(Test Scene/Flashback) Because I'm Falling Down

[l33t_winged_bat]

She rubs her eyes and then readjusts her glasses. She's caught herself staring at Nightwing's cim signal. Still active. Still in Gotham. Still not feeling chatty. Normally, this would be bliss. Dick always wants to talk her ear off about things she'd rather forget...No, not forget. Shelve. Put away in the archive and bring out when it serves some use other then to remind her -

She cuts herself off from the thought and wheels herself away from her terminal. Dinner has been sitting warm in the crockpot for hours after she planned on eating it. Her stomach is growling now and she's once again reminded of her own physical limitations - again.

After scooping up some lamb stew and depositing it over some mashed potatoes she finds herself staring out the impractical clocktower window out onto Gotham City. The clock was a contractor's joke or exploitation; maybe both. There's no way anyone can actually see this thing from the street. It was put here because of the kind of waste and underhanded dealings she and Dick sacrificed their youths to fix. It doesn't stay fixed. Hundreds of years of everyone down there thinking the only way to get by was to look out for themselves created a living testament to the vast good and evil such individual ambition brings the world.

Her neck feels pinched. She moves her hand to rub it when the com beeps and she rolls over to answer it.

Oracle to Nightwing. Respond

Comments

[l33t-winged-bat.livejournal.com]

Next thing he'll know her hand will be on his arm.

"Gypsy is fine. She seems like chivani before her time." she notes, using the term he taught her for "wise woman."

She really should say something right now. something dramatic and honest and transcendent - but that's Dick's forte, not hers.

[first-titan.livejournal.com]

He stopped suddenly, and turned slowly as he, for the first time in the night, matched her gaze. He was being unfair to her, and he knew it. Showing up at her doorstep with a random stray, dumping his problems on her, and then just shutting himself off again. Maybe, he thought, he should just go for broke while he had exhaustion on his side as an excuse should things go sour.

"I was pretty out of line." He said, his eyes filled with a sort of soft determination. "Saying I didn't have a tether." He paused a moment, unsure of what to say next, before continuing with the question almost guaranteed to create awkwardness.

"I'm getting pretty tired of running away. You?"

[l33t-winged-bat.livejournal.com]

"Me? Run? I'm not sure if I can do triathlons like I used to." She knows he hates it when she makes jokes about her legs, but she needed that moment. She holds up a hand, indicating he should let her finish.

"I've been a shitty tether," she admits. "It was okay not to include me. Ask me to crack the Pentagon, and I'm fine. People?" She shakes her head. "You were right about me. I know the argument was a long time back, but you joked about me substituting a computer for a life and I took you apart. I won't say you were right. What I didn't say was that you weren't wrong. Work is a terrific substitute for getting a life, but only for so long. I'm..." She swallows. "I'm trying here. Same as you - just in a different way."

[first-titan.livejournal.com]

He narrowed his eyes at her joke, but then just shook his head and turned to resume his walk to shower.

"I get you. But, some food for thought?" He said over his shoulder. "Neither of our ways seem to be doing us much good. Might be time for a new strategy." He said, as he walked to the bathroom and closed the door.

[l33t-winged-bat.livejournal.com]

She frowns. Hunk Wonder has some things to learn about women if he's going to walk off on that line. She mulls over his words as she embarks on her next course of action.

Logic is not working. She can't be wholly logical with Dick Grayson. She has nearly two decades worth of data to back up that conclusion. The fact he just left a ball in her court regarding their relationship annoys her because he should know she's horrible at this by now. Like, "making a clocktower too high up no one can see it," horrible.

Talking this out is not working. She's horrible at it. He's tired and feeling barely alive. She won't just let things stand like that. New plan indeed.

The next thing Dick Grayson knows, his shower curtain will be thrown open. The only thing between him and a naked Babs Gordon is the low rim of the tub.

"Back scrub?" She asks casually.

[first-titan.livejournal.com]

At first, the former Boy Wonder was shocked, covering himself quickly and awkwardly. After a brief moment, the surprise was lessened and he realized what she was playing at. However, he wasn't one to just make things easy. He looked at her with a wry smile.

"Gee, if only there was some privacy ensuring device that would block entryways during vulnerable moments. Like, a door or something." He said dryly, but lightly. "Is this your playful way of saying 'Okay, we can give it another shot', or does my back just look like it needs extra attention?"

[l33t-winged-bat.livejournal.com]

Because he left her on the note he did, she makes him wait, with her only response being a pair wryly raised eyebrows before picking up a loofa in silence and starting to work on his back.