For me, there's no better way to end my contributions to Sapphic September than with the ship that for me is at the heart of it all. My dear Cass and Brenda, I've missed them so much.

Batman and related characters © DC Comics
story © RenaRoo

In Autumn

The address that Barbara found was in the middle of Gotham.

Cassandra looked around in disbelief once she arrived there on her motorcycle, a bit bewildered. Her heart was already pounding and her attention was all over the place, but mostly she just couldn't overcome the numbness that she felt.

Like nothing was real, like the research that Babs had done in silence had been something impossible. Because it was, because Cass had long ago decided to accept things were left the way they were.

She must have patrolled those very streets in Gotham a thousand times since she had decided that everyone she had known and loved in Blüdhaven were dead. She must have passed by those very buildings dozens, maybe hundreds, of times, never taking the time to parse out the words written on their windows. Never reading what was in front of her.

The leaves were falling from the trees in the park across the street, pushing against Cass along with the wind. Nipping at her, trying to force her to correct course.

They wanted her to go immediately into the building, to just drop everything and finally do it.

But she wasn't ready. She still didn't feel real, didn't feel like the moment was capable of existing.

So she parked her bike near a meter, took her time figuring out the right amount of change needed, looking nervously toward the address written on her palm and to the window's writing a few times. Disbelief was still gripping her firmly.

Then, at last, she was pushed by the falling leaves and harsh winds of Gotham another time.

Kickstand down, Cass left the security of her motorcycle. Left the sureness of her acceptance and grief, and stepped into the small coffee shop.

A bell rang when she did so, and a woman with spiky red hair and covered in tattoos and piercings was washing down the counter, calling out for Cass to give her just a second.

Cass couldn't move, she couldn't even breathe as she stood opposite of the counter and looked at the barista with a pounding heart.

"What do you want to…order…?" the woman asked before finally looking up over her glasses. Her voice cut off, her eyes widened.

There was a small pot, a pathetic little thing, really, sitting by the cash register. It only had a single flower in it. It was very out of place in what was otherwise a modern and pristine coffee shop.

But it was also all that Cassandra needed to make things real.

"Brenda," Cass managed to get out through blubbering tears. She weakly walked forward.

"Oh my god, it's you!" Brenda cried out, literally jumping over her counters, something Cass had never seen her do before, and raced toward Cass. "Oh my god it's you, I thought — oh my god, I thought — Cass!"

Nothing mattered more than the immediate hug they both ran into, the way Cass could smell coffee grinds and cream on Brenda, the way Brenda kept moving her hands up and down Cass' head and back, as if trying to assess if she was corporeal.

It suddenly became real and it was overwhelming.

Brenda did not die in Blüdhaven. She was alive. She was there. She was there for Cass to protect and never leave unprotected again.