A/N: if you haven't read the previous chapter, it is uploaded and is an actual chapter. Again, thank you to everyone for your support of my need for a break, and for your well wishes. I hope you enjoy this next chapter as well! P.s. the Joker, in my story, is more like the original joker/ Heath Ledger's Joker from The Dark Knight. If you need help imagining this in a cartoon, watch Batman: Under the Red Hood.

Wednesday the 25th of January

1:14pm

She closed her eyes against the dizzying weave of the world. Lifting on her toes she continued after her faltered steps: the mark of a good dancer. She still couldn't get Requiem right. Her head began throbbing.

"I did not believe you were supposed to practice so soon Cailan,"

The girl nearly jumped out of her skin and her feet again faltered, and she found herself unable to reclaim her dance. Stumbling, she flicked her green eyes to Kaldur's face.

"Why are you so quiet?" she demanded, her breath catching as her eyes narrowed.

He arched his brows in argument to her. "I was not walking more quiet than usual. You are…defensive,"

"…" she sighed and with her exhaling gust her shoulders slumped. "I get like that when I'm frustrated with dancing. I'm sorry Kaldur,"

"Frustrated? You are having difficulties?" Kaldur asked, his voice slightly leading.

She noted his tone and was cautious in her reply, "Yes, I'm working on the choreography and I can't get it right,"

"And, this of course would not be because you are as yet not well enough to practice would it?"

She opened her mouth to argue, then snapped it closed, regretting having done so the second she had. Her eyes glowered at him but a smile began crawling to her lips. She shook her head at him and walked over to the music, switching it off.

"I hate it that you're right."

Kaldur took a step towards Cailan, then paused and anchored himself behind her. She turned back to him, her smile now settled. Her eyes reflected something else, something distant.

"What are you thinking?"

Her eyes came back and found their way to him again. Her eyes smiled and she shook her head. "Nothing, not really,"

He tilted his head and looked at her. She'd been looked at before; she'd had guys look over her body as if it were a car, a prize that they desired. Kaldur didn't look at her like that. His eyes were restricted severely to her own; somehow she always felt more uncomfortable with his gaze than she did under the lustful one of strangers. He seemed to be seeing more of her in doing so. He was eighteen, and more like an adult in his manners and maturity.

"Shouldn't you be in school?"

"You mean as much as you should be at your own studies?" he retorted, smiling back at her in their banter.

"That's not an answer," she pouted playfully, crossing her arms.

"Today seems to be a day worth celebrating," he mused, taking another step towards her.

"Why?" she asked, her brow furrowing deeply.

Again his brows arched at her, though this time in slight bewilderment. After a moment his face relaxed and he smiled, thinking she was joking. Her face didn't change, but became more confused. She slowly shook her head, not understanding what he was talking about.

"You are…eighteen, are you not?" he said slowly, his head puzzled.

"…" her face became vacant.

"Cailan?"

"I don't know." She shrugged.

"You…do not know?"

"I haven't had a birthday since…since I was eight years old. My aunt and uncle didn't—it wasn't important."

"Mr. Wayne said—"

"I threatened with my age because I knew it had to be sometime in winter. It was always after Christmas, but the day didn't matter. Birthdays aren't important."

"Is that because they are not, or because you haven't had someone to share yours with in quite some time?" Kaldur drew closer to her, perhaps offering himself.

"Because it's never mattered." She said plainly.

"Would you like it to?"

…

12:46am

"Robin, left!" Batman growled, punching a joker-poser hard in the face, sending him crashing through a window.

Robin leapt to the air and dodged a knife, kicked another Raggedy-Anne look alike in the stomach and landed skillfully on the shoulders of his would-be attacker. All sorts of freaks were out; the Joker attracted quite a following of punks and rejects.

"Batman, is this doing any good?" Robin asked, ducking the body that the Dark Knight threw inadvertently his way. "I mean, we're not getting information,"

"We find the one who lead the attack. Go!"

Robin, his signature laughter ringing eerily though the night, departed into the shadows.

"Here birdie-birdie-birdie-birdie! Hahahahaha!" Baal cackled out as he pounced at Robin from the darkness of the alley he was hiding in.

Robin skirted back and crouched, preparing to spring forward, his hand itching towards his belt of gadgets. Baal lunged forward and then back without making a move towards Robin; Robin acted in defense and went to counter an act that wasn't there and was set off guard. Baal swaggered, as if drunk, and professed the same move, however, while Robin was ready to counter with the false, Baal made a third strike and almost landed a blow straight to Robin's chest. It was the first time in a long time Robin was caught off guard and placed on defensive.

Can't get a handle on him. Fights like a drunk, no pattern!

Robin managed to dodge a blow for his head only to be taken by a knee to his chest. Baal took his moment of winded-ness and grabbed the Boy-Wonder by the hair, slamming his head into the wall. The boy was stunned, blinking furiously behind his mask to clear his head. Robin saw a fist coming right at his face and braced himself.

"No, no, Baal. No, we want this one," Robin shivered at the newcomer's voice.

"Joker," the child growled, trying to force himself to see only one figure.

"Heeheeheh-heh-hahahaaah!" the painted lips laughed out. "Bingo kid, right on the nose!"

"Now!" Robin threw himself to the side and backwards out of Baal's grip.

Batman sent the attacking boy into the wall with a sickening thud and lunged after the Joker. The purple-suited man slid backwards with another cackle into the shadows, leading the Bat away. Baal was recovering and again resumed his attack on Robin. Joker was serving as a distraction, a distraction only. He had no intentions of being caught or confronting the Batman.

Not this time.

…

Friday the 27th of January,

5:58pm

"You look terrible," Wally said, freezing mid-run with an apple in his hand and staring at Dick as he walked through the transmission portal.

"I'm fine." The boy said gruffly, passing him without a second glance.

"Are you sure?" Kaldur asked.

"I said I'm fine alright!" Robin yelled, turning around to stare at them all.

Artemis closed her book, Megan dropped the cookies she was making and Conner and Wolf looked up, startled. Everyone remained quiet for a moment, looking hard at Dick. He glared back at them and sighed hard.

"Bad mission with Batman." He finally said.

…

Sunday the 12th of February,

10:00am

"I believe this is a good time to begin lessons, is it not?" Ms. Golrino said, her face relaxed as she pulled her hair back and wound it into a bun.

"Yes ma'am," Cailan said, her eyes glancing over the woman's face. She didn't look like Cailan had thought she would.

"Good," Ms. Golrino's round face pulled into a motherly smile. "We'll begin with a warm-up,"

Cailan followed the woman with stretches she'd learned as a child, watching through a window, and basic steps she'd obsessed over for months. Ms. Golrino didn't even bother to keep an eye on Cailan; the girl realized it was being assumed that she knew quite a bit. The truth of it was that she'd learned most of her moves by watching, not having learned. Ms. Golrino was going to throw all that she had at Cailan to see how the girl performed, and then take the lesson from there.

Cailan was bound and determined to force herself to excel. She focused her skill and her body to the fullest extent; while she was mostly healed by now, there was still a lingering headache and her exertion brought it out in her now.

It seemed like hours since they'd started. When they'd finished warming up Ms. Golrino led her through several poses and moves, testing her to see how hard she worked, how much she already knew. Cailan felt her making judgments as she danced, noting how she did this or that wrong, marking down each faux-pa, each extra second down in her mind. Cailan recognized some sequential moves as parts of actual dances; other moves she was expected to do seemed simply beyond her.

It was exhilarating.

…

Wednesday the 15th of February

4:40pm

"You sure have been busy," Dick said as Cailan came out the door.

She cocked her head to the side, grabbing a water bottle and cracking open the lid.

"I guess…its just weird not seeing you at the…clubhouse anymore," he was careful to use a codename for the mountain base.

"…you guys are busy being…well, busy," she winked. "I can't really believe that you've got time to miss me,"

"Tch, that's cold," The boy quipped back.

"No, I didn't mean—"

"Relax, joke."

There was a silence that hovered now between them. She looked him over carefully; he was a unique kid, that was for sure.

"Tell ya what, I'll play hookie from Ms. Golrino Saturday. You guys should come 'kidnap' me then, kay?"

Dick had only time enough to nod before she'd turned on her heel and walked back to her dance-instructor's commands. She walked like a dancer.

…

4:56pm

"Hey, you hear from Cailan?" Wally questioned.

Kaldur looked up at him surprised, then looked back to Conner and Megan.

"No…I was unaware I was supposed to have done so…"

"Ah, cool." Wally nodded.

The exchange was awkward; Wally knew there was something between Kaldur and Cailan. He'd begun to slowly realize that Cailan saw him as a friend, if not a silly younger brother. His crush had slowly eased back from the intensity it'd been at that summer, though despite the dissipation, there was still something there. But he realized that there were rules at play now; he couldn't continue acting around Cailan as he had.

"Hey guys," Dick said as he strolled (in a much better mood, having been on a few missions that ended well with Batman) in.

"Hey man," Conner nodded and stretched.

"What's on the agenda for Saturday?" Dick questioned as he spun a chair and sat in it backwards, folding his arms over it leisurely.

"It seems nothing, unless a mission or surprise-training should pop up,"

Dick nodded; he was pretty sure a 'surprise-training' wouldn't come. He did, after all, have inside sources.

"Then I've got something," he asserted.

They looked to him now, their interest finally and fully peaked. Even Wolf (if you don't know Wolf, please look into the new episodes; you can find them on youtube!) quirked his ears up towards the youngest member.

"Enlighten us," Kaldur smiled, setting the hilts he was working on down, giving Dick his full attention.

"Got an inside source that dance-class is canceled for Saturday." He smirked. "We should take a break, live on the wild side…"

"Just what did you have in mind," Artemis narrowed her eyes, and shifted her position.

"Oh, nothing too devious…just a little…kidnapping."

"…" They all stared at him like he was mad.

"Oh, c'mon we're not really going to do something illegal, geez. I'm saying that Cailan is taking off her dance class Saturday and we should all go out and do something," he rolled his eyes and chuckled at their initial reactions.

"She doesn't have dance?" Kaldur questioned, working tightly to keep suspicion out of his voice.

"She's playing hookie," Dick shrugged.

"She doesn't like it?" Wally immediately questioned, leaning over the coffee table at his friend, his eyes wide.

Dick looked at him open mouthed, fully taken aback. "What—no, I didn't say that!"

"So she's wasting that Wayne guy's money," Artemis mused, quirking a brow.

"She okay?" Conner questioned, remembering the ugly mark on her face.

"Is she not happy living with Mr. Wayne?" Megan asked, worry all over the young alien's face.

"Has something happened?" Kaldur's deep voice stood out above the others', making them fall silent the moment they'd left their comrade's lips.

Dick shook his head to all the noise and stood up forcefully from the chair. "Geez would you guys calm down! Who'da thought heroes would be so excitable,"

"We are simply concerned," Kaldur mended the matter easily, his rich tones soothing the others to settle back and wait for Dick to again address them.

"Guys, Cailan is fine." He smiled to them, folding his hands into his pockets. "She's better than fine,"

With a sigh he again took his seat, his arms folding back over the back of the chair. "It isn't that anything's wrong or that she's unhappy. D'you remember how she was when she first found out she'd be staying with us? She acted so—"

"Upset?"

"Morose?"

"Snotty?"

The three words rang out at once, Megan, Artemis, and Wally, though not in that order.

"—depressed." Dick continued, ignoring them. "She acted like she was trapped, even dropped out of school. Not that it wasn't like she was a prisoner…though, that was a little drastic…uh, anyways. My point is, she moped around here like Eeyor. Guys, if you could see her, she's thriving."

Kaldur caught himself frozen when he'd heard that word. Thriving.

"So…why's she playing hookie?" Conner asked.

Dick shrugged. "I told her we missed her."

…

Saturday the 18th of February

10:10am

"Oh no, masked…people, whatever shall I do?" Cailan mocked as she peered over the book she'd curled up in a large, over-stuffed, wing-backed chair with.

"Guess the only thing you can; come with us or…die," Conner said with a stoic shrug.

"Gasp!" She grinned and swung her legs off the arm of the chair, snapping the book closed.

"You look well," Kaldur said, a gentlemanly nod in her direction.

"I'm sorry to not keep in touch with my school friends," there was a terse note on her voice; her smile countered it nicely.

"Eh," Wally waved her off and darted to her side. "Now, you're coming with us, if you know what's good for you."

She giggled and stretched. "Where to?"

"Haha, you're not getting off that easily," Wally grinned to Dick, who produced a blindfold.

"…you're joking…" she scoffed, glancing around at all of them. They weren't.

Conner was the one to scoop her up and carry her to Megan's ship. She played along and restrained herself from asking questions. Until a particular thought crossed her mind.

"What's gonna happen if you all get called off?"

"We abandon you."

Everyone froze for a moment; they were startled because it was Artemis…Artemis, joking with Cailan.

"Hahah…better pray you don't get called off then…"

…

"Haha yea well all you do is dance so what d'you know?" Conner laughed as their playful argument ended, settling himself back into the ground.

"So you can leap buildings in a single bound?" Cailan asked as they lounged in the snow in Metropolis Park.

"Yeah, pretty much." He nodded, taking a sip of soda.

She nodded and sat up, throwing her hands on her knees.

"You fast?" her brow was arched and she was staring intently at a tree about a football field's distance away.

"…yeah, I'd say so." His eyes narrowed. "Why?"

"I'll race ya," she jumped to her feet, her stance challenging, a smirk on her face.

"Tch. Race me?"

"Hey, I'm the runner," Wally protested, frowning.

"Yeah, but I'd never beat you." Cailan said bluntly.

"Hah, you think you can out run me?" Conner demanded incredulously in good humor, standing.

"Eh…yeah." Megan and Artemis were paying careful attention by this point, not sure where this was going.

"Alright, what's your catch?"

"Hah, no catch," she shook her head. "Just a simple race. From here to the dead tree. No leaping-in-a-single-bound, but anything else goes and loser…buys lunch for everyone,"

"Deal. Hn, hope you're ready to take some orders," he said, walking over to her and standing next to her, posing to run.

"Alright, on three: one, two—" she turned and pushed him over and took off running.

When he looked up again she'd already gotten about a quarter down the field. "Three!" she yelled back over her shoulder, unable to keep her laughs silent.

"Wha—hey! That's cheating!" he yelled; her laughter was what met his super-hearing and he grinned wryly, leaping to his feet and taking off after her.

Cailan was booking it, knowing he would be fast on her trail and that she had no chance if she didn't quickly outdistance him. Her chest burned and so she pushed herself harder, ignoring her body. Artemis and Megan started cheering, grabbing Wally's attention back to the racers, and he decided to dart down to the 'finish' line to call it. Cailan's hair was streaming behind her as she ran, frantic to outpace Conner.

"So not happening," Conner laughed, pausing and jumping into the air.

Cali had made it three fourths of the way down the field when he landed just behind her, looping and arm around her waist and pulling her backwards. Out of fear of hurting her he let himself tumble with her. She gave a surprised cry as they fell backwards. He started getting up and before he could she grabbed his ankles and brought him crashing back to the ground. They were a heap of laughter as they struggled against each other to get up; finally when both of them were standing he lifted her and placed her behind him, giving just a little enough of a push to make her take a few steps backwards. Unwilling to lose she dove and grabbed onto his arm, pulling half his body down. He turned to respond and doing so unbalanced the both of them and they abruptly tumbled over the little slope and rolled to the bottom of the hill the field was located on top of.

Wally was beside himself in laughter, unable to continue standing as he watched his friends. Cailan—having had experience in deliberately rolling down hills in her childhood, found her way unsteadily to her feet and struggled to get up the hill and down to the tree. Conner was trying to undizzy himself and tripped her to slow her down.

As she fell she gave a playful scream. "Wally! Help me!"

Fighting through his laughter he jumped up and sped over to her, picking her up with ease and darting back to the tree. When Conner saw this, he leapt into the air and descended at the same time Wally put Cailan down. The three started at each other for a moment, looking back and forth between each other's faces.

"I think that's a tie," Wally finally said.

Then they broke into wild laughter, falling to the snow covered ground in hysterics.

"What dorks," Artemis rolled her eyes and shook her head.

….

They'd shaken the snow dusting from their clothes and meandered around the park for a while. It was about noon when they wandered over to the quad—a central location where there was a security booth, some food places and a few shops, and a concrete square with a fountain in the center. There were speakers up all over the quad, tuned into a master radio in the security booth. They'd had lunch (Dick had graciously offered to pay) and were now lounging by the fountain, telling stories and catching up on life since they'd been living together.

A Ke$ha song came over the speakers and interrupted their talking.

"Omigoodness yes. Megan, Artemis, yes," Cailan said, jumping up from where she'd been sitting and offering out her hands to the other girls.

"Uh…?" Artemis asked as Megan eagerly took the hand offered.

"What for?" the blond asked.

"We're going to dance." Cailan said simply.

"No, thanks," Artemis said. "I don't feel like dancing," was elicited when Cailan didn't remove her hand from in front of Artemis' face.

"You will," the other girl turned and pulled Megan with her and the two started rocking it out to the music playing.

Artemis watched on, feeling a bit left out as she sat back with the guys. The boys, rather put out and highly confused as to 1)when this had happened and 2) why they hadn't been asked to dance as well. Megan and Cali continued, blissfully ignoring the others as they just enjoyed living at that moment. Megan watched some earth-girl dancing and tried out a few of the moves. Cailan took her hand and spun her and then did a suave, sliding move over to the fountain. At first it looked as if she were going to take one of the guys' hands but she danced around them, a little teasingly, and stood in front of Artemis again, putting out her hand as she rocked back and forth and bobbed her head to the beat. Artemis looked at her hand again and rolled her eyes.

Geez she's annoying; can't let anything go.

"C'mon, it's almost over," Cailan said, smiling at the younger girl. "What will one dance hurt?"

When Artemis didn't look at her she bent down and grabbed her hands, forcing the blond to her feet and dragging her reluctantly out with Megan. Going off of Cailan's lead Megan kept stepping in front of her teammate and taking her hands and dancing around her, not letting her go back to the fountain.

"We're not giving up Artemis," the alien said.

"C'mon, have a little fun!"

"Hey! What about us?" Wally shouted, throwing his hands up in the air.

"What about you?"Cailan questioned coyly, a pout on her lips as looked back at them. "No one's stopping you from dancing with each other,"

The girls all laughed at this, knowing full well how awkward that would be. Kaldur just smiled, Conner laughed a little and Dick and Wally put considerable distance between each other.

"So not feeling the aster," Dick muttered.

Cailan, feeling rather impish, maneuvered herself in dancing around the other two girls and told them a plan. Eagerly agreeing (she'd do anything to get out of dancing) Artemis started rocking a little, swaying to make it look like she was getting into the dance. Cailan moved enough to be the attention getter, and Megan, while still dancing (though not as decisive as before) used Artemis as a shield to hide what her mind was doing.

The song wound down and was starting to end and Cailan caught the others' eye. "Now!"

Megan telepathically placed a snowball in the other girls' hands and they let loose. Megan's mind send one and nailed Superboy on the symbol on his shirt, her other managing to graze Dick's shoulder as he turned at Cailan's shout. Artemis nailed Wally in the head, startling the kid a bit and Cailan, her aim considerably worse than the other two, caught Kaldur in a glancing shot.

"Oh, it's so on!" Superboy said, jumping down and scooping snow in to his hands.

"Run!" The girls started giggling and took off, ducking behind a wall for cover, Megan already creating perfectly round ammunition for the other two girls.

The boys used the fountain, Kaldur making their ammunition with his powers (snow was, after all, water) much the way Megan did. However Megan was able to throw hers as well as make them, while Kaludr was simply on crafting duty. Wally and Conner more than made up for that (the latter careful that his arm wasn't too hard as he let loose) and Dick was dodging all over trying to make it to the girls' stronghold.

"Megan! Okay, I've got an idea," Cailan's eyes glowed; Artemis found herself leaning in, curious as to what sort of attack the girl could come up with. "Here's what we do…"

…

1:45pm

"Now Cailan!" Artemis' head popped up over the wall and yelled. The guys saw Cailan dart around their protective covering, armed with a snowball and skirting the few shots that came her way.

"Wait, don't worry about Cali, let's take their fort!" Dick yelled, grabbing ammunition in each hand and bounding over the wall. Wally and Conner followed suit, Kaldur the only one to hang back a moment; why would Cailan be the one they sent out for a frontal assault—she didn't have the greatest aim, nor was she as battle-agile, per say, as the other two.

"Wait—"

But it was too late. He stood and saw that as soon as they'd made it to the no man's land between the forts, Artemis and Cailan had popped up from behind their fort and were issuing forth as many snowballs as their hands could grab while the Cailan-disguised-Megan had turned into herself and let the ammunition she'd concealed fly. Kaldur couldn't help but laugh when he saw his comrades smothered in a barrage of flurrying snowballs. His three teammates were successfully defeated, even the speedster Wally was on the ground, covered in broken snowballs, not sure what'd happened. Cailan and Artemis stepped out from behind their fort, not perceiving any further danger. Cailan gently tossed one last snowball up and down in her hand, looking from the boys on the ground to Kaldur.

"Not that we need to," she said, carefully stepping over them. "But we might as well make the victory complete,"

Each word was enunciated with a step and each step she took brought her closer to Kaldur. On the last syllable of 'complete' she stood toe to toe with him and grinned up puckishly at him. He chuckled.

"A throw from this distance?" he questioned.

"Nope," she took the snowball and crushed it into his chest; as she did so she lifted onto her toes and gave him a quick and unperceived kiss. "Bang,"

She'd made a gun as she drew her hand away.

"Dude!" Wally said sitting up.

"…okay, not feeling the aster. Not at all," Dick grumbled, brushing snow dust from his clothes.

Conner shook the dust from his hair as he got to his hands and knees and then stood. "You know, we'll get you back,"

"Counting on it," Cali quipped, shooting a wink his way.

"Nice plan of attack," Wally said as he came up to Artemis, brushing some snow off of his own clothes.

"Yeah, it was Cali's idea," Artemis said, her arms crossed but her voice neutral.

…

Friday, the 3rd of March

8:07am

"Mr. Wayne," Ms. Golrino said over the phone. "May I have a moment?"

"Of course. How is Cailan doing?" he asked, raising a hand to the secretary a she walked through the door of his office. Taking the hint she backed slowly out and closed the door quietly.

"Wonderfully. That's actually why I called, Mr. Wayne. When I started with her a matter of weeks ago she was simply a good dancer with unbridled talent. But in these weeks…she's focused her energy and talents—she's more in tune with her body than many professional dancers I know."

"That's good news. I'm glad to hear she's progressing so quickly,"

"Well, that's just it. I feel that she's progressed enough to where she doesn't need me anymore, at least, not in a one on one setting. What she needs, if I may say Mr. Wayne, is to be challenged by the confrontation of working with many choreographers, and among other dancers who are better and more skilled than she."

…

5:32pm

"…well that's just it though, next time we should come out hard and fast. That way we'll take them by surprise, especially if we have no intentions of beating them the first round."

"Ah, you propose we hustle our opponents?" Kaldur replied, opening the door of Wayne manner.

"Hah, something like that," the boy thought back to his one on one fight with Baal. In fact, that was exactly what he had in mind.

"I suppose she'll be in the ballroom," Dick shrugged and started up the stairs; they were going to see if Cali wanted to go to dinner with the team.

"Cailan?" Kaldur asked, knocking once and pushing open the door to the ballroom.

Cailan turned and looked over her shoulder; she'd been working for hours, they could assume. She was sweaty and looked tired, and at their entrance she'd brought her leg down to stand fully on her two feet.

"Kaldur, Dick you're never going to believe it!" she said, happily, taking only a second to turn and run to them.

Dick smirked at Kaldur as she threw herself into a hug. The leader felt himself unable to decide how he should react. He didn't have to; she'd pulled away and was looking back and forth between them. "I'm going to be auditioning for the next Gotham Troupe performance!"

"That's great Cailan!" Dick said, a smile growing on his face.

"It is indeed wonderful."

"I can't believe it! Ms. Golrino came in late this morning and told me that I had to do better and just started ragging on me," Kaldur knew that the story had more to it because her face was so bright. "and told me if I didn't smarten up the Troupe wouldn't let me audition."

"Geez, she sounds pretty harsh,"

Cailan interrupted Dick with a shake of her head "Nah that's just Ms. Golrino. She's got me working on pieces they've performed in previous years—I audition in just a few weeks!"

"We are all very happy for you." Kaldur said, smiling at her.

"Haha great! Now we have a reason to celebrate!" Dick punched the air.

"Celebrate?" Cailan turned her bright eyes to him.

"Yeah, we came to invite you to dinner at the club house,"

…

Tuesday the 21st of March

12:30pm

"Owh! Geez Kaldur, easy on the landing," Wally groaned, rubbing his backside as he landed on the training platform.

"I am sorry my friend." Kaldur blinked, coming out of his 'fight' zone. "However, if you dedicated as much time to practice as your science, it might not happen,"

"Hey!" Wally protested to Kaldru's smiling face as he helped him stand.

"Come, shall we try again?" the Atlantian asked.

"Ehrr…" Wally hesitated. "I dunno man, maybe you should fight Supey; you're getting kind of vicious."

"Hm?"

"Ah relax Wally, Kaldur's just taking out his frustration in not having seen Cali in a while." Dick teased.

Kaldur jerked back and started open mouthed at him. Conner nudged him hard in the ribs to get him to stop cackling; he sure wouldn't like to be teased about Megan.

"Yeah, what's Cailan been up to lately?" Megan asked, unknowingly saving her leader from more harassment.

"Still practicing," Wally said, shrugging and walking back to the center of the training floor.

"Still?" Conner scoffed.

"Tch. Yeah, she's gotta practice for the Gotham Troupe; they're hardcore." Dick said, making himself laugh for talking about ballet being hardcore; it seemed like the wrong word to describe dancing.

"She's auditioning tomorrow; today she is probably resting," Kaldur answered him, stretching and shrugging, loosening his muscles to go again.

"You sure do know a lot about her schedule," Artemis said, arching a brow.

He sighed. It was not surprising that it had come to this and he was expecting a barrage of questions; he hadn't tried very hard to hide his affection for Cailan.

"Dick and I had an enlightening conversation when we invited Cailan over. If you wished to know such things, you could ask Cailan." He felt the flush leave his cheeks with his clever cover.

"She really hasn't been coming around much though," Conner said, more than a little put out.

"It is not as if she has much time to do so, nor do we," Kaldur replied, waiting for someone else to spar with.

"How 'bout we make this interesting?" Artemis challenged with a smile as she stepped onto the training platform.

"…" Kaldur waited for her to continue, crossing his arms.

"If I can take you down, you get to tell us what's going on with you and Cailan."

"And if there is nothing going on where does your bet go?" he questioned, getting into a fighting position. "And if I take you down, what do I get?"

"We'll get off your case," Dick suggested, cackling under his breath.

"You ready?" Artemis demanded, crouching.

…

"You were supposed to grab him."

Baal cowered in a corner, shrinking from the Joker's gaze.

"And just what part of 'grab the bird-brain' do you not understand" the yellow teeth grimaced at him "Baal?"

The others snickered from the darkness. Baal messed uuh-up, Baal messed uuh-up.

"Well! Why did the little birdie get away Baal?" Joker twisted his greasy hand into Baal's hair and pulled hard. "You need to fix this, or Uncle Joker's gonna have to find a way for you to make up for it. You don't want that Baal, you really don't want that."

Baal gulped, thinking fast, glad that for once he wasn't all strung out. He wracked his brain, thinking of any solution, any way out from under the Joker's wrath.

"Th-There's someone else!" he whimpered out as the Joker's other hand slithered over Baal's neck.

The clown froze, his mean eyes slowly roving over Baal's face to discern if there were truth behind them or not.

"Y-Yeah…yeah, there's someone else. Someone else…she'll be easier to grab."

"Really? Oh, well, then that solves everything." The green-freak growled, grabbing the boy by the throat and crashing him into the wall.

"N-No! Jack knows too! He knows too! It's that girl, the one Jake was screwing with or whatever, from the alley!"

Joker's face darkened and his hands groped the boy hard, his fingers clawing around the boy's throat. "Well perfect, we'll just bring Jack-y boy in here to tell us about the little slut you're both chasing after."

"No, I mean…I mean that sh-she's special to them! Jack saw it t-too!"

The Joker's grip laxened around Baal's throat so he could speak. "Go on,"

"She knew one of the hero-sidekicks." Baal spat out, scampering back into the wall away from Joker's grasp. "A-and-d…an-an-an-and the red one…uh, the arrow's boy, the uh, uh, R-Red Arrow! He wouldn't leave her side,"

The Joker paused at those words, his hands laced behind his back, puzzling over the information. His eyes strained and he looked again at Baal, those glossy, crazed eyes ordering the kid to continue.

"Y-Yeah, they were really protective of her…"

"Hm…" Joker began pacing. "Protective of a girl? A girl at the Wayne Christmas ball no less? Hm, now why do you think that is?" his tone was falsely inviting, sickly sweet, as if asking for Baal to answer him.

"C-Cause…uh…s-she's somebody important?"

"Because she's rich you dumb—bah! All we'd get out of taking her would be trouble and perhaps a load of cash. We're not after cash, not this time round kid. No, we're playing bigger games." He again turned his eyes to his prey. "and those games require the right pieces, Baal."

"N-No wait!" Baal begged, pulling back into the wall again. "Ask Jack, Jack knows! He heard it, he heard her!"

"Enough!" Joker roared, grabbing something from his repertoire of weaponry.

"Please! She knows them!" Baal crouched into himself, cowering.

Joker froze.

"What? What did you say?"

"…the girl, she knew them…" Baal choked out.

"…she knew them?"

He nodded furiously.

The Joker looked at him cruelly, his eyes calculating. "If she doesn't…"