p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"And so it went for a few days. She would wake in a panic, calling out in the dark, seeking answers that would not come with an ache bone deep. And so she would tread silently to his rooms. Neither would acknowledge what they were doing with words. Their only conversation was with skin on skin as they held each other through the twilights between, the desperately seeking hands and kisses far to gentle to drown out the weight in her mind. And before each morning she moved with the first beams of light creeping through the windows back to her room and inevitably back to her private bath to hide away her illness from the light of day./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"So out she came, swiping the back of her hand over her mouth, freezing in place at the figure sitting on her bed. She became acutely aware suddenly of the circles under her eyes and the pallor to her face usually covered with the make up skills learned young. What little she'd gleaned out of her old room was quickly running out and she'd never had unannounced visitors this early. She fidgeted in the doorway, looking back to the bathroom over her shoulder before deciding it's be even more suspicious to turn back now. So instead she rubbed at her weary face before fixing him with narrowed eyes./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"To his credit Dick had not looked up since the bathroom door had opened. He'd been flipping through some photos in his hands, fingers moving carefully, fanning and stacking them back together./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""How long have you been here." She demands with an air of annoyance. Her fingers twitched and she had to consciously work to keep them from her abdomen and drawing further attention to her current situation than anything he may have heard through the closed door./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"He looked up from his photos. A moment of surprised curiosity passing over his eyes. "You look tired."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Not much time for sleep in a house full of enemies." She came back with. She steeled herself against the flash of hurt in his eyes. They watched each other in silence for several long, heavy moments. "Are you really going to make me ask you what you're doing here?"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"His hands came up with the photos with a slight tilt of his head. Danielle crossed her arms over her chest. "We both know if I wanted to I'd have made a move long ago." He flipped the photos in his hand as if to emphasize his intentions. When she still made no move to get any closer he scanned quickly through his hand, tossing one right side up on the bed closer to her. From her place she could make out the most basic of details in the photo. The dark chocolate hair pulled into pig tails at the top of her head, green eyes, somewhat dated clothes though not exactly cheap. Her eyes flashed up to Dick who was looking down at the photo before going back to the picture, stepping carefully closer to take in more details as something was… Off with it./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Although you may not want to know it, the two of you couldn't have been more different." He chuckled without humor./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"An anger rose in her at his answer to her unspoken question. He had actually come to her with pictures of.. of the other Danielle. She moved forward quickly to snatch the photo from the covers, quickly stepping back again to examine it. No wonder something was off. Not only could this not have surfaced from her memory but… Everything was off. It was her, but not. It just didn't look right./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Just about the only thing you two have in common is your do or die way of thinking, though I guess we all have a streak of that." When she looked up to him there must have been something written on her face because he began to lay the photos down across the covers, carefully separating them for full view. It was the same girl in each. A few different angles and she could make out former members of young justice in the background, even some locations based on the attempted ambiguous backgrounds. However it only further cemented the difference between the two. They looked more like sisters than the same actual person, similar enough but just slightly different alignments./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Why does she look different." She blurted before she could help herself. She looked up to Dick, holding the photo out as if in proof. Was it her? She's older than the her in these photos. Has time warped the imagine she'd remember of herself that bad?/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"His face changed from a content memory to something much more deep and troubled. "Derringer." He growled out./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"She felt like a scab had been torn off, like salt was rubbed in her wounds. "But, I didn't-" She began with a bit of anger that he would bring up that name to her./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""But she did!" He interrupted pointing to a photo on the bed. "What you got was basics, stats and blue prints. Knowing the weakness, strengths and alliances. Those are the things Bruce keeps. What he locks away, forever hidden, is the lives and stories." Dick took a look around the room while running a hand through his hair in order to ground himself. "Derringer had gotten to her too. Bruce had no idea who she was until she ended up being saved by their worlds Robin from what they thought at the time to be a trafficking ring. No one had made the connection with the drug yet. He'd already gotten Fanella and Kerra. Hoped to get another genetic match since they'd developed well." She watched him swallow hard. He averted his eyes for a while, staring into the corner of the ceiling./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""So the drug…"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Changed her cellular make up. She excelled in strength, her pain threshold was enhanced. She learned martial arts and defense quickly as any new move was literally programmed into the muscle by the nanos. She looks different because her body is literally programmed different. She's best with her fist, brute strength and lack of pain to fight." And Danielle was always best with stealth, cunning, agility. He had a bit of pride in the thought that he'd helped give her that training, but her body had always appeared leaner than the Dani that had come to them almost two decades ago, less brute strength and bulky muscle./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Only proving he knew what he was doing!" She threw the photo to the bed. "He knew Derringer would take Fanella and Kerra and he still let it happen so he could get to me!"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"His eyes darkened. "If we wanted a soldier why would we not let him drug you too? Why would we take you in before you were programmed to fight." His voice was low and dangerous with a hint of Batman behind it. He was met with silence, grit teeth and glaring eyes. "After she left, me and Bruce did everything we could to PREVENT all this from happening. We backed Harolds company to keep you off the streets. I saw some of your first steps, I was there to watch you grow. We cried with you when we failed Harold. We failed you when we didn't see Cathleen spiraling, when we couldn't save your sisters, when we didn't see through Derringers disguise. We failed you. But don't you DARE accuse us for a minute of GROOMING you for this life!" With each word his voice was rising, growing darker, rougher until he was nearly growling it out. Internally her heart was in her stomach. This was a side of him that was never seen. Outwardly there was nothing more than perhaps slight uptake in her breathing as she stared him down./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Why did Bruce send you here?" She finally said if only to break the suffocating silence He chuckled./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Bruce didn't send me. Actually not sure I'll be allowed in Gotham after what we just had out before I got up here."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Tim-"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Didn't send me either." At her raised eyebrow he let out a little laugh acting much closer to the older brother she knew who always found the lightness in any situation. "Yeah, I got it out of him. He's only a good liar when he's not eating himself up inside. But he didn't send me." He closed his eyes, shaking his head gently to gather his thoughts. "We made a promise. I-"He emphasized, "made a promise. We said we'd change it. That we wouldn't let it happen. Jason, you, Tim. We broke every one."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Tim?" He meant the death of Tims parents? Confusion mixed with a growing anger at the implications./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""That we wouldn't let him join. He was never supposed to become Robin."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Her stomach dropped out. She looked away, unable to face him. She knew who had brought Tim in. It was her. After Jason had… Tim had come to them. He'd figured out their identities on his own. He was insistent, even though Bruce pushed back, denied over and over. Dick had tried to distance himself. But she needed him.. needed… It was her who begged to let him in, her who had undermined Bruce.. Her who had…/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""He was supposed to stay home with Jack and Janet. You were supposed to stay home. NONE of this was ever supposed to happen." He turned to catch her eyes, taking her a bit off guard with the raw emotions laid bare in the dark pools of blue, her arms falling to her sides. "You want to know why we never told you? Because we failed. And we did what we do best when we fail. We hid it. We repressed and denied it until it rotted and festered, eating us alive from the inside out!"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"~0~/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"His step slowed when he rounded the curve of the step to see Bruce at the bottom. He set his lips in a thin line, steeling himself for what he knew was coming. When he showed up demanding to talk to Danielle it hadn't gone over well. Bruce was never one to take any challenge of authority well. Still he forced himself to keep eye contact as he approached, coming to a stop in front of the older man./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""You had no right." There was no emotion in Bruces voice and it had never boiled his blood so quickly as it did now./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""You're right." He clipped. "I had no right to to hide it from them." He expected the scowl he received and was ready to match./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Ah! Master Richard. Is there anything I can get for you?"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Dick turned to meet Alfreds eye, features softening in thanks to the old man for the escape he'd knowingly created for him./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""I was just headed out Al. Thanks." He turned to give a pointed look to Bruce as Alfred offered to see him out before following./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Bruce watched the retreating form in silence before turning to the landing of the steps where Tim was stood watching, hand resting gently on the wall. The kids eyes were gently and yet somehow pierced straight through him in the moments they spent locked before the teen turned to head back up the stairs./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"So out she came, swiping the back of her hand over her mouth, freezing in place at the figure sitting on her bed. She became acutely aware suddenly of the circles under her eyes and the pallor to her face usually covered with the make up skills learned young. What little she'd gleaned out of her old room was quickly running out and she'd never had unannounced visitors this early. She fidgeted in the doorway, looking back to the bathroom over her shoulder before deciding it's be even more suspicious to turn back now. So instead she rubbed at her weary face before fixing him with narrowed eyes./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"To his credit Dick had not looked up since the bathroom door had opened. He'd been flipping through some photos in his hands, fingers moving carefully, fanning and stacking them back together./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""How long have you been here." She demands with an air of annoyance. Her fingers twitched and she had to consciously work to keep them from her abdomen and drawing further attention to her current situation than anything he may have heard through the closed door./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"He looked up from his photos. A moment of surprised curiosity passing over his eyes. "You look tired."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Not much time for sleep in a house full of enemies." She came back with. She steeled herself against the flash of hurt in his eyes. They watched each other in silence for several long, heavy moments. "Are you really going to make me ask you what you're doing here?"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"His hands came up with the photos with a slight tilt of his head. Danielle crossed her arms over her chest. "We both know if I wanted to I'd have made a move long ago." He flipped the photos in his hand as if to emphasize his intentions. When she still made no move to get any closer he scanned quickly through his hand, tossing one right side up on the bed closer to her. From her place she could make out the most basic of details in the photo. The dark chocolate hair pulled into pig tails at the top of her head, green eyes, somewhat dated clothes though not exactly cheap. Her eyes flashed up to Dick who was looking down at the photo before going back to the picture, stepping carefully closer to take in more details as something was… Off with it./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Although you may not want to know it, the two of you couldn't have been more different." He chuckled without humor./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"An anger rose in her at his answer to her unspoken question. He had actually come to her with pictures of.. of the other Danielle. She moved forward quickly to snatch the photo from the covers, quickly stepping back again to examine it. No wonder something was off. Not only could this not have surfaced from her memory but… Everything was off. It was her, but not. It just didn't look right./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Just about the only thing you two have in common is your do or die way of thinking, though I guess we all have a streak of that." When she looked up to him there must have been something written on her face because he began to lay the photos down across the covers, carefully separating them for full view. It was the same girl in each. A few different angles and she could make out former members of young justice in the background, even some locations based on the attempted ambiguous backgrounds. However it only further cemented the difference between the two. They looked more like sisters than the same actual person, similar enough but just slightly different alignments./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Why does she look different." She blurted before she could help herself. She looked up to Dick, holding the photo out as if in proof. Was it her? She's older than the her in these photos. Has time warped the imagine she'd remember of herself that bad?/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"His face changed from a content memory to something much more deep and troubled. "Derringer." He growled out./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"She felt like a scab had been torn off, like salt was rubbed in her wounds. "But, I didn't-" She began with a bit of anger that he would bring up that name to her./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""But she did!" He interrupted pointing to a photo on the bed. "What you got was basics, stats and blue prints. Knowing the weakness, strengths and alliances. Those are the things Bruce keeps. What he locks away, forever hidden, is the lives and stories." Dick took a look around the room while running a hand through his hair in order to ground himself. "Derringer had gotten to her too. Bruce had no idea who she was until she ended up being saved by their worlds Robin from what they thought at the time to be a trafficking ring. No one had made the connection with the drug yet. He'd already gotten Fanella and Kerra. Hoped to get another genetic match since they'd developed well." She watched him swallow hard. He averted his eyes for a while, staring into the corner of the ceiling./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""So the drug…"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Changed her cellular make up. She excelled in strength, her pain threshold was enhanced. She learned martial arts and defense quickly as any new move was literally programmed into the muscle by the nanos. She looks different because her body is literally programmed different. She's best with her fist, brute strength and lack of pain to fight." And Danielle was always best with stealth, cunning, agility. He had a bit of pride in the thought that he'd helped give her that training, but her body had always appeared leaner than the Dani that had come to them almost two decades ago, less brute strength and bulky muscle./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Only proving he knew what he was doing!" She threw the photo to the bed. "He knew Derringer would take Fanella and Kerra and he still let it happen so he could get to me!"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"His eyes darkened. "If we wanted a soldier why would we not let him drug you too? Why would we take you in before you were programmed to fight." His voice was low and dangerous with a hint of Batman behind it. He was met with silence, grit teeth and glaring eyes. "After she left, me and Bruce did everything we could to PREVENT all this from happening. We backed Harolds company to keep you off the streets. I saw some of your first steps, I was there to watch you grow. We cried with you when we failed Harold. We failed you when we didn't see Cathleen spiraling, when we couldn't save your sisters, when we didn't see through Derringers disguise. We failed you. But don't you DARE accuse us for a minute of GROOMING you for this life!" With each word his voice was rising, growing darker, rougher until he was nearly growling it out. Internally her heart was in her stomach. This was a side of him that was never seen. Outwardly there was nothing more than perhaps slight uptake in her breathing as she stared him down./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Why did Bruce send you here?" She finally said if only to break the suffocating silence He chuckled./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Bruce didn't send me. Actually not sure I'll be allowed in Gotham after what we just had out before I got up here."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Tim-"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Didn't send me either." At her raised eyebrow he let out a little laugh acting much closer to the older brother she knew who always found the lightness in any situation. "Yeah, I got it out of him. He's only a good liar when he's not eating himself up inside. But he didn't send me." He closed his eyes, shaking his head gently to gather his thoughts. "We made a promise. I-"He emphasized, "made a promise. We said we'd change it. That we wouldn't let it happen. Jason, you, Tim. We broke every one."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Tim?" He meant the death of Tims parents? Confusion mixed with a growing anger at the implications./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""That we wouldn't let him join. He was never supposed to become Robin."/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Her stomach dropped out. She looked away, unable to face him. She knew who had brought Tim in. It was her. After Jason had… Tim had come to them. He'd figured out their identities on his own. He was insistent, even though Bruce pushed back, denied over and over. Dick had tried to distance himself. But she needed him.. needed… It was her who begged to let him in, her who had undermined Bruce.. Her who had…/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""He was supposed to stay home with Jack and Janet. You were supposed to stay home. NONE of this was ever supposed to happen." He turned to catch her eyes, taking her a bit off guard with the raw emotions laid bare in the dark pools of blue, her arms falling to her sides. "You want to know why we never told you? Because we failed. And we did what we do best when we fail. We hid it. We repressed and denied it until it rotted and festered, eating us alive from the inside out!"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"~0~/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;" /p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"His step slowed when he rounded the curve of the step to see Bruce at the bottom. He set his lips in a thin line, steeling himself for what he knew was coming. When he showed up demanding to talk to Danielle it hadn't gone over well. Bruce was never one to take any challenge of authority well. Still he forced himself to keep eye contact as he approached, coming to a stop in front of the older man./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""You had no right." There was no emotion in Bruces voice and it had never boiled his blood so quickly as it did now./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""You're right." He clipped. "I had no right to to hide it from them." He expected the scowl he received and was ready to match./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""Ah! Master Richard. Is there anything I can get for you?"/p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Dick turned to meet Alfreds eye, features softening in thanks to the old man for the escape he'd knowingly created for him./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;""I was just headed out Al. Thanks." He turned to give a pointed look to Bruce as Alfred offered to see him out before following./p
p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%;"Bruce watched the retreating form in silence before turning to the landing of the steps where Tim was stood watching, hand resting gently on the wall. The kids eyes were gently and yet somehow pierced straight through him in the moments they spent locked before the teen turned to head back up the stairs./p