Carter Hall had done countless things in his many, varied, lives. Countless, extraordinary things.

Fighting his way through a shopping mall in the midst of the Christmas holiday to find the perfect gift for Kendra was not one of those things.

In fact, he was fairly certain that he'd never even been inside a shopping mall.

"You could get her a new mace," Ray Palmer suggested helpfully, picking up a pair of slippers formed as dog heads and looking them over. "She'd like that."

"Do you think?" Carter asked with enough hope and desperation to tear Ray's attention away from the barking footwear.

"Um. Don't ask me. Kendra's not exactly my area of expertise. Women aren't exactly my area of expertise," he sighed.

He joined Carter in the main concourse and ambled by the chain stores, harried shoppers thronging around them.

"There!" Carter called, looking over the heads of people, eyes fixed on his prize. He shouldered through the crowd to get to the window display that had caught his eye.

Ray followed him and eyed the exhibit skeptically.

"Picture frames?"

Carter was already on his way inside the store.

"I owe her."

Author's Note: Hawkman recently was at the losing end of a fight inside Kendra's apartment. Besides bloodying her couch and getting an axe embedded in her wall, most of her pictures ended up on the floor, the glass in the frames broken.

Also, thanks to Chicago for help with the end.