A/N - Steph is 21 now.

Step Two - Flint

Their next reunion was much the same, except that Steph was the one sobbing the hardest as she clutched Batman's chest. They'd all thought that he was dead; all of them except Tim, that was, who had insisted for two agonizing years with seemingly baseless evidence that their mentor was somehow still alive.

"Don't you ever do that to me again!" Batgirl screamed at Batman, even though it wasn't his fault any more than it had been hers, when she'd been the one thought dead.

She pounded his Kevlared chest with a fist while she sobbed. And he looked down at her so gently, with his eyes soft and sorry and happy, too, until she collapsed against him, crying like she'd never stop as Batgirl hugged her Batman on a dark rooftop in Gotham.

B held her, wrapped her up carefully in his gauntlet covered arms, and rocked and soothed her until she could catch her breath many long minutes later. And if they were both looking at each other with new eyes when they finally pulled back from their embrace - well, neither one of them commented on it.

Steph had shot up from age nineteen to twenty-one during his absence and before that, she'd been stolen away to Africa for two years at age seventeen. She'd hardly made it home from her kidnapping before Batman had seemed to die, so seeing him again now felt breathtakingly, heart-stoppingly different.

But that was stupid. Absolutely stupid.

"I'm sorry that you and Tim officially broke things off," B said sincerely, further crushing Steph's mortifying thoughts to dust.

"We never really got back together," she said, feeling traces of the lingering heartache that came every time that she thought of her former best friend.

"Still," B said with a sigh. "I feel like that was my fault that your relationship didn't work out. If I hadn't asked you to challenge him as Robin in my death note to you…" he trailed off, looking regretful. Steph looked up at him sadly.

"Honestly?" she said. "Tim had changed long before that. We both had," she said heavily. "Not everything that happens in life is your fault, B," she added in a gentle tease, needing a little humor to lighten the reality of what she and Tim had become to each other - or more accurately, had ceased to become.

"Of course everything isn't my fault," Batman scoffed sarcastically. "Only what happens in Gotham. And to my Bats."

Steph was shocked to discover that the corner of his mouth was quirking up. Was he actually making a joke? Holy cow! She giggled and then Batman was definitely smiling, although he somehow managed to do it without using the rest of his mouth.

"I missed you, B," she said suddenly, filled with longing. "I got to reconnect with everyone else, but I'd barely been back in Gotham from Africa before you were gone."

"So come over for dinner one night and we'll catch up," he said easily. Steph's mouth dropped open.

"What?" he said, smirking. "I'm sure Alfred would love to see you, too. Plus, I hear that Oracle is monopolizing a certain Batgirl's time so much these days that she's not haunting the BatCave anymore."

"Did I haunt it when I was dead?" Steph asked B him playfully, but the look he gave her was heartbreaking.

"All the time," he said hoarsely, half turning his face away and blinking rapidly.

"B," Steph said in wonder, moving forward to grip his arm. He actually needed to wipe his eyes before turning back around to face her.

"I couldn't -" he started to say. He stopped and cleared his throat, making her heart lurch in sympathy. "I couldn't even make you a memorial," he rasped. He reached out a gloved hand to hold Batgirl's cheek.

"I felt you laughing at me every time I thought about starting one," he said in a rough voice. "Maybe that should have told me you were alive," he added, his voice laced with guilt as his thumb absent-mindedly stroked lines on Steph's face.

"B, we've been over this," she said gently, but her stomach was doing the funniest flip-flops at his touch. Um. She reached her yellow-gloved hand up to cover his black-gloved one. "Not your fault," she repeated to him.

"Not yours, either," he said, his eyes meeting hers. Time stood still for a minute as the wind licked around the corners of the roof and made their capes flutter behind them, but then they heard a gunshot in the distance. B sighed as he let her go.

"Friday?" he asked her. "For dinner? Damian stays at the penthouse with Dick every weekend," he said.

"Friday sounds good," Steph said softly. Batman nodded and was about to head off in the direction of the shot, when he paused and cocked his head over his shoulder at her.

"Want to help me out, Robin? For old time's sake?" And damned if he didn't look like he was grinning like the Cheshire Cat, even if it was somehow all in his voice and not in his face. Steph's smile was impossible to miss, though.

"Hell yeah, I want to help," she beamed. Batman took off running across the rooftops and then Batgirl was running after him, and it was like old times - only better.

Because when they knocked the crooks out together they finally felt like a real team, and this time around Steph definitely felt like more of an equal than she had in her Robin days. Not completely an equal, because who could ever be Batman's equal?

Definitely not her, ok, fine. Steph had to admit that was true. But she was a competent fighter now, thanks to Cass and Babs and Cat and the Birds of Prey, and she felt approval glowing out of him once they finished zip-tying the muggers for the GCPD.

"You've been training," Batman said to his former Robin as they left the alley together.

"Yep," she answered with pride.

"We should spar when you come over," he said, and he sounded downright eager. "Bring your sweats," he bossily ordered. Steph laughed.

"I get it now," she said. "Alfred's cooking is the bait, but I'm going to pay for it by getting my ass kicked."

"Maybe," Batman said with a twinkle in his eye. "Maybe not. Bring your clothes and we'll see," he teased.

"Ok," Steph answered, not really annoyed at all.

In fact, her heart was glowing warm with B's approving attention, which she had craved so desperately back when she'd been his Robin. Hell, if she was being honest, she'd been longing for Batman's regard ever since she'd been Spoiler, perpetually stuck with her nose pressed up against the glass of the Batfamily's inner sanctum, always on the outside, looking in.

So surely that was the only reason why she felt all lit up inside and was looking forward to Friday's dinner an awful lot.

Surely.

A/N - more to come! I'll post a new chapter every day. This fic is completely written.

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