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Amelia Wayne had just turned fifteen when her other father had come back from the dead. Well, from an alien jail, more accurately.
It had been quite unexpected and she hadn't taken the whole thing too well.
When her father had come back from the Watchtower and told her there was someone he wanted her to meet, she had thought it was a bit odd. She knew most of her Dad's friends and he seemed quite tense.
She let her Dad ramble and try to get a look behind him - she had heard someone talking with her Grandpa in the kitchen.
"And it's good to be back." she heard the stranger say.
And right after, he turned his head in her direction and Amelia instinctively moved to her right to get a better look at him.
"... you listening ?" she heard her father said, and she felt the familiar weight of his hands on her shoulders.
She mumbled something close enough to yes as she tried to place the man who had not turned his gaze away from her yet. She frowned but he didn't seem to do it in a rude way.
There was something in his eyes that was familiar.
She thought she must have already seen him with her Dad before she realized why the man seemed familiar and she stopped pretending to listen to Bruce and took a step backwards.
The man had the same face as in the pictures she kept in her room. It was obscured by a short beard and more wrinkles marked it. His face was paler than she remembered from the pictures and his hair had turned a lot more silver.
Amelia sprinted to her room. She had never run that fast - Faye's Dad would have been proud.
She let herself flop into the bed and hid her face into her pillow, letting the sounds of her world fade.
It wasn't enough to not hear the knock at the door. Amelia waited for the second one before she got the door.
“No.” she said, as she saw Hal, before quickly closing the door to his face.
She leaned against the door, her arms crossed, for a moment. She didn't need another Dad now. It was too late, now. Hal just couldn't come back in her life like that.
The framed photograph on her nightstand was raising a provocative eyebrow at her, a malicious smile on its lips. When she couldn't take it anymore, Amelia grabbed it and put it back on the table face down.
She hadn't talked to Bruce when he had checked on her a few minutes after. He had sighed and sat on her bed. When he had started to talk about Hal and told her he would probably stay for a while, she had pretended she had a headache and would rather skip dinner. He had sighed some more, kissed her forehead and left the room.
Amelia had woken up early in the morning, her stomach growling. She hadn't expected to find anyone in the kitchen - her Dad wasn't an early riser and her Grandpa usually didn't start making breakfast before 7 o'clock but Hal was standing there, nursing a cup of coffee. He looked like he hadn't got much sleep.
His vacant eyes lit up when he saw her.
“Miracle. You don’t mind if I call you Miracle, do you ? I used to call you that when you were a baby." Hal started.
"I am fifteen." Amelia said flatly, pouring herself a glass of orange juice.
She wasn't thirsty, she just wanted a pretext to avoid looking at Hal. Her Dad. He was her Dad.
"I know you’re fifteen, and I am sorry for all the years I’ve missed but I am new at being a Dad and I am trying to figure it out. I know you’re angry, and maybe a bit sad and confused. I get that. I just want you to know that I’ve loved you from the start and never stopped. Amelia, I know it must be difficult for you but I really want the chance to get to know you. I've missed you so much."
"Please, stop. I am sorry for yesterday but right now, I can't." Amelia said and she fled to her room once again.
When Hal reported what had happened to Bruce at a later time, the man hummed.
“When I checked on her last night, she was hugging your photograph in her sleep. I wouldn’t worry too much about that, Hal. She needs to adjust, to accept that the idea of you she has and your real self aren’t the same but I can assure you she doesn’t hate you.” he said, squeezing Hal's hand.
“My photograph ?” Hal asked.
“The framed one on her nightstand. It has been in her bedroom since her first year of life.”
Bruce didn’t mention the Lantern plushie usually sitting next to it that had been part of her mobile when she was a baby. Hal looked overwhelmed enough as it was.
“She has a whole album but I think it’s her favorite picture of you.”
"It's a good one ?" Hal asked cheekily even if his smile didn't reach his eyes.
"There are bad ones ?" Bruce asked, shaking his head, and some of the tension vanished as they shared amused smiles.
"Do you think she will like the man more than the photograph at some point ?" Hal asked, and the tension was back
“Hal, if your father had ever come back, do you think he would have lived up to your expectations ? Or do you think you would have needed some time to realize you may have idolized him, making him a better man than anyone could be ?”
Hal knew that, in a more or less abstract way. It made him feel terrible that his daughter couldn't stand the sight of him.
"She didn't even talk to me. Except for telling me she couldn't bear it." he said, head held low.
"It's not easy for her. Barry is going to be there with his eldest in a few minutes. She's Amelia's best friend. I thought seeing her would do her some good."
Bruce didn't say that Barry was one of Hal's closest friends and that seeing him could be good for him but the idea hung in the air.
Soon enough, there had been the sounds of doors closing and opening and joyous cries as two teenagers fell into each other's arms as if they hadn't seen each other for months.
Amelia's friend was there, which meant her father was probably here too.
“Hi, I am Faye !” she said, waving as Amelia tried to drag her to her room and skip Hal entirely. “Amelia’s best friend and occasional moral support team.”
“Shut up.” Amelia groaned as she tried to push the brown-haired girl forward.
She was taller than Faye and looked stronger but the other girl didn't move an inch.
“Dad always tells us things about you ! Oh, could you fly us somewhere someday ?”
“I - haven’t flown for a while. I need some practice, but after that, why not ?”
He didn't even know how he felt about flying. It had been so long.
“Awesome !” Faye had said before finally letting her friend lead her to her bedroom.
Barry had entered the room just as they were leaving it and hugged Hal. Hal had been on the receiving end of a lot of hugs lately. Even Bruce had given it a try when he had seen Hal for the first time in fifteen years.
"Bruce said he needs to check something downstairs but that he should join us soon." Barry revealed. "So, you've met Faye, um ?"
"She's very sweet. You can be proud." Hal nodded.
He meant it. Just like Barry, this girl was sunshine personified.
"Oh, I am." Barry told him, smiling.
"So, you and Jess." Hal said to fill the silence.
Silence hadn't been something to look forward to, all those years.
Barry looked down at his wedding band and smiled softly.
"Me and Jess. And you and Bruce."
"It was a very long time ago." Hal laughed but his eyes were downcast.
"Hal. You don't know what Bruce did for you. When Amelia was still a baby and Bruce was considerate enough to present her to your family, things got bad."
Barry had hesitated to say more.
"What happened ?" Hal asked, with no real desire to find out.
"Your Mom wanted to ask for Amelia's custody."
"She didn't ?"
It was even worse than Hal had thought. How could his mother even think about doing that ?
"She did. Your brother Jim ended up dissuading her to do it."
"Hell. So I suppose Bruce doesn't get along well with her ?" Hal sighed.
He wished things were different but he couldn't blame Bruce here.
"Oh, he doesn't. But you'll find out that your Mom is always invited to Amelia's birthdays and that she gets to see her Grandma quite often." Barry said.
"Why would Bruce do that ?" Hal said, frowning.
"Well, if Jess' Mom had tried to take my daughter from me at any point of her life, or worse, just after Jess died, I wouldn't be just as forgiving. I wouldn't allow her to see Faye. I asked Bruce about it and he said that she's family, your family, and that Amelia may need that connection. That she's related to you and that it was the important thing to keep in mind there."
Barry stopped there and Hal refrained from ditching his friend to look for Bruce and ask him to marry him.
"Honestly, I don't know what to say." Hal said, closing his eyes.
Bruce could still make him speechless after all these years.
"That's a lot to process. Ah, there's something else you should know about Faye. Her full name is Faye Jordan Allen."
“You named her after me.” Hal said slowly.
He was quite moved by the gesture. He promised himself to make up for lost time and spend time with Barry's kids. And Oliver's. Oliver had kids, according to Bruce. Hal had found it hilarious.
“We found out Jess was pregnant about four months after you left. We had made our relationship official two months before. We had talked about having children in a vague future but we didn’t have immediate plans for a baby." Barry recalled.
"Jess and I had to give it some thought but we decided to have it. When we started talking about girl names, we considered Halley. We both liked the name and the comet’s reference. The fact that it was close to your name didn’t hurt. We didn't know you weren't going to come back, then. Not for many years, anyway."
“And then ?” Hal asked, a bit afraid to ask.
“Then you didn’t come back. We had that ceremony. Bruce had to take over and finish my speech because I just couldn’t. Jess and I found out we were having a girl. We had a few more conversations about Halley but Jess didn’t want a first name that had become so heavy to wear for our daughter. I am glad we picked Faye and used your name as a middle name instead.”
“You really have a thing for comets.” Hal said because he just couldn't react to the rest of the story.
“It’s her vigilante name. Comet.” Barry said softly.
“What about Amelia ? She's a vigilante too ?" Hal asked.
He was dreading the answer. He knew it was likely, he just wasn't certain it was what he wanted for his daughter.
“At first, Bruce didn't want her to be. But she sneaked out once and found herself in quite a mess. She fell from a roof and almost broke her neck. Thankfully, she only broke her right ankle and sprained her wrist. Cass found her unconscious during her patrol and brought her back to the manor. After that, Bruce chose to train her properly himself. And then she was trained by Oliver, so she's quite brilliant with a bow and arrows." Barry told him.
"Wait, she's an archer ?" Hal asked, surprised, just as Bruce entered the room.
"I used to read Robin Hood's stories to her when she was little. She's always loved them. Terri and her used to hold archery competitions in the gardens." Bruce explained, making coffee.
"Terri ?" Hal asked.
"Dinah and Oliver's eldest. Faye, Amelia and her had always stuck together." Barry said.
"At first, Amelia only trained for fun but when she got tired of being a Robin, she asked me if she could be an archer in the field. I told her she could if she trained with Oliver for some time first. She did. So, yes, she's an archer and Oliver is unbelievably smug about it."
"I can imagine." Hal said, smiling. "For how long he and Dinah are going to be on their undercover mission ?"
"One more week, I think." Bruce had said, holding a cup of coffee out to Hal.
Their hands brushed against each other and Hal blushed. Literally blushed, like a primary school kid.
"Thanks." he muttered as Bruce threw him a confused look before handing another cup to Barry.
"I am going to check on the girls." Hal said, leaving the kitchen for the living-room.
He stood there awkwardly before Faye gestured for him to come over.
"Come sit down with us, Hal." Faye said, patting the chair next to her as Amelia threw her a dirty glare.
“So, I was asking you if Chris and Bella would be coming today ?”
"Dick's eldest kids." Amelia answered Hal's silent question. "No. And forget about him, he's not interested in middle schoolers. " she said a bit harshly to her friend.
“You're just jealous that he likes me better." Faye accused in a singsong voice.
“Yeah, it has nothing to do with the fact that you’re fourteen and that it would be creepy as hell if he was as enamored with you as you are with him. Besides, I am like his aunt or something. ” Amelia muttered.
“Come on, it’s not that much of a gap. Like, don’t your parents have some age difference ?”
Hal felt a strange sensation at the word “parents”. He had been one for fifteen years but it had been a long time since anyone had called him that.
“I was way older than fourteen when Bruce and I met.” Hal pointed out. "And Bruce's only two years older than me."
“You haven’t met Chris. He’s so dreamy !” Faye sighed.
Amelia groaned.
“Look at what you’ve done. She’s going to gush about him for the next two hours.”
Her friend rolled her eyes at her as only teenage experts could.
“Yeah, maybe we should talk about your crushes instead. You never say anything about them. So, spill !” Faye had said, nudging her.
“No, thanks.” Amelia had told her abruptly.
Faye had lightly complained that she was no fun and spent a lot of time chatting about boys from her school afterwards. Barry had taken her home after dinner.
"I know how you feel. It'll get better with time." Hal told Amelia when he had seen her looking at her lockscreen once again.
It was a lovely picture of Faye laughing at something in a park. Or maybe in the Manor's gardens ? She looked a lot like Jessica on it.
“Have you ever had your heart broken ?” his daughter asked, doubtful.
“Actually, yes. By your Dad. We were in a relationship about fifteen years before your birth but it just didn’t work out.” Hal told her.
She looked at him curiously and a bit defiantly. She didn't know if she could trust him. Hal's heart broke a little bit.
“How was it Dad’s fault ?” the teenager asked.
She had Bruce's intense gaze. His eyes, but also their focus. Hal felt like he was getting an X-ray.
“He did the breaking up part as I was working up the nerve to ask him to make our relationship more official.”
“Ouch.” Amelia said sympathetically.
“As you say. Sometimes people break your heart. It doesn’t mean it can’t be mended.” Hal told her, squeezing her shoulder.
"It's late, sweetheart. You should go to bed." Bruce said and Hal almost jumped.
Amelia yawned.
"If you want to talk about it in the morning, we can." Hal told her before she left the living room.
“I didn’t know that.” Bruce said after saying goodnight to Amelia.
Hal had forgotten about Bruce's presence in the room when he had told the story of their break-up to their daughter. He wasn't sure how to feel about it.
“Now you do.” Hal said, shrugging. “It was like thirty years ago, it doesn’t matter.” he said, shrugging.
“For the record, you did break my heart too.” he said.
“You’re the one who chose to leave.” Hal protested.
He distinctly remembered it, even all these years after. It had stung. He had wanted more from their relationship, Bruce was the one who had ended it.
“Not when she was born.” Bruce said.
“I would have loved to stay to try and figure out how to be a Dad and what was happening between us, you have to know that."
Bruce nodded. He knew Hal would have come back earlier if he could have. He shouldn't have implied otherwise.
“We could still give it a try.” he said after some consideration.
“Should we ?” Hal asked but he already knew the answer.
“Probably not. We’ll mess things up.” Bruce said.
A second later, they were kissing furiously.
They had been apart for fifteen years. Hal doubted anything could keep them apart now.
“For how long has our kid been having a crush on her best friend ?” Hal asked later as they were laying next to each other, half-asleep.
“Four months, give or take. But those two have always been pretty close. They’ll figure it out.” Bruce said, resting his head on Hal's chest.
“You’re not worried about it ?” Hal asked, an arm wrapped around Bruce.
“Most people survive their tenth grade unrequited crush and Faye is a sweet girl, she would not hold it against Amelia if she found out.” Bruce had said, and with that reassurance, Hal had fallen asleep.
In the morning, Amelia didn't knock before she bursted into her father's bedroom. Nobody had answered when she had knocked on the door of the bedroom Hal was staying in. The bed was still made as if nobody had slept in them.
Amelia had never felt so much terror in her chest before. What if - what if her Dad had left again ? She had to find her father.
“Dad, he’s gone, I can’t find -” she started babbling.
“Amelia, don't -" she heard her father say but she had already pushed the door open.
She let a strangled noise escape her when she noticed that her father wasn't alone. Even worse, he was with Hal - her Dad - and they weren't wearing shirts. Amelia tried very hard not to think about what else they weren't wearing.
Hal was asleep and it was probably for the best because Amelia felt embarrassed enough as it was.
“We’ve already had that conversation about knocking before entering, haven’t we ?” Bruce asked tiredly in a low tone. "As you can see, your Dad is fine." he said, running his hand through Hal's hair.
Hal mumbled something in his sleep.
God, was it a hickey at the base of her Dad's neck ? The ceiling. The ceiling was a safe place to look at.
"Okay. I'll knock next time." she said in a small voice before fleeing from the room.
After that, Amelia had done her best to avoid her parents for the rest of the day. She stayed mostly silent for lunch, barely eating anything.
Bruce had tried to talk to her after that but his daughter hadn't seemed receptive to anything he had said.
Amelia only started to feel better when Bruce told her that the Allens would come over in the afternoon and stay for dinner. He had kissed her head before leaving her room, as he used to do when she was younger.
Some things didn't change, apparently.
It was nice to see Faye again so quickly - they sometimes spent weeks without seeing each other and video calls weren't the same.
They had been sitting cross-legged on Amelia's bed for a while when Amelia had remembered what had happened in the morning. She could only hope that her Dad hadn't told Hal about it.
“You’re so cute when your nose scrunches up like that.” Faye said, laughing.
Amelia shook her head, distractedly.
“What’s on your mind ?” her best friend asked.
“Hal was in Dad’s bedroom this morning.” Amelia answered truthfully.
She could never keep anything from Faye. The girl could make someone who took a vow of silence spill all their secrets.
“O-kay. And you’re freaking out why ?” Faye asked, tilting her head.
“They’re not supposed to - he’s just come back !” Amelia said, throwing her hands in the air.
“Yes, and ?” Faye barely reacted.
Amelia took a deep breath to refrain from shaking her by the shoulders.
“You don’t get it, do you ? He disappears for fifteen fucking years and he just comes back and we just have to be happy about it ?” Amelia says.
“Apparently, your Dad is." Faye snorted.
“I hate you.” Amelia said, crossing her arms around one of her pillows.
Faye put an arm around her friend's shoulder.
“Hey, you don’t. Has it occured to you that he was probably doing his best ? The poor guy has gone through hell and just came back. Now the whole universe must have changed quite a bit since your birth, he has to reconnect with old friends and his past life and he has an irritated teenage daughter he doesn’t know how to handle. It probably sucks."
Amelia made an unhappy noise and let her head rest on her friend's shoulder.
"So you think he and Dad getting back together is a good thing ?" she said, groaning.
Faye played with her friend's hair. It was straighter than hers, shorter, and a bit lighter, almost the shade of Hal's brown hair, even if Amelia wasn't streaked with gray.
"If I've been left alone with only aliens for company for like fifteen years, I would feel lonely. Not to mention that Bruce hasn't dated anyone for long since Hal has left."
"Ugh ! Now I feel like a terrible person. It's not that I don't want my - my Dad Hal to be happy. Or Dad Bruce. It's just that it sounds so easy for him to just come back and turn our lives upside down like that."
Faye nodded her understanding.
"You should take advantage of the situation." she said slowly, letting go of her friend's hair.
"What do you mean ?" Amelia asked, turning toward her.
"He's not going to be able to refuse you anything for years." Faye told her.
"So you're telling me that now is a good time to ask for a pony ?" Amelia said, arching an eyebrow at her.
Faye rolled her eyes at her.
"Two ponies, you think ?" Amelia said in a conspirationnist's tone and Faye punched her shoulder lightly.
"My best friend is an idiot. I was thinking about concert tickets or a pretty necklace. And think about all the places your Dad could fly us !" Faye sighed dreamingly.
It made her friend laugh.
"Oh I see. To say I've thought you had no ulterior motive ! I thought you were a woman of honor, my dear. Oh, my heart is bleeding from such disappointment !" Amelia said, her hands dramatically crossed over the left side of her chest.
Someone knocked at Amelia's bedroom's door two times before Faye could either answer or smother her friend with her own pillow.
"Girls, dinner's ready." Hal's voice went through the door.
"We're coming, Dad !" Amelia said.
It had taken his daughter less than a second to say those words but for the first time in a long time, Hal allowed himself to think it would be okay.