Sadie reviewed her directions on a little slip of paper as they descended to the freighter's lower levels. In the midst of the walk, she said to Tim, "I know I've always gotten along with your family, but I don't know if I ever thought you guys would stick your necks out for me like this. If I ever doubted it, I'm sorry."

Tim showed her a smile. "Well, acting less than capable is in the job description, you know. No offense taken."

After a moment's hesitation, Sadie asked, "Did I ever tell you and Steph about my older brother?"

"You have. I'm still sorry for what happened to him," Tim said.

Sadie looked down and shrugged. "Thanks. All I was going to say, I was a lot younger when he was your age, of course, but still. The way you've taken charge on this thing, the way you're trying to keep us together, you remind me of him. A lot."

Tim moved fast enough to lead the way, but slowed when she'd said that so they could walk side by side. "I know how much he meant to you," he said. "I'm glad I can compare."

"I clearly don't know everything about you guys' lives, but you guys have obviously done Cassie a lot of good for the part, y'know." She sighed. "The parts I haven't been a part of."

"I've had a couple civilian girlfriends, I know the flakiness was always hard on them," Tim said. "Steph and me don't have that problem, obviously, but it's harder in other ways."

"Like how?"

"It's one less thing trying me to life outside the costume," Tim said. "Steph and me are going to graduate soon, and then school will be another thing we're not doing anymore." He slipped his hands into his pocket and tensed, just a little. "I love her, and I love what we do, but the job takes a lot of both of us. We don't have to pretend we're not on call when we're out on a date together, but if nobody's faking like everything's normal, it's just there, hanging over us both."

The two descended another level as Sadie processed that sentiment. "There's still a lot I don't know, but Cassie didn't really go to school and doesn't really read or play video games or whatever. Was I her only way she got away from that stuff you just described?"

"Pretty much, yeah." Tim looked toward her again and put on his sincerest face. "We couldn't ever thank you for that before, but I guess we can now. Batman never wanted our work in costume to be our whole lives. He was kind of skeptical when Cassie started fixating on religion, but it's mostly done her good. And you definitely have."

After a moment to absorb the thought, Sadie decided he'd already given her the best words. "Thank you for that." As they came to the bottom of their last set of stairs and a door marked, Administrative Office laid before them, she asked the last question on her mind in that moment. "Batman… look, I don't know if we've been bugged or whatever, so I'm not saying the name out loud. But he's stupid rich and, considering you and Cassie are related, he's almost certainly another relative, right? Almost certainly exactly who I'm thinking of right now?"

It took Tim a few seconds to pick out the right words. Eventually, he went with, "I think I drew the same conclusion you did when I was nine. And I turned out to be right."

"Wait—nine?!"

Tim smirked, took the lead again, and knocked on the office door.

As if he'd stood by the door waiting for them to arrive, Brother Dominique opened the door. He looked back and forth between Tim and Sadie. "We need to take to her. Only her."

With his arms crossed, Tim leaned into the doorframe. "I've been asked to wait nearby, that's all. As long as I'm not given a reason to step in."

Dominique rolled his eyes, but ultimately nodded. "All right. Fine." He leaned out of Tim's path and nodded to Sadie. "You, come here, let's get this over with."

Sadie slipped past Tim into a small, sparsely decorated office. Dominique took a seat at a desk of dark oak, and Brother Alexander stood in a back corner of the room, a large, wooden cross to the left of him, of a shepherd dressed in red and white next to the sea on his right. From a slot beneath his desk, Dominique procured a laptop computer and a USB microphone that looked like a Long John donut.

"Getting the recording equipment started, give me just a minute."

It was Sadie's knee-jerk reaction to push back in some fashion. But she remembered Dominique seemed decent enough in their first interaction, cooled a little, and nodded. But she did ask, "Why do you need to record this?"

"To keep things moving as quickly as possible," Dominique said. Which I know you want as well. Less chance of Father Day complaining we've left a stone unturned."

That made sense enough, so Sadie nodded.

After a few more swipes and clicks on his laptop, Dominique leaned close to the microphone and muttered, "Proper copper coffee pots. Proper copper coffee pots."

"Um, what?"

"Making sure the software and hardware are running properly. They are." Dominique cleared his throat. "This is Brother Dominique Faltelli, completing a pre-extrication interview. It is Tuesday, March twentieth, in the year of our lord twenty twelve." He clicked a few spots on his computer, clasped his hands, and lowered his prayer, though still read from the screen. "Wherefore I do also call upon you, Lord God of Abraham, and God of Isaac, and God of Jacob and Israel, who is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,"

Sadie watched this, silent for a moment, as Alexander also bowed his head. As frustrating as these guys and some of Cassie's words were, maybe she was right. She decided there was no harm in playing along, so she lowered her head and closed her eyes as well.

Dominique went on. "God who, through the abundance of Your mercy, has had a favor towards us, that we should know You, who has made heaven and earth, who rule over all, who is the only and the true God, above whom there is none other God; grant, by our Lord Jesus Christ, the governing power of the Holy Spirit; give to every reader of this book to know You, that You are God alone, to be strengthened in You, and to avoid every heretical, and godless, and impious doctrine. Amen."

In Sadie's opinion, he started to lose the plot at the end, but Sadie gave it a nod and looked back up.

After a clear of his throat, Dominique said, "Can I have your name, please?"

"You can call me Salty."

Alexander scowled from the corner. "Your actual name."

"Alex, please, I can handle this." Dominique cleared his throat. "Miss, please, recordkeeping on this matter is important. Your legal name, please?"

"Ugh, fine. Sadie Marie Leach."

"Thank you," Dominique said. "The purpose of this examination is to determine the nature of your relationship with the icon currently interlinked to your being. First things first, may I see it?"

Sadie raised and opened her left hand, the deep green cross stigmata instantly apparent. Both of the monks' eyes widened as they beheld it.

"For—ah—ahem. Purely purposes of confirmation, may I touch it?" Dominique said.

Sadie raised an eyebrow. "The possibly cursed scab in the middle of my hand?"

Alexander opened his mouth to castigate, but Dominique spoke first. "Not cursed, no, not at all, I assure you. If anything, the opposite." When Sadie didn't respond, he said, "If someone claimed to be sick, you'd maybe feel their forehead first to see if it was hot, wouldn't you?"

She didn't respond to that with words, but did extend her hand for the monk to examine.

He narrated his findings as he ran two fingers along the lines of green. "Fascinating. The diamond within Miss Leach's hand appears wholly integrated with the flesh. There are no scabs or scaring around the entry point, as if the diamond itself is serving as scar tissue."

Sadie shrugged. "From what I was told, I was injured. Probably fatally. I guess I'm suffering from some memory loss about that part, I'm grateful because it sounds horrifying. My girlfriend this thing on my hand, and it got absorbed inside." Sadie pulled it back and looked down at the stigmata. "It healed me, but it also painted a target on my back."

Dominique nodded. "Err, for the sake of record keeping, when you say girlfriend-"

"Oh my..." Sadie bitterly bit her lip for a moment. "I do my best to not say your god's name in vain around her, and I'm gonna keep trying now. But to be clear here, for your dumb record— yes, my girlfriend. My, 'we go on dates and we hold hands and we kiss,' girlfriend."

From the corner, Alexander snapped, "Keep a civil tongue girl!"

"All right, all right." Dominique spoke quickly as if to head Alexander off. "Let's all take it easy here. Miss, please don't try making this difficult."

"You're the ones making it difficult. Or weird. Or whatever," Sadie said. "I thought your note-keeping here was about this thing stuck in my hand. What the hell does my dating life have to do with that?"

Brother Dominique let out a long breath as he looked back and forth between her eyes, her hand, and Alexander. "It's complicated. The icon has ties back to our scripture, and this is a rare chance to learn about the power inside."

Alexander spoke up. "And the fact that it could be within someone like you suggests some frustrating gaps in our knowledge."

"Someone like me, huh?" Sadie said. "What, a borderline atheist lesbian? You were under the impression that, given the circumstances, it wouldn't heal, 'someone like me?' That you assumed I should be dead right now, do I have that right?"

Dominique raised one hand and used the other to rub his forehead. "Everyone settle down. There's no need to get needlessly confrontational here."

"Don't put words in my mouth," Alexander said. "You're the one who drew that conclusion, not me."

"Buddy, it's called reading between the lines." Sadie formed her stigmata hand into three raised fingers. "I can do it, how about you?"

Dominique spoke loud and fast, trying to overtake both of them. "This turn of events was unexpected, but that doesn't mean it was a bad thing. God has a purpose for all of his flock, even those who may have wandered away."

"Man, if this is your good cop routine, you deserve to know you're really bad at it," Sadie said. When Dominque flushed and balked, she went on. "You're not saying anything different than he is. You want Alex to quit riling me up, but that's all you're scolding him for. Not his awful attitude. Just that he's making your awful attitude harder to mask."

Alexander sneered. "Think you're awfully smart being argumentative with someone on your side, do you, little lost sheep?"

"He's clearly not on my side. And has anyone ever told you guys you might not have so many lost sheep if you would quit kicking them out of the pastures?" Sadie glowered at Alexander, then down at Dominique.

"We should really get back to-"

"Do you know how much I want to share this part of life with my girlfriend?" Sadie said. "I've seen how happy and fulfilled going to church made her. I've thought to myself, 'I don't know anybody who cares about other people like she does, and going to church probably helped make her that way. Maybe I should go, and let it make me a better person too.'" She leaned forward. "We just started talking about getting married, you know. Maybe down the line it'd be fun and fulfilling to adopt some of those kids you guys are always saying need homes, since you don't believe in a woman's right to choose and all—"

"That's not—"

Sadie raised her voice to keep from being interrupted. "You could have another believer in a time when church turnout is getting lower every year. You could have another married couple when divorce rates are through the damn roof. And you couldn't ask for anyone who would love a little adopted kid more than she could, and she could teach me to do it too. But no, we wouldn't be doing any of those things," she formed her fingers into air quotes, "'The right way' for you guys, right? So, thanks but no thanks, good luck with your immortal soul, have fun burning in Hell."

Dominique slammed a closed fist on the table. "Enough! Both of you, enough!"

Alexander began, "I will not—"

With a jerk around to face him, Dominique shouted, "You'll do as your superior says! And I say, enough!" Though his companion scowled, he did not defy the instruction. Dominique huffed in and out short, hard breaths for nearly a minute before he brought himself back to a calm enough state. "Miss Leach, the purpose of this interview is to determine you are of sound mind. And as frustrating as you are making this—"

Sadie crossed her arms and stuck out her tongue.

"I think that much is largely apparent. The lack of scar tissue is supernatural in and of itself as well. For the sake of both thoroughness and expediency, can we just agree, no more extraneous questions or details?"

With a glare leveled back and forth between the two, Sadie eventually said, "Fine. Let's get the rest of this over with."