Room 512, Wednesday late afternoon/early evening

[heromaniac]

Momoko was on her bed, trying not to cry and staring bleakly at the phone she'd just hung up. And turned off. And set far far away from herself.

She'd told Dinah. She hadn't wanted to! The stupid island had made her! Now Dinah knew about her feelings for Jaime. Dinah, who was still in love with him herself and hurting horribly because of it. Now

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[weldedtomyspine]

A few minutes later there was a knock on the door. After his little... revelation on Monday, Jaime had realized that he really should tell Momoko the truth.

And, for some reason, this seemed the day to do it.

[weldedtomyspine]

"Yeah..." Jaime tried to flash a quick smile, but it came out half-hearted. "See... I've kinda been keeping something secret from you..."

[heromaniac]

"Eh?" Momoko looked puzzled but curious. "A Secret-secret? Or just something we haven't talked about yet?"

[weldedtomyspine]

"Um... a Secret-secret."

Maybe this hadn't been such a good idea, after all. Of course it was way too late to turn back now...

[heromaniac]

Her puzzled look increased about ten-fold.

"Wait, you have Secret-secrets?"

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime's attention shifted to his shoes. My. They were very, very interesting shoes, weren't they?

"Just the one," he said almost too quietly to hear.

[heromaniac]

"Jaime?" She shifted to try to see his face. "It can't be that bad."

She hesitated a moment, then, "Uhm. Would it help if I said I already know? You left the auction site packing slip in the box with the last action figure."

[weldedtomyspine]

That got a bunch of blinking as Jaime tried to figure out what she was talking about. Then he remembered, and shook his head.

"No. It's not that. It's..."

He sighed and reached awkwardly into his pocket to grab something. But then he couldn't seem to make himself pull it back out again.

[heromaniac]

Not the auction-sniping? Now she was totally curious, especially since it was making him act so strangely.

"Hey," she tugged on his sleeve. "You're making me worried. What's wrong?"

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime sighed. Might as well get this over with, huh?

He took a deep breath and pulled his hand out of his pocket. Then he held it out so that she could see what was in it.

A small, black phone with a very distinctive crest on the back of it.

[heromaniac]

Momoko stared at it for a moment before recognizing it and reaching out to take it, not quite sure what was going on.

"Jaime, where did you get this?"

[weldedtomyspine]

"I got it this weekend. From a dead-drop."

He so, so, so wasn't meeting her eyes.

[heromaniac]

Sleek black phone, silver bat logo. She flipped it open, running through the menus, finally opening the contacts...

"Baltimore Emergency Dispatch. Fandom Police Station. Robin."

If she had any doubts, they were gone: Jaime had one of the phones.

"Robin wouldn't have hidden this where just anyone could find it."

[weldedtomyspine]

"No." Jaime's agreement was soft. "He told me where to find it."

[heromaniac]

Momoko tossed the phone back in his lap and stood to get some space to think, wrapping her arms around her middle. "So you're... Which one? Which one are you?"

He was one of the Heroes.

[weldedtomyspine]

Jaime took a deep breath and did something he'd never done inside the dorms before.

He armored up.

The armored plates slid out from under his skin and linked together with soft clicking sounds. They were almost inaudible, in fact. But even if they'd been louder they wouldn't have hidden Jaime's drawn-out hiss of pain. Or his grimace.

Then he was the Blue Beetle.

He waited.