"Hey, Brucie," Barbara hums, walking through the cave. The underground air is brisk against her bare shoulders, but it was refreshing. She'd been sweating all night in Jason's bed, the boy was a furnace.

A small smile played at her lips, remembering the expression on his sleeping face when she left him this morning. Crawling out from beneath his arm had been a chore (even just his limbs were unbelievably heavy, it seemed) and once she had, he sleepily reached around for her body. Partially out of sympathy, she handed him the pillow she'd been using and watched him cuddle that for a moment. His face took on a whole new light while he slept; no shields of sarcasm and snark, no anger. Just peaceful, blissful slumber.

The sound of Bruce's chair turning to watch her enter drew her attention back to the present. "Brucie?" he asked, confusion evident in his voice. "You never call me that."

Shrugging, she discarded his comment entirely. "I'm just here to update the Bat-top," she said, smiling as she set her bag down next to him on the desk.

Bruce smiled now, too, rolling his eyes as she handed him her laptop. "Not everything we have needs the word 'bat' in it," he mumbled. He looked at her from the side, still smiling as he reached for the appropriate cords. "We are capable of just calling things by their names."

Barbara crossed her arms looking down at her mentor. "Do as I say, not as I do, right Bruce?"

He turned away from her. "These updates will only take a moment, and Alfred put together a few new utility belts for you." His fingers began hurriedly tapping away on the keyboard, and the screen to her laptop lit up. "The smoke bombs have been upgraded, but everything else should be the same."

Mumbling a short 'k', she made her way to the stairs to retrieve the new tools. Keeping her gaze away from the glass cases, she fiddled with the belts laid out in a perfect row for her on the table. Bruce could be heard typing still, updating the security systems. They do this once a month at least, any time Wayne Enterprises comes up with some new technology that could be useful to them.

Pulling one of the smoke bombs out, she wondered what they'd done to upgrade them. Was the smoke denser? Did it take longer to disperse? Was it darker? Louder?

The black ball looked peculiar smooshed between her pale fingers. It was roughly the size of a quarter, but felt so much bigger than that. Temptation struck her, mingling with her curiosity. It'd be so easy to throw the smoke bomb onto the floor, just to see. Just as she raised her arm to drop the bomb, she noticed how deathly silent it had fallen in the cave. Bruce had stopped tapping his keyboard, and when she looked up they were making eye contact.

"You're in a good mood today," he observed, sounding both suspicious and loving all at once.

Barbara felt a flush growing in her cheeks as she quickly withdrew her hand, smoke bomb still in between her fingers. She gathered the belts in her arms and hurriedly made her way down the stairs. "What makes you say that?"

Now with his favorite freelancer in front of him, Bruce crossed his arms across his chest. He'd stood from his seat at the computer, and Barbara was once more reminded that all the boys she regularly hung around with towered over her. "You called me Brucie, you look well rested, and you've been humming Hips Don't Lie for the past five minutes." He raised an eyebrow, looking over her now. "And your face is bright red. What happened?"

His voice was skeptical, analyzing her every movement. Suddenly his eyes on her felt very intrusive, and she felt her flush grow. "Nothing, Bruce," she said, folding into herself. "Are you done with my computer yet?"

The expression on his face grew more quizzical, more concerned. "You worked with the Red Hood last night, and then you went home?" His voice indicated he already knew the answer, but he wanted her confirmation. Something unusual for a man like Bruce, always so sure of himself.

"Yeah, Jason and I had a movie night and then I went to bed early for a change. Why?" It was only a partial lie, which might throw Bruce off her trail. As much as she cared about Bruce, she saw him as if he was a second father, and he was almost the last person on earth that she wanted to tell the details of her evening with Jason to. "Apparently, if you go to bed before 3 AM you feel really good the next day."

The expression on his face set into a hard line, and Barbara knew that he didn't believe her. Thankfully, he did not seem to want to press the matter any further. "You ought to be careful with Jason, Barbara," he said. His eyes flitted over her face, reading her expression which was almost certainly confused. "Just the other day you came in here with questions about him, concerned he was keeping secrets."

Barbara crossed her arms, irritation growing inside her. "Yeah, and you turned me away," she reminded him. "I ran my own tests on him, over and over again, but you wouldn't let me run one on this computer."

Bruce pursed his lips tightly for a moment, again examining her face. "I'm just telling you, Barbara. I don't want to see you get hurt." His face was hard as stone, expressionless. But the sincerity in his eyes burned in a way she'd only ever seen a handful of times. Despite the intensity in his blue irises, she could tell that he was still hiding something. "I have a board meeting at work in a bit, so I have to go," he said. "Your laptop should be done in a minute or two."

Without another word, Bruce was gone almost silently, leaving Barbara to ponder his words and the secrets that were being kept from her. Not only by Bruce, but Jason too. Ironically, it felt that the only one being even remotely honest with her anymore was the Red Hood.

Scooping the Bat-top into her arms, as well as her new utility belts, she left the cave feeling as if her good mood had been ruined.

Exiting the clock in the main hall of Wayne Manor, Barbara shuffled into the kitchen. She had the day off work and cooking with Alfred always cheered her up.

To her dismay, the kitchen seemed unusually empty. Sighing in discontent, Barbara put her things down on the island in the kitchen and began shuffling through the fridge for the ingredients to make herself a sandwich.

"What's a beautiful place like you doing in a girl like this?"

Barbara jumped at the sudden voice, slamming the refrigerator door shut to see Dick Grayson leaning against the counter behind it. He had on his usual cocky grin and his arms folded across his chest. He looked cool and smooth and Barbara rolled her eyes in annoyance, despite the small chuckle she gave him.

"What's a big dumb place like you doing in a dork like this?"

Dick laughed, lurching off the counter. "I came by to see Bruce. Is he around?"

Barbara pulled a plate out of the top cupboard and placed her bread on it. "Just missed him." Her tone was unintentionally bitter. She hadn't meant it to be, she wasn't mad at Dick. She was mad at Bruce, and herself, and Jason all at once. But not Dick.

"What's the matter with you?" Dick asked. He leaned backwards against the island next to her, once again crossing his arms. Despite his playful tone, she knew her best friend. He was being genuine in his questions.

Barbara put the half-made sandwich down and looked at him. Her face contorted into a million different emotions it seemed. So many things she wanted to say to Dick, but only one correct thing to say. "What do you know about the Red Hood?"

That's where it all began, wasn't it? Where all the lies and the secrets began. It would seem appropriate that it would end there as well. Things were usually complicated, but Barbara hadn't ever felt like she wasn't up to speed until the Red Hood came along. It was then that conversations hushed when she approached and Bruce hurried her off his computer and he gave her warnings without clarification. That's where it all began to get strange and confusing.

Dick looked surprised. "You're upset about a murderer?" he said, stealing a piece of lunch meat off her sandwich. "That seems normal."

Barbara's frown deepened. "No, I'm upset because Bruce set me up to work with someone and is refusing to give me all the information."

Dick's demeanor noticeably shifted. His muscles tensed up and his face hardened, as if he was trying too hard to appear casual. "Why would you think Bruce is keeping any of the information from you?"

"Because it's Bruce," she said, her bottom lip pouting out just a bit.

Again, her friend shifted uncomfortably next to her. She could see the gears in his head turning, trying to disprove her theory. After just a few moments he gave up, not able to find any reasons that Bruce would tell Barbara the whole truth on this. "Yeah," he said, his voice trailing off a bit.

Silence fell across the kitchen, with the exception of the sound of a sandwich being born. Tense moments passed, one focused on words while the other focused on lunch. "It just feels like everyone is in on this case, this big secret about some guy that I am supposed to work with. But for some reason, everyone is keeping me out of the loop despite the fact that this is my case!" she was angry now, waving a mayonnaise covered knife around as if to illustrate in the air the absurdity of it all.

Dick's eyebrows furrowed, temptation to reach out to her evident on his features. "I know how it feels," he murmured. "Don't worry, Babs. You of all people should know nothing is secret, and every case is crackable."

She turned to look at him, completed sandwich in hand. Pressing her hips into the counter behind her so as to face him, Barbara took a bite of her edible masterpiece and savored it before getting back to her friend. "You're right," she mumbled around the sandwich. "It's just annoying that he expects me to fix it with only half the information."

"Well," Dick said, relaxing his stance. He moved his hands to the countertop on either side of his hips. "I have some good news for you, then."

Barbara perked up a bit, smirking through her full mouth. "What's that, Pixie Boots?"

"Remember like six months ago when I introduced you to Tyler?" he asked, waving his hand in front of him as if it would bring forth Barbara's memories. "Well, I ran into him a few days ago at the library, and he told me that he and Jess broke up a couple months after you guys met. And he didn't say anything about you, but I remember you told me you thought he was cute, so-"

"Pass," Barbara said, taking another bite of sandwich.

Frozen mid-sentence, Dick's facial expression slowly shifted to become more and more bewildered. "Uh, why?" he asked.

Now smiling, and finishing off the last bite of her sandwich, Barbara looked at him. "I maybe got a little something," she said.

Dick's eyebrows raised, and his arms crossed once more. "Oh?" he said, egging her on. "And who might this lucky guy be?"

"Don't start planning the wedding yet, Grayson," Barbara said chuckling. "My roommate, Jason." If it were possible, his eyebrows went up even further, waiting for her to continue. "We were friends for a long time, internet friends, you know? And then he moved here and we just got closer. It was bound to happen, I guess."

"Oh," Dick said. His voice was a thick layer of calm, thoroughly masking the shock and the panic that Barbara could sense was there. "Well, good for you then." Barbara examined his face for a moment, searching for the chink in his armor that she knew was there. "I have to go, if you see Bruce sometime in the next day or two let him know I was looking for him okay?"

Barbara nodded. "Yeah, I'll see you later."

For the short amount of time that Dick had conversed with Barbara, he'd been tense, almost nervous. There were only a few reasons that could be. Her secondary phone started, shifting her focus from her best friend's secrets, screen lighting up with a text message.

Working tonight? -Your Favorite Vigilante

As if her mood wasn't sour enough, thinking about having to spend any time with the source of all her struggles pulled her further down. Visibly frowning, she sent him a thumbs up and went home to prepare.