Profession

Flowering

All this was going to have to wait for the new year, though. December was a whirl of parties: the Wayne and Stark ones, as usual, but also the Valkyrie one, the first time that I had some pride of belonging in. There was also the one at Jon and my house, and smaller get-togethers with the vigi-friends at the Iceberg Lounge, drinks with other friends. There was Christmas out at the manor; it was like before Deri's wedding, lots of family, dinner in the ballroom, and the pleasure of a new generation. Not just Deri's girls, but Miles had his new daughter and other cousins were starting to spawn too. And Carolyn had confided in me after work one day that she was tired of trying to find a lasting fit with a guy and was just going to go Deri's route and use an artificial uterus. With a carefully selected sperm donor.

"I'm at a good place in my career, and I do want a kid when I'm young enough to enjoy it," she said pragmatically. "And Mom and Dad are dying to get their hands on a grandbaby. My brothers are screwing around and not looking to get serious, they're all about their work." She'd fiddled with her drink. "I feel like I have a lot to offer, and I'm not meeting a guy I can see myself with, long term. I see you and Deri, and you're both happy with your choices. I guess I just want to feel connected in this whole parade of generations we see around us." I'd nodded; most people wanted kids, and my cousin was right. She did have a lot to offer a kid, and that branch of the family was superbly creative and connected to each other. The kid would have a rich life.

"Well, I'm always available as an object lesson on how to relate to the norms," I said, poking her and grinning. "When do you pop the pup in?"

"After the holidays, and oh my god," she said, rolling her eyes. "Your biggest blindness is that you think you're normal, Lys. You're good at so many things you do, a real Renaissance woman."

"I'm good at a lot of things, but my strength is that I'm above normal but not brilliant. I feel like I'm a good bridge between you geniuses and the rest of the world," I defended myself.

"Yeah, you keep thinking that," she said. "I'm not going to argue with you, your humility is a rare and beautiful gem in this family. So will you be the kid's godmother?"

So that was an awesome holiday treat.

We also hosted a new year's holiday party for our friends; Wally and Linda came in along the vigi-friends, the lawyers, Arielle, her roommate and a few of her friends, Eleanor and her date, the Pennyworth offspring, and some of Jon's more casual friends. We hadn't seen Wally and Linda for far too long, and Arielle, thrilled still with her penthouse and college, was throwing herself into her new life as an independent woman. This was how it should be, Jon and I agreed, but we missed her.

I was chatting with Imogen and Jinx and Arch; Jinx and my cousin were low-key chuffed to hear that we'd gotten the approval of a Batman for the work we'd done, and Arch sulked a bit when he heard the group nickname. "We were ready to defend you guys if you got caught," he reminded us. "Our superpowers are our absolute mastery of the law, our captivating courtroom presence, and our creativity. We deserve a nickname too."

Jinx snorted. "The League of Lawyers." Arch gave him a withering look.

"Defenders of the Damned," Imogen tried. This time it was Jinx with the side eye.

"We're not damned, though, over dramatic much?" he pointed out.

"I can't think of anything," I said, taking the safe way out. "I'll think about it, though." Arch accepted that. Lawyers. So competitive.

I went out to the cave on new years with Grandpa Bruce and, surprisingly, Grandpa Xander, and we spent a day poking around the computer, improving functionality in some places and security in a few areas. It was both gratifying and fun to impact the bats.