"Hello?"

"Hey Linda, do you have a minute?"

"Oh hi Piper. Yeah, of course." Linda cradled the phone with her shoulder and made to shut down her

laptop. "I was just taking advantage of the quiet of the house to get some work done. Wally might leave a lot for super hero work, but he comes back frequently enough to check up on me, and every time he does my papers get blown all over the living room. I was thinking I'd do better if I switched from notebooks to my laptop."

"Sounds like a plan. Let me know if you need any help backing all your work up."

"Sure. So why'd you call? Things going okay in Bludhaven?" Linda asked. Piper sounded uncomfortable, like he wanted to avoid a subject and talk about it at length at the same time. She had a sneaking suspicion her husband had done something stupid.

"It's…it's alright…um, so how well do you know Nightwing?"

"Well I know he's one of Wally's oldest friends, and that he's one of the best heroes out there. Why? Did something happen?"

"Have you heard…anything about him being…a manslut?"

"Yep. So you slept with him?" Linda guessed.

"…maybe."

"Hartley! I thought you said you were looking for a real relationship and not just a hook-up! You haven't even been in Bludhaven for a week! I know the man's gorgeous, but still! That's not enough time for a deep and meaningful bond."

"Thanks. I already feel stupid enough on my own you know."

"Sorry."

"Look, it's just…he's very charming and I did feel like we were connecting. We had some good conversations, and he was being flirty and I've been so lonely lately…but hearing about him having this reputation, it's just got me thinking everything over, and now I can't help but wonder if what I'd thought was us connecting was just some calculated throwaway comments to get me into bed."

"Well, Piper, I mean he's really Wally's friend, not mine, but from what I know Nightwing is pretty up front with people about this stuff. If he's looking for a fling, you know it's a fling. If he's looking for a relationship then he gets invested in it."

"Okay…"

"So if you guys were having real conversations then that's a good sign." Linda shoved her laptop aside and stood up, pacing while she talked.

"We were talking about books and being nerds."

"Oh." Damn, that had nothing to do with relationships.

"And we fell into bed after going out clubbing and bar hopping."

"Oh." And that had everything to do with casual sex.

"Yeah." Well at least Piper sounded aware of all that.

"Well hon I don't really know what to make of that. I can kill my husband for you when he gets back, if you'd like." Linda offered. "He'd never see it coming."

"Thanks, but it's okay. I'll just…have to have a really awkward conversation with Nightwing, that's all. Figure out what's going on."

"…are you actually into him then?" She asked, wincing.

"You don't like him." Piper said, not a hint of a question in his tone.

"Like I keep saying, I don't really know him. He's Wally's friend, as opposed to you, who is friends with both of us."

"Thank you for saying so, but you're not changing the subject. Why don't you like him?"

"Look, it's not that I don't like him, I just don't like the idea of him…dating one of my friends. He's Bat-Family. They're all kind of screwed up."

"Duly noted." Piper sighed. "Well I'd better get going. We still don't have much of a lead in this damned case, so I'd best get dressed and get to work. The guys are already out looking for more info."

"The guys?"

"Yeah, Wally showed up this morning and offered to help."

"Oh. Well isn't that interesting. Take care Piper. When you get back to Keystone we can grab a coffee together and bitch about stupid boys, if you want."

"Sounds lovely. Bye Linda."

"Bye."

Hartley exited the bathroom later that afternoon, toweling off his hair and wearing his own clothes again. He definitely didn't need to be reminded of how easily he'd been seduced into bed by a man that was apparently a very charming scoundrel. He scowled, disgusted at himself, and flopped onto the couch in a blessedly empty living room. It didn't stay that way for long, unfortunately.

Nightwing came in through the window, wearing his costume again, while Hartley was brushing out his tangles.

"Hey…were you working on the case?" Hartley asked. He flipped his hair out of his face and noticed that Nightwing was staring at him. He made eye contact for a moment…kind of. He wasn't sure it really counted, since Nightwing's eyes were whited out by that damn mask, but it was still uncomfortable as all hell, so he looked away and pretended like brushing his hair took a lot more concentration than it did.

"There was another murder last night."

"Oh no…was it Katt?" He asked, for some reason sure the flirty young man had gotten himself in trouble. His stomach lurched at the thought. Hartley had convinced himself at some point during the afternoon that he would have been much better off leaving with Katt instead of Nightwing.

"It wasn't Katt, but we did know him. Rupert was found in a dumpster outside a bar with his pointer fingers removed." Nightwing informed him.

"Did he…did he even fit the profile?" Hartley asked, surprised. "He was a little tall, wasn't he?"

"Taller end of the profile, but he fit it." Nightwing frowned, obviously upset with himself. "I suppose this makes Paul a suspect again."

Hartley shook his head. "I think Paul was genuine."

"I thought so too, but we can't discount him being a good actor." Nightwing sat down on the couch and peeled his mask off, a look of self loathing on his face. "This is my fault. I should have noticed Rupert fit the profile and-"

"And what? Have him followed? Slip a tracer onto his back? There was nothing you could have done. You can't protect everyone in this city who has an outside chance of getting hurt. It's ridiculous to even think that's possible."

"Well that is my goal." Nightwing pointed out with a wry smirk. His eyes looked haunted. "I…I saw him days before he was killed. I should have picked something up by now."

"What about the Thorny Dawn Order? It might be a genuine lead." Hartley pressed. Nightwing sighed.

"Actually, I did get some interesting stuff from my digging." He admitted. "Katt's in the Order, and I figured out why he looked so familiar. He flirted with me the first night you got here. Remember? When you went to check your coat?"

"Oh, right." Hartley hadn't noticed. "Hm. He didn't act like he knew you."

"He gave me his number and acted interested, but not like he was with you. And when he was half heartedly trying to pick me up he asked me a fair few questions about my friend at the bar. I'm starting to think his interest in you is a little suspicious, actually."

Hartley swallowed uncomfortably. "Does this mean I should give him a call tonight?"

Nightwing nodded. "Couldn't hurt. You flirt it up with Katt, see if you can steer the conversation towards the Thorny Dawn this time, and meanwhile I'll call up Paul and offer him my sympathies and see what he knows."

"Alright…where's Wally?" Hartley asked. He wasn't sure what that would leave Wally to do for the night, assuming he still wanted to help.

"Oh, he had to head back to Keystone to get chewed out by Linda over something." Nightwing shrugged. "He said not to wait for him." Hartley nodded. "Oh, and Piper…thanks. I…I know I can't save everyone, but…well thanks for trying."

"Not at all. Let's just keep our psychopath from hurting anyone else, shall we?"

Wally found Linda standing in the living room looking out the window, an unreadable expression on her face, and decided he might actually be in trouble. He left again before she noticed him and came back with roses.

"Hey hon-"

"Ah, so you know you're in trouble." She glanced at the flowers, a smirk of doom on her pretty face. Wally's stomach lurched.

"I do sense a good amount of danger, but I'm not really sure what it's for. Can you take pity on me or are you going to make me squirm?" Wally asked, figuring the direct route would serve him best.

"So I got a call from Piper this morning while you and Nightwing were out doing some legwork on your case…by the way, you didn't tell me you were planning on helping them with it." Linda said.

"Yeah, well I mean I wasn't…but um I wanted to see how they were getting along and it, it seemed like a good excuse at the time." Wally mumbled.

Linda folded her arms across her chest. "Your matchmaking made Piper feel like dirt. I think your should talk to him."

"Hey, he called you! Don't you throw me under the bus." Wally distinctly did not like the idea of talking with Piper about his 'feelings', at least not when they were centered on Nightwing.

"I told you it was a bad idea to fix him up with Nightwing, and you did it anyway!" Linda exploded.

"You bet me to do it!" Wally reminded her. "And for the record, Dick really likes him. Hartley's just thrown because I mentioned that Dick's a manslut, so, so I dunno…what's his problem anyway?"

Linda shook her head, surprised at his thickness. Although sometimes she wondered if heterosexual men really couldn't understand this particular kind of shame. "You don't get how being charmed into bed by someone who apparently does that sort of thing to people all the time is a little embarrassing?"

Wally frowned, mostly because he'd been the type to do the charming into bed…until he'd gotten married anyway. Linda had clearly followed his train of thought.

"Silly me, why would that occur to someone who used women the way you did?"

"I'm not supposed to be in trouble! I didn't do anything wrong. Piper's just making a big deal out of nothing. Dick wants to date him, and Dick's a good guy. I did him a favor." He really needed to change the course of the conversation before they were fighting about Magenta again.

Linda looked far from convinced of Nightwing's merits. "If the Bat-slut hurts our friend, you're never seeing a penny of non-joint finances money again. Every cent of spare cash will go to college funds for our future children."

"Love you too honey. I'll drop by again tonight, but I really should be out helping the guys with their murder case." Wally kissed her cheek before racing out the door and back to Bludhaven, desperate to cut that conversation off before it could progress any further.

When he got back to Dick's loft he found a note on the table for him informing him of the plans for the night. He read it back to himself a couple times in case he'd missed something, but no, there were almost no instructions in it.

"Hey Wally, Piper and I each have leads we're working tonight. He's meeting a person of interest at one of the gay bars downtown and I'm tailing a suspect. We're going to meet back here at the end of the night and trade notes. See you later, N." Wally scowled. "Well what the hell am I supposed to do?"

He zipped into the other room and threw on civilian clothes, figuring he might as well cruise around and see if he bumped into one of the jerks so he could ask for better instructions. Since Dick had been slightly less vague about Piper's activities he made an effort to quash his flaring icky sense and went to seek out the location of the nearest gay bar.