"Kaldur, do you want to help bake some cookies?"
To Aqualad, traitor-turned-leader of the Justice League's covert operations team, the question seems awfully mundane after all that's just happened.
But Superboy doesn't ask him if he's tired, he doesn't ask if he's okay, he doesn't tell Kaldur that he's done a good job, like everyone else does. He just asks him to join his team. Kaldur wants to say no, the list of stunts the team has pulled with the invasion has merited piles of paperwork that Nightwing so graciously dumped on him, along with letters from his mother and stepfather he cannot bring himself to read, threat letters from purist Atlanteans who are not as forgiving as his team that warn him against returning home. All Kaldur wants to do is rest, but the Watchtower's lounge is not as comfortable as the cave he destroyed, and he has nowhere else to go.
Connor won't take no for an answer anyway. It's been almost a month since the Reach was sent to trial, and Kaldur needs to come out of the room for other occasions than just mission assignments. With his strength cloned from the man of steel, Connor drags Kaldur to the kitchen, with Sphere and Wolf sticking to Kaldur stubbornly.
Miss Martian smiles at her big brother, levitating a tray of finished cookies over to him.
"Kal!" Beast Boy pushes the tray over and holds out a few choice cookies, decorated with Aquaman's symbol in frosting just for him.
M'gann pours milk for herself, Connor, and Garfield and some tea for Kaldur without even asking, and Kaldur notices just how much she's smiling.
"You look well." He tells her.
"Thanks Aqualad, I feel a lot better."
Superboy and Miss Martian's cheeks are pink, sneaking looks at each other every so often that make them turn even more red. Garfield's cheeks are puffed up as he watches in frustration.
Kaldur shakes his head at the two of them, and maybe he does nudge M'gann a little closer to Connor as he reaches for the vanilla extract.
-------
Wonder Girl is training all alone in the Watchtower's gym, but she's hesitant about using the League's stuff because it's all really nice and new and unlike the stuff that used to be at the cave because the team was so attached to their things and wouldn't let Batman replace it even after Superboy got mad at Nightwing and Kid Flash and threw an elliptical at them. She doesn't have a sparring partner because Superboy's on a date with M'gann, or always with M'gann, and she's too afraid to hurt any of her teammates because she knows she gets a little overexcited.
"You?" she asks when Kaldur volunteers. She says okay because she's dying to let out some energy.
Kaldur senses her surprise when he matches her strength, and Cassie finds herself talking as they spar, asking him questions while trying to find a subject that isn't insensitive. Because he misses it so much, Aqualad tells her all about Atlantis. His training in the military, which is similar to what Cassie's undergone with the Amazons; the religion, Cassie proudly names a few water nymphs she's met on Themyscira; and about his family. Kaldur and most of the team know her mother already, so Cassie suggests that the team have a get-together where they bring their families to meet their friends because the team needs to meet Jaime's little sister.
That night, Kaldur asks La'gaan to give a message to Sha'lain'a and Calvin.
-------
Honorary-League-And-Team-Member Red Arrow walks into the Watchtower one day to find Aqualad surrounded by half-finished physics books, all that Kaldur protests he's in the middle of reading. Artemis left them at the tower around the start of July for anyone who wanted them. Bart took one, and Tim skimmed one, but the rest have been collecting dust in the Lounge that the team has easily claimed as "theirs" and several members, such as Beast Boy and Bart, have tried to ban all League members from entering, without much success.
When Roy asks how Kaldur's doing, he can't pull much than standard, one-word answers out of the guy who used to be his best friend. He's been trying, trying so hard to move on, to grow up, to find a purpose in his life. Everyone else has gone home, and Roy notices that Kaldur's just about to fall asleep in his seat, so he announces to Kaldur that he's sleeping over at the Harper-Ngyuen-Crock house tonight.
"Lian, come meet your uncle fishy!" Kaldur is hardly ever utterly surprised, but watching Cheshire parade out from behind the kitchen counter with a red-headed one-year-old on her hip makes his eyes go wide. Lian, definitely named after her aunt, squeals and reaches for her father, who covers her with kisses, and Jade hugs Aqualad tightly and thanks him again for watching after Artemis while they were undercover. Paula Crock, an older woman with a kind smile despite her frown lines rolls in from the back room in her wheelchair.
"You must be Kaldur, Artemis has told me so much about you," she beams at the dark-skinned, six-foot tall Atlantean who towers over her with gils, webbed fingers, and eel tattoos up and down his arms. No mention is made of the incident in March...or May, or any of the past six months, for that matter.
Artemis comes home later with a backpack full of Vietnamese Lit homework, not surprised to see Kaldur seated between Roy and her mother at the dinner table. Jade has tried her hand at making cheesecake, so the others politely pretend to eat it until Jade goes to put Lian to sleep. Roy and Artemis immediately throw theirs in the trash, but Kaldur and Paula each finish their slice and tell Jade that it was absolutely delicious when she returns.
Paula wheels herself into the room that she shares with her granddaughter to turn in, leaving the younger heroes to reminisce their old adventures.
"Do you remember when you messed up so badly at New Orleans?" Jade elbows Artemis, who groans and slaps her sister in the face, but Jade doesn't stop smiling.
Kaldur takes his own turn at embarrassment, remembering older missions where the team could hardly get along.
He nearly threw them back into that again.
But Roy puts a hand on his shoulder, and Kaldur's old friend smiles at him.
They've all made mistakes, but now is the time to make up for them,
-------
"Aqualad!" Kaldur sturdies himself, preparing for the not-so-surprise-attack of Beast Boy, who descends upon him as a screeching monkey.
The young members who should respect him are frightened of him, don't trust him, but Gar is not as suspicious.
Kaldur is well aware of the tear on the poster of himself that hangs in Gar's bedroom, sloppily hid with packaging tape.
"What's up, AL?"
Kaldur smiles, adjusting the tablet to show Gar a few websites he was going through, looking for training activities to do with the team.
Gar taps a finger to his chin, deep in thought with his bottom lip sticking out.
"Y'know, why don't we drop the training and just do some bonding?"
His voice is beyond hopeful, like a child asking for extra dessert.
"Beast Boy-"
"Come on! We saved the world!" He's quick to point out, leaping to the ground and scampering around Kaldur's feet.
"You of all people deserve a break," Garfield jabs his finger in Kaldur's face with the stern, no-nonsense voice he picked up from watching Batman, Manhunter, even Kaldur himself.
Kaldur looks back at his tablet, then at Gar, who continues to stare at him with a pathetic imitation of Batman's intimidating glare.
Kaldur shuts off the tablet and ruffles Garfield's dark green hair, and the young boy's laughter is one of the few things in a long time to make him smile.
-------
When Robin discovers something, Aqualad is the person he goes to.
He's hesitant about it of course, all the freshman are a little wary of Aqualad when most of them have never known the Kaldur on their side, but Kaldur is gentle and patient. Of course he sees Robin waiting around the corner whenever Kaldur is alone at the computer, and pacing back and forth, thinking it's better to keep it to himself then changing his mind and being determined to to tell him then changing his mind again until Kaldur walks up to the nervous boy.
Robin is shocked when Kaldur asks him what's on his mind and the words stumble out of his mouth at first, but he "Can't go to Batgirl, because she'd tell Nightwing and he'd go crazy, and I can't tell Blue because he'd tell Imp- Bart, who'd try it out all on his own and probably get killed and, yeah, you're the only other person I could think of."
Kaldur is happy to sit down and listen.
-------
Sphere beeps happily, nudging Kaldur as he does paperwork again, going through all the files Batgirl has sent him. The computer is so much more convenient for him, as he can enlarge the words to read them better. English is such a confusing language.
He pats her dome as she rests beside the couch, submitting the paperwork to Batman for the league's files, subconsciously pulling up a photo, the first one taken with the underwater camera Roy gave him for his first surface-world birthday.
"Hey, Kal!" Mal waves him down, a bowl of popcorn tucked under his arm.
Kaldur turns off the computer so that he can give Mal his full attention.
"Connor and I were gonna watch a game on the TV, and maybe I'd ask La'gaan too, but do you wanna join us?"
Kaldur is touched. He never really got to know Mal before he went undercover, but Guardian seems to make more effort to open up to Kaldur than most of the team.
Kaldur doesn't remember what teams played. He doesn't remember the final score, he just remembers Garfield shifting into the mascot of Connor's team as Superboy shoots trash talk back and forth with Mal and La'gaan. Then come Jaime and Bart, who nearly end their friendship over which team will win, Virgil snaps his fingers over by the outlet, and suddenly the power is out in the TV.
Kaldur smiles as Mal, La'gaan, and Connor moan at the thought of never knowing who wins. Suddenly there's laughter in the doorway and Karen and Barbra are standing there, faces lit by their phones. They've recorded the whole thing.
Everyone is embarrassed.
Then Cassie comes in with Superman's old football and asks if everyone wants to play. Oddly enough, Kaldur is the first to agree with her.
-------
The moment he hears what's happened, Kaldur rushes to the Gotham hospital. He wonders if he needn't have bothered. Artemis is there already, comforting Cassie, who can't stop crying because Barbra's her best friend,Tim's just staring at the floor, and Kaldur knows Nightwing's there too, watching just outside the hospital window.
Because they're not family, the nurse insists that they go in one at a time. Kaldur doesn't say anything, but despite what's happened that night, Barbra makes the effort to smile for him.
"I guess I'm kicked off the team then, huh?" She coughs horribly, and Kaldur helps her sip from the cup while insisting that her value to the team goes beyond her fighting skills.
"Alright, alright," Barbra admits that she's being too hard on herself. As Batman's only female protege, it's a habit.
"Can you convince my dad to bring my laptop in here? Maybe I can do some research for the team if I can't be out there beating up the bad guys myself."
Kaldur promises to try, but by the look on Jim Gordon's face when he sees his daughter, now crippled for life, it doesn't look like it'll take much convincing. He looks ready to do anything for her, even take her place as The Joker's victim.
Kaldur tells Artemis to inform the team of Batgirl's situation for him. There is something that he must do.
Almost as an afterthought, he tells Tim to inform Barbra of what he's discovered. Perhaps she, and even Nightwing, can help him.
-------
Sha'lain'a sits on the coral seat in her small home, looking through old mosaics and paintings used to record memories. Calvin isn't home at the moment, he's working with Garth, Lori, La'gaan, Topo, even Sha'ark and Ronal, all of Kaldur's friends from the conservatory, petitioning Annax and the rest of the Atlantean government to let her son return home a hero. She wants to be there. She wants them to look her in the eyes, to taste the fury in her voice. She wants the judge, each member of the jury, and King Orin himself to look her in the eyes and say it to her face that her son cannot come home.
Calvin told her to stay behind, as did Garth and La'gaan. Lori tried to tell her they did not want her to be hurt by the purists, but Sha'lain'a shot back that it was the purists that needed to watch out if they kept her son from her ever again.
She last saw him a year ago. He stood in the doorway and uttered two words.
"I know."
Calvin tried to hold him, comfort him, but Kaldur pushed past and swam to his room, a place nearly unused since he was twelve. Sha'lain'a broke down crying.
She'd cried all her tears by the time she saw the letter in his empty room.
She cried again two months later when King Orin and Garth came personally to tell Sha'lain'a and Calvin that Kaldur had lead Black Manta's latest attack.
She didn't cry when purists vandalized her home, when passerbys she might have considered friends spat at her feet and threw rocks at Calvin for raising a demon.
She knows her son. She saw him a few times when he was undercover, wearing his new, black suit, side-by-side with David, his biological father. She saw the look in Kaldur's eyes, even from so far away, and knew that could not be true.
From then on, she trusted her son.
She cries now, because Kaldur, Aqualad, her son, is a hero, and he deserves to come home and there's nothing they'll let her do about it.
Sha'lain'a hides the pictures away again. Calvin tells her that she shouldn't dwell on the past so much if it makes her so sad, that soon Kaldur will be home and they can be happy again. She heads for the kitchen again, cooking has been an escape for her, especially after these rallies, where she can see the satisfied looks on the children's faces from full bellies, even after a failed protest.
The door slams open. Another failed rally.
"I'm in the kitchen, Calvin," she calls knowingly, "You don't need to tell me how it went."
It's only one set of kicking this time, perhaps the others were still determined to stay.
"Matim."
Sha'lain'a's grip on the knife slacks, letting it float in the air in front of her face.
She turns around, and there he is.
Kaldur'ahm.
Aqualad.
Her son.
She wants to scold him. To yell at him for letting her and everyone else believe that he was a traitor, but now that he is here, she can only stare.
"Kaldur-" Her voice cracks.
And suddenly he's hugging her, holding her and blubbering apologies while they both cry.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
"Hush, hush, little one." She takes his face in her hands and kisses his forehead.
"Sha'lain'a-" Calvin bursts through the door, a smile on his face, and the others trailing behind him.
Topo pushes in front of him, punching the water with his fists. "We did it! We did it!" Bubbles stream upwards from his mouth underneath his tentacles.
"Kaldur's coming-!" He cuts himself off.
"Kaldur!" Lori swims past them all and hugs Kaldur.
"I take it you know, then," Calvin hugs Sha'lain'a, watching Kaldur's reunion with his friends, who are all talking excitedly at him.
Lori recovers first. "You betrayed us."
Her hand shoots out and she slaps his face. "How could you not tell us!" She demands, her lips curling in anger.
Everyone gets a turn to slap him but La'gaan, who's already had a chance to do so, and laughs while he watches.
Kaldur takes it all humbly, and After Sha'ark takes pity on him and only punches Kaldur's shoulder, he bows his head.
"I am sorry for not telling you."
"Enough with that, Kaldur!" Garth claps him on the back, "What's in the past is in the past, you are a free man, now." He tells Kaldur sternly.
Kaldur nods. "It is good to be back, my friends." Topo won't stop hugging him.
"Now that I am back, however, I would like to invite you all to something."
They're all a part of his family, and after what he's done to them, it's only fair that he invites them too.
-------
Mount Justice is naught more than rubble, and Kaldur is grateful that the team has rebuilt themselves into something much, much more.
"Hot dog, ese?" Jaime holds out a plate with the weiner in a bun, done up with all the fixings.
"No, we're not going to poison Aqualad!" The nervous boy yells over his shoulder. Kaldur chuckles, and thanks Jaime for the food. Blue's eyes go wide at the notion, but he smiles nervously, and returns to guard the food and make sure Bart doesn't eat everything. Mr. and Mrs. Reyes are a happy couple, and Milagro and Lian get along fabulously.
Artemis pushes her mom around on the smooth path Garth and Lori created specially for the wheelchairs with their magics. In the mid-afternoon sun, Artemis is smiling, her hair blowing in the wind coming off the waves as she talks with Mal and Karen.
Lian splashes in the water with her parents. She screams as a wave crashes over the trio, but Jade and Roy hold onto their daughter tightly.
"Are you a mermaid?" She asks Lori, who stays in the water with Blubber and Topo.
Lori smiles, and lets Lian examine her tail. Within a matter of minutes Lian declares that she's going back to Atlantis with the others to become a mermaid like Lori. Roy isn't so happy with that.
Beast Boy wins the splashing competition when he turns into a blue whale and douses everyone in the water with his spray. By the time the spray dies down, it turns out Connor was using it as cover to kiss M'gann.
Bart runs around, making sure everyone gets introduced to his Grandma Iris and the twins, which have long since started to show. Cassie introduces Helena to her boyfriend and all the newer team members. Helena doesn't miss a chance to thank everyone for rescuing her. Rocket and Zatanna arrive late with Raquel's young son Amistad, who is ecstatic to see Kaldur again, and head out to the waves with the Harpers and Atlanteans. Static's parents and sister are a little overwhelmed with all the unmasked superheroes, but after Kaldur hands each of them one of M'gann's cookies and introduces himself, they seem a bit more at ease.
Sha'lain'a and Calvin are talking with Batman, who managed to stop by for the occasion. Richard has come back, if only for a visit, and takes the responsibility of racing Barbra around in her new wheelchair, fresh from the hospital. Babs already has a list of meta-powered teens the team can train and recruit, starting with a new Gotham vigilante calling herself "Spoiler".
"Kaldur, come over here."
It doesn't matter how old he is. When Kaldur's mother calls him, he comes running.
Sha'lain'a points to Nightwing, who has started talking with Batman. "Is this the young man who assisted you with your undercover mission?"
"Yes, matim, this is Richard Grayson, a former Robin."
Sha'lain'a nods, and fixes her gaze on Batman. "May I?"
"Be my guest," The dark knight offers.
Nightwing doesn't know what's happening until Sha'lain'a has slapped him across the face.
Barbra is laughing. "I like your mom, Kal." She smirks. It can't be helped that most of the team is still at least slightly mad at the them for the undercover thing, even if they have been forgiven.
When Aquaman and Queen Mera arrive with the baby prince, Kaldur finds a chance to escape. There used to be almost a balcony at the cave's back entrance, but for now, the highest peak of rock will have to do.
Of course, Artemis finds him almost five minutes later, Richard, Connor, and M'gann hot on her tail.
None of them say anything. They don't have to. M'gann floats, so that there's room for the others to sit next to Kaldur.
There's no mind link, but they don't have to read each other's minds to know what the others are thinking.
Kaldur watches his teammates, his friends, and his family frolicking in the light of the setting son. It's not just like old times, he thinks, but it may be just as good. There's still so much work to be done, but he supposes it won't ever be finished.
For now, he has his team. And he knows now that they will always be there.
No matter what changes.