"Bam! Bam!" Jensen giggles as he shoots his gun.

He hits me right in the stomach with a Nerf dart. I pretend to be in pain and fall down to my knees.

"Oh, no. You got me." I drop to my stomach. Faking a cough, I say in a hoarse voice, "Come closer." He does with his Nerf gun still in a ready-to-fire position. "I have to tell you something."

"What?" he asks.

I whisper, "I have a partner."

Jensen cocks his head to the side like a puppy. "Huh?"

Suddenly, Dinah pops up from behind the couch and shoots five or six darts, all hitting Jensen in the back.

"Aunt Dinah!" he squeals. I toss my own Nerf gun aside and pounce on Jensen, tickling him ferociously. "No, no, no, stop," he giggles. I kiss him all over his face. "Stop!"

Dinah fires off a few more darts, hitting both me and Jensen.

"Now that's cheating," I chuckle. Then the doorbell rings. To Jensen I suggest, "Why don't you and Aunt Dinah go to the kitchen and get a snack?"

Jensen nods and takes Dinah by the hand and leads her to the kitchen. I get and straighten myself up. A wonderful surprise is waiting behind the clock tower's front door.

"Tim!" I throw myself into his arms. When I pull away I ask, "What are you doing here?"

Tim shrugs, "The Titans are able to survive a little while without me."

I smile. Tim has really grown since a discarded the Robin persona two years ago. Though he's now Red Robin and leader of the Teen Titans, I still can't believe he's not the baby-faced kid who's been my best friend though all my ordeals.

"How have you been?" I ask.

"Things have been good," Tim says. "Well, up and down. Last week–"

"Uncle Tim!" Jensen comes running into the front hall, chocolate pudding smeared all around his mouth. Dinah comes in after him.

Jensen jumps up into Tim's embrace and I step over to Dinah.

"When I said 'snack,' I meant something healthy, like an apple or celery sticks with peanut butter," I tell her.

"Sorry," she laughs, "I really wanted pudding myself."

"Hey," Tim says to Jensen, "why don't you, your mom, and I go to the zoo today?"

"Yeah!" Jensen yells happily.

Tim looks over at Dinah like he had just realized that she was here. "Of course, you're welcome to come to, Dinah."

Dinah smirks and throws me a look. "That's okay, Tim. I don't want to crowd you and, besides, I already have plans." Dinah locks eyes with me and they seem to be conveying a message, but I can't interpret it.

I tilt my head, asking for an explanation, but Dinah just smirks again and exits the hall.

()*()*()*()*()

"You know, I was trying not to make Jensen spoiled," I complain to Tim, "but you had to buy that backpack." Jensen had begged and pleaded with me to get the backpack, but I had told him that I didn't have the money for it.

That was a lie, of course. Bruce had given me a trust fund so I had more than enough money. I just don't like to spend the money on non-essentials. I only buy things like the backpack on special occasions. But as soon as I turned my back, Tim bought Jensen what he wanted. I should have expected it. I swear up and down that Jensen has charming abilities that only I am immune to. It must be a mom thing that goes away once you hit grandmother level.

Jensen runs ahead of us on the trail up to the golden monkeys' cage.

"Not too far ahead of us, honey!" I yell after him. He only slows down a tad, his brand new backpack in the shape of a bat's face bobs up and down.

"Still protective of him, huh?" Tim points out.

I bite my bottom lip. "He was kidnapped when he was a few weeks old. Can you blame me?"

"I guess not," Tim shrugs.

When we make our way over to the nocturnal area of the rain forest, Tim brings up 'the subject'.

"So, you gonna be living with Dinah much longer?"

I groan, "Jeez, Tim."

"What?" he asks innocently.

"Is this really the place to have this conversation?"

Tim gives me his puppy dog look that somehow still works for his 21-year-old face.

"I have permanently moved in with Dinah," I inform him.

"So the divorce is final?" Tim digs further.

I shake my head. "Legally separated. I keep meaning to file the papers, but Dinah keeps me busy. I think she does it to stall me because we both know that Jason will never file. Dinah, the girl who will always have a glimmer of hope."

"Maybe you two could still work it out," Tim says.

I laugh disgustedly, "Jason doesn't really show any interest in reconciliation." Suddenly, my mind thinks of last night when Jensen had grabbed my hand. I shake the image out of my head. I start gnawing on the inside of my cheek.

I'm walking aimlessly until Tim stops me by placing his hand on mine that is down by my hip.

"Ronnie, what's wrong?" He keeps my gaze.

I flinch. "Tim, I–"

"My mommy is a bat," I hear Jensen tell another kid. "She's the best bat: Redwing. She fights bad guys."

I run over to Jensen. To the other kid's mother, I say, "Kids' imaginations, huh? Tell them that you put bad guys away by being an attorney and they automatically think 'superhero'." The mother smiles and nods and then takes her child away. I bend down to look at Jensen. "Sweetie," I whisper, "do you remember our rule about Mommy's job?"

Jensen nods. "Not to tell anybody. I'm sorry, Mommy. I was excited about the bats."

I pull him into a hug, "It's okay."

Tim joins us, crouching down and placing his hand on Jensen's shoulder.

"I think we've tortured the animals long enough. Why don't we go get some ice cream?"

Jensen bounces up and down in excitement.

I narrow my eyes at Tim. "Spoiler."