The Lease

Chapter 5

There was a part of Dick that was convinced that he was more than kinda paranoid and it probably came with the territory of having been a vigilante as long as he had been. He was using that to justify putting a small bug in Heather's home as she led him to the apartment he was hoping to move into soon. It was invasive and indicated he didn't trust her: which he kinda didn't since he really didn't know her aside from what he had looked up on the computer in the Batcave and what he learned about her today in the park. She punched in a code to the front door of the apartment complex and looked up at him, "If you sign the lease, you will be getting your own code, I already talked to the property manager about it, as well as your own set of keys."

Dick nodded, "That's good to know."

She shrugged, "It's inconvenient sometimes. You can't share or give out your code and when you move out the one you had will be removed from the system. That reminds me, I need to see about getting a key code for Hazel, my sister, since she comes over regularly."

"Do you want to do that right now," He asked. He knew his brothers would find ways around the security eventually, if they ever bothered to come out this way and invade the apartment.

Heather nodded and shrugged, "Yeah, but not right now since it could take a while to talk to the manager."

That was fair. "Any other security measures?"

"Besides the door code and door keys? Not really," she said as she pushed off the wall and the elevator came to a stop. "Come one," she said, tossing a smile at him as she left the elevator and turned to the right and went off. "There's a cleaning crew that comes by and takes care of the public areas on Fridays and each unit has a washer and dryer. If you take the elevator down past the lobby, there's a gym and a pool. My apartment has a balcony." He kinda knew these things already since he had studied the layout of the building. "Emergency stairwells are at both ends of the hall and this is home," She stopped almost abruptly, and Dick almost ran into outside apartment 394.

Heather pulled something out of her purse and Dick stared at it. "What the hell is that?" He asked, tilting his head to the side. It could have been the key to a VERY antique safe.

"Door key," Heather said as she held it up for him to see. The key was long and pronged on both sides with many square cut ridges and the part held in her hand was wide and flat. She stuck the key in the door and Dick could clearly hear one, two, three different bolts move out of place and with the fourth turn, Heather reached out and pushed down on the door handle and shoved what was apparently a heavy door inward.

Right so the heavy ass door with the four locks bundled into one was totally a basic security measure, right…. "This is more than just a basic door lock security," he said, eyeing her.

Heather gave him a cheeky smile and shrugged, "They're a pain in the ass but whatever works right?" She pushed the door the rest of the way open and stepped inside. "Come on in, please leave your shoes by the door only if you are comfortable with that, elsewise feel free to leave them on." She said as she walked into the apartment and took her purse off and wrapped the strap around it before placing it on a table beside the door.

Dick kept his shoes on and looked around the apartment. The pictures really didn't do the home justice and he took in the off-white walls and crème carpet. The furniture in the living room was matched and the kitchen was separated by a breakfast bar, not a low wall like he had originally thought. There was a girl, most likely Hazel, sitting at the counter with a juice box and a ball of slime that she was rolling and poking at with a skewer.

"Hazel, I'm home," Heather said as she closed the door and locked it behind them. The girl looked up and Dick could link the similar facial features, the same nose, lips, jaw, ears, and eye shape. That cleared up enough for him that they were actually sisters. Dark brown eyes watched Dick in a way that made him feel like his soul was being examined.

HE gave her one of his friendliest smiles and approached her, holding out his hand, "Hi Hazel, it's good to meet you."

She looked at his hand, like she wasn't sure what he wanted from her but did reach out to shake it. "Hi Dick, nice to meet you too," she said before she turned back around to stab at the slime.

Heather smiles at her sister and comes over to kiss the side of her head. The teen gives the older woman a smile and picks up the juice box to offer it to her sister. He watches Heather take a sip and then make a face, "That doesn't taste right…" She takes the box and reads it "Blueberry Strawberry Blitz? I can only taste bananas and strawberries."

Hazel giggled and said, "Me too, it's super weird."

"Indeed. You okay kiddo?" She asked and Dick watched the interaction, wondering at the interactions the two are having that remind him more of how his mom was than any siblings he had ever seen, his included.

Hazel shrugged and turned back to her slime, "Everything feels 2 inches to the left."

"Ah, I see. Would a nap help? I'm gonna show Dick the apartment and then start on something for dinner," Heather said and, while she was preoccupied with her sister, Dick took the tiny bug out of his pocket and hid it on the hollow underside of the countertop.

"Can we have pasta?" The girl asked, looking between her sister and him.

He smiled at her, "I'm always down for spaghetti and meatballs."

Hazel laughed quietly and put the slime back in the plastic container. She closed the lid and hopped off the bar stool. "Heather made some ravioli on Tuesday, can we do that?" She asked as she looked at her sister.

Heather looked at Dick who was leaning casually against the counter, "Do you have any food allergies?" He shook his head, "Then we can do the ravioli," she said.

"Can I watch a movie instead of taking a nap?"

"Sure kiddo, just remember to take it out of the DVD player and put it back in its box when you're done with it."

Hazel put the slime in the pantry and went to what Dick assumed was Heather's room. "She, okay?" He asked, not wanting to pry and at the same time not wanting to seem like an ass and not ask.

Heather shrugged, "She's having an off day, but ultimately, I think she's alright. Come on, I'll give you the .10 tour."

Heather pointed everything out and led him down the hall to the room that would be his when he signed the lease and showed him the bathroom and the little hall closet that had the stacked washer and dryer.

All in all, Dick found the apartment cozy. He would need to get a desk and some filing cabinets for his room but the dart board in the hallway made him laugh. "You any good at that?" He asked her, pointing to the dart board.

Heather smirked at him, and the look made his own lips tick up into a smile, "Yeah, I'm pretty good at it, though definitely not competition level."

Dick smiled, "Any other games you're good at?"

Heather led him back into the main room and pointed to a small bookshelf full of all types of board games, card games, and a long metal case. "The case has poker chips and two different decks in it," she said as she went to the kitchen and pulled out the ingredients for a home-made pasta sauce, including fresh tomatoes and herbs. "You wanna help?" She asked as she washed the tomatoes.

Dick thought about it for all of a minute before he nodded and headed over to help her make the sauce while she pulled the ravioli out of the freeze. They were in a little green Tupperware and when she opened it he was surprised to see that the ravioli looked like wheat, not the normal squares he was used to seeing. "What are those?" He asked.

"Culurgiones," she said as she set them out to defrost and took a block of parmesan cheese and a cheese grater.

~~~~~TIME Skip ~~~~~

Heather waved to Dick as he left the building. Once he was out of sight, she sighed in relief, it had been a fun day, and Hazel was starting to feel better by the end of it too. Heather turned to go back inside and as she did so, she spotted her mother Holly, coming up the sidewalk, looking decidedly unhappy. Heather drew in a deep breath and opened the door wider for her mother to go into the building.

Holly said nothing to her oldest child as she waited impatiently to get to the apartment. Heather was fine with that; she knew this was going to turn into a fight and she needed to mentally prep for it. When they got to her floor, she knocked on the door five times rather than the normal three she would use when it was just her and Hazel in the apartment. The two extra knocks let the younger Weber girl know that their mother was here. The door opened and an unhappy Hazel looked at her mother for only a moment before she moved to let them in.

"Hazel, get your things, we are heading home," Holly said, still not acknowledging Heather.

"I don't want to," Hazel said softly as she backed away from their mother and put the counter between her and Holly.

"Hazel, please don't cause a problem, just come on, get whatever it is you brought and let's get to the car," Holly said, her voice tight and lips puckered like she had just sucked a moldy lemon.

"Mom, just leave her here for another night, you can come and get her tomorrow," Heather said, keeping her voice soft and even.

"Be quiet Heather Marie, you should have called me immediately when Hazel showed up at your door so that I could come and pick her up. How reckless with your little sister can you be?" Holly's voice was also even but sounded patronizing.

Heather kept her arms relaxed at her sides and said, "You brought someone strange home and she came here because he made her uncomfortable and I am the reckless one? Really? You honestly thought that it was a good idea and now you want to come in here and berate me over doing keeping her safe?" It devolved from there, into a screaming match, and ultimately Holly threatened to call the cops on Heather for kidnapping. Finally, the two sisters were forced to concede to their mother and Heather made sure to give Hazel a big hug and tell her she would have a key for her the next time she came over.

Heather sighed and turned on rain sounds to calm her down and clean up everything from dinner. The day had started out so well and her mother just had to show up and pick a fight. Maybe Heather should look into getting a lawyer to try and get custody of Hazel; her baby sister couldn't withstand their mother's household much longer and Heather didn't want to tempt fate and see how long she could last.

~~~Note~~~~~

Well... Dick was not originally supposed to bug the apartment but it made sense at the time and I've rewritten this chapter like.. 7 times so... here we go I guess? hope y'all enjoyed it.

~Syl