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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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Sokka's jaw dropped right about the time Mel's did, his eyes up and staring in shock at the car. Of course, he knows Erin, of course he could explain.

But zomg CAR!

Give him a minute.

Steph - once they've pulled over and let Mel and Hana out - yeah, she's laughing at him.

But affectionately.

"I'll get you one for your birthday," she suggests, reaching over into the back for Loo, eyes staying on the woman Mel's talking to while she pulls the sleepy baby into her arms. "Who's that?"

"Can my birthday be tomorrow?" Sokka asks, craning his neck to try and see more of the car out of the front window. With the question, he glances off toward his sister and Erin and smiles a little, reaching back for Loo-

Of course, Steph already beat him to that, and it takes him a minute to stop panicking to realize that.

"That's Erin, Mel's older sister. And since she didn't have a flying car in Apocalyptica, I'm guessing it's a whole new one straight from Haddyn."

"Sure. We'll trade for the landrover." Steph grins. "I'm sure Mel's ... sister, wow ... won't mind."

Mel said stay here, so Steph does, despite her eyes widening enormously at the man who's climbing shakily out of the jet after the blonde.

"-- holy shit, it's Commissioner Gordon!??"

"...someone from Gotham, yeah?"

"Yeah," Steph confirms, bouncing Loo a little, staring at the man. "Yeah, the police commissioner. Only he's really young, so ... if he's from that Gotham, then we won't find her there, he's never looked so young when I was there ... But ... wow, check the moustache. Never grow facial hair like that, Sokka. I'm telling you this as a friend."

Steph is suddenly Very Solemn.

"I'm too aware of how much fun you and Mel would make of me if I even tried to grow facial hair - why do you think I shave every day?"

Not that it stops stubble, the older he gets, but the point is still there!

Sokka smirks a little and offers his arms for baby, protective abruptly with Mel's sister out there. "You sure your mom wouldn't be down there still? We can still go in if you want."

It's just that it's not really her mom she wants to find. But she hasn't told him that, has she?

Loo flings her arms out for Sokka abruptly, lurching towards him, and Steph grins and lifts her over, thoughtful.

"Depends what they say is in there. I still have to go and look, though. Maybe we should try somewhere out of the city first. There should be records and stuff at the hospital on the mainland, down that-way."

Sokka frowns even as he takes Loo in his arms and bounces her a bit. "Was she sick? Your mom?"

If they're looking for hospital records, after all.

Steph is intent on the flying car for a moment.

"She was a nurse," she explains, and glances over at him. "...and a junkie. So yeah."

And they're not looking for her dad. He probably remembers why, too.

It's the truth, what she said, it's just that it's not the whole truth, and Steph's only a good liar when it isn't to people that she cares about.

But Marie's still in the back of the car.

It's why Sokka's eyes are on her for only a moment more before he nods, accepting that. "I'm gonna go check on them, okay?" he asks, and gets Loo snug on his hip before exiting the car.

Steph grins at him, in silent thanks, and turns to check on Marie.

Marie's sitting quietly, which she's been doing ever since they drove past a corpse. Yeah, still not over that.

Steph gets a shrug. A fairly amicable shrug, but not one with words attached, at least not for the moment.

Steph is kind of glad she's not the only one totally freaked out by that.

"Yeah, I know, right?"

Either the common topic of conversation is easy to pick up on, or the corpse is weighing heavily on Marie's mind, because she nods and agrees, "It was-- disturbing."

Moreso for her than for the rest of them, really. It's the first time Marie has ever wished she could close a pair of eyes and have her other sight turn off.

"God, I hope the rest of the city's not ... like that."

Steph's more worried than she's letting Sokka see.

She wouldn't offer for just anybody, but--

"I could take a look," says Marie, shrugging. She never kept up a familiarity with Gotham, but she's close enough now to make out some details if she 'squints'.

And she feels more than a little left out of the dynamic here. Consider this her way of trying to fit.

"From here, I mean. I see things a little differently than most people."

--don't make her try to explain the material sight. She does it; she doesn't think about it.

Steph glances at her, grateful but worried.

"I ... dunno, Marie, it might be better if we wait for Mel. It doesn't look like it's good in there."

Offer refused: attempt failed. Or obligation fulfilled, if you look at it that way.

Careless shrug.

"Sounds good to me."

"Thanks, though," Steph says, and means it. She curls up in the drivers' seat to sit facing Marie over the corner of the seat.

"You'll totally come with us, though, right? Just in case we need a quick exit? I'd owe you for ever."

"Yeah, no problem."

Hey look: a genuine smile. Amazing.

"Quick exits - that's me. Say the word and I can have you all in Metropolis in--"

She makes the calculation in her head.

"--ten seconds, rough estimate. Depends which ones of you I'm rescuing. The woman Mel's talking to comes, too, I assume?"

"Yeah, I'm guessing so." Steph grins back. "Sokka says she's her sister."

Raised eyebrows.

"Hmm," is Marie's only comment.

"You're not a fan of sisters?" Steph rests her chin on the corner of the seat, looking at Marie curiously.

"I don't have any," she returns. It's not much of an explanation, but it's all Marie's offering.