[ By the fourth day the feeling is starting to filter in at last: that he’s desperate and scared, for everyone they’d done this to save. That he needs someone and he needs them now – someone who’s not a direct contact, someone he can talk this out with so he’ll know what he’s supposed to do now to fix this.
And for a hundred reasons he knows that’s not Steph. She’s chosen a side already, and there’s no chance in those hundred that she’ll listen to him. Steph doesn’t believe in him, and maybe she never did.
But she’s still Steph. And it’s still Steph who’d made him a new mask and pretended it wasn’t his fault that the old one went missing. It’s still Steph who’d known about Zitka, when no one else but Bruce has ever cared. She’s still his sister, and that’s still a word he doesn’t want to let go of now that she’s used it first.
And it’s Steph that he’s stuck with, which is the decision he lands on when he rounds a corner and sees her up ahead in the hallway. Now is his chance. Whether she hates him forever or not, it could be his only chance to save a few hundred lives. ]
Batgirl! [ Getting her attention is always the easy part, so he breaks into a run and raises a hand for her to see when she turns around. He’s safe. He’s friendly.
And that’s when he sees the cape draped over her arm. ] Hey, what- [ She... sure is disrobing in the hallway. And it sure does freeze him in his tracks. ] -what happened? Are you okay?
bitter tears
And for a hundred reasons he knows that’s not Steph. She’s chosen a side already, and there’s no chance in those hundred that she’ll listen to him. Steph doesn’t believe in him, and maybe she never did.
But she’s still Steph. And it’s still Steph who’d made him a new mask and pretended it wasn’t his fault that the old one went missing. It’s still Steph who’d known about Zitka, when no one else but Bruce has ever cared. She’s still his sister, and that’s still a word he doesn’t want to let go of now that she’s used it first.
And it’s Steph that he’s stuck with, which is the decision he lands on when he rounds a corner and sees her up ahead in the hallway. Now is his chance. Whether she hates him forever or not, it could be his only chance to save a few hundred lives. ]
Batgirl! [ Getting her attention is always the easy part, so he breaks into a run and raises a hand for her to see when she turns around. He’s safe. He’s friendly.
And that’s when he sees the cape draped over her arm. ] Hey, what- [ She... sure is disrobing in the hallway. And it sure does freeze him in his tracks. ] -what happened? Are you okay?