A/N: Hey guys! Finally done with testing and I did awesome! As a reward to both myself and you guys for being so patient, as well as because a friend of mine who kept badgering me to do this, Together not only gets updated first out of everything else that is coming soon by me, but I have two chapters for you guys. Chapter 10 is literally right behind this update. I'm also almost done typing up the 11th chapter, so look for that in the now too distant future.

I'm too excited, so the rest is at the bottom. Enjoy…

Chapter 9: Secrets and Lies

When Dick exited the Zeta Tube he was greeted with the usual chill that came at night in the Bat-cave. The only audible sounds being the squeaking of bats, who decided to make the cave their permanent home, water dripping somewhere deeper in the cave, and the soft whirring of the Bat-computer in hibernation mode.

Not a soul in sight. Not even Alfred. Not too abnormal, but enough to make Dick curious.

"Probably upstairs," he murmured to himself in the darkness, "if he's here at all."

Bruce Wayne, seeing who he was, was a very busy man who was never in the same place for too long. If he wasn't at W.E. he was at a party or event of some kind. If he wasn't Bruce Wayne at the time, he was Batman, at the Watchtower, the Bat-cave, or out somewhere in Gotham.

Right now, Dick just hoped he was in the manor, whether as Batman or Bruce Wayne. Normally if Rose was coming over–staying the night–he was there, at least for the first night.

Dick walked through the cave and up the stairs to the study; the sound of his shoes hitting the floor bouncing of the walls, echoing through the open space.

The grandfather clock slid to the side to allow his access to the study, when he reached the top of the staircase. Sure enough, Bruce was sitting in his black leather chair at his desk as Dick hoped he would be.

The man looked up from his paperwork when he heard the Cave's entrance open. He frowned slightly when he saw only one of his two protégés standing before him.

"Where is Rose?" He asked straight away.

Dick rolled his eyes behind his shades before removing them. "Nice to see you too, Bruce."

The elder raven shook his head slightly. "Sorry. Hey, Dick, how's it going?"

"It would be going a lot better if I had Rose with me, wouldn't it?" Dick sighed, slumping down in one of the two chairs in front of the large antique desk.

"Where is she?" Bruce asked, leaning on his elbows, his paperwork sitting neatly between them. "She was supposed to come back with you when you left."

Bruce knew about the mission Clark had been sent on. He also knew if Rose found out where he father was really going she would breakdown. Or worse, try and go with him. He planned on making it his top priority to keep an eye on her, but it might be hard–even for Batman–to watch someone he couldn't find; especially if they didn't want to be found. But the caped crusader was pretty sure that wasn't the case in this particular scenario.

"I don't know," Dick sighed again. "She was supposed to be getting my spare shades from her room, but Conner brought them to me instead. Said she'd be back for dinner."

"That's all?" Bruce mentally analyzed the information before narrowing his eyes. "Why did you need the spare shades in her room?"

"She broke the other ones I had." Dick said, looking at his hands in his lap.

"Why did Rosalie break your shades, Dick?" Bruce asked mixing his tone somewhere in between his casual civilian voice and his deeper demanding Batman voice. A voice both he and Rose had grown accustom to answering instinctively as sidekicks.

Though he didn't know if he should tell Bruce about the earlier incident he knew the older man would over analyze the situation and find a problem with the brunette what just wasn't there.

"She was upset. Wally and I were messing with her and pushed her a little past her limits, essentially making her mad." It was half true. They did do something to upset the brunette. "I asked her to go into the bathroom to get my sunglasses. She wasn't in full control of her powers at the time and accidentally broke them. She offered to go get the spare she had in her room. Conner brought them instead with her message."

Bruce sat back in his chair, taking in the information given before speaking. "Rose isn't the type to get upset over a prank. Not one by you two anyway. The three of you have been messing with each other practically since the day you met." Bruce spoke offhandedly, remembering some of the more out there things the three have done over the years. "Any idea where she might have gone?"

Dick thought she would have gone to Metropolis to blow off some steam, but there had been no signs on the news of the blue and red clad sidekick like he thought there would be.

"No clue." Dick exhaled instead.

"Well, she said she'd be back for dinner, right?" Bruce said, looking down at his watch. Alfred had dinner ready by 7:30 every Friday night, and the time was currently five till. "Dinner should be ready soon. I trust she'll keep to her word and be here by then."

The older raven got up from his chair with a soft grunt and began towards the door which led to the hallway. "Come on, we should get ready. You know how Alfred gets when we're late."

Dick sat there for a second longer, wondering just how bad he had upset his friend. She had never seen he and Wally kiss before that night, but she wouldn't be so disgusted by the sight she couldn't even look at his face, would she?

It was 7:43 when Rose arrived back at the Cave. She parked her bike right alongside Dick's haphazardly. She was running behind schedule and so she had sped the entire way home. She was a little surprised that none of the on-duty traffic patrolmen came after her at the speed she had been going.

She put her helmet on the seat of her bike and jogged briskly up the stairs. Rose hoped no one would notice her tardiness, seeing as though she wasn't normally late.

"You're late." Bruce announced when Rose appeared in the doorway of the dining room. Obviously she thought that too quick.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Rose said, rubbing the back of her neck and trying to sound as casual as possible. "But I told Conner to tell Dick I would be back by dinner, not when dinner actually started."

Bruce narrowed his eyes, obviously not amused, before returning to cutting his steak.

"So nice of you to finally grace us with your presence, Mistress Rosalie," Alfred greeted as he came in with Rose's dinner. "I presume you have a reasonable excuse as to why you are tardy."

"I got held up with a friend. A personal something that required my attendance," Rose picked up her fork and knife and began cutting into her own Salisbury steak.

"Like what? Do we know who this friend is?" Dick asked from directly across the brunette.

"Well if I told you what, it wouldn't be that personal anymore, now would it?" Rose's tone was a bit harsher than she intended it to be. She felt extra guilty when she looked up at Dick and saw the distraught frown on his face as he picked through his mashed potatoes. "I-I drove around a bit, then dropped by a friend's house for a hot minute. Even stopped a few muggings on the way back through the city."

The second time around, her voice was a bit lighter, like it normally was; she could feel his eyes on her, but she didn't look up at him. Dick wasn't sure how to feel about that.

"When you are done with your dinner, I will attend to your injuries." Alfred said from Dick's left.

Rose's eyes widened a fraction before she replied, a bit uneasily. "No, it's okay Alfred. I didn't obtain very many injuries this time."

"From the look of the bruise on your neck, I would have to be the proper judge of that." Rose's hand shot to her neck at the comment. "I have to make sure you are more heavily injured that you think you are."

"Really I–"

"When you are finished, Mistress Rosalie."

Everyone in the Bat family knew that as Alfred's 'no longer up for discussion' tone. He used it on them constantly when they came back from patrol, too stubborn to give themselves proper physical evaluations.

When the elder man walked out of the room Rose drew her attention back to the other two at the table.

No one said another word throughout the duration of their dinner. Rose wanted to see if she could convince Bruce she was alright and have him talk to Alfred, but something she heard stopped her.

"She's obviously not telling us something. She's always early or on time for everything, never late. What could be so important that she would lie or hide something? Hopefully Alfred will find something during her evaluation."

What stuck out to Rose the most was the fact that Bruce's lips weren't even moving. She was reading his mind.

Rose's hand went to her necklace, remembering that moment in Metropolis yesterday.

Maybe there was something wrong with her. She could be sick or something, but she would remember being exposed to something strong enough to affect her at this magnitude. So maybe M'gann was right. A new development in her powers. That might pose the problem with her necklace. But it might also cause major problems in other places, too.

She only wore the blue kryptonite to limit her power export when she didn't need it. Bruce and Barry figured out that the reason she had breaks in her powers was because the human and Kryptonian sides of her were in conflict; the human part of her was the most prominent when her powers were off because the Kryptonian side of her was dormant. Hence the power glitches and the same thing vice versa when the human side was dormant. But at the same time, her human side was always active, just not as dominant at the time.

The new development in her powers may be harmful, but what if it was just her body trying to compensate for her imbalance and actually make it so she didn't have as many glitches, if any at all?

It may just be wishful thinking on her part, but it was might be a possibility.

Another dizzy spell came over Rose, causing her to put down her fork and close her eyes.

"Are you alright?" She could hear the concern in Bruce's voice.

Rose tried to nod her head, but figured it would only make the situation worse, so she took a moment to compose herself and waited for the moment to pass.

When she opened her eyes, Rose tried her best to smile convincingly. "Yeah, I'm good. Dizzy for a second, but I'm fine now."

"Are you sure?" Dick pushed.

"Dick, I said I'm fine!" she snapped, squeezing her cup to the point where it shattered in her hand. "Damn."

The brunette got up to go into the kitchen and grabbed a dish cloth to clean up her mess. She could feel eyes boring into her back as she went, but she couldn't bring herself to say another word. All she could focus on was the constant surge of questions of concern and judgement running through both their heads; unaware that she could hear every word.

Alfred felt it necessary to do a full body inspection on Rose after dinner, and applied cream to each bruise he found on her neck, chest, and thighs.

Rose explained how she was knocked down numerous times and was cornered by three guys in an alley.

"They looked way worse than I do now when the EMT's took them away." Rose's laugh was that of a true Robin and bounced off the walls in the cave, causing a few bats to flutter their wings before settling back down. "Plus, they don't even hurt. I didn't even know some of them were even there."

The last part was grumbled in annoyance, the brunette obviously bothered by the new discoveries.

"Obviously you need to train more without your powers seeing all the injuries you have now after that fight." Bruce commented from his position leaning against one of the medical cabinets in the cave's infirmary, arms crossed as he too accessed Rose's injuries. "You've been Supergirl for so long your skills seem to be waning."

Rose huffed out a laugh. "I could take both you and Dick right now and still come out on top." She jumped down from the examination table she was sitting on to stand face to face with her godfather, so she didn't see when Dick's cheeks grew a light pink blush to them.

"That would be unwise, seeing as your injuries need a few days to heal." Alfred explained as he put away the cream and gauze used to tend to the brunette's damages.

"My 'injuries' will be fine. I heal faster than most." Rose waved her hand in dismissal as she spoke, turning to face Bruce once more.

"Give it at least till the end of the week. You'll be fine. That means no patrol, and no missions till then." Bruce put a hand on her shoulder and gave her a stern look when she opened her mouth to speak. He walked past her to ascend the stairs leading back to the manor, presumably to retire for the evening. Alfred followed behind to attend to the rest of his nightly duties before retiring himself.

Rose glanced over at Dick who lifted his head to meet her gaze. Once they were finally alone she shook her own head and turned to leave as well.

"I'm sorry," Dick blurted out all of a sudden, causing Rose to turn and face him with an impassive expression. "For dinner and what Wally and I did earlier." Dick clarified, looking down at the ground, suddenly finding his shoes very intriguing. "We got caught up in the moment and we didn't think. I'm sorry."

Rose stared at him for a moment. She took a single step towards him. "You've known me for the longest time, so you know how I feel about those kinds of reactions, or at least I thought I did. Keep your emotions in check next time and make sure your boyfriend does the same."

Dick spoke in as much of his normal, playful voice as he could in order to mask the hurt threatening to slip through. "Don't worry Rosalie, I will." With that, Dick hurried up the stairs, back up to the manor, and to his room.

He slammed the door shut behind him once he was safely on the other side. Dick couldn't believe that was how Rose really felt. She really didn't approve of their relationship. At least not until reminded of it. She was really good at hiding her true feelings until provoked. She didn't even give any indication that their relationship even bothered her.

But the look on her face when Wally had kissed him…Rose never even looked that disgusted when Wally ate nachos or chili cheese fries.

Confessions by Usher brought Dick back out of his thoughts indicating that a certain redheaded speedster was calling. He told Wally he would call him after dinner, when he talked to Rose; with all that happened, he completely forgot.

Taking a deep breath, Dick slid the green phone across his screen.

"Hey Walls,"

"How did it go?" Straight to the point then.

"Good enough." Dick tried to sound as convincing as possible.

"Really? 'Cause you sound pretty dejected to me." Wally always was good at picking out Dick's tells. The raven used to be freaked out by that fact, but he couldn't love Wally for it more now. "It sounds like it didn't go 'good enough' to me."

"It went… okay." Dick sighed, going to sit at the edge of his bed. "She said as long as we don't do it again, then–"

"Do it again," Wally interrupted with a bitter, humorless laugh. "She doesn't want me to kiss my boyfriend because she can't stand the sight."

"She's adjusting to the change." Dick tried to reason. "Everyone digests change differently."

"Ever figure, maybe she's just a homophobic bitch!" Wally yelled, a deafening silence following.

Dick knew Wally was speaking out of anger at the subtle rejection and not at the brunette directly. Both boys knew Rose to be rational and understanding, hence the reason Dick figured she just needed time.

"I know you don't hate her and that you don't really believe what you are saying. Being mad, and hating her won't solve anything. It'll actually make you feel worse." Dick let out a tired sigh. It had been a long weekend with a lot going on; they were all tired. "Give her some time, that's all I ask. At least till the end of the week. Personally, I think that might be too much time, especially since you're going to see her on Wednesday, but like I said before, everyone processes change differently. Can you do that for me, baby?"

Dick smiled when he heard Wally groan over-dramatically. "Hit me with a 'baby'." Dick didn't do pet names like that, but on the rare occasion that he did he had Wally on his knees. "Since you asked so nicely, I'll give her some room, but I'm running low on patience, Rob."

Dick let out a sigh for the umpteenth time that evening. "Guess you need some refresher courses in patience then, huh Walls?"

When the older boy swallowed, it was audible through the phone.

"Maybe we'll briefly run through it with you again on Friday. Night, baby."

Dick hung up before the redhead was able to compose himself enough to for a cohesive thought, a wide smile spread across his face.

Wally did have much to learn in patience, as did all speedsters, but in this case–with Rose–Dick was sure he could hold out for a bit longer.

Once Dick disappeared through the grandfather clock's entrance to the manor, Rose sighed and leaned her back on a wall in the–now extremely dim lit–cave.

Rose didn't mean to seem so cold, she really didn't. She just wanted to let out her frustrations. She actually planned to have a small melt down in her room or sneak out and have Blue Jay help her vent on some baddies before a week without any action whatsoever, but Dick stopped her before she could. She held back from screaming at him, but the way she said all of it made it worse than screaming at him.

Dick didn't do anything to her. Well, not intentionally or knowingly. Neither did Wally. She blew up at him at dinner for absolutely no reason at all. She must have looked sick and he reacted like any friend would, that's all; she just snapped at him like he was pestering her.

Same thing yesterday. She fainted and the boys acted like her friends. She would have done the same thing, but she was annoyed when they came over. It was her default emotion for when something like that happened, so she played it off like it wasn't a big deal. And it wasn't, more like a freak mood swing. Rosalie had been running through so many different emotions over the past weekend, with all of the new discoveries, it was giving her whiplash.

She wasn't an emotional, estrogen high, girly girl. Sure, she got mad when someone annoyed the crap out of her and she got a bit empathetic when she witnessed other in distress, but she had seen a lot in her life and she had developed a strong sense of empathy. Another one of those obvious traits she received from her father.

Bottom line, all the dramatic changes made her tired. Too much at once. Plus Dick's apology threw her off. The dinner part was obvious and she should have been the one to apologize, not him. She would have to do that tomorrow.

But the second part, she had no idea.

At first, she was gonna tell him she had no clue what he was taking about, but then she remembered what had happened in Metropolis. The boys' overreaction to her dizzy spell was what she assumed he was referring to. Dick had said that afternoon, but Rose figured he was just getting the days mixed up with it having been such an extensive weekend, so she didn't think much of it.

When she was a kid, Rose used to get sick a lot –not pneumonia sick, more like colds and flus–and major headaches, borderline migraines; because medicine and tests like CAT scans didn't work on her due to her differences, her parents were never able to take her to the doctor, so they never knew what was wrong with her.

They figured it was a part of her power development and how it might be affecting her brain and the rest of her body. They figured it was her human and Kryptonian halves in conflict, trying to set up some kind of balance within her.

Zatara put a mystical enhancement on regular medicines and painkillers in order to ease the pain or treat whatever sickness she had at the time.

After she turned eight or nine, the problems went away for the most part. She would still have the occasional dizzy spells and mild headaches every now and then, but nothing major. Though she had never had an episode like what had happened yesterday; at least not since when she was a kid.

During her worst times, her parents coddled her on a daily basis and pestered her with questions on if she as feeling alright or if she needed anything. She was okay with that…when she was sick. People always asked her if she was doing alright and insisted on doing things for her, which was the reason now why she vowed to do everything herself. She felt better knowing she could do things on her own without the aid of her parents or friends.

Having people do things for her was fine at times. The same thing applied with asking questions about her health at appropriate times, but it aggravated her to no end at other times, but who wouldn't it?

Even after she got better, Lois and Clark–at home–and Bruce and Alfred–at the manor–even members of the Justice League and their sidekicks whenever she was with any of them kept pampering her and asking. More like bothering and pestering. She got that they cared and worried about her, but one day she lost it and told them all to back off. That had surprised everyone that the Girl of Steel, the sweetest angel, would ever blow up like that. So they did what was asked of them, not knowing what else to do.

To this day, Rose hated when people asked her about her health when it was irrelevant or try to do things for her when she felt she could obviously do things herself. So when Dick and Bruce questioned her at dinner or when Dick and his boyfriend reacted the way they did, her response was reflexive. Part of her was touched, but the part of her channeling her past-self overruled the touched part of her, causing her to be mostly annoyed.

It was a random dizzy spell which both boys knew she got on occasion, yet they treated her as if they were hers…

But they weren't her boyfriends. They were with Artemis, and as much as Rose despised the blonde with a passion, she was who they chose; Rosalie had to keep telling herself that she had to adjust and get over–

Rose's body jerked and she fell forwards as though she was shoved, but when she looked around she was still alone in the Cave (aside from the bats who were not strong enough to knock her over. )

When she attempted to get back to her feet, an intense wave of nausea assaulted her, and she almost didn't make it to the sink.

Rose hurled up her dinner and even when there was nothing left her stomach continued to convulse she until she was dry heaving. Once her stomach settled, she turned on the faucet on full blast and flushed her dinner down the drain. She splashed her face with cool water until she felt better. Keeping her eyes closed she rinsed out her mouth before drinking a few handfuls of water.

"What the fuck is wrong with me?" Rose asked her reflection and winced when she took in her appearance.

Her skin was pale, a ghostly complexion compared to her normally sun kissed golden skin tone. Her red shirt was soaked through so it stuck to her skin from the V-neck to her torso with water and puke, some in her hair, which caused the brunette to gag. Her eyes were the worst, bloodshot, almost matching the shirt she wore. For a second, Rosalie could've sworn she saw her eyes flash a grotesque shade of green, but it came and went so fast, Rose assumed it was a trick of her mind.

Now, Rose was drained. She had to have been seeing things and her body felt ready to collapse, but with the gross, gunky feeling on her skin, she could survive a shower and a light snack, seeing how her Salisbury steak and mashed potatoes were prematurely on their way to Gotham's water treatment plant.

She headed towards the stairs, but a thought occurred to her. It might be best to remove her necklace so she could speed up the stairs in order to avoid Alfred and Bruce seeing her. If either of them saw her right now, they would freak out. More so than when they saw the bruises on her skin when she came in that night–Bruce would definitely freak out if he knew where those really came from.

Being seen right now would lead to Bruce keeping her from patrol and missions for longer than the original week she was supposed to be out of commission and Alfred would keep her on lock down at the manor, and that was the last thing Rose wanted.

She shivered at the thought of being stuck in the manor for that long. She was a social butterfly who needed to flutter and frolic with others. The Girl of Steel might have a panic attack if she couldn't and that had caused a lot of problems with her over protective family in the past. She didn't want a repeat any time soon. Or ever again.

So Rose thought it best to just not tell them about what happened tonight. Not even Dick should know. It would be her little secret; she was accumulating a lot of those lately, and she felt she wasn't the only one.

Shaking her head, Rose took out the lead box from her jacket pocket, discarded when she came into the Cave with Alfred a little while ago, and dropped the gem inside. Shutting the box with a sharp clamp she sped up the stairs to her room.

A/N: Sorry for those who don't understand. I put an update for progress and whatnot as the 4th chapter of Bring Me to Life on AO3 and would have done the same here, but I don't think I can do a simple A/N as a whole chapter. Check it out; it will explain everything, I promise. But if you have questions, just PM me and I'll explain in as much or little detail as your hearts desire. Thanks for being awesome!