She awoke slowly the next morning, enjoying the soft of the pillow and sheets covering her. As her legs rubbed together, she could already feel the same tingle she had woken to the past few days. It was not yet at the unbearable stage. She knew it wouldn't reach that point until hours later.

Her eyes snapped open, and she peered around the empty room. She was still in Bruce's room, but he was nowhere to be found. A plush white robe lay at the foot of the bed, and she immediately slipped into it when she stood.

She shuddered when the memories of Bruce's head between her legs returned to her thoughts. The slight desire she had been feeling when she woke momentarily flared, and as much as she had enjoyed it in the moment, the thought of facing him now made her nervous.

She tied the robe tight around her waist and sighed. Probably better to get it over with. Now that the subject had been breached, maybe he would have an idea as to why this was happening or how to stop it.

When her stomach rumbled, she gave a quick thought to heading directly to the kitchen to seek out food. But on second thought, she was still sans underwear, and there was any number of mishaps that could happen in that situation. Instead, she opted to return to her room, change into her basic workout clothes, and then continue to find food and Bruce. Who was hopefully not too upset about her basically violating him in the dead of night.

In the kitchen, she caught Alfred drying the last of the morning dishes. She slipped into a chair in front of a covered plate which she assumed had been saved for her.

"The mornings are much calmer when young master Timothy is away, don't you believe?" He had his back to her, putting the dishes into cupboards.

"Uh, yeah," she croaked out like her voice hadn't been used in years. "I guess."

"What with the extra activity as of late, I'm sure you needed some extra energy," he turned back to look at her, his face neutral. "I took the liberty of preparing breakfast with extra protein this morning."

"What?" she squeaked, feeling her ears turn pink.

"The extra league missions," Alfred raised an eyebrow. "You generally don't join nearly as many as you have as of late. They must be tiring."

"Oh," she calmed slightly. Pulling the lid off her plate, she found an omelet with ham and shrimp and a side of lean bacon. "Thank you."

When she had eaten about half of her omelet, she quickly ate the bacon before looking back to him. "Did Bruce already eat?"

"If you consider coffee and a slice of toast as eating," Alfred was not lacking the snark this morning. "Apparently he found it adequate as he is currently brooding in the cave."

She gulped and reached for her glass of orange juice. "I'll… uh… I'll take him something," she slid from the chair and grabbed a tangerine from the small basket of fruit on the counter. "He could probably use some Vitamin C, right?"

Alfred arched an eyebrow again as he watched her back out of the kitchen but said nothing. She felt like she was grinning too wildly but couldn't stop herself as she gave an odd finger wave and disappeared down the hallway towards the cave entrance.

When she didn't try to be quiet when going down into the cave, she never noticed herself making noise. But when she tried to be silent, it seemed like every movement she made echoed off into some unseen corner. Whatever racket she thought she was making seemed to be either unnoticed by Bruce or, more likely, just ignored.

She found him in an area of the cave where they generally practiced with their Batarang targeting. His face didn't look neutral to her, but it didn't give away his current thoughts, either.

"I, uh, brought you this," she tittered out when he paused to look her way. "Alfred said you didn't eat much."

His eyes traveled to the fruit in her out held hand before rising back to her face. He took a deep breath and gently took it from her. "Thanks."

Her eyes fell to her toes, and she let a small puff of air pass through her lips. "So…"

Bruce nodded. "Yeah." When she didn't speak again, he sighed. "I tried to contact Fate. Since he dealt with everything that day, it seemed like the best choice. He's… apparently unavailable."

She looked to him with worry. "What do…"

"There's other options," he interjected. "Constantine. Zatanna. Both with their pros and cons."

"John knows his demons," Barbara nodded. "But he's not all that discrete. Zanna is, but…" She looked away again. "She's got a history with you. And John, too."

"That's why I wanted to leave this decision up to you," he crossed back to the main section of the cave. "One of them may be able to help. Or Fate may come back into contact. No one that I've spoken to from the League is sure what he's doing. Whatever is happening to you may pass by the time he returns."

She let out a bitter laugh. "Current events don't indicate that to be very likely."

He considered her for a moment before speaking again. "I figured as much but didn't want to discount it as a possibility. Now that you're a little less… distracted… is there anything else you can tell me about what has happened to you?"

She sighed and fell heavily into a computer chair before pulling her knees to her chest. "I'm not sure… there were so many of those things running amok that night. And they all looked the same. I got shoved and pulled and things dropped on me. Sprayed with water." She scrunched her nose. "I hope that was water." She shrugged. "All I know is that night I had some… urges… that needed to be taken care of. Which I did. And then the next night. Which was unusual because I don't… that often… So it was a few days before I put it together. I don't know how. It's just the only thing that makes any sense."

"And these…" Bruce looked away from her. "Urges? They come on pretty quickly?"

"No," she whispered, looking down at her fingers clutched at her knees. "It builds. Pretty much from the moment I wake up."

His eyes darted back to her. "So right now…"

She nodded. "Yeah. Right now it's manageable, though. Every morning it's manageable. But no matter what I do, by evening, it's not."

He tried to get her to take a break from patrol. Her comeback was that staying active helped dull what she was feeling. And practicing in the cave had no comparison to being out in the field. So he relented. Begrudgingly. He wasn't certain he wouldn't regret that.

The night went better than he expected. He had heard chatter about a couple different turf wars potentially progressing that night but neither seemed to occur. Instead, they broke up some muggings, two car jackings, and scared senseless a guy who hadn't thought it necessary to have a belt when trying to run after a failed ATM robbery. His glow-in-the-dark Superman boxers made it all the easier to trace him, not that he got far with his pants around his ankles.

As the night went on, Bruce did start to notice the subtle changes with Barbara. She was constantly moving in some sense. She would rock back and forth when she sat or crouched. Her legs would rub together when she stood. At one point, he caught her absently running her fingers over her chest, groaning almost inaudibly when her fingertips passed her nipples.

The distractions were adding up, and when she nearly toppled off the edge of a building, he grabbed her and pulled her to him, resulting in a gasp and eyes that glossed over momentarily under her mask.

"I think that's enough for the night," he whispered softly, mere inches from her lips.

She gulped and nodded, backing away as she flexed her fingers.

In the Batmobile on the way back to the cave, he couldn't help but notice how she fidgeted in her seat, pulling her cape around her body and wrapping herself in it as tightly as she could.

"Is it bad?" he asked her as he pulled into the normal parking spot.

"It's not good," her voice was strained again, and she wasn't looking at him.

When she didn't immediately move to exit the vehicle, he rounded it to her side and held out his hand to help her up. She looked up at him with pleading eyes before slowly taking his hand.

"Quite the early night tonight," Alfred called out, placing a tray of coffee and butter cookies near the main computer.

Barbara squeaked and bounced off Bruce's chest before releasing his hand and wrapping herself in her cape again. "I think… I'll just hit the showers."

Bruce nodded but didn't say anything.

"Is Miss Barbara alright?" Alfred puzzled.

"She…" Bruce paused. "She has some personal issues she'd rather not speak of."

Barbara started with cold water, but that only made her nipples more firm, and the ache didn't help alleviate anything. Switching to hot water helped her relax, but it also helped stoke the fire she was feeling within.

With her left forearm braced against the cool tiles, she used it to rest her head as her right hand frantically traced circles, tapped, and brushed past her clit in varying degrees of pressure but never quite tipping the scale to send her to where she needed to go. She even tried inserting fingers, but everything she knew to work in the past was barely building anything to the end.

She let out a frustrated whine and then gasped when she heard someone clear their throat.

"Barbara?" Bruce called. "Are you okay in there?"

"No," she warbled. "I'm not."

"Is…" she heard him pause. "Can I come in?"

"I…" she closed her eyes and cursed at her body's reaction to his voice. "Yeah. If you want to."

The shower area was pretty basic. Light grey tile. Mostly open except for the one corner where curtains had been hung to give her a semblance of privacy from the otherwise all male occupants of the cave. Curtains that she had failed to close this time.

When she opened her eyes, she found him standing near the entrance, his back to her. He was still in the soft underbody of his uniform but had removed all else.

"Is it still the same?"

She felt her knees weaken at the concerned rumble of his voice and rolled her eyes incredulously at herself but still eked out a weak "Yeah. Just like last night."

"Do you…" he ran a hand along the back of his neck. "Did you want to call someone else? Dick, maybe?"

She blanched before blurting out a hasty "No!" When he nearly turned his head, she spoke softer. "No… we're not like that anymore. He's seeing Starfire now. That's… not anything I'm going to get in the middle of."

He rumbled a deep "hmm" of apparent understanding, and she felt the jolt of desire go straight for her sex before doubling over and dropping to a crouched position with a moan.

"Are you alright?" she heard his voice closer, and when she opened her eyes again, she saw his bare feet standing just a couple feet from her.

Her breathing had reached the breathy gasping stage. "I need help again," she whispered out. "I'm so sorry."

"There's nothing to be sorry about," he sighed. "I feel like I'm taking advantage of you."

She let loose a pained laugh and looked up to see his eyes full of concern.

"How do…" he swallowed. "What would you like for me to do?"

"Clothes off," she felt a wild surge building in her chest as she watched him pull off his shirt and then, after a brief moment of hesitation, his pants.

He stood there taking deep, even breaths as he focused all of his attention to her face, waiting for her next direction. His erection was not quite at full, but well on its way there and ready for whatever her next words might be.

She shifted from her crouch to one knee and reached for him, pulling him to her with one hand on his hip and the other gripping his cock with her thumb brushing along the underside. She had slipped out from under the spray of water now, and the erotic vision he saw of her kneeled before him with water dripping from her pert breasts as she slowly licked the precum from the tip of his penis nearly made him lose it all together.

He moaned as she took the tip into her mouth, her tongue running along where her thumb had been. She gripped him at his base and took him deeper as his hands tangled in her hair.

"This is supposed to be for you," he gasped out as he hit the back of her throat.

"It is," she took a quick breath and surged forward again, stroking with her hand what she couldn't fit into her mouth. "I like this." Suck. Stroke. Squeeze. "So wet."

"Fuck," his hips jerked toward her. "Shit… I won't last."

He pulled her off of him with a "pop" before picking her up to wrap her legs around his waist and press her back against the cold smooth tile. She gasped at the temperature shock and then released a groan deep from within her chest as he plunged his cock deep into her pussy. One thrust, and he was buried to the hilt, her hips bouncing off his as he pulled out and slammed back forward.

She bit into his shoulder as she felt the pressure building once more. Past the point she had been able to take it solo. Her nails dug into his back as his rhythm started to falter, and one of his hands came between them for his thumb to press at her clit. Two more thrusts and her legs locked to his hips as she let out a keening "oh!" right next to his ear. With her spasming around him, he spent inside her with a rough grunt.

His breathing was ragged next to her ear when she finally opened her eyes. His head was pressed against the tile on the right side of her head. Her legs still wrapped around his hips, supported by one hand under her ass. She felt the edge gone from her body, now under threat of being taken over by sleep.

She nearly let it take her before she gasped, and Bruce supported her as he slipped from within her. He kept a hold at her waist while she clung to him on wobbly legs.

"Alfred," she whispered with panicked eyes. "Do you think he heard us?"

Bruce gave a throaty laugh as he tossed his head back. "I made sure he went upstairs before I came in here." She relaxed and bumped her head against his chest. "I make no guarantees he's completely in the dark because, well, he's Alfred." He shrugged. "But he's at least not privy to any details."

She sighed and let her head fall forward again. "Okay."

The last thing she remembered was Bruce catching her as her legs gave out.

He should be absolutely disgusted with himself. And he was. Just not absolutely.

Did it make it better or worse that when he had dried her, wrapped her in a thick robe, and carried her upstairs, her head fit perfectly under his chin? And of the buzz that went through his body when she moaned softly in her dream state? Did any of it give him real justification when he took her to his room instead of hers?

He could tell himself it was for observation. To make sure she was safe in her compromised state. If he was honest with himself, he might admit he liked the company in his bed. Not just the sex, which he fully admitted he enjoyed aside from the reason it was occurring. But the feeling of someone being close as he lay silent in the darkness.

With her tucked beside him, nude under the covers except for one of his large cotton shirts over her slight frame, he actually felt content. But mostly, he felt guilty.