Excision (Izzy)

How stupid of an idea was this? How could it have happened this way? The thief found themselves asking questions like this over and over again in their head. Agreeing to this idea in the first place was phenomenally stupid. Sure, they definitely wanted to go on a date with Batgirl, but this was different. They were meeting outside of their costume. And maybe if they had been anyone else- anyone else- this could work swimmingly. They could figure out a way around it. Or just show up in the costume. Or just not show up at all! And yet...

And yet, here they were.

Waiting in the diner just like she had told them to. Sadie's diner. They had shown up early; after all, early was on time, and on time was late. They checked their watch as it became 5:00 PM. They were wearing a leather jacket, black leather combat boots, and they had their knife on them. They never left home without it. They had a bag next to them, which one might assume would be the suit they moonlit in, and they were drinking some coffee with a plate of toast in front of them. They had their back to the door, but they had a window in front of them that they could see the reflection of the door in. They knew this might very well be a trap. But they were far too into this to do anything about it now. So they waited.

Barbara had mulled over about a million times whether or not this was a good idea. She'd been working on a hunch when she made that deal, and she never actually expected the thief wearing Robin's suit to follow through. So she picked a spot where a teenage girl wandering up to get some food wouldn't exactly be a weird sight, just in case she was wrong.

As she walked into the restaurant though, it seemed she really wasn't. She turned to her left and saw the window reflecting the thief's face. She sighed quietly and walked past the line, sitting down in the booth across from her, smiling. She pushed up her glasses and leaned forward, smiling. "Yeah, I thought I was right." She whispered, grinning ear to ear.

A waitress came by and Barbara sighed. "Uh, yeah, light coffee. Just load it with milk. Like, more milk than coffee." She said simply, letting her leave before continuing. She sat back and crossed her arms, clearly pleased with herself and her deductions. "...You look tired. Also gross and old." She said simply.

As Barbara walked in, the thief exhaled softly, and would begin buttering their toast. They looked up to Barbara with a kind smile when she said that she had suspected who they were. That made sense, considering how their last conversation went. They took a bite of their toast, and smiled again to her as she remarked that they looked tired. And older. "Well thanks, doll. You're looking good, yourself," they said with some ease in their voice. Their natural one. It felt a little quiet because of the shame they were feeling. The part of them that had abandoned her. They stifled a chuckle.

"I should have known it was only a matter of time before you figured it out. That's the only reason you invited me here, right?" They relaxed, putting an arm on the booth behind them over their bag as they met Barbara's eyes with steel blue orbs. "I hope your sleeping habits aren't taking after the old man's."

Barbara smiled and shrugged at the question. "Well, I'd be lying outright if I said it weren't a contributing factor. Honestly I'm just disappointed Dick hasn't figured it out yet." She sighed contently and sat back in the booth.

"So talk to me Petra. What's up? Clue me in on what happened. Oh, and by all means, go ahead and try to woo me." Well, if it was ever in question, Babs definitely always knew about that crush.

She nodded gently at what Barbara had said. And even smiled again when she said she was surprised that Robin hadn't figured out her identity yet. "Well...Dick's worried about a lot of other things. And I think stealing the suit from under his nose with everything going on with Slade just threw him off. By the way, are he and the other guys waiting around the corner or something?" Her gaze met Barbara's. She could lie, sure. But she'd rather hear it from her instead of the other way around.

She couldn't help but have a small laugh at her expense when she said that she could try and flirt with her. "You say that as if I ever waited for your permission," she said with a small smirk. But there was something...missing. It was clear there was something weighing heavily on her mind. Without the mask and the anonymity working in her favor, she had to deal with the fact that Barbara was Barbara, and she was...

"What happened? ...what do you mean?" she asked hesitantly, but she couldn't meet Barb's gaze while asking, diverting it out the window instead.

Barbara chuckled at Petra's paranoia. "You're more than welcome to go and check. They'd kill me if they knew I was here." She smiled gently and glanced down at the table. "We have a lot going on right now too. It's just...things happen, and I guess you've fallen pretty far under his radar."

She looked up at the returning waitress and took her coffee. "Thanks hun, looks good." She gave it a quick sip as she left again, grimacing for a moment. "Eugh." She tore open a few packets of sugar and started dumping them in.

"I mean...what happened to you? I...that incident happened. Suddenly you were gone, and all I got from tall and brooding was that you were dead." She said quietly, tapping her fingers on the table. "Did you like..." She sighed and rubbed her temples. "Don't tell me you tried to take my place, dude." Seemed she was talking about the Batgirl mantle.

Petra drummed her fingers against her coffee mug absentmindedly, but was listening to Barbara very clearly. She said that the Titans didn't even know she was here, and told her that she could check if she wanted. "No, I believe you." She said it quietly, meeting her gaze once more. She nodded when she said that the Titans had a lot going on. She knew it, and wasn't entirely too concerned about it.

It did bring a smile to her face again when she saw Barbara struggling with her coffee. But then she clarified like she had wanted. Though Petra never truly wanted to answer the question. When she asked if she was trying to replace her, she was quick to respond, "No! I could never replace you, Babs, I just-" She inhaled shakily, her eyes going to the table. She took a longer sip of her coffee before putting it down. And she brushed her hair behind her ear. It was in something of a bun right now, with loose strands all over.

"I couldn't just sit there and do nothing. After what he did to you... I just kept feeling worse and worse. Training was an afterthought. I went through the motions. And before we knew it, the Joker struck again. It's not like he would wait, right?" She took another sip, and exhaled. "When we went out that night, we caught up to him. We got to work handling his little gang. As soon as I was clear, I saw Joker running away. Bruce was still handling a few, so I ran after him. I heard him calling after me, but I was never good at listening to him. I thought I was finally going to be able to pay that death-worshiping psychopath back for what he did to you. But...I was careless. Joker got the upper hand, and he beat me within an inch of my life. He left a bomb near me, and left. I was able to get far enough away, but... When I woke up..." She fell silent. "I was hurt. It looks so easy to have just come home, looking back on it now. But I didn't think I had anything to come home to. I can't ask you to forgive me for that. I just... It was easier to run, I guess."

Barbara sighed and drummed her fingers against the table. "No, I know you wouldn't try to just replace me but like...ya know...keeping up appearances and all?" She nodded and listened along to Petra's story, squinting at parts but sighing nonetheless.

"Yeah, all they told me was that Joker had killed you." She said quietly, leaning back in her seat. "You know something? I was gonna go on a fucking warpath when I found him." She chuckled, leaving out the fact that he was, as far as their intel showed, somewhere in Jump City right now.

"I mean, it honestly would have been nice if you'd come back." She said quietly, taking a sip of her drink. God that's so much better. "Like, you and Dick are like children to Bruce. He still thinks of you as his daughter, and he's blaming himself. For all of this. You dying made Dick set out on his own, told the old man that no one could trust him anymore. And then he got distant. No more Robins, no more Batgirls. Hell, I never got permission to get my gear back. I had to sweet talk Alfred into getting it for me."

She clicked her tongue and put her phone on the table. "Speaking of whom...I know he would at least love to see your face again. No matter what you've been doing."

She nodded, idly running her fingers along her coffee mug as she listened to Barbara. She said that she had meant to keep up appearances. "Right. Yeah," she admitted a little quietly. Frequently finding herself returning her gaze to her eyes. When she mentioned what she had been planning on for when she found Joker, she gave an awkward chuckle in response. "Yeah...I tried my best. Or at least my angriest." She took another long sip of her coffee.

And then she spoke about how Petra's perceived death had affected their little family. Which was hard for Petra to smile through. Knowing that she had affected all of them in such a way...it was only reinforcing the thoughts she already had about herself in the family. "It sounds like I have a lot to apologize to all of you for..." she thought aloud, When she said that Alfred would like to at least see her and know she was alive, a small smile came to her face. There was never any doubt with Alfred, despite how horrible his pancakes were. Though she'd definitely never tell him that. "A picture's fine with me," she said, tucking a strand of hair or two behind her ears. "But maybe later. We're going on a date, aren't we?" She smiled genuinely. A bit of her confidence in their relationship had returned. Though there was still a lot more to sift through, obviously.

Barbara scoffed. "Yeah, yeah, you get your date. And I'll tell Alfred to keep it on the down low as far as the boys go." She flagged the waitress over and ordered a large, deeply unhealthy chocolate cake for the two to share, and let her go off to tell the back. "I'm telling you, it's good stuff. And fortunately-"

She reached into her pocket and pulled out the sleek black and silver card from her pocket. It had her name on it, sure, but they both knew exactly whose bank account it came out of. "-Some things haven't changed at all."

She blinked, and chuckled lightly. Maybe in her time at the manor, Petra had grown accustomed to the finer things in life. Inheriting a billion dollar industry was nothing to scoff at. She reflected on this as Barbara took out the black and silver card, and she couldn't suppress a giggle. "And here I was, hoping to spend my hard-earned money on my dream date. But hey, if Bruce is footing the bill, that's all the more fine by me," she said with a laugh, grinning at Babs.

There were so many things she wanted to talk about. Things to catch up on. But Petra remembered a thought that had been permeating her mind. She didn't want to make the date stale, but... "Babs...what are you doing in Jump?" she asked genuinely. "Is it DOMA?"

Barbara crossed her arms and sighed. "Well...I'm here for work. The fact that Dick is here is a nice bonus. And the fact that you're here is a pleasant surprise at worst." She smiled gently and adjusted her seat. It seemed she really didn't want to talk about this issue.

"DOMA is...a thing that exists. Nothing more." That sounded like a Bat response at least.

Petra bit her lip lightly as she observed how Barbara responded to it. She wasn't entirely hiding anything from her, but her body language was making it very clear that she was uncomfortable talking about it. So Petra took a cue, and from the bit lip, would just smile again. She shook her head. "You're right. I'm sorry. We have so much to talk about, and here I am talking about work." She glanced at the bag next to her. Man, things were so much easier in costume. "So, what movie did you want to see? Anything catch your interest recently?" So much to talk about. But why rush things? This felt good. She didn't want the night to be over just yet. Right now, she was just appreciating being able to talk to Babs again with her voice, and not Robin's.

"Dude, I'm gonna be honest. I think I'm taking after the old man more than I should. Cuz I haven't seen a damn thing as far as movies go." She followed her gaze down to the bag and raised an eyebrow. "So we'll eat, mull it over while we wander around a few rooftops? It'd be nice and romantic against the night sky~"

She smiled lightly when she said that she might be taking after Bruce more than was healthy. "I think even just a little him is unhealthy for anyone else. Hell, even him." Barbara sure knew how to keep a smile on Petra's face, it seemed. When she talked about the game plan for the night, Petra grinned. "That sounds fun. Are we suiting up for that?" She asked namely because of the fact that she didn't see Barbara's costume anywhere on her. Unless it was under her clothes? That would make sense, considering that their last meeting ended with them saying they might meet each other in costume again. And that the X suit was in the bag next to her.