#jackley

If there was one thing I wanted to do with my tenure in the Superhero Squad, it would be finding out who killed my wife's mother and why. She had been an amazing woman, the reason we have superheroes in our day and age. If it wasn't for her, Presley's father would have never started the Superhero Squad and we wouldn't be what we are today.

I knew there wasn't a day that doesn't go by that my perfect wife doesn't miss her mother. I promised her when it happened that I would find who did this and take them down. I had only been a police lieutenant at the time, and I knew that my hands were tied because no agency in the U.S. had any leads and they were closing it unsolved.

How does a family get closure when something like that happens. I knew my wife would never get it if I didn't take matters into my own hands. I continued on with the police force, all the while training own my own and with a little help from my superhero alien wife, I became a formidable opponent in martial arts and instead of guns, I adopted a bow and arrow to fight with.

Thanks to my best friend and brother from another mother, not only do I have regular bows and arrows taking down the bad guys, but a array of gadget arrows that do many different things. I have grappling hooks and stun arrows, I have exploding tips with various different chemicals for different desired effects, and so much more. I wasn't your average Robin Hood.

But my wife was definitely my maid Marian. Beautiful and clever. Perfect and all mine. Unlike Robin Hood too, my Marian and I fight side by side. I may not be as powerful as her, but I am pretty skillful and all of the squad as a team is more formidable than any of us on our own.

There wasn't anything I wouldn't do for Tony, that's why when he asked me to be his running mate nearly a year ago, how could I have turned him down? As Governor, I'd been his Lt. Governor and had seemed the likely choice, but I had always thought he'd go with someone... more political.

I guess I had been wrong.

We had both been business men in the beginning. I'd always been his second in command. When he'd told me he was running for governor, I had been certain he'd move on up and I'd stay running the company. He'd obviously had other plans, asking me to come with him. I don't know why I had thought that he would have done anything different when moving on up to the most powerful position in the world. And even though that's what Tony was, I by no means felt like the second most powerful.

Honestly, even with as busy as I was, I felt as though Vice President was the most useless job. Anyone, really, could do this job. Well, anyone in the cabinet. It seemed as though all I really did was anything the president couldn't do. I didn't mind that, but if anyone else was president, I'd tell them to take a long walk off a short pier. As it was, there wasn't anything I wouldn't do for Tony.

At least there was one thing Tony understood more than anyone, and that was my need to go home to my wife every night. We had always agreed that our wives came first, even above each other. Of course, the fact that they were sisters, they knew they both could depend on that from both of us.

Well, my wife still did. I didn't even know how to deal with the fact that Tony's wife, my wife's sister, wasn't his wife or her sister any longer. It made no sense to me, and I really had no idea what to do for Tony regarding it. I was grateful that my wife understood her sister... or brother, and the two of us could be the two of us without Esmeralda's ghost looming like it did with Tony everywhere he went.

At least when I went home, I could go home and be with my wife, and that's exactly what I looked forward to every night. Tonight, I had planned on surprising her with a little something, even if I hadn't discussed it with Tony. No matter where I was, in DC or elsewhere, I still was Vice President and I'd still have duties, but I was going to surprise my wife with a vacation, one we both desperately needed.

I untied my tie after coming inside the house, letting the ends lay flat against my chest. I could see that the light from our bedroom was on when we'd approached the house, but I saw that she was fast asleep in her chair having fallen asleep with what she was reading or working on and I knew that a vacation was exactly what we both needed.