Trust: Question of Love.

Greta sighed as she looked at the digits on the cordless phone’s digital display.
All she had to do was push the green connect button and the call would be sent to its destination.
But how would you really react if you got a call from someone you didn’t expect?!
If you didn’t think they had your number at all? What if they dismissed her reason for calling then told everyone at the tower about her calling like a stupid child?
She sighed and pressed the red dismissal button. Maybe later.

She stood up and smoothed out her skirt whilst looking in the mirror. Recently Greta had being enjoying all the perks of being human most of the time, able to interact with other people, but she was fairly shy so she only talked to a few girls in class. That’s when Duo had told her about her babysitting job and suggested she finds a part-time job too so she’d speak to more people.

It was fairly hard trying to find a job that fitted with her school hours and would actually hire a just turned 16-year-old girl with no experience but she eventually found the perfect place. It was an unimposing café about 10 minutes from Elias High called ‘Café Starway’ The place was really nice and clean, pale pink tablecloths on the small round tables, vases of flowers around the café provided a fragrance that mixed with the fresh pastries. Cissie and Cassie had loved her uniform as well. It was like a modern version of the old English waitress uniform except in pink., It had a ruffle petticoat that gave the skirt a little umph and a little white apron that tied about her waist into a bow at the back, Greta couldn’t help but think it was impractical even though it made the whole outfit look cute.

Everything was going really well until Monday, her second week. She’d started down into the basement to get more ice for the Slurpie machine when a hand had roughly pulled her back, the bruise showed on her arm. still. It was the deputy manager, Rick, with an angry look on his face. He’d pushed Greta to the wall and demanded what she was doing, going into the basement.
With her heart beating fiercely in her chest she’d explained quietly that she needed more ice and he’d instantly let go of her, his whole demeanour changing.
“You’re the new girl right? Sorry, I shouldn’t have reacted like that, Its just that its dangerous down there, the cooler door is temperamental and we just thought it better that the waitresses don’t go down there. Understand? Good. I mean, a frozen girl can’t earn us money can she?!.” He turned and walked off to the manager’s office with a macabre laugh.

Since then she heard the manager and Rick whispering about ‘special deliveries’ and ‘buyers’ coming in. Everything went back to the basement.
She really was sure something was happening down their and there was only one person she trusted to call over this.

She typed in the number again, getting it from a stolen page of Falcons Bat-Fax after a Supersonic prank placed it in her hands for a moment. She pressed the call button as she closed her eyes. She trembled slightly, catching her breath as she raised the phone to her ear.

"Huh, Hi! This...This is Gr...I mean Secret!! Can I speak to Robin please??"

The Next Evening at the Elias School for Girls...

Robin had not been in Gotham at the time when Secret had called. Instead he had been stuck tracking down Mister Freeze with Nightwing across Bludhaven and ending up in Central City. With the help of the Flash, Mister Freeze had been wrapped up earlier that afternoon.

Still, a vocally-electronically desguised Alfred Pennyworth had assured Secret that Robin would get the message. Although Alfred was very concerned as to how Miss Greta had gotten ahold of one of the Clan's private security numbers. Normally the Master's associates called using their com-links. He could only assume that this was a matter of great private imporance, and made certain that Master Bruce didn't learn about the phone call.

The next day had passed without word from the Boy Wonder, and as Greta sat in her dormroom, it looked like this day would be the same.

"Greta," said a semi-dark voice, and stepping through the window of Secret's dorm was a familar teenaged boy with jet black hair spiked back, wearing a dark red, green, black and gold costume, with a green domino mask over his face. White lenses stared out at the young blonde girl with an unmisakable look of concern.

"I'm sorry I didn't call you back sooner," Robin apologized, standing up straight, and allowing his cape to fall down over his body. "Arkham break out. You said that you needed to talk to me, right?"

Greta was sitting cross-legged in her study chair working on her homework. Although it wasn’t completely dark yet Greta was in her pyjamas in preparation to go to bed. Cassie and Cissie were sleeping in the next room tonight but they weren’t back from the Cinema yet. They’d asked Greta to go along but she hadn’t fancied it, getting a start on her work instead till Duo returned from babysitting little Kelsey.

As she put off actually starting the math work she wondered why she hadn’t heard from Robin. She’d left a message with….someone…but Tim hadn’t got back to her in over 24 hours. Greta sighed while doodling little R’s on her paper. Maybe he just didn’t want to speak to her.

"Greta,"

Spinning around quickly as she gasped and dropped her pencil she almost fell from her chair. Steadying herself on the desk she blinked to clear her mind, making sure he was really there. Right there. In her room.
“Hi Robin” She smiled shyly as she fought the blush and stood, picking up a stuffed panda to subconsciously hide behind as she realised she had only a mauve strapped night-top on with shortie shorts “Oh…or can I call you ……?”

You said that you needed to talk to me, right?"

Now Robin was actually here her reason for calling seemed completely pointless, she was doubting what she had heard said and the reaction from Rick seemed explainable too.

“Well……It seems pretty silly to have called you out over this now…” She began, brushing a strand of hair from her face and sitting on her bed. “Its just that…uh…..I think something’s going on where I work, something not exactly legal but I don’t really know what. And they keep acting weird about the basement! Saying that they don’t want the girls to go down their because its dangerous but look what Rick did to my arm stopping me!!” She showed the bruise on her arm. “I’m sorry for calling you out, it could be nothing. I just hear them talking about shipments and buyers all the time and it makes me wonder what for.”
Greta trailed off hugging the panda to her, avoiding Robin’s masked look.
She hated wasting his time like this.

Robin listened to Greta explination of the the events going on at her work. It wasn't much to go on and it could be nothing, but there was always the possibility that it wasn't.

Neither Tim nor Greta hung out as much as they used to back in Young Justice, and a lot had happened to the both over the year but the current Boy Wonder was glad that Greta felt she could come to him for help.

Greta showed him the bruise on her arm, Robin's eyes narrowed.

"May I?" he asked, taking her arm gingerly and looking at the bruise. Whoever this Rick was, he definently must have intended to hurt Greta. And he could understand why Greta was curious. What could be so important in the basement that the assistant manager would go so far as to manhandle a new employee who was simply doing her job.

Letting go of Greta's arm, Robin looked back up at her. She had sat down and clung an overly-stuffed panda to her chest while for some reason avoiding his gaze. It was at times like this that Tim remembered how truly young and innocent she was. It was sweet. “I’m sorry for calling you out, it could be nothing. I just hear them talking about shipments and buyers all the time and it makes me wonder what for.”

"Don't apologize, Greta," came his reply in a voice that sounded more like Tim Drake than Robin. It was softer. Barely noticable, but it was there. "I'm glad you felt you could call me about this. And you're right, it COULD be nothing, but that doesn't mean it doesn't warrant a bit of investigation. You wouldn't believe some of the fronts that criminals use for their orginizations."

Greta was actually surprised at how much Robin was concerned over the bruise. When he took her arm she gasped slightly, excusing it away by the mention of “Cold hands” even though he was wearing gloves.

He said he was glad she had called him. In truth there was no one else she thought of, Tim was the one she trusted to take care of this, true they weren’t the closest they had been at the moment but she still thought highly of him and his work.

There was of course Will, her brother but he would be more likely to decimate the place over her little bruise. His temper controlled him too much sometimes.

When Robin said he would help her out Greta looked him straight in the eye, the smile on automatic.

“You wouldn't believe some of the fronts that criminals use for their organizations."

“This might be a stupid idea but maybe you could come past the café sometime and you could see if you know any of them??” Greta asked, keeping eye contact even though her heart was pounding. “I don’t understand everything they say, like talking about Uzi’s and other birds.” She thought for a moment. “Rick said yesterday “It’s no…Walther PPK but its still a real killer”………What’s a Walther PPK??” Greta wondered, her head to one side and her eyes wide

"Well unless they're making a new kind of capachino than the only Walther PPK that I'm aware of is high quality hand-gun," Robin said. Uzis and Walther PPKs? If Greta had indeed heard her employers correctly, then that would mean these guys were running an illegal weapon dealings. Scratching the tip of his chin thoughtfully, Robin began to pace back and forth across the room in a very Bat-manner, which was very remincient of their Young Justice days together.

"Greta, from what it sounds like this might be bigger than either of us realize," he said thoughfully, before looking back at her. He had never really thought about this before, but he had actually missed this. The adventures that he and Secret used to work on. Though this had to be the first normal case that they had ever been on.

"Maybe 'Jack Malone' SHOULD make a visit tomorrow and check out the scene," Robin said, before clarrifying. "That's another of my aliases."

Leaning up against Greta's computer table, Robin fell silent for a moment and thought about the situation. "But I'm going to need some more information first. What can you tell me about the café's normal 'clientel'? Any information you can tell me would help us. I don't want us going in blind."

Handguns? That was serious. And Tim was really taking what she had said seriously. The fact that he hadn’t laughed at her and left was good but him acknowledging her concern and helping her out was more than she could have asked for.

“You’ll come to the café?! In that case you just have to try the apple pie!! And we do these mochaccinos in all different flavours too that are just really……” Greta realised she was babbling and stopped, blushing yet again. Tim was going to think she was crazy.

“You mean customers? Well, I guess we mainly get teenagers in, people your and my age on dates and stuff you know.” Greta began thinking through the people she saw at work, her nose crinkling in thought. “There are some regular customers that come everyday for their lunch and sometimes we get tourists, English people that always complain about the tea… and now I think of it there are some people that must phone and order because they just come in and Rick gives them a bag of food. The thing is the people never pay and I don’t think they have a tab of any kind so…”She shrugged “I don’t know….it doesn’t seem to fit together somehow.”

She looked to Robin who seemed to be taking in all that she was saying, Greta didn’t think that was enough information s she tried to think of other things she’d noticed that were irksome to her at work.

“and there are a few people that only Rick serves…I mean, they order things from us but as soon as Rick sees them they order strange things like….like… ‘A fruit tea with a twist, make sure its loaded and none of that French stuff you gave me last time’” She said as she attempted to imitated a deep voice “Why would a tea be loaded, unless they mean sugar, and I’ve looked, we don’t have any French tea to my knowledge.”

Robin allowed himself a small smile as Greta rambled on about the café. She always did that when she was nervous, but Tim couldn't help and wonder what she could be nervous about. They had known each other for the better part of two years.

After a moment Greta realized that she was babbling, and blushed brightly before going on to explain about the costumers of the café. When she finished Tim took a moment to intake all the information.

"Well this is certainly proving to me more interesting than I thought. When someone wants the drinks loaded that could me than want alcohol in it. But I have yet to meet anyone who drinks tea with alcohol. It sounds like they could be talking in some kind of code."

Gazing back at Secret, Robin went back into bat-mode. "Okay, tomorrow I'll drop by at about 12 and do a bit of under-cover work. After I've got a better idea about whats going on, we'll check out that basement." Robin paused for a moment, and gave a slightly concerned glance. He knew this would be pointless to ask, but that chivalry part of him that sounded like Alfred wouldn't let him go until he asked. "But are you sure that you want to be there? I don't want you to get into problems if we're wrong about this."

Greta noticed the difference between Tim as Tim and Tim as Robin as he switched back, it was like he instantly analysed everything when he did that but it didn’t bother her for some reason. In fact she liked how she could tell the difference. For a long while it seemed that Robin was all he was, all the time. Till he showed them he could be more laid back, revealed his ‘Tim’ persona to her and the rest of Young Justice. Eventually anyway. They both had secrets and unlike Stephanie, Greta was content to let him keep his.

“Thank you, Tim. I knew you were the right person to call.” She said meaning every word, as he developed a plan.

Greta couldn’t help but smile at Tim’s concern for her. “If you’re using an alias then you’ll just be a friend who stopped by for pie. It should be ok, I doubt we’ll get into much trouble over pie.” She smiled at him, wishing slightly she could see into his blue eyes instead of just her own on his opaque lenses.

“Oh hey Greta! Your still up?!” Cassie asked as she threw open the door and headed for the wardrobe in the search for a lost item of clothing.
“Cassie!! What are you..?! I mean…!!” Greta leapt to her feet, dropping the panda to the floor. “Its not what it looks like!!” Looking to where Robin had been, the only thing in motion was the fluttering curtains that you conveniently get in spy movies. “I..er..”

Cassie walked to Greta and looked at her with concern. “Are you ok? You look like you’ve seen a ghost or something.” Cassie looked to the window and to Greta’s blushing face.
“I won’t tell anyone.” She said with a wink to Greta’s semi shocked face. “About the panda? What did you think I meant??”

The next day.

“I just have two questions for you, honey. What’s with all the pie? And that clock’s not going to go any faster if you keep looking at it.” The red-headed waitress smiled as she replaced a tray beside Greta who was whisking a strawberry milkshake.
She laughed, “I’m not looking at the clock for any reason at all, Jeanie. And people like pie.” She walked to the counter with the milkshake and gave it to the boy who’d ordered it with a smile. As Jeanie came and stood beside her again, Greta looked at her friend and asked with a smile. “So what time is it?”

As Cassie and Greta talked about the movie, Robin was crouched in the tree outside the window, hidden in the shadows. Greta was blushing brightly as Cassie questioned her about her evening and Tim allowed himself a small smile as he turned about and leapt down to the ground below and raced towards where the Super-Cycle was waiting for him.

He had to get back to Gotham, since tomorrow was going to be an intersting day.

---

Shortly after Greta had checked the clock for the 37th time, there was a musical chime as the front door of the cafe swung open. A teenaged boy entered the establishement and paused a moment to check out the place. He had semi-long dark blond hair and a the beging stubble of a gotee. He was dressed in baggy jeans, and wore a black t-shirt that had the 'BLINK 182' logo and an ratty old blue jacket. He wore a pair square framed sunglasses with red lenses. To look at him one would think skater-punk.

Walking over to the counter, the new costumer looked over the menu with a slightly bored expression.

"Hey, so like what's the day's special kids?" he asked Greta and the red-headed waitress. There was a sly broklyn sort of accent to his voice. As he awaited an answer, he slouched back in one of the seats.

Jeanie was in the middle of telling Greta about her three hundredth brake up with her boyfriend from college as they prepared for the lunch rush when the door jingled.

“Hi! Can I help!?” Greta asked in her usually chirpy way to the guy who’d just arrived and seated himself at the counter.

"Hey, so like what's the day's special kids?"

For some reason the guy who looked like a skater reminded her of someone, but who she wasn’t quite sure. Besides, Tim should be here any moment so she wasn’t really looking out for non-Robin like people.

“Ok! Today’s specials are the listed selection of savouries on this menu here…” She began, handing ‘Skater boy’ a menu. “And today’s special deserts are Strawberry Parfait and Carrot Cake.” She explained, holding a pad of paper in one hand. “But personally I’d recommend the Apple Pie.”

As she filled his order she commented on his choice of clothing. ”So you like Blink 182? Did you notice the difference between their latest album and their last one? Its like they really tried something different this time around but it still has nothing on ‘State.’” She placed the plate in front of him.” Don’t you think?”

The skate-boy grinned a bit at Greta, while she explained the day's special. Once she had finished the kid shrugged. "Well, who am I to argue with the expert? One apple slice it is."

Filling out his order, Greta eyed his t-shirt. ”So you like Blink 182? Did you notice the difference between their latest album and their last one? Its like they really tried something different this time around but it still has nothing on ‘State.’” She placed the plate in front of him. ”Don’t you think?”

"Totally," the kid agreed as Greta placed the apple pi before him. "Gotta change things up, every now and again. But their first albums were some the best, ya know. Most people didn't start getting into them until 'Enema of the State'. You ever hear 'Cheshire Cat'? Now that was a good album."

The skater-boy leaned forward and cuttting of a chunk with his fork, put a piece of the pie in his mouth. His eyes went wide and a look of awe went over his feature. "That... is the best pie... EVER," he said, with wide smile.

"Okay ya gotta tell me..." he said leaning forward and slipping down his red-sunglasses down his nose ever so slightly, revealing bright blue eyes and an eyebrow raised challengingly. "...what's the SECRET ingredient."

‘Apple slice.’ Come on, who talks like that?! Honestly. Still, he was pretty cute, although with shorter, darker hair he might just have been.…indescribable.

“Cheshire cat? Now that was the one with Fentoozler right?” She considered it for moment. “That was their first album I think, To be honest I think they got better over time, each album is unique.” With the ‘State’ comment Greta gave a little half smile. “Well, to be honest, that’s when I came into the blink scene. I was….kinda shut off from music for a few years.”

Greta laughed at the way the skater boy showed how much he liked the pie. The secret ingredient? The way he looked at her and with the way he spoke, it just seemed a little… strange? Did he know her secret identity?
“Uh…Its cinnamon. And maybe a little too much sugar.” She smiled.

All of a sudden she looked into those blue eyes and instant recognition happened. It was Tim she was almost sure. He was unbelievable, the way he could just change his appearance, his voice, his entire way of being. But how could she let him know she knew him?
A thought then occurred to her. “Your name wouldn’t happen to be Jack by any chance would it??”

Tim Drake or rather Jack Malone's grin widened at Greta's final recognition. "I see that my rep is ahead of me, huh?" he asked, never dropping character once. Acting was one area of Tim's training that Batman never had a hand in. Instead they had their resident thespian Alfred Pennyworth to help with that.

'Jack' was one of Robin's many undercover aliases. And to Tim's way of thinking it could be both the most fun and the most danger. According to his character's backstory, Jack Malone was the son of Gotham criminal 'Matches Malone' (In actuality the Batman). Jack and his older brother Robbie (Nightwing) grew up on the streets of Gotham. Matches paid little attention to his boys and thus they had been put into foster care and bounced from foster home to foster home. Robbie followed in his father's footsteps and set up life of a criminal in Bludhaven. Jack meanwhile was known in Gotham gangs as an ace computer-hacker and it links to Matches and Robbie made him automatically a character to be respected.

But Jack Malone wasn't known out here so far from Gotham. And thus, Tim could use this persona without much fear.

Jack continued to eat the pie for a moment, before squinting his eyes and 'reading' her name tag. "So... 'Greta' what's a girl like you doing in a dive like this?"

Okay so it was corny, but so was Jack Malone. Tim would never be so lame as to use a line like that on another human being. But until one of the other 'costumers' arrived, they had to play around until then.

Greta smirked a little. “Or rather lack of a reputation before you, Mr Urban-Legend” She said putting his selected flavour mochaccino on the counter beside his plate.

Greta slightly raised an eyebrow at the un-Robin-like sentence. It was like he was three people rolled into one, and she was used to only two of them. Tim was letting this ‘Jack’ persona take lead while Robin was there as usual, lurking in the shadows of his conscious and Tim was just there for the ride.

Taking advantage of the more laid-back role he was playing Greta played along. “What any waitress would be doing, waiting for my dark knight in coloured spandex to come rescue me.” She said without looking at Tim, knowing she would blush if she did so.

The door chimed as a new person entered the café. A middle-aged man in a trucker outfit, complete with the hat and the weird little waistcoat type thing, as he seated himself at the very end, Greta looked sideways at Robin, a meaningful look as Rick came out from the back office.

“What can I get for you sir?” He asked the trucker, who looked at him, judgingly, maybe to see if he was the right guy. After a few moments he began to ‘place his order’ quietly.

“I was told you could fix me up with something Russian? But I’m not after anything hot. It needs to have some taste to it, its not just for….eating.” He feebly finished.

Jack's eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

Greta's comments about 'Urban Legend' and looking for a 'dark night in colored spandex' was touching WAY too close on the Robin identity. It sort of defeated the purpose of undercover.

Sure, few people would understand her comments, but Tim couldn't afford it. He could only hope that the other waitresses and patrions weren't paying attention.

Tim listened from his seat to the converstaion between the the trucker and this Rick fellow. Something Russian? Well... there were Russian Coffees, but something about this was off.

Winking at Greta, Jack reached into his jean's pocket and took a hold of a small devise barely the size of a dime. Jack stood up, and began walking towards the bathroom, which was conviently blocked by Rick.

Once within distant, Jack 'tripped' over his own feet, and crashed down ontop of Rick. As he did so, Tim slipped the eavsedropping devise onto the collar of Rick's shirt.

"Dude!" Jack yelped, shooting Rick an annoyed scowl. "Cut down on the floor wax man. This is a death trap!" Before Rick could respond, Jack disapeared into the boy's bathroom.

Jack moved to one of the bathroom stales, and pressed a small button in his hear. The button would turn on his com-link with Greta and to be able to hear the eavsedropping devise. Once Rick started talking they could hear what was happening.

After this, it would probably be time to check out that basement.

Greta knew she smiled stupidly when Tim..Jack winked at her, luckily he was already walking away as she did.
Surprisingly she didn’t panic when he bumped into Rick, it was a move he would have calculated, and most likely why she’d found a bat-issue comm. link on her desk the previous night. Taking it out of her apron pocket she purposefully didn’t look at Rick as she slipped it in her ear, ready to hear Robin’s every word.

Instead her head was full of the ‘order’.

“You were referred to me as someone who can bring in special deliveries, even things…out of season?” The trucker lent in, aiming to be heard by less people but the only thing it established was for him to speak directly into the eavesdropping device.

Rick smiled, he always did when his reputation carried in more business, it was something to bring to the bosses attention, it could result in a bigger cut.
“Out of season? Well, there’s often a waiting time for deliveries of that type. And it won’t be cheap. What exactly are you after?” He asked, picking up Greta’s order book that she’d left on the counter on her pie mission.

“Two, maybe three birds, something heavy duty, And I want them…well packed”
He motioned with his hands slightly.
“Bird, like a hawk.” Rick laughed, raising his eyebrows questionably. And unless you knew his laugh you’d have never noticed it was fake, although the truckers was a fair amount more obvious.

“Yeah, and another thing, Its for a very special party, They want to know how they’ll mix with ..pork products. We don’t want any bad reactions.” He emphasised the word bad, showing people would be dealt with harshly if that ever happened.

Rick looked the man directly in the eye as he tore off the top sheet off paper from the pad “It will all be taken care of” He said with confidence, writing on a napkin, handing it to him with a glass of water.

“Greta? I’m taking to you?” Jeanie came into focus as Greta shot back from spacing out. “We need to get out some more pie.” She smiled at the younger blonde. “That guy was pretty cute huh?”

Greta smiled as she walked away from the two guys at the end of the counter, not realising if she could hear Tim, it was a possibility that he could hear her. “Uh…yeah..he was..really cute.”

Robin, or rather Jack supressed a groan as he listened to Rick and the other guy talk. There was nothing that annoyed him more than crooks who thought they were being clever. It was obvious they were talking about something other than the day's specials, but unfortunatly, this wouldn't help in a conviction. The conversation although it made little sense, wasn't an admition of guilt.

They would need evidence.

Robin paused as he heard another voice on the com-link. Most likely from Greta's link.

Robin raised a confused eyebrow. Who were they talking about? Certainly they didn't mean... naw... probably some college shoobie came in. They couldn't be talking about... No...

....Right?

'Focus Drake," Tim murmered to himself, before turning on the micro-phone in his com.

"Secret, we're not getting anything from these guys. I'll need to investigate the basement. Any chance we can get a diversion?"

“A diversion? I think we just got one.” Greta whispered into the comm-link as one of the other girls dropped an entire tray onto a customer who pushed past her, covering himr in food, causing the dishes to fall to the floor and shatter into a hundred pieces while the cutlery clinked around it.

Rick sighed and excused himself from the lucrative possible arms deal and went to calm down the enraged customer, followed by Jeanie on a mission to save the cowering tray-dropping girl from the guy’s angry wife.

“Ok, you have at the most 3 or 4 minutes to get back here and get into the store room without them seeing, is that long enough? The basement is the third door on the left, the white one. Do you want me to get you more time?” Greta asked as she collected the dustpan and brush from the cupboard for Jeanie to be able to clear up. Luckily for the girl, Tiffany, her shift was about to end, so she could g home and think about the embarrassment instead off stay and have everyone look at her all the time. Actually Greta was finishing then too, maybe she could help Tim out down in the basement?

"That should be enough time," Robin replied over the com-link. "Thanks Greta."

He slipped out of the men's room and cast a glance around the room. Sure enough with the Tiffany's mistake, everyone's attention was everywhere but on him. He nodded slightly at Greta.

Stealthily, he moved past the confused crowd of people and made his way towards the storeroom. Following Greta's directions, Tim snuck downstairs.

"Okay Ricky..." Robin murmered to himself. "Let's see what you're hidding..."

Greta knew that as soon as Robin stepped into the basement he would be overwhelmed by the musky smell of age and mildew. Once his eyes would ajust to the badly lit lower stock room he would notice that the majority of the stone floor was clear of all but a filmy layer of dirt and dust, a thin trail working through it to the large white chiller on the right. The room framed by the stacks of boxes holding the everyday storable supplies that didn’t need special storage requirements and stacking shelves of cans, they’re colored labels that explained the contents being the only color in the room.

“Found anything?” Greta whispered from behind him, although she had been completely silent she didn’t even think for a second that she’d scared him in the dark.
She'd slipped away in the confusion, seeing as it was the end of her shift she knew she wouldn't be missed although she wished she hadn't needed to bring her coat and bag with her into the dusty basement.
As she looked around the room it seemed even more like she’d wasted his time, she only hoped his sharp eyes were seeing things hers couldn’t.

“Found anything?”

Tim didn't even twitch when Greta 'appeared' behind him. He had known she was there by the smell of her perfum. The smell of jasmine, mixed with the trace odor of coffee beans from work, hit Robin's nose alerting him to her arrival.

"Not yet," he said softly, while he ran a finger over a dusty crate. Coffee beans, pie fixings, soda containers. Not appeared that out of the ordinary. "Aside from the dust ratio of this place, everything looks normal."

Of course he didn't believe that for a minute. Rick's behavior upstairs with the truck driver was far too supsicious. The man might as well have put up a sign that said 'Ask us about our illegal firearms, and get a free slice of pie.'

"No one saw you slip down here, right?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at her. But before she replied, he noticed the freezer on the far side of the room.

"Greta, you said that you had gone into the freezer when Rick had yelled at you, right?" he asked. He stopped before the freezer and before opening it. The inside of the cooler didn't appear out of the ordinary. Milk and Ice Cream and other items that needed to be kept cool adorned the walls. Robin walked around examining the items for a minute.

Maybe they had been mistakened and they had been reading too much into this. So what didn't that feel like the case?

Robin was about to sigh in defeat, when something else caught his eye. The floor of the freezer was covered with a thin collection of dust and frost, but that wasn't what caught his attention. Instead it was the wheel tracks that ran across the floor and into the wall. But what he found most interesting was that the tracks didn't stop anywhere. They actually continued under where the wall hit.

"Bingo."

As Tim pulled the iron catch across the door of the freezer it unlocked the lower one at the same time. A blast of sterile cold air washed over Greta, fluttering the tips of her hair slightly and allowing her to see her crystallised breath in front of her face. Looking across at Robin as he scanned the contents in detail she smiled when she saw his hot breath did the same as hers.

As Robin walked into the freezing unit Greta held back, keeping the door open. It was an old style heavy contraption that was self-locking.
‘Its ok though because they always had an emergency unlocking device on the inside…somewhere over in that dark corner I‘d think’ she began to assume before her attention was once more attracted back to the boy who was helping her out.

When Tim spoke in the semi-darkness it reassured her that she wasn’t down there alone.
"Bingo." Greta took this to mean he had found something and it was important. She looked where he indicated on the floor and saw the wheel tracks, firstly she assumed he was pointing out that the tracks shouldn’t even be there. It wasn’t until she walked forward to stand closer to Robin that she saw the tracks went right under the far wall.

Robin knelt down and examined the tracks more closely. While his face remained serious there was a light that glinted in Tim's eyes as he worked. It was the same look he always had when he was playing the part of a detective. Robin had once laughed at Batman, saying that he always got a charge against the smart crooks like Riddler or Two-Face.

But truth was that applied to him as well. It was one of the similarities that Bruce and Tim shared. The excitement that came from pitting one's self against a difficult enigma.

"There's definently something behind this wall," Robin said aloud, before running his fingertips over the wall in search for an opening mechanism. If this had been a horror movie, he'd most likely needed to lift a container of ice-cream to open the door. But that wasn't very likely at this point.

Rick was proving to be a challange, that was true, but he certainly wasn't a criminal master mind.

"Greta, come here," Robin said looking over the girl. He suddenly took notice of how her hair seemed to glow under the faint light cast by the single lightbulb in the freezer. It gave her a sort of ethreal beauty.

After a few seconds of staring at Greta, Tim realize that he hadn't said anything for a few minutes, and shook himself back to reality. "Greta, do you see this spacing here," he asked pointed to a part of wall that had a thin line space. Most like it was the hidden doorway. "Do you suppose you could mist yourself back there and take a look around? There's a possibility that Rick set up a security system and we might not have enough time to get around it manuelly."

Greta was taking a personal moment in watching Robin…. Tim look for clues, It was something she knew he enjoyed, solving the mystery, piecing together the tiny fragments, the overlooked features of everyday life then stepping back to appreciate the whole crime busting picture.
As Greta watched she thought about why she liked him so much, It wasn’t any one thing really, not even the fact that he’d been the one to think up the plan to save her from her impending fate at the Wabe facility a year or two back. He just always listened to her, and she liked listening to him., He’d given her space without her needing to ask for it, and he always seemed to shield her from the bad things in life. He’d promised to protect her when there was no-one else that had.

Of course he had broken his promise to watch out for her. Twice
And he thought words could solve everything, like when he’d tried to save her from herself on Apokilips. At least he had tried something, he’d not left her or tried to kill her. That was something.

He called her to him so she obeyed. It wasn’t an order though, it was a request that she was most happy to fulfil.
But that was it. He just looked at her. For a moment she didn’t understand, she froze slightly, wondering if he’d seen someone behind her until she noticed his look. It was the look she’s seen him once slip to Spoiler. Conceal to all but Falcon. And now he openly showed it to her, like he didn’t even know he was doing it. Or how much it meant.

It was like he shook out of it and asked her to do what he’d called her to do.
She smiled placing her bad and coat on a frozen empty shelf, happy to help, but as she misted up she knew it was only a matter of time before the cold air would get to her like that. She spookily approached the gap he had suggested and it wasn’t until she felt the tingle that she knew for sure.

“Um….They have an electricity field or something. It won’t really hurt but… I ..don’t…want..” She felt as though her fear was getting in the way of the mission, a mission she’d asked for help on. She was glad he couldn’t see her disappointed in herself look.

At that moment the timer on the door clicked and with the whisper of a warning the metal door swung itself shut and began its ten second click as the bolts readied to snap across, effectively locking them inside. But at the same time, cold air blasted from the vents, Greta becoming lost amongst the particles for a moment before she forced herself into solidity, shaking like she’d walked to the Arctic.

Her big blue eyes were wide with fright as she motioned to Tim that he should unlock the door before those ten seconds ran out with a deathly pale white hand.

Robin frowned slightly, but not at disapointement towards Greta. He understood why she was so reluctant. One of Greta's few weaknesses in her mist-form was electricity. From what Robin understood the molecules in the mist conducted electricity to a small-degree. Greta's eletricity phobia which was brought upon her death at the hands of her brother Harm who threw a radio into the bath tub, only instified that problem.

He certainly wasn't going to force her to do something she wasn't prepared for it.

Rather Tim's frown eminated from his suprised at the fact that the room was protected by something as high-quality as to create an electric-field. That was unexpected.

"Its alright Greta," Robin said gently. "We'll just-" But before he could finish there was the sound of metal moving against metal, and spinning about Robin saw the door to the cooler swing shut. At the same moment both of them were blinded by a sudden gush of gold air shot from the vents. Casting a look over at Greta, he saw her switch back to her normal solid form. Another of Greta's weaknesses was immense cold, in which the particles in her mist form would solify. Although he wasn't certain if the freezer was cold enough to do this, Greta seemed to think so.

"Damn," Robin grunted as he raced towards the door. He pushed his shoulder against the door, but it wouldn't budge. He had been sloppy. He should have put something to have blocked the door open. 'Good thing Batman isn't here. He'd box my ears for a week.'

He was familar with this sort of door design. During one of his escape artist training sessions, Tim was locked in such a room. He only had ten seconds in which to get them out before the bolt shut them in. Thankfully Robin had used the cargo-pants that held an assortment of small weapons and tools such as gas pellets, lock-picks and a lazer torch. Using the lazer torch would get them out of there should that happen, but that would take the better part of fifteen to twenty minutes. And that left them open to being caught by someone, if not dying from frost-bite.

"Nothing is ever easy..." he grumbled as he took out his lock-picks and lazer torch from his pants pocket.

Greta tried to keep out of Tim’s way as he set to work on the door with his little bat gadgets, She hadn’t meant for this to happen when she’d asked for his help.
There wasn’t anything she could do though…well, not human anyway.
She didn’t want to go anywhere near the electronic field again, the one that must have something to do with the generator for the temperature or something just as technical.
She walked to the door, where Tim was frantically working on the door, time was running out. She placed her hand on the point of the door where it closes; searching for a gap that she could slip out of, unlocking it from the outside to free the caged Robin.

Unable to find one, Greta decided to make one manually. Misting her arm, she reconfigured her molecules into a crowbar and began to wield it on the door, attempting to break out. All of a sudden the bar’s iron density was lost and it fragmented, Greta falling to the floor with a block of ice in her hand which she dropped in surprise.

Looking at the chunks of broken ice on the floor in front of her, Greta’s breath caught in her throat. Could that happen to her?? She became very aware of her frozen breath in front of her and as she imagined that ice effect creeping inside her, down her throat, freezing her heart, she could barely breath, becoming light headed.
Almost in sync with the smash of ice the heavy bolts snapped tight across the door, locking them inside.

The lighting switched to power saving and half the lights went out, only the buzzing of the seemingly neon bar lights could be heard as the room seemed to glow almost blue. That’s when they heard voices outside the door.

Using the titanium lock-picks that Oracle had given him as a 16th Birthday gift, Robin began to work on opening the cault door. When Batman had times him on this sort of vault it had taken Robin 13 different attempts at escaping before he succeded. After that, it had all be gravy. He had been able to get out in under 7 seconds. Unfortuantly the situation was somewhat different than the controlled version in the Bat-cave. Robin had lost 3 seconds reacting to their situation (after the blast of cold air had distracted him) and another 2 seconds getting his tools read, that only left 5 seconds to work, otherwise they were going to be here for a long while without their woolies.

"Come on you little..." Robin mumbled, as his tongue popped through his lips in an intensely thoughtful manner and his eyes were narrowing in concentration. Robin barely paid attention to Greta as she attempted to force the door open with a smoke-made-solid crowbar.

"Almost..." But Robin was torn out of his thoughts by the sound of Greta gapsing, just as a small chunk of ice collided with the top of his head. "What the...?" The momentary distraction took his attention from the door just long enough for the steel bolt to slam shut. His face contorted into a wince, before looking up at Greta who was staring at her hand in shock.

"Greta what is-" But Robin didn't get to finish as the lights of the freezer went out save for the emergency light. "Oh gee... As if we didn't have enough problems..." Robin sighed, before remembered the look of shock and fear that had appeared on Secret's face a moment ago.

"Greta are you alright?"

But before Greta could answer, Robin raised his hand for silence. Someone was outside the freezer.

Greta opened her mouth to explain she was fine but grabbed the words back before they came from her mouth when Tim motioned for silence. She too could hear the muffled sounds from outside, where the harsh air would feel warm to them right now.

Although she strained her ears to listen there was barely a word that could be made out clearly. She caught words like ‘Tonight’ and ‘Shipment’ the ever immortal gloating of ‘No-one can stop us now’. Greta hoped that with his closer proximity, Robin was having better luck with listening to what was being said.
Just as the voices got slightly louder, like a disagreement, the generator kicked in, the whirring and spluttering covering up any sounds from outside.

Rising from the freezing floor, Greta rubbed her bare arms, not noticing she was breathing faster than normal.
“Are we going to be ok in here?” She whispered, the thought of the smashed crowbar on her mind.

Raising a hand to his ear, Robin turned on his com-link again. It was difficult to listen in on the conversation outside due to the thickness of the freezer door, but most likely the eavsedropping devise that Robin had placed on Rick was still in working order.

There was a bit of static over the line, but Robin could still make out a majority of the conversation.

"Shipment's coming in tonight boss," one of them said. "Biggest one yet."

"Good, good. And everyone knows what to do right?" Rick said.

"Yeah," came the reply. "I still can't believe we've been able to pull this off without any one finding out."

"Don't you think we should slow down?" asked another voice. "What if the cops catch on to us? We got enough stuff down hear to seriously scew us over if we get caught."

"Not this again..." Rick growled. "We aren't going to get caught!"

But before Robin could further make out the rest of the conversation, the generator came to life, making it even hard to make out what was being said. "Damn..." Tim grumbled as now all he could make out was static, the generator and random words and phrases from the devise on Rick. Hopefully Oracle's computers was still recording the conversation.

“Are we going to be ok in here?” Tim heard Greta say softly. Turning around, he found her holding herself tightly so as to somehow hold back the cold. Without even a second thought, Tim slipped out of his jacket and placed it over Greta's shoulders.

"We'll be fine," he told her, allowing himself a playful smile. "We've fought demons, witch-boys, and New Gods. Somehow I doubt that a freezer is going to be the end of us. Don't worry. We'll get out of here."

“Tim?” Greta looked up in surprised at Robin when he placed his jacked around her shoulders, not enough for him to be offended by it though if he caught it. Her face then broke into a smile to match his.
“Are you sure you won’t get too cold without it?” She asked, beyond thankful as she slipped her arms into the overly large jacket. She hugged it close to her as it hung loosely about her small frame. “Thank you.” She looked away shyly.

Greta sighed, feeling slightly awkward at being locked in a freezer with the guy she secretly liked. She didn’t know what to say but sitting in silence seemed worse. She looked a cross to Tim, the blueish glow reflecting off his face, and she knew there was no one she would rather be stuck in a freezer with, although she would prefer not to be in the freezer at all
“So is it different, being in the Titans as Robin to the Young Justice days?” She asked, making small talk. The two of them hadn’t really had a close heart to heart talk in a long time.

"Cold?" Tim repeated lightly. He still remembered the time that hell had litterally frozen over and ended up with Greta being encases in ice, before getting shattered by her resurected then-evil bother harm. He sort of hoped that telling her a bit of his own slightly similar experiences might get her mind off their current snafu.

"Its not so bad really. I ever tell you about the time Mister Freeze encases me completely in ice? Head to toe. Man, I can't remember being so cold. I never thought I would be warm again. So honestly, after an experience like that, a walk-in freezer really doesn't seem as scary. Luckily Batman was able to get me back to the cave, even thought I spent two days stuck in chemical bath, until my body could recover. Definently not the funniest way to spend Spring Break."

An awkward silence then fell between the two, and the only sound that could be heard was the annoying sound of the generator.

“So is it different, being in the Titans as Robin to the Young Justice days?” Secret then asked.

Raising an eyebrow, Robin thought about it for a moment. "Honestly? Yeah it is. Don't get me wrong, Young Justice was probably one the best experiences of my life, and I still miss it. But being in the Teen Titans... Its hard to explain. With Young Justice, we were always fighting to get any sort of respect. From the JLA, the Government, the media... heck even each other sometimes. You remember how it was. But with Teen Titans... things just seemed to have clicked together for all of us. Doesn't mean I still don't miss the old days sometimes."

Robin shrugged. "So what about you? How is the new Young Justice working out?"

As they spoke, Robin kept wondering what was going on outside. He really didn't like the idea of being stuck in such an dangerous situaiton. What was Rick doing outside?

“The New Young Justice? Well its nothing like the old one, Like you said, I still miss the old days. Aside from when I was left alone all that time, it got a little lonely. The one thing I wouldn’t change about the present.” Greta smiled to herself thinking about the days when Kon was cool, acting like he was Gods scientific gift to the female population and that Wonder Woman was just waiting by her phone for his call, When Bart was hyperactive with a believed IQ in the minus, proving people wrong when he took the time to think things through, When Robin and Cassie collectively held things together, leading the team while dealing with secret identity issues, Cissies strength in leaving although she visited a fair amount. Anita was feisty, and the three versions of Lobo, all who stayed on Earth for the young girl. They both tried to be badass but they were such nice people. Then there was The Ray, Snapper Carr and The Red Tornado, all who seemed to fall off the map once the team split.

“I mean, It’s a small unit. There’s Supersonic. Marx. You know him, how hyper he is, he’s really funny. I spend most of my time hanging out with him, watching Disney movies that I really should have seen when I was 5.” Super's 'You-must-see-this-movie' speech was just…inspirational, you wanted to shoot whoever made another movie about creepy talking animals.

"Gabe, the guy who draws the cool chibi's, he's sometimes around, he's cool enough and well, you know Slo-bo."

She thought over who else was on the team. “There’s Sano, He’s cool, I mean, I haven’t spoken to him all that much but it seems like he’s going to be the mediator of the group. He’s a good guy.” True she was worried that he read her mind sometimes, going after her secrets. She just had to trust him,

“Then there’s Invisible Boy..Lad..Kid.. Lyle. He’s fairly intelligent and he’s good at helping Falcon to strategise and stuff…but.. ” A cloud seemed to obscure Greta’s face. “…He treats me like a child. He just keeps looking down on me like he knows best, always talking down to me even though I’m almost the same age as him. I know I’m not the most mature person on the team but I’m not completely immature am I?” She seemingly asked a question before looking at Tim “Am I really like that? Am I childish?” She almost pouted in wide-eyed innocence.

“And then there’s Falcon…”

Tim's eyes fell when Greta mentioned her time 'alone' during the old YJ days. She would never have any idea how much he blamed himself for what happened to her. He hadn't realized how much his leaving had truly hurt her until Darksied. If he hadn't left... But what choice did he have then?

His entire life was falling apart. His father had dumped him in Brentwood, Batman had betrayed his trust by telling Spoiler his secret ID without his permision, Spoiler felt she couldnt' trust him, and Superboy an over half of YJ felt they couldnt' trust him either.

To be honest, he had been just as alone as Greta had been.

'Story of my life,' he thought to himself cynically.

Tim continued to listen as Greta spoke abou the New Young Justice. It seemed like an okay group, though she didn't seem enitrely happy with it.

“Then there’s Invisible Boy..Lad..Kid.. Lyle," Greta said. She hadn't been looking at him, but had she, Secret would have noticed Tim's face turn into a momentary scow. The memories of the their battle against Bedlam flooded his mind. Especially when he grabbed Falcon and forced her into a kiss. But taking an inaudible sigh, he did his best to hide his annoyance.

"He’s fairly intelligent and he’s good at helping Falcon to strategise and stuff…but.. ” she continued, before cloud seemed to obscure Greta’s face. “…He treats me like a child. He just keeps looking down on me like he knows best, always talking down to me even though I’m almost the same age as him. I know I’m not the most mature person on the team but I’m not completely immature am I?” She seemingly asked a question before looking at Tim “Am I really like that? Am I childish?” She almost pouted in wide-eyed innocence.

"No," Robin said in a flat tone. "If anything, the person being childish is Norg. From what I've heard (from just about everyone on both our teams) he succesfully alienated himself from the rest of you guys five mintues into arriving in our time. He's just being a pain in the ass because he's stuck in the 21st century and can't find a way back to the 31st centruy. So now he's taking out his self-rightous attitude out on anyone within distance. That just happened to be you at the time. All that on top of his natual holier-than-thou 'I'm from the future' attitude, only adds to his ability to piss people off."

Robin's voice sounded completely serious and analytical as he spoke, much like it did when he was describing a criminal's mental profile, but hidden deeply was a wee bit of anger. Barely noticable, but it was there.

First off, Tim was pissed at Norg forcing himself on Rachel back in Hawaii and then there was the fact that Norg had hurt Greta with such callous disregard.

Yes, Tim respected Norg's skills, but his personality lacked in many areas.

"Besides, the team is called YOUNG Justice. Not senior citizen Justice. And if Oracle's files are correct, Norg is the oldest of all of you. He's just got an intergalactic stick up his butt. And according to Conner, something like that coming from ME, says quite a lot." He allowed himself a grin.

“And then there’s Falcon…” Greta began.

"...the girl who you have had daggers for since the day that you two met," Robin finished, with raised eyebrow. "Don't look at me like that, Greta. I might be a guy, but I'm a guy who was trained by... well you know. I'm not blind. Everytime you mention Rachel, you tense up and get that same look you always got whenever I'm mentioned Spoiler."

Tim leaned back and looked at her with honest eyes. "Why do you dislike Rachel so much?"

Greta found herself feeling a little bad for Lyle, It was true that he was stuck in a different time when many of the things he liked to do or the people he cared for weren’t even in existence. But he’d managed to alienate himself here too.
Bart was In the same situation and he was almost normal and well adjusted. Almost.

Although the way Tim had described the Legionnaire made her feel better, It meant he wasn’t just bugging her for no reason. For some reason though Tim spoke with more venom than she expected when it came to her teammate. Maybe there was a secret there between the two? Not that she would pry, if he felt like telling her it was his choice.

"Why do you dislike Rachel so much?"

Greta’s eyes went even wider. “Uuuh…” She looked away from Tim, towards the ceiling, a blush creeping up her face. How could she tell him part of it was a ‘Spoiler’ reason. A reason stemmed from jealousy over Rachael and Tim’s relationship, the same way she had been when she found out about Stephanie. She’s had enough restraint this time not to try to kill Tim’s current girlfriend but it didn’t mean she had to be nice.

“To start with it was just her attitude.” She voiced quietly, divulging one of her many secrets. “She’s always ‘I know I can’t do this, I know I have no powers, I know I’m useless, I know what you think of me.’ It just gets a little much.
She came from another dimension and knew…too much. She knew privileged information that people would never tell unless they were truly trusted and I didn’t think that was right. Least of all how she exploited it to get into the Batclan.”

That wasn’t the latest reason though. “When she combined with another version of herself…I don’t know, maybe she has two souls or something but its not normal, just being around her its…weird. Its hard to explain.
I have all these connections to you guys. Its like because I know you, I’ve tagged your souls. So if anything did happen to you I’d know. And her soul..is wrong…it doesn’t fit…” It was fairly creepy to talk about things like that, it made people unnerved but it was part of who she was.

“And then there’s you. I didn’t like how she treated you. Your special to me Tim.” She couldn’t believe this was coming out of her mouth, her brain was screaming at her to stop but…it was time he knew. “You saved me. Not just my life, though Kon and Bart helped in that part, you understood me when everyone else wanted to kill me. Then you gave me somewhere to belong, you gave me friends, you gave me a name, a past, a future. A chance to find out who I really could become.”

To lighten the mood she cleared her throat “*Ahem* That’s all I can think off…Off the top of my head.”

There is no way she could look at him now. At least she managed to get through it all. She partially hid inside Tim’s coat, so only her eyes, that were fixed on the floor, were visible.

Much to Secret's suprise, Robin was chuckling a bit to himself and shaking his head. He stood up and moved to sit down besides Greta on a large wooden case of milk. He had a small feeling that Greta was exagerating the ‘I know I can’t do this, I know I have no powers, I know I’m useless, I know what you think of me’ bit. Rachel was often fearful of whether she was good enough, but still...

Tim was still hurt at how things between him and Rachel had ended. He couldn't say he wasn't. He was never sure if they would have the friendship they once had, but he would always care about her. Just like he woudl always care about Greta.

"Greta, you're special to me too. And you that I'm your friend," he said. "So that means I can get away with total honesty without fear of phsyical assults upon my person. But I can be blunt, it seems like your trying too hard to dislike Falcon."

"Have you ever taken a real movement to get to know Falcon?" He asked. "I mean, HONESTLY get tp know here. Not just at meetings and running into one another in the hallways. Try having a conVersation without..."

Robin trailled off slightly. He had heard from Beast Boy and Supersonic (two big team gossips) about how Secret had behaved so... snappish towards Falcon. (Catty had been Gar's exact words)

"Rachel came from a dimension where there are no metahumans and everything here is nothing more than a comic book. She's been forced to not only adapt to a new city, but an entirely new universe all together."

He sighed and thought back to when Batman and he had found her lost in a Gotham Alleyway after being plucked away from home. "She never asked to come here and she certainly didn't exploit the knowledge she gain to join the Clan. You've met Batman. You know he doesn't allow himself to exploited by ANYONE."

"Batman let Falcon join because he saw something in her. I saw something in her. She earned her spot in the Clan."

"And as for her doublel-soul not being normal..." Tim shot a smile. He had to admit he found the Warder aspects of Greta uneasy, primarily the abyss part, but he had beeb able to move past that. It was part of who she was.

"Greta, you're more or less the personification of death, Raven's a demon's daughter reincarnated for a third time, Hal Jordan is part human part God's spirit of revenge, Wonder Woman was a Goddess of Truth, and Conner is the clone of Superman... Unsual aspects to our people in the costume community is basically par of the course."

"Greta..." Tim placed a finger under Greta's face so as to lift her head up slightly. "You don't need to like Falcon. And you don't need to be best friends, but you and her are going to be working close together. Maybe you should try getting to know her. What could it hurt?"

This was great, first time she’d had in months to really talk to Tim and they were discussing his ex-girlfriend. Did he still love her?

Maybe it was the fact Rachael had had the chance to have a normal life in both worlds, if she'd chosen to, Batman would have had no issues to find a cover identity for her, letting her lead a semi normal life, she'd also had more than one chance...if she remembered correctly, to go home, to her dimension. If she didn’t want to go back she didn’t have the right to bitch about being here.

Possibly Greta was jealous, yeah, again, she hadn't been very old when her life was taken from her and she became this...thing, had people always after things from her, forcing her into a never-ending battle between good and inevitable evil. If she'd had Rachael’s choice, to go home, to her mommy who recognised her as her little girl and her daddy who didn’t tremble when he looked into her eyes. She doubted she'd have to think more than twice.

Tim came close and sat with her, It made her feel more comfortable. When he said he could say what he wanted without fear of physical assault she had to fight a giggle, to be honest she’d possible fought Tim the most, of course when she was evil. Right now she wouldn’t lay a finger on him…least not in that way.

He raised her face to be level with his, although her eyes didn’t quite follow. What could it hurt? She raised her eyes to look into his. This was the wrong time to act…bratty and say ‘Me.’ Or vicious and say ‘her’

“I take it you don’t mean I pin her to the floor and ask her favourite ice cream?” She asked with a small smile.
If she did think about it, from a certain point of view, one that wasn’t hers, she could feel a little sorry for Rachael. Having her world turned upside down, having secret information. Maybe they were a few things there she could…have a ‘talk’ about, relate to. “I guess we could…..try. Maybe.”

A thought then occurred to her, a delayed reaction on what he had said.

“Wait, you mean the death thing doesn’t bother you?!” She asked, a strain of excitement evident in her voice. “Maybe we could see if we could smoke jump out!”
It came out before she thought it over, so when it actually was processed by her brain it caused a slight frown. “…And then you’d turn into a block of ice again and that would be bad”

“I guess we could…..try. Maybe.” Greta said.

"That's the least anyone can do," Tim said, nudging Greta's shoulder with his own.

“Wait, you mean the death thing doesn’t bother you?!” She asked, a strain of excitement evident in her voice. “Maybe we could see if we could smoke jump out!”

It came out before she thought it over, so when it actually was processed by her brain it caused a slight frown. “…And then you’d turn into a block of ice again and that would be bad”

"Yeah... maybe just a little," Tim said, keeping his voice light. Yes, he had accepted the death aspect of Secret's life. But the whole freezing alive in the darkned abbyss of the afterlife still wasn't something he'd pay tickets for.

"But we can't stand around here waiting for..." Tim trailed off, as the buzzing of the freezer engine began to die down. He raised a hand to his com-devise hoping to hear something from the the eavsedropping devise on Rick's shirt.

Greta smiled a little when Tim nudged her shoulder, he was being playful, something that wasn't seen often.

Suddenly it went silent, there was still background noise and the fools outside the door couldn't be heard still but with the over powering sound of the generator now silent it was as if the only allowable level would be to whisper. "Tim??"

Robin listened intently to the whispered voices of Rick and the others. There was another voice in the group, but no names were swapped. They were arguring about the arrival time again, but before Robin could make out anything futher the engine kicked in yet again.

"Oh come on!" he snapped in a low whisper. "That isn't even funny..."

He sighed loudly and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Silence had fallen between the two once again, and Tim found himself thinking about the old YJ days. After Darkseid had disowned Greta the first time, the two of them hadn't talked much. Sure they had swapped e-mails and stuff, but it had gone more distant over the time.

And then there was the inicident where Darkseid had attempted to once again turn Greta. That had been an even closer shave than the last time.

"Greta..." he began. "How have you been. Honestly? You know... since... Apokolips?" He frowned slightly, knowing he should bring up that topic here, but on some level it felt as good of a time as any.