A/N... Fourth chapter is up! Next chapter has Julia and Roy together finally. By the way, I do not intend on turning Julia into a helpless character, but she is going to be more "princess on a white horse" than "hardcore, butt-kicking heroine". She's a normal girl who falls in love with a superhero. And can anyone review? I am probably not going to have much time to respond to reviews, but it would be nice to know what you guys think.

Marcella Banzarano bit her lip as she put the last strand of hair in place. She was still biting her lip when she backed away from her friend and surveyed her work. Marcella was about to pronounce herself satisfied with the result, but she still had an expression of absorption which Julia took to mean that Marcella was not pleased with the effect. Julia, who was already under pressure of not wanting to be late, scowled up at Marcella.

"Marcy, if you have ruined my hair, I am going to kill you." she promised.

Marcella blinked, then laughed. "Don't worry; I was just making sure everything was in place."

"You were frowning." Julia pointed out, not convinced.

"Concentration, darling. All art requires it."

Julia was too nervous to roll her eyes. "My hair is not an art object! What have you done to it? I don't know why you wouldn't let me watch while you did it."

Marcella did roll her eyes. "Because you would have pointed out every thing wrong, and then I would definitely have messed it up. Turn." she added in a commanding tone.

Julia took a deep breath that did not help at all, and carefully scooted around on the vanity stool so she was facing the mirror. "Oh!" she gasped.

Marcella had done a very good job arranging Julia's dark blond hair. Most of it was down around her shoulders, but Marcella had taken Julia's hair at the top of her head and braided it into an almost Celtic look. There were a few loose strands here and there that had a slight wave to them so that they seemed to be in perfect symmetry with her oval face. Marcella had also taken the liberty of doing Julia's makeup and surprisingly, had done it very tastefully, so the first thing people noticed about her would be her sapphire-colored eyes; not eyeliner in excess.

Marcella was rather well known for her intense fondness for eyeliner and mascara.

"I love it!!" squealed Julia, leaping up to crush her friend in a hug.

"Oomph! You're welcome, but careful how fast you move around!" Marcella admonished her.

"I will, I will, oh, I'm going to be late!" cried Julia in horror as she looked at the clock.

"Relax, late is fashionable." Marcella attempted to sooth her.

"No, it's not." came Julia's muffled voice from her closet where she was digging out her shoes. "And anyway," she added, resurfacing, "My dress is not all that, so it wouldn't be a very dramatic entrance." She checked her hair in the mirror, worried that her dive into the closet had mussed it.

"Not very dramatic." agreed Marcella "But if you wanted to make an impression, all you have to do is forget to strap a shoe on properly."

"What?" Julia asked warily.

"I mean, if it's not on properly, then sometime during the evening, you'll trip and fall…"

"No, no, and no." Julia said calmly, turning away from her friend who had obviously lost her mind.

"… right into Roy's arms." finished Marcella, looking smug.

Julia whirled around. "As tempting as that idea may be, I am not orchestrating any plans to fall into anyone's arms tonight."

"Oh, come on, you know you want to." Marcella grinned. "I'm serious here!"

"Yes, I know. That's what scares me. And scares half of your dates away too, I'll bet!"

Marcella raised an eyebrow with a threatening expression. "Watch it, girl. I brought that hair of yours into being and I can take it out!"

"Kidding, kidding!" Julia backed away, curling her arms protectively over her head.

"When are you supposed to leave again? Or is he picking you up?"

Julia shook her head. "He's not picking me up; a friend of his is, any minute now, at eight o'clock."

Marcella narrowed her eyes. "I thought it was some kind of rule that the guy comes to pick up his own date."

"Don't look so fierce, Marcy. There's a perfectly good reason why he can't pick me up himself."

"Well, I'd love to hear it." Marcella said testily, crossing her arms.

"He has monitor duty."

"He has what duty?"

"Monitor." explained Julia. "You know, at JLA headquarters. It was his turn to check satellite feeds and keep an eye on things, and his rounds intersected with the time he was supposed to pick me up."

Marcella seemed appeased. "Fine. So who is this friend of his? He a superhero too?"

"No idea. Roy only said that he trusts the man with his life. Which, I suppose, could be construed to mean that his friend is a superhero, or vigilante, or whatnot."

"Ooh, the suspense. What if he's better-looking than Roy?"

Julia glared at her friend. "Hairstyle or no, Marcella, you can be sooo shallow sometimes."

"Yeah, I know." Marcella said languidly "Sorry, I was just kidding… But what if he is?"

Julia raised her eyes to the ceiling as if asking for patience. "Marcella," she said, "Stop. If he is, more power to him -metaphorically speaking- and you can have him."

Marcella grinned. "Cool."

"And by "him" I mean Roy's friend, Marcy. Not Roy." Julia added sternly.

"I know, I know. Hey, there's the doorbell."

Julia looked panicked. Marcella shook her slightly. "Relax, girl. It's not the man himself."

"Right."

Julia calmed herself down and went to open the door. When she did, the first thought that came to her mind was, Marcella's definitely going to want this one.

The man that stood in the doorway wasn't that tall; probably 5'10" or 11". But he seemed to radiate a sense of tallness, as if he was used to being an authority figure. His eyes were a startling shade of blue and seemed to take in everything with a glance. The thick, black hair falling into said eyes didn't appear to bother him, leading one to assume that he was used to it not going where it was supposed to. Yet despite the hair, or perhaps, because of it, he was absolutely gorgeous. And looked perfectly at ease. Of course, he would probably look perfect wherever he was. He was perfect.

"You look like a Greek god. Roy may have competition."

Julia, who was not precisely sure how long she had been gaping at him, and who had been about to ask if he was, in fact, Roy's friend, started in surprise. The Greek god looked over her shoulder at the source of the voice, an almost rueful smile on his face. Julia turned around to give Marcella a look that told her to be quiet, and then turned back to the man.

"You're the friend then?" Marcella said, the minute Julia turned her back on her.

"I am." The man said, still smiling. He turned to Julia. "And you must be Julia Carlyle."

"Yep, that's me." Julia said. Then she remembered her manners. "Sorry, come in, won't you?"

"Sure." He stepped inside, closing the door behind him. "I'm Dick Grayson." he added, putting out his hand. Julia shook it, and so did Marcella, who couldn't take her eyes off him.

"Nice to meet you, um," Julia stopped.

"Everyone calls me Dick." he said easily.

"Nice to meet you, Dick."

"Very nice to meet you, Dick." put in Marcella, still gazing at him. Dick didn't seem to notice. Or maybe he was used to women staring at him like he was Gandhi.

"Marcella, go stare at something else, for Pete's sake." Julia said, half amused, half exasperated. Dick stifled a laugh. So he had noticed. Marcella stuck her tongue out at her friend. She gave Julia a hug, wished her luck on her date, and disappeared into the kitchen, giving Dick a dazzling smile as she went.

"Just a moment, I need to get my coat."

Dick nodded and settled back against the door. While Julia unearthed her coat from the couch, he mentioned, off-handedly, "Roy said he might be a few minutes late. They had some problems with one of the satellites."

Julia shrugged into her coat, asking worriedly, "It didn't explode or anything, did it?"

Dick shook his head as he opened the door for her. "Not this time, thank God. It just wasn't responding. It's one of the older ones anyway; kind of expected to have problems."

"There better not be any problems for Julia." said Marcella, poking her head around the corner. "Or Mr. Harper will hear about it."

Julia gave her friend an affectionate glower as she stepped out of the apartment. Dick inclined his head toward Marcella in slightly amused respect, and shut the door behind them.