A/N—I know that some of you would like me to update more frequently—unfortunately, my writing time has been drastically cut, what with midterms, my mom being gone and the simple fact that I'm carrying twenty credit hours. Fortunately, spring break is next week (yet it snowed today), so hopefully it will get better here soon. Also, this chapter is deliberately short—for what I have planned for Tim's chapter, it was necessitated.

Chapter 6: Closed Doors, Opened Hearts

Time went to bed to sleep, and I stare at his backpack for a minute. He's…what did Babs call it? Bruce does it too—oh, yes, brooding. School bothered him today, too—I saw it when he threw his backpack in the floor. He's frustrated again, like he can barely hold everything together. I worry. Tim is my friend and I don't like seeing him unhappy. He used to be happy. He would laugh and joke.

I miss that Tim.

I creep over to his bedroom door and listen. I hear him snore and am glad he's getting some sleep. I leave the rest of the candy on the table for him when he wakes up and go home.

I go downstairs to my…basement and turn on some music and work out. Black Canary gave me this CD. She said, "Pink Floyd is a necessary part of everyone's education." I don't know why Oracle started laughing. I have another CD that Stephanie gave me, but I haven't listened to it in a long time. It's better for working out, though. I still don't listen to it.

Oracle calls. "Batgirl, here," I say.

"How are you doing?" she asks.

"I'm good," I say. "How are you?"

"We're doing fine," Huntress says with a smile as she leans over Oracle's shoulder. She is…happier now that I've seen her in a long time. "We're heading out," she says to Babs.

"Sure," Oracle says. She looks back at me. "I was just calling to check in for a moment."

"I'm good," I say. "Tim is okay. Dick and Alfred really miss you. Haven't seen Batman in a while, but he misses you too. I see it. You should come back."

She sighs. "I can't. Not now anyway."

I don't understand, but I…trust Babs. She knows what she's doing, or she thinks she does, so I leave her alone.

"You said Tim was doing okay?" she says. She is worried too.

I nod. "As good as he can. He swears a lot more now. And he's frustrated. A lot."

Babs makes that funny face she does when she's thinking hard about something. "I wonder if I should ask Leslie to go see him."

"No," I say. I don't know why that would be a bad idea, but I know it would be. "Find his uncle."

"His uncle?" Babs says.

"Ask Bruce," I say. She doesn't like that idea, but I think she'll do it anyway.

Black Canary pops her head into the picture. "Is that Pink Floyd I hear? Atta girl."

I smile at her. "I thought you were leaving," Oracle says.

"We were. But I had to come tell Batgirl hi."

"Would you get moving?" Oracle says and laughs. Black Canary winks at me and leaves. "I better get monitoring those troublemakers. Be careful, and look after Tim for me, okay?"

"I will," I say. She signs off, and I sit for a moment. I'm not the only one con—con—worried about Tim.

I get dressed. Tim will be awake soon and be out too. I grab an extra comm to take with me since Tim's is broken, and I'll give it to him later.

I get out on the street early, watching around for trouble. Penguin's hit…bothers me. I don't like not knowing what's going on.

I almost called Batman this afternoon. I almost decided to let him know what was going on. But we've been trained well. We know how to take care of ourselves. And Blüdhaven is our city now. Gotham belongs to Batman. Blüdhaven belongs to Batgirl and Robin. And it's our duty to take care of it now.

Nobody escapes Batgirl. I swing down, knock down the mugger before he leaves the shadows to attack the lady passing by. She never knows he was there.

I stay on my rounds, break up two drug deals. There's not much that's going on in my side of town. My snitch told me that someone is going to try another drug deal down here tonight.

I sit up on the roof and wait.

I'm good at waiting. My father taught me…patience.

I hear a voice yelling at me from across the roof. "Batgirl! Batgirl!"

The voice is deep, and Batman appears. "Batgirl."

My hand comes up—to his throat—

He lies on the ground in front of me—what have I done?

Oracle.

Nightwing.

No.

Black Canary.

Huntress.

No.

Alfred.

Robin.

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

My hands—the blood. No! No, I couldn't have! I did. Robin! NO!

"Cass. Cass. Look at me."

No. Robin is dead. I killed him.

Dead.

No—words.