𝙫𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙡𝙮 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘳𝘵𝘺-𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘦
Being back with the Titans was a feeling Maeve loved, when everyone had finally woken up and they started seeing her, they'd greeted her, hugged her, and told her they missed her. Things with Garfield were still a little awkward, at least for Maeve. She didn't really know where they stood, technically they broke up. It was more Maeve's fault than Garfield about the air being awkward between them, Garfield seemed like his normal self, but then again the two haven't actually had quality alone anytime to catch up.
The brunette walked into the kitchen, catching the last bit of Hank's phone call before he hung up, when Hank turned around he jumped a little at her sudden appearance, causing her to smile innocently. "Shit, kid." "Who was that?" She nodded her head towards the phone. "Uh, no one." He placed his phone in his pocket. "How much did you hear?" "Just the last bit." She replied, grabbing an apple from the fruit basket that was on the counter; the reason she came into the kitchen. Hank nodded his head and walked out of the kitchen. Maeve tilted her head. "Well... that wasn't suspicious." She mumbled sarcastically. Taking a bite out of the apple.
She walked out of the kitchen, walking to the Batcave's secret entrance she'd been shown. "Hey Maeve." She looked to Conner as they went through the entrance together "What happened with Tara?" Maeve rolled her eyes and groaned while the elevator went down. "You could do so much better SB." Seeing the slight saddened look on his face, she patted his shoulder in a comforting manner. "Don't worry. You'll find someone so much better." The doors opened, and they walked out.
Maeve continued to eat her apple as the two walked further into the Batcave "-He needs your help. We need your help." "Really think he'll hear that?" Conner asked. Garfield turned around to face Maeve, who was still eating an apple, and Conner, who stood beside her. "Between sipping martinis, I figure he's got time." Maeve cracked a smile at his optimism. "Just under 48 hours ago we were kicking ass in San Francisco." "48 hours ago I was serving coffee." Maeve added quiety, mainly to herself. "And now the whole world has turned upside down." The green haired shape shifted stated.
"I don't understand it either, but if Jason's alive and killing innocent people, we have to stop him. It's what Titans do." "Well, luckily I'm not a Titan anymore." They both looked to her. "I know Jason, and this isn't him. Something just feels... off." "What do you mean?" Garfield asked, and the brunette shrugged her shoulders. "Just a feeling. I can't really describe it."
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"Where the hell did he go?" "No idea, but a few minutes later he gets into a cab." Maeve replied while Conner, who was sitting beside her, pulled up the recording of him getting into a cab. "And now his phone is off the grid" He added.
"Can you pull up a plate?" Dick asked as he leaned down beside Maeve. "I'll try." She watched Super Boy attempt to get a clear picture of the licence plate number. "We talked in the kitchen; everything was fine. I told him to dial it down a notch." Dawn sighed. "Where are you, Hank?" The brunette questioned under her breath.
"Present and accounted for." They all looked towards the direction of the voice, seeing Hank, struggling to walk before he fell to his knees causing the group to go to his aid. "Hank! What happened?" He unbuttoned his shirt. "Maeve. Get it out of me." Once unbuttoned it revealed something metallic on his chest. "What!" She screamed with wide eyes. "You can manipulate metal, right?" "What the fuck! Not when it's inside someone's chest!" She yelled with a panicked expression.
"I think it's a bomb." Dawn said, inspecting it further. "It's a gift. From our pal, Jason." Suddenly her panicked expression turned solemn, her eyebrows knitted a little. "Oh good. You found him." Maeve looked towards Garfield and Kory as they walked in. "Or not?" "Jason put a bomb in his chest." Maeve informed.
"Come on, let's get him up" Dawn and Dick helped Hank walk while everyone else followed. "You went and talked to Jason by yourself?" "Seemed like a good idea at the time." Hank responded while being placed on the medical bed. "Just give me a shot of whiskey and get it out." Hank winced "I'm all for not touching that thing until we find out how it works." "I second that." Maeve agreed with Kory, one wrong move and it could blow up.
"Conner, look inside, tell us what it is." Conner's eyes glowed, similar to Maeve's, but blue. "Wow. This is pretty bitching." "Conner!" This caused the lab rat to clear his throat and continue to look at the bomb with his x-ray vision. "It has anti-retraction barbs that hold the device in place. Looks like it's embedded in the pectoralis major, right through to the aortic arch." "No part of that sounded good." Hank responded.
"The engineering is incredibly nuanced." He mumbled. "The bomb designed to tolerate insertion, not retraction" He turned around holding up a picture he'd just drawn. "These barbs in Hank's chest, they have sensors. If those sensors detect to much force, it'll explode." "What if Mae-" "I am not touching that thing." Maeve said sternly. Dick sighed, "What if we remove it surgically?" "Same outcome. Once activated, it's designed to kill." Maeve wrapped her arms around herself, the worry and anxiety was clear on her face. She suddenly felt a hand on her lower back and snapped her head towards Garfield who sent her a reassuring smile, causing her to send a small one back to him.
"That fucking little shit." "This whole think is engineered to read EKG signals. The countdown isn't seconds, it's the number of heartbeats he has left." "What do you mean countdown?" Dawn asked, Maeve unintentionally leaned back when Conner touched the bomb and removed the top, revealing a countdown. "When it gets down to zero-" "Jason can't actually want Hank to die, right?"
Dick's phone started ringing causing them all to look towards him. "I have a feeling we're about to find out." He walked off to take the phone call. Maeve began walking off. "Where are you going?" "To distract myself from the fact Hank has a fucking bomb in his chest." Garfield sighed and jogged after her, grabbing her bicep and turning her around to face him. "Ma-" "For the past few months the biggest thing I've needed to stress about was making sure Tara didn't miss school... I haven't been in a stressful situation like this in three months. Just give me a second to attempt to calm down before I accidently bring the whole Batcave down." "I though you had it under con-" "Situations like this make things hard to control!" She snapped. Maeve closed her eyes at her harsh tone, releasing a breath, instantly regretting her tone. "I'm sorry." She walked off before he could even get a sentence out, causing him to sigh in defeat.
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Maeve had decided the best place for her was with Hank, she could distract herself while distracting him and keeping his heart rate low and so far all she'd come up with was the kids finger game Chopsticks, and it was working in both areas. Maeve laughed a little as he lost, again. "Where did you learn this?" "Garfield and I used to play it in middle school when my English wasn't the best." She replied as they started another round. "How are things between you two?... You used to be attached to the hip and now..." She sighed. "It's complicated." Hank chuckled. "Dawn and I are complicated." Maeve smiled a little.
"Henry, old man. The boys have got the catamaran idling. They're just waiting on their captain." Maeve rested her hands in her lap, the game forgotten as the green haired teen walked into the room. "Thank you Garfield. Let the boys know we'll take her out tonight." Garfield laid on the other side of Maeve, so she was sitting with her legs crossed in between them. "Think this place has a big enough chandelier?"
Maeve turned around and laid down between them with her hands comfortably on her stomach and the three were met with a comfortable silence. "Uh, Gotham is Bruce's mess. Why did we even come here?" "Oh, I just came back because I got the hots for Dawn. Love's a bitch. Never learn my lesson." "Love is a bitch." Maeve muttered, staring up at the ceiling, feeling Garfield's eyes directed at her.
"How are you holding up?" Hank asked. "Me?" Garfield asked, looking away from Maeve. "This is less than great. You hung up the suit. You were out." "Yeah. Maybe it's a sign." "That you should have never left DC?" Garfield questioned. "That I never should have left my family. That's not what you do, no matter what." Maeve looked towards Hank. "So what? This is your karma for leaving?" "I don't know. But I'm not ready to go. It's not my time yet. I got too much left to do." He looked towards the two teens with tears building up in his eyes. "And so do you two. So get the hell out of here. I'm counting on you bozos to get me out of this mess." Garfield released a breathy chuckle, sliding off the bed. "An evening sail. I'm gonna hold you to that." "See how the main sail sets." Garfield walked backwards and saluted. "Aye, aye captain" Maeve laughed a little at the two's antics.
It got quiet and Maeve looked up towards him and moved so her head was leaning against his shoulder, Hank brought a hand up to her head, patting her in a comforting manner. "Go on. Go help those boys. They'll need all the help they can get." She lifted her head up and looked towards him. "You'll be okay." Hank didn't say anything, instead he just smiled. She sat up and got out of the bed. Hank assuming she'd gone to the Batcave, when in fact she'd just leaned herself against a wall close to where Hank was, sliding down it the wall until she was on the ground. Maeve wrapped her arms around her knees and released a shaky breath.
As the countdown got closer and closer to zero her hopes for him being saved were dwindling, she tried to stay positive and hope for a miracle, but it's hard to stay optimistic when the numbers were in the double digits. Her head was buried into her knees when Kory passed her again. Maeve could softly hear him singing to himself and tears began to build in her eyes and as she felt a gust of wind past her she felt a big explosion and instinctually she used her arms to protect her head, before she knew it she was being picked up and carried away from the explosion.
When she'd stopped moving she was in Conner's hold, and he placed her down. Maeve looked to Conner who physically looked in disbelief, a device in his hands, when she looked at it and realized what it was, Maeve released a breath as tears fell down her cheeks, before quickly embracing Conner who just stood still. "It's not your fault." He pushed her off him and went to walk away from her.
The pain and emotions Maeve was feeling about Hank's sudden death and the fact Jason was to blame began drowning her. Maeve's hands first started to glow before it moved up her elbows and she started at it in a panic, attempting to control her emotions, by trying to control her rugged breathing, but every breath came out shaky and uncontrolled, and it was just getting worse, being jetlagged making her ability to control her powers harder than normally. Her eyes shined yellow, and her hair turned blonde, starting from her roots. She looked to Conner with a scared expression. "Conner?" and when he turned around and took in her state, it took an instant to realise she couldn't control it and he was picking her up again, speeding away to a safe area for her to release her power and emotions.
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Being familiar with death was something to flaunt, but Maeve would be lying if she said she wasn't familiar with it, she'd killed people, people she'd known and loved died: her parents, grandfather, Garfield's parents, Donna and now Hank. She was sick of losing people.
The death of Hawk aka Hank had hit everyone, hard, Dawn the most. When Maeve returned from destroying an empty field because she couldn't control her emotions she was left feeling drained and sad. Maeve let her feet carry her to her room, each step was slow and sluggish. Tears stained her cheeks, and her blue eyes were now glassy and red. Hank was gone, really gone.
When she looked up from the floor at the door she was in front, finding it not her own. Without hesitation she opened the door and saw Garfield sitting on his floor, leaning his back against his bed. He looked up and saw the now blonde Maeve leaning against his door frame with a broken expression, matching his own. Their eyes met and it only took a few seconds before Garfield was breaking down in a waterfall of tears. Without hesitation she went to his side, sitting beside him on the floor, wrapping her arms tightly around him, bringing him into her embrace while he held her tightly.
After Garfield had stopped crying they sat side by side, Maeve leaning her head against his shoulder. Neither had spoken, it wasn't awkward nor was it comfortable, it was just silence. "Your hair is blonde?" "My powers don't like brown hair." She replied softly. "Are you going it keep it?" He asked, glancing toward her as she lifted her head off his shoulder. "Maybe... I haven't really had any time for a trip to the salon, so I guess we'll be stuck with plain old boring blonde Maeve Weaver for awhile." She turned her head to look towards him at her attempt to lighten the mood, but he wasn't smiling.
He glanced up at her hair and smiled softly. "Blonde Maeve was never plain, old or boring." "And brunette Maeve is?" "Well, she has been the one avoiding me." This comment made her smile drop. "I get it though. Coming back to The Titans... to me, is probably a lot." Maeve looked down at her hands that were in her lap, contemplating her next words. "What are we?" She finally asked, looking to him. "I'm back and we broke up... Do we get back together?... Can we get back to-" Garfield silenced her with his lips on hers, it only took a few milliseconds before she was responding, putting her hand on the side of his face to keep him there, scared he'd come to senses and regret his actions.
Pulling away, they rested their foreheads together with their eyes closed. "I love you." Maeve breathed out. Those words had been haunting her since she left, there wasn't a day she didn't think about him, or think about telling him those words again. He pulled his head away and stared into her mesmerizing eyes that held so much pain and power. "I love you too." He responded, and she smiled, quickly wiping the tear that had escaped her eye. "Fuck. America is just turning me into an emotional wreck." Garfield smiled a little at her statement.
The feelings Maeve felt when she was around him, the awkwardness, the anxiety, had faded completely until it was less than nothing, as if that kiss, and those three little fucking words that hold so much power made it all disappear within an instant, "Is it to soon to have sex?" Garfield started laughing brightly which triggered her laughter. The first time since Hank died. "I'm kidding. I'm kidding." She sighed as their laughter died down. "Maybe tomorrow." He smiled and looked towards her while she wore a teasing smile, this was the thing she missed, her best friend, her partner in crime, her Garfield.
i love maeve and conner's relationship. presious bbies