March 12th
Gotham City
0645 EST

"You're awake!" Deke said with a surprise. He hadn't expected it to be honest, but the medication in the drip was empty, something he hadn't paid attention to. "Do you want me to get your dad?" He asked with a bit of a pause, not exactly certain that the man was, in fact, her dad.

She shook her head. "No, he'd be fawning all over me," she said, her voice already sounding stronger. She was certainly resilient. "Plus I can surprise him when he comes back later."

Deke gave a gesture halfway between a shrug and a nod to show general agreement, and poured her a cup of water. "Here," he said, tucking a straw into the cup. "You probably want this."

"I do," Babs said, taking some slow sips. Absentmindedly, Deke left the cup hanging in the air in front of her while he sat down to pull his second pair of socks on. Her memory of last night was pretty clear, and one thing had been bugging her, up until Brick had decided to physically vandalize her. "So, who are you?"

Deke gestured and the cup returned to her bedside tray. "Deke Flynn." He said simply, actually about to extend a hand towards her before he realized the absurdity of the gesture. For what it was worth, she cracked a weak smirk at him for his trouble.

"Why are you here?" She asked after a moment of trying to readjust herself into a more comfortable position. "Did you bring me?"

"Yeah," he said, nodding. He opened his mouth to continue, but stopped himself. When he spoke next, it was after a long pause and a deep sigh. "Last night, I was dead set on killing that man. I wanted to do it. I was scared, but when I saw what he was thinking, I couldn't control myself. You talked me out of it. You could have hit me or something, whatever it is you Bat people do, but you didn't."

At this Deke turned to fully look her straight in her blue eyes. "I owe you, big time." He said. "That guy messed you up pretty bad for it too."

"What happened to him?" Barbara asked, still trying to get herself more comfortable. She was still in a fog from the painkillers, but she had the presence of mind to hit the elevation button on her bed. It whirred a moment while she fiddled with the positioning, finally comfortably sitting up.

"I bounced him hard off about eight things in the warehouse before I called 911 on one of their cell phones. I'm pretty sure the cops got it handled after that. Batman and Robin showed up with some guy in black and blue last night too."

"Nightwing," Barbara said. "He's bad for introductions."

She would have said more, but a nurse stepped in. She was immediately shocked to see Batgirl awake, and quickly shooed Deke out while she paged the on call doctor. It didn't take long before there was a small flurry of medical professionals heading into her room. As the son of a nurse, he knew what kind of work they were doing, and with that many, they'd be all over each other, no matter how seasoned they were.

So, it sort of made it the perfect time to get out for a while. He poked his head back into the room quickly, and satisfied all the attention was on Batgirl, he made a come hither gesture towards his coat, which slipped silently across the room and into his waiting hands. With that done, he strolled down the hall, and towards the elevator.

Once inside, he hit the ground floor button and calmly waited, surprised to see nobody getting on or off the elevator car his entire trip to the basement. Wait, that wasn't right. He knew he'd hit the ground floor button, the thing was still lit up on the button board, but the display showed basement level three.

Feeling worried after his retaliation on Brick, Deke brought his defenses to bear, an act he'd only done once before since coming to Gotham. Immediately, a sheet of telekinetic force enveloped his body, the only gap in his armor being his nostrils to allow him to breathe. After that, he pushed his senses out further, hoping to catch a mental glimpse of a potential attacker. Finally, he lifted himself a scant millimeter or so off the ground, and locked himself into place. To any casual observer, he probably just looked tense. One of the upsides to manipulating motion and force with his mind was the invisibility of it all.

Of course, when the doors opened to the parking garage and all he saw was a tall, lanky dark haired young man in American Eagle, and a younger, similarly dark haired teenager in a plain red hoodie, and the only mental sensations he could get out of them were guarded curiosity and unguarded amusement, Deke felt like he'd gotten himself dressed up for nothing.

It was probably the sunglasses that did it though. They both wore them, expensive ones too. They were just enough to cover the eyes, like a domino mask. "We've met, haven't we?" Deke asked as the two other people just stood there.

"We have," The older one said. "Take a walk with us please."

Deke shrugged in agreement, and followed them out into the parking garage. Once they'd strolled well away from the elevators and employees and others catching a cigarette break, they turned to properly address him.

"What are you doing with your life?" The older of the two finally asked, point blank. He didn't have the judgmental tone of the people who ran the shelters, assuming him just another junkie. It sounded closer to a job interview question.

"Mostly, trying to find a job and getting a roof over my head." Deke replied. "I didn't expect the market to be so thin when I got here."

"You want a job?" The civilian dressed Nightwing asked him, with a smirk on his face. "The pay is terrible, but the side benefits are nice."

The guy rolled through town with Batman. He was Justice League. Deke pondered for a moment if the offer was on the up and up, but there was too much evidence to suggest that, yes, it was a legitimate offer.

"Sure, gotta be better than what I've got now." Deke said. He'd pulled his senses back to himself when he saw it was Nightwing and Robin, which meant he was now kicking himself for not having a chance to guess the details of the job. "What is it, actually?" He added, the excitement getting the better of him.

By way of an answer, Nightwing handed Deke a key ring with a single key, a cell phone, and a roll of cash. "You keep Batgirl company during the day. There'll always be somebody not far if there's trouble, and one of us will be around at night. This key is for an apartment here in Gotham, corner of a hundred and fifth and Wiseman, apartment five dee. The money is for food, sundries, and a change of clothes. Play this straight and we'll talk to you later about more."

"She'll figure out why you're there in a day or two," Robin added, his tone remarkably mature. "And she'll probably be mad about it. If she does, just keep nearby but out of the way."

"Oh… okay. Thank you." Deke said, surprised at the money he was handed. Keeping a superhero company for a few days in the hospital didn't seem to warrant the amount of cash he was given, but he was earning it. It was a good feeling for sure. He was going to say something else, but a car screeching around a curve too fast caught his attention. When he turned back, Nightwing and Robin were gone.

"Well, that was cool." Deke said, legitimately amazed by the vanishing act. Nobody was around to see it, but it was probably the first time he'd smiled in over a week. Things were looking up.