623. Chapter 623

Kara fiddles with the sound system on the way to Mars.

Of course Kara fiddles with the sound system on the way to Mars.

Because, apparently, some features of the old baby blue convertible stay the same, even when Martian technology is masquerading as old Earth tech.

Some features like J’onn’s CD selection.

Which, currently, is a Britney’s greatest hits collection.

“J’onn,” Kara starts, because she can’t imagine going back to Krypton if it were still in one piece. She can’t imagine what he must be feeling, but she thinks she has a pretty good idea. And if that were her, she’d want someone to distract her.

And besides, she really wants to know.

No.

Needs to know.

“Is this a question about our life-or-death mission?” J’onn asks, his eyes on the nav menu.

“Sort of?” Kara asks, and J’onn sighs.

“What is it, Kara?” he asks, though he thinks he already knows.

“Why… why do you have a Britney Spears CD just… sort of loaded and ready to be played in your space car?”

There’s a long silence, and Kara wonders momentarily if, in preparation for returning to Mars, J’onn is practicing only nonverbal communication.

“I knew I was coming to pick you up, and I… I recall you blasting Britney and Justin music quite loudly from your room as a teenager. I thought, since we’re going off world for a highly dangerous mission, you would appreciate the stress-free selection.”

Kara nods, but her brow is furrowed and her lips are pursed.

“Okay. But even if that were true… and Alex is the one who can pass lie detector tests, J’onn, I’m not sure about you – “

“I trained your sister!”

“We’re getting off topic.”

“Are you sure Detective Sawyer isn’t training you in interrogation?”

“Again, off topic,” she singsongs, but she’s grinning broadly. “Even if that were true, the question still stands as to why you even have a Britney CD in here to begin with.”

J’onn shifts uncomfortably, and Kara waits, because yes, she has been getting trained by Maggie in interrogation techniques.

Apparently patience is important.

And sure enough, at the very moment that the silence stretches so taut that she wants to sing something just to snap the quiet in two, J’onn speaks.

“As I said, you used to blast it from your window as a teenager. I… began exploring the genres of music you and your sister seemed to… appreciate most.”

“So you also had a punk rock phase?”

J’onn gingerly avoids the question.

“I was interested in learning as much as I could about you both, and obviously I couldn’t simply reveal myself and speak to you, so I – “

“Explored our genres of music.”

“Correct.”

“And that… included Oops I Did It Again.”

“It seemed to have resonance with you.”

“And you… after all these years?”

Something like a smile pulls at J’onn’s lips.

“Hit Me Baby One More Time seems a more appropriate anthem to prepare for where we’re going.”

“Are you suggesting a singalong?”

“I’m suggesting that Ms. Spears’s soundtrack is preferably to this interrogation,” he says in a tone he usually reserves for new DEO recruits, but Kara sees right through him.

She grins as she hits play and the ship suddenly fills itself with questionable but delightful 90s pop music, Britney-style.

She grins even more broadly when she notices J’onn’s fingers thrumming in time with the beat on the side of the navigation pad, but she says nothing aloud about it, because this moment with her Martian father and the spirit of Britney Spears as they speed past Phobos and Deimos?

Is one she wants to focus on cherishing forever.