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A week later, half of the team was in the living room, waiting for the rest of them to come for movie night. It would be Gar's first movie night as one of them, so he was excited. They'd let him pick the movie, and he was sitting on the floor in front of the TV, scrolling through options while Megan and Zatanna made their snacks. Mallory had already made their nachos, heated to perfection with the help of her fire, and she and Wally were settled in, waiting for everyone to show up. They heard the Dynamic Duo before they saw them.
"I handled it. Why can't you just admit that your way isn't the only way to do it?!" Robin yelled.
The team looked up, almost not recognizing the voice because of the amount of anger in it.
"You were reckless, and you almost lost our only lead," Batman yelled back.
"No, I wasn't. I knew exactly what I was doing, and you know it! You're just mad because I didn't stick to your plan, a plan that wasn't going to work anymore!"
"There was nothing wrong with the plan. You just didn't follow through with it."
"His family was there! What was I supposed to do? Beat him to a bloody pulp with his five year old watching?"
Mallory looked at Wally, her eyes wide. She'd noticed problems between the two, but she'd told herself that it was fine, that they would work it out. Hearing this, though, she wasn't so sure. Wally hardly looked surprised, which made Mallory think he'd known about the problems long before she had.
"I'm done with this. I'm staying at the cave tonight," Robin said, a little quieter. They were coming closer to the living room. Everyone went back to what they were doing, except Gar, who was sitting there, staring at the doorway, a shocked expression on his face.
"How long has that been going on?" Mallory murmured, leaning closer to Wally so no one else heard.
"Too long," he muttered.
Megan set up a link, and Mallory glanced over her shoulder to see the team. "Uh,guys,is there something going on with them?" she asked.
"They've been at each other's throats for weeks," Conner said. "They're just getting worse at hiding it."
"Z, Wally, has he said anything to you?" Artemis asked.
Zatanna shook her head. "I knew they were having problems, but…" she said, her voice drifting off.
Everyone looked at Wally, and he sighed. "It's not for me to say," he said.
Robin stormed in the next second and Megan shut the link down hurriedly, saving Wally from the team's questions. Gar, who hadn't been included in the link, was staring at Robin timidly, and the older boy sighed and put on a smile. "Well what are we watching?" he asked.
The team stared at him in surprise. To look at him, you would never know that he'd been in a bad argument with his partner just seconds before. It made Mallory wonder how many times he'd had to change his mood around then, that he was so good at hiding it.
Two nights later, Mallory and Robin were patrolling in Gotham. Robin had asked Wally and her to help him with a new gang that was moving closer to downtown out of the Narrows. Wally had to cancel because of a breakout in Central, so it was just Robin and her watching the streets from the top of a building. Robin was staring at the streets intently, watching through binoculars. Mallory was watching him, more than a little concerned about him.
"What?"he asked, not looking up from the streets.
Mallory sighed. Of course he knew when someone was staring at him. "Why isn't Batman with you instead of me?" she asked.
"He's busy on another case. League business," he said.
"No, he's not. I just talked to Superman before I met you, and he said that everything was fine and he was going home. Does it have something to do with your argument at the cave?" she pressed.
"There's the gang," he said suddenly, switching the binoculars for a grappling hook and shooting it at the building across from them. Mallory sighed and flew down beside him, landing around the corner, the red of her stealth suit blending with his suit. He drew his cape closed to cover the bright color and peered around the corner.
"Rob, you know you can talk to us, right? We'll still love you, and we'll still hate Batman," Mallory said, smiling a little.
"You're really talking about this now?" he asked, running into the middle of the gang.
Mallory followed him, burning the guns and starting the hand to hand combat. "Since when do you care about talking during a fight?" she asked, punching one guy in the throat.
"Since you got to pick the topic," he replied irritably.
"We'll, since we're on it already," she said, flying up a few feet and landing hard on one of the gang's chest, "what's going on with you two? You've never sounded that mad at him before."
Robin grunted as he did a complicated martial arts maneuver, taking out two of the gang. "Just leave it alone, Inferno. Gotham's kind of out of your jurisdiction." Mallory raised an eyebrow at him, kicking someone without looking at them and king them out old. "You know what I mean," he amended.
"No, not really. Anything going on with you is going to affect the team, so I think it needs to be team business, or you need to figure it out by yourself."
Robin took out the last member of the gang and sighed. "I'll call Gordon," was all he said. Mallory sighed and leaned against a building, looking around. The alley and the gang reminded her of the night Brek left, and she hugged herself and looked away from the unconscious gang. Robin made his call and came back to her.
"You ok?" he asked.
"Fine. You ready to go?"
He nodded and shot his grappling hook up. They went to the top of the building next to the scene to wait for the police. Robin was being unusually quiet, and Mallory walked over to where he was leaning on the edge, watching the gang to make sure they didn't get away. She leaned her elbows on the edge and sighed.
"When I was staying with Clark's parents, and you and Wally came to get me to help with the Kobra mission, I didn't want to come back. I told Clark that day that I wanted out, that I didn't want to be Inferno anymore," she admitted quietly.
Robin looked at her, surprised. "Why?" he asked softly.
She looked away for a second, wondering if she should tell him about Brek's letter, about her death. "I was scared, I guess. Nothing seemed like it was working for me, in or out of uniform. I left at one of the worst points I've ever been in,and I didn't know if I could come back from that. I started telling myself that if I came back, something bad would happen, and from there I started thinking about my family and all the things I haven't done yet, and Clark and his parents just accepted it when I told them I didn't want to be Inferno anymore," she explained, careful to omit the part about her knowing how she would die.
Robin was quiet for a moment, then he asked, "so what made you come back?"
She smiled a little. "Lois. She just sat with me and convinced me that just because something bad could happen doesn't mean I should only live half a life. She helped me start a bucket list so that I wouldn't just be Inferno, I could start being Mallory Johnson, too. She helped me be happy again."
She stood there quietly, watching the street, one of her biggest secrets from the team lingering in the air around them. A police wagon and a few cars came, and the young heroes watched as Gordon and his men loaded the gang into the wagon. Gordon looked up at the rooftops, looking for Baan,and saw their silhouettes against the skyline. He nodded to them and turned back to his car.
Mallory started to push off the ledge, their work complete, and Robin sighed and said, "it's been going on for a while." She settled back in, listening. Her friend wouldn't look at her, and his voice was so soft she could barely hear it, but he was talking, which was a step. "He second guesses any last minute decisions I make when we're patrolling. He never admits that he's wrong, or that he doesn't know everything. I'm just so sick of him being so unreasonable. Lately he hasn't been satisfied by anything I do, whether it's what he told me to do or not. I'm just tired of it."
Mallory looked at him, not knowing what to say. He hung his head, locks of his raven hair hanging loosely off his forehead. If it had been any of her other teammates, she would have told them to come live at the cave and give their mentor some time to get out of their mood, but she couldn't do that with Robin. She knew so little about his life outside of the team, even as a vigilante, that she couldn't pretend to know what he should do.
"How bad is it?" she asked.
He looked up at her, his hair falling back down to his face, one lock settling over the eye of his mask. "It's bad," he said quietly.
Mallory sighed, not knowing if she was glad she brought it up or not. "Hey, you know the team's always there for you, right? We love you," she told him. He nodded and stared down at the street. Mallory smiled a little and bumped his shoulder gently with hers. "And we still hate Batman," she said. Robin chuckled, and she did too, glad that she could still make him laugh despite what he was going through.
He took a shaky breath and let it out, pushing off the edge of the roof. "Well, I guess we're done," he said.
Mallory turned around, sitting on the ledge. "We're done with the gang, but we still have most of the night. You want to come to Metropolis and see if there's anything there?" she asked.
Robin shook his head. "I'm good. Metropolis is boring at night, and I'm tired anyway."
Mallory raised her eyebrows in surprise. "Wow, I didn't know you needed sleep," she said teasingly.
"We'll, I don't advertise it, but I do need to sleep once in a while," he replied, smiling.
Mallory's smile left her face, and she leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "You want to come spend the night at the cave? Or my parent's house?" she asked.
Robin shook his head. "No, thanks. I'll be fine, I just have to get through it. Maybe he'll let up soon, I don't know." She nodded and got to her feet. "You can go find a zeta tube, I'm gonna go home the long way," he told her.
She hesitated, then nodded and flew off the roof. He'd be fine, and he needed some time alone to clear his head. Still, she felt bad for him, but the team would be there for him if he needed them.