4067/This is Why you Dump your Browser History

This is Why you Dump your Browser History
Date of Scene:	14 March 2018
Location:	Clock tower
Synopsis:	certain Crazy redhead has some 'splain'n to do when Ricardo finds out about her SHIELD hijinks. Secrets are shared. Affirmations of affection are exchanged and Batman has an angry redhead coming for him.
Cast of Characters:	Nightwing, Oracle

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Nightwing has posed:
    She maybe didn't mean to take this long to get in. She also probably didn't expect him at her place. He's actually getting it remodeled after her comment about it being gross. It's a surprise.

    As she enters the apartment, it is dark, which is wrong. The computer should be illuminating the room a little. It is not. As the realization dawns that someone is in the apartment, the light next to the computer clicks on. Nightwing has his mask off and dangling from a single finger. He clicks on the monitor. The light reveals a manilla file folder on her desk. Also a message on her computer from someone she likely did not want him to see.

    A single, slender dark brow lifts upwards. "Start talking." that is his vigilante voice. His about to do violence voice. He means business.

Oracle has posed:
As she lets herself back in the Clocktower via the air route and drops to the floor, Barbara is not alarmed by the fact that her alarms are mostly off. It just means Dick is here, which makes her heart beat a little faster with happiness. He's been ridiculously busy of late. But there are no lights in her Clocktower, and she goes instantly still, whipping around as the one light clicks on.

Blue eyes flicker to the monitor and he can see the moment she realizes what he's seen. Pushing the cowl back off her head, releasing the mass of copper curls, Barbara walks toward him. "Well.... I'm thinking you already know at least some of the answers." She peels her gauntlets off, her eyes on him wary. "What would you like to know?"

Nightwing has posed:
    "Keep undressing. It makes me less mad." Dick's compliments are usually less suggestive, but then, they just took those first tentative steps into something more than flirting. COme to think of it, now that she is confronted with him, when was the last time he wasn't crashed out with her, or on her couch? He isn't moved in or anything, but since that night, he's quietly cooked her meals, and done laundry, and checked in on her, and somehow just not quite managed to go to his own home. Insidious.

    "I'm not the intellect that you and Tim are." Dick admits in a more conciliatory tone. "So walk me through this, so I can help you." He pulls in a slow breath. "Because I had to calm Tim down, and if he knew about this..." Hell to pay, possibly. Dick gives her a look. He's not big on playing this game. He doesn't withhold information like barbara has had to, or Bruce does. He's a different sort. Him doing this at all is a tremendous act of faith on his part. "Walk me through why you did this, okay?" He's upset, but not fuming. "And then explain to me how we make us work if we're keeping secrets." That is far more dangerous a tone.

Oracle has posed:
Ohboy. "All right," Barbara says quietly, dropping her gauntlets on a bare part of the table and removing her cape, cowl, and utility belt while she talks. "I've had a snooper around the periphery of my protocols for a while. And I was approached by the hacker finally." She slants him a glance. "It was actually before Melinda May approached Tim. But... same organization. It wasn't someone I was sure I could trust or anything, but the invitation to meet -- among hackers, it's a huge gesture. So I took the meeting."

She considers the situation. "Not long after, intel came through about the Rising Tide situation. And before I even had my toes in that water, the other hacker was reaching out to me for help. They needed to embed an agent in Rising Tide, and they had one ready to go... but the agent needed to be able to escape SHIELD HQ. So I was approached to assist that escape. The agent got out, and passed intel back to SHIELD through me. It was the utter extent of my involvement in that part of the operation -- mainly I spent the rest of //my// time trying to thwart the damage they were doing. Which...." She sighs heavily. "Obviously I couldn't do completely, but it would have been a hell of a lot worse if they hadn't asked for help."

She moves to sit in the other office chair, across from him and leaning on her knees as she looks at him. "You couldn't be involved. If they breach my identity, it's far too fine a line between me and you. And I worked damn hard to erase //all// evidence they have ever had on Bruce's identity and yours."

Nightwing has posed:
    He is a little mad, sure. It's the restrained mad, though. It's the Bruce mad, which is the wrong sort of mad with him. If he can bark and snarl, Dick Grayson will be okay. This calm, controlled anger? She's reading it right. Dick is livid; his blue eyes are a little more gray than normal and they are intent on her. Reading cues to her intentions. He actually listens though, and the anger goes away. After she finishes, he takes a deep breath. "I will take over with SHIELD." that is handled. "You and I are better equipped to run that game given these circumstances. He runs a gloved hand over his face. He composes his thoughts.

    "We have an information imbalance in our relationship." Obviously, Dick Grayson has been reading; more likely an audiobook. "I knew this walking into our relationship. I mean, for crissakes, Barbara, you have a video feed that shows you if I am looking at another girl's boobs. You know if I am alive because I have a heart rate monitor in here." he taps at the suit. "I accept that. It is the cost of being with you. No more secrets, okay? I am not allowed any, you should not be allowed very many." He's not dumb. He knows she will keep a few. She just needs to make sure they are worth it.

    He tosses her a silvery little rectangle. The engraving on the side is simple. 'I love you, John -- Mary'; it is his father's lighter. Nightwing stands up with his uncanny grace and holds out that manila folder from the desk to her. A quick glance verifies it is the application for one Richard John Grayson-Wayne to the Bludhaven police academy. His blue eyes will meet hers. "I-I'll want the lighter back." He doesn't have words, so he sort of says something a bit obvious. It's a grand gesture, and the showmanship is the price of being with Dick, sometimes. The circus performer will always be a part of him.

Oracle has posed:
As his anger abates, Barbara feels a bit better. She hadn't been sure about his reaction to all this in general. So it's a good thing, in her opinion, that he sees WHY she's doing things as she is. When he says he'll take over with SHIELD, she's not exactly surprised. It's what Dick does. And she also sees his point -- that Tim might, in fact, be still too much black-and-white about the right and wrong of a matter to really deal with this if he were to find out now.

Blowing out a breath, she nods slightly. "You're right about the information... and especially lately, since I'm less often in the cowl and more often in your ear and dispatching." Barbara smiles a little. "I don't think it wise that we promise to tell one another everything -- a little privacy is not a bad thing. But I promise the big things won't be secrets. Even this... wasn't exactly secret. I was just doing what I do and we didn't see one another." She catches the silvery lighter, looking surprised.

A frown creases her brows when he hands her the folder, though, and she glances at the academy. She knew he was thinking of applying. And when she looks up.... then she understands what he's handing her. She knows Tim talked to him about the police academy stuff, and she gets it. //He// has come to the decision that he can't do it, too.

Moving to stand up, she faces him, just at eye level without her boots. "You can have it back anytime you want. But ... I'm keeping it unless you ask for it back or you give me something different." Leaning around him to leave the folder on the computer desk, she stands back up and her free hand cradles his face. "I'm sorry," she tells him softly. "I *do* keep things to myself just as habit. It's my *job* to protect you. But only from THEM. Not from yourself." It's perhaps the best gift she can offer -- that perception of him as perfectly capable.

Nightwing has posed:
    "Just torch it. After Bruce called me a disappointment, he at least got me in to see Lucius. I'll have a job with the foundation. Some sort of executive. I'll have to take some gorgeous woman to a lot of parties. Good thing I am absolutely ass over teakettle in love with one." There is hurt in his eyes as he recounts that, but it must be a new hurt. It mingles with his playful, teasing, but ultimately sincere affection. He cannot really delve into his feelings on what Bruce said, but he can tell her he loves her. It makes him feel better to be able to say it. It will be enough for now. A hand settles on her backside. Slowly it slides up to tangle in those brilliant copper curls. Clever fingers interlace in the shining strands and he just holds her, even as he is held.

    "Just, torch it. There are only so many hours in the day. This training for the duel with Shiva will end, but the training has changed me somehow. I... am going to keep training as long as Dragon will let me. I have... brothers who need me. Damian and I are getting a long really well. Alfred's getting older." He swallows. "I have an amazing family. If I am going to be a disappointment, well, I am going to be the best disappointment I can be."

    He works his jaw and promises. "I love you, Barbara. But you aren't my sister." He quips, "Grayson, not Lannister." He swallows again, "But you are still my family." he leans over to whisper in her ear, "So, I want a heart monitor in your chair, or something." The joke is gentle and tender.

Oracle has posed:
Barbara blinks. In all of those words at first, she picks the ones that matter to her. "Bruce said WHAT??" But she leaves it there, vowing silently to kick Bruce's ass. Her arms wrap around his shoulders and tighten just a bit, and she smiles a little. "Torch it, huh?"

She nuzzles into his cheek and holds him tightly, grateful for the affection. He's not mad. That makes a difference. She tells him softly, "You can have a freakin' heart monitor in my chair and a camera monitor on my desk, even." A kiss whispers across his jaw. "Don't listen to him about being a disappointment. You know he's an asshole who has no clue how to tell you that he loves you. It's why he's so hard on you, and you know it... losing you would literally kill that man."

Nightwing has posed:
    "My brain says you are right." Dick answers. "It says he is motivating me to succeed. He is pushing me to excel. THe tests are harder. The challenges are greater, but that is because I am older and more capable." Dick draws in a breath. He leans over to whisper the next words in her ear, because no one else can hear them. "My heart says there are two people I never want to let down. I am holding one, and the other thinks I am a waste of potential." He lets his cheek rest against hers.

    And that is Dick Grayson in a nutshell. The head and heart are not always in the same direction. When they are, unstoppable. When they are not, there is dissonance. He kisses her cheek just the once. "Light that thing up." His other hand grabs her backside, and he whispers something into her ear a little more filthy. "I'll take the camera, it you'll wear some stuff for me." Because he can't linger n the hurt too long.

Oracle has posed:
She curls her slender body into the curve of his, fitting herself to him like a puzzle piece. They've always fit just right. And she squeezes him very tightly. "I'ma kick his ass for you," she informs Dick in a solemn whisper. And then she does as he asks and brings the silver lighter around to show it to him. "How about we light the candles downstairs." Cuz... you know... OFFICE here! She kisses him tenderly and leads him by the hand into the dark environs of the apartment to do things best done in low light.