I Forgot to Mention

The Things We Don't Know

"I'm just saying to be prepared, is all!"

Dinah rolled her eyes at Ollie as they made their way towards the Zeta Tubes. He had been trying to psych her out all day regarding Batman's protégés, under the guise of "overly concerned boyfriend."  When, in actuality, he was still peeved off at Batman.  Ollie had spent nearly an hour complaining about Gotham City as a whole, even contemplating swearing off ever visiting the place again, before Dinah reminded him that he would then be forced to explain a reason behind his sudden lack of appearance to Bruce Wayne.  Ollie relented after that.  That would be, and she quoted, "a real a-hole-y AF move" as the man's best friend.  Especially since Roy had stopped hanging out with Wayne's sons.  Speaking of Roy, Dinah felt like giving him a call soon.  She hadn't gotten to see him during his time watching over the team with all the excitement and questions set into motion by the night's events regarding Batman. Honestly, Dinah almost thought she had awoken in the Twilight Zone.

"Do you even feel safe being in a room all alone with any of them?" Ollie asked. "After all, one of them did attack you out of nowhere-"

"Well, it wasn't exactly 'out of nowhere,'" she argued back. "He was captured, and, seeing as he was trained by Batman, I doubt that he was planning on staying in our custody for very long. He was already combative during the interview-"

"Leave it to Superman to try and interrogate a student of Batman," Ollie snickered. "I'm actually surprised that his cape wasn't made of Kryptonite or something. Seems like something Batman would have taught, always be 3000 steps ahead of your enemy."

Dinah shook her head, "I highly doubt that.  You should have seen him when Clark entered the room.  He looked positively starstruck."

"Like how everyone always looks whenever I walk into a place?" 

Ollie flashed her a cheeky grin, causing Dinah to shove him playfully.

"I'm serious!  If not for the handcuffs, you would have thought the boy was at a personal meet and greet."

Dinah stopped walking, her mind catching what she had just said. 

"You know I'm a minor, right?" 

"Dinah?" 

In all of the discussions, planning, and assurances between the Justice League regarding Batman's agreement regarding his students, Dinah suddenly noticed a glaring error.  While the heroes were too busy being hung up on the fact that Batman had four hidden protégés, no one bothered to ask for any information about his students specifically.  Yes, Ollie had made the suggestion for them all to receive counseling from her, though his own biases against their home city and mentor were definitely the catalyst, that still didn't answer anything relating to them as individuals.  Because, as nobody else had seemed to acknowledge, they were still children.  She thought back to the boy she had met.  He was on the small side, which could have been from his natural body type, neglect, or even an eating disorder from all she knew!  The point was, Dinah DIDN'T know.  She had agreed to take this boy on as a patient without any prior medical or mental history.  Did Batman even count enough as a guardian to give her consent to treat him should he have an actual problem?!  Not to mention there were three other children as well, and God only knew if they had anything prior-

"Hey," Ollie grabbed her hands.  Dinah didn't even realize that they were shaking.  "If you don't feel up to this, you don't have to do it.  It was kind of a dick move for me to put all of this on you.  I mean, it wasn't like you were there to object or anything.  So, if-"

Dinah took a deep breath.  "I think I just realized what all this situation entailed.  It's...overwhelming, but I can do it.  We don't know anything about these boys, and what if...what if this turns out to be the only safe place that they have to talk?  I can't speak off of anything else but assumptions, but I do know that the boy from the interview was a master at question deflection.  How do I know that he doesn't do it in his civilian life as well because he can't divulge other types of information?"

"What, do you think he's being abused?"  Ollie was immediately riled up by the thought.  "If you think that Batman is-"

"We have no evidence to suggest that Batman mistreats his students," Dinah held up a hand, "nor that the boy is even being abused to begin with.  I'm only saying that it could be a possibility.  Abused children can hide it well, and so it's possible that even Batman wouldn't know."

"Some mentor he'd be then, if he couldn't even tell if his student was being abused."  Ollie crossed his arms as they reached the tubes.

"It's not always that easy to tell if you don't see the child 24/7, and I doubt that he has his students living with him full time.  This isn't a Roy situation."

"Still, I'm sure I'd be able to tell if anything was wrong with Artemis-"

It was at that moment Artemis's entry was announced.  Ollie gave her a greeting, though she didn't seem to notice either of them.  She was too glued to her phone, staring down at it with a absolutely vindictive look.

"That stuck up little snot!  I'm gonna freaking kill him!"

With that, she was off to another part of the mountain.  Though, if Dinah was to hazard a guess, it was probably to the training room with a rage like that. 

"So," Ollie turned to Dinah, "was that like a normal teenage 'OMG!  I'm so totally gonna kill you, lol!' or was she actually threatening to murder someone?  As her mentor, I think I should probably intervene if it was the second one."

A moment of silence passed between them.

"...It was the second one, wasn't it?"

"Yep."

"I should probably go handle that."

"You should."

With that, Ollie gave Dinah a quick kiss goodbye.  As he left, she thought that she could hear him yelling after Artemis.  Something along the lines of "I think we should talk this out first kid...unless it's boy troubles, then we'll kill him together!"

Dinah shook her head.  As much as she wanted Ollie by her side when she first met Batman's protégés, Artemis probably needed him more at the moment.  Besides, she was feeling confident enough after opening up about her insecurities on him.  They were trained by Batman, and that meant there were certain rules that she could expect to be ingrained within them.  So, at least she wouldn't have to be dealing with any murderous teenagers.  Several new names were announced rapid fire from the zeta tubes.

"Red Hood."

"Red Robin."

"Robin."

"Nightwing."

Four boys, obviously ranging in age stepped into the room.  Well, two of them stepped in.  One of them, Red Hood, came sprinting inside.  Before Dinah could ask why the rush, he was tackled to the ground by the boy in blue she had originally interviewed.  Nightwing.

"I'm gonna kill you!"