Guy Gardner was in serious danger of getting introspective when a football thankfully smacked into his head. Guy rubbed his head in annoyance and picked up the pig skin.

"Hey mister!" A young, rather obnoxious voice shouted. "Are you gonna look at that all day or throw it back to us?"

Guy grinned at the kid before throwing the ball back to him. He supposed he should reprimand the brat, teach him a lesson about respecting his elders or something like a goody-two-shoes police officer, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Playing football with his buddies, giving lip to people that annoyed him, and generally being a pain in the ass...It reminded Guy way too much of himself to make him angry.

Anyway, it was time he got back on task. It was an important one, that was for sure. Now, don't get him wrong. Guy was not wimp. He'd charge right into a fight with any super-criminal or wanna-be world conqueror without a second's hesitation. Sinestro, Mongol, Cyborg-Superman, heck, even the Anti-Monitor himself were never enough to make him hesitate. This, though, had him as close as he ever came to being unsure. After all, it had been a while since he had visited his mother.

Guy once again took the opportunity to beat himself up about having neglected his mom for so long. He was the only family she had left. His father had died from his alcoholism years before and his brother...well...that was something neither of them wanted to dwell on. It was shameful to have left her alone for so long, but he had fully committed himself to the life of a superhero. Being inducted into the Green Lantern Honor Guard had certainly not simplified things. In fact, Guy had actually moved to the Lantern homeworld of Oa just to make performing his duties more convenient. It was hard making the trek of endless light-years just to visit his home. Excuses, excuses, Guy thought. Since when do you run from your responsibility? You done wrong, now get to making it right.

Now did she like roses, or lilacs best? Guy asked himself as he examined the rows upon rows of flowers. Roses, lilacs, lilies...how the heck is a guy supposed to keep this all straight? At least he had it better than Hal. Hal Jordan, fellow Green Lantern and regular corpsman of Space Sector 2814, must have a whole spreadsheet to keep track of all the women in his life and the flowers that each of them liked. Thankfully Guy had managed to avoid that type of complication in his life; having things fall apart with his old flame Ice had been enough to turn him off romance in general for a while.

Guy sighed and finally decided on red roses. Hey, might as well go with the classics, right? He had just finished paying and had left the shop when he heard a loud bang! come from the local bank, followed by the sound of an alarm. Guy grinned, excited at the chance to do some good old-fashioned crime fighting. He rushed across the street, his ring shooting sparks as his will couldn't wait to be unleashed.

"Damnit, Joey, you said you cut the alarm!" The bank robber in a bright orange ski mask shouted.

"I did!" his buddy, wearing a neon blue bandana over the bottom of his face, fired back.

"Whattaya mean, 'I did'? Ya tellin' me I'm hearing things?!"

"I'm tellin' you to stop whining and help me get the score before—"

"Oh you guys are just pathetic!"

The would-be thieves stopped arguing and turned to look at the figure in the doorway. "I mean, look at you! No tech, no powers, no costumes—heck, you don't have any kind of theme going for you! I bet you guys don't even have a name for your little gang here, do ya? Well?"

The bank robbers just stared at him.

"Hmph. Pathetic. This is such a such a step down from Sinestro it ain't even funny."

The robbers, having finally gotten over their shock, rushed to use the cheap weapons they had scraped together for their botched heist

"Ah well, a job's a job right?" Guy said before burying all of the bad guys beneath a mob of glowing, green Quarterback constructs made by his ring.

It was only after he had handed the whole groaning, bruised bunch of them off to the local cops that Guy realized he had dropped the roses back when he first heard the alarm.

Guy went back, bought some more flowers, and was in front of his mother's place within ten minutes.

No more messing around, no more procrastinating. I get this done, today.

Guy walked up to the door. He raised his hand to knock. He paused. He lowered his hand. He paced back and forth. He raised his hand again. He lowered it again. He began to pace back and forth.

RRRRGH! ENOUGH! I am a member of the Corps. I am a Green Lantern. I have never let fear beat me before, and I'll be damned if I'm gonna start today!

Guy boldly and courageously went to the door and knocked three times.

He waited. And waited.

The door open and Guy Gardner timidly offered the flowers. "Hi Mom. Long time no see."