"Is it just me, or has a certain acrobat been spending a lot of time with a certain new recruit?" Superboy asked, stepping into the training room.
"Gee, I wonder who you're talking about," Artemis scoffed.
"Robin and Tempus." Conner answered.
"I was being sarcastic."
The others looked around, really not wanting to talk about it. "Gotham is a very dangerous place," Kaldur pointed out. "She seems relatively new. Perhaps she needs extra training. We all have been doing this for several years."
"She beat me at a foot race," Wally retorted. "I seriously doubt any need for training is in her."
"Hi, guys," Robin smiled mischievously. "What's up?"
"Is oh-miss-snarky with you?" Wally asked.
"I'm slightly offended you gave away my title," Artemis pouted.
"I'm sure you'll earn it back," he muttered.
"Jerra's at home," Robin replied. "She has a pretty moderate civilian life."
"She goes to my school, doesn't she?" Artemis suddenly asked. Robin was lucky to be wearing the domino mask, because his glasses would reveal his eyebrows shooting up.
"Yeah, but she's a grade behind you, so I doubt you see her around."
"That explains it." Robin cleared his throat and moved on.
"So, might I repeat myself—Isn't peat a type of moss? Repeat? To replant moss? Terrible word. Anyway. What's up?"
"Well," Miss Martian looked away. "We all love Jerra." She paused when Conner scoffed. "Mostly. We just don't feel like she's making too much effort to be a part of the team."
"Why do you say that?" Robin asked, on the defensive. They all saw the stance change. Miss Martian continued with caution. "It's just—"
"She's been on the team for a month, and we don't even know her name," Artemis offered. "Besides Jerra."
"You don't know my name." The silence was cold, and felt rough on the team that once got along so well together. "And you do know her name. It's Jerralin. She isn't obligated to tell you any more than that." Robin turned on his heel. "Call me if anything comes up."
"Robin!" Kaldur called after his teammate. It was too late.
"Great," Artemis grumbled. "Now he's going to tell her we don't like her."
"Robin wouldn't lie, and Jerra is clever enough to see the tension." Kaldur's eyes bored into the archer. "Perhaps if you think before you attack a friend, we will not have this problem."
Wally looked like he was about to come to Artemis' aid, but Megan proclaimed, "If everyone is going to eat each other alive, I will visit Gotham to try to get to know our new member. Fighting won't help." She floated away. The team shared a look.
"Should we warn her?" Artemis asked.
"Uhm, negative," Wally replied, patting her hand. "Jerra can stop time. I'm sure she can outrun our Martian."
Jerra's hand was stained with blue ink as she scribbled in her Literature composition notebook. She laughed bitterly every few seconds at the sheer irony of the topic. "Write about the lesson on heroes in our society," Jerralin scoffed, imitating a nasally voice. "We don't understand them enough." Her pen tore at the page with fury. "I'll explain it all to you, Professor Nosy, I am a hero. Don't you tell me what heroes are about…" She suddenly jumped, her pen flying from her hand, and glared at the window, where a Martian floated. "Miss M?"
"Greetings, Jerra!" The Martian beamed. "Permission to enter?"
"Uh, granted," Jerra replied, shaking out of the fighting stance. "Anything wrong?"
"Everything is great, Jerra!" Megan grinned. "I wanted to talk to you and get to know you better so you would work with the team even when we're not in life threatening situations!"
Jerra grinned. "That's a noble cause, Megan." The Martian beamed. "By all means, have a seat."
"What were you doing?" Megan asked curiously.
"Homework," Jerra replied.
"What kind?" Megan asked. "I, too, have assignments. I love all my classes. What class is it for?"
"You could say I'm studying irony in literature class." Jerra grinned at her own joke. Megan grinned, too, just because she was happy.
"This is wonderful. You attend the same school as Artemis, yes? Do you have many friends at school?"
She looked around, not really wanting to continue on the topic but knowing her teammate would feel bad if she withheld too much information. "Yeah, I go to the same school as Artemis, and I have a really good friend."
"What is their name?" The Martian was rocking in her criss-cross position. Jerra felt horrible, imagining how little time Megan actually has to act like this. She couldn't just go up to Kaldur and tell him how amazing a skirt looked on a girl, or what cheer routine she learned. Jerralin hated girl talk (Grandpas kind of make any form of girl talk as awkward as saying, "Oh, by the way, I'm going to go and take a shower" and then describing in great detail how you usually take a shower.), but she was willing to try it for a teammate. Still, Jerra found it hard to lie to the girl, but managed.
"His name's…Rick." She smiled. "You wouldn't know him."
"Rick is a very nice name," Megan agreed. "Is he handsome? Is he in your class?"
"One question at a time, Miss M," Jerra laughed loosely. "I can only fangirl so much."
After a very succinct conversation in which Jerra described Richard Grayson while only calling him Rick and basically transforming him into a person she wouldn't ever recognize to the green girl. After Megan was contempt, Jerra figured she'd return the favor. "So, you and Conner, huh?"
Miss Martian blushed. "I like him quite a bit."
"No kidding." A smile played on both their lips. "How long have you two been a thing?"
"Before last new year," Megan admitted. "He is very nice."
"I can tell."
"He doesn't mean to be so cold with you," Megan rushed. "It's just, he doesn't really know how to interact with people just yet."
Jerra smiled sincerely. "I'm sure you'll help him out with that."
Twenty minutes later, a knock came from Jerra's bedroom door. "Oh Nightingale, the caped crusader is here to see you—"
Jerra shrieked and began yelling at her grandfather in Mandarin. Megan did not understand in the slightest.
"Grandpa! Hide him somewhere! I have a team member here who will figure out his secret identity if he walks anywhere near the place!" She yelled frantically, though in tone it sounded more annoyed. She turned to Miss Martian and smiled apologetically. "Friend from school. If he sees you, he'll figure out I'm Tempus, and he's already been snooping too much—"
"I understand," Megan smiled, hugging Jerra tightly. "It was so fun talking with you! I'll make sure he doesn't see me." With that, she disappeared, and Jerra prayed she decided to float out the window and not down the hall. Jerra slumped into her wall and sighed.
"Coast's clear," She called, opening the door to a crack.
"That was an unexpected twist," Robin grinned, appearing immediately. "Hi."
"Hi," Jerra couldn't help but grin. "Nice boots."
Dick looked down. "Oh, ha, I must've forgotten to change…Wait. I'm wearing tennis shoes, Jer—"
His words stopped as she yanked on his collar, pulling him into a kiss.
"Gotcha." She breathed. He grinned.
"The team feels like you're trying to avoid them." Dick said blandly. "Nothing personal, I'm sure. Well, actually, that's exactly why, but."
"I'll be sure to spend a week or something." She sighed. "Doing nothing, fighting crime, missing school, I can dig."
"No one uses the phrase 'I can dig' anymore, Nightingale." He snickered, resting his forehead on hers.
"Yeah, well, no one else falls for the 'You're-wearing-spandex-still' joke except you." She kissed the point of his nose.
"We all have our weaknesses," he murmured. "If mine has to be your pathetic jokes, then so be it."
"Kids!" The old man called from the living room. "If I have to make a PDA rulebook for this house, so be it!"
Jerra snarkily shot something back, along the lines of, "Can it, Grandpa!" He laughed.
"Do you have any homework, school, or other activities planned?" Dick asked.
"Nope."
"Cave? The Boss Guy wants to give you some pretty little gadgets. I'll fight you for them."
"Please," Jerra scoffed. "I don't except gifts."
"Consider these tools, then." Robin looked at her honestly. "Cos your tool belt is downright pathetic." Jerra hummed indignantly and shoved him away, making him grin wryly.
"Fine. Gramps! I'm out being a death-defying vigilante! Don't have a stroke or anything!"
Something just as snarky was replied. "You two have such a heartwarming relationship," Richard noted.
"Eh, sarcasm." Jerra shrugged. "Keeps away the heart-wrenching pain." She smiled at his state of confusion and grabbed his hand, dragging him towards the door. "Tell me Alfred's out there, I really don't want to crash and die."
