shatterverse | (no subject)

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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"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.

"Louise," Mel says, forcing herself to look up.

Erin did her best not to let her face show any expression at that. "Loo?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah," Mel says. "She was this kid in Versi I was friends with. It's silly, but... what?"

Someone just caught Erin's lack-of-expression.

Erin gives Mel a look and shakes her head. "I'm sorry Mel. I- She was killed. At first you thought it was Harth but it was that Urkonn guy who was trying to get you to fight and-"

Erin stopped. "When I was recovering in the hospital you told me all about it. I know how much she meant to you Mel. I'm sorry."

Mel's frozen, clutching Hana to herself protectively, and staring at Erin.

Killed?

"She was five."

It's all she can think of to say.

"I know," Erin said quietly and reached out to touch her sister on the shoulder. "I'm sorry."

Mel tilted her head towards the hand on her shoulder, squeezing Hana again.

Slowly, she takes a careful breath, and lets it out again slowly.

"OK," she says, impassively. "Nothing can be done now."

There'll be mourning later, but not here.

Besides, down the road there's the slam of a car door and another baby's scream. Loo wants to inform her sister that she may have a pretty new blonde friend to play with but she has their uncle.

SO THERE, Loo screams.

Sokka just bounces her, immune to the screams by now, and approaches slowly, eyes darting between the women before he nods to Erin.