****************
Chapter 10 - What Barbara Has To Say About All This

�Well?� Barbara asked, twisting in bed as Nightwing slipped in beside her, shedding his costume. �Was it Poison Ivy? Has our fearless leader been seduced by the Green Side?�

�Babs,� Dick sighed, kissing her neck. �I�m exhausted. He�s not in any real danger, so�I�ll tell you about it tomorrow.�

Barbara rolled herself over to drape one slim white arm across his chest. �Why was he turning off the comm signal, Dick?�

Dick tugged his arm free from where it had been trapped between their bodies and slipped his hand beneath her neck, noting with tired pleasure her warm nudity beneath the heavy blankets. �I�� he hesitated, still processing everything himself. �I don�t want to talk about it right now. You�ll overreact and start World War Three, Bruce�ll get all angry and quiet and I�ll have to go back to Bludhaven tomorrow after exactly ten minutes of sleep.�

Barbara raised her head to meet his eyes. �You�ve definitely peaked my interest,� she said, trailing her fingers through the dusting of hair across Dick�s chest. �Tell me now.�

�Or what?� Dick asked playfully, hoping to distract her. He pushed himself up on one elbow, showering small kisses down the length of Barbara�s neck.

Barbara, with the single-mindedness of a Batgirl rather than the patience of a wise Oracle, pushed Dick away. �I�m serious. Tell me.�

Dick sighed, flopping over. �You won�t like it.�

�I rarely approve of anything he does.�

Dick didn�t smile at her comment. He knew it wasn�t meant to be ironic. Beneath the layers of respect and sympathy Barbara felt for Bruce, Dick knew she hated him a little. Barbara didn�t blame Batman for the Joker�s attack on her or the subsequent paralysis, but Dick knew she had never really forgiven him for laughing with the insane clown afterwards. Dick suspected his adopted father had made a choice between laughter and personal madness, but he�d never been able to convince Barbara of that. So maybe she hated Batman, and Dick knew she had no love for Selina Kyle. Telling her was going to difficult, to say the least.

�I saw him with Catwoman,� he blurted out. �They�re sleeping together, I think.�

Smooth, he thought, waiting in the darkness of Barbara�s bedroom for her response. She breathed in harshly and he almost flinched in anticipation of her inevitable reaction. He usually loved the rawness of her demonstrative responses. His childhood had been spent in an emotional wasteland, and so he prized Barbara�s ability to express what she was feeling without self-censure. Even when it forced him to dodge flying projectiles or expand his vocabulary to include swear words unfamiliar to even the most hardened Blackgate inmate.

�You�re sure?� Barbara asked softly, her voice laced with quiet anger.

�I take it you don�t approve?�

Barbara glared at him and reached over to switch on a bedside lamp. The small, comfortable bedroom was suddenly awash in harsh white light. �Of course not. Do you?� she asked, keen blue eyes fixed on his face. Dick sighed.

�He�s lonely, Babs. And whatever Selina Kyle makes him feel�well, lonely isn�t it. She�s always been a great distraction for him, and now that she�s one of the good guys��

�Is she?� Barbara asked pointedly. �She seems to be the same old Catwoman to me: lying to the police, stealing, behaving as if her actions don�t have consequences. Dick, it wasn�t so long ago we thought she�d tried to kill my father,� she said, her eyes shadowed with the pain and uncertainty of those terrible days after Jim Gordon was shot. �And this is the woman you�re hoping Bruce will end up with? He�d be better off with Poison Ivy, because at least we understand her agenda.�

Dick sat up, resting his bare back against the cool wood grain of the headboard. �I don�t think they�ll end up together, but��

�Jesus! I hope you�re not going to toss of one of those �guys have certain needs� clichés and chalk this situation up to Bruce being horny,� Barbara warned.

Dick, who was very wise and experienced in the art of calming Barbara Jane Gordon, took her hand quietly and brushed his thumb over her knuckles. �When is the last time he even had a date, Barb? He�s had abysmal luck with woman and despite whatever vows of celibacy and isolation he thinks are necessary, I think, deep down, he wants what we all want.�

Barbara eyed him skeptically, guessing at what Dick was trying to say. �And what�s that, Boy Wonder?�

�Oh, y�know,� he grinned. �Love, liberty and justice for all. Hey, maybe she makes him happy. Happy as he can be, anyway.�

�Dick,� Barbara interrupted, �she�s a liar, a thief and maybe a murderer. I don�t trust her. I don�t see how you, let alone Bruce, can. I want to believe she�s capable of change,� Barbara paused, swallowing hard. �But Dick, this is Gotham. Nothing changes for the better in this city. Whatever traits we have inside, good or bad, are turned up to �eleven� here. Selina Kyle chose her setting long ago.�

Dick dropped her hand and slid out of the bed, crossing Barbara�s small bedroom to stand before the window. Barbara struggled to sit up fighting, as she had for the last six years, the dead weight of her lower body.

Dick was breathing heavily and he tried to compose himself. When he finally spoke, his voice was a dull, dead whisper, an echo of a tone Bruce had used in a hospital room years ago as Dick lay slowly recovering from a severe beating administered Two-Face.

�So what�s the point?� he asked, folding his arms defiantly. �Why do I have to watch the people I love suffer and struggle and die? Why do we all have to risk losing ourselves in this battle if the cause is already lost?�

Barbara couldn�t, wouldn�t, meet his eyes. She sighed deeply, raising her head. �I read something by C.S. Lewis years ago. He was talking about the effect of prayer and said he didn�t pray because it changes God, he prays because it changes him.�

�I thought you were a firm agnostic,� Dick put in, slightly mollified.

�The point is, we do what we do for us. It never really mattered to Tim or Cassie or you or I, or even�or even Jason, I suppose, what kind of an effect we have on the people we help or the people we fight against. What matters most is how we feel about ourselves.�

�That�s a pretty selfish way of looking at it,� Dick said quietly. Barbara shook her head.

�It�s pretty much our only concession to reality in this life, Dick. Lose that sense of obligation to yourself, and you become more like��

�Like him.�

Barbara nodded slowly. �He doesn�t operate like the rest of us, which is why I find this thing with Catwoman so disturbing. Best-case scenario, he�s �acting like a guy� and blowing off some not-so-metaphorical steam.�

�Worst-case scenario?�

�He�s using her,� Barbara said flatly. �Or she�s using him. They�re both masters of manipulation, and I wouldn�t put it past Bruce to use a physical relationship with her in order to get what he wants.�

�And if he�s the one being manipulated?�

Barbara swallowed. �Then it�s up to us to protect him.�