Fic: After the Dust Settles: 2/8; Tim/Jaime; R
Title: After the Dust Settles 2/8
Author: Aravis Tarkheena
Pairing: Jaime Reyes (Blue Beetle III)/Tim Drake (Robin III)
Rating: R
Warnings: overall- sex, violence, angst, the gay, Paco (he needs a warning)
Disclaimer: Not mine, everyone's legal
Word Count: 2,800
Summary: Batman's gone. :( Timmy's all alone. :(( Jaime thinks Timmy needs a friend. :D
Index Post
Part One
Part Two
Tim caught sight of Blue Beetle flittering around his city several times during his patrol. Eventually Officer Harper called him on his cell to tell him that a very confused looking cape who kept talking to himself was on top of the Pfizer building. Tim sighed into the phone and promised to take care of it.
He left his last batch of gang bangers tied up in the streets and made his way towards the center of Gotham City.
The buildings got taller, the air got thicker and the number of people out and about lessened considerably. This was a nice part of town. The business district. The police patrolled here, the security cameras all worked and everything was well lit and clean. Not the ideal place for a mugging or a robbery. Robin rarely patrolled this area unless he had information that directly connected it into a bust.
Blue Beetle was sitting on the far edge of the building talking to himself when Tim finally made it to the top. The air was thinner and colder 35 stories above street level and Tim suppressed a shiver.
“What do you mean he’s getting closer? You said before you couldn’t get a bead on him because of all the buildings around,” Jamie said, probably to his scarab. Tim still hadn’t gotten used to these one sided conversations and often wondered why Jaime didn’t have them mentally. He would look considerably less confused and a touch less insane.
“Signals tend to bounce off the sides of the buildings and create an echo effect in Gotham,” Tim explained as he came up behind Jaime.
“¡Ay!” Blue Beetle started and whirled around.
Tim suppressed the urge to grimace.
“My police contact thinks you’re a crazy man. Why didn’t you just call?” Tim asked, settling down the roof next to Jaime. He let his legs dangle off the edge and looked down at the street below.
“I, uh, I was worried if I called you would ask why I wanted to talk. Then I was worried that if I told you why, you would say ‘no’,” Jaime admitted guiltily. “Wonder Girl agreed and suggested I just corner you.”
A sinking feeling starting in the pit of Tim’s gut and he mentally prepared himself for whatever crazy favor Jaime was going to ask of him.
“Alright, spill. What’s up?” he asked as he put his arms out behind him and leaned back.
“It’s Brenda, she’s been having a tough time,” Jaime explained.
“Is it something I can help with?” Tim asked, curiously.
“The thing is, Wonder Girl told me that you would know how I could help her. Well, me and Paco,” Jaime clarified.
“Well, what’s wrong? Is she in any kind of trouble?” Tim asked, hoping Jaime would get to the point already.
“No, no trouble, it’s just that… Well, lately she’s been hard to get along with. She doesn’t want to hang as much and she starts stupid fights with Paco and I for no reason. It’s like she’s mad all the time.”
Tim thought about that for a moment before asking, “What do you think caused this shift in her behavior?”
“Wonder Girl asked the same question. Then I told her about how Brenda’s dad just died and she said I was an idiot for not realizing that was what was bothering her,” Jaime said with a touch of bitterness.
Tim felt a shot of panic hit him in the chest.
He wanted to jump off the roof. To run and hide or hit bad guys. He didn’t want to talk about dead fathers.
Tim took a deep breath and fought down the panic.
“Wonder Girl has a point. How did you miss that, Blue?” Tim asked and his voice sounded a little breathless to his ears.
He would not hyperventilate in front of Blue Beetle.
“It’s like I told Wonder Girl. He used to… He hit her, you know? She didn’t even like the guy. Hated him in fact. Shouldn’t that make it easier?” Jaime asked, hesitantly.
Tim swallowed hard and considered how to explain this to Jaime.
“It doesn’t, actually, make it easier. The problem with parents is that it’s impossible to not be emotionally invested in them, no matter how horrible they are or how much you don’t want to be,” Tim said and hoped Jaime understood.
Jaime just nodded his head and watched Tim intently.
“If a person loves their parents and they die, it’s a bit easier because, at least, you can take solace in the happy memories. However, if a person didn’t get a long with one of their parents and that parent dies, then all that solace that they could normally take from the happy memories is replaced by guilt and regret. That makes things even worse. Grief is a terrible thing. It’s a quagmire that sucks people in and it takes years, Jaime, years to see the way out of it all,” Tim didn’t want to make eye contact with Jaime, he stubbornly stared out into the distance while Jaime watched him.
“So, what do I do? How do I make her feel better?” he asked, quietly.
Tim sighed. “You can’t, not really Jaime. There’s no one thing that will make her better. She needs a lot of things. Things that one person, or even two, can really give her,” he tried to explain.
“What do you mean?” Jaime asked, and Tim could hear the frustration in his voice.
“Well, what she needs most is someone who is so far removed from what she’s dealing with that they can pull her out of it all. I think you and Paco do a great job doing that for her. However, I think, she’s frustrated. I think she doesn’t think you understand her,” Tim swallowed hard and tried to keep the tightness out of his voice.
“I understand-“ Jaime started in defensively, but Tim cut him off.
“No, Jaime, you don’t. You can’t. It really isn’t something you can imagine,” Tim said quietly and tried hard not to think.
Tim’s throat was tight and his eyes were pricking under his mask. It had been a long time since he had spoken to anyone about things like this. Tim avoided the topic of death and grieving like the plague. He was surprised by the tears he felt forming in his eyes and by the wave of sadness that hit him when he tried to explain to Jaime what his friend was going through.
Tim knew Jaime had come to him hoping for a quick fix, for that one word or gesture that would make his friend the person she was before. It hurt to know that there was nothing Jaime could do no matter how hard he tried. He wished Jaime didn’t have to go through what he knew Cassie and Dick were.
It all made him hurt for Jaime, as a person, far more than he would have expected.
“So there’s nothing I can do but keep doing what I’m doing and wait it out?” Jaime asked, defeated.
Tim thought about that for a second. “No, Jaime. I think that you have enough emotional intelligence that you can empathize and support her in the ways she needs. All you need to do now is convince her to open up to you about it.”
“What I don’t get is why she hasn’t already. I mean, it’s been more than a year. If it’s been bugging her this long, why hasn’t she said something?” Jaime grumbled.
Tim swallowed hard and tried not to think about all the things he could never bring himself to tell Bruce, Dick and Cassie.
“Who knows?” Tim said tightly. “Some people just have a hard time opening up. Others like to compartmentalize. Some are afraid to be judged.”
Jaime nodded. “So all I need to do is listen?”
“Listening is the easy part. Getting her to talk will be the hard part. She’ll fight you, push you away, shout and scream and rage but when you’re still standing when the dust settles, she’ll realize that you’re in it for the long haul. Then she’ll open up.” Tim thought about Dick in New York, Babs in Metropolis, and Bruce who was god-knows-where. Tim wasn’t sure when the dust would settle for him but he was sure, with a certainty that scared him, that Dick, Babs and Bruce wouldn’t be there when it did.
They never were, anymore.
“And remember, it will be a very long time. Years at least, maybe a decade before she starts seriously getting over things. You’ll only really be able to make it if you love her,” Tim added.
“I do,” Jaime said with a quiet certainty.
A sensation that felt a lot like jealousy burnt through Tim’s chest.
“Then I wish you the best of luck, you and Paco both,” Tim stood and looked back down at Jaime. “But neither of you strike me as the quitting type so I’m not sure it’s luck you’ll need so much as some serious body armor.”
Jaime grinned up at him. “I’ll see what the scarab can do for us,” he assured Tim.
Tim tossed him what he hoped was a genuine looking smile before pulling out his jumpline and leaping from the roof.
He let himself free fall for a good fifteen seconds longer than he should have. When he pressed the button to make the rope catch, the jolt jarred his arm hard.
It hurt.
Tim tried hard to focus on the pain in his arm and not the stinging in his eyes.
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
Jaime Reyes was many things, but obtuse was not one of them. Well, not most of the time, anyway.
Robin had been speaking from experience. Excruciating experience.
He had wondered why Robin left the team. Regretted it, too.
Robin had never seemed to mind giving him extra practice or suggesting drills that would better acquaint Jaime with his powers. Whenever Jaime screwed up, Robin would explain to Jaime how to do better and then tell Jaime some silly story about something outrageous Ted Kord had done when he was Blue Beetle. At first he thought Robin was making the stories up. Then Oracle confirmed that there had been some epic battles with the Condiment King and Jaime felt much better. Sometimes Jaime thought that Robin was the only one who didn’t look at him like he was a freak sometimes.
He liked the guy despite the quiet spooky act. He was too serious, too focused and didn’t make nearly as many mistakes as the rest of the team.
This conversation had made Robin seem considerably more human than he had yesterday.
Jaime flew back to El Paso with new determination. He didn’t feel nearly as helpless about the Brenda situation as he had before. He had identified the problem and found a solution.
Well, maybe not a solution, but a course of action. He just needed to call Paco and let him in on the Brenda-plan.
It took Jaime two hours to get back home and it was almost one am by the time he walked into his front door. His mother was there to give him a dirty looks. He explained to her that he had a meeting with Robin had run a little longer than Jaime had expected.
He ran upstairs to his room amid promises never to be this late again. His mother gave him a ‘Yeah, sure. Pull the other one’ look, but grabbed her mug of tea and followed him back upstairs and headed into her bedroom.
Jaime grabbed his cell and dialed Paco’s number as he gathered up his towel, clean boxers and pajamas.
“’Lo,” Paco answered distractedly.
“I talked to Robin tonight. He said we need to get Brenda to talk to us about what’s bothering her,” he explained as he dug through his underwear drawer.
“How do we get her to talk? We’ve been asking her for weeks and she just yells,” Paco said disgustedly. “I thought you were talking to Wonder Butt about this, not Robin. Is Robin even human? I think he might be a robot, dude. If Star Trek has taught us anything, it's that you shouldn’t ask robots to explain human interaction”
“Wonder Girl said to talk to Robin and no, he’s not a robot. Anyway, he said we just have to wait it out. You know, until she gets sick of yelling at us,” Jaime explained.
“Jaime, hermano, can you seriously ever see Brenda getting sick of yelling at us?” Paco asked. “I think it’s a little like breathing to her.”
“Oh man, good point,” Jaime conceded and they were both silent for a beat while Jaime made his way across the hall to the bathroom.
“So we just have to wear her down, is all?” Paco asked.
“That’s what Robin says.”
“How the hell does he know,” Paco asked, clearly annoyed.
Jaime sighed, “I think he’s in the same boat as Brenda, at least that’s what Wonder Girl kinda implied.”
“Seriously?” Paco asked.
“Seriously. Listening to him talk about Brenda and what we should do was a little painful.” Jaime was quiet for a minute before adding, “I think he’s lonely.”
“Doesn’t he have friends?” Paco asked. “Robot friends?”
“I think they’re as frustrated as we are,” Jaime said, choosing to ignore the robot comment.
“Bummer,” Paco said.
“Yeah…” Jaime replied and felt another wave of sweeping guilt wash through him.
“Maybe you should try to be friends with him…” Paco tentatively.
Jaime sighed, “I was thinking the same thing. We already have Brenda to deal with. Why am I setting myself up for more drama?”
“The Catholic Church. It screwed us up, dude,” Paco said with certainty and hung up.
Jaime smiled, flipped his phone shut and stared at it for a bit. He flicked on the shower taps before shucking his jeans and pulling off his shirt. He gave the water another minute or so to heat before he stepped into the tub.
Rumor had it that Batman was nowhere to be found these days. That was one of the reasons Robin left the Titans to begin with. He needed to spend more time working on his cases in Gotham.
Nightwing was in New York these days taking care of Two Face. Jaime didn’t know where Batgirl was or even if Robin was terribly close to her. Jaime had only met her once and couldn’t really see anyone being close to her, but the Bats were all a little weird and you never knew, really.
Wonder Girl was busy these with the Titans and worrying over Supergirl.
Superboy and Kid Flash were dead.
Jaime caught himself seriously wondering who it was that Robin opened up to. Who really was going to be there for him when the dust settled?
He pulled a starkly depressing blank.
He reached for the shampoo and lathered up.
Jaime, admittedly, didn’t know much about Robin’s personal life. No one ever talked about it, or really even him. Wonder Girl would occasionally mention some mischief they had gotten up to when they were younger, but never more than that.
Jaime didn’t even know Robin’s real name or what his face looked like without a mask.
Who knew, maybe the dude had hundreds of friends who were all at his back and he wouldn’t need Jaime.
Unfortunately, Jaime couldn’t bring himself to believe that and it wasn’t just the Catholic Guilt talking.
The guy was just way too private. Not even careful-private like Wonder Girl was. Just private-private.
As he rinsed the suds from his hair, Jaime was completely certain that it wasn’t just Brenda that needed a little wearing down.
Part Three
Author: Aravis Tarkheena
Pairing: Jaime Reyes (Blue Beetle III)/Tim Drake (Robin III)
Rating: R
Warnings: overall- sex, violence, angst, the gay, Paco (he needs a warning)
Disclaimer: Not mine, everyone's legal
Word Count: 2,800
Summary: Batman's gone. :( Timmy's all alone. :(( Jaime thinks Timmy needs a friend. :D
Index Post
Part One
Part Two
Tim caught sight of Blue Beetle flittering around his city several times during his patrol. Eventually Officer Harper called him on his cell to tell him that a very confused looking cape who kept talking to himself was on top of the Pfizer building. Tim sighed into the phone and promised to take care of it.
He left his last batch of gang bangers tied up in the streets and made his way towards the center of Gotham City.
The buildings got taller, the air got thicker and the number of people out and about lessened considerably. This was a nice part of town. The business district. The police patrolled here, the security cameras all worked and everything was well lit and clean. Not the ideal place for a mugging or a robbery. Robin rarely patrolled this area unless he had information that directly connected it into a bust.
Blue Beetle was sitting on the far edge of the building talking to himself when Tim finally made it to the top. The air was thinner and colder 35 stories above street level and Tim suppressed a shiver.
“What do you mean he’s getting closer? You said before you couldn’t get a bead on him because of all the buildings around,” Jamie said, probably to his scarab. Tim still hadn’t gotten used to these one sided conversations and often wondered why Jaime didn’t have them mentally. He would look considerably less confused and a touch less insane.
“Signals tend to bounce off the sides of the buildings and create an echo effect in Gotham,” Tim explained as he came up behind Jaime.
“¡Ay!” Blue Beetle started and whirled around.
Tim suppressed the urge to grimace.
“My police contact thinks you’re a crazy man. Why didn’t you just call?” Tim asked, settling down the roof next to Jaime. He let his legs dangle off the edge and looked down at the street below.
“I, uh, I was worried if I called you would ask why I wanted to talk. Then I was worried that if I told you why, you would say ‘no’,” Jaime admitted guiltily. “Wonder Girl agreed and suggested I just corner you.”
A sinking feeling starting in the pit of Tim’s gut and he mentally prepared himself for whatever crazy favor Jaime was going to ask of him.
“Alright, spill. What’s up?” he asked as he put his arms out behind him and leaned back.
“It’s Brenda, she’s been having a tough time,” Jaime explained.
“Is it something I can help with?” Tim asked, curiously.
“The thing is, Wonder Girl told me that you would know how I could help her. Well, me and Paco,” Jaime clarified.
“Well, what’s wrong? Is she in any kind of trouble?” Tim asked, hoping Jaime would get to the point already.
“No, no trouble, it’s just that… Well, lately she’s been hard to get along with. She doesn’t want to hang as much and she starts stupid fights with Paco and I for no reason. It’s like she’s mad all the time.”
Tim thought about that for a moment before asking, “What do you think caused this shift in her behavior?”
“Wonder Girl asked the same question. Then I told her about how Brenda’s dad just died and she said I was an idiot for not realizing that was what was bothering her,” Jaime said with a touch of bitterness.
Tim felt a shot of panic hit him in the chest.
He wanted to jump off the roof. To run and hide or hit bad guys. He didn’t want to talk about dead fathers.
Tim took a deep breath and fought down the panic.
“Wonder Girl has a point. How did you miss that, Blue?” Tim asked and his voice sounded a little breathless to his ears.
He would not hyperventilate in front of Blue Beetle.
“It’s like I told Wonder Girl. He used to… He hit her, you know? She didn’t even like the guy. Hated him in fact. Shouldn’t that make it easier?” Jaime asked, hesitantly.
Tim swallowed hard and considered how to explain this to Jaime.
“It doesn’t, actually, make it easier. The problem with parents is that it’s impossible to not be emotionally invested in them, no matter how horrible they are or how much you don’t want to be,” Tim said and hoped Jaime understood.
Jaime just nodded his head and watched Tim intently.
“If a person loves their parents and they die, it’s a bit easier because, at least, you can take solace in the happy memories. However, if a person didn’t get a long with one of their parents and that parent dies, then all that solace that they could normally take from the happy memories is replaced by guilt and regret. That makes things even worse. Grief is a terrible thing. It’s a quagmire that sucks people in and it takes years, Jaime, years to see the way out of it all,” Tim didn’t want to make eye contact with Jaime, he stubbornly stared out into the distance while Jaime watched him.
“So, what do I do? How do I make her feel better?” he asked, quietly.
Tim sighed. “You can’t, not really Jaime. There’s no one thing that will make her better. She needs a lot of things. Things that one person, or even two, can really give her,” he tried to explain.
“What do you mean?” Jaime asked, and Tim could hear the frustration in his voice.
“Well, what she needs most is someone who is so far removed from what she’s dealing with that they can pull her out of it all. I think you and Paco do a great job doing that for her. However, I think, she’s frustrated. I think she doesn’t think you understand her,” Tim swallowed hard and tried to keep the tightness out of his voice.
“I understand-“ Jaime started in defensively, but Tim cut him off.
“No, Jaime, you don’t. You can’t. It really isn’t something you can imagine,” Tim said quietly and tried hard not to think.
Tim’s throat was tight and his eyes were pricking under his mask. It had been a long time since he had spoken to anyone about things like this. Tim avoided the topic of death and grieving like the plague. He was surprised by the tears he felt forming in his eyes and by the wave of sadness that hit him when he tried to explain to Jaime what his friend was going through.
Tim knew Jaime had come to him hoping for a quick fix, for that one word or gesture that would make his friend the person she was before. It hurt to know that there was nothing Jaime could do no matter how hard he tried. He wished Jaime didn’t have to go through what he knew Cassie and Dick were.
It all made him hurt for Jaime, as a person, far more than he would have expected.
“So there’s nothing I can do but keep doing what I’m doing and wait it out?” Jaime asked, defeated.
Tim thought about that for a second. “No, Jaime. I think that you have enough emotional intelligence that you can empathize and support her in the ways she needs. All you need to do now is convince her to open up to you about it.”
“What I don’t get is why she hasn’t already. I mean, it’s been more than a year. If it’s been bugging her this long, why hasn’t she said something?” Jaime grumbled.
Tim swallowed hard and tried not to think about all the things he could never bring himself to tell Bruce, Dick and Cassie.
“Who knows?” Tim said tightly. “Some people just have a hard time opening up. Others like to compartmentalize. Some are afraid to be judged.”
Jaime nodded. “So all I need to do is listen?”
“Listening is the easy part. Getting her to talk will be the hard part. She’ll fight you, push you away, shout and scream and rage but when you’re still standing when the dust settles, she’ll realize that you’re in it for the long haul. Then she’ll open up.” Tim thought about Dick in New York, Babs in Metropolis, and Bruce who was god-knows-where. Tim wasn’t sure when the dust would settle for him but he was sure, with a certainty that scared him, that Dick, Babs and Bruce wouldn’t be there when it did.
They never were, anymore.
“And remember, it will be a very long time. Years at least, maybe a decade before she starts seriously getting over things. You’ll only really be able to make it if you love her,” Tim added.
“I do,” Jaime said with a quiet certainty.
A sensation that felt a lot like jealousy burnt through Tim’s chest.
“Then I wish you the best of luck, you and Paco both,” Tim stood and looked back down at Jaime. “But neither of you strike me as the quitting type so I’m not sure it’s luck you’ll need so much as some serious body armor.”
Jaime grinned up at him. “I’ll see what the scarab can do for us,” he assured Tim.
Tim tossed him what he hoped was a genuine looking smile before pulling out his jumpline and leaping from the roof.
He let himself free fall for a good fifteen seconds longer than he should have. When he pressed the button to make the rope catch, the jolt jarred his arm hard.
It hurt.
Tim tried hard to focus on the pain in his arm and not the stinging in his eyes.
^*^*^*^*^*^*^*^*
Jaime Reyes was many things, but obtuse was not one of them. Well, not most of the time, anyway.
Robin had been speaking from experience. Excruciating experience.
He had wondered why Robin left the team. Regretted it, too.
Robin had never seemed to mind giving him extra practice or suggesting drills that would better acquaint Jaime with his powers. Whenever Jaime screwed up, Robin would explain to Jaime how to do better and then tell Jaime some silly story about something outrageous Ted Kord had done when he was Blue Beetle. At first he thought Robin was making the stories up. Then Oracle confirmed that there had been some epic battles with the Condiment King and Jaime felt much better. Sometimes Jaime thought that Robin was the only one who didn’t look at him like he was a freak sometimes.
He liked the guy despite the quiet spooky act. He was too serious, too focused and didn’t make nearly as many mistakes as the rest of the team.
This conversation had made Robin seem considerably more human than he had yesterday.
Jaime flew back to El Paso with new determination. He didn’t feel nearly as helpless about the Brenda situation as he had before. He had identified the problem and found a solution.
Well, maybe not a solution, but a course of action. He just needed to call Paco and let him in on the Brenda-plan.
It took Jaime two hours to get back home and it was almost one am by the time he walked into his front door. His mother was there to give him a dirty looks. He explained to her that he had a meeting with Robin had run a little longer than Jaime had expected.
He ran upstairs to his room amid promises never to be this late again. His mother gave him a ‘Yeah, sure. Pull the other one’ look, but grabbed her mug of tea and followed him back upstairs and headed into her bedroom.
Jaime grabbed his cell and dialed Paco’s number as he gathered up his towel, clean boxers and pajamas.
“’Lo,” Paco answered distractedly.
“I talked to Robin tonight. He said we need to get Brenda to talk to us about what’s bothering her,” he explained as he dug through his underwear drawer.
“How do we get her to talk? We’ve been asking her for weeks and she just yells,” Paco said disgustedly. “I thought you were talking to Wonder Butt about this, not Robin. Is Robin even human? I think he might be a robot, dude. If Star Trek has taught us anything, it's that you shouldn’t ask robots to explain human interaction”
“Wonder Girl said to talk to Robin and no, he’s not a robot. Anyway, he said we just have to wait it out. You know, until she gets sick of yelling at us,” Jaime explained.
“Jaime, hermano, can you seriously ever see Brenda getting sick of yelling at us?” Paco asked. “I think it’s a little like breathing to her.”
“Oh man, good point,” Jaime conceded and they were both silent for a beat while Jaime made his way across the hall to the bathroom.
“So we just have to wear her down, is all?” Paco asked.
“That’s what Robin says.”
“How the hell does he know,” Paco asked, clearly annoyed.
Jaime sighed, “I think he’s in the same boat as Brenda, at least that’s what Wonder Girl kinda implied.”
“Seriously?” Paco asked.
“Seriously. Listening to him talk about Brenda and what we should do was a little painful.” Jaime was quiet for a minute before adding, “I think he’s lonely.”
“Doesn’t he have friends?” Paco asked. “Robot friends?”
“I think they’re as frustrated as we are,” Jaime said, choosing to ignore the robot comment.
“Bummer,” Paco said.
“Yeah…” Jaime replied and felt another wave of sweeping guilt wash through him.
“Maybe you should try to be friends with him…” Paco tentatively.
Jaime sighed, “I was thinking the same thing. We already have Brenda to deal with. Why am I setting myself up for more drama?”
“The Catholic Church. It screwed us up, dude,” Paco said with certainty and hung up.
Jaime smiled, flipped his phone shut and stared at it for a bit. He flicked on the shower taps before shucking his jeans and pulling off his shirt. He gave the water another minute or so to heat before he stepped into the tub.
Rumor had it that Batman was nowhere to be found these days. That was one of the reasons Robin left the Titans to begin with. He needed to spend more time working on his cases in Gotham.
Nightwing was in New York these days taking care of Two Face. Jaime didn’t know where Batgirl was or even if Robin was terribly close to her. Jaime had only met her once and couldn’t really see anyone being close to her, but the Bats were all a little weird and you never knew, really.
Wonder Girl was busy these with the Titans and worrying over Supergirl.
Superboy and Kid Flash were dead.
Jaime caught himself seriously wondering who it was that Robin opened up to. Who really was going to be there for him when the dust settled?
He pulled a starkly depressing blank.
He reached for the shampoo and lathered up.
Jaime, admittedly, didn’t know much about Robin’s personal life. No one ever talked about it, or really even him. Wonder Girl would occasionally mention some mischief they had gotten up to when they were younger, but never more than that.
Jaime didn’t even know Robin’s real name or what his face looked like without a mask.
Who knew, maybe the dude had hundreds of friends who were all at his back and he wouldn’t need Jaime.
Unfortunately, Jaime couldn’t bring himself to believe that and it wasn’t just the Catholic Guilt talking.
The guy was just way too private. Not even careful-private like Wonder Girl was. Just private-private.
As he rinsed the suds from his hair, Jaime was completely certain that it wasn’t just Brenda that needed a little wearing down.
Part Three