xxxXXXxxx

Eight months before Brainiac's invasion

xxxXXXxxx

"Please...please…stop..."

Barbara Gordon's feet begged her, their convictions renewing with each step. All she had to do was make it to the Bat-Computer, then she could sit down. Then she could...rest…

"Penguin nearly escaped tonight," Batman started, his usual 'mission debriefing' always started the same way, and he always looked to Barbara. She'd learned not to cringe when he did.

Nightwing stepped between them. "Bruce-"

"I thought I trained you better than that," Batman continued. "Than to trip over your own two feet when giving chase."

Barbara was barely listening. She was using all of her remaining energy to get to that chair. When she finally made it, she sat down and let out a relieved sigh, her aching ankles thanking her. She could fall asleep right there.

"You're out," the words shot through Barbara like a bullet, jolting her awake.

"What?"

"You'll leave your suit here, along with any tools within it, and you'll forget you were ever here," he said, walking over and typing the password into the console. "Bat-Computer, remove authorization: Gordon, Barbara."

"What?!" she raised her voice to make sure the old codger's ears picked up on it this time. "You can't do that!"

"I can, and I did," he pulled back his cowl, revealing a stern glare underneath. It was so intense, so focused. Barbara could only imagine she looked like a slobbering mule in comparison; a tool to be used, by him. Barbara returned with her own glare. "If you can't do the job properly, you won't do it at all. Do you even realize that people can get hurt? Is this all still a game to you?"

"It's not a game," Barbara snapped back. "I work my ass off day in and day out to do this, to help people, and keep up with my own life too, and this is the thanks I get? Not a 'you did your best,' or an 'are you okay, you look like you had a rough night'?"

Nightwing had removed his mask. His gaze was softer, but still in warning; she was even losing his support. "Babs, you know that's not what he meant by this, and Bruce, this was one night."

"One night that nearly cost twelve lives," Batman returned, gaze going back to the Bat-Computer and meticulously specifying all of the functions that Barbara was to be locked out of. By the end, she wouldn't even be able to access the internet on her phone.

"Bruce, you know why Babs wasn't at her best tonight, and you know how hard she's working."

"I'm working twice as hard as you!" Barbara seethed toward the billionaire, but didn't back down from the silent warning Nightwing gave her. "I've heard about what you do; sleep through all of your business meetings, ignore everyone, and blindly agree to your board's demands. You don't have a single friend that you ever talk to. You just do this; go out dressed as a Bat and beat people up, meanwhile Dick and I are juggling this all night every night, Dick has his own Team to lead, we have college all day, social lives, and anything else that we need to do to further our own careers!"

Batman wasn't even looking at her, and responded as coldly as when he'd first made the offer for her to join the crusade as Batgirl. "I give exactly what I need to give in that life. The rest...is this. I trained for fifteen years to force my body to operate at maximum efficiency for the exact amount of time that I need, and I'm sorry if that doesn't leave much room for the less-important things that you care about so much; the friends that we save at night, and the businesses that you work for," she flinched at that. "Leave."

"No!" she leapt to her feet, ready to fight for her right to be here. A leftover from her training; always be ready for a fight, even if you don't want one. Batman glared at her and straightened. Nightwing didn't get between them, not wanting to interrupt the potential battle.

For better or worse, there wasn't one. "...You want so badly to stay? Fine. Come back in a week and bring your usual self. Not...this."

Barbara tightened her lips. 'This?' What was that supposed to mean? She was in top form! One bad night wouldn't change that.

But then her feet screamed at her to sit back down.

Barbara huffed. "Fine…" she shoved past Nightwing, who watched her go. All the better to get out of this miserable cave for a while.

xxxXXXxxx

Barbara's whole body ached the next morning. It was an unusually sunny day in Gotham, which didn't help the splitting headache she'd woken up with. She slowly pushed herself up to sit, seeing several empty beer bottles dotted around her room. God, did she really drink that many? Shaking her head, Barbara laid back down on her pillow, hoping to simply sleep off this hangover.

She almost made it too, before she was so rudely interrupted.

As if it had happened on cue, Barbara's headache vanished as she slipped off into dreamland only to come crashing back with a vengeance from the knock on her window. Damned idiots!

Barbara angrily threw her covers off of her and rushed to the window, not even thinking about what she had stripped down to in her drunken state the night before. Thankfully, gone-Barbara was kind enough to leave her more or less covered, at least enough to where she could open her window and screech unholy curses on the brats that were throwing stones around again after she'd filed four complaints about it to her landlord.

Instead, Barbara was met with a red-and-blue 'S' plastered across her vision. She stared dumbfounded at it, only for the person attached to knock on the window again; she'd been the source, it seemed. Barbara saw the girl point at her face; her eyes were up there, not at the 'S.'

With a bashful smile on her face, Barbara opened the window and allowed the costumed freak into her apartment. "Phew, thought you'd never wake up," the girl stretched a few times as she took the steps to the bed. She had a bag slung over her shoulder, opened just enough to see a set of clothes inside, which she threw onto the bed as she'd done so many times before. "You're usually up at dawn, Babs; what's so special about…" she trailed off, eyeing the myriad bottles. "Babs…"

"I don't want to talk about it," Barbara said irritably. "Why are you in Gotham, Kara? Doesn't...gah, where are you again? Coast City? Don't you work during the day there? Don't they need you to deal with some super alien robot?"

"National City, actually…" Barbara could easily detect the disappointment in the Kryptionian's voice. "And Connor is covering for me today; I got to borrow him from his little team."

"Why?"

"Because I wanted a day to myself, and to hang out with my friend!" the blonde was all smiles as she said it, but Barbara had gotten very good at detecting lies in the past few years.

"...Someone told you," Barbara concluded, after running through her options. Kara sighed.

"Someone told me," she admitted.

"Who?"

"I promised not to tell," Kara stood. "And even though you probably have a monster hangover, we're going to have a good day, alright?"

"I don't know, Kara, I'm really...not in the right mood to have a girl's day out…" Barbara ran a hand through her hair, absent-mindedly picking at the knots that had accumulated through the night. Kara gently took her wandering hand into her own, lacing their fingers together. Her gaze was warm, but her eyes just as fierce as ever. Even when Barbara had met her, she'd noticed those eyes, always alert and always ready to look for weaknesses.

"We're going," she said resoundingly. Though Barbara wanted to argue, she knew that it wouldn't get her anywhere. Best not make the headache worse, then.

After both girls changed into casual clothing, they exited the apartment complex. Barbara threw her computer bag into the back of her old beat up car just in case she needed it, and both girls got in with Barbara driving. "You know, I could just fly us to the mall," Kara said off-handedly. Barbara started the ignition and took off down the road.

"Hangover plus 'Supergirl flying' equals throw up," Barbara grimaced just thinking about it.

"Hey! I fly great!" Kara gave her a light shove, obviously tempered so as not to hurt the ginger.

"Keep telling yourself that. And also, no mall," Barbara said tiredly. "And I never thought I'd say that."

"What? But you love shopping!"

"I love shopping," Barbara confirmed. "But no mall. Too loud, too crowded. Today I'd rather have...space."

"So...where are we going?"

Barbara sighed. "...I don't know, a park maybe. Or a little restaurant on some nowhere corner that no one cares about. You know, anywhere that I don't have to see that insufferable 'W' plastered on fifteen different signs and buildings," she shivered, even though it wasn't cold. Barbara was disturbed that even she could pick up on her own bitterness.

"A park, huh?" Kara grinned, ignoring the rest of the tirade. "I know a place, but it's gonna be a drive."

"How long?"

"Ah, a while," she shrugged.

"So, Metropolis?"

"Longer," Kara got a glint in her eye. The same one she had when she tricked Barbara into eating that alien pudding that tasted like feet.

"...Kara, I'm not going all the way to National City today…"

"Not in this clunker, you won't," without another word, Kara threw herself out of the open window, and then Barbara felt herself rising. She could only imagine what her road neighbors were thinking when they saw a car fly.

Left with little choice but to sit back and try not to puke, Barbara closed her eyes and tried not to focus on her reeling stomach. She must've done a good job too, because in what felt like seconds she felt the jolt of the car being lowered onto the ground. She shook her head clear of fog as Kara came around and opened the door for her. "How...how long were we flying?"

"Hm?" Kara cocked her head to the side. "About half an hour. Why?"

"N-no reason," she offered her best smile as her stomach settled down, and let Kara get her bag for her. Barbara couldn't tell exactly where they were; much of her surroundings felt like a standard city to her. They'd landed in a small parking lot that Barbara assumed was for Kara's apartment, if she had one over here anyway, and there were sidewalks that led to streets upon streets upon streets.

Kara seemed to get distracted along the way to whatever destination she had in mind, as she dragged Barbara into not one, not two, but three stores. The first was for knick-knacks, the second for make-up, and the third for clothes; all of them were local tourist shops.

She refused Kara both when she tried to get her to buy something and when Kara offered to buy something for her. Not only did she not want to be indebted to the Kryptonian, but she wanted to keep her budget balanced for this month, thank you very much. The last shopping spree the two superheroines had gone on set Barbara back by nearly half a year's allowance, and she did not want a repeat of that incident.

Still, Barbara couldn't say that the time spent browsing was unenjoyable. Seeing Kara so giddy and so wide-eyed was always a treat. Always smiling, always so kind and considerate, Kara was absolutely adorable. Just looking at her having the time of her life lessened the ache in Barbara's muscles, and made the prospect of a girl's day out just a bit more tolerable.

By the time they actually made it to the park that was apparently where Kara had been leading them, the blonde's arms were full of bags. "Does Clark pay for all of this on a reporter's salary?" she wondered.

Kara scoffed at that. "No, I pay for it! I've saved up for a while to get all this, and most of it was on sale anyway, so there!" she stuck her tongue out behind her.

Barbara laughed at that, and realized that it didn't hurt her head anymore to do so; a good sign. "If you can pay for all that, can I assume you'll pay for breakfast?"

"Lunch, and yes I will," Kara said, taking them just across the street from the park to a cute little restaurant with strangely sectioned-off booths, to where you couldn't hear anyone talking in any of them. Honestly, it unnerved the crimefighter; she liked it when she was able to listen in on her surroundings if she had to.

A few pizza slices later and both girls were full and scrolling through their phones. Barbara's gaze flitted up to Kara. She was biting the corner of her lip; trying to beat a hard level, maybe? "Whoops," Barbara shot her hand in front of her friend's screen.

"What? No!" Kara cried, hands going to her head in frustration. "I was about to get a new high score!"

"Sorry, muscle spasm," Barbara smirked, sipping her drink. Kara only pouted for so long, eventually setting her phone down and sliding it away from her, which meant that she wanted to talk. Barbara put down her own phone as well, and Kara seemed to pick up on why she did so without prompting.

"You know, sometimes it's scary how much you're like him," Kara noted of her observational skills.

Barbara frowned. "Like who?" she asked, even though she already knew the answer.

"Like…" Kara leaned in closer. "Like Bruce...I mean, Batman," Barbara's eyes narrowed. "A-and that's not a bad thing. I mean, it's good to be observant, and-"

"Obsessive?" Barbara returned. "Kara, please don't start with this. Not today."

"But Babs, it's been getting worse! Do you know how many times I've called you this past month?"

"96 times, averaging 3.097 times a day. The typical time is between three and five in the afternoon because that's when I said I was free most days, but the past two weeks have seen an uptick in morning calls," Barbara answered, causing Kara to recoil at the accuracy and what it showed both women. Barbara knew that Kara was going to say 'I told you so.' "Yes, I know I'm like him, okay? You've told me before, and I didn't like it then either."

"Then I thought you might take it as a compliment," Kara said back, though not nearly as harshly as Barbara bit at her. "I mean, he's strong for a human, and he's one of the smartest men on the planet, so that's something. You're like that."

"And I'm sure I've inherited none of his other, less convenient traits to talk about."

Kara moved her hand to take Barbara's. "Babs..." But she moved it away before it could be taken.

"..." Barbara sighed. "...You said someone told you, right? What did they tell you?"

"Just...that you were having problems with Bruce, Batman-"

"Just say Bruce," Barbara said impatiently.

"Bruce...and that you were...taking time off from your...job."

"Is that all?" Barbara didn't know whether to be happy or to feel insulted. "I'll tell you what happened; I almost got twelve people killed because I'm not good enough. They almost died because I was too weak to save them. Bruce had to do it for me," she put all of her venom into that damned man's name. Realizing that her eyes were misting over, Barbara hastily wiped them clean and promptly ignored all of the other signs of her emotional state. "I jump off of buildings and fight guns with sharpened boomerangs, but last night I...I fell all over myself, Kara," this time, she couldn't stop the tears from falling. Kara slipped out from across the booth and sat next to her, wrapping her arm around her friend. "And I know why I couldn't do it, but I can't just stop going out at night when they might need me…"

"Maybe you can," Kara offered. "Your body needs to rest."

"That's easy for you to say! You don't have to eat or sleep, you can just fly up to the sun and be back at full in ten minutes!"

"I don't get hurt from getting shot at by guns either, and yet here I am still telling crooks not to use them because they hurt people," Kara said. "I just want to help, you know that I do. So please, Babs...just tell me what's really wrong."

"...I've been a burden on them...for a while…" Barbara admitted. "Bruce and Dick...they've been carrying me along...out of pity," she spat.

"Aw, come on; you and I both know neither of those guys would pity you. I mean, Bruce wouldn't. The guy doesn't have much humanity left to pity you with anyway…" she trailed off, as if saying that reminded her of something. "A-anyway, I'm sure Dick wouldn't either. He's your friend, and Bruce trusted you enough to tell you his secret identity, so I'm sure they both have the utmost faith in you."

"Then why were they bringing me along when I was just a liability? I'm useless out there! I'm not as strong as them or as fast as them, and I can't do the job as long as they can because I'm trying to have a life, but I can't have one because every night that I'm not out there in my cape and cowl, people that I could've saved will die! And then I have no energy the next day because I was up fighting people all night, and then I have less energy the next night, and then the next, and then the next until I...trip over my own two feet…"

"Trust me, I get it," Kara rubbed her back and brushed her hair from her face. "But I still don't think it was pity. I'm sure they were hoping that you'd learn to take a break on your own. They trust you that way," she caressed Barbara's cheek, getting her to look into those wonderful sea-blue eyes. "And you can do a lot that they can't either. You're a better hacker than anyone else, and your memory is way better than either of them too; Bruce said so himself. You've got plenty going for you, and," she smiled and gestured to herself. "You've at least got one friend; that's 100% more than Bruce has!"

All Barbara could do was sniffle a bit at that. Really, Barbara didn't deserve a friend like Kara, so loving and perfect. What Barbara wouldn't give to spend every day with her, constantly boosting her own mood and making her see the beauty in everything the Earth offered the way Kara saw it, as someone who had to watch such beauty die before.

Kara shook her gently. "Come on. The park awaits."

Soon, the two were resting under the shade of a tree. A pond was to their left, and the park's running path ran along their right. Barbara watched the parkgoers quietly, letting Kara do the talking.

She was rambling on about her latest fight against Deimax, unleashed along with several more of the Worldkillers, and it happened that this was the last fight she'd have with them for a while since they'd all been killed or incapacitated by the Girl of Steel before now. Then the topic shifted to her visit to Metropolis last week, and how she had to help Superman get a story about cyberbullying and also help him defeat Livewire after she threatened to cause a city-wide blackout. And then it shifted again and again and again, but Barbara had totally spaced out by this point.

She was busy anyway, tracing each little crack in the blonde's palm with a finger, each little nigh-undetectable scar on her knuckles from punching super powerful alien cyborgs. She was busy stealing looks at her friend's face, its little ticks like how her right eye grew wide before her left eye when she was excited, but only by a few milliseconds, and the way her ears rose when she grinned, and getting lost in the blues of her eyes, the pink shade of her lips…

"-think so too, right?"

Barbara blinked her gaze away. "W-what? Uh, y-yeah…"

"So you think I'd look good with a pixie cut too?" Kara grinned.

"W-wait, I-" she flicked the ginger in the head before she could embarrass herself.

"Oh please, even I could tell that you weren't paying attention," Kara leaned forward, taking her hand away from Barbara to wrap around her knees. "I...look Babs, I'm really worried about you. You're not right where you are, in the headspace you're in."

"..."

"So, I was wondering…" Kara cleared her throat. "I mean, there are some villains in this city that don't match my strengths, you know? Ones that need a bit more of a thinker to deal with them, and I was wondering, if you'd be up for it, if you would want to maybe take a break from Gotham and come work here with me, in National City? It's not that I need to keep an eye on you, but it might be better for you if you were working somewhere where you didn't have to compare yourself to so many other people. At least here, you'd have nights off and I have a few friends at CATCO that I'm sure you'd get along with, and…" Kara kept rattling off justifications and concessions for Barbara, but she'd stopped listening.

Honestly, she was unsure she'd heard the Kryptonian right. Work...here? How would that function? Would she live here? That was a stupid question; of course she'd have to live here in National City, but Barbara was already attending Gotham State University. Would she transfer? Do online courses? Would she still work at night, or did Kara want her to work during the day while she was active? Too many questions floated around unanswered for Barbara's exhausted mind, but ultimately they all boiled down to one central question: did she want to live with Kara?

"Yes," Barbara said.

"R-really?" Kara asked, as if she wasn't expecting the answer. At the very least, Barbara figured she wasn't expecting it so quickly. "B-because, uh...and it doesn't have to be for any specific amount of time; a week, a month-"

"Until further notice?" Barbara wondered. In her fatigued state, Barbara knew she wouldn't have as much of a filter if she spoke more, and yet kept going anyway. "I want to be with you, Kara. All of the time, and then even more than that," she announced, causing the blonde's cheeks to turn red. "I...I want to…" she didn't finish, just pushed her lips into the pink shade of Kara's, and the two enjoyed a kiss.

And what made Barbara the happiest was that Kara kissed her back, and then said yes.

xxxXXXxxx

Barbara knocked on the front door of Wayne Manor, hands stuffed in her jacket's pockets. Her ankles begged for her to sit down, but unfortunately there was no chair in sight. It might have been a mistake to have Kara drop her off at the apartment without the car, but since she'd just be picking Barbara up in a few hours, neither felt the need to rectify that.

So, she was left to walk here from the subway station, and on already-aching feet, it probably wasn't the best idea.

Still, she stood confidently on the porch until Alfred, ever-faithful Alfred, answered. "Ah, young Barbara, always a pleasure to see you come to us as a friend and not a partner."

"Thanks Alfred," Barbara said. "Is Bruce here?"

"I'm afraid Master Bruce is busy at the moment, and you are well-aware that you are locked out of all Wayne-Tech systems, so I-"

"I'll only be a minute," Barbara begged. Alfred twitched his mustache nervously, but soon nodded and beckoned her inside. "Thank you…"

"Oh, don't thank me yet; Master Bruce is in one of his moods today, I'm afraid."

And Barbara was sure that that was due to some complication from one of Barbara's last nights in the cowl.

Still, Alfred led her through the secret entrance to the Batcave behind the grandfather clock, down the gloomy stairs and into the looming, dank chamber that housed so many millions of dollars' worth of equipment. "Ah, Master Bruce, you have a guest."

"I know," the billionaire growled, eyes plunged into a microscope, examining evidence. "She was told not to come back."

"You said to come back when I was better," Barbara returned, hands still stuffed in pockets, if for no other reason than to hide her fists of frustration with this immovable wall of a man. "And I'm better."

"You know when we operate, then," Batman waved her away, but she only descended further down the stairs and to his level, passing her costume along the way, stationed neatly in its case where she was sure it would be staying for many years, until Batman found another girl to bring into his dysfunctional 'family.'

"So, what are you examining today? Blood? Fingerprints?"

"..."

"...I've made a decision: I'm leaving Gotham," she only half-expected that to get a reaction, but he didn't give her that courtesy. "Kara invited me to work with her over in National City, and we're girlfriends now and she makes me happy, so I agreed."

"Good for you," was all he said in response.

"...You have a Batcave in National City, don't you?"

"I have a Batcave in every city," he growled, growing frustrated with her questions.

"Am I allowed to use it while I work there?" she wondered, already knowing the answer.

"You're locked out of the systems, and the security will keep you from getting in," Batman said. Barbara shrugged.

"Figured. I guess I'll just have to hack into it like I did when we first met, huh?" she smiled at the memory. She'd figured out who the infamous Batman was and was going to turn him in to her father to impress him, only to be sucked into the fold of crimefighting, and doing what was right. That was when she was fifteen and she was so much smarter now; hacking into the system would be child's play. "Well, I just wanted to let you know so you didn't call and ask where I was, not that you ever call..." she started away from him, ascending the stairs. But as she passed the case with her old costume, the glass receded and she knew it was hers to take. She looked back to Batman.

"I assume you just hacked that?" he asked, almost sarcastically, still face-first into the microscope as if he hadn't moved a muscle. With a smile, Barbara took the costume and utility belt, and went up the stairs until she was about to exit the chamber, only to hesitate. Something lingered on her mind.

"Hey, Bat...I mean, Bruce; you were the one that told Kara about what happened, didn't-" she turned back, only to see that he had vanished in his usual style. It was all the same; she'd already confirmed with Dick that he didn't tell her, leaving only one candidate.

Barbara bid Alfred farewell and exited Wayne Manor feeling lighter than when she entered. With a long, satisfying breath, Barbara fished out her phone and dialed her favorite number.

"Done already?" came Kara on the other end.

"Are you kidding? It felt like hours. Hey, can you come pick me up? I've got some Wayne-Tech to break into over there before I can help with your thinking villains."