Blue Robin | S. Lang

Chapter Two

As soon as the clock ticked to six o'clock, there was a knock on the door. Rolling my eyes, I went to answer it, only to see Kace standing at the door, two cartons of Ben and Jerry's in one hand, a boxed set of Criminal Minds in the other, and a large smile on his face.

"How long have you been waiting there?" I asked.

"Fifteen minutes," he admitted and I laughed, shaking my head as I let him inside.

"You're nuts, you know that?"

"Not as much as you, Miss Blue Ro-" I almost tackled him to the ground in an effort to cover his mouth before he got the words out. He gave me an undignified look but didn't push me away as I kicked the door shut.

"I'm going to kill you one day, Kace," I threatened. "You can't just call me that in public!"

"We were not in public!"

"The door was still wide open!"

"There was no one even in the hallway, so calm your beans," he told me and gave me a look when I growled at him. He exited to the kitchen to put the ice cream in my freezer. "Did you order the pizza?" he called.

"Yeah," I called back as I settled down on the couch. "Said it'll be a while, though, so we'll probably get through one episode before it gets here."

There was no response except for the sounds of him rummaging through my fridge and cupboards. A moment later he returned with a box of crackers and tossed me the boxed set of Criminal Minds.

Once the pizza was eaten and a season of Criminal Minds finished, Kace retrieved the Ben and Jerry's and as I popped in the next season, Kace looked ready to hit me with a million questions.

"One at a time," I told him as I sat down.

"You did do it, right?" he asked.

"Uh-huh."

"Why did you pick Billings?"

"He was a jerk, and I happened to know he was going to be at a gala across town. He's single with no kids, so the house was empty."

"How did you get into the house?"

"Trade secret."

He narrowed his eyes in a mock-glare but continued. "How did you find out who to give the money to?"

"Lots and lots of research."

"And who needed debts paid off?"

"More research."

"Where did you get the suit?"

"I made it. Bought the material and then sewed it together myself."

"The mask?"

"Same thing."

"The gloves?"

"Online purchase."

"What are you going to do about the police investigation?"

"Ignore it. There's not much that I can do about it. I can't very well stop it, and I certainly won't stop just so they do. They haven't - and won't - get a picture of my face without the mask, I wear gloves so they can't get a fingerprint - and fingerprinting technology comes with a lot less certainty than Hollywood tells you. And even if I did get hurt while inside and left blood evidence, it's not like it could be traced back to me."

"Because it would be animal DNA," Kace noted.

"Exactly. If they find cat blood inside a crime scene, they'll assume that a stray found their way inside after I got out or something like that."

"Okay, what if, somehow, they come up with you as a suspect? What are you going to do?"

"None of the people I go after will admit that they were stolen from by a vigilante that can't even be proved to exist, so if I am brought in, they'll have to release me."

"Why?"

"Because if they won't admit a crime was committed, they can't charge me with it. Even if the police do trace it back to me, according to the supposed victims, no crime was even committed. No crime, nothing to charge me with," I explained.

Kace nodded in understanding and thought about this for a moment. "So, basically, unless someone comes forward and admits that you robbed-"

"Burgled, I am not a robber. I'm a cat burglar."

"Okay, so unless someone comes forward and admits that you burgled them, you're kind of invincible?" he asked.

"Yeah, I guess so. Never thought about it like that..."

The silence stretched between us for a time as we both thought about this fact. No one that I had burgled so far was willing to admit that I had burgled them, too proud, and because of this fact, I couldn't be charged with any crime. Kace was right, I was invincible. This fact was coming as a little bit of a surprise and a shock to me.

"Can I help you?" he asked finally.

"Absolutely not."

"What? Why not, come on! I could be such a great help, you know that I'm absolutely amazing at research-"

"You are not getting involved! You are not being an accomplice! If I get caught, they could possibly trace it back to you as well and you are not getting involved with it in any capacity!" I told him forcefully.

"Rowe, come on-"

"No!" I protested again, "you are not going down with me if we got caught. If enough billionaires get burgled, one of them is going to sacrifice their pride and admit it. Once that happens, I can go to jail, and I will not allow you to as well. Period. End of discussion."

Kace looked like he wanted to argue, but he looked in my eyes and the determined look that he saw there must have deterred him. He sighed in resignation and looked down. I felt bad about turning him down, but Kace was not the kind of guy who would survive very long in a jail. He couldn't get caught, and they could trace it back to him... I couldn't get him involved.

"There has to be something I can do. Something that can't be traced back to me," Kace said, his voice low. "Nothing major, just... Something."

"We'll see," I told him, just to see his eyes light up. "But I make no promises."

"That's fine, that's so completely fine," he said. "Maybe all I can be is your confidante."

"You already are, Kace," I told him with a smile. He returned my smile and we began to really dig into our ice cream before it melted for real.

"I just worry," he admitted after a moment of silence, not quite meeting my eyes. "As much as it's cool and exciting that you're doing this, I won't deny that I worry you'll get hurt or caught."

I smiled softly and rested my hand on his and this got him to look up at me. "Don't worry about me, I know what I'm doing. And with every job, I'm getting better. I won't let myself get caught. Okay?"

He nodded, "okay."

"Good, now, I don't think a certain Doctor Spencer Reid will allow us to ignore him for much longer," I said and that earned me a hearty laugh as we turned back to our show.