Who: Kara and Stephanie What: Girltiems Where: A rooftop, because that's where everything happens in Gotham When: Before Steph and Eddie left town Warnings/Rating: None
Kara was supposed to be in the middle of an unpopulated field somewhere. Sam Winchester had made the suggestion in good faith, and she'd intended to adhere to it, but she hadn't gone to an empty field when she'd left Sanctuary that morning. As much as she hated the endless violence of this planet, and as much as she hated the voices that wouldn't turn off, she wasn't good at being alone. Petting Krypto and staring at a bottle city in a fortress beneath the Pacific Ocean might bring back her normalcy, but it didn't do anything for her loneliness. She kept swearing she wouldn't go back there, to where the people with the weapons kept trying to catch her, but she kept giving in to the desire to be around people. She knew it was dangerous, for her and for everyone else, but she'd never been very good at being alone.
Metropolis was Kara's first stop, though she already knew she wouldn't find Kal there. Then she ventured further out, carefully following conversational threads until she reached the relative quiet of Smallville. She was sitting in the middle of a field of wheat, realizing she hadn't broken her promise to Sam after all, when she heard her name in her mind.
Kara was quickly learning that her actual name filtered in more clearly than other things, and wasn't that useful? Her mind turned to science, for the first time since being on this planet, and she wondered if something like that could be honed for communication purposes, something that could be used by the residents of this archaic planet. But that thought was for another time.
Quickly, Kara changed from the jeans and hoodies she wore to the uniform her father had made for her trials. The red cape and thigh-high boots made her feel safe, and the long-sleeved, one-piece in blue and red made her feel like she wasn't alone. It didn't matter to her that the fabric was an amazing armor that the government was already trying to reproduce. It didn't matter that the large S on the front was associated with Kal, with Kal's work here. She didn't really understand that yet; she just knew that wearing the outfit made her feel safer, and it made her feel like she wasn't so alone.
Getting back to the dingy skies above Gotham took Kara seconds, even if she hadn't yet realized she could actually fly anywhere. She landed on the corner of a roof, high above a city street, and she looked down, waiting to hear something that would lead her to the girl who had called her name.
Stephanie decided that Spring 2013 would be dubbed ‘The Past Redux’ when she eventually wrote her best-selling autobiography about the trials and tribulations of being a bat. (If Snooki could have be a best-seller, anyone could.) March had drummed up a slew of problems from a past she’d been determined to leave behind, and April wasn’t shaping up to be much better. Okay, having Kara (and Cass, too) wasn’t a problem, but it did bring up a lot of feelings. Plus, it wasn’t her Kara, or at least a Kara far enough along to know her. She was, at the very least, Supergirl, probably, which was a plus. Terrifying that she was so new to the planet, but a plus.
Steph should have been preparing for the trip to Bludhaven to hunt her father down, should be tucked away in her apartment memorizing blueprints or perfecting her new alias, but she couldn’t even dream of passing up the opportunity to meet up with Kara. If Eddie beeped her and asked, she would simply tell him she was on patrol. And, she was patrolling Gotham. It wasn’t lying if she didn’t actually talk about Kara, right? She didn’t even know if it was her Kara, and what was the point of telling him before she knew? Also, she’d promised Jason she wouldn’t say a word, and for some (perhaps sentimental) reason she wanted to keep whatever tentative thing they had going for them working. The rest of the family had up and ditched her, but maybe she and Jason could work together to keep Gotham from falling to pieces. So, she had to keep things pretty cordial and trustworthy. (She wasn’t doing it to be malicious towards Eddie or show that she didn’t trust him. She would tell him soon enough. Just not until she knew for sure it was Kara.)
Though she wanted to believe the best of the other blonde, she was wary of what Kara might do. She wasn’t reacting happily to the particular brand of violence Gotham offered, from what Jason said. So, she donned her Batgirl gear, and with blonde hair flowing out beyond the cowl, she climbed to the top of one building in Midtown to call upon her Kryptonian. It felt a little silly, shouting Kara! to the heavens, but she did it, as she had done before, and then she waited. Listened for the sound of a speeding bullet roaring through the air or a flash of red and blue through the dark Gotham skyline.
In the end, she sat on the roof’s edge (which was, coincidentally, just to the right of the building Supergirl landed on) and scanned the ground for activity instead of the skies for Kara. Maybe it hadn’t worked. Maybe she’d backed out on her word. “C’mon, Kara,” she said loudly, with great exasperation. Why had she gotten her hopes up? With a frustrated sigh, she fished for her grapple hook but she didn’t bang it off just yet. She’d find some trouble elsewhere, and maybe a couple leads on her dad before she left Gotham for a few weeks.
Kara had been standing there for a few seconds before she spoke. She'd wanted to look at the girl, to see if there was anything about her that was immediately worrisome. She scanned her for weapons, finding the standard items that Helena had carried on her, and none of the heavy weapons that the men who pursued her carried. She was, inherently, trusting, and she didn't look beyond that, despite being burned repeatedly since landing here, on this planet. She trusted Jason not to put her in contact with someone who would harm her, despite her disapproval of Jason's violence upon their first meeting. Jason, House of Todd, reminded her of H'El, and H'El would never have harmed her. He was misguided, but he wasn't a threat to her.
Stephanie's youth helped, too. Kara was sure the girl had seen fewer years than Helena or Jason and, in the end, that tipped the scales in her favor. Kara had been sixteen before ending up here a week earlier, and she still trusted youth more than age and experience. She moved forward, just as Stephanie spoke, and she silently (and too quickly to be seen) dropped down to sit beside Stephanie on the ledge. She tugged her red cape around her, and she glanced over at the other girl. "I was watching," Kara said in Kryptonian, before groaning, and correcting. "I was watching." It wasn't necessarily apologetic. It was curious, careful, and she kept enough distance between them to be reminiscent of someone who was afraid to get burned. She swung her bare legs, and she looked down at the city beneath them, all grime and dirt and nothing like the shimmery peace she was accustomed to. "I am not who you know," she said, because they might as well get that out of the way, especially given how badly things had gone with Helena.
Steph jumped at the sudden voice, and oh, god, was she glad for quick reflexes at that moment. Gloved hands gripped the side of the roof’s edge, and she let out a dramaaaatic sigh. “Oh, good Jesus. Give a girl a heart-attack, why don’t you?” She clutched her chest as if staving off such a thing before looking over at the blonde sitting next to her. Full Supergirl regalia, of course. That made Steph smile, a pained expression that she hid away as quickly as she could realize. Batgirl and Supergirl, together again, even if neither girl knew the other yet. Not that Kara would probably recognize the Stephanie she was now. The Kryptonian would at least ask about certain choices the blonde bat had made.
The space nearly had her quirk her eyebrows before she reminded herself that this wasn’t her Kara, and that was before the other girl reaffirmed the point. “I know that,” Steph said softly, offering the other girl a reassuring smile. “That’s okay.” Because, as much as it stung, as much as she wanted her best friend, she knew it didn’t work that way in this Gotham. She didn’t get a Cass that knew her, either, or a Tim that matched up to her timeline, or even a Barbara that synced with her. “Jason told me you’ve been kinda upset. I thought some girl talk might help.” Granted, things didn’t go well with Helena apparently, but Steph at least had the warning that she wasn’t her Kara. And, the advantage that the girl sitting next to her was closer to the Kara she knew than the one Hels lost.
"Jesus?" Kara asked, the deity not making sense with the translation H'El had gifted her with. Her culture was steeped in science, in logic, in caste systems and tradition, but religion didn't play a part. Her gaze dropped to Stephanie's chest, and she looked back up a moment later, eyes darkly bright blue and a hint of smile at the edges of them. "Your heart is functioning normally," she assured the other girl, lips quirking just the smallest bit and completely ruining the attempt at severity. It was shy smile, young, and Kara let go of the edges of the red cape a moment later, the security blanket waving back in the Gotham breeze, before settling at her back.
Kara was quiet for a few long seconds when Stephanie said it was okay that she wasn't who she'd known. "Jason is afraid I will hurt someone," she said, knowingly. Jason's language was harder for her to understand, with all its strange idioms and local jargon, but she understood that he - like Sam - was worried about her abilities. "I do not blame him. I am not used to being able to do things yet, and I have trouble when I cannot shut out the feelings or voices," she said, the explanation more simplistic than it was in her head, but she didn't have the language to explain yet. "But I do not understand. He is violent. Helena is too." She looked out at the city, dark smoggy grey, even now. "Everyone here is. It is nothing like home." Thick Kryptonian accent or not, that sounded wistful and young and homesick. She looked back at Stephanie. "Will you tell me your tale?" she asked. She'd asked the same thing of Siobahn, when she'd met the only friend she'd actually managed to make in the weeks she'd been on the planet. Storytelling was important on Krypton. Everything had a beginning.
Ding, ding. Steph caught that smile and checked that off as a minor victory in her favor already. Maybe this entire thing wouldn’t go so badly, after all, though she was sure Kara could taste the slight apprehension pulsing through the bat’s veins. She scoffed at Kara’s assessment, obviously not impressed with her split-second determination. The smile, that shy little tug of the lips, struck Stephanie with a strange sort of familiarity and newness. Underneath, she could see the superhero she always knew. “I could have a heart arrhythmia, and your superhearing might not even notice it. You never know,” she teased with a bigger smile, but that turned down into a soft frown as Kara continued along.
“Jason has a right to be worried,” she said frankly and with an apologetic shrug. A Kryptonian without control and anyone to actually help wasn’t a good thing. It wasn’t anything Gotham could handle, not really, but they had to try. For Kara’s sake and for the city’s, Stephanie would help her try. Hopefully Superman would show up soon, or at least someone with better knowledge to help the girl sitting next to her. But, for now, Steph was determined to help him try. “It’s hard stuff to control, yeah, but with time you’ll get it.” She lifted her fingers from the roof’s edge and spread them across her thighs slowly to rest, and then she leaned forward just a little. “I promise you’ll get it, Kara.” She flashed the other blonde a quick smile before sighing and looking away to the distant skyline. “Gotham’s like that. Gritty, dirty, violent. We’re kinda products of it all, but they’re good people. Helena and Jason are good people. It’s just--it’s what we all have to do to keep this city safe, y’know?”
Stephanie laughed quietly and turned back over towards the girl in blue, gold, and red. “What do you want to know?”
"But I can see it," Kara teasingly said of Stephanie's heart, her little grin saying she knew that might be disconcerting enough to win the argument. She didn't mention that sometimes she could only see people's insides. When she was sad or scared, she had trouble turning that off, which led perfectly into Stephanie's comment about Jason having a right to be worried. "Sam, from the House of Winchester, says I should stay somewhere there are no people. Sanctuary is like that, but I get lonely," she admitted, looking down at the city below again, trying to see something good in the dirt and smoot. "Jason attacked someone who had not done anything. The men with the lights - Sam says they are police? - they shoot their weapons at me, and the man from the government locked me away and did terrible things." Her voice became sharper in her fear, angry, and all the noise of Gotham became a loud screech in her ears. She put her hands over her ears, cupping them and closing her eyes until she managed to silence some of the noise. "And everyone hurts each other." She looked at Stephanie again. "It is terrible," she said mournfully, anger sliding away. She took a deep breath, and she looked up at the sky, her expression turning curious. "Why is there no Watchtower here?"
Stephanie's question made Kara pause and think. "I want to know what your Kara would know," she finally said. "You are not mad like Helena. She was angry that my past was not her past. I want to know what your Kara would know."
Stephanie waved a dismissive hand. “Yeah, no need to remind me. Blech,” she chided playfully, and the accompanying face she pulled -- tongue out, finger poked in there, and eyes crossed -- was all poking fun. In a good way, of course. In that way bats did, or at least this bat did. Her face relaxed after a moment, a soft expression settling across her mouth and in her bright blue eyes. She didn’t like to see her friend (or would be friend/former friend/could be friend) suffering, scared, and wanting to hide away by closing her eyes and covering her ears. Her fingers twitched in an urge to touch the other girl’s hand in reassurance, but she stopped.
“I don’t know any Sam? Is he from Metropolis? As for Jason, he wouldn’t do it for no reason. Maybe there was a threat you didn’t notice.” She shrugged then because she knew about being alone and feeling lonely, and she knew Kara didn’t do well with that. “If you just hide away for forever, you won’t want to work on getting better, Kara. And I know you hate being alone, so I say don’t. Don’t just tuck yourself away because there’s so much around here this world can offer you. Some day all of this will be yours.” Steph swept a hand dramatically across the Gotham skyline across and underneath them before screwing up her face. “Or, whatever a more fitting Disney quote there is out there. I think there’s something else from The Lion King that might work better.” She caught herself before she could babble off more banal Earth-type things. “What I mean is, I think if you give us a chance, you’ll learn that not everything is so bad here. It’s kinda crappy sometimes, and kinda scary, but there’s good things, too. You--well, the you I know--loved this planet. Loved to learn things about this planet. You freaked when I brought you to my school.”
Stephanie smiled over at the girl and watched her cape billow in the wind before it settled down. “There’s no point being mad?” the blonde bat replied, confusion writ all over her face. There were things out of their control in this Gotham, and having different versions of her people was one of them. She realized that a long time ago. “That’s one thing. My Kara, she always saw the better side of things. Always happy even when things were getting hairy.” Steph looked off again, hands resting on the roof’s edge, and drummed her fingers in some nonsensical beat only she knew. “We met when I came to Metropolis with Robin to help out, and we clicked hella fast. Had you defending me from Robin being a little brat immediately. We’re a good team. Were a good team.” Her mouth twitched guiltily for a second as she stared off into the distance. She needed to be more aware of the present tense stuff.
The face Stephanie pulled made Kara smile. For a second, it felt like she was home, and she scooted a little closer, more comfortable in the girl's presence. "Sam is from another place," she explained. Her understanding of the doors was minimal at best, and explaining it in any language other than Kryptonian would be difficult. It did interest her, though. A scientist at heart, even beneath all the anger and lightheartedness that lived in her, she adored how things worked, and the doors were a scientific challenge for her. She didn't discount them as magic or impossibility, because she came from a place where cars flew, and where many of life's basic needs were fulfilled in a way that would be considered impossible here. This planet was simple. There was some charm to that, and perhaps it was more fun than the rigid system that existed on Krypton, but she hadn't experienced much of that yet.
Kara listened, wide-eyed, as Stephanie said a bunch of things that she didn't understand. "Disney? Lion King?" she asked, and despite her unhappiness here, there was that bright-eyed blue curiosity in the questions. But she looked down toward the city again, when Stephanie said her Kara always said the better side of things. "I do not see the good side of this. One minute, I was with my father, and the next I was here. I am not supposed to be here. He did not mean to send me. I was only supposed to meet up with him and my mother, but something must have been wrong. I am not like Kal. Kal was sent here. I was not. I want to go home, but I cannot. All I see here is violence, and I do not know why Kal fights for people who only harm each other. Kal is not Kryptonian, not really. He does not even sound Kryptonian." There was anger there, just brimming beneath the surface and, just as quick, sadness. "But even he is not here. I want to be normal. I want to eat, and I want to sleep, and I want to meet someone and have a future. How can I do that here?" she asked, looking over at Stephanie for answers. "And I do not want these powers. I cannot control them."
Stephanie noticed the other girl scooting closer and offered her a reassuring smile as a gesture of good faith. Maybe, just maybe, she could salvage a relationship with the other girl. Or, at the very least, create a new, different one for this different Gotham. With Dick and Damian leaving Gotham, she didn’t really have anyone aside from Eddie. But, curling around her boyfriend was different than having a friend or bat-sibling that she could turn to when things got crazy or if she just wanted to talk. So, she hoped (a little selfishly) that Kara could concede any sort of apprehension about Earth, about Gotham, and stick around long enough for her to try to get one of her best friends back.
She didn’t press about Sam, other than a cocked eyebrow at the another place business. Man, times like these she missed Nick the most. He could have rattled off a bevy of knowledge, and Stephanie wouldn’t feel so lost. There were other issues at hand, however, more important than needling about some man she didn’t know. Like, how Kara didn’t know about Disney. “Disney is--y’know what. We’ll have to educate you about the wonders of Disney because it is wonderful. Watch The Lion King one day and whatever else we need for you to realize the magic.” She waggled her fingers to emphasize her point before laughing for a brief second at herself. Then, she shrugged, kicking her legs through the smoggy Gotham air. “Things here are all twisty and messed up. Is that the last thing you remember? Obviously, you know we all come from different points. I don’t think any of us matchup 100%. I wish I could tell you how it works, or why we ended up here, but I’ve been in this too-blue Gotham for almost a year.” She swept a hand across the skyline, while her legs went swing, swing, swing on the side of the building. “And still? I don’t have any answers really. Some people disappear, and they don’t come back. I bounced around out of my guy’s head into some girl I can’t stand. It’s unpredictable, and I wish I could promise that it won’t be, but it always is. Just like Gotham anyway.”
Her lips dipped to a frown before she twisted her body to face Kara. “Kara,” Stephanie started gently. “You know why Super--Kal, why Kal stays here? I think it’s because he knows we need people like you guys. And that, despite that sometimes humans can be violent and despicable people, there’s still good out there. Lots of good. And, if you stick around, you’ll see that, and if you learn to control your powers like I know you can and be around people like I know you want to, you’ll probably feel the same way, too.” She twitched out a small, comforting smile and tilted her head to the side. “You can have all of those things, Kara. I know it seems hard sometimes, but you can have them all. It just takes a little tenacity and patience, and you’ve got that in there.”
She flapped a hand to the skyline, a quick flick of the wrist, as she remembered her question from earlier. “And, there’s no Watchtower because, well, there’s no Justice League. It’s just us here, mostly. The bats and birds, with all our rogues. You’re the first not-Gothamite I’ve seen in a long time.” Steph sounded kind of bitter about that, like perhaps that was the reason everything was falling apart with the family. If there were more distractions, or more people to rely on, they wouldn’t be clawing and flapping at each other constantly.
Kara wanted to fit in. She wanted to belong. She knew going home wasn't an option for her. She wouldn't give up, but it wasn't an option right then. She would keep looking, and she would keep trying. If H'El had been so sure there was a way to reset time without harming anyone, perhaps there was. Maybe not his way, but some way. Or maybe there was a way for her to go back. But to do that, she needed to learn more about what had destroyed Argo. Not Krypton, because she knew the fate of her homeworld. No, Argo, which was floating out there in the coldness of space, separated from the rest of the planet. And perhaps the Worldkillers were the key to that. So many mysteries. She only wanted somewhere to fit while she worked through them.
Kara took the suggestion to watch the Lion King very seriously, though she had no idea where to find the King of Lions to watch him. But it couldn't be that hard to locate lions and their ruler on this planet. The technology in Sanctuary would make it fairly simple, and she would like to prove that she was listening to what Stephanie was staying, her own version of a peace offering. She didn't know Stephanie; she didn't know anyone. But she liked the girl at her side. With her, Kara didn't feel wrong. And, as far as she could tell, Stephanie wasn't scared of her like most others she'd met were. "The last thing I remember is H'El ," she said sadly, wistful and forlorn, and then she shook her head. "But that was only weeks after my pod landed here." She didn't have a different starting point, not like the others; she had no starting point at all. None here; none any here. "I miss home," she admitted, and she didn't mean another Metropolis. "Your Kara. Did she stop missing home?" Maybe Stephanie had known her early. Maybe Stephanie would know how to make the homesickness go away. For Kara, this Gotham was the same as any Gotham, and none of them were Krypton.
Kara mulled over Stephanie's reasoning for why Kal stayed. She considered it, eyes bright blue and her cape tangling around her shoulders. "Kal is human. He is not biologically human, but he was raised here. He sees the people here as his people. I am the foreigner to Kal," she said, with a calm maturity that didn't quite fit on the recently-sixteen year old shoulders. That gravity melted away a moment later. "But I must learn to see the good if I am to stay," she said thoughtfully. She looked up toward the sky, where Watchtower should be, and she sighed. Its absence made her think this place was simpler than hers. She wondered if she was the only non-human. She had hated Kal's girlfriend, but that woman had not been human. She had hated Kon, but Kon felt like home - some twisted mangling of home, but home. And Watchtower, with all its advanced technology, had felt familiar. Basic and crude, but familiar. And, for the first time she'd come to this planet, she longed for Kal, with his schoolbook Kryptonian.
The bitterness in Stephanie's voice drew Kara back to the moment, and she turned her questioning blue gaze on the girl at her side. "You wish to see people who are not from here?" she asked. For the girl who wanted nothing more than to see someone from home, it seemed an odd desire.
Stephanie knew all about wanting to fit in. Her new life -- life after her rough childhood and after a teen pregnancy and after faking her death for the sake of making a point -- had been about accepting that she could carve her own path, make her own rules, and not rely on anyone to simply hand her things. Still, she was a young girl, and whether they admitted it or not, young girls needed that support system. Alien or human. She knew about searching for that right spot to feel at home in, and if Kara needed the help, she would try her best to be there for the other girl whenever necessary. Or, if she just wanted to chat. And, maybe it wasn’t the smartest thing for a bat to blindingly trust a girl with the power to vaporize her, but Steph had never been quite smart when it came to trusting people. It was why she was dating a former supervillain. It wasn’t necessarily smart, but it also didn’t necessarily bite her in the ass.
“I know,” she said of missing home. Some days she missed home too, missed her Gotham, but then she wouldn’t have learned some of the things she found in this Gotham. “Kara found her niche, I think. And, I’m sure you will, too.” She tried to reassure the girl, reaching over to give her fingers a quick squeeze before resting her hands in her own lap. “I promise that you’ll find the good, Kara. You will, and I promise it won’t just be Disney movies and waffles. Which are awesome, by the way.” She pointed her finger up in the air, a habit that mirrored her question-marked man to a tee, and she cocked an eyebrow at the Kryptonian. “I hereby swear,” Stephanie declared with that playful lilt in her voice, “to be your guide for all things Earth-related. Whether you like it or not.” The blonde bat knew she could convince Kara of the good things this planet had to offer.
“I just--.” Stephanie shrugged. “I don’t think we’re used to it just being us, and maybe that’s part of the reason we aren’t getting along the way we should.” A brief smile flickered across her lips. “It’s nothing I can’t deal with. Pinky swear.”
Kara watched the emotions cross Stephanie's face, and she wished she understood what caused them. She knew what the emotions were, because she was a teenage girl, and she recognized them. Once, weeks earlier, she'd been just that, a teenage girl. She hadn't been an alien, and she hadn't had the power to do anything more than pout when her mother insisted she do her physical trial training or concentrate on her studies. Now, things were different, but she was still just a girl, and she understood. Niche was a word that didn't translate, though, and she tried to figure it out based on context. She found, in the end, that she could skip it, and it could still make sense. Disney and waffles proved to be the same way. She didn't hide her confusion, but she didn't ask this time. Sanctuary had no data on Earth-life, but the Fortress did. She could go there and download Kal's database, she decided.
A second later, Kara mimicked Stephanie's finger in the air, liking the tiny gesture, and liking the playful lilt in the other girl's voice even more. "I hereby swear to try not to hate everything," Kara promised with a giggle; she thought it was a pretty fair offering in return. The smile remained after she'd said the words, and she felt a little less alone. "Can you help me make things better with Helena?" she asked, guilt turning the smile down as she asked. "I cannot be whoever she wants. Whoever she wants had a different life before mine, on Krypton, I think. But I do not want to injure her feelings." She was still confused about that, about the things Helena had said she knew. Nothing Stephanie said conflicted with her life back home, and Stephanie felt more familiar, more safe because of that. Even Jason, who seemed to know nothing about her, was better than the disappointment she had witnessed on Helena's face.
Kara tried to make sense of the words that came after Stephanie's shrug, but she found she couldn't. "Just us?" she finally asked. She was looking at her pinky a moment later, wondering what a pinky swear was.
Steph grinned brightly at the other girl, returning that smile so easily it felt like second nature, and knew then and there that she could form some vestige of a relationship with her. Having Kara inadvertently mocking her Riddler tickled the blonde bat in a way that warmed her stomach and shot tingles through her arms. She had missed this; feeling so comfortable with someone around her age. It had been eons, it felt, since she’d been able to just sit down and talk with a girl her age. Helena was around, of course, but she and Stephanie hadn’t gotten a chance to become as close as they could. Speaking of. Steph observed that hesitance and guilt and couldn’t even think about resisting. “We can talk to her,” she agreed. “Helena has been having a rough time, I think, but we’ll fix whatever happened.” She didn’t exactly know the full story, especially Helena’s relationship with Kara, but she would help her figure it out.
“I mean, the family. The Bat Family.” Stephanie tried to explain, but stopped herself short. She didn’t know how much Kara actually knew about the Bat and his brood, and maybe this wasn’t the time to delve into costumed vigilante politics in Gotham. “Like I said, I can figure it out.”
Kara returned that bright smile with an even brighter one of her own. It was a natural response to the warmth in Stephanie's grin, and Kara scooted a little closer, her shoulder touching Stephanie's, finding comfort in the soft warmth of the other girl's arm. She swung her feet out in front of her, the movement more carefree than anything she'd done since arriving in Gotham and, for the moment, things felt like they might not be so terrible forever. There were countless things she wanted to ask, that she wanted to say, but she liked just sitting there too. "Thank you," she finally said, and whether it was about the offer to talk to Helena, or about the entire conversation, well, that wasn't clear. Maybe it didn't need to be. "When you want to talk about it, we can talk about it," she said of the family of bats. She didn't understand precisely what Stephanie meant, but that didn't matter; she would listen. "I will tell you about my H'El," she promised in return, her tone indicating that was something important, even if the story there wasn't one Stephanie would know. It was an offering, a shared secret, and it made her feel like she was with her friends again. She blinked away tears, but her smile stayed bright, bright. It was enough, though, just then, to swing her feet in the cool night air, and to nudge Stephanie carefully with her shoulder, so, so carefully. She smiled when her new friend didn't go flying off the roof.