Chapter 3

The Titans watched as Claire pressed the phone to her ear and waited. She didn't have to wait long as the phone was answered on the first ring.

……

"Yeah, it's me," she said, so presumably her mother had been waiting for her call. The Titans were standing a good few metres away but even they could hear the woman's shouts of relief, and anger. Claire winced,

"Mum, calm down, I'm fine"

……

"Er, the Titan Tower" she said, bracing herself for her mother's inevitable reaction. She relaxed steadily as nothing but silence came through the receiver.

……

"I need to know who I am, Mum!" Claire said trying to make her point while keeping her voice down. "And you sure as hell won't tell me!"

……

"Sorry, but come on…."

……

"Yes I know you're very dissapointed,"

……

"Oh no, don't give me that! We both know you wouldn't've taken me"

……

"No you wouldn't have"

……

"Yes, Mum, I won't Mum, Okay, I'm sorry for leaving, yes, I won't do it again. Okay, bye" With that Claire hung up the phone and turned to face her audience.

"She's coming to get me, but she won't be here for a few hours." she said. "So, can you call Robin now?" Raven sighed and walked towards Claire, leaning past her to get to the phone. This time the phone rang for some time before it was answered.

…..

"Hey, it's Raven"

…..

"There's someone here who I think you'd like to meet"

…..

"I can't really talk now, but trust me on this." They hung up without either of them saying goodbye. "He'll be here in fifteen minutes." she said turning back to the others. "And Claire, just so you know, he changed his name to Nightwing after we broke up." Claire nodded.

The four of them made awkward conversation for fifteen minutes, until the automatic doors announced Nightwing's arrival. This man was tall and well built, he had long black hair and he wore a mask and a black body suit with a blue bird insignia on the chest. He spotted Claire immediately and for a moment the two just looked at each other, his face completely emotionless.

"Nightwing, this is Claire" said Cyborg, breaking the silence and making the man shift his gaze to him. "She says her mother spent time here in the Tower." Nightwing frowned,

"Jinx?" he asked. This, of course, meant nothing to Claire.

"No, she says her mother's name is Correy" said Cyborg raising his eyebrows meaningfully. Nightwing's eyes widened and his head snapped to the left to stare at the girl sitting on the couch. He walked around to the other side to get the best view of her, she was also eyeing him all over. This went on for some minutes, and Nightwing's scrutiny was starting to make her uncomfortable,

"So did you know my mother or not?" she said.

"That depends, " Nightwing replied, "What does she look like?"

"Er, taller than me, brown hair, brown eyes," Nightwing frowned again, and looked at Raven questioningly.

"You said you came here looking for someone, someone you thought was one of us, why?" said Raven

"Er because they ….might be my…..father" Claire said quietly. Nightwing spluttered for a second before saying,

"How old are you?"

"Twelve"

"And how old's your mother?" Nightwing's questions were sounding more and more urgent.

"Twenty-eight" answered Claire, and she watched as he did the math, just like everyone else. "She had me when she was sixteen"

"Uh-huh. Raven, guys, can I see you outside for a second?" he said, and walked out of the room without waiting for an answer, the other Titans followed obligingly. Once outside, Nightwing turned to them, and said,

"Well I can see what you're getting at, and I have to admit that the time-line fits, the name…..is so-so, but the description is totally off. Besides the girl looks nothing like her."

"She could take after her father" mumbled Beastboy.

"I agree that the description is totally wrong," Raven said loudly, as if to erase Beastboys remark, "but as you said yourself the name, and the ages are a match. It's not impossible."

"No, it is impossible, Raven," interjected Nightwing quietly, " she's dead."

"But what if she's not, man?" said Cyborg, "What if that girls is who we think she is?" Nightwing said nothing, just looked in the direction of the room consideringly.

"Anyway, her mum's gonna come pick her up in a few hours, so we'll know for sure then." said Beastboy. Nightwing nodded thoughtfully.

The next hour and a half passed relatively slowly. The Titans asked Claire more questions, then she asked them some questions. In the end they were talking about the good old crime-fighting days when the front door buzzer rang. Beastboy, who was sitting nearest to the intercom, pressed the button and spoke into the mic,

"Who is it?" the whole room was completely silent, waiting with baited breath for the reply.

"I believe you have my daughter in there. I have come to retrieve her." The voice was deffinately feminine, but the distortion on the line made it difficult to tell anything else. Beastboy looked at Nightwing for instructions, and as a reply he leant across and pressed the door-release button. A minute later the doors slid open and a tall woman rushed in. She ran straight to Claire, dropping her hand bag and hugging her tightly.

"Oh Nightfire, I was so worried" she said. Meanwhile the former-Titans were staring at her, trying desparately to find resemblances between this distraught mother and their fallen comrade. Just as Claire had said, her hair was a dull brown, as were her eyes, and her complexion was perfectly normal, completely void of any orange. Nightwing didn't know if he was dissapointed, or relieved. If it had been his past love, then why hadn't she returned to him? But even so, the glimmer of hope he had felt had reopened the old wound of losing her, and he felt the crushing grief all over again.

"Nightfire?" said Raven quizzically. Claire turned in her mother's smothering embrace and said,

"That's what she calls me, it's like a nickname." The woman stood up and grabbed her daughters hand.

"We are going home, right now" she said as she began dragging the girl towards the door. Claire, Nightfire, however, was not planning on going easily. She wrenched her hand from her mother and said angrily,

"No, I still don't know who my father is! We can't go now!" the woman sighed,

"We can talk about this later, this isn't the place."

"It never is! Why don't you just tell me? I can handle it, whoever it is!"

"Nightfire, follow me, please"

"No!" the argument was escalating fast. Then Nightwing stepped in,

"Starfire?" he said it only quietly, but everyone heard him, and the woman froze in position. Slowly her eyes turned towards the man who was now looking at her attently.

"Nightfire, please, let's go" her words had taken on a more pleading tone, making her daughter soften and look at her puzzledly.

"Starfire?" he said again, pushing away from the counter and stepping towards them, "Is it really you?" His voice was full of pain and longing. The woman straightened out and, obviously avoiding looking at him, said to her daughter,

"I'll wait for you down stairs," She turned to go but Nightwing went after her and caught her arm before she could even leave the room. She spun around and looked at his hand one her arm. She looked scared. "Robin, let go of me" his hand dropped away slowly, but he was staring at her in disbelief. She realised too late what she had said.

"It is you." said Nightwing, "Y-You called me Robin" He felt as if the world around him was melting away. The woman backed away as far as she could go, but it wasn't far before she hit the wall. Nightwing reached out a gloved hand and gently touched her face. She flinched. Regardless he drew his thumb across her cheek, revealing the faint orange underneath. She had closed her eyes, and now small tears ran down her cheek. He moved closer, to embrace her, but she ducked away and joined her daughter. Claire decided that now was the time to play her cards. She tugged on her mothers hand, like she did when she was younger, and asked

"Mama? Can we stay? Pleeease? It is the holidays…." Starfire looked around her, she saw the tears in her friends eyes, the hurt in Nightwing's, and the anticipation in her daughter's. It would be so much easier to leave, just to forget about everything and go back to their old life……She smiled weakly and stroked hair out of Nightfire's face,

"How could I say no to those big blue eyes?" She looked worriedly at Nightwing, and he looked at a loss, but then the arms of her lost friends engulfed her.