The Joker was back in Arkham and Batman had saved the little girl and her mother. The father though…

His phone rings and Batman wouldn't answer it at all, except it's Nightwing and it might be an emergency.

"What's the trouble?"

"No, no trouble Bruce. I just called to-"

"I don't want to talk about it," Bruce snaps.

"Okay," Dick agrees easily. "How's Tim doing, I haven't talk to him in a while. His training coming okay?"

It's a painfully obvious sort of manipulation, and Bruce usually expects better from Dick. The built-up stress rolls off of his shoulders anyways.

Shayera can feel all the rage and distrust rolling off the people around her like waves. She deserves it, she knows, deserves every ounce of their hatred and suspicion. It doesn't make the burden any easier to bear though.

Suddenly a rose thrusts into her line of vision. Shayera stops, startled, and turns to meet the eyes of the florist offering it to her.

"For you, free of charge," he says.

"Why?" she asks, glaring slightly.

He smiles back at her lazily, unmoved by her anger. "For knowing you were wrong and having the courage to do something about it."

Skimming the thoughts of the people around him in an attempt to find the serial killer that has been plaguing the city, J'onn is forcibly reminded of the pettiness of humans. He doesn't think he's likely to suffer another break-down like before, but he's finding it harder to remember why he wants to help humans in the first place.

Feelings of pure love wash over him and he looks to see a man tossing his daughter up in the air and catching her. Joy shines from both their eyes as they smile at each other.

Oh, J'onn thinks, that's why.

Superman has been at the site of the earthquake for days, finding and rescuing as many people as possible. As time passes, more of the bodies are dead when he unearths them and each corpse feels like a personal failure.

He touches down with a man that somehow survived being trapped for three days, and suddenly finds himself with an armful of sobbing woman. Between raining kisses down on the man Superman just saved, she spills forth an incoherent babble of reverent thanks.

When Superman finally manages to takes off again, his heart is lighter than since the earthquake happened.

John needs to get some time away, space to figure out this whole Shayera and Vixen thing. Unfortunately, the Guardians have once again turned down his request to be switched with Kyle on Oa.

John's stalking down the street, trying not to let his bad mood show too much, when some of the neighborhood kids call out to him. They want to shoot some hoops with him and John almost says no before changing his mind.

He laughing his way through the second game when he realizes that he doesn't need to go all the way to Oa for space.

It hadn't even been for a half of a second and Wally's probably making a bigger deal out of it than it really is. But the point was when he had tried to reach for the slide at normal speeds, he ended up grabbing it faster than the eye could see.

After work Wally heads for a favorite spot of his, only using mundane means. He reaches the hilltop just in time to see the sunset framed against city. If he ever ends up super-speeding until time freezes, well, then he figures there's no other place he'd rather spend eternity.

"What's wrong dear?"

Wonder Woman breaks her gaze from the ocean to look at the older Asian woman standing next to her. "I'm just thinking about Themyscira, the place where I was born. I miss it terribly at times."

The woman smiles knowingly. "I miss my home country too sometimes. But then I remember that it's here, where I'm surrounded by the people who care about me, where I really belong."

Batman. Superman. Flash. J'onn. John. Shayera. And all the others too.

"Thank you," Wonder Woman replies. "And now if you'll excuse me, I think I'm going to go home."