Caffeine Withdrawal | T. Drake ✔

[45] Study Date

Though Isadora had shown considerable improvement, it still took her time to come back to normal. She would often wake up at nights terrified, she had begun to hallucinate but with support and care from Alex, Tim and Steph she had started to settle back in her daily life.

Being occupied with the shop also helped in diminishing the effect of the incident on her as she seldom got time to recall it or be bothered by the worrisome thoughts. 

Since a few days were still left in Alex's contract time at the Iceberg Lounge, either Dora went to the Manor or Steph or Tim stayed with her at night; usually Steph did because Tim had to go out on patrol while she was taking a break.

Selina on the other hand had recovered as well and was back in her apartment. She had been furious at the Scarecrow for a lot of reasons, the foremost being the death of her cats and Dora's torture. So she had taken it upon herself to give him a severe beating before he was sent off to Arkham, despite the fact that Bruce had asked her to stay away from him.

Later she had visited Dora too in order to check up on her and was considerably relieved to see her recovering.

That night Tim had offered to stay for he had a lot of pending assignments due to which he couldn't go on patrol so he brought his work over to Dora's place. Alexander had winded up the kitchen when Tim entered, weighed down by his bag containing all his books and stationary.

"Hi Al," he called, "Steph couldn't make it today so I filled in."

"Looks like you're just coming back from school," Alex remarked, watching him drag the bag up the spiral staircase.

"Too many assignments, too little time. Submission is at the end of this week so I'm carrying these almost everywhere."

"All the best then," he smiled, "I will be leaving in a few minutes. Take care of Dora."

"That goes without saying even."

"And if something goes wrong, call me."

Tim nodded, "sure. I had received the same instruction from Richard too."

"Good."

Alexander locked the rest of the shop and taking his trench coat and keys he left as well, gesturing Tim to lock the door behind him which he did soon after then came up.

Upon hearing Tim ascending the steps, Isadora peeked out from her room. He smiled at seeing her and placed his bag down. Her brown eyes flickered in surprise at which he remarked, "school work."

"Oh. Looks like you have piled up all the work from the beginning of the semester."

"Kind of? I'm regretting it now though."

He had sat down cross legged on the floor, opening his bag and taking out his books. Dora sat across from him, randomly picking up his books to go through one by one briefly.

"What semester are you in?" 

"Final," he replied, "I graduate this fall season."

"Great," she picked up another book but left it immediately seeing that it was on accounting, "in Bludhaven, graduations happen in the spring."

"I'm assuming you've graduated already?"

"Yup," she nodded, "and right on the day after my graduation, I booked a train and came here."

"Oh I see."

She straightened as if she had found what she was looking for as she picked up his history textbook, flicking through the pages with a slightly nostalgic look in her eyes, "I loved history. Best course ever."

He shrugged, "I don't have any favorite courses in this semester. And I absolutely hate geology."

"Yeah, that's boring." But then she straightened, "hey, do you have any assignments pending for history?"

He thought for a while before answering, "yeah, there's one case study of the Middle Ages and one chronology task for the cultural movements."

"Excellent," her eyes lit up, "hand it over."

He looked at her in disbelief, "what do you mean hand it over?"

She laughed a little, "do you seriously think I'm going to sit here and not help you with anything? You have a lot to do already but I hadn't taken those subjects so I can't help you with those. I can do the history assignments though, would brush up over my knowledge as well."

He smiled, "thank you."

"Damn, I really am rusting not studying for so long," she hummed, taking his history assignment and carefully going through the requirements.

Tim spoke up after considering his words a little, "and have you planned to study further? College for example?"

She looked up, a thoughtful expression flickering over her features, "I want to. I was taking a break so that I could get adjusted to my life here since everything was so different from how I was accustomed to back with my parents."

He noticed that Dora never talked about her parents and got a bit strained even mentioning them briefly. "Oh so you could apply with me after this fall."

"I could," however she had retrieved her gaze, "but... Maybe I won't."

He did not ask anything further knowing that she would elaborate if she felt like it and he didn't want to probe by himself.

He had been right for she spoke up after a short pause, "I don't want to burden Alex any more than he already has been. Do you know, the only reason he applied for a job at the Iceberg Lounge was due to my college fees. But... But he's overworking himself and that job is dangerous and... I don't want to cause him any trouble."

He gently placed his hand on top of hers in a comforting gesture, "but there are other options too, have you considered that?"

"Such as?"

"Such as if you don't want to go to college you can opt for short courses instead," he resumed, "the maximum duration of these courses is about six months, roughly around one college semester. So you could easily cover the same training in six months instead of four years, depending on the field you choose."

Her brow furrowed, "oh... Like vocational training programs?"

"Exactly."

Isadora was quiet for a short while, thinking over his suggestion. But then she spoke up, "that is actually a very good idea. I might take up a field that will help me and Alex in the shop as well."

"Baking?"

"Yeah," she smiled, "Tim, you solved such a big issue for me."

She took him by surprise, flinging her arms around him in a hug and he chuckled, gently holding her close. He was extremely glad to have her in his life because the warm cheerful outlook she radiated, brightened his usually dull days.

"And since you totally deserve a reward for this, I will just be back with your favorite flavor of coffee." She stood up and declined his polite refusals because she knew he was craving coffee yet being courteous.

"I didn't come here to over burden you, Dora. First the assignments then coffee..."

"Nonsense, the assignments are what I would really like to help you with but only the history ones," she added, a soft smile playing upon her lips, "as for coffee, I know that's a necessity for you, right?"

"Too right."

"Just a couple minutes then," Dora stepped out of the room and headed down to the kitchen.

"Call me if you need any help," Tim's voice drifted towards her.

"Sure."

***