Jaime Reyes

Jaime yawned and sat back at his desk, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

He didn't actually have any homework for tomorrow. It turned out that Dr. Townsend was quite a generous professor. Not something you tended to expect when signing up for Molecular Biology. But she had said that, given the romantic occasion, and it's extra importance for hormone-ruled college students, she wasn't going to bother assigning reading or a lab.

Still... you could never spend too much studying, right? That was totally why Jaime was in his room, a half-eaten sandwich he'd thrown together for dinner sat forgotten on the corner of his desk. It had absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Amanda was working (Valentine's was a big day for celebrity-look-alike telegrams), or that Paco and Brenda weren't interested in a third wheel even if they would have let him tag along. It didn't have anything to do with the fact that the holiday held so many memories, many of them bright and beautiful made bittersweet. And it certainly didn't have anything to do with the way that he'd spent most of the day dwelling on those memories and needed a break from them.

Nope.

He just needed to study.

"Man, that was awesome, Mrs. Reyes," Paco said, pushing back slightly from the table and letting out a pleased sigh. "I totally want to make fun of Jaime for living with his parents, but then I get invited over for dinner and..." He shook his head. He'd live at home, too!

"It's okay," Milagro piped up. "You can totally make fun of him."

"Brat," Jaime accused, then winced when her toe connected with his shin under the table.

Bianca Reyes shot her daughter a hard look before turning a smile on Paco. "You know you're always welcome, Paco. We don't see enough of you these days." She shot her son an amused look, "And don't you think that I'll accept 'Jaime doesn't invite me enough' as an acceptable excuse."

"I didn't invite him this time!" Jaime objected, to which Paco just smirked.

Paco chuckled, ignoring Jaime's objection. "Yes, ma'am. I'll remember that." He looked around. "And now I think I can kidnap your son without being rude?" Bianca waved for him to go ahead, so Paco grabbed Jaime by the shoulder and dragged him toward the back yard.

"Aaaaah," Paco declared once the door closed behind them. "Smell that spring air. Man it's a beautiful day."

Jaime rolled his eyes. "Since when do you even pay attention to that kind of thing?"

"Since always!" Jaime didn't look convinced, but Paco didn't look like he cared.

"So why did you invite yourself over, anyway?" Jaime asked, sighing and giving up on getting Paco to make any sense on the subject.

"What? I can't just hang out with my best bud, and mooch of his mom's delicious empanadas?"

This time when Jaime leveled a look at Paco, the bigger guy grinned and shrugged. Then his expression sobered. "You've been avoiding me," he accused. "Since you got back."

"No I haven't!" Jaime's eyes darted to the side. "I've just been... busy."

Paco sighed. "Come on, man. I've known you way too long to fall for that. What's up? You went on vacation for a weekend and came back, like, a hundred times more stressed than when you left."

"I don't know what you're--" Jaime cut off with a wince when Paco punched him in the shoulder. "Momoko was there," he answered after a sort of awkward silence.

"I thought you liked her," Paco pointed out with a frown.

"Yeah," Jaime agreed.

Paco's eyes narrowed suddenly. "Wait a minute." He shot Jaime a glare. "Dang it, man! You're still in love with her, aren't you?"

The silence stretched out again before Jaime repeated himself, more softly. "Yeah."

More silence as Paco waited for Jaime to add something. But he didn't. "And?"

"And... what?" Jaime sighed, shaking his head.

"And what?" Paco repeated incredulously. "What kind of response is that?"

Jaime shrugged again. "The only one possible? I mean, I broke up with her for a reason, and the reason hasn't changed." Paco just stared at him for a bit. Long enough for Jaime to just stare vaguely out at the horizon and speak again. "Besides. I broke up with her. Kind of means I've given up any chance to change my mind."

More staring. Then Paco shook his head. "Dude. You know I love you, man. But sometimes? You're an idiot."

[Open for phone calls or whatever else people want to through Jaime's way.]

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.

It was a good thing that they were off for Thanksgiving today. Jaime would have skipped class if there had been any. There wasn't any way he would have been able to pay attention anyway.

He was too busy poring over files. After his talk with Dinah on Monday he'd started calling in favors. He'd tossed an email to Oracle, he'd suited up and swung by STAR Labs, and he'd dropped a note for Batman with the Justice League (and passed another copy through Robin at Titans' Tower). And then he'd had a call from Momoko yesterday, and he'd started calling in more favors.

When it had become clear that, no matter what they might say, Portalocity wasn't going to be able to get him anywhere else in the near future, Jaime'd turned his full attention to figuring out what was going on.

So he'd finagled access to the JLA Watchtower for a few hours. The computer files were some of the most extensive in the world. Especially when it came to the weird, the unexplained, and the potentially-world-ending.

And still. Nothing.

Yet.

That's what he had to keep telling himself. Yet. He'd find something. He just had to keep looking.

[Open for calls/email/etc.]

The semester was pretty much over, and that meant heading back to El Paso. Which, really, Jaime was pretty excited about. He still needed to get a couple of last-minute presents, of course (who didn't?), but he'd missed everyone back home.

The break would be... nice. It had, after all, been a very stressful semester. Not so much with the classes as with the personal stuff. The fight with Dinah over Halloween, the fight with Momoko less than a month later... Some part of him was wondering just who he'd have a massive fight with between now and the end of the year since it almost felt inevitable.

He still had a final to go before he was done, but Jaime was already trying to clean up some of the clutter on his desk. No point in leaving it out while he wasn't around, right?

[Door and post open!]

Jaime sat up suddenly, eyes going wide open as the Scarab howled in his head. Something was wrong.

He was still groggy enough that none of what he was hearing made any sense. Physiological, chemical, and hormonal disruption didn't actually seem like real things at the moment. He reached up to rub his eyes and something felt off. There was... hair in his face? That didn't seem right, but he couldn't put his finger on why.

He looked down at himself to see if there was anything obvious that might give him a--

Jaime didn't have to be a girl to scream like a girl, but it helped.

[Door closed, but post open, with SP warnings for wedding attendance.]

The trip back to El Paso had been pretty good. Okay, it had been more than pretty good. Jaime was glad everyone had gotten to meet his family, and vice versa.

It was good to know that his family liked his friends, too.

His mom had even sent him back with a box of cookies, which he now had open on his desk. Mmm... cookies.

And mmm... back in Fandom. He loved El Paso, but there was always something he missed about the island when he was away.

[Open!]

Jaime was laughing as they came through the portal. "Remember what I told you: try to ignore my brat of a sister, and don't sass my mom. For she is the provider of cookies. Delicious, delicious cookies. Also, all the other food we'll be eating, and, trust me, you don't want to give the cook a reason to be mad at you."

"Also, don't expect too much excitement. El Paso's cool, but... it's a lot calmer than Fandom." Which, considering the super-villain thing, was pretty telling.

"And I invited Brenda and Paco over for dinner, so they'll join us then. I would appreciate it if you'd refrain from swapping embarrassing stories about me." Yeah. Fat chance.

Jaime was doomed.

[Up early for SP for those who know who they are. NFB for distance.]

New classes. New classes involving one Guy Gardner.

Jaime had a headache just remembering that.

The Scarab had basically been running a constant range/direction update on the Green Lantern. And that wasn't helping.

So he was lying on his bed, eyes closed since light seemed to make the headache worse.

[Open!]

Jaime had a suitcase out on his bed and was packing. Not much, just stuff for the weekend. He was heading home for the weekend. His mom would kill him if he missed Easter without a really good reason.

Not that he minded. He was actually looking forward to it. Even with regular phone calls he felt... disconnected. So it'd be nice to get back and spend some time with the family. And check up on Brenda and Paco.

Hmm... maybe he should find some souvenirs to take back with him? That'd keep Milagro out of his hair for, like, a whole five minutes. He probably had time to pick something up before he left in the morning...

[Door and post are open.]