Got Your Back, Always

I.XIX

Angela sits next to Rachel and Kory eating, "I can't tell you what passed for pancakes in that place, but... They didn't resemble this. My compliments to the chef."

"Well, it was really mostly him," Rachel points to Gar.

Dick sets down his napkin, "Look, Rachel-"

"I was wondering-" Angela speaks up.

Dick smiles, "Please."

"Rachel has been explaining your situation to me. I understand this place is on a loan?"

Dick explains, "Unofficially. The owner didn't exactly give me permission to stay here, but..."

Cassie smirks at this.

"I may have another option. I have a house. In Ohio. It's been in my... our family for decades. I was hoping that you... we... all of you are welcome there for as long as you want. I have more than enough room, and it's the least I can do. Although I do wonder what happens to your home when you've been locked away for five years."

"Back taxes, ton of unopened mail, I imagine. What did you have in your fridge?" Kory plays with her rings, leaning back in her chair.

Angela thinks, "Hmm."

"This could be, like, our secret base. Oh! This is so cool, isn't it?" Gar starts to get excited.

They all chuckle.

Rachel notices the look Dick has, "Isn't it, Dick?"

He sighs.

Gar asks as they walk down the street, "So, what? This is, like, the end of the team?"

"Technically, we were never really a team-" Dick looks at them.

Cassie scoffs.

Kory assures him, "Oh, we were a team."

 "I'll see you all again sometime. Rachel..."

"She'll be okay." Kory pats his arm and the two walk a little aways to talk.

"Rachel, Gar, are you sure you'll be ok? I'll only be away for a few days, I just need to check up on things at the office, and I've got an event tomorrow-" Cassie looked between the two of them starting to ramble with worry.

Rachel laughed, "We'll be ok. It's only a couple of days, and we both know you have an actual job you have to do."

Cassie smiled, she noticed that Dick and Kory were done talking. "I'll only be gone for a little bit, but I promise I will meet you guys in Ohio soon, ok? Metropolis isn't too far of a drive." Rachel hugged her, and Gar joined. Cassie chuckled and returned the hug. Cassie goes over to Dick, pausing to give Kory a hug, and walks away with Dick heading to the van.

"Wait." Rachel runs to Dick and gives him a hug. Which he returns. "Asshole."

He nods, "You sure you're gonna be okay?"

"What do you think?"

Dick goes to the van and gets inside, Cassie getting in on the other side. 

They drive for a few hours, staying mostly silent as Cassie was typing away on her laptop. Dick glanced over a few times but couldn't catch much of what she was working on.

"Cass, what are you even working on? Didn't you say you just finished your latest program? You can't already have started another one?"

She laughed, "No I'm working on something for Donna, she asked me to do a bit of research for her next project, around Cape Town."

"Cape Town?"

"You know Donna, always traveling."

Dick nodded not really questioning it, since he knew the two were like sisters and even though Dick and Cassie told each other nearly everything, there were just some things he respected that were kept between sisters and sisters only, he wouldn't intrude.

He pulled up to her office, "Well here we are."

"Wow, I'm surprised you even remembered where the building was."

"Oh shut up, it hasn't been that long since I've been here."

"Over a year for sure."

"Oh shut up," Cassie got out of the car laughing, Dick rolled the window down, "What no kiss as a thank you for driving?"

She walked up to the window, "Hmm, nope." She turned around and walked towards her office.

"That's so rude!" He could hear her laughing as she walked away. Cassie went into her office and finalized several different projects. There weren't a lot of things that needed her attention as their department's big project just wrapped so most people were taking time off for vacations and such, it was typical for having spent three years on this. She thought they all deserved a break, and as she was the boss no one would argue with her. All she needed was to make sure all the daily necessary tasks were still being completed.

After several hours there, she headed back to her own apartment, wanting nothing more than to go take a nap in her own bed. Alas, she had Donna's event tonight and she wouldn't miss it. So she hopped in the shower and began to get ready. Once she was all ready she called an uber and began her drive to Chicago. Donna had texted her earlier that day saying Dick had shown up on her doorstep, she had grinned and rolled her eyes, knowing exactly what Donna was going to say as soon as she got there. 

(A/N: I have literally no idea how far Metropolis is from Chicago so just assume it's in between Gotham and Chicago. None of the sources I found could agree on where Metropolis is actually located so ya)