(Once) Arrowette

Usually, Cissie's afternoons were full of fabric and customers but this particular afternoon was all her own. Janet had begged her to switch shifts with her and seeing how as her co-worker had switched with her a few times, she had no problems returning the favor. It meant no patrolling tonight but that was all right - there were enough vigilantes running around that she was fairly sure that Darrow wouldn't descend to anarchy without her around.

The smart thing to do with her free afternoon would be to stay in her apartment and do all the chores she'd been putting off for the last month. The fun thing to do would be to text Olive about meeting somewhere for some fun shenanigans. There was no contest about which option Cissie went for - friendship beat out vacuuming any day of the week.

Save me from dishes. Want to go and do something?

It had occurred to Cissie that it had been an unacceptably long time since she and Cassie had sat in front of the projector in the rec room and had a good time watching stuff. This couldn't be allowed to stand and so one day, she made a bowl of popcorn (only burning the stuff once) and dragged her best friend with her.

"Okay," she called out as she dug through the bookshelf. "This is very simple, bookshelf. Cassie and I need something fun to watch. Ridiculous is good, dumb is not. You be nice to us and I will stop threatening to shoot you for like a month."

Yes, it was completely and utterly ridiculous to be bargaining with an inanimate object but this was what her life had become, really, and well - there could be worse things. A lot worse things.

She took a breath and reached into the bookcase, pulling out a reel. "Huh," she said as she studied the title. "Once Upon a Time. How's that sound, Cass?"

What with one thing and another, Cissie had completely lost track of time. She'd had a lot of errands to run and she kept seeing people she knew and had to stop and talk for a bit. By the time she'd picked up everything she needed to get, the sun had set and she was a good distance away from her apartment. Other people would have sighed and called a cab - she was determined to suck it up and walk. It was a nice, if cool night out and besides, there were plenty of street lights. What was the worst that could happen?

She soon found out the answer to that question when she passed by an alley and a tall guy in a ridiculous-looking cowboy hat came out of a shadowy alley and stepped in front of her. He had the type of smile she associated with people who thought they were cooler and tougher than they were and she prepared herself for an obnoxious conversation.

"You look real tasty," the guy said with a leer. "Tasty enough to eat."

Cissie rolled her eyes at that. "Seriously? Seriously, that's your line?"

Instead of answering, the guy just grinned. His eyes changed and fangs popped out and Cissie realized she was in all kinds of trouble. If he was anything like Damon, he was going to be fast and strong and there wasn't anything she could do about it.

She throw her bags at him in an attempt to distract him then took off running. Maybe she was screwed but she wasn't going to just roll over and let him eat her. He was going to have to work for it.

Mailbox and email inbox for Cissie King-Jones.

Cissie sometimes wondered what it would have been like to have a normal mother that she could have talked to about normal things but she always tried to shove those kinds of thoughts aside. It wasn't as if wondering could change the way things had been and besides, she thought she'd done pretty well without one in her life. Okay, so Bonnie had done some nice things for her and had pushed her to try out for the games and all but that was as far as it went. She couldn't even begin to imagine trusting her on anything, let alone asking for advice on boyfriends.

Still, she did kind of need someone to talk to - someone older, someone who wasn't Cassie. As much as she loved her best friend, she felt like there were some things she didn't want to know and sexy things done with a teammate was probably right up there. So scratching Cassie off left her with few options, only one of which she felt remotely comfortable going to.

She had heard from somewhere, probably Sam, that Kate worked at the Children's Office so after taking a few deep breaths, she peered around the door and waved shyly. "Hey! You got a minute?"

"Ugh," Cissie groaned as the sun hit her eyes. She flung an arm over her eyes but it did no good. She was awake and wasn't going to fall back to sleep anytime soon so she had might as well get up and get ready to go on her morning run. First, the run then shower and breakfast and then after that? Well, she just was going to see how things went.

She sat up and stretched, wincing a bit as she heard her neck crack. She manuevered her feet out from the warm covers and onto the floor. As she did so, her hand brushed against the hair brush she had on her nightstand and the impact sent the brush flying into the air.

For a moment, Cissie wondered if she was still dreaming or something because the brush was acting really weird. Instead of hitting the ground, it was floating down very slowly. She grabbed it while it was still a good foot from the floor and stared at it suspiciously. It didn't feel weird - it still had the same weight but clearly, there was something wrong.

She eyed one of her ponytail holders then knocked it off. It did the same thing the brush had, falling slowly enough that she could take it back long before it had a chance to hit the ground. Her stomach rumbled as she tried to sort this out and she realized that she wasn't just hungry, she was practically starving.

The slowness, the hunger... the two things came together into a terrible suspicion as to just what was going on here. There was only one way to be sure though, Cissie thought as she stood up, letting the covers fall around her. She really hoped she was wrong but if she wasn't... then there was only one person who could help her.

She slipped on her sandals and quietly slipped out of the hut. Shading her hand against the glare of the sun, she picked out the direction of the Treehouse then took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing," she said then started to run. Very very fast.

The two hour walk to the Treehouse only took five seconds and she was up the stairway and through the door in another second. "Bart! Bart! Oh god, you have got to wake up right this second!"

When Cissie had first signed up for the cardio class, she had figured it would be a breeze. She had been a superhero and an Olympic athlete and up to the point she'd been sucked to the island, she had still been keeping in reasonably good shape. As she'd discovered at the very first class, she had been dead wrong.

Keeping up with the punishing pace James set proved to be a challenge and a half. She took up running with Cassie and Bart. The ballroom dancing class actually turned out to be good with the flexibility and stamina asides from the fun thing. If she thought about it, she was probably in better shape then she had ever been, running solo or on Young Justice.

Right now was a different story. Right now, she was sprawled under the shade of a palm tree near the ocean, stripped down to running shorts and a bathing suit top, discarded hoodie on the sand beside her. Training and conditioning was all very well, noble even, but she was tired and she was going to take a break and enjoy the scenery.