Only in Darkness

15: On The Move

Columbus, Ohio

2018

Marlowe did everything physically possible to stall calling Jason back. Not because she didn't want to talk to him, but because she knew he was going to ask her a million questions.

Questions about things she didn't know if she was ready to answer or just didn't want to talk about. But Jason would expect answers and he always managed to get them from her even if the experience was like pulling teeth.

Getting up at a snail's pace once she had cleared her plate, washing the dishes she had used by hand. Loading them into the dishwasher and running it, even though those were the only things inside.

She just couldn't ever tell Jason no and that scared her. No matter how far he pushed her, how annoyed he made her sometimes, how terrified she was of the things he made her feel, she couldn't cut him off. The thought of doing so made strange things happen to her chest.

That scared her too.

But if it was him... somehow it was all okay. Because she knew he understood, and he knew that she did too. Even if they never talked about it. It didn't need to be put into words.

That was the thing she appreciated the most about him.

They could just be. Have fun and hang out and be the kids they never got to be. Together. Normal. As normal as two barely legal vigilantes could get at least.

"This was a bad idea!" Marlowe's shout was muffled and almost drown out by the sirens of the cops cars behind them and the wind howling as they flew down the streets of Gotham.

Their inability to sleep like normal people, because of the trademarked disgusting sleep cycle of a vigilante, was to blame for this. That and their lack of common sense when put together.

Can't sleep? Don't go for the warm milk and Alfred's cookies, no, go for a fucking joy ride on Jason's – Robin's – motorcycle around the city.

They were bound to see something interesting, well Marlowe would, Gotham's crazy was normal to Jason but he couldn't pass up the opportunity to have Marlowe cling on to him as he sped far faster than the legal limit.

An action that had put them in this situation.

Another cop car joined the chase, making three in total and adding to the chaos. Marlowe could barely hear Jason laugh before he throttled the bike and started to zip around the streets of his home, taking corners at ninety with Marlowe holding on for dear life.

Jason would make fun of her later but this was a lot different than flying with Cosmo. Cosmo had an energy shield for high velocity flying. Jason and her only had helmets and leather jackets.

Jason turned harshly into an alley; an alley cut in half by a fence. A dead end.

The chain link seven or eight feet tall and glinting menacingly in the moonlight.

"What are you doing?!" Marlowe questioned frantically as Jason pushed the engine as fast as it could go, the wheels practically spinning under them, "No, no, no, no, Jason!" if Marlowe was a cat her claws would have torn a hole in Jason's jacket and imbedded into his ribs. The boy turning the front wheel fractionally and driving them up a ramp made of a crate, an abandoned piece of ply wood, and a dumpster. Jumping the chain link fence with inches left to spare.

The squeal of the cop's tires mingling with Marlowe's scream. Feeling her body go weightless, the world slowing down around her, her heart pounding in her ears, like she was in a cheesy action movie. The only thing keeping her on the bike being her grip on Jason. She didn't know much about cars or motorcycles, but she knew that they weren't meant for this.