Stephanie didn't try to initiate conversation during their return to Wayne Manor. She said a few words to Bruce via communicator in the small, beat up tumbler he'd sent, but Cassandra didn't catch what they were. She wasn't listening to anything. All the world had gone hollow.

When the two stepped out of the vehicle and into the Batcave, Bruce turn to acknowledge them. He just said, "Stephanie, come over here. Cassandra, go to bed."

It was almost nice to follow orders. Cassandra didn't feel like making any decisions of her own.

When she arrived in her bedroom, Cassandra looked around for a minute, as if it had become foreign to her. The bed was all made, the Bible Monsignor Ryan gave sat on her dresser. She almost lied under the covers, but diverted herself for a moment and unplugged the radio. She didn't wish to be tempted by anything that would keep her awake.

An hour later Cassandra hadn't slept a wink and there was a gentle knock on the door.

"Cassie?" Stephanie said. Her voice was a little nasally due to the splint wrapped around her nose. "Are you still awake?"

Cassandra said nothing.

"I know how upset you must be.… I… I can't imagine how you must feel right now. If I'd known it would have led to anything like this I never would have said anything." Stephanie breathed a deep exhale and leaned her head against the door. "I'm sorry. For whatever part I played in this, I'm so sorry. I promise I'll leave you alone. I promise I'll stop trying to fix you. I don't even—"

Stephanie almost fell inward as Cassandra opened the door and wrapped her arms around her again. She still wouldn't look Stephanie in the eye, but the hug was tight. Stephanie needed a moment to adjust, but quickly mimicked the action.

"… Don't even what?" Cassandra spoke quiet enough to whisper.

Stephanie took another deep breath. "Keep being your friend. If you don't want me to."

Cassandra's grip tightened and she clenched her fingers almost as if she was clawing. "Don't. Please. Sorry I made you feel that way."

"Okay," Stephanie said. "Then I'm not going anywhere." The two stood in silence for a minute as Stephanie slowly started to sway back and forth, as if she was calming a crying child. "I don't know what you're looking for, but I hope you can find it."

There was a lean as Cassandra slipped closer. "Me." It was little more than a mumble. "Lost me. Trying to find me."

Even if she didn't entirely understand, Stephanie nodded. "But all this because of a girl—"

"No," Cassandra said. "Odmience attack me. Gram hate me. Everything I tried failed."

Stephanie sighed. "I'm sorry. All I know is the relationship stuff. I was focusing too hard on it, I guess. You really do have a lot of reasons to be upset right now."

"Made everything worse," Cassandra said. "Didn't want to anymore."

As Stephanie pat her shoulder with one hand, she raised her chin with the other and looked her in the eye. "Screwing up doesn't make you a screw up and sometimes not every good choice gets a good outcome. I wish I could tell you otherwise but I can't." With one of her hands, she gripped Cassandra's shoulder. "But we keep doing them because the right thing is still the right thing. You wanna find yourself again? My best friend was raised to hurt people, but she decided to help everyone she could instead. She turned a childhood of stuff worse than I could have ever imagined into her strength. And she believed in people, no matter how hard they made it on her. And you did all that a long time before you'd said a single prayer or listened to a single thing on the radio."

Cassandra shut her eyes tight, as if she braced for impact. "I don't want to hurt anymore."

"Is it working? Are you not getting hurt right now?"

Cassandra soon returned to bed. In the early afternoon she was summoned to Bruce's study, where he stood just in front of the one bookcase that concealed the passage to the caverns below. He gripped his temple and paced back and forth among the books and busts as Cassandra sat on the parlor couch in front of him.

"Am I… done?"

Bruce released the grip on his forehead and looked toward another bookcase. "I don't know. By standard protocol, you should be. We have rules here—"

"My rule." Cassandra clenched a fist. "Before I knew you."

"That doesn't make it any better," Bruce said. "If anything it makes it worse." His hands slipped into his pockets a moment as his look slowly formed into a glare. A glare he still could not direct toward his daughter. "I need to know something."

Cassandra nodded. Somehow, Bruce appeared to notice.

"Stephanie told me you said you weren't trying to kill Zsasz. Considering all of the wounds inflicted on him and the nature of the death blow, I find that very hard to believe." At last, at least half of his glare moved toward Cassandra. "I need to know. Did you try to kill him or not?"

Cassandra gripped her wrist and looked down. "I don't know. Really don't."

"That's a very serious problem then," Bruce said. "Of all of us, you have to know. I've let you out in the streets for years now with the understanding that you always knew. And before last night, you never gave me a reason to think otherwise."

With her breaths deep and arms almost wrapped around herself, Cassandra remembered the feelings of the moment. "They did nothing… just people. Killed all four of them."

Bruce's anger momentarily shifted to confusion. "The police said there were only three victims in the house."

"Mother was pregnant," Cassandra said. "Four."

Bruce accepted the words with a nod. "All right. Four then."

"Was afraid." Tiny shakes again ran through Cassandra's body. "Afraid he'd do it again. Get away like they always do… couldn't let him."

"No one in the police is going to pursue any action against you. Everyone's already accepted you acted in self-defense, even though it's very obvious you could have defused the situation long before you finished him off.

Again, Cassandra asked, "Am I done?"

"You're at least going on leave for a while," Bruce said. "If need be, we'll have to evaluate you after that to determine if you're still able to do what is needed. Or we might all decide it's too difficult to continue like this."

Cassandra fought back tears as she looked down. "Just wanted what was right."

"Cassandra, we all want what's best for you." Bruce turned to face her. "If you can't know for sure what you're trying to do when you're trying to do it, I can't let you back in the uniform. If you need to believe what that man on the radio says I can't stop you, but I will not supply you with the tools to carry it out either. Those are decisions you need to make yourself." Bruce paused with the thought she might respond, but she didn't say anything. "Considering someone is still trying to kill you and kidnapping Gothamites as some part of his scheme, it doesn't make sense to keep you here for the time being. I know this is a lot, but we need you somewhere else for a while."

Some part of Cassandra knew she should have been angry with him for that. She was already in enough pain, and she almost felt worse knowing her father was trying to shoo her away. But then a thought crossed her mind. She remembered what felt like the one bridge she hadn't burned recently.

"Star," she said. "I go to Star City?"

Bruce raised an eyebrow. "Is that a suggestion? I wouldn't allow you to take the uniform."

"Want to see Connor," Cassandra said. "Be with a friend."

Bruce raised a hand to his chin and glanced downward. "I hadn't finalized where you would go yet. Ollie will have more room available than Clark and Lois… I'll get ahold of him and get back to you on that."

Calls were made, arrangements were set. Within three days, Cassandra was finishing the last of her packing for her temporary disappearance in Star City.