It seemed like yesterday...the first time the two of them actually talked. Not him saving her, but actually talk. It was a year after the "incident" in Mexico. Life had moved on. He dropped her off in Chicago and left. Getting back to a normal life wasn't exact easy. Her parents questioned her constantly why she didn't call letting them know she was coming back or pick her up from the airport. Luckily growing up with cop as a dad, you become very good at lying. They had accepted her gap year in Mexico without question. Just something a young person does. Nothing was out of the ordinary about it. She was the good child. The straight-A student and the one who never got in trouble unlike her brother. Barbara would sometimes bitterly laugh at how they had absolutely no idea how much trouble she actually got into. She immediately enrolled in University. It was the right step and it made problems easier.

Killing someone isn't natural. It's something that eats at your very soul in ways you would never be able to comprehend before it happens. What's worse? Guilt. Guilt over a death. How many besides Isabelle died because of her? How was did she become so fucking blind to everything that had been going around her. Santiago..when did he start his take over? Every night instead of partying she went over the Warehouse massacre in her head. Not one person was on her side. They were all going to let that bastard shoot her. Hell, he did shoot her. Superman just got in his way. No one tried to stop him. Was it fear? Or that they thought he was actually better. When did she actually lose control. Was she ever really in control...how fast did the the reason for her gang get subverted. When did they become the bad guys that freaking Superman was called to visit them. Why did he even... Barbara shook her head staring up the ceiling. Her roommate was out at a party and here she was...dealing with...fucking hell.

"Babs As" the drunk voice said outside the door. The door? "Open the door, Barbara." Had she been so lost in thought that she didn't even notice that her roommate had been trying trying the open the door. Ugh.

"Yeah, I'm coming." Barbara slipped some shorts that had some cute bats cartoons on them as well as a yellow shirt before opening the door. There was her roommate Jayna as her usual drunk self. She just turned 21 recently...and was making the most of it. It was strange, Barbara had already been through this stage. She could drink in Mexico the moment she got there and she used it to her full advantage. She was used to walking home in a drunken stupor, the slurring of words, the perfect morning remedies and very rarely the blacking out. Jayna? Jayna was at the beginning. However that's not what worried Barbara. It was the male standing behind her. She could feel her lips twitch the way this guy was man handling her roommate. She quickly grabbed Jayna's chocolate wrist and jerked her into the apartment. Jayna stubbled behind her her in the apartment. The boy didn't seem too bothered by it...till he realized that Barbara wasn't moving to let him in.

"Do you mind?" he asked in a way that set anyone off.

"My place, my rules. You need to scat."

"Scat?" he scoffed putting his hands in his pocket. "How about you scat b-"

Barbara quickly moved closer to the boy. He had muscles alright, but nothing she hadn't seen before. "She's drunk. So if you were actually her boyfriend I might let you in. Except you're not and she's not in any sense to give you damn permission. So. Scat."

He didn't move. Not right away. Barbara could see his mind reeling. Trying to figure out if he wanted to punch her or not. The deep breath in and out. Clearly he had never been told no before. At least this was the only evidence she needed that this was the right move. Another deep breath in. He finally turned on his heels and exited down the hall. The redhead let out a sigh of relief, but quickly winced as she heard her roommate made it to the bathroom just in time. The next couple hours were not fun. Once her roommate had finished in the bathroom she went straight into a rant about how Barbara was always acting like her mother. It felt like she ranted for an hour. Frankly, she tuned Jayna out pretty quick. She was drunk. Super drunk. Finally Jayna passed out on her bed.

Barbara looked at the clock on her desk. How much sleep did she get? Maybe 3 hours? Not enough. So not enough. Especially when one works at a coffee shop.

"Hi Welcome to Starbucks, what can I get started for you?" she tried to sound like she wasn't bored out of her mind. The suit wasn't even looking at her. He just kept staring down at his stupid iPhone.

"Ice Mocha. Extra shot of carmel." He said in a bored voice. The blue suit couldn't even be bothered to look up at her. Seriously dude? No eye contact at all. Barbara just gave him a forceful smile.

"Right that'll be-" A credit card was suddenly shoved into her view. Asshole. She just took the card and processed this transaction and sent him on his way. Almost every single customer was a suit or a hipster. Hipsters were almost worse. They wanted a million different things, changed their orders midway through and get annoyed if everything wasn't perfect. Fucking Hipsters. The rush was going as normal till the chime of the door followed a slow decent into silence. Barbara didn't even notice how short the line had become as she was dealing with another aggravating customer.

"Hi! Welcome to Starbucks what can I.." Barbara looked up to see the very familiar God before her. Smirking. He was smirking. It felt like the entire room was in silence forever as she stared up at the being who saved her life a year ago. She bit her lip. What the hell was he doing here? You could hear a pin drop. He looked exactly the same as she first saw him. Confident and in complete control of the situation. Of course he was. The day when Superman wasn't in control was not going to be a happy day. "...what can I get you.."

"What do you recommend?" His voice was as smooth as she remembered it. She didn't hear him speak a lot in Mexico. Only two words in english..but she never forgot how he sounded...and what he did for her.

"Well...I personally I like the special in the large. Pretty tasty and you can't taste the coffee."

"Two, then." A small smile couldn't help but appear on her face.

"I didn't think you were such a coffee drinker."

"It's polite to buy buy a woman a drink."

"And who's the lucky-" Once again he stopped her mid sentence with that smirk of his. Oh. Oh. Her?

"You're quick, Gordan." She wasn't too sure if he was being sarcastic or not. He seemed so different than before. Charming...and strangely easily to talk to. At least easy for her. She breathed out. He didn't even ask. She sighed before taking off her stupid hat and putting it on the table.

"12.50, Superman." He just kept that smile as put a 20 on the table. She just shook her hand as she walked over to her co-worker Marie grabbing their drinks. She looked up at Barbara rather scared.

"Barbara….what are you doing" she whispered harshly. She really did have fear in her voice. Her eyes shifting side to side. Barbara looked over at Superman who still seemed to be causally standing waiting for her.

"I am going to have have coffee with the man who just saved over 20 lives last week. Relax."

"But- what about Sheryal?" Now Marie was just trying to create an excuse for her to stay. She was young. A 16 year old girl who seemed to actually like her job. A nervous wreck most of the time. But a good kid.

"Tell Sheyal, that Superman came in and asked me to sit down and have coffee with him and he left a 5 dollar tip for all the trouble." With that she took the drinks and started walking towards the door. For some reason there was this air of thrill around her. Just this...odd high that she hadn't felt in a long time.

"Shall we take a walk?" his voice suddenly said from behind her making Barbara jump. She turned over to look at him before handing him his coffee and strangely she felt nervous. She seemed so much in her element a minute ago...but that was...what was her element? Small talk?

"That's fine...if you don't mind being stared at...or cops following you. Or-"

"Plan B then." With that he picked her off her feet and they gently flew up. She could hear gasps as they begun their ascent up. She couldn't help but cling to him as they kept going higher and higher.

"Relax, Gordon."

"It's kinda hard to be calm."

"You were fine earlier."

"We weren't flying earlier." she countered making eye contact. He seemed to look at her as if trying read her then look ahead again.

"I suppose we weren't." With that he landed on the roof of the John Hancock building. It took only a second for Barbara to get a solid feeling on the ground before actually seeing the view. "Away from enough people, Gordan?"

She looked up at him. Had he planned this? To take her up her? Everyone in that Starbucks was in living fear of him...that or awe. Mostly fear. But...she had never felt that around him. Not even in Mexico. She took a sip of her coffee. A bit cold but still had that wonderful Cinnamon taste. A nice warm drink for the occasional breeze. "I can't say I ever expected to see you again."

"But you don't seem-"

"I don't seem to be shaking in my boots." Barbara said softly. She was...actually /glad/ to see him strangely. To be talking to him for once...and it seemed like they had known each other for years.

"You saved my life...hardly seems fair for to refuse a cup of coffee." She took another sip. There was just something about him that made him easy to talk to. "How'd you find me?"

"There aren't many Barbara Gordon's in Chicago."

"There has to be one other." she pressed.

"Not with their father being Jim Gordon." She looked over at him. He knew her father?

"Are you my parole officer or something?" He didn't say a word...the former it was. He was checking up on her. There was a part of her that wanted to be annoyed. But honestly? Honestly it felt fine. He saved her life and the whole...problem...was her fault. No. Problem wasn't the right word. Responsibility. She just took a drink.

"Did you ever tell anyone?" Barbara just shook her head and gave a small laugh before looking up at him.

"Yeah. I'm going to tell someone that the commissioner's daughter ran a cartel down in Mexico. Got everyone killed then joined one of the top universities in the city. Yeah. That will go down great." She took another drink, frowning at the coffee taste this time. Tequila would taste good right about now. "My dad….he would freak. He's...he's good at his job."

Commissioner James Gordon was a good cop. She knew this...he did his job really well. But in a city where almost every cop is corrupt in some way or another and doesn't even seem to make a dent in anything important...maybe her dad would be the one to change it. Then again…

"Studying?"

"Library sciences." It was now his turn to shake his head and laugh.

"A librarian?"

"It's a good job." she countered.

"Not for you" He sounded so assure. He didn't even look at her when he said that. So confident.

"And what would you know what the perfect job for me is?"

"You ran one of the most successful cartels in the country. If my understanding is right...you made the product yourself?"

She didn't say anything...just looked at him with a look she hadn't given anyone...in a very long time. An actual serious one. "That information never got out."

Superman just scoffed. "A foreigner appears in a small town and in just a year they somehow they start selling very good quality-"

"And before there were multiple raids a month by the government and others. I-"

"You did that at 19."

"And look what happened! Everyone I knew there is practically dead! Not to mention-" Barbara could see her. The little girl that died. That didn't need to die...but did because she was blind. She shook her head and looked at the Vista. Chicago.

"This city...is fucking worse than Mexico." she hissed. "People die everyday in this city and no one blinks an eye. Chi-raq. At least people aren't blind in Gotham." Barbara sighed. What the hell was she doing. "I don't regret shooting him….I really fucking don't. But everyone else? Everyone died because I didn't see what was going on. I didn't see till it was too fucking late. So what am I supposed to do? Hm? What the fuck am I supposed to do?"

He just looked at her with an unreadable look before saying the words that would become her motto for the rest of her life. "You make it count."