Sell you a Bridge chapter 187

March 4th 2016 Gojo Penthouse 10:00 PM EDT

I  had to fight my girlfriends to hold my little sister on the way back to  the city. She fell asleep pretty quickly anyway though, so when I  handed her to a cooing Zee I didn't feel the need to complain. I just  sat back in the car and let myself finally relax. I'd been in a state of  near constant tension since we went through the portal. Aside from  brief moments after sex, even when I was relaxed I was still partly on  guard against...everything.

Being home though, being  in my moms car with my girls and my friends, letting my head loll back  against the headrest and my muscles just decompress as I took in the  familiar yet somehow alien smell was a level of relaxed I'd forgotten I  could achieve. Which was how I managed to fall asleep, only to shaken  awake two hours later by my mother as she smiled down softly at me.  "Rise and shine baby boy, we're home." It felt so...nostalgic. Being  woken up like that. The whole trip had been more surreal than fighting  bug monsters on a god planet.

We all climbed out of the  car and funneled upstairs. It was weird seeing the penthouse again. The  place was pretty calm compared to my last sight of it on lockdown during  the Amazon War. The front desk had been redone, and there was a  youngish man in a red uniform who nodded at mom as we walked by.  "Evening Miss Gojo, good I see the little one fell asleep before you got  her home again?"

Mom chuckled.  "You know how she is Ralph, almost as lazy as her daddy. I swear I'm  lucky she bothers to wake up in the morning. I live in fear of her going  to school in a year or two. Getting her up for class is going to be an  uphill battle, and Satoru is no help. One look at those big blue eyes  and he caves like the big softy he is." She smiled down at Hana,  pressing a kiss to the little girl's head of red hair.

Ralph  the doorman grinned and waved us through, wishing us a good night.  Hana, of course, slept through the whole thing. I really could see how  she was like Gojo. Sleeping through a big fuss seemed like the kind of  thing the wacky man would have done when I last saw he. We mounted the  elevator and mom pressed the button for the penthouse. When we stepped  off we headed down the hall, but the door wasn't where I last saw it.

I  turned to quirk an eyebrow at my mother and she smiled, rolling her  eyes at her forgetfulness. "Right, sorry. When Paula left she handed  over the deed to their penthouse to me. I kept it for a while, hoping  she would come back, but when I got the tenth letter or so I decided to  have it opened up and combined with our place. Craddock..." Her lips  thinned. "He sent money, said it was yours and that you would want us to  have it. I turned it down for a while, but with the baby on the way..."

I  swallowed and stepped up to pull her into a hug. "It's fine Ma. I'm  pretty sure it was stuff I had lying around, and he was right, I would  have wanted you to have it." I exhaled heavily. "Anyway, if there was  some redecorating you'll have show me around." She unlocked the door.  Letting us into the penthouse and calling for Gojo, clearly trusting my  new sister's ability to sleep through anything as she shouter into the  condo. I smiled at her. "So is my room still..."

She  beamed at me. "Of course! We didn't touch anything. There wasn't too  much in there, since you slept on the island most days towards the end,  but we never moved a thing." Gojo came strolling into view, dressed in  an awful hawaiian shirt and white bermuda shorts. I wondered if he  changed for company or if he just dressed like a good will explosion all  the time still.

He  still had his sunglasses on covering his eyes, but they were just as  expressive as ever, and when he saw us he swept forward...ignoring all  of us completely as he swept his daughter into his arms. "My little  princess!" He swung the sleeping toddler gently in a circle, pulling her  close. "Did you fall asleep again? Poor thing. Your six eye is coming  in isn't it? I know how draining it can be. We'll have to get you some  glasses or a blindfold. I remember I slept all the time when I first got  mine." He nodded to the rest of us. "You're all terribly late for  dinner."

I  couldn't help it. I busted up laughing. Gojo gave a self satisfied smirk  as he turned to carry Hana back inside and my mother rolled her eyes,  but I could see the joy and pride in them as she escorted us to the  kitchen. We followed her into through into the dining room and she made  us all sit down as she went about making us something to eat. I had food  in my spatial ring, but it wasn't moms food. I just shut up and let her  bring us something, smiling happily as I took a slow bite.

It  tasted...like home. Better than the royal chefs back in the OZ made at  the lakehouse. Better than old Stanga's stew. Better than my own cooking  or anything else I'd had in a long time. The others were getting swept  up int he atmosphere too, and their auras all looked content and  peaceful. As we ate my mother say down and smiled at us. "Now. If you're  open to talking about it maybe you could tell me where you ended up?  Seems like it was much less time wherever that was than it was here."

Gojo,  who had also gotten a plate of the reheated lasagna mom made for us,  chimed in before I could answer. "They left this dimension. Not to  another reality like I'm from...somewhere closer...but farther away?  They look weird now. Interesting, but weird." I blinked. I knew Gojo's  perception was above the normal, but I hadn't expected it to be THAT  sharp. He pointed at me. "Especially you. You seem...similar to me. In  some ways. Hard to describe it. Larger? Like conceptually."

That  sounded a lot like what Del had talked about before, but I really  didn't want to open that can of worms just yet. I just smiled at mom and  started telling her about our adventures. Seeing her eyes light up when  we told her about Supertown and the OZ was wonderful. By silent  consensus we left out all the really bad stuff, glossing over the horror  and highlighting the amazing things we'd seen. She particularly like  our adventures in the Wozenderlands, because she'd always loved the  Wizard of Oz.

Then  it was our turn to ask her about what happened. "So that was what went  down on our end. What about Gotham? What the hell happened when we left.  We were at war and in the middle of a supernatural disaster and now the  city looks...well like a dystopian shithole, but pretty much the same  dystopian shithole I remember growing up." Artemis snorted at that, but  no one argued, it was hard to dispute reality.

Mom  shrugged. "Business as usual. Your father came by to see me after you  vanished. He held a funeral service for you, had a casket interred in  the Falcone family crypt. Told me how sorry he was. I didn't want to  hear it. I never believed you were really gone. He and Craddock haven't  been on speaking terms since you vanished.  Reggie comes by once in a  while to see me. Keeps me updated on things around town. He and Bette  usually come over for dinner once a week. She is a delightful young  lady."

She  smiled approvingly at the thought of the blonde socialite. "Satoru would  take trips to look for you every once in a while. Kent went with him a  few times. He came by to give me his condolences and we struck up  something of a friendship." She gave Zee a sad look. "He loved you very  much. He passed in his sleep two years ago. I'll miss him dearly. He was  such a kind man." Zee choked, her eyes filling with tears as she  learned one of the only parental figures she had had died and she wasn't  even here to say goodbye.

She  swallowed hard, taking a minute to calm down. "And...my father? I don't  suppose you know what happened to him?" I somehow doubted the old man  had been cordial and friendly to the mother of the criminal scumbag who  seduced his baby girl to her death. I doubted he'd been able to do shit  to mom with Gojo around, the man was fucking terrifying, but if he'd  made my absence worse on here I was going to have words with him.

My  mother shook her head. "I only met him once, at Kent's funeral. He  avoided me. I haven't seen anything about him on the news in a few years  but..." She hesitated. "Doctor Fate appeared right after the funeral. I  know that Kent used to be the bearer of that helmet. I think that your  father decided to...go full time as a hero." Translation, Giovanni had  been suicidal and sold his soul to a literal tin pot dictator to try and  get the most out of his remaining years.

Zee  closed her eyes, tears falling down her cheeks silently. I reached out  to take her hand. "Hey, it's fine baby. He's alive and I'm sure he's  fine in there. We just have to go wake him up." Dreamer took her other  hand and my mother raised an eyebrow but chose not to comment. I cleared  my throat. "Anyway we're exhausted. You mind if we turn in for the  night? We can have breakfast together and talk more in the morning  before we head into the city to check things out."

My  mom gave us a soft smile. "Of course baby, take her upstairs and get  her settled. You two can stay in your room." She gave me a hesitant  look, then flicked one to Zee. I could see she wanted to tell me to  leave the door open, but she didn't know how to act in this situation  and neither did I. Still I doubted anyone was in the mood for sex  anyway, so I didn't have any problems leaving the door cracked for her  peace of mind.

There  was however, another piece of news that might bother her. I pulled Zee  up to her feet and gestured to Dreamer. "Um...three of us actually. But  I'll leave the door open so don't worry." Despite having been a bit  suspicious based on her aura her eyes widened in surprise as I said  that, and I grabbed both girls hands and fled up the steps. I heard  Artemis cackling from the bottom of the steps as I shouted back. "Love  you mom night!"

Even  Zee's lips were twitching as we got to my room, and as I said I cracked  the door before taking off my shoes shirt and pants. Sleeping in my  boxers wasn't sexual to me, nor to Zee or Dreamer, so they just stripped  to their underwear and climbed in. Dreamer went in first, then Zee, and  me last. When we were settled I pulled my sorceress against me as  Dreamer held us both, and we sat there with her as she began to sob. I  wished I could make it better for her, but this strange new version of  home most likely wasn't done throwing gut punches. All I could do was  let her cling to me and cry.