2. Night Terrors (1/2)

night terrors

alli had been staring up at the ceiling for almost an hour now. they'd gotten back from another rescue alli from some stupid criminal mission (it had been pointless. by the time they got there, she had the leader tied up, the gang knocked out, and was waiting outside for them to arrive, impatient and pissed off) about 3 hours ago, and had finally gotten to bed about an hour ago, at 12:50. now, at 3:45, she was awake. she had been asleep for a while, but had kept on jolting awake. this was the 7th time she'd woken up. at least. she sighed and rolled over, trying to fall asleep.

"shouldn't you be asleep by now?" a voice asked. her eyes widened, and she sat up, grabbing one of her newly modified swords. when she didn't need them, the blades would shrink away into small metal staffs. the blades slid out, glowing scarlet, lighting up her dark room. there, a few feet away from her bed, holding his hands up in surrender, was the familiar unmasked face of dick grayson. she relaxed and layer back on her bed.

"jesus, dick, don't do that! i could have freaking impaled you!" rather than taking the warning to heart, he just grinned, irritating her.

"you could have. but you didn't." he said. "and besides, you never answered my question." she rolled her eyes.

"shouldn't you be asleep too?" she retorted. "besides, i saw my

other die in an explosion. you really expect me to sleep easy after that?" she felt him sit down on the bed. some people might be creeped out by this, and by the fact that he was even in her room in the first place. but she knew he and jason went crawling through the air vents. hell, she'd caught him crawling out of one just the other day, and had pretended not to know what he had been doing. and she knew if he tried anything, she could take him. you didn't grow up on the streets and avoid the perverts and rapists by being soft and weak. she knew how to fight. dick shrugged.

"i don't sleep much anymore after spending most of my life working with batman." he paused as something she said seemed to register with him. "you...you saw it happen? you saw the warehouse explode?" he asked. she blinked and her eyes widened. she quickly opened her mouth to respond, but dick wasn't having it. he put a hand over her mouth. "no alli, you can't talk your way out of that. you said you saw your

other die. answer this honestly, and know that i'll be able to tell if you're lying: were you there the night jason was killed in that explosion?" he removed his hand from her mouth. she glared at him defiantly for a minute before sighing.

"yes." she relented. "i was there." he blinked.

"you didn't rescue him?" she glared at him so fiercely he flinched and raised his hands in surrender again. "ok i'm sorry. that was a stupid question."

"of course i tried!" she hissed, pain clear in her voice. "i was almost there, but i was too late. if i'd been just a bit faster, i could have saved him!" in the moonlight, dick saw years slipping down her cheeks. he felt guilty for asking her that. she sighed. "after he joined batman, i was always watching out for him. i never lost track of him, and i watched him fight with batman. i gave up stealing and tried to make ends meet without it so i'd never have to run from him and he'd never have to chase me down and put me in juvie. when i learned he was going on that mission, i followed. getting there was no small feat. and then...well, i tracked them down." dick frowned.