Auroral » Titans

32|| Morning Blues

Sophie turned the corner into the kitchen and a small smile tugged at her lips. Rachel stood in front of the stove, mixing a bowl of something. She hummed quietly to herself, so lost in her own world she didn't notice when Sophie entered the room.

"You're up early." Sophie spoke softly but her voice boomed in the comfortable silence.

Rachel yipped and spun around to glare at her. "Jesus, you scared me."

"Sorry." She chuckled and walked over to the coffee maker. "How are you doing?" She asked as she grabbed a mug from the cupboard.

Rachel smiled as she went back to mixing what looked like pancake batter. "I'm happy, I got my mother back."

Sophie glanced down at her coffee mug. She couldn't help but wonder if Rachel's mom was who she said. She wanted Rachel to be happy but she also didn't want to see her heart get broken by another liar.

"So, how are you and Dick?" Rachel asked coyly.

It was Sophie's turn to jump. Her eyes widened and her head snapped to the side to look at Rachel. "What?"

Rachel looked over with a smirk and a twinkle in her eyes. "I noticed your room was empty this morning and your bed was made. Plus i'm not stupid."

Sophie felt the blood rush to her cheeks. "We didn't- We're not a." She gave up and huffed. "Nothing happened."

Rachel rolled her eyes as she poured some pancake batter into her pan. "You two love each other, so what's the big deal?"

"We just got our friendship back on track and i'm not sure he's really over his ex." Sophie shrugged. "Besides, there's still a lot him and I need to figure out."

"So figure it out with him, together." Rachel grinned before turning her attention back to her pancakes.

"Just make your pancakes Dr. Phil." Sophie laughed before she poured herself a cup of coffee. She walked around Rachel to the fridge and grabbed the milk when her phone began to buzz.

"Whose that?" Rachel asked.

Sophie fished her phone out of her pocket. "The ex." She joked and answered Barbara's call. "Hey."

"Hey. Sorry I'm calling so early but I got a lead on our Beck guy." Barbara said. She sounded tired and Sophie couldn't help but feel guilty. She knew Barbara was working around the clock to help her close this case before things got worse.

"What did you find?" She asked as she began making her cup of coffee.

"I found our guy, Johnathan Beck, also known as Big J. I put a tracker on his car last night, I'm sending you the data. Tell me if anything lines up with Henry's files. In the meantime I'm heading down to the precinct to see if there are any non tampered with files on this guy."

Sophie scoffed at Barbara's persistence to keep working. "Maybe you should take a break, you sound exhausted."

Barbara chuckled but even her laugh sounded tired. "Bruce had me patrolling with Jason last night."

Sophie's chest shook with a silent laugh. No wonder Babs was tired, Jason could be a handful at times. "Then get some sleep, we both know you need it."

"Call me if you find anything." Barbara chuckled but it quickly turned into a yawn.

"I will, bye." Sophie smiled as she hung up and shoved her phone in her pocket.

"What was that about?" Rachel asked, looking up at Sophie curiously.

"Just some work stuff." Sophie grabbed her coffee and took a long sip. "If you see Dick, tell him i'm in the computer room."

"Sure." Rachel nodded before she turned her attention back to her pancakes.

****

Sophie sank further down into the office chair and stared at the monitor. Pages of her father's ramblings filled the screen. Everything from the transcripts of his therapy sessions to letters addressed to her mother that were never sent.

Sophie's stomach tightened as a wave of nausea washed over her. She wasn't sure if she was just trying to torture herself or if she was actually curious, but she began to read the words on screen.

Most of it was exactly what she expected. Crazy ideas that he swore were going to better humanity. But there was one transcript that caught her attention.

It was a long-winded explanation of one of his experiments. He talked on and on about how chemical runoff from Ace Chemicals was leaking into the Bludhaven water supply. And how that mixture of toxins were altering young people's DNA, making them more susceptible to his experiments.

Sophie could barely believe what she was reading. She felt like she had been slapped across the face. A year before she even started looking for him, three teenagers from Bludhaven went missing. Each one was found dead, floating in the river between Gotham and Bludhaven a few months later.

Bruce had looked into it but the trail never led anywhere. All he had to go on was the needle marks on the inside of the kids arms, and the abnormal levels of radiation. That was before the Mutationist was even a second thought, before he had a pattern to follow.

But his obsession with Bludhaven was reason enough for her to compare it to the tracking data Barbara had gathered.

She brought up the tracking data and began looking through it. She skimmed over all of the mundane stops. Apparently this Beck guy liked to eat a lot of Taco Bell.

Just as Sophie was expecting Bludhaven pier was one of his stops. It was nearly an hour away from Gotham and the pier itself was used strictly for shipping cargo.

"Morning." The sudden voice startled Sophie. She jolted up right in her seat before shooting a glare behind her.

Dick stood in the doorway, his hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans and his curious eyes on the screen behind her. "What's all of that?"

"Just stuff Barbara wanted me to look into." Sophie answered and quickly minimized the tabs.

"Right." He drew out the word as he walked over to her. "That case you won't tell me about."

Sophie sighed and spun the chair around to look at him properly. She hated keeping secrets from him yet she still couldn't bring herself to explain everything to him. "It's personal."

"I know." He said with a kind smile. He looked down at her with a gentleness in his eyes that only made her feel worse.

"Come on," He reached a hand down to her, "Rachel made breakfast." Sophie smiled as she placed her smaller hand in his and let him pull her to her feet.