This is approximately three days after the last chapter.

WARNING: Language . . . And Laughter!

Dick was exhausted. The night didn't go nearly as well as he would have liked. He was too late in two separate incidents, and one person died while the other victim had been traumatized. It was nights like this that made him question if what he was putting himself through was worth it. Nights like tonight made it feel as though Bludhaven hadn't improved at all despite all his efforts both as a cop and as Nightwing. He wondered if Bruce ever had times like these.

He climbed through Elle's kitchen window, thankful that she wasn't the type to leave dirty dishes soaking as he planted one foot in one side of the stainless steel sink. He slid the window down and locked it; pulling off his mask and tossing it onto the countertop. He probably should have gone to his own apartment, but he needed Elle's comfort tonight. So far she was handling his Nightwing activities like a trouper. It had only been a few days since he started calling her midway through his patrol, and so far it seemed to be going well.

There were no dramatics and she hadn't asked him to come home. Instead, she had asked him how his night was going and congratulated him when he'd stop a crime, and encouraged him when things weren't going well. The calls lasted only a minute. She didn't try to keep him on the phone longer than necessary. It was because of Elle's encouragement that he had remained on patrol for the entire night instead of giving up halfway through and going home.

He had stayed on and had rescued a child from a burning building, and interrupted two drug deals; one of them leading to arrests. So, the night wasn't a total waste. Actually that little boy was alive this morning because of him. That made for a pretty successful night, if he were being honest with himself; remembering the feeling he had when he had handed the child off to his grateful parents. It could have turned out so much worse for that young family if not for Elle's encouragement.

He stripped off his tunic and peeked into Elle's bedroom. She was sleeping catty-cornered with one foot dangling off one side of the bed; adorable, little toes peeking out from under the blankets. The sight made him smile.

She was the reason he stayed out tonight. She would be the reason he would go out tomorrow night as well. Sure, he had been doing this for more than a decade for reasons of justice and to prevent tragedies like what had happened to him and his family from happening again, but since he met Elle the idea that she might meet up someday with one of those lowlifes out there kept him motivated like never before.

He had told her he might be dropping by at the end of the night. Dick had kind of hoped that maybe she might have stayed up for him, but he smelled like smoke so, in the end, he thought it worked out better this way since it gave him time to shower first. He tossed his uniform into her washer, and grabbed a towel.

Ten minutes later, he dropped the towel on the floor by the bed and crawled in beside her. She had her back to him, so he moved to the middle of the bed and wrapped his arm around her waist to drag her back towards him. She muttered something under her breath, but didn't completely wake up. He moved her hair away from her face and kissed the skin behind her ear. She grinned without opening her eyes and stretched, sighing in contentment.

He smiled. Even asleep she could make him happy. He settled in behind her and buried his nose in her hair. Despite his tension, he was asleep in a couple of minutes.

Elle waited until Dick's breathing evened out. He seemed so run down tonight and she had felt his upset earlier when he had been too late to help some of those victims. She felt a pang of guilt over what she was about to do, but he already knew that she had a quirky sense of humor. He should be expecting this! In the end, she knew he would feel better for it.

She contorted several different way in order to squirm out from under his arm while not waking him up. She padded over to her closet as the promise of the morning sun started brightening the sky over Bludhaven. She bit her lip as she looked at the jar's contents in the dim lighting.

She set the jar on the dresser softly. Then went back in to get her video camera and its tripod, setting it up as quietly as possible. She was wearing a red, pro-football jersey that reached mid-thigh; long enough to cover her silky, black underwear. She wasn't sure if Dick was wearing anything to bed or not, but if he wasn't, then this video was about to become her favorite!

Elle had only been able to indulge this side of her personality while at boarding school. Of course, she had come close to being sent home on a few of those occasions, but now, away from the strictures of school, she was thrilled to discover that Dick had a similar sense of humor as she. Oh, sure he was bound to get his revenge on her sooner or later, but that was all a part of the fun! While some might consider this a little mean, none of it was cruel, and she was certain that Dick would forgive her eventually.

Happy with the angle of the camera, she turned it on. The sun was just coming over the horizon and the room was bright enough now to capture everything that was about to happen.

Elle looked into the camera, grinning madly; barely able to keep her laughter withheld. She raised a finger to her lips in a shushing gesture, and then took the jar and held it up to the lens so that the viewer got a good look at what it contained . . .

A very large, hairy tarantula!

She had borrowed it from the son of one of their neighbors. Although Elle wasn't especially fond of spiders herself, it wouldn't actually be crawling on her. She made a show of removing the lid. She attempted to suppress a shudder, but knew the camera would pick it up. But the fact that she didn't care for the little beasty only added to the fun!

She tiptoed over to Dick's side of her bed. The covers only came up to Dick's bare chest. He had rolled over onto his back at some point, but as she watched, her suspicions that he was faking sleep eased. His breathing hadn't changed; it was still slow and deep.

Oh, so gently, Elle shook the jar. Just as the tarantula tipped out of the jar onto the blankets covering his stomach, Dick sat up suddenly; tossing the covers back with a yell.

Elle screamed!

The jar flew up out of her hands and over her head to shatter on the floor somewhere near the end of the bed! The tarantula flew skyward as well, landing on Elle shoulder, in her hair. The second screech went up louder and shriller than the first as Elle began hopping from foot to foot; dancing in circles as she brushed at her hair and shirt hysterically.

"Get it off! Get it off," Elle shrieked.

The arachnid flew back onto the covers, and immediately Dick flung the blankets off of him as he jumped out of bed. The spider fell onto the floor with the blankets and, perhaps to save itself from the rapidly drumming feet, promptly scurried under the bed.

Elle was still howling as she made the impressive leap from the floor onto the bed. She hopped back and forth from foot to foot on the mattress in a panic, her eyes huge as she squealed in terror.

"Is it off? Is it off? Oh, my God, I can't believe that thing was in my hair!" She shook her hair with her hands. "Ugh! I can still feel its legs on me!"

Dick fell to his knees and peered under the bed. The morning light couldn't penetrate the gloom beneath the bed, however, and he knee-walked in his black boxer-briefs over to the nightstand in search of a flashlight.

"What the hell was that thing?" He yelled, but Elle couldn't hear him over her own yelps and shrieks. Dick began rummaging through the drawer.

"Ew," she squealed. "It was on me! Gross!"

"Elle! Where's the flashlight," Dick asked her. "Elle!"

"I'm going to have to wash my hair again . . ."

When she didn't answer, Dick reached over and grabbed her ankle to get her attention. The touch was unexpected, however, and Elle yelped. Losing her balance, Elle fell onto the mattress on her bottom; bouncing a little upon impact.

"Elle! Where is the flashlight that's supposed to be in this drawer?"

Elle blinked at him a moment, catching her breath.

"The flashlight?" He repeated.

"The flashlight?" She stared at him blankly.

Dick pointed to the drawer. Elle followed his finger to the drawer and repeated her question, "flashlight?"

"Oh. Oh!" She suddenly understood what he was asking her. "I took it in the living room. The camera fell down behind the entertainment center again."

Dick stood up and glanced over at the video camera sitting on the tripod. "That camera?"

Elle looked over at the camera as if she hadn't noticed it there before and then raised an innocent eyebrow at him. "Well, yeah! I think it would be rather obvious, even to you, that I managed to rescue it," she said reasonably.

Dick stared at her, exasperated. "You're supposed to return the flashlight to the drawer when you finish with it. How else will you find it in emergencies?"

Before Elle can answer, something large, black, and hairy scrambled across Dick's bare foot. Dick yelped, leaping onto the bed with Elle. He did his own little dance of disgust as Elle crawled cautiously to the edge of the bed in order to see where it had gone, but Dick's movements had apparently startled it and it disappeared . . . somewhere.

"Holy . . . Gah! What the hell was that . . . that thing?!" Dick demanded. So what if his voice was an octave higher!

Elle crawled around the edge of the bed on her hands and knees, looking for it. "I didn't see where it went, did you?"

Dick shuddered as he kept to the center of the bed. To say that freaked him out a little bit was being kind.

"It ran across my foot, Elle! What the hell!"

Elle leaned over the side of the bed searching; her hair hanging down to puddle on the floor. "We need the flashlight," she announced. "Dick, go into the living room and get it."

Dick gaped at her backside. "Hell, No! I'm not getting off of this bed! You go get it!"

Elle looked at him over her shoulder. "What! Are you nuts? I'm not going to go get it!"

"Don't look at me like that," he complained. "I'm not going to go anywhere until you tell me what that thing is!"

Elle rolled back until she was sitting on her heels. She grinned up at him. "Don't tell me you are afraid of a little spider!"

Dick's eyes widened as he pointed dramatically in the direction of the floor. "A what? I don't know what the hell that thing was, but it wasn't a spider and it sure as hell wasn't 'little'!"

Elle giggled. "It was too a spider! What else could it have been?"

"I don't know," Dick glared at her. "A dog, maybe?"

"A dog?" Elle laughed harder. "Seriously?"

Dick held his fingers about an inch apart. "Spiders are like this big," he told her. "That thing," he moves his hands nearly twelve inches apart, "is like this! It was huge! It had weight," he qualified, shuddering. "I felt its weight as it ran across my foot."

Elle scoffed, giggling still. "It wasn't that big."

"The size of a Chihuahua," Dick declared.

Laughing, Elle shook her head. "It was just a tarantula, sweetie."

Dick stopped pacing to gape at her. "You threw a tarantula on me while I was sleeping?!"

"I didn't throw anything. I shook it out gently. And you weren't sleeping because you threw it on me," she told him.

"I didn't know what you were doing; only that you were being sneaky while doing it. I had only planned to startle you and then drag you back into bed," Dick explained, still standing above her.

"Whatever." Elle said, grinning. "You're looming,"

"What? Looming?" Dick stared at her confused.

"Yes, looming . . . over me," she said. "And you still have to go get that flashlight."

Dick stretched a little bit in order to peer over side of the bed. "You want me to go down there? Not on your life!"

Elle gaped at him. "B-but you have to. How else are we going to find it?"

"I don't have to do anything," he reminded her. "I could still go back to my tarantula-less apartment to sleep."

Elle's eyes widened in disbelief. "Y-you'd leave me here? Stranded? With that huge, eight-legged, hairy dog under my bed?"

Dick grinned for the first time. "I thought you said it wasn't a dog."

She smacked his ankle. "Shut up!"

Dick jumped to the edge of the bed, and using his momentum, he did a forward flip midair. He landed on his hands and then did a backward handspring to land at the threshold of the door. Elle gaped at his acrobatic grace. He did that almost silently! If she had tried that . . .

Oh, who was she kidding! If she had tried that, she would have landed in a heap on the floor with such a thump that the people below her would have called 911. She gazed longingly after him as he disappeared from view. Was he really going to leave her here?

Less than a minute later, Dick walked back into the room and dropped to the floor by the bed with the newly-acquired flashlight in hand. He pointed it into the gloom and flicked on the light. He was startled to find himself staring face-to-face with the tarantula. Before he could do anything to apprehend the beast, the spider darted forward and then jumped on him! It landed on his upper arm and scrambled up the side of his face, onto his head and then down his back!

"Aaargh!" Dick clambered to his feet in a panic. "It jumps! You didn't tell me that thing could freaking jump!" He began jumping frantically himself in an effort to shake the tarantula off of him.

Elle leapt to her feet and began hopping about as she shrieked in both laughter and in sympathy for him. The tarantula fell to the floor and darted back under the bed as Dick threw the flashlight at it.

"Don't kill Mook!" Elle yelped suddenly.

He had missed (unfortunately), and the flashlight rolled away across the floor.

"What? Who's Mook?"

"The spider," Elle told him with a hesitant smile.

He blinked at her. "You named the tarantula Mook?"

"It was better than Bob," she said with a shrug. She wanted no reminders of Babs, thank you very much.

"Who's Bob"

"It was the spider until I renamed him," Elle smiled.

"Wait! I thought you said the spider's name was Mook," Dick was frowning and foolishly trying to follow Elle's thought process. Silly man . . .

"It was Bob first but now it is Mook," Elle explained in an amazingly calm fashion.

"Bob?" Dick shook his head slowly. "You named the tarantula Bob and then changed it to Mook."

Elle laughed. "No, David did. I just changed it to Mook."

"Who the hell is David?" Dick glanced warily at the dark area beneath the bed; making certain that Bob/Mook didn't attack him again.

"The neighbor's little boy," Elle said. "The one I borrowed Mook from."

Dick stared at her. "How did you know this kid had a pet tarantula, and what in God's name made you decide it would be a good idea to toss him on me?"

"Well, it was either Mook or Turtle."

"I think I would have voted for Turtle," Dick muttered.

"Turtle is a boa constrictor," Elle told him.

Dick blinked. "Who would name a boa constrictor Turtle?"

"David's six. Do you really expect rationale from a six year old?"

Dick was frankly speechless.

"Anyway," Elle continued, sitting down on the bed again in a cross-legged position, "I didn't think I could keep the boa constrictor contained. I was afraid he would get into the ventilation system."

She shuddered, trying to imagine attempting to retrieve the snake from the heating duct. The ring was bad enough. She noticed Dick staring at her.

"What?"

He shook his head slowly. "You scare me sometimes," he admitted.

Elle grinned, delighted. "Really?"

Dick snorted. "You do realize that we're going to have to move now, right? My apartment is big enough for most of your stuff, but some will need to go into storage."

Elle laughed at him; ignoring his suggestion. "So, what are we going to do now? I don't think I can sleep with a tarantula loose under the bed."

"Sleep?" Dick laughed. "Who can sleep?"

"Oh, no," Elle looked suddenly remorseful. "I'm sorry, Dick. It wasn't meant to go on this long. You were supposed to get a little startle, a good laugh, some great sex, and then a nice cuddle as you drifted off to sleep."

Dick's expression softened as he smiled at her. "Don't be sorry," he said. "It was a good prank . . . And I certainly can't fault the rest of the plan. But, tell me something, after the startle who exactly did you see capturing the tarantula and putting him back?"

Elle bit her bottom lip as she looked ruefully at the broken glass at the end of the bed. So much for the jar . . .

"Um, I guess I kind of forgot that part of the plan . . ."

Dick laughed and padded off into another part of the apartment. Elle listened as he rattled around in the kitchen for something. After a couple of minutes, Dick reentered the bedroom with one of Elle's colanders she used for pasta in his hand. He did a little hop and flipped into the bed beside her and set Elle tumbling over from the force of the bounce when he landed on the mattress.

"Ta-da!" He waved the kitchen implement with a flourish. "Problem solved."

Elle looked up at him from where she had sprawled, impressed. "Genius! So, how are we going to get Mook out from under the bed for you to capture him with my favorite colander?"

Dick smiled. "You are going to get the flashlight and from that side of the bed, you are going to herd him out toward me. I will place the colander over him."

Elle was horrified. "That's a terrible plan," she cried. "I can't do that?"

"Why not," he asked her. "Would you rather capture Mook with the colander instead?"

She stared at him for a long moment. "I am disappointed in you. Nightwing would never ask a victim to sacrifice herself in order to capture the criminal," she deadpanned.

Dick smiled as he reminded her of a forgotten fact. "Elle, I am the victim here."

Elle narrowed her eyes at him for another long minute, and then slumped as she sighed, defeated.

"Where is that damned flashlight," she grumbled as she crawled to the other side of the bed.

An hour and a half later, curtains drawn against the bright morning sun, Dick pressed a kiss to Elle's bare shoulder; sighing as he spooned her back. He might be short a couple of hours sleep, but he felt so much better; so much more relaxed that he thought he wouldn't miss them overly much.

"Dick?" Elle murmured.

"Hm?"

"I think we should keep Mook."

His eyes popped open. "What?"

"I said, I think we . . ."

"I heard you," he interrupted. "I just couldn't believe it."

She made a production of rolling onto her back in his arms, and smiled up at him with those gorgeous browns that seemed to warm him up from the inside out.

"Well, I kind of felt like we bonded over that last twenty minutes or so while we were trying to catch him," she told him softly.

"You bonded with me," he reminded her. He suppressed a shudder as he remembered how the two of them had chased that thing throughout the apartment for a half an hour. It wouldn't have taken so long if Elle hadn't kept squealing, and then dropped the colander to run away the first three times they had cornered the creepy arachnid. "Don't tell me that bond can extend to over-sized arachnids . . ."

She leaned up to kiss him. As kisses went, it was a pretty great one, and when she finally pulled away, Dick was left feeling dizzy.

"Please?"

"Elle, where would we keep him? He wouldn't be happy living under your colander," Dick whined.

"I'll go out and buy him a terrarium this afternoon," she promised.

Dick groaned. "Don't you have rehearsals this afternoon?"

Elle's lip protruded in the cutest pout he had ever seen. "Are you telling me that I need to practice my singing?"

He kissed her. "You sing beautifully," he assured her.

"Can I take that as a yes," she asked.

"Only in the broadest possible terms could you ever take that as a yes," he remarked sarcastically.

She batted those long, dark eyelashes at him and gazed at him with those beautiful eyes.

"Thank you," she said in a hesitant and yet hopeful manner.

Dick sighed. Why did he even try? He should have known he would lose. But as he gazed down at her and saw all the love in the world gazing back at him, he knew that with Elle he could never lose.

"Okay," he said against her mouth. "Why not?"

She gave a little squeal of happiness and snuggled closer into his embrace. Dick chuckled, and settled his head down next to hers. He was just falling into contented slumber when Elle's voice drifted into his consciousness.

"Dick?"

"Hmph," he replied, sleepily.

"Did you think to turn off the camera?"

His eyes popped open.

Elle giggled. "This is so going to be my most favorite home movie . . . Like EVER!"

REACTIONS?

Aw, Dick and Elle have a pet! LOL! And I'd pay BIG money to watch that video . . .

YEAH! OVER 15,000 VIEWS WHEN THIS CHAPTER POSTED!