Blood, Maybe Heart

For: pervyficgirl

Rose had come to almost dread the daily visits from Joey. Surely he had plenty of other people to go bother now that he was back from the dead. It was cool enough having a big brother and all, but she didn't know him.

He wasn't her mom or any of her mom's ladies. He was a stranger. Not a situation you could change so easily. Made ten times worse whenever she looked up at him and saw the shadow of their dad on him. She hadn't had a full out vision, but there were days when she felt a cool chill brush over her skin when he came around.

She didn't want to believe he would be just as evil and hateful as...as their father was. Because then, what if Cassie was right? What if she really was destined to be evil and betray the team she was trying so hard to fit into?

No, her issues with Joe had to just be the physical resemblance. They all said he was supposed to favor his mom in some ways, but Rose thought it was bull. He had their dad's height, the solid cut of his jaw, and all that.

Right on cue, she heard the knock, and cringed. She got up and answered it, seeing him in jeans and a tee shirt, a leather jacket slung over his shoulder and held by one finger, instead of gear for a change.

"Joey, I was thinking maybe..." She stopped as he held up his hand. His slow, one-handed signs were easy enough for her to make out now; she was learning them fast. "Humor you, one more time, huh? Was I that obvious?" The nod of his head was enough to make her grimace. "My mom would tell me that I give too much away."

Joe indicated her gear, and she nodded. "I'll change." He nodded to that and moved out of her doorway so she could close it and change. As she did, she wondered why she was humoring him. They had so little in common. He might be close in age, but his memories were those of someone who should be a lot more older. All they had, really, was the shared bloodline of a man they both hated.

It wasn't long before she was in jeans and a hoodie, ready to go with him. "So where to today?" She watched him mime two fingers in a walking motion, and frowned. "Just walking?" He nodded at her, and guided the way out of the Tower.

XxXxXxXxX

Walking turned out to be crossing the Bay and taking up a hike along the water front. Joey wasn't too talkative, Rose noted, and she found herself actually caring that he wasn't trying as hard to learn about her. Maybe it was childish, but she was his little sister and it should matter.

He finally guided them to a bench, and took a seat, looking out over the water, not her.

"Pretty day," she said, for lack of anything else, and not very comfortable with the silence. He nodded, absently, before drawing in a deep breath the way people did before talking. She focused on his hands, to be polite, and wasn't wrong to do so.

Rose frowned as he started laying out his thoughts in sign. Yes, she realized he wasn't trying to fill in for her absent parents. And she knew they didn't have a lot in common outside of parentage; she'd thought about that more than often enough since he got back. But she didn't understand why he felt like he had to try so hard with her.

Then he started talking about Grant. The brother that died at only nineteen years old, back before Nightwing had left the short pants behind. Joey looked pained, his big green eyes almost welling with tears a few times as he talked about being so different from his brother, about how they took such different paths. When Joey finished talking about how he always wondered if there had been something he could have done, some way he could have reached Grant, Rose understood.

The daily visits were partly dutiful brother. But just like everyone looked at her with suspicion, because of what she had done, and who their dad was, Joe looked at her as a sibling he might mess up with again. Someone he might fail, if he didn't try hard. And he tried, not out of fear of failure and seeing her walk Grant's road, but out of the warmth of a heart that missed his brother.

He wanted family. Just like she did.

Maybe, just maybe, they weren't so far away from having things in common as she had thought.

"Thanks, Joey. For telling me. No one ever really talked about Grant to me." She paused as he signed to her. "Raven could tell me more?" He nodded slowly before explaining just how compassionate, if practical, Raven had been in Grant's final moments. Rose closed her eye at that, then reached out and touched Joey's arm. "You know, every day might be a bit much...a girl's got to have time to do things her big brother doesn't need to know about," she teased, getting a playful glare in turn. "Still, you're my brother, and we're all we've got now."

Joey nodded vigorously, before hugging her tight. Somehow, Rose thought it might all wash out in the end, two kids of a psychopath who had screwed up royally and come back from it.

"So, you're buying lunch, right?" Rose smiled slyly at him, before he laughed, throwing his shoulders and head into the motion, even if it was silent. She had heard his laughter, the odd sound that could still escape his damaged vocal cords, and hoped never to hear it again.

As they started walking toward a diner for lunch, it occurred to Rose that it was odd. Raven had been brought back younger than she had been. So why was Joey's voice still messed up? She smiled slightly to herself. She'd have to get to know him better, if she ever hoped to be able to ask that question without causing him some kind of emotional trauma.

Information, her mother had said, was always worth having.