Grey Arrow rubbed her head from the impact she made on the wall. The December night air was no longer cold from the chill winds and snowfall. It was hot, burning hot from the building across the street engulfed in flames. Quickly she got up and ran over, pulling to a stop right outside the building and pulled down her hood.

Her dark hair cascaded in the wind as her eyes welled up with tears. Tim was in the building when it went up in flames. Before she could get any closer two strong arms wrapped themselves around her. "Arrow, you can't go in there."

"He's in there!" she screamed, trying to get out of his hold. "My best friend is in there and I need to get him out."

Red Hood held onto her as tight as he could, he knew that if he let Grey Arrow go she would dive headfirst into the fire to find Red Robin, and truth be told, so would he. After a minute of screaming for him to let her go, Grey Arrow collapsed to the floor and watched the building burn and being to crumble.

Choking back her sobs, her hands grabbed at the floor. Maybe he was underground in the sewer or something. He had to have gotten out, he was trained by the best escape artist in the world. There was no way Red Robin would die in an exploding building.

As he stared at the building, Red Hood thought of how he didn't want his fate to fall on anyone in his family. He would rather shoot himself before one of them got killed, but as he watched the building burn he couldn't help but think of what could have happened to his younger brother.

"Guys?"

Quickly, the two vigilantes turned to see none other than Red Robin walking towards them while holding his side. His appearance seemed to be a little charred but nothing life-threatening. Grey Arrow stared at her best friend in disbelief. "Is it really you?" she asked, carefully making her way over.

Red Robin nodded and before he knew it, Grey Arrow stormed over and slapped him across the face, and without another word, she took off into the night. There were not enough words to express how mad and hurt she was and thought it best that she didn't speak to him until she had calmed down.

She patrolled around the southern side of Gotham, watching for some poor unsuspecting criminals she could take her anger out on. Lucky for her, there was a mugging outside a beauty parlor. Dropping to the floor, she pulled out an arrow and shot one of the muggers in the shoulder.

"Leave him alone, or the next one goes in your dick," she growled. The man slowly backed away with his friends following, fearing more for their anatomy than their lives, and took off leaving the guy stunned on the floor.

"Who are you? You're not a new bat are you?" he asked, as he grabbed his wallet from the floor and other personal belongings.

"No, I'm Grey Arrow. Just paying a visit to Batman for Green Arrow." was all she said. "Get home quickly, I doubt you would get lucky a second time." 

"I'm Peter and thank you for saving my life Grey Arrow. Also, please do not tell my husband about this. He worries enough about me as it is." he smiled softly and walked off towards his home. Grey Arrow watched as he walked and decided to follow him, it wasn't every day that you met someone that nice in Gotham City.

She stuck to the rooftops and watched as he walked into his apartment building and into the loving embrace of his husband. Satisfied, and less angry than before she decided to return to the Batcave for the night and rest up.

Getting back to her bike, she rode back into the cave and saw that there were others waiting for her. More specifically, everyone but Bruce, Alfred, and Babs. Dick was working with Damian on his technique while Stephanie was talking to Cass. Jason was stood off to the side with a sour look on his face and in the middle stood Tim, leaning against a wall still in his suit. 

At the sight of Tim alive and well, all of Rory's rage and anger towards him came back all at once. The cave went quiet as she parked her bike and took off the helmet, and threw her domino mask to the floor. She narrowed her eyes at Tim. "You."

Before he could even say or move, Rory raised her bow and shot four arrows at Tim pinning him to the wall by his suit. "You fucking asshole," she growled. "Damian, give me your sword."

"Why?" he asked, looking at her as she stormed into the cave.

"I'm going to kill Tim." 

Damian shrugged "Alright, take it." 

"Damian don't you dare give her the sword!" Tim cried from his spot on the wall.

"Why should I listen to you?" he huffed. "I'm not the one who almost got himself blown up."

"Damian, don't you dare," Dick warned, at this Damian gave him a side glance and decided against giving Rory the weapon.

"No, by all means. Give her the weapon, I'd love to see what she'd do to this little shit." Jason egged on, not trying to diffuse the situation at all.

With or without the sword, Rory was still pissed as she stormed over to a terrified looking Tim. "You have exactly 30 seconds to explain why you thought it was okay to go into that building and make me think you were dead."

"Rory, I swear. I didn't mean to! My com had interference so I couldn't warn you about the bomb. I made it out the back before the building blew and was knocked into one of the crates." he said quickly, watching as his best friend stopped in front of him.

Now that she was this close, she could see the red mark from where she had slapped him. "I thought you were dead!" she roared at him, making everyone in the cave flinch at the volume of her voice.

Rory pulled the arrows out of the suit and threw them to the ground. "There will never be a good excuse to ever let me think you are dead! Do you understand me!?" 

"I think we should give them the room," Dick said and began ushering everyone out of the cave, while Rory's chest heaved with anger and Tim backed into the wall as far as he could.

"Rory, I never meant to scare you like that. I only-"

"You only what, Timothy!? I thought I had lost you! I-I thought -" at this point, the anger had disappeared and the tears she held back came tumbling down. She fell to her knees sobbing, "I can't lose you too."

Tim's heart broke at the sight, he didn't think he had caused her this much pain. Slowly, he knelt down next to her and made her look at him. Wiping the tears away with his thumbs, he brushed her hair back. "Listen to me when I say this songbird, there is nothing on this planet that could ever take me away from you. I promise you, with everything I am that I will not leave you." 

Listening to this only made Rory cry harder as he pulled her close to his chest. She gripped his shirt, not daring to let go. The two of them sat like that for a few moments before Rory quit crying. "Come on, lets get you to bed. It's almost four in the morning." 

Rory nodded and slid out of her Arrow suit and stayed close to Tim who led her upstairs. They passed the others who only gave them odd looks as if to say 'Why the hell hasn't he kissed her yet?'

Tim led Rory to her room, she was exhausted. Grief, even if it was misplaced can exhaust a person greatly and Rory had used all of her energy yelling at Tim so she was ready to collapse at any moment. She was so tired, Rory didn't even bother putting on sleep attire and just crawled into bed. Tim tucked her in and was about to turn out her lamp when she grabbed his wrist.

"Can you stay please?" she asked in a whisper, so soft Tim almost didn't hear it.

"You want me to stay?" he asked, she nodded.

"I don't want to be alone right now." she rolled to look at him. The way she looked at Tim, this was the most vulnerable he had ever seen her. He must have scared her to death with his stunt earlier. It was bad enough Jason punched him for it, but Jason's anger was understandable. He thought his brother was blown up like he was, and he didn't try to stop it from happening.

"Alright, let me change. I'll be right back." Without thinking, he kissed her hair and slipped out of the room and into his own to change into sweats and a shirt. Walking out, he saw Jason there, leaning against the wall beside his door. The look on his face was still angry, but he still seemed calmer than before.

"Jay, I'm sorry. Seeing how badly I freaked Rory out, I can barely imagine how much I must have freaked you out," he said quietly. Jason still didn't look at him, but Tim saw him relax just a little bit.

Finally, Jason looked at him, "You ever fucking pull something like that again and I will murder you and then bring your ass back just to kick it again." Tim gave his brother a nod before hugging him, Jason wrapping an arm around his shoulders. The two of them stood like that for a moment before Jason let him go and ruffled Tim's hair.

"Now, go take care of your girl, replacement." Tim flushed at his words and pushed his arm away. 

"She isn't my girl Jay, just my friend." 

"No one reacts like that unless they care, a lot, make sure she knows you care about her too okay?" Jason crossed his arms again and watched Tim cross the hall.

"How much relationship advice have you given me now? Do you need to get checked?" Tim chuckled.

"Honestly, I'm just surprised none of it has blown up in your face yet. Maybe I have tapped into some secret cupid power or some shit." He pushed himself off the wall. "Anyway, try and get some sleep tonight. Getting blown up hurts like a bitch, so try and sleep it off." 

Tim bid his brother good night and walked back into Rory's room, she was curled up in the bed staring at the wall. "Hey, songbird you okay?" he asked as he sat next to her on the bed. Rory turned to look at him, something was on her mind and he could see it. Her eyes were red and so were her nose and cheeks. Had she been crying again?

He got under the covers and pulled her close to himself. "Talk to me, what's wrong." 

"I'm scared, I'm scared that I'm scared. I haven't been afraid in a really long time, and with the fear of losing you... I just can't stop thinking about everyone I've lost. My parents, there was a time I thought Roy was dead, Kori, Lena, and Jesse have all shown up in my room bruised and bleeding from a rough fight." she explained. "For a while, I was able to push it all in the back of my mind. I couldn't afford to be afraid not after what had happened."

"What do you mean what happened?" Tim asked, looking down at her.

"So you know how I was Arrowette before I became the Grey Arrow? Well, I was someone else in the middle," she said, not meeting his gaze. "I was Star City's White Arrow, the symbol of hope and everything good in my city."

"That was you?" Tim asked astounded, "What happened? Why did you change from white to grey?"

"There was an accident, I got scared and angry and I messed up big time. I was scared that I couldn't be the pure symbol in Star City so I darkened my color and changed my name. After that, I always went out on my own. Oliver, Roy, and Dinah hates how much I would just up and leave to patrol on my own but they knew that I had to figure everything out for myself. It's another reason I came here, to find a better understanding of who I am, who I was, and who I will be."

Tim listened as his fingers brushed through her hair softly. Everything she had told him lined up, but there was still something missing. What did she do that made her change so drastically? Comparing the White Arrow and Grey Arrow was like comparing Superman and Batman. There were so many contrasts but then there were similarities. 

Bart had worked with her as the White Arrow and all he talked about was how merciful and nice she was. Looking at the Rory of the present, she was nothing like that. Hell, she was ready to kill him merely an hour ago, she was brutal, rough and it worried him a little.

Tim looked back at Rory to see she had fallen asleep, so he reached over and turned out the lamp and let sleep overcome him.

"Do you think anything happened last night? Her yelling traveled through the manor, Bruce and I heard it from the study."

"You didn't see it, Babs, Rory was ready to murder him. I was worried there for a minute."

"At least you weren't the one egging her to do it Steph, Damian almost gave her a sword so she could do it."

"Can it Dickiebird, I was just as angry as she was if not more. The idiot had us thinking he was dead."

"I doubt Drake would have stopped her, Sonnet did have him pinned to the wall so he was defenseless like an idiot."

"Such a charmer Damian, I'm just impressed she got just the suit and not him. That takes a lot of practice and control."

"Cass is right, I don't think I have ever seen Roy do that. It was kind of cool."

Tim groaned and went to roll over but was stopped by something holding him still. Slowly rubbing his eyes open, he saw that Rory had quite literally wrapped herself around him, arms, legs, and all. Seeing her so peaceful made him smile a little, as she slept there was a small smile puckered on her lips from her cheek squishing against his chest.

"Shit he's awake, abort!" 

Tim looked towards the doorway and saw his oh so lovely siblings scrambling to get out the door before they were caught watching Tim and Rory sleep. "You know, it was your loud voices that woke me right?" 

"Was not Timothy, you can't prove it," Jason said as he went out the door with Dick and Stephanie right behind him.

Tim rolled his eyes and took another look at Rory, brushing the hair back from her face he could see her childhood features still. Her eyes were the same and so was her smile, whenever she smiled he couldn't help but smile too. 

With the commotion of everyone scrambling out the door, Rory began to shift awake and her eyes fluttered open. "Hey, dragon boy."

"Hello to you too Sleeping Beauty." he grinned and sat up stretching his arms out. As he did that Rory punched him in the side while trying to hide her smile. 

"That's not becoming a regular thing I hope you know. It's bad enough Jason calls me princess, but if I get any more connections to the movie I might snap," she said, sitting up and running a hand through her hair.

"Oh, so you can call me dragon boy, but Sleeping Beauty is out of the picture for you?" he chuckled. "I see how it is."

"I call you dragon boy because your last name is Greek for the word dragon. It has nothing to do with the fairy tale," she said as she climbed out of the bed and walked to the bathroom to brush her teeth. 

Tim watched her disappear into the bathroom and got up and followed her, "So I was thinking since tomorrow is Saturday the girls could take you shopping for the ballet and see what there was. I doubt you want to go next weekend with your birthday next Saturday."

Rory poked her head out of the kitchen with her toothbrush hanging out of her mouth. "There's no way my birthday is next weekend Drake. It's December, 18th remember." 

"Rory, today is the 10th. Tomorrow is Saturday the 11th, so that would make the following Saturday the 18th," he said, crossing his arms. Rory gave him a look of disbelief and walked over to her nightstand and checked her phone, toothbrush still in her mouth.

Sure enough her birthday was next weekend, how did the time fly so fast? It was November when she arrived, and Rory had been around for almost a month and a half now. "Well, you better not make a big deal out of it."

Tim gave her a look of confusion, she didn't want him to make a big deal of her birthday? "Rory, this is the first birthday I get to spend with you, maybe I want to have a party with everyone in the manor." he crossed his arms and watched as she continued to brush her teeth and spit out the toothpaste.

"Well, the last nine years weren't exactly the best with birthdays Tim. Everyone was always coming in and out, the only people that were actually there each year was Oliver and Dinah. We had our own little thing, take a walk through Star City's Christmas market with cups of hot chocolate or my personal favorite gluhwein. Then we went back home and sat by the fire and watched a movie of my choosing."

Tim stood there and listened as Rory brushed her hair, recounting her birthdays. Roy was there a lot, but not every year, and the same with the others Jesse, Kori, and Lena, whoever that was. Maybe this year, he was going to make the best birthday she had in years.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I am sorry about that cliffhanger, but I am not sorry about Rory almost murdering Tim because of it. Also, all the fluff in this chapter made me squeal a little on the inside and Rory's birthday is coming up soon. To clarify, Rory is older than Tim but by about 7 months. So she will be 21 while Tim is still 20. 

Until Next TIme,