El Paso, Texas [Monday evening]

[weldedtomyspine]

The mission had been a success. It had been long, and busy, and incredibly demanding. He'd barely had time to sleep, worked himself into exhaustion every day, and managed not to think about anything but fighting alien invaders for a whole week.

Oh, and they'd actually beat off said alien invaders. That had been good too.

But mostly the distraction had been what Jaime had been going for. And while he felt a little bit guilty for his priorities, he was still grateful. And as his feet touched the ground in his back yard, he knew that tomorrow that distraction was gone, but that all that exhaustion from fighting would thankfully keep that from happening for at least another night.

And he'd be glad to see his family again.

Even Milagro.

So Jaime de-armored, sighed in relief at the breeze blowing across his skin, and headed for the back door.

Comments

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime shook his head, still trying to catch up. "Well, you're both back," along with, presumably, everyone else. "That's all that really matters."

He still didn't know how to react to it, but he knew it was a good thing.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah gave him a sly grin. "See. We knew you were a genius." Then tried to lean over and steal part of his empanada.

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime failed to defend his food. He'd barely managed to start eating it. Not because he wasn't hungry, of course. Jaime was pretty much always hungry.

But being tired didn't mesh all that well with people you were trying not to mourn too hard being suddenly alive again.

He suddenly had a lot more sympathy for some of the older heroes. They probably felt like this all the time.

[heromaniac]

Momoko, however was going to chuckle and lean forward to reach out and tap Dinah wherever was closest.

"Mean! He just saved the world in SPACE and you're stealing his food! He totally needs to... Hey, Jaime? Have you eaten at all since you left?" What did you eat in SPACE? "Or slept? Was it a bad battle? Your mom said you had help with you."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah sighed, martyred, and went back to drinking her soda with a grin. "Hey, was Other Me there? What were you fighting, anyway?" She tilted her head and bumped her foot against his under the table. "Eat up, Super Guy."

[heromaniac]

Momoko blinked. "Other you?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. There's a Dinah Lance in Jaime's world. Here, I mean. Who's like what, ten years older?" Dinah checked. "And wears fishnets. And is way, way more badass."

[heromaniac]

Momoko hadn't considered that possibility. Sure it happened in Fandom all the time, but... Huh.

"Is it okay that you're here, then? We're not breaking anything, right? You won't explode or disappear suddenly?" Someone was too much of a fangirl. "Is there a me?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"I don't know, I mean, I don't think it'll break anything?" Dinah considered, then grinned and poked Jaime in the arm. "That's how I found out about BB. I turned into the Dinah here one weekend, and she knew who Jaime was... and he tried to hide under a coffee table to get away."

[heromaniac]

A small piece of something settled inside Momoko hearing that was how Dinah had found out.

"Why were you hiding under a coffee table?" She turned back to Jaime, even more confused now. "Is Dinah evil in this world?"

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime laughed in embarrassment. "I was kind of hoping she wouldn't spot me and blow my cover?"

Actually, Jaime didn't really have much of an idea why he'd done it. But it had totally seemed like a good idea at the time!

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Goofball," Dinah said fondly, shaking her head. "She signed my poster of Black Canary that he got me before I turned back into me. Which... probably doesn't count?" So confusing. "Anyway. I remembered, after and he couldn't lie any more. So, is she here? Did you get to work with Superman?" Squeeee!

[heromaniac]

Momoko's jaw dropped and her eyes lit up. "You work with Superman? Is he like he is in the comic books?! He seems so charming and sweet and nice! And does he really have x-ray eyes? Can we meet him?"

[weldedtomyspine]

"Well, Black Canary's busy doing... something. She's on, like, three or four different teams, so she's always up to something..." And she didn't go to space very often.

"And, um, I've worked with him before? He's pretty much just like you hear about. And he does have X-ray vision. And I bet he's kind of busy right now?"

Jaime wasn't exactly comfortable asking Superman to swing by to meet his ex-girlfriends.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Nnnnngh!" Dinah smacked the table in frustration, then pointed at him. "Someday. You are going to introduce us! Barbara refuses to even talk about it!" She sighed heavily. "He's my heeero."

[heromaniac]

What about an ex-girlfriend who could fly and was a sorta BFF of an alternate version of his son-clone Kon?

"Why do you keep saying everyone is busy? Does that much really happen here."

[weldedtomyspine]

"Well, yeah," Jaime admitted. "There's pretty much always something going on."

"We could flip on the TV if you want to see?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Yes!" Dinah voted, leaning over to steal a bite again now that Jaime had managed to get some eaten. "We need to see you in action here."

[weldedtomyspine]

"Well, I doubt that I'll be on it," Jaime pointed out.

At least he hoped not. That would just lead to embarrassment, he was sure.

[heromaniac]

"It happens enough that it's on TELEVISION?" By which she meant randomly on television, since she was totally used to seeing herself on TV all the time.

"And why wouldn't you be on? You're not a secret hero, too, are you?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah smirked at Jaime. "People know about him. He just thinks he's not a big deal compared to Superman. Am I right?"

[weldedtomyspine]

"Of course I'm not a big deal compared to superman!" The idea was ridiculous. "But, mostly, I haven't been around for the past week. I'm sure there's something much more important that's keeping everyone's attention."

[heromaniac]

Momoko beamed. "Like Dinah, maybe?"

And no, she wasn't giving her opinion on how she thought Jaime compared to Superman.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Hey, if other Me is on TV, I want to see it," Dinah said, nodding hard. "And is there another Momoko, or not? You never said."

[weldedtomyspine]

"Well, we can check."

"About you, I mean, Dinah." He shrugged. "I don't think we have a Momoko. Or a Blossom. We have Japanese heroes, but I've never seen anyone like her." Anywhere, really. Momoko was special.