*Disclaimer* Tim Drake, Cassandra Cain, Kon-El, Lucius Fox, Bruce Waye, and Dinah Lance are owned my DC Comics (AOL/Time Warner). I have borrowed them without permission but not for profit. Bert Drake is owned by Smitty, as is the Potatoverse, from which this story is inspired. Maalox is a product owned by Novartis Consumer Health, Inc. Use of the product in this story is not intended to indicate an association or sponsorship with Novartis Consumer Health, nor is intended to disparage use of their fine product. The above disclaimer was an idea taken from Kurt Vonnegut's similar disclaimer from the book "Breakfast of Champions." I have just covered my own ass from any legal badness. *Thanks* To Smitty who has beta'd this story for me and let me play in her universe. I couldn't have done it without you. *** The Deed by The Seitz (no1swinger@hotmail.com) *** "This is true love. You think this happens every day?"-Wesley from "The Princess Bride" *** Cassandra Cain lay on her back looking up at the ceiling. She looked at the ceiling and for the first time it really hit her. They had finally done it. The Deed. The Act. The Horizontal Mamba. The Mexican Hat Dance. Sex, Babs called it. She and Tim had had sex. Tim. She looked over to him, asleep, truly peacefully asleep for the first time in a very long time. She looked back at the ceiling. She looked at the ceiling and she remembered the how the night had began. Coming home from work, eating, the dishes. A quiet between them. They weren't fighting, Tim was just in a Mood. So she left him alone. Then patrol. She changed and sat on the bed and waited for him. Except he took longer than he usually did to change into his Robin suit. So she knocked. She knocked on the door and told him to hurry up. And he did. He came out a few minutes later, dressed and ready to go. So she went to the window and prepared to jump and she saw him do something different. Tim took a swing of Maalox and then came to the window to start their patrol. Tim had always drank a lot of Maalox. It was his way of dealing with stress. She had accepted that. But he never drank it before patrol. He never needed it. But she said nothing. She said nothing and they went out on patrol and it was a boring night and Tim must have still been in a Mood because he didn't say anything. And she accepted that because that was how they acted when he was in a mood. So they just did their patrol. They did their patrol and came back to the apartment and she went into the bathroom and changed into her pajamas and she came out and saw him sitting on the bed with his bottle of Maalox. She surely wasn't going to climb in the bed with him sitting on it in his Robin suit so she waited and looked at him. She looked at him sitting on the bed and staring at his Maalox and not moving, save for when he unscrewed the cap every few minutes to take a swing before re-screwing the cap back on. And she watched him for a full two minutes and decided he didn't notice she was finished so she said his name. She said his name and he looked up at her and through the mask she could see he was in pain. And she didn't know what she could do for him. So she said his name again and told him she was done and he could go change. She told him she was done and he could go change and he looked deep into her eyes and said he wasn't sure how long he could keep doing this. And she asked him keep doing what, and he said keep doing this. Keep lying to his parents and working for Mr. Fox and Bruce and then going out every night to get shot at and do the job that the police should be doing. And he took another swing of Maalox and re-screwed the cap and waited for her to answer but she couldn't think of anything to say to that so she just told him to go change. She told him to go change and he finally listened to her and he put down the Maalox and went into the bathroom to change. And she sat on the bed where he had been sitting and waited for him to come out. She waited for him to come out, and after a few minutes he did, and she motioned him to come and sit next to her, and he did. He came and he sat down next to her and she took his hand and she told him to tell her what was wrong. She told him to tell her what was wrong and he did, telling her how hard it was for him to keep up this act. And he told her how sometimes he wanted to stop being Robin but he couldn't because he didn't want to disappoint Bruce and he didn't want to disappoint Bert who loved him so much because he was Robin. And he tried to continue but he doubled over and he asked her for his Maalox and she said no. She said no and when he looked at her with tears in his eyes she told him he didn't need that, he needed to talk and to cry and to feel. So he did and he vented, while they sat on the bed. He vented and cried and got most of his frustrations out and she sat their and listened. She sat there and listened and let him vent and tried to think of a way she could tell him that everything was going to be ok. But she couldn't think of anything to say that would help and she knew that even if she could think of something to say she wouldn't be able to put it eloquently enough to fix Tim's problem so she just sat there and listened. She sat there and listened and he talked about the past and it made her remember their first kiss in the doorway of Bruce's house. And she remembered their first real kiss when they were fighting before the story of Dinah and Bruce got out and every superhero on earth and a few who weren't started blabbing about that mess. And she remembered all the times she had kissed him after that and she had an idea. She had an idea and she sat there on the bed with a frustrated, venting Tim Drake and she waited for him to be done and when he was she leaned over and kissed him. It was a soft kiss and it took him by surprise so he waited a few moments before returning it. But pretty soon the surprise faded and he began to return the kiss. And they sat there and kissed and she figured she had done the right thing so she broke the kiss and pulled away. She broke the kiss and pulled away, but when she pulled away something about that didn't feel right so she moved forward and she kissed him again. And he returned it only this time it was deeper. So they sat on the bed and kissed some more. And they sat on the bed and kissed some more and soon before either of them knew what was happening the kisses went from deep to fiery to passionate. And the kept sitting on the bed and kissing and before either of them really knew what was going on they weren't sitting on the bed anymore, they were laying on the bed. They were laying on the bed and still kissing and Cass felt right doing it and she thought that it would feel right if she undid the buttons on the front of Tim's pajamas. So she undid them and that cause him to stop kissing her and sat sat up to look at her with confusion in his eyes. And he looked at her and she heard him ask if this was what she really wanted to do. She heard him ask if this is what she really wanted to do and she tried to answer him, but in all of the kissing and all of the passion she had forgotten how to talk. She looked at him and tried to say something but whatever part of her brain controlled language had been over taken by the part that allowed her to read people's bodies. And since she couldn't answer him with a spoken word, she just smiled and kissed him again. She kissed him again and they fell back onto the bed and before long they were doing the Deed. And while they were doing the Deed her brain still hadn't gotten back it's ability to speak so, save for her breathing, her part in the Deed was done in complete silence. And she knew that wasn't normal because there had been many times while she was living in Wayne Manor that she had walked past Bruce's room at night on her way to the kitchen and she had heard him and Dinah doing the Deed and Dinah was making some noise. And when she and Kon had done the Deed she had still managed the occasional squeak and groan. So she knew that noise was normal but she could get any noise to come so instead she looked deep into Tim's eyes and told him with her own eyes that all was ok on her end. And just to make sure he got the message she smiled. She smiled and they continued doing the Deed and she stared into his eyes the whole time and saw that he was completely focused on her. No Bruce, no Batman, no Mr. Fox and no Bert. Just her and him. Just Tim and Cassandra, doing the Deed in their apartment. And then the Deed was done and she rolled Tim over to his stomach and she climed upon him where she cuddled up against his back. She cuddled up against his back and ran her fingers through his hair which caused him to look back at her. And she saw that he looked different, like he had just run a marathon. . . .and won. Tim looked at Cassandra with the weight of the world off of his shoulders for the time being and slowly her mind remembered how to make words so she looked at him and spoke. She looked and him and she spoke the first words to him since she had told him he needed to cry and to feel. The first words since they had done the Deed. She told him to turn of the light and to get some sleep. She told him to turn off the light and to get some sleep and he smiled at her and turned over and turned off the light and soon after that he fell asleep. And once he was asleep she was all alone in the room with her thoughts so she rolled over onto her back and looked up at the ceiling. And while she looked up at the ceiling she thought. She thought while she looked at the ceiling, about her father, about Cain, and what he would think of her now. If he was in contact with her what would he think of her now that she had done the Deed with someone that she truly cared for. She wondered if her father would like Tim and what he would say to Tim if she and him went over to Cain's house for dinner. She decided that he would probably threaten Tim's life. And she decided then that she really didn't care to think about that so she thought of something else. She thought about Batman. She thought about Batman and what he would say. And she thought about Babs and Dick and Spud and what they would say about Tim and her having done the Deed. And she thought about Dinah and Bruce and all the times those two had done the Deed and now Dinah was pregnant. And for a moment Cassandra was afraid. Cassandra was afraid for a moment that she too would become pregnant like Dinah and would have to wait to be Batgirl for a long time while she carried the baby. And she worried about that for a moment and touched her stomach. And since nothing was different about it she assumed that she wasn't pregnant but reminded herself that she probably wouldn't know for sure until she started throwing up like Dinah did. Then she figured that she probably wasn't pregnant because she didn't feel any different and if she was then she couldn't do anything about it. So she decided to think about something else. She decided to think about something else and she thought about Tim some more. But this time she thought about the office and what all of this work was doing to Tim. And she thought about the times when her and the other secretaries got together and complained about how they were all always having to take care of the every need of their bosses. She thought about how she never really had much to say during those discussions because she never did most of the stuff that the other secretaries did for their bosses. But now she figured she could do something for her boss. So she got up from the bed. She got up from the bed and slowly made her way into the living room where the phone was. And she picked up the phone and called two people she knew needed the information she was going to give. She called Maggie's desk first and left a message that Tim was sick and he wasn't going to be in tomorrow. Then she called Rita and told her machine the same thing. Having got her boss out of a full day of work she smiled and headed back into the room where she climbed into the bed. She climbed into bed and pulled the covers over herself and lay on her back looking at the ceiling. Tim, who had rolled onto his side in her absence, stayed asleep next to her. She looked over at him, sleeping peacefully and smiled. She smiled and turned her eyes back to look at the ceiling. The had done it. The Deed. The Act. The Horizontal Mamba. The Mexican Hat Dance. Babs had called it sex. Dinah had called it making love. All of them worked for Cassandra, who turned herself to cuddle up beside Tim, who did not wake but pushed back into her warm body. A soft sigh from him had her crane her neck to see his face. She craned her neck to see his face and saw that he was smiling. She saw he was smiling and she put her head back down to her pillow She put her head back down to her pillow and fell asleep for the first time since she had done the Deed. fin