It's About Falling

Prologue: When it Rains

A young woman walks down a Jump City street hurriedly, urging her small daughter to go just a little faster. It is raining, a furious, cold, unrelenting rain. The woman and her child are already soaked to the bone, and the girl is shivering.

"M-Mommy," she whimpers, stopping suddenly.

Her mother, who has gone on a few steps, turns around.

"Oh, Mar'i," she sighs. She stoops down and picks her daughter up, holding her drenched child to her equally drenched body. "It's OK, Mar'i, we'll be home soon."

The woman's heeled sandals click softly against the wet pavement.

"See, baby, girl, home is right around the corner," the mother says soothingly.

Mar'i smiles up at her mother, deep blue eyes twinkling. "Mommy, can I have grilled cheese?"

"Yes you may have grilled cheese for your supper. But first you're going to dry off properly and put on your pajamas. The ones with the frogs are clean," her mother orders.

They stand in front of their apartment building now. The woman rushes inside, leaving a trail of rainwater behind her. Her sandals clack noisily against the stone steps leading to her apartment.

She sets Mar'i down in front of Apartment 3B. The woman digs through her purse, searching for her house keys. Triumphantly, the young woman holds up a key ring, hanging from which are a number of dull-gold colored keys. She fits one into the lock of the door. It swings open easily.

"Mommy is so sorry she couldn't afford a taxi, angel," the woman murmurs. "But Mommy's boss Miss Evans says the president of a really big modeling agency saw Mommy last week and he wants to sign me. Then Mommy will be able to afford a car, sweetheart."

"Mommy will be famous," Mar'i giggles confidently.

"I don't need to be famous," the woman says, seizing her daughter's hand and bringing Mar'i to her room. "All I need is to get by so I can take care of you." She tickles Mar'i's tummy.

Mar'i giggles hysterically and throws herself onto her "big girl" bed.

Her mother returns Mar'i's smile and crosses the tiny bedroom to the child's dresser. She pulls open a drawer and takes out a pair of pajamas patterned with frogs.

"Mar'i, take off those wet clothes and out these on," her mother commands.

She leaves her child's room and goes to her own. She tugs on a pair of loose-fitting pajama bottoms that had belonged to Mar'i's father and an old T-shirt. The young woman twists up her drenched locks and puts a clip in.

She returns to the girl's room. Mar'i has donned her pajamas and is dancing around her room, singing a song she's made up.

"I'm going to make your dinner now," she tells Mar'i.

Her mother bites her lip and pads barefoot into the minute kitchen.

Watching the sandwiches with a hawk-like eye, the woman allows her thoughts to drift to him. Hehad taught her to make the sandwiches of grilled cheese back when they were teenagers. He was the one the woman dreamed about, after those sandwiches and rooftop discussions. How she missed him. How hard she had fallen for him.

"Mommy?" Mar'i calls, shuffling into the kitchen. "Dinner?"

"Just a minute, Mar'i," the woman responds patiently. "There you are." She slides a perfect golden-brown sandwich onto a plastic plate adorned with kittens.

"Thank you, Mama," Mar'i whispers.

"You are very welcome," the woman says primly. She puts another perfect sandwich onto her own plate. She takes a carton of icy-cold milk from the small refrigerator and pours two glasses. She sinks down into the spindly kitchen chair and instantly feels better. Her feet ache from her long day at the local modeling agency and her long walk in the rain. And Mar'i, her sweet little girl, complained only once, at the end of their journey.

The woman sighs, and Mar'i's face falls.

"Me bad girl?" she asks, worrying her mother's weary expression is her fault.

"No, Mar'i," her mother assures her. "Mommy is just tired."

Mar'i climbs off her chair and walks to her mother, holding out her tiny arms to their fullest extent.

The woman hoists her daughter onto her lap and squeezes Mar'i's fragile form to her body.

"I don't know what I'd do if you were a bad girl," she murmurs. "I'd be sunk."

"Mar'i loves her mommy," Mar'i says. "Bedtime story?"

"I promise." Her mother manages a grin. "Go watch TV."

Mar'i hops down and runs to the apartment's tiny living room.

Her mother sighs again and stares at her now-cold sandwich. "Mar'i is such a good child," she whispers. "She needs her Daddy though."

'You did the right thing,'her thoughts reprimand her. 'You know that a baby would be the last thing Richard needed to worry about.'

"It was for the best," she says aloud firmly. "Mar'i, it's bedtime."

Mar'i allows her thick mane of ebony hair to be brushed out and braided. She is hoping that if she is a good girl her mommy will tell her about the daddy she's never known.

"All done," her mother announces gently, leaning down and kissing the top of her daughter's head. "What story do you want to hear?"

"How did you meet my daddy?" Mar'i demands.

The woman bites her lip. "Well, you know Mommy is from another planet. I was fifteen when I met your daddy," she begins.

Mar'i twists to look at her mother.

"I was to be given to a Citadel as a…prize. But I escaped from those who bound me. Your father broke the handcuffs that made me prisoner. He and some other teenagers, who became our very best friends, helped me to freedom. I was able to live here on earth, with Daddy."

"What happened? Why doesn't Daddy live with us?" Mar'i's feature's form a scowl.

"Daddy was my best friend," her mother explains. "And as our friends began getting married and into serious relationships, Daddy and I were finally able to tell each other how we really felt."

"OK. But why doesn't he ever come and see me?"

"Baby girl," her mother utters softly. "He doesn't know."

"What?" Mar'i gasps. Her sapphire eyes glisten with tears that threaten to spill onto her rosy cheeks.

"It didn't work between us, Mar'i. So, knowing I was pregnant, I left one evening. I haven't seen or heard from him since."

Mar'i's round face, still chubby with baby fat, crumples.

"I-wanna-go-sleep," she wails. "Nigh-nigh."

Her mother quickly plants another kiss on the top of her head. "I didn't mean to make you sad."

She leaves the bedroom, shutting the door behind her. The three-year-old is still hysterical.

'I can't do anything about it now.'

Sighing, she goes to her own bedroom. She climbs into bed, exhausted. And Kori Anders shuts her weary eyes.

TT

Richard Grayson storms into his apartment. "They can't let Van Horn out on bail," he mutters to himself. "It took me three months to catch him."

The twenty-four-year-old collapses onto his worn-out couch. He fiddles absentmindedly with a hole in the leather.

Turning onto his stomach, he gazes longingly at the picture on the coffee table.

The sun is shining down on Jump City's favorite heroes. They are holding each other close, dancing at Raven and Beast Boy's wedding.

"Why'd you leave me, Kori?" he wonders out loud.

He misses her so much it hurts to breathe.

Richard rolls off his couch and fixes a bowl of cereal.

'What'd I do wrong?' he wonders. 'I love her and she knows that. I wish I could find her again.'

He dumps his empty bowl in the sink. Richard shuffles into his bedroom and changes into a pair of baggy blue pajama bottoms. He sets his alarm clock for midnight (he has to patrol, after all) and scratches his bare chest. He yawns loudly and decides to get some sleep before he leaves to patrol. His last thoughts are of Kori.