Chapter 12
"So, how are things going with you and Carter?" Hermione asked Kendra as they rolled up their yoga mats.
"It's been good," she answered, and Hermione glanced over to see Kendra smiling widely. "Really good. Before I remembered everything, I just felt so off, you know? Like I couldn't find my footing."
Hermione hummed in understanding, placing her mat in the corner of the exercise room. "You certainly seem more settled. And less… anxious."
Kendra set her mat beside Hermione's and rolled her eyes. "I think the term you're looking for is 'bitchy'. I seem less bitchy."
"Well, you said it not me."
"I was," Kendra sighed. "I treated Carter terribly because he made me feel things that I didn't understand, and I was angry about having powers and blamed him because he was there, and he knew how to control his powers and I didn't. Honestly, I'm surprised he put up with me. I don't know if I would have handled things half as well in his position."
Walking over to the large raised mat in the center of the room where the team could spar with one another, Hermione fell back on top of it with her arms spread wide. "In all your years of reincarnating, didn't you ever remember first?"
"Rarely," the demigoddess answered, sitting down beside Hermione with her legs crossed. "We usually remembered our past lives at the same time. If only one of us did, it was mostly Carter."
"Really? I wonder why things were different for you in this life."
Kendra shrugged. "I think maybe it had to do with how abruptly I had to figure out how to access my powers. Before, Carter and I both just kind of eased into remembering our past lives. This time, Savage arrived in Central City and was hunting me before I had even remembered who he was. If not for Carter, he would have killed me before I became Hawkgirl again."
Hermione frowned. "Has that happened before? Him finding you before you accessed your memories?"
"Possibly, but that was the first time I remember it happening."
Well, that wasn't good. Hermione would have to speak to Carter and Martin about that.
"You said the Green Arrow and the Flash killed Savage back in 2016," she said. "How did he die?"
"He was literally turned to dust," Kendra answered, smiling wryly. "Oliver and Barry used the Staff of Horus to kill him- it's a staff that Savage had back when we were in Ancient Egypt. It was able to give off some kind of energy and it vaporized him."
"The-the Staff of Horus?" Hermione spluttered. "That is an incredibly powerful magical object. How on earth did they get their hands on that?"
"It was in a church in Central City."
Covering her face with her hands, Hermione let out a disbelieving laugh. "Oh, you cannot be serious," she groaned.
It was all just so ludicrous. So ludicrous that there was no way it was all coincidence. Odd enough that Savage somehow managed to find Kendra before she'd awoken her powers, but who would believe that they just happened to find themselves in the same city that an ancient magical artifact was hidden? One that dated back 4,000 years and yet somehow ended up in America- and a church of all places- and fell into the hands of two superheroes who used it to 'kill' Savage without suspecting that something more sinister was at work?
"What happened to the staff?" Hermione asked, tone defeated. She knew what happened to the staff, she just needed to hear its fate from someone else.
"It was destroyed. The amount of power it took to take down Savage caused it to disintegrate."
Hermione groaned again. "I can't believe you people destroyed such a valuable magical artifact. Do you have any idea how long people have been searching for that thing?"
Kendra patted her head. "It died for a good cause."
"No, it did not!" Hermione almost shouted, letting her hands fall back onto the mat. "It's gone and Savage isn't. It would only have been an acceptable loss of if Savage had truly died."
"You know," Sara called, and Hermione and Kendra turned to see the blond standing in the entryway. "You two are making a lot of noise for people who aren't actually exercising."
"Kendra's slowly killing my spirit," Hermione told her dramatically. "Once she's done with that, I'm assuming she'll move on to my will to live."
Sara snorted and came over to join them, kicking off her shoes before climbing on the mat. "Here I thought killing people's spirits was your job."
"I was earlier, but Carter said I had to leave Ray alone."
Kendra snorted with laughter at the pout on Hermione's face. "Carter has been hardcore hovering over you the past week, hasn't he? I think the last time I saw him like that was in our first life. He had a younger sister he was so overprotective of, but I can't remember her name."
"Didn't the sons and daughters of pharaoh's marry each other in Ancient Egypt?" Sara asked.
Both Kendra and Hermione wrinkled their noses in disgust. "Unfortunately, yes," Kendra answered. "But Carter wasn't married to his. She was just a child when we died."
"Were they supposed to get married when they were older?" the blond asked.
"Why are you like this?" Hermione questioned plaintively. "Making people uncomfortable is what I do. Why do you think I presented Savage's cannibalism the way I did?"
Sara shrugged. "I'm just trying it out for the day and seeing how I like it." She shifted to look solely at Hermione, eyes narrowing slightly as she scanned the witch up and down.
Things between Sara and Hermione had slowly eased into a sense of normalcy over the last few days. Sara was still clearly struggling with her cycling feelings of rage and helplessness, but she'd joined Hermione, Kendra, and Carter with their morning and evening meditation sessions and had even requested Hermione's assistance with one of her lessons with Kendra. Hermione knew it would take time for Sara to process the fact that, while Hermione was a threat to her, she wasn't an enemy and was happy to give the assassin the space she needed.
Those first few times of Slade beating her into the ground had made Hermione loathe the Australian on nearly the same level as she had Draco Malfoy. It took time for Hermione to realize that Slade wasn't going to intentionally hurt her, and she knew that it was much the same for Sara. Not that she would ever tell her that. Hermione was still trying to keep talking about Slade to a minimum.
It seemed Sara did not feel the need to do the same. "So, tell me, who's better in bed: Leonard or Slade?"
Hermione's mouth dropped open. "I… I…." she stuttered.
Kendra grinned, reaching out to nudge Hermione's side with her toes. "C'mon, fess up. We've been trapped on this ship for almost a week now and we're bored. And, considering how often you and Leonard disappear, you have to have gathered enough data to give an answer."
"Oh, you couldn't be more wrong," Hermione grumbled, finally regaining her wits.
It took a few seconds for Sara to put it together and she snorted. "No wonder you're so wound up; Leonard's not putting out, huh?"
"I'm dying," Hermione whined, rolling over on her stomach and burying her face in the mat.
"Wait, so what are you guys doing if you're not having sex?" Kendra demanded.
"Snogging," was Hermione's muffled reply. "Endless amounts of snogging."
Which wasn't bad by any means, but Hermione hadn't expected for Leonard to keep things so… PG-13.
After the fire in those first few kisses, Hermione had thought that the physical aspects of her relationship with Leonard were going to be heated and heavy. Now, she realized that those were the outliers, moments when Leonard was so overwhelmed that his control snapped.
In the past week, when they'd hidden away in their rooms and taken the team's break in hunting for Savage as a chance to spend more time together, Hermione had come to the realization that Leonard's kisses were lazy and deep. He enjoyed slowly taking her apart, pulling her on top of him and letting her feel every inch of him as his tongue dipped into her mouth and flicked lightly against hers. He found every spot that made her gasp and moan, sigh and shudder, whine and shake with need. And then he'd use that knowledge to take her right to the edge, leaving her breathless and desperate, but then… nothing.
There was no relief. His hands would tightly grip her arse and cup her breast while fingers flicked repeatedly over her nipple, but never slipped between her legs to where she wanted his touch the most. Leonard also never let her hand drift beneath his trousers to touch him.
Hermione had no idea why Leonard drew the line where it was, but it was driving her insane and she had no idea what to do. She knew he wanted her- she could feel it every time they were together. But he seemed perfectly fine not going any further than they had, and she certainly didn't want to push him. While Hermione knew the logical thing to do was to just talk to him about it, she wasn't sure how to start the conversation.
It also didn't help that every time they were alone together, they did not spend a lot of time talking. Kissing him felt like the high she'd had after those first few heists. As much as Hermione hated sounding like some sort of ridiculous romantic cliché, she couldn't help thinking that kissing Leonard was addictive and she needed to get it together and stop acting like a randy teenager.
"So, you're taking it slow?" Kendra asked hesitantly.
Turning her head to face the other woman, Hermione dryly told her, "At this point, I'm pretty sure Leonard is trying to kill me and it's working."
She could feel the reverberations in the mat as Sara shook with laughter and she turned to look at the assassin. "Wow, I would not have expected that from him. All that sexual tension… no release… you really are suffering, aren't you?"
"That I am. So, to answer your question, I'll have to say that the sex was better with Slade simply because we were having sex."
"You don't think it's a religious thing, right?" Kendra questioned. "Because we may be on this ship for a while…"
Hermione pressed her face back into the mat as she laughed along with Sara. "Gods I hope not."
"What's going on?"
The girls turned to look at Carter.
"Leonard won't shag," Hermione told him, making her eyes wide and tragic.
Carter's face shifted through several expressions as his mouth opened and closed before he finally turned on his heel. "Nope," he told them, exiting the room.
The three women collapsed into a fit of giggles as he disappeared.
Once she'd regained her breath, Kendra started, "Speaking of Slade…"
Hermione rolled onto her back. "What about him?"
Kendra hesitated. "I guess I was just wondering why you didn't mention him and Joey earlier. Especially during everything with Aldus."
"Ah," Hermione sighed, sitting up and running a hand through her hair. "That's a fair question." She fell silent for a moment, thinking. "Part of it had to do with the fact that I'm just so used to hiding their existence. If my enemies knew I had loved ones that were muggles, they would have been targets. I was able to do a thorough job hiding my parents, but I couldn't do the same for Joey and Slade. It only became more complicated when Joey was on the run with me for a few years while we were hiding from Deathstroke. I introduced him as my son, but that was only in magical communities outside of Britain and only to individuals who I knew wouldn't let his identity slip to the wrong people.
"But the other part of it had to do with shame. You were desperate to save your son, Kendra. And I had left mine behind."
"Why did you do that?" Sara questioned. "You clearly love Joey. Aren't you worried about what might happen to him without you there?"
Hermione glanced at her, wondering why she was asking a question she already knew the answer to. "Of course, I'm worried. I'm always worried. It's odd… when I first left the rooftop after Rip's little speech, I had no intention of joining you all on this quest. I went back to England, fully prepared to put this behind me, and then I just changed my mind. But looking back, I don't know why. I was in America, positive that I wasn't going and then I stepped foot in England and I was set on going. I didn't even think about Joey or Slade and what could happen to them without me there to keep an eye on things."
Sara frowned. "You were worried about Slade?"
"He made a lot of enemies, Sara," she reminded her. "And he doesn't have the Mirakuru in his system to protect him. Beyond just the fact that he's Joey's father, Slade is still my friend. I don't want anything to happen to him."
"That's another thing I was curious about," Kendra interrupted. "And I just want to preface this by telling you there's no judgements, but you were in love with Slade but not in a relationship, right?"
"Yes."
"Then, what does that mean? Did you sleep with other people?"
"I…" Hermione hesitated, unsure of how to put her relationship with Slade into words. "Sometimes I would, if that was the most efficient way of getting the information I needed for a job. Slade did the same. But it wasn't very often because that's not really how either of us operated."
Sara frowned. "So if it wasn't the fact that you guys were hooking up with other people, what made what you had not a relationship?"
Hermione could feel her heartrate increase as a familiar anxiety filled her. She'd been asked this question so many times and she still didn't know how to explain it. How to explain how she could love Slade and live with Slade and raise his son as her own and yet it was still not enough because she couldn't let him in. Because Slade may have known her, but he had never understood her. Never understood the way her blood burned in her veins and the way her cheeks ached sometimes from swallowing down silent screams.
He hadn't understood before Lian Yu and he hadn't understood with the Mirakuru pumping through him and he hadn't understood after the serum had finally faded. Slade had gone through the emotional wringer and still come out better off than Hermione had ever been. And, if she was being honest in a way she rarely ever was, she didn't want him to understand. Joey deserved at least one parent that wasn't drowning.
"Hermione?" Kendra reached out to touch Hermione's shoulder, clearly concerned.
"I was the problem, Sara," Hermione rasped. "I was the reason. He could and I couldn't."
Sara silently studied her before making a considering sound, her head falling back as she gazed upwards. "If things were that bad with you, it's no wonder he didn't tell Shado that he was in love with her until it was too late."
"Oh, thank you, Sara, drive the knife in a little deeper why don't you," Hermione snapped, the pressure on her chest loosening.
"Why, is it not uncomfortable enough where it's at now?"
"But you and Slade are definitely over now, right?" Kendra hastily interjected. "Like you're not still… falling into old habits or something, right?"
"What a diplomatic way of phrasing it," the brunette muttered, breaking eye contact with Sara to stare blankly ahead of her. "It's been over for years- since he came back from Lian Yu."
It was strange to realize that she and Slade had been broken up for longer than they'd been together.
Everything felt a little strange now though. It was as though she had been living underwater those first few weeks with the team- that everything was hazy and unfocused in her mind- and just hadn't noticed it until she'd come up for air. All she had been focused on was the team and Savage without any care for the life she'd left behind. And, after speaking with the rest of the team, Hermione thought it might have been the same for most of them.
What was it about this mission that made them forget themselves? Made them uncaring about those they'd left behind?
"But something's bugging you," Sara prodded.
And Hermione didn't want to say anything. She tried to stay silent. But-
"When do you think he dies?" she whispered.
From the corner of her eye, she could see Kendra flinch. "Don't, Hermione," the demigoddess warned. "Don't do that. Nothing good comes from thinking that."
"Besides, you don't know that he's dead," Sara added. "Just because you think Slade died-"
"He did," Hermione said flatly. "And it would have had to have been before Grant Wilson attacked Star City."
"But you don't know that Joey was with him at the time," Kendra argued.
"Yes, I do. I know my son. If he couldn't find me, then he would have refused to leave Slade's side."
Slade's disappearance all those years ago had traumatized her boy in a way Hermione hadn't expected it to, and she hadn't gotten him the help he'd needed then. She had failed him.
After Slade was gone and Adeline had made the mistake of not hiding her true feelings about it from Joey, he'd stuck to Hermione's side like glue. Wherever she'd went, he'd wanted to go too. Once Slade had returned, Hermione had naively hoped that things would go back to normal and, for a time, it had seemed like it might. After Slade had been back for a few months, Joey slowly grew more confident in the idea that his father wasn't going anywhere, that everyone he loved was alive and safe and it was okay to not be scared anymore.
And then the Mirakuru returned and everything went straight to hell.
"We're going to stop Savage," Kendra told her, voice full of steely resolve and Hermione glanced up to meet her gaze, except it wasn't Kendra staring at her but Chay-Ara. "We will save your son. I give you my word."
Hermione's eyes widened as the hair on her arms stood on end in response to the magic that was filling the room. That wasn't a promise she'd just been given, but a vow and magic would bind Chay-Ara to her words.
"What are you doing?" she demanded, hopping to her feet and leaning over Kendra.
The other woman blinked, Chay-Ara fading away and Kendra regaining control. "What?"
Sara slowly slipped to her feet. "What was that?" she asked warily, glancing between the two women.
Not looking away from Kendra, Hermione answered, "A Binding Vow. That was a Binding Vow."
Similar to an Unbreakable Vow, except that no wands or binders were required to seal the vow into place. It took a great deal of willpower to make a vow and summon enough magic on your own to seal it. And, unlike an Unbreakable Vow, there wasn't a great deal of free will or personal discretion when carrying out the terms of the vow.
Kendra still looked confused, and Hermione groaned, running her hands over her face. "Fuck, Kendra. You made a Binding Vow that you would save my son. Or Chay-Ara did. Looks like you've still got a great deal of magic tucked away and you just used all of it to make a vow that you can't break. You literally can't. Magic will force your hand. You won't be able to control it and you won't be able to stop it."
Hermione was almost shaking from how hard she was trying to push down her emotions.
"Good." Rearing back, Hermione stared at Kendra in surprise. The other woman climbed to her feet and crossed her arms over her chest. "I don't care," she explained. "I don't care that Chay-Ara came out and made that vow. I don't care that magic is going to force me to keep it, or whatever is going to happen. I don't care. Because…" she trailed off, swallowing audibly as her eyes tightened. "Because I lost my son and I'm done. For the first time in as long as I can remember, I'm really, truly done. I'm done with dying and I'm done with losing and I'm done with burying loved ones."
Meeting Hermione's gaze again, Kendra quietly vowed, "No more dead kids. Savage took mine and he took Rip's, but he won't take yours."
Hermione was curled up in a ball on her bed when Leonard arrived. Without saying a word, he kicked off his shoes and climbed in next to her, laying down on his side and resting his head next to hers on the pillow. He reached out a hand and placed it on her hip, the warm weight of it providing Hermione with a small amount of comfort.
Curling up a bit tighter, she said nothing.
Something was wrong. She could feel it. She could sense it. But she just couldn't tell what it was.
Why had Slade and Joey slipped from her mind so easily? And George… George, who had barely tolerated her flitting between Britain and Australia, who was the only person she'd consistently kept updated while running from Deathstroke simply because she knew he wouldn't accept otherwise, why had he been fine with her going?
Why had she gone from 'no' to 'yes' so easily? And why hadn't she noticed sooner how strange that was?
Time was a loop. A closed loop, if her theory was right. Was that it? Had Hermione decided to come on the journey simply because she had before, so she had to in order to maintain the loop? But then, why had she forgotten her boys? Was it self-preservation? Her mind instinctively protecting itself because she had to do this and no good would come from adding on outside stressors or pain?
It didn't make sense. It didn't.
"Tell me about him," Leonard murmured unexpectedly. "Tell me about Joey."
Her muscles locked up and she stopped breathing.
Hermione instinctively wanted to shut down that line of questioning so viciously that Leonard wouldn't dare ask again in the near future. But she knew that, not only would that not work with Leonard and he'd only double-down on asking, but it also wasn't fair to him. If Hermione actually wanted this relationship to work, then she needed to let him in.
Leonard's hand slowly drifted down to gently squeeze her thigh and Hermione's sharp inhale was uncomfortably loud.
"He loves to paint," she whispered, closing her eyes in defeat. "Not people though. He hates trying to paint people because they're never real. 'A person in a painting is there for the viewer to put their own expectations and beliefs on, and the reality is ignored in favor of personal preference'. He loves scenes. He loves capturing a city's streets and old cemeteries. Things that just are. Someone criticized him once about something he had painted at school and he told them, 'What you see on the paper is how it is. If you don't like it, then go find the street I painted and change it because looking away from my art won't change the truth of what it shows.' And a teacher was mad that he said that because it wasn't respectful, but I have never been so proud."
She could hear the smile in Leonard's voice as he spoke. "Smart kid. Are you or Slade artistic?"
"Not even a little. I struggle with textures- the roughness in the lines a crayon leaves behind, the way pastels sometimes become smudged, the uneven strokes in a painting. I hated it all as a child and I still don't know why. It became less of an issue as I grew, and I was always willing to try when Joey wanted someone to paint or draw with him, but I never enjoyed it enough to actually work at becoming better. Slade also doesn't know much about painting and the like. He can't sit still long enough."
Hermione could still remember being little and forcing herself to pick up the crayon when her teacher instructed them to and trying not to be bothered when the wax didn't come off evenly, leaving little lumps on the lines of the page.
"Joey excels at anything to do with the arts. Dancing, singing, musical instruments, writing- he loves it all. I think Adeline- his birth mother- hoped he'd try to make a professional go at one of those in the future, but he was never interested. Said he didn't want to turn something fun into work. Honestly, I'm not even sure if Adeline hoped his future career would go that route because she actually thought he would become successful or if she just didn't want him to follow in Slade's footsteps."
"I take it you two don't get along?"
Still keeping her eyes closed, Hermione shook her head. "No, we don't. We played nice for Joey's sake, but that stopped when he was a teenager and was able to figure out the truth for himself."
Considering her words for a moment, she finally settled on saying, "Adeline didn't like that I didn't expect perfection. Her parents were socialites and, from what I can tell, they placed unrealistic expectations on her regarding how she should behave and appear in public. Expectations she tried to place on Joey."
Leonard chuckled, and Hermione automatically shifted closer to him on the bed. "Bet you put a stop to that real quick."
"I tried." A laugh escaped her as a memory popped into the forefront of her mind. "When Joey was eleven or so, he was assigned to write a letter to Santa for homework in his English class. He didn't want to do it because he knew Santa wasn't real and he thought it was ridiculous, but the teacher wouldn't let him write to someone else. When he told us about it, I pointed out that she hadn't given any instructions on what the letter should actually be about, so he didn't need to write a traditional letter to Santa if he didn't want to.
"Two days later, I got a call from his school saying that a parent was needed at the school to discuss Joey's behavior. Slade had been unexpectedly called away and Adeline was out of town, so it was just me. I walked into the office to find a furious English teacher, an exhausted principal, and a very proud Joey all sitting in silence. Honestly, Joey looked so pleased with himself that I was wondering if he'd gotten into trouble defending another student or something, since that had happened a few times before. But then the Principal handed me a sheet of paper.
"On it was written: Santa, I have Rudolph. If you ever want to see him again, bring two bags full of unmarked Legos to the corner of King and George Street's at midnight on the 23rd of December. No police. No elves. Deliver the goods at midnight or I'll be eating venison through the New Year. Sincerely, Joseph Wilson."
Leonard burst out laughing and Hermione finally opened her eyes, watching his mirth with a smile. "Fuck, that really is your kid."
She shook her head. "Oh no, that's pure Slade Wilson. Right down to the unflinching eye contact. I couldn't stop laughing after I'd finished the note and that just seemed to upset his teacher more. I told them that he had completed the assignment and hadn't broken any rules, so there was no reason for any of us to be there right then. And that was when his teacher decided to declare that there must be something wrong with him mentally to write such a disgusting letter."
He smirked in anticipation. "And I'm sure you responded to that calmly and gracefully."
"I told her that the letter demonstrated my son's creativity, but I could understand her confusion considering the fact that she's so unimaginative that she couldn't come up with a better writing exercise for a class of sixth years than to write a letter to an imaginary character that is the figurehead for a holiday that several of her students probably didn't even celebrate. And then I asked if she'd considered the fact that some of her students may not participate in Christian celebrations before handing out the assignment or was she too stupid to remember that. Joey and I were both sent home that day. Luckily for us, Slade got back before Adeline did and, when the school asked him to attend a meeting, he expressed similar sentiments to mine but with an added level of frustration that they were bothering him when I'd already been 'dragged to the school for the same fucking thing'."
That had been the first time that Slade had publicly demonstrated that she was as much a parent to Joey as he was.
Leonard was quiet for a long moment, his hand having drifted up to carefully comb through her curls with his fingers. "What happened after you helped Slade escape from Lian Yu?" he finally asked.
She'd known the question was coming, she just hadn't expected it to be from Leonard. It was one she wasn't ready to answer.
"I'd already found a house with two separate apartments. Slade stayed in one while Joey and I stayed in the other. There was an adjustment period that lasted a few weeks, during which Slade underwent several tests to ensure the Mirakuru was fully out of his system and that he was sane again. We also took the time to iron out a few issues then. Afterwards, Slade was allowed to see Joey again. It was another few months before they were fully comfortable around one another again, after which we moved again to a single apartment in another country."
She didn't tell him about the biting accusations they'd hurled at each other.
She didn't tell him about the times she'd screamed herself hoarse and left Slade in tears as she'd stormed out of the house and the times he'd done the same.
She didn't tell him about perfecting seeming fine in front of Joey so he'd never know just how deeply cut she was on the inside.
She didn't tell him about the strained silences where Slade watched her with pain-filled eyes and she pretended not to see because acknowledging his regret would have led down a path towards forgiveness and she'd stopped giving that gift long ago.
She didn't tell him about all the times she'd hurt Slade and never cared because he broke them first by leaving even though he left because she couldn't promise to stay.
Hermione didn't tell him, because she never wanted Leonard to know just how cruel she could be to the people who loved her.
"You all lived together?" Leonard questioned, voice judgement-free.
"I figured it would be better to stay close. Joey and Slade left to go on a camping trip together right before Rip appeared and I went back to London to complete a few smaller heists that I hadn't finished yet."
"So, they don't know that you're gone?"
She hated when people asked questions they already knew the answer to. So, instead, Hermione asked, "Does your sister know that you're gone?"
Leonard's hand froze. "No," he answered slowly, brows furrowing. "She doesn't."
Hermione hummed. "Did you even think about telling her before you left? About going to see her?"
Frowning at her, he shook his head, looking uncertain, disturbed. "I didn't think of her at all."
Letting her eyes fall close, Hermione sighed.
"Do you think it's possible that the reason the Time Masters wanted us to visit 2046 was simply to cause tension among the team?" Martin asked, pacing back and forth across the small room they were hiding in.
"If it was, then mission accomplished," Carter responded dryly, leaning back against a wall and crossing his arms.
"But to what end?" Hermione questioned, absentmindedly fingering the charm hanging from her necklace. "Yes, there's been some discomfort at first once everyone learned about Slade- mainly from Sara and Ray- but we're moving past it. And if I'm being honest, that wasn't even the worst way you lot could have found out about that. If the Time Master's wanted you all to find out about Slade and Joey, it would have been more effective to send us back to a time when he and I were still together."
Carter nodded. "It would definitely have pissed off more people- including Leonard. He seems fine with the fact that you and Slade were together but being forced to witness it is way harder than just hearing about it."
Martin glanced at Hermione, seeming uncomfortable. "Would it? I was under the impression that your relationship with Mr. Wilson was more… carnally focused."
"And I was under the impression that we were all adults here, meaning there's no need for any of us to find a polite way of saying things," she sneered, rolling her eyes. First Kendra and now Martin. Honestly.
"There were in a relationship," Carter stated, also sounding annoyed. "Hermione just seems to like pretending otherwise."
She glowered at him. "We were not-"
Holding up a hand, Carter ticked off, "You were together for several years, trusted enough to help raise his son with him and committed enough to continue doing so even after Slade was gone, and you were literally living together- you can call it whatever you want, Hermione, but that right there was a relationship, and a serious one at that."
Hermione wrinkled her nose. "Regardless, the point still stands; if the goal was to have the team find out about Slade, then sending the team to 2046 wasn't the most effective way of doing so."
Martin hummed, resuming his pacing. "Then perhaps the fallout caused by your past dalliance with Mr. Wilson isn't the tension the Time Masters were concerned with; Mr. Snart and Mr. Rory seem to be having some issues."
"You think that something's going to happen there to impact this team, and our search for Savage?" Carter asked.
Biting the inside of her lip, Hermione considered the possibility. "I suppose there's a chance that Mick could cause issues, but I find it highly unlikely. After all, it wouldn't be hard for almost every other member of this team to take out Mick if they had to. He's not weak, but compared to the rest of us, he's not even close to being a threat."
"Depends on how you look at things," Carter countered. "Sure, he's not as strong or as smart as you or I, but he's also not dumb and this ship is full of heroes. It'd be easy enough to take out Rip and Ray- in or out of the suit, he'd hesitate to fight against Mick- and I think Sara sympathizes with him to a point right now. He'd just have to keep Martin and Jax separated and taking out one would let him overwhelm the other."
"Which still leaves you, Kendra, Leonard, and I," Hermione finished. "Kendra's still in training so he might be able to get the upper hand depending on how he went about it, and I know Leonard does feel slightly guilty for how he went about things in 2046 so he might hesitate to give fighting Mick his all, but the only way he's beating you or I is if he attacks us first. And even then, he'd only be able to take down one of us."
Carter grimaced. "Unless he attacked us at the same time."
"If he's only using his gun then it still won't be enough."
"I was only speculating," Martin interjected, eyes wide with horror.
Hermione blinked at him in confusion. "As were we."
"You were planning out how Mr. Rory might go about betraying us," the scientist responded, still shocked. "Is that what the two of you regularly do? Discuss how your teammates could take you out?"
Carter and Hermione shared a look. "Not all the time," Carter finally answered. "But, if we think it's a possibility, then it's better to have a plan than to not, isn't it?"
Martin clearly didn't agree. "Don't you trust us at all?"
"I trust some of you?" Hermione offered. When the older man continued to frown, she threw her hands into the air. "It's not like all of you trust me right now! Sara and Ray are both upset about Slade, Mick is ignoring me because of Leonard, and Rip is wary that I'm going to start making good on my threats."
"Surely you can understand why they might all feel a bit… hesitant," Martin responded.
Carter folded his arms across his chest. "Why is it shocking that Hermione wouldn't fully trust the rest of the team but it's fine that they don't trust her? Can't have it both ways, Stein- that's not how it works."
After a moment, Martin sighed. "You're right. My apologies, Miss Granger."
Hermione gave him a sharp nod but kept quiet. She understood why Martin would be uncomfortable with what surely seemed like a cavalier attitude towards their teammates, but it was becoming increasingly clear to her that Martin had a lens of privilege he viewed every situation through and she wasn't sure how to get him to take it off.
Mick was clearly avoiding her and Hermione had had enough. She managed to corner him the kitchen and shoved him into a chair. "You and I need to talk."
"About what?" he growled.
"I know things between you and Leonard are tense right now." She held up a hand to stop him from interrupting when he made a noise of disagreement. "I don't care. I am not Leonard. I did not betray you. What Leonard did was wrong, but I am not Leonard."
He blinked at her. "You not going to defend him?"
Hermione rolled her eyes. "Of course not. He knocked you unconscious so he wouldn't have to argue with you. I would be angry if I were in your shoes. Of course, I'm not going to lie and say that I wouldn't have done the same if I was having similar issues with my partner. But I can say that if I had been the one there arguing with you about staying in 2046, I would have left you there."
Mick's brows furrowed as he considered that. "Didn't you say that that timeline was going to be erased so everyone there would have disappeared?"
"Yes," she nodded.
"Which means I would have disappeared."
"Correct." Mick seemed unsure about whether or not he should find that offensive and Hermione shrugged. "You're not my partner. If you want to kill yourself, be my guest."
After thinking about that for a long moment, Mick finally chuckled. "No wonder Snart likes you- you're a stone-cold bitch."
Hermione shrugged. "I try. And now that we've established that, are we fine now? You'll stop avoiding me just because Leonard and I are in a relationship."
"Fine," he grunted. "Ain't got a problem with you right now."
"Good. Now that that's out of the way," she leaned forward, "Let's compare notes on most memorable ways of starting fires. We need to do at least one job together that stands out."