This takes place after TRUST.

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The sun had begun set in Manchester Alabama and the shadows began to creep over the campus of the Elias School of Girls. The all female student body was just recently getting out of classes and going to their dorms to change, shower and eat. And with everyone else preocupied no one took much notice of the odd purple, white and gold New Genisis Super-Cycle landing in a park across the street from the main gate of the school.

Tim Drake climbed off the highly intellegent vehicle who was purring in an overly happy kind of way. Tugging at the dark red high color sweater he had opted to wear, he look over at the school's gate with a bit of apprehension. The Super-Cyle meanwhile had opened a hatch that extended a large mirror and positioned it in front of Tim.

"Trying to tell me something boy?" Tim asked, before looking to the mirror and pushing down an out of place cow-lick. His hair always looked like that, but it never stopped him from trying to gain control.

The Cycle then quickly retrived the mirror and began pushing Tim forward. "Hey! Who's more excited about this? You or me?"

The Cycle didn't reply but kept pushing Tim forward and reving its engines in a manner similar to someone saying 'go. go. go.'

"I'm going, I'm going!" the teen said firmly. Walking over to the front gate, Tim pressed the call button and soon a high nasally voice was heard on the com.

"Welcome to the Elais School for Girl. Please state your name and your purpose for being here."

Tim shifted shyly, glad no one could see him aside from a certain pushy motorcycle. "I'm Tim Drake. I'm here to pick up Greta Hayes."

"One moment please."

Tim looked about awkardly. It had been so long since had been on a date. His real date had been with Rachel when she told him she was leaving Gotham. And now he was going out with Greta Hayes.

He wasn't sure what changed exactly. He had always seen her as a little sister who needed protecting. Maybe it was the fact she had a real brother and Tim was able to look at her differently. Or maybe it was always there and he never wanted to admit it. Or maybe things just happen.

Whatever it was, he smiled. He was going on a date.

“Ok, He’s getting out of the cycle...Awww, its so cute! The Cycle, not Tim.”
“What colour is he wearing?”“…he’s *giggle* fixing his hair!”
“Cassie! Cissie’s gonna flip if you don’t tell us what he’s wearing?!”
“Calm down Duo! Ok, he’s wearing a red top and I think black pants”
“….ok, Cissies nodding, I think she approves.”
“[Well done Tim, you passed and you didn’t even try.] Oh, he’s buzzing in!!”
“What?! That wasn’t in the plan! He’s being all…real date-ish!!”
“Is she ready? The office will call up!”

Like all teenage girls they'd managed to work out, fairly quickly, why Greta was so happy. The whole day was spent giving her tips and hint on what to do and to say if Tim did certain things. Cassie suggested she just be herself, Cissie suggested she read the situation and act how she thought he wanted her to act. She'd suggested a walkie talkie situation, but Cassie and Greta had said no right away. "Tim was trained by the worlds greatest detective! You think he won't notice that?!" Duo joining in to make the sentance in trio. Duo's advice was to be as rude and loud as possible because that would get rid of him. The others werent quite sure she understood the point of the exersise.

After about four hours of preperation Greta was dressed in a powder blue summer dress and matching Mary Janes, her white knee high socks came to the hem of the dress, so you'd almost think them tights, and her beige fitted jacket was almost as long. "Do you think i look ok?" Greta asked worryingly as the phone rang.
As Cissie put the finishing touches to her hair, a simple blue and white clip and Cassie clipped a necklace of diffrent shades of pink around her neck she picked up the phone. Ms Chambers was at the other end of the line, informing her that a 'Very formal Mr Drake had arrived and that they should have been informed sooner, though there was a note in the books about it.' She'd gone there early this morning, making sure the administration wasn't going to ruin her first date. After a couple of minutes Greta was blushing as she was being told exactly what not to do with this 'type of boy'. Apparently Ms Chambers knew everything about this 'Drake's' type.

Finally free of the lecture after passing the phone to Duo, (the conversation moved to grades) Greta picked up her purse and smoke jumped to the empty hallway outside the main entrance. She signed herself out of the out book and opened the door, stepping out into the bright sunlight. for a moment she was sure the girls had got it all wrong, but then she saw a dark haird boy step out from behind the brick pillar. She was pleasantly surprised that he had come as himself, no disgises, nothing. As she reached the iron gates she waited to be let out. "Hi." She couldn't think of anything else to say.

As Tim waited patiently for Greta to arrive, he started to sneeze several times. He instinctively grabbed for the handkerchief that Alfred always made him carry, out of his pocket and wiped his nose. For some reason the supersticion 'when you sneeze, someone's talking about you' popped into his head. He of course shrugged that off, and returned the piece of cloth back into his pocket as he continued to wait.

Before showing up Kon, Bart and Dick had all made a point to stop by or call and give him 'advise'. Dick had said to be himself, but let her take the perverbal lead in things. Don't push, since most women (at least the ones Dick dated) hated that.

Conner had of course told him to be swave, and show her how tough and fun he could be. Superboy quickly amended 'In other words: don't be yourself.' (Urge to find Kryptonite, rising...)

Bart meanwhile was telling him to buy her lots of stuff, cause girls like getting lots of things. He said to buy her a monkey, cause all girls like monkeys. They called them cute. And not to call Greta fat. And to not take her to a place with 'GIRLS! GIRLS! GIRLS' on the sign. Bart had blushed about that point and wouldn't explain that little story.

Tim, while nervous about the impending evening, wasn't sure why they were making such a big deal about it. It wasn't like he had never gone on a date before. But then again, he was more worried about what could happen. The blind-date that Oracle and Nightwing had set him up with Cissie wasn't all wine and roses, since they had been interupted by the Riddler who had locked them in a vault and tried to kill them.

He was brought out of his musings as he heard footsteps approaching the gate. He stepped out from around the brick pillar to see Greta. He felt his heart skip a beat at the sight of her. "Hi," she said with a smile.

"Hi yourself," he said, unable to take his eyes off her. "You look great," he added, trying to supress his urge to wince. He had known Greta for nearly 2 full years now and he could only say 'she looked great'. Oh yeah, real debonare boy wonder...

He then remembered the gift Alfred had told him to bring and pulled a single rose out from behind his back and held it up, while smiling. "For the lady."

Greta couldn't help but blush when she was given the flower. It was the first time anyone had ever given her a rose, or anything else for that matter in this kind of situation before. "Um..Thank you" She said softly, they weren't the right words. They weren't good enough. They didn't express how much being given the rose meant to her. She tried to show some restraint by not throwing her arms around him but instead she closed her eyes nd breathed in the sweet smell of the flower.

"I..uh...like your sweater. Red really suits you." She'd been at a loss for words, not knowing what to say because this was really her first time in this situation. Her first date. And as she listened to herself she internally sighed. She sounded so lame.

Noticing the lack of a car she asked "How are we getting to New York?" Wondering if that was still the plan or they were going to do something closer, like see a movie. Or maybe the only reason he'd asked her is because he wanted to go to New York and had no car and she'd have to SmokeJump them both there! While internally analising it all it didn't occur to her that he'd have got from Gothem to here how? and also the fact it would have been easier for him to just go to NY in the first place.

Tim turned on a right angle, one hand out, indicating the parked Supercycle. With a smile on her face she fell into step with him as they headed towards it.

"I..uh...like your sweater. Red really suits you."

"Thanks. It was... um... a gift from my Dad and step-mom," Tim replied, brushing back a bit of his hair.

Small talk. He couldn't believe it. They were resorting to small talk. A pair of teenagers, who had been friends for a good long while, faced the biggest bads in the galaxy and they wree using small talk.

And he mentioned his step-mom. He had just taken a big step in the personal life department. Did he ever mention Dana before to Greta? He knew he had mentioned his father before but never Dana. At least, he didn't think he had. He rarely if ever went into his personal life around the others. It wasn't that he was ashamed or didn't trust them, far from it. But he had never been one to talk about himself much and of course the whole secret identity training was difficult to get past. Would she ask about his real mom? Did she even notice?

Most of the others knew that he was Tim Drake, but most of them didn't know anything beyond that. It wasn't like they would do a background check on his family. They were the kind of people who let a homicidal bounty-hunter join their first team. After they found out his ID, did they care about anything else?

Tim was brought out of his thoughts by Greta's next comment. "How are we getting to New York?"

Tim shifted awkwardly from his left foot to his right and pointed to the Super-Cycle. He didn't have a car with him, since of course it would be a 6 hour drive from the Elais School to New York. But he wasn't sure how Greta would react to flying on the Super-Cycle on their first date. Would she be disapointed?

Maybe New York was too big of a step for them. Maybe she thought he was trying too hard. Was he?

'Jeeze...' Tim thought to himself. 'I can lead a team of super-powered metahuman teenagers into war, but I'm second guessing myself over a simple date. There is something VERY wrong with this...'

He looked at Greta who was smiling at him. Here he was with a beautiful girl, and he was brooding over every little detail, and she was smiling. 'Wow, she's beautiful,' he thought to himself.

"I hope you don't mind taking the Super-Cycle," he said. "I know its not hte most conventional date vehicle, but I thought you might like the flying. And I'm pretty sure the Super-Cycle wanted to chaffuer us. He's been really excited for some reason..."

He chuckled as the Cycle reved its engines in mock-insult. "So you've never seen Phantom of the Opera before...?" he asked, as he helped Secret into the Super-Cycle.

"I like it." She said simply, still smiling. It wavered for a second when he mentioned his family, aside from business-like quotes from the members of the Batclan, Tim avoided talking about his family, and it then occured to her how much she was going to have the oppertunity to find out. She hadn't known about his step-mom, was his father divorced or did something else happen? Did he have any brothers or sisters? Did they know about his alter ego? Then there were the other types of questions, what was the name of his childhood teddy bear? Did he have an imaginary friend? What were his dreams and fears? Was he afraid of the dark?

So much for her trying to let Tim keep his secrets she though as she internally winced, asking the boy wonder."Is it weird? Having a step-mom i mean?" She wasn't very good at this. She'd almost asked bluntly Why? what happened to your mom? which would have gone down like a lead balloon.

"So you've never seen Phantom of the Opera before...?"

"No." Greta's curls fluttering as she shook her head, taking the extended hand to climb in the cycle. "I was going to see it with my mom, but ....a few things got int the way." It wasn't hard to tell that by 'things' she ment her death and possibly her mothers insanity in the hereafter. For some reason Greta didn't mind talking with Tim about things like that asm much as she did other people. It could be that she knew he'd seen almost every bad thing life could throw at a person.

As she took a seat in the cycle she was still smilng. He'd said date. It was really a DATE! "I don;t mind having the cycle fly us, in fact, i appreciate it." She said as she patted the cycles polished dash.

Tim shifted his weight a bit and cast Greta a side glance. Yup. She had noticed, the family slip-up.

He didn't reply immediately, as he mulled over his answer. She didn't know much about Tim Drake did she? Robin the leader yes. Did she have feelings for the costume as oppose to the person behind the mask? He remembered having this same uncertainty when he was with Stephanie.

"I guess it is sometimes," Tim answered finally. "Dana's really cool though. I mean, she'll never be my mother, and she doesn't try to be. But you know... she's always there for me and my Dad. We owe her so much after..."

Tim paused for a bit and his expression turned sorrowful. He had often wondered what would have happened if Dana hadn't been his Dad's physical Therapist. After the Obeah Man had attacked killed Janet Drake and left Jack crippled, Tim had thought any chance of having a real family were over.

Tim looked at Greta. He didn't want to burdern her with this kind of stuff. But then again, she too understood what it was like to loose a parent. Her father, her mother.

They were supposed to be having fun. And saying 'My mom was killed by a psychotic Voodoo Witch Doctor, and my dad was crippled while I was still training to be Robin,' on the first date... well it sounded like a real mood kill.

"Oh, umm... sorry," Tim said, as the Super-Cycle nuzzled Greta's hand affectionately. "I think you'll really like the show though. I saw the traveling version once before when I was 8. My folks were big supporters of the theater and they took me with them when certain shows came into town. We would go when ever they were in town to take me."

Reving up its engine, the Super-Cycle lifted up into the sky. Adjusting the course, Tim cast Greta a side glance.

"Oh, umm... sorry," Tim said, as the Super-Cycle nuzzled Greta's hand affectionately. "I think you'll really like the show though. I saw the traveling version once before when I was 8. My folks were big supporters of the theater and they took me with them when certain shows came into town. We would go when ever they were in town to take me."

Greta smiled warmly. "Sounds like you had fun, you must have a lot of good memories."

It seemed they both had tragedies in their pasts, through one reason or another there had been deaths and darkness and it was all Greta wanted was to bring the Boy Wonder a little light.

"Ok, lets leave the bad parts for when we've drunk too much Pepsi, what about we play a game?" Greta was a little worried this sounded weird but it would be a sure way to get Tim to lighten up and learn more about the Boy behind the Bat-mask.

"What you have to do is tell little wierd things that you remember from your past that make you happy. ok, I'll go first." Greta thought past all the bad memories, being locked away and feeling alone and tried to find a happy memory.

"When I was little my mom used to always make a big blueberry pie every two weeks because it was hers and my dads favorite. But she used to make me a special little apple pie because she knew that was my favorite." Even though it was such a small thing it meant so much to the young Warder that it was one of the few things she remembered when she last all but a few memories.

She looked across to Tim, hoping he would play. "Your turn."

Tim allowed himself a wide smile as Greta suggested each of them telling childhood memories. He knew the start of an interogation when he heard them. But he didn't mind. First date requirement. Besides, he always loved hearing about Greta's childhood. Before all the death and loss, she had been such a happy child it seemed with such good parents.

And the story about her mother making her fresh apple pies sounded really nice. His own mother didn't cook much when he was growing up, since she was often busy working or going to her many social events.

"Your turn."

Robin thought for a minute, trying to think of something. "Umm... okay... Well, when I was little I had a stuffed monkey named Bernie that I used to lug around everywhere with me." Tim gave a small blush. He hadn't told anyone about the toy, not even his ex-girlfriends. When he was little he was forced to spend a lot of time at home with Mrs. Mac. His parents were always traveling or going to their social events so that toy had been his best friend. "My Grandmother gave it to me, since I liked the circus so much."