A chance to talk

Barbara walked around the shopping district, wishing she wasn't alone.

She felt guilty about what happened to Kara... like she couldn't protect her enough...

I should have grabbed a gun or something... She thought, believing that might have been one of her mistakes.

She ran her hand over her utility belt. "I wish I was back in Gotham... I already missed my final..." She mumbled, mostly to herself as she walked.

Blake had so much on his mind right now. He looked alert and prepared on the outside but internally his thoughts swam like a shipwrecked boat in a monsoon. Dark, beaten, and depressing. He turned a corner, almost running in to Barbara. He blinked for a moment before noticing no one they could possibly know was around them, "Babs?" He questioned, hearing her mutter something about Gotham.

Barbara jumped back when she almost ran into someone.

"I'm sorry- Blake?" She said, looking up at him, surprised, before she relaxed.

"Hi," She said, smiling, before she felt self conscious about the bandage on her neck.

Maybe he won't notice...

"I was starting to get lonely." She said, smiling at him, feel happy to see him.

"You didn't run into any trouble, did you?" Blake asked, concerned but letting a ghost of a smile rest on his lips. She found his company enjoyable? +1 for Blake.

Her hand went to her neck on its own. "Just a little..." She admitted, hating that she felt weak.

"Care to talk about it?" Blake started to open a mental 'Who Do I Have To Kill' file in his brain. He paused, thinking over how felt suddenly felt like a computer.

Barbara sighed, looking at the ground. "Walk with me?" She asked, before she became telling him what happened.

"Kara, the blonde woman, and I went shopping for armor and equipment. We had just bought the armor when this guy showed up out of nowhere..." She began, her gaze turning dark.

"He wanted Kara... and Kara was so scared; I had never seen her that scared before, so I did my best to get her out of there. Threw a few batarangs and smoke pelts, but he got right passed them as if he was an animal...

"I knocked him down, then he grabbed me by my hair and threatened to kill me if Kara didn't go with him. I stabbed him in the leg with one of my batarangs and he cut my neck... then knocked me out..." She said, the last part, quietly.

"...And the next thing I knew, I was in the Medical Lab, my neck bandaged and Kara asleep in the bed across from me." She finished explaining as they walked.

Blake felt the need to just put his arms around her and tell her he was here. And the mother fucker was going to die a very... very painful death. Specially if he had anything to say about it, "Are you all right now?" He asked, wanting to give her some sort of touch, to let her know her cared but felt... nervous and too afraid to do it.

Barbara nodded, smiling softly. "I'm fine... just feel a bit useless... I know how Kara must have felt when he had a hold of me...Though, I'm just a human who can do flips and throw sharp items..."

She looked up at him and smiled softly. "And Kara is safe too, she's with her roommate back in the ML." She said, shortening the name, because she felt a bit lazy to say it.

Blake knew, more than she probably could ever imagine, how that felt.

"At least you're both fine." He said in a more sedated tone than anything.

Barbara nodded. "Yeah... You wanna go do something?" She asked, wanting to actually have some fun.

"I know next to nothing about this place... is there anything fun here to do?" She asked, figuring he would know.

"The only place of interest here is the Normandy. I dislike Omega as a planet." Blake said in his now stoic, cold tone as they passed a few people that looked ready to jump him for questions. Being Spectre made him famous, whether he liked it or not.

The resemblance is uncanny... She thought, looking at his face.

"All right then... Do you have any suggestions of what we can do then?"

"Patrol? Walking around would be alright as long as we don't wonder too far into Omega territory." Blake stated, watching as the more they moved, the less people seemed to flock around them.

"Fine with me, patrolling is pretty relaxing to me, though, I usually do it from atop of buildings." She said, as they walked.

She noticed the people who wanted the crowd them move away. She looked at Blake, wondering about it.

Blake gave her a look, before moving his eyes in front of him, "Why on top of buildings? Isn't that a bit dangerous?"

"You get a better view of the city from up there, and it is dangerous to most, but not all; if you're trained in it properly, of course." She said, shrugging.

"Huh, I kind of want to see that in action." Blake gave a noise of amusement before continuing, "What's it like... being a 'super'-hero?"

"Well, the pay is terrible; so if you become one to earn a quick buck, well, sorry, but being a superhero is not the job for you." She laughed a little after she said it.

"In all seriousness, it can be pretty challenging... It's basically living a double live, which is hard to keep them from colliding... Also hard to explain to some of your friends why you can never hang out at night anymore. I always use the old "I've got a lot of homework I need to get done," line, when I usually get it done before night time sets." She said, smiling.

"It's rewarding though... even without any pay; helping make a difference and being a light of hope for a city that had been, for so long, deep in darkness of crime and murder..." She said, before looking at him. "Even if my life is on the line, as long as their is crime that the police can't solve, I'll be there..."

"In other words: I enjoy the heck out of it." She said, smiling.

Blake had a few things marked into his head, "So, you have a plausible filthy rich man funding your vigilante lifestyle. Which I'm going to guess was Batman... which would most likely make him a celebrity in your world. Which would give funding for your escapades.

"But you use weapons specifically made for you... which would mean he's a business tycoon that deals with weapon building or a more diverse range of things... I'm going to go with the latter if you somehow were involved with the late night crime fighting. Which, if what is heard from Garrus was correct, Bruce Wayne would be Batman."

Blake paused in his rambling, turning to her, "Was anything of that right? I mean, you don't have to answer but... I like playing detective some days."

Barbara stared at him in shock.

"...Did you get any of it?" She repeated, slowly. "You got all of it right!" She exclaimed, amazed by his detective skills.

"But, keep your theories to yourself." She stated, crossing her arms. "A Robin from another universe arrived, so who knows who else is going to show up from either my universe or an alternate one from it..." She explained.

"Trust me, I will. I have quite the few skeletons hiding in the closet." Blake frowned before thinking of something, "Ask me something, anything you want... I invaded your privacy, so I'll let you invade mine as a peace treaty?

Barbara held up her hands. "Hey, you figured it out on your own... you didn't invade anything." She said, crossing her arms again.

She didn't want to just ask... She didn't even know what to ask...

Except... one thing... She thought.

"Well then, I have another question, if you don't mind?" Blake asked a bit, feeling an awkward sensation in his chest.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Really? What is it?" She asked, a bit curious about what his question.