Robin slammed his fist against the brick wall, frustrated. Why wouldn't he tell them anything? It was as if he didn't trust them anymore…a fact which may be warranted, seeing as how they had broken the "rules" by going after Joker alone…but still, he would have thought Batman would have been more forgiving. Who was he kidding? Batman? Forgiving? Ha!

"You think too loud." Batgirl complained, sitting on the ledge they were on, her feet dangling over the edge, kicking the wall absently. Robin choked out a laugh. He had to admit, he loved the way she had her own perceptions of the world.

"I do beg your pardon," he drawled with a comic bow and flourish. "I shall attempt to keep my thoughts to myself from now on. Of course, should one or two of them leak out of my brain without my notice, do say you'll let me know so I can catch them and stuff them back in?" She cocked her head as if trying to decide if he was joking or not, then shook her head.

"You're silly." She patted the ledge next to her and he obediently sat down. "He's not punishing us, you know."

"Humph." She lightly punched him in the arm at his non-answer.

"He's not! He's worried about something."

"So he's 'protecting us from ourselves' or some other such nonsense?" He looked out over the city, feeling a bit of depression sinking in. He was Robin, for crying out loud. Trained by the best, worked with the best…one of the best, or so he'd thought. He didn't need babysitting!

"Maybe he has a reason."

"Yeah? Well, he should trust us enough to tell us the reason, instead of just telling us to 'let it go'. I mean…" he stopped as he realized his audience was no longer paying attention. "What?" She pointed.

"I saw something." Rolling his eyes behind his mask he leaned over to see…not that there was anything to see…it was, of course, an incredibly dark alley to which she pointed.

"Care to elaborate?" She remained motionless for a second, tense. Then slumped back, resuming her aimless kicking motions.

"I guess it was nuthin'." That was odd. Batgirl wasn't known for imagining things. He studied her, trying to determine whether or not she was trying to "protect him from himself" or something as he suspected Batman of doing. Then he looked back down to the alley. There was no movement. Maybe she was right…it had just been a cat or something. He shouldn't be leaping to conclusions…or jumping at shadows. That was the crooks' job…to freak out when they saw any of the Bat-clan coming.

"What say you we get this party started?" She looked at him inquiringly, so he elaborated. "You know…actually go patrol instead of sitting here feeling sorry for ourselves because Batman won't give us all the answers? You know, you wanted to learn to be a detective, right?" She nodded. "Well, let's do it, then! We can figure out what's going on without him!" He stood and offered a hand to help her up. As she stood, a strong gust of wind off the side of the building caused them a moment of unsteadiness, and they instinctively clutched at each other to regain their balance. Their proximity set off a myriad of feelings in each of them, none of which either was willing to quite admit to at this early date.

"Um…"

"Ahem…" With a bit of nervous laughter they pushed away from each other, both busying themselves with the simple task of readying a grapple to use to head out on patrol. Robin wasn't sure how to break the nervous tension…their moment had put a strain on the easy closeness they'd had in recent weeks. Batgirl, astute as ever, managed to put him at ease, though, with her observation:

"This is dumb." It startled a laugh out of him, which caused her to laugh, and pretty soon they were both back on the floor of the ledge, leaning against each other, back-to-back, for support as they apparently found much more humor in the situation than was warranted. Then again, a release of nervous energy in the form of hysterical laughter was better than some of the other options.

Finally, calm once again, they managed to stand and fire off lines without further incident. And if any onlookers happened to notice any residual tension in either of the young vigilantes, they would have chalked it up to the normal stresses of a dangerous job.


Two short-lived muggings, one foiled break-in, and three long hours later, Robin stood atop a cathedral looking out over the city. Batgirl waited not-so-patiently a few feet lower, doing a one-handed handstand on one of the cathedral spires. Robin couldn't explain his restlessness exactly…it just seemed like an awfully quiet night, and he had an excess of energy. Not that an observer could tell…he stood motionless, silhouetted against the night sky.

"Well?" Apparently Batgirl had better things to do with her time than wait for him to gather his thoughts.

"Hold on! I haven't even called yet!" he grinned to himself. Batgirl didn't answer, but flipped herself over to stand on the tip of the spire on one foot this time. Robin shook his head, amazed that she could exhibit so little patience now, yet could silently stalk the scum of the city for hours without tiring. Robin shrugged, tapping the button that would connect him to Oracle.

"Speak, O lowly mortal!" Robin laughed.

"Nice to talk to you too, Oracle."

"One does what one must to stay sane." Her voice was warm, full of laughter. He wondered idly if Nightwing had been by recently.

"You have anything at all for us tonight?"

"That slow, huh?" Robin laughed.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Well, it isn't like you've been in the habit of calling me up lately." Though there was still humor in her tone, he could hear censure in it, too. He hung his head, though she couldn't see.

"Well…I…I mean…." Her laughter brought his stuttering to a halt.

"Don't strain yourself!" She paused, then said with a more serious mood, "I hear you've been…busy," Robin sighed. Was he going to forever be defending himself for getting shot?

"Someone's been busy, that's for sure."

"You can't expect me not to have found out! I am, after all, the 'all-seeing, all-knowing Oracle.' How would it look on my résumé if I missed one of my guys getting themselves in trouble?" He smiled wryly as she teased.

"Yeah, well…"

"Anyway, you're right. It's an awfully slow night. Not that you should be complaining!"

"No, no…of course not. Just…restless, I guess. We were…'
"'We?' Oho! Is Batgirl with you? How….interesting." Robin groaned.

"You spend entirely too much time with Nightwing." She just laughed.

"Hey, I don't need him to tell me what's right beneath my nose!"

"Ri-ight." He was not going to discuss this with Oracle…especially with Batgirl just a few feet away! He snuck a glance in her direction…she waggled her fingers at him and he reddened, wondering how she knew what they had been talking about…had he been that obvious?

"Soooo?" He shook his head…she just didn't give up!

"So what?"

"Come on…spill!" He laughed, but remained silent, eliciting a mock-sigh from the other end of the line. "You're no fun."

"I know." He frowned out over the city again. It seemed there really was nothing to do tonight…nothing to burn off the excess energy coursing through his veins.

"Yeah, well…hold on." He heard some kind of alarm in the background. Sounded like they may get some action after all!

"What? What is it?"

"Oh my God…"

"Ba…Oracle? Oracle? What's going on?" There was no answer and by this point Batgirl had materialized next to him.

"What happened?"

"I don't know, she just….I think she's in trouble!" Batgirl nodded, already pulling out a line to fire off. Robin continued trying to get Oracle's attention…informing the non-responsive receiver that they were on their way. That finally got a response.

"What… no! No. Robin, I want you and Batgirl to…hold on…" She broke off again, and Robin frowned. He recognized the click as Oracle switching channels. She must be calling in some sort of reinforcement, but he and Batgirl were being pushed aside again! He clenched his jaw. They were only a few blocks from the clock tower…if he ever wanted to be a full member of the team again, he was going to have to take action.

"I don't think…." Batgirl started to object….probably realizing he was about to charge in again against orders.

"Good." Realizing how that sounded, he quickly added, "Don't think about it. It's not a thinking thing! If you don't want to come with, that's ok. But I'm going to go see what's going on." She nodded.

"Ok. Just….don't say I didn't warn you." He flashed her a confident grin that belied the queasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Deal." They both took off, hurrying towards Babs' home. Robin wasn't sure what they would find…possibly Babs in trouble…if not, she would be in trouble for trying to wrap them in cotton batting. They made the trip in silence…luckily Robin's ire wasn't so great that he didn't pause to take precautions against a trap or ambush. The area seemed dark, calm, and quiet…possibly too quiet, though Robin would never admit to such a clichéd thought.

"Quiet." He stifled a laugh as Batgirl seemed to speak his own thoughts out loud. She shook her head at him, disgruntled at his not sharing the joke with her. He just grinned, then sobered, turning back to the problem at hand. If Babs truly didn't want them there, they were going to have to sneak past all her security systems…and she had made a hobby out of constantly changing and improving them so as to give the Bat-family (well, and other intruders) the hardest time possible sneaking up on her.

"Any ideas?" He whispered, still examining the area instead of looking at Batgirl. If he had bothered to look, he would have realized earlier that she was no longer at his side. As it was, her lack of answer drew his attention to this fact quickly enough. He sat up from where he had crouched, looking around. There. Movement in the shadows just across the street from Babs' apartment. He sighed, hoping she knew what she was doing, and followed. No point hanging back if Batgirl was going to trigger an alarm anyway.

He had to admit, as they reached the interior of the clock tower, that he had underestimated her. She had seemed to know each trap before they came to it, managing to avoid all of those and the alarms. Had he asked, she would have told him that, having lived with Babs for months, that she understood the way her mind worked and where she would most likely try to improve security. But he didn't ask, and she didn't tell. They approached the room where Babs' operated as Oracle in silence. They could vaguely hear her voice, though they couldn't understand the words, and it sounded as if she was in full "directing" mode. Telling someone somewhere to do something…and do it now. It was the mode that got even the most powerful heroes on the planet to obey... but it was also the mode she fell into when she was feeling helpless…unable to do anything from her end, so she used her "agents" to fix the problem for her. And judging from her tone that was exactly how she was feeling at the present moment.

Robin relaxed a little…it was obvious that she wasn't in danger herself…but then tensed again as his ire at being shut out returned. Batgirl stopped, reaching out to grab his arm.

"Maybe we shouldn't." But he was too keyed up to stop now. He shook her restraining hand off, advancing with purpose towards Barbara's inner chamber. Batgirl hurried after him, not so intent on a confrontation with Babs as much as keeping Robin from doing something he'd regret. She'd seen a flash of anger in him that was unusual…he wasn't thinking, just feeling…somehow in the past few weeks or months…or minutes… he'd run out of patience. Not that she blamed him…they had been kept on pretty short leashes up till now.

Robin burst into Oracle's sanctum without warning, completely intent on giving Babs a piece of his mind. His feet carried him in, his mouth opening to start a rant, even as his brain took in a million different details that indicated he was in over his head. Babs was seated at her computer, headset attached, fingers flying over her keyboard. At Robin's sudden entrance, she whirled, startled. As she saw him her eyes widened and she immediately turned to type another command into the computer…a command which would wipe the giant screens of all the data currently contained on them. Locator maps, information windows, everything, disappeared…along with a large flashing box, one of Oracle's special alerts, one meant to keep track of any dangers to her family, her agents. But her command was too late, as Robin had already viewed the information displayed on the enormous screens.

"What the…oh God!" He turned, moving at a speed that would have done Kid Flash proud, heading back out the way he'd come.

"Tim! Wait! Cass…stop him!" But Babs' cry was too slow as well, and he disappeared before Batgirl could react. With only a short glance at Babs, Batgirl ran after him. She didn't know what had upset him…she still couldn't read fast enough to recognize what had been on the monitors before Babs had shut them down…but something had happened…and she wasn't going to let him face it alone.


To be continued…