Speed of Lyght

Team

Chapter Fourteen: Taking One for the Team

A year had passed since she made her home on Watchtower. There were a couple of things that she had long gotten over: her ex-boyfriend who was now on the run and known as Clayface (it saddened her that he turned rogue after all that Bruce tried to do for him; she felt even worse that she knew that it would happen) and finding a cure for the mutant DNA strand in her body. Tabitha had other things to occupy her time. She was now considered a full-time technician aboard Watchtower and anyone who needed something that required her expertise hunted her down to request it.

While this kept her busy, she also saw that it kept her off a lot of the major missions. She didn’t know whether to blame the Martian for any of it (he was the only one she actually reported to when it came to doing her work around the space station) but she had a feeling that a lot of her assigned jobs could’ve been placed on hold in order for her to go on a mission. When she thought that she was done with upgrades, he would give her lessons every now and then on how to monitor Watchtower; his theory was that since she was working on the electrical components as it was, there was no harm in teaching her how to monitor.

Learning the controls in the control room guaranteed that the two were around each other more often, which only fueled her attraction to him even more. She knew that she had agreed to be just friends but Tabitha couldn’t tell her feelings that. The only thing stopping her from confessing that her feelings had grown deeper was the fact that she knew he didn’t feel the same. It didn’t bother her much; she knew that he was avoiding romantic relationships with anyone. What bothered her was that it felt that he was hindering her from going on missions. The only times she went was when any of the other founding members specifically requested that she was put on their team.

She was too shy to make her dissatisfaction known to him; for all she knew, anyone who didn’t agree with the Martian would be less likely to go on a mission ever again, not even for cleanup or crowd control! She came up with a plan and smiled to herself as she watched the others across from her in the cafeteria. J’onn was sitting with Diana and John and the three seemed to be having a nonchalant conversation. Tabitha’s smile finally appeared on her face as she looked at the brown bag that sat in the chair beside her; if she had to bribe the Martian into letting her go on more missions, she would!

Her plan had included her getting up, approaching the three and excusing herself and J’onn. However, as she looked him over, she found herself stuck to her seat. He took a couple of careful bites every now and then and she realized that it was the first time that she had seen him eat. It made her mind wander off to other things: what did Martians actually eat and how did their digestive systems worked? Did they have the same organs as humans or were there a few extra/missing parts? As she studied his broad shoulders and muscular chest, she also wondered if the rest of his race had been built the same. Bruce had told her that the Martian was a shape shifter and had preferred his current form to make himself appear more human; however his current shape wasn’t too far from what he really looked like. She tilted her head slightly, resting it in the palm of her hand and tried to picture what he really looked like. Of course, the first image that appeared in her mind was the clichéd large head, opaque oval eyes and small body. It was enough to make her stifle a giggle and go back to admiring his current form, involuntarily tracing the outlines of the muscles in his arms and chest.

She had realized too late that she was a few thoughts away from thinking about him the way the professor did when J’onn suddenly straightened up and stared at her. She bit her lip, blushed and sighed; seeing that he had yet again went through her mind, the “bribe” was going to be used for something else.

“J’onn… could you come here for a sec, please? Don’t act like you’re not in my mind…” she actually smiled at him. He returned the smile, excused himself and made his way over to her. He kept his smile as he sat down across from her.