Barbara Gordon - Oracle (knowsherstuff) wrote in newalliance, @ 2012-03-23 11:53:00 |
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Entry tags: | blue beetle ii, oracle |
Who: Barbara Gordon and Ted Kord
Where: Gotham City, Fieri’s Restaurant
When: Friday Evening, 3/23
What: Babs and Ted’s Excellent Date!
Rating: Safe for Work
Barbara smoothed out the skirt of her dress and fidgeted nervously with her hair before she forced her hands to calm down. She had gotten a table for two at the restaurant and told the hostess that she was expecting a friend and that he would be wearing a blue tie. The woman gave her a look when Barbara couldn’t elaborate beyond that. She wanted desperately to pull out her phone, to have something to distract her from how nervous she was, but in the end, she knew that if she pulled out her phone, her attention would be gone.
She hadn’t really been sleeping well this week--between taking care of Doug Ramsey, fighting with and apologizing to Dick and (oh yeah) the Joker escaping from jail, her mind had been in a million different places. However, at the moment, all she could really worry about was what Beeb was like. He talked about pizza so much--she couldn’t help wonder what he would look like, which she felt a little ashamed about. He was kind and funny and interested in the same things as her, and wasn’t that enough to have a nice dinner?
Ted was so nervous - and sore. Thanks to last nights scuffle with those two guys trying to boost a TV from an apartment, Ted was moving a bit slow today. But even the ache in his shoulder wasn’t enough to distract him from how nervous he felt right now. He was sure that anyone sitting near the front of the restaurant might have wondered why he had paced up and down in front of the restaurant a few times, as he worked up the courage to go into the restaurant.
Hindsight being 20/20 and all that, Ted wished he had gotten a phone number. Or some way to send RollThunder a message. A kind of “you here?” message. A kind of ‘can you stand up and wave?’ message. A ‘I’m so sorry but I’m so sick and I can’t make it today …’ message.
Really Ted just hoped that RollThunder was a girl. And not fourteen. Oh god he hoped she was over twenty. Oh god he hoped he wasn’t about to be featured on an episode of Dateline.
Entering the restaurant, he told the hostess that he was here to meet someone, and then proceeded to stand there, feeling a sweat breaking out as he looked around the restaurant. Yellow dress … yellow dress … where was a yellow dress? He reached up and tugged at his blazingly bright blue tie, and thought about standing there and making the rock on hand symbol.
Barbara fidgeted nervously, wondering if she should have mentioned her distinctive red hair or if they should have agreed on a form of communication. That was when the hostess caught her eye. She knew the woman from being a regular at the restaurant, and so obviously the hostess was on her side, gesturing to a man by the door. Barbara peered at him as inconspicuously as she could.
The tie was absurdly blue. That had to be him.
She smiled and nodded to the hostess who, in turn, turned to Ted. “Right this way...”
“Right …” Ted followed the hostess, who seemed to be more in the loop then he was. That was awesome, because it meant that he didn’t have to stand there at the entrance to the restaurant looking like an idiot. And it saved him from flashing the rock on sign at the rest of the restaurant at large.
The hostess lead him towards a table that a woman was sitting at - and there was yellow in her dress, although Ted wasn’t sure if he would call that a yellow dress. Then again - Ted knew that when it came to fashion that he wasn’t really in the know.
And once his brain finished going over the dress detail his brain pointed out that she was a woman. A grown up. And hot.
“Hi.” Ted figured that was a good way to go. He hoped he wasn’t grinning like a goof. He thought he might be grinning like a goof.
“Hi.” Barbara replied with a smile. She got to her feet, hoping her legs would keep her up at this crucial moment. “Beeb, right?” She held out her hand, still smiling. He was cute! And did not seem like a basement dwelling, mouth breather at all! He seemed downright well adjusted! “I’m Barbara.” She couldn’t tell if it was her imagination or if her voice had raised an octave in pitch. I really need to get out more.
“And you must be RollThunder.” He took the hand that was held out and shook it. “Also known as Barbara. And I’m also known as Ted.” Okay so far so good, he had managed to talk and he hadn’t just kept talking. He also hadn’t released her hand - oh god he was holding her hand too long! He was - he was still holding her hand.
Ted released Barbara’s hand, and let it drop to his side, not sure what he should be doing with it.
“Here, I can get your chair - if you want to sit. Back down that is.” Oh god of course she wanted to sit back down, she wouldn’t want to stand and eat, right? Okay, he had to calm down and not be such a dork.
He hoped they could get to the food part soon. If he was busy eating he wouldn’t be busy making a fool of himself. This was so much easier when it was online. And a pretty redhead wasn’t standing across from him.
Barbara was an observant person by nature, and so she instantly took notice when his hand kept holding hers after the handshake. The corners of her smile twitched a little, either due to nerves or the fact that she wanted to laugh. She probably wasn’t the only nervous one on the date. Her hand was released in one sudden motion, and then they were just standing staring at each other. This was so much easier when it was online.
“Sure, let’s sit,” she agreed, moving back to her seat and waiting for him to push in her chair. It was actually a relief to be sitting. The gravitas of this meet up, coupled with Bruce’s warning at the party, had her so nervous that she was going to have random flare ups of ticks and spasms and numbness--all of which could be better masked while sitting. “So, how was your trip in?”
After assisting with the chair (and not like … shoving it so that he shoved her into the table. Score one for Ted.) Ted moved to his side of the table and took a seat. He placed his hands on the table, and resisted the urge to pick up the salt and pepper shakers so that his hands would have something to do.
“It was uneventful. Nice. Calm. I guess it hasn’t been a calm few days here ...” He read the news - and it had seemed like a rough couple of days for Gotham. Even by Gotham standards.
Barbara’s smile grew a little bit strained at those words. “No, it hasn’t really...my dad’s a cop. Things have been pretty crazy for them lately.” She drummed her fingers against her lap, feeling uneasy with the topic. “So...pizza! They have good little pies here, but they also swear by the scallopini if you were feeling more adventurous.”
She grabbed her menu off the table, scanning down the options. “So what do you do for a living, Ted? You said you were your own boss...”
Oh man, he had just walked into something hadn’t he? Her dad was a cop, here in Gotham. Man, her dad must be brave. Or - well he had heard the stories about Gotham’s police force, but he wasn’t going to say that out loud. Sometimes the brain to mouth filter worked.
He picked up the menu that was close to him and began scanning it. Pizza … Pizza and scallopini? Did he want to show that he was adventurous? This was the girl who talked about rock climbing equipment online … she was probably the adventurous type. He could always come back to try the pizza ...
“Well I’m thinking scallopni! I mean man can not live on pizza alone.” He debated with himself how he was going to answer that question, then figured the truth would probably be best in this case. “I work for Kord Omniversal Research and Development Inc.” Gosh that was always such a mouthful. “I sort of head up the New York department.” He fiddled with his menu for a second. “Since my last name’s Kord - well it’s nepotism at work!”
There that was more then enough about him; “So what about you? Besides fighting ninjas and juggling chainsaws that is?”
Babs smiled, guessing that he worked for Kord Omniversal from what she had dug up in his IP logs, but she hadn’t known that he was an heir to the company. Was that just her type? Did she just magically make these guys materialize out of thin air? At least he wasn’t running around every night in tights, she thought to herself, terribly amused by the coincidence. Unlike the Wayne heir, Ted seemed at least a little bit interested in what his father did.
“I’m an Information Systems specialist by trade,” she explained, though she was pretty sure the techie part was clear from their conversations online. “I’m part of the adjunct faculty at Gotham University, and I’m a tech consultant in my spare time. Plus, I make set aside whatever time I can for my own little projects--the chainsaws and ninjas and the like. You know how it is.” She laughed, taking a sip from the water glass on the table. So they had technology in common--it seemed for all they had been talking so far, they hadn’t gotten into any unexplored territory just yet.
It wasn’t long before a waiter came by to take their orders, giving Barbara a moment to think about better questions to ask. She had interrogated the scum of the earth as Batgirl, and yet she was struggling to vet her new friend. “So, honestly. Do I look like what you were imagining from online?” That was a potential can of worms to open up, but they were both nervous anyway. Why not find a way to break the ice?
“Wow. Your part of the faculty, and you consult, and you still manage to have spare time?” Ted was finding it rather hard to balance Blue Beetle business and Kord Inc business right now, and having an even harder time finding time for a social life. So naturally he had started to let Kord Inc business slide a little bit, delegating more and more …
Of course, not being part of a school faculty, he had no idea how much of her time that ate up. Probably less then heroing - maybe. Dan had managed to be both a full time professor and the original beetle. Not for the first time Ted had a ‘Man I wish you were here Dan’ moment.
After placing his order for the scallopini, he reached for his water glass. He was raising it up to take a drink when she asked if she looked like he thought she would. He was so glad he hadn’t had a chance to get the water into his mouth. It probably would have sprayed out all over her. Then this dat - dinner would probably be over.
“Ahh. Well. No. I mean that sounds wrong, but the red hair is a surprise.” Oh god, oh god he was going to not be able to stop talking, he could feel word vomit coming on. “And honestly, I was thinking I was going to show up here today and meet another guy. Or you know, a camera crew and I’d be invited to be a very special guest on Dateline.” Should he have shared that? Did that make it sound like he trolled around the Internet chatting people up in hopes of meeting them in real life. So just in case she thought that he added; “And this is the first time I’ve ever done anything like this. You can probably tell. So I wasn’t sure what to expect. But not - you. I mean you seem normal. Nice. I’m going to stop now. But first actually I’m going to turn that question on you, do I match your mental image?”
He took a long drink from his glass of water. Because wow, he had just talked a lot there.
Barbara actually had taken a sip of water, and it was a struggle to keep it inside her mouth when he made the crack about Dateline. She brought a hand to her face, swallowing hard before letting out the laugh that was trapped inside of her. “Well I don’t think they usually do To Catch a Predator in crowded public spaces, but...” She smiled, snapping off a piece of breadstick. “To answer your return question, no, you’re not how I imagined, but in all fairness, that’s only because you never mentioned working out in the midst of all the pizza talk...”
She shrugged, feeling a little sheepish that her answer was so superficial. “You know the stereotypes that hang around people who spend a lot of their time playing with technology and gadgets...” After all, Ted had thought she was most likely a man. “But you seem normal too. And nice. Which makes for a nice--” She almost said ‘change of pace’ but held herself back. “Dinner.” She grinned, popping the piece of breadstick in her mouth. “So what do we even talk about? I mean, I know your hobbies...oh! speaking of which, I checked out those specs you send me like two weeks ago? I know I was supposed to look sooner, but it’s been crazy lately with a lot of consulting. So elegant!”
Shop talk. That was nice and comfortable between them, and besides that, now she was finally sitting in front of a guy who wouldn’t be totally intimidated by a girl talking tech.
“Oh I know.” Ted answered with a laugh, glad for once that becoming Blue Beetle had meant he had to start working out. Seriously. Because it allowed him to eat what he liked (more or less … maybe not as much as he liked, or all the things he liked) and fit in his Beetle suit. And his regular suits for that mater. “Had you know me in university, I was … bordering on that stereotype.” Well he had had longer hair then, didn’t get out into the sun much, and had a collection of t-shirts that said geeky things.
All that really had changed was the hair cut actually. And he had started to work out more.
“Oh, thanks! I’m pretty proud of those specs.” He was too, they were going to help make the Bug real, and not just a bunch of sketches and half assembled piece's of equipment. “Sorry to hear works crazy, but it’s nice to be busy isn’t it? I mean I think it is … keeps me from getting into trouble.” Except for the part where he sought out trouble to try and put a stop to it.
And shop talk was nice and comfortable, and Ted would be so happy to keep it going. Except not that he was sitting across from a real person, he figured non shop talk had to happen to. Besides- he was kind of curious.
“So did you go to school at Gotham University? I went to Empire State.”
“Yeah, Gotham U--I wanted to stay local,” Barbara explained. She could have easily gone someplace more prestigious (and she had a feeling that Bruce had wanted that for her) but Batgirl had already been a part of her life, and there had been Dick to think of. And her father. Sometimes, she bore a lot of responsibility for others on her shoulders. “At first I thought I wanted to be a librarian, but you know...the life seemed too crazy for me, so I went into technology.”
She had to marvel at how nice and normal this was. She hadn’t even thought she could behave well in nice and normal situations anymore. Dinah was going to be so proud--
The thought made her remember that she had promised to send Dinah a message during this date. “Okay, one weird request. I have a kind of over-protective friend, and she wanted me to take a picture of my date and send it to her so that she would know I’m safe...she doesn’t really get how the internet works, so you’ll have to forgive her for thinking you were just going to swoop in and shove me into an unmarked van. Would it be okay if I took one?” Otherwise she would just quickly google ‘Ted Kord’ and see what popped up. She knew that Dinah mostly wanted the picture to be able to judge how Babs’s date was going (even though Barbara still held firm that it had not been a date until Ted had shown up not looking bizarre).
“Well I hear the life of a librarian is super wacky. What with the books - and the fines. And the paper cuts.” He didn’t say - and he was so proud of himself that he didn’t say - that if she had gone the librarian route that he bet more people would have started using the library. Or more people of the male persuasion would have started using the library. “Well the libraries loss is the tech worlds gain …”
The phrase ‘one weird request’ sent alarm bells ringing in his head. Okay here it came. She liked to eat with her toes. Or she liked to dress up as a medieval chick and get all Xena on people in some sort of roleplaying group. Okay that last one might not be so bad. As long as she didn’t need to be called by her made up name during dinner. Honestly he was getting lost in his own thoughts that he almost missed what she had said.
And compared to what he had been thinking that seemed so … reasonable.
“Oh that’s cool.” Even if now the nervousness was ratcheting up again. Ted didn’t think he took good photos. And god he hoped he wasn’t going to end up on some website called ‘Gullible Shmucks’. Which he figured was a website showing all the gulliable guys that had gotten ripped off by women posing as nice, smart, librarians who had gone into the tech field, but in actually were running some kind of scam. He didn’t think that was going to happen. He hoped that wasn’t going to happen.
“Should I just wave, look non threatening? I’m thinking going outside and taking the picture outside my dark windowed van would probably not re-assure your friend….”
"Probably not," Barbara agreed, grinning in spite of herself. Ted was funny! She liked that about him. "Why don’t we just have you smile? You have a nice smile." She was definitely interested in this guy, and that brought out her flirty side. It was an oft-neglected side of herself, but really flirting was like a bicycle. Just had to get back in the driver’s seat and go.
She lifted her phone, opening up one of those fancy applications with filters that she could use to make the photograph look stellar. She waited for him to be ready, then carefully aimed and took the picture. It took the program a moment to process, and the end result wasn’t half bad. She turned the phone around, leaning closer across the table to show Ted. “Well, does it capture you?”
This was going far to well - far far too well. She was nice and normal seeming and hot (was it shallow that he thought that? Well … it was true. And it was just like the fact that she was really attractive was a bonus …) so Ted was prepared for something to happen. For him to do something that was going to derail this dinner thing they were doing.
So until he did something to cause things to take a turn, Ted was going to enjoy things.
He smiled for the phone, and then leaned over the table and took a look at the picture. “I think I look decidedly non serial killer. That is one amazing camera on that phone.”
Leaning forward like that made something in his back go ouch, reminding him that he had been out and about the night before fighting crime, and crime had fought back. Ted ignored his back (mostly) and sat back in his seat, glad that dinner wasn’t on the table yet, or else he would have probably dragged his tie through it.
Barbara smiled, sitting back in her seat and pulling her phone against her lap. She rattled off a quick text to Dinah, sending along the picture before tucking the phone away. The food had just arrived, and when a heaping plate of raviolis was set in front of her, she suddenly found herself wishing she had ordered a salad like Dinah had asked if she would. She picked up her fork and knife, trying to make dainty cuts in the ravioli when she would normally be shoving them whole into her mouth.
“I hope you like the food--or at least that it was worth the trek out to Gotham for it.” She finally put a small bit of food in her mouth, and it was all she could do to just make herself chew the delicious pasta patiently instead of wolfing it down indelicately, which she would have done if she was just here with a friend. “I’m really glad we are finally doing this...after all that time talking online.”
This was a restaurant, and a nice one at that so despite the overwhelming desire to act like he hadn’t eaten in days (and it hadn’t been days, it had been a few hours) because the food was that good Ted reminded himself that he had manners. Even if it was hard.
“I do like the food.” Said without a mouthful of said food. “It’s very good, I’ll have to make the trek out to Gotham more often.” For the food. And maybe the company. Hopefully the company, but man Ted didn’t want to presume. Also he was now having vaguely panicky what if she doesn’t like me, what if she never talks to me ever again - what if I’ve lost a really cool online pal moment.
“Me too. It’s nice to put a face to the screen name, and a voice.” He paused as he took a bite of food, made sure to swallow before going on. Although if he had been chatting with her at home, he’d be in his sweatpants, and stuffing pizza in his face …
Yeah. This was better.
“Although it’s going to be a bit harder to share funny videos of cats. I mean I can describe the funny video of a cat to you, but it will probably lose something in the translation.” Not that he wanted to go back to just chatting online. Oh great, he hoped he wasn’t implying that. “But I mean, who says people can’t hang out in person and chat online and wow. This is really good. So I’m going to stop talking for a moment, and put food in my mouth.” Instead of his foot.
They came to a silent agreement that it was okay to eat and not make small talk for a few minutes. Once she had made some headway into the ravioli (one itty bitty bit at a time), Barbara picked back up the small talk. Despite how weird and nerve-wracking the situation was intrinsically, she found that she liked talking to Ted. That only made it all the more nerve-wracking as the food started to disappear. “So I said ‘motherboard’? That’s a mother something!” She giggled, bringing her water to her lips as she eyed her vanishing meal. That had gone by much more quickly than she had anticipated.
“Were you thinking dessert too? Or do you need to get back to New York?” She hoped that he could stick around for awhile and that she hadn’t scared him away for good in all of her conversation.
Ted laughed - geek humor it was funny okay? And it was nice to talk to someone else who got it. Being ‘the boss’ or the ‘son of the boss’ at work meant that the IT guys tended not to joke around with him so much.
He looked longingly at the menu for a moment; “I don’t know if I should go for dessert . I’m trying to -” Keep in shape so he could fight crime? Keep in shape so he could wear his superhero gear? Yeah, that was a good reason for keeping in shape, but not one that he could really share. “Well watch what I eat.” And that was hard.
He glanced out the window of the restaurant. “Did you want to go for a walk?” Was it safe? This was Gotham after all … okay he was not afraid of this city. Much.
“Gotcha, I know how that is,” Barbara nodded, leaning against the table with her elbows up as they cleared the dishes. She flagged the waitress for their check. “I’d love to go for a walk. There’s a little park near here that’s not so bad.” She had picked the Clocktower area as a base of operations for its space, not for its location. It was a decent neighborhood, but it was still Gotham. She wasn’t terribly worried about the criminal element though. She was Batgirl, and she could protect herself and Ted against any would-be muggers if the situation arose.
The check was set on the table, and Barbara reached for her bag. After all, this really wasn’t a formal date.
“I got it.” This wasn’t a date at least Ted didn’t think it was, but he wanted to get the cheque. Just … because. “Can’t wait to see the not so bad park.” He joked as he picked up the cheque and then got his wallet out. “I don’t get to Gotham much, but I’ve heard lots of things. Be nice to see some of the not so bad parts.”
“There’s actually some really nice parts in the financial district, but the restaurants out here are less uptight. Give and take,” she replied, smiling as he got the check. That was a good sign, wasn’t it? Maybe somewhere along the way this had really become a date. Once the check was settled, she gathered up her things and got to her feet, holding her hand out to Ted. She couldn’t help the smile stretched across her face. This felt like being eighteen again. “Come on. Your Gotham tour guide is at your service.”
“And I’ll take less uptight restaurants over really nice parts of a city any day.” Because Ted could dress up, but that didn’t mean he liked to. The tie thing was weird -he was much happier when he got to hang out as Blue Beetle or in jeans and a rock, paper, siscors, spock t-shirt</a>.
After getting the bill settled (and pocketing a card for the restaurant, hey, it was a nice restaurant and at the very least Ted figured today had resulted in him finding a new place to eat at), he looked over at Barbra. Okay, he could take her hand, that wouldn’t be weird, and she was offering.
Making his mental chant a variations of don’t screw this up, he took the offered hand.
“Okay Lead on, Macduff.” So the line was lay on, Macduff, but Ted wasn’t an English major. He was a business major who took archaeology courses in his spare time (and a business major who really thought that was the Shakespeare line.)
Barbara saw no reason to correct Ted on the misquote. She had long since learned not to do that as people didn’t have quite the memory she did. (Her teachers had found this a constant source of grief.) So instead, she just kept smiling and lead him out into the night air. It had been unseasonably warm through most of the winter, and the weather had jumped right into spring which made it a really nice night for a walk.
“You know, I actually might have some business coming up in New York,” she started, falling into step with him as they started the six block trek to the park. “Maybe we can do this again on your home turf?” Her heart gave a hopeful little flutter. She hoped that he still wanted to hang out, though the pessimist in her reminded her that rejection was still a very real possibility. She wasn’t in the chair anymore, but a lot of the psychological side-effects that had shaken her once impenetrable confidence still remained.
“Really?” So Ted tried not to sound too over eager, he didn’t want to come across as a stalker type. “That would be .. really nice. I can show you the best places to get pizza.” He glanced upwards, Gotham architecture was kind of … imposing. But he thought that maybe he could see some beauty in it.
(Maybe it was just the company …)
“And if you do come, I can show you my office.” His public office at least. “It’s got a great view of the building next door to us. I mean really great view, you crank the window open and you can reach out and almost touch the brickwork on the building next door.”
“Really,” Barbara replied, tugging lightly on his arm as she took the opportunity to walk caddy corner at a quiet intersection. The park was in sight now. Really, it was more of an urban garden, but there were places to sit. Plus, with the warm weather they’d been having, all the plants and trees were at their brightest, just starting to bloom. It was the perfect time to show off a little slice of her city.
“I’d love to see where you work. The only R&D house I’ve visited was the WayneTech one, and even then that was so short.” It hadn’t really mattered at the time because Batman got all the best toys and let his kids play around with them freely, but she was a nerd at heart and loved having free reign to tinker and watch other people tinker. They had reached the park finally. The only other person there was an older woman who was patiently feeding birds. It was such a simple thing, but Babs couldn’t help but smile. Even with crime on the streets, life went on in Gotham. She let go of Ted’s hand, sitting herself down on a bench. “So...what do we talk about now?”
“WayneTech? Well okay even if it was a short visit I have to warn you that we are not as fancy. And our stuff … little less cool.” Well the public stuff anyway, he was sure that the things he worked on privately were at least as cool as WayneTech. After all it wasn’t like WayneTech was making crime fighting gear.
The park was … pretty. Which was a bit surprising, because again it was Gotham. Now Ted had been to the city before on business but it had always seemed to be raining and he had always been rushing from car to boardroom back to the car and had never had a chance to really poke around the city. And as The Blue Beetle? Well he stayed away. Gotham had (if all the stories were true) it’s own set of protectors.
“So was that a consulting job you did at WanyeTech?” Ted asked as they took a seat, hey he was curious.
As for what to talk about now … Ted looked around. “Well I have to say this is a much nicer side of Gotham then I’ve ever seen.”
“As if. All R&D is just mad science they pay you for,” Babs said with a laugh. “I know I’ll enjoy myself no matter what.” Plus, she was just curious by nature, and she wanted to get a more complete picture of Ted. She was glad that his status as heir to a tech company explained away the lingering question of why Beeb would have been at that party (an actual coincidence, which was a refreshing change of pace).
Then he asked what she had been doing at WayneTech, and she had to think on her feet. “No, not exactly. They have enough brains in house, frankly...I’m actually a family friend of the Waynes.” Her natural inclination was to not deliver the whole truth, and if Ted weren’t a guy that she found herself interested in, she probably would have dropped it right there. “I used to date his son.”
She was glad that that revelation could be easily followed up with another topic. “You’d be surprised at how many good hearts there are, who want to see Gotham better than it is. People wonder why anyone with the opportunity to leave stays in Gotham, but we have a lot of pride and a lot of faith in our city. And it’s gotten better even in my lifetime. For every colorful psychotic, there’s four women like that--” she gestured to the woman and the birds “--who get to live their lives out in peace. For every Riddler, there’s two people who get to have a nice date and talk like anybody in any other city in the world.”
Yep, she’s gone there. And now that she had she was feeling nervous and wishing she could take it back. Still, she had a good poker face and looked calm enough.
“Well - you have a point. But our mad science is more …well it’s less flashy.” Because it was, or at least it was to Ted, who got kind of bored at work, and often ended up skipping off work to go work on much more interesting Blue Beetle related things. He was also thinking that if she came to visit he’d have to ask everyone to be polite, and not any jokes about how if she needed help because Ted had kidnapped her, for her to just give them a sign.
He wasn’t hopeless when it came to women … except he typically was. And it was kind of obvious to people at work.
And she use to date Bruce Wayne’s son. Wow. Maybe she had a thing for guys whose dads ran large companies? Then again she hadn’t known that about him before today.
“Well city pride I get … I mean I didn’t want to leave Chicago.” That was his home! Although it was a home that had a whole lot less people in costumes committing crimes then Gotham did … that was also part of Chicago’s appeal he figured. Mind you it had once upon a time had a genuine mad scientist in the form of Jarvis Kord, but he had gotten taken care of.
Two people who got to have a nice date.
Two people who got to have a nice date.
So the D-word was now out there on the table.
“It has been a nice date hasn’t it?”
Barbara relaxed a bit at that. “Really nice.” She scooted closer to him on the bench so that she was sitting right next to him. Her life had changed so dramatically in the past year. Frankly, she was still shocked that she could have nice human moments like these without freaking out. The sun was setting and the street lights were turning on. She knew that sooner rather than later, she’d have to escort Ted back to his mode of transportation home, but for the moment, she was just going to enjoy feeling like a normal girl for awhile.