Case Of The Grey Eyes

|Chapter 28|

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Happy Harbor; 20:19 ( 8:19 PM EDT)

Me, Robin, and Superboy were heading down the road to meet up with the rest of the team as they set up with the kids in a school. I was carpooling with Robin on the back of his bike as Superboy 'flew' near us.

On the way there we were just trying to grab kids to take with us and out of harm's way that were left in cars or in the middle of the road so they could wait for their parents in one place.

Me and Rob got to the school first seeing as Superboy was kind of just running and hopping after us picking up kids like a sack of potatoes.

"How's it looking in here?" Robin asks as we walk up to Artemis and Wally trying to take care of the younger kids.

Artemis was incorrectly 'singing' nursery rhymes to a circle of kids around her, while Wally was trying to be 'Mom of The Year' by quickly moving from kid to the next to see if he can calm down the ones that started to cry. Poor guy looked like he was gonna pass out, who could blame him.

"We tried our best to get as many here as possible, but kids still might be missing out there." Wally says as he hands a bottle to the kid next to him to give to an infant after addressing us.

"Superboy should be here soon with some kids, for now we should head back and meet up with Zatanna and the others, they have figured out what happened." Artemis gives Robin a look when he says this before stepping away from the circle of children, who all just go back to singing nursery rhythms to each other the correct way.

"We can't just leave all these kids here in a school gym when it might take us hours or longer to get this resolved. Yeah there are the older kids but none of them can reach anyone if they need to. They are just kids themselves." Artemis reasons.

Robin thought for a moment before he started rummaging through his belt, me, Artemis, and Wally looked on, curious as to what he was looking for in a glorified bottomless pit of equipment.

After a few seconds he pulls out a device before walking to me and grabbing my hand to place it in. It looked like a small earpiece.

"Z, I want you to stay here with them to keep an eye out for when the parents return. If we're gonna need someone here it would be better if it's you to keep us updated if something happens." He states, all the while he turned the earpiece over in my hand and pressed something on it to make a really small light turn on.

I couldn't even focus on what he was doing because I was too busy giving Robin a blank stare before speaking up.

"Why am I being left in a room full of kids! Besides Superboy I am the least capable of watching kids my own age and under." Wally walks over and puts his hand on my shoulder.

"It won't be that bad, just keep them entertained as long as possible till we solve this mess. Then you're free to angrily stare at Rob for the rest of the week."

"Wha-" Wally grabs Artemis and speeds off out of the gym before Robin can even finish his sentence. He gave up on finishing it with a sigh before addressing me again.

"I'm really sorry but we have to make do for now. But! I promise, the moment this is over you can pick what we get to do on the next day off." He didn't give me time to respond either as he slowly backed out of the room during that whole talk before turning and speed walking out the door.

I turn and look back at the kids behind me before debating if I should just bail, but against my better judgment I huff and go find a seat on the bleachers while putting the earpiece on.

'It's fine for now... I'll get them back.'

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I don't know how long it took them to fix things, but I felt such a relief when I saw parents flooding into the gym to look for their children.

I got up from my spot on the floor where I found myself when some kids wanted to sleep huddled together. I just stood off to the side and made sure that every kid found their parents, to be honest it was tough to watch considering how my parents were.

I  wished that things were normal so I could have that connection with them, but the more I got to know the team and experience so much stuff with each of them, I don't want things to be normal anymore. If I had to relive every awful and lonely moment all over again, it would be worth it in my eyes just to meet them again.

'Z how are things over there?' I jumped out of my skin when Kaldur's voice sounded in my ear before I realized it was the earpiece.

"It's great, the parents are back and they're happy that their kids are okay."

'That's good. We are all meeting back at the Cave, Superboy is on his way to you. Thank you for doing this.'

"Not a problem. It- wasn't as bad as I thought it would be." With the conversation over I took out my earpiece and finally let out a sigh of relief, relaxing my body for the first time in hours.

"Excuse me?" A woman's voice approached me and I saw a middle aged woman with her two children.

"Yes? Is something wrong."

'Please tell me you are not missing a child, I think I'm too tired to even offer to help.'

"My kids told me about you and your friends helped take care of them, I just wanted to thank you myself. Everything just became so crazy and parents were coming up with so many different things that could have happened to them." She lightly squeezes the two kids' hands as they hold on to their Mom just as tight.

"It wasn't the best when the only thing running through your mind is only negative thoughts."

I gave her a small smile when it seemed that she was going to go into a rant. It was refreshing, to say the least. You spend so much time around heroes that talk about that part of their lives, it's nice to hear people rant about more 'normal' problems going on. Even now, when everyone is safe and back with their loved ones.

"It's no problem really. I'll tell my friends you said thanks." She gave me one final nod before her and her kids left to mostly go home and settle down.

"You ready to go?" I let out a painful gasp that I would likely feel later and tensed only to relax a bit when I saw Connor. "Sorry, should have gave you a warning."

"You don't need to apologize, I'm just still a bit jumpy. I can't wait to go face-plant on a bed or sofa at this point." Rubbing my face of the tiredness that I felt.

"Then let's head out."

"Please."

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