#but courtney grew up in california that girl knows Wild Fire Safety

[hedgiwithapen]

DHD fluff: stargirl kids & the bonfire scene from power rangers where the kids are bonding

(set after 1x07) Rick’s the only one with a bottle in his hand, but he’s not drinking from it. The light from the bonfire--only lit after all the dead brush was cleared back well over ten feet, at Courtney's insistence-- burns in their eyes, glinting on the bottle, Beth's glasses, Rick's hourglass, Yolanda's medallion. It's high now, but there's no one for miles.

"We're a team now," Beth says, breaking the contemplative silence that followed the last of the marshmallows. "I mean... we were. but now we really are."

Courtney looks again at her bandaged hands, and nods. "I'm sorry I wasn't there to help," she says.

Rick looks at her over the fire. "Well. We had Pat."

"And you did help," Beth puts in. "You were distracting Cindy. Even if you didn't know it."

"Right," Courtney agrees quietly. She looks at the staff, leaning against the bucket of sand  to her left. "And then I was stupid and tried to fight her on my own. Again."

"Hey," Rick says, suddenly standing. "You weren't stupid. That's what I would have done. What I wanted to do. She came after you. We all should have gone after her."

"Rick," Beth says softly, almost lost over the crackle of the fire.  He shakes his head a little, dismissive. But not of her, of himself. 

"Instead she almost killed you again."

"But now we know more of what we're up against," Yolanda says. "Henry's like his father. And Cindy's like hers. Legacies." Her fingers twist her St. George pendant.

Courtney shudders a little at the thought. "We have to stop them. Somehow."

"And we will," Yolanda says. " We're in this now. No going back. No matter how dangerous it gets."

"I wouldn't want to," Beth says, and blinks when everyone turns to stare. "What?" she asks.

"Nothing," Yolanda assures her, but the question's still there. Beth shakes her head.

"No, it's not nothing. I--I know I'm not exactly. Hero material.  But I want this, as much as you do.  Ever since I was a kid, I've only ever had my parents.  No friends, no boyfriend, no clubs anyone else ever wanted to be part of. And then suddenly they just stopped talking to me like I was someone they wanted to be around. And--what am I supposed to do about that? They stopped caring and I don't know what I did wrong."

"You didn't do anything wrong," Rick says hotly. " They're just not good--"

"They're good people--" Beth protests. 

"Parents." Rick finishes. "Trust me. I'd know.  Matt was a good uncle. For the first two days. Sucks as a fake dad, sucks as a person now. I hate him, I hate him as much as I hate the thing that took my parents.  But at least he didn't set me up to fail. So he's got that going for him, I guess. He's never acted like he cared. Not once. And I-- I'm cool with that." It's a lie, and the bonfire knows it.  He scuffs his feet in the dirt. "Sorry. You were saying--"

"No," Beth says. "No this is-- it's good. It's team building. and it's good to talk. Really--know each other. You know? The things that bother us... The things we want..." 

Yolanda tosses a stick into the fire, watching it shrivel. "I want my parents to care about me again, too.  I want everything to go back to how it was, but it can't. I can't. And I--is it stupid to say I almost don't regret it? That--at least I know who I can trust?  Who has my back? It's none of the people I thought it was. All those people who threw me away over a mistake. Over someone else's mistake, not just mine." She puts her head on her hands, clasped over her knees. "If I hadn't, I'd never have met you.  No Wildcat. No idea what was really going on. I should want to take it back. I shamed my family, but I...." she clutches the necklace again. "I don't know what to feel about it, I guess."

"How about you, Stargirl?" Rick asks. "What've you got?"

Courtney shook her head. "You know me. I'm an open book," she said quickly, easily. "I want justice for my dad. That's all."

The fire pops and hisses, audible in the silence. Courtney  watches it twist until the smoke makes her eyes burn.