Part three, it starts to get interesting!
Once again, I don't own Batman, Robin, etc.
After Bea had scrambled out of the kiosk window, her bag in tow, Tim led her out of the streets and into the park, the sounds of the mob dangerously close at their backs. Cutting along the jogging paths, they re-emerged from the park into a mostly residential street, with a few emptied stores scattered along it. Tim decided that the best thing for the girl would be to find her somewhere to stay for a while, somewhere he could leave her safe. Looking up at the buildings, he noted one of the upper floors of a large old house had a 'To Let' sign taped in the window. Judging by the quietness of the street, and the age of the buildings, he guessed that it had been deserted in fear, and no one had thought to check if it had actually collapsed. He decided that nobody would really care if her broke into the empty the apartment and left the girl there. He slipped the roll of lock-picks out of his belt, and headed for the building's front door, beckoning the girl to follow him.
Within a few minutes, they where in the second floor apartment, sitting at the Formica topped table, eating more of Tim's supply of energy bars. Bea couldn't quite believe what was going on. Across the table from her sat an urban legend, Robin, The Boy Wonder, feared fighter of crime.
He was really short.
And she couldn't help but wonder how she was supposed to fear and respect somebody wearing that little yellow cape.
"So," he said, breaking the silence and making her start slightly, "what happened to you since the 'quake?"
She considered for a moment what she was going to tell him. There was so much to tell. It had been six days, her parents were dead, she had had to run and hide and forage in the rain and...
That was it. All she could remember. She had watched her house collapse, heard her parents screaming, then…something had happened, that she couldn't quite define in her memory, but which she knew was there, happened. Then she was walking through the streets as clouds gathered, running to that kiosk in the rain, just the night before. She knew it had been six days, she had heard it said in the milling crowds as she walked. But where the Hell had she been? She looked up and saw that Robin was waiting for her to respond. He looked worried.
"I guess I really don't know." She replied. He raised his eyebrows questioningly. She continued, "The first thing I remember after the 'quake was, I was coming home from my friend Lizzie's house, and as I got into our street, I saw our building start to shake, and then it…it fell. My Mom and Dad were…inside."
Words stopped coming then, grief and confusion and feelings that she couldn't put names to, but a few days ago would have sworn didn't exist within her, swept over her, and she sank into miserable sobs. She lay her forehead upon her folded arms and, for a few minutes, was alone, lost in anguish. Then Tim placed his hand on her shoulder. She could feel each of his fingers pressing her skin through her sweater, could somehow sense the texture of his palm, and when she turned her head slightly to look at his hand, she realised that he had taken off his thick glove. Somehow, in that tiny space between her tears and the boy sitting opposite her, that little gesture meant the world to her.
She looked at his face, and saw the grief written on his young features, disguised with determination and protectiveness. She couldn't let herself forget that his home was gone, too. She reached up and took his bare hand with her own, holding it between them, wiped her other wrist across her eyes and asked; "So what do we do now?"
His expression started her worrying. Then she knew, he was going to leave her there. He had put her somewhere safe, comforted her, and now he was going to leave. He couldn't! She wouldn't let him! She couldn't survive, not on her own, not like this! She grasped the hand on the table tightly, clinging to it like a lifeline, and looked desperately into Robin's face, trying to see some reassurance that she wouldn't be left alone again.
That's when she realised he was speaking. He was talking to her and she couldn't hear it, speaking quickly, and a hint of fear entering his expression now, as he seemed to be staring at her in near panic. She vaguely wondered what could frighten a crime fighter like him so badly.
And then the world slipped sideways, and fell away from her.