Author's Note: Not really much to say here. Which is odd for me.

Disclaimer: It is painfully obvious that I own none of the Batman characters.

lolmak: The first one made me laugh the most! Thanks for the haikus and the review!

jdcocoagirl: Thanks a bunch!

Guest: You are too nice. I'm not entirely satisfied with my sub-plot though. No other YJ characters will appear because I could not do I good job writing them so I won't even try. Thanks!

AvarielArcher: I appreciate it!

Other Guest: That so far has been my biggest flaw. Still working on it. Thanks for reading!

Disclaimer: It is painfully obvious that I own none of the Batman characters.


++++++++Chapter Eight++++++++

It was raining hard the next night when the time for patrol came around. Robin stared glumly out into the night as water ran down his face. For some reason, the rain in Gotham always felt really thick. Batman came up besides him.

"Let's go through the rural areas especially. Look out for anyone from the known gangs. We'll meet back up again at the normal location."

"Can I take the east side again?" Robin tried not to sound eager as he spoke. Batman glanced at him.

"I suppose." There was a question in his voice.

"I'm really trying to work on memorizing the area better." Robin hoped that answer sounded better than it did in his head. Batman gave a swift nod, but said nothing. He silently walked off to take the other half of the city.

Mercifully, the rain finally let up after a few hours. Robin checked out the usually haunts of the various gangs seeing if anyone was out. No one seemed to be. Checking the time, he headed off in the direction of Barbara's apartment. He landed quietly on the ledge outside her window. The light was off. He did a quick scan. One person in the room. Robin smiled. "Good. Not that I expected you to be out." With this knowledge, Robin continued on for the rest of the night. The night turned up to be fruitless. For some reason the criminal world seemed quiet. That was not a particularly good thing. Dick had a hard time going to sleep that night. "When is something going to happen? I hate not knowing what." He rolled over in his bed and finally drifted of.

These thoughts carried over to school the next day. Nothing that any of his teachers said stuck. He sat out in the oak tree waiting for Babs to show up still thinking. "So now who will this 'Sir' guy use to carry out his plans? I wonder if the police have found anything out yet. I wish that . . ."

"Ahh, Dick?" He looked down to see Barbara.

"Hey there! Come on up!" He called. She left her backpack next to his at the base of the tree.

"Uh, it's hot up here." She said fanning herself. He nodded and pulled at his tie.

"So, Dawn told me Mrs. Grant gave the class an extension on your biology test. That's sweet." She said.

"What?" Dick looked confused.

"Mrs. Grant gave you more time to study." She repeated. "For the test that was going to be today." Dick still looked blank.

"Oh! The test, yea. . ." Barbara gave him a look. ". . . yea I completely forgot." He admitted.

"Dick!" She exclaimed.

"I'm sorry. It's wouldn't have been your grade anyway."

"Still, when do you forget stuff like that?"

"Sorry. I had a really hard time getting to sleep last night." He said.

"Really? Me too." She admitted. "That rain was so loud. I hate the times when I have to be out in it."

"Tell me about it" Dick stared up into the tree. He glanced over at her again. She was staring off into space. "I was just glad that you weren't out." He sighed. Hearing this she turned to glance at him. He gave her a smile.

"Please don't smile like that at me Dick. It messes with my head." Barbara turned away. Dick frowned.

"What is going on Babs? Is something wrong? Why won't you just tell me? Don't you think I care?"

They both sat in silence. Both unsure what to say. Barbara played with her hair. Dick broke the silence after a few minuets.

"So ah, what topic did you get for history?" He finally asked.

"The Spanish Armada." She said absentmindedly.

"That should be interesting."

"I guess." She said as she picked a few leaves and let them fall to the ground. Dick couldn't stand this wall that was suddenly between them.

"Hey, maybe we should go bowling tonight or something. You've always said we should go sometime."

"Ah, no I have to work on some stuff and I told my dad that I would go . . . with him to . . . ah . . ."

"You're starting to sound like me Babs." Dick said frowning. "And I have an excuse. I just can't tell you it."

"I realize that, sorry." She answered facing away from him. "I'm going back in. I told Dawn I'd meet her outside the cafeteria. She wanted me to read some of the lyrics that she's written." Without another word, she climbed down the tree leaving Dick blankly staring as she left.

Barbara found Dawn waiting for her. "Sorry, have you been waiting long?" She apologized.

"Nah, not really." Dawn said stopping chewing her gum as she grabbed some pages out of a folder.

"Thanks for giving me your opinion. You are the only person I trust to tell me what you really think."

Barbara smiled.

"So far you've been on a roll." She commented.

"Yea, but I don't really write that fast. Inspiration can come so slowly. It's not like anything interesting happens here." Dawn said. "I mean I'm not going to get anything deep out of daily life at school." She watched Barbara read.

"So were you out in the tree with Dick?" She asked. "I will never understand what you two talk about every day, and why can't you do it on the inside with the rest of us?" Barbara seemed to ignore this. Dawn tried another approach. "Why were you ignoring him days ago? I think you freaked him out." At this Barbara looked up.

"Everyone was just messing with my head and I needed some space okay?" Barbara explained as she looked back down at the pages.

"So everything is back to normal between you two?" Dawn watched Babs face carefully. It gave off a shade of red. "What is up?" Dawn demanded to know. Barbara glared at her.

"It's your fault." She charged.

"What did I do?" Dawn exclaimed. Barbara glanced around at the kids passing.

"Well, it's not your entire fault. Victoria didn't help either." Barbara told her.

"Whoa there. Please do not compare me to her." Dawn said holding her hands up. "What did we do?"

"It's what you said!" Barbara explained further.

"About?" Dawn prodded. Barbara bit her lip and then whispered.

"Dick and I." Dawn raised an eyebrow.

"Barb, I was just teasing." Dawn consoled.

"Were you?" She countered.

"Well . . . maybe not." Dawn admitted. "Look, seriously, don't over think it okay? It's not like he asked you out or anything." Barbara turned redder. Dawn's mouth fell open. "He asked. . ?"

"No! But now any time he says anything, I always put it through some sort of filter and I . . . get all confused." Babs rubbed her head.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to mess things up." Dawn said looking concerned.

"No, it's okay. It's all nonsense and I am putting it all out of my head." Barbara said with certainty. And she did . . . for a while.

Now Dick was completely confused. What was wrong? And why wouldn't she tell him? He seemed in a haze while doing patrol. A few stopped robberies and carjackings, he did everything on auto pilot. That is until the bat signal appeared in the sky.

"Robin." Batman's voice called across the line.

"I see it. I'm coming. Kind of hard to miss there." Robin quickly went to meet up with Batman on the top of the police headquarters.

Commissioner Gordon waited, as usual, in his beaten brown coat. The night was crisp and cool. A slight breeze brought with it an unpleasant smell from the rain last night. He eyed them wearily as they landed.

"You know I should really not be surprised anymore, but I am surprised." He said.

"At what?" Batman began.

"One night an entire gang with their own confession right there and ready to go." Gordon spoke still amazed.

"What did you find out from them?" Batman asked.

"Nothing that you probably don't know. They were going to take some big job from some phantom person on a phone. They really don't know too much. What I want to know is if you know anything else that I should." Gordon asked. Batman said nothing at first.

"We have a voice. A scrambled one for now, but we're working on it." Batman said evenly.

"Yea, us to." The commissioner said. "No location for the call either. It's been pretty quiet lately in the city; I think that scares me more than anything."

"Whoever is masterminding this will try again. He is planning something big, something that will grab the city's attention." Robin spoke up. Gordon walked around the roof.

"Great just great. All this city needs is one more lunatic." He stopped pacing. "So there is nothing else I should know?" Batman and Robin exchanged a look. Gordon sighed. "So I guess we're done here." He turned and walked away. Batman and Robin quickly vanished into the night.

Robin headed back to his route. He paused as he stared down Barbara's street. His mind told him to move on, but he couldn't. Landing on the roof of the brick building, he walked over and glanced down the row of windows. To his surprise, her window was open and her head was sticking out. Her red hair was softly flowing with the breeze. He took a step forward and then stepped back. "Just keep going." He took one last look down, just when she looked up.

"Oh!" She exclaimed up at him.

"Well, to late now." He thought. So he jumped down.

"Wait! Don't do that. Oh, my word, you could fall off." She said as he landed on the ledge. He shot her a grin.

"I'm pretty good at this by now." He mentioned.

"Oh, sorry. She apologized

"What are you doing up?" He asked casually. She ran a hand through her hair.

"Working on this history paper." She rolled her eyes. "I'm just glad it's a Friday night. I just kept on working until I looked up and it was suddenly two fifteen a.m. I saw the batlight. Is something up?" She asked excitedly. Robin cocked an eyebrow.

"Nothing new." He dismissed. What's the paper on?"

She crawled back off her desk and into her chair.

"The Spanish Armada. Know anything?" She asked. He paused.

"August 1588. Lots of water and ships. England won." She grinned at his answer.

"Thanks for the cliff notes." He shrugged. "Busy night?"

"Not really." He said honestly.

"I haven't seen you in a while." She commented.

"I don't always come by this way. But I thought I would make sure that someone didn't decide to go out for a walk." She picked up on his meaning.

"No I've learned my lesson. Thanks though." She replied. Robin stared back out into the darkness. It was quiet on the block.

"How's life?" He asked. She smiled.

"It got better, then worse again. I think it's all in my head." She stared out into the night with him. "It's funny. It's just like talking to Dick. Well, before things got complicated. It was sweet of him to stop by. Who knew a guy with a mask could be so normal. How was my Dad? I think you probably see him more than me now."

"Tired I think. There's a lot on his mind I'm sure." Robin sympathized.

"Speaking of which, I cannot believe that you and Batman brought down an entire gang in one fell swoop. I don't know how you did it." She exclaimed with awe.

"Who says I was there?" He teased.

"You must have been." She charged. He raised an eyebrow, but then grinned. She leaned back in her chair.

"My dad would ground me for life if he knew that Robin was sitting on my windowsill and I was talking to him." She stared at the young vigilantly. "He's a bit shorter than I thought though, but definitely skilled. I don't know how just the two of you do it. It's such a big town. You need more people." She insisted.

"Thinking of helping?" Robin said it jokingly, but then regretted even suggesting it.

She laughed. "My dad would lock me up before I even left my room. I'd probably get killed really easily anyway." She sighed.

"Oh, I doubt that after your performance last time." She blushed from his praise.

"Thanks. My dad doesn't really like for me to be interested in police stuff. He tries to keep me as far away as possible from it. Once I get old enough. I don't even now if he'll let me attend college here in town. He's always talking about having me go someplace else where it safer." She said glumly. Robin blinked.

"Babs, can't leave town! I couldn't leave town, not with Robin. I could not even imagine her not being here. Wait over thinking" He stopped himself . . . "I think you're over thinking this. You have a long way to go. Anything could happen." He said hoping that it was the right thing to say. She nodded slowly.

The communicator snapped on.

"Robin. Where are you? You're late." Batman's voice broke through his earpiece. Robin sat up straighter and turned to face her through the window.

"Well, time for me to go." He announced.

"Why did something happen?" She looked down at the street.

"Just time to be moving on. Big city remember? Stay inside Miss Gordon."

"Stay safe." She told him. He gave a nod and then jump down. She let out a gasp. "Stop doing that!" She whispered loudly. She almost heard him laugh.


Alright tell me what you think. Advice, and (gentle) [be nice please! :}] criticism, would be appreciated. Or a haiku if you feel like one.