Batgirl stood on the side of the docks, looking at the Gotham Clock Tower
on the other side of town through her binoculars.
"9:15" she mumbled. "If he doesn't have a good excuse I'm going to."
"Going to what?" she saw his reflection.
"Going to find a new partner. I hear that Aquaman is looking for a sidekick."
"Go for it. But try getting the seaweed out of your hair each night. It's just as hard as getting that smell out of your suit." He smiled as he somehow pulled a folder away from behind his cape.
"I hope you're good at Research papers." She peering her face over his shoulder to look at the few pages of information in the folder.
"Well I just pay someone off to do it for me, usually."
"Har, Har. We have five boats. Five leads."
"Two leads."
"Two?"
"Two of those boats headed to Metropolis, I had a friend of ours check it out. No men in spandex were on those boats but he did find a bunch of old salmon."
" More than I need to know. One of these left for Venezuela. Plan on using your passport soon?"
"Well even though we deserve a vacation but that lead bit the dust too."
"How so? That was one of Catwoman's hiding spots after she was falsely convicted by Thorne."
"Well first off the boat was linked to Thorne. She might have changed, but I doubt she would be in this with him. Second off, the Gotham Patrol picked that boat off for a drug bust it. It hasn't moved."
"Well I guess that ruins the fun out of finding a bat in a haystack."
"Not really. If we don't find Batman soon there's going to be a surge of criminal activity. He's never been away from the city for this long. They may be crazy but they aren't stupid."
"If we don't find him, Robin."
He looked into her blue eyes.
"I'm with you through all of it."
There was a long pause, he looked away- something was on his mind.
"Thanks but -"
"It's my decision. It has been something that I wasn't sure of for a long time, but after working with you I just know that it's become part of my destiny."
"You do realize that it's not always fun. Every time you put that mask on you give up the night at the movies to relax, the friends who need to call you in the middle of the night, just to spend a few hours smelling gunsmoke hoping that that isn't the last thing you breathe in, hoping that that isn't the last thing that your partner - the innocent bystander ever breathes."
"I know but sometimes I just don't know who I am until I do that. When I'm shopping or spending time studying I just want to suit up there and do this with you.guys."
"What if I wasn't there. what if he wasn't there either? If it was just you, would you do it?" he said as he became agitated.
"I. I .."
"Don't know if you could?" he said. "Now you know what I'm going through. What if something happened to me? Could you do this every night by yourself. There's a time when you have to decide if you're obligated to the people you've never met every night or if you just want to do this to secure an urge .Because it's about them first."
"Listen, I know I haven't seen what you have seen. If I had to.do it alone.I would. Maybe I couldn't do it as well as you, but for them I would give it all."
"That's what I'm worried about."
"What?"
"This partnership."
"I can't believe you. We've been together for how many nights and you still don't think I can cut it."
She began to walk away as he grabbed her wrist, she tugged back her arm as hard as hard as she tugged back the tears.
"It's not that. When the, If the time comes. Would you let me die if that was the only option?."
She stopped tugging at his loosening grasp and the two stared in the silence.
"Would you let me die, if that was the only option?"
"I. I'm not like him. I can put my life down for the mission any time, but I'm not ready to sacrifice you.anyone that I care about for this. I couldn't on if go if I let you."
She hugged him, and let one of the many tears leak out of her closed eye. He smelled her hair, it was incomparable to anything he had ever encountered amongst the hundreds of his adventures.
"Let's have this talk after we find him. Okay?"
They broke the hug.
"There are two boats to check. You have a curfew?"
"Where are they?"
"Star City."
"You could have notified me in advance. I would have gotten dressed up."
He picked a remote control from his belt and pressed down on it. The Batboat floated up amongst a swarm of bubbles to the side of the dock. As the cockpit opened Batgirl began to make her way to the passenger side.
"What do you think you're doing?' Robin questioned.
"I thought we.."
"Oh, well I thought you were going to swim since you're trying out for Aqua man's opening. Hope you can hold your breath."
"Well I thought I would just go with you since I didn't want to beat you there. Slow driver."
"Yeah, well it's a force of habit after hearing 'this thing costs 20.5 million dollars and I don't want to pay for a new one' every time you're with him."
"Understandable."
"You know I still can't believe that after you spend all of the money on this thing you still don't have a TV, CD player, or even a FM radio?"
"Yeah, but you have to like the bullet proof leather heated seats." He said.
"How do you two kill time on your road trips?"
"It usually involves me making fun of him while he's in one of those deep though moments."
"Are you two actually friends?"
"Uh. yeah, I guess."
"Sorry, it's none of my."
"Business? It's okay cause he's all business. I keep on wandering what he was like when he did this stuff at our age."
"So what about down there? When you aren't doing this stuff. What do you talk about?"
"This one time, when we went to Metropolis, we talked about errr.girls."
"Really?"
"Yeah, well there was this Princess named Talia but she was the daughter of this really wicked guy named."
"Ghul."
"You know the story."
"Supergirl and I tell each other about everything."
"Everything?" he said pointed to his mask.
"Think she would tell even if I bothered to take the simple way out of the mystery?"
"Guess not."
"How many people know?"
"Five. How about you?"
"One."
"Whose that?"
"Me."
"Guess it's not the easiest secret to keep but it's also not the easiest to explain."
"No one relevant to tell in my life. I have an old friend but I'm afraid it'd really mess everything up between us if he knew. It's nothing you can just say over coffee."
"Yeah, it'd be nice to give a real explanation behind the black eye."
"Or telling your friends what kind of cat claws scratched your arm."
"Is it true that he and Catwoman were together?"
"Why I thought Supergirl told you everything?"
"C'mon. Did he? It is relevant to the case."
"Well hate to be the one to break it to you but yes, they did."
"So she knows his."
"No."
"What about Poison Ivy and Talia?"
"Poison Ivy and Batman never had anything so no but Talia did have something with him, something serious. She knew who he was from the beginning and liked him because of that. I guess that's why he liked her so much, he never had to worry about telling her."
"Aww."
"Now that's definitely breaking a crime fighting rule but I won't punish you."
"Thanks."
"It must be hard for him, to always find the right girl only to find out that she's wrong."
" Oh yeah, he has it so hard. He's been getting the girl ever since I put on this costume. You never see him waiting around for a few minutes so some girl can just give him puppy eyes and flirt with him. Or have to explain the story to Gordon while he gets the big kiss from the girl he saved."
"You know you make a pretty good whiner."
"I guess I'll have to wait until I get my day when I get to kiss the girl. I mean, what is it? The costume?"
"You look fine. Some girls are just into the name."
"Yeah, I could tell that from your taste in costume."
"Ouch, low blow to the person whose trying to cheer you up."
"Sorry."
"It's okay, Robin. You'll get the girl one day - maybe it will be on the cover of the tabloid. If it makes you feel any better I know of..err..someone who has a major crush on you."
"Who..who is that?"
"Mary Marvel."
"Huh.."
"Straight from the words of Supergirl."
"Well it's nice to see that fourteen year olds are interested in me."
" Calm down, Boy Wonder. I have yet to find a decent guy throw his interest in my direction."
"I guess I always knew that you had feelings for .him. That's why you're so interested in his whole dating scheme. That's why you found out about Talia."
"You don't"
"Understand? He's the guy in charge, he's the hero, he's the one that gets the girl."
"You get you're name because you're a bird brain, don't you?"
"What."
"You could get your Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Talia, or any slutty girl you wanted if you would just make a move on them. Just.Show them. that they're more than a girl to you, and they're all yours."
His hand roamed over hers, she had broken a superhero rule - she told too much, then she saw his crawl past hers to the button by the blinking light.
"Ehem. Robin and Batgirl here."
"It's Gordon, Robin." The commissioner said in a noisey background.
" Is everything okay, Commissioner?" Batgirl interluded.
"I was going to ask you the same thing, Batgirl. We turned on the signal when Two-Face robbed the bank tonight."
"Is everything settled, sir?" Robin asked.
"Two office are down, but we were able to control the situation. I'm taking it that your boss still isn't back, huh son?"
" No commissioner. Like us, he's on an out of town mission." Batgirl said, biting her lip.
" Well, I wish all of you a safe and quick trip. We're missing you here."
"Thank you Commissioner. Is there any new information on the Catwoman case?"
"Montoya and Bullock are working on two leads about her where about."
"Tell me when you find anything more. I." Robin looked at the redhead. " We should be back tomorrow night."
" Will do, Robin. Take care."
The communicator clicked off.
"Robin.." she looked down at her feet.
"We're here." He said grimly.
The boat submerged from the water beside a large freight ship.
"Robin. If anything should happen."
"I get your stereo." He smiled.
"Sure know how to make a moment, Teen Titan."
"Yeah, yeah." He said shooting his grapple onto the top of the ship. She did the same. They sailed through the air in unison.
When they reached the top she saw him reach for something behind his belt.
"Consider it an early birthday present." He said handing her a mask identical to his.
"Oh wow, it's everything I ever wanted."
"Put it under your mask, it has night vision."
"Oh."
She turned her back to him and - without hesitating - pulled down her cowl as he watched her silky red hair stream down. Her arms reached up and put on the mask.
"Wow, this sure beats bringing a flash light."
"Yeah, you never have to carry extra batteries in the bat belt."
"So now that I can see. what are we looking for."
"Anything out of the ordinary."
"We're two people that spend their weekends dressed up as a bird and a bat and we're supposed to be looking for something out of the ordinary?"
" You know what I mean."
"Do you guys have any enemies in Star City?"
"Not any major ones, but after a few hundred nights on the job you lose track of how many you have. Br-Batman always said that in the end it probably won't be the Joker, the Penguin, or any of the villains that make headlines and urban legends. It'll be the punk with the lucky shot. The one who planned it out secretly, or was just at the right place at the right time - got him by surprise."
" Why won't it be one of his great enemies?"
"Because to all of the mental cases. it's just a game. They kill him - the game is over. They're addicted; he's their only reason for living. They don't really hate him - they don't really even want to kill him but out there- there are some people who don't seem him as a game - they see him just like they see the people he tries to stop. They hide alone coming up with the perfect plan. "
"You sound like you've seen this before."
"An old henchman for Thorne was caught by us a few years ago a few days before he was supposed to put a hit on Gordon. He went to jail. Thorne sent some of his men to his house, to retrieve the papers that had his assignment. They got them."
"And so he blames Batman."
"That's not the whole story. When they were walking out, they heard his kid and wife cough in the closet."
"Oh my god."
"Thorne was afraid that if they knew what was inside of the folder they could testify against them. Once he got out of prison, though. He didn't take it out on Thorne. He said that if Batman never caught him it would never have happened. He didn't understand how Batman could save Gordon from death but not his family."
"What happened?"
"He found out that the Riddler was setting up a trap - and did what we would have done in solving the crime. We. We went to Gotham Park to pick up a clue, and there was a homeless man walking down the sidewalk. We were so.so busy trying to get that riddle that we didn't see him take out the sniper rifle."
Robin stopped walking.
"I heard the shot right after I saw it go through his arm. Then he shot him in the legs and the arm again. He was torturing him instead of going straight for the kill. By the time I realized what was happening he shot him 6 times. I got him with my bola when he was reloading."
"You found out his story when you caught him?"
"No. Batman couldn't come back for a few weeks. He thought he had killed him. We found it in his suicide letter."
"I can see why he takes this so seriously."
"It's just one of many reasons."
"Do you think Mr. X is like that guy? Someone out for revenge?"
"The one thing I've learned about my after school adventures it's that anything is possible."
" Then what about Catwoman? If it's a game to her, why would she be part of it?"
"She'll always be shady, you should know that. She's also been in this for herself since the beginning. Batman's always tried to get her to join his side, maybe she's doing this because it's her turn to try and convert her."
"She should know better than that. Then again - we say that every time she puts on her costume."
"I could never tell if she was really good inside."
"What would have happened if she would have joined your side?"
"I guess it was always a pipe dream. She's had good intentions, even gotten us out of near death situations - but in the end the greed gets the best of her. She couldn't stay good for that long, even if she had him. It's like one of those animals that you get from the wild - it's nice to have at home but you have to let it run free."
"Would he ever give it up for her? For anyone?"
" Sometimes I wander if he's already given it up. He gave his life to the city, that's why he's had the problems that he has. Being with a woman, is like cheating."
The two gumshoes checked every inch of the large freight boat over and over until they could barely keep their eyes open
"One down, one to go?" Batgirl said with her dopey eyes.
"You need sleep."
"Yeah, but we can't go home. We need to find him."
Robin yawned. "Well.. why don't we take a power nap in the boat."
"I never figured this would be the way you'd proposition to sleep with me, Robin."
"You can't expect greater words at this time of the ni- morning."
The two landed into the cockpit of the boat. Batgirl and Robin sat down, trying to make each other comfortable while sitting upright.
"You have heat seeking missiles yet these seats don't recline?"
"Sorry, we got the last model on the floor."
"Okay, well how about you lean on that end and I lean on this one." She moved around so their faces were as far away from each other as possible. Their interlocking legs were the only things that were touching.
Robin cringed. "This is comftrable."
"How are we going to wake up?"
"I've been trained to wake myself up after so much sleep. Incase I was ever in a hostage situation."
"Just an hour, then we start looking."
They closed their eyes as the boat sunk under the water.
"Just an hour," he whispered.
Through out the dreams, the two moved away from their proposed positions. He wrapped his arm around her. She held it there. She laid her head in his sturdy chest. He was entrapped by the smell of her hair - hair only inches away from his face though never a mile away from his soul.
"9:15" she mumbled. "If he doesn't have a good excuse I'm going to."
"Going to what?" she saw his reflection.
"Going to find a new partner. I hear that Aquaman is looking for a sidekick."
"Go for it. But try getting the seaweed out of your hair each night. It's just as hard as getting that smell out of your suit." He smiled as he somehow pulled a folder away from behind his cape.
"I hope you're good at Research papers." She peering her face over his shoulder to look at the few pages of information in the folder.
"Well I just pay someone off to do it for me, usually."
"Har, Har. We have five boats. Five leads."
"Two leads."
"Two?"
"Two of those boats headed to Metropolis, I had a friend of ours check it out. No men in spandex were on those boats but he did find a bunch of old salmon."
" More than I need to know. One of these left for Venezuela. Plan on using your passport soon?"
"Well even though we deserve a vacation but that lead bit the dust too."
"How so? That was one of Catwoman's hiding spots after she was falsely convicted by Thorne."
"Well first off the boat was linked to Thorne. She might have changed, but I doubt she would be in this with him. Second off, the Gotham Patrol picked that boat off for a drug bust it. It hasn't moved."
"Well I guess that ruins the fun out of finding a bat in a haystack."
"Not really. If we don't find Batman soon there's going to be a surge of criminal activity. He's never been away from the city for this long. They may be crazy but they aren't stupid."
"If we don't find him, Robin."
He looked into her blue eyes.
"I'm with you through all of it."
There was a long pause, he looked away- something was on his mind.
"Thanks but -"
"It's my decision. It has been something that I wasn't sure of for a long time, but after working with you I just know that it's become part of my destiny."
"You do realize that it's not always fun. Every time you put that mask on you give up the night at the movies to relax, the friends who need to call you in the middle of the night, just to spend a few hours smelling gunsmoke hoping that that isn't the last thing you breathe in, hoping that that isn't the last thing that your partner - the innocent bystander ever breathes."
"I know but sometimes I just don't know who I am until I do that. When I'm shopping or spending time studying I just want to suit up there and do this with you.guys."
"What if I wasn't there. what if he wasn't there either? If it was just you, would you do it?" he said as he became agitated.
"I. I .."
"Don't know if you could?" he said. "Now you know what I'm going through. What if something happened to me? Could you do this every night by yourself. There's a time when you have to decide if you're obligated to the people you've never met every night or if you just want to do this to secure an urge .Because it's about them first."
"Listen, I know I haven't seen what you have seen. If I had to.do it alone.I would. Maybe I couldn't do it as well as you, but for them I would give it all."
"That's what I'm worried about."
"What?"
"This partnership."
"I can't believe you. We've been together for how many nights and you still don't think I can cut it."
She began to walk away as he grabbed her wrist, she tugged back her arm as hard as hard as she tugged back the tears.
"It's not that. When the, If the time comes. Would you let me die if that was the only option?."
She stopped tugging at his loosening grasp and the two stared in the silence.
"Would you let me die, if that was the only option?"
"I. I'm not like him. I can put my life down for the mission any time, but I'm not ready to sacrifice you.anyone that I care about for this. I couldn't on if go if I let you."
She hugged him, and let one of the many tears leak out of her closed eye. He smelled her hair, it was incomparable to anything he had ever encountered amongst the hundreds of his adventures.
"Let's have this talk after we find him. Okay?"
They broke the hug.
"There are two boats to check. You have a curfew?"
"Where are they?"
"Star City."
"You could have notified me in advance. I would have gotten dressed up."
He picked a remote control from his belt and pressed down on it. The Batboat floated up amongst a swarm of bubbles to the side of the dock. As the cockpit opened Batgirl began to make her way to the passenger side.
"What do you think you're doing?' Robin questioned.
"I thought we.."
"Oh, well I thought you were going to swim since you're trying out for Aqua man's opening. Hope you can hold your breath."
"Well I thought I would just go with you since I didn't want to beat you there. Slow driver."
"Yeah, well it's a force of habit after hearing 'this thing costs 20.5 million dollars and I don't want to pay for a new one' every time you're with him."
"Understandable."
"You know I still can't believe that after you spend all of the money on this thing you still don't have a TV, CD player, or even a FM radio?"
"Yeah, but you have to like the bullet proof leather heated seats." He said.
"How do you two kill time on your road trips?"
"It usually involves me making fun of him while he's in one of those deep though moments."
"Are you two actually friends?"
"Uh. yeah, I guess."
"Sorry, it's none of my."
"Business? It's okay cause he's all business. I keep on wandering what he was like when he did this stuff at our age."
"So what about down there? When you aren't doing this stuff. What do you talk about?"
"This one time, when we went to Metropolis, we talked about errr.girls."
"Really?"
"Yeah, well there was this Princess named Talia but she was the daughter of this really wicked guy named."
"Ghul."
"You know the story."
"Supergirl and I tell each other about everything."
"Everything?" he said pointed to his mask.
"Think she would tell even if I bothered to take the simple way out of the mystery?"
"Guess not."
"How many people know?"
"Five. How about you?"
"One."
"Whose that?"
"Me."
"Guess it's not the easiest secret to keep but it's also not the easiest to explain."
"No one relevant to tell in my life. I have an old friend but I'm afraid it'd really mess everything up between us if he knew. It's nothing you can just say over coffee."
"Yeah, it'd be nice to give a real explanation behind the black eye."
"Or telling your friends what kind of cat claws scratched your arm."
"Is it true that he and Catwoman were together?"
"Why I thought Supergirl told you everything?"
"C'mon. Did he? It is relevant to the case."
"Well hate to be the one to break it to you but yes, they did."
"So she knows his."
"No."
"What about Poison Ivy and Talia?"
"Poison Ivy and Batman never had anything so no but Talia did have something with him, something serious. She knew who he was from the beginning and liked him because of that. I guess that's why he liked her so much, he never had to worry about telling her."
"Aww."
"Now that's definitely breaking a crime fighting rule but I won't punish you."
"Thanks."
"It must be hard for him, to always find the right girl only to find out that she's wrong."
" Oh yeah, he has it so hard. He's been getting the girl ever since I put on this costume. You never see him waiting around for a few minutes so some girl can just give him puppy eyes and flirt with him. Or have to explain the story to Gordon while he gets the big kiss from the girl he saved."
"You know you make a pretty good whiner."
"I guess I'll have to wait until I get my day when I get to kiss the girl. I mean, what is it? The costume?"
"You look fine. Some girls are just into the name."
"Yeah, I could tell that from your taste in costume."
"Ouch, low blow to the person whose trying to cheer you up."
"Sorry."
"It's okay, Robin. You'll get the girl one day - maybe it will be on the cover of the tabloid. If it makes you feel any better I know of..err..someone who has a major crush on you."
"Who..who is that?"
"Mary Marvel."
"Huh.."
"Straight from the words of Supergirl."
"Well it's nice to see that fourteen year olds are interested in me."
" Calm down, Boy Wonder. I have yet to find a decent guy throw his interest in my direction."
"I guess I always knew that you had feelings for .him. That's why you're so interested in his whole dating scheme. That's why you found out about Talia."
"You don't"
"Understand? He's the guy in charge, he's the hero, he's the one that gets the girl."
"You get you're name because you're a bird brain, don't you?"
"What."
"You could get your Catwoman, Poison Ivy, Talia, or any slutty girl you wanted if you would just make a move on them. Just.Show them. that they're more than a girl to you, and they're all yours."
His hand roamed over hers, she had broken a superhero rule - she told too much, then she saw his crawl past hers to the button by the blinking light.
"Ehem. Robin and Batgirl here."
"It's Gordon, Robin." The commissioner said in a noisey background.
" Is everything okay, Commissioner?" Batgirl interluded.
"I was going to ask you the same thing, Batgirl. We turned on the signal when Two-Face robbed the bank tonight."
"Is everything settled, sir?" Robin asked.
"Two office are down, but we were able to control the situation. I'm taking it that your boss still isn't back, huh son?"
" No commissioner. Like us, he's on an out of town mission." Batgirl said, biting her lip.
" Well, I wish all of you a safe and quick trip. We're missing you here."
"Thank you Commissioner. Is there any new information on the Catwoman case?"
"Montoya and Bullock are working on two leads about her where about."
"Tell me when you find anything more. I." Robin looked at the redhead. " We should be back tomorrow night."
" Will do, Robin. Take care."
The communicator clicked off.
"Robin.." she looked down at her feet.
"We're here." He said grimly.
The boat submerged from the water beside a large freight ship.
"Robin. If anything should happen."
"I get your stereo." He smiled.
"Sure know how to make a moment, Teen Titan."
"Yeah, yeah." He said shooting his grapple onto the top of the ship. She did the same. They sailed through the air in unison.
When they reached the top she saw him reach for something behind his belt.
"Consider it an early birthday present." He said handing her a mask identical to his.
"Oh wow, it's everything I ever wanted."
"Put it under your mask, it has night vision."
"Oh."
She turned her back to him and - without hesitating - pulled down her cowl as he watched her silky red hair stream down. Her arms reached up and put on the mask.
"Wow, this sure beats bringing a flash light."
"Yeah, you never have to carry extra batteries in the bat belt."
"So now that I can see. what are we looking for."
"Anything out of the ordinary."
"We're two people that spend their weekends dressed up as a bird and a bat and we're supposed to be looking for something out of the ordinary?"
" You know what I mean."
"Do you guys have any enemies in Star City?"
"Not any major ones, but after a few hundred nights on the job you lose track of how many you have. Br-Batman always said that in the end it probably won't be the Joker, the Penguin, or any of the villains that make headlines and urban legends. It'll be the punk with the lucky shot. The one who planned it out secretly, or was just at the right place at the right time - got him by surprise."
" Why won't it be one of his great enemies?"
"Because to all of the mental cases. it's just a game. They kill him - the game is over. They're addicted; he's their only reason for living. They don't really hate him - they don't really even want to kill him but out there- there are some people who don't seem him as a game - they see him just like they see the people he tries to stop. They hide alone coming up with the perfect plan. "
"You sound like you've seen this before."
"An old henchman for Thorne was caught by us a few years ago a few days before he was supposed to put a hit on Gordon. He went to jail. Thorne sent some of his men to his house, to retrieve the papers that had his assignment. They got them."
"And so he blames Batman."
"That's not the whole story. When they were walking out, they heard his kid and wife cough in the closet."
"Oh my god."
"Thorne was afraid that if they knew what was inside of the folder they could testify against them. Once he got out of prison, though. He didn't take it out on Thorne. He said that if Batman never caught him it would never have happened. He didn't understand how Batman could save Gordon from death but not his family."
"What happened?"
"He found out that the Riddler was setting up a trap - and did what we would have done in solving the crime. We. We went to Gotham Park to pick up a clue, and there was a homeless man walking down the sidewalk. We were so.so busy trying to get that riddle that we didn't see him take out the sniper rifle."
Robin stopped walking.
"I heard the shot right after I saw it go through his arm. Then he shot him in the legs and the arm again. He was torturing him instead of going straight for the kill. By the time I realized what was happening he shot him 6 times. I got him with my bola when he was reloading."
"You found out his story when you caught him?"
"No. Batman couldn't come back for a few weeks. He thought he had killed him. We found it in his suicide letter."
"I can see why he takes this so seriously."
"It's just one of many reasons."
"Do you think Mr. X is like that guy? Someone out for revenge?"
"The one thing I've learned about my after school adventures it's that anything is possible."
" Then what about Catwoman? If it's a game to her, why would she be part of it?"
"She'll always be shady, you should know that. She's also been in this for herself since the beginning. Batman's always tried to get her to join his side, maybe she's doing this because it's her turn to try and convert her."
"She should know better than that. Then again - we say that every time she puts on her costume."
"I could never tell if she was really good inside."
"What would have happened if she would have joined your side?"
"I guess it was always a pipe dream. She's had good intentions, even gotten us out of near death situations - but in the end the greed gets the best of her. She couldn't stay good for that long, even if she had him. It's like one of those animals that you get from the wild - it's nice to have at home but you have to let it run free."
"Would he ever give it up for her? For anyone?"
" Sometimes I wander if he's already given it up. He gave his life to the city, that's why he's had the problems that he has. Being with a woman, is like cheating."
The two gumshoes checked every inch of the large freight boat over and over until they could barely keep their eyes open
"One down, one to go?" Batgirl said with her dopey eyes.
"You need sleep."
"Yeah, but we can't go home. We need to find him."
Robin yawned. "Well.. why don't we take a power nap in the boat."
"I never figured this would be the way you'd proposition to sleep with me, Robin."
"You can't expect greater words at this time of the ni- morning."
The two landed into the cockpit of the boat. Batgirl and Robin sat down, trying to make each other comfortable while sitting upright.
"You have heat seeking missiles yet these seats don't recline?"
"Sorry, we got the last model on the floor."
"Okay, well how about you lean on that end and I lean on this one." She moved around so their faces were as far away from each other as possible. Their interlocking legs were the only things that were touching.
Robin cringed. "This is comftrable."
"How are we going to wake up?"
"I've been trained to wake myself up after so much sleep. Incase I was ever in a hostage situation."
"Just an hour, then we start looking."
They closed their eyes as the boat sunk under the water.
"Just an hour," he whispered.
Through out the dreams, the two moved away from their proposed positions. He wrapped his arm around her. She held it there. She laid her head in his sturdy chest. He was entrapped by the smell of her hair - hair only inches away from his face though never a mile away from his soul.