Once the lights went off, the world went cold. Frankie had known this ever since she was a child; it was the reason that her father had always tucked her into bed tightly under so many blankets, and why her mother had always made her bundle up whenever she went out at night. In any other city, things might be different, but Gotham had a way of dropping temperature fast once the sun was gone.
The same could be said for both inside and outside. Frankie pulled her blankets up tighter around herself, trying to cling to whatever warmth there still was. For all the money that her family was paying, could the medical center at least turn on a few heaters?
Things were different in the day. People were always moving and sound was always in the air, from the patter of feet and click of crutches to the roll of wheels. Movement produced heat - that was a fact, one of the many that ran through her brain whenever the moon rose.
Frankie rolled in her bed, moving against the mattress and sheets before sighing and returning to her original position. There was only one spot she could sleep on where the bed didn't feel like a rock.
There was little light in the room, save from what filtered in through the small opening beneath the door and through the slit in the curtains. That itself was fine - moonlight and electric light just weren't the same, and they could do nothing to stop the nightly chill that settled over her bones.
From across the room, Barbara moved in her bed. Frankie bit her lip, half expecting for a green or blue light to fill the room. When none came, her eyes relaxed. Barbara was pretty good as far as roommates went, at least when she wasn't typing away lines of code at one in the morning.
There was a stirring, a movement of shadows, and a creak of wheels. Frankie smiled to herself and moved further across her bed, nearing the wall.
Barbara's skin was warm against Frankie's own, as hot as the fire color of her hair. The two leaned into each other, the faint smell of lilac perfume filling Frankie's nose, the one that Babs should have worn more often in her opinion, filled her nose.
When Frankie finally closed her eyes and the world went dark, the cold did not follow.