Take A Dive [AquagirlxAqualad]

~7~

"I'm ho-" Miguel and Maya either had super speed, x-ray vision, or both, because there was no other way they could know she was coming home so soon.

"Lena! Lena!" Miguel jumped up and down, tugging on her "I <3 SD" t-shirt snagged from her hidden stash down on the beach.

"Lena! We gotta skip naptime!" Maya bragged.

"Oh? And why's that?"

"'Cause we been good!" Miguel told her, "We been helpin' mama with the baby and we been quiet-" Lorena raised an eyebrow at them, even as Danny came running down the stairs.

"Would all of you be a little more quiet? I have to practice, and Sarah's still sleeping! Mom too!"

"Well hello to you too, Danny," Lorena said, swinging the twins up into her arms. 

"Oh, you're back." Danny ran back up the stairs, two at a time. 

Mama came downstairs next. "Hello Lorena," She hugged her oldest tightly.

"What's up with Danny?" Lorena asked.

"He's got a concert tonight, he's just on edge, don't worry." Mama swept into the kitchen with ease. Though she'd just awoken from a nap, her eyes were bright with a smile, and her hair was smooth and brushed to perfection. Lorena wanted to point out the silver hairs, and how beautiful they looked in her mothers dark brown, almost black, hair, almost like a crown, but bit her tongue.

"How's Atlantis?"

"Same as always. Manta attacked, but he got away. There's rumors of a Purist uprising in the lower sections of Poseidonis, but Prince Orm hasn't found any solid leads yet."

"How is Queen Mera and the baby?"

"Healthy so far, she's barely through her first month. I'm just glad she hasn't shown any signs of morning sickness yet,"

Rachel Marquez grinned, "I bet Orin is too."

David Ortiz lazily stumbled into the room, pressing a kiss to his wife's cheek as he rubbed the bridge of his nose beneath his glasses.

"Long night, David?" Lorena was lucky enough to find the last churro in the cookie jar.

"As usual," David yawned, "Rachel made me take a nap so that I wouldn't sleep through Danny's concert again.

Just as David sat down at the table to start quizzing his stepdaughter, the baby upstairs began to wail.

"Don't, I'll get her," Lorena told him. Without waiting for a reply, she took the stairs two at a time and slipped effortlessly into the master bedroom, where the crib was tucked into the corner between the bed and the window, shaking slightly from its sole inhabitant.

"Hey, Ra-ra," Lorena cooed, effortlessly scooping the bundle of yellow blankets into her arms. She held her baby sister to her chest. Sarah liked being held tightly. Mama said it must remind her of the womb, since Lorena and Miguel were the same way. 

Maya, ever the active one, rarely cried as a baby, but she never wanted to be held. She was sitting up, crawling, and walking long before her twin. Danny, on the other hand, reportedly never stopped crying when he was a baby. While Lorena was her mother's firstborn before she was married, Danny was David's son from his first marriage. If Lorena had been told that when she first met Danny that he was a spoiled brat as a baby, she would never have believed it. He was the best little brother she'd ever had, and an even better one to Maya and Miguel. Now, however, ever since they'd hit high school and Lorena's powers had started manifesting, he'd become a total brat, at least to her. She didn't know what he was like when she wasn't home in San Diego, but her mother thought he might be jealous. Danny and Lorena used to do everything together, but now she was a superhero, homeschooled, and gone for weeks at a time.

Lorena couldn't blame him for being jealous, but that was his problem, not hers. She enjoyed being a hero and helping Aquaman and Kaldur. Danny knew that, the whole family knew that. She's worked hard to make this balance with her family and her sudden affinity for water work out, and she wasn't about to mess it up.

Almost immediately, Sarah's crying turned into cooing. Propped up against Lorena's shoulder, she struggled to lift her head and look at herself in the mirror.

"Yeah baby? That's you!" Lorena told her, like it was a big secret.

Sarah cooed happily, and Lorena turned to see Maya and Miguel in the doorway, making faces at their baby sister.

"Hi!" Miguel piped up at being caught.

"Lena, you're gonna come to Danny's concert tonight, right?" Maya asked, bottom lip jutting out in a pout.

"Of course I am! That's why I came home!"

Maya disappeared from the doorway, Miguel soon following. 

"I told you Danny! I told you! I told you she would come!" In another room in the house, the soft flute music abruptly stopped as Danny paused to kick the kids out of his practice room.

"Kids! It's time to get dressed for Danny's concert!" David yelled up the stairs.

"But what about dinner?" Miguel asked, shouting back from the top of the stairs.

"We'll get dinner on the way there, okay?"

"Yay!" the twins squealed.

Sarah hiccuped, and Lorena laughed softly. "Let's get you in your best onsie for your big brother's concert, huh?" She asked, bouncing her up in the air.

Sarah blew a bubble in response.