December 24th.

Not a particularly difficult day for the young woman currently sitting at her desk, strumming her keyboard.

But then again, nothing was ever truly difficult when you have constant information at your fingertips.

Still, she was beginning to become quite bored. Normally there was some sort of grand villainous scheme she would be helping stop on a holiday as major as this, supercriminals and their theatrics you know, but so far no one had much need for Oracle today.

Nevertheless, she still had remained at her post for most of the day, because if there was one thing she knew, it was that eventually someone always needed Oracle.

She decided to check in with Bruce since there wasn't much else she had to do at the moment. He was a pretty paranoid guy, maybe he had some new leads or suspicions or something. Anything to do to keep from being bored out of her mind.

"Anything yet?"

"I think I saw Catwoman, I'll call you if I need anything."

Well that was a whole lot of nothing.

Just as Barbara was getting ready to give up entirely and head for some hot cocoa, she saw that one of her proximity alarms had been tripped.

And it's a level 12 too. Only a handful of people can even get to those. Whoever I'm dealing with could be seriously bad news.

Before she even was aware of someone's presence in the darkly lit room, she was already grabbing her eskrima sticks and preparing to strike.

"Whoa, Babs!" spoke an all-too-familiar voice, "You turn that chair any faster and the wheels'll break off."

Barbara was just as startled as the young vigilante that had not-so-quietly entered her control room.

"Geez, Dick!" Oracle exclaimed with irritation, "Don't do that to me, I thought you were some kind of assassin."

"You kidding?" the young man replied with a slight fold of the arms, "Like any assassin could get in here undetected."

"You weren't undetected." the woman said whilst jerking her thumb toward the still-flashing alarm. "You're getting a bit sloppy, Grayson."

Dick merely shrugged and said, "So sue me. Time in Bludhaven taking its toll, I guess."

"Speaking of which, what does bring you to Gotham?"

"Would you believe I'm here to see you?" the young man spoke with a huge smirk.

"Nice try, Dick. I'm starting to think you're living up to your name."

"Hey!" he gave her a playful shove, "It's true!"

"Oh, really?"

"Yes, really."

Barbara gave him a look that indicated she knew he wasn't being fully truthful.

"Okay, so technically I'm here to see all of you."

That, she could believe. Bruce had sent a blanket invitation to a Christmas Eve dinner to most of his extended family, Dick included. Barbara herself planned to attend later that evening.

"So what made you come over this year?"

Dick looked around somewhat awkwardly.

"Kori did."

Oh, her.

Barbara knew she shouldn't be so bitter, that she should be happy that Dick was in a new relationship, but she just couldn't shake the idiotic feeling of jealousy that welled up inside her whenever that girl's name was mentioned.

"She did, huh?"

"Yeah, she said that I should be spending such a 'joyous occasion' with my family."

"Well that was... thoughtful of her."

"So, I figured I'd spend some time at Bruce's for a few, then head over to Jump City to spend time with the Titans."

"And with your bodacious Tamaranian-princess girlfriend?"

"Hey, she's the reason I stopped by your place first."

"How?"

Dick shifted a bit uncomfortably.

"She wanted me to sort of... clear the air between you and I. I haven't really talked to you much lately."

Barbara wheeled her chair back over to her main console.

"I figured you didn't have much to say."

"Look, Babs," Dick said as he started walking over to her, "I still care about you, you're like a big sister to me and you always will be."

Barbara closed her eyes and remained silent.

"And I didn't break up because of the wheelchair. Honestly, I don't really know why I did. I guess I've just changed a lot since we were together."

Barbara was trying to hold back tears that currently wanted to come falling out. She knew she had to say something, but didn't quite know what to say right then.

"I just thought that I would see if you were okay with the whole thing," Barbara could hear Dick start walking away from her, "But if your not, then I guess I shouldn't stay in Gotham for too long."

"Wait!" she suddenly exclaimed, "I am okay. At least as okay as I can be."

She turned her chair to face him yet again, and was relieved to see that he wasn't as upset as he'd seemed.

"That's great," he said with a smile, "Cause Kori would really like to go out somewhere with you one of these days."

"Really?"

"Yeah, you two could talk and probably share stories about how stupid I am together."

Barbara couldn't help but giggle at that image.

"Or maybe we could debate why it is that you prefer redheads?"

Dick joined in with her laughter that time.

"So I'm still allowed at the party?"

"Yes, you are," she said in an amused tone, "Just don't embarrass yourself, okay?"

"If there's alcohol, no guarantees."

As Dick began to walk out the door, Barbara couldn't help but say, "See you then."

"You too, Babs."

"And don't set off anymore alarms on the way out! Those things are a bitch to reprogram."

Maybe she could take a break. After all, hot cocoa wasn't going to magically make itself.