jla_watchtower | For the sake of the children... (cont.)

Current Location: Moscone Convention Center, San Francisco

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For the sake of the children... (cont.)

The auction is heating up. Some of the items have fetched handsome prices from anonymous bidders via cellphone proxies or the organization's website. The next item due on the auction block is a limited-run Flamebird figure (Bette might recognize it - she got a box of them for her birthday earlier this year).

But this is San Francisco, and it's almost Christmas, and when the Titans are around, something is almost guaranteed to go wrong.

And it does; quickly, suddenly, and loudly, in the form of a huge Santa sleigh, replete with animatronic reindeer, crashing through an adjoining wall from the set of a movie being filmed just outside.

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Beth's eyes widen. "Really? What else does he teach you?"

"How to be brave," she admits. "Spent a lot of time being scared of what I could do until I met him."

Fauna puts her hand on the girl's. "Maybe you can answer something for me. I've learned a lot about what it means to put on this kind of costume, risking my life for others, helping out when things go crazy."

She looks at the T-shirt before continuing. "But I don't know why little girls and boys look up to folks like the Titans so much. Maybe you can tell me?"

Beth pulls at her t-shirt, looking at the smiling face of Beast Boy. "'Cause you're brave, an' you help people, an' you do good things like this." She looks up, puzzled. "Isn't that what heroes are?"

"There are brave and good people everywhere, Beth," She says with a smile. She then points to the girl's chest. "And some heroes are harder to spot than others. The one looking back at you from a mirror? Why, that's the hardest one of all to see."

Beth shakes her head, looking older than her actual age. "I'm not a hero. I just haven't died yet. Lotsa people haven't done that either."

Mrs. Campbell bites her lip and turns away, pressing her hand to her mouth.

"You're not just an illness, Beth. You're a person, and one person can do a lot of good in the world. It's people like you and the folks you see all around here that help us do what we do."

"Really? How come?"

The activist hat and the hero hat are surprisingly similar.

"It's easier to give up or be selfish if you aren't tied to those around you. If someone loses touch with the community and the people in it, they lose touch with reality and don't understand why it's important. Talking to you and your brother...it puts faces and names on those we help. Keeps us from getting too big for ourselves and thinking we're better than others."

Beth mulls this over. "Promise you'll remember me?" she says eventually.

"Always, Beth. Cross m'heart." Fauna crosses her heart for good measure.

Of course, she won't forget this little girl - not any more than she would forget baby River.

The little girl smiles at Fauna, then she looks over Fauna's shoulder. "Joey!"

"Hey," says her brother. He displays a Beast Boy action figure. "Lookit what Flamebird and I found."

Beth cheers. "You got it back!"

In that moment, in her eyes, her brother is her hero.

"Right on, Joseph!" She says proudly. "Good job! You're a hero!"

Joseph looks uncomfortable at the word, but manages a smile for his sister.

Before she forgets, she asks. "'Fore the aution starts, you want me to pass along a message to Beast Boy from his biggest fan?"

Joseph looks startled, then pokes an equally stunned Beth gently in the shoulder. "G'wan. Say something."

"Um." She fidgets in her wheelchair. "Tell him ... tell him I think he's really cool?"

"I'll be sure to tell him. He always loves hearing how cool he is."

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For the sake of the children... (cont.)

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