Chapter Nine
Barbara rubbed her face against her pillow. But it wasn't a pillow, it was a naked chest. Her best friend's naked chest. For a moment she panicked. What was she doing sleeping on Dick? Why were they both on her couch? Why was she naked under the blanket?
Slowly she inhaled a few times before she allowed herself to freak out. She closed her eyes for a few minutes remembering. Dick had come over to her apartment last night to talk. They talked for a little bit. Then kissed. Then, well…
Barbara's eyes popped open. She'd slept with her best friend. Oh god, things were going to get so complicated now. Nothing was going to be the same.
She slipped out from underneath the blanket that covered her and Dick and raced into her room. She threw on an overlarge sweatshirt and a pair of her skinny jeans. She stared at herself in the mirror. There was nothing that looked different about her. Her bright auburn hair shimmered in the rising sun peeking through the blinds. Her blue-green eyes bored back at her.
"Don't give me that look," she snapped at her reflection. "I know exactly what I did."
There was a moment where her reflection seemed to smirk back at her. Frowning, Barbara turned away and walked back into the living room. She looked down at her sleeping friend. She sighed and walked into the kitchen. Coffee. She needed coffee. Then maybe she could figure this whole thing out.
She felt somewhat better after ingesting her morning drink. She sat in on a chair looking out of her window, watching as the sun rose between the buildings. So mesmerized by the sight, she didn't notice that her partner had awoken.
"So, what's the plan for today then?" He asked walking up behind her.
Barbara shut her eyes.
"I'm really not sure."
He rested his hands on her shoulders. He began to rub her shoulders and upper back. Her tense muscles relaxed a little.
"Relax Babs. Why are you so tense?"
"Why am I so tense?" She spun around to her friend. Thank goodness he had but on a shirt and sweatpants. "I'm tense because I'm not sure what I'm going to do now. Dick, we slept together. We obviously can't go back to being just friends, but neither of us are in a position to be in a relationship right now. So, what do we do?"
Dick cocked his head. A typical Barbara response. But being the best friend he'd been for nearly eleven years, he knew her like the back of his own hand. He reached down and grabbed both of her hands and pulled then to her. He squatted down.
"What do we do? Barbara, we're going to take this one day at a time. One day at a time, do you hear me? We can take our time. Just like when you became Batgirl and found out I was Robin, way back in the day, we will take it one day at a time."
His face was deathly serious. He was pale, paler than usual, but that was from the shoulder injury he'd sustained the previous day. Barbara looked into his steady gaze. Something stirred inside.
"Alright. One day at a time. You hear me Grayson? One. Day. At. A. Time."
Dick smiled widely and kissed her on the mouth.
"Where is he?!" Ellie screamed.
Tim had to give it to the girl. She was a fighter. And now he could really see it.
She had come out of his room searching for her brother. After having a near-death experience it seemed only natural that she would want to spend a little time with her brother. Her only family at the moment. But things went wrong almost immediately. Jamie couldn't be found everywhere. Not in Barbara's room, where it was thought he'd ran into last night. Nor was he in Dick's. In fact he was nowhere in the mountain.
Desperate she'd run outside, running through the long grass and brush. Tim followed closely behind her. He didn't understand why she was leading him away from the set trails on the mountain. If her brother was going to be out of the cave, why wouldn't he be on one of those?
"Where are we going Ellie?" He called. "This is not one of the trails we have. Why would he be out here?'
Ellie stopped and stared straight ahead. Tim nearly ran into her.
They had stopped at a clearing. Mind you not a very large clearing. But a large enough clearing for a few people to stand, maybe possibly sit on a bench. Tim took a few steps forward into the clearing and looked back at the girl from the future.
"Ellie? Why are we here?"
Tears were in her eyes. Slowly she pointed to the ground. Hidden midst the tall grass was a small hat. Tim reached down and picked it up. The size was much too small for any of members of the team living there at the moment. On the inside a small name was written. James. Jamie.
"Why would Jamie come out here?" He asked giving the hat to the older sister.
She cradled it to her chest and sank to her knees. Her tears slid down her cheeks.
"This was the spot where Dad proposed to Momma. Jamie comes out here when he needs comfort. But he's not allowed by himself, he knows that. He's much too young."
Tim sank next to her and pulled her into his embrace. He didn't have words for her at the moment. He doubted that there would be any words to say in this situation. So this was what he did. He held her as she cried.
She was so distraught that she didn't notice when he placed two fingers to his ear and spoke to the person on the other side.
Barbara and Dick sat across from each other. Just sitting. And drinking coffee. Like it was a normal day. There was silence between the two of them. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, but it wasn't comfortable either. It was simply silence. Something both were used too.
Dick opened his mouth to talk. Not that he wasn't enjoying his time with Barbara, and he was, but he needed to talk with her about something. A small beeping filled the air.
Both of them turned. Barbara towards her purse sitting on the counter, Dick towards his other pants, wherever they were. Both got up to move towards the sources of the separate beeping. Barbara found hers first and slipped the earpiece in her ear.
"BG here, what's up?" She said seriously.
"Barbara? We have a situation here at the cave." Tim's voice was sturdy, but held enough worry for it to be noticed.
"What type of situation are you having at the cave? Can't you get Al or Bruce to handle it?" Dick asked, for by this time he'd found his pants and therefore the comm.
"Not in that cave, Dick. In the other cave."
"What type of situation are we experiencing there? Please tell me that Gar didn't start streaking around the cave again," Barbara groaned at the memory.
Everyone shuddered.
"No, thank god. But we have an even bigger problem."
Barbara laughed. "Bigger than Gar streaking? What could be possibly worse than that?" She said, thinking that the worst thing that could possibly happen was M'gann burnt some recipes in the kitchen.
"Jamie is missing."
A/N: Don't hate me! Please? But Review and let me know what your thoughts are.
