I get that," she said her body language relaxing a little as she glanced over at the cruiser. "It's just..."

Erin let her guard down a bit.

"We were lucky to get out. I'm not sure how much that can hold out for us."

Mel rocks Hana some more, and tilts her head up to look at Erin, partly smirking.

"It'll hold," she says.

"It better," Erin said protectively. "I have nieces now. Kind of."

Mel grins.

"No kind of. They need a good influence in their lives."

Cause rut knows Mel ain't it.

Erin smiles back. "So do I get to meet the other one soon? Or is she taking a nap?"

"She was awake a minute ago," Mel says, turning towards the car. "Guess you;ll want to meet Sokka and Steph as well, huh?"

"They're your family aren't they?" Erin asked with a small smirk. "Besides I probably should get to know my pseudo-brother-law."

Mel stops and stares at Erin.

Then she holds up her tiny little pale baby with the black hair and the yellow eyes.

"Look at her," she says. "Then look at him. You think he's their father?"

Hana laughs and kicks her legs in the air.

"Ooooookay," Erin said rolling her eyes in embarrassment and reaching over to tickle Hana. "So where is the father?"

Mel brings Hana closer to her, smiling for the baby to hide the fact she's not smiling for anything else.

"He's not here," she says.

Erin let that sink in. "Right."

When Mel was ready to talk about it she would.

"So what's the name of my other niece?" she asked trying to find a less awkward topic.