Something was wrong.

Melanie was aware of the fact that Dick was acting differently towards her. She suspected that he was becoming aware of the feelings he had and was also doing his best to ignore it.

And her, for that matter.

Melanie had tried three different times to get Dick'd attention, and all three times, he ignored her completely. Didn't even attempt to look her direction.

Maybe it is easy to avoid someone when they are also avoiding you. But Melanie's problem was that she didn't know why he was avoiding her.

Melanie rushed down the stairs at GCPD, doing a small spin before finding Sterling leaned over Stacy Having's desk. She was relatively new to the job land had started a few days after Melanie, but all she did was paperwork. Melanie looked to the paper that was in Sterling's hand.

Victor Steel

Melanie's eyes widened and she rushed over to Sterling, startling Stacy as she had basically appeared out of nowhere.

"Oh, hey Melanie." Sterling smiled, Melanie still staring at the paper.

"That's Victor's file." She spoke sharply. Sterling looked down at the paper and nodded.

"Yeah, Dick said you wanted him to go through it one more time. I was just stopping by Stacy's desk before going to give it—"

"I'll give it to him." Melanie held out her hand and Sterling looked at it for a moment before raising a brow.

"Oh... kay.." Sterling handed Melanie the paper before she did a full 180 and walked straight to Dick's office. Sterling turned to Stacy. "That was odd."

"I think Dick lied to you." Stacy shrugged, looking back to Melanie. "She's definitely walking like he lied."

Sterling looked over to see Melanie basically stomping to Dick's office with angry strides, knocking on the door a few times. Sterling sucked in a breath.

"Yeah, Dick's about to get his ass handed to him."

Melanie opened Dick's door and did her best to not slam it shut. Dick looked up from his computer, exiting a site and did his best to look calm.

Melanie raised the paper up before dropping it on Dick's desk. "So now you're lying?"

"Annie—"

"Cut the bullshit, Dick. Okay, why are you lying about me saying you can go through my case files? Why are you avoiding me? Did I do something?" Melanie crossed her arms angrily and Dick sighed, picking up the file.

"You didn't do anything."

"Then why are you ignoring me? We're partners, Dick. You don't avoid your coworker because of personal issues. If you need to look through a file, you ask me. You don't go out of your fucking way and lie."

"I'm sorry, alright? You happy now?" Dick clasped his hands together and leaned back in his chair. Melanie let out a quick laugh.

"Oh my fucking god." Melanie covered her face, laughing quietly. "What the fuck are you doing?"

"What?"

"You're actually being a dick, Gray. Acting like a shitty apology is better than an explanation." Melanie slapped her hands to her sides and Dick shrugged.

"I don't need to explain myself to you. You got your secrets, I got mine."

"This is different, Dick. My secrets don't keep me from avoiding coworkers. Especially coworkers that definitely shouldn't be avoided." Dick stared at Melanie before slowly straightening up.

"Why does me ignoring you bother you so bad?" Dick scrunched his brows together and Melanie stared at him for a moment.

It didn't bother her personally. If the two hadn't just gotten back from a week and a half long trip to Arkham Asylum where they both had paperwork, she wouldn't have cared if he walked around with a box over his head.

But he wasn't walking around with a box on his head, and they both had paperwork.

"Because my paperwork requires you to grow the fuck up and talk to me, Gray." Melanie slapped her hand on his desk and picked up Victor's paper. "This. Is not just your concern. Alright? We both worked with him. His murder is both of our priorities."

Melanie paused at the admiration that started to radiate off of Dick. For a moment, she thought she had sensed lust, but it had disappeared as
quick as her suspicion.

"Okay. You want to work together. I'm sorry for avoiding you and trying to work on our case alone." Dick gently took the paper from Melanie and a small smile appeared on her face. "Why don't you come to my place tomorrow?"

She had never had a smile wiped from her face so fast. "What?" She spoke in a confused, monotone voice.

"Relax, just to talk about the case. Go over evidence, find similarities in the scenes to try and find out who might be doing this. Not to mention we need to go through every person on Joker's list before we go after any of them."

"Right. Work related. Yeah, I can stop by." Melanie scoffed and forced a smile, shrugging as she attempted to "play cool" as her mom used to tell her. Dick raised a brow, smirking.

"What did you have in mind?" He asked playfully and Melanie's forced smile dropped as a wave of amusement vibrated off of Dick.

"Nothing. Jesus, don't get too excited." Melanie walked out of Dick's office quickly, making a b-line straight to her lab, ignoring Sterling calling after her.

Melanie slammed the door to her lab closed, walking straight to her desk and poured herself a cup of coffee that had probably been sitting g there for an hour. As Melanie began chugging it as fast as possible, Sterling walked in.

"So did you hand him— Jesus who are you trying to beat in a drinking competition?" Sterling frowned as Melanie started brewing herself a new cup.

"No one. I'm fine. I'm just tired, need coffee."

"With how much you drink, I'm surprised you aren't bouncing off the walls. Or dead." Melanie shot Sterling a glare and be raised his hands in defense. After a moment, he scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "Look uh..."

Sterling let out a strained noise as Melanie picked up the cup again. She took a giant swig of her coffee and Sterling paused, staring. "Aren't your taste buds melting?"

"I'm used to it." Melanie answered. At one point, it would have been an honest answer. She could drink a piping hot cup of coffee no problem. But now that she was invincible, it really was no problem. "What were you saying?"

"Uh— Right! Uhm.. So I have this... giant steak taking up room in my freezer, and well... I can't eat it all by myself..." Melanie's heart sank as she could sense Sterling's nervousness grow into embarrassment.

"Sterling.." Melanie said solemnly as he started fumbling g with his hands.

"It's okay! If you don't want to. Really it's no big deal." Melanie lowered her cup quickly.

"No it's not that. I— I think you're really nice, and you've been such a nice person to me since I got here and I would like to have dinner with you.." Sterling's nervousness was slowly drowned by disappointment as Melanie continued. "But I'm not... I'm not someone who should be in a relationship."

Sterling gave her a confused look. "I mean, I can erratic, and I make really stupid decisions. And I don't even know the first thing about going on a date. What if I dress too much? Too less? I say one wrong thing and ruin the whole experience. I obsess and I'll focus on my work more than my significant other. And I'm a paranoid bitch."

Sterling let out a soft chuckle and Melanie's shoulders slumped and she sighed. "I'm sorry, Sterling... But you deserve someone that will be just as good as you are." Sterling's smile faltered for a moment.

"I get it, Mel. You want to focus on your work, I respect that." Sterling's disappointment washed away, filled by sadness as he tried to smile. Melanie just felt worse telling him no.

She really did like Sterling. But definitely not in the way he wanted her to. What made it worse was that Melanie was now assuming Sterling thought she turned him down because she liked someone else.

Melanie wasn't even sure. But she fully believed that Robin had a thing for her. Meeting secretly on the roof? He might as well invite her over to dinner.

"Melanie?" Melanie zapped out of her thoughts as Sterling gave her a worried look. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Totally fine." Melanie took another large sip of coffee as Sterling nodded slowly.

"Right. Well... Uhm I'll just— Let you work." Sterling did one quick nod before leaving Melanie's lab. She slowly sat down, her chair letting out an agonizingly long squeak.

Melanie's phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out, reading the text from Dick. Her heart skipped a beat and she turned away from the screen, a frown crossing her face before looking back at the text.

"You know where Wayne Manor is?"

And Melanie was reminded of who Dick Grayson's father was.

•••

The Operator sat in front of a plexiglass pane, staring at the guard near the door to the rest of Arkham Asylum.

The door swung open and the guard turned, letting out a quiet gruff. "Enjoy the next ten minutes, because that's all you get. If that man wasn't so rich, you wouldn't be up here."

The Joker glared at the guard before slowly walking over to sit across from The Operator. He grabbed the phone oddly, pressing it against his pale white ear. "And who may you be?"

"Someone that can get you what you want." The Joker smiled at the man, scoffing.

"And you know what I want?" The Joker mused quietly, leaning forward. The Operator didn't move a muscle, but hummed.

"Melanie Nyx dead." The Joker let out a laugh, shaking his head.

"You must be mistaking me for someone else who knows a 'Melanie Nyx.'" The Operator tilted his head, raising his brows.

"She was here quite recently. Undercover with Dick Grayson." Joker's smile dropped and the Operator smiled next. "You know him."

"Monny?"

"Yes, I heard she went under the alias 'Monica Bookman.' She's a cop, Joker. She was only here to get information out of you." The Joker huffed in outrage, trying to remain calm so he can learn more as to what 'The Operator' wants.

"My plans will not take action for a while. Not until I'm sure of something." The Operator picked at his nails, glancing up to The Joker. "Once my theory is proven correct, my plan will go into action, and you will get two things you have always wanted."

"What are those?"

"Freedom to do whatever you want in Gotham... And proof that anyone can be as insane as you." The Joker hummed, resting his head in one hand and he propped his elbow up on the table.

"I do love making people crazy. Just as much as I love killing." The Operator smiled. "What do I need to do now?"

"Keep quiet. Try and prove to be a good samaritan. It will get you out of solitary, which will make things much easier."

"Easy Peasy."

"And I need access to your explosives." The Joker's mouth dropped.

"My sweet bombs? You want to set them off without me?"

"I need them in order for my pan to set into motion. Tell me where they are, and I will make sure you are out of this wretched place."

The Joker stared at the Operator before pressing the phone closer to his cheek. "Why do you want Monny dead? Did she lie to you, too?"

"She destroyed my life's work. So I will make sure to destroy her life." The Joker's smile slowly appeared on his face again, and he giggled.

"I like your thinking. You sound like a mad scientist."

"I have been given that name before." The Operator said tonelessly. The Joker hummed.

"What is your name?"

The Operator stayed quiet, hanging the phone up and left without another word.