"Who tipped you off about the boy's story?" I asked once Cat had settled herself on the couch opposite from where I stood. She pulled the edges of her bathrobe together finally, only just realizing that she should at least try to be professional with me. One perfectly drawn brow arched in silent question. I was a little pacified to see that she had tried to keep the boy's identity a secret.
"You thought that the truth wouldn't come out? Hundreds of people were taken prisoner aboard that ship and experimented on by your girlfriend, and-"
"Careful," I warned in a low voice. "I was there, remember? You weren't."
Annoyance flashed in her eyes, but she quickly smoothed another alluring smile over her features.
"Why don't you tell me what really happened then?" I made a face.
"You think anyone would believe the truth if I told it to you now?"
"Oh I don't know," she purred as she drew her legs up beneath her so that her robe slipped up over her thighs. "I could always mention how desperately you defended her to me. Surely no one would question your integrity." She was trying to make me uncomfortable again, hoping I would trip up and give her the story she was looking for. She toyed with the hem of her robe, trying to distract me.
"You're not my type," I said flatly. She grinned, a genuine toothy smile that made me more uncomfortable than her attempts to flirt with me.
"No, I suppose I'm not." Her eyes sparkled as she settled back against the couch cushions and regarded me in thoughtful silence. "So what is it you're after? You already know the name of my source, though I can't even begin to guess how, and you aren't here to share your side of the story, so what do you want?"
"I want to know who put you up to this. You based the entire article around the nightmares of an eight-year-old boy. You have no facts, no other sources to back up his claims and yet you labeled Starfire an enemy of Earth and called for her to be banished back to her planet. Every major news outlet in the country ran with what you printed. Already the Internet is exploding with people calling for Starfire's arrest. You've never exhibited any anti-alien tendencies before in your work. Why start now, and with Starfire of all people?" I was saying too much. She was getting that speculative gleam in her eye again.
After my unsuccessful training session with Star I'd gone to my room to see what sort of traction the article had gained. Everything I'd just told Cat was true. There were blog posts everywhere demanding that Starfire be brought to justice, the comments were pulsing with ignorant hatred, and I had to simply stop reading the message forums because the profane, graphic punishments being thrown around were enough to make me want to hunt those posters down and hurt them. Some of that must have shown on my face because Cat grinned slyly at me.
"Well, well, well... Aren't you just adorable."
"More than just the Titans will be hurt if this story goes any further. You don't know what you've started. That boy isn't the only one whose memories will come back."
"Is that what you're afraid of?" she asked softly, "that more people will remember what your girlfriend did?"
"She's not my girlfriend!" I snapped. I could see I would get nowhere with her. She was too good at turning the conversation around on me. She made her living as a gossip columnist. That Janet had been picked up as a reputable journalist was simply unfortunate for Starfire and everyone else linked to this story. I started for the door.
"I warned you, Ms. Grant," I threw over my shoulder. "You have no idea what you've started."
"Oh, I think I do," she murmured just as my hand reached for the door. A feeling of foreboding crept over me as I twisted the handle. A heavy weight pressed against it from the other side and I knew I was trapped.
I forced the door closed, but her accomplice threw his weight against the other side. The door flew open in a burst of clicking, flashing lights. I ducked out of the way, hoping to stay out of frame as he charged after me with her camera raised. I dropped to the ground and scissored my legs so that he toppled backwards, cracking his skull against the edge of the door. Cat smacked her forehead impatiently with her palm.
"You clumsy ox," she groaned, aiming her camera phone after me as I darted past her cameraman and ran for the elevator. Her footsteps thudded softly behind me, and I knew she snapped at least one shot of me prying open the elevator doors. I cursed violently under my breath as I quickly slid down the greased wires to land with a thud on the elevator car three floors down. It was too dark for her to see me now, but I didn't take any chances.
As I sped home on the R-cycle I imagined the various headlines that would grace the covers of the shopping magazines next. If she was smart-and clearly I had underestimated her-she would already have posted the most incriminating of her photographs online before I even reached the Tower. I was such an idiot! At least it was too late for her to make the morning editions. I had a little time to brace the others first.
What exactly did I tell them though? The question haunted me as I pulled into the garage and swung my leg over my bike. With the alarms disabled none of the motion capturing features were on, meaning that I had to navigate my way to the door in the dark. I nearly tripped and broke my neck on Cyborg's toolbox that was poking out from beneath the front end of the T-car. I gave it a rough kick, venting my self-loathing a little at the same time. It was moments like this that I dreaded. I hate failing at anything, especially when I failed so spectacularly that it was going to be splashed across every media form known to man. As I trudged up the stairs I decided that I'd rather suffer another stint as Slade's apprentice than have to explain to the others why here were pictures of me sneaking out of a woman's hotel room in the middle of the night.
Loud voices could be heard coming from the common room as I passed. Beast Boy and Cyborg were playing video games again. I frowned. They had both been asleep in their rooms when I'd left. Beast Boy's snores shake the walls of my room and I'm at the opposite end if the hall.
Knowing that these two would be the hardest to face, I decided to just bite the gullet and tell them now so that I wouldn't have to deal with it in the morning.
"Yo, Rob, where you been?" asked Cyborg, looking up when I entered. I sighed heavily and sank into the end if the couch as far from them as I could get.
"I went to find the reporter who wrote the article about Starfire," I said quietly. Beast Boy picked up the remote and muted their game.
"Dude, why didn't you take us?"
"I thought I'd have more luck if I went alone," I admitted, hunching my shoulders at how wrong I had been on that one. They stared at me.
"Well...how'd it go?"
I scratched the back of my head, squinting up at the ceiling as. I avoided their eyes. "Not like I'd hoped. I uh...might have made things worse." Heat was creeping up my neck into my face. I gritted my teeth as embarrassment stole through me. They were grinning now.
"Dude, they think Starfire kidnaps and tortures people for fun! How could you make it worse?" Beast Boy rolled his eyes.
"Cat Grant has pictures of me leaving her hotel room," I said in a rush. "And I think the photographer she had with her has a couple with her in the background wearing next to nothing. Go online if you don't believe me. She's had plenty of time to upload them by now." They both had their mouths open. Almost immediately Cyborg lifted his arm to pull up the little console in his forearm. Beast Boy half-climbed over his shoulder to see as he pulled up a quick search. I knew from their expressions the moment they saw the photos.
"Oh man, that's bad..." Cyborg said, utterly serious. Visions of Cat Grant in her lingerie presenting herself to me flashed before my eyes and I shuddered.
"Nothing happened," I said, a little defensive.
"Nah man, not the picture. You should see what she wrote." Cyborg tilted his arm toward me and drawn out of sheer morbid curiosity, I got up to take a closer look.
"Robin came to me tonight desperate for me to retract my expose about his teammate's involvement in last summer's abductions. The Boy Wonder claims that despite outward appearances he and Starfire have never actually been a couple. He has been forced to cover for her after her deplorable actions last summer for fear of what she will do to the people of earth should he reveal her. Despite all that he has achieved and accomplished in his young life it is sometimes easy to forget that the Boy Wonder is in fact only a boy, one who clearly has been in way over his head for longer than anyone could have realized. For more on my late-night interview with Robin, look for my article in the evening edition of the Daily Planet."
I didn't know which was worse, the words or the photograph. Her photographer had indeed managed to capture a shot of me glancing over my shoulder at Cat, who was leaning up on her knees with her silk robe wide open to reveal the black lacy ensemble she had been wearing. No one who saw that photo wouldn't believe that our 'interview' hadn't been conducted across her pillows. I gaped at it. It was as if the Robin in the picture was a stranger, every inch the playboy that the tabloids wanted him to be. For years I'd avoided getting caught standing too close to any of the females I'd saved, desperate not to get sucked into just this scenario. In one night I'd taken my spotless record and upended an entire case of ink on top of it.
"That's what she was wearing when you talked to her?" Beast Boy asked, dumbfounded. I glared at him.
"When I got there she was entertaining," I mumbled. "I just didn't realize her guest was her also photographer.
"When Star sees this she's going to flip," said Cyborg quietly. Neither of them were laughing. That they both recognized how serious this was only me made me realize how much I'd screwed up.
"She knows I'd never do something like this."
"Dude, they've got you on camera with some half-naked lady!" Beast Boy waved his arms in the air as if that would help make his point. Cyborg rolled his eyes.
"He's right. She might not believe that you said any of this, but there's no denying that you were there. She's gonna' be hurt, man."
"You mean jealous?" Unfortunately my voice cracked a little when I said it. "Starfire and I are just friends. She's not going to care about that." I knew it was a lie. I'd have to be blind not to notice the attention she pays me that she doesn't give anyone else, but she knew me too well to think I'd ever do something like this.
"Just let me be the one to break it to her, okay?" Once I told her the truth she'd understand. I was convinced. Cyborg and Beast Boy exchanged a look. Clearly they weren't.
"It's your funeral, dude."
"Yea, you couldn't pay me to be in your shoes right now."
"Thanks guys," I said dryly, heaving myself off the couch. Tomorrow was going to be horrible, I already knew it.