Sell you a Bridge chapter 78

Gotham Docks August 9th 2010 11:30 AM EDT

Today  was the day. My mom, Paula, Callie, and Claire were all coming back.  Their cruise got in at noon and I had begged off school to meet them,  with Reggie, Artemis, and surprisingly Zatanna joining me. I'd told Zee  she didn't have to come since we were planning dinner tonight anyway,  but she refused to be left out. She'd actually snuck out of her house to  come down here, and her dad was under the impression she was home in  bed. She told me privately without the massive power boost from her  magic stat she would have never managed to slip out undetected.

As  of yesterday Zee was at sixty magic, having leveled up twice, which was  great actually because she needed the extra magic power to improve her  glamour. Her charisma had gone up by ten each level, sitting at a cool  fifty now, and it had started leaking through her damn glamour. She was  able to tighten up the spell and I made a mental note to introduce her  to Madame Xanadu to talk to her about helping her improve her glamours.  Meanwhile I'd made it to level five, boosted my points to thirty five  per day, and was sitting at a cool one hundred eighty.

Artemis  put all of her points into dexterity, and her glamour had needed  touching up too, though not quite as much since she was a full nine  points under Zee. Fifty seemed like some kind of watershed for physical  stats from what I could tell. Still even with the glamour Artemis was  moving a little differently, unconsciously more graceful and agile. Or  she had been, before she got here and saw the cruise ship in the  distance, now she was fidgeting like there was no tomorrow and I  couldn't help but smile to myself.

The  ship coming towards us was big. Which sounds like an obvious thing to  say about a cruise ship, but I couldn't imagine they were all quite as  big as this. The massive ship was pitch black with silver accents and  glided over the surface of the waves with barely and disruption. The  bank of fog beneath the hull swirled forward like a cross between a read  carpet and a cushion beneath the ship, making it seem to almost float  over the ocean. It made me think about what the email had said about  "unknown places". This ship very clearly had some kind of strange  ability and traveled in a mystical way. Where exactly had I sent my  mother?

I  knew my power wouldn't give me overtly harmful abilities and the email  had said safety was guaranteed, but it was somewhat alarming to think of  all the awful things she could have seen. The general vibe of the email  had been pretty joyful but I made a promise to myself to be careful to  think of the possibilities before I committed to a power. I'd been so  spooked I'd just shipped her off without checking and while from what I  remembered it had worked fine this time I had to be more careful. Safety  was guaranteed on this cruise but if it hadn't been my mom might have  been hurt accidentally by something not associated with the trip or my  power.

I  turned and took Zee's hand and squeezed, expecting her to squeeze back.  She didn't and I looked over at her to see her worrying her lip. I  chuckled and leaned in to kiss her cheek. "She's going to love you baby,  trust me. Don't look so worried. As soon as she meets you and sees how  crazy I am about you she's going to adore you just as much as I do." She  glanced up at me uncertainly and I smirked before grabbing her by the  waist with one hand on each side and whirled her up into a circle in the  air.

She  shrieked and laughed before being cut off by me bringing her down for a  kiss. When I pulled back she pouted cutely at me. "That's cheating. How  am I supposed to stay worried with you giving me butterflies." I laughed  and kissed her again, a bit deeper this time but she pushed me back and  flailed her hands between us. "No, stop it you giant thug, you'll mess  up my makeup. I wore my Love Devotion lipstick today, and if you ruin it  I'm going to give you the worst case of blue balls in recorded history.  I'm not meeting your mom with lipstick smeared all over my face like a  whore."

I  burst out laughing at that. "Jesus you are worried, you never talk like  that." I smacked my lips experimentally. "I do taste something fruity.  What is that?" I pondered it dramatically while I held her against me.  "Tastes like Guava. I love Guava. Why wear lipstick flavored like a  fruit I love if I'm not allowed to kiss you." I clucked my tongue and  shook my head in disapproval. "Such a cruel capricious woman." It made  me smile to see how at ease she got when we started bantering, Zee  wasn't a nervous girl, but this was a big deal, if I could distract her  I'd help as best I could.

She  rolled her eyes and snuck in one quick kiss before pulling away. "I'll  buy some guava lip gloss for you. But it won't be twenty five bucks a  tube and the flagship line of the NARS summer collection. Keep your  wandering hands off mister." She leaned in with a teasing grin. "If  you're a good boy when I meet your mom I promise you can have all the  fun you want with my mouth later." My eyes actually lost focus out of sheer lust when she said that and I swallowed hard and stepped back. She turned to look at Artemis. "And what has you so nervous anyway? You  haven't gagged at us once today."

Artemis  was so distracted she actually jumped at the question, which was  strange because she was usually almost as situationally aware as I was.  She shook her head for a second to clear the cobwebs. "What? Oh, yeah,  you two are gross. Sorry I'm distracted." She hesitated, as if not sure  she wanted to share. "Wally wants to meet my mom. Which is great, I mean  I love that he takes us seriously enough to want to meet my parents.  But..." She looked nervously at the ship. "He doesn't know who my dad  is, and I'm afraid if he meets her he'll ask questions I don't want to  answer."

She  took a ragged breath. "I don't want him to look at me and see  Sportsmasters daughter. Mom was in prison until last year, and if he  meets her and they talk it might come up. Things are so good with use  but he only knows the new imrpoved Artemis. The track star Gotham  Academy student with a close knit group of friends who care about her  and watch her back. Someone who gets invited to places like Wayne Manor.  I just love how he sees me as I am, and not all the bad shit my dad  did. I don't want to lose that."

I  frowned, because as much as I wanted to say Wally wouldn't do that, I  didn't know Wally that well. Finding out Artemis's dad was Sportsmaster  might be far fetched, but treating her like the child of criminals  because of her moms time in jail, time that was public record? I didn't  see him being like that, not with Artemis, who he treated like she hung  the moon, no pun intended, but who really knew. I turned to look at Zee  to see her smile and nod. I smiled at my friend. "Why don't you invite  him over tonight. He can have dinner with us and we can take some of the  pressure off."

Her  eyes widened and she looked at Zee. "Are you guys sure? I mean I know  how big a deal this dinner is to you, especially to Zee. plus Wally is  kind of a pig and he eats a ton, if this is gonna be a thing just forget  it, I can handle it myself." Zee put both hands on her hips and raised  an eyebrow, glaring at her blood sister frostily for a minute before  Artemis threw her hands up with a laugh. "Ok, fine, noted. I'll go text  the boyfriend now and have him get ready." She beamed at us and threw  her arms around us both before literally skipping off.

The  skipping would have looked ridiculous if not for the elven grace she  had now, and it came across as dextrous and elegant, but I still had to  chuckle at the dissonance of my hardass best friend being excited enough  to skip like a little kid, elegance or no. I turned to smile at my  girlfriend. "Thank you. I know this is a big night for you and being  willing to share it is amazing." I leaned forward for a kiss but  received a hand in my face and pulled back, putting my hands up with a  laugh. "Fine, fine, no kisses I remember." I put an arm around her  though an pulled her close, inhaling the scent of Lavender and  Chamomile. My favorite smell in the whole world.

Artemis  came back in about fifteen minutes with a blinding grin on her face.  "He said he's free. He sounded so cute and nervous I love it. He's  always such a cocky dork but tell him he's meeting my mom and his spine  turns to pudding. I'm going to torture him about this for years. Do you  have enough stuff to make the extra food? We can always stop and get  stuff?" I did have enough, I was making Jambalaya tonight because it  could cook by itself while I wasn't home and because I loved the stuff  with an unholy passion. Luckily Jambalaya was best made in huge pots and  I wanted leftovers.

I  waved her off. "It's fine. I used a jumbo sized Le Creuset pot, there's  enough Jambalaya in there to feed a dozen people. I was going to keep  the leftovers for lunches at school but I can always make more later." I  ignored their snickers as I discussed my amazing culinary skills, they  didn't think a mountain of a man talking about his cookware was  masculine, but I was an Iron Chef damn it. There's nothing manlier than  butchering animals and slowly using fire to prepare their flesh.

Finally  the ship came into port, or whatever the term is. It docked, pulling  alongside us and somehow stopping. I had no clue how boats braked.  Anyway the ship stopped and the passengers started to disembark. First  off of our group was Callie. The boisterous little girl barreled into  her brother with a squeal, chattering away about their trip and the  amazing places they had been. Next came Claire, the pretty older woman  smiling at all of us and sweeping the lot of us into a warm hug. Paula  was after her, wheeling herself down the ramp with a relaxed demeanor  I'd never seen from her before.

Artemis's  mother was usually tense or sad, but being away from any chance of  seeing her husband had clearly been relaxing for her. She looked so at  peace, and she hugged her daughter and then rolled her eyes and pulled  me in for a tight hug as well. Zee looked excited to meet her new  sisters mother, but she stayed back, because my mom didn't know about my  power and explaining their connection would detract from their first  meeting. Finally my mom came strolling down the ramp. What shocked me  however was that she didn't come alone. She was walking arm in arm  with...a guy. My mom was with a guy. She'd never brought a guy anywhere  near me before. She'd kind of flirted with Jim but this was different.

They  were holding hands, and she had a brilliant smile on her pale face  (O'malley's do not tan) as she brought him up to us. The tall man  was...interesting. He wore a hawaiian shirt and had chalk white hair and  a pair of round lensed sunglasses. My mom beamed at me as they came  with range and waved enthusiastically. "Morgan!" She barreled up to me  and pulled me into a hug. "I'm so happy to see you." She smiled wryly  and turned to the man whose hand she had dropped. "Oh honey, I'm so  sorry. I'm being rude. Satoru, this. is my son Morgan. Morgan..." She  trailed off with a blush. "This is my new boyfriend. Satoru Gojo."