Here's another chapter, after how long? Oh well, could be longer. Anyway, not sure I really like this ending, and not surprised if there are some typos. I only wrote out the very beginning of this chap, so the rest was kind of thrown together. Oh well, again, and again I say enjoy!


.®.®.®.®.®.Chapter 28.®.®.®.®.®.

Vegas

August 17, 16:45 EDT

For Grace Emilia Ross, the kiss that she shared, though it was a simple touch, brought about a seeming static charge that curled itself around every inch of her, making her hair stand on end as it pierced her soul, and rejuvenated her spirit.

For Richard Grayson, however, it was an intoxicating touch that blended his soul and empty passion as one radiant, yet dull, spectrum, with sparks that danced and a spirit that earned. But he knew it was too explosive to last, and the repeating sound of Bruno banging the door in rang in the child's distant ears. The crash violently whipped him back to reality.

"A little privacy!" Grace demanded at Bruno, breaking the queer bond between her and Caleb.

"Oh- I am... oh boy," the Jock stammered.

"Just go!" Grace yelled at him, moving her lips back towards Caleb, who seemed to wait openly for them, as the man fumbled out the door.

A click was heard as the entryway closed, and Dick's fingers was placed on Grace's lips. The girl opened her eyes and stared into his shades.

"No more," he coldly demanded. Even though he was exploding on the inside, his words were harsh and clear.

Standing, Grace's footsteps were drowned away by the silence of the room. Her brown eyes moved out the window as she watched a girl in a white t-shirt and jeans talk to herself just outside the glass. Or was it the ground that the blond, pony-tailed girl spoke too?

Opening her mouth to speak, a choke prevented Grace from apologizing. She wasn't sorry. Sure she had kissed guys before, and sure they all felt the same, but was he really any different? Did she love him more than those other heartbeats? No, she couldn't.

He was The Boy Wonder, he would leave her behind once his duty was over. But she could enjoy him while his attention and caring for her was here, right? He was awesome, and he did care about her. Surely it wasn't an act, not the whole time. No one was that good.

But did his affection stretch farther than brother/sister love?

Just accept the inevitable... he's gonna leave. Heck, you thought your dad loved you, and he is a murderer.

"You didn't feel... it, did you?" she breathed, hating that she knew what he was going to say.

He sighed deeply as if he was just awakened from something deep. Stretching his back, he placed one hand on his gut. "Yup, I'm starving," he quipped sheepishly. He was the only one who realized that his stomach growled in the middle of their moment.

A broad smile curled Grace's lips as modest chuckles bounced her thin frame. "But not enough to let anyone else know," she referred to Jack offering them the food days before. "You shouldn't give them any reason to think that your weak."

"That's right," he assured her. Glancing at the door, his eyes laid on it before it was slammed open by Grégoire and Bruno who marched through, the Jock blushing severely. Either that or his cheeks were red after Grégoire smacked him.

"So pretty, is it true?" the youth asked Grace, trying to embarrass the girl in their native tongue.

"You guys do know that I speak French?" Caleb asked, sarcastic yet a twist of bite in his words that drew the heavy, unwanted attention to himself, and away from her.

"Oh really?" the youth asked him, putting his face close to Robin's. "So tell me, how was she?"

Enraged, Robin snarled through his clenched teeth. "Deserves better than any one of us," he warned Grégoire to lay off Grace, and Grace to lay off him. But it was mostly at Grégoire.

"Oh, aren't you cute?..," Grégoire said before jerking Caleb's head back and placing a small blade to the child's throat. "How would you like to be dead?" he maniacally threatened.

Robin laughed. "Seriously twerp, you think I'm scared of a cub scout knife? I've stared into the eyes of Lucifer himself after he took my parents, your serrated butter knife renders as minimal to non-existent threat. Mainly non-existent," he yawned, which made Grace smirk.

Raising his foot, Robin kicked out his frustration in one swift blow to Grégoire's knee, and threw out his stress when he tossed Grégoire over his shoulder, who slammed face first into the wall.

Grace laughed and cheered that she could, for the last time, watch The Boy Wonder in combat, though he would reveal his most endearing quality soon.

Robin went for him again, but was hooked under the arms by Bruno, who hung the child there as Grégoire readied a punch to his gut. The French's fist crunched into Robin's knee, however, and the teen was shoved backwards by The Boy Wonder's other foot against his face. Breaking the other side of his nose.

"Hey guys!" a voice called, and all the small room's occupants froze to glance at Jack. "No wonder she getting impatient," the American said as he released Robin from Bruno's arms. "there's plenty of room in the rent-able sand box. And you, she wants to see you first," he said to Caleb as he straightened the boy's dirty hair.

"Too bad," Caleb quipped as he tugged from Jack and walked over to Grace, messing his hair back to it's 'Robin' style. "Cuz I'm not going."

Jack laughed, but Grégoire responded.

"Yes you are you little brat! Whether you want to or not, you're going up stairs and seeing-"

"No, I'm not," Caleb chuckled after rolling his eyes and doing the "talks to much" motion with his hand at Grace. "Not without her," he said.

"Well she doesn't want to see her," Grégoire stated unemotionally.

Dick sensed the hurt look in Grace's eyes once he said that. "Look you, I'm not going. Not without Grace," he grabbed her wrist to add to his words.

"Kid, look. It's not up to you," Jack tried to convince the child after casting Grégoire onto the bed to shut him up.

"Neither was being kidnapped!" Dick fumed.

"Well you know what, the world doesn't revolve around little Caleb," Jack mocked the child's attitude earlier.

"I've had enough!" Grégoire shouted, drawing his hand-held from behind him.

Everyone in the room tensed even more and shouts of "you don't need to do that", "put that away", and "calm down" were heard about the room. Except from Bruno, who stood there dumbly like always.

"You go!" Grégoire demanded Caleb, motioning to the side with the weapon, "Or I'll put one in your other shoulder."

"Go ahead! There's no way I'm moving from her!" Caleb shouted back.

"Caleb, go," Grace calmly told him off. "Jack, he'll take care of me. I don't want you hurt again."

"Grace, I-I can't," he said, trying to do what he knew was right, but knowing that he should trust the intuition of a woman.

"It's okay. I promise," she said, then gave him a gentle nudge forward, after squeezing him gently around the waist as a good-bye.

Reluctantly, he was lead out of the room by Bruno as Grace pulled Jack in front of her, to use him as a human shield, whether he liked it or not.

The door was closed behind them, and Caleb's feet froze to the ground. I can get back in. I'm behind Grégoire and Bruno broke the lock when he busted through it. I can get the jump on them, and get Grace out. But his thoughts went back to when Grace demanded that she wanted to see there captivator. She wouldn't go, not without meeting- but his processing was interrupted by Bruno shoving the child into the opposite wall.

Dick didn't try to catch himself, not anymore. He saw the push coming but was too tired, hungry, weak, and distraught to care.

Smiling, Bruno them began to slap him around, literally. Bruno slapped him again, sending his thin body tumbling down the hallway a few feet.

Vegas

August 17, 16:45 EDT

"The French Luxury Suites, interesting," Artemis said boringly.

"Sounds cute," M'Gann thought, flying after Wally, who was running only a few feet ahead now.

"Sounds Cheap," the archer stated, walking around toward the front of it. "Looks like it's six stories tall, has a few isolated balconies... looks cheap. But the design on the front is nice," she admitted after a pause.

"We have reached the door," Kaldur informed as he slowed to a walk, approaching his teammates.

"Locked, weird. It wasn't earlier," Wally said, trying the doorknob.

"Let me try it from the inside," Artemis volunteered, grabbing the door to the lobby of the hotel.

"No Artemis. Remain outside and perform a perimeter sweep," Kaldur said.

The archer scoffed. "Another one?" she wined as she heard Wally fuse at the door. She chuckled to herself and left the front of the hotel, walking around the right side.

"EUREKA!" Wally yelled as he, again, opened the door and fell inside onto the tile floor of the staircase.

"Artemis, we are in," Kaldur informed the archer as he, followed by Conner and M'Gann, stepped over Wally's body. "Remember, M'Gann has still not been able to reconnect with the mind that she did earlier."

"Your point?" Conner asked as he forced the door to a small hotel room.

"We must not make our presence here know, assuming that Robin is not here, has been moved, or the people that are holding him are hostile," Kaldur explained.

"Oh yeah, cuz Rob would totally let himself get kidnapped by non-hostile people willingly," Wally teased, annoyed. Rob was there, and they were going to get him. Even if they had to smash in some heads.

"This means I'm not on perimeter right?" Artemis' voice cam back pleadingly.

"Correct," the Atlantean sighed as he surveyed the hotel room that was attached to the stairwell. "Split up, and remain covert," he warned Wally against doing anything rash.

Hang on Rob, we're coming for you! The red-head thought to himself, but didn't care at this point if M'Gann heard him. Everyone knew that his and The Boy Wonder were the closest on the team, and they always will be. Assuming that they all get out of this alive.

Vegas

August 17, 16:45 EDT

Pulling Caleb up, the man have drug, have walked the child out of the hallway and they entered the tiny lobby of the hotel. As the door to the hallway closed, Robin could almost here the voice of Conner come from inside, but brushed it off. He had better things to be doing that hallucinating.

Nodding a hello to the clerk, Bruno shoved the child aside as he asked the receptionist where the staircase was. Robin's keen eyes wearily glanced out the window. "Artemis," he breathed as he saw her pace from side to side, bored, but tense. Freakishly tense. Robin stared in disbelief, he didn't know that the team would be in Vegas. Were they after him? Had they somehow found him, were they tracking him this entire time...?

But his inquiries were interrupted by Bruno's large hand grasping his shoulder, paining the already wore down child. Walking toward a door that was left of the large desk, Robin prayed that he wouldn't have to climb stares. He did, several flights of them actually, and finally came to the fourth floor.

Bruno stopped at room two-zero-seven, Graces number was one-one-seven, and knocked on the door. Robin waited in the stale hallway, preparing his greeting to the woman.

Realizing that he had zoned out entirely on the conversation that Bruno had had with the woman inside, he looked in at the room through the open door. Raising a hand, Bruno shoved the seemingly hesitant boy inside, and left him and the woman.

Robin started the conversation immediately. "Hello, Cerena Ross."