-Dick's POV-

I stood next to Alfred in the doorway to the kitchen, staring in disbelief. Yawning and rubbing my eyes, I put aside the idea that maybe I was dreaming. "What is she doing?" I whispered to Alfred.

"Looks like she's in some hypnotic state while she cooks those pancakes," Alfred replied, standing up straighter, "I got up around six AM and found her here."

"Why didn't you make breakfast?"

"She had already made enough for each of us to have two servings, Sir, so I left her alone." Alfred walked in, making Victoria immediately snap out of her trance. She whipped around and held a blade against his old throat before anyone could even blink.

"Hey!" I stepped in, wrestling it out of her hand. She looked around and curtsied rather politely.

"I'm so sorry Alfred, I seemed to have lost my head for a moment," Victoria backed off and turned back to her pan. She flipped a pancake again and landed it skillfully on the pile of pancakes beside her. "I made breakfast for everyone." A smile that seemed almost genuine arose on her face. I had never seen her -- in the three months I had known her -- be so nice and polite to everyone. Could wealth really change her this much? Wonder what will happen when she sees Bruce's safe of cash... I thought to myself.

"Well, thank you, Master Victoria. It's nice to take a little break," Alfred smiled and sat down at the table. I hovered over Smith and examined the food. Sure, I was friends with her, but I still didn't trust her.

Tim came from around the corner in his Gotham Academy uniform. He tightened his tie and sat down. "Looks good, Vic," he cheered. She nodded.

"Hell yeah it does. They took hours to make," she said. Bruce came last in his business suit. Victoria actually didn't glare at him for once, but instead halfway nodded in respect. She tossed out knifes and forks to us and set out plates in a line on the island in the kitchen. We could see her through the space at the bar where everyone but Bruce and Alfred sat.

"I think I'm good on your poisoned pancakes. Trying to stay lean and all," I taunted, halfway meaning it. Vic raised an eyebrow.

"Let's taste your cooking then, Grayson, and see who's really going to poison us all," she replied smoothly. Tim laughed as Alfred yelled out in agreement. "And I made all different types of pancakes: Whole wheat, Banana Nut, Protein, Berry, Chocolate Chip, Caramel, Gluten-Free, Vegan, and original. Not to mention, every plate comes with sausage or bacon and coffee or juice." I looked at the mass of food as she pointed. Each stack had six pancakes.

"I'll take some chocolate chip pancakes and some banana nut, please," Tim said, "add some bacon and apple juice, please." Victoria tossed out Tim's request almost instantly. He dug in, moaning in how good it tasted.

"Bruce will probably want wheat and protein I'm guessing with the less-greasy alternative, sausage, as well as a triple shot of black coffee," she served Bruce as well. He nodded towards her, drinking his coffee while reading some newspaper article. "Alfred, berry and banana nut with coffee?"

"Close, but I'll take orange juice over coffee any day," he smiled as she followed as ordered. After making herself a plate, she stared at me.

"You gonna have some or not, dumbie?"

I looked back at Alfred. "Can't you make something?"

"Master Dick, Master Victoria has already made a perfectly great breakfast for us." He returned to eating. I sighed and looked up at the stubborn girl in front of me. As I stared, I notice the small freckles that dusted her nose as well as a tiny crooked part on her bridge that suggested a broken nose. Quickly realizing what I was doing, I looked behind her at the delicious buffet.

"Fine," I finally answered. She crossed her arms.

"What do you want?"

"You don't know? You're not gonna guess?"

"I don't care enough to pay attention to your wild eating habits, Grayson," Victoria leaned on the counter, her hand on her hip.

"One chocolate, one protein, one caramel, one berry, one original, bacon and sausage, and coffee," I smirked, satisfied at the work she would have to do to get what I wanted, "oh! And some fresh squeezed orange juice, no pulp." I leaned back and closed my eyes, but she placed my plate right in front of me in under forty seconds.

"Don't fall asleep at the table," she winked, taking her plate with her down the hall. I watched her leave the room. Well, she must not feel much like a part of the family enough yet. Maybe I should go eat with her? What!? Dick, what are you thinking!? She probably is doing work or something. And she isn't part of the family anyway. I continued to silently eat until everyone else was done. Alfred cleaned the dishes.

"See you back in the cave for patrol," Bruce said to Tim, "have a nice first day." He patted his head and got into his car to go to work. Alfred smiled and handed Tim his lunch.

"Let's go, Master Tim! Don't want to be late on your first day!" Alfred and Tim hopped in the Cadillac right after I waved goodbye. I pulled off my shirt and pajama pants to take a shower. I walked literally around the corner and who just happens to have been coming out of their room? You guessed it, the only girl currently living in the house.

After a few awkward seconds, Victoria laughed. "Oh my god, Grayson. Is it a little cold in here or were you just born that way?" She teased. I blushed and instinctively put my hands over my boxers and hunched over to prevent her from being able to see anything. She rolled her eyes as she pushed passed me, put her dish back, and went back into her room to change. I hurried into the bathroom.

When we were both ready to go, we met up in the Batcave to get the Watchtower. As we stood in the threshold, she just laughed smugly. I frowned and greeted Aqualad.

"Missions?" I asked, looking at the monitor screen for anything. Aqualad had something already set up, of course. Donna flew down and stood beside me, smiling. I smiled back. She punched my arm. "What was that for?" I turned and raised an eyebrow. She giggled.

"Because you were late," Donna said, "everyone has been here for at least ten minutes." I sighed and looked over at Nightingale.

"Yeah, well, I was caught in my boxers," I glared, remembering the remark that Victoria had to offer about what she saw. Donna's smile faded as I turned back.

"Oh. Do you two have something going on or...?" She crossed her arms.

"Nightingale? No! No, no, no, no, no. No. No, no." Donna smiled again. I grinned back.

"Good, because that would be weird. She seems kind of untrustworthy and...bitchy. Even Artemis hates her," Donna sneered, but quickly turned to me, "hopefully we are on the same squad." She played with a lock of her black hair. I turned towards Aqualad as he gave the Beta squad their responsibilities. Gamma headed out before the other teams had been given their duty, so I guessed they had something important. Superboy, M'gann, Donna, Nightingale, Artemis, and I were all on Alpha. Donna hugged me after the mission was set. I laughed and followed Superboy. We were all out of school, so we were free to be full time on the Team. Though it was only late July, Tim and a lot of the other kids had started school earlier so they could finish earlier.

We were set to track down Lex Luthor and to try to stop a war that was about to happen in Ethiopia. We decided to take Lex with us to Africa, so we all went after him. Surprisingly, he was just waiting for us in his building. Superboy put him in the Bio-ship and we flew quickly.

"Listen, we have to stop this before a lot of people die," Megan tried to negotiate. The president shook his head, obviously bent on killing the people of Yemen. I shook my head. Nightingale stepped in.

"Look, for whatever reason you are doing this, you will die. If your people have to die first, you will die still. This is a bad idea," she shouted. The President just shrugged and pushed us aside.

"He's obviously under the influence of Queen Bee," Luthor remarked, "how did your Martian Telepath not notice?" We all looked at M'gann. She realized and confirmed. Artemis grabbed the President as Superboy, Wonder Girl, and I fought and got Queen Bee in a short lived battle. All of us had the two prisoners on the Bio-Ship and a war successfully stopped in under three hours.

"So, you're pretty smart, eh?" Nightingale asked Luthor as he sat in cuffs. He smirked and nodded.

"Some might say psychopathically so," he smiled a wide, toothy grin. She laughed and looked at his cuffs.

"Then why did you give yourself up so easily?"

"I think someone like you already knows. Why fight you and get taken with a bad rap when you can go easily and get away easily," Luthor leaned forward, "between you and me, I would rather get taken to talk to Superman then to fight children and kill another one of the big boy's babies."

I sat back as Nightingale got up and sat down again. I knew he was talking about Wally. I crossed my arms and watched as Artemis fought the urge to tear his head off.

"So...how exactly did Wally die?" Victoria asked. Everyone whipped their heads around with an angry/shocked look. Why in hell would she ask that while on a ship full of Wally's friends!? Does she want to get killed!? I internally thought. "I know it's a pretty delicate subject, but I feel I should know. Don't feel obligated to tell me, but I would like to."

"Fine, he--" I started.

"Wally bravely sacrificed himself to save the world from a group of villains," Artemis shouted angrily, "happy now?"

"But, how exactly?" Victoria did have a death wish!

"During the fight, there was a chrysalis that needed to be stopped. The three flashes tried to stop it, but Wally wasn't fast enough to keep up so..." M'gann explained, with a little sadness in her voice as she tried to keep it together.

"He died trying to save us," Artemis once again barked back. Nightingale nodded and sighed.

"It's a shame. He seemed like a really cool dude," she looked away in thought as the mood lightened a bit.

"He really was," I said. Superboy agreed and pretty soon we all rode back to the watchtower talking about all of our greatest Wally West memories from all those years ago. It had been a rough year and a half since his death. Artemis had it the worse, and she still wasn't the same person she used to be. We all tried to ignore that she wasn't as sassy or fun as she used to be. We all tried to ignore that she was more depressed then we had ever seen her. But when we all started laughing about how great and sometimes odd Wally was, I swear I saw Artemis smile, if even for a second. Nightingale just sat looking out the window in thought, left out again. I barely even noticed her.

~~~~~~~Yay! Another Chapter! Three more before break! I got this. Btw, I never noticed how many people actually read this so, thank you for the support. Really. I love this story so far and I hope you guys do to. Don't forget to vote, comment, or follow if you aren't already. Peace and Love!~~~~~~~~~