"What's this?"
"Coffee. I went to get some and… I guess I thought you might need it."
"Oh, uh, thanks," Kate said, her eyes narrowed in slight skepticism at the gesture.
"I didn't know how you took it," Sophie confessed, sliding the steaming cup toward Kate. "I assumed black-"
"-like my soul?"
"But just in case," Sophie said, ignoring Kate's retort and depositing satchels of sugar and cream onto the table.
"Your intuition was right," Kate said, lifting the cup to her mouth and gifting it a soft blow before taking a sip.
"You aren't normally here this late," Sophie said, lingering at the table littered with Kate's books.
"That's generous of you," Kate replied before taking another sip. "I think what you mean to say is 'you aren't normally here' full stop."
It was true. Sophie had never seen Kate within the confines of the library. She was half-surprised Kate wasn't covered in hives and sneezing in an allergic response.
"Apparently excelling in drills and tactical courses isn't enough to get you through military school, so-" Kate offered, gesturing toward the stack of notebooks and assignments.
"Do… do you want some help?" Sophie asked. She wasn't sure who was more surprised by the offer: her or Kate. Surprise and hesitation didn't matter though, because behind that Sophie could see the glow of appreciation in the pair of eyes staring back at her.
"Luke, I saw her... I… I'm telling you."
"Sophie, she's gone," Luke said simply. "Green eyes aren't that uncommon."
"But what if Julia's intel was wrong. I mean, it's happened before - just look at Alice and-"
"Sophie…" Luke interrupted, a familiar sympathy radiating from his own brown eyes looming behind his spectacles. "She's gone," he repeated softly.
Sophie didn't know how to articulate this uncontrollable drive that brought her to Wayne Tower. The face was unknown, but she'd spent the last three nights jolted awake by a pair of green eyes interrogating her to her soul. They were confused and lost, but they were also exactly as she remembered. They were exactly as she'd always remember them.
"They were her eyes, Luke…" she whispered, blinking away the memory of this stranger's penetrating gaze. "They were her's."
"How do you know?" Luke asked. It was a soft prod clouded in skepticism, and Sophie knew it'd be an uphill battle to convince Luke otherwise. "I don't mean to sound harsh, but… but you didn't make the connection before. How can you be so sure now?"
Sophie felt a familiar anger sting her eyes. She expected Luke to say this; to bring up the encounters she'd overlooked. She shook her head slightly in frustration, closing her eyes to block any tears from falling. Hindsight afforded her the truth; a truth she had been certain of at the time but was persuaded away from through cheap parlor tricks and denial.
"Because it's her," she said, opening her eyes toward Luke.
Luke's eyes softened seeing the way Sophie clung to this, knowing it was a handful of straws held tightly in her grips.
"There isn't a day… I miss her too. But that doesn't change reality. That doesn't change… Sophie, have you talked to anyone about this?"
"No, I… I was hoping you would talk to Batwoman and maybe we could-"
"No, that… that's not what I meant," Luke said slowly. "I meant about your grief."
"What? No it's not… this isn't grief, Luke. This is me trying to find answers," she replied, an edge appearing in her voice. There was also a desperation, a pleading in her words. She didn't know what was up from down anymore; the only thing she needed was confirmation that she wasn't off the rails, and he wasn't giving her that. She needed to know the rabbit hole she was spiraling toward had a light at the end of it. The look on Luke's face suggested the exact opposite, and it was then that Sophie's desperation became blatant denial.
Luke could have spent the next ten minutes outlining all the reasons this was a wild goose chase, and it wouldn't have mattered to Sophie. On paper what she was saying was preposterous. She knew coming to Luke risked opening up partially healed wounds. It was why she hadn't turned to Jacob. Even on a good day he was coping worse than Sophie. Instead she figured if anyone could see potential in the sea of ambiguity and not fall into a hole of depression, it would be Luke. The look of sympathetic doubt in Luke's eyes was enough for Sophie to know she had gone to the wrong person.
She knew of only one other person crazy enough to listen.