Hah! I actually made my goal of publishing this chapter today by MINUTES! ;D It's been a long day for me, so forgive any errors you might find. I just wanted to post this for you while it is still today, and not tomorrow. I will do last minute editing after I sleep.

Warning: Language . . .

The silence in the cabin was total . . . for all of sixty seconds.

"Oh . . . Shit!" Red Arrow stood up and gaped at Starfire. "Kori . . ." he stammered for a moment. "No! You don't tell a woman that you just met that you almost married her fiancé!"

The alien woman blinked at him. She wasn't startled or annoyed, just confused.

"Did I do something wrong?" Starfire, or Kori, as the redheaded man in the mask referred to her, glanced back and forth between them.

Elle, however, was stunned. She literally couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't think, as her mind struggled to process this bit of information. A variety of emotions flickered over her face as she tried to make sense of this.

The ring she had found in Dick's sock drawer had clearly said 'Babs' and, in fact, Elle had met Barbara Gordon at Bruce's New Year's Eve party. She had been a tall, lovely redheaded woman who had once been Batgirl until that clown villain from Gotham had shot her. She was paralyzed now but Miss Gordon had made a new name for herself within the superhero community as Oracle, a kind of be-all, end-all, information hotline and computer genius. Babs had been gracious when the two of them met but there had been some strain present between them. Maybe that was all on Elle's part because Barbara Gordon had been calm, confident even, in herself despite the wheelchair that bound her. Competence radiated from her every beautiful pore.

Elle had been intimidated as hell.

Enough so that she had agreed for Bruce to announce their engagement officially to the party-goers shortly before the countdown to midnight had occurred.

Now . . . she sat there like a short, chunky, ungraceful lump as quite possibly the most beautiful woman . . . um, person . . . uh, female alien she had ever seen happily announced she had very nearly married the man Elle was bonded to for the rest of her life. Elle found herself wondering if it were going to be a short life because at that moment her first impulse was to strangle Dick.

He had asked Elle to marry him, but didn't think it was important to tell her that he had been engaged to, not just one, but two women prior to meeting her? Elle didn't have a lot of experience with relationships, but that didn't feel like it was a thing someone did to someone he proclaimed to love. Maybe this was how things were done? Elle didn't know, this being her first real relationship but she hoped not because she wasn't sure she could stand to live with someone who kept secrets like this from her. She supposed that compared to being Nightwing this was not considered all that big . . . At least to someone else, but to Elle this was right up there at the top of that 'Do Not Do' list.

Starfire . . . Kori looked somehow both powerful and terrifying as well as sweet and innocent, naïve even. Red Arrow was ranting about something, but Elle couldn't hear much past the ringing in her ears. She felt lightheaded. Her second reaction was a prickling feeling in her sinuses as her eyes filled with tears.

How humiliating.

Kori was gaping at the man. "I don't understand? She asked me a question, and so I told her the truth. How can that be wrong?"

"Dick was supposed to have told her about you first," Red Arrow was telling her. "Jason said he didn't think he had done that yet." The guy looked over at Elle's dumbfounded face and dropped his head in his hand. He pointed and shook his head. "Does she look like a woman who was told about this ahead of time?"

Kori looked back at Elle and tilted her head. It was so damned cute! How could she look so scary and so damned cute at the same time? It just wasn't fair!

Kori stood. Her tiny, little, armored outfit, that didn't look like it could protect her from a stiff breeze, showed off a figure that was . . . Oh yeah. Elle hated it but she was feeling intimidated all over again.

"Perhaps I should go?" Kori asked apologetically.

Red Arrow threw his hands up. "No! No, you can't go yet. Not until we get her back to Gotham. We don't know who is trying to kill her or if they might try again before we get her home. You need to stay."

It was too much. Elle stood up and pushed through to the aisle.

"You two stay," she told them. "I'm going to . . . go now."

"What?" Red Arrow exchanged a panicked glance with the alien amazon. "Wait! You can't go either. We still have to get you home."

Elle didn't look back, just waved a hand in the air. "That's exactly where I'm going," she said. "Home. Thank you for saving my life. Goodbye."

She heard them following her out but it was too close inside. She needed air. She moved down the steps only to run into Jason returning with her pilot.

"What the hell? Where do you think you're going?" Jason blocked her path.

"I'm going home. Get out of my way, Ja- Red Hood." Too many secret identities! She never knew what to call anyone.

"That's where we're taking you," he told her, turning her around.

Elle just kept turning and then sidestepped him. Jason grabbed her arm.

"Elle, get on the plane," he voice brooked no argument and out of the corner of her eye she watched him give dirty looks at the two behind her. It didn't take a genius to figure out that this had something to do with them, and he likely knew exactly what it was that upset her.

"No," she twisted her arm to get free of him hold to no avail. Jason merely tightened his grip. "Let go of me!"

"Sorry. Can't do that."

He wasn't sorry. She glared at him.

"I promised to get you home safe and sound," he barked at her.

The stupid tears were back – damn it!

"Yeah, well, you're too late," she snapped. She was a long way from being sound at the moment and the last place she wanted to be at that moment was facing off with Dick, that sneaky, no-good, secret-hoarding, lying son-of-a-bitch!

He stared at her for a moment, then cursed under his breath. He didn't let her go, however, just turned his attention onto Red Arrow and Starfire.

"God damn it! You two couldn't keep your mouths shut for five minutes? Seriously! I step out of the plane for five lousy minutes and everything goes to shit!"

Elle jerked her arm. "It's not their fault! It's your brother's fault!"

"I don't doubt that one bit," Jason said, "but you're going to have to take it up with him after I deliver you home."

"I'm not going back . . ."

Whatever else Elle planned to say was cut off when Jason picked her up and tossed her over his shoulder. She pushed against his back in order to lift herself upright.

"Put me down! Do you hear me?" She shrieked. She no longer felt like crying anymore, she'd give him that much. "Put me down!"

Roger, her pilot, reached out to jerk Jason back around. "You heard her! Set her down. Now."

Red Arrow frowned. "Hey! Don't you know who we are?"

"You're kidnappers if you don't let her go," Roger snarled at them, "Now!"

He gripped Jason's jacket and jerked again, harder. This time, Jason turned but he whipped up his hand and pointed a pistol directly into Roger's face.

"Enough! Everybody in the plane right now," Jason roared. He stared hard at the pilot. "It's your choice. I can fly this thing as easily as you can."

Roger carefully let go of Jason's jacket. He didn't move immediately, however, but looked to Elle. The man wasn't a regular pilot. Cedric Hamilton didn't hire many "regular" people. Roger Dailey was a retired Army Ranger. One hand was sliding toward his hip beneath his jacket.

Elle's eyes widened. She didn't know Jason that well. While she didn't think he would kill her pilot in cold blood, someone would likely get shot in whatever altercation that was to come. She shook her head at him. She refused to be the cause of someone being shot.

She made a hand motion behind Jason's back that meant 'phone', and mouthed 'call Hugh and Edward'.

Roger was furious. His nostrils flared and his lips went white as his mouth tightened in anger and frustration. He moved in front of them and up the steps. Jason carried Elle inside, bringing up the rear. When he set her down in front of him and turned to close the door behind him, she used her body to shield her signal to Roger, pointing to her left wrist . . .

Stall for time.

He dipped his head once to acknowledge the message was received. The entire exchange took place in the space of a second. All those drills that Cedric and her bodyguards had gone over with her a million times were still proving handy. By the time, Jason turned around, Red Arrow and Starfire had moved back to their seats, and Roger had entered the cockpit.

Jason looked down at Elle where she still stood. "Get moving, sweetheart," he snapped, obviously still feeling pissy.

She glared at him. "You planning on manhandling me again if I don't?"

He leaned down into her face. "If you insist."

He reached for her but Elle hopped backward, slapping at his hands. "Why are you doing this?"

"Because I gave my word I would keep you safe and deliver you back to Dickweed in one piece," he told her in no uncertain terms. "So, you can march back over there and strap yourself into your seat or I'll do it for you!"

"I don't want to go back to Gotham," Elle declared. "I've had a hard day and the last thing I want to do is deal with your womanizing brother."

Jason crossed his arms. He supposed he should try to straighten this out since it had been his choice to bring in Roy and Koriand'r. He should have checked first with Dick but how was he to know the asshole hadn't spilled his guts about his previous relationship with the Tamaranian princess. He wondered if Elle knew about Barbara, too, or if Dickhead had simply kept quiet about all the women in his past.

"To be fair, all this happened a few years ago. Long before he met you," he pointed out reasonably.

The look she gave him told him plainly Elle wasn't feeling in the mood to be especially reasonable at the moment. This wasn't part of his agreement. Who was he to play marriage counselor? Yeah, they weren't married yet but the way they were going, this would make failed engagement number three.

"He should have told me," she leaned in and hissed at him.

Jason heaved out a sigh. "Yeah, you're right. He should have. And you know what? If I had told him that I was going to ask Kori to help out today, he probably would have but that didn't happen."

Her eyes got that uncomfortable sheen again and he felt like a heel despite this not being his fault . . . Okay, not totally his fault. The asshole should have told her before asking Elle to marry him.

How did I get wrapped up in the middle of this?

"Look, he didn't marry her and it was just as well since she was called back to her planet shortly after that for a while. As her consort, he probably would have been expected to go with her and doofus was needed here."

Elle blinked at him, her pained, angry expression making way for confusion for a time.

"Consort?" She glanced behind her at the woman in question. "What? Is she like royalty or something?"

"Or something. She's a princess and was the heir to the throne before . . ." his voice tapered off as Elle interrupted him.

"She a princess?" Elle hissed at him again. Without giving him a chance to answer, Elle rolled her eyes and stormed toward the back of the plane, muttering, "Well, of course, she is! Why wouldn't she be? A freaking Amazonian warrior princess! How the hell do I compete with that?"

"Tamaranian," Kori corrected unhelpfully as Elle stomped past. "Donna is the Amazon."

Elle almost stumbled. She caught herself and moved toward the back a little faster.

Jason didn't start after her, however, until she passed the last of the seats and was heading toward the bedroom once more. "Elle, you need to strap in. It isn't safe to be up and about until after take-off."

"This is my plane, Jason," she snarled at him over her shoulder. "I'm on it like you wanted, I'll sit wherever the hell I damn well please!"

With that she slammed the door in his face. There was a distinct sound of a lock clicking.

"I can get through this door if I have to," he called through the door.

"You do and, I promise, you will live to regret it," he heard her shout her warning through the panel.

He wasn't especially impressed by her threat until he remembered her tarantula. He shook his head. She wouldn't toss that creepy, hairy spider on him . . . At least, he didn't think she would. Not that it mattered here since it was back at the manor and not on the plane.

He finally threw up his hands, turned, and walked back to take his own seat. She was on the plane, as she had said, after all. Who cares where she chose to ride out the trip?

He had checked out the pilot enough to know he had been flying for thirty years and even had military experience. He was a trusted member of Hamilton's entourage, been with them for at least twenty years. Even angry, Dailey wouldn't risk Elle's life by pulling some stupid stunt.

He flopped down next to Roy and across from Kori.

"Okay, you want to tell me what exactly you two said that sent Elle running out of the plane?"

Roy shifted his view to the view out the window. "Not particularly."

Kori grimaced. "It is my fault, I think. She asked me how I knew Dick and I told her." Kori lifted her shoulders in a perplexed manner. "No one told me I was supposed to lie."

Jason ran a hand over his mouth, wincing. He should have thought of that, of the possibility of Elle asking an innocent question like that, and Kori giving her the simple truth. Although there really wasn't much that was simple about what had happened that prevented the wedding at the last minute. He had only heard stories since it had happened during the time he had been "dead." Jason himself hadn't been around.

"She didn't take it very well, did she?" Roy muttered, rubbing his face with both hands. He looked up at the ceiling, and groaned dramatically.

"Dick is going to be very angry, isn't he?" Kori looked at both of them, worriedly.

"Not at you, princess," Jason assured her. "If it was anyone's fault, it was Dick. He should have come clean to her before now."

Roy barked a laugh but there was no humor in it. "I'll make sure to point that out to him as he's pounding the life out of me."

Kori bit her lip and looked out the window. She frowned and tilted her head at whatever she saw.

"Is there trouble?" Jason asked, leaning forward to get to his feet.

"No! No, I was just . . . thinking," Kori waved him back down. "I think it would be better if I follow from the air."

Jason thought about it. She was probably right. If Elle came out later, it would be less awkward for everyone if Kori wasn't in sight. And if anyone tried to bring the plane down . . . Well, that seemed unlikely, but then so did the attack on the helicopter. He had expected the attack in the space between exiting the safety of the building and climbing into the helicopter. When it didn't happen, Jason had, indeed, lowered his guard slightly. That they were all still alive was because he still retained a portion of his bat-paranoia and had better than average reflexes.

"Sounds like a plan. I'll let you out and inform the pilot," Jason agreed as he rose to his feet. "I want to find out what's taking so long to get moving."

After Jason closed up the door behind Starfire, he knocked on the cockpit door. Dailey was pissed off enough that he had locked it. Jason couldn't exactly blame him. It would be a bitch if he did need to get in there in a hurry, though. He could tell the entire wall that separated the cockpit from the rest of the aircraft's interior was reinforced, as was the door itself. Jason wouldn't be able to just shoot the lock or kick it in.

"What's taking so long," he yelled through the door.

"Checklist," Roger Dailey's muffled voice sounded. "Deal with it. We'll go when I'm done and the tower clears us." The man's anger was still in evidence despite the low sound quality. "Go strap yourself in and let me do my job."

Right.

The sound of the engine starting was encouragement enough. Jason made his way back to his seat. He took the chair across the aisle from Roy this time.

Roy glanced over at him, hopefully. "What's the likelihood that Dick might thank us from saving him from matrimony?"

Jason remembered watching Dickhead's proposal and then observing his adoration over his little firecracker of a fiancée at dinner this past weekend. Frankly, he wouldn't lay odds on either of them surviving this encounter. Dick could kick ass when he was pissed enough. Jason was probably still a better fighter than Nightwing, so his odds of walking away under his own steam were distinctly better than Roy's but if this truly screwed things up for the couple, Jason considered the wisdom of laying low for a while. Like maybe for the next twenty or thirty years . . .

"Is your life insurance policy premiums up to date?" He asked as he felt the plane begin to taxi around in preparation for their departure.

Roy gaped at him for a moment and then heaved a sigh.

"Well, shit."

Elle locked the door to the bedroom. Once satisfied that Jason wasn't going to force his way inside and drag her back out into the main cabin, she moved quickly to the closet that took up the back of the bedroom. She blinked at the sight of several of her father's business suits still hanging in there. No one had thought about cleaning out the closet. Glancing around the room, she realized that the drawers likely hid a myriad of Cedric's personal items.

Shaking herself, she shoved the suits aside, uncovering a hidden panel in the back wall.

Her father had insisted on the addition. When one was worth nearly five hundred million dollars, people became obsessed with finding ways to separate the man from his money. Kidnapping his daughter had only been one of the ways and none of those had been entirely successful. There were reasons why Elle's bodyguards had remained in their positions for so long . . .

Hijacking Cedric's jet was certainly another way to go. And, although no one had ever attempted it, it hadn't stopped her practically-minded parent from making contingency plans just in case. It was only the second time Elle had ever used it. The first time had been when the brand-new jet had been delivered. Cedric had shown his daughter how to use the secret route to escape should something like this happen and the opportunity arose while the plane was still on the ground.

That said, the space had parachutes stored in it, and could be sealed off from the rest of the place to prevent the rest of the aircraft from sudden decompression. The hijackers might never be aware that their victim(s) had ever left the plane until they came looking and discovered them gone.

What she was doing suddenly hit her, and Elle's mouth turned up into a fleeting grin at the look of Jason's face when he reached Gotham City and Elle was nowhere to be found. She might have enjoyed the little escapade a lot more if she just hadn't been so angry at his high-handedness. But she had been serious when she had told him she wasn't ready to confront Dick with this so soon after her most recent brush with death.

Elle slipped through into the compartment. It was cramped barely enough room to maneuver if one needed to don the parachutes. It could only hold two people at a time. She shuffled the suits back into place and resealed the panel. Entering the code and popped the door to a small safe, Elle helped herself to the emergency cash and a credit card. Then, with her thumbprint, she broke the seal on the hatch, and dropped down to the hanger floor from the belly of the plane. Elle listened to the hiss that the secret escape hatch made when sealing itself once again.

Seeing no one around, Elle took off toward the offices located near the back of the hanger for the mechanics that cared for her father's aircraft. She could wait there until Edward and Hugh arrived to pick her up. She had just reached the offices when the jet powered up and began to taxi out onto the tarmac.

She had made a successful escape right out from under one of the precious bats' noses. Anger was mitigated slightly with a feeling of triumph. Too many people tended to underestimate her.

On her own turf, Elle could be a formidable opponent.

She headed for the phone. She had a couple of calls to make. Her day was far from over and it wouldn't be long before Dick knew what stunt she had just pulled and came after her. Elle wasn't stupid. He would be arriving in Chicago within three or four hours, she had no doubt but she had things to accomplish before that could happen, things her errant fiancé wouldn't approve of.

She dialed the number from memory. She had called it before but this was the first time she had done so willingly.

"Hello? Nora? This is Bella. Is Aiden in the office? I need to speak to him . . ."

REACTIONS?

This could be fun . . . The confrontation will be coming, but it will be on Elle's turf and on her terms. Not sure about you, but I can't wait to see what happens when the jet lands in Gotham City missing one of its passengers.