Photography and Worries

Daleville, Connecticut

9:56 A.M. EDT

(Half of this chapter has been rewritten, please reread, all information found in the previous version will be followed up on.)

"Wait, Peter is going to kindergarten now?" Stephen had asked when his mom had helped the youngest Miles into clothing and herded him out the door earlier that morning.

"Yes, he is," his mother had replied with a smile. "So you're free to watch, play, and do whatever you like while on your suspension just so long as it doesn't wait your father up. If you find yourself bored, I'd suggest going through you're room and moving your floordrobe to your closet."

That'd been almost two hours ago. Two hours that Stephen had spent bored and staring at the ceiling above his bed or above the couch.

The apartment was eerily quiet as he lay there. Stephen wasn't used to the silence. There was usually something going on, such as Johnny playing a video game, Peter being his rambunctious self, or his mom cooking a meal.

In a mostly failed attempt to dispel the silence, he'd turned on his laptop and had it playing some of his favorite rap bands. He'd even attempted to read a book (something he hadn't done in a while), but the uncomfortable silence in the Miles household was disconcerting to him.

So with I am Number Four on his stomach and his arms behind his head, Stephen stared at the ceiling. He'd only gotten a few chapters deep into the sci-fi novel before stopping due to the abnormal silence he felt.

This is torture. He sighed thoughtfully, before beginning to rack his brain for ideas of tasks to preoccupy his time.

Stephen began to eye the contents of his room without lolling his head around. He chuckled slightly. His mom was right, his room was a mess, but he had no desire to make any progress on his 'floordrobe', as his mom put it.

"I did want to see if my cameras still worked," he murmured. Dog-earing the chapter he'd paused on, he rolled out of bed.

It'd been a while since he'd worked with his cameras, but he knew exactly how to check and fix them if need be. Though it was verging on a year since he'd picked up one of the cameras on his shelf, there was still a mostly dormant ember in him for his passion of photography.

He scanned the shelf briefly before selecting his favorite. It was a digital Cannon camera with interchangeable lenses.

I wonder where we keep the batteries, he questioned looping the camera strap around his neck and inspecting it. He rarely left batteries in his cameras since he was somewhat paranoid that they would corrode.

Deciding that the camera was in a good condition, pretty much the way he left it, Stephen exited his room and headed to the kitchen. He was pretty certain that in one of the drawers, the one where they kept the spare sets of keys, there were batteries in them. Heck, he was certain he could find anything in the draw, what with Peter's habit of hiding things.

As he opened the door to his room, Stephen almost regretted leaving his rap playlist on. The apartment outside his room was even quieter. It was the kind of quiet that feels like you break it at your own peril.

Despite knowing that his father slept like a log after a night call, he crept as quietly as he could towards the kitchen.

"This is ridiculous," he muttered softly to himself when he finally entered the kitchen.

Pulling opened the drawer furthest from the stove revealed that there were indeed batteries there.

Yes! Score, a whole new pack of 'em, he thought with a smile. Stephen opened the box of batteries and took out what he needed plus some extras which he put in the front pocket of his jeans. Let's see if we're in business.

Stephen carefully placed the needed batteries in the correct slot and turned on the camera. He silently congratulated himself with the screen flickered to life and he looked through the view finder.

For a few minutes he played with the zoom and other features that the camera had.

"Hmm … memory's completely empty," he mused aloud. "And I suppose the weather … No, I don't suppose, I know that the weather is nice."

He looked on longingly out the kitchen window as a bird flew by. He wished that he had freedom like that at times. The childish freedom that he saw in Peter's eyes was something he'd lost, but he knew he could gain it back, at least for a few hours.

"Guess a photographic jaunt around town won't kill me," he mused with a shrug. Stephen selected a pen and post-it note stack from the corner near the fridge.

On it he wrote:

Went out. Be back for dinner. Took cell phone.

~Stephen

Stephen put the post-it note on the fridge, he know that his mother or father would see it when they looked for food.

Before leaving, he quickly went back to his mess of a room, turned off his music, and put his laptop into sleep mode.

He slid his cell phone from his desk and into his pocket before leaving his room.

At the front door to his family's apartment, Stephen slipped on his favorite pair of running shoes, and grabbed a sweat shirt from the hall tree.

Let's go see if I'm still as good of photographer as Brian thought I was.

Happy Harbor, Rhode Island

10:06 A.M. EDT

Kaldur sat at one of the reading tables in the library with a book that Roy had suggested cracked opened. He had learned how to read the characters of the English language almost as soon as he'd become Aqualad, and he'd been improving his literary skills ever since.

Unfortunately, very often he found the books that were popular among most of the surface dwellers weren't what he liked. But, thankfully, Roy's suggestions wee rather enjoyable, been if he'd been informed that The Fellowship of the Ring took a while to get anywhere.

He was actually finding that despite the lack of action, as Roy put it, the Hobbits lifestyle and point of view of the world around them was quite fascinating. Obviously the author had written it as such to get the reader invested in the quest of Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin would undoubtedly embark on later in the story.

At the moment, he was alone in the library; Zatanna had elected to sleep in since the two late nights in a row had taken a lot out of her. Though it could also be this way for hours, the magician may do her school work in her room merely for comfort and convince.

He was coming to the end of a chapter and half saddened that the child-like seriousness of Tom Bombadil was leaving the story, when his cellular device went off.

Taking a moment to leave the hardcover book opened to the page he'd paused on face up on the table, he reached in the pocket of the sweat pants he wore in cases of normalcy.

"Hello?" he said into the cell phone.

"Morning Kaldur, what does the team know about the Nightingale?" a voice belonging to Roy responded.

"Good morning to you as well, Roy," Kaldur greeted, "and what about the Nightingale interests you?"

Kaldur knew that Roy had been, and probably still was, in Daleville from the team's first night on guard duty. He hadn't seen or heard from the archer at all during their previous mission, so he had little knowledge of where Roy was or had ended up.

This call was indeed unexpected. Though their conversation the other night had been brief, Kaldur had a pretty good idea of what his friend's intentions were in Daleville. Roy was there to stop the Shadows from stealing their target merchandise.

The Nightingale, however, hadn't been at all mentioned in their conversation. In fact, he wasn't aware that there had been any assistance from the vigilante until Batman had informed the team of their mission previous.

He was well aware that Roy was supposed to help the group of his teammate shadow those suspected of being the Nightingale while the light lasted, but he also knew that Roy had gone off on his own before Wally and Artemis had arrived at the Daleville Public Library. Robin had informed him that Roy had gone off to shadow a different suspect, but hadn't reported any of what he'd seen.

This either indicated that Roy had abandoned it and was disinterested in the Nightingale or, as seemed to be the case, Roy was investigating the Nightingale in his own fashion. He wondered what Roy had discovered that required a comparing of notes.

"Nightingale knows something," Roy responded in a frustrated tone. "She tried to meet with me last night, but we were interrupted by Cheshire and a local baddie called Scourge."

Kaldur's face contorted into a serious expression. He could tell that he wasn't getting the full story, but he trusted Roy to tell him what was important. "Did you get any information from her?"

"No, she was pretty beat up by the time I meet with her, and she looked exhausted by the end of it. But what does the team know about her?"

"We hardly know anything about her other than what Robin has uncovered. She is elusive. Do you know something more about her?"

"Yeah, she knows something that important enough to get her killed," Roy spat in frustration. "At this rate, she's gonna be dead before I've found anything."

Kaldur thought for a moment. Though he didn't know the indefinite reason that Robin and Batman were searching for the resident heroine of Daleville, he did know that the reasons for the team to find her were clearer than ever. Whether she knew it or not, the Nightingale's life was at risk and whatever she knew was invaluable to the activities arising in Daleville.

"Are you looking for her?" he asked rising from his seat and leaving the library.

"Yeah, but it isn't doing any good. I'm either a lousy detective or she's hidden her trail too well," Roy replied, his voice revealing that he was irritated with himself.

"Does the saying two heads are better than one apply here?" Kaldur questioned. Roy had called him to ask for information, since he was unable to give that, he elected to offer assistance in some other way.

"Daleville is hours away from the Cave," the archer pointed out, but didn't reject his offer.

"There's a vehicle zeta-tube to Gotham that I can take," Kaldur said. "I can be there in a couple of hours."

Daleville, Connecticut

10:31 A.M. EDT

Johnny stared at the white board as Mrs. Brooks lecture droned on about literature from the Romantic period. He wasn't sure why he felt bored considering that immediately before his English class he had creative writing. He was immensely fond of creative writing, but as soon as he set foot in Mrs. Brooks' classroom, English became dull.

It's probably just Mrs. Brooks considering how much Briana complains about her and she doesn't even take Mrs. Brooks' English class, Johnny assessed as he took down the information that had just been written on the board.

"And that concludes what you need to know on Romantic literature," Mrs. Brooks announced as she put the dry erase marker on the holder of the white board. "Before you even consider study hall for the rest of the period, I want you to get into your groups and work on vocabulary for our next reading. When you are done with that, you may go into study hall until then work."

Johnny slouched in his chair as the whole class collectively groaned. It was probable that Mrs. Brooks was the most taskmaster-like of all the teachers at Daleville High.

From his slumped over position in his seat, Johnny surveyed the room looking for others in his group.

Huh, he thought when he only spotted one other member in the room. Wonder where Evangeline and Chris are.

He sat up and rummaged through his knapsack as the only other present member of his group sauntered over to his near empty table.

"So do you have the word list or do we have to ask Mrs. Brooks for a new one?" Jack asked as he sat down in the opposing desk to Johnny.

"No, I've got it." Johnny pulled the list out of his notebook and heard Jack sigh audibly. They both were thankful that he'd entrusted with the list as opposed to Chris and Evangeline. Mrs. Brooks was not a pleasant person when she discovered that a student had arrived to class unprepared, even if it wasn't their fault. And they most certainly didn't want to talk to her this morning, because it seemed that someone had already rumpled her feathers that day. It'd probably been someone she'd caught sleeping during the previous period, not that it mattered since it was third hour's problem now.

"Okay, good," Jack said, getting to the assignment at hand quicker than was normal for him. "So do we want to split the words between you and me or do we want to make an absent tea ballet?"

Johnny shrugged. "We could split it and the ones we don't finish will be for Chris and Evangeline when they get back."

Jack nodded his consent as he copied his words onto a scrap of paper. In a few minutes, they were both skimming through the dictionary looking for their words.

Johnny knew that while this would earn them leeway with Mrs. Brooks if they wanted to chat later on, it wasn't a normal habit of Jack's to get on task right away.

He wasn't one to be super suspicious like Briana sometimes was, but her words, however calm they might have been said earlier that morning, set him on edge. He couldn't get his mind to stop thinking about how Briana's life was in danger during the day time.

A thing such as that could only be possible if the Nightingale's identity had been compromised, which was doubtable. Bree had never slipped up like that before, and the only reason he'd found out was that he knew Briana's voice too well to not connect the dots. Besides, if she knew that her secret was out, she'd already be out of town by that time in the morning or something like that and since Bree knew that her life was in the balance, he could see that her secret was still her own.

Snap out of it, Johnny, he ordered himself as absurd ideas and worries ran through his mind. Jack has been Bree's friend for years. He wouldn't even consider harming her; he'd probably do the exact opposite and try to save her. As if that wouldn't flip itself around the instant it happened.

He smiled slightly. Bree was never going to be a damsel in distress for anyone. In fact it was more likely that someone would be a damsel in distress for her.

"So," Jack said slowly getting Johnny's attention. "Has Amanda talked to you any about the surprise party?"

Johnny looked up from the dictionary and eyed Jack.

"You'll have to talk to Amanda about whether you can help or not, planning it really isn't my specialty," he responded after a moment of thought.

His classmate smiled. "I already have, but I was wondering if she'd told you."

"I haven't really talked to her about the party recently," Johnny answered. Briana had been walking with them on the way to school, so they hadn't been able to exchange information. "I sure hope you're able to help. Bree is a hard one to understand sometimes."

"Actually, she's just quiet, but when you get her talking, she's pretty easy to understand," Jack responded with a shrug while turning the page of his dictionary.

Johnny only nodded in response.

"But in recent years she's changed quite a bit," he continued.

"Yeah, she has."

Johnny knew that there were only three people in Daleville who knew the Nightingale's identity. They were, of course, the Nightingale herself, Amanda, and Johnny. But sometimes he had to wonder exactly what others knew, especially people who were even moderately close to Briana like Jack.

"So you're on cake duty for the party, huh?" the other boy changed the topic as Johnny scribbled down a definition. "Must be hard, even I don't know what kind of cake Thomas likes."

"Actually, Amanda was able to find that out. She just had to do some digging," Johnny answered.

"What is it, anyway?"

"Cookie cake, but now it seems easy compared trying to pick a present for her. You got anything that might help us there?" Johnny couldn't help but find it a little more than weird that though he was a little rigid because Briana's life was in more danger than usual, he was now talking about her party as if it were the most normal thing and she wasn't moonlighting as a vigilante.

"Amanda's got some ideas, but I'm pretty sure she's gonna want to talk to you about those herself."

"That sounds like Amanda."

"Johnny, Jack I hope your conversation is relevant to those definitions," Mrs. Brooks called to them from her desk.

Immediately, the two of them went back to combing through the dictionary, unconsciously agreeing that any further discussion on the topic would be done at a later time.

"You okay?" Amanda asked as she approached her locker. Johnny was leaning against it with a thoughtful look on his face. She'd seen that look previously on Johnny's face yesterday, but that'd been because he'd been mad at the Nightingale but that seemed to have been amended earlier that morning.

"Just thinking," he answered. "Bree anywhere around?"

"Nope, she's hurried over to Mrs. Bates, but she's got something on her mind too," she answered, turning the knob on her locker and getting her science book out.

"And who in her position wouldn't be thoughtful about stuff?" he retorted.

Amanda just nodded. The thought of Briana in danger at school in broad daylight was unsettling in numerous ways and to make it worse she and Johnny couldn't do a thing about it. Amanda for one didn't like that. Plus she was pretty sure there was more than just an eminent danger on Briana's mind.

"Think she'll make it to Saturday in one piece?" Johnny questioned looking Amanda in the eye.

"Good question," she replied. "It's Briana; all we do is hope for the best at this point."

"Anyway, Jack's in on the party now, correct?" Johnny continued, moving from leaning against the locker to joining Amanda on her way to science class. "He any help?"

"Yeah, he's really helped, we now have soft drinks on the menu," Amanda answered happily. "Mountain Dew is surprisingly her favorite drink."

He nodded in reply. Amanda wondered what Johnny was thinking about, he was being rather quiet and it wasn't often that they switched immediately from the Nightingale and the problems that came with that topic to Briana and surprise parties.

"So any present ideas? My mom offered to help out with a lot of what we need. If we don't hurry, we're not gonna get Bree a present."

"Oh, I've got some ideas," Amanda replied, a grin spreading across her face at the memory of that little secret detail about Briana. "Do you think we can get a Robin tee-shirt along with some other stuff?"

"Ah … yeah." Johnny turned to give her an inquisitive look. "Why a Robin tee? Didn't Bree … well, you know, combat him Monday night?"

"Yeah, it's an inside joke now, I'll explain later," Amanda replied with a shrug as she stepped into the science lab room.

"Okay?"

Okay, so I didn't feel satisified with the previous version of the ending so I rewrote it. I intended to have another chapter along with this one but since that's taking some time I thought I'd update. Sorry for the inconvience.

Reasons to keep reading: well, both the bird are trying to figure out the other's idenity and are pretty darn close, Briana's past will hopefully come up before chapter forty, I can't garentee anything though. I've got a few bases to cover before I can get there.

Anouncement: updates will be coming a bit slower. It's nearing the end of my school year, summer is jam packed with this and that, and I might not know when the next chance at internet will be so things are going to be slower. Hopefully when I do update, it will be multiple chapters at a time instead of solos, that's probably the only upside to this one.

If you think I'm good at female OC's and want to read one existing in the Avengers universe, hop on over to my Miss Victory story.

Hope you enjoyed.

~Rayner out