August 4, 2010 - Happy Harbor, RI
Happy Harbor Drive-In
02:06:20
“I can’t believe she let you borrow the car…” Connor said in wonder as he traced his fingers along the Bat-Mobile’s center console and its astounding array of buttons, switches, toggles and other unidentifiable controls. His tactile perusal was interrupted by Robin slapping his hand away and fixing him a stern look from the driver’s seat.
“Don’t!” She said sharply.
Putting his hands up in surrender, he leaned back into the cocoon-like bucket seat. It gripped him firmly but comfortably on his back, legs and sides, and it felt like he was wearing a whole body bicycle helmet.
Probably rated for very nasty crashes. Like if an armored truck rolls over you a couple of times on the highway. Exactly the kind of thing Batman would think of.
Despite her rebuke, he was grinning like a fool at Robin as they drove through the darkened streets of Happy Harbor in Batwoman’s signature ride. He didn’t recognize this particular version, but it had a lot of familiar features; the rear mounted jet engine, the scalloped batwing tail fins, a long, low and sleek body. It was wedge shaped, with a windshield more like a fighter jet cockpit than a car, and overall it looked like the bastard offspring of a Formula 1 race car and a tank.
It was, Connor had decided, indescribably cool and he would treasure this moment for the rest of his life.
Robin relaxed her stern headmaster routine and caught some of his infectious enthusiasm for their little outing, and gave it a little gas, making its obscenely powerful engine roar as they accelerated. Connor felt himself pushed back into the incredibly cushiony seat, and couldn’t suppress a giggle. Robin soon found herself laughing alongside him.’
“So, where are we going?” He finally asked as their laughter subsided.
“Its a surprise. You’ll see.” She answered mysteriously, smiling as she bit back her secret.
Connor shrugged, recalling her excitement after peeling him away from Wonder Woman. Robin had been all gung ho about ‘collecting her cookie’ but she wouldn’t tell him where they were going. His questions had deserted him when she dragged him into the base level to reveal her first surprise; the Bat-Mobile, obviously.
He had geeked out over it for about five minutes before she practically shoved him into the passenger seat, and they took off into the night.
It wasn’t a long drive as they soon arrived in the darkened and near deserted streets of Happy Harbor. It was still the height of the resort town’s summer season, but on a Tuesday night, the streets were dead. Regardless, Robin had flipped a few switches and the engine noise dropped several octaves and all exterior lights shut off. The Bat-Mobile crept down the quiet streets of Happy Harbor like a steel jungle cat, which was somehow even more impressive considering the size, weight and barely restrained horsepower of the thing.
Connor was in love. And desperately wanted a Super-Mobile of his own, but he was too proud to start needling Robin for one after he had denigrated the battle bikes earlier in the night. Plus, he figured that was probably a Batwoman level decision.
She’d probably tell me that jumping an eight of a mile at a time everywhere builds character, he thought with a shudder.
Wary of putting his hands anywhere since it seemed like every available surface of the Bat-Mobile’s interior, he thrust them into his riding jacket’s pockets. He hadn’t found the time to change out of his biker disguise when they got back. As he did so, his hand curled around something and he instinctively pulled it out, then thrust it back in after he saw what it was, snapping his head back up to stare at the road.
Shit, the picture. Maybe she didn’t notice?
A sidelong glance at Robin caught her staring at him out of the corner of her eye, while maintaining her view of the road. She was really a very conscientious driver, keeping her hands permanently at 10 and 2. But the slight frown she wore let him know that the Great Detective had, in fact, noticed. He rolled his eyes and huffed in frustration, weighing exactly how to bring this delicate question up.
This was the first time they’d really spent together, one on one, since their soul baring during the camp out. After that night, he had reflected a lot on what he felt safe saying to his friends and how he could reveal some of his knowledge to them. He had been doing a lot of research in the Guild’s files in his abundant free time, filling in the gaps of what he thought he knew versus this new continuity. Overall, it seemed both deep and well established while also being ‘early’ in the timeline, which he chalked up to some kind of Crisis or retcon. Superwoman had only been active for a little over a decade, and many big events hadn’t, or hadn’t yet, happened.
But Batwoman’s ‘protocol’ irked him. He knew her identity, he was pretty sure Kaldura and Walli had already known, but he couldn’t say so? She wore her paper thin disguise around them, and it felt ridiculous to call her ‘Rob’ the few times she was in public with the team in their civilian identities. The fact that he did know and had to pretend he didn’t was both confusing and aggravating, and he was sure he was going to let it slip eventually. It was hard enough just remembering to call everyone by their codenames in costume, and it still felt awkward sometimes.
But now I have a perfectly valid excuse to ‘break protocol’ and get closer with… Rikki.
That thought brought a flash of heat to his face, which only grew warmer when he remembered what he ‘owed’ her. Banishing those thoughts, he palmed the picture but kept it in his hand while he formulated his opening.
“So… that was a pretty fancy school we busted up.” He said casually.
Robin glanced over at him, her expression unreadable, before she turned back to the road.
“Gotham Academy is the city’s most prestigious prep school. So yes, very fancy.” She stated matter of factly, but gave him nothing else.
Sweat started beading his brow as he tried to fumble his way through the conversation, but she was giving him nothing.
“Yeah, guess all the nepo babies in their stately manors need somewhere to go to learn how to properly look down their noses at the little people.”
He winced even as he said the words, realizing what he had just said. It had come out naturally; he had grown up in a home with a mom who subscribed to the Catholic Worker. Robin might have gripped the wheel a little tighter or gritted her teeth, but he wasn’t sure.
Me and my big mouth…
“Yes, they do.” She replied tersely.
His mouth hung open as he tried to find a way to walk that back or maybe rephrase it in a less insulting manner. Shame filled him at his own hypocrisy; all his current possessions were the result of Batwoman’s largesse, including the clothes on his back. Desperate to save the moment, he was simply blunt.
“What I meant to say was, I saw something there and I thought of you?” He asked, not having meant it to be a question, holding up the tattered picture he had fished out of the shattered frame in the Academy’s trophy case after crash landing in it.
Robin stomped the brakes and the Bat-Mobile came to a jerking halt that threw him against the five point harness he had buckled into, and then back into the cushioned crash seat. She glared at him, not the photo, but him, and he felt himself quail under the intensity of her laser focus. Her domino mask hid her eyes but the intensity was palpable, but he rallied and refused to walk it back again. He wanted to get closer to her, and the protocol was getting in the way.
Their stare off lasted an interminably long time, and he almost lost his nerve several times as the silent challenge dragged on and his social awkwardness begged someone to say something. He didn’t break off their eye contact, but he did try for an ice breaker.
“So… Mathlete, huh?” He said with a slight smirk.
Robin’s eyes remained locked on him, and he quickly decided he was done with the blank white eyed mask look, forever. She still gave him nothing, so he elected to take it up a notch.
“Nerd.”
From a lifelong comic book geek, it felt both refreshing and scandalous to call her a nerd. But he really did find it funny. Hyper competent martial artist, detective, hacker, vigilante and driver; those were all hobbies he would expect from her. The Mathlete team was just so… nerdy. He gave her a lopsided grin, and that finally cracked her armor. She let out a slight chuckle, then he did, and soon they were both cracking up.
Wiping away his tears of laughter, he let the photo go when she took it from him. She stared at it, considering it for a while, before speaking.
“So you know.”
“I do.” He admitted, and she shot him a suspicious look.
“What do you know?” She interrogated him, and he was taken aback.
Are we still pleading ignorance? Or are we playing twenty questions? Wait, is she pumping me for info? Oh! She IS! She hasn’t admitted anything yet, she wants to know what I actually know.
Deciding he would stay the course and damn the torpedos, he gamely soldiered on.
“Richelle ‘Rikki’ Grayson, graduate of Gotham Academy and Mathelete team champion.” He said, and she snorted. He chuckled too, but his smile fell as he listed off the rest of her biography. “One of two survivors of the Flying Graysons.”
Robin’s face grew stony, and he continued.
“Made the ward of billionaire play-...girl.” He stopped himself, looking all around the Bat-Mobile interior. All the blinking lights and implausible technology crammed into the vehicle suddenly seemed like the lurking eyes of predators in the dark. He took a deep breath, before he sighed and closed his eyes, looking up at the ceiling or at god when he opened them.
“Bryce Wayne. I assume you’re listening, Bryce?” He asked, addressing the ceiling in the way that people under surveillance or talking to the almighty do.
Robin’s eyes widened behind her mask while they waited with baited breath.
“...Yes.” Came the curt reply, but the speaker it came out of was actually in the center console, so he peeled his gaze off the ceiling while Robin’s eyebrows reached for the stratosphere.
“Are you serious right now!?” She objected, but Batwoman cut her off.
“We’ll discuss it later. Right now, we have a serious violation of protocol to deal with.”
A tingle of fear crept up his spine as she said it, and he worried just how far the Batwoman would go to protect her identity and her protocol. He put his hands up to protest his innocence, even as Robin balled her fists in anger. He wasn’t sure whether it was about the breach of protocol or Batwoman surveilling them in the Bat-Mobile.
Probably both.
Connor took a deep breath to steady himself before he spoke.
“I have no intention of revealing that to anyone.” He said with as much surety as he could muster. It helped that it was the truth. He couldn’t hear his own heartbeat, though Robin’s was racing.
“I would hope not.” Batwoman replied with a funereal finality.
When the Bat-Mobile didn’t explode or launch him into the stratosphere in an ejection seat, he took another breath and continued.
“I also understand why you take the lengths you do to follow your protocol. You have a lot to protect. But if I know, I know. I can’t really forget it, and I… preferred that I just told you I know. Rather than keep my knowledge secret. That seems like it would be a worse betrayal.” He added, glancing at Robin, whose mouth was in a deep frown. Guilt crawled up his guts as he reflected on his hypocrisy, awaiting Batwoman’s reply.
“So long as you didn’t break any confidences, or utilize your privileges to investigate secrets that aren’t yours to ferret out, it is not a betrayal. Its just good detective work.” She said, and his brows rose.
Shit. Does she know? That sounds like she knows. Or is she doing the thing where she acts like she knows and wants to see what I admit to? Goddamn squirrely Bats!
“Uh, thanks. I think. Its a lot easier to figure it out when we’re… team mates.” He said awkwardly, glancing at Robin. She remained stony, listening intently, but she was biting back her words the while.
“That closeness is a risk, but it is also an extension of trust that is necessary for us to work together.” Batwoman said simply, letting the silence hang. Connor felt the special emphasis on ‘work together’, an echo of his own words to the Guild.
Doubts assailed him; he was lying to her, to all of them. He kept his own secrets, but he really hadn’t dug too hard to get this one. The random chance that had sent him into Robin’s alma mater when he did, and noticing what he had noticed.
What did that mean? Are we under editorial control here? That Toyman should head for Gotham instead of Metropolis, that the train should pass by her school? That I found her picture when I did? Do coincidences like that really happen, or is there something guiding us? There has to be, right? How else can so many coincidences happen to bring heroes and villains together, like Kid and I at the mall with the Terror Twins?
Questions upon questions piled up, each more impossible to answer than the last. The impending existential crisis was interrupted, surprisingly, by Robin.
“You’re damn right it is!” She exclaimed. “I’m not going to keep everything under wraps forever! I have my own team now, my friends, who I trust. Some of whom already know anyway.”
Damn, I knew it!
“Robin-”
“NO! This is it! You can’t manage the team and send him on covert Guild missions and then decide Connor can’t know the truth. Especially since he figured it out on his own.”
It seemed like much of her earlier anger with the Guild babysitting them had returned with a vengeance, though it had found a new outlet to express itself.
It still eats at her, even if we were wrong about Green Arrow. Its a whole theme, not just an individual incident.
Robin crossed her arms and glared at the console.
“...Superboy has demonstrated his dedication to the cause. That does not mean I am comfortable with him knowing secrets he doesn’t need to know. What he doesn’t know, he can’t be made to tell.” Batwoman replied ominously.
“Well, unless you think you can just make him forget, we’re past that. He knows, so we need to find a way to move forward.” She replied, placing a hand over his on the console between them. His brows shot up in surprise at her touch, but she kept her eyes forward.
“Together.”
They COULD make me forget, like they made Dr. Light forget. And reprogrammed him… but that was the Justice League, in another universe. I can’t just assume everything I thought I knew applies here. This Earth has proven me wrong enough.
But they could…
Those dark thoughts were banished by the warmth of her touch and the trust she was placing in him. He gathered himself, wanting to assert himself rather than just let Robin defend him.
“Robin’s right, but I know I need to keep our secrets, as well as know them. If there’s something I can do to prove I can keep it a secret, I’ll do it. Just tell me what I have to do.” Connor declared.
“...We’ll discuss what you can do to prove it to me tomorrow. But remember this; everyone can keep a secret, until they can’t. Whatever it takes to make it untenable to keep, there’s always something. The best way to keep a secret is not to tell anyone.”
Somehow, Batwoman made that droll witticism into sage advice, to be engraved into one’s soul.
“OK! Great. In the morning… then.” Connor finished lamely.
Robin unfolded her arms and gripped the steering wheel again before addressing the speaker.
“If that’s all…?” She queried with a single raised eyebrow.
“We… will discuss this more in the morning.” Batwoman finished, and the line appeared to go dead.
That did not stop Robin from spending the next fifteen minutes disabling speakers, microphones, and interior cameras. As well as hacking into the Bat-Mobile’s computers and shutting any more backdoors her mentor has installed, swearing under her breath the whole time while Connor sat awkwardly and silently in the passenger seat, drumming his knees.
Robin’s attempts at securing their privacy concluded, and she drove off into the night, gritting her teeth as she drove and staring straight ahead.
“...So, ‘Rikki’?” He inquired, and she glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, visibly tense. Then she sighed and let the tension out with her breath, sinking back into the incredibly plush seat. She took a hand off the wheel to offer it to him, and he eagerly shook it.
“A pleasure to meet you, Connor.” She said, and after their handshake she reached up with the same hand and peeled the domino mask off. She shook her hair out and leaned back into the chair, much of her tension melting away. His breath caught as she looked at him with her baby blue eyes, uncovered for the first time. He marveled at how that slight change in her appearance and posture seemed to transform her. For the first time since he had met her, he realized how pretty she was. Her body he had admired since the moment he met her, but without her mask and wearing a coy, impish smile, she looked breathtakingly beautiful in the moment.
“P-pleasure’s all mine… Rikki.” He finished awkwardly, and she laughed, making his ears burn.
“You’re too easy. But remember! Protocol still partly in general effect. In costume, its codenames only. Out of costume or at the Cave, we can be Connor and Rikki.” She stated sternly, returning her eyes to the road.
“...I’d like that.” He said simply, his own eyes tearing away from her bare face and to the road.
“So where are we going?” Connor finally asked curiously .
Rikki grinned at him excitedly as she answered.
“I thought we might take in a movie…”