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[teambatgirl]

Batgirl is standing on the edge of a rooftop and watching the ghostly populace of London hurrying through the cold winter evening. She's on her own tonight. Usually there's a game of tag with the other Batgirl between patrols or pestering Robin, but not tonight. Sometimes a vigilante has to do the lone wolf thing, even though she is normally all about the teamwork.

The rooftop's her favorite that's she's found so far with a perfect view of a busy intersection and a little bit out of the wind, even if there is a distinct lack of gargoyles to perch upon dramatically. Her costume" is not exactly built for frosty weather, but then neither were Dick or Jason's and they managed. At least she's got thick, long socks on and sensible combat boots, no pixie shoes here.

It's not like there's a lot of crime to be stopped, or much of any to be precise. Maybe there are phantom pickpockets, ghostly muggers and shadowy criminals and murders preying on the city, with an equally spooky Scotland Yard tracking them down, but none that the corporeal Batgirl can interact with or put a stop to. It's occurred to her to wonder just what she and the rest of the island people look like to the rest of the city. Maybe they're the ghostly ones, and she's Casper than friendly neighborhood hero up here to them.

She feels, more than hears or sees, when a person joins her on the roof. A prickle of alarm goosebumps on top of her 'it's December in London and really damn cold' goosebumps. Stephanie doesn't turn to the new arrival. There's only one person who sends that dread-excitement-awe mix twisting in her stomach.

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[crusaded]

The changes to my uniform are subtler than most that this island has seen. Whether it's due to there being a lack of a practical equivalent in this alternate version of Victorian London, or if the forces behind all of these shifts and changes have seen fit to grant me clemency, I can't be sure. I don't care to wonder, or treat it with anything other than the suspicion that I turn to most aspects of the island. By day and night alike, I've been watching over this city.

It's not mine. It's not Gotham. But the people here require the same type of protection, and so I set out every evening, collar raised up to protect against the bitter cold.

When I cross paths with Stephanie, it strikes me that this may be as good a chance as any to have a talk. Easy distractions to pull either of us away, if words exchanged grow too heated.

"Slow night," I remark, eyes narrowed as I step closer.

[teambatgirl]

"Which is made all the more galling because we're in a major city, and what's the fun in packing millions of people in on top of each other if we aren't going to have muggings to stop and maybe a bank robbery or two?" She says all this with her back to him, doing that patented Gotham vigilante monologue, but now she glances over.

He totally got the best costume swap of all of them, that jerk. Figures. It would have just about made her life if the Victorian Batsuit came complete with a pointy-eared top hat and a monocle.

"How's a girl supposed to keep her edge if she can't fight scads of gang members at the same time?"

[crusaded]

I know it's just talk. The vehemence, at least. The restlessness is something that I cannot deny even in myself; when you remain wholly unconvinced that the world is, in fact, free of crime and strife, a peaceful night serves as very little relief, if not as the opposite entirely. The scenery may have changed, but functionally, this place is little different from the island itself, and no matter how firmly Jason may believe that he's managed to adapt and assimilate here, I have my doubts. This isn't the type of place any of us were made to settle.

Stephanie and Damian just happen to be the most vocal about how deeply they feel this fact.

"I'm more interested in seeing research conducted than in stopping a potential bank robbery," I tell her, plain and honest. "Our goal is to leave."

[teambatgirl]

"Welp, you give me a project and I'll conduct the hell out of that research, but I'm sort of out of ideas." She shrugs. There's only so many times she can walk from one end of London to the other only to get zapped back to her starting place before she starts getting a headache. It's interesting to use her binoculars and look out into the rest of London, the rest of this massive city that might exist or might just be a very realistic backdrop.

"I didn't meet the pre-reqs for Escaping Pocket Dimensions 101, unfortunately."

[crusaded]

There are other places to check, I want to say. Other signs to look for, things that won't take us beyond the borders of London, but instead deeper within it. Echoing halls of an asylum that we can check again, for the echoing voice that I've sometimes heard in that vicinity. But I say none of this. Because the flippancy that she uses, the quick way she tosses the mission aside— that falls short of the type of dedication I'm looking for. As much as it's hurt them, chasing after approval in ways beneficial to no one, the lack of that effort cuts quick as well.

Lets loose a cold temper that I've been biting back.

"No. You've found other ways to occupy yourself," I say, and in spite of the frustration, my voice remains calm.

Then again, maybe that's not enough.

[teambatgirl]

Her eyebrows go up under her mask, but she'd had a feeling a conversation like this was coming. If anything, there's a grim satisfaction in being right. Bruce Wayne, never managing to subvert her expectations. Already, there's that rush of defensiveness, but she pushes it down.

It's possible he's just being a dutiful father and this isn't just the latest in a long line of Batman disapproving of everything Stephanie Brown touches.

"Oh yes?"

Still, if he wants to have this conversation, she's going to make him say it.

[crusaded]

"You know exactly what I'm referring to."

In a way, it's my own confirmation. The fact that she stiffens, and the air of defense that I can already feel rising around her, that's enough to tell me that she knows. She may want me to spell it out, fuel the indignation that has her on edge already, so early in the conversation. But if she knows that the relationship with Cassandra is what I'm about to bring up, doesn't that say something?

[teambatgirl]

She closes her eyes and tips her head up into the bitter London winter wind. Her hair lifts and twists in the breeze.

It doesn't have to be this way between them. One half-step away from tense with this patina of hurt glimmering on everything. And maybe it's righteous, certainly it's earned. But Stephanie doesn't like feeling this way. And so...she won't. Won't let the Batman get to her.

He's not in charge of her. She's not Robin anymore.

She opens her eyes to the cold and smiles at the night.

"So tell me your thoughts on the matter."

[crusaded]

"I firmly believe that it's a mistake."

There's no need to mince words. There's no need to sugarcoat. I don't tone down the severity of my voice, because this is how I feel. If, in the process of trying to be outwardly kind, they come across the consequences, I will never forgive myself. And if I lie to them, try and explain that I'm fine with the matter, that I'm anything but mired in a shade of discomfort great enough that I can hardly look them in the eye while in uniform, that's its own brand of unforgivable.

I imagine Stephanie won't see it the same way.

"To build a romance within family is only asking for trouble. You are sisters. That is your strength, and the bond that you utilize in our line of work. With our mission. The moment the relationship turns romantic, you render that strength untenable."

A relationship is defined by how it starts. To change the dynamic and the shape, to try and render something strong into a more malleable position, it has consequences. Dick and Barbara didn't start out as family. Neither did Stephanie and Tim, when they first met. In both cases, the chemistry hit first, and a bond was forged on the basis of that.

This? This threatens to change their priorities. And in a way I can't accept.

[teambatgirl]

She doesn't shoot something back something sarcastic and barbed, though she wants to. It's a serious pain in her ass, but she's trying to be an adult here, which honestly kind of sucks, but she's making it happen.

And let's be real, it's not like this was ever going to be a thing that thrilled him. But she tries to accept his Batty wisdom instead of just dismissing it. Maybe he means well.

"How is it rendered untenable?

She doesn't try to explain that things with Cass aren't any different, they're just more. The world didn't stop spinning, it just gained a really fantastic new moon.

[crusaded]

There's one simple answer that comes to mind. And if I have to, I'll be able to point to the others as examples, the times when they've placed the relationship before the mission, judgment altered and blurred. I could point to my own failures— failures that I don't plan to repeat.

"Because now you have an obligation to her that runs separate to the mission. And the more you let your heart turn in this direction, the more inclined you'll find yourself to place her before it, even if not by means of a conscious choice. You'll confuse her, as well."

[teambatgirl]

Stephanie turns to look at him. "She's my best friend. You really think I wasn't emotionally compromised before we started making out?" She waves a hand at him. "Your kids are up to their neck in danger and the mission, but you manage. None of us are exactly doing the Lone Ranger thing here. And, frankly, even the Lone Ranger had his beloved and slightly racist companion Tonto, so..."

Realizing that bit with the Lone Ranger got away from her and she doesn't exactly know where this is going, she shakes head. "So...yeah."

[crusaded]

"And you're going to stand here and tell me that this changes nothing?" I ask, incredulity pushing through in the tone of my voice, arms crossing over my chest. I find it impossible to believe that this doesn't complicate matters. Being able to reconcile one's emotions with one's actions may seem easier in the moment, in a place like this one.

But we're not looking to live as civilians, are we?

"Or that you would compare this to how I engage with the others. With how our relationship has worked, no less."

[teambatgirl]

She tilts her chin up, voice even. "I am standing here telling you that it will not impact my or her ability to be Batgirl, to get home, or to help people, yes."

It's easy to be confident in this, in them, even in front of him. Easy to trust her gut when it feels this right. But Spoiler was never as good on her own as Batgirl was with people at her back.

"How is it different from how you are with other people?" She avoids mentioning Catwoman, but just barely. "I'm serious, is romantic love so profoundly different than all the people you care about?"

"I didn't say anything about our relationship." Her mouth twists, still a smile but with that optimistic idealism replaced with something more cynical. But she doesn't look away from him. She's learned harder lessons than this. "You're not emotionally compromised by me. The past and present Robins, sure. Batgirl. Oracle. I can appreciate I'm a different case."

[crusaded]

"That isn't what I meant."

I doubt that outlining my reasoning down to every last detail would help. If anyone tries to suggest that there is nothing different about romantic love, even to the most frigid or determined of people, then the simple fact is that they haven't experienced enough to know. Still retain a certain idealism that won't work in Gotham. Some places rely on that view of perfection in the distance, of being able to separate work from play and dive full into both. But Gotham only survives by its last thread because people brace themselves for the worst.

Every time I've tried to hope for something easier, where I can let myself relax, it never comes.

Staring at her for a second longer, I press on. "I've made my stance clear. You may think that your priorities aren't compromised, or that if they are, that it's in the same fashion as they would be for any partner or member of the family. But there is a reason why we don't classify them in the same manner, and there are expectations that will color everything you do with this person. Of course, at the end, the choice lies with either of you."

[teambatgirl]

"Then why did you-" Stephanie bites herself off before she can finish and open that massive can of worms that is her and Bruce's relationship. She doesn't want to know- no, no, she does want to know. But she wants a lot of things from him and just needs to learn and appreciate she's not going to get them. Accept those flaws and failings and refusals as part of him, part of her, but not let them turn her bitter or hard.

Clearly, there isn't going to be any changing of hearts and minds tonight. She shakes her head.

"I've heard your thoughts on the matter, and I appreciate them," Steph tells him, her voice even. "You might have better luck talking to her, you should talk about it with her, in any case, even if you're going to rain on her parade. You're her dad. What you think really matters to her."

[crusaded]

"I intend on speaking with her."

With an exhale, I meet her gaze. The whys, the reasons, they're important, but I'm not sure that I can make Stephanie understand, nor am I sure that the relentless pursuit of it would be good for her. Or for me, I suppose. And when she drops the topic, I know that she understands that fact as well as I do, and it reminds me of the reasons why I have sought her out, before Cassandra. She's able to carry the heavier emotional burdens, but more than that, she knows why they're there. Which ones to fight.

Stephanie may still be impetuous, but she is learned and an adult in her own right, more wholly than I would say that Cassandra is.

"But I thought you stood a better chance of understanding what I meant," I add, walking closer to the ledge, Grapnel gun in my hand. "I'll talk to you later."

[teambatgirl]

"Excellent." Steph manages a smile at him at that, ready to encourage every scrap of fatherly attention sent Damian and Cass's way, and she can convince herself this will be a nice fatherly talk and not a Batman one. No dad likes their kid's first girlfriend, especially when she's already had a kid out of wedlock. Sure, yeah, that's manageable.

"I understand, I just disagree." For a moment, both at the ledge, they're standing side by side. Stephanie smiles at him and pulls the goggles down over her eyes. "Adios, B."

Then she shoots her line off and is gone.