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A few days later, Mallory woke up to the insistent buzzing of her phone alarm clock. She turned it off and rolled out of bed, groaning as she pushed herself to her feet and struggled to her dresser to pull out some clothes. Jen came in while she was pulling on her shoes.
"Where're you going?" she asked, tossing her books on her desk.
"I have to meet Alex at the library to do that stupid psychology project," Mallory replied groggily.
Jen squinted at her slightly. "Are you drunk? Why do you sound like that?" she asked.
Mallory sighed. "I just woke up," she explained, forcefully keeping her irritation at bay.
Jen tilted her head. "Mal, it's seven pm," she said, pointing out the obvious. Mallory bit her tongue to keep the sarcastic remarks flowing through her head at bay. Her friend gave her a concerned look. "You ok?"
Mallory nodded and rubbed her hands over her eyes, trying to clear her bleary vision. "Yeah, fine, I'm just tired," she said. There had been a slight crime wave in Metropolis in the last few days, so she'd been patrolling every free moment she had, both day and night. In the last three days, between being Inferno, studying, classes, and her League duties, she'd gotten a grand total of four hours sleep, and she was beat.
Jen shook her head. "Maybe you should tell Alex you can't come tonight," she suggested, the concerned look still plastered on her face.
Mallory shook her head. "I can't, this is the only time I can do it, at least for another week."
"Mallory, you can't keep going at this pace. You'll run yourself into the ground. Probably literally."
Mallory smiled. "Don't worry about it. After this week, I'll take a few days off patrol and catch up on sleep," she assured her friend.
Jen rolled her eyes. "I'll believe that when I see it," she said.
Mallory laughed and grabbed her book bag. "You'll see, promise. I'll see you later, I really need to get going."
"Hey, sorry I'm late," Mallory said, sliding into a chair beside Alex.
He shook his head. "No problem, I haven't been here long," he replied, but he already had all of the papers and instructions spread out, and he had a document pulled up on his laptop with at least five different ideas, all mapped out.
"Ok, good. So, what were you thinking?" she asked, pulling out her laptop and binder.
"I don't know, I had a few ideas, if you want to look through them," he said, sliding his laptop over to her. Malory scrolled through the document, guilt building as she realized how much time he must have put into the assignment, while she had barely managed to get here with her thoughts collected. "Uh, they all look good. Which one do you like the best?"
He pointed to one of the plans that detailed how to train their mouse to dispense food for itself, and to ask for more when it's empty. "This seems like the easiest. The mouse would teach itself the first part, we wouldn't even need to be involved," he explained.
Mallory nodded. Yeah, that sounded good. "Ok, so how does she want the report formatted?" she asked, scanning the instructions.
"Just a typical essay, MLA style, four full pages. It won't be that bad, though. Half of the writing is just quoting from the book."
Mallory sighed, feeling the time ticking by as they spoke. Oh, well, she thought, one more night without sleep isn't so bad. She smiled at Alex and said, "All right, let's get started."
It was two in the morning when they finally finished typing up their final draft of the report and submitted it online. Mallory had made a point of doing most of the work, insisting that it was only fair when he did all the set-up work. In truth, she was just banking work in case something took her away from the project later on, so that she wouldn't feel like she'd made Alex do the whole thing alone. They packed up their books and computers, and Mallory pushed away from the table stiffly, stretching her aching back and legs. She rolled her neck a few times to get mobility back and turned to her partner. "Thanks for staying, you really didn't have to," she said.
Alex shrugged. "It's a group project, I had to do some of the work," he replied. Mallory didn't mention the fact that he already had done a lot of the work, she just shouldered her bag and walked with him to the elevator. "So, you want to grab something to eat? I'm starved," Alex said.
She bit back a sigh. "Uh, sure," she said. She'd put off the conversation for as long as she could, but it wasn't really fair to him to let him think their friendship would lead to something more. Hopefully, there would be an easier gateway to broaching the subject while they ate.
They talked about the project and school on their way to the cafe at the heart of campus, and by the time they got there, they'd moved into past relationships. Alex told her about his last girlfriend, who'd broken up with him because she didn't want to be long distance.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Mallory said, not sure what else to say.
Alex shrugged. "Don't be. I realized when I got here that we wouldn't have lasted long anyway. She was always kind of pushy, and she didn't support what I wanted to do."
Mallory nodded, pushing the door to the cafe open. The place was all but deserted, with one group in the far corner and one barista working behind the counter. Mallory and Alex went to the counter, and Mallory ordered her Mexican spiced mocha and a scone and paid for it, then waited for Alex to order his double espresso and sandwich. They found a table away from the other group while they waited for their orders to be made.
"So, Mallory, I was wondering," Alex started, and Mallory could feel the air around them cloud over as the dynamic of the conversation shifted, "is there any point in asking you for another date…again?"
She stared at a ring on the table and shook her head slowly. "I'm sorry, Alex. I should have told you the second time you asked, instead of making all the excuses. I just, I'm not good at this, ok? I like you, I do, but right now, I can't handle anything else. I can barely manage a friend at this point. I'm sorry, I guess that's not what you want to hear."
She could feel his eyes on her, and she slowly raised hers to meet them. The only thing she saw was the overwhelming warmth and concern mixed with the deep green of his irises.
"Are you ok?" he asked. "I've noticed that you've seemed kind of out of it lately, lethargic and dazed at times, and you look like you're not sleeping."
She couldn't stop the laugh that bubbled out of her at that. He tilted his head, confused, and she shook her head. "Nothing, it's just that you've been summing up my symptoms for weeks, haven't you? You're gonna make a great doctor."
Alex chuckled and shrugged. "Sorry. Habit, I guess."
Their orders came, and Mallory took a sip of her coffee before asking, "so, did you come up with a diagnosis yet?"
He smiled. "From what I've seen, it's just the normal amplified stress of college life. I think you need a friend to take some of the pressure off, someone who isn't going to judge you or try to tell you how to fix it."
"That sounds great," Mallory said, "now I just need to find one."
"I'd be happy to volunteer my services," Alex said, a smile teasing across his face.
Mallory chuckled, relaxing in her seat as she studied him. "Just friends?" she stressed.
"Just friends," he assured her.
She smiled and nodded. "That sounds perfect."
They paused their conversation as they scarfed down the food, realizing that the employee was probably waiting to close. Something on the TV caught Mallory's attention while she was halfway through her cup of coffee. It was a national news channel, and the clip being shown sported Summer Gleeson standing on the streets of Gotham, interviewing people.
"It was crazy, bro. There was just a dart in the sky, then it was there on the street, taking out the shooter. It was like Batman, but smaller, and I think it was a girl," a young man was saying. Summer nodded and sidestepped so she was the only one in the shot. "So this was the scene tonight where a mysterious new figure took out a shooter who opened fire on sixth street earlier tonight. Some bystanders managed to capture this footage of the hero."
A video came onto the screen. The quality wasn't good, but it was clear enough to make out the shadowy figure dart from one roof to the next, then it was on the street, landing on top of the shooter, wrapping its legs around his neck and bringing him down, and then it was gone as fast as it appeared, darting into an alley. The person with the phone followed the figure, hoping for a close up, but the dead end alley was empty. "Did you see it?" someone said in the video. "Yeah, I saw it jet by. That was wild, man!" Presently, the small crowd started to chant, "Jett! Jett! Jett!"
The video ended, and Summer was back on the screen. "And so the new hero seems to have been dubbed Jett by the bystanders tonight. Whoever this Jett is, I think we can all say a heartfelt thank you for the heroic actions she showed here tonight. Back to you, Dan."
"Jett, huh? And here I thought Gotham was done getting new heroes," Alex commented.
Mallory smiled a little. "Maybe it's not as many as it seems," she said, because she knew exactly who this new hero was. 'Good for you, Wren,' she thought. She'd have to catch up with Dick soon and find out what went down for his adopted sister to leave Batman and Robin's side and strike out on her own as Gotham's newest vigilante.