Fic: A Perpetual Possibility
Another ficlet from the request a story set before or after one of my stories meme, which actually manages to take place both before and after the story in question. Yay time travel!
Title: A Perpetual Possibility
Summary: Barbara has been waiting for her pretty blonde Robin.
Word count: 538
Rating: PG
AN: For hollywarner, who requested a drabble based on One End, Which Is Always Present, taking place “in a quasi past/present time setting where Babs first meets Steph in normal continuity.” This title, just like its predecessor, comes from T.S. Eliot’s “Burnt Norton.”
It’s not that Babs disbelieved her, exactly, but as time passed she figured that perhaps something had happened that caused the laughing blonde Robin to simply - not become one of them. In her mind, a thousand permutations of events which would cause the girl to simply never cross their paths had played out, each more likely than the last.
Not that she thought on that night often. (When she did, the details were as sharp and stark and beautiful as they’d been at the time. In some cases her memory was a curse; in this one it was a blessing.)
In the cold, bitter time after Jason died, Barbara thought of her more than she had in the years previous, turning her head at every blonde girl she glimpsed, wondering how - when - she was going to appear and take over the mantle.
She never revealed how disappointed she was when Tim materialized instead.
When Tim first spoke of Spoiler, she did not realize the significance, until one night when she heard a cherry-bright laugh, teeny and distorted through the comm link.
Barbara dropped her pen and knocked over her coffee and thought, “Finally.”
When she spied the girl, she was shocked again, staring at the young, young features she remembered so well. This girl was years from being the Robin Babs knew, still fumbling and coltish. But the smile- the smile was there, open and determined and fierce, and Babs could see the potential in the girl’s movements, potential that echoed in her mind.
She remembered how alike they were, and then stared down at her hands, resting on her numb and useless legs, and knew she couldn’t allow the same thing to happen to her.
No one questioned her coldness to Spoiler, the way she discouraged the girl at every opportunity.
But still-
Barbara didn’t mind, really, when they brought her into the clocktower. Didn’t mind shattering the Oracle persona to get a real look at the girl, who was Robin foremost in her mind, and Spoiler secondary, and seemed all too young when she thought of her as Steph.
She understood when she was treated like a bothersome adult, when Robin’s bright eyes passed over her without that flirtatious grin that had captured her for a long-ago night.
So young, she thought again, imagining everything that could go wrong.
“Nice to meet the one who calls the shots around here,” Spoiler offered to her, looking earnest. Eager to impress.
“Let’s get down to business,” Barbara said in a forced, clipped tone.
“Um, okay,” Spoiler said, disappointment clear in her shoulders before she straightened up and paid careful attention to the planing going on around her. Learning what she needed to know.
She couldn’t in good conscience allow something terrible to happen to her, Barbara thought again as she wheeled away from her computer. Steph was still innocent, despite the razor-sharp edges that Gotham breed into her people.
(If she tried, and if Steph still became Robin... if the past still happened... Barbara refused to think of the possibilities. The present was difficult enough.)
But watching Robin - Steph, she firmly reminded herself - snicker at something Batgirl had done still felt like the worst kind of betrayal.
Title: A Perpetual Possibility
Summary: Barbara has been waiting for her pretty blonde Robin.
Word count: 538
Rating: PG
AN: For hollywarner, who requested a drabble based on One End, Which Is Always Present, taking place “in a quasi past/present time setting where Babs first meets Steph in normal continuity.” This title, just like its predecessor, comes from T.S. Eliot’s “Burnt Norton.”
It’s not that Babs disbelieved her, exactly, but as time passed she figured that perhaps something had happened that caused the laughing blonde Robin to simply - not become one of them. In her mind, a thousand permutations of events which would cause the girl to simply never cross their paths had played out, each more likely than the last.
Not that she thought on that night often. (When she did, the details were as sharp and stark and beautiful as they’d been at the time. In some cases her memory was a curse; in this one it was a blessing.)
In the cold, bitter time after Jason died, Barbara thought of her more than she had in the years previous, turning her head at every blonde girl she glimpsed, wondering how - when - she was going to appear and take over the mantle.
She never revealed how disappointed she was when Tim materialized instead.
When Tim first spoke of Spoiler, she did not realize the significance, until one night when she heard a cherry-bright laugh, teeny and distorted through the comm link.
Barbara dropped her pen and knocked over her coffee and thought, “Finally.”
When she spied the girl, she was shocked again, staring at the young, young features she remembered so well. This girl was years from being the Robin Babs knew, still fumbling and coltish. But the smile- the smile was there, open and determined and fierce, and Babs could see the potential in the girl’s movements, potential that echoed in her mind.
She remembered how alike they were, and then stared down at her hands, resting on her numb and useless legs, and knew she couldn’t allow the same thing to happen to her.
No one questioned her coldness to Spoiler, the way she discouraged the girl at every opportunity.
But still-
Barbara didn’t mind, really, when they brought her into the clocktower. Didn’t mind shattering the Oracle persona to get a real look at the girl, who was Robin foremost in her mind, and Spoiler secondary, and seemed all too young when she thought of her as Steph.
She understood when she was treated like a bothersome adult, when Robin’s bright eyes passed over her without that flirtatious grin that had captured her for a long-ago night.
So young, she thought again, imagining everything that could go wrong.
“Nice to meet the one who calls the shots around here,” Spoiler offered to her, looking earnest. Eager to impress.
“Let’s get down to business,” Barbara said in a forced, clipped tone.
“Um, okay,” Spoiler said, disappointment clear in her shoulders before she straightened up and paid careful attention to the planing going on around her. Learning what she needed to know.
She couldn’t in good conscience allow something terrible to happen to her, Barbara thought again as she wheeled away from her computer. Steph was still innocent, despite the razor-sharp edges that Gotham breed into her people.
(If she tried, and if Steph still became Robin... if the past still happened... Barbara refused to think of the possibilities. The present was difficult enough.)
But watching Robin - Steph, she firmly reminded herself - snicker at something Batgirl had done still felt like the worst kind of betrayal.