by Darklady
Note: DL has given me leave to post this as the next installment of the J'onnverse. This cues a change in focus for the J'onnverse - J'onn's back on duty, the "family" which is "need to know" (minus one - or two) has been informed, the first blush of the relationship is beginning to settle toward that familiarity of an established thing, and while there's still much to come and much to work out, that working out is going to happen in the course of more "normal" life. There'll still be the occasional vignette, but the next stretch of the J'onnverse does much of its development in long adventure arcs - some JLA and some Batfamily. I hope you'll stick with us for the ride.
But without further ado, here is Darklady's fic...
Disclaimer: DC owns the the JLA, including all aspects of Eel O'Brian. Chicago owns this particular universe, but after I get done she may not want it. (Chicago's note - *snort* are you kidding? I'm stealing from this liberally!) I would own the plot - but there isn't one. So?
Note: This is a lot easier to understand if you read the other stories Chicago wrote, but I think it stands on it's own. And it has one of the most OBSCURE characters ever. So - I hope you get a chuckle.
Location: Chicago's J'onn-verse.
Rated: G (but technically possible slash)
Archive: Please ask Chicago.
Thanksgiving Is For Family
by Darklady
"Hiya guys." Plasticman strode into the Watchtower, elongated arms wrapped several times around an unstable-looking tower of take-out boxes. Behind him staggered a short, plump man in a lurid dotted shirt whose equally unsteady load of brown paper sacks seemed likely to collapse on top of him at any second. "Drop the stuff over there, Woozy."
"What the...?" Wally West spun in his chair, dropped jaw belying his reputation as the `fastest man alive'.
Plas dumped his load unceremoniously on the floor, then stretched out a hand to take the bags. "Hey, Winks" he said, stacking the bags on top of the other snacks. "Go get the other cooler, will ya? I gotta have a word with my... compadres. "
The two heroes watched carefully as the soundproof crash-door slid shut behind the departing man.
"Plas!" Wally hissed! "You are supposed to be here for monitor duty? Not a frat party?"
"That means I can't have a pizza?" He leaned over and shifted one sliding bag of jalapeno flavored chips back onto the stack.
Wally pointed at the door. "That means you can't have a *civilian*!"
"Excuse me!" Plas stretched to ceiling height, then spiraled back down. "Woozy is a reporter? I didn't say anything when you had Linda Parks parked on the sofa. So if..."
"Linda is a serious reporter!"
"That was an interview you were giving her on the observation deck?"
"Linda is my *wife*! You plastic pervert!"
"Whatever. And if Kal can have Lois up here..."
"Lois Lane is..."
"... Clark's wife?"
"...not a *sports* reporter. She has a valid..."
Eel set his hands onto his hips. "Look, you..."
"J'onn!" Wally nearly shouted in relief as door again slid open and the tall green Martian appeared. He was carrying two large coolers, and chatting quietly with the much smaller man at his side.
"Flash. Please!" J'onn carefully bent down and handed the coolers to the brightly clad civilian at his side. Compared to the nearly seven foot tall and massivly muscled alien, Woozy Winks appeared stout to the point of comedy.
"I'm sorry J'onn. But...?
Winks looked even stranger when stood beside the stretched thinness of Plasticman, chomping on a freahly opened bag of chips with Plas's arm wrapped around his shoulder. Wrapped
*several times* around his shoulder.
Wally looked at the oddly matched pair shaking his head. "Plas can't just..."
"Flash."J'onn cut him off with a look. "Walk with me to the transporter, please."
"Sorry, J'onn." Wally said, pacing himself to stay with J'onn as he left the monitor deck. "I didn't meant to give you a headache, it's just that..."
J'onn paused as the crash door slid shut behind them. "You are concerned about how Mr. O'Brian will cover his monitor duty while he is... distracted."
Wally shrugged. "You've got to admit, Plas is not the most... focused guy on the planet. Or off it, as the case may be. And that Woozy Winks guy just seems to being out the worst in him. And getting the guy up here on a press pass..."
"May be a bit of a... stretch. No pun intended." J'onn waited while the Flash slid his palm over the door reader, making his departure official and transferring tower control to the next shift. "But it is allowable under our current bylaws."
"It's not that I mind coming back to a room full of pizza boxes and chip bags and crumpled soda cans." Wally blurred a few steps as J'onn started down the hall to the transporter room. "Well, I
do, but..."
"The servos will take care of such things." J'onn reminded him.
"Yeh - but..." Wally waved, setting J'onn's cape waving in the sudden air current."What if something happens? I mean - Plas has his talents, but... alone..."
J'onn stopped. "If you feel I should..."
"No!" Wally bit his lip. "I didn't mean you should give up your time off. You need the break."
"Are you volunteering to remain?"
"Hell." Wally shrugged, starting again to the transporters. "You know I have to have dinner with Linda's folks, They hate me already - especially after she got killed. If I flake on them again it's gonna be *me* under that headstone. It's just that..."
"We have a sudden shortage of volunteers." J'onn reminded his colleague. "Since the loss of Orin..."
Wally face tightened with pain. Orin had been one of J'onn's oldest friends. A colleague from the first years of the League. He had not meant to bring up that loss. Not with everything else the Martian had been through.
"Our membership has shifted towards the Americans." J'onn continued."You, as you say, have your wife and her family. Kyle and Jade are with her father."
`Lord, and I thought my in laws were tough.' Wally thought, then hoped J'onn hadn't been listening.
"Diana is on a diplomatic mission and I..."
"Need to get some planet time in." Wally finished. "Which is good. Really. I'm glad. You spend too much time up here as it is. It's just... Plas? Alone?"
J'onn paused to let the transporter room door open. "Dr. Light has requested time in the stellar observation lab."
"Dr. Light." Wally searched his memory. Wasn't she the one that...? Oh, yes, Energy powers. "OK." he grinned. "She can take care of things."
"I wish you would show greater confidence in your teammates, Wallace."
"I try, but.."
"Mr. O'Brian is entirely competent - as he has proven time and time again. Otherwise he could not be.."
"A part of the JLA." Wally held up his hand. "Understood. It's just that his style...?"
J'onn waited as the Flash typed his destination into the transporter controls, then did likewise. "Is alien to you?"
"Sorry, J'onn." Wally stepped into the first transporter tube. "I seem to keep saying that. It's just that... I just wish Bats was handling things. Like last year."
J'onn stepped into his own tube. "Batman has family obligations."
And on that word, the two men dissolved.
^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^) ^^V^^ (^V^)
"Bastards."
Woozy Winks clicked off the transporter room monitor.
"Batman has family obligations?" He snatched up a bag of cheddar popcorn, and threw another to his friend. "Mr. Grrrr! needs to slice a turkey, so *you* get stuck up in Luna-toons land." Woozy flipped open the cooler and bent down to rummage through the jumbled cans. "I don't believe it. Where did cowl-head get a family since last year? I think he's just...."
"What's not to believe?" Plas shrugged. A gesture that in has case covered at least four vertical feet. "Bats is human - somewhere under all that kevlar. So he's got to have family *somewhere*."
Winks pulled out a frosted Ginkola. "You think?"
The pink and red hero sent out a spiraled finger to snare the can. "Only J'onn was actually *hatched*, if ya know what I mean. And maybe Wonder-chick."
"You figure he's got a sweet gray-haired old mother somewhere?" Winks snorted as he went searching again. "Like I could see pointy-ears sittin' down at some big ol' farm-house table and slicing up the turkey with his batarang? Ya shur."
Eels voice got tight. "He's got... family. OK? Which you know I can't talk about. OK?"
"Yahm but.." Winks surfaced again, this time with a can of Blitz. "What about your family?"
"I beamed over to see my old man this morning." Turning one finger tip into a hook, Plas popped the tab and chugged down several gulps of foaming Ginkola. "Nice thing about being JLA. I wrote myself a pass, and Eel O'Brian got to skip in ahead of visiting hours. Got it over with quick."
"That bad?" Woozy asked, beer suddenly ignored as he crossed over to lean against his friend's outstretched leg.
"Nah." Eel patted the smaller man's shoulder. "Better then most years. He didn't want to speak to his `candy ass faggot kid' - but he did take the cigarettes."
Woozy rubbed his cheek against Eels knee. "Oh, Eel...
"Woozy. Woozy." A long pink hand patted the rounded shoulder. "It's not so bad."
"Shitty Thanksgiving."
"Nah!" Plasticman sprung up suddenly, popping into the floating chair of the video tower. "Hey! We've got pizza. We've got turkey sandwiches. We've got two *thousand* channels of football... which is even more then ESPN 2." At a gesture, at least half the monitor panels were suddenly replaced with images of battling athletes. "I've got a case of Ginkola. *You* get beer... and I get" Plasticman slid a shovel-sized hand under his companion and hoisted him up into the chair beside him. "You."
"There is that." Woozy grinned as he leaned against the yielding pink shoulder. "You know - they could spring for a softer couch."
Plas morphed himself into a double-wide recliner. "That better?"
"Thanks." Woozy tucked his beer into the pillow-shaped fingers."Pass the remote."
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Note: The bit about Plasticman and Woozy Winks making like couch potatoes in the monitor womb is canon. I just have a sick mind. And any details I got wrong? Well, this is not exactly my favorite fandom - so *shrug*. Tell me and I'll correct it.