Back in the Batcave, Robin sat down next to Batman at the monitors. Robin had to admit, it was going to be hard to find Dr. Song. There was virtually no information about him since about sixteen years ago. At that time, Julius was two years old.

Apparently, Julius' mother had died, which gave Dr. Song a strong passion to work among the people in the slums. He'd disappeared off the grid, leaving no trace of any useful information after that.

Batman had managed to piece together a couple more things. One, he must've remarried. Two, he had obviously been careful not to tell Julius that he and Valarie were half-siblings.

"Okay, I get the remarried part." Robin consented. "But how do you gather that he never told the Song siblings that they were half-siblings?"

"Bruce Wayne knew Dr. Song very well." Batman replied, "Half-siblings don't have nearly the loyalty to each other that full siblings do. I don't think he wanted them to start protesting that they were only half-brother and sister."

"If you knew Dr. Song so well, then why didn't he keep in touch?"

"I suspect that the answer to that is that he either was too busy with his work, or he forgot that people were waiting to hear from him."

Alfred appeared, carrying a plate of cookies. "Pardon me, sir, but I thought you and Master Robin might be getting hungry."

Robin snatched two of the cookies off the tray, and started nibbling on one thoughtfully. Valarie seemed perfectly capable of taking care of herself, but her brother – sorry, half-brother – was a gun-toting maniac. Of course he was impressed that she had managed to give Julius a broken nose! But it made him feel a bit weak to have been taken down so easily.

Robin reminded himself it was lucky he hadn't seen her coming. Otherwise he'd now be in a grave with a bullet through his skull. Maybe he needed to talk with her about how she managed to have such quick reflexes…

….. PAGE BREAK…

Valarie was seriously upset. She'd managed to get away from her brother rather easily at first, but when she was taking the roundabout way back to the apartment that they had shared with their father he'd leaped out from a side alleyway and managed to get a shot to her shoulder.

The pain was intense, but there were plenty of gunmen where they lived, and Valarie had been shot before. It hurt, but she would survive. Julius had disappeared again, but was at the apartment when she got there. Without a word, he'd helped her get the bullet out – which was almost excruciating as getting shot in the shoulder in the first place – then dressed the wound.

Valarie never knew what kind of mood Julius would be in. When they were younger, he would throw her toys and break them, tear out the pages in her coloring books, and then the next morning would be making new ones for her. Julius was four years older than her, which meant he was legally an adult.

But what it also meant was that he was totally in charge of her until Dad got back. It was so hard to have to do everything he said.

After helping her, he'd disappeared into the bedroom that they had once shared. Since Dad had gone missing, Valarie had either slept in his bedroom or on the over-stuffed couch in the living room.

Valarie sighed, using her left hand to pull herself up. She loved Julius, but he had always been a little too unpredictable for her taste. Speaking of taste, it was almost eleven o'clock at night. She needed to make some dinner for the two of them.

The kitchen in their apartment was small and outdated, but functional. The stove was an olive green color that her dad said was the most fashionable of colors during the fifties.

Valarie pulled out two cans of tomato soup, some bread, butter, and garlic. Her dad had loved Italian garlic bread, and Valarie had learned how to make it almost perfectly.

She set the oven – which was supposed to be white but so stained that it could be called beige – to 350 degrees. While it was warming up she washed and opened the cans of tomato soup and put them in a blue white-speckled soup pot, and set the gas burning stove on low.

Then Valarie opened the bag of bread and began spreading butter and garlic on the bread. The oven beeped, and Valarie slid the tray into the oven with her good hand, wincing as she used the other arm to close the door.

She set the timer for five minutes, then sat down to wait. Suddenly, the last door on the right of the short, dirty hallway opened, and Julius came out.

"Hey, Cupid." He sat down on one of the two small stools at the breakfast bar, which was more like the dining room table; there simply wasn't room for one in the apartment.

Valarie scowled. "That's my nickname from when we were kids. Don't you remember, Caesar?"

Julius laughed softly. "Yeah, I'd totally forgotten. That nickname always got on my nerves. Now, well, it seems to fit me better."

Valarie walked over to the stove with her back to Julius and started stirring the soup. "How so?"

"Well, a couple of the different emperors of Rome were mad. Sometimes, I feel like I can't control myself. Tonight, when I tried to kill you and Robin? I think that it was one of those times. They've gotten worse since Dad…" His voice trailed off.

Valarie put down her spoon and came back over to the bar. "I think that I forgive you for – well, you know…" The conversation was awkward, but Valarie was determined that she could tell him how much she still loved him.

"By the way, sorry about your nose."

"Huh? Oh, yeah. You got me good." Julius grinned. He looked so much more like Dad. His hair was curly and brown, carelessly good-looking. If his nose weren't broken, it would have made him look rather like royalty. Just very much like he deserved everything the world had to offer.

"I'll get something for that." Valarie crossed the kitchen, which only took about two steps, and then reached up towards the medicine cabinet. The cabinet held all her father's medical supplies, and was almost full, despite both of them having to get something from the cabinet at least twice a week.

She took out a special bandage from the cabinet and handed it to Julius. "Thanks, Sis." He flashed her a grin, one that reached all the way into his eyes. They were brown, like Dad's, but in the right light, you could see flecks of blue in his eyes. Valarie had never been sure what the specks had come from, seeing as Mom had green eyes, like her. But Dad said just because she had dark hair, didn't mean the gene for blonde wasn't there.

Valarie had used to giggle, because it rhymed. Now, it was hard to smile any more, much less laugh.

"Did you start up some of our tomato soup store?" Julius asked, his voice tense with pain. Valarie turned around to see him struggling to put the bandage on right.

"Here." Valarie took the adhesive from him, and carefully applied it to the bridge of his nose.

"Thanks, Cupid."

Valarie looked at him, and suddenly, the nickname didn't annoy her as much as it used to. As if they were thinking the same thing, Julius got up from his stool and Valarie came around the side of the bar. They walked straight into each other's hugs. Julius was much taller than Valarie, but she didn't care. She snuggled her face into his faded skull sweatshirt and just enjoyed it.

The timer was ringing for about a minute before Valarie felt her brother release her. "I think something's calling you."

"No!" She wanted to shout, "Don't stop!" But she slid away from him, her arms dropping to her sides.

Valarie ladled the soup into two bowls and put all the garlic bread on a plate. She and Julius sat on the couch together, sipping the soup and eating the hot garlic bread. They didn't talk much, but Julius put on some jazz on the old CD player.

Valarie hesitated for a moment, then leaned her head against her brother's chest. She felt him tense for a split second, then relax and put his around her.

Eventually, Valarie's eyes closed. She didn't even notice when Julius laid her on the couch and went back to his room, turning the lights off behind him.

… PAGE BREAK…

The next morning, the clattering in the kitchen woke Valarie up. She sat up, realizing that a plain black quilt had been thrown over her. The next thing that she noticed was that she was still on her clothes from last night, minus her boots, which were on the floor next to her makeshift bed.

"Hey, Cupid! You're up!" Julius walked into the living room.

Valarie stared at him for a few minutes, then busted out laughing. Julius was wearing a sheet from the linen closet like a toga, a purple scarf, and a wreath spray-painted gold on his head.

He looked like a Roman emperor from a junkyard. "Julius… what in the world… are you wearing?" Valarie asked in between laughs.

Julius grinned, his wreath falling off his head. He picked it up and put it back on. "Remember last night how I said that I felt like some of the Roman emperors last night? Well, I decided to surprise you and dress up as Nero for breakfast. Now, follow my lead."

Julius-Nero straightened his 'toga' and raised his finger in the air like he was about to deliver a statement. "I, Nero, have had a quarrel with Neptune! To show him whose boss, or the Roman equivalent of it anyway, we will attack the sea!"

Julius-Nero pointed at the couch. "Attack!" He picked up a pillow and began beating Valarie with it.

Shrieking, then laughing, Valarie picked up her pillow and began to beat him with it. They were still at it when the teakettle whistled.

"Oh, right!" Julius exclaimed. His toga, wreath, and scarf had fallen off during the battle, revealing the white t-shirt and jeans he was wearing underneath. "I made some oatmeal and tea for you, coffee for me. Then we can start looking again."

Oh, right. Valarie had forgotten. They were having such a grand time just a moment ago. She looked around. The apartment was a mess, no doubt about that. The laundry pile was at least to Julius' knee. The dirty dishes from yesterday were already attracting flies. Not that that was surprising, considering the complex that they lived in.

She made a split second decision. "No."

"Sorry?" Julius turned around, balancing two oatmeal bowls and two mugs.

"We can't start looking for Dad while the apartment looks like this." Valarie swept her hand in a wide arc. "We'll clean, then we'll for Dad."

Julius shrugged. "You're the boss." Valarie was surprised that he had let her change plans without one complaint, but she was going to take advantage of it.

"Okay. I'll make a list, then we can get started."

"Whoa, there, Little Sis." Julius put up his hands in a 'stop everything' gesture. "First, we need to eat. Now, brown sugar? Butter? Salt? Raisins?"

Valarie accepted everything but the raisins, stirring the oatmeal for a good five minutes, chewing her pencil as she wrote the list. When she was finished with the list, she took a few big mouthfuls, finishing her oatmeal in less than three minutes. After that, she stirred sugar into her tea thoughtfully, trying to think if she'd missed anything.

When she took the first sip, Valarie's eyes widened with surprise. She took another sip, then another. "Julius, you made blueberry tea!"

"You like it?" Julius asked anxiously. "I saw that almost full box and didn't know whether that was because you didn't like it, or because there were so many other flavors in there. Seriously, who needs so many different fruit flavors? Raspberry? Black Cherry? Peach? Why do you even like that?"

"Because I like sweet flavors." Valarie retorted, taking another sip from her mug. It was her special mug. Her brother and father both had one too, one that they used each morning. They also used them when they drank hot chocolate or soup when they were sick. Hers was sky blue, with her initials, 'VAS', Valarie Annabelle Song, in golden, sparkling cursive.

When she was finished, Valarie ripped the list she had made in half. "You do this half, I'll do this half."

Before he started picking up, though, Julius put in their dad's Bing Crosby CD. As un-cool as Bing Crosby was, they both needed something that was their dad's to keep him right there with them.

Valarie's eyes filled with tears for a second, fear filling ever cavity in her body. What if Dad was dead? What if he was hurt? What if, even if they did find him, they were too late to save him? Valarie shook her head firmly, shaking away the bad thoughts.

Crossing to the tiny dishwasher, Valarie turned the water up to hot, then got out a scrubber and dish soap. The water wasn't suitable to drink, but it would do to wash dishes. Eventually, steam started coming out of the tap, and Valarie plugged the sink and dumped plenty of dish soap into the sink and began scrubbing.

Robin and Batman came to mind while she was mindlessly scoured the various dishes. She wondered if they had found anything that might help them find Dad, or if they had decided not to help out. After all, it was Julius who had tried to kill Robin. Some of her friends in the slums were sure that he was a 'hot' boy underneath the mask.

At first, Valarie hadn't been sure that the kind of mask the Boy Wonder had been wearing was enough to hide an identity. But after staring at him for a good fifteen minutes, she had to say that if she saw him without the mask, she might never recognize him.

As for him being cute, well, let's just say that Valarie had never really found boys to be in any way, shape, or form attractive. It kind of happened after getting shot at by a couple of the opposite gender.

Yes, Julius hadn't been the first one to take a pot shot at her. Valarie's reflexes were good enough that a couple of the meaner kids tried to see if they could hit her. They almost never did, though, and she didn't tell her dad.

The dishwasher was full and running, the dishes that hadn't fit had been put away by the time Julius returned. "I picked up and vacuumed the living room and entryway. What next?"

"Didn't you read your list? You need to do the laundry now." After Julius disappeared back further into the apartment, Valarie went and stood by the front door, which was basically a five-foot hallway. Next, it opened into the living room, pretty small, but still the biggest room in the 'house'.

To the right, the hallway that led to the two bedrooms and bathroom. To the left, the tiny kitchen. There were two windows on the far side of the living room, but the blinds were closed. Valarie crossed to the windows and pulled up the blinds. The sight outside was gloomy, but Valarie always enjoyed a good thunderstorm. When Dad was still home, they would curl up under blankets with his special 'weather chocolate', which was basically hot chocolate with homemade whipped cream and peppermint ground into it.

The list was almost completed when the phone rang. "I'll get it!" Valarie called, running over to the Mickey Mouse (Mickey Mouse, Dad? Really?) mounted wall phone and picking up the receiver.

"Hello?"

At first there was silence. Then, a maniacal voice whispered, "My dear niece, there is only one you're going to find my dear brother-in-law."

Valarie's fingers whitened around the receiver. "Where is he?" She demanded. "What have you done to him?"

"All in good time, my dear. Now, if you want him to stay in one piece, you'll do exactly what I say."

After hanging up, Julius came out from the bathroom; rubbing his hands dry on a clean towel. "Well, everything's done. Now-" He noticed her broken expression. "Cupid? What's wrong?"

Valarie sighed deeply. "Julius, our uncle called." Then she began to explain everything.