"What? You have a partner now? Since when do Green Lanterns get partners? I thought there was one of you guys for every sector or something." Tom Kalmaku snorted in surprise as he took a tool into the innards of the latest fighter jet prototype from R&D.

Hal zipped up his flight suit and grabbed a can of soda from the mini-fridge tucked away in the corner of Tom's workspace. "Well we're not as strong in numbers as we once were, so it's gotten to the point where we get partnered up to make sure we watch each other's backs. There might even be several Lanterns per sector if the Guardians think the candidates are good enough."

"Yeah...like here? Everyone's getting a freaking ring."

"We get handed assignments that take us anywhere in the galaxy, not just our home turf. But I've never really been partnered up with someone like this before... Just got back from a job actually."

Metallic clanks began to sound, signifiers that Tom's mechanical skill was at work. "My best friend is a space cop. I'm a mechanic. And he still waits for me to ask about his day at work like I'm doing something more interesting down here."

"Alright calm down, you asshole." Hal quipped, strolling over to the aircraft. "So we went to this planet called Celdon in her sector."

There was a 'clang' as Tom smashed his head against the plane's fuselage as he attempted to pull free. A second later, he walked around to Hal, rubbing his head. "Wait, wait, wait, wait... 'Her'? Okay come on, give me the lowdown. Is she like a...a gross xenomorph alien or like a Star Trek alien?"

"Well I guess it depends on what kind of Star Trek alien you're talking about." Hal mused, cracking open his can then taking a short sip.

"Okay, okay, uh...an Orion slave girl or a Klingon?"

"I don't know what an Orion slave girl is, Tom."

Tom sighed, tossing his wrench onto the table without any regard for the loud noise it created. "Can't you just...I dunno, use your ring to show me what she looks like?"

"Do you really think what she looks like is more important than our crazy space adventure?"

"Kind of. Well, yeah. Like you'd be any different."

"Touché." Hal moved so that his back faced the open hangar doors so that his body would block the hologram he was about to activate, taking a long swig of soda. The veteran Green Lantern accessed Vell's personnel record and projected her profile scan.

A wisp flashed out of the green device and formed the shape of a humanoid woman roughly the same height as Hal. Colour faded in after a few seconds, but the image constantly glowed green. She wore a sleeveless top that revealed her muscled arms and midriff, and a pair of tight black pants that transitioned seamlessly into her shoes. Her face was vaguely humanoid; she had two black, beady eyes, a mouth shaped vaguely like the number 3 in one of those cute face emoticons, and a subtle bump where a human nose would be. She didn't have any eyebrows. On her head was hair that was just as white as her skin, and was tied into a tight bun.

Tom's eyes widened. "Dude, that's totally like an Orion slave girl. She's totally hot, dude."

"She's annoying. And pretentious. Oh and she may or may not have been that space pirate I told you about last week." Hal said, disabling the holographic projection.

"The one that shot those guys? But I thought the rings kinda chose good people."

"It isn't that simple. You're basically chosen if you have a lot of willpower." Hal said, forgoing the whole explanation that ion power, what GL rings run on, resonates deeply with thought patterns emanated when using will. "It doesn't really matter if you're a nice guy or not."

"Oh right, right. Like that Sinistar guy."

"Sinestro, yeah. So I kind of beat her up when I recognised her."

"Oh. Excellent."

"I was punished by being forced to be her partner. One of our first jobs was to check in on Celdon, and a bunch of prisoners locked us inside their jail which was so technologically advanced that we couldn't blast through the walls with our rings or charge them. So yeah, that was fun."

Tom joked "Why do you even come back here at all if that's the kind of shit you get up to?"

Hal smirked, thinking that the answers were obvious. His family was still here in Coast City. Tom himself, Hal's brother James and his own family. His human life was here. They were the only things that made him feel human, really. "Well for one, my best friend is still here. And if I've learned one thing from dad, it's to always fly American." He said, patting the jet on its landing gear strut.

"Yeah right." Tom said, rolling his eyes. "Are you sure it's not Carol?"

Hal froze for a second, a lapse that his friend definitely noticed.

-----------------

There was a problem with Hal's life at the moment. Every cycle he spent out on the job, he thought about Earth. Every second he walked on Earth, he thought about getting back out there and doing his duty. With the two worlds he had access to, neither felt like home. He was caught in between...much like how he was right now. Hal stood at Carol Ferris' doorstep, bouquet in hand, but his mind was somewhere else.

It wasn't fair on her. He was never here...and when he was, he wasn't one hundred percent. What kind of relationship is that? She didn't ask for this, she didn't find out about his role as a Lantern until they already started dating...and right now, Hal was feeling like he forced her into this sick arrangement where he leaves for months at a time, comes back and expects his job to still be there, his family not to worry, and Carol to be absolutely fine with it. He finally decided what to do. It didn't mean he liked it though...

However, this was a kind of fear he found difficult to overcome. But he found a way, and rang the doorbell.

The seconds that followed felt like hours, but the door finally opened. Carol's eyes were widened and tear-soaked. Her midnight hair bobbed in the light breeze as her mouth dropped open. "Hal...? Y-You're back..." Carol's sombre face was suddenly cracked by a relieved smile.

Jordan curled his lip inward, fighting the urge to let his tears out too. "Carol...we need to talk."

She motioned to hug him and never let go, but he took a step away. Carol's smile faded. "H-Hal...?"

Hal sighed, glancing at the ground. "You were right, Carol. This isn't fair."

Carol's brow tensed, and her lip twitched in confusion.

"You didn't know I was a soldier. You didn't know that me vanishing for three months or six months at a time would be commonplace. And when I do get shore leave, I talk you into giving me my old job back and help me with my bills. I expect you to just accommodate all of that and I never asked if you were okay with it. Do you think that's fair?"

"Don't be stupid! I--"

"Carol." Hal said sternly, instantly silencing her. "What you said before...it was right. I see that look in your eye every time I have to go. It tells me that you're suffering but you're not brave enough to say anything."

Carol's eyes began to pour...but she didn't disagree.

"What I mean is that it's okay. You don't have to say anything. I can't do this to you anymore. I have to let you move on with your life."

She wiped her eyes and replied "Please...it can't just be about me. Where is home, Hal? Is it here or out there?"

Hal swallowed. His eyes thinned and he could feel them beginning to water. His silence said enough to her. Carol's sobbing only grew in volume, and at this point Hal couldn't fight it any longer. Tears rolled down his face. "I'm sorry." He said.

"Me too." Carol answered. "W-We tried, Hal. But with your responsibility, I d-don't think I can fit in your life anymore. And...that should be o-okay. What you're doing...i-it's to help people. It just...doesn't leave a lot of room for your life here." She slowly wiped the tears from her face.

Hal's eyes turned red from the crying, but he kept them pinned on Carol. "I'll...come see you--"

Suddenly, a faint whirl pierced the silence and a green glow shone onto Carol's house. Hal glanced behind him and saw Vell floating there in the night in her newly personalised uniform. The suit itself was similar to an energy construct; the wearer could alter it at will. Previously on their mission to Celdon, Vell wore the standard uniform that Hal still used to this day, but now it was sleeveless and mostly black. The only green parts of the attire were from her breast up to her neck, where the sigil of the Green Lantern Corps sat. Her hands were covered by a pair of short black gloves. Her pale hair was now in a ponytail, with several loose strands hanging over her forehead. "Hi." She said to him.

He glanced back at Carol who slipped back inside and said "Just...spend more time with Jim. G-Goodbye, Hal." before closing the door behind her. Hal closed his eyes and narrowed his lips.

"Are you feeling okay?" Vell asked, scrutinising Hal's strange expression.

Hal shook his head, dropping the flowers onto Carol's doorstep. "I-I'm fine. What are you doing here?"

"I already don't care for this human tendency to blatantly lie about everything. I came here to see this backwater planet of yours." She said neutrally. Vell then glanced around at the quiet suburban area of Coast City.

Hal sighed and began walking away. "Go home, Vell."

With that, Vell zipped in front of Hal and cut him off. She frowned. "I'm not going to put up with your grak, Harold Jordan. If you keep ignoring your feelings, one day they'll make you explode and that makes you a liability. Just be honest with me."

"Why should I?" Hal snapped.

"Because I'm your partner, and in correspondence with article two-hundred and five I can potentially get your corpsmanship revoked if I report you as mentally unfit for duty. It was a clause that was added after you exposed Thaal Sinestro's abuse of his power ring. So I'm going to help you deal with this now."

Hal grimaced, grinding his teeth. Well at least that was proof that Vell was reading her logs and attending training sessions. With a growl, he scratched the back of his head and muttered "Alright...just not here. Follow me."

The human Lantern enabled his uniform and took to the skies with his protégé in tow. He traced a path through the clouds and for a second he forgot about everything that was plaguing his thoughts for so long. After a matter of minutes, the two GLs arrived at the Alps. Hal settled onto the peak of one of the tallest mountains, watching Vell as she did the same.

Her black eyes seemed relaxed as she gazed over the snow-capped peaks below. "This place is nice." She said honestly, as all Bekkorians would seldom lie.

"Vell, why do you care so much about my personal life? On Earth, feelings and stuff are kind of private and...intimate. We just met last week."

"Well on Bekkor, emotions aren't held back."

"You can't expect me to just do it your way. That kind of compromise has to go both ways."

"Fine. You be honest with me, and I'll do something human for you." Vell groaned.

Hal shook his head. "What's the point of all this?"

"I kind of like you. Your skin is a little gross but I think your tenacity is attractive. I want to get to know you better."

Hal fought the urge to freak out and start getting aggressive at her, but checked the thought. What she was doing was normal on her world...and Hal had to respect that. Despite how weird and sudden it would make things. It would be hypocritical of him to defend his human notion of privacy whilst getting offended at her Bekkorian lack thereof. Why not. He thought maybe it could help get his mind off things. "Thanks, I'm flattered."

"It doesn't void all of the horrible parts of your personality though."

Jordan lowered himself onto the snow and sat there as he stared out into the distance. "Being a Lantern is ruining my human life, Vell. I just broke up with the woman I've been chasing for the last five years, my brother thinks I'm a deadbeat, his kid never gets to see me, I'm getting evicted from my apartment, and my best friend wonders why I even come back here."

Vell's blunt but somehow soothing voice promptly answered "I don't understand bits of that...but I think I get it. If it's bothering you that much, you should request to be discharged. The Guardians don't draft people into the Corps."

"That's the thing, Vell. Maybe...in some other reality I would've instantly chosen Carol over the Corps, but right now I feel like this is the one thing I'll ever do that'll actually make a difference. I don't think I wanna quit."

"Maybe this is just me being Bekkorian..." Vell started as she sat down next to Hal. "...but I don't understand how you can be so conflicted about something."

"Your culture sees everything as black or white. On Earth, things are a lot more complicated. Before, I used to think that kind of mental diversity was good... Now though, I wish I could see things as simply as you do."

"Can you...explain to me what it feels like?"

Hal thinned his lips and began running his gloved hand through the snow. "I dunno. Maybe...imagine that you have to make a choice between saving one planet, or saving another. Both are peaceful worlds, have a population of trillions, and there's absolutely no way you could save both. That's kinda how I feel right now."

Vell glanced at the ground, trying to put herself in that scenario. Hal could feel the tension in the air as she imagined. Finally, after twenty seconds of silence, she spoke "That sounds difficult. But...if it's definite that you have to choose one, maybe you shouldn't waste time being sad over what you'll lose but focus on what you can gain."

The human brought his eyes over to Vell, who was examining Earth's unfamiliar landscapes. "What would you do?" Hal asked.

"I've learned so many things in my short time as a Lantern. I met you." She said the last sentence with a strange tone of tenderness that Hal had never picked up in her before. As suddenly as it appeared, it disappeared. Vell continued, in her normal temper, "I grew up thinking everyone should be out for themselves. That's how it was on Bekkor. We were honest and upfront, but that meant everyone was selfish...because who isn't deep down? The Corps exists solely to help people...it was unbelievable to me."

This unfiltered honesty needed a bit of getting used to for Hal. He wasn't really the kind of guy to go pouring his heart out right after he met someone, but Vell just brought it out in him. Because she was stubborn and unrelenting, probably.

"So...you actually believe in the Corps? That quickly?"

"Yeah. It's part of our culture. We don't resist change. We feel it, then embrace it."

Hal's self-control slipped and he addressed the elephant in the room. "Do you regret what you did on that freighter?"

Vell gazed into Hal's eyes, deep in thought. "I don't know. I didn't before, but now I'm not sure."

Hal showed a weak smile. "That's a start..." He lay his hand onto Vell's shoulder with exaggerated softness, so she didn't go off at him for hitting her again. "That's human, I guess. Feeling regret. Close enough."