Lark and Black Canary worked in tandem to take down some drug dealers who thought it'd be a good idea to make their base of operations in an abandoned apartment building just a block away from a High School. On the outside, the building looked to be in relatively good shape; recently abandoned. The inside was relatively the same, save for the tables covered in beakers, vials, bunson burners and more where these dirt bags cooked up all sorts of drugs to sell to whoever would buy them.

Kate knew Dinah, and had asked her if she'd be willing to talk to Jason. She had once been a Gotham street kid herself, so Kate figured she'd be the perfect person to help Jason; someone who understood the streets of Gotham, who knew what that world was like, as opposed to some stuffed collar with a degree on their wall, that merely called themselves "experts". Sometimes, no amount of education was enough. Sometimes it wasn't enough to just know about something. Sometimes, you had to actually experience it, to truly understand it.

So Dinah was uniquely qualified to help Jason, even if she lacked the fancy degree.

But Dinah had a certain method to her madness. It took some prodding, but Dinah managed to convince Kate to let Jason out as Lark with her. She promised to keep a good eye on him and keep him from having another outburst. She wanted to see him fight, to see how he handled himself out in the field. The way a person fought was also a pretty good indication of who they were. She'd be able to read certain things in his movements that he might not express with words.

Lark ran from two thugs carrying a baseball bat and a crowbar, or at least that's what it seemed, what he wanted them to think. Lark suddenly spun around, grinning like the Cheshire Cat as he dug through one of the compartments on his utility belt and threw a handful of marbles down on the floor in front of the two thugs. The two men yelped in surprise as they started sliding across the floor on the marbles, and that was when Lark moved in. He rushed forward, both arms out and clothes lined the both of them.

He turned when he heard a third coming up from behind him with an aluminum bat. Lark's lips curved into a scowl as the bat came down toward him. He caught the bat in midair, then delivered a punch to the man's gut and as he doubled over, Black Canary jumped in and knocked him out with an axe heel to the back of his head.

Lark chuckled to himself as he examined their handiwork, the entire building full of drug dealers and…"guards", if you could call them that, completely incapacitated. He turned to Black Canary, still grinning pridefully at their work and raised his hand for a High Five. Black Canary gave the teen a smirk and High Fived him, and then the two of them got to work tying them up for the cops.

"You're pretty good. Batwoman trained you well," Black Canary observed, tightening the ropes around two thugs' wrists. "But you carry your anger in all of your attacks. You pull your punches so you don't kill or seriously injure, like Batwoman taught you-" Black Canary started to explain, tying the thugs to a window sill "-but I can still see the anger in your attacks and your counters."

"Yeah, so what? I'm working on my anger; I've got it under control," Lark snapped back at the implied accusation as he finished tying up the last of the thugs on his side of the room. He cracked his knuckles and made his way over toward Black Canary, putting his hands on his hips. "I know you're trying to help, but I don't need it. I had one outburst, and suddenly Batwoman thinks I'm a mental case." Black Canary patted his shoulder and gestured toward the window. Lark climbed out first, and Black Canary followed after him. They climbed up the fire escape, toward the roof and Black Canary spoke while they did so.

"One outburst that nearly killed a man," Black Canary replied. Lark snorted, but didn't answer. He pulled himself onto the roof and wandered across it part way, arms crossing over his chest. Lark took a deep breath, ignoring the slight chill in the air as the breeze blew across his face. He glanced up to the sky, clear blue with small clumps of clouds and the sun almost directly above; not quite noon yet.

Black Canary joined Lark on the roof and moved toward him, but stopped halfway. "She doesn't think you're a mental case-"

"Then why the shrink?" Lark snapped, turning toward her and throwing an arm out in frustration. Black Canary was patient, however. She genuinely wanted to help, so instead of snapping back, she took a breath and remained calm. Not all people care for shrinks; she happened to be one of those people.

"First, I'm not a shrink," she pointed out, moving to stand beside him. Lark turned to her as she turned to him and she placed her hands on her hips "and second, I'm here because I want to help."

"I don't need-"

"Help, yeah, you keep saying that. But everyone needs help now and again," Black Canary cut in. She placed her hand on his shoulder and gave him a welcoming smile. "There is no shame in asking for help, or in seeking it, or accepting it. Stow your pride away, and let me help. Let Kate help. She adopted you, because she wanted to."

Lark looked down at the ground in silent contemplation, with naught but the sound of cars whizzing by behind him, horns honking, and the sound of engines roaring, in the background. It was like the heartbeat of the city, a sound that he used to lull himself to sleep to when he was living on the streets. It also helped him to think.

Kate had been like the mother he never really had. She never treated him like a charity case, always let him make his own decisions, and generally just let him be…him. He knew all of this, and yet there were things he never told her. They were memories, bad ones, he would have rather forgotten. Memories and experiences that he wished he could just bury, down deep, never to see the light of day. But seeing Daniel Lewis' face again? And knowing he was trafficking in children? It brought some of those memories back to the light, forced him to remember.

"Why do you care?" Jason suddenly asked as he took off his mask. Dinah didn't miss a beat.

"Because I was like you once. I was a street kid in Gotham and nobody gave me a damn chance," Dinah replied easily. Jason was a bit surprised by that information, but she wasn't quite done just yet. "Until someone finally did take a chance on me. I was digging through a dumpster when a man, who I later came to think of as a father, took me in."

Jason listened to her intently. She got it. She was a homeless kid just like him once. She understood what it was like to scrounge and steal to survive. It made sense then, why Kate asked her to talk to him; she didn't want just any degree wielding, stuffed collar to psychoanalyze him. She wanted him to talk with someone who got it.

"Jason…we don't know what happened to you as a kid, but that doesn't mean we can't help. We can, if you let us in," Dinah said to him. Jason looked up at her and gave a curt nod. Letting people in was…hard. Letting people in meant making himself vulnerable, and honestly, he was terrified of the idea. Of being vulnerable. He'd let himself do that before, and he'd been betrayed, and hurt. He threw up walls to protect himself, kept people at arm's length. He never dared to let himself hope, or be vulnerable again. He hated feeling vulnerable.

"I can't say my experiences on the streets of Gotham were particularly bad," Dinah continued, drawing Jason's attention back to her "but as far as being a Gotham street kid goes, I'd say I was fairly lucky. But I still know what its like. To go hungry. To have to steal. To do things you don't want to do, or have no choice in."

"Yeah…" Jason murmured, looking away from her and toward the Gotham skyline. He looked back toward Dinah and held her gaze for a moment, before looking back down to the ground. "I'm…not ready to talk about it…yet. Please-"

"And that's fine," Dinah cut in, placing a hand on his shoulder. "These things take time. When you're ready, know that there are people who are there for you." Dinah pulled out her smart phone, and gestured toward Jason's utility belt, where she knew he kept his. Jason took it out and she gave him her number. "Here. If you ever need to talk, I'm just a phone call away." she said.

"Thanks," Jason replied, flashing a smile. She held out her hand to him and he shook it. Dinah punched his arm playfully, a bit harder than she meant to because he stumbled a bit.

"Come on, let's go grab a bite to eat. My treat, Lark," she said to him with a wink. Jason pressed his mask back on and trotted after her as the moved toward the edge of the roof.

"Can we get chili dogs?"

"Is that all you eat?" she asked, and Jason laughed.

Batwoman spent most of the night investigating the deaths of all of the criminals from the child trafficking ring she and Lark had busted yesterday. Every single member was dead, and all evidence pointed toward murder. There was little to no evidence, however, as to who the killers were. Whoever they were, they were clean and efficient; they didn't seem to care so much if it didn't look like an accident, but they were meticulous enough to leave absolutely no evidence that would lead back to the killer, or killers.

"You haven't learned anything either?" Batman asked, stepping out of the shadows with Robin behind him. Batwoman looked up from Daniel Lewis' body. She broke into the morgue to see if she could use her tech to pick up anything the coroner may have missed during the initial autopsy.

"No. I didn't realize this case was on your radar," Batwoman replied, pushing Daniel's corpse back into the freezer. Batman glanced over at Robin, then back to Batwoman. He approached her and raised his gauntlet, bringing up some news feeds on a holographic display.

"I wasn't until today. This isn't the first time child traffickers have ended up dead, but it's the first time they have on this scale."

"And what's worse, is whoever is behind it, is a pro. No evidence whatsoever. The crime scenes are completely clean, except for the corpses," Robin put in. Batwoman's eyes narrowed, but footsteps approached the morgue alerted them. The trio retreated from the building to avoid being discovered.

The found themselves on the roof of the building, just Batwoman and Batman. Batman had Robin go get the Batmobile so he could talk to her himself. He turned to her, and she to him, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I heard about what happened with Lark yesterday," Batman started. Batwoman's eyes narrowed angrily.

"He's fine. Everything is under control and I'm handling it," she snapped. Batman remained passive.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply anything," Batman replied. Batwoman shook her head.

"I knew there might be some…issues…when I took him in, but it's worth it. We're working on his anger and I'm getting him the proper help. Don't worry about him." Batwoman replied. Batman gave a curt nod.

"It was never my intention to question your relationship with the boy. I was merely asking if everything was alright."

"I know. I just-"

"Feel protective over him?" Batman filled in with a slight smirk. Batwoman chuckled a bit, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Yeah. But I guess you'd know something about that, wouldn't you?" she asked, nodding toward Robin as he returned.

"Know something about what?" Robin asked curiously. Batman turned to him and gestured toward the edge of the roof where the car awaited below.

"Nothing, Robin. Let's go," he replied. Robin pouted at being left out of…whatever that was, but did as he was told, hopping off of the roof and joining Batman in the car below.