That's what girls do [Barbs]

[charlie]

The ding of the doorbell signalled that Charlie was there. She stood at the door of Barbara's and Dick's apartment shuffling her feet and waiting. Words could explain how nervous she was. It was an awkward time because things have unravelled to Charlie so quickly. Her hero Batgirl was revealed to her as Barbara Gordon. And Charlie didn't know how to react to it. She stayed on the couch at the apartment that night because she was wounded and both Dick and Barbara and the hot stud Superboy looked after her. That was two days ago and she had planned with Barbara to go out for lunch to 'talk'. And Charlie couldn't be so excited and nervous at the same time.

And she was dressed up. When she was walking around the streets the day before, she was lucky enough to find a twenty dollar note on the ground. Bingo! For a moment or so she felt guilty. Taking things that weren't hers wasn't what she did. But she was desperate. The last time she ate was at least three days ago and that was half a piece of bread from some nice woman that saw her on the streets. The clothes she wore were faded and dirty. She made herself sick. So when she saw the piece of green on the side of the road she sighed. Who was she hurting except her pride?

So after getting a cheap meal she went to a bargain store. She didn't want Barbara to be turned off of her and think that she is no good when she turns up lookinng disgusting. Even though it is true. And she got a nice pair of skinny leg jeans, a nice blue shirt and a jacket. Leaving her five dollars to by something to eat. She wanted her new friend to believe that she could take care of herself, though Charlie knew in a dozen ways that she couldn't. So she stood, trying to force a smile onto her face as she stood outside the apartment waiting. She just hoped Barbara still wanted to go, she could use someone to talk too right now.

[k]

[/b] Babs called, but heard no reply. She assumed he must be upstairs in the penthouse or busying himself with training. Shaking her head she fixed the pin in and turned to head down the hallway towards the front door. She'd invited Charlie out for lunch, because she felt like they should talk and have some more time to go over some things had happened recently. Babs didn't usually have too much of a social life, not since being Batgirl had overtaken everything, and it was nice to have someone around her own age. Sure, Charlie was several years younger than herself, and those years did make all the difference between them, but she was still a lot closer to Babs' age than the other people she tended to surround herself with right now.

She picked up her bag on the way out and headed to the door, opening it and smiling at the girl. There was quite a bit for the pair of them to talk about right now, more than Charlie currently knew. It was something that Dick and her had been discussing since she'd last seen the troubled teenager, which had been after the attack. It seemed a lot had happened within those very few days, and now the city was overrun with FBI and CIA, but it didn't quite bother Babs. Not yet. She'd heard they'd made themselves quite present and known at the Police Department downtown, but other than that, they hadn't posed much of a threat to the vigilantes in the city - but Babs knew it was a matter of time. There was a dark cloud moving over Gotham with the arrival of these people, the men in suits who thought they knew best for Gotham City. It was a terrible thing to imagine, that their dear city was now under the control of people who had little idea and couldn't fathom the depths and importance of their masked vigilantes. Without the Batfamily and their many allies in Gotham, what would the city become? Criminals were a dime a dozen, but vigilantes were sparse.

"Hey, Charlie," Babs said, pulling her bag onto her shoulder and smiling at her. She seemed to have found some new clothes, and Babs made a note to question where they'd come from later on. Brushing her red hair back she stepped out of the apartment and shut the door behind them. Babs couldn't remember the last time she'd been out during the afternoon. Occasionally Dick and her would go out in the evenings, but usually they were wrapped up with various other things during the day. She was quite looking forward to this. "There's this wonderful little café a few blocks over," Babs explained as she headed towards the elevator. "They do some fantastic waffles," Babs grinned.[/ul]

[charlie]

Brushing her hair off of her face, she waited with a smile. A smile mutating into a frown. It wasn't that she was impatient or anything, just that it was awkward. She wasn't fully aware about how Barbara felt about 'the secret and Charlie's knowing of it'. It wasn't like finding out your friends crush or facebook password, this was someone's other life. She just hoped that Barbs trusted her as much as she trusted Barbs. Looking down at her shoes, she waited. Some people twiddled their thumbs, she checked out her footwear. Another little quirk from this blond along with alot more. But she looked up when she heard voices from inside. That signalled that they were home, perhaps Barbs talking to Dick. But in short moments she watched the door open and Barbara step out.

An emerald dress and her hair done nicely, she looked glam as she excited. Immediately, Charlie felt scraggy but tried to shun the thoughts. She tried to keep in her mind that people might say things about her, but she must not say anything about herself. So she grinned to the fellow red head. ''Hey Barbs. Looking awesome girl''. She chuckled and then turned as they began to walk. Maybe things would be different, maybe she would have a great time. Or maybe things would turn south. But who knows? She was just happy to be with someone who respected and had a degree of like in her. She hadn't made really any friends since she came to Gotham, but maybe Barbara was a starting point. Because being anoutgoing teenager with an open mind and a big heart but is unfortunately friendless, it isn't sun shine and daisies in her social life.

Directed towards the elevator Charlie listened to Barbara's suggestion the cafe. She nodded, pondering yay or nay until Barbara mention good waffles. That had Charlie like a magnet to metal as they got to the elevator and she turned to Barbara with a grin. ''You had me at waffles. I love them. My mum used to make -''. An unknown force stopped her and she shook it off. She couldn't talk about her mother so giving a smile to Barbara she looked back to the elevator as she pressed the level and hoped inside in pure silence. She hoped she didn't just make everything awkward, but she guessed that they both had a side of their lives that they weren't exactly comfortable sharing with everyone. So she looked to Barbara hoping to change the subject soon before they got out of the compartment and hopefully things would be chill again.

[k]

[/b] she responded. "You look great, Charlie," she added, a quick, curt nod to gesture towards her new clothes. "Those are new," she added, without a sense of questioning. Babs knew they were new, because they looked it very much, and she couldn't imagine Charlie had such new clothes packed away like that. She smiled at her though and stepped into the elevator, deciding it was probably best not to enquire where the new clothes had come from. Charlie looked good though, and she seemed happy, and that was really all that mattered right now.

Babs adjusted the bag on her shoulder and looked over at Charlie when she began to talk about her mother. She faultered suddenly and Babs looked down at the floor of the elevator as they moved down to the ground floor. Her eyes glanced back up at the number on the side, indicating what level they were at, and then back across at Charlie.
"It's gets easier," she said, but offered no more explanation to what she was talking about. Charlie didn't have to know about Babs' loss, not right now. Babs didn't want to try and compare situations between the pair of them. Charlie's loss was similar in many ways to Babs', but she didn't want to sour her feelings or try to quell it by overlaying her own story about her parents. That wasn't right - if Charlie asked at some point, maybe Babs would tell her, but she wasn't about to impose it upon Charlie.

"I'm glad we're doing this - I'm usually too busy working to think about lunch," Babs explained with a smile. True enough, lunch was usually the last thing on her mental 'to do' list. Luckily when she was at the manor, Alfred never forgot and would always bring down something to keep them going when they were doing something long and arduous. Babs quite missed the Batcave, even though she visited on a regular basis, but spent a lot of her time at the apartment now. [/ul]

[charlie]

Barbara was being really nice. Not that Charlie expected cruel, but she expected some kind of twitchyness towards Charlie. She did hold Barbara's big bad secret, but it pleased her to see that she did not mistrust Charlie, but she almost seemed comfortable being around her. And Charlie back, though when Barbara commented on the clothes, she looked down on them. She could tell that Barbara was making a statement, not questioning so Charlie went with it and gave her a nod. She didn't know how Barbs would react towards the fact that Charlie kind of took what wasn't hers, something she hadn't done before. And she didn't plan too, but she had said it once and she would say it again, she did not like the steal. Just because she had these powers didn't mean she could manipulate the law when she wanted. It wasn't what she was about.

The elevator was confined with awkwardness at the moment. She had really wished that she had not started to say that. Bringing up her mother always brought down her mood, because she missed her so much. Her perfume, the way she would check throughout the night every night to see if Charlie was okay. Charlie's mother didn't like the fact that she was growing up, and she woudl be disappointed to see that Charlie was being forced to grow up quickly now. Very quickly. Though Charlie didn't like to the think of it, but as Barbara responded she looked to her and smiled, trying to be casual. "I know". And that was that.

Barbara was glad to be out which was a relief. Spending her nights fighting crime and her days doing - whatever it is she does, it sounds unlikely that free time would be on her schedule. Unlike Charlie, she didn't have any time a day to do whatever. Charlie would wake up and then patrol the city for criminal activity all day and maybe all night. Actually, sometimes she would bounce into the projecting room at the movie theater and catch some minutes of a movie before she would have to bounce out. It was a life of freedom with the consequence of having nothing else. And she hated it.
"Good. Because this will be great. Give us a chance to talk about stuff. Stuff being learning about what your Barbara Gordon side is like. She seems like a pretty cool chick". Charlie chuckled at her as the elevator finally reached a 'ding' and qued for them to leave. Taking a step out, she then looked back to Barbara to walk with her.

[k]

[/b] Babs grinned, pushing the apartment door open and stepping out into the sunshine beating down on Gotham. The streets were packed with people despite the time, people going from work to lunch Babs assumed, looking around at the crowded streets. She was glad to have gotten out of the apartment once in a while, it seemed like she cooped herself in too much and always found herself surprised at how packed Gotham could be. She usually only saw it so briefly when she was at University, and then it was empty during the night when she patrolled.

She turned left and started to walk down towards the cafe she'd told Charlie about, looking forward to a good cup of coffee and a waffle. Babs turned to look at Charlie as she walked, fishing in her bag for a pair of sunglasses. Babs still had the hint of a blackeye on her right eye, so hiding it in such sunny weather was essential so people didn't talk. Imagine someone seeing such a thing and assuming Dick had done it do her. Babs didn't want such rumours cropping up that she was being beaten by her boyfriend - she would quite quickly assure someone that it was the other way around. Babs was certainly that, despite his acrobatic abilities, if Dick and her ever had a real fight they would be quite evenly matched together.

"How are you?" Babs asked, though again she decided against asking about the new clothes. "I mean, how are you feeling? A bit better?" she said. It wasn't every day you woke up to find an unmasked Batgirl, Nightwing and Superboy hovering over you as you got blood all over their new couch.[/ul]