I was actually planning on posting this chapter on Tuesday (today is Sunday last time I checked) but then it occurred to me that that is a nasty cliff-hanger at the end of chapter 12 and that that would be awfully unkind. Hence, I present you with chapter 13. This one might be a tad bit boring but I like the bonding close to the end. Enjoy, my dears.

Just as I sat down again, having thrown away my empty juice box, Robin came in.

"You can come back in now," he said.

"Am I in trouble about that outburst?"

"No, but do you want to talk about it?"

"I let my emotions get the best of me way too much and I end up saying things I regret later. I didn't want to look like a rash little girl earlier but, in retrospect, I did. Why should I care what he thinks about my name? And, to be honest, I'm not really sure that that was what I was mad about. He was acting like an immature little girl but I really shouldn't have let that get to me. No, I think I was still a bit upset about what Tan told me and that thing about my name was the straw that broke the camel's back. Next time I see him, I think I'm going to have to apologise." I stood and put a hand on his shoulder, looking him dead in the eyes. "I really don't want to apologise."

"It's okay, but I'm glad you were mature enough to realise that you got a bit out of hand and are willing to take steps to make it right. I'm proud of you." I took my hand off his shoulder.

"Thanks, Rob. You're great help."

"Now come on. Let's go."

We walked into the combat area/foyer and a table was just off of the circle where we sparred. On top of the table was a sheet that was covering a number of things. I wanted to ask what it was, but his face was very straight, almost solemn. The holo-screen and the lights on the floor were off and the place was rather dark. He stayed right behind me and I was worried for a slight second.

"Take the sheet off the table," he instructed.

"Robin, what's this about?"

"Just trust me. Take the sheet off." I gave him a weary look for a long moment before I turned towards the table. Slowly and warily, I reached towards the end of the sheet and in one quick move, I pulled it across the table and onto the floor, regretting it immediately as I did.

I felt the scream building in my throat as the sight of all the various knives and swords on the table registered in my brain. I started to turn, to run in the opposite direction, but Robin's form was in my way and his hands came lightly on my arms to stop me.

"Calm down. You can do this."

"No, I can't. I can't do it. Just let me go. I'm not ready for this yet."

"Hy, we've got to deal with this as soon as possible. You can't let this control you anymore. I'm right here. I won't let you get hurt." I stayed where I was for a moment, scared and fighting with the fact that I didn't want to but I had to face my fear. He was right. I closed my eyes, took a few deep breaths and reopened my eyes to look Robin in his, or at least where they should have been.

"Can-can you hold my hand please?" He gave me the tiniest, gentlest smile I'd ever seen him wear.

"Of course. I'm right here for you."

I turned around and he slid his left hand into my right hand. My gloves were off and so were his so I could actually feel the warmth of his just slightly bigger hand in mine. He gave my hand a small squeeze and I let my eyes fall upon the blades again. I winced as the sight hit my eyes but I did not turn away. I forced my eyes to go over each and every one of the twenty-two objects on the table, from hunting knives, to kitchen knives, to shuriken and Japanese swords that were long, short and in-between. An arrow was on the table, too, just for good measure.

As if reading my mind, Robin released my hand to very quickly go to the other side of me and take my other hand. I reached out with my right hand to touch the knife closest to me. The coldness of the object shot from the nerves in my fingers to my brain and I winced, reminded of the sensation of the metal in my back and in my arm much more recently. That had in fact been the origin of the fear. I had spent so much time trying to forget the event altogether, to detach it from my motivation to help people that I had lost for a moment the ability to pinpoint what had made me afraid in the first place. I closed my eyes for a brief second, letting the coldness of the object at my fingertips truly sink in. I reopened them and examined the light glinting off the shiny surfaces of various shades.

"See? You're okay?" Robin said softly. I just looked at him for a second and then moved my hand from the blade closest to me to the shuriken. I went along and touched each and every one of them, running my finger at the side of each of the blades to let the shape and feel of them sink in. Every second I was touching them, I had the compulsion to bolt, to grab Robin's hand tighter and pull him out of there with me, but the warmth of his hand and the truth of his words kept me planted there. I was okay and I did have to deal with it so that I could be a slave to the fear no more.

I let go of his hand, pushing myself ever so much further in trying for myself and for my team and for everyone I knew and loved to relinquish this stupid and crippling fear. Robin took the sword to the furthest left of the table that was only half way out of its sheath and walked over to the right of me where he slowly removed it. The sound was beautiful and disconcerting and I began to feel extremely afraid now that the blade was in someone's hand. He turned back towards me and held the sword towards me, tip down, offering for me to hold it. Slowly, I brought my hand up until my fingers wrapped around the handle. I extended it before me, watching the light move along the blade with the movement until reaching the point. Undeniably, it was a beautiful object, but it was an instrument of violence and war, a thing that separated flesh and cut through bone.

"See? There's no reason to be afraid of them. They can't harm you by themselves and you're not helpless." He came to stand behind me and he put his hand around mine on the sword, the other on my shoulder. He began to move my hand slowly, allowing me to feel what it was like to properly wield and move it. "If you know how to use them, how they work, how they have to be handled, you'll be in a better position to know what to do if ever faced with someone holding one. To use a weapon with a blade means to respect the power in your hands and to understand what it's capable of and what you're capable of. But, just because it makes you more powerful does not mean that you're invincible, or that you have the upper hand over an unarmed opponent."

He let go of my hand, removed the hand from my shoulder and I moved the sword around on my own like he had shown me a few times. I took the sheath from the table where he had rested it and replaced the sword to it, putting it back on the table. I picked up a knife and his hand came around mine again, fixing my grasp and guiding my movements. We continued like this for each of the various things on the table: I would pick it up, he would guide my hands and then he would leave me on my own with it. It felt like an eternity had passed when I put down the last thing. I took one last look at the things on the table before I retrieved the sheet from the floor and covered the table back. I turned to Robin and my throat felt tight from fear and disuse. I had to give myself a minute.

"How about I make us some omlets?" I asked. My voice still sounded shaky and quiet. He smiled.

"Sounds great."

We went to the kitchen and I started digging in the fridge for the various vegetables and the eggs. I started giving everything a little rinse, including the bowl, while Robin sat on the stool on the other side of the counter. I grabbed a knife from the drawer and just a small tendril of the fear crept up my spine as I held it in my hand and gave it a little rinse as well.

"Hy, are you sure you're okay?" he asked, sounding concerned. I turned off the tap and started moving the ingredients to the counter in front of him.

"I'm doing alright." I unloaded the vegetables from the bowl and slowly, I started slicing the tomato. We were both very silent for the rest of the cooking process. He was willing to just sit there and watch me work. He realised that this was all part of me trying to get over the fear. And it was preventing me from being reduced to a teary, shivering mess on the floor in the wake of the fear.

I had to take my time when using the knife. Cutting vegetables quickly was a skill I would have to learn gradually. For now, I was focused on getting comfortable with the object in my hand. I got the butter in the pan, put in the cracked eggs, cheese and vegetables and in about six minutes, both were done and I set them on the counter before him.

"Looks great," he said.

"Thanks."

"Now just to see if it tastes how it looks." I gave him a half-smile and took the seat opposite to him. I said Grace and waited for him to take the first bite. "Wow. You can cook. I'm not dying." He started to laugh and I smiled.

"Shut up. I'm not completely useless you know. I can do just a little bit of cooking. I just couldn't really do preparation with knives. Before now, that is." I took a bite myself and was pleased. He took another bite and so did I and as I brought my eyes up to look at him, I saw that his eyes were fixed on me as well. "Thank you. For being here and everything. I don't think I could have done it had it been anyone but you." He looked away.

"Of course you could have. They just needed to say the right thing. I actually thought you would resist me more."

"I knew you were right. I've always thought that the fear was stupid and that I needed to get over it. Say what you want but I know you being the one has a lot to do with it." I noticed that my words could probably have taken two meanings but I ignored it. Amending the statement would only highlight the possible duplicity of the sentence.

"Well, then, you're welcome." He chuckled. "I guess I should seriously help you out more often since you'll feed me."

"Not likely. This was a special case. Fear is not something that can be expelled in a day, especially when it's a serious phobia like mine. I've got to work more and more at it everyday." He nodded.

"I'm really proud of you, Hy."

"You shouldn't be saying that."

"Why?"

"You're younger than me, for pity's sake! You're making me feel like I'm the noob."

"You are a noob. You're just a slightly older noob." I laughed and he just smiled at me.

"We should eat quickly. They could come back at any minute and if Wally found out I cooked for you, he will never get off my case." He burst into laughter which made me laugh in turn and we stayed there for that long moment, allowing our laughter to ricochet off the walls and echo down the halls.

After the food was gone, I gathered up the dishes and started to wash them. Just like last time, he came beside me with a towel to dry off the dishes and put them away. We were done rather quickly.

"So what now?" I asked him.

"Well, there's also the thing with the bikes…" I exhaled. Couldn't I deal with one dangerous thing at a time?

"Sure. Let's just get rid of that one time, too." He chuckled.

"You don't have to deal with that now, you know. It was just a suggestion."

"Yeah sure, but why not just eliminate it now? Come on. Let's do this before I get lazy and pass out on the couch."

"Right this way."

The bike thing went a lot easier than I had expected, probably because the things were high tech and probably made for littler persons in mind than the Justice League. Naturally, I threw myself off of it twice but I walked away uninjured and learnt what to do and what not to do rather quickly. The most time-consuming part of the whole thing was him instructing me on the various features of it. It was way cool but I really hoped that riding one of those would not become a habitual thing. Call me old-fashioned or just plain old but I preferred riding in the Bioship where I couldn't be smeared on a sidewalk for not paying attention for a brief second, especially if that distraction happened to be the person riding on the bike next to you.

When finally we came back inside, I resigned myself to heading to the couch and lying down, making sure to take my shoes off first.

"What a day," I sighed as I dropped myself onto the very green sofa. Robin sat at the spot above my head.

"I'm sure it was." There was a moment of silence and I allowed my eyes to drift closed. "Hy?"

"Hm?" I asked, eyes still closed.

"I'm really glad you're getting over this phobia of yours. As a friend, I hate to see you look so defenceless like that. It's disconcerting since you're always that strong personality."

"Well, beneath this lovely exterior is a human being, you know." He chuckled. "As a girl, I think I'm prone just a little more to fears than you are. You've spent a long time disciplining yourself to put your best foot forward always. Me, I let some stupid accident get the better of me and allowed it to steal part of my life. I felt really bad for a really long time about not being able to help my mom in the kitchen and stuff. I was pretty useless in Biology class for those eleven months, too. I begged Tan to do all those dissections for me while I faked sick and felt so horrible the whole time. It's sweet of you to be so concerned about me."

"Friends do that. Just like how you worry about Tanya so much." I opened my eyes and looked at him.

"Very true. So thank you."

"Don't mention it. I get enough gratification beating you at video games." I laughed.

"Someday, someday I'll beat you."

"Long way off."

"Probably." It hit me then that we were absolutely alone and that no one was around. Supposedly. "Hey, isn't Red Tornado supposed to be here?"

"Yeah, but he's never around that much. If he was supposed to be here this afternoon, I'm guessing Bats probably asked him to step out for the afternoon so I could help you with the whole phobia thing." I angled my head up a little to look at him.

"I really don't get it."

"Get what?"

"Why he's helping me out so much. And it's killing me. I mean, you told me that we're friends and friends help each other. It kind of feels like both of you have been doing the world for me and I can't do a thing for you."

"You cooked for me." I scoffed and settled my head back down comfortably.

"That doesn't really count. I was trying to get over my fear."

"Well, I think it counts, okay? That was a really good omlet."

"Megan's cooking would blow me out of the water."

"Quite true but Megan's not here right now." I laughed.

In any normal movie situation, I would have been accused of wasting valuable time and a precious opportunity. I had Robin alone. The chances of someone walking in was much less than usual. But, the thing was that this was how things were between us and I was very comfortable with that. I was really tired and I had also handled enough stuff today. Trying to deal with three things was pushing it. I didn't want to ruin this nice moment between us by making things awkward or making myself feel anxious again. I was very comfortable right now, comfortable with our friendship, comfortable just lying there and quite comfortable at the moment ignoring the fact that I really liked him and was doing the cliché stewing-in-unrequited-affections thing.

The faint sound of the bay doors opening caught my attention and I sat up to put my shoes back on.

"They're back," Robin announced.

"Well, no duh," I responded. He reached over to elbow me and I chuckled. "Either that or there might be some kind of intruder." Robin and I got up and headed into the training area/foyer just as Conner and the rest of the team walked in. "Hey, people. How was the mission?"

"Successful," Kaldur replied. "And we did not burn down the place this time. I think we are getting better at dealing with reconnaissance missions." I offered him a smile.

"Doesn't change the fact that I fell down and almost busted my head trying to evade their security measures," Wally complained.

"Good thing your head's so hard then. Of course we won't be able to tell if you've got any brains left since we couldn't tell that you had brains before," Artemis said. I burst into laughter as she came towards me and I offered her a high-five.

"See, this is why I like Megan. She's nice to me, saves my life, gives me mouth-to-mouth. Nice girl."

"Yes. Of course the only girl who could stomach you is one from Mars," I added. Robin laughed.

"Dude, I think you should give up and keep quiet. This is one battle you can't win," he advised his friend.

"Dude! Way to be supportive," Wally responded.

"I should also mention that mouth-to-mouth still doesn't count as a kiss so you've still got nothing," I appended. He shrugged and the door announced Red Arrow's entrance once again. I went forward to intercept him.

"What do you want?" he asked, tone less than friendly. I deserved it.

"I would like to apologise for my earlier behaviour. I was having a bad day and I let your comment affect me far more than it should have. But that's still no excuse and I'm sorry." He looked like that was the last thing he'd ever expected to hear.

"Wait, what?"

"I said I'm sorry. Please accept my apology."

"What, did Batman scold you after I left?" This guy was making it awfully hard to be a good person.

"No. I'm apologising for myself out of my own guilt and you're not making it any easier." Further shock on his face.

"Oh. Well, apology accepted."

"Thank you." I turned to my friends. "Well I'm going home now. I've had enough excitement for one day. I think I'll just return to my mom, have a nice shower and go to sleep."

"Wait. What was the mission you and Robin had to go on?" Megan asked. I gave her a half smile.

"I'll tell you all about it tomorrow, okay? Need sleep."

"Okay. See ya tomorrow," she replied.

"Mas tarde, amigos." I heard a chorused goodbye as I headed out the door. As per usual, I was joined by Robin about a second later. We didn't talk much for the journey, but I made sure to thank him again for everything and say a quick 'see ya tomorrow' before I went into the building. I don't think I had ever fallen asleep faster in my life than when my head had hit that pillow.